Occasionally, I get actual questions in the comments, and given Rule #6, I feel that I must answer these questions in post form!
1) “Applesauce or latkes?”absurdbeats asks — to which I can only reply: Why would you force me to choose? I thought we were friends!
2) “How can I contact you?” To any and all who want to get in touch more directly, you’ll find my email contact on the About page. Please write early and often! (And slumdogmamabear, I’ve already sent you a note!).
3) “Should I tell everyone I know — particularly those who are rich and famous — about your fabulous blog?” You know, I am beginning to suspect that this question is but a figment of my fertile (and fabulous!) imagination, but I hear it so often from within the confines of my head, that I feel I must answer! And the answer is: Yes, yes, you most certainly should!
And since that’s a really poor excuse for a post, and I’m not likely to have a chance to do any thing more impressive today, I’ll leave you with this, too: A really nice interview with The Swell Season (check out the hole in his guitar! It’s bigger than I thought!), from Boing Boing video. Enjoy!
In my next life, I will be a singer/songwriter/pianist/guitarist who walks across the stage bare-footed, a small, warm smile of confidence and joy gracing my face as my voice fills the hall with aching sweetness, tangling close with others in harmony, my instrumental talent as easily worn as it is prodigious.
I will be Marketa Irglova.
Irglova is the Czech-born female half of The Swell Season, the duo made famous by the Irish movie Once (and talk about your aching sweetness…). The husband and I went to see them perform for the second time last night, fully expecting to be blown away — the previous show we attended was one of the best of either of our lives — but even so, we weren’t really prepared for the experience we had. It was gorgeous, and funny, and moving, and uplifting, and wounding, and chilling, and I have not so wanted to grow up to be someone for a very long time.
Sometime since the girl was born to me, six and a half years ago, I had the surprisingly crashing realization that actually, no: I will never get on stage with an electric guitar and my voice and fucking blow the crowd away. I will never be Chrissie Hynde or Bonnie Raitt, or even one of their lesser analogues.
One might think — and fairly — that I had figured this out already, but there was a shock of finality to the realization that I had, in fact, chosen my life, and its paths and tracks ran nowhere near electric guitars or the stage. And never would.
So, as one learns to do, I looked around me and went, “Well, ok.” I mean, all told, I kind of won the life lottery, and if it came without rock n’ roll dreams? Well, one makes one’s peace, doesn’t one?
Ah, but then last night rolled into town.
I want to reach my hands out to the heavens, and pull down the kind of loveliness and truth that Irglova finds, and I want to know so thoroughly that I possess it that I can look as comfortable in my skin and my drindl skirt as she did last night. I have no idea — of course I have no idea — of the turbulence that must, at times, afflict Marketa Irglova’s soul — but when she is on stage, her radiant voice rising and covering and running through an audience that, for the time being at least, feels like her best friends, she is the very picture of At Home.
For now, I’ll make do with the seven-year-old discovery that my voice is really pretty good, for a writer, and the occasional chance I get to chant the haftara in synagogue services. It, too, is a gift, to be able to do that, and an unexpected one at that.
In my next life, though, I will be Marekta Irglova. Drindl skirt and all.
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Bonus post
Here’s a handy test to discover if you’re married to the right person:
Watching Glen Hansard — Irglova’s co-star and band mate, the frontman for Irish band The Frames, and a long, cool drink of redheaded adorableness in his own right — slaughter song after song with his uncanny ability to sing emotion into being and guitar skills so fucking crazy that his hands are occasionally nothing but a blur, I finally turned to my husband last night and whispered “It’s ok that I’m a little bit in love with him, right?”
The husband: “With him? Yeah.”
Pause.
Me: “You’re a little in love with him, too, aren’t you.”
The husband: Shrugs a bit, “well… yeah.”
Pause.
The husband: “I’m a little bit in love with her, too.”
If you can have this exchange with the love of your life, you’re right where you need to be.
So we went to see U2 on Saturday — their first American show in this tour — and it was, if I may, in a word: AWESOME!!!
Yep. That’s the word.
There is a lot of internet and indie-purist angst spilled over the fact that a) U2 are huge and b) Bono is arrogant, and thus c) the cool kids can’t like U2, but you know what, we all need to just get over ourselves. Musical preferences are a personal thing and if you don’t like U2, you don’t like U2 (hey, I don’t like Bob Dylan, so there’s that!) — but U2 is huge for the simple reason that they are the best at what they do (which involves not just songwriting and performing but also understanding the craft of putting on a show for 60,000 people), and, honestly, you get to be arrogant if you bring the goods. Which Bono does. He brings the goods both artistically and in his work for social justice — and he even has a sense of his own absurdity. Which is a blessing in anyone, certainly in an international rock star.
Plus which, they’re awesome!
So, now that I’ve put that little controversy to rest /brushes dirt off hands/, I turn to something that came up for me as I pogoed my way through Saturday night’s show (yes, I pogoed. And what of it?).
U2 always raises issues of social justice in their performances, dating back to their earliest days (War, anyone?). This year, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”was turned over to the people of Iran, and as always, the case of Burmese leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years — was front and center with the song “Walk On“. There was talk of debt relief, and anti-retroviral drugs for people with HIV/AIDS in Africa (the number of drug recipients, we were told, stands today at three million, up from 50,000 in 2002 [or 2001. Hey, I was pogoing! I wasn't taking notes!]). There were many references to the One Campaign, and (Red). “You’re all activists, Chicago!” Bono called out to us.
But rather than feel empowered, for a moment, I just felt overwhelmed.
I am an activist, I have been one for as long as I can remember. But when I shout “hell yeah!” for Iran, or Burma, or debt relief, I am just shouting. I am not involved in any of those issues. There is so much pain and so much need, and one person — especially one person with a limited budget, no international clout, and two small kids at home — can only do so much. I advocate for Israeli-Palestinian peace, I tutor at my kids’ school, I help out with community hunger issues, I send the occasional one-off check for gay rights or letter about infrastructure needs – I cannot take on Aung San Suu Kyi, too.
So there I stood, singing something or other, and feeling just — impotent, I guess. Small.
So that sucked! But, well, being as how it was U2 and they really are kind of in the business of elevation, I also found myself shaking it off — aside from anything else, making their audience feel impotent and overwhelmed was probably not what Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen (Jr.!) had in mind. Indeed, it’s my experience that feeling overwhelmed is the quickest way to activist burnout, and that’s no good at all.
So, now that my ears have stopped buzzing and I can think a little straighter, I’ve decided to use this teeny tiny stage that I have built for myself to spread the word about U2’s causes a teeny tiny bit further, and see if I can’t, myself, send one more letter, or educate myself about one more thing, or make one more phone call. Just one.
If you have time, energy, and inclination, please consider adding your voice to one or more of these worthy efforts:
Music Rising: This is The Edge’s project, “launched to rescue the musical culture of the Central Gulf region of the United States from the destruction caused by the catastrophic hurricanes of the summer of 2005 by replacing musical instruments lost or destroyed in the deluge.”
(Red): “RED is a groundbreaking economic initiative designed to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Launch partners such as American Express, Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani have committed to channelling a portion of profits from sales of specially-designed products to supporting AIDS programmes in Africa which have a focus on women and children. These include programmes in countries such as Rwanda, where, in the past two years, the number of people receiving treatments for HIV/AIDS has increased by ten-fold.”
ONE – “ONE is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African policy makers and activists.”
Free Burma! – “Burma, a country of 47 million people is ruled by fear. A military machine of 400,000 soldiers denies a whole nation its most basic rights. Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma’s people to be free.”
Greenpeace – “Our core values are reflected in our environmental campaign work: We ‘bear witness’ to environmental destruction in a peaceful, non-violent manner. We use non-violent confrontation to raise the level and quality of public debate. In exposing threats to the environment and finding solutions we have no permanent allies or adversaries. We ensure our financial independence from political or commercial interests. We seek solutions for, and promote open, informed debate about society’s environmental choices.”
Amnesty International – “Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world – so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity.”
The Chernobyl Children’s Project – “Since its establishment in 1991, Chernobyl Children’s Project International (CCPI) has delivered over €76 million in direct and indirect humanitarian aid to the Chernobyl region. CCPI aims to restore hope to the people of the Chernobyl-affected region.”
Angiogenesis Foundation – I will admit that I almost didn’t include this, as I had never heard of it before. But if I’m not going to trust the guys who wrote “One,” who am I going to trust? “Founded in 1994, the Angiogenesis Foundation is the world’s first nonprofit organization dedicated to conquering disease using a new approach based on angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels in the body. Angiogenesis is the ‘common denominator’ in society’s most feared diseases, including cancer, heart disease, blinding disorders, and more than 70 other conditions. Our focus on this underlying process makes our approach as a medical organization unique and effective, and is already leading to breakthroughs for several cancers, diabetic wounds, and macular degeneration.”
Iran – I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what people of good will who are not currently in Iran can do to help the citizens of that country win a freer and fairer life for themselves. But this is where I’m going to educate myself more — I’ll look into it, and post something over the next week or so.
Mother Teresa would often say something along the lines of “We cannot do great things; only small things, with great love” — or, in the words of the poet: “We get to carry each other.”
UPDATE: Shoot! “Embedding disabled by request. Watch on YouTube”! Oh well. One more click (right there on the “Watch on YouTube”), and you can watch it there….
I almost hate to distract from the Liam Finn clip below, but I was just thinking today that I miss those months when just saying the words “President Obama” gave me a thrill, the months when he was all possibility and no political disappointment, when I could wrap myself in the joy of watching us as a country moving forward, led by a man who I still believe will prove himself a great President.
But people are people, the POTUS among them, and people disappoint — especially people who are politicians serving 300 million citizens. And eventually, everything new becomes the same-old-same-old, and just hearing that this man in whom I so believe, this man who broke us free from the horror of the previous eight years, this man who proved that though we may never move beyond race, we can, as a nation, become more perfect — just hearing again that this man is my President no longer makes me grin like a schoolkid.
It’s been a long week. And today I learned (via Balloon Juice) that the Administration “will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search—without suspicion of wrongdoing—the contents of a traveler’s laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections” — and I just thought: Well, damn. I already miss the good old days.
And then I clicked over to my Balloon Juice buddy the Grand Panjandrum’s site , and found this clip of Brad Paisley at the White House. And yes gentle reader, I am now weepy, again. But in a good way.
Please note that President Obama and Mr. Paisley also get a little weepy as the clip moves along….
Elsewhere on the webz today, I was reminded of Steve Burns — you know: Steve, from Blues Clues!
First of all, the man deserves a lifetime achievement award for the acting he did on what I consistently found to be a delightful, intelligent, and genuinely funny show (and when you are at a life stage that has you watching a lot of preschool TV, you find yourself deeply grateful for even a glimmer of such qualities. Trust me). But aside from this essential truth, and quite aside from the fact that I always found him quite adorable in said show, Mr. Burns also released a truly delightful popy-rocky-Flaming Lipsy-sorta album soon after leaving television, and I frankly love it.
Here’s a clip! (Note the Lips’ Steven Drozd on drums).
He’s been talking about releasing a follow up for a stupidly long time (the most recent release date was “summer 2009″…). Steve, if you’re reading this? Please dude: Speed it up!
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UPDATE: Ack! I forgot to give the name of the album or link to his Myspace page! Blogger fail.
Irglova is the Czech-born female half of 