Southern Bookman

Farewell, Jerry Lee Lewis, a true American original

Once when I was young I saw Jerry Lee Lewis perform at the Baton Rouge State Fair.

It was wild. Jerry Lee, the sorcerer who never stopped leering at his audience, leaped up and down and pounded his piano with boogie-woogie abandon. He even played with his feet, pumping in perfect time.

Lewis' death last week at age 87 brought back my still vivid memories of that afternoon when "the  Killer" held us in thrall.

No one I saw over the years gave such an electric performance.

Little Richard when he burst out of Macon, Ga., or the young Elvis might have matched Lewis' power. Bands that Lewis influenced like the Rolling Stones and the Who worked hard to achieve his natural manic energy.

Lewis was a true American original. His performance was a pure blast of musical libido. Every concert I saw after that carried part of Jerry Lee's essence.

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Lowell's prose collection "Memoirs" shows poetic gifts

I once made a pilgrimage to 239 Marlborough St. in Boston, where Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick lived for several years.

The home, now part of a Catholic school, was blocks away from where Lowell spent his childhood and adolscence.

As Lowell says in a recently discovered 160-page autobiographical essay written when he was a patient at a New York City mental hospital after one of his first bipolar attacks, he like Henry Adams was born under the shadow of the Massachusetts state house.

The essay about his Boston childhood has been published in a new collection of Lowell's prose, titled "Memoirs."  A descendant of old Boston families in  decline by his generation, Lowell writes with acute historical awareness.

His obsessive, hyper-observant study of his parents' fraught marriage and his warm memories of his maternal grandfather, who had made a fortune as a mining engineer, revisit the same milieu as the prose memoir "91 Revere St." and autobiographical poems in his collection "Life Studies."

"Memoirs" concludes with Lowell's recollections and appreciations of contemporaries Randall Jarrell, John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, Ford Madox Ford, John Berryman, Hannah Arendt, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Glaringly absent is any mention of his close friend and now more acclaimed poet, Elizabeth Bishop.

In an entertaining piece, Lowell recounts the familiar story of his sojourn at the home of Allen Tate and Caroline Gordon in Clarksville, Tenn. Tate told the hulking young Lowell when he unexpectedly showed up that the only way he could stay would be if he put up a tent. Taking Tate literally, Lowell bought a pup tent at a local Sears & Roebuck store, and lived in it on Tate's front lawn. Later, Ford arrived at the nutty household.

Lowell's views on his contemporaries' poetry show an original critical intelligence. He might have achieved the renown Jarrell and T.S. Eliot gained as critics had he devoted more attention to analyzing other's work.

A standout is his warm appreciation of Jarrell following the critic, poet and novelist's death, possibly by suicide. Jarrell's personality comes alive in Lowell's portrait.

Lowell balances his praise of his contemporaries' work with acid-tinged assessments of their weaknesses. He''s particularly wounding in his criticism of Berryman, Sexton and Plath.

The section gives a group portrait of a generation whose poetic brilliance was tinged with mental illness, alcoholism and suicide.

Lowell's poetic reputation has declined in recent years, and he's been pilloried for his disgraceful treatment of  his wives Jean Stafford, Hardwick and Lady Caroline Blackwood. While Lowell was too often monstrous, he possessed a generosity and a gift for friendship. 

While "Memoirs" covers familiar ground, Lowell's voice is fresh and vital. But new readers seeking to enter Lowell's world should turn to the poems.

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Mike Davis, chronicler of Los Angeles' urban conflicts

Mike Davis' "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles" is a difficult book, as dense, complex and multi-sided as the California megalopolis.

Published in 1990, Davis' examination of Los Angeles' class divisions, racial conflicts and over-development was one of those prophetic works like Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and Jane Jacobs' "Life and Death of Great American Cities" that bring significant change.

Davis, who kept revealing Los Angeles' urban dynamics in a a series of prescient books, died Monday at age 76 at his home in San Diego after a long battle with esophageal cancer.

While Davis was known as  a radical left-wing thinker, "City of Quartz" with its examination of black gangs and neighborhood violence is surprisingly conservative. The book was praised for anticipating the racial riots following the Rodney King verdict, but Davis pointed out that black anger had been simmering for years.

Davis' Los Angeles is the future of American cities now beset by climate change, urban sprawl and racial inequality: Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago and so on.

Before his death, Davis gave a series of interviews in which the dying prophet counseled against despair.

While his critics accused him of hating the big city, he wrote out of love, envisioning a Los Angeles that worked for all.

Austin Butler establishes major stardom with "Elvis" performance

Austin Butler channels Elvis Presley's raw, revolutionary talent in Baz Luhrmann's fanciful film "Elvis."

Performing Elvis's songs and conjuring his sexually explosive gyrations, Butler eerily matches the real Elvis. He brings out Elvis' sexual ambiguity, the boyish effeminacy and masculine grace that rocketed young girls' libidos.

Luhrmann examines black musicians' influence on Elvis, and how his loosening of female sexuality was seen as subversive by white supremacist politicians like Mississippi Sen. James Eastland. He even imagines a friendship in Memphis between Elvis and B.B. King, and exaggerates Elvis' threat to the white power structure, dubiously claiming that Elvis was threatened with arrest before joining the Army.

Tom Hanks gives a leering, overly broad performance as Elvis' fraudulent and controlling manager Col. Tom Parker. Olivia DeJonge delivers a restrained portrayal of Priscilla Presley, whom Elvis met in Germany during his Army service.

With dynamic musical performances, from the Louisiana Hayride to Elvis' sad last Vegas years, the film presents Elvis as a major musical innovator shackled by Parker's manipulations.

Butler captures Elvis' primal, culture-changing talent, ahead of its time and yet defining his age.

Farewell, Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker art critic

Peter Schjeldahl like other great critics brought an excitement to his writing, which stood on its own outside his critical judgments.

The New Yorker arts critic died Monday at age 80 at his home in upstate New York after a long battle with lung cancer.

A college dropout from Minnesota who came to New York City as a young poet enthralled with Frank O'Hara and other New York School writers and artists, Schjeldahl turned to arts criticism, captivated by New York City's electric arts scene. After several years with the Village Voice, he joined the New Yorker in 1998.

His astute, impressionistic essays displayed the poetic flair of his youth, exciting his readers whether the subject was an old master's exhibit at the Met or a young artist's show at a downtown gallery.

His daughter, Ada Calhoun, gave a memorable portrait of her father in her memoir, "Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father and Me." The book tells how she discovered tapes of interviews Schjeldahl conducted with New York School artists and writers for a never completed biography of O'Hara. Calhoun recalls Schjeldahl as a free-spirited father who let her wander without supervision in the dangerous New York City of the 1960s.

Schjeldahl never lost his sense of wonder at great art. He educated his readers in aesthetic appreciation, but his writing would have sparked fire with any subject.

 

 

Early voting at Buckhead's Chastain Park

Chastain Park was packed early Sunday afternoon with golfers, young baseball players and walkers enjoying the autumn sunshine and perfect blue sky.

Watching the ballplayers warming up in their sparkling blue jerseys and white baseball pants brought back memories of the years when my children played youth sports at the park. I also remembered happy days playing North Fulton's golf course, amphitheater concerts and long walks around one of Atlanta's most bucolic places.

We were there for early voting in the gym's converted weight-lifting room. Unlike the record breaking turnout of the week before, and those enjoying the outdoors, only a few people were casting their ballots.

After voting for the full Democratic ticket and figuring out which amendments to vote for, I printed out and scanned my paper ballot into a machine. As I left, I noticed a sullen middlle-aged couple seated by the door, I supposed GOP observers on the lookout for any sign of nefarious activity. Thanks to the dutiful poll workers, democracy ran smoothly.

For years, I  believed in going to the polls on election day as a sacred ritual. But I've come to like the convenience of early voting.

Heading out the door, I picked up the peach sticker that said that once again I was a Georgia voter.

 

Mississippi River sinking to perilously low water levels

Mark Twain wouldn't recognize the Mississippi these days.

Twain's beloved river has fallen to its lowest water levels in years.

Huck and Jim now couldn't find enough water to float their raft. The river known for the devastating 1927 flood has turned docile.

A severe drought has brought the river's water levels so low that people can walk over dry land to an island in Illinois previously accessible only by boat. In Baton Rouge, a 19th century ship was discovered in the river's dried-up channel.

Shipping is imperiled from Minneapolis to St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Riverboat cruises are being delayed.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers keeps the river flowing to the ports of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The river wants to cut a new channel to the west, which would abandon the port cities. Now Baton Rouge and New Orleans might see the river disappear anyway.

T.S. Eliot in "The Four Quartets" called the river a fierce brown god. It was serenaded as "Old Man River" by Paul Robeson in "Showboat." Jimmie Rodgers expressed the deep emotional ties to the river in "Miss the Mississippi and You." In the Civil War, the Confederacy's loss of the river signaled the Union's victory. Lewis and Clarke crossing the river opened the way to the American West. It was the backbone of the Louisiana Purchase.

Lake Mead, Salt Lake and western rivers are other essential American waterways that are disappearing. They can''t be replaced.

It's only October, and I'm already following the NBA

I'd planned to spend Tuesday evening reading, but turned instead to the wise basketball philosopher Dominique Wilkins.

Opening night for the Hawks, and new sensation Dejounte Murray, drew me to the vaudeville routine of  'Nique and play-by-play partner Bob Rathbun, one of my favorite TV pastimes over the years. Bob and 'Nique were in good form, pausing for a reflective moment in which 'Nique recalled his close friendship with the late Boston Celtics great Bill Russell.

After the quick demise of the Braves, I was happy to see Murray, Trae Young and John Collins hold off the Houston Rockets. I also enjoyed spirited sideline reporter Lauren Jbara joining an impromptu dance with joyous Hawks fans.

Murray scored 20 points, with an admirable 11 assists. The most promising sight for the long defensive-challenged Hawks was Murray dashing down the court for uncontested dunks after making steals - he finished with five. The Hawks could contend for the NBA finals, if Murray and Young can keep working together.

Oh my goodness, I even found myself watching the end of the Memphis Grizzlies-New York Knicks game on ESPN. The devil-may-care Ja Morant pulled the Grizzlies to an overtime win.

Guess who scored 20 points for the Knicks, including the three-pointer that put them into overtime? It was Cam Reddish, for whom I had high hopes when he played for the Hawks and has been a dud for the Knicks until he awakened on the banks of the Mississippi. Now Knicks fans hope he'll be the second coming of Linsanity.

Switching to Ted Turner's old station TBS, I watched my childhood team Houston Astros beat the Yankees. The familiar voice of Braves color analyst Jeff Francoer, mercifully free of the irritating tics that mar his Braves broadcasts, described the action along with play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson and color analyst Ron Darling. Francoeur, called "Frenchy" by Anderson, held his own in the crowded booth.

Bob Costas, who annoyed some critics with his verbose play-by-play work during the Yankees' win over the Cleveland Guardians, was relegated to studio hosting duties, replacing Atlanta favorite Ernie Johnson Jr., who returned to the TNT NBA desk. It'll be another long winter and early spring with Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny "the Jet" Smith.

Just when I think I've cured my sports addiction, it keeps pulling me back in.

 

Georgia's early voting brings record turnout

What's motivating the record turnout in Georgia's early voting?

Perhaps suburban women voters, reportedly favoring Republicans, are more upset about harsh abortion laws than polls indicate, boosting Democratic candidates.

Stacey Abrams' campaign against incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp might be generating more enthusiasm among undecided voters than has been reported. Her support for women's abortion rights, Medicaid expansion and sports gambling could be gaining momentum.

Or Kemp's campaign, described as "placid" by Washington Post columnist George Will, is succeeding in painting Abrams as a wild radical.

Reflecting rising national interest in the Kemp-Abrams race, Will traveled to Georgia to do some on-the-ground reporting on Kemp's campaign. Kudos to the bow-tied pundit for leaving his ivory tower. New York magazine and Vanity Fair have also done articles on the Kemp-Abrams battle.

The volatile Senate race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker is likely fueling the most excitement. Polls show Warnock holding a narrow lead over Walker, while Abrams has consistently trailed Kemp.

The huge turnout might be good news for Georgia's Democratic Party. But it might also augur Republicans hoping to reverse the purple tide.

Sandy Springs liberary now empty on Sunday afternoons

I returned a book to the Sandy Springs library Sunday afternoon, mainly to leave the house after several days cooped up with Covid.

Driving down Roswell Road, I enjoyed Wes Durham's radio play by play of the Falcons' surprising dominance over the San Francisco 49ers. One of Atlanta's treasures, the folksy Wes makes the NFL sound like a crazy back-yard game with the plays made up on the fly.

Pushing the book down the aluminum return chute, I looked through the glass doors at the empty library, remembering the pleasant days when it opened on Sunday afternoons. Before a multi-year renovation, the library was filled during those hours with high school kids doing their homework, mothers and fathers with their children, and researchers and readers.

While the library renovation approved by voters resulted in better lighting, improved shelving and high-tech checkout and return machines, the library never reopened on Sunday afternoons. That decline in service appears permanent.

At least we still have Wes and the rag-tag Falcons.