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Located on page ten of the December 31st issue of National Review is a brief review on the late George Harrison, the late Princess Diana, our civilization, the press, art, music, Harrison’s contribution to music, poetry, taxes, readers of this fine publication, musical gatherings, excessive smoking of cigarettes, modern life!, and our sense of proportion. That summary was described by a Mr. Robert Goodwin, from Calabasas California, in his letter to the editor (Jan 28th issue N.R.), as a "Mean Spirited Obituary", "Below the Belt".
The last sentence in the anonymous author’s (AA) sobituary reads; "He gave innocent pleasure of a mild and transient sort to millions, and did harm only to himself, by excessive smoking". Nicotine IS a doleful substance. A minuscule amount ingested in its pure form is enough to kill you instantly. In its diluted form, "The Cigarette" , the killing takes a little longer, gradually clogging the pink gills, and the arterial cardinal liquid with black tar. Cells collapsing, lungs failing, heart struggling, brain dying, emphysema, cancer. Tobacco though, causes no such ailments, mar ea! Revered over the centuries for its masculine powers of relaxation. After dinner, over brandy, smoke filled pubs, story tellers leisurely sucking on chiseled pipe stems, stretching the story out, pausing for effect to relight the pipe. Smoked, rolled, chewed, put it in a pipe, cut it, knead it, grow it, sell it, chew it, inhale it! Can’t you hear the southern auctioneer, his cadence reverberating through the cavernous tobacco halls? The buyers feel the precious leaves, sweet tobacco. And the farmer anxiously looks on. For tobacco America is slipping away. It's no longer cool to be seen puffing on a fag.
In Casablanca, Bogie and Bacall fired up the silver screen in more ways than one, as her hair brushed his cheek when she reached over to get a light for her cigarette. Not so on "Firing Line" one evening as your editor at large, W.F.B. will tell you. About the male guest who committed the gaffe of producing a cigarette from his pocket, and continued to drive the nail home, by reaching over to ask his eminence for a light! Minnesota Fats was imperial, the epitome of coolness under pressure from the relentless Fast Eddie. The cigarette never strayed far from his hand throughout the night, and throughout his life. The "Great One" remained defiant, he enjoyed his habits and was dammed if he would give them up. Yul Byrnner was cursed, like many, by this most singular addiction. He produced a graphic video just before his death describing his terminal illness contracted as a direct result of smoking. His, effort to ward off young smokers before they were hooked. I met the wife of R.J. Reynolds, one afternoon in a bar in San Francisco, her car had a flat tire and was waiting for repair. We had a drink, a chat, nice lady, sexy, pleasant. She left, I stayed. Two years later, Herb Caen reported her passing, due to cirrhosis of the liver. She had divorced R.J. Reynolds, but not John Barleycorn. The evidence has piled up to show that drinking in moderation can be beneficial to your health. There is no such evidence about smoking. Sufficeth to say, that smoking is injurious to your health, and the only salient point to make here, is the excessive amounts awarded to individuals in tobacco claim settlements.
The first sentence in the accused’s, alleged "Mean Spirited" robituary reads: "Among the things our civilization will likely not be remembered for along with, surely not coincidentally, great art, great music, and great poetry —is a sense of proportion". The Author describes how the British and American press, went into their "Princess Diana mode" in covering the death of George Harrison. President Nixon after his exit from office, remarked on the powerful influence of "the modern media". Gary Hart it is said would have made a great president. And the Republicans spouted the words of the founding fathers, and waxed eloquently for hours and days and weeks. While Ben Laden frothed Farsi and cited scripture for his own use. Now, "The Ugly American" became fat, and flatuous. Stalin’s poster came down, and Saddam’s stayed up. Rome Burned while Nero Fiddled? America Slept and is kept sedated, "The USA YESTERDAY" reported to-day! on 5muse at 4. Soporific bombardment of sterilized information. Canned, chilled, and dished out. Stephen Daly spent his summer holidays for forty years bringing Irish Teachers to America, and the world, and ours, but he, got #$%* all mention, in passing, so, let’s not forget, "a sense of fairness, and awareness".
The great thing about having your own magazine, or newspaper, or radio station, or television station, or satellite, or being able to vote; POWER. And Murdoch points his finger from way down under; Sell! Sell! Sell! As Hearst sells before him. It’s a sellers market, as we greedily snatch up any smidgin of nooz. Mary and Bea my dear departed Aunts, of the south in that signature sing song lilt of theirs, unique to the Counties of Limerick, Kerry and Cork, would comment wisely "No Noos, is Good Noos, James". Refusing to allow the "golden twilight" (Thank you Mr President) of their lives to be darkened by the black news of to-day’s newspapers; ever vying for readership, and viewers, with startling headlines of doom and gloom, and a continued chronology of criminal behavior. They declined to continue reading the local ‘Blah’ or the national Blah, and tuned out. President Reagan is reported not to be able to remember his being Chief. How this got out I don’t know, but if you are a snoop named Ratty Ferret Mole then you would have burrowed underneath the toilet for views of a man’s privates. For after all new views, are few and far between and the peoples gots to know for they will sure as hell, licketty spell snatch that stuff up for a nickel an a dime, even though it’s none of their damn business. We snicker and stammer why ANYBODY could forget that they were a carpenter once like Joseph, or a Doctor who healed, or a Salesperson who waited on us, OR A PRESIDENT WHO SERVED YOU. In to-day’s news, Mr Shea our gold medallist got top billing. The fire on a Egyptian train that caused the death of hundreds of people 2nd billing and the latest exchange of dead bodies across the disputed lands of Jesus 3rd place. It is possible to stand outside hell and not feel the heat. Here’s a news story where the reporters have managed to place priority in proportion to severity. An 18-year-old teenager, reports Kieran Nicholson and Jenn Kostka of the Denver Post, 17th February 2002, shoots and injures two teenage girls, then kills himself, in an apparent love triangle gone awry, with a.357 magnum handgun. The teens had been drinking alcohol when an argument erupted and so did the gun. The report continues: "It was unclear how the teenagers obtained the alcohol" quoted a spokesperson for the local County Sheriffs. Huh!? Yesterday it was reported that a father accidentally killed his son while cleaning his gun! Tragedy abounds out of all proportion to commonsense. These incidents were not on the front page. Maybe they should have been. The dramatic interpretation of the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 by the American press is a sad example of disproportion. While the editors tried to re-create the inferno of 1906, the facts did not match. Sixty two were reported to have lost their lives in this tragedy. On Sept 19th. An earthquake struck the very heart of Mexico City killing over ten thousand people! On January 26th 2001 a huge earthquake hit the province of Gujarat in India killing over twenty thousand people! The abysmal coverage of these events compared to the ‘Frisco shock was out of all proportion. Quakimodo by the bay.
Our attention, once more is focused on the sad fobituary in question as AA continues: "Let the facts be stated calmly here. George Harrison was lead guitarist in a rock ‘n’ roll band". End of quote! Even John Lennon himself, in his very distinctive Liverpool accent stated: "We were just a band, really, a band that got very big". Very celestial that. A whole generation doted on the Beatles as they regaled us with harmonious love songs for years. Captivating, and charismatic, their charm, wit, and friendly demeanor winning our hearts, and their music stealing our souls! When John Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota in New York I wonder what mode did the Media use then! "The J.F.K." mode or the "M.L.K." mode? Another devil carrier bent on carnage, made his way undetected into the bedroom of George Harrison and wife, and proceeded to stab him several times before he was knocked out by George’s wife, wielding a large wooden table lamp. The house, had one hundred and twenty rooms!, and a very sophisticated alarm system. "The Fab Four" were no more, decimated. They never broke up, (they were friends), they were torn asunder. Their success rose up out of all proportion and sent them reeling. Ringo managed to pick himself up "off the floor", as moi. Linda McCartney did not get the same coverage in the press as the Princess Di or Mother Theresa or Elvis Presley. But then it’s about a nerve that pinches the desire and longing of the general public. Here is a small excerpt from "the Angry Harvest" by Hermann Field & Stanislaw Mierzenski: "Kasper made a sour face he couldn't think up clever answers: "Aw Szumski why would folks think that way?, " You're still green, Kasper, and didn't notice. "WHY? So they can think they’re a cut above the rest of us too. If the priest comes and chats with you a half an hour, and shakes your hand when he says good-bye, wouldn't you feel good Kasper? You'd want folks to know it and you’d feel bettor right away than the rest of us. But if you are sitting on the bench talking to old Szumski you won’t be going around the village telling folks, NO SIR, might even be ashamed of it, eh?" He laughed and nudged Kasper in the ribs. "Yes feels mighty good when a fellow can snitch a bit o’ the sun for himself. So we dreams up folks to look up to, Fairy Princes!". She was pursued by a pack of ratz till finally they ran her to ground. George was dogged by cancers, they brought him down. He is our Beatle. She is our Princess.
After the painting, came the lithograph, the photograph, the telegraph, the gramophone, the telephone, the radio, the automobile, the aeroplane, television. Great inventors like Marconi, Bell, Tenaka, Allen B. Du Mont. Edison, Wright, (unwittingly) changed art. Peeling away the skin of the global onion. Distinction is made by Max Podstolski in his review; "Art at the end of the 20th Century" to quote: "The First World War did not destroy modernism, but World War II almost certainly did". The optimism, the hope, the promise, the celebratory joy of life exemplified by Matisse’s Luxe, calme et voluptue could not continue beyond the totalitarian nightmare of brutality and genocide. A field of hay, by Van Gough. A vase of flowers, by Renoir. A young girl with a bucket of flowers and a watering can. Brilliant! A joy to behold. What? then came; Modernism, Cubism, Minimalism, Formalism, abstractions, Futurists, Dadaists, Da-Dali-ists!, Surrealists. Lofty, bell ringing indeed! To interpretation, therefore; would we leave to; the acknowledged, the wise, or worldly?, or, can you and I (like aa.) getinonit?. How about, we defer to the experts! then. Mr. Oscar Wilde, introduces us, in his; ‘Pen Pencil and Poison’, ‘A Study in Green’; " a brief memoir " , to A, Mr. Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, whom he describes; quote, "a poet and a painter, an art-critic, an antiquarian, and a writer of prose, an amateur of beautiful things and a dilettante of things delightful, but also a forger of no mean or ordinary capabilities, and as a subtle and secret poisoner almost without rival in this or any other age". Mr Wilde deduces that Mr. Wainwright; "was one of the first to recognise what is, indeed the very keynote of aesthetic eclecticism, I mean the true harmony of all really beautiful things irrespective of age or place." … "All beautiful things belong to the same age." … "The first step in aesthetic criticism is to realise one’s own impression." … "Art’s first appeal is neither to the intellect nor the emotions, but purely to the artistic temperament, "… this temperament, this "taste" , as he calls it, being unconsciously guided and made perfect, by frequent contact with the best work, becomes in the end a form of right judgment". Mr Wainwright acknowledges the difficulty in forming "any fair estimate of contempory work." "But", ( Mr Wilde continues) on the whole, his taste was good and sound. Mr Wilde concludes this paragraph by quoting a now classical phrase of Mr Wainwright’s: "to see the object as in itself it really is." And recommends, that "the people" …, must always have "the best models constantly before their eyes." The Crucifixion, a dark portrayal of that fateful event by Rembrandt, in black and white, begat an even darker ‘prose poem out of paint’ by Mr. Wainwright, leads Mr. Wilde to conclude, that; " In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other". "Our critics", he remarks with much wisdom, "seem hardly aware of the identity of the primal seeds of poetry and paintings, nor that any true advancement in the serious study of one art co-generates a proportionate perfection in the other". And elsewhere he says that if a man who does not admire Michaelangelo talks of his love for Milton, he his deceiving either himself or his listeners. "Not so the judge who presided over "Chiffons vs. Harrison, he was not to be deceived, eh!? So dutifully, twelve honest citizens returned a guilty verdict against Mr. Harrison, for, "Subconscious Plagiarism", with regard to their song "He’s So Fine" vs. his song "My Sweet Lord". I wouldn't give tuppence for the former, and sing along with the latter, in blissful harmonious unison! However, without the latter, the former, would never have been created! And, without the former, the latter, might never have been created. For example, if AA had never created his lobituary, I might not have come across the marvelous poetry of Seamas Heaney, or the beautiful watercolours of Madge Greesley.
The classical composers can never be replaced, though it still remains for great artists with majestic effort to interpret their music. It is errant to make a comparison between the art of this century and the magnificent artisans of the past; Vermeer, Rembrandt et al. Their work belongs to them and is left as a legacy for us. ‘The work’, of, art, is to chronicle the centuries in which it is created. For example: "The Book Of Kells" … "Here, There, and Everywhere" …. Song writer, Author, Singer, Actor, never a hair out of place, without peer, Noel Coward. The majesty of Duke Ellington, and his orchestra, accompanied by the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald. The evocative, and timeless singing of Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles. The transformations of Lawrence Olivier, Sidney Poitier, and John Geilguid. The great songwriters: Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman, Lennon & McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel. George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. Using a double edged sword, Bob Dylan, you can call him Bobby, Woody Guthrie. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Tireless Jerry Lewis. ‘The Gran Ol’ Oprey, Hank Locklin, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rodgers. K. Downes. T. Murphy. D. Gilligan. T. Loftus. Sure angels sing too!, Edith Piaff, Nana Mouskouri, Diana Krall, Billie Holliday, Patsy Kline, Judy. Maria Callas, Beverley Sills., M. Blackshire, J. McGreal! Shivers up my spine; Caruso! The Three Tenors; Irish and Italian. The great Irish tenor: John Mcormack. Andre Segovia, Julian Bream, and John Williams. The greatest purveyours of Irish Traditional Music, "The Chieftains". The great cellist : "Yo-Yo Ma. They make it sing: the great violinists: Yehudi Menuin, Itzhack Perlman, and he made it so too: Isaac Stern R.I.P. Horowitz, Toscanini. Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Charley Parker, John Coltrane, Buddy Rich, Mr Mingus, Eartha Kitt. Helen & Nancy. Just a small sprinkling of greatness. Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, E. E. Cummings. Graham Greene, Joe Daly. Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Ray Krok, Pei, Regina McGarrigle, Gehry,. Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Michael Collins!, O’Keefe, Steinbeck, W. G. Sebald, James Joyce, Eugene O’ Neill, Alan Ginsburg. Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart. Just a sprinkling, you can reach over there on the shelf there’s another cup, if you like. Sprinkle some more. Walt Disney and his team of Artists. More…………..
On the top of my p.c. monitor I have a small Rolodex-type, pictorial calendar 2000! Caring not what day it really is, but to admire the diminutive, vivid, colorful portraits of Mexican children at play, by the artist, Ted De Grazia. His acceptance (El Simpathico) into the lives and homes of the hospitable American, and Native Mexican, Indians allowed him to re-create their lives at work and play. Using different mediums (wood, stone, canvass, metal) for his artistry, he has left a legacy that will live on forever. As his work has been reproduced over and over, gladdens and brightens the hearts of thousands of people all over the world. To describe his work as greatness, would be to lessen it. Sublime, and Spiritual, it extends itself, to touch the viewer. In every town and hamlet of America (for it is here I live), artists are at work. In San Francisco every year they open their homes/workshops and invite you in. The Cherry Creek Art Festival in Denver held every mid-summer is one of the finest in the country. Podstolski continues: (of Kandinski) "he believed that anyone could find fulfilment as an artist, and human nature’s innate goodness would necessarily lead to a brighter perhaps utopian, future. Art at the end of the 20th Century has not lived up to Kandinski’s dreams but there are those among us who have not yet given up hope, "In the final analysis " an artist friend used to tell me, We can only tend our own gardens. "Max Podstolski"
Who knows where greatness lies in this civilization? You may have to stick around for another hundred years to find out! In fact I’m told you have to! Prior to my starting this; "gone to the moon rebuttal", I choose Norman Rockwell as the penultimate American Artist. Further vilification of this choice came in the mail today in the form of ‘A Buckley’; the latest edition of ‘National Review’, featuring on it’s front cover, ‘A modified Rockwell’. Chagrined by this amuse, of Rockwell’s work, no doubt to accent, an illuminating expose within. I consoled myself with the thought, that perhaps other forces were at work. ‘Basquiat’, is gone, but not forgotten!
Drawing my scalpel from left to right, I use a tweezers to remove another sad sentence from the "Review en Autopsy" which reads; "He introduced into pop-music technique some minor innovations, most of which did not last long." End of Quote! From George Martin: "But it was Harrison’s suberb guitar work that helped give the group songs a unique twist". From Anthony De Curtis of Rolling Stone: "He was underestimated by fans but never by muscians. He was a very influential guitar player." Guitar Magazine on their top 100 guitar players of all time: "Harrison’s guitar playing on the Beatle’s recording is so underestimated as to qualify as majestic. Harrison ultimately brought the guitar solo to mainstream pop-music." The trouble with time machines is they really don’t work. The past can be reviewed, admired, longed for, learnt from, re-enacted, listened to. The future may be planned for, seeds will be sown, the planets will revolve no doubt. The sun will rise. And man may continue to bite off the hand that feeds him. To say that a human being made some improvements on one hand, but on the other hand to say that these improvements simply disappeared, is to sully all that we find dear to us. i.e. " That The Effort To Conquer and Prevail Gives Rise To Progress ". Every positive contribution, is, just that. How do you know that some Mother’s son or daughter has not picked up or might pick up a 12 string ‘Rickenbacker’, and strum to joy, the sound of the elegant ‘bflatminor’.
AA does concede that George; "wrote some pretty songs" and Quotes the following: While my guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes The Sun and Something. Funny thing that, I had no idea George wrote those songs until after he passed onwards, when all the press obits. reported the same thing. Or, that "Please Mr Postman" was written by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, Freddie Gorman, Georgia Dobbins, and William Garrett!
The Anonymous Author (AA) continues: "He showed flashes of an admirably conservative sensibility, for example in the song "Taxman" which, while not musically very inspired, possessed lyrics that must tug at the heartstrings of all NATIONAL REVIEW readers. "A thirty second spot for the Super Bowl this year went for the usual; gazillions of dollars. H&R Block sprung for the pot. A commercial that invited you; the taxpayer, per se, to bring back to them, your last year's tax statement, whereupon they would squeeze some additional dollars out of the wash, that was missed in the first spin. The background music featured for this inducement was provided by a male group singing none other than "Taxman". Paul McCartney I understand, objects to Beatle Songs being used for commercials, but then Mickey Jackson owns the rights. And probably has an understanding with Paul and Ringo that he won’t monkey about with this liberty. But you never know in the ‘world of the rich and famous’. Ebony may have made a call to Ivory, and they may have conspired to make an exception in this case. Figuring that, AA concluded that if "Taxman" tugged at the heartstrings of ALL National Review readers, then H&R Block must have concluded that "Taxman" would tug at the pursestrings of ALL taxpayers.
AA’s miserable memoir continues: " He organised the first rock-charity extravaganza, the 1971 concert for Bangladesh (but cannot be fairly held responsible for the later excesses and absurdities of this phenomenon). Like many reflective but ill-educated people, he was keen on eastern mysticism. He chided the rest of us for our addiction to material things while himself living in a house with 120 rooms." End quote. "The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 was the first and still is the greatest of Rock Concerts." So says Gina Arnold, headlining her article on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of that event. She describes a conversation that took place between Lou Adler, John Phillips, Momma Cass Elliott, and Paul McCartney at Momma Elliott’s house. As they tried to determine how to bring Rock and Roll into the mainstream of music and validate ‘Rock and Roll’ as an art form, like jazz. "They were looking for ways to legitimize it." One idea they had, was to have a charitable event with different acts. Allthough the Monterey Pop Festival was held without, being beamed upward for charity, the seed, for future acts of generous disposition was sown. Lou Adler the co-producer of the event and current administrator for the charitable funds still generated by the ‘Monterey Pop Festival’, album, and music, says; that the event was the blueprint for all subsequent music festivals, and established rock as a force to be reckoned with ". Four years later George Harrison staged a spectacular concert in Madison Square Garden with the proceeds of the event to help diminish the sufferings of the people of " Bangladesh". And global rock concerts for charity have been playing now for over 30 years! Some have been very successful. Others have bombed.
It really wasn't a novel idea, and could have sprung from any well, at least from the onset of World War II. In 1943 Horowitz’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto #1 with Toscanini at Carnegie Hall raised ten million dollars for the war effort! Albeit not a "Rock Concert", but then if you were inside Carnegie Hall that night; the music rising and swelling peaking and cresting with just, a whisper, falling back down, and ascending the heights again, the back of Toscanini, swaying, his baton piercing the air. Above the cloud, light shining on Horowitz, and the Steinway clearing the way with crystal clarity. The walls rebound with the crescendo of magnificence! The heroic Christopher Reeves used a music concert to kick off the formation of "The Christopher Reeve Foundation". The concert was held on January 12th 1997 in the small town of Princeton just 43 miles from Manhattan where he lived from age 4 to 20. His foundation is aimed at assisting the disabled with their needs, and to further research into spinal cord re-generation.
Yes indeed the " Rock Concert for Charity " was and is a phenomenon, and not without its faults. Especially when you bring forty thousand-watt light bulbs together in close proximity, expect even a 50 amp fuse to blow!
George Harrison chucked school before he was to complete his G.C.E’s.. The rigorous standard of the English educational system make it nigh on impossible to have any illiterates walking the streets, even if they dropped out of kindergarten! The educational system of any country is started at birth. The first four formative years, plotting the trajectory of life’s journey. Piling As and Bs on top of Cs and Bs all the way to Ps and Zs. Do your sums 1 & 2 & 3, add two, take away three, times four and five. All you need is love. A basket of eggs. A roof over your head. And there you have it! "Bob’s your Uncle". He was afraid they wouldn't take him into the band for being so young. So they did!, and the rest is beautiful soulful history. He took up a trade; ‘guitar work’ from apprentice, to journeyman, to master. And confirmation by his peers " A skilled Craftsman. "
Cosmopolitan/August1991, By Stephen Rae: "There is nothing new, of course in the talented, rich or famous, looking outside Western tradition to fulfill their spiritual needs. The nineteenth- century transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson was strongly influenced by Oriental philosophy; beats like Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac popularised Zen. But it wasn’t until the sixties, an era in which all things Indian were in vogue, that the guru as we know him, washed up on American shores." "Ever since the Beatles, Gurus have been latching on to celebrities for the publicity it brings them." Some years ago my very own Guru ‘The Pope’ wrote a papal letter warning about the dangers of meditation. His point being that meditation was not a substitute for prayer. In recent years Deepak Chopra, the Indian writer, has become very popular. His books on inner peace, love, spiritually, and how to get around town without any stress have sold many. The American culture has taken a religious beating over the past few decades. As the aftermath of wars, altered the psyche of people. The influx of esoteric drugs altering the physiological and chemical balance of minds. When the Beatles split the scene at the "Rishikesh India Ashram" in 1968, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and bands of dhoti clad successors were not far behind." All ready to bring their brand of enlightenment to the spiritually starved American and British gold miners. However the Beatles, being artists, and so reflective in nature, were in fact ill-educated due to lack of medical advice!, and cannot fairly be held responsible for the later excesses and absurdities of this phenomenon! "In the seventies, Oric Bovar, who was renowned in Broadway circles for his uncannily accurate astrological charts and prescribed meditations that brought inner peace to such disciples as Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, the ever- seeking Marsha Mason, and Neil Simon, became convinced he was Jesus Christ and claimed he could endure a year without going to the bathroom"! "He spent his free time watching the Excorcist. He put his followers on strict diets and forbade them to have sex. Bovar’s greatest feat was to have been the resurrection of 29-year-old Stephanos Hatzitheodorou a disciple who died of cancer in his New York apartment in the fall of ’76. After covering the body with a shawl, Bovar and five disciples kept a vigil over the corpse, chanting, 'rise Stephan, rise, rise, rise.' It was only then that Peters, whom the New York Times called one of Bovar’s most loyal devotees, jumped ship. For two months, the group chanted over the body until a woman who identified herself as Mary Magdaline called the cops. His arrest for violating the health code by keeping a decaying corpse in the apartment marked the beginning of the end for Bovar, who was now referring to himself as "My Son, Oric Bovar." Hours before he was to answer his doubters, he jumped out a window, intending to appear in resurrected glory in court." As for excesses the Bhagwan Shree Rajineesh can’t be beat. Mentioned to his followers one day that he had always fancied a ride in a Rolls, and before the year was out he had twenty seven of them!
If Mr Harrison, did, in fact, chide us for our materialism, then conversely he chided us for our lack of Spiritualism. George Harrison was a serious sincere individual who kept the positive tenants of an eastern philosophy, and left the ‘Rashikesh Ashram Bhagwash’ behind. I am no financial guru but I understand that if you are a financially savy member of society then you invest your monies, for protection and growth prudence, preferably in real estate. Now if you happen to be very wealthy and have amassed a large quantity of Do Re Me, then you would purchase an equally large chunk of realty. Showing an "admirable conservative sensibility"; George purchased a former nunnery, at Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire. Thus in this earthly acquisition, provided shelter for his family and shelter from? You guessed it, "The Taxman"!
Paul McCartney says of his friend George that he didn’t suffer fools gladly. Both Ringo and Paul both emphasis his great humour even through his illness and all the way to his departure from this world. My father died of Cancer also, and his friends said the same of him. Like George, using humour to buffer family and friends from the misery that cancer, wrought. A widely travelled tale that’s told: The two Georges, Harrison and Martin, were seated at a table in the recording studio discussing the final arrangements for a song before being placed on the master. Mr Martin asked Mr Harrison to let him know if there was anything he did not like, "Well I don’t like your tie." replied George promptly!
There is nothing mild or transitory about the music of the Beatles or Mr Harrison's creations or anybody’s musical creations for that matter from Mozart to Mellencamp. As there are too many people in the world to say that a particular song does not have a unique effect on a particular individual. An infamous example is of course the song "Helter Skelter" being the alleged catalyst for the carnage exacted by the devil incarnate, Manson. To kick off their movie musical documentary "Rattle and Hum", U2, the worlds current premier rock and roll band’s singer, Bono introduces their first song of the evening: "This is a song Charlie Manson stole from the Beatles; We’re stealing it back!" and they proceeded to give a stinging portrayal of that song. Goodness will always supercede the negatory in this world. Patsy Kline sings a song called ‘True love’ which for me rings bells in my cortex!
If I were to adjudicate AA's piece as "Mean Spirited", then I would have expected him or her or them or it, to have questioned why we the people did not, or have not, taken advantage of the cure for cancer located on the unmarked page between, the beginning of AA’s article on the bottom of page 10 and the termination of his statement at the top of page 12 in the National Review! The page; because it is an "advertisement", presumably(?), is not eligible for a numerical index. If it were, it would therefore, be, page 11. It is a podium to exhibit a publication titled; "How to fight Cancer and Win". You can, or could purchase a copy for the ‘Low Low price of $19.95 + $4.00 for shipping. The Author; William Fischer, has researched all the cancer remedies, formulas, and diets, that have worked for hundreds and thousand of patients. Mr Fischer quotes the work of DR. Johanna Budwig a six! Time Nobel Award nominee who, "after 30 years of study, discovered that the blood of seriously ill cancer patients was deficient in certain substances and nutrients that allowed cancer cells to grow wild and out of control. By simply eating a combination of two natural and delicious foods (found on page 134!) not only can cancer be prevented, but in case after case be healed! " Or: the work of Virginia Livingston M.D. whose " delicious diet " will help stop the formation of cancer cells and shrink tumors, this diet being found on page 82! These simple and miraculous cures are then endorsed in the ad by Thelma B. Hugh M. Duncan M. Edward S. M.D. Romany S. Molly G. Golly Me! How could we!? Especially after the silent endorsement of being accepted between the coveted covers of the world’s finest, literary periodical. Even though, just another ad after all. Still, even to be close to these "Letters" is to siphon off, litres of truth, and gallons of integrity. Dr Budwig claims that her cure was stymied by manufacturers with heavy financial stakes, and blocked from publication. Sometimes the obvious solutions are overlooked, lost above the deep research to uncover secrets. Sometimes the healing process is mysterious or divine. I assure you that if there is a smidgin of truth that says that on unmarked page 11, in the December 28th issue of ‘National Review’ there exists a cure or relief from cancer, stated so; then a war would be waged by; ‘Mighty Musketeers’ from the palace of the National Review on the ‘sonorous and negative manufacturers’, using pens like swords, to slay the commercial dragon. Thus I acquit thee AA of being "mean spirited", and or "hitting below the belt". However, I find you guilty of well! Something! I’m sure! So! Before I proclaim sentences; a reflection: It is necessary to thank AA for the passionless summary, as much as rebuke its negative content. For we would not exist without the negative ion. As Thomas Hopkins says the more you try the more you fail the more you fail the more you’ll succeed!
"All rise, court is now in session, Judge Goodwinbadorindifferent presiding". The Judge settles in his chair as an expectant hush falls over the gallery. Just then the doors burst open and a courier rushes in with an envelope in his hand, which he hands to the bayleaf! "What’s this intrusion!?", the Judge cries out indignantly. It’s an apple your Honour, I mean appeal, your honour, a last minute plea from the govner himself. " What!, Governor!, there’s no Governor here!, here in the "Land Of Letters". Only me and thee and them and those. Here! give me!, ‘Why! it’s addressed to you AA. Stand up! Well by gosh! I’ll be a son of a solicitor. It's from George! Here Bailiff read it out for all to see.
"1 Pie Squared Way,
Strawberry Fields,
Heavon.
Dear AA
I wrote another pretty song. If I may be so bold; a witty little ditty, I called "Piggies". I have tweaked it slightly for this occasion. A new friend I have met here; Noel, is going to sing it for you, lovely chap.
Cordially,
George. "
A pink cumulous cloud about four foot off the floor slides into the hushed courtroom. Seated upon the cloud in a leather pomona-green chair, is Noel Coward, resplendent in a three piece Saville Row white tailored suit, diamond tie pin glittering above his waistcoat. And on either side two seraphim holding harps. He clears his throat and begins:
Have You Seen, the little piggies crawling in the dirt ?
And for all the little piggies life is getting worse,
Always having dirt to play around in.
Have you seen, the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies,
stirring up the dirt.
Always have clean shirts to play around in.
In your sties, with all your backing,
you don’t care what goes on around,
In your eyes there’s something lackin,
What you need’s, a damn good whacking!
Every where there’s lots of piggies,
living piggy lives,
You can see them out to dinner,
with their piggy wives,
clutching forks and knives,
to eat their bacon.
And when the music died. The crowd held their breath; " Guilty by George! " cried the Judge.
"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standard of artistic accomplishment, and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens, and I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well."
— John F. Kennedy.
Somewhere above the small town of Bellinzona, in the province of Lugano, Switzerland, close to the Italian border, there is a house called ‘Collino D‘Oro’(Golden Hill) that belongs to George Harrison. Amidst the verdant countryside and rose-covered hillsides, streams softly flow, where man can rest, and spirits can roam; peacefully. Looking out for their loved ones and their children. Smiling, Laughing, happy thro’ work and play. "Look!" "Where!?" "Over there! An Angel! By the bush Hurry! Let’s run!"
"Once there was a way to get back homeward. Once there was a way to get back home, Sleep little darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby. Golden Slumbers fill your eyes - Smiles awake you - when you rise. Sleep little darling do not cry and I will sing a lullaby "
Slán a Chara, save us a seat.
© Copyright 2006 by the author(s)/photographer(s) and www.castlebar.ie
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