Wednesday 5 May 2021

Say it is so, Joe!!!

This blog post was occasioned by the following request from Joseph James Di Nardo, an alumnus of York Memorial Collegiate Institute and fellow fan of Music and associated arts:

uv you richard...I have some new tunes I posted,,I would love your feedback. On my homesite or jayjaydee, Feel free to critique them, like don;t like it diesn't matter I just want feed back. I have hundreds of songs that haven't been recorded. The music business is a tough one. You have been a good friend, so please feel free to give your opinion no matter what itr is. Or even just which songs you like better. I could never get a recording contract as a younger man because I wrote in too many styles. I was however hired to sing, and play in the studio. for artists with a publishing deal. Or to write for other artists, stage and screenplays or T.V. It would mean a lot to me. Thank you my friend. ❤
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  • Hi, 
    Joe Di Nardo
    ! Glad to listen to some songs and give my personal take, but I'm just a fan, like you. With my duties here with my wife's Annette's health issues, I'll need a few weeks to squeeze in some time here and there. Honoured to be of service, and I'm glad to comply. Please send me some links to songs; glad to hear them. 🧐

Good stuff!  I had the chance to relisten to your YouTube posted songs, and I really like them for their lyrics, video photography, animals, sense of humour, and poetry.   The themes include love and romance, decision-making, war, environmental awareness, and the challenge of mental illness.  The music of each video supports the lyrics to make a unified effect on the viewer.  Here's a playlist of some of your videos from YouTube:

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ1wf7Dc9KP_Qe27qIAjnxmY_Gm2uD1cE



I suggest that you check out my brother Rolly Brown's website and Facebook online concerts.  Although his music is traditional folk, he is making a living by supplementing his music with his other interests.

http://www.rollybrown.com

https://www.facebook.com/Rolly-Brown-and-the-Guitar-341001547597

And from 1982 YMCI yearbook:


Also, a book I recently listened to on Audible.ca that I really like is:  Music: A Subversive History byTed Goia.

You are a talented, accomplished musician and video producer, and I am impressed by your dedication to, and the quality of, your music and poetic, uplifting lyrics.  I urge you to continue following your Muse; you are the artist who knows best how to go forward.  Here is a playlist of some of my favourite songs, maybe including some thoughts to ponder about the artist's role as a performer as well as a sage:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ1wf7Dc9KP-LMCwaLed_dPkb5oZ9xPFk

Hope these remarks and tunes are helpful, and I wish you all the best as you continue to practice your developing and inspiring art.

Love and Peace,

Richard

05/05/2021




Friday 27 January 2017

Prep for 50 year Oberlin College Reunion in May, 2017

My Upcoming 50 year Oberlin College Reunion for the Class of 1967

Two pages from my class directory entry:

Life at Oberlin:  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend Oberlin College on a full-scholarship-loan-job combination, and those years have had a profound effect on my personal and professional success, as well as on my beliefs.  My most vivid memories from Oberlin include:  my waking up mornings in Barrows Hall to go to my job making doughnuts and coffee cake in the kitchens in Dascomb, and, in later years, South; attending a peace vigil with Prof. Barenbaum as the Vietnam War revved up; studying in the libe or Wilder Hall; attending an abbreviated chapel with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (he had laryngitis and couldn’t deliver the address); interviewing Isaac B. Singer on my Fine Arts radio show on W.O.B.C., thanks to Dick Lasko; summer jobs as a camp counselor in Michigan, thanks to Jim Reiter; visiting Marlin and Jeanne Butts with my good friend, Don Dryden; philosophizing and grieving with Prof. Capitan while traversing Tappan Square following the Kennedy Assassination; presenting my “Senior Perspective” on Conrad’s <i>Heart of Darkness<\i> at Wilder with the support of friends John Forsyth, Gail Gulbenkian, Jenni Horn, Steve Zuehlke, and Ken Schwartz, who came out to hear it, if my memory serves me correctly.  Professors Hoover and Bongiorno were particularly influential in my thinking and appreciation of literature.  There are many more memories, too numerous to mention, and I have no regrets, but I should include the libe prank during finals that we played with the help of some Saga foods co-conspirators.  Wearing Saga foods aprons, we announced, in the second-floor reading room and on the main floor, that hot cocoa and doughnuts were being served on the other floor.  Fake announcements had been posted to that effect earlier in the day, and the crowds from upstairs and downstairs, respectively, met on the stairs in disappointment and complaint.   
     
Life after Oberlin:  My first marriage was to Catherine Chilman (Class of 1968), the wedding having taken place in Wilder Hall.  The marriage lasted until 1998, and we had three children:  Matthew (b. 1972, wife Quyen, currently an educator and cartoonist), Stephen (b. 1974), and Judy (b. 1978, currently a veterinarian).  All three are married, and Judy and Neil have a son and daughter, Sasha and Evelyn, my grandchildren.  They all reside in Toronto, Canada, except for Stephen (currently a lawyer; formerly a guitarist, a Buddhist monk, and a banker) and his wife Anisha, who live in New Bedford, MA.  I was remarried in 2002 to Annette Rose Smith, who stems from Jamaica, and we currently reside (since 2005) in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.  Following Oberlin, I received my M.A. in English from The Ohio State University in 1969, and went on that year to do Ph.D. work (ABD) at the University of Toronto, where I had the good fortune to study with Professor Marshall McLuhan.  I also received my high-school teaching certification from there, and after a two-year stint teaching grades six to 13 at the Toronto French School (1975-77), went on to a 27-year teaching position at York Memorial Collegiate Institute with what is now the Toronto District School Board, where I served as Head of History and Contemporary Studies from 1988 to my retirement in June of 2003.  I taught many ages and subjects, including English, E.S.L., sociology, history, civics, and "The Canadian Family in Perspective."  I also coached cross-country running, supervised the student council, chaperoned proms and other dances, and undertook other responsibilities common to high-school teaching.  A volunteer achievement that I’m particularly proud of was in the school year 1991-1992, when on a secondment from teaching in Canada, my family spent the year in Costa Rica, where my then wife and I served as youth-group adult advisors for the Sinagoga B’nai Israel youth group, and participated in a project to rebuild a school, which had been destroyed by an earthquake in the village of Manzanillo, for which we had Canadian government consular assistance.  My Oberlin education stood me in good stead for my entire wonderfully enjoyable teaching career,  teaching having been a calling since my earliest days.  I’ve always been proud to have attended Oberlin College, since it was the first to admit women, the first to admit African-American students, and it played a key role in facilitating the Underground Railroad, assisting runaway slaves to freedom in Canada around the time of the Civil War.  Having graduated Oberlin has always been a source of confidence for me in my teaching career and personal life.
Richard Brown

Monday 6 January 2014

"A SERIOUS MAN" IS A SERIOUS JOKE

“A SERIOUS MAN” IS A SERIOUS JOKE

            THE FILM “A SERIOUS MAN” (2010) DIRECTED BY THE COEN BROTHERS TAKES THE FORM OF A JEWISH JOKE.  HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF THIS FORMAT, UNRELATED TO THE MOVIE:  A JEWISH MAN WANTS TO HONOR HIS SON BY BUYING HIM A PORSCHE FOR YOM KIPPUR, BUT HE’S UNCERTAIN AS TO WHETHER IT’S ACCEPTABLE UNDER JEWISH LAW, SO HE CONSULTS THREE RABBIS.  HE ASKS AN ORTHODOX RABBI, WHO REPLIES WITH THE QUESTION:  “WHAT IS A PORSCHE?”  NOT SATISFIED WITH THE ANSWER, HE THEN ASKS A CONSERVATIVE RABBI, WHO ALSO REPLIES WITH THE QUESTION:  “WHAT IS A PORSCHE?”  FINALLY, HE ASKS A REFORM RABBI, WHO ANSWERS WITH THE QUESTION:  “WHAT IS YOM KIPPUR?”  THIS IS THE PUNCHLINE OF THE JOKE.  OF COURSE, THE WHOLE PREMISE OF THE JOKE IS RIDICULOUS, SINCE YOM KIPPUR, THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, IS A TIME OF FASTING AND REPENTANCE, THE VERY OPPOSITE OF GIFT-GIVING AND THE FLAUNTING OF OPULENCE.  ON THE OTHER HAND, THE JOKE IS A SERIOUS CRITICISM OF THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF HOLIDAYS.  I BELIEVE THAT THE COEN BROTHERS’ MOVIE “A SERIOUS MAN” IS A JEWISH JOKE FOLLOWING THE “THREE RABBIS” FORMAT.
            JOKES HAVE A LONGSTANDING PLACE IN JEWISH CULTURE.  SIGMUND FREUD  EVEN WROTE A STUDY ON HOW TO ANALYZE THEM, “JOKES AND THEIR RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS.” 
  
http://www.amazon.ca/Jokes-Their-Relation-Unconscious-Sigmund-ebook/dp/B00CCK5XK8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388943900&sr=1-1&keywords=JOKES+AND+THEIR+RELATION+TO+THE+UNCONSCIOUS

PHILIP ROTH’S NOVEL “PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT” TOOK THE FORMAT OF A JEWISH JOKE.  THE WHOLE NARRATIVE HAS PORTNOY COMPLAINING, AND THE NOVEL CONCLUDES WITH THE PUNCHLINE OF THE PSYCHIATRIST ASKING IN A EUROPEAN JEWISH ACCENT, IF WE CAN NOW BEGIN THE CONSULTATION.
  

            I WAS SURPRISED THAT NONE OF THE REVIEWS ON AMAZON.COM NOTICED THAT “A SERIOUS MAN” FOLLOWED THE FORMAT OF A JEWISH JOKE.   THE APPRECIATIVE REVIEWS DID, HOWEVER, RELATE SOME VALUABLE INSIGHTS, PARTICULARLY THE CAPTURING OF THE AMBIANCE OF 1967 SUBURBIA IN THE UNITED STATES (THE HEBREW SCHOOL CLASSROOM, THE OBSESSION WITH TV ANTENNA RECEPTION, AND THE MUSIC OF JEFFERSON AIRPLANE AND SANTANA). 


HOWEVER, I WOULD DISAGREE THAT THE STEDTL SCENE WITH VELVEL AND DORA THAT OPENS THE MOVIE HAS NO RELEVANCE TO THE MEANING OF THE MOVIE JUST BECAUSE THE COEN BROTHERS ALLEDGEDLY SAID THAT.  TO DO SO WOULD BE MAKING THE “GENETIC FALLACY” OR “INTENTIONAL FALLACY.”  A WORK OF ART TAKES ON A LIFE OF ITS OWN ONCE THE “UMBILICAL CORD” IS CUT BY PUBLISHING THE WORK.  VELVEL, LIKE LARRY GOPNIK, HAS HIS BELIEF CHALLENGED, AND THE WORLD SUDDENLY APPEARS STRANGE, UNFAMILIAR, AND INHOSPITABLE WHEN DORA STABS REB GROSHKOVER (OR WAS IT A DYBBUK?).    THE STEDTL SCENE BRINGS TO MIND ISAAC BASCHEVIS SINGER’S “GIMPEL THE FOOL,” ANOTHER GOOD JEWISH MAN TRYING TO LIVE BY THE HEBREW POET RASHI’S ADVICE:  “RECEIVE WITH SIMPLICITY EVERYTHING IN LIFE.”
   

LARRY GOPNIK, AND VELVEL AS WELL, JOIN THE LIST OF “DIVINE FOOLS,” BELIEVERS GOING BACK AS FAR EVEN AS JOB IN THE BIBLE. 
            THE SECOND RABBI ASKS IN HIS EULOGY OF SY ABLEMAN, “HOW DOES GOD (HA-SHEM) SPEAK TO US?"  HE SUGGESTS THAT IT IS THROUGH THE JEWISH TRADITION, THE STORIES, FOLKLORE, HOLIDAYS, AND RITUALS.  A SIMILAR IDEA IS MENTIONED IN THE BEACH SCENE IN WHICH A WOMAN IN LEG BRACES CONSOLES LARRY ABOUT HIS IMPENDING DIVORCE BY SAYING THAT HE MUST FIND SOLACE IN THE JEWISH TRADITION OF FOLKLORE, THE STORIES, ETC.  THIS IDEA OF COMFORT IN TRADITION SEEMS TO BE THE MOST POSITIVE REWARD SUGGESTED IN THE MOVIE FOR A JEWISH PERSON TRYING TO LIVE THEIR LIFE ACCORDING TO RASHI’S ADVICE.  AS A JOKE, THE MOVIE BOTH CONFIRMS AND RIDICULES GOD SPEAKING TO US THROUGH THE FIRST RABBI’S PARKING LOT, THE DISAPPEARING HEBREW CHARACTERS ON THE GOY’S TEETH IN THE SECOND RABBI’S STORY, AND THE VALUE OF THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’S LYRICS AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE ROCK GROUP AS COMMUNICATED BY THE THIRD RABBI MARSHAK TO LARRY’S SON, THE BAR MITZVAH BOY.  LARRY SHOWS HIS CONTINUING BELIEF AND GOODNESS IN RAISING THE KOREAN STUDENT’S MARK TO A PASSING GRADE, AN ACT OF MERCY AND EMPATHY, AND GOD HAS SPOKEN TO LARRY, IN A SENSE, THROUGH THE PRIDE HE EXPERIENCES IN HIS SON’S BAR MITZVAH, THE SUDDEN ELIMINATION OF HIS RIVAL AND CUCKOLDER SY ABLEMAN, AND LARRY’S BEING GRANTED TENURE FOR HIS UNIVERSITY TEACHING JOB.   EVEN LARRY’S IDIOT-SAVANT BROTHER ARTHUR SEEMS TO BE SAFE AND SOUND FOR THE TIME BEING.  HOWEVER, THE THREAT OF DANGER IS EVER PRESENT, AS A TORNADO COMES TOWARD THE SON’S HEBREW SCHOOL AND THE PHONE CALL FROM LARRY’S DOCTOR PORTENDS DEPRESSING CHEST X-RAY RESULTS.   LIKE THE THREAT OF NATELY’S WHORE IN JOSEPH HELLER’S “CATCH-22,” SECURITY DOES NOT EXIST FOR ANYONE IN THE WORLD OF NATURE.
            WHILE SOME COMMENTATORS HAVE CONDEMNED “A SERIOUS MAN” AS ANTISEMITIC, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT THEY ERR IN THEIR INTERPRETATION DUE TO IGNORANCE OF LITERARY TRADITIONS, BOTH JEWISH AND ENGLISH.  THOMAS HARDY’S CLASSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL “JUDE THE OBSCURE” (1900) IS ANOTHER DESCENDANT OF “THE BOOK OF JOB” IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.  THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN IN A NOT-SO-GOOD WORLD IS NOT NEW, AND DISMISSING LARRY GOPNIK AS A “WIMP” AND A MOCKERY OF JUDAISM MISSES THE MARK.  ON THE CONTRARY, THIS MOVIE FINDS GOD SPEAKING TO MAN THROUGH STORIES, TRADITION, POETRY, MUSIC, AND HUMOR.

RICHARD BROWN
JANUARY 6, 2014






Friday 14 June 2013

Snowden's Secret

SNOWDEN’S SECRET

               In a quirk of history, a man named “Snowden” has been in the news recently for leaking secrets.  This reminded me of another Snowden, a character in Joseph Heller’s classic World War II novel Catch-22, who also leaked secrets.  In fact, Heller’s character’s secret was a major focus of the novel, a mystery which the hero Yossarian was intent on solving and discovering its meaning.  As an American rear gunner aviator shot up over Italy, Snowden leaked his secret to Yossarian toward the conclusion of the novel:

Yossarian was cold too, and shivering uncontrollably.  He felt goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently at the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor.  It was easy to read the message in his entrails.  Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret.  Drop him out a window and he’ll fall.  Set fire to him and he’ll burn.  Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage.  The spirit gone, man is garbage.  That was Snowden’s secret.  Ripeness was all.
    “I’m cold, Snowden said, I’m cold.”
   “There, there,” said Yossarian.  “There, there.”  He pulled the rip cord of Snowden’s parachute and covered his body with the white nylon sheets.
   “I’m cold.”
   “There, there.” 
--Joseph Heller,  Catch 22 , (Simon and Schuster: New York, c. 1961), pp. 457-458.

Following the realization of the meaning of Snowden’s secret, Yossarian regains his spirit by taking action to follow Orr (the alternative?) to Sweden and refusing to participate in and facilitate the senseless carnage.
          Snowden’s secret is that we are subject to the human condition; we are flesh and blood.  When we overstep our boundaries, God or fate or nature puts us back in our place, often accompanied by much suffering.  Joseph Heller turned to the “humanities” in the form of literature for wisdom.  Note that he did not see science, math, or technology as the answer to our problems.  “Ripeness is all” is a line from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and it roughly means that one must be prepared for anything.  Heller puns on Snowden’s name by referring to Francois Villon’s poem “Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis,” which includes the memorable line “But where are the snows of yesteryear?” with “But where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?”  (“Mais ou sont les Neigedens d’antan?”). 
          So what is the meaning of Snowden’s secret for us?  If his first name is “Edward,” we don’t even know yet what the secret is because CNN informed us last night that Snowden is still leaking.  As for the meaning of Snowden’s secret, CNN also reported that comedian Conan O’Brien quipped that an unexpected, and scary, consequence of Snowden’s leaks is that sales of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 have skyrocketed:  Americans are being driven to read literature!  I hope that they also read Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.  It’s the least we can do for Snowden.  There, there.

Richard Brown"
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