[Landline] David Berman, Lodge 49, Vangelis and Paris in May 1968
“LANDLINE” — AN EMAIL BULLETIN BY JAY BABCOCK
No. 0019
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2021
1. LIVE FROM MALLARD’S CROSSING
I interviewed David Berman in 1999 by phone for what turned out to be a very small piece in RayGun magazine ahead of the publication of his collection of poems, Actual Air. I was exploring an the old hard drive recently and came across the raw transcript of our conversation, which was as full of David’s bright sparks as I remembered it to be. Discussed: shaving, corporate housing parks, stand-up and poetry, Charles Wright, Denis Johnson, Flipside poetry, Geto Boys, carpet as lawn, Jackson C. Frank, James Michener, Jewel, Jorie Graham, rudeness in Louisville, Michael Burkard, Patrick Nagel, and so on. I prefer to remember David, who I never met, this way: riffing non-stop, chuckling, interested in everything, even (especially!) Mallard’s Crossing.
Read the transcript here: https://jaybabcock.wordpress.com/2021/10/25/live-from-mallard-crossing-david-berman-on-actual-air-interviewed-by-jay-babcock-1999/
2. AFTER LODGE 49, THE DELUGE
Our beloved Lodge 49 is gone and not coming back, its life cut short at its midway point. But dry your eye. Lodge 49 creator Jim Gavin has started a new publishing imprint, Tiger Van Books, named after Cheech’s vehicle from the show, and the first book is already out: Shaky Town by Los Angeles author/food writer/writing instructor (and Jim Gavin mentor) Lou Mathews, a subtle cross-cultural regional symphony in novel form. Its pleasures are many, starting with the ESPO cover depicting a typically weird/beautiful building that’s an L.A. landmark to some of us, and going on from there.
Read the Tiger Van Books manifesto here:
https://www.tigervanbooks.com/manifesto
And listen to Jim and Lou himself talk about Shaky Town, writing and publishing (plus: what happened to Lodge 49; Joe Strummer; telescopic forks; proper mariachi band concerts; secret family recipes; great comic writers; Thomas Pynchon; etc.) with host Aug Stone on this wonderful 79-minute podcast:
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/etcetera-etc-with/episode-57-lou-mathews-jim-ma3dq0Ki_yh/
Or watch it here:
3. MAKE YOUR DREAM LAST LONGER THAN THE NIGHT
Gratitude to Edwin White of the tremendous Florida rock band Tonstartssbandht for hipping us all to this album in a recent piece on the Raven Sings the Blues blog. I own many (English and French-language) books on what happened in May, 1968 in Paris and somehow still was completely unaware that Vangelis (!) was not only living there at the time… he made a thrillingly gorgeous album in tribute to the romantic liberationist spirit of that moment. Edwin writes:
“Fais Que Ton Reve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit is an early Vangelis album released in 1972 in Greece and France. It was recorded in Paris during the events of May 1968, as well as from 1971-1972. Vangelis had been in town at that time with his group Aphrodite’s Child, who were apparently in limbo with customs for a prolonged period of time while en route to the U.K. The album is described as a symphonic poem. Its title was taken from a phrase seen written on a Parisian wall, among the many graffitied slogans covering the city that May.
“It consists of two side length tracks. Each is a stitched together collection of catchy protest songs, sung in stripped down folk styles as well as heavenly full choral arrangements shimmering with massive amounts of reverb. The short songs sometimes repeat in various styles across both sides, with field recordings of the riots and on-the-street interviews carrying you back into the live events.
“The LP’s thirty-one minutes never lag, and I always feel transported to a time and place I never experienced…. Doing this with such specificity, forever connecting future listeners with such an important geopolitical event, is an incredible feat. You are left with a melancholic yearning, for the things perhaps left unaccomplished by the movement. Yet the songs of the people instill pride and a powerfully uplifting feeling of optimism. One that rightfully should have been felt in May 1968, and which we should continue to feel and tap into when the time calls for it…”
Have a glass of quality red wine and a smoke of your choice, and listen to Side A here:
...and listen to Side B here:
4. A BRIEF HOUSEKEEPING NOTE
Landline is a free email newsletter I’ve been dispatching to over 4,000 subscribers since…2018. It’s a to-the-point epistle intended for friends, colleagues, food bank workers, old heads from the days of Arthur Magazine (which I edited), pastoral people, dharma bums, antifascists and other curious sweetfolk, made up of ideas, nudges and announcements that hopefully form a small bailiwick outside the cruddiness at large.
Starting now, I'm going to do Landline much more often, using this Substack platform. Landline will continue to be free, but I am hoping for small-donation subscriptions so I can make a go of this in a more real and substantial way. Hopefully it's worth the cost of one cup of coffee a month. I am grateful to you all.
More soon,
Jay Babcock
Tucson, Arizona
For folks who want to read more about France May 1968, this is the best account I know of... https://amzn.to/3otMshs