Friday, February 23, 2024
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Friday, September 2, 2022
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Sadie Steinberg (1920-2018)
Field Guide
by Lisa Hirschfield
for her grandmother Sadie
for her grandmother Sadie
Our morning walks
through cool chaparral
salt air and wild sage
trying and often failing
to memorize
the accurate flash
of color
until I could get home
and open the book you gave me
Golden-crowned sparrow
house finch
Oregon junco
not to be confused
with the rufous-sided towhee
and once the actual blue
of a robin’s egg
All unexotic
but I wanted to know their names
their songs
their seasons
their other homes
Unlike learning to press wildflowers
watching your hands
gently arranging
larkspur
sand aster
cranesbill
and the illicit orange
of the California poppy
We interred them between volumes
of the World Book Encyclopedia
1955
For days I imagined pages
of bright fields
But there was no place
in my world yet
for faded things forced
into the wrong dimension
Though I must have saved them somewhere
because I never could throw anything away
because back then
everything had a face
Now I am only sure of your body
so delicate it takes
four men to lift
so you can lie in the garden
warming
maybe feel the breeze
brush your paper skin
I imagine myself descending
like you into these flowers
you once named cosmos
but then my body buoyed
by this invisible sea
of sound and light
How will you recede
to that single point in the dark
When I was ten
you told me
once you hear a meadowlark
you can never forget it
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Monday, April 23, 2018
Monday, October 23, 2017
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Reclaiming Sun Ra's Legacy
An excellent story by my friend Jim Knipfel about Sun Ra's posthumous legacy, posted at The Believer. The article discusses at length the work I've been doing since late 2013 administering and sorting out Ra's convoluted catalog and rights conflicts on behalf of Sun Ra LLC, the heirs of Herman Poole Blount. Pictured above: administrator and his "boss," Thomas Jenkins, Jr. (a.k.a. "Capt. T"), son of Ra's older sister Mary and patriarch of the family. Photo snapped Nov. 22, 2014, outside the Jenkins home in Powder Springs, Georgia.
From the article:
"Thomas—a man I love and admire for his diligence, humor, and strength of character—explained to me the parade of unscrupulous characters who, after Ra's departure, emerged from the shadows to assert rights without lawful claims. Jenkins provided conclusive, documented proof of chain-of-title on Ra's rights for Sun Ra LLC, as well as a chronicle of dubious, and in some cases provably fraudulent, claims by those who felt entitled to a financial stake in Sunny's artistic legacy. And when I say financial stake, I should add, such as it was. Ra died impoverished, and owed the IRS—are you ready?—$146,799.95."
Chusid admits he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he agreed to step inside Sun Ra’s universe to try and sort a few things out. “I did it to help Michael [D. Anderson], because he asked,” he says in retrospect. “I did not comprehend the scope of the task ahead and had no idea where it would lead. To be honest, I foresaw a tremendous expenditure of time and labor without any prospect of making it profitable. Just about every project I've developed—Raymond Scott, Esquivel, Jim Flora, Langley Schools, Shooby Taylor, outsider music—started as a labor of love, a challenge, something that intrigued me, and that was grounded on a unique artistic legacy that appealed to me. It was that way with Sun Ra. He's one of the great, unsung musical geniuses of the 20th century—easily dismissed as a crackpot or a charlatan by those who barely know his music. And if all you know is 'Space is the Place,' you don't know his music."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)