Hit the Road, Buddy
Well, as of tomorrow morning Keith and I are off to the wilds of Winona Lake, Indiana to do a little Homer Rodeheaver hunting. I wont be back 'till Saturday, and as this is a fact finding mission I'm not sure how much about it I can share here once I return. But before I go I have some bloggage I'd like to unload - things I've had on my mind for this page that I haven't set down yet.
Remnant of Radicalism
Friday two weeks ago was the first fairly cold day of the year. I crossed the street, and a well-dressed middle-aged couple was crossing behind me. Two young black cops in a cruiser came up to the corner to make a right turn as the couple was still crossing and laid on the horn, angrily. The woman scattered hastily to the curb, but the man stayed where he was, and calmly knelt down to tie his shoe.
It was his right to do so - he still had the "WALK" light. The young cops were just being assholes and trying to assert their authority over the couple, but if they needed to be somewhere specific the siren would've been going. The cops were up against a greying 60s veteran who remembered some of those old hippie tricks that were designed to piss off cops. After he stood back up and began to walk towards the curb, the cops sped away angrily around him. As he and his wife continued up Liberty, they chuckled about his harmless civil disobedience.
When I was young, foolish and spending a lot of time chasing tail I used to hang out quite a bit at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio (Rod Serling's alma mater). I took in some films at the Little Art (met Elfriede Fischinger and Carolee Schneemann there) and did some radio on WYSO, but otherwise I was just hanging out in the dorms trying to connect with loose wanna-be hippie chicks. I remember seeing a bit of graffiti in the bathroom at Antioch that read "Antioch College - the sinking ship for those who missed the boat." The gentleman in Ann Arbor who tied his shoe to annoy the cop was someone who had not "missed the boat." But that same boat is beginning to sail into the sunset...
Another Example of My Daughter's Ever-Emerging Wit
There's an "All-Christmas" radio station from Detroit that broadcasts during the holidays. My family loves it (we all really dig Christmas music - I promise not to wear that as a badge of honor) and the very first day it was on (November 8) we tuned in. My wife went into Farmer Jack's and Remy and I stayed in the car listening to the radio. At one point a song came on that was so sad and sentimental that it was turning both our stomachs, so we agreed to turn it off.
When Allisyn came back I explained what had happened, and attempted to describe the song - "it was about a little boy at K-mart, dirty from head to toe, trying to buy shoes for his mortally ill mother as a Christmas present." Allisyn responded "oh! I love that song - the 'Christmas Shoes''. They made it into a movie..."
Remy, quite innocently, asked "Was that a very short movie, Momma?"
Things I've Done
Let's see. Today I presented my program on early animated cartoon history at work, which went over very well. Afterward a very fine folk singer, Mindy Smith, performed and that was highly enjoyable. The fellow she was traveling with from the record company turned out to be someone who had been my customer when I managed that backroom of the Tower Records in Woodland Hills, CA. That was very nice. Mindy Smith is really good- you should check out her record when it comes out (in January).
I also basically finished editing Telemann's worklist today, outside of some minor touching up that needs to be done here and there. It wont show for about a month, but at least internally ALL of his surviving works are now in the AMG system - more than 2700 of them. It took seven months for me to do this. I am reading a long and very complicated internal Harvard University study about the discovery of a manuscript cache in Russia containing another 250 Telemann works - just what, I don't know. The political skullduggery surrounding this WWII era "trophy", its transfer back to Germany last year and the endless complications that continue to delay a published inventory of the holding is fascinating (and also hard to get one's brain around.)
Speaking of difficult reading I've also been reading the Book of Deuteronomy - I'm up to about chapter 24. I do have things to say about it, but have neither the time, energy, nor inclination to go into it now - I still have to pack. But I'll say this - I'm sure glad that I don't live in Ancient Israel ca. 500 BCE, nor for that matter in current-day Iran, where they still subscribe to these f*cked up laws.
Finally to compositions - started a piano fantasy on three Beatles tunes. Have I finished it? No, but I am close to finishing a song I started 20 years ago, "I'm Open All Night" (text by James Agee). Just need to finish filling in the accompaniment.
Here's a question - should I bother to write a Baroque style cantata for voice & continuo entitled "Michael Jackson is a Freak"? I got the idea today, but I'm not sure whether it makes sense to go ahead. Your opinions please.
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis@hotmail.com