I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two congresswomen from Minnesota: Betty McCollum - who was the focus of a front-page story yesterday ......
... and also ... errr ... umm ...... well ...... ya see ....
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to the magnificent Netroots Nation gathering in Minneapolis this past weekend (and massive quantities were consumed). This past Thursday yours truly hosted Top Comments - which included a NN photo diary.
ART NOTES - an exhibited curated by the director John Waters entitled "Absentee Landlord" is at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis through March 4th, 2012.
CHEERS to the nation of Colombia - which will compensate an estimated four million victims of the country's long-running armed conflict, with benefits also to be paid to relatives of those killed.
SIGN of the APOCALYPSE - alone amongst the Grand Slam events of tennis, Wimbledon will not use a tie-breaker in a 5th set: which resulted in last year's John Isner v Nicolas Mahut longest tennis match in history - which lasted eleven hours over three days (6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68). Well, incredibly: this year's Wimbledon draw matched them again ........ and although this year's result was a short contest: the mere announcement of the draw led Scotland's Andy Murray to call for the match to be held on Centre Court and Patrick McEnroe to cite his older brother's famous line:
"You can NOT be serious!?!"
TUESDAY's CHILD is Charlie the Cat - who somehow travelled 403 miles to Wales after disappearing from her home in Cornwall (in the extreme southwest corner of England). Charlie was reunited with her family when SPCA officers traced them after finding a telephone number and postcode in a barrel on her collar.
HISTORY NOTES - in 1788 (after several years in Europe when her husband served as US Ambassador to Britain) future first lady Abigail Adams penned one last letter before sailing home. Earlier this year it was found amongst a family's papers and will go on display at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
HAPPY TRAILS to the newly-retired executive director of the United States Golf Association David Fay - who arranged the first-ever US Open held on a public course (with two other public courses to have a chance to do so later this decade). And all while being a Democrat in a GOP world: going to Woodstock in his youth, showing up at work at the USGA on Election Day 2008 wearing an Obama T-shirt, resigning from an elite country club when it would not admit women and yet playing a round of golf with George W. Bush despite the reaction of his daughters. "They showed their disdain in the most eloquent possible way," he said. "Complete silence."
By Request SEPARATED at BIRTH from Doggie269 - the British rock singer Stuart Goddard, better known as Adam Ant - interestingly, this photo is not from the 'Stand and Deliver' 1980's (as had been suggested) but rather, from a new UK comeback tour ....
... and Captain Jack Sparrow as portrayed by Johnny Depp in the "Pirates of the Carribean" film series. Whaddya think?
ART NOTES - works by the Spanish painter José Manuel Ciria are at the Amarillo, Texas Museum of Art through July 31st.
MUSIC NOTES - Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Master of the Queen's Music - Britain's musical equivalent of the Poet Laureate - has called for people who use mobile phones during concert performances ... to be fined.
POLITICAL NOTES - the Parliament in the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein adopted civil unions earlier this year, but a conservative group Vox Populi were able to force a referendum. This past Sunday, the referendum passed with over 68% of the vote, and civil unions go into effect in September.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Caesar the Cat - a rare cat breed who was stolen by someone who broke into a Polish home and has demanded a one-million-Euro ransom for his safe return.
MUSIC NOTES - a new high-speed rail link that will slash the journey time from Bordeaux to Paris from 3-1/4 hours to just 2 has been approved, and the line is expected to open in 2017.
POLITICAL NOTES - ten years ago, the Italian comedian/actor Roberto Benigni decided that the ancient borgo, or settlement, at Montaione in the province of Florence was a fairy-tale location and set his film "Pinocchio" there. Now there is concern that plans to to transform the area into an international resort will have it simply become a millionaires’ paradise.
ART NOTES - works by the abstract artists Frank Stella as well as Wassily Kandinsky are at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC through September 4th.
THE SELECTION PROCESS to choose the next head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will not necessarily require the candidate to have been a cop, but he or she will need to be fluent in 'bureaucratese' - an intimate understanding of the language used by senior mandarins in Ottawa.
LITERARY NOTES - the veteran spy novelist John le Carre - who is a fluent German speaker and used to teach the language at Eton - is to receive Germany's Goethe Medal, which recognizes those 'who have performed outstanding service for the German language and international cultural relations' in honor of his life's work.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN give rise to the saying "Mr. Pinky is dead ... long live Mr. Pinky!" For years, Tim Wheeler has had an orange tabby companion - who, in fact, would ride around England with him (on his bike, on top of a portable trolley, etc.) and on bus tours. Pictured on the left is the late Mr. Pinky II who died this past February after replacing the original Mr. Pinky ...
.... and on the right is Mr. Pinky III of whom Tim Wheeler says, “He jumped up on the trolley virtually from day one almost as if he was meant to be there".
SIGN of the APOCALYPSE - often regarded as the embodiment of cinematic elegance, Catherine Deneuve appears in her latest film Potiche as .... a 1970's housewife jogging in a red tracksuit with her hair in curlers.
MUSICAL NOTES - the 90 year-old pianist Dave Brubeck stepped away from his regular quartet for a one-night show with his four sons - Dan (drums), Chris (trombone, bass), Darius (piano) and Matt (cello) - for a unique Father’s Day concert this past Sunday.
By Request DAUGHTER-MOTHER from arizonablue - film/TV stars Kristin Chenoweth .....
.... and Angie Dickinson - whaddya think?
BRAIN TEASER - try this Weekly World News Quiz from the BBC.
FRIDAY's CHILDREN are mighty glad that their crazy cat lady Jan Van Dusen won a tax court trial over some $12,000 in deductions for her cat rescue work.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... I spent a good deal of time at Netroots Nation, and thus there was not enough time for a proper musical profile this week. Instead, I’ll take a short look at a notable album that was recorded forty years ago this coming August. I consider myself a jazz and blues fan, plus other music based upon those genres (and thus R&B, rock, Western Swing come into play). I don’t consider myself a country music genre fan, but I like several musicians who happen to perform it. And I have to agree with the All-Music Guide’s Bruce Eder, who wrote that the 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken? was the first country album that a lot of rock listeners under the age of 30 ever listened to – and I’d include myself among them.
Officially, this was an album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – or, in the immortal words of Bush the Elder, the Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird as he referred to them at a 1992 awards ceremony. While they were a California-based country-rock band, with long hair and amplified instruments (and for whom Jackson Browne was an original member at their 1965 founding before leaving after a few months) they were determined to succeed in recording a country album in Nashville where other bands - such as The Byrds and Beau Brummels - had failed to gain the respect of the country music community there at the time (although such albums as The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo have gained increased respect with later generations).
But the Dirt Band succeeded by inviting the old-time country and bluegrass veterans (Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs and many others) to perform traditional country material in a format they could accept, on their home turf and with a great deal of respect for the material. And thus this album is less a Dirt Band album and more like a summit of the Dirt Band plus the Nashville All-Stars. It also helped that by 1971 these older musicians were starting to lose cachet locally (as a more refined Nashville Sound was just beginning to emerge) and this was a chance to reach an audience they were unable to previously.
The result was a 1972 triple-album (quite a big deal back in those days) with songs such as “Black Mountain Rag”, “Orange Blossom Special”, “Wabash Cannonball” .... and even had room for “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell. Parts of the recordings included dialogue amongst the performers, giving an insight as to how they came together musically. If I ever had to choose, say, seven albums to bring with me to that proverbial “desert island”, this would be my choice for a country/bluegrass selection .... actually, it just belongs.
And the title track serves as a template for the entire album. Neither a rock nor pure country tune, this is a 1907 Gospel hymn - with music by Charles Gabriel and lyrics by Ada Habershon, first made popular by the Carter Family.
Eighteen years after the recording of the original album, a follow-up album was recorded. And another all-star lineup was assembled, with performers from in and out of Nashville (some of whom, sadly, are no longer with us). And below you can listen to it.
I was standing by my window
On one cold and cloudy day
When I saw that hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away
I went back home, my home was lonesome
Missed my mother, she was gone
All of my brothers, sisters crying
What a home so sad and lone
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, Lord, by and by?
There's a better home awaiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky