How two tennis players prepare to serve

Preparing to serve, the one player collects three balls in his left hand or on his racket. After throwing one away, he sometimes gets another. Once he's chosen two, he looks closely at them before putting one in his pocket. Before the first serve, he bounches the ball with his racket and then few times with his left hand. — Preparing to serve, the other player collects four balls in his left hand or on his racket. He throws one away quickly, then looks closely at the remaining three before tossing one away and pocketing a second. Before the first serve, he bounces the ball a few times with his left hand. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 July 2025) 

“Double bagels” in Grand Slam women’s singles finals, and Iga Świątek’s three “bagels” in a row

The 6-0, 6-0 victory by Iga Świątek (Poland) over Amanda Anisimova (USA) in today's Wimbledon Ladies' Singles' final was the third Grand Slam Women's final with two straight sets at love (a "double bagel"). The first was at Wimbledon in 1911 when Dorothea Lambert Chambers (UK) beat Dora Boothby (UK), although the defending champion Lambert Chambers only had to play the final "challenge round" back then. The second case was in 1988 at the French Open when Steffi Graf (Germany) beat Natalia Zvereva (a Belarussian player then playing for the Soviet Union). With Świątek's 6-2, 6-0 semifinal win over Belinda Bencic (Switzerland), Świątek now has won three "bagels" in a row. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 12 July 2025)

Greg Osby with the Warren Haynes Band at Z7 in Pratteln, 10 July 2025

At the end of the second set at Z7 in Pratteln last night, the Warren Haynes Band locked into the groove of "Pretzel Logic", the title cut of Steely Dan's 1974 album, and extended it with solos by the whole band: drummer Terrence Higgins, bassist Kevin Scott, alto saxophonist Greg Osby, keyboardist Matt Slocum, and bandleader Warren Hanyes on electric guitar. Osby's solo was especially riveting, with Higgins and Scott playing around the groove and Osby pushing into free-jazz territory. After Donald Harrison the night before at the Bird's Eye in Basel with The Cookers, that made two nights in a row for me of great alto players born in 1960. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 11 July 2025)

The Cookers at the Bird’s Eye in Basel, featuring Donald Harrison’s great solos and bassist Cecil McBee at 90 years old

Last night at the Bird's Eye in Basel, The Cookers performed an energetic set of late hard-bop. The second set offered more dynamic range than the almost overly intense first, but in both sets, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison played superb solos with clear and distinct parts that had the audience applauding at the end of each of them. For me personally, the evening brought a new milestone: bassist Cecil McBee was born in May 1935, so he is 90 years old. That makes him the oldest musician I've ever seen live, passing pianist Joe Haider, who was 87 years old when I saw him at the Bird's Eye in August 2023. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 10 July 2025)

Anki flashcards and the proliferation of AI images

With the Anki program for electronic flashcards, language learners use images to learn words. In November 2020, I started using it for Spanish, and I still make new vocabulary flashcards now. For each new card, I put the word into an online image search (usually DuckDuckGo) and skim through the results until I find an image that might be helpful in learning the word. At first, I often found good stock photos or paintings to put on the cards, and those remain good sources. But increasingly, the image-search results are littered with AI images. They could also be useful for language-learning, but I definitely prefer photos, drawings, or paintings by humans. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 8 July 2025)

Snoopy has insomnia and reads Virginia Woolf

While the rain cools July down, Snoopy lies awake in his doghouse and reads Virginia Woolf. Jacob wanders Greece with melancholy reflections on civilization and the present day a hundred years ago. A car hisses by in the damp street, and water trickles in the gutters and eaves. Snoopy lies awake in the night, and Jacob stumbles through the day. Snoopy hasn’t slept properly since he came back from Plunderland, but he can’t stop reading about Don Q and thinking of his cruel laughter. Jacob looks at the sky above the Parthenon and doesn’t know what he should think about Home Rule. What are we going to do with his shoes? (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 7 July 2025)

Don Q laughs with the crowd about hating the Demon Cats

Don Q looked at the window painted on the wall and saw a crowd that would laugh at everything he said about the Demon Cats: "They hate Don Q. But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate Plunderland." As he listened happily to the crowd's laughter, he chuckled at the memory of the laughter of Omen and Ron Disease at the new concentration camp near the Southern Hush Money House in White Sea Lake and the laughter of Vanza and Bookalie at Hush Money House about Bookalie's concentration camp in the Land of the Savior. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 6 July 2025)

Don Q said it, and the crowd laughed

When Don Q said it to a crowd, they laughed. So when he stood in front of another crowd, he said it again, and the new crowd laughed, too. So whenever he stood in front of a new crowd, he said it again, and each new crowd laughed, too. And some of the members of the crowds repeated what he said to others, and some of them laughed, too. Gradually, the members of Don Q's crowds and some of those others had all learned to laugh at what Don Q said. So the other day at the new concentration camp, he said it to Omen and Ron Disease, and they laughed. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 5 July 2025)

Z said, “Don’t exaggerate."

In the year 15, A spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 16, B spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 17, C spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 18, D spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 19, E spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 20, F spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 21, G spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 22, H spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 23, I spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 24, J spoke, and Z said, "Don't exaggerate." In 25, K spoke, and Z said, "No one could ever have foreseen that things would get so extreme." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 4 July 2025)

The “Kafkaesque”: As much “a maelstrom of lies” as “bureaucratic absurdity"

In "Abrego Garcia is a fake gangster. Trump and Bukele are not" (Public Notice, 2 July 2025), Liz Dye addresses Kilmer Abrego Garcia's "dystopian journey through several prisons and at least two countries": "To call it Kafkaesque is to reduce it to a tale of bureaucratic absurdity, rather than a maelstrom of lies concocted to cover up a terrible policy." While Dye's overall point is correct, she herself "reduces" the Kafkaesque to a matter of bureaucracy. That may be one sense of the expression, but Franz Kafka's "The Trial" and "In the Penal Colony", just to name two works, are as much about "maelstroms of lies" as they are about bureaucracy. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 3 July 2025)

Medicaid and mortality rates

In a study on Medicaid and mortality rates, Angela Wyse of Dartmouth and Bruce D. Meyer of the University of Chicago conclude that their "findings suggest that lack of health insurance explains about five to twenty percent of the mortality disparity between high- and low-income Americans." It was heartbreaking to read about this study this morning, one day after the Republican Party majority in the United States Senate voted to slash Medicaid in the name of "work requirements" that are demonstrably ineffective. But of course that justification of the cuts under President Donald Trump is secondary to the desire to cut Medicaid that has been a Republican dream for decades. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 2 July 2025)

Taking a further step in reading Spanish with “Cien años de soledad”, by Gabriel García Márquez

Until last night, I looked up words from sentence to sentence while reading "Cien años de soledad", by Gabriel García Márquez. But while waiting at Logan Airport for my flight to Zurich, I decided to read whole paragraphs at once and only note the words I wanted to look up at the end of each paragraph. This turned out to work very well, and it reminded me of a similar stage in my process of learning to read German-language literature back in the late 1980s. After about ten pages, I finished a chapter, and I could have read more, but I was too heartbroken about the death of Colonel Aureliano Buendía. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 1 July 2025)

Hammered by humidity in Philadelphia and Chevy Chase, Maryland

When I got off the train from Providence, Rhode Island, in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, I was immediately hammered by the humidity. I lived in parts of the United States with summer humidity before I moved to Europe in 1991 (including Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania), humidity is not generally part of the summer heat in Berlin, Saarbrücken, or Basel (where I've lived for thirty years now). So I definitely did not feel used to it anymore. And yesterday, when I arrived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to spend the night, it was not only very humid, but there had been a thunderstorm that left over 100 houses without power for several hours. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 20 June 2025) 

An evening in downtown Philadelphia, with police

Gretchen and I took the T3 trolley line to Philadelphia City Hall. We were going to a bar, Time, where a friend of Gretchen's was performing. But when we got close to the bar, the police had closed the street at both ends. When we found a place to eat a half a block from Time, the waitress told us the police have blocked off the area every Wednesday evening recently. But later, when we were on our way to the subway, Gretchen ran into a friend who works as a security guard, who said the police had been overreacting to minor situations ever since the immigration crackdowns began in January. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 19 June 2025) 

My times in Philadelphia

I lived in Philadelphia for graduate school from August 1988 to June 1991. I came back again in May 1992 for a few days to talk to my advisors. I returned in March 1993 to pick up some stuff I had stored here and move it to Saarbrücken, where I was starting a job. And I returned again in March 1995 to do two very important things: first, I saw what turned out to be may last concert by The Grateful Dead (18 March at the Spectrum), and the following Monday I handed in my doctoral dissertation. Now, for the first time in thirty years, I'm here again for a day. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 18 June 2025)

Social media and meeting up with old friends (in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York City)

There are many problems with social media (it's superfluous for me to list examples). But as I've noted previously, the apps are great for congratulating people on their birthdays and offering condolences when they lose friends or family members. Beyond that, they also mean I have connections with people from every period of my life. And when I'm visiting somewhere, I can see folks I haven't seen in years or even decades, as I'll be doing in the coming week in Philadelphia (18-19 June), Washington DC (19-23 June), and New York City (23-24 June). In DC, I'll be performing with my 1980s band; in NYC, I'll be giving a poetry reading. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 17 June 2025)

“Paternity may be a legal fiction” in 1904 and 2025

Today is Bloomsday, June 16, the day in 1904 when James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" (1922) is set, so I was pleased to quote a favorite line to my sister Sara and my mother: "Paternity is a legal fiction" (although I misquoted it; it's "may be", not "is"). As a doctor, Sara immediately said it wasn't true. After all, nowadays biological paternity can be determined by DNA testing. In 1904, though, paternity was often defined by the legal status of the parents: the mother's husband was the father. Yet paternity can still be a legal issue now, when paternity tests are used to determine who is legally responsible for a child's upbringing. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 16 June 2025) 

No Kings demonstration with a quotation from James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” (1939)

Yesterday, my sister and I went to a rotary in downtown Westborough, Massachusetts, for the No Kings demonstration. For my sign, I chose a passage from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1939): "No, nor a king nor an ardking, bung king, sung king or hung king" (FW 25.28-29). As I discovered, the "ardrí" was once the High King of Ireland, and a "bung king" is a publican (like the owner of Mar-a-Lago, perhaps). I understand the "sung king" as a reference to "God Save the King", while a "hung king" perhaps needs no explanation. My favorite sign that I saw during the day also had a Joycean quality: "No fauxking way." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 15 June 2025) 

Snoopy writes things on Dogbook

Snoopy sat on his doghouse with his laptop and wrote about what interested and worried him. When he shared his writings to Dogbook, he got likes and other reactions, and some comments: approval, agreement, questions, and challenges. On one topic that Snoopy wrote about often, two dogs always said it wasn't even worth writing about it at all. When they first said that, Snoopy described why he found it interesting, but they just repeated themselves. When Snoopy pointed out how repetitive they were and that it was kind of tiring, they said he was too sensitive and unwilling to discuss things and accept other opinions. Luckily, Dogbook has a block feature. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 14 June 2025)

The Beatles single collection “1967-1970” as a birthday present from my father in the late 1970s

I recently listened again to the singles collection "1967-1970", by The Beatles, and I remembered my father giving me the album for my birthday one summer in the late 1970s. We had our stereo system in the living room on one side of the house, but we had a second set of speakers in the kitchen on the other side of the house. Dad sent me to the kitchen, put on side three of the album, and turned it up loud. "Back in the U.S.S.R." boomed through the kitchen, and he walked in to hand me my present: the double album with the iconic picture of the band on the cover. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 June 2025)

The rich history of the music of Tinariwen

A kora player in West Africa was captured by enslavers and transported to a North American plantation, where he met an ngoni player, a balafon player, and a griot. They sang to instruments made from scratch. Forbidden to sing anything else, their children sang Protestant hymns with their own varations. Then their grandchildren developed the banjo and took up guitars to pass their music on. With electric guitars, their grandchildren's grandchildren recorded their music. When Tuareg nomads in West Africa heard those recordings, they blended their traditional music with electric guitars to create desert blues. And last night, I again heard Tinariwen play their music so rich in sounds and history. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 11 June 2025)

The 2025 video of the 1977 Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer”, directed by Mike Mills and starring Saoirse Ronan

The Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" was released on 16 September 1977 on their debut album, "Talking Heads: 77". At the time, filmmaker Mike Mills was eight years old. The band's last album, "Naked", was released on 15 March 1988. Actress Saoirse Ronan was born in 1994. The band only had a video of "Psycho Killer" made this year, starring Ronan and directed by Mills. It consists of a series of shots of Ronan playing a woman going about her daily life: in the kitchen, in her bedroom, in the bathroom, leaving her house, at work. The brilliant Ronan's expressive face and body language track a woman having a gradual breakdown. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 10 June 2025)

The stars in Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” (2025)

Like so much of his work, Wes Anderson's new movie "The Phoenician Scheme" (2025) has a star-studded cast. But as always, while I was watching it at the Kult Kino in Basel this evening, Anderson's stylized sets and geometrical cinematography, and the excellent performances, captivated me so much that I hardly ever found myself identifying such actors as Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, or Scarlett Johansson. I did notice Willem Dafoe, but I always notice him in Anderson movies. Still, one actor's shaggy gray beard seemed like Anderson was heavy-handedly joking that he was trying but failing to disguise him, so all I could keep thinking was that it was Benedict Cumberbatch. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 9 June 2025)

Watching Sinner and Alcaraz without rooting for either player

While watching the French Open men's singles final today, I noticed that I can better enjoy the quality of the play when I am not rooting for one of the players. That's how I watched tennis through the 1990s, when I didn't have favorites but just liked watching good play and exciting matches. After I went to see the United States play against Switzerland in Basel in February 2001, I became a fan of Roger Federer. Now that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alvaraz are the new Big Two, I can get back to enjoying great finals without the letdown of a favorite losing or the sugar high of a favorite winning. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 8 June 2025)

Lip-reading the players at the French Open women’s singles final

During today's women's singles tennis final at the French Open, I became a lip reader. At one point, the number two player in the world right now, Coco Gauff, who went on to win the match, missed a volley that she should not have even tried to play, as she was terribly out of position. "Why? Why?" she exclaimed. Earlier, the number one player in the world right now, Aryna Sabalenka, missed a volley that should have been easy. "What was that?" she asked herself. And as she turned back toward the service line, she added, "I suck"—a striking statement for someone with her ranking and three Grand Slam titles. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 7 June 2025) 

A good performance in an oral exam—and a great discussion afterwards

In the fifteen-minute oral examination, the student answered her teacher's questions about the novel she had read. As the outside expert for the exam, I listened with interest—it was one of my favorite books. The student's answers about details were precise, and her interpretations were all good. There was no question she had passed with a very high grade. But when the time was up, with a half-hour before the next examination, I asked if she liked the book, and she lit up, and our lively discussion—with the teacher, too—went much further than the examination had. The exam setting had apparently prevented the student from showing her enthusiasm. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 6 June 2025)

Past, present, and future in the moment of music-making in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners"

In the middle of Ryan Coogler's "Sinners", young blues guitarist and singer Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) gets up to sing at the 1932 juke joint that is the centerpiece of the movie. As the whole room begins to dance, musicians of the past join in, including a griot from West Africa playing a kora, and then musicians from the future as well, such as an electric guitarist dressed like a member of Parliament or Funkadelic, and later a DJ and rapper at a set of turntables, with the dancers joined by a break dancer. In the moment of music making, traditions come together, community is established, and the future is anticipated. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 2 June 2025)

First Corinthians in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and two novels by Toni Morrison

In Ryan Coogler's "Sinners", the preacher Jedidah Moore (Saul Williams) asks his son Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) to read 1 Corinthians 10:13: "You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much, and he will show you how to escape from your temptations." Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye" (1970) also refers to that book: "[Aunt Jimmy] nodded in drowsy appreciation as the words from First Corinthians droned over her." And Morrison's "Song of Solomon" (1977) even has a character named First Corinthians. These references make me wonder what role First Corinthians plays in African-American culture. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 1 June 2025)

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” (2025) and Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” (2017)

As the white Irish folksinger Remmick (Jack O'Connell) attacks the young black bluesman Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) near the end of Ryan Coogler's new movie "Sinners", he shouts, "I want your stories and I want your songs!" Again, this echoes the history of African-American culture: In Jordan Peele's 2017 movie "Get Out", Jim Hudson (Stephen Root), a blind white gallerist, tells young black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) something similar to justify his brain taking over Chris's body: "I want your eye." In both cases, the white man's desire to claim the black man's creativity and culture for himself is depicted as a violent, physical attack on the black man's body. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 31 May 2025)

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” (2025) and James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain” (1953)

The main story of Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" begins on the morning of Saturday, 15 October 1932, with aspiring blues guitarist Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) picking up his guitar at the church of his preacher father Jedidah (Saul Williams), and ends the next morning when Sammie returns to the church, his face scarred and his guitar broken. Jedidah urges him to be saved, but Sammie leaves town. The movie's form echoes James Baldwin's 1953 novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain", which takes place on main character John Grimes' birthday, a Saturday in 1935—except on the following morning, John is "saved" in the Pentecostal church where his father is a preacher. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 30 May 2025)

Captivated by a choir rehearsing John Dowland’s 1597 song “Come Again"

Last weekend, with lots of grading to do, I went to the English Department in Basel to work in a lovely sunny room there. As I opened my laptop, I heard the English Seminar Choir downstairs practicing a favorite song of mine: "Come Again", by John Dowland (1563-1626). I sat still and listened to the song's captivating melody, and when they finished, I went down and thanked them for their beautiful performance. The song was published in 1597 in Dowland's "First Booke of Songes or Ayres". I first heard it on a 1999 ECM album, "In Darkness Let Me Dwell", featuring tenor John Potter, saxophonist John Surman, and bassist Barry Guy. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 29 May 2025) 

"'Delenda est’ America”: Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert, 11 June 1852

In June 1852, Edward Dickinson, the poet Emily Dickinson's father, attended the Whig National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, that nominated General Winfield Scott for President in the election that November. While there, Dickinson delivered a letter of 11 June from Emily to her friend Susan Gilbert (who would later marry Emily's brother Austin four years later), in which Emily complained about the distance between her home in Amherst and Baltimore, where Susan was a teacher: "I dont like this country at all, and I shan't stay here any longer! 'Delenda est' America Massachusetts and all!" Little did Edward know that his daughter cultivated such revolutionary sentiments as "America must be destroyed!" (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 28 May 2025)

Deciding what Miles Davis albums to listen to on his 99th birthday

For the 99th birthday today of Miles Davis (1926-1991), I checked my collection of his music to see what to listen to. There's "Birth of the Cool" (1949-1950). There are the albums of his 1950s quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, as well as the albums of his 1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. There are the collaborations with Gil Evans, such as "Sketches of Spain". But none of those fit my mood this morning, so I put on the drifting, almost ambient "In a Silent Way" (1969) and then the still drifting but more biting "Bitches Brew" (1970). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 26 May 2025)

Rafael Nadal, his three languages, and the lack of interpreters at tennis tournaments

At today's first day of tennis at the French Open, Rafael Nadal of Spain was honored for his historic achievements at the tournament and in his tennis career. He began his prepared statement with in French, which he read carefully and slowly. Then he switched to English, which he read somewhat faster but still with moments of uncertainty. Finally, he switched to Spanish, and his statement was not only more fluid but also richer and more moving (even from the perspective of my intermediate Spanish). I always wonder why tennis players so rarely speak in their native languages. Surely the tours and the tournaments could afford interpreters to translate their statements. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 25 May 2025)

Overhearing a family from the United States visiting Basel for a day of sightseeing

On the tram, a family from the United States was heading into downtown Basel for a day of sightseeing. Especially as their two boys looked to be about eight and ten years old, I told them that they might want to avoid Barfüsserplatz this evening, as the celebration of the FC Basel men's team winning the Swiss football league will be taking place. A Swiss woman sitting in front of me pointed out that I should warn them about possible detours with the tram lines because of the celebration. After I'd done so, I also recommended that they take the ferry across the Rhine, which offers one of Basel's loveliest moments. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 24 May 2025)

Teenage sexuality in three Bruce Springsteen songs

Three title songs of Bruce Springsteen albums depict teenage sexuality. In "Born to Run" (1975), the speaker tries to persuade Wendy to have sex: "Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend." The song's sexual persuasion centers on the image of "hemi-powered" cars: "[...] strap your hands across my engines". Amidst the verbal, adolescent energy of the earlier "Blinded by the Light" (1973), a first risk of teenage sexuality arises when a boy complains he "caught the clap." Then "The River" (1980) addresses the ultimate risk of teenage sexual energy: "Well I got Mary pregnant, and that was all she wrote." With pregnancy, that energy is lost to adult responsibilities. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 May 2025) 

Luis Suárez’s intentional hands in the 2010 Men’s World Cup and Cory Doctorow on fraud in 2025

On 2 July 2010, late in extra time in a Men's World Cup quarterfinal, with the score 1-1, Uruguay's Luis Suárez blocked a shot by Ghana's Dominic Adiyiah with his hand. Suárez got a red card, Ghana got a penalty kick—but Ghana's Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty, and Uruguay won the subsequent penalty shootout. With his intentional hands, Suárez manipulated football rules to his advantage. As Cory Doctorow put it recently, "the optimal level of fraud is never zero, because a system that has been simplified to the point where no fraud can take place within it is a system that is so trivial and brittle as to be useless." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 20 May 2025)

Don Q makes clear that he’s the Chief, not the singer of “Born in Plunderland"

Whether at White Sea Lake or at Hush Money House, at Foney Island or at Q Castle, Don Q is the Chief. Even at his casino in Ocean Town, he had been the Chief. But to many people in Plunderland, the Chief is a singer who grew up near Ocean Town and is famous for his song "Born in Plunderland". When he was criticized by that Chief the other day, Don Q turned to the window painted on the wall and said, "That so-called Chief is Overrated, not a talented guy, a JERK, a 'prune'. Vanza, when that Chief comes back to Plunderland, we’ll all see how it goes for him!" (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 19 May 2025)

The Niko Seibold Elfton Ensemble wins the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel

In a surprise twist, the computers of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel last night were hacked, and first and second place went to a multinational band that was not even on the program: the Niko Seibold Elfton Ensemble, which was performing at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel, rather than the St. Jakob Halle. In second place was "Gonda", a Rhaeto-Romance poem Seibold arranged for his multinational seventeen-piece jazz band (including string quartet and harp) with Song Yi Jeon on vocals. In first was Seibold's "Pünktchen", the first instrumental to win the ESC, with brilliant solos by Simon Spiess on soprano saxophone and Fabio Gouvea on electric guitar. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 18 May2025)

Allusions to two folk songs in Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” (1980)

The title song of Bruce Springsteen's 1980 album "The River" contains several phrases that allude to earlier songs. The opening line, "I come from down in the valley", takes up the title of a folk song also known as "Birmingham Jail", which I know from a version by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman on their album "Shady Grove" (released in 1996 after Garcia's death in 1995). Springsteen's chorus phrase, "we'd go down to the river", takes up the title of another folk song, "Down to [or 'in'] the River to Pray", which was performed by Alison Krauss on the soundtrack of the Coen Brothers' 2000 film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 17 May 2025)

Making memes out of quotation from Adrienne Rich poems and Toni Morrison novels: An assignment in my courses

For the final sessions of my two seminars this term (one on Adrienne Rich; one on Toni Morrison's Early Novels), I have asked the students to find one quotation from the works we have read that they feel stands for something about the work, the author, or the world. I did this in my Contemporary Poetry seminar in Spring Semester 2022, with each student writing their quotations from poems onto poster-sized paper and hanging them on the wall of the seminar room. This time around I'm asking them to design memes with their quotations—but unlike most memes, I want them to say what poem or novel the quotation comes from. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 15 May 2025)

Here’s my Adrienne Rich meme:

A course discussing Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir “Greetings from Bury Park”, Gurinder Chadha’s film “Blinded by the Light”, and three Bruce Springsteen songs

In a course at the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, we first discussed Sarfraz Manzoor's 2007 memoir "Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion and Rock 'n' Roll" and then turned to Gurinder Chadha's 2019 film "Blinded by the Light", whose script was inspired by Manzoor's life and written by Manzoor, Chadha, and Paul Mayeda Berges. (Chadha and Berges co-wrote Chadha's 2002 film "Bend It Like Beckham".) In both "Greetings from Bury Park" and "Blinded by the Light", Manzoor presents his love of Bruce Springsteen, so for our final session, we will discuss Springsteen songs featured in the movie that the students voted on: "Born To Run", "The Promised Land", and "Blinded By The Light". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 14 May 2025)

“I know you are reading this poem”: The repeated phrase in Adrienne Rich’s poem “Dedications"

In Adrienne Rich's poem "Dedications", the final section of the title sequence of her 1991 book "An Atlas of the Difficult World", each of the twelve sentences begins with the phrase "I know you are reading this poem" and then a scene in which the context of someone's encounter with the poem is described. In the course of our discussion of the poem in class today, one student observed that the phrase is "a philosophical truism": when you read it, it describes what you are doing. Another noted that "this" points to that moment of reading, and a third added that the present continuous verb "are reading" does so as well. Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 May 2025)

Goethe’s character Serlo (from “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”) on hearing a song, reading a poem, seeing a painting, and saying reasonable things — every day

A friend posted a meme with a quotation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." As always with memes, there was no further source, but I did manage find it rather quickly. It comes from Goethe's novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (1795-1796). Specifically, it's said by Serlo, a theater director who is Wilhelm Meister's mentor. Here is the original German: "Man sollte alle Tage wenigstens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 12 May2025)

 

Musicians I’ve seen most: members of The Grateful Dead and Hildegard Lernt Fliegen—and my friend Stefan Strittmatter

The list of musicians I've seen most begins with Jerry Garcia (over 100 times) and the other members of The Grateful Dead (over 80 times). Then comes Andreas Schärer (34 times, with the 35th this evening) and the other members of Hildegard Lernt Fliegen (all at least 14 times, with the 15th this evening). Other jazz musicians I've seen more than ten times include Larry Grenadier, and I'll be seeing him again tomorrow night. But last night at the Nicole Bernegger concertat Barfüsserplatz in Basel, I realized I have also seen my friend and former English student, Basel guitarist Stefan Strittmatter, about twenty times, in at least seven different bands. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 11 May 2025)

My Kelty backpack, which is over 40 years old now

In the fall of 1984, my father took me to REI in Berkeley to buy a Kelty backpack for my forthcoming trip to Germany. He said, "We're going to get you a really good backpack that will last for decades." And it has. It's one of my oldest possessions. I don't remember how I picked it out—I assume I just followed my Dad's suggestions. I travelled with it in Germany in 1984-1985, to Toronto to visit my father there for Christmas in 1985, all over the United States in the summer of 1988, to Paris in summer 1989, and on many trips in Europe after I moved here in 1991. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 10 May 2025) 

Late nights in Paris in summer 1989

When I lived in Paris with my friend Erik Hagestad in summer 1989, we often stayed out quite late, and the moment of decision would come: do we take the last metro, or do we wait for the first metro a few hours later? If we waited for the first, then it would have a few others like us, who had been out all night, and a few people on their way to early jobs—but everyone was bleary-eyed. Sometimes, we would just start walking home, and if we ended up on the route of a night bus, and one showed up, we'd get on and ride it for a while. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 9 May 2025) 

For Keith Jarrett on his 80th birthday, 8 May 2025

Today, 8 May 2025, is jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s 80th birthday. Although he has sadly been unable to play piano since two strokes in 2018 left his left arm paralyzed, we still have the legacy of his many recordings, including a new release announced today by ECM Records of a 2016 solo performance in Vienna. I saw him once in Princeton, New Jersey, on 13 April 1990, with Gary Peacock (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) in a trio concert I remember for several long, grooving codas. That was also the only time I ever saw Peacock (1935-2020), but I have been lucky to see DeJohnette (b. 1942) ten times since 1984. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 8 May 2025) 

Toni Morrison’s “Tar Baby” (1981) and W. E. B. DuBois’s “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study” (1899)

In Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby" (1981), butler Sidney Childs describes himself and his origins with a reference to a book: "I am a Phil-a-delphia Negro mentioned in the book of the very same name." Written around 80 years before the period in the 1970s when the novel is set, that book is "The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study", by W. E. B. DuBois (1899), a study of the lives of African Americans in Philadelphia. In "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903), DuBois introduced the concept of "double consciousness". But in "Tar Baby", Sidney continues with an understanding of his genealogy that resists such doubleness: "My people owned drugstores and taught school." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 7 May 2025)