July 2024 - Page 2 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Lydster: Boggled

Wade In The Water

I am boggled by my daughter’s prowess at the word game Boggle. In 2017, I wrote about the game itself. Then, in 2021, I noted how much better my daughter plays.

Now, she beats me. Every time. I will have a small lead at some point, but she always comes back. She usually beats her mother, too. But my worst results happen when I play both of them. Each of them finds different words that I write down.

Of course, she used words I didn’t see, but also ones I didn’t really know, such as grava and weap.

My wife and I were also boggled by the tattoo she got this month in honor of the late feline Midnight. The design she developed was based on his photo, plus the moon and stars. No, we did not know that was going to happen.

God’s gonna trouble the water.

I was also mildly surprised to hear her singing Wade In The Water around the house. Usually, she’s into a song from 1990s soul artists. Indeed, I did not know she knew the song. I asked her how she learned it, but we got more into the song’s derivation.

Some of her friends suggested it was NOT tied to Harriet Tubman sending a message to enslaved people escaping their bondage. The National Parks Service agrees: “Tubman sang two songs while operating her rescue missions: “Go Down Moses,” and “Bound for the Promised Land.” However, I can find several references stating otherwise. The song is generally considered a recognition that one should venture into even unknown waters because God will be there.

The song was famously included in the 1901 “New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The book was published by Frederick J. Work and his brother John Wesley Work Jr., a teacher at the HBCU Fisk University in Nashville who spent years collecting and promulgating songs of this nature.” Here’s a later iteration of the group performing the song.

BlackHistory360 and a United Methodist minister describe the tale’s biblical roots. While it does reference the famous Moses Crossing the Red Sea story in Exodus, the heart is a New Testament tale.

The Gospel

“The refrain… is based upon the narrative of John 5:2-9. It is the story of the pool by the Sheep Gate—Bethzatha in Hebrew. A portion of this passage follows: “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda… In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had .”

It has been embraced by generations of Civil Rights activists. When I was growing up, I thought of it initially as a response to the insane reaction some white communities had to black kids swimming in the local municipal pool or even a particular section of a lake, which I wrote about here; bizarrely, in 2009, there was a then-contemporary example.

Wade In The Water:

Brother John Sellers

Ella Jenkins

The Soul Stirrers

Ramsey Lewis

The Staple Singers

So, my daughter’s venture into older music, which I did not expect, was fruitful.

The 100 best books of the 21st century

The New Jim Crow

“These are the 100 best books of the 21st century, as voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, and critics.” So sayeth The New York Times. Alas, I’ve read but a few of them. Still, I will mention the ones for which I have… some relationship beyond seeing the author interviewed on CBS Saturday Morning, such as #76 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022).

#88 The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (2010)

Around 2012, Lydia Davis spoke at the Albany Public Library, and I picked up this book. A few years later, the Friends and Foundation named her a Literary Legend, and I got to speak with her a half dozen times. “If her work has become a byword for short (nay, microdose) fiction, this collection proves why it is also hard to shake; a conflagration of odd little umami bombs — sometimes several pages, sometimes no more than a sentence — whose casual, almost careless wordsmithery defies their deadpan resonance.”

#69 The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (2010)

Not only did I read it, I reviewed it. It’s an important book.

#48 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)

I took the graphic novel to a work conference but left it in my hotel room. They shipped it back to me, but it cost me more than buying the book again. It’s here waiting to be read. However, I did watch the movie on a flight from Paris to New York City in May 2023 and liked it.

#36 Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)

In 2016, I wrote that I SHOULD read the book, and subsequently, I did but failed to review it. I found it moving.

A Family Tragicomic

#35 Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006)

I did not read the graphic novel, even though ADD said I should, and he’s usually correct. And I probably will. However, I did a touring company production of the musical in 2017 at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, and I own the Original Cast Album. Here’s the performance from the Tony Awards in 2015

#26 Atonement by Ian McEwan (2002)

I saw the movie adaptation in 2008, which I did not love.

#20 Erasure by Percival Everett 2001

I saw the movie adaptation in January 2024, and I LOVED it! However, they changed the title to American Fiction.

#16 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)

Someone lent this to me years ago, and I got to about page 59 before stopping, and I no longer remember why. It’s still sitting on my shelf, next to Persepolis. Yes, 2000 is in the 20th century; I didn’t make the list.

#7 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)

It’s been on my Amazon list since 2021.

#2 The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (2010)

My wife has read and thoroughly enjoyed this 600-page book in the past few years. It’s about the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to the North and West from 1915 to 1970.

COVID surges in dozens of states

FLiRT

**Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2021 boundaries, summitpost.org, National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS). CARSON ELM-PICARD FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE**

A headline in the Boston Globe (firewall) for July 16: COVID surges to ‘very high’ or ‘high’ levels in dozens of states, including multiple in New England, CDC says.

The Globe posts illnesses and deaths in its service area each week. While it’s nowhere near what it was at the height of the pandemic, it’s not zero. Check out the death statistics.

Also, “wastewater surveillance data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the prevalence of COVID has hit ‘very high’ levels in seven states, including California, Texas, and Florida.”

So it is not a shock that Joe Biden contracted the disease again. I’m told that at least 15 people attending the 1973/1974/1975 Binghamton Central High School reunion got it.

From the Los Angeles Times this month

July 1 -COVID-19 cases are continuing to climb in Los Angeles County, as are the number of people hospitalized with infections, as the typical summer surge in the illness creeps up.

Doctors have noted an earlier-than-normal rise for this time of year, which in L.A. County began in May. Among those recently testing positive for the coronavirus was Mayor Karen Bass… The mayor tested positive for the first time last June…

The new FLiRT subvariants, officially known as KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1.1, are believed to be roughly 20% more transmissible than their parent, JN.1, the winter’s dominant subvariant, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease expert at UC San Francisco, has said.

For the two-week period that ended June 22, the most recent information available, 62.9% of estimated COVID specimens in the U.S. were of the FLiRT variants — up from 45.3% a month earlier.

The rise is due to the FLiRT variant.

July 8: COVID cases and hospitalizations rise in L.A. County — and some of those recently reinfected with the FLiRT variants are finding the latest bout the worst yet.

The following week

July 15: For the first time since the winter, California has “very high” coronavirus levels in its wastewater, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state levels are now estimated to be significantly higher than last summer.

The increase comes as national virus measurements in sewage also have jumped significantly, an indication that the summer bump is continuing to grow.

July 16: COVID is continuing to rise this summer, and its spread is being aided by people who are still going to work or traveling while sick.

“Certainly, people are trying to get back to whatever life was like before the pandemic,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “We’re in a different place than we were before. … However, good common sense shouldn’t go out the window.”

FLiRT

Johns Hopkins describes FLiRT:

When it comes to symptoms, we’re not seeing anything new or different with these variants. We continue to see more mild disease, but that’s likely not because the virus is milder, but because our immunity is so much stronger now. After years of vaccinations and infections, most of the population is better able to fight off an infection without as much concern for severe disease…

As with previous variants, some people may have detectable live virus for up to a week after their symptoms begin, and some may experience rebound symptoms.

At-home testing remains a really important tool for knowing whether you could potentially infect others.

The good news is that Paxlovid is still recommended for high-risk individuals. It still works against variants up to JN.1, and based on the sequencing of the FLiRT variants, they should still be susceptible to Paxlovid, as well as to antiviral drugs like molnupiravir and remdesivir.

It’s always a good idea to keep a few COVID tests around the house in case you start to feel sick. Testing—whether at home or in a health care setting—will make sure you know what you’re infected with, which can inform the best treatment plan if you are in a high-risk group or your symptoms progress to more severe illness.

If you do feel sick, follow the CDC’s simplified guidance for respiratory illnesses. This is especially important if you plan to spend time with friends or family who are at higher risk of severe illness.

Sister Leslie loves music

Happy birthday, Leslie!

No doubt: sister Leslie loves music.

I’ve known Leslie longer than almost anyone. Perhaps I met a cousin of my father in the couple of years I was alive before Leslie was born, but I have no specific recollection of that.

I grew up with Leslie. We went to the same elementary school with an ancient music book from which we sang. When I found a facsimile several years ago, I had to send her a copy.

I remember which LPs were hers and which were mine. She had, among others, Lady Soul – Aretha, Look at Us – Sonny and Cher, and Supremes A Go-Go. We, along with our little sister and a neighbor girl, would lipsynch to the songs of my Beatles VI album. Leslie was Paul because he was left-handed, like her, and cute.

Of course, we attended the same church and sang in two different iterations of the junior choir. One was the MAZET singers, which our father directed. MAZET is an anagram of the initials of Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Zion. Eventually, we both sang in the senior choir, though she was there longer than I did because I went away to college.

Trio

I’ve mentioned the Green Family Singers, which are comprised of Dad, Leslie, and me, in the past. She learned to play guitar functionally in about a month! Not incidentally, she now owns Dad’s steel-stringed Gibson guitar, but playing it is tough on her fingers.

Leslie and I sang in the Binghamton Central High School choir together for a year and a half. If we could find a soprano and tenor who knew the other parts, we could probably still sing some of that music from memory.

She was in a series of pop bands around Binghamton, the only one I remember being called Crystal Ship. Also, she attended what is now Binghamton University, where she participated in choirs. She was also in a few musicals in the community theater, including A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Hair; she kept her clothes on.

Her primary source of income was when she moved to Puerto Rico in the early 80s. I wish I had come down and seen her.

SoCal

When she moved to southern California, she sang in church and community choirs. I have a couple of her church choir’s Christmas concerts, and she almost always has a solo. Occasionally, she’s even directed a couple of church choirs.

When she was on a tour ship with her daughter, the singer Rebecca Jade, in 2018, she got to duet with Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone. She participated in singing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall in 2022, which my daughter and I enjoyed seeing.

Leslie recently visited a music store going out of business and learned about a slim guitar from Canada with nylon strings called Godin. On her next visit, it was marked down, though still pricey. With the help of her favorite daughter, she bought it! Moreover, she’s enjoying relearning the tunes she used to play.

Leslie and I can have very arcane conversations about music on a Zoom call with our baby sister. “Do you remember how that chord structure worked?” Marcia’s eyes glaze over. When I wrote recently that I love to sing the bass harmony, even when I’m in the congregation, Leslie sent me a message saying, “Oh yeah, I totally sing alto in the congregation.” We have the same sort of sensibility.

This picture from the San Diego Master Chorale epitomizes her joy of music. So, happy birthday, Leslie. May music always be in your heart; I know that it will.

Movie review: Janet Planet

the Berkshires

After seeing a rather endearing trailer, my wife and I went to the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany to see the movie Janet Planet on a Tuesday evening.

It’s weird. After we shared our impressions afterward, we pointed out some interesting things about what the movie set out to do in depicting a single mom (the title character played by Juliana Nicholson) and her tween daughter Lacy (Zoey Ziegler) in 1991.

Yet, seeing the film in real-time, the revelations unfolded too slowly and possibly obliquely for our taste.

Early during the movie, an older gentleman in the audience pulled out his phone. I thought it strange until I realized that he was turning up his hearing aid. The first section, the one featuring Janet’s brusque boyfriend Wayne (Will Patton), was almost all long shots and difficult to hear.

The next section involved the troupe of performers, which was interesting enough, as Janet reconnects with old friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo). This section is at least slightly more interesting. The third act involves that group – is it a cult? – Guru, Avi (Elias Koteas).

Lacy, meanwhile, is largely observing her mother’s life, making sometimes pointed comments. But mostly, she is alone in her thoughts except for her increasingly interesting doll house characters. She has no friends except, briefly, one. Her piano lessons seem a chore for both the student and her instructor.

Reviews

The Rotten Tomatoes critics’ reviews were 84% positive. One compared it favorably with the mother/daughter piece Lady Bird. I LIKED Lady Bird.

One negative review by Rich Cline reflected our thoughts: “The mannered approach means that story only comes to life in brief spurts of insight, especially as the excellent cast adds details to characters who are somewhat undefined. But much of the film involves watching nothing happen at all.”

I generally agreed with the audience reviews, which were only 40% positive. While I don’t think it was “pointless” or “the worst film in decades,” which I read more than once, “this is a very, very slow film in which little happens. If the characters were the least bit engaging, this might have worked.”

I was bored and impatient, and my wife wished she had not gone.

It does have some nice western Massachusetts scenery, which we were familiar with. The story is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker. It supposedly “captures a child’s experience of time passing, and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly sublime film debut.”

It just didn’t work for us.

Also, the title kept reminding me of Van Morrison’s first wife.