Month: April 2013

The Idle Chatter award

Lots of songs make me cry.

Cheri at Idle Chatter has been kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster Award, whatever that is.

I’ve been doing this blogging thing long enough to do a few things with awards:
1. Accept them graciously.
2. Struggle with the random facts, but find some anyway, ideally, ones I hadn’t mentioned before.
3. Totally ignore the part about passing it on, on the theory that some people get really ticked off by it. I don’t, but I’ve long learned that my reaction to stimuli is not a universal.

{1} Each blogger should answer the questions the tagger has set for you.

Not only will I do that, but I’ll also even answer the questions Jeannie had for Cheri:
Butter or margarine?

Olivio, which is an olive oil-based product. I grew up on margarine, but now prefer butter, which I will cook with.

Fact or fiction?

Fact. Truth is stranger…

Musical or Action film?

Musical. Grew up with LOTS of soundtracks of my mother’s.

Realist or a dreamer?

Realist. Yet, I hold out hope…

Do you read between the lines?

I try to take it at face value until proven otherwise, which happens a LOT.

Are you as tall as you want to be?

At my tallest, I was 5 feet, 11 5/8 inches. I couldn’t get an extra half an inch? That said, I don’t much care.

Pet peeve?

Bad drivers who imperil pedestrians and bicyclists. The latter act badly, but car hitting a person is more likely to harm the person than the vehicle, or the person inside it.

Introvert or extrovert?

If you ask me, introvert. If you ask most people I know, extrovert. Make of that what you will.

Favorite quote/movie or song?

“So here’s another question up for interpretation. Favorite quote, movie, or song?” Favorite quote from a movie: “I’m walking here!” from Midnight Cowboy. Or about 99 others. Favorite song from a movie? Even more difficult. It could be the Sharks women singing America from West Side Story, or Streets of Philadelphia by Neil Young from Philadelphia. The first thing that came to mind today was the wistful optimism of When You Wish Upon a Star by Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio.

How many projects do you have going right now?

There’s the FantaCo project (bibliography), the attic project (now that it’s finished, a lot of rearranging), and a work project.

What is your “One Thing?” (City Slickers)?

I dunno – music. Or fairness.

And now for my questions from Cheri:

Do you like amusement park rides?

I did as a child. But last summer, I rode a few, and they gave me a wretched headache.

What’s your pet peeve?

The assumption that because YOU experience it this way, EVERYONE does. (Yeah, I answered it differently above. I do that.)

If there was a movie about your life, who would you want to play you?

Roger E. Mosley. It should be a Roger, right?

Last movie you saw at the theater?

Quartet, if we’re talking full length. But I did subsequently see the Oscar-nominated live-action short films for 2012.

Morning person or night owl?

That’s a problem: night owl by nature, but I must, and more to the point, my WIFE has to get up in the morning. I’d go to bed at 11 or 11:30 on my own, but that 5:30 alarm comes TOO early.

What song makes you cry?

Lots of songs make me cry. Crying by Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, for just one.

Realist or dreamer?

Realistic dreamer.

Believe in love at first sight?

Probably not love. Lust, maybe.

Do you play the lottery?

When it gets over $300 million if I think of it. I didn’t last time…

Beach or mountains?

Water. I mean, I’m not going to hang out in the sand, but I’d rather be where a lake, or river is.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Got to answer this recently: flight.

{2} Choose 11 new bloggers to pass the award on to and link them in your post.

Nah. But if you want to self-select, be my guest.

{3} Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.

Feel free to steal any from here.

{4} Go back to their page and tell them about the award.

Not applicable.

{5} Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.

1. When I was in junior high school – before they started calling it middle school – we decided to go by our middle names, mostly. I was Owen, Ray was Albert, etc.

2. Ever since I was in Prince of Egypt, some guy in the choir has started calling me Jethro, the name of one of my characters,. Others are calling me God, my other role.

3. I listen to music at work (on headphones, most of the day). I love music but am loath to use headphones, or earbuds, on the bus, or when I get home.

4. I’ve been a janitor on two separate occasions, once in Binghamton, NY once in New Paltz, NY.

5. I love to engage Jehovah’s Witnesses in theological conversation when I have the time and energy.

6. On the first day of my March Madness pool, I was in 10th place, out of 10th, on the first day. After the weekend, I had risen all the way to 8th, but still with a chance to win.

7. There are certain accounts I have I use so infrequently that I ALWAYS forget the password and have to get a new one.

8. I tend to play music based on the artists’ birthday – a lot of Elton John and Aretha Franklin and James Taylor in March, e.g.

9. I never answer my telephone at home unless I know who it is, and it’s someone I want to talk with. That’s why God created the answering machine. Conversely, I ALWAYS answer the phone at work, if no one else does.

10. I’ve never not voted in a local, state, or federal; election. I might have missed a school board election in my first couple years, but haven’t missed one of those since 1976.

11. I “follow” people on Twitter, then never actually read what they have to say; time is not fungible. I’m only vaguely better on Facebook.
***
Roger Ebert’s A Leave of Presence, released earlier this week, is a wonderfully optimistic piece, despite the return of his cancer. (I could not get to yesterday afternoon for a time, probably because the server was overloaded.) It was likely the last thing he published before his untimely death this week. I once again highly recommend his autobiography; an excerpt, about his death, can be found HERE. The Chicago Tribune obit.

Mark Evanier on the deaths of comic book greats Carmine Infantino and George Gladir.

Martin Luther King died 45 years ago

It is in that same speech in which some contend MLK Jr foretold his own death.

Jan 15, 1929- Apr 4, 1968

I can’t imagine how difficult Martin Luther King’s life must have been sometimes. His last speech, on April 3, 1968, was amazingly eerie in that he recalled the day about a decade earlier when he was stabbed at a 1958 Harlem book signing and almost did not survive.

“It came out in the New York Times the next morning that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died.

Well, about four days later they allowed me, after the operation, they allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, Dear Dr. King, I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School. She said, while it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

He then describes what he would have missed if he had passed away at that time.

It is in that same speech in which some contend he foretold his own death:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop, and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will, and He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

“And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

I remember, as well as I remember anything from more than a third of a century ago, what a body blow the news of his death was for me and millions of others.

During a sermon back in February about Martin Luther King Jr., the preacher cited a poem attributed to Mother Teresa called Anyway. I suspect the cadence in which the speaker I saw delivered the message was somewhat different from Teresa’s. The point, though, was that MLK Jr. persevered, even when the road was difficult; he did it…anyway.

 

The Presidency; home alone

I alternate: I read newspapers, work on the computer, clean, watch TV while riding the stationary bike.

Scott is back with more questions: In the first one hundred years of the US, which president do you find the most fascinating?

Who do you find the most fascinating US president after those first one hundred years?

It occurred to me that, depending on how you measure the first 100 years, one could put Grover Cleveland in both chronological camps, since the first President under the current Constitution was elected in 1789, and Cleveland’s terms were 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. Not that I would, but I COULD.

There are a number of early Presidents who I find fascinating: Jefferson, Madison, JQ Adams, Jackson (for the wrong reasons), but primarily for their service before (or in Adams’ case, after) the Presidency. It’s hard to argue with choices such as Washington or Lincoln.

Still, I’ll pick Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President (pictured), who became President upon the death of the assassinated James Garfield in 1881. He was a real patronage guy earlier, but when he moved into the Oval Office, he became a reformer. From whitehouse.gov: “Publisher Alexander K. McClure recalled, ‘No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired … more generally respected.'” He was an upstate New Yorker, BTW, though born in Vermont. He died only a couple of years after his term ended.

More recently, it’s probably Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President, who succeeded the assassinated John Kennedy in 1963. The Texan was SO right on many civil rights issues. Of course, he was SO wrong on Vietnam, and his expansion of the war cost too many lives. He suspected that Nixon was interfering with the peace talks in 1968, yet did not want to weaken the Presidency and kept his own counsel.
***
Jaquandor is back:

You are alone for an entire day, as in, your family has to go somewhere and you’re on your own. And it’s your day off. What do you do, and what do you eat?

I alternate: I read newspapers, work on the computer, clean (vacuum and/or wash dishes), watch TV while riding the stationary bike. I’m always listening to music, except when the television’s on.

I’ll make some elaborate omelet, made with whatever I can find in the refrigerator, for breakfast; if I haven’t had any lately, buy Indian takeout for lunch; scour for leftovers – it might be the Indian food again – for dinner.

There are lots of ‘black’ stereotypes. Which one or ones irritate you the most?

It’s what black people are supposed to sound like. My father was very fussy about his children not speaking with street lingo, but rather with standard English. So people have said that I don’t “sound” black. Well, I AM black, and this is what I sound like; ipso facto, I sound black, Jack.

You asked this of me, so I’m turning it back: Are we really in a ‘post-racial’ society, and if not, how attainable IS such a thing?

Oh, goodness, no. In some ways, the myth that the Obama election meant that we as a nation are beyond race, has temporarily slowed progress. The narrative is belied by any number of bits from the last thing I wrote in answer to a question of yours.

Racism, and homophobia, and a lot of bigotry become mitigated only by knowing people who are not like yourself. It gets chipped away a little at a time, like the sea gradually wearing down a sandcastle on the beach. It doesn’t go away at once; sometimes, things get worse before they get better. Maybe in another 50 years?

Are there any countries you think you’d like to visit if not for the fact that you’re pretty sure you wouldn’t find anything you liked eating there?

Garrison Keillor has made me nervous about Scandinavia; all that talk about lutefisk, which I had once and found to be awful.

I decided that I wouldn’t back any more Kickstarter items for a while. Then Elaine Lee and Michael William Kaluta, who had had an unjust run-in with Disney/Marvel not long ago over their creation, Starstruck, are putting out a new Starstruck item. OK, after that one, NO MORE Kickstarter for a while.

Jane Henson 1934-2013, widow of Jim, and a force in her own right.

 

L is for Leadbelly

When my father would come to my elementary school to sing, he’d always perform the song Goodnight, Irene.

 

The Wikipedia post for Leadbelly starts “Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk and blues musician.” Truer words were never written. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence.

Huddie spent time in and out of prison between 1915 and 1934, including for killing a man. It’s almost certain that he got his nickname Lead Belly, or Leadbelly, while behind bars. In 1933, “he was ‘discovered’ by folklorists John Lomax and his then 18-year-old son Alan Lomax during a visit to the Angola Prison Farm. Deeply impressed by his vibrant tenor voice and huge repertoire, they recorded him on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress.”

Possibly his best-known song was Goodnight, Irene; LISTEN to his take. The year after he died, The Weavers recorded a version [LISTEN] which “first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on June 30, 1950, and lasted 25 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1. The Weavers’ enormous success inspired many other artists to release their own versions of the song, many of which were themselves commercially successful.” When my father would come to my elementary school to sing, he’d always perform the song, causing my classmates to assume that I had a crush on the girl in my class named Irene – I did not – and that I had put my father up to it – I had not.

Here is Yahoo’s list of the ten best songs by Lead Belly:

10. Ain’t It a Shame
9. Blood Done Signed My Name
8. Gallis Pole – LISTEN HERE or HERE. You may be familiar with the cover, Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin [LISTEN, I hope].
7. Midnight Special – LISTEN. A live cover by Creedence Clearwater Revival [LISTEN]
6. Bourgeois Blues – LISTEN HERE or HERE. LISTEN to a live cover by Taj Mahal
5. He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word – LISTEN
4. On a Monday – LISTEN HERE or HERE
3. In New Orleans (House of the Rising Sun) – LISTEN. You probably know the version by the Animals [LISTEN]
2. Black Betty – LISTEN
1. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” (In the Pines) – LISTEN. It was later covered by Nirvana.

My favorite song performed by Leadbelly, though, is We’re in the Same Boat, Brother [LISTEN]. “And if you shake one end, you’re gonna rock the other.”

Here are some more lyrics:

The Lord looked down from his holy place
Said Lordy me, what a sea of space
What a spot to launch the human race
So he built him a boat with a mixed-up crew,
With eyes of Black and Brown and Blue.
So that’s how come that you and I
Got just one world and just one sky.

Leadbelly songs that have been covered

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

Do I lack a sense of humor?

OBVIOUSLY I am a humorless fellow.

Sometimes, I watch, for a minute or two, some comedian on Comedy Central – the TV was set there from recording The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Much more often than not, I find the person seriously unfunny. And it has long been such.

One time, around 1989, I was at my girlfriend’s house. I was feeling kind of dragged out, and though it was Thursday night I don’t believe I went to choir rehearsal. After choir, she invited a few of our choir friends home, which was OK.

At some point, one of the choir members makes a joke. I don’t specifically remember the story, but it made mention of some Jamaican man’s genitalia and its large size. I thought it was not only off-color (about which I probably would have let pass) but also racist. But I didn’t say anything for a couple of hours. Maybe my illness has made me more touchy, I mused. But when it STILL bugged me, I felt I needed to say something.

So I told the teller of the joke that I didn’t enjoy the joke, and that I found it racially offensive. She quickly and sincerely apologized.

Then her friend said, “Oh, Roger, you just don’t have a sense of humor.” Between feeling crummy, and being really annoyed with her dismissing my feelings, not to mention that I had not been addressing her, I said to her something I think I’ve only said two or three times to another human being in my life: “F@#$ YOU!” Not my finest hour, but there it is.

OBVIOUSLY, I am a humorless fellow. That wasn’t either the first or last time someone has leveled that charge at me, though generally, I respond with a little more civility.

Actually, I find LOTS of things funny. Seriously, I do. Just not that. Or that. And certainly not THAT.

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