Famous Banjos of my childhood

A thousand years ago, when I was a Freshman at Indiana University, I noticed a odd thing happening the few times I got up early in the morning of a class. I had a Beginning Ed class that was at 8:30 am on Fridays. I was working full time in the evenings 3-11 and I think my days off were like Monday and Tuesday. I seldon got up before 10:00. Anyhow the the other students were migrating from the cafeteria in the Student Union to a lobby upstairs where there was a television to sip their coffee and watch a new morning show called Sesame Street.
I didn't really get into it until the three bears were into it.

Great songs, great guest artists, great corny jokes and certainly no Captain Kangaroo or Lampchop.

Special Places #??

http://davidcoupar.com/index.html  is the link for the artist.

I was in Monterey and was finishing the second draft of a novel. The plan was to finish and then move to San Francisco. A friend, Tom Kosbab, from New Orleans was up there already, so I went up on the train and spent a weekend on his couch. Saturday morning from his bay window looked out on a street something like this, but even mellower, since there was a fog across the neighborhood. This was the place for me. He gave me a funky Naworlins style tour of the city. We played the mechanical curios out at an arcade at the Cliff House and then went for tea at the Japanese Tea Garden. It was a misty cool morning and no one was around- it made you feel like the whole city was sitting in their robes in their bay windows reading their papers. We fed the little sparrows at the Tea Gardens and drove down Lombard street. His girl friend had a sister that wrote poetry and we kibitzed a little- she was like 5'2" and I was going back to Monterey probably for another year. As it turned out, I inherited his apartment with this view when I finally did make it up there. There were still traces of his oil paint on the floor where his easel had stood. One has to have a good window to write from. 

And a good light fog to make your morning mysterious. The city will always be that unbelievably gorgeous woman that didn't want me.  

Famous Banjo Companions

Blue Period with Banjo, 1980, Polaroid ER print, 24 x 20 inches, by William Wegman (American, b. 1943). Collection of Emily Todd. Photo © Rick Gardner, courtesy Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. 

We have an old lab who looks a little like this, but more gray now, who comes out to lay on carpet and listens to me practice every night from around 9:30ish to whenever I stop. Usually I have to wake her up to tell her its time to go in to bed. And she reluctantly gets up and follows me out. Don't know if she likes the music or I'm the last one up doing something and she feels morally obligated to give me support or company. I thinks its mostly because sometimes I share snacks with her. 

She used to like to howl along with harmonicas and saxophones. She doesn't sing along with me.

You would think the banjo would cheer her up as it does me, but she has always looked sad somehow.

   

Sounds Like A Good Cause

June 2010 Dear Literature Lover,
You’ve ordered books through Small Press Distribution and I want to thank you.
When you purchase a book through SPD, you do much more than simply order a book. You help support a fragile ecosystem of small literary presses committed to making great literature available; not just “bestsellers.”  The SPD family of publishers—nearly four hundred independent, mostly non-profit organizations—are not driven by a bottom line; only a love of literature and a devotion to publishing it. SPD brings that literature to you.
Please contribute to SPD—only the support of readers like you makes our mission possible.
It’s only through SPD that thousands of writers of poetry, experimental fiction, creative non-fiction, works in translation, and other kinds of literature not supported by mainstream publishing to reach readers like you.  And, like most of the publishers we support, SPD operates as a non-profit organization.  In fact, we are now the only non-profit distributor of literary books in the entire country. 
Without SPD, most of these literary books could never reach their readers.
As far as we’re concerned, until a book reaches a reader’s hands, it hasn’t been published—it’s merely been printed.  SPD plays an important role in the publishing process.  By offering national distribution to smaller publishers we ensure that these most important books can actually get to their intended readers.  SPD provides absolutely essential access to books not readily available anywhere else.  We make literary publishing possible.
You will play an active role in the publishing process through your Friend support of SPD.
Literature needs your help. Your single gift to SPD helps us bring the work of hundreds of publishers representing thousands of writers to the world. Please make your next Friend of SPD gift today.
Thank you in advance for your continued support and have a great summer!
Sincerely,

Jeffrey Lependorf, Executive Director 

Except they will not represent self-published authors or the homeless I suppose.

 

Famous Banjo s Down Under

Banjo Paterson - wrote The Man From Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda

Makes You Wonder

Dear Dan,

Thank you for allowing us to read your work and your interest in Folio.  We are always
eager to hear from writers who are serious about the business of writing;
unfortunately I do not feel that I'm the right representative for your work.

I have to be very selective of what I choose to represent and all of my
decisions are based on a frank assessment of the current needs of the
literary markets.  The fact that this work doesn't fit my narrow criteria
for representation does not mean it couldn't find a home elsewhere.  I urge
you to submit your work to other agencies or management companies that may
be more suited to this type of material.  If you have other work you wish to
submit, please feel free to query again.

Respectfully, 

Scott Hoffman and

Cicily Janus, Intern for Scott Hoffman

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 9:08 PM, Dan McNay <mcnay@mosis.com> wrote:

Dear Cicily,

Here are the items you asked for. I hope you find them entertaining.

Dan McNay

 

They had asked to see more of the book and so I sent them more with an outline.  I wonder what the narrow criteria is. He doesn't take it if the word veranda appears in the text? He's not interested if it isn't a tell all book about oh-hum spoiled rich kids? If its not a book about a middle aged woman who's finding herself or sleeping with a younger man? I discarded this as the usual rejection, and it is actually professionally done. But now I want more. I want to see his selective list.

Is it something like:

 

1. No five syllable words.

2. Bodice ripping necessary if petticoats are included.

3. No obscure historical figures like Robert Louis Stevenson.

4. All characters must have 2010 haircuts no matter the time period (Like the old made for TV movies where the women in the revolutionary war all looked like Charlie's Angels) .

5. Must have recipes in plot.

6. Must demonstrate ability to write quickly and badly (so one can write many books)

7. Must be a pot-boiler

 

I haunt Thrift Stores and Bargain places to find cheap books and music. Do these people realize that there are thousands and thousands of used books that will never ever be read again because they fit the narrow criteria necessary to the marketplace. 

 

Remember Rex Stout? Georgette Heyer? Herman Wouk? Irving Wallace? Did anyone ever actually read all those books of Updike or Mailer?  

Famous Martyr'd Banjos

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - What type of woman waits more than 34 years for a man who committed murder?

Debra Brown's husband John A. Brown killed Dave "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife more than three decades ago. It was one of Nashville's most infamous murders.

Brown is eligible for parole.

His wife declined all television interviews until now. She spoke exclusively with NewsChannel 5 reporter Nick Beres.

Presently, two members of the state parole board voted in favor of Brown's release and two others opposed.

He earns his release if he gets two more votes in favor from two of the three remaining parole board members.

"Neither one of us wants to make excuses for that heinous act. Neither one of us want to do that. We don't shrug off the fact that the public grieves," she said.

Thirty-four years ago, her then fiancé came home late. When she asked why he told her he'd killed the "Hee Haw" star and his wife, Estelle Akeman during a botched robbery.

"And I looked at him and said,' How could you do something like that?'" she said.

Brown was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. She married him anyway.

When asked why she waited more than 34 years for Brown, she replied, "Well, because I love him. I made a commitment. I made a promise and I kept it."

Brown works at Cornerstone Church in Madison. In her in her office, surrounded by items made by her husband in prison, she looks for news of his possible parole.

Brown's recent parole hearing grabbed headlines. Those against his release have taken up petitions.

Brown agreed to an exclusive interview not to challenge them.

"I'm not insensitive to the way they feel. I feel the same way. It was wrong, and John's been punished," she said.

"He killed those two people. Why should he be given parole?" Beres said.

"There's another side to John Brown and I want people to see that," she said.

As she thumbs through photographs, reminders of a marriage shared with a man she rarely saw, she said he changed in prison. She said he turned to God and started helping others and staying out of trouble.

But the murders cannot be forgotten.

"The animosity of the public is still very strong. I don't blame them for that," she said.

She knows he can never replace the lost lives. Her 57-year-old husband now can only hope for parole.

"He can never earn the right. Mercy and grace are not earned, it's given. All we can ask is for mercy and grace."

She knows the chances are slim for parole, but if her husband is released, he will join her at the church.

Senior Pastor Maury Davis said he will provide John Brown with a job.

The parole board's decision is expected shortly. Four of the seven board members have voted and it's dead-locked at two.

Brown needs two more votes in favor before he's released.

Brown and his cousin, Marvin Brown were convicted for the double murder. Marvin Brown died in prison.

Dave "Stringbean" Akeman (left) and John Brown

Brown's wife, Debra Brown