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Love and History

There are so many designations for each month that I can’t keep up anymore. So whatever February means to you…have a happy one.

The topic today, as you can tell from the title, is Love and History.

If you want a woman who can sing about love, about what it can make you do, what it makes you endure, then turn to the one and only Lady Day – Billie Holiday. For those of you who saw the movie and/or read her autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues”, you know her history. For the rest of you who remain ignorant of this icon of American music, then try throwing her name in a search engine; I don’t have the space to adequately describe the width and breadth of this woman’s life to you.

Suffice to say, Lady Day re-interpreted the American Songbook as well as wrenched the gut out of many a blues song with her plaintive distinct voice. An Aries woman (who suffered on and off with heroin addiction) she was headstrong and stubborn, traits that did not sit well with many of the Jim Crow laws and blatant racism that marked her days.

Even with the law not on her side, Lady Day was able to carve out a niche for herself. In addition, she used her position as a musical icon to protest the ills of the day. Her song “Strange Fruit”, about the terrible practice of lynching that continued in the South well into the mid-20^th century, was called the Song of the Century by Time magazine in 1999.

But Lady Day knew about love as well as loss. In the song “Fine and Mellow”, one of her own compositions, she describes her tumultuous relationship with her man. “But when he starts in to love me….he is so fine and mellow.”

Relationships, as we all know, aren’t smooth sailing, ever: “Love is like a faucet…it goes off and on,” and sometimes don’t end well: “sometimes when you think it’s on, baby, it has turned off and gone.”

Love can drive us to madness: “love will make you do things….that you know is wrong…”

Frank Sinatra spoke of her in a 1958 Ebony interview:

With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.

The Chairman of the Board has spoken. That’s your love and history lesson for the day.

You’re welcome.

Learning Curves

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the craft of writing these past few weeks. There have been quite a few “freebies” on Amazon/Nook and I must admit I’m a sucker for “those who bought this book also bought…..”.

Taking a break from the task of actual writing and examining the craft of writing is both a benefit and a curse.

The benefit is that I can now begin creating patterns in my writing. No matter what we write, I’m finding out, there is an underlying structure that works its way through the storyline. In fact, we are all writing the same stories over and over again, simply with different characters and situations. It’s okay, though. People love familiar structure. For example, Jaws, Alien, Panic Room and Fatal Attraction are all the same movie. Not the same plot, characters, etc, but if you screen all those movies, you will find the same types of scenes. Try it.

The curse is that I clearly see all the mistakes that I have made in my published stories. Things I’d love to go back and change.

But I can’t. And as a constant “fixer-upper” I’ve learned to let of go that. Almost. I think. Sort of.

However, I don’t have to make those same errors moving forward, right? So with my little Index Card app on the iPad, I’m creating a database of terms and scenes and reference sheets that will assist me in creating the super-perfect story that everyone will love. Right? Right????

Or at least a story with perfect, underlying structure.

Truth is, I thrive on discovering new concepts and tips that will assist in making me a better writer. The learning and the self-improvement never stops. It’s like a shark – stop learning and you sink to the bottom of the pile.

Photo Post – Five Objects in My Office

I’m fortunate. I have an office to which I can retreat and type my little masterpieces. Let me give you a peek into what I look at every day. Enjoy!

A plant that I picked up for two bucks at the grocer’s. Sale!!

A teapot that I fell in love with at a thrift shop.
Had to have it for 5 bucks.

Coffee (or tea) cup – one of many.

Makeup bag. It’s pretty psychedelic!

And packed full.

Harley Teddy! He doesn’t really have a name.

Any suggestions?

Seventies Folk Favorites

Music is important to me. I listen to every type, every kind from hither to thither all the way over to yon. You get the picture. This is going to be a simple post. Maybe you’ll sing along with me, maybe you’ll snicker at how old I am.

I’m not going to wax poetic about how the songs of my childhood and teen years were so much better than the songs of today because I believe that there’s good music in all eras. You just have to look for it. And there were some pretty crappy songs when I was growing up, believe me.

No. This post is about listening to AM radio in the 70s and the songs that came out of that mono speaker that still inspire me today. So fluff out your Afros, get your love beads and granny skirts and take a walk with me down memory lane.

Melanie Safka – Look What They Done to my Song, Ma

This song was also done by the Seekers, but I like Melanie’s song better. The French in the song adds to its awesomeness. “Ils ont change ma chanson, Ma.” Love how “Ma” is the same in French and in English.

The weird thing is, after all this singing about they changed her song, it also was featured in an ad for oatmeal. Go figure.

Mary Hopkins – Those Were the Days, My Friend

You must love a song that tells a story. This song is based on a Russian folk song, which accounts for its melancholy, yet catchy tune. You know it, you love it, sing along.
“Those were the days my friend/we’d thought they never end….”

Last but not least, I’ve listened (and sung out loud) to this song so much that my children know this song, especially the harmonies at the beginning and the end. Love this.

Pilot of the Airwaves – Charlie Dore

Pilot of the Airwaves
Here is my request
You don’t have to play it but I hope you’ll do your best
I’ve been listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me.

What are some of your 70s folk favorites?

Writing is not Teaching

Nearly every person reading this has received a bad review at one time or another, whether it be a poor grade in a class, a poor performance review at work, or (gulp) a bad review on a book. Given my successful experience as an educator (backed by a file full of good reviews) my take on reviews were a lot different. Let me explain.

As a teacher in a room full of students, it is your job to convey the material to them. That is to say, if you administer a test and more than ten percent of the class fails, you’ve failed as a teacher and the material must be re-taught. The purpose of a teacher is to ensure that students are learning and retaining the material because every lesson taught builds upon the one before it. If they miss out today, then the next portion of material will be that much harder for the student.

A brief example: if a student doesn’t understand the concepts of addition and subtraction, then teaching them multiplication and division would be difficult, as the latter concepts are simply repeated addition and subtraction. (I could go on all day about math, but I’ll restrain myself. For all of our sakes.)

I carried that same mentality over into my profession as a writer, not realizing that some absolutes don’t transfer. When I received that two star review, it wasn’t the rating that bothered me the most – it was the fact that the reviewer didn’t “get” what I was trying to convey. Therefore, I felt that I wasn’t doing my “job” as a writer because they didn’t understand my story.

Then, I realized something. I write to entertain, not to teach. This is fiction, not a textbook. If you look at the plethora of television shows, books, movies and music that are available, you realize the spectrum of taste that is out there. Perhaps my story wasn’t entertaining to this particular person. They didn’t identify with the heroine, or a word I used yanked them out of the story. Maybe they didn’t like the hero. Who knows? I re-read and read a lot of books to which people have given bad reviews. Conversely, I’ve wrinkled my nose at reading some books that people found fan-freaking-tastic.

Writing fiction is not teaching two plus two. The entertainment/enjoyment value of my writing to a random person is so subjective that it simply cannot be gauged. And since it cannot be gauged, then, I have to fall back on À chacun son gout: To each one his taste.

But here’s a story I’ll hope you do like…tis the season!