tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post3412005716680490291..comments2023-12-05T03:34:14.680-05:00Comments on <b>Issa's Untidy Hut</b>: Tomorrow: Issa's Sunday Service, #100 (100 LitRock Songs)Issa's Untidy Huthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-33842516960649033402011-04-26T07:53:18.411-04:002011-04-26T07:53:18.411-04:00Lyle, I think this comes from "The Life and T...Lyle, I think this comes from "The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg" film. It is only a part of what I remember her saying. <br /><br />http://goo.gl/C8gD0<br /><br />I think the full excerpt was on Patti Smith's myspace page, but I can't find. She spoke of a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks around the bed, chanting, preparing the way, as it were.<br /><br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-63425704645786555022011-04-25T22:56:43.059-04:002011-04-25T22:56:43.059-04:00The story of Smith's first meeting with Ginsbe...The story of Smith's first meeting with Ginsberg is in fact in <i>Just Kids</i> -- she told it with that wonderful combination of reverence and gentle (and somewhat self-deprecating) humor that infuses many of the stories she tells in the book.<br /><br />I hadn't known that she was in the room with Ginsberg as he was dying -- that story isn't in <i>Just Kids</i>, which basically goes up through the time of Robert Mapplethorpe's death in 1989 and the months afterwards. I have no doubt that it -- like the story of their first meeting -- is full of wonder.<br /><br />I've never seen her in concert. I've gone to only a few live concerts over the years, and the only musician I've gone to hear more than once is Joni Mitchell. (If my life had taken a couple of different turns at certain moments -- if I'd become a traveling music follower, as some people will chase the tours of Springsteen, or (used to) the Grateful Dead, for instance -- I might have become a Joni Mitchell follower.)<br /><br />But yeah, Patti Smith is one of the great ones too.Lyle Daggetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10731915540520704368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-2089970298573685422011-04-25T06:24:21.320-04:002011-04-25T06:24:21.320-04:00Smith is probably the musician I admire the most p...Smith is probably the musician I admire the most playing today. I've seen her in concert twice and she was transcendent.<br /><br />She tells two stories of Allen Ginsberg, I believe both were in "Just Kids" - one, about their first meeting in an Automat in NYC (when Ginsberg thought she was a good looking young man) and the second about standing in room during the process of his dying.<br /><br />Both were full of wonder.<br /><br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-23483484230720928322011-04-25T00:28:32.807-04:002011-04-25T00:28:32.807-04:00I liked Just Kidsd quite a bit. Not the best book ...I liked <i>Just Kidsd</i> quite a bit. Not the best book I've ever read or anything like that, I wouldn't go that far, but I did really like it, truly couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The great stories about the musicians and artists and writers she's known, the deeply moving and ultimately heartbreaking account of her relationship with Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith can really write.<br /><br />A few years back I saw the documentary film <i>All We Are Saying</i>, a collection of interviews with rock musicians, talking about music and their lives and the business end of making music in the present day. (The film was made, or released, in 2005.)<br /><br />In one of the segments featuring Patti Smith, she's talking about the balancing act of touring with her band and raising children, that there were periods of time when she pulled back from doing live concerts because she didn't want to leave her kids at home while she toured and she didn't want to take them along and put them through all of that.<br /><br />She then commented, in that context, on the need to make basic choices sometimes, and to think about the choices consciously, and she looked casually at the camera and dryly said, "Babies are cute, but they're not puppies."Lyle Daggetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10731915540520704368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-61170343548905007382011-04-24T10:27:35.567-04:002011-04-24T10:27:35.567-04:00Indeed, Charles. Experience is, no doubt, the gre...Indeed, Charles. Experience is, no doubt, the greatest teacher, but to have the experience passed along by an older mentor is second best.Issa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-15269290020271737482011-04-24T10:22:30.120-04:002011-04-24T10:22:30.120-04:00Practical advice there on the teeth. I don't ...Practical advice there on the teeth. I don't think I've ever heard that advice given at a commencement before.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.com