Music | dual personalities

April 2, 2019

“You’re a very fine swan indeed! “*

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 1.56.49 PM.png

“To be born in a duck’s nest in a farmyard is of no consequence to a bird if it is hatched from a swan’s egg. He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the newcomer and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.”

–Hans Christian Andersen, “The Ugly Duckling” (1843)

Some say that Andersen considered this story to be autobiographical. As a child, he was mocked for his big nose and large feet, as well as for his beautiful singing voice and love of theater. There were also rumors that Hans Christian Andersen was the illegitimate son of King Christian VIII of Denmark! It is a story that many children can relate to on some level–at least those who feel excluded in some way from their peers.

Anyway, today is the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875), the great Danish writer, who is the author of many personal favorites. Our mother could not read through “The Little Match Girl” without weeping, which was quite disconcerting to me as a small child.

Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 2.24.03 PM.png

I will toast him tonight and perhaps listen to Danny Kaye singing about the Ugly Duckling…

Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 2.31.06 PM.png

Man oh man, the things people put on YouTube!

*Frank Loesser, “The Ugly Duckling”

2 Comments

March 19, 2019

Just as I am

by chuckofish

Yesterday was the birthday of Charlotte Elliott (March 18, 1789 – September 22, 1871) who was an English poet, hymn writer, and editor. She is best known for the hymn “Just as I am”. I bet you didn’t know that it was an English hymn, written by an Anglican.

I certainly did not. Indeed, this song is well known as an altar call song used in the Billy Graham crusades for 50 years in the twentieth century.

Just as I am – without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – though toss’d about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Screen Shot 2019-03-18 at 8.43.19 PM.png

Let’s just take a moment.

4 Comments

March 13, 2019

This is the day

by chuckofish

Good morning! There’s nothing like some Mandisa to start your day off right! And it is important to start your day off right.

This is the day which the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

(Psalm 118:24)

My mother, who was not one to scold or correct, did tell me once, when I was grousing about something as an adolescent, that this is the day which the Lord has made, and you ought not to complain about it, but, indeed, rejoice about it. And for Pete’s sake, don’t waste it! That advice struck a cord in me and I never forgot it.

IT IS A MOMENT of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all.

“This is the day which the Lord has made,” says the 118th Psalm. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that you’re missing.

All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from them. Today is the only day there is.

– Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Collected Poems and Translations

I may have said all this before, but it bears repeating. Write it on your heart.

And here’s a little Stephen Stills on the subject:

Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice…

6 Comments

February 11, 2019

“Lookin’ out my back door”*

by chuckofish

Doo doo doo…How was your weekend? Mine was quite pleasant, despite some bad weather. Sometimes bad weather causes us to slow down and settle in at home for some quiet time, and that is not a bad thing.

I took daughter #1 to the airport early on Saturday morning and she headed off to the east coast.

She and daughter #2 and DN had so much fun, but I wasn’t jealous or anything.

Screen Shot 2019-02-10 at 12.16.50 PM.png

Indeed, the OM and I had our own good time at the Elegant Italian Dinner–so good, in fact, that we all forgot to take any pictures. Just one:

The wee babes, despite being tired and a bit cranky when they arrived, took right to the nursery and had a fine time playing and eating pizza with the other kids.

I read a lot of A Light in August by William Faulkner. Besides learning some new words (morganatic: “relating to or denoting a marriage in which neither the spouse of lower rank, nor any children, have any claim to the possessions or title of the spouse of higher rank”), I can see how this book published in 1932, added several stereotypes to our culture, evidenced profusely in other people’s books and movies ever after.

I worked on organizing our CDs and DVDs. I hemmed some pants.

I cleaned and puttered and tidied.

All in all, not an unproductive weekend.

I must also add my high fives for our she-ro Dolly Parton, who was honored as 2019 MusiCares Person Of The Year. The eight-time Grammy winner is the first artist from “the Nashville music community” (please) to be honored at the annual Grammy Week gala benefiting music people in need. Well, it’s about time those snobs did so, I’d say.

Have a great week!

*John Fogerty

4 Comments

January 24, 2019

Guiding light

by chuckofish

How about a little Mumford & Sons to get you started this morning?

I meant to mention earlier that Mary Oliver, the poet, died last week. Known for her “secular psalms,” she has been dubbed by some “the unofficial poet laureate” of the Unitarian Universalist denomination. Well, then. I liked her anyway.

Song of the Builders

On a summer morning

I sat down

on a hillside

to think about God –

a worthy pastime.

Near me, I saw

a single cricket;

it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.

How great was its energy,

how humble its effort.

Let us hope

it will always be like this,

each of us going on

in our inexplicable ways

building the universe.

You can read about her here and here.

I will also note that on this day in 1848 James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento. Our great-great-great grandfather, Silas Hough, went west the following year to seek his fortune, but died of cholera just east of the Rocky Mountains.

Screen Shot 2019-01-23 at 12.27.49 PM.png His 16-year old son, our great-great grandfather John Simpson Hough who had accompanied him, went home to Philadelphia. He didn’t stay long though. He had seen the Rocky Mountains and there was no holding him back.

And, hey, this was an interesting interview. (I had never heard of this book. I may have to read it.)

When people talk about poverty, there are different kinds. There is a poverty of status in our country where you have all the food and water you need but you think other people are doing better all around you. You can also have a poverty of control. You feel you can’t choose how you spend your day, when to get up. We don’t talk about those kinds of poverty a lot.

Food for thought.

(The painting is Sunrise on the Mountains at the Head of Moraine Park, Near Estes Park, about 1920, by Charles Partridge Adams, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder

4 Comments

November 1, 2018

“Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word”*

by chuckofish

Happy birthday, Lyle Lovett!

Screen Shot 2018-10-31 at 11.28.58 AM

Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is a Grammy-winning country singer/songwriter and actor. I have seen him in concert at least three times.Lovett still resides in North Harris County, Texas in the farming community of Klein, named after his great-great-grandfather and where he was raised. He hails from a long line of Texas Lutherans–there are several German enclaves in the state. As such, he always ends his albums with a hymn, a country tradition, and his way of a tithe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8ZsskiAcFw&feature=player_embedded

This was interesting.

Today is also All Saints’ Day. It’s a good day to remember all the saints in your life, past and present.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (BCP)

*Lyle Pearce Lovett

3 Comments

August 14, 2018

A few more postcards

by chuckofish

I really do love Colorado. A lot of our family history is tied up in the state and quite a few ancestors were buried there in the 19th century. I didn’t get a chance to do any genealogical work while I was out there last week, but being there did whet my appetite.

However, I was able to get out into the fresh air and “smell the pine in my nostrils”–literally.

One morning I ventured to Seven Falls which is located less than one mile from The Broadmoor and is “one of Colorado’s most captivating natural wonders.” This magnificent series of waterfalls is situated in a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon between the towering Pillars of Hercules. I walked up the trail to the base of the falls…

…but I admit I did not climb the “challenging” 224 steps to the hiking trails. Since I had knee surgery ten years ago, no way, and I am not ashamed to say I know my limits.

I rode the elevator up to the observation deck.

It was challenging enough, thank you.

I mentioned yesterday that we went to the art museum at Colorado College.

It had a nice collection of American Art and I enjoyed it and, as you know, I am always ready to visit a college campus. But I have to say, the collection of Western Art at the Broadmoor was every bit as impressive.

Maxfield Parrish’s own rendition of Seven Falls–he climbed higher than I did!

This is just a sample of the wonderful art on view at the hotel. C’est magnifique, n’est-ce pas?

And what about this from the Small World Department? The Mighty Pines band, who played at one of the evening events we went to at the OM’s conference…

…are from STL! We thought they were great, and when we went up to tell them so during one of the breaks, we found out that they know our good friend Gary and that they consider him a “mentor” and good friend. In fact the lead singer is a cousin of a girl with whom daughter #1 went to school. What d’you know, right? We are cooler than we thought.

Screen Shot 2018-08-14 at 12.34.27 PM.png

5 Comments

July 24, 2018

A wretch like me

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of the great John Newton (1725–1807), the English Anglican clergyman who once served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and later as the captain of slave ships.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.05.40 AM.png

Eventually he was “saved” and he became ordained as an evangelical Anglican cleric, serving Olney, Buckinghamshire for two decades. He opposed the slave trade, allying with William Wilberforce, leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish it. He lived to see the British passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.43.37 AM.png

He is perhaps most famous for writing hymns, including the ever-popular Amazing Grace and Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. Let’s all take a moment.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.02.55 AM.png

I must note that Newton is not honored with a feast or fast on the Episcopal Church calendar. All I can say is, quelle typical.

3 Comments

July 19, 2018

The beacons are lit!

by chuckofish

In honor of today being the 430th anniversary of the “invincible” Spanish Armada being sighted in England on July 19, 1588, when it appeared off The Lizard in Cornwall,

2880px-C.C._van_Wieringen_The_Spanish_Armada_off_the_English_coast (1) 2.jpg

here is the famous lighting of the beacons scene in The Return of the King (2005).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIhnYFRu4ao

The news of the Armada was likewise conveyed to London by a system of beacons that had been constructed all the way along the south coast. Do you think this is where Tolkien got his idea?

A stone building, a signal station, at Culmstock Beacon in Devon, UK, built in 1588 to enclose a wooden pole, which protruded through the roof to support one or more fire baskets. This is one of a chain of signal stations along England’s southern counties – but the only remaining stone building – the purpose of which was to warn of the Spanish Armada being sighted.

On the evening of July 19, the English fleet was trapped in Plymouth Harbour by the incoming tide. The Spanish convened a council of war, where it was proposed to ride into the harbor on the tide and incapacitate the defending ships at anchor and from there to attack England; but Medina Sidonia declined to act and decided to sail on to the east and towards the Isle of Wight. As the tide turned, 55 English ships set out to confront them from Plymouth under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham, with Sir Francis Drake as Vice Admiral. Howard ceded some control to Drake, given his experience in battle. The rear admiral was Sir John Hawkins.

Sir Francis Drake playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe is informed of the approach of the Spanish Armada.

This brief look into an exciting piece of history makes me want to go back and re-read Garrett Mattingly’s The Armada, first published in 1959. I know I have a copy…if I can just find it!

In May fifteen hundred and eighty-eight,
Cries Philip, “The English I’ll humble;
For I have taken it into my Majesty’s pate,
And their lion, oh! down he shall tumble.
They lords of the sea!”—then his sceptre he shook,—
“I’ll prove it an arrant bravado.
By Neptune! I’ll knock ’em all into a nook,
With the invincible Spanish Armada!”

This fleet then sailed forth, and the winds they did blow,
Their guns made a terrible clatter;
Our noble Queen Bess, ’cause she wanted to know,
Quill’d her ruff and cried, “Pray, what’s the matter?”
“They say, my good Queen,” replied Howard so stout,
“The Spaniard has drawn his toledo,
He’s cock sure that he’ll thump us, and kick us about,
With the invincible Spanish Armada.”

The Lord Mayor of London, a very wise man,
What to do in this case vastly wondered;
Says the Queen, “Send in fifty good ships, if you can.”
Says my Lord, “Ma’am, I’ll send in a hundred.”
Our fire-ships they soon struck their cannons all dumb,
And the Dons run to Ave and Credo.
Great Medina roars out, “Sure the devil is come,
For the invincible Spanish Armada.”

On Effingham’s squadron, though all in a breast
Like open-mouth curs they came bowling;
But our sugar-plums finding they could not digest,
Away home they ran yelping and howling.
When e’er Britain’s foes shall, with envy agog,
In our Channel make such a bravado—
Well, huzza, my brave boys! we’re still able to flog
An invincible Spanish Armada!

—The Spanish Armada by Irish actor and dramatist John O’Keefe (1747-1833)

Happy Thursday!

2 Comments

July 12, 2018

Brown paper packages tied up with string

by chuckofish

Today we toast Oscar Hammerstein II (July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) who was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.

Screen Shot 2018-07-12 at 6.40.43 AM.png

And he was an Episcopalian.

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II co-wrote 850 songs. You know most of them: Ol’ Man River, Make Believe, Indian Love Call, People Will Say We’re in Love, Some Enchanted Evening, If I Loved You, The Last Time I Saw Paris, It Might as Well Be Spring, Getting to Know You, Shall We Dance, Climb Ev’ry Mountain… the list literally goes on and on. And everybody knows them and sings them…even Bob Dylan.

The final song Hammerstein wrote was “Edelweiss,” which was added near the end of the second act of The Sound of Music during rehearsal. As a child, it was one of my favorites. My friend Nancy and I would sing it during recess at school while swinging or walking around the playground. In fifth grade I and three (or four?) other girls tried out for the talent show at school singing “Edelweiss” in harmony, but we didn’t make it in. Hard to believe. I’m sure we were great.

Sidebar: speaking of music, I did hear good news: Gregory Alan Isakov has a new album releasing in October.

Screen Shot 2018-07-11 at 8.39.29 AM.png

So make a note.

Anyway, back to Oscar Hammerstein. He died in 1960 shortly after the opening of The Sound of Music on Broadway. His ashes were buried in Hartsdale, New York. A memorial plaque was unveiled at Southwark Cathedral in England, on May 24, 1961–a nice thing for an Episcopalian.

Screen Shot 2018-07-11 at 2.38.59 PM.png

So a toast to the great Oscar Hammerstein II! It might be time to dust off The King and I (1956). My DP reminded me that yesterday was the birthday of the great Yul Brynner.

Screen Shot 2018-07-12 at 6.37.09 AM.png