I came home from work tonight excited to discover that my post-woman delivered my copy of Give the People What they Want today. The mighty Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are back! This recording was due out back in August but I understand it was delayed as Ms Jones was undergoing cancer treatments.
I cranked it up and gave it a first listen as I fed the dogs and cats. I love this record!
Here they are on Jimmy Fallon performing Stranger to my Happiness…
Yeah!
John Brown’s dream, John Brown’s dream,
John Brown’s dream, the devil is dead.
Come on, Lula, come on Lula,
Come on Lula, eat your hog and your bread
found on the YouTube….featuring Janet Foster (fiddle), Mike Jarboe (fiddle), Ernie Amabile (guitar) & Paul Draper (banjo).
Torontonians have followed the story, in the Star, on Twitter, television, blogs and so on. Most of us who live here and are more or less conscious are aware of the key events. Robyn Doolittle’s book Crazy Town pulls it all together, and gives the story chronology and context. For those of us who enjoy following municipal politics in Toronto, getting the whole story packaged up in a book is irresistible. The story is at once sad, tragic, outrageous and perplexing.
And it’s quite a story. Mr. Ford’s behaviour has put Toronto in the headlines across the world, for all the wrong reasons. Once the incredible story is chewed down and digested though, we’re left with two other mysteries. The first is the Mayor’s stubborn refusal to step aside and the second is the willingness of the hard-core Ford supporters to forgive anything.
Lurking behind the straight-forward account of the story laid out in a most readable fashion by Toronto Star reporter Robyn Doolittle is a story of disenchantment with and distrust of mainstream politicians and the media and a simplified division within the amalgamated Toronto as sold by the Ford camp – between between the suburbs and downtown, the car and the streetcar, the right and the left, and so on.
Crazy Town is a good title. You can’t make this stuff up. Yet this is our city and it’s real and it happened and the story continues to unfold. I suspect we may see a record voter turnout for the October election. Everybody has an opinion and these opinions run deep. The next chapters will have to be part of somebody else’s book, as Robyn Doolittle leaves off at the beginning of this year. We should have a good idea of the full slate of candidates over the next month or so and the campaigns will start to really rock and roll.
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On a side note, did you hear that Shuffle Demons’ sax player Richard Underhill is running for Mayor? I don’t know what kind of Mayor Mr. Underhill would make, but in general I like sax players.
Here are the Demons performing their most famous tune, Spadina Bus, live in Japan in 2011
Jack Darling is the best dog park around here. It’s huge and offers a variety of terrain, and opportunities to hang out with other dogs and their owners or to go off on your own. There’s even a toboggan hill there.
The Newfs had a great time, and played with all kinds of dogs.
There were lots of dogs and dog lovers out today. It was cold but not windy and there was big of sun peeking through.
Tuffy P is going to be a living donor – organ donor that is. She’s going to donate a chunk of her liver so that someone who needs one to live has a chance. This is something that has been in the works for some time. Once she decided she wanted to do this, she went for all kinds of tests to determine that her liver was in good shape and that she was overall healthy. All of the tests were fine, and she has a tentative surgery date of February 19. That date could change anytime along the way.
I had no idea it was possible to be a living liver donor until Tuffy P told me about it. It is not a little thing. The surgery takes several hours. Tuffy P will be in hospital for something like a week after the surgery and then will recover at home. Toronto has a top rate transplant team and I know they will look after her, but still I worry some because there are always some risks involved with surgery.
I know a number of people will be looking to this blog for updates after the surgery, so I’ll try to post updates regularly here.
Those interested in learning a little about liver transplants can check out the Canadian Liver Foundation.
Those of you who know Tuffy P know she is an amazing person. This is a huge selfless gift, and she’s submitting herself to a lot of discomfort and a lengthy recovery period to help somebody she doesn’t even know! I hope everyone will join me in cheering Tuffy P on.
I posted some performances of Forked Deer the other day. It’s pronounced Fork-kid Deer by the way. I did find some notes about the name on the Traditional Tune Archive.
“The dance tune known as Forked Deer is regarded as vulgar in the Ozarks, because the title has a double meaning. Forked might refer to the deer’s antlers, but it is also the common Ozark term for ‘horny’, which means sexually excited. The word is always pronounced ‘fork-ed’ , in two syllables. I have seen nice young girls leave a dance when the fiddler began to play Forked Deer. Lon Jordan, veteran fiddler of Farmington, Ark., always called it Forked-Horn Deer when ladies were present. Buster Fellows once played it on a radio program, but the announcer was careful to call it Frisky Deer! (Station KWTO, Springfield, Mo., May 3, 1947.)”
I started with a simple arrangement and will try to learn that well and then maybe learn some fancier variations.
These days most people play it as a two part song AA then BB and repeat. I read online that the early versions of the song were much more complex, often with 3 parts and sometimes with as many as 6 parts. One reference I found suggested that the recording industry may have been a driving force in simplifying and standardizing the song.
Enjoy Elmer Rich playing Forked Deer….
Now I know those of you who keep coming back are thinking, yeah but what does it sound like on clawhammer?
Give a listen to Jeff Osborne. Now that’s some fancy clawhammer!
And finally, from Randy Adams’ stream, here’s how it sounds on Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer
I’ve ordered my copy of Crazy Town by Robyn Doolittle – the Rob Ford story – and I can’t wait to read it. This has been the most spectacular term in Toronto politics in my memory and Star reporter Robyn Doolittle has been front and centre.
27th Street 