tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63784532758726373202024-03-13T02:15:14.979-04:00These Things Too<strong>Random acts of reflection on music, media, and politics.</strong>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-14231559112652884152013-03-28T10:29:00.000-04:002013-03-28T10:29:28.654-04:00Allen Ginsberg....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When Allen died in 1997 a local record store in Indianapolis held a memorial and people were invited to speak. I wrote a poem about my encounter with Allen and read it. I later lost the poem and the cassette that had my reading on it. Just today in a file I found a copy of the poem. I found I still like it and want to share it.<br />
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<b>Memories of Allen Ginsberg</b><br />
<br />
<br />
Words<br />
<br />
brushed from<br />
the thick black beard<br />
tumble<br />
<br />
like<br />
crumbs<br />
<br />
onto the tablecloth of<br />
20th Century literature<br />
<br />
<br />
Words<br />
<br />
sung in the flat<br />
off key<br />
nasal<br />
New York Jew voice<br />
<br />
in the time<br />
after Bob Dylan<br />
<br />
<br />
Words<br />
<br />
chanted<br />
in Sanskrit<br />
to the sound of finger cymbals<br />
in the flat nasal voice of the<br />
New York Jew Buddha<br />
<br />
<br />
It is April 22nd 1970<br />
& I am standing in the light rain<br />
& I am wearing my thrift store coat<br />
& I am on Belmont Plateau<br />
in Fairmount Park<br />
in North Philadelphia<br />
on a weekday afternoon<br />
by the hippie girl with yellow hair in the<br />
thin transparent white dress<br />
who dances<br />
bare feet on wet grass<br />
<br />
to Redbone<br />
and Seatrain<br />
<br />
& Edmund Muskie<br />
who wants to be president<br />
has come to talk about the earth<br />
on the first "Earth Day"<br />
<br />
here<br />
at the end of the sixties<br />
on Belmont Plateau<br />
in Philadelphia<br />
<br />
I am 16<br />
I have cut Catholic school<br />
I took the B bus to Bridge Street<br />
and rode the El<br />
past factories<br />
by warehouses<br />
past the large brimmed hat of William Penn<br />
past the Cathedral<br />
past Rodin's Gates of Hell<br />
past boat house row on East River Drive<br />
past the dark streets that border the ghetto<br />
past the Electric Factory<br />
past Rittenhouse Square<br />
<br />
in my thrift store coat<br />
in the light rain<br />
on the wet grass<br />
by the makeshift stage<br />
where<br />
the reincarnation of Walt Whitman<br />
the bridge between Kerouac, Cassady & Bourroughs<br />
& The Beatles, Dylan & LSD<br />
in long white robe<br />
& long black hair<br />
& long strands of prayer beads<br />
& small brass finger cymbals<br />
by the microphone<br />
on the small stage<br />
in the light rain<br />
at the end of the sixties<br />
on Belmont Plateau<br />
in Philadelphia<br />
on April 22nd<br />
& we chant<br />
om hani padme om<br />
om hani padme om<br />
om hani padme om<br />
& we chant<br />
Allen Ginsberg<br />
Allen Ginsberg<br />
Allen Ginsberg<br />
<br />
5/20/97<br />
Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-88202756921191555592013-01-13T20:51:00.000-05:002013-01-13T20:51:29.211-05:00Songwriters... Phil Ochs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>"Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life." - Phil Ochs</b><br />
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I had the great pleasure of seeing Phil Ochs play on three occasions, each representative of a particular phase in the arc of his career. First in the 1960s at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the opera house modeled after La Scala where Eugene Ormandy led the Philadelphia Philharmonic. It was the peak of Och's dominance as the best topical songwriter, perhaps ever.<br />
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Where he and Dylan had led the charge as songwriters in the intersection of the folk revival and the Civil Rights movement, Dylan abandoned the student left when the focus shifted to Vietnam while Phil became possibly the greatest anti-war songwriter ever.<br />
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<b>"A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over." - Joe Hill</b></div>
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Between 1964 and 1966 Phil's first three albums were released on Jac Holzman's Elektra Records label. All three were basic solo voice and acoustic guitar, the third one was a live album. Phil was every bit as scathing in his criticism of the left as he was the political right and his <i>In Concert</i> album featured his "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" which was clearly aimed at the Democratic party of LBJ and Hubert Humphrey.<br />
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In 1967, in the wake of Dylan's trilogy of post-folk LPs, Phil switched labels moving to A&M and worked with producer Larry Marks. The album concludes with Ochs' greatest song, "The Crucifixion" exploring a cycle of sacrifice that compares JFK to Christ. The song caused Robert Kennedy to weep when Ochs performed a solo acoustic version just months before the younger Kennedy's own death. The album version marries Phil's performance to Joseph Byrd's avant garde arrangement.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And the night comes again to the circle studded sky</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The stars settle slowly, in lonliness they lie</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>With the speed of insanity, then he dies.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But to the silence and distance they are sworn</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Teach us to be true</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Come dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Cause we love you</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Images of innocence charge him go on</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And a blinding revelation is laid upon his plate</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And God help the critic of the dawn.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So he stands on the sea and shouts to the shore,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But the louder that he screams the longer he's ignored</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Till the giant is aware, someone's pulling at his leg,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And someone is tapping at the door.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>To dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Teach us to be true</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Come dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Cause we love you</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads accross the land</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The rewarding of his pain is the following of the man</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Success is an enemy to the losers of the day</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>For blood is the language of the band.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Spanish bulls are beaten; the crowd is soon beguiled,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Excitement is estatic, passion places bets</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And saliva is falling from their smiles</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Teach us to be true</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Come dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Cause we love you</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Then this overflow of life is crushed into a liar</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The gentle soul is ripped apart and tossed into the fire.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>First a smile of rejection at the nearness of the night</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Truth becomes a tragedy limping from the light</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>All the heavens are horrified, they stagger from the sight</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>As the cross is trembling with desire.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>They say they can't believe it, it's a sacreligious shame</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Tell me every detail, for I've got to know it all,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And do you have a picture of the pain?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Teach us to be true</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Come dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Cause we love you</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Time takes her toll and the memory fades</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>but his glory is broken, in the magic that he made.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Reality is ruined; it's the freeing from the fear</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>As they wait for the new thrill parade.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Yes, the eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The child was created to the slaughterhouse he's led</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So good to be alive when the eulogy is read</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The climax of emotion, the worship of the dead</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And the cycle of sacrifice unwinds.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>So dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Teach us to be true</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Come dance dance dance</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Cause we love you</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And the night comes again to the circle studded sky</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The stars settle slowly, in lonliness they lie</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>With the speed of insanity, then he died. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ochs' next album, <i>Tape From California</i>, contains his other masterpiece, "When In Rome." I blogged about it a while back, <a href="http://thesethingstoo.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-in-rome.html">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Tom Paxton wrote a song about Phil's 1976 suicide. It has everything you need to know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Tape From California</i> had Phil's version of the old union song "Joe Hill." If Phil has a successor it is the British activist/singer Billy Bragg, and Bragg rewrote "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" in recognition of Phil's life.</span><br />
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<b>"The fortunes of the entire world may well ride on the ability of young Americans to face the responsibilities of an old America gone mad." - Phil Ochs</b><br />
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I want to finish up with a very short clip I found very recently of Ochs with Bob Dylan, in a clip from Dylan's film <i>Renaldo and Clara</i>.</div>
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If you would like to know more about Phil Ochs' life and music, there are two excellent biographies available. Marc Elliot's 1978 study <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-Rebel-Biography-Phil-Ochs/dp/0806515554">Death of a Rebel</a>, and Michael Schumacher's 1997 book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/There-but-Fortune-Life-Phil/dp/0786882883/ref=pd_sim_b_2">There but for Fortune</a>. </div>
Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-32239828774819106952013-01-12T06:51:00.000-05:002013-01-12T06:51:54.728-05:00Songwriters... Paul Simon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If I ever meet Paul Simon I have one question for him. I want to know if, after writing the line "The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar," he took the rest of the day off.<br />
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Over the past half century, Simon has emerged as one of the two or three finest songwriters of his generation. His skills are singularly unique, a perfect storm of musical and lyrical inventiveness that rarely sounds strained or hurried. In 1968 Simon wrote the song "America" which appeared on the Simon & Garfunkel album <i>Bookends</i>. It is one of a very few pop songs written in free verse; the only rhyme in the song is an internal one, "Michigan seems like a dream to me now."<br />
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Five years later, Simon returned to a similar rumination on the nature of identity and the character of the country of his birth. This performance from a 1974 Dick Cavett Show is just about perfect.</div>
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Jump ahead another twelve years and the release of Simon's finest album, <i>Graceland</i>. There is a DVD series on the making of classic albums, the one on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Albums-Paul-Simon-Graceland/dp/B00004RJAX/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1357989205&sr=8-6&keywords=making+of+graceland">making of Graceland</a> is really worth a look. Take a look:</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Simon discusses changes in his process that took place around the time of </span><i style="text-align: left;">Graceland</i><span style="text-align: left;">. Now he would first develop the music, build the track until he was satisfied with the results. Then write a lyric and, if he wasn't happy with the results, remove the lyric and try again, but still have the track that he liked. This was the approach that produced the song "Boy in the Bubble."</span></div>
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It is one of my favorite Simon lyrics. Like the best of his work, the song moves from the specific to the universal with language that teases and hints at a larger meaning.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>It was a slow day</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And the sun was beating</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>On the soldiers by the side of the road</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>There was a bright light</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>A shattering of shop windows</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The bomb in the baby carriage</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Was wired to the radio</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>This is the long distance call</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way the camera follows us in slo-mo</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to us all</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to a distant constellation</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>That's dying in a corner of the sky</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And don't cry baby, don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>It was a dry wind</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And it swept across the desert</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And it curled into the circle of birth</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And the dead sand</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Falling on the children</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The mothers and the fathers</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And the automatic earth</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>This is the long distance call</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way the camera follows us in slo-mo</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to us all</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to a distant constellation</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>That's dying in a corner of the sky</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And don't cry baby, don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>It's a turn-around jump shot</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>It's everybody jump start</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Medicine is magical and magical is art</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The Boy in the Bubble</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And the baby with the baboon heart</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And I believe</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of lasers in the jungle</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Lasers in the jungle somewhere</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Staccato signals of constant information</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>A loose affiliation of millionaires</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And billionaires and baby</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>This is the long distance call</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way the camera follows us in slo-mo</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to us all</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>The way we look to a distant constellation</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>That's dying in a corner of the sky</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>These are the days of miracle and wonder</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>And don't cry baby, don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i>Don't cry</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
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That performance is so joyful and powerful... it is one of my favorites and presents Simon at the height of his powers. Let me finish here with this video that runs through Simon's catalog stopping at all the right places.</div>
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Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-80835828850773766152013-01-08T09:29:00.000-05:002013-01-08T09:29:06.478-05:00Song....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXqzJ7jZ29g4wXdbzl8Ipsm5FtswjNXVwtxu0If5XlZPJ90IYljUFGLhe5ZBtY-Q97UtnzgkNyiHfIKGWlvRjC111THBHYI4_m5vDxGr_ndV5CaZr60EkMaFLUzc3rD0__T-WCNNp-CZs/s1600/cotswolds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXqzJ7jZ29g4wXdbzl8Ipsm5FtswjNXVwtxu0If5XlZPJ90IYljUFGLhe5ZBtY-Q97UtnzgkNyiHfIKGWlvRjC111THBHYI4_m5vDxGr_ndV5CaZr60EkMaFLUzc3rD0__T-WCNNp-CZs/s320/cotswolds.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Playing chess with Domino in England</i><br />
<i>A pawn I took for granted won the game</i><br />
<i>My kingdom toppled in an instant</i><br />
<i>The queen and her bishops looked surprised</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And the knights atop their horses</i><br />
<i>They had no where to go</i><br />
<i>The pawns were cheered like heroes</i><br />
<i>In the courtyard of the palace</i><br />
<i>And they danced around the castle</i><br />
<i>Arm in arm</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Walking off the street and through an unmarked door in Oxford</i><br />
<i>We walked into a wholly different land</i><br />
<i>The green was the greenest green that I had ever seen</i><br />
<i>There were secret gardens, secret gardens, secret gardens everywhere</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And we were riding in that tiny car and driving through the Cotswolds</i><br />
<i>Through Stanton, into Stanway and to Winchcombe and beyond</i><br />
<i>Through green fields lined with dry stone walls</i><br />
<i>And honey-colored limestone so warm in the setting English sun</i><br />
<i>A thousand years of history, kings and queens and peasants in the morning</i><br />
<i>Mist upon the water out by Castle Combe</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And we followed the Romans and the Normans</i><br />
<i>Moving through the hills above the market</i><br />
<i>It was as if our souls were trying to remember</i><br />
<i>Something about that castle, something about the markings on the wall</i><br />
<i>I held you against the chill and we drank whisky in the pub that night by the fire</i><br />
<i>There was something eternal</i><br />
<i>There was something everlasting</i><br />
<i>There was some kind of mid-winter magic</i><br />
<i>On the water</i><br />
<i>In the fields</i><br />
<i>By that castle</i><br />
<i>As we rode along the country roads in England</i>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-10647359592330413412013-01-07T11:14:00.000-05:002013-01-07T11:14:25.391-05:00Songwriters....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For no reason I can fathom - I love how the brain works - this morning I was struck by how two great songs suddenly seemed related in some odd way. It had never occurred to me before, even though I have loved, and played, both songs countless times in the past forty years.<br />
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Six short verses, four lines each and, like every song on Dylan's <i>John Wesley Harding album</i>, no chorus. This is Dylan at his enigmatic best; the signifiers dance, whirl around as if in a strong wind, never stopping long enough for any meaning to become fixed. The greater context is, as it always is, important. There is the context of the album, stark, minimalist folk, loaded with odd religious imagery that has led some to interpret the Joker and thief as Christ on the cross speaking to Dismas, the penitent thief.<br />
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Dave Van Ronk was <a href="http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/dylan-05.php">not a fan</a> of the song, commenting that you cannot travel "along" a watchtower. I think Van Ronk found Dylan's dance with meaning irritating. I love Dave, always have, but where he is irritated I am more prone to exhilaration. I don't feel this way about all of Dylan, there are definitely songs in which he's just faking it, getting by. This is not one of those.<br />
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Beyond the context of the album is the context of the times, particularly important for JWH. Released at the very end, a scant few days before the end of 1967. 1967 was dominated by psychedelia, the "Summer of Love," Haight-Ashbury, Carnaby Street, <i>Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</i>. Neon flowers and paisley, elaborate album cover constructions (the Rolling Stones 3D cover, the Bee Gees red velvet) with lyric gate folds and booklets and cut out sheets and printed inner sleeves. When Dylan sings "There must be someway out of here" it is as if he is fixing an exit sign to all of that.<br />
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Released by Leonard Cohen in 1967 (though released first by Judy Collins a year earlier), "Suzanne" strikes me as a kind of bookend to "All Along the Watchtower" in its similar dance with ambiguity and meaning.<br />
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<i>Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river</i><br />
<i>You can hear the boats go by</i><br />
<i>You can spend the night beside her</i><br />
<i>And you know that she's half crazy</i><br />
<i>But that's why you want to be there</i><br />
<i>And she feeds you tea and oranges</i><br />
<i>That come all the way from China</i><br />
<i>And just when you mean to tell her</i><br />
<i>That you have no love to give her</i><br />
<i>Then she gets you on her wavelength</i><br />
<i>And she lets the river answer</i><br />
<i>That you've always been her lover</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel with her</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel blind</i><br />
<i>And you know that she will trust you</i><br />
<i>For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And Jesus was a sailor</i><br />
<i>When he walked upon the water</i><br />
<i>And he spent a long time watching</i><br />
<i>From his lonely wooden tower</i><br />
<i>And when he knew for certain</i><br />
<i>Only drowning men could see him</i><br />
<i>He said "All men will be sailors then</i><br />
<i>Until the sea shall free them"</i><br />
<i>But he himself was broken</i><br />
<i>Long before the sky would open</i><br />
<i>Forsaken, almost human</i><br />
<i>He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel with him</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel blind</i><br />
<i>And you think maybe you'll trust him</i><br />
<i>For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Now Suzanne takes your hand</i><br />
<i>And she leads you to the river</i><br />
<i>She is wearing rags and feathers</i><br />
<i>From Salvation Army counters</i><br />
<i>And the sun pours down like honey</i><br />
<i>On our lady of the harbor</i><br />
<i>And she shows you where to look</i><br />
<i>Among the garbage and the flowers</i><br />
<i>There are heroes in the seaweed</i><br />
<i>There are children in the morning</i><br />
<i>They are leaning out for love</i><br />
<i>And they will lean that way forever</i><br />
<i>While Suzanne holds the mirror</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel with her</i><br />
<i>And you want to travel blind</i><br />
<i>And you know that you can trust her</i><br />
<i>For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Three verses, with the middle verse about the figure of Jesus - a character we recognize - in the center of two verses about Suzanne, a character we are only now trying to understand. Here, the singer speaks to the listener about Suzanne (and Christ). In the song, it is <i>we</i> whose bodies are <i>perfect</i>, not Christ's. Christ - if he is referenced in both songs, is impotent in both. And this, for want of a better term, <i>impotence of Christ</i>,<i> </i>becomes then the perfect metaphor for the tired, world weariness of the post-psychedelic experience.<br />
<br />
As interesting as psychedelic music is, it is almost always superficial; everything of interest skirts along the surface. But post-psychedelic music... that's another thing altogether. More later.<br />
Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-27626373906827239912013-01-06T11:36:00.000-05:002013-01-06T11:36:27.796-05:00Songwriting....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><b>“I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, “Nowhere Man” came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down…Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed sleep.” - John Lennon</b></i><br />
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<i><b> “Somebody said to me, But the Beatles were anti-materialistic. That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, Now, let’s write a swimming pool.” - Paul McCartney</b></i><br />
<br />
Songwriting is the biggest mystery to me. It is something so many people seem to be able to do, and yet I have tried for probably the better part of forty years now to write songs with virtually zero success. I have one song about how hard it is to score drugs when you get older. I have one other I've never sung for anyone ever. I have a wedding song I wrote in 1980 that I've always wanted Willie Nelson to record. I have a half-finished one about being in a plane looking down on the lights of Memphis that I kind of hear as a Vulgar Boatmen song. Years ago I wrote one called something like "The Patron Saint of Circumstance" that I recorded on a cassette that I lost. I can't remember much about the song other than that I liked it at the time. I have a 22 second instrumental that I am very fond of.<br />
<br />
And I have snippets, fragments, that I occasionally offer to people who never take me up on it. One, in particular, is the... I'm not sure what the word is. It's not the "chorus," I don't think it's a "bridge"... it's the line at the end of a verse that contains the key idea and probably the title. It's about how passions burn most fiercely when we are you and ebb as we age.<br />
<br />
It is sung by an older man remembering his younger self. When I think about it I can hear George Jones singing it. The line is: "But I was younger then, and my heart was full of roses." When I sing it, the word "roses" is stretched out at the end. If you can do anything with it, it's yours.<br />
<br />
I want to look at songwriting by looking at some of what I consider to be some of the greatest songs we have. First up....<br />
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Written by Cole Porter in 1936. Sinatra first sang the song in 1946 and then, in 1956, he recorded this version, arranged by Nelson Riddle and known for Milt Bernhart's terrific trombone solo that shows up around 2:20 in. The collaboration of Porter, Sinatra and Riddle produces this moment of near-perfection. The pleasure here is right on the surface, in the grain of Sinatra's voice, the gorgeous lyric perfectly phrased and played with, and in Riddle's sense of swing. </div>
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<i><b>“I usually know what kind of song I’m after. I know what I’m trying to do when I start. I don’t always get there. But I try to visualize what it’s actually going to be." - Jimmy Webb</b></i><br />
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Jimmy Webb is one of the 5 or 10 best songwriters of all time. He's at his most interesting when he picks an artists to work with and writes an entire album for them. He did it with the Fifth Dimension, Richard Harris, and with Johnny Rivers, and he did it for Art Garfunkel on his best album, "Watermarks." If I had to pick my favorite Webb collaboration of all time it would be Garfunkel's reading of Webb's "Crying in my Sleep." If you listen, you learn a volume of information about the people in the song, their history, their relationship, their friends, their jobs, etc. But if you just look at the lyrics you will not find ANY of that in there. This song is one of the greatest examples of the use of subtext I've ever found. With Webb, the pleasures are many, but a major one is in the way he suddenly moves n an odd angle away from the direction you were certain he was going. This has that characteristic that is common to all great songs - I never tire of it.<br />
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<b><i>“My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it…In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie…It’s not me, it’s the songs. I’m just the postman, I deliver the songs…I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.” - Bob Dylan</i></b><br />
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It is probably silly to claim any one song as Dylan's best, but this is the least silly claim of all. What I find so telling is that this is the one song he never seems to stop writing. There are many on line sites that list the various lyric variations Dylan has played with over the years, this is just <a href="http://everything2.com/title/Tangled+Up+In+Blue">one example</a>. The song comes from the period in which Dylan was trying to apply the principles of his painting teacher, <a href="http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/who/r/raebennorman.html">Norman Raeben</a>, to his movie project (Renaldo & Clara) and his songwriting around the time of his "Blood on the Tracks" album. The songs is an ocean of sub text and time travel. It is,for me, Dylan at his most singular, powerful and sublime.<br />
<br />Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-15792595162763580242012-11-29T12:26:00.000-05:002012-11-29T12:27:49.172-05:00Artifacts from a distant past....<object height="480" width="640"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param>
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<embed src="https://www.facebook.com/v/330080920433460" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="1" width="340" height="280"></embed></object>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-85264035831379008712012-11-19T13:13:00.000-05:002012-11-19T13:13:51.160-05:00Promises, promises....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjF-0YjIS60NbzlpICAzOcSWoWvGXJfjzGyJ02t7V7nZswQ3i4ZVX90NI_mAdR_sdxRW2srUwKIIg6SkRzsCA_lheqZNJrtlJ0GXgm-F8ETMnNuQNZXpK8QoAQIojw4W_NS-OAfGSk4yc/s1600/6930483165_b692cd29c6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjF-0YjIS60NbzlpICAzOcSWoWvGXJfjzGyJ02t7V7nZswQ3i4ZVX90NI_mAdR_sdxRW2srUwKIIg6SkRzsCA_lheqZNJrtlJ0GXgm-F8ETMnNuQNZXpK8QoAQIojw4W_NS-OAfGSk4yc/s320/6930483165_b692cd29c6_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
In July 2012 we organized the largest grass roots Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration in the US, a 9 day festival with 13 events designed to educate and entertain, all in our neighborhood on the East side of Indianapolis, IN, Historic Irvington.<br />
<br />
<b>We now plan to make that celebration an annual event, and June 2-8, 2013 will see the <i>Second Annual Irvington Folk Festival (Son of the Woody Guthrie Celebration)</i> in various location in and around Irvington. For more information about the actual schedule of events check out the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Irvington-Folk/551713911510030?fref=ts">Facebook page</a> (and go ahead and "like" us if you would).</b><br />
<br />
In the meantime it is my plan to use this blog, which I had tired of somewhat during the political battles of the past few years, to look at the more-complicated-than-you-might-suspect notion of just what "folk music" actually is. So keep checking back to see just what's going on. In the mean time let me leave you with what I think was the brightest moment from last year's festival: Dale Lawrence & The Punkin Holler Boys doing a version of Woody's "This Land Is Your Land" is a quiet and introspective arrangement that drew everybody into the song.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fIJimhV9NCk" width="560"></iframe>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-44202476355495623442012-05-08T17:33:00.002-04:002012-07-08T01:12:19.405-04:00Music is....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpKTtdDQadAdcfJFOohw7c3PzsyTsj6kwBahFGUQbnKbTX6r3ZUvtZb3F75VUJCNoh7MOi7qCyG5rx_RcYZd-VWA9_8fwB4a32RC4b954otzK_e5P8OlPC17hA4dOvsUC3wWwderAopZY/s1600/63fal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpKTtdDQadAdcfJFOohw7c3PzsyTsj6kwBahFGUQbnKbTX6r3ZUvtZb3F75VUJCNoh7MOi7qCyG5rx_RcYZd-VWA9_8fwB4a32RC4b954otzK_e5P8OlPC17hA4dOvsUC3wWwderAopZY/s400/63fal.jpg" width="385" /></a></div>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-21308485135556119552012-03-23T13:33:00.000-04:002012-03-23T13:33:07.147-04:00It used to go like that....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIx2NXLHche9h77ynU2gV26sChJoTgUHiuhvwoGz-wEaJ0zffv6CQfjdO6dfGJu2YClXKxF7fWeBdybBmDkgKxsNp-J8VdkIY5Q-RZGo21dECrTrD7XJ2yGQGOwgU-JtAsgIgOOfC3jhg/s1600/reddawn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIx2NXLHche9h77ynU2gV26sChJoTgUHiuhvwoGz-wEaJ0zffv6CQfjdO6dfGJu2YClXKxF7fWeBdybBmDkgKxsNp-J8VdkIY5Q-RZGo21dECrTrD7XJ2yGQGOwgU-JtAsgIgOOfC3jhg/s400/reddawn.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
<br />
Right wing fantasies used to involve hiding in the mountains and fighting invading Soviet troops ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn">Red Dawn</a>," "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_U.S.A._(1985_film)">Invasion USA</a>," "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(TV_miniseries)">Amerika</a>"). But current right wing fantasies are different. Current fantasies involve building private arsenals to resist the "Islamic Marxist Kenyan dictatorship" the President (who is, when you remove the smoke and mirrors, basically a Nixon Republican) has planned to impose by fiendishly trying to make sure all Americans have decent health care. And that fantasy doesn't involve shooting Soviet troops, it involves shooting US troops. So, if you have those fantasies, you really shouldn't have that "Support the Troops" sticker on the back of your SUV, should you?
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<br />
Think it through. There is no way any US government could seize control of the country and suspend the Constitution without the support of the US military. And I don't care how many Glocks, AR-15s and assorted deer rifles you have buried in the back yard, there's no private militia in this country who could defend itself against a single Boeing AH-64 attack helicopter.
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<br />
If you buy into the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_helicopter"> black helicopters</a> paranoia of today's far right wing you should be petitioning your representatives to have Timothy McVeigh's birthday declared a holiday.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-91808382648782878802012-02-27T00:41:00.000-05:002012-02-27T00:41:13.850-05:00And in my dream....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqZMQEH65Uj4dJRrlVI5d9SxM4kiPH5Ac0-vFsFy8I_lKZmwe86IAcgKXa8ZGaTBkl7P9LlniU-1_CS9R2hpwPpfXvSEAworzUmQtN361-3IVyzsnxOm2FoTc__leYZVdEe0WpUEhqiQ/s1600/ClarionRiver02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqZMQEH65Uj4dJRrlVI5d9SxM4kiPH5Ac0-vFsFy8I_lKZmwe86IAcgKXa8ZGaTBkl7P9LlniU-1_CS9R2hpwPpfXvSEAworzUmQtN361-3IVyzsnxOm2FoTc__leYZVdEe0WpUEhqiQ/s320/ClarionRiver02.jpg" width="380" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clarion River, Clarion PA</span></b></div>
In my dream<br />
I die<br />
and wake<br />
slowly<br />
floating in an inner tube<br />
in the warm water<br />
on a Summer afternoon<br />
<br />
In my dream<br />
I float<br />
closer to the bank<br />
where I can hear<br />
the voices
of my friends<br />
<br />
In my dream<br />
there are coolers
full of ice cold<br />
seven ounce
bottles of Rolling Rock<br />
and a film can
full of Thai stick<br />
and some acoustic guitars<br />
<br />
One more perfect
day.<br />
<br />
2/27/12Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-44702100089622080882012-02-06T19:38:00.000-05:002012-02-06T19:38:44.390-05:00My America....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFO7rhn-09UeBHhN1jFrZg94WqBPigU5JBmDx1k3gwghFAwgn8StFJkIyhF8msOTeoHMX8akp4ogWykvjuBocFOrFCxHZpQF118XfJySwldUbuJTIsw45DxnmVwUJyautstdAqoKlOd0/s1600/402265_3032921095833_1047077650_3045725_1856339930_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="420" width="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFO7rhn-09UeBHhN1jFrZg94WqBPigU5JBmDx1k3gwghFAwgn8StFJkIyhF8msOTeoHMX8akp4ogWykvjuBocFOrFCxHZpQF118XfJySwldUbuJTIsw45DxnmVwUJyautstdAqoKlOd0/s400/402265_3032921095833_1047077650_3045725_1856339930_n.jpg" /></a></div>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-17134682146737744802012-01-19T11:48:00.000-05:002012-01-19T16:54:36.214-05:00It is 1955 and....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
It is 1955 and<br />
it is a week<br />
or two<br />
after my second birthday and<br />
I am standing
in long pants<br />
in the dark green water<br />
of the Atlantic Ocean<br />
with my mother<br />
and Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera<br />
and the game Scrabble debuts<br />
and the Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons<br />
and
President Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to Vietnam<br />
and
Claudette Colvin, a fifteen year old black girl, refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it and is carried off the bus backwards while being kicked and handcuffed on the way to the police station<br />
and
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister<br />
and the Salk polio vaccine receives full approval by the FDA<br />
and Disneyland opens to the public in Anaheim, California<br />
and the first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially<br />
and
James Dean dies in a car wreck<br />
and
Christopher Mayhew ingests mescaline and allows himself to be filmed by the BBC<br />
and
Vladimir Nabokov publishes his novel Lolita<br />
and
the Mickey Mouse Club TV program debuts on ABC<br />
and
the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea<br />
and the Brooklyn Dodgers finally win the World Series<br />
and a time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629 killing everyone on board<br />
and racial segregation is outlawed on trains and buses in Interstate Commerce in the United States<br />
and Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town<br />
and the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to become the AFL-CIO<br />
and the Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate a boycott of all city buses<br />
and General Motors Corporation becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over one billion dollars in one year<br />
and we are anchored<br />
located<br />
situated<br />
sutured<br />
into a<br />
history that swirls around us<br />
like some living<br />
surreal<br />
tornado<br />
and we're not in Kansas anymore.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-70882877325862511592011-11-20T17:01:00.000-05:002011-11-20T17:01:26.147-05:00History, rhyming....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu53WqweJ9nnoc3nIiKWEGrb-x56qb4vowlJov2qz0hDHdrN4Chhs5cwKXR3OtQTZYnSJswMlKyBHHbbSTzjUS9vI3uIJw_AngU0oqLa_z_8zWNMkEVkRAwxwKrQuGyRpQPXFo8R8uwHo/s1600/tumblr_lbqrs3EuaS1qao9g9o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu53WqweJ9nnoc3nIiKWEGrb-x56qb4vowlJov2qz0hDHdrN4Chhs5cwKXR3OtQTZYnSJswMlKyBHHbbSTzjUS9vI3uIJw_AngU0oqLa_z_8zWNMkEVkRAwxwKrQuGyRpQPXFo8R8uwHo/s400/tumblr_lbqrs3EuaS1qao9g9o1_500.jpg" /></a></div><br />
America, 1935.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-54175326722158835322011-11-20T16:13:00.000-05:002011-11-20T16:13:51.113-05:00America....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-SYFtV54wUpXnHnQBVIUiK1Ts4VvNPFQGFdgjC9nLhLmN4e1otuMjxT2nKQFjorUoGvPpgZtllELLXCRMb9KNNEpOBg-s5buZZQ-1vFBSqR1EY7G-rZgdCCnH0I1hBEb2r6wW21L4gw/s1600/america.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-SYFtV54wUpXnHnQBVIUiK1Ts4VvNPFQGFdgjC9nLhLmN4e1otuMjxT2nKQFjorUoGvPpgZtllELLXCRMb9KNNEpOBg-s5buZZQ-1vFBSqR1EY7G-rZgdCCnH0I1hBEb2r6wW21L4gw/s320/america.jpg" width="356" /></a></div>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-71380854802481640752011-10-20T13:40:00.000-04:002011-10-20T13:40:51.564-04:00WWJD?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGMdLDhk1iJ6Ehyphenhyphen595LEtzBaK2u1v6BgMGdUtKpzzQrmflNjTkXYWujWd_93mPhnJoPqWEvFfOZN1ODPqTvQ3NH0xIeNRs0nnGeYw7WiTx5CayvDlSVjqGXU3Onh3FHdRX79yi7b8SdE/s1600/PHOTO_8317096_10058_3081429_ap_320X240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGMdLDhk1iJ6Ehyphenhyphen595LEtzBaK2u1v6BgMGdUtKpzzQrmflNjTkXYWujWd_93mPhnJoPqWEvFfOZN1ODPqTvQ3NH0xIeNRs0nnGeYw7WiTx5CayvDlSVjqGXU3Onh3FHdRX79yi7b8SdE/s400/PHOTO_8317096_10058_3081429_ap_320X240.jpg" width="370" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Spoken Word" artists, Dick Gregory and Mort Sahl</div><br />
Although he is best known as a Punk Rock icon, Jello Biafra's "spoken word" career is best understood as part of a direct lineage from Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory. All three were stand up night club comedians in the 1950s who, as they moved into the tumult of the 1960s, stopped telling jokes and started, in Sahl's case, coming on stage with that day's newspaper and reading the news. If you want an introduction to Biafra's spoken word catalog I recommend the 2001 release, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Become-Media-Jello-Biafra/dp/B00004Y6T0">Become the Media</a></i>, a 3-CD set offered at a single disc price.<br />
<br />
While Biafra doesn't own a computer and doesn't use email (except through his record label, Alternative Tentacles), he has taken to the internet in the form of a video journal called "WWJD" which is posted to Youtube. His recent monologue on then Occupy Wall Street movement is alternately scatter shot and insightful.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="394" height="225" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9UxdJHusNTQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-92067840755453343462011-10-10T10:39:00.000-04:002011-10-10T10:39:39.908-04:00Metaphors....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD12OoQ-rFS03SKcCepfKT7E4Olo-XCrlIcy7wEG-r8mJtXpeXmzc_7GfK0MWOcY8GRWJf_HvPSV4RI5zyqRAAtDB9rF_edt6VvHR8ZH34BjzYQOEIOW5NlPRNzHDlr7OpS30IQYh_62M/s1600/metaphors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD12OoQ-rFS03SKcCepfKT7E4Olo-XCrlIcy7wEG-r8mJtXpeXmzc_7GfK0MWOcY8GRWJf_HvPSV4RI5zyqRAAtDB9rF_edt6VvHR8ZH34BjzYQOEIOW5NlPRNzHDlr7OpS30IQYh_62M/s400/metaphors.jpg" /></a></div>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-68216134460446661972011-10-09T00:57:00.000-04:002011-10-09T00:57:05.633-04:00#Occupy Wall Street....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvyTomyD-pu1wyjas7DhXFH1IL40wToKYpbxUsJcDRjcoptIIzwQrk1dq7CitHQ1Eu0MHj-BdrBWbSlQzyiPB9WhpnxHxJSHyJoP2lGYZIRXELD-5KVOeC3mz3Nn053tIIJFEkWQEyOk/s1600/OccupyWallStreet452.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="248" width="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvyTomyD-pu1wyjas7DhXFH1IL40wToKYpbxUsJcDRjcoptIIzwQrk1dq7CitHQ1Eu0MHj-BdrBWbSlQzyiPB9WhpnxHxJSHyJoP2lGYZIRXELD-5KVOeC3mz3Nn053tIIJFEkWQEyOk/s400/OccupyWallStreet452.jpg" /></a></div><b><br />
"The basic movement that says to each person: You are, I am a worthwhile person. I am one of the 99% that are the backbone of and reason America got this far. Why do I have to, beg for a job, beg that I can be seen for a medical condition, beg a politician for some little relief from the inexorable tightening of the screws that go on day after day, year after year, and never lets up? Why do the 1% have to keep grabbing more and more and stealing from the rest of us? Why must this theft continue? Why do I have to have my dignity, self worth violated over and over?" - BeeDeeS</b><br />
<br />
Everyday I read more and more reports that point to the leaderless character of the #OWS movement and it's lack of a clear concise agenda as the primary strengths of the incipient movement. And the argument is not without merit - don't allow any organization to lay claim to leadership because, the second you do, you immediately limit the scope and appeal of the movement.<br />
<br />
But there will come a moment when that will have to change, when this movement will have to move pass the simple expression of built up frustration and outrage over the past 3 decades of economic inequities and proceed toward some actual specific action.<br />
<br />
It will not be a "revolution." Not in the same sense as those that spread across the Arab Spring. Barack Obama and John Boehner will not flee the Capitol and be discovered by an angry mob hiding in the break room of a Walmart. <br />
<br />
I see posts on Facebook by people who, when I tell them they need to vote to stop a return of a Republican White House, tell me I'm wrong and that instead we have to "tear the whole thing down."<br />
<br />
So.... This means what? That we shut down every public assistance office, every library, every public school? That we shut down all public utilities, all public transportation, all government services, all government agencies?<br />
<br />
The fire hydrants in my neighborhood have been broken for a while; the sewage system in Indianapolis is about 100 years old and in need of some serious repair. Three times in the past week I've woken up, turned the faucet, and nothing has come out.<br />
<br />
This is what we need to do, rather than re-elect Barack Obama? <br />
<br />
No water, no electricity, no heat, no traffic lights, no police, no fire, no emergency services? Do these people really think a world in which a call to 911 is answered by a recording that says "The number you have dialed is no longer in service" is <i>better</i>?<br />
<br />
No banks, no money, no prescription medicine, no salt trucks and road plows after a snow storm. Power to the people. Right on.<br />
<br />
At the same time, the #OWS movement fills me with real hope. <br />
<br />
I read recently someone who argued that the New Deal ended on May 8, 1970 in lower Manhattan, the day of the "Hard Hat Riots." <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl_R2uGQHSjdvfzq_TjfXmMJxj1KvJ2dVpDtDUxBWdkXwNj8whyFfxfGMJoMLn2RrjBwYh4AbgZmI-_s5zllVWmFH_BEbMHLoARAka3SnLBcAWUwDlfkYtrjqc0BlI_Y_QWY83j2NEb4U/s1600/7d224552f1be10712a1dbe1b7f84c9ddbc79ab_r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl_R2uGQHSjdvfzq_TjfXmMJxj1KvJ2dVpDtDUxBWdkXwNj8whyFfxfGMJoMLn2RrjBwYh4AbgZmI-_s5zllVWmFH_BEbMHLoARAka3SnLBcAWUwDlfkYtrjqc0BlI_Y_QWY83j2NEb4U/s400/7d224552f1be10712a1dbe1b7f84c9ddbc79ab_r.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The riot started about noon when about 200 construction workers <i>mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO</i> attacked about 1,000 high school and college students and others protesting the Kent State shootings, the American invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street. <br />
<br />
A left political movement that is on the other side of the working class is a non sequitur and has zero potential for growth or success.<br />
<br />
But fast forward forty-one years to October 5, 2011 and the statement issued by Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President:<br />
<br />
<b>"Occupy Wall Street has captured the imagination and passion of millions of Americans who have lost hope that our nation's policymakers are speaking for them. We support the protesters in their determination to hold Wall Street accountable and create good jobs. We are proud that today on Wall Street, bus drivers, painters, nurses and utility workers are joining students and homeowners, the unemployed and the underemployed to call for fundamental change. Across America, working people are turning out with their friends and neighbors in parks, congregations and union halls to express their frustration – and anger -- about our country's staggering wealth gap, the lack of work for people who want to work and the corrupting of our politics by business and financial elites. The people who do the work to keep our great country running are being robbed not only of income, but of a voice. It is time for all of us—the 99 percent—to be heard. <br />
<br />
We will open our union halls and community centers as well as our arms and our hearts to those with the courage to stand up and demand a better America."</b><br />
<br />
Is that the spark that ignites the return of the New Deal? I'd sure like to think so, but, at the same time, I see a whole lot of Ron Paul supporters involved in these protests. Perhaps this represents a teaching opportunity. Perhaps a Ron Paul supporter marching on Wall Street presents a case study in a critical pedagogy of economics that challenge the assumptions of libertarian economics. <br />
<br />
I will hope for as long as I can possibly hope.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-22591325976251306572011-10-04T22:36:00.001-04:002011-10-05T12:11:16.859-04:00Einstein on memory beach....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMY0PeZrC-x5HkCESnblywbvvW2gS7YAdyOERDjGF4tCJGiPS-ytLJteXfFUI6RmZyklmGnyrQ4BrdaGlGVJROpUasXGYwiZgsJOiqVD7PL72KzhVGDxfMucCRIRb8thx2baiqhPWHcI/s1600/tumblr_ljk4djjTmB1qh15yeo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMY0PeZrC-x5HkCESnblywbvvW2gS7YAdyOERDjGF4tCJGiPS-ytLJteXfFUI6RmZyklmGnyrQ4BrdaGlGVJROpUasXGYwiZgsJOiqVD7PL72KzhVGDxfMucCRIRb8thx2baiqhPWHcI/s400/tumblr_ljk4djjTmB1qh15yeo1_500.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Einstein<br />
Washed up on the beach<br />
A sorry sight<br />
His unruly <br />
mushroom cloud <br />
of white hair<br />
Wet<br />
Flattened against his skull<br />
His spectacles <br />
Knocked off by a wave<br />
Staggers to his feet<br />
Falls<br />
Laying there for a moment on the sand<br />
He almost looks like a young man again<br />
<br />
My father's mother's second husband<br />
Albert<br />
Was a kind man<br />
They lived in West Philadelphia<br />
Girard Avenue<br />
I would spend a week or two living with them <br />
in the summers<br />
at the end of the 1950s<br />
<br />
I don't know if we have any photos of Albert<br />
I haven't seen any for many, many years<br />
and in my mind's eye he looks like <br />
Albert Einstein<br />
I imagine<br />
I am remembering the mustache<br />
and filling in the blanks.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-82532431931525678052011-09-25T15:24:00.000-04:002011-09-25T15:24:35.250-04:00Everything old is new again....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA7soqW46PwdateGg5Hdx4MngfMZ7XaP0Wn7KCCVJM5ln-RRvN3UMWYl7rD8lweYbEOVwriKWy56iR2c-WVD0AOCQbbafNAMYoQz0wvagIDruSEQAuWboBTGmdHlZvkT-enhaEppW1es/s1600/communist2+%25281%2529.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA7soqW46PwdateGg5Hdx4MngfMZ7XaP0Wn7KCCVJM5ln-RRvN3UMWYl7rD8lweYbEOVwriKWy56iR2c-WVD0AOCQbbafNAMYoQz0wvagIDruSEQAuWboBTGmdHlZvkT-enhaEppW1es/s400/communist2+%25281%2529.gif" /></a></div>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-82770230102165346432011-09-02T13:22:00.000-04:002011-09-02T13:22:41.914-04:00The things we remember....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkIfSMlpuOTeeG0U65A0n3h8LJomt7KaVP_-Gj1NBED_gNU3jtKjdAJWWwgUKU_IGnWZ5SjpKx6S0MtIPjKUmoH3CpEhxy1NvUXUIXQulRUE2Fygwt7vAqTRQ3nUGs-aRzzRDkwy9QCpA/s1600/roses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkIfSMlpuOTeeG0U65A0n3h8LJomt7KaVP_-Gj1NBED_gNU3jtKjdAJWWwgUKU_IGnWZ5SjpKx6S0MtIPjKUmoH3CpEhxy1NvUXUIXQulRUE2Fygwt7vAqTRQ3nUGs-aRzzRDkwy9QCpA/s400/roses.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Earlier today, playing around on Facebook, I posted a video of my favorite love song. The opening chord reminded me that there is a medieval pudding recipe made from yellow rose petals. Looking for an image of yellow roses I found that they are a symbol of joy, affection and friendship. And it wasn't even noon.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="384" height="294" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sW8HToAEV-g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-11737878386068931522011-07-09T00:16:00.000-04:002011-07-09T00:16:48.116-04:00This is 1966....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSevBdFqXU5liT5b4EHJmnn06hK3T6T0Gm8TERflyj8RfqNjjGAooV35qIk35cdfVS5yAQufiM8qpZsvKcZ37b3BqnQqItzEeU3FPJ6Rs05UxAk-IdyOw9CX0w8MHg0VibMTGnuRGlG7I/s1600/1966_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSevBdFqXU5liT5b4EHJmnn06hK3T6T0Gm8TERflyj8RfqNjjGAooV35qIk35cdfVS5yAQufiM8qpZsvKcZ37b3BqnQqItzEeU3FPJ6Rs05UxAk-IdyOw9CX0w8MHg0VibMTGnuRGlG7I/s400/1966_cover.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>"History teaches everything including the future." - Lamartine</i></div><br />
Who we are now has a lot to do with who we were. This is the second part of a look... an <i>inventory</i>, of the center of what some scholars are calling the "Long Sixties" - the period of 1955 to 1975 in which the cultural revolution of "the sixties" played out. <br />
<br />
January 3, 1966. The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Francisco, when tubs of regular and high test Kool Aid are set out for the masses. Also in January, Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member, by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain and drops three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one more into the sea. Ooops. Young singer David Jones changes his last name to Bowie to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees. Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of a lost H-bomb which results in the amputation of his leg; Brashear would later be portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film Men Of Honor (2000). January 1966 also saw Indira Gandhi elected Prime Minister of India and Simon & Garfunkel release "Sounds of Silence," which hit #1 on Billboard charts. Albums released in January 1966 include <i>Them Again</i> by Them, <i>Ballads of the Green Berets</i> by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler, <i>Just Like Us</i> by Paul Revere & the Raiders and <i>Jealous Heart</i> by Connie Francis.<br />
<br />
In February 1966, West Germany welcomes some 2,600 political prisoners from East Germany. The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon. The National Hockey League expands to twelve teams. A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government with a Ba'athist regime. The Australian dollar is introduced at a rate of 2 dollars per pound, or 10 shillings per dollar. On 19 February, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore auditorium in San Francisco (LSD-25 is still legal at this time). In February 1966 Wayne Shorter releases <i>Adam's Apple</i>; <i>Boom</i> by The Sonics; <i>The Best of The Animals</i> on MGM; <i>Boots</i> by Nancy Sinatra; <i>She's Just My Style</i> by Gary Lewis & the Playboys; <i>The Sonny Side of Cher</i>; <i>Take a Ride </i>by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels.<br />
<br />
In March 1966, the Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface. The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria. In an interview with London Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, John Lennon of The Beatles states that they are "more popular than Jesus now." The U.S. announces it will substantially increase the number of its troops in Vietnam. An Irish Republican Army bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin. The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with 5 African-American starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting. The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the British General Election, gaining a 96-seat majority (a great improvement upon the five-seat majority gained at the election 17 months earlier). The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon. On March 3rd, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay form Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles, California. The Young Rascals, Gordon Lightfoot, the Mamas and the Papas and The Fugs all release their debut LPs; the Rolling Stones release their pre-psychedelic "greatest hits" collection, <i>Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)</i>; Barbra Streisand releases <i>Color Me Barbra</i>; <i>Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles</i> and <i>Phil Ochs in Concert</i> are released. <br />
<br />
In April 1966, Lyndon Johnson signs the 1966 Uniform Time Act, introducing daylight saving time. Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. On April 21st, an artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital. On April 24, 1966, uniform daylight saving time is first observed in most parts of North America. U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000. In San Francisco, the Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey. Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders. In April, 1966, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass set a world record by placing five albums simultaneously on Billboard's Pop Album Chart, with four of them the Top 10. Their music outsells The Beatles by a margin of two-to-one... over 13 million recordings. On April 12th, Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean, crashes his Corvette into a truck that is parked on Whittier Boulevard in LA. Berry suffers total physical paralysis for over a year as well as extensive brain damage. The bands Love and The Seeds release debut albums. The Rolling Stones release their strongest LP to date, <i>Aftermath</i>.<br />
<br />
On this one day, May 16, 1966, the Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and the albums <i>Pet Sounds</i> by The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan's <i>Blonde on Blonde</i> are released (Dylan's "official" release date; the actual release was delayed until late June). And in New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War. Also release in May 1966,<i> Up-Tight </i>(Stevie Wonder); <i>Midnight Ride</i> (Paul Revere & the Raiders); <i>Small Faces </i>(Small Faces); <i>Black Monk Time</i> (The Monks); <i>Strangers in the Night</i> (Frank Sinatra). On May 17th, Bob Dylan and the Hawks (later The Band) perform at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England. Dylan is booed by the audience because of his decision to tour with an electric band, the boos culminating in the famous "Judas" shout. <br />
<br />
In June, the final new episode of <i>The Dick Van Dyke Show</i> airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961). Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot while trying to march across Mississippi. Topeka, Kansas is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita Scale, the first to exceed US $100 million in damages. On June 13th, the Supreme Court of the United States delivers its ruling in the case Miranda v. Arizona and establishes the rule that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. Also in June of 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, DC. Released in June 1966, <i>Paradise, Hawaiian Style</i> (Elvis Presley); <i>Gettin' Ready </i>(The Temptations); <i>Yesterday and Today</i> (The Beatles, featuring the infamous "Butcher" cover art); <i>Animalisms</i> (The Animals UK);<i> Animalization</i> (The Animals US); <i>The Impossible Dream </i>(Jack Jones); The Incredible String Band's debut LP; and, on June 27th, the first two "double LPs" in rock music history: <i>Blonde on Blonde</i> (Bob Dylan) and <i>Freak Out!</i> (The Mothers of Invention).<br />
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<b>1966 is only half over.</b><br />
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In July 1966, President Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year. Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory. He is arrested on July 17. Also in July, groundbreaking takes place for the World Trade Center; Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob; Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas; the Beatles release the legendary <i>Revolver </i>album in the UK; race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan. In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party. Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee) for 3 hours. In July of 1966, the Beatles become the first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo and Bob Dylan has his motorcycle accident in Woodstock, NY. Albums by The Byrds (<i>Fifth Dimension</i>), John Mayall (<i>Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton</i>), The Association (<i>And Then... Along Comes the Association</i>) and <i>Beau Brummels '66</i> are released.<br />
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On August 16th, the House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, with the intent to make these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested. On August 17th, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen. On August 24th, the Doors record their self-titled debut LP. On August 29th, the Beatles end their US tour and their concert career with a performance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds 31 from atop the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower, after earlier killing his wife and mother. In August, the Beatles <i>Revolver</i> (in the US), The Paul Butterfield Blues Band's <i>East-West</i> and James Brown's <i>It's a Man's Man's Man's World</i> all see their original release.<br />
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On the first day of September, 1966, while waiting at a bus stop, Ralph Baer an inventor with Sanders Associates, writes a four-page document which lays out the basic principles for creating a video game to be played on a television. On September 8th,<i> Star Trek</i>, the classic science fiction television series, debuts on NBC-TV. The first episode of <i>The Monkees</i> is broadcast on NBC on September 12th. On September 14th, George Harrison travels to India for 6 weeks to study sitar with Ravi Shankar. Debut LPs by The Monkees and Jefferson Airplane (<i>Takes Off</i>) are released days apart. Also in September, British folk guitarist, Bert Jansch, (<i>Jack Orion</i>) and Donovan (<i>Sunshine Superman</i>) release new LPs.<br />
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In October 1966, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party. Toyota Motors introduces the Toyota Corolla. An experimental reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station suffered a partial meltdown when its cooling system failed. The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October. The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, 1–0, to sweep the series for their 1st World Championship. President Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation. The AFL-NFL merger is approved by the U.S. Congress. Grace Slick performs live for the first time with the Jefferson Airplane. Simon & Garfunkel release <i>Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme</i>, The Kinks release <i>Face to Face</i>, and in New York City on October 8, 1966, WOR-FM becomes the first FM rock music station, under the leadership of DJ Murray The K.<br />
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In November, 1966, former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction. The actor, Ronald Reagan, is elected Governor of California. On November 9th, John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery. On November 24th, the Beatles begin recording sessions for their <i>Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band </i>album. Charley Pride is signed by RCA, and the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (Centre for Automatic and Mathematical Music) is founded in Paris by Iannis Xenakis. <i>The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators</i>, one of three albums released that November to use the word "psychedelic" to refer to the sounds within, is released (the other LPs were The Blues Magoos' <i>Psychedelic Lollipop</i>, and The Deep's<i> Psychedelic Moods</i>).<br />
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In December of 1966, Walt Disney dies while producing <i>The Jungle Book</i>, the last animated feature under his personal supervision. The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, founder of Organization US (a black nationalist group) and later chair of Black Studies, at California State University, Long Beach. Among the LPs released in December 1966 were debuts by Buffalo Springfield, Cream (<i>Fresh Cream</i>) and Tim Buckley.<br />
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The Top 40 songs of 1966 were: "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" Sgt. Barry Sadler. "Cherish" The Association; "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration" Righteous Brothers; "Reach Out I'll Be There" Four Tops; "96 Tears" ? & The Mysterians; "Last Train To Clarksville" Monkees; "Monday Monday" Mamas and Papas; "You Can't Hurry Love" Supremes; "Poor Side Of Town" Johnny Rivers; "California Dreamin'" Mamas and Papas; "Summer In The City" Lovin' Spoonful; "Born Free" Roger Williams; "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" Nancy Sinatra; "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" Jimmy Ruffin; "Strangers In The Night" Frank Sinatra; "We Can Work It Out" Beatles; "Good Lovin'" Young Rascals; "Winchester Cathedral" New Vaudeville Band; "Hanky Panky" Tommy James & The Shondells; "When A Man Loves A Woman" Percy Sledge; "Paint It Black" Rolling Stones; "My Love" Petula Clark; "Lightin' Strikes" Lou Christie; "Wild Thing" Troggs; "Kicks" Paul Revere & The Raiders; "Sunshine Superman" Donovan; "Sunny" Bobby Hebb; "Paperback Writer" Beatles; "See You In September" Happenings; "You Keep Me Hangin' On" Supremes; "Lil' Red Riding Hood" Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs; "Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly (Medley)" Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels; "Good Vibrations" Beach Boys; "A Groovy Kind Of Love" Mindbenders; "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" Dusty Springfield; "Born A Woman" Sandy Posey; "Cool Jerk" The Capitols; "Red Rubber Ball" Cyrkle; "B-A-B-Y" Carla Thomas; "Walk Away Renee" Left Banke.<br />
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Bands that first formed in 1966 include Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Eric Burdon & the Animals, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Monkees.<br />
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In film, a list of the six films that grossed over $10 million dollars gives an insight into how wonderfully varied the media was at the time.<br />
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1. <i>Hawaii</i> (Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow) $15,553,000<br />
2. <i>The Bible: In the Beginning</i> (Michael Parks, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner) $15,000,000<br />
3. <i>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</i> (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton) $14,500,000<br />
4. <i>The Sand Pebbles</i> (Steve McQueen and Candice Bergen) $13,500,000<br />
5. <i>A Man For All Seasons</i> (Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, and Robert Shaw) $12,750,000<br />
6. <i>The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming!</i> (Alan Arkin and Carl Reiner) $10,164,000<br />
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1966 also saw the release of: <i>Blowup</i>, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni; <i>Fahrenheit 451</i>, directed by François Truffaut; <i>Masculine-Feminine,</i> directed by Jean-Luc Godard; <i>Torn Curtain</i>, directed by Alfred Hitchcock; <i>The King of Hearts</i>; <i>Our Man Flint</i>; <i>The Wild Angels</i>. 1966 saw the film debuts of Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford and Christopher Walken.<br />
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On TV... The Academy Awards air in color for the first time, on ABC.In a post-fight interview, Howard Cosell honors Muhammad Ali's wishes to no longer be referred to as Cassius Clay, contrasting with the approach of most other sports reporters of the time. Patrick McGoohan quits the popular spy series <i>Danger Man</i> (aired in the US as <i>Secret Agent</i>) after filming only two episodes of the fourth season, in order to produce and star in <i>The Prisoner</i>, which begins filming in September. The 1951–1953 CBS sitcom <i>Amos & Andy</i> is pulled from syndication broadcast due to complaints from civil rights organizations. New series of 1966 include <i>Batman</i>, <i>The Green Hornet</i>, <i>The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.</i>, <i>Star Trek</i>, <i>Dark Shadows</i>, <i>The</i> <i>Newlywed Game</i>, <i>The Monkees</i>, <i>Mission Impossible</i>, <i>The Hollywood Squares</i> and <i>The 700 Club</i>.<br />
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In 1966 Cindy Crawford, Rachel Dratch, Edie Brickell, Greg Maddux, Stephen Baldwin, J. J. Abrams, John Cusack, Sinéad O'Connor, and Mike Tyson are born.<br />
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Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, Sophie Tucker, Maxfield Parrish, William Frawley, Bobby Fuller, Montgomery Clift, Bud Powell, and Lenny Bruce died.<br />
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In or about this year, one person returning to Haiti from the Congo is thought to have first brought HIV to the Americas.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-4499301992952293022011-07-03T16:25:00.000-04:002011-07-09T00:18:24.940-04:00This is 1965....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhutdWa7aSBJwb0Cfqgnqr5OZ8qId6UohIzP1JmEsYvM-txeikGfyh3AUNRyJbzHoRJf4k53iEOnSTrDX1SJew68rqbLnpuLlmIlphgeSHHuRp4UgVb1hqsBJRM61nrI_y7-EsPJF8rq_s/s1600/1-hit-of-1965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhutdWa7aSBJwb0Cfqgnqr5OZ8qId6UohIzP1JmEsYvM-txeikGfyh3AUNRyJbzHoRJf4k53iEOnSTrDX1SJew68rqbLnpuLlmIlphgeSHHuRp4UgVb1hqsBJRM61nrI_y7-EsPJF8rq_s/s1600/1-hit-of-1965.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>"If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development." - Aristotle</i></div><br />
The years 1965 and 1966 represent a sort of peak in popular music, bound up in a kind of homogeneity that would never happen again; shattered by a gradual crawl toward fragmentization and the compartmentalization that defines contemporary popular culture. It is also across these two years that pop begins to morph into rock and lose it's status as ephemeral teenage fascination. As the performers in the post-British Invasion second age of rock and roll travel through their twenties, they begin to take more and more control of the processes that had traditionally been the realm of the "suits" who packaged and marketed the music. In 1965, pop performers are all still well ensconced in "the show business", but the signs are there of something larger lying just ahead.<br />
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The fans, too, are growing up, leaving high schools and heading to universities, and in never-before seen numbers. The "baby boom" that was wearing Beatle wigs and screaming at the Ed Sullivan Show just a year ago is now becoming politicized by the perfect storm of the draft and Vietnam, and using the added gravitas of the civil rights and anti war movements to become conscious of itself <i>as a generation</i> in a manner that rarely happens. These things would all reach a boil in the period of 1967-1969, but the seeds of it all are present in the period of 1965-1966.<br />
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Sometimes my head gets stuffy with facts. Names, dates and places all jumble together and I occasionally need to stop and gain a better purchase on what things correspond to what things, and what other things are years apart.<br />
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As 1965 begins, LBJ, who will be sworn in for his own full term as President on January 20th, first uses the phrase "The Great Society" in his State of the Union address on the 4th. On January 24th, as if ringing a large bell to announce the start of a new era, Sir Winston Churchill dies as "Downtown" hits #1 and makes Petula Clark the first British female performer to top the charts since the arrival of The Beatles. In February, <i>The Rolling Stones Now!</i> and John Coltrane's <i>A Love Supreme</i> are released, and Malcolm X is assassinated in Manhattan. <br />
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In March, civil rights demonstrators clash with state troopers in Selma Alabama while some 3,500 US Marines become the first American combat troops in Vietnam. A Russian cosmonaut becomes the first person to ever walk in space while the bill that will become the Voting Rights act of 1965 is introduced to Congress. Also in March, the Temptations have their first hit, "My Girl" while the Supremes have their fourth number one single, "Stop! In The Name Of Love" and Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Bill Wyman are fined five pounds for urinating on the wall of a London gas station. Albums released in March 1965 include <i>Kinda Kinks</i>, <i>The Beach Boys Today!</i>, Buck Owens' <i>I've Got a Tiger by the Tail</i>, Elvis Presley's <i>Girl Happy</i> and Bob Dylan's <i>Bringing It All Back Home</i>.<br />
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In April, the US launches the world's first space nuclear power reactor. The Houston Astrodome opens. The 100th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War is observed. <i>My Fair Lady</i> wins 8 Academy Awards, <i>Mary Poppins</i> wins 5. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, convicted of murdering 4 members of the Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men. The West German parliament extends the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes. The first SDS march against the Vietnam War draws 25,000 protesters to Washington, DC. Among the albums released are <i>My Funny Valentine</i> by Miles Davis and <i>Whipped Cream & Other Delights</i> by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The New Musical Express poll winners' concert takes place featuring performances by The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, Freddie and the Dreamers, the Kinks, the Searchers, Herman's Hermits, The Anita Kerr Singers, The Moody Blues, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Donovan, Them, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones.<br />
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In May 1965, forty men burn their draft cards at the University of California, Berkeley, and a coffin is marched to the Berkeley Draft Board. The largest teach-in to date begins at Berkeley, California, attended by 30,000. The first skateboard championship is held. Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first round of their championship rematch. Alan Price leaves The Animals. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger begin work on "Satisfaction" in their Clearwater, Florida hotel room (Richards came up with the classic guitar riff while playing around with his brand new Gibson "Fuzz box"). Bob Dylan performs the first of two concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, concluding his tour of Europe. Audience members include The Beatles, and Donovan. Albums released include <i>What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid</i> by Donovan, <i>Maiden Voyage </i>by Herbie Hancock and <i>My Name Is Barbra</i> by Barbra Streisand.<br />
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In June 1965 the first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam. Gemini 4 astronaut Edward Higgins White makes the first U.S. space walk. In the Battle of Dong Xoai, about 1,500 Vietcong mount a mortar attack, overrunning the military headquarters and the adjoining militia compound. A planned anti-war protest at the Pentagon becomes a teach-in, with demonstrators distributing 50,000 leaflets in and around the building. In Algeria, Houari Boumédienne's Revolutionary Council ousts Ahmed Ben Bella, in a bloodless coup. Producer Tom Wilson records a heavy backing band onto the song "The Sounds of Silence", without the knowledge of Paul Simon. The Supremes have their fifth consecutive number one single,"Back In My Arms Again." The Beatles are made Members of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen. The albums <i>The Angry Young Them</i>, <i>Beatles VI </i>and <i>Mr. Tambourine Man</i> by The Byrds are released.<br />
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And we're half way through 1965.<br />
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Turn on the radio and pop music is one loud contradictory swirl of sound rushing out of every AM car radio and hand-held transistor, all playing the same sounds day in day out. The Billboard Top 40 songs of 1965 include "Wooly Bully" Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs; "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" Four Tops; "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" The Rolling Stones; "You Were On My Mind" We Five; "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" Righteous Brothers; "Downtown" Petula Clark; "Help!" The Beatles; "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" Herman's Hermits; "Crying in the Chapel" Elvis Presley; "My Girl" Temptations; "Help Me, Rhonda" Beach Boys; "King of the Road" Roger Miller; "The Birds And The Bees" Jewel Aikens; "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" Mel Carter; "Shotgun" Jr. Walker and The All Stars; "I Got You Babe" Sonny and Cher; "This Diamond Ring" Gary Lewis and The Playboys; "The "In" Crowd" Ramsey Lewis Trio; "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" Herman's Hermits; "Stop! In The Name Of Love" Supremes; "Unchained Melody" Righteous Brothers; "Silhouettes" Herman's Hermits' "I'll Never Find Another You" Seekers' "Cara Mia" Jay and The Americans; "Mr. Tambourine Man" Byrds; "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" Sounds Orchestral; "Yes I'm Ready" Barbara Mason; "What's New Pussycat?" Tom Jones; "Eve of Destruction" Barry McGuire; "Hang On Sloopy" McCoys; "Ticket To Ride" The Beatles; "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" Bert Kaempfert and His Orch.; "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" James Brown and The Famous Flames; "Game Of Love" Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders; "The Name Game" Shirley Ellis; "I Know a Place" Petula Clark; "Back In My Arms Again" Supremes; "Jolly Green Giant" Kingsmen; :Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" Patti Page; "Like a Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan.<br />
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In July 1965 the spacecraft Mariner 4 flies by Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to return images from the Red Planet. Edward Heath becomes Leader of the British Conservative Party. President Johnson announces his order to increase the number of troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to more than double the number of men drafted per month - from 17,000 to 35,000. Later in July the President signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. On July 25, Bob Dylan plays Newport Folk Festival, is booed for playing electric set with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Joan Baez and Donovan also play sets. In July, the albums <i>For Your Love</i> by The Yardbirds, <i>Summer Days (and Summer Nights)</i> by The Beach Boys and <i>Out of Our Heads</i> by The Rolling Stones are released.<br />
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In August, cigarette advertising is banned on British television. President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles California. The Jefferson Airplane debuts at the Matrix in San Francisco, California and begins to appear there regularly. The Beatles perform the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York. Casey Stengel announces his retirement after 55 years in baseball. At the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, 66 ex-SS personnel receive life sentences, 15 others smaller ones. The Beatles visit Elvis Presley at his home in Bel-Air. It is the only time the band and the singer meet. The Small Faces release "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", their first single. The Beatles release the soundtrack to their second movie <i>Help! The Paul Simon Song Book</i>, a solo LP by Paul Simon, is released in the UK (but not in the US). Bob Dylan releases <i>Highway 61 Revisited</i>, the second LP in his 1965-66 "trilogy."<br />
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In September 1965 Pakistani troops enter the Indian sector of Kashmir, while Indian troops try to invade Lahore. Islamic Republic Of Pakistan observes its Defence day. Hurricane Betsy roars ashore near New Orleans, Louisiana with winds of 145 MPH, causing 76 deaths and $1.42 billion in damage. The <i>Tom & Jerry </i>cartoon series makes its world broadcast premiere on CBS. Sandy Koufax pitches a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. Donovan appears on<i> Shindig!</i> in the U.S. and plays Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier". The Animals release <i>Animal Tracks</i> and Otis Redding releases <i>Otis Blue</i>.<br />
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In October 1965 John Coltrane releases <i>Om</i>, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's first album is released, Donovan releases <i>Fairytale</i>, and Frank Sinatra releases <i>September of My Years</i>. Jimi Hendrix signs a three year recording contract with Ed Chaplin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty on records with Curtis Knight (an agreement that later causes continuous litigation problems with Hendrix and other record labels). The Animals make their fourth appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Fidel Castro announces that Che Guevara has resigned and left the country. Anti-war protests draw 100,000 in 80 U.S. cities and around the world. In Washington, DC, a pro-Vietnam War march draws 25,000. The University of California, Irvine opens its doors.<br />
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November 1965: Republican John Lindsay is elected mayor of New York City. Pillsbury's world-famous mascot, the Pillsbury Doughboy, is created. <i> Man of La Mancha </i>opens in a Greenwich Village theatre in New York and eventually becomes one of the greatest musical hits of all time. Bob Dylan weds Sara Lowndes. The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned major sweep operations to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam will have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000. The Supremes have their sixth number one record, "I Hear A Symphony", for Motown Records. Arlo Guthrie is arrested in Great Barrington, Massachusetts for the crime of littering, perpetrated the day before Thanksgiving in the nearby town of Stockbridge. The resultant events and adventure would be immortalized in the song "Alice's Restaurant". Among the albums released in November are <i>Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds</i>, <i>The Kink Kontroversy</i>, <i>Do You Believe in Magic</i> (The Lovin' Spoonful), <i>E.S.P.</i> (Miles Davis), <i>Farewell Angelina </i>(Joan Baez) and <i>Going To a Go-Go </i>(Smokey Robinson & the Miracles).<br />
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December 1965: The Who release <i>My Generation</i>, The Beatles release <i>Rubber Soul</i>, The Byrds release <i>Turn! Turn! Turn!</i> and The Rolling Stones release <i>December's Children (And Everybody's).</i> The Beatles also release their double A-sided single "Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out." Meanwhile, Charles de Gaulle is re-elected as French president and Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines. <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i>, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS. The Soviet Union announces that it has shipped rockets to North Vietnam. David Lean's film, <i>Doctor Zhivago</i>, is released.<br />
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Some of the bands that formed for the first time in 1965 include: The Doors, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Los Jairas, Velvet Underground, and Pink Floyd.<br />
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Among the other records released in 1965 were: <i>At The Golden Circle Vol. 1 & 2 </i>by Ornette Coleman. <i>Bleeker & MacDougal </i>by Fred Neil. C<i>atch Us if You Can</i> by The Dave Clark Five. <i>Celebrations For a Grey Day</i> by Richard Farina and Mimi Farina. <i>Country Willie: His Own Songs </i>by Willie Nelson. <i>Creation</i> by John Coltrane. <i>The Fugs First Album</i>. <i>The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume 1 & 2</i>. <i>Hoodoo Man Blues</i> by Junior Wells. <i>I Ain't Marching Anymore</i> by Phil Ochs. <i>Jackson C. Frank</i>. <i>Live at the Regal </i>by B. B. King. <i>Odetta Sings Dylan</i>. <i>Skip James Today!</i> <i>The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death </i>by John Fahey.<br />
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In television, <i>Today</i> on NBC goes color. <i>The Huntley-Brinkley Report</i> on NBC goes color. CBS airs the first color broadcast of an NFL football game, a Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Baltimore Colts and Detroit Lions. <i>My Mother, the Car </i>premieres on NBC. CBS debuts <i>Lost in Space</i> and <i>Green Acres</i>. Meanwhile, on ABC, <i>The Big Valley </i>premieres, and NBC launches<i> I Spy</i>. <i>The Wild Wild West </i>and <i>Hogan's Heroes</i> premiere on CBS. <i>I Dream of Jeannie </i>premieres on NBC, and so does <i>Get Smart</i>.<br />
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At the Academy Awards, <i>The Sound of Music</i> takes Best Picture, and Lee Marvin (<i>Cat Ballou</i>) and Julie Christie (<i>Darling</i>) win Best Actor/Actress. The Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival goes to <i>The Knack …and How to Get It</i>, directed by Richard Lester. Other films from 1965 include: <i>Alphaville, (Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution')</i>, directed by Jean-Luc Godard; <i>Bunny Lake Is Missing</i>, directed by Otto Preminger; <i>Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!</i>, directed by Russ Meyer; <i>For a Few Dollars More</i>, directed by Sergio Leone; <i>The Ipcress File</i>, directed by Sidney J. Furie; <i>What's New Pussycat?</i>, directed by Clive Donner.<br />
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In addition to Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Alan Freed, Nat King Cole, Spike Jones, Stan Laurel, Margaret Dumont, T.S. Eliot, Edward R. Murrow, Edgard Varèse, Sonny Boy Williamson and Jeanette MacDonald died in 1965. Rob Zombie, Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor, Courtney Love, Shania Twain, Slash, Björk, Moby, Andy Dick, Robert Downey, Jr. and Rodney King were born.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-1208671791834141662011-07-01T20:28:00.000-04:002011-07-01T20:28:20.902-04:00Meanwhile, 17 years later....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQPYsjqBNEmfU4T2LBvw516NbVq3yK4qdW2UN-ROHAP2_Q395Ilr24RCqA9bPHok6RMlb4w6MBbU-5PP6H2FMPRSlSVw-TgIG27jr3SGMEMCsDPKLaex9acDP_AQidtqRtaVM38v-XGE/s1600/shole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQPYsjqBNEmfU4T2LBvw516NbVq3yK4qdW2UN-ROHAP2_Q395Ilr24RCqA9bPHok6RMlb4w6MBbU-5PP6H2FMPRSlSVw-TgIG27jr3SGMEMCsDPKLaex9acDP_AQidtqRtaVM38v-XGE/s400/shole.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
This book was written eighteen years ago, published in 1994. I just went back and started to read it for the first time in at least 15 years and was struck by the very first page and how much what we were describing then seems like, with very few changes of names and places, a perfectly lucid description of today.<br />
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I'm not at all sure of my point here, I don't think it's anything as simple as "nothing changes" since there is clearly an abundance of evidence to the contrary. Perhaps it is more in keeping with what has become one of my favorite Mark Twain quotations: <i>"History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes."</i> <br />
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"There is an unmistakable irony in watching the United States offer itself as role model to the various projects of democratization unfolding throughout eastern Europe even as the very activities inherent to notions of participatory democracy (e.g., voter turnout, literacy, etc.) continue their steady decline inside our borders. For those striving for social change, there is an experience of tangible depression in witnessing the growing power of neoconservative ideology. The borders and boundaries of this ideological cultural formation are marked by numerous signposts: the renewed attacks upon the hard-won rights of women (in the holy name of morality), racial and ethnic minorities (in the name of a mythological meritocracy), and gays and lesbians (in the timeless name of nature); the steady increase of corporate and state power; the continued melding together of the state, the market and the media, and the corresponding erosion of an ever-diminishing democratic public sphere; the conflation of the corporate and the public into one vague and amorphous collective philosophy of money and nostalgia; and the declamation that recent gains in multicultural education represent little more than the thinly veiled virus of political correctness (which in a twisted Orwellian logic has as its goals the restriction of free discussion and the subversion of a stable and coherent canon of Western culture). Finally in the face of all of this, the political left has been weakened by a spiraling fragmentation and factionalization into a complex yet redundant theoretical melange of suffocating identity politics and reactionary and nihilistic postmodernisms" (p. 1).Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378453275872637320.post-43042924898350536972011-06-19T16:13:00.000-04:002011-06-19T16:13:40.815-04:00Father's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5lmpNDkwbJNdyjZCm_-1JuvbNNXSxXn6N-QqQ652cmPrlBGlHBaGfi2oXvff8FD3sgcg0vhwyEaFADkH_4EI20VCjMVMEEKpkoMYTQAp5nM-PrukYmjbwlJllS8lsg64h53O2AsVe8zk/s1600/grace+kelly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5lmpNDkwbJNdyjZCm_-1JuvbNNXSxXn6N-QqQ652cmPrlBGlHBaGfi2oXvff8FD3sgcg0vhwyEaFADkH_4EI20VCjMVMEEKpkoMYTQAp5nM-PrukYmjbwlJllS8lsg64h53O2AsVe8zk/s320/grace+kelly.jpg" width="384" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Grace Kelly and my father, Philadelphia in the 1960s</span></b></div><br />
Just called my dad who is doing well, living with one of my sisters in New Jersey. Born in the second decade of the 20th Century to parents who came to the US in that wave of East-European immigration; a while back my sister managed to track down the actual logs from Ellis Island documenting their arrival from Poland (the original family name of "Dzieniszewski" was shortened to "Denski" a short time later). He grew up in the tough part of Philadelphia, the "Fish Town" neighborhood and made his way during the Great Depression as a pool hustler, gambler, fighter and occasional footballer. Along with another million plus men his age, he joined the Army and fought from the beaches in Normandy through France and Belgium as part of what Kurt Vonnegut would later describe as the "children's crusade" (now that I'm in my fifties, everybody looks impossibly young in the photos from that period).<br />
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Coming home after the war, he wanted "a job with a pension" and joined the Philadelphia Police force, eventually retiring as a Lieutenant. Growing up and coming of age in the 1960s with a police officer father made ours a tumultuous relationship. These days, we speak about once a week and that past is well behind us now.<br />
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I love this photograph. Grace Kelly and her mother are unveiling a bust of her father, John B. Kelly, a famous Philadelphia native, somewhere in Fairmont Park. The bust is gone now, nobody seems to know where it went; I believe it was removed when a larger sculpture of Kelly as an Olympic rower was installed sometime, I think, in the 1990s. But I digress.<br />
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My father is there on the left, one of two Fairmont Park police officers serving as an honor guard. The other guy is Bill Hamilton, who once went to FBI school and brought me a present of a big book on the FBI that he had autographed "To Stanley, J. Edgar Hoover." I don't know what happened to the book, I wish I still had it.<br />
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I used this photo a while back to start a rumor in the family that my father and Grace Kelly had an affair and that our brother, Joe, is actually my father's son by Princess Grace. Nobody in my family actually looks like Joe, and Joe looks a WHOLE lot like this bust of John B. Kelly.<br />
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Anyway, happy father's day you rascal you.Stan Denskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202688980275241342noreply@blogger.com1