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Saturday, March 24, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
March to the Sea
I’m finishing up the memoirs of Civil War General William T. Sherman. The book was recommended by Broschat (see link to Montlake Blog at the right), who discovered that Sherman began his career in California before and shortly after the start of the gold rush. Since we grew up in the Bay Area, much of Sherman’s early adventures took place on ground familiar to us.
I thought I’d only read until he went back East, but I found the book to be very compelling. There are lots of Sherman’s thoughts about the war itself and many fascinating incidents, some of them involving clashes of gigantic egos. Sherman, for example, was dispatched to Southern California to get Fremont to knock it off with the undeclared war on Mexico. The declared war came a little later, and Sherman lamented that he couldn’t be there for the action.
In addition to the events themselves, Sherman was a good writer, able to capture a lot of detail, and in a readable style at a time when rhetorical flourish was a virtue and more was generally considered better.
But it’s Sherman himself who is so fascinating. A few years into the war when the South was on the run, some newspapers and politicians were arguing for a peace settlement. Sherman would settle for nothing short of complete defeat of the South and complete surrender:
“I would banish all minor questions, assert the broad doctrine that as a nation the United States has the right, and also the physical power, to penetrate to every part of our national domain, and that we will do it—that we will do it in our own time and in our own way; that it makes no difference whether it be in one year, or two, or ten, or twenty; that we will remove and destroy every obstacle, if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, every thing that to us seems proper; that we will not cease till the end is attained; that all who do not aid us are enemies, and that we will not account to them for our acts. If the people of the South oppose, they do so at their peril; and if they stand by, mere lookers-on in this domestic tragedy, they have no right to immunity, protection, or share in the final results.”
This was his advice to Grant and Lincoln, and this was the outcome. For his own part, after every battle Sherman dispassonately records his own army's deaths, wounded and missing, sometimes numbering in the thousands.
I thought I’d only read until he went back East, but I found the book to be very compelling. There are lots of Sherman’s thoughts about the war itself and many fascinating incidents, some of them involving clashes of gigantic egos. Sherman, for example, was dispatched to Southern California to get Fremont to knock it off with the undeclared war on Mexico. The declared war came a little later, and Sherman lamented that he couldn’t be there for the action.
In addition to the events themselves, Sherman was a good writer, able to capture a lot of detail, and in a readable style at a time when rhetorical flourish was a virtue and more was generally considered better.
But it’s Sherman himself who is so fascinating. A few years into the war when the South was on the run, some newspapers and politicians were arguing for a peace settlement. Sherman would settle for nothing short of complete defeat of the South and complete surrender:
“I would banish all minor questions, assert the broad doctrine that as a nation the United States has the right, and also the physical power, to penetrate to every part of our national domain, and that we will do it—that we will do it in our own time and in our own way; that it makes no difference whether it be in one year, or two, or ten, or twenty; that we will remove and destroy every obstacle, if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, every thing that to us seems proper; that we will not cease till the end is attained; that all who do not aid us are enemies, and that we will not account to them for our acts. If the people of the South oppose, they do so at their peril; and if they stand by, mere lookers-on in this domestic tragedy, they have no right to immunity, protection, or share in the final results.”
This was his advice to Grant and Lincoln, and this was the outcome. For his own part, after every battle Sherman dispassonately records his own army's deaths, wounded and missing, sometimes numbering in the thousands.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Paul deLay's Last Concert
Last Saturday night, Mary and I heard Portland blues giant Paul deLay in concert at the Ross Ragland Theater here in town. We had dinner with our new friends Ronda and Jim, then walked over to the show together. A great evening!
deLay played with a quartet featuring guitar, bass, and drums, plus himself singing and playing harmonica. He’s known as one of the best blues harmonica players with obvious jazz influences. He put on a great show doing exclusively Chicago style blues with a somewhat smaller group than it takes to do it right. Still, I was impressed with his musicianship and the group’s swing.
Overall, it was a great night of music, if not the best blues concert I’ve ever seen. Afterwards, Mary and I both said we enjoyed it, though it didn’t seem to take off in the way that can bring an audience to its feet. Mary said deLay seemed tired, a simple explanation that I hadn’t hit on. We both commented that his voice seemed damaged, maybe the inevitable result of a life of shouting the blues, maybe just a cold. He said the group had just returned from Mexico, so we thought maybe he was a little done-in from traveling.
So I was shocked to read this morning on the Oregonian front page that he died yesterday of leukemia. His guitar player said that he was tired after the show and suffering from bronchitis, but back in Portland, doctors said he was in an advanced stage of leukemia. His organs were shutting down, and he went into a coma, dying yesterday morning. No one knew he was sick.
I feel somehow honored and certainly fortunate to have been at his last concert sitting just three rows back. Despite the obvious fatigue, he joked with the audience, played two long sets, and came out for an encore. I bought a CD, Nice and Strong, which adds a Hammond B3 and tenor saxophone to the mix and which I highly recommend.
This leads, of course, to some thoughts on mortality. deLay was 55, four years younger than me. In 1990, he was heavily into alcohol and cocaine and was busted for dealing. He did four years in prison, but got straight before he did the sentence and seemed to stay clean the rest of his life. If he had to die young, this was a good life, full of music and working to the end.
May we all live so well and go out doing what we love.
RIP Paul deLay.
deLay played with a quartet featuring guitar, bass, and drums, plus himself singing and playing harmonica. He’s known as one of the best blues harmonica players with obvious jazz influences. He put on a great show doing exclusively Chicago style blues with a somewhat smaller group than it takes to do it right. Still, I was impressed with his musicianship and the group’s swing.
Overall, it was a great night of music, if not the best blues concert I’ve ever seen. Afterwards, Mary and I both said we enjoyed it, though it didn’t seem to take off in the way that can bring an audience to its feet. Mary said deLay seemed tired, a simple explanation that I hadn’t hit on. We both commented that his voice seemed damaged, maybe the inevitable result of a life of shouting the blues, maybe just a cold. He said the group had just returned from Mexico, so we thought maybe he was a little done-in from traveling.
So I was shocked to read this morning on the Oregonian front page that he died yesterday of leukemia. His guitar player said that he was tired after the show and suffering from bronchitis, but back in Portland, doctors said he was in an advanced stage of leukemia. His organs were shutting down, and he went into a coma, dying yesterday morning. No one knew he was sick.
I feel somehow honored and certainly fortunate to have been at his last concert sitting just three rows back. Despite the obvious fatigue, he joked with the audience, played two long sets, and came out for an encore. I bought a CD, Nice and Strong, which adds a Hammond B3 and tenor saxophone to the mix and which I highly recommend.
This leads, of course, to some thoughts on mortality. deLay was 55, four years younger than me. In 1990, he was heavily into alcohol and cocaine and was busted for dealing. He did four years in prison, but got straight before he did the sentence and seemed to stay clean the rest of his life. If he had to die young, this was a good life, full of music and working to the end.
May we all live so well and go out doing what we love.
RIP Paul deLay.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Three New Sites
I’m excited about three new Websites that were covered in the Oregonian yesterday and today. One is www.blip.tv. particularly www.thebicyclist.blip.tv. The O gave this a front-page story yesterday, and I have to say the real thing doesn’t measure up so well. It’s a site for filmmakers to post their work, and I’m not sure how it differs so much from YouTube. The bicyclist, though, aims to develop into a series. The first episode is only a few minutes long, but a promising start.
Then, there’s www.BikePortland.org. Portland, by all accounts, is the bikiest town around, despite the rain. I’ve tried to hook up with other electric bike enthusiasts through the Web and found surprisingly little going on out there. BikePortland is described as an “all-things-bicycle” blog, so it should be interesting. One of my intermediate goals is to write a guest column for the O on electric biking, and of course it will be written with my usual seriousness of demeanor and purpose. Also some fart jokes.
Maybe most promising is www.librarything.com . You can catalogue your entire personal library or start with just one book at a time. Enter the book and do a search and you can click on a link that will insert the cover, all the publishing information, and even the ISBN number. You can add a description and a review. Maybe best is that you can link up to others who are reading the same books as you and have a chat.
Remember: Do not offer to meet any underage girls in motel rooms!! You’ll probably be met by police detectives and a Fox news team and find yourself doing twenty years hard time, all because you thought you might want to learn a little more about Little Women.
Librarything is getting lots of good buzz. I’m getting a haircut, but not a buzz.
Then, there’s www.BikePortland.org. Portland, by all accounts, is the bikiest town around, despite the rain. I’ve tried to hook up with other electric bike enthusiasts through the Web and found surprisingly little going on out there. BikePortland is described as an “all-things-bicycle” blog, so it should be interesting. One of my intermediate goals is to write a guest column for the O on electric biking, and of course it will be written with my usual seriousness of demeanor and purpose. Also some fart jokes.
Maybe most promising is www.librarything.com . You can catalogue your entire personal library or start with just one book at a time. Enter the book and do a search and you can click on a link that will insert the cover, all the publishing information, and even the ISBN number. You can add a description and a review. Maybe best is that you can link up to others who are reading the same books as you and have a chat.
Remember: Do not offer to meet any underage girls in motel rooms!! You’ll probably be met by police detectives and a Fox news team and find yourself doing twenty years hard time, all because you thought you might want to learn a little more about Little Women.
Librarything is getting lots of good buzz. I’m getting a haircut, but not a buzz.
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