There is only one Irish musician who stands above the rest of them and he is Van Morrison. Bono does not even reach his waist. Van Morrison is not a preacher, he is a singer. Bono might consider himself a humanitarian, Van Morrison is human. He writes about love, life and loss, without making it political or overly romantic. Though Tupelo Honey is a very romantic song.
If a women does not feel loved when it is played for her, then perhaps she will never feel love.
Today I finished reading The Human Stain by Philip Roth. This is the first book by Mr. Roth I have read and must admit to needing my dictionary at certain points. The vocabulary and unusual word choices added to the texture of a well constructed and complex story. The following is a passage from it.
"But the danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop. I don't know anything harder to control than hating. Easier to kick drinking than to master hate. And that is saying something."
"Words fall through me and always fool me..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPbC2YrUUsI
A little more Irish music for this St. Patrick's Day.
"Make art..." as Mr. Hansard so enthusiastically once said.
Also today I finished watching the movie version of The Stone Angel, a novel I had previously read by the late Canadian author Margaret Laurence. I thought the movie was a good adaption of the 1964 novel and culturally updated for present time. I thought Ellen Burstyn was great as old Hagar, she was very much her award winning self. She was nominated 5 times in the 1970's for best actress and won in 1975. She was also nominated in 1981 and most recently in 2001 for her role in the critically acclaimed Requiem For a Dream. I also thought Canadian actress Christine Horne was good as the sexually strong and stubborn young Hagar. Ellen Page also appears in a minor role. The movie though as most critics have written cannot span the decades that the book can. Information about the movie is below.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847897/
I wrote the following this afternoon.
Refuses To Be Enough
Another scar has been carved into my soul
The luck of the Irish is certainly not with me
I had a bizarre dream where the plants spoke
Their organisms spurted knowledge about
A thirsty man I drank it all up like red wine
Becoming light of body and heavy of mind
Carrying previously unknown ideas around
I hoped happiness could be created by them
The quiet morning turned into mid-afternoon
All the light streamed through dusty blinds
Vertical shadows crossed my horizontal arm
I had bleed my face in the mirror and bathtub
Under the hottest flowing water of these taps
Wasting the source bringing life to my body
All the blood spilling refuses to be enough
Now the folk Irish singer plays his harmonica
The familiar piercing sound of an instrument
Vaguely similar to freight trains over steel
I am always a day, a week or a month away
From being ready for what tomorrow brings
The man living broken, hidden and solitary
Serving some imaginary life long sentence
A conviction without a real crime committed
I am not delusional but often very confused
Wondering what really matters day to day
Barely finding new reasons for any effort
Shuffling nearly hidden Sunday to Saturday
The years are losing most of their meaning
I have misplaced too many days to worry
When another one becomes a tangled mess.
17/03/09
john.
Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg94T4LrRbc
(Crow clip of the entry)
"I don't go out much these days, sometimes I stay inside all day..."
Miller's Angels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay9YdwPjLZ4
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