Minor Wisdom

Bluesy Beatles, “For You Blue”

The other day at my friendly neighborhood Whole Food, I spotted some of those remastered Beatles CDs near the checkout. So I made an impulse purchase of “Let It Be.” I had heard many of the songs on this album before, but had never listened to the album itself. Here’s my one-sentence review: If you like the Beatles and don’t have this album, get it.

There are a few bluesy tunes on this album. My favorite is For You Blue, written and sung by George Harrison, featuring John Lennon on slide guitar. Enjoy.

Fat man in the bathtub

If you’re reading this blog but not reading A Scale Canadian, then you’re missing stuff you’d love. Jim, the proprietor of ASC, posted this Little Feat video more than a week ago. The song is “Fat Man in the Bathtub.” Enjoy.

“St. James Infirmary”: First animated video for Saturday Evening Blues

I spotted this gem on Liprap’s Lament: St. James Infirmary, animated. The tune is classic blues, and the toon is full of references to New Orleans landmarks. You can read more about this video at NO Notes, and even more on YouTube. (Go there and click on “more info.”)

Amazing Grace: You asked for it (well, some of you did)

Last Sunday, I did a solo at church of “Amazing Grace” a la Blind Boys of Alabama — that is, to the same tune as “House of the Rising Sun.” On hearing of this, some people were foolish enough to mention that they would like to hear it. So here it is. I recorded it this evening with the help of my guitar teacher, Vincent, who (I learned) is a pretty good sound engineer. The recording includes two takes of the vocal track. Hence, some accidental harmony here and there. No errors on the guitar part. As for the vocals, though there’s a rough note near the end, otherwise I managed to stay on pitch. Let me tell you, hearing yourself recorded is a humbling experience for a musician. This is most humbling.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

When I was a freshman in college seminary back in the 1970s, I got the chance one morning to sing the psalm after the first reading. Many things conspired against me that day. First, this particular psalm was written for a tenor, while I was (and am) a baritone. The first and second verse started with a high E note that I could just barely reach on a good day. Second, I had a bit of a cold, and my throat was a little raw. Third, this Mass was first thing in the morning. Fourth, I didn’t understand then that vocal chords are muscles, and like any other muscles, they need to be warmed up before peak performance. So I decided that my best strategy for hitting that high E was to do as little singing as possible immediately before.

If you know anything about vocals, you’re thinking “Oh, no!” When the moment came to hit that high E, my voice broke — while singing solo into a microphone, amplifying the break for everyone in the church. Fortunately I was among friends — my brother seminarians. I felt bad mainly because my terrible performance probably distracted them from their prayer.

Fast-forward to October 18, 2009. Since the 1970s, I’ve had some experience leading the congregation in singing. But this was a lifetime first: sing a solo while accompanying myself on an instrument (guitar) that I just started relearning eight months ago. The song was “Amazing Grace,” sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” (a la Blind Boys of Alabama). The audience was not a couple dozen brother seminarians, but a couple hundred or so churchgoers, who would either love the song or hate it.

So how did it turn out? Okay. I nailed the vocals. And though my hands were sweaty and shaking, I didn’t make any major mistakes on guitar.

So, next time I’m standing at a podium talking to three appellate judges or seven Louisiana Supreme Court justices, I may be nervous, but I won’t worry. I’ll remember that I’ve done harder things than just talking to a bunch of judges.

Free show by Buddy Guy

Today in New Orleans, the weather is perfect, and there’s free music in Lafayette Square: the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival. Today’s finale belongs to Buddy Guy. For those who can’t make it out there, here’s a taste.

Buddy Guy - Five long years
by howlong

You call this “blight”?

If you haven’t already done it, please check out Inside the Footprint. There, Brad V and Curtis P parade the lovely homes in the Mid-City neighborhood that would be destroyed if the LSU-VA Medical Center is built where currently planned.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I watched a DVD of the documentary Faubourg Treme. It’s the story of a vital neighborhood that, for about 150 years, has been hit with one mortal blow after another. Please, let’s learn from our mistakes. Let’s not repeat them.

Getting by with some help from friends for S.E.B.

I don’t have a video lined up for today’s edition of Saturday Evening Blues. Fortunately, two of my blogging buddies have come through with some good ones. So if you’re looking for a blues fix, please visit Adrastos for some Robert Cray, or What About Clients? for some Johnny Winter.

Science marches on: The Ig Nobel Prize winners for 2009

Everyone’s talking today about President Obama’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and wondering what he did to earn it. They should be talking about the Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded a mere eight days ago. For instance:

• The Peace Prize went to Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for conducting experiments to determine whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
• The Medicine Prize went to Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California. Unger wanted to know whether knuckle cracking causes arthritis. To find out, he spent 60 years cracking his left-hand knuckles daily, while not cracking his right-hand knuckles.
• The Physics Prize went to Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, for their analysis of why pregnant women don’t tip over.
• The Biology Prize went to Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for proving that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from giant pandas’ poop.

For the run-down of all winners’ accomplishments, you know where to click.

Horse: Maravich v. Paul

As far as I know, no one in the NBA ever beat Pete Maravich in a game of horse. But had they been contemporaries, Chris Paul might have (hat tip Adrastos):

Pistol Pete didn’t do anything quite that dramatic 30 years ago. But I’d enjoy seeing Chris Paul do what the Pistol does between 1:18 and 1:59.

That’s Ashley’s line, damn it.

Yesterday a blogging friend from out of town was passing through New Orleans. We had lunch, and I told him about the late, great Ashley Morris and Ashley’s greatest hit, dated 27 Nov. 2005 and referred to locally as FYYFF. Today my out-of-town friend was wandering around the Quarter and spotted this T. If Hana and family are getting royalties, then good. If not, then ...

Free concerts in Lafayette Square this month

The last few Thursday evenings, I’ve noticed some music happening at Lafayette Square. Yesterday I figured out who’s responsible for it. It’s the Second Harvest Food Bank. The music is free; the money from food and drink sales goes to Second Harvest.

If you haven’t been out there since the concerts started on September 17, then you’ve missed Eric Lindell (9/17), Irma Thomas (9/24), and Anders Osborne with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (10/1). But fear not; the series has four weeks left—time enough to see the Radiators (10/8), the Rebirth Brass Band (10/15), Kermit Ruffins (10/22), and Blues Traveler and Shannon McNally (10/29). The schedule is here.

Eddie Bo

Last week, I promised to post a video of Eddie Bo. Here it is. Eddie died on March 18 of this year. Before that, he had a stellar musical career. This video is from a 2007 appearance at the Louisiana Music Factory. Enjoy.

Inside the footprint

Inside the Footprint is a new blog by law students Brad V (of Letters in Bottles) and Curtis P (of Creole Tomatoes). The guys’ goal is to document the Mid-City neighborhood that would be destroyed if the proposed LSU-VA hospital is built there. Here’s an excerpt from their mission statement:

We believe locating the hospital(s) in other downtown locations, such as the vacant Charity Hospital, represents a better plan for moving forward—one that does not involve the eviction of numerous individuals and families who returned after Hurricane Katrina, the destruction of viable businesses, and the elimination of many historic structures.

While much of the footprint is in tough shape by a number of measurements, we hope to focus on the many aspects that nonetheless show that the neighborhood's wholesale elimination to make way for vast swaths of parking lots, for example, is unwise and should be avoided.

Our masters and patrons

Today is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. Here is a bit of Vincent’s teaching:

Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor. Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed them that his mission was to preach to the poor: “He sent me to preach the good news to the poor.” We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ’s actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.

Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself....

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially outcasts and beggars. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.