What are the purposes of Art?

Roughly six months ago Steve Reich announced a new music project simply called WTC 9/11. The piece uses actual voices recorded (Air traffic, police, etc) as melody points that he then constructs the music around. None are victims of Ground Zero.

It is a beautiful piece and was the only thing I did on the 10th anniversary to honor that day. All of the 24/7 pieces on TV showing the actual events of that day are considered appropriate ways to "remember." By that I mean all of those horrific images and video. I even saw teasers a month before advertising these shows. Who here thinks that companies responsible for broadcasting them had in mind the premium advertising bucks that could be made that day by "honoring the memory." I do.

The new Reich piece was previewed on NPR and showed the manipulated image below that was originally intended for the cover.

Listen to short snippets of the piece at Nonesuch records.

Almost immediately there was huge backlash for the choice of the image. Here are some of the "nicer" comments:

I am in total agreement with Mr. xxxxx. I think you may have broken new ground. This is the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.

Seems appropriately shoddy and exploitative to me.

You can't be serious Mr. Reich. Shame on you, the Kronos Quartet and Nonesuch for capitalizing on this. It is truly vile.

Even worse, the label that Reich is on caved into this idiotic chatter and changed the cover before it was released. In my iTunes library I replaced the new one with the original.

For me, Art serves many functions and one is shared catharsis. When I played this CD on 9/11 I was taken to a place of personal reflection and emotion over that day. Personal.

Had I turned the TV on and been spoon fed the actual images of that day I would have been no different than the idiots who slow down on freeways to get a glimpse of an accident.

This CD allowed me to move ahead, to better understand, to buffer the rawness. Television would have only reopened old wounds. That is what Art can do.

Anselm Kiefer at the Louvre

My friend's Brian and Heather are spending this Thanksgiving week in Paris and I was surprised with this series of emails from him showing a site-specific series of work by one of my favorite artists, Anselm Kiefer and I had to share them.

From Brian: "At the Louvre, there isn't any modern art, but in one corner there's a site-specific installation by Kiefer done in 2007 that was a cool surprise. All by itself in a staircase. Gotta be 20 ft. tall. On either side, there were two smaller sculptures he also did"

My first panoramic image

Microsoft has a free app for the iPhone called Photosynth that allows you to stitch together panoramic images just by moving the phone side to side. Very powerful and very cool.

Satyagraha

I have been a devoted fan of Philip Glass since I first saw he and his ensemble perform "The Photographer" back in 1982. Right after that I saw Koyaanisqatsi in it's first theatrical release and was blown away.

I've seen him perform with symphonies, collaborate with Allen Ginsberg and been witness to the ensemble play live to both the aforementioned Koyaanisqatsi as well as Powaqqatsi and although I would have LOVED to have seen Einstein on the Beach today I got closest to experiencing one of his operas, namely, the Met in HD performance of Satyagraha.

Kelly says it best as far as how the Met is advancing opera into the digital age so I'll just say that it was a moving and at times tear jerking experience. Later, I found out that the Baltimore Symphony is performing the music he wrote to accompany a multimedia show called LIFE: A Journey Through Time and we are most definitely going to attend.

My only wish is that, at 75, he tours one more time with his ensemble. Pretty please!?

Happy birthday Liam!

Today was his sixth birthday. Amazing, he was two when I first met him and it's been an extreme pleasure watching him grow. Here he is being measured. He grew over two inches since last year!

Tonight, Kelly took us all out for sushi. I am so impressed at how adventurous both kids are when it comes to food. I certainly wasn't when I was his age. Props to her for exposing them to what the world has to offer.

I got him a skateboard and it will be interesting to see how he progresses. That reminds me, before he starts getting serious I need to get him some kneepads for when he falls (yes, WHEN he falls Mom) ;)

Happy birthday little man.

The lost interview with Steve Jobs

Last night we went to a one time showing of a 75 minute interview writer Robert X. Cringely did back in 1995 with Jobs for a three part series he produced called "Triumph of the Nerds." It's an interesting look at the shape shifters form the beginnings of the personal computers days but only 10 minutes of the interview was used. Then, the master copy was lost and a new VHS copy emerged not too long ago. That full interview is what we saw last night.

Since his death I've been going to You Tube and watching old interviews but this one was, by far, the best I've seen.

I recommend watching it on Netflix when it comes out.

Amazing show!

For such a small assembling of musicians Tinariwen really has developed its individual voice. I guarantee that if you ever get the chance to see them you will be hooked by the third song.

Seductive trance is really how I would describe them. Hoped to have some audio of the show to post but I unfortunately messed that up. Here then are three pics I took.