Christiern

Does it really work? Did you hear the whole thing, the Coca Cola reference at the end? All I get is a page from the host site with a download option. I wanted y'all to be able to hear it without going through a lot of rituals. Is there a way to do that, to post a no-nonsense audio file to this forum?

Yes, Denmark--I am half Danish (the other half, Icelandic) and I did a lot of my growing up there, in Copenhagen and on Christiansø/Frederiksø two tiny Danish islands in the Baltic Sea. Still speak and write the language almost flawlessly. The 60 Minutes piece was pretty accurate, but I read the Copenhagen papers regularly and things are not quite as peaceful as they once were. Still, it is a country that I often miss, and I keep in touch with old friends there. I loved it when one of the students suggested that we--over her--might forget about the "American dream." In other words, if we lower our expectations it will take less to make us happy. Moose, you can enter all the Danish letters of the alphabet on your keyboard: æ, ø, å

Speaking for that small but distinguished group...we thank you.

Thank you, Valerie, the common Sarah misspelling also bothers me. Now we just have to show Jim how he can edit a header.

They were doing odd things with Coca Cola in the 1920s. Here's more information from my late friend Ruby Walker. She was in her seventies when she told me this story in an interview for my biography of her Aunt Bessie. If this link works, it is my first attempt at audio link posting, please do not have children or the prudish near your computer. It worked for me, after a bit of a wait, but please let me know if it also works for you. In fact, please tell me what the easiest way is to link to or post an audio (.wav, in this case) file

It's the OS X software, but it didn't begin with Leopard--As I recall, my browser was spell-checking prior to Tiger.

Adderley

They told her that doggie in the window was $67,000. Obviously, they lied!

Like Mezz, not much of a musician, but he sure could get a good band together!

I'm sure that I also speak for my fellow O'ers when I say that we are glad to have you with us.

We are talking 1880's here--a bit too early. Also, dipping white boys into an inkwell as punishment for laughing at a black boy is something Hitler would not have approved of.

Hitler's buddy? Are you being funny again? BTW "Shock-headed Peter" is a terrible title!

When I ran WBAI, in the 1960s, we carried a wonderful weekly BBC concert series devoted to avant garde music. These were recordings of live concerts, each of which began with a traditional classical composition, played as written. There were some highly inventive compositions in the series and I liked much of it. One was called "1812" (I may have the number wrong) and consisted entirely of that many hand claps. That, of course, was a bit gimmicky, but most of the music was very serious and, I thought, worthwhile. While at WBAI, I had the good fortune to meet Bruce Haack, an extraordinary man who was way ahead of his time. There were no home computers back then (around 1965), but Bruce had two cheap Viking tape decks and an incredible imagination. He had neither studied electronics nor music, but he married the two with astounding imagination. When he first called me, he told me that he never missed my Saturday midnight show, "The Inside," and that he taped it and watched it regularly. When I reminded him that it was a radio show, he invited me to come to his apartment and watch it. What I saw would not raise any eyebrows today, but it was sensational 43 years ago. The audio tape fed into a big RCA color set and every sound contributed to ever evolving colors and patterns. Then Bruce hooked some wires to a friend's arms, legs and body, and when that guy danced, his movements created the music. It was akin to the Theramin that I remembered seeing demonstrated at my school in England 20 years earlier, but far more sophisticated--and it all came out of a couple of shoe boxes filled with wires, resistors, etc. A tangled mess from which he created magic. A few years later, Columbia put out an album by Bruce, "The Electric Lucifer," but Moog was doing his thing by then, so the awe I felt in '65 was diminished. Bruce also wrote and performed many children's songs, which he issued on his own LP label.

That's why Danes today take a dim view of it, and why I had to run around to find a copy. In my childhood, this book was to Danish kids what Dr. Seuss was/is to American children. Was t something kids here read? Why did you have it as a kid?

Yes, he needed to go--I read his posts today and Damon Smith's graceful response. I did not see any protest against Bluenote82's venom, but at least somebody woke up. Now tell me, how long has Bluenote82 been there? I may be wrong (please correct me, if so), but I don't think he had anything to do with the issues that made this simmering discontent boil over. If I am right, then I don't see how his removal solves the problem. They really need to get rid of that guy from Ottawa--his attitude is very bad for the board and he needs to goose step out of there. Putting him in a off-line position will only work if he really keeps his pixels to himself, which is not likely to happen. Today, when one of the more offensive members wished for "virtual duct tape" today--to silence others on the board--the Ottawa guy seconded that wish. Says a lot, I think.

So who left? UNless its Kelman, I don't have much hope for improvement.

At this year's Grammy awards, one if the performers (Prince, I think) gave the press a strap bracelet from which dangled a small USB flash containing his new album, cover, and all. Bye, bye discs, I thought--perhaps sooner than we expected.

Here's another good clip, a 1933 short, "Smash Your Baggage" featuring my old friend Elmer Snowden and his orchestra, which included Dickie Wells, Otto Hardwicke, and Roy Eldridge at that time. Some fabulous dancing by a bunch of people, including Emmett "Babe" Wallace (who would later appear in numerous films) and Rubberlegs Williams, who sang "the lesbian national anthem," My Buddy, at Bessie Smith's funeral, and later sang on an infamous Clyde Hart date that included Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. BTW That's not really Grand Central Station, but the set is convincing.

Check out The Nicholas Brothers in a well made makeover of their most famous movie number. I usually don't like to see classic material messed with, but they did an interesting job on this one. What do y'all think?

It's easy to understand why people do this: they are cheap! I find more acceptable the copying to MP3 (or whatever) of material if the original is given away. However, I take a dim view of cheating performers who put out their own recordings or small independent labels. The big guys? They and their RIAA mafia deserve every loss they get..

This being Black History Month, I thought I'd take a backward glance at my own history/childhood (I work with black history every day). So, I am reading such books as "Den Store Bastian". This book was written and illustrated by a German doctor, Heinrich Hoffmann, in 1844. Original title was "Struwwelpeter" and Bastian ("Der grosse Nicolas" in the original) is actually Santa Claus, but he severely punishes young boys for their misdeeds. Making fun of a black boy gets them dipped into an inkwell, for example. When I was a kid, every child foind this book under the tree, but I had a difficult time finding it in Copenhagen stores, because it is now considered politically incorrect. Bastian is a very quick read, so my main reading this month is another nostalgia trip, the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. I have an edition in English, but my favorite is the one seen below, which has great illustrations and is reproduced in the Danish of Andersen's time. He was an amazing man with interesting observations and vision, as in the story seen below, where he predicts aerial flights across the Atlantic. There is also a poignant story about a Jewish girl and the lunacy of discrimination. Most Americans are familiar with only a handful of his stories, which is a shame. BTW, I have old family letters that mention evenings when Andersen came to the house and read to the children from his books.

Good to see you, too, kinuta! Added at 5:53 PM: I just got back from checking out that other board and I must say that what I saw this time makes the exodus understandable. Sure, they have obnoxious, full-of-themselves posters over there--I guess every board has some of them--but what really strikes me is the incredible arrogance and rudeness of the administrators, including the owner, a man whom I have admired and respected until recently. As I have said before, administrators set the tone and these guys obviously side with the most repugnant posters, thus encouraging their offensive behavior. While the site is valuable and should be supported, the forum, IMHO, richly deserves to hit the dust unless reasonable people without personal agendas and hang-ups are found to replace the adversarial crew that has produced the current melt-down. My 2¢ worth, and that's all I have to say about that.

As Abner Doubleday would say, "Dear Lord!"

I remember Joe Christmas--good to see him surface here.