Tom Rapp is a singer-songwriter whose work I love, and whose 1972 joint setting of a Shakespeare and a Sara Teasdale poem is one of the inspirations for this project. Rapp had a favorite story about the earliest days of his overlooked career: while still a child he entered a talent contest in Minnesota. The story varies. He may have performed an Elvis Presley song. He finished second or third. Another Minnesota singer, a similarly young Bobby Zimmerman,* finished fifth. The Zimmerman kid eventually went on to have a career that outpaced Rapp’s.
But then, Rapp would always add, it was a baton twirler who finished first.
American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is another poet who began writing and publishing early, sending poems to magazines when she was still a teenager. At age 20 she submitted one of her grander early poems to a literary magazine’s 1912 poetry contest…
“I want to be notorious rather than famous. Fame has too much responsibility. People forget you are human.”
– Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia
DeGrazia Music Room at The Gallery of The Sun — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Ted DeGrazia earned two undergraduate degrees — one in music education, one in fine art and a master’s of fine arts. Known as Arizona’s most prolific artist, it is understandable that most people may not be aware of his shared dual passions for art and music. Both helped him pay his way through college, painting during the day and leading his big band at night at Tucson’s Fox Theater.
His love of music was passed on to his son, Domingo DeGrazia, who today has his own band, the Domingo DeGarzia Spanish Guitar Band. We first saw Domingo and his band perform at the annual festival, La Fiesta de Guadalupe at the Gallery of the Sun.
Domingo DeGarzia’s Spanish Guitar Band
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Slideshow — La Fiesta de Guadalupe at the Gallery of the Sun (December 18, 2016)
— Images by kenne
Tom Turner, a Rainy Day on the Seattle Waterfront (June, 2000) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
(These quotes were among Tom’s handwritten notes.)
“A person becomes a writer because they’re deficient. They have problems. They’re crazy. They have unhappy families. They’re eccentric. And not because they’ve read a lot of books necessarily, but on the contrary — maybe they haven’t read enough books. There’s a strong irrationality about the writing life. Often a writer writes just to maintain their sanity. The way an addict needs to perform a certain ritual of mainlining, a writer kind of has to do it in order to keep his or her head on straight.”
— Paul Theroux
“The whole content of my being shrieks in contradiction against itself.”
In June of 2019, the Arizona Highways had a special issue, “The Legacy of Arizona’s Prolific Artist,” Ted DeGrazia. And why not, it was Arizona Highways the discovered Ted DeGrazia and put him on stage. His work appeared in more the 60 issues of Arizona Highways. The June issue celebrates the 110th birthday of Arizona’s most prolific artist.
Even before moving to Tucson in 2010, I was aware of and love Ted DeGrazia’s work. We live only a few miles from DeGrazia’s Gallery In The Sun, the campus of which sets up against the Santa Catalina Mountains on Tucson’s northeast side.
Over the last decade, we have visited the Gallery In The Sun several times, this blog has eleven postings.
Kristiana Reed is a writer and an English Teacher living in the UK. She is the creator of My Screaming Twenties and sole editor of Free Verse Revolution on WordPress. She released her debut poetry collection, Between the Trees, in Spring 2019. Her work has been published in several…
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
~This is a telling time, a time to consider consequences as there are worse things to come; if those that are keen with pen and paper fail to support right from wrong. ~ Karen Dowdall
“In every age it has been the tyrant…wrapped in the cloak of patriotism or religion to deceive and overawe the People”
~Eugene V. Debs
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~Thomas Jefferson
The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything. ~Clarence Darrow
Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free. ~Bill Richardson
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus
It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in…
Photo-Artistry by kenne
DeGrazia Music Room at The Gallery of The Sun — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Tom Turner, a Rainy Day on the Seattle Waterfront (June, 2000) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
