Here's a link to a short documentary (WHO ARE ESP? on Youtube) a fan made about the electronic/ambient music duo ESP, which my grandchild Donovan is one half of. It ends before they produced their latest album which they just toured for (Paris, London, Dublin, Oslo, NewYork, etc.). Proud grandpa, love the music and the mix of subtle humor and irony in their videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeHaUhynz90
Some of the Lally clan that made my Thanksgiving so full of laughter and love (from viewer's left to right behind me): my grandkids Donovan Lally and Deak Hotaling, my youngest Flynn Lally, my niece Michelle Lally Doyle and her husband Mike Doyle, my oldest Caitlin Lally Hotaling and her husband Ed Hotaling. As always, I feel like the luckiest person in the world.
[my son Miles and his partner Hannah, who are my housemates and caregivers, were at Hannah's family gathering]
My eldest, Caitlin, being featured in a promotional post for the hardware store she works at. Her grandfather, James Lally, co-owned hardware stores during his lifetime, up until my boyhood, so it's in our blood. Proud of her, as I always am of my kids and grandkids.
On the day after the election I got this in the mail, LOVE, JOE: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard, who, for those who don't know, was a uniquely original artist/writer/poet/collaborator and also one of the loves, and lovers, of my life. It helped my mood immensely.
Ever since I was a child in the 1940s, during and after WWII, I have found my solace in the arts, where the creative endeavors of others, as well as my own, have found ways to open my heart to the infinite possibilities of life. Everything Joe Brainard created, did that for me. And still does.
I remember (the title of Joe's autobiographical masterpiece) the thrill of seeing an envelope in the mail with Joe's distinct all caps lettering (see the cover of the book). His sometimes rambling thoughts and observations and enclosed drawings or magazine photos (and in the case of me and a few others, his sexual fantasies (I know, you're shocked)) always seemed like rare treats to me.
Daniel Kane has done a fantastic job of editing, choosing to group letters by addressee chronologically, so that you get the scope of each relationship amid echoes of events and gossip, which is like a full immersion into Joe's life and work and world (and wisdom), and his triumphs and struggles with it all.
Not everyone's "cup of tea" (as Joe might put it, i.e. in quotes), but if you already love Joe's work (if unfamiliar, read I REMEMBER) I think you'll love LOVE, JOE. And for me, love is always the answer.
"While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by the darkness and find the true light." —Jack Kerouac (from The Scripture of the Golden Eternity)
