Lest there be any confusion

Just updated the tagline. Courtesy Mike Doughty, nee M. Doughty of Soul Coughing, in his fine “Move On.”

I think we get confused, even on a day like today, about where we all stand. Me? I couldn’t be happier to be in a country that was born of a bunch of people standing around and talking about what was wrong with their current form of government, and then doing something about it.

Woody Guthrie sez

Half the Sins of Mankind points to the statement of copyright that Woody Guthrie wrote for his “This Land is Your Land”:

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.

Right on, Woody.

Jefferson sez

“Error has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficent antagonist to error.”—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Religion, 1776.

“The judges should always be men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness and attention; their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests.”—Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Wythe, 1776

Two faces of the Pops

Watching the televised Boston Pops concert tonight, it’s tempting to compare and contrast Keith Lockhart’s face and words as he winds up for the concert and conducts the first few numbers with his interview in the Sunday edition of the Boston Globef. In the paper, he sounded like a petulant boy trying to decide whether to fish or cut bait. On stage and in pre-concert interviews, he looks charming, refreshed and assured. Which is the real Pops director?

As I haven’t had the opportunity to sing under Mr. Lockhart, I can’t offer a first hand observation. I do find the difference in presentation curious, though. Why on earth would someone as apparently media-savvy as Keith Lockhart drop the shield for an interview that made him out to be such a whiner? You’d think he’d, I don’t know, go start a LiveJournal or something.

The Fourth

For the last few years I’ve been posting patriotica on this holiday, when we commemorate the passings of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the signing of our Declaration of Independence. I may yet post some tonight. Right now, though, I’m too darn tired.

The weekend has been a blur—lots of home improvement stuff. Tonight it took its toll, as we conked out on the brink of heading downtown to watch the fireworks from a friend’s Back Bay rooftop. Instead we’re cocooning; watching the Pops on TV and catching our breath before I head out tomorrow to Tanglewood for my residency with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.