Today's the 49th birthday of Yann Tiersen, a composer and pianist from France. I continue to be mystified by most French music. Perhaps when we are in France this October, I can pester some French people about the enigmatic nature of their music.That's sure to help international relations, right?
I strive to link poems and music and historical events into a seamless related pleasing whole. In this instance, I think I failed. That's the reason for the title of this post, taken from "H. Allen Smith's Poor Almanac."
Consistent with the theme of there being no theme, here's an unrelated but still funny poem from Mr. Brautigan.
Attila at The Gates of The Telephone Company They said that
my telephone
would be fixed
by 6.
They guaranteed
it.
On this day in 1806, Alexander Faribault was born in Wisconsin. As a young man, he moved to the wilds of Minnesota and established a fur trading post where the Cannon and the Straight rivers meet. A town grew there and it is named Faribault in his honor. It is the county seat of Rice County, MN. A bit further to the southwest is Faribault County, named for Alexander's son Jean-Baptiste Faribault, also a fur trader. The county seat of Faribault County is Blue Earth, MN. Just to the north of that is Blue Earth County, the county seat of which is Mankato. Is this confusing enough? No? Well, to bring us full circle, the little town of Rice, MN is not in Rice County.
And the Straight River is not even close to being straight. And the Cannon river has nothing to do with cannons -- the name comes from a mangling of the French word for canoe.
The furs that the Faribault fellows were after were beaver and mink and river otter, which ended up in Europe where they were made into hats.
On this day in 1948, the first long-playing phonograph records were introduced to the public at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Made of vinyl and designed for the new speed of 33-1/3 rpm, the records
had been developed by Dr. Peter Goldmark of Columbia Records. The 12 inch
record could play 23 minutes per side, compared to 4 minutes on 78 rpm records. The
first LP featured violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
It took another decade or so for the first stereo records to appear.
Today, the first day of summer, the staff at Trout Fishing in Minnesota recommend that you dust off some of your LPs. You may play them conventionally, play them backwards to reveal hidden messages, play them at 45 rpm for a cheap laugh, sail them like Frisbees into the neighbor's yard, or just admire the cover art.
Here's another Brautigan verse to fit the theme.
33-1/3 Sized Lions
33-1/3 sized
lions are roaring at the black gates of Fame
with jaws that look like record company courtesans
brushing their teeth
with would-be rock and roll stars
in motel bathrooms
with a perfect view of hot car roofs
in the just-signed-up
afternoon.
A couple of regular guys from the sleepy town of Waseca, Minnesota went for a walk on this day in 1970. But this was no ordinary walk. Dave and John Kunst (and don't forget their their faithful mule, Willie-Make-It) set
out from their Waseca home to walk around the world. In Afghanistan,
bandits attacked the brothers, killing John. Another brother (Pete) met Dave and walked with him for a few months. Dave (and the mule) kept going. He got back to Waseca on October 5, 1974, becoming the first person to walk around
the earth: 14,450 miles.
A few years after that, Dave came to Northfield to visit our son's elementary school and give a speech. Something about perseverance, probably. I think Dave drove that day.
Here's a somewhat related Poem by Richard Brautigan. It's part 6 of a longer work called "Good Luck, Captain Martin"
Carol the Waitress Remembers Still
Yes, that's the table where Captain Martin
sat. Yes, that one. By the window.
He would sit there alone for hours at
a time, staring out at the sea. He always
had one plain doughnut and a cup of coffee.
I don't know what he was looking at.
On this date in 1579, Francis Drake was circumnavigating the globe when he stopped just north of San Francisco, went ashore, planted a flag, and claimed all of California for England. It's just that easy!
Speaking of flags and pirates, I'm reading "Black Flags, Blue Waters" by Eric Jay Dolin. It's a history of pirates in the Americas and Mr. Dolan makes clear that Drake was first a pirate, and quite a nasty one, too. But instead of keeping all the booty for himself, Drake was savvy enough to share it with the Queen and some other powerful folks, which gained him a commission as a privateer. In effect, privateers commissioned by the Queen were independent contractors who could pretty much do what they wanted to anybody anywhere except of course the English.
Drake and his men plundered Spanish cities and Spanish ships from the Caribbean all the way around S. America and up the west coast, killing people and taking their stuff (like gold and silver and rum). When he got back to England in 1581, the Queen herself went onto his ship and knighted him.
Sir Francis retired from piracy and lived out his days making delicious snack cakes.
Remember back in 1974 when Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a rag-tag bunch of revolutionaries calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army? It turned out to be one of the most well-known examples of the Stockholm Syndrome, in which the captive comes to identify with and even join the captors. Thus it was that Patty Hearst drove the getaway car for an SLA bank robbery in which a bank customer was killed. One of the SLA robbers, Kathleen Ann Soliah, became a fugitive.
Until this date in 1999, when Sara Jane Olson, living in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, was arrested. Turns out Sara Jane -- wife, mother, well-liked community activist -- was really Kathleen Ann. So, after 25 years on the lam, she was hauled back to California and put in prison for a decade or so.
Patty Hearst served time, too, at the federal prison in Pleasanton, CA. I visited there while she was an inmate, but did not meet her.
Coincidentally, today is also the birthday (1947) of Tom "Bones" Malone, a session musician, arranger, producer, and member of the Blues Brothers backing band. The Blues Brothers (at least in the movie) were also fugitives. Indeed, the fictional Jake Blues had served time in the very real Illinois state prison at Joliet, which I have also visited.
So, please enjoy this old clip from an old movie...
Here's a related poem by Richard Brautigan.
Private Eye Lettuce
Three crates of Private Eye Lettuce, the name and drawing of a detective with magnifying glass on the sides of the crates of lettuce, form a great cross in man's imagination and his desire to name the objects of this world. I think I'll call this place Golgotha and have some salad for dinner.
On this day in 1846, the Republic of California declared its independence from Mexico. Tensions between new immigrants from the United States and the Mexican governors in California had been running high for a few months. The folks who had settled in California from the east favored annexation by the US. The Mexican government didn't especially like that idea.
Onto the scene came General John C. Fremont, sent by the US Army on what was ostensibly a reconnaissance mission but really was intended to bolster the nascent rebellion. So a bunch of angry citizens -- with the Army looking on -- marched to the governor's house in Sonoma. They told him he wasn't in charge anymore and raised a crude hand-drawn flag that featured a bear, a star, and the inscription "Republic of California."
The event became known as the Bear Flag Rebellion. Three weeks later, the US congress passed a resolution annexing the territory.
Fremont, California, is named for the general. The Fremont Bridge in Seattle (home to the famous Fremont Troll) is not. Well, not exactly. The Fremont Bridge and Fremont Avenue in Seattle are named for Fremont, Nebraska. Apparently, a number of early settlers came from Fremont, Nebraska and, not being very clever or creative, named their little settlement -- now a Seattle neighborhood -- after the town they came from. Ah, but the Nebraska town is indeed named for General John C. Fremont.
Also on this date (1989), also in California, Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested. She was pulled over by a Beverly Hills cop because her license plates had expired. She didn't like that and slapped the officer in the face. He didn't like that and arrested her. Despite having excellent lawyers, she was convicted of assault.
All of which leads, inevitably it seems, to this very strange number by Weezer (also from California). Enjoy!
Presumably, the leaders of the Bear Flag Rebellion would be pleased to know they had laid the groundwork for Zsa Zsa Gabor and Weezer.
