4pQonT

98 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
For a short time, Blast was the talk of London. Copies were
sold briskly at the Rebel Art Centre, 38 Great Ormond Street,
which was the Vorticist headquarters. Another favorite meetingplace
was one of London's first night clubs, the Cave of the Golden
Calf. The habitués of these establishments having been decimated
by the years, and having left few records of their escapades, I
wrote to Ezra and inquired whether the Rebel Art Centre and the
Cave might not be the same establishment. He was not slow to
correct me on this point, replying, on April 6, 1959,
"NO, HELL NO! ! ! Rebel Art Centre, was serious VORT
centre, supported by the pure in heart.
There the emissaries of Moscow came to gaze,
and having listened to Ez-vort
said sadly:
BUTTT ! ! you are
in - di-VID-ualists ! ! !
Whereto, I ever imprudent, replied: Yes,
what the hell do you expect?
AND they departed sadly. And there was one
notice in hroosian, conserved somewhere.
Whereas the Cave of the calf was started by Frieda.
'And are you any connection of THE Strindberg' ?
responsus :
Yesss, I ahm vun of his Wives.
and to me: 'I needt money. I haff therefore dagen upp
brosstiDushun , in tdiss bardicular form.'
I , then in the heights of Whistler and the refinements of
Debussy, was unable to appreciate Frieda.
/also missed Arnold Bennett , in a totally different dimension,
which WAS a serious loss.
but refinements, and aestheticism
in callow years , can but be cause of repining in later maturity,
or approx. IN fact, no two places cd/ have been MORE different,
than 38 Ormond St, in high candour, vs /Roger Fry 'pinching the
baby' and etc.
his organism resisting Sophie Suzzann's effort to give Gaudier
marble to the S.Kensington