The Polished Palace

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SPOILERS BELOW Notes * Much of what I read about Florence was pulled from old newspaper articles. * The biography in Notable American Women: Volume 5 does a nice, thorough job with Florence story. * I first stumbled on Florence Chadwick in a photo in a restaurant in Santa Barbara and was struck by, as the photo suggested, she went on a world tour, swimming local channels. Music * First up is Solitude, from (delightfully named) Janis Crunch. * Then we’ve got Like a Bell to a Southerly Wind, by Chequerboard. * Modular Body #7 by Machinefabriek. * After Catalunya by Ephemetry and Richard J. Birkin. * Finishing up on The Old Favourite by The Gloaming.

Notes *Great stuff in the Cleveland Plain Dealer from waaaaaay back to fire #1, if you want to dive in. * Found Jonathan Joseph Wlasiuk’s dissertation, Refining Nature (etc.) quite helpful in sorting out the early days of the Rockefeller refineries. * If you want to know more about the complicated relationship of Cleveland and the ’69 fire and the passage of the Clean Water Act, seek out Jonathan H. Adler’s article (and R.E.M. nod), Fables of the Cuyahoga: Reconstructing a History of Environmental Protection. * I also want to shout out The Killer in the Attic, and More True Tales of Crime and Disaster from Cleveland’s Past, by John Stark Bellamy II, which does a great job with the river fires. Music * Start off with Lacrymae, from Melodium. * Go to a chopped up Fables, by Girls in Airports. * Finish off with the eternal Sunflower River Blues by John Fahey.

Notes and Reading: * I came to this story the old fashioned way (for me): I saw Su Lin at the Field Museum and needed to know more. That led me inevitably to Vicki Croke’s The Lady and the Panda from 2006. It’s a terrific read. If you have any interest at all in learning more about Ruth Harkness, that’s the place to go. I’ve got a few quibbles here and there, but, for real, it’s delightful. * Quentin Young’s (slightly strange and contested) version of events is told inChasing the Panda by Michael Kiefer. * If you’ve got a few hundred bucks (or a library with more liberal lending policies with old books than mine), why not read Ruth’s own book, The Baby Giant Panda? * If you’re interested in zoos writ large, I’m a fan of Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos by Elizabeth Hansen. Music: * We start with Hush-Maker by Moon Ate the Dark. * Roll on with Freudian Slippers by Chilly Gonzales. * Hear Bibio’s Cherry Blossom Road a couple of times. * Hit up Nice Dream by radio.string.quartet.vienna * Hear Don Redman and his Orchestra play Blue Eyed Baby from Memphis. * The centerpiece of the middle section is Snow Again by Lambert. * We hear a couple of pieces by Dan Romer: An Old Fashioned Man and End of the World. * We finish up on Lullatone’s Falling Asleep With a Book on Your Chest.

Notes and Reading: * Most of the specific history of the White Horse was learned from “Sanctuary: the Inside Story of the Nation’s Second Oldest Gay Bar” by David Olson, reprinted in its entirety on the White Horse’s website. * “Gayola: Police Professionalization and the Politics of San Francisco’s Gay Bars, 1950-1968,” by Christopher Agee. * June Thomas’ series on the past, present, and future of the gay bar from Slate a few years back. * Various articles written on the occasion of the White Horse’s 80th anniversary, including this one from SFGATE.Com * Michael Bronski’s A Queer History of the United States. * Radically Gay, a collection of Harry Hay’s writing. * Incidentally, I watched this interview with Harry Hay from 1996 about gay life in SF in the 30’s multiple times because it’s amazing. Music * We start with Water in Your Hands by Tommy Guerrero. * Hit Anne Muller’s Walzer fur Robert a couple of times. * Gaussian Curve does Talk to the Church. * We get a loop of Updraught from Zoe Keating. * We finish on Transient Life in Twilight by James Blackshaw

SPOILERS BELOW Music * First up is The Homeless Wanderer from Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou off of the Emahoy (Piano Solo) album, number 21 in the unimpeachable Ethiopiques series. * Then we get some of To the Right the Enemy, to the Left the Sea from Simon Rakham. * We finish with Stellify by Francesco Albanese. Notes * The bulk of the non-technical details from this one comes from Charles Duke’s highly readable memoir, Moonwalker: The True Story of an Astronaut Who Found That the Moon Wasn’t High Enough to Satisfy his Desire for Success. He’s a wonderful story teller and an amiable literary companion. I’ll also note that the end of the book, the last few chapters or so, are really a wonderful, clear-eyed, deeply felt story of how, first, Dottie’s faith, and then Charles’ set the course of the rest of their lives. If that’s the sort of thing that interests you, I really do recommend the book.

Music * Up top, looped, is the first bit of the great, Foreign Fields, by Kacy Hill. * Then we hear some of Sun Will Set, by Zoe Keating. * The song on the radio is Sonny Thompson’s Long Gone, as heard on the Mellow Blues album. Notes * You can read all of the 1948 Green Book (and the rest of the Green Books) at the New York Public Library’s fantastic digital collection.

Music * We hear Portrait Gallery from Luke Howard. * A smidgen of Julia Kent’s lovely Dorval. * The incomparable Moondog’s Gloving It pops up a couple times (as it tends to do around these parts). * Denmark by the Portland Cello Project rolls out for quite awhile. * John Lewis and Sacha Distel play the title track from their Afternoon in Paris album. * There’s a bit of Eine Kleine Gamelan Music from The Gamelan Son of Lion (seriously). * Ends on P, by Labradford. NOTES * The classic text on Charlie Faust is Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times:the Story of the Early Days of Baseball as Told by the Men Who Played It, one of the key texts of early baseball history, first published in 1966. * The definitive resource on Faust is Gabriel Schecter, who’s written his biography for SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, and a monograph called Victory Faust: The Rube Who Saved McGraw’s Giants. * I also want to point you to Rob Neyer’s lovely piece on visiting Faust’s grave.

Do you live in Toronto? Chicago? Milwaukee? Minneapolis? How about L.A.? Come see the Memory Palace live this May. Music * We hear a snippet of Runaway by Ólafur Arnalds up top. * Then Debut by Christopher Ferreira. * A bit of Saturday Evening from Tomasz Bednarczyk * Ralph Van Raat plays John Adams’ China Gates. * The recurring flute piece is Wasser-Wunder from Tibor Szemző and Group 180 * Deadmau5 plays Invidia. * Lawrence English plays Watching it Unfold. * The radio snippet is a bit of a cheat. It’s from the World Series from that year. Only broadcast I could find from ’54.

Notes Research for this story was largely culled from contemporary newspaper accounts. Check back for a list. Music * We start off (and end) with You by Nils Frahm. * We’ve got Krolock on the Sledge from Komeda’s great, great score to The Fearless Vampire Hunters. * Jett Rink Theme from Dimitri Tiomkin’s score to Giant. * A little loop of Bandshell, from Thomas Newman’s Little Children score. * And Opening, the vibes pieces, by Nathan Bartlett (making a return appearance). * Oh! And Meet the Neighbors from Marcelo Zarvo’s score to the lovely, Please Give. Which has become the go to soundtrack for “Some borderline scam artist has a crazy idea,” here on the Memory Palace.

Notes * I first came the story of Ross, North Dakota, while reading Muslims in America: A Short History, by Edward E. Curtis. * The full WPA interview with Mary Juma (and another member of the Ross community) can be found in Curtis’ The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States. * A contemporary account of the Ross community can be found here. Music *The first bit is a loop from the opening of a song called I. Permafrost by a long-defunct band called Jerseyturnpike made up of a husband/wife duo from San Francisco. Years ago, I went to their wedding in New Jersey. There was a bounce house. It was beautiful. * The piece finishes up with the on-the-nose, This is Home, from Joel P. West’s soundtrack to the terrific film, Short Term 12.

Notes Nearly all the research for this one comes straight out of the highly-readable, Cap’n George Fred, G.F. Tilton’s 1925 autobiography. I got my copy at a used bookstore for $11. It’s easy to find on eBay and Amazon and whatnot. Totally money well spent. Music * First up is Lacrymae by Melodium. * Then we mix in Every Mournful Breath by Slow Meadow * Meeting the Neighbors from Marcelo Zarvos’ score to the delightful, Please Give, makes a return appearance. * There’s Steve Reich’s “Music for Pieces of Wood,” as performed by Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble. * Yes, that’s Immigrant Song, from Zeppelin III. * There’s a bit of Frost Trees from Lalo Schifrin’s extraordinary score to The Fox, from 1967. * End credits, as always, is Wien, by La Bradford. Buy their music, please.

Music * Julia Rovinsky plays Phillip Glass’ Metamorphosis I, from her album Dusk. * There’s an excerpt from Paul Drescher’s “Casa Vecchia,” from the Mirrors: Other Fire album. * There’s a chunk of Jose Gonzalez’ “Instrumental” from his Stay in the ShadeEP. * “Manny Returns Home” from Bernard Hermann’s score to The Wrong Man. * Branka Parlic plays Philip Glass’ “Mad Rush.” Twice. * “Quiet Fan for SK,” by P.G. Six. * Things get heavy to “Particles of the Universe (Heartbeats)” from Dan Romer and Ben Zeitlin’s score to Beasts of the Southern Wild. Notes There’s a lot written about Robert Smalls, with a lot of contradictory information. I found Edward A. Miller’s Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress particularly useful to sorting it all out. Some other sources I consulted while researching this piece: * The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by the Don, James McPherson * From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915, by Okon Uya. * And, for what it’s worth, Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief from RFK Jr.’s American Heroes Series is an enjoyable and surprisingly thorough version of the story for young readers, if you’re ever looking for that sort of thing.

Music * We start off with Wien, by Labradford. * The guys head out to the work site to Piano 3, from Jon Brion’s score to Synecdoche, New York. * Then we hear a bit of Metamorphosis by Vladamir Ussachevsky before being bombarded with bits of Fast Pasture by Todd Reynolds. * There’s a long stretch of Fog Tropes by Ingram Marshall * Followed by Fragment I by Library Tapes * Before ending on Berceuse, by Alexandra Sileski. Notes * This is a story I’ve been wanting to do forever. In fact, falling in love with the story of the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the things that sent me on a path to doing The Memory Palace at all. So, most of this stuff I just kind of already knew. But it was a particular pleasure to go back and read David McCullough’s masterful, lovely The Great Bridge. And to read a ton of contemporary accounts of its construction, particularly the New York Time’s piece where the reporter heads down into the Brooklyn Caisson.

Music * Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score. * First up is one of my very favorite recordings of all time: Andromeda from Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath. One of the finest bands ever assembled. * The sailors get grumpy to Sito from Pierre Favre and the European Chamber Ensemble. (The end drum loop comes from that piece too). * The guys run off to save the day to Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor doing the Green Groves of Erin. * That turns into, In Threes by Loscil. Notes * Some of the details in here originate from a fine piece that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in May of 1944. You can read it here. * Other solid write ups: From The Book of New York The U.S.C.G. The Fire-fighter’s Museum