The life and times of Demetrio Stratos
Demetrio Stratos’ life is surrounded by an aura of legend. He was born in 1945 in Egypt by Greek parents, studied in Cyprus, moved to Italy, founded Area, one of the most daring bands in Italian history. In the late seventies, he left the band to focus on vocal research and trained his voice to produce sounds that few people have ever been able to produce. And, as all heroes destined to obsess us forever, he died young and unexpectedly just as his remarkable and unique talent was gaining recognition.
I rediscovered Demetrio Stratos, in one of my iTune Italian music immersions. I stumbled in the 1979 recording of the concert that his former band (he had left Area just a few months earlier) held for him on June 14 1979.
Keith Haring in Philadelphia
On Sunday, Husband and I rode our bikes to Philly (27 miles and we are still alive!). I wanted to take some pictures of the collaborative mural that Keith Haring painted with local children in South Philadelphia (visit Keith Haring’s site to read more about the project and look at pictures of the event).
The mural is titled “We the Youth” and was painted in 1987 in celebration of the bicentennial of the US Constitution; it was recently restored and the tiny garden in front of the mural was redesigned.
I find Keith Haring’s painting and sculptures so moving. Perhaps it’s their irrepressible energy; perhaps the simplicity of the lines that burst with meaning and emotion (as you could still perceive the gesture that produced that line). It’s as Keith could communicate directly to my heart, bypassing my head and my defenses. And I’ve always felt that collaborative and public art—that type of creative expression that some scream is “absolutely not art”—is the best art form ever created.
I owe the discovery of the only Keith Haring’s mural in Philadelphia to Albert, who recently wrote about it in his blog. He also wrote that the building has been recently sold and there are rumors that it might be demolished. Does anybody have additional information?
If you want to visit, you can find the mural at the corner between 22nd and Ellsworth Street. You can also look at additional pictures in this slideshow at Smugmug.
Technorati Tags: Keith Haring, Haring, mural, 1987, we the youth, Philadelphia
The politics of language
Clutter is the language of the Pentagon calling an invasion a “reinforced protective reaction strike” and justifying its vast budgets on the need for “counterforce deterrence.” As George Orwell pointed out in “Politics and the English Language,” an essay written in 1946 but often cited during the wars in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Iraq, “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible… Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemisms, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.” Orwell’s warning that clutter is not just a nuisance but a deadly tool has come true in the recent decades of American military adventurism. It was during George W. Bush’s Presidency that “civilian casualties” in Iraq became “collateral damage.”
No, it’s not Markos Moulitsas Zúniga at Daily Kos. It’s William Zinsser in the 30th Anniversary Edition of On writing well. And it’s just page 16. Boy, I am going to enjoy this book.
Technorati Tags: writing, politics, Orwell
How to make a writer
I’ve almost finished reading Stephen King’s On writing. I love this book. No wonder: it discusses the topic I love reading about—writing, the evolution of a passion, and elements of style—and tells a story with a happy ending.
On Writing is also the story of the support, recognition, and love that are needed to make a writer. Stephen’s mother praises his first story on a big white bunny named Mr. Rabbit Trick:
She said it was good enough to be in a book. Nothing anyone has said to me since has made me feel any happier. I wrote four more stories about Mr. Rabbit. She gave me a quarter a piece for them and sent them around to her four sisters (…). Four stories. A quarter a piece. That was the first buck I made in this business.
Museum art is dead
Yesterday Husband and I went to the Whitney Museum in NYC. In this period the Whitney is having the 2006 Biennial, which is titled Day for Night in homage to François Truffaut’s movie La Nuit américaine. Some of the pieces were outrageous (a large virginal white canvas with piece of dirty chewing gum splattered on it, huge holes in the museum’s walls), some were moving and unsettling (Brauntuch’s shirts, Hannah Greely’s baby), ironic and/or provocative in a sexual (Vezzoli’s trailer for the never made remake of Caligula, Iannone’s "I was thinking of you") or political way (Serra’s Stop Bush, Anderson’s take on Black History, Nari Ward’s Glory).
But what was truly odd and out of place was to see modern art in a modern art museum.
How to be creative
I’ve just finished reading Hugh MacLeod’s How to be creative [PDF] (available at Changethis.com together with other interesting stuff). It felt like the first a ray of light after the eclipse. It made me happy after going to the gym, playing sudoku for hours, and eating dark chocolate failed.
Hugh MacLeod is the author of the popular blog Gaping Void, creates cartoons on the back of business cards, and in his spare time plays a microbrand consultant. When I grow up, I want to become like him.
Tags: gapingvoid, macleod, creativity
A bug drank my drink
Scott has been playing with animation recently. First, he photographed an animation on paper that he started but never completed 20 years ago. Now he is experimenting with stop-motion photography.
His first attempt is called “A bug drank my drink”. The technique can probably be improved, but I love the results anyway.
The spider in the movie belongs to Santiago, the 3 1/2 year old son of our friend Diego. He came here a couple of weeks ago and forgot his spider. Scott made this movie for Diego. He send an e-mail with the movie as an attachment, begging Diego to come and get his bug. If you watch the movie you’ll understand way.
Watch A bug drank my drink.
Technorati Tags: animation, bugs, stop-motion
Help me promote my artist friend Ariela Böhm
In November, I went to Italy to visit my family and I had a chance to meet a couple of times with my old friend Ariela Böhm. Ariela and I went to high school together. The year we graduated from high school we went on a camping trip through North Europe (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands) with her brother Emanuele and his girlfriend. It was the first big trip I took without my family. Since then, I’ve always thought of Ariela as my travel friend. 
Ariela and Antonella in 1979 during their North Europe trip.
A couple of weeks before my last trip to Italy to visit my family, Ariela wrote me an e-mail. I had not seen her for more than 20 years. She found my website and sent a note with her contact information so I wrote back and proposed to meet during this visit to Italy.
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