In today’s mail, the new biography of John Cage, by our emeritus colleague Kenneth Silverman. Very eager to dig into this life of one of NYC’s great cultural figures, and a presiding spirit over the downtown scene for half a century and more. Is anyone but Duchamp more important to avant-garde art in the last century?

Alex Ross’s review essay here. [New Yorker subscription required for full text.]

And though we’ve posted it before, we’ll always take an excuse to return to this clip:

And one of my favorite clips of the older Cage, talking about silence and the sounds of Sixth Avenue:

Previously.