music – whereIwonder&why

Still July 2025

It would appear you can’t shut me up this month.

Yesterday I spent the day at the annual Folk Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. I’ve been attending regularly for 21 years, so, since 2004. It has gone on since at least 10 maybe 15 years before than that. Parents have borne their newborns to the Folk Festival. White haireds move sibilantly to music they remember from their child-bearing, no, their child-selves lives every year, now, some, themselves, having begun as a thought, or a stroller rider at an earlier Festival; many having begun their lives not only not in Lowell, not in Massachusetts, and not in English. And the Lowell Folk Festival honors that, celebrates it–the music each year is different from the year before, with different artists, and different music traditions, different regions, and different nations. It’s always a musical adventure. Yesterday–note, the Festival is always on the last weekend in July, aka, it’s hot! and each year, the Festival putter-oners get better at providing shade in the four concurrent stage areas, yesterday, one act dressing in traditional clothing wore fur hats. Oh, I could feel their sweat rolling down their faces, necks, while they fingered on stringed instruments complex, complex tunes to which they added words. And each act, no matter how overdressed, how active–and salsa music does not allow static musicians, nor audience; nor does Quebecois; nor does Chicago blues; nor does cajun; nor, even, Irish folk, or klezmer, nor many I haven’t named. The audiences, the myriad visitors roaming the multi-national food stations strategically located near the four stages, sitting within the well covered (by a combination of trees and tree shade–So Valuable, those trees!!! and huge canvas roofs) audience spaces at each stage are all ages, and are all aware of and mindful of everyone else. And, this is a free event operated by volunteers, hundreds maybe a thousand of them (even though it, being an arts thing, non-profit funded both by donations-personal and from some sponsors, and by public funds as a non-profit art thing, got its approved public funding removed in May or June…) It is OMG my favorite place and time each year. If you have not been, consider it next year, make a trip of it from wherever you live.

All this talk, and I took no photographs this year. Ugh. Go to their website: lowellfolkfestival.org. Treat yourself. I meet friends there I haven’t seen in months, once I met someone I had lost touch with years ago, very nice experience among all the other that come to mind.

Onto the smaller local, my back yard. I am pretty sure I mentioned the plethora of fledglings who graced the space at various times these past two-three months. The last were, a bit to my dismay, grackle and starling youngsters. Usually these bigger, not so nice, neighbors visit for a few days, harrass the songbirds and then move along. Their year they nested (most likely in robbed or otherwise pillaged spaces) and fledged right here. Again, I took NO photos. I was too frustrated on behalf of the finches (gold, purple, and house), the titmice, woodpeckers (downy, hairy, redbellied + flickers), chickadees, nuthatches, robins, cardinals, sparrows, warblers, vireos, wrens, mockingbirds, catbirds — some of whom, admittedly, can be less than kind neighbors, and on behalf of me, because all I got to hear was the rather ratchedy screeching of insistent young grackles and starlings, plus the one teenage bluejay who seems to refuse to move house. I think, as of maybe yesterday, they may have moved on. Teenage bluejay is still here. As is, I think, teenage female downy woodpecker, as every single day I witness dueling downys (sp?) out back.

Upper left, adult downy, bottom right child? or unhappy mate at the turned back

It’s been on and off hot, and on and off humid. Saturday was perfect, hot, not humid, after two days of lie on the floor under the ceiling fan with the cats and pant humid. So there was nothing, nothing to spoil that Festival.

Today it rained. The Festival continues until this evening. Attendees are hardy, they will come, and, besides, the rain was only for the first hour, and, also besides, the tent-roof coverings protect from rain as much as from sun.

So here is where I stepped today:

A friend of mine recently taught me something about hy in hydrangea, that I think was mnemonically focused, but I forget what she said! And her information also included the lo in lobelia. I hope when she reads this, she calls me to remind me of the wisdom I have already let slip.

________________________________

So, as I am sitting here typing this, a “heat advisory” popped up in my computer’s information line down below. Starts tomorrow. Lasts for, looks like (yes, I just popped over to the site) it hangs on for three days.

Take cover.

It Brings Spring

Calendrically, March brings spring. And, in fact, I have been noticing the shifting-to-higher angle of the sun. This became particularly noticeable to me in February this year, with the several snowstorms we had here–the snow white was a new hue. It was not as gray. I am thinking this is not the snow changing color as the sky it’s reflecting that is gold-bluing. I would take a picture of my vestigial snow today to make the point, but, in fact, the sky is full cloud, and positioning to send down some rain, so the snow is flat-white. Not particularly photogenic.

How are you faring today? I’m kind of in minor mode. The second half of yesterday does not bear repeating. Happily, I slept deeply last night, without dreams of note, and woke to Maria, the tuxedo cat, patiently kneading the blankets that covered my shoulder, which, based on the time (6:00 AM), she had probably been doing for at least an hour. I am eternally grateful for deep sleep.

I want to be more loving in my heart, from Howard Thurman

A couple of days ago I planned my vegetable and herb garden. I have made all sorts of promises to myself that I will be diligent in establishing it carefully, not my usual willy-nilly some seeds here, a semi-mound for the cucumber seeds there, oh look, a space over near that corner, I believe I’ll sow some found ground cherry seeds there. No! I will set out the rows. I will keep to the rows. I will follow the calendar for best-day-to-seed. I will appropriately mark the name of what is in that row and not count on remembering to put it on the chart three days later. I will thin the seedlings when they are two leaves high. I will know which green seedling is a viable vegetable and which is an interloper. I will nourish the seeds, seedlings, plants so that they, in turn, will return the favor. A day later I went and bought two seed packets for vegetables that are not on my garden plan. Argh.

In May? June? I always end up finding starter plants for something I haven’t planned. Then I always try to cram them in. Keep me honest, ask me in June what is planted, what is growing, how much arugula have I had already. Are lima beans showing some promise? Did I carefully mound the pickling cucumbers? Are they flourishing? Did the biennial sage come back? How about the rosemary–has it become warm enough in this growing zone for it to overwinter like it has done for a long time just south of here in NYC? In July will I be weeding in my bathing suit? With icepacks on my neck to keep cool?

Sorry, I digress toward the climate. I want not to bring you down. (As soon as I wrote that last sentence, the song by ELO popped into my head–“Don’t bring me down….Groos! Don’t bring me dooowwwnnn… Anyone remember that song? Jeff Lynne of the excellent band, ELO, and later of the wonderful Traveling Wilburys )

Here is an explanation for “Groos”: the word is a mondegreen in the song that Jeff Lynne is shouting “Bruce”. But Jeff Lynne has explained that he is singing a made-up word, “Groos”, which some have suggested sounds like the German expression “GruB” [that B in German language fonts is a bit more stylized, and pronounced as a hard “s”.], which means “greeting.” Lynne explained that originally he did not realize the meaning of the syllable, and he just used it as a temporary placekeeper to fill a gap in the lyrics, but upon learning the German meaning, he decided to leave it in. This is not the only explanation, but it’s one the Jeff Lynne, the song’s writer is credited with, so I use it. If you want some alternative tales, just look up that line from the song, or ELO, or Jeff Lynne.

Also, if you don’t know who the remarkable Traveling Wilburys are, I really recommend looking them up and listening to some of their songs. Here’s a hint from Wikipedia (also my source for the preceding paragraph):

The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as “perhaps the biggest supergroup of all time”

Oh, and, also from Wikipedia, here is the definition of a mondegreen: a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.

Will you be planting a garden? Even a windowsill garden? Regardless if properly planned, prepared, planted, and picked (or not!), I find it such peace. Even if it while I watch the rabbit chews off the heads of the flowers before they can fruit, or the chipmunks grub whatever they can, or the robins, finches, and, yes, cardinals nip at whatever flower, fruit, leaf appeals, or the groundhog lumbers around the edges taking a bite here and there. Happily, the rabbit is finding more and more clover in my grasses, which distracts him from the tulips, nasturtiums, radishes…..

Here’s some advice I saw at a county fair in some part of interior Maine a couple of years ago, take it or not!

Good day!

A Chill Wind Bloweth

I recently reread Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, which must be where bloweth came from in my fingertips as I typed.

Image from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection

What a sad, “comedic” tale of distrust this play is. We distrust so readily. Because we doubt others with reason from their behaviors? Or because we would do or have done the behavior that we now distrust in other(s)? Does trust have to be earned, or should it be given, then perhaps encouraging good from the other(s)? What musical had “accentuate the positive” as part of a song lyric?….

Well, I looked it up, and it’s a song written in 1944, during World War II, by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music) and sung in 1945 by first Johnny Mercer himself with the Pied Pipers, and has also been sung, it appears, by Bing Crosby, Aretha Franklin, The Andrews Sisters, and on and on, including even Van Morrison!

Okay, if you’re still reading, now you’ll be gifted with the lyrics (did you expect otherwise?)

You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate
His last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark?

Man, they said we better
Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
No, do not mess with Mr. In-Between!
Do you hear me, hmm?

Speaking of, “hmm”? I just read an article about Johnny Mercer (1909-1976 ), who was a rather amazing man. You can read about him in the link here:

https://www.songhall.org/profile/Johnny_Mercer

Among the myriad things he did, Johnny Mercer wrote hit songs in four different decades, from the 1930s through the 1960s. And a fascinating array of them, I must say. They include “P.S. I Love You” (1934, Gordon Jenkins) (sung, of interest to me, by the Beatles in oh, I’d say, 1963), “Goody Goody” (1936, Matt Melneck), “I’m An Old Cowhand” (1936, words and music), “Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)” (1937, Bernie Hanighen), “Too Marvelous For Words” (1937, Richard Whiting), “Jeepers Creepers” (1938, Harry Warren), “Hooray For Hollywood” (1938, Richard Whiting), “Day In–Day Out” (1939, Rube Bloom), “I Thought About You” (1939, Jimmy Van Heusen), “Fools Rush In” (1940, Rube Bloom), “Blues In The Night” (1941, Harold Arlen), “Skylark” (1941, Hoagy Carmichael), “I Remember You” (1942, Victor Schertzinger), “I’m Old Fashioned” (1942, Jerome Kern), “That Old Black Magic”(1942, Harold Arlen), “Hit The Road To Dreamland” (1942, Harold Arlen), “My Shining Hour” (1943, Harold Arlen), “One For My Baby” (1943, Harold Arlen), “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive” (1944, Harold Arlen), “Let’s Take The Long Way Home”(1944, Harold Arlen), “G.I. Jive” (1944, words and music), “Laura” (1945, David Raskin), “Out Of This World” (1945, Harold Arlen), “Early Autumn” (1949, Woody Herman and Ralph Burns), “Autumn Leaves” (1950, English version of a French song, music by Joseph Kozma), “Here’s To My Lady” (1951, Rube Bloom), “Something’s Gotta Give” (1955, words and music), “Satin Doll” (1958, Duke Ellington), “Charade” (1963, Henry Mancini), “Summer Wind” (1965, Henry Mayer), and “How Do You Say Aug Wiedersehn?” (1967, Tony Scibetta).

So, though a chill wind bloweth, I can take the long way home, meander even in this high noon moment’s 29 degrees farenheit/feels, with chill wind, like 20 degrees farenheit, and sing offkey, because!!! the wind takes my singing voice that I don’t like to hear because it never replicates the perfect pitch I hear in my head, the wind takes it and lets it soar high above earshot. The day may be chill, the wind blowing chiller, but here I am–well, and inside, warm. For this I am grateful.

Speaking of, who knows, well, just speaking of, look who my sister and I saw on Friday, November 29th in the vicinity of Cambridge, MA common.

Poor Ebenezer Scrooge: “No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him…”

May we bring warmth to the chill.