My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.
Adrienne Rich (16 may 1929 - 27 march 2012) poet & essayist
today's vibrant wall was done by kazilla (aka cassie williams) - originally from santa fe kazilla now lives and works in miami. kazilla's women centric work straddles the worlds of street art and fine art and is distinctive with her use of bold colors and lines and frequent incorporation of animals.
in late march the brilliant poet and feminist essayist adrienne rich died - my haphazard blogging failed to recognize this loss to our world - today i belatedly pay respects and give thanks to ms rich.
favorite color a very early joni mitchell song - in fact the song doesn't seem to appear on any recordings and this video was recorded before joni was joni! her she is introduced on the canadian television program, let's sing out in 1965 by her given name joan anderson!
oscar brandt's introduction is priceless as is joni's performance.
photo: 532 nw 29th street miami (wynwood district), 29 april 2012
Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake Up and Live!
Bob Marley (6 february 1945 - 1981) singer-songwriter, musician
today is the birthday of the great jamaican musician bob marley. even though marley only lived to see his 36th birthday, his musical legacy is amazing.
last night at family dinner we started talking about marley's songs and i surveyed those gathered and asked what each person's favorite marley song is: here is the list for my 'family of creation': one love (f); sun is shining (e); redemption song (t); is this love? (r);and, three little birds (mouse).
after dinner we moved from the dining room to the living room where the television sits. however, since i'm not a football fan (in fact, i would be considered the opposite of a football fan, but we don't have to go there) i decided to conduct a totally unscientific survey of friends and family via text messaging. with the exception of paying attention to madonna's half-time show, i was completely distracted by my project so missed the commercials (which i do enjoy) - no worries, the best (and worst) i'm sure will be run, ad nauseum on the internet and elsewhere and of course missed all or the game. in fact, until this morning i didn't even know who won!
unfortunately my initial message went out as:
no questions from as to why, but just an answer to me from you please; what is your favorite bob market song? thanks!!
damn autocorrect. many folks in the initial group (i discovered text messaging is limited to 20 recipients) figured it out but i did immediately receive replies stating:
who is that? or bob market?
i quickly sent out a correction, clarifying that i meant bob marley.
of course most of my friends/family as with myself were hard pressed to limit it to only one song and provided a top song and an additional one or two titles.
as to the top songs here are the results of my completely unscientific and most random survey (my respondents were limited to those i could text), the number following the song indicates the number of people who stated this was their favorite ( a few of the songs include links to vids of the song).
not unsurprisingly, i didn't hear back from a few folks that i texted; only one person replied none (ah, that explains much, ha ha!) one of my friends replied amusingly:
i didnt know his songs had names
and one of my buds who is on the younger side replied back that she didn't know his songs well enough to say - well i know what i'll be giving zoe as a present one of these days - a bob marley compilation cd!
so sweet readers, if you were to name your favorite marley song what song would that be?
i'll give everyone an advantage that my initial survey did not include - here is a link to an alphabetical listing of (almost) all of marley's songs. the resource is just part of a site devoted to marley which claims to be the biggest fan page on the internet - be careful, it is a rabbit hole with numerous areas to explore and get lost in!
wake up and live - although the song wasn't among the songs mentioned in my informal survey, i chose it as today's theme song not only is it the source of today's daily quote, like most of marley's songs it beautifully reflects marley's world view - which is mighty powerful mouse medicine!
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.
Aldo Leopold (11 january 1887 - 1948) ecologist, author, forester
the habitat song performed by amy carlson. amy's version differs slightly from the song's author bill oliver's original version (see read below). but that's the beautiful thing about music - especially folk music - one can adapt the lyrics to fit the circumstances. i couldn't find a vid of mr. habitat performing his own song.
bill oliver's the habitat song
Chorus
Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat You have to have a Habitat to carry on!
The ocean is a habitat, a very special habitat It’s where the deepest water’s at It’s where the biggest mammal’s at It’s where out future food is at It keeps the atmosphere intact The ocean is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)
The forest is a habitat, a very special habitat It’s where the tallest trees are at It’s where a bear can scratch her back (ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch) It keeps the ground from rolling back Renews the oxygen, in fact The forest is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)
The river is a habitat, a very special habitat It’s where the freshest water’s at For people, fish, and muskrat But when people dump their trash Rivers take the biggest rap The river is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)
People are different than foxes and rabbits Effect the whole world with their bad habits Better to love it while we still have it Or rat ta-tat-tat, our habitat’s gone! (Chorus)
photo: according to the fine print on the mural this piece of wall art was designed and directed by joe stephenson in july 1998. it is part of a community public art project and was sponsored by the city and a number of other associations, individuals and groups. albuquerque, new mexico october 2011
Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self.
W. H. Auden (1907-1973) poet
today's wall may appear a bit queer compared to the usual - but q is a quirky letter and one doesn't find many quality q-inspired images or words incorporated in street art!
today's wall is a detail of a high quality mural by reed thomason at my local library. along with quixote and rocinante, quixote's equestrian companion, todays snap includes images from other books or poems.
a quiz - who can name the other works represented?
below is a clip which includes the song i, don quixote from the man of la mancha a 1972 film adaptation of miguel de cervantes literary masterpiece don quixote-the full title is: the ingenious gentleman don quixote of la mancha or (in spanish - el ingenioso hidalgo don quijote de la mancha). the book was published in two volumes - volume one came out in 1605 and volume two a decade later - 1615.
so, i have a question - has any friend of the mouse read the book? the book is still on my bucket list (ah, so many books, so little time) - i hear it is quite an undertaking and can be quite challenging. is this true? as for now, all my knowledge of quixote and his quest comes from the large quantity of film and stage adaptations that have been made.
i really ought to read the book, especially since i have been accused of acquiring a quixotic worldview.
another quiz: who can name the actor/tress who plays dulcinea del toboso, in the 1972 film. i understand the character dulcinea never appears in the book, but is only referred to, in stage and film adaptations however, she is a key figure and is portrayed as someone who is first skeptical than an ardent believer of quixote's quest!
photo: lakewood public library, september 2011
addendum, from the writer's almanac for thursday september 29th:
Because today is the feast of Saint Michael, it is the day deemed to have been the birthday of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (books by this author), author of Don Quixote and Spain's greatest literary figure. Cervantes's exact date of birth is unknown, although it was the custom in Spain to name a baby for the feast day on which he was born, and given that Cervantes was baptized just 10 days later, on October 9th, it is probable that today was his birthday.
Cervantes was born in a small university town near Madrid, the fourth of seven children. Miguel's father was an itinerant surgeon — a profession with no exact analogue in modern medicine — who struggled to maintain his practice and family as they traveled the length and breadth of Spain. The boy received some formal education, and he made his first literary efforts in the form of four poems written in 1568 on the death of the Queen of Spain, but little more than this is known of his early life.
A soldier by his early 20s, Cervantes sustained three gunshot wounds during a major naval battle and his left hand was rendered useless — an injury he would bear with pride. After six months in a hospital in Messina, Cervantes returned to active duty until, in 1575, the galley on which he was sailing was captured by corsairs and he was carried off to Algiers as their prisoner. Despite numerous escape attempts fueled by his belief that "one should risk one's life for honor and liberty," Cervantes was held prisoner for five years until his ransom was paid and he was finally liberated in September 1580.
Back in Spain, with little or no prospects and deeply in debt for the ransom that was paid for him, Cervantes was obliged to earn a living as a tax collector. It was an indigent and wandering lifestyle, a vocation for which he had little aptitude and a situation that led to various misadventures, including excommunication for excessive zeal in collecting wheat, and at least three imprisonments for charges as varied as accounting irregularities and suspicion of murder.
Although all of Cervantes's important works belong to his later years, he began his literary career almost upon returning to Spain, beginning as a dramatist with 20 to 30 relatively successful plays in a six-year span, and his first novel, La Galatea, in 1585. It seems that Cervantes's greatest unrealized dream was to be a poet, although one of his contemporaries once stated that among the new poets there was none so bad as Cervantes, and even Cervantes himself recognized that he did not seem to possess the gift.
But Cervantes's gift for prose was another matter. When in 1605 he published his magnum opus, Don Quixote — the tale of an elderly but absurd knight-errant and his squire, it was an immediate success and went through six editions that year alone. Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky explained something of the workings of the book in an 1868 letter to his niece, saying: "All writers, not just ours, but European writers, too, have always failed whenever they attempted a portrait of the positively beautiful ... There is only one positively beautiful person in the world, Christ, and the phenomenon of this limitlessly, infinitely beautiful person in an infinite miracle in itself ... But I am going too far. I'd only mention that of all the beautiful individuals in Christian literature, one stands out as the most perfect, Don Quixote ... Whenever compassion toward ridiculed and ingenious beauty is presented, the reader's sympathy is aroused. The mystery of humor lies in this excitation of compassion." William Shakespeare most certainly read the most perfect Don Quixote (and wrote the now-lost play Cardenio based on a scene from the book), but it is doubtful that Cervantes ever heard of Shakespeare.
Don Quixote has come to be considered the first modern novel, and is considered to be among the best works of fiction ever written. It is a lush and satirical invective against its contemporary chivalrous novels, but it is the book's immense panorama of individuals and adventure, and the humor, understanding of and compassion for the human condition that have made Don Quixote so profoundly influential over to so many over so great a span. If, in Cervantes's words from Don Quixote, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," then the proof of his book is in the countless readers that have devoured it with pleasure for more than 400 years.
Of Cervantes's burial place, nothing is known except that he requested in his will to be laid to rest at a neighboring convent. A few years after Cervantes died, the convent moved and, in their tradition, carried their dead along. Whether or not the remains of the author were among these is unknown, and any clue to their final resting place has been lost.
today's wall was made by a local artist scott radke, --scott definitely makes some wonderfully quirky and whimsical work. questions about scott? this site may quell some of your queries!
photo: cleveland (w 42nd and lorain avenue) february 2011.
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman (1820 -1913) abolitionist, humanitarian, major figure for the underground railroad
wall wednesday continues!
today's wall features a mural done by local artist and high school art teacher jerome white. last september I had a sneak preview of the mural at the cma art festival, where I also had the good fortune to have a nice chat with the artist.
according to jerome, the mural is doubly dedicated: first to the struggle, the endurance, and the 'hope and faith' of enslaved african-americans; and secondly to the role cleveland-area abolitionists played in the era of the underground railroad.
cleveland was a place that slaves and fugitive slaves aspired to reach with hopes of gaining freedom. cleveland's code name in the days of the underground railroad was 'hope' and it was often the final destination before making the trip into st. catharine's canada - who's code name was 'glory'.
the work depicts a young boy sitting on the front of a motionless train, contemplating his next move - he is looking up as the geese overhead are flying north. the boy has arrived at the last station and at a new beginning where he aspires to find his higher purpose in life rather than be physically, mentally, or spiritually enslaved. the geese symbolize direction and spiritual freedom.
this mural is located on e. 105th and superior avenue. the mural is part of a public arts project sponsored by the cleveland museum of art and the cleveland foundation.
richie havens singing the traditional song follow the drinking gourd. this excellent vid is accompanied by a photo montage using images from graue mill (a stop on the underground railroad), gettysburg and other civil era locations/photos. the video was created by david scott crawford.
photos: top - 4 february, 2011; second photo - september 2010
May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore.
Irish Blessings
some snaps from detroit. if every picture tells a story here's a few yarns for ya! the top photo is the memorial sculpture called the hand of god, which honors detroit statesman frank murphy.
my traveling partner, close friend and fictive sister anne as we start our tour of detroit, our first stop was the dia
the museum received a gift from the knight foundation for the self guided multimedia tour of rivera's detroit industry murals using an ipad. the ipads were rolled out just a few weeks ago. we took advantage of this incredible free guide through the murals - the ipads are loaded with a number of instructional videos. we watched all of them, this meant staying in the rivera court for an hour and a half or so, but it was worth it. if you don't have the opportunity to visit detroit and see the murals first hand, you can still learn about this incredible piece of art as the multimedia tutorial is also available by visiting here.
across woodward avenue from the dia is the detroit public library. library mouse that I am insisted we pop in for a peek. amazing building; what wonderful resource for the people of detroit. this room on the second floor of the library features a remarkable set of murals entitled man's mobility by john coppin. currently there is a special exhibit in the hall on dennis archer, who among many other achievements served as mayor of detroit (1994-2001); archer remains a positive force in the community to this day - at least according to this exhibit.
on our way to the hotel we drove by comerica park where the detroit tigers now play - this field replaced the historic tiger stadium in 2000. man, it's so cold in detroit, the tiger even needs to put on a coat!
for dinner friday evening we headed over to detroit's mexican town neighborhood, after dinner at the popular mexican town restaurant(which we give two enthusiastic thumbs up) we loaded up on pastries for our honeys at home from la gloria bakery.
the historic eastern market. and below a few faces of some of the folks we met when we visited
a.j. who works at the friend of eastern market booth and provided us a wonderful history of the market including what is going on with the current campaign to improve and renovate parts of the market.
these are the honeymen I mentioned in yesterday's post. the man on the left told us that his family has been selling their goods at the eastern market since the 1890s and his family has been in this very location for over sixty years! I asked if he has been affected by colony collapse disorder and thankfully, he reported that so far his bees have been spared from this devastating plague.
this lady told me I could take her photo as long as she pretended I wasn't taking it....so I snapped away. I was quite taken by her adornments - including those crazy fingernails - yow!
okay, one sad photo. detroit is still suffering from the ravages of many economic and social hardships and crises. the number of abandoned buildings was staggering.
okay, that's all I have time for today. hope you enjoyed a few of the snaps I took.
so many snaps I'm skipping the vid, but if you want to hear today's theme song, rod's every picture tells a story (don't it?) just click here.
Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise. become a stranger To need of pity Or, if compassion be freely Given out Take only enough Stop short of urge to plead Then purge away the need.
Wish for nothing larger Than your own small heart Or greater than a star; Tame wild disappointment With caress unmoved and cold Make of it a parka For your soul.
Discover the reason why So tiny human midget Exists at all So scared unwise But expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise.
Alice Walker (b. 9 february 1944) writer, poet, novelist from Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems (1973)
wall wednesday continues!
today's wall is of a mural on the side of lynn's deli in cleveland. I met lynn and one of her customers on friday when dixie and I were off on our wander.
the man in the mural is "king george," lynn's father, who established the deli. when he passed away lynn took over. as to the identity of the girl there seems to be a bit of dispute - lynn's customer claims that the painting is none other than lynn herself when she was a young girl. however, lynn denies that the girl is her - she said it is a portrait of a nigerian girl from the neighborhood. well, regardless all four faces make me smile!!
along with specializing and providing customers with homemade ribs, bbq and wings, lynn's deli also serves as a corner store and sells a variety of goods.
lynn's deli is located at 8215 hough avenue, a tad bit west of the thurgood marshall rec center which is the future home of anna arnold's mural the storyteller . I actually thought anna's mural was up which is why dixie and I were in the neighborhood, however, I was far from disappointed in not finding it, if I wasn't there, I wouldn't have met lynn nor would I have run across today's featured wall. now I get to go back once anna installs her mural and hopefully get a chance to sample some of lynn's wings or ribs!
when you wish upon a star, vid by louisa, using a louis armstrong version of the song,accompanied by scenes from the disney classic pinocchio. coincidentally, the film was released nationwide on february 9th, 1940 and was the 2nd film in the walt disney animated classics series (which continues to this day)
Do you know, I always thought unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!' 'Well, now that we have seen each other,' said the unicorn, 'if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.'
Lewis Carroll (27 january 1832 -1898) author, mathematician, photographer
quote above from through the looking glass
I didn't plan on having bits of wall art featured three days in a row, however, details from the murals inside sullivan's, my favorite local place to get fish and chips and a pint, seem to work as photo pairings in the mouse's celebration of the lives of rabbie burns on tuesday and lewis carroll today.
in many respects lewis carroll, born charles lutwidge dodgson, was such an enigma that his life and interests have generated much speculation and a phenomena known as the carroll myth.
the other day I was musing about some of the books I've enjoyed that feature historical figures as characters, I can't believe that I completely forget about a very enjoyable read that I read just last year: alice I have been by melanie benjamin. the main character of the book is alice liddell hargreaves - the daughter of the of the dean of christ church, oxford, and the person believed to be the inspiration for lewis' alice character. benjamin uses this as her inspiration for her historical novel.
tom petty is the mad hatter in his completely alice inspired vid/song don't come around hear no more (1985)
love. help. two beautiful action words. speaking of help - I recently finished the help by kathryn stockett. terrific read, I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. my bookgroup, like many others picked it and we will be discussing it at tonight's bookgroup. apparently the book has been plugged and praised by media mogul oprah winfrey. I was curious about whether oprah picked up the film rights. she didn't, however, I did learn that according to portal of all knowledge* (PAK), tate taylor, a friend of the author, optioned the film rights to the book before the book was even released. and according to PAK, taylor will write and direct the film.
gospel pop song, put your hand in the hand, was first recorded in 1970 by canadian singer anne murray; the song has been covered by a slew of recording artists - including ocean (vid below), joan baez, elvis presley and even the beastie boys
photo: detail of belmont mural - a community mural project first painted in 1996, the mural suffered extensive damage and was restored in 2004. portland, oregon, april 2010
*I hope everyone realizes when I use this expression, I do so only in the most cheeky, (or would that be tongue in cheek) fashion
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
