The WASP: Make Art (part I)

I was on a plane out and there was this beautiful documentary about The Doors. A beautiful documentary, man. Mr Mojo Risin': The Story of L.A. Woman.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT TEXAS RADIO AND THE BIG BEAT.

And, boy, it reminded me so hard about why I am in this. Why I am here. Why I keep on keeping on. And there’s art in there.

There’s a not-so-secret art. The art of Rimbaud. Back to the art of Baudelaire. Back to the Impressionists -- who spent more time painting brothels than any group of painters before them. Talk about your L.A. Woman.

Back to Edgar Allan Poe -- just as dense and heavy, faux philosophical, American, chauvinistic, expressive and dense as Poe. Popular, enticing and sexy. Was Poe sexy? I mean why did they make all those Vincent Price movies?

Let me tell you about Texas Radio and The Big Beat.

And The Doors lead to Iggy and the Stooges, right? Echo and The Bunnymen. REM. U2.

Ray Manzarek borrows liberally from Chopin, equal as much as Kurt Weill and Howlin’ Wolf. Dionysian and Apollonian. Nietzsche and Disney.

“And the ancient Egyptians used to say, ‘If you say a man’s name he is alive. So I take the opportunity to say, ‘Jim Morrison,” Ray Manzarek says toward the end of the documentary.

continued...

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BREAKING NEWS: USC to Absorb HUC in LA?

This just in from "The God Blog." A source told Jewish Journal editor-in-chief Rob Eshman that the University of Southern California and Hebrew Union College-Jewish institute of Religion, which already share some faculty and facilities, are working on a deal to fold the L.A. campus into USC as a Jewish studies program. “Its a win win,“ the source said. “HUC gets a big chunk of money for what it owns—about a block of prime real estate by the USC campus—and USC gets to solidify a Jewish studies and outreach program that it has been building for some time now.“ Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles has been having big problems -- a consolidation of resources may present a novel and impactful solution. VERY INTERESTING.

Why Go to A Conference Anyways?

@lidja @lyndakelly61 @futureofmuseums @creativemerc @museum_flavor pLz look http://tinyurl.com/qxlja4 &here http://bit.ly/q1mhV assoc./conf. grpthink @RichardMcCoy @DanielCull very import.

A Year-end Letter Update from James and Family

Dear Friends and Family, On the brink of the new year on December 31, 2019 we stood at the foot of Kehinde Wiley's brand new monumental equestrian sculpture in downtown Richmond at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. There were a bunch of families gathered around taking pictures together. Emblematic of this entire year and entitled “ Rumors of War ,” the monument depicts an unarmed Black man in heroic pose atop a horse. The man’s sneakers are in the stirrups, looking back over their shoulder like Napoleon as they ride forward up a ridge . It was a strange harbinger of the year that was, and how it’s going. Kamala Harris will be named our vice president in a few weeks. In between, the apocalyptic has been commonplace; I mean, what a year. Emil started high school this fall. Graduation this past spring from Mark Day School was likely the year’s highlight. Karen is still at Mark Day. This fall they've been doing hybrid learning. It’s the first time Karen and Emil have not been goi

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