Endings / New Beginnings

The Good Shit #001 – Helga Davis, David Byrne, Rafael Coronel

Greetings Dragons,

I’m back at my desk in Oaxaca after 2 1/2 weeks of traveling. As I warned you, I’m switching up the format while making the new album, Strange Karma. I’ll now present a round-up of the great art I saw and the great art coming up.

BTW, here’s the new video to go with the first single, a 15-minute piece. It’s best for laying down or journeying.

This week I’ll start with the best of what I saw in Austin, then cover the SF Bay and Guadalajara magic in the next weeks!

I encountered the first two artists at the Universe in Verse, a poetry festival (yes, that’s a thing) the night before the eclipse in Austin.

Helga Davis

In my memory, she was the first person to read. Perhaps the audience wasn’t quite in their chairs yet. She did her reading and stat down. Then she got right back up and called us into our bodies. She had us repeat the refrain of the poem “yes, yes, PLEASE” until the hairs stood on end, and we came to arrive with ourselves

Her podcast features fearless conversations with artists. I surely need more powerful black women’s voices in my playlist. She’s a legend!

David Byrne

He’s been one of my heroes for so long I didn’t even feel worthy to call him a hero. I was just his fan. As I aspire to stand on stages and connect, I now watch his presence on stage with a more exacting eye. He demonstrated how a consummate professional deals when his guitar only played the top five of the six strings.

Mistakes are unavoidable. If I’m waiting for myself to stop making mistakes before I trust myself, I’ll never stand on a stage with my heart beating wildly with joy and gratitude.

There was a second lesson here as well – transcendence takes time. He played a song he’d composed for the event. It was an absolutely fine song, sure. Did it knock me over? No. Would I have rather heard This Must Be the Place…? Probably. In reality, though, that would never have been as magical as what did occur, it just wasn’t as immediately gratifying.

Artists must be true to themselves and not people please the audience.

Rafael Coronel

Zacatecas, Mexico, 1932-Cuernavaca, Mexico, 2019

Colored ink and wash on paper

Another radical innovator, Rafael Coronel, was a member of the preceding Ruptura generation of Mexican artists who untethered art from revolutionary politics during the 1950s. Created in New York with colored ink and wash, Coronel's three untitled works depict religious figures during Holy Week. […]

Hovering, these mysterious figures all seem suspended in an undefined, liminal space at the front of the picture plane.

– Blanton Museum of Art

The Living Room

If you’re in Austin on the first Saturday of the month, there’s the most incredible storytelling event I’ve ever known of. It was absolutely electric. Each person’s story was a full-on catharsis for them and the audience. Check out The Living Room.

For subscribers only: where my travels take me to next