Jeremayakovka

Happy Easter

Catholic: Is Paris Praying? (w/ pics)
Gospel: According to Al Green (w/ video)

BadLOANS

Sometimes I substitute into perfectly good songs what seem to me, at the moment, more apt lyrics. In this case: To hell with the bailout! Bruce Juice'll get the country back on track.

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Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision, smashin' in my guts man
I'm caught in a crossfire that I dont understand
But there's one thing I know for sure girl:
I don't give a damn for the same old played out scenes
I don't give a damn for just the in-betweens

Honey I want the heart, I want the soul, I want control right now
You better listen to me baby:
Talk about a dream; try to make it real
You wake up in the night with a fear so real
You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come
Well don't waste your time waiting

BadLOANS - you gotta live it every day

Illiterate Gypsy Chants For French Vedette

Even insecure civilizations beating geopolitical and cultural retreats display flashes of verve and gusto. Here flamenco guitar great Manitas de Plata works the strings for screen idol Brigitte Bardot.

"It's Time To Live In The Scattered Sun"

The First One To Say "I Love You" Loses

Make damn sure you don't just say it, but you both feel it at the same time.
If not....

Nobody has to guess
That Baby can't be blessed
Till she sees finally that she's like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls.

See also: Dennis Prager's thoughts on love.

From You I Get Opinions, From You I Get The Story

Through December 9 Gay Patriot is soliciting nominees for Grande Conservative Blogress Diva.

Ave Maria for Maria Evita

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Other versions here.

L'Été Va Bientôt Nous Quitter, Il Faut En Profiter

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"Syrtaki" (or "Zorba's Dance") the theme to the film adaptation of the immortal novel Zorba the Greek, rendered by the mortal Dalida.
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Summer's gonna leave us soon, we better make the most of it.

More Dalida clips: "Never on a Sunday" (English), "Ciao amore" (French), "Gigi l'amoroso" (English), "Born to Sing" (English)
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Or if you prefer, a scene from the original:

(It's a far cry from West Side Story, fortunately.)

Time For Some Jewish Resistance - "The Partisan," Performed By Leonard Cohen

To be victorious in the long run you need a tradition of fighting, you need myths and martyrs' haloes -- otherwise national character will fall into decay.
-- Edward Kuznetsov

Leonard Cohen, the most famous renderer of "The Partisan," performs live this originally Russian-French ballad of survival behind Nazi lines. He sings in English and French, with the video offering Spanish subtitles. Many songs of anti-Nazi resistance songs have been sung -- in Yiddish and in Russian, especially. This one's a treat for lovers of Romance languages everywhere.

That might be John Bilezikjian on the oud (I'm pretty sure that's an oud), I'm not sure. (He's one of the outstanding personnel on Field Commander Cohen).

"The Partisan": words by Emmanuel D'Astier de la Vigerie [link in French only], music by Anna Marly. Described in her obituary as "the troubadour of the French Resistance," Marly was the daughter of deposed Russian aristocrats (pictured below).

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For French & Yiddish songs, try Sarah Gorby's The Unforgettable Songs of the Ghetto [Gorby link in Russian only].

English version of the original "Chant des Partisans":

My friend, do you hear the dark flight of the crows over our plains?
My friend, do you hear the dulled cries of our countries in chains?

Oh, friends, do you hear, workers, farmers, in your ears alarm bells ringing?
Tonight all our tears will be turned to tongues of flame in our blood singing!

Climb up the from mine, out from hiding the pines, all you comrades,
Take out from the hay all your guns, your munitions and your grenades;

Hey you, assassins, with your bullets and your knives, kill tonight!
Hey you, saboteurs, be careful with your burden, dynamite!

We are the ones who break the jail bars in two for our brothers,
hunger drives, hate pursues, misery binds us to one another.

There are countries where people sleep without a care and lie dreaming.
But here, do you see, we march on, we kill on, we die screaming.

But here, each one knows what he wants, what he does with his choice;
My friend, if you fall, from the shadows on the wall, another steps into your place.

Tomorrow, black blood shall dry out in the sunlight on the streets.
But sing, companions, freedom hears us in the night still so sweet.

My friend, do you hear the dark flight of the crows over our plains?
My friend, do you hear the dulled cries of our countries in chains?

The Coyote Call And The Howling Winds Wail

You say "potayto," I say "potahto."
They say "Brokeback," I say "The Cowboy Song."

If you don't know Thin Lizzy ... it's time you did.

An Ally of Civilization

It's official -- AWOL Civilization, whose blogger Gary Wolf attended last weekend's Blog Fest West, has named me an ally. A modest but distinct honor, and one to which duties attend. People like us have to prove that not only is beauty truth and truth beauty, but that power -- that is, the most mortals can know of it, the most they can exercise it -- derives from both of them.

AWOL Civ's banner calls to mind a lyric from Don MacLean's paean to Van Gogh, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you (below). But frankly, we have to do one better than Don MacLean. I hope this feeds you, Gentle Reader.

Now go feed Gary's beast.
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"My Name Is Sue, How Do You Do?"

The other day I posted about both Exodus International's Freedom International conference now underway in Irvine, CA and the Ex-Gay Survivors' Conference about to get underway, also in Irvine. One is a longstanding, evangelical Christian gathering that offers people who are, or who consider themselves, gay or lesbian, etc. a new (heterosexual) life through Jesus Christ. The other is a more recent and concerted effort to keep gays and lesbians, etc., or people who consider themselves gay or lesbian or etc., gay or lesbian. Or etc.

I wonder if there'll be any interaction between the two gatherings this weekend, and if there is, whether it will be, uh, fruitful. Maybe this Johnny Cash classic will break the ice.

If You Were A Peanut, What Kind Of Peanut Would You Be?

Me? That's easy. Schroeder -- hands down!

Money!? Who cares about money? This is art! This is great music I'm playing, and playing great music is an art. Do you hear me? An art! Art, art, art, art -- ART!

Souad Massi - "Bladi"; with Marc Lavoine - "Paris"

If you haven't yet heard of Souad Massi, you've been missing out. This Algerian- born folk-pop-rock singer, whose star has consistently risen in France, is one of our generation's most beloved francophone cross-cultural chanteuses. Here's an intro to her life and career; here's an interview; here's Souad's official site (in French).
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"Bladi" is her pop-protest antiwar standard. Unlike American "antiwar" singers, Souad comes from a land that throughout the 1990s suffered 200,000 dead (of a total population of merely 30,000,000) in an Islamic-fueled civil war. So I don't grudge her direct call for an end to war, period. Although since the recent 4/11 al-Qaeda bombing in Algiers, I say it's time to write a new and improved version.

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Since "Bladi" is in Arabic and French, Gentle Reader, if you don't understand either you'll just have to take your chances and trust me (who can get by in one of them). Her own introduction: I call for an end to war. It's a completely naive song, but for an artist that's the only way to say that you're against wars, that you're against all human stupidity, against all forms of oppression that can exist. There's definitely something to be said -- for an artist -- about the supreme importance of naivete. For a politician naivete is deadly, but for an artist it's how hope springs eternal.

The chorus:

Earth has become a hell
Fire has burned up the spring
Stop making war
You're making war on children

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That's Souad's style: naive, truly felt, softly delivered. It puts me in the same camp with Amardeep: I don't know Arabic, but after hearing what Souad Massi does with the lanaguage I wouldn't mind learning. From NPR (audio w/ sound clips): In her own small way, she's become a small feminist cult figure for Algerian women.
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A more alluring sample is the hit duet of "Paris" she recorded with French pop star Marc Lavoine. Two-parts sensual and one-part brainy, it's a hymn to rootless cosmopolitans everywhere. I sing with her every chance I get, Marc introduces her. I just might, too.

Marc LAVOINE & Souad MASSI-Paris(live)
Uploaded by hakim93200

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Now you can say you first heard of Souad Massi from Jeremayakovka.

Leonard Cohen - "The Window"

It's a tough tonic for a solitary Saturday night, but ... if you can take it ... you'll be the better for it on the morrow.

Using a violin for the bridge (and so late in the arrangement) was a flash of genius.

Oh! Happy Easter.

Cuba Commentary (Passover Sermon)

* Updated *

Following is a comment that I just added to the mix at Matt's recent blogpost on Cuba. For a guy who doesn't speak Spanish well and who's never been to Cuba, I didn't know I could get so worked up on the subject. Must be my happy childhood memories of "Guantanamera"! Don't neglect to read Matt's original post and the other comments, too. (What follows is edited slightly from its original form.) 
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Communist Cuba has been a pet cause of liberals and leftists for almost 50 years. It has hosted the Venceremos Brigade from the 1960s to the present day, harbors extremist fugitives from American justice (Black Panther Party honchos Huey Newton and Assata Shakur), and indulges mainstream fugitives from post-Soviet truth (Oliver Stone, Charlize Theron).

The New Left of the early 60s backed the revolution there from the get-go. Soft liberals -- as well as many Cuban Communists -- were taken in by Castro's pledge to institute democracy. Lee Oswald used the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" as a cover to pose as a wacky leftist in order to assassinate John Kennedy. (In the opinion of many Republicans Kennedy was the last remotely honorable Democratic president -- to whom Richard Nixon and the Republican Party prudently ceded the 1960 presidential election despite having sufficient reason to contest and/or remain bitter about the results.) Personally, I was raised on career Communist Kulturkampfer Pete Seeger's recordings of the Cuban nationalist tune "Guantanamera" -- a non-Communist, patriotic song long exploited in the service of la lucha. In fact I attended the same summer camp in the 1980s which Pete Seeger had attended in the 1930s -- something of which I used to be proud.

Communist Cuba has been an enemy of freedom as we know it on at least three continents: at the first opportunity it installed (presumably) nuclear missiles aimed at North America, and it exported war to Bolivia in the 1960s and to Angola in the 1970s.

When la dictadura falls, there will be a vacuum of political leadership that will need to be filled. Hopefully that need is being addressed already. Yet the "culture war" as it relates to Cuba is already being waged. That is a good thing.

When I think of the prison that is Cuba I think of the description in Armando Valladares's Against All Hope of political prisoners being drowned in a shit-saturated sewage ditch under a baking sun on that Caribbean gulag aka Isla de Pinos. By comparison Camp X-Ray is a Travelodge (with room service) and The Shawshank Redemption a children's bedtime story.

It's up to the American and Cuban (and Cuban-American) Right to set the tone for this culture war, because if we allow types like Reinaldo Arenas and Wim Wenders to control the debate, we'll betray the Cuban people yet again.

- Un hombre sincero

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Let's see, the subject of last year's Passover post was the Soviet Union. This year it's Cuba. Next year in Tehran!

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ENDNOTES and AFTERTHOUGHTS:

* (Update 04/03) * My dear blogbuddy Fausta left a must-read comment about Reinaldo Arenas's work in the comments section. Please read it.

* Fausta, with whom I sometimes argue -- but always patiently, carefully, and constructively (and therefore, Gentle Reader, instructively) -- suggested in the comments that Arenas's life and work are a direct subversion of the Cuban regime. Indeed. When it comes to truth, Fausta and I are always on the same side of the debate. And we always root for each other, even when we're on opposing sides of the debate. It's just that here I'm keen to push the empirical and analytical envelopes in a certain way.

* My (first) pre-emptive statement to the PC Thought Police, whom I expect to pound on my door because I mentioned Reinaldo Arenas as neither a hero nor a victim, although in many ways he was both (and both at the same time): My phrasing is deliberate, and I own it. I don't suggest banning from the cultural debate the import of Sr. Arenas's life and work and death (by suicide), nor diminishing their potential contributions to it. As if I'm capable (or desirous) of suppressing truth! All and everything I'm saying is that his life and work and death should not set the tone of the debate.

* My (second) preemptive statement to the PC Thought Police: Lest you accuse me of being barren of compassion for anyone who suffers and dies -- so wastingly and so wastefully -- from AIDS, or for anyone who lives on after loved ones have died from AIDS, you need to surrender the calculating portion of your intellect (if only for a moment) to my sonnet "When Late We Lie."

* My (third) pre-emptive statement to the PC Thought Police: Now -- does "silence = death"? Or is silence golden? (Hint: that's a trick question.)

* My (fourth) pre-emptive statement to the PC Thought Police: I've always got one finger pointed in your general direction. You'll have to guess which one, though.

* My (fifth) pre-emptive statement to the PC Thought Police: I'm happy to debate any issue with anyone, it's just that -- by way of some kind of neoconservative "affirmative action" -- defectors from the PC Thought Police are encouraged to apply. (Need more encouragement? Go read Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy.)

* My (sixth) pre-emptive statement to the PC Thought Police: The blogosphere's on to your devilish masters!

* Found a suitable "Guantanamera" video!  After everything, este viejo's still got his moves. Just like the Cuban people. Take it away, papi!:

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Tesla - "What You Give"

For a pop-rock tune, "What You Give"'s shoot-from-the-hip and -heart lyrics are wiser than they might at first seem. The wisdom, I think, is its emphasis on Love's power of demanding from but, in the process, ennobling the Lover. I'm always aware, as an American virtual-intellectual, of the tension caused by shuttling between the great inheritance of the Western canon and lesser squanderings of pop (so-called) culture. Whether by luck or skill, these guys make that tension creative. Hope you enjoy it.

I wonder what Kafka would think of it.

The Best "Protest" Songs

The best "protest" songs protest two things only: Loneliness and Oblivion.

Bob Dylan as an old man with an extended, live version of a song he made famous as a young man, "Girl From the North Country" (<-- click for *many* versions, including cover versions).

Across time and miles, this is what I call "high fidelity."

Ave, Maria

With a little voiceover added to the mix, legendary Maria Callas renders "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. (You know it -- Si tu ne m'aime pas, je t'aime ... -- Fully translated here.).

The newspapers say, Oh! that terrible Callas that gains [makes] so much money in one evening! Oh! she is a capricious so-so-so-so! But it's not so. What am I supposed to say?

Who is my double [understudy]?
Nobody can double Callas!

It fails me entirely, Gentle Reader, why some were caught up with, say, Audrey Hepburn when La Divina had so much more going on.

My work is alone. It is creation, so you have to be alone to do that....

If you prefer: a longer and purer version of her "Habanera" (w/o voiceover).

Amazing Grace - The Spirit Moved Him

Two comments on the new movie Amazing Grace, about England's great abolitionist John Wilberforce. These clarify two aspects of the real history of abolition and of the musical composition "Amazing Grace" that has been handed down now for several generations.

According to this WSJ op-ed, "Amazing Glaze," the movie gives short shrift to Wilberforce's profound, Christian convictions that powered his commitment to what became a great reformist crusade:

William Wilberforce himself, as a student at Cambridge University in the 1770s and as a young member of Parliament soon after, had no more than a nominal sense of faith. Then, in 1785, he began reading evangelical treatises and underwent what he called "the Great Change," almost dropping out of politics to study for the ministry until friends persuaded him that he could do more good where he was.

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It seems necessary, then, to state unapologetically that the movement Wilberforce set in motion is a great example of God being honored in the public sphere.

Second, here's a video montage of British and American military commemorations set to a bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace." The hymn, quite apparently, is an integral part of the British military tradition. Well, that's news to me. Here's to such worthy Anglo-American bonding.

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As I've heard David Horowitz state, abolitionism is unique and powerful because it was an instance of white men saying not Let my people go! but Let another people go! Abolition is an instance of a great civilization, guided by Christian convictions, enacting crucial and unprecedented reform.

You won't hear many movie reviewers say it openly, so I'll say it here. Had Great Britain not been a Christian nation it may never have abolished slavery. So it is no exaggeration and no rhetorical sleight of hand to state what should be the obvious: God bless William Wilberforce!

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Related: While Wilberforce was inspired, this reviewer found the movie less than entirely so.

"Idiot Wind" - My Neoconservative Anthem

Bob Dylan's "Idiot Wind" is "I Will Survive" for straight, white, ex-radical men.

Beyond, I'm sure, any of Bob Dylan's expectations for his thrumming, driving tune, "Idiot Wind" is my drop-down, bottom-out, fallout, rise up from the ashes, neoconservative anthem. Long before I decided to get some learnin' in conservative thinkin', I rummaged through my radical rubble to get a grip on the maddening disillusionment. "Idiot Wind" turned out to be the one rock from my Bob Dylan collection that still rolled. That steamrolled. The album's liner notes say He had remained, in front of us, or writing from the north country, and remained true. Amen, baby.

There was a righteous if still ridiculous phase during which I still believed that there was a wrong that could be righted. I believed the wrong was merely the wrong of "a wrong turn" and not the wrong of a wrong ab ovo, a wrong a priori, a throw-your-arms-up-in-the-air-and-say-"Aw, hell!" wrong. Equally ridiculous was the next phase when I believed that former friends would welcome me back, if not with open arms, then at least with open minds. Ha! In need ain' t the same as indeed.

Here's a strong live version. If this never-say-die, our-love-died-but-love-don't-die song calls out to you, Gentle Reader, well, I am sorry for what you've been through. But power to you for what I know you'll be able to go through from here on out!

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I woke up on the roadside
Daydreaming about the way things sometimes are.
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head
And are making me see stars.

You hurt the ones that I love best and covered up the truth with lies.
One day you'll be in the ditch
Flies buzzing around your eyes,
Blood on your saddle....

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Now everything's a little upside down.
As a matter of fact the wheels have stopped:
What's good is bad, what's bad is good.
You'll find out when you've reached the top, you're on the bottom.

I noticed at the ceremony
Your corrupt ways had finally made you blind.
I can't remember your face anymore,
Your mouth has changed, your eyes don't look into mine....

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Down the highway, down the tracks,
Is down the road to ecstasy.
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your raging glory.

You'll never know the hurt I've suffered, nor the pain I rise above
And I'll never know the same about you,
Your holiness or your kind of love,
And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind, blowing throught the buttons of our coats,
Blowing through the letters that we wrote.
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust up on our shelves.
We are idiots, babe, it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

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Here's an essay on Dylan's lyrics written by a professor at Williams College. Yeah, great. Anyway, "Idiot Wind" teaches, first, how to stare down the man in the mirror, and then how to stare down anyone else who would have it in for you.

Live Blogging the Kiddie Concert

* Scroll down for updates! *

I popped in on this irongray overcast morning only to check my email and see what's going on in the world, but lo and behold there's an acoustic kiddie concert in progress. It's the snazzy folk band Hanna Banana -- a mandolin, a banjo, a guitar or two, and a standing bass. My 15" laptop balanced precariously on bunched up knees, I'm nursing a mug of strong black coffee while desperately trying not to be pscyhed out by the inquisitive stares of the toddlers bouncing on their parents' knees and youngins spinning figure 8's around the room, but a neoconservative blogger's gotta do what a neoconservative blogger's gotta do.

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12:23 PM - "Turkey in the Straw" No way! I used to have the sheet music for this one.

I had a little monkey and his name was Tiny Tim
Put him in the tub to see if he could swim....

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12:29 PM - "The City of New Orleans" Heard Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger do this live 20 years ago. Can be melancholy or spirited, depends entirely on the rendition.

Good morning, America. Don't you know me, I'm your native son
I'll be gone 500 miles 'fore the day is done....

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12:37 PM - An environmental "water awareness song" Yeah, sure. At least it doesn't mention global warming.... Hmm, that strong bass rhythm is catchy.

Animals need water, people need it, too....

(12:40 PM - Uh-oh. Written by someone in Santa Cruz, CA, the song has been officially adopted by the UN.)

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12:46 PM - "Big Yellow Taxi" Joni Mitchell's "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" anti-capitalist anthem, covered and popularized by The Counting Crows.

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please....

The last song was just a set-up for this one -- I knew it! Hey, Joni: DDT actually has good uses ("What the World Needs Now Is DDT," New York Times, April 11, 2004)!

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12:52 PM - "This Land Is Your Land" The signature ballad of Woody Guthrie, whom the singer introduced as "the patron saint" of folk singers. Sing along if you like, it's hard not to (as a child of course I did), but please spare us the encomiums for this patriot of the Soviet Union.

From the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

If you can ditch the impulse for collective or state ownership, and instead focus on how to best exploit (and, when necessary, preserve) our natural resources, it's still a good song.

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Well, that was the finale. The kids are hopping in the aisles and their parents are protectively following their lead. Someone's breaking out the coloring books and markers as the band breaks down the amps and music stands.

Hey, look at that! The morning clouds are burning off ... and ... here comes the sun. Do-do-dooo-do....

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2:20 PM - * Final Update *
JMK's rule of thumb for listening to folk music:
When you hear "If I Had A Hammer," think "If I Had Armand Hammer" (Armand Hammer = capitalist enabler of the Soviet Union)

Related: A review of Engineering Communism.

¿Por Qué Porno Para Ricardo?

*Updated and Expanded *

Here's an amped up sound squad that has a thing or two to teach the free world about how not to get fooled again! Cuba Underground interviews Gorki Aguila, the lead singer of the anti-Castro Cuban rock band, Porno Para Ricardo. (It's in Spanish, but I could make out this telling phrase, por ejemplo.):

We have a song dedicated to our commander-in-chief which mentions his name completely and says clearly that he's a son of a whore.

"Gorki" -- Is that a stage name? Heh.
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Videos here.

(H/T Free Thoughts)

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¿Por Qué Porno Para Ricardo?

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Here are a few words about displaying a graphic that, to the extent that it's pornography, subverts generally accepted moral standard while also and primarily as art, subverts a ubiquitous communist icon.

By displaying merely two complementary sex organs the poster doesn't exactly emanate the plush prurience showcased in glossier porn. By not displaying many aspects of the sexual organs and by retaining the hammer and sickle form, the poster tones down the pornographic aspect in favor the message of political subversion. If anything it's more erotic than pornographic, albeit blatantly so.

Discovering this band gives me shot in the arm because it reminds me of some of the bands I came across in the post-punk alternative "scene" in and around Barrington Hall in Berkeley in the late 80s and early 90s. Divesting myself of shyness by literally jumping into the mosh pit, I knew, met, and/or heard a number of bands that passed through town, including The Mr. T Experience, Useless I.D., and Primus. They've all, after polishing up their alternative image (I.D.'s lead singer Guy chopped off his dreads, I see), have gone to enjoy notable and cash-influxed capitalist success. I indulged in some of the stranger sounds that were already faddish but still original, like Nick Cave, and tilted toward the more "progressive" side of the alternative music by loading up on Fugazi and (excuse the pun) sampling certain hip-hop like Boogie Down Productions.

So, what's the point? you might ask. That's a question I asked then, over and over and over. Frankly, I never quite found it in the music. I found glimpses or moments of it, yes -- including a few breakthrough moments of the power of art and sex and precious (oh, so precious!) hope for the human condition -- but the "scene" proved no utopia. At times it proved more obscene than a scene. It did not sustain, neither me nor even itself. And so while infamous Barrington was shut down as a public nuisance, I went off, cradling unclear ideas, to join, and join eventually the cadre, of the Marxist-Leninist New Alliance Party. Then again, in those first post-Pistols, post-Clash years on the University of California's flagship and most radical campus -- so cocky and confident but also free and privileged -- perhaps it never promised to be anything more than a place for kicks,a place for skateboards and motorcycles and LSATs and MCATs.

These days I try to retain the spirit of the earlier quest -- the acqusitive inquisitiveness, the olfactory hypersensitivity to anyone's bullshit (including my own), the general well-wishing to my fellow man -- but to retain that spirit by imbuing it in wholly different matter (or matters). Hence, my affirmation of Porno for Ricardo. A far cry from the nonsensical pseudo-rebellion of my college days, they are rebels already with a cause. I welcome the phenomenon of Porno For Ricardo and wish them and all musicians and artists in Cuba the speediest road to freedom, democracy, and prosperity.

(Besides, the best I ever came up with to subvert the hammer and sickle was to take some paint to it and stretch the hammer into the horizontal bar of an "A" and then complete a circle from the sickle to form an an anarchist sickle. These guys take the cake for taking it further.)

Here's a short, low-budget video of "Los Musicos de Bremen": definite pop punk, crossover potential. If Cuba enjoyed a free market, these guys would be cashing in instantly.

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Previous: A long mention of the Israeli hardcore band, Retribution, in "Home Improvement - Zionist Style."

Also: The video clip (of an entirely different band, however) which Eminem's Revenge left in the comments is excellent.

Felix Mendelssohn, Opus 20

He composed the Octet in E Flat Major when he was 16. Musicians and critics may have their special standards as to what's right or wrong about the composition (not to mention about this student recital). To me Opus 20 is also all about being 16 -- all that precious sensitivity and sincerity.

Baudelaire wrote that genius is childhood rediscovered at will. The genius of Mendelssohn's Opus 20 is that it's adolescence rediscovered at will.

He was just another Jewish genius, obviously.

"Too Much To Do Before I Die!" - John Belushi

What's great about Saturday Night Live is that it allows already accomplished performers to try something completely new in a no-prisoners format where just about anything goes. Just last weekend, for example, SNL Hillaryously roasted The Woman Who Would Be President and The Former Jimmy Carter Speechwriter Who Loves Her. It's kind of like blogging, actually.

One of the most daring skits from SNL's original glory days is Joe Cocker's impersonation of John Belushi. If you grew up with this, then I know you know what I'm talking about. It's incredible: Cocker's got Belushi down -- the arms, the face, even the hair! Maybe it's because of the strong impression it made on me as a child, but ... I never knew Cocker was such a good comic actor. It must have been tough mimicking Belushi, but check out how, compared to John, Joe plays it cool. Understated (almost). You can tell he didn't want to overdo it and end up offending Belushi. Only a special caliber of performer can be so modest about displaying his talent -- so modest and yet so genuine, so ... so vulnerable.... That Joe Cocker: he isn't just priceless, he's flawless! See for yourself:

SNL - Cocker and Belushi
Uploaded by PigLips

Pardon the digression (having just watched the video, I'm real emotional right now...), but if you're at all like me then John Belushi was the most inspiring of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players." Most SNL fans don't, can't appreciate how much John put in to making the show what it was, nor how difficult it must have been for him having to harness his great, God-given talent -- week-in week-out, year-in year-out -- not because, of course, but despite whatever obstacles life threw in his way. (Oh, how I hate that word "handicapped"! Don't you?)

Forget "being John Malkovich" -- think about being John Belushi. That's right -- being John Fucking Belushi! Can you imagine how lonely it must have been, at times, being him? Admit it: Did you or anyone you know really appreciate him the way he really deserved -- appreciate his struggles, his triumphs -- until it was too late? I didn't. So I'm glad, just glad that at least once in his career John Belushi got to let it all hang out in a way we could all laugh at. Laugh with him, not at him! For that you can thank Joe Cocker.

Here are some stills from Joe and John's great duet of "Feelin' Alright," performed live on Saturday October 2, 1976, which you hopefully just watched. (The close-up (bottom, right) is from a different performance.):

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The best part about the number is that John really was such a good sport. Did you notice how he offered Joe a drink and at the end even offered to shake his hand? So few of us really get how much of himself John Belushi was putting on the line back in '76. On the line -- every time!... That takes courage! Not to mention class.

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.........................................................John Belushi, 1949 - 1982

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Hey, Stevie! Real quick: How many fingers?

Eine Kleine Lead-In-To-Valentine's-Day Nacht Musik

* Updated *

Is "Contigo en la distancia" a Christina Aguilera tune? I've only seen her perform once (during the opening ceremoines of the 2002 Winter Olympics). Thanks to Meirene87 -- who posted her own cover of it on YouTube -- I may never get around to doing so again. This amateur version is not entirely polished, of course, but no worries because it's from the heart. Meirene87 is softly trying to pour out all her fullness, trying to extend -- in the end -- to whomever she's contigo-ing with in the distance her fullness, yes, and at the same time her emptiness. Nice.

In her words:

[Update (01/08): Perhaps in response to this post, Meirene87 has recently restricted access to her video so that it is no longer available by clicking below. This is something I do not entirely understand but accept. (When we post anything on the internet, and certainly on YouTube, it becomes fair game for anyone to link to and comment on, is it not? If not, we should simply circulate the cherished material privately.) Since some degree of privacy is a priority for her, I have decided to delete from this post Meirene87's personal comments about why she recorded herself singing "Contigo en la distancia." Their simple sincerity, which (ironically) makes them worth repeating, is perhaps better kept secret. - JMK]

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* Updated w/ lyrics translated in the Comment section *

By MTV generation standards the following tête-à-tête duet between Anna Karina (curious gal, no?) and Serge Gainsbourg, "Ne dis rien," is anything but polished. More substantively, a commitment to song-as-entertainment lands its musical arrangement and video editing on the near side of the the lyrics' hinted gloom. I'd go so far as to say that the arrangement and editing practically mock the lyrics' poetic potential, but by squarely suggesting a content consommation -- a triumphant one, even (note the recurring marchlike tempo, in the drums especially) -- it's hard to stop this tune from getting under your skin. For while the song obviously stops short of pure poetry, still, I find its video true in its intentions and execution. Few, I bet, would venture that a tight, two-step in such a confined space could, ever so gently, be so expansive.

Their subtle facial gestures at least as romantic as an on-camera kiss (and maybe more genuine).

Should either of these, or previously posted, music clips grab and hold you, Gentle Listener, please know that if there's only one thing I want to convey it's never to make you wish you were more like any of those performers, but always to make you wish you were more like you.

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, JMK wishes Bonne chance! and a healthy headstart to all the lonelyhearts out there in the blogosphere.

We'd Like To End The Year On This Note

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A barbed, bluesier, more psychedelic version (stronger, IMHO, than the compartmentalized TV spot, above):

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And a ritualistic, primal encore:
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"The West is the best."
-- Jim Morrison

Rock On In Peace, James Brown!

* Updated w/ video + links + comments! *

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Whoa. James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, has died. I need a minute to let that hit me.
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James Brown was one of those explosive performer-personalities who seemed as if he would go on and on ... and on.  And on.... You know what I mean: as if he were born with a microphone in his mouth and from Day One lay in a cradle shaped like an amp. The proper word for all this is, is it not?, "soul."
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JMK knew but little about James Brown, but this I knew and still know: in your lifetime, Gentle Reader, you must listen (all the way through) to Love, Power, Peace: James Brown Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971 [click it for samples]. LPP is the one James Brown album I have and it is sooo good. For starters, one standout track is an overdrive version of "Sex Machine" (video): I want to get up and do my thing!... Don't we all.

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But, man, what cuts deepest on this album, every time, is "Georgia on My Mind." There's a horn section in it that busts out of nowhere and changes the song's whole tempo; I mean, flips it over right in the middle. Together with a string section this live version gets me to picture, really picture the moonlight through the pines.... I don't picture, of course, Georgia on my mind, I picture it on James Brown's mind. But that's ok because it's a window on a world.
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More than any Afro- (now "African-") American Studies course I took in college, more than any Toni Morrison novel or Ralph Ellison or James Baldwin essay that was ever assigned (or, more often, which I read on my own), this live 1971 version of that old song takes me there. I guess I should say, as a complement to any course or novel or essay, Brown's live version of "Georgia On My Mind" makes vivid, makes achingly and caressingly vivid -- a little like a grandparent's extended hand, or a grandchild's, reaching across generations -- that "Georgia On My Mind" is about a man who's left Georgia -- as young James Brown did -- but left it with his body only and not with his soul. Because Georgia's in his soul. (Or, is it that his soul is in Georgia?) "Georgia On My Mind" is about being both fortified and freighted with memories, with memories of being born, even -- with memories from before being born (if that's possible) -- memories that, unarticulated, stand to make a man choke and gasp, and so leave him one and only one alternative: To belt it out. To belt it out just as (say, a century ago) one-way ticket in hand and riding the rails north or west, a native Southern son might belt it out to the outermost reaches of the vaulted night ... to belt it out to the darkened back row of a stadium of fans, fans just now hushed who only a moment before had been a sea of braying cheers ... to belt it out to the back of your baby's throat when making the unique heat between the sheets. To belt it out, any and all of it, any and every way you have to.

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I'll go so far as to say that James Brown's version of "Georgia On My Mind" confirms what one black friend said to me once, back when we were trying to make just a little sense out identity, race, roots, etc. He said, "If black people have a 'homeland,' it's the American South." Based on my not-insignificant journeyman's (that is, not just book) knowledge of African-America and the South, JMK posits that James Brown's live 1971 version of "Georgia On My Mind" is the soul anthem of African-America. 

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Georgia, the road leads back to you.... 

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And on that note, JMK shouts out:

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.................. Rock on in peace, James Brown!
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Many years and many, many miles after Paris, 1971 here's a taste of Georgia on James Brown's mind.

 Mm! ... Home truly is where the heart is:

One more time.

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btw, related: Al Sharpton, who in the 70s managed Brown's concerts, wears his own hair straightened in homage to him. Sharpton pledged to coiff it straight as long as the Godfather of Soul was alive. Now that the Godfather is dead, JMK wonders, will the emblem of Al's legend live on?

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* * * Updates: More soul! * * *

Choice audio clips here:  "Aaahhhow!", "EEeeeeeoooooo!", "It's gaht tah be FUNKY!" and more.

Dan sums up James Brown's greatness in 13 words: Brown paid tribute to America at the same time he celebrated his blackness.

Debbie saw him perform live. Who knew?

Ed Sullivan's gentlemanly introduction (May 1, 1966):
He was telling me that his rhythm and blues are rooted in Southern gospel singing. Now he's a Southerner, of course. He was born in Augusta, Georgia where he worked on a farm, picked cotton, worked in a coal yard and always sang his songs. So we are delighted to present James Brown on our stage on this show. So let's have a fine welcome for a very fine talent.

Cobb does what few are capable of, recognize another's genius without envy or self-pity: [He] was able to sell his genius without formalism.... [He] was completely original in every way and you could tell that there was something deep in him that he never had to change for anyone. He was a self-actualized man in ways that just captivated everyone, because society tells us that such men don't exist.

The "genius":
I would like for people to know he was a man who preached love from the stage. His thing was, "I never saw a person I didn't love." He was a true humanitarian who loved his country.
-- Charles Bobbitt, a friend who was with James Brown when he died. With him in Georgia.

A Girl, A Guitar, and God

Before the colored girls went do do-doo do-doo, doo-do-doo doo do-doo do-doo.... and before there were Some Girls.... and before, even, there were Dreamgirls....

There were these girls:

Home Improvement - Zionist Style

Well, it's the weekend.  I'm home, puttering around the blogosphere (and getting up to pace now and then) as I follow Israel's defensive counterattack in its long war for survival.  What's in the news? A UAV Iranian missile Chinese missile(?) slammed an Israeli warship - not good.  Olmert gives Syria 72 hours to desist supporting Hezbollah and remand the Israeli hostages - not good enough, IMHO. [I knew it! -JMK (7/18)]

Being the weekend, though, this is a very good time for getting around to long overdue repairs around the house.  Not little items like changing lightbulbs or recaulking the shower.  No, I'm talking really involved projects -- the ones most people put off and keep putting off, but which never go away by themselves. 

Like hauling away scrap metal

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tackling hard-to-reach structural repairs

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and, of course, pest removal

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Now, the first principle of any maintenance job is to always, always, always -- before you do anything else -- select the right tool.  You want to do the job just once, which means you have to do it right. Looking through my Cultural-Ideological Toolbox here, I notice not one but three hammers.  Three hammers is two too many for one Cultural-Ideological Toolbox. Let's take a look at the hammers and see which is the right tool for this weekend's long overdue household repairs:

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First there's the Anti-Zionist Hammer:

"If I Had a Hammer"
(words and music by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger)

Let's try it out.

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land ....

(I'll spare you the rest.) Whoa, it's way too light.  It's easy to swing (too easy, actually), but there's no power in the stroke nor on impact. Weaklings like it because twirling it around gives them the feeling they're capable of accomplishing something important. But it doesn't even have a claw! Anyone using the Anti-Zionist Hammer is bound to just hurt himself and others.  Most important, the job still won't be done. Toss it.

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Second is the Left-Wing Zionist Hammer:

"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail"
(from "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)," popularized by Simon and Garfunkel)

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world its saddest sound
Its saddest sound

I'd rather be a forest than a street
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Sure it's weightier than the first hammer, but the weight is not distributed properly, hence it's off-balance.  Listen as you strike with it. Hear those twangs of "Could-a/Would-a/Should-a" and longings for unreality? That means: no moral clarity and no resolve. Such design flaws are fatal. Plus the grip is slippery: you're forced to spend extra time, energy, and other precious resources -- like bullets, bombs, and jet fuel -- compensating for the imbalances.  You think you're going to hit the nail on the head, but you end up bending that nail and smashing a finger or two.  Then you have to start all over again weaker than ever.  The fact is, any kid who can pick up a rock (which was the very first hammer) knows more about hammers than grown-ups do who rely on this one. Kids like these have nothing but contempt -- and rightly so -- for adults who rely on the Left-Wing Zionist Hammer.

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Now we come to the Right-Wing Zionist Hammer:

("Eye for an Eye" by Retribution, one of Israel's few self-proclaimed right-wing hardcore heavy metal bands, as profiled in the punk-rockumentary Jericho's Echo)

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I am the light at the end of your darkness
I am the hunter, come with me
See the land of your dead
Come and see the end

You lived your life by taking others away
But in your last breath you feel your victim's pain

Eye for an eye I came for you
Tooth for a tooth I became like you

You killed in pleasure, me in pain
I kill for revenge, you in vain
But now I've tasted your blood
I know I'll kill again

Eye for an eye I came for you
Tooth for a tooth I became like you

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Wow, this is more than a hammer, this is a power tool!  Sure a little extra training, strength and resolve are required to use it, but it gets the job done. Anyway, resolve is most important, everything flows from there. And while it's good for construction projects, the Right-Wing Zionist Hammer is great for demolition ones.  John Henry meets John Wayne meets Mordechai.

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Those lyrics remind me of the saying I heard recently, attributed to Golda Meir -- "We don't hate them for killing our children. We hate them for making our children kill their children." -- but multiplied by what? 1000? 10,000?

You killed in pleasure, me in pain
I kill for revenge, you in vain
But now I've tasted your blood
I know I'll kill again

Eye for an eye I came for you
Tooth for a tooth I became like you

A few young Israeli men I know here in the U.S. will very shortly learn if they will be called back to Israel for reserve duty.  There are so many things they'd rather be doing than suiting up for war: deciding where in the world to finish their educations, launching web sites, making some money.  They tell me the best thing I can do during these times is to keep blogging.  So I do. But let's not get fidgety about what's almost certainly about to go down in Lebanon. Let's not get queasy about this freighted task which Israel's young men and boys (who when it's over will be men) are about to undertake:  taking life in order to preserve life. 

For that, looking through my Cultural-Ideological Toolbox, I say you can't go wrong with the Right-Wing Zionist Hammer. It's not the only tool necessary for this home improvement job, but without it the job will never get done.

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(Cross-posted at Expose the Left's "Open Trackback Party")

Recent Poem - "Miserere"

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Miserere

.........................Se Mercé fosse amica a' miei disiri
..................................................- Cavalcanti

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This fallen night the ancient girl
My hot agitated digits furled, and
These hands enjoined; they hailed her world.
Ave!
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Yet flagrant grief incensed me.  Hence
I groped her gracious confidence--
Fessing high crimes that spurn defense.
Ave! Ave!
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Silent condemnation thundered.
What whispered treaties were, were sundered
Into stupefied and wilding wonder.
O! O, ave!
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Now blasted asters arch the night,
Loos'ning true, and failing, dismal light . . . .
Banish those allurements of the heights!
Ave, ave! O! Ave! Ave!

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ENDNOTES and AFTERTHOUGHTS:
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* After Saint Augustine, Miserere ut loquar ("Have mercy (pity) that I may speak"), Confessions, 1.5.5

* Se Mercé fosse amica a' miei disiri ("If only Mercy befriended my desires") is the first line of a sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti, contemporary and friend of Dante

* "Miserere" bestows concepts rooted in Judaism, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, as well as in Europe's courtly lore and modern musical tradition. Its religious roots lie in the Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). In medieval times it referred to "the dagger of mercy" with which a wounded knight, lying under the weight of his armor, was finished off. The musical experiences it has given rise to include those of Josquin des Prez, Orlande de Lassus, and Arvo Pärt.

* "Miserere" is written from a kind of exile. I'm tempted to subtitle the thing "Carmen Oedipodionium" (Oedipean Song), but our middle-brow culture has castrated the grand sense of "Oedipal" to the point where the word often evokes snickers instead of the pity and piety properly due to the Theban king and exile.