Sekouba Traore
9" x 5.5"
oil on wood, 2010
Finally the Traore painting is coming to a close. I skipped photographing a few stages as I was going back and forth in some areas of the painting. Eight hours of painting divided over three days. I will probably pick it up once more to add some slight color and value changes, plus the hand I've been struggling with now needs to grow about one eight of an inch after it has been in various positions, places and in various sizes. Enough said now about this painting, time to move on.
Even after more than 2,000 top 10s in over 27 years there are still on average two bands or musicians that had never been listed before. In my last blog I commented on my own surprise that the Yardbirds were never before in a top 10. First time entries are usually pretty obscure or brand new to me but it still happens quite often that very well known musicians gather their first points. That Marie Osmond now, after my latest top 10, has entered the archive for the first time, is not nearly as surprising as the Yardbirds last time around. I usually stay clear of the biggest names in popular music. Michael Jackson for example never had any of his songs listed ever. The Marie Osmond song that tops the latest top 10 is quite remarkable and certainly worth to sketch the background for it. In 1984, at the height of her popularity, she was the co-host for a show called Ripley's Believe it or Not. In one of the broadcasts she did an item on Dada, and more specifically the sound poetry of Hugo Ball. In it Marie Osmond recited one of Ball's poems called Karawane. Ball had originally performed the piece in the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. Marie Osmond does an amazing job performing it. For a moment she seems to have lost herself in -what must have been for her- the otherworldly existence of Ball's nonsensical poetry. A recording of it is included on the audio CD companion to Greil Marcus' book Lipstick Traces. Follow the following link to hear and see Osmond's performance at the Ripley's broadcast.
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