Bowie

David Bowie turns 63 years old on January 8.  This birthday salute gives him, the Thin White Duke, a jump on Elvis, the King, since they share one tomorrow.

Bowie is different from the typical rock star, in many ways a pioneer, an explorer, but also, consciously, an artist, sometimes pop, sometimes not.  A more specific comparison/contrast with Elvis is not necessary, however. 

Any favorite Bowie tracks or albums out there? One of my post-70s favorites:

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Bowie.

Sue Kaufman: Falling Bodies

Knowing that she died by jumping out a window in New York City in 1977, it's pretty eerie reading through Sue Kaufman's entire body of published work. Take this snippet from Diary of a Mad Housewife (1967), in the voice of Bettina (Tina) Balser, the protagonist:

. . . a couple of times I even thought of suicide. Yesterday morning I stood at the bedroom window, trying to get the nerve to open the window and jump, but Tina the Comedienne won out: I had this vision of myself soaring, like Mary Poppins, out over Central Park West, tweed skirt and Lady Lingerie from Best's belling out, and stayed inside. I also knew that, suicide failing, I had to talk to someone or really go stark foaming frothing mad. (p. 288)

And here's a snippet from Falling Bodies (1974), looking over protagonist Emma Sohier's shoulder:

A little over a year ago, in late November . . . some poor young woman had pitched herself and her two miniature poodles off the penthouse terrace of the building diagonally across the street . . . her mind finally made up, the girl had first tossed one furry bundle, then the other, high into the air like some queenly vaudeville juggler -- and as they came down past her (yowling?), had stood up on the low wall, spread her arms wide, and in a perfect Esther Williams swan dive, had taken off into space herself. (pp. 63-64)*

What's especially notable about these novels -- and much of Kaufman's work -- is the strange balancing of madness and comedy in her wry descriptions.  Her primary characters are often too clever for their own good, too acutely attuned to the echo chamber of their own observations: and so they come undone, unhinged. 

Today's Rune: Movement.  *Esther Williams is still alive, by the way, at 88. Here's a link to a Life photo showing her diving -- into a pool:  http://www.life.com/image/50485101

Texas Radio and the Big Beat

While driving around the San Antonio area of Texas, caught some excellent radio play -- a rare thing in the 21st century unless you have Sirius or whatnot.  Lightnin' Hopkins, for instance. Also a dude speaking in a tongue that sounded like some tribal language -- turns out he was speaking in some tribal language (I understood only one word outright: "Canada;" but the cadences sounded like American Indian).  Eventually another dude broke into English and reminded pow wow vendors to call Arby Little Soldier.  Also some Robert Johnson blues reminded me of the time a few years back having brunch with B & G in the Gunter Hotel in downtown San Antonio, where Johnson recorded "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and a bunch of other tracks in 1936. There's a display there noting the sessions, in fact.  On the radio around San Antonio driving around New Year's, also some Dwight Yoakam.  As for Elvis Costello, he was mentioned in the toast after B & G's wedding on New Year's Eve.

Today's Rune: The Self.

Patti Smith: Dream of Life (Second Reprise)

A few more observations about Steven Sebring's documentary, Patti Smith: Dream of Life. No big deal, but it could be cut from 109 minutes to 90 minutes and be tighter, stronger. Cut some peripheral goofing off scenes and voila.

Nonetheless, the film shimmers and benefits from Patti Smith's cadenced narrative bursts, and the visuals are nifty fifty. As are the music clips. It's cool -- at least from my perspective -- to see the connections with poet Arthur Rimbaud (the Amy Winehouse of French poetry), William Blake and the American Beats.

There are also scenes in the Hotel Chelsea, significant memories of Bob Dylan and William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith's "guardian angel," Patti waiting for him in the lobby to return from the next door El Quijote Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge (fourth drink free!), where Janis Joplin also had some Amy Winehouse moments.  

Cool stuff. I remember watching Patti Smith close out CBGB via livestream video in Detroit on October 15/16*, 2006, and specifically remember her rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" while incendiaries crackled all around and Chinese rockets flew. 

As for how she comes across, Patti Smith is like some ever-shifting combo of Tom Petty, Joey Ramone and Iggy Pop with a dash of Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde -- as befits her androgynous poet-rock star persona.  Viva Patti Smith!

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.    *[Corrected. Show began on 10/15, ended early a.m. 10/16].  

Patti Smith: Dream of Life (First Reprise)

Finally got to see all of Steven Sebring's Patti Smith: Dream of Life (2008), shot over more than a decade. I liked it and found it compelling. However, if you are not familiar with any of Patti Smith's work, I'd advise starting with some of her music, maybe her version of "Gloria," "Dancing Barefoot," "Because the Night," big bang tracks like that. I doubt this film would make any new converts without some background. But if you are already a Patti Smith fan, definitely go for it.

The film begins with Smith's narration: "Life is an adventure of our own design intersected by fate and a series of lucky and unlucky accidents." The rest of the film shows in the case of Patti Smith how this statement is true. She then traces the basics from her birth in Chicago after World War II, her family's move to Philadelphia in 1949 and to South Jersey in 1957; her working in a factory as a teenager and moving on to New York City in 1967; moving into the Chelsea Hotel with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1969; her 70s recording career; and moving to Detroit in 1979, where she married Fred Sonic Smith (formerly of the MC5) and had kids Jackson and Jesse (at least one born in St. John Hospital, she later notes). Among the deaths of others close to her over the years, Sonic died in 1994. "We buried Fred in his beloved Detroit beneath ancient ship markers. It has become for us all a place of pilgrimage, of memory, of return . . ."

(To be continued).

Today's Rune: Warrior.

North American Cities

About the time I was born, my Dad would take the train from East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to New York City, where he'd work during the week and return home for weekends.  Though we moved to Chicago by the time I was five, it struck me even then that "the City" meant the heart of NYC -- only eighty miles away, this makes sense. Philadelphia is more distant by about twenty miles. Even as a kid, "the City" seemed the ultimate place to see, to explore, if only in the imagination.

I love cities, they're like magnets for culture and sports affiliations and all that jazz (indeed, is any music more urban than jazz? Seriously, I've heard rap and its step-siblings on radio stations in the middle of nowhere, but far less frequently jazz).

Some of my favorite North American cities are . . .  Well, first, the North Carolina arc includes the Research Triange (Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh), Greensboro, Charlotte, Wilmington and Asheville.  The Texas arc of cool cities goes from Dallas-Fort Worth to Austin and San Antonio.  And in Canada, I dig Toronto and Montreal (haven't been to Vancouver or other Canadian hot spots).  Baltimore-Washington, Charleston-Savannah and Richmond-Petersburg-Norfolk have specific historical draws.  Because I haven't been, I can't say much about the bigger Mexican cities; Florida and California cities (aside from two) hold little appeal to my imagination (haven't checked out St. Augustine yet), but from experience, those below are big draws in my book -- i.e. I shall always return, given the ducats and/or opportunity and no matter where I live at the time (parentheses indicate continuous time actually accrued there):

New York City (days/nights)
Chicago (2 years) 
Philadelphia (3 years)
Detroit (12 years)
New Orleans (days/nights)
San Francisco (days/nights)
Pittsburgh (days/nights)
Portland, Oregon (days/nights)

Small towns have their own charms, but I prefer to have access to at least one major city, and if close to a large body of water, all the better.  Are there any North American cities you particularly love or hate?  How come?

Today's Rune: Fertility.

Mary Karr: Lit

Good start to the New Year.  Superb Mexican breakfast with excellent friends -- two more of them now married -- in San Antonio, and I'm also about a third through Mary Karr's latest, Lit: A Memoir (2009), which is thoroughly enjoyable.  This is the adult installment, after her first two memoirs,  The Liars' Club (1995) and Cherry (2000).  Will post more when I finish, but for now, her voice is consistent with the earlier works and dovetails nicely with them and with Sinners Welcome: Poems (2006).

Meanwhile, RIP Rachel Wetzsteon, another poet, who "died by her own hand" around Christmas time at age 42.  As for Mary Karr -- very much still  alive -- she turns 55 on  January 16th. 

Happy 2010, dear readers!

Today's Rune:  Movement.