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Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found

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There’s some kind of power connecting the players in the book, and it’s quite charming to see that Cave – ol’ man grump himself! müziğe nasıl başladığını, Yunan sanatçı Arleta ya da sonradan kendisinin en büyük işbirlikçilerinden biri olacak Nick Cave gibi yolunun kesiştiği birçok insanla olan ilişkisini kitap boyunca okuyoruz. You don't need to know anything about music (or exhibitions) to marvel at the account of how lovingly and professionally they set about preparing suitable conditions for the display of a fingertip-sized piece of chewing gum. After a Nina Simone performance in 1999 Warren climbed on the stage and collected the gum that she had taken out just as she started and put in her towel at the side of her piano. The latter comes up during a project he embarks on in advance of donating the original gum to the museum: having it cast in metal, the better to retain a permanent monument lest something befall the thing itself.

I wanted that magic of the story of Nina Simone's Gum and it's impact on the author and every one who came into contact with this silly little artifact.That’s why the book was such an interesting read for me – on one level, it’s a metaphor for the creative process, but it’s also a deep insight into his inner life told through the obsession he has with the chewing gum. As he does so, he weaves in ardent anecdotes about artists he’s admired, including the Greek musician Arleta, the jazz composer Alice Coltrane, and the poet Emily Dickinson. The gum is one of a few of Ellis’s focal items: there’s the music of Beethoven, particular models of briefcase, fancy shoes, carved clean days on a violin, and a polished stone gifted him by Arleta, the Greek singer whose work the Dirty Three still performs today.

Nina Simone'un sakızı üzerinden eşyalara, yaratıcılığa, tutkuya, takıntılara ve hayata dair çok şey anlatıyor. At some point they're setting up the plinth for the gum and Nick stuck a bit of his gum on it as a model. Nick Cave provides an introduction, written on the occasion of the installation of the gum in the Hallway of Gratitude, part of his Stranger Than Kindness exhibition at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, commemorating the moment when “the chief conservator places the little piece of grey gum on the plinth. Nina Simone’s Gum reveals how something seemingly insignificant and disposable can form beautiful connections between people.What a thrill to see a person whose work gives a little extra beauty and meaning to our lives casually inhabiting the same physical space! It’s about true wonder, the sort that children have before they get too old – a love for the mysteries of the world, for things that seem useless to adults but which have a hidden power, invisible to anyone in double digits. In the summer of 2017, my spouse and I were visiting friends in Japan when we spotted the Australian musician Warren Ellis — best known for his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but also with the Dirty Three and Grinderman, not to mention as a composer of film scores — from afar on a quiet street in Kyoto. Ellis was initially invited to play on a recording session by Cave, who was a fan of Ellis’s other band, Dirty Three, an instrumental group who came together in 1991 and are still going strong. Nina Simone's Gum ] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.

Some of those things, other than the gum, are shared here in a beautiful, simple, yet profound manner. It is a story about the meaning we bestow on objects and experiences, and how these things can become imbued with spirituality. I sort of expected it to be some manic fan's undying devotion but it was actually very peaceful and respectful, like people hushing when someone important starts talking.

A beautiful, haunting quasi-memoir about the 57-year-old's early life growing up in southeastern Australia and his years spent busking across Europe in the 1980s, as well as one particular, transcendent night that changed the course of his life. What the gum symbolises and the meaning behind what great performers and artists give to people - the transcendence of music in our lives - is what this wonderful book is all about. a sequence involving otherworldly clowns; a journey through Europe that never really ends – but they’re there to provide a human context to the work’s titular gum. Ellis's fascinating relationship with the artifact took an intriguing turn--which he details with whimsy and admiration--as the gum's "unique transmission of creative energy" connected him to a number of artists entranced by its power.

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