Another blast

Noel Coward in the last three years of his life was very ill and in constant pain.  He was treated for a urinary infection but that brought no relief. 
From the biography:
"He decamped to Jamaica for the winter but his 'stomach bug' caused discomfort and he felt ill for hours on end.  By early November, he was back at Passevant, undergoing tests involving a degree of pain.  But he was determined to be well, 'if it kills me'.  It was widely suspected-but not by Coward- that he had cancer.  [When warned against his chain smoking he switched to menthol's.]  ... after the tests were done the doctors said, 'We've got marvelous news for you.  You've got a kidney stone.'"
The biography does not mention treatment for the stone and he continued in pain till his death in 1973.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
       William Shakespeare's Sonnet XXX


Friday will be my second lithotripsy in as many months and I hope the last.
                              At Madison Square Park

Noel

I'm finishing the second biography on Noel Coward [12/16/1899 - 3/26/1973 and it can get very gossipy.  A lot of talk about who was sleeping with who.  Noel had two important long term relationships: Jack Wilson, and Graham Payn.  [Payn wrote the first biography I read.]  Then there were the affairs with the famous: James Cagney, Louis Hayward, Michael Redgrave and others.  He had developed such a reputation of inviting young male actors in his plays back to his rooms for a 'cocktail' that when he invited Dirk Bogarde, Bogarde had such a look on his face, Noel said; " Don't worry.  I am just across the street from the police, and you can bring your whistle."  As he aged Noel became more and more difficult in a bitchy way.  He had always been very witty but it became more and more caustic.  Walking across the street with a friend he saw an advert for a new film starring Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde titled 'The Sea Shall Have Them'.  Noel said 'I don't see why not everyone else has.'

Quite for no reason
I'm here for the season
And high as a kite,
Living in error
With Maud at Cape Ferret
Which couldn't be right.
Everyone's here and frightfully gay,
Nobody cares what people say,
Though the Riviera
Seems really much queerer
Then Rome at it's height,
Yesterday night
I went to a marvelous party

With Nounou and Nada and Nell,
It was in the fresh air
And we went as we were
And we stayed as we were
Which was hell.
Poor Grace started singing at midnight
And didn't stop singing till four;
We knew the excitement was bound to begin
When Laura got blind on Dubonnet and gin
And scratched her veneer with a Cartier pin,
I couldn't have liked it more

I went to a marvelous party
I must say the fun was intense
We all had to do
What the people we knew
Would be doing a hundred years hence.
Dear Cecil arrived wearing armor,
Some shells and a black feather boa,
Poor Millicent wore a surrealist comb
Made of bits of mosaic from St. Peter's in Rome
I couldn't have liked it more.

People's behavior
Away from Belgravia
Would make you aghast
So much variety
Watching society
Scampering past,
If you have any mind at all
Gibbon's divine Decline and Fall
Seems pretty flimsy,
No more than a whimsy,
By way of contrast
On Saturday last
I went to a marvelous party

We didn't start dinner till ten
And young Bobbie Carr
Did a stunt at the bar
With a lot of extraordinary men;
Dear Baba arrived with a turtle
Which shattered us all to the core,
When suddenly Cyril screamed fiddledidee
And ripped off his trousers and jumped in the sea.
I couldn't have liked it more.

I went to a marvelous party
Elise made an entrance with May
You'd never had guessed
From her fisherman's vest
That her breast had been whittled away.
Poor Lulu got fried on Chianti
And talked about esprit de corps.
Maurice made a couple of passes at Gus
And Freddie, who hates any kind of a fuss,
Did half of the Big Apple and twisted his truss,
I couldn't have liked it more.

I went to a marvelous party.
We played the marvelous game.
Maureen disappeared
And came back in a beard
And we all had to guess her name!
We talked about growing old gracefully
And Elsie who's seventy-four
Said A, it's a question of being sincere
And B, if you're supple you've nothing to fear.
Then she swung upside down from a glass chandelier.
I couldn't have liked it more.
                                   Noel Coward

 

Gay

Because of 'February House' and the Noel Coward biographies I have been ruminating on gay modern history and for me it begins with Oscar Wilde.  Gay men, of course have always existed, but the famous and talented were discreet. Then came Oscar and his love for Bosie.  It was Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queens-bury, who addressed Oscar as 'posing as a sodomite'.  Oscar would kiss young men in public and comment on their beauty.  Questionable public behavior and dangerous.  So dangerous that Noel Coward, forty years later, admonished Cecil Beaton: "Your sleeves are too tight, your voice is too high and too precise.  You mustn't do it.  It closes so many doors."
Famously, it closed the door of Reading Goal on Oscar in 1895 and it was a kiss that did him in.  Years later in 'The Ballad of Reading Goal' he wrote:

I only knew what haunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day
With such a wistful eye;
The man had killed the thing he loved
And so he had to die.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.

At his trial he was asked why he would often kiss young men in public.  He said it was a sign of affection.  When he was given a list of the young men there was one he said he didn't kiss.  When asked why, he said the young man was ugly.  His kisses were not a sign of affection but a sign of attraction.  The kiss that never happened did him in.


Oh Who Is That Young Sinner

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

'tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good ole time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

 Now it's oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God who made him for the colour of his hair.
                                                           A. E. Housman, 1895

According to 'February House', shortly after initiating a lesbian relationship with Erika Mann, Carson McCullers has a breakdown and takes to her bed for six weeks with a fever.  When she recovers she returns to her alcoholic and abusive husband.

Perversity

I figure if I have provocative titles I'll get more readers.
But also the stones have been a perverse pain in more ways than one.  They have altered my diet, my mood and my daily life.  I had the lithotripsy and it went well at the time but I've still had back pain.  Today is my first day without pain.  Friday I had the x-ray and I see the MD Tuesday June 5th.  I hope the stones are gone.

Got to get me one of those seats.  Spend too much time standing around waiting for people.
The photo was taken outside the met where I went to see the 'Steins Collect' exhibition.  I was very moved by Matisse's 'Woman with a Hat' and other pieces the Steins had collected.  [They are on view at the Met website]
I did not know that Gertrude and Leo's brother Michael and their sister-in-law Sarah were even more prolific collectors.  They were so admiring of artists that they had their home designed by Le Corbusier.

Where else have I been.  Went to the Public and saw 'February House'.  Excellent musical that I will write about another time.  Lots of movies from netflix, nothing special, basically reading and resting.


The farmers market at Union Square

 

And on the street:

The window display at Fisher's Eddy [silverware-silverwear?]

This is the 4th group of young people I saw asleep on the street within 10 blocks.

Persian Parade

 The Sun and the Lion is their national Symbol.

It was listed in the paper as the Persian Parade.  Some banners had it as the Iranian parade.  There were also people marching from Kurdistan and Armenia.  Most likely because the Persian Empire at it's height went from the Danube in the East to the Indus in the West and the Caspian Sea in the North to the Persian Gulf in the South.  Many of those people were marching for their homelands.  The state religion at that time was Zoroaster-ism, named for the founder Zoroaster AKA [also known as] Zarathustra.  I saw a number of banners for Zoroaster.  Also banners for Runi - a Persian poet of the 12th century and Mazdak who died around 524.  He was a religious activist who advocated communal sharing and instituted social reforms.  There was a banner wishing everyone a Happy Nowruz [Happy New Year - celebrated since Zoroaster.  It's the first day of Spring].  Another banner celebrating Yalda, the longest night of the year, and the birthday of Mithra, the god of Zoroaster-ism.  It would fall around 12/21 to 12/25. 
The Persian empire was frequently overrun by Greeks, Arabs, Turks and Mongols.  It was united as Iran in 1501 and was ruled by a monarch, the Shah, until the revolution of 1979.  Their were no banners for the Shah nor the Ayatollah.

 Every parade needs a marching band.

But not every parade has whirling dervishes.

Scandinavia House

Went to Scandinavia House for 'Keyboard Conversations with Pianist Jeffrey Siegel: Concerts with lively commentary'.
This particular day he was doing 'A Love triangle: Music of Robert Schumann [1810-1856], Clara Schumann 1819-1896], and Johannes Brahms [1833-1897].' 
The pieces that he played were:
Novelette in F Major, Op. 21, No. 1 by Robert Schumann,
Romance in G Minor, Op.5 by Clara Schumann [ both written as love letters, after her father forbade them to see each other],
Sonata in F Minor, Op. 5 by Brahms ,written when he was 20.  About the time he visited the Schumann's to study music with them.  Clara's father was a famous teacher and Clara continued to teach and perform.  She was considered one of the best teachers and a very popular pianist.  One of her students Carl Friedberg brought her tradition and style to the Julliard School in NY.
Romance in G Minor, Op. 21 by Clara.  She composed music and traveled all over Europe performing and promoting her husband's work and Brahms's.  She was the primary bread winner for her husband and their 7 children.  When one of her sons died and the other was institutionalized she became the primary breadwinner for her grandchildren too.
Intermezzo in C Major, Op 119, No. 3 by Brahms as a gift to Clara [after her husband's death in an insane asylum].  Brahms 'courted' Clara but she turned him down.
Intermission
Variations from Sextet, Op, 18 and Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op. 35 by Brahms.

 First there was a very good 3-course dinner.

 I was seated next to the tree, which got me in the Nordic mood.

 Then to the Victor Borge Concert Hall.
Had a great time for $34.

Caffe Cino

In previous blogs I've referred to this as Caffe Cino, the birthplace of the off-off broadway movement.
The double 'f'' is the Italian spelling, probably because the founder of the club was a first generation Sicilian-American.
Joseph Cino was born in Buffalo, NY on 11/16/31 and died in a NYC hospital on 4/2/67.  He came to NYC at the age of 16 to become a dancer.  His career was shortened because of his continuous battle with his weight and he retired in 1958.  The coffee house at 31 Cornelia Street was to be a place for his friends to socialize.  Perhaps some poetry and folk music but it became a place for playwrights and plays.   
Some of the artists whose works were performed at Caffe Cino were Tennessee Williams, Jean Giraudoux, Doric Wilson, Sam Sheppard, Lanford Wilson, Tom O'Horgan, Marshall W. Mason, William Hoffman and Robert Patrick.  For many of them it was their first public performance. 
Caffe Cino also became a social center for gay men at a time when bath houses and bars were the only places available.  That may have been the reason for frequent police raids and the payoffs that Joseph Cino often complained about.
His partner in life, Jon Torrey, an electrician, was electrocuted and died on 1/5/67.  On 3/30/67 Joseph Cino, with a butcher knife, hacked both of his arms and his stomach.  He died a few days later on 4/2/67, Jon Torrey's birthday.
Friends and colleagues tried to keep the Caffe going but citing cabaret laws a young, ambitious councilman named Ed Koch had it shut down.
In memory of Joe and Jon:

Chelsea Galleries

It's a beautiful April Day.

The lilacs at last in the dooryard bloomed

 1832 home on land once owned by Aaron Burr

And at the Galleries

Photo?

Photos

A lot of good photography on display.  I usually like to credit the artists, but this day I bumped into my friend Sandra, and was distracted.  I did pick up some info on two artists Andrea Galvani and I believe the people at the bank etc are by Robert Overby.

And from The newspaper:
David Schwimmer, of the TV show 'Friends', bought a 4-storey 1852 house on 6th Street between 1st and 2nd Aves for $4.1 million.  When the Landmarks Preservation Commission informed him that the building was being considered for landmark status he tore it down.  He's putting in an elevated six story residential building. Tuesday, scaffolding collapsed on a pedestrian who was then taken to the hospital "with non-life-threatening injuries.

What I'm watching:
'Ruggles of Red Gap'.  [Excellent choice Frank.  Glad you told me about it.]
It stars Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, Zasu Pitts, and Roland Young.  Written by Harry Leon Wilson, who wrote both the novel and the play.  Adapted by Humphrey Pearson, with the screenplay by Walter De Leon and Harlan Thompson.  Directed by Leo McCarey, who also did 'An Affair to Remember', 'Duck Soup', and 'The Awful Truth'.  The movie was nominated for Best Picture but lost to 'Mutiny On The Bounty'  also with Charles Laughton.  1935 was a banner year for Laughton.

Noel Coward

I discovered this exhibition last week when I went up to Lincoln Center to see Paul Taylor.

In conjunction with the exhibition the city is hosting a number events.  Yesterday I went to a marvelous party with Barry Dey, Simon Callow, Edward Hibbert, Dana Ivey, and Steve Ross at the Drama Bookshop.  Mr. Dey, O. B. E. devised the event.

Noel Coward, 12/16/1899 - 3/26/1973 made his stage debut at 11.  Then he proceeded to write 50 plays, hundreds of songs, dozens of musical theater shows, books of poetry, volumes of short stories, a novel [Pomp and Circumstance], and a 3 volume autobiography.
His first play was produced when he was 20.  When he was 25 he had 4 shows playing on the West End, among them 'Hay Fever'.  His first movie 'Cavalcade' in 1933 won the Best picture Academy Award.

Yesterday's show:
Steve Ross began with a performance on the piano, in Noel Coward's green velour dinner jacket, of 'Mrs. Worthington don't let your daughter go on the stage'.
Then Dana Ivey quoted Coward: "People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be.  It is what it used to be.  That's what's wrong with it." Then she continued for 4 or 5 minutes reading a poem? or song lyric? about what's wrong with opera.  Hilarious.
And so the show continued:
Mr. Dey, trustee of the Noel Coward estate and writer on Coward and editor of his collected works, narrated.
Simon Callow ... an essay on theater as an edifice.
Simon Callow and Edward Hibbert as 2 playwrights of differing theatrical philosophies
Simon Callow ...  reading an epithet for an aging actress
Steve Ross performing    'Why must the show go on?'   & Edward Hibbert doing 'Been to a Marvelous Party'
Barry Dey reading from an essay on 'Social Grace'
Everyone singing London Pride [the name of a London Flower].  It is a song from from WW-ll, that brought tears to Barry Dey and Simon Callow.  They said: "During the war years, and even after, that song was England's other National Anthem."
Then a reading  from a story about Coward's experience in London during the war years.    [ I think I mentioned in a previous piece that at one point in the war London was bombed for 70 straight nights]
Then everyone, including the audience, sang 'I'll see you again.'
Great time ... it had everything I love about theatrical events, wit, drama, terse-laconic-synoptic-pithy & breviloquent writing.  Plus, my 2 favorites, intimate space [ca. 80 seats] and  free!

There is a lot of Coward on you tube. & There are more events to come that I hope to see.

And on the street:

 
                                                     The Spirit of Audrey by John Kennedy.
Dedicated to the memory of Audrey Hepburn, UNICEF ambassador 1987 - 1993

Sisyphus

The April 9, 2012 New Yorker includes Adam Gopkin's review of books about Camus and other french writer/philosophers after the war: " Facing History, Why we love Camus".
Camus: "One must always imagine Sisyphus happy".
Gopkin: "to act decently while accepting that acts are always essentially absurd" is the only way to act.
Camus was not an evangelical.

My stones are moving and my Sisyphean smile is very weak.
It's been a busy week and writing will take me away from my absurd kidney.

Wednesday I saw a matinee of 'End of the Rainbow', starring Tracie Bennett.  It was written by Peter Quilter who has admitted that when he was writing the show he did no research.  Fans of Judy Garland are opposed to the show for that reason and also that the show is a very dark [negative] portrait of a great artist.  John Fricke, a Garland historian, has quoted Judy's daughter Lorna Luft who said Judy Garland's life had a lot of tragedy but she was not a tragic person.
My complaint with the show is that it is an impersonation, and about drug addiction more than anything else.  The story of great female performers who used drugs and died young is a popular pop culture topic.  Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Huston and others have battled addiction and died young.  Tragic lives?
For Garland see Jack Paar's interviews.  Not just witty, belly laughs.

Thursday I saw the Paul Taylor Dance Company at Lincoln Center.  Talk about fun.  They always make me feel good.  They did Aureole, Troilus and Cressida, Beloved Renegade, and Promethean Fire.  They are on You Tube.  Not as good as seeing them live but worth a look.

  

      
Friday: dinner at the Natural Gourmet, very good vegan dinner.

Saturday was a matinee at Lincoln Center.
4000 miles, a very entertaining drama about a young troubled man and his grandmother, is written by Amy Herzog and stars the great Mary Louise Wilson as the grandmother and an equally good Gabriel Ebert as the young man.  I found some of the drama was centered on the 'mystery of the young man's problem' which for me was not the most engaging part of the show.  Similar to 'The Lady From Dubuque' the 'problem' is easily imagined or expressed early on.  What is wonderful about both plays are the portraits of the central character and the performances of the actresses.
I never knew my grandmother but after the performance of Mary Louise Wilson and also having seen my mother with her grandchildren, I miss not having had that relationship.  Different than a mother's love. Maturity brings acceptance of others' foibles.  A good thing to have in relationships in or out of family.
  
Sunday: a day of rest.

The Center for Jewish History

Paul Stuart is celebrating 25years on lower 5th Ave.  The print on that jacket is of a woman.

The Center For Jewish History on west 16th Street is doing an exhibition on Moses Mendelssohn 9/6/1729 - 1/4/86.  He was a self-educated philosopher and writer, whose ideas are credited with creating the Jewish Enlightenment.  Although a lifelong Orthodox Jew he is called the father of Reform Judaism.  He is also the grandfather of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn.
After the exhibit I took a walk to the South Street Seaport for conversation and coffee with Angela.
This was Monday and today is Friday.  It's been a  busy week.

From the New Yorker:
Joan Acocella reviews  "When God Talks Back: Understanding the Evangelical Relationship With God" by T. M. Luhrmann, which confirms what I've always believed.  People, outside of all common sense, have created their own belief systems to escape responsibility for their actions.
James Surowieki on The Financial Page believes the economy is improving but slowly.  One of the facts that he states and I found interesting:
Last year the average car on the road was eleven years old, an all time high & people are now buying cars.

The Lady From Dubuque

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a new building designed by Frank Gehry that encompasses an entire city block on west 42nd Street.  It has 3 main stage theaters, a studio theater, rehearsal studio, cafe, bar, bookstore and concierge desk.  Begun in 2005 the center has committed to providing a ticket incentive for the next 20 years; so seats are $25 for the initial run of every production.  They devote an entire season to the work of one playwright, and there may be as many as 9 playwrights in residence at any one time.
This season has showcased Athol Fugard.  The plays of his they are doing are 'Blood Knot', 'My Children My Africa', and 'The Train Driver'.  They are also doing Will Eno's Title and Deed, Kenneth Lonergan's Medieval Play, and Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque.

The play was excellent.  I had seen 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' on broadway with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin.  I've also seen Broadway productions of 'Seascape' [2 productions], 'Three Tall Women', 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia' and some others off-Broadway.  Virginia Woolf is my favorite because the language is so beautifully poetic, and the characters are remarkably original and neoteric.  'The Lady' would be #2.  It has the bite of Virginia Woolf, the sparing.  It has the humor, the drama.  It's more overtly metaphysical then his plays that I have seen.  But the early revelation that the main character is dying of cancer empties the play of some of it's drama.  Still a wonderful show.  The name performer is Jane Alexander, who is The Lady From Dubuque, not one of the great Albee roles for an actress.  She and her companion [very well done by Peter Francis James] are mysterious visitors, who give comfort and eventual release to Jo.  The great 'Albee Actress Role' goes to Laila Robins as Jo.  Jo is hard, biting, sarcastic, cruel and dying.  I have not seen Ms. Robins before and that is my loss.  She is exceptional: compelling, sympathetic and always real.  I have been having seasonal allergies and Kidney stones so I almost cancelled but I am glad I went.  I had 2 hours without pain.
The title, as one character makes reference, comes from Herbert Ross, the founder of the New Yorker.  When he was asked who he thought his readership was, he said:  "Certainly, not the lady from Dubuque".   

Smoke Jazz Club

Wednesday, to celebrate Dottie's Birthday I took her to Smoke, a very nice, comfortable Jazz Club.

It's just a few blocks north of:

and right before you get to:

We had a very nice dinner.  Dottie had blackened catfish and I had grilled salmon.  We both had something to wash them down with.

We had come to hear:

and her quartet.  In honor of Woman's History Month she sang songs of great female jazz artists, Gloria Lynn's Wild is the Wind, Nancy Wilson's Guess Who I Saw Today and Sarah's The Thrill Is Gone, plus many more.
Great music, food, drinks and a lot cheaper than the Cafe Carlyle.  I'll be back.

Right now one of my kidneys is playing the Rolling Stones, and allergy season is very strong this year.  I hope the stones and allergies will pass real soon.