It is unusual for me to prefer a cover version to the original, but Marvin Gaye's take on "Yesterday" is just excellent.  His performance seems so easy and simple, with his sound clear and mellow.  The strings (which tend to be over-used in popular music) seem to fit in here with the sparse twanging of the guitar.

I think Gaye's performance seems more infused with meaning than that of the Beatles.  Or maybe I just hear more meaning in it because I think of the sad tale of Marvin Gaye's shortened life.

Yesterday

Marvin Gaye

My pal Alice had made a slight mention of RM's passing, but here's the official notice from the college.  He was one of the professors I had at school who had also taught one or both of my parents.  Dad said when he was in school the students called him "Muy Religion" (he was a religion professor).

I only had him for one class, Heritage 22, a required course for all students; he was my small group leader.  I was in a very quiet small group, so I was one of the very, very few that Dr. Melugin could get to participate in class.  I specifically remember one instance when we were discussing forgiveness.  He asked: if someone killed my sister/brother, would I be able to forgive them?  The religion profs liked to pick on me this way, because they knew I would give them an answer.  Whenever I saw him after that class my freshman year, he would say hello and we would chat.  I felt that he cared about my presence at the school and what I was up to.  I'm sorry I didn't keep in touch with him after my graduation.

He was a very sweet man and I'm sad to read of his passing.

I only read a few (well, 4) books this month.  They were all pretty darn good, so I don't mind.

April 08 reads

So I'll say, amen, Colbert.

Bannisterbaby

I keep looking at the card I got from the office and cracking up.  The shot on the front was taken by a photographer named Constance Bannister, who took a lot of baby photos in the 40's and 50's.  So I wonder how old this baby is now.

Whatever, this card is awesome.

(See more of her photos on cards from Graphique de France.)

My mom printed me out two poems this morning: the one I'll post here and this other one.

A Birthday Candle, Donald Justice

Thirty today, I saw
The trees flare briefly like
The candles on a cake,
As the sun went down the sky,
A momentary flash,
Yet there was time to wish

[source]

Leah's throwing me a small party tomorrow night, and then Sunday evening the Austinist folks happen to be meeting up for a party/get-together.  So I get a weekend of celebration this year!

Plus, I get my hair done tomorrow. . . I can't fully express how happy I am about that.  For serious!

Fatherhood: poems about fathers (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

I love the language in this poem about a single moment of happiness in this remembrance of a father.

A Chinese Bowl, Katha Pollitt

Plucked from a junk shop
chipped celadon
shadow of a swallow's wing
or cast by Venetian blinds

on tinged legal pads
one summer Saturday
in 1957.
Absorbed at his big desk

My father worked on briefs.
The little Royal makes
its satisfying chocks
stamping an inky nimbus

around each thick black letter
with cut-out moons for Os.
Curled up on the floor,
I'm writing too: "Bean Soup

and Rice," a play about
a poor girl in Kyoto
and the treasure-finding rabbit
who saves her home. Fluorescent

light spills cleanly down
on Danish Modern couch
and metal cabinet
which hides no folder labelled

"blacklist" or "party business"
or "drink" or "mother's death."
I think, This is happiness,
right here, right now, these

walls striped green and gray,
shadows and sun, dust motes
stirring the still air,
and a feeling gathers, heavy

as rain about to fall,
part love, part concentration,
part inner solitude.
Where is that room, those gray-

green thin-lined
scribbled papers
littering the floor?
How did

I move so far away
just living day by day
that now all rooms seem strange,
the years all error?
                          Bowl,

What could
I drink from you
clear green tea
or iron-bitter water

that would renew
my fallen life?

This one's a favorite of mine.  The lyrics are amazing, somewhat bitter over such a poppy melody.

I Need Love

Sam Phillips

Martinis & Bikinis

Sam Phillips

If I tried to punish my cat with cuddling, I think he'd try to scratch me.