On my way down to Walker’s. I’ll have on pinstriped pants and a navy trench coat. I like eerily like former Congressman Patrick Kennedy.
Readership Capture
Balloon Juice get together
Tomorrow at 3 pm at Walker’s in Tribeca. I moved it one hour earlier because I have to leave around 5:30. See you there!
Bus stop, wet day
An early edition of Song of the Week from Can’t Explain…..
Margo Guryan, “Under My Umbrella” (1968)
Awww, it’s getting rainy around here. Maybe snowy where you are. Time for staying indoors more often, hot chocolate and marshmallows, games of Scrabble and old black and white movies, that kind of thing. This Margo Guryan song fits the mood pretty well. Guryan was a terrific songwriter from Far Rockaway. Her life and musical orientations changed in all kinds of interesting ways once she heard the Beach Boys song “God Only Knows.” I happened to discover her and this song courtesy of the great music blog blowupdoll, always worth a visit if you happen to find this sort of thing up your alley, as I do.
Sunday songs:
Julie London, “Sunday Mornin'” (written by Margo Guryan)
Spanky & Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” (this act also covered Margo Guryan’s “Sunday Mornin'”)
Velvet Underground, “Sunday Morning” (not the Margo Guryan song)
More at Can’t Explain
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Doug again here: wait this isn’t the under my umbrella the title refers to. I didn’t think those guys were called Margo Guryan, but you never know.
Forget all your worries, forget all your cares
The people have spoken…next Sunday’s Balloon Juice Ideas Festival will take place at Walker’s restaurant in Tribeca at 4 pm on Sunday November 13. I’ll figure out some way to make myself recognizable.
Forget all your worries, forget all your caresPost + Comments (36)
I can’t give it away on Seventh Avenue
Commenter h proposes Puffy’s Tavern or Walker’s restaurant in Tribeca for next Sunday’s Balloon Juice Ideas Festival. About half a dozen of you expressed interest in dropping by. Any votes on which of the two places people would like to go? They both sound good and are both near OWS. I am thinking of 4 pm on Sunday.
(I know it’s called Varick Street, not Seventh Avenue, down there.)
Book club and get together
I decided to do the book “The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin” for our next book club. I’ve spoken with the author and he said he said he’d be happy to stop by and answer questions once we get this going. It will probably be a little while before I start reading it seriously, at least two weeks to a month.
Also too, if anyone’s interested, I was thinking of doing a mini-Balloon-Juice get together in New York next weekend. It was a lot of fun meeting Hob, Raven, mc mcc, and Collette in San Francisco. I was thinking of something in Manhattan on Saturday or Sunday afternoon (I’ll be down for the weekend). Maybe down near OWS, though I don’t know that area very well. Let me know if anyone is up for it.
Also too as well, open thread.
Song of the week
Ferron, “I Never Was to Africa” (1984)
From one of the great break-up albums, Shadows on a Dime. I’m not normally one for touchy-feely folkie fare, particularly of such an arguably Kumbayah new-age bent (fair warning, all), but I think Ferron is something of a special case. Her imagery is tender and sharply observed; the line here about the synchronicity of saying “I love you” to future partners is just great, and she tosses it off so casually too. I saw her a few times way back and remember her as a terrific performer, funny and with a knack for storytelling and even for stunts like getting the crowd to sing along. It may sound cloying, but trust me, it was anything but. Maybe you had to be there. If you were, by some chance, these songs are likely to bring it all roaring back.
About last week: “Snowin’ in Brooklyn”
More stuff at Can’t Explain.