Hermosa means Beautiful.

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28 March 2012

                      Pam Swarz, originally from Buffalo, but now a Phoenician.       

 

Elise and I went to Arizona last week at the behest of our friend Peggy Pettigrew Stewart a glass artist who practices in Scottsdale.

                   

Peggy rang the gong and we came running. We were to do an event together at The Hermosa Inn, a very beautiful place. We are so happy to be there.

                

The idea was to have dinner at The Hermosa Inn and then talk about Peggy’s glass work and my shady past with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

                  

I went out walking near the Hermosa Inn and came upon this nameless street, the first one I have ever seen. I mean, I have seen roads with no name but never a road that had a sign saying “road without name.”

Arizona is beautiful, of course, and there are interesting forms everywhere, but especially at the Hermosa Inn.

                                   

The day before our event, we went to the Musical Instrument Museum a little north of Phoenix.

              I used to go to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and I loved their musical instrument collection.

But the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona might be the largest in the world. It is simply an amazing place to view wonderful musical instruments.

                                Kalimbas. Thumb pianos.

Ian Smith and his gang came out and did a beautiful job of explaining the museum to us.

     Erin Kozak, Pam Swarz, Sandra Keely, Ian, Sam, Elise, Karen Farugia, Peggy Pettigrew Stewart, Cullen Strawn.

With Karen and Erin. These folks were so kind and knowledgeable.

             Poor April Salomon caught the flu that I had earlier last week and couldn’t be with us.

Elise Piliwale is showing me how to ring the gong, a skill she learned from her noble ancestors on Hawaii.

Bill DeWalt, seen here with Sylvia, runs the whole show at the Museum. Great to be with such interesting people.

                                                   

Now it’s Wednesday 21 March and Peggy, Pam and I start thinking about our event at the Hermosa Inn tonight.

                                                 

First, Peggy talks about her glass process and shows some examples.

 

                  

We talk to everyone about how we are going to do a project together.

    Pam Swarz and Tom Curzon.           Elisha Greenleaf.

      Stephanie Norton.         Elisha, Elise, Pam and Stephanie.

I was going to play, and Cindy even brought me a guitar, but we all just talked instead, which was better actually.

                                            

Elise and Lance were adoring us from afar.

And probably wishing that they were far away.

I told the long tale of Big Brother and the Holding Company, illustrated version:

                                          

There were a lot of questions. People seemed to enjoy the evening.

                                        Peggy is doing some really interesting things with glass.

The evening was magical, really, and very Arizonan in its way.

                                          

The next day Elise and I went to Sedona.

                               

There must be a LOT of iron in Sedona. Everything is red.

            

Shadows are lengthening; it’s getting late.

                                                 

Time to think about starting for home.

This was a fun trip to Arizona. We’ll see you soon.

Sam Andrew

                                      

Big Brother and the Holding Company

                        

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The Dog Blog.

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25 March 2012

The word dog goes back so far in English that there is really no other word that it came from, and it is a peculiarly English word.

Other languages have borrowed the word “dog,” but English hasn’t borrowed the word from any other languages.

I love dogs and love to paint them. I know I’m not alone in this, and you should take a look at these ready made dog kennels if you’re looking to bring one of these furry companions into your home.

In Anglo Saxon the word was “dogca.” The last syllable was a diminutive, so the effect was something like “doggie.”

People on the continent used some version of “hound,” for dogs in general.

The earliest known mention in print of the animal is a Dutch/French sentence: “een dogghe, vn gros matin d’Engleterre, canis anglicus.”

Canis lupus familiarus is the formal designation for the domestic dog.

Janis and George.

All dogs came from the wolf, canis lupus, a member of the Canidae, Carnivora.

The dog I have my hand on here is Sancho. Many people thought of him as THE Family Dog. Sancho was preternaturally clever and stories of his exploits often strained credulity. Mouse and Kelly made this poster for the Avalon and they put Sancho’s footprint on it.

The dog might be the first domesticated animal. We love having them in our homes as our loyal friends. We even use a dog carrier so we can take them with us on our adventures. Protecting their health is something every owner is concerned with. Use petinsurance.review to find the best pet insurance provider for your dog.

Domesticated dog skeletons have been found in Siberia and Belgium from about 33,000 years before present.

These early skeletons show shortening of the snout, widening of the muzzle and crowding of the teeth, all of which differ them from the wolf.

DNA evidences a split between dogs and wolves about a hundred thousand years ago, but no examples from before 33,000 years ago have been found.

Canis lupus familiaris can refer to the dog we know, but also to the wolf, coyote and jackals.

It can refer to members of the tribe Canini, the African wild dog, foxes, bush dog, racoon dog.

The word “hound” was used for all domestic canines up to the 14th century.

But in the next two hundred years, “dog” became the usual word and “hound” referred to hunting canines.

“Hound” came from Indo-European “kwon,” dog, and this is the word that survived in Latin canis and, for example, Welsh ci (plural cwn).

If you go to the Westminster dog show, you will hear a male canine called a “dog,” and a female a “bitch.” Standard terminology.

This is a rhyton in the shape of a dog’s head made by Brygos in the early fifth century before the common era.

It is difficult sometimes to believe how much a dog or a cat can love us and put up with our silliness.

I am eternally and necessarily grateful for the nonjudgmental aspects of our cat and dog here at home. We owe them a comfy time in exchange, maybe by reading some reviews of dog beds to keep them soft and happy as they sleep.

This is a handsome dingo. Chet Helms’ brother John had a dingo once and we all lived together. Very educational.

Dingoes are the aboriginal dogs of Australia.

Dogs can see better at night than we can.

And they smell with more acuity than any other creature on the planet.

You probably have noticed things like this.

Egyptians loved dogs too.

Many are the saints who claim to be patrons of dogs.

Saint Roche, or San Rocco as he was called in Italy, is a dog patron saint candidate.

Saint Francis, or, more properly, San Francesco d’Asissi, was another.

Last Spring a couple of foxes tried to make a den under my painting studio. I store my work there, so it is a quiet place, but I must have spooked them when I finally emerged from winter hibernation, because they left and haven’t returned. The male was quite aggressive and he would run up the driveway and growl at me in a surprisingly loud, low voice for a creature of that size and delicacy.

Standard Poodles have a loyal devotee coterie, you see.

A dog from Gilgamesh.

Another Standard Poodle lover.

Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote beautiful music for the guitar and other instruments. His surname means “Wolfville.”

A wolf has recently made an appearance in California, the first one in a hundred years.

The Inu, which merely means “dog” in Japanese has a somewhat wolflike demeanor, but is very smooth and, oh, you know, Japanese.

“Inu” is written like this. You can see that the shell and bone form was a drawing of a dog. Later the character becomes more stylized on bronzeware. The seal inscription style has evolved to a more abstract form and the contemporary kanji is on the bottom left.

Inugami, the dog god. You can see the word “inu” there. The second character is “kami, gami,” god. Similar to “kamikaze” which meant “divine wind” or “god wind.”

Isabella Rossellini, fairly divine herself, looking quite a bit like her mother here.

Christopher Guest’s mother in law.

This was a fine dog. Smart and alert like most Border Collies.

I always like Jean Arthur’s voice. it had an interesting edge. Her dog has spots on his ears.

Two very likable creatures. Or should that be lickable ?

Joel Hoekstra’s puppy, probably huge by now. Joel and Antonia live on the upper West side, Manhattan, and they are beautiful people. So is their dog.

Josie is a pussycat and she loves her best friend.

Kathryn Adams and her, is it?, Boston Terrier.

Dog spelled backwards is God. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

What may make you think even more, is that “wolf” spelled backwards is “flow.”

Or that pup spelled backwards is pup.

Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon. Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Sacco’s name will live in the hearts of the people and in their gratitude when Katzmann’s and your bones will be dispersed by time, when your name, your laws, institutions, and your false god are but a dim remembering of a cursed past in which man was wolf to man. Bartolomeo Vanzetti 1888-1927.

I like the way their eyes tilt upward.

Louise Brooks was from the Midwest, but she had a career in European cinema, much like that Ohio woman Jean Seberg who starred in À Bout de Souffle with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Mad-dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun; the Jappanese don’t care to, the Chinese wouldn’t dare to; Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one, But Englishmen detest a Siesta.

Noël Coward.

In 1987 a German Shepherd won Best in Show at the Westminster.

Dogs turn around before they lie down in order to flatten the grass and drive away any small vermin that are there.

Though, as we know, she was not fond of pets that must be held in the hands or trodden on, she was always attentive to the feelings of dogs, and very polite if she had to decline their advances. George Eliot.

A pug is more closely related to a wolf than a German Shepherd is.

When a dog chases a car, the car generally speeds away. The dog thinks he has been successful in chasing it off, so he will repeat that behavior over and over.

The Basenji is a unique dog that originates in Central Africa. They don’t bark, instead emitting a high-pitched “yodel.” Their behavior has been described as cat-like; they groom like cats and they are known to climb trees. My wife Elise is obsessed with rescuing basenjis. She looks at their animal care sites as avidly as some people look at e bay.

En quoi un homard est-il plus ridicule qu’un chien…ou toute autre bête dont on se fait suivre? J’ai le goût des homards, qui sont tranquilles, sérieux, savent les secrets de la mer, n’aboient pas et n’avalent pas la monade des gens comme les chiens, si antipathiques à Goethe, lequel pourtant n’était pas fou. Gérard de Nerval 1808-1855.

How is a lobster more ridiculous than a dog…or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I like lobsters. They are peaceful, serious, they know the secrets of the sea, they don’t bark, and they don’t try to eat your balls the way dogs do. Goethe had an antipathy to dogs and he wasn’t crazy. Gérard de Nerval explaining why he walked a lobster on a leash in gardens of the Palais Royal.

The most intelligent dogs are said to be the Border Collie and the Poodle.

Re vera, cultor denuo renatus deorum Romanorum antiquorum sum. Actually, I’m a born again pagan.

Intense grief over the death of a dog is normal and natural.

The more I see of men, the better I like dogs. Madame Roland 1754-1793.

A dog we met on Okinawa.

Turbane magna vehiculorum obviam erat tibi venienti huc ? Run into much traffic on the way over ?

Thirty-three percent of dog owners admit they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on the answering machine while they are away.

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Revelation.

All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelt in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus, a direct forbear of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.

Ad venatum vadamus. Let’s cut to the chase.

A bear grabbed her dog. She ran after the bear, punched it in the face and snatched her dog back. Don’t make a mother mad.

Aka inu. Red dog.

Small quantities of grapes and raisins can cause renal failure in dogs. Chocolate, macadamia nuts, cooked onions or anything with caffeine can also be harmful.

Avocado, mushrooms and seeds of any type aren’t good either.

Shi dog made by a commercial art studio on Okinawa. People put these dogs at corners of their house on the roof to keep away evil spirits, or maybe just because they like them.

Tuesday Weld was married to Rip Torn. I once sang country songs all night with Bobby Nieuwirth and Kris Kristofferson at Rip Torn’s house. Mr. Torn narrated our video 900 Nights.

Guarding a house across the street from our hotel on Okinawa.

Players, Sir ! I look upon them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784.

Shiba no inu. Is EVERYTHING the Japanese do cute, or does it just seem that way ?

Imagine if there were this much variation in humans. What if dogs bred US ?

Shiba inu.

And daun Russell the fox stirte up atones. Chaucer.

Ozzy Osborne saved his wife Sharon’s Pomeranian from a coyote by tackling and wrestling the coyote until it released the dog. Talk about a hero.

Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be all bad. W.C. Fields.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew, probably talking about TV evangelists.

Nunc, vero inter saxum et locum durum sum. Now I am really between a rock and a hard place.

The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. King Lear.

A dog’s life. He lives in Athens, visits the Acropolis daily and is constantly photographed. Well, okay, the being photographed may be a little disturbing, but…

Yvonne de Carlo.

Sometimes, most of the time?, the worst thing about parting from someone is that you have to leave her dog too.

Woof. Arf. Wag.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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CATS.

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18 March 2012

Did you know that cats, the ones who aren’t agnostics anyway, have a patron saint?

She is Gertrude de Nivelles and she is also the patron of gardeners.

Yesterday 17 March was her Feastday. You have to wonder if Santa Gertrudis cattle are named for her and, you know, they probably are.

Gertrude who was born in 626 of our era is often invoked against rats and mice, particularly field mice, so she is the protector of cats.

In my halcyon days, I often liked to take LSD and study the world around me, particularly cats who were near to hand and always fascinating.

They seem to study me too.

Cats are so well engineered and seem to fit in their life niche better than many, many other creatures. Although they sometimes do suffer from anxiety issues and other health problems (like any other animal) and might need CBD products for cats to help them cope. But overall, cats are good at what they do – being cats.

This cat is Jazzy. He lives in San Anselmo.

We brought Lizzy home when she was a baby and in two days she knew how to go the bathroom, clean herself, climb, no, run, up and down the spiral staircase, things that our eight year old dog still has not learned. She seemed that advanced that we thought she would be able sort her own cat insurance out!

I love dogs and indeed plan to write about them soon, but a cat will run circles around a dog when she isn’t actually jumping circles around him.

Notice that I have unconsciously ascribed a gender to each of these animals.

Women are cats.

Men are dogs. Take that any way you want to.

No stereotyping here.

Big Brother and the Holding Company played in Central Park in the summer of 2003. One of our singers was Chan Marshall.

Chan sometimes calls herself Cat Power.

When she was onstage with us, when we were actually playing Down On Me, Chan held a tape recorder to her ear, listening to Janis Joplin sing Down On Me. This was such a post Modern approach to learning a tune that I have never forgot Chan.

Ernest Hemingway was one of the more famous lovers of polydactyl cats.

He was first given a six-toed cat by a ship’s captain.

As provided in his will, his former home in Key West, Florida currently houses some fifty descendants of his cats. About half of them are polydactyl.

I simply can’t resist a cat, particularly a purring one. They are the cleanest, cunningest, and most intelligent things I know, outside of the girl you love, of course. Mark Twain.

Mark Twain was asked: “What is better than a cat?” To which Twain replied: “Two cats!”

Fitting thing for a man named Twain to say.

Motto: Momma loves morals and Papa loves cats. Susy Clemens.

Sir Isaac Newton loved cats. He invented the cat door.

Edgar Allan Poe used cats as symbols of the sinister in several of his stories, although he himself owned and loved cats. He used his tortoiseshell cat “Catarina” as the inspiration for his story ‘The Black Cat’.

T.S. Eliot was a cat lover and he wrote an entire book of poems about cats, that ultimately became a rather well known musical.

Nostradamus (1503 – 1566), the prognosticator of prognosticators, had a cat named Grimalkin, which, with a capital letter or no, is a name used generically for a cat, especially an old one.

Monet loved cats and depicted them in several paintings.

Florence Nightingale owned a large Persian cat named “Bismarck”. She owned more than 60 cats in her lifetime.

Then there’s Kat Patterson who has many feline characteristics.

So does Peggy Pettigrew Stewart, gifted glass artist, here in her natural habitat. Elise and I are going to Arizona to see Peggy this week.

Catalina and Albert.

One of our very early songs in Big Brother and the Holding Company was Faster, Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill. I never saw the film, but the tune was fun to play faster and faster.

Robert Crumb said he felt terrible about creating three things because he was ripped off on each of them: 1. the Keep On Truckin’ logo. 2. Fritz the Kat, and 3. the Cheap Thrills album cover because Columbia paid him a small fee and then years later his original drawing was sold at Sotheby’s for some ungodly sum.

I have said so often that Crumb is the greatest artist of our time that I am beginning to believe it.

Why no one in the art world will even try to pronounce “Brueghel” correctly is a bit of a puzzle. Everyone says it as if it were German and written Breugel, but it’s not. It’s Dutch and it is the very devil to pronounce. In Haarlem, I once asked a docent how to pronounce it. I had to ask him three times and I still didn’t get it. It is SOMETHING like Brew hull where the r is said with a flap as in Spanish or Italian and where the h is pronounced as “ch” in German or Scottish. It is definitely not “Broigull,” as Robert Hughes and even Robert Crumb pronounce it.

“Gattare” are Roman women who feed and care for the feral cats of that city.

Edward Gorey and his grimalkin.

Yoko, John and Pepper.

George definitely seems like a cat person.

As does Stan Laurel.

Gato Barbieri was the happening Latin musician when I played with Cubans in New York in the 1970s. Gato is Spanish for “cat,” from Latin “cattus.”

The Classical Latin for “cat” was “felis,” but people in the street said “cattus.” Think of when we say “feline” in English and when we say “cat.”

I once had a cat named Felix, not for “felis,” but for “felix,” happy. Compare Spanish “feliz” and Italian “felice.”

In Greek there was also a learned word for cat (aílouros) and a street word (káttos).

From the word “aílouros,” we get ailurophilia and ailurophbia and you can probably guess what those are. I have a cat who sticks her tongue out just a little bit as this one does. She will leave it there until you call her attention to it.

Ailurophobes are immediately detected by cats who then shower their attention on them… sometimes quite literally.

The poet Martial used the word “catta,” and modern Greeks say “gáta” from Italian “gatta.”

In Catalan, they say “gat.” I think Pablo Picasso may have frequented a café called Quatre Gats (Four Cats) when he was a young man in Barcelona at the turn of the last century.

The English seem to love cats a bit more than the rest of us.

Bowie and Purrie.

Writers like cats, maybe because they are sedentary and soft, or maybe because cats just seem to be wise and comfortable.

I have spent a lifetime drawing and painting cats. I put Mr. O’Reilly in here. He is nothing like that bully on Faux News.

Interspecies love affair, courtesy of my friend Filia Franco.

If you want to draw a kitten, you have to move quickly.

An ailurophile’s bass guitar.

Notice that cats walk on their “fingertips” and that their thumb has migrated up into their inside “forearm” area. You only see four digits in the footprint. Shakespeare called the feline/canine thumb a “dewclaw.”

These thumbs have not migrated yet.

But, hey, they may.

This man loved cats.

Socks also knew his way around the White House.

“I have seven lives. Help me to live at least one of them well.” (I thought they had nine lives.)

Zappa means “hoe” in Italian. No, not that kind of hoe. The other kind of hoe.

I knew this cat well.

Two rather handsome cats.

He assumed the name “Capote” from where I don’t know. It means a big cape or a cloak.

It may even be a top for a convertible.

They visited Minden, Nevada, together.

Drew is a true blue ailurophile.

I love it when cats stick out their arms like this.

Thereby hangs a… oh, you know, a big sweeper.

Cats are as varied in their character and personalities as humans are. Maybe more so.

Some decisive, chiseled.

Others a little softer around the edges.

Ready to go with whatever.

Orange tabbys are always fun.

Love and happiness. (Hey, good idea for a song title.)

Meow.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Starfinder and Larry the Hat at The Sweetwater.

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Monday 12 March 2012

Monday night in Mill Valley, California.

Tony Saunders and  Starfinder Stanley in the green room at the new Sweetwater.

Everything felt right. The vibes (and vibes are very important in California), the vibes were right. Pete Sears, Inez Garcia and Kurt Huget.

We were all there to celebrate the release of Owsley Stanley’s Carousel CD. Robert Altman always in good spirits.

This man is a star, so Starfinder should find him. I don’t know who he is, but he’s a star.

Joli Valenti turned in a great set, and then Lynn Asher, Peter Albin, Terry Haggerty, Kurt Huget, Paul Revelli and I did Down On Me, Bobby McGee, Call On Me and Piece of My Heart.

The beautiful Elise and the not so bad looking either Jesse.

Alzara Getz and Lynn Asher. Lynn did such a good job of singing.

Elise Piliwale and Peter Albin.     You have to walk across the stage in front of the band to get to the dressing room. Good planning.

This was such a great night. Thank you to everyone, but especially to Larry Lautzker (Larry the Hat) and Starfinder Stanley for making it happen.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Saint Patrick

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11 March 2012

 

Patrick was born sometime in the fifth century of our era at Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, Scotland.

The Antonine Wall had its western terminus near Kilpatrick in West Dumbartonshire, so this was Roman territory. It would be like a military post or base today.

The Antonine Wall was farther north than Hadrian’s

Patrick’s name was most likely Patricius since his father Calpurnius was from a patrician family and served as a deacon (decio) in the church.

In Irish Patrick is Pádraig.

Patrick’s grandfather was a priest. (This is long before the Church, in her wisdom, decided that priests should be celibate.)

Two authentic letters from Patrick survive and we know most of his life from these.

His mother Conchessa was from the same family as Martin de Tours, the patron saint of France.

Martin is so often depicted with a sword seemingly aimed at a near naked man on foot, that one could not be faulted for thinking that he was about to impale the poor beggar.  Martin was, however, using his sword to cut his cloak in two to share it with the man..

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Irish adventurers abducted Patrick when he was sixteen and he was sold into slavery.

His new owner Milchu of Dairiada in Antrim, Ireland, made him a shepherd and Patrick led a lonely meditative life of prayer for six years.

Milchu was a Druid and thus Patrick came to have a thorough knowledge of the native Irish religion and the Celtic Irish speech.

The study of druidism was his apprenticeship into Irish ways.

At the end of his six year slavery, Patrick escaped traveling west 200 miles to Westport where he sailed for Britain and was soon with family and friends.

He then went to his mother’s family in Gaul, to the monastery at Tours and he also studied at the island sanctuary of Lérins.

Patrick felt insecure about his education and his rustic Latin.

Hearing that Saint Germain (Sanctus Germanus) was preaching at Auxerre, Patrick went to him and after much study became a priest.

Germain was called to Britain to combat the Pelagian heresy there, and Patrick went with him.

Then he began thinking seriously of returning to Ireland.

He began to hear voices calling him back.

Saint Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, commended Patrick to Pope St. Celestine I who gave him the mission of bringing Ireland into the Church.

The Pope now named him Patercius or Patritius to indicate that Patrick would become the pater civium, the father of his people.

Thus, in 433 Patrick landed at the Vantry River close by Wicklow Head.

He made his way to Dairiada and payed the price of ransom to his former master.

Before contending with the Druids, he rested for a while off the Skerrie Coast.

A chieftain named Dichu at first tried to stop Patrick, but Dichu gradually became a friend and gave Patrick a sabhail (barn) which became the first patrician sanctuary in Ireland.

“Sabhail” is an Irish word meaning “save, preserve,” in one sense for the saving of crops. Over time the word became “saul.”

A monastery and church were built there and the place is still known as Sabhail (Saul). This is where Patrick died many years later.

Patrick’s former master Milchu, rather than be converted by his former slave, burned all of his (Milchu’s) possessions and threw himself into the fire.

Fire was sacred to the Irish.

Patrick used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish honored their gods with fire.

Patrick understood the power of symbolism.

He made the Irish cross by superimposing a sun, which the Irish worshipped, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross.

When he returned to Saul (Sabhail), Patrick heard that there was to be a special gathering of all the chieftains at Tara on 26 March Easter Sunday 433.

All the chiefs and Druids came.

Patrick performed many great works at this festival and the people of Ireland understood that he was a messenger to them.

All the chieftains, all the bards and all the people understood Patrick’s special clarity and holiness.

It was here that he showed them the shamrock and explained the triune godhead.

On that Easter Day at Tara, the triumph of Patrick was complete.

The sacred fire now kindled by the saint would never be extinguished.

Patrick died on 17 March 493.

He is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down.

By the way, there have been no snakes in Ireland for ten thousand years.

No snakes either on New Zealand, iceland, Greenland, Antarctica or Hawaii and probably many other island places.

The shamrock was sacred in pre-Christian Ireland. It represented rebirth and eternal life.

Religious life in Ireland is very old… at least six thousand years old, but probably even more venerable.

Be sure to wear green this Saturday.

See you next week.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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IRONY.

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26 February 2012

Max Clarke sent me this one:

This word in Greek meant “dissimulation.” It became ironía, die Ironie, irony.

Oh, the irony of it all.

“Irony” supposedly began with Eiron who was the clever comic charater in Greek drama who tricked his “better,” the braggart Alazon.

In irony the surface meaning and the underlying meaning are not the same.

Lelaina:  Can you define “irony?”

Troy Dyer:  It’s when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning.

Reality Bites.

“It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word.”          William Zinsser.

Situational irony is a condition of affairs or events opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected, a contradictory outcome to events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness things. For example, Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize while he was bombing Cambodia.  This man was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1939.

Dramatic irony can occur in a play where we are watching a character and we know something s/he does not.

“Simply put, dramatic irony is when a person makes a harmless remark, and someone else who hears it knows something that makes the remark have a different, and usually unpleasant, meaning. For instance, if you were in a restaurant and said out loud, “I can’t wait to eat the veal marsala I ordered,” and there were people around who knew that the veal marsala was poisoned and that you would die as soon as you took a bite, your situation would be one of dramatic irony.”                     Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room

Oedipus Rex is an example of dramatic irony. We know that Oedipus is having a love affair with his mother, but he doesn’t know that.

Look at the Socratic method. Socrates pretends he does not know the answer to a question he is asking. He feigns ignorance in order to lead his student to a better understanding  of the topic. This is ignorance purposely affected.

• Kampenfeldt: This is a grave matter, a very grave matter. It has just been reported to me that you’ve been expressing sentiments hostile to the Fatherland.

Schwab: What, me sir?

Kampenfeldt: I warn you, Schwab, such treasonable conduct will lead you to a concentration camp.

Schwab: But sir, what did I say?

Kampenfeldt: You were distinctly heard to remark, “This is a fine country to live in.”

Schwab: Oh, no, sir. There’s some mistake. No, what I said was, “This is a fine country to live in.”

Kampenfeldt: Huh? You sure?

Schwab: Yes sir.

Kampenfeldt: I see. Well, in future don’t make remarks that can be taken two ways.             (Raymond Huntley and Eliot Makeham in Night Train to Munich, 1940)

• “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.”                             (Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)

• “I’m aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it.”                            (Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons)

• “Math was my worst subject because I could never persuade the teacher that my answers were meant ironically.”       (Calvin Trillin)

• “We’re conceived in irony. We float in it from the womb. It’s the amniotic fluid. It’s the silver sea. It’s the waters at their priest-like task, washing away guilt and purpose and responsibility. Joking but not joking. Caring but not caring. Serious but not serious.”                                       (Hilary in The Old Country by Alan Bennett, 1977)

• Lyn Cassady: It’s okay, you can “attack” me.

Bob Wilton: What’s with the quotation fingers? It’s like saying I’m only capable of ironic attacking or something.              (The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009)

Suppose you hear a political candidate give a terribly long speech, one that rambles on and on without end. Afterward you might turn to a friend sitting next to you  and say, ‘Well, that was short and to the point, wasn’t it?’ You are being ironic. You are counting on your friend to turn the literal meaning, to read it as exactly the opposite of what your words actually mean.

The word “irony” might be one of the most misused words in English.

Irony is sometimes used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to “every trivial oddity.” This happens so often that one day “irony” will come to mean this because so many people misuse the word, which is distressing to contemplate. The notion of irony will have been cheapened and counterfeited.

Many people say “ironic” when they really mean curious, odd, unusual, interesting or funny.   Take these examples, interesting but not ironic:

It seemed ironic that Lowell Levine and I, who were both Jewish, were going over to identify the remains of a man who was so anti-Semitic.          Michael Baden

It’s also ironic that in the old days of tape and tape hiss and vinyl records and surface noise, we were always trying to get records louder and louder to overcome that.       T-Bone Burnett

It’s ironic that in our culture everyone’s biggest complaint is about not having enough time; yet nothing terrifies us more than the thought of eternity.        Dennis Miller

Here is another example of the misuse of the word “irony.”   “Sullivan, whose real interest was, ironically, serious music, which he composed with varying degrees of success, achieved fame for his comic opera scores rather than for his more earnest efforts.”

The following is true, but not ironic:     For a Latino to vote for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

This is a pun and maybe even a visual pun on the two meanings of “bebe” (“baby” and the imperative of “drink”). Drink on board !  If you’re in the car, you shouldn’t drink.

I have read James Boswell since I was in the 8th grade. I have read every word he has written, although people keep finding new Boswell journals in castles and haylofts. All my life, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson has been my Bible. This is Samuel Johnson telling the young Boswell how to live eithically and intelligently. The book is full of good sense expressed in a precise and beautiful language. I have also revered Robert Crumb to an inordinate degree. Imagine my surprise and gratification, then, when Mr. Crumb released this set of drawings:

More non irony:

“Corporations are people, my friend… of coure they are.” Mitt Romney.

Mitt would have sounded much more intelligent if he had meant this ironically.

“The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them.”        Rush Limbaugh.

“I’m a Christian first, and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don’t you ever forget it.”                      Ann Coulter.

“I’m more of a man than any liberal.”       Ann Coulter.

Stop me when you’ve heard something you like.

The Irony of Incomprehension.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Shawn said.

“It’s not ironic at all,” Gus said.

“Dude, it’s so like a black fly in your chardonnay.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s not ironic, either?”

“Rain on your wedding day?”

“‘Irony’ is the use of words to convey a meaning that’s opposite to their literal meaning,” Gus said. “That stupid song came out fourteen years ago, and we still have this exact conversation at least once a week.”

“Yeah,” Shawn said. “Ironic, isn’t it?                                                                                       William Rabkin, A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read

That face, that grace, that beauty !

Now, THAT is irony.

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.          Albert Einstein.

100,000 sperm and you were the fastest?

For your information I would like to ask a question.          Samuel Goldwyn.

A play is made by sensing how the forces in life simulate ignorance – you set free the concealed irony, the deadly joke.          Arthur Miller.

“Although you know how to swim, always wear your floaters. What irony.”       No. Not irony. A silly pun on floaters and breasts, but not ironic in any way.

You have delighted us long enough.                              Jane Austen.

Now away with you.

With Anthea Sidiropoulos.

Thank you, and I will see you in a week.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Giulietta e Romeo: Juliet and Romeo

Posted on by tagged.

12 February 2012

Nel tempo che Bartolomeo della Scala era Signore di Verona vivevano in questa città due nobilissime famiglie, i Cappelletti ed i Montecchi, che furono nemici per molti anni.

In the time that Bartolomeo della Scala was the Lord of Verona, there lived in this city two most noble families, the Capulets and the Montagues, who were enemies for many years.

Erano già morti tanti uomini dall’una parte e dall’altra che dopo un certo tempo cessarono di farsi del male, e senz’altra pace gran parte dei loro uomini parlavano insieme.

So many had died on one side and the other in this feud that, after a certain time, the families ceased to do each other evil, and finally a good part of them spoke to each other in peace.

Avvenne un carnevale che in casa di Antonio Cappelletti diedero molte feste di giorno e di notte, e quasi tutta la città vi andava.

There was a carnival and in Anthony Capulet’s house there were parties day and night, and almost the whole town went there.

A una di queste feste andò una notte un giovane dei Montecchi.

A young Montague went one night to one of these parties.

Era molto giovane, bellissimo, grande di persona, e ben educato.

He was very young, very handsome, tall and well mannered.

Quando si levò la maschera, come facevano tutti gli altri, fece impressione su tutti, tanto per la sua bellezza, quato perchè si trovava in quella casa.

When everyone removed their masks, the young man amazed everyone both by his handsomeness and by the fact that he was even in that house.

Specialmente fece impressione su una figlia di Antonio Cappelletti, la quale era bellissima e graziossissima.

But he especially made an impression on the daughter of Anthony Capulet and she was very beautiful and most gracious.

Fu tale l’impressione della bellezza del giovane, che non appena i loro occhi s’incontrarono, ella non fu più padrona di sè stessa.

She was so struck by the handsomeness of the youth, that as soon as their eyes met, she could no longer control herself.

Il giovane se ne stava tutto solo, e rare volte prendeva parte al ballo o alla conversazione.

He kept to himself and seldom took part in the dance or the conversation.

Passata la mezzanotte s’incominciò il ballo di capppello, che si usava alla fine delle feste; nel quale tutti stanno in cerchio, e cambiando, l’uomo piglia la donna  e la donna piglia l’uomo che vuole.

After midnight began the hat dance, usual at the end of parties, when everyone stood in a cirlce and the man chose the woman and the woman chose the man that she wanted.

In questo ballo il giovane fu preso da una donna e fu lasciato per caso proprio vicino alla fanciulla.

During this dance the youth was chosen by a lady and he was left by chance near the young girl.

Dall’altro lato della fanciulla c’era un giovane che aveva sempre le mani freddissime, così di luglio come di gennaio.

On the other side of the girl was a young man who always had very cold hands  whether in July or January.

Quando Romeo Montecchio (chè così si chiamava il giovane) giunse al lato sinistro della donna e prese la sua bella mano, come si usa in tal ballo, la giovane, forse vaga di udirlo parlare, subito gli disse:

Benedetta sia la vostra venuta presso me, signor Romeo.

When Romeo Montague (for that was the youth’s name) came to the left side of the lady and took her beautiful hand as was customary in that dance, she said, “I’m so glad you’re here, Romeo.”

Il giovane, che si era già accorto che ella lo guardava, meravigliato le disse:

“Come ! benedetta la mia venuta?”

The youth, aware and amazed that she was looking at him, said,    “Pardon? Happy with my being here?”

Ed ella rispose:       And she answered:

Sì, benedetta la vostra venuta presso me; almeno mi terrete calda la mano sinistra, poichè la destra è freddissima.

Yes, happy that you are near me. And you will take my warm left hand, because the right is so cold.

Romeo, prendendo coraggio, continuò:

Se io con la mia mano riscaldo la vostra, voi con begli occhi accendete il mio cuore.

Romeo, taking heart, continued:

If I warm your hands with mine, you with your beautiful eyes set my heart on fire.

La donna, dopo un breve sorriso, gli disse:

Io vi giuro, Romeo, che non c’è donna qui che paia tanto bella ai miei occhi quanto voi.

The lady smiled and said:     I swear to you, Romeo, there is no woman here as beautiful to my eyes as you are.

E il giovane, già tutto acceso di lei, rispose:     Se non vi dispiace, sarò sempre fedele alla vostra bellezza.

And the youth, already burning with love for her answered:      And it please you, I will always be faithful to your beauty.

Accesi dunque i due amanti di ugual fuoco, cominciarono a guardarsi con diletto, quando in chiesa and quando in qualche finestra.

The two lovers burning with equal fire began to see each other with delight whether in church or in whatever window.

Non erano mai felici nè l’uno nè l’altro, se non si vedevano.

They were never happy, not the one nor the other, if they didn’t see each other.

Ed egli specialmente si trovava così di lei acceso, che quasi tutta la notte stava solo dinanzi alla casa dell’amata donna con grandissimo pericolo della sua vita.

And he especially was so in love that he stood in front of her house all night  at great danger to his life.

E qualche volta saliva sopra il balcone della sua camera, e lì ascoltava il suo bel parlare senza essere veduto; altre volte restava nella strada.

And sometimes he climbed to the balcony of her bedroom and listened unseen to her beautiful voice. Other times he stayed in the street.

Una notte che la luna riluceva più del solito, mentre Romeo stava per salire sul balcone, la giovane venne ad aprire quella finestra e lo vide.

One night, the moon shining brighter than usual, Romeo was climbing up the balcony, and she came to open the window and saw him.

Lo connobe, e chiamandolo per nome gli disse:

Che fate qui a quest’ora, così solo ?

She recognized him and, calling him by name, said to him:

What are you doing here at this hour alone?

Ed egli ripsone:

Quello che Amor vuole.

And he answered:

I am on a Love mission.

E se vi trovano, non potreste facilmente morire ?

And if they found you, couldn’t you easily die?

Madonna, rispose Romeo, certo che potrei morire. E ci morirò di certo qualche notte se non mi aiutate.

My lady, answered Romeo, of course I could die. And I will die here some night  for sure if you don’t help me.

Ma poichè in ogni altro luogo sono così presso alla morte come qui, cerco di morire più vicino che possa alla vostra persona, con la quale bramerei di vivere sempre.

I could die anywhere as well as here, but I want to die here near to you and I am yearning to live with you always.

Nulla si può bramare più di quel che io bramo voi.

I yearn for you as no one has yearned before.

E perciò se a voi piace di esser mia, come io desidero di esser vostro, lo farò volentieri.

That’s why if you will be mine as I desire to be yours, then I am happy to yearn for you.

E nessuno mi potrà mai togliere da voi.

And no one can ever take me from you.

E detto questo, si misero d’accordo di parlarsi un’altra notte e ciascuno se ne andò dal luogo dove era.

And saying this, they agreed to speak another night and parted.

Il giovane andò molte volte per parlarle, e una sera  che cadeva molta neve, la donna prese tanta pietà di lui che decisero di sposarsi in segreto, in presenza di frate Lorenzo.

He went many nights to speak with her and one very snowy evening, she took pity on him and they decided to marry in secret, in the presence of Friar Lorenzo.

Questo frate era un uomo molto intelligente, e grande amico di Romeo.

This monk was a very intelligent man and a great friend to Romeo.

Il giovane andò a trovarlo e gli disse quanto bramava di sposare l’amata giovane; e che erano d’accordo che lui solo doveva sapere il loro segreto e poi cercare di convincere il padre di lei.

Romeo went to find the friar and tell him that he yearned to marry Juliet and that they agreed that the monk alone should know their secret and should then try to convince her father to let them marry.

Il frate ne fu molto contento, tanto perchè non poteva negare nulla a Romeo quanto perchè desiderava veder la pace fra le due case.

The monk was very happy both because he could refuse nothing to Romeo, and because he wanted to see peace between the two families.

Così la giovane, fingendo di volersi confessare, andò un giorno da frate Lorenzo.

Thus Juliet, pretending that she wanted to go to confession, went one day to Brother Lawrence.

Allora in presenza del frate Romeo sposò la bella giovane.

Then in the presnce of the friar, Romeo married the beautiful young one.

Divenuti segretamente marito e moglie, aspettarono di trovar modo di convincere il padre della donna, perchè sapevano che era molto contrario ai loro desideri.

So they became secretly husband and wife, and they were waiting to find a way to convince the father of the bride that their marriage was good and holy. They knew that he was much against their love.

Avvenne però, che invece di far pace, i Montecchi ed i Cappelletti diventarono più nemici, tanto che una volta vennero alle mani per la strada.

It happened that, instead of making peace, the Montagues and the Capulets became more enemies than ever, so much so that one time they came to blows in the street.

Romeo combatteva, ma cercava di non ferire nessuno della casa della sua donna.

Romeo fought, but he tried not to wound anyone from his lady’s family.

Alla fine però, vinto dall’ira perchè molti dei suoi erano feriti, uccise colui che pareva il più fiero dei suoi nemici.

But finally, conquered by the anger he felt about his many comrades who were wounded, he killed the proudest one of his enemies.

Per questo Romeo fu bandito per sempre da Verona.

For this Romeo was banished forever from Verona.

La misera giovane, vedendo queste cose, piangeva di continuo, e soffriva molto di più perchè non poteva scoprire il suo dolore a nessuno.

The miserable young woman, seeing these things, cried continually and suffered much more because she could reveal her sadness to no one.

Il giovane, non potendo andare da lei, andò dal frate, che trovò il modo di farli incontrare.

Romeo, non being able to leave her, went to the Friar, who found a way that he could meet her.

Assai piansero la loro sventura, ed alla fine diss’ella:

Che farò io senza di voi? Non ho più desiderio di vivere. Sarebbe meglio venire con voi, dovunque andiate. Mi vestirò da uomo e verrò con voi come servo.

She cried much about their bad luck and finally said,

What will I do without you? I don’t want to live. It would be better to come with you, wherever you go. I will dress like a man and will accompany you as a servant.

Moglie, mia cara, le disse Romeo, quando verrete con me non sarà mai altro che come mia signora. Ma poichè sono certo che la pace fra noi si farà, resterete senza me soltanto per poco tempo. E se le cose non succedono come penso io, prenderemo qualche altro partito.

My darling wife, said Romeo, you will only come with me as my lady. But since I am sure that there will be peace between our families, stay here without me for just a little while. And if things don’t turn out as i think they will, then we will take another course.

Dopo poco tempo, Romeo se ne andò a Mantova, ma prima di partire disse al servo della donna di far sapere subito al frate ogni cosa d’importanza.

A little while later, Romeo left for Mantua, but before leaving he told his lady’s servant to let Friar Lorenzo know about every important matter.

Romeo era partito da molti giorni e la giovane piangeva sempre.

Romeo had been gone many days and the young wife cried always.

La madre, che teneramente l’amava, le parlava e le domandava la ragione del suo pianto.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK…

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Sam Andrew in the Civil War, 1861 – 1864.

Posted on by tagged.

5 February 2012

History, biography, memoirs are fictions that we construct to bring order out of this chaotic, complicated reality called life.

Samuel David Andrew, born  1839 in Jefferson County, Georgia. Died 1885, Corsicana, Texas.

Sam Andrew is an old name in our family. It dates from at least the eighteenth century and probably long before.

Jane Andrew and her son Samuel lived in Jefferson County, Georgia (1802-1822), where Samuel David Andrew lived for much of his life, so it seems very likely that they were his great grandmother and grandfather.

Part of the Andrew lineage.

Eliza Finney Clarke married Allen Andrew, an English born physician, on 25 September 1836 in Augusta, Georgia. Allen died on 11 September 1839, in the terrible yellow fever (cholera) epidemic. He was only 22 and he came to Georgia from New York. Allen Andrew was buried in the Magnolia Cemetery, Augusta. Eliza and Allen’s son Samuel David was born only a few months after his father’s death.

Magnolia Cemetery.

Samuel David Andrew’s mother Eliza Clarke met America’s benefactor, the Marquis de Lafayette when she was seven. Her parents served on a welcoming committee for Lafayette when he visited Augusta in 1826, and Eliza had sharp memories of crying because she could not shake the hand of the general, being “only” a child at the time.

Eliza Finney Clarke Andrew (1819-1897), Sam Andrew’s mother.

Samuel Andrew was the son of a physician and he married the daughter of a physician, Ireana (Irene, Rena) Scarborough on 21 July 1860. Irene’s father was Dr. David Scarborough and her mother was Penelope Louisa Bembry. Sam met Irene because he was a tutor to her brother David Scarborough, Junior. Sam was well educated for his time, and he taught school both before and after he was married.

Through Irene Scarborough Andrew, I am related to most of the Scarboroughs in Georgia, and to all of the Bembrys.

To Kevin Bembry…

To Amber Bembry…

Irene Scarborough Andrew in 1880, Penelope Louisa Bembry’s daughter and Sam Andrew’s wife.

The first year that Sam and Irene were married, there was talk of war with the North. All the young hotspurs in Georgia were anxious to join the army. Sam went to Hawkinsville, Georgia, and enlisted on 16 May 1861 to become a private soldier in the Pulaski County Volunteers commanded by Dr. T.D. Lawrence Ryan, soon to leave for Virginia in May 1861.

Hawkinsville, Georgia, steamboat landing.

Sam stayed behind a while to make sure his young pregnant wife was taken care of, and rejoined the Volunteers in Winchester, Virginia, June 1861. His outfit had been busy.  Assigned to General Joseph E. Johnstone’s Shenandoah Valley Command, they marched to Harpers Ferry late in May and helped Thomas Jonathan Jackson take a good quantity of military supplies back to Winchester. The taking of all this ordnance and even some railroad locomotives was a boon for the Confederate Army. This feat helped T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson become a brigadier general.

Winchester, Virginia.

Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson.

Harpers Ferry at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the long, beautiful Shenandoah Valley, higher at the southern end, lower towards the north. Thus, marching “up the valley,” was to travel southward.

The Pulaski Volunteers were absorbed into the main army and renamed Company G, 8th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Francis Bartow, a Savannah attorney and politician, later killed in action at Manassas. He was the first brigade commander to die in the war.

My wife Elise owns several daguerrotypes and tintypes from this time.

First Manassas  (Bull Run) 21  July 1861

Company G was not yet fully trained when they received orders to march to Manassas Junction which was quite a distance over the Blue Ridge from Winchester. The Company left so soon that Sam Andrew and a few other men did not even have enough time to retrieve their laundry. About ten in the morning on 20 July 1861, Sam became one of the first Confederate soldiers to be under fire at the stone bridge over Bull Run. He received a bullet nick on his musket. (Much of the equipment dated from the Revolutionary era.)

The action at Manassas showed both sides that this war was not going to be over any time soon. Now there was a long wait for spring.

Sam wrote home from winter quarters in Centreville, Virginia. (He spelled it Centerville.)

Camped at Centerville, October 20, 1861

My Dearest Darling Wife,

Today the twentieth day of October I seat myself to answer your dear welcome letter of the 6 inst. Oh Dolly the pleasure that it affords me to get one of these letters from you is indescribable, the lingering uneasiness of the hours are swept away by them as by some fairy hand in an instant and I am all thankfulness and filled with pleasure atr the idea of my darling being in good health. As I scan the pages whose lines are penciled by her hand bystanders can clearly see the  heavy gloom leave my brow and the pleasant smile present itself in the stead on my lip at the intelligence of Sam’s having a letter from home and it from his Dolly. Oh Dolly, that home, home sweet home. Who can express an idea of thy luxuries? (and thy man’s – the loved wife of one’s heart and the dear little babe of his bosom) so will say the Poor Soldier who has left thee and thy dear ties – no matter whether they be, “The humble clay pipe, or the more aristocratic Havana, silk dressing gown, embroidered slippers, or an uncut Magazine, he has exchanged thee for the hardships of the battlefield, and subject to the vile and inhuman control of base upstarts shielded by parchment and shoulder straps (part of sentence illegible)… from the upstart officers is enough to melt away the patriotism of the most zealous, which cannot be resented on account of the commissions they hold which would subject us to Court Martial, but there is not a man in the Army of the Confederacy but at the close of war will have something to settle with Capt this or Col that when the insolent Puppies will not be any better than we are and the sholder strap and the commission will be an ineffective barrier to hide behind. enough of this. Dolly, you asked me a question in your last in reference to a fight with any of the boys. Oh! Dolly how glad will you be when I say I have not as much as had a quarrel with any of the boys, nor do I expect to unless I can’t keep out of it. Instead of this I have gained the respect of all the boys that are in the company. To prove to you, but keep it to yourself, they are anxious to elect me orderly sergeant in place of and over the heads  of all other sergeants. But I will not accept it as the boys who come here in or with the company are entitled and they suit me well enough. You may say that is quite a small office which it is but it is next to third lieutenant and the Pay is about 21 dollars a month.

Orderly sergeant’s insignia, Army of Northern Virginia.

You say it ain’t worthwhile to write. I don’t get the letters, in August I got only one and in Sept two but since that I have gotten every letter you have written I guess as these dates were about a week apart so you must must write to me My Dolly if you don’t the Bullet will not get a chance at me for such would shorten my days a hundred percent. Well Dolly news is scarce (illegible sentence due to fold in paper) … fallen back and are granted an encampment there where we were when we were at Fairfax Court perhaps at the same place. We are now at Centerville all huddled up together anxiously awaiting the attack which I hope will come soon so then I can get to come to Dolly sooner than if it is delayed much longer, if I do not get killed which I feel confident will not happen although I may. The Yanks are in greater force than at Manassas but we will give them licks if they come on us as that is what we retreated for – we are fortifying Centerville. In a few days I guess it will be in a good state of defense against the Yanks, but it would not surprise me if we win (next two words illegible) greatly diminished our baggage and we were compelled to send many things of necessity to us but could not have them hauled so there was no other alternative. Well I must close My Dolly by Giving my love to John, Can, Em, Aunt F, Cousin E, Betty, Davy, John G., Vic, Tomy, Bob, Uncle Tom. Remember to Maj. I would write to him and Uncle, but they wont write to me so receive a large share of love for your Dear self. May God Bless and protect you in the prayers of your

Dear Husband, SDA

(“Can” is Kenneth Bembry, killed at Gettysburg, July 1863, and Uncle Tom is Thomas Bembry.)

Varina Howell Davis, First Lady.

Now the men leave their winter encampment and began the march to the Virginia peninsula. June 1862. This map shows the Union movement. The Army of Northern Virginia came from the west.

In the spring of 1862, , the Union Army was at Yorktown where General Cornwallis had surrendered to George Washington a lifetime earlier.

Sam Andrew and his comrades in the 7th and 8th  Georgia attacked and drove out the northern troops and now occupied the wet, moldy, muddy trenches, where Sam caught the flu and had to be sent to the Medical College Hospital in Richmond and was only fully well again at the battle of Malvern Hill.

Medical College Hospital, Richmond, Virginia.

General Robert E. Lee now created the Army of Northern Virginia from commands of Jackson and Longstreet and the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th Georgia were assigned to General Longstreet for the rest of the war.

Cecil Johnson, 8th Georgia.

Malvern Hill, July 1862.

Second Manassas, August 1862.

A.P. Hill.

T.J. Jackson’s regiments began leaving Frederick, Maryland, on 10 September 1862, traveling through Hagerstown and Williamsport to encircle Harpers Ferry. On the march through Frederick, Sam Andrew had one of those strange, fortuitous encounters that happen occasionally to all of us. As he was walking, he recognized James McGlohen, his mother’s husband,  leaning against a bridgerail. “Too sick to walk,” James muttered. Sam said he should get on one of the wagons and rest, and that, he, Sam, had to rejoin his company. That was the last anyone in the family ever saw of James McGlohen.

This is the fuel for all of that marching and fighting.

Hard tack. A cracker that was difficult to smash with a hammer. Most of the men soaked the  hard tack in their coffee. Sailors called this sea biscuit or pilot bread which I occasionally see in markets, although I assume that the present version is much more palatable. I seem to remember that in Two Years Before The Mast, Richard Henry Dana called it hard tack. The men were issued eight to ten of these crackers a day.

D.H. Hill.

McClellan’s leading corps ran into D.H. Hill early on 14 September 1862. The Confederates were outnumbered by several thousands but they held strong positions in the mountain passes. General Longstreet ordered Hood’s half division and G.T. Anderson’s Georgia Brigade into the fray. Sam Andrew and his comrades were soon under attack by a Federal division. The Texas Brigade came to the rescue and the Union soldiers were beaten back with heavy losses. This is where Sam met many Texans that he was to know in later life.

John Bell Hood, Major General, commanded the Texas Brigade.

Another Georgia name that will resonate with Texans, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was from the same county as Sam Andrew, and he was secretary to Governor Troup. Janis Joplin went to Lamar State College in Port Arthur, Texas . Her mother Dorothy worked there.

Sharpsburg (Antietam), September 1862.

Not long ago, Big Brother and the Holding Company played in Hagerstown, Maryland. It still looked much like this.

During our set, I kept seeing images of battle and death, and actually winced as I was playing. Not sure what was happening, but I was thinking powerfully of another Sam Andrew that day.

The same thing happened to me when we played outside one afternoon at Gettysburg. I had an intense feeling that, “Well, you can be in a mass of men and murder each other, or you can play music, and it’s not entirely in your control which one you will be doing.” I had such a strong sense of connection to what had happened here.

Fredericksburg, December 1862.

It’s one thing for men to be damned fools and kill each other, but it’s quite another to drag the horses into it.

Camped at Fredericksburg, Va, January 5, 1863

My Dearest Rena

I have come to the conclusion that you are entirely (out) of writing material or surely you would have written to me before this time. I wrote to you yesterday stating that I was well except Dysentery. I am now well or so nearly so as to feel very much better. My Darling if I could only hear from you and my Mother, Grandmother, I should be entirely changed or feel so, but it has been so long since I heard from you I am quite miserable as you may know as all the solace or comfort I have now is in writing to the one of my affection. I am perfectly restless you just ought to see me like an Hyena never satisfied unless moving or running about. The boys are now preparing breakfast and I writing to pass off the time untill Roger McCall makes out the biscuit that I may bake them. Gainor is baking beef and Jim is arranging his knapsack. Tate Bridges is drying a towel he has just washed, Henry Shepard is looking on wishing for breakfast. Pap Eubanks is spinning a yarn greatly  to the amusement of the whole Mess. George Folds is poking the fire hurrying up the cooks and I am in my feeble way writing to my Dolly. The weather is quite pleasant here now if it remains so much longer, I think we will have another brush with the Yanks before long as they are lying just on the opposite bank of the river by the thousands.

I wish I could see you now I would be entirely happy. I have a faint hope of getting to come this winter or next spring as I think there will be a mediation on the part of the European Powers. I hope there will. Give my love to all and receive a large share for your dear self. Kiss the baby for Sam.

Sammy

Chancellorsville 1 – 3 May 1863

This was perhaps Lee’s greatest victory, but he lost his “right arm” here. General T.J. Stonewall Jackson died in this battle.

In Stephen Crane’s short story, “The Veteran,” published a year after The Red Badge of Courage, an elderly Henry Fleming reminisces about his first experiences in battle: “That was at Chancellorsville,” he remembers. The veteran Henry’s recollection of his reasons for flight match those of his younger namesake in The Red Badge of Courage, and he recalls with sorrow the death of Jim Conklin, the “tall soldier.” “The Veteran,” then, explicitly identifies the battle in Red Badge as Chancellorsville, one of the bloodiest struggles of the Civil War.

The Girl I Left Behind Me.

Camped near Orange Court House, May 31, 1863

My dearest Rena

I addressed you yesterday or the day before and now feel like writing to you again as I had some news to write you but felt a delicacy in letting you know of it until things came to a head. It was this, on the 25th of the present month I ran against Sergt. G. W. Folds for 2nd Lieutenancy gr and at last I was elected by a majority of 12 votes. After I was elected I had to go before the examining committee for eamination. Which came off yesterday evening and this morning. I passed without a riffle so I can tell you with propriety that I am a Lieutenant. The above is the reason I did not tell you of it the other day as I was afraid I might possibly make a failure. I as well as Jim are well and feel fully recompensed for the way I was treated in the preceding election. I do wish I could see you. I would be happy. I have not heard a word yet from your uncles if you have do not fail to acquaint me of it. I hope this will find you, your Aunt Anna, Emma, and all the others of the family in the enjoyment of good health. I hope this may reach Aunt F restored to health. Remember me to … (names illegible due to fold in paper) . We had a long service today in which we had a sham battle though I recon nobody was hurt as there were no balls in the cannons. I must conclude Wife, may boy & write soon to your Dear Husband

Lieut S. D. Andrew

Second Lieutenant collar strap, Army of Northern Virginia.

Gettysburg, June-July 1863.

General Hood’s regiments took the summit of Round Top easily, but were blocked in an area of rocks and boulders, not far west of Little Round Top. This place was called Devil’s Den and it earned its name.

Generals Hood and Anderson were wounded, and, indeed, most of the officers were dying. Captain John A. Young of Company G, 8th Georgia had a mortal wound and First Lieutenant G.L. Bridges was captured. Sam Andrew was now in command of the company. He had lost his best friend, Jim Gordon, and his wife’s uncle “Can” Bembry that same day.

General Robert E. Lee began moving the wounded toward Hagerstown during the evening of 4 July. The 8th Georgia assumed rear guard duty and suffered still more losses at Funktown, Maryland, on 10 July, during which Sam Andrew lost his second in command, Lieutenant William J. Sapp.

Gettysburg finally ended the hope that the European powers might intervene.

Diagram of a minie ball.

Camp near Rogersville, Tennessee, on the road to Bristol, Virginia,

December 11, 1863.

My Dearest Rena.. I am once more permitted to thank Kind Providence for carrying me through another fight though not entirely unhurt. But so slight I never left camp for it. I have been very uneasy about you ever since the fight as in a short time after our communications were cut off by a large force of the enemy coming up in our rear from Chattanooga which made it impossible for me to get the news to you as we had to leave Knoxville and are now on the road somewhere I dont know where. The wound I got was from a minie ball in the side which cut the skin about four inches through. It is well now and I hope I may hear from you soon as I am almost crazy to hear from you and my boy. Tell him when  when I come home I will bring him the knife he told me about. John came through the fight safe. A. W. Folds was killed, Charley Vaughn was killed and George W. Folds was shot in the back of his right eye and the BAll popped out behind his left ear. I fear he will not recover. We had to leave him in the hands of the enemy. Remember me to all and receive my everlasting love. Kiss my boy.

Your loving

Sammy

P. S. I am not certain this will get through (words illegible) so short. I will write you a longer letter when we get into camps.

Wilderness 5-7 May 1864   This was the Overland Campaign.

General Robert E. Lee was the “winner” of this battle, but, unlike Grant, he couldn’t replace the men he had lost. One of those men was Sam Andrew.

On the second day of Wilderness, 6 May 1864, Union general Hancock attacked and began driving back A.P. Hill. The 8th Georgia came under cannon and rifle fire while advancing down a gentle slope toward the Federals. Sam was hit on the right wrist and his hand was mutilated. They sawed off his arm right there on the field, and he was then taken to General Hospital in Charlottesville for convalescence.

In Hospital at Gordonsville, Va

May 11, 1864

(Written lefthanded)

My Dearest Wife.   Today I am trying to write you a few lines to inform you of my health. Though my dear dolly as you see it is quite an undertaking for my dear as you know by this time of my misfortune in the late fight at or near Chancellorsville on the 6th of the month in which I had my right arm shot off. It is gone from about halfway between my wrist and elbow but I am alright now my wound is healing very fast and I feel as well as I ever did in my life. John was well at the time I left the line and unhurt. I shall try and get home in a very short time if nothing happens to impede my recovery. I shall get home by the first of June so my dear wife do not give yourself any uneasiness for me as I am able to move about whenever I want to. I am not confined to my bed at all. Goodbye, kiss my boy and excuse this for I am writing it with my left hand.

Your loving Sammy

Clara Barton.

Sam Andrew was furloughed to Millen, Georgia, for convalescence. Irene Andrew had relatives nearby. Her sister Narcissa was living in Sardis, Burke County, already a war widow. Several months later, Sam was ordered to apply for disability retirement. He did that and was waiting for the result when the war ended April 1865.

There was plenty to do at home. Sam helped Anna Bembry with the Kenneth Bembry estate and Julia Emma Bembry with John Bembry’s farm properties.

Bembry family cemetery.

Sam and Irene had a son, Oscar David Andrew, and Irene was expecting a second child now. Sam became a schoolteacher and a storekeeper through most of the post war period.

This man Oscar David Andrew, Sam’s son, raised my father whose mother died early and whose own father was mostly absent.

After Wilderness and his amputation, Sam Andrew had traveled on foot and however else he could to Millen, Georgia, where Irene had been visiting for a while. He was learning to use his left hand, and as a boy I always thought I was left handed because of his new skill. Sam and Irene returned to Millwood. They had a daughter Lena (1865) and another daughter Frances Amelia (Fanny) 20 August 1867. Life was hard in Georgia, and Sam began thinking of his old Texan friends from General Hood’s command.

Sam and Irene had a small amount of money from the Scarborough and Bembry estates and Sam’s work in Georgia. It was just enough to move to Texas and buy a small farm.

Zada Lee Scarborough.

“Texas fever” was in the air.  Sam, Irene, Eliza McGlohen (Sam’s mother), Arthur and Frances Clarke, Anna Bembry and others talked of transportation to Texas, which was to be by ox-drawn wagons.

Maybe on the old Federal Road?

Sam and Irene were ready to leave as soon as the 1868 crop harvest was complete.

The first party to leave were Sam and Irene with their three children; Anna Bembry with her four children; David Scarborough, Jr; Thomas and Narcissa Hodges with Narcissa’s twelve year old daughter, Amelia; and the John M. Collins family.

Maybe their trip to Texas looked like this, but, well… no, probably not.

They arrived in Dresden, Navarro County, Texas, where Sam soon became a partner with R.J. Grady in a general store three and one half miles north of Dresden at a crossroads which became known as Gradyville, and which in time became the new town of Blooming Grove.

Sam later bought 140 acres from Anna Bembry and he began farming the land with Benjamin Bembry, 14, Oscar David Andrew and John Bembry, 10, as his helpers.

Grave of Benjamin Bembry near Hawkinsville, Georgia. Certainly a relative but maybe a son, grandson?

Sam was appointed deputy marshall to take the 1880 Census of Barry Community and this is part of his report:

Blooming Grove, Navarro County, Texas. First it was Gradyville and the Grady House where Sam died might have had something to do with these Gradys. The Andrew and Bembry farms were located on what is now the southwest edge of Blooming Grove.

Corsicana was about ten miles east of Blooming Grove.

The Dallas Morning News:

Corsicana

A farmer found dead in the street.

Special to The News. Corsicana 10 December. Capt. Sam Andrew a well to do farmer residing about eight miles west of this city was in the city yesterday on business which kept him overnight. He stopped at the Grady House last night but was found by a policeman lying on the ground by the sidewalk dead. He slept during the night on the second story of the house and is supposed to have arisen in the night and walked out on the awning from which he fell to the ground. When found his neck was broken and his body was still warm. A coroner’s jury was summoned and a verdict was rendered in accord with the above statement. His body was taken to his home this afternoon and will be buried at Blooming Grove tomorrow. Capt. Andrew was a candidate for the office of Tax Assessor of this county a few years since and was well esteemed throughout the country.

Broke His Neck

Fort Worth Daily Gazette:

Corsicana Texas 10 December 1885. Captain Samuel Andrew an old citizen of this county for a long time engaged in mercantile pursuits but lately engaged in farming fell this morning from the awning of the Grady House and striking on his head broke his neck and was instantly killed. His wife and children are in good circumstances. Capt. Andrew was a soldier during the Civil War in which he lost an arm.

Samuel David Andrew is buried here: White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, Texas. (If you’re going to make a spelling mistake, try not to do it in wrought iron.)

Irene Scarborough Andrew, Sam’s wife, was born in 1845 and died at Forth Worth, Texas, 1940. She was fifteen when she married Sam and when the Civil War began and she lived into our modern age of automobiles and airplanes. She made the long trek to Texas. Her husband died in 1885 and she lived  55 more years, the Andrew family matriarch.

Irene is buried here, Bradford Cemetery, Troup, Texas.

Direct descendants of Samuel David Andrew: (clockwise from top) Sam Houston Andrew, Jr.; Albert William Andrew; Sam Houston Andrew III; Leland Thomas Andrew, Albany, Georgia, 1948.

… and younger, more attractive siblings: Paula Jeanne Andrew, Stephen Andrew, Lillian Marie Andrew, Daniel Timothy Andrew, Austin, 1980s.

Samuel David Andrew’s grandson Sam Houston Andrew holding his grandson Sam Houston Andrew III, San Diego, California, 1943.

If Sam Andrew had lived in Ohio, he would have fought on the Union side. He was not a slave holder, and, in fact, probably 95% of his comrades were not slaveholders. The slaveholders stayed home. They were the one percent who avoided combat. As is usual, this was “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

I wrote this using my father’s memoirs as a starting point. Donna Patterson, indispensable Big Brother cyber maven, has helped so much with the genealogy. Donna, thank you for everything.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Chime Children

Posted on by tagged.

22 January 2012

 

Alan Merril wrote I Love Rock and Roll… and then he retired. He’s truly a gifted singer and a good friend.

J.K. Rowling’s books, targeted for their sorcery, were banned by some American libraries and burned in some cases. Shame, shame. You are the followers of Qin Shi Huang, Diocletian, Savonarola, the Nazis, Republican senator Joseph McCarthy and other ignorant book burners throughout history. Have you learned nothing? Of course not. You are book burners.

With Susan Zelinsky.

La bellissima Arianna Antinori, Roman by birth, and now she lives in Vicenza.

Ben Nieves, a real, true musician, born that way, and has studied since.

Lani from New Orleans, love you, Lani.

Herb Caen, what is there to say? He was Mr. San Francisco for fifty years, even though he was a suburban kid from Sacramento.

He did what he called “three dot journalism” EVERY DAY for years and years. Item, item, hoosegotta item?

Carmine and Kacee, Hawaii.

Chad Quist, a Berklee product, although I knew him before he went to Berklee and he was very good then.

Cher and Gregg Allman in their funky southern phase.

Cher in her earlier Sonny and Bob chapter.

Don Graham with Chloe, who was our singer that night, but she has since moved on, with Joel Hoekstra, to the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Danny Dastrup at Aroma Café. There was a big hole in our lives when Danny moved on, as we knew he would.

Dava’s lower half. And her upper half is even better, but we’re not going to see it today.

David Peters is in Uganda now, filming in Ginga, helping people become better, as he is wont to do.

Don’s party.

And, then, a little later in the evening…

Dylan.

Eartha Kitt and James Dean in a dance class. Now, you don’t see that every day.

You are what you think.

Engrid Whisenant, scholar, partisan, Renaissance woman, PhD.

Ezio Guaitamacchi, Italian talk show host, researcher, media personality.

Franco, Szilvia and Veronica.

Fred lives across the street from where I paint.

George Michalski and Chet Helms. George has the money and Chet has the time.

Szilvia when she was a beautiful baby.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. Don Aters took this photo.

Amazing Grace, how sweet that face.

Musicians on the big island, Hawaii.

Szilvia, all grown up.

… and her beautiful friends.

Jackie and Steve.

Jane and Freddie.

Janis and James.

Joel Hoekstra.

Jennifer, the goddess, Espinoza.

She can really sing.

She’s 18 now.

Not bad looking either.

She’d be a good model for a Madonna.

Jimi in Little Richard’s band.

With Bobby Womack and Wilson Pickett.

Quanked: overpowered by fatigue. From Anglo-Saxon cwanian, to be weary or faint, and cwencan, to quench.

Chirology: the art of conversing with the hands or fingers.

Pythonic: pretending  to foretell future events; from pythoness, the female or priestess who gave oracular answers at Delphi.

Things to say while driving:

Thou damned tripe-visaged rascal. Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch.

Lifelode: the leading of one’s life (Middle English). So much prettier and apt than lifestyle, isn’t it?

Gommacks: tricks, mischief, foolery, from Gaelic guaineach, giddy, sportive, frolicking.

Millefleurs: a perfume distilled from flowers of different kinds; formed on the French eau de millefleurs. The equivalent Italian millefiori is a glass sculpture.

Ensorcell: to enchant, bewitch, fascinate. Adapted from French ensorceler, from sorcier, sorcerer.

I wrote many songs with Kim Nomad. Only now are some of them being recorded. She has a beautiful way of singing.

Kristina Kopriva and Liam Hanrahan.

(Book title, 1672)

New Instructions unto Youth for Their Behavior: A Discourse upon Some Innovations of Habits and Dressing, Against Powdering of Hair, Naked Breasts, Black Spots, and Other Unseemly Customs.

Lucubrator: a person who studies by night, or by candlelight.

La Città della Pieve, Umbria, Italia.

Linda LaFlamme.

This was fun.

Snickersneeze: a term without meaning used to frighten children, “I’ll snickersneeze you, if you don’t.”

When at Niagara Falls, I was escorting a young lady with whom I was on friendly terms. She had been standing on a piece of rock, the better to view the scene, when she slipped down

and was evidently hurt. “Did you hurt your leg much?” She turned from me, evidently much shocked, “The word ‘leg’ is never mentioned before ladies. I am not so particular as some people are,

for I know those who always say ‘limb’ of a table, or ‘limb’ of a pianoforte.”   I then recalled seeing a pianoforte in a “seminary for young ladies” whose four legs had been dressed by prudish

residents in modest little trousers with frills at the bottom.”          Frederick Maryatt, English army captain, 1837.

Lunarian: an inhabitant of the moon.

“I abroad with my wife and little Betty Mitchell…to show them a play, The Chances…The whole play pleases me well, and most of all the sight of many fine ladies, among others

my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Middleton. The latter of the two hath also a very excellent face and body, I think. Thence by coach to the New Exchange, and there laid out money,

and I did give Betty Mitchell two pairs of gloves…I was troubled with my pain, having got a bruise on my right testicle, I know not how. But this I did make good use of to make my wife

shift sides with me, and I did come to sit avec Betty Mitchell, and there had her hand which elle did give me very frankly, and did hazer whatever I voudrais avec la, which did plaisir

me grandement, and so set home with my mind mighty glad.”                            Samuel Pepys          5 February 1667.

Navvy: a toiler, principally with a spade, short for navigator, but a navigator of the land, day laborers without benefit of bulldozers, backhoes, computers.

Chantepleure: she that sings and weeps both together.

Napiform: having the shape or appearance of a turnip (Latin napus, turnip).

Bezaubernde: German, bewitching, charming, ensorcellating.

Norton and Lisa Buffalo. Norton was a prince among men and a real musician. Lisa is a high quality person, and I wish her well.

Shana rhymes with Anna, Savannah, or, if you’re loose, with Shannon. Kat rhymes with “Who dat?”   Naturally.

A missed opportunity. To paint a portrait is a knack I possess, which many artists, far better than I, lack. I painted hers, but then was asked to do it again for a fee, and I could not.

When money is involved, I immediately lose interest, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Shrumpsed:  beaten in games.  I’m sure Rachel could shrumps me anytime in any game.

Fragor: a strong or sweet scent.

Saltation: the act of dancing or jumping.

Sasha and her beau.

Dowsabell: a common name in sixteenth-century poetry for a sweetheart, especially for an unsophisticated country girl.

The word means “sweet and beautiful,” from French douce et belle.

Today is the birthday of William Smith, an English admiral who compiled the rich and varied glossary of nautical terms Sailor’s Word Book, 1867. His famous grandson Robert Baden-Powell

founded the British Boy Scouts in 1908.

One of Admiral Smith’s words was “mallemarocking,” the visiting and carousing of seamen in the Greenland ships. This word came from the Dutch “mallemarok,” a foolish woman,

a tomboy, from “mal,” foolish and “marok,” adaptation of the French “marotte,” an object of foolish attention.

Carfuddle: to discompose, to rumple, synonymous with carfuffle, to disorder. Also spelled kerfuffle.

Susan Zelinsky and Ruby who has grown to look exactly like her mother.

Galericulate: covered, as with a hat. (Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1755)

Lycanthropia: January was called wolf month because people are always wont in that month to be more in danger of being devoured by wolves than in any other.

Just last week the first wolf in a hundred years crossed into California. We welcome this creature now and wish him well. Some of us do anyway.

Szilvia.

Drury: gallantry, courtship, love, delight (from the French drue, a mistress). I have often walked Drury Lane in London.

In the days before motels and hotels, travelers often stayed anywhere they could, and sometimes slept in the same bed as their hosts. Husbands and parents  frequently permitted these guests

to “bundle” with their wives and daughters. Prudent mothers gave daughters approaching the bundling age a “courting-stocking” completely covering the girl’s body from the waist downwards,

with room for both legs within it. Such stockings were often heirlooms.

Veronica Farnetani and Andrea Zurli. I met them in Umbria.

Vicki is from South Africa. Her accent is soft and beautiful, just as she is.

Wassail Eve, also known as Twelfth Night was the evening when the Three Wise Men came.

“Wassail” was derived from the 13th century Norse toast Waes hail. (Be thou healthy.)

Crazling: a person affected with a craze or mania.

 

See you next week !

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Minden, Nevada.

Posted on by tagged.

15 January 2012

We have black bamboo in our yard, and Elise took some to her friend Yukiko Neibert who specializes in ikebana. Yukiko created this beautiful work of art using our bamboo.

Yukiko’s floral design studio is in Kentfield, California.

Big Brother and the Holding Company played in Minden, Nevada, on Friday  13 January 2012.

(Minden, oil on panel, work in progress)

Minden, Nevada, is 4,721 feet high. You can always feel that elevation when you try to sing a high note. It can be difficult to get enough air.

Two thousand, eight hundred and thirty six people live in Minden, which is named after a town in North Rhine-Westphalia.

This is one of the top spots in the world for non powered flight. Buoyed by thermals, gliders have sailed here for a thousand miles. You can see why. Minden is in the Carson Valley between two rather ambitious sets of mountains.

The Minden Inn was a favored hangout for people like Jean Harlow and Clark Gable.

The best way to get to Minden is to take Highway 50, at Sacramento, around the bottom of Lake Tahoe. It is really a beaufiful way to go. Some years past, Elise and I drove to Salt Lake City using this same route. It’s the high desert and is most interesting.

This is the Carson Valley Improvement Club where we played. A very interesting place, part community center, part theatre, and all fun.

When Stefanie and I arrived in Minden, Karen Lyberger and Peter Albin were regaling the crowd with true, very detailed accountrs of the counterculture in San Francisco, 1965-1970.

So we sat down and told some lies too. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Somebody said that.

Then, Donna Patterson took Stefanie and me to a magic place for another interview.

Donna set up the camera and Stefanie interviewd me about Big Brother’s 1968 performance at The Carousel Ballroom, which Owlsey Stanley recorded.

In March 2012, SONY is going to release the concert that Owsley recorded, and they wanted us to talk about him and the Carousel.

Becky Soderman was there in that Douglas County Library setting, and her intelligence and forthrightness were most welcome.

We had a good gig that night. We played Down On Me, Combination of the Two, I Need A Man To Love, Save Your Love, Call On Me, Blindman, Summertime, Bo’s Bio, Turtle Blues, Bobby McGee,

It’s Cool, Hold Me, Women Is Losers, Piece of My Heart and Ball & Chain.

Or… as we put it in Big Brother shorthand:

Stefanie loaned me her Mesa amplifier (again). I love it. I have to get one. Well, I already have a (very heavy) Mesa Boogie, but it is nowhere near as good as Stefanie’s.

Stefanie could be a star.

On our last day in Minden, Stefanie needed to see some friends who had just had a baby, Ramses. She left me at a Century Mall, or something like that. There were some VERY interesting people here.

And even horses.

 

The Farns: John Farnsworth, always a funny, fey, fantastic, formidable personage. I wish he could have been in Minden with us.

I went to see the film Joyful Noise.

Joyful Noise was all  gospel music.

Now, you know this music is always going to open your heart and inspire your mind… and that’s putting it mildly.

Keke is such a great singer, and she is a beautiful woman.

I loved this film. The plot line is somewhat conventional, but, the music? The singing? Beyond belief. Just so good and so revealing of the divine truth of music.

This was a bit of a Juliet and Romeo story. Jeremy Jordan, who once was the understudy for Rock of Ages, a musical in which my friend Joel Hoekstra excels, is a good vocalist with a real feel.

So, now Stefanie comes to pick me up at the cinema, and we leave for home.

West on highway 80 out of Reno.

Sitting in the dark night, heading home.

Traveling can be educational.

We reach Donner Summit, a place where people truly suffered not so long ago.

I have traveled this way, a guitar and a bag, since I was eighteen.

I’m so relieved. See you next week?

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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