DAY OF THE DEAD BY DIEGO RIVERA
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SURFING THE NET:
While surfing the net sometimes I end up in unexpected places often as not it can be rewarding just go with the flow & you might learn at least a few new things a day.
During the last couple of days I down loaded traditional folk music of Peru & the Andes other parts of South America & Latin america recordings by Savia Andina, Alla Kallpa, Los Kjarkas, Inti-illimani which brought me to the folk music of Native Americans mostly recorded by R. Carlos Nakai which then brought me to Robbie Robertson the bluesy rock singer & composer. One song I came across was Spirit horse of the Cherokee by MANOWAR which I thought was some Native American folk music group was I wrong they are a metal band or what some call Black Metal like Black Sabbath or the early recordings of Metalica. Anyway another of their songs which I copied was Nessun Dorma which I didn't recognize right away til I played it ; it is from one of my favourite operas Turandot which led me to copy recordings of Pavarotti, Andre Bocelli ,Maria Callas etc. & this led me to a great web site one for those of us who like the music but don't know everything there is to know about it or like me who have a bit of a disconect in the memory department & its a great web site for those who have a casual interest . It includes bios of composers a synopsis of each opera & stories about how each opera came about.
Here is the address:
www.metopera.org/home.html
This brings me to really funny short film by Kim Tompson about Grand Opera called ALL THE GREAT OPERAS which aired on an episode of CBC's ZED I have rewatched it a number of times on ZED's website so If you are interested here is the address to go to view this film :
zed.cbc.ca
& punch in the title
And now for some verses from Tales of Cafe Apollinaire. This New & Improved version of the poem is subtitled VARIATIONS ON DISTILLED DREAMS. In this section we meet Marcel DuChamp, Andre Breton, Erik Satie & talking baguettes so enjoy !
TALES OF CAFE APOLLINAIRE:
VARIATIONS ON DISTILLED DREAMS
At Café Apollinaire two aspiring writers
writing alternate pages to a novel
have hung each page upon the walls
of their cluttered dimly-lit cockroach
rat infested undersized apartment
hoping somehow out of chance
during the night the story
will piece itself together-
In his hands an innocent poet holds the moon
in his eyes he holds moon beams
undermines sanctioned madness
conjures a garland of flowers
tossed around the moon-
Poets Artists chain-smoking cigarettes
sharing sweet weed magic-mushrooms
Absinthe & Laudanum drifting about
talking of God & art
from Mount Sinai to the sermon on the Mount
from Allah Brahma & Buddha
to Thor Oden Apollo & Zeus
to Isis & Osiris & Ishtar
cannibalizing art & culture
from Impressionism Cubism & Realism
to Expressionism & Surrealism
Dada to deconstructing
another cup of coffee -
Erik Satie's tables & chairs
composed of musical notes
fill our Café where
Dali's melting clocks hang on fleshy walls
dripping spilling onto the floor
outside men in suits & bowler hats
rain down cats & dogs
Pontiff Andre Breton excommunicates
artistic heretics who fail to follow
Surrealistic Manifestoes-
Angry snarling insulting waiters
serve dishes of stewed art & poetry
some insist on it being raw
others want it over-cooked -
Acting very serious very busy indeed
Marcel Duchamp beavering away
says everything is Art
places written labels on everything
" This is a table " "This is a waiter "
"This is a Urinal" then with a flourish signs his name
someone shouts "Dada Lives"
another shouts "Surrealism Lives"
& a fight breaks out-
On Tuesdays the International Socialists
meet at Café Apollinaire
all the heavy weights & light weights are there
sing a medley of tunes
fit for the Barricades
raise the red flag of Bolsheviks
take a vote toss Lenin Stalin & Mao
out into the streets
let us speak of them no more
dreaming of the Paris Commune
of storming the Bastille-
Eight feet long Baguettes begin to speak
baguettes with arms legs eyes
order coffee & brandy
the library around the corner
has called the police the book shelves
stuffed with big rude cynical Baguettes
the Deli next door complains
they have no Baguettes just stacks
of half- baked books
all done in the twinkling of an eye-
of half-baked books
all done in the twinkling of an eye-
The band plays songs from
the Tibetan Book of the Dead
the Book of Psalms & the Vedic Liturgy
the patrons of the Cafe rush about shoving their way
to the dance floor to do the Can-Can -
see you later,
gord
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