#45

"NO SMOKING sign"

             in HUMPHREY MAGAZINE

This lil mup of a poem connects with Petula Clark's guest appearance on The Muppet Show in its second season, and it is featured in the orange volume of muppoems, Outsider's Work.

 

& The poem started as an expression of unrequited love (thirsty desperation), but then layers started to develop, and I was reminded of Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library. I was just coming out of the closet when it was introduced to me by my professor, Dr. Donald Doub, in a class at San Francisco State University on HOMOSEXUAL literature.  I remember feeling offended by that book, because it dealt with racial issues I wasn't prepared yet to face, but I loved that class more than any other I have ever taken.  

 

Still alive, don't worry!

 

...I still remember, because of my professor, I went to my first opera and saw Billy Budd (about that old innocent sailor) at the San Francisco Opera House, all by my self. It was an experience.  I'm sure I have more to say about all this, but let's just watch a spaghetti chicken Western, aye?

 

& Petula Clark has two songs (that I know of) related to the sea:  

 

🧡 "MY FRIEND THE SEA" 🧡

 

🧡 "MARIN" (or "SAILOR") 🧡 

 

& Global exploration started with the Portuguese during the Age of Discovery.

 

& The setting of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Girl from Ipanema," is famously, the beach.  The lyrics were inspired by a Brazilian girl from Rio de Janeiro who received many whistles whilst hoofing to the bodega to go and pick up some cigarettes!! Pet performs the alternate version, "The Boy from Ipanema" with a Bossman in this particular episode of TMS. The original alternate version (or gay version), was written by Stephen Sondheim, and was first sung by another TMS guest star, none other than the blue queen her self, Linda Lavin:

 

"BMF" (or "Boy from South Detroit")

& On my island, here in New York, all of the beaches are Smoke-Free zones.

 

 & You'll notice in my poem that the boy is not walking at all. Instead, he's up high, sitting pretty, playing with his whistle.

 

& In this ep, the boys in a boat sing "Sea Chantey," which is a song by Abe Burrows. Burrows wrote the musical adaptation of Guys and Dolls, based of Damon Runyon's stories during Prohibition. Like his characters, he was a smoker, and he passed away from lung cancer. 🚭

 

The Night Never Ends

When I can't sleep

The night drags on

The night ne

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-nuit-nen-finit-plus-night-never-ends.html

& Finally, in case you are like me and studied French but only know "un petit peu," here is the translation to Petula Clark's "la nuit n'en finit plus" :

 

🍑THE NIGHT WON'T SEEM TO END🍑

 

When I'm not sleeping

The night drags on

 

The night won't seem to end

 

And I wait for something to come

But I don't know who

 I don't know what

 

I want to love, I want to live

 

Despite the emptiness of all this time passed

 

Despite the emptiness of all this time passed

Of all this wasted time

 

And of all this lost time

 

To think that there are so many beings on the earth

Who like me tonight are alone

It's sad to the point of death

What a senseless world

I would like to sleep and not think anymore

 

I light a cigarette

 

I have dark ideas in my mind

 

And the night seems so long, so long, so long

In the distance sometimes I hear the sound of footsteps

Someone coming

But it all fades

 and then it's silent

 

The night will then never end

 

The moon is blue, there are gardens

Lovers who walk on hand in hand

And I am here

 

Crying without knowing why

Turning like a soul in pain

 

Yes, alone with myself

Desiring someone that I love

Not this night, this night

That will obviously never end

 

But I feel so blue

 

I would like to leave at random

Go far away and as soon as the day arrives

But the night,

the night, oh the night won't seem to end

Oh oh oh oh, oh!

The night won't seem to end

The Night Never Ends

When I can't sleep

The night drags on

The night ne

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-nuit-nen-finit-plus-night-never-ends.html

The Night Won't Seem To End

When I'm not sleeping

The night drags on

Th

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-nuit-nen-finit-plus-night-wont-seem-end.html