maren

"But I don't wanna be a pirate!"

Are you trying to pick a fight with Bev Stapleton? He has lovely manners, but he just might get his dander up in defense of jazz vocals!

The thing is, New York has been home to a lot of historically important people -- and a lot of them were fairly transient. There is now a New York City landmarks commission that awards landmark status (it didn't exist back in the 60s when Penn Station was knocked down to build Madison Square Garden) but getting that status is a complicated process. A building has to have "overwhelming" architectural and/or historical significance. And the architectural usual trumps the historical. Plus an institution like NYU has extra clout when they claim their needs prevail. The Poe house was denied landmark status because: he didn't live there VERY LONG, the building "had already been internally modified from its original condition" and was said not to be architecturally unique or outstanding.

Wow -- it must be fall in the air! I've been thinking of sharing recipes here all week! (Actually, that's how Weizen and I bonded back on BNBB -- how to make hot sesame oil, as I recall. And I believe Weizy has a great Moroccan lamb chop recipe to share.) But my recipe secret these days is the Foreman grill! (Post-empty-nest Mom taking a hint from her college-student son.) Asparagus or okra -- either you love 'em or hate 'em -- but if you love 'em, just spray the Foreman grill with olive oil and throw the vegetables on -- whole garlic cloves, soy sauce, are nice additions -- and roast until tender. Then throw on the chicken, beef, sausage or fish filet. But I think I'll lay in provisions to make the above chili recipes in case Hurricane Isabel (or at least a big rainstorm) hits... they sound great.

this is the first track on YOU ARE NUMBER 6 -- it's subtly heavy to me -- how conguero Milton Cardona invokes orishas -- laying on some old-time religion to counter the John-Wayne-on-safari-story of Hatari itself. I'm remembering a thread on some other bulletin board about Peter Gunn (the TV show and its music) -- reminds me, did ED! ever make it over here under another handle? Two more Mancini soundtracks that provide a great synaesthetic experience when you watch the movie at the same time: TOUCH OF EVIL and CHARADE.

This is really sad -- read it on the way to work this morning. Maybe it won't really happen (first show I saw at the Bottom Line was Betty Carter in 1980). But NYU (the landlord) is pretty voracious about property in their neck of the West Village -- recently knocked down a building dating from 1800 that Poe and Mark Twain had lived in, over the protests of just about everybody. The NY Times article linked above includes one particularly obnoxious (IMHO) quote from an NYU spokesman: I wasn't aware Einstein was an NYU alumnus??!!! I mean, the real Bruce Springsteen played at the real Bottom line -- maybe the club should seize the PR opportunity handed it by Mr. Beckman and ask for the backing of ACTUAL but apparently dissed NYU alumni: Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Joel Coen, Chris Columbus, Bill Duke, Amy Heckerling, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Nancy Savoca, Oliver Stone, Tony Kushner, George C. Wolfe...

I was always changing my mind! Right now, Paul Revere is the only one I can remember (didn't he go on to do "Cherokee People"?). Same thing with the Beatles -- Ringo was lovable, Paul was CUTE (eventually too bland), George mysteriously handsome, but John -- always a front runner -- ultimately the most crush-inducing. EDIT: Raiders are in a DUSTY old memory storage bin -- but it was definitely Mark Lindsay!

Memory lane! I bought exactly this sheet when I was in grade school! Didn't bring it in to my piano teacher, though. Along with "Moon River", theme from "A Patch of Blue" (Jerry Goldsmith), "Cast Your Fate to the Winds" (Vince Guaraldi -- a recurrent instrumental on "Where the Action Is" after school -- something between American Bandstand and MTV)... As for the "lyrics" -- my youngest sister was born in 1965 and her first word was not "Mama" or "Dada" but (cue older siblings singing "na-na na-na na-na na-na, na-na na-na na-na na-na"): BATMAN!

Coming 'round the bend... What Jim Sangrey said. Another great JC cover: Beck's "Rowboat."

Sounds a lot like a recent "Household Bank/Best Buy" scam -- similar e-mails went out to Best Buy credit card holders claiming they were investigating fraud, posing as "Best Buy", asking for financial information -- and then ripping off those who answered. Best Buy has had to do a LOT of P.R. to explain that they had nothing to do with it -- but still no explanation of who hacked in or otherwise had access to account holders addresses. [You can read more about it HERE] BE CAREFUL!

This reminds me, the Dr. Spock book is worth it for the opening sentence alone: "Relax -- you know more than you think you do!"

How exciting!!! Congratulations!!! Vajerzy said: I would just amend that to -- before the baby learns to walk! My son was born 19 years and 50 weeks ago! His dad and I were 2/3rds of a semi-punk trio (alto, bass and drums -- "punk Ornette" was our idea!!!) Our first/last album (vinyl) made its appearance 2 months after baby. We were able to manage a few more gigs -- even a trip to Europe, where at 9 months of age while the train was waiting in the station, our son took his first steps!! After that, touring was on hold for several years -- our son wanted to move on his own steam around home and the playground -- and Vajerzy's right, no one wanted to be away.

Mule, your post before you edited it was already hinting at this point -- and now you've hit the nail on the head! She was making propaganda. With great production values. (Pretty much the same holds true for Birth of a Nation, IMO -- even though it is a melodrama, both the author and DW Griffith had a propagandistic agenda). Ezra Pound's poems, Wagner's/Richard Strauss's operas -- to me, they're more genuinely works of art -- I understand and accept both the people who are moved by the art, and the people whose awareness of the artists' moral failings has the upper hand in their aesthetic response to the work. Furtwangler's conducting, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's singing -- there, for me it's more a case of a personal emotional boycott of someone who, whether out of ideology or opportunism, cozied up to an evil regime. They made beautiful music, but so did other people, who I'll pay more attention to. Strauss, though -- there are melodies that I want to hear, want to know. I don't hold the melodies responsible, and somehow find it easy to separate them from him! Wagner, on the other hand, there's something queasily fascistic about a lot of it for me! Or like aural heroin or opium or something -- sort of feels like scary poison to me -- and it sounded like that to me even before I knew about how much Hitler loved him or that Wagner himself wrote horrible anti-Semitic tracts. And then, what about a melody itself getting hijacked?? (I'm just ruminating here, not saying anything dogmatic.) Haydn wrote a beautiful tune, a hymn to protect the Emperor (you know, like "God Save the Queen" and "God Bless America"). And then string quartet variations on it. And then -- someone set the words "Deutschland uber Alles" to it (meaning "I'll set Germany above everything", not "Germany will rule everything") -- really a lump-in-the-throat sweet melody -- the poor tune didn't deserve to be used like that!!! But it feels a little radioactive now -- it had such a power, but someone used it for evil. I'm not kidding. I love the song, and I feel bad for it -- but I think it needs not to be sung too much for a long time.

The Pipes Are Gone but the Organ Resounds By JAMES R. OESTREICH (from the New York Times) Concert settings around the city for decades have had to endure the shake, rattle and rumble of subways passing nearby. The new Zankel Hall — in the Carnegie Hall basement, with a subway nine feet away — will soon carry the skirmish to a new front, reportedly well defended with sound insulation. But the historic Trinity Church, at the foot of Wall Street, is preparing to fight back. "We'll be rattling the subways," said Owen Burdick, the church's director of music, as he listened to a mighty crescendo in an early test of an innovative digital organ, just built and installed there by Marshall & Ogletree of Needham Heights, Mass. The instrument replaces the church's old Aeolian Skinner pipe organ, which was all but destroyed in the attacks of Sept. 11. The church lies a mere 200 yards from ground zero, and the building itself suffered remarkably little damage. But it was permeated with a thick coating of dust and grime, which corroded organ parts made of leather and other vulnerable materials. The Aeolian Skinner now lies dismantled in storage, pending an insurance settlement at least a year off. (One item in issue, apparently, is how much of the dust predated the attacks and how much was caused by them; a "doctor of dust," in Mr. Burdick's phrase, was brought in to examine the layers.) Rebuilding the instrument, or building a new pipe organ, would probably take an additional three to five years, Mr. Burdick said, while affirming the church's intention to do one or the other eventually. "This is an elegant interim solution," he said of the Marshall & Ogletree instrument. The organ will make its public debut tomorrow evening at 7 in a performance of William Albright's oratorio "A Song to David," for chorus, soloists, narrators and organ. Mr. Burdick will conduct and Dean Billmeyer will be the organist. The performance will be broadcast live on WQXR-FM and streamed on WQXR.com. (WQXR is owned by The New York Times Company.) The Trinity congregation has limped along since the church reopened in November 2001 with a jury-rigged system of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. "We call it the Toaster," Mr. Burdick said, evoking a term used by pipe organ aficionados to dismiss electronic organs generally. Electronic organs, to be sure, don't get much respect from music professionals. But if Trinity's new instrument is not your grandfather's pipe organ, neither is it your father's electronic organ. Mr. Burdick, who has long been involved in electronic music, joined the Marshall & Ogletree builders at the drawing board. Their goal was to produce the best instrument that could be conceived within current technological limits if price were no object. The resulting prototype relies not on one computer but on 10 of them. It also deploys 74 large speakers — set in ranks, like organ pipes — and six refrigerator-size subwoofers. "It's one hell of a stereo system," Mr. Burdick said.

Wilbur Snapp, 83, Organist Ejected by Ump, Dies By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SOUTH PASADENA, Fla., Sept. 9 (AP) — Wilbur Snapp, a minor league baseball organist who drew national attention after an umpire ejected him for playing "Three Blind Mice" in protest of a call, died Saturday at Palms of Pasadena Hospital. He was 83. Mr. Snapp played "Three Blind Mice" during a game in 1985 after what he considered to be a bad call against the minor league Clearwater Phillies at Jack Russell Stadium. Not amused, the umpire pointed up at Mr. Snapp, then ejected him from the game. Mr. Snapp's ejection brought phone calls from around the country. Willard Scott, the weatherman, mentioned it on NBC's "Today" show, and Paul Harvey talked about it on his syndicated radio program. Fans sought his autograph, and he signed it "Wilbur Snapp, Three Blind Mice organist." Mr. Snapp taught himself the organ when he was 35 and could not read music. He lived in St. Petersburg and provided the music at Philadelphia Phillies games throughout spring training and for minor league games throughout the summer. He continued to go to games even after Jack Russell Stadium switched to recorded music and dismissed him in 1997. He came to Florida in 1978 from Springfield, Ohio, where he ran a music store. He was a World War II Army Air Forces veteran. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Janice; a son; a daughter; and five grandchildren.

Congratulations and best wishes!

Very apt comparison. QUOTE (couw @ Sep 10 2003, 01:43 AM) This clinches it. My widowed mother has had a boyfriend for the past 5 years (good for her!) who was drafted in Germany at age 16 in 1943 and sent to the Russian front. Luckily for him he was captured and held by the U.S. as a prisoner of war. Worked for the U.S. occupation post-war because they determined he held no Nazi beliefs -- emigrated to Canada as soon as he could. Has spoken very eloquently, humbly (with tears in his eyes and a catch in his voice but not showboat theatrics -- seemed genuine and not manipulative to me) about being "sold a bill of goods" as a teenager, seeing the horror it led to, being eternally remorseful. Even so, MY teenage son, whose father is Jewish, did not feel inclined to appreciate the niceties of coercion and subsequent remorse ("he's a Nazi! a dirty, dirty Nazi!" my son said to me in the car afterwards, having behaved graciously at dinner and said a nice goodbye) -- makes sense, given that we're always asking teenagers "if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?" Anyway: she never copped to her role in some gigantic crimes.

Hey Conrad -- PM function has been down for a while -- I tried to e-mail you at "bluenotehata@yahoo.com" but that didn't work! Continued best wishes to you and your family... maren777512@yahoo.com

...worried about whether she can trust the photographer who told her she didn't need to check her lipstick in the mirror...

You're right Maren, it does look like he threw his back out. So it DID work as a caption, too!!!

so this is what getting old feels like...

Jim S - do you have a side career in cryptic crosswords/puns/anagrams? Keep 'em coming -- I got this one just from your clues, without the CD!