Dear Patti, I have only now read this touching memory of Sam Shepard, your great friend. How I would have liked to follow you more in depth in music, literature and cinema. Unfortunately, among the many difficulties I encountered from a very young age, a couple of years before the positive HIV test, at the age of twenty-two, a blood infection that started from the kidneys and was poorly treated, affected my eyes and both the internal ears. For a few weeks the doctors despaired of saving my sight and hearing.! Then after a month they were able to use a new drug which stopped the progression of the disease (internal candidiasis) but unfortunately the right eye lost 90% of its vision, with only a little peripheral vision remaining. Even the right ear lost more than 50% of its hearing and a terrible tinnitus began its dark and powerful torture which continues even today, forty years later, when I no longer hear anything of the outside world on that side. However, despite having great difficulty, I have always tried to continue reading and listening to music (the surviving hearing is very disturbed since even on the left what I hear is a little distorted; when I returned home from that first dramatic hospitalization I started the turntable with the remaining 7" — Summertime with Miles Davis and the Gil Evans orchestra from the opera Porgy and Bess and on the back It ain't necessarily so and
There's a Boat that's living soon for New York—and what I heard was a cacophony compared to what I felt before the illness: I put my head in my hands and started crying my eyes out because I thought that one of the gifts that life had given me, the listening to the music, was lost forever.... In truth, then, one gets used to it and quickly forgets what it was like in the previous twenty-two years... it's a question of survival! Our dear mother was a good pianist and when she was expecting me she still played a lot and I think I already perceived the music in her womb since the sound vibrations of the piano strings, through the mother's hands and arms, certainly reach the fetus.. .!).
Sorry Patti, even today I went on a long one talking only about myself.
I conclude by saying that the best gift I received at Christmas this yesr was a beautiful book by Sam with your preface. In Italian it is called Quello di dentro (The One Inside, 2017) and was published by La nave di Teseo edizioni in 2018, translated by Massimo Bocchiola.
I greet you with much affection dear Patti and with you all the kind readers of these pages, hoping that these stories about my life are not too long....!
Deeply moving piece on Sam your buddy...I have a buddy whom I HAVEN'T seen from an ongoing study of the Tarot...his favorite card was the Fool whose pathway forms itself beneath the feet of the inquirer. With only a dog companion to guide him and a knapsack filled with only immediate needs...such as an apple. The knapsack doubles as a sleeping roll. Best wishes to you and Sam. Dave P San Francisco.94110
I don’t know about Sam but your writing tells me what I need to know and what a wonderful friend you had in him. May you keep remembering and honouring him.
True West is one of my favorite plays—-a great maverick writer who hits the bullseye of truth. Thank you for that wonderfully written homage to your dear friend, Sam Shepard*~~*
Sam was one of the greats -- I loved Motel Chronicles -- I travelled around this West when I was younger, much like he did, staying in old motels, drinking, writing .... pretending to be a writer and actor like Sam
From reading this I can see how much connection there was between the two of you. I love the part where you talk about the comfort that comes from being able to be with someone in silence.
Dear Patti, I have only now read this touching memory of Sam Shepard, your great friend. How I would have liked to follow you more in depth in music, literature and cinema. Unfortunately, among the many difficulties I encountered from a very young age, a couple of years before the positive HIV test, at the age of twenty-two, a blood infection that started from the kidneys and was poorly treated, affected my eyes and both the internal ears. For a few weeks the doctors despaired of saving my sight and hearing.! Then after a month they were able to use a new drug which stopped the progression of the disease (internal candidiasis) but unfortunately the right eye lost 90% of its vision, with only a little peripheral vision remaining. Even the right ear lost more than 50% of its hearing and a terrible tinnitus began its dark and powerful torture which continues even today, forty years later, when I no longer hear anything of the outside world on that side. However, despite having great difficulty, I have always tried to continue reading and listening to music (the surviving hearing is very disturbed since even on the left what I hear is a little distorted; when I returned home from that first dramatic hospitalization I started the turntable with the remaining 7" — Summertime with Miles Davis and the Gil Evans orchestra from the opera Porgy and Bess and on the back It ain't necessarily so and
There's a Boat that's living soon for New York—and what I heard was a cacophony compared to what I felt before the illness: I put my head in my hands and started crying my eyes out because I thought that one of the gifts that life had given me, the listening to the music, was lost forever.... In truth, then, one gets used to it and quickly forgets what it was like in the previous twenty-two years... it's a question of survival! Our dear mother was a good pianist and when she was expecting me she still played a lot and I think I already perceived the music in her womb since the sound vibrations of the piano strings, through the mother's hands and arms, certainly reach the fetus.. .!).
Sorry Patti, even today I went on a long one talking only about myself.
I conclude by saying that the best gift I received at Christmas this yesr was a beautiful book by Sam with your preface. In Italian it is called Quello di dentro (The One Inside, 2017) and was published by La nave di Teseo edizioni in 2018, translated by Massimo Bocchiola.
I greet you with much affection dear Patti and with you all the kind readers of these pages, hoping that these stories about my life are not too long....!
A warm hug. Luca 😊❤️🌸☮️
Exquisite New Yorker piece about Sam. Thanks for sharing it.
Deeply moving piece on Sam your buddy...I have a buddy whom I HAVEN'T seen from an ongoing study of the Tarot...his favorite card was the Fool whose pathway forms itself beneath the feet of the inquirer. With only a dog companion to guide him and a knapsack filled with only immediate needs...such as an apple. The knapsack doubles as a sleeping roll. Best wishes to you and Sam. Dave P San Francisco.94110
Thank you for sharing his memory with your beautiful writing - something you both share.
Very lovely read, thank you for this Patti
thank you - a beautiful read
i loved reading and feeling this of him and of you.
tara
Oh my god. Tears straming down my face. You breath poetry. I just loved to read this.
This is such a beautiful tribute to someone who means so much to you. I enjoyed sharing in the joy that these memories provide you.
thank you for this beautiful tribute so lovingly told with such delicately observed details and that wonderful respect for silence...
I don’t know about Sam but your writing tells me what I need to know and what a wonderful friend you had in him. May you keep remembering and honouring him.
True West is one of my favorite plays—-a great maverick writer who hits the bullseye of truth. Thank you for that wonderfully written homage to your dear friend, Sam Shepard*~~*
Friendship is a beautiful thing.
Sam was one of the greats -- I loved Motel Chronicles -- I travelled around this West when I was younger, much like he did, staying in old motels, drinking, writing .... pretending to be a writer and actor like Sam
From reading this I can see how much connection there was between the two of you. I love the part where you talk about the comfort that comes from being able to be with someone in silence.
Such a beautiful tribute to deep friendship and the love of words.