Friday, March 20, 2015

Rail Therapy, Inspecting The Continuum



Time and space propagate in all
Directions, and then, when done
Get up and do it again --time emits
Time, divides itself, displaces space
As motion does mass.
Good, there are times 
I need a kick in the past--
Which is hard on brains and why
I ride trains: therapy between
Points A and B confined to steel
Defines reality in terms of there
And here, and they serve beer.

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For a superior lyric and story, please run this vid of Guthrie performing a Steve Goodman song that has, in the past 45 years (a magic number matching my wedding anniversary tomorrow), become something between an anthem and hymn to this great land.
 
 


 

And, yes, don't have my specs on but believe that's Pete Seeger on banjo.

16 comments:

  1. Arlo Guthrie has a knack for firing you up and soothing you at the same time. City of New Orleans is one of my favorites that he does. Did you know that he now owns the church from Alice's Restaurant and operates his charities from there?

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    1. Wow. Thanks, Emma. From your comment, I looked up what had become of the old church and found it had become Guthrie Center upon purchase in 1991. There's a healthy conscience behind that song.

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  2. Really enjoyed that poem Geo. and interested to read about the Guthrie Centre. Phil and I were fans of Alice's Restaurant years ago.

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    1. The Restaurant is certainly a fixture in American consciousness, and conscience.

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    1. Merci Gwendoline, je espère que ce est une bonne journée pour vous aussi.

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  4. I may have been at that concert! There was a theater in the round in a Cleveland suburb in the seventies and eighties. Performers came down the aisles and went up steps to the stage. The stage revolved slowly. That is Pete Seeger; he and Arlo swapped back and forth.

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    1. How wonderful to have been there. The energy and fun in the room comes through better than the sound, but that's why I selected that clip.

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  5. I like the poem and photo Geo
    Happy , happy anniversary you have me beat by 5 years , ours is coming up in April
    Smiles ...

    Oh, loved the vid ...

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    1. I guess we're both spring brides --er, weddingpersons. Can you believe the '70s were that long ago?

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    1. Truely, songs like that are national treasures.

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  7. I don't get over in this neighborhood often, perhaps I should wander more.
    I saw Steve Goodman in his last month, I was one of several who treated him. Not a preferred way to go, to say the least.
    Also, I feel compelled to say that bud is not beer, Geo. There is a bar in Anchorage, the Fly By Night club, owned by Mr. Whitekeys, who charges a budwiser tax of a buck on each one sold.
    I'm not a beer snob but....well, yes I am. Apologies.

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    1. Amtrak doesn't have Guinness Extra Stout, or Corona (one of the most cheerful beers in the world) nor do I have a refined palate, Bud's ok.

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  8. Not my kind of music but I must agree that this song is something. :)

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    1. Thank you, Lux, and welcome to this site!

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