My baby-sitter
was a born again Christian,
and a old movie fan.
I remember she’d let us
stay up late watching the
old, black & white movies
on the UHF channels.
And some-times, she’d
become reflective about
the shadows
moving across the screen,
& say things like,
“See all those people?
They’re all burning in hell.”
The Old West
was nothing like in the movies.
Especially movies like
The Exorcist or Narnia.
Trust me, friend, the West
wasn’t anything like that
With online banking
I now have the convenience of laughing all the way
to the bank
homepage
version II: a camel to go
I laughed all the way to the bank
but then
I hyperventilated all the way to the line
& then
I must have passed out on my way to the teller
as
I was unconscious all the way to the hospital
though
I definitely screamed all the way to Hell
discoveries:
Nothing is so funny as to risk your health, folks
version III: getting tired of all this laughing
Once I laughed all the way to the bank
but when I got there it was closed
so instead
I laughed all the way to the library
but they just told me to be quiet
first snowfall:
dust flittering, quietly
off an unattended shelf
books from my childhood
you have no idea
how little I knew
before I knew you.
lighthouse, alight home
your pillow is always the softest.
loving you is like walking in the door, warm
the snow soaks into my clothes
turning to water and
rinsing me clean
you’ve always felt like
the sky itself, nestled
in my veins
never quite the gambling man,
you said you never believed in luck
until you saw my chances
and cast a bet anyway.
https://pixabay.com/en/performance-music-musician-concert-3202707/
***
IF
***
you feel the music
before you hear any words
then you know it’s good
***
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• Dave Matthews did not name his band the Dave Matthews Band. Instead, shortly after the group formed, a manager of a club needed a name to put on posters advertising the show. Band horns expert Leroi Moore told the manager to simply put “Dave Matthews” on the posters, as that was enough to ensure an audience, but the manager decided to add “Band” at the end. Mr. Matthews himself jokes that he would like to rename the band as “The Band That Used To Be Called The Dave Matthews Band But Isn’t Any More Because It Was Wrongly Named To Begin With.” Of course, Mr. Matthews is the leader of the band, and band concerts are known not just for the music, but for “Davespeak,” which occurs when Mr. Matthews speaks about whatever he wants to, whether it is his favorite TV show or boxer shorts. Speaking of music, the Dave Matthews Band, like the Grateful Dead, encourages tape-trading. Fans are encouraged to tape the shows and swap tapes with other fans. The Dave Matthews Band has even allowed fans to plug their recording equipment directly into the band’s soundboard. Early in their career, it was possible to get a spot on the board, but now they are so successful that getting a spot may be impossible. (Tape-trading is distinct from bootlegging; bootlegging is done for profit, while tape-trading is not.) Tape-trading helped the Dave Matthews Band gets fans even in places it had not performed in before. Band violinist Boyd Tinsley remembers, “We’d never been to Alabama before. We’d go to this place, and cars would be lined up down the road, and there’d be all these people going to this big club. We’d be sitting in our red van saying, “Oh, my God!” Tape-trading also helped the Dave Matthews Band get a recording contract with a major record label. An intern brought a tape to his boss at RCA Records, and the boss liked what he heard. The boss telephoned another RCA Records VIP in New York to tell him about the Dave Matthews Band. (Full disclosure: Actually, the VIP in New York, Peter Robinson, was already planning to see the Dave Matthews Band in concert that very night.)
• Joe Williams became famous singing the blues, but for a long time he was paid more to sing popular songs such as ballads—which he and others called “pretty songs” and “pretty tunes.” In 1941, Mr. Williams was being paid $45 a week to sing the blues. In between the blues shows, he remembers, he would sing “all kinds of pretty tunes of the day.” Coleman Hawkins listened to the pretty tunes, liked what he heard, and told him, “I want you to come with me and travel as my vocalist. I don’t want you to sing the blues. I want you to sing the pretty songs, and I’m gonna give you $80 a week.” Mr. Williams jokes, “I lost my allegiance to the blues just like that!” The same thing kept happening. Andy Kirk wanted him to sing the pretty songs and let Beverly White sing the blues. And Lionel Hampton wanted him to sing the pretty songs and let Dinah Washington sing the blues. In 1954, Mr. Williams started singing with Count Basie’s band. He sang “Everyday I Have the Blues” and kept singing the blues after that.
• Some people are brilliant, among them DustoMcNeato, aka Dustin McLean, who is a filmmaker in Pasadena. He says, “Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video? Well now they do ….” DustoMcNeato had the idea of taking music videos and rerecording the lyrics so that what is sung simply states what is happening in the music video. Many people have borrowed this idea, and on <youtube.com> are a number of videos that give the “Literal Video Version” of famous songs. Check out DustoMcNeato’s Literal Video Version of “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears at <youtube.com>. Sample lyrics: “I’ve got a stack of books to return / I wish they were better / Now I’m singing in the library / And trying to flirt.” Search <youtube.com> for “Literal Video Version” to see other videos of this kind.
• When author Wilborn Hampton was a young person, he and some kids from the neighborhood played Elvis Presley’s new RCA record “Heartbreak Hotel” in a backyard. He and the neighborhood kids danced to the music. Suddenly, a neighbor lady opened her door and yelled, “Jezebels! You should all be ashamed of yourselves! That music is evil!” Then she went back inside. Wilborn and the others turned down the volume of the music a little and kept dancing. Certainly, people—especially females—reacted to Elvis strongly. Very early in Elvis’ career, Mae Axton, a publicist for Colonel Thomas A. Parker, asked a girl who had been jumping up and down and squealing while Elvis sang, “Honey, what is it about this kid?” The girl replied, “He’s just a great big beautiful hunk of forbidden fruit.”
• Many people hope to discover geniuses, but geniuses are rare. When cellist Pablo Casals wanted to go to Paris (for a second time) in 1899 to become a famous musician, he asked for a letter of introduction from Count Guillermo de Morphy to famed French conductor Charles Lamoureux. Mr. Lamoureux read the letter, and then he groaned, “Everyone thinks to discover genius.” However, he allowed Mr. Casals to audition for him the following day. After Mr. Casals played, Mr. Lamoureux, with tears in his eyes, told him, “You are one of the elect.”
• Richard Strauss was a musical genius, but he was also the leading musical figure among the Nazis. For that reason, many people did not want his music to be played in the United States during and after World War II. One person who disagreed was conductor Bruno Walter, who stated, “I dislike Strauss as a person, and I abhor everything for which he stood. But Strauss is a genius, and some of his works are masterpieces. I cannot, in all honesty, boycott masterpieces because I detest their composer.”
• In 1968-1969, youths threw eggs at several opera-goers at Milan. Why? The opera-goers were very well dressed, and the youths wanted opera to be democratized.
***
Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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Chapter 20 – What Befell Candide and Martin on Their Passage
The old philosopher, whose name was Martin, took shipping with Candide for Bordeaux. Both had seen and suffered a great deal, and had the ship been going from Surinam to Japan round the Cape of Good Hope, they could have found sufficient entertainment for each other during the whole voyage, in discoursing upon moral and natural evil.
Candide, however, had one advantage over Martin: he lived in the pleasing hopes of seeing Miss Cunegund once more; whereas, the poor philosopher had nothing to hope for. Besides, Candide had money and jewels, and, not withstanding he had lost a hundred red sheep laden with the greatest treasure outside of El Dorado, and though he still smarted from the reflection of the Dutch skipper’s knavery, yet when he considered what he had still left, and repeated the name of Cunegund, especially after meal times, he inclined to Pangloss’s doctrine.
“And pray,” said he to Martin, “what is your opinion of the whole of this system? What notion have you of moral and natural evil?”
“Sir,” replied Martin, “our priest accused me of being a Socinian; but the real truth is, I am a Manichaean.”
“Nay, now you are jesting,” said Candide; “there are no Manichaeans existing at present in the world.”
“And yet I am one,” said Martin; “but I cannot help it. I cannot for the soul of me think otherwise.”
“Surely the Devil must be in you,” said Candide.
“He concerns himself so much,” replied Martin, “in the affairs of this world that it is very probable he may be in me as well as everywhere else; but I must confess, when I cast my eye on this globe, or rather globule, I cannot help thinking that God has abandoned it to some malignant being. I always except El Dorado. I scarce ever knew a city that did not wish the destruction of its neighboring city; nor a family that did not desire to exterminate some other family. The poor in all parts of the world bear an inveterate hatred to the rich, even while they creep and cringe to them; and the rich treat the poor like sheep, whose wool and flesh they barter for money; a million of regimented assassins traverse Europe from one end to the other, to get their bread by regular depredation and murder, because it is the most gentlemanlike profession. Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured with envy, care, and inquietudes, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town besieged. Private chagrins are still more dreadful than public calamities. In a word,” concluded the philosopher, “I have seen and suffered so much that I am a Manichaean.”
“And yet there is some good in the world,” replied Candide.
“Maybe so,” said Martin, “but it has escaped my knowledge.”
While they were deeply engaged in this dispute they heard the report of cannon, which redoubled every moment. Each took out his glass, and they spied two ships warmly engaged at the distance of about three miles. The wind brought them both so near the French ship that those on board her had the pleasure of seeing the fight with great ease. After several smart broadsides the one gave the other a shot between wind and water which sunk her outright. Then could Candide and Martin plainly perceive a hundred men on the deck of the vessel which was sinking, who, with hands uplifted to Heaven, sent forth piercing cries, and were in a moment swallowed up by the waves.
“Well,” said Martin, “you now see in what manner mankind treat one another.”
“It is certain,” said Candide, “that there is something diabolical in this affair.” As he was speaking thus he spied something of a shining red hue, which swam close to the vessel. The boat was hoisted out to see what it might be, when it proved to be one of his sheep. Candide felt more joy at the recovery of this one animal than he did grief when he lost the other hundred, though laden with the large diamonds of El Dorado.
The French captain quickly perceived that the victorious ship belonged to the crown of Spain; that the other was a Dutch pirate, and the very same captain who had robbed Candide. The immense riches which this villain had amassed, were buried with him in the deep, and only this one sheep saved out of the whole.
“You see,” said Candide to Martin, “that vice is sometimes punished. This villain, the Dutch skipper, has met with the fate he deserved.”
“Very true,” said Martin, “but why should the passengers be doomed also to destruction? God has punished the knave, and the Devil has drowned the rest.”
The French and Spanish ships continued their cruise, and Candide and Martin their conversation. They disputed fourteen days successively, at the end of which they were just as far advanced as the first moment they began. However, they had the satisfaction of disputing, of communicating their ideas, and of mutually comforting each other. Candide embraced his sheep with transport.
“Since I have found thee again,” said he, “I may possibly find my Cunegund once more.”
***
Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Candide
***
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Great Post, I love this, you give me a exciting.
— Maurice Neumayer
Exciting what?! THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING US!
— Tati & Tony (Adepts of Excited Exits and Exited Excites)
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
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