Tito Puente, El Rey del Mambo by Carolee Ross

Recently I received a pleasant surprise. I saw that the United States Post Office had issued a commemorative set of stamps titled "Latin Music Legends," honoring Tito Puente, Carmen Miranda, Selena, Carlos Gardel and Celia Cruz. I went home and searched for the memorial I had written about my friend, Tito Puente, the year that he passed, June of 2000. This is from the archives of The Advocate/Greenwich Time, of the Times-Mirror newspapers and was originally printed on June 11, 2000. Following is the original article:

Tito Puente playing his beloved timbales

Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo, The King of Latin Music, the consummate showman, the man who never forgot his Spanish Harlem beginnings is gone.

He was The Man, way before Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony appeared on the music scene. He played for presidents and with jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Cubana songstress Celia Cruz and pop singers such as Tony Bennett.

Tito Puente, playing at the Palladium Ballroom in the 1950's

It's hard to believe that it is 40 years since I first saw him play at the Palladium Ballroom in New York City. Mambo was the rage of the time, with crowds flocking from everywhere to hear the music and see dance master "Killer Joe" Piro teach the latest steps. Jazz stars from Birdland, the club just down the street from the Palladium, came by to groove and dance. Greats such as Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Gillespie stayed to watch Tito incorporate jazz harmonics into his music, producing the Latin jazz or "salsa" for which he was famed. The 1992 movie, "The Mambo Kings, paid tribute to the era, when people danced through the night as Puente clowned and beat his timbales.

For anyone who ever saw Puente perform, it seems inconceivable that this vibrant whirlwind of a man with the dazzling smile, the wild sock of curly white hair, the magic, rapidly flying hands and the impish grin could be gone. It is quite an achievement in an age of rapidly changing musical trends that his genius has endured for more than six decades. For those who mourn his passing, his music will never die.

Tito Puente in "The Mambo Kings"

The man nicknamed "Tito" was honored with the keys to the cities of Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Hartford, received New York's Bronze Medallion and won an Eubie Award for lifetime achievement in the recording industry. He served as Grand Marshall of New York City's Puerto Rican Parade and in 1990, he received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. A five-time Grammy winner, he received an honorary degree from Columba University. Puente penned "Oye Como Va"  in 1963, which 12 years later would be a hit for Santana. During his lifetime, Puente recorded more than 100 albums.

In 1993, I had the privilege of interviewing Tito before his concert at the Stamford Palace and in September 1999, I watched him memerize an audience at Norwalk's Oyster Festival, as he gave encore after encore to a cheering crowd. When Puente asked how many Latinos were in the audience, there was a universal handraising. That night, everyone was Latino.

How It All Began

When Ercilia Ortiz Puente enrolled her seven year old son, Anthony "Ernestito" in the nearby branch of the New York School of Music at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, she never dreamed the boy would one day be hailed worldwide as "El Rey," The King of Latin Music.

Born shortly after his parents arrived in Spanish Harlem from Guanadillas, Puerto Rico, Tito grew up in the jumping, jiving era of swing music, listening to Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. Surrounded by the richly diverse Caribbean street rhythyms played by the street bands of "El Barrio," he was also influeced by the new music coming out of Cuba.

When Ercilia Puente observed her first-born's passionate obsession with Gene Krupa, she managed to quietly slip a quarter from her sleeping husband's pants pockets for the boy's weekly music lessons. Tito would later win a drum contest, playing Krupa's solo, "Sing, Sing, Sing," his keen ear remembering the riffs. Young Tito rewarded his mother by giving her a personal nightly concert, playing classical, pop and Latin songs. During our interview, Puente reminisced about his childhood and his mother's encouragement. "One of my earliest memories is played the Puerto Rican dana "Mis Amores (My Loves) for my mother," he said. "She loved when I would play that."

Although his mother had signed him up for drum lessons, it was on the streets that he learned to play mracas, cowbells, claves, shakers and bongos. "Percussion is the heart of it all," he said. "Your heart pumps like the claves. It's what's inside you, keeping you alive. It's the sound which has roots in Afro-Cuban musi and the heart and soul of my music."

Puente was a seasoned performer before he waws 12, playng with society bands as well as local Latin bands. His muical versatility landed him his first professional engagement at age 13, when he sat in as substitute in the Noro Morales orchester. The place was the famed Stork Club, then the home of New York cafe society.

The Rest is Musical History

In his early teens, Puente got permission from his father, Ernesto Sr., a factory foreman, to play a 12-week engagement with a sextet in Miami. After returning to New York, Puente became a regular for the Machito Orchestra where he made musical history as the first performer to play timbales standing up.

Tito Puentes' Timbales, now on display at the Smithsonian Museum

"In the old days, in jazz orchestras, the prcussionists were in the back. In the front line were the saxophones, the trumpets, the trombones," Puente recalled. "Part of my job was to give the cues to he trumpet players. They aways had to turn back to look for the cue. Then, Jimmy Fiaua, ho was the band's sax player and my right-hand man for over 40 years, said, 'Tito, why don't you stand up in front -- it will be easier to give the cues" And from then on, it was the rhythym section up front, the congas, the bongos, the cowbells, the claves and the timbales. And a little showmanship on top of it doesn't exactly hurt," he added. "I try to send out good vibration to the public -- they feel it and it makes them enjoy the music more. I don't have a beautiful woman in front of the orchestra and I'm not Ricky Martin, waving my hips and showing my belly button. I need the people to see I'm having a good time."

In 1949, after he graduated from The Juilliard School of Music, taking advantage of the G.I. Bill (he served a stint in the Navy) Puente formed his ow group, "The Picadilly Boys, and started playng regularly at the Palladium Ballroom, a New York dance club on 52nd Street.

"The place was a melting pot," remembered Puente. "Jews, Italian, Irish, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, you name it. Everyone was equal. They were there to dig the music and dance."

In honor of his early nurturing, Puente established the Tito Puente Scholarship fnd in 1981, giving grants to musically gifted youngters in the Latin community. To date more than 200 grants have been awarded. During our talk, he urged young musicians to "stay cool," and finish their educations, advising that above all, they should stay away from drugs.

"You need to keep yourself centered so that you can use your creativity to the fullest," he said. "Keep vibrant, keep experimenting. We need new arrangers, composers, instrumentalists. Study your craft so when you are called upon to work, you are prepared to be your best."

Asked what he wanted as his obituary, Puente laughed and said, "Maybe just put a pair of timbales on my grave."



In Praise of Norman Rockwell by Carolee Ross

Artist’s Americana is now considered high art

Triple Portrait by Norman Rockwell
February 13, 1960

 

When I was a young art history student, Norman Rockwell’s visions of an idyllic America were dismissed at “kitsch,” the ultimate in sentimentality and bad taste. The intelligentsia of the academic world met my queries about Rockwell’s status in American art with silent disdain.

            It seemed that the prolific Rockwell, whose illustrations appeared in the Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963, was one of those artists whose destiny was to be cherished by the public and detested by the connoisseur.

            There are probably a lot of red-faced professors now, for Rockwell’s status has changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

An Astonishing About-Face

            Art critics and scholars are now doing an astonishing about-face and the frigid dividing line between art for the masses and art for the elite is experiencing a quick meltdown and critics such as Robert Rosenblum, art critic for Artforum and professor of fine arts at New York University, and Paul Johnson, critic for the Spectator, are jumping on the Rockwell bandwagon.

            Writes Rosenblum, “We have a newborn Rockwell, who can no longer be looked at with sneering condescension and might well become an indispensable part of art history. In order to enjoy his unique genius, all you have to do is relax.”

            “Who was the most popular painter of the 20^th century?” asks Johnson. “I suspect the true answer is Norman Rockwell. . .Rockwell will slowly come to be ranked among the Old Masters, as he is already firmly wedged in humble hearts and minds. People do not like Picasso, they just feel they ought to, but they genuinely love Rockwell’s painting.”

            “Pictures for the American People,” a show that traveled throughout America a few years back, making its debut at Atlanta’s High Museum, featured all 322 of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post magazine covers and more than 70 of his paintings.

            Says Ann Morgan of the High Museum of Art and a former Rockwell model (she posed for his Crest Toothpaste ad in 1957) notes: “Rockwell scholarship has been very superficial. People see him a sentimental, but a number of his works are quite complex and profound.”

            High Museum’s director, Ned Rifkin, points out that Rockwell was one of America’s most successful mass media artists and makes connections to the posters and illustrations of 19^th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and to the pop artists of the 1960s. “It’s amazing how Rockwell created and distilled images into icons of popular culture.”

Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1949

A Master of Genre Painting

            Rockwell gave the American public exactly what it wanted, a 20^th century version of genre painting, or art of the common person. In a way, he is the descendant of 19^th century American masters William Sidney Mount, Caleb Bingham and Winslow Homer, who gave their vast audiences scenes from everyday life – children, farm life, people at work.

            What does Rockwell have in common with these artists? Adherence to facts, directness of vision, clarity and solidity. He was intrigued and captivated by the human condition and helped shape the iconography of the mass media of his time.

            But although he filled his pictures with bushels of visual facts, Rockwell was a fabulist, not a realist. He was, at heart, a propagandist for The American Dream, exaggerating the admirable and pleasant qualities of American life – the corners and outposts of our culture.

            Why is Rockwell’s popularity soaring? Because since the days of the disappearance of open plains and horse and buggy, Americans have sought a return to what they believe are simpler times.

Saying Grace, 1951, by Norman Rockwell
in the collection of Steven Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg a proud Rockwell collector

            Movie director Steven Spielberg owes a debt to the art of Norman Rockwell, He owns “Saying Grace,” a Thanksgiving 1951 Saturday Evening Post cover, depicting a little boy and his grandmother, saying grace before their meal in a big-city restaurant filled with truck drivers and businessmen. This is quintessential Rockwell.

            Spielberg a trustee of The Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, also owns 13 other Rockwell original paintings.

My Adventures as an Illustrator

            In his 1960 autobiography, “My Adventures as an Illustrator,” (Harry N. Abrams) Rockwell wrote: “The commonplaces of America are to me the richest subjects in art; boys batting flies on vacant lots, little girls playing jacks on the front steps, old men plodding home at twilight, umbrella in hand – all of these things arouse feeling in me. Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.”

The Problem We All Live With

"The problem we all live with" — by Norman Rockwell , depicting an incident in the American Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s, when Ruby Bridges entered first grade on the first day of court-ordered desegregation of New Orleans, Louisiana public schools (November 14, 1960). Originally published in Look Magazine.

The painting is currently displayed in the West Wing of the White House, just outside President Obama's Oval Office.

          Rockwell also loved the movies and illustrated several movie posters between 1942 and 1966, including “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “The Song of Bernadette,” “Along Came Jones,” “The Razor’s Edge,” “Cinderfella,” and the 1966 remake of the classic, “Stagecoach.” In his portraits of well-known actors, Rockwell infused his canvases with subtle nuances of the personality each actor sought to portray.

Workaholic Rockwell

            Norman Rockwell was a workaholic, who painted from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. Born in New York City on February 3, 1894, Rockwell’s greatest desire was to be an illustrator. He found success early, painting his first commission for Christmas cards before his 16^th birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director for Boys Life Magazine.

Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913
Illustration for Boy's Life Magazine

            Rockwell produced work for leading magazines such as Life, Literary Digest and Country Gentleman, and did his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1916. Over the next 47 years, Rockwell created 321 more covers for the Post, including “The Four Freedoms,” which had been rejected by dozens of bureaucrats at the War Department in Washington, D. C. He presented the idea to editor Ben Hibbs, who urged him to create them for the Post.

Freedom of Speech from The Four Freedoms
by Norman Rockwell

            President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a letter to Rockwell, stating: “I think you have done a superb job in bringing home to the plain, everyday citizen, the plain everyday truths behind the Four Freedoms – I congratulate you.” The paintings were made into war bond posters and went on a 16-city tour that brought in more than $132 million for the war bond effort.

The Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell

            In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy and placed it under the custodianship of The Normal Rockwell Museum at the Old Corner House in Stockbridge. Rockwell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, the highest civilian honor for his vivid and affectionate portraits of America. He died at his Stockbridge home on November 8, 1978.

The Connoisseur
by Norman Rockwell

In 1961, Rockwell's studio was temporarily transformed into an abstract expressionist's workplace while he painted The Connoisseur. The purpose of this work was to show the relationship between conventional and modern art. Always fascinated by modern and abstract art, Rockwell designed a cover in which he could acknowledge his appreciation of the genre by emulating Jackson Pollock's style. By placing his back to us, he leaves the interpretation of the museum visitor’s reaction to the viewer.

Author's Note: Due to an injured hand, the author of this blog is having trouble typing her articles. Thanks to the kindness of Sophia Gevas, director of Sacred Heart's Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dr. Marek Bartelik, curator and author and Donna Callighan Photo Designs, Photographer of the artworks in the exhibit, I am able to bring news of this new exhibit to the art-loving public.

GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART TO EXHIBIT 'VOICES IN THE STREETS' POLISH POSTERS from the Collection of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York,

Curated by Marek Bartelik

Introduction by Director Sophia Gevas

Through the images in these thirty-nine posters, we are fortunate to gain insight into the visuals that accompanied Polish street life in the 1970s and 80s. During this time these posters functioned as town criers as well as art works, informing the public about cultural events. They allowed artists an opportunity to express themselves in ways that were not as restrictive as the arts under Communism traditionally were. They flew under the radar. And did they fly!

Artists did not restrict themselves to what we might think of in the West as typical commercial advertising. Often more typical of painterly, expressive compositions than graphic art, these works redefined the poster.

Many of these powerful images—advertising films, plays, art exhibitions, musical performances and more—were created for a public that was walking through the city and played a huge part in energizing the streets­.

~Sophia Gevas, Director

Jerzy Czerniawski

Voices in the Streets, Polish Posters from the Collection of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, opened on Sunday, January 22.It is curated by Marek Bartelik.

The exhibit will include 39 works by artists belonging to the legendary Polish School of Poster, reaching back to the 1950s and focusing on the generation active in the 1970s and 1980s – prior to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. It will run until March 1 and is free and open to the public.

Henryk Tomaszewski

The show will feature the work of Tadeusz Trepkowski, Henryk Tomaszewski, Franciszek Starowieyski, Jan Mlodozeniec, Jerzy Czerniawski, Erol, Jan Sawka, and Stasys Eidrigevicius. These artists have been internationally praised for their innovative graphic language that blends sharp humor and wit with astute observation of life. The works are predominantly posters for foreign and domestic plays, films and other artistic events. They include Tomaszewski’s poster for Witold Gombrowicz’s History (An Operetta) and Franciszek Starowieyski’s poster for Molière’s Don Juan, both performed at the Teatr Nowy (New Theater) in Warsaw in 1983.

A Phantasmagoric Polish Poster
by Market Bartelik, Curator

The popularity of Polish poster art, which began in the 1950s and reached its peak in the 1970s, is a success story for the country that struggled to make its mark on the international art scene prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After the emergence of the so-called “Polish School of Poster” in the 1950s, exhibitions organized around the world turned several local artists who specialized in poster design (in fact they blurred the boundaries between being an artist and a designer) into instant celebrities. Scholars and critics have scrutinized their achievements in numerous publications in a celebratory manner, creating a myth that presented those artists as local stars, who managed to beat all kinds of odds, political and economic included, and developed a highly unique Polish style in art.

With the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the Polish School of Poster collapsed as well, turning its artistic production into an instant relic associated with an unpopular political past. In fact, with the rapid development of new political and economic systems the old artistic culture associated with street art (poster making included) vanished practically overnight. With the emergence of new forms of communication, such as the Internet and digital media, posters lost their special appeal to advertisers. Furthermore, globalization contributed to the uniformity of poster design, resulting in making most of the works produced in Poland look formulaic, many of them like ersatz versions of the works from the past.

Jan Sawka

As has been already extensively documented, due to the exceptional accomplishments of a small group of charismatic artists that included Tadeusz Gronowski, Eryk Lipinski, Henryk Tomaszewski and Tadeusz Trepkowski, poster art gained a prominent position among artistic expressions in Poland under Communism, despite the challenge to it from artists who aspired to embrace high values in art and opposed traditional representation associated with posters. For those opponents, the poster was neither too political nor political enough. In reality, because of its status as“street art,” posters did not have to communicate covert political messages to be considered “political” by the Polish authorities or public; using such a loophole, many of the best poster artists employed their talents to celebrate, above all, local and international culture and the arts. The medium was the message. This resulted in a peculiar transformation of the Polish School of Poster: instead of becoming more medium-specific as modern dogma demanded, it became increasingly painterly. With the widespread popularity of Pop Art, formal and technical distinctions between painting, prints and graphic design became programmatically blurred.

As Polish posters increasingly resembled paintings inscribed with a text, poster art becamea hybrid “metalanguage” in its own right.
The works in this show display the visual modality of the Polish School of Poster: hand-painted graphic forms, suggestive rather than descriptive, harmonized with succinct typography, and executed in bold, vivid colors. They are whimsical and fantastic, but can also be gloomy and disturbing. The first wave of poster designers, which emerged after World War II, often championed a humorous yet “aristocratic” asceticism of form and total synchronization of images and typography. To that language, subsequent artists added the more “plebeian,” cartoon-like, and collaged simplicity and flatness associated with Pop and folk art. Many Polish poster artists played with the verbal-visual conflation in an iconic fashion, which is a staple of the School.
In fact, the importance of humor in Polish posters should be stressed here, for both the censors (prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, all posters had to be approved by the censors before they could be printed) and the artists were aware of the Polish public’s ability to read between the lines. Humor – deliberate or unintended – often played a decisive role in determining the popularity of a film or play. But, more importantly for most Poles, the double-speak often conveyed in posters had a broader significance: It was a form of quiet dissent through laughter.

In the end, it was the poetic aspect of posters produced in Poland in the 1970s that took a specific visual representation beyond the temporal realities associated with an oppressive ideology and a given mobility of the street audience and brought it to the realm of unifying discourse with a universal appeal. Historically, communication with strong poetic components protected Polish culture in the country under occupation, and foreign domination, which lasted from the early 19th century until the late 1980s. Poetic speech personalized Pole’s experience, while assuring them that they shared a language despite their political differences. Thus they embraced the role of imagination, with its own pattern of logic and temporal links which, in fact, poster art helped foster and externalize in the otherwise rather gray reality of the Polish streets and the boredom it produced, without succumbing to pure escapism.

Dr. Bartelik is an art historian, art critic and poet specializing in 20th century art and theory of art. He arrived in the United States in 1985, has given lectures, since 1996, on modern and contemporary art at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art of New York and has taught art theory at MIT and Yale University. He is the president of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). After accepting the presidential post, Dr. Bartelik declared a desire to strengthen the AICA as a vital platform in the expression of art ideas to strive for higher standards of excellence.

“Through the images in these posters, we are fortunate to gain insight into the visuals that accompanied Polish street life in the 1970s and 80s. During this time, these posters functioned as town criers as well as art works, informing the public about cultural events,” said Sophia Gevas, director of the Gallery. “Flying under the radar, they allowed artists an opportunity to express themselves in ways that were not as restrictive as the arts under Communism traditionally were. Artists did not restrict themselves to what we might think of in the West as typical commercial advertising. Often more typical of painterly, expressive compositions than graphic art, these works redefined the poster. These powerful images — advertising films, plays, art exhibitions, musical performances and more — were created for a public that was walking through the city and played a huge part in energizing the Polish streets.”

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield, is open Monday – Thursday, 12–5 and Sundays, 12–4. Admission is free. For further information, please contact Sophia Gevas at 203-365-7650 or gevass@sacredheart.edu. Website: http://artgallery.sacredheart.edu.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Rocks the Christmas World

by Carolee Ross

The Transiberian Orchestra on Tour

            It's a Christmas concert not to miss, enhanced and electrified -- blazing and blasting with the energy of laser lights and pyrotechnics; a six-piece rock band, two guitars, two keyboards, bass drums, an eight-piece string section, six vocalists and a narrator. It's the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which now has two TSO ensembles traveling throughout the United States

In the 60s and 70s, this musical experience would have been called a "happening." The sensory effect has been described as a witnessing a rock opera that takes its inspiration from The Who's "Tommy," "A Christmas Carol," "The Nutcracker Suite" and combines it with the gospel fervor of Mahalia Jackson, transforming it all into a heady spectacle. 

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a magical fusion of sight and sound, with nothing else remotely like it, blends rock, heavy metal, the elegance of classical orchestra and showtunes with rhythm and blues.

In TSO's creator Paul O´Neill's words, “As a band, we like having no limits. I like to think of our albums as large, old castles. They're magical from a distance or even close up, and the further you delve into them, the more there is to find. It's magical just to go inside, and it's magical just looking at the walls and wondering what might be behind them. But if you ever knock down a wall, what's behind it may, or may not, be the most magical thing of all.”

How Trans-Siberian Began

Trans-Siberian Orchestra was formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill, a New York City native who performed as rock guitarist in the touring productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Hair" and produced Aerosmith's platinum "Classics Live, Volumes I and II."

Paul O'Neill

O'Neill approached long time friends and collaborators Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva to form the core of the writing team. The trio produced the metal band Savatage album, "Hall of the Mountain King." Trans-Siberian Orchestra was formed as an offshoot of Savatage after its 1995 single "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" became a hit. O'Neill was looking for ways to make the music have greater and greater emotional impact -- searching for music that was so melodic it didn't need lyrics as well as lyrics that were so poetic they didn't need music. His solution was putting the songs within the context of a story to give the result a third dimension.

Jon Oliva

O'Neill began writing not just albums, but rock operas coupled with intimate, loving settings. Says O'Neill, "It's about creating great art. The purpose of art is to create an emotional response in the person that is exposed to that art. Good art will make you feel an emotion that you have felt before; you see a picture of a forest and you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, you hear a song about love and you remember the last time you were in love. Great art will make you feel an emotion you have never felt before; seeing the Pieta, the world famous sculpture by Michelangelo, can cause someone to feel the pain of losing a child even if they've never had one. The emotions of love, empathy and laughter are much harder to trigger, but since they operate on a deeper level, they bring a much greater reward."

On the Road with Bob Kinkel

            Keyboardist, composer and music producer Robert Kinkel took out time from the Christmas road tour to talk about almost ten years of performing, making albums and touring with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. During the phone interview from Toledo, Ohio, he noted that while the constant touring could be grueling, it was worth every minute of the hours of rehearsing and travel.

Robert Kinkel

            "Our first tour was in 1999 and we didn't even know if anybody wanted to come see us live," he says. "The first show sold out in an hour and a half. And we went… Whoa! Somebody wants to come see us."

"Live performing is incredible. We can feel the energy from the crowd. Even when we're tired, when you hear the audience cheering, and we get recharged," says Kinkel. What's so amazing is that we get people at our concerts from all walks of life -- your hard rockers, your classical music buffs, children, families and grandparents. Maybe it's because we've taken Christmas music and are doing it a whole different way."

            Kinkel notes, "The show takes up 180 degrees of vision, with lights coming out over the audience and lasers spreading out everywhere. If you're sitting up above, we've been told that it seems as if the audience is looking through a translucent atmosphere of light to view the band. Bryan Hartley is our lighting designer and he's done work for Kiss and Meat Loaf." We just tell him, 'go out there, pull out all the stops and go for it!' "

            Pausing a moment from his exuberant description of the tour, Kinkel takes a moment to remember late band member Daryl Pediford. "He was the most amazing singer and had the sweetest soul of anyone I've ever known. It's hit us all pretty hard but we feel his presence as if he's on the tour with us."

The Performance

            Trans Siberian Orchestra's two-and-a-half hour long show is about an angel's journey to find one thing on Earth that signifies Christmas, mysterious strangers who do good deeds and bars full of people feeling the joy of the holiday.

            The first half of the performance is generally "Christmas Eve And Other Stories." The second half is a bit looser, with songs from "The Christmas Attic" Attic" and "Beethoven's Last Night" with more audience interaction.

TSO has also recently released The Christmas Trilogy Box Set. The set will include Christmas Eve and Other Stories, The Christmas Attic, The Lost Christmas Eve, and The Ghosts of Christmas Eve DVD. For more information on Trans-Siberian Orchestra, visit their website, www.trans-siberian.com or visit their Facebook Tour page.

Suburbiad: An Epic Poem in Couplets

The City
by George Grosz
oil on canvas
1916/17
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection,
Madrid, Spain

This poem is the work of a collective group of surrealist poets who worked together a long, long time ago, in a town about fifty miles outside of New York City (the Mecca). It has pathos, passion and sorrow -- wrapped in ambiguous characters, and awkward symbols.                                      

       (with respects to El Grande, Robert Hughes, and the late and great John Lennon)

Near docile Green Hills and gentle, lapping Sweet Sound

Lies a land in which artists and writers Abound,

It is, as you know, an Ambiguous Region

Of which Sages and Analysts all ponder in legion,

Oh, Children, Kind Strangers, and Interested Lecherous,

Oh hear my Sad Tale of the True and the Treacherous --

Hear the Terrible Toils of that Strange Threatened Land,

Where all who exist heave a Ponderous Hand,

Oh it's not very Good, but it's not very Bad,                               (Chorus)

And lately they tell me that I should now add,

That it's being called by folk Far and folk Near,

The Suburbiad, an Epithet, they've now come to Fear.

Behold, Swelling Mortgage of artist and writer,

Whose Taxes Increaseth, and never grow lighter,

Where Debits Expand and grow Large in the Night,

Whilst they protest in anguish,

Their Middle-Class Plight.

Why, it's here that they play at the Noble Savage

Whilst their Work and their Art --  Suburbiad does Ravage.

Oh there in that Region of Nether and Edge,

With lots of dense rock we hear they call ledge,

There's Fury and Fire all going Amuck,

Why, they recently boasted a mayor called Schmuck.

Oh it's there, in that fabled Edge-City of Bad

You know it, I know it -- The Suburbiad.

Oh could we, oh would we, just Move to the City,

With Patrons and Dealers even slightly more shitty?

It's bad for the Kiddies, they Rant and they Scream,

Why it's Here I hold on to my Perilous Dream,

Of winning the Kudos, Recognition and Praises,

Of the Curators' Art Squad, in all of their phases.

What's this, an Uproar, a Cry that we hear,

Oh no, could it be, an assault to the ear,

It grows now -- A voice, a Sad Sob, and a Whine?

We hear Loud the Chorus, sung with Venomous Brine,

 In muffled cries they Moan, Gnash and Berate,

The neglectful Art Critics of Gotham the Great.

Who look with Disdain on their downcast, Sad Throng,

While writing words Mighty, Derisive and Long,

Of those Legions of Masters, with Moxie, who Strain,

Whose efforts give writers Persnickety Pain.

Oh the artists and poets and writers and dreamers,                  (Chorus)

Oh the seekers, the canny, the nefarious schemers,

How they long for the Fame,

And the Glory Galore,

But they hang their artwork in a grocery store,

Or sometimes, with luck and appreciative Thanks,

They place it in Storefronts, or even in Banks.

What's this, they cry out, with Anguish they Scream,

To all the great, Visiting Panels Esteemed?

Oh look at my work, I tell you, I mean,

That It came to me once in a Sexual Dream,

Oh come, oh, Please come, to Antique Yale and Town,

Please take a look, oh please, please, come on round,

Cry Big Bird and Little Bird, whilst dreaming of Rube,

Who looks down from Sculpture Heaven amongst angels sweet and nube,

From Your Wonderful Throne, Rube, where you perch with aplomb,

Oh please, guide them, lead them and inspire them,

Do you want us to bomb?

You've got your Collection of Critics, The Great Ones Do Say,

We know they're not quite St. Vincent Millay,

But your Timesian Rain-Ore scrawls of Moil with such Grief,

While Stamford's Queen Artsy tries hard to be brief,

And Straining and Groaning, with all of her might,

Aspires to be Witty and quite Erudite,

Oh no, hear her Scream and look quick with Alarm,

Oh, Look what they've Done, my Conclusion's been Harmed,

Then Brooksian Katie gives it a shot,

But we know what they're after --

It's Old Rain-Ore's Spot.

But she hangs on with Gripping, Gnarled Hands that appall,

Whilst Ignoring the Words which Appear on the Wall,

That Papers are Fading,The Economy, now Rust,

And No One, yes, No One -- has a Gig that they Trust.

You've got Museums Galore There, They repeat and entreat,

Just kiss the Foul Bottoms of their Directorship Feet,

Volunteer, serve on Boards, till it gets you Quite Down,

That's the way you'll get known in all parts of your Town.

Like Gray Nature's Lady, your critic of old,

Who Proclaims to all who Wait to be Told,

Her Fame and her Wisdom, her Charm and her Wit,

But as far as we hear, No One gives a Great S _ _ T.

From up at the Mine to Larry's Avant,

And Cousin Brucie's in Greenwich,

What more could you want?

But Critics, Oh Great Ones, you don't Understand

It isn't museums that we do demand,

It's Spaces to Show In,

It's Patrons to Buy,

It's Mentions in ARTnews,

That will make us feel Grand.

Oh, come now, don't bellow,

And don't you Dare say,

That you want Us to Write of your local Arts day,

Or the Landmine, the Hasty, or May Street and Such,

Why, asking all that would be really Too Much,

Go look at Katonah, and Whitney, Do View,

And then you will see what you Then Have to Do,

Make haste! Move to Houston, Chicago, or even L.A.,

Now Thank You, Goodbye pests,

That's all we will Say.

But lo! Here, look, gaze and behold,

You've got there a Legend, at least it is told,

A Rumor goes Round of a Near-Success Story,

Of an Aged Ingenue who craves Town Fame and Glory,

Why, it's Little Lolita who Gushes and Fawns,

to gain Lofty Favor with Designers of Dawns,

I want just The Best for this Town, she declares,

While bumping and grinding her Hot Derriere.

Her big Claim to Fame, Groupie Art-Syncho-phants,

Beauticians and Leapers and Fashion Consultants,

Why, there's Robo, the dentist, who tries to be valiant,

As Bad Poets, with Worse Verses, entertain at Fete Gallants.

Oh back to the Tent, oh Lolita, do go,

Where June's gentle breezes will soften the blow.

But wait! Here's Tan Nacho, oh please, all of you,

He tries to make way, through the Terrible Crew,

Oh beat loudly our hearts, he does Saveth the Day,

From Politicians, The Authorities, and Great Scoundrels array.

It's He who will Save our Sweet Town from Despair,

Don't scold, can he help it, he's shaped like a Pear? 

And if his rude mouth always gets him in trouble,

The artists will save him from the thick of the rubble.

Now, true there's a Teacher, so Wise and so Fair,

With great Libran balance -- she'll never despair,

Of greeting each challenge with Skill and Aplomb,

While hoping and wishing that Grants will still come.

Can Teacher steer Nacho to a Quieter Rage,

Whilst Guiding us all with a Skill oh, so Sage?

Now I hear By the By, that there's Plenty of Feuds,

With most of 'em frivolous, not terribly lewd,

Between Nacho, Lolita and don't forget Blank,

Who Simpers and Laughs all the way to her Bank.

And most of them snap at the Whistling Bard,

Who tries to be Chic, oh so Terribly Hard,

But his Mouth, Crowned with Thistles, so Bristly and Brusque,

Is coated by fragrance, why  -- can it be  -- Musk?

And up at the Yukon, they vie for a Spot,

Oh take me, enroll please, I'll make you So Hot,

Why, if it should happen,

Town Hall as of Late,

will be deemed as The Arts Place,

Well, just don't you wait,

I'll  Mold you and Shape you and make you "For Sale"

You'll soon get your atelier in Old Town and Yale.

Look, there's Chairs Con Cajones who leads in a song,

Wow -- it's her Work she's Showing in New York's Swell Throng,

She's survived the Vague Drawl of the Gallery Matron,

Who perceives herself as Muse, as well as a Patron.

Who frequents all Imminent Loft Studios,

Then advises Art Editors with Upturned Foul Nose.

Look -- there's Jose and Boris and Sweet Little Honey,

Whose goal's to Work Quick and then make some Money,

And let's never forget the Excessive Garb,

of the Post Office Lady who takes many a Barb,

Or the Committees who Fancy all Pretentious Art,

With the sloppy Director, who Expounds with a fart.

As Hughes calls Our City the Shlock Dealer's Dream;

Much Wind, Little Talent, and Vast Self-Esteem.

And at the Town Crier, the Paper with News,

Where Wise Ones look down at the Town from their Pews,

The Hip One, The Plump One, The One sans a Spouse,

Of Them it is Told that We all love to Grouse.

There's One of Them There whose Big Mouth is so Loud,

That most would just love to throw her to the Crowd.

The artists implore Them, oh, Write of my Art,

Gotham Greats have ignored It and Broken my Heart,

But the Truth can be Told, with Knife and with Sword,

That all Townie News leaves them Terribly Bored.

Oh is it all just a Sad Tale of Woe,

for as Hughes has written and you all do know,

We Long for the Patrons whose Indulgent Glance,

The artist does crave, the dealers do dance?

And will the harsh title Suburbiad mean

For artists and writers, all Days of Great Lean?

Oh Hope, oh Kind Hope, let the Global Village show,

That denizens of Taste will be likely to Know,

That There in the Outskirts of Suburbiad Lurks,

Talent and Creativity along with the Jerks.