Have all of you been watching HBO's series, "Vinyl"? Produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger (you all know that the Rolling Stones are my favorite group of all, all, all time, right?), it's a snapshot of the changing music world around 1973. Tonight is episode 9 - only one more episode left. SOB! You can watch it all on HBO Demand, if you have it, and also HERE on the HBO Vinyl home page. There have been a few lagging moments, but truly, it has been a great journey through that time period with flashbacks to Neko, Lou Reed, Bo Diddley, etc. You get imaginary run-ins with John Lennon, Andy Warhol, the New York Dolls, etc.
Anyway, tonight in the closing credits they featured a song ("Stay with Me") by Chris Cornell. I've seen Chris once with Soundgarden and 4 times solo. Hopefully when I see him again this summer, he'll be singing this one...and HBO will be putting him on a soundtrack for the series. I think I read that he will be on an EP, but I also saw a listing for Volume 1 of a soundtrack and did not see his name listed. I will pursue this conundrum further, peeps, for those of you who care. (-;
I have a love of music that makes life worth living! ha! Perhaps you will then understand my ramblings of excitement here. I wish the "Vinyl" series could go on forever...
Check it out for yourselves.
By the way, Bette Midler originally sang this song in the Janis Joplin biopic, "The Rose." I love both versions. Chris is the king of reinventing these older songs (the best was Michael Jackson's, "Billie Jean" in my humble opinion--but "I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton) was really good).
I didn't set out to make a terrifying picture, and really, if you look, the eyes aren't malevolent. Here's how this one came about.
About a month ago, I was walking along checking out the neighborhood and ended up on a street section that I don't usually frequent. Someone had a basket of petunias sitting outside. You know how petunias start to look as their season comes to an end, spindly vines and sparse, small flowers? That's how this plant looked. I thought, "Boy, those petunias are getting long in the tooth."
Well, that did it. Another part of my brain was triggered. At a gathering about 4 or 5 years ago (I have a pretty good memory, people), a girl named Cera, who works at a vet's office, relayed how a woman came in and said, "Mah dawg needs a rabies (shot)." She said her teeth were as long as fingers. Well, who could ever forget a descriptive phrase like that? Not I! I planted it in the back of my mind, and thought, someday I will use that...
So there you have it. In any event, it goes along with the Halloween season. (-;
Petunias Long In The Tooth and Teeth As Long As Fingers
Here's a few more views--the viny flowers go all around--or in more beautiful Spanish--
"alrededor de"
(Ahl-ray-day-door Day)
P.S. As I was painting the petunia portion of this, I was watching one of my favorite movies of all time, "After Hours" directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino and on and on. I love those weird, whacked out movies. It just seemed like the perfect background flick while creating this baby.
I was going to put the movie trailer here, but there is this upbeat Monkey's song ("Take the Last Train to Clarksville") playing which skews the movie towards seeming like a comedy. )-: Let's just say, it's definitely a black comedy. The clip below is better indication of its bizarre, surreal fantasticness!
I have a handful, maybe two, of all-time favorite singers. Van Morrison is right up there at the top. I'm sure I first was aware of him with "Gloria" and "Brown-Eyed Girl" listening to them on WLS out of Chicago. I can remember seeing him on Wolfman Jack's "Midnight Special" tv show and singing "Domino" when I was a little kid. I think I fell in love with him, though, in Martin Scorsese's 1978 rockumentary of The Band's final concert, "The Last Waltz" where he sang, "Caravan." I once read that he at times suffered from debilitating stage fright. He seemed so romantic--this other-worldly voice filled with so much soul--he seemed to pull out his deepest emotions, lost almost in a trance, and grab you with him as you fell into an whirling hole of mysticism and smoldering magic.
My uncle had grown up in the '60's, and he had given me all his albums when he moved to the west coast. I had all the classics--original Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Doors, Small Faces, a.k.a The Faces, and Van Morrison. I had 1968's "Astral Weeks," one of the most incredible, classic albums of all time. I remember that Rolling Stone Magazine--back in its heyday--had published an Encyclopedia of Rock and had given "Astral Weeks" its highest rating--5 stars. I used to listen to it over and over again in college--you have to understand, I was in love with that era musically--I always felt that I should have grown up in that time.
O.K., so fast forward to 2008 (released in 2009), Van the Man re-recorded that album as "Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl." It's more uptempo with additional musicians. Both versions are spectacular so please listen to both. Where the h-e-double-toothpick am I going with this rock 'n' roll lesson? Well, I'm going here:
I'm driving home tonight in the cool, night air. I went out to dinner with a friend and then drove home. It was dark out, with swirling puffs of night-time clouds. And I was playing "AWLATHB." And I was playing track 3, "Slim-Slow Slider/Stop Breaking Down." Listen as he opens, "Slim-Slow Rider" and someone in the audience yells, "Yeaaaaaaaaaaah" at 00:18. You know you're in for something great. And really listen to what makes Van Morrison so special. Listen to that phrasing at 1:01-1:05 and again at 1:16-1:19 when he sings, "the fruit grove this morning." The timing, the melody. God, I love it so much. And I love it even more while sticking my hand out into the air through my sun roof and feeling the coolness swirling through my fingers--and more still while glancing my eyes quickly upward at the inky sky above me, so close that it's a part of me and I'm a part of it. And the thing is, at that moment, I feel such joy--such a complete feeling of utter, utter happiness. The music, Van Morrison, the air, the sky...a moment of immense joy for being alive and feeling all of it.
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl - Slim Slow Slider/Stop Breaking Down
I've had a leftover piece of cardboard sitting around for quite awhile. I liked the shape of it--it was from a box flap of a Williams-Sonoma "Baked" mix. (You know, Baked, right? Matt Lewis' and Renato Poliafito's fantastic bakery in Brooklyn-- http://www.bakednyc.com/.) Anyway, I saved this little piece of cardboard. I had bought a paper puncher that made little curly-q designs, and I tried it out on the cardboard. Interesting I thought. I decided to paint it lime green, but still didn't know where it was heading. Finally, about 8 months later, and sick of it hanging around in its mostly naked state, I painted it on either side and strung it up. It is now a love story.
Natasha: "Reginald, I love you for your killer sideburns and your fabulous purple, Prince-like jacket that would look fabulous on me."
Reginald: "Natasha, I love you for your Angelina Jolie-like jawline and for your purple eyeshadow which matches my purple, Prince-like jacket--complete with hanky. We're made for each other."
People have made relationships out of less... (-;
On another note, I just happened to catch Martin Scorsese's HBO documentary, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" from 2011. It's the 3rd time I've seen it, but it captivates me as if it's completely brand new. Sometimes I sit and draw images/faces while I watch a movie. They are fast sketches and because the film's images are moving so quickly, often a sketch will contain several different shots of one person or different features of several people. In one of my drawings, I have a cap of Yoko Ono, a body and chair out of my imagination, and a pattern from the quick shot of a doorway.
The documentary, (both parts I and II), is so beautiful. The largest gift I get from it is George's search for getting something deeper than material things out of this journey on earth. His yearning to connect with a pathway that leads to enlightenment, whatever that may mean to each of us, and which for him was being a spiritual being. I find great comfort in his matter-of-fact stance that everything must change. "You have to change. That's what the physical world is about," he says.
So, when I'm sad as I watch things slip away, people move away, I'm going to try to remember his calm belief in the fact that "All Things Must Pass."
