The Gospel According to Woody Guthrie

Keth Crowley, Woody Guthrie Foundation Centennial Design Commission

This is a re-post. I think the first time I posted it was in 2009. I'm posting it again because it's Mr. Guthrie's 100th birthday and also because it's one of my all time favorite songs.  The melody is by the Austin-based singer/songwriter Slaid Cleaves  - I never get tired of hearing his version, and most mornings I do. When I first posted it, I included some of my favorite photos, but this time I'll leave it to you to envision your own promised land. I think that's the point, really-- to feel like this, even just for a minute every day, and have that little rebirth.

This Morning I Was Born Again By Woody Guthrie

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land
I do not want your pearly gates, don't want your streets of gold
This morning I was born again and a light shines in my soul.

This morning I was born again, I was born again complete
I stood up above my troubles and I stand on my two feet
My head it feels unlimited, my body feels like the sky
I feel at home in the universe where yonder planets fly.

This morning I was born again, my past is dead and gone
This great eternal moment is my great eternal dawn
Each drop of blood within me, each breath of life I breath
Is united with these mountains and the mountains with the seas.

I feel the sun upon me, it's rays crawl through my skin
I breathe the life of Jesu and old John Henry in
I give myself, my heart, my soul to give some friend a hand
This morning I was born again, I am in the promised land.

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land
I do not want your pearly gates, don't want your streets of gold
And I do not want your mansions for my heart is never cold.



If you are in the NYC area, I'm helping to produce a Woody Guthrie tribute evening at 92Y on Sunday, November 18 -- save the date!  Tickets will go on sale soon.

Let the Good Temps Roll on Mardi Gras

It's Mardi Gras. Laissez les bon temps roulez today, and let the good temps roll in, too, please. It was down to freezing again last night. After a drenching weekend rain, the last of the ice in the yard finally melted, only to turn into frozen puddles today. On Friday, our afterschool gardening class planted some seeds in the greenhouse, but it seems it may not be warm enough for them to germinate.

On Monday morning I checked the temperature – 50 degrees, but quickly warming up.

The greenhouse temps are regulated by a less than reliable thermostat, fans, heaters

and a timer.

The weekend rain also filled up the rain barrell.

Just to be sure, I started a big flat of peas, so that the kids would have something to plant even if their seeds don’t germinate.  Wish us luck!

Here’s a little Professor Longhair, king of New Orleans piano, playing my very favorite Mardi Gras song, "Big Chief."

Songs Moms Can Groove To 2010

Just ask a 13 year old. Nothing is more painful than having to watch your mother dance. (I may be one of the few people who survived adolescence without feeling this mortification. I loved to dance with my mom, who could out-jitter the jitterbug.)

So I am guilty of subjecting my kids to this abuse regularly during an activity my friend Emilie and I like to call the “kitchen dance.” The kitchen dance is ideally done after the children have gone to bed, and something is needed to liven up the pot scrubbing. It’s a line dance where one of us starts a movement that is duplicated by the other person, who changes the movement slightly and “passes” it back. Easy right? So easy a mom can do it.

Despite the fear and displeasure of my children when they come upon this scene, they themselves are to blame. The radio in the kitchen, usually set on WFUV (also known as “old people channel”) is somehow magically re-set for Z100 after school hours. This puts the dear ones at risk of a rogue kitchen dance breaking out to "their" music at any time. However, with so much dreck on the radio today, an acceptable groove is never guaranteed. So I put together a list of our favorite kitchen dance songs from this past year, so that dancing moms can download and kids can take precautions.

DISCLAIMER: I am aware that some of these are old songs that were not released in 2010. That is because I am over 40 and can’t be expected to pick up on trends when they’re actually happening. I may come around to it two or even three years later. The only way I heard the old Aaliyah song was on the muzak while shopping with the E. girl at Limited Too.

Ima Bee – Black Eyed Peas
- We listened to this so many times I even memorized Fergie's rap. Sad, right? The video is cool.

I Can Transform Ya - Chris Brown


Carry Out – Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake
Feast on all the food puns.

Extra Smooth – Aaliyah
Excellent soundtrack for making gravy.

The Big Bang – Rock Mafia
Can't figure out why this isn't getting more airplay.

Hold Yuh – Gyptian
An easy groove even grandma can do.

Calabria 2007 - Enur feat. Natasja (yep, this is the 3 year old one)
We don't know the lyrics but sing anyway.

F.U. – Cee Lo Song of the year, people! See the great video here.

If none of their friends are around, the kids might let their guard down long enough to join you and maybe even teach you the “dougie.” What are you grooving to in your kitchen?

This Morning I Was Born Again

By Woody Guthrie

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land.

I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land.

I do not want your pearly gates don't want your streets of gold

This morning I was born again and a light shines in my soul.

This morning I was born again, I was born again complete

I stood up above my troubles and I stand on my two feet

My hand it feels unlimited, my body feels like the sky

I feel at home in the universe where yonder planets fly.

This I was born again, my past is dead and gone

This great eternal moment is my great eternal dawn

Each drop of blood within me, each breath of life I breathe

Is united with these mountains and the mountains with the seas.

I feel the sun upon me, it's rays crawl through my skin

I breathe the life of Jesus and old John Henry in.

I give myself, my heart, my soul to give some friend a hand


This morning I was born again, I am in the promised land.

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land

I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land

I do not want your pearly gates, don't want your streets of gold

And I do not want your mansion for my heart is never cold.

You can hear this song sung by Slaid Cleaves by clicking on the button for it in the music box at the bottom of my sidebar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pogo Girlz on Ripsticks

Some readers may remember my niece from Brooklyn, Pogo Girl from a previous post.  Pogo Girl will be on the David Letterman show tonight!  Check it out at 11:30 pm EST!   Here's a new video from Pogo Girl and her sisters:



Also of interest:
http://nyackbackyard.blogspot.com/2008/10/fiddler-on-pogo-stick.html
http://nyackbackyard.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-dads-pogo.html

A Halloween Poem and Song by E.

Today we have a guest"Theme Thursday" post by my daughter E, age 11.

Halloween, Halloween. Ghouls and ghosts and jellybeans.

Costumes, candy, trick-or–treat,

Candy apples all to eat.

Halloween Halloween. Decorations scary, mean.

Horror movies, Stories too,

Screaming when the ghosts yell “Boo.”

Halloween, Halloween. Dreams that you may never dream.

Phantom, phantom hear them shout
Prepare for when the lights go out.

Halloween, Halloween. Blood stains that cannot be cleaned.

Frights inside an empty room.

Monsters, killers, Darkness, DOOM.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! Hahahahahhahahaha

By ERH 2009

For your musical enjoyment, a rehearsal of the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Alan Menken.

Funky Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach on Treasure Island, Florida (near St. Petersburg), is trying to outrun Key West in the race to become my favorite vacation destination. So many things there remind me of Key West -- or at least the Key West that I knew when I first started visiting there 20 years ago. It's almost like the residents have decided to try and out- funkify each other. Right down to their mailboxes.

Hard to pick a favorite, but I like this one convered with shells.

The people who live here decorate their front window every season.
Then there is Volpe's - in a class by itself. (I wanna meet this guy!)

No beach bum haven is complete with out a Tiki Bar - the favorite there is Ka Tiki. Locals know!

This place is crazy busy on the weekends. Believe it or not, this place features valet parking -- at beach bar! !

The funkiest garden on Sunset Beach has got to Ross & Wendy's on 77th Ave. Wendy handpainted signs just in case you're wondering how she feels about development in their neighborhood...
and has collected lots of tchotchke for display. (And, Tina, she's planning a bottle tree -- I'll keep you posted on that!) The Sunday night drumming circle reminds me of the Key West Sunset Festival.

At the end of the day, there's always something sublime..... A few people asked me what in the world I was thinking when we made plans to visit Florida in August, but I've decided that it's an ideal time to go for several reasons: 1) less expensive due to off-season rates 2) warm enough that you don't have to worry about the water being warm enough to swim, which is often the case during spring break and 3) WAY less crowded. A typical weekday afternoon on Sunset Beach looks like this. Where do you like to beach yourself??

Theme Thursday: Funky

Pay no mind to the stoned Rastafarian in the first seconds of this video. That is the most normal part. The real fun starts with the couple in tights.

"Funky Kingston" by Toots and the Maytals

Have You Praised Your Peonies Today?

It took 8 years, but they’re finally in great form.



We’ve come a long long way together,

Through the hard times and the good.

I have to celebrate you baby.

I have to praise you like I should.


What pains me though, is that this is all happening at the front of the beds. Why did I plant them there?!
I never envisioned them this tall and am wondering if they should be moved. Could there be more hard times ahead for the peonies?

Did you recognize those lyrics from Fatboy Slim? One of my favorite music videos ever! (by Spike Jonze)


The video won three major awards at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, and Best Choreography. I just like it because they’re not all superskinny kids in shiny spandex and they look…well…almost as geeky as I do when I dance. And some of them have (gasp!) gray hair! Torrance Community Dancers, where are you now?!