A Sweet Unrest

Ella & Louis

The local jazz station played Frank Sinatra's version yesterday morning as I was scrambling an egg for my little boy, and it served only to fill me with longing for this exquisite one that I love so much.  As soon as I got home from the preschool drop-off I started listening to it repeatedly- would anyone care to join me?

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Learnin' The Blues

That last seventy seconds or so, once Ella comes back in just past the six-minute mark, I think it's close to perfect.

I first heard this back when I was a working girl.  A woefully understaffed company I dealt with from time to time had this CD as hold music!  Every time I called them my tiny office was filled with long stretches of Ella & Louis magic, which is much much more memorable than decent customer service would have been.  

The Contrast Podcast - CD Swap

This week's Contrast Podcast is part one of the CD Swap.  It was my first time being a part of the swap and it was a whole lot of fun.  I received a great CD from Adam, which helped restore my jangled nerves after the stresses suffered from trying to cobble together a handful of songs that might be both worthy of, yet possibly new to, super cool Marcy and her enormous library of music.  Well, Marcy is also very sweet so truthfully there was no need to worry- I knew she'd be kind no matter what I sent her way.

It was hard to pick a song from Adam's wonderful selection but in the end I went with this one, which I have very fond memories of.  I was an exchange student living overseas when the Nelson Mandela birthday concert thing was on, and the little brother of the lovely host family I lived with went around singing this for days after we'd watched it.  I may have joined in too, who can resist this fantastic tune?

The Special A.K.A. - Nelson Mandela

As always, thank you Tim for making Tuesdays so much fun.

And Yet The Books

Back when I was reading a lot of Edward Hirsch (this and this) I was exposed to so many different poets and I've slowly been working my way through the ones that intrigued me the most.  Czeslaw Milosz was at the top of that list- he's very plain-spoken and luminous at the same time.

And Yet The Books by Czeslaw Milosz

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,

That appeared once, still wet

As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,

And, touched, coddled, began to live

In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,

Tribes on the march, planets in motion.

"We are," they said, even as their pages

Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame

Licked away their letters.  So much more durable

Than we are, whose frail warmth

Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.

I imagine the earth when I am no more:

Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,

Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.

Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,

Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights. 

And I don't have anything profound to add, I just really like this a lot.