British Museum Flashback

I just came across the photo in my archives. It was taken during our 2013 trip to England. On one of the last days of our trip we visited the British Museum. Poor Sam was so burned out from walking around London and visiting scores of museums that he fell asleep in my arms near the end of our visit  at the British Museum (when we were walking through the Duveen Gallery with the Parthenon Marbles). Isn't he so small and cute? I could still carry him around in my arms back then, even though he was getting a little heavy. I remember carrying him across the Tower of London bridge that day, too.

I love this photo because it encapsulates some of my favorite things: 1) my child(ren), 2) snuggling with my child(ren), 3) art and 4) museums. I think that I look very happy and content in this photo.

Celebrities Project: Buddy Holly

I'm wrapping up Buddy Holly Semi-Month. To be honest, doing this project for the last week or so was a little tedious for me. I think this was partly due to the fact that I read a ridiculously long and tangential biography on Holly by Ellis Amburn. The biography had some good and interesting information, but Amburn included so many extra details, tangents, and irrelevant musings that I kept getting drowsy while reading. And I also tired of listening to Holly's music, too, and I mentioned some of those reasons in a previous post.

That being said, I am glad to have a better perspective on why Holly was so influential. Here are some of the major things that Holly contributed to the world of rock 'n roll:

• Holly was novel because he was a musician who would write his own songs and perform them. This wasn't common at the time. Interestingly, Holly didn't know how to read music, however.
• Holly's method of playing the guitar was also different. He would play all of the six strings on his guitar at the same time, whereas other musicians would play just a one or two strings at a time. (See fellow band member Sonny Curtis demonstrate Buddy's strumming at 3:18 of this clip). Buddy's strumming also produced a unique sound because he would continually strum with downward strokes, instead of alternating with downward and upward strokes. Also, Buddy Holly's use of the capo seems to have been unusual: John Lennon said that Buddy was the first guitar player he'd ever seen use a capo (Amburn, e-book location 6215).
• The simple chords and simple, repetitive chord progressions in Buddy's music would have a major influence on later rock 'n roll bands, such as the Beatles.
• The Crickets also were the first to have the traditional setup for rock bands today: two guitars, a bass, and drums.
• Buddy Holly changed fashion because he was a rock musician who wore glasses. His glasses gave hope and courage to other musicians, such as John Lennon. John Lennon, who was legally blind, used to take off his glasses and stumble around onstage in order to better appear like a rocker. After Lennon saw Buddy Holly, he decided to wear glasses with confidence. Elton John also was influenced by Buddy's appearance, and decided as a young teenager to start wearing glasses, even though he didn't need them to see.
• The so-called "peacock look" rockers wore in the 1960s is attributed to the "Edwardian" clothes that Buddy was wearing in the 1958-59: on his last tour his performance attire included an ascot tie and he also wore a greatcoat with a fur collar (see another image here).

I was particularly intrigued to learn about how Holly had a key influence on the Beatles. Holly's music had a particular impact in Liverpool, since sailors (known as "Cunyard Yanks") worked on the shipping lines and often brought back to Liverpool souvenirs and records they had purchased while docked in New York (Amburn, e-book, location 2247). It seems like Paul McCartney and John Lennon were intrigued by a group of local musician friends who were able to join together and create a band. In fact, one of the reasons that the Beatles chose their name was in homage to Holly's band, the Crickets. Paul McCartney is a particular fan on Buddy Holly, and he mentioned once that "Listen to Me" is his favorite Buddy Holly song (Amburn, e-book, location 3095). McCartney's business company, MPL Communications, purchased the Buddy Holly Songbook n 1975 from nearly-bankrupt Norman Petty, who was Buddy Holly's one-time manager and producer.

Paul McCartney even helped to create a documentary about Buddy Holly in 1985. The documentary is titled The Real Buddy Holly Story, and Paul decided to create it in order to portray a more realistic image of the singer than what was portrayed in the film The Buddy Holly Story (1978). Here is a video of the beginning of the documentary (which is linked in YouTube to a playlist for the entire documentary):

The one thing that I didn't like about The Real Buddy Holly Story is that it didn't really explain the legal conflicts and financial difficulties that Buddy Holly underwent as a result of his conniving producer and manager, Norman Petty. It is pretty apparent that Petty took advantage of the inexperience and talent of Buddy Holly and the Crickets members, not only by taking their money (and limiting their access to money), but also by demanding that he receive co-songwriting credit on the songs that Buddy wrote himself. Buddy eventually broke away from Petty (which ultimately forced him to leave the Crickets) and decided to move to New York to pursue career opportunities there. The Real Buddy Holly Story didn't really touch on this subject, although they did interview Petty's wife for the documentary (Petty was already deceased). It seems like The Real Buddy Holly Story isn't completely "real." Paul and Norman Petty were apparently friends: Paul McCartney inaugurated Buddy Holly Week in Britain in 1976, on what would have been the week of Buddy's fortieth birthday, and McCartney invited Norman Petty to be the guest of honor at a luncheon for the special week.

Some interesting trivia:

• Ed Sullivan was upset with the Crickets deciding to perform "Oh Boy" in his stage; Sullivan felt that the song was too suggestive with its lyrics and rhythm. The Crickets refused to change their selected number, since it was their current song hit. As a result, Sullivan tried to sabotage the performance by ordering the lighting and sound technicians to mess with the lights and sound backstage. You can see on this clip how the lighting goes out right at the beginning of the performance (and look at Sullivan's face after he introduces the number!).
• It doesn't seem like Buddy Holly really publicized his marriage to his wife, Maria Elena Santiago, a Puerto Rican that he met in New York City. They were only married about six months before Holly died. Regardless, it seems like Buddy met less opposition from a cultural standpoint than Sammy Davis Jr. did in the following decade: Caucasian males were allowed to marry outside their race (including John Wayne and Marlon Brando), but men of other races could not (Amburn, e-book, location 3656).
• Buddy wore dark sunglasses at his wedding because he hadn't replaced the regular glasses he'd lost waterskiing in Buffalo Springs Lake that summer. Years after Holly's death, some workmen who were dredging the lake found Holly's eyeglasses and wallet, and returned them to his family.
• The Crickets tried to continue to make music after their split with Buddy Holly, using the singer Earl Sinks (who tries to mimic Buddy's sound on "Love's Made a Fool of You").
• James Dean and Anthony Perkins were Buddy's favorite actors.
• It seems like a lot of conditions could have prevented Buddy and two other musicians, Richie Valens and Big Bopper, to charter a plane to North Dakota during their tour. If Buddy's wife Maria had been on the tour, they wouldn't have flown because she was terrified of small planes. However, she was sick at the time, being in the early stages of pregnancy, and didn't go on the tour with Buddy. Additionally, if the tour group had given the men more time to take care of their laundry and personal errands, they wouldn't have felt compelled to fly ahead of the group and take care of the errands beforehand. Also, someone was aware of the approaching snowstorm and "telephoned the group's agency on Monday night [to try] and call off the next appearance.  Meanwhile, the plane carrying the singers took off." (Amburn, e-book, location 5415).

As a person, I don't know if I can really identify with Buddy Holly in too many ways. He just seems like a young kid who was immature in a lot of ways, although he did seem to be a very generous person. He gave gifts freely and willingly, and also worked hard to help other musicians build their careers. He also was very dedicated to his friends, which is I think one reason why his band was successful. 

It would have been interesting to see what role he would have played in the world of music, if he had lived longer. Regardless, the impact he held on future musical groups (especially those in Britain, like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones) changed the course of history.

Danish Artists and Interior Scenes

Today I went down a little rabbit hole and started to look at some paintings of interior scenes by a few turn-of-the-century Danish artists. Both Peter Vilhelm Ilsted and Carl Holsøe were especially influenced by the Dutch masters of the 17th century, such as Vermeer. I love Ilsted and Holsøe's use of light, though, and I love how their painterly quality adds a nice sense of warmth to their scenes.

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, Mother and Child in an Interior, 1898

I especially love this painting, because the child is about the same age that LuLu is right now. That round body and those little legs resonate with me!

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, A Woman Knitting by a Window, 1902

I think Edward Hopper would have liked this painting. Could he have been familiar with it?

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, Girl by the Piano (also called Girl at the Piano), c. 1900

This painting is cool not only because of the composition (I love the girl is placed at the far left side of the canvas), but also because of the ghostly window and curtain have made an imprint on the wall with light.

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, The Dining Room, 1887

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, Woman Reading, 1907

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, Two of the Artist's Daughters at Liselund, 1909

Carl Holsøe, Woman Reading in an Interior, n.d.

This is the best reproduction I can find online, although my calendar for this year has a reproduction with warmer, pinker tones in the walls (and also shows more of the red rug that is cropped off in the image above).

Wilhelm Bendz, Interior from Amaliegade with the Artist's Brothers, c. 1829

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams, 1900

Hammershøi was Ilsted's brother-in-law. Together, Ilsted, Hammershøi and Holsøe were the leading Danish artists of the day and were members of a group called "The Free Exhibition." Later, this group of artists was known as "Copenhagen Interior School."

My Freshman Spelling Error

I am grading essays this afternoon. Most of them are written by freshman, and occasionally I come across spelling mistakes or grammatical errors that end up being amusing. Some of the mistakes are embarrassingly suggestive (one poor male student wrote about an intimate genre scene and how the viewer "gets a little peak" at what is happening - oh dear!). Others mistakes are completely novel: I just read an essay that tried to turn flâneur into a verb, saying that one could go "flandering" about the streets of Paris. At first I thought this student was trying to use "philandering" instead (which maybe could take place on the streets with some passionate Parisians?), but then this student began to define what it meant "to flander" and I was able to figure out the error.

This latter essay actually reminded me of myself a bit, because "Paris" was consistently spelled as "Pairs" throughout one paragraph. It reminded me of the first essay that I wrote as a freshman. The paper was due during my first semester, and it was for my Book of Mormon class. I even remember going to the computer lab on the second floor of the HBLL to write this paper; I think it was the last semester that Word Perfect was still available on the computers, because back then Word Perfect was my software of choice! Anyhow, I was mortified when I got my paper back and realized that I had consistently misspelled Joseph Smith's name, writing "Joesph" over and over again, throughout the entire paper. How embarrassing to have grown up as a Mormon and not know how spell "Joseph" correctly when I entered BYU!

I wonder if my BOM professor was amused by my typo back then. His corrections served as a learning experience for me, and hopefully the corrections that I make in my students' essays will help them learn, too. Regardless, I'm glad to feel a little bit of empathy for these little freshman who make little spelling and grammatical errors.

Buddy Holly Songs

I anticipated just dedicating two weeks to covering Buddy Holly, but I can tell that it is going to take me longer to work through his biography and music. I wanted to jot down, though, that I already knew several Buddy Holly songs before I started this project -- I just didn't know that he wrote them or popularized them. Really, before this project, my main musical associations with Buddy Holly were Don McLean's "The Day the Music Died (American Pie)" and Weezer's "Buddy Holly." These are the Buddy Holly songs that I realized that already knew:

• "It's So Easy"
• "Maybe Baby"
• "Peggy Sue"
• "That'll Be the Day" (which I knew through the Beatles' version)
• "True Love Ways"
• "Everyday"

This month I have been listening to The Buddy Holly Memorial Collection. As I've worked through the songs, I have been struck by a few things: Buddy Holly's voice is compelling and also irritating to me. He has some interesting things that he does with the timbre of his voice, but the repeated vowels in words (like "gur-ur-ur-ur-lll") starts to get annoying after a while. Sometimes he sounds very juvenile and whiny to me, like a lovesick puppy. But other times, his voice is really interesting to me and I'm impressed with the little hiccupy sounds and inflections that he makes.

Overall, though, I wouldn't say that his music is stuff that I would listen to on a regular basis. I tend to like his songs that are really danceable or remind me of early Beatles music. Here are a few Buddy Holly songs that I have discovered and enjoy:

• "Down the Line (Undubbed)" - The opening riffs for this song remind me of early Beatles music (perhaps a similar chord progression to the opening of "Anna"?).
• "Midnight Shift"
• "Blue Days, Black Nights"
• "Love Me"

It's been interesting to listen to Holly's music and read about his life, knowing that he died when he was just about the age of most of the college students that are in my classes. I've thought a few times about the music majors who sing in choir with me, and wondering what it would be like if they were superstar recording artists at their age.

She's Always a Woman to Me

Tonight I dashed into the grocery store to pick up something on my way home, and as I was searching the aisles, Billy Joel's song She's Always a Woman to Me came on over the sound system. I haven't thought about this song for a long time, but it actually is one that reminds me of my mom. She wasn't very interested in popular music, but I distinctly remember her singing the chorus of this song, particularly these lines (I can almost hear her voice sustaining the "oooooh" words):

Oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh, she never gives out and she never gives in
She just changes her mind




I think we even had a conversation about these words, and she was asking me what I thought it meant that the girl was "ahead of her time." I don't remember exactly what we said in that conversation, but I remember coming away with the impression that I mom liked the maturity, independence and strong will of the woman described in this song. And I like those qualities too, probably because my own mother modeled those traits for me in her own character.

I always think about my mom when I hear this song (and my trip to the grocery store made me realize that I don't hear this song very often anymore). Even the line "she just changes her mind" is typical of my mom's approach to life and healthy living. I once remember hearing my mom describe herself as "an extremist" when she was talking to a friend on the phone  - she was referring to the extreme choices that she made in her healthy eating habits, and it really is an apropos description. But my mom also would change her mind often about whatever route of extremist behavior that she felt was the most appropriate, based on whatever she was currently reading or thinking about. So I always have a little smile when I hear that line about the woman who changes her mind, and because it seems like that trait also resonated with my mother. Perhaps, in some ways, it is a trait that I have as well.