My friend Liz Bartucci has a Calligraphy business (and she’s also an incredible writer and playwright). I just wanted to share her most recent piece of art.
Me neither.
So two more things:
Wesley Morris (frankly, I am just glad that he exists, for his Magic Mike XXL review alone: The man GETS sex) wrote an essay for The New York Times and it nails the Prince “thing,” the essential something that Prince was all about, that Laura Hillenbrand (post below this one) also clocked. And you KNOW that I love Morris’ opening. THANK you for making that connection.
At work, propped against a wall, near piles of stuff, stands an Elvis Presley cutout. It’s made of cardboard, pretty beat up, taller than I am and not the greatest photo. (He looks drunk. So does his lamé suit.) But I pass that cutout almost every day, and every day I have the same thought. Elvis was hot. He was a musician, but he didn’t have to be playing music for you to feel this way. Cardboard would do.
That’s charisma. And the only star who had more than Elvis was Prince. His hotness differed, of course; it came from somewhere else. Cardboard won’t cut it for him. If Elvis was sex, Prince was a sexual orientation. His own. And it was oriented toward you. And you. And you.
Please read the whole thing. (I also love the URL. I mean, that’s it, right?)
And finally, I posted this on Twitter – and outlets left and right have been picking it up (not from me, but from her) but just in case you all haven’t seen it. Suzanne Vega posted on her Facebook page a note she got from Prince following the release of her song “Luka”, which dominated the airwaves after it came out. There are a couple of things I love about the note:
1. His show-stopping emotional dramatic handwriting.
1a. We are at the point in our culture now where we will never have examples of people’s handwriting again. But here we can see Prince revealed. This is how he wrote.
2. The fact that he took the time to write the note at all. He was an egomaniacal rock star, because of course, the man was Prince, and you don’t get to be Prince by being humble. That fact aside, he was also known for his support of and generosity towards other artists.
3. The fact that even though he admits that doesn’t know how to put his feelings into words, he wrote the note ANYWAY.
4. The Dr. Seuss flower.
Just wanted to say hello and I also saw the essay from New York Times this morning, and found it interesting read.
You know, I’m seeing a lot of things popping up within the last week regarding some sort of “Elvis tie/connection” in relation to Prince. Some Prince fans that didn’t have Elvis on their radar may inadvertently discover some of Princes Pro-Elvis comments and stances over the years.
In 1998 interview –
Q: It’s interesting to hear you cite Elvis Presley, a white artist, as an influence.
P. – I realize I’m part of a musical history and I revere the legacy of my predecessors, so, for instance, when playing live I’ll do some of their bombs, like when we do a song like “Cream,” we’ll segue a snippet of Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” into it. Or we played “Jailhouse Rock” as a tribute to Elvis.”
I was brought up in a black and white world. I dig black and white; night and day, rich and poor, man and woman. I listen to all kinds of music.
Prince’s manager Bob Cavallo also stated Prince told him he wanted to be Elvis.
Similar thing happened with David Bowie’s passing last January when many of his fans that really knew nothing of Elvis beyond his iconic image were suddenly awakened to the ripple effect of Elvis’ influence. This happened mostly due to massive onslaught of old David Bowie interviews and articles flooding music forums and social media sites with Davids praise and quotes about Elvis.
“I would have loved to work with Elvis! God, it would have been a dream”
A lot of Bowie people developed a newfound interest or respect for Elvis, due to David’s passing.
It’s always a wonderful thing to see great artists from modern era show respect for greats from the past… in this case, Elvis.
I hope they’re all resting at ease. I like to think of them as not “gone”… but just *resting*. They’re with us in their interviews and music.
Thank you for your comment – and I agree totally with the idea that artists show respect for other artists – they’re building on what was already done. Everyone is inspired by something – even Prince.
The whole Bowie/Elvis connection has always been fascinating to me. Born on the same day, first of all. Second of all, the biggest artists on the RCA label in their respective eras. So it’s like Elvis passed the torch onto Bowie – or Bowie kind of saw it that way. He felt this connection to EP. Beautiful.
All of these guys, too, had a pan-sexual thing going on – they could definitely be macho as hell – but they had something ELSE going on. It was epic, whatever it was. And totally unique to each of them, right? Nobody was imitating anyone else – but they all were feeding into each other, and almost talking across the years at one another.
God, I miss them all! But yes: resting. And lives well spent, I’d say. How much joy they all gave.
” almost like talking across the years to each other” … I like that.
Yep. The one’s in a given field, marching to the beat of their own drummer seem to be following along the lines of a rare, unknown, private path the leads straight to a trail for blazing. Even if all starting out from different times and places, they all seem to have this private inner-voice leading them to the same place…
*LegendaryTown*
And dare I even add that town is almost equivalent to immortality, as they will never be forgotten.
I totally agree with everything you say. I also love how you say it. Thank you.
That NOTE!
Sometimes I play a game where I imagine that I don’t know the author, artist, or origin of something and wonder if I would be able to guess just by looking at it. Look at this note as if you didn’t know that Prince wrote it.
The handwriting is gorgeous! The line spacing is perfect and mostly straight (in an easy way not ridgedly so). The placement of the words on the page and flourishes in unexpected places certainly suggests an artist’s eye and hand. And his choice of words as well as the words he chooses not to use point to a writer/poet. (Oops, I’ve broken my own rule to the game by referring to his & he, because honestly my first thought would have been that a very elegant woman penned this.) As you point out the little flower evokes a twelve year old girl. It’s gratifying to me that the artistry of super creative people spills out in often unexpected ways beyond their primary outlet. Apparently credits God for creative gifts. The author is obviously auditory, uses a form of ‘hear’ twice and chooses the word compelling to describe the music as if it compels him/her to what? Make music him/herself? “all the things I feel” – a sensual person, very suggestive of a variety of feelings to include sexual.
So – sensual, artist, poet, flair, uncertain gender, elegance, childlike, child of God, musically compelled… Would you have been able to guess? I might have, longshot, but wow!
I thank God 4 u 2, Prince!
I love your analysis, Melanie – you’ve got a great eye!
I don’t know if I would have been able to guess – although the I Thank God 4 U is a giveaway (my brother said that Prince was ahead of all of us, he was texting in the 80s).
A friend of mine does handwriting analysis as a hobby – and she weighed in on FB on his writing – let me find her comment. It’s fun.
Here’s what my friend saw in his handwriting:
Handwriting analysis is kind of a hobby of mine and I have to say I’d never have expected his writing to look like this. It’s fascinating. Although when I look at certain individual elements, it makes sense — like the o’s. They are all closed. ALL of them. Some of them are even looped closed which is like a kind of emotional “lock.” He is PRIVATE. And he doesn’t blab your secrets either. This isn’t news, I know, but his handwriting shows it too.
So I’m a little creeperish at times. Check out his home address and phone # at the top of the stationary… Kinda like E. A. Presley’s personal check on the bigger bed post. It excites me in a weird way to know what bank Elvis used for his very personal checking account… And to imagine Prince writing a note so intimate that he’s willing to give out his home phone number with that note. I imagine he had other stationary for less intimate correspondence or maybe a personal assistant wrote those notes.
Melanie – I am obsessed with the letterhead of celebrities!! I loved looking at Elvis’ check too! We just don’t write letters anymore – so much is lost now – who knows how future generations will put together biographies, when they need to quote correspondence!
I, too, scanned the letterhead – I’m just fascinated by the choices that go into stationary when you’re an epic figure!
There’s a whole site devoted to this – I’m not sure if you’re aware of it – but it’s like crack to me!
http://www.letterheady.com
I wrote a whole post about the evolution of Elvis’ letterheads:
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=43979