WRITING MALVINA
THE SIXTY-FIFTH HIROSHIMA DAY
Thursday, July 29, 2010
When
my mother toured Japan in 1970 and I went along, our train went through
the outskirts of Hiroshima but she didn’t have a concert scheduled
there so we didn’t stop. That trip is always on my mind this time of
year anyway. Her song against nuclear testing, “What Have They Done to
the Rain” was
IT’S NOT TOO LATE
Friday, July 16, 2010
I missed posting on Bastille day, but there are some upcoming uprisings it’s not too late to take part in.
Right
now Disability Rights folks are camping out on the traffic island at
Adeline and Russell in Berkeley, protesting Schwartzenegger’s cuts to
homecare. This Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.
A JULY FOURTH STORY AND A LETTER FROM DAD
Sunday, July 4, 2010
I reviewed Bess Lomax Hawes’ memoir, Sing It Pretty, in an earlier post but saved this bit for today. She was one of the organizers of the Bicentennial Festival in Washington DC in 1976.
“My private and particular memory of the summer, though,
was the Fourth of July—Independence Day—which
WE DREW A LINE IN THE SAND
Sunday, June 27, 2010
We
drew it wearing sweaters in Edinburgh and bikinis in Florida, four
people on this beach and 2000 on that one, with singing or speeches or
prayers or stories or silently, facing the ocean or lake or facing the
camera, and we sent the photos to FaceBook. Here are some:
Neptune Beach near
WE DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I
wrote a song yesterday, sang it to Claudia over the phone and she made a
tune change suggestion, which I took. Then I made a lead sheet and a
pdf, sent it out to a few folks, tried it out on my fellow writing class
students last night. This morning I discovered it sounded better on the
uke than
Welcome to my blog: I’m
writing a biography of my mother, songwriter/activist Malvina Reynolds,
and blogging about writing and doing research for the book, and about
what I do when I’m not writing the bio, which includes writing songs,
storytelling, reading, swimming, walking the dog and hanging out.
Photo by Angela Lloyd
Writing Malvina
Name: Nancy Schimmel
Habitat: Berkeley, California
Current quote: Here [in school] everyone will live in search of rather than in accordance with or in accommodation to. —Bill Ayers
New Reading: My
Red Blood: A memoir of growing up Communist, coming onto the Greenwich
Village folk scene, and coming out in the feminist movement by Alix Dobkin
Favorite Movies: Born
Yesterday, Hard Day’s Night, My Dinner with Andre, Lone Star, Fargo,
The Sting, Chicago, Harold and Maude, Roman Holiday, Bagdad Cafe, The
Iron Giant, Babe, African Queen, Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part
Harmony, Educating Rita
Site for books & CDs by Malvina and me
lyrics to over 400 songs
includes song lists by subject, article about Malvina
