Sunday, February 14, 2010

Poor Little Rich Boy: Issa's Sunday Service, #42






This week's Issa's Sunday Service feature is "Poor Little Rich Boy" by Regina Spektor. She references both Hemingway and Fitzgerald in this catchy little number and manages to give us a bit of a break from all the old school that's been happening around here lately.

There have been other songs with this delightful title, from songwriters as diverse as Randy Newman and George Jones. In fact, the poor little rich boy seems to be something of a stereotype across the cultural spectrum. But, for the purposes of this post, let's just say this one's for F. Scott and poor little rich boys everywhere.

And just in case you were thinking that maybe this little tune doesn't rock enough, this live performance should tip the scales:





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It is a bittersweet irony that this week's feature poem comes from Lilliput Review #66, an Albert Huffstickler broadside entitled Circles Within Circles. Ironic because of its deep red color and the inclusion of the following poem on this day of days:



Valentine
A stone-shaped
heart.
A heart-shaped
stone:
Choose one
Albert Huffstickler





And a little valentine for us all from Issa, one which I believe Huff would have loved:




traveling geese--
the human heart, too
soars
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue




best,
Don


PS And in case you'd like to read a review of a book I recently read and loved, head over to Eleventh Stack for "Hermann Hesse: The Fairytales."

Also, you will notice in the sidebar that I reconfigured "Issa's LitRock Jukebox" of all 42 songs so that the most recent songs play first and work their way back in time. The separate standalone page for the Jukebox is also the same.

4 comments:

Ed Baker said...

F. Scott (and I think his wife) are buried in a church cemetary up the road a-piece
from me..

at the corner of Viers Mill Road and Rockville Pike

I think that her family was connected to or lived around here.

Hesse's fairy tales... a delight...

so is/are Wilde's...

my kids and me always got a "tickle" out of

Mickey Mouse (and his crew)'s

Jack and the Bean-stalk..

still do.

I think that it is now banned because the giant is killed at the end.. too violent for the "kiddies"

best that the kids learn how to use real guns and knives and fists, etc

working out agression via fantacies ain't politically correct these days..

pity.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Hey, Ed, well of course someone has put "Mickey and the Beanstalk" up on youtube in 6 or so parts ...

Here's part 1, with Ludwig van Drake doing his best Joseph Campbell impression ... and in the land of synchronicity, Jiminy Cricket is named "Hermann" ...

I have to get back to those Wilde fairy tales, Zelda ... you mentioned them before ...

Ed Baker said...

not to "kick a dead horse"
however:

http://wilde.artpassions.net/

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, gorgeous Jessie M. King artwork ... I've added the fairy tales to the "Best of the Rest" site on the bottom right of the sidebar so I won't forget again ...