THE ART OF POETRY

DAVID STOLLER

— This is the first in a series of painting-inspired poetry. —

This month I’m featuring two poems and the beautiful paintings that inspired them. The poems are written in the form of a tanka, a poem comprised of 31 syllables, divided into five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. This is a favorite form of mine (although I intend to present different forms in the months ahead)—and it has been the predominant form of poetry in Japan for the past 1200 years.

The subject matter of a tanka was strictly limited by tradition, drawn principally from nature and love. That offers a pretty wide range of subjects—and, one might say, touches everything. My poem is strictly an interpretation of what I see, or don’t see—always looking for the hidden narrative, the personal moment, the beautiful pause, a timeless impression or feeling.

One More Summer Harvest The old red tractor, Idling in the steady drum Of faithful service, Dreams of golden seasons past, Of one more summer harvest.

The Red Tractor by Harry Leith-ross

Ancient Wall There’s an ancient wall, Richly layered in lifetimes. Eyes sunken, watching As I pass along its length Deeper into my own tale.

conversation

A.D. AMOROSI

FFRENCH-BORN GUITARIST AND COMPOSERStephane Wrembel has long lived out his dream as a student in the school of all-things-DjangoReinhardt. But don’t call what he does simply a part of the gypsy jazzplaying style, as that hardly describes the inferences and inspiration of all forms of jazz—from bop to modern improvisational—to flamenco, blues, classical, and rock. And though he has collaborated with diverse artists such as David Grisman, Mark O’Connor, and Woody Allen, he is a singular entity whose role as the founder of NYC’s annual Django A Gogo Festival and the guitarist behind The Django Experiment is only just a piece of an oddly-cut jigsaw puzzle.

Currently living in New Jersey, Wrembel and his ensemble will appear at World Café Live on Wednesday, April 27.

What interested you in playing this brand of jazz? [Jazz was born] because the right people were in the right place at the right time and created it. That first round of musicians in New Orleans playing what we call jazz generated the lines of it, the fundamental vocabulary of how it works. They established what works. The next generations of musicians came in and added their own personalities to the mix. But Django Reinhardt is the guy who defined how the strings work. He showed us how strings could work with upright bass, violin, and guitar when it comes to jazz.

One of the first things I did when I arrived in America was go on a Woody Allen Yahoo group…and find out how I could get in touch with him. Next thing I know, my song “Big Brother” was included in his Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Then I did Midnight in Paris.

So the artist defines the sound. How is the style defined?

When I hear Miles Davis, I don’t hear jazz. I hear Miles Davis. It’s the same thing with Coltrane. He’s just Coltrane. You can tell that they’re rooted in jazz, but they’re their own entities. The same thing happened where I come from in Fontainebleau [France]. The gypsies’ jazz style developed with Django, and we would get it from them. You need a source that still plays the music’s traditions then passes it on for music to be alive. You cannot learn or love music from a book or a YouTube video. You need to play with people in a certain context. If you want to learn jazz, you go to New Orleans and play. You learn it from people who have been passing it down, from human to human, for generations. Like the gypsies.

the Automat

conversation

A Tasty Blast From the Past

DIRECTOR LISA HURWITZ BRINGS HORN & HARDART’S AUTOMAT TO LIFE ONCE AGAIN

I’M AWARE OF WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT THIS IS, AND I’m very proud. THERE ARE MOMENTS EVERY DAY WHEN I’m reminded that this is incredible .…I’M WORKING HARD, I’ve got this amazing team,

AND A DISTRIBUTION ADVISOR WHO’S ALSO THE FILM’S SALES AGENT. I HAVE A THEATRICAL BOOKER, AND AS OF TWO DAYS AGO, I HAVE AN INTERN, which is like, hallelujah.

When I talked with Lisa Hurwitz, director of the heartfelt, wistful The Automat, her documentary was set to open in Philadelphia’s Ritz Five that day. More was on the line than enduring innocuous questions from awkward strangers. She was in a “critical push moment” with the film’s release. Philadelphia is an important market—it had to have a strong opening weekend.

A first-time director who worked in arts administration, Hurwitz had no grand

Lisa Hurwitz at the Telluride Film Festival in 2021. Photo by by Vivien Killilea.

dreams. The Automat started as a hobby.

Hurwitz, 32, began the project in 2013. Her enlightening ode to the vending-machine-laden chain eatery features Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mel Brooks, and others reminiscing about coffee and creamed spinach. Nobody wanted to distribute the film, so she did it herself, landing in New York City’s fabled Film Forum. The coverage has been like a dream—an interview in The New York Times, and positive reviews in outlets that matter.

The break will come

PETE CROATTO

later. For now, Hurwitz happily talked with ICON to keep her lovely movie relevant a little while longer.

Why do you think the film has such broad appeal?

The Automat was a place of cultural significance in New York City and Philadelphia for so many years. By the end of the film, you get to know it was an incredibly special place. It meant something to a lot of people, and they’re really interested in reliving their memories and being transported back in time. But on top of that, I think people are interested in everything you learn. You’re going to leave the film knowing a whole lot about this company that what you thought you knew. Even the Automat’s historian in the film [Alec Shuldiner] told me he learned so much and didn’t realize what it meant to other people. Everyone had their own personal relationship with the restaurant. It was just this thing that everybody had in common. I think people leave the film with a sense of optimism and togetherness.

Why do you think the Automat has been more overlooked than other fixtures of America’s cultural past?

I don’t know that it’s been overlooked. In New York, it’s a great topic for journalists. Ever since the closing of the Automat, every few years TheNew York Times has a story because people eat it up. It lives on in so many

classic films. It’s never really left us. It never achieved the level of Starbucks or McDonald’s, but people absolutely know it. The business and restaurant people who need to know about it in terms of a case study already knew about it. As a result of the film, future generations will learn about it.

The Automat was a New York and Philadelphia staple. Why didn’t it move beyond those two cities?

They tried to expand to Boston and Chica-

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