Welcome to Letters from Quotidia, 2024 Episode 10, the first of the September editions. Quotidia, is that space, that place, where ordinary people lead ordinary lives. But where, from time to time, they encounter the extraordinary. The next blue moon- (here I’m using the definition of two full moons appearing in the same calendar month) will not occur until December 31st, 2028. Instead, here in September 2024, we’ll have to make do with two Letters from Quoitidia, separated by four weeks, appearing within the same calendar month.

You don’t need to be Colombo or Sherlock to predict that the theme of love may well occur associated with moon-based songs. So, now to my first song: the theme of love is here likened to a humble stage- set with a paper moon, cardboard sea, canvas sky, muslin tree where the music of a penny arcade echoes through a phony Barnum and Bailey world. Briget Payne on the site oldtimemusic.com has this to say about the song Paper Moon– It has become an iconic jazz standard, popularised by the legendary American singer Ella Fitzgerald. Released in 1945, it was originally composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose. This beloved song has resonated with audiences for decades.

Indeed! I think too of Prospero’s speech in Act IV scene 1 of The Tempest: Our revels now are ended./ These our actors,/As I foretold you, were all spirits and/Are melted into air, into thin air./And like the baseless fabric of this vision,/The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,/The solemn temples, the great globe itself,/Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve,/And like this insubstantial pageant faded,/Leave not a rack behind./ We are such stuff/As dreams are made on,// The creative human mind is phenomenal; the human brain, too.

Will Sullivan in the Smithsonian Magazine wrote Researchers have made a digital map showing a tiny chunk of a human brain…based on a brain tissue sample…the map represents a cubic millimetre…an area about half the size of a grain of rice. But even that tiny segment is overflowing with 1.4 million gigabytes of information- containing about 57,000 cells, 230 millimetres of blood vessels and 150 million synapses, the connections between neurons. So then, what would mapping just one human brain cost? Someone calculated that to be $50 billion, the computing hardware covering 140 acres.

All that for something eight billion people carry around on top of their shoulders! And yet, there is a present scientific conceit gaining ground that we are living in a vast simulation. Our seemingly authentic lives governed by our own free will- just a façade as flimsy as the setting of the song. Seems to me that such an alien technology just might as well be called God and be done with it! But I’ll leave such arguments to bulgier brains than the one I possess and just give my version of the song. [insert song]

How are you off for friends? Are any of them of the bought or fair-weather variety? And how confident are you that any one of them, following the prescription found in John 15:13, would lay down his or her life for you? If you answer “lots” then I imagine that you have a pretty good collection of hens’ teeth, too! There are hundreds and thousands of inspirational and uplifting poems and aphorisms about friendship. But I’m not going to quote any of those here. I’m sure, like me, you have plenty of fridge magnets and wall hangings to supply such sentiments.

Instead, I turn to Robert Frost whose clear-eyed and sardonic view of life and death I have referenced in previous letters. In his poem Provide Provide, he advocates even bought friendships at the end rather than being left with none. The witch that came (the withered hag)/To wash the steps with pail and rag,/Was once the beauty Abishag,//The picture pride of Hollywood./Too many fall from great and good/For you to doubt the likelihood.//Die early and avoid the fate./Or if predestined to die late,/Make up your mind to die in state.//Make the whole stock exchange your own!/If need be occupy a throne,/Where nobody can call you crone.//Some have relied on what they knew;/Others on simply being true./What worked for them might work for you.//No memory of having starred/Atones for later disregard,/Or keeps the end from being hard.//Better to go down dignified/With boughten friendship at your side/Than none at all. Provide, provide!//

In 1923, as the roaring twenties were in full swing and fortunes were being made by bootleggers during the Prohibition era, pianist Jimmy Cox wrote what was to become the blues standard, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out. And in September 1929, just before the Wall Street Crash ushered in the Great Depression, Bessie Smith recorded this great song setting the standard for all subsequent covers. Query: Will he or won’t he? More rhetorical than interrogatory, that question- of course I will! Great songs exist for the modest talents among us as well as the icons. [insert song]

The next post will be standing in for the blue moon which won’t appear this month. You’ll hear a well-known song about this cool-colour lunar phenomenon as well as a seasonal song. Let’s conclude with this from Stephen King: But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. If that’s too astringent how about Voltaire, Wine is the divine juice of September?

It’s Only a Paper Moon  (Music, Harold Arlen; lyrics E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose)

Bb       Dm7    Cm7   F7

Say it’s only a paper moon

D#             Bb

Sailing over a cardboard sea

Bb                 D#

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

   Cm7 F7          Bb

If you believed in me

Bb        Dm7    Cm7    F7

Yes, it’s only a canvas sky

D#             Bb

Hanging over a muslin tree

Bb                 D#

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

   Cm7 F7          Bb

If you believed in me

    Cm7 C#m7 Dm7

Without your love

       D#    Dm7    Bb

It’s a honky-tonk parade

   Cm7  C#m7 Dm7

Without your love

       D#                 D#m7

It’s a melody played in a penny arcade

Bb     Dm7        Cm7    F7

It’s a barnum and bailey world

D#               Bb

Just as phony as it can be

Bb                 D#

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

   Cm7 F7         Bb

If you believed in me

Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out

[Verse]

C                E7        A           A7

Once I lived the life of a millionaire

Dm            A7            Dm

 Spent all my money, didn’t have any cares

F            F#dim7            C           A7

 Took all my friends out for a mighty good time

D7                        G7

 We bought bootleg liquor, champagne and wine

C         E7     A       A7

 Then I began to fall so low

Dm           A7               Dm

 Lost all my good friends, had nowhere to go

F         F#dim7     C       A7

 I Get my Hands on a Dollar Again

D7                             G7

 I’ll hang on to it, till that old eagle grins because …

[Chorus]

C  E7   A       A7

 Nobody knows you

Dm           A7       Dm

 When you’re down and out

F        F#dim7  C       A7

 In your pocket, not one penny

D7                       G7

 And as for friends, you don’t have any

C             E7           A          A7

 When you get back on your feet again

Dm         A7               Dm

 Everybody Wants to Be your Long Lost Friend

F            F#dim7      C       A7

 I said it’s strange without any doubt

D7                            G7

 Nobody knows you when you’re down and out

[Solo]

[Chorus]

     C  E7   A       A7

Lord, Nobody knows you

Dm           A7       Dm

 When you’re down and out

F        F#dim7  C       A7

 In your pocket, not one penny

D7                       G7

 And as for friends, you don’t have any

C             E7           A          A7

 When you get back on your feet again

Dm         A7               Dm

 Everybody wants to be your long lost friend

F            F#dim7      C       A7

 I said it’s strange without any doubt

[Coda]

D7

 Nobody knows you (nobody knows you)

F

 Nobody knows you (nobody knows you)

D7     G7      N.C.

Nobody knows you

                         B9 C9

When you’re down and out

Credits: All written text, song lyrics and music (including background music) written and composed by Quentin Bega unless otherwise specified in the credits section after individual posts. Illustrative excerpts from other texts identified clearly within each podcast. I donate to and use Wikipedia frequently as one of the saner sources of information on the web.

Technical Stuff: Microphone-songs Shure SM58; (for the podcast spoken content) Audio Technica AT 2020 front-facing with pop filter); Apogee 76K also used for songs and spoken text. For recording and mixing down: 64-bit N-Track Studio 10 Extended used; Rubix 22 also used for mixing of microphone(s) and instruments. I use the Band in a Box/RealBand 2023 combo for music composition.