Notes on the Girls Rock Jacksonville Volunteer Showcase (CoRK, 12/15) and “The Punk Singer” (Sun-Ray Cinema, 12/23)

Girls Rock Jax benefit show—CoRK, December 15

“The Punk Singer”—Sun Ray Cinema, December 23

(One of my favorite concert flyers this year…)

The expansion of the Girls Rock Camp’s global brand into Jacksonville two years ago has been, without question, one of the most important local cultural development of the past decade—the proverbial “gift that keeps on giving”, if you’re a music fan. As Girls Rock Jacksonville prepares to enter its third year, with its third camp coming in summer 2014, the process of preparation has begun, and that includes two events scheduled for mid-December at CoRK (12/15) and Sun-Ray Cinema (12/23).

The first is a Girls Rock Jax fundraising event slated for Friday, Dec. 15 at CoRK, which has been on a heckuva run this year. (A number of their resident artists will be just returning from a triumphant group effort at Art Basel Miami Beach, dubbed the ‘#baselinvasion”; a number of Northeast Florida’s top talents were represented there, at the country’s biggest art festival.) The GRJ funder will feature five bands comprised of GRJ volunteers and volunteers, as well as a silent auction with gimmicks and swag provided by local creative talents like Christina Abercrombie, Alicia Canessa, Cherri Czajkowski, Crystal Floyd, Sarah Humphreys and Karen Kurycki, as well as affiliated local businesses, including: Bold Bean Coffee Roasters, Burro Bags, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Dead Tank Records / Distribution, Deep Search Records, Dig Foods, Hawthorn Salon, Intuition Ale Works, M.A.D. Nails, Original Fuzz, Orion | Allen Photography, Sun-Ray Cinema, Sweet Theory Baking Co. and That Poor Girl.

Swag for the auction, provided by Dead Tank…

The first Girls Rock camps started in the Pacific Northwest, and have from the start been largely inspired by the Riot Grrrl movement that began in that region a quarter-century ago. Riot Grrrl, to an even larger extent than the alternative rock scene of the era, in general, marked the first time that girls were positioned front-and-center in multiple bands, in a truly egalitarian way, speaking directly to matters of relevance in their demographic—and they were good, too.

Of course, a central figure in that movement has been Kathleen Hanna—writer, activist, wife of King Ad-Rock and lead singer of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and the Julie Ruin—one of the most influential women of the 21^st century. You can see that all over American culture, to this day, and in ways that are not just latent or nostalgia-based, but active, kinetic and compelling in the present. The network of Girls Rock camps around the world is just the most obvious example.

Hanna with Jabberjaw, circa 1993 or ’94…

A new documentary called “The Punk Singer” tells Hanna’s story in greater detail than ever before, largely in her own words, Jacksonville will be one of the select cities hosting a screening of it at Sun-Ray Cinema, in historic Five Points, on Sunday afternoon, December 23. I’ll proudly note that I was first to call attention to its availability when I saw a posting about it on Facebook, but Tim Massett is the man for connecting with the filmmakers and putting in the legwork to make it happen.

(Kathleen Hanna with the author, Burrito Gallery, November 2011)

Although Hanna herself will not be on hand for the film screening, she’ll be there in spirit. Her affinity for the River City is already a matter of record. I was honored to sit with her, Adee Roberson, Andrew Coulon, Duncan Fristoe and the delightful Mark Creegan for a panel discussion on zines (“The Personal Is Political”) at the Jacksonville Public Library in November 2011. That was followed by a presentation by Hanna herself, and a Q&A session with an audience largely comprised of the city up-and-coming young ladies; after that, everyone adjourned to Burrito Gallery for lunch. Many of those girls ended up being involved in the launch of Girls Rock Jacksonville the following July.

(Flyer for the NYC screenings…)

“The Punk Singer” was released theatrically by IFC Films on November 29, with some 19 screenings in ten states; the screening at Sun-Ray will be the very first one in the state of Florida. (The film will also be showing at the Hippodrome in Gainesville on January 24, 2014.)      As a bonus, the screening will be preceded by a performance of songs associated with the film’s subject, as rendered by a group of girls drawn together specifically for the occasion from the ranks of GRJ volunteers. Drummer Summer Wood is probably best-known for her work with Rice, and now with Four Families. Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Alex E. Michael has led some of the city’s most dynamic bands of the past few years, including Wild Life Society and Ritual Union, in addition to her own solo work. She and singer Bethany Buckner were once half of the legendary Fruit Machine, which during its too-short run was, quite simply, one of the best all-girls bands ever, anywhere.

According to the official “Girls Rock Camp Alliance” website, GRJ is just one of 44 Girls Rock camps in eight different countries, with more forthcoming. The volunteers who’ve organized and run the past two GRJ camps include some of the most talented artists and musicians working the region today, women whose own individual achievements are already a matter of public record. Together, they have created something even greater than the sum of its already-valuable parts. They have nurtured, empowered and mentored these young ladies like they were their own sisters, daughters and friends—which they often are, in many cases.

            Girls Rock, as a concept, was born at Portland State University in 2001, and quickly spread to cities around the world. The girlsrockcamp.org website offers a glimpse at Portland’s organization ten years on, fully-formed and self-actualized, with ample merchandise to ensure a steady influx of capital. What began, like ours, as a weekly summer camp has expanded into a full-time Girls Rock Institute, with a camp for women, its own Rock Camp Studio, and hundreds of pupils per year; they have received nearly a quarter-million dollars in sponsorship, including a $40,000 donation from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Instructors’ educational experiences have been codified into a book, and an excellent documentary feature was filmed at the 2005 camp. The Portlandians even formed 16 Records to market and distribute music related to the project from talent like Dolly Ranchers, Jack Queen, The Haggard and Pom Pom Meltdown. (Note especially the splendid singer Marisa Anderson, who doubles on keyboards and lap-steel guitar.) No doubt, interest in this material will only increase as these ladies further establish themselves in the industry; the earliest campers are now in their mid-20s, so that process is already well-underway.

For the uninitiated, the GRJ camp is a one-week camp for girls aged 9-16, usually running from late July into early August. Attendees are provided hands-on instruction in a wide range of artistic disciplines—singing, instruments, DJing, arts and crafts, flyer- and zine-making—related to the skills needed for success as a professional musician. Having the lessons administered to girls by girls, by actual working musicians and longtime vets of the scene. The inaugural camp, in 2012, drew 29 campers and 40 volunteers. Camp sessions are run at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and each year’s camp ends with the girls forming their own bands to play a showcase concert at the historic Florida Theatre on Saturday afternoon. (Hopefully, future concerts will be recorded and marketed for fans, parents, etc.)

A cursory glance at the concert listings in Northeast Florida on any given week is a testament to the skills being brought to bear for the GRJ project—and that’s just the volunteers. At this rate, it will be just a few couple more years before GRJ attendees are themselves sharing space with their teachers—on the stage, on the page, online and in the firmament of what is already known as one of the most dynamic, emerging music scenes in the world today. And you can help!

 

sheltonhull@gmail.com

Gang War (1940) [a.k.a. Crime Street]

Really grimy, even by Harlem 1940 standards. Not sure why this film isn’t a classic; it hits the marks like Brody in Japan. Star Ralph Cooper went on to become the long-time host of “Amateur Night” at the Apollo…

“Cast (IMDB): Ralph Cooper as Bob ‘Killer’ Meade; Gladys Snyder as Maizie ‘Sugar’ Walford; Reginald Fenderson as Danny (Meade’s chief henchman) (as Reggie Fenderson); Laurence Criner as Lew Baron (as Lawrence Criner); Monte Hawley as Bill (Baron’s henchman); Jess Lee Brooks as Lt. Holmes (as Jesse Brooks); Johnny Thomas as Phil (Meade’s driver); Maceo Bruce Sheffield as Bull Brown (as Maceo Sheffield); Charles Hawkins as Tip (Brown henchman); Bobby Johnson as Waxy (Baron henchman); Henry Roberts as Slim (Meade henchman); Harold Garrison as Slicum (Meade’s publicity man); Marie Bryant as Dance Specialty (uncredited); Willie Covan as Dance Specialty (uncredited); Louise Franklin as Phil’s Girl (uncredited); Halley Harding as Baron Henchman (uncredited); Ray Martin as Man in Bar (uncredited); Ernest Morrison as Gang Member (uncredited); Edward Thompson as Man in Courtroom (uncredited).”  

Ten Minutes To Live – A film by Oscar Micheaux (1932)

Well, this is what was up 81 years ago. Oscar Micheaux didn’t really fuck around…

 

Notes on Gene Krupa: “Dial M For Music”, 1967

May 11, 1937: Krupa sweats through his suit as the Benny Goodman band challenges Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Some estimates suggest that between 4,000 and 20,000 people went in, through and around the venue that night…

Multi-instrumentalist Eddie Shu did epic work with Gene Krupa in the mid-’50s, following up from Charlie Ventura in the ’40s. Parts of this were in the old DCI VHS on Krupa (which, like the whole series, never went digital); so was the session with Sid Catlett on “Boy, What A Girl!” For some reason, after 20 years, the full videos of both find their way online, entirely unrelated–in this case, thanks to Shu’s children. Here Krupa, a devout Catholic, lays it down for some teenagers in Chicago, and basically does a shoot interview; truly essential stuff. He’s 58 here. If Krupa were a wrestler, he’d be Lou Thesz…

DVD Review: John Cage: Journeys In Sound

 John Cage: Journeys In Sound (Accentus Music)

The late composer John Cage (1912-1992) is one of those artists whose legacy is almost impossible to overstate. There was a world before Cage came along, and that world remains long after he’s gone, but those worlds are very different, and Cage’s seminal sound-craft is a decisive factor. He didn’t just change the music business; he changed music itself, in the process recalibrating the way humans make music, how we listen to music and how we think about music at the most basic and fundamental levels, from orchestrations and collaborations with other artists to manipulations of instruments and recording techniques. As a composer, I see him really as the heir to Arnold Schoenberg, but that could be debated.

A new DVD from Accentus Music, John Cage: Journeys In Sound, was released last October in celebration of Cage’s 100^th birthday. It takes a look at the world he left behind, demonstrating in several different ways how the man’s influence persists even now, 20 years after his death. Cage is one of the very few modern composers to have a serious presence in the larger pop-culture, known even to people who’ve never heard his music—and there is a lot to be heard. This release results from the collective efforts of two critically-acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Allan Miller and Paul Smaczny, who together led a production crew numbering some three dozen different people and companies. Miller, a two-time Oscar winner, was a longtime friend and colleague of Cage’s, and he comes armed with archival footage dating back to the 1960s, which he and Smaczny augmented with material drawn from a wide variety of sources around the world. The result is not so much a unified whole, but a series of sketches that all revolve around a central theme: “John Cage”.

The film begins as an old-school 1950s TV set opens up from its place in a sunlit field; the footage shows a young Cage employing various household items to create sounds for an audience whose nervous laughter gives away their general confusion—a common reaction. It then cuts to an older Cage, making meticulous edits to a film project he was constructing out of his famous “Chance Operations”. A scene in Times Square captures a cross-section of people talking about Cage on the street; the point seems to be that, while Cage may be obscure, he is hardly as obscure as one might expect, at least in that setting. The sights and sounds of the city, among other locales, acts as

22 different artists are featured in the film, besides Cage himself. Most of these people would be virtually unknown to the casual observer, with some few notable, indeed crucial exceptions. Topping that list are John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who actually appears in two different incarnations, in her youth alongside Lennon and Cage (bearded, Bob Ross-like), then later in life, after she’d long since become a sort of godmother to the New York avant-garde performance-art circles in which she and Cage both operated for years. Now, it’s not like John Cage needs John Lennon, or anyone else, to lend credibility to his work (which was often controversial to the point of being divisive, like an Albert Ayler or a Lou Reed, circa Metal Machine Music), but his very presence in the film, like some kind of omniscient, omnipresent ghost, elevates the whole affair beyond the quotidian; Lennon, as always, flirts with the sublime.

Journeys In Sound is a documentary about a musician, and not an actual music video, although we are treated to interpretations of Cage’s work in multiple contexts and configurations. Those who may find that there’s not enough actual music on the DVD to suit their tastes will be assuaged somewhat by the bonus material, which begins with a performance of Cage’s infamous exercise in ambient noise, “4’33”, conducted by the great David Tudor. The Schlagquatett Koln applies their percussive skills to Cage’s “Second Construction”, while pianist Steffen Schleiermacher performs a piece from Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano”, followed by his “Water Music”; the latter two pieces really touch on those aspects of Cage’s artistry that has resonated the most contemporaneously. The set is rounded out by interviews with Cage, his longtime companion Merce Cunningham—a former dancer for Martha Graham who later emerged as arguably the leading choreographer of modern dance—and artist Robert Rauschenberg, all of whom were giants in their respected fields but who together pioneered a whole new concept of multidisciplinary art. The DVD booklet also includes a five-page interview with Miller, which helps put the film in context.

John Cage: Journeys In Sound will not add too much to the knowledge-base of serious Cage fans, but it offers a very nice introduction to a man whose work often defies explanation, in part because so many skilled musicians themselves made the effort to put Cage’s influence in their own words. If Cage himself were alive, or could be sent a copy of the DVD in whatever dimension he presently occupies, he would probably enjoy it very much. Of course, if one can construct a documentary whose very subject could watch it and learn something, that is the mark of success—a mark that Messrs. Miller and Smaczny have certainly earned.

sheltonhull@gmail.com

Review: “The Journals of Spalding Gray”

The Journals of Spalding Gray, by Spalding Gray, edited by Nell Casey. New York: AA Knopf/Random House. 326 pp., illustrated.

“I know that there’s a part of me so in love with death that I feel like I have already died and am looking at the living.”—Spalding Gray, 1976

It took some time for the dire circumstances surrounding Spalding Gray’s premature death to enter the public record, but time finally filled-out the final chapter of a brilliant life, lined with tragedy. Gray was last seen alive aboard the Staten Island Ferry, of which he apparently jumped. His fans were mostly shocked and confused. For many, Gray was the epitome of cultured, cultivated calm, the kind of person one might have assumed would be always graceful and resilient under any kind of pressure. But the truth fell well-short of that impossible standard.

The Journals of Spalding Gray document Gray’s graveyard spiral in painful, intimate detail, but there’s much more to it than that. Few public figures of his era were as open and honest about their history, their secrets, their feelings. Where other celebrities existed in a sealed bubble of hype and hagiography, armored-up inside characters created by their press agents, Spalding Gray walked the Earth virtually nude, intellectually and emotionally. It’s that quality that made him the greatest monologist of our time. He breathed life into a tired, stale format by bringing the audience directly into his mind, and his heart.

His Journals were published in 2011, presumably to coincide with what would have been Gray’s 70^th birthday. Editor Nell Casey sorted through boxes of material containing over 5,000 pages of text, hours of audio tapes and countless other related documents, then supplemented that by interviewing some two dozen of Gray’s friends, relatives, colleagues and collaborators. The book, which spans the years 1967-2004, is more than just a collection of journal entries; the editor has duly rendered the closest thing to a memoir there will ever be.

Its pages are laced with pathos and tragedy from almost the very start. He was never really, truly, totally happy with himself. The brilliant and beloved public figure we all admired from afar was, at his best, deeply neurotic and reckless, even by the standards on post-war New York City. At worst, he was a full-on sociopath whose exit was foretold by the man himself from very early on, as this book documents. Few people could even pretend to be comfortable with the level of intimacy Gray displayed throughout his career, and the journals take it even further. While he was apparently writing with the intent of future publication, one presumes he had no intention of ever living to see that day. (It’s kind of like the Nixon Tapes, in that sense.) Any future scholarship on him must take these “journals” as primary-source material.

Not unlike its author, the book is at their best in the 1970s. The early entries burst with fresh-eyed optimism, sometimes in spite of himself; one instantly hears that voice, a voice like none other. The early entries are breezy and pretentious, as one might expect. He writes like a poet in love for the first time—which, in a sense, he was. These were heady times. He spent a few days in a Vegas jail, and even appeared in two old-school porno flicks, “Little Orphan Dusty” and “The Farmer’s Daughter”, where he helped invent a now-common group-sex position known in porn as “the split-roast”. (He also cried on the set.)

Yet, the dualism is set early. On a trip to Mexico, he writes: “I think now that I want very much to live.” He was only 26. Upon returning home, his father told him a) that his mother had killed herself; and b) to go collect her ashes at the post office, allegedly. It’s impossible to conceive of the cataclysmic shock this moment must have been to him; his journals don’t even contain full, complete sentences for nearly a month afterwards—just fragments.

It’s fun reading the first-hand, real-time experiences of someone who played such an important role in the 1970s theatre scene in New York. The trope has been exhausted, but it’s still true: In this book, the city exists almost like a character in and of itself. For Gray, the city was where he escaped from a tumultuous youth; it was the place where he created the persona we now associate with him, and where he found the first in a series of women who served as muses, lovers and victims of his own self-destructive behaviors.

Elizabeth LeCompte was a writer, director and occasional actor in the same Wooster Group Gray helped found; she oversaw the development of his first monologues. Their love, slightly fictionalized, forms much of the plot of Gray’s only novel, the underrated Impossible Vacation, whose laborious composition is the subject of one of his best monologues, Monster In A Box. His years of peak professional success were also the years in which he did the least amount of journal-writing. Maybe the success helped satisfy something in him, making the ol’ existential hand-wringing less necessary in that period, or maybe he was just too busy. Either way, even in 1985, when his life was outwardly perfect, he was writing: “If I continue being who I am now, I see disaster written on the walls.”

Noted names float throughout the text: Laurie Anderson, Eric Bogosian, Annie Liebowitz, Craig T. Nelson, Steven Soderberg, Sam Watterston. For years, he shared an apartment with LeCompte, his first great love and herself a pivotal figure in that scene; they continued to share it even after splitting. She had a child with Willem DaFoe, who moved in, and Gray moved on to Renee Shafransky, who exists in a sort of parallel world as a character in his best-known works; she is the only one of his great loves who did not participate in this book, for reasons pretty easily guessed after reading it.

Kathie Russo (who was exceptionally brave to have permitted this portrayal of her, which is not often that complimentary) would become his widow, the mother of his children, the driver of the car in which they almost died, through no fault of her own. She tamed Spalding Gray, got him domesticated and primed for what should have been the next 30 years of their lives together. Instead, they only got a decade.

They were in Ireland on late-June, 2001, on a vacation he was reluctant to take (in part because their host had died a month earlier), in the back-seat of a rental-car without his seat-belt. “Gray fractured his hip, which would leave him with a drop foot, a limp on his right side, and permanently in need of a leg brace in order to walk,” Casey writes; “he also suffered an orbital fracture … Later, in surgery, hundreds of shards of bone were found lodged in his brain. Russo, meanwhile, got fifteen stitches in the back of her head where Gray had hit her with his own head as he flew forward in the accident.” Everyone else walked away.

And then 9/11 happened, and the city where he had the greatest moments of happiness in his life was deluged with negative energy. A man who’d spent his entire life trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) not to think too much about death had, within just three months, had the subject forced into the forefront of every aspect of his personal and professional life. Gray was physically broken and in constant pain, mentally distressed and traumatized, and struggling to cope with the impact of an ill-advised move into a new community and a home that was a money-pit, all while his output was slipping. As the dust-clouds floated up and away from Ground Zero, the shadows rolled in on his soul.

In the last 19 months of Gray’s life, he spent parts of at least six of them in mental-health facilities. He was given prescriptions for drugs including Aventyl, Celexa, Lamictal, Neurontin and Zyprexa. He also received approximately 21 electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) “treatments”, despite concerns over giving such treatments to a man with a metal plate covering his brain. The ECT treatments occurred in 2002: Gray had committed himself, but he, his family and friends (and at least one trained neuropath) had begun requesting his release after six weeks. The hospital refused, keeping him for three more months, during which time the ECT happened. By the time he was released, he had less than a year to live.

In November 2001, two years before he died, he wrote: “I’m a dead man. A ghost.” It’s remarkable to read the moments of lucidity and focus in his journals in the final years and recall that, no matter what, he kept working. Despite a six-hour operation to insert a titanium plate into his forehead, Gray was back on-stage within ten weeks of the accident; his last performance, at PS 122, was about a month before his death, which was apparently incited in part by watching the movie “Big Fish”. The journals document how hard he tried just to maintain, but much like his mother a quarter-century earlier, the conclusion was foregone. It was an act of will.

As a fan, someone who once sought out VHS copies of “Swimming To Cambodia” and “Monster In a Box” as was entranced by the man’s abilities, the experience of reading Gray’s own account of his last days was just heart-breaking. Casey’s additions are indispensable at this point; reconstructing the circumstances of the car accident, the awful extent of his injuries and his final descent into total madness, dissolution and death was, as with the book in general, an impressive display of journalistic skill. The whole situation never made sense to me until I read this book, and got the story from Spalding Gray himself.

His confessional style may have evolved as it so often does, in response to his repressed conservative upbringing, in particular by seeing how his mother suffered and eventually perished under those conditions. Many of the unique and now-legendary personalities to coalesce in New York’s performance-art scene of his era wrestled with similar issues, and slipped those surly old bonds. But he never quite slipped them fully, no matter how far he went.

 

sheltonhull@gmail.com; February 28, 2012

Top Billin’: Sonny Rollins booked for 2012 Jacksonville Jazz Festival.

Mayor Alvin Brown was the star at a press conference held Thursday morning, Feb. 9, to formally announce the 2012 Jacksonville Jazz Festival, which will be held downtown May 24-27. The big news coming out can be summed-up in just two words: “Sonny Rollins”. Jazz fans will need no further embellishment, but for the uninitiated (and becoming a hard-core jazz fan is kind of like an initiation): With the sole exception of Dave Brubeck, Rollins is the world’s greatest living jazz musician, a man whose influence permeates almost the totality of the music in the 60+ years since he first made his name in post-bop New York.

One must note, also, the presence of two other masters among a lineup that is still being finalized: Chick Corea and Terence Blanchard. But the booking of Rollins, who at age 82 does not play concerts that often anymore, and rarely outside the areas more epicentric to the music, is a major coup of historic proportions. He is probably the most important musician to work our festival since those peak years when Dizzy Gillespie headlined multiple festivals toward the end of his life. But that was the ‘80s—a whole different world. The idea of Sonny Rollins appearing in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012 will, for some, be interpreted as a sign of imminent apocalypse; a heavy cynic might wonder if the world is destined to end the day before.

By attaching his name to the festival, Brown does it a service by basically making the festival brand symbiotic with his own. This is a great move, for his own interests, and it also puts a bit of pressure on him to make sure the festival’s long-term momentum is maintained. There were deep initial concerns about its very future coming into this year. Funding for Office of Special Events (which also oversees things like the World of Nations festival and Veterans Day parade) had been in some jeopardy during the last few years of budget battles; while truly significant cuts were not made, the specter of such cuts—and their disastrous effect on the city’s cultural identity—was often invoked by the Peyton administration in its later years.

Those fears, stoked by Peyton, caught fire soon after Brown succeeded him. Those now-infamous staff cuts last year hit the OSE hard, resulting in the elimination of its two top people. Theresa O’Donnell-Price and Christina Langston-Hughes were two of the unsung heroes of city government in the first decade of this century, skillfully implementing the mayor’s mandate to restore the vitality of a festival that had seen better days. Last year’s festival turned out to be their last at the OSE and, headlined by Herbie Hancock and Roy Ayers, one of the best ever. But Brown, at that point less than a month in as Mayor-Elect, was on vacation at the time, so he missed seeing what they could actually do—and within a few months, they were shown the door as unceremoniously as everyone else.

Losing them both, simultaneously, was the biggest blow to the festival as an institution since the scandalous staff cuts at WJCT that led directly to the collapse of the festival under its direction in the late-‘90s. It was a dark day for local jazz fans, that’s for sure, and anxiety about the future has only built-up since. Initial buzz on the 2012 festival has already gone a long way toward assuaging many of these concerns, but more can be done. In a nutshell, there should be a heavy representation of local artists at the festival, the businesses of the Urban Core need to be better-integrated into the overall experience, and the City should take the lead in establishing an even stronger presence for the festival in media, both in terms of social media, as well as trying to strengthen relationships with local and national media.

After WJCT basically washed their hands of the logistics, and the country caught its first taste of the post-9/11 economic instability, it was a gamble to invest public money in the Jazz Festival. (Bear in mind, there are people who oppose its public funding even now, despite the overwhelming evidence of disproportionate upside, in terms of economic impact. If all public monies could generate such direct and visceral return on investment, the whole world would be different right now.) But Peyton did it anyway, in early signs that he was far more moderate than he ever got credit for, and I think we can all agree that the gamble paid off.

It’s entirely likely that, had anyone else become mayor in 2003, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival would have never survived into the 21^st century—the third century of jazz music, which was born in Storyville, New Orleans, in the late 1800s. For this, Peyton will surely someday join Jake Godbold among former mayors enshrined in the festival’s Hall of Fame. At this rate, Brown may end up there, too. He’s got a real gift for the kind of retail politics that work so well in the south, and initiatives like this put those skills out-front.

Having written more about the festival’s modern incarnation than any other reporter (if not all of them, combined), I can say that he’s done the two things I’ve always recommended the political leadership do: 1) Take advantage of the festival’s ability to bridge gaps among citizens, and 2) Bring Sonny Rollins to town. It will be curious to see if the national jazz media gives the festival a bit more hype now; we’ll see about that.

Interview: Kathleen Hanna

[The piece below is for Folio–runs Tuesday. But, since Ms. Hanna’s birthday is today, it made sense to preview it now, for the one-half of one-millionth of the world who actually checks this thing out–and thanks, by the way. I should also note that the section of downtown Jacksonville with MOCA and the newest Main Branch library are the best investments made in local public infrastructure in the past decade, a decade with many nice moves made.

The library’s music section is probably the best in Florida, in part because the collection is old, and in part because their acquisitions game is tighter than the Carlyle Group. The record collection alone was worth perhaps $100,000 before it was sold off piecemeal; WJCT did the same thing, and the cognoscenti worldwide sez “Thanks!” The zine collection is the most recent addition, and it touches on an aspect of regional culture crucial to its current leviathan status.

And next time you’re in Gainesville, make sure your visit includes a) the Butterfly Museum, b) Hear Again Music, and c) the legendary Civic Media Center, of which I could never say enough. Etc. and so forth, here ya go.]

Leader of the Pack
Kathleen Hanna on zines and scenes and feminist things.2011 Zine Symposium
“Zines: The Personal Is Political”
Jacksonville Public Library, Hicks Auditorium
Panel Discussion, 11am; Keynote Presentation, noon
Back when people wrote actual letters, I sent one to Kathleen Hanna, former singer for Bikini Kill, whose three imperfectly perfect albums in the ’90s set a sonic standard whose emulators have dominated the 21st century. Between her sound and their fury, Hanna (who turns 42 on the 12th) helped establish the continuity that ensured “girl singers” could do what they want, however they want to do it. What was next? I wondered. She sent back a package with some of the zines she was doing then; soon, Julie Ruin emerged, followed by Le Tigre. The original Rebel Girl is now an established veteran of all aspects of media, and one of the most influential women of her generation. She’s recorded eight albums since 1991, three EPs, seven singles featured on nine different compilation albums and, most tellingly, appeared on 17 different albums by other artists. She’s also the subject of two documentary features: The Punk Singer and Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre On Tour. (And, of course, her cameo in the video for “Bull In the Heather”!)

Hanna’s first visit here comes this Saturday, November 19, by invitation of the Jacksonville Public Library, where she’ll sit on a panel convened by curators of the library’s game-changing zine collection. Panelists include author, musician and FSCJ art professor Mark Creegan; artist/author Adee Roberson (http://www.pineappleblack.blogspot.com–very nice!); zine writer Travis Fristoe (whose credits include Maximum RocknRoll, Library Journal and Gainesville’s legendary Civic Media Center); and myself, a big fan of all their work. Hanna will then deliver the keynote address for the 2011 Zine Symposium. For adepts and adherents of the art form, this cannot be missed. Folio caught up with the ever-busy Hanna via Internets:

FW: Did the Internet kill the ‘zine trade, or somehow make it better?
KH: I think the internet gave certain obscure zines a place in the modern landscape they never would’ve had without it. Having said that, it is annoying to me when people buy older zines and then scan them and put some pages up on the internet without the author’s permission. They lose their original context that way, and often zines that were written in a specific time and place come off as overarching and ahistorical when, really, they were responding to specific things that were going on in local scenes at the time. Zines kind of were our blogs before blogs existed; they were meant to be quick and rough and
local and not overworked.If we wanted to write books, that were more permanent, we would’ve, but we didn’t. They were meant to be ephemeral and function in a specific time period.

FW: Have you ever worked with the Future of Music Coalition(futureofmusic.org)?
KH: I know Jenny and Kristin but I’ve never worked with FMC. [Note: Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson co-founded the band Tsunami.] They were, I believe both at the first Riot Grrrl meeting and were verysupportive and involved early on. I went to Junior High with Jenny Toomey.

FW: What are your thoughts on Occupy Wall Street? [Note: OccupyJax has
been in Hemming Plaza since Nov. 5]

KH: I think it’s great. I am pretty inspired by what young people do in general (not like it’s all young people, but it seems like quite a few young people were the instigators). It is interesting to me when people criticized it in the beginning, claiming it was all young, middle class people, and I was like “They are the ones who can manage to physically be down there sleeping on the bricks, and so they are, and that’s awesome, not a bummer!”FW: How do you feel about the “SlutWalk” trend?
KH: I am always happy when women are taking it to the streets and starting discussions.FW: What are your thoughts on the late Slits singer Ari Up?
KH: She was an innovator and I can’t believe she is gone. We lost her and Poly [Styrene] in a 2 year time period [note: both to cancer] and I think many of us are still reeling from this.

FW: Tell me about Lydia Lunch?
KH: LOOOVE HER. There are many spots on the album I am working on with my new band The Julie Ruin where my vocals are totally influenced by her style. She has influenced culture on such a deep level and never really been given her due.

FW: Is it possible for women to take positions that contradict the larger feminist community, while retaining feminist credentials? What must she say or do to be “expelled” from the movement?
KH: There are so many different ways to enact one’s own feminist ideas that it is pretty hard to come up with a unified list of feminist do’s and don’ts, and I personally hate that way of thinking. I am way more into allowing women to define feminism for themselves and keep on stretching its meanings. More arguments, more questions, more disagreements, this is what leads to a vital movement, not lists and rules.

FW: What’s it like seeing yourself on film?
KH: Um. Weird and embarrassing pretty much sums it up, but I have a distance from it now. After Who Took the Bomp? came out, I started being filmed for an upcoming documentary called The Punk Singer and my main thing is that I don’t really care if I come off like a jerk. I just want the movie to be engaging so people will go off on their own and check out my work and the stuff me and my bandmates made together.  I mean, on one hand I have a huge ego and love attention and all that, that’s why I’m a performer, but on the other hand I don’t take any of it too seriously, cuz I really am just an ant on anthill like everyone
else and my time here on earth is finite.

FW: Which of your recordings stands out as most representative of your aesthetic?
KH: I am most proud of the Rebel Girl 7″ Bikini Kill did and the first Le Tigre album. The song “Hot Topic” on that album is very much indicative of my aesthetic. Poppy yet still DIY with a big nod to the past.

FW: Who are the “Riot Grrrls” of today?
KH: Brontez Purnell of The Younger Lovers is my favorite modern riot girl. Also the women who run the website http://www.girlgangunderground.org/.

FW: Why have you never appeared in Jacksonville before?
KH: I don’t really know why, it was always hard to book stuff in Florida for some reason. Le Tigre played in Gainesville and Miami, but BK never played Florida at all.

jplzinelibrary.wordpress.com
jaxpubliclibrary.orgsheltonhull@gmail.com; November 7, 2011

DVD Review: Martha Argerich/Mischa Maisky

Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky—Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/Neeme Jarvi (Accentus Music)

The world’s greatest living classical pianist, Martha Argerich, celebrated her 70^th birthday this June 5, and having beaten cancer years ago, she shows no sign that age has caught up with her. In fact, age can barely see her at all, she’s so far ahead, and that has always a trait common to her creative endeavors. After studying with the famed teacher and performer Friedrich Gulda (who made some daring forays into the jazz world decades ago that have aged quite well themselves), Argerich made a cannonball splash into the public eye with an award-winning recitals at Geneva and Bolzano in 1957, then Warsaw in 1965 and the ripples she made have continued rolling into the 21^st century.

To commemorate the occasion, Accentus Music has released a DVD of a concert recorded in Switzerland on February 9-10. She is joined by longtime collaborator Mischa Maisky (born 1948), quite arguably the world’s greatest living cellist; they are backed by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (founded 1806), with guest conductor Neeme Jarvi (born 1937), for a program that mixes old and new with seamless precision.

For the last 30 years, Argerich the musician has existed in two distinct yet still mostly overlapping forms—as the grand dame doyenne of the 88 keys in our modern world, and also as a major facilitator of the musical arts in multiple countries. In a sense, she could be considered somewhat analogous to women like Marian McPartland, Cosima Wagner or even Pannonica de Koenigswarter or Lorraine Gordon, all of whom played a role in developing the most important music of the past 100 years; Argerich is herself a beneficiary of their contributions. She has provided instruction, encouragement and her money to three generations of classical musicians, in addition to the priceless benefits of association with her name, whether in collaboration with Argerich or in conjunction with the various events she is associated with. Argerich serves as president of the International Piano Academy Lake Como, which offers top-shelf training for seven selected pianists per year, and as General Director of the Argerich Music Festival and Encounter in Beppu, Japan, which she founded 15 years ago. Her annual performances at the Lugano Festival are always noteworthy for the new talent she collaborates with.

Argerich has also proven a boon to the more non-musical aspects of the industry, especially in terms of recording. Whether done in-studio or live on-stage, the unique technical challenges involved in getting good sound from a classical session have helped lead the charge in the evolution of recording technology, particularly as it relates to a) the development of stereo sound on the records, and b) the structural features of the records themselves, as the industry moved from 78s to LPs to compact disc and beyond. The jazz world was doing similar work simultaneously, and the resulting methods were applied to other genres, thus making possible the extraordinary, world-changing sonic revolution wrought by rock and roll, R&B and soul.

A free agent from day one, Argerich has recorded for almost every major classical label, and many of the minor ones; only RCA-Victor andColumbiasomehow missed the boat. While it is unclear if the effect was deliberate, but she remains a top seller for all those labels, generating revenue that has allowed those labels to produce more music in an industry where most new albums sell a few thousand copies at best. Some of this material might not have been possible without those few extra dollars—what I like to call “the Norah Jones Effect” (as demonstrated with the resurgence of Blue Note Records). In this manner, countless artists have further profited from their connection to her.

In the case of Accentus, a fairly new label based out ofLeipzig,Germanywith only about ten DVDs out so far, the release of an Argerich disc is crucial to a strong start for the company. While they also carry discs by heavyweights like Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Ricardo Chailly, Joshua Bell, Pierre Boulez and Evgeny Kissin (some of which are previewed on this disc), there is only one Martha Argerich—no one sells like her, and it’s possible that no one ever will again.

While barely out of girlhood, Martha Argerich dove headlong into a classical music world that was then still populated with the giants of 20^th century music. Leading orchestras were being conducted by the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Arturo Toscanini, Herbert von Karajan and others. The piano world was dominated by titans like Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter. New stars were coming along like Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, Mitsuko Uchida, Van Cliburn and Earl Wild. She was, without question, one of the most beautiful women in the world then, but looks alone were not enough. The fact that she was so successful and so widely acclaimed amidst such a tough crowd attests to her skill, in particular her singular facility with the music of Frederic Chopin.

In my opinion (which is shared by others with infinitely more credibility than I), Martha Argerich is the greatest interpreter of Chopin’s music for solo piano than anyone since the composer himself. That fact will be the foundation of her legacy, but there is much more to her than that; she also reaped a mighty harvest from the seeds sown by the Russians Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, whose works were mainly popularized by Richter and Horowitz. She has worked effectively in everything from solos and chamber groups to symphony orchestras, and is among the most-recorded artists of the past 50 years.

As one might expect, Argerich and the camera get along nicely. Once notorious for canceling concerts, she has been filmed in performance almost every time she actually performs. Every phase of her career has been thoroughly-documented, and in recent years she’s been the subject of several excellent documentaries. She bears much responsibility for the very existence of a “classical video” market; most companies involved with such material have their own Argerich material available.

The DVD reiterates its star’s diverse interests and wide-ranging capabilities. The programme, which runs nearly two hours total, includes pieces by Antonin Dvorak, Cesar Franck and Dmitri Shostakovich. But the concert’s centerpiece is the world premiere of Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin’s “Romantic Offering”, a piece commissioned and written for these specific performers; he had previously written a piece for Maisky’s 60^th birthday, in 2008.

The orchestra begins the set alone, without the featured soloists, sauntering through Dvorak’s “Scherzo capriccioso in D flat Major, Op. 66”. Argerich and Maisky then arrive together—with the latter wearing an incredibly shiny, puffy silver-grey shirt—to begin the Shchedrin piece, which runs about half an hour.

“Romantic Offering” opens in a moderate, ruminative vein, with the soloists working through the piece in public for the first time, before plunging into a sprightly second movement; Argerich’s mastery of the keyboard’s high-end is on display, as Maisky bows like a Muay Thai fighter, with his wild, wooly white hair flying around like he’s playing speed metal—and perhaps he is, in a sense. Talk about aging gracefully! It appears that neither he nor Argerich have lost a step. The horns strike a chord that pushes the reset button, before the whole orchestra jumps in, Argerich leading the way. Thrilling stuff, and probably the DVD’s highest point. The third movement meanders, aiming for a mood that isn’t quite evoked; hard to say whether the composition falters here, or if the band doesn’t quite mesh as well as in the previous movement. My guess is the former.

Following a round of applause and flowers presented, the principals (Argerich, Maisky, Jarvi and Shchedrin) exit stage right, returning for a brief curtain call. The bits of backstage interaction are always fun to see, in part because one sees so little of it. After a break (either an intermission, or more likely a cut to footage from the second concert), the group returns to play “Sonata for cello and piano in A Major” by Cesar Franck. To my ears, it sounds almost like Gershwin in parts, if not Aaron Copland.

The set concludes with the infamously splendid “Symphony No. 9 in E flat Major, Op. 70” by another Russian, Dmitri Shostakovich. The piece was written in celebration of the Russian victory in World War II, but was apparently suppressed because the music was deemed too happy for the solemn occasion—typical Soviet-era wrongheadedness. It’s a delightful piece of music, and the orchestra is at their best working these playful melodies and martial rhythms; Argerich and Maisky are not present. The woodwinds get to shine here, with a bespectacled lady oboist the star of the first movement.

Seizing on the expanded capabilities afforded by the format, the DVD also includes about 20 minutes of bonus documentary footage featuring Argerich, Maisky and Shchedrin. Entitled “Behind the Scenes At a World Premiere”, it’s an interesting look at a side of the business rarely visible to outsiders, and a nice way to wrap up a performance. It appears that Argerich’s golden years might be downright platinum.

sheltonhull@gmail.com; July 21, 2011

SDH 2011 Election Picks–Jacksonville

Some constituents have inquired as to my picks in this, perhaps the most important round of local elections in a generation. (It’s also an intermediate phase in a cycle leading to the epochal elections of 2012.) I generally try not to make any final decisions until the exact moment I cast my vote, but I have a pretty good idea. None of this is meant necessarily as an endorsement of anyone, nor a knock on any of their opponents; it’s just a statement of one person’s choices. As always, the voter has a responsibility to research the candidates and the issues, all of them, and show up at the polls to make an informed decision based on their own values and vision for the city.

Overview: All 19 City Council seats were up for grabs this year—the 14 regular districts, as well as the five At-Large districts—with 54 candidates on the ballot. Of those 19, only seven (in dist. 5, 12, 13 & 14, at-large groups 1, 4 & 5) were entirely open seats, with no incumbent in the race. Five seats are held by incumbents that had no opposition at all. Amazingly, TEN (including dist. 14) have no Democratic candidate at all.

(Democrats, note that the voters in ten council districts will go to the polls Tuesday without a single Democrat to choose from. It’s like that party made an early decision to fold under the intense pressure of an energized conservative base. They chose not to run their own candidates for several seats, then withheld financial and tactical support from some of those Dems who tried to run, forcing them to withdraw, and they’ve refused to engage NPA candidates like myself who side with them of most of the key issues. I’ve long described the Democrats as a party that loses elections on purpose, and their piss-poor performance statewide over the last six months proves that I was not joking.)

[Note: Asterisks denote those contests in which I, as a resident of District 14, am actually able to vote for this year.]

*Mayor: This is the one category in which my personal choice remains a secret, for several reasons. As a potential member of the council, I don’t want to put myself in the awkward position of having to deal with someone I openly opposed; likewise, I don’t want to have to publicly oppose a mayor I endorsed previously. It’s standard practice in Jacksonville that, if you’re backing a losing candidate, expect payback. This year seems especially contentious, with the Moran-Mullaney-Hogan Tea Party troika being openly hostile to each other and barely able to conceal their mutual distaste.

Alvin Brown is pretty cool. If he were living anywhere other than Jacksonville, he’d be about to win this thing outright. Instead, odds are decent he may not make the runoff. His biggest problem is that many people in his own party do not like him. The question of whether Jacksonville is ready for a black mayor (or a woman, for that matter) remains an open one. He brought tons of top-shelf talent here on his behalf: Michael Eric Dyson, Corrine Brown, Bill Clinton, professional loser Al Gore. Yet he trailed in fundraising from the get-go, then became subject to a whispering campaign from local Democrats implying he “couldn’t win”. Classic example of action being invoked in words; open falsehoods spoken early turned to fact through repetition

The GOP had no obvious role in this, but Audrey Moran becomes the beneficiary of many votes opposed to conservatives Mike Hogan and Rick Mullaney. One thing Audrey has going for her is that she’s had considerable experience in dealing with crazy people. The next mayor will be confronted with crazy choices and hopeless debacles that will drain their passion for the job fast. It will be a challenge for any of them to actually enjoy the job for any length of time. They will likely serve one term and run screaming off into the woods, or jump on a plane and go somewhere they don’t speak English. And one can only imagine what could possibly follow that.

Sheriff: John Rutherford has been much-maligned during his eight years running JSO, but it’s hardly all his fault. Still, I’ll be voting for Ken Jefferson. As the department’s former Public Information Officer, he has the communications skills needed to explain the often incomprehensible behavior of our constabulary. As an African-American with his own ‘hood credentials, Jefferson has the “street-cred” to speak to that segment of our community that needs “straight talk” more than any other: young men. He can also help mediate the tensions related to the pension situation.

Politicians have given them an impossible task of enforcing an endless array of stupid, business-killing, liberty-thwarting laws (including a Drug War that has ruined millions of lives and only made drug abuse worse than ever) while their funding was first stalled-out, then cut. Older cops are cutting out early, leaving newbies under-prepared for real-world situations—hence, the glut of police-involved shootings, rarely the work of veteran officers. And now, it’s become clear that, despite the biggest economic boom in US history, cities all over America consistently failed to adequately pay into the police and fire pensions. The poisonous effect this revelation has had on the working relationship between first-responders and civilian government has spread like wildfire.

*Property Appraiser: Kurt Kraft.

*Tax Collector: Michael Corrigan is the outgoing (term-limited) councilman for Dist. 14, and by most accounts he’s done a fine job. While I voted for his challenger, Jim Minion, in 2007, he gets my vote for Tax Collector. This position may prove as powerful as the Mayor’s over the next four years. One possible way to fight back against Tallahassee’s ridiculous mandates is to perhaps withhold our property tax revenues from them, or even set the millage rate so low one year that the payout is next to nothing.

*Supervisor of Elections: Jerry Holland runs unopposed. Having been a candidate myself for some five months, I can attest that all my dealings with his office have been smooth and efficient. Beth Fleet, Lana Self and Justin Giacone, along with their colleagues, have restored a lot of credibility for an office whose reputation was taking serious (sometimes unfounded) hits under the late John Stafford a decade ago. No incumbent should ever run unopposed, ideally.

City Council District 1: Clay Yarbrough draws a lot of heat for his conservative views, but he’s also the youngest member of the council. Lindsey Brock may be a little more moderate, but poor Darryl Fleming is being outspent twenty-to-one. It’s one of the many cases of how the local Democratic Party has routinely failed to support the candidates running on their behalf. Alvin Brown’s a good example.

 City Council District 2: Bill Bishop

City Council District 3: Richard Clark is being challenged by Mario Rubio, and the difference between them on policy is negligible. Generally-speaking, it’s best for a community to reelect their incumbent, unless he’s a total failure (which Clark certainly is not). There is some advantage to seniority. (Note: If Clark wins, look for him to challenge the next mayor in 2015, especially if it’s Audrey Moran.)

City Council District 4: Don Redman runs unopposed, which is maybe the most shocking thing about this election (other than the likely abysmal turnout and almost nonexistent media coverage of the council races). His district includes much of the downtown bar and club scene, which have been done few favors under his watch. For all we’ve heard about his FBC connections and presumed opposition to culture in general, it’s unthinkable that Democrats could not find a single person to even mount a token challenge. Of course, this dynamic reinforces Dist. 14 as the default point-man for arts and culture, and makes my own candidacy all the more appealing—I hope!

City Council District 5: The guy I was supporting, Derek Washington, dropped out for lack of funds. (After all, why would Democrats write checks to the only Dem running against four Republicans?) Lori Boyer’s way ahead on fundraising, which basically means she’ll win. But one of her opponents is named Jack Daniels, so that may cost her some votes from the whisky-drinking community.

City Council District 6: Incumbent Jack Webb has raised more money than both his opponents (also Republicans) combined, but that might not help him. He came off really badly arguing about yard signs on TV. I disagree with some of his positions, but there’s really no difference between the three. Again, keeping the incumbent benefits the district, so it’s hard to argue against him.

City Council District 7: Johnny Gaffney’s a good guy and a skilled public servant, but I think Mark McCullough brings a youthful energy to the job that will be necessary. Those representing mostly urban districts, particularly on the eastside and northwest quadrant, will face unique challenges. Their districts are already in crisis, and things are about to get much, much worse. The fact that so many council-folk representing those districts (all of whom are nice enough) had no opposition in such a crucial year speaks to why these areas basically have no say on policy and no control over its own destiny.

City Council District 8: E. Denise Lee runs unopposed.

City Council District 9: Warren Jones runs unopposed.

City Council District 10: Reginald Brown runs unopposed.

City Council District 11: Ray Holt

City Council District 12: Dist. 12 shares a border with Dist. 14, which is worth considering. Doyle Carter (R) has a huge fundraising lead, out-raising both Joe Andrews (R) and Jim Davis (R) by a four-to-one margin. But Davis really impressed me with his work at the League of Women Voters forum, and since they’re all basically do the same thing, I vote Davis on style points, just ahead of the Carter.

City Council District 13: Vanessa Williams. When in doubt, vote for a woman.

*City Council District 14: I’ll be voting for myself (NPA), of course. But the five other candidates—Kendal Bryan (R), Jill Dame (R), Jim Love (R), Henry Mooneyham (R) and Greg Rachal (R)—are all solid citizens, any of whom would probably do just fine if they won. District 14 is a lot more self-sustaining than others, which takes a lot of pressure off whoever is doing the job. Any pick would be a good one.

My concern here, as with many of the other quality candidates seeking office this year, is whether they’ll be willing or able to stand firm against the seemingly unstoppable push for austerity being driven by Tallahassee. The pressure that will come down on office-holders to compromise for efficacy’s sake may prove irresistible. My plan is to simply vote against any such cuts, while coordinating public resistance to them. It remains to be seen how they will fare with people screaming at them, violently angry at the council for making moves that will destroy people’s lives.

*City Council At-Large Group 1: Kimberly Daniels has gotten tons of heat lately from liberals who forget that her main opponent, David Taylor, is a solid conservative who, with a three-to-one cash flow advantage, will likely win.

*City Council At-Large Group 2: Tom Patton’s media background should serve him well in a job that is ultimately about communication. He’s running to unseat incumbent John Crescimbeni, whose biggest obstacle is that he’s a Democrat at a time when Dems just aren’t being elected by voters.

*City Council At-Large Group 3: Steven Joost runs unopposed.

*City Council At-Large Group 4: Juan Diaz is maybe the most exciting new candidate to emerge this year, and he’s an easy pick in my view. His opponents include Greg Anderson and Jim Robinson; all are solid Republicans with fiscal conservative cred, but Diaz can be a really effective salesman for the city, and we need more of that.

*City Council At-Large Group 5: Voting for Michelle Tappouni. This is another one of those races boasting several strong candidates. Don Foy’s work with MAD DADS was very important for addressing the crime issue, but he’s running NPA against five solid Republicans. Sean Hall’s quite capable, too, but he lost me on the car thing. The issue with Tappouni, as with other female candidates running this year, is how will they respond to being bullied by political opposition as the heavy action gets going this summer. Latent misogyny in America’s political system has become more of a factor as women advance to higher levels in the power structure.

Money Jungle: Alan Justiss (1943-2011)

[It took the death of my friend, colleague and long-time mentor Charles Alan Justiss to occasion the return of the “Money Jungle”, the creative cultivation of which he helped oversee way back in  the fall of 1999. This is just one of the many tributes offered to the old man, who had a lot of love to give, since his death on Valentines Day; there will be more stuff coming out in Folio Weekly, Ink19 and the web, in general. Certainly, amid the crush of activity that has commenced this year, I will find time to expand further on the thoughts collected below, but this is a preview of next week’s column.]

Space-Age, Near Dust

The light is out on the 17^th floor on Lomax Street, at the retirement community Alan Justiss called home at the end of his life. That light has burned out, and it will shine no more. The light, like the man, was a beacon for people seeking the kind of real talk that is getting harder and harder to find anymore. No more late-night phone-calls with the smell of beer and cigarettes and wet typewriter ink digitized and dispersed by satellites into time and space, where scholars in distant galaxies transcribe them now.

The greatest writer our city ever produced will spend eternity nestled in a pine box in the pauper’s field, maybe with a marker or a mention and some care to his last intention. His overworked Underhill went underground, laid across a chest clothed cheaper than the baby Jesus, his hands clasped across corroding keys in propriety and prayer. His entire body gave out slowly, over the course of 20 years, but you see those hands and you know that serious work was done.

Ten fingers, carpals coiled like copper wires, fused to arms that did old-school labor, did the work of a thousand Angels, to pull thousands of men and women closed to the light, whether we wanted to or not. Ten fingers, ten pages done daily, every day, at minimum, since JFK was POTUS—and what did you do for your country today? What did any of us do? What will we do now that he is not there to point out our mistakes before they have been made? We will make those mistakes.

He would have been a great judge or politician, but he just could not stop telling people the truth. It’s a sad fact of life that we all ask questions whose truthful answers could not be handled. The smart money lies in spin and subterfuge, obfuscations oscillating like sub-atomic particles around a nucleus of truth—or, as AJ would say, “the exegesis”. He was always mindful of the need not to waste time on feathery language. You have a certain amount of space, so maximize it—provide the relevant data and make the reading smooth and enjoyable for the customer. Every word, every space, every punctuation, even the white space around the words matters.

He was found dead in his bed, one more Riverside sunrise burnt out into day, on my birthday, Valentine’s Day. It was the best- and worst-ever at once. The man was built of some material that does not exist anymore. He was literally about to die just a month ago—he held court at St. Vincent’s, making plans, then suddenly the Angel of Death got a contract gig in Egypt, and he was fine again, briefly.

Even after years of hoarding a wildly disproportionate share of every conceivable earthly delight, it took old age, bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, cancer, malnutrition, congestive heart disease, the aftereffects of having a lung removed and the immobility of a broken hip suffered in a vicious mugging years ago combined to kill him—and even then, it took damn near a decade. It is unthinkable that anyone would be surprised, yet the better you knew him, the more surprising it was. Even God tweeted “WTF?”

The only thing harder than overstating Alan Justiss’ role in the cultural evolution of Northeast Florida over the last 40 years would be stating it precisely. It would take an entire issue of Folio just to hold the names of the people he’s impacted and influenced. I can only speak for myself. I read about him in Folio when I was in high-school, 17 years ago. I called him, and kept calling. I can hardly conceive of how vastly different my life would be had I not met him. Many of my closest friends and colleagues I met directly or indirectly through him. Many others I’d not heard from in years, until just a few days ago. It is very much the end of an era.

We hope the power of his work persists, and that future generations can reap an approximation of the benefits we enjoyed from his life. The task of fully acquiring and arranging all those manuscripts is a likely logistical nightmare, neverminding the need to digitize it all so it’s available for further printings. But such matters are best-reserved for a later time. Right now, the flags of our city should be flying at half-staff, if not also upside-down. What we have lost cannot be regained, only recapitulated. RIP

 sheltonhull@gmail.com; February 17, 2011

SDH2011 Update: “Money Jungle” on hiatus, City Council campaign in full effect!

Courtesy Tom Pennington

Just wanted to make some quick notes here on the blog, explaining the exceptional length (even by my standards) between postings. I don’t blog nearly as much as I probably should–never have, never will unless ordered to by an employer, which apparently happens now.  There’s been a lot going on the last six months, events that have gone generally untouched here. Let’s touch briefly on them:

1) Writing, or lack thereof: I’ve not written a “Money Jungle” column for Folio since July, following the columns done about the “Gusher In the Gulf”. Some folks in the distribution area have asked, so I feel obliged to clarify all this. After a year in which the column appeared intermittently, every other week at best, resulting from the larger financial rut that’s hit the industry, I chose simply to stop writing it for now rather than see a diminishing of the brand-name I worked many years to cultivate. While I could probably write a book detailing my differences with various aspects of how that paper was run in recent years (in particular its self-negating approach to the challenges raised by digital meda, the cost of which is impossible to overstate), I have no problems with Folio and look forward to doing more writing for them (and other outlets) as the years proceed. It remains essential reading for Florida affairs.

However, writing is a career, and if the money’s not right, a professional just can’t function at the level that is needed to succeed in this highly competitive industry. I’ve made countless contacts over 15 years in this business and sent out hundreds of resumes, while making thousands of pitches to newspapers, magazines and websites all over America and the world. For years, the issue was that my political views were too controversial, and my profile too obscure, for commercial media to take a risk on, so the private conversations we’ve all been having over the past decade were mostly embargoed from mainstream audiences. We’re all paying a catastrophic price for the failures of a few–in the industry and around the world.

Now that much of what the column was designed to warn people about has come to pass, and now that I’m starting to become slightly better-known, the issue is a simple lack of funds to hire new people. Commercial media is mostly in a defensive posture right now–it has been for a while, and will remain so for years to come. Every day is spent struggling to maintain dwindling circulation figures as the audience flocks toward newer, fresher media, unhindered by the stale orthodox thinking of a bygone time. The gatekeepers of tradition are clinging for dead life to an outmoded business model; but the architects of that model, who are now mostly long-gone, would have easily adapted to the new ways had that challenge been thrust upon them.

In recent years, culminating with the economic collapse that formally began in September 2008, the focus has shifted from preventing crises from developing in our country, to managing the crises that are now here. On this point we’ll skip the details, because they are all around you. Step one is addressing the lingering (and in some cases growing) anger, fear and uncertainty so many people are feeling now. It has already begun to manifest in more violence on our streets, more shocking outbursts of insanity that have left hundreds dead all over America, just this year alone. It’s hard to tell what’s more unstable: our economy, our politics or our planet itself. When you consider that they’re all pieces of the same puzzle, everyone’s fears are fully justified.

2) So, this brings me to the other point, the main line that brings the rest of this together: A few months ago I decided, after much consideration, to make my best effort to take my vision for this city/state/country out of the purely (or, mostly) theoretical realm and into the realm of practical application. To that end, I’ve entered the race for City Council District 14 in my hometown of Jacksonville, FL. As one of the city’s most well-known and influential residents, I feel driven to give back to the city that’s given me so much–so many friends, great memories, and base of experience that leaves me eminently qualified to do the job I’m now seeking.

I am just one of six people currently running for this office; they are all nice, talented people who (like thousands of others) can easily do the job if elected. However, I feel that I bring a base of unique talents to bear that will make me not only a great councilman, but also the best salesman the city could have at this time. While I have much more name recognition than any of my opponents, that doesn’t mean it will be easy; nor should it be.

The first step is to qualify for the ballot, which means tendering a check for $1,800 before high noon on Friday, January 14. We are at the beginning of a 0-to-60 mph push, a blistering, bruising three-week fundraising blitz that will decide whether this project will go any further.

At this writing, two months in, I’ve only raised a couple hundred dollars, while others have raised upwards of $30,000. The campaign finance rules are by far the shadiest part of this whole process. Campaign funding is basically money-laundering for the industries backing your campaign; they donate on the presumption that the candidate will perform according to their interests. But since I’m running a campaign rooted in the need to mitigate the destructive role of money in the process, it’s not surprising that our totals are falling short of expectations. But we’re working on fundraising ventures, and we’ve set up a PayPal account to make donating easier; we’ll install PayPal buttons here and on the Facebook pages soon.

If I win this election, I plan to restrict my journalistic activity to cultural matters–art, music, dance, film, food and such. I’ll do my best not to weigh in professionally on politics, though in that new capacity as a politician I’m sure there will be cause for comment here and there. As this campaign proceeds, I’ll continue to update this blog in the usual sporadic fashion. There will never be any shortage of material for any conscientious professional hack. Of course, given the nature of political discourse nowadays, this entry probably marks the semi-retirement of the writing style I’ve developed over the years. I’ll be just as curious as the rest of you to see what the new style looks like when it emerges, at some point in 2011.

As you know, I’ve got my usual personal Facebook page (maybe the best Facebook page ever, but who can say for sure?), but for legal and organizational reasons we’ve set up a “fan page” specifically for any and all matters related to “SDH 2011”. Whether you live in the district or not, I’d appreciate it if you clicked “like” on the page, told your friends, relatives and co-workers, and made yourself a part of this ongoing discussion about how Jacksonville can reclaim its status as “the Bold New City of the South”. You can find all my other contact info around this site, but here it is anyway: (904)309-1208; sheltonhull@gmail.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @SheltonHull.

Thank you very much, and have a Happy New Year!

SDH

PS: Let me point out, again, that the campaign does have a PayPal account. If you’d prefer to send a check, call or email me directly for the mailing address. We can accept donations from all US Citizens.

“Music In Motion: Kind of Blue@50″@5 Points Theatre, Sept. 30

[The fiscal year ends for most of the United States on Thursday, September 30, and it’s been a day widely predicted to augur calamity for our economy. That’s nothing new. America’s economy formally collapsed two years ago, on Sept. 28, 2008; it helped secure the election of Barack Obama and changed the way many Americans viewed the very fundamentals of our society. With a national “mid-term” election pending just over a month from now, the effects of that late September are bearing directly on conditions right now.

Writing now, four hours before the markets open, it’s looking like yet another high-caliber bullet has been dodged. Europe and Asia have done nothing special today, so there’s not likely to be a tidal wave of sudden defaults washing westward into America’s TV screens, which is good news. But no matter what, residents of Jacksonville are guaranteed at least two pieces of world-class entertainment that night. The film “Music In Motion: Kind of Blue@50” is being screened at the newly historic 5 Points Theatre at 6:30 that evening, followed by a performance by Jennifer Chase  and Arvid Smith at O’Brothers from 7-10pm. The two events are connected only by proximity–just a couple hundred feet, as Margaret Street terminates at the five-way stop, merging into Park Street–and the fact that I’ll be at both.

I’m expecting more overlap than that. Jennifer Chase is one of those people who really makes the city what it is, a seasoned veteran musician, poet, playwright and educator, currently teaching at FSCJ, and also a mother of some really cool kids. (I’d go so far as to say that Mikey Rocks and Chuck English would themselves like them if they ever met–which is entirely possible.) Her musical “Majigeen” was one of the seminal moments in the history of performance art in the state of Florida. She doesn’t play out as much, so her O’Brothers gig is a special treat. The venue–the best incarnation among countless businesses in that space–has been open for two or three years, maybe best-known for their epic bashes for Cinco De Mayo and especially St. Patrick’s Day. I really enjoyed seeing the bluegrass trio called Grandpa’s Cough Medicine there about a week ago.

Preceding that is the movie, which is being presented by my friend Jimmy Saal and his wife, Dr. Felecia Snead; he’s an expat of note from what is now a resurgent New York jazz scene. Saal’s a writer and former editor in their excellent jazz press, and has carried those values on to his new homebase of Northeast Florida. Their Atypical Arts Presents is showing “Music In Motion: Kind of Blue@50” as the first in a four-part “Talk+Music” series.

They are bringing in the author Ashley Kahn, who’s had one of those careers any music fan would want to have. Since I’m reprinting the press release below, I don’t have to say much more, but note that I’ve read all of Kahn’s books, and can wholeheartedly recommend them all on their own merits. Now, if you’re specializing in the subjects he’s covering, the individual volumes are essential to proper study thereof. They are, in general, fine examples of solid, well-written, professional music journalism–adding some useful texture to extremely rough-hewn material. I’m sure Ron Chamblin’s got the hook-up.

It’s impossible to overstate the role played by Miles Davis in the evolution not only of American music, but also of the very functionality of the brain itself. The long-rumored Don Cheadle biopic is expected to add Oscar-worthy texture to one of the most complicated stories of “our” time. His album “Kind of Blue” was released in 1959, and remains one of the touchstones of music history; it has continued to sell through countless cycles of remastering and reissuing in every format available over all those years, even as the original release was a ground-breaking step forward in LP technology. In 2009, Sony (which owns Columbia) released a special triple-CD version of the album, and the great Jimmy Cobb, who held down the drum chair for those sessions, brought his own band down to Jacksonville to play the jazz festival last May.]

ATYPICAL ARTS PRESENTS Invites you to attend a Very Cool Event…
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th at Riverside’s historic 5 Points Theater

MUSIC IN MOTION:  MILES DAVIS-KIND OF BLUE @ 50
(1st in a 4 part talk+music film series)

One of the single greatest achievements in recorded music. – Ed Bradley

It is a cornerstone record, not only for Jazz…for [all] music. Kind of Blue is a record you could recommend to anyone of any age from anywhere! 
– Herbie Hancock

If you own just one jazz album, chances are it’s Kind of Blue by Miles Davis 
– Renee Montaigne, NPR Morning Edition

Please join us as we welcome to Jacksonville, critically acclaimed author, music journalist and Jazz historian, ASHLEY KAHN, for a very special evening spotlighting the amazing legacy of Miles Davis!  This event is part listening session (featuring rare cuts and video clips), part discussion and an engaging demonstration of cultural detective work that celebrates the first 15 years of Miles’ career.  Kind of Blue is widely considered the greatest Jazz recording of all time, as well as one of the top modern recordings of any style.  Well known as one of the most knowledgable experts on Miles Davis, combined with Ashley’s affable style (as heard on his reports for NPR) should make this a really unique and enjoyable event for both the serious and casual fan alike.

Ashley’s voice is often heard on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”  He also teaches courses on music at New York University’s Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music.  During a thirty-year career in the music business, Kahn has served as a music editor at VH1, the primary editor of Rolling Stone: The Seventies (Little, Brown), a deejay on a variety of radio stations, and – for a ten-year stint – tour manager for a multitude of music groups, including: Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and…Britney Spears.

Ashley Kahn’s books include

• Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece
• A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album
• The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records
• Somethin’ Else: The Story of Blue Note Records and the Birth of Modern Jazz (Ashley is currently writing this 70-year history of the most famous Jazz record label)

*There will be a live performance of selections from Kind of Blue by the Kelly Green Trio, featuring students from UNF’s music department. 

*Reminder: tune in to WJCT-FM 89.9 tomorrow morning between 9-10am as Ashley Kahn will be appearing on their excellent morning program “First Coast Connect”, hosted by Melissa Ross.

 

Atypical Arts Presents began producing exclusive, invitation-only concert events in Jacksonville in early 2009.  Our events feature critically acclaimed NYC & LA-based artists that either never tour or just don’t ever come our way.  Ask anyone who has attended our events – the events we present are memorable and unique.  Atypical Arts events are as much a social gathering as concert, which is why the buzz and audience interest in our shows continues to grow.

Review: Edward Said DVDs

Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said

Edward Said: The Last Interview

The death of Edward Said (1935-2003) probably cost the world its last, best chance for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Said, whose family emigrated from the region shortly after Israel’s founding in 1948, was the world’s leading Palestinian intellectual, one who could articulate the inner fears and ambitions of the Arab world better than anyone has, before or since.

As a professor at Columbia University, a prolific author, critic and a constant presence in the op-ed pages of papers on three continents, he was the point-man for a vast (and increasingly incomprehensible) Palestinian diaspora and a reliable voice of non-violence during the two catastrophic intifadas. The first began in 1987, and culminated with the ill-fated Oslo Accords; Yasser Arafat and his loyalists marginalized Said and Said, in turn, boycotted the 1993 signing ceremony at the White House. Two years later, Israel PM Yitzhak Rabin was dead, assassinated as part of his nation’s steady rightward drift, and any hope of a negotiated settlement was lost for a generation.

The corruption and fecklessness of the Arafat regime had been exposed not only to the world, but more importantly to the Palestinians themselves. By 2000, Arafat had lost almost all credibility among his own people and western elites who’d been pushing the “Peace Process” for years—most notably former President Bill Clinton, who finally gave up after Arafat rejected the best offer his people would ever get from the Israelis. He left nothing in terms of a plan for how the Palestinians would move on after his death, in hopes perhaps of making himself indispensable. That September 28, Ariel Sharon made his infamous visit to the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa Mosque complex; the second intifada started the next day, and has never really ended.

It is a tragic quirk of history that Said preceded Arafat to the grave by a year, thereby denying their people the caliber of leadership they deserved. Arafat’s chosen heir, Mahmoud Abbas, was a failure from day one. Most of the Palestinians’ power, politically and in terms of civil administration, has since coalesced around Hamas and Hezbollah, violent radicals whose mere presence as de facto authority encourages radical elements in Israeli society, typified by current PM Benjamin Netanyahu. This is precisely the kind of nightmare scenario that Edward Said warned the world against.

An awesome new DVD collection serves to foster a new appreciation of not only Said’s own career, but also of the extremely complicated social and political dynamics in and around his homeland that obsessed him for all his days. The contents of the double-DVD set were created independently of each other, then wedded for commercial reasons by Icarus Films, based in Armonk, NY. Both films move along at the same measured pace, their tone perhaps dictated by their subject, Said, whose death preceded much of the work involved in bringing them to fruition.

“Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said” is not really about Said, so much as it’s about the filmmaker’s quest to situate the spirit that animated Said within the context of a continually unfolding Arab/Israel dynamic. His subject, unfortunately, is rendered almost as an afterthought; many of the Palestinians he speaks with have never even heard of him, which should maybe not be so surprising, given his relationship with Arafat. It speaks to the situation those people are in, that they could be so estranged from one of its leading public advocates and its most famous intellectuals. Among non-Arabs, only Arafat is better-known, and one presumes that is no coincidence. Arafat ruled over his people for 40 years despite compiling a blood-soaked record of dismal failure distinguished only by the occasional media spectacle—spectacles usually manufactured at the Palestinian’s expense, like his persistent collaborations with terrorists.

Director Sato Makoto spends time on both sides of the notorious “border wall” separating the Israeli and Palestinian communities, and finds two proud cultures that are both held in the vise-grip of fear and tension after all these years of conflict. His dealing with Said is simply to uneven to declare the film an unqualified success, but Makoto—who himself died, aged just  49 years, in September 2007, following Said to the other side by four years, to the month—has ably documented the sense of hopelessness that has prevailed within the Palestinian diaspora. Said would be pleased!

The perceived threat of Palestinian terror is the dominant factor in Israel’s political system; every time the moderates gain some traction, a new bombing forces the extremists back into control. Meanwhile, two entire generations of Palestinian society have withered on the vine. Infrastructure has collapsed, and Palestinian moderates exist in a total power vacuum. The rise of Hamas as the leading force in Palestinian politics effectively ensures that it will be many years before citizens of Gaza and the West Bank are able to enjoy anything remotely resembling peace, freedom or autonomy. And the more disenfranchised Arab youth feel, the more likely they are to embrace jihad, especially with the neutered, feckless Fatah as the only viable moderate outpost. In short, an extremely dangerous form of “catch-22” is the Holy Land’s status quo.

Whereas Said, the person, exists almost on the periphery of the action captured in the first film, “Edward Said: The Last Interview” is all Said, all the time. Recorded nine months before his death, Said sat down with friend Charles Glass to summarize a life and a body of work that would soon be finished; the session was recorded by Mike Dibb, and arranged by The Nation’s London correspondent, DD Guttenplan (recently the author of a fine biography of pioneering journalist IF Stone, a man with whom Said would surely have gotten along famously). Glass makes an apt interviewer, having worked the Middle East beat for decades on behalf of Newsweek, the Observer and ABC News, where he served as Chief Middle East Correspondent after covering the pivotal Arab-Israeli war of 1973, alongside the late Peter Jennings.

These are old hands, walking a well-worn, familiar beat; two lifetimes’ worth of experience and friendship, culminating in this final epic encounter. Longtime fans will be disheartened to see Said frail, tired, weakened in body and spirit by a disease he fought ferociously. He admits that illness has siphoned much of his copious mental energy from the driving issue of his life, the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.

By this point, Said could see the sunset not far ahead, and it must have been a bitter experience for him to make his peace with death as that fundamental sense of dislocation that defined him remained hopelessly elusive. But anyone familiar with his output in those last couple of years has been tangibly reminded of Dylan Thomas’ famous commandment: “Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” And so he did rage, until the very end. These DVDs, especially the second, remind us how potent this man’s vision really was, and how unfortunate we all are that it was not realized while there was still time.

sdh666@hotmail.com; November 16, 2009