David Hajdu

[Dave Monroe]

Written in history: Pop culture past revolutionized by
magazine professor
By: Alex Shebar
Issue date: 11/1/05 Section: Pulp

It's 2001, and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis is playing
in a club in Greenwich Village. He comes to the end of
his fourth song when a cell phone's electronic
preprogrammed tune blares out from the audience,
ruining the blissful moment of musical elegance that
has settled in the crowd. Marsalis pauses only for a
second, not allowing the listeners to fully come to
their senses, when he plays, note for note, the same
cell phone melody. He then proceeds to repeat the tune
again and again, alternating it slightly each time
until the song becomes its own entity; not quite the
original and not quite something new. Marsalis finally
finishes his improvisation. The audience's ovation is
overwhelming.

This is just one of the untold, but beautiful moments
in pop-culture history that David Hajdu loves to
inform the world about.

The Syracuse University magazine professor has a long
and celebrated career in writing. As well as being a
teacher, he is music editor for The New Republic and
former general editor of Entertainment Weekly. Hajdu
is also a constant contributor to half a dozen
magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York
Times Magazine and Vanity Fair and has published
articles in magazines such as Rolling Stone and
Playboy.
 
[...]

Due to his methodical drive for information, Hajdu is
actually one of the only people to interview reclusive
writer Thomas Pynchon in the last 50 years. Pynchon, a
man who loves his privacy so much that he makes J.D.
Salinger look like Madonna, according to Elie, was a
good friend of Richard Fariña. Hajdu was so insistent
about getting an interview for his work that Pynchon
finally gave in and agreed.

[...]

http://www.dailyorange.com/


		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.
http://farechase.yahoo.com