Valentine's / president's day ep

Final Tracks in Order

01 Media:Washington v Lincoln.mp3
02 Media:One President At A Time.mp3
03 Media:Calvin and Grace.mp3
04 Media:Remember the Ladies.mp3
05 Media:Ragalovin.mp3
06 Media:Dear Martha.mp3
07 Media:The Fires of Mount Vernon.mp3
08 Media:Steel and Roses.mp3
09 Media:Taft He Lives the Largest.mp3

Conor (aka TW) writes a song based on Fatima's request

The song

taft he lived the largest
taft his belt stretched the farthest
taft isn't he marvelous
taft

kennedy was young
the oldest was reagan
madison was small
and lincoln taller than them all

taft isn't he marvelous
taft he lives the largest
whoo!

kennedy was young
the oldest was reagan
washington was first
and james buchanan was voted worst

taft he lives the largest
taft isn't he marvelous

teddy roosevelt dug the panama canal
but his mustache was described as
penultimate
the ultimate the ultimate was

taft isn't he marvelous
taft he lives the largest
taft he lives the largest
whoo!

The request

who's the imagined singer? children (cute kiddie voices joined in song)
who's the intended listener? cynics

ask three questions:
who was the youngest president ever?
who was the president with the MOST health problems/political strife/missteps/just plain BAD decisions?
who truly personified "leadership"?

describe your song in one word: Loquacious

Fatima writes a song based on Deirdre's (aka dk land) request

The song

coming soon...

The request

Name	 dk land
who is the imagined singer	
historian
who is the intended listener	
documentary watchers
ask three questions	
Who was the first president to have his photograph taken while in office?
What does this photograph say about him?
Don't you love history?
describe your song in one word	
PBS

Deirdre (aka dk land) writes a song based on Rachel's (aka Rachelintrees) request

The song

coming soon...

The request

coming soon...

Rachel (aka Rachelintrees) writes a song based on the parents' request

The song

coming soon...

The request

singer: FDR era ragamuffin / newsie / orphan
listener: FDR era White House security guard
Questions (one too many):
Why does the r/n/o want to see the President?
What's his or her favorite activity?
( What's the r/n/o's vision of the future?  Cull if you're a stickler for the rules! )
Is it better to be precious, or infectious?
One word: Persuasive

The Parents write a song based on Jon's request

The song

coming soon...

The request

Imagined singer
Tom Waits (middle period)
Intended Listener
A collection of one's lovers, present and past, in a meeting imagined on a lonely Valentine's Day. 
Three Questions
1. Is it better to love many people diffusely or love one person intensely?  What if you had to choose just one?  
2. Have you seen that new Woody Allen movie Whatever Works? Definitely his best in a decade at least. Anyway, people end up fucking in all  kind of permutations, lovers with ex-lovers, friends of ex-lovers, etc. Why is it that when this happens in real life people get pissed at each other?  
2b. Do movies present an unrealistic model for love?  What movie has most influenced your misguided definition of love? 
3. Does love still conquer all or is it just a good refrain?  
In a word
amorío 

Jon writes a song based on Becky Stark's request

The song

coming soon

The request

Name	 Rebecca Stark
who is the imagined singer	
George Washington
who is the intended listener	
the USA
ask three questions	
What are the similarities between romantic love and love of country
Was Washington really acting with love when he refrained from running for a third term of office?
Should the famous quote really read "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countryWOMEN"?
describe your song in one word	
dignified

Becky Stark writes a song based on Travis's (aka BT Nook) request

the song

coming soon...

the request

Name	 B. T. Nook
who is the imagined singer	
Animatronic Presidents
who is the intended listener	
Animatronic Presidents' Wives/Lovers
ask three questions	
Why would you condemn an animatronic president to spend eternity, fixed in place, without his first lady?
Can the visitors hear the sorrow in our voices? 
How can a chorus of robotic representations of great men convince their designers 
to make robotic representations of the women who made them great?
describe your song in one word	
Persuasive

Travis (aka BT Nook) writes a song based on Ben Stark's request

The song

coming soon...

The request

Name	 Ben Stark
who is the imagined singer	
an older person
who is the intended listener	
the older person's spouse
ask three questions	
How deep is the snow?
How warm is the fire?
How quiet are the woods?
describe your song in one word	
homey

Ben Stark writes a song based on Gabe's (aka D. E. Healey) request

The song

coming soon...

The request

Name	 Gabe McElwain
who is the imagined singer	
Calvin Coolidge
who is the intended listener	
Grace Coolidge

ask three questions
1. How about this? "He is quiet and doesn't say much but what he does say amounts to something. That's one thing I like about him. Miss Willonghby was having some work done at the dentists in Northampton the other day and Dr. Nichols said that he was glad Coolidge was going to get married and he hoped his wife would be somebody who would train him right. He said he didn't talk enough, that people thought him unfriendly when quite the opposite was true. I knew that would amuse Calvin so I wrote him about it and he wrote back that he expected I'd make a great deal better man of him but that he didn't believe I'd ever get him to talking much." - Grace Coolidge, in letter to childhood friend Ivah Gale
2. Or this? "For almost a quarter of a century she was borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces." - Calvin Coolidge, from his autobiography
3. Or this?
"Men build monuments above the graves of their heroes to mark the end of a great life, but women seek out the birthplace and build their shrine, not where a great life had its ending but where it had its beginning, seeking with a truer instinct the common source of things not in that which is gone forever but in that which they know will again be manifest." - Calvin Coolidge, The Price of Freedom p. 18

Gabe (aka D. E. Healey) writes a song based on Conor's (aka TW) request

The song

coming soon...

The request

imagined singer: john and abigail adams
imagined listener: abigail and john adams

three questions:
1: "I long to hear that you have declared an independancy--and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness." (abigail adams writing to her husband on 3/31/1776)
2: "This is rather too coarse a compliment, but you are so saucy, I won't blot it out." (john adams writing to abigail on 4/14/1776)
3: "There are few occurences in this Northen climate at this Season of the year to divert or entertain you -- and in the domestick way should I draw you the picture of my Heart, it would be what I hope you still would Love; tho it containd nothing New; the early possession you obtained there; and the absolute power you have ever mantaind over it; leaves not the smallest space unoccupied. I look back to the early days of our acquaintance; and Friendship, as to the days of Love and Innocence; and with an undiscribable pleasure I have seen near a score of years roll over our Heads, with an affection heightned and improved by time -- nor have the dreary years of absence in the smallest degree effaced from my mind the Image of the dear untittled man to whom I gave my Heart. I cannot sometimes refrain considering the Honours with which he is invested as badges of my unhappiness. The unbounded confidence I have in your attachment to me, and the dear pledges of our affection, has soothed the solitary hour, and renderd your absence more supportable; for had I have loved you with the same affection, it must have been misiry to have doubted. Yet a cruel world too often injures my feelings, by wondering how a person possesst of domestick attachments can sacrifice them by absenting himself for years.
If you had known said a person to me the other day; that Mr. A-s [Adams] would have remained so long abroad; would you have consented that he should have gone? I recollected myself a moment, and then spoke the real dictates of my Heart. If I had known Sir that Mr. A. could have affected what he has done; I would not only have submitted to the absence I have endured; painfull as it has been; but I would not have opposed it, even tho 3 years more should be added to the Number, which Heaven avert! I feel a pleasure in being able to sacrifice my selfish passions to the general good, and in imitating the example which has taught me to consider myself and family, but as the small dust of the balance when compaired with the great community." (abigail to john on 12/23/1782)

one word description: duet

a resource: http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/letter/