silver threads among the gold

Just returned from a lovely weekend in Altamont NY, where we revelled in traditional music of & for all ages. The Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music & Dance has been around since 1981, growing out of the previous festivals at Fox Hollow. Some material from their early years can be seen here.

The key to Old Songs is its blend of traditional in the sense of historical or "true" folk music & dance forms with newer material crafted by today's performers, either via the "folk process" that operates on all oral traditions, causing small but often significant changes over time, or through new writings & forms that honour & make use of the traditions to create material that may or may not stand the test of time. The creators/performers themselves say that the greatest compliment that can be paid is for their material to become so embedded in the tradition that most people forget that it was newly written and just think of it as "an old folk song/tune".

Performer highlights for us included:

Peggy Seeger, of that celebrated musical family, who shared her stories from the original BBC Radio Ballads, and sang many songs both old & new. She is best known for women's movement songs like "Gonna Be An Engineer", and around these parts, for her collaboration with her husband, Ewan McColl, on "Springhill Mine Disaster" (one of those "old folk songs" written by them in 1958 after the Springhill, Nova Scotia event). Interesting that Jez Lowe, also at this year's Old Songs, has recently participated in some new Radio Ballads. (If you can't be bothered to visit the link, but are curious, Radio Ballads feature a part of British life as experienced by people who are interviewed by songwriters, and whose words then form the basis of the songs about their lives. But it's worth reading more, so go on & visit the link!)

Josh White, Jr. , who we had seen just last year at a concert with Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez Seeger, here in Ottawa. His range of material & skill with voice & guitar are incredible. He paid tribute to his father & that generation of performers, bringing their material to newer audiences. Wonderful. Wish I could play like that...

Christine Lavin, who is simply hysterical! One of her songs, "What Was I Thinking?!" was brought up to the minute with a scathing new verse about a certain recently & very publicly delinquent senator, and contained a classic bit "Don't you just love it when Republicans are exposed for the hypocrites they are?" (well, it certainly appealed to me!) And frankly, who could fail to love the writer of "Cold Pizza For Breakfast"?

Steve Gillete & Cindy Mangsen, who perform both solo & together, and have been around the folk circuit for eons...how long? Well, Steve's song "Darcy Farrow", another of those "old folk songs" was recorded by Ian & Sylvia in the 60s... Pretty long. And Cindy's song about how their cat got its head stuck in the disposal cracked me up. Versatile & talented, & consummately entertaining.

Louis Killen, who made me like sea songs when I first heard him more than 30 years ago, & can still send a shiver down my back today. He concentrates mostly on the historical & traditional, and his voice, firmly stamped with his Tyneside roots, is perfectly suited for his immense repertoire. A fount of great stories, too.

Lou & Peter Berryman should be listed as national treasures in the USA. From the infamous "A Chat With Your Mother" (widely known as "The F-Word Song") to the pseudo-patriotic "Your State's Name Here" to the geriatrish "Older Than Everybody"...I give up, there's no way I can list all of their incredible songs, parodies, rants, &c, you'll just have to listen to them yourselves. Unique if slightly bizarre sound, wonderful lyrics, you will pee yourself laughing, guaranteed. And I love Peter even more because we play the same kind of guitar, a Guild 12-string.

My husband, who's of Dutch origin, particularly enjoyed Nanne & Ankie and the Hudson Crew, a Frieslander group who put on a play about Henry Hudson (that I missed, being at a different workshop at the time). We saw them together at a sea shanty workshop & they were fabulous. Having a great time singing in Dutch & Fries (pronounced freeze btw), which of course very few understood, but they were having such a good time that who cared.

Peter & Mary Alice Amidon were, as always, featured in the Shape Note Workshops led by Peter, that we participate in every time we go to Old Songs. We sing mainly from a book called The Sacred Harp, with some songs from other books, and some newly written by living composers. This traditional form of sight-reading using shaped note heads is an early North American form dating from the days when few musical instruments were available, and was kept alive in the Deep South until revived during the folk revival. Today there are singings all over the USA & Canada & other countries of this form, & of the closely related West Gallery tradition in the UK. It's a wonderful form of 4-part community singing, mostly of old hymns, but today largely sung in a secular "sing the poetry" spirit. I can't recommend it highly enough, if you like to sing. And you don't have to be all that good a singer, either, you will just be swept up in the music.

I first saw John Roberts & Tony Barrand doing a Morris dance at the Mariposa Folk Festival on Toronto's Centre Island in 1971. They don't do much dancing these days, but their voices & songs are just as great as they were then. If you haven't heard "Oor Hamlet" sung by John Roberts, as we were lucky to this weekend, you need to find a copy. And Tony Barrand's tenor rings out unmistakeably, even in a larger group like Nowell Sing We Clear.

Last, but definitely not least, is an Old Songs fixture, Michael Cooney, who I also saw in that first Mariposa experience 38 years ago (yikes!). He's got a long white beard to complement the curly black hair these days, but he still has a wonderful voice, terrific guitar-playing skills (on a 12-string, no less), and an incredible repertoire of songs & jokes & tunes & stories. A true gem & another USAmerican national treasure.

If you visit the links I've given, you'll be able to get a taste of all of these great performers. There were others of course, but Old Songs has such a diverse program on so many stages that it's impossible for one couple to get to them all. Oh, and did I mention that they have fabulous food? You simply have to taste Eric Bean's Traveller's Kitchen's quesadillas & potato pancakes. To die for!

I'm sure I've convinced at least some of you to get there next year, or at least, I hope so. Events like this are unique & culturally important, and need the support of music lovers for them to continue. Old Songs is for all ages (great kids' areas too) & many musical tastes. You can meet friends to jam, listen to concerts, participate in singing, & talk to everyone.

See you there next year!

contemplating mortality

I recently attended a memorial for a close friend's father. He lived a full life of nearly 90 years, and will be much missed. Alert until his final hours, he chose when to die during a period of rapidly deteriorating health, by declining further treatment. As a fellow atheist, he also chose to have no funeral (donating his body to science) and requested a gathering of friends & family to exchange stories about his life.

What struck me most about this event was the genuine feeling demonstrated by the more than 70 in attendance. I have been to many (always too many) funerals, with the usual visitation of the carefully embalmed body preceding, and some form of religious ceremony followed by interrment. All too few have shown any sign of true grief among any but the immediate family. This was a spontaneous outpouring of love and grief for a good man, by all assembled. There was much laughter (he was a great character) and a few tears. Emotions ran high - I have tears in my eyes again as I write this.

Death is a fact of life. There is not a shred of evidence that there is anything following cessation of brain activity. Once you're gone, you're gone. The only known afterlife is the continuity of memory among your family & friends. For some, their works also continue, in the larger population's memory.

I don't find this a particularly distressing thought. Then again, I've not attempted to find the quasi-immortality many do through their children, and I have no expectation that the impact of my life works will continue for long, either. Many people appear to find the finality of death it so terrible that they must delude themselves, customarily via a variety of religious beliefs, that there is some continuity of their intelligence or spirit beyond death. Even the words used - "passed on", "passed over", &c - imply continuation into another as yet unidentified existence. People in general appear to be desperate to achieve some kind of immortal state, preferrably a good one.

Most religions use the carrot & stick model of behaviour modification to cajole or threaten adherents with some form of heaven & hell (you rarely see one without the other). Since neither has any concrete evidence of its existence outside our hyperactive imaginations, there seems little point to prolonging this way of thinking. The only justification appears to be for indoctrination and mind control of the majority by a collection of self-serving oligarchies. Religious altruism is a very thin veneer on this fundamental state.

It's so much more important for us to live well, day by day, in as much harmony with our fellows and surroundings as possible, than to spend those days in preparation & expectation of something beyond. We need to make our heaven here, or it will surely become a hell. All that's required is for us to use our brains for what they're good at - observing, evaluating, deciding...for ourselves, not according to the dictates of religio-political oligarchs. And the fear of death should be the least of our worries in doing so.

Death is shocking, harsh, and final. There is no good way to prepare for this. Loved family members and friends who die are mourned, rightly, for they are never coming back. They can also be remembered & celebrated, and I find this the most comforting form of continuity possible.

good intentions meet gardening season

All my good intentions about blogging more often collided with my equally good intentions to do more gardening now that I'm retired. While good intentions are most often found paving the road to hell, this time the garden path won out & blogging came a distant second.

There have been plenty of ridiculous news items for me to rant about lately, not least of which are various local & national politicians in court for -- wait for it -- lying to the public about *gasp* misuse of public funds & power...but, I digress. This post is not a rant, but a rave. About spring, of all things.

Our climate, such as it is, flipped the winter-to-summer switch a couple of weeks ago, and there are at least 20 different shades of green on bushes & trees outside my window alone. It's a whole rainbow driving around town, with all the tulip beds in full bloom and everything from magnolias to crabapples blossoming in a mad dash. I'm not kidding when I call it flipping a switch, either. Spring in Ottawa is so short that you might miss it if you blinked. The early bulbs & flowering trees don't last long at all.

We've planted a lot of the Victory garden, too. That's V for vegetable, mainly, with a few herbs and some flowers to add a bit of colour. It's a very nice thing to be able to get some of your veggies out of your own yard. So far this year we've put in sugar snap peas, onion sets, salad greens, coriander, basil and parsley. All things that can be grown from seed starting fairly early in the season. I've got some plants inside that won't go out until early June, though, because we can count on the odd hard frost overnight until at least the end of May. Starting seedlings indoors is a good way to get a jump on spring, and makes late winter a lot less depressing.

Our property is on clay soil, and our front yard used to turn to hard-pan every year, until we xeriscaped it in local shrubs & trees. Now, the only maintenance it needs is pruning & mulching. Just our little bit for the environment.

Blogging is just going to have to wait for a rainy day.

Good Neighbours?

Misdirection, disinformation and outright lies. Do these make good neighbours?

Here’s the latest from supposedly informed and reputable politicians in the USofA. If that isn’t an oxymoron.

Canada more lax than U.S. about whom it lets in, Napolitano says (Clarifies comments that implied 9/11 terrorists entered U.S. through Canada) "The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours," she said. "That's why you have to have a border, and you have to have border policies that make sense." Liberal MP John McKay, who was at the conference, said Napolitano's comments alarmed him. "If you are, in fact, negotiating a managed border, and your negotiating partner believes a set of mythology, then you have problems," he said "You try to work on the basis of fact, not on the basis of myth."

McCain defends Napolitano, insists 9/11 perpetrators came from Canada…”Arizona Senator John McCain is the latest high-profile politician to repeat the diehard American falsehood that the Sept. 11, 2001, attackers entered the United States through Canada. "Well, some of the 9/11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday. Ambassador Michael Wilson, reminded Americans once again that none of the attackers came to the U.S. via Canada. As the 9/11 Commission reported in July 2004, all of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the U.S. from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued to them by the U.S. government. No 9/11 terrorists came from Canada.”

(source, http://www.cbc.ca/, April 21/24)

It’s abhorrent that the current head of USAmerican “Homeland Security”, that wholly redundant sinecure established by the Dubya regime, should be mouthing these erroneous allegations, and on Canadian TV, no less. Equally appalling is that the supposedly honest and above-board McCain is spewing the same filth on Fox. Having just read in the Guardian (UK) that Fox is once again trouncing viewership of both CNN & MSNBC, is it any wonder that many USAmericans continue to believe the lies? If I didn't have numerous USAmerican friends who I know don't buy this garbage, I'd be truly concerned. As it is, I'm saddened & discouraged.

The whole sorry mess reminds me of a visit to our neighbouring country, some years ago, coincidentally to Oklahoma City on the day after the bombing of the federal building. I was a little apprehensive travelling just then, chiefly about whether intensive airport security would foul up my connections, but had important meetings to attend. The immediate response at the time was that the bombers “must be foreign terrorists”, so there was NO increase in internal security. At that time, airport security in the US was little more than a bad joke. They were much more concerned about training sniffer dogs to root out the odd joint than in scanning for possible weapons. I witnessed both the training, and the lack of scanning. How do I know? I have a prosthesis that triggers airport scanners, infallibly. It triggered the Canadian scanners, but none in the good old USofA. It would have been a cake-walk to take any number of weapons through security. And what do you know, it turned out to be a native terrorist after the fertilizer dust had cleared. Surprise, surprise. In fact, if Homeland Security was really doing their job, they’d be doing something about the millions of lethal weapons and nutbars in their own backyard, rather than accusing their neighbours first.

In all of this, I wonder how many Fox adherents understand that the bombings on September 11th, 2001, were carried out by former US-resident, US-trained, very probably US-funded or at least US-armed, and direct to US travelling bombers. I wonder how many of them have honestly examined their own culture, or travelled to experience the cultural similarities & differences of their neighbours. Probably not very many.

where do I start?

I honestly don't know where to start. I've contemplated posting several times in the past few days, but was too hot under the collar on several counts to make any sense.

The continued abuse of women in much of the Islamic world is obviously a sore spot, with recent events in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's a kind of apartheid nobody seems anxious to deal with. Certainly not the UN, with their recent bizarre statements on religion. Nor the western corporate-military machine which has a vested interest in maintaining this region as a convenient "enemy". And most decidedly not the Afghan politicians who condone rape within marriage and restriction of women's rights of all kinds, nor the extremeist factions in northern Pakistan who take daily abuse of women going about their normal business as a matter of course.

If there was ever a call for separation of religion and politics, this is it. Of course, that ignores the fact that they're really just two sides of a grubby coin. Both rely on fear, guilt, greed and gullibility to maintain their adherents. Both gangs of thieves the world could do well without.

Speaking of thieves, another item that has my bile boiling is the move by the province of Ontario to implement a "harmonized sales/service tax". Right now there is a provincial sales tax of 8% on most consumables, plus a 5% federal goods & services tax on pretty much everything. The current clowns are trying to slip a fast one by us, since many things like books, new houses, children's clothing, meals under $4, funerals, investments, utilities such as heating, and much more, will be subject to this new tax, when they are not taxed under PST now. That's basically 8% more on pretty near everything. Estimates of the average household cost vary, but could be around $900 a year, or more. A pittance of a rebate ($300) will be offered to people below an income threshold, but the fact is that this represents a shift of taxation from business to consumers, in a way that is likely to negatively affect business as well - for example, the construction industry is likely to be hard hit by consumers not being able to afford their product.

I've signed a petition and written to my MPP, and encourage all Ontarians to do the same. I'm not tax-allergic but this is a bad tax and should be stopped. Who's likely to suffer most? Single parents, most of whom are women, many with lower paid jobs than most men.

Two different but related topics. I think this is a good place to stop.

aspiration to wealth as a character flaw

Excellent op-ed article in the Globe & Mail today:

When Wealth Became A Character Flaw

I find this particularly apposite, since I had an interesting exchange over the bridge table the other night. I've been playing bridge with the same group of women for more than 30 years. We've all moved in & out of careers over that period, some in & out of relationships too.

Last week, we had a spare who, let's say, is one of the privileged few who have never had to work for a living. Or do anything productive apart from producing children. A worthy occupation no doubt, but one that doesn't tend to broaden the perspective in & of itself? And one that all too many women must do in addition to a day job, so please forgive me for my obvious bias in the case of the privileged few.

The conversation turned to the economy, as it often does these days. And of course the claw-back of the bonuses for the Arrogant, Incompetent & Greedy bastards who have been instrumental in engineering the current recession.

I ventured the opinion that "nobody is worth more than $250K a year" and was immediately pounced on by the said privileged darling, whose husband is one of the moneyed classes. A real-estate magnate, no less. What surprised me was that a couple of others in the group chimed in with her. Now, nobody in our group is in that bracket, not by half or better. It's a good lesson in how people value themselves. I suspect that a great many people tolerate the inequities in income because they aspire to be one of the 1% themselves. More or less what is pointed up as a conclusion in the above article.

As for me, I remain more of an egalitarian thinker. Lately out of fashion, but I hope to see a resurgence!

changing the subject

Having vented my spleen in a couple of posts about politics, it's time to talk about something else.

Nearest and dearest to my heart is books. My partner accuses me of living in a library, and complains that there will soon not be room for him in the house. Of course, he exaggerates.
I've been working my way through my Terry Pratchett "Discworld" collection lately. Read them all when they first came out, laughed myself sick, and kept them for a future re-read. Having recently retired from my day job, and getting into the swing of a more relaxed lifestyle, I decided that it was time to drag them out again & see if they were as delightful as the first time around.

So far, so good! I've renewed my acquaintance with all my favourites: Vimes, Vetinari, Granny Weatherwax, Susan Sto Helit, Sergeant Angua, Death (and of course, the Death of Rats), Hex the thinking machine, Foul Old Ron (bugrit! millenium hand & shrimp!), Gaspode the wonder dog, Rincewind and THE LUGGAGE. To name but a few. And the hilarious footnotes.

If you've never encountered Pratchett, I recommend him unreservedly. He sends up absolutely everything, and does it with intelligence, panache, and great writing. We don't know how much longer he can keep it going, either, since he was recently diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers, but he's published a long shelf-full so far & still going strong.

You can start at the beginning with "The Colour of Magic" (which starts a sort of internal series) & slog your way through in order of publication, or you can start with one of the one-offs like "Pyramids", or get into one of the other series with "Mort", or "Wyrd Sisters" or "Guards, Guards!" They all weave together sooner or later.

Good reading!