Life

Why Muhammad Ali Is “The Greatest Of All Time”

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Written by Kenn Sava

I hate boxing.

The only time I’ve ever watched it was when Cassius Clay, and then Muhammad Ali fought.

Why?

I have no idea, really. As a kid, he was just cool. Audacious. A poet.

“Float Like A Butterfly
Sting Like A Bee.”

Ok!

Then? He became

More.

He took it all to another level. First, he transcended losing. “I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”

Then he transcended boxing.

Then he transcended sport.

Then he transcended politics.

Then he transcended national boundaries.

He was someone who had been to the mountaintop. He had survived everyone trying to bring him down- 61 in the ring (winning 56 times, beating guys named Liston, Frazier and Foreman), those who controlled the ring, the government, Parkinson’s disease, and on and on. All the while, he remained true to himself. Though he was ill for much of his later life (Hey? it was a miracle he survived those fights, right?), when I saw him on TV doing this or that, it was like seeing a vision. He struck me as something of a Bodhisattva, a being who, though he has achieved enlightenment, forgoes nirvana out of compassion in order to save others.

Why?

I believe Muhammad Ali was a Bodhisattva of the human spirit- indomitable, endlessly creative, a believer in himself, his courage, his cherished values. I have a feeling that whenever people saw him at these things, it was a reminder to those who remember- a “man who overcame so much, and he’s still standing,” moment, and he was a touchstone for those that didn’t remember. A living legend. A lesson, and example, for us all, incarnate.

“For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he trule feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way.”*

After all, isn’t the the ideal, the supreme accomplishment in boxing? To be the one left standing at the end?

Here we have the ultimate boxing metaphor in one human life. We have a man who transcended everything there was to transcend in life. And, in the end, he was still standing.

Muhammad Ali remains undefeated- in life.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “My Way,” by Paul Anka and Claude Francois as performed by Frank Sinatra. Published by Chrysalis Music Group, Inc.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Words To Live By From Man Ray

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited)

“The conscious individual striving to experience all the sensations of life is forced by his physical and temporal limits to receive them in a more concentrated form. This concentration of life is offered by the expressive arts.”

Man Ray, “No. 6 The Conscious Individual” November, 1915 from “Writings On Art”, P.20 Published by Getty Research Institute

One of the most unique Artists in history, Man Ray is one of those people who seems to continually appear…as one of the most revolutionary photographers ever, a painter (his first love), a sculptor, a graphic artist, and on and on…and also as a writer. He’s in all the major museums, but rarely gets a show of his own. I’ve always admired his work, and continually been surprised by it, and his accomplishment (as in “That’s a Man Ray, too?”) Having published a fascinating autobiography, perfectly titled “Self Portrait,” which drips with both insight and intrigue, now comes a collection of his writings about art. It’s a book that even rewards random reading- almost every page has a fascinating example of his one of a kind mind.

I think they make wonderful meditations…

Soundtrack for this post is, what else? “Man Ray,” by the Futureheads from their 2004 self-titled album.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Welcome To New York, Pope Francis!

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

“See me,
feel me,
touch me,
heal me”*

10 foot high security fencing lined both sides of Fifth Avenue for blocks leading to St Patrick’s for the Pope’s visit tonite, seen here from the corner of West 53rd & 5th-

Pope’s eye view. Standing in 5th Avenue, looking towards the sidewalk, approximating the view the Pope will have when he passes here. Of course, the public will be on the other side of the fence.

 

 

5th Avenue at West 53td Street. MoMA is 1,000 or so feet to the left.

When did it come to THIS?

*-Soundtrack for this post- “See Me, Feel Me” By The Who written by Peter Townshend, published by Spirit One Music OBO Towser Tunes.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

We Will Never Forget

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

…Neither will I.

This is the view from my window tonite during this year’s “Tribute In Light,” which I’ve always felt to be a wonderful idea. I used to be able to see the World Trade Center from here, and this is the view I had I saw it on fire shortly after the first plane hit the morning of 9/11.

 

I took this from Jersey City, NJ tonite  You can see that the lights are actually a bit south of where the Towers stood. The new “Freedom Tower” is directly west of where the North Tower stood (it would be directly behind it in this photo, to the left of it in the first pic).

“How I wish, how I wish you were here.”*

*Soundtrack to this post- “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd written by Roger Waters & David Gilmour, published by Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

From America, It’s The “Late Show”

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Denizen of all things late at night that I am, of course I’m watching the first episode of the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”  as we speak and I’m struck by the feeling that one of the biggest changes from “Late Night with David Letterman” is the New York-Centric attitude is apparently being left behind for a more national approach. One look at the show’s intro seemed to make this clear right “off the bat”, with Colbert singing the National Anthem, first at a baseball field in Central Park, and then at different spots all around the country.

Well, if this is indeed his approach, it’s his choice. I wish him good luck. Really.

Behind the famous awning David Letterman is taping his final “Late Night” as the media scrums on Broadway, 5:30pm, May 20.

It gave me pause to reflect on what Dave meant to New York.

Yes, I am a “Letterman guy” of long standing, going all the way back to the early days of “Late Night.” It’s hard to explain why, and what he means to me. Maybe one day I’ll try. He was on the air here beginning in 1982 and throughout all the changes, and the renaissance NYC underwent right up to his final Show this past May 20. The City was as much a part of his show as it was for any local TV News show. Who will forget his opening monologue when his show come back on the air after 9/11, one of the first shows to return. It remains one of his finest moments. Watching it again, almost exactly 14 years later, I was taken by the many levels on which he expressed how he felt about New York.

Then it struck me that David Letterman was here when we needed him, from the early ’80’s through the dot com boom and 9/11…to make us laugh in face of what life was like here at the time, to remind us why we were here, why we stayed here no matter the danger, hardships, absurdity of life here at times, and to show us parts of what is, eternally, even in bad times, great about New York City. Now? The whole world wants to come here, and many want to live here at seemingly any cost.

He played a part in that.

Dave would point out things from the most banal to the most extraordinary about NYC and life in it, then he’d go out to the street and do the most outrageous things that none of us could ever get away with (or get someone like Rupert Gee or Larry “Bud” Melman to). He gave you the feeling that he not only knew what we were all going through, he also knew the way to over come it- by laughing at it, or the absurdity of it. You had the feeling he saw through everything- no matter what. He also would do magical things. Things that you could only see in NYC, right there on 53rd Street, like play tennis with Serena Williams or take a stroll down it with Lady GaGa and Billy Murray (you can see both on youtube). It all spoke of “other possibilities” for our lives, and our lives in NYC. You never know- ANYTHING could happen, around any corner, at any moment! Dave reminded you that THAT is one of the greatest things about being in NYC.

Maybe now we in NYC don’t “need” Dave as much as we did then- I don’t know. I’ll miss him.

A little piece of New York left when Dave drove by me after that last May 20th Show. I’m not sure how many others who live here felt it. It’s one of those small changes life brings every day that’ll hit us one day in the future. But, one by one, as they happen, the place changes. A small piece of it is gone. The question becomes…”What’s next?”

I was standing there in the midst of that very large crowd one minute,

IMG_0301PNH

A tiny part of the crowd on May 20, 2015. It extends 200 feet to the right.

and as soon as that van went past, I remember feeling that an era ended and then there was this space, this hole, for whatever the next thing would be that would be part of New, New York.

DSC01130PNH

Change happens in a New York Minute. Dave leaves for the last time as he is driven past me and hundreds of fans. West 53rd Street, May 20th.

Only it wasn’t here yet. (Or, is it?)

I wondered about the effect Dave leaving will have on those “little” New Yorkers he thrust into the national spotlight…Rupert Gee of the Hello Deli, right there on 53rd, downstairs at the Ed Sullivan Theater, and the others. You can still go into Hello Deli every day (except Sunday) and Rupert will take your order. He’s a very down to earth, salt of New York kinda guy. Good luck to him and all of them.

We all leave, eventually, whether it’s after a day, a year, 20 years in Derek Jeter’s case, 32 years in Letterman’s, or after our whole life. Not many become a piece of the fabric of New York City, and a reason to be proud to live here.

David Letterman was one of both, and one of those who had a role in making New York City what it is today. I hope the City doesn’t forget that.

As one New Yorker? I say, “From New York, to wherever you are, Thanks, Dave.”

*-Soundtrack for this post, “Late Night with David Letterman Theme” by Paul Shaffer. I loved the old opening to the show, like the “Nighthawk in flight,” which changed many times.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Hold The Flowers- Ai Weiwei Gets His Passport Back…FINALLY! Then Uses It.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Each day for the past 600+ days flowers have been left in the basket of the bicycle outside of No. 258 Coachangdi, Beijing, China, the address of Ai Weiwei’s studio, by his fans and followers in solidarity with the great Chinese Artist & Activist until his passport, which was confiscated during his April 3, 2011 arrest on charges of “tax evasion,” is returned to him. Ai spent the next 81 days in prison (more on that coming up) until finally being released on bail on June 22, 2011, after he agreed not to leave Beijing for a year. Year up, he continued to be forbidden to travel to other countries…until…

Late last month Ai posted a pic on Instagram announcing the return of his passport, a great shot too long in coming, it can be seen, along with more details here.

At last…He doesn’t look particularly happy, though he looks well. I’d say he looks hopeful. Ai then quickly took a trip to Germany to rejoin his family, sparking rumors of his accepting a university post there.

Still, it’s Wonderful news that’s also a sad reminder that during the past 4(!) years Ai missed the many shows of his work held outside of China, the 2014 Brooklyn Museum Show Ai Weiwei: According to What? among them. Would what we experienced have been changed, modified or altered simply by his larger than life presence? We’ll never know, and we are all undoubtedly poorer for the lack of him. For me, though, it was still a rare chance to explore the many sides of Ai’s boundless creative spirit. Here are some pics I took of the show, in case you, like Ai, missed it.

Stacked 2014. The card refers to the minimalist approach to the bike- no handlebars or seat, suggests “that in China the individual is often undervalued and seen only as part of the whole.”

Map of China

I’ve been to bars that look like this at 3:45am. Grapes, Qing Dynasty Stools

It featured a selection of his work from the past 20 years, above, and a central gallery that included 2 monumental works, the 73 ton Straight, and Sichuan Name List Ai created in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which killed over 69,000 and left another 18,000 missing 1.

Ai’s Straight (on the floor) and Sichuan Name List (on the wall, left) are works about the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake that may have killed 90,000.

For me, the “showstopper” was the 2013 work S.A.C.R.E.D. (S-supper, A-accusers, C-cleaning, R-ritual, E-entropy, and D-doubt) which consists of six 2 and a half ton iron boxes, each one shoulder height and measuring 5 feet wide and 12 feet long, one for each of the title’s letters. As you approach one, you notice a door near one exterior corner, then you notice slits in the iron that allow a glimpse of what’s inside. Yes, each box contains a diorama of a scene from his life during his 81 day incarceration after that 2011 arrest, while he was awaiting trial(!). Inside, we see TWO guards watching him sleep in one, eat in another, shower in another, and do his business in yet another(!)(not pictured)…It’s a chilling, unforgettable and shocking experience that gives the rest of us a little insight into the risks Ai takes every day, with every new work, and in just “being Ai.” It also reminds that many, many people, some of them Artists, take incalculable risks every day in the name of freedom, and Artistic freedom, or in just living their lives. Many admire athletes, and other so-called “role models.” I admire Ai Weiwei, and those like him.

Thinking about it on the F Train home, I couldn’t recall a more powerful recent work on this topic. My mind seeking an Art historical reference, of which there are, unfortunately, too many, kept turning to Goya. First, for the absurdity depicted in his Caprichos, and then of the power and oppression of the state shown in his The Third of May. In the end, the lesson may be that, in spite of hundreds of millions of deaths in the intervening almost exactly 200 years, tragically, not much has changed in the world .

For more info on and other’s pics of  S.A.C.R.E.D. go here and here. An interview with Ai about it is here.

I consider Ai a New Yorker since he lived here for 10 years. Here’s hoping he comes and visits us, again, soon…and often!

 

For Ai’s story, I highly recommend the 2012 documentary Never Sorry, which has appeared on PBS.

*-Soundtrack for this post- “Freedom” by Paul McCartney published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

“I will fight, for the right
To live in freedom.”*

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Welcome to the Night

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited)

“I’ll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I’ll make it my home sweet home” *

That’s not all that far off from describing my life as those few who actually know me can attest. “Call me if you’re up during normal hours,” one said to me recently. He’s still waiting for that call. Another calls me by a pet name based on the sound Owls, my Official Bird of the Night, make in Russia. Everyone knows not to make appointments for me in the morning (i.e.“the middle of the night”), or first thing in the afternoon..

How did this happen?

I’ve been this way as far back as I can remember. My folks made me work in the family business weekends and summers when I was a kid, so the only way I could get time to myself was by staying up late. I was one of those kids who used to read leaning over the bed on the side away from the door after light’s out with a flashlight and a book or magazine on the floor. And, I had a radio under my pillow which led me one especially lonely night to discover the late, GREAT Jean Shepherd, but more on him later. On that radio I also heard RFK’s assassination, live. I had seen Lee Harvey Oswald get shot, live too, years earlier, the first murder ever broadcast live, a few days after I heard the news of JFK being shot just after it happened. 

After High School, and classes at the Manhattan School of Music, I left to take a dream gig in a terrific band and went on the road up and down the East Coast for 5 years. Not exactly conducive to a change of schedule. Let’s suffice it to say I gave into peer pressure and my virginity, sobriety and innocence ended soon thereafter while my late lifestyle was perfect for this occupation- our typical gig started around 10pm and ended at 4am, sometimes 5 or 6 nights a week.

“I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I’ll be what I want to be” *

During my time as a Musician, I was lucky enough to play all kinds of Music from garage rock to acoustic Jazz to Classical (with an orchestra) and as a result, I developed an ear for an insanely wide range of Music. I also worked with some great Musicians including Billy Hart, T. Lavitz, jazz great Thomas Chapin, Twisted Sister, Steppenwolf, Spirit, Mark Ledford, Lonnie Plaxico and met many others including Jaco Pastorius, Joe Zawinul, Vladimir Horowitz, Alfred Schnittke, Carlos Alomar, Tony Levin, Dave Fields. Recording my band led to doing concert sound for an RCA Records band, then to a job as production manager for one of the biggest music production houses in the country, where I put together over 2,800 recording sessions in five years with innumerable session Musicians and recording artists. After that, I became an independent record producer, an artist manager, then spent 4 years as a writer for Jazziz Magazine. After I got fed up with the state of the record business in 1998, I studied Drawing for a decade, during which I went to every museum, gallery and show within crawling distance.

“Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations…
Sensations…
That stagger the mind.” *

Since 2002, I have been to The Metropolitan Museum over 1,600 times, and I have the buttons and stickers to prove it. 

Along the way, Art became my religion. So, I capitalize its forms and the great practitioners of them, since I feel they deserve that level of respect. There are “artists” and then there are “Artists.” There has to be a way to distinguish someone like Michelangelo from the multitudes, right? So, be forewarned that I hold to this convention throughout. Frankly? I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t become the norm. Maybe I can help change that.

The last time I stood in front of Nighthawks. August 28, 2013, at Hopper Drawings at the old Whitney Museum.

I’ve long identified with Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, which I’ve seen in person both at its home at the Art Institute of Chicago and here in NYC at the “old” Whitney Museum during the Hopper Drawing show. In particular, the guy in the front who’s sitting by himself, the guy no one ever mentions in discussing this work which is now seminal to our culture and to the Art, Film, Music and Literature that has come after. It’s hard to believe it was painted in 1942. It feels so now. But, I digress, again.

I am that guy.

 

*-Detail of Art Institute of Chicago Photo

“That shape is my shade
There, where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers
Wild gamblers
That’s all in the past.” *

Living in Manhattan was always my life’s dream. And it took a long time for that to finally happen. For the last 28 years, it’s been my world, my “home sweet home,” as Steely Dan said in “Deacon Blues”*, the soundtrack of this post. I’ve lived most of that time in my world at night.

Now? I’m inviting YOU to come along with me. Pull up that open barstool, since there’s now plenty of them to choose from as  you can see from the banner (adopted from you know what, with my apologies. and undying admiration), and let’s see what the night brings.

As Joe Strummer once said, “The future is unwritten.” That leaves the present and the past to write about. One thing I’ve learned along the way- the journey is usually the destination.

“You call me a fool
You say it’s a crazy scheme
This one’s for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I’ll make it this time
I’m ready to cross that fine line.” *

*- From the soundtrack for this Post, “Deacon Blues,” Words & Music by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Published by Universal Music Publishing Group. From the classic Lp Aja, by Steely Dan.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!