Rich Wallace's Blog, page 4

ode to joy

good song here called Catch on Fire. band called Wyldkard from Madison, WI.

http://www.reverbnation.com/wyldkard

Happens to be my son Jeremy playing the guitar!

among the fields of gold

My favorite songs this week:

Fields of Gold (Sting) *

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold

--

Get Together (The Youngbloods)

We are but a moment’s sunlight
Fading in the grass

--

Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)

Did they get you to trade
your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?

--

re: Fields of Gold:

Here is another great lyric, but it’s always puzzled me. Shouldn’t it be “graze awhile”? What else would you do in a field of barley?

So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold


(Yes, I'm joking. This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.)

other voices

The bloggers have been very kind to War and Watermelon. Here's a sampling. You can access the full reviews and many more at
tlcbooktours.com/2011/04/rich-wallace

There's a Book:
War & Watermelon is much more than a story about a boy going off to middle school to play football, it’s about relationships and the ability to cope with change that inevitably comes to us all. A wonderful story that will not only have you laughing hysterically, but also hoping for the very best for this young boy and his family.

A Real Librarian:
War and Watermelon by Rich Wallace is a fantastic novel about Brody, a young teenager in 1969. The setting is an amazing time.

Cafe of Dreams Book Review:
As I finished War & Watermelon, I closed the book with a huge smile on my face. I commend Rich Wallace for his excellent writing and for bringing this time period so vividly to life. An excellent read for young adults as well as any age. The story does center on a twelve-year-old boy, however girls will be able to fall in love with the story just as much as a boy. The perfect summer read!

Jenn's Bookshelves:
A completely honest and engaging look at a critical part of our nation’s history. Don’t let the subject matter cause you to believe this is a dark and depressing book; since we are experiencing it through a teen boy there is a great deal of levity and humor.

Book Reviews by Molly:
I truly think that any young reader would love this book. It's a fast paced, easy read. Recommended for a day at the beach or poolside, definitely. It's 5 star worthy and gives a lesson in a not-so-easy-world life and the raging Vietnam war, while still being funny and engaging for those young minds.

Savvy Verse and Wit:
Wallace creates a childlike innocence in Brody that becomes marred by his brother Ryan’s unwillingness to take action — to decide between college and the draft. Their father continues to insult Ryan’s indecision, pushing him to apply to college, and while Brody may agree with his father that Ryan needs to act to avoid going to war, he also agrees with his brother that he should not be forced into making a decision he’s not ready to make.

Well Read Wife:
One of the many highlights of War & Watermelon is the time period in which it takes place. Readers will enjoy learning about a time that must seem mysterious to the youth of today. The Woodstock scene is wonderful. I so enjoyed viewing Joan Baez singing onstage through the eyes of an awestruck young man on the verge of being a teenager. I think this book would be a wonderful teaching supplement for a unit on the Vietnam War.

Girlichef:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and have passed it on to my junior high-age son.

Shooting Stars Mag:
Wallace did a great job making you feel like it really was 1969. He made you fear the war, love the music and experiences that go with it...the world definitely came alive in an unobtrusive way.

This blog is not supposed to be all about Bob Dylan

So I am now on Facebook, if anyone cares, although I don’t have the slightest idea what to do with (or about) that. I joined because my son Jonathan sent me a link to his own top 50 Dylan songs, which he posted there. I’ve copied his rankings below, with the numbers in parentheses being the rankings that I gave them. (My list is farther below on this blog).

As you study the two lists, you’ll see that, although five songs made both of our top 10s, there is considerable variation between us. Two songs showed up in the exact same spot: My Back Pages at 7 and Ballad of a Thin Man at 50. (He has 51 songs on his list, but my top 50 has swelled to nearly 60.) Jonathan’s list tends to favor the more direct protest songs.

While I was driving to New Jersey last week, a station near Hartford, CT, played a set of Dylan songs, none of which were on my list but all of which might have been: Summer Days, Something There Is About You, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, Country Pie, and Nashville Skyline Rag.

Here’s Jonathan’s list, which Dylan scholars everywhere will appreciate:
1 Girl From North Country (6)
2 Mr Tamborine Man (3)
3 Changing of the Guard (-)
4 Lay Lady Lay (32)
5 Sara (-)
6 Like a Rolling Stone (1)
7 My Back Pages (7)
8 Brownsville Girl (-)
9 Thunder on the Mountain (-)
10 Tangled up in Blue (2)
11 Shooting Star (17)
12 One More Cup of Coffee
13 Workingman Blues (20)
14 John Brown (-)
15 Tombstone Blues (22)
16 With God on our side (-)
17 Political World (-)
18 Hurricane (14)
19 Gotta Serve Somebody (-)
20 Series of Dreams (-)
21 The Times, they are a-changin (18)
22 House of the Rising Sun (-)
23 Man in the Long Black Coat (-)
24 Under the red sky (-)
25 Masters of War (-)
26 Knockin on Heaven’s Door (10)
27 Blowin in the Wind (8)
28 Silvio (-)
29 Ain’t Talking (-)
30 Desolation Row (-)
31 Jokerman (16)
32 Dignity (12)
33 The Water is wide (-)
34 It’s all over now baby blue (-)
35 You Aint Going Nowhere (47)
36 All along the watchtower (23)
37 Where the teardrops fall (-)
38 Seven Days (41)
39 Don’t think twice, it’s alright (29)
40 Chimes of Freedom (-)
41 Most of the time (25)
42 One of us must know
43 Ring them bells (34)
44 Sad Eye lady of the lowlands (-)
45 The levees gonna break (-)
46 Everything is broken (-)
47 The Death of Emmett Till (-)
48 Maggie’s farm (-)
49 Idiot Wind (5)
50 Ballad of a thin man (50)
Talking’ WWIII blues (-)

You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you

Still getting numerous emails about my top 50 Dylan songs. Votes for Buckets of Rain (which Rolling Stone had at No. 60), Visions of Johanna (No. 9), It’s Alright, Ma (7), and Changing of the Guards (which Rolling Stone did not rank, but gave it a special mention as having one of “Dylan’s Most Inscrutable Lyrics”: “They shaved her head/She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo.” Brownsville Girl also got a nod.

DO NOT DISCARD . . .

. . . and in even bigger letters: RESPONSE REQUIRED. Then “We must hear from you within the next ten days. An urgent, postage-paid envelope is enclosed.”
“Yikes!” I thought. “What have I done now?”
The return address (actually just a logo) seemed benign: The Atlantic. Good magazine. But the flip side of the envelope was a little intimidating: Office of the Publisher. That’s pretty high up in the organization, let me tell you.
I looked at my wrist. It was already Wednesday, and I had to spend the day in Maine. It would be Thursday before I could respond. Should I send my response via FedEx to be certain to get it there within the crucial ten-day window?
I let out my breath (I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding it) and opened the thing. It wasn’t bad news. In fact, I’d been selected to be a subscriber at a special rate. I let out a sigh that was ripe with relief but which quickly turned to guilt. I subscribe to The New Yorker. It’s dense and literate. It takes up all of my weekly magazine time. I can’t possibly make time for The Atlantic.
Guilt hits you when you don’t expect it. I happen to live in a small, triangular Northeast state that’s been in the news a lot lately due to the immediacy of the presidential election that’s only 17 months away. (My mother once gave birth to two babies in a 17-month span. I was the second one.) Anyway, we have the second primary, so we get a lot of attention. What I want to say now is “Don’t believe the polls!” Last night I got a call from an automated polling service. With such a small population in this state and so many polls, we get a lot of these calls. I never tell them the truth, especially when they are actual machines. This poll was fairly easy. Press 1 if you are Republican. Press 1 if you consider yourself a conservative. Press 1 if you strongly expect to vote in the Republican primary.
Easy. It was straight, lying ones for me across the board.
We finally got to the question I was waiting for, and then there was more waiting because this one had ten options (1 through 9, then zero). “If the primary was today, would you vote for 1) Mitt Romney. 2) Tim Pawlenty, etc.” The excitement rose, and they finally got to option zero (consider the irony) which was a former governor of Alaska. (No, not Wally Hickel, who held the post in both the 1960s and the 1990s).
I pressed zero. I felt elated. From what I know of these sorts of polls, they generally include about 1,000 people. So my disingenuous votes messed up their results by at least a tenth of a percentage point. Yes!
After a while I felt really, really bad about this. I’d just lied to an operative of the Republican party. What kind of person am I? Can you get in trouble for that? They obviously have my phone number. And the Atlantic has my mailing address.
I think I’d better lay low for a while. The U.S. Open starts tomorrow. Can I still enter? It’s the u.s. OPEN, so I assume any legitimate American can show up and play. Maybe not. It’s been a year since I swung a golf club, and I rarely shoot par (for any hole). And I don’t have the right slacks. I think I’ll play a couple of rounds with my son Jonathan this weekend instead.
Anyway, strawberries and lettuces are ripening all over this country of ours. Please buy some at your local farmer’s market.

the future is upon us

I’ve always been reluctant to try new technologies, but I have to admit that some of this stuff is amazing. I’ve been using a calculator lately when I pay my bills. You just punch in the numbers and it adds and subtracts for you! You don’t even have to think.

Starving artists

I have this ongoing discussion, which is usually only in my head but often includes my wife, Sandra. It’s about striving for the utmost you can do with your art. Not perfection (what fun is that?) but to be as creative as possible and not be swayed by the market or whatever other forces might alter your vision.

Saturday night we went to a hip-hop/rap/indie music event at a little place in town called the Starving Artist. Really enjoyed a spoken-word/poetry slam/genre-bending performance set to music by Listener. Then was absolutely blown away by rapper Adeem, who happens to be from our little New England city but has traveled far and wide and is the only two-time winner of ScribbleJam, which is a big deal. Check him out on youtube. His new album is called The Volume in the Ground and you can try it on itunes and elsewhere. How to describe him? I can’t except that he fits the criteria I mentioned in the first paragraph. Great performer. Great lyricist. Unblemished creativity. Absolute energy. Enjoyed every second of it.

Also, thanks to all of the bloggers out there who are giving such great attention to my new novel, War and Watermelon. Much appreciated. Anyone who’s interested can find some of the blogs here: tlcbooktours.com

Another thing: I've had a few comments about my top 50 Dylan songs (mostly from my son Jeremy). How did I leave off Desolation Row, Tweeter and the Monkey Man, Maggie's Farm, or (especially) Subterranean Homesick Blues? Let's squeeze them in somewhere. The list is getting bloated, but this is Dylan we're talking about.

The weather

It sure is rainy here today. Oh well, I guess that's just the way it is.

Listing About

Forgot to mention in my first blog post that my novel War and Watermelon was released yesterday by Viking. It’s set in suburban NJ in the summer of ’69, and the main character, Brody (he’s 12) stays up nights listening to the Top 40 on WMCA and making his own lists of the best songs. I still do things like that sometimes.

For example:

A couple of weeks ago Rolling Stone devoted much of an issue to Bob Dylan in celebration of his 70th birthday. They also listed his 70 best songs. I did my own list of 50; our No.1’s were the same: Like a Rolling Stone. There was lots of other overlap. Can’t think of any other artist where I could even come up with 25 great songs. These are all gems, with the top 20 (or 30; heck I love them all) absolute classics. (For a great Dylan parody, take a look at Weird Al Yankovic’s "Bob" video on youtube.)

Here’s my list (3 of my top 5 are from “Blood on the Tracks”):

1 Like a Rolling Stone
2 Tangled Up in Blue
3 Mr. Tambourine Man
4 If You See Her, Say Hello
5 Idiot Wind
6 My Back Pages
7 Blowin’ in the Wind
8 Girl from the North Country
9 When the Ship Comes In
10 Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
11 Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
12 I Shall be Released
13 Hurricane
14 Dignity
15 Forever Young
16 Jokerman
17 Shooting Star
18 The Times They Are A-Changing
19 Shelter from the Storm
20 Workingman’s Blues
21 If Not for You
22 Tombstone Blues
23 All Along the Watchtower
24 A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
25 Most of the Time
26 You’re a Big Girl Now
27 Absolutely Sweet Marie
28 Simple Twist of Fate
29 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
30 I’ll Remember You
31 Emotionally Yours
32 Lay Lady Lay
33 Positively 4th Street
34 Ring Them Bells
35 I Want You
36 Stuck Inside of Mobile
37 Highway 61
38 Boots of Spanish Leather
39 Make You Feel My Love
40 Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
41 Just Like a Woman
42 Seven Days
43 Black Diamond Bay
44 What Good Am I?
45 Series of Dreams
46 With God on Our Side
47 Tight Connection to My Heart
48 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
49 Not Dark Yet
50 Ballad of a Thin Man