Category Archives: Loretta Lynn

07/17/2012
1 Comment
Catcher in the Rye, Contraception, Don McHan, Honky Tonk Girl, JD Salinger, Lorene Allen, Loretta Lynn, Phyllis Diller, TD Bayless, The Pill, Woody Allen

The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“Raised by two mothers? Wow, most of us barely survive one.” — Woody Allen

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BEAUTY

Happy birthday, Phyllis Diller. She’s 95 today.

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IT HASN’T CAUGHT ME YET

Today’s also the 61st anniversary of the release of the iconic book, “The Catcher in the Rye” by the reclusive JD Salinger.

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And you know what? I’ve never read it.

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LIFE’S A MOTHER

A guy was browsing through the music section at the Book Corner yesterday and came upon the Loretta Lynn book, “Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics.”

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The words of one of her songs hit the guy so squarely between the eyes that he felt compelled to read them to me, in toto.

I’ll share them with you in a moment. First, though, it’s important to consider that Loretta Lynn gave birth to six children before she decided to hit the road as a country singer. And get this: she had four kids by the age of 19. Jesus holy Christ!

Anyway, in 1972 she recorded a song written by Lorene Allen, Don McHan, and TD Bayless that pretty much summed up her pre-career young adult life. Lynn, of course, was just about the biggest thing in country music at the time. The big boys at her record company wanted no part of the record, though. They were petrified that the pious citizenry of this holy land would string them up if they released it.

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It wasn’t until 1975 that “The Pill” was released. And the record company executives were right. So many radio stations refused to play it that the song didn’t hit the top three in the country charts as every other Loretta Lynn release did in those days.

The Book Corner browser and I thoroughly enjoyed the lyrics. For a brief few moments, the store became the site of a poetry slam. Try to picture it as you read these lyrics:

You wined me and dined me when I was your girl

Promised if I’d be your wife you’d show me the world

But all I’ve seen of this old world is a bed and a doctor bill

I’m tearing down your brooder house ’cause now I’ve got the Pill

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All these years I’ve stayed at home while you’ve had all your fun

And every year that’s gone by another baby’s come

There’s gonna be some changes made right here on Nursery Hill

You’ve set this chicken your last time ’cause now I’ve got the Pill

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This old maternity dress I’ve got is going in the garbage

The clothes I’m wearing from now on won’t take up so much yardage

Miniskirts, hotpants, and a a few little fancy frills

Yeah, I’m making up for all those years since I’ve got the Pill

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I’m tired of all your crwoing about how you and your hens play

While holding a couple in my arms, another’s on the way

This chicken’s done tore up her nest and I;m ready to make a deal

And you can’t afford to turn it down ’cause you know I’ve go the Pill

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This incubator is overused because you’ve kept it filled

The feeling good comes easy now since I’ve got the Pill

It’s getting dark it’s roosting time, tonight’s too good to be real

Aw, but Daddy don’t you worry none ’cause Mama’s got the Pill

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Can you imagine what a revelation the song was to the backwoods women of America? And the guardians of our morals again were right to be worried about the affects of something so seemingly silly as a popular song. Country doctors reported a dramatic increase in the number of women asking for birth control prescriptions after the song hit the charts.

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The worst had happened in the minds of the sacrosanct — women now felt they could control their wombs.

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THE PILL

Aw, hell, let’s just hear the song.

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Electron Pencil event listings: Music, art, movies, lectures, parties, receptions, games, benefits, plays, meetings, fairs, conspiracies, rituals, etc.

◗ Butler Park — Messy Mania, gooey art activities for pre-schoolers, aged 2-6 with parent; 11am

◗ People’s Park — Lunch Concert Series: Pan USA, steel drum music; 11:30am

◗ KRC Catering — PoliSci Professor Marjorie Hershey speaks to the monthly meeting of the Monroe County Democrats Club; 11:45am

◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Lecture, Dr. Cătălin Pavel presents “Homer’s Trojan War and the Archeological Remains of Troy”; noon-1pm

◗ The Venue Fine Art & Gifts — “The Art of the Switchyard Park,” by Mick Renneisen; 5:30pm

◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — David Miller; 6-8:30pm

◗ Jake’s Nightclub — Karaoke, final round; 6pm

◗ Boxcar Books — Cartoonist Steve Lafler’s Bughouse Book Tour; 7-9pm

◗ IU Wells-Metz Theatre — “The Taming of the Shrew”; 7:30pm

◗ The Player’s Pub — Blues Jam hosted by Cliff & the Guardrails; 8pm

◗ The Root Cellar at Farm Bloomington — Team trivia; 8pm

◗ The Bluebird — Bloomington’s Got Talent, hosted by Leo Cook; 9pm

Ongoing:

◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center — Exhibits:

  • John D. Shearer, “I’m Too Young For This  @#!%”; through July 30th
  • Claire Swallow, ‘Memoir”; through July 28th
  • Dale Gardner, “Time Machine”; through July 28th
  • Sarah Wain, “That Takes the Cake”; through July 28th
  • Jessica Lucas & Alex Straiker, “Life Under the Lens — The Art of Microscopy”; through July 28th

◗ IU Art Museum — Exhibits:

  • Qiao Xiaoguang, “Urban Landscape: A Selection of Papercuts” ; through August 12th
  • “A Tribute to William Zimmerman,” wildlife artist; through September 9th
  • Willi Baumeister, “Baumeister in Print”; through September 9th
  • Annibale and Agostino Carracci, “The Bolognese School”; through September 16th
  • “Contemporary Explorations: Paintings by Contemporary Native American Artists”; through October 14th
  • David Hockney, “New Acquisitions”; through October 21st
  • Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Paragons of Filial Piety”; through fall semester 2012
  • Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Weston, & Harry Callahan, “Intimate Models: Photographs of Husbands, Wives, and Lovers”; through December 31st
  • “French Printmaking in the Seventeenth Century”; through December 31st

◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — Exhibits:

  • Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show; through July 21st
  • Bloomington Photography Club Annual Exhibition; July 27th through August 3rd

◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — “Ephemeral Ink: Selections of Tattoo Art from the Kinsey Institute Collection”; through September 21st

◗ IU Lilly Library — Exhibit, “Translating the Canon: Building Special Collections in the 21st Century”; through September 1st

◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Closed for semester break

◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibits:

  • “What Is Your Quilting Story?”; through July 31st
  • Photo exhibit, “Bloomington: Then and Now” by Bloomington Fading; through October 27th

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04/06/2012
2 Comments
American Family Association, Ayn Rand, Bullying, Charlie Dick, Christian Fundamentalists, Citizens for Community Values, Crazy, Day of Dialogue, Day of Silence, Faith 2 Action, Grand Ole Opry, Henry Adams, Henry Miller, Illinois Family Institute, James Joyce, Liberty Counsel, Loretta Lynn, Mission America, Modern Library, Patsy Cline, Save California, Theocracy, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Uncategorized, Willie Nelson, Woody Allen

The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.” — Henry Miller

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GOD, THE BULLY

Now I ask you, are the hardcore Christian fundamentalists of this holy land just angling to become a satire of themselves?

I mean, honestly, if a funny person were to write a skit lampooning them, wouldn’t she, say, have them battling anti-bullying laws because, hell, it’s mostly homosexuals who are being bullied so who cares?

Wouldn’t that make a comedy audience roar with laughter? They’d say, How hilarious! How could that ever happen?

“Hah! That’d Never Happen In Real Life!”

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But that’s precisely what is happening in America today.

In two weeks, on Friday, April 20th, high school students across the country will participate in the Day of Silence, during which they’ll remain mum from morning until night to protest bullying. And, of course, the prime targets for bullies in elementary, middle, and high schools are gays or kids who exhibit even the slightest hint that they may be too effeminate (in the case of boys) or tomboyish (girls).

Day Of Silence

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Now, what kind of lunatic would find a problem with an anti-bullying campaign?

Answer: the lunatics who populate the USA’s god parties.

Groups such as Mission America, the Illinois Family Institute, the American Family Association, Citizens for Community Values, Faith 2 Action, the Liberty Counsel, Save California, and others have responded with their own anti-anti-bullying action to take place on the Day of Silence.

The god-ists are calling their action the Day of Dialogue.

And that’s weird because if there’s one thing the theocrats seem most allergic to, it’s dialogue.

“Go Ahead And Kick The Crap Out Of ‘Em — They’re Gay.”

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Yup, the fundamentalist Christians are falling back on their old woe-is-us canard, you know, the one where the whole world is trying steal away their rights to worship god as they please and discriminate against anybody they think god hates?

They’re saying the Day of Silence not only is fascist, natch, but it promotes the gay, lesbian, and transgender lifestyle.

Perhaps I’m giving people too much credit, but I would think nobody is so deranged that they’d believe there’s really a group of people trying to push teenaged kids into getting their genitals surgically altered.

“Please Don’t Let Them Make Us Cut Off Our Penises.”

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Oh, alright, I am giving people too much credit.

I suppose the only question I have for these pious folk is where in your Bible does god say, Be an asshole in my name?

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I SMELL A RAT

I just happened to be going through the Modern Library‘s lists of the 100 best fiction and nonfiction books. The ML puts out two lists for each category, one chosen by the organization’s board, the other open to the public.

The board has chosen James Joyce’s “Ullyses” as the greatest English language novel. That’s cool, even though I don’t have the spare 150 years to be able to read and decode Joyce’s inscrutable stylings. The board also tabs “The Education of Henry Adams” by Henry Adams as the finest nonfiction book. Again, cool, even though I haven’t read it nor do I plan to.

James Joyce

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After all, I have to get through cracked.com every day; I am a man of letters, you know.

Anyway, these are tomes that have been celebrated by the best and the brightest for decades and, while I don’t necessarily genuflect before “experts,” I’ll defer to them in this case.

Funny thing is, the public’s lists vary wildly from the board’s. In fact, the public’s greatest nonfiction book does not even appear on the board’s entire list of 100. And four of the public’s top ten fiction books were penned by an author the board saw fit not to name anywhere on its list.

These idiosyncratic choices all are the fruits of one author’s feverish mind. The public has called Ayn Rand’s “The Virtue of Selfishness” the greatest work of nonfiction in the English language. On top of that, two books about Rand and her post-traumatic stress disorder nightmare philosophy also made the public’s top ten.

“Welcome To My Nightmare.”

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Not bizarre enough for you? Four of Rand’s endless novels make the public’s top ten greatest fiction works. Four!

Rand famously riposted to an editor, who’d advised her to apply an eraser to huge swaths of her rambling prose, that no one edited the Bible.

The Bible, as in the word of god.

As Woody Allen once said, you have to pattern yourself after somebody.

Methinks Rand’s acolytes stuffed the ballot box, no?

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CRAZY

“Crazy” was penned by a then-struggling young songwriter named Willie Nelson in 1961. According to legend, he pitched it to Patsy Cline‘s husband, Charlie Dick, at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville one night over drinks.

When Dick brought the song to his wife, she hated it because it was uptempo and its lyrics were spoken. Her producer re-worked it into a languorous ballad and the rest is history.

By the way, Loretta Lynn swears she remembers hearing Cline perform the song for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry while on crutches; Cline at the time was recovering from an auto accident that had nearly killed her.

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