Wednesday 30th November, 2005

 

 

 

 

Rod in Concert
Holland, December 2005!

 

San Sebastian Strings albums now available on CD! Order now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today

Dreams should not be allowed to die until reality replaces them.

 

This One Does It For Me!

Regular readers will know this column usually takes a break during the month of December and this year is no exception.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed over the past eleven months. Your letters and choices have always been interesting and I, for one, have learned a lot about Rod's work from them.

2006 promises to be a good year for McKuen fans. While I don't have any news regarding new concert appearances I do know we have the release of "The Amsterdam Concert" album to look forward to not to mention "Live in London" and some further San Sebastian Strings albums as well. I've also heard whisperings that the long awaited Bear set is nearing completion and didn't Rod mention a new album of McKuen songs by Petula?

In anticipation I've recently upgraded both my car and computer sound systems and am loving both. The car system in particular was long overdue and thanks to modern technology I'm now able to play my iPod through it. McKuen has never sounded so good!

On the subject of sounding good I was thrilled yesterday to discover a relatively new release by Michael Buble. A combination CD/DVD package entitled "Caught in the Act" it's a recording of his first PBS television show and it's well worth a listen especially the track "Home" which is playing as I write.

The featured poem today is one of my favorites from "A Safe Place to Land." We'll resume "This One Does it For Me" early in 2006 so join me then.

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ROD McKUEN CONCERTS

ROD McKUEN APPEARANCES
notable birthdays

30 November
St. Andrews Day

Shirley Chisolm o Winston Churchill o Dick Clark o Richard Crenna o Jack Ging o Robert Guillaume o Abbie Hoffman o Billy Idol o Bo Jackson o G. Gordon Liddy o Radu Lupu o David Mamet o Virginia Mayo o Shuggie Otis o Gordon Parks o Mandy Patinkin o Allan Sherman o Ben Stiller o Noel Paul Stookey o Jonathan Swift o Mark Twain o Walter Weller o Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Rod's random thoughts We pause to argue, but seldom to think.

Long silences meant to stretch a conversation can sever it instead.

Understanding is seldom tied to language.

AGE IS BETTER

 I have been young,
             a fresh-faced sprout,
with agile legs, a muscled arm, and smile wide enough
to charm the world I went through
          in a rush to get a little older, sooner.

Catching my reflection while passing past
                                    a looking glass not long ago,
I discovered I was older, even old. There was
no sudden melancholy or regret, and yet
some sadness in the wonder that it happened
                                   while I wasn’t watching.
No pause to proudly ply
                       the autumn into winter process.

Imagine.
Nothing changed.
I run as fast. I think a little faster
and yet forget at times what I went after
there as I left here to get it.
This while crossing half a room,
                                           not half a lifetime.

So I’ve been young and I’ve been old and have
             determined age is better.

Youth unfolds like coy Cleopatra from a rug
spilling all its golden wonders at the foot of age
who seems to envy everything, especially spring.
                                The young
pledge anything to get an audience. Delivering
sometimes, most times not, on their way before
               the promissory note comes due.
Can you blame them as they hurry off, afraid
another runner may beat them to The Score ahead,
                 leaving nothing to be scored?

Age is ofttimes bitter, feeling in its failing
health that wealth of life eluded it. Apologize somebody or
something for leaving me to find the way I never
found or could not find because it was not there
                                                             or never was.

But having seen the surge of youth, the sag of age
in breast and chest and everything, I still say spring
                                         is overrated. Age is better.
Less is expected of the once firm chest that drags
a little lower, the robust voice reduced to murmur
                                                         speaking slower.

Age can finally say aloud what it really feels and
          thinks in after-dinner company or crowd.
             No one blinks. If they do, no matter.
Age erases pretense, replacing it with honesty.

Age is proof you got from there to here.
                      Alas, so many that you loved
did not complete the journey. You mourn them, yes,
and always will, but age is such a triumph over youth,
again, because you moved across the years to here.
Leaving there where it belongs
for youth to come along and rediscover.

-from “A Safe Place to Land,” 2001
 
    AND FINALLY

Join me next Wednesday when I'm sure sure we'll find something interesting and/or unusual to chat about.

 - Ken, Johannesburg, South Africa, November 30

 
© 1970, 1986, 2002, 2003, 2005 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie o Birthday research by Wade Alexander, coordinated by Melinda Smith
Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Sound & Fury: Dr. Eric Yeager o Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham
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