SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E5
island getaway, his frequent af-
fairs, his numerous wives, his
many children, the attempted
suicides of several people
around him, the murder one son
committed or the suicide of his
daughter in Ta hiti. That’s all
grist for a bio, but it’s not the
main attraction.
A footnote: With the success
of “The Godfather,” that Bronx
Italian restaurant, Louie’s,
should’ve become a tourist desti-
nation, folks from all over flock-
ing to it. Alas, it closed before the
movie opened. Word on the
street was that the owner got in
over his head to a local loan
shark and fled town. To o bad.
The owner had a good thing and
didn’t know it.
[email protected]Michael F. Covino is the author of
three books including the novel “The
Negative.” He has worked as a film
critic for the East Bay Express and
served as its books editor as well.last half-hour. He’s barely visi-
ble. He’s shot in the dark, in
murky close-ups, in dim long
shots. He might as well have
been invisible.
From then on, his films were
mostly unremarkable. Brando
did get nominated for a notewor-
thy supporting role in the other-
wise u nnoteworthy “A D ry White
Season” ( 1989), and he made one
surprising comedy, “The Fresh-
man” ( 1990), in which he gently
parodied his own Don Vito role.
Mann writes: “Even in his least
successful roles, there is some-
thing. None of his performances
is a throwaway.” But many were.
In the prologue, Mann also
makes the questionable asser-
tion that “Brando’s acting, as
great and as important as it is, is
not the most interesting thing
about him.” But our interest in
him, our interest in Mann’s
book, springs from his best act-
ing — not from his admirable
political activism, his Ta hitianhappiest collaboration since Ka-
zan nearly 20 years earlier, and
the movie, released in 1972, reig-
nited his career and won him his
second Oscar. But after its suc-
cess and the succès de scandale
of “Last Ta ngo in Paris,” r eleased
in the United States the follow-
ing year, Brando went back to
doing movies for cash.
Hence it was even more dis-
heartening when Coppola and
Brando reunited seven years lat-
er for “Apocalypse Now” and
found themselves at odds. Bran-
do was so overweight that he
insisted that Coppola shoot
around the excess baggage, but
Coppola wanted to use Brando’s
body to show that his character,
the demented Colonel Kurtz,
was “a man eating all the time
and overindulging.” Brando pre-
vailed. “A pocalypse,” i n its origi-
nal release, ran 2^1 / 2 hours, and
Brando doesn’t appear until the
BRANDO FROM E4
Book World
BY PHILIP BOOTHW
e experience much of our
lives, at work and at play,
in a universe demarcated
by any variety of screens, often
communicating with one another
online rather than in the flesh
and ingesting information and
entertainment by way of bits and
bytes hurtling across the digital
universe and arriving courtesy of
ear pods and smartphones. Di-
rect downloads into our neural
synapses can’t be too far away,
right?
And yet our souls cry out for
the nourishment of analog en-
counters, particularly when it
comes to music and the arts.
We’re yearning for an organic
antidote to digital overkill, evi-
denced in part by the fact that
vinyl albums, independent book-
stores and even film cameras are
making comebacks.
That, at least, is how serial
entrepreneur, concert promoter
and music enthusiast Michael
Dorf, the mastermind behind the
Knitting Factory and City Winery
performance venues, puts it in
“Indulge Your Senses: Scaling In-
timacy in a Digital World.” Dorf’s
rather brief book, written with
Paul Keegan, is an occasionally
revealing account of his ups and
downs in what might be called
the music-industrial complex,
dating to his days managing, and
ultimately failing to launch, a
Midwestern band called Swamp
Thing.
Dorf, to put it in cynical terms,
has figured out how to monetize a
straightforward transaction be-
tween buyer and provider — the
consumption of live music.
In 1987, the Milwaukee native
and law school dropout
launched, with his friend Lou
Spitzer, the Knitting Factory in
downtown Manhattan, not far
from famed punk club CBGB. The
Knit, in a former heroin den on
the first floor of an unassuming,
unpretty four-story building on
East Houston Street, quickly be-
came a mecca for fans of chal-
lenging new music, including
shows I witnessed by drummer
Bobby Previte’s adventurous
avant-jazz group and guitar
shredder Vernon Reid, of Living
Colour fame. The venue was also
the scene of celebrated perform-
ances by the likes of pianist Cecil
Ta ylor, Sonic Youth, saxophonist-composer John Zorn and They
Might Be Giants. Fun fact: Dorf
turned down Phish and Harry
Connick Jr. before they became
major national artists.
The club’s vision was embod-
ied by its name, a mix of the
handmade and the manufac-
tured. Like the Village Vanguard
and other revered New York jazz
clubs, the place was all about the
immediacy of aural experience. A
listener could, at close range,
soak up sublime sounds, made by
acclaimed young and veteran
players, and commune with like-
minded musical connoisseurs.
“The magic inside the walls of the
Knitting Factory was happening
because of the community we
were creating,” Dorf writes. “Peo-
ple came for the artistic, adven-
turous scene, a place where they
could enjoy the warm vibe and
connect with other lovers of mu-
sic and art. It was a place where
musicians felt welcome, where
their fans enjoyed hanging out.”
Dorf, nothing if not ambitious,
capitalized on the Knit’s regional
success as a must-experience for
serious music fans by sending
live sets to college radio stations
and releasing four live albumswith A&M Records. Then came a
10-record deal with a Japanese
label, a concert tour by Knit
artists, a magazine, a book, relo-
cation to Tribeca and a 350-band,
multi-location festival that made
history as the first to be streamed
online. Not to mention a second
club in Los Angeles and the
formation of Knit Media — a
conglomeration of Web develop-
ers, websites with video, a BET
cable TV show, a record label and
other ventures — which was col-
lectively valued at $20 million in
the late 1990s.
In 2003, Dorf exited the com-
pany (which continues to operate
as Knitting Factory Entertain-
ment). Ever restless, he began
producing a series of high-profile
tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall
and discovered a passion for wine
and winemaking. That e ventually
led to his development of a con-
cept tailor-made for baby boom-
ers — a combo music venue,
winery and restaurant. City Win-
ery, which opened Dec. 31, 2008,
in New York with a Joan Osborne
concert, has become Dorf’s most
successful venture, with six addi-
tional U.S. locations, 1,400 em-
ployees and revenue of nearly$100 million.
His takeaway, as he explains it:
Successful arts and entertain-
ment ventures hinge entirely on
creating self-contained experi-
ences, whether found at places
like To pgolf amusement centers
or horror-themed escape rooms.
It’s all about figuring out how to
create “a sense of intimacy that
makes you feel cared for, valued,
and respected.”
For City Winery, that means a
California/Italy vibe, a 300-per-
son capacity, buildings marked by
brick, exposed beams and wood
floors, a candlelight effect via
hanging paper lamps, artists who
know how to bond with audiences
and a motivational employee cul-
ture.
“Creating a deep connection to
all your customers as a company
grows may not be easy, but it’s
hardly impossible,” he writes.
Dorf’s been there, done that.
What’s next?
[email protected]Philip Booth contributes to Relix,
JazzTimes and Jazziz, blogs at
Jazzlands.com, and plays bass with
Acme Jazz Garage. He was the pop
music critic for the Tampa Tr ibune.Insights from the pop impresario behind the Knitting Fa ctory and City Winery
INDULGE YOUR
SENSES
Scaling
Intimacy in a
Digital World
By Michael Dorf
with Paul
Keegan
Post Hill. 224
pages. $27REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF BRANDO ENTERPRISES LP
In “The Contender,” William J. Mann writes: “Marlon's earliest memories were halcyon:
sunshine and happiness at his grandmother’s home in Omaha. After that, things darkened.”8th and F Streets NW | Washington, DC | AmericanArt.si.edu/CSDLSCHOLARNaomi BeckwithLooking Back to Look ForwardWednesday | October 23 | 6:30 p.m.FREE. This annual series is made possible by the generosity of Clarice Smith.CRITICMary Louise SchumacherOut of the PictureWednesday | November 6 | 6:30 p.m.Naomi Beckwith, senior curator at the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago,
looks at the interplay between classroom
learning and life experience that shapes
her curatorial approach.Former art critic for the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, Mary Louise Schumacher guides
us through the changing landscape of art
criticism and how technology can impact
our relationship with art.THURSDAY OCT 24, 7PM
Barn Night | “Halloween on Horseback”FRIDAY OCT 25, 7PM
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