Sunday, January 1, 2017

WKRLEM: Nothing Changes on New Year's Day



I saw U2 the first time they came to the states. At the time I was bouncing around with a bunch of Irish Waitresses from Belfast. They lived out in Sunnyside in Queens and would hang out at Sidetracks which was the big bar for the illegal Irish immigrants who came over in the 1980's to get away from the troubles.

There was a big group that hung out together. We would bounce to various Irish pubs in the Five Boroughs where they always knew someone who was working there that would give us crazy buy backs. Crap. We barely ever  paid for a drink at all.

The other thing was that we all loved music. We would hit some of the jazz joints in the Village . The clubs on the Lower East Side. The Kat Club. And of course whenever an Irish group came in it was mandatory. Later in the 1990's we would meet up to see Black 47 an Irish American band at Paddy Reilly's where it would often seem like old time week where you would catch up with people you haven't seen in years.

I have followed U2 since then. I have to divorce myself from Bono's politics which is unusual for me but I guess it is nostalgia for days gone by. We all of us have enthusiasms that we abandon as we grow older. It might be a drink or a food or a band or an actor or TV show or just about anything. We might not think about it for years and then unexpectedly we revisit it and think of back in the day when we enjoyed it. You have a little twine of nostalgia for your former self but go back to the realities of your everyday life.

You see nothing changes on New Year's Day. You are the same person that you were in the continuum of your existence. Everything that has gone before shapes you. You might make some New Years Resolutions. But bye and bye you sort of  remain the same. You can always try to do better. To be better. So making and keeping resolutions are not a bad thing.

Happy New Year to all the Lemmings!!!!

22 comments:

Leland said...

Happy New Year, Troop, and Lem, and all the other cobloggers and commenters. Some have already made it through 2016. I have another hour to go.

chickelit said...

I first heard of U2 via MTV: Gloria. I blew my chance to see them around that time in Madison. Regretted it ever since. Well, that my brother imploring me to see Van Halen in a tiny club before they broke big which I blew off as well.

edutcher said...

And a Happier New Year not only to the Lemmings, but all the Deplorables.

19 more days of oppression.

chickelit said...

Interesting that two Irish groups broke out of Ireland with songs called "Gloria" albeit a generation apart. I blame/credit Catholicism.

rcocean said...

Happy New Years Trooper.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Happy New Years.

Leland said...

Take that 2016!

ampersand said...

Happy New Year, all of y'all

AllenS said...

Happy New Years, everyone!

XRay said...

Yep, Happy New Years to all and sundry. I'm really looking forward to 2017 and the changes it may bring.

Chip Ahoy said...

I love this song.

Even though It's simple as eating pie and even easier to interpret it still has a few awkward moments. Care to hear them? *squeaky ventriloquist voice* "Sure, Chip, lay 'em on us." Okay, goes like this:

The first stanza the word day rhymes with day.

The word "new" is one hand scooping the other. The word "year" is one fist rotating around the other. So "new year" brings the both hands together in front of the body, while the word "day" begins with them separated. "Year" is the dominate arm sweeping the movement of the sun downward so the index finger meet the opposite elbow held horizontal. Like this. This is a basic beginner sign, of course. And the sign is unmistakable. It is never NEVER NEVER seen done backwards for some reason unknown to me. Just never. Although "sunrise" is seen as day done backwards. And yet for the phrase "new year day" it's much more eloquent to do backwards as sunrise instead of as day, and honestly, what difference should it make? "Day" looks like "noon to sunset" but why not "sunrise to noon?" Huh? Why not? It just makes more sense to do it backwards given the previous words in the phrase bring the hands together and doing it backwards would eliminate the set-up movement between movements. So that's how I do it and that is not canon. And every deaf person who saw me doing that would go, "man, that guy is weird."

The second odd part is "blood red sky"

"Blood"is a combination of two signs, a ligature of "red" and "trickle down" so a precise depiction would be seen as "red (body) trickle red sky" and there we go with our silly unnecessary redundant fidelity to English again. It's best interpreted precisely as "blood sky" to eliminate the redundant signal for red" and that turns out "red trickle sky." You see that touch at the lips and immediately think "red" so red is already there. Things are already made red. And every deaf person who saw me doing that would go, "man, that guy sure makes sense."

Chip Ahoy said...

Apart from those two oddities the song is like a nursery rhyme with all children's words, and a bit slow. Perfect for the kids on YouTube, but an unlikely candidate because kids and the internet are newer than the song. Let's see. YouTube [new year's day, asl] SCORE! But not Bono. Abandon, New Year's Day is interpreted (twice), and Panatonix New Year's Day is interpreted, but not U2, the best new year's day song of all is not there. What a bummer. Several more videos about how to say the phrase. Even a baby. The baby copies without comprehension that "new" is a scoop" or that "day" is the sun's sweep" and that "year" is Earth's orbit around the sun. The baby is insufficiently coordinated to perform the movements but charming nonetheless. The little darling is just copying what he sees with his tongue hanging out adorably. Look, if you like.

We see British "new year" and Jewish "new year" a new year vlog, and a gorilla with a new year message, but no Bono.

Maybe I had just do it myself and show these kiddos a great old song and do "day" backwards in ligature and then forward when the word is repeated in the same stanza so that "new year sunrise" rhymes with "night and day" as sort of bookended.

Look at that, "night" brings the hands together again. "And" separates them to position both arms for "day."

This concludes my statement on why I love this simple song so much with its two unique challenges.

Michael Haz said...

Happy New Year everyone. Best wishes for another great year.

Chip Ahoy said...

A moderator in one of the Middle Egyptian groups sent this message written in hieroglyphs yesterday.

Cryptic. We're being tested in a cute and charming manner. It is why we're even talking to each other, after all.

We see an ankh at the front, so right off the bat everyone even uninterested people recognize "life." Is that amazing or what? Everyone on Earth, practically, can get a good start with this cryptic message.

Seneb means "health" "s" the folded cloth, "n" the zigzag water and "b" the human lower leg. The word is written another way in formulas written all over the place, but here it is spelled out.

The last symbol that looks like a vase with handles is "ib" it means "heart" But the rest, "ah" and "t" for "ah-t-ib" I do not know but because of the heart and because of the rest of the formula I can guess, "love" or "happiness"

The owl is a preposition of some kind. Let's say "from" or "for" or "out of" or "by" this has a range of possibilities in English. I love that owl, but it is a bit of a tricky word to get precisely.

The two upright plants on mounds mean "thousand" so "two thousand"

The upside down "U" means "ten"

The seven "I" marks give away the whole thing, they mean "seven." for 2017"

Thus we have Life, health, love/happiness for 2017

Charming, isn't it? We're all charmed.

deborah said...

Happy new year to all!

ricpic said...

New Year's starting on the right note here in upstate New York.The sun is shining! And that's enough.

Don't understand the appeal of the million bands you guys get so much out of. I listened to Shostakovich's String Quartet #8 in C minor last night. You wanna find out what music is capable of give it a listen. And if that sounds like snobbism.....it is!

chickelit said...

Don't understand the appeal of the million bands you guys get so much out of. I listened to Shostakovich's String Quartet #8 in C minor last night. You wanna find out what music is capable of give it a listen. And if that sounds like snobbism.....it is!

Apples and oranges, ricpic. It's a bit like comparing Caravaggio to r crumb.

I gave this a listen as I researched an upcoming blogpost. Thanks for the tip! (said the whore to the leper).

Happy New Year!

The Dude said...

Sales guy used to sell at the leper colony until his business dropped off.

Did Caravaggio ever do a painting of Mr. Natural? I would totally get a copy of that - Mr. Natural is my role model. Also, we look a lot alike.

Here's to 2017 - Keep On Truckin'!

Methadras said...

Happy new years to you guys.

deborah said...

Isn't Mr. Natural a name for LSD?

deborah said...

EEpples and Beeneenees, ricpic!

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

MamaM said...

When it comes to Opples and Bannoonoos Raffi takes the cake, with a great version that includes mouth noises.

Plus it's less about making fun of someone and more about having a good time!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oacQL7UQtlk