Annapolis

Stan & Joe

In my travels, I never visited Annapolis, Maryland in the USA and it is highly unlikely that I will ever go there. But if I did I would head straight for Stan and Joe's Saloon on West Street. There I might order a nice cool American beer in a tall glass while waiting for their classic reuben sandwich with a garden salad.

However, that would not be my principal reason for venturing to Annapolis. I would be there to visit the parking lot that is right behind Stan & Joe's place. Overlooking that unexceptional car park is a rather special mural. It celebrates the life of one Eva Cassidy (1963-1996). She was born and raised in Maryland and that's where she died so tragically young.

Fortunately, today we have access to something quite magical on the internet - Google Streetview - and by using that facility I was able to look into the parking lot  in order to catch a glimpse of Eva Cassidy's mural. Here it is:-

To tell you the truth, I think Eva deserves a more prominent mural. What there is is okay but it is tucked away in the corner of a parking lot like an apology or a secret.

She had such a divine voice. Her imperfections made her delivery perfect. Three British radio presenters - Terry Wogan, Paul Jones and Mike Harding played a big part in  bringing this Maryland songstress to the attention of the world and they were right to do so. What a crime it would have been if she had vanished into obscurity.

In recent days, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" had been playing in my mind over and over with lyrics by a dreamy fellow called Yip Harburg. However, in my humble opinion, nobody ever sang that song as well as Eva Cassidy did it. She owned the song and imbued it with a sense of longing that is in every human heart. Please listen...

Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

From the top

E. Jean Carroll, Alex Pretti, Nicole Good, James Comey, Four of the Epstein victims, Brian Sicknick (State Capitol police officer), Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Keats

 

Ode to A Nightingale

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

By John Keats

⦿

John Keats was only twenty four years old when he wrote this poem. The year was 1819 - the very pinnacle of his creative life. Eighteen months later he would be dead - in spite of journeying to Rome for the supposed health benefits of a warmer climate. It was tuberculosis that got him. A lot of people died young in the first half of the nineteenth century here in England. The average life expectancy in 1820 was about forty years.

"Ode to a Nightingale" was most likely written in just one day in late April or early May 1819 in a house by Hampstead Heath, London that was owned or rented by Keats's friend Charles Armitage Brown. You can visit that same house today. It is now known as The Keats House and is dedicated to the poet with personal items to be seen.

The poem reflects on the nature of life and how it will all end. It is as if the nightingale became his muse on the day of the famous ode's creation.

Attempting to sum up the poem, one critic said this: "The principal stress of the poem is a struggle between ideal and actual: inclusive terms which, however, contain more particular antitheses of pleasure and pain, of imagination and common sense reason, of fullness and privation, of permanence and change, of nature and the human, of art and life, freedom and bondage, waking and dream."

The painting at the top of this blogpost was by another of Keats's friends - Joseph Severn. It was created almost twenty five years after Keats's death and recollects the poet's reverie in the garden of the Hampstead Heath house on the day "Ode to a Nightingale" was written. Severn painted many pictures of his famous friend. It became a steady source of income for him.

To better appreciate the poem you may need to read it two or three times and I advise reciting it aloud to tap into the musicality of the lines. It's not like reading a novel or a newspaper article or the majority of blogposts. You need to be in a - how can I say this - a more absorbent, more open state of mind.

Comparison

What do you think about different corned beef brands? All of us could do with expert advice as I am sure it is a pressing issue for all corned beef consumers. That is why I turned to Bald Foodie Guy...

Bald Foodie Guy lives in the north west of England and I must declare explicitly that HE IS NOT ME!

There's a lot of stuff happening out there in the world right now. From religious wars to grifting presidents and from A.I. to the rise of the right. It's hard to keep your eyes on things that really matter - like selecting the best corned beef brands from discount supermarkets. Thank you Bald Foodie Guy!

Lions

You might expect lions to inhabit the grassy plains of Africa but here in South Yorkshire we have got plenty of lions - lurking about urban areas. They all belong to an art and charity project called "Pride of Yorkshire". Its ultimate purpose is to raise extra funds for Sheffield Children's Hospital.

There are in total one hundred and fifty adult lions to spot. All of them have been individually decorated - mostly by professional artists and community groups. There are also a hundred and fifty smaller lion cubs. When the project reaches its conclusion in September, the lions will be auctioned off.

Now I have no intention of tracking down all three hundred lions but this week I have taken pictures of several of the beasts in and around Sheffield City Centre. And because I am a generous kind of guy, I am sharing a few of those images here in this blogpost.

And on the subject of lions, there are three lions on the badge of the England football team. Tonight, in Atlanta, our lads needed to fight back like lions in order to beat The Democratic Republic of Congo by two goals to one. They were ably led by our captain - Harry Kane - who scored both of our goals. When the second one went in, I yelled at our television screen, "What a hero!" Harry Kane even looks like a lion!

Next up it's Mexico in Mexico City in the early hours of our Monday morning. That won't be easy, even with Harry Kane at the helm. But you never know. COME ON ENGLAND!

Art

In the centre of this Yorkshire city you will find The Winter Gardens and connected with that large, modern glasshouse you soon find yourself in The Millennium Galleries. I had heard that there was a new exhibition there based upon "Football Art Prize" entries so I went there to check it out.

This is what the gallery blurb said by way of explanation:-

The Football Art Prize makes a welcome return to Sheffield to celebrate the passion, drama and unity the beautiful game inspires around the globe.

Coinciding with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Prize showcases the work of over 60 UK and international artists. See the heartfelt highs and lows on the pitch, the players that give it their all, and the dedication of the loyal fans who follow them, captured through a striking array of painting, drawing, photography, film and video.

I love football and I love art so what a great combination for me. Some of the exhibits were just so-so and I didn't think much of the overall winning piece - a video on a loop showing an Asian woman doing "keep-uppies" with a football.

My favourite exhibit by far was the picture of the French international midfielder N'Golo Kante shown at the top of this blogpost. It is not a photograph. It is a charcoal drawing by self-taught Kanmi Olukanni who said that the picture was inspired by Kante's man-of-the-match performance for Chelsea in The UEFA Champions League Cup Final of 2021. The picture has glass protection so I am sorry about the reflections. I tried my best.

Here are four more exhibits that caught my eye:-

From the top... the first one is a photograph of some boys playing football on a huge landfill site  in  Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is where they work, making tiny amounts of money from recycling other people's waste. The lad in the middle of the group is wearing an Argentina shirt.

The second item is an oil painting of a night game at Upton Park in London - the former home of West Ham United. Shirley and I once saw Hull City play The Hammers there. The painting is called, "Upton Park Days". It reminded me of standing on the Bunker's Hill Terrace at Hull City's old ground - Boothferry Park.

The third item is another photograph. It shows an artificial football pitch in a remote coastal location to the north east of Greenland. The photographer found the contrast between harsh terrain and a familiar field design appealing. By the way, has Trump grabbed Greenland yet as he once threatened to do?

Lastly it's an acrylic painting of the tough Irish midfielder - Roy Keane. It's after his football career has finished. The painter, Kyle King-Jagger has put him in a sandwich shop and titled the painting, "Roy's Rolls". Roy appears to be selling prawn sandwiches which he once derided as the halftime food choice of football club board members.

After visiting the exhibition, I sat in Tudor Square for half an hour and drank cold water from my flask while reading the book I am grinding my way through at present. I will tell you about when I'm done. Then I bought two T-shirts from "Blacks" on The Moor before catching a bus home. 

Earlier I had walked all the way into the city centre. That takes forty five minutes from our house. But the weather was fine and I had the time so why not?

Inside Sheffield's Winter Gardens earlier today

Bossyboots

Yesterday afternoon,we looked after Little Miss Bossyboots while Phoebe and her parents went to see "Toy Story 5" at the cinema. When two year old Margot heard that they were on their way back to our house, she insisted on waiting for them in the street. She even took out her little green chair and Shirley had to sit with her for half an hour. Lord knows why Phoebe & Co took so long. Meanwhile, I was busy cooking our Sunday dinner.

They said that "Toy Story 5" had been quite brilliant  and so I pledged to see it myself.

After another great Sunday dinner prepared by Yorkshire's answer to Gordon Ramsey, we ate a lovely, light strawberry vanilla cheesecake that Shirley had prepared from scratch. That also went down a treat. Stewart's mother Cheryl was with us but she doesn't eat desserts apart from fresh fruit so we gave her strawberries and raspberries.

When they had gone home, I caught the 88 bus up to Bents Green for  "The Hammer and Pincers" pub quiz with my chums - Mick and Mike. We did not win and couldn't even get the anagram question - "Which is the only word in the English language that is an anagram of CARTHORSE?"*

For our quizzes, Mick always brings scrap paper on which we can work out anagrams etc.. The lads are very used to me doodling on those pieces of paper. I have done it for years while talking with them or dealing with quiz questions. I normally draw faces and I used to do it in teachers' meetings too. I find that the act of doodling helps me to think.

Over the years, I must have doodled hundreds of faces. Mostly those doodles are thrown away but last night I thought I would save my idle doodles for you to see and maybe psycho-analyse...

These pictures are available for sale as I hope to raise funds for a deserving charity. Please put in your bids. The charity is The Yorkshire Pudding Holiday Fund.

Oh - and by the way- today was cloudy and a lot cooler so I caught a bus into the city centre. I was there to watch the lunchtime screening of "Toy Story 5". It was very good but the consummation of friendship between the two little girls - Bonnie and Blaze seemed to take forever. Still the animation was as stupendous as in the four previous "Toy Story" films and I am glad that I bothered. It was great that a key feature of the plot involved weighing up the alienating and isolating effects of "tech" - including tablets and other devices in comparison with more traditional toys that encourage imaginative play and social connection.

*= ORCHESTRA