Most readers will now know that recently Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, and I made a trip to stay with my sister in (and around) San Francisco. We also visited Ronni, the Web Mistress, on our travels.

Other places as well which generally lend themselves to having a musical column written about them, which is good for me.

This is a pretty light-hearted column, no profound insights today (as if there ever are any). Just where we went, who we saw and the music that suggested itself to me.

Regular readers will know that the W.M. has written of my stay in Portland. For those who came in late you can find them here, here and here.

Right. From the beginning.

The flight was a direct one, Melbourne to Los Angeles. Only 13 hours in the air. They are getting faster. Naturally, we landed at L.A. International Airport and by a coincidence, there’s a song of that name by SUSAN RAYE.

♫ Susan Raye - L.A. International Airport

I bet you hoped you would never hear that one again, but it’s my job to remind you of these songs.

From L.A., it was an up and down commuter flight to San Jose. This was on Alaskan Airways and initially it was difficult to find where Alaskan was, as it was some considerable distance from the international terminal.

Thus at first, we didn’t know the way to San Jose and if that’s not a bleeding obvious cue for a song I don’t know what is. DIONNE WARWICK, of course, with Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

♫ Dionne Warwick - Do You Know the Way to San Jose

I was rather surprised by the plane. It had propellers. I can’t remember when I was last on a plane that had propellers, at least not one that belonged to an airline.

My sister and brother-in-law picked us up and we drove to their home in Los Gatos. There’s a song about this town too, written by Woody Guthrie. It’s called Deportee and has a subtitle, Plane Wreck at Los Gatos.

It’s about immigrant workers who were rounded up and sent back to Mexico by plane in 1948. Unfortunately, the plane crashed killing everyone on board. Not a very cheery topic but it’s a good song.

Actually the crash was in Los Gatos Canyon, not the town itself which is some quite some distance away.

The version I’ve chosen is by THE BYRDS, a group for whom I will always find a spot if possible.

♫ The Byrds - Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

After a few days, we were off to Mendicino. Okay, technically it was Fort Bragg but I don’t know any songs about that town. We did visit Mendicino a couple of times as it’s only about seven miles away.

There’s also has a terrific song about it sung by LINDA RONSTADT called Talk to Me of Mendicino.

♫ Linda Ronstadt - Talk to Me of Mendocino

From there it was back to San Francisco where we enjoyed the delights of that city, a good proportion of which seemed to involve food and wine. Come to think of it, that wasn’t the only place where that applied.

There are two songs that spring instantly to mind when that city is mentioned and I’m sure you’ve thought of both of them. The A.M. wanted Mickey Newbury’s song, San Francisco Mabel Joy but I opted for the obvious.

If you regarded L.A. International Airport as a hoary old song, I think this one is its equal in the hoary stakes. Yep, SCOTT MCKENZIE with San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair).

♫ Scott McKenzie - San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)

After hanging around San Francisco and Los Gatos for a while, the A.M. and I took the train to Portland. It’s a lot more fun on a train than flying, although somewhat longer.

Somewhat? Huh. However, training through northern California and Oregon in an observation car is hard to beat.

I can’t think of any songs about Portland, although I’m sure there are some. Stop Press: Thanks to Dr Google I found there’s a CD called “The Portland Songs Project.” However, I’ve never heard of any of the songs featured so I’ll go with my original statement.

The W.M. put us up for a few days and drove us around to various places, including several spectacular waterfalls. At one stage we were driving somewhere when we came across Highway 101. We all burst into Black Denim Trousers.

Okay, I burst into that song. The A.M. and the W.M. were trying to shut me up, or at least, ignore me. I think it was about this stage that the W.M. asked if I knew a song about every possible thing.

Pretty much, was my reply, trying to appear encyclopaedic (and lying through my teeth, but don’t tell her that).

Here are THE CHEERS with that song, another one written by Leiber and Stoller, and a hit for The Cheers in 1955.

♫ The Cheers - Black Denim Trousers

Naturally, we came upon the Columbia River. Quite often, in fact. I have seen it before, but every time I come across it my reaction is “Holy Moley”. We Australians are impressed with a river that just flows all year round. This is way beyond that.

WOODY GUTHRIE, again, wrote a song about it. Well, he wrote several, but this is the pick of them. As far as I know, this is the only version of Woody’s that’s still around. It has some surface noise, but hey, it’s Woody. Roll On Columbia.

♫ Woody Guthrie - Roll On Columbia

After Portland, we journeyed further north (and a little east) to stay with my nephew and his wife in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This is a pretty little city with mountains all around it which makes even boring shopping a pleasure.

I know of one song that mentions the place and we have IRIS DEMENT again. I have seen recently that some of you are starting to like Iris. I’ll keep trying. This is Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day.

♫ Iris DeMent - Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day

I then did everything pretty much in reverse. Well, I wasn’t walking backwards or any such thing, just returning to places whence I came previously. You may recall an entertaining (in retrospect) wait for the bus in Spokane.

I won’t bother mentioning again Portland, Los Gatos and San Francisco.

Time to go home. The plane from San Jose to Los Angeles once again had propellers as it was Alaskan. This plane landed in L.A. and taxied. And taxied and taxied and taxied. Seems like we’d soon be in San Diego, but nope we were still in L.A. Indeed, still in the airport.

Eventually we stopped. We got out and walked across the tarmac. It was not only a propeller plane but we deplaned the old fashioned way as well in one of the biggest and busiest airports in the world.

All that taxiing reminded me of the MICHELLE SHOCKED song, Come a Long Way.

♫ Michelle Shocked - Come A Long Way

The flight home took 15 hours, all but the last hour of it in the dark.

Now we’re back home, there is an obvious and clichéd way to end this. I mentioned this to the A.M. and she was aghast. “You’re not”, she said. Oh yes I am.

You had a clue earlier in the piece and here it is. TONY BENNETT with I left My Heart in San Francisco.

♫ Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart In San Francisco

“...humans can identify the age of other humans based on differences in body odor.

“Much of this ability is based on the capacity to identify odors of elderly individuals, and contrary to popular supposition, the so-called 'old-person smell' is rated as less intense and less unpleasant than body odors of middle-aged and young individuals.”

A theory is that humans use this ability to identify age from aroma to choose age-appropriate mates, and the scientists say that a unique “old person smell” is recognized across cultures – so much so that in Japan there is even a special word for it: kareishu.

The full study report can be found at PlosOne.

VIRAL VIDEO MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
Thanks to doctafil, Cathy Johnson and a whole lot more of you, I've got the winner of this week's viral video for the three people in the world who haven't seen it.

An actor based in Portland, Oregon, and 60 of his friends choreographed a marriage proposal for his girlfriend, Amy Frankel. His brother sat her in the back of an open car and gave her some headphones to wear for a song and dance routine, set to the tune of Marry You by Bruno Mars.

THE 1 TO 100 PROJECT
According to the website where I found this story, Belgian photographer Edouard Janssens

”...photographed 100 women and 100 men at each age between 1 and 100. His goal was to show the aging process in a positive manner and to provide an interesting visualization of the link between generations.”

He separated the project by sex. Here are the 100 women age 1 through 100.

And here is a video slideshow of the men 1 through 100. Janssens himself appears at number 50:

Visit the website to view the slideshow of women and/or the image of the men.

OLD LADY WHACKS HONKING CAR
Reader Cathy Johnson sent this. It's been around the internet for many years and I've posted it in the past, but my appreciation for this old woman just grows and grows.

SPEAKING OF HONKING CARS...
Don't honk at this dog, as the YouTube page headline states. In fact, don't even look at him.

DANCING COUPLE IN LOVE
It's been a couple of months since TGB reader Tarzana sent this video. It seems a bit odd at first, but stick with the dance. It's from a Brussels-based dance/theater company called Peeping Tom co-directed by Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chariet.

Their work, says the homepage, “explores the idiosyncratic behaviour experienced in close relationships.”

BLOGGERS' NIGHTMARE
From Peter Tibbles comes this cartoon expression of what all us dedicated bloggers are up against all too frequently.

ALMOST MORE CUTE THAN YOU CAN STAND

The otter and her baby are just one of more than enough baby animal cuteness to send you into sugar shock at the cuteandtiny website.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” in the upper left corner of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I probably won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog if you have one.

I don't mean that as a too-obvious black joke. I mean, people die there all the time of things they are not in the hospital for: MSRA infections, Clostridium difficile, novoviruses, SARS – things that antibiotics increasingly cannot treat.

So far, I'm healthy enough that a hospital stay is not in my immediate future. But that can change for anyone in a heartbeat (literal and figurative) and the older we get the more likely it becomes.

Which is why I was fascinated to read a story from Kaiser Health News about “hospital at home” which provides exactly what it says: hospital-quality care at home for patients with serious medical conditions that has proven, in many cases, to be superior to hospital care:

“In a study of three experimental hospital at home programs published in 2005 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, [Dr. Bruce] Leff [the director of geriatric health services research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who pioneered the concept] demonstrated that patient outcomes were similar or better, satisfaction was higher and costs were 32 percent less than for traditional hospitalizations.”

Hospital at home is still in its infancy but the trend is growing and more results are being collected and evaluated.

Presbyterian Home Health Care, an eight-hospital system in Albuquerque, New Mexico, manages the largest hospital at home program in the U.S. based on the original concept developed by Dr. Leff. Reports Hospitals and Health Networks magazine:

”Patient satisfaction scores are high and in the first six months of 2011, only one of the 100 patients treated at home was readmitted within 30 days...

“But the best news for those worried about high health care costs is this: 'After three years of providing actual hospital-level care at home for the diagnoses included in this program, the cost per episode is $1,000 to $2,000 cheaper than if that care were delivered in the hospital,' says Lesley Cryer, R.N., executive director of Presbyterian Home Healthcare.”

Currently, Presbyterian offers home care for patients being treated for chronic heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), cellulitis, complex urinary tract infection (UTI), dehydration, nausea and vomiting, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and stable pulmonary embolism (PE).

”Excluded are patients who are medically unstable or who cannot be cared for adequately at home,” reports Kaiser Health News.

“'The patient, the family, the nurse, the doctor and the referring physician all need to feel if it's safe,' said Dr. Scott Mader, clinical director of rehabilitation and long-term care at the Portland VA Medical Center, which recently treated its 1,000th hospital at home patient.”

“If patients take a turn for the worse, for instance developing chest pain, an ambulance is summoned to take them to the hospital.”

The hospital at home idea is already being adopted in Australia, England, Israel and Canada. In the U.S., the Veterans Administration is leading the way with hospital at home programs existent or planned to open soon in Portland and Bend, Oregon, Boise, Honolulu, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

Even so, development of more hospital at home programs is slow. One of the main obstacles is Medicare's reluctance to pay for this kind of service which frustrates administrators who are seeing successful medical outcomes, patient satisfaction and lower costs across the board.

“Traditional fee-for-service Medicare does not pay for hospital at home services, although individual private Medicare Advantage plans may do so,” says Kaiser Health News.

“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 'appears convinced it's going to add to overall costs' and fearful that providers will admit patients inappropriately, said Erin Denholm, chief executive of Centura Health at Home, a division of Colorado’s Centura Health.”

However, Presbyterian has applied for a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation challenge grant for hospital at home trials in Illinois, Rhode Island, New York, Florida and Minnesota. Some other health care systems are planning programs in other communities.

"'It's a very successful model and in five years, I think it's going to be very common. But we're still in the early adoption phase,' said Mark McClelland, an assistant professor at the Center for Health Care Quality at George Washington University.”

Medicare won't adopt this too soon for me.

There is an well-written study on hospital at home projects published last summer by The Commonwealth Fund here.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Mochael Gorodezky: The Hall (Any coincidence with my post today is just that, coincidence. - RB)

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

This is one of Thomas's last poems – an elegy to his dying father. I have never agreed with it – at least, not for me as a prescription for old age. I want to die in my time at peace with doing so. When it comes up for discussion, I am usually alone in this feeling.

Thomas didn't make it to old age. Born in Wales in 1914, he died at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City in 1953 at age 39. It is said that his last words, spoken at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village were, "I've had 18 straight whiskies. I think that's the record."

Here is Dylan Thomas himself reading Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Jacklynn Winmill-Lee: My Mom was NOT Old

I have been getting a lot of returns of sent mail lately and my email provider tells me they are not blocking it. Sorry, but I've spent all the time I possibly can on this problem now.

It's been awhile since I last received a submission for Where Elders Blog, but there is now a new one from Karen Zaun Kennedy which you can see here. And here are instructions for submitting your own blogging/computer space.

Peter Tibbles usually handles the music around this blog on Sundays, but I'm taking on this new album from Loudon Wainwright III, Older Than My Old Man Now, because it is entirely concerned with getting old.

The album interests me not so much for the music - although that's part of it, of course – but for my curiosity about how an artist who is a contemporary of mine, approaches “my” subject.

The answer is, with a lot of melancholy, mixed feelings and woe for everything that has gone wrong in his 65 years. It is deeply – and often literally - autobiographical, these 16 songs, wherein Wainwright covers family, marriage, divorce, kids, health, sex, regret, guilt, mortality, death and just plain getting old.

And he does it all with some sadness, a good deal of humor and an occasional bit of wisdom. The title tune, Older Than My Old Man Now, begins with a reading of words about his own life written by Wainwright's father, a respected columnist and editor at Life magazine.

♫ Loudon Wainwright III - Older Than My Old Man Now

There is a second recital of Loudon Wainwright, Jr.'s writing on his own a aging as the introduction to The Days That We Die.

Among the singers who accompany Wainwright on various tunes are all four of his kids, a current and a former wife and Ramblin' Jack Elliott who takes opposing verses on a lovely song, Double Lifetime.

Not all is serious and melancholy. My Meds is what you would expect – a humorous litany of the long list of prescription drugs some people our age are stuck with keeping track of.

And I Remember Sex is a duet with Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) that is labeled “explicit.” Actually, the lyrics are both true and funny. Here's a sample:

I remember sex. That thing we used to do
Where you'd lay down and usually I'd lie on top of you
Sometimes you'd lie on top of me. We tried that out a bit
But it didn't work as well, I guess something just didn't fit

I remember sex. We had it at night
A few times in the morning and then after we would fight
And on special occasions when we'd had too much to drink
Once in a Morris Minor, a convertible, I think

Although no one would call me a fan of Loudon Wainwright III, I've enjoyed him from time to time over the years and I think he's done a nice a job here with a large number of the kinds of things we ruminate on as we reach the upper decades of life.

He has a darker view of his life and old age than I do but then, he's been writing autobiographical songs for nearly half a century so undoubtedly has better reminders of past events than I can dredge up.

The album is available in all the usual places. At Amazon, the CD costs (currently) about US$13. You can download it as MP3s for only US$8.99 (or 99 cents per song) and with that you'll get an extra that is not on the disc, No Tomorrow.

I don't know for how long it will last, but as of yesterday afternoon, you can stream the entire album at the New Yorker website.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Lyn Burnstine: The Blue Schwinn Bicycle

Some urns, like my father's, are buried in cemeteries or mausoleums. Burial at sea or, at least, on water, is not uncommon these days. My mother was a member of the Neptune Society and we scattered her ashes off Marin County just under the Golden Gate Bridge.

My stepbrother Joe's sailing club friends took his ashes 30 miles out into the ocean from San Francisco near the Farallon Islands. In Joe's case, he loved the sea above most everything else. My mother (I suspect, but cannot be certain) was just being practical and she loved the San Francisco area.

Of course, ashes can be scattered on land too. If it's your property, no problem. If not, you need to check local regulations and get permissions.

Many years ago, a friend rented an apartment in Greenwich Village in which a box of human ashes sat on the fireplace mantle. I have forgotten the details, but a woman whose name was Charlotte had been murdered there many decades before and by deed, her ashes were required to remain with the house. (I don't know if that's true, but it's my general recollection.)

Remember last year when I told you about a book by Gail Rubin, A Good Goodbye, with lots of excellent information on planning funerals? In checking out information for this post, I ran across a recent article Gail wrote about the top ten things people can do with ashes (Oops. I think I'm supposed to say “cremated remains” but I draw the line at “cremains.”) Here is the abbreviated list:

1. Scatter on land
2. Scatter on sea
3. Scatter by air
4. Bury in a cemetery
5. Bury at home
6. Keep an urn at home
7. Place in a columbarium
8. Share with family
9. Create a reef
10. Build a monument

“Pros: Speaking of mixing cremated remains in concrete, why not make a monument? You can set it up on your property, or even make it a centerpiece at family reunions!

“Cons: Some family members may not be amused.”

No kidding. You can read what Gail has to say about all ten options here.

A trip around the web led to hundreds, if not thousands, of styles of urns including this one that left me speechless:

“Now we can create a custom cremation urn for ashes in the image of your loved one or favorite celebrity or hero, even President Obama!

“...Personal urns can have hair added digitaly [sic] for short haired people, as in the sample of President Obama.”

Do you think the president knows about this? Like I said, I'm speechless.

There is, apparently, a growing trend toward wearing dead relatives as diamonds made from their ashes. The diamonds can be quite pricey ranging from about $4,000 to $25,000 depending on color and size.

As to the purpose, as one company explains, diamond pendants or other jewelry are “a way to embrace your loved one's memory day by day.”

Uh-huh. I can hear it now: “Why, Jane, what lovely earrings. Are they new?”

“Yes, they're my late husband, George.”

“Oh, what a lovely gift.”

“No, they ARE George.”

Even if your loved one prefers burial to cremation, you can still wear him or her as jewelry. At least one ashes-to-diamonds company will make a gem from a lock of a loved one's hair.

I have definitely opted for cremation and have long made arrangements with a young friend to scatter my ashes in what I consider my real home, New York City - specifically along Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th Avenues saving a little to leave in front of my long-time home on nearby Bedford Street.

What about you?

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Mary B Summerlin: Best Laid Plans

It's a three-day weekend in the United States and with all the family gatherings, backyard barbecues, beer and all, I wonder if sometimes we don't pay enough attention to what this holiday is for.

On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke to a group of Gold Star Families - those who have lost a loved one in war. Poor ol' Joe is often chastised for speaking out of turn, of putting his foot in his mouth, of being a reliable gaffe machine. But not on this day.

Biden's extraordinary speech, in the words of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, was "raw and emotional" and, I would add, personal and wrenching and true and good.

As far as I can find online on Saturday (when I am writing this), Maddow's show is the only place where Biden's speech was broadcast in full, if at all. Please watch. It's only about five minutes and you will be glad you did.

This video is also posted at The Elder Storytelling Place. The publication of daily stories from contributors will return there tomorrow.

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN would have been the most famous composer of his era except for a certain Mr Handel who was hanging around at the time. This didn't worry Georg as they were really good friends, and besides he was raking in the money as well.

Also around then was Johann Sebastian Bach. He was also a friend of Georg's. So much so that Georg was godfather to at least one of Johann's sons. Indeed, at the time he has considered a superior composer to Bach. Time has put paid to that notion but he's still pretty good.

Georg was a self-taught musician, teaching himself to play the violin, flute, zither and various keyboards by the age of 10. You don't hear the zither much these days, not since Anton Karas left the scene.

Georg later taught himself flute, oboe, chalumeau (no, I didn't know what it was either; it's a forerunner of the clarinet), viola da gamba, double bass, and bass trombone.

Hmm, no mention of the bagpipes or the kazoo. Perhaps his friends suggested he eschew those instruments.

His family didn't approve of this music caper and insisted he enroll at university to study science and languages. While there, he formed the student Collegium Musicum and they gave many public concerts to great acclaim.

The family finally caved in to the inevitable. After graduating, he soon left town (Leipzig) as the music bigwigs disapproved of him because he was too good and showed them up. Besides he had used students in his concerts thus usurping the places of established musicians.

He got a job as Kapellmeister to Count Erdmann II in Sorau (now Zary, in Poland) but that didn't last long as the Swedish army invaded the place. The Swedes! They’ve changed a bit.

He eventually ended up in Hamburg where he remained for the rest of his life (apart from visits to Paris and Rome and elsewhere). The years spent in Hamburg were the most productive period of his life and boy, was he productive. It wasn't all plain sailing as the church condemned some of his operas for "inciting lasciviousness.” Nothing has changed.

He was offered the position of Thomaskantor (whatever that is) back in Leipzig but turned it down. The next person in line couldn't take it due to an existing contract so they had to make do with the third best candidate, J.S. Bach. You have to wonder about the folks selecting these positions.

The orchestral suite was Telemann's forte. Georg once claimed that he had written 600 of them. About a quarter of that number have survived that we know about, so maybe he wasn't fibbing.

Here is part of one of those, the second movement of his Suite for Viola Da Gamba in D Major.

♫ Telemann - Suite for Viola Da Gamba in D Maj (2)

Here is a cantata about a cat killing and eating a canary. Old Georg knew how to take on the serious topics of the day. The person who commissioned this work is long forgotten but I presume he was a pet lover. The pet being a cat rather than a canary, I imagine.

The baritone is the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the cello player is Irmgard Poppen, Dietrich's wife who died in childbirth in 1963. This is the Canary Cantata. I would have thought that he’d call it the Cat Cantata but what do I know?

♫Telemann - Canary Cantata

For a complete change of pace, here is a piece for a single instrument, the violin. It’s the Fantasia No 10 for Solo Violin.

♫ Telemann - Fantasia No 10 for Solo Violin

Georg’s personal life was a bit troubled to say the least. His first wife died only a few months after their marriage.

He married his second wife, Maria Textor, to gain citizenship so he could work for the Prince of Bayreuth. This marriage didn't work very well as she had a bunch of extramarital affairs and ran up a large gambling debt before leaving him. It can't have been all bad because they had nine kids.

Telemann's friends organized a collection to pay off her debts and keep him from bankruptcy. Maria outlived him and ended up in a convent in Frankfurt. Hmm.

Georg died at the age of 87 of some sort of a chest ailment and his position was filled by his godson C.P.E. Bach. Georg was one of the most prolific composers of all time with more than 3000 compositions that we know about.

He was a major link between the late baroque and early classical periods. Of importance too was that he published his own works, setting a precedent for regarding music as the intellectual property of the composer.

I’ll continue the violin music with the second movement of the Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major.

♫ Telemann - Concerto for 3 violins (2)

While in Paris, Georg wrote a number of quartets that these days are collectively called the Paris Quartets. Let’s play the first movement of Quartet No. 4 in B Minor, probably the most famous of them.

♫ Telemann - Quartet No. 4 (1)

Georg was quite fond of the overture; he wrote a bunch of them. To me, an overture suggests the beginning of something or other. He treated this form as another extended piece of music with several movements. Perhaps the overture concept changed over the years.

This one has eight movements which really wouldn’t leave room for anything to follow it. Here is the first movement from the Overture La Changeant. It was pretty radical at the time as each of its movements was in a different key. You won’t hear that though, as I’m only playing one of them.

♫ Telemann - Overture La Changeant (1)

And now another cantata. Like most composers around that time, Georg wrote a bunch of them. This is the first movement from Seele, lerne dich erkennen, a cantata for soprano, recorder, and basso continuo.  The soprano is Monika Mauch.

♫ Telemann - Cantata TWV1-1258 (1)

Georg also seemed to like the trumpet somewhat as he wrote quite a bit for this instrument but then, he wrote quite a bit for every instrument. I’ll finish with the third movement of the Sonata for Trumpet in D Major. It’s not a sonata as we know it today, it sounds more like a trumpet concerto to me.

♫ Telemann - Sonata for Trumpet (3)

Finally, last Tuesday,

”The unmanned Falcon 9 blasted off at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT) from here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the Dragon capsule filled with cargo bound for the International Space Station.

“Also packed aboard the rocket was a secondary payload carrying remains from 308 people, including Doohan and Mercury program astronaut Gordon Cooper, according to ABC News and Reuters.”

Here is a video from NASA of the liftoff. Beautiful.

SENATOR POTTY-MOUTH ATTACKS ELDERS (AGAIN)
Surely you remember when former Wyoming senator and cat food commission co-chair Alan Simpson referred to Social Security as a “milk cow with 310 million tits,” among his other – uh – colorful descriptions of people he doesn't like, mostly old ones.

In April, he reacted to a flyer, produced by the California Alliance for Retired Americans, against his deficit reduction plan. From his letter to the organization on his official ex-senator stationery [pdf]:

”What a wretched group of seniors you must be to use the faces of the very young people that we are trying to save, while the 'greedy geezers' like you use them as a tool and a front for your nefarious bunch of crap. You must feel some sense of shame for shoveling this bullshit."

National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) president and CEO, Max Richtman, issued, in part, this response [pdf]:

”I know this letter is likely an exercise in futility. However, I'm writing to you today with one simple request – please cease and desist with the mean-spirited, denigrating and hate-filled personal attack on America's seniors.

“Sure, some in the press still love the profanity laden poison-pen letters and insulting soundbites, but it only denigrates the serious policy work many honest and caring people on both sides perform each and every day...”

Former Senator Potty Mouth is the sort of elder who gives the rest of us a bad name.

A WONDERFUL QUEBEC POSTCARD
After her visit here in Oregon Norma, Peter Tibbles' assistant musicologist, moved on to the east coast of North America and sent me this postcard from Montreal:

The description on the card says: "Designed in 1999, this 5-story, 3-dimensional, trompe l'oeil painting tells the story of Quebec depicting the seasons and showing many famous quebecois artists and writers."

As I've indicated on these pages in the past, I love being fooled by all forms of optical illusion – most particularly, trompe l'oeil – so I tracked down more information about this wall painting online.

You can see larger photographs of it and close-ups of many details of the painting at the website of Cite Creation which has made many such paintings on buildings throughout the world.

And here is someone's short tourist video of the Quebec trompe l'oeil:

AN AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH MOI
Many months ago, my online friend Cynthia Friedlob interviewed me about “reinventing yourself” for her podcast, Experience Talks Online. If you're here before 8AM Pacific time today, you can read about the interview at the podcast website.

There is a link on that page to the Listen Page where the program will be available after 8AM or, here's the direct link to that page.

And look at this terrific bonus for readers of The Elder Storytelling Place. One of that blog's newest contributors, Lia Hirtz, is also interviewed on the show.

Thank you, Cynthia, for an interview that was a pleasure.

CONCERTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
I think one of the coolest perks of being president of the United States is that you don't have to leave home to see the best musicians in the world. Pretty much anyone you ask shows up.

Obviously, it's an exclusive, invitation-only event when these performers appear at the White House but the videos, now posted regularly for the rest of us, are a good substitute. This is Stevie Wonder from the evening he was awarded the Gershwin Prize on 26 February 2009.

You can watch full concerts or selected performances at this White House website.

MOST AMAZING ACCEPTANCE SPEECH YOU'VE EVER SEEN
I ignore all sports so I had never heard of Sophie Gustafson until the Nikki, who blogs at From Where I Sit, sent this video to me last month.

Sophie is a professional golfer from Sweden who, earlier this year, was given a Ben Hogan Award from the Golf Writers Association of America. She also has a severe stutter which, in the past, kept her from doing media interviews.

This time, however, she taped the speech for playback at the award ceremony. It is a beautiful exercise in courage and an inspiration to others, particularly kids with her affliction.

RETIREMENT JOBS
In Needham, Massachusetts, there is a company called Vita Needle Factory. It employs a lot of old people – the median age of workers there is 74 and at least one is a centenarian.

”Vita Needle’s business model is based on a workforce of part-timers,” writes marketing expert Erin Read Ruddick. “That means elders and teenagers and everyone in between. The factory has workers born in almost every decade of the last century.

“At the North Hill program last week, you could see the obvious friendship and respect. And you could hear them laughing frequently, together, with humor that cut across the ages.”

The “program” Read refers to was the recent launch of a new book, Retirement on the Line, by anthropologist Caitrin Lynch based on her five-year study of “eldersourcing” at the Needham needle factory. Employing elders is a win-win for the company and the workers:

”Many of the workers told Prof. Lynch that outside of Vita Needle they are unrecognized or even invisible. Many old people feel that way. 'Old people just want to matter,' said Lynch.”

There needs to be a lot more of this kind of information about elder workers. You can read more here.

LEGENDARY VIDAL/MAILER FEUD ON CAVETT
I started my first job in television as a lowly production assistant at the late-night Dick Cavett Show in December 1971. During my first week of employment, I witnessed up-close-and-personal a program that would become infamous.

It involved an ongoing feud between writers Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer. Both men were booked on the show that night along with Janet Flanner, the well-known writer, under the pen-name Genet, of the Letter from Paris column that appeared in New Yorker magazine in those days.

You don't get that much intellectual star power on today's late night talk shows and it certainly was a high glitterati/literati moment. Or, rather, was supposed to be.

None of these people, including Cavett, was a shrinking violet and the program turned into a deliciously vicious exercise in high and low wit that I doubt has been achieved on a talk show since that night, 2 December 1971. Here is a short clip:

A few years ago, Cavett wrote about the show in his occasional New York Times column. It's worth a read.

BEAUTIFUL BRAND NEW KITTENS
Nothing to know here. Just watch their wonderfulness.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” in the upper left corner of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I probably won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog if you have one.

According to a study by the Employee Research Benefit Institute (EBRI), overall spending drops on average by about 20 percent after retirement from a median of $39,945 annually in working households to $31,365 in retirement households.

EBRI found the only major expense that increases after retirement is healthcare. In the working, 50-64 age group, health expenses account for about 9 percent of income. After age 85, it has doubled which, of course, makes sense.

Here are the EBRI survey results and how I stack up with them in the other five major expense categories:

HOUSING is the single largest expense for people of all ages, says EBRI.

”Home-related expenses represent 47 percent of all costs for people ages 50 to 64, which declines to 44 percent between ages 65 and 74.”

I've never spent that much. With a mortgage, homeowners insurance and property taxes, I was spending about 25 percent of income on housing before I retired. I have no mortgage now but counting homeowners association dues, ever-increasing property taxes and insurance but much lower income, I spend about the same 25 percent on housing.

TRANSPORTATION costs drop dramatically in retirement especially without a commute – from 14 percent of income for 50-64 year olds to a low of 8 percent for those 85 and older. Couples often can get by with one car in retirement rather than two.

I hardly notice auto costs. Especially during winter when I don't stray far from my town, I fill up the car with gas about once every six weeks. With insurance and registration, I spend about four percent of income on auto-related expenses.

EBRI says the amount spent on FOOD AND CLOTHING doesn't change much in retirement – 12 percent and 3 percent respectively. I know that with dry cleaning and my shoe fetish I spent a lot more than 3 percent on clothes when I was working. Nowadays, 3 percent or less sounds about right.

Food, however, is where I indulge myself. I eat out about twice a week and cook all my other meals. In the past eight or ten years, my grocery costs have been down because I hardly ever eat meat, but fresh vegetables and fruit prices have skyrocketed just in the past two or three years. It evens out, maybe, with the fact that varieties of good fish can be found frequently for only four or five dollars a pound.

I don't know the percent of my income food and clothing account for, but I don't feel constrained in spending for what I need and I don't feel deprived of either.

Without giving a percentage, the EBRI study says that GIFTS AND DONATIONS increase a great deal with age – for indulging grandchildren and because people “may decide as they age that they don't need all that money.”

It's hard to believe that the $31,365 average income of retired households is “all that money” to anyone. During my last few years of employment when I was trying to pay off some high medical bills and then the interim years following when I was scrimping by until eligible for full Social Security, donations were out of the question.

Well, if you don't count the no-kill pet shelter for which I squeezed out money. Now, I can better do my part although I often wish I had more to give.

The EBRI study reports that the amount of money spent on ENTERTAINMENT stays the same in the first few years of retirement and then declines with further aging. It starts out, they report, at about 9 percent of income.

I think it all depends on what you count as entertainment.

”How retirees choose to fill their new-found hours of leisure time can make a big difference in their retirement security. 'They can either spend this time on activities around the house that reduce overall spending, such as doing more home repairs yourself, preparing more meals at home, doing your own cleaning rather than getting someone else to do the cleaning, and going out and looking for deals and smart spending opportunities, or they could spend this time traveling or entertaining - and that takes money,' says Rohwedder. 'It very much depends on what people do with their newly gained time.'"

Cooking at home, house cleaning and DIY projects may or may not fall into a given person's idea of entertainment. In my case, “going out and looking for deals and smart spending opportunities” is a fairly close definition of hell. Aside from food, I despise shopping.

Some of us have a wider definition of entertainment that these survey folks: books, magazines, movies, television, blogging, classes, volunteering, gardening, etc. Some of these cost money, some don't. I suspect entertainment costs vary widely depending on definition and from person to person.

So I wonder how spending has changed for you in retirement. And if you are not retired, how you expect it to change. You can read the full EBRI report here [pdf] or a shorter overview from U.S. News here.

ADMINISTRIVIA: Some readers who have emailed a message or information to me may be waiting for a response. Thanks to a vicious spam blocking service called Spamcop, my responses are sometimes returned to me because your ISP uses this service to try to keep spam to a minimum.

It doesn't matter that I don't send spam. If too many others on the same email service I use are spamming, everyone is blocked (forever or shorter, but no way to know which) and the “service” pretty well refuses to remove anyone unfairly blocked.

So if you've been expecting an answer from me and have not received it after three or four days, I've probably received a refusal to deliver from Spamcop. Sorry, but I do not have the patience to try to undo this – reports all over the web say it's nearly impossible, as does my email provider.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Lia Hirtz: To Belong

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
            and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

From Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected - (W. W. Norton, 1995)

Stanley Kunitz is one of America's most celebrated poets. He was twice poet laureate and winner of a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award winner and many more. Born in Massachusetts, he divided most of his time in his adult years between his homes in Greenwich Village and Provincetown.

Kunitz was born in 1905 and died at age 100 in 2006. Here he is reading Touch Me, introduced by Garrison Keillor.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Jackie Harrison: How Do We Appreciate the Arts

We got to the bus station in Spokane in plenty of time of course and approaching departure time, we lined up in an orderly queue outside gate 3.

Well, 11:35AM came and went without a sign of any bus type substance. Then came the announcement over the loudspeaker: The bus to Portland will be delayed for half an hour as the bus from Missoula is late and ours was lurking around somewhere or other waiting for that one.

Well, by now we folks in line were real pals and we discussed whether the train or a plane would have been the better option.

Eventually a bus pulled up. And another and another and another and another and another. We figured that one of those should be ours and so it proved to be.

After a while there was another announcement that the bus to Portland is now loading at gate 1. What? Mad dash for gate 1, every man for himself. Another queue (different order from the first, of course).

A couple of minutes later, another announcement (and you can probably see where this is going) that the bus to Portland would be loading at gate 3. Another mad rush, every woman for herself.

Back at gate 3, they separated us into two queues, those with luggage to check and those with carry-on. Fortunately, I was in the carry-on queue, as we boarded first, and I got a nice seat with a big window (the front one had a woman with a small baby, so I stayed away from that).

We got everyone on board and the driver got on. Ah good, we all thought, but no. It seems that they loaded the checked luggage on to the wrong bus.

Well, we just sat around on the Group W benches playing with our pencils. We eventually got under way an hour late (and didn't make up time along the way).

Oh, the air conditioned failed not too long out of Spokane. Fortunately, it didn't get too hot. Also the intercom didn't work.

The driver did an admirable job under trying circumstances. When we arrived late in Pasco, the bus station was closed. He apologised for this saying that he had organised champagne and hors d'oeuvres for us all but with the station closed we'd miss out.

Ronni here again. A week ago, I showed you photographs of the results of the salmon dinner Peter prepared here one evening. It was dee-lish-us. Several of you asked for the recipe so I double-checked with Peter and here it is with his commentary. This serves two people.

About 2/3 cup of fermented black beans (“crush them a bit but don't go overboard”)

Add to the beans about 1 cup of mirin and a splash of sesame oil. Stir these and put aside.

Thinly slice a two-inch piece of fresh ginger

Thinly slice 5 or 6 cloves of garlic

Slice cross-wise into small pieces 7 or 8 spring onions (usually called scallions or green onions in the U.S.)

Line the steamer plate with the ginger, garlic and onions reserving a smaller amount for later.

Slice the salmon “as for sushi (small sushi, not big bits)” and place on top of the vegetables in a single layer (overlap if there's extra).

Pour the black bean mix over everything.

Add some more spring onions on top (“and garlic and ginger if you like”) Here is ready to be steamed:

Steam for somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes depending how thick the salmon slices are.

Serve with rice at the table – and yum-mee it is.

A couple of nights ago, I made the dish again – everything the same as above except I substituted a whole halibut steak for the sliced salmon and it was equally good. I think you could use chicken too or just about anything that strikes your fancy.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Deb: The War of the Mashed Potatoes

There were not many interviews and some of the hiring managers who were eager to meet me after speaking on the telephone, suddenly discovered the job they'd listed had been filled overnight when this 64-year-old face showed up the next day for the interview.

Because I had been employed as a independent contractor (probably illegally), I was ineligible for unemployment insurance and after a year, the only solution to my alarming debt that climbed higher with each passing month was to sell my New York City home and find somewhere less expensive to live.

That took another year. Then I scrimped by until I was eligible for full Social Security at age 65 and eight months.

My point in repeating all that (2005 posts about it here and here) is that I did not choose to retire and in fact, oblivious to the passing years, I had never thought about when I might stop working or made any kind of plan. I'd had no idea the day I was laid off with a dozen colleagues that I would not work again.

Other people, looking forward to their retirement, do plan for it. Like this guy, Tony Lopez, whose first day off the job was 16 March:

That video is from “Day One Retirement Story,” a promotional campaign for Prudential who would undoubtedly like to become your and my financial adviser. Ordinarily, I steer away from anything on this blog that would promote commercial services, but I think this is a well-done series with some thought behind it that applies to us at TGB.

One of the most common things I hear from other retired people is their joy in giving up the alarm clock, of no longer living on someone else's schedule. I agree and so does Nadine Peterson whose first day of retirement was 31 July 2011.

At the Day One website is a growing collection of audio, video and still photos with quotations from recent retirees who have been interviewed for the project. As you would guess, health, family and grandchildren are common topics of the retirement stories but the three folks who made these observations put a big smile on my face:

“Happiness is an inside job.”

“I am even considering joining the Peace Corps.”

“I'm going to start building another boat.”

In this video, Mujahid Abdul-Rashid, whose Day 1 was 30 July 2011, says the prospect of retirement made him realize that he had almost skipped the father part of life and now he wants to do the grandfather part a little differently. Here's his story:

I'm a bit jealous that I slid unknowingly into retirement and don't have a Day 1 after the job. Now, eight years later (has it really been that long?), this blog and through it, trying to demystify what getting old is really like, has become my job.

In the past few months, I've taken on a couple of volunteer positions related to aging with the city I live in and the county, but the blog and exploration of age remain foremost. Except that I don't get a paycheck, my days are not much different from when I worked, almost as though I've not retired and that's fine with me.

If I had my druthers, I would still be in my apartment on Bedford Street in New York City. I would like, too, to have been gainfully employed for at least an additional five or six years.

But life doesn't always go as we want and given the circumstances of the economic times we live in now, it would be a churlish of me to complain. Retirement just rolled a different way for me than for many others.

Now, it's your turn. If retired, did you plan how it would go? How's that working out? Or if you're not retired yet, what are your plans? Do you think you will be able to achieve them? And for both circumstances, how has the recession/depression affected your retirement?

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Stroppy: What Makes a “Readers' Write?”

”THE retirement dream seems further away for a lot of baby boomers, and they appear to be responding to that by holding on to their jobs if they can. But that may have worsened the employment prospects for younger workers.

“Labor Department figures indicate that the percentage of workers over the traditional retirement age of 65 is at a record high.”

Two things to know about Norris's opening statement: The “traditional retirement age,” usually defined as the age at which workers are eligible for full Social Security benefits, has not been 65 for a decade. As mandated by Congress in 1983, it is currently at 66 and is gradually increasing until it reaches 67 in 2022.

Second, it is a growing and irritating media meme that working old people are at fault for high unemployment among young people. This is not true. As a certain Cajun campaign consultant said 20 years ago, “It's the economy, stupid,” and it is devastating for both young and old in differing ways.

Retired people and those nearing retirement were hit with a triple whammy during and after the 2008 crash. They lost a large percentage of their 401(k) and other retirement savings; many thousands were forced into early retirement during the millions of layoffs following the crash; homes they had intended to sell to take out the accumulated equity for retirement are underwater or have lost a third or more of their value.

Actually, there is a fourth whammy too. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports that age discrimination complaints had, in 2011, increased since 2007, by more than 21 percent.

And a fifth whammy: to survive, many laid-off old workers are forced to take early Social Security at age 62 decreasing their benefit for the rest of their lives by up to 30 percent, according to the Social Security Administration.

The gigantic difficulty for elders, compared to younger workers, is most do not have the time to recoup the losses to their 401(k)s; their homes will not reach their pre-recession value in their lifetimes (mine has dropped more than 20 percent since I bought it two years ago); and for those forced into early retirement, there is little chance of being rehired as we are reminded ad nauseum that employers will not take on people (of any age) who have been out of work for more than about six months.

Is it any wonder then that, as Norris reports, “the percentage of workers over the traditional retirement age of 65 is at a record high”? What choice do elders have? Norris also tells us:

"For the first time since the government began keeping track of the numbers in 1981 — and probably the first time ever — one in nine American men over the age of 75 was working in April. About one in 20 women over that age have jobs.

"In general, for workers it was better to be older in the current cycle. The employment-to-population ratios are higher now than before the recession began for both men and women in all age groups above 65."

What Norris does not tell us, however, is what kind of jobs they have. Walmart greeters? Whatever they work at, salaries are low across the board. In Virginia, a Presbyterian minister was laid off by her church in the downturn of 2007. She has struggled since then with temporary jobs and signed up for Social Security in 2010.

"For spending money,” reports Reuters via Huffington Post, “she plans to start teaching a water aerobics class to earn $40 a week. 'I'm not going to get wealthy on that,' she said. 'It's not really the ministry I expected to have.'"

Last Tuesday Senator Herb Kohl, who is chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, held a hearing focusing on long-term unemployment of older workers. At the hearing, Kohl made public a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which, said Kohl, notes that

”...the number of long-term unemployed workers aged 55 and older has more than doubled since the recession began in late 2007. About 55 percent of unemployed older workers, or 1.1 million, have been unemployed for more than six months, up from 23 percent, or less than 200,000, in 2007.”

And less likely to find work with each passing day. Listen to these voices of the long-term, older unemployed as interviewed by the GAO last year:

It must be devastating to be a young worker with a freshly-minted college degree today, filled with energy and eager to take a first shot at changing the world. Surely you remember what that was like. Jobs were plentiful in my day and I don't envy today's graduates.

There is that gigantic student loan debt of tens of thousands of dollars even before they find their first job. Most jobs pay no more than the did 20 years ago while the price of rent, food, gas and clothing climb every month - and don't forget those loan payments right out of the first paycheck and thereafter for a decade or more. Few of us had anything like that.

But one thing young workers have that elders do not – 40 or more years to build a retirement nest egg. That doesn't make their lives any easier than elders in this economy, but they do have time on their side.

All people of the 99 percent are between a rock and a hard place these days so let us not blame elders for young folks' employment problems. Put the blame where it belongs – with the billionaire bank executives who brought us all to this calamity.

Tomorrow we'll discuss a lighter side of retirement.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Diane Linch: The Girl and Her Dad

Okay we’re at ground zero for blues and country music songs here. Where would popular music be without these tunes?

I have a confession to make: I’m an Australian and I don’t like beer (I also don’t like Vegemite so that makes me doubly unAustralian. But Vegemite isn’t really the topic today, although it’s sort of related for those who know how it’s made).

I’m also not a spirits drinker - no whisky or whiskey, no cognac, no vodka. Okay, I like a glass of wine now and then (A GLASS!!! I can hear my friends saying). Alright maybe more than one.

In spite of the reputation of my country as big beer drinkers, wine sales have outstripped those of beer for some years now, so I’m not alone.

Getting back to the music, Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, and I came up with enough tracks to fill more than three columns without breaking a sweat. This is the first of them.

The obvious place to start is a song from my own country. Well, it was obvious to me. These strange dudes are called MENTAL AS ANYTHING.

The Mentals met at art school in Sydney, but unlike all those English groups from the sixties who did the same, these folks kept going with their art. They’ve had several exhibitions, both separately and as a group, and at least one of them makes more from his art than his music.

I imagine being famous rock stars helps, but only initially; they need to have some talent to continue in the art caper and these folks have that. They are terrific musicians as well.

This song was a hit in the eighties for them. Somewhat recently, they recorded an album of some of their earlier songs including this one. It was sort of an “unplugged” album - well, more a reinterpretation of their old songs. I like the new version better than the original so I’m going with that one. The Nips Are Getting Bigger.

♫ Mental as Anything - The Nips Are Getting Bigger

There were any number of versions of this next song but we decided on JOHN LEE HOOKER. Okay, I decided on him; the A.M. had an inkling for Amos Milburn but we (all right, I) decided to use him with another song.

John Lee’s style is more akin to piano boogie woogie than to that of a guitarist. He often played a single chord throughout a song but with his great rhythmic variations, his expressive singing and often with a great backing guitarist to add color, he was one of the finest blues performers.

His influence is everywhere, particularly in the boogie style of rock & roll (I’m thinking of Canned Heat and George Thorogood especially). Here’s John Lee’s version of One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.

♫ John Lee Hooker - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

GARY STEWART is a mandatory inclusion. Indeed, checking his oeuvre, I found that he could have had a column to himself on this topic and still have songs left over, so it’s difficult to come up with just one track for Gazza.

He was the ultimate honky-tonk performer, at least of recent years. He wrote (most of) his own songs, was an accomplished guitarist and piano player and a singer that took your breath away - mainly because you were wondering if he’d get out of the song alive.

Alas, that flippant comment proved to be true. Gary took his own life a few years ago soon after his wife of more than 40 years died of pneumonia. This song sounds as if it were based on his own life; I guess we’ll never know now. She’s Got a Drinking Problem (and It’s Me).

♫ Gary Stewart - She's Got a Drinking Problem

Now for a complete change of pace, a swerve over to left field, here is MARIO LANZA.

Mario was supposed to play the lead role in the film of The Student Prince however, the director, Curtis Bernhardt, didn’t like his singing. Mario told him he could direct his acting but not his singing and walked off the set.  The studio didn’t like that at all and got another actor, Edmond Purdom, to play the role, lip synching to Mario’s music.

Of course, by the time they had gotten around to doing this, the director had flown the coop and had been replaced by another who was a friend of Mario’s but it was too late. Edmond later became more well known playing the harried inspector in the Pink Panther films.

We’re just interested in the music though and here is Mario with Drink, Drink, Drink from that film.

♫ Mario Lanza - Drink, Drink, Drink

There were several options for the next song. Jerry Lee Lewis was the front runner but we have him for another song, so he missed out this time. The chosen one is STICK (or Sticks) MCGHEE.

I think I prefer Jerry Lee’s version of the song, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, or some such cliché.

Stick was born Granville and gained his nickname as a child when he used to push around his older brother in a wagon with a stick. That brother had had polio, so it was difficult for him to walk. That didn’t stop him in the long run, he was that great blues guitarist Brownie McGhee.

Jerry Lee’s wasn’t the only cover version by a long shot; there have been scores, maybe hundreds of others. This is the original though. Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee.

♫ Stick McGhee - Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee

If there’s ever an opportunity for AMOS MILBURN to appear in a column, the A.M. will certainly take it. He had several songs that could be included but we decided to stick to one per person (unless we change our minds about that, of course).

Amos had a great sense of humor that was reflected in his music that’s mostly about partying, drinking and generally having a good time. He started out as a smooth stylist similar to Nat King Cole but he quickly jumped on the jump blues bandwagon and it’s this style for which he’s most known these days.

This is Bad Bad Whiskey. Incidentally, he also has a song called Good Good Whiskey as well as one called Vicious Vicious Vodka. There seems to be a bit of a theme there.

♫ Amos Milburn - Bad Bad Whiskey

You knew that DEAN MARTIN would have to be here somewhere and you’re right.

This song isn’t really Dean’s style at all; it could be mistaken for a country track. I guess that’s appropriate given the topic. Here we have Dino with Little Ole Wine Drinker Me.

♫ Dean Martin - Little Ole Wine Drinker Me

TOM PAXTON was probably the first of the sixties’ singer/songwriters to make a name for himself. He predated Bob by several years in this caper and people were recording his songs quite early on.

Tom writes songs about every conceivable topic – protest songs, love songs, children’s songs, silly songs, songs about nothing, songs about the most important things, so you know there will be a drinking song in there somewhere.

This one is fairly famous, as it’s been recorded by several people: Bottle of Wine.

♫ Tom Paxton - Bottle of Wine

Now we have someone who knows a thing or two about drinking, GEORGE JONES. I’m really surprised he’s still alive.

Often considered the finest male singer in country music (although I think Merle Haggard would more than give him a run for his money, the A.M. is unequivocal in her support for Merle), George has a formidable reputation in the field of drinking as well as singing.

Indeed, there are many stories about this and you probably know some of them, especially the ride-on lawn mower incident but we won’t go there. I’ll let George sing to you: If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will).

♫ George Jones - If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)

I’ll finish with the interesting trio DILLARD HARTFORD DILLARD.

These are brothers Rodney and Doug Dillard and John Hartford. Rodney and Doug formed the group The Dillards, although Doug left the group after a few albums. That group was one of the finest country rock groups who ever strut the stage, maybe even the best.

John Hartford was a fine songwriter (he wrote Gentle on my Mind among many others) and was a riverboat pilot who liked nothing better than sailing down the Mississippi and entertaining the passengers with his music when wasn’t piloting.

The three got together to record several interesting albums and today’s song is taken from one of those, No Beer in Heaven, with John singing lead.

♫ Dillard Hartford Dillard - No Beer in Heaven