"I'm Lost" and "Wonder" by Dan Black

I am happy to see the return of Dan Black. Last time we saw him here, he was singing for 24 hours about how our hearts never stop beating. And now, here he is with two songs that pluck at the idea of memory and nostalgia. Maybe I am just in a mood, but the words to each of these songs feel personal to me...when I was a boy, I spent a lot of time alone in my room listening to records, imagining a world full of music and performance. And sometimes someone would join me in my room, listening to records, dreaming...and where are they now...

Here is "I'm Lost"... "Everybody is an artist, not only painters."

"Wonder" is, despite its chugging rhythm, wistful. There it all goes, then it's gone.

https://www.dan-black.com/

Memory and Understanding

“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.”
--Alain de Botton

"3:42 p.m., 2010" | Photo by Alexander Harding

“The path isn't a straight line; it’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.”
--Barry H. Gillespie

New Romantic Nostalgia

Today I am feeling a bit of nostalgia for a time when I was a New Romantic, and the music I listened to then...

Rotary Telephones

By artist and cartoonist Jeff LeVine.

https://www.instagram.com/jefflevinecomics

I still have one. My father worked for the telephone company and he had a small collection of old telephones. I kept this one...it feels special somehow.

Flashback: "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung

While shopping for a client at a kitchen and bath showroom yesterday, this 1984 song came on and I had to smile. I always forget how lovely "Dance Hall Days" by the band Wang Chung is: dance-y and upbeat but with a definite undercurrent of a kind of delicate, nostalgic melancholia.

Founding member of Wang Chung, Jack Hues told Eric Greenberg on the "Just My Show" podcast, "It begins quite innocent: 'take your baby by the hand,' and then the last verse with 'take your baby by the wrists, and in her mouth an amethyst,' it's all a bit more hallucinogenic in a way, how things that start off simple get complex.

My dad was a musician, and he had a band that played in an old-fashioned dance hall. I used to play with him in that band, so maybe there's sort of the nostalgia that's in the track. It's all quite real, actually, as far as experiences that I had when I was first starting out playing, and playing in public.

Musically, it's that sort of rhythm and that kind of shuffly beat. Technically it's sort of like 3 against 2 (laughs), but we're not gonna talk about all that. It's a particular feel that was sort of unusual at the time, I suppose."

Take your baby by the hand
And make her do a high hand stand
And take your baby by the heel
And do the next thing that you feel

We were so in phase
In our dance hall days
We were cool on craze
When I, you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

I said, “Dance hall days love”

Take your baby by the hair
And pull her close and there, there, there
And take your baby by the ears
And play upon her darkest fears

I said, “Dance hall days love”
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Take your baby by the wrist
And in her mouth an amethyst
And in her eye two sapphires blue
And you need her and she needs you

And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you

Oh, I said, “Dance hall days love”

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days

And I am absolutely thrilled to have discovered that, just a few months ago, Wang Chung recorded an updated version of "Dance Hall Days" supported by the lush sounds of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Please do give a listen and compare. And maybe it's just me, remembering my life and the texture of living in 1984, time passing, the subject of nostalgia in the song, and so many things gone or lost,...but this version is making me a little misty.

And in a final bit of synchronicity, Wang Chung will be in concert in a few days practically in my backyard here in Northern Calfornia.
http://www.wangchung.org/

BEAUTY: Painting--Kellie Talbot

Hot on the heels of my post yesterday about the wonderful art of Seth Smith, here, in which he paints scenes of vintage motels and their pools, here is the work of Kellie Talbot who paints photorealist snippets of vintage neon signs that one would see in front of such motels. Like I said in the post of Seth Smith's work, it all reminds me so much of my childhood and how my family would drive (in a little VW bug!) from Miami to our hometown in New York so we could visit for the summer. Along the way, we would stay overnight at motels with names and signs like these...

Top to bottom: Balboa; Big Bridge; Color; Desert Grove; Fabulous Seven; Q; Sands; Capri Motel; Stardust Hotel; Surf Haven Motel

http://www.kellietalbot.com/

"Everywhere at the end of time" by The Caretaker

The Caretaker is one of the many names under which English composer/producer/musician Leyland James Kirby records. Started in 1999 with the release "Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom," The Caretaker project was inspired by the last scene in Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant horror film "The Shining," which features the 1934 song "Midnight, The Stars And You" by Ray Noble And His Orchestra. Without giving away a plot point for those who may not have seen "The Shining," the chilling scene alludes to the ideas of ghosts, time, and (the changing nature of) memory. Kirby took that chilling scene and began developing ideas about the echoes of memory and how those echoes can fade. The antique 78 records he samples and loops end up being snippets of songs connected to a time and place but that connection is deliberately tenuous. Aside from the initial spectral sound of this idea, I am sure we have all had the experience of having a melodic phrase or a single line of a verse from a song stuck in our heads, unable to recall what the song is, who sang or played it, or how we know it to begin with. But there it is, a little isolated moment in our brains, surrounded by nothingness, a void. Thus The Caretaker project morphed into the aural manifestation of the disintegration of memory itself...of dementia or Alzheimer's. And now Kirby is in the midst of the final installment of the project called "Everywhere at the end of time," a series of six collections of music, released every six months. According to Kirby, the project itself has dementia. You can listen to Stages 1 and 2 in their entirety through the link below.

THE CARETAKER IS RELEASING SIX NEW WORKS.

'Everywhere at the end of time' is a new and finite series exploring dementia, its advance and its totality.

Featuring the sounds from the journey The Caretaker as artist will make after being artistically diagnosed as having early onset dementia.

Each stage will reveal new points of progression, loss and disintegration. Progressively falling further and further towards the abyss of complete memory loss and nothingness.

Viewing dementia as a series of stages can be a useful way to understand the illness, but it is important to realise that this only provides a rough guide to the progress of the condition.

Drawing on a recorded history of 20 years of recollected memories this is one final journey and study into recreating the progression of dementia through sound.

--

Stage 1 - September 2016 (A+B)
Here we experience the first signs of memory loss. This stage is most like a beautiful daydream. The glory of old age and recollection. The last of the great days.

Stage 2 - April 2017 (C+D)
The second stage is the self realisation and awareness that something is wrong with a refusal to accept that. More effort is made to remember so memories can be more long form with a little more deterioration in quality. The overall personal mood is generally lower than the first stage and at a point before confusion starts setting in.

Stage 3 - Released in September 2017

Stage 4 - Released in March 2018

Stage 5 - Released in September 2018

Stage 6 - Released in March 2019

http://brainwashed.com/vvm/

BEAUTY: Painting--Mark Ryczek

Since we are dealing with the theme of memory, recall, and nostalgia today, here is the touching, distant, gauzy work of artist Mark Ryczek. Each image in his Brooklyn Misremembered series feels like a hazy memory, a snapshot our minds take of relatives homes, childhood rooms, small moments...

Artist's Statement about this series:
"The pieces are inspired by photos taken at a friend’s apartment in Flatbush. They are meditations on small areas that have sparked an interest in me and an attempt to capture my impressions of a typically stark and aged Brooklyn apartment interior, transformed by the slight decorative touches of the inhabitant. My hope is to express both the sheer pleasure of seeing and also to slightly warp what I see as one inevitably warps an experience when they store it to memory. Nostalgia has always fascinated me and these paintings loosely deal with not only with the bittersweet nature of the emotion itself, but the question of why we feel it and why some tend to sentimentalize the past more than others. Is it relative to one’s ability to record detailed information, specifically the dull and/or painful bits? Is it a survival mechanism that propels us forward in the hopes of re-experiencing an imagined past? Or maybe there is no purpose – just another seemingly pointless mental quirk."

http://mryczek.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Kurt Solmssen

While I consider myself a true Californian (I have lived here for nearly forty years so I think I am more than official by now), I grew up in upstate New York and have wonderful memories of summers there. Relatives had lake houses and we would visit for days of swimming and barbecuing. The lovely work of Kurt Solmssen captures the feeling of warm summer afternoons and cool firefly nights on a lake. And his affection for a certain yellow boat is charming...

Top to bottom: Beach House: Davis House; Labor Day; Peach Tree; RG And The Yellow Boat; Siesta; Summer Morning At Puget Sound; Vaughn Morning; White House By The Bay; Yellow Boat In Blue Bay; Yellow Boat On The Sandspit; Bonfire

http://www.kurtsolmssen.net/

BEAUTY: Painting--Pam Ingalls

These interior scenes of classic American diners by painter Pam Ingalls in Washington state are quite pleasing to me. Maybe it brings a sense of nostalgia...it feels like an invitation to step back in time, take a stool, order a burger, and breathe easier...

http://pamingalls.com/

"Summertime" by Annie Lennox

I have been a huge fan of Annie Lennox ever since she and Dave Stewart burst on to the scene as Eurythmics. I saw their very first tour here in the United States in 1983 and witnessed first hand Annie's glittering, ferocious live persona (one reviewer at the time called her a "hissing, spitting wild cat" on stage!). Over the years she has only become more masterful and in control. She may have mellowed a bit but she has lost none of her intensity.

So I was thrilled when a dear friend gifted me for Christmas Annie's newest release, "Nostalgia," a collection of jazz and vocal standards. Now, lest one think that this is a Linda Ronstadt moment slavishly trying to recreate the sound of a bygone era, or even worse, a Rod Stewart moment trying to play to a demographic who will coo and sigh over these songs because a younger generation won't listen to you anymore, Annie's release is a glorious collection of songs interpreted by a master vocalist. She explores these songs and their meanings exactly the way the greats--Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald--used to, with open emotions and open heart. Annie is not trying to recreate a sound or an era with these songs, she is simply feeling and singing them. Which is pretty stunning.

And I think possibly the most stunning song of all on "Nostalgia" is the touching, painfully melancholic "Summertime," the 1935 Gershwin song written for "Porgy and Bess." I have a soft spot for this song... I grew up hearing my mom sing this. And in fact, I have a recording I made from an original 78 vinyl record of my mom, at sixteen years old, singing this song with a lone piano. She made the recording, along with a few other songs, when she was auditioning for talent shows and bands. Annie's poignant, insightful version is sweet agony.

http://nostalgia.annielennox.com/

"Window" Wonderland!

Oh, how I remember these! My mom would get them out and put trees and snowflakes and Santas on our front windows that faced out to Main Street. It was a sweet, magical time of year...

How you remember it...

“I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.”
--Vikram Seth

“I remember the first time I realized the world we are born into is not the one we leave.”
--Excerpt from I Remember, I Remember: On the handsome roofers, attentive cows, and sudden tears of youth by Mary Ruefle

BEAUTY: Painting--Lindsay Hand

As promised in the Halloween posting about Lindsay Hand's marvelous skeletons and angels, here is a deeper look at her non-skeleton work. Hand's subject matter seems like hazy nostalgic memories, recreations of yellowed snapshots...either on paper or in the mind...



Top to bottom: Air Mail; Royal Gorge; Fairmount; Shooting Party; "and we're happy as clams"

http://www.lindsayhand.com/

Window Stencils For Christmas

Oh, how I remember these! My mom would get them out and put trees and snowflakes and Santas on our front windows that faced out to Main Street. It was a sweet, magical time of year...

Retro Wreaths

Here are some wonderful wreaths made out of old Christmas bulbs, glass balls, and other retro (40s-50s-60s) holiday decor. They look like kaleidoscope images of Christmas memories from my childhood! These charming creations are by a talented woman calling herself Georgia Peachez. To purchase wreaths, see her website!

http://www.georgiapeachezwreathblog.blogspot.com/