He thought I was talking about Steinbeck. No, Hemingway. Guy says "Steinway?" Kids these days. When I mentioned the Tom Selleck movie "Quigley Down Under" guy says "Burt Reynolds?" No, they are different people despite both of them having mustaches.
Aretha died and guy says "Big wheel stopped turning". No, that was Tina Turner who is fine, and now a Swiss citizen.
Same guy is walking down the street wearing a Bob Ross t-shirt, shirt even has the words "Bob Ross" on it yet a woman comes up to him and says "Jeff Lynn - I love ELO". Close, baby, close.
Anyway, here is some Glenn Gould, and by the poor quality of the piano you can tell it is not his usual Steinway CD 318. He is playing from memory and, apparently, could sight memorize music. If true, that is an unusual skill right there.
There is a version of Tina Turner singing Proud Mary that I used to like, but I can't find it amongst the million other versions posted on YouTube. The worst ones are those captured on a cell phone by someone in the audience. Very bad. But not as bad as confusing Patti Labelle with Aretha. That's bad.
19 comments:
Proud Mary is CCR.
One of those junkies may have written it, but Tina owned it.
Visited the Hemingway house in Key West. One of my favorite authors. I remember reading The Old Man and the Sea, the first Hemingway book I read, and saying, "This is a writer for me." Then he killed himself.
I, too, went to that house. Nice place - they had a trained hawk when I was there - it would roost in a tree then swoop down on palmetto bugs released by the tour guide.
You have to remember that Ernest suffered 3 closed skull brain injuries in plane crashes. These days that would probably be called CTE or something, in any case, due to repeated head trauma he lost the ability to write. He was all about writing. Plus he drank a lot, came from a family with a history of depression and suicide, so in some regards we are lucky that he lasted as long as he did.
Stop by and I will tell you another story about an Ernest Hemingway look-alike I used to work with.
Fogerty wrote Proud Mary but Tina's performance (with Ike) made it come alive.
I like the Bob Ross/Jeff Lynn mix up. One of those things that wouldn't occur consciously but makes perfect sense.
Story telling is an art is different from speaking or writing with concision. The ability to pick and chose what needs to be present within the tale being told comes close to concision, with a different goal or outcome in mind.
Resignation letters need to be concise. They are not the place for story or details.
One of MrM's maxims when it comes to inter-office email (especially when irritation or ignorance on the part of another is involved) is to "Leave off the last line" as the punchy ending is often where the zinger or "gotcha" shows up.
Well put. I have had to do that myself. Perhaps I should have taken that advice right this minute...
spinelli - You could almost feel the tension in Hemingway. In any case that's what I always took from his writing: a man on a tightrope. Not that he wasn't great, actually perfect in his stories about fishing up in Michigan when he was a very young man. But the tension, you could cut it with a knife and I've got enough tsuris in my life.
Did Tina Turner move to Switzerland to escape taxes? Or does she have a thing for fondue?
And I need to fix my first sentences. Story telling AS an art...
Back from the harbor where we watched two barges loaded with large rocks and lashed together (at the harbor entrance as they'd been towed behind up to that point) be pushed in from Lake MI and through the narrow channel by a tug with the horn sounding to warn the seeming oblivious pleasure craft in its path. Summer fun while it lasts. With the breeze from Lake MI blowing all the tsuris away.
I never cared for CCR or Tina, so that song just doesn't do anything for me. I can appreciate Tina's talent, it simply isn't my thing. She wrote this. Talented lady.
A kid worked for me long ago. When "Wayne's World" came out in 1992, he came to work and told me about a really cool song in the movie called "Bohemian Rhapsody" by some band called Queen. I just looked at him, thinking he was kidding. He wasn't. It's surprising how often I have to explain cultural references.
Is my ear off, or is Gould's piano out of tune? Perhaps just poor audio? Regardless, I love the clip, especially the yawning pooch.
Happy, How To Be
A tug pushing two great weights, wheezing, wheezing, but gettin' her done;
Push ahead, push ahead without caring (too much) and life can be fun.
ric, That's a superb point about the tension. You may know I taught high school and middle school history for a few years, about 20 years ago. I ran my PI biz and also taught. Long days and nights. Anyway, I worked in 2 high schools and a middle school. There was not 1 English teacher that was male in ANY of those schools. I would chat w/ some of the teachers and none taught any Hemingway, they disliked to despised him. Boys get shit on in our education system.
Story telling is an art is different from speaking or writing with concision
So true. When I was in college a professor advised us to write our papers, then go through and remove all the adjectives. Concise, balanced writing, according to him. Storytelling draws from a fuller palette.
Windbag, that piano is in horrible condition - and knowing what I know about Glenn Gould I am surprised that he didn't get it tuned up. But then again, living next to water in The Great White North will ruin a piano in a year or two.
I read Otto Friedrich's biography of Gould, but here is a shorter version of what his life was like.
I didn't like CCR when I was a youth - I thought their musicianship sucked, and they admitted as much. I thought Tina was good, but it wasn't until I saw a video of her stage show that I realized what a force of nature she is - talk about truly tapping into something primal and making the most of it - she became unstoppable.
As for becoming a Swiss miss, you would have to ask her why she did that - one thing I know is that she dealt with real adversity in this country, made herself a huge star and made a ton of money, hooked up with a German guy and off they went. I have said it before and I will say it again - the fact that she took and passed her Swiss citizenship test in German impresses me no end. Sure, guys like CL take to German like falling off a log, but that stuff never made a lick of sense to me. It all sounded like a Sid Caesar routine.
Good poem, as always, ricpic, I'm tellin' ya, a great future can be yours in the field of Poet Laureating. It worked for Ogden Nash, just sayin'.
Not that what I do means anything but I am making a piss poor effort at being a writer. I am on the homestretch on a couple of books that I might self publish.
My technique is simple. I bull through a first draft. Then I cut every other sentence. Or cut them in half.
I think some of it is sort of in the style of Hemingway. Or more likely John D MacDonald or Robert Parker. I at least aspire to that. Who knows if it is going to fly.
Music is another story.
Don't you find that the stuff you used to love is no longer resonating with you?
I know it works that way with me.
On the other hand some of the stuff I used to hate is on my Pandora Channel list.
Lately I have been listening to a lot of disco.
Keep bulling through TY. Ricpics poem caught the moment and made me smile as I went outdoors and saw all the fresh little piles of worm castings on the cottage lawns (which isn't much). This is the first day of sunshine following 3 days of thunder storms and much needed rain. They must have been up bright and early like SixtyG, pushing through and gettin' er done.
My most used button on Pandora is the "I'm tired of this track" one. I use it generously.
Nice slice of life find, Sixty. The awful, clangy piano can be forgiven because we are treated to classical scat.
Trooper, I hope you're working a midget lesbian cabby in there somewhere ;)
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