Give me a day

I have no particular reason for cobbling together a blog post right now other than the fact that I had no idea that this great song had words and wanted to share.  The theme to Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac is actually a Scandinavian folk song titled "Ge Mig En Dag."  I find it soothingly beautiful.  It just feels like the redeeming side of 6:36 am, evoking the sun cresting above the horizon, heralding the fresh possibility of a new day.

Two notable anniversaries

Today marks a pair of momentous anniversaries, each recalling a very different period of history, yet both, in a way, reinforcing the power of human spirit and innovation.

On this day in 1861, 150 years ago, Confederate soldiers in South Carolina fired the first shots of the Civil War.  After the state seceded, Union troops barricaded themselves in Fort Sumter, on an island in the mouth of Charleston’s harbor, and Confederate forces attacked.  What followed was a bloody, protracted, four year slog over slavery and the intersecting authority of the states and the federal government.  Over 620,000 Americans died in this conflict – roughly the same number of casualties as in all other wars combined – and they were fighting over the preservation of both our country and, indirectly, our brand of representative democracy.

Abraham Lincoln expressed the gravity of the stakes most famously in his Gettysburg Address:

...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Another eloquent paean to the triumph of American democracy comes from Sullivan Ballou’s well-known letter to his wife, Sarah.  Ballou, a major of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers in the Union army, expresses the emotions he is feeling on the eve of a major battle, and captures heartrendingly his conflicting loves of family and country.  The version below comes from Ken Burns’ seminal documentary, The Civil War, and is set to Jay Ungar's beautiful musical piece "Ashokan Farewell."  Its poignancy drives me to tears.

Both Ballou and Lincoln would likely be saddened by some of the anti-government rhetoric saturating the nation these days.  I have no issue with people who believe in the efficacy of conservative, market-based solutions to our country’s problems, but we must never cast our government itself as an antagonist.  So much has been sacrificed in the building of this institution and every American should live with an abiding sense of reverence for the system – this nation that we have struggled to develop and maintain - even when we may disagree over specific actions and policies.

Exactly a century after Fort Sumter, 50 years ago, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.  Until seeing Google’s “doodle” banner today, I had no idea these dates coincided.  A very cool side-note, this website tells you when satellites will be passing overhead in the night sky wherever you live – apparently this week is an excellent time to spot the International Space Station.  Where the Civil War was, in some ways, a test of the durability of one of humanity’s most important developments in civil and political philosophy, Gagarin’s spaceflight was a showcase of ingenuity and innovation.  Though set, at the time, against the grim backdrop of the Cold War, we can now celebrate this milestone for what it was – our first breach of the final frontier of human exploration.

That both of these important events came at times of great tension and conflict is, perhaps, no coincidence.  For better or for worse, it seems that much of our greatest progress has been born out of necessity, during times of danger.  With that in mind, when confronted by tough situations, we can, I suppose, only aspire to do right by our forebears and hope that the lens of history views us kindly.

The shade of someone else's grace

Driving through the townships near Thokoza, South Africa on a chilly June day, Nate took it upon himself to introduce us to all sorts of out-of-the-mainstream hip hop.  One of the best, in my opinion, was this collection of remixes from K'NAAN and producer J.Period.  They teamed up to create a series of three releases, dubbed "The Messengers," each incorporating and paying tribute to a transformational artist.

My favorite is the third - Bob Dylan (the other two being Bob Marley and Fela Kuti, an influential Nigerian activist musician).  It is pretty cool to hear Dylan's very recognizable guitar riffs transformed into beats with a modern, urban flair and to have his famous lyrics interspersed with K'NAAN's rapping.  Alongside some of the hip hop remixes are brief, crisply assembled introductory pieces and biographical sketches, providing interesting historical and social context to the music.

You can download all three of the releases, for free, from J.Period's website.  Grooveshark has them as well, although Youtube only seemed to have a few (not including my favorite, "Don't Think Twice").  In searching for this music online this morning, I came across this post from NPR's All Songs Considered Blog.  There are several sound clips of an interview with K'NAAN, as he discusses the motivation behind the project and the humble approach he takes to paying tribute to these icons.

"There is never a way you can improve an original, becuase you don't know what it was meant to be," he says.  If not to improve upon it, then what was your goal? wonders the interviewer.  K'NAAN answers simply: "To be in the shade of someone else's grace....as a narrator and [to] explain how they connect" to each other and to our lives in the present.

If I could fly, like birds on high

Seemingly immediately after writing about how much I liked snow despite myself, we were hit with our second huge blizzard of the winter, followed a few days after by our third.  People have been calling it by all kinds of corny names like "snowpocalypse" and "snowmageddon."

This onslaught of snow has, at once, marooned us in the house, transformed Safeway into a mob scene, made street parking a cutthroat battle with the neighbors, and turned deadlines at work completely upside down.  It has been inconvenient and annoying and, particularly considering of tomorrow's potentially snowy forecast, I do not really want any more this season.  Yet I stand by my previous post.  Snow is almost magical in its ability to beautify the dreary winter cityscape and engender a sense of adventure and camaraderie amongst friends and strangers alike.  And, for that, I am grateful.

In between watching a marathon of old Lost episodes with Steve and shoveling lots and lots of snow, I've been listening to this song.  It's majestic sounding, yet slightly whimsical, and it fits my mood this past week or so pretty well.  The lyrics are in French, but they pay homage to the fickle, entrancing characteristics of the sea (and are completely different than those of the English version featured in lounge singers' repertoires and in the end credits of the movie Finding Nemo).

I gave my best to you

I actually meant to post this on Sunday evening from Berlin, but wasn't able to get around to it until now. This is a beautiful song from Ken Burns' The War, which I kind of associate with sad, but hopeful, patriotism. Even though I generally consider this a very happy, warm sunshine- and barbecue-infused holiday, I wanted to post it anyway. Happy Memorial Day and God bless those who are gone so that I can continue to celebrate the start of summer this way.

Fly away to somewhere new

Everybody's gone,
they left the television screaming that the radio's on.
Someone stole my shoes,
but there's a couple of bananas and a bottle of booze.
Oh, well happy new year's baby,
we could probably fix it if we clean it up all day.

Or we could simply pack our bags,
and catch a plane to Barcelona 'cause this city's a drag.

Beneath the pale moonlight?

This one's just instrumental. It bears a striking resemblance to Fieval's lonesome but hopeful crooning in An American Tail, an excellent movie.

I'm a new day rising

I... I'm a new day rising,
I'm a brand new sky to hang
the stars upon tonight.
I... I'm a little divided,
Do I stay or run away
and leave it all behind?

It's times like these you learn to live again.

I like music a lot - particularly its power to impact emotion. Similar to the way I post photos of traveling under "Places I've Been," I think that I'll periodically post songs here under "Musical Interludes." Aside from being a direct rip off from NPR, this is also simply another way to express myself. My gchat status messages are frequently song lyrics. They're not necessarily a direct reflection of my mood, but something about each particular piece speaks to me at a certain moment in time.