human rights advocate

 

Famous people dying seems to come in three's.

Recently it was 

John Amos (actor)

Kris Kristofferson (actor, singer, musician, and songwriter)

Ethel Kennedy (activist and widow of Robert Kennedy)

        Amos and Kristofferson were in their 80s; Mrs. Kennedy was 96.

One of the news videos about Mrs. Kennedy said her husband was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1969.

        It was 1968.

Another news story told something I did not know  - that she dated the singer Andy Williams in the '70s.

Some of the videos featured members of the Kennedy family doing an "Ice Bucket Challenge" ten years ago.  

        To lobby then-President Obama to give attention to an issue they believed was important, they all stood in a row with buckets of ice and ice-water in front of each person.  One at a time, they lifted the container and poured the contents over their heads - even Ethel!  Splash, splash, splash.

It looked very cold.

News videos also said that Ethel participated in a hunger strike once, for a good cause, and also that she took up farm-workers' issues and marched with Cesar Chavez, in 1970.

Ethel Kennedy; Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

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windshield wipers slapping time

 

John Lennon, songwriter

Soaking up the song "Me And Bobby McGee" made me think about, and wonder about, songwriting.

There are videos on You Tube about writing songs.

        It's mysterious to me. 

        How do people make up lyrics?

        How do people invent melodies?

        It seems impossible.

It must be a talent that a person is born with.

But - how?

comment under a songwriting video:

@illinoisan

It's good to remember why we have meter and rhyme.  They are remnants of our ancient oral tradition.  

Before writing, the only way to pass down culture from one generation to the next was by memorization, so mnemonics were invented to aid the memory, meter and rhyme. 

 When you structure your lyrics following meter and rhyme, you are creating patterns that humans have evolved to seek, recognize and delight in.  

        A technique I use is to not write anything down while I'm composing.  If I can't remember it, it wasn't any good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  

Taylor Swift, songwriter

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busted flat in Baton Rouge

 

On You Tube, the video titled

Kris Kristofferson ~ Me and Bobby McGee

uploader / channel:  NoRosesForMe

... and play

Busted flat in Baton Rouge,

Headin' for the trains

Feelin' near as faded as my jeans

Bobby thumbed a diesel down,

Just before it rained,

Took us all the way - to New Orleans

I took my harpoon 

Out of my dirty red bandana,

And was blowin' sad while

Bobby sang the blues

With them windshield wipers slappin' time,

And Bobby clappin' hands we finally

Sang up every song that driver knew --

Freedom's just another word for

Nothin' left to lose

Nothin' ain't worth nothin'

But it's free

Feelin' good was easy, Lord, 

When Bobby sang the blues

Feelin' good was good enough for me --

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

From the coal mines of Kentucky

To the California sun

Bobby shared the secrets of my soul

Standin' right beside me, Lord,

In everything I done

Every night she kept me from the cold

Then somewhere near Salinas, Lord,

I let her slip away

Lookin' for the home I hope she'll find

And I'd trade all my tomorrows

For a single yesterday

Holdin' Bobby's body next to mine

Freedom's just another word for -

Nothin' left to lose

Nothin' left is all she left for me

Feelin' good was easy, Lord, 

When Bobby sang the blues

Buddy that was good enough for me

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

Na nananananana - nanana-nana -

me and Bobby McGee...  

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yeah, whatevah happened there?

 

        In yesterday's post I identified the actor Bernie Kopell with 1960s situation comedies "That Girl," "Bewitched," and "Get Smart."  I should have included the '70s-'80s TV show, "The Love Boat."  Probably more people remember him from that....

Today I was thinking about the dream sequences in The Sopranos.  They are the only component of that show that I don't "get."  I never understand them, what they are supposed to be revealing, or representing.  What is the character working through, with that dream sequence?

        When there's a dream sequence, I just wait for it to be over so that the show can continue.

If I could, and someone let me, I would remove every dream sequence from The Sopranos.  It's a great show, but dream-sequence removal would make it perfect, in my view.

        Then I go on You Tube, watch some Sopranos clips and read the comments underneath, and there are many people commenting that the dream sequences are terrific, and meaningful.

What am I missing??

        I just don't see it, but you can't understand everything that some other people do  understand.

        And "visa - versa."

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a little bit of heaven

 

        Kris Kristofferson, singer, musician, songwriter, actor - passed on about a week ago.  

        I first heard his name from my eighth-grade history teacher in Rootstown, Ohio.

I kind of don't want to speak (write) about death - (I'm against it!) - but it's a reality, and I guess I cannot wish it away with "positive thinking."    Kris Kristofferson died last week at the age of 88.  What more do we want?  That's a long life.  (He was living in Hawaii...)

        Maybe I have to try and make my peace with death.

Kris Kristofferson songs to listen to on You Tube, if you would like...

"Me And Bobby McGee"

"Watch Closely Now"

At the end of the "E True Hollywood Story" Bewitched documentary (on You Tube), the actor Bernie Kopell ("Get Smart," "That Girl," "Bewitched") says, that Bewitched 
"of its time - was just a little bit of Heaven".

        I think Kris Kristofferson songs are also "a little bit of Heaven."

        Listen, and enjoy.

actor Bernie Kopell

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Sunday mornin' comin' down

 

Kris Kristofferson, writer of the song "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"

When I first heard the song title "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", I loved the title, but when I looked up the song and started listening to Kris Kristofferson's recording of it, I didn't like it that much.

But I knew I wanted to listen again when I learned it was awarded 'Song Of The Year' - twice - in 1970, for the Johnny Cash recording of it, and in 1971 for Kris Kristofferson's recording.

A viewer comment under one of the You Tube videos of the song:

Randall Sundeen

        My grandmother was a very prim and proper Swede, however She loved this song.  Back in the early seventies when I was a child, She would make beef stroganoff for Me.  When she did this She would play this record and We would sing this song together.

...On a Sunday mornin' sidewalk

I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned

'Cause there's somethin' in a Sunday

That makes a body feel alone

And there's nothin' short of dyin'

That's half as lonesome as the sound

Of the sleepin' city sidewalk

And Sunday mornin' comin' down...

---------------------------------------------------------

...the line, "something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone" - I remember having that feeling once when I was a little child - sometime between the year before kindergarten and the beginning of third grade, when we lived in Mineral City, Ohio.

        On a Sunday afternoon my mother was busy doing something and my dad was  asleep, and I was just - outside, at our house, and my friend-from-across-the-street Jackie was not around, and I had that feeling of empty alone-ness.

I didn't feel really upset or anything, I just felt like - Oh.

early Johnny Cash, on the Ed Sullivan Show

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a thirty-five year old man is not easy to live with

 

It was interesting to me, to read that JFK told his family about Jackie's newspaper column.  And later in an interview Jackie's first fiance, John Husted, referred to her work as an "insipid little column."

Insipid is one of those words that you hardly hear in conversation - I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it - but you read it sometimes.  

- - - - - - - Definition:  lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge; dull, flat

LOL.  Nice guy.  When he said that, was 26 years later, in 1978.

        So - after starting out a career in a somewhat unique way, she quit when she married Jack Kennedy in 1953.  ...Having initially assured her employer she wasn't just marking time until marriage...

        It was a 1950s thing, many people thought you couldn't do both.

Also, reflecting on the situation - Kennedy was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; if his wife continued her newspaper column, political competitors might have jumped all over anything she wrote, I don't know...

        Meanwhile, during their engagement, one of Jack's friends counseled Jackie, saying, "A thirty-five year old man is not easy to live with."

        They were 12 years apart in age.

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