[Landline] Comfort and villainy, pun and song

MF Doom, gardens, Kip Addotta's bouquet of flounders, Bob Mack R.I.P., rugby songs, perfumed shamans, step sings, more

1. KITCHENS AND GARDENS, ART AND NATURE

I check in periodically on the Arthur Magazine website stats to see what’s happening. The magazine has been defunct for years now but the site, which houses just about everything ever published in the rag, still gets significant traffic, with some posts getting occasional out-of-nowhere spikes driven by whatever contemporary cultural whim/flow/randomness/tragedy/celebration/intrigue may be going on.

Since late 2020, though, month after month, one piece has consistently attracted so much more traffic than anything else that it is in a category of its own. It’s this one, from Arthur No. 14 (Jan. 2005):

Clipped from the original magazine layout. Art direction by W.T. Nelson.

The immediate reason for this post’s popularity is, of course, sad: MF Doom died in 2020, far too young, and in grieving, fans since then have searched out everything they could find regarding this remarkable character. But the reason for the post’s continuing popularity is beautiful, too: it’s a good recipe, a good little piece, and a fantastic, candid color photograph (note the baby’s arm!). (You can see it all here, in color, for free.) I’m so glad we published this modest piece. I like to think it brings comfort, cheer…and a good square villainous meal. All good things!

One thing we never got around to at Arthur — and, as editor person, this was my fault — was to switch from visiting a musician or two in each issue in their kitchens to visiting them in their gardens. “Back to the Garden.” I had visions of artists talking about what they were growing, and why; I thought it might be a fun way to get the shyer ones to talk, or just to get some good copy that wasn’t the usual ‘how did you make this album’ stuff (which of course has its place), and we’d get to learn about plants. Plus, from a visual point of view — this was a print magazine, after all, as an editor you have to think about catching the reader’s eye — think of how the accompanying photos would pop: flowers, vegetables, herbs, fruit, soil, bugs, birds, animals, probably some statuary, or a bathtub…and a fascinating musician, villainous or otherwise.¹

In other words: art and nature, harmonizing².

I’d still like to do that sort of thing, here on Landline. So: If you’d like to share your garden with Landline readers — or a garden you know about, especially including botanical gardens — please reply to this email and we’ll talk about how we could best present it. (And just to clarify: this invitation is open to everyone, not just working musicians or artists.) Or if you just want to leave a public comment/reply on this subject, push the button below:

2. MAIL ABOUT SINGING IN PUBLIC

Speaking of reader participation! The previous Landline, regarding public singing, generated a number of wonderful replies and remembrances. Here are three:

From Dave Heumann of the band Arbouretum:

A brief tour story comes to mind. We were in County Cork, Ireland, staying in a run down B&B that the promoter put us up in. The rooms were above a pub, and I remember coming down there at around noon to hear a cider-drinking pensioner suddenly start singing in Irish, somewhat quietly, to nobody in particular. I found it to be a really powerful and memorable experience because although he was singing in public, he didn't really seem to care if anyone heard him or not. There was no sense of performing, as I had been doing the night before; he was just sitting with others, singing to sing.

From Richard Nash:

I participated in one two weeks ago, in the Stade de France in Paris for the Ireland-Scotland World Cup Rugby game. The Cranberries’ Zombie has been adopted by rugby fans³ (along with The Fields of Athenry). Yeah the stadium sound team get it started cause there’s no way around that these days but they let us go a cappella at the end :)

@rugbyworldcupWhat an atmosphere at the Stade de France 😳 #rugby #RWC2023 #Cranberries

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Also, I remember on TV, the previous week, after the Ireland vs South Africa game, the announcers just stopped speaking. For a minute. And the only sound was the fans all singing Zombie. 

And from Arielle G.:

I wanted to send news of Bryn Mawr College's "step sings." Our kiddo is a first year at Bryn Mawr now, and one of the reasons it was her first choice (and why we all fell in love with it) is that they hold these sacred traditions/rituals that I think few colleges bother with anymore. And after each of the three "major traditions" (including the upcoming Lantern Night and a very pagan-inflected May Day), there is a "step sing," at which all the students stand outside on the steps of buildings and sing the labor union song "Bread & Roses," odes to Athena (the school's patron goddess), and other specific songs chosen by each class or for the occasion. Here's a sort of bad video of one such step sing: 

3. A BOUQUET OF FLOUNDERS

This ancient Kip Adotta tune, a Dr. Demento favorite, came on the car radio the other day and I smiled for five consecutive minutes, which was very welcome given the state of my mind regarding what is going on right now⁴. Anyways, nothing I say here can prepare you for the endless flood of aquatic puns about to engulf you…

4. R.I.P. BOB MACK

Writer and editor Bob Mack died recently⁵, and I am very sad for those who knew him during good times. The work he managed to get into print, often despite himself, was very alive, culturally omnivorous, ridiculously influential and hugely inspirational. The early issues of Grand Royal, especially, endure. I hope an archive of Bob’s writing, and remembrances from friends, family, associates and colleagues, comes into being. Until then, via someone on the internet, here’s scans of the complete, infamous Grand Royal #2…

caption...

Sweet dreams descend on all,

Jay Babcock

Arizona

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1. One of my favorite artist-gardener-naturalists would have to be Lord Whimsy, whose The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Vol. 1 is still providing spiritual-comic stimulation 17 years after its publication as an exquisite Bloomsbury hardback. From page 91: “Dandies, being perfumed shamans, reside within the twilight realm that exists betwixt the worlds of the animate and the inanimate. Because of this, dandies identify strongly with plants, who like themselves are living things that seem to emulate the sculpted as much as the grown.” It goes on and on like this, with diagrams, for 160 pages. Amazing.

2. For more on this subject, kind of, see previous substack.

3. See: “How did the anti-IRA Zombie by The Cranberries become an Irish rugby anthem?” by Hugh Linehan (Sep 23, 2023 Irish Times)

4. To be very brief: I am a longtime anti-Zionist Jew, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and I’ve added my name to this open letter. If you wish to know more about my views, I’ve been sharing them on my personal accounts across social media.

5. “Authorities ID bicyclist killed by LAX Airport”