The Duck's Nest: online home of mizducky

 

I've been feeling this song a whole lot lately. Mostly I've been hearing it in my head in the a capella nigun form we sang together during Shabbat services at the havurah I belonged to in the Boston area in the 1980s. There seems to be a lot of return going on in my life right now, both profound and prosaic:

• After majorly falling off the wagon of my healthy weight loss adventure, regaining all the weight I had taken off and then some, and re-inflicting on myself all the accompanying chronic pain and restricted mobility, I have as of this past June once again returned to a healthy weight loss regimen. Hopefully, this time I will do it with a lot more support, and a lot more humility.
• After going on two years of under/unemployment and scary financial times, the kind so many people have been facing these days, I am slowly pulling myself out of the hole via a job I landed in March, and returning to some modest sense of financial security.
• After the emotional slough of despond caused by those first two items, I am slowly returning to my more normal cheerful self.
• Perhaps because of these changes, perhaps for other reasons yet to become clear to me, I am returning mentally to memories of my childhood and youth, trying yet again to sort out the family-of-origin psychodramas and maybe make some peace with them.
• And there are other returnings going on, but these are already plenty to start with, yes?

In any case, when I saw that NaBloPoMo's theme for this month was "Return," I knew I needed to sign up, return to this long-dorman blog of mine, and make the commitment to blog every day and see what came up. Of course not every post I'll make in September is going to be about return--but as they say in so many writing programs, when you simply make the commitment to show up at the page every day, you make it possible for interesting things to wind up on that page.

Oh, and it hasn't escaped my notice that the Jewish High Holy Days, with their major theme of teshuvah (literally, return), fall at the end of September this year. Whether I will literally return to a synogogue or havurah this year, or perhaps make a more personal journey of slichot (reconciliation) on my own, remains to be seen. But there it is, waiting to be explored.

The song, by the way, was written by the famous Singing Rabbi and pioneer of the baal teshuva movement, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and is performed in this video by his daughter and protege Neschama Carlebach, with the Green Pastures Baptist Choir under the direction of Reverend Roger Hembrick. The lyrics:

Return to what you are,
Return to who you are,
Return to where you are born and reborn again

Return again, return again,
Return to the land of your soul
Return again, return again,
Return to the land of your soul.

Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" rulez

For some reason or another, MJ's "Smooth Criminal" came up for me today (probably because I heard it while messing around online), and I immediately thought of this fun cover by Alien Ant Farm. I confess I am into no other song by this band, but the video they did for their version of "Criminal" is wickedly brilliant. How many references to Jackson's songs, videos, and personal folklore can you count in this thing? My personal favorite? The Ants' hilariously low-budget version of the "jump on car roof, clutch package and scream" move from the original uncensored version of MJ's "Black or White" video.

Max Raabe and the Palast Orchestra: Pop perfection from 1920s Germany

I have fallen head over heels in love with this man, his orchestra, and his music:

Yes, Virginia, there is an underground warehouse party scene in San Diego

... and I caught up with it courtesy of my friend Dale, who forwarded to me this Facebook event notice. There I found a cool environment with all the classic amenities, including retro cartoon video projections, lots of chill-perches, and an energized crowd dressed in festive attire ... plus an incredible performance by an outfit called the MarchFourth Marching Band, which comports itself like a cross between a Mardi Gras band and a mobile Cirque du Soleil.

Click on the thumbnail images to check out a couple of samples of the scene -- admittedly blurry, taken in low light on my cell, even after tweaking in Photoshop. But you'll get the idea.

 

Heat wave survival mode

Thank God, the sun has moved sufficiently across the sky that there is no longer oven-hot air blowing into my bedroom/office. Not that I haven't been working steadily all day through the oven-bake-cycle portion of the day, but it's been a kind of endurance thing, a deliberate ignoring of the sensations of sticky skin and sweat-dampened hair, a hunkering down and getting on with it while physically moving around as little as possible.

And now, glory be, there is actually a refreshingly cool breeze blowing in my window, and even though it's also making the film of sweat on my skin feel even oilier, I'm greeting it like a long-lost friend.

Meanwhile I have the radio on in the background, tuned to the Los Angeles AM news station because its frequent time checks keep me on-pace while I work ... and today the station's also been reminding me of folks who are having a lot nastier time than me right now. It's the fires again. The soundbites from emergency personnel and on-the-scene reporters and displaced residents crowd one upon another, flogged by the studio news anchors in between the usual round of commercials -- augmented by an announcement from one of the big insurance companies that they have agents standing by in case of loss. Somewhere behind that slightly surreal barrage of reportage are some very hot and sweaty--and also frightened--homeowners, and some even more hot and sweaty -- and fiercely determined --- firefighters.

Was it only a few years ago that I got to experience this fire emergency thing a good bit more up close and personal, during the Cedar fires? And I was still a good five miles away from the actual fireline. But that unnervingly hellish sullen red sky, the choking ash-laden air, really put the fear of God in me. What we've done to the ecosystem to make these fires into the disaster-movie beasts they have become ...

But enough of that. I'm not going to fix global warming and natural habitat destruction and water supply depletion all on my own by fretting at it. And the pile o' work isn't getting any shorter. So: motivate, motivate. Detach from fretting about the past and future, focus on the now, and get on with things.

Like the next item on the agenda: finishing packing to move across town. Yet again. Sigh ... I hate packing to move even more than I hate super-hot weather ... but no, don't even go there. Just get on with it and get it done. And be grateful you're only packing for a move, and not flinging your valuables into a car and taking off like a bat outta hell for a Red Cross shelter. This too shall pass.

P.S. Some more heat-related music.

Ann Miller says it's too darn hot

... to cook, to think, even to come up with a more substantive blog post than this.

(Ann Miller sang this Cole Porter classic in the movie version of Kiss Me Kate.)

Man, I hope this heat wave lets up soon ... bleah.

"Hair," North Park Theatre, 8/14-8/16: Sign of the times

I couldn't help cracking up when I saw these signs posted at the entrances to the auditorium of the North Park Theatre tonight. Haze, huh? As in that purple haze all in my brain? Groovy, maaaaaahn...

There was indeed a smoke machine haze hovering over the stage for the entire evening. There was also a whole bevy of folks, with some really terrific voices, belting their way through all the hits of this venerable tribal love rock musical. I laughed at many points, and teared up at several points, and it was not just from nostalgia. It's impressive how well Hair has held up. San Diegans, you should go. It's only playing this weekend. It'll make you smile. For more information: www.Hair-SD.com.

Les Paul: June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009

Rest in peace, man. You were a fabulous musician, a fabulous innovator, and a real cool cat. And you kept on playing right on up to near the very end of your remarkable run.

Monkey Majik Makes Music Video with Lupin III Anime - Anime News Network

Monkey Majik Makes Music Video with Lupin III Anime - Anime News Network.

And it's a really nicely done video, too, character designs look a little like a cross between Alcatraz Connection, Mamo, and Monkey Punch's manga art, and the general feel of the animation reminds me just a tad of Gorillaz' video for 19-2000. Check it out here.