Mondays with Merce (Episode 015)

Mondays with Merce (Episode 015) - The Prepared Mind: John Cage and David Tudor

These programs -- the glorious work of Nancy Dalva and the Cunningham Dance Foundation -- are always a joy, but this one particularly so for its inclusion of new archival film and photography of John Cage and David Tudor. Recent interviews with Christian Wolff and Gordon Mumma provide a beautiful, authoritative backbone, and highlights include a rare clip of Cage performing his infamous 4'33" in Harvard Square (1983) as well as new footage of Cunningham's RainForest (1968, with Tudor's eponymous score), filmed by Mondays with Merce at Moscow's Mossovet Theater in June 2011 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State and the Chekhov Festival.

Laura Kuhn

Any Resemblance is Purely Coincidental?

The Swedish Chef (The Muppets - Popcorn)

Ring any (Water Walk) bells?

A Memory Sidebar: Discovering yet again that some great idea I had was thought of by John Cage some 50 years before, I once asked Merce Cunningham whether he thought Cage wouldn't always be one step ahead of us. He smiled and asked in reply whether I was asking if John Cage would ever be fully assimilated.

He thought about this for a moment and shook his head no. Not in your lifetime, he said.

Laura Kuhn