OT ~ Welcome to Saturday!
Sit-a-while
on swinging porch
where tin-dippers and
sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.
Good morning good people!
"Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest;" lyrics sung for thousands of years, understood by few, advantaged by knowing ones in the public square, seems to me we have empty seats in the theatre, question remains... how to fill them?
One by one
Visceral, venal, subterfuge from dudes
neglecting babies' eyes
human
dismissing evolution
seeking newer prizes
wearing disguises
carrying crosses
controlling banks
constantly contriving
feeding men wants to hear
enterprises galore
peeping in front doors
Marquee reads 'Analytica'
playing now
popcorn is free
Republics, democracies
tainted in shame
passing burdens and blame
into wars mortifying
profiting
praising power,
dispensing freedoms, gratifying
entrapping kind men, too
cuddled in strange infancy
observed before by curious brains
yet hardly changing it seems
cause
"Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" ~ Paul Simon
Been a brutal week in health, finance and BS from very extended family putting new challenges in front of me, surgery--three months of rehab--taking away earning capabilities and seeing resources of grannie's pissing in the wind, when will this end?
My PC offered prescription of antidepressants, good man he is. i said no, not yet anyway.
So many here have like problems, scratching by financially and coping with health and family, i was reticent to say the above, but it is what it is.
Not to worry, sun comes up, Spring is near, though it comes late in this high country; best to celebrate surviving and contemplate climbing a mountain or playing in a stream with purple fishes.
Hoping y'all have a great day and weekend, i intend to release this steam, let it go, best one can.
Happy Irish
Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom's chain ;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain.
Helots of houses no more,
Let us be out, be free ;
Fragrance through the window and door
Wafts from the woods, the sea.
After the torpor of will,
Morbid the inner strife,
Welcome the animal thrill.
Lending a zest to life.
Banish the volumes revered,
Sever from centuries dead ;
Ceilings the lamp flicker cheered
Barter for stars instead.
Temple thy dreams with the trees,
Nature thy god alone ;
Worship the sun and the breeze,
Altars where non atone.
Voices of Solitude call,
Whisper of sedge and stream ;
Loosen the fetters that gall,
Back to the primal scheme.
Feel the great throbbing terrene
Pulse in thy body beat,
Conscious again of the green
Verdure beneath the feet.
Callous to pain as the rose,
Breathe with instinct's delight ;
Live the existence that goes
Soulless into the night.
~ John Myers O'Hara
"Don't look at your feet, look at the stars" ~ Stephen Hawking, RIP
“A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.”
~ Lewis Mumford
PS: please share some music today. 
Comments
Hiya, Smiley
Yeah. An open thread I'm up for. Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery. I hope it's nothing too serious. Please keep us informed about how you are doing. Sending good vibes your way. Love the picture of Stonehenge. This is another place I want to see.
Boy is this ever true lately, huh?
"Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest;"
Sarah Brightman can lift the darkest of days for me. She has such an amazing voice. She was the first Lottie in the Phantom of the Opera. These are from her Eden concert.
First of May
[video:https://youtube.com/watch?v=gmA8mGnSB-M]
Sarah Brightman Eden
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Extraordinarily beautiful voice, wonderful memories
for me, too, as my first break OFF-Broadway came in a production of Phantom at the Provincetown Playhouse in the village; playing the Vicomte de Chagny, Christine's lover, and falling in love with my ex as we played lovers on stage. Recalling the under-stage greenroom and its rickety, narrow, spiral staircase, putting on makeup in the midst of the great spirits of Betty Davis, Henry Fonda and many more who had walked those same boards.
Drinking until dawn with Raul Julia and the cast of Dracula playing at the same time at the 42nd Street Theatre; sitting at Lucille Ball's table at Backstage with the who's who of theatre and film dropping by; those were my NY days and how sweet the memories.
Thanks for being here, snoopydawg, and bringing this good music.
That is worthy of an essay
I would love to hear more about your time doing this. How absolutely incredible for you to have met those people and take part if POTO.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Good cheer, snoopydawg, glad
you enjoyed; i was a very lucky farm boy, escaping to London for the best training in the western world which gave me a leg-up in New York and life really, was truly decicated to the theatre for a long time, until i burned out having to raise money against the right's tide and compromise the work due to not having enough.
Fortunate to have come of age when the NEA made a difference and we were opening theatres and dance companies across the country; mostly all gone now, only a few plays produced on Broadway compared to the old days, for instance.
Have no regrets and wonderful memories, and yes, it's what i know, experienced and should write about; you are not the first here to suggest i write more about those times, the motivation comes once in a while to do so. My ex, we've been divorced going on 30 years, she written a book about her father and is presently writing about some of our exploits. She's still dancing and leading a dance company in a mid-western city.
Thanks for the kind encouragement, perhaps i will share more of those memories if you folks will indulge me.
Your little vignettes of life experiences
are a pleasure to read.
Hi smiley
I found this quite an interesting thought to contemplate ...
Maybe we have to project warm, loving, imaginary bodies into those empty seats. The intimacy of a small theatre and audience is sometimes enough, even when we hope for more. As noble and life-enhancing our wishes are for a greater audience with higher aspirations, we also must remember the effort of so many, and trust their effort will shine through.
[video:https://youtu.be/cWGE9Gi0bB0]
Go well in all that you do and will have done to benefit your wellbeing. We are here for you.
We do have empty seats
in the theatre. I saw them being filled at a rally during the Sanders' campaign. They were being filled during Occupy and countless other times when people reached out to each other. They were not just filling seats but directing the production and the play. There was camaraderie, a common accepted sense of purpose, an idea of a better way, hope, generosity, acceptance, in short an expression of the best side of humanity.
Thank you for your comment,
and the reminder of what was, and hopefully still is possible?
"They were not just filling seats but directing the production and the play."
Morning, janis...
"As noble and life-enhancing our wishes are for a greater audience with higher aspirations, we also must remember the effort of so many, and trust their effort will shine through."
Beautifully said, you always bring the kindest words and thoughts; moving us, lifting us, making this all worthwhile, a treasure for sure, sending hugs and swapping some blues and guitars in hopes you day is as bright as your soul.
Thank you for the great music!
What an amazing performance, B. B. King at Sing Sing prison. It was exciting to see, in contrasting ways. To see all the beautiful and joyful faces in the audience engaging totally with the music, while knowing at the same time they are in prison (and this was a short reprieve) was heartbreaking. Imagine prisons today, providing such engaging musical performances and personal participation. Prisons in america are worse than heartless.
Because, the Irish
Not a fancy production
in this vid, sort of basic, old people, inbetweens, kids; makes me happy.
Wishing you well smiley, Take a little time to be kind to yourself. Words don't help much when things are brutal, but hopefully they help a bit.
Echoing the O'Hara poem:
Lovely music, cheers
Good to be home today and an opportunity to share in real online time on c99.
Love O'hara's work; first turned on to him by Jack London, a hero of words and imagination and understanding of life in it's intimacy, primal screams of "The Call of the Wild.
And yes to all the people reaching out. I still think Bernie's mistake was to stop touring the country drawing huge crowds. i recall at the time, the campaign said the reason was to enter the second phase of his campaign, never really understood their calculations, many months went by before he took to the road again.
Onward is the word a young bright editor used to always say to me and onward it must be as we've minds to change and problems to fix.
Love accordions:
Err scawh a ch(k)ale-ah a wir-enn na dee-neh, randtntx ...
Under the shelter of each other, people survive.
Thought this is a fitting Irish saying for today's conversation.
Parade begins down below on main at 2pm Eastern; thankfully, i can view on a web cam.
and an Irish day needs Danny Boy:
The music brings smiles to the soul, feet tapping
subconsciously, blood stirring from the roots; thank you randtntx!
Good morning, smiley7. Good luck with the surgery and the
recovery and rehab. Here's some bass
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
holy cats, wilkenfeld's voice has matured into something
quite extraordinary.
what a remarkable individual.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
""We fell into each other's arms through some process of
elimination," Cohen said of affair that inspired "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"
"While Cohen's gloomy, gritty and romantic mythology was still in its nascent phase, the Chelsea's was fully formed. Situated at 222 West 23rd Street, the imposing redbrick ruled the block with a gothic grandeur. Its four hundred rooms had housed literary luminaries including Mark Twain, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Jackson Pollock and Arthur Miller, who offered a succinct summation of the bohemian ambiance: "No vacuum cleaners, no rules, no shame." Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while in residence there, and Jack Kerouac pounded out On the Road in his room. Sid Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungen's tragic visit was still more than a decade off, but poet Dylan Thomas entered his fatal coma during his Chelsea stay in 1953.
Quite a good back story to this wonderful song from our youth: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-leonard-cohen-met-janis-...
Good to see you, UntimelyRippd!
Her bass, too. There's a duet with Jeff Beck that is far out.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
well, right ... she blew into the stratosphere
playing bass with Beck when she was 21.
the singing is much more recent, though -- i had no idea she had expanded beyond her instrumental prowess.
god, it's hard to believe she's over 30 now.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
well, right ... she blew into the stratosphere
playing bass with Beck when she was 21.
the singing is much more recent, though -- i had no idea she had expanded beyond her instrumental prowess.
god, it's hard to believe she's over 30 now.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Imelda magic, perfect tonic for today, hey, el,
bought some potting soil and few seeds, herbs and flowers for the window sill last week, though of you and your garden photos, guess you are busy planting, now, given your climate as i recall the cool breezes and different moods of San Fran's weather. We have more snow on the way next week, so Spring is weeks away; old-timers here don't plant outside until May.
For many years, i tended Ned's homestead garden, a huge plot of land in use as a garden for more than 150 years just up from the valley's creek, 30 plus hours of sweat a week, but it was bountiful and a joy to do.
See shoulder surgeon on Monday, will have to trek to Winston-Salem for the operation; having to stretch the cuff muscle back into place and nail it down. Doc said Thursday that my right arm would be in a device for six weeks so guess i'll have to practice using my left arm casting in order to earn some bucks teaching and guiding. Not that i've not used the left arm before to cast, it's not nearly as precise as my old right arm...thank you and all for the encouraging words today
And cheers for tuning in and introducing Imelda May, a treat!
Weeks of unseasonable cold, including freezes and tons of
rain. Needless to say, we're laying off of the garden other than trying to keep what's already there alive. Glad you liked Imelda May - here's something more St Patrick-y from her.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
frickin' 9º above zero tonight.
So sick of this crap.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Here's a tune:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAczYmi9vc width:400 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Pissing upstream into a current washes
all over and a good metaphor for today's DC plight.
Walker's music brought Johnny Rivers to mind, don't know why, but here is an old favorite, i recall playing on 45's
Good to see you, Azazello, and hoping you've a great weekend!
Hell, my old brain is so self-centered at times, fogot to share
the great news in today's OT: My daugher-in-law's 35-year-old sister has put cancer to rest after almost a year of chemo and fighting, in recovery and my son whose been in DC with her and the family has landed a new position with a mtn climbing and yoga center in a city within three hours drive.
Yeah!
Thanks smiley and all
Thanks.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Thanks, mhagle, for stopping by...
good to see you in hopes in April, i may contribute to your good project.
This is a version of the aria from Puccini sung by Maria Callas
I love most. I also always hear my mother (RIP) whistling Puccini's and other arias. I used to make my math homeworks while listening to Maria Callas and my mom started whistling. It gave us strength, which I wish you all the more in the upcoming months.
Well, I am old and that kind of music I grew up with when I was a kid and teenager. It stuck with me. Once I start listening I can't stop for a while. Fighting the dark spirits one thought and one aria at the time. All the best to you.
That one here is why I call myself 'mimi'.
Maria Callas~ Si mi chiamano Mimi-La Boheme:
[video:https://youtu.be/TRATkgvL1tk]
Maria Callas - Un bel di vedremo:
[video:https://youtu.be/c-r2vu4t9-g]
Maria Callas - O Mio Babino Caro:
[video:https://youtu.be/IPuXxkqbvw0]
Maria Callas - Ave Maria:
[video:https://youtu.be/sE1WoMocTlw]
Uff, I bet now you need something more Americana ... me too !
https://www.euronews.com/live
Callas playing now, mimi...
Thank you!
Just returned home; fun how you've set the mood of this evening...all smiles here!
"Si, mi chiamano Mimì" La bohème, Puccini. Máire Flavin
Thanks mimi, for sharing that little tid-bi.t
That's such a beautiful aria to call yours.
Some americana ...
[video:https://youtu.be/RyadsHUBpWc]
[video:https://youtu.be/YhSKk-cvblc]
...
~
can't recall a better rendition of Summertime, wow!
It is wow, and so is she!
I was thrilled to find it in search of music for mimi.
'Swing' was totally fun!
Waves linked, aria distinct, sweet...
good company.
Living on the edge...passionately.
just a monster performance!
Carlos was totally buzzed on sumpthin',
surprised he could play.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
janis b, how come you find all the records I
listened to over and over again as a school teenager. I lost those records during my life's travels and that loss comes up as painful even after so many years.
Isn't it somehow awesome that I find them 55 years later offered to me by a kind soul on a kinder blog?
If you knew how many stuff I lost - I would almost kill for to find again -
I never imagined that I would need that stuff to prove something as an "exhibit xyz" to try to help some folks to believe in something they can't believe in.
Thank you janis b and smiley 7. It's a warm place around here. I love it.
Oh, btw. janis b you look like "Anita"...
that's a thought that made me smile all over...
Oh, another btw. I recognize Paul Robeson's voice from Porgy and Bess and remember his voice vividly. What kind of memories you pull back into my consciousness?
And darn it, now I found this article about his death. A life story to reckon with.
Paul Robeson: The story of how an American icon was driven to death to be told in film
Oh well ... there is just no comment any more in me.
Have a good Sunday, all.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Fitting name, mimi...
"I love all things,
that have gentle sweet smells,
that speak of love, of spring,
of dreams and fanciful things,
those things that have poetic names ..."
We've no good choice but to keep on trucking; the wisdom, sometimes, the hardest is to greet the day in positive spirits. Cheers for helping c99 do that, to better understand
the poem behind your name.
By-the-way, the seven is a deep state secret and my lucky number, too.
My favorite piece, you know:
Have a great evening across the sea!
Thank you, smiley 7 ...
I admit I hate to have to cross the seas to arrive somewhere, because I also leave some 'other-wheres' behind.
You inspire me. Gotta go, to make sure my loved one is going to fix the truck, so I can go on trucking.
Searching for my lucky charms... now.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Humm, traveled far today...must be the Leprechaun