sovay: (Rotwang)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2011-11-10 09:43 pm

Shnirele, perele, gilderne fon

This post comes in two parts.

The first: I am incredibly pleased with last night's reading. Insofar as I can reconstruct from memory, I read "Di Vayse Pave," "Kaddish for a Dybbuk," "Of Chasing After Yesterdays," "Sheydim-tants," "Postscripts from the Red Sea," "Madonna of the Cave," "Martyrology," "Wisdom," "Tzaddik," "Shnirele, Perele," and "Postcards from the Province of Hyphens," all out of A Mayse-Bikhl except for the first and last; Richard Michelson read a cycle of his autobiographical adult work from Battles & Lullabies and a pair of YA poems from Animals Anonymous and I liked both very much. People wanted copies afterward. (Of the two international envelopes [livejournal.com profile] erzebet mailed me, I sold the contents of one entire and one additional copy went in trade for Michelson's collection.) People wanted their copies signed. This even happened with people I didn't know—[livejournal.com profile] negothick had met me at the train that afternoon in New London, [livejournal.com profile] nineweaving joined us for dinner at a slow but tasty pan-Asian restaurant called Red House, and then [livejournal.com profile] teenybuffalo, [livejournal.com profile] cucumberseed, [livejournal.com profile] ap_aelfwine and [livejournal.com profile] hans_the_bold all turned up to the reading. I ended up singing "Shnirele, Perele" in the after-conversation, which may have impressed a Hadassah board. There was a small afterparty at Negothick's, with more singing. I stayed the night at the local Marriott and read some essays from my awesome book of An-sky before bed. I am in a lot of pain, very tired, and still quite happy, I wrote to [livejournal.com profile] strange_selkie. It's even Connecticut in autumn and I don't want to kill myself right now.

The second: I write all this from Hartford Union Station, where I am stuck until nine-fifteen [update: nine-fifty-five] because we missed the two earlier buses due to a toxic combination of traffic and miscalculation and I cannot even do any of my work online, because the official free wireless refuses to let me log on. The morning was fine—I caught a ride to Newington with Teeny, spent the afternoon with Hans-the-Bold, the Jurassic trackway of Dinosaur State Park (where I bought a book about ancient fossil hunters for my cousin Tristen), and Indian buffet at Bombay Olive. We talked about television, politics, bad philosophy. I recommended him Donald Kingsbury's Courtship Rite (1982). He almost showed me Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987). And I ran out of pain threshold about two hours ago, when we were walking around downtown Hartford in the misting rain. I had to pay double for my ticket because I hadn't bought it online. I don't know why Connecticut wants to keep me—we really don't have good history—and I hate the feeling that I cannot even have an ordinary day to follow a good one; I know it's not reprisal from the universe, but the rest of this sentence deleted for irrational.

I am glad of all of this trip but the getting home. Seriously, I am now sitting on a bus—with wireless—delayed twenty-five minutes and now fifteen minutes more, waiting for the very last connection of the night and I am still in Hartford. I would be self-medicating with the Klezmatics if I could use headphones. There have got to be better ways.

[edit]

Just after one in the morning, I got home. And now I am going to bed.

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-11-11 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

Most welcome! Thank you!

If you don't have a copy already: here. The version I learned from.

Thanks!

I have nothing of hers that isn't from Saints & Tzadiks, A Night in the Old Marketplace, or a single track ("Jericho," which I do like) on a Celtic compilation from the '90's. Hit me.

"Óró Mhíle Grá"
"Fair Annie"
"Caledonia"

I'd like to give you Tony Cuffe's recording of "Caledonia" as well, but I've got to run and do some household stuff. In a few minutes, I'll see what I can do about that.

And here's some Tony Cuffe

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-11-11 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
I wanted to give you Tony's recording of "Caledonia" for a bit of context (Susan says she got it from Tony; as best I recall he found the words in a broadside, book, or manuscript and put them to an air) and I thought while I was at it I might as well give you a few more tracks from him. He was brilliant--I saw him once, playing with Jerry O'Sullivan. I'm told it might have been one of the last live performances he ever gave.

From When First I Went to Caledonia (1988):
"When First I went to Caledonia"
"Caledonia"
"Otterburn"
From Sae Will We Yet (2003):
"The Water o Wearie's Well"
"Sae Will We Yet"

PS

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-11-11 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you safely got home, and that it at least wasn't even later.