Ramblin' with Roger

Prompts and more prompts

jazz

The Sunday Stealing for this week are Prompts and more prompts.

1) How do you show others love? What makes you feel loved?

I thought about this for a long time. I think it’s trying to suss out or observe what makes somebody feel loved. It’s not the same thing from person to person. Some people appreciate you cleaning, making food, remembering birthdays, listening to them, sharing music: I don’t think there’s a universal thing.

I feel loved when I feel heard, when I tell somebody something, and they acknowledge it, or when I write something and they understand what I’m trying to say. The closest appropriate song here is “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by The Animals.

2) Who is someone you admire? Why?

My mother’s mother’s mother’s father, James Archer, is one of three great-great-grandfathers of mine who fought in the US Civil War and survived. He then worked to buy a home that was where four generations lived. I even renamed the Gulf of Mexico after him!

3) Do you have the qualities you value in a friend?

For the most part. I listen well. Yes, I know how to keep secrets; I keep a LOT of secrets. I know a few things to offer advice, but I don’t assume my advice is always accurate or even requested. Sometimes, it’s just showing up. Being a friend is like jazz.

Missing Rball

4) What is something you enjoyed doing when you were younger but don’t do anymore? Why did you stop doing it?

At the beginning of 1983, I played racquetball regularly, first with one or two people and then with a coterie of about a half dozen people. We played at the Albany YMCA in Washington Ave. until it closed in 2010, much to our great disappointment. I tried playing a few times at Siena College, but it never clicked. So racquetball, which I got to be surprisingly good at, has gone off the table for the last decade

5) What is something other people think is fun but you don’t?

Arguing online, watching reality television, and shopping, for instance.

New mashup version of Sour Milk Sea

Eric Clapton and Nicky Hopkins

My first Ask Roger Anything came from a dear friend, ADD:

Hey Roger, I wonder if you’ve heard the new mashup version of Sour Milk Sea that takes a George Harrison demo and makes it a new Beatles song featuring all of the Fab Four plus Eric Clapton? I just discovered it yesterday, and it’s pretty marvelous to my ears, like a lost track from The White Album. Here’s a link to it on YouTube.

There’s no AI involved, and if you watch as you listen, they explain how it was assembled. Love to read your thoughts on the actual end result, as well as more generally on projects like this. I actually added this track to my Beatles playlist because I think it deserves a slot among their very best songs, even though it’s not an official release.

Hope all is well with you and yours, Roger.

Alan

Thanks, Alan. Before answering, I should provide some notes for those who aren’t as Beatles-saturated as I.

From the Beatles Bible:

“‘Sour Milk Sea’ was one of the demo songs recorded in May 1968. Although it was an early contender for the White Album, it was eventually given to Apple recording artist Jackie Lomax,” a fellow Liverpudlian.

Song history

George noted: “I wrote ‘Sour Milk Sea’ in Rishikesh, India.. Anyway, it’s based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art. ‘What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere’. It’s a picture, and the picture is called ‘Sour Milk Sea’ – Kalladadi Samudra in Sanskrit. I used Sour Milk Sea as the idea of – if you’re in the s**t, don’t go around moaning about it: do something about it.”

Sour Milk Sea (Esher Demo). Not incidentally, here’s a list of songs from Esher, most of which ended up on the white album.

“The Beatles never attempted a studio version of ‘Sour Milk Sea’. It was taped by Lomax at Abbey Road on 24, 25, and 26 June 1968; Harrison produced the song, with Paul McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar, and Nicky Hopkins on piano…

“Lomax was the first artist to sign to The Beatles’ Apple label. ‘Sour Milk Sea’ was released as a single in August 1968, with the catalogue number Apple 3.” It only went to US Pop #117, and failed to chart in the UK. Jackie Lomax included it on his album Is This What You Want?, which only reached #145 on the Billboard charts.

Apple singles

“It was part of Apple’s “Our first four” set of singles, which also included” The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude,’ Mary Hopkin’s ‘Those Were The Days’ [#2 for three weeks AC, #1 for six weeks AC] and the Black Dyke Mills Band’s ‘Thingumybob.’“

Something called Outfake created a previous “Beatles” version of Sour Milk Sea from “the Beatles’ demo (recorded in Esher, May 1968) and Jackie Lomax’s basic track recording (which features Paul, Ringo, George, Eric Clapton, and Nicky Hopkins, recorded at Trident Studios in July 1968).”

But, Alan, the very recent version you provided is my favorite. The vocals lifted from Helter Skelter was a great touch. The video asks who plays the organ; I don’t know, but it’s likely Nicky Hopkins or Paul.

As all the comments noted, it should have been a serious contender for the white album, but George already had his allotment of four songs. Most people had opinions about what should have been excised in favor of Sour Milk Sea. Unsurprisingly, Revolution 9 and Wild Honey Pie are popular choices.

As to your general question about my feelings about projects like this, I’m ambivalent. I remember the conversation about the release of The Beatles’ Now and Then. It seems that a lot of folks didn’t understand that the use of AI was merely to unearth the buried John Lennon vocal that 1995 technology couldn’t access when Paul, George, and Ringo took the tape Yoko gave them. There won’t be more Beatles songs, so it’s nice that it won the Best Rock Performance Grammy.

But I like some mashups of what could have been, whereas others with dead people—Natalie Cole singing Unforgettable with her late dad, Nat—seemed a bit maudlin. Hologram duets weird me out.

The best Good Samaritan sermon

I’ve listened to a LOT of sermons on the topic.

My church is participating in a Lenten series, “Everything In Between,” which “invites us to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed… Each weekly sub-theme explores two supposed binaries, like ‘faith & works’ or ‘rest & growth,’ or ‘grief & hope.’ We often consider these ideas to be opposing. However, as we explore these concepts within the scriptures, we find nuance and complexity… these dichotomies are false. We might begin to see a full spectrum instead of black and white. We might find that God is present in between.”

The first sermon on finding God was about ‘stranger’ and ‘neighbor.’ The text was the hyper-familiar Good Samaritan parable.

First, the pastor painted the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. Here’s a useful comparable narrative I found. “Imagine the hatred between Serbs and Muslims in modern Bosnia, the enmity between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, or the feuding between street gangs in Los Angeles or New York, and you have some idea of the feeling and its causes between Jews and Samaritans in the time of Jesus. Both politics and religion were involved.”

The hymn afterward, I Saw a Stranger, Words: Anna Strickland (2024), to the tune KINGSFOLD (I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say or Oh Sing A Song Of Bethlehem) amplified the sermon:

NEIGHBOR:
“I saw a stranger on the road in need of help and care
No clues to their identity, just human flesh laid bare
A thought had fluttered through my mind: ‘Is this one of my own?’
My tribal mind made me forget that they’re bone of my bone

What if you’re in the neighborhood and see someone who is an “other” in need? Do you aid them or fear that those in your tribe will chastise you?

From the other side

STRANGER:
“I laid there desperate by the road in need of help and care
As one by one they passed me by, too busy or too scared
Then one approached and my first thought was ‘Do they mean me harm?’
To my surprise, they met my eyes and held me in their arms”

If you are the injured party, you may wonder: Is that “other” person really going to help me?

BOTH parties are afraid. In Luke’s story, the injured person and the Samaritan are actually terrified. See how much they are alike! It was the best Good Samaritan sermon I ever heard, and I’ve listened to a LOT of sermons on the topic.

So when so-called evangelicals call Jesus “Liberal” and “Weak,” I disagree wholly. Jesus is radical.

The Weekly Sift explains:

“Maybe you were horrified by Musk’s statement [in a Joe Rogan interview] about empathy.

The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.

(I’ve seen this in other administration officials, who bloviate, “You’ll just have to get used to it.” These are mean, schmucky people.)

Let’s keep that empathy in check!

“Well, you should know that seeing empathy as an exploitable weakness isn’t just a psychological quirk Musk has because he’s on the spectrum. It’s become a thing on the Right. A conservative Christian author has a book out called Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.

We are told that empathy is the highest virtue—the key to being a good person. Is that true? Or has “empathy,” like so many other words of our day—“tolerance,” “justice,” “acceptance”—been hijacked by bad actors who exploit compassion for their own political ends?

So, compassion is a…sin? Weekly Sift hears them saying, “Yep. If you find yourself feeling sorry for bombed-out communities in Gaza, hungry children in Africa, or working-class families losing their health insurance in the US, it’s a trap. Jesus wouldn’t want you to fall for it. ‘Love your neighbor’ now means something else entirely.”

But no, it does not. Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 10 record Jesus’s two greatest commandments: “Love God and love other people.” A theology that preaches that empathy is in short supply is simply an abomination.

Ask Me Anything because it’s too much

Maybe

It’s all too much. That Beatles song, written by George Harrison, appeared on Yellow Submarine. But the lyrics are far more optimistic than I’m feeling.

“It’s all too much for me to take
The love that’s shining all around you
Everywhere, it’s what you make
For us to take, it’s all too much”

The changes in the government in the last two months are too much to keep track of. I might hve an inclination to write about A or B, but when there’s A to XXX to talk about, how do I focus on one thing?

This is where you come in. Asking you to ask me anything will narrow the parameters, especially if it’s about politics, government, or racism. (Note to JAF: You can specifically ask about the latter.)

I want you to narrow it down to a specific thing you might want to know. I have a couple of theories that I might want to try out, but I need your help deciding which direction to take.

Alternately…

Or I could talk about my cat, a music topic, or something I don’t know about. Specifically, I’m looking for quizzes I could do on Sundays in case Sunday Stealing goes by the wayside. I could raid some older ones, but developing a community is more interesting.

As I’ve noted, writing a daily blog post narrows my focus without feedback. Your role in this is quite important and, not incidentally, more fun for me.

I will endeavor to respond when you ask something in the next few weeks. My response will be as honest as possible. (Do I lie to myself? Maybe.)

You can leave your questions in this blog’s comments section, on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green), or on my BlueSky page (roger green.bsky.social); always look for the duck. But don’t leave it on my Twitter page, which I deleted. Or I believe I did; the owner is… problematic.

Once On This Island; Life of Pi

Agwé, god of water

My wife and I saw two theatrical productions, Once on This Island and Life of Pi, in February 2025.

I saw the movie Life of Pi when it was released a dozen years ago. The play format, which I saw at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, was much more convincing than the film version with Pi telling the reporter.

As the Times Union review notes, “From within the high, drab walls of an infirmary in Mexico, the teenaged Pi recounts how he survived a shipwreck for 227 days aboard a lifeboat with nothing but a net, an oar, a small rations box, and a hyena, orangutan, zebra and a massive Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.”

The set transforms into the zoo the Patels owned in 1970s Pondicherry, India. Pi commits to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, much to the consternation of his family.

Because of political unrest, known as The Emergency, the Patels and their animals are aboard a Japanese cargo ship heading to Canada. But the shipwreck leaves Pi with a menagerie of animals, some of which off each other. A hyena threatens Pi, but Richard Parker kills the hyena, leaving the teen and the large feline.

The animals are rendered as extraordinary puppets designed by Finn Caldwell and Nick Parker. The puppeteers are very good, though when there are more than a couple of animals in the scene, it gets a little crowded, and the magic of the puppetry somewhat diminishes.

Still, the play worked better than the film, I think, as it better addressed the issues of faith and sanity. It’s worth seeing if it comes to your area before August 2025.

Caribbean

In February 2020, my family attended a production of Once on This Island at Proctor’s Theatre, which I wrote about here. Then, in early March, my church performed a “junior version.”

This time, the production took place on the main stage at Capital Rep in Albany. But it was not a Cap Rep production. Instead, it was produced by the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York (BTTUNY). We had previously seen Berta, Berta on Cap Rep’s stage upstairs.

Maybe it was the more intimate surroundings or the sophistication of the audience. This audience seemed more honed in on the sexual nuance of the dialogue and was more vocal about expressing it. The guy behind me called the character Daniel “you dog!”, which was true. A lot of “oooh!” took place.

Here’s part of a Metroland review, which I agreed with: “The Gods taking up four platforms Upstage… the masterful Jahmere Holland as Agwé, god of water, wearing… flowing, rippling scraps of blue. Quanair “Qiana” Rice is the earth mother promising ‘Mama Will Provide’ in a roof-raising performance to close the first act. Regina Robinson is the regal god of love, Erzulie, holding her position and headdress perfectly pointed to Heaven, triumphant. Vanessa Clay as Papa Ge, the demon of Death, was… simply magnificent; fearsome, powerful and mischievously loving her complete dominion over all.” The leads were also strong.

The last BTTUNY production of the season will be Eclipsed by Danai Gurira from May 29 to June 8 in TheRep’s Iselin Studio.