What I plan on listening to and looking at this week, and other things that are making my world a better place:
- Bob Dylan’s New Morning (CD)
Several years back, Columbia Records remixed and re-issued 15 essential Bob Dylan albums, or what they felt were the 15 essential Dylan albums. Sadly, they left untouched a few that are true classics, including The Basement Tapes and this, my personal “second favorite” Dylan record. It has languished on barely-listenable compact discs for decades, but this new incarnation – released this week – will truly open your ears. The sound improvements are subtle until the fourth song, “Went to See the Gypsy,” kicks into gear with a shuffling boogie spotlighting Al Kooper’s organ, David Bromberg’s electric guitar, some inspired syncopated comping on the piano by Dylan, and a rough-but-honeyed vocal that is one of this album’s sonic trademarks. New Morning‘s lyrics seem to be bathed in a mulled brew of American myth that is steeped in simple living and simple values, typified by these closing lines from “Sign on the Window:”
Build me a cabin in Utah,
Marry me a wife,
Catch rainbow trout,
Have a bunch of kids who call me Pa –
That must be what it’s all about.
[audio:Bob_Dylan___Went_to_See_the_Gypsy.mp3]
“Went to See the Gypsy” by Bob Dylan, from New Morning (1970)
[audio:Bob_Dylan___Sign_on_the_Window.mp3]
“Sign on the Window” by Bob Dylan, from New Morning (1970)
- Dexter: Season Two (DVD)
I missed this TV show’s first three seasons on cable (I don’t subscribe to Showtime), and have started catching up one disc at a time via Netflix. The first season was captivating, if a bit too aware of its own clever concept (Miami police blood splatter expert moonlights as a serial killer with a conscience). I’ve just finished the second disc of Season Two (episodes 4-7) and the web that has entangled all of the characters – not just the “hero” – is becoming unbearably tense, while the body count and gore is noticably decreased. The result is a much more involving and humane drama that seems honest and less gratuitously sensationalistic.
- Rosemary
The rosemary bushes in my front and back yards have graduated this year from being “plants” to “bushes.” They are growing in every direction, including up, and are spilling into my neighbors’ yards, as well. I have been cutting out some of the undergrowth, drying and harvesting the needles. As a result of this herb harvest, practically everything I cook gets a dose of rosemary and, instead of getting tiring, has become intoxicating. Having tried rosemary with practically every edible item in my kitchen except water, I am now wondering how a rosemary tea would taste…
I went over to Atlanta a few hours early last Tuesday, before dinner and the Josh Ritter concert, planning to do some exploring in the High Art Museum. I have never visited the High during my 21½ years of living in the Southeast – go figure! – so it seemed about time. I got there at 2:00 (exactly at 2:00, according to my ticket stub/sticker).
I was holding my BlackBerry and a notebook, true geek that I am, and the fellow who sold me my admission ticket told me I’d need a photo pass to “use that camera.” I exposed it as a cell phone, not a camera, and turned to continue on my way. But then I paused, remembering that I could indeed take pictures with the BlackBerry. So I stopped at the security desk and acquired a photo pass.
Then I tried to absorb three buildings full of art in three hours, and took a small handful of pics along the way. Photography wasn’t allowed in the main exhibitions (The Louvre Masterpiece and The Chinese Terra Cotta Army), so I limited my snapping to the “green” building where a lot of the permanent holdings are displayed. I’ll tell you right now that I was supremely disappointed when I discovered I had used up all of the available space on my BlackBerry before I got to the crazy Howard Finster room…there will be a next time, for sure!
This building reminded me quite a bit of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, with its ramps encircling the central atrium on the way to each floor. The big difference here is that the High atrium is ¼ of a circle, so the graceful, rising circular ramps of the Guggenheim are replaced by graceful, rising zig-zag ramps.
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
I went straight to the European floor and was greeted at the top of the ramp by this mesmerizing piece of sculpture. I must have examined it for five minutes, maybe more, trying to figure out how the artist was able to create the illusion of a thin veil, using stone. It still baffles me.
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
On the next floor, this early-American carving, made from yellow pine from Alabama (and, I assume, carved in Alabama), caught my eye. It looks like stone.
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
There is a very sizable section of the museum devoted to furniture, and several examples of vintage Stickley furniture from the Arts and Crafts period. There also is a healthy representation of Frank Lloyd Wright design in the High, including this fascinating desk. The desk was designed by Wright to be placed in the Johnson Wax Building (a building he designed) in Racine, Wisconsin. Merely by looking at it, I couldn’t decide if this desk would be a comfortable working space. I know from experience that some of the furniture from that era takes getting used to, physically, as I have some reproductions in my house…you don’t just come home and plop down on a Stickley settle, for instance, as you might do on a cozy overstuffed sofa. Anyway, the desk and chair’s comfort levels remain a mystery, for I didn’t want to set off any alarms by trying them out for size. I think that metal half-moon hanging under the desk on the left is a wastecan.
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
Below is a picture of the interior of the aforementioned Johnson Wax Building. You can see how the Frank Lloyd Wright desks are used there.
(photo: taken by Johnson Architectural Images, AJ1506. © Artifice, Inc.;
posted on GreatBuildings.com)
More Frank Lloyd Wright, of course. Here is an example of one of his stained glass windows. It isn’t as colorful or lively as the Coonley Playhouse windows, for example, but the American flag insert is a nice touch, indeed.
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
This chrome-armed chair was another piece from which I just couldn’t tear myself away. Design-wise, it’s right there on the line between FLW and Edward Hopper: simple, sleek, curving, inviting, muted. I really, really dig this chair. It didn’t hurt that it was right next to yet another Frank Lloyd Wright chair (see the yellow seat immediately behind it). I idiotically forgot to note who the designer of this chair was…anyone?! The curved wooden armpads are a classy touch (I don’t believe they are made from a synthetic material).
(photo: spitballarmy.com)
The High Museum also has a wonderful folk art collection, highlighted by a Howard Finster room and a couple of Thornton Dial pieces (one day I’ll figure out why Dial’s work is so acclaimed, but I’m on the outside of that club now). There are also some huge pieces of contemporary geometric sculpture that would span half the width of my house, at least. I also enjoyed a photographic exhibit of urban and rural Chinese landscapes that was funded by an trust given to the High by Elton John. Elton John is an Atlanta resident and, apparently, quite the avid photo collector himself, and has provided the Museum with monies that allow them to acquire important photographic pieces.
I spied the following post on CJ’s weblog. I thought it was a nice idea, and certainly a small step toward generating some good karma between folks. Why not? I said to myself. I have proceeded to re-post CJ’s post here, with only the slightest revisions.
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. This offer does have some restrictions so please read carefully:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make;
- What I create will be just for YOU;
- It will be done this year (2009);
- It will be something made by my own two hands;
- It might be a mix CD, a knitted scarf, a stack of cards, a poem, baked goods [not bloody likely], an original photograph…the possibilites are infinite.
In return, all you need to do is post this on your blog or on your Facebook page and commit to make five things for five other people.
Never a challenge unfaced! Let’s go!
…but Mike’s hand-me-down cell phone camera delivered in a pinch. Here are some snaps from Josh Ritter’s performance at Atlanta’s Center Stage last night (24 March 2009). He played three new songs, one (with a recurring reference to Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” I am assuming) that he said had not been played live before.
Josh has his necktie wrapped around his head like a blindfold here.
Tonight I finally got around to adorning the walls of my office with some of the trophies of my past professional life: the handful of gold and platinum certifications, or plaques, that my business and I were awarded. There are seven of them, in all, eight if you count the bowling shirt that Rounder Records had made to commemorate sales of two million copies of Alison Krauss’ Now That You’ve Found Me (that one is in a frame that is really too big to hang on any wall that I own).
Now the formerly austere walls of my cozy garrett cum office are cluttered and gaudy. Here is the long wall: Buena Vista Social Club (gold), The Look of Love by Diana Krall (platinum), Norah Jones’ Come Away with Me (platinum), Andrea Bocelli’s Aria (gold) and Paula Cole’s This Fire (gold).
Tucked onto an adjoining wall are plaques for Alison Krauss & Union Station’s So Long So Wrong (gold) and OK Computer by Radiohead (gold). That Radiohead plaque is a beauty, with its corrugated paper backing and brushed metal frame (design-induced swoon!).
There are good stories to go along with each one of these, and one day I’ll write them all down.
