John Cage was not only a major figure of the musical avant-garde but also an avid mycologist, collector and consumer of mushrooms. His knowledge of the fungal world was legendary. In 1959 he even won 5 million lire on an Italian TV quiz show with mushrooms as his specialty subject.

Indeterminacy was a lecture performance work in which Cage recited a series of one minute stories and anecdotes in no particular order. Many of these stories related to his love of mushrooms and his experiences of collecting and studying them.

There is an interesting online database version of Indeterminacy at
http://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/index.cgi by Eddie Kohler
Below, in no particular order, are links to some of Cage's mushroom related stories.

John Cage picking mushrooms 1967 photo by William Gedney >more photos

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