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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