8.18.06: Volare, Klein, Puppets

A story from Thomas Wordehoff, one of the coordinators of this festival:

“Volare”, that song some of us remember as a kitsch lounge standard, and others from a TV commercial advertising a car of the same name, was about…Yves Klein, the painter! The chorus of the song goes “volare”, but the original title is “Nel blu dipinto di blu”, a reference to the famous Klein blue that the painter made his signature.

I wonder if volare, meaning “to fly”, is a reference to the famous photo of Klein caught in mid air, seeming to be doing a swan dive out of a Parisian window?

Drummer Kenny Wollesen revealed this morning at breakfast that the “arc de triomphe” at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn is hollow, and it houses the New York puppet lending library! The arch is filled with puppets! In fact, a spiral staircase winds up and the walls are filled with them, many life-sized, categorized by type, one of which is insects. (Verification)