I make maps to understand what it means to be blind, and a flaneur . Those ideas are elusive destinations. Think of them as streets you can wander along with me. Start with the first post, ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. Rushdie On Calvino’s Absurd, Charming Masterpiece : NPR: “In 1965, the great Italian writer Italo Calvino — in a light, fantastic collection of 12 short stories, titled Cosmicomics — took on nothing less than the creation of the universe.
“I first read Cosmicomics in my early 20s, and it’s a book I’ve gone back to again […]
Entries Tagged as '1960s'
Salman Rushdie On Italo Calvino
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September 20, 2023 at 6:00am
by Mark Willis
1960s · surrealism · books Add Your Comment
If Jimi Juiced It, A Charred Guitar Isn’t Toast
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September 5, 2023 at 2:50pm
by Mark Willis
After rocking out with Talking Heads and Bob Seeger at the Mouffe, I should note for the record that a guitar set ablaze by Jimi Hendrix sold this week at a London auction of rock memorabilia. The price was £280,000 (almost $500K). According to BBC News, “The instrument was only recovered from a garage last […]
1960s · BBC · London · Playing by Ear Add Your Comment
In Memoriam: Jerry Wexler
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August 16, 2023 at 9:38pm
by Mark Willis
Jerry Wexler, the garrulous record producer with the golden ear, died yesterday at age 91. Wexler had so much to do with the sound track of my misspent youth. He gave us Ray Charles, Wilson Picket , Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers — and best of all, Aretha. The man even invented the term “rhythm […]
1970s · 1960s · 1950s · pop culture · NPR · Playing by Ear Add Your Comment
Yves Klein’s Leap Into The Void
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August 7, 2023 at 12:15am
by Mark Willis
Le Saut dans le Vide (”Leap into the Void”) is a photograph of an art performance by Yves Klein at Rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses, in October 1960. [Photo by by Harry Shunk/Wikipedia]
I made the comment yesterday that “Philippe Petit isn’t a daredevil like Evel Knievel, but a performance artist like Yves Klein.” I thought immediately of […]
dada · 1960s · Imaging Paris · Art Add Your Comment
Is it IKB or Memorex? Only Yves Knows
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August 7, 2023 at 12:10am
by Mark Willis
Actually, a digital representation can only approximate the deep, other-worldly hue of the color known as IKB or International Klein Blue. Invented by French artist Yves Klein, IKB now has its own Wikipedia page:
International Klein Blue (or IKB as it is known in art circles) was developed by French artist Yves Klein as part of […]
sense · dada · 1960s · 1950s · Imaging Paris · Art Add Your Comment
The Daisy Ad: ‘Either Love Each Other, Or Die’
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June 18, 2023 at 12:15am
by Mark Willis
I remember the daisy ad. Anyone alive in 1964 has to remember. What I didn’t realize until the death of its creator, Tony Schwartz, is the fact that it was broadcast as a TV ad only once. After that, it was news. Then it became a legend.
I was nine years old. I wouldn’t admit to […]
media · rhetoric · 1960s · politics · memoir Add Your Comment
In Memoriam: Robert F. Kennedy
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June 5, 2023 at 12:05am
by Mark Willis
Robert F. Kennedy’s moving speech in Indianapolis after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., was an extraordinary moment in the history of race in America. The grief of 1968 deepened even further when RFK was shot two months later in Los Angeles. Those senseless killings and the street violence at the Democratic National […]
1960s · politics · memoir Add Your Comment
Café Mouffe: Paris S’eveille
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May 16, 2023 at 3:00pm
by Mark Willis
Paris S’eveille by Jacques Dutronc became an anthem for the student revolt in May 1968. Il est cinq heures, Paris s’eveille (”It’s 5 a.m., Paris wakes up”). Café Mouffe opens every Friday at 3:00 p.m. Please drop by for a listen and a chat. Sometimes the embedded videos don’t work here due to bandwidth constraints, […]
1960s · Playing by Ear · French history · Café Mouffe · Paris Add Your Comment
Imaging Paris: Documenting May 1968
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May 15, 2023 at 6:30pm
by Mark Willis
Protesters march down Boulevard Saint Michel on May 10, 1968. The banner reads: “Sorbonne Teachers Against Repression. [Photo by Serge Hambourg/via Art Knowledge News]
French photojournalist Serge Hambourg documented the turbulent student revolt in Paris in the spring of 1968 for the weekly magazine Le nouvel observateur. His images have been assembled in an exhibition […]
1960s · street · Imaging Paris · VIe · French history · Ve · Paris Add Your Comment
Imaging Paris: May 1968
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May 14, 2023 at 12:05am
by Mark Willis
Photos de Paris en 68. Montage: yoy’. Musique: Rosa Park -” la revolte gronde.”
Imaging Paris · 1960s · VIe · street art · French history · Ve · Paris Add Your Comment