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Good Morning WA2K.

Bob: Thanks for the Burl Ives bio. I had no idea he had testified/named names at the HUAC. What a letdown!

More June 14 Birthday Celebs:

1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe, author/abolitionist, Uncle Tom's Cabin(Litchfield, CT; died 1896)
1820 John Bartlett, editor/compiler of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Plymouth, MA; died 1905)
1864 Alois Alzheimer, psychiatrist/pathologist (Markbreit am Mainz, Germany; died 1915)
1874 Edward Bowes radio host (Major Bowes Amateur Hour); died 1946; (Sinatra started out singing in 1935 on Major Bowes Amateur Hour with the Hoboken Four).
1906 Margaret Bourke-White, photojournalist (New York, NY; died 1971)
1909 Burl Ives, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Supporting Oscar, The Big Country (Hunt, IL; died 1995)
1917 Lash La Rue Gretna La, cowboy actor (Lash of the West, Wyatt Earp)died 1996
1919 Gene Barry, actor (New York, NY) (TV, Bat Masterson, Burke's Law; Broadway, La Cage Aux Folles
1919 Dorothy McGuire, actress (Omaha, NE) died 2001 (The Enchanted Cottage, Gentlemen's Agreement; Friendly Persuasion, et al)
1925 Pierre Salinger newsman (ABC)/former press Secretary for US president John F. Kennedy: died 2004
1928 Che (Ernesto) Guevara, Latin American guerrilla leader (Argentina; died 1967)
1929 Cy Coleman [Seymour Kaufman], songwriter (Witchcraft, Sweet Charity, Will Rogers Follies) died 2004
1933 Jerzy Kosinski novelist (Painted Bird, Being There) , died 1991
1946 Donald Trump, real estate executive (New York, NY)
1958 Eric Heiden, Olympic champion speed skater (Madison, WI)
1961 Boy George (O'Dowd), singer (London, England)
1968 Yasmine Bleeth, actress (New York, NY)
1969 Steffi Graf, tennis champion (Bruhl, West Germany)

Good Morning, WA2K radio.

We, here in the studios, appreciate all the info and music because it keeps us on the air and fulfilling a purpose in cyberspace.

dj, I now recall the young man of whom you spoke. It just took a small jog of the memory. I had no idea that he wrote those songs, however. What a heart warming story and a tale of courage. Thank you, Canada.

Bob, that was a good bio on Burl Ives, and like Raggedy, I was not aware of the fact that he was a apart of the witch hunt, but who knows what we would do under similar circumstances.

Not to worry, Boo. The FCC is co-operating with me. <smile>

edgar, thanks for the Buddy Holly song and the other was not familiar to me, but perhaps someone will call in the writer and singer. It might just be you.

Raggedy, Kosinski's Painted Bird was an excellent book, but turned out to be untrue. More about that later. We always appreciate your celebs update, my dear friend.

To our radio audience and staff.

We, here, realize that it is difficult to keep up when the information and music becomes like an overload, but do try and look at the questions that folks pose here, and if you can, respond.

We miss Walter, and hope that he returns soon.

Looking at Raggedy's Allis Alzheimer makes me realize now from whom that dreaded disease is named.

actually, he didn't write the song, the song was written about him

All right, Now the water becomes a little less roiled. Thanks, dj.

Question for the day:

What is the actual meaning of the word, "guerilla" as in guerilla warfare.

No cheating, now.

Small and unorganized groups of angry young men with guns and camping equipment, but without permits or a mind to take it easy?

little war, perhaps, but that ought to be guerrita

Hey, Norway. That's a reasonable guess, but not quite what I had in mind. I haven't verified it myself, you understand.

Going along with the word stuff:




1) red state


2) blue state

3) whatever!

4) It's all good.

5) swift boat

6) The War on... anything.

7) Xtreme

8) metrosexual

9) wardrobe malfunction

10) BALCO


11) Can you hear me now? (Can you pay your bill?- Bad.)

12) Freedom is on the march

13) flip-flop

14) punk'd

15) Nascar Dads

16) Security Moms

17) It's Hard Work

18) pimp

19) dawg

20) embedded journalist

21) fair and balanced

22) SUV

Those are the most over-used words of 2005.

yitwail is close. The word does come from spanish.

Letty, do you have a list over the most misunderstood words of 2005 also? That would be something, although I cannot imagine how such a list could come to be.

Yes, Yit. That is what I had in mind--a small war.

i'm like surprised that "like" wasn't like listed

Like, who cares!

Now, I'm off for a bit and a byte. <smile>

Bob, that was a disturbing bit of news. I do wonder what the upshot will be? I swear, folks, the situation in our health care system is getting really alarming. On another segment of our forum, there was a discussion about Socialized medicine and the benefits and drawbacks. It seems that Canada won't allow folks to opt for private insurance, but I understand that, because then the present system would fail. Although mistakes are ubiquitous, the entire situation is getting out of hand.

Here is what I found about guerilla:



guer·ril·la [ gə ríllə ] (plural guer·ril·las) or gue·ril·la [ gə ríllə ] (plural gue·ril·las)


noun

irregular soldier, usually politically motivated: a member of an irregular paramilitary unit, usually with some political objective such as the overthrow of a government. Guerrillas usually operate in small groups to harass and carry out sabotage.
guerrilla warfare


[Early 19th century. From Spanish, "raiding party, skirmish," from guerra "war." Ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic word that is also the ancestor of English war.]


I won't EVEN go into the etymology.

What about gorilla warfare? That's just general havoc, men with sticks and stones and banana bombs, like the ones dropped in japan in fortyfive.

Hee! Hee! Cyracuz, I think I would rather be hit with banana bombs.

Bonk: the sound a coconut makes when hitting Norway on the head.

Well, folks. Back later as I have stuff to do.

Nok quite Letty. The "bonk" is the sound of my head. The coconut sounds more like "thokk", since it has something inside it...

Leonard Cohen


"The Future"

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...




Closing Time


Ah we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
all the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:

it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:

it's CLOSING TIME

Ah we're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
and I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since

but CLOSING TIME

I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since

CLOSING TIME

I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess

it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess

it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah we're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight
and I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights

of CLOSING TIME

The whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights

of CLOSING TIME

Oh the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
It's CLOSING TIME
And it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops

It's CLOSING TIME

I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
It's CLOSING TIME
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since

But CLOSING TIME

I loved you when our love was blessed
I love you now there's nothing left
But CLOSING TIME
I miss you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex.


Democracy

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.


All these songs were written by Leonard Cohen
 

Ah, Cyracuz of the sonnets and philosophies, I seriously doubt that head is empty. <smile>


Wow! Angelique, That Cohen guy has some rather explicit stuff, right listeners? Well, it's part of what makes up the world of music.

Recent news and the stories of old problems in American has once again called this to mind, folks:













"Strange Fruit" sung by Billie Holiday.




- music and lyrics by Lewis Allan, ©1940






Robert and Michael Rosenberg
Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress

STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South.

The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.

While many people assume that the song "Strange Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, it actually began as a poem by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx who later set it to music. Disturbed by a photograph of a lynching, the teacher wrote the stark verse and brooding melody under the pseudonym Lewis Allan in the late 1930s. Meeropol and his wife Anne are also notable because they adopted Robert and Michael Rosenberg, the orphaned children of the executed communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

"Strange Fruit" was first performed at a New York teachers' union meeting and was brought to the attention of the manager of Cafe Society, a popular Greenwich Village nightclub, who introduced Billie Holiday to the writer. Holiday's record label refused to record the song but Holiday persisted and recorded it on a specialty label instead. The song was quickly adopted as the anthem for the anti-lynching movement. The haunting lyrics and melody made it impossible for white Americans and politicians to continue to ignore the Southern campaign of racist terror. (According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, between 1882 and1968, mobs lynched 4,743 persons in the United States, over 70 percent of them African Americans.)


Abel Meeropol


The story of composer Abel Meeropol doesn't end with "Strange Fruit." Working in Hollywood six years later, Meeropol penned his other well-known composition, the patriotic, Oscar-winning paean to tolerance "The House I Live In," which was performed by Frank Sinatra in a film short in 1945 and has experienced a revival since September 11, 2001. The film explores how two such seemingly different political and still-resonant songs came to be written by the same man.

The tale of "Strange Fruit" - its genesis, impact and continuing relevance - is an amazingly complex one that weaves together the lives of African Americans, immigrant Jews, anticommunist government officials, civil rights leaders, radical Leftist teachers and organizers, music publishers, record company executives and jazz musicians. In many ways, the story of the song and its writer and interpreters is as moving and oddly haunting as the song itself.


Billie Holiday
» Strange Fruit


Lewis Allen

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

All news, bad and good news, folks.

Oh my, listeners. I wondered how long this would take:


Virus feeds on Jackson suicide rumor

Hackers use expectation of tragedy in face of child molestation trial to install malicious code.
June 13, 2005: 5:31 PM EDT







AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - E-mail claiming pop star Michael Jackson, recently on trial for sex abuse charges, had tried to kill himself was being spread by hackers as a means to break into computers, a British antivirus firm said Friday.

The hackers sent e-mails with the subject "Re: Suicidal attempt" and the following message text: "Last night, while in his Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt," according to security software specialists at Sophos.

Jackson was awaiting a California court verdict on charges of child molestation.

The e-mail asks recipients to click on a link that takes them to a Web site that secretly installs malicious code on their computers.

"If you click on the link, the Web site displays a message saying it is too busy, which may not surprise people who think it might contain genuine breaking news about Michael Jackson," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos.

For tips on protecting your PC, click here.

Saying goodnight in a song:

Tonight, tonight,
Won't be just any night,
Tonight there will be no morning star.
Tonight, tonight, I'll see my love tonight.
And for us, stars will stop where they are.
Today
The minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly,
And still the sky is light . . .
Oh moon, grow bright,
And make this endless day endless night!

That's from the East side story.<smile>

From Letty with love