The Intermittent Newsletter #8

god and Frida Kahlo.

Apr 08, 2022

**‘Self-Portrait Along the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States 1932**’ by Frida Kahlo.

the poem:

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this afternoon,
god came to the door
embedded in thin wisps of gray hair
falling down across the face of a sixtyish woman.
he came in the green eyes of her expression
when she asked me if i knew why the world was breaking down.
i knew why,
but didn’t say.
she smiled, but kept on,
never breaking eye contact.
this is how it goes.—

god was comin’ in with the cold air too,
so eventually i gave her a polite smile
and said that i am okay with the state of the world because it allows good art to come screaming from the womb,
ask van gogh.
i said to have a nice day.
be well.
she said she might come around another time.
i said okay (but then i thought that van gogh wasn’t a very good example,
and i should’ve just pretended 
i wasn’t home).—

afterwards,
just after dark,
an icy rain began to fall,
full of temptation,
the way it henpecks at the window.

i should have said frida.
no, Frida.
i am powerless.-

behind the poem:

this poem is based on an interaction i had with a Jehovah’s Witness who came knocking (literally) at my door a few years back. the woman, quite nice & genuine, was trying to sell god to me with kind words. she was trying to sell god as a way to fix a world going quite mad (well, in so many words). i thought to myself how a world such as this—full of madness, chaos, upheaval, etc—creates good art, kind of like how a diamond is made. the struggle, the pressure…if all was well, & we were all saved, then what? of course, i said none of this to the kind woman at my door. & when she asked if maybe she could come back another time, maybe try again, i didn’t have the heart to tell her no. so it goes…

speaking of music…

as i am composing this newsletter, it is an overcast, chilly, rainy day. in other words: April in Vermont. but it is beautiful: the birds are emerging, singing, gathering. in many spots, growth has begun, just barely poking above the softening soil. i love it. this kind of weather for me requires instrumental music. lyrics would only detract from what is happening. i want a soundtrack, so to speak, something to accompany—but not get in the way of—the sublime awakening. while there are many musicians who make this kind of music, there are two in particular who i turn to most for this kind of thing: Marisa Anderson, & William Tyler. these two are both incredibly inventive musicians, both writing important chapters in the book of americana & folk music. amazingly enough, Marisa & William made an album together recently. it is called “Lost Futures” (released 8/27/21 on Thrill Jockey). while both of their individual bodies of work are deeply meaningful (seriously, check them out!), their work together is otherworldly. it is atmospheric, melodic, playful & serious, all at the same time. their connection is evident in every note they play. they came together to create something important. i encourage any of you reading this to listen to the album, or to the track i’ll link below. take a moment to observe the awakening world, & see where it gets you.

the opening track, ‘News About Heaven’ is just about as good as it gets. the way it opens to a long Violin note, opening further into a beautiful electric guitar harmony. absolutely dynamite stuff. check it out!

NEWS ABOUT HEAVEN

Phish jam of the week:

in early April 1998, Phish played four shows—two at the Nassau Coliseum, & two at the Providence Civic Center (i’ll spare you the long detailed reasons for their wanting to do these shows). these now famous gigs are referred to as “The Island Tour”. while the band was deep into a very funky musical period of their existence, by early 1998, it began to give way—a little—to ambience. by the summer of ‘98, that ambience became as much a part of their sound as anything else. they were able to create minimalist tapestries of sound, giving them yet another way of improvising in the moment. during the island tour, moments of this emerging style were evident, & helped (for me) make these shows as special as they were. a good example of this is the jam that comes out of their cover of Ween’s ‘Roses Are Free’, which opened up the second set of 4/3/1998 (show 2 of 4). as the band came out of the song, a long jam began to open up, soon entering into ambient territories, while still totally grooving. it was then that the music really began to…..breathe. & for a long time. check it out:

NASSAU JAM 1

parting shots: