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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 12 November 2019
Something old, something new for Michael Stipe

By DAVID BAUDER requisite outtakes that illus-
NEW YORK (AP) — After Mi- trate how the songs took
chael Stipe opens a gate to shape in the studio. Stipe
the abandoned Manhat- recognizes that fans like
tan storefront that serves as hearing the progression,
his studio, you find a man but he finds it excruciating.
easily traversing his past, He listened to the outtakes
present and future creative once.
lives. "To pull the curtain back
He's promoting a 25th an- that far is a bit humiliating,
niversary package of the frankly," he said. "I want
R.E.M. album "Monster" people to think of me as
while excited by the re- this perfect genius who
sponse to the first solo mu- emerged completely into
sic he's released since the the world. Of course, that's
band's 2011 retirement. Sur- not the case."
rounding him are examples Stipe exhibits a vulnerabil-
of the photography and vi- ity, a sensitive side that he
sual art that has occupied takes pride in. In R.E.M.'s
much of his time since then. early years, he'd often sing
He made the single, "Your from the shadows, his back
Capricious Soul," avail- to the audience. His shy-
able first on his website last ness never left, but he de-
month with proceeds going veloped into a confident
to the environmental group rock frontman.
Extinction Rebellion. He He came out as gay at the
held it back from stream- This Oct. 28, 2019 photo shows former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe posing for a portrait in New York time of the album's release,
ing services for a month, a his first solo song since that band retired in 2011. feeling some pressure be-
quiet protest against mo- Associated Press cause rumors spread that
nopolistic behavior, but it's he was HIV-positive when
there now. Stipe said he expects more R.E.M. was at the height Dolls, as well as contempo- the band didn't tour for two
The song's throbbing elec- new music soon. He has no of its popularity. After two raries like "Achtung Baby"- albums and he didn't give
tronic pulse and percussion record company, so he's relatively quiet and com- era U2. The signature track interviews for a lengthy pe-
mark a clean musical break free to release it whenever mercial records, "Out of was "What's the Frequency, riod.
from the guitar-based rock and however he wants. Time" and "Automatic for Kenneth," its title inspired by "I was never closeted," he
of R.E.M. "It sounds great," said Rita the People," R.E.M. wanted an odd phrase someone said. "That's the thing that's
Stipe would generally write Houston, program director to crank the volume with once shouted at newsman beautiful about it and I'm
lyrics to R.E.M. songs with at WFUV-FM in New York. "It songs that would contrast Dan Rather. so proud of. You can never
music composed by band- sounds fantastic to hear Mi- on a concert stage to hits "I can't believe looking find a single picture of me
mates Peter Buck, Mike Mills chael's voice on the radio like "Man on the Moon." back ... that we had the pretending to have a girl-
and, until he left the band in this new incarnation. The They were touring for the audacity and the courage friend or being somebody
in 1997, Bill Berry. With "Your song sounds nothing like an first time in five years, with to jump off a cliff together, that I'm not. I was never
Capricious Soul," it was all R.E.M. song, but it sounds millions of new fans. not literally but figuratively, that guy. Any longstand-
on him. completely like Michael On "Monster," they em- to create something sound- ing R.E.M. fan who had not
"It's terrifying," he said. Stipe. It's very 2019." braced glam rock, influ- ing so different from the re- figured out I was queer be-
"That's why I'm doing it." Now 59, Stipe easily rewinds enced by forebears like cords before," he said. fore that point wasn't look-
Pleased by the reaction, the clock to 1994 when T. Rex and the New York The new "Monster" has the ing very hard."q

Painting stolen by Nazis recovered from New York museum

Associated Press lanthropist Rudolf Mosse museum 50 miles (80 kilo-
CANAJOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) first acquired the painting meters) northwest of Alba-
— A painting seized by the from the Great Berlin Art ny that bears his name.
Nazis from a Jewish family in Exhibition in 1900. The Nazi Suzan D. Friedlander, the
1933 has been recovered government seized control museum's executive direc-
from a museum in upstate of the family's art collection tor and chief curator, said
New York by the FBI. after Mosse's family mem- in an emailed statement
The work, "Winter" by Amer- bers fled Germany in 1933. that the museum "was of
ican artist Gari Melchers, The Nazis had persecuted course very upset to learn
was part of the collection the family because they the history of the painting's
at the Arkell Museum in were Jewish and because seizure from the Mosse fam-
Canajoharie until Sept. 10, of their affiliations with Ber- ily by the Nazis in 1933." The
according to federal court liner Tageblatt, a newspa- museum waived all rights
documents. per critical of the party, This undated image taken from evidence filed in a forfeiture to the painting, which is
case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New
The recovery is part of an according to court docu- York, is of the painting often entitled "Winter," by the artist Gari also known as "Skaters" or
international effort to find ments. Melchers. "Snow."
artwork that was stolen af- Bartlett Arkell, the first Associated Press The painting will remain at
ter the Nazis' ascension to president of the Beech- the FBI's Albany office until
power. Nut Packing Company, a New York City gallery in lection and it later became it is reunited with the Mosse
German publisher and phi- brought the painting from 1934 for his personal col- part of the collection at the family.q