hello world
old boy been spotty on you lately, my apologies, i often feel based on my stats that i dont have much readership
but when i stop posting folk start complaining to me, i dont know where all those folk come from, they not reflected on my readership numbers
when you doing what you suppose to do you dont hear from folk, the minute you stumble everybody got something to say
been buried in this martin luther king project im doing for tara press, finally had to buckle down and get it done before school starts monday
also adjusting to having a 17 year old in need of serious training move into the household, thats more than a notion
okay, some quick observations and im out of here:
ive been disappointed in obama lately, that waffling he doing on the public option, letting healthcare get away from him, i suspect he gon pull something out the hat and i knew all along that he was more of a moderate than i am and that he would break my heart at some point but i didnt expect him to do it so soon
or should i say more of a pragmatist than i am, got to try to look at it from his side of the game, he in the arena, he judging what he can and cannot do, i know his heart is right, or rather i hope its right, im determioned to continue to give him benefit of the doubt
every once in awhile i consider checking out what hard black left over at black agenda report has to say, but i resist because i know they saying i told you so - ima pass on that
i was reading where the right wing is now saying obama mother in law is practicing santeria in the whitehou se and they are shocked and appalled i tell you
some rightwingo on townhall.com published the report and the rightwing is running w/it iike its actually true
you know the birthers, republicans and other assorted
she probably gave up on healthcare w/o the public option is what happen
i got other commentary but its all gotten away from me now, 4 oclock in the morning and i need to clcck some pages, got some wonderful ideas on what to do w/my john henry character
1st i had him a big man who had lost his leg and was in a funk about it but i wasnt getting the kind of kick i wanted out of it -
now im going to put him in a coma, and hes living this fierce mental life of the legendary john henry while his realworld wife (pollyanne, the one what picks up the hammer when he dies) is wondering if she should pull the plug - o i cant wait to work this one
did a post about john henry back in oct 06, in the interest of saving time let me recap it for you:
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as many of you know, john henry my boy
one of the great mythic characters of american lore
a steel driving man who refused to let a steam drill beat him down
and he died with his hammer in his hand
recent academic work has come out called 'steel driving man'
by this guy scott reynolds nelson, oxford university press
attempts to account for the mytholization of the prototype john henry
he claim john william henry, a leased convict working on the C&O railroad tunnel
back in the mid 1870s
a relatively little man who in legend because the legendary big man, john henry
i have not read the work yet so i cant testify to the quality of his speculations
but as a working mythmaker myself and a devotee of big john henry
i find the opportunity to consider the evolution of the john henry myth fascinating
nelson claims john henry ballards, which started about 1870s refer
to john william henry, black union soldier imprisoned for theft
10 dollars of food from a grocery store bought him 10 years hard labor
leased out with other inmates to drive the lewis tunnel through
allegheny mountains for the cheseapeak & ohio railway
during this dig new steam drills were tested against men
and men generally won against the cranky drills
many of these convicts died of silicosis and were buried surreptitiously
over 300 skeletons were found buried under the main building
of the virginia state penitentiary when it was dug up 1990s
around 1874, john henry williams dissappears from the penitentiary rolls
but no death, pardon or release is recorded, he just disappears
nelson say deaths on grounds were recorded, no records implies that he died off grounds, as did many leased convicts
then nelson traces the evolution of the legends that have grown
around john henry and how different types of workers have always
made him their personal representative - coalminers made him a miner, white railroad workers thought he was white -
black power advocates made him a rebel - thats where i come in
ive read dubose heywards charming mythwork and ive read many john henry tropes in african american lit
including colsen whiteheads john henry days
ive heard innumerous renditions of the john henry ballards from elder bluesman to hiphop remixes to johnny cash
but i think i really got turned on to john henry when cannonball adderly
did a folk opera that ran one time just when i happened to be in new york
where big joe williams played john henry and randy crawford debut as
pollyanne, though they called her something else, that big john henry fascinated me
ive since hunted down the rare album and transferred it to cd
and worked a john henry character into rest for the weary
ive got a whole neighborhood of folk built on mythic characters, highjohn the conqueror
john henry and pollyanne, frankie and johnny, staggerlee, bruh rabbit, etc etc in rest for the weary
love using john henry imagery like that rainbow round my shoulder shine like silver, ring like gold
which all come from hammer songs, used to help keep the rhythm right, keep the teamwork smooth
there is this great movie thats unfindable, leadbelly, opening scene is him on the chaingang swinging
that hammer with the sun behind him, give me goosebumps just thinking about it
back then a well drilled human team used to working with each other
could always beat a steamdrill, which tended to break down under pressure
i see the indestructability of the human spirit in it
triumphant even in sacrifice
what im trying to do with this neighborhood of mythic characters in rest
and playing with modern interpretations of their myths is try to engage
the mythic tropes of african american culture/destiny and update/recast
them in a 21st century mode, one pertinent to our lives and struggles
as cultural myths should be
i dont want our primary myths to be cultural curiosities divorced from our lives
i want our cultural myths to be vibrant, living instruments providing essential guidance and
rest for the weary souls
let me recap the legend for those who dont know it
as told it in a post i did june of last year
i like pollyanne some play, supposed to have been his wife
who according to legend 'drove steel like a man' lord lord
couplizing our myths is pertinent to rest for the wearys vision
i want to encourage love and commitment in the culture
the legend of john henry and pollyanne,
as told by rickydoc flowers
brother john henry was working on a tunnel being driven through the big bend mountain
when they told him he was being replaced by a steam drill
john henry laugh bigman loud and said before i let a steam drill beat me down
i will die with this hammer in my hand lord, i will die with this hammer in my hand
so john henry picked up a hammer in each hand and he commence
to driving steel with those hammers swinging so sweet folk that was there say he had rainbows over his shoulders, ring like silver shine like gold
and then that steam drill commence to driving steel and you never seen nothing like it, they moved through that mountain
like a boll weevil through cotton
and when folk felt the earth a shaking john henry told them not to worry
thats just the sound of my hammer sucking wind lord, just the sound
of my hammer sucking wind
and before i let this power driver beat me down i will die with this hammer in my hand
lord i will die with this hammer in my hand
now as most folk know, thats exactly what happen, john henry beat that steam drill
but he died with his hammer in his hand lord, yes he died with his hammer in his hand
what folk generally dont know is that john henry had a wife name was pollyanne
pollyanne drove steel like a man lord lord, pollyanne drove steel like a man
when she seen her man falter and she seen the lefthand hammer fall from his hand
she scooped that hammer up before it hit the ground and didnt miss a lick,
and both hammers swinging, they drove that tunnel right through big bend mountain
and they beat that steam drill down lord lord, they beat that steam drill down
of course john henry was a dead man walking by then, but that righthand hammer didnt get
the news, it kept on following pollyanne, right thru big bend mountain
and to this day when folk going through the big bend tunnel
when they so deep under that mountain that the sun dont shine
you can feel that vibration damn near a mile away
the sound of those hammers sucking
wind lord lord,
the sound of those hammers sucking wind
okay, thats the way i tell it
- ------------------------------
reading over it i see it need some revision, if i use it in rest i will clean it up
so after i did this post, (with its own recap i see) boy flowers, recaps in the recaps in the recaps
this some kind of metapost you doing now, so anyway i got this comment from john garst
I am a John Henry researcher. My paper on the subject, "Chasing John Henry in Alabama and Mississippi," appears in Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 5, 2002. A synopsis can be found at
http://www.ibiblio.org/john_henry/alabama.html
I think that the evidence that John Henry was John Henry Dabney, a Mississippian who died after racing a steam drill in Dunnavant, Alabama, in 1887, is much stronger than that marshalled by Nelson in his book, "Steel Drivin' Man." Testimonial and documentary evidence dovetail nicely to build a strong, albeit circumstantial, case.
Nelson found no evidence that his candidate, John William Henry, was a steel driver and no evidence of a contest between a man and a machine. I think it highly unlikely that the lines of the ballad saying they "took John Henry to the white house" were present in the original version. Thus, I consider Nelson's finding a white workhouse at the Virginia Penitentiary to be irrelevant. I also think it unlikely that the bodies of convicts who died at Lewis Tunnel were sent back to the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond for burial, as Nelson's case requires. They were probably buried in the graveyard at Lewis Tunnel. Further, "John Henry" was such a common name that finding a convict with that name at Lewis Tunnel carries no logical force.
Much discussion can be found at
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4018
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ima have to get my hands on that paper, hope all those links still good
didnt expect this to get so involved
so anyway now i got my john henry character in a coma
and through his little coma dreams ima retell the legend itself
and get a lot more chara play out of him and his wife trying to decide if she should pull the plug
and its when he dies in his life fantasyworld, hammer in his hand, that she pull it
i just got to make sure it dont get corny you know
buddy of mine judy shepherd king got this char in a coma and she say it represent
him being one foot amongst the living one amongst the dead - ancestral transition
was at the vineyard couple of weeks ago, met this artist, ann tanklsey, she had this piece
of an old couple sitting on a bench and you could see through them - it was deep
im going to have a lot of fun with this john henry in a coma thread
im out
all my love
rdoc
Voodoo in the white house ? Voodoo has been used as a blanket term for all ATR.
The first family is linked to ATR. A friend and I were joking Obama went to Kenya to get some of that " Kill A Mon Jah Rule " ( Kilimanjaro ) JuJu to win the election .
His wife is Gullah/Geechee ( Hoodoo ).Ironically When Obama was capaining at SCSU ,we had to give up our African dance troupe space .
My friend said Obama must have found my HooDoo stash .
In the name ob de " KONKER ". Africans built de White House they hab un cemitari dere .
Posted by: Papa Gede Nibo Bey | September 29, 2009 at 05:49 AM