James Schuyler reads

James Schuyler’s first public poetry reading, at the age of sixty-five, Dia Art Foundation, New York, November 15, 1988.

My favorites among the poems here: “Salute” (8:43), “February” (16:00), “A Stone Knife” (27:12), “A Man in Blue”(29:30), “December” (33:13), “Money Musk” (37:31), and “What Ails My Fern?” (42:28).

And courtesy of Google Books, here is the 1894 source for the title of that last poem.

Other Schuyler posts
From Alfred and Guinevere : Mildred Bailey, the stars, and us : A poem for the day : Willa Cather and James Schuyler

William C. Gerrity (1929–2015)

The Hollywood Reporter reports that William C. Gerrity, assistant director for the television series Naked City, has died at the age of eighty-six. Gerrity worked on 118 of the show’s 138 episodes. He also worked on A Face in the Crowd, The Boys in the Band, The French Connection, and other films.

Regular readers are likely to know that our household is hugely devoted to the Naked City series.

Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)

Art Store

Art Store , by the artist Barry Fellman, recreates the now-defunct Pearl Paint flasgship store (308 Canal Street, New York, New York):

The installation pays homage to this icon of the art community which provided both the great and the novice artist with their canvas, paint and brushes from the time of the Great Depression in 1933 to the closing of its last store earlier this year.

Art Store also highlights the ever dwindling support for art education in schools today as a result of budget cuts and the reallocation of funding from arts to other areas. Many public school teachers are left to purchase supplies out of their own pockets.

I am fortunate to live within driving distance of an independent art-supply store, the Art Coop in Urbana, Illinois. Like bookstores, record stores, and stationery stores, art-supply stores are an endangered species.

[Via Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.]

“Lush Life” plus

Chris Albertson (writer, producer, Bessie Smith biographer) has posted the 1964 recording of Billy Strayhorn performing “Lush Life.” But it’s a recording with a difference: preceding the performance is a conversation between Duke Ellington and the radio personality William B. Williams. As their conversation makes clear, this performance was being broadcast on WNEW. Oh 1964 airwaves.

Related reading
Billy Strayhorn centenary

Days and shootings

In the United States in 2015, mass shootings are outnumbering the days of the year: 336 days, 355 mass shootings. And we still do not have a majority of legislators willing to stand up to the NRA and enact stricter gun-control laws.

A wrongheaded “dead words” movement

“The goal is livelier writing. The result can be confusion”: “‘Use More Expressive Words!’ Teachers Bark, Beseech, Implore” (The Wall Street Journal ).

Removing empty words such as really from formal prose is a good thing. But for teachers to ban, say, I , it , said , see , walk , and why as “dead words”: that way madness lies. Such teachers fail to understand that putting in “better” words is not the way to better writing, and that plain words typically offer the most intelligent way to say what needs to be said. Dressing up in an awkward costume doesn’t make a writer look smart. It makes a writer look awkward — and dumb. Did I peruse the tome? No, I read the book.

The dumbness of one board of education’s “Said is Dead” list may be seen in its details: spieled , whistled , and verbalized, for instance, are preposterous substitutes for said. And miffed is not a substitute at all. (“Dumb list,” he miffed.) At least they were smart enough to leave out ejaculated .

From The Elements of Style, fourth edition:

Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs but load their attributives with explanatory verbs: “he consoled,” “she congratulated.” They do this, apparently, in the belief that the word said is always in need of support, or because they have been told to do it by experts in the art of bad writing.

Note especially the last sixteen words.

Related posts
Beware of the saurus : Ending a sentence with it

Nabokov: “Dixon Pink Anadel!”

Dr. Van Veen has been summoned to England to investigate a “teasy problem,” “a singular case of chromesthesia” in one Spencer Muldoon, forty, and blind from birth:


Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969).

I first thought that Anadel might be an invented anagram (it’s that kind of novel), but Anadel Colored Pencils were a genuine Dixon product.

Has any writer had more to say about pencils than Nabokov? I don’t think so.

Related reading
All OCA Nabokov posts (Pinboard)

Henry hat

[Henry , December 2, 2015.]

It’s been a long time since I last saw a pirate hat made of newspaper. Or, more lawfully, a sailor hat. I am happy to know that this hat is still a “thing.”

Related reading
All OCA Henry posts (Pinboard)

A note to the Google Maps lady

It’s “Easton, Pennsylvania,” not “Easton Pa.” Pa is down at the Crayola factory, picketing to bring back Raw Sienna.

At the Museum of the City of New York

After just two visits, the Museum of the City of New York, or the City Museum, has become one of our household’s favorite museums. We visited last week for the Folk City and Jacob Riis exhibits. A surprise: an exhibit of photographs by Carl Van Vechten. One reason I like smaller museums: they change the pace of museum-going. With less schlepping about, I find it easier to take my time. Elaine and I spent a good two-and-a-half hours in the Museum and could easily have spent more. (There are at least seven other exhibits now on view, three of which we had already seen.)

Even getting around the City Museum has its attractions. A spiral staircase is likely to wow younger and older visitors alike. A plain old stairwell is an exhibit in itself, with photographs and observations about New York on its walls. (The entryway reads: “This Is New York’s Most Exciting Stairwell.”) From Lewis Mumford (1979): “New York is the perfect model of a city, not the model of a perfect city.”

Here’s a photograph that gives a good idea of the stairwell. And here’s an OCA post from 2014, also singing the Museum’s praises.