How well do you chew?


I spent half of the following Tuesday with John Cage in his friend Bonnie Bird's London flat and at the East-West Centre on Old Street, talking about George Méliès, anarchism and macrobiotic food, and sampling mekkabu soup. Cage told me, "You chew very well."
From The Roaring Silence: John Cage - A Life by David Revill. We don't need new audiences. We don't need younger audiences. We don't need cheap tickets. We need audiences who can chew well.

John Cage place setting photographed by me at last year's happening in Bruges and is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2009. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Overgrown Path attracts a wide spectrum of readers. I know some of them do not 'get' John Cage. I would recommend David Revill's book to those readers. It is far more readable than Cage's own very important, but opaque, writings. David Revill is also excellent on the cultural background to Cage's work, including Buddhism.
Pliable said…
Email received from BT:

“ Audiences who can chew well.”

Examples are plentiful.

Just next week over here in Belgium , the concerts I’ll attend.

- Tuesday in Ghent/ Vooruit. (Vooruit means Avanti. Marilyn Crispell & Satoko Fujii’s ma – Do. I just discovered that M. Crispell , known as a free jazz pianist, also performed recorded music by contemporary composers John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, Manfred Niehaus. And , yes, Anthony Davis (including his opera "X" with the New York City Opera).

- Thursday Cornelius Cardews Treatise. Yes, still performed. Those great graphic scores.

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