The fisherman’s wife

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There’s an old fairy tale about a poor woman whose husband rescued a magic flounder (actually an enchanted prince). The woman forced her husband to demand a reward from the flounder. The flounder granted her wish, but she wasn’t satisfied. She made a series of escalating demands. At first, she just wanted to be rich. Then she wanted to be a duchess, then a queen, and so on, until she demanded to be ruler of the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars.

Finally, the flounder got fed up. He raised a storm and through its din, he shouted that the woman would have no more, as her greed and vanity were insatiable. He took back all the power and riches he had granted, and left her a poor fisherman’s wife once again.

When will we get fed up and raise a storm? Bush unilaterally declares the right to read your mail; wasn’t warrantless wiretapping enough? Why haven’t we impeached him already? Why haven’t we told him he can’t be ruler of the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars?

Frightening thought

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Super G has expressed his love of prog rock, along with the belief that most new music sucks.

While I suspect he was at least exaggerating for the sake of stirring up some discussion, it did inspire this frightening question that I am asking myself: What if in thirty years, all the music that I love so much now sounds as cheesy as Yes?

Noooooooo!!!!

My musical year in review

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It’s been quite a year for West African music. Much-loved Ali Farka Touré passed away, not without leaving us one last album. He’s survived by his nephew Afel Bocoum, who has started getting lots of attention for his music. Tartit, with their Tuareg electric guitars, brought out a new album as well. Toumani Diabaté and Ba Cissoko each put out some great eclectic yet still tradition-steeped music.

Rosanne Cash dealt with her father’s passing (and the death of other family members) in Black Cadillac. Neil Young expressed his thoughts on Living With War. We went Crazy over Gnarls Barkley, The Dixie Chicks continued as outspoken as ever on Taking the Long Way, and Bob Dylan reflected on Modern Times.

Folk music is alive and well and mutating into new forms every day. In fact, I don’t know if it’s technology and the global village thing, but it seems to me that increasing numbers of musicians perform stuff that blends an amazing variety of influences from many genres, past decades and corners of the globe (what a funny expression). Pete Seeger would say it’s all folk music.

At any rate, it’s the music that helps remind us who we are and what we can be. I don’t think I could have gotten through the year without it.

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