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
Studies show that spending leisure time with one’s family – be it playing a game of Scrabble or taking a road trip – enhances the quality of life and the relationships at home. No kidding.
Here are a few pictures of my older brother and his two children literally “playing” together when they gathered from across the country (and from Spain!) during the holidays.
Fulbright scholar Foster and his old Pappy
Picking and grinning with geologist daughter Ellen
They have been playing together since they were little tykes and by now they are pretty good indeed.
Alas, we are not musicians in our family. My children did participate in band in middle school and two into high school, but none of them ultimately continued on with the clarinet, flute or violin. They all sang in the choir as well, but only the boy went on into high school with that. (He put the kobash on a Broadway career, because he thought it would be embarrassing.) I have encouraged him to re-join the adult choir at church, but, for now, that is but a pipe dream of his mother’s. Sigh.
We do not play board games in our family either. We tried that when the children were young, but the boy became hysterical when he lost, so we had to abandon games and we never went back for them. I have never been a game person myself–too many rules to learn.
But we have done plenty of playing I think. And by that I mean talking. We watch movies together and talk about them. Some families go hunting together or ski or fish. Some cook or hike. Or shop. Whatever.
It is the “together” that is important and not what you do I think. What do you do together as a family?
You know something, Wally? I’d rather do nothin’ with you than somethin’ with anybody else.
–Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver
Our parents were big Kingston Trio fans and I have fond memories of listening to their 1960 Christmas album, The Last Month of the Year.
The album included spirituals and Old English rounds and none of the standard stuff. Nick Reynolds said in an interview later that “musically, it came off very well; it just didn’t sell.” Well, we had a copy and we played it a lot!
Click this link for a little something to whet your appetite for the those clean-cut boys of yore.
Click here
for another version of the same song performed by the great Johnny Cash with Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and all the lovely Carter ladies.
Listen to it all–you’ll be rockin’ your way closer to Christmas!
P.S. Is this where the expression “five by five” comes from?
It is that time of year when I listen to Christmas music in my car. Don’t you? Recently I have been listening to Handel’s Messiah in the car on my daily round-trip to work. This, as you probably know, is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel
with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and from the Psalms included in the Book of Common Prayer.
So you know it is right up my alley.
It was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Anyway, I highly recommend listening to it in the car. It’ll get you going in the morning!
Well, as of Sunday, most of our leaves are off our trees
and on the ground.
Boy oh boy, are they all over the ground. We had quite a storm on Sunday morning. When I came out of church, the sky to the west was awesome.
It was a record-breaking 80-degrees and sunny, but the wind was whipping up. I said to the man next to me, “We better batten down the hatches!” and my friend Carlos, stepping outside, exclaimed, “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!” Indeed.
I hurried to my car and as I drove the 5-minute trip home, the leaves seemed to attack my car. It was bizarre. As I reached my garage, the raindrops started to fall. I rushed inside to get my camera and headed back out the front door. But the rain began in earnest and then the hail, so I quickly retreated back inside. It was an amazing storm with lots of wind and hail, but it was over in about 8 minutes. Then the sun came out and the storm moved on, picking up strength on its way to Illinois where the really bad business hit–including an EF4 tornado.
I spent most of the weekend recovering from last weekend in NYC and a busy week at home. I watched When Harry Met Sally, which as you know, is a classic Nora Ephron romcom shot in and around the city. You gotta love old Billy Crystal, especially in this scene:
I also watched Martin Scorsese’s documentary The Last Waltz (1978) which is a filmed account of the Band’s farewell concert appearance on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. The Band (Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel) were joined by a dozen special guests including Bob Dylan (they were his back-up band in the 1960s), Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton and more. I was not cool enough back in the day to know about it, much less appreciate it, but I can now. It was really great and I highly recommend you watch it…perhaps on Thanksgiving! (I, of course, will be watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles.)
Van, Bob and Robbie
I also watched the new documentary about J.D. Salinger on Netflix Watch Instantly.
I watched the whole thing, but there was nothing new to me. They go into some detail about his horrible war experiences in WWII when he participated in the amphibious landing on D-Day and fought on through the Battle of the Bulge for over 200 days, including the horrendous Hurtgen Forest, and concluding in the liberation of Dachau. This is legit as it had a great effect on him. Who wouldn’t be affected by that? But mostly it is a lot of second and third-rate writers who are jealous and resentful making comments. Awful people like Gore Vidal. Why is it so hard to understand that a writer who is largely misunderstood wants to be left alone? It makes perfect sense to me. People have always had such ridiculous expectations of him. I guess it is all that unrequited love.
He was not crazy. (And neither was Holden!) Personally I think it speaks volumes that the local people of Cornish, New Hampshire closed ranks around him and protected him for all those years. They liked him. He went to the bean suppers at the Congregational Church. Also his friends, like Maxwell Perkins’ sister, protected him. It’s all the rest–the ones he wouldn’t talk to–who are so resentful. Who suggest he was pretty weird. I don’t think so.
Today’s musical interlude is from Odetta, the legendary American folk, blues and jazz singer (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008). She influenced many folk singers of the fifties and sixties, including Bob Dylan, who said, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. … [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record.”
I have always loved this gospel standard and her version is pretty great. Remember Tennessee Ernie Ford? He had a syndicated daytime talk/variety show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, that I watched sometimes in the summer when I was home and bored. He was called “the Ol’ Pea-Picker” because of his catch-phrase, “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart!” I had forgotten that he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.
Anyway, isn’t it great that Odetta and TEF sang this duet back in the day and now we can enjoy it like this? Those guys humming in the background are all right too.
This is my first full 5-day work week since I had a vacation week followed by a short holiday week.
I’m not complaining, but I am ready for the weekend, aren’t you?
I am having a few friends over tonight for “Episcopal Souffle”. One friend is bringing her “Holy Spirit Salad”; another will bring bread and another dessert. Add wine. Voila: dinner! Easy-peasy.
Here is the hymn “Come Labor On” (Ora Labora) at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue which includes an improvisation by Gerre Hancock (1934-2012), Organist & Master of Choirsters at St. Thomas Church, for all you organ fans. Perhaps you could argue that this hymn is more appropriate for Monday, but I think it works for the end of the work week. (Also note that yesterday was the feast day of St. Benedict who drew up the Rule of Life: Ora et Labora.)
The feelin’ is gettin’ so intense,
That the young Virginia creepers
Hev been huggin’ the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin’ glories on the fence!
This may be true in New England, where Carousel takes place, but sadly, things have been bustin’ out all over our flyover state for a month already. Indeed, everything starts to droop here in June. The peonies have gone by as have the irises. They were lovely.
We put off as long as we can turning on the old AC, but finally the heat gets to be too much for us, and we seal off the house. Sigh. It won’t be long now.
Oh well. I have a new calendar page for the new month–with sparkly fishes!
I have roses inside.
And roses outside.
Plus…
It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside. (Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, 1941)
Have a good weekend! A dear friend is visiting our flyover town from the east coast this weekend and my old man is celebrating his 40th high school reunion, so this introvert will be working overtime.
Happy Birthday to Clint Eastwood who turns 83 today! I do not think I own one of his movies (except a VHS copy of Paint Your Wagon!), but if I did, I’d watch one! Here he is singing “I Talk to the Trees”. I spent a good deal of 8th grade daydreaming about him. Can you blame me?
dual personalities 