Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
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of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
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(00:30):
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keep following, we're going to continue to put out the content.
Now sit back and strap in, because on the line
with us today we have the impressive Julia Antoinette Rosenstein.
(00:54):
Now we're gonna be discussing Julia's incredible book Last Bohemian
in Times of Jonathan David Bachelor. It's Amazon, it's Barnes
and Noble, it's a lot of other places, man, but
most importantly, check out our personal website, and that's Julia
Rosenstein Author dot com. There gather more information on her
(01:17):
on this book. Hyperlink setup to take it to the
purchasing pages. Man, I'm telling you, you gotta head out
over there to gather everything that she has in store.
And that's Julia Rosenstein, author dot com once again, and listen,
it is an absolute pleasure to have Julia hair on
the line. People. In an age of side hustles and
(01:39):
optimized lifestyles, the story of Jonathan David Batchelor feels, Man,
it feels almost radical to a certain degree. Okay, he
was a man whose only currency was his philosophy, a
choice that led him from a government paycheck to a
(02:00):
government camp, not for what he did, but actually for
what he believed. Now, this is the story of the
last true Bohemian and why his kind of freedom might
just be extinct. And trust me when I tell you
this is so much larger than a biography. Now on
(02:21):
the surface level, that's what it is. What I promise,
when you read in between the lines, we're going to
be able to find some stark contrasts between his life,
the experiences that he had, and how today history might
just be repeating itself. And that's all I'm gonna say
at the moment. Sit back and get ready. Julia first
(02:45):
and foremost, welcome to the network and thank you for
being a guest.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
How are you today, Oh, I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Thank you absolutely, Billy.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's feeling really good. Thank you for the wonderful introduction.
That's very kind.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
It was my pleasure. And I'll just say, I'm following
the roadmap that you've already established. Okay, so you thanking me.
I'm gonna pass it right back to you because all
I did was follow your lead. What you've comprised here
is something that is going to be an education for
a lot of people, myself included. When the opportunity presented
(03:21):
itself to have you on our network, I'll be honest,
I had never heard of Jonathan. As my team and
I were researching in preparation for this interview, I quickly
became a very big fan. This man was incredible for
what he had done, the lifestyle that he had lived,
(03:41):
and I think that again, there is a lot of
wisdom to be gained. So we're looking forward to the discussion.
Let's start off right at the ground floor. Tell us
a little bit more about your book, Last Bohemian.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I lived with Jonathan Last Century for eighteen years. He
died in two thousand and three, and I just was
baffled because he's a wonderful artist. He's truly a major artist,
but nobody ever heard of him. And while he was alive,
I did try and take his painting to different galleries
in the San Francisco Bay area, and people looked at
(04:18):
his work and said, oh, that's old hat, it's already done.
That's true. He was an Impressionist style painter, and he
loved to paint people real lives and portraits. It was
considered passe and the vanguard had come through, which would
be modern art, and Jonathan never cared for modern art.
(04:39):
He dabbled in it very briefly. He didn't like it,
and he continued to paint in a very traditional manner.
And so he was somewhat ignored by a lot of people.
And while I lived at him, I kept thinking, why
isn't this man better known? Why do not people know
of him? I don't get it. So after he died,
(04:59):
I pulled together his archives and presented this book because
I wanted him to be out there in the world
and not wanted people to know of him. He was incredible.
He lived for philosophy, he lived for not for finances.
Finances were the last thing on his mind, but he
(05:20):
and he was very well educated, but he was entirely
self taught because when he was growing up college this
was not an option. And he was an incredible reader.
Oh my god. His book was full of hundreds and
thousands of books. Just every single room packed, jammed the
shelves and books everywhere. It was an amazing experience for
(05:42):
me because I am also quite a reader, so living
there was fun. I got to read and read. So
I wanted to bring Jonathan's face to the world. And
actually that's why the cover of the book has the
last spell portrait he ever painted. It's called portrait and
a brown hat and he's wearing that Greek fisherman's cap
(06:04):
that he always wore. And it's just I'm hoping that
for people who love art, we'll look at that cover
and they'll just be taken in by it, as many
people were all he was alive. Everybody loved that portrait.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Listen. I can see why, Juliet. It is something It
is captivating to see and listen. As an artist myself,
I believe that there's just a respect amongst it, even
though my background isn't in painting or just again, I'm
a filmmaker by trade, so it's a completely different medium.
Although there is a general respect amongst the artists and
(06:39):
I can look at it and even though it's not
something that I can do myself, there is an admiration
that I have and I know a lot of people
will as well. My follow up now that I want
to go into is I'm curious to know, Like I think,
when you spend so many years researching and being invested it,
(07:00):
and even in your case, it wasn't just about the research.
You actually knew the man, you lived with them. So
I'm curious to know from a writing perspective, upon conclusion
of all of this, how did you find the balance?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Like, where did you, as the author ultimately land on
the spectrum between admiration and critique? And I don't even know.
I don't know if there was any critique that you
have in the book. But talk to us a little
bit more about that about not being I guess not
having the love that you possessed for him is a parent.
(07:38):
But of course when you're writing the book, you can't
have it be all about the admiration. You do to
a certain degree, have to separate yourself. So I guess
talk to us a little bit more about finding that balance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
That's a very interesting question, and it's actually something I
have thought of on occasion. I want to briefly say
that I am on the autism spectrum, and when I
was a young woman, I was basically lost to the world,
and that's a good way to describe me, because I
was blind to people and I just couldn't navigate the world,
(08:11):
and it was very frustrating for me. And when I
looked at Donathan, I saw him making very similar mistakes,
only he was raised in an era when nobody ever
gave a thought of autism. So on the surface level,
he appeared to be very quirky, and he made the
many social full pauses I have too, and it was
(08:33):
easy for me to be critical. I never spoke to
him about it or said anything, but I have to
say that I think that because I have some of
the same features, that I was more understanding because on
a surface level, Donathan might have appeared to be very
boorish to some people, but I could also understand why
(08:56):
he was the way he was and why he did
the things that he did. And I suppose the worst
of the worst is that anybody who read about him
or reads about him wouldn't see him as a womanizer.
And the truth of the matter is that he was,
but he also was not because he was interested in
woman but he was not dishonest. He was upfront with
(09:21):
every woman he ever met, and he would He was
interested in every woman for her own persona, for her
own self, for what she could give to the world,
for her personality, and if a woman wanted nothing to
do with him, he was okay with that. He never pursued.
He was never a wolfish type of a man. He
always backed off and he listened. That was the main thing.
(09:44):
He listened, And he had quite a following a woman,
even while he was married. Woman followed him. So on
the surface level, I could see where someone to say, oh,
he's just a womanizer. But I'm saying, hey, wait a second,
we need to take these other things in the concier
because he wasn't intentionally trying to hurt any human being.
(10:06):
He was very soft inside that way. So when you
say criticism, that's what came to my mind. I didn't know.
I don't know if you meant criticizing his art, which
I don't feel like I'm a good enough artist to
do that.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
But no, Julia, you answered it perfectly, and it's really
more so of everything of him the individual, not so
much to the art. Thank you very much for that. People, Again,
remember it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble, it's Julia Rosenstein,
author dot com. Head on over there, purchase your copies
(10:40):
of Last Bohemian today. This is one you definitely want
to add to your shelf. Julia. Listen, as I mentioned
in my opening, and I want to go here again,
and first and foremost, I want to preface it by
saying to our listening audience, this is not Julia's perspective, Okay.
Now doesn't necessarily mean that she disagrees with this perspective,
(11:02):
but this is definitely something that I am imposing when
and I talked to her briefly about this on the
pre screen and call. When I look at this book
and I analyze Jonathan's life and people, trust me when
I tell you his artistry was magnificent. But this book
covers a lot. It is nuanced, and one aspect of
(11:24):
it that we haven't really touched up on yet is
how Jonathan given his opposing views of the government during
his time and of a particular war that was being conducted.
Jonathan was placed in a camp because his words were
deemed to be opposing and almost detrimental to a certain degree.
(11:46):
So I look at what happened to him, and then
I can't help but stop and analyze that there is
an eerie similarity to what is currently happening within our
world today and within this current administration. It is by
no means solely limited to this current administration, but it
(12:07):
is happening right now under this leadership. So let's call
a spade a spade. Listen, Jonathan's platform was the shipyard.
Right today, it's social media, it's television. It's a lot,
but the principle, however, again it feels similar. An individual
uses their available platform to spread views that challenge the
(12:31):
dominant narrative and face significant professional and even personal consequences. Again,
we know about what happened to Jonathan, we see countless
examples happening within today's society. The most recent one are
I guess the most notable one that has happened in
recent times was the slight cancelation of Jimmy Kimmel. There
(12:55):
was a huge outpouring of support. They ended up reinstating
his show. But we saw what happened where it was
a censorship to a certain degree. I think that there
is a surprising connection that can be established, Julia. I
pass it back to you your perspective on that. Is
there a correlation that you can see? And what is
(13:16):
the cost of freedom of speech?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well, yes, that's such an interesting question. Johnson did work
in the San Francisco Bay area shipyards during World War Two,
but he was also very outspoken and he was not
afraid to rant against war. He hated war. In fact,
he's hated war all of his life. Even when he
(13:39):
was a child. He made drawings of cartoonish figures of
what he depicted to be what war would look like,
which are big, hulking creatures. So he would he was
very vocal. He was he loved to talk, and he
would talk against war. So here they were building ships
for World War two, and here he was ranting against war.
(14:00):
And I think what happened is that some people may
have mistaken his rants as being against World War two.
But whateverever it was, somebody reported him to the federal government,
and the government wasn't sure what to do because they
knew he was harmless, he wasn't harming people, but they
also thought he might have been demoralizing the workforce. So
(14:23):
they decided to send him to a conscientious objector's camp
up on Oregon, which is a good thing and a
negative thing. He loved the beauty of Oregon, but also
he felt like he was in prison. Yeah, and he
had hearing problems, so he couldn't socialize with the camp
people very well. But yet, you're absolutely right, and the
(14:44):
connection with Jimmy Kimmel is just astounding. I hadn't even
I hadn't even made the connection. You're the one who
made it, and I'm sitting here and is blowing my mind.
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I mean, listen again, I as an artist myself, as
I told you, Julianna that I've told my listening audience
a number of times, as an artist myself, I tried
to look at every piece of art that I create
as Okay, is there a connection? Is there a through line?
Is this could this potentially be a mirror of sorts?
I guess I'm just always operating from that perspective anyway,
(15:17):
And it was just something that was so apparent to
me when we were doing research, and I thought it
was a very interesting note. And again I didn't want
to make the entire interview about it, because it's not right.
The interview is about this amazing gentleman, Jonathan David Bachelor,
the life that he sustained. And the constant reminder, at
least for me, is that, Listen, Jonathan's life was a
(15:41):
work of art in itself right, Like it wasn't just
the paintings that he established. The way this man lived
is something that seems so foreign to a lot of
us now in the current day and age that we
are in. But it reminds us to challenge that little
voice in all of us, right that wonder what would
happen if we prioritize passion over profit just a little
(16:06):
bit more? And I get it. The world that we
live in, Listen, people, you need money to survive. As
unfortunate as it is. You can't live without money, so
you do need to have it to a certain degree.
And I get that, But there are so many other
things that, in my opinion, matter so much more in
this book. As a constant reminder, I'm gonna say it
(16:26):
again it's Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Julia Rosenstein, author dot com.
Pick up copies of this magnificent book today and be
on the lookout man, because I hope that there are
a lot more on the horizon. But this, and I
didn't mention it before, but this is just part one.
There's also a part too as well. You're gonna want
to check them both out so you know where to go. Julia,
(16:49):
this has been an absolute honor. Thank you once again
for being a guest on People of Distinction.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Thank you, it has been an arm an you brought
all this one of the points from Dolt Press. Thank you,