Gertie Larkin, well known and well loved

This was a week of grief and celebration. A friend’s mother died and was buried yesterday. I didn’t know her very well so I looked to others for her story. Two years ago they gave her a very short time to live: she had cancer. No one could believe the courage of Gertrude Larkin.

Gertie took the painful cancer treatments and operations in her stride. She would travel in from Farmington in pain and go home again. Just a few taciturn comments was all one heard. There were longer trips to Halifax for opeations or treatment.

I have this image of Gertie sitting in her rocking chair in the Farmington home kitchen, beside the wood stove rocking gently and shaking ever so slightly. If you looked closely you could see she had no physical strength left. That fierce pride and determination kept her in the kitchen where visitors expected her to be.

Before she got sick, Gertie and Des loved to travel. There is a picture of her trying to lift a sea turtle on a beach in the Bahamas. Des showed me the one of him actually lifing the turtle. Another picture of them standing outside the fence at the White House. They were inside it, says Des. They went to Martha’s Vineyard one of my favourite islands, after PEI. They explored the White Mountains but wouldn’t go up Mt. Washington. It was hard enough to get her up the mountains on the Cabot Trail. Lawrence MacKinnon’s daughter from Forest Hill PEI was an adventurer.

In the last months, her daughters attended to her needs and stayed with her if she was in the hospital here or in Halifax. Along with being working mothers, they developed a schedule of rotating shifts that must have been punishing. If one did the overnight, then another came in the next day, while another did the next overnight. To me it became a rhythm of knowing which night Edith would be home and which not. For the girls, I’m sure it was tough.

Eighteen relatives – Des, sons, daughters and close relatives did a day long vigil with her as she died on Friday. The receiving line at Dingwell’s Funeral Home in Souris was so long that friends were running a gauntlet of hand shakes and grieving.

Little children played in the hall and other rooms, teenage grandchildren brought their boyfriends and girlfriends to pay their respects. Relatives and friends filled the historic church in St. Charles. The cold blustery grave site on a hill in St. Peters Bay was crowded.

When someone suffers, we say they got peace at last. However, that doesn’t take away the grief for a woman that was well known and well loved.

Guardian Deaths

It Ain’t Me Babe

Wow – the new arrangement went over great at Baba’s. I could see people were held by the tension. I should think about recording it this weekend – that sounds vague doesn’t it. It would be better if I had my drum kit back together and could cobble together a bass. Drums will have to wait – the music room is too crazy but maybe I can find a bassist.

Disability Support Blues went over well. That is a triplets groove song – too fast or too slow and it bombs.

The next two “Is Your Love in Vain” and “Your Song” suffered from the proximity effect – two finger style ballads with string accompaniment lulling people to sleep. Robert Arsenault used to insist in the band Expecting Rain – one ballad per set of 8 songs. He knows.

Expecting Rain 2004: Todd King, Jeff Smith, S Pate, Robert Arsenault, Heidi Juri, Matt Chandler

Chistopher Ricks: Dylan’s Vision of Sin

I am writing this Blog with a heavy dose of Bloggers Regret – I’ve written so much lately I have tennis elbow. So with arm brace and pain I am setting down to write these words. Does that make them seem more important or me careless?

Last spring while visiting Laura, I took off in my wheelchair along College and spotted this little shop, Used Books it said. At least it wasn’t Dead Parrots and Ironware. Inside I found a gold-mine of Bob Dylan books and being without any restraint purchased eight.

The least likely to get read was a thick tome of 500 pages called “Dylan’s Visions of Sin” by Christopher Ricks. OK so “Sin” on the title page was attractive. So was the author’s pedigree: he was the editor of the “Oxford Book of English Verse” a book I have owned since university and a professor at Oxford University. People steal OBEV and I buy another. He has also written on some of my fave poets like T S Elliot, Keats, Tennyson, and A E Houseman. Why is he writing about Bob Dylan?

Let’s get past the canard that you like his songs but he can’t sing, or you like his singing but his looks stink, or he isn’t a poet, etc. ad nauseum. Bob Dylan is the single most influential singer/songwriter to hit this planet ever. He copied everyone before him and added to it his own genius. What kind of a genius steals from the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton and TS Elliot with impunity?

Without him there would be no Bruce Springsteen (a pale imitation), John Prine, Neil Young, no anybody who is doing what music is about today – relevant songs that the singer wrote himself. When I listen to his progeny it’s painfully clear they think he authorized guitar accompanied introspection. Most of their lyrics are mundane, prosaic, and forgettable.

Dylan has written 500 plus songs over 5 decades many of which define how we have felt along the way. If you want to see an artist in the middle of self-recreation, check out one of his concerts. It’s like Picasso re-painting his paintings over and over.

OK so what about the book? Ricks is a proponent of the “close reading” of poetry. How close? Very close – you will go on wonderful trips where he compares “Not Dark Yet” from “Time Out of Mind” to Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” line for line. After you digest that he points out how Keats was inspired by Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73.” I would love to have his grasp of poetry and literature for he also brings in Becket and others. Word for word, line by line he draws out the beauty and significance of Dylan’s work.

The book is arranged around the seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues and the three heavenly graces. Ricks discusses songs that explempify or defy the sins, virtues and graces. This is not accidental for Dylan is a classic moralist. Dylan knows you can’t defy the Gods and remain a serious artist.

The popular press and pundits are constantly judging Dylan: such is the lot of an artist. It reminds me of the people who critiqued Van Gogh (too much yellow and blue) or Gauguin (who are those naked natives. You can tell Ricks is impressed by Dylan during every period of his artistic career. Ricks makes you appreciate Dylan, even in his missteps, as the great artist he is.

This book is not an easy read. I guarantee if you like poetry, are a poet, or songwriter it will interest you. My songwriting has improved from a single read. I’ve got to read it, no study it song by song, instead of trying read to get to the end.

There are other scholarly books on Bob Dylan: this one is my favourite for its emphasis of poetry and song structure independent of the music. Next: “Song and Dance Man” by Michael Gray.

My arm doesn’t hurt as much. I’m going to practice “It Ain’t Me Babe.” If you’ve heard Dylan in concert in the last few years, you’ll remember the new arrangement. Each line starts in Em and ends on C/D. The song is held there in chains until the chorus where the tune is allowed to break out to F G and back to C. The beat is one two one two one two, insistent and incessant. Lots of fun.

Coming Attractions

This has been the week of the almost deliverable. I almost finished a report on Disability. I almost finished a new arrangement of “It Ain’t Me Babe” and I almost finished a book review of Christopher Ricks’ “Dylan’s Visions of Sin.”

The Disability report attempts to describe the current PEI situation and provide solutions. It’s off my desk for review.

“It Ain’t Me Babe” is a venerable Dylan song; however, like all venerable Dylan songs its too well known. While I am amazed at the cool C’ D’ chords, people get up to leave the room when you play it. The new arrangement comes from his 2004 ‘Never Ending Tour’. Very dark. Deeter does not like it: he tries to fly away. Too many bass notes: too moody. It’s coming together and may get a tryout at Baba’s this week.

I started spelling Baba’s correctly just a half an hour ago. Hey, it’s dark up there and who reads signs.

Ricks’ “Dylan Visions of Sin” – er, I didn’t start the review except in my head. I still have one more report to write but I think it’ll be done after lunch. The book review will be in the next 24 hours. Great book if you are a student of poetry or songwriting.

The office is still full of guitars, amps, recorders, the synth and cables. Now I have my two favourite things in one place: music and computers. They suggested a bed will be next. I’ll design a bed that comes down from the ceiling and hovers over the mess. That way I won’t have to put anything away.

The perfect valentine

I gave my girl the perfect Valentine. I wrote her a love song called “Your Song”, recorded it in my office using gear I had and wrote it on a lightscribe CD labeled ‘Valentines 2007 Your Song’. She was non-plussed. Next I have to figure how to publish the song on this blog. If you know how to do that, leave a comment please.

The song is a pretty decent love song. I tried it out at Baba’s, Piazza Joe’s and Brennans and people like it. She loves it. A friend warned me not to play it again: his girlfriend was asking him to write one.

All of the recording was done on a Korg D1600MKII purchased two years ago. Every step of the process was a big learning curve since I hadn’t learned how to use the Korg. It’s an all-in-one recorder: 4 XLR inputs, 4 balanced inputs, 16 tracks, mixer, EQ, Fx, pre and post effects and CD recorder. The Korg has a touch screen but most of the command sets are pretty complex and referring to the manual is only partially helpful. Try that with a fever headache. Some things had to be done over and over until I got it right.

The plan started with a 6 day bout of the flu. Stuck in with no energy it seemed like the right time to make the CD. Over 3 days and without her noticing, I laid down the base track of synth guitar/strings and vocal. I intended to blog this day by day, like Pilgrim’s Progress; however, she read’s my blog.

For percussion, I tried brushes on a snare but it didn’t sound great. Guess my drumming skills are slack. I deleted the track. Bongos were perfect. I came up with a couple of cool harmonica licks that made the song sound airy. I did one track just with the synth strings. For an alternate guitar, I added a 12-fret steel string played in the open position. It didn’t sound great but I kept it for background rhythm. It was too much like the main guitar track.

Then I rememberd the lead guitar trick: play higher on the neck. The next guitar was my Martin D35 which has one of the best sounding guitars I have heard. Put on new strings, played it around the 8th fret and concentrated on lead licks which are not my specialty. However when the rhythm guitar track is there, it’s not that hard. I miked it using a Rode NT2-A and direct from pickup over two tracks. The mic track sounded dull for some reason but it added ambiance so I pushed up its fader in the mix.

The vocal was giving me no amount of grief. I’d forget words, changes, where to start. For a song I can play with my eyes closed, I had to resort to reading the lyrics again. Of five passes, the third was the keeper. During all that, Deeter sat on his gym and watched. He didn’t squawk once.

For monitoring the mix I used HD 280 Pro’s and my old keyboard amp a Roland KC300. Not quite monitors but it works. I played with panning left and right in the mix down, light EQ, and something called LA compression. Sometimes it sounded better: others it was worse. Probably because there were three guitars. That’s a lot of the same instrument. The mix needed headroom.

My office is small so I had to drag instruments in and out to do tracks, set them up and take them down again. Cables failed. While mastering, the left channel disappeared. Glitches abounded.

She was coming at 5 pm to go out for supper and I was still trying to make the lightscribe disk at 4:30 pm. A few things flew around the office. But it got done.

Boy was she pleased. What am I going to do next year to top that?

We live in a political world

I posted that Bob Dylan song as a non-verbal protest against the threats that are piling up against me. The work I do in disability advocacy has become hot and I’m in the kitchen.

PEI is a very political world. A fair amount of the economy involves working for the federal or provincial governments. If you don’t work for them, you work for someone who supplies goods and services to them. I was not immune to that: Island Computer one of my companies got 60% of its revenues from government sales. Aquilium Software did 100% with city governments and utilities.

It’s not wise to bite the hand that feeds you. One learns to keep original thoughts to themselves. Free speech is for late at night, inside the closet with the door closed.

However, I can’t be a disability advocate without telling the truth about what is happening to Islanders with disabilities. This apparently is making people mad. I’ve been warned three times recently that the Government will try to get even. I’m trying to think – I’m retired, have a disability, my children are work away. Oh yes, they try to get even with your children if they can’t attack you. If you hear I got killed by a car that crossed 4 lanes of traffic, you’ll know.

This government puts on a smile face but behind the scenes it is mean. Remember the hundreds of people fired when the Binns government came in, simply because they were presumed to be from the other political party, the liberals. They passed legislation to limit settlements. The government bullied most of the fired into tiny settlements. A few brave souls took the government to court and won. Then they won on appeal.

I thought I knew her

I got this email from a nice sounding gal named Nancy Roman. She is one of the dozen or so people who know me even though I don’t know them.

I get excited when I see their mail in my in box and then disappointed.

She doesn’t want me: she just wants my money. What’s wrong with this world when people can’t email each other just to be friends? Why is money always an issue?

If I meet Ms. Roman some day I will ask her that question.

I wonder what she looks like?

—–Original Message—–
From: Nancy Roman [mailto:tvo@leejun.co.kr]
Sent: September 29, 2006 3:02
To: stephen_pate@hotmail.com
Subject: weed centralize

Synthesizer Guitar part 2

CBC came to the house yesterday to film a story. Turns out the camera man is a guitar player. He was intrigued by the Godin midi guitar and Roland synth module. After the filming and while Erin Moore got ready to leave, we jammed for a minute. ‘I real like the sound of that guitar. Keep playing.’

As I get used to how different the guitar is to play and the various sounds, this setup is growing on me. Practicing with headphones allows you to hear exactly what the guitar – synthesizer mix sounds like. Sometimes more is better sometimes less. Each song has different settings. Sometimes it sounds distorted which might be a miss-match between my playing and the patch.

On a Chet Atkins laser disc he sings a nostalgic song about his father ‘I Just Can’t Say Goodbye’. The song will bring a tear to the eye. Obviously I’m not Chet Atkins but I can finger pick the song. With ‘Nashville Strings’ as the synth patch, it almost sounds like Chet on the disc. Tres cool.

New Video

I haven’t abandoned my blog – it’s been busy. We produced a new rock video about the political shenanigans on PEI. Mars Hill are a great local indie rock band. They gave us permission to use the song “Where did the money go?” It fit the subject perfectly: where did they put the $1 million they took from people in wheelchairs?

I hope you like it. The music is awesome. It gets inside your head.

You can find more about Mars Hill at Mars Hill.

What am I up to?

I just spent the last two days listening to the testimony of 4 parents whose children have autism. Some of the coverage is on the Disability Alert site.

I feel drained and hopeless after hearing the stories. How could anyone let that happen? Yet I am optimistic. We will fix this problem. Maybe they will win their case at Human Rights. Or maybe we will take to the streets in protest this cruel government.

We’ll do what it takes.

To keep myself sane, I went to Baba’s tonight and had a great jam with Ryan. We did Mean Woman Blues, Love Starts Too Easy (my stuff) and a rocking All Along the Watchtower. It was great fun. Moe was taking our pics so I have to track her down on the web and weasel copies from her. Great to see so many people. Met the new owner of back alley disks.

Kerrie came with me but left with Jessica to go dancing! I hate it when the girl you brought leaves to go somewhere else with another girl! Whaa?