27 September

Roy Orbison Day At The Forss Center For The Arts

by Jon Katz
Roy Orbison Day
Roy Orbison Day

George Forss celebrated Roy Orbison’s life and music, presenting a 90-minute CD – “Black&WhiteNight” – featuring Orbison’s music shortly before he died. See below. The George Forss Theater For The Arts presents various cultural offerings every Saturday – opera, movies, readings, music. George has two big flat screen TV’s stacked on top of one another and has 14 speakers planted around his gallery for his own version of “Surround Sound.” See below for details. Red is always invited, although he does growl at the TV if the music is too shrill.

27 September

Me, Roy Orbison, George Forss (and Bruce)

by Jon Katz
Me, Roy Orbison, George Forss And Bruce
Me, Roy Orbison, George Forss And Bruce

I went to the George Forss Theater Of The Arts Saturday afternoon at the Ginofor Gallery in Cambridge for a celebration Saturday afternoon of the life and the music of Roy Orbison, one of my favorite songwriters and singers, the voice I listened to in the ICU, and work out to at Cardiac Rehab and many of my walks. I have always loved Orbison’s soulful rock romance music. In the late 1980s, fourteen months before Orbison’s death, a number of musicians – including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, T. Bone Burnett, James Burton, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, K.D. Lang, and Jon David Souther  gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to sing with Orbison, their performance became a television show and a wonderful CD called “Black&White Night.”

George offers some music or poetry or film every Saturday afternoon at 2:30, and he knows I love Orbison. In his theater, George offers popcorn and water and puts a sign up in front of his gallery. Two or three is a good crowd. Maria and I were the audience, along with George and Donna Wynbrandt, his partner and lover in life and an artist. Red comes also, curls up and growls at the sounds coming out of George’s two big screens, each stacked inexplicably on top of the other.

As often happened with us, the Orbison celebration – George loves Orbison as much as I do, we were both near tears – became a culture fest. Donna sketched me watching Roy, Maria took a video of George titling the sketch, I took photos for the blog. We have a wonderful time together, four souls adrift in the world who get one another completely.

Orbison had a very hard life, he sang and write his sad and romantic songs from reality, and the gathering was in part a tribute to him, everyone knew he was ill. They also knew he was one of the most influential musicians who ever lived. I love Orbison’s music and I love George and his great spirit, only he in all the world would open a Theater Of The Arts in his own living room and offer some art and culture to the world for free Saturday afternoon. Maria and I are regulars, I thank George for a sweet and meaningful afternoon. I loved every minute of it. I thank Donna for this wonderful sketch of my watching Roy. George and Donna are the prophet creatives in the world, they make joyful sounds and music every day of their lives. (George and I will present our new books – “Saving Simon,” and “The Way We Were” at the Battenkill Bookstore, Main Street in Cambridge,  at 7 p.m. October 7, the publication date for both of us.

The sketch is titled “Music Is A Common Love For Jon And Roy Orbison.”

27 September

Wonder And Delight

by Jon Katz
Wonder And Delight
Wonder And Delight

Every day, I look for scenes of wonder and delight. Every day I find them. This grounds me, inspires me, I know that the world is full of wonderful things, if we can only look for them. Every day, we are bombarded with their news, an angry, violent, apocalyptic view of human life on the earth. Every day I seek out the wonder and delight all around me. Donkeys waiting in the mist. The sun rising over the hills. The meadow turning yellow and red. Love and connection, friendship and creativity. Each day I devote myself to searching for the wonder and delight in the world, every day I find it. My news.

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