A Sweet Little Read

For those in love with those of the feline persuasion, you must get Alison Nastasi's new book from Chronicle Books. John Cage is in it (as are Skookum and Losa), but you'll also meet Maya Lin, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Gustav Klint, Henri Matisse, Brian Eno, Ai Weiwei, Jean Cocteau, Patti Smith, Edward Gorey, Frida Kahlo, Diego Giacometti, and many, many others. Each is captured in an image with a furry friend, which combines with a short bit of text, revealing something about the artist's life, work, and, well, relationship to cats. William S. Burroughs' entry closes with an intriguing quote, apparently his last journal entry, written in 1997:

There is no final enough of wisdom, experience -- any fucking thing. No Holy Grail. No Final Satori, no final solution. Just conflict. Only thing can resolve conflict is love, like I felt for Fletch and Ruski, Spooner and Calico.  Pure love. What I feel for my cats present and past. Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is. LOVE.

Laura Kuhn

A Memory on Cage's 101st

Photo © Rob Shepperson

John Cage had a very close relationship with his second black cat, Losa.  (His first black cat, Skookum, was tragically set loose on the streets of New York by a well-meaning worker on the roof. John was so bereft, Andy Culver told him we were going to have to send him back to Zen School.) One of their favorite games together was for John to put Losa under a cardboard box.  Losa would then move around the loft, the box on his back, weirdly animated.  I was horrified the first time I saw him do this. "He must be scared!" I cried. John just laughed. He said Losa liked it, and, furthermore, his new name was now Losa Rinpoche Taxi Cab.  Of course, Losa would, after a time, simply shrug the box off, look disdainfully at us both, and calmly walk away.

Laura Kuhn