A week of prep and research for an interview with composer Philip Glass ultimately came to naught, due to the composer's overwhelming schedule. Looks like the Don DeLillo quote on 'the work' proved telling. Guess I won't be rewatching Koyaanisqatsi after all.
Unasked questions for Philip Glass:
From a recent New Yorker article on the Don DeLillo archives at UT's Ransom Center, with DeLillo explaining to young novelist David Foster Wallace:
Anyway, all of this happened over time, until eventually discipline no longer seemed something outside me that urged the reluctant body into the room. At this point discipline is inseparable from what I do. It's not even definable as discipline. It has no name. I never think about it. But there's no trick of meditation or self-mastery that brought it about. I got older, that's all. I was not a born novelist (if anyone is). I had to grow into novelhood.Are people still deluded into thinking of the creative act --be it novels or operas or sculpture-- as one of inspiration rather than sheer work ethic?
With your hectic schedule, have you had a chance to see the Richard Serra exhibit at the MoMA and new large scale works like: Band, Sequence, Torqued Torus Inversion?
Did you first know Richard when he was still a painter?
Did you both begin to work on larger scales (that unfurl in time and are cognizant of space) around the same time?
What were your first impressions of New York City when you moved up here?
Did you ever get to see Moondog perform on the corner of Sixth Avenue?
What was the scene like in that era, with practitioners like La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Steve Reich, Charlemagne Palestine and the like all performing in art galleries and non-traditional venues? Was everyone close or were people off on their own, mining similar veins?
Do you still find it odd to be considered a "minimalist"?
Who in your estimation was the most unheralded composer of that time?
Having championed and released his work on your own imprints: Chatham Square, Point Music, and now Orange Mountain, were you pleased with the revitalization and renaissance of Arthur Russell's music?
Art of collaboration (Errol Morris, Alan Ginsburg, Robert Wilson, etc.)? How do you sublimate the composer ego enough for it to work?
