{"id":22954,"date":"2014-01-10T18:02:12","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T01:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/?p=22954"},"modified":"2017-05-19T08:32:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T15:32:57","slug":"spalding-gray-swmming-in-melancholia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/2014\/01\/10\/spalding-gray-swmming-in-melancholia\/","title":{"rendered":"Spalding Gray &#8211;  Swmming in Melancholia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Swimming to Cambodia - Available now\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-6z_77BxOmM?start=42&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<li><\/li>\n<p><> <> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1aSpauldingSmall2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1aSpauldingSmall2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"1aSpauldingSmall\" width=\"432\" height=\"432\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22965\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1aSpauldingSmall2.jpg 432w, https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1aSpauldingSmall2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1aSpauldingSmall2-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nPhoto of Spalding Gray by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musarium.com\/photo\/lampp\/index.html\"> Paul Waldman <\/a> <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The owner of Dean &#038; Deluca lived above him and he said he was driving him crazy. We sat and talked through a NYC thunder storm&#8230;(Paul Waldman) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<li><\/li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spalding_Gray\">Via Spalding Gray  wiki <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On January 11, 2004, Gray was declared missing. The night before his disappearance, he had seen Tim Burton&#8217;s film Big Fish, which ends with the line, &#8220;A man tells a story over and over so many times he becomes the story. In that way, he is immortal&#8221;. Gray&#8217;s widow, Kathie Russo, has said, &#8220;You know, Spalding cried after he saw that movie. I just think it gave him permission. I think it gave him permission to die.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Among those from whom Gray sought treatment was Oliver Sacks, a neurologist. Sacks began treating Gray in August 2003 and continued to do so until almost the time of Gray&#8217;s death. In an article by Gaby Wood published on the first anniversary of Gray&#8217;s disappearance, Sacks proposed that Gray perceived the taking of his own life as part of what he had to say: &#8220;On several occasions he talked about what he called &#8216;a creative suicide.&#8217; On one occasion, when he was being interviewed, he thought that the interview might be culminated with a &#8216;dramatic and creative suicide.'&#8221; Sacks added, &#8220;I was at pains to say that he would be much more creative alive than dead.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/30\/books\/review\/the-journals-of-spalding-gray-edited-by-nell-casey-book-review.html\">What Spalding Gray left us <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p> As Gray describes Merton\u2019s death, \u201cthe Trappists sent him to Southeast Asia to research Buddhism. He stepped out of a bathtub, touched an electric fan and died instantly.\u201d<br \/>\nThis account, as it happens, dramatizes the conflict found throughout Gray\u2019s extensive journals: between his own relentless search for transcendence (\u201cperfect moments\u201d and the like) and the often shocking absurdity of worldly contingency of the sort that will, eventually, tragically, short-circuit him too. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<blockquote><p>I remember standing in that second-story window and looking down, wondering if I really had the courage to jump and if I did would it kill me from such a small height. I think I figured I&#8217;d just break a leg or something and end up in a cast for the rest of the summer, and that would be much better than dying because of all the attention I&#8217;d get. But then I also realized that Mom wouldn&#8217;t be able to give me any attention, because she was cracking up and needed all of it for herself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8211;from Impossible Vacation<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.levity.com\/corduroy\/gray.htm\">Levity &#8211; Spalding Gray <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo of Spalding Gray by Paul Waldman The owner of Dean &#038; Deluca lived above him and he said he was driving him crazy. We sat and talked through a NYC thunder storm&#8230;(Paul Waldman) Via Spalding Gray wiki On January 11, 2004, Gray was declared missing. The night before his disappearance, he had seen Tim &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/2014\/01\/10\/spalding-gray-swmming-in-melancholia\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Spalding Gray &#8211;  Swmming in Melancholia&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema","category-culture","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mutanteggplant.com\/vitro-nasu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}