Work & Jerry Lee Lewis & Other Stuff

Work

 Work beat me up pretty good this week. I got home late last night because I decided to eat out, and I chose the Dumpling House. Wonderful meal, but I got home close to 7 pm. Stiff and achy and not up for much, I did talk to DM even through problems with the phone. I spoke with KH at lunchtime.

I accomplished none of my goals. Nor is it probable I will do so tonight. 

"Problem Solving" received another rejection:

Dear Samuel Hasler,

Thank you for submitting "Problem Soving" to The Journal. We read every submission with care, and while we can only publish a small fraction of what we receive, the most exciting part of our job is reading such a wide variety of work. Though your manuscript does not suit our current needs, we wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere.

Thanks again,
The Editors

http://thejournalmag.org

Up at 4:30 AM and spent the day with my left knee aching. I limped in and out of trailers. This left me an unhappy camper. I got hope almost 12 hours after I crawled out of bed. Back at home, I did my email, left a message for T2, and did some online reading. 

There was Medieval but not Christian from Aeon:

Why did the editors of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts not adopt a title that would specify that the series was restricted to Christian texts? Presumably, the specification would make the series look much more parochial – as it indeed is – being a set of anthologies devoted to a specific religious tradition. In attempting to present the Christian tradition as the only game in town in late medieval philosophy, the editors of the series apparently thought they were representing universal philosophical discourse (rather than that of a particular religious tradition), and thus the exclusion of Islamic and Jewish works became a device for asserting the universality of Christianity.

An alternative explanation for the exclusion of medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy might be that the series editors were simply unaware of the exclusionary, distorting and discriminatory nature of their editorial policy: they may have innocently assumed that medieval philosophy is just Christian philosophy. Ascribing conceptual blindness of such a vast scope to highly competent scholars seems to me barely credible, and yet we cannot absolutely rule it out since such blindness is indeed a common mark of activity dominated by ideology.

Before we discuss what readers of the Cambridge volumes are missing, let me make one brief observation. Current Anglo-American philosophy is seriously (and rightly) engaged with the question of how to rectify the historical exclusion of various groups from the philosophical tradition. The neglect of medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy from the historiography of medieval philosophy is only partly like the exclusion of other groups, however. There is a crucial irony to this particular exclusion. Medieval philosophical culture, despite all its problems, was significantly multicultural; Islamic, Jewish, and Christian authors frequently engaged with each other’s work, sometimes even collaborating. It is only we, today, who are creating a purely Christian narrative that excludes Jewish and Islamic authors from the philosophical discourse.

And I read from The Guardian, Dickens and Prince by Nick Hornby review – cultural greats collide:

 

Pointing to Dickens and Prince’s vertiginous rise to fame, he upends the theory popularised by Malcolm Gladwell that it takes 10,000 hours to master an art – Dickens had “been writing for the Gladwell equivalent of five minutes before Pickwick … He was great and successful more or less immediately.” Elsewhere, he articulates with a fervour presumably born from experience what it is to fear failure after enjoying a major success – “People have their moment in the sun, and then the sun moves on to somebody else. Our careers seem built on nothing – words, ideas, sand” – and reflects on the ways artists can communicate from beyond the grave. The photos of Dickens and Prince that adorn Hornby’s office wall provide the impetus for him to work harder, think bigger, do better. “Whatever you do for a living,” he notes, “that’s something you need to hear every now and then.”

It’s possible that there are Dickens devotees who will bridle at finding Bleak House mentioned in the same breath as the author of songs such as Sex Me Sex Me Not. Equally, some Prince fans may stifle a yawn at finding their mercurial hero compared with a Victorian novelist. But Hornby has no time for cultural hierarchies, treating his subjects as the equals (and kindred spirits) they undoubtedly are. His book is both a love letter to two artists who have nourished him and the story of how they “caught fire and lit up the world”.

About 6:09 PM., KH texted me that Jerry Lee Lewis died.

 Jerry Lee Lewis

I have been a Jerry Lee Lewis fan for over 40 years. Thank Heavy Metal's Rock and Roll edition for tipping me on a key component of Lewis: his musical integrity. Rolling Stone Magazine and The Guardian published obituaries, respectively: Jerry Lee Lewis, Influential and Condemned Rock & Roll Pioneer, Dead at 87 and  Jerry Lee Lewis, notorious US rock’n’roll star, dies aged 87. This comes from the latter:

Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock’n’roll pioneer who became one of the most infamous figures in popular music, has died aged 87, his publicist has said.

He died of natural causes at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi. “Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis,” a statement said. “He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.”

Neither mentioned this discussion between the producer Sam Phillips and Lewis about the religious implications of "Great Balls of Fire": 

 

I do not think this is complete, but it is sufficient. Speaking of Phillips, this comes from an interview he gave, and I found under Rock and Roll; Renegades; Interview with Sam Phillips [Part 4 of 6]:

... So, then we have a guy by the name, you know, Jerry Lee Lewis. I think a few people probably listening to this program have heard about Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry Lee came into the studio and he had been to his, ah, cousin's house who lived here in Memphis, he came in from Ferriday, Louisiana which is somewhere close to Vicksburg down there, just off of the Mississippi. And I had taken my first vacation and God only knows if I'd ever had one in my life. And we had gone with Knocks and Jerry, my sons and Becky, my wife, we had took off and gone to the big vacation resort of Daytona Beach - boy, man, living high on the hog. Now, let me tell you, let me tell you, I got back here, Jerry Lee had been to the studio. We took a week off, Jack Clement was working for us by that time 'cause he was unconventional and I could see that in his eyes, okay. So the killer came in, as he was later known, or he is now later know, the killer - Jerry Lee Lewis - a fabulous, fabulous, instinctive, - oh, good God, I, you know, I just don't have very good command of the English language. My grammar may all right but I can't be descriptive enough about Jerry Lee Lewis. This guy is an unbelievable, unbelievable talent. Ah, okay, he came in and, ah, did a little piece of tape. Says, I, I'm going to wait here until Mr. Phillips gets back in town. So he talked Jack into going back, putting him on a piece of tape.

You rolling?

Interviewer:

Yeah, we're rolling for you.

Phillips: Jerry Lee was determined that he was going to stay in town until we got back from our little vacation in Daytona. Meantime Jack Clement had on a couple of sides, I think it was "Crazy Arms" on one side and "You Win Again" on the other and it just was Lewis at the piano and singing it. So I had gotten in and hadn't really got into the studio real good and Jack told me, he says, ah, I got a piano picker that I want you to hear, I mean, he's been hanging around for months, he says, and I finally agreed to go ahead and record him. And I listened to it. And, and, I kid you not, I mean, I think the first side I heard was "You Win Again", no, no, no, no, no, - "Crazy Arms". And I didn't, I didn't, I didn't get, I did not get eight bars into it and I said, - where in the hell is this cat? I mean, where is he? He said, well he's down there at his brother-in-law, J.W. Brown. I said, - how soon can you get him up here? So that was the way that it started. And, ah, I mean it took me no time just like when Presley hit "That's Alright Mama". Hey, if we weren't going to make it on that honey, it was nothing I could do ever. I mean, I mean, at least to get us started. So the same thing with Jerry Lee Lewis, just at the piano and "Crazy Arms" the old Ray Price song and yet, you know, the beauty of this thing, Ray Price had a hit on that thing. And yet when you heard Jerry Lee Lewis you didn't hear Jerry Lee Lewis copying Ray Price. He gave it, I mean he gave it that individuality that, all these great songs and, and the crossover stuff and all of that stuff. But, ah, I, I, I know that Jerry Lee Lewis, and I think the people ought to know this, and this takes nothing away from anybody, with all the misfortune and this guy has had some unfortunate things happen as I know most of you know, ah, but I still say that he probably, and I think it all stems from that intuitive thing about religion and about fervor of the Holy Ghost in us all, in some way that we may not even know about, maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the bible, maybe it does, but Jerry Lee Lewis will go down in the history of this business as one, so far as I'm concerned, as one of the most talented, creative people that I ever worked with. There again, the chemistry was right. No, I didn't have to pull it out of him but I had to let him know that it was being heard, you know. And that was important, very important to Jerry Lee....

The obits reference the hits, but here are two songs I was thinking of tonight:

 

and 

God have mercy on his soul.

Closing Out on Friday

I am listening to WXPN's Land of the Lost. It is the annual Halloween show. I do not know if I will make it to 10 pm; it is now 7:55 pm. I have a set of stories Joel C. sent me, and I have some articles here to read. I do not see leaving my room. The republic remains safe except for the anti-Semites and loons and Trumpists coming out of the woodwork.

Have a good night

sch