Quote of the Day (Truman Capote, on Birthdays)

“I think always about somewhere else, somewhere else where everything is dancing, like people dancing in the streets, and everything is pretty, like children on their birthdays.” —American fiction writer, essayist and screenwriter Truman Capote (1924-1984), "Children on Their Birthdays" (1947), in The Complete Stories of Truman Capote (2004)

Song Lyric of the Day (John Lennon and Paul McCartney, on the People and Places ‘In My Life’)

“All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all.”—John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “In My Life,” performed by the Beatles on their LP Rubber Soul (1965)
 
Even with their very different sensibilities, John Lennon and Paul McCartney both cited “In My Life” as among their favorite Beatles songs.
 
It may be a product of advancing years, but the same goes for me.
 
It’s hard to believe that two young men, still only in their mid-20s, could create a tune of quiet reflection and affection for what had passed out of their lives. But, I guess, Joni Mitchell did much the same thing with “Both Sides Now.”

Song Lyric of the Day (Carly Simon, on ‘Time's Printed Pages’)

“Time's printed pages,
Words you won't forget;
go out and try to live them,
you'll be an angel yet.” —American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, “Another Door,” from her debut LP Carly Simon (1971)
 
Happy 77^th birthday to chanteuse—and recently elected Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame member—Carly Simon!

Song Lyric of the Day (Paul Simon, With Insight Into Contemporary Thought Processes)

“All lies and jest

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest.”— “The Boxer,” written by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, released by Simon and Art Garfunkel on their Bridge over Troubled Water LP (1970)

Happy birthday to Paul Simon, born 80 years ago today in Newark, NJ.

Some years ago, a late, dear friend of mine described Bob Dylan as the master poet of his generation and Simon as the master psychologist. There was more than a bit of the poet in Simon, too, but time has borne out that the Grammy-winning musician is indeed an explorer of the soul in all its rootlessness and alienation.

From “The Sound of Silence,” his first big hit with Art Garfunkel, through “American Tune,” the wistful elegy he created in the Watergate era, Simon—for all his concern about the nation’s politics—has largely preferred to comment obliquely on what’s roiling the country through meditations on what lies beneath rather than explicit protests.

Even “The Boxer,” which he admits to writing in a period of frustration over harsh criticism of his songwriting (the pugilist’s departure from the ring paralleled his half-hearted wish to exit the music scene), has come to take on a different cast. The title character “disregards” the warnings of others away from his change of life and embrace of a violent occupation, in favor of what he prefers: the “lies and jest.”

It’s not a bad forecast of what contemporary politics has become: groups refusing to listen to others, putting aside history and wiser counsels for more seductive siren calls, leaving them none the better for the experience.

Quote of the Day (Nathan Lane, on Winning the Tony Award)

"This means a lot to me because, as you know, I'm an emotionally unstable, desperately needy little man."—Actor Nathan Lane, on accepting his first Tony Award, quoted in J. Wynn Rousuck, “High 'Rent' District Theater: Funny Things Happened on the Way as a 'La Boheme' Update and 'The King and I' Took the Big Musical Prizes at the Tonys,” The Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1996

Happy birthday to Nathan Lane, born 65 years ago today in Jersey City. He has had to make room on his shelf at home for two other Tony Awards (for The Producers and Angels in America), besides the one he picked up, with such tongue in cheek, 25 years ago for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

He has appeared on film, but to nowhere near the extent or with the appropriate vehicles that his talent deserves. In fact, he has joked about that lack, notably on a 2018 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, when he recalled a host appearance in which he tangled with Harvey Weinstein:

“Things got heated, and unpleasantries were exchanged, and he said 'I'll get someone else to do it!' I said 'Fine, I think I saw Regis Philbin out there, see if he's available!' And he started to push me into a corner, and he's screaming at me, and it crescendo-ed with 'I'll ruin you,' he said—'I'll ruin you!' And I said, 'You can't hurt me, I don't have a film career!'”

Lane’s heart, it’s apparent, belongs onstage, judging from the number and variety of roles he has taken on over the years. I have been lucky enough to see him in a couple of shows: The Man Who Came to Dinner and Waiting for Godot. Other theater aficionados have been even luckier.

(The photo here, of Nathan Lane after appearing in Angels in America, was taken Aug. 26, 2018, by Btvway.)

Quote of the Day (John Banville, on Past and Present)

“The present is where we live, while the past is where we dream.” — Irish novelist-memoirist John Banville, Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir (2018)

Photo of John Banville taken May 10, 2019, by Jindrich Nosek (NoJin).

Quote of the Day (Patton Oswalt, on Why He Feels Lucky)

“I've been very lucky in my life in terms of people who are able to tolerate me.”—Comedian Patton Oswalt, Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film (2015)

Same goes for me—which might explain how I’ve made it this far. Thanks to you all.

(Photo taken by Gage Skidmore of Patton Oswalt speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Stranger Things," at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif, July 22, 2017.)

Quote of the Day (William Shakespeare, on ‘The Uncertain Glory of an April Day’)

“O, how this spring of love resemblet

The uncertain glory of an April day;

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,

And by and by a cloud takes all away." — English playwright-poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (ca. 1589-1593)

Well, there’s at least one April day that possesses certain glory: April 23, The Bard’s birthday. Four centuries after his death, scholars still speculate on who William Shakespeare was and the forces in his life that made him such a fearless explorer of the human heart.

Joke of the Day (Sally Field, on Her Current State of Mind)

“Annoyed, frustrated, pissed off, exasperated, irritated, fed up, and other than that just swell.” —Actress Sally Field, on being asked her current state of mind, quoted in “Proust Questionnaire: Sally Field,” Vanity Fair, March 2016

I can’t believe that the actress I watched play the quintessential teen Gidget turns 70 today! It’s a tribute to her grit and talent that she transformed herself from merely the answer to a question on TV trivia of the Sixties into a two-time Oscar winner—and formidable dramatic talent.

Quote of the Day (William Saroyan, on How ‘Everything Alive Is Part of Each of Us’)

“Everything alive is part of each of us, and many things which do not move as we move are part of us. The sun is part of us, the earth, the sky, the stars, the rivers, and the oceans. All things are part of us, and we have come here to enjoy them and to thank God for them.” —American playwright/novelist William Saroyan (1908-1981), The Human Comedy (1943)

Quote of the Day (Bob Dylan, on Writing Songs ‘Bigger Than Life’)

“Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn't yet. That might be the beginning of it. Sometimes you just want to do things your way, want to see for yourself what lies behind the misty curtain. It's not like you see songs approaching and invite them in. It's not that easy. You want to write songs that are bigger than life. You want to say something about strange things that have happened to you, strange things you have seen. You have to know and understand something and then go past the vernacular.”— Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol. 1 (2004)

Bob Dylan—born on this date 75 years ago, as Robert Allen Zimmerman, in Duluth, Minn.—certainly has managed to see “what lies behind the misty curtain.” Maybe the reason why he’s been so famously elusive (as in this photo) all these years is because he’s needed a private space where he could restlessly pursue his visions—one musical direction after another, all leading to a corpus of more than 500 songs of often astonishingly varied insight, irony, humor, humanity, and beauty.