09:30 We drive to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to do
the food shopping. We drive home again and relax with a cup of coffee on the
sofa.
11:00 I sit down with the computer and devise a Danish
vocabulary list which I want our U3A Danish group members to memorise before
the group's next meeting on Thursday.
I also devise a small Danish vocabulary test, based on
the list. The right answer to the test spells another of stand-up comedian Tim
Vine's famous one-liner jokes, "I used to go out with an anaesthetist -
she was just a local girl". Not one of his best, but I’m going to let that
one slide: at least it’s quite short, which is nice.
There are some so-called "one-liner" jokes that
extend to more than one line, I have noticed, but I’m going to let that one
slide too (but only temporarily - I'm in the process of preparing a dossier,
which I’ll be taking along sooner or later
to our local police station ha ha ha!).
Incidentally, the right answers to our Danish group's new
vocabulary test are top secret until Thursday 3 pm, needless to say ha ha ha (again)
!!!.
12:30 We have lunch and then I go to bed and take a giant
afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on
the sofa.
Afterwards I go up the loft ladder to investigate what board games and puzzles we have, stored up there. Our elder daughter Alison and
her family are coming (ie Ali plus Ed and their 3 children) to stay with us on the Easter weekend, and with
her help I want to make a decision on which games to keep, which ones we can
give her, which ones we can donate to a charity shop, and which ones we can
throw away - yikes! It’s all part of our current downsizing mini-project.
I brave the mountains of unwanted old belongings in the attic
and gather all our old board games and jigsaw puzzles into piles, next to the attic
entrance-door, so Alison can easily make a decision - yea or nay.
Many of these board games and puzzles we bought from
American garage sales between 1982-85, when we were in the United States for
three years. Some of them still have their American price tag stuck on the box
(typically 25 cents – what a steal, "Laterz suckers !!!!” - ha ha ha!). [That’s enough ha ha ha’s – Ed]
for
example, games that children can play in the car (from the old days before children
had tablets)
and dvd players etc they could use in the
back seat ha ha ha ! .
to put I mildly, but see here, included for
comparison: "Sorry", the updated version,
marketed last year by Onion News
Meanwhile, Lois is downstairs sorting through our numerous old
tourist brochures, many of them outdated, giving info about local tourist
attractions. She throws away the most useless ones (the majority ha ha!). Busy busy busy
!!!! For the most part, this type of information is easier to get online
nowadays.
We reflect for the 107th time how much the Internet has
changed our lives and the lives of the whole world. We are fortunate in that we
have lived through this massive revolution, perhaps the most radical since the
industrial revolution of 250 years ago. How fascinating it’s all been, that’s
for sure.
Now I need a strong gin and tonic, no doubt about that.
Sorry, "Nursey" !! [a reference to the author's recent annual
health review with the nurse at his new doctor's surgery - Ed.]
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching
a bit of television. An interesting
documentary is on, all about the song that kick-started the British version of
rock'n'roll in the 1950’s - Lonnie Donegan's recording of "Rock Island
Line". The host of the program is the charming Billy Bragg.
An interesting and nostalgic programme for Lois and me,
although in 1956 we were just a little bit too young to have noticed the record’s first release.
But we can see that it was not only the song itself but also Donegan's
energetic and almost ecstatic interpretation, that at that time caught the
attention and interest of young people in Britain: and it inspired the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones, Bowie, etc., to experiment with buying, and learning to
play, instruments (or improvising homemade instruments), and then forming their
own amateur skiffle and rock groups.
Billy Bragg, the programme's charming host, travelled to
Arkansas to talk to Kelly Pace’s niece -
The Rock Island Line song was originally written by Kelly Pace, who was then
serving 42 years in prison (just for stealing a car - yikes!).
Pace sang the song in 1934, at a prison in Arkansas, for
John A. Lomax, who at that time was collecting American folk songs from various sources,
including prisons, for the Library of Congress. And Lomax happened to have been accompanied on
his tour by Huddie Ledbetter, a black singer, whom Lomax brought along with
him, in part to win the confidence of the prisoners, who were mostly black men.
had been picking cotton in the fields when
they were called in
and brought along to record the song for Lomax
Ledbetter himself ("Leadbelly") later recorded
his own version, with slightly different lyrics and the addition of an opening monologue.
with the addition of an opening monologue
lasting 1 minute
Lonnie Donegan's interpretation of the song appeared for
the first time on a Chris Barber / Lonnie Donegan LP in 1954, which was a bit
of a failure when it came to album sales, to put it mildly.
Donegan was the UK's biggest "blues shouter" at
the time, i.e. a singer, interpreting a song, but not caring about the timing,
the exact notes, etc but is mainly interested in the rhythm.
He knew Leadbelly's version, but he also knew Pace's
original recording from the Library of Congress information he discovered at
the US Embassy’s USIS Department in
London.
And an interesting footnote: Lois and I didn't know why
LP's are also called “albums”. We find out from this programme that they were
originally separate 78’s that were collected in a physical book or album – “simples”
!!!!
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
individual 78's !!!! My god, what madness
!!!!!
Lois says her
mother had one of these “albums” in book form, but she doesn’t remember who the
singer was who was on it. Unfortunately Lois, as a young girl, managed to drop
it by mistake and broke several of the 78’s inside, which her mother wasn’t too
happy about, to put it mildly.
Lonnie Donegan's version became a top 10 hit song in the
UK (Decca released it as a single in 1955), and later even in America itself,
which is a bit of a surprise to say the least. And Donegan's version inspired
Johnny Cash to record his own version, complete with Donegan's addition of "toll-gate" references – and like Kelly Pace, the song’s original
writer, Cash was no stranger to prison life. So the song had come full circle
in a way.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!
Danish
translation
09:30 Vi kører
over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Vi kører hjem igen
og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
11:00 Jeg
sætter mige med computeren og udtænke en dansk ordforrådliste, som jeg vil have
vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer til at lære udenad før gruppens næste møde
på torsdag.
Jeg udtænker
også en lille danske ordforrådtest, baseret på listen. De rigtige svar til
testen staver endnu en af standup komikeren Tim Vines berømte én-linje
vittigheder, “I used to go out with an
anaesthetist – she was just a local girl”. Ikke én af hans bedste, men det
springer jeg over: i det mindste er det ganske kort, hvilket er rart.
Der er nogle såkaldte ”én-linje” jokes, der strækker sig til mere end én
linje, har jeg bemærket, men det springer jeg over (men kun midlertidigt – jeg
er i gang med at forberede et dossier, jeg føre eller senere vil kunne medtage til
den lokale politistation ha ha ha!).
I øvrigt er de
rigtige svar på vores danske gruppes nye ordforrådtest tophemmelige indtil
torsdag kl 15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!!!
12:30 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter gårjeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermidddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i
sofaen.
Bagefter går
jeg op ad loftstigen for at undersøge hvilke brætspil og puslespil vi har gemt
deroppe. Vores ældste datter Alison og hendes familie kommer (dvs sammen med Ed
og deres 3 børn) og opholder sig hos os i påskeweekenden, og jeg ønsker med
hendes hjælp tage en beslutning om, hvilke spil vi skal opbevarer, hvilke vi
kan give hende, hvilke vi kan donere til en velgørenhedsbutik, og hvilke vi kan
smide væk – yikes! Det hele hører til vores nuværende downsize mini-projektet.
Jeg trodser
havet af uønskede gamle ejendele i
loftet og samler alle vores gamle brætspil og puslespil i bunker, ved siden af
loftets indgangsdør, så Alison sagtens kan tage en beslutning – ja eller nej.
Mange af disse
brætspil og puslespil købte vi fra amerikanske garagesalg mellem 1982-85, da vi
i tre år boede i USA. Nogle af dem har stadig deres amerikanske prismærke klæbet fast til æsken (typisk 25 cents – det
var sikke en god handel, ”laterz” suckers ha ha ha!).
spil
som børn kan spille i bil (fra de gamle dage, før børn havde tabletter
og
dvd-afspillere osv, de kunne benytte på bagsædet – ha ha!)
mit kort over dét. jeg har samlet, som jeg kan vise Alison
men
se her, medtaget her til sammenligning: ”Sorry”, den opdaterede version,
det
sidste år blev populariset af Onion News
I mellemtiden
går Lois i gang med at sortere vores talrige gamle turistbrochurer, mange af
dem uddaterede, der handler om lokale turistattraktioner og hun smider de mest
unyttige væk (flertallet ha ha!).Travlt travlt travlt !!!! For det meste er
denne type information nemmere at få på nettet nu til dags.
Vi reflekterer
for den 107. gang hvor meget internettet har forandret vores liv og livet af hele
verden. Vi er heldige i, synes jeg, at vi har levet igennem denne massive
revolution, måske den mest radikale siden den industrielle revolution. Hvor
fascinerende!
Nu trænger jeg
til en stark gin og tonic, ingen tvivl om det. Undskyld, ”Nursey” !! [en
henvisning til forfatterens nylige årlige helbredsgennemgang hos hans nye
lægehus’ sygeplejerske – red.]
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser
en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om den sang, der førte til fødslen
af den britiske version af rock’n’roll i 1950’erne – Lonnie Donegans indspilning
af ”Rock Island Line”. Programmets vært er den charmerende Billy Bragg.
Et interessant
og nostalgisk program for Lois’ og mit vedkommende, selvom vi i 1956 var lidt
for unge til at huske pladens første udsendelse.
Men vi kan se,
at det ikke var selve sangen men Donegans energiske og næsten ekstatiske
fortolkning, der dengang fangede unge menneskers opmærksomhed og interesse i
Storbritannien, og først inspirede Beatles og Rolling Stones, Bowie osv til at
eksperimentere med at købe instrumenter (eller improvisere hjemmelavede
instrumenter), og så spille musik og danne deres egne amatøragtige rockgrupper.
Billy Bragg,
programmets charmerende vært, rejste til Arkansas for at tale med Kelly Paces
niece -
sangen blev
først skrevet af Kelly Pace, der dengang afsonede 42 års fængsel (bare for at
have stjålet en bil – yikes!). Han sang sangen i 1934 på en fængsel i Arkansas for
John A. Lomax, der dengang var i gang med at samle amerikanske folkesange fra
forskellige kilder, inklusive fængsler, for Library og Congress. Og Lomax blev
ledsaget af Huddie Ledbetter, en sort sanger, som han medbragte delvis for at
vinde tilliden af straffefangerne, der for det meste var sorte mænd.
havde
været i gang med at plukke bomuld på markerne, da de blev
bragt
ind for at indspille sangen for Lomax
Selve Ledbetter
(”Leadbelly”) inspillede senere sin egen version, med lidt anderledes tekst og tilføjelsen
af en monolog.
med
tilføjelsen af en åbnende monolog, der varer 1 minut – yikes,
sikke
et vanvid !!!!
Sangen med Lonnie
Donegans fortolkning dukkede op for første gang på en Chris Barber/Lonnie
Donegan LP i 1954, der var lidt af en fiasko, da det kom til albumsalg, for at
sige mildt.
Donegan var dengang
Storbritanniens største ”blues shouter”, dvs en sanger, der holder fat på en
sang, er ligeglad med timingen, noderne, men bare interesserer sig for rytmen –
du godeste, sikke et vanvid!
Han kendte
Leadbellys version, men han kendte også Paces oprindlige indspildning fra Library
of Congress’ information, de han opdagede i den amerikanske ambassades
USIS-afdeling i London.
Og en
interessant fodnote: Lois og jeg vidste ikke, hvorfor LP’er er kaldet også
albumer. Vi opdager fra dette program, at de oprindeligt var separate 78’er, der
blev samlet ind i en fysisk album. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i
!!!!!
individuelle
78’er !!!! Du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!!
Lonnie
Donegans version blev en top 10 hitsang i Storbritannien (Decca udsendte den
som en single i 1955), og senere i selve Amerika, hvilket er lidt af en
overraskelse, for at sige mildt. Og Donegans version inspirerede Johnny Cash
til at inspille sin egen version
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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