#531 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Saturday December 10)
Good morning,
MUSIC
When people talk about Saturday Night Live seasons, comparisons of the better ones are compared to the great days of 1975-1980. The comedy doesn’t get much better than that—and the original cast of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris and Chevy Chase (replaced in the second season by Bill Murray). SNL begat The Blues Brothers, featured here:Blues Brothers on SNL
As much as I remember those great shows were the great crowd I watched many of these episodes with. Here are some of their recommended music offerings:
From Steve Mossholder, “Delilah” by Clifford Brown/Max Roach and others:
From Mark DiMaria, “High Time We Went” by Joe Cocker:
POETRY
Although we’re now past this year’s Thanksgiving, a wonderful poem written from the perspective of a mother upon her daughter’s return home for the holiday and feelings of “letting go.” This is the time of year for holiday visits from grown children—reveling in their adulthood and remembering their childhood:
First Thanksgiving
By Sharon Olds
When she comes back, from college, I will see
the skin of her upper arms, cool,
matte, glossy. She will hug me, my old
soupy chest against her breasts,
I will smell her hair! She will sleep in this apartment,
her sleep like an untamed, good object,
like a soul in a body. She came into my life the
second great arrival, after him, fresh
from the other world—which lay, from within him,
within me. Those nights, I fed her to sleep,
week after week, the moon rising,
and setting, and waxing—whirling, over the months,
in a slow blur, around our planet.
Now she doesn’t need love like that, she has
had it. She will walk in glowing, we will talk,
and then, when she’s fast asleep, I’ll exult
to have her in that room again,
behind that door! As a child, I caught
bees, by the wings, and held them, some seconds,
looked into their wild faces,
listened to them sing, then tossed them back
into the air—I remember the moment the
arc of my toss swerved, and they entered
the corrected curve of their departure.
Have a great weekend,
Glenn
From the archives: