I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an career retrospective entitled Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet’s Work In Community— the first Black author to win a Pulitzer, who also fought for racial justice and mentored other writers — is at the Morgan Library and Museum in NYC to June 5th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by Harold Meyerson in The American Prospect, suggesting that help for restaurant workers laboring under the ancient $2.13/hour federal sub-minimum wage … may finally be at hand.
IBERIAN NEWS #1— the leftist government in Spain passed a labor law (granting more power to unions in bargaining and also lowers the number of Spanish workers on temporary contracts) by a 175-174 vote. This meets a condition for aid from the EU's $917 billion coronavirus recovery fund. The right-wing opposition claims a computer glitch caused a “no” vote to be counted as “yes” and plans a court challenge.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Smuckers the Hero Cat— when a New Brunswick, Canada shelter had an anemic bobcat they were trying to revive, Smuckers also had blood type A … and a transfusion helped save the bobcat, while the story of Smuckers resulted in his being adopted quickly.
IBERIAN NEWS #2— in neighboring Portugal, the American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner saluted the leftist government winning last week’s elections— and are now the only left-of-center government in western Europe with a governing majority (and not with pesky coalition partners). They did so by pushing back on the preferred austerity policies of the EU, with a high-employment economy, improved educational and social outlays. They hope to propose a higher minimum wage in the new session of parliament.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Highway the Cat— found in a cat carrier at an Interstate rest stop in Connecticut with several injuries … yet receiving care and is expected to be able to be adopted, as he remains “a sweet and trusting animal."
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC (first ever 7-for-7 for me)...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
OLDER-YOUNGER SISTERS?— two Australians: model Miranda Kerr and TV star Ksenija Lukic.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… regular readers know that I love music back-stories … and musical mysteries almost as much. Here is someone who disappeared in 1974 (and if still alive would be age ninety-seven) and whose limited public notice meant she was long-forgotten. Yet thirty years after her disappearance, her primitive recordings came-to-light .. and the folk music of Connie Converse has led some music writers to declare her as a pioneering singer-songwriter: years before it became an established genre. Alas, while it is often a compliment to be considered ahead-of-your-time … in her case, it may been too far-ahead. Glad to be able to focus on a genuine surprise for me.
Elizabeth ‘Connie’ Converse was born in 1924 in north-central New Hampshire, and grew-up in a strict Baptist family. The valedictorian of her high school class, she won a scholarship to the prestigious Mt. Holyoke College, but left after two years to relocate to Greenwich Village in the mid-40’s (displeasing her parents).
While working in Manhattan at a printing house, she began writing her own folk songs (uncommon among folksingers of that era, who performed more cover versions) yet for years only sang them at home for friends. Eventually she performed at a local showcase in 1954, overseen by graphic artist Gene Deitch. Through his connections, he was able to arrange a guest spot on a CBS morning show hosted by …. Walter Cronkite. A potential launching pad.
In learning of her music years later, many reviewers cite her rather sophisticated songs (compared to, say, On Top of Old Smoky) — with plaintive, empathetic personal songs that told stories, often from a female perspective that was uncommon in that era. She also went against family wishes by smoking and drinking, with her father reportedly choosing never to listen to her music.
Over the next six years — and it is not entirely clear from news accounts — she was unable to find an audience for her music. Ostensibly, it was that it was too different, yet am unsure if she tried to interest existing musicians in it. She was extremely private, which may have also played a role.
In any case, she fled NYC in 1961 …. just when Dylan arrived (and perhaps just when she could have thrived). She went to Ann Arbor, Michigan (where her brother taught political science at the University of Michigan). She again reverted to only playing at home for friends, and delved into local politics, teaching and trying to write a novel. She eventually became the editor of a local publication, The Journal of Conflict Resolution.
In the early 70’s her life took a turn-for-the-worse: The Journal left Michigan for Yale University, she learned that she needed a hysterectomy and her drinking began to escalate. In 1974, she wrote letters to family/friends (that she needed a new start) and just drove-off in her Volkswagen Beetle ... never to be seen again at the age of fifty.
Fast-forward thirty years, when the aforementioned artist Gene Deitch (who died just two years ago at age ninety-five) appeared on a radio show in NYC dealing with music history. The tapes he played caught-the-ears of two musicologists, who gathered not only Deitch’s collection but also tapes her brother had kept.
In 2009, this was released as How Sad, How Lovely— a seventeen song anthology that still did not sell well (the recordings were somewhat primitive) yet won rave reviews from critics who listened to them (plus enthralled folk/indie artists).
Since then, there have been some efforts to remember her work. A book by Howard Fishman is due for a 2023 publication (and who wrote a 2016 essay on her), a short 2014 documentary was produced and in 2017 the eclectic jazz musician John Zorn produced an album of musicians covering her songs, including Laurie Anderson, Martha Wainwright, Sarah Jarosz and Petra Haden. Perhaps (as her soon-to-be-biographer wrote) … her time has truly arrived.
In listening to that album: besides the title track (How Sad, How Lovely) the song that jumped out to me — and for which I can see how it was quite daring for its era) — is Man in the Sky.
There once was a girl in the olden days Grew weary of men with a roving gaze 'Farewell, fickle lovers; goodbye, goodbye, For I'm falling in love with the man in the sky'The girl went out on a windy hill And cried when the night was dark and still - 'Come down! come down ... you man in the sky Or else I am likely to pine and die'
The man in the sky didn't stop to talk; He went right on with his evening walk And the great dog howled and the little dog whined And the girl grew cold in the rising wynd
She took to her bed from the light of the sun But when the sun his course had run She went to her window so high, so high And waited and watched Orion go by
One night she stood on her windowsill And stepped right out on the highest hill And climbed to the place where the planets are And jumped from there to the nearest star
She found Orion at last, and then She found he was just like other men When on his shoulder her head she'd lay His eye was a million miles away
This tale has a moral brief to tell; And I won't go on, for you know it well. Remember the girl in the days gone by Who fell in love with the man in the sky
She rocked in Cassiopeia's chair And waked the dragon and roused the bear; And where they buried her I forget, But the man in the sky isn't married yet