paul secor

Usain Bolt John Locke Roseanne Barr

Interesting NY Time story The NFL seems to be concerned with how players look, but not about safety. And it seems as if some players aren't concerned either.

Little Milton: Hittin' the Boogie (Zu-Zazz) - Sun sides

Spenser Hawk Susan Silverman

Short Fat Fannie Fanny Mae Bertha Butt

Anyone interested in the headstones of the famous could do worse than check out Jonathan Williams' A Palpable Elysium. This book contains photographs of numerous well known (and some less well known but interesting) people whom Jonathan Williams made the aquaintance of during his lifetime. In addition, there are photographs of the headstones of Charlie ("Charles" on his headstone) Parker, James Thurber, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jelly Roll Morton, Erik Satie, Kenneth Grahame, Vincent van Gogh, Walt Whitman, Edgar Tolson, e.e. cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings on his headstone), H.P. Lovecraft, and Wallace Stevens. Jonathan Williams photographed many other headstones and graves. Yale University has possession of his collected photographs and slides. I hope that someday there will be a book of his headstone monuments. I highly recommend A Palpable Elysium (a handsome edition availble on sale for a pittance from the publisher) and Mr. Williams' essay, "Paying Respects" in his collection, Blackbird Dust. I still have the page from The N.Y. Times when "Paying Respects" was published in 1976. I thought it was important then, and still do. In case anyone's interested, when I recommend something highly, I don't do it lightly.

Is that right? I never realized that. "A Crutch for the Crab" probably derives from an old saying. Cousin Joe had a lyric, one line of which went, "I wouldn't give a Crippled Crab a Crutch". That may come from an old expression, "You're so cheap, you wouldn't give a crippled crab a crutch." This probably makes as much or possibly more sense than the song making reference to pianist Carl Perkins.

Wellington Mara The Duke of Wellington Stonewall Jackson

Look at top left - Art Pepper So In Love printed in small type.

Hey - You changed up in the middle of my first post. So: Boston Blackie Detroit Red Ben Blue

The Gipper The Dipper The Whipper

Maybe Chuck thought he was posting in the Digression thread.

Rubber Dubber King Tubby Tubby Hayes

Maggie Bell John Peel Ringo Starr

Pee Wee Marquette Al McGuire Mickey McGuire

Aladdin Steppenwolf Herman Hesse

Gene Barry Digger Phelps Sam Spade

Ming the Merciless Dale Arden Dr. Zarkov

I already have most of what interests me (in some form or other) on this list, but there are a couple of possibilities. Thanks for posting the link, Hans.

Stan Getz/Luiz Bonfa: Jazz Samba Encore! (Verve/Speakers Corner)

I wouldn't call Rodgers later music 'staid'. It might sound staid because it became one of the middle-of-the-road sounds by the 60s. But it's very rich harmonically - there are some heart stopping modulations. I was listening to Harry Allen's version of South Pacific yesterday and what I noticed was how the jazz versions actually iron out much of that richness in order to make it jazz-worthy. In its orginal form 'My girl back home' is a wonderful evocation of nostalgia for home, brilliantly evoked in the music; in the jazz version that tristese is lost. I think that's much closer to the mark. Those musicals are extremely sentimental - I wouldn't go near 'The Sound of Music' for decades after an infatuation with it as a ten year old. But I watched it again a couple of years back and was enchanted. The streetwise wise-crackers of Rodgers and Hart songs are always going to have more kudos than nuns and kids dressed in curtains. But I think that disguises a richness in Rodgers music that the knowing music fan often misses but the general public gets without even thinking about it. I stand by the staid comment, although that doesn't mean I don't love R&OH -- I do. I pretty much agree with all the remarks above on these and other GAS songwriters. The last R&OH show I saw was The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. What's incredible about these shows is the sheer overwhelming force of the talent involved: great song after great song with barely a pause between them. Hammerstein was also a great book writer: the songs are intricately woven into the story and carry it forward without a break. I remember the first of their shows I saw was the famous National Theatre production of Carousel; the Carousel Waltz ballet opening was one of the few times I wept, for want of a better word, at the beauty of a piece of theatre, and I'm not the weepy type. The show kept up that standard throughout. I just think that some songs are so much a part of their origins -- in this case the stage -- that they resist translation to other genres. Doesn't mean they can't be transported, but it's a challenge few rise to. That's surely true, although for some of those musicians the very "corniness" is a challenge. I'm thinking of Lee Morgan doing All At Once You Love Her or even Coltrane's My Favourite Things. Some musicians, Sonny Rollins for example, seem to specialise in unlikely show tunes; all those Jolson numbers... I agree with crisp - Roger and Hart: songs more important than shows. Rogers and Hammerstein: shows more important than (or at least as important as) songs. And crisp's comment, "I just think that some songs are so much a part of their origins -- in this case the stage -- that they resist translation to other genres. Doesn't mean they can't be transported, but it's a challenge few rise to.", is a very perceptive one.

Thanks for posting that link, brownie. And a lot more information is available in the liner notes of the Uptown release. This might have been mentioned earlier in the thread - haven't reread the entire thread.

Margot Fonteyn Crazy Guggenheim Peggy Guggenheim

Bullwinkle Rip Van Winkle Winnie Winkle

Read that and identified immediately. And I don't even have knees and ankles as excuses. I wouldn't give my ears, but ....