I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous rest of the weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Decorative Designs, Decorative Landscapes and Still Life is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri through July 16th.
In Kansas City, to July 16thTHE POWER OF ONE PERSON — a sophomore at the University of Texas was upset about a “C” grade on a paper he wrote about a proposed constitutional amendment that had languished …. and thirty-five years later, Gregory Watson has his paper formally changed to an “A” after he helped get the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Champas the Cat— an Australian shelter kitteh finally adopted (after 400 days) after being put to work as a ‘receptionist’ … appearing with signs reading “Single white male” & “I like curling-up on ur stuff”.
Champas the CatMUSIC NOTES — with all of the focus on “Who was she singing about?!?” — it turns out that Carly Simon had written a fourth verse to her famous tune You’re So Vain (which had been dropped at the time of the recording, for brevity).
WITH THE FOCUS last week on the 80th anniversary of the explosion in New Jersey of the dirigible The Hindenburg— where thirty-six passengers perished — the sole survivor (now age 88, who lost his father and sister in the blaze) broke his silence in a short interview.
FRIDAY's CHILD is an Irish kitteh who fell into the River Liffey in Dublin ... then rescued when a lifebuoy was thrown down to him and he was pulled to safety (with a group of onlookers cheering).
Downtown Dublin, IrelandTHE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the 1960’s Television show Get Smart— including what its two surviving stars (Barbara Feldon and Bernie Kopell) are doing today — and how the show managed to appear (in one incarnation or another) on four major TV networks from 1965-1995.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
Reader-suggested GRANDFATHER-GRANDSON? from The Marti— the late comedian and actor Milton Berle and the current Treasury Secretary Steve Munchin…... whaddya think?
Milton Berle (born 1908) Steve Munchin (born 1962)......and finally, for a song of the week ............... this past January would have been the 70th birthday of Warren Zevon - who was fated not to live to that age. Yet he left behind a body of work combining satire and rock music not usually associated with the Southern California sound of his era, with personal touches in his subject matter .... and all the while battling personal problems.
Born in Chicago (to a family with a father who was a professional gambler) meant the family moved often, though his formative years were spent in Arizona and California. He studied classical piano (sometimes at the home of Igor Stravinsky) before his parents divorced when he was age 16, after which he set out for New York (in the Corvette his father won in a poker game) in an unsuccessful bid to become a folksinger in 1963. Returning to California, he found work as a session musician and advertising jingle composer, before recording a 1969 album Wanted Dead or Alive– that went nowhere (before being re-released many years later).
He began honing his craft as a songwriter: with The Turtles recording two of his tunes, and while performing as a pianist for the Everly Brothers before their break-up (and with them each separately afterwards). Then in 1974 he went across the Atlantic to a sabbatical in Spain, performing at an Irish bar near Barcelona owned by a former mercenary David Lindell, who co-wrote a song with Zevon.
Refreshed, he returned to LA in 1975 and moved-in with a then-unknown Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. Finally, Jackson Browne arranged a recording contract for him in 1976. The result was the eponymous album Warren Zevon– which not only sold well but garnered much critical praise. Linda Ronstadt went on to record several of its tunes and she had a hit with Poor Poor Pitiful Me that reached #31 on the charts.
Then Zevon followed-up with his career best-selling 1978 album Excitable Boy– which included not only Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner– the song he co-wrote while in Spain with David Lindell – but also Lawyers, Guns & Money as well as his only Top 40 hit - the wry Werewolves of London - which Zevon first began composing with the Everly Brothers. (Sadly, the Chinese restaurant mentioned in the song’s first stanza has closed several years ago).
It was at this point that alcoholism began to intervene, as he didn’t react well to the stardom that he had acquired. 1980’s Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School was dedicated to the detective novelist Ross MacDonald and featured the song “Jeannie Needs a Shooter” (co-written with Bruce Springsteen) as well as an ode to “Bill Lee” the baseball pitcher – and he had a live album that same year that seemed to solidify his comeback.
His 1982 album The Envoy resulted in Zevon receiving a nice letter (on State Department stationery) from then-Middle East envoy Philip Habib (to whom the title track was dedicated). But the album garnered mediocre reviews and sales: and Warren Zevon found he was being dropped by Asylum Records while reading Rolling Stone, thereupon lapsing into more alcoholism, a divorce, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.
He made a comeback in 1987 with Sentimental Hygiene– which is my favorite album of his - and featured backing from members of R.E.M. as well as garnering his best reviews in years. Over the next several years he recorded several modest-selling albums (including Learning to Flinch which was an all-acoustic live album) and one of his songs became the title track for a film: Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead from 1995. Then came another stretch of dealing with personal problems (his alcoholism never went away) and his lifelong phobia of doctors kept him from seeking attention unless truly necessary.
The year 2000 saw the release of Life'll Kill Ya - a look at growing old and the spectre of death (yet including the brighter Steve Winwood song Back In The High Life Again on acoustic guitar). But at the 2002 Edmonton Folk Festival in Canada, he felt a cough and shortness of breath, and was eventually diagnosed with mesothelmia - an inoperable form of lung cancer - and was only given several months to live. Though exacerbated by smoking (which Zevon did for many years) mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos: and it turns out his father had a carpet store in Chicago where Warren (as a child) would play in the attic where there was plenty of asbestos in the insulation.
Warren Zevon chose not to pursue treatments that might incapacitate him and chose instead to record a final album The Wind with many guest performers. And it had not a gloomy theme (which, interestingly, he had done three years before with "Life'll Kill Ya") but instead mostly a range of his normal output - save a version of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door - that was released in August of 2003, nearly a year to the day when he was diagnosed with his condition. The album eventually reached #12 in the Billboard charts and garnered the only two Grammys of his career.
Warren Zevon died in September, 2003 (at the age of 56) and so he was fortunate not only to see the release of this final album - but also the birth of his twin grandsons. In 2007, his widow released a biography/oral history about him (with interviews of his many friends), along with a 2012 book of photos of his life and finally there is a compilation album that many critics believe captures his style. Besides the aforementioned Linda Ronstadt, his songs have been covered by by everyone from Bob Dylan, Dwight Yoakam, Shawn Colvin, Madeleine Peyroux, Meat Loaf, Bruce Hornsby, Jerry Garcia, Hank Willams Jr. to Widespread Panic.
It's interesting to wonder how he might have celebrated his 70th birthday this past January ... but more interesting to look at the 56 years he did spend with us.
Warren Zevon (circa 1978) and Warren late in life …Of all of his work: it's one from his 1987 comeback album "Sentimental Hygiene" that is my favorite. Reconsider Me has been covered by Stevie Nicks, Steve Earle and The Pretenders most notably. And below you can listen to it.
If you're all alone And you need someone Call me up And I'll come running Reconsider me Reconsider meIf it's still the past That makes you doubt Darling, that was then And this is now Reconsider me Reconsider me
And I'll never make you sad again 'Cause I swear that I've changed since then And I promise that I'll never make you cry
Let's let bygones be forgotten Reconsider me Reconsider me
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