The Rumble in the Jungle

FORTY YEARS AGO, ON OCTOBER 30, 1974, THE GREATEST ATHLETE MANY OF US  HAVE EVER SEEN,USING HIS FISTS, WITS AND COURAGE, BEAT GEORGE FOREMAN, THE MOST FEARSOME HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF HIS TIME IN THE RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE,  

HERE IS HOW HE DID IT, 

Farewell to Mayor Pothole

Tom Menino was the obscure President of the Boston "nobody cares" city council in November, 1993

Song of Autumn by Charles Baudelaire

Autumn Song, by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) from the poet's "The Flowers of Evil". 

An "If" in Verse and Song for Boys and Girls

An If for boys and girls

The critics have spoken. Fantasia is ...

The critics have spoken and the results are in.  Fantasia is …

Van dancin' 'neath the cover of October skies

Of all the popular performers of our age, (that leaves you out, Vivaldi), none have been able to evoke the timeless pulse and feel of the seasons as well as Van Morrison, who, throughout his career, has composed a myriad of tone poems to the leaves, fields and meadows that ripple and flow under the dingle dangle of the dappled and starry skies. 
And who better to present a cascading cavalcade of these performances than yours truly, who has been proselytizing on behalf of this guy for nearly (well, I ain't saying for how long other than that we were all a whole lot older then) and who likely has more versions of this, perhaps his greatest tune, than Van's mama do.
If it is true, as the poet, Eliot wrote, "there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time ...lost in a shaft of sunlight, the wild thyme unseen ... the winter lightning ...the waterfall, ... (and) music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all", then Van Morrison has seen and felt and heard and remembered and reminded us of many of those unattended moments - to which we gratefully say, "Turn up your radio and let me hear the song .... TURN IT UP!"

Moondance Number 10. In this, the final installment of the Moondance cavalcade, we find our hero in August, 2014, a week shy of his 69th birthday, returning to perform at his own Orangefield High School in Belfast, proving that even for a life long Irish Rover, you can always go home again.

We now end where we end. 10/30/14

All performance clips are below the break. (Rotten apples department. The video clips can only be viewed through Flash player, which is not available on Apple or Android devices).

Beckett Bon Mots

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

"I was not made for the great light that devours, a dim lamp was all I had been given, and patience without end, to shine it on the empty shadows."

May Your Strength Give Us Strength

"May your strength give us strength,

May your faith give us faith,

May your hope give us hope,

May your love give us love". 

Do you remember dancing in September?

Earth, Wind and Fire were smooth, stylish, warm and celebratory plus they had a real cool name and the great Philip (where is he now?) Bailey. What's not to like?

Four Warm and Wise Words

"Of the wonderful things that you get out of life there are four and that may not be many but nobody needs any more ." 

Jon Hendricks