John Matthew Fisher

I got an early call today. My beautiful, brilliant, baby brother Johnny has passed away. We are awaiting a coroner's report but his life had been in a spiral. Flying to Pittsburgh soon to pick up his things and clean up his apartment.

My worst fears have been answered.

I come from a very bright family. He may have been the smartest of the bunch but had been dealt a very bad hand. I will miss him terribly.

More later.

Eva Cassidy - It Doesn't Matter Anymore

Toronto Trip

I flew in to Toronto for a family gathering Friday, returned yesterday. 

My niece's daughter was having a bat mitzvah and I thought that for the sake of familial and filial responsibilities I should attend. 

I hadn't been there since Buzz's funeral and that is eight years time early next month.

The trip gave me an opportunity to see two of my sisters that I rarely see and a bunch of other members of my family.

John is still missing in action, somewhere in Pennsylvania, hopefully alive and kicking.

His daughter showed up, with her wife.

I like Toronto, a multi-cultural city that works better than most.

I will spare you a lot of the details. 

Nobody cares about anyone else's family reunion, let's face it.

I won't show you mine if you won't show me yours.

Anyway, two days is sort of a whirlwind, I stayed out by the airport to save money and took public transportation in and out, a long city bus or train ride.

Unfortunately my att phone service conked out and I couldn't call an uber if I wanted to, no data signal.

Makes it awfully hard to function in today's world.

Took over three calls and two frustrating hours on hold before we finally got the no data roaming problem sorted out.

I met everybody at the temple the first day, my niece did fine with her reading but the rabbi's talk made me remember why I hated religion so much.

Love the tribe, just hate the bullshit. God loves the conquerors, smites the infidels, like wiping up ants with a wet paper towel at a picnic.

Afterwards we went to Chinatown and I treated my clan to roast pork and duck at one of my favorite haunts, King's Noodles. 

We walked around the Eglington area and Kensington Market and checked out the shops. 

An old Jewish guy grabbed us and led us into an ancient and decaying temple with a beautiful art deco Jewish decorated chandelier but wouldn't let me take a picture because it was shabbos and that would mean pressing a button on my phone, which is verboten.

And I had a weird epiphany. Except for my sister Barbara, four years older than me chronologically after her birthday earlier this month, I was possibly now the oldest person extant at the family gathering. 

I mean the entire bat mitzvah gathering, besides Justin's dad anyway, let's say it is a very small group.

So I am the old guy now. Just how in the hell did that happen?

Later that evening there was a party.

Those that know me know I am not comfortable in parties or crowds, not being a drinker and a person that enjoys compression.

I enjoy the company of strangers more but that is another story.

So this picture is of the celebrants having a great time at the party.

And this one is me, trying to hide in the next room, actually pretty successfully. before I was finally caught and rousted.

I talked for a bit with an older woman who was a little drunk and then exited as early as I could, not wanting to be a total buzzkill.

Unfortunately I went to the wrong train station and then had a nightmare getting back to the airport and then couldn't get a shuttle for what seemed like a planes, trains and automobiles' eternity.

But I did.

I lounged around in my hotel room the next day, my sisters both shipped out back from whence they came. 

Great hotel, the Westin, great breakfasts too.

I thought about leaving early but did not.

Took a swim in the cool pool, Toronto being insufferably hot this week, much hotter than California.

I didn't bring a camera but took some architectural shots of the interesting building with my phone, at least I thought the shapes were interesting.

I was all set to call the weekend a day and lay in bed and watch movies until it was all over when I got a call from my wonderful niece Rachel, asking me if I wanted to have a last dinner with them?

Why not? 

I re-bused into the city, she picked me up off of Dufferin and we ordered excellent pizza, which we ate with her wonderful Calabresian neighbors. Zach showed up, his sweetheart completed a triathlon that day and he had been up since four in support.

I had a very nice time and then ubered back.

Next morning I met my sister in law at the terminal, she is coincidentally coming here on a business project, training medical staff. Customs hassled her, why couldn't she get an American to do the job? Unbelievable to me how we are treating Canada.

I had a huge observant Jewish guy sitting next to me on the plane, or sprawled sleeping next to me. Kippah, talis, whole bit. His body dwarfed mine and I am a big guy, he ended up taking about a third of my leg room.

I thought about waking him up and having a heart to heart about boundaries but didn't want to cause an international incident.

He finally woke up and he turned out to be a nice guy. Showed my a picture of his rabbi, like an Indian devotee showing off their guru. Schneerson, a chabadnik. He told me he kept kosher and was worried about finding proper food.

It was his first time in California, he was a sales rep. Never saw a palm tree before, I told him that it might be time for a ham sandwich too, but he demurred.

As we were leaving he asked me if I wanted to put tefillin on and pray and I gracefully declined. I guess we were now even. He told me that it was his duty to ask.

After another interminable wait, I got picked up but the folks from the Laurel St. Parking garage where I had left my car.

If you ever consider using them, don't. My car was on the roof, a six floor walk up. They told me it would be fixed Monday, it wasn't. In fact, one guy said it had been years. Walls are crumbling, trash in the stairwell. When I asked about it, the guy said, "We rent the building, we don't own it." I guess the elevators were never maintained. 

Place is a wreck, go to Aladdin or Wally, don't make my mistake, whatever you do, for your own good.

Good to be home. 

I barbecued a New York from the new subprimal I bought before I left. 

Made my first chimichurri, Leslie said I was a little heavy on the red wine vinegar. 

Going to buy more parsley and try to balance it out. 

Not far from really good, steak was wonderful, would make an Argentinian blush.

My first Beatle's taping aired last night at three in the morning. I slept through it. Anybody else hear it by chance?

Distractions

YouTube viewership is now besting regular television and as of last February, more people are accessing the service on wide screens than on mobile devices.

I know I use it much more than movies or television. There is something wonderfully populist and democratic about the medium. 

You can watch pretty young girls in southeast Asia catch fish, primitive families in remote Pakistan raising sheep in stark canyons, all sorts of things.

The last several years my favorites have been the polyglot Xiaoma, Ari Smith, Brad Owen playing poker, the Chess international master Eric Rosen among others.

Nowadays I am also watching Vegas Matt gamble with his cronies, Matt, or NDKayak, an angler from North Dakota who nails smallies and muskies from his kayak, Police Cam Chases, Karen videos, an occasional pimple pop and recipe and a new thing.

Hoof GP, an affable guy who trims cow hooves in Scotland, now has about 2.5 million regular viewers watching him fix cow feet. Not sure why but it is addictive. Very calming.

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I watched a cool Netflix short today called The Quilters about lifers in a Level 5 maximum security prison in Missouri that sew quilts for autistic and foster children as part of the Restorative Justice Project. Very heartwarming and worth a watch.

Mujer Sentada

I was called in early to an estate last month and my eyes chanced upon an interesting wooden modernist sculpture. Hmmm, it looked very much like the work of the British artist Barbara Hepworth. I asked the owner what she knew about it and she said, "Well, I don't know if it is a Barbara Hepworth?" What if it is, I asked her? "Don't tell me," she said.

I bought it.

Bimorphic Theme - Barbara Hepworth

Barbara Hepworth is a very valuable artist, like Henry Moore, her work can run into the millions of dollars. I wish that I could say that this story has a happy ending but it doesn't, at least not yet.

I sent this letter to Hepworth's granddaughter, Dr. Sophie Bowness at the Tate, who administers her estate:

Dear Dr. Bowness,

I am an art dealer in California. I recently purchased a wood sculpture that I believe could very well be a work of your grandmother, Barbara Hepworth. I hope that you can help me determine if it is her work.

It stands 17" tall on the original wood block that is 8 x 9" square. 

The work is initialed with a conjoined BH on the upright portion of the base on the third picture on top as you see pictured below.

I was talking to an art historian I know who deals in latin art from this period and he said that Henry Moore was sending work to the Misrachi gallery in the 1930's and may have included some Hepworth pieces. This is a storied gallery, which opened in 1933. 

This is the earliest address for the gallery but this particular tag may have been used up until the 1950's. Unfortunately, the tag only reads Barbara with no last name. It appears that the gallery is no longer operational as I have tried to contact them to no avail and I had hoped to go through their records.

I would appreciate your opinion and letting me know if you have a record of this mujer sentada artwork in your files. It certainly looks right to me.

Sincerely,

Robert Sommers

Blue Heron Gallery

113 N. Main Ave.

Fallbrook, CA 92028

I also sent her a picture of this very similar Hepworth sculpture that my friend Peter found for me online. Identical head and neck. If it is a Hepworth it provides a good clue on approximate creation date.

I received this letter back:

Dear Robert Sommers

This work is not recorded in the very comprehensive catalogue that Hepworth herself compiled of her sculpture

The carving you sent separately is entitled Mother and Child (1934) and is in the collection of The Hepworth Wakefield

with best wishes

Sophie 

Dr Sophie Bowness

Hepworth Estate

Well, that was a dead end! I decided to try a different tack and contacted an art dealer I know that works in Mexico City. I asked him to try to locate the Misrachi archives. After all, it does have an inventory number, the label lists Barbara and the piece is initialed BH. 

My associate contacted a Misrachi grandson who told him that the records are lost or unavailable at this point.

*

So I am back to square one. So close and yet so far!

This conundrum may never sort itself out. I have been through committees twice before with John Singer Sargent, one successful, the other inconclusive. I have struck out with Dali and Warhol, with pieces that I knew to be correct and the work of the artist.

But the gatekeepers do not always feel it is in their best interest to open those doors again, they risk opprobrium and there is no personal gain for them to do so and and that is what people are most interested in, on either side of the equation.

So here I sit. I have to think or hope there could have been at least one occasion in her storied career where a piece slipped though and failed to reach the catalogue?

I know that it is neither here nor there but I believe in my heart that this is Hepworth's creation, aesthetically, constructively, labels, initials, all sorts of reasons.

I dangle this out to the world in the hopes that somewhere, in some deep vault in Mexico City or England, someone can shed more light on this beautiful sculpture. Hepworth or not, I can not let the matter rest. 

Any sleuths out there that can help shed light?

Sonny Boy Williamson

Pick a side

I don't know if you saw the story the other day, easy for things to sneak through when there is so much trouble in our world.   Medicare cuts, Iran, Kennedy's war on vaccines, dismemberment of FEMA, gestapo tactics at ICE, so hard to stay sane and current nowadays.

The title was Trump EPA moves to repeal climate rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action that Administrator Lee Zeldin said would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The EPA also proposed weakening a regulation that requires power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm the brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults.

The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Republican President Donald Trump’s repeated pledge to “ unleash American energy ” and make it more affordable for Americans to power their homes and operate businesses.

I got a letter yesterday telling me that my blog would be so much more fun without my (political) bias. And I am sure that is probably true. Music and photos, an occasional recipe. But there are times I feel I have to speak. And this is one of them.

Repealing these pollution rules is horrific and does nothing for the American people except for enriching a bunch of rich polluters and getting the rest of us sick.

Clean air policies have worked. They save lives. But that does not matter to this administration. What matters is rewarding rich cronies and self enrichment.

The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agency’s own prior assessments and a wide range of other research.

I pride myself on being a centrist. Pro choice, pro gun, pro liberty, pro environment, pro - science, anti illegal immigration. You can't be all things to all people, it doesn't work. Anti - life policies like these new pollution proposals that will destroy our air, earth and water and damage human health affirm to me which side I belong to if forced to pick.

No question. Center yes, but I could never play for the other team.

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https://grist.org/energy/trump-quietly-shutters-the-only-federal-agency-that-investigates-industrial-chemical-explosions/

Orin

 

I watched a cool short documentary on Netflix last night, The only girl in the orchestra.

It is the story of Orin O'Brien, the first woman in the New York Philharmonic.

O'Brien played double bass in the orchestra for 55 years. 

The child of two early movie stars, the story is fascinating and she is truly enchanting.

She came up at a time when women were not welcome in the orchestra, Zubin Mehta was an absolute pill. 

Luckily she had a great relationship with the great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who recognized her ability.

I played cello when I was young and really identified with her skill and persona and her ability to teach. 

She never sought center stage, her desire was to provide a musical backbone.

Watching the documentary sent me down this rabbit hole, which was even more interesting to me.

What a treasure she is!

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Another feel good movie on Netflix right now is Nonnas.

If I Fell (Live At The BBC For "Top Gear" / 16th July, 1964)

Meet the Beatles

 

I am happy to announce I am going to finally be guest deejaying on the Beatles Sirius Channel 18, My Fab Four. The program director wrote me yesterday.

Unfortunately my upcoming time slots are not exactly optimal, unless perhaps you live in Mozambique?

But if you feel like a listen, all Eastern Time, Tues 6/24 6am, Thurs 6/26 10pm, Sun 6/29 5am.  The Thursday spot is probably the best for my friends here in California, that would be seven o'clock in the evening. 

Should be fab.

And a special thanks to Dave Blackburn for recording and mixing my session.

Keep them coming.

President Bone Spurs had his $45 million dollar military birthday parade in the nation's capitol today. Attendance was reportedly rather sparse. Meanwhile, the No Kings protests drew millions of people, here and all over the world.

Leslie was up in Temecula with her friend Ming, said it was a wonderful day, very good vibes all around.

I loved the signage I am seeing from the various protests, handmade, spontaneous and mostly spot on.

Here are some of the cool ones I saw today, feel free to send your favorites and I will add them to the batch.

Genser got some good shots in Santa Monica.