Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born 100 years ago today, 25 April 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, in the Tidewater area. She had a difficult childhood, born to a mother who was a laundress and shipyard worker. Ella’s father, William Fitzgerald, eventually left, leaving the two to fend for themselves. Ella’s mom found a new beau,…
So, on a whim, I’ve decided to restart our old Days of Art series, with no commitment as to continuing it other than we’ll do so as long as its A) fun to do, B) reasonable within life’s time constraints, and C) read by someone other than us. We look at art constantly a lot…
This is a lovely, inspiring video regarding the life of photographer and artist, Saul Leiter, who lived most of his life in the obscurity of New York, but whose groundbreaking color photography perhaps permanently shattered the dim, enamored yearning of Leica lovers for the monochrome image.This video was recommended to me by fellow photographer and…
See Track A, Part 1 here: We continue our view of the History of Street Photography with the first of four epochs in street photography, this of the art form’s founding fathers — the Foundational epoch, from 1839 to the start of World War I. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (France) – 1787 – 1851 Photography as an…
This is also the third of my Influences series that features photographers whose work has been a inspiration to me as a photographer. For more on Dorothea Lange, see part 4 of our series on The History of Street Photography. Dorothea Lange (26 May 1895 – 11 October 1965) was born to offspring of German…
I was never an artist. Not I, no sir. I was far too busy being an obedient sycophant in pursuit of the American dream that my handlers convinced me was my own. When my childish heart beat a syncopated timpani to the strokes of my pen, I did not sing its foolish rhythm. While wanton…
Another poetry reading. Not sure how the sound became out of synch on YouTube, but oh well. Peace, babies.
My Dearest Santa, As a boy, I never asked for anything for Christmas. You may remember that or not. Part of it was likely my paralyzing shyness. (Best to get all of that nonsense out of the way forever, eh?) 🙂 However, no small part was due to the fact that (and my deepest apologies…
he was jamming last night at the Saba redundant bass line heavy and hard drummer triplin on the two-three old style rub-a-dub style Jah Al-mi-TEE can you say Amen “Ras Tafari” cry de baldheads chillin my Irie but the brothas don’t care cause there’s coke in dey dreads and even Babylon look pretty in de…
I was never much of a child. I wasn’t a bad kid; quite the contrary. Adults always seemed to love me. They thought me well-mannered, soft-spoken, articulate, intelligent. You see, I was one of them. It was the other kids who did not like me. My mother always used to joke that I was born…
Raw, Naked Art 