WA2K Radio is now on the air

Herman Melville
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. During his own lifetime his early novels, South Seas adventures, were quite popular, but his audience declined later in his life. By the time of his death he had nearly been forgotten, but his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, was "rediscovered" in following years and he is now widely esteemed as one of the most important figures in American literature.

Melville was a friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was influenced by the latter's writing; Moby-Dick is dedicated to Hawthorne. In his later life, his works no longer accessible to a broad audience, he was not able to make money from writing. He depended on his wife's family for money, and later became a New York City Customs agent. His short novel Billy Budd, an unpublished manuscript at the time of his death, was later published successfully and was turned into an opera by Benjamin Britten.

Melville also wrote White-Jacket, Typee, Omoo, Pierre, The Confidence Man and many short stories and works of various genres. His short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" is among his most important pieces, and has been considered a precursor to Existentialist and Absurdist literature. Melville is less well known as a poet and did not write any substantial poetry until late in his life; after the Civil War, he published Battle-Pieces, which sold well. But once again tending to outrun the tastes of his readers, Melville's poetic masterpiece, the epic length verse-narrative Clarel, about a student's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was also quite unknown in his own time.


Life

Paraphrased from the introduction written by Arthur Stedman to the 1892 edition of Melville's Typee:

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, and received his early education in that city. He says he gained his first love of adventure listening to his father Allan, who was an extensive traveller for his time, telling tales of the monstrous waves at sea, mountain high, of the masts bending like twigs, and all about Le Havre and Liverpool. After the death of his father the family (eight brothers and sisters) moved to the village of Lansingburg, on the Hudson River. There Herman remained until 1835, when he attended the Albany Classical School for some months.

Herman's roving disposition, and a desire to support himself independently of family assistance, soon led him to ship as cabin boy in a New York vessel bound for Liverpool. He made the voyage, visited London, and returned in the same ship. 'Redburn: His First Voyage,' published in 1849, is partly founded on the experiences of this trip.

A good part of the succeeding three years, from 1837 to 1840, was occupied with school-teaching.

I fancy that it was the reading of Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast which revived the spirit of adventure in Melville's breast. That book was published in 1840, and was at once talked of everywhere. Melville must have read it at the time, mindful of his own experience as a sailor. At any rate, he once more signed a ship's articles, and on January 1, 1841, sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts harbour in the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific Ocean and the sperm fishery. He has left very little direct information as to the events of this eighteen months' cruise, although his whaling romance, 'Moby-Dick; or, the Whale,' probably gives many pictures of life on board the Acushnet. Melville decided to abandon the vessel on reaching the Marquesas Islands; and the narrative of 'Typee' and its sequel, 'Omoo,' tell this tale.

After a sojourn at the Society Islands, Melville shipped for Honolulu. There he remained for four months, employed as a clerk. He joined the crew of the American frigate United States, which reached Boston, stopping on the way at one of the Peruvian ports, in October of 1844. Once more was a narrative of his experiences to be preserved in 'White Jacket; or, the World in a Man-of-War.' Thus, of Melville's four most important books, three, 'Typee,' 'Omoo,' and 'White-Jacket,' are directly auto biographical, and 'Moby-Dick' is partially so; while the less important 'Redburn' is between the two classes in this respect.

Melville married Miss Elizabeth Shaw [daughter of noted jurist, Lemuel Shaw ] on August 4, 1847, in Boston, whereupon his nautical wanderings were brought to a conclusion. Mr. and Mrs. Melville resided in New York City until 1850, when they purchased a farmhouse at Pittsfield. Here Melville remained for thirteen years, occupied with his writing, and managing his farm. An article in Putnam's Monthly entitled 'I and My Chimney,' another called 'October Mountain,' and the introduction to the 'Piazza Tales,' present faithful pictures of Arrow Head and its surroundings.

While at Pittsfield, Mr. Melville was induced to enter the lecture field. From 1857 to 1860 he filled many engagements in the lyceums, chiefly speaking of his adventures in the South Seas.

After an illness that lasted a number of months, Herman Melville died at his home in New York City early on the morning of September 28, 1891. He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville

Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882)

Richard Henry Dana

Richard Henry Dana, American writer and lawyer, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 1, 1815. He left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels.

Dana was an antislavery activist, and in 1848 he helped found the Free-Soil Party. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature from 1867 to 1868.

Two Years Before the Mast is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European.

Dana's writing provides a glimpse into San Diego history, describing Old Town as it was in 1835 and the "hide trade" (curing and trimming cattle hides for export) on Point Loma's La Playa. In 1841 Dana wrote a handbook, The Seaman's Friend, which includes a section on maritime law, a field in which he became an authority. He was an opponent of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Dana died on January 6, 1882 in Rome.

The Library of Congress has a digital edition of Two Years Before the Mast which includes the chapter "Twenty-four Years After" prepared by Dana to accompany the "author's" edition published in 1869 as well as his son's "Seventy-six Years After," an appendix prepared in 1911.

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/dana/dana.htm

Good morning, WA2K radio fans and contributors.

First we would like to welcome barefoot Tia to our studio and say that we appreciate her having played I Don't Want to Miss a Thing. You certainly won't miss much here, Tia. <smile>

Welcome back to our radio, smorgs, and for you:






The Song of Sarah

Sarah, of the beautiful mind
Sarah, of the joyous face
Sarah, of the gentle heart
Don't take your love away

Sarah and her skillful hands
Sarah and her sunshine smile
Sarah and her powerful spirit
Don't take your love away

Sarah, who runs in the fields
Sarah, who runs from the cows
Sarah who runs with the wind
Don't take your love away

Sarah's a toucher of lives
Sarah's a healer of souls
Sarah's a "Living Bread"
Don't take your love away

...Stay

It's great seeing Ray back with us and and appreciate his week with bare naked ladies. <smile>

Also, folks, a big hug to our regular crew replete with love songs.


Bob, of all the bios, Herman Melville is really outstanding and is a reminder that the white whale of fiction still sounds in our seas.

And, of course, Dana was a tribute to McTag who may not have spent two years before the mast, but definitely enjoyed the time that he did.

edgar, thanks for reminding us from whence cometh Sam's nom de plume.

Good morning Letty. I thought it was interesting that Melville's bio mentioned the influence Dana's classic book had on him and that they shared the same birthday although separated by four years. By the time I was seventeen I had read Moby Dick three times. It was a real eye opener how the book shifted each succeeding time I read it.

Bob, I think that all classics, including movies, change with each inspection, right listeners?

Thought for Today: ``Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one's insistence that he possesses it.'' - Kenneth Bancroft Clark, American educator and psychologist.



07/31/05 20:00

Last evening when I said goodnight via Shelly's ode, this song again came to mind:





Skylark, have you anything to say to me?
Can you tell me where my love may be?
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where he's just waiting to be kissed?

Skylark, have you seen a valley green with spring
Where my heart can go a journeying
Over the shadows and the rain
To a blossom covered lane?

And in your lonely flight have you heard the music?
In the night, wonderful music.
Faint as a will-o'-the-wisp, crazy as a loon,
Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon.

Oh, skylark, I don't know, I don't know
If you can find these things,
But my heart, my heart is riding on your wings.
So if you see them anywhere
Won't you lead me there?

Oh, won't you lead me there?
Lead me there, lead me there.
Lead me there, skylark, skylark, skylark, there!

So very lovely, folks.

Gosh, there's about four pages of this, unread by me. Although I see Smorgs is back, welcome!

I don't know about the derivation of "snob", but I'll see of I can find out more, to confirm info given above.
Never heard of "snab", is that a typo?

Well, folks. There's our McTag. Francis gave us a link to the etymology and I think that I saved it in our files.

Here ya go, Brit:

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/snob?view=uk

We still have had no answer to what is an armonica, however.

Hey, not always me!

armonica, (French: harmonium)

Francis, Fantastic! Our listeners will appreciate the description as being something like a cross between an old music box and a well tempered clavier.

For further information about it's inventor:

http://www.glassarmonica.com/armonica/franklin/

As seems that our Ben did more in Paris than court the ladies. <smile>

Good morning to all.

I had to google Letty's armonica question. Interesting that it was invented by Ben Franklin.

Bob, your bios are very nostalgic. Makes me think of Masefield's:

I MUST down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife; 10
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

And the birthdays for this 1st day of August:

10 BC - Claudius, Roman emperor (d. AD 54)
126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)
1630 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (d. 1673)
1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (d. 1829)
1770 - William Clark, explorer (d. 1838)
1779 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and lyricist (d. 1843)
1815 - Richard Henry Dana, Jr., lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)
1818 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer (d. 1889)
1819 - Herman Melville, writer (d. 1891)
1858 - Hans Rott, composer (d. 1884)
1885 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
1891 - Karl Kobelt, Swiss politician (d. 1968)
1921 - Jack Kramer, American tennis player
1922 - Arthur Hill, actor
1922 - Pat McDonald, actress (d. 1990)
1924 - Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1925 - Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)
1927 - Raymond Leppard, English conductor
1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)
1931 - Tom Wilson, cartoonist
1932 - Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
1933 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer
1937 - Al D'Amato, U.S. Senator from New York
1942 - Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)
1942 - Sjoukje Dijkstra, Dutch figure skater
1945 - Douglas D. Osheroff, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1946 - Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist
1950 - Jim Carroll, poet, actor
1953 - Robert Cray, blues singer
1955 - Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer
1956 - Tom Leykis, radio personality
1959 - Joe Elliott, musician (Def Leppard)
1960 - Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy)
1960 - Richard Roeper, newspaper columnist and film critic
1963 - Coolio, rapper
1965 - Sam Mendes, film director
1973 - Tempestt Bledsoe, actress
1978 - Edgerrin James, American football player
1981 - Taylor Fry, actress

Georges Charpak - I met him once.

Boston Herald story Monday August 1, 2005

Iraq's newest sheik is an American GI

Qayyarah, Iraq

Sheik Horn, in white robe and Arab headdress, is the only sheik who has blond streaks in his moustache and who likes country music.. Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn. To local Iraqis, he's "the American sheik".
His rise to sheikdom came after his base was hit by repeated rocket attacks last year. Horn, 25, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was sent to coax information about insurgents from the locals. He grew interested when a local sheik, or village elder, explained rural Iraqi society. Horn began stopping by the villages in his area to talk to people about their problems. Then he began pressing for development projects, helping to bring $136,000 in aid.
"They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases," Horn said.
Sheik Mohammed Ismail Ahmed suggested the local village leaders name Horn a sheik. They agreed, and and gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land to fulfill some requirements of sheikdom. They encouraged him to find a second wife, but Horn's first wife back in Florida vetoed that.
Horn's commander says it's worked: No rockets have hit the base in six months. "They love him," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker. "They're not going to let anyone shoot at Sheik Horn."

-- Associated Press

Miss Letty and listeners, I returned yesterday from my journey to the interior, not having any idea that it was the day before Melville's birthday. Alas, I don't have any anecdotes about the creator of my a2k namesake, but I did see another Aug. 1 celeb, Jerry Garcia, in performance. So I'd like to offer this gem by Jerry & his longtime lyricist Robert Hunter:

Dark star crashes
pouring its light
into ashes

Reason tatters
the forces tear loose
from the axis

Searchlight casting
for faults in the
clouds of delusion

shall we go,
you and I
While we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds

Mirror shatters
in formless reflections
of matter

Glass hand dissolving
to ice petal flowers
revolving

Lady in velvet
recedes
in the nights of goodbye

Shall we go,
you and I
While we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds

Raggedy, dear. Thanks again for your timely updates, and I think McTag said that Maesfield was HIS poet laureate.

Well, listeners. It seems that there are a few celebs that I am familiar with. I recognize Dom, but who is that fellow with him. <smile>

the other celebrity depicted shared first and middle names with a great american novelist, if i'm not mistaken. ;-)

CATS UNDER THE STARS

Hunter's GD lyrics

Cats on the blacktop
Birdy in the treetop
Someone plays guitar that
sounds like clavinette
I ain't ready yet
to go to bed
Think I'll take a walk
downtown instead

Cats on the bandstand
Give 'em each a big hand
Anyone who sweats that hard
must be all-right
No one wants a fight
No black eye
Just another cat beneath
the stars tonight

Cats in the limelight
Feels like it's all-right
Everybody wants something
they may not get
I ain't ready yet
It ain't complete
That's why I'm heading down
to Alley Cat Street

A satin blouse unbuttoning
Time's a stripper
Doing it just for you

Knock in the brass tacks
Cover up your tracks, Jack
You ain't nowhere till
you can pay your own way back
What else do you lack
to make it right
but cats down under
the stars tonight?

Bush Appoints Bolton as U.N. Envoy, Bypassing Senate


By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: August 1, 2005

President Bush bypassed the Senate confirmation process today and appointed John R. Bolton as the new United States ambassador to the United Nations.

The appointment, while Congress is in recess, ends for now a months-long standoff between the White House and Senate Democrats who deem Mr. Bolton unfit for the job and have been holding up his confirmation. The president nominated Mr. Bolton for the post in March. "I chose John because of his vast experience in foreign policy, his integrity and his willingness to confront difficult problems head on," Mr. Bush said at the White House.

At the White House, President Bush announced his decision today with John R. Bolton at his side.

"Because of partisan delaying tactics by a handful of senators, John was unfairly denied the up-or-down vote that he deserves," the president said. "As a result, America has now gone more than six months without a permanent ambassador to the United Nations. This post is too important to leave vacant any longer. Especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform."

The president has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is not in session, an action known as a recess appointment. Mr. Bolton's term will expire at the adjournment of the current session of Congress, in the fall of 2006.

The move comes despite a letter to the president last week signed by 36 senators -- 35 Democrats and one Independent - saying that Mr. Bolton was "not truthful" while answering questions by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March, and should not be given a recess appointment. Some Republicans have said the approval of Mr. Bolton is long past due and that Mr. Bush is well within his rights to make the recess appointment.

Some senators, including some key Republicans, have also raised questions about Mr. Bolton over his history of criticizing the United Nations, his treatment of subordinates, and over charges that he has tried to influence intelligence assessments to conform to his views.

His nomination has the support of the majority of senators, but fewer than 60 - the number needed to forestall a filibuster that Democrats had threatened until Mr. Bolton answered questions, particularly about his use of classified intelligence about conversations involving administration colleagues.

Democrats had also been seeking more documents from the White House regarding Mr. Bolton's past service. They have asked for more information related to Mr. Bolton's access to the names of American individuals and companies mentioned in highly classified intelligence reports based on communications intercepted by the National Security Agency.

Republicans who favor Mr. Bolton's appointment have said that Democrats have more than enough information to proceed.

During this morning's announcement, Mr. Bolton said he was "humbled" by the appointment.

"I'm profoundly honored, indeed humbled, by the confidence that you have shown by appointing me to serve as the United States's permanent representative to the United Nations," he said. "We seek a stronger, more effective organization true to the ideals of its founders and agile enough to act in the 21st century."

Mr. Bolton is the former undersecretary of state for arms control, and a protégé of Vice President Dick Cheney. The United Nations post has been vacant since John C. Danforth left the job in January.

Yitwail. Wow! I've got some catching up to do. Let me re read our script.

First, I would like to welcome Yitwail back from his vacation and then ask him to explain his moniker to our listeners as it will show the relationship with Melville. Also, Mr. Turtle. Which celebrity was that, buddy? Thanks for the song. We have missed you.

Francis, my goodness. Tell us about how you met Charpak. That would be interesting indeed.

Now to our news reporter, Boston Bob.

Bob, an American sheik? How very chic.

Yes, I see that our President has bypassed the senate and appointed Bolton. Well, folks--that's politics in America for ya.

I have some Monday stuff to do, so I'll be back later.

This is cyber space, WA2K radio.