Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

If Henry Miller was an elephant

Only gradually and sparingly does Miller reveal his intense romanticism, universalist mysticism and devout humanism. Ten pages into "Cancer", for example, he tells of a Jew in a lion cage without a gun trying to explain Spinoza to the lions, essentially a parable predicting the Holocaust.

https://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.ph ... ry_miller/

Thx, Jack.

Been listening to a lot of Alan Hovhaness lately. I first heard him about 25 yrs ago, when my NPR station honored his passing by playing selections from his catalogue. I liked what I heard - contemporary classical (oxymoron?) in the romantic tradition, but without the melodrama. Introspective, but neither saccharine nor despairing. No "woe is me" or "oh Elspeth, how I love thee!".

Some of his symphonies do lean towards the traditional, but others convey an other-worldly, ethereal spirituality, not unlike some of George Crumb's work, but more accessible, less dissonant - certainly less disturbingly alien than Stockhausen or Xenakis (all of whom I admire nonetheless). Minor chords & scales reminiscent of Middle Eastern music, exotic instruments like the gamelan. I expect I'll be binging on him for a while - "Celestial Gate", "Spirit of the Trees", & "Vision of Andromeda" each need a 2nd & 3rd look - er, listen. Whatever.

100 days since Oct 7. Farewell, Judih. You & Gadi deserved so much more, but I suppose it's better that you're still together. Studio8 & ArcanumCafe are still quiet - like those mourners assembled at the funeral home who've momentarily run out of things to say. They won't be the same without you.

Cold out there today. A beautiful sun low in a beautiful blue sky, but cold. Damned cold.