John Cage video

[jwgh]

The WFMU blog posted a video of John Cage performing his composition 'Water Walking' on a game show in 1960: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/04/john_cage_on_a_.html

Comments

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I have been wanting to see this since I first heard of it from composer Paul Cooper 25 years ago. The niceness he displays is not the tiniest bit feigned or staged. When the Shepherd School office refused to schedule an interview for us at KTRU while he was there for a 70th birthday gala (both of us who asked being students of the Shepherd School, one a composition student), we gave the hotel a call, figuring the worst that could happen was he wouldn't answer, and wound up spending the whole afternoon there with him talking about everything from his current compositional technique using geometric templates to macrobiotic cooking. His earnest pronouncement of "laughter preferable to tears" really conveys just what he was like to be around.

Interesting that there was no problem with plugging in his tape deck, only the radios. I assume the blender and hot plate were unequivocally props to be handled by the stage hands rather than the electricians, but I wonder which union didn't make a claim on the tape deck. I had previously been misinformed that the problem was that union rules wouldn't allow Cage himself to switch working radios on and off while appearing on camera. Now I wonder why the solution couldn't have been for him to plug them in himself when he was to switch them on.

Re: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[jwgh]

Thanks for the story! That's pretty neat.

The funniest part

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

was actually not in talking with John himself. We mentioned to him that Allen Ginsberg happened to be staying at the same hotel and making appearances at Rice the same week, and he enthusiastically said he'd have to look him up. The funny part was that I had asked Ginsberg after a reading a couple nights before if he knew that Cage was in town too, and he just grunted as if I'd mentioned a hated in-law.

[c-bob.livejournal.com]

I suppose this falls under the "brush with greatness" category. In the mid seventies my father presented a concert with him in Fairbanks AK, (where we lived), and I had the opportunity to briefly meet him at our house. I think I was about 10 or 11 at the time so I don't remember much about it. I recall he was not very interested in us kids. Probably much more focused on his work. He definitely seemed like an intense guy compared to many of the other soloists that we met over the years.

I believe the performance involved about 4 pianos. Somehow I also confused his work with another piece that involved audience participation with bubble paper of various sizes which always stood out in my mind.