A Series of Head Removals

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 21 January 2015.



I hear you, Art.

I was more curious about some of the things you've hinted at in terms of exploring themes of racism and white entitlement. I'm cool with the idea that Arthur is just making his own music and that the there is something in the tone of both the church organ and Marvin Gaye that somehow unlocks Arthur's own voice.

There's a type of commentary on race relations that comes from just not dealing with the question at all.

It does make sense that as Will is amassing musicians that he doesn't leave his own comfort zone and never notices or scrutinizes any of the implications of who he chooses as a musician or how he treats a musician. If we peel back Will's lack of perceptiveness just a little bit, that may be all of the commentary we need, although it would be very subtle. Maybe if we pile up a family tradition of this lack of consideration, including the damage the family business does as it paves through Detroit without any eye toward effects on neighborhoods, that's enough. Entitled white guys just don't really think. That would stand in contrast to Arthur, who has a mystical connection to truth and channels it in ways that defy common sense and propriety.

Or maybe we need to go stronger.

I saw a documentary on Soul Train in which Don Cornelius was talking about Gino Vanelli. I guess Don Cornelius was talking about the importance of featuring black artists and Gino Vanelli said yeah, but I'm not black. Don Cornelius said, "I see you as off-white."

I was watching those videos some of those videos in a little more depth. The Gino Vanelli one on Soul Train is interesting to me because the song is just so intense and political and theatrical. It's a little too disturbing to dance to, and it has these elaborate 3/4 sections that resist dancing. Also, the band has strange instrumentation: no guitars of any sort--not even a bass--but three keyboards, drums and percussion, and a vocalist with musical theater moves.

What really hit me, though, was the Ambrosia video. What if we made a video just like that, but then slipped in costume changes so sometimes it's the 70's band and sometimes the band is in scrubs? What if when they superimpose the singer over the band in a special vaseline-smeared frame, we have a bunch of character faces? I could see the Sea Devils costume, and we could have a series of head-removals, in which we see Farthington's face, Arthur's face, Steffi's face, Will's face, Fr. Bernard's face, etc. Just take that very typical sort of late 70's/early 80's performance video, but stack it with imagery from our story but no narrative outside of the lyrics of the song. It would be pretty disturbing.

I think this video also influenced my vision of the Ambrosia video. Have you seen this yet? It's called Too Many Cooks, and all I'll say about it if you haven't already seen it yet is that Cartoon Network put it on Adult Swim at 4:00 a.m. when the infomercials are usually running.

No prior warning, nothing to let audiences know it's coming.