Cinco Hill, Groundhog Day, 2015

Cinco Hill, Groundhog Day, 2015

Jogging in the darkest hour pre-dawn chill:

the moon, splattered whole against the sky.

one dog barking in the long-off distance,

as windchimes chatter

against the backdrop of the buzz from electrical poles.

2015-0202

MR

Overheard at Table 3: Nous ne sommes pas Charlie He(retic)bdo

Lucky Moran: Is this truly an act of war?

Otis Redwing: To some, it is.

Lucky: But seriously, how can a cartoon make so many people so angry?

Otis: Heresy.

Lucky:  Heresy?

Otis:  Heresy.  In a strict interpretation, any visual representation is heresy.

Lucky: But how can cartoonists be heretics if they're not Muslim?  You can only be a heretic if you actually believe in that particular religion.

Otis:  It's because the heresy IS on the people who follow that strain of Islam.  It's heresy if they ALLOW the disrespect to continue.  That's why the one guy was screaming, "The prophet is avenged" instead of "I just greased the heretics."  By avenging the prophet,  HE was no longer a heretic and thus could get gunned down in peace.

Lucky:  You mean in a hail of gunfire.

Otis:  TomAY-to, tomAH-to.

Soundtrack for the First Week of January 2015

I've made a mix Soundtrack for this week, to be played against the images of the attack on Charlie Hebdo, to the bodies that line the village lanes in Nigeria from those slain at the hands of Boko Haram, to the gloating Republicans making legislation to sodomize what's left of the working class Americans, to the gaiety of Floridians . . . there are joys and there are trials, there is new hope and there is new terror.   The songs that have come to my mind this week, in this soundtrack, seem more like an escape to a "happy place" rather than a full-on tackling of these images.  

But then, you can hear for yourselves:

Title:
Madmen in Seine

ARTIST                             SONG

Silverchair	Madman
Natasha Bedingfield	Pocketful of Sunshine
Utah Saints	Something Good
Thunderclap Newman	Something in the Air	We have got to get it together - now!
Tree63	Let Your Day Begin
John McCucheon	You Can't Take it With You
The Gorillaz	Get that Cool Shoeshine	It's the music that we choose
The Mars Volta	Cut That City
Bob Dylan	Chimes of Freedom
Bob Marley	Redemption Song	Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
Pet Shambrook	God of Mine	Need Your holiness to rest upon me
The Orb	Little Fluffy Clouds
Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon	You Got to Wet It
Fort Knox Five	Blowing Up the Spot
The Beach Boys	Wouldn't It Be Nice
Maya Angelou	Still I Rise	It's a dirty world we've been living in/it's time to get ourselves clean
Dave Alvin	Gospel Night
XTC	Dear God
Jackson Browne	Rock Me on the Water
Crosby Stills and Nash	Wooden Ships

Overheard at Table 3: Daughters and College

I was looking for a book for my daughter as a Christmas present to send her off to college, you know, one of those college survival guides, man I must be way out of it, getting old, because I was thinking they were gonna have stuff about how to stretch Ramen noodles out for an entire month and how to cram for midterms, but HELL NO!  I look through these books and they're all about how to make your roommate's bedsprings stop squeaking and how to hide your bongs when your parents come over for a surprise visit and I'm freaking HORRIFIED!

... so you're telling me you have no memory of what it was like when you went to college?

HELL no!  I was stoned out of my mind most of the time!

Overheard at Table 2: The Doctor's Advice

 

Two women sitting at a table.

 

“… and so after they’ve got me all prepped for the operation, right before they put the sedative in the IV to knock me out and roll me in there, the doctor is going over the post-op instructions again, and then she just pops out, ‘and no intercourse for two weeks’

 

“and I look over at my husband and I swear to God that man has a look in his eyes that is saying, ‘The doctor is saying my WIFE can’t have intercourse for two weeks!’

 

“I so wanted to punch him in the sack.  But there was the doctor and these prep nurses all around me.”

 

The woman’s friend said.  “You should have said something.  One of them would’ve probably punched him in the sack for you.”

Writing Prompt: Somber Grey

After reading a poem by my good friend and poet, Bethany Carrington, I was struck by the imagery of the falling snow, the grey skies, the quiet comfort of driving through the country with a friend.

Then, as this poem sat on my brain while I whittled away the moments of my day while listening to the random mix of the following songs, a story began to take shape.  The story is half-formed, and the only similarity it has with my friend's poem is the image of the greyness.  While her poem is comforting, this character's life is disconcerting.  She is traveling where she does not wish to go.  The snow, for her, is a compression, something that binds her wings, prevents her (or at least delays her) from the freedom she seeks.  This character's name is Somber Grey.

I have attached here the songs that were playing as the "soundtrack" to this movie - or poem cycle - or prose-poems - whatever you want to call it.  I just call them "notes" but I offer them now to whomever would like to flesh out the story a bit.  I've given just the briefest glimpse into characters.  I invite others to take and embellish (or even change completely) as they see fit.

Somber Grey

Arcade Fire – Half Light I

Her name is Summer Grey.  She’s 16 years old but hasn’t started driving yet.  She has “changed” her name to Somber Grey, because that’s more in line with how she feels.

Tenth Avenue North – Times

Scene of driving through the wintry landscape.  Somber in the back seat with her younger brothers, 14 and 8 years old.   We see this through her headphones, we see them talking, the younger bouncing up and down in his seat, obviously irritating the older brother.  We also see the mom in the passenger seat, her head leaning against the window.   There is a tension between her and the father.  If they speak, it is terse and brief.

Thelonious Monk – In a Walled Bed

Driving up to the to the house - they're spending Christmas with family who live in a suburb outside 

of Chicago.  She hardly knows them, but her parents keep in close contact.  Since it is a long drive, the plan is to sleep over the night at the house and drive home in the morning, something of which Somber Grey is less than thrilled.

The Cure – It’s Over

meeting her cousins – all of them are younger, one boy in between the ages of her two brothers, and one girl, around 5 or 6

Nina Presson – Black Winged Bird

Meeting her grandfather, who lives with the aunt and uncle, because he cannot live on his own.   He’s not very mobile, mainly sits in the chair, and is generally curmudgeonly.

Thenewno2 – Shelter

During the waning afternoon, the cousins and her brothers want her to go outside and play with them in the snow.  She doesn’t want to.  They go out to have fun.

Talking Heads – I’m Not in Love

(don't know what happens here)

Wailin’ Jennys – Storm Comin’

Somber walks into the kitchen, sees her father and her aunt. Her father’s back is toward her at the door, and her aunt is standing behind her father.  Somber can barely see her around the wide expanse of his back and shoulders.  The aunt, sensing someone has come into the room, looks around the shoulder to see Somber, and then turns away, wiping tears from her eyes. 

Somber’s dad turns around to see her.  His face is stern, like stone.  He walks past her,  brusquely, toward the other room.

Third Day – Movin’ on Up

Somber goes out of the room and gets her brothers and cousins together to go out for a snowball fight and sliding on the ice that has blanketed the street.  This is a joyous scene, full of fun that only kids can have, rambunctiously bumping around in the ice and snow.   Somber is determined to have some sort of fun in this scene.  This is the only time we actually see her smile, and she has a beautiful smile.  Even though she has forced some happiness into this day, still, she is happy for this brief moment.  

Beltuner – Tikai Chaj

Aunt sets the table, and this scene is one in which all the adults are trying their best to have a “normal”  Christmas dinner.  The aunt and the mom move around each other, helping each other bring in the dishes, yet they move as though they are two boxers in the ring, circling each other, waiting for an opening to take a jab.

Keane – Sea Fog

Granpa takes call from either old army buddy or from a prodigal son.  Image of him laughing, for the first time that day.

“river rolls the stone and it’s rolling me” is the line that really makes Somber Grey feel a part of this house, just like the apple that was embedded in the shell of Gregor Samsa in “The Metamorphosis” that’s how she feels here : like a stone embedded in the walls, and if she stays, eventually she will rot the entire foundation.

Ricardo Arjona – Piel Pecado

(again, don't know what happens here)

Wailin’ Jennys – Bird Song

opening presents

?? - Auld Triangle   (by the way I don't know the artist to this version.  The Pogues do an excellent version, and even Brendan Behan - the poet who wrote it - sings it a-capella, which is grand.  However, this version is more melodic than the other two versions, and better fits the tone that I envision for this scene.  It's more mellow, more somnambulent . . .)

While everybody is winding down – the kids playing with their presents, and the parents sharing drinks, Somber steps out again into the night.  She looks up into the cloud-covered sky as though looking for stars, almost willing them to break through the clouds to shine a little light, however slight, down onto this street.

Wailin’ Jennys – Asleep at Last

Somber looks in on her brothers and boy cousins, who have finally crashed.  She watches her youngest brother, still restless, even in his sleep.   That boy never stops moving.   She goes back into the room she will share with the girl cousin.  She watches her breathing.  We see Somber watch the girl and in this scene we get a glimpse of Somber in the future, when she will be a mother, carefully watching over her children as they sleep, and then, and only then, she will be able to rest, knowing that the children are safe.

Tears for Fears – Song of Sorrow

Somber has a dream, and in the dream we suddenly are bathed in color.  As the rest of the scenes have been shadowy, either grey or sepia-toned, this scene is a bright splash of various incandescent colors, almost like Technicolor films.  She dreams of flying through the bright blue sky, over clouds that are flecked with gold light, reflecting and shining.  She dips down through open fields, emerald grass, flanked by trees of kaleidoscopic colors, rotating and vibrating.  Everything is alive, everything is moving.

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Morning – breakfast – strangely, things are lighter today, happier.   Somber’s mom  and dad seem to have reconciled something.   His hand lightly on her waist, with a gentleness we have not seen before.  Even the two women seem to have a better relationship.  Somber’s uncle seems to be more relaxed, and Grandpa is still blissfully happy, still talking about his old army stories that he had recounted with his old army buddy the night before.

Wailin’ Jennys – The Last Goodbye

Driving away - the mood in the car has changed.  Or maybe it hasn't.   You tell me.

Verble at the Counter: Why "Fairytale of New York" is the best Christmas song . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8

This song has enchanted me for years, not just because it's a perfect piece of music, but because of what it means on a more spiritual scale

It's all about taking second chances and failing.  It's about relationships that start with dreams and fantasies that come crashing to the ground.  It's about our addictions, our inabilities, our disabilities, our fortitudes, our desires, our misplaced intentions.

It reminds me of a sort of anti-Song of Solomon.  That book of the Bible is a call-and-response between two lovers, in their bedchambers, out in the streets, even wandering through the fields.  All through that book there is a chorus of singers encouraging the lovers, cheering them on.  It's almost like a Greek play.

This song takes that literary device and turns it on its head.  The two lovers are long past redemption, yet they feel trapped by each other.   They despise each other because they remind each other persistently of their failure.   The chorus (The boys of the NYPD choir) are singing on in the background, not cheering them on, just spinning the world on its normal way.  The world continues without us.

Yet, it's Christmas Day, and the bells are ringing out, and these two can not hear it.  The bells are there, the day has come, yet they are so numb to the advent of the Saviour and the King that it's just a dead refrain.  They are lost in the despair of being alone together.

That's what I love about this Christmas song: because it shows us who we are as humans.  It shows us of what we miss in the full experience of life and the full experience of what this day truly means.

So . . . Happy Christmas everyone!  Have yourselves some cheer, celebrate the birth of God wrapped in human skin, and my prayer is that you never wind up like Shane MacGowan!  ;-)

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me,
Won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars
Big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old

When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on the corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed

You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It's our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day

I could have been someone
Well, so could anyone
You took my dreams
From me when I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day

Song performed by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl

written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan