SONGWRITERS AND THE TRUTH

I don't usually write much about music here, though it is music that has run through my life in so many ways and saved me in so many ways.
Last night I learned that an old friend of mine whom I have not seen in years has died.
Today I learned that Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer and songwriter for The Cranberries, has died at 46. Too young.
On this day, 89 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr was born. Today we observe the only American holiday that honors an African American. A holiday that took over 15 years to be approved by our government. I find it fitting that it is celebrated on or near the day of his birth rather than his death. What is important is that he was born, he lived, he fought for justice and freedom.
 On Twitter last night I found a tweet from Margaret Atwood saying she was taking a time out from Twitter due to all the attacks against her for a piece she wrote in The Guardian. You can look it up.
The world is so harsh with people who fight for freedom, justice and rights for all human beings.

As I was writing in my journal this morning I felt stunned, sad, beaten down, and words were hard to find. I found the lyrics of a song running through my mind. So I give you those lyrics, written by Stephen Stills when he was in Buffalo Springfield:

For What It Is Worth

Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Songwriters: Stephen Stills

For What It Is Worth lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

 (How appropriate that our much vaunted technology had to garble my copying and pasting. At least the copyright is there.)

IN MEMORIAM: CAROLYN SEE

California writer Carolyn See passed away this week. She was the author of seven novels, one memoir, and one of my favorite books about writing. Lisa See is her daughter. I remember seeing them together on a panel at the Los Angeles Festival of Books. They were quite a pair.

Carolyn See had a wry and dry sense of humor about life, marriage, family, and being female. If you came of age in the 60s like I did, her novels will bring it all back: the feminism, the politics, the substances. If you have lived any part of your life in California or especially Los Angeles, you will feel right at home in her works.

The Novels:

The Rest is Done With Mirrors 1970: This was the first one I read.

Mothers, Daughters 1977: This was the second.

Rhine Maidens 1981

Golden Days 1986

Making History 1991

The Handyman 1999

There Will Never Be Another You 2006: I read this as soon as it came out and saw her at an author event at the now defunct Dutton's Books. She really knew how to give a reading.

 

The Memoir:

Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America 1995: I think I will read this in honor of the life she just completed. Then I will read the rest of the novels before the year is out.

 

The Book on Writing:

Making A Literary Life 2002: So many things I learned from this book and still do to this day.

 

So long Carolyn. Thanks for the lulz!

 

IN MEMORIAM: JANE HUMPHREY

Mary Jane Humphrey
1934 - 2013

As the founder of Once Upon a Time Bookstore, October 4, 1966,  just a short walk down Verdugo Road from our current location, Jane became a pioneer in children's bookselling.  Taking a cue from her dear friend, and neighboring shopkeeper, Fiona Bayliss, Jane treated children's books as gift items -- displaying them, not like traditional bookstores or libraries with spines stacked together on bookshelves, but with the books "faced out" on antique furniture. Showing the artwork of picture books elevated the perception of children's literature and has since been copied by countless other stores. Her love of art, nature and quality literature shone through and our community responded. Jane never dumbed down or thought children inferior, and our shop has always been seen as a bit sophisticated -- not with primary colors screaming for attention, but with cool shades of blue.  Jane's wit,  irreverent humor, whimsy and creativity were her calling cards.  Countless THOUSANDS of children have passed through this store, found reading gems highlighted by Jane and became lovers of literature.  My two children are to be counted among Jane's enduring fans, along with hundreds of grateful parents & grandparents. Our community will long remember her spirit, fortitude and foresight - and will forever be changed.

May she rest in peace with her Mr. Bob and enjoy all the Dixie-land music and books available.

(Written by Maureen Palacios, current owner)

IN MEMORIAM: WHITNEY HOUSTON

Whitney Houston
1963-2012

Goodbye to one of my musical heroines. Her beauty, her voice, her spirit have always been an inspiration to me. But of course, her life had its pain and sorrow. Now she can lay her burden down. I wish her well wherever she is going.

"God respects me when I work, but he loves me when I sing." Tagore

The story from my hometown paper: The Los Angeles Times.

ANNE MCCAFFREY HAS LEFT THE PLANET

Anne McCaffrey was a prolific science fiction and fantasy writer. She passed away at her home in Ireland this past Monday, November 21. She was 85, born on April 1, 1926.

I first discovered her books when I bought a used book containing the first three books in her Dragonriders of Pern Series. I read Dragonflight, the first in the series, in 1992. I liked the characters and the concept but was only mildly impressed.

Back then I had started my reading log but was not very good at writing about the books I read. Here is what I had to say about Dragonflight:

"Dragonflight takes place on Pern, a planet colonized by Earth. About every 200 years another planet swings into Pern's orbit and drops "threads" which are very destructive to vegetation on Pern. This is the story of how the traditions which keep Pern safe from thread, including dragons and their riders (an elite race called Dragonkind), have fallen into disrepute over the past 200 years and must be revived. Threads are about to fall again.

The heroine, Lessa, is a feisty, courageous, and impatient young woman who usually turns out to be right and saves the day. I liked it a lot. The dragonkind get bonded with their dragons when the baby dragon hatches and can communicate by telepathy. The dragons are more level-headed than the humans."

I went on to read many more in the Dragonriders series, growing more and more impressed by Lessa and caught up in the whole dragonrider thing. Dragonflight was first published in 1968 and I always thought that the thread concept was based on the napalm dropped during the Vietnam War.


My next discovery was the Crystal Singer Trilogy. Those three books are my favorite Anne McCaffrey novels because of Killashandra Ree, the heroine, who is a failed singer, a tough chick along the lines of the Dragon Tattoo girl, and has a fabulous lover named Lars.

Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey, Ballantine Books, 1982

I read this one in 1993 and said:

"Great science fiction. Killashandra Ree doesn't make it as a singer after years of training but makes it big on another planet 'singing crystal.' (Crystal is a valuable commodity which must be mined out of rock by means of hitting it with a clear note sung in perfect pitch.) The price she pays is being forever captive to the planet Ballybran and forever addicted to the pleasures inherent in handling crystal.

Not much freedom but high adventure for Killashandra."

Killashandra, Anne McCaffrey, Ballantine Books, 1985

This is the sequel to Crystal Singer. I had this to say:

Killashandra goes offworld on an assignment, falls in love and helps bust a mind control operation. She loses her lover and suffers a complete memory loss. But the lover ends up on Ballybran as a crystal singer. Again good adventure as well as romance."

Crystal Line, Anne McCaffrey, Ballantine Books, 1992

The final book in the trilogy was Crystal Line. My extremely short comment contains spoilers:

"Killashandra goes through numerous changes and finally gets her memory back. She and Lars (her lover) take over the Guild and attain eternal love."

The series made a huge impression on me, got me back into music after a rather long absence and made me feel that all my attempts to save the world in my early adult years were worth the adventures I had. I even named my indie record label "OffWorld Records."

Finally, in 2004 or so, my husband and I took a trip to Ireland. Thanks to Anne McCaffrey's website at the time (apparently no longer on the internet) I figured out how to email her and how to find her house in the Wicklow Mountains. On the site at the time was a google earth type map by which you could sort of fly in as though you were a dragon. She also had an open invitation to come to tea.

I didn't get an answer to my email before we left but we decided to try to find her house anyway. Well, actually my husband was shocked that I would be so bold and afraid we were being rudely intrusive, but I insisted. We got completely lost but then came upon a coffee house out in the middle of nowhere, which is so Irish. I had a feeling we were close and figured that if anyone would know the whereabouts of a famous local author, it would be the coffeehouse staff.

Sure enough. We got directions along the lines of: Go down that road. When you get to the fork with the big tree, take the left fork. Curve around a few times and you will see the house.

Well we did and we found it! The house, her stables and all, looking out over the mountains. The front door was ajar and I heard voices, so I called out, walked in and found Anne in her kitchen with a young woman and her father who were visiting from Australia! Anne offered us tea or coffee. Since we were American she totally understood that we might prefer coffee. She was so relaxed and gracious, as though these visitors were an everyday occurrence.

She gave us a tour of her house, her office, her library. Her walls were covered with works of art by fans; drawings of dragons, suggestions for book covers, etc. Her library was a hallway that ran the entire width of her house with shelves on each side. Then she took us out to the stables. She told us she could not ride anymore due to arthritis but still kept a couple horses and boarded others. A totally energetic, wiry, semi-friendly woman took care of it all.

After posing for pictures with us, she walked us back to our rental car. The last time I saw Anne McCaffrey was in Hollywood at the Writers of the Future Awards, about four years ago. She looked not a bit older and was smiling, cracking jokes and signing books. She was known for being extremely open and interactive with her fans, encouraging new writers, accepting all that proposed book cover art. I felt all of that when I saw her that day. She just did not seem one bit bothered by any amount of people.

For me she was an example of a woman who did what she wanted, had a great time doing it, and would never consider she should not do something just because she was a woman. A huge shining creative spirit.

NUALA O'FAOLAIN IS GONE

In the spring of 2004, my husband and I spent two weeks in Ireland. As always, I read books by Irish writers before I went. Nuala O'Faolain was an author on my list who was new to me. I read three of her books before I went, all of which gave me such a strong sense of place and Irish life and especially Irish women.

Nuala O'Faolain passed away about a week and a half ago. She died of lung cancer and according to one article I read she was extremely bummed that she was not going to live longer. Well I don't blame her and I will miss any books she did not get to write.

I did not have this blog in 2004, so now I will post what I wrote about her books back then.

Are You Somebody?, Nuala O'Faolain, Henry Holt and Company, 1996, 215 pp

Her first book is a memoir. Nuala had been a writer for the Irish Times (and other papers) when she began writing this book. The title comes from what people would say when they met her, not being sure but feeling that she looked familiar. The original writing was intended to be an introduction to a collection of her articles and grew into her life story.

She was my age when she wrote it and I suppose it is a cliche to want to write up your life after you pass 50. I have that urge myself. A life story is a fascinating thing. I love reading them and having new friends tell me theirs. She is a fine writer with a wry voice and had a rocky but generally triumphant life. Because she broke out of the traditional role for an Irish woman, she has been lonely. Well, lots of traditional women are lonely too. She also had a lot of fun and many adventures. Still she was looking for love, above all else.


Almost There, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2003, 275 pp

This is her follow-up memoir, which I went right into after finishing the first. They both read very quickly. Meanwhile, she wrote a novel, which I read next. This volume is basically more of the same, her continuing self-discovery, her continuing search for love, which she found and then had new issues to deal with.

She had received so many letters after the first memoir, that she wanted to let her readers know that she finally found and settled down with a good man. She moved to New York and built a great life there full of writing, writers and friends. In fact, I learned a lot about writing from this book as well.


My Dream of You, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2001, 500 pp

This is her novel. It read very much the same as the memoirs and is taken mostly from her life, but has the device of another story from the days of the potato famine worked in. That adds a bit of historical fiction.

Her characters are great and so are her descriptions of places. She also writes good sex. The story is about her search for love and passion. Funny, because she was unloved as a child and she read so many books. I think, like most women who read a lot, she formed her ideas of romantic love from fiction. That is a bum deal because life is not like that, so it is a constructed ideal that few people ever find. Yet it has been THE STORY since earliest times.

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Nuala O'Faolain wrote one other book that I know of. The Story of Chicago May is a biography of a turn-of -the-century feminist also known as queen of the crooks, another daughter of Ireland, an outlaw and an unrepentant, independent woman. I haven't read this book yet, but I saw Nuala give a reading and answer questions at the Duttons Books in Brentwood, CA, early in its brief existence. She was astoundingly wonderful in her feistiness and straightforwardness. She had that gift of extemporaneous storytelling that is a characteristic of the Irish people. Now I must go read that book.

WILLIAM STYRON HAS DIED

I know this is old news from the first of November, but I had to write about it as soon as I got the chance. What made this news so eerie for me was that he died on the very day that I finished reading his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness.

I will never forget the first time I read his most famous novel, Sophie's Choice. I was living in Dearborn, MI and singing for a living in my own Top 40 cover band. I had recently lost my sons (for the second time) to my ex-husband and I was drinking way too much Jack Daniels every night at the gig. My local library was a 20 minute walk from my house and I would walk there as part of the exercise program I was doing at the time (called Thin Thighs in 30 Days, one of those little booklets you can pick up in the check-out lane at the grocery store and it really worked!) I had been reading all sorts of historical and romantic trash, the Barbara Taylor Bradford type of stuff. So it must have been the early 1980s when I stumbled across Sophie's Choice.

Sophie is a non-Jewish Holocaust survivor living in New York City with a totally crazed boyfriend and in the same apartment house as Stingo, an aspiring young author who falls hopelessly in love with Sophie. The book is so emotional, strange and dark. I had never read anything like it before that in my life, except for Thomas Hardy in college. It matched my mood because I was in despair about my children and there is a whole section in the book about what Sophie had to live through concerning her children. In any case, I was cured of reading trashy novels from that time on (except for during airplane trips) and re-introduced to literature for the first time since college.

Styron seems to have always caught hell from critics, which you can read all about by looking him up on Google. He also suffered from depression for much of his adult life (he lost his mother at 13, which fits my theory that people who lose their mothers early in life have something broken in them from then on), so was often ill, in and out of mental hospitals and a victim of psychiatrists. But he lived a fairly long life, had a loyal wife and raised children. Most importantly, he wrote amazing novels, the critics be damned. I say amazing because I think his fiction is real, not pretentious and though it is dark, he shows how people strive to find light in the darkness of their souls.

IN MEMORIAM: BETTY FRIEDAN

Betty Friedan passed away yesterday at the age of 85, on her birthday. I just came home from two hours with my best girlfriend, toasting Betty with a couple of martinis and talking about the state of the world and the state of womanhood.

The Feminine Mystique was first published in hardback in 1963. It made not much of an impact. The next year it came out in paperback and became a million seller as women around the country caught on and said yeah, I don't have to feel weird because cooking, cleaning, changing diapers and driving the kids around the town doesn't really do it for me. I am a woman, yes I am, but I have a mind and I have abilities that go beyond this.

In 1964, I was starting my senior year in highschool. I was learning to play guitar and singing songs by Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan. I was planning to get as far away from home as possible when I went to college. I was trying to decide how far to let my boyfriend go which was not as far as I wanted to go, but you know, a girl from a good Christian middle-class family just cannot get pregnant in her senior year of highschool. So you see, I was pretty hip, I was pretty with it, but man, I had no idea what I was in for.

It wasn't until about 1972, when I was the mother of one boy and about to be the mother of another; when I was the macrobiotic cooking teacher of my town; when my husband was the natural foods king of the town but if I didn't make sure the bills got paid they didn't get paid; when I was expected to be at home cooking and taking care of those babies no matter what he was up to; when I had agreed to stop performing my music because he didn't want me up there on stage where other men could look at me; etc. That is when I needed Betty Friedan.

But she was there for me along with all those other great feminists. And even when they all started fighting amongst themselves, like strong, powerful people who start movements always do, still they gave us courage. So we formed our women's groups and we met and we discussed and we got it all off our chests and we supported each other and we moved into freedom. We made lots of mistakes. We were mean to our men. We went through stages of irresponsibility. We created havoc in our kids' lives. But we got free. We stopped being doormats and servants and we got a voice and we spoke our minds.

And some of the men got wise to what was going on, because they were into love and self-actualization and we all wanted to be happy and raise strong children and we wanted peace in the world. What I learned today, reading some of the articles about Betty Friedan, is that she was into the same thing. You can't have a strong, peaceful, lasting civilization when some groups of people are on top and others are on the bottom. But that idea will always be attacked. The ones on the top don't want anything to threaten their power and some of the ones on the bottom are scared to rise up. So it is not all worked out yet. There is a legacy from Betty which we must carry on. And we must teach our daughters and daughters-in-law and granddaughters the lessons learned, so they do not forget and lose ground. And we must teach our sons and sons-in-law and grandsons the lessons, so they do not forget.