blood-at-quarter-to-fifteen

Rinah’s first period today. Rivka had planned to be prepared with an assortment of products. Whoops. Rinah had procured a pad from a friend, which got us to Walgreens and back.

Bank account precarious again. There have been times when the kids have more money than us.

Full moon. Pesach aka passover. Six guests came: Helen and Mark, Jaime, Karissa and Erin, and Ray who plays percussion with us and sings at UU Church.

A Haggadah from If Not Now. More songs.

In ale gasn/Daloy politsey

Traditional Yiddish protest song

Based on a medley of two early twentieth-century Eastern European protest songs popular among Bundists and anarchists. Originally against tsarism and capitalism, the choir ‘down with the police!’ has been adapted by contemporary artists like Geoff Berner and Isabel Frey in struggles against police brutality and the European right. In this version, the police become the IDF, the tsar - a.k.a. Pharaoh - is Netanyahu, and Mitzrayim - the “narrow place” - is, until all who live there are free, the land “between the river and the sea.”

Everywhere you go, on every street
You hear rumblings.
Men, women and children
are talking about strikes.

continues…

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Bella Ciao

Unknown author/composer

One morning I awakened,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader.

continues…

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Le déserteur

Boris Vian, Harold Berg and Michel Mouloudji

First performed in 1954 on the anniversary of the defeat of US-backed French forces at Điên Biên Phư, ”The Deserter” was banned by French radio until 1962 but quickly became a global antiwar anthem. There are versions in over 45 languages, including Esperanto, Welsh, Catalan, Breton, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Yiddish. As Vian put it, “my song is not at all antimilitarist, but admittedly, it is violently pro-civilian.”

Monsieur President
I’m not coming to your fucking war (in French, though)

continues…

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The Partisan / La complainte du partisan

by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigérie

“The Partisan” is an anti-fascist anthem about the French Resistance in World War II. Marly performed it and other songs on the BBC’s French service, through which she and her songs were an inspiration to the Resistance. The French and English versions are very similar in content, except the last stanza, which is much more positive: the resistance will come out of the shadows and freedom will return. The Resistance is shown more as a hero, who is placed in the light, once freedom has returned, as opposed to the French version, where the Resistance will return to the shadows once freedom comes, suggesting the Resistance will always be needed. We decided to include both verses to reflect both of these possibilities.

Leonard Cohen has a famous version of it.

I have changed my name so often
I’ve lost my wife and children
But I have many friends
The whole of France is behind me

continues…

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We imposters continue our hopeless endeavors on the off chance that something will be effective at something somewhere sometime somehow.

Ashirah today suggested that the best way to die would be to eat something most delicious which would kill you in a few days and then spend the next few days spending all your money enjoying yourself.

Yeah. That’s why we do it.

It doesn’t have a style. This isn’t prose or poetry. It’s not narrative. Not verse. Is it even writing. Would be forwards writing wouldn’t it gintirw sdrawkcab sdrawkcab gintirw.

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Crowd sourced sheet music at MuseScore. Check it. Petrucci Music Library totally free. Traditional Music Library annoyingly all pictures of the music, but fantastic resource for folk and traditional songs.

22/04/2024