*Willie Stargell, who ably rewarded my affection for the Pittsburgh Pirates time and again, especially in 1979 when I happened to be eking out a living in Edinburgh. The day after he steered them to the comeback World Series win, I treated myself to an International Herald Tribune and a luncheon in a pub near the center of town, so I could read, and read again, and savor.
*Not that this organization won my favor like the Pirates, but it's hard not to remark on the passing of the 110-year-old 3,000-strong Swiss Army combat bicycle brigade. The Associated Press, in its eulogy for the unit, described it as "a backbone of the Swiss defense because they were swifter an dmore discreet than infantry and motorized units." Apparently, the Swiss Army knife is only a little more famous than the Swiss Army bike, which in its latest incarnation includes attachments for machine guns, bazookas and grenade launchers, among other things. I'm sure my neighbor Sheldon must be in mourning.
April 8
Recent musical acquisition: "Journey: The Best of Donal Lunny" -- so, is Donal Lunny the true linchpin of the modern Irish traditional music revival? Hard to argue against it, after hearing this collection of previous and unreleased recordings featuring him as accompanist and, usually, producer or ringleader. The fact that he seems to have been everywhere in the Irish trad scene is probably reason enough for this retrospective; not only does he have a hand in the demonstrably contemporary, such as Eddi Reader's stylized "The Blacksmith," the "Gold Ring" jig set or the literally all-over-the-map "Millennium Suite," but he can move quite easily and naturally in the more traditional vein, as shown in his bouzouki and bodhran backing for Frank Harte's spirited rendition of "Shan Van Vocht."April 7
Viewing: "Man on the Moon" -- Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda=Leopold and Loeb for the '70s? If we accept this as the definitive Kaufman biopic, then he comes off less as a visionary and more a sweet-souled thrill-seeker who, at the right time, discovered that the comedy of mystifying self-indulgence could work in mainstream entertainment, at least for a while. Arguably, one could say he helped clear the way for a more general acceptance of pro wrestling -- Cyndi Lauper notwithstanding -- and, perhaps indirectly, the advent of reality TV. Jim Carrey, meanwhile, nails Kaufman's body language almost perfectly: the wide-open eyes, and the slightly hunched-over nervous gait, which always helped make Kaufman's relationship with the world around him seem ever more tenuous.
April 5
Book completed: "Breakfast on Pluto," by Patrick McCabe -- off-the-wall premise, certainly (illegitimate son of wayward rural Irish priest becomes vengeful transvestite in the midst of The Troubles), and McCabe does a fine job of turning Irish machismo on its head. The pop music references, from Vic Damone to Dusty Springfield to Yes, are clever, too. But the exclamation mark-laden, arch first-person narrative becomes tiresome after a while, even when it veers from describing wild nights in London to descriptions of Republican and Unionist terrorism.
April 1-4
An unhappy adventure into the realm of early-teen personal turmoil and attention-seeking behavior, details of which need to be confidential, almost overshadows our mortgage refinancing. So now, it's official: The house completely belongs to us, as does the debt.
March 31
*Classic pre/early teen scenario: daughter and friend request trip to movies, to be accompanied by two others. "Oh, and one of the two wants to bring along another friend." Fine. So, on the appointed day, almost an hour before they were expected, daughter's friend is delivered to our door with not three but five in tow. Surely, she ventures, we can squeeze the extra two into our car. Somehow, though, it all ends well. At least that's what the missus said, since she was the poor sod who had to sort this all out.*I, meanwhile, hied myself over to Cambridge for a meeting of Oakwood Friends SchoolNew England alumni. Not as grandiose as it might sound: About a dozen or so folks lingering and chatting for the afternoon in a room at the Cambridge Friends Meeting house. But amid the nostalgia, and updates on former schoolmates who have found unlikely success in family and vocation, we also found opportunities to compare notes about why we find our jobs and careers worth getting up in the morning for. In the end, I'm not sure just what binds us as Oakwood alums -- at least the ones I met -- but maybe, just maybe, that place helped us get used to the importance of integrating reflection and contemplation into our lives.
March 30
Busy week ends with a viewing of the original "Bedazzled," which I hadn't seen in some years. Gets funnier every time, between the "Love Me!" pop parody sequence (including Peter Cook's exquisitely delivered "You fill me with inertia"), the sob-drenched adultery scene and, of course, the Sisters of Beryl initiation. Sad to think how the team of Cook (deceased) and Dudley Moore (terminally ill) passed on far too soon.
March 25
*Another satisfying trip to The Burren Sunday afternoon session, which happened to be the venue for a film crew from Breton TV making a documentary about the proliferation of Celtic music. Don't know where, when, how the thing will be broadcast, but I'm the one on the left with the guitar.*Lost my other two Final Four picks, Ole Miss (don't ask) and Temple, which became my stand-in candidate from the South when Carolina came acropper.
March 23
*Joyous reunion with an exhausted beloved one, who has graciously contributed another entry to The Dumb, Stupid Baseball Hat Page.*Having heard the soundtrack, I jumped at the opportunity to watch the PBS airing of , a musical tribute to the black South African dance tradition. There's reams of paper, or bytes, to be written on industry-based folklore customs, but what elevates this beyond scholary, quaint or overly sentimental is that it revels in earthiness and emotion, whether lamenting for lost comrades or engaging in a bit of preening upmanship.
March 20-22
Household appears to survive intact in my stint as a single father, with LW off to Georgia. A few "but Mom lets me"-type entreaties, but nothing I haven't dealt with before with a minor assertion of authority.Meanwhile, two of my Final Four candidates -- Kentucky and UNC -- are now on the sidelines.
March 17-18
Quiet happiness, subdued sadness. LW's maternal grandmother, a grand dame of Irwin County, Georgia, died at age 95 (or thereabouts). She had Alzheimer's the last several years, so for many in the family her death had come earlier. What I remember most, though, is how in the months after LW and I married, Kathleen would begin our phone conversations by greeting me as "the happy bridegroom."But this was LW's birthday weekend, so we celebrated with the purchase of an external hard drive and a seafood dinner that included shrimp -- dipped into, among other things, LW's exquisite curry-mayo sauce -- and salmon steak, made on the official George Foreman Grilling Machine I gave to her, incurable romantic that I am. (And no, the link provided is not meant to endorse the George Foreman Grilling Machine or any Salton-Maxim product. So there.).
Saturday night, I watched with fellow parents Jerry and Laurie the wrenching, all-too-soon departure of BC from the tournament. But camaraderie, nostalgia and analysis of contemporary teenage life proved to be more than effective bulwarks against disappointment. Oh, and the single-malt whiskey didn't hurt any.
March 16
Ahhhh. End of a hard week's work, and I've got the NCAA first-round games to enjoy. And enjoy I did, not the least which because -- through second sight, witchcraft or, most likely, lucky guesses -- I nailed all but five of the 32 winners. Proudest calls: Utah State over Ohio State, Kent State over Indiana.
March 15
*Recent musical acquisitons: Varttina, "Kokko" and "Aitara" -- exciting, imaginative contemporarization of Finno-Ugric traditional music and poetry, featuring strong female group vocals that seems to have similarities with Balkan music. "Aitara" is a bit more traditional-oriented, and the vocal work on "Katariina," "Tumala" and "Yotulet" is powerful. "Kokko" doesn't quite scale the same heights, but a good listen nonetheless, especially the clever, Euroelectronique-styled "Iro."*Scandinavian flings aside, I hied myself down to the BC Athletic Association's St. Patrick's Zamboni Room party, where I got in a good two hours of playing with some by-now familiar associates. Then it was a mad hoof home to get out to morris practice, and still back in time to catch a little of the first-round NCAAs.
March 14
Some recent musical acquisitions:*Eva Cassidy, "Songbird" and "Time After Time" -- a sad story, really: Cassidy just starting to make a name for herself when she died at 33. She had an eclectic repertoire, encompassing pop or classic-hits standards like "Over the Rainbow," "Autumn Leaves," "The Letter" and "People Get Ready" to the occasional trad. song, to gospels, spirituals and blues, for which she was well-suited. I can only imagine that she must've put on some damn good shows.
*"The Gathering," with Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, Matt Molloy, Donal Lunny, Peter Browne and Tommy Potts -- Brady's contributions ("Heather on the Moor" and "Paddy's Lamentation") along with those by Irvine ("Sure to Be a Row" and "Mall of Lismore") alone make this worthwhile. Molloy and Lunny certainly don't detract from the appeal. You end kind of wishing there a bit more collaboration between all these fine people, however.
March 13
This has to mean something: NY Times, in an article on the emergence of 12-17 year-olds as an independent TV viewing demographic, listed the favorite shows for both genders. Girls, the survey said, had as their number one choice the godawful "Temptation Island." Number two? The God's law-ful "Seventh Heaven."
March 12
Lawsa mercy, where's my brain? Completely forgot to note that March 10 saw a rebirth of the fabled Non-Tour, a late-winter dinner and emerge-from-hibernation party for Boston area morris dancers. Smaller than in past, seeing as how it was under new management -- i.e. Red Herring Morris -- but as much fun as ever. OD, thrust unexpectedly into the St. George role, and her fellow her Banbury Cross Morris team members did their mummer's play, we danced, we ate, drank and looked forward to the arrival of morris performance season only a few weeks hence.
March 10-11
*Spent goodly portion of Saturday morning shoveling out from latest offering of snow, then watched La Madre de Natura begin taking care of the rest. Actually, a very pleasant rest of the weekend, temperature-wise. Wound up doing a little Sunday afternoon sledding.*Viewings:
=="The Lathe of Heaven" -- the arrogance-of-man-and-technology theme is obvious, but what I found more compelling was the depiction of how the most seemingly basic human communication can be dangerously ambiguous and open to misinterpretation, as evidenced by Dr. Haber's dream commands to Orr. Still and all, this is pretty laughingly low-budget: a Mrs. Butterworth-shaped space alien food vendor?
=="Logan's Run" -- talk about born at the wrong time; I recall all the fuss about the film's high-tech special effects when it was released�and then came "Star Wars," which ratcheted up the paradigm. I can never completely dislike a film with Jenny Agutter in it, but Farrah Fawcett's dim-as-a-bowl-of-mud cameo doesn't help much, nor does Peter Ustinov's post-Armageddon Walter Brennan. By the time Michael York's holographic images wail "There is no sanctuary!" and "Frozen!," I found it hard to contain my laughter. PS: Was it just me, or were there no people of color in this City of the Future?
March 9
*Covered morning session of a conference on the moral dimensions of school choice, sponsored by Alan Wolfe's Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. Good, spirited discussion, a lot of which centered on diversity's role in education, and whether you achieve that aim merely by promoting tolerance or engagement. Home-schooling, and its possible inclusion in a school voucher system, briefly -- too briefly -- came up in the audience Q&A part.*Book completed: "Cat's Eye," by Margaret Atwood -- as in "Robber Bride," Atwood is superb in weaving together a character's past injuries and injustices with their attempts to make sense of it all, years later. Unfortunately, in this case, once she moves past the childhood torments suffered by Elaine at the hands of the malevolent, hugely insecure Cordelia, the book loses steam. Still, some arresting, shrewd meditations on the different ways boys and girls socialize.
March 5-6
Lost in the snows: First bona-fide Nor'easter of the Millennium slowly but surely socks Greater Boston, and I'm given unexpected two-day liberty. Day 1 turns out to be an administrator's hindsight nightmare, weatherwise -- all light snow and drizzle through the day -- and LW, OD and I use the afternoon for a splendid, spirited game of "Risk" (I was doing fine until I sicced China on Ural). By Day 2, however, we are in the metaphorical grip, to the tune of at least 12-15 inches. This, of course, makes for an ample sledding opportunity too good to pass up. As far as kids are concerned, no way they were going to let this day pass without convening an impromptu party, and so were found ourselves hosting a get-together with four schoolmates, loud, good-spirited and all.Later, the revelers having been sent along on their merry ways, we have a viewing of "Where the Heart Is" -- Natalie Portman is just fine, all radiant yet determined smiles, as the young girl redeemed from white trash by unlikely but steadfast allies -- notably Stockard Channing and James Frain. Haven't read the book, but it would seem quite likely that its narrative voice was lost in the transition to film. Wal-Mart never had so much good publicity in its life.
March 2-4
Indulged in a couple of high school basketball regional tournament games. Other than that, this weekend's highlights include a mini-Python marathon with YD, who had apparently forgotten how much she liked it, and an excursion Saturday afternoon to The Music Emporium and Wood 'n Strings, listening to Richard and Linda Thompson's "Pour Down Like Silver."See previous "Daze&Quirks" installment
