CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a career retrospective of a noted Mexican photographer in an exhibition entitled Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico— who is most famous for her work documenting everyday life in indigenous communities — is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts through May 12th.
Graicela Iturbide (b. 1942) to May 12ATTENTION, QUIZ READERS - posted a few months ago in this space was this year's quiz from King William's College (a prep school located on the UK's Isle of Man) - with said quiz known as its General Knowledge Paper officially.
At one time, students at the school were required to take it home during the winter recess and be prepared to research the answers at home - today, the quiz is optional. It consists of 18 groups of 10 questions - the first section on events 100 years ago, and the last on events of the past year (in this case, 2018).
Each group's correct answers has a common theme (though perhaps not immediately recognizable) that helps if you can answer at least one of that group's questions - which will give you hope of answering some others. (For example, in this year’s Group 14: the answers are all US and Canadian universities).
It is among the most difficult general knowledge quizzes on earth (quite British literature-laden, as you might well imagine) in part to being very cryptic, and each year the Guardian newspaper has printed both the quiz (and a few weeks later, the answers) since 1951.
At this link is the 2018-19 year's quiz if you would like a chance to take it.
Either way, the answers are available at this link - and yours truly improved upon his prior year total …. up to a sizzling 3 correct.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sidney the Cat— an English kitteh who went missing three years ago, and was reported dead from a vehicle accident (which was a look-alike) … now reunited due to his microchip and being “spoiled rotten”.
Sidney the CatWHILE NOT as far-reaching as many in Canada had hoped for, the first notable reforms in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police management in thirty-five years offers the chance to redress some recent scandals, blamed in part to a historically military-style management lacking adequate outside civilian oversight.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Jack the Therapy Cat— a Michigan kitteh who underwent training to become a therapy cat at an assisted living facility (especially for dementia and hospice patients) and won a $25k grant from Petco.
Jack the Therapy CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at what many architects consider the Architectural Crime of the 20th Century— the demolition of the old Penn Station in NYC — and how a retro-fit of another landmark building, across-the-street (designed by the very same architects) may give this rail station a brighter future.
Reader-suggested COUSINS from Observerinvancouver — Kevin Hassett, chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers ………..
Kevin Hassett (born 1962).. and Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party of Canada leader. Whaddya think?
Andrew Scheer (b. 1979)......and finally, for a song of the week ............... while she never achieved the wide-spread national fame that Aretha Franklin and Etta James had, Irma Thomas has nonetheless managed to earn something else: the designation as the Soul Queen of New Orleans bestowed by city officials. And there are few who would question that title.
Born as Irma Lee in 1941, she sang in her local church choir .... and by age 19 had been married twice and given birth to four children. It was while she was working at New Orleans' nightclub as a waitress that her career began .... well, sorta. She was invited to sing with the band, and was in-demand by audiences - but the white club-owner was unhappy and fired her.
But one of the bandleaders who she sang for (Tommy Ridgely) was able to get her into a recording studio, and the result was (You Can Have My Husband But Please) Don't Mess With My Man - released in the spring of 1960 and which reached #22 on the R&B charts. "The rest is history," Thomas says. "It happened just like that."
She had the good fortune early in her career to work with the New Orleans songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint - which yielded R&B hits such as "It's Raining" and "Ruler of My Heart" - which Otis Redding later worked into "Pain in my Heart".
In early 1964 she had her highest charting single "Wish Someone Would Care" (#17 on the pop charts) and its B-side was "Break-a Way" (later a hit for Tracey Ullman). Also that year she had success with "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” (written by a young Randy Newman) and "He's My Guy" (written by a young Van McCoy).
That same year, she recorded the Jerry Ragovoy-written Time is on My Side— which reached #52 on the mainstream pop charts. It had previously been recorded by the jazz trombonist Kai Winding, and later (more famously) by the Rolling Stones.
But like many other R&B artists, her career stalled at this point when the British Invasion began in earnest. She was never able to have a pop career such as Dionne Warwick had, and had only one minor hit with Otis Redding's "Good to Me" for the rest of the decade. After Hurricane Camille devastated Louisiana in 1969, Irma Thomas left the full-time music business, moved her family to California and began working at a Montgomery Ward store. She had a few unsuccessful singles for the rest of the decade (after moving back to New Orleans in 1976) and had an ill-advised disco album in 1980, when she stopped recording for a time.
Yet she and her husband laid the groundwork for her future by opening a nightclub (The Lion's Den) in the early 80's, and focused on performing there as well as at Mardi Gras and also on European tours where she was still a draw.
And then as with many older performers, labels such as Rounder Records offered a chance for her to re-enter the studio when music listeners were open to hearing the sounds of classic soul in the late 80's, with a modern update. Three album releases followed: The New Rules plus The Way I Feel and True Believer which helped re-establish her now in the Adult Contemporary genre.
Her 1991 live album earned her a Grammy nomination and she returned to her childhood roots with a 1993 Gospel album. She had a critically-acclaimed 1997 album entitled The Story of My Life and - as someone always eager to support younger performers - appeared on an album with fellow Crescent City musician Marcia Ball and former Mother Earth singer Tracy Nelson.
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 need not be re-told; suffice it to say it forced the closure of her club The Lion's Den and she and her family moved 60 miles away for a time since her home was also destroyed. And as with several other Crescent City musicians, she eventually released a post-Katrina album entitled After the Rain - and in a career spanning more than fifty years, it earned her her first Grammy Award for Contemporary Blues album.
Her most recent recording was 2008's Simply Grand and there are two compilation albums worth pursuing: The Best of Irma Thomas covers her 1960's career, and The Soul Queen of New Orleans captures her twenty-plus year career at Rounder Records.
She has some additional laurels as well: in addition to her 2007 Grammy, she was inducted that same year into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and was named by NPR as one of its 50 Great Voices project. Just last year, Tulane University granted her an Honorary Doctorate of Letters degree, plus she won an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award this past September.
At age 78 she still performs (although no tour is presently scheduled) and is worth seeing if she performs anywhere near you.
Irma Thomas (early 1960’s) ….. and now in this decade Of all of her songs: my favorite is another Jerry Ragovoy tune she recorded in 1988, the title track to The Way That I Feel — which the Pointer Sisters later recorded. And below you can listen to it.All I know is the way I feel Anything that makes me feel so good Has just got to be I can't help myself, it's the way I feel It's scaring me to death to think What you could do to me
You're the one that I've been searching for You were so hard to find When you're near: I need nothing more You're deep inside my heart My soul and my mind
Lost in space is the way I feel You’ve got me sailing way beyond My wildest dreams
When you're lying here soft and warm All the world is turning slow Nothing ever came so easy Wondering just how far, how long And where it will go?
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