Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (15)

or this week, there are many directions I could take this column. I could finish last week's "Part I" column but will defer that until July for reasons that will be apparant when I publish it. I could report on the week's personal events. Two interesting threads -- one most pleasing and the other not so pleasing wove throught the week like twin opposing ribbons. Will focus on the former, and let the latter go, which is more my style. BTW: Dreampt last night of a huge Couger and her two cubs patroling along the road side where I was driving. That dream inspired the collage below titled "Last Night's Dream". In my yard, the choral siren song of the seductive nymphs of spring are breeding enchantment in every nook and cranny of the garden. Buds swelling and the major onslaught of my huge rhododendron collection is about to begin. Pictures will be provided next week. For this week, I also thought that I would take a final look back at my “Winter of Discontent” as portrayed in photographs I shot going back to November. The second music I choose is reflective of the mood. 1. I'll Get You was written by the John and Paul juggernaut, to be their fourth UK single, in released in August 1963. I woke up singing this song this morning. I have always liked the way John and Paul sing in exact unison, but an octive apart (Paul of course taking the girly high part). This was the single that detonated the nuclear device that in a few short months, went on to blow away all of the cultural fabric of the western world, and as we now know, infected all the minds of a generation of youth trapped in the Soviet “prison of nations” and lead to the eventual downfall of the Berlin Wall, and the dismantling of the Soviet Empire. "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty one. I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds" Vishnu, from The Bhagavad Gita, However, before the Beatles had released this single, John and Paul came up with what has gone on to become their first of so many musical anthems. When “She Loves You” was instead released as the fourth single (it is the after dinner aperitif at the conclusion of this week’s soup) all hell broke loose in the UK with Armies of youth converging with their every public sighting. Their lives became one of living together trapped in a glass bubble floating on a raging sea of hysteria, riots and pandemonium. Once more in their career, in 1967, they would again transform the entire fabric of western culture. Now this is about as world class and an artist can hope to get. They would attempt it one final time, and this time, the glass bubble, along with the Beatles themselves, would fracture. You might think that I should write a book. I am – focusing on the abortive third attempt of January, 1969. Imagine I'm in love with you It's easy cos I know I've imagined I'm in love with you Many, many, many times before It's not like me to pretend But I'll get you, I'll get you in the end Yes I will, I'll get you in the end. Oh yeah, oh yeah 2. Shostakovich Symphony 12 - Movement 2 "Razliv" is music of such incredible depth, that I could write from now until next Saturday and only scratch the surface. Someday I will do this for you. No single major work of his is more misunderstood or underrated. He said it was about the revolution of 1917, and even "Razliv" refers to a town where Lenin fled to in hiding after a coup attempt failed. Well, if Shostakovich tells you what something is about, you know that that is the one thing that it is NOT about. Movement one is the stunningly powerful and concentrated bit of musical writing that I have ever listened to. A veritable life and death struggle between two strangely related themes: one the essence of eternal dissonance (evil) and the other eternal resolution (good). The movement ends with evil hog tied and gagged with a dirty stained jock strap belonging to a sweaty, oiled up 280 lb hairy Turkish wrestler, stuffed into evil’s yapping mouth. Evil is mounted onto the hood of good's car, wriggling and struggling in vain to get free. Click here to listen to the short transition between movements one and two. Movement two is something quite different. It is reflective, contemplative, and brooding. Small hopes arise out of the stillness like brief and bright sunlight coming into an otherwise foggy, misty day. Overall it is hopeful I think, but there is some “licking of wounds" as it is music that is filled with profound and indescribably deep healing. Someday I will dissect this entire symphony for you when time, energy, and desire intersect. All of this makes it's way into this week's soup. You can get your 31.2 Mb bowl of Saturday Night Soup for the Soul by clicking the jukebox.