Gerda and Her Companions.

A Village Romeo And Juliet.

From around the mid-1980s into most of the 90s, I had to split my time between Seoul and New York.

And as a way to live harmoniously with the chronic jetlag,

I decided to leave the decision of when to work and when to sleep entirely to the body clock.

Eventually my painting time had been set, while in New York, to start at sunset and end at dawn.

I usually started with a cup of black coffee and a bag of Chips-A-Hoy from the Lina's Deli that was located just around the corner and open 24 hours.

Past midnight, I would tune in to the Columbia University Radio for background music that were perfect for a mid-night reveries at the studio. Music heard were mostly vintage jazz, or the turn of the century classics, including operas and occasional organ recitles.

An early discovery was Delius.

One night, all of a sudden, I was subjected to two of his operas, played one right after the other.

These two operas, Village Romeo and Juliet and Fennimore and Gerda,

together lasted just over 3 hours.

(ardent-longing-pain-extasy-first-love....)

to be continued later~

Cheers to you'll!

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The Eagle is Back!

Summer of 1996. On a summer afternoon, while strolling down St.Mark's Place, towards First Avenue, I picked up a cassette tape from a street vendor. What brought the cassette to my attention was the cover photo that reminded me of the darkly lit Spanish portraits that I was often encountering at the Met and the Frick etc. Around this time, I was buying cheap cassettes and playing them on my new secondhand audio set(CoralSpeakers, RadioShackAmp etc.) while painting at this huge, well lit space that I was temporarily occupying. (PS: My apologies to the gentle artists who allowed me the use of the space and then regretted for a good reason! I hope to make it all up to you♡) The cassette was priced at 4 dollars, which was way beyond the norm. A recreation of the vendor's table. But the vendor looked sincere, so I didn't haggle. Later, a thought came to my mind that he the vendor lik

Parsifal

https://youtu.be/WLw-QIbCDkg parsifal 1985 . Throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, a new wave of German filmmakers brought new audiences to the art houses in towns like New York and San Francisco. Top sensation among them was Hans-Jurgen Syberberg. He highlighted the historical issues haunting the postwar Germany in films like Our Hitler, Ludwig The Virgin King, and Confessions Of Winifried Wagner. In Parsifal of 1982, he ignited on screen an exciting clash between the two powerful art forms. The motion picture and the Opera. The choice between the sentimental, heart wrending pleas of Wagner's music, and the vivid, beautiful displays of magical transformations that promisses much visual pleasure. I wonder what Wagner himself would have done to enhance his "TOAL WORK OF ART" with the visual magic that are possible now. Enjoy~ Parsifal Bayreuth All Contents Copyright by SungjoonJoh. 2022.

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