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| John Fuller #80 |
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Born To Die
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| Miss Del Rey Exercising |
What is amazing is how the media gets so excited about a transformation whose blueprint is now at least 120 years old; after all, we now know how to burn with a gemlike flame; and all about personae and making strange. Anyway, here comes Lana. Her name refers to an O'Hara poem in my mind as well as a star. She was born in New York State, so she is a New York School character, in a sense, though she prefers to position herself somewhere between High School Confidential and Blue Velvet. Much has been made of the Lynchian in her work, but by that we really mean the rotten fruit core of 50s iconography - Dean, Monroe - which is more ubiquitous than Lynch.
In fact, the performer Del Rey most closely resembles, in terms of songcraft, uncanny vocal shifts, doomy-dreamy storytelling of rebels and youths in peril, fraught performance, and queer undertones, is 60s star Gene Pitney, who I love. Pitney could inhabit a Bacharach tune, a film theme, or a teen torch song, with equal aplomb.
He was the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but also the guy 24 Hours From Tulsa. Pitney, a prettier Orbison, has always been kitsch, but is to my mind the greatest pop performer in the American canon for his uncanny impersonations and ability to rev from passion to pathos in seconds, skittering across a range of characters from western toughs to vulnerable lovelorn college kids. Listening to the best of Pitney, one is also struck by the lush orchestration, and the sheer skill with which each song-as-mood-microcosm is made. So too, listening to the nifty instamatic masterwork that is Born To Die, what is undeniable is how oneiric the work is, in the best sense. Few pop artists can do this. Pitney did it. Del Rey does it too. Is the "ey" at the end of her nom de plume a sly homage to Gene? A bit of splicing?
Monday, 30 January 2012
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Nicol Williamson Has Died
Sad news. One of Eyewear's favourites, the gifted, troubled Nicol Williamson, the high-pitched thespian who played Merlin in the classic Excalibur (still wilder and more erotic than Game of Thrones), and Sherlock Holmes in The Seven Percent Solution, has died of esophageal cancer in his mid-70s. He will be missed.
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| Nicol Williamson as Merlin |
Saturday, 28 January 2012
John Kliphan Has Died
Sad news. John Kliphan, the poet who founded the longest-running anglo-Parisian poetry series, Live Poets (now Poets Live) died Thursday, January 26, 2012. At 2:15 p.m. his heart slowed and came to a stop in the presence of close friends.
OPEN INVITATION
When: Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:30 a.m.
Where: Salle Coupole, Crematorium, Père Lachaise Cemetery (map attached)
Enter the cemetery from Avenue du Père Lachaise near GAMBETTA Metro Station (lines 3 and 3bis). Please allow ample time to walk in from the street.
A CELEBRATORY POETRY READING IN HONOR OF JOHN'S LIVING MEMORY IS BEING
PLANNED FOR LATE FEBRUARY. Tentative date: Sunday, February 26, 2012. Please mark your calendars.
Plan d’accès :
Le Crématorium se trouve dans l’enceinte du cimetière du Père
Lachaise.
L’entrée du Crématorium se fait par l’avenue du Père Lachaise,
accessible par la place Gambetta. Métro : Gambetta (lignes 3 et 3bis)
Bus : Gambetta (n°102 et 69) ou Ramus (n°26)
Toutes les salles du crématorium sont accessibles aux personnes Ã
mobilité réduite. Merci de vous signaler à votre maître de cérémonie,
avant le temps d'hommage.
Le jour des obsèques, les véhicules des proches peuvent être autorisés
à pénétrer dans le cimetière pour se garer sur le parvis du
Crématorium.
Please feel free to forward this message.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
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