We’re continuing to make progress on the bird and we hope to have it completed by the weekend.
Here’s an old time tune called Little Birdie, performed by the South Carolina Broadcasters. If you ever have a chance to see this group perform live, don’t miss it.
We’ve added a new sign to the 27th Street book box….books rock!
Books Rock
There has been quite a bit of activity in the box in the past few days with several book out and new ones in. Let’s have a look what’s in there today…
I see that Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on your Knees is in there….I might have to read that one soon. There’s a Barry Lopez book too – Mr. Lopez has been called America’s premier nature writer. I noticed a Margaret Atwood novel in there the other day, but that one is gone already. If you like court room drama, there’s a copy of Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Travers. This is one of my personal faves. Another of my faves is also in the box at this time – The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary – his 1944 masterpiece about an artist named Gully Jimson. The book was adapted for film in 1958, with Alec Guinness. The book is brilliant and the film is most excellent as well.
This is an old tune, going back at least to the 1880s in America. What does cotton-eyed mean? One story is that bad moonshine cause a drinker’s eyes to turn milky white. Another story says someone is cotton-eyed if his eyes turned milky from any number of diseases, including syphilis. There are lots of different verses for this one, as with many old time tunes. According to Wikipedia, these lyrics were published in 1882…
Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,
What did make you sarve me so,
Fur ter take my gal erway fum me,
An’ cyar her plum ter Tennessee?
Ef it hadn’t ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I’d er been married long ergo.
“His eyes wuz crossed, an’ his nose wuz flat,
An’ his teef wuz out, but wat uv dat?
Fur he wuz tall, an’ he wuz slim,
An’ so my gal she follered him.
Ef it hadn’t ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I’d er been married long ergo.
“No gal so hansum could be foun’,
Not in all dis country roun’,
Wid her kinky head, an’ her eyes so bright,
Wid her lips so red an’ her teef so white.
Ef it hadn’t ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I’d been married long ergo.
“An* I loved dat gal wid all my heart,
An’ she swo’ fum me she’d never part;
But den wid Joe she runned away,
An’ lef’ me hyear fur ter weep all day.
O Cotton-eyed Joe, O Cotton-eyed Joe,
What did make you sarve me so?
O Joe, ef it hadn’t er ben fur you,
I’d er married dat gal fur true.
Here’s a Western Swing version by Asleep at the Wheel. Very nice pedal steel work in this one and a fiddle break that sounds like Shortenin’ Bread.
Now here’s more of a hard-core Old Time version by Jorsh123
Finally, here are the Skillet Lickers
Tuffy P works close by the CNE grounds. The other night she and one of her workmates visited the fair for the 5th Dimension show. Tuffy got a little carried away at the end of this video causing a system error. The camera simply couldn’t cope. Fortunately removing the battery and smart card and re-inserting them convinced the camera that everything was OK after all.
Chickens a-crowin on Sourwood Mountain –
Oh diddle di di diddle di do (or Hi ho diddle I day…take your pick)
So many pretty girls I can’t count-em –
Oh di diddle dee Diddle di do
Climbing up old Sourwood Mountain –
Oh diddle di di diddle di do
Find me a pretty gal and I’ll go courtin –
Oh diddle di di diddle di do
As with so many “Old Time” tunes, there are countless versions and verses. I’m learning a clawhammer version now, so I’ve been studying up different approaches to the tune. Here are some I really like…
Here are Carolina Chocolate Drops. We saw this group a few years ago at Hugh’s Room in Toronto. They’re great fun to watch and listen to. This is from a show down in Florida.
This next video is a fellow named Andy Sayers playing the tune on a fretless banjo. Once upon a time all banjos were fretless and then everything went to hell.
Now check out American honey with an excellent buckdancer! A lot of groups play this tune at lightning speed. I like the lazy pace of this version.
Grizzly eats black bear in Banff
“We closed the trail immediately.” The grizzly even has a name, “Grizzly Bear #122” Does that mean there are 121 more of them around Banff. Note to self. Avoid Banff.
I just read The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens. It’s a Governor General’s award winner from 2006. I came across it in our shelves when I was l picking some books to use to start the Twenty-Seventh Street Book Box. Tuffy P said she bought this one and for some reason she doesn’t recall, she didn’t read it. I was ready for a new book so I picked it up.
The Law of Dreams is an historical adventure story. It is the story of one Fergus O’Brien, who is driven away from his home, his people dead, during the “Great Hunger” of 1847. This is the story of a hard life, a life with very little promise, and a young man with the persistence and strength and dumb luck to survive and continue on. Many bad things and a few good things happen along the way. The book is an emotional roller-coaster. He and his girl Molly find themselves on a boat making the crossing to Quebec, trading in an impossible life for the tiniest possibility that there is a little hope. It’s a pretty good read and it sure paints a vivid picture of Ireland and also Liverpool in the song. Still I wasn’t totally buying into the characters and the way the later third or so of the book was shaping.
It’s a somewhat glum read, but still I’d say I liked the book. It would be interesting to read other books written around the same time and place and talk about the differences and similarities. Maybe Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor would be a good book to re-read at this time.
Here’s a little progress report on the new bird mosaic…
We started laying in the darkest and lightest values and the beak. Since this is a goldfinch, much of it is yellow, and the how we treat that is going to give this piece its character.
I heard today that crime fiction writer Elmore Leonard has died at age 87.
Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing:
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
― Elmore Leonard
Mr. Leonard wrote a heap of books. Chances are you’ve read some of them, or at least seen the movie. There are a lot of writers who wish they could write like him. If you haven’t read his stuff, get yourself a stack of his books and get going. You’ll need a good sized stack because once you get going, you’ll gobble them up. They one day, you’ll belch and say, why am I so full? Then you can go read something else for a while.
RIP
Yes, Aaron our square dance caller (yes, we had a square dance!) came to the party in his learn-to-square-dance-mobile.
Usual Suspects….
There was even a little banjo-guitar jam…
This year the soiree was at Kate and Leon’s place and they hosted an excellent party. Neighbours brought along super food and desserts, and K & L had bbq in the smoker. There was even a wee bit of alcohol involved.
We have the best neighbours in the best neighbourhood around!
27th Street 