Nice Work If You Can Get It

Glitter and Be Gay from Candide

Glitter and be gay,
That's the part I play;
Here I am in Paris, France,
Forced to bend my soul
To a sordid role,
Victimized by bitter, bitter circumstance.
Alas for me! Had I remained
Beside my lady mother,
My virtue had remained unstained
Until my maiden hand was gained
By some Grand Duke or other.

Ah, 'twas not to be;
Harsh necessity
Brought me to this gilded cage.
Born to higher things,
Here I droop my wings,
Ah! Singing of a sorrow nothing can assuage.

And yet of course I rather like to revel,
Ha ha!
I have no strong objection to champagne,
Ha ha!
My wardrobe is expensive as the devil,
Ha ha!
Perhaps it is ignoble to complain...
Enough, enough
Of being basely tearful!
I'll show my noble stuff
By being bright and cheerful!
Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!

Pearls and ruby rings...
Ah, how can worldly things
Take the place of honor lost?
Can they compensate
For my fallen state,
Purchased as they were at such an awful cost?

Bracelets...lavalieres
Can they dry my tears?
Can they blind my eyes to shame?
Can the brightest brooch
Shield me from reproach?
Can the purest diamond purify my name?

And yet of course these trinkets are endearing,
Ha ha!
I'm oh, so glad my sapphire is a star,
Ha ha!
I rather like a twenty-carat earring,
Ha ha!
If I'm not pure, at least my jewels are!

Enough! Enough!
I'll take their diamond necklace
And show my noble stuff
By being gay and reckless!
Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!

Observe how bravely I conceal
The dreadful, dreadful shame I feel.
Ha ha ha ha!

The Lady With A Temper

When I knew her she was in her 70s, rather sweetly mellow and teaching my cousin and myself how to hemstitch a pillow case.  She was an excellent seamstress and an expert in crochet, tatting, and lace making.  She made the best fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy I've ever tasted and she loved her visiting grandchildren whenever they dropped in.  Still the stories of her rages were legendary.  Her children relayed that her husband would literally flee the house rather than deal with her when she was on a tear.

In the picture above, she is the rather obese woman in the funny hat in about the center of the picture.  The two elderly people are her parents.  The man holding the baby is her husband.  All the other people are eight of her nine children.  She had lost one at three years of age, but managed to get all the rest to adulthood.  So for the most part, she was pregnant for 23 years.

Now Lydia was born in 1880.  Her once wealthy family had lost everything during the civil war and as a result moved from their lost properties in Tennessee to a rather dusty portion of Texas named Jacksboro and then moved on to the larger cities of Siloam Springs Arkansas with her parents and finally at 20 to Rowe, Oklahoma with her husband in 1901 where all of those children were born.  But she always retained an air of entitlement of courtesies and behavior.  When those were violated she would make her disapproval known in no uncertain terms.

They weren't wealthy even with the ever exploding brood but he was a hard worker with his own grocery store .  Of course when he entered her room in July of 1923 to congratulate her on the birth of their latest daughter, she did throw her shoes at him and informed him if he ever entered her room again, she would kill him.   That is about the time he took to humming and singing:  "Kicking My Old Dogs Around".



Just to make things interesting, a little dustbowl came along.

When you own a store and your clientele comes from the farming community, there is no way to stay in business.  Lydia, James, and their eight children moved to Fowler, California in 1930.  Again he was able to work, this time for a grocery chain until his death in 1936, leaving her with no insurance and three children still at home.  So she went to work as a maid.  Still the imperious lady announced to the local paper when a formal tea was served in honor of her last daughter's birthday complete with the guests and description of the service.   She would work until finally able to collect Social Security and live in a tiny apartment in Chowchilla and later Fresno near her daughters.  Before she passed away at the age of 89, she dealt with the deaths of four of her remaining eight children.  In 89 years of life she dealt with everything that came along, but there were definitely times when she made it clear that she deserved better.

It probably comes as no surprise that while working on some genealogy papers, I came across this hymn written out in her perfect, well instructed, ladylike, handwriting with a request that it be sung at her funeral.  From the words it is clear that she had finally arrived at an acceptance and wisdom about life that you take your joys where you find them and deal with the bad things as they happen without anticipation.  Still I think I would have loved to see her throwing those shoes.

Lydia McKeehan Pifer (1880 - 1969)

HE KNOWS

I know not what awaits me,
God kindly veils my eyes,
And o'er each step of my onward way
He makes new scenes to rise;
And every joy He sends me comes
A sweet and glad surprise.

Where He may lead I'll follow,
My trust in Him repose;
And every hour in perfect peace,
I'll sing, "He knows, He knows";
And every hour in perfect peace,
I'll sing, "He knows, He knows."

One step I see before me,
'Tis all I need to see,
The light of heaven more brightly shines
When earth's illusions flee;
And sweetly through the silence comes,
His loving, "Trust in Me!" 

Oh, blissful lack of wisdom,
'Tis blessed not to know;
He holds me with His own right hand,
And will not let me go,
And lulls my troubled soul to rest
In Him who loves me so. 

So on I go not knowing;
I would not if I might;
I'd rather walk in the dark with God
Than go alone in the light;
I'd rather walk by faith with Him
Than go alone by sight.

LIVE

I literally "stumbled" across this today at a stumble blog called "Somethings Going Down" written by a lady who describes herself as: "I'm the duchess of all things nerdy, hot guys, nerdy guys, and movies. 50 points to Gryffindor if your mind is a messed up as mine. P. S.  My name is Emily"

Now I don't know if Emily wrote this piece or committed a small criminal act by stealing it from elsewhere. Whatever the source, it is my total philosophy of life, and I would like to thank her for putting it where I could find it in just a few words. My contribution is to give it a title: LIVE and to add this one sentence: "It is never too late to have a happy childhood."

LIVE

Take a step back. Fucking Look at yourself. You are human. You are beautiful. You are so beautiful. And you can be anything. You can be everything.

Do not hate everyone because someone broke your heart, or because your parents split up, or your best friend betrayed you, your father hit you, the kid down the street called you fat, ugly, stupid, worthless. 

Do not concern yourself with things you cannot control. Cry when you need to then let go when it’s time. Don’t hang on to painful memories just because you’re afraid to forget. Let go of things that are in the past. Forget things that aren’t worth remembering.

 Stop taking things for granted. Stop taking life for granted. Live for something. Live for yourself. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Fall in love. Do this over and over until you know what it really is to love someone.

Question things. Tell people how you really feel. Sleep under the stars. Create. Imagine. Inspire. Share something wonderful. Meet new people. Make someone’s day.

Follow your dreams. Live your life to it’s full potential. Just live, dammit. Let go of all of the horrible things in your life and fucking live.

 And one day when you’re old, look back with no regrets.

5 On Friday - The Opera Opus

Welcome to another 5 on Friday courtesy of Trav at Trav's Thoughts. To join in, just visit his site, sign in and go forth to add more music to the blogosphere on your own site. This week I have it really easy as this is the day in history when we lost the in person voice of the glorious Maria Callas. So here are five very popular arias thanks to the fact that sound was recorded and is now available full time on You Tube.

First up one of my all time favorites: O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi with a very weird video of "DRAMATIC" Callas expressions but no open mouth, just the recording.





The beautiful vissi d'arte from Tosca





One of these days I have to figure out why the first six notes of this aria make me tear up every time. Un Bel Di Vedremo from Madama Butterfly. Unfortunately for this high quality version, embedding is denied, so you will need to click on this link to You Tube.


The flirtatious gypsy seductively dances to every note with the Habanera from Carmen





And last, the Libiamo ne' lieti calici (Drinking Song) duet from La Traviata