Sloop John B (Bahamian folk song, covered by The Beach Boys and The Kingston Trio, among so many others)

[The Clearwater launches in Maine on May 17, 1969. From left: Maine Governor Kenneth Curtis, Clearwater Captain Allan Aunapu, and Pete Seeger... 😍 ]

Last Saturday I logged back on to Facebook for about 24 hours to watch the virtual South Florida Folk Festival.  During the running chat, my friend LisaL shared that Allan Aunapu, a long-time South Florida folk community friend/musician had been tragically killed in a bicycle accident the day before.  He would have been 80 years old next month... 💔

The first time I met Allan was over twenty years ago, when he came to one of my Broward Folk Club songswaps; I traditionally hosted June every year.  In strides this guy in tie-dyed overalls, with crazy Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd's character in Back to the Future) hair, twinkling eyes, a captivating grin, and joy that emanated from every pore.  Let's face it; every organization (church/book club/music gathering) has their share of wackadoos, and I just lovingly chalked him up to "one of us".  Off-shoot conversations revealed him to be the original captain of The Clearwater, Pete Seeger's sailing sloop.  Are you f*cking kidding me?!?

As if I weren't already charmed, when it was his turn, he sang Zombie Jamboree (one of my favorite songs that I'd heard covered by the a capella group Rockapella).  Had the good fortune to chat with him later, and was delighted to find out how intelligent he was.  He also had that rare gift of being engaging without flirty (well, maybe a little bit flirty... 😄 )

I was lucky to cross paths with Allan many times over the years, and he was of course in his glory for the various Pete Seeger birthday tributes/celebrations sponsored by/presented at the Labyrinth Cafe (the concert series I coordinated from 2005-2018)... still wearing those tie-dyed overalls, I might add!   Despite being a national celebrity, Allan shone as a local treasure, always lending his voice, spirit, and humor in cooperation and community.

Allan called me "darling young girl" and all his e-mails to me were signed "your fan".  He always said I was one of his favorite people, but I believe he told that to everyone, and I am sure he felt both were true.  He was most certainly one of *my* cherished peeps, and I will miss him very much... 💖

You can Google him, but here are some highlights:

Clearwater Mourns the Loss of First Sloop Captain, Allan Aunapu

Remembering Allan Aunapu, the first Captain of the sloop Clearwater

Sailing The Sloop With Seeger: A Local Remembers

First captain of Pete Seeger's sloop Clearwater, Allan Aunapu

Clearwater Captain Accused Of Taking Shower in Public

Pete Seeger at 100: How the Folk Legend Built a Sailboat to Help Revive the Hudson River

SONG:  Sloop John B (Bahamian folk song, covered by Pete Seeger/The Weavers, The Beach Boys, and The Kingston Trio, among so many others)

BOOK:  Hudson River Sloop CLEARWATER - The First Five Years: an experiment in social change by Joseph Haneti, Zhou Wenjing (Contributor), Mead Hill (Contributor), Photos courtesy of Hudson River Sloop Restoration (Contributor), special thanks: Hal Cohen (Contributor)

POEM(S):  My Bed Is a Boat by Robert Louis Stevenson

My bed is like a little boat;

Nurse helps me in when I embark;

She girds me in my sailor's coat

And starts me in the dark.

At night, I go on board and say

Good night to all my friends on shore;

I shut my eyes and sail away

And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take,

As prudent sailors have to do;

Perhaps a slice of wedding cake,

Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer;

But when the day returns at last,

Safe in my room, beside the pier,

I find my vessel fast.

Boats by Cyril Wong

You and your photographs of boats;

that repeated metaphor for departure,

or simply the possibility of a voyage?

What you cannot tell me, you tell me

with a vessel and its single passenger,

eyes fixed on some sky-lit conclusion.

Set apart and starkly upon a canvas

of tractable waves, brought to still

by the trigger-click of your camera,

like the sound a key makes when it

releases the lock. Your heart became

that lock; these images are how you have

always articulated distance, a withdrawal.

Darling, there are just as many ways

of saying goodbye as there are ways

of letting you go. The boat is narrow

like the width of my heart after

impossible loss, cruel resignation;

this heart you ride in. Love, if this is how

you choose to leave me, let me let you.

QUOTE(S):  "I try to look at this music career thing as the means to an end. And really, at the end of it, I see myself on a sailboat, sailing off the edge of the world." ~ Michelle Shocked

"E.B. White's essays are the best things I've read about Maine - especially the one in which he's not sure if he can go out sailing any more in his sloop." ~ Nicholson Baker

Old Dogs (Bill Staines)

For my dear friend Melanie, who only yesterday lost her beloved dog Xena... <3

SONG: Old Dogs by Bill Staines

BOOK: Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant

POEM: I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life by Mary Oliver (Percy being her dog)

Love, love, love, says Percy.
And hurry as fast as you can
along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust.

Then, go to sleep.
Give up your body heat, your beating heart.
Then, trust.

QUOTE: "You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Good Fortune (Todd Snider)

I commented recently on a friend's blog, regarding Todd Snider's new CD, The Excitement Plan:

I have been cranky lately because I actually got in on the limited edition box set, which was shipped to my house (in Florida) on the CD release day - however, I am still at my mom’s and as yet unable to listen…

I may actually order the CD from amazon.com and have it sent here - I can find a good home for the duplicate when I get back home…

I personally think every single one of his albums is brilliant, and I do hope you manage to work your way through the backcatalog eventually - if you enjoy “political without being preachy”, start with East Nashville Skyline (The Ballad of the Kingsmen and Sunshine, in particular)…

So... I *did* order the CD... and it arrived yesterday - I had a chance to begin listening on my way back to mom's from Mari's this morning, and I am flippin' loving it already! I highly recommend - you can read more about it... and listen to a recent NPR interview here...

Speaking of Fortune... neighbors have been bringing food, friends have been sending flowers and cards and writing in mom's guestbook... and my husband might actually be flying up for a visit - goodness abounds!

SONG: Good Fortune by Todd Snider

BOOK: Create Your Own Luck: 8 Principles of Attracting Good Fortune in Life, Love, and Work by Azriela Jaffe

POEM: Give Us Courage by Robert Louis Stevenson

Give us courage, gaiety and the quiet mind.

Spare us to our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.

If it may not, give us the strength to encounter

that which is to come, that we be brave in peril,

constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath,

and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates

of death, loyal and loving to one another.

QUOTE: "I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is." ~ Frank O'Hara

Face Lift (Joni Mitchell)

Happiness
'rubs off on others'
BBC News
December 5, 2008

Happiness is infectious and can "ripple" through social groups, according to US researchers.

A study of 5,000 adults suggests a person's happiness is dependent on the happiness of those around them.

A friend who becomes happy and lives less than a mile away increases your likelihood of happiness by 25%, the British Medical Journal reported.

But the mood of work colleagues did not have an effect, the Harvard Medical School-led study found.

The researchers used data on adults who took part in the US Framingham Heart Study - set up to look at the risks leading to future heart disease - between 1971 and 2003.

Participants were asked to identify their relatives, close friends, place of residence, and place of work and were followed up every two to four years.

They were also asked whether they agreed with statements on whether they enjoyed life, felt hopeful about the future, were happy and felt they were just as good as other people.

It was found that live-in partners who become happy increased the likelihood of their partner being happy by 8% and similar effects were found for siblings living close by (14%) and neighbours (34%).

The relationship between people's happiness levels seemed to extend up to three degrees of separation - to the friend of a friend of a friend.

The analysis also showed that close physical proximity was important for the spread of happiness.

A person was 42% more likely to be happy if a friend who lives less than half a mile away becomes happy - an effect that declined with greater distance.

Study leader Professor Nicholas Christakis said the results suggest clusters of happiness occur because happiness spreads and not just because of a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals.

"Most important from our perspective is the recognition that people are embedded in social networks and that the health and wellbeing of one person affects the health and wellbeing of others."

Trees and woodlands, and living near them tends to make me happy James Shepherd, London
Professor Andrew Steptoe, a psychology expert from University College London, said: "It makes intuitive sense that if people around you are happy that might have an impact on your own happiness.

"What's a bit more surprising is that it's not just the people who you closely come into contact with but people a step removed as well."

He said the work had implications for public health.

"Happiness does seem to be associated with protective effects on health.

"If happiness is indeed transmitted through social connections, it could indirectly contribute to social transmission of health," he said.

P.S. Another SMM...

SONG: Face Lift by Joni Mitchell

BOOK: Makeovers at the Beauty Counter of Happiness by Ilene Beckerman

POEM: The Celestial Surgeon by Robert Louis Stevenson

If I have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness;
If I have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy human eyes
Have moved me not; if morning skies,
Books, and my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:-
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take
And stab my spirit broad awake;
Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,
Choose thou, before that spirit die,
A piercing pain, a killing sin,
And to my dead heart run them in!

QUOTE(S): "Joy is the best makeup." ~ Anne Lamott

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." ~ Anne Frank

Red, Red Wine (Neil Diamond)

Having been raised in an Italian family (both my mother's parents hail from "the old country"), I've always appreciated a good wine - I say proudly that I never partook of Boone's Farm in my formative high school or college years, although my choice of Cella Lambrusco probably wasn't much better (although I recall being devastated when they segued from cork to screwtop!).

I did go through a white zin phase in my suburban housewife mentality, but soon wizened up to my current pick of Pinot Grigio or, on the rare occasion when I'm in the mood for red, a Shiraz or Pinot Noir - these days, I drink rarely but appreciatively (interpreting "drunk" in the poem below as a metaphor for joyful.. :-)

Now if this (article below) isn't just some of the best news I've read in a while - salud!

P.S. I first heard today's song about ten years ago as a radio hit from UB40 - found out later it was actually written by Neil Diamond (big surprise, as the only other song I've liked of his is Solitary Man).

Female Wine-Drinkers Less Likely to Develop Alzheimer's
4/29/2008

Say cheers: New research shows that women who drink wine on a regular basis are significantly less likely than others to develop Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

The study tracked a group of 1,500 women in Gothenberg, Sweden, for a period of 34 years, measuring their drinking habits over that period of time in relation to their health. According to the results, which were reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, women who regularly drank wine along with other forms of alcohol were 40 percent less likely to develop dementia than non-wine drinkers.

For women who skipped the beer and hard liquor, sticking exclusively with wine, the results were even more promising: Their risk of developing dementia in later life dropped by 70 percent.

Researchers believe that wine's affect on mental well-being may be associated with the drink's antioxidant properties, which could have a positive impact on blood vessels, though"the people who drink wine might have other characteristics that we simply can't measure," epidemiology professor Lauren Lissner told The Vancouver Sun. "But the fact that it gets even stronger in the wine group could also be viewed as evidence that there is something in the wine."

Don't use the results as an excuse to guzzle down a bottle of Cab Sav every night, though – as with most pleasures, moderation is key. One glass of wine every week was enough to show a positive impact; another study found that drinking a glass or more every night could raise the risk of breast cancer.

Lissner warns that "we're not saying that our results are anything to base recommendations on or that women should change their wine consumption patterns," but from what we can tell, a weekly glass of wine could be the key to keeping women's minds sharp for many years to come.

From other sources, I'm learning about biodynamic/organic wines... and wine cork recycling - taking advantage of my increased memory cells... :-)

SONG: Red, Red Wine by Neil Diamond

BOOK: 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World by Gary Vaynerchuk

POEM: Be Drunk by Charles Baudelaire (translated by Louis Simpson)

You have to be always drunk.
That's all there is to it—
it's the only way.
So as not to feel
the horrible burden of time
that breaks your back
and bends you to the earth,
you have to be continually drunk.

But on what?
Wine, poetry or virtue,
as you wish.
But be drunk.

And if sometimes,
on the steps of a palace
or the green grass of a ditch,
in the mournful solitude of your room,
you wake again,
drunkenness already diminishing or gone,

ask the wind, the wave, the star,
the bird, the clock,
everything that is flying,
everything that is groaning,
everything that is rolling,
everything that is singing,
everything that is speaking. . .

ask what time it is
and wind, wave, star, bird, clock
will answer you:
"It is time to be drunk!
So as not to be the martyred slaves of time,
be drunk, be continually drunk!
On wine, on poetry or on virtue
as you wish."

QUOTE(S): "Wine is bottled poetry." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." ~ Galileo