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 weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Western Stories will be at the Palm Springs, California Art Museum through June 18th.
In Palm Springs to June 18thTRANSPORTATION NOTES — Central America saw the introduction of two transit innovations: Mexico City opened a needed bus rapid transit (BRT) line … and the Dominican Republic’s capital city of Santo Domingo will open (in the month of May) a three-mile cable car system (also connecting with subway and bus lines).
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
POLITICAL NOTES — Italy goes to the polls this weekend, with political analysts identifying the Campania region (that includes Naples) as the “Ohio of Italy”.
THURSDAY's CHILD is delighted to know that the great success of Marvel’s latest blockbuster superhero film Black Panther — offers some anecdotal evidence that adoptions of black kittehs are on the rise.
See? I’m not bad luck!FISH OUT OF WATER story — I’m back, as this past weekend I visited Philadelphia (to take in the Barnes Museum and a basketball game, the subject of a future Top Comments diary). When waiting to check-in (on Friday night) to my hotel it dawned on me .... other than one staff member, I was the only male in the lobby.
It turned out … there was a sorority convention being held downstairs (with their registration table in the lobby). All I could conclude was ... "Youth is wasted upon the young". Then it occurred to me: professional women and others who work in a male-dominated field are used to this … but most men aren’t.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Dexter the Cat— a British Columbia kitteh who went missing during wildfires last summer … located in a recycling depot and positively identified by his microchip.
Dexter the CatHAIL and FAREWELL to the English neurologist Roger Bannister— the first athlete to run a sub-4 minute mile in 1954 — who has died at the age of 88.
SPEAKING OF a SUB-4 — reading the above obituary reminded me of the Irish runner Eamonn Coghlan— who had run track at Villanova University and in 1994 achieved a milestone, to put it mildly. Legions of runners had run a sub-4 at age thirty-nine … but none at forty. Eamonn Coghlan also failed at age forty .. but pulled-it-off at age forty-one on Harvard University’s indoor track.
Upon looking, I found that he has become a Senator in the Irish Parliament (the Dail) and in 2015 gave an impassioned plea in advance of the same-sex marriage referendum that famously passed with > 60%:
I was lucky enough to marry the woman of my dreams. Who are we as a nation to deny our sons and daughters the basic right of marrying the person they love?
SEPARATED at BIRTH — a Unitarian Universalist minister in suburban Boston, Massachusetts (Hank Peirce) and veteran TV host Keith Olbermann.
UU minister Hank Peirce Keith Olbermann...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while their days in the limelight have largely passed: my ears perk-up when I hear the languid sound of the alt-country, folk, blues and rock band Cowboy Junkies— which is ¾ a family act. Many writers have noted the influence of the Velvet Underground in their sound and they are still performing …. and thus, deserving of a new look.
Guitarist/songwriter Michael Timmins and bassist Alan Anton left their native Ontario for the UK, playing in an avant-garde instrumental band named Germinal in the early 80’s, yet returned to Toronto by 1984. They then enlisted the services of two other Timmins siblings: drummer Peter and sister Margo. The family itself are the descendants of a mining magnate (who founded the city of Timmins, Ontario) and their other sister Cali acted on the TV show Ryan’s Hope.
Their sound is forged by Michael’s inventive songwriting, the ethereal vocals of Margo ... and she noted one overlooked aspect of the band’s sound — the “punk-like bass” of Alan Anton. But one impediment that might have thwarted them was Margo’s inordinate stage fright, as she noted years ago:
Before a show I always iron my dress. When I'm doing that, I usually have the set-list in front of me, so I'm sort of staring at it, getting a feel for what it's like. The other thing I do right before the show is I arrange my flowers, which are always on the stage. In the early days it was a nervous habit: I was so scared to get onstage, so I could focus on them.
Things have changed: “And now they can't shut me up! I see Mike looking at me as I tell a story that has no relevance whatsoever and I lose track. Now, the guys have to start playing songs because my on-stage monologues go on so long."
Their first release (using only one microphone) was 1986’s Whites Off Earth Now!— which sold little but led to a record deal with RCA. They then had a cult hit in 1987 with an album recorded in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto — also with only one mike. This became a cult classic, with college airplay for their own song Misguided Angel and their cover version of Sweet Jane— as noted, the Velvet Underground influence.
Now focusing on the burgeoning songwriting of Michael Timmins, their 1989 album The Caution Horses was their most ambitious, with “Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” a minor hit on both sides of the border. Their 1992 effort Black Eyed Man had a more country music feel to it, and their 1993 album Pale Sun, Crescent Moon veered more towards blues/rock. Their last charting album was 1996’s Lay it Down, with a heavier sound than in the past.
Since the new millennium (and difficulties with major record labels) they revived their old Latent label, where they have remained ever since, with a 2000 Waltz Across America live album.
In 2006 they released a 20th anniversary art book, then performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra the next year. They released a four-part (the Nomad Series) of albums from 2010-2012 and participated in a 2013 project by Toronto poet Scott Garbe about the JFK assassination, fifty years later.
There are reports a new album is in production, and they began a tour currently in North Carolina, going to the Northeast and back to Canada later this year. After thirty-plus years, they seem as active as ever.
The Cowboy Junkies as a young band ……….. …..…. and much more recentlyOf all of their work, it is one from their 1992 album release that is my favorite. If You Were the Woman (and I was the Man) is a duet — with a guest vocal from the irrepressible John Prine — and imaginatively written by Michael Timmins. I wish I could write lyrics like these.
If you were the woman and I was the man Would I send you yellow roses Would I dare to kiss your hand? In the morning would I caress you As the wind caresses the sand, If you were the woman and I was the man?
If I was the heart and you were the head Would you think me very foolish If one day I decided to shed These walls that surround me Just to see where these feelings led, If I was the heart and you were the head?
If I was the woman and you were the man Would I laugh if you came to me With your heart in your hand And said, "I offer you this freely And will give you all that I can" Because you are the woman And I am the man?
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