Being black

“Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad.”

—Jean Rhys, from Voyage in the Dark, 1934.

the black hole of desolation

“Few who heard it could forget Baker’s version of “The Thrill Is Gone,” which he counted off at a tempo so slow that the music seemed to float in space. ‘This is the end, so why pretend . . . ,’ he sang, pulling listeners into the black hole of desolation where he seemed the happiest. Then came a trumpet chorus so drawn out and full of silence that it felt as though he were groping through the dark for the next one.”

—James Gavin, from Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, by James Gavin, 2002.

like a star

“The music on this album remains hung in the night sky like a star.”

—French jazz critic Laurent Goddet, on the album The Touch of Your Lips, 1979; quoted in Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, by James Gavin, 2002.

blue diamonds of jazz

“From the damaged lips of this broken, defeated, skinny pathetic man emerges, night after night, a music sublime, luminous, and lyrical. From his voyage to the ends of hell, Chet Baker has resurrected, in the day, the blue diamonds of jazz. . . .”

—French writer Philippe Adler, on the later years of trumpeter Chet Baker; quoted in Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, by James Gavin, 2002.

in dreams

“I’m not sure why but colors in dreams aren’t very clear or vibrant—there’s not much contrast. That’s why most people think they dream in black and white, which is rather silly because it’s so artificial and a long way from the way the brain actually understands the world. . . . Color is a difficult thing to remember. What I mean is that if you ask someone to describe something they’ve just seen, often they’ll make a mistake about the color. My wife just came in. Do you remember the color of her clothes?

Black pants and . . .

And her top? Was it red, green, or white? It was beige! People say, ‘Ah! Today I dreamt in color,’ but this is only when those colors took on some dramatic importance—like blood for example.”

—Roman Polanski, from an interview with Richel Ciment, Michel Perez, and Roger Tailleur, 1969; Roman Polanski Interviews, edited by Paul Cronin, 2005.

Indigo

“Indigo [in the eighteenth century] . . . became an important commodity, especially in the district around Baton Rouge. This tropical plant, imported to Louisiana from the West Indies, produced a blue dye vital to the European textile industry. Durable cotton fabric colored witih this dye became extemely popular, and its descendant exists today in the denim of American blue jeans.”

—Bennet H. Wall, editor, Louisiana: A History, third edition, 1997.

Baton Rouge, or ‘Red Stick’

“Pierre Le Moyne, better known by his title Sieur d’Iberville . . . dreamed of founding a great French city on the lower reaches of the Mississippi River. In late February [1699] he decided to organize a group of about fifty men to locate the mouth of the river, go upstream, and scout the area. . . .

Initially they saw few Indians, but eventually they arrived at a relatively large settlement marked by a red pole (used by the Indians for ceremonial purposes). Iberville accordingly named the spot Baton Rouge, or “Red Stick,” because of it.”

—Bennet H. Wall, editor, Louisiana: A History, third edition, 1997.

das Existenzminimum

“The question of the minimum house is the question of the basic minimum of space, air, light, and heat which is necessary to man. . . . Man from a biological viewpoint needs improved conditions of ventilation and lighting and only a small quantity of living space, especially if this is organized in a technically correct manner.”

—Walter Gropius, Die Soziologische Grundlagen der Minimalwohnung in Die Wohnung f’r das Existenzminimum, 3rd edition, 1933.

The SunGold Market

“The SunGold Market into which he turned was a large, brilliantly lit place. All the fixtures were chromium and the floors and walls were lined with white tile. Colored spotlights played on the showcases and counters, heightening the natural hues of the different foods. The oranges were bathed in red, the lemons in yellow, the fish in pale green, the steaks in rose and the eggs in ivory.”

—Nathanael West, Homer Simpson visits the grocery store in The Day of the Locust, 1933. Not the Homer Simpson, but a Homer Simpson.

those blue and lavender nights

“It was one of those blue and lavender nights when the luminous color seems to have been blown over the scene with an air brush. Even the darkest shadows held some purple.”

—Nathaniel West, The Day of the Locust, 1933.