Allie Sherlock & Cuan Durkin
WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Welcome to the New American Digest: 2003-2020
Gerard Van der Leun
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way.
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles –
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
Gary Snyder
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
— BY THEODORE ROETHKE
The scientists are in terror
and the European mind stops
Wyndham Lewis chose blindness
rather than have his mind stop.
Night under wind mid garofani,
the petals are almost still
Mozart, Linnaeus, Sulmona,
When one’s friends hate each other
how can there be peace in the world?
Their asperities diverted me in my green time.
A blown husk that is finished
but the light sings eternal
a pale flare over marshes
where the salt hay whispers to tide’s change
Time, space,
neither life nor death is the answer.
And of man seeking good,
doing evil.
In meiner Heimat
where the dead walked
and the living were made of cardboard.
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
— Eliot
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this
air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
— Walt Whitman
Comments on this entry are closed.
Sorry, but the 21st century female whiny high notes are my deal-breaker for the vast majority of popular music. Quit encouraging this junk.
Take it or leave it Mike. Gerard’s posted plenty of toonz on here that I don’t care for and I’ve never told him to not post it. It’s his crib man, he gets to furnish as he sees fit. The worst you’ll ever see me write is, “…they never made a red centavo off’n my ass…”. Yeah, it’s a keybd macro. I just hit kmfa keys all at the same time and, violin!
Anyway, that young’n needs to learn how to sing from the diaphragm.
I think the young man has a better, more pleasing, deep masculine voice. She is okay if you like her style.
Actually she has a good voice but needs a little professional training. She should also sing without the guitar because it interferes with her timing. Her accent or affliction can be corrected but you can’t give someone the raw talent that she has. By the way that song may be one of the most sensuous songs when sung correctly and with emotion. Watch the video from the movie “Ghost”.
Same song, younger girl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oATEWzJxj3k&list=PL2v8kgVeo4EbYDVnRwObjETfWpXbzbgIO
I liked it.
Wow Roy!! UM is a tough song and I do believe you found a beautiful set of chops in that little girl. Smooth, fine transition and great control.
I agree with Mike Anderson. It hurts my ears to listen to her
That appears to be true love!
Won’t knock the singing. I’m old enough to just enjoy their youth.
Didn’t hurt me one bit. She has one of those untrained yet powerful voices that can knock your socks off. I think that location is a pedestrian mall in Limrick, Ireland. I have seen videos like that before, but with different performers.
Musical talent is in the soil in western Ireland. I have been in ordinary pubs with half a dozen players having a friendly seisiun when a gal gets up and starts singing in a style made famous by Delores O’Riordan with the Cranberries. Stunning emotion, power, and range. And then the song is done and no one can convince her to even raise her head at her table, much less sing another.
What amazes me is how all the people simply walk past them with barely a glance or none at all, as if they are not even there. I think that is indicative of society today. Just go on with your life as if nobody else matters except you. Sad.
Good point Stargazer. I noticed that, too. And I wonder if I’m ever going to see a bunch of people without the God damned masks. I am so bloody sick of the sight I could…
not gonna’ finish that sentence.
JWM
https://youtu.be/hx2BbNIL_hk
Hi, Mike. Maybe this lovely young redhead will change your mind. I am not sure if she’s graced Gerard’s pages, but she’s cute, her voice is sweet and she’s not doing things outside her natural range. If you look at her YouTube page, she sings jazz standards too.
Plus, she looks like my grand daughter, Ruby with her red locks and smiling Irish doe eyes.
You’re right Jewel. She’s much easier to listen to than the others, and she looks the part too!
Forgive me if I am repeating myself but although I was formerly trained in piano, I can only repeat the song and touch from an instructor through repetition. I have minimal natural musical ability. I’ve even hacked away at a guitar to disappointment. Regardless as a young adult, I won a handful of piano contests by playing EXACTLY how my instructor told me. Almost all judges said I had a nice touch. If you are still reading, my voice is apparently not Godly. When I was a teen I was loudly singing in church and suddenly everything got almost totally quiet although everyone was apparently singing, including myself. This was the only time God overtly spoke to me. He said “Snake, I have given you many talents. Singing is not one of them.” Then the normal sounds of the congregation could be heard. I have not sung aloud at church since.
@Jack,
Her name is Angelina Jordan. She won Norway’s Got Talent at the age of 7. She competed on America’s Got Talent this year at the age of 13. She got shut out at AGT. Rumor has it that she wouldn’t sign with Simon Cowell’s company so they dumped her. Here are her three performances on AGT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Q3I7FfvUU
You decide. She has over 130 songs on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2v8kgVeo4EbQD6l_WAVjOfItquzW7oEc
She is going to be a superstar, thus belying her full name which is Angelina Jordan Astar.
@ Snake….
You say ‘He said “Snake, I have given you many talents. Singing is not one of them.”’
Maybe you misheard.
Maybe He said, “Snake, I have given you many talents. SINGEING is not one of them.”
In other words, God did not want you to be a barber.
All this time you could have been cutting hair, making people feel good about themselves.
Me: tin ear – full heart. Lovely kids and the feeling comes through.
I am always dazzled by young people with gifts.
Lance,
I feel slightly better now.
They did have guitar face. Which is a indication.
Thanks for the links, Roy.
In her YouTube list, there is this one: https://youtu.be/TeD96o9PBLs
She appears to be about 9, singing Unchained Melody on a TV show. I take back what I said about untrained. She’s had a lot of training. The video in the post is, I would say, unrehearsed.
Yeah, she sounds like a kid. Its ok. I still cried a bit. Song still works.
@Gordon Scott,
Here she is at 9 going on 50.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwFloCPXzCs
If you watch to the end of the video, there’s a whole crowd of people standing, listening to them, watching them, applauding.
It’s ok to like something every now now and then, without a “yeah, but…”
Watching a 9 year old singing that is somewhat creepy. She should be singing Skip to My Lou. Kinda makes you wonder who thought it was a good idea for a child to sing all these heartbreak songs.
@ Jewel. Skip to my Lou. indeed.
Back home in the bayou of Ligature Marks, LA, we were so poor that we couldn’t afford a Lou.
No one could.
When we skipped, which was rare (Christ! Roots all over! You could break an ankle.), we had to skip around a Lou made of sticks and rags, wearing a sad little gingham bonnet and Granny Suggins’s false teeth.
It seemed to stare at you with those empty eye sockets as you skipped past.
Sure, it was a simple-minded entertainment, bordering on psychotic, but we were a simple and a psychotic people.
We had no bayous where I grew up, Lance, but we did learn us some singing. Mostly shape note hymns and campfire songs. My father, on Saturdays played piano at various dives and strip joints, and on Sundays, played only a bit less raunchy on the Wurlitzer in our church. I once played in the church, too, but only in D flat. The preacher’s wife could only sing about a half an octave. Their kids sang beautifully, like all preachers kid should. My brothers and sisters and I could sing four parts. In tune. But since becoming Catholic, (insert Church of Christ lamentations here) to my utter horror, I have learned that Catholics don’t know how to sing polyphony, the hymnals and missalettes are disposable, and the music is 50 off shades of gay. Mixing pipe organ and Lord of the Dance is pukeworthy. Truly, we are in the Great Chastisement.
Cuan Durkin’s charm just landed him the role of Prince Charming in a Christmas panto (pantomine) of Cinderella Live online. I do believe he is typecast.