Jonathan Cott Let Me Take You Down Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever University of Minnesota Press, April 2024.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Jonothan Cott combines a story of the Beatles’ commitment to touring aimed at giving their audiences access to them and their work with an insightful study of two of their most complex songs, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. The Beatles’ touring ended in 1966 with the horrific experiences changing their lives. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, both side A of a disc that is thought of as their best was an outcome of that change. The practicalities of one part of the Beatles’ lives as pop stars of the sixties and seventies makes a graphic background to the thoughtful way in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney approached their writing.
Cott provides a wealth of information about the group; their impact on popular culture; the development of their music through improvisation, mistakes used adroitly, their sheer ability to make sounds that people wanted to hear; and Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s writing of their lyrics. Most importantly, the Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever are analysed, and in doing so Cott refers to other works and also provides clues to a wide range of material developed by Lennon and McCartney. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
Miranda Rijks The Godchild Inkubator Books, March 2024.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Guilt, teenage angst, a nontraditional distribution of paid work and household responsibilities, bullying at school and secrets – and an appealing godchild at the front door seeking asylum from a drug addicted, uncaring mother. These issues feature in The Godchild, all to excellent effect. Alicia moves into the Ruff household of Carina, Don, Tegan, Arthur and baby Ethan, initially at Carina’s suggestion despite Don’s resistance. Tegan must share a room with this newcomer, adding to her unhappiness at home and at school. In contrast, the newcomer fascinates fourteen-year-old Arthur. Don eventually succumbs to Alicia’s charming assistance with household responsibilities and Ethan – after all, his main purpose is to write his book. His change from a job he disliked to freeing Carina for her high-powered job as head teacher at a prestigious school has not been as smooth as he envisaged. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
Articles ahead: Paul McCartney reunited with lost bass; Song lyrics getting simpler, more repetitive, angry and self-obsessed – study; Monument at Sydney’s Earlwood Oval rededicated to honour traditional Bedigal owners; Sam Mostyn appointed Governor General; Cindy Lou has a casual lunch; Alliance Française to empower Ugandan women through literature discussions; The Female Experience in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Peru.
Paul McCartney reunited with lost bass after 52 years
Naomi Clarke
Feb 16, 2024, updated Feb 16, 2024SHARE
Sir Paul McCartney has been reunited with his bass guitar, which the Beatle used on famous tracks such as Twist And Shout and She Loves You, after it went missing more than 50 years ago.
A spokesman for the former Beatle said he is “incredibly grateful” for those who were involved in helping to locate the Hofner bass guitar, which went missing in 1972.
The Lost Bass Project launched a search to find the missing German violin-shaped bass in 2018, but traction picked up last year after further media attention.
The team, which included Nick Wass from Hofner and husband and wife team Scott and Naomi Jones, received more than 100 leads which they used to help track down the missing guitar.
Among the tip-offs, the project said they were given information that claimed the guitar had been stolen from the back of a van in 1972 in Notting Hill in London.
They later discovered the bass was allegedly sold to a landlord in the area before it was passed on until it ended up in the attic of a terraced house in the south coast of England.
The project said the owner realised they had the highly-sought-after item following the publicity last year.
The bass is still complete and in its original case but will need some repairs to make it playable again, the project added in their statement.
A post on Sir Paul’s official website read: “Following the launch of last year’s Lost Bass project, Paul’s 1961 Hofner 500/1 bass guitar, which was stolen in 1972, has been returned.
“The guitar has been authenticated by Hofner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
The bass had been purchased for 30 pounds in Hamburg, Germany, in 1961 by Sir Paul and was used during his time with The Beatles.
His career-long use of the guitar led to it to being dubbed the “Beatle bass”.
Sir Paul played the Hofner on the Fab Four’s first two albums, Please Please Me and With The Beatles, as well as on a slew of hits including Love Me Do.
A statement from The Lost Bass project said: “We are extremely proud that we played a major part in finding the Lost Bass.
“It has been a dream since 2018 that it could be done. Despite many telling us that it was lost forever or destroyed, we persisted until it was back where it belonged.
“We want to thank everyone who helped with the search, all those who sent us leads and ideas and many who just wanted to lend their support to us. Thank you all so very much. Very much indeed! We did it!”
– AAP
Song lyrics getting simpler, more repetitive, angry and self-obsessed – study.
Researchers analysed the words in more than 12,000 English-language songs across several genres from 1980 to 2020
Study finds song lyrics are getting simpler and more repetitive – and also less joyful Photograph: Artit_Wongpradu/Getty Images/iStockphoto
You’re not just getting older. Song lyrics really are becoming simpler and more repetitive, according to a study published on Thursday.
Lyrics have also become angrier and more self-obsessed over the last 40 years, the study found, reinforcing the opinions of cranky ageing music fans everywhere.
A team of European researchers analysed the words in more than 12,000 English-language songs across the genres of rap, country, pop, R&B and rock from 1980 to 2020.
Before detailing how lyrics have become more basic, the study pointed out that US singer-songwriting legend Bob Dylan – who rose to fame in the 1960s – has won a Nobel prize in literature.
Senior study author Eva Zangerle, an expert on recommendation systems at Austria’s University of Innsbruck, declined to single out an individual newer artist for having simple lyrics.
But she emphasised that lyrics can be a “mirror of society” which reflect how a culture’s values, emotions and preoccupations change over time.
“What we have also been witnessing in the last 40 years is a drastic change in the music landscape – from how music is sold to how music is produced,” Zangerle said.
Over the 40 years studied, there was repeated upheaval in how people listened to music. The vinyl records and cassette tapes of the 1980s gave way to the CDs of the 90s, then the arrival of the internet led to the algorithm-driven streaming platforms of today.
For the study in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers looked at the emotions expressed in lyrics, how many different and complicated words were used, and how often they were repeated.
“Across all genres, lyrics had a tendency to become more simple and more repetitive,” Zangerle summarised.
The results also confirmed previous research which had shown a decrease in positive, joyful lyrics over time and a rise in those that express anger, disgust or sadness.
Lyrics have also become much more self-obsessed, with words such as “me” or “mine” becoming much more popular.
The number of repeated lines rose most in rap over the decades, Zangerle said – adding that it obviously had the most lines to begin with.
“Rap music has become more angry than the other genres,” she added.
The researchers also investigated which songs the fans of different genres looked up on the lyric website Genius.
Unlike other genres, rock fans most often looked up lyrics from older songs, rather than new ones.
Rock has tumbled down the charts in recent decades, and this could suggest fans are increasingly looking back to the genre’s heyday, rather than its present.
Another way that music has changed is that “the first 10-15 seconds are highly decisive for whether we skip the song or not,” Zangerle said.
Previous research has also suggested that people tend to listen to music more in the background these days, she added.
Put simply, songs with more choruses that repeat basic lyrics appear to be more popular.
“Lyrics should stick easier nowadays, simply because they are easier to memorise,” Zangerle said.
“This is also something that I experience when I listen to the radio.”
Monument at Sydney’s Earlwood Oval rededicated to honour traditional Bedigal owners
Monument at Sydney’s Earlwood Oval rededicated to honour traditional Bedigal owners
By Ruby Cornish
Two years is a long time in the life of an eight-year-old, but Lionel Kennedy still remembers the afternoon during COVID lockdown when he and his four-year-old sister Ella read the inscription on a bicentennial memorial at Sydney’s Earlwood Oval.
“We came to the park for a play … and then we spotted the plaque,” he says.
The inscription on the brass plate from 1988 dedicates the monument to “original landowner” John Parkes, an early European settler who was the recipient of a 50-acre land grant in 1816.
“We said, that’s not right,” Lionel explained.
“The first people here were the Bedigal people.”
After a conversation with their parents, the siblings collaborated on a handwritten letter to the Canterbury-Bankstown City Council asking for the sign to be changed.
“They’d been doing lots of learning in school about the land they were learning on,” said their mother Julia Kennedy.
“I said they could write a letter to the council because if you want to get something changed, that’s kind of the process.”
The council passed the letter on to its First Peoples Advisory Committee, where it reached Wiradjuri elder Jennifer Newman.
“My heart wells up with pride and joy when young people use the names of the clans of country,” she said.
“Ella and Lionel didn’t just ask for the plaque to recognise Aboriginal people, [they] asked for it to recognise Bedigal people … and that’s really significant.”
She described the process as an important act of truth-telling.
“The Uluru Statement from the Heart asks us to walk together for a better future, and re-writing this chapter with these young people really is the embodiment and the personification of that call.”
The committee’s co-chair, Dharug elder Aunty Lyn Martin, also volunteers with the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, which helps schools deliver lessons about Indigenous history and culture.
“The fact that these children have learnt enough in school to be able to say that this is First Nations land … it was quite exciting for me,” she said.
“It’s a really amazing thing because you know, they enjoy the lessons … but you don’t really know that you’re getting through to them until something like this happens.
“I wasn’t taught any history at school about First Nations people … in those days if you put your hand up and said Cook didn’t discover Australia, you’d get the ruler, so you learned to keep your mouth shut.”
Ms Newman said the committee engaged in a series of long discussions about whether and how to rededicate the monument.
Ultimately, a decision was made to leave the original plaque where it was and install a new one on the adjoining side of the obelisk.
“To repeat an act of erasure or cancelling of someone else’s story is not something we would like to do … John Parkes is part of the story,” Ms Newman said.
“So we thought carefully about how to take the words of 1988 and turn them into a new chapter.”
This month, the council unveiled a new plaque rededicating the memorial to honour the Bedigal as “enduring custodians”, as well as John Parkes, “descendants of the colony” and “people more recently arrived from around the world”.
Lionel and Ella are happy with the change.
“[The Bedigal] were the first here and it’s important to know about their culture,” Lionel said.
Their parents hope the process will leave a lasting impression on the young activists.
“To have them so positive, telling their friends and their school, is just awesome,” said their father Joe Kennedy.
“It shows what education does. It’s great.”
Sam Mostyn announced as next governor general of Australia
Business and community leader to be sworn into role as 28th governor general in July.
Australian Associated Press Wed 3 Apr 2024 09.36 AEDT
Sam Mostyn will become next governor general, Anthony Albanese has announced.
King Charles accepted the prime minister’s recommendation to appoint the business and community leader to the role.
She will be Australia’s 28th governor general – and the second woman to serve in the post.
Sam Mostyn is an exceptional leader who represents the best of modern Australia,” Albanese said on Wednesday.
She will be sworn into the role in July, taking over from David Hurley.
“I’m deeply honoured by this great privilege and look forward to representing the values, hopes and aspirations of all Australians,” Mostyn said. “I will never underestimate or take for granted the expectations that come with high office and I am ready to serve with integrity, compassion and respect.”
Mostyn was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia in 2021 for distinguished service to business, the community and women.
She described herself as the daughter of an army officer and a beneficiary of the public education system when she spoke to reporters on Wednesday, not far from the old Canberra hospital where she was born.
Mostyn studied arts and law at the Australian National University, starting her career as an associate in the New South Wales supreme court of appeal.
The ANU awarded her an honorary doctorate of laws in 2018.
She has been on the board of companies and not-for-profits including Transurban and Virgin Australia and the chair of Citibank Australia, and now sits on the Mirvac board while chairing Aware Super and the Alberts music group.
She was the first woman appointed as commissioner of the Australian Football League has been and a driving force behind the AFLW competition.
“Millions of Australians know this to be true, that being of service is what often provides a person with their greatest happiness and sense of purpose,” Mostyn said. “That is certainly the case for me, and I can think of no greater purpose … than to serve this country I love as governor general.”
Governors general are the monarch’s representative in Australia – the nation’s highest office. They serve at the pleasure of the sovereign, typically for a term of five years.
Cindy Lou has a casual lunch
Flatheads at the O’Connor shops is always open, and I appreciate being able to take advantage of this on public holidays, as well as on other occasions when the temptation of unhealthy pastry is too much. The coffee, although served in takeaway cups, is very good; the selection of pastries, sweet and savoury is excellent; there are pizzas and, of course fish and chips in a great variety of choices. The lamingtons are huge and are not filled with jam – a dreadful accompaniment in a London Cafe where I was told the addition was authentically Australian. Not in my view, I prefer Flatheads’.
Thank you, JL, for the photos of the range of eats available in Flatheads.
Two articles from Women and Literature google alert
Alliance Française to empower Ugandan women through literature discussions
The Independent March 28, 2024 ARTS, NEWS Leave a comment
Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | The Alliance Française de Kampala, joining forces with the Fonds Médiathèque and the French Institute, launched a program that will tackle social issues and foster empowerment for underprivileged women in Ugandan communities by creating a bridge between them and established Ugandan women writers. The program hinges on exploring East African feminist literature, providing a platform for women’s voices to be heard and stories shared.
Eric Touze the director at Alliance Française de Kampala (AFK) said that the feminism and literature project is part of AFK’s commitment to participating in debates on the ideas that are shaking the world.
“We wish to take part in these debates by organizing events around social, societal, and environmental themes and by offering a stage to actors of contemporary ideas. AFK is particularly concerned with issues of equality, and inclusion, so it is only natural to develop this project, which corresponds to our values,”
The program unfolds in a three-part series, each delving into a critical theme with deep resonance within the Ugandan context. The themes explored are Afro-feminism (April 6th & 7th), Sexist and Sexual Violence (May 4th & 5th), and Health and Sex Education (June 1st & 2nd).
Each theme will be unpacked through a meticulously designed two-part approach. To initiate each session, renowned Ugandan women writers will deliver thought-provoking conferences at the Alliance Française media library. This lecture format allows them to not only share their literary works but also shed light on their insightful perspectives on the chosen themes.
Laure Ginestet the coordinator and principal librarian at AFK said that their first session will feature Irene Mutuzo a renowned poet who will immerse audiences in the captivating world of Afro-Feminism.
“We chose poetry because lyricism is much more than words strung together on a page, it is a form of expression that erects a passionate barrier, protecting what lives within us while exalting it,”
“I am thrilled to lead the Feminism and Literature program. At the heart of this event, we shed light on the profound- the connection between action and words underscoring the power of the latter to inspire us to work for causes beyond our interests,”
Irene Mutuzo a poet says that she believes in the power of poetry and its ability to shape perspectives and empower individuals.
“I am excited to be part of the Feminism and Literature initiative and through my words and poems, I hope to ignite a sense of strength, resilience and confidence in every woman,”
“By providing a platform for women to write and tell their stories, I believe that will enable women to voice their truths, articulate their experiences like never before,”
The program’s true strength lies in its unwavering commitment to fostering active engagement within the community. After each conference, specially designed workshops will be conducted for underprivileged women. These interactive sessions provide a safe space for these women to delve into the concept of intersectionality between literature and feminism. Through guided discussions, they will be empowered to draw connections between the explored themes and their own experiences, fostering a sense of shared understanding and solidarity.
The program culminates with a powerful finale. A short documentary titled “Literature & Feminism as a Tool of Emancipation” will be screened at the Alliance Française media library. This documentary will serve as a poignant culmination, showcasing the impactful discussions held throughout the program. A stimulating debate and Q&A session will be held with the three participating authors after the screening.
The Female Experience in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Peru
Daniella Fernandez
The history of women’s participation in literary culture and political life in Latin America is a history still in the making. From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Luisa Capetillo to Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Rita Segato, women have shaped and reshaped history, culture, and politics but their contributions have often been forgotten. Join professors Erika Almenara, Lucy M. Brown and Violeta Lorenzo at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in Old Main 203, where they will highlight some of the women who transformed politics, labor, literature and daily life in Latin America.
Almenara, associate professor of Spanish and associate director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Arkansas, was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (Peru 2022-2023) and is the current president of the Peru Section of the Latin American Studies Association.
Her research and teaching interests include Andean oral, written, and visual culture; literary, critical, subaltern, and post-colonial theory, radical thought and avant-garde aesthetics in the Andes and the Southern Cone, as well as feminist and transfeminist theory. Along with her book, The Language of the In-Between. Travestis, Post-hegemoy, and Writing in Contemporary Chile and Peru published (University of Pittsburg Press, 2022) Almenara has published six book chapters, five articles in non-refereed journals, and twelve articles in refereed journals.
Brown, a clinical professor of advertising and public relations, is responsible for increasing students’ understanding and skills in marketing communications with an emphasis on media planning, advertising creative strategy and account planning. In addition to teaching, she is responsible for advising the student professional clubs (Ad Club and Public Relations Student Society of America) in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media.
Violeta Lorenzo earned her Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of Toronto in 2011. Her area of specialization is Latin American literature, with a primary research focus in the study of Hispanic Caribbean cultures and diasporas. Other research and teaching interests include coming of age narratives, cultural essays, film, and U.S.-Caribbean politics and cultures. Lorenzo’s book, A base de palos: modernidad, aprendizaje y formación en cinco Bildungsromane puertorriqueños (Ediciones Katatay, 2023) analyzes —from a historical and postcolonial perspective that focuses on discourses of racial, political, and national identities— five award-winning Bildungsromane or best-sellers written by Puerto Rican authors who began publishing between the 1940s and the 1970s. Lorenzo has also published articles in La Habana Elegante and in La Torre.
CONTACTS
Erika Almenara, associate director of Latin American & Latina/o Studies
Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures
734-352-1481, almenara@uark.edu
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