This Blue World.

My posts are being titled after songs. There may or may not be any connection with the content. After 14,988 blog posts, a little freshening up might help.

The Blue Green Mouse says that in response to the news of American Queen Steamboat Company's layoffs, City Hall has authorized a $50,000 HWC Engineering study to explain what the hell American Queen Steamboat Company even is to being with.

Narrator: A foundation of the downtown economy, that's all.

A New Albany, Indiana-based steamboat company is laying off more than 200 workers on two of its vessels as the Covid-19 pandemic has taken much of the company’s business.

The American Queen Steamboat Company said in a Kentucky WARN notice that it will permanently lay off approximately 250 workers for two of its vessels, American Queen and American Empress. The first layoffs are slated to start by or near Sept. 24, according to the WARN notice.

WARN is short for the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, which requires this sort of notice.

Roger's Year in Music 2014, No. 6: The Take Off and Landing of Everything, by Elbow.

Earlier in 2014, I wrote at some length about "This Blue World." the opening track from The Take Off and Landing of Everything.

... On about the sixth or seventh listening, it finally was time to read the lyrics. I was, and remain, flabbergasted. The words don't speak to me in any specific, personal way. They're just extremely moving, in a universal, timeless sense, as though to suggest that no matter where we are today, we remain a composite of everything that came before. There isn't enough beauty in this world, but a song like this gives me hope -- in art, achievement, possibilities and redemption.

And then there's this sentiment, seemingly encapsulating the Instagram Era of beer enthusiasm as it appears to me.

I am electric with a bottle in me

Got a bottle in me

And glory be, these fuckers are ignoring me

I'm from another century

I am a preacher when I've got it on me

And I've got it on me

And glory be these fuckers are ignoring me

We never learn from history

Neil McCormick offers a worthy summary at The Telegraph:

What an extraordinary group Elbow are turning out to be. On their gorgeous sixth album, there is really no one you could mistake them for. Mellifluous and melodious, they concoct sparkling paeans to the joys and woes of human existence that flow with musical compassion, easy on the ear yet full of twists and surprises. Their songs hark back to the elegant pre-rock contours of Broadway show tunes, but interpreted with the post-rock mix-and-match adventure of 21st-century sonic magpies.

It is odd to consider that Elbow arose in the shadow of Britpop, evincing some of the same bluff spirit as fellow Mancunians the Stone Roses and Oasis, when, it turns out, they are barely a rock band at all.

"This Blue World" by Elbow.

It may help to know that I've barely a shred of musical training, consequently embracing an almost mystical approach to listening. It's all about mood and feel -- what grips me in ways I can't explain. This is the ideal. Lyrically, I'm notorious for not listening to the words at all; there are songs I've been hearing for 40 years that would stump me if asked to recite them.

I already knew of Elbow. It is an uncommonly literate and thoughtful musical group of the sort that transcends easy categorization, and isn't always easily grasped on the first listen. The new album arrived about three weeks ago, and it did not make an immediate impression. However, and perhaps significantly, there were enough smaller, nuanced pleasures to compel repeated playings.

In particular, there was the album's opener, "This Blue World." The music itself seemed melodically sparse at first, until the elegant, subtle hooks began emerging from the orchestration. The whole notion about "tears of joy" -- it never really made sense to me, and yet I'd listen to this song and feel them welling up. The song was beginning to exercise its hold.

Then, on about the sixth or seventh listening, it finally was time to read the lyrics. I was, and remain, flabbergasted. The words don't speak to me in any specific, personal way. They're just extremely moving, in a universal, timeless sense, as though to suggest that no matter where we are today, we remain a composite of everything that came before.

There isn't enough beauty in this world, but a song like this gives me hope -- in art, achievement, possibilities and redemption.

"This Blue World"

This blue world and her countless sisters
And all that came before that day
Our atoms straining to align
Was the universe in rehearsal for us

When all the world is sucking on its sleeve
You'll hear an urgent morse in the gentle rain
And if you plot your course on the window pane
You'll see the coldest star in the arms of the oldest tree
And you'll know to come to me

In the back of a broken car
When the blizzard blossom flew
Reading aloud with our fingers
What we both already knew
And the blizzard blossom flew

A sober midnight wish
Flies over the roofs and down through the years
Would that you and yours are sleeping
Safe and warm in size formation
While three chambers of my heart beat true and strong with love for another
The fourth is yours forever