Does age matter?
Here’s a story in yesterday’s New York Times about a 600-year-old oak tree in Queens that’s being cut down. It has been in the same place since before Christopher Columbus was born. How do you feel about that? Does its … Continued
SETI: A mini-history lesson
In September, 1959, two physicists at Cornell University, Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi, published a paper in the science journal Nature entitled “Searching for Interstellar Communications.” The Telegraph used the anniversary as an opportunity to post a top ten list … Continued
Not What Has Yet to Be Done, But What Has Been Done
In an earlier post, I showed a clip of the sample that featured Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentice Paolo Soleri. Here’s a quote from Phoenix-based architect Will Bruder, who did an apprenticeship with Soleri in 1967. I learned about … Continued
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Just the other day Christopher Schon, a friend from across the pond, left a comment on the Facebook Fan Page of A Life’s Work. “When will this be out … ?” Christopher is not the first, nor will he be … Continued
Paolo Soleri at Dome House: A Clip
In October 2006, Wolfgang Held and I flew to Arizona to interview Paolo Soleri. While we were there Soleri visited his first commission, Dome House, in Cave Creek, AZ. I was told that his trip there was something of a … Continued
The Right Image
I’ve been revamping the A Life’s Work web site recently and that has me thinking about still images that represent the moving image that is my film. If I had to choose one image for a poster,* what would it … Continued
Revival Records Revived
What makes the goal of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project so challenging? Consider Revival Records. Ecorse, Michigan. Late 60s. Felton Williams, an electrician, builds a recording studio in a basement. From 1967 to 1981 Double U Sound records and … Continued
What Was I Thinking?
I recently watched “The Making of Touch the Sound,” one of the extras on Thomas Riedelsheimer’s film about percussionist Evelyn Glennie. In it Riedelsheimer reveals that he envisioned the staged improvisational musical segments between Glennie and composer Fred Frith to … Continued
“What the Hey Were You Doing in Chicago?” Part 4
Forgetting things, apparently. Such as a release from the person I went there to see. I hustled to get releases from everyone else, from the people in Captain’s Hard Time Restaurant, from the employees and shoppers at Hyde Park Records, … Continued
Little Red Dots
I have these stickers, they’re little red dots. They look like this: When I capture a tape (that is, put the miniDV tape in a deck and transfer that digital information to one of my external hard drives so that … Continued