Between a diamond and a hard place

Richard Armitage (John Porter) examines a diamond

I don't agree with Marilyn Monroe as she sings "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", but I will admit to being very fond of diamonds.  My husband is my best friend, and he did give me a diamond (I gave him one too), but it's not really a substitute for a true best friend.

One of my older sisters had this recording of Gary Lewis and the Playboys` big hit of 1965 This Diamond Ring.

I used to play it (without permission, as I wasn't old enough to be trusted with the record player) when no one was around, if I couldn`t beg someone else to play it for me.  I felt so sorry for the jilted lover but his words gave me some hope.

This diamond ring doesn`t shine for me anymore,
But if you find someone whose love is true,
Let it shine for you.  

Years later, I discovered my father had been a jilted lover.  He had been sweet on a girl he met while training for the RCAF during WWII.  She had just broken up with her fiance because he had gone off to war.  My father kept in touch with her during his years in England and when the war was over he sought her out in Toronto intending to propose to her. (He had already purchased the engagement ring!)  When he showed up at her apartment he must have been heartbroken to learn that her previous fiance had gotten to her first and they were already married!  Who broke the news to him?  The girl's roommate - who became my mother! 

What follows is collection of my favourite songs which make reference to diamonds.  This first one is by a Canadian singer/songwriter that I have posted tunes from previously.  This is one of his lesser known songs.  If you click on the song title, the link will take you to the lyrics and also some comments about the song by the writer.

All the Diamonds  (1973) / Bruce Cockburn

I have certainly featured the following artist on this blog many times.  This song really speaks to me as I like Denver's positive outlook on life.

Some Days are Diamonds (1981) / John Denver

Although I am an admirer of this next band and I had heard this song before, I must admit I didn't know the background to this song until I started researching this post. It is a tribute to Syd Barrett, one of the original founding members of Pink Floyd.  He was an amazingly talented guitarist and songwriter but his experimentation with drugs led to some bizarre behaviour on and off stage.  After the band replaced him, he became a recluse and rarely appeared in public.  That is, until he showed up in the studio one day, his appearance so changed that no one at first recognized him.  The year was 1975 and Pink Floyd just happened to be recording this particular song on their album Wish You Were Here.  

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1975) / Pink Floyd

Music lovers can have a field day trying to explain the lyrics of this song!  According to some stories Paul Simon once dated a diamond merchant's daughter. Whatever the origin of the song it is certainly unique and memorable! It appears on Simon's Graceland album (one of my all-time fave albums).

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (1986) / Paul Simon & Joseph Shabalala

I hope this sound clip works!:

That was Richard Armitage's voice speaking as Sylvester in Georgette Heyer's audio book of the same name.  He could have been speaking of Queen Elizabeth II who is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year.  She is only the second monarch to have ruled so long - the other being Queen Victoria.  Interesting that both were female... but then we females know we are much tougher than men!

Queen Elizabeth II in 2012

Queen Elizabeth II in 1952

She certainly glitters with all that bling.  I hope I'm not being too cheeky to dedicate this song to her.



This next song could be a theme for Guy of Gisborne and Lady Marian's relationship in the BBC's Robin Hood. See the lyrics here.

Diamond Mine (1989) / Blue Rodeo

Here is Sir Guy of Gisborne being humiliated by Robin Hood, and cruelly cast aside by the Sheriff of Nottingham, but then surprisingly, being rescued by Lady Marian.

Robin Hood BBC / Black Diamonds

Here is a men's wedding ring made with damascus steel and black diamonds. 

Wouldn't this have been perfect for Guy?

Andrew Nyce Designs

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

Diamonds weren't always the engagement ring of choice.  Here is an interesting history of diamonds as engagement rings entitled "Have Diamonds Always Meant Forever?"

RichardArmitageNet.com

Of course we mustn't forget the James Bond theme song from the movie of the same name.

Diamonds are Forever (1971) / Shirley Bassey

I thought this picture was a bit surreal when I first saw it.  It is taken from the last part of Richard Armitage's role as Ian Macalwain in Ultimate Force (2003).  I am not sure if this background poster was supposed to have any extra meaning, or it was just a strange set decoration.  I suppose it is actually ironic as poor Ian is out of the picture soon after this shot.  Perhaps it emphasizes that although a rock might be "forever", human beings are definitely not immortal.

But as long as I live and breathe I will be watching you shine, Mr. Armitage!

My Guitar Man



Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas,
the Artist's Father. c.1871-72 by Edgar Degas

When my husband turned 40 I was all set to put up with-the dreaded "mid-life crisis".  I thought he might want to buy a car with a souped-up engine, or return to his motorcycle riding early days or worse yet, decide he had more wild oats that needed sowing!

But no, at the age of 40 my dear husband decided it was time to learn to play guitar!  And he did so, with only the help of a DVD and the occasional lesson with a fellow player.  He is now some 10 years later, quite good at it, although still too shy to play in public.

But that's okay because I enjoy his private concerts, especially when we sing together.  He even taught himself to sing on key from a video!

The first song I'd like to feature is from the early '70s and has a calm and peaceful vibe. It's by the group Bread headed by lead singer and songwriter David Gates.  The lyrics describe very well the attractiveness a guitar player has for me.

Guitar Man / Bread (1972)

I have had a fondness for John Denver ever since I first heard him singing Take Me Home Country Roads.  My favourite of his songs was Annie's Song, and it still has the power to make me teary.  He wrote this song about his wife, who later left him.  I don't think I could ever leave a man who wrote me a song like that!

Here he is singing about his old guitar. In his introduction to the song he tells us the history of it and his song explains why it is so important to him.  The guitar was cremated with him after he was killed in a plane crash in 1997.  His ashes were spread over the Colorado Rocky mountains.

This Old Guitar / John Denver (1974)

portrait of John Hiatt by Jim McGuire

My husband's excellent taste in music was my introduction to John Hiatt.  I came to really appreciate his raunchier sound, and especially his lyrical style. One of my favourite of his songs is The River Knows Your Name which I posted on my All Wet blog post last summer.

In this next song Perfectly Good Guitar I can't help but agree with him when he sings:

It breaks my heart to see those stars
smashing a perfectly good guitar
I dont know who they think they are
smashing a perfectly good guitar.

I never understood that practise of Rock stars smashing their guitars on stage. What a waste!

Perfectly Good Guitar / John Hiatt (1993)

Neil Young's album Prairie Wind is so special to me.  In it, he explores his youth living on the prairies of his Canadian home in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  He developed the album after a terrible interlude in his life where he almost died from a brain tumour.  This caused him to reflect on his past, how he came to be the person he was, and which direction he should take in his future.

This video comes from his performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  Jonathan Demme filmed his concert there in a movie called Heart of Gold. It is a very moving film and the best concert movie I have ever seen. In this song he is accompanied by Emmylou Harris.
UPDATE: 24/09/13 (The original video is no longer available, so I have replaced it with this one from a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina).

This Old Guitar / Neil Young (2005)

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*****UPDATE (Feb. 10, 2012)******

 I have realized that I should have included one of my favourite guitarists and singer/songwriters of all.  George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps takes his love of his guitar to almost spiritual levels. When I stumbled upon this fanmade video I knew I had to add it to this post.  The video shows George Harrison as a young Beatle cavorting with his bandmates, and in his solo career after The Beatles' breakup. Throughout he is shown playing various types of guitars. His sense of humour and his pensive otherworldliness really come through for the camera.  It is a wonderful video!

I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps.

I thought this might be the best I could do until...

I discovered Heirs of Durin's fabulous post about how various musicians are reproducing the song first heard from the Hobbit trailer.  She has found sheet music,  a piano version and of course a guitar version!  And being the talented graphic artist that she is, here what she came up with when trying to imagine Thorin Oakenshield playing it on guitar.

It certainly works for me!

Things are grape!

Still life with bottle, carafe, bread and wine by Claude Monet

I have to admit I am very fond of wine.  I'm not picky either.  I think I have a good nose and enjoy complex flavours, but there are very few wines that I would turn up my nose at. 

My husband makes wine, from a kit and we have found some of his concoctions to be better than the bought variety. We only buy the best quality kits now and we have had quite a few guests who think they are connoisseurs but  thought our wine was purchased from the liquor store.

Last summer I was very lucky to visit Paris for a couple of days. My husband and I had a very memorable and romantic time sightseeing and enjoying fine food and wine in the little cafés that line the streets.  On our anniversary we wanted to go to a particular little bistro around the corner from our hotel.  Sangria was the special aperitif for the evening so I enjoyed it's fruity flavour before our excellent meal arrived.  With the meal we shared a bottle of the House red which was paired perfectly for our food.  (Sorry I don't remember what it was called).  When we were done we strolled down the avenue hand in hand looking for another place to have a night cap.  Since it was rather chilly out (unusual for July!) I wanted to sit inside the restaurant this time.  Our waiter showed us a table and a menu.  I noticed something unusual on the drink menu which interested me: "vin chaud". The english translation is: warm wine, otherwise known as Mulled Wine.  Since I had been drinking red wine all evening, and I was quite chilled, this sounded very good to me.  But when I ordered it, the waiter was incredulous. "Vin chaud!" he exclaimed. "Vin chaud?"
"Oui." I insisted, "Vin Chaud." and pointed to it on the menu.  He asked me again to be sure. I said, "Il fait froid ce soir." (It is cold this evening.)  With a look of disdain, he turned from me and proceeded to have a longwinded conversation with someone in the kitchen. The french words were flying so fast I could hardly understand more than Vin Chaud back and forth in various intonations.  From what I could gather the person in the kitchen was verifying the fact that he could fill the order but the waiter still persisted in making a big deal about it. My husband and I exchanged looks of dismay. Was it really such a "faux pas" to order a drink 'out of season'?  I guess in Paris, the customer is not "always right", at least with this waiter!  Finally I got my vin chaud and it was just perfect!  A perfect end to a perfect meal on a perfect day (with only one imperfection -- that supercilious waiter)!  As a parting shot he asked me if we were from Allemagne. He thought we were German!  Was it my french accent?  I laughed and said, "Non, nous sommes du Canada."  Maybe it was my imagination but I thought he looked a bit chagrinned.  After all, for Canadians to complain about the cold it must be pretty darn chilly!  We are known world wide for cavorting in shorts while others are still swathed in their woollens!  And I am particularly hot blooded -- not to mention the odd hot flash! :D

I would dearly love to go on a wine tasting tour of Europe, or California -- or even British Columbia or the Niagara region of Ontario!  But we are too far away and our holiday times do not coincide with the wine harvest.

 

So if you wish, come on a bit of a wine tour with me!  Pour yourself a nice glass of your favourite vintage, sit back, and hopefully you will enjoy a taste of music and movies with a grapey theme --with of course, the help of Mr. Armitage. ;)

Wine is bottled poetry. 

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

Ah yes! We know what you're thinking!

(As Paul in Between the Sheets)

W.B. Yeats
A DRINKING SONG
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

I am a huge fan of Elton John and I have always loved this song 

from the Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player album (1972)

Elderberry Wine / Elton John

I didn't actually know that John Denver performed this next song.  It was written by Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels in 1964 and was a huge hit.  I remember it being sung quite often on many variety shows throughout my childhood.  My favourite memory of it being performed was by a duet of teenagers for our local Festival of the Arts.

Today / John Denver

Phylly's Top 5 Reasons to drink wine (No pressure)

1. Because it tastes good.
2. Because it makes your food taste even better.
3. Because it is fun to make toasts!  Cheers!
4. Because it might be good for you. (Red wine -- but not too much).
5. Because I said so.*
   

The only reason to drink wine is the first reason, if you are drinking it only for the 4th reason you are a very silly person.  :) Find something else to drink that's better for you -- like WATER!
* #5 doesn't apply in this case.  (I reserve this reason for other instances -- like when I have grandchildren someday. I always thought it was a lame reason until I had children. Then suddenly one day it made perfect sense to me.  It is a very useful tool in childrearing to be used wisely!) ;)

There's nothing quite like Dean Martin 

singing a drinking song!

Little Ol' Wine Drinker Me / Dean Martin

I am extremely happy that I remembered this tune.  It has stayed in my memory since I first heard it as a young girl.  It made me a fan of Canadian singer /songwriter Gene MacLellan even more so than his more famous song Snowbird.  If you'd like to hear his version (which is quite nice)  click here.   Otherwise here is the singer he wrote it for to perform it.

Biding my Time / Gene MacLellan (sung by Anne Murray)

Although I am very fond of UB40's upbeat reggae version of this song I feel the need to give the nod to the composer of this song and his properly heartbreaking performance.


Red Red Wine / Neil Diamond


Here's a more modern song with a wine theme.
This Swedish band has become a new fave for me.  I can't believe I hadn't heard of them before!

I Need Some Fine Wine / The Cardigans




This individual is even more complex than the wine!

As the not to be trusted John Mulligan in Moving On

My blogger friend Maria Grazia likes to watch movies while she catches up on her ironing.  

She wrote a great review for this movie not long ago on her blog Fly High! (click here)

 A Walk in the Clouds (1995)

 

 I enjoyed the movie as much as she did!  It's definitely worth a watch, especially for the beautiful scenery.

I only just heard about this movie while finding clips for this post.  Then what do I find in a sale rack at a local variety store, but this DVD!  What a find!  This is a very enjoyable movie based on a true story about how the world discovered Californian wine.  It is always fun to cheer for the underdog and this feel-good movie really evokes the look and spirit of the 1970s.   Of course I remember back when North American wine was pretty sad stuff (particularly Canadian wines), but look how far we have come!  Apparently all thanks to one special event back in 1976. Who knew?


Bottle Shock (2008)

He looks like he's enjoying this particular vintage.  Could it be Merlot?

as Harry Kennedy in The Vicar of Dilbley's last Christmas special

Here is a very funny and as well as poignant movie about wine tasting, relationships and learning to believe in yourself.  Paul Giamatti's character does a lot of raving about the Pinot Noir grape which apparently made this type of wine much more popular than it was before.  He also rants against Merlot, but that won't stop me from enjoying a good Merlot now and then!

Sideways (2004)

Why not try some white wine for a change?

Lucas North in series 7.5 Spooks / MI-5

Now I'll admit I am cheating here, as I haven't actually seen this movie...yet!  But from what I have seen of the reviews and the clips I am sure it will be one of my faves soon.  I just couldn't resist showing you this clip.

French Kiss (2003)

Now here is a very enjoyable movie I haven't seen for many years!  CBC used to play excellent latenight movies especially during the summer months, so that must be why I have seen this one more than once. It stars Anthony Quinn as Bombolini, the village drunkard in WWII Italy.  Just before the Nazis are set to ransack the town's wine cellars, Bombolini becomes a hero for initiating a plan to hide their precious bottles from discovery.  The following clip is a bit long but well worth a watch if you haven't seen this great movie which won 2 Oscars.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)

Thank goodness I was reminded of this great video by Avalon Medieval!  It combines the narration from the Robin Hood audiobook The Seige with clips from series 3 Robin Hood.  Here we have Robin and Gisborne having a conversation while imbibing quite a bit of vino!

Is your goblet more than half-empty yet?  Maybe it's still half-full?  Depends on how you look at it, eh?

And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs,

From the brim to the dregs, it poured sweet and clear,

It was a very good year.

If that song or sentiment made you sad click here for some wine jokes!

Poetry of Earth

Earth Day is April 22nd so in honour of that and also for the fact that April is Poetry Month I have collected some poetry that celebrates nature, spring, and our shared experience of living on this wonderful planet we call Earth.

Poetry is best appreciated when read aloud. So I was very happy to find so many poems performed on Youtube!

The Poetry of Earth Is Never Dead

 by John Keats (1795-1821)

   The poetry of earth is never dead;

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.

That is the grasshopper’s, – he takes the lead

In summer luxury, – he has never done

With his delights; for, when tired out with fun,

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never.

On a lone winter evening, when the frost

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills

 The cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,

 And seems, to one in drowsiness half lost,

The grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

Daffodils
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Don't you just love Jeremy Irons? But what's with the funny hat?

Video by Noxdl.

I have loved the poetry of John Masefield since Gr. 7 when I first read "Trade Winds". He is best known for poetry which speaks of life at sea on a sailing ship, but in this one he is clearly longing for home.

The West Wind

read by the author himself

John Masefield (1878-1967)

Video made by poetryreincarnations

This Youtube channel is a treasure trove of animated pictures of poets reading their works!

Nature poetry can be found in the lyrics of modern songs.

Here is a song that warns people to take better care of the natural world or we might lose it altogether.

Big Yellow Taxi 

words and music by Joni Mitchell (1943-  ),

performed by Counting Crows.

Although I am a great fan of Joni Mitchell, I chose to use the version by Counting Crows, firstly because the visuals suited my theme better, and secondly because I think I think more people would prefer this version. Die-hard Joni fans can still hear her version if they click on the video bar at the end of this video.

John Denver  (1943-1997) was a great nature lover.

His song, Rocky Mountain High

celebrates a special corner of the world that he called home.

WARNING: If you turned up the volume to hear John Denver, get ready to lower the volume for this next video. For some reason it is much louder than the others. (I would hate for anyone to get annoyed by being blasted with the next reader's amazing voice!) And if you are not interested in staring at pictures of Richard Armitage while he reads this poem, just minimize the screen, but don't miss his reading -- the poem is wonderful, and the delivery can't be beat!

Here is a poem from World War II

about guarding the land against the enemy:

Nightwatch for England

by Edward Shanks (1892-1953)

read by Richard Armitage

This is a fanvid by DanielleRCA

By the way, if anyone out there has any information about the poet Edward Shanks I would be very interested. I have become a bit of a fan of his poetry since researching for this post.  (There is very little interesting information that is easily searchable on the net, (so far) or I would have put up a link.)

Here are some other mentions of poetry amongst my blogger buddies.

Nat from Richard Armitage Fan Blog has a couple great limericks.

And Sue from Me + Richard Armitage had a haiku contest!