November Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

NOVEMBRE = VIVE LA LIBERTÉ, VIVE LA MUSIQUE

Cette Novembre nous sommes reconnaissants pour la liberté, l’amitié, et la musique … This November we are grateful for freedom, friendship, and music.

LA MARSEILLAISE

Music brings us together, a way we can show our support for our allies … Before the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday matinee performance of Tosca, Placido Domingo led the orchestra, principal singers, and chorus in a rendition of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise. Inserted into the audience’s programs were the anthem’s lyrics with an explanation that the performance was “a show of our solidarity with the citizens of France.” The audience stood and sang along, at the end shouting, “Vive la France!” …

In a scene at Rick’s Café from the classic film Casablanca, to drown out the Nazis singing their national song the French patriots sing La Marseillaise.

 Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrive!
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’etendard sanglant est levé!
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes,
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes!

 EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

“Love overshadows evil … we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion.”

Despite their band name, Eagles of Death Metal are not a death metal band. Peace and love is their message and their music was an audience favorite in this Paris neighborhood … A California blues rock group, they were playing a sold out concert at the Bataclan concert hall … Drummer Josh Homme describes their sound as a combination of “bluegrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals.” Lead singer and guitarist Jesse Hughes is known for enthusiastically interacting with their audiences.

 IMAGINE

 Music fills us with hope and love, nurturing our spirit and soul … A touching tribute to Paris attack victims, pianist Davide Martello continues to play John Lennon’s Imagine on a grand piano outside the Bataclan theatre. He and his piano get there by bicycle. “I wanted to be there to try and comfort, and offer a sign of hope. I can’t bring people back but I can inspire them with music and when people are inspired they can do anything. That’s why I played Imagine.” 

DOG NEWS

 “His role was to open the way for the rest of us. He uses all his senses to detect if anyone is present and if he can get to them, to go and bite them. If not, he stands and barks to indicate where the person is hiding.”

R.I.P. Diesel … The French police dog that died in the shootout with terrorists suspected of organizing the Paris attacks was due to retire from service in a few months. Diesel, a seven-year-old Malinois (Belgian Shepherd), was shot after being sent in to the apartment in St-Denis where the attacker was holed up … #JeSuisChien.

 WE CAN HELP

 

“We believe ALL our veterans, two-footed and four-footed, should come back to a hero’s welcome, a loving, forever home, and the happy, healthy, and dignified retirement they so deserve after a lifetime of service to their country.” 

The American Humane Association is helping retired military working dogs get veterinary care, a benefit currently denied to canines that served in the military but are no longer active … President Obama signed the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which guarantees a ride home for ALL military working dogs and gives their handlers first rights at adoption.

 

 Soundtrack to this Issue
Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant

Music helps us express our gratitude for our freedom, for our friends, and for music itself … This 18-minute ballad is the unofficial Thanksgiving Day anthem.

 C’mon, sing along, you know the words: 

You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant
Walk right in, it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant

 Who rescued whom?
So grateful for Barkley coming into my life.
Thanks to Westie Rescue of New England.

 Buddha, stay. Good dog. z”l

“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)

 

Sources:
Eiffel Tower pic: Thierry Orban/Getty Images
Eagles of Death Metal pic: T-Boy Records/Ume
Eagles of Death Metal quote: band statement
Josh Homme quote: Amoeba Music
Pianist pic: Valery Hache/Agence France-Presse
Davide Martello quote: The Guardian
Dog News pic: Marc Tetro
Dog News quote: Diesel’s handler
German Shepard pic: United States Army
We Can Help quote: Dr. Robin Ganzert, President and CEO, the American Humane Association
Alice’s Restaurant lyrics: Arlo Guthrie and Garry Sherman ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

May Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

MAY OUI!

Prince rules! He performed his stand-alone Rally 4 Peace concert in Baltimore on Mother’s Day, with proceeds going to Baltimore youth charities. A shout-out for equal rights and justice, he performed a new song, Baltimore, released the day before the concert. “If there ain’t no justice, then there ain’t no peace.”

SIMPLY WILLIE

A new memoir from Willie Nelson, 82, is always refreshing, direct, and honest – like the man, and just like his music … You know his songs, Crazy (made famous by Patsy Cline) and On the Road Again … On his songwriting process: “When songs fall from the sky,” Nelson writes, “all I can do is catch them before they land.” … On writing his song, Night Life: “I heard myself ruminating…It ain’t no good life, but it’s my life…It happened because I was living it.” … On the state of the music industry today: “The only money I’ve ever counted on is the money I make when you buy a ticket to my show. And if hearing my record on your laptop or your smartphone motivates you to come see me, I’m a happy man.” … And on recording: “Simplicity is always the key. Sing the song. Get out. My kind of singing isn’t meant to be perfect. It’s meant to reflect the imperfections of a human being like me.”

R.I.P. Part 1: B.B. KING

“The Blues has lost its king and America has lost a legend,” said President Obama. Born Riley B. King in Mississippi to sharecroppers, B.B. King – B.B. for Blues Boy – passed away this month … Lucille, as all his black Gibsons were called, will be remembered right along with him … Asked to describe the blues, B.B. said, “It’s good for me when I’m feeling bad and it’s good for me when I’m feeling good.”

R.I.P. Part 2: BRUCE LUNDVALL

Bruce Lundvall, who headed Blue Note Records for almost 30 years, died on May 19. He was always generous to me, always kind. And boy did he love music and the artists he recorded … When I ensured Seagram a five-city multiple-venue summer jazz series with one major artist as the cornerstone artist to perform in all of the five cities, it was Bruce I called. I didn’t have to say much. We had a trusting longtime relationship since our days at CBS Records. All he said was, “Dianne Reeves.” And that was that. The Myers’s Rum Taste What’s Happening Jazz Series featuring Dianne Reeves was off and running! … Speaking of, he signed Willie Nelson, whose 1975 Columbia debut, Red Headed Stranger, is considered a modern classic … Bruce was one of a kind, well regarded by anybody who had the good fortune to know him. In a word: he was a mensch.

MEMORABLE DOG NEWS

Following the deadly earthquakes in Nepal, U.S. teams on the ground in Kathmandu included 12 canine disaster search teams. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation recruits rescued dogs and partners them with first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters. Rescued dogs turned rescuer! …

New York Senator Chuck Schumer is pushing for the National Defense Authorization Act that would authorize military dogs return to the U.S. after their service ends so that veterans and their dogs stay together post service. The law at present doesn’t guarantee soldiers get their dogs. “Here we have a commonsense policy that is good for the animals that give it their all for America—and for the American heroes who love these dogs so dearly.”

WE CAN HELP

“I thought a great thing to do would be to try to raise more awareness in the U.S. about how significant the U.S.’s contribution to the ivory trade is because I don’t think a lot of people know what’s going on.” … Inspired by a trip to South Africa, iconic rock guitarist Slash’s new song, Beneath the Savage Sun, confronts the crisis of the ivory trade and brings attention to the plight of the elephants … It is written from the perspective of an elephant whose family has been wiped out …

“In the field you hear us crying, For the ones we lost and loved, oh, ‘Cause the evil never stops, So we keep dying, Underneath the savage sun, Underneath the savage sun … How many bleeding and how many die?, All for the greed of an Ivory lie, When will they see what they’ve done is a lie, Blood that they spill could not be justified, How many bleeding and how many die?, Blood that they spill could not be justified.” …

Partnering with Slash to help protect the elephants and destroy the ivory trade is the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Proceeds of the sale of the digital downloads of the song go to IFAW. We must urge politicians and consumers to oppose ivory trade while elephants are still being killed for their tusks. Let’s support elephant protection efforts now!

Soundtrack to this Issue is
in honor of David Letterman:
Bob Dylan’s The Night We Called It a Day
a single off his Sinatra-inspired album, Shadows in the Night.

Introducing Bob Dylan, his penultimate musical guest, David Letterman explains the most important things we need to know: “I spend a lot of time, like everyone does, driving around with my son, Harry, and sometimes you take an opportunity to teach him or reinforce things for him. And I say, ‘Harry, what are the two most important things to know in the world? One, you have to be nice to other people, and what’s the other one? The greatest songwriter of modern times is Bob Dylan.’ That’s all you need to know in life.”

C’mon, sing along:

The moon went down, stars were gone
But the sun didn’t rise with the dawn
There wasn’t a thing left to say
The night we called it a day

Take a listen to this classic classical performance from The Late Show with David Letterman: In 2004, 53 members of the New York Philharmonic played on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater. Maestro Lorin Maazel conducted Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro.

 

Who rescued whom?

So grateful for Barkley coming into my life.
Thanks to Westie Rescue of New England.

Buddha, stay. Good dog. z”l

“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)

 

Sources:
Prince pic: Schure Media Group
Prince lyrics: Prince ©NPG Records 2015
Willie Nelson quotes: It’s a Long Story: My Life, by Willie Nelson with David Ritz (Little, Brown 2015)
B.B. King quote: CBS Saturday Morning, May 16, 2015
Bruce Lundvall pic: NY Times, Seth Wenig/Associated Press
Sen. Schumer quote: Press release May 26, 2015
Beneath the Savage Sun lyrics: Saul Hudson and Myles Kennedy © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
We Can Help Slash video: Official IFAW video
The Night We Called It A Day: Tom Adair, Matt Dennis © Dorsey Brothers Music A Div. of Music Sales Corporation