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 Laramie, 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 Millet and Modern Art: From Van Gogh to Dalí opens this Sunday at the St. Louis, Missouri Art Museum and continues through May 20th.
ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES — with 95% of the population of Egypt living near the Nile River (or its delta) nearly all of its drinking water comes from it. Yet due to pollution, population growth, climate change and now the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam— set to be Africa’s largest, with a reservoir about the size of London — the White House (of all places) is helping to mediate.
WHILE ETHNIC-DRIVEN POLITICS has often led the nations of Africa to quarrel with each other and tolerate corruption: younger generations are more likely to marry outside their own ethnic/tribal groups (due to education, urbanization where meddling relatives have less influence and where one interacts with a wider population) and their children are less likely to vote along ethnic lines.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Walter the Hero Cat— an English kitteh who keeps a Type-1 diabetic woman from going into a seizure (by sensing when her blood sugar is getting low) and then pokes her around the face until she wakes up.
BOOK NOTES— a new book chronicles the first time any nation extended a major donation of aid strictly on a humanitarian basis: the 1847 sailing of the USS Jamestown to deliver a shipload of food to the people of Ireland during the Great Famine that — along with the donation of $17 from the Choctaw Nation that same year — represented a change: interactions between nation-states neither for warfare nor trade. These became the basis of American humanitarian aid going forward: considered to be a sign of strength, rather than weakness.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Cassie the Cat— a Tennessee kitteh who stowed away on a furniture store delivery truck, and when workers posted a photo on Facebook: a neighbor alerted the family in question.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
LAST NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at venerable old restaurants that manage somehow to endure …. and one NYC restaurateur (proud of his immigrant status) who comes in to greet his patrons every day, going into his ninetieth year.
THIS COMING SUNDAY I will feature Odds & Ends - a wrap-up diary of my postings, circa noon Eastern (9 AM Pacific). I hope you'll vote in the "Who Lost the Week?!?" poll (a mirror image of the one Bill posts here). Dang, there are already bushel baskets of misfits lined-up for your review (such as Iowa’s Democratic party leader, Angela Merkel’s would-be successor, Michael Avenatti and the CEO of Barclays Bank) .... and the week's not over yet.
OLDER-YOUNGER SISTERS?— English film star Emma Watson (Harry Potter) and US TV star Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men, Sabrina the Teenage Witch).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while he certainly learned from pioneers such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Guitar Slim, the Chicago blues guitar legend Buddy Guy has been - as he puts it - a "caretaker of the blues: I just take what they taught me and keep adding to it". And has-he-ever: ... in a career now in its sixth decade, with fiery guitar licks, showmanship, vocals and some compelling songs written. And he in turn was a major influence on Jimi Hendrix, as Buddy Guy had a louder, more edgy sound that presaged the coming of rock music.
Born in 1936 in Louisiana, he found work performing around Baton Rouge in the mid-50's in the bands of John Tilley and Raful Neal. At age 21, he made the trek that many other southern bluesmen made: to Chicago to ply his trade in the blues, after sending a tape to Chess Records. After overcoming a case of stage fright, his new friendships with Muddy Waters and Otis Rush plus some sizzling performances were enough to land a contract - but at first, with Cobra Records. Under the production of Chess Records studio manager Willie Dixon, Guy had success with songs such as "This is the End" and "Try to Quit You, Baby" before Cobra went bankrupt in 1960.
Moving to Chess Records in its heyday was his break-out - and by now, his songs sounded less like his idols and more his own. "First Time I Met the Blues" and "Let Me Love You, Baby" are performed by many rock stars, as well as "Stone Crazy" and "My Time After a While" (which John Mayall has often performed). In addition, he performed on some of his label-mates' recordings, such as Muddy Waters' "Killing Floor" and the Chess label's last major hit: Wang Dang Doodle as performed by Koko Taylor in 1966.
After Chess Records began to decline in the late 60's, he released some records for Vanguard (including a hard-rocking version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", believe it or not) and then settled into a partnership with harmonica player Junior Wells - "Buddy Guy & Junior Wells" graced many a marquee - and I got to see the two of them play later in the 70's in New York.
Many musicians refer to the 1980's - after the rise of disco and the collapse of major rock and blues radio shows - as a "lost decade" for the blues. Buddy Guy was no exception; releasing a few albums to no avail. And while he had no problem with rock stars performing his music - indeed, he's toured and performed with numerous American and British stars over the years - he was dismayed that radio stations would play white musicians performing first-rate versions of blues classics, but not B.B. King or Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf (especially during the 1980's).
His re-emergence came after many performers (including Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton) had him open on their tours, leading to a new recording contract at Silvertone Records. And his 1991 album Damn Right, I've Got the Blues achieved a rare level of success for a blues album: gold record status (and which won him a Grammy, as well).
Over the past two decades, he has released several popular albums: Last Time Around - his last recording with Junior Wells before his death in 1998, Sweet Tea in 2001, Living Proof from 2010 and his most recent from 2018, The Blues is Alive and Well— with guest performances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as well as Jeff Beck.
He also has a 2009 compilation album that is a good place for any fan of his music to start, and has even put down his electric guitar from time-to-time to play acoustic Delta blues (despite it not being his strongest suit) to showcase some of his own heroes of the genre.
Since 1989, Buddy Guy has owned his own blues club in Chicago entitled Legends - where you can often meet him sitting at the bar when he is not performing or travelling - and last decade it moved across the street to much larger quarters, which he hopes will be a mainstay of the blues long after he is gone.
Even if he never played another song, Buddy Guy's legacy is set. He is the recipient of six Grammy Awards, a National Medal of the Arts, Billboard Magazine's Century Award, plus induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2012 he published his autobiography and Rolling Stone ranked him as #23 in its 100 Greatest Guitarists list, as well as his song Stone Crazy being ranked as #78 in its "100 Greatest Guitar Songs" of All Time list. And just ask any famous rock guitarist with a strong blues component to their music: and Buddy Guy's name will regularly turn up as an influence.
Fortunately, at age eighty-three, Buddy Guy is not only active, he's as busy as ever: now on a tour that will take him cross-country. And in February 2012: he successfully coaxed President Obama into singing a chorus of Sweet Home, Chicago at a White House event celebrating Black History Month.
Of all of his works: it's a song he performed with Junior Wells (which borrows from the song "Hard to Handle" by Otis Redding) entitled A Man of Many Words that is my favorite.
YouTube VideoI don't care what nobody says I'm a man of a many words I can speak things to you darling That I can swear that you never heard
I was hauled off to jail late last night With no one to pay my bail I rapped strong to the judge early this morning And the judge put the cops in jail
I rap strong and I know it right along: Come on mama, let me turn you on