Philip Glass: Taxi Driver
November 4, 2015 4:37 PM Subscribe
TAXI!!
Yes. Can you take me to 34th and Broadway?
Once you're there, can you then take me to 4th and Lexington?
After that, can we go back to 34th and Broadway? I was suddenly reminded that I've been avoiding the beach.
And then could we go to 4th and Lexington?
And then to 34th and Broadway?
.....
posted by schmod at 5:03 PM on November 4, 2015 [12 favorites]
Yes. Can you take me to 34th and Broadway?
Once you're there, can you then take me to 4th and Lexington?
After that, can we go back to 34th and Broadway? I was suddenly reminded that I've been avoiding the beach.
And then could we go to 4th and Lexington?
And then to 34th and Broadway?
.....
posted by schmod at 5:03 PM on November 4, 2015 [12 favorites]
You talking to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? Huh? 'kay.
Huh?
Listen, you screwheads. Here's a man who would not take it anymore. Who moved on from repetitive minimalism to operatic and symphonic works...
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:42 PM on November 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
Huh?
Listen, you screwheads. Here's a man who would not take it anymore. Who moved on from repetitive minimalism to operatic and symphonic works...
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:42 PM on November 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
" ... are you going to turn?"
– "Huh?"
"We've been waiting here a while, your turn signal is on, and there aren't any –"
– "Listen."
"Sorry?"
– "Just ... listen."
tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ...
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:43 PM on November 4, 2015 [7 favorites]
– "Huh?"
"We've been waiting here a while, your turn signal is on, and there aren't any –"
– "Listen."
"Sorry?"
– "Just ... listen."
tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ... tictoc ...
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:43 PM on November 4, 2015 [7 favorites]
“The Great Escape,” Glass’s account of leaving Baltimore – at age 15! – to go off to college, was published earlier this year in the University of Chicago magazine.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:00 AM on November 5, 2015
posted by LeLiLo at 12:00 AM on November 5, 2015
Very interesting! - thanks, mandolin conspiracy, for the link. I gather Steve Reich worked as a taxi-driver for a while too, though I’m not sure if that was at the same time as Glass, or even if it was in New York at all. Even so, I have an idea for a TV sitcom where Glass and Reich are rival cab drivers in Manhattan ca. 1975 in which, as you might expect, the plot (and the jokes) in every episode seem almost the same as in the one before, with just a few barely-discernable differences…
posted by misteraitch at 2:40 AM on November 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by misteraitch at 2:40 AM on November 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
I gather Steve Reich worked as a taxi-driver for a while too, though I’m not sure if that was at the same time as Glass, or even if it was in New York at all.
Actually, through sheer repetition, Reich got so good as a cabbie that he was eventually promoted to dispatch and training.
Even for a while after his career as a composer had begun to take off, whenever there was a class of new drivers, they'd ask him to come out to show them ccome out to show themome out to show them cocome out to show themme out to show them comcome out to show theme out to show them comecome out to show them out to show them come ocome out to show themut to show them come oucome ut to show themut to show them come outcome out to show them to show them come out tcome out to show themo show them come out tocome out to show them show them come out to scome out to show themhow them come out to shcome out to show themow them come out to shocome out to show themw them come out to showcome out to show them them come out to show tcome out to show themhem come out to show thcome out to show themem come out to show thecome out to show themm come out to show them the ropes.
posted by Herodios at 8:01 AM on November 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
Actually, through sheer repetition, Reich got so good as a cabbie that he was eventually promoted to dispatch and training.
Even for a while after his career as a composer had begun to take off, whenever there was a class of new drivers, they'd ask him to come out to show them ccome out to show themome out to show them cocome out to show themme out to show them comcome out to show theme out to show them comecome out to show them out to show them come ocome out to show themut to show them come oucome ut to show themut to show them come outcome out to show them to show them come out tcome out to show themo show them come out tocome out to show them show them come out to scome out to show themhow them come out to shcome out to show themow them come out to shocome out to show themw them come out to showcome out to show them them come out to show tcome out to show themhem come out to show thcome out to show themem come out to show thecome out to show themm come out to show them the ropes.
posted by Herodios at 8:01 AM on November 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
>I have an idea for a TV sitcom where Glass and Reich are rival cab drivers in Manhattan
As long as Moondog has a recurring cameo, I will watch this.
posted by acrasis at 3:56 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
As long as Moondog has a recurring cameo, I will watch this.
posted by acrasis at 3:56 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
As long as Moondog has a recurring cameo, I will watch this.
Not driving a cab, I hope.
Perhaps umpiring for the Mets.
posted by Herodios at 4:07 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Not driving a cab, I hope.
Perhaps umpiring for the Mets.
posted by Herodios at 4:07 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Robert Hughes, the Australian art critic, filmmaker and writer, wandered into the kitchen of his fashionable loft home in New York's SoHo to see how the plumber was going, setting up his new dishwasher.
On his knees grappling with the machine, the plumber heard a noise and looked up.
Hughes gasped: "My god, you're Philip Glass. I can't believe it. What are you doing here?"
Glass, one of the world's most famous composers, said afterwards: "It was obvious that I was installing his new dishwasher, and I told him I would soon be finished."
"But you are an artist," Hughes protested.
Glass said: "I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well, and that he should go away and let me finish." cite
posted by jonp72 at 6:40 PM on November 5, 2015
On his knees grappling with the machine, the plumber heard a noise and looked up.
Hughes gasped: "My god, you're Philip Glass. I can't believe it. What are you doing here?"
Glass, one of the world's most famous composers, said afterwards: "It was obvious that I was installing his new dishwasher, and I told him I would soon be finished."
"But you are an artist," Hughes protested.
Glass said: "I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well, and that he should go away and let me finish." cite
posted by jonp72 at 6:40 PM on November 5, 2015
And what about Glass?
Phil and I worked together in the early days. We had met at Juilliard. We met in—probably that would have been '58 or '59. I remember we both had the same part time job to make money, which was running what was called an ozalid machine: It used ammonia and it had big rollers, where you rolled in these onion-skinned sheets atop a certain kind of paper. And then it would print. It was a kind of very high-level way of making scores in those days, long before there were computers and so on and so on.
We both did all kinds of things just to pay the rent. He was a plumber. I was a part-time social worker. We had the Chelsea Light Moving company, which failed miserably. [One time] the sort of “light moving” we got were these family couches on the fifth floor of a walk-up on the Lower East Side. We decided maybe we’d hang it up. Steve Reich interview
posted by jonp72 at 6:46 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Phil and I worked together in the early days. We had met at Juilliard. We met in—probably that would have been '58 or '59. I remember we both had the same part time job to make money, which was running what was called an ozalid machine: It used ammonia and it had big rollers, where you rolled in these onion-skinned sheets atop a certain kind of paper. And then it would print. It was a kind of very high-level way of making scores in those days, long before there were computers and so on and so on.
We both did all kinds of things just to pay the rent. He was a plumber. I was a part-time social worker. We had the Chelsea Light Moving company, which failed miserably. [One time] the sort of “light moving” we got were these family couches on the fifth floor of a walk-up on the Lower East Side. We decided maybe we’d hang it up. Steve Reich interview
posted by jonp72 at 6:46 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't know if you could get an entire show out of the Glass Reich cab rivalry, but I'd definitely include it in an anthology edition of Odd Jobs (of famous Intellectuals) along with Sam Beckett drives Andre The Giant to School, an idea I remain baffled hasn't at least been made into a short story as of yet.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:31 AM on November 6, 2015
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:31 AM on November 6, 2015
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