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BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' |
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Subject: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 10 Apr 00 - 11:41 AM In an age of Internet Time, T-1 messaging, fast forward and site-surfing, it is easy to forget the marching rhythm of reality in an earlier age. In a contemporaneous thread, involving a fictional riverboat race down the Mississippi, an anxiety to complete the story, which had grown long, resulted in a great collapsing of time, the race just begun being completed without due regard to the stately dimensions through which the authors hastily jumped. It is worth pausing to reflect on the places through which such a riverboat would have to pass, traveling the mississippi, for the trail is extraprdinarily rich with singing names, each one of which represents lifetimes of labor and love, sex and treachery, fortune and misery in the building of it, new hopes and lost fortunes in the tides of history. Bear with me a moment and consider the following track of place names through which a riverboat would pass, if it set out from Saint Louis, Missouri, and traveled through the junction with the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois and downward through Arkansas, Tennesee, Mississippi, Louisiana, to finally land its cargo in New Orleans. Every one of these place names is real, with honest and dishonest people living at it, except for a few which are riverine tributaries which your riverboat would pass en route. Consider the music of them, and the mysterious singing of language and passion and history that coincided in each one, to produce a human community under a single name in each. You cannot fast forward the Mississippi, folks, for it would be a disservice indeed to miss these places and the people who made them on your way: Kimmswick MO
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Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: MMario Date: 10 Apr 00 - 11:46 AM Amos? You're stuck, aren't you? Having problems on the project and desperatly typing anything into the computer....(joking!) I would have liked to see more of the river-travel |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 10 Apr 00 - 11:50 AM This is a temporal-geographic meditation, for those who never read Kerouac's passionate passages in "On the Road" about digging the mighty Mississippi's endless waters. Quite the opposite from stuck, MM, this is the essence of motion made manifest! A, PRUD CEO |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: GUEST,Peter T. Date: 10 Apr 00 - 11:53 AM Boy, you sure don't want to work, do you? (We're with you, guy). I am reading Melville's Confidence Man, and I was struck by the initial, and very substantive description, not of the extensive river, but of the vast array of people and jobs (barber shops, etc.) contained within the boat. We are most likely constrained by our experience of movies that focus on gamblers and captains. Not that there is anything wrong with that.... yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 10 Apr 00 - 12:13 PM If you actually read the names of places listed above, tempting though it is to scroll by them rapidly, your tongue gets wrapped up in the poetry of the names and the amazing confluence of thought and effort which built each place -- think on why these names were chosen, and whose fortunes they represented, and you have a trip worth taking. Amos |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: MMario Date: 10 Apr 00 - 12:36 PM Not disagreeing, Amos, just couldn't resist the chance to tease... |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: katlaughing Date: 10 Apr 00 - 02:33 PM So in my typical Arien impatience, Ah will nevah, nevah finish writing a complete book? Ah am doomed to short stories, forevah?**BG** Hey, Amos, you have done some impressive work and it is appreciated! I promise not to try to rush things along, so if anything winds up being *premature* you boyos will have some explaining to do! katlaughingforreal! |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 10 Apr 00 - 02:40 PM An' here Ah thought you jes' had a dern headache! |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Stewie Date: 10 Apr 00 - 08:30 PM Amos, Smithsonian/Folkways recently released a great 2CD set, with excellent booklet, which you might enjoy: 'River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi' SFW 40086. You can find out more about it: The URL is: http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/ Regards, Stewie. |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: catspaw49 Date: 10 Apr 00 - 08:45 PM Stewie, is any of that also from/used in the TV special of the same name, as I believe it was a Smithsonian program? An Amos, wanted to let you know we'll be pulling in at Greenville, Missisippi on the Hansell to explore the history of the town and also get a good deal on its most famous linens.......well, just bedsheets actually, and only available in white, but a part of Greenville's "un"-colorful heritage. Spaw |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 10 Apr 00 - 08:57 PM Well, that's fine, 'Spaw...investigatin' bedsheets in Mississippi can be tricky, tho' depending on whose they are. Different sorts of passions, if you see what I mean. BTW, where, according to your masterful Navigation tome, is the Hansell at, presently? I think I had mislocated her back to Saint Louis in a slip of the brain, that being North of the Ohio delta; but she has only spent part of her time steaming, as you might have discovered now that you have returned to yourself, as it were. Perhaps a refresh on present bearings and landmarks would be in order on the other thread, suh. |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Little Neophyte Date: 10 Apr 00 - 08:59 PM Well Amos, if it were my riverboat, I would like to stop in... Sunnyside MO Lovejoy MO Sunshine LA Goodhope LA Sugar Creek TN I would want to stay away from... Soso Bayou MS Dredge MS Little Boggy Bayou AR Cold Creek TN Tomato, AR (I hear they throw them if your music aint too good) Little Neo |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Stewie Date: 10 Apr 00 - 09:00 PM Spaw Seem like it. The booklet notes under the heading 'Related Materials' that 'The River of Song' television series is available on video from Acorn Media (800) 474-2277. There is also a book 'River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi' available through St Martin's Press (800) 288-2131. Regards, Stewie. |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Lonesome EJ Date: 10 Apr 00 - 09:05 PM Yep. Stay well away from Cold Creek, TN. :) |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Little Neophyte Date: 10 Apr 00 - 09:11 PM Lonesome EJ, do they throw tomatoes there too? Little Neo |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: wysiwyg Date: 10 Apr 00 - 10:18 PM Dat boy needs MULES tuh pull him offa that bar!!! Float DOWN, A-man, FLOAT DAT BOAT! ~S~ |
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi' From: Amos Date: 11 Apr 00 - 11:18 AM Man that is one terrific project -- good web site, good idea, good music. Thanks! |