Who else but little Grace Catherine Deming?The great writer IB Singer wrote that demons haunted him whenever he wrote, losing, for example, pages and pages of text.
My demons? My email doesn't work. In order to check my emails I've gotta go on Comcast.net, reading their ludicrous headlines, and remembering my computer-generated passcodes.
A newcomer to ND called me today. By any chance, I asked him (he was very smart, an engineer), are you good with email problems?
This good man is gonna look into it for me and may swing by over the weekend.
Sister Ellen stopped by with provisions Mom made. Can't wait to eat something different. It takes a community to take c/o Ruthie.
The worst! I'm gonna get an MRI for the lumbar spine on Monday. Claustrobia! Judy Kroll suggested I bring my own CDs. Thank you Jude! Will do. Coltrane's A Love Supreme and some Bad Plus.
On my blogroll, for those of you who don't know who the below poem is about, you can click on Goldberg Varations - fini - on the right.
UPON THE OCCASION OF YET ANOTHER MOVIE ABOUT YOU
I prefer the slower Goldberg
Better to suck substance
Like eating a peach outside among
the trees
I brought you to Goddard
Your Apollonian torso
coursing a dozen times
across the front cover
call it love, if you like,
studied Bach with Ray
played his harpsichord like the toy piano
little fingers played as a child
so many ways to make music
even when we talk
you know where music began? my
grad school teacher announced from the top
floor classroom?
The sound we hear while
tinkling into the potty.
Let me play for you now.
A woman in her sixties
Settling her freckled hands
On the laptop
That counts, I assure you,
Look how easily I press the keys
And play a Prelude and Fugue
Like I did in a rented piano studio in
San Francisco with you at my side
Dead at fifty, your mittens and scarves
Aching for your touch in the cold
Toronto winters
I kiss your headstone and
Trace my fingers in the grooves:
Glenn M Gould:
La Magnifique.
BTW, my teacher was Ray McIntyre who, according to the Internet, now lives in California. I'm gonna order his Couperin and Rameau pieces on Amazon.
Love this and it makes me think about you in many different but familiar ways. I have ALWAYS associated G. G.'s Goldberg Variations with you since I have known you. You introduced me to it. (Not Goldberg but G.G.'s rendition) Kim thought it too flowery but I have always loved it since you turned me on to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I. B. Singer, one of my favorites and also was one of Kim's favorites.
If it takes a village to take care of you, then we should all incorporate and hold town meetings and do whatever you need cuz you deserve it! (Except then all would get bogged down in government crap and accomplish nothing, so maybe not!) So, write me about what your mother cooked. I'm interested. Amazing that she is still cooking.
PS Did I say I like this? God, I remember Ray LaVallee!Right name but maybe wrong spelling?
ReplyDeleteooh, so glad you liked the poem iris! i'd gotten no feedback from anyone. look how that one simple poem brought up your late first husband Kim - what a great intellect and personality he has - I'm glad Jesse looks like him. in fact i'm eating my mom's food right now - baked chicken with thyme and cauliflower. they're exquisitely seasoned but no salt of course. later!!!
ReplyDeleteit's ray mcintyre. i didn't use his last name cuz the search engine would pick him up. apparently he's one of the great harpsichord players of our day! who knew? he and his fam live in CA. check him out online.
ReplyDeleteWell you have triggered many memories for me. Yes how could I have forgotten. LaVallee was another teacher.
ReplyDeleteNow, may I ask, is there something wrong with triggering the search engines? What am I missing about this blogging stuff. Isn't that actually helpful to get you more exposure for your work?
Enjoy your mother's cooking! I learned as an adult that my mother didn't really even like to cook..something I had always assumed she did and took for granted, but I had some favorites still. Thanks for this link in your email. Appreciate it much.