My Favourite Things (MFT): October 24, 2023
Reimagining Peter & The Wolf, revisiting Allen Ginsberg and Morgan Freeman's God stories, Glen Hansard's new music, four wonderful friends whose posts consoled and inspired me, and much more.
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There’s an awful lot going on right now and most of it feels pretty … well, awful. Here are a few things that, I hope, will counter all that negative energy with some hope and whimsy, courage and delight.
Revisiting remastered The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
Thirty years after it first was released, the documentary film, The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, is being re-released in a digitally remastered form, which begins streaming today on Amazon, Apple TV, iTunes, OVID & Kanopy.
The 1993 remastered film is also being released simultaneously as a deluxe two-volume DVD box-set, with more than six hours of exclusive bonus material, including Ginsberg reading additional poems, the making of the film, the poet walking through the Solomon Gallery describing his photos, his tribute memorial at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ginsberg and Bob Dylan at Jack Kerouac's grave, Gus Van Sant directing the music video for Ballad of the Skeletons, and 30 interviews with fancy folks who are diehard Ginsberg fans, including Ken Kesey, Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary, our Dear Patricia (aka Patti Smith), and Bono, among others.
Speaking of Bono, I’ve had Ginsberg on the brain of late for two reasons: The first, because my son is a student at Naropa University, which the poet had a hand in founding, where he taught poetry for years and helped establish the university’s Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics.
The second reason is that Bono keeps mentioning Ginsberg and his poem, “Kaddish,” during U2’s shows at Sphere in Las Vegas, usually when he’s introducing, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which the Irishman says Ginsberg (and the biblical psalmist King David) inspired.
The documentary, directed by Jerry Aronson, is iconic. I don’t believe I saw it when it first came around, and perhaps caught bits of it over the years. But last week I watched the whole thing twice and found it fascinating and also surprisingly moving. There’s a scene where Ginsberg shows up at the student demonstrations in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (which coincided with my husband arriving as a freshman at Loyola University on the city’s North Side, btw).
The scene was a powder keg about to blow, and at one point, Ginsberg grabs a walkie-talkie tethered to a loudhailer and just chants “Ommmmmmmmm” over and over as if his life, and the lives of thousands of others, depended on it. (See the photo above on the left. On the right is a teenage Ginsberg who bears a striking resemblance to the bass player in Bono’s band when he was younger. The poet and the bassist looked nothing alike in their later years.)
Ginsberg’s mindful chanting was such a dear, desperate, and ultimately futile effort. But it was beautiful. He was trying to turn the energy down, to bring some calm to a volatile situation. And he did. It just wasn’t enough to stop the infamous police violence against largely peaceful and unarmed anti-war protestors that was to come.
I do so love the Beats. Ferlinghetti is my favourite, but Ginsberg has stolen my heart anew. I learned a lot in these recent viewings and heard his poetry with fresh ears. I’m so glad I did. Maybe you will be, too.
Here’s the trailer.
Glen Hansard’s new All That Was East Is West of Me Now
Glen Hansard is a lovely human being. He’s also an exceptionally talented musician and storyteller as well as a longtime activist/advocate on behalf of Ireland’s outsized unhoused population.
Hansard’s new album, All That Was East Is West Of Me Now is just gorgeous.
He’s a new dad—his son Christy was born a year ago—and we’re exactly the same age. I’d imagine fatherhood and fiftysomethingness both have broken open his heart and spirit in new ways. It sounds to me like they have and we’re all the better for it.
Bless him.
Last weekend, Hansard took to Instagram and played the ENTIRE new album live at his kitchen table. Do yourself a kindness and have a listen by clicking through below.
Peter & the Wolf: An animated reimagining
Yes, it’s a lot of Irish content, I realize, but you should probably go ahead and get used to that as my life swings Eire-ward in the coming months. More on that another day.
Last week also brought the debut of a new animated short film, Peter & the Wolf on MAX. It’s a collaborative creation between Bono and one of his best mates, Gavin Friday, the musician and artist who is a frequent creative conspirator with U2 and has been friends with all the band members since they were barely in their teens. The 33-minute-long animated Peter & the Wolf, which Friday narrates in his distinctively deep, practically purring brogue, began 20 years ago when Friday and Bono collaborated on a book (for children of all ages) and a musical reimagining of Sergei Prokofiev’s symphonic telling of the Peter and the Wolf folktale (performed by the Friday-Seezer Ensemble) with original illustrations by Bono.
During the COVID lockdowns, the lifelong friends came up with the idea to turn the animate the drawings and make a film. The result is more than a little bit magic. While the color palette is a punk-esque black-white-grey-and-Scorcese-red ( perhaps a nod to one of U2’s iconic color schemes), there is nothing stark or binary about the story, which has been smartly updated to fit 2023 sensibilities.
There are a few twists that Prokofiev might not have envisioned when he composed a symphony around an old folk story in 1936, but to my eye they enhance the story and bring a new spiritual depth to it. I actually found myself choking back tears toward the end, particularly when Friday’s song, “There’s Nothing to Be Afraid Of,” plays as the credits begin to roll.
The song and story touched a tender place in my heart, as does the charity that proceeds from the film support, The Irish Hospice Foundation, whose mission is to serve as “a lighthouse shining light on specific areas of need in end-of-life and bereavement support.”
Hungry Root
Did I mention I’m a vegetarian now?
Yeah. Doctor’s orders, literally. It’s been a few months and I feel fantastic. The dietary change coincided with us officially becoming empty-nesters and needing to re-learn how to cook only for two because there is no lad to appear in the middle of the day or night to hoover the leftovers.
My lifemate, if left to his own devices, would eat a steady diet of pork, cheese, and not a whole lot else. We’re both foodies and good cooks, but we’re in an extremely hectic season, trying to simplify and reduce stress (as well as waste), so we decided to give a subscription meal service a try.
After a lot of online digging and comparison shopping, I landed on Hungry Root because they had great vegetarian options, easily accommodated all my other dietary restrictions (no gluten, no dairy, no soy, no added sugar, no eggs, no meat or poultry, and very little fish) AND also had an option to choose recipes that did NOT include cilantro. Thanks be to God.
It’s been two months and Hungry Root is fabulous. We haven’t had a dud meal yet and there’s very little waste. The ingredients are fresh, the packaging is sustainable, and the variety, vast.
If you’re gonna go the almost-vegan route and have other dietary restrictions — and there’s just the two of you — this service gets two thumbs all the way up.
We’re also spending significantly less on groceries than we have in years.
And no, this is not a paid endorsement. I just really like this service and the products.
There’s this one dish with bay scallops and polenta with broccolini and a light marinara sauce that is stupidly good. And most of the recipes take under 20 minutes to cook/assemble.
You’re welcome.
TFW the Poshmark gods smile upon you…
I am trying to create a more sustainable existence in lots of ways these days. One of them is my wardrobe. I love clothes. I’ve spent far too much money on them over the years, a lot of it wasted. My friend Melinda is a world-class thrifter and while I do not possess that particular skill (yet), I am trying to cultivate it, at least online. I haunt Poshmark and TheRealReal looking for second-hand bargains and doing my small part to minimize water waste and all the other things about the fashion industry that stress out the planet.
This week, I found a precious: Pictured above is a hand-painted jacket by Wren + Glory (you’ve likely seen their tempting ads on all the socials). They are spendy and I’d never seen one in real life, so I wondered about quality, etc. I was searching for something else when this beauty popped into my feed. The price was a fraction of what it would have been new, it was in mint condition, and, I mean, look at what it says. The creative consultancy we’ve run for eight years is called Sinners & Saints. I have some concerts coming up to attend, and it’s the perfect weight for autumn in the desert. So, I snatched it.
It arrived Monday and it fits perfectly. High-fiving a million angels. The end.
Revisiting Morgan Freeman’s Story of God
If you’re looking for something to binge while the SAG-AFTRA strike continues and new material begins to dry up (I’m 100 percent pro-union, am a member of a writer’s union now and have been a member of the writer’s guild in the past, and wholeheartedly support the strike) — might I suggest giving all three seasons of the underrated The Story of God with Morgan Freeman a go (or a revisit, as I did recently).
It’s an astute, compelling, beautifully filmed, smartly told and produced series with the best guide and narrator I could fathom for such a project: Morgan Freeman, God Almighty hisself, from Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty, which both remain, unapologetically, in the canon of my favourite films.
With the shifting sands of streaming subscriptions, I lost track of where I’d originally watched most of the series for free, but was able to buy all three seasons via Amazon Prime for about $20 last week.
But I just was looking for a trailer on YouTube to post here and it appears that National Geographic, which produced the Story of God series, have posted most if not all of the episodes online for free HERE.
Yay team.
Consolation, inspiration from a few of my favourite people
Monday evening California time, on his Instagram feed, my beloved friend, tireless peace activist, and favourite Australian “god-botherer” Jarrod McKenna, posted a video of the 85-year-old Israeli grandmother and peacemaker, Yocheved Lifshitz, being released from captivity 15 days after Hamas members kidnapped her from her home on the Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Israeli border with Gaza on October 7.
In the video posted to Hamas’ Telegram page, which I hope is legitimate and not doctored/staged (something I have no way of independently verifying from my comfortable perch in California and that Reuters was not able to verify before its story posted Monday evening), Lifshitz appears to turn to one of the long-gun-toting men (presumably her captors) wearing a bullet-proof vest emblazoned with a Hamas insignia, grabs his hand, looks into his eyes that are obscured by a black mask, and says, “Salam. Shalom. Salam.” — wishing him peace in Arabic and in Hebrew (at least that’s how it sounded to my ear.)
It’s an extraordinary moment of fierce grace, the kind that could change the world.
If we let it.
Hamas freed Mrs. Lifshitz and another Israeli woman, Nurit Cooper, 79, Monday on humanitarian and “poor health” grounds, handing them over to members of the International Committe of the Red Cross at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, according to various news reports. The women’s husbands, both in their 80s, remain captive.
Jarrod, the fella I walked 200 miles along the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from County Down to the city of Derry four Octobers ago, has been, as so many of us are, deeply troubled by the violence that has enveloped Gaza and Israel in the last fortnight. In public statements and private exchanges, I can feel his anguished spirit all the way from Perth.
On Monday, he wrote:
“This is not cheap peace. This is not the ‘peace’ of oppression [that] continues unchallenged. Her whole li[f]e has been bathed in human rights concerns, in smuggling medical supplies to her Muslim and Christian neighbours in Gaza, in advocating for dignity and self determination for both Israelis and Palestinians. This is the costly peace of seeking first healing justice for all people….Listen to Israelis calling for ceasefire and human rights. This is what the warmongers don’t want you to hear: the victims calling for ceasefire, calling for aid, calling for human rights. Hamas doesn’t want you to see this. The current far-right Israeli government does not want you to see this. ‘Christian’ Zionists who pour millions of dollars into escalating conflict and in supporting illegal settlements as they long for war with Iran so they can escape the Earth, don’t want you to see this. Why? Because… in the words of Andre Henry, ‘it doesn’t have to be this way.’ It says clearly that it is endless increasing violence that is impractical, not costly peacemaking.”
Since the attacks in southern Israel earlier this month, during which the Israeli government says more than 200 hostages — many of them children and elderly persons — were kidnapped by Hamas, only four have been released so far: the two Israeli women on Monday, and an American mother and daughter last week. More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed and 15,000 wounded, according to Gaza's health ministry, amidst Israeli airstrikes in response to the Hamas surprise attacks on October 7 that left at least 200 Israelis dead and more than a thousand wounded.
Nearly two weeks ago, Israel halted the entry of food, fuel and supplies to the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip. There has been a power black out ever since, and hospitals in Gaza report they are “scrounging for generator fuel in order to keep operating life-saving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies,” according to PBS Newshour.
What is happening in the part of the world Jews, Muslims, and Christians call “holy” is nothing short of a humanitarian disaster.
Not long after Jarrod posted, another beloved friend and former colleague, the author activist, and artist Lisa Sharon Harper, one of the most faithful, faith-filled, and clear-eyed workers for justice I know, re-posted the video of Mrs. Lifshitz to her Instagram feed, along with a message that said, in part:
“Wow. Our brains don’t even know what to do with that. This is actual faith in the G-d of the gleaning fields, the cities of refuge, the plowshares and pruning hooks. This is the action of one whose focus is not her own pain, but in connecting with the pain of the ones she is told she should hate. This is deep, thick faith. It’s not easy. She did more than forgive. She blessed him with a one-word prayer—peace. This is the way to peace.”
Earlier Monday, several hours after word of the release of Mrs. Lifshitz and Mrs. Cooper broke and he celebrated one bit of good news coming out of that part of the world, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, an educator, author, and social justice activist I met a decade or so ago when I moderated an inter-religious panel of young faith leaders in Chicago, posted on his Instagram feed about an encounter he’d just had in a ride-share in New York City. Yanklowitz, who is Orthodox and wears a yarmulke, wrote:
“In NYC just now, decided to take a Lyft instead of Uber (since I heard of many recent antisemitic incidents there — which I have not yet investigated). Only 3 seconds into the ride, the driver asked if Shmuly was a Hebrew name and I got immediately nervous. I reluctantly but proudly said yes, and, in turn, I asked if his name (Jamshedbek) was a Muslim name. He confirmed it was (Persian, in fact) and then he went on enthusiastically to tell me about all his Israeli friends in Brooklyn that he loves and celebrates Shabbat with. We had a very sweet conversation about the power of diverse friendship amidst conflict and rising hate. Friends, there are SOOO many haters out there, so please be careful. But there are also SOOO many lovers out there, so let’s build brides at every encounter possible. Bless you all.”
What’s happening in Israel and Palestine is complicated. It’s always been complicated. It will always be complicated. War and violence never create peace, only more war and more violence. How we who aren’t there, whether we have loved ones in Gaza or in Israel, whether we’re Jewish or Muslim or Christian or none of the above, feel about what’s happening is also complicated: painful, horrifying, maddening, and for many of us, it’s also terrifying, particularly in the global context of everything else that’s happening religiously and politically and racially in all corners of the world.
What makes it less complicated, perhaps, is recognizing everyone as divine and all life equally precious; and rejecting the us-and-them narratives not matter what their provenance.
There is just so much, too much, happening, everywhere, all at once.
Enter Amanda Palmer, who readers of these dispatches will know, I think the world of, even though we’ve never met. We don’t know one another, but she feels like a friend to me. Over the weekend, Amanda, who is many things, including a composer, lyricist, musician, and performer, was working on some new material for her band, Dresden Dolls. She put out a call that would be unusual for most artists, but not for Amanda, telling readers (via her various social media accounts) that she needed to “paint” her new songs “with human detail,” and asking us to send her stories about what she called “the worst.” COVID, lockdown, grief, betrayal, divorce, etc. “(I’m Amanda Palmer and I am not afraid),” she assured us.
Well, people responded. A lot of people, legions of them. And they told her all the worst things, just as she’d asked us to, and she, somehow, held it all.
She made space and held it for us. (She is mighty. And brave. And kind.)
On Sunday night, Amanda posted a video responding to all the stories entrusted to her, all the trauma and the horror and the suffering and the grief. Click through and listen to what she has to say. I found it generous and courageous and hugely inspiring.
I love you, too, Amanda.
Please, let’s try to be as brave and kind as we can be, as often as we can be, to and for as many people as we possibly can.
And remember: you haven’t met yet everyone you will love, and you haven’t met yet everyone who will love you.
Much love from me,
Thank you for curating such beauty and grace in such difficult times, Cath! I had a chance to do Race Matters training with Lisa back when we both worked for Intervarsity and it was transformational!