Erik Satie: Velvet Gentleman

>His last words were "The cows..."

I doubt this. In French, "vache" means cow, but it also means terrific or terrible. It's essentially an emphatic noun, whose meaning depends on context and tone of voice. Given the plural, the tendency would be to believe he meant something like "the bastards." Of course, given the rest of the article, Satie could easily have meant "the cows," although I strongly doubt it.

Two great quotes from The Browser summary:

“There are many kinds of eccentric and Satie was most of them"

“He may not have been a great composer, but he was a great Satie”

Funny, I considered submitting this link yesterday, but assumed it may not be hacker-y enough. But I believe the connection lies in the fact that as ambient background music, Satie's compositions are remarkable in their ability to calm, focus and stimulate the mind.

The next time you begin to feel a bit burnt, try closing the eyes, donning headphones and slipping into Le Monde Gnossienne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtLHiou7anE

But there's much more to Erik Satie. I feel, as long as this piece is, that it's still too short. He deserves more.

This, by the way, was his great love/muse, Suzanne Valadon: http://mfas3.s3.amazonaws.com/objects/SC114311.jpg

Too bad this is falling off the front page; it's a delightful article.

Pity this book doesn't seem to be available as an e-book. Only hardcover.

Submitter's username :)

great article but hardly a book review!