John Cale

Being Welsh, The Thrill Of It All, Pink Shoes, and more.

August 18, 2023

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John Cale is a legendary Welsh-born musician and producer best known for co-founding the extremely influential New York City rock band, Velvet Underground. After leaving the band in 1970, Cale went on to produce iconic records for artists such as The Stooges, Nico, Patti Smith, and The Modern Lovers, while also building up an impressive catalog of solo work and collaborations with Brian Eno & Lou Reed. Earlier this year John released a forward looking experimental art-pop album titled Mercy with features from Weyes Blood and Animal Collective. If you’re in NYC you can see him perform for free with Tomberlin this Saturday (8/19) at Prospect Park, so stop by and see one of the best to ever do it live. Lucky for us, John is here to tell us what he’s been into.

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In pursuit of pink shoes

I’ll admit to having an obsession with clothing. Perhaps its something traded, once I gave up chemicals? I’ve had the good fortune to own some astonishingly beautiful clothes over the years, some of which are even in a museum. Lately, I’ve been hunting for a pair of pink, translucent shoes. Not just any pink, but specific to the one and only, dark designer. Not the ones made of horse-hair, not the version with the bronze toe-cap, not even the ones with the geodesic rubber add-ons. Nope, just the ones I can’t seem to find in my size, and of course, they are no longer in stock, anywhere in the world. .. maybe, I’ll just go for the yellow ones instead !!

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Being Welsh

Trying to explain to someone why heritage matters and what being Welsh actually means. Then, talking myself down from the realization you just can’t explain it to someone who isn’t Welsh! Sure, it IS the land of song, choirs and dragons - but say that to my face at your own peril ! Its a deep-rooted, unearthly feeling of melancholy and joy combined loneliness and euphoria simultaneously.Yup, that’s a good start - it is me.

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The thrill of it all - it never gets old

Discovering new-to-me music and being inspired ! Watching a Terrence Malick film for the tenth time and still finding something new to marvel at. Driving around LA and not hating it nearly as much as my fellow New Yorker’s told me I would. Listening to two strangers discuss politics and gender fluidity as I tap my painted fingernails across my iPad - will either of them change their position at the end of the heated debate? Is Andre 3000 even possible? Finding comfort in the fact that Solange genre hops with no apologies! No need to talk, its not my thing. So much art to make its dizzying — it will cure all evil !

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Something about books

Most of my life I’ve been an insatiable reader. Novels, Statistical analysis reports, Aerospace publications, Science Journals, Terra firma and the origins of fault lines - read, learn, dream, broaden your horizons in the comfort of your own mind - Its quiet in there, with the ink drying in the sun. Socializing with the kidnap victims on the moon. Why did they get lost at all, leave alone the…. — You see, it's easy to lose yourself in the columns.

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John Cale

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