The Easter Suite by Oscar Peterson

Happy Easter!

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land;
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, but simply "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. Read more about his life...

"Though the Easter Suite is regarded by some as one of this jazz legend’s great works, it remains unknown to many still today. Commissioned by The South Bank Show and first broadcast live on Good Friday 1984, this instrumental work depicts events from the gospel story. The Peterson Trio is on top form, with Peterson in particular displaying wonderful musicianship in the last movement, He Has Risen." - Graham Ross 

More Easter music here...

Irish Potatoes and Colbert Catechism

Irish Potato Candy is a Philadelphia Spring tradition. Delicious! Indeed, Philadelphians created the candy.

You can buy O'Ryan's made Irish Potato Candy at the market or online. 

Or you can make this simple candy at home. The recipe is fun to do with children. No hot stove. No special equipment. For a recipe that actually contains potatoes for Vegans and others go HERE,

Ingredients

1⁄4 cup softened Butter
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1(16 ounce) package Confectioners' Sugar
7 ounces sweetened flaked Coconut (2 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoon ground Cinnamon

2 tablespoon Cocoa

NOTE: Be sure to use regular cream cheese, not whipped or reduced fat type. You may need more Cinnamon and Cocoa for dipping. 

In a large bowl, cream together the Butter and Cream Cheese. Add Vanilla and Confectioners' Sugar. Beat until mixture forms a ball. Stir in Coconut with a spoon. Roll the mixture between your hands to form small potato-shaped candies or roll into small balls. Place Cinnamon and Cocoa in a shallow dish and roll the balls in it. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and chill for about 1 hour or until firm. If you prefer "dirtier potatoes" roll the candy a second time after they have chilled. You can also add a few chopped Nuts to look like 'eyes' if you want to get really artistic.

This is the month in which we celebrate Saint Patrick. Where else can you get a catechism and a candy recipe on the same page?

Frankly, speaking as a Roman Catholic, I much prefer representation by Stephen Colbert than porky nasty Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. Yes, I even think politics on holidays.

,

SLOGANS FOR T SHIRTS & Doggerel by John Dantzler

Cher Readers, I am being censored by google and youtube. Pressure is aimed to get me to put my Blog behind an Adults Only warning. Anyone cares to share their opinion about censorship on the Net is so very welcome to do so. I do put the spicy stuff behind a TAG - Filth and Dirt. 

T-shirt Epitaph:

RASH WAS A PIGDOG...

and then he died. 

NO NEW LAWS

Enforce Old Ones.

WE NEED

the

PERP WALKS

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Her thoughts are quite insane. Kev has no guts; the Dems adjust. Marjorie Taylor Greene Obscene obscene obscene.

- John Dantzler

The Graphic PhotoShop Art below came from Freaking News. It was a contest site based in China and had worldwide contestants. It does not exist anymore. What is going on in China?

 

Let it snow!

Snowy Night

A poem by Mary Oliver 

Last night, an owl
in the blue dark
tossed
an indeterminate number
of carefully shaped sounds into
the world, in which,
a quarter of a mile away, I happened
to be standing.
I couldn’t tell
which one it was –
the barred or the great-horned
ship of the air –
it was that distant. But, anyway,
aren’t there moments
that are better than knowing something,
and sweeter? Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness. I suppose
if this were someone else’s story
they would have insisted on knowing
whatever is knowable – would have hurried
over the fields
to name it – the owl, I mean.
But it’s mine, this poem of the night,
and I just stood there, listening and holding out
my hands to the soft glitter
falling through the air. I love this world,
but not for its answers.
And I wish good luck to the owl,
whatever its name –
and I wish great welcome to the snow,
whatever its severe and comfortless
and beautiful meaning.

It was silent until about twenty minutes ago. Then the girls discovered they could swim in the snow drifts. The cats are bored. I ate lamb chops for breakfast. Happy New Year? So far, so good.

The Other French Onion Soup

We are having cold weather in Philadelphia. I want hot comforting soup.

Pour les invalides of Plum Street, this soup is simple to make - or make for someone else - even if you do not cook much. We know who we are.

This onion and cheese soup is tasty and does not require any special cooking skill at all. The quantity is infinitely expandable, just maintain the proportion of equal weights of onion to potato. Serves 2 to 4 people.

The Other French Onion Soup

3 large Potatoes
3 large Onions
8 ounces Swiss Cheese (quantity to taste)
Garnish of Minced Celery Tops

Peel onions and potatoes and place them in a deep soup pot. Be generous about removing outer layers of onion that are too tough to cook and bad for your digestion. Add enough water to cover the vegetables plus one inch above them. Bring water to a boil, then turn down and simmer until onions and potatoes are very soft. Grate the cheese. Mash the vegetables in their own broth when tender. Season with Salt and Pepper. Stir the cheese into the hot soup and serve. Garnish with minced celery tops.

You may wish to substitute another cheese or garnish (minced parsley, bacon bits, etc.). I prefer the combination above, as taught me by an elderly French woman whose surname I never learned. She was Madame Sophie always. A little green salad and some good bread and I feel a happy well fed person.

Note: Do not overcook or your soup will be gluey. Cook only until you can pierce the vegetables with a fork. You want texture in your soup. Do not be lazy. Mince the celery very fine. You will be glad you did.

February - The Love Month #2

I love poetry. Shameless hot love. I found the Poetry Foundation. 

I went there hunting poems about Love. This poem was listed under Funny Love Poems. The poem comes from the book Bar Napkin Sonnets. 

I have lived this and I ain't laughing. Poem so good it hurts. I am remembering, lusting after and loving all and everyone who was there. I love them now. Even those who do not talk to me anymore.

Bar Napkin Sonnet #11

Things happen when you drink too much mescal.
One night, with not enough food in my belly,
he kept on buying. I'm a girl who'll fall
damn near in love with gratitude and, well, he
was hot and generous and so the least
that I could do was let him kiss me, hard
and soft and any way you want it, beast
and beauty, lime and salt—sweet Bacchus' pards—
and when his friend showed up I felt so warm
and generous I let him kiss me too.
His buddy asked me if it was the worm
inside that makes me do the things I do.
I wasn't sure which worm he meant, the one
I ate? The one that eats at me alone?

by Moira Egan

February - the Love Month #1

since you’ve been gone

since you’ve been gone, I’ve been alone.
like an arm without a bone.
dangling limply like a phone that’s out of charge.
like homer without marge.
like an egg without a spoon.
like a dugong on the moon.
like a clownfish without nemo.
like twilight without emo.
like hardy without laurel.
like high ground without the moral.
like disney without walt.
like battery without assault.
like a pet shop without gerbils.
like hitler without goebbels.
like a dilemma without the di,
just a lemma and a sigh.
like déjà without vu,
I am nothing without you.
till the day that you come back,
I’m like whitney without crack.

- Bill Bailey (via acupofpoetry)

The Dream

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." - Martin Luther King

Countee Cullen is a giant of an American poet. I dream America free of bigotry of the killing kind - so exquisitely expressed in Cullen's poem.

Countee Cullen

INCIDENT

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

Rest in Peace Martin Luther King Jr. The struggle continues.

Lyrics to Lift Every Voice and Sing written by another poet of the Harlem Renaissance James Weldon Johnson. Composer is J. Rosamond Johnson. History of the Harlem Renaissance and its Poets HERE. 

Lyrics:

Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.