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  • Muse and Whirled Retort Archives 2009

    The Muse and Whirled Retort - December 2009

    December 08, 2009
    Vol. XI issue iii
    Silver Spring, MD


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    ***HOLIDAY ***FLASH*** HOLIDAY ***FLASH***
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    Wait --- Wait --- Wait just a second here. We MUST have a sec for a rare but still important crass commercial announcement. It is from our sponsor ,um, me.

    Ya see, it is THAT time of year and the new CD is finished. JUST when you were wondering what you would get that special someone in your life.  Or maybe the distant uncle that likes to quote Glen Beck at holiday gatherings.
    THE NEW CHANDLER CD!  

    Get The New Chandler and Benoit CD as a Christmas Gift
    In case the link did not work:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chrischandler12

    My best studio effort in years!  All due to Paul Benoit Paul-Benoit-Music. He is nothing short of a world class slide, roots and Americana guitar player living in Seattle, El Salvador and Paris. He both accompanies on and produced this new record, "So, Where Ya Headed?"

    you can do it through pay pal here:  
    by clicking on the coffee can to your left

    The other is to send a check or money order to:
    Chris Chandler
    3128 Memory Lane
    Silver Spring, MD 20904
    then I will snail mail it to you.

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    ***HOLIDAY FLASH****
    ***OK OK enough of the crass commercial announcement***
    ***HOLIDAY FLASH***
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    T.H.E. .M.U.S.E. .A.N.D. .W.H.I.R.L.E.D. .RE.T.O.R.T
    December 08, 2009
    Vol. XI issue ii
    Silver Spring, MD
    By Chris Chandler and Jen Delyth


    How does a sea turtle
    know its way
    to the ocean
    once it emerges from its shell?

    Taking with it grains of sand in which it was born,
    returning them to the sea in which it was conceived.

    Sometimes, you just know.

    Is it the same way a goose knows to follow the sun,
    or a bear to rise from its slumber?

    Sometimes, you just know.

    How does a child know to feed itself from its mother's breast?

    Is it love?
    Or is it instinct?
    Or is it that sometimes you just know?

    Is it some God-forsaken scientific garbledey-gook?
    Or some pointless poetic pretense?
    Or is it that sometimes you just know?

    Is it time compounded by experience
    pilling atop itself,
    compressing,
    forming the rock of civilization,
    just to crush it back into the sands of time?

    Or

    Is it our individual spirit
    inspired by compassion
    seeking to simulate,
    the collective soul of all things,
    just to oppress us with the despotism of piety?

    Mountains rise from the sea.  
    Continents are formed,
    then split and drift
    until immeasurable oceans divide them.

    Us.

    Human beings follow suite.
    Scotsmen cross over the ocean
    to find the highlands of Appalachia
    is the same mountain range from whence they came,
    while teeny-bopper Rockies preen and flex their muscles
    as grandfatherly Ozarks slump broke-back
    into sand and are carried to the ocean to form new continents.

    Sand
    funnels through the narrowing hole of an hour glass
    ironically made of the same sand it imprisons.  

    Sand
    heated with the flames of love
    and shaped like your beloved in her prime.

    Sand
    entering the narrowest of passages
    in order to measure times gone by,
    only to stand on the shoulders of history
    forming a tiny cheerleading pyramid,
    applauding the inevitable rise of the latest dawn.

    But to love, dawn has neither come nor gone,
    for it is always dawn – somewhere.  

    To love, the rising of the sun simply means the moon will follow.

    As will the goose,
    and it will nudge the bear from its slumber,
    and it will open the infant's eyes
    and cause the sea turtle return to the sea…
    ...for as long as there is a sea...
    and sand to wash upon the shore...
    and montains to crumble into the ocean.
                                                              …Because…
                                                                                …sometimes you just know.

    And when you know…

    you must say Yes…
                               …to the only thing we have.

    Love.

    Only love and sand know what forever means,

    So, Yes.

    I say Yes.  

    To love.

    Because I want to discover, with you, what forever really means.

    Because sometimes, you just know.


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    A.N.N.O.U.N.C.M.E.N.T.S.

    YES, it is true.  

    I am engaged!  

    To Jen Dyleth OF San Francisco USA via Whales.

    Sometimes you just know.

    If you would like to know more about her or her art Jen Delyth

    Her work also makes for terrific Christmas gifts.

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    Happy Holidays
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    Paul Benoit and I are planning a west coast tour in March. And east coast in May. Lots of irons in the fire but not much confirmed yet.

    Get your requests in now.

    We could use the help.
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    T.H.A.N.K. .Y.O.U.!

    Jen Dyleth, Paul Benoit, Shirley Myers, Anne Feeney, Drunah NOLA,  Wendy Corn, Amy Berlin and all the folks at the compound, Jessie in abstention, Brad Massengill, Shakey Bean, Bruce Chandler, Mav, Jeff and Elizabeth, Dan Electros, My family, Eddie Owens, Dan Bern, Fishman, Chuck, Joe Uehlein, Peter Jones, Pat Barnes, Joe and Jay.
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    H.E.R.E.'.S. .D.A. .D.A.T.E.S.

    Friday, January 15 through Sunday, January 17
    Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival in Burlingame, CA  http://www.docspopuli.org/WesternWorkers.html

    Sat March 20 Orcas Island, WA
    Off Center Stage

    Thur March 25 Eugene, OR
    Sam Bonds Garage

    Fri April 30
    House Concert
    Watertown, CT

    Sat May 1 Paterson NJ
    Botto House
    afternoon

    Sat May 1 New York New York
    TBA

    Monday May 10
    Cambridge, MA
    Cantab Feature

    July 4th Weekend
    High Sierra Music Festival
    Tentative

    July 9th Weekend
    Oregon Country Fair
    Tentative

    July 16th weekend
    Duncan, BC
    The Islands Folk Festival
    Tentative