SOME DEGREES OF WHATEVER

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PRl1NYyn_r8..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PRl1NYyn_r8..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Like a lot of people, I’ve been playing my David Bowie albums since the great man died, especially <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Scary Monsters</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And no doubt it’s because I make some claims to be a pedestrian that I’ve been fixating on those words, “She could’ve been a killer if she didn’t walk the way she do.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d48uip52mj4..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d48uip52mj4..." width="484" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s a great line but does it mean anything? I’m not sure that it does, and I’m absolutely sure it doesn’t matter whether it means anything or not, but I have been wondering what style of walking prevents you from being killer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect there are no easy answers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">One of the more interesting pieces written after Bowie’s death was by Steven Kurutz, in the New York Times, titled “David Bowie: Invisible New Yorker.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently there was a time about ten years ago when Bowie and John Guare would get together once in a while to talk about the possibilities of collaborating on a theatrical project.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It never happened, but Guare is quoted as saying, “We would take walks around the East Village and I was always praying somebody would run into us so I could say, ‘Do you know my friend David Bowie?’” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was understandably disappointed that never happened either.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S8qr37LPpIw..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S8qr37LPpIw..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The article claims that Bowie could pass unnoticed even among the crowds of New York. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guare again, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He traveled with this cloak of invisibility - nobody saw him.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I’m here to tell you: not always.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">About 15 years back I was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, on a Sunday morning, and there, large as life, and very conspicuous, walking through one of the galleries was Mr. Bowie, accompanied by an entourage of half a dozen young men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were looking at paintings and every now and again Bowie would say stop and say something about the art, and the young men would hang on every word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before long everybody in the gallery was looking at Bowie and it became impossible to look at any of the art on the walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iman and an all-female entourage were in the adjacent gallery but they were much less compelling.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rz9F-oFKYE..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="594" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rz9F-oFKYE..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This was on my mind last Sunday as I walked along West Temple Street in Los Angeles, on the way to see a “sound installation" by William Basinksi, in a storefront gallery called South of Sunset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was work by <span style="letter-spacing: 1.0pt; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;">Chris Oliveria, and Steve Roden in there too.</span></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTNJ8teip5s..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTNJ8teip5s..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Basinski has said in interviews that he changed from clarinet to saxophone because he wanted to be more like Bowie, and as a member of a band called the Rockettes he supported Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course he’s somewhat influenced by Bowie, because what modern musician isn’t, but I think he’s rather more influenced by the people who influenced Bowie: Eno, Steve Reich, John Cage.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_5nSb_sYhOI..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_5nSb_sYhOI..." width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Anyway, one has heard grander – and god knows louder - sound installations than the sound at South of Sunset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basinski’s music was more than minimalist, being played quietly on distinctly low-fi reel to reel tape recorder, but somehow the extreme modesty of the event was part of its charm.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg5R0t3O-4k..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg5R0t3O-4k..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">West Temple is a bit bleak, a bit rough at the edges, but hardly the meanest of streets, and after the gallery I was wandering, taking the occasional photograph, including this one:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dLzqb27Aws..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dLzqb27Aws..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As I took the picture, a tough-looking Hsipanic guy who was out washing his car in the street yelled at me “Hey, why are you taking a picture?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I said, calmly, “Because I like the mural.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he said, not much less aggressively, “Who are you taking the picture for?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I said, “For me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, rather unexpectedly, seemed to satisfy him, though it left me thinking there must be some story there I didn’t know about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was the guy simply fed up with hipsters photographing his neighborhood, or did he think perhaps I was a man from the city, come to inspect and maybe order the painting over of his mural? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when this was over, a much older, very benign-looking Hispanic guy who’d witness the exchange, he to me in a very friendly way, “Yes, it’s a great mural, isn’t it?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And I agreed that it was, though I think maybe I like this one better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it’s the juxtaposition of the Virgin Mary and the Bud Light ad.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span> <style><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hIkAhAmiQgY..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hIkAhAmiQgY..." width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> In fact I can't even tell you the title of the installed Basinksi piece. It wasn't this one, but this one's good too. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/william-basins..." target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/william-basins... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on January 25, 2016 19:10

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