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)