That’s Not True
Q: That’s not true.
Lon Spiegelman sent you the cloisonné Merz pin.
And Leslie Caldera (Creative Thing) sent you at artistamp sheet of 120 years of merz.
In 2007. He mentions five mail art people who have died who loved Schwitters’ work: Phil Orlando, Rudolph, Lon Spiegelman, David Cole, and Turk LeClair.
A: You’re right.
Plenty of people know what merz was. Love Kurt Schwitters. They’re just mail art people.
Q: Or dead people.
A: Creative Thing used to ride his bike to work. Now he’s unemployed.
I used to ride my bike to work. Now I’m unemployed.
Q: Didn’t he do a John Coltrane artisheet too?
A: Yes.
Q: Jazz wasn’t show business for John Coltrane. It was art.
A: He played with Eddie Cleanhead Vinson.
He played behind Big Maybelle.
He used to walk the bar.
A person does what he has to.
Q: So, if you are a clown, you’re Pagliacci.
A: Yes. You see what I have to do? To hold body and soul together?
It’s like Blaster Al says about imitating Hansel and Gretel.
I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but when you do a stand-in for Hansel and Gretel, there is like this constant play on the tension of not wanting to enter the gingerbread house, of not wanting to have to go through the whole business with the witch. But at the same time, the witch is built into the process. The witch is a traditional expectation that's hard to avoid. I'm not sure, but this impulse may be behind what I'm writing - that I'm trying to find ways, you know, like I'm agreeing to play the game and do this stand-in for Hansel and Gretel, but at the same time I'm trying to see if I can somehow avoid the enervating part, which, for me, is having to go in the gingerbread house and dick around with the witch.
Q: On with the motley. On with the paint. The powder.
A: You have to dress the part.