I hope this falls into the category of enriching Facebook posts. I didnt just cut and paste all this stuff, so read it! I recently started listening to the song Taro by the band Alt-J--Alt-J is the command for making a delta symbol on a mac--pretty cool :) youtube/watch?v=0W3YQu00kXY (listen to this while you read...) I liked the song just for its musical qualities (the vocals have an African feel to them, and he makes his guitar sound like a zither or something), but I thought the lyrics were stupid (mostly because I couldnt decipher them). I looked them up, and was surprised by what I found: Bear with me... Indochina, Capa jumps Jeep, two feet creep up the road To photo, to record meat lumps and war, They advance as does his chance – very yellow white flash. A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags, Burst so high finally Capa lands, Mine is a watery pit. Painless with immense distance From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe, him five yards from his leg, From you Taro. Do not spray into eyes – I have sprayed you into my eyes. 3:10 pm, Capa pends death, quivers, last rattles, last chokes All colours and cares glaze to grey, shrivelled and stricken to dots, Left hand grasps what the body grasps not – le photographe est mort. 3.1415, alive no longer my amour, faded for home May of ‘54 Doors open like arms my love, Painless with a great closeness To Capa, to Capa Capa dark after nothing, re-united with his leg and with you, Taro. Do not spray into eyes – I have sprayed you into my eyes. Hey Taro! Robert Capa and Gerda Taro were both Jewish refugees from Germany (these are both made-up names). Born Gerta Pohorylle, Taro named herself after Taro Okamoto, a Japanese artist, and the Swedish Actress Greta Garbo. Roberts original name was Friedmann Endre. Robert taught Gerda photography, and they fell in love. Gerda later became established as a photojournalist in her own right. During her coverage of the Republican army retreat in the Spanish Civil War (The Battle of Brunete), Gerda stepped onto the footboard of a car that was carrying wounded soldiers, and a Republican tank collided with the side of the car--she suffered critical wounds and died the next day, July 26th 1937. She was reportedly engaged to Robert Capa at the time of her death (although some sources say she refused his proposal). He was so deeply affected that he never married. Due to her political commitment, Taro had become an anti-fascist figure. On August 1, on what would have been her 27th birthday, the French Communist Party gave her a grand funeral in Paris, buried her at Père Lachaise Cemetery, and commissioned Alberto Giacometti to create a monument for her grave. Years later, Robert was asked by Life magazine to cover the First Indochina War in the early 50s. Although Robert had said that he was done with photography a few years earlier, he accepted the assignment and accompanied two Time-Life journalists John Mecklin and Jim Lucas to the front line. On May 25th, 1954 at 2:55pm, while passing through a dangerous area under fire, Robert left his Jeep to photograph the advance. About five minutes later, Mecklin and Lucas heard an explosion--Robert had stepped on a landmine. When they found him he was still alive, but his left leg had been blown off and he had a serious wound in his chest. Mecklin called a medic and Robert was taken to a field hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He is buried in plot #169 at Amawalk Hill Cemetery, Amawalk, Westchester County, New York. Now read the lyrics again. Things are never as simple as they first appear. And to top it all off, the band gives a fantastic live performance of the song! I adapted this info from Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Taro en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Capa Enjoy!
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 02:11:57 +0000
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