Reading the Bones

I was watching a short documentary tonight on how supposed experts often don't know much. Or they're just giving their opinions, but dressing up right and talking in absolutes makes them seem more credible--and the people who are blander, less opinionated, more uncertain are actually better at making predictions.

But anyway, one of the dudes interviewed at the end was talking about shamans in Olden Times, and said something really interesting. He was saying that a shaman reading some bones thrown on the ground was perhaps even more useful than an expert.

Because what trips up experts is expectations and preconceived notions. For example, one guy did a test where he offered some wine experts two red wines to compare, but one wasn't actually red wine--it was white wine with red dye. And they couldn't even tell it was white wine they were sampling.

But making a decision based on chance--the shaman's bones--might get you past preconceived notions, and help people try something new. The tribe might set out in a new direction, so to speak.

This made me think about the role of supernatural beliefs in our Modern Life. I've said before that I have two packs of oracle cards that I like to use sometimes, first time I've bought something like that. On one hand, we might expect that I will read what I want into my cards, and therefore they're only reinforcing what I already believe or want to hear.

But this other perspective proposes the possibility that turning to chance can lead you to new ideas and possibilities that you wouldn't have otherwise considered, because they weren't part of your worldview.

Hm.

A musical interlude

It's getting a little hard to keep up the blogging right now. So today I'll just share this gorgeous song from Porgy and Bess: "Bess You Is My Woman Now" (and I threw in some other songs.) I first heard it on a Streisand album. And then I saw a wonderful clip of the original singers--it was in a documentary about the musical, and they were interviewing the original couple, and played a recording of their performance of this song for them. Somehow it was really touching, watching them listening to their younger selves.

I don't expect anyone to listen to these all, but it's worth it to pick one while you read the daily news on another tab. ;-) Heh heh.

If you don't know the story: Porgy is a disabled beggar, madly in love with the local prostitute. She's in an addictive relationship with her pimp or whatever, who beats her. At this point the pimp dude is out of the scene (I forget why) and Porgy is offering her the sort of love that she knows is good for her (he respects and adores her, and isn't a drug addict like her) but that she's not sure she can be faithful to.

The operetta isn't without controversy, for portraying stereotypical representations of African-Americans (drug addicts, criminals, etc.) But these days I think far more people hear the songs in isolation, away from the full performance. I don't even know if I've sat through an entire filmed version of it--maybe once. When you take the songs on their own, I think they escape the stereotypes, except for the exaggerated Ebonics. You learn to ignore those.

So first I've got the original for you--in the original style, which is operatic. But if you ever want to buy a recording, I say go for the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recording, it's amazing. When I owned a car a zillion years ago I used to listen to it over and over.

Original version:

But if you need to see it acted, this is a touching movie-ish version:

Ella and Louis--I had to upload this myself a couple years ago, cause no one had!

There isn't an upload of Barbra, but this is her arrangement--a combo of "I Loves You Porgy" (also SO beautiful) and "Porgy I's Your Woman Now." This lady does a pretty great job!

Probably inspired by this movie version:

And in a totally different style, Nina Simone "I Loves You Porgy."

There's so much good music from this operetta! Right down to the last song when Porgy sets off to find Bess, who's gone away with Crown again.

I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'

A Woman is a Sometime Thing.

"The things that you're liable

To read in the Bible

It ain't necessarily so!"

My Man's Gone Now

And of course, Summertime.

        

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Four: In which the hero climbs his first mountain.

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Four

In which the hero climbs his first mountain.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Chapter one here.
Chapter two here.
Chapter three here.

In our last installment little Oliver recovered his lust for life, and conquered crawling over the rattan table base. By the way, Oliver is an older kitty now, these are stories that Ms Brownlow emailed me when I asked for examples of her kitty physical therapy. Little did I know how enthralling the story would be. Take it away Ms Brownlow!

Having successfully climbed over the rattan tablebase, I decided to
build him a towel mountain.   Because Oliver was having trouble
covering much distance horizontally, I thought it would be worth a
try.

I folded a couple of bathtowels into a soft little moutain with
sloping sides.  You can't really tell from the picture, but it was a
pretty steep climb and a few layers high.  This gave him something he
could climb up, with the terry loops giving him something to hold on
to, and he wouldn't have to be able to lift his body 'off' as he would
on the floor, but could just kind of hug it as he climbed.  Like his
own little rock wall, but made of white terry cloth instead.  Cuddly.

He noticed right away and immediately headed toward it.  Well, it was
right next to his sleeping spot, so for a regular kitty 'heading
toward it' would have been a couple of steps and the climb would have
been nothing.  The towel mountain might not even have been all that
interesting.

But Oliver loved it.  He worked hard to get to it and immediately set
about trying to climb it.  It obviously took a lot of effort, but my
little hero kitten gave it all he had.  And when he got to the 'top'
he collapsed, exhausted.

[Look he's collapsed! So cute!!]

Climbing it was hard work, but kittens aren't afraid of hard work, and
Oliver is a a full-fledged kitten, just a little bit challenged in
some ways.  (Which Chloe seemed to know but he didn't.)

Climbing the towel moutain helped him get a lot stronger.  And he
climbed it repeatedly.  Partly because he needed a lot of naps and
he'd decided he should be talking his naps there.  It became his new
sleeping space.   Or he wanted to keep climbing it and climbing it
wiped him out each time.  Either way, that was where he slept once I
put it there.

      

It's a Saturday, yo

Heard this as I flipped past Jimmy Fallon. By the way, if you want to buy this song it's called "Lippy Kids" not "Build a Rocket Boys" or even "Build a Rocking Horse." Just a little tip for ya.


I got an ipad. I don't normally buy new toys before everyone else--I just got my first cell phone too, if that tells you anything. The excuse was that it's to help for work. An actual excuse, cause I wasn't planning the ipad plunge for years. But I'll take it off my budget for a new computer. ANYway here's the #1 thing you need to know about ipads:

Cats can barely keep off them!!

This is my friend's little guy, JR. He's flopped over the back of the sofa, staring at the ipad. Usually he's trying to walk on it--he loves the reflections he sees.

Minion was also inexorably drawn to it when I got it out of the box. Not watching reflections, but just determined to walk on it no matter where I put it.

 "Oh this is teh new toy, eh? (yawn)"

"But what's that?"

"Ho now Mahmmy that's a toy."

Happened to catch the American Prime Suspect premiere. I like a lot of the male actors, the show was pretty good, but I found Maria Bello bland. Tough, but not at all gritty. She's not a mess. She's got this beautiful apartment and hot boyfriend and wears her cute little hat... Jane Tennyson as a Barbie.

Caught the last 10 minutes of The Sweetest Thing. It's not *a good movie* but I remember enjoying it because it's a movie with funny women, like Bridesmaids. Not Sex&theCity type, not run of the mill rom com humor, but funny like Stupid Boy Movies. Willing to embarrass themselves, act like idiots.

I also rewatched Return to Me, which I remembered liking. I'd forgotten how funny the side characters are, all of them. Both the scenes with Bonnie Hunt and Jim Belushi, and the ones with the oldies acting like matchmakers. Really, really funny.

I tuned out the Oprah channel for awhile cause there was only one show I loved and I'd seen most of the episodes--the one where they profiled successful people. The Jay-Z, Maya Angelou and Oprah ones were excellent. But this year they've got two new shows that interest me. One is Visionaries, that follows around famous creative people (Tom Ford, will.i.am); and another where Oprah talks about lessons learned on her old show, using clips etc.

It'll be like the Best Parts version of her old show.

   

Created Equal - great portraits

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

"In America, the chasm between rich and poor is growing, the clash between conservatives and liberals is strengthening, and even good and evil seem more polarized than ever before. At the heart of this collection of portraits is my desire to remind us that we were all equal, until our environment, circumstances or fate molded and weathered us into whom we have become." Created Equals by Mark Laita. More photos here. Just don't read the comments, they devolve into a debate on abortion. (eye roll)

                        

Knew you were awesome?

Thought I'd share this, shared on Bettyland this week...

There was a time when you were five years old, and you woke up full of awesome.
You knew you were awesome.
You loved yourself.
You thought you were beautiful, even with missing teeth and messy hair and mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.
You loved your body, and the things it could do.
You thought you were strong.
You knew you were smart.
Do you still have it?
The awesome.
Did someone take it from you?
Did you let them?
Did you hand it over, because someone told you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?
Why the hell would you listen to them?
Did you consider they might be full of shit?

Sadly if the people telling you different are your parents, then the niggles of doubt and the lack of confidence and finally the self-hatred begins early, really early. You may have never even have had the chance to become the child in this poem.

But hopefully Tom Robbins was right when he wrote: "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."


     

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Three: Oliver has a new lease on life and takes on the furnishings.

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Three 

Oliver has a new lease on life and takes on the furnishings.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Chapter one here.
Chapter two here.


When we last left our pint sized hero the vet had just predicted he'd never walk, but little Oliver was finally taking an interest in the world around him...

When Oliver got back home, he had a whole new way of looking at the world and an interest in finding more new experiences.  He really was a kitten transformed.

I put him back in his little spot on the floor where Chloe [his mother] had been keeping him and she groomed him and fed him and groomed him some more. Then, after his nap he decided to look around.

Well, he still had a lot of trouble holding up his head, and he couldn't really get his chest up off the ground very well, and all his little legs moved like flippers, held straight out to the sides, but he did what he could.  He worked and he listened and he worked and he tried his best.

"I am... a beast. Rowr!"

This picture was taken less than 48 hours after he came back from the vet as Adventure Boy. The photo was taken right after he'd finally managed to get himself OVER the rattan ring at the base of the little table.  His 'spot' where he'd been living is the spot of floor directly to the left of the table.  It took him almost two entire days to master moving that far and the task
he set himself of climbing over the rattan was huge.  He worked and worked at it.

I don't know if you can tell, but that is one PROUD little kitty in that picture.  He felt so accomplished.  You could see his chest swell with pride.  And I was so very proud of him and so happy for him and I can't tell you how glad I am that I got that picture.

So ends the first installment of the story of Oliver's triumphant overcoming. And I am still so incredibly proud of him.  I think he's a marvel.


Dear Readers, do you begin to see why I must share the story of Oliver Kitteh? In the following weeks you'll see more of his triumphs, kookiness, and the physical therapy games Ms Brownlow and Chloe set up for him. For he is Puir Oliver no more, but...

Adventure Boy!

        

in support of libraries, books, words, ideas

I saw this on someone's facebook but didn't have time to read. Luckily a friend also emailed it along, cause it's a must see for book and library lovers. (I must have 10 library books out right now!) 

The following are paper sculptures that have been mysteriously appearing in Scottish libraries, with tags addressed to their twitter accounts...

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.…
... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

For @natlibscot - A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..... (& against their exit)

For @filmhouse - A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..... and all things *magic*

For @scotstorycenter - A gift in support of libraries, books, works, ideas..... Once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story.....

To @edbookfest 'A gift' This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas...... & festivals xx

To @edincityoflit 'A gift' LOST (albeit in a good book) This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas.... "No infant has the power of deciding..... by what circumstances (they) shall be surrounded.. Robert Owen

For Central Library ‘A Gift’ @Edinburgh_CC This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…. LIBRARIES ARE EXPANSIVE

More detailed views here.
      

She Knew Herself: Mae West

 I watched Mae West's I'm No Angel last week. The beginning is slow but it's the courtroom scene that makes the whole movie. Cary Grant's been fooled into thinking Tira's cheated on him so he cancels their wedding on their wedding day. She sues him for breach of contract, so Grant's lawyer tries to tear down her character in court, as a defense. It only makes Grant fall for her all the more, and the misunderstanding is cleared up.

There's no character growth, no lessons learned, and no one changes, other than really falling in love for the first time. We don't even have a good reason to understand why she falls for Grant cause their romance grows offscreen. But the film isn't about them, it's all about her--about unapologetically being yourself. When she overhears a *high society dame* insult her, she doesn't wilt in silence like the characters in most films; she opens the door and throws water on her. And when her man-filled past in thrown in her face in a courtroom in the 1930s, she doesn't make excuses for what she's done and who she's been with. Instead, she turns the tables on the men. And while her sexuality is part of what charms les boys, the court scene shows she's got big brains under the platinum hair.

So it's a bad movie in terms of traditional structure, but a wonderful movie in terms of role modelism. ;-)  And great lines and humor, of course. And it's 100% Mae West as she wrote the movie herself.

According to wiki Mae West's mother supported her career in entertainment (she started in vaudeville.) She got thrown in jail for one of her first shows just called Sex, which she wrote. lol. She also supported gay rights. She got her first motion picture contract when she was 38--now if that's not groundbreaking... sheesh!

At first, she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes. In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds." West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."

Her first feature probably saved Paramount from bankruptcy; and though Cary Grant was annoyed that she kept saying she discovered him, since he had a smash hit before his movies with West, there's no doubt he got good exposure from them as they were huge hits. ;-) Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the future of screwball comedy) we can blame her for the Hay's code too. By 1935 she was the second highest paid American after William Randolph Hearst (and we know she could have taken him in a cage match.)

After she left film she did radio and theatre. Here she is with Rock Hudson at the Oscars, at age 66.

She then wrote a bestselling autobiography.

 Then in the 60s (and her 70s) she did a couple rock albums. !  And they're not bad!! I rather like this one. I love the comment someone left to her cover of "Rock Around the Clock": "If you didn't know the song was about sex before, you can't miss it when Mae West sings it."

Like all the great ones she had some crazy flops too, like the movie Sextette. But not bad when you're in your 80s, partly blind, losing your marbles, wearing an earpiece to be fed lines, and mostly filmed from the waist up so that someone can lead you around the set properly. lol.

She died in 1980, at 87.

Not much is known about her romantic life cause she wasn't the kiss and tell type. She was married once when young, but kept it secret. She may have been married in secret a second time, at the same time. She had a serious relationship with an older man that turned into a lifelong friendship; and then another long relationship with a younger man. She also dated an African-American boxer, and when the management of her building tried to bar his entry, she bought the building. "Right arm!" as my mother would say.

And now, let us enjoy some Mae West one liners, written by her--no comedy team for this old gal. And enjoy her slinky gowns, which she seems to have worn throughout her career, despite the changing fashions. This was a woman who knew who she was. :-)

• Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.
  • Response to an exclamation, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!" in Night After Night (1932).

• Why don't you come up sometime and see me? ... Come on up, I'll tell your fortune.
  • She Done Him Wrong (1933)

• Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
  • She Done Him Wrong (1933)

• Beulah, Peel me a grape.
  • I'm No Angel (1933)

• I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.
  • I'm No Angel (1933)

• When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better.
  • I'm No Angel (1933)

• I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
  • I'm No Angel (1933)

• Between two evils, I generally like to pick the one I never tried before.
  • Klondike Annie (1936)

• It's not the men in your life that matters, it's the life in your men.
  • I'm No Angel

• When women go wrong, men go right after them.
  • She Done Him Wrong

• I feel like a million tonight. But one at a time.
  • Myra Breckinridge

• To a young actor: How tall are you without your horse? Six foot, seven inches. Never mind the six feet. Let's talk about the seven inches!
  • Myra Breckinridge

• I'm the kinda girl who works for Paramount by day, and Fox all night
  • Sextette

(Those are the sourced ones. You can read the unsourced ones that have been credited to her here, like "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.")


If you want some Mae West music, iTunes has a collection of 55 songs for $11.99 that includes both the silver screen songs and the rock ones.

This setting is mucho "yellow face" but... quel pretty song.


I love this one from 1955.

Her vocal tone is awesome! Gonna download more songs that came from that album... should be on this best of somewhere...



   

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Two: In which our hero nearly brings our story to an early end.

Sorry it's been a busy couple days, I didn't get Oliver up here on time! But Oliver's story is one of late starts, after all.

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Two

In which our hero nearly brings our story to an early end.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Read chapter one here.

When we last left our character-kits, the pregnant feral Miss Chloe had been taken in by the kindly Ms Brownlow, and finally gave birth to live kittens: Henry and Oliver.

She decided she'd stay on or near my bed most of the time, and loved lying right by the window.  And she loved the pillows.  Notice here, like many a pregnant lady, she's put her feet up.  She's got her belly
on the pillow as well.

Oliver's brother Henry died on his twelfth day. Chloe was distraught.  She loved her kittens very much and was the best cat mother ever.  It's kind of sad she mustn't have any more kittens, she's an amazing mother. *

Henry had seemed to be doing much better than Oliver.  He hit all his developmental milestones right when he should have, whereas Oliver's eyes opened days later, he was much slower to be able to hold his head up, he slept almost all the time and he never made any noises. He insisted on staying in his little corner of the floor, facing the wall, deliberately blocking out the world.  I tried moving him onto the rug right next to him to give him traction, but he just wiggled himself back to where he'd been.

Finally, on the day Oliver became three weeks old, I panicked.  The trains weren't running properly that morning so I took that as a sign, decided not to go to work that day, went back home to get Oliver and took him to the vet.

There was a little girl kitten at the vet's who'd been found abandoned that morning, and she was estimated to also be three weeks old, and she was walking and talking and never stopped.  Oliver was still having trouble holding his head up.

When I told the vet Chloe's story, and Oliver's and Henry's, the vet concluded that Chloe had almost certainly had distemper late in her pregnancy with the previous litter, and now she was a carrier and had infected Oliver, who was born with neurological problems.

(Cerebella Hypoplasia, to be exact.  More at the end of this post.)

She was very glad that I wanted to keep him and do what I could for him. I couldn't NOT bring him home to Chloe no matter what was wrong with him, as she couldn't stand the trauma of losing another kitten. The vet examined Oliver carefully and spent a long time with us.  He used his little legs like flippers, keeping them out to the side, but his reflexes in his legs seemed pretty much all right.

However, when the vet tried repeatedly to 'wheelbarrow walk' him, holding his rear up in the air and moving him along the table on his forelegs, the normal reflex he should have had that would have enabled him to 'walk' was completely missing.  This was a very bad sign.  The vet did not think he would ever be able to walk.

The kitteh Benatar: Chips is a battlefield

Oh noes! It's looking bad for our hero. A severe case of CH could be a rough go, as you can see from the video above, but a CH kitty in a loving home is still a happy kitty--they're known to be spunky and hard working. The real worry was Oliver's lack of spirit. But at the vet's a strange transformation slowly came over him...

Oliver was very interested in the little girl kitty and seemed to like all the handling by the vet [she's always been incredibly considerate of the animals I've brought there and they've all loved her]. When he got back home, he had a whole new way of looking at the world and an interest in finding more new experiences.  He really was a kitten transformed.

Ahhhh. Hope dawns.

"Cerebellar hypoplasia causes jerky movements, tremors and generally uncoordinated motion. The animal often falls down and has trouble walking. ... The disease does not get better or worse with age, but the cat or dog can usually learn to somewhat compensate for it and should have a normal lifespan." (wiki) In the toughest cases, pee on the carpet can be a hazard. But the cats aren't in pain, and some people only adopt CH cats cause they're so lovely.

A mild case.

Tune in next week (hopefully Tuesday, ahem) to find out about Oliver's new eyes on the world. Oh, you're wondering what Oliver looks like?

Melt. My. Heart.

____________
* A combination of Chloe's feral-ocity, Ms Brownlow's present health, and the local feral shelter that never shows up, Chloe remains unfixed. However she is safely sequestered on the second floor and contented to be so. Her attempts to get pregnant currently consist of sitting in the window singing her sweet song to the local boys, and scheming on how to lure them up to her sweet new pad. Luckily she hasn't got Minion to invent a boy-catching elevator for her. Or does Minion knows how to perform spayings? "Dr Evil is in! You! Get me some towels. You! Get me some vodka. And you! Put on the rock and rollll. That's not a knife, this is a knife!"

                  

Collecting Strange People: Jane Siberry

My dad alerted me last week that Jane Siberry/Issa is giving all her music away on her website. In the past she's offered it as pay-optional, but I guess now she's gone full Monty:

"please download jane’s music as a gift. it likes to be busy. share with people who might enjoy. (credits, lyrics, artwork included) THANK YOU FROM JANE."

She's too cute. So I thought I should come and alert you to some Siberry music worth owning. She can be tough to get into because she's a Björk type--kooky, with a high pitched voice and strange interpretations. But if you focus on the lyrics you realize she's a great songwriter. Anyway, since I like to celebrate weirdos I thought I'd save her for Monday's post.

From the album When I Was a Boy <-- recommended

This is kd lang's cover of "Love is Everything." A clip of Siberry's is here. kd lang has another Siberry cover here.

First he turns to you
Then he turns to her
So you try to hurt him back
But it breaks your body down
So you try to love bigger
Bigger still
But it...it's too late 

"Sail Across the Water". Hard to pick good lyrics cause the whole song is touching.

love is trembling - trembling like the little bird we hold within our hands
love is bending - bending towards the worried brow - here, let me wipe away your tears
love is kneeling - above the broken body the ever-upturned face
love is missing all the words are broken, help me i cannot find my way, no, i can't
i need you love, come on love

Album: Bound by the Beauty <-- Recommended

"Everything Reminds Me of My Dog."

Smiling at strangers reminds me of my dog

(Better let 'em know you're friendly)

"Hockey"

you skate as fast as you can 'til you hit the snowbank(that's how you stop)
and you get your sweater from the catalogue
you use your rubber boots for goal posts

-> As I thought might happen, this song and the next are blocked from being shared. I tried uploading them, but youtube keelled them. Well, you can just download the album and try them out! <-

And one of my all-time faves: "Bound by the Beauty."

I'm coming back in 500 years
And the first thing I'm gonna do
When I get back here
Is to see these things I love
And they'd better be here, better be here
Better be here!

Other Albums

Calling All Angels - which features kd lang, from Pay It Forward. A jazz cover of the song by Laila Biali.

"When Spring Comes." Album: Teenager