Friday, February 03, 2012

Comes and Goes in Threes














Fare thee well of three to tell: Ben Gazzara (1930-2012) -- pictured above left in a still from John Cassavetes' Opening Night (1977), with Gena Rowlands and Cassavetes; Don Cornelius (1936-2012); and Mike Kelley (1954-2012).  

















Here's one of my favorite moments in all of Soul Train: after Don Cornelius speaks with James Brown, he introduces Al Sharpton,"an astouding young brother" -- then 19 going on 39 -- who's there to give a presentation as National Director of the National Youth Movement, Incorporated. "And what do we have here?" Cornelius asks of Sharpton, who proceeds to award Brown a "Black Record" for his gold record, "The Payback." Sharpton observes, "We feel 'The Payback' is sort of like the theme song for young black America in 1974."




















Mike Kelley, Detroit-connected member of Destroy All Monsters and independent artist, went out with a bang within 24 hours of Don Cornelius. Kind of extra eerie when you consider the cover of the Destroy All Monsters CD, November 22 1963 (2007 import). When I see samples of his installation work, I'm reminded of Detroit's Tyree Guyton and the Heidelberg Project.

Today's Rune: Harvest.

5 comments:

Adorably Dead said...

I didn't know who any of these were, but the ladies at my work were all talking about Don Cornelius so I was able to get caught up on that.

It's sad, he must have been in a lot of pain.

Johnny Yen said...

Being a Chicagoan, Don Cornelius was near and dear to my heart. Did you ever see him in "Tapeheads?" He played, of course, a music mogul. "Am I crying?"

Johnny Yen said...

I've been meaning to start wading through Cassevetes' movies. It's always fascinated me that he spent his life working as an actor to subsidize his movies.

Charles Gramlich said...

Hard to believe Al Sharpton was ever young.

jodi said...

Erik, great post! I took a visiting pal to the Heidelberg Project just last week. The warm weather had the display mostly snow free, so he got a good view! Had a good time figuring (well, trying) to get the whole message. Gena was sooo gorgeous! An 'astounding' young brother is hilarious!!!!