“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.”
— English Nursery Rhyme, c. 1744
These lines — perhaps a reference to Mary, mother of Jesus, perhaps a reference to Bloody Mary, Catholic-enthusiast and executioner extraordinaire — resound in the sunflower-centric See You Sunday, one of two songs from xmas_tomato’s Independent People / See You Sunday.
In the song, Jonathan Kroeker sings that he’s “like Mary, quite contrary.” I have no doubt that he’s not claiming that he is like the birth-person of our Lord and Saviour, nor that he claims to be the reincarnation of Mary Tudor, in that he wishes to reverse the English Reformation — but what is it about Mary (and her contrariness) that so allures Jonathan? Is it simply that we must focus on the good that life offers — its sunflowers; its warm, embracing sun; its gardens, generally (How does my garden grow? Quite well, thank you); its silver bells and other accoutrements; its pretty maids — and not get caught up in the pathos (and chaos) of others. After all, life as a sunflower can’t be all that terrible. One wakes surrounded by one’s companions — fellow sunflowers — and one spends the day blankly staring into the blinding sun for hours on end, until day breaks and the sun hides, and one falls asleep.
Not so bad in my books.
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To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
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Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.
