From "It’s Hard to Be the Brother of a Genius Who Died Young/In 'Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words,' Michael Owen offers a sympathetic portrait of the lyricist, overshadowed in a life that had him tending the legacy of his younger sibling George" (NYT).
December 22, 2024
"George, who painted as a hobby, does a self-portrait in evening clothes and his older brother responds with one of himself wearing underclothes..."
"... dyed yellow in the bathtub, paunch visible: 'My Body.'... He was comically underactive, congratulating himself for what [his biographer] calls 'peregrinations,' and work-avoidant: 'Upstairs to get typewriter ribbon,' he’d say, jumping up from the piano. 'It’s the only way I get exercise.' He had a weakness for puns that some found fatal. 'Lust Horizon,' he proposed as an alternate title to Billy Wilder’s 'Kiss Me, Stupid,' his last Hollywood collaboration, and a bomb. After repeated falls he called himself a 'rhapsody in bruise.'..."
From "It’s Hard to Be the Brother of a Genius Who Died Young/In 'Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words,' Michael Owen offers a sympathetic portrait of the lyricist, overshadowed in a life that had him tending the legacy of his younger sibling George" (NYT).
From "It’s Hard to Be the Brother of a Genius Who Died Young/In 'Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words,' Michael Owen offers a sympathetic portrait of the lyricist, overshadowed in a life that had him tending the legacy of his younger sibling George" (NYT).
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Continuing the theme of appropriate clothes!
If your “work” clothes are evening dress, do you just sleep in them to save the time you would have used to change into jammies?
The Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey, bemused by the cultural shift from white to black tie, referred to Hugh Bonneville’s tux as his “rompers.”
JSM
Or to paraphrase Groucho, I composed a musical in my underwear this morning. How the musical got in my underwear, I’ll never know!
JSM
"Continuing the theme of appropriate clothes! If your “work” clothes are evening dress, do you just sleep in them to save the time you would have used to change into jammies?"
Great question. The sleeping-in-your-clothes hack is specifically for *young children.* We should all grow up eventually and see fit to wear things we would not like to wear to bed. Strive to wear something aspirational. But I don't recommend pajamas for anyone. The sheets and blankets are called "bedclothes" for a reason!
Prof: “I dont recommend pajamas for anyone.”
Weh-eh-ell! Secrets of Meadehouse revealed!
JSM
Ira is my favorite Gershwin. He was not a man to "put on some speed".
Someone to Watch Over Me
To paraphrase Judge Smails, I sleep in nothing and like it.
Interesting that his self-portrait includes himself doing the portrait, a precursor to Escher's drawing of a hand drawing itself.
"Interesting that his self-portrait includes himself doing the portrait, a precursor to Escher's drawing of a hand drawing itself."
You inspired me to try to get Grok to find earlier examples of the artist including his hand, observed directly, in addition to the mirror image, but I had a hell of a time getting Grok to understand the idea.
As for the Escher drawing, Grok pointed me to "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" which includes the hand observed directly, in addition to the image in the reflecting surface, but the hand is holding the sphere, not drawing itself.
Anyway, you might be thinking of the drawing of hands drawing themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing_Hands
That's not looking into a mirror image, of course. Not sure what method of observation would be used there, but clearly it's imaginary to some extent.
Ira wrote the lyrics for other standards besides those written with his brother: "My Ship", "Long Ago and Far Away", "The Man That Got Away". He was talented enough to be sought out by the best composers of his generation.
His lyrics to Gershwin melodies are an organic fit. Fascinating Rhythm for example both moves and is moved by the beat of the music....The Bible tells us that Jesus had some younger brothers. I suspect that whatever success those brothers achieved in life would be nothing compared to the accomplishments of their older brother. Sibling rivalry must get awfully convoluted when it's that close to divinity.
"Why can't you be more like your older brother?" Must have gotten old.
Jesus's brothers apparently did not support his mission at all before the Resurrection. Remember, Jesus on the cross even had to entrust his mother to John the Evangelist, at that point a trustafarian of dubious reliability, because his brothers were nowhere to be found.
Then at some point after the Resurrection, his brother James believes in him enough to become the bishop of Jerusalem.
JSM
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