… I’m sure we should all be as happy as junkies.
Hello, everybody—Nice seeing you again.
Back in Iowa, when I was growing up, my Grammy Carlton used to recite a little nursery rhyme to me. It went: “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” And it’s true, it really is. One thing the world is full of is monkeys, and some of them are very old. George Bush—the monkey, not the president, although the president obviously has some simian qualities, but we are talking monkey here, as in little Capuchin helper-monkey, not ape as in “Ape shall not kill ape”—George Bush, the monkey, is 19 years old, and he belongs to Joe
Bush, the organ grinder. It turns out that Organ Grinder is a very specific title, correctly applied only to those who have both a hand-cranked music machine called a street organ and a monkey. Organ Grinder Joe Bush is one of just four or five actual organ grinders in the whole country, and he will be at Coney Island on Sunday, April 9, along with his monkey and a whole lot of other street-organ players. I believe there will be a tanzibar as well, although I have no idea in the world what a tanzibar is because it’s not in Webster’s 11th. This is all happening between noon and 6:00 P.M. on W. 12th St. between Surf Ave. and the Boardwalk. As a longtime WFMU Listener I thrill at strange sounds, and I doubt that I will ever have another chance to hear such melodic cacophony. Plus there will be a monkey. A very old monkey. A terrifying little old man of a monkey, wheezing and demanding coins from me. I WOULDN’T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD! And I hope I’ll see you there, too.
Remember last year when the Mesa, Arizona SWAT team put in for a $100,000 federal law-enforcement grant to train a little Capuchin crimefighter? They wanted to get a monkey and outfit him with a little Kevlar vest and a video cam and a two-way radio, but I think they forgot to ask for the barrel organ. Anyway, as far as I know, they haven’t heard back from the feds yet. I was very sorry to hear that, because I was really counting on monkey crimefighters to stop the bum fights. So that’s the monkey update.
What about organs? Did I tell you that the John Cage piece that’s being played on the
organ in that abandoned church in Germany hit another chord on January
10? The piece is called “organ1/ASLSP.” ASLSP stands for “As SLow aS
Possible,” although I don’t know why. Whoever is in charge of these
things in Halberstadt, Germany, decided that ASLSP meant the piece
should take 639 years to play. They started on September 5, 2001, and
plan to finish in the year 2639. Every couple of years they hit a new
chord, and on January 10 they did another one. Okay, that’s what’s
happening with organs.
Once when I was going through a bad patch, I started to tell a
friend about my troubles but she didn’t want to hear it. “You have a
husband, and a job, and a house, and
a car—what are you complaining about?” she said. At the time I thought
that was kind of harsh, but the longer I live, the more I think she was
probably right. Even if I don’t have those things forever, at least I
have them now and I should be thankful. I try to be grateful every day,
and I always think about the world being full of a number of things and
how I should be happy. It reminds me of an old song, and if I were on
the radio right now I would play it for you. Instead, I’ll just look
forward a couple weeks to Sunday at Coney Island, and the street organs
and the very old monkey, and I will be happy that there is this world
full of things, O fine, fine world, that has such wonders in it.
Thanks for reading my blogpost this week, and may God bless.
Bronwyn-
Thanks for the heads up on the little organ grinder monkey!
See you there!
Posted by: Dave the Spazz | March 28, 2006 at 08:34 AM
Ya know, it is so nice to hear soemthing positive about life. I love positivity, it's a dying quality. Thanks Bronwyn
Posted by: J-Met | March 28, 2006 at 10:37 PM
Bronwyn --
Thanks for the Coney Island tip, and for the wonderful essay. Your Grammy, by the way, was quoting Robert Louis Stevenson.
Posted by: Gordon | March 29, 2006 at 02:19 PM
Forgot to comment earlier, but I'll definitely be there tomorrow. I love monkeys, especially when they're wearing hats.
Posted by: Kendall | April 08, 2006 at 08:43 PM
Hey I went to Coney Island and found some organ players but NO MONKEYS. I was pretty bummed. And then my girlfriend smashed her head into mine on the Cyclone. It was a pretty disappointing day.
Posted by: Kendall | April 09, 2006 at 03:52 PM
I went down to Coney and couldn't find any organ grinder monkeys either. There was a guy in a gorilla suit. I could've stayed home for that action. Good news is Ruby's bar is still open. Bad news: Nathan's Famous Lobster Sandwich!
Posted by: Dave the Spazz | April 10, 2006 at 09:08 AM
Yeah, they promised a 19-year-old monkey, but I didn't see him and I was too shy to go up to the Coney Island guys and ask about it. We travelled 2 1/2 hours to get there, too. But we saw 2 calliopes, 2 player pianos, a bunch of paper organs and other noisy music things that I don't know what they're called, and one of them was secretly running off mp3 files, so we still had a pretty good time. We were also happy to see that Ruby's is still there, and there's a really good little Mexican taco stand, Dona Zita's, that we never saw before: Their tacos carnitas ROCK. And any day that includes a ride on the disco bumper cars is a day worth living, as far as I'm concerned. It was disappointing about the monkey, though.
Posted by: Bronwyn C. | April 10, 2006 at 12:44 PM