Happy Birthday, Erik Satie!
One of the very greatest exponents of tricksterism in music. Wikipedia sez: Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (French: [eʁik sati];[1] 17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. Satie was an influential artist in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.[2]
Considered the greatest artist of the twentieth century, Picasso produced paintings and sculptures that frequently embodied playfulness…but he put art first, play second. Duchamp and dada lived the reverse ethos that put the release of play into daily life first, with works of art the mere residue. What fun Duchamp is having, what masterful play....
The J.L. Mott Iron Works The entry and rejection of Duchamp’s readymade, Fountain, would be a Declaration of Play, in art and in life. His humble porcelain piece would sow a vision of a world where war was not possible. Elegant and notorious, Duchamp confronted the art world’s establishment, creating street theater that is a...
What could possibly make a better case for a world of playfulness and peace than its opposite, stupid stupid war. Our nations’ elites have clearly failed to create peace in our or any time, nor have they doused the flames of environmental abuse that engulf the planet. The brutalities of human destructiveness most currently demonstrated...
