Tag: warren-zevon

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut has died.

I worry that the stock of American masters is dwindling. Warren Zevon is gone. Kurt Vonnegut is now gone. Hunter S. Thompson is gone. Someday Lou Reed will be gone.

I worry that Saul Williams words in his piece, Bloodletting, are too true:

the greatest americans
have not been born yet

Who will take up the mantle? Who is our next Twain? Who will be the new Vonnegut? Who will take up where Warren left off? Who will be the new Richard Feynman?

What if these greats cannot be replaced? What does it say about our society if we cannot replenish our artistic stock?

I hope that artists like Saul Williams, David Eggers, DJ Spooky,and Kev Russell, Jimmy Smith and the rest of The Gourds are those next American Masters.

I hope we as a society have the foresight to invest in our culture as a form of national security.

Loss of Legends

I’m in San Francisco this week. (I definitely recommend Cafe Bean on the corner of Jones and Sutter. great coffee. great internet access.)

Sergio, Josh, and I saw DJ Spooky this weekend at the Hirschorn Gallery. It was a very interesting show. He spliced down 3 hours of WD Griffith’s Birth of a National (silent propaganda file used by the KKK) into his own 1 hour
digital affair called Rebirth of a Nation. It was certainly a very unique show. Check out more on www.djspooky.com. He is a very bright guy (with a philosophy degree) and is exploring all sorts of ways people interact and how media plans a role in all that.

Josh and I happend to mention that both Leni Riefenstahl and Warren Zevon were both still alive… they both died over the weekend. Although I can say I am fan of Hilter, Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is an amazing depiction of the Nurenburg Rallies.

Waven Zevon was a legend. He was one of the most amazing song writers the country ever produced. If you havent’ seen it, check out VH1’s Inside Out (a new show that just debut with Warren as the subject for its first episode.) This article has more on his and the show.

Well, that’s all from the corner of Jones and Sutter.