musical mushrooms

in oct. of 1965, vogue magazine ran an article on john cage called "a second fame: good food". it's a short article by ninette lyon about cage preparing her a lunch of gathered mushrooms, watercress, etc. and a lot of cage quotes about food and eating. here's one of cage's recipes (or perhaps it's a score for the performance of a salad making)...i don't think these were ever published beyond the article...

mushroom salad dressing:
juice of one lime or half lemon
2 tablespoons of mushroom "dogsup"
black pepper freshly ground
kosher salt
a pinch of cayenne
3/4 cup of heavy cream
this is served with a salad of peppergrass, watercress, chopped horseradish, leaves, catbrier, and bittercress.

photographer bruce davidson was sent out to cage's house in stony brook ny to take the photos during the lunch and gathering. a few years ago i found this proofsheet along with a larger one (which won't fit on my scanner), both dated august 1965, with davidson's stamp on the back. clearly from the same photo shoot as the article. i'm assuming the image from the arcticle was the one cut away with bits of red grease pencil in the upper left. i doubt these others have been seen since, so make yourself a salad and enjoy the views...

if you don't know who cage is or want to explore more, i'd suggest NOT surfing the web, but reading his first book of texts called "silence", his own words tend to be a lot more inspiring than history and others' perception of him.