Louisville Happenings 200 Years Ago

"POPULATION. There are no documents by which we can ascertain the progress of the population of this place, or even determine, with certainty, what it is at present; but allowing six persons to each house, which is the usual number in similar estimates, we should have 4,020, yet so much is the town crowded, and so condensed is its po-pulation, that we may with great safety assert, the whole amounts to 4,500 souls; so rapid is the increase of this number, that, in all probability, it will be trebled in less than ten years."

from

Sketches of Louisville and Its Environs: Including, Among a Great Variety of Miscellaneous Matter, a Florula Louisvillensis or, a Catalogue of Nearly 400 Genera and 600 Species of Plants That Grow in the Vicinity of the Town, Exhibiting Their Generic, Specific, and Vulgar English Names

by Henry McMurtrie (1793-1865)

Publication Date 1819

That was then. And now? The population of Lyndon alone is 3x that. This looks like a really cool book. If you think so, too, you can find it on The Internet Archive. 

Lawrence Francis O'Donnell

"Let's listen to pathological liar Jerome Corsi being interviewed by Ari Melber."

The Last Word With 

Lawrence O'Donnell 

November 28th, 2018

I get frustrated with MSNBC on a regular basis, and will often turn off the tv or change the channel because I am frustrated by some of their reporters. But their 9 to 12 line up never disappoints me. I love Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Brian Williams. 

And Lawrence O'Donnell...he so FUNny.

The White Albumin

Short version: after lusting for the deluxe release of The Beatles (The White Album) I found out that all of the tracks were up on Spotify, so I got down to listening to it right quick. In case you're wondering whether it's worth your while, here's what I found and what I thought about it:

††††††††††††††††††††††††††

Well, right off the bat I went to "the third disc," of course of course. I was anxious to hear the remixes of the original album, but not nearly as anxious as I was to hear Beatles songs I'd never heard before. So...



Disc 3

The first 19 cuts are demo versions of songs which appear on The White Album. They're interesting...especially in the way that some of the lyrics deviate from the versions we know and love now. ("Clutching forks and knives to cut their pork chops" just doesn't have that killer resonance, does it?)

And then came the Not On That Album Songs:

"Sour Milk Sea"--a George Harrison song which saw release as a single by Jackie Lomax in 1968.

"Junk" which would end up on Paul McCartney's first solo album, McCartney, released in 1970. 

"Child of Nature--whose lyrics would be re-written as "Jealous Guy" and which would end up on John Lennon's  Imagine album in 1971.

"Circles"--another George Harrison song. This song eventually ended up on Gone Troppo, his 10th studio album, which was released in 1982. 

"Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam," which would end up on the Abbey Road album (1969).

"Not Guilty"--another another George Harrison song. This song eventually ended up on George Harrison, his eighth studio album, released in 1979.

"What's the New Mary Jane"--saw release on Anthology 3 in 1996. 

So in a way none of these tracks were unreleased unreleased, I suppose, but it was still quite a thrill to hear them.



Disc 4

All but 1/2 of these tracks were The White Album bits, including three different takes on "Revolution" and three different takes on "Good Night." The first version of "Revolution" here weighs in at ten and a half minutes, and it becomes pretty unbearable about midway through when Lennon kind of goes nuts and keeps screaming and saying the same things over and over and just making stupid noises. I really could have done without that. Interesting that this is labelled as Take 18. Maybe it was just a Let's Get Really High And Play session. I don't know why it was included, though, as there's really nothing to recommend it so far as I can hear. The 1/2 track was a one sentence introduction and then a classical music-y prelude (obviously a George Martin thing) to "Don't Pass Me By." Speaking of...Ringo's vocal sounds a bit off to me on this, as if the tape had been speeded up a smidge. Maybe just a mastering problem, like Billy Joel's first release of Cold Spring Harbor. 

A most excellent instrumental version of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey."

A cute little flubbed intro to "Good Night" from Ringo, followed by a rather atrocious three (maybe four?) part harmony vocal on the same song. (Kind of like a barbershop quartet gone wild with drink.)

A guitar driven version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (sans piano, sans horns) which I thought was superior to the album version. For one thing, the vocal is a bit stronger...not as breathy, y'know?

An instrumental version of "Revolution" in which both John and George's guitars sound really tough...is it just because the vocal is missing, or does the lack of vocal encourage them to hit those strings harder? I don't know. It doesn't sound like the music on the released version to me, though. Have to go back and do a taste test, I suppose.

A take on "Cry Baby Cry" with a weird / silly spoken introduction (featuring a reference to Semolina Pilchard), and a vocal from John which actually felt more real and more sincere than just about anything I've ever heard from him. He sounded like a real person instead of John Lennon. (A real person who sounded like John Lennon, though.) I liked it a lot. Yes, more than the album version.

A very weird, slowed down, unrecogNIZable version of "Helter Skelter." Had a really weird groove.As much as I love the album version, I really wish they had put this one up as well.



Disc 5

16 tracks, 10 The White Album things--two of them takes on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"--and also a "Hey Jude,""St. Louis Blues," "Not Guilty," another "What's the New Mary Jane," a short bit of "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care" and a "Let It Be." I wonder why The Beatles...or possibly it was just John...liked "Mary Jane" so much. It seems like a pretty weak bit to me. 

Anyway.

Unfortunately, "St. Louis Blues" is just Paul singing the first line of the  Bessie Smith song. It was a good fifty-two seconds, but I would have liked to have heard more.

This version of "Not Guilty" was a much more finished piece...seemed to involve the whole band. With a little harpsichord thrown in for good measure. Not bad...but this song doesn't really do much for me, sorry to say.

There was a really goofy and weird little bit of "Let It Be." And even though I'm not a big fan of the song, I was impressed that there was a "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" labelled as Take 27. That's a whole lot of work for a song, ennit?

At the end of a take on "Helter Skelter" which is much closer to the finished version that the previously noted one, Paul says, "Keep that one. Mark it FAB."



Disc 6

A whopping 22 tracks on this one. 16 of them are The White Album  bits, and then there's "Blue Moon" (which doesn't seem to have wound up on any Beatles albums, but which Paul did put a version of it on his 1991 album, Unplugged: The Official Bootleg),  "Step Inside Love" and "Los Paranoias" (both of which were released on  Anthology 3 in 1996), "Can You Take Me Back," (which doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere else prior to this), "The Inner Light" (which eventually saw release in March 1968 as the B-side to "Lady Madonna"), and "Across the Universe" (which, of course, appeared on the Let It Be album in 1970).

Things of note (imho):

After a flub on "I Will," there's a bit of funny Upper Class Dialect humor:  "I hardly think so!" "What the hell's going on?" "I don't know, gentlemen, I mean...." It made me feel all warm and gooshy inside. Also interesting that Paul went right back to work after this bit without missing a beat and delivered a wonderful take on the song.

There's a version of "Long Long Long" here which is labelled as "Take 44." Yowza. And what's more, this is still not the final version. In fact, George gets a bit silly about 3/4ths the way through. 

5 of the songs on this cd are labelled as "instrumental backing track," and while they're interesting, I kind of wonder why they're included here. There were only 2 ibts on the previous three discs. Maybe there's some subtle difference between the music here and the music on the final versions? It's possible, but I couldn't tell. There's also a "Martha My Dear" which sounds like the final album version but "without brass and strings." It was cool...but I like the brass and strings. And oh, there's a "Lady Madonna" track here that's just piano and drums, and it sounds exactly like the album version, so maybe it's an ibt as well. 

Speaking of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," it only just now occurred to me that the female voice on this song was Yoko Ono. I looked it up just to make sure (we check our own facts here, man) and saw that I was only partially correct: the female vocal was provided by Yoko and Ringo's wife Maureen. Apparently they were the only women who had a lead vocal (for one line) on any Beatles song.

So this was definitely my least favorite of the four Deluxe Discs, but even having said that there were some loverly moments, and I will mos def listen to at least a few of these tracks again, you better you bet.

So that was a tasty dish to sit before. Funny, too, because instead of satiating my appetite for The Deluxe The White Album, listening to it on Spotify has actually made me want it even more. Hmpf. Go figure. Maybe this home taping thing won't destroy the record industry after all, Kenneth.

ANYway...about those first two discs: well, it's like this. The White Album is one of my favorite albums of all time. I know every word and every note of it. And although I could only listen to this remix on the computer (at least at this point, nudge nudge wink wink know whotahmeen), it sounded rail good. RAIL rail good. Thicker, if you know what I mean. There were sounds that I had never heard before, too, and I'm not talking about things that were added in...just things that had been buried in the sound before were now sharp and clear. Loverly stuff, just loverly.

Anybody got $150 they don't need?

Northeast Regional Library, Louisville, KY

Took a long walk this morning (about four miles all told, thank you) in order to check out the situation vis-à-vis the new LFPL's Northeast Regional Library, and was delighted to see that it was really coming along--

--which is not something I could see from the road when I drove by. Also exciting: I saw a sign proclaiming that it would be opening in Spring of 2019. I'm pretty excited that I'll actually live within walking distance of a library for the first time since my Notre Dame days (1988 to 1989). I think I shall be spending a bit of my time at The Northeast Branch in the future. I walk better with a destination, for one thing.

Geraldo Rivera Feels Like Busting Loose

I haven't been impressed with Geraldo Rivera in a long time. Since April 20, 1986 or so. And seeing him become a shill for Fox News was it for me. Until this morning, when I read this:

"Fulfilling my role as the designated pinata on Fox News, I am ashamed. This tear gas choked me. We treat these people, these economic refugees as if they're zombies from The Walking Dead. I think—we arrested 42 people, eight of them were women. With children. We have to deal with this problem humanely and with compassion. These are not "invaders!" Stop using these military analogies. This is absolutely painful to watch. This is—we are a nation of immigrants. These are desperate people, they walked 2000 miles—why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No! Because they want a job. They want to fill the millions of unfilled jobs we have in the agricultural sector. They want to wash dishes in restaurants, they want to deliver the pizzas. For goodness´ sake, we suspend our humanity when it comes to this issue and I fear that it is because they look different than we do. "

Hats off to you, Mr. Rivera.

Tear Gas

It doesn't sound so bad, does it? Tear gas. Boo fucking hoo. Your eyes get a little weepy, and then you get better, right?

Not quite.

It was October of 1976. I was 19 years old, and a member of the A 4 3 at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. We went into a building with our gas masks on. Then we were told to remove them and recite name, rank, and serial number. I remember my eyes burning. I remember snot gushing out of my nose. I remember running blindly out of that building. I remember trying to draw a breath, and it felt like I couldn't get air into my lungs. I felt like I was going to die. And it went on and on. 

I still remember it clearly, even though that happened 42 years ago.

It's a cruel thing to do.

How anyone could do this to children...to babies...is way beyond my capacity to comprehend.

(The Beatles, The White Album)

I just thought you should know.

I had heard that there was going to be a multi-disc release of The White Album, but I didn't really may much attention to that because (1) I figured it would be too expensive for me to afford it and (2) I thought it would probably just offer different takes of the same songs, since The Beatles don't seem to have had a big stash of unreleased songs, and while I would find that interesting, I didn't think it was necessary, especially given (1).

But then I saw it in a store in The Mall. $200 (give or take). But oh...I wanted that. Not only were there songs that had never been released...there were also versions of songs that made it onto later albums. Like "Hey Jude." And "Mean Mr. Mustard." And "Let It Be." And "Junk." Say what? Oh, yeah. I wanted it BAD.

But of course I put it back on the rack and looked it up on Amazon as soon as I got home. $152.99. Better...but still pretty rich for my blood. There was an MP3 download version for $66.49, though. I'm not a big fan of MP3 downloaded versions for the most part...and especially not when the packaged looked to be pretty fuckin' sweet...but still, $66.49 for 6 cds is starting to sound possible, right? 

So I thought and I thought. And then I wondered, "Is it possible that they put any of this up on Spotify? Probably not much, but still, I took a look.

Oh.

My.

God.

The whole thing is there, man. All 6 cds. 107 tracks. I went straight to the third disc (since the first two are "just" remixed version of The White Album) and started in. I'm only on the 5th track, but I can't tell you how happy this is making me. Paul McCartney goofing his way through a demo of "Back in the U.S.S.R." John being all Lennon-y on a "Glass Onion" demo. Ringo being funny and snarky on a demo of ""The Continuing Story of Bungaloo Bill." And George doing an acoustic demo of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" which marks the first time in a very long time wherein I haven't really hated that song. (I think because some of the lyrics are better, but also because it doesn't have that pretentious  aura that the album version has always had for me.)

I always enjoy listening to lyrical variations, by the way. And there's quite a bit of that going on here.

So even though I have quite a bit of listening left to do, I just thought I'd let you know in case you weren't ahead of me on this one.

This has been a public service announcement.

Loosing My Religion Special Edition: Our Mother of Sorrows

Our Mother of Sorrows 

This was my 34th different Catholic church this year. My goal is to visit all 57 Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic churches...and that's starting to look like a thing that could happen. I've visited some churches that I hope never to set foot in again (coughSaintWilliamcough)...and others which I dearly loved (St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis Bertrand, St. Joseph, St. James). Today I visited Our Mother of Sorrows, and it was such a remarkable experience that I thought I would highlight it in an entry apart from my regular and ongoing Loosing My Religion posting.

I've probably driven past this church several hundred times, since I used to live in Germantown and attended U of L for my Master's Degree, but I didn't even know that it was a Catholic church until this morning. It looked a bit downtrodden from the outside, but once inside...well. It kind of took my breath away.

It wasn't as ornate as my favorite churches, but it was most assuredly beautiful to look at. Marble walls all around, niches with statues and places to pray like this

on either side of the church, and statues. The service also began with the distinct scent of incense in the air. It's been awhile since I have had that pleasure. The music was provided by piano and a little bit of flute, but there was a choir, and I thought that they were pretty good. 

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

So points for 2, 4, 5 there...and the congregation was pretty awesome, too, so 8 and 9 there. But the priest...oh, my. This might have been the best sermon I've ever heard. The priest was a young black man, and he was on fire. He started slow. Greeted the congregation with a "Howdy" which they echoed back to him. He then started talking about his Thanksgiving dinner, and how he had eaten with some college friends, one of whom told him that one of the other diners was related to one of the people who had been shot and killed at the Louisville Kroger (less than four miles from my front door) in a hate crime. And this Sunday was The Feast of Christ the King, and the priest...oh, I just looked him up to see what his name was, since it seemed like it was past time to stop calling him The Priest, and just found out that he is Fr. Christopher Rhodes, and that he is the same priest I liked so much at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary way back on January 28th. His look has changed considerably since then! Anyway, Father Chris then launched into a series of statements about how there were times when he had doubts as to whether Christ was the King of this world...and he named various troubles in the world, including hate crimes, of course, but also talking about the clergy who were guilty of sexual abuse, the bishops who covered up that abuse. He really seemed to be seething, and I was wondering how the mostly white congregation was handling it. When he got to the end, I found out. They burst into applause, and then someone shouted, "Thank you, Father." Wow. Incredible moment. And just a minute or two later a child was brought up to be baptized, and Father Chris shifted gears like Mario Andretti going into a hard turn and was gentle and convivial. After the baptism was completed, Father Chris crouched down in front of the child and began to clap his hands and sing, "This little light of mine," and the congregation joined in.

That is what church is for, man. And I definitely want some more of this kind of thing.

P.S. I got so excited about that sermon that I forgot to do my final rating. Well, the church was "only" 80 years old, but I'm going to give it 1 anyway...and obviously it gets the 6 and 7...which puts Our Mother of Sorrows at  8 . Yep. Pretty much as good as it gets.

If only you believed in miracles....

"In a real sense, of course, unbelief or scepticism is in the same boat as faith. For unbelief 'really goes upon presumptions and prejudices as much as Faith does, only presumptions of an opposite nature.... It considers a religious system so improbable, that it will not listen to the evidence of it; or, if it listens, it employs itself in doing what a believer could do, if he chose, quite as well...; viz., in showing that the evidence might be more complete and unexceptionable than it is.' Sceptics do not really decide according to the evidence; for they make up their minds first and then admit or reject evidence according to their initial assumption. Hume proves a signal example of this when he suggests that the impossibility of miracles is sufficient refutation of the testimony of witnesses. 'That is, the antecedent improbability is a sufficient refutation of the evidence.'"

A History of Philosophy Volume VII Bentham to Russell

Fr. Frederick Copleston 

page 514

[The quotations within this bit are from the Oxford University Sermons by John Henry Newman, which are available online at http://www.newmanreader.org/works/oxford/index.html .]

Breaking News For Edgar Rice Burroughs Fans

On the one hand, the first two issues of American Mythology's Fear on Four Worlds Edgar Rice Burroughs event

--in which there's a crossover between Carson of Venus, Moon Maid, Pellucidar, and The Land That Time Forgot--

have not been great. 

On the other hand, it's a pretty cool crossover concept, and to my knowledge it's been some time since Carson appeared in comic books...and I don't think Moon Maid has ever appeared before. And hey, it's nice to give a little support to the smaller publishers, right?

 But $3.99 (times four) is a lot to invest in some not so great books.

Well, good news.

On Comixology, you can get the first three issues of this crossover event (the fourth hasn't been released yet) for a mere 99¢ each. And if you like them enough to want the fourth book when it comes out, even if you have to pay full price the total would only be $6.96, for a per issue average of $1.74. That's pooty good, ennit?

I already paid full price for the first two issues, but ahmo go get issue 3 right now. These sales don't usually last very long.

https://www.comixology.com/Fear-on-Four-Worlds-3-Pellucidar/digital-comic/720642?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9Jc3N1ZXM

This Week's Comics: November 14, 2018

Well...more like last week's comics. But hey. I'm out of practice.

Captain Ginger #2 (Ahoy)

This is an interesting book, actually. Kind of Kamandi-y (what with the bipedal, clothed, talking, and intelligent cats)...but in space. It's not nearly as cutey pie as you'd think. For instance, one of the cats is dying, and she pukes on a regular basis. And there are violent fights. And lots of kitty litter issues. I'm not sure if I'm in it for the long run on this, but so far I have been entertained. And I do like to support new comic book companies, of which Ahoy is one. I think they have four titles going now, and I might could even check out another one. Especially if it goes on sale on Comixology (hint). But Ahoy is giving a lot of bang for the buck even at cover price. The first issue of Captain Ginger weighed in at 48 pages. Can't remember how many of them were story and art, but more than 20, for sure. And then there were some other features, and just a few in-house ad pages, all of which came after the main story. Much more satisfying that DC and Marvel, wherein you usually only get to read 3 pages at the most before an ad for Twinkies or some other shit intrudes. 



Firefly #1 (Boom!)

I actually thought about passing on this one for a minute. I love Firefly and have followed it through all tv, movie, and previous comic book incarnations, but, you know...Boom! Plus I feel bad for Dark Horse. First they lost Star Wars, then Conan, then Buffy, and now Firefly. I worry about those boys. Hell, I was with them at the very beginning...and still have my copy of Dark Horse Presents #1...and quite a few issues after that as well. I have to admit that I haven't bought much from them lately, but I'm still glad they're around, and don't want to see them go away. Guess I'd better start doing my part, then, hmm. ANYway, I got over all of that and picked up Boom!'s first Firefly. The cover was good, but the interior art was not at all to my liking. But the story...oh, my. I am pretty sure that this was the best-written Firefly story I've ever seen in comic book form. Not plot so much...the story is just getting started, so I didn't get much of a feel for that...but Greg Pak is really good at catching the characters. And he's also fuckin' funny. Like really funny, not the normal "I guess that's supposed to be funny" that passes for funny in a lot of comic books I've read. I'm definitely putting this one on my holds list. And I'm going to stop saying bad shit about Boom! 



The Green Lantern #1 (DC)

Well...this one actually came out last week. I was a little bit interested...mostly because of Liam Sharp's art...cuz that Amadeus has rocked me a couple of times, with some beautiful work on Man-Thing and some absolutely top notch stuff on Testament 1, which remains one of my all-time favorite comic books that no one seems to have read (wearing out things that nobody wears, man). And I kind of sort of like Grant Morrison. Sometimes. Especially when he's not busy being Grant Morrison. But it was a moot point, because The Great Escape was sold out. And I kind of looked for it this week, but there weren't any issues on the stands, so I figured what the hell, I probably wouldn't have liked it anyway. But as I went to check out I saw one lone copy of the book sitting up on display by the cash register, so I took it for a sign. And? Well...good art. The story was just kind of meh, but more in a dragging in too many lines here than in a first issue setting up the story way. I guess that's always a problem when you re-start a book that's been running for almost 80 years. You can't just start with a clean slate. Well, you can, I've never seen it done. Don't think I'll be buying issue #2 of this one. We'll see.

Pandemonium #1, #2, & #3

Speaking of Comixology...and sales...the cover art for Pandemonium #1 caught my eye when I was looking at the On Sale items on Comixology...

...so I looked into the blurb and the preview pages...saw that it was a horror comic, which I don't usually have anything to do with...but that it was set in Louisville, Kentucky, which I usually do have something to do with...so I decided to invest $2.99 + tax. Read those 56 pages lickety split and went for issue #2. 53 pages later went for #3. 48 pages later and peace out. 

It had some pretty gross shit in it, which I don't like a whole lot, but it was also quite an interesting book. Reminded me a bit of Alan Moore's Providence, which I think is one of the best comics I've ever read. I don't think Pandemonium was in that league, but I do feel that I got my money's worth out of it. It also made me want to go have a look at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, but doesn't look like visitors are welcome there these days. Still might have to read a little bit more about the place, though. It had a lot of parallels with The Magic Mountain, too, and that's one of my favorite books ever. Shit, I need to go read that one again, I think. (If you're interested in reading about patients wasting away in an isolated, mountain-top sanatorium, then this is the book for you. Make sure to get the John E. Woods translation, though, 'cause Ms. H. T. Lowe-Porter pulled some shit in her version.)

More comic book news as it happens.


1  Testament omnibus currently available on Comixology for a mere $4.99. And that's for 533 pages! Less than a penny a page!

Another Great New Song From The Holy Ghost Tent Revival

I think I love you most of all, "Sleeping"... for one thing, 'cause The Horns Are Back!

David Byrne, Arbutus, and Lansdowne Senior High School-ish Things

I am listening to David Byrne's How Music Works (September 12, 2012, McSweeney's). Just happened upon it when I was looking for a downloadable audiobook on the library website. (Thank you, Louisville Free Public Library.) And since (1) I have liked Mr. Byrne for forty years or so and (2) I am interested in finding out how music works, I downloaded it and have been listening to it when I exercise. After awhile, I couldn't help but notice that there were a few references to Baltimore, my hometown, so this morning I checked Wikipedia to see what I could see re: Mr. Byrne's background.

Well. He was born 14 May 1952 in Scotland, but venisoon after he moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Specifically the suburb known as Arbutus. And he attended Lansdowne Senior High School. Graduated in 1970 (I assume...the Wikipedia article didn't say, but I think this would be right.) 

And those details rocked my little world. 

See, I was born in 1957 in Baltimore, Maryland. Specifically the suburb known as Arbutus. And I attended Arbutus Junior High School from 1969 to 1972. I then attended Lansdowne Senior High School from 1972 to 1975. So that means I missed David Byrne by a mere two years. 

Shit.

I mean, we definitely would have been bros. Maybe we would have started a band together. Mmm-hmm.

I could have been a conTENder, man. I could have gone to Red Lobster tonight 1, motherfucker.

Oh well. 

It's a really interesting book, by the way. Kind of the musical equivalent of Henry Thomas Buckle's History of Civilization in England (still one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books, and available for free online at  https://archive.org/details/historyciviliza03buckgoog/page/n10  if you'd like a tickle.) At least the section I'm on now, which discusses the connection between the type of music created and the musical venues available. How the sound the composer pursues is shaped by the place in which the music will be heard. From rooms in palaces to the front seat of your car. And beyond (yond yond yond).

It's good stuff. I keep wondering when it will stop making sense, though.

See what I did there?

Hello?

Is this mic on?

1  And EVery night.

St, G. E., Moore

I know this will come as a complete surprise to regular readers of this blog, but I was reading A History of Philosophy today and a line hit me right between the eyes:

"Moore never assumed that what he had said must be true and what the other fellow said must be false."

That's George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958), by the way.  

Which is why I propose the immediate canonization of G.E. Moore as the Patron Saint for the Trump Age.

                             

What do you say, Pope-sy Wopsey?

Bellows Falls, Vermont

Last night when I was in Half-Price Books I saw this magnificent thing:

Now, there was a time when I wouldn't have been able to resist purchasing a Farm Machinery Catalog from yesteryear (for a mere $8!)...but in my dotage I'm trying to get rid of stuff instead of acquire more stuff, so I contented myself with paging through it. It was absolutely superb. Manure separators. Iceless refrigerators. All kinds of things that I'd not only never heard of, but never even thought of. I took a picture of it and sent it to my friend George Nostrand (leading man of Miss Guided Angels, whose new CD is now available for purchase @ https://www.amazon.com/One-That-Got-Away/dp/B07JN1K1Y3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542211926&sr=8-1&keywords=miss+guided+angels+the+one+that+got+away or https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/missguidedangels2 or on iTunes (I don't know how to link up with that, but you can do the math). And okay, it's also available for free on SoundCloud, but Shakespeare got to get PAID, man, so don't do that unless you have no other choice)...because Bellows Falls, VT is his home town and I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing the catalog. I also sent him this picture go the first page of the catalog...

...with the suggestion that "When Farming Was a Way of Life and Horsepower Came in Horses" would be a good song title.

As the evening wore on, my mind kept coming back to that phrase, and I thought that maybe I might could have a go at writing that song.

So I sat down and started to sing--impromptu and a cappella. And what came out wasn't about farming or horses or horsepower (none of which I know even the slightest thing about), it was about Bellows Falls.

Growing up in Bellows Falls

In the shadow of a mountain

Blessings were from near and far

Mumble mumble but I wasn't counting.

I want to mumble mumble

Take me back mumble mumble mumble

Oh, mumble mumble

Oh mumble

Oh.

Obviously I didn't know a whole hell of a lot about Bellows Falls, either. I hypothesized that there would be a mountain (maybe a few) nearby since when I was in Vermont there were mountains everyfuckingwhere. And mountains always make me think of Wordsworth (the inverted W, see?), and he always makes me think of the line "...all which we behold  / Is full of blessings" from "Tintern Abbey," 1 so that's where the blessings bit came in. And I just left it there.

This morning I got up and was working on a song for my Trumpet Opus--this part is called, "Who's a Black Halloween Cat?" I have five or six different versions of it down now. Decisions, decisions. And after a bit of that I started thinking about the "When Farming Was a Way of Life and Horsepower Came in Horses" / "Bellows Falls" song again, so I Googled Bellows Falls and found out a little bit about it. It has an Opera House which is kind of sort of famous. (In a Vermont-y kind of way.) It's smack on the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. The Connecticut River flows past it. And kind of through it, too. There's a bridge over the river. It's kind of pretty. And small. Like 3,000 people small. That's only three and a half times the number of people that live in my sub-division. Which is not a large place.

And I was still thinking about how to get to the line from the catalog, but I often songwrite by playing the guitar and just singing whatever comes into my head until I get some stuff I like, then I write it down and try to shape it up. As I was doodling around like that, I came up with the line, 

"I guess that’s true of everyone, but it feels unique to me."

And I liked that. So I got down to business. I drank coffee. I sang. I wrote. I ended up with this:

Growing up in Bellows Falls in the shadow of the mountains

Guess I knew the blessings there but I never stopped to count them

But when I dream of yesterday it’s always there I go

To the bridge that’s down on Depot Street

And watch Cunny run below

I’m going home

To Bellows Falls

I want to hear my voice echo from the Opera House walls.

I’m going home

To Bellows Falls

So if I die bag up my bones and haul them off

to Bellows Falls

Walking through this great big world

Kind of scrapes away your knees

I guess that’s true of everyone

But it feels unique to me

I wish I’d done and seen a little

More but that’s just life

You think you’re heading straight true north but you’re

Just circling ‘round the night

Wordsworth had his abbey

And Ahab had his whale

Leopards cannot change their spots

And dogs still chase their tails

In my soul there’s a rumble of a river and

I know

That when the world’s too much with me

It’s there that I will go.

Which I kind of liked. No horses or horsepower or farming, but still...it had a little something something. A yearning. At the heart of every work of art is a yearning, I think.

I want to see if I can convince my #1Son to lay down some fiddle...and, in fact, I left a big space after the first chorus for him to fill in if he'll do it...but this is what it sounds like for now:

http://phonynoam.tumblr.com/post/180111050355/still-working-it-but-i-think-this-is-a-pretty

I'm probably going to have to rebuild it from the bottom up to get it where I want it to go, but since I don't write music and have a short memory, I had to get this thing down before it evaporated.

What d'ya think?

P.S. Still playing around with the song, and Googling about just to see what I see. One of the things I saw was this be-you-tea-full sign:

So now I'm really wanting to add in a few lines so that I can include "A friendly place to hang your hat" in the lyrics. Hmmm.

It's more than just a friendly place where you can hang your hat.

1  Properly speaking, that's "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour July 13, 1798," of course. It's one of my favorite poems.

Old Clive

I read Clive Cussler's Treasure a few years ago. Somewhere or other I'd heard that it was "about" the lost library of Alexandria, which was good enough for me to go looking for it. And it was an okay read. Interesting, moderately compelling. I can't remember anything about it now...with the exception of a vague memory of Dirk Pitt doing something totally ludicrous and unbelievable in his car on a mountain...but that's not indicative of much of anything, as I forget most of what I read shortly after I've finished reading it. But I thought that that was enough Clive Cussler for me, thank you.

Then I saw Atlantis Found at Half-Price Books for a dollar. Well, Atlantis. You know. So I picked it up. And it sat on my shelf for some time before I picked it up a week or two ago. 692 pages later...I finished it this morning. I have to say (the obvious) that it was pretty compelling reading, but it was disappointing in several ways, too. For one thing, the whole Atlantis schtick was just in the background. We never really got to see the joint, and that's what I was down for. I'd imagined Dirk swimming through the sunken city, doing this and that. You know. Atlantis-y type stuff. Maybe bumping into Full and Arion. This was really more a Rise and Fall of the Fourth Reich story, which I've had more than enough of...especially given the current political climate. 

I also found Cussler's writing style very annoying. He's a clumsy writer, for one thing. There are many times when he will repeat a word in adjacent sentences...times when he will belabor descriptions that are completely unnecessary and distracting...and he has a penchant for name dropping, especially in terms of the brand names of expensive products. I hate that shit. But the worst example of name dropping was when he dropped his own name into the novel. He has Clive "Dad" Cussler loan Dirk a vehicle which ends up saving the world from destruction. Which is not nearly as interesting as it sounds, but no spoilers here. But talk about self-aggrandisement. This is supercalifragilisticselfaggrandisementidocious. 

But the worst aspect of all...and the reason I am pretty sure I will never read another Clive Cussler book...is the unrelenting low-level misogyny. Take this bit, for example. A Congresswoman...who is, of course, also stunningly beautiful and Dirk Pitt's girlfriend (she pines away for him when he leaves for his adventures, which he does quite regularly)...says she is thinking about leaving Congress because

"I've had my day playing the independent, individualist woman. I enjoyed it. But now it's time to get practical."

Well, there you have it. Women can play at being independent and individualistic, but underneath that patina they are just women, after all. Oh, and by the way, one of the things she thinks it's time to get practical about is settling down, getting married, and having babies. I shit thee not.

Clive Cussler is a fucking dinosaur, and he just became extinct so far as my reading life is concerned.

So long, Clive. Thanks for all the fucking fish.

Mountain / No Mountain

"Reality 

is 

always 

poor, 

weak 

stuff 

compared 

to 

magic."

Orson Welles

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead