November 09, 2003
The Young Visiters
A quite unreasonably pleasant afternoon was spent with the lovely Stairs, including a lot of aimless wandering around the city and another visit to The Weather Project, which I have to admit liking more this time around. If you go, lie on the floor. Everyone else doing so is most likely either a teenager talking on their mobile phone or a small child making snow angels, but don't be deterred. It really does add to the experience.What with Faustus last week and Dan, Adam and Max on assorted occasions in the past, this means I have now met, in the flesh, all the regular correspondents on this blog. While I hope this will not deter anyone else from joining in, I must admit to being very happy that, as it were, we're all friends here.
For some completely inappropriate reason, though, it does make me think of a song from Leonard Bernstein's Candide, from which I really have to quote quite a big chunk to get the full effect (although really only the very last line is germane):
Oh my darling Paquette,
She is haunting me yet
With a dear souvenir
I shall never forget.
'Twas a gift that she got
From a seafaring Scot,
He received he believed in Shalott!
She is haunting me yet
With a dear souvenir
I shall never forget.
'Twas a gift that she got
From a seafaring Scot,
He received he believed in Shalott!
In Shalott from his dame
Who was certain it came
With a kiss from a Swiss
(She'd forgotten his name),
But he told her that he
Had been given it free
By a sweet little cheat in Paree.
Then a man from Japan,
Then a Moor from Iran,
But the Moor isn't sure
How the whole thing began;
But the gift we can see
Had a long pedigree
When at last it was passed on to me!
...
Well the Moor in the end
Spent the night with a friend
And the dear souvenir
Just continued the trend
To a young English lord
Who was stung, they record
By a wasp in a hospital ward!
Well the wasp on the wing
Had occasion to sting
A Milano soprano
Who brought home the thing
To her young paramour,
Who was rendered impure,
And forsook her to look for the cure.
Thus he happened to pass
Through Westphalia, alas,
Where he met with Paquette
And she drank from his glass.
I was pleased as could be
When it came back to me:
Makes us all just a small family!
I hope I don't need to point out that, to the best of my knowledge, what another song from the same show terms "the little spirochete" has never been passed between myself and any of you...
Posted by matt at November 9, 2003 02:25 AM
Comments
This reminds me of a lyric written by another student in my graduate program (where I learned how to write musicals). The assignment was to write a song in which one character had a secret to reveal to another character. She wrote a song to be sung by a woman who had to tell her lover she'd been diagnosed with herpes. The song was called—I'm not making this up—"Once You Love Me, You'll Never Be The Same." The lyric started out like this:
They say that once you love someone
You'll never be the same.
Have you heard that said before?
Well, I wouldn't deny the claim.
Love can open hearts
That have never opened yet.
Love can give you things
That you never thought you'd get. The thing is, this wasn't meant as comedy. Of course when she presented it in class, we were all rolling on the floor laughing. She was utterly baffled. Posted by: Faustus, M.D. at November 9, 2003 06:20 AM
You'll never be the same.
Have you heard that said before?
Well, I wouldn't deny the claim.
Love can open hearts
That have never opened yet.
Love can give you things
That you never thought you'd get. The thing is, this wasn't meant as comedy. Of course when she presented it in class, we were all rolling on the floor laughing. She was utterly baffled. Posted by: Faustus, M.D. at November 9, 2003 06:20 AM
Then there's the Tom Lehrer song, which thanks to the miracle of the world-wide web, I can quote in full:
I love my friends and they love me
We're just as close as we can be
And just because we really care
Whatever we get, we share! I got it from Agnes
She got it from Jim
We all agree it must have been
Louise who gave it to him Now she got it from Harry
Who got it from Marie
And ev'rybody knows that Marie
Got it from me Giles got it from Daphne
She got it from Joan
Who picked it up in County Cork
A-kissin' the Blarney Stone Pierre gave it to Sheila
Who must have brought it there
He got it from Francois and Jacques
Aha, lucky Pierre! Max got it from Edith
Who gets it ev'ry spring
She got it from her Daddy
Who just gives her ev'rything She then gave it to Daniel
Whose spaniel has it now
Our dentist even got it
And we're still wondering how But I got it from Agnes
Or maybe it was Sue
Or Millie or Billie or Gillie or Willie
It doesn't matter who It might have been at the pub
or at the club, or in the loo
And if you will be my friend, then I might ...
(Mind you, I said "might" ...)
Give it to you! Posted by: Max at November 9, 2003 09:09 AM
We're just as close as we can be
And just because we really care
Whatever we get, we share! I got it from Agnes
She got it from Jim
We all agree it must have been
Louise who gave it to him Now she got it from Harry
Who got it from Marie
And ev'rybody knows that Marie
Got it from me Giles got it from Daphne
She got it from Joan
Who picked it up in County Cork
A-kissin' the Blarney Stone Pierre gave it to Sheila
Who must have brought it there
He got it from Francois and Jacques
Aha, lucky Pierre! Max got it from Edith
Who gets it ev'ry spring
She got it from her Daddy
Who just gives her ev'rything She then gave it to Daniel
Whose spaniel has it now
Our dentist even got it
And we're still wondering how But I got it from Agnes
Or maybe it was Sue
Or Millie or Billie or Gillie or Willie
It doesn't matter who It might have been at the pub
or at the club, or in the loo
And if you will be my friend, then I might ...
(Mind you, I said "might" ...)
Give it to you! Posted by: Max at November 9, 2003 09:09 AM
On the upside, if it ever does, the spirochete, at least, is treatable with antibiotics!
That the afternoon was unreasonably pleasant is only because you didn't stop smiling for the greater part of four hours. Hmm, there's a great false-syllogism in that expression, waiting to be told :)
You're in a nice position; I'd quite like to know more about the regular lot that hold forth in my neck of the woods, but thus far, I'm more than content with those I do know, and in no rush to ruin this fortunate track record.
Posted by: Stairs at November 9, 2003 11:03 AM
I've been in Tom Lehrer's house.
Posted by: Faustus, M.D. at November 9, 2003 03:42 PM
Name dropper :)
Posted by: matt at November 9, 2003 03:57 PM
Did you leave fingerprints?
Posted by: Max at November 9, 2003 06:22 PM
I'm not one to kiss and tell.
Oh, wait, I totally am.
In fact, I was there with his boyfriend, who was playing a role in a production of Sondheim's A Little Night Music that I was vocal coaching in college. The boyfriend (who was not himself a college student but whose name I don't remember) had had to miss the first few days of rehearsal, so I went to his house to go over the music he'd missed. Mr. Lehrer wasn't there at the time, but I did get to play his piano.
But I wore gloves, so I didn't leave fingerprints. Except when I took them off, at which point I left them (the fingerprints, that is, not the gloves) on the boyfriend. No, just kidding, I didn't touch him.
Forgive the slight incoherence—I came very close to having to spend the night in the emergency room tonight, so I'm a little loopy.
Posted by: Faustus, M.D. at November 10, 2003 04:52 AM
Tom Lehrer is gay?
There goes my childhood innocence. Next you'll be telling me Ricky Martin is.
Posted by: Max at November 10, 2003 09:55 AM
ps. Matt, is there any reason why 'Visitors' is given its archaic spelling? Like, is it a clever pun I'm missing?
Posted by: Max at November 10, 2003 09:57 AM
It's the title of a mildly-celebrated book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0701127252
But that doesn't have any bearing on matters, it was just a bit of random word association when I was posting.
Posted by: matt at November 10, 2003 10:35 AM
Have you actually read the story of Ethel and 'Sultana'?
Posted by: Stairs at November 10, 2003 10:44 AM
No, it has never appealed. Would you recommend it?
Posted by: matt at November 10, 2003 11:37 AM
While I appreciate what people are waxing lyrical about, the writing did get to me by the third chapter - I didn't read further. That said, there's no need to purchase to know, as Ashford has it posted online:
http://www.stonesoup.com/ash2/ash1.html
It is certainly charming, and coming from one so young, is relatively remarkable, though I daresay the Brontës would have been leagues ahead by that age. Then, that was another era entirely.
Posted by: Stairs at November 10, 2003 11:54 AM
Daisy Ashford hasn't posted the book on the web, she died in 1970 aged 90. Stonesoup have published it without any request to the copyright holders.
If you live in the UK or can watch BBC 1this Christmas it is well worth watching The Young Visiters on Boxing DAy 6pm. The BBC have made it into a brilliant 90 minute film capturing the charm, wit and innocence of the little book.
The film has a wonderful cast, Jim Broadbent, Lyndsey MArshall, Hugh Laurrie, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey PAlmer, Simon Russel-Beale.
The book is hugely loved and has remained in print since 1919, not bad for an author who gave up writing at the age of 13. Daisy had various other stories published, including one she dictated to her father when she was 4.
The Young Visiters is published by Chatto and Windus. Posted by: Terry Rose at December 20, 2003 10:12 AM
If you live in the UK or can watch BBC 1this Christmas it is well worth watching The Young Visiters on Boxing DAy 6pm. The BBC have made it into a brilliant 90 minute film capturing the charm, wit and innocence of the little book.
The film has a wonderful cast, Jim Broadbent, Lyndsey MArshall, Hugh Laurrie, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey PAlmer, Simon Russel-Beale.
The book is hugely loved and has remained in print since 1919, not bad for an author who gave up writing at the age of 13. Daisy had various other stories published, including one she dictated to her father when she was 4.
The Young Visiters is published by Chatto and Windus. Posted by: Terry Rose at December 20, 2003 10:12 AM
The BBC version of The Young Visiters is terrible...they have added their own plot and dialogue and (worse) changed many of the priceless script. It ruins the charm of the book.
Sorry, just had to get that out of my system! There was actually a TV version of the book about 10 years ago which starred Tracey Ullman as Ethel, and this was much better...seems to have disappeared now though. Posted by: adrian at May 5, 2004 02:15 PM
Sorry, just had to get that out of my system! There was actually a TV version of the book about 10 years ago which starred Tracey Ullman as Ethel, and this was much better...seems to have disappeared now though. Posted by: adrian at May 5, 2004 02:15 PM
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