>...One of the things that I appreciate about Clapton is that he has managed to be productive when many have faltered…<
Yup. I accept your description of Clapton. However it is not uncommon to hear folks running around claiming him the “best guitarist ever,” and they sound as if the thing is quantifiable. Alan Holdsworth blows Clapton away, and it is quantifiable. (grin)
>...The original "cool jazz" was very sophisticated, and very far away from Kenny G. My favorite (probably because I am too unfamiliar to know many titles:-)) is "Take Five"...<
Yeah. I really cannot say what happened to cause Kenny G. to flourish. I guess it must be the same thing that allowed Bill Clinton to flourish. Americans have this intense infatuation with mediocrity and stupidity.
>...It makes sense to categorize in that way. A group like B,S, and T through in various influences, and wrote many of their songs with an eye on Top Forty exposure, whereas Weather Report was purer, and di not bother much with clean and catchy melodic lines... <
Yup. But B,S,&T can be considered a fusion group in the sense that they technically did fuse various styles. I certainly don't take issue with the label.
>...On the modern music, I suspect you are right enough. Certainly, one of the pieces I love best, Britten's "Ceremony of Carols", is a musical hybrid, and uses Medieval poems as texts... <
Ain't that a fine work? Just fine.
>...I admit, I am not much of one for opera, although, of course, there are many fine arias. If it is not Mozart, I probably eventually get bored... <
Oh man, I quite enjoy Puccini. And I find it hard to get bored during a performance of such a grand spectacle as Wagner's “Ring.”
>...I use Les Demoiselles d' Avignon specifically because it is the first definitively "modern" painting, shows the influence of primitive art, and reveals a fractured sensibility, one that foreshadows the century prophetically, I think. Don't get me wrong, Hieronymous Bosch had long before painted things that were "weird", but in a religious context.<
Certainly one can see an African influence in the work. “Fractured sensibility.” Neocon, this is dead on. The work in a way looks like a bunch of shattered parts, almost like a modern fractured glass sculpture on a 2D surface. Whether the work is “prophetic” I cannot say, though it certainly foreshadowed the century. I think Picasso was just dang ahead of his time.
>Anyway, I think your comparison of Picasso and Stravinsky is pretty good, and they both worked for Diaghelev:-). I also think that your comments on abstraction are on point... <
Yup. When I see Picasso, I hear Stravinsky. When I hear Stravinsky, I see Picasso.
>...I find Hemingway too flat, although I may go back and re- read "The Old Man and the Sea" after your comments.<
Flat. I will not argue against it, though I would not exactly call him flat. “NUMB” is more like it. There is always a numb, stoic undertow in his works.
>I think that Hemingway may end up an historical artifact, telling us something about the country at mid- century, rather than a literary giant.<
Could be. But he certainly tells us about us as we were then and in many ways are now. As such, I think we should read him.
>Rand, well, I just think that she is an atrocious writer, very cartoonish and melodramatic. On the other hand, if I liked melodrama, I would like opera, so maybe I am overly fastidious... <
LOL. I read Rand to see her coming forth from her works. Obviously I reject her “philosophy,” and certainly cannot respect her profound lack of virtue. She is neither a writer nor a poet, and I hardly think any true Objectivist can ever be a writer and poet. Nevertheless Rand said her piece by the sheer force of her philosophical convictions. Were I trapped on an island, I would certainly want to have two of her books on hand.
I do not think we should always agree and emotionally cherish the things we would carry with us. I like different works for different reasons. Rand can never nourish my mind to a wonderful degree, and she can by no means at all nourish my spirit. Dostoyevsky can do both to profound degrees. But I will not deny that Rand makes me think, at least she did when I was young and naïve, and that is worth quite a lot.
>...On "Lord of the Flies", it is interesting to me because, although a well- respected work, it is easy to overlook, and could easily be found too distasteful. I think it is very acute, in fact, and very well- written...<
And this is certainly true. |
