SEAMUS HEANEY RIP

Seamus Heaney was a poet whose poetry I appreciated more when hearing it read.

This was due to his long, unbroken sentences which often continued for several lines and his Iish vernacular which I had a hard time grasping.

But this is not a criticism.  He was a superb poet for several reasons.  For one, I have always been leery of poets who look to the natural world for metaphorical devices for their poetic meaning.  It is an overdone technique and genuinely awful when done badly.

But in poems like “Blackberry-Picking” and “Death of a Naturalist” Heaney made the connection of meaning with intense imagery densely packed together.

Heaney also knew how to slip in and out of moods. In “Mid-Term Break” The actions he takes to get back in time to his family’s home and assist with his younger brother’s funeral are movement delicately dancing with melancholy and sorrow.

When I taught the IGCSE English syllabus, Heaney’s poems were one of the selected texts.  The students found them a little bit difficult but that’s okay....Good poetry can be difficult.

Powerful, evocative verse doesn’t have to be easy.

A NOTE I WROTE FOR A UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION PROGRAM

(Drafted a note for a convocation program on behalf of the head of a local university….This was a freelance job not my current employer)

 

Aside from extending my heartfelt congratulations to our esteemed 2013 graduates, I would like to impart what it is I think someone in my position can give to a recent graduate and that is advice.

Advice is plentiful and often not asked for because it is not tied to anything in real life.  It is simply the words of egoism and age out of touch with youth.

However, advice tied to real life career opportunities is something that an experienced person of my age can impart to a fresh graduate.

We live in a time of two worlds – Real life where one must work hard, start a career, start a family etc. and online life which is increasingly how we manage real life affairs be it through banking, paying bills, our jobs, even our social life as Facebook and other social media have become the way we interact with other people.

It is time to acknowledge the two worlds.  Be conscious of your onlife life while living your real life.  Establish a positive online presence not as a “troll” or negative person.

We live in a time where we are all visible whether we like it or not.  Too much information?  Maybe but it can be managed.  It is an exciting time to enter the workforce and I hope all of our recent graduates can deal with the two worlds.       

MY FELLOW DEVILS BY L.P. HARTLEY

Well, I tried my best to finish MY FELLOW DEVILS by LP Hartley but there is a point where genteel restraint suffocates the prose and that’s what has happened here.

The story of Margaret Pennefather and her broken engagement with a barrister Nicholas Burden and eventual marriage with a film actor Colum McInnes is far too delicate and obscured by necklace clutching and gasps of Queen Victoria social clampdown to be interesting.

A twist or two, an unexpected death or something dark would do a lot to push the narrative forward but alas there is nothing like that.   

There is the rigmarole about Catholicism as Colum is Catholic and Margaret is not but the end conflict is more about a crime that is committed (not a very interesting one).

Haven’t given up on Hartley but boy did he need to swing a little bit.  Get out more etc....

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT EGYPT

One can spin the recent events in Egypt however you like (a people’s revolution, a blow struck in the name of freedom etc.) but you can’t dispute the facts of what actually happened – A military coup which got rid of a democratically elected government.

Of course, we use to see this all the time in the days of the Cold War.  Democracy only mattered if the government in question was friendly to US big business and military concerns.  While it’s not so common in the present day unipolar world, it does still happen (Honduras 2009 for example)

Mohamad Morsi won a close election but he did win.  Prior to this, the world had fears about the Muslim Brotherhood (misplaced IMO), they being the only opposition force left in Egypt, a country governed for years by dictators copacetic to the west Sadat first as a Soviet Asset then aligned with the US and Mubarak a totally American centered kleptocrat.  Much of the state sponsored violence in Egypt of the 60’s and 70’s was conducted against those deemed socialist or communist and the Muslim Brotherhood went underground.

But Morsi’s government turned out to go along with most of what the US wanted.  Opening up the Egyptian Gaza border seemed to be the only thing they did that could even be remotely described as radical (and it isn’t).

Still, that’s not enough for an imperialistic nation like the USA and their fingerprints are all over this coup.  The Egyptian military is an adjunct of American intelligence as all senior Egyptian military officers are trained in America.  If the Egyptian military depose a government, you know America is behind it.

In regards to the large number of people who turned out to protest the government in Cairo, anybody can stage manage a demonstration, throw a little money around for demonstrators, get the media behind you, and threaten the opposing side with violence and you have a manufactured uprising – All of which happened in Egypt.  In addition, a majority of Egyptians live outside the big cities and they by a large majority supported Morsi and the Brotherhood in the prior election.

The bonus here is a kick in the face of a government considered Islamic.  This is the West’s chosen new enemy.  It doesn’t matter to them if the majority of voters in a country choose Islamic government through the ballot box.

I believe this was planned from the beginning.  That is why Morsi was never given any help with any of the programs he wanted to put in place to boost the depressed Egyptian economy.  He was set up to fail and when the time came the USA moved and got rid of him using the Egyptian military.

And what of Israel?  Everything in that part of the world is done for their benefit.  They are  the new pharaoh that must be overthrown by the peoples of the Middle East in order to achieve true independence and freedom and get rid of their own homegrown dictatorships in Jordon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia etc.

      

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY BY BOBBY WHITLOCK

Bobby Whitlock is most famous for his work with Derek and the Dominoes.  He and Eric Clapton co-wrote most of the original songs on LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS.  “Co-wrote” is apparently subject to debate as Whitlock’s solo music sounds exactly like the songs on LAYLA, less so Clapton’s.  Despite Clapton's backstory about songs coming from his desire for George Harrison's wife, Patti, Whitlock seems to be the voice of longing.  It seems to come from some sad place inside of him

Recently released on Light on the Attic Records, WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY is a compilation of Whitlock’s first two (and best) solo albums – BOBBY WHITLOCK and RAW VELVET.

BOBBY WHITLOCK is softer, semi-acoustic in places with slide guitar and more ballads.  It bears a close resemblance to the softer moments on LAYLA and contains some great songs – Song for Paula and The Scenery has Slowly Changed among them.

RAW VELVET has a heavier, louder sound with more out front electric guitar.  The overall sound is not quite as focused as the first record but overall still a collection of quality songs.

Whitlock is a deeply soulful vocalist whose passion seems real and part of the song not forced and this soulful side also shows in his clever songwriting.  He is kind of a missing link musically as the loose group of musicians who played together on several records in the early 70’s that is Clapton, George Harrison, Delaney and Bonnie, Dave Mason, the rest of the Dominoes had a sound and Whitlock was a primary force in shaping it.

Both of these records are lost classics.  Good for Light in the Attic Records for reissuing them.