LolaSpace

art-tracks international centre




Scarabeus theatre

LolaSpace tells stories behind the music I write.  It's also a place for me to ask questions and get some answers…
 

 
 
Dream 
by Jonathan Boak

The pianist begins
and, sitting comfortably,
I leave myself behind.
Time to my left,

space to my right,
I pass through the void,
dodging worlds, each step
the end of an age.

Turning, I see hopes,
dreams, swallowed up
by a billion fading suns.
Mankind's glories,

now dust, drift on.
Now silence.
Through the window
daylight touches my face,

sparking hopes, dreams.

With, the Cuban writer Ernesto Juan Castellanos, author of four books about The Beatles
…in which Castro and the Monsignor of Havana rock to new conventions…

Q  My previous guest, Nazarin Montag, left a question for you; "what is your guilty pleasure?"
Ernesto  Sex

Q Tell me how you first started writing about The Beatles in Cuba?
Ernesto   The story goes back to 1996, when I asked Francisco Lopez Sacha, the president of the Cuban writers, whom I had met in a Hemingway convention in Havana, why not hold a Beatles convention as well. The Beatles had been banned in Cuba in the ‘60s and ‘70s because government officials had considered their music too western and decadent and not the best of examples for the Cuban youth. Besides, they sang in English, "the language of the enemy."
So in the mid ‘90s, even when the ban had already been lifted many years ago, no one ever dared open the debate about what had happened in our cultural history, so it was high time we held an uncensored debate about The Beatles.

Being a huge Beatles fan himself, Sacha said why not. But he had to ask Abel Prieto, the president of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), who is currently the Minister of Culture.
Abel is also a big Beatles fan and he immediately said yes. So we held the first Beatles symposium in October, for three days, and a lot of people and press attended. We had organised it in the form of theoretical debates. Speeches in the morning and films and concerts in the afternoon. About two dozen Cuban Beatles experts gave their opinion about different topics, and one specifically, which we hadn't included, but expected would be raised during the debates, was why The Beatles had been banned in Cuba. It was the first time that such heated debate had taken place under official sponsorship.

The convention was so successful that when it was over, I told Sacha that I could compile all the speeches, write an introduction, and add an epilogue about The Beatles ban, and we could have the first book about The Beatles ever published in Cuba. Of course he agreed with the idea, and Union, UNEAC's publishing house, was happy with the idea. So the book came out during the next international book fair in Havana. They printed only two thousand copies, and the book sold like pancakes. Nowadays, it's a collector's item, as there are no plans for a second edition.

Q Was it a big decision for you to ask Sacha to have this debate? 
Did you think you were going to be jumping into hot water? 
Were you worried that you were opening up something for the first time, or did you not look at it like this?
Ernesto No, this wasn't a big decision, as I don't think Sacha's answer, or Abel's, were big decisions either. We all were very confident that it was all about a cultural debate. We were talking about one of the most important cultural phenomena of the XX century. We didn't care we were jumping into hot water because we never saw it that way, although we did know I were walking on eggs, as not many people in Cuba feel confident defying censorship no matter how long ago it had been lifted. At the time we didn't realize we were doing something very important, as we didn't even care.
But several years later, after so many things that opened up because of our conventions, we have to acknowledge that we did write a bit of history there.

Q  What sort of things opened up afterwards, related to your conventions?
Ernesto  Well, many things. We invited The Quarrymen, John Lennon's original band before The Beatles, to come to the second convention in 1997. They hadn't seen each other for many many years, and that year they had got together to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day John met Paul, so they couldn't come to Havana that year. But they promised they would come to the third convention the following year. In the meantime, they reciprocally invited me to attend The Beatles convention in Liverpool. So when I came back from the UK, I had enough material to start writing a second book about The Beatles, which I concluded with interviews to The Quarrymen in Havana during the third convention, to which also came Hunter Davies, The Beatles' official biographer, whom I had also interviewed. I was also lucky to interview Robert Freeman, The Beatles' photographer.
The book finishes with a chronicle about Paul McCartney's very short visit to Cuba. I entitled this second book "Sgt. Pepper came to Cuba in a yellow submarine."

One other bit of history that owes to the Cuban Beatles convention is that Hunter Davies met The Quarrymen in Havana and thanks to that he later wrote his book "The Quarrymen".

And thanks to our conventions, in 2000, Castro unveiled a statue of John Lennon in a park in Havana.  It hadn't been to our initial idea in 1996; I don't see how that could have ever happened.
Then, thanks to this I wrote a third book,: "War is over - if you want it" about Lennon's social and political thinking, and then a fourth book; "John Lennon in Havana with a little help from my friends", which explains why there is a statue of John Lennon sitting in a park of Havana through the history of rock in Cuba.

Q …Going back to the statue of John Lennon in a park in Havana…the fact that this now exists is deeply symbolic.
Ernesto Yes, the statue of John Lennon is a symbol in Cuba, at least for many of those who suffered persecution and harassment because they liked The Beatles or rock during the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Many of them say that the fact that it was unveiled by President Castro is like a good way to say sorry for everything they went through.

But that's not the only symbolic connotation it has. The statue is always accompanied by someone. Cuba is a very religious country, especially that interesting mix between Spanish Catholicism and African religion, and I've seen people coming with flowers and pray in front of the statue, or even light candles and beg for things.
And I'm talking about people who don't necessarily like The Beatles. This issue is one of the most interesting bits in my book "John Lennon in Havana with a little help from my friends", that mysterious approach to the statue.

Q. How was the unveiling of the statue covered in the Cuban media?
Ernesto Well, there was a lot of press that day, both local and foreign. People didn't expect Castro would turn up, even less to unveil the statue. So the fact that he unveiled it made the event more important and better covered. He had never done anything like this.

Q. Has any other Cuban, or non-Cuban, author written about this movement?
Ernesto Well, if you mean the statue, yes. There's a Cuban playwright who wrote a play about a guy who steals the statue and takes it home to speak to Lennon every day. There have been short stories and even films where the statue appears as an important element in the plot. But I am the only author who has written books about The Beatles as a socio-cultural phenomenon in Cuba and their suppression during the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Q. In your book you tell us about the existence of Cuban bands who play in the tradition of contemporary Western music.  Are there many bands like this today and are they free to play gigs - because when they first started emerging were they not suppressed?
Ernesto Oh yes, there are many rock bands now. There are lots of rock festivals along the island every year. There are even radio and TV shows about Cuban rock bands. This is something that didn't happen before we started our Beatles conventions in 1996. So we opened some doors in that respect as well.

Q. You interview some unlikely Beatles fans such Monseñor Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.  What did he tell you?
Ernesto Well, first of all I was surprised that when I came into his office in the church for the interview, he was listening to a Beatles album on his computer. We're talking here about the Monsignor of Havana. I had asked for an interview because he had published a story in the magazine of the archdioceses of Havana about the John Lennon statue and The Beatles. And I liked his points of view. So we talked about his story, how he started liking The Beatles and many other things. But one of the questions I enjoyed asking him the most was what he thought about when John Lennon said The Beatles were more popular that Jesus. He gave me a very good answer. You gotta read the whole interview in the book. It's one of my favourites.

Q.  Your book includes a previously unreleased press conference where Castro talked to the media about rock and The Beatles.  How did this end up in your hands?
Ernesto Well, I was there in the first place. A few minutes after he unveiled the statue of John Lennon I was supposed to launch my book Sgt. Pepper came to Cuba in a yellow submarine.  The Minister of Culture was sitting next to him and told him about my book. And I was sitting two rows exactly behind Castro. So Castro called me and started talking about so many different things, from the book to John Lennon to The Beatles to beards. I had two copies of my book with me. I autographed one for him and he autographed one for me, plus a picture we had taken together a few months before, that I had brought for the occasion. And after we talked for about ten minutes, he approached the press area and started the interview. I didn't ask him any questions there because he had given me a private interview before!

Q. Why was the banning of The Beatles such a complicated matter?
Ernesto Well, this is a complicated question that I can't answer with just a few sentences. The answer is a whole book, my fourth book, John Lennon in Havana with a little help from my friends. Anyway, first of all you have to understand that when Beatlemania started, the Revolution was still very young. Castro had only come to power five years before. And all that Beatles craze had nothing to do with the principles the Revolution wanted for the Cuban youth. So from a cultural point of view, the country preferred to encourage the national values and not foreign patterns. Besides, The Beatles sang in English, which was then considered the language of the enemy. But I think that's a natural reaction, a defending wall against so many aggressions from the US. Only that the authorities didn't realise that The Beatles were English, that the diplomatic and economic relations with the UK then were fine, and that The Beatles were singing songs about love, peace and understanding. It's something that even Castro has considered a mistake from the past.

Q.  And what are you working on now?
Ernesto I think I'm working on too many projects at the same time. I started writing a comic novel about six years ago, Miami XXX, about the lives and paranoia of the Miami Cubans. I still have a chapter to write to finish the novel. There's also a book of short stories about women's sexuality.  There's another novel, and this is not a comedy, about what happened in Cuba in 1980, one of Cuba's most dramatic years ever. I'm also working on a book about protest rock from 1960 to 1980, a project I'm very much in love with. And last but not least, I was invited by the production team to participate in the London concert for Live Earth last July, and the whole experience developed into the idea of writing a book about the whole concept and the criticisms it arouse. You see, maybe too many projects at the same time for a single author, but I have to keep going all the time, otherwise I writer's life is very boring.

Q.  Can you leave a question for my next guest?
Ernesto Can you find me a UK publisher?

It's Slug Season again; they come in after I fall asleep and leave by dawn. I don't know how many come in, but at times I've stepped on them in the dark and it's a cold, wet and horrible experience. Sometimes I put a line of salt down across the base of my French windows hoping they will just stop coming in.

A while ago I was working late in the corner of my room; my back to the windows. A noise made me turn around and so I saw the slug high up on my ceiling, at the other end of the room by the French windows.

The process took maybe ten minutes. Bit by bit it inched its way forwards towards me, then when it got just beyond the salt line it slowly and ballerina-style, set about lowering itself downwards - looking just like a choreographed autumn leaf on the brink of falling - until, eventually, it just let go of the ceiling and did fall onto the floor. Clever.

I watched it for a while; he or she or it just carried on as normal and made its way into my flat as if it owned it.

A lesson in determination.

LolaSpace Question & Answer
May '07

with Nazarin Montag, photographer

…in which a burning garden provides the ideal photographic backdrop for take-away meals and alien beings…

(Lola) My last guest, John Ronson, left a question for you.  What are you like when you're angry? 
(Nazarin) I feel awful I hate being angry, I get quite cross when I am messed around  unnecessarily those that have suffered the "wrath of Naz" know who they are!!

(Lola) How do you relax?

(Nazarin) I read (watch any old crap on tv sometimes} or burn the rubbish in the garden which I also find relaxing….

(Lola) Why did you become a photographer?

(Nazarin) As a young girl I was always interested in fashion. This drew me to photography.  Fashion has become far less interesting to me as a subject to photograph, but I still love clothes.

(Lola) What type of photographs do you take? 

(Nazarin) I consider myself to be a ‘reportage' or documentary photographer.

(Lola) What is your dream photographic assignment?  

(Nazarin) I'm very interested in photographing The Raliens, a cult group who believe they have alien origins.

(Lola) What is your passion? 

(Nazarin) Learning to play the guitar

(Lola) Would you send your own ashes into Space?   

(Nazarin)  No…what for?

(Lola) Which photographers do you admire? 

(Nazarin) Garry Winogrand

(Lola) Who would you most like to invite over for a meal and what would you make to eat? 

(Nazarin)   Victor Pelevin, I'd have to get a take-away I‘d be too nervous to cook.

(Lola) Is there more crime nowadays?

(Nazarin) Ye, of course.  Crime/War.  What's the difference?

(Lola) Do things like concerts to raise money to feed the poor achieve anything or do they detract from the work of specialist Charities?

(Nazarin) I've worked on a couple of these music fund raising projects I'm sure they raise awareness and provide fun and entertainment for the people who participate,  but starvation shouldn't be an excuse to party, it's something that we should be aware of every time we go to the supermarket!

(Lola) Got any good stories about how any of your pictures were taken? 

(Nazarin) No, not really.  I'm not into acrobatics, clever stunts or sneaking behind walls, although my various assistants over the years have recalled some embarrassing moments that they've found highly amusing.

(Lola) What are your current projects? 
(Nazarin) I'm planning some 3D work in relation to my photographic practice.

(Lola)  Can you recommend some work by someone new or currently unknown who you rate - in any of the Arts? 
(Nazarin)  Sam Karielod

(Lola) I am beginning to understand that most of the things we recycle end up going abroad on ships - I've read that the big untold story of global warming is that Shipping is contributing more to the Greenhouse effect than the aviation industry.  What do you think about recycling, is it making the world Greener?
(Nazarin)  I have yet to see a proper re-cycling program here in London. It's still a largely voluntary occupation . I think the population as a whole, including myself, is a bit ‘green ‘regarding the recycling programs from beginning to end result.

(Lola) Got anything else you want to say that you wish I'd asked about?

(Nazarin)  Yes, there is a question I could suggest.  "Is there anyone who you feel is trying to make a difference in the world?"  My answer would be Jane Kokan, a documentary film maker, she makes films more or less on her own, in really difficult conditions, and brings out stories that would otherwise remain buried, stories that need to be told, like the plight of women in Afghanistan for example.

(Lola) Can you leave a question for my next guest please?

(Nazarin)  What is your guilty pleasure ?

with  Jon Ronson (www.jonronson.com)

…in which Shyness has the power to cast silence over a utopian Oxford Circus…

(Lola) My last guest, John Kennedy, left a question for you…

If you were given the power to make one change in the world, what would that be?

(Jon) I'd ban cars. They cause nothing but trouble. People get hit by them. They pollute. There's road rage. It's stressful to be stuck in one in a traffic jam. They're unhealthy, because you just sit there. In my car-free utopia public transport would be just wonderful, and people would do a lot more walking and cycling.

(Lola) Do you have anything to add?
(Jon) Yes. What I add is funny, humane stories about the crazy ways people behave.

(Lola) What is the funniest scene you can recall from a film?
(Jon) The first one that sprung to mind is the scene in Meet The Parents when Robert De Niro says to Ben Stiller, "I have nipples. Can you milk me?"

(Lola) Is there someone in politics who could benefit from watching this scene?
(Jon) It's not really the sort of scene that would make a politician behave differently.

(Lola) Have you stayed in a Fawlty Towers type hotel anywhere?  What is the weirdest thing that's happened to you in a hotel?
(Jon) I've been inside the actual Fawlty Towers. When I was 10, I was given a guided tour of the BBC by a friend of my mother, and they were filming Fawlty Towers, so I had a look around the set. The weirdest thing that's happened to me in a hotel was when I complained about the noise, and the manager came storming upstairs and yelled at me, "THE ONLY NOISE IS IN YOUR HEAD!"

(Lola) I once ended up a very odd situation in a hotel by screaming at the owner in frustration : "… AND when the phone in the room rings I have to answer it with a needle…."  What is the craziest sentence you've come out with, anywhere?
(Jon) "That happens to everyone who visits dogs."

(Lola) What kind of music do you like?
(Jon) Punk, indie, country, folk, rock.

(Lola) And which are your favourite painters?
(Jon) Jasper Johns, maybe.

(Lola) Which celebrities/artists/musicians/politicians/terrorists would you invite for a meal at your house and what would you offer to eat? 
(Jon) Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver, Lou Reed, President Bush, Chinese.

(Lola) If you had a megaphone at Oxford Circus what would you shout?
(Jon) I wouldn't. I'm a shrinking violet.

(Lola) What do you hope your child/children will do when they're older?
(Jon) Well he wants to be a rock star. So I hope he becomes one. Failing that, a writer.

(Lola) Are you religious?
(Jon) No.

(Lola) Do you consider yourself to be a misfit?
(Jon) Yes.

(Lola) Are you jealous of anyone?
(Jon) Yes. I'm jealous of almost everyone richer and/or better looking and/or more successful than me. That's okay, isn't it?

(Lola) Can we have one of your secrets?
(Jon) No.

(Lola) Can you leave a question for my next guest (photographer and artist Nazarin Montag)?
(Jon) How do you behave when you're angry?

(Lola) Is there a question you wish you'd been asked in this Q&A?
(Jon) No, I feel satisfied. Thank you.


Jon Ronson's most recent book is The Men Who Stare At Goats.

Earlier this year, around August, I was walking with my nine-year-old son.  We had decided to go out just so we were doing something different for a while.  Although we were spending most of our time that summer in the same room for hours on end, we were separated by my preoccupation with composition and he too was busy, making his own commentaries to various football games he was watching.

"I've been thinking," he said, "do you know that the oldest thing in the world is the wind, the wind is older than the world?"

His words blew my mind and I bought him an ice cream, asking if I could use his them to title my collaboration-in-progress with Mahesh Mathai.  That's how The wind is older than the world got its name; the concept became a driving force to settle the musical fragments into one coherent whole.

It made me realise how my son was my muse.  He'd already been responsible for other inspired titles and thoughts -  Going on bird speed and The march of Wonth.  And in 2005, he was talking to me about the presence of an empty physical space in the world left by his grandmother who had filled this space before she passed away.  His thought had made me gasp and triggered a certain atmosphere that I strived to capture in Music from Fragile Light Spaces.

paintings in progress from John Kennedy's project working from Lola Perrin music

with JOHN KENNEDY (www.myspace.com/jedyka)

…in which a spider works on a Picasso, Bjork and Miro eat ten types of cheese and John Kennedy orbits the Earth whilst painting…

(Lola) What is your favourite colour?
(John) Red

(Lola) Do artists tend to have favourite colours do you know?
(John) I think an artist has a favourite colour for the week. My favourite colour this week is Red!

(Lola) What's it like to be a painter?
(John) Very lonely but I wouldn't want it any other way.

(Lola) Do you paint for long periods of time?
(John) I have been known to paint for two to three days with little sleep and food, and it's not always from being inspired but also from just been so frustrated with my work that I can't sleep until I'm satisfied with what I am painting.

(Lola) Are you normal? In other words, I mean do you socialise when you're creating or do you change?
(John) I think I am a bit of both. There are some kinds of works I can produce under social gatherings and other works where I need to be alone. But to answer your question…Yes I am not normal.

(Lola) What drives you?
(John) My latest painting, a cup of tea in the morning, music, people, stories…being dissatisfied

(Lola) Would you go into space as a "tourist" if the ticket were cheap enough?
(John) I would love to go into Space as the first paid 'Spacescape' painter!!

(Lola) Which artists do you like, alive or dead?
(John) There are so many. Miro, Arvo Part, Bjork, William Blake, Piero Della Francesca, Twombly, Frank Auerbach, Kapoor, Frida Kahlo.. just to list a few.

(Lola) Which artist would you most like to invite over for a meal and what would you make to eat?
(John) I would invite Bjork and Miro over for dinner, and after much consideration I would simply make French toast with ten different kinds of Cheese and decorate it with parsley to make it look like I was some professional Chef. The rest of the night we would get drunk on Tequila and wine discussing art and playing charades!

(Lola) Should paintings by dead artists, like Van Gogh, be sold for a fortune, artists who were penniless during their lives and suffered unimaginably through poverty?
(John) I have never measured his work by money; I think they are priceless works for more important reasons. I think for the reasons that he did paint through all the adversity he went through is in some measure a triumph. But maybe it's also a lesson for people to pay more attention towards those that do suffer as he did. It does make me wonder what he would think of all of this though. He would probably say 'Why couldn't they give me this attention when I was alive. These rich people must love artists when they die, it pumps the value up.'

(Lola) Why did Van Gogh cut off his ear?
(John) It could be for two reasons, one: He was suffering from so much painful depression that the only way he could feel free of that was to inflict himself with physical torture during a fit of rage. Or two, he thought it was a good thing to do at the time.

(Lola) Got any good stories about any artists or art pieces or galleries/museums?
(John) The one story that has come straight to mind is when I went to the National Gallery in Sydney, Australia where they have a couple of paintings from Picasso. But as I got closer to one of his works I noticed a small spider building a web along the painted surface creating a new mark that only Picasso could of dreamed of making. It was a nice moment.

(Lola) What are your current projects?
(John) Well, at this point I am producing a series of paintings based on the musical compositions of Lola Perrin, I am also producing a painting sculpture commissioned series, and on top of that I am illustrating one children's book.

(Lola) Can you recommend some work by someone new or currently unknown that you rate - in any of the Arts?
(John) I would like to recommend the photographic work of Rowan Conroy from Australia; he is an amazing emerging artist. (http://www.rowanconroy.com)

(Lola) Got anything else you want to say that you wish I'd asked about?
(John) What do you like to do when you are not painting? I love to go on long walks and watch really bad B Grade Horror movies.

(Lola) Roland Perrin left a question for you: what three things do you most want from a political leader?
(John) Honesty, Compassion, and at least an IQ above 90.

(Lola) Can you leave a question for my next guest please?
(John) If you were given the power to make one change in the world, what would that be?

(To be answered by the Broadcaster, Investigative Journalist and Writer, Jon Ronson, next in the line-up…)

with ROLAND PERRIN (www.rolandperrin.com)
…in which Boulez gets a plate of beans to help him relax - and no-one sits down to write no-one a letter…

(Lola) What was your most recent dream about?
(Roland) It's not recent but Lennie Tristano was giving me a piano lesson, he played chords and asked me what colour they were. I got the questions right in the main.
(Lola) Do plants have feelings?
(Roland) When I got back from Morocco my money plant was drooping - it was still really shiny though. My roses communicate with me.
(Lola) Is there something you'd love to understand how it works?
(Roland) The radio
(Lola) If you moved tomorrow, to where would it be?
(Roland) Primrose Hill, London.

(Lola) What sort of visual art do you like looking at?
(Roland) Rembrandt always
(Lola) Is there a God?
(Roland) So far no
(Lola) Are you addicted to anything or anyone?
(Roland) Vodka, red wine, my nephews
(Lola) What are your desert island CDs?  It's a big island, so name as many as you want.
(Roland) Bach B minor Mass, The New Tristano, Such Sweet Thunder, All Mahler, Brahms Clarinet Quintet, All Ellington as well now I think of it, Schumann Humoreske, All Lester Young, Palo pa Rumba by Eddie Palmieri, All Rosa Passos, Jobim's 70's recordings, all Elis Regina... there's more...
(Lola) Which composer would you most like to cook for and what would you serve?
(Roland) Boulez - Rice and beans served with Havana Club (7 years old) and served while Klimax play in the background - come on, relax and enjoy your life...
(Lola) Have you ever wanted to be an astronaut?
(Roland) No not yet
(Lola) Do you like travelling fast or slow in trains and cars and do you like roller coasters?
(Roland) Trains and foreground fast, background slow.
(Lola) Do you think people still write letters and post them?
(Roland) I know no one like that
(Lola) Are you superstitious?
(Roland) No longer

(Lola) If you could write music for a year with no distractions, what task would you set yourself?

(Roland) Symphonies (with solos) and an opera  (with jazz singers)

(Lola) Is there a language you wish you could speak?
(Roland) Arabic
(Lola) Do you have a poem, drawing, web link to something good or maybe a story to share here?
(Roland) www.trombonepoetry.com
(Lola) Should this question be about football and why?
(Roland) Henry and Zidane have much to teach people alive now
(Lola) Can you set one question for my next guest?
(Roland) What are the three things you most want from a political leader?

Roland Perrin & Lola Perrin will Double Bill at the London Jazz Festival at Spitz, Nov 19th http://www.spitz.co.uk