Philadelphia in Transit to Amsterdam, June 2017

Philadelphia's Chinatown at Friendship Gate, 10th and Arch Street. About the size of Greektown in Detroit, there's been an Asian core magnet here for something like 150 years. This is close to the Reading Market and the Convention Center. 

Moriarty's Irish Pub & Restaurant, 1116 Walnut Street (at Quince, from which point this side shot was taken). The building is 187 years old (built in 1830). Incidentally, Moriarty is one of my ancestral names. 

Sometime after I moved from my tiny 12th and Spruce garret apartment, Amy Winehouse ducked into Moriarty's for a drink. That would have been something to behold! 

1218 Spruce Street, built in or around 1840. Now the Philadelphia Bridal Company, in the 1990s this was Nga Mai's Café Diva. I lived across the street at 1225 Spruce, drank a lot of coffee here, and also I occasionally covered for Nga, or played chess. Not sure why there's a large "PODS" unit in front -- an alien sleeping unit, perhaps?

Reflecting pool on the grounds of the Barnes Foundation at 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This is a stellar art museum. Its holdings were relocated from Lower Merion (a Philadelphia suburb on the Main Line) to here in 2012. 

Note: images taken with a mobile phone, nothing fancy. 

Today's Rune: Initiation.     

Asif Kapadia's 'Amy' (2015)

Amy, Asif Kapadia's 2015 documentary about the rise and demise of the impressive 21st century vocalist and songwriter Amy Winehouse, delivers a film that is, like its subject, both lovely and lively. At 128 minutes, Amy is longer than most such biopics, yet it flows along so gracefully and rapidly that one wants, if anything, more. Fantastic!

Amy Winehouse carried forward the torch of the great blues and jazz diva procession listed, in part, below. Above all, Amy shared with them an edgy realness combined with powerful vocals and catchy songs.

Bessie Smith (1894-1937), 43.
Ma Rainey (1886-1939), 53.
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), 44.
Édith Piaf (1915-1963), 47.
Dinah Washington (1924-1963), 39.
Janis Joplin (1943-1970), 27.
Amy Winehouse (1982-2011), 27.

All of these singers have been characterized as "old souls" at one time or another. In Amy, Tony Bennett quips, "If she had lived, I would have said: 'slow down -- you're too important . . . Life teaches you, really how to live it -- if you could live long enough...'" (See IMDB for a slight variation in punctuation). To them all, a salute!

Today's Rune: Possessions. 

Twenty Fifteen of the Common Era

Into Year 2015

MMXV 

14 Nivôse CCXXIII

New Year's, a wedding of Space and Time, requires: 

Something Olde

Something New

Something Borrowed

Something Blue . . .

A Sixpence in your Shoe

All such elements are jammed into my newly vamped gym jukebox iPod mix. Before last year lurched into this one, I purposely deleted my entire playlist and began a new one. It was high time.

The new stripped down core-first-round playlist, to be expanded during this year  -- already fondly known as Twenty Fifteen -- goes like this . . . playback is in random order, and sometimes I switch earphones or headphones to highlight different aspects of each track for the benefit of both the other ear and the other side of the mind . . . a good way to keep it fresh, keeping it reel-to-reel.

Open Up Like a French 75 -- drink or artillery, take your pick:

Breaking Glass  (David Bowie)

Chinese Rock (Ramones)

Editions of You (Roxy Music)

Feeling Good (Nina Simone)

Get Up Offa That Thing (James Brown)

I'm a King Bee (Slim Harpo)

The 'In' Crowd (Bryan Ferry)

Lust for Life (Iggy Pop)

See-Line Woman (Nina Simone)

Shake Your Hips (Slim Harpo)

Sound & Vision (David Bowie)

Super Bad, Parts 1 and 2 (James Brown)

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (Bob Dylan)

What in the World (David Bowie with Iggy Pop)

You Know I'm No Good (Amy Winehouse)

This stuff works for me. Specifically for the time blocks spent on things like the stationary bike, moon walk or regular treadmill. 

I've picked up a whole new appreciation for "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) -- can listen to it, the extended version, dozens of times and hear something new. For now, it's the side track electric funk guitar parts and embedded mutter-rapped words such as "Melvin Parker [on drums] . . . North Carolina . . ."   

2015: The adventure continues . . .

Today's Rune: Initiation. 

Give the People What They Want

Every once in a while I'll take a glance at the analytics for web trafficking re: this site and its spinoff. Mostly to see what draws the most people in with one easy shot.

Following is a list of some of the keywords that elicit interest en masse.

But before I forget, while doing this I came across the basic fact that Google has national versions of its search engine, or maybe they're language versions, or both. Examples:

For Spain, try www.google.es
France: www.google.fr
Russia: www.google.ru

Along the way, I checked out YouTube via Russian Google and what came up right off the bat? The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Debbie Harry and Jean-Luc Godard. Seems they've got my number. It's like that David Lynch movie, Lost Highway. "Call me -- I'm already there." Yes, indeed, Blondie, I will. "Call me. Dial your number. Go ahead."

Here are the biggest all-time attractions of "Erik's Choice" since its inception in 2006, but not in specific ranking order:

Angelina Jolie as Kleopatra, aka Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra: Kleopatra VII was Greek/Macedonian, and Angelina Jolie has already played the Greek Olympia, mother of Alexander the Great, the person most responsible for Greek/Macedonian rule in Egypt via Alexandria (which he founded) and the Ptolemaic dynasty. Kleopatra died only about thirty years before the "Christian Era" or "Common Era" began -- lots of Greek culture at the time, and lots of overlap. (An accompanying picture didn't exactly hinder coming across this on the internet).

Zooey Deschanel (sometimes "as Janis Joplin").

Charlotte Rampling.

Anna Karina.

Amy Winehouse.

Meg White.

Chan Parker. 

So there you go, isn't that interesting? 

Moral 1: If you want to spike your hits, give the [bulk of interested] People What They Want! 

Moral 2: Write about topics you like that are also of interest to a mass audience.

Moral 3: Or, focus on topics so specific that your site serves as a global magnet for that topic.

Today's Rune: Signals.    

Looking Out My Back Door: Farewell, 2011

2011 is already gone in most parts of the world, but it hangs on just a little bit longer from where I'm posting. Big wheel keep on turning / Proud Mary keep on burning.

Mississippi keep on flowing
Fukushima keep on blowing.
Arab Spring taking wing.
Sing on.

Fare thee well, Amy Winehouse, and all the other dear departed.
Farewell, 2011.

Today's Rune: Harvest.   

Jean-Luc Godard: Sympathy for the Devil, Part 2

I. In Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil (1968), the Rolling Stones bring the title song to fruition in the studio, intercut with various scenarios that capture the violence and chaos of Revolutionary Year One, 1968.  In one of the more chilling connections between recording the title song and outside events, Mick Jagger changes the lyric from (in one version):

I shouted out
Who killed Kennedy? 
It was always
You and me . . .

to:

I shouted out
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me . . .

Why the sudden change?  Because Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968 -- exactly while the Stones were wrapping up "Sympathy for the Devil," which they had begun recording on

June 4. Eerie. Oh, and, by the way: Andy Warhol, who would design the cover for the Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971), was shot in New York City by Valerie Solanas -- author of The SCUM Manifesto* -- on June 3, 1968. Double eerie. 

In the recording sessions, Mick Jagger is clearly the main driver (the lyrics are his, inspired by French literature and the tumultuous history of humanity), with Keith Richards as the primary musical guru. Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and others provide backup, while, sadly, Brian Jones -- who'd earlier inspired the Stones to expand their sound by including more "exotic" global instrumentation, among other things -- seems to be lost in his own mind, strumming away at an unplugged guitar in his own music box, occasionally gesturing for another cigarette. Like Amy Winehouse in 2011, Jones would be dead at 27 years old, thirteen months after the "Sympathy for the  Devil" recording sessions filmed by Godard and his crew.

Other things to note: the church organ experimentation and slower versions of the song, Keith Richards on bass guitar as well as on, by way of overdub, electric guitar, and Mick, having soaked up Americanisms as well as French literature, singing:

Pleased to meet y'all --
Hope you guess my name!

II. Finally, Godard spotlights the divergent arcs of two movements: Black Power and feminism. Early in the film, we see Black Power militants -- all men -- in an auto junkyard, symbolically executing white women dressed all in white (it's a movie, folks). Later, we see "Eve" interviewed, after having tried to reach Black Power men by phone -- they had not picked up. Later still, we see two black women conducting an interview in the junkyard, perhaps an attempt to bridge the two movements, or to show they remain mutually separated. Hard to tell. As we now know, Black Power was violently confronted by the powers that be, and the women's movement, and feminism, would inspire some changes to the status quo in the 1970s; the whole idea of gender issues would quickly expand to include pushes to reform public policy and cultural attitudes regarding sexual orientation, gay rights and related matters, right through the time of this posting.

*Opening lines:  Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.

Today's Rune: Signals.              

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

Fare thee well, Amy Winehouse -- the real deal. A great talent. Prayers for Norway, as well. RIP.




Today's Rune: Possessions.

Gregory Bateson: What is the Optimal Balance?

Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979), p. 59:

Desired substances, things, patterns, or sequences of experience that are in some sense 'good' for the organism -- items of diet, conditions of life, temperature, entertainment, sex, and so forth -- are never such that more of the something is always better than less of the something. Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimal value. Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic. To fall below that level is to be deprived.

Food, shelter, clothing. In Haiti, millions of people are deprived and in need. But in many American households, too much quantity of food, shelter,  and clothing may lead to toxicity:  hoarding, for instance, and its paralyzing impact. 

Too hot, one wilts; too cold, one freezes.  What is the optimal balance?  Varies specifically with each person or other living being, but there is always a threshold in either direction.  

Too much money or too much too fast?  Check out the lotto winners and what happens with them over time.  Check out Amy Winehouse, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Bernie Madoff: whatever the optimal balance was for them, clearly they did not find it.



















Top: Piet Mondrian, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930), an example of optimal balance, perhaps.  Black and white image is a scanned post card picked up during travels in the 1980s: Chez Mondrian, Paris, 1926, by Hungarian-born André Kertész (1894-1985).  Again, optimal balance?  A Western example of what Buddhists style as the Middle Path or Way.  More is more up to a point, and then it becomes less; after that threshold "und minder ist oft mehr / and less is often more" (Christoph Martin Wieland, 1774) in terms of quantity vs. quality, the law of diminishing returns and the law of overdosing.  Is this true?

Today's Rune: Wholeness.   

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].  

The 70s: Bring Out Your Dead, Part I

Some of those who died in the early 1970s but still reverberate:

Jimi Hendrix (11/27/1942-9/19/1970). We haven't see nor heard anything quite like him since, have we? Playing guitar or otherwise.

Janis Joplin (1/19/1943-10/4/1970). Ditto Hendrix for her. Of women, the only singer I can think of who seems as intense, since Joplin's death, is Amy Winehouse.



Charles "Sonny" Liston (ca.5/8/1932-12/30/1970). Fought Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali; the second bout (May 25, 1965) was especially notable for "the phantom punch." Was it a setup or did Ali deck him? Really a sad guy.

Jim Morrison (12/8/1943-7/3/1971). The Doors, man.

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (8/4/1901-7/6/1971). Often called the greatest jazz musician (trumpet), and synonymous with New Orleans. Widely liked and respected, yet put under FBI surveillance for supporting integration.


Diane Arbus (3/14/1923-7/26/1971). Photography. Can you dig?

Nikita Khrushchev (4/15/1894-9/11/1971). Cold Warrior, Soviet side.

Duane Allman (11/20/1946-10/29/1971). Another fantastic guitarist; and Southern rock hero. Killed at 24 in a motorcycle wreck.



Roberto Clemente (8/18/1934-12/31/1972). One of the coolest baseball players I've ever seen. Still remember watching Pittsburgh Pirates games with my parents as a kid -- wow. Clemente was batting .414 in the 1971 World Series, which Pittsburgh won. Jesus, I can still remember the excitement, whenever Manny Sanguillen or Willie Stargell or Roberto Clemente was up at bat. Clemente, originally from Puerto Rico, died in a plane crash carrying earthquake relief to Nicaragua.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (8/27/1908-1/22/1973). 36th President of the United States. He presided over a lot of good things during rough times. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act, the Great Society -- Medicare, Medicaid, education assistance (including the launch or expansion of hundreds of junior or community colleges), PBS, and more. But race riots and Vietnam took him down, ushering in Nixonian America.

Salvador Allende (6/26/1908-9/11/1973). Democratically elected socialist president of Chile, brought down with the collusion of Nixonian America in the coup d'état of 1973. He committed suicide rather than surrender to the incoming junta of General Augusto Pinochet.

Pablo Neruda/Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto (7/12/1904-9/23/1973). Chilean poet, died soon after the death of Salvador Allende, whom he supported. Having won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, he responded during a Pinochet-ordered military raid on his home with the last up yours of a poet: "Look around -- there's only one thing of danger for you here -- poetry."

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Midnight Train to Georgia

There's more to Georgia / Sakartvelo than the current war. Besides Saint George, slayer of dragons and patron of Sakartvelo, let's not forget Georgia-born British singer and pop star Katie Melua (pictured above), unintentional rival and nemesis of Amy Winehouse. Besides being hugely popular in the UK, she seems quite wise and worldly for a twenty something. Perhaps the simple facts of having been born in the old Soviet Union and having lived in independent Georgia and then Belfast, Northern Ireland have given her an edge in the clarity department. In any case, good luck to her -- and family members now trapped in Georgia during the present conflict with Russia.

As far as the war goes, I'm not choosing sides. Peace when they're ready for it.



Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Gabba Gabba Hey!

Shock of the old, shock of the new: Spring Break is Over. Evil! On the other hand, it's Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers.

Also, thanks to a tip from former Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere Jilly Dybka via her Poetry Hut Blog -- http://www.poetryhut.com/wordpress/ -- there's a nifty way to nominate and vote for the 2008 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. For more details, please see the sponsor at http://bloggingpoet.squarespace.com/bloggingpoetcom/category/poet-laureate-of-the-blogosphere

Rules Excerpt:

1. Those nominated must have a history of posting poetry to their blogs for a period of no less than 1 year prior to March 1, 2008.

2. Anyone can nominate their favorite poetry blogger.

3. Nominations will begin on April 1st and will end on April 20th.


Gabba gabba hey -- it's Amy Winehouse and Mick Jagger!

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

Time Out for Amy Winehouse

Had the Grammy Awards on in the background last night until Amy Winehouse appeared via London satellite broadcast. Zowie, was she worth watching . . . Won five awards for "Rehab" and Back to Black, which I first heard less than a year ago (released in the UK in 2006, in the US in 2007). First heard about her through music mavens, not radio play -- I rarely listen to FM radio anymore. Still blown away by three songs from the album: "You Know I'm No Good" (which was reinforced in the teasers for Mad Men), "Rehab," and "Back to Black." Instant classics right up there with Billie Holiday and Nina Simone standards. Hot damn, some excitement in new pop music! Am I dreaming? Hard to believe she's younger than Britney Spears . . .


With new albums, I tend to listen over and over to the songs that first grab me and only eventually get to the other tracks. Back in Black is strong all the way through, but I can't shake the powerhouse songs quite yet . . . Meanwhile, the jazzier Frank (released in the UK in 2003) was just released in the States last November. Strange how things happen like that with authors and musicians and artsits of all types . . .

Meanwhile, it's been colder than five hells in Detroit the last couple of days.

RIP to Roy Scheider (1932-2008). His acting tour de force: All That Jazz (1979).

Today's Rune: Fertility. Yesterday's: Flow.

Viva Amy Jade Winehouse!

Sexual Politics

Amy Winehouse turned all of 24 today -- a year younger than Britney Spears. But then, she's an entirely different kind of person, more like Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry and Courtney Love than like any of the L.A. plastic teenyboppers.

The downside is, she may end up like Janis Joplin -- dead at 27. Hopefully not.

Two albums so far: Frank (2003) and Back to Black (2006). The first has a jazzy touch; the second, a more "girl group"/Motown feel. She's cool, no question. "Rehab" is priceless, as is "You Know I'm No Good" (used to promote the AMC series Mad Men, which I'm digging for its own exploration of gender and power in the early 1960s).

Winehouse is wild, to be sure, and like Meg White of The White Stripes, had to cancel a U.S. tour -- both tentatively rescheduled for 2008. All I can say is: stay away from Pete Doherty of Babyshambles -- run like Kate Moss did!

Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1968) -- exactly. Millett also traveled to Iran in 1979 and was thrown out for supporting women's rights and generally stirring up trouble. Good for her.

Danielle Peck -- she's a badass, I'm guessing. Especially in the world of Country. It needs more badass again.

Today's Runes: Opening; Fertility.

Birthdays: Alexander von Humboldt, Margaret Sanger, Jack Hawkins, Jacob Arbenz, Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger), Mario Bendetti, Larry Collins, Allan Bloom, Kate Millett, Sam Neill, Steve Gaines & Ed King (Lynyrd Skynard), Kimberly Williams, Denielle Peck, Amy Winehouse.