THERAPY

I first encountered the world of therapy at a previous work place in the late 80's early nineties where the head of Human Resources - or Personnel as we used to call it ( I am NOT a resource!? Still don't care for the term and feel it belittles and adds to social control calling staff "resources" but hey I digress.) I lost my brother shortly after the death of my Dad who had died through having been on a waiting list of years to have triple by pass surgery at Harefields' Hospital thanks to Thatcher and her impositions on the NHS ( yes even then) and I struggled with a variety of issues around losing my brother so soon after losing my dad some year or more between them. 

Head of Personnel then was a wonderful person, a woman who had trained under the legendary Metanoia Institute, and she spotted something in me that made her quiz me and ended up giving me bereavement counselling therapy for and on behalf of the company for which I am eternally grateful and like so many who come across therapy this way, it was later when considering a change in professional direction, that I re-trained and qualified as a counsellor/psychotherapist myself and spent the least twenty years of my professional life with my own practice and worked in the fields of social care where those skills I learned were put to good use. From an extraordinary Rehab in The Ley Community nearby to working later with addiction and the local initiative SMART-CJS (Substance Misuse Arrest Referral Team) the socially disadvantaged hostels and homeless sectors too, desirous as I was to give something back. 

The person who gave me that therapy did not obviously charge me anything for my counselling sessions and they opened up my head in ways that only later would I fully come to understand more completely but she asked me for one thing when we finished working together. As I had done an elaborate drawing on handmade paper of some size during a therapy session which seemed to take her by surprise as she discovered my talents in the arts and she asked if I would do a drawing for her. I gave her the option of one or two and she claimed to not like those or understand them particularly and so I did a pastel 'painting' as we might once have called a drawing in that media, specifically for her of a 'genre subject', as she had a passion for gardening and loved the Monet gardens at Giverney.

This drawing which I had quite forgotten I had briefly photographed (and wish I had kept a copy of my therapy drawing too) I found a little snap of earlier on yesterday

This was for Angela Chris:

Large floral piece - pastel on handmade paper, for Angela Chris ©️Andy Swapp

Costello sings Dead song!

 'SHIP OF FOOLS'

ELVIS COSTELLO

"Went to see the captain

Strangest I could find

Laid my proposition down

I laid it on the line

I won't slave for beggar's pay

Likewise gold and jewels

But I would slave to learn the way

To sink your ship of fools

Ship of fools

On a cruel sea

Ship of fools

Sail away from me"

Garcia/Hunter 

One of the regular posters over at the Wagon has posted a doozie of a Costello rarity (best grab it now his people are notoriously hot on having ROIOs taken down) but this short set has a version of a song not often found. draftervoi says "I got this '3rd generation tape' from a clerk at Streetlight Records in San Francisco.  The STORY I got from him was that they recorded it just to get the live version of "Ship of Fools/Must Have Been The Roses." This is the first time that it hit the EC repertoire and occurs rarely ever since from time to time and especially in the late 80s. 'Drafter' notes this is not the same as other sources versions [there are OTHER sources?!] . . . . . 

Elvis Costello rarity - San Jose Civic Centre - Voodoo Wagon

Elvis Costello / San Jose Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA - April 16, 1987 soundboard 3rd generation tape

 

Elvis Costello
San Jose Civic Auditorium
San Jose, CA. 
April 16, 1987
Soundboard
(3rd generation tape)

01 Sally Sue Brown
02 (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
03 Suit Of Lights
04 Green Shirt
05 Brilliant Mistake
06 Ship Of Fools - It Must Have Been The Roses
07 Uncomplicated
08 Inch By Inch

draftervoi adds:

"And it's a HELL of a version, sung with passion. .   

and hard to believe at this distance in time, 

but at a time when the Costello audience 

and the Grateful Dead audiences were still two separate camps. 

So...if you like Elvis Costello, or the Dead... 

you'll probably find this of interest."

 

If only for the chat between songs . . . . 

"a lot of people bring you flying pigs, exploding walls, 

light shows and laser shows 

I've brought my holiday pictures with me . . . . 

here we are in Salt Lake City with David Lee Roth! (sic)" 

Ha ha ha ha dig at Roth who had spiteful digs at Elvis . . . . . . . ha ha ha

N.B. this is a FLAC file and a soundboard source 

so it is safe to assume it is astonishing quality. 

 . . . . . . 
It is and you won't be!!

 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!

From the delightful Sigourney Weaver

 

Janis Joplin's Birthday!

 JANIS

"Piece of My Heart"

Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas on this day in 1943. Take another little piece of her heart now, baby.

For what would have been her 78th birthday! Damn I miss Janis! Bought her first album (‘Cheap Thrills’ that introduced me to Robert Crumb artwork - a fan of both ever since!) when it came out! -1968- Yup I’m that ancient! Don’t s’pose most folks will play this but heck give it a try. She can blast that voice! A favourite song! Check how she brings seemingly the entire audience up on stage! Now that’s a gal and a half!!

SATURDAY 

You know those days where you wake up early and think why it still must be nighttime? Its so dark still and you see its breakfast time and there is no light to speak of its raining and the house really needs the lights putting on . . . . . . . . . Dank and drear here . . . . .so

Here's this! 

Enjoy!                                                                         I think you did!

RUTH ORKIN

This truly great photograph by the brilliant photographer Ruth Orkin has always troubled me and feel like it is saying so much about the male gaze and oppression of women in the street, nit least the cultural bias against Italian men and their attitude to women; cat calling, wolf whistling, harassment etc but recently discovered this text (below and it is alway worth questioning our attitudes I guess . . . . 

Ruth Orkin

'American Girl in Italy', Florence, 1951

 

detail

Ruth Orkin

American Girl in Italy, Florence, 1951

Ruth Orkin travelled to Italy, where she met Ninalee Craig, known at the time as Jinx Allen, a fellow American who was also travelling alone. It was a photograph of Jinx being stared at as she passed through a group of men that was to become Orkin’s most recognisable image. Orkin was 29 when she took the photograph and included it as part of a series, later published in Cosmopolitan magazine, entitled Don’t Be Afraid to Travel Alone.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jan/12/american-photographer-ruth-orkin-in-pictures

Wikipedia_“In 1951, Ninalee Craig, then using the name “Jinx Allen”,[3] went on a six-month tour of Europe. While in Florence, Italy, she met photographer Ruth Orkin and the two became friends. Orkin photographed Craig as she walked around Florence capturing images of her shopping at markets, flirting in cafés, viewing landmarks, and other travel experiences.[4] The most iconic of the photos is known as American Girl in Italy and shows Craig walking down a street being ogled by a group of men.[5]

Many interpret the photograph as one of harassment and chauvinism.[6] In 2014, Craig said: “At no time was I unhappy or harassed in Europe”.[7] “[The photograph is] not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time!”[4] She has also noted that “Italian men are very appreciative, and it’s nice to be appreciated. I wasn’t the least bit offended.”[8] 

http://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2019/06/remembering-ninalee-craig-and-american.html

“Ninalee Allen Craig died on May 1st 2018,  The star of one of the 20th century’s most famous and controversial images was 90. THE photograph, by Ruth Orkin, was called “American Girl in Italy, Florence, 1951”. Whenever it surfaced, in restaurants, in students’ rooms, on T-shirts, on tote bags, so did the questions for Ninalee Allen Craig, who walked at its heart through a phalanx of Italian men. They stared and leered; one grabbed his crotch; their calls were almost audible. Wasn’t she afraid? Surely she was upset? Her downcast eyes, that clutch of her shawl, strongly suggested both those things. Then she would laugh her boisterous full laugh and say, not at all. On the contrary, she was imagining she was Dante’s Beatrice. She had studied the “Divine Comedy” with Robert Fitzgerald at Sarah Lawrence in New York, and had fallen in love with that notion of unattainable beauty. Her dollar-a-night hotel was on the Arno, and she had a corny postcard of a Victorian painting by Henry Holiday that showed Beatrice walking by the river, in shining white, ignoring the stricken Dante, who pressed his pounding heart at the sight of her. Who knew whether her very own Dante might not be standing on some corner, while she swept luminously by?”

TAMARA DE LEMPICKA 

Surrealist Hand by Tamara de Lempicka, 1947

An unusual painting for De Lempicka and her highly stylised figures are more common. She would be a terrific subject for a film and for me I would choose Lady Gaga to play her . . . . see if you agree with me!!

Tamara de Lempicka, Paris, 1929

Photograph by Dora Kallmus of d'Ora Studio, 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON

Van Vliet that is . . . . . . . . 

Ice Cream For Crow 1982 (perhaps my favourite video)

Celebratory picture from Don's artgallery Galerie Michael Werner

"It makes me itch to think of myself as Captain Beefheart. I don't even have a boat." 

- Don Van Vliet. 

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band live at the Drury Lane Royal Theatre in London, England on June 9th, 1974. Picture is from the tour. 00:00 Warp-Minded Cabbage-Patch Child-Son of Mirror Man 4:47 Upon the My Oh My 8:54 Full Moon Hot Sun 12:24 Sugar Bowl 15:20 Crazy Little Thing 19:07 This Is the Day 26:55 New Electric Ride 30:15 Abba Zabba 33:32 Peaches

Always wear a hat . . . . . . 

The insert lyric sheets from the first pressing of Trout Mask Replica thanks to Richard Morton Jack and 'Graham' from Beefheart.com (The Radar Station)

The Mascara Snake from insert of Trout Mask Replica

Don and all that turquoise jewellery 

Ed Marimba from Spot Light Kid back cover

Untitled works from last exhibition Sicily

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band playing Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop on Detroit Tubeworks, January 15th, 1971, right before their tour for Lick My Decals Off, Baby.

Captain Beefheart Upon The My O My Old Grey Whistle Test 1974

Same Old Blues - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Ice Cream for Crow -  Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band; directed by Don Van Vliet (with much uncredited assistance from producer Ken Schreiber), cinematography by Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre); Don Van Vliet (vocals, harp), Gary Lucas (guitar), Jeff Tepper (guitar), Rick Snyder (bass), Cliff Martinez (drums); filmed on location in the High Mojave Desert near Lancaster, California; clip rejected by MTV USA as "too weird" upon release, now in the Permanent Film and Video Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; track taken from the 1982 Virgin album "Ice Cream for Crow"

Captain Beefheart at 80 - Gary Lucas

 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AT 80

on what would have been the day before Don's eightieth birthday . . . an article from Gary Lucas and a couple of tracks for your delectation!

Gary Lucas on Captain Beefheart & Frank Zappa - Please Kill Me

Yes suh!

Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Paris 1980

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - 9 NOV 1980 - Paris Don Van Vliet - vocals, harmonica, sax Jeff Moris Tepper - guitar Richard Midnight Hatsize Snyder - guitar Eric Drew Feldman - bass, synthesizer, mellotron, piano Robert Arthur Williams - drums Gary Lucas - guitar* Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man Best Batch Yet Dirty Blue Gene Safe as Milk Flavor Bud Living* Bat Chain Puller Big Eyed Beans From Venus

Don Van Vliet on Dr Demento! announcing Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)

 MARCEL DUCHAMP

'THE LARGE GLASS'

I have mentioned before I think that I was a part of study group at Leicester Polytech Fine Art Dept under historian Fred Orton  and composer Gavin Bryars. We interviewed Richard Hamilton about his days teaching at Newcastle and the reconstruction of the Large Glass and I was lucky enough to call Richard a friend later as he and his lovely partner and fine artist in her own right, Rita Donagh, were so welcoming to me and always spoke when they visited MOMA years later when I worked there and when I interviewed him for my final thesis in their wonderful house in Highgate back in the early seventies. 

This is from grupaok who are Julian Myers and Joanna Szupinska   

grupaok:

Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915–1923, on view in the International Exhibition of Modern Art arranged by the Société Anonyme, installation detail, Brooklyn Museum, 1926.

Remarkably, this was the only time that Duchamp’s masterwork was exhibited publicly before its glass panes shattered. Painstakingly reassembled by Duchamp in the 1930s, the work survives in a broken state.

grupa o.k.’s essay on the 1926 exhibition, titled “Bachelor Modernism,” will  be published in The Avant-Garde Museum, edited by Agnieszka Pindera and Jarosław Suchan and published by Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź. A preview of our essay is available HERE for download and discussion.

Along with other essays on the Société, the book also examines the Soviet Museums of Artistic Culture, El Lissitzky’s Abstract Cabinet, and (our namesake) grupa a.r.’s Neoplastic Room, and includes source texts by Lissitzky, Rodchenko, Malevich, Katherine Dreier, Władysław Strzemiński, and more.

Through The Large Glass - Richard Hamilton - Tate papers

© Estate of Richard Hamilton and Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2020