The Late Laura Nyro Inducted Into Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame--Wednesday Journal #2

Finally!  Laura Nyro (for the uninitiated, pronounced Ne-ro) was announced as an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame's Class of 2012.  The induction ceremony will take place in Cleveland on April 14th.


Nero's heyday was the 1960's.  She scored modest success as a singer, with a voice that was reminiscent of Carole King with a more reckless abandon, and she had two hit albums of collected songs.


But it was as a songwriter that she left an immortal mark on American popular music.


If George Gershwin were writing Top-40 pop hits, they might have sounded like the tunes of Laura Nyro.  She blended rhythm-'n-blues and soul with jazz and pop, for a distinctive sound that is timeless even as it calls to mind the late '60's.


Artists like The 5th Dimension, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Barbra Streisand scored huge hits covering Nyro's songs.  I hope I can encourage others to become familiar with Nyro's music.  Her songwriting resume is unbelievable; all of them can be legitimately considered modern classics:

(click on the links to hear the songs)
Three Dog Night's version of "Eli's Comin'"; "Time and Love" and "Stony End" (Recorded by Streisand); "And When I Die" (Blood Sweat and Tears' biggest hit); and especially the covers by the Fifth Dimension: "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Save the Country", "Sweet Blindness", and my all-time Nyro favorite, "Wedding Bell Blues" ('B-I-I-I-I-I-L! I love you so, I always will ...')



Sadly, Laura Nyro will not be at the ceremony next April. In 1997, at the age of 49, Nyro died of ovarian cancer--the year in which another of my contemporary music heroes was inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame: Joni Mitchell.


Nyro's induction is an honor that is way overdue.

"Girls Like Us" and A Joni Inspiration

Sheila Weller's 2008 triple-biography titled "Girls Like Us" is an ambitious, successful attempt to recreate the 1970's era of social and artistic ferment, as told through the life stories of three musicians who achieved their greatest success at that time: Carole King, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell.

Weller's book reads like an episodic novel with three completely realized female leads.  Each of their life stories are vastly different from one another, yet complement each other.  The book alternates and weaves the three stories into a "tapestry" (pun is intended) about the creative process, the sublimation of hardship to art, and the way music reflected and influenced the changing gender roles and cultural expectations of a generation.

It is a marvelous read.  As I make progress, I hope to record my impressions, and share passages that especially stimulated and moved me.

Joni Mitchell's story is especially interesting to me.  I regard her with some reverence, for her lyrics stand alone as poetry apart from their tunes, but together they make a potent statement about love, loneliness, creativity, and the machinations and the yearnings of the heart and mind.  

I am listening to Mitchell's 1970 album "Ladies of the Canyon" as I write this, around midnight in Chicago on a cool, crisp autumn Friday evening.  This album introduced listeners to her pop classic "Big Yellow Taxi" ("....they paved paradise and put up a parking lot..."), and her anthem to a milestone event, "Woodstock", performed as a mysterious and dreamy ballad (in contrast to the classic rock-and-roll  version recorded by Crosby, Still and Nash).

Mitchell's music and poetry constantly refresh me,  put me in touch with my creative energy, amaze me with their intelligence and soul-baring emotion. 

Joni lived a life that I would love to turn into a screenplay: a small-town Canadian girl from a conservative family, who discovers her passion for music and painting, fights polio, and hits the road to sing and write music.  Alone, and pregnant, with little to sustain her but her talent, she gives her baby up for adoption, becomes an iconic member of the Laurel Canyon folk-rock scene, and earns the respect of musicians and artists through a stormy but brilliant career.  As her voice mellows and matures, her music takes more chances, and her art and talent find new adherents.  Eventually, dramatically, she is reunited with her daughter.....

It has always been a dream of mine to hear her in concert; but I don't think that will ever come to pass.  Joni seems to have retired from the "cesspool" that she calls today's music business, but her absence from the scene is mainly due to her suffering, from a rare and strange nerve disorder called Morgellon's Disease.

As a guy who is trying hard to lay a claim to an artistic life, and offer the world something interesting and original, who is feeling his way through a process of reinvention, I have been inspired by few artists as completely as I have been inspired by Joni Mitchell.

I have occasionally travelled through a "blue" landscape these days, but it is true that sometimes "there's comfort in melancholy, when there's no need to explain." * 

Joni has articulated her own journey with uncompromising honesty and grace, and in her lyrics I find words of understanding.

The final song on "Ladies of the Canyon" is a classic about maturing and accepting the bittersweet cycles of living.   It is called "The Circle Game".

I will devote more pages in this journal in the coming weeks to Joni, and her influence on my humble work and my world-view.

Here's a video I found from a 1968 Canadian Broadcasting Company program, featuring the one-two punch of "Both Sides Now" and "The Circle Game".  Take the lyrics to heart.  Enjoy.

...So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

(*From her song "Hejira")

A Quick Break From Italy: Movies, Magazines and (Joni) Mitchell Coming Soon

I tossed the coin into the Trevi Fountain properly. That means we will return to Roma again soon.

Time today for a simple "Rest Break", a detour from our Italian road, a journey which I will soon bring to a close.  One last photographic chronicle of the art around us in Italia; and a final anecdote about our Tuscan Cooking Class.

 

Coming up in the days and weeks ahead:


--The Summer Movie Season...What happened?  Have Superheroes peaked with audiences?  As heard on NPR today, there were few smart films for adults this summer.  Will studios note the success of artful pictures about Swans and Fighters and Kings and such, and give us intelligent fare soon?


--Newsweek created a firestorm with its cover of a Republican Presidential Candidate. How much fun can we have with this one?  And thoughts on the Debt Crisis and the reason there is a proliferation of political lunatics.


--We wondered what one of my favorite musicians, Joni Mitchell, is doing lately.  I thought I'd check out what she has been working on these days; I fear, from what I have read recently, that she is not doing well.


--From time to time, a return to our Italian Road.  Anecdotes about a chaotic train delay; and ode to the noble bidet; and a wonderful encounter I had with a family from Oslo.


You are all hereby invited....I appreciate your visits.

Tina Fey Channels Joni Mitchell

*

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

Amid the Oscar madness of the last two weeks, I missed an item about Tina Fey that connected to me in a personal way.


Fey, a brilliant comic talent, won last year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.  Her sharp writing on "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock", and her political satire and impersonation, guarantee her a permanent place in the annals of classic American comedy.

And so I was at first dismayed, but then delighted, when I heard that on a recent "30 Rock", Fey wrote a parody of a Joni Mitchell song, and mimicked Joni singing it in the background during a scene from the show.

The song, called "Paints and Brushes", recalls Mitchell's heyday in works such as "Blue" and "Court and Spark". 

Listen to it here (From Huffington Post, February 22)

My dismay came from my deep respect for Mitchell as a poet, lyricist, and musical artist.  My long-standing love for Mitchell, with her ability to interpret life's sweet bitterness and love's mystery, has rendered her almost sacrosanct to me.  I feel it my life's duty to extol her virtues, and champion her as a singular voice of an era.

But then I listened to Fey's parody, and had to hand it to her....the pitch, the phrasing, and the angst, only slightly off, was marvelous...and so good-natured, I don't see how offense could be taken.  

Once you're in on the joke, "Paints and Brushes" is like an insane person's version of "A Case of You" (where her "Oh Canada" is replaced with the goofy repetition of "Medicine Hat").

Two women who I greatly admire, one of whom was inspired by the other to heights of madcap creativity....They have in turn inspired me....

Next week, a post or two in appreciation of Joni...

"Well something's lost but something's gained / In living every day...."  "Both Sides Now"

Joni Mitchell in the Locker Room--Thursday Journal #2

At the Wellness Center, where Mark and I work out, the overhead speakers play mostly '70's rock.  It's fun to listen to, and pretty non-threatening, somthing familiar to concentrate on while we're pushing to maintain our physiques.  (!)

Most of the time this music exists barely noticed.  It plays in the locker rooms too, which provides a good background for "macho" banter between guys of all ages as they're changing, drying and getting caught up with each other.


Yesterday my ears perked up like a dog's, when I heard the opening guitar and sweet notes of  Joni Mitchell's "Help Me". 

(Play the song here..
http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=126)


This was one of Joni's biggest hits, and remains a popular classic.


What amazed me is how quiet, almost reflective, the room got.  The voice, and jazzy melody, seemed to lift everyone and compel them to good-natured musing.  You could almost see the calm settle on everyone...and someone over the wall of lockers started to whistle along.


Next year I'll look to Joni Mitchell's songbook for material for this journal, and write about what the songs, and Joni's presence in my creative life, have meant to me.

A Moving Scene From The Series "Six Feet Under"--A Friday Journal

I want to share with my readers a personal anecdote: about how a few moments of an old TV drama helped me regain my perspective, allowed me to re-connect with a bygone era that I miss, reminded me that fiction (especially of the human kind) can illuminate one's own experience, and reaffirmed my admiration for the peaceful influence and profound, uncomplicated beauty of Joni Mitchell's music.

Several years ago, I watched the entire first season of HBO's dramatic series "Six Feet Under."  The series followed the members of the Fisher family, after the sudden accidental death of their patriarch, Nathaniel.  Sons Nate and David take over the family's independent funeral home business; widowed mother Ruth must reinvent herself as a single woman whose children no longer need her; and youngest daughter Claire navigates the dangers of adolescence and of life in a California public high school. 


They struggle to find meaning in their lives, surrounded by death, and by a gallery of troubled lovers, dangerous friends, greedy businessmen, grieving customers, and other unforgettable figures, past and present.


The series compelled me, and won my admiration, for creating some of the most interesting original characters ever conceived for television (or films, for that matter), and for keeping us close to them in extraordinary circumstances.  It spoke about what it meant to be a parent, a son, a daughter; what it meant to confront a fatal disease, a lost love, a lost parent; what it meant to build a life as a gay man, or re-build a life as a single mature woman, or cut through the crap of adolescence, or see humanity's absurdity with clarity, even forgiveness.


(After 9/11,  I cancelled all but the most basic cable service, in protest against the banality that continued on the air after the 24-hour disaster coverage ended, and regular programming returned.  As a result, I also lost some good programming, like "Six Feet Under".)


We recently got hold of the entire five seasons on DVD, and have begun watching them in earnest, several nights a week.  We are in the home stretch of Season Two.


The final scene of Episode 7, Season Two, surprised me with its matter-of-fact poignancy, its images packed with meaning and emotion.  It played thus:


Daughter Claire goes to Topanga Canyon to visit her mother Ruth's sister Sarah, who is a free spirit.  A group of old hippies spends the night in New-Age revelry, awakening a feeling of freedom in Claire.  Sarah gives Claire a gift of a cassette tape of "Sarah's Songs", and on it is the original recording of "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell.....


Claire brings the tape home.  She and her mother, as usual, have little to say to one another.  Ruth finds the tape and puts it on; and as Claire looks on, touched and amazed, her mother, standing alone in the middle of the kitchen, sings the plaintive lyrics perfectly along with Joni....and the music plays on over the end credits.....

...And Claire, like the rest of us, understands that Ruth, this repressed and tragic figure of a mother, was young once, was a free spirit, and sacrificed it all by the choices she made...but the spirit is still there, just waiting to be touched and released.

Take five..and enjoy the song and video....

Bening and Moore Are Quite "All Right"--A Film Review

Prologue: "The Kids Are Alright" is an album of music by the British Rock Band "The Who", containing such iconic '60's tracks as "My Generation" and "Won't Get Fooled Again". It's part of the formative soundtrack of the two protagonists of the 2010 film of the same name, women who remained true to their counterculture ideals, and who find these ideals tested as they confront a changing culture.  Their children, however, are less troubled by these conflicts, and cope with their indirect effects...one might even read the title of the film The KIDS Are All Right--as opposed to their mothers...

In the new movie, two adversarial characters are surprised to find a shared love for the music of Joni Mitchell and her "Blue" album, prompting a lovely acapella rendition of "All I Want". For those that appreciate her art and music, Joni Mitchell represents a virtual lifetime of gained wisdom and rainy afternoons and recovery from lost loves and the poetry of intimacy. It is rare to meet true fans, and once you do. you may be more willing to overlook their faults.  It is clear that the movie "The Kids Are All Right" has its head and heart in the right place.

*   *   *   *   *

"The Kids Are All Right", Lisa Cholodenko's contemporary dramatic comedy, examines the relationships among members of a unique California family.  This film, released during a summer in which articles about the lack of movie originality appear almost as frequently as the kiddie-sequels, comic-book blockbusters and thrill-rides they decry, seems like some sort of happy anomaly.  It's like a Brigadoon for a neglected segment of film-goers, who once upon a time took for granted that original stories about recognizable people,  which tap into the current zeitgeist, were the stock and trade of Hollywood. 

And now Cholodenko and co-writer Stuart Blumberg have crafted a movie that is relevant, yet made with the lightness and care of some of the great films of the 1970's.  "The Kids Are All Right" compares favorably with the best work of Paul Mazursky, Bob Rafelson, and Hal Ashby. 

I was pre-disposed to enjoy this moving and funny story of a lesbian couple, their two children each conceived by the same sperm donor, and the way this man's reappearance into their lives spins them all into unexpected directions.


Instead of 3-D, we get flesh-and-blood humans in conflict.  Instead of guns, there is wit and sharp dialog.  Instead of creatures and CGI, we are consumed by a world of likable, flawed people who seem like old friends who come to visit for a brief summer interlude.


And, just like the characters, the movie itself is likable and flawed, and worthy to be embraced.

This is a character study in every sense, and it needs great performers to inhabit these characters.  Happily, the actors in "The Kids Are All Right" know their roles intimately and behave onscreen with a naturalness that makes our identification with them, and our scrutiny of their behavior, so rewarding. This is what the film medium does best.  After a while I found myself so absorbed by these people, and so intrigued by their unpredictability, that I felt I had lived with them, had moved around in their spaces.

Annette Bening is Nic, a medical professional and the strength of the family.  To me, Bening is the one who holds the film's center together.  We utterly believe her warm inner core, her need for control, whose fierce love for her partner and children sets herself up for a huge emotional fall.  When the story threatens to veer off-track in the second half, it is Bening's authenticity that convinces us of the believability of the unusual events that unfold.  We trust her completely as an actress, and she never makes a mistake. It is always a treat to see her on screen, and I have missed her presence lately.  This could be the best work she has done since "American Beauty." 

Julainne Moore is a perfect complement to Bening's style.  Her character, Jules, is insecure and needing of constant love and reassurance, and is seeking her own way, both within her family and as a creative member of society (Jules is starting a landscape architecture business as the film begins).  Moore plays her scenes with Bening with the right balance of quirky delivery and restlessness.  She is vulnerable and formidably comic, and I don't think she has ever been so expressive on-screen.

Both Moore and Bening take us on a familiar journey: that of a marriage and its challenges, and the overwhelming love of mothers for children.  The film is free from political posturing.  It does not set up  lesbian marriage/motherhood as a paragon, and so we find ourselves forgetting about the novelty of the situation and responding to the universal themes of loyalty and fidelity and discontent.  We care about these characters like we do good friends. We laugh at their new-age platitudes but make concessions for their weaknesses, even when the movie's plot points become shaky.

Mark Ruffalo is pulled into the lives of this family as Paul, the man whose donated sperm Nic and Jules used to conceive their two children.  It is the kids who contact him and set up the meeting that changes everything.  Paul is problematic both in terms of the conflicts in the story and as a device in the film.  I liked his performance a lot, as a man who is unwittingly united with his own kids, and the women who raised them, and wrestles with his paternal affection as well as a sexual attraction for Moore, which she reciprocates (in graphic detail).  Ruffalo is appealing, and wins us over to the contradictions of his character.  His is a compelling portrait of a deceptively easygoing man-child.

It is here that I worried that the film might be derailed.  I remember objecting to the plot twist in "Chasing Amy" in which a lesbian character finds sexual bliss in the arms of a man. I also wondered why the straight sex in this movie was so explicit, and the love between the two partnered women was kept completely under wraps.  These were my initial criticisms, which for me were resolved with the film's emotional finale..... What transpires (no spoilers here) sets up conflicting tensions in the viewer that need some kind of resolution, and so Ruffalo's hapless Paul is made into sort of a scapegoat.

The Kids in the film are Mia Wasikowska, the eldest, who must make some sort of peace with her friends and her mothers as she prepares to go to college; and Josh Hutcherson, the younger, who grapples with the situation with equal amounts of hero-worship and disappointment.  Both of these actors are perfect, often better than the script asks them to be.  Hutcherson' Laser recalls a mellower version of the troubled son in "Terms of Endearment", and Wasikowska, whose character is named after Nic's idol Joni Mitchell, is bright and intelligent and who lives up to her character's namesake.  Aside from Bening's presence here, the scenes between Joni and her friends recall the acerbic posturing of "American Beauty".

The script contains some wonderfully fresh dialog and a unique look at a family doing its best to hold together.  I think the film's only weakness is in the plotting, which adds one contrivance to another into a shaky structure.  It is well-directed and paced, though, and the actors, once again, make us believe in it like the caprices of life itself.  Come Oscar time, all of the performers and Cholodenko ought to hear their names called as nominees...and I would wager that one or two Oscars are in this film's future. 

There is so much more to explore in Paul's character, and the real issues of paternity and family and how he deals with a newfound love for the children he helped create.  Now THAT would be a Summer sequel I would line up for.  Paul made mistakes, yes, but I can't really pin all of the blame on him.  After all, he loved Joni Mitchell's "Blue"!

If I Were a Scientist; Maintaining Inspiration---A Friday Journal

If I were 18 years old today, and as passionate about animal welfare, as I am now, it's likely that the bombardment of images from the Gulf disaster would have motivated me to a life-study of biological sciences or bioengineering.

While I continue to use my imagination for writing, as  always, I've discovered a surprising consequence of my caring for dogs and reading articles about the abuse and death of animals at the hands of mankind:  My imagination has expanded, reinvented itself somewhat....I feel more passionate about how that which I write may do some good, beyond touching readers' hearts and minds. 

For most of my life, science was not a personal passion.  I preferred the nuances of art, literature, and more ambiguous endeavors, open to interpretation; and that proved to be stimulating and satisfying.  I still do and will always embrace the power and beauty of words and language, writing and music, and especially my beloved theater and cinema.


Mathematics and scientific inquiry, facts and figures, and the rigor of research and experimentation were intimidating, not convenient to my broad and liberal understanding of the world.  I was  more comfortable with the power of imagination,  creative effort, and the end results (like novels, plays and films).  I was bored and restless with the hard and fast rules, and confining processes, of the sciences. All of that was best left to those who excelled in math and chemistry and physics, unlike myself.


Lately, I have taken interest in asking questions the likes of which I have never asked. I now try to read books and articles that before would put me off or would bore me, and which now produce in me a new kind of excitement, not too different from the thrill of writing a good short story, or the pride of solving a difficult math problem (a rarity for me!)


While time and resources will never allow me to pursue all of the education and activity I want to accomplish in life, there ARE opportunities to learn, to improve, to contribute....


Rather than succumb to the heartbreak I feel over the loss of wildlife in the Gulf, or over the ignorance of people who would harm our companion animals, or over the horrible ineptitude and inability of our political leaders to collaborate for the common good, I guess I'll keep on reading, asking questions....maybe create a new artistic/scientific aesthetic...whatever that means....


Here are a few items that have entered my thoughts and have tumbled within, and the questions they are inspiring:

--The latest cover article of Newsweek..What the Spill Will Kill  made me ponder, suddenly, what the greater implications of the oil spill might be beyond the ocean depths.  How is the oil from this spill, and from more diastrous ones that have occurred in the last two decades, affecting global warming?  In what way is this substance contributing to the rising ocean temperatures in ways that "An Inconvenient Truth" did not cover? My initial research is uncovering some troubling questions on either side of the climate change debate.


--Then I thought about  NASA and research for the space program.  It struck me that perhaps NASA might provide some needed assistance in our oceans...It is hard to get to the source of the spill because of the treachery of its depths.  So why not enlist the aid of NASA to use a vehicle designed for space exploration, one that can withstand the extreme temperatures and pressures in space?  Interestingly, I found a very detailed web site (there could be many others) that has treated this idea in much detail.  Check out GhostNasa, by  Gaetano Morano.


--Last, but certainly not all, I am annoyed and discouraged by the congressional hearings, the blame and finger-pointing, the countless hours of words expended by "experts" on TV and radio, with little sense of urgency around solving the immediate problem.  I want to speak up, to contribute, to do anything I can do from here in Chicago.  I found some excellent resources in a blog called Armchair activism for oil-spill animals  by Melissa Breyer.


And to calm me and keep me inspired and motivated, I retreat to the words of my favorite lyricist Joni Mitchell, in a song that was not primarily a "green anthem" in the '70's, but has proved prophetic, and given new popularity by Counting Crows.  Please enjoy the images in this video, and if you can help in any way,  or if you were inspired just a little by reading any of this, thank you!!!

Tagged For A Musical Meme!

Walter of The Silver Screening Room tagged me to participate in a musical meme, kind of an on-line interview on a particular topic.  I've been asked to answer a series of questions about the music in my life.  This exercise was great fun, and I fear I have responded in much too much detail...I humbly appreciate the invite! Thank you Walter...


[To those who have been exceedingly kind in promoting my blog, and had tagged me for creative recognition, especially Tom (Sophisticated Lunacy) and
Dave (Ultra Dave) I am forever in your debt.   I regret that I did not feel ready to follow through then....and I hope some day to earn the honor you have generously offered.  You are true mentors and blogging friends. 

And so I would like to tag both of you, Tom and Dave, to provide us your responses to this great survey.]

meme   Pronunciation: \ˈmēm\
Function: noun   Date: 1976
: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

And so, here are my responses to the series of questions about music in my life:


1. Open up your iTunes, music player, spin the CD, whatever, hit shuffle and tell us what is the first song to play?   From my new, in-development i-Tunes, the first "song" to pop up is "The Anvil Chorus" from Verdi's opera, "Il Trovatore".

2. Name your top five favorite bands/musicians of all time. So hard to narrow this down...and I fear I may lock myself into an era...but here goes: Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Gordon Lightfoot, and George Gershwin. (And there are about 50 runners-up).

3. What was your first CD to own? (8 track, record, CD, MP3 for the newbies) There are two I received as gifts at the same time: The Soundtrack from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and The Carpenters "Close To You".   Vinyl, of course.

4. Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by? Joni Mitchell...I have almost every recording she ever made, plus two concert DVD's.  She is a consummate artist, a poet, prolific and brave, and endlessly interesting.

 
5. What was the last song you listened to? "Hey Ya" by OutKast, just happened to be on the car radio as I was driving home from the gym this afternoon.  (I won't include "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" from "Women in Love", which I watched tonight on DVD.) 
6. What song would you say sums you up? No song is complex enough, funny enough, or dog-friendly enough.  One song that speaks most closely to my current philosophy is "Clouds (Both Sides Now)" by Joni Mitchell.

7. What's your favourite local band or band that originated from your hometown?  The band Chicago, of course. 

   




8. What's the greatest concert you've ever been to? Linda Ronstadt at the University of Iowa.

 
9. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day?  After Joni (of COURSE), I think Elton John, to talk to him about working on Billy Elliott.

10. What was the greatest decade for music?  Every decade had great music.  Mozart (1780-90) and Beethoven (1801-10) might raise this bar a bit....  In American pop culture, the '60's had the most interesting variety and evolution, plus it was a lot of fun....

11. What is your favorite movie soundtrack? Oh come ON!  So many to choose from, I will create sub-categories:

Classical: Amadeus; and John Corigliano's "The Red Violin"

Original dramatic score: Personal favorites are "The Best Years of Our Lives" by Hugo Friedhofer, and Philip Glass' "The Hours";   but my all-time favorite song written for a movie is "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Compilation: "A Clockwork Orange" features Electronic Beethoven and Purcell, Rossini's "Thieving Magpie", Pomp and Circumstance, and Gene Kelly's rendition of "Singin' in the Rain"---what a combination!
Favorite soundtrack of a musical: "West Side Story"

Most evocative of the emotional effect of a film: "Brokeback Mountain" can still bring me to tears.

12. What's the most awful CD/record/etc. you've ever bought? Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits doesn't qualify, because it was a gift.  So, by far, the most awful CD I purchased was The Shaggs, "Philosophy of the World".  I heard the incredible (and sort of tragic) story of these three inept musical sisters on a radio program, and could not resist having a copy.  Read their story HERE  and listen below.... (sorry)

13. What's your favorite band t-shirt or poster?  I always loved the logo for the 1969 Woodstock festival...don't know if this technically qualifies, but I can bend the rules here a wee bit....




14. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? The Beatles....they had the more interesting musical evolution...each musician was fascinating...legendary....They had more versatile music with wider, universal appeal.




15. What is the one song you would most like played at your funeral? Your birthday? While on a romantic date?
Funeral: "Cabaret"
Birthday: "Downtown" by Petula Clark, and maybe dozens more!
Romantic date: Hmmm, I always got dreamy hearing Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis"...or Chicago's "Wishing You Were Here"

And there you have it!  Thanks for coming along on my magical musical tour.

Joni Mitchell, The Opening Ceremonies, and a Moment of Grace

Many of Canada's most treasured musical artists were represented at last night's Olympic Opening Ceremonies.  In particular, k.d. lang's interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Alleluia" was a lovely and powerful collaboration between an effortless voice crying out a haunting, emotional, poetic tune. 

During the program a thought occurred:  how fitting it would be if another of Canada's musical treasures, Joni Mitchell, had been invited to perform.  Almost at that moment, as the wonderful young aerialist and Ècole nationale de cirque student, Thomas Saulgrain, began to run, and then "fly", over golden fields, the arena was filled with Joni's deep, resonant, mature voice,with a song she had written and performed 40 years before, "Both Sides Now". 

It came together in a performance of such delicacy: the benevolent voice and sweeping orchestra, conferring a benediction on all, a fitting tribute to the stark beauty of the Canadian landscape, to the eager purity of the solo young performer, and to the athlete whose life had been cut short. 

The lyrics are perfection....visionary...a girl's innocent contemplation of clouds; a budding young lady and her thoughts on love; and the mature woman's wise and world-weary look back on life. Three phases of life are condensed in a poem of great efficiency and imagery.  There is the reassuring acceptance of the possibility that what we know may be an illusion after all, and that we always have a lot more to learn.  

I have included two video versions of  Joni Mitchell performing her masterpiece.  First, in 1970, the girlish woman showing promise as a mature writer and performer:






The second video is the version heard at the Opening Ceremonies, Joni's live performance in 2007, a venerable artist in complete command of her craft and her audience, giving an entirely appropriate, melancholy yet hopeful rendition of the song before an appreciative crowd.

I have nothing but admiration for her talent with words and melodies, her intimate delivery, and her consummate understanding of the human heart and the world around her.  More than any other contemporary artist, Joni Mitchell makes me feel better about myself and my capacity as a creative human being.

Her accompaniment of that young man at the Opening Ceremonies was, in itself, a perfection, a beauty, a pure moment filled with grace.

A Dog-Shelter Story--Wednesday Journal

Taking a break from Oscars, and the movies.  In a few days, I'll come back to weigh in on the nominations for 2009, back from my 40-year sentimental journey.


But tonight, here's a story of what occurred yesterday, a fitting commemoration of a difficult anniversary.  I want to preserve this in my journal here and share it with the rest of you.  What happened was moving, and necessary.

Yesterday (February 2) was a snowy, dreary Groundhog Day.  It was just like Groundhog Day exactly two years ago, the day we put to rest our Bassett Hound, Maggie.  She was having seizures continuously, and the light was gone from her eyes.  The veterinary team was exceedingly kind to us, as we spent our last moments very close to her, reassuring her it that was all right for her to leave us, to feel better at last.    Two years later, the pain of losing her is manageable, but has not gone away completely. It's a feeling that reminds me that she was once a very important part of my life.  As Joni Mitchell wrote in her song Hejira, "There's comfort in melancholy...."


A couple of weeks ago, while cleaning kitchen cabinets, I found the last can of dog food we had purchased for her. We never had the heart to get rid of it, and I had forgottten it was there.  I checked and the expiration date was still good.


As it turned out, I was scheduled for a shift at the Buddy Foundation yesterday, on this wistful aniversary.  I somehow knew that the time spent there would be emotionally healing.  I took the can of food with me to the shelter, because  my shift on Tuesdays is always feeding time., and I got permission to use it to feed the dogs in our care. 


Other than  the souveniers we have in safekeeping (her bandanas, collar and leash, fleece coat, old toys, and of course, armloads of photographs), this was the last item we had that was related to Maggie's care.  It felt like she was there with me at the shelter, wagging her tail at the prospect of sharing a meal with my new friends, all of them jumping and making happy noises.

I opened the can, and wept silently, internally... there were no tears.  I was happy in my work with these creatures, all of them characters, all of them depending for their very lives on the care provoded by us volunteers.  I was joyful that I was sharing the last of Maggie's food to sustain the lives of these homeless, hapless animals.  Some of them would never find a home, I knew.  This was all they would ever have. 

Maggie, in her own way, just wanted to help me out.

So Cassie the sweet little beagle, Zoe the dalmatian mix, Abel the Golden Retriever, Danny the pit bull,  Starsky the Boxer/Basset Hound...they and others received the benefit of Maggie's "generosity".   I was able to let go a little more...not for good, not completely, but happily, knowing that one life was flowing into so many others.

It felt, like nothing else I have experienced, like a true communion.  

Christmas During Troubled Times---Wednesday Journal

"It's coming on Christmas

They're cutting down trees

They're putting up reindeer 

And singing songs of joy and peace

Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on..."

This lyric from Joni Mitchell's classic, "River", speaks for so many people during Christmas season. How many of us haven't wished we could escape what seems to be the forced sense of merriment around us?  There are many personal reasons why someone would not feel enthused about participating in Christmas celebrations, or may feel unable to enjoy the traditions that were a source of comfort and happiness before.

What makes it more difficult is that we are expected to feel upbeat and merry. Some radio stations start their 24-hour carol-thons before Thanksgiving, and trees and decorations fill store shelves by Halloween.  Television ads warn us that we must shop now to get best the deals (spend money to save money!) We somehow are made to feel deficient if we are unable to purchase the latest gadgets, toys, or other popular items, because we can't afford them or we haven't the time. 

Perhaps we have suffered traumatic holidays in our past, due to family squabbles or resentments.  Maybe friends have turned their backs on us. Maybe we are questioning our faith, and the very foundations of the holiday.  Maybe we have a loved one who is ill or disabled, and few resources or time to  provide care. Perhaps we have experienced the death of friends, family members or pets during the past year.  Maybe we are overextended at work or need to do several jobs to make ends meet.  Or, more likely, a possible job loss has thrown our life into disarray, and we are caught in the vortex of keeping families together, saving our homes, and providing for basic needs.

Or, perhaps a romantic relationship has come to a bittersweet end.  That explained the melancholy of Joni Mitchell's narrator in "River", which was featured in her 1971 album, appropriately titled "Blue".  The song has, in the last several years, become something of a modern seasonal classic, covered by singers such as Tori Amos, Betty Buckley, Rosanne Cash, Sawn Colvin, Allison Crowe, Herbie Hancock, Indigo Girls, k.d. lang, Barry Manilow, Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, and Corinne Bailey Rae. 

 (click here to listen to the full song on Joni Mitchell's web site).

It is a sad song but oddly comforting. Mitchell articulates and validates our desire to drop out of the melee for a bit of calm and meditation. What an attractive fantasy it is indeed, to conjure a river on which to skate to sanity and quiet isolation. But most of us tough it out, and cheerfully keep a brave face to preserve the hopeful anticipation for the sake of the kids in our midst;  or for those who genuinely wish us well and derive happiness from our presence in their celebrations.  To be able to do this is a form of giving as well.

A lot of people are hurting.  Smiles and hugs can't pay bills, or get folks out of difficult employment or legal situations, or return our loved ones to us.  But they do create energy; a sincere smile or word of encouragement, to one who is discouraged, sad, or anxious at this time of year, is like a natural caffiene boost, a warmth out of the cold, a reason to live another day. 

~~

There is another reason why we might be reluctant to wholeheartedly get into the spirit of celebration at Christmastime.

It is that the world seems to be so precarious, so unenlightened, so dangerous, so unforgiving.  We hear a never-ending string of news stories about wars in the middle east; the threat of terror; the the incompetence of our leaders to create important legislation; the persecution of  sexual minorities;  the terrible mistreatment and living conditions of the world's most vulnerable; the corruption of  our politicians corporations, "charitable groups",and religious organizations; and the physical destruction of our earth and its species.  We are polarized, and always seem to be in conflict.  What business, then, do we have in celebrating? 

At such a time it's good to find a welcome bit of perspective.  While we live in a world that seems on the verge of exploding, the 1960s were a time of upheaval and anxiety; those who lived then were sure that the world would not survive.  The disparity between what the peace and wonderment of Christmas is supposed to be, and the reality of the world that flies in the face of Christmas spirit, is perfectly captured in a recording from that period. 

For me, that perspective comes in the form of a track in the 1966 album "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme". The track is titled, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night".

It is a simple and devastating concept. Under the soft and peaceful rendition of "Silent Night" sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, we hear an actual news broadcast from August 3, 1966.  I was lucky to find the text of that broadcast:

This is the early evening edition of the news.

The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill. Brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters. President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it. A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.

In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdoes of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.

Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.

King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.

In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed an strangled in their Chicago apartment.

In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued it's probe into anti- Viet nam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.

Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.

That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news,

Goodnight.

Evey era has its seemingly unsolvable, apocalyptic problems.  But, 43 years after this news broadcast, we have managed to survive.  Call me naive, or better yet, guardedly optimistic, but I think we will survive again. Give a smile and some encouragement to someone you know who is hurting--offer more if you can--. 

If you are reading this and you yourself  are hurting, tell your story.  

Let's resolve to pull together and make some positive changes happen in 2010.

I'll be back on Saturday.

~Tom