I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SESAME STREET-Tiny Desk Concert #856 (June 10, 2019).

Yes, Sesame Street.  Not the OTHER puppet band Fragile Rock, the actual Sesame Street characters.

It’s a convergence of NPR and PBS!

And there they are at the Tiny Desk: Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Rosita, Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster, all singing about a sunny day and how everything is A-OK. The Sesame Street crew — including Elmo, Grover and other surprise guests — visited NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Sesame Street’s 50 years of teaching the world its A-B-Cs, its 1-2-3s, how to be kind and how to be proud, all while spreading love and joy.

Everyone knows Sesame Street, but it’s also worth talking about how awesome it is.

Sesame Street has won more major awards than any other group to play the Tiny Desk, including 11 Grammys and 192 Emmys. There was a lot of love as the cast of Sesame Street got to meet NPR hosts and newscasters, who in turn got to geek out meeting their favorite Muppets and the creators behind the felt and fur. These folks include Matt Vogel, Sesame Street’s puppet captain and performer, and music director Bill Sherman.

The Muppets get through six songs in 15 minutes (no soloing here).

Count von Count and the NPR kids count us down: 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1!

Andwhat Sesame Street show could begin without “The Sesame Street Theme (Sunny Days)” (Rosita & Elmo, Ernie & Bert, Abby Cadabby, and Big Bird and Cookie Monster).

Then it’s on to Grover singing “People In Your Neighborhood” with Rosita.  Grover oberves a person making sounds with a soundy-making thingy.  Rosita is there to help learn about musicians.  Then a Reporter comes out to talk about what she does.  Finally Bob Boilen himself comes out (Grover: “who might you be sir, you do not appear to be doing anything.”  Bob: “I’m the producer, Grover.”  Grover: “Oh well that explains it”).

I even got to sing with Grover. And I’ll also say, on a personal note, that this may well have been the hardest-working, most dedicated group of performers I’ve ever worked with. I’m so proud of these Muppets and so happy to celebrate all that they’ve meant to the world for these 50 years.

Then they sang two new songs (imagine them having new sings in the last fifty years).

“What I Am” sung by Abby, Ernie and Elmo, a sweet song if ever there was one.

There’s even some full-sized Muppets in the audience (although the kids don’t seem that excited to be near them).

And then it’s Bert’s turn.  But Bert’s kinda shy and is nervous.  Thankfully Big Bird is there to sing a song together (and then confuse the proceedings): I

Its simple.  We’re gonna sing a song and we’re gonna sing it all together and i’ll start singing the song and then they’ll sing then song when I sing what I sing in the song and the you come in singing the song after i sing what i gonna sing when the song starts and we’ll sing the song.

There’s even more fun when Big Bird sings a long high note and Bert says: really?

Cookie monster wants a cookie, but it’s time for the medley” “Whats the name of that song?” (Elmo) then “Rubber Ducky (Ernie) and “C is fr Cookie” (Cookie Monster).  Then Big Bird sing a line before a funky piano and bass riff for “12345, 678910, 11 12… TWELVE!” (my personal favorite).

It segues into perennial happy song “Sing.”

Then Oscar comes on and tells everyone to scram.

[READ: June 4, 2019] “The Children”

This story reads like a fairy tale.  It has a slow inevitability in the pacing and real lack of urgency.

It is called an adventure of lost heirs.  It runs concurrently with a series of beheadings that were happening on Anjavavy island.  The story is quick to point out that the beheadings do not impact the story, they are just mentioned for context.

It begins in the early 2000’s on the island.  Giustinia was visiting Shay in Anjavavy for two weeks before heading off to Madagascar.  They are staying at Shay’s house which is mostly empty.  Shay lives on the island for part of the year and in Italy for the rest of the year.  Shay’s husband will be returning soon.

Giustinia is a poet and a critic  She and Shay became friends when Shay translated some of her essays for an American magazine.   Her family has ancient roots in Tuscany and has an unconscious regal air.

Shay hopes news of the beheadings doesn’t reach them during the fortnight.

A week into the visit, they see Harena at a cafe.  Giustinia finds her stunning and wants to know more about her. Harena is somewhat legendary on Anjavaay.  She is a half-Italian beauty, eighteen years old.  Her father, Leandro, was from a noble Roman family until he became a heroin addict and was sent to Madagascar in his early twenties. He lived on rum and drugs and Harena was born.  When she was three or four, Leandro’s father died so he returned to Rome without her to reclaim his estate.

As Shay is telling the story Giustinia interrupts to say she knows Leandro.  She says she has met him several times at weddings.  He is a good looking recluse.

The next day the three women are sitting together.  In Italian, Giustinia says that she knows Harena’s father and Harena begins to tremble. Shay thinks this is the wrong way to go about this, but it its too late.

Harena tells them something that is not widely known–when she was sixteen, her first lover took her to Italy and she went to her father’s villa.  But he gatekeeper turned her away.  Giustinia thinks this very unlikely but says nothing.

Shay doesn’t know if she believes this story about the trip to Italy, but Giustinia assured Shay that she does look like Leandro.

Giustinia writes to her husband’s cousin with the story of meeting Harena.  But she is relieved somewhat when over the next few days there is no reply.

Over the next few days, though, they seem to be the cause of some celebrity in town–with whispers following them wherever they go.

But Giustinia’s visit ends and there is no word on any of the proceedings.  She leaves Harena some money and a new dress as compensation for finding nothing more.

The next day Shay gets a visit from a young man named Didier.  The man is from Italy and wants to see “the mother of his father who is the Italian Leandro.”  The boy is sixteen and was born on Anjavavy to a woman whom Laendro loved.  The translated story he tells is that he heard that Leandro was in this very house and he has traveled for four days and nights to get there and see him.

Realizing that he thinks Giustinia was his mother, Shay grows angry and tells Didier in no uncertain terms that no one he is looking for is here.  But Didier does not seem upset.  He is not looking for money–he has a job as an apprentice mechanic.  He only asks for money home so his journey back is easier.

Months pass and Shay is to return to Italy.  She has not seen Harena or any other of Leandro’s potential children.

In Italy, Shay and Giustinia connect and Giustinia tells Shay that Leandro is dead, has been for a year.  There is no doubt that Harena and Didier are his children, but the family has nothing left to give them–they are also destitute.  They have titles, but they are meaningless and valueless.

I liked the hopelessness of this paragraph

They sketch a plan to raise the situation with the Italian and Malagasy Consuls, and they both send letters to which no answers come.  And so bureaucracy performs it’s traditional task of transmogrifying action into inaction.

At Christmas time, Shay and her husband return to Madagascar.  Shay is pregnant.  She hears that Harena has married a half-Chinese musician.  Harena is always dressed up but is doing hard drugs and speaks as if Leandro is coming to get her–even though she was informed of his death.

I liked the way the story ended.

In the next few years, the island builds up as more tourists come.  Shay’s second child is born and she imagines the legends that her children will hear when they come to the island.  Stories of ghosts and sorcerers, the legend of the man who beheaded people, perhaps even the story of a man who was sent away by his Roman family to live among the islands.