For Halloween . . . for no other reason than well. . .  just because!

It makes me wonder if this is how Los Lobos started!?
 . . . at least the accordion player will give Flaco Jimenez a run for his money some day!

Blues king- Albert King- lighting a cigar for Jim Morrison 

Albert was known for his warmness & appreciation of those whom appreciated his music and of course as a teenager- Jim would sneak into juke-joints & black neighborhoods to see these men like Albert who changed the world . The world! Its all for the world Blues IS the world. The Doors were lucky enough to play some shows & record some of these with Mr King. Albert & Jim are missed dearly. Listen to Albert if you have the chance. Doors too! 

This has been blogged so many times it aint funny but im blogging again for the true meaning of the photograph “jen”I found it at weareourowndevils

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-17/mackenzie-crook-on-whats-in-store-in-detectorists-series-two-and-how-hed-love-to-work-with-ricky-gervais-again

THE DETECTORISTS II

Winona 

Winona Ryder
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

You know what they say about men ageing and getting better looking and this doesn't happen with women? There are always the exceptions that prove the rule ( I have a list!) and Winona Ryder is proof of this. Interestingly I found this quote over at Blackbook (see above for link to interview etc and the picture is wonderful.  If it needs more of a credit please let me know. . . . 

There was a time, because I had a lot success when I was in my teens and 20s and then I went through this period where I looked too young but I actually wasn’t too young, that people still associated me with these younger, waifish ingenue characters even though I could have been a lawyer or something else. I feel like only recently I’ve hit a point where I’m actually old enough to play my age, which is a tremendous relief. I know there’s so much put on youth these days, but I had a weird experience because when I started acting all of my heros were like Ruth Gordon and Gena Rowlands and I always got along with older people. My mom was a hospice worker and I used to go with her, before I was an actress, and I remember saying, “Oh my gosh each one of them there could be a movie about their life.” But there is something very liberating about getting past that weird 30s thing. I’m turning 44 this month and I just feel like I’m finally being offered, or able to play, parts my age.

Laurie Lee 'Cider  With Rosie' II

Further to the last post about the poem in the TV production of Cider With Rosie starring Samantha Morton (amongst others) I forgot to mention that the production also used a song cycle from Arthur Sullivan and Alfred Lord Tennyson called variously 'The Window' or as I would prefer 'The Songs of The Wren' when the Samantha Morton character of Laurie Lee's mother 'Annie' sings

Light, so low in the vale,

You flash and lighten afar;

For this is the golden morning of love,

And you are his morning star.

Flash! I am coming, I come,

By meadow and stile and wood:

O lighten into my eyes and heart,

Into my heart and my blood!

Wedding

Heart are you great enough

For a love that never tires?

O heart are you great enough for love?

I have heard of thorns and briers.

Over the thorns and briers,

Over the meadows and stiles,

Over the world to the end of it

Flash for a million miles!

Over the thorns and briers,

Over the meadows and stiles,

Over the world to the end of it

Flash for a million miles!

It stuck in my memory and I didn't recall whether it was actually used in the book or was a conceit used by the TV production and frankly don't really care but here it is!

Now I have to mention here I would watch Samantha Morton in anything and find her an extraordinary talented actress, I first saw her in a TV drama about p[rsoitiutes I believe and then tried to catch all her work and saw again her performance in Jane Eyre opposite . . . . . in which I thought she was outstanding and heartrendingly right as Jane in it. I liked her in the Tom Cruise movie but thought she was under used in it but she is such a fine actor I would as I have said watch her in anything. She is at once attractive and strong, yet able to play parts of plainness and haunting quirkiness as well as mesmerising

CIDER WITH ROSIE

In the recent and delightful TV production of 'Cider With Rosie' by Laurie Lee, one of my father's favourite books and consequently one of mine eventually, the excellent actor Samantha Morton playing Laurie's mother a truly extraordinary woman recites poems and songs to the family and I caught her singing this throughout

BLACKBIRDS & THRUSHES

As I was a-walking for my recreation,

A down by the gardens I silently stray'd,

I heard a fair maid making great lamentation,

Crying, Jimmy will be slain in the wars I'm afraid.

The blackbirds and thrushes sang in the green bushes;

The wood doves and larks seem'd to mourn for the maid;

And this song that she sang was concerning her lover;

O Jimmy will be slain in the wars I'm afraid.

Her cheeks blushed like roses, her arms full of posies,

She stray'd in the meadows and, weeping, she said:

My heart it is aching, my poor heart is breaking,

For Jimmy will be slain in the wars I'm afraid.

When Jimmy returned with his heart full of burning,

He found his dear Nancy all dead in her grave

He cried: I'm forsaken, my poor heart is breaking, 

O would that I never had left this fair maid!

I found this on the wonderful website Contemplator.com and they say this about the song Blackbird and Thrushes 

This tune is supposed to be a variation of Hares on the Mountain. However, this version is not at all similar in either lyrics or melody to the same titled tune in Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, which is similar to Hares. So it may be a completely unrelated tune. 

Blackbirds and Thrusheswas popular in the West of England. Printed versions appear in a songbook by Cecil Sharp (1903). Variants include:

• Hares on the Mountain (Version 2)
• O Sally, My Dear
• The Knife in the Window (link to single line melody only).

Blackbirds is sometimes attributed to Irishman Samuel Lover (1797-1865) because it is included in his novel Rory O'More.

Wonderful stuff and I found the whole production excellently played and heartfelt throughout. I would of course watch the delightful Sam Morton in anything.

Thought I might try shaking things up a bit  . .  and will prolly drone on about it sometime but will try posting less wordy things and things that just grab my attention or pop up in the psyche . . . . . .

Number one for the opener


Painters I have really liked . . . . . . occasional randomised series . . . . . .

LARRY RIVERS

Larry Rivers (American, 1925-2002), Notes, 1964. Acrylic, Plexiglas, cardboard, paper, graphite and tape collage on board in artist’s wooden frame, 102.9 x 82.2 cm.

Johnny Galecki

Now I am a big fan of The Big Bang Theory and when I was recovering from my scooter accident at home for some months I am pretty sure I must have watched every episode several times and became like my daughter and her beloved 'Friends' able to quote whole chunks of dialogue. 

Especially the star Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard Hofstaeder obsessed with neighbour Penny played by Caley Cuoco. So finding these little gifs the other day I wasn't the least surprised but pleased beyond words at the content. 

Johnny Galecki, regarding rumors about him being gay.

Have we come a long way? When there are folk who lived through their sexuality being illegal still around, very much alive and still adjusting to their memories of their life being against the law, then there are straight people like this, I hope that brings some small comfort . . . .

In my life there have been many people who have thought I was gay and even asked me. Working in the Art world as I did for a long time (25 years or so) I encountered folk who might assume or even expect me to be. I have always considered this flattering! Why wouldn't I?

I find Johnny's response here really noteworthy . . . . . . . "why defend yourself about something that's not offensive?"

I  like him!

I like him . . . . .

There's something deeply interesting dignified and possessed of great integrity and acting in The Big Bang Theory especially somehow as it transpired he was having a relationship with co-star Caley Cuoco for two years and nobody knew, including the rest of the cast (!) It's being personal and why is it anyone else's business.

I like him - did I say that?