From the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002). The story of The Funk Brothers, a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history. Among […]
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” _________________________________________________________________ Last Page of The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the […]
Some photos around Petaluma, California in the Sonoma wine country. All taken with my iPhone. The abstract photos were processed with the ProCamera app manipulating the Curves function. Up here visiting my step-daughter Sarah and her partner Casey. I used to live just 15 miles north of here in Santa Rosa. It’s great being back! […]
(One of the first signs you’re not in Ohio anymore) _____________________________________________________________ “Instead of trying to bring a brilliant, intelligent, knowledgeable light to bear on obscure problems, I suggest we bring to bear a diminution of light – a penetrating beam of darkness: a reciprocal of the searchlight. Thus a very faint light would become visible […]
______________________________________________ John Fraim Defined by life cycles and chance in life. We are all born into cycles and understand their length. The cycle of the day is 24 hours. A month at 30 days. Four seasons. One year. The cycle of an individual life. We move forward through the cycle of our life. We see […]
In those years of the late 70s and 80s, when I was living next to Berkeley, and working in the city, I’d invade the Berkeley used bookstores over the weekends and often on weeknights. Of course Moe’s was really the place to go for book needs. At least on Telegraph Avenue, just a few blocks […]
(Inspired by an article in the London Review of Books. The attack on the final absolute in the world.) __________________________________________________________________________________ Trust the Science 10/25/21 John Fraim In our post-postmodern period of extreme relativity in almost every social and cultural institution, we strive for that something that is not relative. A type of life-raft to hold onto […]
___________________________________________________ Thought I’d share with you my email to Julia Hildebrand, author of the book I reviewed called Aerial Play. She is a professor of communications teaching at a Florida university. She is active in the Media Ecology Association and one of the major academics carrying McLuhan’s work forward into the new media of drones and […]
_____________________________________________ John Fraim Harold Mabern is one jazz’s greatest pianists. He was born in Memphis,and studied along saxophonists such as George Coleman and Charles Lloyd, pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. and trumpeter Booker Little. He is one of the top pianists of the 1960s hard bop scene, performing and recording with many of its finest artists. […]
Kamala & The Utopia of Space John Fraim Press the play button above to the Schifrin song before reading below __________________________________________________________________ It’s a bizarre video that’s painful to watch. Of course, I’m talking about the video that Kamala did in conjunction with NASA as the basis for a TV series. It starts off with shots […]
