Walkabout

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker, (attributed)

Well here we go again.  Grab your oar, we are on the stream of consciousness. It's all because there was a movie that I had heard about but never seen until Saturday:  Walkabout is an Australian film from an era in the 1970s when several of the films were rather mystical.  Ones you may have heard of would include The Last Wave or Picnic at Hanging Rock.   This all led into a massive Google fest.  You can read all the links at your leisure or just enjoy the movie review.

Walkabout stars two actors that are iconic in Australian and British films for vastly different reasons and this was the first or one of the first for both of them.    If you have seen an image of an Aboriginal actor or dancer in the last 40 years, the chances are it was David Gulipil and despite a distinguished acting career of several decades, the young images of Jenny Agutter mark a standard of teen aged perfection for this time period in the beautifully done nude swimming scenes.

Walkabout starts in a modern city and a father driving his children out to the wilderness for a picnic.  Then it takes a very strange twist as he attempts to kill his children and after they run away, sets fire to the car and commits suicide.  This leaves the children stranded and completely separated from civilization in a totally foreign and dangerous world.  The contrast between the modern world they have left and the natural world they have entered are the center of this film.  This is a movie with little dialog at first  because energy is just consumed by the need to survive and after meeting up with an Aboriginal boy on walkabout because of the language differences.  These silences are filled with amazing cinematography of the land and it's plants and animals in all stages of life.  You have no trouble understanding the relationships within the movie because of these creative images as the director moves between the human beings and their surroundings.

Even if you find fault with the obvious message of the exploitation of the natural world and cultures by an invading civilization, the dichotomy between the images of the city and the truly stunning Australian landscapes provide the best reason to watch this movie.   I won't spoil the denouement that brings a somewhat unsettling end other than it will leave you thinking.  The movie closes with a small bit of poetry that I again had to Google to be sure of the source.  As it turns out the whole 63 poem work is available online and I've provided a link should you wish to read this masterpiece by A. E. Houseman.

INTO my heart on air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

A. E. Houseman, from A Shropshire Lad

Only Remembered

On this day we remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives in the service of their countries.  To often we forget the companions of men in all the wars.  One place honors them and a new play gives them voice.  In the midst of remembering family and friends, take a few minutes to give honor to those animals in war:  They Had No Choice  and the new play in New York that tells their story:  War Horse

Up and away like the dew in the morning,
Soaring from the earth to its home in the sun,
Thus we would pass from the earth and its toiling,
Only remembered for what we have done.
Only the truth that in life we have spoken.
Only the seed we have sown,
These shall pass onward when we're forgotten,
Fruits of the harvest and what we have done.

Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what we have done,
Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what we have done.

Shall we be missed when the others succeed us,
Keeping the fields we in springtime have sown?
No, for the sowers shall pass from their labors,
Only remembered for what they have done.

Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what they have done,
Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what they have done.

Up and away like the dew in the morning,
Soaring from the earth to its home in the sun,
Thus we would pass from the earth and its toiling,
Only remembered for what we have done.


Words and music by John R. Sweeney and William J. Kirkpatrick, from "On Joyful Wing, A Book of Praise and Song" published by John J. Hood in 1886.

5 On Friday - Dylan

Another 5 on Friday courtesy of Trav at Trav's Thoughts rolls around.  Stop by to sign in and go forth to share your choice of music.

On May 27, 1963, Bob Dylan's breakthrough album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", was released.  I had discovered Dylan in Fall of the previous year courtesy of a friend who had gone mad about the poetry and first album.  This means that Bob and I have been keeping company for almost a half century. Pass the smelling salts.  I want to be awake for the music.









And just to let Joan get in her two cents worth

A Simple Meditation

A few minutes of peace and contemplation




108 Bows Part 1



108 Bows Part 2

Thank You Doug Adams

Doug Adams has been dead for ten years, but he is still ahead of his time.  On this "Towel Day", you might want to take the time to read his article on How to Stop Worrying and Love The Internet.







Grab your Hitchhiker's Guide, towel and babblefish, it's time to celebrate Douglas Adams.

Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams. On this day, fans carry a towel with them to demonstrate their love for the books and the author. The commemoration was first held in 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on May 11, 2001.

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. ... For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

---- Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

If you have never read the many works of Douglas Adams, do not make the mistake of thinking of him as "just" a science fiction writer or "just" a humorist or "just" a commentator on all that surrounded him and attracted his attention. He was quite simply one of the most original thinkers to bless the planet while giving you a truly big laugh.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.

Reality is frequently inaccurate.

He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry 'I could have thought of that' is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn't.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

So long and thanks for all the fish

So sad that it should come to this

We tried to warn you all but oh dear

You may not share our intellect

Which might explain your disrespect

For all the natural wonders that

grow around you

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

The world's about to be destroyed

There's no point getting all annoyed

Lie back and let the planet dissolve

Around you

Despite those nets of tuna fleets

We thought that most of you were sweet

Especially tiny tots and your

pregnant women

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

If I had just one last wish

I would like a tasty fish

If we could just change one thing

We would all have learned to sing

Come one and all

Man and mammal

Side by side 

In life's great gene pool

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

Short Message From The Environment

This is a song written by Eric Taylor and performed by Daniel Whittington. Lyle Lovett also recorded it for his Natural Forces Album.



WHOOPING CRANE

I Think I'll look around for a whooping crane
I Think I'll look around for a whooping crane
What do ya think this pain has got me?
You think I'm uptight but I'm not
It's just that, I look around for a whooping crane
and I can't find one...

So, I Think I'll look around for a drinking stream
I think I'll look around for a drinking stream
They say you turned the water to wine
And they must have been right this time because
I look around for a drinking stream but I can't find one...

Mighty red man painted ponies brown
Fallen Eagle, feathers on the ground
and the bulletts they spin your dreams around
and they paint your face on the penny brown

So, I think I'll look around for the Yellow stones

I think I'll look around for the Yellowstones
Set your eyes on the eagle's flight,
Cause the, the eyes of God have lost their sight
I look around for the Yellow stones, but I can't find one...

Mighty red man painted ponies brown
Fallen Eagle, feathers on the ground
And the bulletts they spin your dreams around
And they paint your face on the penny brown

Think I'll look around for a whooping crane
I Think I'll look around for a whooping crane
What do ya think this pain has got me?
You think I'm uptight but I'm not,it's just that
I look around for a whooping crane and I can't find one...

Poetry Saturday

Old poem with lots of references here from events, movies and musicals of past decades.  Have fun figuring them all out.

A LOOK BACK

I wrote a line under the influence of wine about

what was then and when I felt more myself than now.

How love is lost to be recaptured when boy meets girl

in a whirl of 50's, when we all believed in ever after.

Stories had endings of a happy note and scripts were rote

based on Cinderella and Charming.  Virgins were alarming

when filled with the next generation.

But now we do it by ourselves as if impregnated by elves

or Dopey or Doc - A tick upon the clock, to be or not to be.

These are the decisions made once laid by Charming

or his friends.  It lends itself to small ideals

One feels that yesterday was best.

Lest all things come to an end, the video store will

lend you a happy ending.

I was born when flags were waving, saving the world

from whatever.  We never saw what was to come

when we were numb from caring, when Astaire and Rogers

would be bothers but sharing the latest stock report

or a wart on democracy was the thing.

Woodstock, Beatles and now Forbes and Liz can spend

a fortune on their balloons or toons and Roger Rabbit are the fad.

Without brass bands we sit to watch garbage sent

to outer space.  That's the only place left undefiled,

untouched by human hands.  I want a little Rooney

and Garland, Andy and his girl, a simpler place to

face the world left by them to us.  Why the fuss?

when we all think the same and blame

is laid to rest on what is left of Berlin's wall.

I lag behind the general mind of Penn and Madonna

I want something more for me and the poor

who ask, "Why Not?", but that's an echo of long ago

for a generation born when the world was worth saving

and Astaire, Kelly and Cyd had their way.

where a nightingale sang in Barkley Square, but

now there's Cher when I would rather have Minnelli.

Silly, but I like brides for every brother and

other things like wings on my monkeys, who

weren't on backs.  We lack the ability

to see things as they used to be before the

Baby Boom and zoom lenses on Japanese cameras.

I love Baryshnifov and Brodsky - All those who

left and might go back to see home again

Is it a sin to wish for open borders.

Help If you remember the songs of that time when

friends were friends and ends were what we hoped for

more than suburbia and cars in every garage.

A collage of then and now when we can begin

again to sing in the rain and listen to a

Carmichael skylark or just double park on

New York streets.  What sweets await

those with good memories who actually

believe in dancing on ceilings and feelings

that Brigadoon just might come again in

something other than revival

Let's put on our silk stockings and Porter, you

ought to pay attention to rhyme and time that

doesn't come again when funny girls were

whirls of life, because we all were kidds

Michael and otherwise.  Still Fosse is a

soft spot in the pajama game of fame and

all that jazz.  But Gigi, how close we stand

on land made shaky by Middle East and

Debakey and we can't even get the heart

transplanted into tomorrow.

5 On Friday - Forever In Blue Jeans

Another 5 on Friday courtesy of Trav at Trav's Thoughts.

If you'd like to join in, here are the guidelines:

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your Set of five songs. You may choose a particular theme to share with us, or post random tunes if that's your vibe for the day. You can simply post the Set, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

2a. Don't feel restricted by the tracks listed on Playlist.com. And don't be discouraged if the Embed code won't work. You're welcome to use any type of media to share your Sets.

3. Be sure to sign Mr Linky so everyone can visit your Set.

4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

Go forth and enjoy music!

On this day in history in 1873 acting at the behest of a Reno, Nevada tailor who had invented the idea, Levi Strauss secured the necessary patents for canvas pants with copper rivets to reinforce the stress points.  Americans have been wearing blue jeans ever since.  Of course if something is part of every day life, it is going to end up in the music.


There are Jeans
and then
THERE ARE JEANS

Hey It's My Blog and all the songs are about women!!!

In Memoriam

1986 portrait by Allan Warren

On May 16, 1990 I cried for someone I had never met.  It was the one and only time I ever cried over a celebrity.  You've had stories about growing up on the fringes of entertainment and how there are rarely stars in my eyes over stars other than being grateful for the joy they bring.  There was one exception.  He had been part of my consciousness from before the dawn of rock and roll with variety shows featuring "My Daddy, My Uncle and Me"; the earliest hit songs such as "Hey There"; as a member of the Rat Pack and the ring a ding ding of the Vegas years.  Most of all he was my birthday present.  Every year at least once a year, come hell or high water, sometime in the Spring my seat was planted in an Orchestra Seat to see Sammy Davis, Jr. live.  With my unending admiration for the very few geniuses of unbelievable gifts that we get to see in life, I adored this man I never knew or met except under an "Up In One" and whose talent I still miss more than two decades later.

He appeared in more than 35 movies:  dramas, comedies, and musicals between 1933 and 1990.  He was nominated for three Grammy's and posthumously was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2001 with induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.  He was nominated for five Emmy's and won once for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy for Sammy Davis, Jr.'s 60th Anniversary Celebration.  He was nominated for a Tony for "Golden Boy" and also starred on Broadway and toured in the revival of "Stop The World I Want to Get Off."  He has stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame, and on Las Vegas Boulevard.  Then there was the little trinket hung around his neck in 1987 as an Honoree of the Kennedy Center Honors.  The other awards as both performer and humanitarian consume pages but most of all he just entertained all the time, every time.  You could hear all the jokes and impressions over and over and every time you laughed because he laughed and made you believe it was the first time you had heard the same ol' story.  It was a love affair between a man and his audience best seen in this recently remastered HD version of what became his signature song:   Mr. Bojangles.  And now I'm tearing up a bit again.

Thank goodness for the videos that make it possible for Sammy to come back and dance.

5 On Friday - The IPOD Edition

If you would like to play along on this great meme, simply head over to Trav's Thoughts, sign in and follow the Rules/No Rules:

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.
2. Go to Playlist.com to make your Set of five songs. You may choose a particular theme to share with us, or post random tunes if that's your vibe for the day. You can simply post the Set, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.
2a. Don't feel restricted by the tracks listed on Playlist.com. And don't be discouraged if the Embed code won't work. You're welcome to use any type of media to share your Sets.
3. Be sure to sign Mr Linky so everyone can visit your Set.
4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday

The other day, I was listening to my IPOD and for the umpteenth time noted that there really is something from just about all forms of well done music.  So I set the songs on shuffle and wrote down the next 50 songs just to have a real look at what was there that had uploaded this week. I should note that I change the genius mixes every few weeks since the first 1500 songs get boring after awhile. This week you get the 5th song out of every group of 10 songs.












Unfortunately this particular random countdown didn't hit any of the jazz, country, bluegrass, Broadway soundtracks or anything from my Guitar Gods playlist.  Maybe during the next 1500 pieces of music.

They Did It Again

I actually purchase books from the Folio Society about once every two months or so (the less expensive under $50 variety). Unfortunately, this does not prevent them from sending me a newsletter or special mailing about signed, limited editions such as the above that actually has it's own video narrated by David Attenborough.

If anyone has a spare $995.00, a loan would be much appreciated. If, like me, you are book poor, you might enjoy viewing some of the birds in a new exhibit at the Australian Museum: Rituals of Seduction: Birds of Paradise.  At least someone or something else is getting seduced and are letting us watch.  Video of Birds of Paradise Dancing.  Thumbnails of the Birds of Paradise - Some samples below.

5 On Friday - When The Trumpet Sounds

Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?

Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?

He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray.

He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword.

The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance.

In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

Job 39:19-24 (NIV)

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows what I will be doing Saturday. When I started going to race tracks, Mom or Dad had to carry me in and I was picking horses to bet by the age of five. Saturday is the Kentucky Derby and I will be at Emerald Downs enjoying all the spectacle on their big screen TVs as well as a whole day of live racing, a wonderful buffet, and people watching the ladies wearing their pretty to silly hats.

I'm putting this up early so that everyone can check out the links if they want and so I can spend the next few days running around doing necessary errands.

This year should be one of the best ever simply because there isn't a standout star. If you would like to take a look at the contenders, You can visit them on the Churchill Downs website. If you would actually like to bet and don't have a track near you, you can set up a secure account at Twinspires. If you want to wish me luck, I'm backing two rather long shots:

DECISIVE MOMENT

ANIMAL KINGDOM


In the meantime, enjoy the horse songs.




Run For The Roses - Dan Fogelberg



Tennessee Stud - Jimmie Driftwood



Wildfire - Michael Martin Murphy



Rider In The Rain - Randy Newman



Sorry about all the talk talk, but it's a good video of "Beer For My Horses" - Toby Keith and Willie Nelson

Doolin Dalton

I absolutly love the Eagles "Desperado" Album. As concept albums go, this is one of the best. They draw on wild west history/myth of the Bill Doolin, Bill Dalton and the Wild Bunch gang  to create a series of songs that take you into the midst of a crime wave from a hundred years ago while sounding like today.  All the songs are good, but there are two major hits: Tequila Sunrise and Desperado.

Once Upon A Time

For starters they didn't live happily ever after, but while watching the Royal wedding I did get a few moments of frisson about the man I married twice and the mornings (plural) after the night before.  So we will kick this off with a song that makes me think of that once upon a time



After the wedding, we headed for a hotel. The day after would be consumed by the drive to Northern California and our escape from our families (Boy did we need to escape). I was 18 and he was 20, He lied about his under 21 California requirement age of the time (grounds for the later annulment ... impediments they speak of in the ceremony)

The following morning in early hours we are driving back when the cop pulls us over. Me in my wedding dress. He in his suit. Officer being protective as they can only be in 1962 ... "Why are YOU in this car with this "GIRL" at 5:00 AM ... yes the police really did that back then. Policeman writing out ticket on some minor complaint, new husband explaining about the wedding night, the honeymoon, the trip ... cop so apologetic but the ticket has been written. That was the FIRST morning after the night before. It's August and six months later he will be hoisting her very pregnant body above Grant avenue in San Francisco to watch the ushering in of year of the Rabbit.

In March 1963 while he was still under 21, they split for ten months just to send him back to college, give the child a name, we even held hands in the lawyer's office ...

Ten months later those two idiots went to a Christmas party and a New Year's event with B B King and by February he knows that if she wants pan-fried Chinese egg noodles, they might have to get married AGAIN.  (Yes people still did that then.) So they headed for Vegas because the Best Man and Matron of Honor knew a ranch on the outskirts where we could honeymoon ... Best laid plans of mice and men ... It is going to get very cold, as the sans telephone honeymoon location has been taken over by the owner's daughter and brood. There is nothing as cold as the back seat of a car in the middle of the Nevada desert in February unless it is a best man shooting at jack rabbits to wake up the wedding party.

It will come as no surprise that this was not a union watched over by angels. That they still sort of acknowledge each others existence with somewhat good humor and occasional passing warmth almost 49 years since that first policeman interrupted morning  long enough to say, "How have you been?" and such is a freaking miracle.

Life is funny.  It may not turn out the way you expect, but there is a lot to be said for two really nice adult children and a peaceful resolution as you creep up on 50 years of not happily ever after.