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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
A New Blog
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Queen of France
People like to say that Marie-Antoinette hated France and the French. It is not true. Marie-Antoinette saw being Queen of France, in spite of the many inconveniences and burdens attached to the role, as being the apex of earthly existence. She preferred for her daughter Madame Royale to remain in France as a princess of France, married to a French-born prince, rather than arrange a marriage for her with a king of another country. Also, Marie-Antoinette did not want to be separated from her daughter as she herself had been divided from her family at such a tender age. Madame Campan attests to these facts in her Memoirs, while relating some events that occurred in 1787.
I had an opportunity on this occasion, as indeed on many others, of judging to what extent the Queen valued and loved France and the dignity of our Court. She then told me that Madame, in marrying her cousin, the Duc d'Angouleme, would not lose her rank as daughter of the Queen; and that her situation would be far preferable to that of queen of any other country; and that there was nothing in Europe to be compared to the Court of France; and that it would be necessary, in order to avoid exposing a French Princess to feelings of deep regret, in case she should be married to a foreign prince, to take her from the palace of Versailles at seven years of age, and send her immediately to the Court in which she was to dwell; and that at twelve would be too late; for recollections and comparisons would ruin the happiness of all the rest of her life. The Queen looked upon the destiny of her sisters as far beneath her own..... (Madame Campan's Memoirs)Share
Our Noble Work
A Mother's Journal shares some quotes from the children's novel Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink which I remember enjoying long ago. Caddie's father passes along to her some quaint words of truth:
What a rough world it would be if there were only men and boys in it, doing things in their rough way! A woman's task is to teach them gentleness and courtesy and love and kindness. It's a big task, too, Caddie–harder than cutting trees or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and patience, but good women have those things. They have them just as much as the men who build bridges and carve roads through the wilderness. A woman's work is something fine and noble to grow up to, and it is just as important as a man's. But no man could ever do it so well.(Thanks to Under the Gables.) Share
Monday, December 29, 2008
Genocide in the Vendée
ShareIn early 1794 – at the height of the Reign of Terror – French soldiers marched to the Atlantic Vendée, where peasants had risen up against the Revolutionary government in Paris.
Twelve "infernal columns" commanded by General Louis-Marie Turreau were ordered to kill everyone and everything they saw. Thousands of people – including women and children – were massacred in cold blood, and farms and villages torched.
In the city of Nantes, the Revolutionary commander Jean-Baptiste Carrier disposed of Vendéean prisoners-of-war in a horrifically efficient form of mass execution. In the so-called "noyades" –mass drownings – naked men, women, and children were tied together in specially constructed boats, towed out to the middle of the river Loire and then sunk.
Now Vendée, a coastal department in western France, is calling for the incident to be remembered as the first genocide in modern history.
Residents claim the massacre has been downplayed so as not to sully the story of the French Revolution.
Historians believe that around 170,000 Vendéeans were killed in the peasant war and the subsequent massacres – and around 5,000 in the noyades.
When it was over, French General Francois Joseph Westermann penned a letter to the Committee of Public Safety stating: "There is no more Vendée... According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all."
Noël! Noël!
We remember the foundation of the French state on Christmas Day in 496 when King Clovis was baptized. To quote Yves-Marie Adeline, President of the Royal Alliance in France:
Et vu sous l'angle politique, "Noël" est le cri que les Français poussaient aux sacres et aux entrées des rois dans leurs villes: "Noël! Noël!". Car l'Etat français est né un jour de noël 496, avec le baptême de Clovis qui lui ouvrit la confiance des Gaules en espérance d'unité.
(And seen under the political angle, "Noël" is the cry of the French in the holy places and at the entrance of kings into their cities: "Noël! Noël!" For the French state was born one day on Christmas 496, with the baptism of Clovis who won the trust of the Gauls in the hope of unity.)According to New Advent:
In 492 or 493 Clovis, who was master of Gaul from the Loire to the frontiers of the Rhenish Kingdom of Cologne, married Clotilda, the niece of Gondebad, King of the Burgundians. The popular epic of the Franks has transformed the story of this marriage into a veritable nuptial poem the analysis of which will be found in the article on Clotilda. Clotilda, who was a Catholic, and very pious, won the consent of Clovis to the baptism of their son, and then urged that he himself embrace the Catholic Faith. He deliberated for a long time. Finally, during a battle against the Alemanni--which without apparent reason has been called the battle of Tolbiac (Zulpich)--seeing his troops on the point of yielding, he invoked the aid of Clotilda's God, promised to become a Christian if only victory should be granted him. He conquered and, true to his word was baptized at Reims by St. Remigius, bishop of that city, his sister Albofledis and three thousand of his warriors at the same time embracing Christianity. Gregory of Tours, in his ecclesiastical history of the Franks has described this event, which took place amid great pomp at Christmas, 496. "Bow thy head, O Sicambrian", said St. Remigius to the royal convert "Adore what thou hast burned and burn what thou hast adored." According to a ninth-century legend found in the life of St. Remigius, written by the celebrated Hincmar himself Archbishop of Reims, the chrism for the baptismal ceremony was missing and was brought from heaven in a vase (ampulla) borne by a dove. This is what is known as the Sainte Ampoule of Reims, preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of that city and used for the coronation of the kings of France from Philip Augustus down to Charles X.Share
Faith in God is attributed to mental disease or deficiency, or viewed as an anodyne for misery, when examination of the lives of the most devout would show abounding mental health and unusual levels of happiness and stability. The morbidly or insanely religious are identified as the True Believers, while in fact Christianity regards the loss of sound mind and sober judgment (and probably also the capacity for humor) as a sign of the loss of faith rather than its perfection. Likewise unbelief is associated with talent, learning, urbanity, and good sense, when in fact, whatever the gifts of the unbeliever may be, it is still only--unbelief. Mockery is the energy that puts this illusion on display, and scoffing the display itself, declaring the Christian faith to be the province of the ignorant, ignoble, and maladapted, using the appearance of evidentiary reasoning while keeping its reality at bay.Unbelievers scoff at Christians, yes, but what I have witnessed in the last few years in Catholic circles is believers mocking and ridiculing other sincere believers. This trend is not of God. It reminds me of St. Thomas Becket, who was killed by his own. Share
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Feast of the Holy Family
St. Joseph most obedient.
Look closely at the obedience of Saint Joseph, his obedience in the dark night of faith. Joseph's obedience allows the whole mystery of Israel — the going down into Egypt and the back up — to be revealed and completed in Christ. In some way the "Do this in memory of me" (Lk 22:19) of the Last Supper is made possible by Joseph's obedience to the commandments delivered to him in the night.Share
Holy Innocents
Hail, martyr flowers!According to Butler's Lives:
On the very threshold of your life
Christ's persecutor destroyed you,
As a whirlwind does the budding roses.
~Salvete flores martyrum
Our Divine Redeemer was persecuted by the world as soon as he made his appearance in it. For he was no sooner born than it declared war against him. Herod, in persecuting Christ, was an emblem of Satan and of the world. That ambitious and jealous prince had already sacrificed to his fears and suspicions the most illustrious part of his council, his virtuous wife Mariamne, with her mother Alexandra, the two sons he had by her, and the heirs to his crown, and all his best friends. Hearing from the magians who were come from distant countries to find and adore Christ that the Messias, or spiritual king of the Jews, foretold by the prophets, was born among them, he trembled lest he was come to take his temporal kingdom from him. So far are the thoughts of carnal and worldly men from the ways of God, and so strangely do violent passions blind and alarm them. The tyrant was disturbed beyond measure and resolved to take away the life of this child, as if he could have defeated the decrees of heaven. He had recourse to his usual arts of policy and dissimulation, and hoped to receive intelligence of the child by feigning a desire himself to adore him. But God laughed at the folly of his short-sighted prudence, and admonished the magians not to return to him. St. Joseph was likewise ordered by an angel to take the child and his mother, and to fly into Egypt. Is our Blessed Redeemer, the Lord of the universe, to be banished as soon as born....Share
The Case for Marriage
Lately, marriage has gotten a bad rap. It seems like many people these days feel marriage is some archaic arrangement that holds people back from realizing their full potential. Even if people aren't particularly anti-marriage, they will avoid getting hitched for as long as they can.ShareMany men delay marriage because they believe that dating and co-habitating offer all of the benefits (particularly sex) of marriage without the commitment and responsibility. They are fooling themselves. Nearly all of the true advantages of marriage (yes, even sex) apply only to actual married couples, not those couples living together, and certainly not to those simply dating.
Here at the Art of Manliness, we haven't been shy about the fact that we're big proponents of marriage. We certainly don't advocate that men rush into marriage willy nilly, whether they're ready or not. That would be seriously unwise. But once your find your true love and you're sure she's the one, there's no reason to delay your nuptials. Why? Marriage offers truly significant benefits that cannot be found outside of it.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
St. John's Day
The Johannine chorus speaks with the unmistakable authority of those who have gone into the wine-cellar and rested beneath the banner of love (cf. Ct 2:4-5). Their breath is fragrant with honey and with the honeycomb, of wine and of milk: that is with the imperishable sweetness of the Holy Spirit, with the Blood of the Lamb and with the pure milk of the living Word of God. These are the ones who have eaten and drunk, drunk deeply (cf. Ct 5:1) of the streams of living water that flow ever fresh from the pierced Heart of the Bridegroom (cf. Jn 7:37-38). These are the descendants of Saint John the Beloved, those to whom the Father has given the eagle's vision, those who are little enough and poor enough to be borne aloft and carried away into the "love of things invisible," as the Christmas Preface puts it.Share
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
The Three Masses of Christmas
When speaking of Holy Communion in the Way of Perfection (Ch. 34), St. Teresa of Avila said: "This is something that is happening now." In the Christmas liturgy, the Church teaches us that the birth of Jesus is not just something that happened two thousand years ago in Bethlehem. Our Lord's nativity is something that is happening now, especially through participation in the Mass, and in the liturgy of the hours which radiate from it. In The Church's Year of Grace, Fr. Pius Parsch explains that this is why the word hodie or "today" is repeated again and again in the Christmas Masses and offices. The Invitatory for December 24 proclaims: "Today you will know the Lord is coming, and in the morning you will see His glory." We are called to Midnight Mass with this antiphon: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son. Today I have begotten you." At Morning Prayer (Lauds) we say: "Today the Savior of the world is born for you." The antiphon for the Canticle of Mary closes the most joyful of feasts with the words: "Christ the Lord is born today; today the Savior has appeared...."
Dom Gueranger comments: "...This today is the Day of eternity, a Day which has neither morning nor evening, neither rising nor setting." (The Liturgical Year, Vol. II) Through the sacraments, especially through the Eucharistic sacrifice, we already belong to that Day of eternity. At Christmas Mass, we truly and mystically assist at His birth.
Christmas is celebrated with three Masses. At Midnight Mass, the angels marvel at the Word made flesh, born of the Virgin Mary. The Dawn Mass sees the shepherds hurrying to the stable to adore the newborn King. The third Mass celebrates the Eternal Word, Who is the Son begotten of the Father from all eternity.
Jesus, Who is born tonight, is born thrice. He is born of the Blessed Virgin, in the stable of Bethlehem; he is born by grace, in the hearts of the shepherds, who are the first fruits of the Christian Church; and He is born from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, in the brightness of the saints: to this triple birth, therefore, let there be the homage of a triple Sacrifice! (Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Vol. II)Share
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas, American Style
I have to confess that I love many things about our American-style Christmas. While growing up, my mother always made Christmas seem magical. Christmas, in fact, helped lead me from teenage agnosticism/atheism back to faith in Christ. The sentimental Christmas songs on the radio helped force me to confront the unsentimental claims of historic Christianity. From Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", from Clement Clarke Moore's "The Night Before Christmas" to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (the song, not the film), many American traditions of the season are dear to me.Share
The Huron Carol
'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;Share
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
O Emmanuel
O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and Savior of the nations! come and save us, O Lord our God!
Now all is fulfilled....Ecce completa sunt omnia....(Lauds of December 23)
(Artwork courtesy of Micki) Share
Blessed Thérèse of Saint Augustine
Madame Louise of France, also known as Blessed Thérèse of Saint Augustine was the youngest daughter of King Louis XV and Polish princess Queen Marie Leszczynska. The descendant of Saint Louis, she became the spiritual daughter of Saint Teresa of Avila. Before becoming a nun, she tried to assist the Jesuits who had been abolished from France because of the liberal element at court led by her father's mistress Madame de Pompadour. In 1770 Louise chose the poorest and most rigorous Carmelite monastery in France, that of Saint Denis, where she begged to be treated the same as the rest of the sisters. She was given the veil by the papal nuncio, assisted by the young Dauphine Marie-Antoinette, her nephew's bride. According to Madame Campan, Marie-Antoinette would call Madame Louise "the most intriguing little Carmelite in the kingdom" because of the role she played behind the scenes in advising the king on church affairs. She often petitioned the queen for dowries for impoverished young ladies who wanted to become nuns. One young girl, Mademoiselle Lidoine, to whom the Queen gave a dowry at Madame Louise's plea, became the prioress who led the Blessed Martyrs of Compiegne to the scaffold on July 17, 1794.
Madame Louise, Blessed Thérèse, died on December 23, 1787. Her last words were: "Full gallop, into heaven!" ShareDreaming of Trains
ShareAdvent is about waiting. It is about longing. It is about dying to self, in the expectation of living life more fully. It is perhaps the one time of the year in which we can truly come to understand that the final object of all of our desires is He who humbled Himself to take on our humanity. It is a precious gift of the Church that we, busy with our Christmas shopping and our final push to wrap up the year's work, too often squander or observe perfunctorily.And then, when Christmas comes, we have a nagging sense that something is missing. And we're right, because our expectations cannot be fulfilled if they are not first cultivated. And they will never be cultivated unless we turn toward Bethlehem, toward the true object of our hearts' desire.
Monday, December 22, 2008
O Rex Gentium
O King of nations, and their desired One, and the cornerstone that makes both one; come and save man whom thou formed out of earth.
(Artwork courtesy of Holy Cards)
Christmas Puddings
Although it took its final form in Victorian England, the pudding's origins can be traced all the way back to the 1420s, to two sources. It emerged not as a confection or a dessert at all, but as a way of preserving meat at the end of the season. Because of shortages of fodder, all surplus livestock was slaughtered in the autumn. The meat was then kept in a pastry case along with dried fruits acting as a preservative. The resultant large "mince pies" could then be used to feed hosts of people, particularly at the festive season. The chief ancestor of the modern pudding, however, was the pottage, a meat and vegetable concoction originating in Roman times. This was prepared in a large cauldron, the ingredients being slow cooked, with dried fruits, sugar and spices added.HERE is a recipe, and HERE. Plum pudding is something that needs to be made days in advance, so planning ahead is good. ShareThe earliest reference to the "standing pottage" dates to 1420, a dish of preserved veal, mutton or chicken, thickened with bread, reddened with sandalwood and full of currants. By the time of Elizabeth I, prunes were added to this basic concoction. This became so popular that the dish was known from this point forward as Plum Pottage.
By the eighteenth century, as techniques for meat preserving improved, the savoury element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. The mince pie kept its name though the pottage was increasingly referred to as plum pudding. Although the latter was always a celebratory dish it was originally eaten at the Harvest Festival, not Christmas. It is not until the 1830s that the cannon-ball of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices, all topped with holly, makes a definite appearance, more and more associated with Christmas. It appears that Eliza Acton was the first to refer to it as "Christmas Pudding" in her cookbook.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
O Oriens
O Orient! Splendor of eternal light, and the Sun of justice! come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
There is no need to be afraid, in five more days Our Lord will come to us. (Benedictus Antiphon for December 21)
And here is the reason why the Mass was traditionally said facing east, ad orientem.
From the earliest times, Christians at prayer have turned towards the East. Christ is the Dayspring, the rising sun who dawns upon us from high "to give light to those in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1:9). The eastward orientation of churches and altars is a way of expressing the great cry of every Eucharist: "Let our hearts be lifted high. We hold them towards the Lord." When, in the celebration of the liturgy, the priest faces east, he is "guiding the people in pilgrimage towards the Kingdom" and with them, keeping watch for the return of the Lord. "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).
The Eastern Churches follow to this day (and the Western Church is in the process of recovering) the apostolic tradition of celebrating the Eucharist towards the East in anticipation of the return of the Lord in glory. A powerful witness is given in the prayer of a priest and people who stand together facing eastward and giving voice to the same hope. "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let him who hears say, 'Come'" (Ap 22:17).
(Thanks to Micki for the picture) Share
Saturday, December 20, 2008
O Clavis David
O Key of David and scepter of the House of Israel! who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens; come, lead the captive from prison, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
(Artwork courtesy of Holy Cards for your Inspiration)
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Miss Spinney: For those were the years when there was a hunger in you for more than food. There was a suffering in you that was worse than anything a winter, or poverty, could do. It was a winter of your mind when the life of your genius seemed frozen and motionless -- and how did you know if spring would ever come again to set it free? ~ from Portrait of Jennie (1948)In the film Portrait of Jennie mystery and fantasy overlap even as they do in the wonderful novel by Robert Nathan. I read Nathan's book one particularly bleak December while at university and found it entrancing. The movie did not do well in the box office when it debuted but it has since become a classic. Dimitri Tiomkin wove together themes of Claude Debussy, creating a score which gives a magical quality to what might otherwise be a rather eerie tale.
Joseph Cotten plays the starving artist, Eben Adams, who finds himself trapped in the winter of the soul known as discouragement. He is alone in the big city, unable to find anyone who believes in his work and unable to believe in it himself. At the park one day he meets an ethereal young girl whose quaint manner touches his heart. With each successive meeting with Jennie, as the girl is called, his art becomes more inspired; it begins to speak to others.
According to Slant Magazine:
Portrait of Jennie is a haunting evocation of one man's pained artistic process, and the genius of the film is how Dieterle [the director] delicately equates the creative impulse to an ever-evolving spiritual crisis.....Eben's relationship to Jennie becomes an addiction of sorts and, therefore, an obstacle he must conquer. This is all part of Dieterle's god-like master plan: Eben is repeatedly tested until he can create without the temptation that Jenny comes to represent.Jennie, of course, is portrayed by Jennifer Jones, who easily makes the transformation from a girl into the young woman whom Eben paints, even as he is falling in love. The portrait of Jennie marks the beginning of his fame and success. Eben, however, is only concerned with Jennie, who keeps disappearing from his life. His search for her brings him to the convent school where she was educated, and where the nuns remember her fondly. As Sister Mary of Mercy (Lillian Gish) listens to his story the mystery deepens, since the Jennie who was Sister's pupil has been dead for many years. Eben must face the fact that the woman who has become his muse of inspiration is someone who is lost to him in this world. Sister Mary's words to him sum up the heart of the drama:
Don't doubt the ways of providence, Mr. Adams. What vision has been vouchsafed you, I can't say. But be sure it is for a reason beyond ours to know. You must have faith that there is a greater design -- a greater plan to the universe than we are able to comprehend.Share
Friday, December 19, 2008
O Radix Jesse
O Root of Jesse, who stands as the ensign of the people; before whom kings shall fall silent; to whom the nations shall pray: come and deliver us, do not delay.
Here is a quote from the ancient Ambrosian liturgy:
Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the invisible God.
There did he deign to dwell, whom seven thrones cannot hold
And she bore him as a light weight in her womb.
(from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year, Vol I)
(Artwork from Holy Cards) Share
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Madame Adélaïde de France
Catherine Delors continues her series on the daughters of Louis XV. Here is an excerpt:
So after the twins Madame Elisabeth and Madame Henriette, Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska had another daughter, Marie-Louise, and two sons, Louis-Ferdinand and Philippe. Marie-Louise and Philippe both died in childhood, an all too commonplace tragedy at the time. Louis-Ferdinand, the eagerly awaited Dauphin, would be the father of the future Louis XVI.Share
The next royal daughter to survive to adulthood was Marie-Adélaïde, born in 1732, five years after her elder twin sisters. She was Queen Marie Leszczynska's sixth child in five years...
I have noted earlier that the atmosphere at Versailles, long before Marie-Antoinette ever set foot there, was particularly poisonous. Madame Adélaïde's beauty did not go unnoticed, and rumor accused her of an incestuous liaison with Louis XV, her own father, by whom she was supposed to have given birth to the Comte Louis de Narbonne. All serious historians now discount this story as vicious, unsubstantiated slander. Louis de Narbonne was simply the much-pampered son of Madame Adélaïde's favorite lady-in-waiting. He would become a diplomat and general during the Revolution and the Empire, and also one of Madame de Staël's many lovers, but that's another story.
Louis XV liked to give his daughters humorous nicknames. Adélaïde, for some reason, was Loque ("Rags.") Madame Campan, who was reader to the princesses, and sounds more than a little afraid of Madame Adélaïde, notes in her Memoirs that the princess had an abrupt, domineering manner and a choleric temper, that she had "an immoderate thirst for knowledge: she played all sorts of musical instruments, from the French horn to the Jew's harp." In addition to music, Madame Adélaïde occupied herself with the study of Italian, English, calculus, painting, the potter's wheel and watchmaking. A well-rounded mind, to say the least, if not an easy character.
How to Give Gifts Unconditionally
And for those last minute shoppers, some ideas for children from...Spela! Share
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Great Antiphons-- O Wisdom
Today the "O Antiphons" begin at Vespers. The antiphon for today is O Sapientia. Don Marco has a beautiful meditation on the meaning of true wisdom.
"O Wisdom coming forth from the mouth of the Most High God, Your lordship is over all that is, stretching from the beginning to the end, You who order all things with might and with sweetness, come teach us the path of prudence."
(Artwork courtesy of Micki) Share
Civility Towards the Aged
We shall all grow old, we and those whom we love, unless, of course, God in His wisdom chooses to take us earlier. Perhaps a little reflection on age is not out of place from time to time. The elderly tend to be excluded and marginalized in our culture instead of being treated with the dignity due their life experience. Old age can be an uncertain time for many, fraught with difficulties and fears. Many of our elderly brothers and sisters are isolated, either in their homes or in institutions, unable to care for themselves. Just getting through the day, performing the simplest tasks, can be a challenge for those with chronic health problems. Even minor aches and pains can make cooking, cleaning, and shopping extremely difficult. The cost of health care and prescription medicines can deplete the resources of some older people. Feelings of vulnerability and loneliness can open the door to depression in them at the very time when they most need their courage to face their final trials and last end.
Caring for the aged is a task often taken on by women, requiring all the sensitivity, common sense, and tenderness one can muster. It can be a means of learning patience; it can also be a way to glean wisdom and cultivate a sense of humor. Most of all, older people should be treated with respect, especially by children and teenagers. It is of the highest importance that our children learn to revere the older members of the family and community.
There are many little courtesies that can and should surround the elderly. It goes without saying that every family situation is different, with unique customs and habits. What counts most, I think, is an attitude of love and respect. Manners are a wonderful way to express such respectful love. Even if a story is being told for the thousandth time, the young can learn to listen patiently, or at least, not to interrupt. An older person should never be isolated at a party or dinner; the young should be encouraged to sit with them, get them refreshments, talk to them, listen to their stories, asking pertinent questions. An older person should be served first at dinner. Boys and girls can easily learn to hold a door open for grandma or grandpa, letting them go first. If necessary, an older child or teenager can readily give up his or her seat for an older person, if chairs are limited. For that matter, although it may seem quaint, it is respectful for children and young people to rise when an elderly friend or member of the family enters the room, if this can be done without causing embarrassment and inconvenience.
We can learn so much from older people, so much about history, faith, and sufferings endured. I treasure the hours spent with my own grandmother as she shared many family anecdotes. It builds a sense not only of identity but of continuity with the past. Spending time with an older person is a great gift to the younger person. We are faced with our own mortality; an encounter with age can be humbling and a source of wisdom.
(Reprinted from the January-February 2009 edition of Canticle Magazine) Share
Marie-Antoinette? No....
There is an award being passed around among some Catholic bloggers called the"Marie-Antoinette award." I am curious as to why they are using a portrait of the courtesan Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV, for this award. I know the intentions are honorable, but the two ladies were quite different people. I am a bit perplexed. There are many lovely paintings of Marie-Antoinette that could be used instead, such as this one:
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Mrs. Abigail Minnett: Do you know what loneliness is, real loneliness?The Enchanted Cottage debuted towards the end of World War II, when men often came home to their families with severe injuries. It is one of the best films I have seen about the mystery of the sacrament of matrimony, and how authentic love overwhelms the transience of surface things. The wind that blows around the cottage, the crashing of the waves on the beach blend with the score to create a sense of the timelessness. According to Turner Classic Movies:
Laura Pennington: [Heavy with sadness] Yes.
Mrs. Abigail Minnett: I thought you would.
~from The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Robert Young plays a disfigured WWII veteran who is unable to cope with an ugliness that repels everyone. Seeking to retreat from the world, he travels to a New England cottage which he once visited with his fiancee at the time - before he was sent to war and disfigured. The cottage is all that remains of a vast estate on the Atlantic coast. The rest burned down long ago, and the owner of the cottage (Mildred Natwick), recognizing the magic spell the cottage seems to cast on young lovers, rents it out to couples on their honeymoons. She lets Young stay there, and he isolates himself from his family and friends. The only person he can talk to is Dorothy McGuire, a homely girl who helps Natwick run the place.Herbert Marshall plays the blind composer who, as he narrates the story, conveys to the viewer aspects of his own life, in which he has been able to draw immense benefits out of crushing losses. As it says on Classic Movie Review:
Young and McGuire marry, more out of convenience than love, but on their honeymoon night, a "miracle" occurs. They now look beautiful to each other. His disfigurement vanishes, and her dowdiness dissolves. Overjoyed at their newfound happiness, they explain what has happened to their blind neighbor Herbert Marshall, who encourages them to believe the miracle and to treasure it. But when Young's superficial parents come to visit and still see the two as they really are, the spell is broken - until the couple come to realize that it was their love, not the cottage, that made them see each other as beautiful in the first place.
The two unfortunates are joined by Herbert Marshall as blind composer and piano player Major John Hillgrove. It's through his metaphorical eyes that we're given clues on how to view the film, and maybe even life itself. When his character explains how he only truly learned to see after he lost his actual sight, you begin to understand the depth of the story.Hillgrove's blindness isn't the only reference to sight in the movie. In fact, the idea that sight is relative is at the heart of the story. Although they retain their physical sight, Oliver and Laura begin to see each other through new eyes, which is a revelation for both of them. This new vision — created by love — is then challenged by the outside world. Oliver and Laura almost succumb to other people's vision of them, but in the end, they decide that the only view of life that matters to them is their own.
Anyone who enjoys romantic movies will relish The Enchanted Cottage. If I could design a dream house it would be just like the cottage in the film, complete with diamond-paned windows and an orchard garden, not far from the sea. Unlike many modern films, it is able to explore the essence of human passion through the music, screenplay and fine acting, without indulging in any gratuitous sensuality. The following commentary from Another Old Movie Blog sums it up:
ShareWe live in a world, several decades after this film was made, where being different is not so damning as it once was, but still comes at a cost. Perhaps this is what today's old movie buffs see in this film, when it is taken as an allegory for all the outcasts among us. The possibility of being loved for who you are remains as irresistible as ever.
Christmas Novena
The novena in honor of the Divine Infant begins today. Let us pray for the unborn, and for all the children in the world, especially those who are suffering abuse or neglect.
(Artwork by Margaret Tarrant, courtesy of Micki.) Share
An Immoveable Feast
This is a book to read for the pleasure of how well it is written, and how fun it would be to join the characters and explore their world - and eat the feast that John makes for Christmas. John is a marvelous writer who enchants with humor and passion. He delivers an inside outside look at the French and their cuisine in a terrific story. Immovable Feast is a book to give to a Foodie or non-Foodie – anyone who has lived in another land or longs to.Share
Monday, December 15, 2008
Marie-Antoinette à la Rose
From the time I first started to write about Queen Marie-Antoinette, I have received comments from devout people about the low-cut gowns that she wore. Let me explain once again that, in the decadent old world, it was etiquette in most of the courts of Europe for ladies' formal attire to include a plunging décolletage. It was considered perfectly correct as long as the proper corset was worn.
The gown which evoked some disapproval for Marie-Antoinette was not one of the low-cut court gowns (shown above) but the simple white linen dress which she favored for her leisure time at Petit Trianon. The portrait in which she is shown thus had to be withdrawn from the public gaze because people took offense at seeing their Queen painted in casual attire. Now to us, the white dress is perfectly modest, but to people of the eighteenth century, it looked as if she were in her chemise, without the stiff corset prescribed for ladies of the royal family. Furthermore, it was interpreted as being a pro-Austrian picture, since linen came from Flanders, one of the Habsburg territories, and the rose the Queen held was seen as a symbol of the House of Austria.
In order to quell the outrage, Madame Vigée-Lebrun had to quickly come up with another painting. In 1783 the artist completed the portrait above, called "Marie-Antoinette à la rose" showing the Queen appropriately garbed in a silk court gown and headdress, trimmed with lace, ribbons and plumes. She is wearing pearls, as befits a Queen, with hair powdered and face rouged, in accord with court etiquette. She looks as if she has just stepped into her garden on a summer evening, bathed in moonlight. The nocturnal quality of the portrait softens the formality of her attire, alluding to Marie-Antoinette's love of nature, and the fact that she was much more at ease in her gardens than she was in the Hall of Mirrors.
The Latin Mass in Ireland
Sunday, December 14, 2008
St. John of the Cross
The feast of St John of the Cross is today. Here are some of his Counsels.
"Anyone who complains or grumbles is not perfect, nor is he even a good Christian."
"Anyone who trusts in himself is worse than the devil."
"Anyone who does not love his neighbor abhors God."
"Whoever flees prayer flees all that is good."
"Conquering the tongue is better than fasting on bread and water."
"Suffering for God is better than working miracles."
Terry Nelson has the "Precautions" of the Mystical Doctor.
More HERE and HERE.
It is Gaudete Sunday. Let us rejoice, for the Lord is near. As Fr. Mark says :
Today's Introit is one of the few drawn from Saint Paul. It is an exhortation to joy, but its mood is quiet and reflective. "Joy to you in the Lord at all times; once again I wish you joy. Give proof to all of your courtesy. The Lord is near. Nothing must make you anxious; in every need, make your requests known to God, praying and beseeching Him, and giving Him thanks as well" (Phil 4:4-6). What the Latin gives as, "gaudete," and the English as "rejoice," is astonishingly rich in Saint Paul's Greek. Any one translation would be inadequate. Paul says, "chaírete." It is the very same word used by the angel Gabriel to greet the Virgin of Nazareth. "Chaire, kecharitoménè!" "Joy to you, O full of grace!" (Lk 1:28). The word is untranslatable. Just when we think we have seized its meaning once and for all, another door opens inside it. "Chaírete" was the ordinary greeting of the Greeks. It embraces health, salvation, loveliness, grace, and joy, all at once. In the mouth and in the ear of Christians, the taste of the word is indescribable. "Grace to you, and loveliness, and joy in the Lord; again I wish you grace, and loveliness, and joy" (Phil 4:4). Paul's greeting is not so much an imperative — a command to be joyful — as it is the imparting of a gift in the Lord. "What I wish for you, what I send you, what I give you in the Lord is grace, and loveliness, and joy."
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Laura (1944)
Waldo Lydecker: She was quick to seize upon anything that would improve her mind or her appearance. Laura had innate breeding, but she deferred to my judgment and taste.... Her youth and beauty, her poise and charm of manner captivated them all. She had warmth, vitality. She had authentic magnetism. Wherever we went, she stood out. Men admired her; women envied her. She became as famous as Waldo Lydecker's walking stick and his white carnation. ~Laura (1944)It is counted among the best of the noirs, and yet Laura, the 1944 film starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, it not considered to be a true film noir. According to one critic:
Although generally categorized as a noir film, Laura is more a mixture of romance and detective story in structure. Gene Tierney is heartbreakingly beautiful, but she is not the noir film's stereotypical bad girl who uses her lover, only to abandon him when he has fallen hopelessly in love. Nor is there the bleak vision of hopelessness so essential an element in the true noir film.Laura is among my favorite detective films; the novel by Vera Caspary is also excellent, not hopelessly dated like many popular books written in the forties. The plot surrounds the brutal slaying of Laura Hunt, called a "bachelor girl" because she lived on her own after finding success as an advertising executive. New York police detective Mark McPherson, ruggedly played by Dana Andrews, embarks on a quest to find her murderer. As he pieces her life together from the accounts of her friends and by investigating her elegant Manhattan apartment, McPherson begins to fall in love with her. He becomes especially entranced by the Laura's portrait which hangs in her living room.
Laura's friend the writer Waldo Lydecker enjoys sharing with McPherson everything he knows about Laura, who managed to retain her integrity and femininity amid the rat race of the advertising industry. It is interesting to see from the flashbacks that Laura, in spite of her business success, has conducted herself as a lady, bringing to her work a distinctly feminine touch. Living a glamorous life did not make her look down on domesticity; she was always ready to help those in need, showing kindness towards all, even the undeserving. Everyone loved her and some people loved her too much.
Laura's fatal flaw was her abysmal choice in men. Vincent Price is unforgettable as Shelby Carpenter, Laura's playboy fiancé who turns out to be a gigolo. Shelby was two-timing Laura with her aunt Mrs. Treadwell (Judith Anderson), a wealthy socialite. Clifton Webb is Waldo, whose love for Laura dominates his life. Waldo mocks McPherson for coming so often to Laura's apartment and intending to buy her portrait. "McPherson, did it ever strike you that you're acting very strangely? It's a wonder you don't come here like a suitor with roses and a box of candy - drugstore candy, of course," he says. Finally, one rainy night, McPherson falls asleep in front of Laura's picture, drink in hand. It is then that the truth is revealed.
Our Best Holiday Manners
Emily Post offers from excellent tips on being polite at Christmas.
(Artwork courtesy of Karen) Share
Friday, December 12, 2008
Scandal and the Queen
The other day I ran across an article entitled "Top 5 Marie-Antoinette Scandals" which was filled with errors. What an incredibly misleading portrayal of the Queen! Marie-Antoinette, in spite of being from a generation known for its fast pace of living, did not live in a manner which gave public scandal. There is no evidence for an affair with Count Fersen. As for diamond necklace fiasco, she was the innocent victim, not the cause.
Marie-Antoinette did not, however, live as sedately as former Queens of France had done. Her excesses as a twenty year old, including her flamboyant attire, her late night card parties, and some of her escapades (such as sleigh-riding through the streets of Paris without an escort) were considered inappropriate behaviors for female members of the royal family. This was why her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, rebuked her so strongly in her letters for even slight infractions. As Lady Antonia Fraser notes in her biography of Marie-Antoinette: "Sins that would be venial in any other girl were far more consequential in the future Queen of France." (The Journey, p. 94)
The scandals which perhaps most affected Marie-Antoinette's life were situations which had been going on long before she set foot in France. The fact that the most powerful woman at the court of Louis XV was not his pious wife or daughters but his mistress set the stage for Marie-Antoinette's tragedy. For one thing, her marriage was arranged by a courtesan, Madame de Pompadour, who also was named "Antoinette." As a fourteen year old bride, Marie-Antoinette was quick to notice that the person with the most influence over her husband's grandfather the King was Madame du Barry, of whom the young Dauphine innocently exclaimed, "I want to be her rival!"
The Petit Trianon, so loved by Marie-Antoinette, had been built for La Pompadour and inhabited by La Barry. Early in their reign, the Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette held a costume ball where everyone came in dress from the era of le bon roi Henri, with Marie-Antoinette garbed as Henri's beloved mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was part of the Queen's attempt to show that she was loved by her husband, and that she was his mistress as well as his wife. She wanted to be perceived as the person most influential with Louis XVI. Unfortunately, in an attempt to assert herself at a hostile court, she made it easier for her enemies to portray her as a loose woman.
Most of all, Marie-Antoinette saw her mother, who never gave in to anybody, give in to Madame du Barry. This occurred, of course, when the Empress pleaded with her daughter to stop shunning the royal mistress, who had complained to Louis XV that the Dauphine was snubbing her. On one level, of course, Marie-Antoinette was being manipulated by the aunts to shun the mistress, for their own purposes. However, there are other reasons she did not want to speak to Madame du Barry, who had been insolent to her from the day she arrived at Versailles. As Marie-Antoinette wrote to Empress Maria Theresa on October 13, 1771:
..If you could see, as I do, everything that happens here, you would realize that that woman and her clique would never be satisfied with just a word, and that I would have to do it again and again. You may be sure that I need to be led by no one when it comes to politeness. (Secrets of Marie Antoinette: A Collection of Letters, edited by Olivier Bernier. New York: Fromm International, 1986, p. 79)Marie-Antoinette not only wanted to keep the mistress in her place (that is, in what Marie-Antoinette thought her place should be), but she wanted to uphold morals and decency by not giving public approval to an illicit relationship. Upholding morality was something which her mother had impressed upon her as the duty of a Catholic princess. The excuse the Empress gave as the reason why Marie-Antoinette should be friendly to Madame du Barry was because Louis XV demanded it, and he was to be obeyed. As she wrote her daughter on September 30, 1771: "You have one goal only- it is to please the king, and obey him." (Secrets of Marie-Antoinette, p. 77) In the eyes of her elders a fifteen year old girl was bound to obey those in authority over her, but Marie-Antoinette thought the case demanded a different approach.
In the end, although Marie-Antoinette eventually obeyed the king and her mother and spoke to the mistress, the fact that she had made an issue of it made her someone whom Madame du Barry came to respect. Ultimately, it was not Marie-Antoinette who gave scandal; it was she who had to resist being scandalized. It was she who had to take a stand, which she would continue to do when as Queen she sought to reform the morals of the court. Maxime de La Rocheterie has the following reflections on the matter:
This was the end and proper solution...of that long and scandalous wrangle which, in contempt of all order, natural and divine, a mistress, dragged from the mud, had held at bay a princess of the royal blood, the wife to the heir to the crown of France....For those who reason coldly, with that haughty indifference to the moral aspect of a question, and regard for material interest alone, which is one of the traditions of modern diplomacy, it is easy to understand the disquietude of the empress, her incessant recommendations...but it is more easy to comprehend- we would willingly say, to share- the virginal repugnance of Marie-Antoinette. Perhaps the motives of the empress were more prudent; but those of the dauphiness were incontestably finer....If politics condemn her, public honor absolves her. (Rocheterie, p.75)Share
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Don Marco has a beautiful post for this solemnity. Here are the words of the Mother of God to the Aztec, Blessed Juan Diego:
Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you: let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?
Here are the words of Pope John Paul II on the final struggle:
We are today before the greatest combat that mankind has ever seen. I do not believe that the Christian community has completely understood it. We are today before the final struggle between the Church and the Anti-Church, between the Gospel and the Anti-Gospel.Share
New Capitol Building Visitors Center
ShareDownplaying important historical events and rewriting history at taxpayer expense is now big business in Washington, D.C.
Those who do not live near our nation's Capitol may not be aware at how much 1984 Ministry of Truth-type censorship is going on in museums and monuments and new construction in Washington, DC.
It used to be that you could not visit the Nation's Capitol Building without many profound reminders of the Christian roots of our nation, but history is being rewritten more and more boldly - not just to eliminate all traces of God, but also core values of the Constitution.
The much-ballyhooed, over-budget, newly-opened 580,000 square foot Visitor Center at the U. S. Capitol is a case in point. For photos, see Capitol Visitors Center.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Empress Maria Theresa on Freedom
Royal World offers an intriguing quote from the Empress Maria Theresa:
Nothing is more pleasant, nothing more suitable to flatter our egos as a freedom without restrictions. "Freedom" is the word with which our enlightened century wants to replace religion. One condemns the whole past as a time of ignorance and prejudice, while knowing nothing of that past and very little of the present. If I could see these so-called enlightened figures, these philosophes, more fortunate in their work and happier in their private lives, then I would accuse myself of bias, pride, prepossession, and obstinacy for not adjusting to them. But unfortunately daily experience teaches me the opposite. No one is weaker, no one more spiritless than these strong spirits; no one more servile, no one more despairing at the least misfortune as they. They are bad fathers, sons, husbands, ministers, generals, and citizens. And why? Because they lack substance. All of their philosophy, all of their axioms are conceived only in their egotism; the slightest disappointment crushes them beyond hope, with no resources to fall back upon. ~ Empress Maria TheresaShare


text:
My! What a busyweek it has been, first we have a full lodge, completely packed out!!
Then we get our Kayaking concession from parksboard meaning that we can now explore not only the lovely blue lakes of Kosi Bay, but also the many winding channels amongst the reeds and sand dunes of the Kosi Mouth Estuarine system.
But, we had no photos of these areas! So, as disappointed as we were at pulling ourselves away from work, we went to do some exploring.
Check out the video below – don't worry, no sound, so it's safe for work!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
These are the entries made in the Big Muff guestbook between 2006 and 2010.
The original guestbook was a dedicated Perl script but after twelve years I decided to incorporate it in the website for reasons of security and usability.
Comments on this page have been switched off.
If you want to refer directly to a comment you can copy the permalink.
John Roberts wrote on 14 Sep 2010:
Would love to know when 'Willing to Work' is due for release; also would like to know what's happening with the tribute album. HELP please!!!!
Webmaster: As I understand the new album 'Heaven and Earth' will be released in the spring of 2011. John Hillarby has published a tracklisting.
Scott Harvie wrote on 02 Aug 2010:
My wife is convinced that one of John's songs found its way into an episode of Sex and the City. Sadly she doesn't know which one. I've never seen the programme and wondered if someone might be able to shed some light into this sweet little mystery...
Don Goulding wrote on 22 Jun 2010:
What an artist. Just found John's music by chance about 3 years ago and fell in love with him. Have most of his albums and love them all dearly. Rest Easy big man.
Ian Munday wrote on 17 Jun 2010:
Still reeling from the news of John's passing despite the passage of time. I have been listening to his music since my first years at university and later at art school and he is truly without peers. Watched the "Johnny too Bad" documentary recently on Google video and was saddened somewhat at his deterioration. Trawled the net and was increasingly saddened and moved by his spiralling health, a friend gave me a copy of the double Roundhouse London gig and to tell the truth I could only bring myself to listen to it once, his voice had quietly disintegrated at the end of a turbulent and at times self-destructive life. I started a body of work not long after hearing of his death last year and will be having an exhibition of it next month, entitled "Solid Air-Remembering John Martyn" it's the only way as an artist I could make some sort of sense of his loss. I can post a link to the site for the gallery once the date is confirmed.....
Ian Munday wrote on 08 Jul 2010:
Here's the link to the series of works... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060307&id;=1027256172
Ian Munday wrote on 08 Jul 2010:
Apologies if you can't see the pics without being signed-in to Facebook, I don't have a website so I just thought I'd put them on the web any way I could......... love and peace Ian.
Allan Jonassen wrote on 25 May 2010:
John Martyn, well what can one say, when moved to tears!
When he was at his best he was better than Dylan and Morrison combined!!!! That's how awesome I think he was.
Ian Hepplewhite wrote on 20 May 2010:
I don't know if you get to see the BBC's 'Ashes to Ashes' series, but my wife had recorded the programme of Friday 14th May and we watched it a few days later. It got to a short sequence when the main male & female characters were getting ready for a date together and so the film was cutting between scenes of the two of them. As the music was faded in, after about three notes I said to my wife, "It's John Martyn", and quickly realised it was Couldn't Love You More (One World version). This fitted the film superbly and it played quite a reasonable part of the song.
Dan Smith wrote on 20 May 2010:
I recently watched the first season of Doc Martin on DVD (2004) and in the episode "Of All The Harbours Of All The Towns", there is a conversation between Elaine & Al that goes:
(E): Do you like Portishead?
(A): Yeah, Glory Box... brilliant song
(E): Yeah, I know it.
(A): ... and have you heard John Martyn's cover of Glory Box-now that is unreal...
(E): (amazed) You know John Martyn? Like... no-one knows John Martyn!
(A): Know him, I've got every single album...
Cheers, Dan.
Doug Ashby wrote on 27 Apr 2010:
I was fortunate enough to be able to record a John Martyn song on Danielle Lubene's newest album - 'Post Cards from the Sea of Me'...She was having a hard time picking one to do, I think it was a toss up between 'Man in the Station' and 'Bless the Weather'. She chose 'Bless the Weather', and it features some sublime bass work from Bill Melcher. I got lucky enough to play the guitar stuff! If anyone wants to hear it, go to www.daniellelubene.com. She's going to be touring the record, and we look forward to getting over to England in the near future. We are all fans, whose lives have been changed by the grace and danger of John's life and music. Cheers for keeping the faith, y'all! Doug Ashby.
Mark Gentry wrote on 07 Apr 2010:
If you have not read 'Some People are Crazy' - The John Martyn Story, then you must, now! Without doubt John was an outstanding creative - and this book just gives a real feel and flavour for the man.
Christopher Powell wrote on 04 Apr 2010:
I was trying to find the exact date I saw John in Adelaide in 1983 & found that you don't have that gig listed. It was at the Opera Theatre (now called her Majesty's Theatre) & I'm reasonably sure he had performed in Perth, West Australia, a couple of days before. My wife & I didn't know his music well then, but as it was life before kids we took a punt & it was a stunning show full of power, emotion & of course, hilarity!! Cheers, Christopher.
Webmaster wrote on 09 Mar 2012:
Well we have it now thanks to Peter Howell: 22 January 1983, Adelaide, Opera Theatre (58 Grote Street). Saturday evening, 8:00 pm. Admission $ 13.90. The Perth gig is still a mystery though.
Nick Samsworth wrote on 08 Feb 2010:
Hi , I'm sure I went to a gig at Exeter uni in the 70's, would have to have been between 76 and 79 whilst I was a student at Exeter College of Art. I can't find it in your listings - I can't be imagining it, can I? Can anyone help me find this piece of the jigsaw? Thanks Nick.
Webmaster wrote on 18 Jan 2021:
There is one date now that qualifies: 11 Nov 1978, Exeter, Exeter University.
Michalis wrote on 29 Jan 2010:
One year has passed for us, not a day for ya! Cool trick man! Lemme sing again for ya: "I know you - I love you - You are my friend - You'll follow me - Everywhere."
Peter Lloyd wrote on 10 Jan 2010:
I see an earlier posting from myself dated April 2006. The band is still playing and weather permiting 24th Jan Queens Head Monmouth. An evening of John Martyn the raw stuff with a lot of love and passion. If your interested I have a little bit of stuff on the m-space thingy search martynised hope you enjoy miss him loads but in my heart forever alllove allluck Peter.
Ken Harten wrote on 13 Oct 2009:
Hadn't checked the site for months so it was a shock to learn of JM's death. I had attended McMaster University in Hamilton,Ont. back in 1974-76 & some friends introduced me to JM's music after seeing him open for Yes at Maple Leaf Gardens. Mike Nestler & Tom Owens were the two students that interviewed JM in Toronto June 3,1977 for the new McMaster Radio station. I was living in Vancouver so they sent me a cassette tape of their interview. I passed it on to John Hillarby & the next thing I know it is out "there" all grubby. I kept the original & it is in fine form. I just digitalized it and sent the CD off to Hans at this site. It is very good and a laugh when you look back & listen to old friends who were so much younger then. The tape lasts about 33 minutes and Hans should put it up. I have been in contact with Mike for the first time in 32 years & I'm sending him a copy. He will pass it on to Tom. JM was agreat one to get me through some hard times probably like alot of you. He will be missed.
Webmaster: I will put it up as soon as I can find the time. Thanks a lot for the CD!
steveo wrote on 14 Sep 2009:
Re webmaster's blog and the Keith James/ James Rick concert. Try out some of their stuff at:http://www.keith-james.com/postcards_keith_james_rick_foot.php Personally, I think an entire concert by them of JM might sound a bit nice for my personal taste. Good to see the interest though.
Cedwyn Aled wrote on 02 Sep 2009:
Does anybody know if there'll be an event in south Wales to remember John Martyn around the first anniversary of his sad death on January 29 2010?
Paul Scott Goodman wrote on 31 Aug 2009:
First saw John opening act for Supertramp at Glasgow City Hall around 1973/74.. May You never, top 5 songs of Always/ R.I.P. Genius.
Derek Pollard wrote on 11 Aug 2009:
Does anyone know how to get the VHS tape "In Vision"? There are some performances on there that I remember seeing when they were first aired that aren't on the BBC live DVD. It seems impossible to find an original of that tape these days.
Ian Garbett wrote on 22 Jul 2009:
Great, great, website. I am a JM fan - have been ever since I went - being ignorant of his music prior - to see him on his Sundays Child tour (winter 74-75) at Lancaster Uni. I was totally, totally gobsmacked then, and remain so 34 years on. His guitar playing absolutely amazing - I never figured out what he was doing really, for years. But the *sounds* he made... something quite undescribably emotive. I never met the geezer himself, BUT I did have a kind of 'interaction'... from about 20 seats to my left (I was on front row) Leadmill Sheffield (Sapphire tour) - I had the habit of mimicking (trying to) Johns right hand picking pattern with my right hand, on my knee. At one stage he just quite clearly stared down at my hand, stared for about 5 to 10 seconds, whilst he continued playing, then carried on singing. I stopped after that - thinking it may be annoying him - a bit like a stare from a schoolmaster to a kid in morning assembly. Amazed he picked up on it though from that far away. Anyway, wish I could annoy the old bugger now... a great loss.
Paul Richardson wrote on 17 Jun 2009:
I spent a couple of years in the late 1980s as John's guitar maker and technician; had some extraordinary times with him at gigs, in bars, at his house, on the road. Loved the man and infuriated by him - that was John though. I've got some untold stories and unpublished photos if anyone's doing research and wants to find out more.
Jane Cornes wrote on 16 Jun 2009:
i'm new to john. fell in love with go down easy, then solid air. so i google him and found an older man with a very strong scottish accent. yet the young john, it seems, had a very clipped british accent. can anyone explain?
Webmaster: It has to do with the places where John grew up. Read any biography or several articles on this very website.
Holly wrote on 03 May 2009:
I only heard about John on the 29th January 2009 and I have been listening to his music every day since. His ability to express those things that usually go unsaid has captivated me completely. I wish I could have discovered him sooner, or been born a few decades earlier! Rest in peace John xx.
Janice wrote on 29 Mar 2009:
I just can't believe the big man's gone. Got most CDs and a few LPs!. Saw him in Folkestone in '86-Brilliant!!!! Sorely missed-never knew about this site, will visit often, Cheers Big Man!!!!!
Steven Sarson wrote on 26 Mar 2009:
It feels like I have known you for a lifetime...
Don Hardy wrote on 24 Mar 2009:
Privileged to have met him in the late 70's when playing in a support folk band. He basically changed my life and has been an inspiration from then on. Could make you weep then and can still do the same now. Can you ever come to terms when something so magical is gone. His music lives on and will play me out when I shuffle off.
Frankie Griffin wrote on 11 Feb 2009:
I remember bumping into a friend in the foyer of Cork Opera House after one of John Martyns gigs. He was a bit disgruntled claiming John's performance wasn't up to scratch. I retorted "Go on say's I, You should be priveliged to be in the same room as him he's a Legend, I wouldn't care if he barked for the entire 2 hours". That's what it was like for me. It's sad to think we won't get to see him play again. I have some unbelievable memories from Johns music, good times bad times. RIP Big John Martyn.
John Gibson wrote on 05 Feb 2009:
I shared a basement coldwater flat in Parsons Green in 1967-8 and JM used to visit as it was a hangout for Scottish folkies such as Clive Palmer, etc. I'd just come back from Spain with a fancy new Spanish guitar and was learning classical music. One day John heard me playing "Romance de Amor" and asked me to teach it to him. I'd been practising it for months and in about 30 mins John had it down pat and had started to improvise as only he could. We all used to go to Les Cousins in Soho for the weekend all nighters. I still have a recording of one of John's sessions there, that I will always treasure. Also, Davy Graham used to play there, and my two heros of British folk/jazz/blues guitar are now gone. Hope Bert Jansch still has a few good ones left. RIP, John Gibson from Canada, now Thailand.
Marc wrote on 03 Feb 2009:
What a sad loss. One will never forget such genius. Regards Marc.
Mark Hulls wrote on 03 Feb 2009:
"One day without you, and I feel just like some lost ship at sea". Very sorry to hear of John's passing. Condolences to his family and nearest & dearest. I've been a HUGE fan from London Conversation through to On the Cobbles and was promised a 50th birthday present trip to the UK to see him later this year. I was lucky enough to see him live in the late 70's and early 80's and those memories will certainly suffice.
Howard Ahmun wrote on 02 Feb 2009:
A true one off! Will be sorely missed.
howard ahmun (arrans cousin)
Amy Brenner Mitz wrote on 02 Feb 2009:
Finding out that John Martyn died was like finding a lost love and losing him again. I saw him perform twice at Clark University in Worcester MA I believe in 1975 and 1977. At the second concert I remember he was very drunk and shouted at the audience and we all wondered if he'd get through the concert which he barely did. He had already instantly become my favorite singer and I listened to him ever since, always wondering what happened to him, because I never really heard about him after 1980 and my life went in other directions. I had wondered if he really just went over the edge or lost notoriety. But no other male singer has moved me like he does. So sad to hear about his death and hardships. So glad he won deserved awards. So glad to have his music and so glad to be able to order more.
Marilyn wrote on 02 Feb 2009:
I first 'discovered' John & his music when I was at college in Glasgow in the late 60s. A college friend was an ex-girlfriend of John before he went to London and she talked about his music. I then was blown away when I heard it for myself. I actively sought out any of his recordings that I could. A teaching colleague knew how much I liked him & twice bought me albums-Solid Air & Sunday's Child. I managed to see him at Glasgow City Halls with my husband, who also loved his music, & now remember that superb evening with great emotion.His music has been with me throughout my life from the late 60s until now & I can't believe there will never be any more new music from him. It has been difficult to get to sleep since hearing that he'd died as my head is filled with his songs when I lie in bed. How much worse it must be for his family & close friends. My heart & thoughts are with you all. One of life's geniuses has been taken from us but at least we had him on this earth for a short time. You may be gone but your music will live on.
Arthur Praet wrote on 02 Feb 2009:
John was and is the soundtrack of my life. Please Hans, keep the Big Muff going, Love all the JM fans.
Steve Rawson wrote on 01 Feb 2009:
Hi there, Words cannot describe how I feel - 'Friends all tell me that I look so sad' etc.... I've put together my own small tribute piece on www.steverawson.wordpress.com. He was - is - always will be part of the soundtrack of my life. The lyrics, songs, albums, gigs, musicians, musicianship, the raw emotion, the intertwining sophisticated tapestry of the music. 'May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold' - Thank you so much John.
Gina wrote on 01 Feb 2009:
hey.... hoorde het daarnet, een vriend stuurde me een bericht. erg jammer!
Jeff Reynolds wrote on 31 Jan 2009:
Just wanted to add my thoughts to the fantastic contributions already on this site. I was driving down to London to play a gig with my band when I heard the news on Thursday. A massive shock, yet most of us who knew of John knew that he was not in the best of health for the past few years. John had been the soundtrack to my life since 1973 when I was 13 in the ups and downs of life. He was brilliant, volatile, reckless, tender but, above all, he was capable of the most achingly beautiful songs - I will miss him terribly but, at least, his music lives on. There is a brilliant tribute from Danny Baker on his BBC London Thursday afternoon show - check it out while you can. His reaction says it all. God bless, big man.
Richard Homer wrote on 31 Jan 2009:
The Day the Music Died, if Don McLean is to be believed, was February 3rd 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash. For me, the day was Thursday 29th January 2009, when John Martyn departed this world. I first encountered John s music on the BBC s Rock Goes to College in the early 80s. Playing songs off his then current Grace and Danger album, something about him impressed me. The music was jazzy-sounding harmonically and rhythmically far more sophisticated than anything else I had heard up until that point. The next day, I parted with £3.99 for the album at my local Virgin Records and my life-long love affair with John Martyn s music really began.
At 17, I couldn't fully appreciate the emotions surrounding a divorce which were laid bare so obviously on Grace and Danger but I instinctively knew this music was real. It transcended mere verbal understanding it communicated on a whole different level to anything else I had ever heard. And so on I delved into Martyn s back catalogue: Bless The Weather, Solid Air, Inside Out, Sunday's Child, One World - and on into his future work for the remainder of our time together on this planet. And every time he played in Manchester I went to see him (over 30 times in total!) Sometimes he was truly awe-inspiring - better than anyone you could ever imagine. Sometimes he was too drunk (and/or stoned) and awful. But for me, this added to the allure.
JM was never merely predictably professional. You were going to get the show he wanted and you'd better make the most of it because he wasn't going to change for the sake of an audience! The music was truly created in the moment. On learning that he had had his right lower-leg amputated into 2003, I naturally feared for his health. His triumphant return to the stage the following year allayed my concerns, at least for the time-being. Sadly, each subsequent performance revealed an ever-larger John and by the start of 2007, it was clear from his Solid Air shows that his health had deteriorated considerably. I left the venue wondering if I would ever see him again.
Happily, one Lifetime Achievement Award later, I did. I saw John for what turned out to be the last time in November 2008. Billed as the Grace and Danger tour, he played the whole of the album which first introduced me to his music. Now in my mid-forties and smarting from my very own divorce he got to me all over again. Though by then a wheel-chair using mountain of a man, scarcely recognisable as the good-looking youth from his early album covers, that beautiful voice and unique guitar-playing easily asserted that it was the same creative force sitting right in front of me. This time I left with optimism.
Sadly, only one month on from his OBE, we lost John. That the last performance I witnessed by the great John Martyn ranks among the finest I have seen him give makes his passing so much worse. He could never be written off as a has been there was always the risk that the next album or the next gig might just be astounding I for one will really miss him.
Francis wrote on 31 Jan 2009:
Remember the first time I heard John, I think someone played me Solid Air when the album came out. She was a lovely girl, I couldn't understand a word John was singing ! It didn't matter, it's not the words, it's not the music, it's the synergy or something. Of course now I do know every word. I think John and all of us knew that this time was not far away, I'm glad he's left us so much. In his own recent words You're here for a good time, not a long time.
Roy wrote on 31 Jan 2009:
Saw John many times in the 70's. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes shall we say interesting, never dull! Good to see that over the last couple of years the genius of the man and his contribution to modern music gaining the recognition it deserves. RIP John.
Tony wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
The news of your passing made my cry, in 30 years that's the second time. Heard you play in Hastings in the pub for beer money each week - damn you were good. Thanks for the music and just so much. RIP.
Plod wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
You were there at the beginning John and have stayed with me since. Big guy, bigger heart worn well and truly on your sleeve and a uniqueness we will likely never see the likes of again. All the best John.
Andrew Bain wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
I have listened to nothing but John, since hearing the dreadful news. I have been listening to John's music for thirty five years. I met him several times, which was easy, because John was so very approachable. My heart goes out to those closest to him. They have lost so much more than just John. For me, he will live on in every song. Bye John.
Brian Slevin wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
I only got 'in' to John Martyn in recent years, but I'd known about him since I was in single figures. Memories of family get togethers, that stretched out into the small hours. Living room immersed in clouds of smoke from ciggarettes and other more 'exotic' herbs, all soundtracked by the sound of an acoustic guitar, and a voice that somehow managed to be both pure and unintelligible.
Fifteen years later I caught a snippet of an acoustic guitar player on the TV in the pub. A BBC2 re-run of The Old Grey Whistle Test. John Martyn was making an acoustic guitar sound like an entire orchestra during a rendition of the old blues song 'I'd Rather Be The Devil'. I wasn't even sure that I liked it, but I loved his musical ability, and later that night the CD of Solid Air was liberated from my fathers collection, and re-housed. Some time later, a different generation of the same family was housing similar get togethers to a similar soundtrack, the One World album, and in particular, 'Small Hours', being my swan song of choice to conclude a night of party.
My first live encounter with John was on the Solid Air remembered tour. The Glasgow date. A drunk John was wheeled on to stage and his first words were, 'I dreamt I'd died last night. I wish I had!'. Black humour obviously, but what an introduction to your musical hero! As the songs passed, so did the drinks, and we were waved on our way by a rendition of 'Rock, Salt, and Nails'. 2008 saw 'May You Never' being played at my wedding, and on honeymoon in Malta I happened across a copy of the John Martyn biography, 'Some People are Crazy', in the middle of a Maltese bookshop. This became my holiday reading. I last saw John last November in Glasgow. I almost missed the gig due to being in Berlin with a hangover on the morning of the concert, with a flight out of there seeming a herculean feat. I managed though, and John blew away any cobwebs that remained, with a breathtaking rendition of Grace and Danger. John seemed to have lost weight since I'd last seen him, and certainly seemed more jovial, exchanging banter with the audience between songs. I was deeply saddened by the news on Thursday morning. I'd envisioned more gigs, more banter, more stories. Just more. I never met him, but I'll miss John. My thoughts are with his family and friends. Brian Slevin.
Stephen wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
I'm struggling to process the fact that I will never have the pleasure of seeing him again. As long as I'm alive he will never be dead to me.
Bree wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
Hi Hans, A little late, but I just heard about John Martyn's passing. It's a sad thing to hear and it's great to have his music live on through people like yourself. It's a shame that I've never really took the time to get to know his works. But it's never too late to get properly acquainted with John Martyn's music right? Do you perhaps have some pointers for a starter? Thanks. Groetjes, Bree Btw, it's been a while since I've been on this site and I like what you've done with it. Well done.
Muiris Walsh wrote on 30 Jan 2009:
Cannot believe John Martyn has left the stage for good. One of the real greats of modern music, he provided the soundtrack to all of our lives. Rest easy "Friends will tell me that I look so sad, They don't need to ask me why, They know the reason that I feel so bad, Since the night you said 'Goodbye'".


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When my mother gave birth to me, it was a touch-and-go sitiuation. I was created with an abnormally huge head, which I would like to insist is filled with a brain the size of a small planet. Whether because of the head or some other medical reason, my mother had to undergo an emergency c-section. Remember, this was more than half a century ago in a remote hill station near Munnar in Kerala.
The doctor had tried to pull me out using forceps, but it didn't work. Apparently he tried quite hard and my head and jaws were pretty messed up. The priority was, as it should have been, to save my mother's life. When the forceps failed, the doc surgically removed me, stemmed the blood flow, sewed up the incision, and miraculously saved her. In what must have been little more than a village clinic, the doctor acutally performed something akin to a medical mircale.
But the mircale wasn't done with the doctor yet. Among the discarded pile of medical waste, he noticed me struggling to stay alive, and promptly proceeded to save me as well. Good thing too, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to read this story. I turned out to be a chubby and cute baby, albeit with an abnormally and comically large cranium. Years later, my mom told me how my dad had come in to tell her that they had had a healthy and beautiful baby boy, and how she had known that he had to be lying to keep her spirits up. She thought I had to be dead because of the medical difficulties. And even if alive, I had to be a girl because an astrologer had told her so. Yes, I did have an uncanny knack of beating long odds starting right from the moment I was born.
Looking back at the arc of my life, which has forever been pointing up, I can see that every upward tick in it was preceded by a trauma or pain of some sort. You would think that this ability of mine to turn every raw deal into something positive for myself is a good thing, something to be proud of. But it is not. For some reason, it leaves me feeling more empty. It underscores the pointlessness of it all, and somehow serves to magnify the pain by contrast.
There's no denying it — the last couple of years have been harsh, like a thankless apostrophe to life's pointlessness. Like these fuzzy features on my large head, blurred and mottled by the ravages of time, my mind and spirit also wilt in the harshness of these years. I smile a lot less — quite a feat for someone who briefly held the nickname el-smilo.
I remember seeing this poster in a girl's dorm room a long time ago that read, "Our disappointments are God's appointments," which may be a good way for those who believe in a god to handle it. For those of us who don't, well, we form habits and find patterns into which to arrange the broken pieces, thereby creating a sense of normalcy and continuity.
Ultimately though, the patterns that make us human also give us the sense or illusion of purpose. Having forged a new pattern and manufactured a purpose, thereby making another victory of it again using my superpower, I wearily look forward – does life have another raw deal in store for me? I'm sure it does. Well, bring it on…!


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On a day when five different defense attorneys ripped into the govenment's witnesses and evidence in the racketeering trial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and six co-defendants, family members and friends who have crowded the 15th floor federal courtroom during the 10-week trial were openly optimistic about the outcome of the case.
So, in fact, were some of the defendants.
"Feeling good today," said mob underboss Joseph "Mousie" Massimino. "I'm tellin' ya...I gotta have a suit for the party...Get those martini glasses chilled."
Massimino's comment came during an exchange with several friends prior to the start of the afternoon session Friday, a day in which lawyers for five of his co-defendants made their closing arguments.
All five challenged the government's version of the case.
Christopher Warren, the attorney for mob capo Joseph "Scoops" Licata, also challenged the veracity of comments made by both witnesses and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han in the government's closing argument Thursday.
"The messages that these guys are sending out," Warren said as he pointed to the prosecution table, "are flat out lies."
Ultimately it will be the jury of seven men and five women who decide where the truth lies.
One member of the prosecution camp, when asked Friday about the boisterous and clearly optimistic buzz coming from the defense quarter, quipped, "They're like Romney Republicans the night before the election."
Two more closing arguments are set for Monday when the trial resumes. Edwin Jacobs Jr., the lawyer for Ligambi, will get a little more than two hours to wrap up the defense arguments. Then the prosecution will have a chance at a rebuttal.
U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno will explain the laws that apply Tuesday morning. That so-called jury charge is expected to take at least two hours, setting the stage for the start of deliberations.
Ligambi, 73, and his co-defendants are charged with racketeering conspiracy built around allegations of bookmaking, loansharking, extortion and the distribution of illegal video poker machines. The defense has argued since the trial opened in mid October that the charges are in fact a series of unrelated events that have nothing to do with a broad, mob-connected criminal conspiracy.
They have also challenged the credibility to key government witnesses and the prosecution's interpretation of events.
Warren, for example, hammered away at the government's contention that a meeting at LaGrigilia, a North Jersey restaurant in May 2010 that was set up by his client was a mob sitdown between leaders of the Gambino crime family from New York and Ligambi and several of his top associates.
In fact, Warren said, it was a "social" gathering of "geiatric gangsters" who sat around for five hours eating, drinking and talking about old times.
Nothing that was discussed at that lucheon, which was secretly recorded by a mob informant wearing a body wire, had anything to do with the charges in the pending case. Warren also showed the jury a photo of a private conference room at the restaurant where the luncheon could have taken place.
But he noted that the manager of the restaurant, called as a defense witness, said Licata and the others opted not to have their meal in a private room, but rather in the main dining room.
The session was not, as the government claimed, a "meeting of the board of directors of organized crime," but rather "a bunch of old guys eating and drinking."
"It is an insult to your intelligence," he told the jury, for the government to argue otherwise.
Gregory Pagano, the lawyer for Anthony Staino, jumped on that same theme, telling the jury that the prosecution throughout the trial was "hiding, distorting and mischaracterizing evidence."
He said evidence, testimony and the govenment's own tapes support his claim that $25,000 Staino gave to an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt financier, was "an investment" and not, as the prosecution alleged, a loanshark transaction.
"It's not fair....It's not justice...It's not the truth," Pagano said of other allegations that he contended were not supported by the evidence.
The jury also heard from lawyers for co-defendants Gary Battaglini, Damion Canalichio and George Borgesi. All three ripped the prosecution case.
Paul Hetznecker, Borgesi's court-appointed attorney, finished the day-long onslaught with an impassioned plea, arguing in part that his client was a defendant not because of anything he had done, but because of who he is.
Borgesi, 49, was a top associate of mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and was convicted with Merlino and five others in a different racketeering case in the same federal courthouse in 2001. The volatile mobster, who is Ligambi's nephew, has been in prison since 2000 and was about to be released when he was indicted in May 2011 in the current case.
"They don't like my client and they don't want him out of jail," Hetznecker said.
The entire case against Borgesi, he said, was built around the fabricated testimony of mob associate Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello.
Monacello, 46, testified for the prosecution, telling the jury that he ran Borgesi's bookmaking and loansharking operation after Borgesi was jailed.
Monacello talked of beatings, extortions and loansharking and gambling operations that generated tens of thousands of dollars and said he operated on behalf of Borgesi and under the umbrella of the Ligambi organization.
Hetznecker said Monacello used Borgesi's name and Ligambi's connection to run his own criminal enterpirse. And that he then parlayed their names and allegations about them into a deal with the government, winning his own release from prison after he was indicted with the other defendants in the case in 2011.
"He gave them what they wanted," Hetznecker said, arguing that the prosecution never bothered to try to substantiate or corroborate anything Monacello told them.
He said the case was built around an overreaching investigation that tried to take unrelated facts and outright lies and turn them into an indictment.
"They've completely mischaracterized the evidence in this case," he said. "The way they twisted and distorted the evidence is just outrageous."
Not unexpectedly, the defense attorney arguments were praised by friends and family members.
"You finally gonna write the truth?" one of Ligambi's sons asked a reporter.
What he and other supporters of the defense don't seem to grasp is that what's been written about this case is really not the issue. The only thing that matters is what the jury believes.
The answer to that may come some time next week.
Until then, the smart money says keep those party plans on ice.


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Posts Tagged 'Cornwallis'
On this day: October 19, 1781
Victory at Yorktown Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution. Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the American Revolution. In 1776, he drove General George Washington's Patriots forces out of New Jersey, and in 1780 he won a stunning victory over General Horatio Gates' Patriot ... Full Story


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King of the 12-String
Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter Born 1888 - Died 1949 An article about Leadbelly by Paul E. Affeldt.
With the appearance in this issue of a review of an instuction manual on how to play 12-string guitar as Leadbelly played it, I`m taking the oppurtunity of changing my feature story and cover photo to honour a man whom I`ve considered one of the greatest in the field ever since i first heard him. In fact, if it weren`t for Leadbelly I doubt very much that I`d even be aware of the real blues. I think that a many of you who are deeply immersed in the miasma of country blues would think back a bit as to where you first introduced to them, you`d find that you too, owe Leadbelly a great debt of thanks. Yet it`s been my experience that the blues purists tend to put Huddie Ledbetter down as a Black Burl Ives, rather than a dominant, drivingly primative artist of more than average accomplishment.
It is an amazing fact to me that the majority of the purists in any field look with contempt upon any form of success at all. Had Leadbelly never appeared in concerts and had he never recorded for the Library of Congress the chances are he would be a legend as Blind Lemon Jefferson is today. Indeed, the same is true with Jelly Roll Morton, revered by critic and collector alike, he was able to stage a comeback of sorts before he died and also recorded for the Library of Congress. Whereupon the critics and collectors as a whole turned their backs on him and went off in search of other potted rainbows such as the rumoured cylinder records reputted to have been recorded by Buddy Bolden, or gloated over their Black Patti by Willie Hightower`s Nighthawks. In other words, when an artist finally fights his way out of the sylvan bliss of the poverty and prisons of the deep South and appears in your local night spot in person, or on a concert stage in front of those who`ve been supporting his fight for artistic freedom, he suddenly becomes a Parriah, an outcast. Especially if he appears in decent clothes, master of his instrument and able to do a creditable job on anything more than variations on the traditional 12-bar blues. Somehow I think we all expect to be transported en masse to the deep South behind a cotton gin to sit in with illiterate Negros at a gin-drinking country hoedown, and are a bit put out to find that in most cases our hosts are pretty human after all as well as being musically adept on their instrument. Such illusions have put Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry in the realm of "pop" singers as far as blues purists are concerned.
Huddie Ledbetter was born in Mooringsport, Louisiana in 1888 and raised in Texas. He began in music early and started playing around the Texas-Louisiana area as early as 1903. Besides guitar he also played accordian and some piano. He was jailed for murder in 1918 and served until 1925 when he was pardoned. He worked around the Houston area until 1930 when he again served time, this time for attempted murder. He was released in 1934, and moved east. He went to work as a chauffeur to John A. Lomax, who has done so much to preserve and document American Folk Music.
In 1939-40 Leadbelly again served a year in New York prison for assault. Upon his release Lomax recorded him extensively for the Library of Congress, and Leadbelly began to gain some of the fame he so richly desserved. This was during the "Revival" period of the 40`s and Leadbelly became a fixture in many of the clubs around New York. During this period he also travelled to France for a series of concerts. He recorded extensively for Moses Asch`s various labels and most of this material is still available on Folkways. He also recorded 2 tracks in Capitol`s "History of Jazz" series (one on piano) and a 10` Capitol LP which also featured Paul Mason Howard on zither. Leadbelly died on December 6th, 1949, a powerhouse, a giant of a man, both musically and physically. He left a legacy of music that will serve as his monument.


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Qadhafi never disappoints
Saudi's King Abdullah walks out of opening session of Arab Summit:
"Doha: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz walked out of the opening session of the Arab Summit in Doha on Monday, following remarks made by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Tempers flared shortly after the summit host Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, ended his opening address, in which he said King Abdullah will represent the Arab nation at Thursday's G20 economic summit in London.
'He is in fact the best representative any one could have,' said Shaikh Hamad. The Arabs should be part of the restructuring of the global financial system, he said. 'We should not sit on the sidelines watching.'
Following the speech, the Libyan leader took over the microphone without requesting a permission to speak, a Gulf News correspondent inside the meeting hall said.
'I don't know why we should be happy that King Abdullah is representing us at the G20. He is a British-made monarch and an American agent,' Gaddafi said, and went on despite the repeated attempts by Shaikh Hamad to stop him.
Frustrated over the attempts by the Emir of Qatar to stop his from talking, Gaddafi looked at the rest of the Arab leaders and said: 'I am the King of African Kings, I am the prince of the faithful and I don't think my international prestige would allow me to sit with people like you.'
The remark and the subsequent apology by the Emir of Qatar led to an angry walkout by King Abdullah, who few years earlier had a similar spat with Gaddafi. "
Bonus pics [Thanks Diana]:
And to think once he was handsome: