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arguchikso the seattle opera is going to do a production of wagner's the flying dutchman this summer. here is a link to the seattle times article about it. the name resonated, for obvious reasons (being the name of davy jones' ship in pirates of the caribbean), so i got myself into a wiki-web of references on the subject. the entries on davy jones and the flying dutchman, as well as the various pirates of the caribbean entries, lead to a fascinating series of legends that the pirates writers borrowed from various sources and cobbled together in their narrative. it's all very postmodern.
well...the wiki entry on davy jones' locker lists out a few cultural references to davy jones. one is the navy hymn, "anchors aweigh."
not surprisingly, i associate this hymn with my father, who served in the navy from about 1944--he enlisted right after graduating from holland high school, which would have been 1943 or 1944--until the end of the korean conflict. i want to say he was discharged (to reserve status) in 1953 or 1954, but don't quote me. i know he was still enlisted when the navy performed its first H-bomb test at enewetak in 1952, because he witnessed that. he was on one of those ships that were 30 miles away, referenced at the end of the wiki article i've linked to. the experience completely changed his view of military agression; he has been a pacifist and sardonic commentator on all things military every since, at least as concerns the military brass. as with most things, it's complicated. he never got involved in the VFW or any other veteran's organizations, but he went to several reunions for the USS radford, the destroyer on which he served as gunnery officer in korea. i'm not sure what ship he served on at the end of WWII; the story of how he went from enlisted man to officer is somewhat complicated. the highest rank he attained was Lt. JG (yes, it was unusual for someone of this low-ish rank to be named gunnery officer; nevertheless, he was). anyway, my main point is that, though he became sharply critical of the military after witnessing the H-bomb test, he came across as quite nostalgic whenever he talked about his everyday life aboard a ship, and especially when he talked about the men with whom he served. my dad's sharpest criticism is reserved for admiral halsey, who he viewed as recklessly irresponsible with the lives of the men under his command, especially in the leyte gulf. incidentally, my dad also used to excoriate george bush, sr., for claiming to be a WWII hero (for those who don't remember, bush ejected from his plane after it was disabled by enemy fire). a rough quote of what my dad has to say about bush: "he was the pilot of that plane, and he always claimed that he wasn't sure whether or not his men were able to eject from the plane before it crashed. as pilot, he was the captain, and he had a duty to see to the safety of his men. he should have been the last person off that plane, and he should have been able to account for what happened to each member of his crew. once he ejected, any survivors would have had zero chance of getting out of a pilot-less plane." i don't have enough knowledge about either of these two incidents to vouch for my dad's take on things...i'm just citing them to illustrate where his sympathies lie.
my dad was quite fond of the WWII television documentary series victory at sea, and owned the soundtrack (probably still does; i haven't looked through my parents' LP's in awhile). he didn't listen to records all that much when i was a little kid, but this one was in heavy rotation on his playlist, such as it was. whenever i hear stuff from it, i am transported back to our house, circa the early to mid 1970's...and i can recall even the minutest textures of our family home and life. i don't see "anchors aweigh" listed on the soundtrack, but i always associate those two together. victory at sea and "anchors aweigh," i mean. even when i was a little kid, "anchors aweigh" would bring tears to my eyes. this is a somewhat embarassing admission. it's a miltary hymn...hugely symbolic of WWII... it's part of a larger soft spot of mine, actually--the weird but actual truth is that military marches, a la john philip sousa, almost always choke me up.* i don't often cry outright, but i come uncomfortably close. i haven't done too much self-examination on the subject; i suppose a psychoanalyst would posit this as part of my electra complex. and i suppose that's true, to the extent that freudian psychoanalytic theory can be called "true," both in a personal sense because my father was a military man; and in a cultural sense, given that the military is the symbolic phallus of the U.S. patriarchy. (heh--all daddies great and small...) my point is that simply reading a snippet of the lyrics from "anchors aweigh" in that wiki entry brought a lump to my throat.
it's disconcerting. i want life and identity, politics and aesthetics, to be neat, consistent, one might even say "clean." but i suspect that "anchors aweigh" will always make me cry.
*interestingly, i won the john philip sousa award my senior year in high school. yes, i was a band geek. i played clarinet--i was 1st chair, in fact--and was one of two drum majors my senior year. and no, the drum major is not the person who prances in a spangled leotard while twirling a baton--that would be the majorette. the drum major is the person who leads the marching band--the person who gives whistle commands and hand signals to let the band know when to zig, when to zag, and when to start up one of those john philip sousa marches, and who then conducts the band while they play said march. the drum major might also carry and signal with a mace or a staff. my drum major "twin" and i had whistles, but we didn't carry anything. we simply wore white gloves. which, when clean, can be quite neat.
well...the wiki entry on davy jones' locker lists out a few cultural references to davy jones. one is the navy hymn, "anchors aweigh."
not surprisingly, i associate this hymn with my father, who served in the navy from about 1944--he enlisted right after graduating from holland high school, which would have been 1943 or 1944--until the end of the korean conflict. i want to say he was discharged (to reserve status) in 1953 or 1954, but don't quote me. i know he was still enlisted when the navy performed its first H-bomb test at enewetak in 1952, because he witnessed that. he was on one of those ships that were 30 miles away, referenced at the end of the wiki article i've linked to. the experience completely changed his view of military agression; he has been a pacifist and sardonic commentator on all things military every since, at least as concerns the military brass. as with most things, it's complicated. he never got involved in the VFW or any other veteran's organizations, but he went to several reunions for the USS radford, the destroyer on which he served as gunnery officer in korea. i'm not sure what ship he served on at the end of WWII; the story of how he went from enlisted man to officer is somewhat complicated. the highest rank he attained was Lt. JG (yes, it was unusual for someone of this low-ish rank to be named gunnery officer; nevertheless, he was). anyway, my main point is that, though he became sharply critical of the military after witnessing the H-bomb test, he came across as quite nostalgic whenever he talked about his everyday life aboard a ship, and especially when he talked about the men with whom he served. my dad's sharpest criticism is reserved for admiral halsey, who he viewed as recklessly irresponsible with the lives of the men under his command, especially in the leyte gulf. incidentally, my dad also used to excoriate george bush, sr., for claiming to be a WWII hero (for those who don't remember, bush ejected from his plane after it was disabled by enemy fire). a rough quote of what my dad has to say about bush: "he was the pilot of that plane, and he always claimed that he wasn't sure whether or not his men were able to eject from the plane before it crashed. as pilot, he was the captain, and he had a duty to see to the safety of his men. he should have been the last person off that plane, and he should have been able to account for what happened to each member of his crew. once he ejected, any survivors would have had zero chance of getting out of a pilot-less plane." i don't have enough knowledge about either of these two incidents to vouch for my dad's take on things...i'm just citing them to illustrate where his sympathies lie.
my dad was quite fond of the WWII television documentary series victory at sea, and owned the soundtrack (probably still does; i haven't looked through my parents' LP's in awhile). he didn't listen to records all that much when i was a little kid, but this one was in heavy rotation on his playlist, such as it was. whenever i hear stuff from it, i am transported back to our house, circa the early to mid 1970's...and i can recall even the minutest textures of our family home and life. i don't see "anchors aweigh" listed on the soundtrack, but i always associate those two together. victory at sea and "anchors aweigh," i mean. even when i was a little kid, "anchors aweigh" would bring tears to my eyes. this is a somewhat embarassing admission. it's a miltary hymn...hugely symbolic of WWII... it's part of a larger soft spot of mine, actually--the weird but actual truth is that military marches, a la john philip sousa, almost always choke me up.* i don't often cry outright, but i come uncomfortably close. i haven't done too much self-examination on the subject; i suppose a psychoanalyst would posit this as part of my electra complex. and i suppose that's true, to the extent that freudian psychoanalytic theory can be called "true," both in a personal sense because my father was a military man; and in a cultural sense, given that the military is the symbolic phallus of the U.S. patriarchy. (heh--all daddies great and small...) my point is that simply reading a snippet of the lyrics from "anchors aweigh" in that wiki entry brought a lump to my throat.
it's disconcerting. i want life and identity, politics and aesthetics, to be neat, consistent, one might even say "clean." but i suspect that "anchors aweigh" will always make me cry.
*interestingly, i won the john philip sousa award my senior year in high school. yes, i was a band geek. i played clarinet--i was 1st chair, in fact--and was one of two drum majors my senior year. and no, the drum major is not the person who prances in a spangled leotard while twirling a baton--that would be the majorette. the drum major is the person who leads the marching band--the person who gives whistle commands and hand signals to let the band know when to zig, when to zag, and when to start up one of those john philip sousa marches, and who then conducts the band while they play said march. the drum major might also carry and signal with a mace or a staff. my drum major "twin" and i had whistles, but we didn't carry anything. we simply wore white gloves. which, when clean, can be quite neat.
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