THE STORY OF "US"

The Rogue Speaks:

My best friend artist's birthday is around this time of year, so Saturday we got together for lunch and the opening of my gifts to her. Twice a year, I write her a special poem--at Christmas, and on her birthday. That's the gift she always opens first. She has to drive when we go to meetings or shows, because currently I am legally blind, and have no business even driving up to the corner. That will all change in about three weeks, though.

The photo below was taken in 2007, before my starvation diet. I am on the left, our dear friend, Sam, who is currently traveling the world, is in the middle, and Di is on the right. This was right before Christmas, and if you look very closely, you will see a large rectangular pin on Di's tam. It is made from a piece of ancient fruit cake that she polyurethaned a long time ago. Yes, I do hang out with these people.





I hope you enjoy my poem for the birthday girl. I am leaving the music for my Saturday Centus on, in case you didn't get to hear it. It is so beautiful! Please read my Centus, too, if you haven't already! Now here's...

THE STORY OF "US"



Us is friends. Yes us are.
Us goes places in you’s car.
You’s the driver, I’s the map.
I can’t even take a nap.
Where us go? I don’t care
Cause I know you takes us there.
I says “left” when I means “right”
Then us has an awful fight!
Yous is worthless, you tells me.
I can’t help that I can’t see!
Us sees places us don’t know.
Us gets late to the big art show.
When I’s dead, then you’s see!
You be sorry that you yelled at me.
Then you go and you’s all alone.
You can’t read a map and you has no phone!
I’s in Heaven and I’s looking down
See’s you driving all over town!
You’s gonna miss me, yes you are
When you’s go driving in you’s car!!!




Happy birthday, Di! And leave the door open when you go to bed, in case the Devil comes to take your soul!!!

August

The Rogue Speaks:

Here is my offering for Jenny's 55th Saturday Centus. Now I am off to celebrate my best friend's birthday. More on that later--I'm late as usual! Oh, and please stay for a while and listen to my music. It was written by one of my favorite composers. Do you know who it is?

The attic lay silent in the heat of an August sun. Beams of sunlight, shimmering with dust motes, fell across the glass of the old mirror. Maddy stood transfixed, her wide eyes staring back at her from the reflection in the mirror. The image she saw was that of the child she used to be.

Slowly, she turned and found her place in the little rocker. Sitting down with her baby doll held gently in her arms, she began to rock and sing. Then she became aware of her father, standing beside her.

"Hi, Maddy," he said. "What are you doing?"

Sir Edward Elgar

The Rogue Speaks:

This is the time of year when seniors everywhere don cap and gown and march to the familiar sounds of Pomp and Circumstance. It brings back memories of those final days in school, doesn't it? How many know that the music was written by Sir Edward Elgar? Probably not many, unless it was printed in the graduation program. Maybe not even then, because the guests were searching for familiar names in the long list of graduates.



The world has certainly changed since Elgar was born in 1857. The pressure for young people to perform in the workplace is greater than it ever has been, but unfortunately, the jobs are just not there currently. Young people are having to move back in with their parents while looking for employment. I am glad that our children have finished school and are all gainfully employed, because when we left Memphis, we gave them only an 800 number and not our address, so they couldn't show up at the door with all their worldly belongings in black plastic trash bags. We felt that was a good incentive to find a job and keep it.

Of course, now the grandchildren are growing up. Most of them live on the other side of the country, and with the cost of gas these days, they can't afford to park themselves on our doorstep even if they wanted to. Some of them are way too young for college, and the way education is being decimated, and tuition is almost out of sight for most young people, there may be no schools left when that time comes

As of today, student loan debts for college exceeds eight hundred billion dollars. For those trying to pay off student loans and keeping their heads above water, declaring bankruptcy does not cancel student loans.


"Young Man Contemplating His Future"


I have really gotten off track here! Of course you shall learn about Sir Edward Elgar! I would not want to disappoint you, dear reader, so here are the facts!

Edward Elgar's father had a music shop in Worcester in the English Midlands, so it was only natural that young Edward loved musical instruments, and even taught himself to play a large number of them. He was a very determined student of musical composition. He was a Roman Catholic, and in the minority in Protestant England, who felt the Catholics were part of a lower class. Many of his early compositions met with apathy due to religious bigotry.

He continued on, though, perfecting his style, and in the 1880's and 1890's, he also taught the violin and played the organ in a Catholic church.



It was in 1889 that he married one of his students, Caroline Alice Roberts. Her family was against the marriage because they felt she was marrying beneath herself. Alice had great confidence in Edward's genius and played a great role in helping to develop his career as a composer.

Alice continued to be the driving force behind Edward, encouraging him and championing him at every opportunity. However, in 1920 Alice died, and a bereaved Edward lost his inspiration.



Throughout the 20's, Edward lead a quiet life in the country with his dogs. He occasionally visited London to conduct or record his music. In 1928 he was made Knight Commander of the Victorian Order. This gave him a new lease on life and he began to compose again.

In 1933 he conducted his violin concerto in Paris with a young Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he had recorded in London earlier that year. In October of that same year, Elgar was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his lower back. He died the following year.

If I had dug deeper into Elgar's life, I might have come up with a skeleton in the closet, but I think we have enough of those falling out of the closets of politicians these days.

This concludes my "E" offering for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. If you would like to hear more of Elgar's music, just stay tuned, because another familiar piece follows Pomp and Circumstance.

Maddy

The Rogue Speaks:

In the stillness of an August afternoon, Maddy sat rocking, softly singing, "Hush, little baby, don't you cry..." Her sweet voice echoed in the dusty attic.

"Where is she?" Simon asked.

"In the attic--where else?" Maren replied. “She’s there every day, now. Rocking. Rocking and singing. I should be glad, I guess. I know where she is.”

Simon, frowning slightly, climbed the stairs.

"Hi, Maddie!" he said cheerfully. "What are you doing?"

"Just practicing," came the reply.

"Practicing?" he asked.

"Yes. When I grow up, I want to be just like Mama!"

“That’s good, baby, that’s good!”


Thanks for stopping by and reading my 100 word offering. Jenny's Saturday Centus follows a week of havoc in the blogging world. Many of us lost our Alphabe-Thursday posts to somewhere in outer space. We all spent time writing our posts and many were disappointed when some were lost, so if you have a chance, please go back to Jenny's blog for Thursday and read them, because some were restored. If you haven't read mine, just keep reading. Thanks!

Dali's Birthday

The Rogue Speaks:

Am I the only one whose post disappeared into the blogasphere? It is such a shame that it had to happen for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday! Now I have to try and recreate it! I hope I can remember what I wrote!!!

Salvadore Dali's 107th birthday was on May 11, the day I published my post. He was born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. His career as an artist was practically a given, since he showed great promise at a very young age.

Dali studied in Madrid at the Royal Academy of Art. He was twice kicked out, and when graduation rolled around, he never took his final exam because he thought he knew a lot more, and was more talented than any of his professors.

After he "graduated," Dali went to Paris where he met two of his fellow countrymen, artists Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro. He more or less named himself the leader of a group of surrealists that had been headed by Andrew Breton. No one in the group really complained about Dali's self-appointed role, but years later, Breton wrote Dali off as being too full of himself, and financially greedy.

By 1929, Dali had developed a style that would make him famous. The surrealists had a theory based on the works of Freud regarding the dream world of the unconscious mind. They painted their dreams! Dali, because he was a superb craftsman, was able to paint his dreams with near photographic accuracy. His most recognized work, The Persistence of Memory, is a good example of his technique.



Dali is the only known artist who had two museums dedicated to his work while he was still alive. The first, The Dali Museum, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was founded in 1971. The Dali Museum-Theater in Figueres, Spain is the second. It was at this museum that Dali had shown his first works when he was only 14 years old. It was opened in 1974 as the Theatro Museo Dali.

Dali's first one-man show was in New York in 1933. In 1934, Pablo Picasso gave Dali $500 as a grant to come to America. In 1940 Dali chose to make America his permanent residence in order to evade World War II. He had many spectacular exhibitions, including one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He quickly became the darling of high society, and was greatly sought after for portrait commissions from famous people such as Jack Warner. Dali also dabbled in jewelry and clothing design, and even worked with Alfred Hitchcock on film-making.
Dali's love of the bizarre was evident! Below is a photograph of his famous Lobster Telephone. I don't think I would want to put that receiver to my ear!



Yes, of course Dali had a love interest. And yes, she was a married woman. She was Gala Eluard, a Russian immigrant, ten years his senior. Gala stayed with Dali as his "friend with benefits," his model, his muse, and his business manager. She was also a strong stabilizer in his life, and helped to make his art a success in Europe and the United States. Gala divorced her husband in 1932, and in 1934, she and Dali were married.



Dali developed palsy which caused his hands to tremble uncontrollably, and made them very weak. He was forced to retire in 1980, and this, combined with the death of Gala in 1982, caused Dali to fall into a deep depression.

After Gala died, Dali moved to a castle called Pubol, which he had bought and decorated just for Gala. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the castle, and left Dali badly burned.

Dali moved to the tower of his museum in Figueres, and lived there until his death from heart failure in 1989.

Whew! I hope I haven't left anything out from my original post. I had some nice comments which have now disappeared. Maybe those nice bloggers will come back and let me know if I covered everything this time. Oh, and if anyone knows how I can avoid losing any more posts, please tell me! I am off now to finish reading all the other offerings.

Here's What's Important

The Rogue Speaks:

It is almost 4 p.m. here in Tucson, and I am just now beginning to write my Saturday Centus. Don't ask me why, because, believe me, you don't want to hear about my day yesterday. Let me just say that it involved the "good drugs" and some stitches.

Jenny thinks that her prompt is easy and gentle, but what does she know??? There are just not many ways one can go with this, and I decided to take the easy way out and write something contemporary. The prompt is in bold type.

I'd like to teach the world to sing about perseverance, dedication, and success. Obama has brought down the 9/11 murderer in a daring raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. Clinton had Bin Laden in his sights, but couldn't pull the trigger. Bush put him on the back burner in favor of going after Sadam and those WMD's that really never existed in Iraq, trying to show up the elder Bush. Now all the people who lost loved ones on that September day have closure.

I am grateful that America has a leader who knows what is important.

CASSANDRA

The Rogue Speaks:

In Homer's Iliad, Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, the king of Troy, in the time of the Trojan War. One day, Cassandra fell asleep in the temple of Apollo. Apollo saw her and, because she was stunningly beautiful, he started thinking with his other "brain." When she awoke, he promised to teach her the art of prophecy if she will have sex with him. Cassandra thought it would be really cool to be a prophetess, so she agreed. Apollo then gave her that gift, and expected his gift from her in return. I suppose she was have second thoughts about losing her virginity even to a god, so she welshed on the deal. Apollo became outraged. He told her that he would let her keep that gift, but no one would ever believe anything she said.



Painting of Apollo and the Nine Muses



Poor Cassandra! She was ignored, even though she spoke the truth! People thought she was a raving lunatic. She predicted that the Trojan horse, supposedly a gift, would house warriors, and was really a military trick. Her own father didn't believe her, and neither did her brother Paris. You remember Paris, who was in love with Helen of Troy. Those two actually started the Trojan war! Helen had been promised to Menelaus of Sparta, so when Paris took her and would not give her back, the Trojan war, predicted by Cassandra, began.


Painting of Paris and Helen

When Troy fell, Casandra escaped into the temple of Athena. The god Ajax found her there and violently abducted her and took her virginity. Then he dragged her off to king Agamemnon to be the king's sex slave. Later, both Agamemnon and Cassandra were murdered by the king's wife and her lover.

In Greek mythology, mortals were regularly cursed for not cooperating. The gods required mere men to keep their godly laws, and if they did not, they were severely punished. Greek gods are notoriously childish and immature, so it is not at all surprising that Apollo cursed Cassandra. Some think that Cassandra got what she deserved for manipulating Apollo into giving her such a gift.

I thought long and hard to find an interesting "C" for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. I hope you enjoyed my offering. I know I will enjoy reading yours.