Walt Whitman: He Was America Singing

The American poet and essayist, Walt Whitman, was born on this day in 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New York. His formal education ended after six years but his insatiable desire to learn immersed him in libraries, museums, lectures, salons, and landscapes in and around New York. His life as a poet, essayist, journalist and humanitarian would take him to New Orleans, Washington, Boston, and Camden, New Jersey, but his associations in New York would make the greater metropolitan area the hub of his career.

Whitman in 1887

A free spirit easily recognized as the most extraordinary poet of his time, Whitman bridged the American experience from the early Romantic period in literature to the advent of hard realism as the end of the century approached. I'm not sure what presence he has these days in public school systems across the country but baby boomers - born between 1946 and 1964 - had a full dose of his poetry beginning in elementary school. For more information on Whitman, including an extensive biography, visit the outstanding resources at the Walt Whitman Archive.

For an example of his work here is "One's-Self I Sing," the introductory poem to the third and last section of his collection, Leaves of Grass, as published in 1867.

ONE’S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person,

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing;

Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the

Form complete is worthier far;

The Female equally with the male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful—for freest action form’d, under the laws divine,

The Modern Man I sing.

Much of Whitman's poetry has been set to music. Sometimes the blend of music and existing poetry as opposed to lyric has limited success and authors often do not think favorably of such adaptations. I believe Whitman would have approved especially with the music coming from a fellow impressionist, in this case Frederick Delius. This composition has been a personal favorite for forty years. The recording features the superb Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of Richard Hickox. If you want to follow the text it's available here.

Here is a brief, well-known poem brought to a new generation through it's use in the 1989 film, Dead Poets Society.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo, George Collins Cox, restored by Adam Cuerden, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Text:
whitmanarchive.org
Walt Whitman entry, wikipedia.org
One's Self I Sing, wikipedia.org

Still Swinging With The "King Of Swing"

In 1935 Benny Goodman and his band had a regular late-night gig on Saturdays on NBC's radio program, Let's Dance. Broadcast from New York, most of the local teens and twenty-somethings who enjoyed his music were fast asleep. On the other hand, it was perfect timing for young audiences on the West Coast. A labor strike brought the program to a sudden and unexpected end and put Goodman and his band out of work. Together they decided on a coast to coast tour. In the interior states, the tour was a disaster because people didn't care for "upbeat" jazz arranged for orchestra. The band was looking forward to the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles as the last stop and an end to the pain. When they arrived, thousands of young fans who had heard them on the radio were waiting to hear them in person. What was to be a welcome end to a disastrous tour turned into the beginning of the swing era.

In the shadow of Bebop: Benny Goodman, 1946

Eighteen months later , the now famous Goodman Orchestra was invited to present a jazz review on January 16, 1938 in Carnegie Hall, a venue historically reserved for "high brow" music. Several members of the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras and others joined on stage to perform a concert ranging from traditional to unconventional. No jazz bandleader had ever performed there. The concert was a sensation, reaffirming Goodman as the "King of Swing," and jazz as serious American music. In the eyes of many music critics and historians, this concert remains the single most important event in popular music history in the United States. Superlatives aside, the concert was a study in swing music history and jazz improvisation.

After several curtain calls at the end of the concert, Goodman announced to the screaming fans that an encore would follow. Sing, Sing, Sing was the last song in that set. It already was a popular piece for the band but this performance lifted it to holy status in the swing jazz genre. Featured players: Gene Kruppa on drums, Babe Russin on saxophone, Harry James on trumpet, Goodman on clarinet, and Jess Stacy in a masterpiece of improvisation on piano.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the clarinetist and bandleader, Benny Goodman (1909 - 1986). You can read more about him at his Wikipedia entry here. Mention "Palomar Ballroom" and "Carnegie Hall" in the same breath and any popular music historian will follow with "Benny Goodman." His performances at the two venues took place more than 80 years ago. Today we remember both concerts as course changing landmarks in the history of swing and jazz.

Publicity style photo of Benny Goodman around 1960

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
1946 photo, Library of Congress, William Gottlieb Collection
1960 photo,public domain, publicity style candid photo of Benny Goodman

Text:
bennygoodman.com
Benny Goodman entry, wikipedia.org

Memorial Day 2024

Many of us grew up knowing this day as Decoration Day but now it is best known as Memorial Day. Though both its date and scope have changed over time its central meaning remains strong. At virtually every crossroad town from sea to sea, there will be old soldiers, flags, a speech or two, and prayers. These events will take place at memorial walls bearing the names of the honored dead. Invariably, the audiences will be small, but firmly dedicated to the idea that the nation will always remember the cost of freedom.

This is a day of mixed emotion as we honor men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in service to their country. They gave their lives that we might live out our own in an experiment of community called the United States. As we enjoy the holiday we will take some moments today to think of these honored men and women and what they have given us and our families.

Here in words and images, the contemplative moments continue...

From the silence of sorrowful hours,

The desolate mourners go,

Lovingly laden with flowers,

Alike for the friend and the foe:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment day.

Under the roses the Blue,

Under the lilies the Gray

A Soldier's Burial

by General George S. Patton (1943)

Not midst the chanting of the Requiem Hymn,

Nor with the solemn ritual of prayer,

Neath misty shadows from the oriel glass,

And dreamy perfume of the incensed air

Was he interred;

But in the subtle stillness after fight,

And the half light between the night and the day,

We dragged his body all besmeared with mud,

And dropped it, clod-like, back into the clay.

Yet who shall say that he was not content,

Or missed the prayers, or drone of chanting choir,

He who had heard all day the Battle Hymn

Sung on all sides by a thousand throats of fire.

What painted glass can lovelier shadows cast,

Than those the evening sky shall ever shed,

While, mingled with their light, Red Battle's Sun

Completes in magic colors o'er our dead,

The flag for which they died.

Memorial Day Weekend 2024

In the American composer Charles Ives's time (1874-1954) the holiday we celebrate on Monday was known as Decoration Day. It was a time to remember men and women in uniform who died in service to their country. Today, we call it Memorial Day and, though both its date and scope have changed over time, its central meaning remains strong. At virtually every crossroad town from sea to sea, there will be old soldiers, flags, a speech or two, and prayers. These events will take place at memorial walls bearing the names of the honored dead. Invariably, the audiences will be small, but firmly dedicated to the idea that the nation will always remember the cost of freedom.

Ives captures much of the historic character of this day in his composition, Holiday Symphony, Section II, "Decoration Day." The piece has a number of familiar tunes but you may not recognize them without a guide. Like the holiday itself, Ives give us rich, complex, and contemplative moments in time and space.

I hope you experience Decoration/Memorial Day to its fullest, that is, with remembrance and celebration.

How Many Roads...Bob Dylan Turns 83

Yesterday the legendary songwriter, Bob Dylan, turned 83. As expected, Scott Johnson, the outstanding cultural observer writing at Powerline, treated his readers to a revision of his Dylan tributes. Johnson conveys the message so well I won't begin to add to the story. His first post, Not Dark Yet, discusses the man and his significance in the world of music and beyond. In past years he's posted Not Dark Yet, Cont., is a nostalgic look at Dylan the songwriter and features several likely unfamiliar covers of the master's work.

Bob Dylan was only 21 on July 9, 1962 when he walked into the Columbia Recording Studios in New York to record a song to be included on his second album. The song, Blowin' in the Wind, brought him fame and recognition as one of the nation's leading folk poets in the twentieth century. Dylan has this to say about the song in the June 1962 issue of the folk journal, Sing Out:

Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some ...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know . . . and then it flies away.

 

The music critic, Andy Gill, said this about the song in his book, Classic Bob Dylan, 1962-1969: My Back Pages:

Blowin' in the Wind marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like The Ballad of Donald White and The Death of Emmett Till had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. Blowin' in the Wind was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas The Ballad of Donald White would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as Blowin' in the Wind could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

 

Undoubtedly the song remains a poem for our time, perhaps all time. And Dylan just keeps rolling as well,

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo, 1964 Yearbook, St. Lawrence University, New York

Text:
Bob Dylan entry, Wikipedia.org
history.com

From Northern Lights To Summer Sprites

Sprites                  Lomonosov Moscow State University

Earlier this month a large part of the US was treated to the best display of the northern lights in decades. We're not likely to see a show like that again this year but a forecast for thunderstorms this afternoon reminded me that it's time to mention another spectacular atmosperic event, the sprites. A sprite is a member of a family of upper atmosphere lightning phenomena called transient luminous events or TLE's. They actually occur rather frequently in a split second and are visible to the naked eye. Other members of the TLE family include blue jets and elves. All are associated with thunderstorms and although reports of sightings go back centuries they were unknown to science a little more than a generation ago. Digital photography and advanced computer technology enabled both their imaging and analysis beginning around 1995. 

Source: Centre Nationales D'Etudes Spatiales

I find these atmospheric events fascinating, beautiful, and mysterious but the probability of observing them in real time is practically nil. I have yet to see one in person. For certain I won't be seeing anything from my woodland home in Georgia or the eastern U.S. for that matter. When you find yourself in a thunderstorm-rich location with unlimited visibility beyond the horizon you have found the ideal conditions for LTE observation. In other words, our readers in Oklahoma, Texas, and other wide open spaces need only step out on the porch and into a comfortable chair to enjoy the possibility of seeing a rare and still mysterious show in the distant sky.

Below is an amazing video by the quintessential storm chaser, Pecos Hank, and the world's leading TLE photographer, Bill Smith. They are also credited with the discovery and naming of a new TLE they called the ghost. It's ten minutes of breathtaking photography and excellent instruction in what could be a complex subject for non-science folks. I can only hope the high standards of science instruction found in this video is in every classroom in the US.

In this brief video Pecos Hank documented the TLE activity over Texas on May 17, 2021, when he witnessed his "most incredible sprite storm...to date." As a weather observer for seventty years I can so appreciate his enthusiam on seeing such an amazing phenomenon.

These videos are but a small sample of Pecos Hank's award winning work focused on super-cell thunderstorms and tornadoes. If you enjoy weather science and storm chasing combined with high production values his You Tube channel is your destination.


Keep looking up!

Maryland Makes Its 29th Appearance In Lacrosse Final Four This Weekend

Anyone who reads Old Tybee Ranger this time of year knows he has a thing for college lacrosse. This year is no exception although he's a bit heart broken over Johns Hopkins's double overtime loss to Virginia last weekend. That outcome prevents one more game in the storied lacrosse rivalry between Maryland and  Hopkins, a match up that began in 1895. Instead, Maryland will appear in this year's national championship weekend games facing some serious challenges that guarantee fast and hard hitting action. Next Saturday, Notre Dame and Denver face off in the first semifinal game at noon EDT followed by Maryland and Virginia at 2:30 p.m. The winners will meet in the championship game on Memorial Day at 1:00 p.m. You can watch the big game on ESPN. The semifinals will be on ESPN2.

So what is this game called lacrosse? Lacrosse is an ancient American sport, dating from about 1000 C.E. In it's early days, the game had a religious significance. Sides could consist of as many as a few thousand players and the losing side sometimes paid with their lives. In the middle of the 19th century William George Beers, a Canadian dentist and lacrosse enthusiast, wrote rules and parameters to make the game more gentlemanly. His efforts paid dividends quickly as many clubs formed from the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River Valley. The Mohawk Lacrosse Club (New York, 1868) was the first club in the United States. Intercollegiate competition followed a decade later focused on universities from New York to Maryland.

An Indian Ball-Play                             orge Catlin, 1846-50

Fast forward to today and you could say the game still has that religious fervor if you live from Maryland to New England. It's that part of the country where three-year-old boys (and some girls) get little lacrosse sticks for Christmas. These days the teams are a bit smaller - ten players to a side - but there's still a good likelihood of some bloodshed of the non-fatal variety. Little more than a generation ago the game at the college level was a virtually exclusive sport heavily anchored in the Ivy League and the Northeast. Today there are more than sixty Division I teams found on the East and West Coasts and at the flagship universities in the interior. Each year that number grows by two or three teams. Expansion in other college divisions and at the K-12 level is so great that the sport is recognized as the fastest growing team sport in the country. If you're interested in more information go to usalacrosse.com

Today around 900,000 players participate in some form of organized lacrosse. I'd say that's a sign of an outstanding future for the game. And speaking of the future, it looks brilliant for both Maryland and Johns Hopkins as they move from a strong season in 2024 to 2025 when both teams should return to powerhouse status. I am so looking forward to that and as always the annual Maryland-Hopkins clash spurred on by the cheers heard at around 120 games over the last 128 years.

Fear the Turtle!

Frank Capra, American Filmmaker: "...See The Rainbow, Feel The Rain, And Hear The Laugh Of A Child."

We don't hear much these days about the film director, Frank Capra. His best work is after all nearly a century old. On the other hand he left a rich legacy in the film industry that in many repsects spilled over into the televison era. Far and away he led the industry in directorial praise during the 1930s. He's also credited with shifting the industry's focus from productiion to direction. As an outstanding storyteller and skilled director he's credited with creating the best film portrayals of the human condition during the Great Depression years, 1929-39.

Like many early icons in the American film industry, Capra's story begins in poverty. He was born in Sicily on May 18 in 1897. When he was five his family arrived in this country after a two-week passage in steerage and settled in Los Angeles. He worked his way through college earning a degree in chemical engineering, but also found no work in that field. A series of odd jobs eventually brought him into the film industry where he would become one of the greatest names in 20th century Hollywood.

Today most of us know him as the director of the perennial Christmas film, It's A Wonderful Life (1946). These's much more of Capra's storytelling to enjoy. Here's a small portion of what he produced in his black and white world:


It Happened One Night (1934)

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)

Lost Horizon (1937)

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

War Department Film Series (1942-45)

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Here Comes The Groom (1951)


Each of these films received Academy Award nominations and all but one - It's A Wonderful Life - received Oscars in one or more categories. Here is his obituaryhis obituary (1991) from The New York Times. And here is a fine 1978 interview he made with the American Film Institute's American Film about his life and film making technique.

Undoubtedly Capra leaves us a rich legacy in 20th century film entertainment. It's a legacy anyone can enjoy. And there's a good chance we'll learn something about ourselves and the human condition we share.

Buon compleanno, Francesco!



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
portrait, public domain photo by Columbia Pictures, operarex.highwire.com

Text:
title adapted from a Capra quote
wikipedia.org

Orson Welles: "I Started At The Top...."

Today marks the 109th anniversary of the birth of Orson Welles. He has been missing from the world stage for over a generation now. The film and stage industries will always owe him immensely for what he brought to them and for the treatment his genius received at the hands of a Hollywood film cartel that resented outsiders.

Welles at 21

There will never be another cinematic alchemist quite like Orson Welles. Interested in experiment and discovery in the performing arts, he was a remarkably talented actor, writer, director, producer, and more. Before he was thirty he had terrified the nation with his realistic Halloween presentation of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938) and awed film audiences with Citizen Kane (1941). The film still tops most "best film ever made" lists around the world. Welles was already a rather contentious artist when he achieved almost instant fame. His creativity and drive helped label him as a difficult if not reckless personality and he never endeared himself to the Hollywood in-crowd. As a result his film legacy was limited to a number of noteworthy productions and a long list of unfinished projects and pipe dreams.

The achievement of early fame and the fast and loose pursuit of art at almost any cost gave him a unique perspective on creativity and the entertainment industry. Although he appreciated his solitude he was never one to shy from the limelight and delighted in interviews and personal appearances where he could deliver and endless stream of anecdotes in his rich, unforgettable baritone voice.

For a taste of Welles as writer, director, and co-star, here is the famous "mirror scene" from The Lady of Shanghai (1948). Film critic David Kehr has called the film "the weirdest great movie ever made."

And here from his 1958 film, Touch of Evil, is the classic "crane shot" that makes an appearance in every college film class.

In later life Welles became known as a great conversationalist. From 1974, here are the highlights from an interview with the British broadcaster, Sir Michael Parkinson. Welles talks about politics, bullfighting, his friendship with Ernest Hemingway, personal heroes (Winston Churchill, Gen. George S, Marshall), the power of criticism, the film industry, the stars (he thought James Cagney was far and away the best), his attitude toward his films, and future projects. It's a quick and entertaining 37 minutes and in my mind reveals much about the man who foreshadowed the flourishing independent film movement we know today.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

                                                                        Orson Welles, 1958

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Welles portrait, Library of Congress (Carl Van Vechten, photographer, March 1, 1937)

Text:
Title derived from quote, Welles, from the film, F For Fake (1973)
Kehr quote: chicagoreader.com, review of The Lady of Shanghai
Welles quote: "Ribbon of Dreams" in International Film Annual no. 2, 1958

Cinco De Mayo 2024

It's Cinco de Mayo across the USA! And with the Covid pandemic receding in our mrmories Americans can actually sit in their favorite Mexican restaurant to enjoy the festivities for two consecutive years. In fact, Americans are celebrating far more than their neighbors south of the border. Why, you ask? It's simply because Cinco de Mayo isn't what you think it is.

Imagine millions of Mexicans celebrating this historic day from Cabo San Lucas to Cozumel. The dancing . . . the parades . . . the patriotic music . . . the parties and feasts into the night. Doesn't happen. That's right, my friends. Cinco de Mayo in Mexico is a regional celebration of the victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Outside the capital city and state of Puebla, today is pretty much just another Sunday. For Mexicans, the big national celebration is Independence Day, celebrated on September 16.

Depiction of the Battle of Puebla Francisco Miranda, 1872

Cross the border into the United States today and it's a very different story. What originated in 1862 as a local victory celebration by Mexican gold miners in northern California has spread across the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. Like many American holidays, official and otherwise, Cinco de Mayo has grown in popularity in recent decades due to heavy commercial promotion. Greeting card, candy, and florist industries may drive Mother's Day. In the case of Cinco de Mayo a significant force driving the festivities is the alcoholic beverage industry. The distilled beverage of choice will be tequila.

Whatever the reason for such popularity, it's a great time to experience and enjoy the rich heritage and culture of the people of Mexico and their contribution to the American experience. For starters here is some traditional music to set the mood for the day.

The culture of Mexico is a rich mosaic of Mayans, Aztecs, Mestizos (European, American Indian, African, and Asian), and more. May you experience a bit of all of it today as you have a safe and enjoyable Cinco de Mayo.

The Day Kent State University Became A Killing Field

John Filo took this photo - a Pulitzer Prize winner - of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of Kent State University student, Jeffrey Miller, murdered by National Guard troops during an anti-war protest on campus. The event we know as the Kent State University massacre became a landmark in American history. The date was May 4, 1970.

That day four unarmed students were killed and nine others injured by members of the Ohio National Guard. Years of conflict over the nation's role in the Vietnam War already had millions of Americans on edge. In seconds, 67 shots fired into a crowd of defenseless students marked the beginning of both the end of an already very unpopular war and a controversial president already well-known as "Tricky Dick" Nixon.

For three days prior to the massacre Kent State had been hit with violent demonstrations threatening both the campus and downtown commercial district. The Ohio National Guard had been on scene by the evening of May 2. From a city firehouse, Governor James Rhodes fueled the conflict by referring to the protesters as "brown shirts...the communist element... night riders... and the vigilantes." Days earlier President Richard Nixon referred to some campus protesters as "bums."

May 4 began with university officials attempting to ban a campus protest that had been planned days earlier. The result was a loose gathering of around 2000 persons met by guardsmen armed with tear gas and fixed bayonets. For reasons undetermined shots were fired into the unarmed crowd. The average distance of those killed was 345 feet from the guardsmen. The event incited a strike involving millions of students across the nation, forced the closing of hundreds of universities and colleges, and marked a turning point in national opinion among many who had supported American involvement in Vietnam, an ever escalating action that began in 1959.

On May 18, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, one of the nation's most popular bands, released the song, Ohio, as an expression of the anger and frustration as well as a call to action among young Americans over both the war and the murders.

A week after Kent State, police killed a student and a passerby at a demonstration at Jackson State College in Mississippi. An unquestionable sense of rebellion began to grip the nation. The Nixon administration was well aware of the situation and took steps to mitigate the danger and political erosion. One of those steps was the creation of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest- the Scranton Commission - in June 1970. The commission was tasked with reviewing the incident. After three months of work the commission concluded:

Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.

Location map, Scranton Commission report

Over time the event has been remembered in several way including the designation of the seventeen acre site as a National Historic Landmark in 2016. Kent State University also commemorates the event through its May 4 Visitor Center.

Savannah: Ever Changing, But Still The Same If You Know Where To Look

May 2 is a significant date in Savannah's modern history. On that day in 1981 Jim Williams shot and killed Danny Hansford. It marked a violent end to a tragic love story and the catalyst for an enormously successful non-fiction novel and the economic and social transformation of a city. In 1977 I moved to a new job near Savannah and was soon seduced by the city's charm and opportunities. I bought a townhouse in the historic district and in a matter of weeks realized the city was a most unusual urban tapestry inhabited by a full range of entertaining and eccentric characters. There could have been a book about Savannah in my future but I was too busy adjusting to new work, stumbling through a failing relationship with the woman who came with me, and serving as general contractor restoring my "livable" townhouse.

John Berendt, the man who would eventually write that book, first visited the city around 1981 long after I escaped to the beach. He returned two or three times gathering even more fascinating and compelling characteristics about the city and its people. Three years later he moved to Savannah in search of broadening his writing career. The project that emerged was a travelogue built around the Williams-Hansford story. The result was unlike any proposal the publishing industry had ever seen.

The book was a sensation, a best seller with a broad impact. Savannah's tourism exploded, also enhanced by the highly successful Savannah College of Art and Design and its historic preservation initiative. For comparison, there were 5 million tourists who spent $600 million in 1993. The numbers jumped to 12.5 million and $2.2 billion in 2013. A decade later nearly 20 million tourists visited the city. They spent $5 billion and made the city a leading destination for international tourism.

Yes, Savannah experienced change quickly. There were more restaurants to enjoy. The night life flourished. Tour options abounded, from ghost, to pirate, to transsexual. The pace changed: faster, broader, deeper, never ending, and more expensive. The downtown historic district became a hot real estate market on an international scale. It also became a fishbowl brimming with tourists. Soon the preservation pioneers from the '70s and '80s paid $6,000, $8,000, then $10,000 or more in city/county taxes to live in the homes they had lovingly restored. Many of them left. Had I stayed, I too would have been displaced.

Today, the people go about their daily lives shadowed by those magnificent, moss draped live oaks. The wonderfully restored facades provide a pleasing backdrop. The ships glide in and out of port with the flood and ebb of the tides. And Bonaventure's ancient gate welcomes the living and the dead into what I believe is by far the nation's, perhaps one of the world's, most beautiful cemetery. So much has changed in Savannah, but in the quiet hours, in the intimate gardens, and in the music of the squares as well as that of a piano a few door away, you can still find the essence of the old Southern city I knew over forty years ago. One thing you can't find is my book. You'll have to look to another author for the story.


John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was published in 1994. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction in 1995. More than 3 million copies have been sold. The book remains the longest running title - 216 weeks - on the New York Times Best Seller list. Trust me. It's a good read.




Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
front cover art, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Random House, New York, 1994, fair use


Text:
Wikipedia.org
interview, Booknotes, interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN, August, 12, 1997

Celebrating Warmth And New Life

To be fair we could be talking about workers of the world, the joys of collectivist thought, and even the "fruits" of Communism on this day. I would rather speak of a more ancient and far happier theme.

May 1, 2023, in Glastonbury, United Kingdom

The Gaelic festival day, Beltane ("be-EL-ten-a" in Irish, "BEL-tayn" in English)) occurs on May 1 and is a cross-quarter day marking the beginning of summer in their ancient calendar. It is one of two "turning" days of the year and exactly six months apart from the other, Samhain (saa-wn), marking the beginning of the dead season of winter. In the United Kingdom and other places with Gaelic heritage Beltane celebrations began last night with the lighting of bonfires, dancing and feasting long into the night.

 

The fun continues with the welcoming of the sun, the selection of the May Queen or earth goddess representing fertility, and the May King or Green Man - the latter first appeared in the 12th century -  representing vegetation and growth. The partying includes a Maypole dance - once an ancient fertility rite - and the decoration of houses, farms, and livestock; and more feasting.

Here in the United States there isn't much associated with the day unless there's an opportunity to sell something under the May Day Sale label. Even schools show little interest in May Day but it was a day-long festival at my elementary school in the 1950's. Actually the day was a big event for the whole community. It was so important that I recall the teachers having us outside days in advance to practice the May Pole dance until the lattice pattern on the pole was perfect. I wonder how enthusiastic they would have been had they known we were practicing a fertility rite. Aside from a few New Agers all religious associations with the activities have been left to an ancient past. These days it's simply good fun. Or at least a happy memory.




Maypole Dance, Bascom Hill, Wisconsin, May 1 ca. 1917





May you have a most festive celebration of the arrival of a time of warmth and new life





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Photograph: University of Wisconsin Digital Collections