Welcome to the month of April. As they used to say in merry England back in the 14th century…… When that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghe of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich liccur Of which vertu has engendered is the flour……. Happy April. Happy Spring. And since April is the fourth month of the calendar year, … Continue reading Fourth Quaternary April Magazine: Four More
More on the four and don’t ask “What four?” Let’s talk about the symmetry of the four. We see it, we use it all the time. Check out these 4-based tesselations from the Alhambra palace in Grenada. An aside about tesselations: A tesselation is a repeating geometric pattern. Somehow they appeal to our sense of beauty. Indeed they are beautiful. A hundred years ago the … Continue reading More on the Four
It was maybe two years ago that my wife, who was reading Jean-Paul Sartre’s autobiography of all things, asked me quite innocently if I had ever heard of Sophie Tucker?” It seems old Jean-Paul as a child had enjoyed some rare, stolen moments of happiness when he would listen to a 78 rpm gramophone recording of the American singer Sophie Tucker singing After You’ve Gone. … Continue reading After You’ve Gone
Fighting a Losing Battle But Having a Lot of Fun Trying to Win is one of my favorite songs. Written by the great bluesman Brownie Mc Gee back in the 60’s, Fighting a Losing Battle But Having a Lot of Fun Trying to Win (what a title!) is a blues classic. Me and Maybank love to play it. It has a great chord progression. Continue reading Fighting a Losing Battle But Having a Lot of Fun Trying to Win
03/03/23 Happy March! Happy Third Month of the Gregorian Calendar! And guess what? Bumba is again going to talk about the three. Oh, no! Not again. this must be the third time already that….. That’s right! Three’s the charm Hurray for the Three! The Triad! The Equilateral Triangle! The Holy Trinity! The Three Graces……. Two (the number two, and the concept of duality) splits unity … Continue reading Third Tri-Centennial March Magazine
What about this weather? Is this crazy weather or what? Out here in California we’re getting severe storms of rain and snow. Extremes in weather – which is just what climatologists were predicting forty or fifty years ago – is at our doorstep. So stay safe and sit back and hear a few more country songs. Maybank and I were playing last night. We hadn’t … Continue reading More country music, a weather report, and bank robbers
Hey, it’s February already. February is a short month, a consequence of fitting 12 months into 365 days. Somebody, one of the months, had to draw the short stick. BTW, just 28 days this year, no leaping. Naturally, with February being the second month, Bumbastories feels deeply obliged to return to a consideration of the numeral 2. A second look? Our March Through the Numbers … Continue reading February Magazine
Auld Lang Syne is one of the most widely known songs in the world. It’s the song we sing to ring in the New Year (Be careful: this is a sing along!). It’s an old Scottish song, written down by the poet Robert Burns in 1788 or so. And it’s always been a favorite. Whenever I hear the song I think of that marvelously sentimental … Continue reading Auld Lang Syne
The Bumbastories St. James Infirmary Compendium has long sat idle with no contributions from yours truly for nearly a year. But Maybank and I played it the other night. The word compendium implies a collection of great weight. Well, St. James Infirmary sure is heavy enough. It’s downright ponderous. It’s one of the saddest songs I know. It’s been around nearly two hundred years, and, … Continue reading St. James Infirmary
Blue eyes crying in the rain is a magnificent country song. Willie Nelson does it so well. Initially, I thought he had written it. But no, it was written in the 1940’s. Anyhow, it’s only three chords and it’s a fun song to sing. Another great country song, a “traditional” one of older vintage. Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms Of even older vintage is … Continue reading Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain and other country songs
Every Day Another Story 