Gregory Alan Isakov | dual personalities

April 11, 2018

“Time is so strange and life is twice as strange.”*

by chuckofish

This past weekend I read Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Written in 1957, the novel takes place in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based on Bradbury’s childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The main character of the story is Douglas Spaulding, a 12-year-old boy loosely patterned after Bradbury. I found it diverting and worth reading.

Of course, it sparked my curiosity about Waukegan. Waukegan is kind of a depressing place these days, but back in the days when Bradbury was a boy, it was quite idyllic–at least in his memory.

I found this blogpost from 2011 about Waukegan which has a current photo of Ray Bradbury Park and the “ravine” which figures prominently in the book. I had a hard time visualizing it, so this helped me a lot!

(It is amazing what you can find on the internet when you take the time to look!)

One of Bradbury’s themes is the necessity for keeping track of things, of noticing things and another is the relentless passing of time.

“It won’t work,’ Mr. Bentley continued, sipping his tea. ‘No matter how hard you try to be what you once were, you can only be what you are here and now. Time hypnotizes. When you’re nine, you think you’ve always been nine years old and will always be. When you’re thirty, it seems you’ve always been balanced there on that bright rim of middle life. And then when you turn seventy, you are always and forever seventy. You’re in the present, you’re trapped in a young now or an old now, but there is no other now to be seen.”

He writes about what happiness is and what it means to be alive. All good things to contemplate. Clearly he was still contemplating them a few weeks before he died, when this was published in The New Yorker.

It all reminded me of this song by Gregory Alan Isakov

What are you reading?

*Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

3 Comments

October 21, 2015

What it is

by chuckofish

“When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. he sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lampost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: “it is so beautiful I must show you how it looks.” And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it.

When I read this letter of Van Gogh’s it comforted me very much and seemed to throw a clear light on the whole road of Art. Before, I thought that to produce a work of painting or literature, you scowled and thought long and ponderously and weighed everything solemnly and learned everything that all artists had ever done aforetime, and what their influences and schools were, and you were extremely careful about “design” and “balance” and getting “interesting planes” into your painting, and avoided, with the most astringent severity, showing the faintest “a” tendency, and were strictly modern. And so on and so on.

But the moment I read Van Gogh’s letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it.

And Van Gogh’s little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care. ”

―Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

It has been awhile since I shared Brenda Ueland with you. I think she is so great. I agree that Art is about Love and sharing what you love with others.

On another subject, but related–I drove a Subaru for years. It was totally against stereotype, but I loved that car . So I thought it was pretty great when the Subaru people worked “Love” into this ad campaign.

Now they are even using a Gregory Alan Isakov song in an ad:

I hardly watch any television these days with commercials, but I saw this and was pleased. There are still some smart people out there working for the Man.

February 25, 2014

We could open up this suitcase full of sparks

by chuckofish

I used to be “with it”. But they changed what “it” was. Now what I’m with isn’t “it” and what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me.”

–Grampa Simpson, From “Homerpalooza” (Season 7, Episode 24)

Sadly, I can relate to Grampa Simpson. Can you? I guess this is an inevitable part of aging. Not that I was ever too “with it” to begin with…but a lot of modern pop culture seems “weird and scary” to me. Hello, Kim Kardashian. And The Batchelor. I don’t get that either.

However, as readers of this blog know, I have a soft spot in my heart for Eminem. I try to keep an open mind. Occasionally I even go to a concert.

Such was the case last Sunday night when I ventured downtown to the Sheldon Concert Hall to see Josh Ritter.

Mostly I bought the tickets to see his opening act Gregory Alan Isakov. My Old Man bailed on me at the last minute (he had a headache) and so the boy stepped up and went with me. He was a good concert date.

It was a sold out concert. Unfortunately, a lot of the audience arrived during Gregory Alan Isakov’s performance which was annoying. And rude. And the poor guy’s band was not with him. They had to leave in Chicago, he explained, and so he was on his own for the rest of the tour. It had been “super fun and scary” since then.

I kind of love him for saying “super fun”.

Gregory epitomizes the introverted artist who must perform. And to stand up there without his band–zut alors! But I thought he was wonderful, performing his set of seven songs from numerous albums with humor and spirit.

Before his last song, he said, “I’ll leave you with a sad one, because that’s how I roll.”

Is he my kind of guy or what!

On the flip side was Josh Ritter who bounded onto the stage full of self-confidence and raring to go.

He put on quite a show, which I enjoyed very much. His fans, who filled the theater, were enthusiastic. Two middle-aged women to our left were down-right embarrassing–swaying and giggling like teenagers. (They also made several trips to the bar, which probably explains a lot of their behavior.) Please shoot me if I ever behave like this.

We opted to leave before the encores in order to avoid the parking lot mayhem and because it was a school night after all. But I was glad I had nudged myself out of my routine.

(My thanks to the boy who took these photos on his iPhone.)

7 Comments

January 16, 2014

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” *

by chuckofish

A lot of people in my family are extremely musical. I am not one of them. Oh, I sang in the choir at school and I still like to belt out a hymn at church. But that’s about it.

But I know what I like and I listen a lot.

As you know, I occasionally even go to a concert. In fact, in February I have tickets to see Josh Ritter and Gregory Alan Isakov at the Sheldon here in my flyover town. I am pretty darn excited. Daughter #2 gave me a Josh Ritter CD last year and two more (!) just arrived in the mail–oh boy!

Gregory Alan Isakov is only the opening act, but I am mostly excited to see him. I have blogged about him several times, so you know how I feel.

I have also been listening to Love Has Come For You, Steve Martin’s new CD with Edie Brickell, which daughter #2 gave me for Christmas. I really like it. It is obvious that after all these years and plenty of fame and honors galore, all Steve really wants to do is play the banjo.

And since her birthday is coming up, I thought it was only appropriate to load some Dolly in my car CD player. She is still the best.

Also I have been listening to my young friend Andrew Hunt and his band Johnny Appleseed:

Wake up, Nashville!

What have you been listening to?

*Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize With the Hammer

5 Comments

September 7, 2013

All my heroes stand up straight*

by chuckofish

I had a good day yesterday. I stayed home to work, which means that I got plenty of other things done, but very little work. For example, I went to the dentist, the farmer’s market, the post office, grocery store, and liquor store (you can’t buy wine at the grocery store in this state), and worked on packing up extra china and cleaning son #3’s room, a task that gives new meaning to the term “Herculean.” I also got to listen to my new Gregory Alan Isakov CD — it’s just wonderful. Listen to “Second Chances”

and “Time will Tell”.

See, I told you he was great. Now go buy it — my dual personality already has.

Last night I watched “Everything is Illuminated” and I really liked it. It’s quirky in the right way but also made me cry. The music was perfect as were the actors, especially the grandfather and Alex, who is played by the lead singer of the strange, but occasionally wonderful, gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello. The film is about odd and emotionally stunted Elijah Wood and his journey to the Ukraine to discover what happened to his grandfather during WWII. According to IMDB, it was filmed in the Ukraine and the Czech Republic — both of which have beautiful scenery as well as plenty of evidence of their violent pasts. And who knew that Liev Shreiber could write (screenplay from novel) and direct?

Earlier in the week I watched a quirky Indie film on Netflix called “the Giant Mechanical Man” that I also liked a lot (yes, that’s 2 quirky movies in one week!). Although it was very “Indie”, it was also charming and kind of sad. Well worth a viewing.

This post would not be complete without a book recommendation. In honor of recently departed Seamus Heaney, I’m reminding you all of his peerless translation of Beowulf. If you don’t have it handy, you can listen to him read it:

Beowulf is one of my favorites and every time I read it I get something new out of it.

So those are my recommendations for you this weekend. Take a listen or a look and let me know what you think!

*a line from “Second Chances”

3 Comments

April 24, 2013

She’s a pilgrim living in the modern time

by chuckofish

Oh my goodness. I got some good new music for my birthday! Thank you to my dual personality who gave me This Empty Northern Hemisphere by Gregory Alan Isakov.

Gregory Alan Isakov is a singer-songwriter. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he emigrated to the United States as a child, and was raised in Philadelphia. I sure do like him!

Meanwhile Calhoun County has been declared a disaster area. (Flooding on the line.)

And this guy is under water again:

UPI.com

Here is the statue of Lewis and Clark and their big ol’ dog when the river is not flooding:

“Captain’s Return,” by Harry Weber

Ah, but where was I? Good music for my birthday. But don’t worry–I will tie it all together:

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2 Comments