Friday on my Mind 237: Like I Do / Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)

A bit of a change this week. Two for the price of one; both adapted from Dance of the Hours from the opera La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli.

First a straightforward use of the tune with love song lyrics. I did not know until I looked this up that it had first been recorded by Nancy Sinatra in 1962. In the UK Maureen Evans had a hit with it a year later.

Maureen Evans: Like I Do

 

Also in 1963 comic Allan Sherman released a novelty single setting the tune to his own lyrics, satirising of the US summer camp experience after receiving letters from his son about Camp Champlain in New York. This is I believe a colourised clip.

Allan Sherman: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)

Avebury (i)

I had noticed that Avebury wasn’t far from the direct route back north from our trip to Bath etc so made sure to visit the site on the way back up.

We parked in the National Trust car park and walked to the Henge. I didn’t realise until after we returned and travelled on that it is the main road which actually cuts through the site.

Welcome Board :-

Welcome Board, Avebury

The site is extensive and consists of several stone circles and earthworks.

Stone circle from “avenue” into the site:-

Avebury Stones

Stone Circle at Avebury

Avebury Stones

Closer view of inner circle:-

Avebury Standing Stones

Looking back to ‘avenue’ entrance:-

Avenue of Stones at Avebury

Showing part of Avebury village:-

Standing Stones and Village, Avebury

 

 

‘Avenue’ from rampart:-

Avebury, Rampart Ditch and Standing Stones

The Rock and the Rock

I saw this picture posted on a friend’s Facebook page a while back, and now I’ve shamelessly appropriated it. Superb.

Dumbarton FC Stadium and Dumbarton Rock:-

 

Atworth War Memorial

Atworth lies on the A 365 in West Wiltshire. I couldn’t help noticing its War Memorial as we passed through, and of course stopped to photograph it. It turned out to be a repurposed clock tower originally erected to commemorate Queen Victoria as the longest reigning UK monarch, which the plaque here notes. Note Great War 100th anniversary bench:-

Atworth War Memorial

Great War dedication. The cartouche also lists the names of those who served in The Great War:-

Great War Dedication Atworth War Memorial

Second World War Dedication, below the depiction of Queen Victoria.  This Roll of Honour for those who served begins with the name of one serviceman killed. Note Second World War memorial bench, complete with dove of peace:-

Second World War Dedication, Atworth War Memorial

In a small cemetery beside Atworth War Memorial lies the grave of Driver A R Brown, Royal Army Service Corps, died 6/6/1917, aged 22:-

War  Grave, Atworth

Dark Shepherd by Fred Gambino

NewCon Press, 2024, 298 p. Reviewed for ParSec 11.

In his first novel Gambino gives us space opera of a fairly traditional type, though shorn of big interstellar battles. Nevertheless, fans of the form will likely lap it up.

Via the kind of wormhole known as a Reality Interstitial Paradox, RIP, humanity has spread across the galaxy but is restricted to a certain volume of space beyond which trips cannot be made. There is evidence that a previous space faring civilisation known as the Firsts deliberately blocked off expansion beyond this, possibly to prevent whatever their nemesis was from affecting any subsequent culture which evolved to expand into space. Legend surrounding an alien spacecraft known as the Derelict suggests that an artefact from those First times was retrieved from it by the expedition which found it.

At the book’s start our protagonist, Breel, is working breaking up scrapped spaceships on the Beach, a more or less desolate plain on a minor planet called Hope. She is plagued by her sexually predatory boss and other workers trying to deny her the salvage rights that are her due. A confrontation leads to her being sacked – though she was on the point of quitting anyway.

Winding down alone in the pub before she goes home to tell her (step)father, Falian, the news, she is approached by Matt Harken-Court, a spaceship owner, whose interest she at first misinterprets. During an intrusion by proselytisers of the Church of Second Light, each marked by a distinctive white circle round one eye, Harken-Court vanishes. On her way home, in an alleyway, Breel rescues him from an extremely violent encounter with hired thugs. When it comes to it Breel is no shrinking violet.

She takes Matt home to clean him up but his questioning of her stepfather reveals that Falian, a survivor of the encounter with the Derelict, had indeed brought something back from there, a detail which Breel had not known about up till then. Their examination of the artefact is interrupted by agents of the Church, Matt and she have to flee with it, chased by an augment, whom they with great difficulty finally manage to shake off, while Breel’s childhood home is destroyed, Falian presumably with it.

Orphaned and disorientated, examining her life in this new context, Breel agrees to go along on Matt’s ship, the Scavenger, which is crewed by Ellyella, Matt’s longtime associate, the Deacon, a renegade priest, and Kaemon, another refugee from the Church. Scavenger is piloted by Cross, a symbiont who can interface with the ship’s controls and through it sense everything which it does, across all wavelengths of light. The Deacon apparently knows the coordinates of an RIP which would give access to space beyond the boundary, something which the Church would dearly love to find in order to precipitate the Coming of Light and the salvation of true believers. The Deacon and Matt have plans to block that RIP instead, in case what lies beyond is inimical.

During the first stage of the trip, to a hub known as All-Points for its many RIP connections, Cross introduces Breel to the ship’s symbiont interface, with which she has a natural affinity, while the Deacon notices her unnaturally quick healing abilities. At All-Points, Matt’s meeting with fellow Church opponents and Ellyella’s, Cross’s and Breel’s R&R while the ship undergoes necessary repairs are cut brutally short by a Church invasion from which they barely escape, though Cross was deliberately assassinated. It is left to Breel to fly the ship, though she has to overcome resistance to the idea. After doing so strange patterns appear on her skin.

In the meantime and subsequently, some chapters dwell on the Church’s head, the Emissary, a charismatic and hypnotic individual, who started off cynical but came to see the light and rose rapidly through Church ranks. Life on worlds saved by the Church is harsh, restrictive and far from woman friendly as is evidenced by Church soldiers on All-Points using the term breeder as a form of abuse.

More adventures ensue before the ship, pursued by the Church and the Emissary himself, reaches its destination RIP, and the final confrontation. During these Breel finds out the truth about her nature and origins via a message her mother left in the artefact.

This is all good space-operatic stuff, if sometimes a bit heavy on explanation of acronyms and information dumping, with the occasional dose of visceral violence.

The following did not appear in the published review.

Pedant’s corner:- “dust …. like the waves of a particulate sea” (seas made of water are actually particulate as well, only the particles are very much smaller,) “mechanics grated” (these were parts of machines, not people; ‘mechanisms grated’,) “two story building” (two storey,) “temperatures of 40c” (40C,) “that could comfortably fit a billion suns’ inside it” (no need for the apostrophe.) “‘That the murder you talking about?’” (you’re talking about,) meters (innumerable times, metres,) “a visitors eyes” (visitor’s,) “the crushed stories” (storeys,) “potential problems of any addiction, an addiction,” (only ‘an addiction’ not in addition ‘any addiction’ needed.) “‘I could give a Deshi-damn for any of it’” (I couldn’t give,) “on my resume” (in my resume.) “Breel eyes widened” (Breel’s eyes,) “adapting to the dark.- It” (has an extraneous dash.) “New Haven” (elsewhere always Blue Haven,) “but Emissaries soul” (Emissary’s.) “‘Don’t thank me, Breeder,’ He snarled” (either full stop after Breeder or ‘he’ before ‘snarled’,) a missing comma before a piece of direct speech, “‘playing us for fools, girl.’ the armed man growled” (comma, not a full stop, after girl,) “to find something anything to hold onto,” (to find something, anything, to hold onto,”) Amaris’ (Amaris’s – as elsewhere,) hanger (several times; hangar,) “pleasures of flesh” (pleasures of the flesh,) “believe Deacons’ evidence” (Deacon’s,) CO2 (CO2,) “inertia sling-shot the Scavenger away from Hygot” (slung-shot?) “as shocked las the rest of us” (as the rest of us.) “Now her father had died” (this was about something that happened years ago; that ‘NowC is inappropriate,) “to the Deacons tests” (Deacon’s.) “‘Aw, come on ‘Deac’” (no need for the apostrophe before Deac,) gasses (gases,) “mother load” (mother lode.) “‘He said Brokers a dick’” (Broker’s.) “‘I’m Sorry Riva’” (no capital needed on Sorry,) “beyond anyones experience” (anyone’s,) Sarcophagus (in the middle of a sentence, therefore ‘sarcophagus’.) “It’s engines were” (Its engines.) “‘It had to the Firsts, right?” (It had to be the Firsts. And elsewhere Firsts is usually italicised.) “‘as we approach the transit.’ The Deacon supplied” (as we approach the transit,’ the Deacon replied.) “‘Look here.’ Breel said” (Look here,’ Breel said,) “‘along with everyone else’” (along with everyone else’s,) “‘of full disclosure we, should go through everyones room’” (no comma required; and ‘everyone’s room’.) “‘Who’s going to do it,’ Kaemon demanded” (should be a question mark, not a full stop, after ‘it’.) “‘You sure about this, Matt,’ Breel said” (question mark, not a comma, after ‘Matt’,) “clothing draws” (drawers,) “paused crouched and pulled a trunk out” (paused, crouched and…,) “the Emissaries fleet” (Emissary’s.) “ ‘Just what is it you think we can do, Breel?’ The Deacon asked” (‘… we can do Breel?’ the Deacon asked,) “a shout of fear anger and frustration” (a shout of fear, anger and frustration.) “The Emissaries preferred method” (The Emissary’s,) Rip (elsewhere always RIP,) “on the one hand the room the Deacon and Ellyella” (on the one hand the room, the Deacon and Ellyella,) “by creating a damn” (creating a dam,) “if a small build up of energy might arrived at that collection” (might arrive.) “The whole drama was playing out silence” (… playing out in silence,) “By nowHarken-Court and his companion reached the far side if the chasm. rendered in harsh chiaroscuro by the troopcarrier lights” (… Harken-Court and his companion had reached the far side if the chasm, rendered in harsh chiaroscuro by the troopcarrier lights,) “the Scavenger” (the Scavenger,) “the troopcarriers cabin” (troopcarrier’s,) “revealed in, the Scavenger’s outer hull” (revealed in the Scavenger’s outer hull,) “‘he is not to disturbed’” (not to be disturbed.) In About the Author; “the peak district” (the Peak District.)

 

Bathford War Memorial

Bathford is a village a few miles north of Bradford-on-Avon, where we stayed during our trip to Bath, Wells etc.

We stopped for a look around on pur way back north.

In the grounds of St Swithun’s Church I found its War Memorial, a cross surmounting a pillar on a square base with gabled edges:-

War Memorial, Bathford

Dedications to both wars:-

Bathford War Memorial Dedications

Other names for both wars:-

Names, Bathford War Memorial

Names, War Memorial, Bathford

 

Great War names:-

War Memorial, Bathford, Great War Names

In the churchyard there was one war grave of Second Lieutenant E C Guillebauld, Worcestershire Regiment, 3/6/1915, aged 32:-

War Grave, Bathford

Stenhousemuir 4-0 Dumbarton

SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 7/12/24.

I hadn’t expected much from this since both of our front two Michael Ruth and Jinky Hilton were missing through injury but I didn’t contemplate this disaster.

We were two down in 25 minutes and then to compound our problems Finlay Gray was sent off just before half time. As if that wasn’t enough Brett Long joined him in the dressing room on 70 minutes after another red card. And with Carlo Pingatiello going off injured as well …..

To cap it all Inverness Caley won and Annan got a draw marooning us further away from any hope of making 9th place never mind 8th.

Not that I was too hopeful of staying up anyway but failure to win at home against Annan next Saturday will just about doom us.

Xstabeth by David Keenan

White Rabbit, 2020, 172 p

The book is prefaced with a biography of one David W Keenan who committed suicide in 1995, lists his interest in occult matters, his published pamphlets relating to his home town of St Andrews and that he self-published one novel in his lifetime, Xstabeth by David W Keenan, Illuminated Edition with Commentary, reproduced in full thereafter – including various commentaries (as by diverse academics) interpolated between the narrative chapters.

With this I found myself in Russia again, seemingly in the immediate post-Soviet era, though this time St Peters (not for some reason St Petersburg) rather than Moscow where narrator Aneliya is the daughter of a famous musician, who is friends with one “even famouser,” Jaco, though the story later transfers itself to St Andrews.

Jaco is not the type a respectable girl ought to be getting mixed up with. He drinks and frequents strip clubs. But Aneliya is drawn to him nonetheless, with the consequences we might expect. During one of their encounters, in which Aneliya describes one of Jaco’s sexual kinks, she has the disturbing thought that Jaco had performed similar deeds on her mother.

The mysterious Xstabeth enters the story when an impromptu performance by her father in a club is secretly recorded on an old reel-to-reel recorder by one of the staff who is so besotted by it he determines to release it pseudonymously. The music has a force all to itself which is mesmeric but an acquired taste.

The transition to St Andrews is somewhat surprising but gives Keenan an opportunity to display his knowledge of the town. The street known as The Scores – thought to be named after golfing record cards – is said to be a place to pick up prostitutes (think about it) but little evidence is given for this in the text. Nevertheless, the famous golfer – never actually named but sufficiently accomplished to be tied for the lead in the tournament ongoing in the town – Aneliya has met at the hotel asks her to attempt to ply the trade there. It is only he (the famous golfer, who opines that Russian whores are the most desirable,) who obliges himself though.

Aneliya tells us “Naivety gets me every time. Knowledge can be cynical. It just gets used to undermine things. Sarcasm and irony are horrible. Naivety is the deepest form of belief. It’s closer to reality. To wonder. Plus it has more love in it” and “Writing is always starting from scratch. On the blank sheet. Always beginning again. Even when you think you’ve cracked it.”

David W Keenan’s Xstabeth is a strange but compelling confection. The narrative parts are written in short sentences. Sometimes broken up. Into even shorter ones. The effect is as if we are listening to someone speaking to us in staccato fashion. The addition of the commentaries makes David (without the W) Keenan’s Xstabeth even more idiosyncratic. Like the music it is named for, Xstabeth is a genre of one.

Pedant’s corner:- famouser (why Keenan chose to employ this for some while rather than the more familiar ‘even more famous’ is obscure,)  “the lay of the land” (x 3. It wasn’t a tune. The correct phrase is ‘the lie of the land’,) neck-in-neck (it’s neck and neck,) confectionary (confectionery.)

Not Friday on my Mind 88: I Talk to the Wind. RIP Pete Sinfield

Lyricist Pete Sinfield died last month.

His most famous work was done with King Crimson for whom he came up with the name and wrote most of the lyrics for the first four albums though he didn’t play on them.

I have featured his work before since he wrote the English language lyrics for Italian group Premiata, Forneria, Marconi (PFM.) The World Became the World is a prime example of Sinfield’s art.

He was also responsible for the words of Greg Lake’s great Christmas hit I Believe in Father Christmas.

Later in Sinfield’s career he moved more to pop and wrote songs for, among others, Leo Sayer, Cher, and even Think Twice for Celine Dion.

This is a haunting piece from King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King.

King Crimson: I Talk to the Wind

 

Peter John (Pete) Sinfield: 27/12/1943 – 14/11/2024

The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald

Mariner Books, 1998, 187 p

Here we are in Moscow in 1913. Though educated in England, printer Frank Reid has spent most of his life in Russia, inheriting the business from his father, but that life is thrown into disarray when his wife Nellie ups and leaves leaving him with three children to cope with, Dolly, Ben and Annushka, and so he engages a young woman, Lisa Ivanovna, as a sort of nanny.

The details of life in pre-revolutionary Russia seem convincing, the sealing up of houses windows’ for the winter, the casual bribery (connected with a mention of the venality of Grigory Rasputin,) the petty regulations, the restrictions placed on the movement and employment of Russian citizens, the necessity to assuage the police and other relevant authorities. Some incidents are at times reminiscent of Doctor Zhivago, particularly the association between Lisa Ivanovna and Volodya Vasilich, the man who breaks into the printing shop one night and fires a gun at Frank, though the dynamic is reversed.

Reid’s interactions with others, his deputy Selwyn Osipych, whose main interest is in having his volume of poems published but who may have been involved with Nellie’s decision to flee, the print shop supervisor, Tvyordov, are both friendly and distanced. His daughter Dolly seems remarkably composed in the face of the situation – but adolescent girls often are.

However, Reid’s burgeoning attraction to Lisa Ivanovna is told to us rather than shown and so does not contain as much force as it might have.

Pedant’s corner:- “Jeyes’ fluid” (Jeyes’s?) “‘I don’t think so. She certainly didn’t say so?’” (isn’t a question,) “there was still barrel organs playing in the streets” (there were still,) benzine (a word used in other languages certainly but the British one is ‘petrol’. Petrol was used later in the phrase “This Russian petrol is very low on benzine.” Make of that what you will.) “Their breaths rose together as steam into the bitterly cold lamplit air” (I know people refer to it this way but steam is actually invisible, the misty you can see emanating from people’s outbreaths is actually water droplets, condensed steam/water vapour.)

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