The Narrative Within

Camille Claudel and Touch

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Art for Housewives

This morning the Parisian sky is the 55th shade of grey and totally matches my mood. I’ve just gotten back from Avignon after having accompanied Jessie to visit her old friend Camille who, years before, had been committed to the asylum of Montdevergues. It was my first experience visiting an asylum and the whole encounter still has me shaking. So, to exorcize the demons I saw, I’m sitting here at Café de la Rotonde with a carafe of pastis, pen in hand.

“Asylum” is a funny word. It comes from the Greek άσυλο (asilo) meaning “sanctuary”, a place of safety. But I saw nothing safe about Montdevergues and its dull walls that were like chipped blankets of stone. It reminded me of Ten Days in a Mad House. Journalist Nellie Bly had pretended to be crazy so she could be committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum in New York. After ten days, she left and wrote about the brutality she experienced while locked up. Meals were decaying food, a bath was a bucket of cold water dumped over her head, rats invested the excrement covered rooms, and, if she complained, she was beaten. It was an experience that would make a sane person go crazy. Nellie learned that a woman had no voice once a man said she was a lunatic.

Troubled by the vision of Camille in such a terrifying situation, I begged Jesse to tell me her friend’s story.

Jessie Lipscomb had moved to Paris from London in 1884 to continue her art studies. Here she met Camille and the two became friends. They not only shared a studio, they also worked as practiciens for the famed sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Camille Claudel was only 19 and Rodin 44. Jesse maintained a professional attitude but, unfortunately, Camille fell in love with Rodin and became his lover. Eventually Jesse returned to England where she married a pharmacist. Camille, instead, married an impossible dream.

Initially, it was an experience that gave Camille the opportunity to learn much about sculpture. But she was a promising young sculptress and wanted to be more than just Rodin’s assistant. Rodin expected Camille to help him finish his works instead of working on her own sculptures allowing him to create the myth of superman` productivity. Camille was a genius living in a man’s world and, unfairly, would never be considered much more than Rodin’s protégée instead of an artist in her own right. Camille was left blurred.

Camille worked on both The Kiss (1882) and The Gates of Hell (1880-1890) both considered to be two of Rodin’s masterpieces.

Just as Camille had moved closer to herself artistically because of Rodin, the sculptor, after seeing the “Tomb of Giuliano de’Medici” in Florence, said that “Michelangelo revealed me to myself”.

Rodin had promised Camille he would marry her even though he had no intention of doing so as it would have meant leaving his companion of 20 years, Rose Beuret. Camille felt betrayed, humiliated, overwhelmed and, as a result, often reacted irrationally.

In 1892, Camille and Rodin, after more than 10 years of being together, separated. The separation changed her work as well as her finances. Initially, Rodin tried to help her economically but Camille no longer trusted him. She said he tried to sabotage her career and called him The Ferret.

Debussy’s waltz.

Le Valse is one of Camille’s most erotic statues. So erotic that academics forced her to drape the lower part of the statue. Just like Michelangelo, she was censored. After Michelangelo’s death, there was much controversy over the Sistine Chapel nudes. So artist Daniele da Volterra was hired to cover up the genitals in The Last Judgement with fig leaves and loincloths. This earned the artist the name of Il Braghettone, The Breeches Maker.

There is some debate as to whether or not Camille and Claude Debussy had an intimate relationship. Camille gave a version of Le Valse to Debussy who kept it on his studio mantelpiece for 25 years. It makes one wonder if his 1890 Valse romantique was inspired by Camille’s statue.

Shakuntala.

One of Camille’s masterpieces is that of “Shakuntala” based on the Hindu wife of Dushyanta. But the sculpture actually represents her and Rodin. Like Shakuntala’s husband, Rodin forgets his promise. But eventually his memory returns and he begs forgiveness. Shakuntala loves him so she welcomes him back and tenderly lets him embrace her.

The Mature Age (c. 1899) was a three piece figure showing a man turning his back on a young woman and being led away but a decrepit old woman. It was obviously based on Camille, Rodin, and Rose. Rodin did what he could to keep Camille from exhibiting the sculpture at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. This rejection intensified her feeling of paranoia and that Rodin wanted to destroy her.

Breakdown.

You don’t just wake up crazy as did Kafka’s Gregor Samsa .

Camille’s mother did not like her eldest daughter and obviously favored her other children. Camille was talented, ambitious, independent in thought—all characteristics that Camille’s mother believed to be inappropriate for a woman who should only conform and seek a respectable marriage. Her father, instead, supported his daughter’s desire to study art which only created more distance between Camille and her mother and siblings. Camille’s childhood imprinting was instrumental in her breakdown.

Rodin was old enough to be Camille’s father. But there was nothing paternal about his behavior towards her. She used her skills to make his sculpture, her ideas to inspire him, and her body to pacify his passions. And for the latter she bore the stigma of being a mistress which, especially at the time, was considered the same as being a prostitute. It’s rumored that Camille had born Rodin at least two children. But there is no doubt that she had at least one abortion that her zealot brother Paul held against her.

For years Rodin had promised to marry her but he lied. Her dignity demanded that she leave him.

A nervous breakdown occurs when you can’t cope with stress and trauma. You begin to have difficulties controlling your behavior and even doing the simplest of things. Like keeping up with personal hygiene. In 1905, living alone with her cats in her studio on the Île Saint- Louis, Camille began to unravel. Rodin, despite his commitment to do so, no longer wanted to pay her rent creating an added economic stress for her. Overdosed with difficulties, Camille snapped and thus lost her only true patron, the Comtesse de Maigret.

Betrayed by the man she had given herself to, Camille became more and more of a recluse and distanced herself from others fearing that they might hurt her, too. She alienated herself from everyone including herself and began destroying her work. But the worst happened when, in 1913, her father died. He’d been the person she’d felt closest to. One week after her father’s death, Camille’s mother and brother had her committed then destroyed what was left of her studio.

If there is a villain in the story of Camille, more than Rodin, it’s her brother, Paul. The doctors at the asylum tried to reason with him insisting that Camille was not insane. But all Paul cared about was getting her out of the way.

Paul Claudel was a writer, diplomat, and right-wing religious fanatic. In his youth he’d considered becoming a Benedictine monk but, instead, chose a more prestigious career with the French diplomatic corps. Despite his moralistic attitude towards his sister, Paul had a long affair with a married woman and mother of four. She also became pregnant by Paul. And despite Paul’s talents as a writer, it cannot be forgotten that he was a misogynist who hated Jews and Muslims.

In 1917, after more than five years of being a prisoner in a mental institution, Camille wrote one of her doctors begging for help. Her only crime, she said, was that of wanting to live alone with her cats. Not only was she deprived of her freedom, she wasn’t even allowed to make art or correspond with the outside world. Despite the doctors’ claim that Camille was not mentally ill, she stayed imprisoned until her death 30 years later.

During WWII, there was a shortage of food thanks to the German requisition and rationing of food. The Vichy regime literally tried to get rid of patients in mental institutions by starving them to death.

In all the years that Camille was forced to live in a mental institution, the self-righteous diplomat who travelled the world visited his sister only a handful of times while she was in the institution he had placed her in. And not even one visit from her mother. At the age of 78, Camille died alone and was buried in the asylum’s mass grave. Her family didn’t bother to claim her body. Only her doctor attended her funeral. He was witness to her small body wrapped in a sheet being thrown into a hole with a clump of corpses.

Doubting Thomas.

Touch can provide proof of existence. Think of Jesus and Thomas. We’re told in the Gospel of John that, unlike the other Apostles, Thomas missed seeing Jesus after his resurrection and doubted that Jesus could be alive. So Jesus appeared to him a week later and said: “Touch me and stop doubting”. But to Mary Magdalene, already a believer, Jesus said “Noli me tangere”– don’t touch me.

It’s said that on his deathbed, Rodin called out for his wife. And when his lifetime companion, Rose Bueret, appeared, Rodin said “No, not her, the other one” no doubt referring to Camille.

“There is always something missing that torments me” Camille Claudel.

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(from Cool Breeze, aka The Age of Reconfiguration ©)

Posted in Age of Reconfiguration | Tagged Camille Claudel, Claude Debussy, Franz Kafka, Jessie Lipscomb, Michelangelo, Rodin, sculpture, touch | 2 Comments

The Smell of Chanel

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Art for Housewives

The Twenties were roaring and I was in Paris. Autumn leaves paved the boulevards and the crackle they made when walked upon sent vibrations up my spine. I wanted to move and resonant with the world. And I wasn’t the only one.

Women walking the boulevards dressed differently than they had before the war. The new woman was young, athletic, short-haired, and short-skirted. You know, ready for action. Women were no longer prisoners of corsets and meters of fabric. The new fashion was a political statement.

I was visiting my friend, Mona, who lived on rue Chapon in a tiny apartment with a big fireplace. Mona was exotic, intellectually sophisticated, and loved to go shopping. Often we’d have a coffee at Angelina’s on rue de Rivoli (they have the best Mont Blanc in all of Paris!). I was busy talking about my problems with Hugh when I noticed Mona, who is usually very attentive, was not looking at me but looking over my shoulder. “Just what are you looking at?” I asked. “It’s her, Coco Chanel”, replied Mona. “Coco who?” I asked. Mona looked at me as if I were a barbarian and said “How can you not know who Coco Chanel is? She is the most avant-garde fashion designer of our time. “

Feeling that she had to liberate me from my ignorance, Mona grabbed my arm and said “Let’s go!” After walking some minutes, I found myself in front of Chanel’s shop on rue Cambon with Mona introducing me to the world of Coco Chanel.

Gabrielle Chanel’s mother died when she was twelve. Her father abandoned her and her sisters at a Catholic convent in central France. Here the nuns taught her how to sew. After leaving the convent, she earned her living as a seamstress but also as a cabaret singer earning the nickname “Coco”.

Coco was not talented enough to sing professionally. At the age of 23, she became the mistress of Etienne Balsan, a wealthy textile heir who provided her with a life of wealth and leisure. And much partying. Coco began an affair with one of Balsan’s friends, Capt. “Boy” Capel. Capel got Coco an apartment in Paris where she began experimenting with hat making. Capel gave her the money to open her own shop but he gave her something even more important—an awareness of style. In fact, it’s said that Chanel’s double C logo represents a ”C” for Chanel and a ”C” for Capel.

Coco’s biggest contribution was that of creating fashion that would permit women to move. Basically she transformed male clothing into female fashion. She claimed that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it’s not luxury”. First Coco liberated women from corsets. Then she introduced jersey fabric, traditionally used for undergarments and sports clothing, to high fashion.

The idea was to be simple yet elegant. Coco also introduced the collarless cardigan, black sweater with pearls, female trousers, the little black dress, costume jewelry and the shoulder bag. And of course, there was her perfume Chanel No. 5.

Coco helped change the way women and their bodies were perceived. Women were no longer still-lifes but action movies.

During WWII, despite the difficulties for her fellow Frenchmen, Coco continued to live a life of luxury at the Ritz Hotel surrounded by Nazi officers. Not only did she party with them, she took them on as lovers, too. There is no doubt that Coco was an opportunist and tried to make the best out of a bad situation. Unfortunately, post-war France did not guarantee that same privilege to all women.

Tondeurs and tondues.

At the end of WWII, over 20,000 French women were accused of having had “horizontal collaborations” with the Germans. Even prostitutes, who sold their bodies to the Germans in the same way bistrot owners had sold their wines, were singled out and publicly humiliated by having their hair shaved off then paraded in public semi-naked often with swastikas painted on their foreheads. This punishment was obviously misogynistic as it was restricted to women. Furthermore, because of a war instigated by men, many French mothers of young children had husbands in German prisoner-of-war camps. Without pleasure, they slept with German soldiers simply to feed their children.

Coco was not subjected to this shame. Instead, she went off to Switzerland with her German boyfriend. Here they lived in style for many years until Coco decided to return to Paris to save the fashion industry as, in her opinion, it had become too male dominated. Upon her return, she was asked about her Nazi boyfriends to which she replied “I don’t ask my lovers for their passports”.

Nazi documents confiscated by the Soviets indicate that Coco had been a German spy with the code name “Westminster”. Maybe it’s this that caused Coco to be a morphine addict for the rest of her life. Living with yourself is not always easy.

Inside rue Cambon was the famous faceted mirrored staircase, designed by Coco, that connected all four levels of the building. That way, while standing on one floor, she could see what was happening on the others. Maybe her staircase been inspired by Duchamp’s 1912 Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 which had been inspired by Muybridge’s photo sequence Woman Walking Downstairs.

Chanel No. 5

Beauty is not just visual. Even fragrance was part of Coco’s aesthetics. She loved to go to the marche aux fleurs to inhale the mix of intoxicating aromas. Maybe it was here that she decided to put flowers in a bottle. The summer of 1920, Coco met the perfumer Ernest Beaux and asked him to create a perfume for her clients`. He presented her with various samples in numbered bottles. She chose the sample labeled “No. 5”.

Even if one could not eat salt and pepper alone, said Beaux, it was difficult to imagine a meal without their presence. One enhances the other. And this was the philosophy he used when making perfumes. What made Beaux’s perfumes so successful was his revolutionary use of a molecule called aldehyde. Chanel No. 5 was a mix of lily of the valley, jasmine, rose, and iris root. Just like the flower market. And the iconic bottle looks somewhat like a whiskey decanter. It has a very simple label with sans serif lettering.

Elsa Sciaparelli was one of Coco’s biggest rivals. Elsa’s best known perfume was “Shocking”. The bottle had been designed by artist Leonor Fini who said she’d been inspired by Mae West’s dressmaker’s dummy. The perfume came in a box that was Shocking Pink, Elsa’s signature color. Jean Paul Gaultier liked the Schiaparelli perfume bottle so much that he appropriated its form for his eau de toilette.

When asked what she slept in, Marilyn Monroe responded “Chanel No. 5”.

Moby Dick is the story of men looking for whales. The protagonist, Ishmael, decides to ship aboard a whaling vessel because he wants to find and kill Moby Dick, the whale who bit off one of his legs. At the time, hunting whales was very profitable mainly because of their oil. But whales offer something even more valuable—their rancid vomit known as ambergris that’s used to make expensive perfumes.

During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette tried to escape so she dressed as a peasant and headed towards the border. Unfortunately, she was also wearing a perfume by Houbigant. Since poor people couldn’t afford fragrances, her smell created suspicion and she was captured betrayed by perfume. But that didn’t stop Marie Antoinette’s dependency on perfume. In 1793 when she was taken to the guillotine, she carried 3 vials of perfume in her corsage to give her strength.

Napoleon loved Josephine’s unwashed smells. Josephine, on the other hand, loved the smell of violets. When she died, Napoleon had her grave covered with the little flowers. Before going into exile, he picked some violets from Josephine’s grave and put them in a locket. He wore the locket until the day he died.

Aromatherapy.

Smells can affect us physiologically. Aromatherapy uses aromas to improve psychological and/or physical well-being. Via the olfactory system, smells affect the limbic system. The limbic system is the part of the brain that deals with memories, emotions, and stimulation.

Even insects and animals are affected by smells. Peppermint is a great mice repellant whereas mosquitoes are repelled by the smell of citronella. And bay leaf repels kitchen pantry insects.

Place rosemary under your pillow to prevent nightmares. Inhaling nutmeg oil or valerian oil can help reduce blood pressure. Nutmeg oil also reduces anxiety and anger. The smell of roses has a soothing effect. The smell of sweet oranges increases alertness. A whiff of peppermint can relieve pain and improve alertness. Lavender relaxes but also improves blood circulation.

So why not make a scent necklace? You can use tiny tea balls or little pouches with scented cotton balls. Let’s say you suffer from anxiety attacks so you can fill your tea ball with lavender, rose petals, and lemon rind. Or you can put a few drop of helichrysum essential oil on a cotton ball and put it in the little pouch. And the moment you start to feel anxious, hold the scent up to your nose. Take a long and slow breath filling your diaphragm. Hold a couple of seconds then exhale through your mouth.

Smell diary.

Unfortunately, with all the chemicals bombarding our daily life, our senses have been dulled like a knife that’s lost its sharpness and no longer cuts well. To keep smell alive, it needs moisture. So drink a lot of water and humidify your air. Exercise also intensifies smells. And when we’re hungry, our sense of smell is stronger. But our sense of smell weakens with alcohol. Stay away from stinking places because prolonged exposure to bad smells weakens the sense.

The sense of smell also may fade with age. So to reanimate your sense of smell, why not keep a smell diary for a week. Write about the smells in your daily life and try to describe them. Often we use comparative descriptions such as “it smells like…” but there are plenty of adjectives to explore such as woodsy, leathery, balmy, fresh, delicate, exotic, floral, musky, peculiar, unfamiliar, pungent, putrid, smoky, zesty, sweet, tart, whispy, lemony, aromatic, coppery, burnt, fragrant, metallic, moldy, salty, spicy, soapy, sulfurous, medicinal.

No one better describes fragrance than Luca Turin. He described Chanel No. 19 like a “bitch perfume, like green sharkskin pumps.” Whereas Le Labo’s Oud 27 is “properly pornographic: a wet-hair note and a couple of macrocyclic musks of the kind found near the rear end of deer take over…really raunchy.” Turin also says that in daily life, smell has shifted from symphony to jingle. That is, the smell of your fabric softener is a door chime whereas Christian Dior’s Diorama is a full orchestra. But “fine fragrance is getting dangerously close to a ringtone: inventive, often distinctive, catchy even, but with lousy sound quality.”

And the scent that drives men wild is bacon.

Practice smelling. The next time you’re at the grocery store, sniff the produce. Experiment with the basic method used by perfumers and sommeliers. And, with your eyes closed, hold an orange a little more than 1 cm from your nose. Focus on the smell and let your olfactory receptors take note. Your breath will warm the orange making it easier to smell. Then move the orange away, wait a few seconds then repeat holding the orange under your nose as you sniff it. Smelling takes place in the bridge of your nose so after inhaling, try to hold the odor molecules in your nose. Now try to visualize what the smell does. Does it create a mental picture or remind you of something?

Smell and memory.

Smell has an important role in the brain’s limbic system. Memory and smell are good companions. A particular smell can resuscitate memories. Every time I smell honeysuckle, I think of Texas. And the smell of cloves reminds me of my mother. She’d invented her own air freshener. Using a white tea kettle with stenciled flowers, she’d boil spices like cinnamon and cloves until the whole house smelled like a bakery.

Smell also influences our sense of taste. Both smell and of taste use the same receptors. And the foods we eat can change our own smell. For example, because of its sulfur compounds, eating cabbage can change your body odor. So can garlic and onion. Rub a piece of crushed raw garlic on the sole of your foot and 20 minutes later you will have the taste of garlic in your mouth.

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(from Cool Breeze, aka The Age of Reconfiguration ©)

Bibliography:

Burr, Chandler. The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession. Random House, NYC. 2004.

Kummer, Corby. “A Rose by Another Name”. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/417604/a-rose-by-another-name/ Retrieved November 22, 2018.

Vaughan, Hal. Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War. Knopf. New York. 2011

Perfumes: The A–Z Guide Turin Luca Turin (Author), Tania Sanchez (Author) Profile Books; Main edition (August 6, 2010)

Posted in Age of Reconfiguration, Daily Aesthetics | Tagged Aromatherapy, Coco Chanel, cool breeze, Paris, perfume, senses, tondues | 5 Comments

Daily Aesthetics

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Just by being where we are makes us part of our environment whether or not we want to be. So, if the world around us becomes a part of us, why not turn it into art?

To make our life beautiful, we have to think beautifully and to be active participants. Because stasis does not lead to experience. And it is experience that shapes our sense of aesthetics. And it’s experience that forms those ideals that give our life a direction.

Simply focusing on beauty can transform our daily life. When my mom was a little girl, she had to walk to the well every day to get water for her family. It was very fatiguing but she focused on the Johnny Jump Ups she’d see once there. Just like the women of Gee’s Bend who, after a long day in the fields, would walk back home thinking about their quilt blocks. Because thinking about beauty soothes the spirit. And helps us transcend the ugliness that surrounds us.

Aesthetics are married to our senses and our senses are like invisible threads that unite us to our surroundings. But our senses need to be educated as they dramatically influence how we perceive the world around us.

Here are some examples of women who created a special rapport with smell, sight, touch, taste, and/or hearing.

Coco Chanel and Smell

Julia Child and Taste

Camille Claudel and Touch

Diana Vreeland and Sight

Chavela Vargas and Sound

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Posted in Age of Reconfiguration, Daily Aesthetics | Tagged environment, Gee's Bend blankets, Johnny Jump Ups, senses | 2 Comments

Chavela Vargas and Sound

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Art for Housewives

The Depression had left us all in apnea. New York sidewalks were populated by people with corrugated foreheads and attitudes like milk gone sour. The heaviness of it all had dulled my senses and I desperately needed some art to give me a high. Diego Rivera was in town working on a mural for the Rockefeller Center and the idea of watching him paint gave me a buzz. So I snuck into the center to spy on the famed artist as he worked.

A young woman was taking tons of photos of the work in progress. Click click click. Soon I became more interested in her rapport with the camera than I was with Rivera and his wall. The woman made an abrupt turn and saw me. But, instead of trying to get me thrown out, she came over and asked if I was interested in meeting the artist. Rivera, whose ego always enjoyed meeting fans, was big bellied, had eyes like a bullfrog, and lips so big they looked like they could float. His wife Frida, instead, was petite and glaring. She was dressed like one of those souvenir dolls your aunt brings you after spending a tequila weekend in Mexico.

Having common curiosities is a good basis for a friendship. That’s how Lucienne Bloch, the photographer, and I became friends. Often we’d lunch together, or visit an exhibition, or have a few cocktails as we gossiped about the art world. She’d been invited by the Riveras to visit them in Mexico and, once there, sent me postcards that teased my fantasies so much that I decided to go to Mexico, too. One evening Rivera and Frida were hosting a big parranda and, thanks to Lucienne, I was invited to go.

The couple lived in a big blue house in Coyoacán. More than a home, it seemed like a museum as they had collections of Pre-Colombian and Mexican folk art everywhere not to mention Frida’s paintings. I particularly enjoyed the retablos and got the impression that Frida had somewhat appropriated the style for her own paintings. The kitchen table was set with mole, enchiladas, chile rellenos, refried beans and tons of tortillas. And bottles of tequila were everywhere.

All the people and the noise had made me feel somewhat claustrophobic so I went out in the garden for some fresh air. I was wondering how the same moon could shine the same way all over the world when the singing started. It was Cielito Lindo, Frida’s favorite song. The voice was so unique I went back in to see who was singing and saw a beautiful woman dressed in a man’s suit. She was Chavela Vargas and the songs she sang had inspired many of Frida’s paintings.

“Cielito Lindo”, for example, was the inspiration behind “Arbol de la Esperanza Mantente Firme”–a statement to the Tree of Hope to stay strong. The painting shows two Fridas. One, post operation, with scars exposed. The other Frida, elegant and strong, holding a corset for her back, a corset that gives her hope.

The popular Mexican song, “El Venadito Herido” (The Wounded Little Deer) inspired another self-portrait showing Frida half woman, half deer painted before an operation that left her bed-ridden for a year. Frida the Deer, has arrows sticking out of her like St. Sebastian, the martyr.

After discovering that Diego had been sleeping with her sister, Frida divorced him then cut her hair and dressed like a man before painting “Autorretrato con Pelo Corto” (Self-Portrait with Short Hair). On top on the painting is a phrase from a popular folk song: “Mira que si te quise, fué por el pelo, Ahora que estás pelona, ya no te quiero” (“See, if I loved you, it was for your hair, Now you’re bald, I don’t love you anymore.”)

Like Frida, Chavela also loved Mexican folk songs especially rancheras, songs populated by the broken hearted who go to cantinas to drink away their sorrows. This music was traditionally dominated by men until Chavela elbowed her way in to make space for las borracheras, women who could drown in alcohol as easily as men could. This Cantina Solution was a reply to conformity and fake respectability. Drinking like men suggested a form of emancipation.

Chavela was born in Costa Rica to indifferent parents. As a child she suffered from polio and risked going blind. A shaman living in a nearby indigenous village spit chewed herbs in her eyes and gave her a magical tea that made her fall into a deep sleep. When she awoke, her vision was perfect. For the rest of her life she would honour shamans especially the Huichols in Mexico who gave her the name Cupaima, the last female shaman.

Abandoned by her parents, Chavela moved to Mexico at the age of 14 where she sang in the streets until she got gigs in cantinas. Here she made no secret of her homosexuality and was known as a cigar smoking, heavy drinking womanizer. Chavela sang in cantinas for years until she was discovered by singer and songwriter extraordinaire José Alfredo Jiménez.

Jiménez did not play a musical instrument and knew little about musical technicalities but he wrote over 1,000 songs many of which are still well-know today. Together, Jiménez and Chavela turned pathos into poetry. Take, for example, En El Último Trago where the singer asks an ex-lover to drink together until oblivion. Because time hasn’t taught him anything so he continues to drink again and again with strangers to mourn the same sorrows.

Once her career took off, Chavela came in contact with a new milieu. She became friends with Frida and Rivera and was often their house guest. It’s rumored that Chavela and Frida had an affair together. Chavela sang at Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding in Alcapulco and was said to have seduced Ava Gardner.

But the Cantina Solution caught up with Chavela. She became an alcoholic and, during the 1970s, gave up singing. But almost 20 years later, at the age of 81, Chavela returned to the stage. She debuted at a sold-out Carnegie Hall at the age of 83. After each song, she was rewarded with a standing ovation. The audience couldn’t have enough of her. In the words of Pedro Almodóvar, Chavela made of abandonment and desolation a cathedral in which we all found a place.

Chavela spent the last year of her life recording Luna Grande, a mixture of music and poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca, the poet who, at the age of 38, was assassinated during the Spanish Civil War. In 1993, Chavela went to Spain and stayed in a room that once García Lorca’s. Every day, she said, a yellow bird would come peck on the room’s window and she was sure the bird was the spirit of Lorca himself. Chavela died a few weeks later.

The power of sound.

Singing is about sound and sound is a power. In Genesis, the sound of a word created the universe. In ancient Egypt, vowel chanting was used for healing. Pythagoras, believing that harmony obliterated chaos, used music for “soul-adjustments”. Vibrating strings can help the body raise its vibration frequency thus King David used harp music for healing himself and his soldiers. In Australia, the Aborigines use a musical instrument, the Didgeridoo, to speed up the healing process. Shamans worldwide use sound to heal often incorporating musical instruments such as gongs, tuning forks, and Tibetan singing bowls.

Alfred Tomatis (1920 – 2001) also believed in the therapeutic qualities of sound. While in the womb, Alfred’s mother’s resentment of her pregnancy could be felt by him. Probably because of this rejection, Alfred was born prematurely. Thought to be dead, he was tossed into a basket. But his grandmother pulled him out and saved his life. Nevertheless, the negative energy he experienced inside his mom made him a sickly child.

Alfred grew up and became an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. His father was an opera singer and sent his colleagues having problems “staying in tune” to his son for a cure. Opera singers, singing at their full vocal power, can emit between 110 and 140 decibels. And, since the sound comes from within, said Alfred, even though the “energy of a singer is not comparable to that of a jet engine, the intensity of the sound is the same”. Because “the amount of time a singer had practiced was directly proportional to the amount of damage to the ear”, Alfred deducted that it was the singer’s own voice that caused a loss of certain frequencies from their voice. Based on his theory that “the voice contains only those sounds that the ear can hear”, Alfred developed a method for affronting frequency hearing loss.

In 1967 monks at a Benedictine monastery had become lethargic and depressed. They’d been used to chanting several hours a day but then a new abbot arrived and decided that this time could be used in a better way and stopped the chanting. Initially no one could understand the monks’ change. Consulted, Tomatis suggested that the monks start chanting again as it was a way for them to keep themselves charged. Chanting and listening to certain kinds of music, said Tomatis, energizes the brain and body.

Sound is a vibration and vibration has a frequency. Nikola Tesla said that “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” Frequencies can heal but they can also be harmful. For example, cell phone tower exposure can cause memory loss, headaches, sleep deprivation, and cardiovascular stress. Even electrical appliances in the home can make a very low humming noise that can throw us out of whack.

ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) waves have been used for mind control manipulation. For example, during the 80s Margaret Thatcher used ELF waves to affront inner city riots to the point of turning people into zombies. As human behaviour can be controlled by frequencies, ELF Waves & Co. are being used in various parts of the world by those in power.

Music frequencies can be used to manipulate as well. Once tuning forks vibrated at 432 Hz but, in 1885, the Italian Music Commission decided that orchestras should use tuning forks that vibrated at 440 Hz instead. This new vibration became a worldwide standard in 1953 leading to many conspiracy theories as 432 Hz resonates with the 8 Hz Schumann resonance, the heartbeat of the Earth. Some theorists claim that the Nazi Joseph Goebbels wanted the change in standards as 440 Hz makes it easier to use music for mind control. And other theorists believe that the modern music industry is using pop music to transform individuals into one of the herd so their behaviour can be controlled.

But frequencies can also be beneficial.

The throat chakra participates in the exchange of energy between the body and the head. If your throat chakra is blocked, you will have problems expressing yourself. Because through the throat we emit sound and its vibration. A blocked throat chakra can make us feel insecure. Singing as well as humming can help unblock this chakra.

Humming can also make your mood better and relax you. And it can even soothe your sinuses because it improves airflow between the sinuses and the nasal cavity. Humming also stimulates the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body that wanders around the body like a vagabond participating in many bodily activities. The vagus nerve helps prevent inflammation such as that that animates rheumatoid arthritis. But the vagus nerve can draw out anti-inflammatory neurotransmitters to mellow out the pain.

As we grow older, many of us experience hearing loss. The tiny hair cells within the inner ears begin to break down creating difficulty picking up sound vibrations. To protect against hearing loss, avoid exposure to persistent loud noises, never listen to high volume music with earphones, and use cotton swabs with care as they can push ear wax deeper into the ear canal and/or damage the eardrum. Hearing should be routinely checked. Loss of hearing isolates and the frustration can lead to depression and increase the risk of dementia. Because hearing helps to interrelate with the world around us.

OM is a mantra, a vibration and, when chanted, vibrates at the frequency of 432 Hz. Om or AUM, is believed to be the basic sound of the universe, the Cosmic Hum. If practiced properly and with continuity, OM chanting can improve the efficiency of the spinal cord, improve blood circulation, and detox body cells. Chanting OM also exercises the organs by making them vibrate.

Try chanting in your bathtub. Expand your diaphragm then contract it as you chant OM.

Change your voice and you’ll change your thoughts.