Philip Glass enjoys a Cutty Sark

Here's a picture of me in college - May 1973 (i.e. just before I graduated) in my 3rd Watson dorm room - standing in front of my found object wall collage and also in front of my liquor collection - of which I was considerably more proud.



Okay, I'm a pack rat. Not as much as Leslie who is a professional pack rat, but it's hard for me to throw stuff out. For 20 years I've kept several large boxes filled with family picture albums - stuff my Mother collected.

For the last few years one of those boxes has sat smack dab in the middle of my office, serving only as cat bed and claw sharpener. I've resolved to reorganize the stuff. Get it out of the way. Scan some of it into the computer. Clutter up my hard drive.

For some reason there was an envelope in the box with pieces from another collage from the early 80's. This one was mostly printed matter - but the idea was the same: stuff which should have been discarded juxtaposed irrationally. It's an offline analog weblog - without the web. Can I call it an "analblog"? Someone stop me before I compare it to Mixed Meters.

This Philip Glass advertisement for Cutty Sark was part of that 80's collage. It came from the October 25, 1982 Newsweek. It's still just as slyly hysterical to me as it was then. I want to share it with both of my readers.



I'll input the entire text below so the web-crawlers can enjoy it. Click on it for an enlarged version.

Using composers to sell alcohol? Who would have thought. Click here to read about Freak Out Ale. I tried to buy some -- failed.

One more thing - on the reverse of this page is an ad for "Record a Call" - a telephone answering machine. Young people today have no idea how impressed their free-lancing elders were with telephone answering machines. My first one, several years before this, cost about $400. That's about $1000 in today's money -click here to see how I calculated that.



Something called "Record a Call" still exists. Click here.

The text of the Cutty Sark ad:

HERE'S TO THOSE WHO CAN MAKE HISTORY OUT OF THE SAME 12 NOTES.

Until his late twenties, Philip Glass was a typical bright young composer. Foundations showered grants on him for writing music in a conventional, somewhat imitative style.

Then, Glass found his own style. Its roots lay in eastern as well as western music, and it was fresh, original and unexpected. In music circles, it was unacceptable. All the grants stopped.

But that didn't stop Glass. He found other ways to fund his work. One was driving a taxi.

Today, the music establishment has changed its tune. Philip Glass is considered one of the foremost serious composers in America, with an audience so large and so diverse it even includes rock fans.

Success hasn't made Glass any less of a maverick. But for all the traditions he breaks, there's one he respects. At the end of the day, he enjoys a Cutty Sark.

The Scotch with a following of leaders. CUTTY SARK

(at the top) 86 proof blended scotch whisky distilled and bottled in Scotland. Imported by the Buckingham Corporation New York, N.Y.

Copyright 1976 Philip Glass

(The copyright must be of the completely illegible music behind his head in the painting which is attributed to "Lettick".)

And the Record a Call ad:

Do you miss your boss?

Not everything that happens in business happens before 5:30 p.m.
When you're not home when your boss calls, it could be a problem.
A telephone answering machine is your answer.
And nothing can keep you and your boss in touch as easily and efficiently as Record a Call. Thanks to the advanced micro-computer technology of our new model 580 shown.
And you can get your messages by remote control without going home.
So see the full line of Record a Calls at your dealer. And hear what you've been missing.
Record a Call
Because people are too good to miss.
T.A.D. Avanti, Inc., 19200 Laurel Park Rd., Compton, CA 90220. For dealer nearest you call toll-free 800-421-2412 (in California, Alaska & Hawaii call collect 213-603-9393).

P.S. Leslie actually claims she (and all taxonomists) are pack rats genetically - evolved from Neotoma. Personally, I think she's kidding.

Other Mixed Meters Posts which may (or may not) be of interest:

Christina Aguilera does the Boogie Woogie

Rating the music of J.S.Bach versus the music of ABBA

Mingus

Mingus Epitaph

Terry Riley's In C as Classical Music?

A New Rhapsody in Blue - with improvisation

Selling Nike Shoes with a Hip Hop Dies Irae