Plan B Forum

"Jules Feiffer, an artist whose creative instincts and political passions could not be confined to one medium, died on Friday at his home in Richfield Springs, N.Y., west of Albany. He was 95". This is the lede for the obit in the NY Times for today. We never exchanged a word, spoken or written. I never was in his presence. Yet he was an important part of my life. To see his comments on current events, I began reading Village Voice. I have three of his books on my shelf. I recommend ANY of his books as an insightful reflection of the times when they were created. I heard of his death on a radio announcement from the BBC this morning. It is a sobering reminder that I am getting old and my universe is shrinking.

I first subscribed to the NY Times after reading it irregularly, purchased at the local newsstand in Newark, DE. Now there is no newstand selling real newspapers anywhere in my wider community. I got the paper daily, because I did not want to miss the any of essays from John Leonard. He has been gone a long time. Art Buchwald, Molly Ivans, all gone. Lots of talking heads, but not many I want to hear.

I guess I am well on the road to becoming another bitter old man.

snailgate.

I think it's all designed to make us go more gently...

I put this on Facebook a day or two ago along with a note about the passing of The Band's Garth Hudson.

Feiffer was a cartoonist but that word seems too meagre to describe his talents. We Brits who grew up in the 60s saw him on the pages of the Observer on Sundays and he had both the artist's eye for imagery and the comic's ear for absurdity. While American movies and TV showed us (usually) high-end living with unnecessary tail fins on cars and how possession of shiny objects correlates with status, Feiffer weekly showed us the shaky foundations of the Dream.

I saw the film version of his play, little murders along time ago. Fun.

Rubato