I have been reading the Spring 2009 issue of Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives. The issue is dedicated to Harry S Truman on his 125 birthday. One article is written by Clifton Truman Daniel and the title of this blog entry is what his mother Margaret told him when, at age 6, he finally discovered what his grandfather did before he retired. His folks were afraid he would get a swelled head, you see.
Mr. Daniel explains that when he and his brother were 4 and 2 years old they would try to avoid their grandfather in the morning because if he caught them on their way to watch TV he would read them Thucydides.
My last entry found me riding my bike on Taylor Dock. Here is a photo of part of it. This wooden trail connects Boulevard Park near downtown Bellingham, with Fairhaven, Bellingham's southwest corner. It is a new addition to the Bay, and gets a lot of use. Last fall I saw a group of teenage boys riding their bikes down that incline you see, riding up onto an inclined board and somersaulting into the freezing water - with their bicycles.
On Monday I was riding my bike along Taylor Dock (see next entry) and renewing my love of Bellingham, when I looked out over the Bay and saw a sunbow. I didn't have a camera but this photo by British Mac tells you pretty much what I saw.
As I rode along the Dock I said to each person I passed "See the Sunbow?" and pointed. Some ignored me. Some looked like I was trying to sell them a bridge. But some looked up and said "Where is it - ohm my gosh!" or words to that effect.
So there I went along the wooden road, a meteorological messenger. "Have you seen the sunbow? See the sunbow?"
This is a new one on me. Some libraries have been having Edible Book contests. For example, this is A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Jeanne Mithen, from the 2007 contest atTopeka and Shawnee County Public Library.
I discovered this when I came across the 2009 contest at Staley Library of Millikin University. I can't copy their pictures here easily but go look at them, especially Eric McKinney's little masterpiece.
Ever read Jerome K. Jerome's masterpiece THREE MEN IN A BOAT? An utterly trivial comic novel about three young Englishmen traveling up the Thames. You have certainly heard one line from it: "Work fascinates me. I can sit and watch it for hours."
Back in 1975 it was made into a tv movie in Britain, starring Michael Pailn and Tim Curry, with a very faithful script by Tom Stoppard. As far as I know the thing has never been available on video or DVD in the US.
However, someone has just put chunks of it up on Youtube starting here. Unfortunately it won't let me embed it on my page so you will have to go there to see it.
One night last week I was sitting in front of my computer, too tired to do anything useful, so I went to Youtube and typed in "Hallelujah." Started checking out versions of Leonard Cohen's masterpiece. Jeff Buckley's is stunning. Rufus Wainwright's is beautiful, although he insists on losing the rhymes for the hook. I had never heard the John Cale recording before, and that was amazing (piano, fiddle, cello).
There's also a young woman named Alyssa Bernal who was a surprise. At a glance I assumed that she had acheived her popularity on her looks (sexist? I suppose, but listen/look at some of our other currently singers, make and female) . Turns out she has a great voice. On the other end of the scale we have Dylan's recording, which was not so impressive.
This all popped into my head because I happened to see a review of the movie Watchmen (which I haven't seen), by Marvin Olasky in a Christian magazine in which he complains that "It's pornographic in part, most obnoxiously in a sex scene that uses Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as sacrilegious musical background."
My question is, does Olasky think Cohen's song is sacriligious, or is it just the use of it in a sex scene that he finds to be so? If the former, I'll grant him his opinon. If the latter, I think he's missing the point of the song, which seems to be about the spirituality of lust.
I may have missed one, but I don't think any recordings on Youtube included the last verse, which Cohen sang a live recording. It has the to-die-for line "I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch."
Watching the piano versions where Cale and Wainwright pour out endless sets of triplets I was thinking: Hmm, some Celtic band ought to record it as a jig. 6/8 time. Wouldn't that annoy people?
The first Saturday in April, the 4th, was cool but beautiful in Bellingham, Wa. We made sure to be downtown before 10 AM for the annual opening of the farmer's market in the City of Subdued Excitement. I was there with someone who recently moved to town so I made sure she had a good view as Mayor Dan Pike officially opened the year by throwing out the ceremonial First Cabbage to the young daughter of one of the vendors.
As people applauded I told the newcomer. "Well, that's it. The highlight of the year in Bellingham."
A woman nearby nodded her head solemnly. "Subdued excitement."
