"... As I played my ukulele in my mood, I understood why the uke had been Murray's instrument of choice as much as why actor Jason Robards had been chosen to play Murray: a certain quality of sad-happiness. Of laughter mixed with weeping. With its smallness, its high-pitched plinkiness, its firefly sustain, its fleeting tunability, and its ability to be played in a frenzy, the ukulele balanced a narrow line between the comic and the tragic like no musical instrument I had encountered. When I electrified it, I heard the loudest small sound I had ever heard: the sound of impotent rage. ... Not so much impotent rage, perhaps, as absurdist rage. ..."
William Preston Robertson
Saturday, February 23, 2008
"The Sound of Impotent Rage"
Golly. I think I just learned something about myself...
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Handing on in quiet desperation is the English way
ReplyDeleteAhh, the proper English. A truism, they say. Being a principled (and arguably cantankerous) American libertarian, though, I have a distinctly different reaction to oppression and desperation, impotent or not. And I'm not often accused of being quiet about it...
ReplyDeleteWell I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin me around
But I'll stand my ground
And I won't... back... down
And it sounds good on uke, too... };->