Speed of Life

Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was, “Because of You,” his first #1 hit. Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever. ❤ pic.twitter.com/hsOqtSdTNg — Tony Bennett (@itstonybennett) July 21, 2023 From the New York Times  : Tony Bennett, Champion of the Great American Songbook, Is Dead at 96 From his initial success as a jazzy crooner through his generation-spanning duets, his career was remarkable for both its longevity and its consistency.   More on Tony at -   https://greggchadwick.blogspot.com/2011/12/the-ghost-in-human-machine-tony.html 

From the Guardian : "Astrud Gilberto, whose dreamy interpretation of The Girl from Ipanema became the most popular version of the song, has died aged 83. Paul Ricci, a collaborator with Gilberto, confirmed the news on social media, writing that he had been asked to announce it by Gilberto’s son Marcelo. “She was an important part of ALL that is Brazilian music in the world and she changed many lives with her energy,” he added. Born in 1940 in the Brazilian state of Bahia and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Astrud Weinert married musician João Gilberto in 1959. In 1963, she accompanied him on a trip to New York where he would record with jazz artist Stan Getz and fellow Brazilian bossa nova star Antônio Carlos Jobim. The session’s producer wanted an English-language singer to help The Girl from Ipanema cross over to a US audience, and Astrud – who had no previous recording experience – was the only person who could speak it." Gregg Chadwick City of Desires (Rio de Janeiro) 72"x...

On May 8, 2012, author, artist, illustrator, and visionary Maurice Sendak died. On that day I wrote some thoughts on his life and work . Now eleven years later I am reposting those words with some further ideas.  “Dear Mr. Sendak,  How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”  -From a letter sent by an eight year old reader to Maurice Sendak Maurice Sendak   Where the Wild Things Are Pen and ink and watercolor on paper  1963 Maurice Sendak was an artist in love with the world and with things that go bump in the night. Sendak looked deeply at the world around him. His vision included the visible nature of  our existence and the invisible, but no less real, world of dreams. Sendak's beautifully crafted artworks for his books began with simple pencil sketches that were then enlarged and fleshed out with pen and ink which was then layered with glowing watercolor washes....

Listen to Gordon Lightfoot's “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and pour one out for a true original who is out riding that big Mystery Train.

Very Sad News - Irene Cara, Oscar-winning singer of title tracks to 'Flashdance,' 'Fame' dies at 63, rep says Thank you, Ms. Carey. I'd like you to know that Irene spoke of you often and was so honored that you considered her to be an inspiration as you found your place in the music industry. She was very proud of you and your accomplishments. Through you, a little of Irene will live on. https://t.co/Ns2jos30SY — Irene Cara (@Irene_Cara) November 28, 2022

Quite a loss - My thoughts on Peter Schjeldahl from April 2005 Speed of Life: Peter Schjeldahl at SFMOMA https://t.co/1gKhLJMePZ pic.twitter.com/C6oO1Mm6h3 — Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) October 21, 2022 In 2005, during the Q&A after a lecture at SFMOMA, I asked Peter Schjeldahl about the place of beauty in contemporary art. Peter leaned forward and spoke from the heart." This is an important, if not controversial, question that I write about often. In the 60s and 70s in academia it was the forbidden word. A group of art historians could look up at the blue sky and and declare it a beautiful day on their way to a conference on contemporary art. But once in the doors of the conference room, beauty ceased to exist." Peter concluded by stating, "Art does not have to address beauty- to reach for beauty. But it sure is great if it does."

#RIPRonnieSpector Spector & The E Street Band Ronnie Spector photographed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 1971. Jack Kay/Daily Express/GI

by Gregg Chadwick "At the heart of Wayne Thiebaud's greatness was his love of art's history and his ability to translate art's standards into his own language for our present.." - Tyler Green "My favorite Wayne Thiebaud painting is Cup of Coffee. Look at this coloring, what a miracle. What he called being able to 'see the edges of the edges'” -  Max Lakin I was fortunate to meet Wayne Thiebaud a few times when I lived in San Francisco. He was always engaging and always present. The first time I met Thiebaud he was walking out of  the Washington Square Bar and Grill in North Beach on a Fall afternoon in 1991. The Washbag, as the restaurant was affectionately known thanks to San Francisco columnist Herb Caen, was the ultimate place to schmooze with Bay Area politicians and power brokers in the 1980s and 1990s.  Thiebaud was by himself and didn't seem to be in a hurry after his lunch, so I ventured up to Wayne Thiebaud and thanked him for his artwork...

Gregg Chadwick The River Dreams 16"x11" oil on linen 2009 I learned tonight about the death of  W.S. Merwin. I had a chance to chat briefly with W.S. Merwin after his wonderful reading at the Hammer Museum on October 29, 2009. We spoke of elephants and mystery and nature. Inspiring memories. The poems of W. S. Merwin’s mature career were often Delphic, haunted, and bleak. They seemed to have been delivered unto him, and he transcribed them by lightning flash. https://t.co/Z4biUog5VT — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 17, 2019 More on W.S. Merwin: W.S. Merwin Profile Paul Holdengraber In Conversation with W.S. Merwin Poem for Merwin 

by Gregg Chadwick Bruno Ganz as the angel Damiel in Wim Wender's Classic Film  Wings of Desire Bruno Ganz  has died at 77 leaving us with a rich legacy.  The Swiss film actor played numerous iconic roles over the years from an angel longing for human love in Wings of Desire to Hitler facing imminent defeat in Downfall .  The New York Times reports that Bruno died at his home in Zurich.  Bruno Ganz  left his mark on Berlin in Wender's  Wings of Desire .  Painters, writers, and filmmakers from Max Beckmann to Christopher Isherwood to Wim Wenders have created visions of Berlin that still guide us across the city's potent memoryscape.   Gregg Chadwick The Angel of History 29"x73" oil and sumi on Japanese screen In honor of Bruno, I am posting my oil and ink on screen painting The Angel of History   inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin.  Benjamin wrote: "This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face i...

Aretha Franklin - Respect Song written by Otis Redding Album: I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You [1967] _________________________ RESPECT (oo) What you want (oo) Baby, I got (oo) What you need (oo) Do you know I got it? (oo) All I'm askin' (oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit) Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit) mister (just a little bit) I ain't gonna do you wrong while you're gone Ain't gonna do you wrong (oo) 'cause I don't wanna (oo) All I'm askin' (oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit) Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit) Yeah (just a little bit) I'm about to give you all of my money And all I'm askin' in return, honey Is to give me my propers When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a) Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a) When you get home (just a little bit) Yeah (just...

The day before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, he delivered his historic "I've Been to the Mountaintop" at Mason Temple in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/cQUvkmkW4z — COMMON (@common) April 2, 2018 MLK’s final speech — delivered 50 years ago today — was full of timely and timeless teachings.  More at: "I've been to the mountaintop."

"The world is a dangerous place...not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it" -Albert Einstein In the light of the horrific, fascist, white-supremacist violence against peaceful folks in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, I find this film produced by the US War Department during WWII to be instructive. Clips from the film are appearing on social media sites. The full film is presented here. From IMDB: "Financed and produced by the United States War Department in 1943, and shot at the Warners studio, although it was distributed through all of the major studios' film exchanges and also by National Screen Services free to the theatre exhibitors: A young, healthy American Free Mason is taken in by the message of a soap-box orator who asserts that all good jobs in the United States are being taken by the so-called minorities, domestic and foreign. He falls into a conversation with a refugee ...

Thank you, Michael Bond. #PaddingtonBear pic.twitter.com/wDVOoReolF — Flavia Fazenda (@FlaviaFazenda) June 28, 2017 Michael Bond at home in 2014. He said of Paddington Bear: ‘He’s never put down or deflated. He has the naivety of a child and the sophistication of an adult.’ Photograph Courtesy: Geoff Pugh/Rex/Shutterstock Much more on Michael Bond and Paddington in The Guardian.

. @MuseumModernArt @curiousoctopus installing the flag designed by #GilbertBaker , which is part of MoMA's collection thanks to @michellemfisher 's efforts. pic.twitter.com/IIxNh2lWrB — Gretchen Scott (@gretchen_scott) April 1, 2017 Gilbert Baker, heading the Stockholm Pride Parade in 2003, pieced together the first rainbow flags in 1978. He described himself as the “gay Betsy Ross.” FREDRIK PERSSON / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES More at: Gilbert Baker's Rainbow Flag

Mary Tyler Moore, 1936-2017. https://t.co/untjNkK5IM pic.twitter.com/2oomydy5IU — Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) January 25, 2017

by  Gregg Chadwick I wrote this when I heard of Lou Reed's death in 2013. Three years on the thoughts still stand. Reposted as an elegy to an inspirational figure for so many.  " Lou Reed gave us the street and the landscape - and we peopled it."  - David Bowie in the documentary " Rock 'n' Roll Heart - Lou Reed " Well hey, man, that's just a lie It's a lie she tells her friends 'Cause the real song, the real song Where she won't even admit to herself The  beatin ' in her heart It's a song lots of people know It's a painful song A little sad truth But life's full of sad songs Penny for a wish But  wishin ' won't make you a soldier. With a pretty kiss for a pretty face Can't have  it's  way Y'know tramps like us, we were born to pay  -  From the beginning of the " Slipaway " section of Lou Reed's song  Street Hassle .      Uncredited   spoken vocals by Bruce Springsteen...