Sunday, September 22, 2013
NC Students "It's Our Time!" | Moral Monday 18
North Carolina Moral Monday remembers the four little girls murdered in the Birmingham church bombings fifty years ago last week.
Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
Happy Birthday, Leonard Cohen, poet, September 21. With all my love.
Leonard Cohen captures the spirituality of physical love in "Hallelujah"
Saturday, September 21, 2013
This has got to STOP!
This young man, African American, was in a car accident in the middle of the night outside Charlotte, NC., in mid-September. Jonathan Ferrell kicked out the back window of his car to escape and managed to walk to the nearest house, where he rang the bell. The white woman who answered the door slammed it shut when she saw a black man standing there, and quickly called the police. Three Charlotte cops arrived. The young black man stepped forward slightly to greet what he apparently thought was help. One cop tased him. A second cop immediately fired 12 shots, ten of which hit the young black man and killed him.
Melissa Harris-Perry just told about this on her weekend TV show and my eyes hurt and my mouth fell open and my heart sank. This black man was not safe even to breathe in rural North Carolina. He was killed for being black. I am sick to death of white people taking one look at a black guy and assuming he needs killing. Sick to effing death. This has got to stop!
So one cop has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. So what? It should have been murder, and it should have been all three. And the one guy is not convicted yet.
Melissa Harris-Perry just told about this on her weekend TV show and my eyes hurt and my mouth fell open and my heart sank. This black man was not safe even to breathe in rural North Carolina. He was killed for being black. I am sick to death of white people taking one look at a black guy and assuming he needs killing. Sick to effing death. This has got to stop!
So one cop has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. So what? It should have been murder, and it should have been all three. And the one guy is not convicted yet.
And what about the woman who slammed her door in fear the moment she saw a black male on her porch? She could have at least seen an ambiguity, but she was 100% sure he was a bad guy. She conveyed no doubt, no questions, to the police, instead making it sound as though her world was about to end because a black man had approached the house.
Pure pure racism.
Link to news story:another man killed for being black
 |
| Jonathan Ferrell killed by Charlotte NC cops for nothing |
Friday, September 13, 2013
Why not Reza Aslan?
My old friend is born and raised in Tennessee. He earned a Master's degree in Comparative Literature and almost completed his Ph.D., a specialist in French and German, as well as literary theory. I am pretty sure no one ever asked him, "You're from America, from Tennessee. Why are you interested in the languages and literature of France and Germany? Why do you teach impressionable young people to speak German in college?" Of course not.
So why do people ask Reza Aslan, a scholar of religions, a specialist in Christianity, why he has written a book on Jesus since he is Muslim? His being Muslim makes it no more strange for him to be interested in the historical Jesus than does my friend's being an American makes it strange for him to be interested in French and German.
People need to grow up.
Review of "Zealot" by Reza Aslan, from the New York Times, August 5, 2013.
The times, they are a-changing - for the worse
From the man now burning in Hell, who called the University of North Carolina (UNC) "the University of Negroes and Communists (UNC, see how clever he was>), brought us these great words of wisdom, Christian love, and patriotism (sarcasm) that school children will be memorizing and reciting for centuries to come!
Top Ten Quotes by Jesse Helms from Creative Loafing, Charlotte
And a future burning ember in Hell, Ted Cruz, says he wants 100 Jesse Helmses in the Senate?
On Thursday, I commented on the site of a decidedly liberal news organization on the racism of the NeoConfederates taking over the country. And wake up, they ARE taking over. There is a coup taking place right now. Apparently, most of those who comment there are NOT decidedly liberal. I have never seen such anger and bile directed at me and at others who do not want the Senate to be made up of all Jesse Helms clones. Heck, I don't even want Sen. Ted Cruz allowed into the Capitol. One of the nice folks said, "Negroes can't do anything [right]."
Chris Hays Thursday night talked about how Senator Trent Lott was punished when he says some foolish things at a Strom Thurmond birthday party. Lott seems to have thought that we all should have followed the old Dixiecrat, and that had we, we would not have had "all these problems" all these years (The Negro Problem). But NO ONE will punish the idiot savant Ted Cruz. It's okay to say this garbage and feces today. The times they are a-changing and this time they are not changing toward peace and love. They are changing back toward a white male entitlement country.
If I could afford to, I would leave this country, get the hell out before they come and kill me. The new Johnny Rebs, I mean.
Top Ten Quotes by Jesse Helms from Creative Loafing, Charlotte
And a future burning ember in Hell, Ted Cruz, says he wants 100 Jesse Helmses in the Senate?
On Thursday, I commented on the site of a decidedly liberal news organization on the racism of the NeoConfederates taking over the country. And wake up, they ARE taking over. There is a coup taking place right now. Apparently, most of those who comment there are NOT decidedly liberal. I have never seen such anger and bile directed at me and at others who do not want the Senate to be made up of all Jesse Helms clones. Heck, I don't even want Sen. Ted Cruz allowed into the Capitol. One of the nice folks said, "Negroes can't do anything [right]."
Chris Hays Thursday night talked about how Senator Trent Lott was punished when he says some foolish things at a Strom Thurmond birthday party. Lott seems to have thought that we all should have followed the old Dixiecrat, and that had we, we would not have had "all these problems" all these years (The Negro Problem). But NO ONE will punish the idiot savant Ted Cruz. It's okay to say this garbage and feces today. The times they are a-changing and this time they are not changing toward peace and love. They are changing back toward a white male entitlement country.
If I could afford to, I would leave this country, get the hell out before they come and kill me. The new Johnny Rebs, I mean.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
My Pyr, Kia
Happy, happy Kia
Kia Comes to Mama
Kia loving Mama
Kia at fireplace
Kia on my brand new down pillow
 |
| Kia on my brand new down pillow |
 |
| Kia loving Brenda |
Kia hears thunder Uh-oh
Sweet Kia, New Year's Day
Kia greets me in the foyer
Kia, What a face!
Kia, she's gonna kiss me!
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Santana
Bring it on home to me/Trouble in mind/Moondance et alia
Bluesy as you could ever want
Monday, September 9, 2013
Back Porch Music from Chapel Hill
Back Porch Music is a radio program on weekends on WUNC, the campus public radio station at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The show has been running at least over 30 years, I know that from personal experience. In graduate school I listened to every minute of the traditional, folk and roots music that I could. My Eighties boyfriend teased me that the same guy seemed to be the vocalist on all Cajun music and Zydeco.
BPM is still on and if you are a folkie or a roots music person, you would love it. You can stream it, can get it various way. I wanted to share this past weekend's playlist with you. The staff always emails out to followers so that we can be sure to identify all that we have heard, sometimes for the very first time.
The Friday night show opened at 8 with Rebecca Frazier and closed with Blind Willie McTell. On Saturday night, Dudley Connell and Don Rigsby started things off, with Jesse Fuller closing down the night at midnight. Unbelievably, they are back on Sunday at 8 pm for a third night, this time beginning with Aoife O'Donovan. The national treasure Pete Seeger closed out the night and the weekend But a new, unique, well-chosen program will be back every single weekend.
For you true traditional music lovers, here is the past weekend's entire playlist. It will blow your mind:
Monday Greetings! Here are the most recent Back Porch Music
playlists. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support
of Back Porch Music and North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC!
###
Back Porch Music/Freddy Jenkins 9-6-13 Friday
***
8:00 PM - Midnight
***
8:00 PM Station ID, 8:01 PM NPR News
***
8:04 PM -- Clifftop -- Rebecca Frazier -- When We Fall -- Amtoco/Compass
8:08 PM -- Helpless Wanderer -- Underhill Rose -- Something Real --www.underhillrose.com
8:11 PM -- In Bristol Town -- The John Cowan Band -- New Tattoo -- Pinecastle
8:15 PM -- McDermott's Reel / The Plough And The Stars / Miss McLeod's Reel -- Patrick Street -- Live From Patrick Street -- Green Linnet
8:22 PM -- Tomorrow I'll Be Gone -- Dailey & Vincent -- Brothers Of The Highway -- Rounder
8:26 PM -- John Hardy -- The Lilly Bros. & Don Stover -- Bluegrass At The Roots - 1961 -- Smithsonian Folkways
8:30 PM -- When I Was A Cowboy -- Adam Tanner & Frank Lee -- Two Mules -- Old 97 Wrecords
8:36 PM -- I Believe I'll Go Back Home -- Greg Brown -- Honey In The Lion's Head -- Trailer Records
8:41 PM -- Daddy Frank -- Jim Mills -- Hide Head Blues -- Sugar Hill
8:45 PM -- Mother's Little Children -- Dirk Powell -- Time Again -- Rounder
8:49 PM -- Riley's Hen House Door -- Riley Puckett -- Cluck Old Hen - A Barnyard Serenade 1926-1940 -- Old Hat Records
8:53 PM -- Rain In Durango -- Guy Clark -- My Favorite Picture Of You -- Dualtone
8:58 PM -- Mississippi Sawyer -- Wade Ward -- Clawhammer Banjo, Volume One -- County
***
9:04 PM -- Quick As Dreams -- Slaid Cleaves -- Wishbones -- Philo
9:08 PM -- Song For Jimmy Campbell -- The Williamson Brothers -- Bluegrass! -- Flatt Mountain Records
9:13 PM -- Riverman -- Deep Chatham -- Flood --www.deepchathammusic.com/Snake Tree Records
9:16 PM -- God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign -- Ralph Stanley -- A Distant Land To Roam -- Columbia/DMZ
9:19 PM -- Hello, My Name Is Coal -- Kathy Mattea -- Calling Me Home -- Sugar Hill
9:25 PM -- East Virginia Blues -- The South Carolina Broadcasters -- Short Time To Stay Here -- Flaming Heart Records
9:31 PM -- John Macdonald's -- Alasdair Fraser / Natalie Haas -- In The Moment -- Culburnie
9:36 PM -- Bittersweet -- Alice Gerrard -- Bittersweet -- Spruce & Maple Music
9:39 PM -- Walk Beside Me -- Red Molly -- Light In The Sky -- Red Molly
9:42 PM -- Fiddler Jones -- Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott -- Memories and Moments -- Full Skies Records
9:51 PM -- Waiting On A Train -- Steve Forbert -- Any Old Time -- Koch Records
9:53 PM -- Wild Mustang -- Peter Rowan and Tony Rice -- You Were There For Me -- Rounder Records
***
10:04 PM -- Doin' Time -- Claire Lynch -- Dear Sister -- Compass
10:09 PM -- Wreck Of The Dandenong -- Bruce Molsky -- If It Ain't Here When I Get Back -- Tree Frog Music
10:13 PM -- Cluck Ol' Hen -- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby -- Live - Cluck Ol' Hen -- Skaggs Family Records
10:17 PM -- Sugar Baby -- Dock Boggs -- Anthology Of American Folk Music -- Smithsonian Folkways
10:21 PM -- Bringing In The Georgia Mail -- Sam Bush -- Laps In Seven -- Sugar Hill
10:25 PM -- Nine String Susannah -- Eamonn Coyne -- Through The Round Window -- Cpmass Records
10:32 PM -- Tim Edey -- The Barra MacNeils -- The Celtic Colours Sessions -- http://barramacneils.com/
10:40 PM -- Yellow Rose Of Texas/Girl I Left Behind Me/Arkansas Traveler -- Hesperus -- A Civil War Scrapbook -- Maggie's Music
10:45 PM -- The House Carpenter -- Doc Watson -- At Gerdes Folk City -- Sugar Hill
10:51 PM -- That's Where I'm From -- Robbie Fulks -- Gone Away Backward -- Bloodshot Records
10:58 PM -- Bury Me Beneath The Willow -- Clarence White -- 33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals -- Sierra/Rural Rhythm
***
11:04 PM -- King Biscuit Stomp #2 -- Big Joe Williams -- Mississippi's Big Joe Williams and His Nine-String Guitar -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:09 PM -- 32-20 Blues -- Rory Block -- The Lady and Mr. Johnson -- Rykodisc
11:13 PM -- Goin' Back To Gary -- Furry Lewis -- Fourth & Beale -- Lucky Seven
11:22 PM -- See That My Grave Is Kept Clean -- Mavis Staples -- "Lightning In A Bottle" Soundtrack -- Columbia/Legacy
11:26 PM -- Bull Doze Blues -- Henry Thomas -- Texas Worried Blues -- Yazoo
11:32 PM -- Tom Moore Blues -- Mance Lipscomb -- You Got To Reap What You Sow -- Arhoolie
11:37 PM -- Mule Ridin' Blues -- Big Bill Broonzy -- Trouble In Mind -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:41 PM -- Blues and Trouble -- Scrapper Blackwell & Brooks Berry -- My Heart Struck Sorrow -- Bluesville
11:47 PM -- That's No Way To Do -- Pink Anderson -- Vol. 2 - Medicine Show Man -- Bluesville/OBC
11:51 PM -- Match Box Blues -- J.T. Adams & Shirley Griffith -- Indiana Ave. Blues -- Bluesville
11:55 PM -- Don't Forget It -- Blind Willie McTell -- Last Session -- Bluesville/OBC
***
Midnight Station ID & Join BBC World Service
##############
Back Porch Music/Freddy Jenkins 9-7-13 Saturday
***
8:00 PM - Midnight
***
8:00 PM Station ID, 8:01 PM NPR News
***
8:04 PM -- Another Saturday Night -- Dudley Connell and Don Rigsby -- Another Saturday Night -- Sugar Hill
8:07 PM -- June Apple -- Riley Baugus -- Long Steel Rail -- Sugar Hill
8:11 PM -- The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest -- Jerrry Garcia & David Grisman -- Been All Around This World -- Acoustic Disc
8:18 PM -- That's Kentucky -- Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road -- Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road -- Pinecastle
8:22 PM -- I Fall Back -- The Deadly Gentlemen -- Roll Me, Tumble Me -- Rounder
8:26 PM -- When I'm Gone -- The South Carolina Broadcasters -- Short Time To Stay Here -- Flaming Heart Records
8:31 PM -- Michael Hayes -- The Paul McKenna Band -- Elements -- Greentrax/Compass
8:36 PM -- Twilight Kingdom -- Tony Trischka -- Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular -- Rounder
8:44 PM -- Turn Your Radio On -- The Blue Sky Boys -- The Sunny Side Of Life -- Rounder
8:49 PM -- Minor Swing -- Hot Club Of Cowtown -- Rendezvous In Rhythm -- Gold Strike Records
8:53 PM -- Mary Jane's Last Breakdown -- Keller & The Keels -- Grass -- KW Enterprises
8:58 PM -- Windy And Warm -- Doc & Merle Watson -- Pickin' The Blues -- Flying Fish
***
9:04 PM -- Red-Haired Boy -- Al Petteway & Amy White -- Acoustic Journey -- Maggie's Music
9:08 PM -- Cinderella -- The Stairwell Sisters -- Get Off Your Money -- Yodel-Ay-Hee
9:12 PM -- On The Road -- John Hartford -- Morning Bugle -- Rounder
9:16 PM -- Trouble And Woe -- Ruth Moody -- These Wilder Things -- Red House Records
9:21 PM -- Ask My Father/Helvic Head -- Donal Clancy -- Close To Home -- Compass
9:26 PM -- Into The Mystic -- Bill Evans & Megan Lynch -- Let's Do Something... -- Native And Fine Records
9:31 PM -- The Morning Train -- The Kickin Grass Band -- Live At The Carolina Theatre -- www.kickingrass.com
9:35 PM -- Calico Plains -- Sally Jones -- Love Hurts -- Pinecastle Records
9:39 PM -- Carter's Blues -- Laurie Lewis -- Skippin' and Flyin' -- Spruce & Maple Music
9:44 PM -- Sail Away Ladies -- Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell With You Are My Flower -- Turn Turn Turn -- Festival Five Records
9:50 PM -- D Medley -- The Mammals -- Rock That Babe -- Signature Sounds
9:54 PM -- Give That Wildman A Knife/Bellows Falls/Waitin' On A Hannah -- The Stray Birds -- The Stray Birds --www.thestraybirds.com
***
10:04 PM -- Such Great Heights -- Joy Kills Sorrow -- Wide Awake -- Signature Sounds
10:08 PM -- We Don't Grow Tobacco -- Old Crow Medicine Show -- Carry Me Back -- ATO Records
10:12 PM -- World Go Round -- Storyhill -- Shade Of The Trees -- Red House Records
10:16 PM -- Tell The Ones I Love -- Steep Canyon Rangers -- Tell The Ones I Love -- Rounder Records
10:23 PM -- Ride Old Buck To Water -- The Skillet-Lickers -- Volume 5 (1930-1934) -- Document
10:26 PM -- Bonita and Bill Butler -- Alison Krauss & Union Station -- Paper Airplane -- Rounder Records
10:31 PM -- Tombstone Blues -- Richie Havens -- "I'm Not There" Soundtrack -- Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax
10:37 PM -- Banjoland -- Tom Neal -- Banjoland -- Patuxent Music
10:43 PM -- Sugar Hill / Sally Ann -- Bill & Libby Hicks -- South Of Nowhere -- Copper Creek Records
10:50 PM -- Paradise -- Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott w/John Prine -- Memories and Moments -- Full Skies
10:55 PM -- Reason To Believe -- Bruce Springsteen -- Nebraska -- Columbia
***
11:04 PM -- Metal Bottoms -- Cootie Stark -- Sugar Man -- Music Maker
11:09 PM -- Matchbox Blues -- John Jackson -- Country Blues & Ditties -- Arhoolie
11:12 PM -- I've Had My Fun -- Snooks Eaglin -- Country Boy Down In New Orleans -- Arhoolie
11:16 PM -- Stack Lee Blues -- Steve James -- Every Road I Take - The Best Of Acoustic Blues -- Shanachie
11:23 PM -- Texas Blues -- Robert Pete Williams -- Vol. 1 - I'm Blue As A Man Can Be -- Arhoolie
11:28 PM -- I'm A Steady Rollin' Man -- Robert Johnson -- The Complete Recordings -- Columbia/Legacy
11:31 PM -- Spider Web Blues -- Stefan Grossman -- Stefan Grossman's Shake That Thing: Fingerpicking Country Blues Guitar -- Shanachie
11:36 PM -- Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor -- Lucinda Williams -- Ramblin' -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:40 PM -- Shake 'Em On Down -- Lightnin' Wells -- Shake 'Em On Down -- Lignite Records
11:45 PM -- Candy Man -- Reverend Gary Davis -- Pure Religion and Bad Company -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:49 PM -- See That My Grave's Kept Clean -- Blind Lemon Jefferson -- The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson: Classic Recordings of the 1920's -- Yazoo
11:52 PM -- The Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues -- Blind Willie McTell -- Last Session -- Bluesville/OBC
11:55 PM -- Key To The Highway -- Jesse Fuller -- Jesse Fuller's Favorites -- Prestige/OBC
***
Midnight Station ID & Join BBC World Service
##############
Back Porch Music/Keith Weston 9-8-13 Sunday
***
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
***
8:04 PM -- Fire Engine -- Aoife O'Donovan -- Fossils -- Yep Roc
8:07 PM -- Back Rose of Texas -- Dave Alvin -- Eleven Eleven -- Ye Roc
8:13 PM -- Golden Slippers -- Foghorn Stringband -- Weiser Sunrise -- Nettwerk Records
8:16 PM -- Down In the Willow Garden -- The Chieftains w/Carolina Chocolate Drops -- Voice of the Ages -- Blackrock Records
8:19 PM -- Molly -- The Kickin Grass Band -- Live at the Carolina Theatre -- self
8:24 PM -- Somebody Loves Me -- The Hot Club of Cowtown -- Swingin' Stampede -- Hightones Records
8:26 PM -- Your Only Friend -- The Grasscats -- Desperate Times -- New Time Records
8:29 PM -- Gypsy Rose -- Tracy Grammer -- Flower of Avalon -- Signature Souinds
8:34 PM -- In The Jailhouse Now -- Jimmie Rodgers -- 1927-1928 First Sessions -- Rounder
8:37 PM -- Waiting On A Train -- Steve Forbert -- Any Old Time -- Koch Records
8:41 PM -- Runway Lights -- Richard Tillinghast -- Men and Their Machines -- self
8:46 PM -- Never Got Off the Ground -- Alison Krauss -- Forget About It -- Rounder
8:50 PM -- It Takes The Old Hen To Deliver the Goods -- Cliff Carlisle -- Cluck Old Hen: A Barnyard Serenade -- Old Hat
8:53 PM -- Who Broke The Lock -- The Highwoods String Band -- Feed Your Babies Onions -- Rounder
8:56 PM -- Baka -- Outback -- Baka -- Hannibal
***
9:04 PM -- Flint Hill Special -- Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs -- Foggy Mountain Jamboree -- Columbia Legacy
9:07 PM -- Saga of the Old West -- Steve Martin -- The Crow -- Rounder
9:10 PM -- Ghost Riders in the Sky -- Riders in the Sky -- Best of the West -- Rounder
9:13 PM -- Cool Water -- Sons of the Pioneers -- Classic Country Music Vol 1 -- RCA Smithonian
9:16 PM -- Barefoot Boy with Boots On -- John McCutcheon -- Barefoot Boy With Boots On -- Rounder
9:20 PM -- Jerusalem Ridge -- The Tony Rice Unit -- Unit Of Measure -- Rounder
9:27 PM -- The Seagulls of Scarba / How I Passed the Winter / Fair John's Sister / St. Kilda's Dance -- Bonnie Rideout -- A Scottish Fiddle Collection -- Maggie's Music
9:33 PM -- High on a Mountain -- Ola Belle Reed -- Classic Mountain Songs -- Smithsonian Folkways
9:36 PM -- The Way The Whole Thing Ends -- Gillian Welch -- The Harrow & The Harvest -- Acony Records
9:42 PM -- Walking Over My Grave -- Holy Ghost Tent Revival -- So Long I Screamed -- self
9:48 PM -- September Grass -- James Taylor -- October Road -- Columbia
9:53 PM -- Dear Mary -- Linda Thompson -- Fashionably Late -- Rounder
9:56 PM -- I'll Sing This Song For You -- Angel Band -- With Roots & Wings -- Appleseed
***
10:04 PM -- Drivin Wheel -- David Bromberg & The David Bromberg Band -- Only Slighty Mad -- Appleseed Records
10:11 PM -- Sail Away Ladies -- Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell With You Are My Flower -- Turn Turn Turn -- Festival Five Records
10:14 PM -- Music in the Virginia Hills -- Wolfe Bros. -- Music in the Virginia Hills -- Old Virginia Records
10:17 PM -- Southern Downtown -- Tift Merritt -- Traveling Companion -- Yep Roc
10:23 PM -- Waltz for Pamela -- Alan Bibey & Wayne Benson -- Mandolin Chronicles -- Pinecastle Records
10:26 PM -- Bottom of the Mountain -- Joe Mulins & The Radio Ramblers -- They're Playing My Song -- Rebel
10:30 PM -- The Way It Is -- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby -- Cluck Ol Hen (Live) -- Ingrooves
10:41 PM -- Thanks To You -- Chris Smither -- Small Revelations -- Hightone Records
10:43 PM -- Coming In on a Wing and Prayer -- Joseph Spence -- The Complete Recordings -- Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
10:46 PM -- Brother Wind -- Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott -- Memories and Moments -- Ful Skies
10:53 PM -- Oh, Had I A Golden Thread -- Pete Seeger -- If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope and Struggle -- Smithsonian Folkways
BPM is still on and if you are a folkie or a roots music person, you would love it. You can stream it, can get it various way. I wanted to share this past weekend's playlist with you. The staff always emails out to followers so that we can be sure to identify all that we have heard, sometimes for the very first time.
The Friday night show opened at 8 with Rebecca Frazier and closed with Blind Willie McTell. On Saturday night, Dudley Connell and Don Rigsby started things off, with Jesse Fuller closing down the night at midnight. Unbelievably, they are back on Sunday at 8 pm for a third night, this time beginning with Aoife O'Donovan. The national treasure Pete Seeger closed out the night and the weekend But a new, unique, well-chosen program will be back every single weekend.
For you true traditional music lovers, here is the past weekend's entire playlist. It will blow your mind:
Monday Greetings! Here are the most recent Back Porch Music
playlists. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support
of Back Porch Music and North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC!
###
Back Porch Music/Freddy Jenkins 9-6-13 Friday
***
8:00 PM - Midnight
***
8:00 PM Station ID, 8:01 PM NPR News
***
8:04 PM -- Clifftop -- Rebecca Frazier -- When We Fall -- Amtoco/Compass
8:08 PM -- Helpless Wanderer -- Underhill Rose -- Something Real --www.underhillrose.com
8:11 PM -- In Bristol Town -- The John Cowan Band -- New Tattoo -- Pinecastle
8:15 PM -- McDermott's Reel / The Plough And The Stars / Miss McLeod's Reel -- Patrick Street -- Live From Patrick Street -- Green Linnet
8:22 PM -- Tomorrow I'll Be Gone -- Dailey & Vincent -- Brothers Of The Highway -- Rounder
8:26 PM -- John Hardy -- The Lilly Bros. & Don Stover -- Bluegrass At The Roots - 1961 -- Smithsonian Folkways
8:30 PM -- When I Was A Cowboy -- Adam Tanner & Frank Lee -- Two Mules -- Old 97 Wrecords
8:36 PM -- I Believe I'll Go Back Home -- Greg Brown -- Honey In The Lion's Head -- Trailer Records
8:41 PM -- Daddy Frank -- Jim Mills -- Hide Head Blues -- Sugar Hill
8:45 PM -- Mother's Little Children -- Dirk Powell -- Time Again -- Rounder
8:49 PM -- Riley's Hen House Door -- Riley Puckett -- Cluck Old Hen - A Barnyard Serenade 1926-1940 -- Old Hat Records
8:53 PM -- Rain In Durango -- Guy Clark -- My Favorite Picture Of You -- Dualtone
8:58 PM -- Mississippi Sawyer -- Wade Ward -- Clawhammer Banjo, Volume One -- County
***
9:04 PM -- Quick As Dreams -- Slaid Cleaves -- Wishbones -- Philo
9:08 PM -- Song For Jimmy Campbell -- The Williamson Brothers -- Bluegrass! -- Flatt Mountain Records
9:13 PM -- Riverman -- Deep Chatham -- Flood --www.deepchathammusic.com/Snake Tree Records
9:16 PM -- God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign -- Ralph Stanley -- A Distant Land To Roam -- Columbia/DMZ
9:19 PM -- Hello, My Name Is Coal -- Kathy Mattea -- Calling Me Home -- Sugar Hill
9:25 PM -- East Virginia Blues -- The South Carolina Broadcasters -- Short Time To Stay Here -- Flaming Heart Records
9:31 PM -- John Macdonald's -- Alasdair Fraser / Natalie Haas -- In The Moment -- Culburnie
9:36 PM -- Bittersweet -- Alice Gerrard -- Bittersweet -- Spruce & Maple Music
9:39 PM -- Walk Beside Me -- Red Molly -- Light In The Sky -- Red Molly
9:42 PM -- Fiddler Jones -- Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott -- Memories and Moments -- Full Skies Records
9:51 PM -- Waiting On A Train -- Steve Forbert -- Any Old Time -- Koch Records
9:53 PM -- Wild Mustang -- Peter Rowan and Tony Rice -- You Were There For Me -- Rounder Records
***
10:04 PM -- Doin' Time -- Claire Lynch -- Dear Sister -- Compass
10:09 PM -- Wreck Of The Dandenong -- Bruce Molsky -- If It Ain't Here When I Get Back -- Tree Frog Music
10:13 PM -- Cluck Ol' Hen -- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby -- Live - Cluck Ol' Hen -- Skaggs Family Records
10:17 PM -- Sugar Baby -- Dock Boggs -- Anthology Of American Folk Music -- Smithsonian Folkways
10:21 PM -- Bringing In The Georgia Mail -- Sam Bush -- Laps In Seven -- Sugar Hill
10:25 PM -- Nine String Susannah -- Eamonn Coyne -- Through The Round Window -- Cpmass Records
10:32 PM -- Tim Edey -- The Barra MacNeils -- The Celtic Colours Sessions -- http://barramacneils.com/
10:40 PM -- Yellow Rose Of Texas/Girl I Left Behind Me/Arkansas Traveler -- Hesperus -- A Civil War Scrapbook -- Maggie's Music
10:45 PM -- The House Carpenter -- Doc Watson -- At Gerdes Folk City -- Sugar Hill
10:51 PM -- That's Where I'm From -- Robbie Fulks -- Gone Away Backward -- Bloodshot Records
10:58 PM -- Bury Me Beneath The Willow -- Clarence White -- 33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals -- Sierra/Rural Rhythm
***
11:04 PM -- King Biscuit Stomp #2 -- Big Joe Williams -- Mississippi's Big Joe Williams and His Nine-String Guitar -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:09 PM -- 32-20 Blues -- Rory Block -- The Lady and Mr. Johnson -- Rykodisc
11:13 PM -- Goin' Back To Gary -- Furry Lewis -- Fourth & Beale -- Lucky Seven
11:22 PM -- See That My Grave Is Kept Clean -- Mavis Staples -- "Lightning In A Bottle" Soundtrack -- Columbia/Legacy
11:26 PM -- Bull Doze Blues -- Henry Thomas -- Texas Worried Blues -- Yazoo
11:32 PM -- Tom Moore Blues -- Mance Lipscomb -- You Got To Reap What You Sow -- Arhoolie
11:37 PM -- Mule Ridin' Blues -- Big Bill Broonzy -- Trouble In Mind -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:41 PM -- Blues and Trouble -- Scrapper Blackwell & Brooks Berry -- My Heart Struck Sorrow -- Bluesville
11:47 PM -- That's No Way To Do -- Pink Anderson -- Vol. 2 - Medicine Show Man -- Bluesville/OBC
11:51 PM -- Match Box Blues -- J.T. Adams & Shirley Griffith -- Indiana Ave. Blues -- Bluesville
11:55 PM -- Don't Forget It -- Blind Willie McTell -- Last Session -- Bluesville/OBC
***
Midnight Station ID & Join BBC World Service
##############
Back Porch Music/Freddy Jenkins 9-7-13 Saturday
***
8:00 PM - Midnight
***
8:00 PM Station ID, 8:01 PM NPR News
***
8:04 PM -- Another Saturday Night -- Dudley Connell and Don Rigsby -- Another Saturday Night -- Sugar Hill
8:07 PM -- June Apple -- Riley Baugus -- Long Steel Rail -- Sugar Hill
8:11 PM -- The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest -- Jerrry Garcia & David Grisman -- Been All Around This World -- Acoustic Disc
8:18 PM -- That's Kentucky -- Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road -- Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road -- Pinecastle
8:22 PM -- I Fall Back -- The Deadly Gentlemen -- Roll Me, Tumble Me -- Rounder
8:26 PM -- When I'm Gone -- The South Carolina Broadcasters -- Short Time To Stay Here -- Flaming Heart Records
8:31 PM -- Michael Hayes -- The Paul McKenna Band -- Elements -- Greentrax/Compass
8:36 PM -- Twilight Kingdom -- Tony Trischka -- Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular -- Rounder
8:44 PM -- Turn Your Radio On -- The Blue Sky Boys -- The Sunny Side Of Life -- Rounder
8:49 PM -- Minor Swing -- Hot Club Of Cowtown -- Rendezvous In Rhythm -- Gold Strike Records
8:53 PM -- Mary Jane's Last Breakdown -- Keller & The Keels -- Grass -- KW Enterprises
8:58 PM -- Windy And Warm -- Doc & Merle Watson -- Pickin' The Blues -- Flying Fish
***
9:04 PM -- Red-Haired Boy -- Al Petteway & Amy White -- Acoustic Journey -- Maggie's Music
9:08 PM -- Cinderella -- The Stairwell Sisters -- Get Off Your Money -- Yodel-Ay-Hee
9:12 PM -- On The Road -- John Hartford -- Morning Bugle -- Rounder
9:16 PM -- Trouble And Woe -- Ruth Moody -- These Wilder Things -- Red House Records
9:21 PM -- Ask My Father/Helvic Head -- Donal Clancy -- Close To Home -- Compass
9:26 PM -- Into The Mystic -- Bill Evans & Megan Lynch -- Let's Do Something... -- Native And Fine Records
9:31 PM -- The Morning Train -- The Kickin Grass Band -- Live At The Carolina Theatre -- www.kickingrass.com
9:35 PM -- Calico Plains -- Sally Jones -- Love Hurts -- Pinecastle Records
9:39 PM -- Carter's Blues -- Laurie Lewis -- Skippin' and Flyin' -- Spruce & Maple Music
9:44 PM -- Sail Away Ladies -- Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell With You Are My Flower -- Turn Turn Turn -- Festival Five Records
9:50 PM -- D Medley -- The Mammals -- Rock That Babe -- Signature Sounds
9:54 PM -- Give That Wildman A Knife/Bellows Falls/Waitin' On A Hannah -- The Stray Birds -- The Stray Birds --www.thestraybirds.com
***
10:04 PM -- Such Great Heights -- Joy Kills Sorrow -- Wide Awake -- Signature Sounds
10:08 PM -- We Don't Grow Tobacco -- Old Crow Medicine Show -- Carry Me Back -- ATO Records
10:12 PM -- World Go Round -- Storyhill -- Shade Of The Trees -- Red House Records
10:16 PM -- Tell The Ones I Love -- Steep Canyon Rangers -- Tell The Ones I Love -- Rounder Records
10:23 PM -- Ride Old Buck To Water -- The Skillet-Lickers -- Volume 5 (1930-1934) -- Document
10:26 PM -- Bonita and Bill Butler -- Alison Krauss & Union Station -- Paper Airplane -- Rounder Records
10:31 PM -- Tombstone Blues -- Richie Havens -- "I'm Not There" Soundtrack -- Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax
10:37 PM -- Banjoland -- Tom Neal -- Banjoland -- Patuxent Music
10:43 PM -- Sugar Hill / Sally Ann -- Bill & Libby Hicks -- South Of Nowhere -- Copper Creek Records
10:50 PM -- Paradise -- Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott w/John Prine -- Memories and Moments -- Full Skies
10:55 PM -- Reason To Believe -- Bruce Springsteen -- Nebraska -- Columbia
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11:04 PM -- Metal Bottoms -- Cootie Stark -- Sugar Man -- Music Maker
11:09 PM -- Matchbox Blues -- John Jackson -- Country Blues & Ditties -- Arhoolie
11:12 PM -- I've Had My Fun -- Snooks Eaglin -- Country Boy Down In New Orleans -- Arhoolie
11:16 PM -- Stack Lee Blues -- Steve James -- Every Road I Take - The Best Of Acoustic Blues -- Shanachie
11:23 PM -- Texas Blues -- Robert Pete Williams -- Vol. 1 - I'm Blue As A Man Can Be -- Arhoolie
11:28 PM -- I'm A Steady Rollin' Man -- Robert Johnson -- The Complete Recordings -- Columbia/Legacy
11:31 PM -- Spider Web Blues -- Stefan Grossman -- Stefan Grossman's Shake That Thing: Fingerpicking Country Blues Guitar -- Shanachie
11:36 PM -- Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor -- Lucinda Williams -- Ramblin' -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:40 PM -- Shake 'Em On Down -- Lightnin' Wells -- Shake 'Em On Down -- Lignite Records
11:45 PM -- Candy Man -- Reverend Gary Davis -- Pure Religion and Bad Company -- Smithsonian Folkways
11:49 PM -- See That My Grave's Kept Clean -- Blind Lemon Jefferson -- The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson: Classic Recordings of the 1920's -- Yazoo
11:52 PM -- The Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues -- Blind Willie McTell -- Last Session -- Bluesville/OBC
11:55 PM -- Key To The Highway -- Jesse Fuller -- Jesse Fuller's Favorites -- Prestige/OBC
***
Midnight Station ID & Join BBC World Service
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Back Porch Music/Keith Weston 9-8-13 Sunday
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8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
***
8:04 PM -- Fire Engine -- Aoife O'Donovan -- Fossils -- Yep Roc
8:07 PM -- Back Rose of Texas -- Dave Alvin -- Eleven Eleven -- Ye Roc
8:13 PM -- Golden Slippers -- Foghorn Stringband -- Weiser Sunrise -- Nettwerk Records
8:16 PM -- Down In the Willow Garden -- The Chieftains w/Carolina Chocolate Drops -- Voice of the Ages -- Blackrock Records
8:19 PM -- Molly -- The Kickin Grass Band -- Live at the Carolina Theatre -- self
8:24 PM -- Somebody Loves Me -- The Hot Club of Cowtown -- Swingin' Stampede -- Hightones Records
8:26 PM -- Your Only Friend -- The Grasscats -- Desperate Times -- New Time Records
8:29 PM -- Gypsy Rose -- Tracy Grammer -- Flower of Avalon -- Signature Souinds
8:34 PM -- In The Jailhouse Now -- Jimmie Rodgers -- 1927-1928 First Sessions -- Rounder
8:37 PM -- Waiting On A Train -- Steve Forbert -- Any Old Time -- Koch Records
8:41 PM -- Runway Lights -- Richard Tillinghast -- Men and Their Machines -- self
8:46 PM -- Never Got Off the Ground -- Alison Krauss -- Forget About It -- Rounder
8:50 PM -- It Takes The Old Hen To Deliver the Goods -- Cliff Carlisle -- Cluck Old Hen: A Barnyard Serenade -- Old Hat
8:53 PM -- Who Broke The Lock -- The Highwoods String Band -- Feed Your Babies Onions -- Rounder
8:56 PM -- Baka -- Outback -- Baka -- Hannibal
***
9:04 PM -- Flint Hill Special -- Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs -- Foggy Mountain Jamboree -- Columbia Legacy
9:07 PM -- Saga of the Old West -- Steve Martin -- The Crow -- Rounder
9:10 PM -- Ghost Riders in the Sky -- Riders in the Sky -- Best of the West -- Rounder
9:13 PM -- Cool Water -- Sons of the Pioneers -- Classic Country Music Vol 1 -- RCA Smithonian
9:16 PM -- Barefoot Boy with Boots On -- John McCutcheon -- Barefoot Boy With Boots On -- Rounder
9:20 PM -- Jerusalem Ridge -- The Tony Rice Unit -- Unit Of Measure -- Rounder
9:27 PM -- The Seagulls of Scarba / How I Passed the Winter / Fair John's Sister / St. Kilda's Dance -- Bonnie Rideout -- A Scottish Fiddle Collection -- Maggie's Music
9:33 PM -- High on a Mountain -- Ola Belle Reed -- Classic Mountain Songs -- Smithsonian Folkways
9:36 PM -- The Way The Whole Thing Ends -- Gillian Welch -- The Harrow & The Harvest -- Acony Records
9:42 PM -- Walking Over My Grave -- Holy Ghost Tent Revival -- So Long I Screamed -- self
9:48 PM -- September Grass -- James Taylor -- October Road -- Columbia
9:53 PM -- Dear Mary -- Linda Thompson -- Fashionably Late -- Rounder
9:56 PM -- I'll Sing This Song For You -- Angel Band -- With Roots & Wings -- Appleseed
***
10:04 PM -- Drivin Wheel -- David Bromberg & The David Bromberg Band -- Only Slighty Mad -- Appleseed Records
10:11 PM -- Sail Away Ladies -- Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell With You Are My Flower -- Turn Turn Turn -- Festival Five Records
10:14 PM -- Music in the Virginia Hills -- Wolfe Bros. -- Music in the Virginia Hills -- Old Virginia Records
10:17 PM -- Southern Downtown -- Tift Merritt -- Traveling Companion -- Yep Roc
10:23 PM -- Waltz for Pamela -- Alan Bibey & Wayne Benson -- Mandolin Chronicles -- Pinecastle Records
10:26 PM -- Bottom of the Mountain -- Joe Mulins & The Radio Ramblers -- They're Playing My Song -- Rebel
10:30 PM -- The Way It Is -- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby -- Cluck Ol Hen (Live) -- Ingrooves
10:41 PM -- Thanks To You -- Chris Smither -- Small Revelations -- Hightone Records
10:43 PM -- Coming In on a Wing and Prayer -- Joseph Spence -- The Complete Recordings -- Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
10:46 PM -- Brother Wind -- Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott -- Memories and Moments -- Ful Skies
10:53 PM -- Oh, Had I A Golden Thread -- Pete Seeger -- If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope and Struggle -- Smithsonian Folkways
Sunday, September 8, 2013
A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke, one of the greatest vocalists, and A Change Is Gone Come, one of the greatest songs. He sings, "I don't know what's up there beyond the sky." I don't know what is "out there" either. But I do know as the Eastern Namaste cultures know that there is the divine in each of us. The Buddha taught that each of us has a buddha nature. And Jesus said "The kingdom of God is within you."
I hope to live to see us look here, within ourselves, not waiting for up there or out there, and make the change come for the suffering people in this world. Helping them and being stewards over the earth are our only sacred duties.
My generation was going to change away from Mr. Businessman and war and to save the world but look at what the Boomers' lifetimes have included. I sum it up with BMWs and Iraq, and now Citizens United and the repeal of the guts of the Voting Rights Act.
Is Change Gone Come? We are the only ones who can make it so.
A reminder
Reminding us that we had warnings decades ago about the real nature and real agenda of the Republican Party. Too bad we did not heed the message and band together to prevent their ascension to power.
I confess I was blind and duped, after having been a radical leftie in my younger days, seduced by the intellectual brand of Republican, all of whom are dead and gone and ignored by today's body-snatched Republican Party. But Reagan kicked off his 84 re-election campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town known for absolutely nothing except the murders of the three Civil Rights Workers, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, by the KKK. And look at Nixon's racist "Southern Strategy". Tokens like the totally not racist Jack Kemp also dead and gone.
Will Rogers said, "I am not a member of any organized political party - I am a Democrat." Well, let's get organized and run the racist idiots who have perverted the meaning of Christianity, want an American Taliban, and who literally hate the poor and cheer at the thought of the uninsured dying, let's run them out of town, out of the country, off the planet at least to little Pluto, and maybe out of this galaxy.
I confess I was blind and duped, after having been a radical leftie in my younger days, seduced by the intellectual brand of Republican, all of whom are dead and gone and ignored by today's body-snatched Republican Party. But Reagan kicked off his 84 re-election campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town known for absolutely nothing except the murders of the three Civil Rights Workers, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, by the KKK. And look at Nixon's racist "Southern Strategy". Tokens like the totally not racist Jack Kemp also dead and gone.
Will Rogers said, "I am not a member of any organized political party - I am a Democrat." Well, let's get organized and run the racist idiots who have perverted the meaning of Christianity, want an American Taliban, and who literally hate the poor and cheer at the thought of the uninsured dying, let's run them out of town, out of the country, off the planet at least to little Pluto, and maybe out of this galaxy.
I personally know members of the party of Lincoln who applaud his assassination. These people are worse than biting, poisonous insect. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. I am trying, but failing and I pray for the strength to learn to do that.
Nature's child, a white wolf
This white wolf, this child of God is so beautiful. Look at her face, her eyes. I only wish I could safely hold her in my arms. Just seeing her and knowing she is out there brings me such joy, better than any drug could ever do, a rush of love, euphoria, passion, a gift to me from the beauty of Nature.
We must SAVE THE WOLVES!
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Whiskeytown (playlist)
From Emmylou's tribute to the late and terribly lamented Grievous Angel, Gram Parsons.
Our Constitutional Duty
Our current Congress is a total failure and the executive branch is somewhat ineffectual and ineffective. The Constitution tells us to throw out such governments. Well, I am not suggesting that, but We The People need to write, call, email, fax, and appear in the offices of all our representative.
We need to worn the stuff out of them an make them behave.
I do not know the truth about who is standing up right now because all the publicity goes to the town hall meeting of conservative congressmen whose constituents yell and scream and applaud letting their fellow human beings die in the streets.
Where are the rest of us? Where are we who truly believe that whatever the way we treat the least of these among us, we are treating Christ that way?
You do NOT have to be religious. You can be an atheist and still maintain a mind open enough to realize that the Prophet Jesus left us beautiful lessons on how to treat and love one another, even our enemies.
Or you can be motivated by an entirely different ethic of human rights, but ACT.
I am talking to me, too, so don't think I am down on you. We all need to band together and create a new Civil and Human Rights movement and force our "representative democracy" (supposedly) to become a decent, humane government that serves its people and is a good citizen of the World.
We need to worn the stuff out of them an make them behave.
I do not know the truth about who is standing up right now because all the publicity goes to the town hall meeting of conservative congressmen whose constituents yell and scream and applaud letting their fellow human beings die in the streets.
Where are the rest of us? Where are we who truly believe that whatever the way we treat the least of these among us, we are treating Christ that way?
You do NOT have to be religious. You can be an atheist and still maintain a mind open enough to realize that the Prophet Jesus left us beautiful lessons on how to treat and love one another, even our enemies.
Or you can be motivated by an entirely different ethic of human rights, but ACT.
I am talking to me, too, so don't think I am down on you. We all need to band together and create a new Civil and Human Rights movement and force our "representative democracy" (supposedly) to become a decent, humane government that serves its people and is a good citizen of the World.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Watching Mom slip away
My mom sacrificed so much for me. She endured my father's abuse to protect me and to provide me with as normal a life as she could, only she was too afraid to leave him and strike out on her own, her only misstep.
She helped me through college and then through graduate school all the way to my PhD, so that I graduated with absolutely no debt. She even helped to finance a two-year stay in Boston in the Eighties when I was offered the chance to be a Visiting Scientist in Noam Chomsky's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. My shoebox apartment in Boston was so small that it could not contain a sofa. I had 2 chairs in my living room, and yet this tiny third-floor walkup still cost almost $700 per month even way back in 1987.
When my step-father died, the house they had shared for twenty-one years was sold according to his wishes so that its worth could be shared by Mom and his two children. It was devastating to her to be sorting through his belts and shoes, making decisions on what to keep and what to send here or there with him gone just a few short months, but she bore this just like she had everything else in her life. She stood tall, she smiled, she loved, and she got it done. She found herself a smaller house, one that she could afford alone, and bought it and put to work her decorating magic. Everyone who ever entered the home stopped cold when they looked into her living room and commented on what a "charming," "beautiful" place it was. And it was. Mom put that house in my name almost 20 years ago so that no matter what may happen to her or to me, I would always have a roof over my head.
Then last fall she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She had had it a while, but I was in denial about her symptoms. Looking back, I can see the signs. Mom had seen her own mother lost to that disease and die from its complications, and it was her greatest fear. And now it has happened to her. My heart broke for her. I brought her here to live with me, but not being used to my house, she tripped and fell one Saturday night, breaking her shoulder. After that it was the hospital, then rehab in a skilled nursing home, then on to Assisted Living.
A few months ago, she fell one beautiful Sunday morning in her room at the assisted living center and broke her hip. She had emergency surgery that day. Then it was back to rehab, where on her 5th day there, they let her fall out of her wheelchair where she had been left unbuckled in and unattended. She broke the same hip in a different place and had a second emergency surgery that night, a scant week after the first surgery, with a new incision cut across the original one, which had barely begun to heal.
Both surgeries have healed now, but she cannot stand on the foot on that side and therefore cannot walk, even with a walker, thus not qualifying to get out of this horrible place and return to Assisted Living or to my home. No one has been able to determine why she cannot control her foot. It seems to be the Alzheimer's, now beginning to rob her of control of her own body.
We are private pay at the skilled nursing/rehab center and are going broke at almost $6000 per month, the money she worked so hard for all of her life and guarded so carefully, denying herself luxuries, vacations, lots of new clothes, all her life, but thankfully she is unaware of money, the need for money, now. When she runs out, she will fall upon Medicaid, something she would never want, but thankfully she won't realize, and so she won't have it to feel bad about.
As the months wear on, my dear mother is sinking deeper into Alzheimer's. She has no appetite, no interest in food. She has lost down from 130 pounds to 98 pounds since she fell and broke her shoulder.
I am losing her.
I cannot imagine living in a world without her in it. She makes the world a better place just by being here. She has always been kind and generous, loving and forgiving to everyone she has ever known, even to my dad. And she always was and still is beautiful. God gave Mom and me to each other, and He truly knew what He was doing. We are a perfect pair. She was my best friend all through high school and college, and I could talk to her about anything, literally anything. And I did. I can still see her sitting on the closed toilet lid cover watching me do my hair and makeup for a date as we talked girl talk the entire time I got ready for a date.
Her health as a child and young woman had been very poor, and no one, not even her doctors could believe she carried me to term and that I was born a healthy, happy baby. She was never able to have another child. She lost one baby when I was twelve, and I think it was for the best. The pregnancy might have killed her. My dad never acknowledged the life she was carrying; she had to grieve the loss of that little one alone.
How will I live without her?
Who will I turn to when I need to hear a loving voice?
What will I do when I feel this need to hug her, to hold her in my arms, but she is not there?
Because of my little stroke this summer, no one wants me to visit her. They do not want her to see me until I fully recover in order to protect her from the worry and sorrow and how terribly upset she would be at how sick I look. I have some symptoms like those of Parkinson's Disease, and they cannot be hidden. She would be so worried about me if she saw me. All my symptoms are improving. They will not last forever. But right now I am going through Mom withdrawal.
I know how blessed I am to have had her for 64 years of my life. I have dear friends who lost their mothers while they were in college, in their teens and early twenties. My heart breaks for them.
I do not want to want too much. I know I am already blessed, but how will I ever be able to say goodbye to the love of my life?
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| One Christmas morning around 2002 |
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| A Polaroid I took of Mom, Bo, and Gray Cat, 2000 |
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| Mom with Duke around 2005 |
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| Mom with poor little Miss Gretta 2005 |
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