Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC
And now a word from Eli.
"I DON'T ALWAYS DRINK WATER FROM A PLASTIC BOTTLE, BUT WHEN I DO, I SPILL IT ALL OVER THE FLOOR BECAUSE I HAVE NO THUMBS....I'M A DOG."
Old Boards By Robert Bly
I
I love to
see boards lying on the ground in early spring:
The
ground beneath them is wet, and muddy—
Perhaps
covered with chicken tracks—
And they
are dry and eternal.
II
This is
the wood one sees on the decks of ocean ships,
Wood that
carries us far from land,
With a
dryness of something used for simple tasks,
Like a
horse’s tail.
III
This wood
is like a man who has a simple life,
Living
through the spring and winter on the ship of his own desire.
He sits
on dry wood surrounded by half-melted snow
As the
rooster walks away springily over the dampened hay.
Nina Ananiashvili: Beauty, discipline and grace
Nina Ananiashvili is
a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia. She
has been described by the Daily Telegraph as one of the twelve greatest
ballerinas of all time, and in 2002 was named Best Ballerina of the Year by the
US Dance Magazine.
Ananiashvili has been
a prominent fixture of the Soviet, Russian and Georgian ballet scene for
decades. Shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1987 a New York
Magazine critic praised Nina Ananiashvili as "the best thing about the
Bolshoi's Giselle whether she appeared in the title role or as the queen of the
wilis."
Saint George and the Dragon
So, apparently,
it’s a legend, but I sort of figured that already. But there really was a Saint
George, he died in died 303….the legend says he met his end taming
and slaying a dragon that demanded human sacrifices. The narrative was first
set in Cappadocia in the earliest sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, but
transferred to Libya in the 13th-century Golden Legend and has pre-Christian
origins and was attributed to Saint Theodore Tiro in the 9th and 10th
centuries, and was “transferred” to Saint George in the 11th century.
Green Line Painting, 1968, Ronnie Landfield
Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Edited
from Wikipedia
Sister
Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was a singer, songwriter,
guitarist, and recording artist who become popular in the 1930s and 1940s with
her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics
and rhythmic accompaniment that was a precursor of rock and roll
She was
the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel
musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later
being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the
Godmother of rock and roll”
She
influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Johnny
Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Tharpe
was a pioneer in her guitar technique; she was among the first popular
recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar, presaging the
rise of electric blues. Her guitar playing technique had a profound influence
on the development of British blues in the 1960s.
Willing
to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her music of
"light" in the "darkness" of nightclubs and concert halls
with big bands behind her, Tharpe pushed spiritual music into the mainstream
and helped pioneer the rise of pop-gospel, beginning in 1938 with the recording
"Rock Me" and with her 1939 hit "This Train".
Creation
“A
picture or poem is often little more than a feeble utterance of man’s
admiration of something out of himself; but architecture approaches more to a
creation of his own, born of his necessities, and expressive of his nature.” John
Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, vol. 2 (Smith, Elder & Co., 1853), p. 180.
The
Château de la Rochefoucauld is said to be one of the most remarkable castles in
France. This site is of interest because of the quality and diversity of its
architecture. This most imposing castle of Charente is a jewel of Renaissance.
The Roman dungeon, which is the oldest part, and the numerous sculptures are
the main points of interest. But the masterpiece of la Rochefoucauld is without
a doubt the 16th century continuous spiral staircase. Comprised of 108 steps
this monumental piece of work, a design attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, winds
majestically around a central pillar.
American Folk: Charlie Poole/North Carolina Ramblers
Old time banjo player Charlie
Poole, front man of the North Carolina Ramblers, was one of the earliest stars
of the old-time scene back in the 1920s. As the Poole became an influence on
the founding fathers of American bluegrass. Their tune "Don't Let Your
Deal Go Down" became a country-folk standard in the late '20s.
We are all a people in need.
We are
all a people in need. We are not perfect. We are not machines. We make
mistakes. We need grace. We need compassion. We need help at times. We need
other people. And that’s okay.— Jamie Tworkowski
Even the playing field
I was watching a White house
press conference, which was, essentially, a pile-on by the media bullying the
Press Secretary. The so-called reporters were highly-aggressive, working in unison,
their tone was contemptible.
But that isn’t what the networks
show. What the networks broadcast is a sound bite of those gang up’s, of those
same obnoxious reporters, dressed in expensive
suits, calmly, and often smiling, telling their version of what happened.
So here’s answer and
conservatives need to share this:
When a reporter asks a question,
put the reporters name on the screen along with the name outlet their working
for.
The American public doesn’t know
they players. When the Press Secretary calls on them, she shouldn’t say “Yes,
Bob go ahead.” She should say “Yes Bob Smith from CBS News, go ahead”
Do those two things and watch how
quickly the so-called reporters get respectful and less biased. Most will stop
asking question while a camera is nearby. They’ll change because they know most
Americans are fair and they’ll be revealed for what they are, partisan hacks.
We also need to ask this, why the
hell are reporters allowed to roam the White House grounds while the average
American isn’t allowed past the front gate? And yet we wonder why the Media
thinks they’re God’s gift to man kind. So move those pile-on sessions across
the street to the New Executive Office
building and send the message that we are a nation of equals.
Carey’s Backyard by Loren MacIver
"Quite simple things can
lead to discovery. This is what I would like to do with painting: starting with
simple things to lead the eye by various manipulations of colors, objects and
tensions toward a transformation and a reward".
Loren MacIver was born in New
York in 1909. She was married poet and critic Lloyd Frankenburg. MacIver's work
ranges from naturalistic to abstract, but consistent throughout her work is the
skill with which she depicts light.
Nina Leen
Nina Leen (died January 1, 1995)
was a Russian-born American photographer, a constant contributor to Life. Leen emigrated
to the United States in 1939, she had also lived in Italy and Switzerland.Her
first photographs to be published in Life in April 1940 were of tortoises at
the Bronx Zoo, taken with her Rolleiflex camera. While she never became a staff
photographer at Life, she contributed as a contract photographer until the magazine
closed in 1972.
Leen was a prolific photographer
of fashion for Life and was long married to the fashion photographer Serge
Balkin. She was recognized with inclusion by Edward Steichen of two of her
photographs in The Family of Man international touring exhibition; one a
photograph of a child at a blackboard, the other, several generations of an
Ozark farming family (later selected by Carl Sagan for the 12 inch Voyager
golden records).
ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S LETTERS REVEAL FEUDS AND FRIENDSHIPS
BY KATIE BOHN-PENN STATE
A new volume of Ernest
Hemingway’s letters reveals details about his friendships with fellow writers
like F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as bitter feuds with former mentor Gertrude
Sandra Spanier, professor of
English at Penn State and general editor of the Hemingway Letters Project, says
the collection provides a richly textured view of Hemingway’s life during this
period.
“It’s a particularly interesting
period because at this point, he’s already world-famous after his success with
A Farewell to Arms in 1929,” Spanier says. “And now he’s constantly trying to
push the boundaries with his writing. The letters afford new insight into all
the things he’s writing about, and you can follow him almost day by day through
both the mundane aspects of everyday life and also his big adventures.”
HEMINGWAY’S HARSH LETTERS TO
FITZGERALD
The book—The Letters of Ernest
Hemingway, 1932–1934 (Cambridge University Press, 2020). It is the fifth volume
of an expected 17 total in the Cambridge Edition of The Letters of Ernest
Hemingway, an initiative to locate, fully annotate, and publish the nearly
6,000 surviving letters written by Hemingway, most of them previously
unpublished.
According to the researchers, one
of Hemingway’s most famous friendships was with F. Scott Fitzgerald, perhaps
best-known for his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. But Spanier says that
Fitzgerald, contending with financial worries, his wife’s mental illness, and
his own alcoholism, struggled for nearly nine years to write his next novel, a
fact that frustrated Hemingway. And when Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night was
finally published in 1934, Hemingway didn’t mince words.
On May 28, 1934, Hemingway wrote
a long letter to Fitzgerald critiquing the novel.
“Forget your personal tragedy,”
Hemingway wrote. ” … you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can
write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it.
Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any
importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.”
In perhaps a show of remorse,
Hemingway had scribbled on the envelope flap, “I didnt [sic] put in about the
good parts. You know how good they are.” But while Hemingway offered harsh
words, Spanier says he later changed his mind about the novel.
“Several years later, he wrote to
their mutual editor, Maxwell Perkins, to say he had been way too hard on
Fitzgerald and that when he reread Tender is the Night, it was almost
frightening how good it was,” Spanier says. “So, it was a complicated relationship.
They cared deeply about each other but had a hard time getting along, too.”
FEUDING WITH GERTRUDE STEIN
With such a strong personality,
Hemingway wasn’t without additional feuds during this time period. One of the
most notable was with his former mentor, the writer Gertrude Stein. In her 1933
book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Stein described Hemingway as
physically frail and accident-prone and claimed credit for teaching him to
write.
“Hemingway was furious about
this,” Spanier says. “He described in gory detail the injuries and accidents
that he had, including how after a car crash, his broken arm had to be spliced
back together with kangaroo tendons. He wrote to a number of people just
ranting about Gertrude Stein. But it’s clear that his feelings were hurt. He
was angry and also feeling very betrayed by someone he had admired.”
One of the recipients of these
rants was writer Ezra Pound, who received a letter from Hemingway dated July
22, 1933.
“If you want to be amused by some
bullshit read G.Stein in August Atlantic Monthly,” Hemingway says. “I wrote The
Sun Also Rises in six weeks […] without sight nor sound of Miss S. nor for a
long time after. […] Well gents it will be a big day when write my own bloddy
[sic] memoirs because papa isn’t jealous of anyone (yet) and have a damned rat
trap memory and nothing to prove.”
The volume also references a feud
with the literary critic Max Eastman, who in a review of Hemingway’s nonfiction
bullfighting book, Death in the Afternoon, called it “Bull in the Afternoon.”
Later, Hemingway would run into Eastman in the office of editor Max Perkins,
who had to physically separate the two men after they came to blows.
Verna Kale, associate editor of
The Letters of Ernest Hemingway and assistant research professor of English,
says the volume also gives insight into the friendship between Hemingway and
Jane Mason, a Havana socialite and patron of the arts. This is the first time
these letters between Hemingway and Mason have been published.
“Jane is the third most frequent
recipient of letters in this volume, so it was clearly an important friendship,”
Kale says. “She has often been viewed as the prototype for two of Hemingway’s
iciest female characters. But this volume shows Jane to be warm, witty,
intelligent, and artistic, and those sides of her clearly bring out similar
qualities in Hemingway.”
Source: Penn State
Lead belly
Lead Belly and his wife Martha Promise in 1935.
Huddie William Ledbetter January
23, 1888 – December 6, 1949), was a
folk and blues singer, musician and songwriter notable for his strong vocals,
virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced,
including his renditions of "Goodnight, Irene", "Midnight
Special", "Cotton Fields", and "Boll Weevil". He usually
played a twelve-string guitar, but he also played the piano, mandolin,
harmonica, violin, and windjammer, sang while clapping his hands or stomping
his foot.
Alice
How weird is this?
Apollo of Gaza. Gaza, 5th century BCE
A rare bronze sculpture of the
Ancient Greek god Apollo was found in the Gaza Strip in 2013. It was put for
sale on eBay, and subsequently withdrawn from sale and seized by police thanks
to the publication of the story along with photographs by the Italian
journalist Fabio Scuto on La Repubblica.
The statue was claimed to have
been recovered from the sea in August 2013 by Joudat Ghrab, a local Palestinian
fisherman. Ghrab said that he saw the statue lying in shallow waters near the
Gaza border with Egypt, and initially thought the statue was a badly burnt
body. It took four hours to get the statue ashore. The statue was later put for
sale on the internet auction site eBay for $500,000 by members of Ghrab’s
family. The sale price is believed to be significantly below its true value.
Police appointed by Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, subsequently seized
the statue and are investigating its provenance.
The statue has not been examined
by archaeologists, but a Reuters report published in The Guardian attests to “a
few blurred photographs of the intact deity, who is laid out incongruously on a
blanket emblazoned with Smurfs”. The evidence dates the statue to between the
5th century BCE and the 1st century BCE. The statue depicts Apollo with curly
hair and one eye possibly inlaid with a blue stone iris, standing upright with
an outstretched arm, and with his palm held up.
Historians have suggested that
the statue was found on land rather than at sea owing to its apparent good
preservation, without signs of metal disfigurement or barnacles. Noting the
green patina, Gaza archaeologist Fadel al-Utol said: “If it had spent time
underwater, the bronze would be blackened.” The obscure location of the
statue’s discovery could be used to avoid ownership arguments.
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
It is that time of year again. We have chosen our artwork for
the 2020 Playwrights and Artists Festival. We, as always, extend first look to
those who have submitted to our festival in years previous.
We understand that times right now are vastly different for
theatre productions. As of right now we are going ahead with this November’s festival.
We will keep you updated via our website if any changes occur.
We will also be offering our prizes for these categories.
$300 for Best of Festival.
$200 for Artistic Merit.
$100 for Audience Favorite.
The play must be inspired by one of the works of art...
***
The Gallery Players in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, is
seeking plays for its 24th Annual Black Box New Play Festival to be held in
January 2021.
We are specificallv seeking plays from the BIPOC (Black,
Indigenous and People of Color) playwriting community.
***
SEEKING 5-MINUTE COMEDIC PLAYS dealing with Quarantine and
COVID-19 for possible publication with Smith & Kraus, Inc.
Only comedies or upbeat pieces will be considered.
Must be previously unpublished. It does not need to have had any
type of reading or production.
Plays should have 2-4 characters. No more than 4...
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see
the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE ***
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Disney: Timeline of a Collaboration
Disney+ is streaming a live-capture film of “Hamilton.” It’s
just the latest chapter in a deepening relationship between the company and the
musical’s creator.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s relationship with Disney started
inauspiciously. He wrote a song on spec for a holiday show. The company
rejected it.
“It was a holiday song, called ‘Holidays at Our House,’ and I
will never play it for you,” he recalled recently. “It was not very good.”
But in the years since, the partnership has blossomed, so much
that Miranda recently joked about the idea that Robert A. Iger, the company’s
executive chairman, might burst into his house if he talked too much about an
upcoming project.
More...
***
Offered as a Bicentennial project, “Valley Forge” is an
adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play. The emotional tone is common‐man
lyrical. In the winter of 1778, Gen. George Washington (Richard Basehart)
struggles to feed 4nd clothe a rag‐tail army, probably the “worst managed army
in the history of military operations.” On the Other side, living in luxury, Gen.
William Howe (Harry Andrews) is attempting to keep from Washington the news
that the French have decided to join forces with the Continental Army.
More...
***
In the American Theatre, we have long been guided by the
principle that we can “change the world, one play at a time.” What if it was
also one day at a time with the same play? On Friday, Juneteenth, (June 19th),
theatre communities around the country will provide their response to the current
moment – the civil uprising that has come as a reaction to the murders of
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others before them –
with simultaneous free readings of Vincent Terrell Durham’s bold new play,
Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids. With a perfect blend of
wit, pathos and humor, the play speaks to some of the most pressing subjects of
our time – gentrification, white fragility, the Black Lives Matter movement,
and police violence against Black bodies. The need for collective action – a
commitment to speaking the truth and to begin dismantling systemic racism in
our institutions – has never been greater and through Vincent’s words, our
community can begin moving toward awareness and justice.
More...
***
A New World is an utterly fine work, visually and in many other
ways perfect. And the Globe is the right place to see it. A generally excellent
cast mingles with the audience, bouncing and dancing and carting bodies and
stocks past bemused but delighted tourists, while the moon rises overhead. The
music, the banter, the proclamations – Dominic Dromgoole's production has you
straight back in America and France of the 1790s, and you can practically smell
the dung and the fear.
More...
***
The Ruckus at Machias, written by Richard Sewell and debuted in
1976, portrays local rather than national history. Centered on one of the first
naval battles of the Revolutionary War, The Ruckus at Machias follows both
“Tory and Rebel factions” as they navigate June 1775 and the effects of the
beginnings of the Revolution in rural Machias, Maine.[6] The action centers on
Hannah Weston, whose husband Josiah Weston goes against her wishes to fight the
Tories and capture British soldiers aboard a ship docked in harbor, the HMS
Margaretta. To help, she melts the pewter spoons from her wedding for
ammunition and treks twenty miles through the forest to bring them to Josiah.
As a thank you, “the community presents Hannah with a red dress – and presents
the Continental Congress with its first captured war-vessel.”[7] Its language,
setting, and action remain very true to the time, while more abstract, artistic
moments weave in and out, making for a balanced, interesting, and informative
piece.
More...
***
Dearest Enemy — as the show in question was called — wasn't a
failure. It was what we'd call a moderate success. It opened Sept. 18, 1925
during a momentous ten days on Broadway: The Lunts in Shaw's Arms and the Man
on Monday, Kit Cornell in the scandalous Green Hat on Tuesday, No, No Nanette
and Noël Coward's The Vortex on Wednesday, Dearest Enemy on Friday, Rudolf
Friml's Vagabond King on Monday and Kern and Hammerstein's momentous Marilyn
Miller vehicle Sunny on Tuesday. It's not any wonder that Dearest Enemy got
lost in that crowd.
This was a Revolutionary War love story, based on a factual
occurrence in little old New York: On Sept. 15, 1776, a lady on Murray Hill —
Mrs. Murray, in fact — entertained General Howe and his troops long enough to
enable George Washington and his army, fleeing from their crushing loss in the
Battle of Brooklyn, to meet up with reinforcements. Despite its novel
provenance, the musical was a by-the-book affair, with Mrs. Murray's niece
falling for a British soldier (of course) but tricking him to save the
Republic. With songs.
More...
***
A revival of the musical comedy “1776” will come to Broadway in
the spring of 2021, the Roundabout Theater Company said Monday.
The revival, directed by Diane Paulus, will begin next May at
the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., where Ms. Paulus is the
artistic director. It will then be presented at several other theaters around
the country, including in July 2020 at the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles,
before arriving at Broadway’s American Airlines Theater. The musical will be a
coproduction of the A.R.T. and the Roundabout, both of which are nonprofits.
More...
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