A local NPR affiliate tonight reported a call for “more clear guidance” on COVID-19 vaccinations for children. The context made clear that the call is for clearer guidance. A call for guidance to supplement already available clear guidance could be described as a call for “additional guidance.” Guidance by definition should be clear, no?
Sometimes I want NPR to be more better.
Related reading
All OCA NPR, sheesh posts (Pinboard)
[Garner’s Modern English Usage on comparative adjectives: “if a word ordinarily takes either the -er or the -est suffix — and that formation sounds more natural — it’s poor style to use the two-word form with more or most.”]
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
“More clear”
T.S. Eliot = J.D. Salinger?
Last month, at Swann Galleries, New York, a first edition of Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) and a first edition of The Catcher in the Rye (1951) each sold for $16,250.
Related reading
All OCA Eliot and Salinger posts (Pinboard)
The Left Banke’s third album
The Left Banke, Strangers on a Train. Omnivore Recordings, 2022.
Strangers on a Train : Heartbreaker : Lorraine : Yesterday’s Love : Hold On Tight : And One Day : You Say : I Can Fly : Only My Opinion : Queen of Paradise
Bonus tracks: Airborne : I Don’t Know : Until the End : My Buddy Steve (Long Lost Friend) : Meet Me in the Moonlight : High Flyer
The Left Banke are best known for two 1966 hits, one major (“Walk Away Renée”), one minor (“Pretty Ballerina”). The group’s brief time in the spotlight was a tragic mess: brilliant songwriting (Michael Brown), unusual instrumentation (“baroque pop”), great lead vocals (from the Lennon-influenced Steve Martin Caro), Beatlesque harmonies (from Caro, George Cameron, and Tom Finn), competing singles by two groups claiming the Left Banke name, legal complications about airplay, and over it all, a toxic cloud of parental interference in the form of Michael Brown’s father, violinist Harry Lookofsky, aka Hash Brown. A musician who played with members of the Left Banke after the group broke up once told me matter-of-factly that Lookofsky had ruined his son’s life. Any resemblance to the relationship between Murry Wilson and Brian Wilson is coincidental and telling.
The Left Banke’s two LPs, Walk Away Renée / Pretty Ballerina (1967) and The Left Banke Too (1968) were followed — if that’s the word — by Strangers on a Train (or Voices Calling in the UK), recorded in 1978 and not released as an LP until 1986. In recent years, there were sporadic reunion efforts (Caro not participating, Brown making occasional brief appearances) and talk of a fourth album. It never happened, and none of the principals are here to see this CD release, which supplements the ten tracks of Strangers on a Train with recordings from 2001 and 2002.
The ten LP tracks are a decidedly mixed bag, the work of a group trying on a variety of styles. Nine of the ten songs are by Cameron, Caro, and Finn, with one ill-conceived contribution from Shade Smith. Brown, who contributed no songs, may be playing keyboards on some. There are Beatlesque harmonies (“Heartbreaker,” “Yesterday’s Love”), lovely ballads (“Lorraine,” marred by synthesized strings, and “And One Day”), and a song that eerily anticipates “Free as a Bird” (“I Can Fly”). Those last two songs are the most Left-ish on the album. An effort at guitar-driven rock (“Hold On Tight”) is hardly distinctive. The spirit of Billy Joel seems to hover over the ballads; “Only My Opinion” and “Strangers on a Train” suggest to me Paul McCartney and Wings. “Queen of Paradise,” a disco effort (Shade Smith), is best forgotten. It’s unfortunate that this song should end the LP, which follows the UK track sequence. The US release ended much more fittingly with “Yesterday’s Love,” mixing memory and desire.
The bonus tracks (also available as a digital EP) are no mixed bag. They’re worth the price of admission. Brown is the writer or co-writer of all six, all demos, more or less duets, Caro singing and Brown playing keyboards (with minimal contributions from additional musicians here and there). It’s clear that even when Brown was far from public view, he was writing brilliant songs. And Caro, long after he gave up performing, was still in great voice. “Airborne,” for voice, piano, and a string quartet, shows an “Eleanor Rigby” influence. “I Don’t Know,” “Meet Me in the Moonlight,” and “Until the End” sound like postmodern parlor pieces. The strangest song here, “Buddy Steve (Long Lost Friend),” is the story of an ocean voyage to look up a friend. It’s a surreal variation on “September of My Years” (Jimmy Van Heusen–Sammy Cahn):
When I was twenty-fiveMost poignant is “High Flyer,” a song of melancholy longing, a grown-up “Walk Away Renée”:
I wondered if he still was alive
So I went off to Milan to find my long-lost friend
High flyer, the bells are ringingThe clouds are moving; nothing stays. Now that’s a fitting end to a Left Banke album.
High flyer, the sky is singing
High flyer, the clouds are moving low
Related reading
A handful of Left Banke posts
[Details: Yvonne Vitale, Michael Brown’s wife, co-wrote “Until the End.” Ian Loyd, who with Brown founded the group Stories, co-wrote “Meet Me in the Moonlight.” A factoid: Brown traveled to Florida to record with Caro. I have read (somewhere) that Caro’s non-participation in Left Banke reunions was at least in part a matter of his refusal to fly.]
Monday, March 7, 2022
“Casimir Pulaski Day”
In Illinois, it is Casimir Pulaski Day.
[Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day.” Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005).]
This song breaks my heart. I brought it into poetry classes several times when teaching elegies.
Editing in Zits
In today’s Zits, Jeremy has asked Connie (Mom) to read his work. “I made a few edits,” she says, looking apologetic. He’s not happy about it: “When I said I was open to feedback, I meant compliments!”
It’s always a good idea to point out what a writer has done well. But a writer does not live by compliments alone. I like what Bryan Garner says about good editing:
It’s an act of friendship, not an act of hostility. Professional-level edits — the kind that would occur on the copy desks of major newsmagazines — make the writer look smarter. So if a skillful editor revises your work, be grateful, never resentful.Say “Thanks, Mom.”
Sunday, March 6, 2022
An Auden poem
A timely “interactive” feature from The New York Times : Elisa Gabbert takes the reader through W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts.”
Related reading
All OCA Auden posts (Pinboard)
Outtakes (5)
These pair well. I have no good guess as to what the kid is carrying.
More outtakes to come.
Related posts
Outtakes (1) : Outtakes (2) : Outtakes (3): Outakes (4) : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives
Saturday, March 5, 2022
I am also fond of the composer
Elaine wrote a piece for viola, “I am also fond of lonely islands,” after reading Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book last December. And now there’s a recording, at YouTube (and elsewhere). The violist is Paul Cortese.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Steve Mossberg, whose name I’ve seen just once before on a Newsday Saturday. Today’s puzzle is a true Stumper. I started with a gimme — 10-A, five letters, “Start of three California county names” — but I sometimes thought I’d have to sound a 1-A, nine letters, “Lament of defeat.” But that would have called attention to me in the café of the performing-arts building where I was solving. So I had to finish this puzzle.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
11-D, eight letters, “Understood!”
19-A, eight letters, “They’re grounded.” My first thoughts were of appliances and punishments.
24-A, four letters, “Really smart.” A nice way to redeem a familiar answer.
24-D, five letters, “Word from Gothic for ‘patience.’” No, not really. (The OED will confirm.)
25-D, five letters, “Music that sounds loud.” Respect the pun.
33-A, nine letters, “Rhythm associated with autumn.” A bit improbable, but the answer’s improbability makes it at least slightly delightful.
39-A, nine letters, “They may mean ‘Welcome home!’” Ick.
49-D, five letters, “Whom Woz once worked for.” Not the giveaway you might think.
52-A, eight letters, “Convenient for eating while walking.” Be careful.
45-A, four letters, “”Understood.” Now you can see the difference that the exclamation point makes in the clue for 11-D.
One clue that makes me want to say no, just no: 53-D, four letters, “Number often seen right after AK.” No, not now, and not ever. There are so many better ways to clue this answer. One Stumpery way: “It’s Felliniesque.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
*
Steve Mossberg responded to a comment I left at Crossword Fiend about “Number often seen right after AK”: “53-Down was indeed an awful cluing angle that wasn’t meant to go to print. My sincerest apologies for its inclusion.”
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