Shoemometer

by Sparrow and illustrations by Mike Dubisch, March 18, 2009

Dear Sparrow,
I realize television is a stupefying drug, but I can’t get rid of mine. So I have a new strategy—I turned my TV around! I still watch television, but now I watch its back. Essentially I have transformed it into a radio (although I see a faint glimmering on the wall). So far I’ve done this two days.

I am surprised how much better “Everybody Loves Raymond” is as a radio show.

Sincerely,
R. T.

Punk Sabbath
Monday is the Punk Sabbath.

Marco,
I just finished Ordinary Girl: The Journey by Donna Summer (with Mark Eliot; Villard, New York, 2003. 255 pages. $24.95).
This is a fine, historical autobiography. Donna was a girl from Boston who quickly became a hippie in 1967 (joining a group called “Crow”), moved to Greenwich Village, then performed in the German production of “Hair” (the musical). She remained in Germany for seven years (meanwhile marrying Helmuth Sommer), then she and Giorgio Moroder invented Disco, in Munich (the way The Beatles matured in Hamburg).

An Italian and a Gospel-singing African-American hippie co-created Disco, in southern Germany (1975)! (Donna had the phrase “I’d love to love you” in her mind, which mutated into her first international hit, “Love to Love You, Baby.”)

All this happened because a bearded man radiating light approached her on the Bowery in New York City one day, saying: “You’re going to meet a man, take a test, pass the test, and you will have an opportunity to cross the waters. You must cross the waters! You have an incredible ability to write; you’ll be more famous as a writer than what you’re doing now.” Then he disappeared. (Donna followed his suggestions.)

Other strange facts:

As a teenager, she consciously imitated the afro of Angela Davis (the famous Communist).

She and Sophia Loren were neighbors in LA, and traded arugula.

Quality time,
Sparrow

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