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. And a Happy Father’s Day to all whom it applies.
WITH THE PASSING this week of Dame Vera Lynn at the age of one hundred and three: when she released her memoirs in 2009, the “Forces’ Sweetheart” noted her correspondence with active WW-II service members had a side effect:
She was so determined to do the right thing for the troops that she wrote personal messages by hand on thousands of portrait photographs for her fans on active service in Europe and the Far East, men who had no other contact with life back in "Blighty". Many of the wives and girlfriends of soldiers who later received them could not believe the singer would have been so kind to a stranger, so she was regularly accused of having affairs with men she had not actually met.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled A Boy and His Tiger: A Tribute to Bill Watterson— featuring original art in homage to the creator of Calvin and Hobbes by his comic strip peers — is slated to open as a benefit for the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California.
WITH ALL OF THE TALK about how the Trumpster promised victories to the fundies and thus sure to be demoralized with this week’s Supreme Court decision (with the Trump/Pence ticket bound to suffer) …. I sure hope that comes-to-pass.
Alas, I doubt that the fundies will hold it against Trump/Pence — thinking they did their damnedest — and even if Gorsuch hadn't betrayed them, “Big Business Roberts” would have been the deciding vote, anyway. It'll anger them, sure .... just not a hill to die on (especially when there are upcoming SCOTUS rulings they may like) and they seem to be politicized beyond the pale.
YUK for TODAY— from Atrios, this quotation about the UK national newspapers came from the TV program “Yes, Minister” — and even though this dates from 1986 (so the Communist paper’s loyalty may be different) it still resonates:
"The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country, the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it already is… and The Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big” … ummm ...
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Jack the Cat— a British Columbia kitteh who escaped while his family was moving ... yet was located after they received a tip that he was seen (on successive days) near a diner, and with persistent searching.
BOOK NOTES — last week marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens— and a new biography suggests that the darker aspects of his novels came from his personal life: “Dickens built a wall in his house to avoid his wife, Catherine. When this didn’t work, he tried to send her to a mental asylum”.
BUSINESS NOTES— the nation’s hierarchical corporate structure has long led to managers in Japan engaging in verbal, psychological and (at the extreme end) physical abuse under pressure. Beginning this month, firms must have in place both clear policies on (and systems for reporting) such abuse.
REGARDING TODAY’S POLL— I am offering a Trump-laden poll (for those who have been seeking one), with the only other named individuals being the indicted law enforcement figures. Otherwise, I will save the other list of names for next week … as the extensive work that I put in gathering, editing and re-editing a normal list is not cost-effective in such a walkover poll.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Joey the Hero Cat— a Newfoundland kitteh who alerted his family when a crock pot overheated and threatened to go on fire.
MUSIC NOTES— fifty-two years after he performed a concert at a Palo Alto high school and was (secretly) recorded by the school’s janitor — a new album by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk is due to be released on July 31st.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC … and the much easier, USA-centric NY Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with (as noted above) a look at hopes that the religious right may be demoralized this week … and why we should not expect that to actually take place.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS?— Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, and Abhinandan Pathak, a look-alike who has even sought political office.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... while I had other bands that were my favorites in my youth: certainly The Doors were part of the soundtrack of that era. Even with them, however, I was something of a contrarian: having less interest in the hit singles (excluding Light My Fire, of course) and more in some of their lesser-known tunes.
And one major exception of mine was The Soft Parade - the band's fourth album. Doors fans besides myself liked it, of course, though usually less than others. There is even a Doors tribute band that adopted the name "Soft Parade".
However, the critics were nearly united: with reviews ranging from below average-to-poor. These included Slant Magazine, All Music's Richie Unterberger as well as Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone as well.
One reason in particular was the album's use of both string sections and horns - which in 1969 was often seen as selling-out. The band's two follow-up efforts (Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman after that) garnered much more critical praise.
Yet I always had an attraction to the Soft Parade: partly (as already noted) due to the contrarian nature of my youth ... but also because I admired the sophistication of the album. It had one hit single Touch Me - which reached #3 in the US charts, but had some more unusual tunes, as well.
One of them was Runnin' Blue - a tribute to Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash in December, 1967 (The Doors were scheduled to play with Redding three weeks later) that featured guitarist (and the song's composer) Robby Krieger singing the chorus. He also wrote Tell all the People while Jim Morrison contributed more common Doors material such as Shaman's Blues and Wild Child - which was the "B" side of the "Touch Me" single. Jim also contributed the album's title track - another epic-length song that wasn't among my favorites, though it has held up better (on a re-listen) than I gave the tune credit for.
Over the years, I hadn't listened much to the album, but in 2007 I had quite a surprise: a favorable review of it by a noted music critic! Dan Ouellette is a freelance music reviewer, who has written for Billboard, Stereophile, the New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. He specializes in jazz - and wrote a biography of the late record executive Bruce Lundavall (a former president of both Columbia as well as Blue Note Records) — but Dan has long written about other types of music.
He has also long been a contributor at Downbeat magazine, which has album reviews not only in the Jazz category ... but also Blues, Historical, Re-Issues and the "Beyond" category - where reviews of pertinent rock, folk, soul and other music can be found.
In reviewing the 40th anniversary remixes of all six Doors albums with Jim Morrison — forty years after the band's debut — Dan Ouellette gave this album Downbeat's highest award (5 stars), along with their debut album. He felt it was "the apex" of the band's creativity, along with some other laudatory praise (which, alas, is not posted online) and these reviews formed the entire "Beyond" reviews for that particular month's (August, 2007) issue.
I e-mailed him to thank him for this nearly unique review (and received a prompt and courteous reply). I did tell him his assertion that "Every song's a gem" was way overdone (as "Do It" and "Easy Ride" sounded pedestrian), which he nonetheless defended. Still, in gratitude: I appended a line to the Wikipedia review citing him by name along with his review ... and it remains there to this day.
Of all of the songs on the album, easily my favorite is Robby Krieger's Wishful Sinful— which the New Age musician George Winston has a solo piano version of.
Wishful crystal Water covers everything in blue cooling water Wishful sinful Our love is beautiful to see I know where I would like to be Right back where I cameMagic rising Sun is shining deep beneath the sea But not enough for you and me and sunshine Love to hear the wind cry
Wishful, sinful, wicked blue Water covers you Wishful, sinful, wicked you Can't escape the blues