Real Talk!

It's father day... I haven't been able to wish my dad one, since 1984.  I am blessed, though, with a wonderful step-father (as my mother remarried, after dad's passing) and I am happy to wish John a Happy Father's Day.  This year, June 16, 2013 would also have been my Nana's 100th birthday.  Unfortunately, she left us in 1985.  We had a rough few years in the mid-80s.

My previous two posts have been on a similar theme, but what is more bizarre is that sometime around the 13th of June, 2013 (just a few days ago) a New York filmaker, Jennifer Nelson, launched a lawsuit against Warner/Chappell for $50 million dollars and is demanding that they return every dime of royalty they have collected on the song.

WOW.

Nelson contends that the song is actually not the one that was copyrighted but rather a song that evolved from it.  Her lawyers ague that the song "happy birthday" belongs in the public because the lyrics ar a "public adaptation" of the "Good Morning" song written by the Hill sisters in 1893.

Nelson hopes to have the suit turned into a class action and is seeking reimbursement to all who have paid royalties to the publisher in the past four years.

Very interesting!

Today would have been my Aunt Sheila's 77th birthday, she passed away in 2001.  Too young. 

June is a bittersweet month for me.  My father's birthday, my aunt's birthday, my grandmother's birthday, my parent's wedding anniversary (I have one of those in June, too), father's day, the passing of my cousin Sharon (Sheila's eldest daughter, on June 4/75 at the age of 16), to name a few.

In my last post I made mention of singing Happy Birthday and not being certain about copyright, so I decided today, in honour of Sheila Marion St. Clair-Hughes-Tossell, I would do some research on the topic.

Apparently, the famous song was penned in 1893, by 2 sisters who lived in Louisville Kentucky. Originally titled, "Good-Morning to All".  Patty and Mildred Hill were both school teachers and they intended the song to be a greeting performed by all teachers, each day, for their students.  Apparently the younger sister, Patty, wrote the lyrics and sister Mildred, the tune.  Through the years, the song was variously used as a greeting from teachers to students, and vice versa. 

A third Hill sister, Jessica, approached a publisher in Chicago (Clayton F. Summy Co.) in 1935 and it was subsequently released and copyrighted by that firm.  The publishing company was later sold and the new owner renamed it "Birch Tree Ltd.".  Birch Tree held the copyright on the the song, until they sold it, in 1998, to Warner/Chappell (the world's largest music publisher) for twenty-five million dollars.  Nobody is quite sure who/when/why or how the song became the birthday song, but Warner/Chappell has been collecting about $2 million dollars a year in royalties (which it shares with the Hill Foundation that was formed upon the death of the Hill sisters).

So, I guess I was right... we all think of the song as being "public domain" but, apparently, while you are permitted to sing "Happy Birthday to You" in the privacy of your own home- if you use it in film, television or concerts, there is a licensing fee to pay, or you could face a copyright infringement suit.  Who knew?

Today would have been my father's 79th birthday.  Unfortunately, he passed away in 1984.  He was too young. 

Today is also Mark Wahlberg's birthday.  Just sayin'

Mark Wahlberg is an interesting guy. Born in 1971, he was a somewhat troubled youth.  He was one of nine children and his  parents divorced in 1982.  Rumor has it that he was frequently in big trouble and had run-ins with the Boston Police.  They say that by the age of 13 he was addicted to cocaine, among other things.  He has served time, charged with attempted murder and pleading guilt to assault, having had serious brawls more than once.  There are a lot of things that he now says that he regrets.

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg is the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg who rose to fame as part of the 80's boy band, New Kids on the Block.  Mark had originally been part of the band, but he quit when he was 13.   In those days, he went by the moniker "Marky Mark".  In 1991, he was the front man for "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch".  They had a number of hits and the music videos provided lots of eye-candy for the female audience.  Wahlberg's handsome physique gained notariety when he was featured in underwear ads for the prominent Calvin Klein fashion empire. 

Dropping the cutsey Marky from his name, Mark Wahlberg made his acting debut in the 1993 made for television movie "The Substitute".  From there, he has gone on to do numerous movies and has acheived critical acclaim.

I'd like to sing happy birthday to all of the interesting people who share June 5th as their birthday... but I'm not certain about the royalty situation.

The Big Dipper is a part of the Big Bear. H.A. Rey, the creator and author of the children's book series "Curious George," had a unique way of viewing the stars and the big bear, as seen in this month's chart.

For those of us in the Northern hemisphere, June makes for the best opportunity to view what we North Americans refer to as “The Big Dipper”.  Known as “the Plough” in the UK, the constellation is formally called Ursa Major.

"Ursa Major", the big bear, is one of the oldest constellations, referenced in the Bible and in Homer's writings. In Greek mythology, it is associated with Callisto, a beautiful maiden sworn to chastity- she eventually was seduced by Zeus, had a son, and lived in the forest as a bear.

The configuration is composed of seven bright stars. The two brightest are known as Alioth and Duhbe (meaning the back of the bear). Another is known as Mizar, it is actually a double binary star and has a somewhat fainter binary star companion called Alcor.   According to Hindu legend, these stars represent the seven Sages.

The Big Dipper is helpful in identifying the north direction, mariners, campers and even the slaves in the Civil War's Underground Railroad were known to use it.  Some birds are said to use the stars for direction during migration.  The Indigo Bunting is guided, they say, by Polaris (The North Star).

Apparently, Polaris stays fixed in the sky while all other stars move. To find Polaris, look for the Big Dipper, which is easy to find in the northern sky.  Draw an imaginary line through the outer two stars of the Big Dipper’s ladle until it crosses a star- that’s Polaris.

Joseph Montferrand, dit Favre, better known as Jos Montferrand was born into a modest family in Montreal, Quebec on October 25th, 1802. He was the son of voyageur, Joseph Favre, dit Montferrand, and Marie-Louise Couvret.  Joseph's grandfather, François Favre, dit Montferrand, had been a soldier in the troops of the Chevalier de Lévis, settling in Montreal after the Conquest of New France. Jos was the third generation to be known by the name Montferrand, a family noted for their size and incredible strength.  

Jos spent much of his youth in the St. Laurent neighbourhood where it is said that he grew to 6'4" in height by the age of 16.  There, he is reknowned for thumping three thugs who had been exploiting his community.  It's also said that he took on, and beat, an English boxing champion.

At 18, Jos left Quebec and went to Kingston, Ontario to become a "teamster", in 1823, he signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company.  Working  variously as a raftsman, lumber driver and foreman, in 1827, he began traveling the river systems in the Laurentians and the Ottawa Valley.  It was the golden age of the forest industry. 

Life in the lumber camps was harsh.  It was a life of challenges that demanded a great deal of agility, strength and courage. Montferrand was the model of these valued traits.  There are many exploits attributed to Montferrand, it is difficult to know which are real and which have been imagined.  It is said that he was able to lift a plough at arm's length with just one hand.   There is a report of him having left his footprint on the ceiling of a tavern, in Bytown.  In fact, he is said to have left his footprint on so many ceilings, it became his hallmark.

One of the most ferocious stories took place in 1829, when they say a group of 150 Irish ruffians ambushed Montferrand on the bridge near the Chaudière Falls.  Legend has it that Montferrand scooped up the handiest offender and holding him by the feet, used him like a club to knock the rest down and then tossed every last one of them into the river.  In another story, he took down the notorious MacDonald brothers, when seven of them challenged him at the same bridge.  There were many other colourful accounts of Jos' phsycial prowess.

Over time, these and other stories grew to mythic proportions.  Jos Montferrand, shanty foreman, walking boss, althete and timber raft boss for decades, became one of Canada's most famous athletes and lumberjacks.  Non-French speaking people had trouble with his name and pronounced it phonetically.   Some said Muffero or Muffera and still others,  Mufferaw. The latter the one used by Canadian Folk-legend Stompin' Tom Connors in his ode to the legendary timber man:

Mufferaw Joe

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe
Mufferaw Joe

Big Joe Mufferaw paddled in to Mattawa
All the way from Ottawa just one day, Hey, Hey
On the river Ottawa the best man we ever saw
Was Big Joe Mufferaw the old folks say
Come an' listen I'll tell ya what the old folks say

And they say Big Joe had an old pet frog
Bigger than a horse an' he barked like a dog And the only thing quicker than a train upon a track
Was Big Jow ridin' on the bullfrog's back

Heave hi, heave hi ho The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

An' they say Big Joe used to get real wet
From cuttin' down timber and workin' up a sweat
An' everyone will tell ya around Carleton Place
The Mississippi dripped off Big Joe's face

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

Now Joe had to portage from the Gatineau down
To see a little girl he had in Kemptville town
He was back and forth some many times to see that gal
The path he wore became the Rideau Canal

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

Big Joe Mufferaw paddled in to Mattawa
All the way from Ottawa just one day, Hey, Hey
On the river Ottawa the best man we ever saw
Was Big Joe Mufferaw the old folks say
Come an' listen I'll tell ya what the old folks say

An' they say Big Joe put out a forest fire
Halfway between Renfrew and ol' Arnprior
He was fifty miles away down around Smith Falls
But he drowned out the fire with five spit balls

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

Well he jumped in the Calabogie lake real fast
He swam both ways to catch a cross eyed bass
But he threw in on the ground and said "I can't eat that"
So he covered it over with mount Saint Pat

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

An' they say Big Joe drank a bucket of Gin
And he beat the livin' tar outta twenty-nine men
And high on the ceiling of the Pembroke pub
There's twenty-nine boot marks and they're signed with love

Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe

Big Joe Mufferaw paddled in to Mattawa
All the way from Ottawa just one day, Hey, Hey
On the river Ottawa the best man we ever saw
Was Big Joe Mufferaw the old folks say
Come an' listen I'll tell ya what the old folks say

They say Heave hi, heave hi ho
The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe, Mufferaw Joe