"An artist must regulate his life..."

You thought I had food issues? Woof, check this out:

"My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coco-nuts, chicken cooked in white water, mouldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without their skin). I boil my wine and drink it cold mixed with the juice of the Fuschia. I have a good appetite but never talk when eating for fear of strangling myself."

This is taken straight from Erik Satie's "A Day in the Life of a Musician," and it's not even the weirdest thing about him. In his apartment, he kept stacked pianos -- apparently, the top piano held his correspondence; he kept open umbrellas; and my personal favorite, he kept jars of his own urine.* In case you can't place the name, Satie was a French composer and compatriot to Les Six -- you know, Poulenc, Honegger, Milhaud (my favorite), et al. -- around the turn of the century. He's most famous for his Three Gymnopedies; check them out, they're great.

While I'm recommending things, once you visit the link above stay there and check out the website Ubu.com. It's a real time suck and a repository of material...enjoy!


* I got this straight from my old Music History professor, Joel Sheveloff. I've done a cursory internet search and found no mention of the urine jars, which makes one ask, "How crazy does a story have to be to not show up anywhere online?"