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Bernice Bobs Her Hair: the Song

The Irish pop group Divine Comedy recorded a song based on “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.” Here’s a snippet from the song. Give it a listen.

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Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Shelly Duvall talks with Dennis Christopher during the filming of Bernice Bobs Her Hair in Nov. 6, 1975.

The following is from the Vintage book The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The idea for “Bernice bobs Her Hair” originated in a ten-page letter (circa 1916) that Fitzgerald wrote to his sister Annabel when he was nineteen and she fourteen. He instructed her in great detail in the areas of “Conversation,” “Poise,” and “Dress and Personality” as to how she could become a social success. The story that gew out of this letter was written in January 1920, and it was originally a ten-thousand-word story called “Barbara Bobs Her Hair.” After four magazines rejected it, Fitzgerald shortened it to seven thousand words, altered its climax (making it in his words “snappy), and Ober sold it for $500 to The Saturday Evening Post with its new title, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.” Written in the same month as “The Camel’s Back,” the story was published in the May 1, 1920, issue and was Fitzgerald’s fourth contribution to the magazine. Bernice fits in to the category of what Fitzgerald called the “wonderful kid,” a young woman of about sixteen who is on her way toward free-spiritedness and liberation, the variety of flapper that Bernice has become by the time of the story’s unexpected turn. With her last gesture in the story Bernice signals her independence from the social hypocrisy of her cousin’s world, though ironically it is the precise world into which Fitzgerald had earlier given his sister the rules of entry. Fitzgerald included “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” in Flappers and Philosophers.

When the teacher’s away, kids will play

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Yes, when the teacher is away, the kids will play. Witness the above video. I was out last month attending a funeral, so my journalism students took the time to have a little fun at the sub’s expense. This and several other videos were posted on YouTube. Now that I think about it, I really don’t know whom the joke is on: the absent teacher, the sub, or the kids themselves.

New song from Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

A couple of months have passed since the “Once” duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won Oscars for their song “Falling Slowly” from John Carney’s independent hit of last summer. Now they have a brand-new track for another movie, which again is a bittersweet boy-meets-girl foreign movie.

The song is called “One More Word” and it’s from the independent Israeli movie “Strangers“, which was well received at Sundance in January. From what I’ve read the film goes for the docu-style urbanity of Once, but with an original twist: an Israeli Romeo meets a Palestinian Juliet. My understanding is that the duo recorded the song in Prague two weeks before the Academy Awards.

Hear it here:

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Herbert von Karajan Centenary

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Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor, one of the most renowned 20th century conductors. Karajan began his conducting career in 1927. After World War II his reputation spread through Europe to the United States. He toured with various orchestras (notably the Berlin Philharmonic) and participated in many of Europe’s music festivals. He was musical director of the Berlin Philharmonic and was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera (1956–64). He was a remarkable conductor, but his dictatorial style made him controversial.His obituary in the New York Times described him as “probably the world’s best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music.” Karajan is the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, estimated at 200 million records sold. He is perhaps best known for his 1962 Berlin Philharmonic recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies, and for his expertise in conducting the music of Brahms, Bruckner, Richard Strauss and Sibelius.

Muddy Waters’ Birthday

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters was born on this day in 1915. He was an African-American blues singer and guitarist from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. His real name was McKinley Morganfield. As a teenager he began singing and playing traditional country blues on harmonica and guitar, and in 1941 he was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Two years later he settled in Chicago, where he switched from Delta blues to a more sophisticated urban rhythm and blues, using an electric guitar backed by other amplified instruments. He soon became known for his driving slide guitar technique and darkly expressive vocal style. From the 1950s on Waters recorded, toured, and played various music festivals. His electric blues influenced such American musicians as Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan and such British rockers as the Rolling Stones, who took their name from a Waters song, and Eric Clapton, who recorded with him.

Hear a great Muddy Waters song, “Got My Mojo Working”:

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Jesse James Murdered

Jesse James 1847-1882

Jesse James, 1847–82, an American outlaw, was murdered on this day in 1882 by the coward Robert Ford. James was born in Clay County, Missouri. At the age of 15 he joined the Confederate guerrilla band led by William Quantrill and participated in the brutal and bloody civil warfare in Kansas and Missouri. In 1866, Jesse and his brother Frank became the leaders of a band of outlaws whose trail of robberies and murders led through most of the central states. At first they robbed only banks, but in 1873 they began to rob trains. The beginning of their downfall came in 1876 when, after killing two people and failing to secure any money in an attempted bank robbery at Northfield, Minn., they lost several members of the gang, including the Younger brothers, three of their most trusted followers, who were captured and imprisoned. The James brothers escaped and were quiet until 1879, when they robbed another train. The reward offered by Gov. Thomas T. Crittenden of Missouri for the capture of the James brothers, dead or alive, tempted one of the gang, Robert Ford, who caught Jesse (then living under the name of Thomas Howard) off guard and killed him. Frank James surrendered but was twice acquitted and lived out his life peacefully on his farm near Excelsior Springs, Mo. The melodramatic style of the exploits of the James gang attracted wide public admiration, giving rise to a number of romanticized legends, the famous song “The Ballad of Jesse James,” and much popular literature.

Hans Christian Andersen Birthday

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish poet, novelist, and writer of fairy tales. Reared in poverty, he left Odense at 14 for Copenhagen. He failed as an actor, but his poetry won him generous patrons including King Frederick VI. In 1829 his fantasy A Journey on Foot from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern Point of Amager was published, followed by a volume of poetry in 1830. Granted a traveling pension by the king, Andersen wrote sketches of the European countries he visited. His first novel, Improvisatoren (1835), was well received by the critics. His sentimental novels were for a time considered his forte. However, with his first book of fairy tales, Eventyr (1835), he found the medium of expression that was to immortalize his genius. He produced about one volume a year and was recognized as Denmark’s greatest author and as a storyteller without peer. His tales are often tragic or gruesome in plot. His sense of fantasy, power of description, and acute sensitivity contributed to his mastery of the genre. Among his many widely beloved stories are “The Fir-Tree,” “The Little Match Girl,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “The Red Shoes.”

Visit the Encyclopedia Britannica page about Hans Christian Andersen to read the full-length article.

Journal Prompt: write about your favorite fairy tale from your childhood.