Walking Into Schuyler's Ocean: A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler by Nathan Kernan (FSG, 2025)

 

Walking Into Schuyler's Ocean by Tosh Berman

November 9, 2014

November 9, 2014

“The eye should learn to listen before it looks.” There is film history and then there is my film history.  In many ways film aesthetic finished when talkies came upon the scene.   When 8mm projectors came upon the casual consumer, where they can screen their home movies, some companies sold 8mm silent comedy shorts as well as vintage cartoons - I think Betty Boop and an early version of Mickey Mouse.  I have a strong memory of watching these films projected on the blank white wall in our house.  The noise came from one source, and that was the projector.  Sometimes the projector was faulty and caused the film to burn, which was at the same time, horrifying and fantastic to watch.   Watching Marie Dressler’s face as she burns on my parent’s wall, was in a sense my first version of an actual death.   No, she didn’t die, but her representation, what was projected, clearly died.  It was perhaps the first time that I experienced death.

I was always aware of death while watching films before 1928, because more likely these people that I’m watching are more likely dead.   I always believed in ghosts, but not the way that they are around to haunt us, or even aware of our existence.  I think of them as being a negative or maybe positive imprint on our memory, therefore they exist in our world as an image.   There is nothing more real than a location - and even if that location has been altered, there is something so important about the essence of “place” that one can’t erase its history.  Film I think is the practical working theory, where you go into a theater and watch a spectacle of death being played out in front of one’s eyes.   To listen, one needs to be aware of what they’re watching.  When I see film footage of someone I know, and they are now dead, it doesn’t bring their presence back to me.  It makes me realize that they are truly dead.    Whenever I see a photograph or a work on film, it is dead to me.   The past is death.  But the memory of the past is alive.  The difference is small, yet quite significant.

“I always say that I don’t want to be sentimental, that the ‘films’ shouldn’t be sentimental, and yet, I am conscious of my sentimentality.” I often acknowledged that Mabel Normand was the first person in cinema to actually throw a custard pie in someone’s face - I believe the first victim of the pie in the face is Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle.  That I used to watch as well, on my parent’s wall.  I never experienced a pie in the face, but it used to make me laugh.  Now, I feel a sense of tragedy, because that fleeting moment was one of happiness.   Both Fatty and Mabel had a sad ending in their lives, and the film they left was a memory of a moment’s blissfulness.   On the other hand, “excessive suffering brings with it a kind of dull insensibility and stupor.” I need to let the past go, so I can live.  Yet, there seems a need to preserve a past experience.  “I wish I could press snowflakes in a book like flowers.”

July 6, 2014

July 6, 2014

Today being the first Sunday of the month, it’s record swap meet day at the Pasadena City College, but alas, I can’t go, due to my daily job of writing a journal entry everyday this year (2014).  I could have cheated by writing one last night, and posting it early in the morning, but that would be not fair to me or to my readers.  The truth is I’m pretty much defined by not only by my everyday writing here, but also my vast collection of books and records.  In fact, when I die, I want to make my collection to be a part of a museum - which now, I think it should be the “Museum of Tosh.” This of course will be organized after my death, which in all honesty, is probably around the corner.  Nevertheless it never is too early to plan one’s estate and how it should benefit the general public, or at the very least a definite percentage of that public.

If you put a money value to my collection, it will not be significant, but what is important is that it is very much a self-portrait.  In fact, I would argue that compared to a photograph of me, or a “selfie,” my collection totally exposes my concerns, my loves, my passion, and in other words, the total world that is “me” and only “me.” Therefore if I was going to leave anything on this planet after my spirit leaves the earth, it should be my book and record collection.  Not to be played or read really, but more to the fact that one can enter my house and look at the bookshelves and see how my albums are stacked in various parts of the house. What I have is not really rare in the sense of recording being in its original pressing, but more of the ‘taste’ factor in having such a record in my collection.  Also bear in mind the fact that I have only albums that have great graphics.  One thing I can’t stand is an album that looks bad in my collection.  The cover can be torn up, the recording scratched up, but it needs to be a really cool looking album cover at the very least.

I think I have around 1,000 albums, which is not a lot, but the art of my record collection is keeping the inventory low, and the quality high.  Records that were made in the early or mid-60s is a significant interest for me.  I only obtain albums that are mono, because I feel the artists that time only listened to the mono mix.  That was the format, and stereo was just for Hi-Fi goons.  When I play one of my mono albums, I imagine the artist hearing that record with me.  I actually transport myself to a definite time and place, with that musician hearing this music for the first time.

I have this obsession with The Shadows’ first bass player, Jet Harris.  You need to understand that music is not only for the ears, but also the eyes, and therefore it is important for me that the artist is either good looking, or at the very least, interesting appearance.  Jet is unique to me because he is sort of a lead bass player, and most important of all, he looked incredible.   I collect Shadows albums, but only if Jet was in the line-up.  Also he must be on the album cover as well. In all honesty, The Shadows made great recordings throughout their long career, but the ones that are the most interesting, of course, are the early years with Jet Harris.  For me it’s the matching suits, the dance steps, and the spare sound of their instruments that makes it the classic Shadows world.  Also note, Jet Harris had blonde hair, and the rest of the band had dark hair.   For a band which had such a strong uniformed look, it’s amazing that they allowed Jet to keep his blonde hair in this band.  I also feel the same way with Brian Jones in The Rolling Stones.  The fact that his hair was blonde, compared to the rest of the band, made Brian stand out.  It is ironic that when Jet and Brian left their bands, they were replaced by musicians who had dark hair.

With respect to the Pasadena Record Swap Meet, the two most interesting albums I purchased there, are now my most favorite recordings.  The first album I bought there was Liberace’s “Liberace At Home” that came out in 1956 and on the Columbia record label.  It’s a fascinating album because it is just Liberace and his piano, and I don’t know for sure if he recorded the album in his house, but it is a very intimate recording and warm sounding.  Also the album is kind of a dark pit in Liberace’s soul.  Songs like “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” and “Solitude” are almost overwhelming in its ability to place the listener in a blue funk of despair, yet we need the poison to appreciate the beauty in life.  Without the darkness, there would be no light.

The second album of interest is “A Picnic Cantata, Sonata for Two Pianos” by piano players Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale.   The interesting part of this album is side one, which “A Picnic Cantata” composed by Paul Bowles, with lyrics by the poet James Schuyler.  The album came out on Columbia Records in 1954, but only released in Canada for some odd reason.  I know very little of Bowles music, but he is one of my favorite prose writers, and I love Schuyler’s poetry.  So this purchase was a no-brainer for me, and I have to say it’s an incredible piece of music.  Lyrically it is about a group of women who have decided to go on a picnic, and that is basically it.  The fact that the narrative is like a straight line from beginning to end, is superb to me.  No highs and no lows.  Just one consistent hum with beautiful music by Bowles sang for three operatic singers.  Both albums are perfection and the fact that I bought two such classy recordings at an indoor parking lot in Pasadena makes it even more important to me

Although once I’m gone (really gone) I don’t think I’ll miss the lack of attention, but now that I’m living (at this time) it’s important that I get notice and attention.  Therefore the thought of the museum is extremely important to me.  Afterwards, probably wouldn’t be an issue.

"The Last Avant-Garde" by David Lehman

I think one of the great gifts that America has produced are the poets associated with the so-called New York School.   Not really an official organization with a membership card, but they were friends who were closely connected to the abstract Expressionists as well as the merging of early pop painting.  With nice touches on the artist Larry Rivers.

Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, and John Ashbery are the heroes here, and this book by  David Lehman is a combination of group bio and lit critique on these unique writers at the right time and place.  If this book doesn't make you pick up a volume or two on these poets ... well, nothing will.  A great snapshot of life in the late 50's to mid-60's - and beautifully thought out and written by Lehman.  Essential history on poetry and art that still rocks.

Tosh Talks "James Schuyler"

My James Schuyler special. A great poet and I do a reading...

The Letters of James Schuyler To Frank O'Hara

I am a fan of the little book that you can put in your pocket and it takes a day to read. And this book is the perfect design. Also it strikes me as the ultimate NYC book as well. Although James Schuyler wrote some of his letters to Frank O'Hara from Italy and other locations - it still smells like Manhattan. 

Perhaps my two favorite poets (was it something in the Manhattan water?) of that time - and although in book form the conversation is one -sided a bit (no O'Hara correspondence from his side) it does give a remarkable feel of its time in the early 1950's. Really, really nice and beautifully designed edition.