Things Change

Continuing a theme, which, I guess, I started last week … how things change.  My British uncle used to say, “you know you’re getting old when the Bobbies (Cops) look like school children”.  By that definition I definitely qualify as old.  Today I am thinking of the Museum world and how things have changed. I have written about “change” before and I guess aside from death and taxes it is always with us!

A while ago I received an email saying I had been a member of the Metropolitan Museum for 50 years.  Did I receive any notice other than that. No.  There are too many people and I presume too many members including all those who are virtual members online.  As I have said before, when my parents had been with a certain New York Bank for 15 years they received flowers as thanks … after 25 years they got nothing.  

Tom Hoving was a brilliant, innovative, but mercurial director.  When he was Parks Commissioner, he opened Central Park to the general public by closing it to traffic over the weekend and being more liberal on what could be done there such as ignoring some rules when it came to barbecues, etc.  He did the same thing when he became director of the Metropolitan Museum.  Suddenly there were banners hanging in front of the Museum to announce exhibitions that were not static and just about scholarship but also theatrical and enjoyable such as “In the Presence of Kings”, where some pieces were even put on turntables.  There were not just esoteric and old master exhibitions, but Block Busters, which meant that one had thematic exhibitions that attracted crowds, the most famous being Tutankhamun. A new curatorial department of 20th century art, that not only showed contemporary art but accessioned works, was just one of Hoving’s innovations.

When the next director, Philippe de Montebello, came in he wanted to eliminate the banners, but they proved so popular that by the time he had been there for 30 years there were 5 banners. and even Native American art was exhibited broadening the horizons for the viewing public.  He carefully balanced scholarly exhibitions with blockbusters. The Metropolitan became more and more popular which is, of course, a good thing, but it also became less of place for meditation and more of an entertainment center.  

The current director at the Met, Max Hollein, continues the innovation with two monumental, politically charged paintings by Native American Artist, Kent Monkman on temporary exhibition in the Great Hall of the Met. 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-at-the-met-cree-artist-kent-monkman-asks-visitors-to-confront-north/

In addition, Hollein added sculptures by an African artist to the niches on the façade of the Met which had not been filled in years in what will be a rotating program of contemporary sculpture.   All this in order to make this sacred temple more accessible to its growing constituency.

https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2019/wangechi-mutu-director-message

The long-time curator of the Queens Collection in London, Geoffrey de Bellaigue, said years ago that he was no longer qualified for his job.  Why?  Because he did not have an advanced academic degree.  Philippe de Montebello was one of the best directors the Met has ever had, yet, academically, he only held a Master’s Degree.  Still he managed to grow the collection in all areas and balance popular and scholarly exhibitions.

Today every art institution expects the director (and curators) to have a PhD!  Too often someone with that degree is so focused on their specific field that they lose the ability to become generalists, which is a must in order to lead an encyclopedic museum.  Interestingly, Orientalists and Medievalists seem to have the broadest scope, maybe because they have so many media to cover.  Experience, managerial skills and some economics are also part of the job as well as a serious interest and a broad art historical knowledge, not to mention fund raising skills.

A new word has now appeared in our museum lexicon, “Experiential”. It is no longer enough to see the work of art. We want something more … what that is, maybe one of my readers will explain to me.  Maybe, if we insert one Euro the Mona Lisa will sing to us keeping the crowds coming!!!

Will we survive these changes, of course we will, though we will have to accept crowded museums and some exhibits we may not like.  We will just have to attend in the evenings and perhaps not go to every show. The permanent collections will remain and seeing (or experiencing) great works cannot be taken away from us!

Is There A Doctor In The House?

How is your medical care?  If you are in a big city you can probably find a doctor.  Though I bet you cannot get an appointment as quickly as you wish.  I know that in Santa Fe a couple of weeks is quick and in one case I was told the first available with a certain doctor was 8 months and they were serious.  Seems that the doctor also worked in Massachusetts thousands of miles away.  I do not believe that this is better or worse than with the socialized medicine in England and elsewhere.

So, here is a story of once upon a time.  Like most kids growing up in New York my daughter played in our local playground with its slides, swings and jungle gyms.  In those days there were no soft landings on rubber mats but just cement, in fact the first time my youngest son was put on the grass he screamed and crawled off to a cement path!  These playgrounds become communities where children, parents and nannies get to know each other and usually, “what happens in the playground stays in the playground.”

The mothers of my daughter, Cathy, and her playground friend, Jennifer, developed a greater relationship.  In fact, those two little girls who met at the age of 1 year are still friendly today, a half century later.   Here is a photo shows of Cathy  (in front) at her 50th birthday party; her friend from the park, Jennifer, is taking the photo.

The two families began to travel together to the Caribbean, London, Venice.  The little girl’s father was, Dr. Stanley Mirsky (Stan)a general practitioner.  I often thought of asking him to become my regular doctor but then I was scared that he would always be commenting on my health habits when we travelled.

Sue & Stan Mirsky

About a decade later something changed. I had had a lovely lunch with a good-looking woman and an Espresso with desert.  A short while afterwards I felt my heart doing weird flip flops.  Jokingly, I blamed this on the presence of my luncheon companion but most probably it was precipitated by the espresso.  It was my first bout with arterial fibrillation. I had no idea what that was at the time and became frightened.   I checked myself into Lenox Hill Hospital and was just left in a hallway overnight but that is another story.

Even though I had gotten a divorce and situations with former friends were awkward.  I was, upset enough that the next morning I asked my new wife to call Dr. Mirsky and see if he would come to get me out of the hospital. He was there within the hour. He remained our doctor for almost 40 years.  Boy, has medicine changed since then! Here are some examples of the kind of care we once knew.

Dr. Mirsky was always available to his patients if you phoned during the day, the latest you heard from him was the end of that day. I was with him one Sunday when he had a call from a patient asking if he would see this person’s assistant, so he went immediately to his office to see the gentleman. Not wanting to end our social afternoon, he took me along and introduced me as Dr. Stiebel. (I refrained from making a diagnosis!) 

Stan was always there for us. When he diagnosed my wife, Penelope, with pneumonia, he had her go immediately to the emergency room to get a test for a possible infection that might be attacking her recently replaced hip.  When he finished his hospital-rounds close to midnight he discovered her still lying in a hallway.  He got her a room and saw to it the next morning that she finally got the vital test. 

Toward the end of the 20th century house calls had become a thing of the past. But when I called Stan saying I was ill … he came over directly to our brownstone apartment. Our son, who was then quite small, discovered Stan in front of our fireplace and, wide-eyed, asked if he was Santa Claus.

I always pictured Stan retiring to a small office in the hospital where all the other doctors would come to talk about their patients and help them with their diagnoses.  Sadly Stan passed away in 2011, otherwise we might be commuting to New York for medical care.

Dr. Stanley Mirsky

The Holidays

Welcome to another decade in this still relatively new Millennium.  

I am sure that most people feel, both that they wish that celebration, family and friends were not over and at the same time relieved that they can relax again into their usual routines.  As we look back, however, we realize how good it was.

We went to California to be with our son, Hunter, his wife Mallory and, of course, our granddaughter, Boroughs, who will be 3 months old tomorrow.   Hunter and Mal gave us a “Nixplay Seed”, never heard of it before? Neither had I.  It is described as a Wi-Fi Cloud Frame.  Since they do not believe in introducing their daughter on Social Media at her tender age, this amazing invention allows them to send photos automatically to a screen that shows them at selected intervals.  Hunter got his siblings the same so we can all keep up.

After an overnight in Pasadena Hunter packed us into his car, engineering space for suitcases, baby gear and gifts, for the drive to Mallory’s parents’ home in Temecula where her family members were gathering from as far as Idaho to celebrate Christmas. 

There is a Yiddish word with no English translation “mishpocheh” which means family and often distant family, but everyone has a twist on that and my parents used it to describe the relationship with one’s children’s in-laws.  Our “mishpocheh” received us so warmly, including us in games, gingerbread house decorating and most of all cooking up all sorts of homemade delicacies.   Besides the actual Christmas tree, every room of the house was decked for holidays with Mallory’s mother’s collection of ornaments. The only Jewish person in the group was yours truly but they insisted we light the Menorah candles since Chanukah fell this year right over Christmas. On Christmas morning we were greeted by the entire family in newly gifted matching pajamas and night shirts.

Often gifts don’t work out as well one hoped at the time of acquisition, but one has to appreciate all the thought that went into thinking of them.  When you hit it right, however, there is nothing more satisfying to both sides.  The in-laws wanted us to take home a souvenir of Temecula which is not only known for its vineyards but also for its olive orchards, so they presented us with a selection of olive oils and dips to share at our annual New Years’ party in Santa Fe. It provided a conversation piece enjoyed by all our guests.

My daughter, Cathy, has a knack for gift-giving. For Penelope she found on Etsy a beautifully glazed fruit bowl from a ceramicist in North Carolina that recalls the Studio Craft Movement which Penelope championed in the 1970’s as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum. Since Cathy knows I love wood products I got a computer mouse and fountain pen out of wood made by a German craftsman in Nordheim who offers to make anything you want out of the wood of your choice! 

My tech-savvy older son, Daniel, gave me an Apple Pencil which I have read and talked about. I am looking forward to learning all its tricks. So far, I have tried drawing (never properly learned how) and annotating documents.  I wanted to buy my wife a CD of the book, “Time and Again” by Jack Finney which we had read to the kids when they were young but couldn’t find it. Dan had the great idea to buy her a subscription to Audible.com where you can choose a book a month to play on your computer or phone.  I make use of my subscription in the car every day on my short commute to my office and also at the gym.

As you know from my previous two Missives, Penelope and I, gave ourselves big art gifts earlier in the month.  Penelope, however, found for me a lined sweater that adapts to the weather where you are. It is ideal in the different temperatures we can experience in a day out here, which can vary by 40 degrees in 24 hours.  At The Peruvian Connection, a favorite store of Penelope’s, I found a shawl that she seems to love.

Getting back to the celebrations the tree had 3 times as many presents under it after the whole family was assembled in Temecula. The Christmas dinner was celebrated with a delicious rib roast and who do you think everyone was looking at lying in the corner of the dining room?

The individuals you interact with are the best part of these holidays. Relieved as you may be when the season is over, within a short time you can’t wait until next year to repeat the experience.

The Santa Fe Mid-Town Campus

The development of an abandoned university campus is Santa Fe’s most important opportunity in decades. We heard Alan Affeldt speak about his proposal at our local bookstore, "Collected Works", which has a regular Sunday program of issues of interest to the community.  Alan is someone who in other places might be called an “operator”.  This project is his most ambitious, but he has learned how to use the system in order to accomplish the preservation and revival of buildings near and dear to the hearts of those who love the story of Fred Harvey, the Harvey Girls and the Harvey Hotels. http://www.geraldstiebel.com/2015/01/setting-standard-fred-harvey-company.html

Alan was a Peacenik in his youth and money is not his bottom line.  He and his artist wife have no children so they have decided that their legacy would be a foundation they have created to help with, and benefit from, his restoration work.  He has learned how to get government agencies, municipalities, and foundations to help him accomplish his goals through tax breaks and direct aid. I have written about his projects in Las Vegas (New Mexico).  http://www.geraldstiebel.com/2019/06/the-town-that-time-forgot.html

What is known as Santa Fe’s Midtown Campus consists of 64 acres of land. It was the campus of two successive colleges. The failure of the most recent institution offers the opportunity for the first true urban development plan in New Mexico, which ranks as one of the poorest states in the union. Here is one of the proposals for the area.

Affeldt points out that Santa Fe is the only State Capital without a University.  The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque has already expressed interest in bringing part of its program to Santa Fe but does not want to take over the entire campus. There are, however, existing buildings that could be used for students. Further, Affeldt believes that certain buildings on campus are of such distinction that they could be designated as architectural assets to the city. There is also a building with working sound stages and proscenium stage theater that are the legacy of movie star and New Mexico resident Greer Garson.  Here she is standing in front of it ...

Access is a critical issue which I am sure exists else-where but I have never been aware of it.  At this point the campus has one entrance from a main thoroughfare and a second from a side street.  Additional access and egress points need to be obtained through land that belongs to the City, the State and the Federal Governments. Such multiple negotiations are the particular expertise of Affeldt since he has done it several times before.  

For the project that he calls “The Central Park Santa Fe Vision” Affeldt has formed a 40-person team of mostly in- state experts.  One is the internationally known New Mexican architect, Antoine Predock who is counted on to create some landmark buildings. Another local architect on the team is Shawn Evans whose goal is “to untangle the many issues that can impede the vision and execution of a project, so communities have a voice in the process” and this also sums up Affeldt’s way of thinking and desire for a local-based team. He says that “New Yorkers are not going to understand the land of mañana.”  As the joke goes here, mañana does not mean tomorrow, it just means “not today”!

Needless to say, there is competition from all over.  There are 21 proposals in all.  The New Mexican had an article about a Silicon Valley Executive who has made application as he sees the potential for an “innovation center”. It would be easier just to let an outside commercial developer take it off the City’s hands for a fortune, taking care of the debt and interest the city is paying off… Would that be best for the city in the long run?  I don’t think so. One of our great needs is affordable professional housing. People here are nervous about the interest that the expanding Los Alamos National Laboratory may have in the site as we do not want a nuclear weapons facility. 

The system in Santa Fe is that the Mayor and the City Council are fed bits and pieces of the proposals applicants submit to the city ‘s contracted manager in order to make it a blind process.  Personally, I would like to see it more open and transparent, but the feeling is that this is the least prejudicial method.  I am just one of the many concerned citizens anxious to see what happens!

Another Acquisition – Gustave Baumann

Once upon a time we were collecting like crazy but in recent times as we get older and our home fuller, we are exercising more discipline … at least my wife is, and she pushes me in the same direction. Recently, however, we made two acquisitions within a couple of weeks of each other.  One I wrote about last week and the other is something I have been flirting with, for a long time. It is a print by Gustave Baumann.

I have been writing these Missives sine 2009 and my first Missive mentioning Gustave Baumann was in 2011 including some of his history and works of art.  In one of life’s ironies one of the illustrations in that Missive is what I am writing about today. In fact, last year I wrote about the Annex Galleries where we acquired it. 

Back in New York a dealer in photography told me once that he had received, with a collection of photographs, a Gustave Baumann print and no one in that part of the world had heard of the artist.  He asked if I would try to sell it in Santa Fe and I had little trouble doing so. 

Only if you are familiar with New Mexico’s landscape can you appreciate Bauman’s ability to capture its intense colors.  The artist himself addressed this subject: “A pallet and theories regarding color east of the Mississippi should all be tossed in the river as you cross the bridge.’”  Yes, the U.S. Southwest is quite different from our East Coast.  The same as crossing the border from one country to another.

The Annex Gallery in Santa Rosa, California sends out a daily print that is available for purchase.  Recently it boasted that for a solid week they had presented works for $400 and under.  They also deal in far more valuable works depending on the artist, rarity and quality of the work.  It never happens when you want it to but sometimes a regular email stops coming which is what happened to us.  I had meanwhile spoken with many about this fun and educational site.  A friend from Santa Fe who had moved back East recently forwarded the daily email from the Annex Gallery as he thought the subject would be of interest to us. He was most surprised when I told him I had immediately followed up and we had acquired it!

If you read my Missives you know we have a particular interest in the art of the Hopi Indians, and this is one of Baumann’s few prints representing this group.  Regarding the print we bought, Gala Chamberlain, director of the Annex Gallery, wrote : “For the composition of this woodcut Gustave Baumann created a Southwestern fantasy, a gathering of Hopi Katcinas (Kachinas), all with their telltale characteristics and colors. Kachinas (or Katsinas) are actually stylized religious icons, meticulously carved from cottonwood root and painted to represent figures from Hopi history and mythology. After moving to the Southwest Baumann rarely used figurative elements in his work, this being one of the exceptions.”  In fact, this does not depict the spirit beings that are katsinas., but rather a group of carvings or “dolls” made originally to educate young Hopi girls in the characteristics of the pantheon.

Chamberlain, has just published a catalogue raisonné titled “In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann”.  It includes 1,100 color illustrations in a tome of 648 pages.  Not a book you can lay on your stomach while you lie in bed!  The author developed a close relationship with Gustave Baumann’s late daughter, Ann, and interviewed her once a week for many years in order to produce the monograph. Two pages in the catalog are devoted to our print. Further at the back of this comprehensive study there is a 1920 photograph of Baumann in his Santa Fe studio with his collection of Katsina dolls on the mantel.

The woodcut for our print was created in 1924 and it is from the first of 3 editions printed by the artist over years varying the colors for each edition. Our print is numbered 25 of 100. But the highest number known is #59.  Baumann was known for using several wood blocks with different colors, up to 12 in some prints.  Ours has 7 colors and is from his first edition of the print titled “Hopi Katcinas”. Aside from other details we learned that it is in an original Baumann frame.  It is marked with the letter “L” which stands for Lieber, who was Baumann’s agent in Indianapolis, and framed his work for exhibitions and at the request of clients.  

Baumann’s story of his acquisition of his Katsina dolls is reproduced in the catalog in his own words: “The Hopi villages are on 3 mesas and the way up was not paved until the 1960’s, not yet in the 1920’s.  Baumann writes, “The car made it and I felt like a new padre on a journey to nowhere looking for sketching material when a little adobe shack appeared in the distance.  It was a trading post.  The owner was a Hopi Indian who spoke very good English but seemed surprised to see me.  I looked around and there in a dark corner I saw some Katcinas [sic] on a shelf and hanging on the wall.  He seemed pleased that I was interested in them and I asked if they were for sale.  With what I knew about them it was difficult to make [a] selection.  The Hopi with nothing else to do was watching as they accumulated on the counter and I inquired about the cost.  Having settled on that I reached for my wallet.  Finding that I didn’t have enough cash I said I’d have to pay with a check on a Santa Fe Bank and you don’t know me.  He began to put my Katcinas [sic] into a large sack and then looked at the check.  “I’ll take it and I know you” How can you?  I’ve never been here before as he gave me a quisical [sic] look.  “I know that name” and added “I used to work at the Grand Canyon and danced at El Tovar-sometimes I’d go into the art room.  They had some pictures there with that name on them.  I know you”. And he took the check without even looking at it again.  I only wish I could remember his name. He was certainly a trusting soul.”

Almost a century later, during our years of collecting, when our then young son was the specialist in katsina dolls, we too had remarkable experiences on the Hopi reservation that echo Baumann’s. 

A New Acquisition

We have now made our third acquisition of a painting by Patrick McGrath Muñiz and I thought it might be of interest to a wider audience. [If you go to Missives from the Art World and put the artist’s name in the search engine you will find that I wrote my first missive about the artist in 2015.]

Collecting as a family has its great advantages, as we can discuss and enjoy together, but also its disadvantages, in that sometimes something one loves, the other does not, and we have to leave it behind.  Here was a picture that we came together on and now have a work of art that we can enjoy every day when we walk into our living room.

Evoke Gallery in Santa Fe carries McGrath Muñiz’ work and they recently had a one-man show.  As we would be traveling at the time of the opening, we asked the gallery to send us images of the works in advance and we picked out certain ones to view before they installed the show. When we saw them in real life, we realized that our favorite had certain passages that disturbed us.  We had a very good gallerist who listened to our discussions and brought out other works we had not selected. When she brought out “Monachus Mundanus” (Monk of the World) we both said, “That’s it!”  If you click on the image to enlarge it you will see more details. 

My wife, the curator, art historian, and lover of Spanish Art was immediately attracted.  This artist clearly has a great interest in the Old Masters and has studied them carefully, using their techniques and sometimes borrowed figures as he did in our new acquisition.  Style is one thing, but the content is totally his own.

Patrick was born in 1975 in Puerto Rico where he went to the School of Fine Arts of San Juan for his BA. He later went on to earn his master’s degree (Suma Cum Laude) from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In our picture he is clearly inspired by the paintings of Francisco Zurbaran but his figure in Franciscan robes is also a self-portrait. The canvas measures 24 x 48 inches so it makes quite a statement.  There is so much more to it with all its symbolism. The artist states that he is commenting on climate change and man’s culpability in the worldwide problem.  

The monk holds a skull in the manner of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment. Did you notice the barcode on the skull, a symbol of the consumer and, in the artist’s words, the “disposable nature of humanity”? As an aside my favorite painting in New York since I was 10 years old (the age I was finally allowed into the Frick!) has been Giovanni Bellini’s, St. Francis in the Desert, no skull, but in a beautiful landscape

The fractured ground our contemporary Monk stands on suggests the foundations of our civilization are beginning to crack.  The flooded highway in the background refers to the devastation Hurricane Harvey wreaked on Houston, Texas, where the artist now lives. The drowning cow and submerged car represent the contributions to climate change of the meat and automobile industries.  In the boat to the left we see a miniature Trump, a fast food worker and a Trump supporter praying to the sanctified Ronald McDonald, holy king of burgers!

Our current president is an embarrassment to our country, but I like Patrick’s take.  He has put Trump in other paintings more obviously, but I did not want his ugly mug staring at me. Here he is insignificant, which is what I pray for. The Latin taped inscription, translated says, “I believe in the life, transformation, death and resurrection of all religions, states, corporations and all the other human fictions”.  There is still more symbolism, but I believe I have given you the idea. Patrick doesn’t just paint but thinks a lot, and references history from recent to past.  Would it be too trite to say Patrick McGrath Muñiz is a thinking man’s artist?

A few days ago, Patrick posted a “monograph” of his work over the last 20 years and it is done the new way with a 7-minute video.  So, if you want to see more ...

A Night at the Museum

Last year we attended the opening of the Albuquerque Museum’s great exhibition  of treasures from the Hispanic Society in New York.  This year we had a slight change of pace with “The Jim Henson Exhibition – Imagination Unlimited”. The evening started with cocktails and one of the best meals I have ever had at a large gathering surrounded by everything Jim Henson-themed.

The minute I hear the name Jim Henson I think, Sesame Street and the Muppets but these seem to now all be separate entities: Sesame Street, The Muppets and The Jim Henson Foundation.  This show came directly from the Foundation and its president, Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim. Of course, no matter that they are all different companies they all originated in the fertile mind of Jim Henson. 

My three kids born between 1967 and 1980 all grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets.  I asked them what they remembered and here are their responses, from the oldest down.  From my daughter: “I was 2 when Sesame Street began, and it was the only show I was allowed to watch…... Even though I own a book store and spend the day alphabetizing, I have to sing [the alphabet] from the beginning. Thank you so much Sesame Street! I also truly believed in the Snuffleupagus and was stricken to see him hanging up when I went on a tour of the studio in kindergarten or first grade.” From my older son: “I learned to count with a Transylvanian accent … and laugh after I said each number mwahhhhaaahhha”. From the youngest: “Jim Henson is the best and his influence on kids’ imagination cannot be overstated. Yes, I learned the alphabet and counting via Sesame Street. Big Bird was the ultimate celebrity in my eyes. I had a Fraggle Rock laser disc (because my Dad believed laser discs were sure to be the format of the future. :-) and a VHS of The Muppets take Manhattan which I watched over and over again.”

While we were in Albuquerque we went to the Atomic Museum where I read this great quote from Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Henson clearly had a great imagination, but he had so much more.  Often talent presents itself early and Jim Henson was creating cartoons by the time he was a teenager.  He made posters and sets for his high school theater productions.  As a college student he studied graphic design and started a successful poster business. He always considered himself a visual artist though he gained fame as a puppeteer.  At first it was just hand puppets but he kept up with the times, developing the mechanics, adapting to television  and going on to push the limits of computer technology to allow his characters to do far more than just being moved by  hand and sticks. 

Here is a drawing by one of Henson’s chief designers and puppeteers who sometimes drove the school bus on Sesame Street, Caroly Wilcox.  It is a sketch of notes showing how the characters are not supported on strings like marionettes but from below while the puppeteer tracks the action above his head on a TV monitor.

Courtesy of the Jim Henson Company

  

Though I learned about Jim Henson through my kids I always identified with Cookie Monster and The Grouch!  Here is Cookie Monster in the form of a Cookie jar and I believe it is still available on-line!

One of Henson’s most popular puppets was Kermit the Frog.  He actually created it for his first television show in 1955.  After a few subtle changes he became a star on Sesame Street which started in 1969.  He appears “in person” in the exhibition lent by the Henson family.

Henson’s work knows no borders. Here is a tribute from Native American cartoonist, Ricardo Caté from Santa Domingo Pueblo, in our newspaper, The New Mexican, where he publishes daily.

Henson died in 1990 at the age of 53. In 1989 he worked on an HBO music education series called “The Ghost of Faffner Hall” and in 1990 “The Witches” which was a feature film based on a Roald Dahl novel.  Who knows what he might have still accomplished but just think how much he created and how many lives he affected.  How many people do we know or have heard of that have reached generations of individuals across the world?