George

A little pick-me-up on a Saturday afternoon. It's George Harrison's birthday & so another mention of the Lost & Found guitar solo in Here Come's the Sun. It's been on Open Culture for at month but it's getting picked up a lot today. I eagerly await Martin Scorcese's George Harrison: Living in the Material World on DVD. HBO is soooooooo pokey about releasing their shows on DVD. (Grrr)

Here's a terrific rendition of the happy birthday song by Paul & his band (live in Moscow's Red Square). Enjoy!

(photograph via The Beatles - which is a fun website)

Week's End - John in Black & White

The Beatles are in the middle of recording Strawberry Fields Forever, when John makes a guest appearance in a sketch for the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore Christmas show of Not Only But Also... John plays the doorman of a 'members only' gents lavatory. The outside shots were filmed in Broadwick St, London W1. (from The Beatles/Unseen Archives, compiled by Tim Hill & Marie Clayton, Parragon Publishing, Bath, UK; my crummy scans from the book.)

I cannot find the photographer for these stills, so if anyone knows, let me know. We're lucky there's anything at all left of Not Only...because the BBC re-used so much film stock from it. (Though Peter Cook reportedly offered to pay for it). This was not John's first guest appearance on the show but the video available is the clearest for this sketch. He's quite funny in it, too. This bewilders many YouTube Youth. (Yes, actually. I can imagine John at 70.) (Update - click here for GG's post & the link to Imagine Peace website where you can leave birthday wishes.) Another update: From crivens, jings and help ma blog (yea, that's in Scotland:) - Alistair has posted a wonderful video of genius Peter Sellers interpreting A Hard Day's Night. If we couldn't laugh....

As Peter Cook would say, no matter the time, Good Evening.

Don't Wait Up

I've been left for dead before/but I still fight on./Don't wait up, leave the light on/I'll be home soon.--Leave the Light On

It's raining cats & dogs. Severe weather on the way. Rats, double rats. Plans for today - virtual & real - on hold. (You really should click on the video or the link. Chris is not employing hyperbole in the lyric - straight from his life.)

Thanks so much for all the best wishes, cards, & gifts, too. Cheers.

PS: On Julie's blog - "cat macros." Seriously.

(Umbrella by SaikoroKitty via deviantArt)

Drunk With Pines

Happy birthday to sexy devil Pablo Neruda. He didn't look like one of the Spanish World Cup team; he's at a disadvantage, being dead & all. Still...

Drunk with Pines is from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair*, beloved by sensitive young men everywhere as a go-to seduction aid. Well, it's true, I'm not criticizing. Worked on me. (*Translated by W.S. Merwin, newly-appointed Poet Laureate in the U.S. )

The Jersualem Windows - Marc Chagall

I was fortunate to see the twelve windows from the perspective of a visitor & then, not so fortunate, as a patient. I've seen all of his stained glass work (I think). Here's a link to the hospital's site & to a rare book site. Here's a link to a post last year on a blog, Echostains & it has very nice images, as well.

Perched precariously on a dining room chair, stretching a blue open-weave summer blanket over the very large nekkid bedroom window, I listened to the Writer's Almanac very early today. Ah, it's Chagall's birthday. The light streams through the loose weave, casting a welcome chill & I thought, that's rather Chagall-ish. (Well, one must reach at times, you know.)

One Too Many Mornings

Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan, you cranky cuss. I was slow off the mark (again!) & La Clever Pup beat me to it. Here's her post Not Dark Yet.

The image here is via BabyBlueOnline. The longish quote because the painter deserves credit (though only the painter's sibling is named. Hmmm.).

"One of our regulars here at the cafe, Dabney Oakley, has sent us a painting done by his sister in 1964. The story is that a "'Bob Zimmerman' was visiting a friend at Randolph-Macon Womans College in Lynchburg. Not looking like the usual prepsters from Hampden-Sydney, Washington & Lee, or UVa, he was asked to 'sit' for a 'Studio Portrait Class.' The portrait shown was done by my sister. I'm sure there are others 'out there,' too."

Would love to know more about those paintings (that college isn't far from here & friends teach/have taught there). Alas, one more cup of coffee is needed on this new morning. (OK, I'll stop.) Still, hey painter lady--get in touch.

Some years ago I attended a Dylan birthday party (no, he wasn't there). My then-newish boyfriend looked at me in muted horror (it's possible, believe me. He was a diplomat's son from a Byzantine culture - well, that's redundant. Levantine with the Byzantine diplomatic background overlay.) I assured him the tiny harmonicas thrust at us upon arrival were party favors, nothing more. He parked himself in a corner with Dylan (the Resident Cat) & fiddled around with the plastic. An hour later, he played something (don't remember what). Not bad though, not bad at all.

Being Ruby - Tanti Auguri!

A most excellent friend, Julie of Being Ruby, is celebrating her one-year blogging anniversary. I've meant to do post (that would do her justice) for months. That can't happen today for various reasons...but I want to make sure that she knows how important she is to so many people. I'm thinking an ode is the suitable form & I'll work on it while trying to get 'round town, the next two days, mostly stuck in Nuclear Summit security traffic.

You will love love love her work, if you don't know it. Go & be dazzled. And urge her, as I have, to sell some of it. Please, Julie! (She lives in Sydney but has travelled widely & well.) When I won a giveaway on her site, I was shocked, shocked. Now I can't say "I never win anything." I carry this bag every single day. Look at what she generously gave away. Let me tell you, it is not inexpensive to mail a beautiful leather bag from Sydney to Washington, DC. And then she included one of her sepia photographs of a kitty-at-the-Colosseum as a birthday gift, too. When I opened the box, everything was festooned with gauzy ribbons & bows. This woman knows how to make everyone feel special.

Ciao bella from rainy DC to Sydney,

Susan & Giulia (Julie the Cat)

[photograph by Robert W. Kelley/LIFE archives]

A Battle Lost

Van Gogh's Prayer by János Pilinszky (originally published in Poetry, March 2008)

A battle lost in the cornfields

and in the sky a victory.

Birds, the sun and birds again.

By night, what will be left of me?

By night, only a row of lamps,

a wall of yellow clay that shines,

and down the garden, through the trees,

like candles in a row, the panes....rest of poem, here.

It might seem unfair, that title, as it is Van Gogh's birthday, but...it's my blog. Such as it is. Hazel at the Clever Pup has a nice tribute today.

[the first of 3(versions) La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles in VG museum/Amsterdam via French wikipedia; Rami di mandorlo in fiore/Amandier en fleurs is a postcard via my old scanner. Update, nope. Here is a much better link via Arianna at Wikimedia Commons.]

Week's End - Don't Shoot the Piano Player

"Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."

Laughed out loud this morning when reminded of Oscar Wilde's reaction to an American saloon sign as "the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across." Thanks to Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.

Happy 155th Birthday, Oscar. You don't look a day over 30, darling. Never l'esprit d'escalier for you.

[Oscar Wilde in his favourite coat. New York. Picture by Napoleon Sarony(1821-1896) via Library of Congress.]

Birthday Roses

...to my mother. I sent her this bouquet for her birthday (this Friday). While I was spending an inordinate amount of time, money, & shattering my last nerve* having the new laptop fluffed & folded, she called to say it's beautiful. At the hairdresser's last week, I flipped through Martha Stewart Living to see how inadequate I am (lately). There was an advert (& a 15% discount code through December 31) for the collection. The code is LIVING15. Cheers.

*and that of a friendly, patient young college student who had the misfortune to be on duty when I arrived with my list of questions & worries.

[Martha Stewart Radiance Birthday Bouquet via 1800FLOWERS]

Week's End - Slow Down & Look Around

People in town for the National Book Festival. People calling. People soliciting advice. People seeking the counsel of someone afraid of her new laptop? Think about it. Here's good advice for writers (& in general) at any level. The photograph synchronizes with Giulia Geranium today because, frankly, the bewildering assortment of photographs & images on hand is, well, a jumble. My tiny kingdom for a camera. Yesterday's foray to the new farmer's market near the White House (& assorted wanderings) called out for one. On the desk sit about-to-bloom pink lilies & stripey grasses from a cut-flower farm, Wollam Gardens, featured in yesterday's Washington Post.

And that's that. Happy weekend.

(Easy Day by gloeckchen via we heart it -via deviant art. The artist's gallery, here.)

La Coiffure

It's no wonder that this is from Cute Overload via We Heart It. It's from a GG post last holiday time but I wanted to see it over here now. Maybe it will balance out my sarcasm. The great kitten hunt is on after the weekend. A gift for Julie/Giulia (& me).

Birthday Lily

Happy birthday to my sister, Beth. Talk about quick & dirty. The second photo doesn't do her justice, certainly. But I can easily change that when I ask her for permission to use something more, uh, recent. [Update a year later: she likes this photograph.] Her favorite flower is the iris. However, lilies are blooming, I like this photograph by George Brett (see below), & Beth has a pair of twins, among six children (!), & one is named Lily. So there you go. Now, I better go call Beth. She's off to Japan in August to visit another (grown) child in Tokyo & I don't have the dates. Oh, wow, I wish I could go with her. But very glad she's able to make the trip.

Happy Birthday, Beth! xoxoxoxo

[Lily by George Brett, wonderful Washington, DC-area photographer via flickr. Here's the link. Shots from all over the metropolitan area]

Week's End - You're the Top!

You're the top!
You're the Coliseum,
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum.
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss...(see below)

If I were as cheeky as I seem, I would make a collage of images from Cole Porter's You're the Top & post it as a tribute to Hazel at The Clever Pup. It's her birthday. Time, copyright law, & the weather (storms, ack) prevent my descent--for now--into a life of crime. Phew. I think Hazel will let me off with this mini-tribute. Have a great evening with assorted Pups & Cool Cats.

A Skeleton Key to 'You're the Top' by Timothy Noah of Slate Magazine is amusing & must have been a lot of fun to research & write. His response, sort of, to feelings about Bloomsday. Intrigued? I was.

ciao, xo from Washington, DC

[hastily procured LIFE archival photos by David E. Scherman of 'lady at masked ball in Paris, July1946. Two of 'em. Hey, give me a break. I nearly chose a Communist Party rally in Paris. At least it looked like they had champagne.]

Back to work, sort of. A great weekend to all (& go pester the Mme. Pup). And yes, I'm sad about Farrah & Michael. Are you kidding? No matter the intervening years & academia, hey, I was growing up then, too. The first time I walked into Jersualem's Old City, the Damascus Gate entrance, you know what was playing somewhere-in-the-souk? No? I'll say anyway. Layla & then Billie Jean. Worlds collide. Weirdest damn day of my life (so far).