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 Lines from Life — French Drawings is at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts to December 13th.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the Danish pianist Bent Fabricius-Bjerre — whose stage name was Bent Fabric— who has died at the age of ninety-five. He had a song that reached #7 in the US charts in 1962 .... during that period of 1959-1964 (between the 'Day the Music Died' and the Beatles arriving in America) — when the US charts were a free-for-all. Instrumental pop, melodramatic tunes, dance craze music, teen idols, novelty tunes and non-English language songs all had a chance to chart ... that vanished overnight after the British Invasion. If you are unfamiliar with the title Alley Cat, just play it ..... and you will instantly recognize it.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sonny the Cat— a Connecticut kitteh who went missing for a month (while his family was preoccupied with a medical emergency involving their dog) then found a little battered … but ready to come home.
END of an ERA — recently, the intrepid Charlie Pierce noted the competition among GOP governors to please the Trumpster and wondered about prizes… did they include “Furs from Dicker and Dicker of Beverly Hills?” …. which if you watched game shows in the 60’s-70’s: you may well recall they were a possible answer to the question, “Johnny Olson, tell ‘em what they’ve won!” It turns out that earlier this year — a full three years before a California law banning the sale of new furs goes into effect — the store has closed.
FILM NOTES—
A two-time Nobel prize winner (Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911), her husband Pierre died in an accident in 1906 and she was later vilified for having a relationship with a married man. “Radioactive” chronicles her work’s legacy: the basis of modern cancer treatment as well as atomic bombs.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Georgie the Cat— an English kitteh who went missing twelve years ago …. then located 230 miles away at a Scottish campsite about to close, with her microchip alerting her family …. yet who will not reclaim her (due to having a new kitteh who is unfriendly to other felines) and so Georgie will be up for adoption locally.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with The Fall of a Chieftain— the title of the next-to-last chapter of “Treasure Island”— about someone I once admired who was given absolute control over the nation of Spain forty-five years ago …. and King Juan Carlos became a role model by giving-up much of that power voluntarily. Alas, now (abdicating after financial and possible corruption scandals that continue to mount) ….. he has become a pariah in Spain.
SATURDAY's CHILD is named Mako the Dog — a pit bull that thinks he’s a cat?
LANGUAGE NOTES— a Tweet from film star Jamie Lee Curtis has helped stoke a discussion about dictionaries (such as Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage) listing the controversial word ... irregardless.
Reader-suggested SEPARATED at BIRTH (from Audri): TV-film star Olivia Wilde (House, Meadowland) and Dutch TV star Lotte Verbeek (The Borgias, Outlander) — whaddya think?
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone who has been described as a "Billie Holiday for the 21st Century" is the multi-directional Madeleine Peyroux - who led a nomadic life as a child, which surely factors into her influences. She is highly idiosyncratic: waiting eight years in between her debut and second album releases, and has been known to seek solitude at odd times. Yet she manages to combine the singing of classic jazz tunes, some lesser-known rock and pop tunes .... plus add some original compositions of her own.
Born in Athens, Georgia in 1974 - a town that was soon to spawn the B-52's and R.E.M. - she moved with her family to Southern California and Brooklyn. She described her teacher parents as 'hippies’ (which explains part of her spirit). After they divorced in 1987, she moved to Paris with her French teacher mother, where she began busking and then at age 15 joining The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band. They toured Europe, performing songs by Fats Waller, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday (which is what jazz fans first detect in Madeleine’s voice).
She eventually drew the attention of a crucial figure at Atlantic Records, A&R man Yves Beauvais– who eventually left the music side for the audio equipment field – but signed her in 1996 (at age 22) to record her debut album (and her having success in his native France certainly didn’t hurt).
Dreamland featured both blues tunes (by Bessie Smith) as well as ones ranging from Patsy Cline to Edith Piaf’s ‘La Vie en Rose’ (and her sets contain French-language material to this day). She also writes some of her own material (including the title track to the album). It received rave reviews, and her wide range of material earned her appearances at various blues and jazz music festivals) as well as the multi-genre Lilith Fair for 1997.
Then … her idiosyncratic ways came into play, and little was heard from her the next seven years. She played a few club gigs and – without much explanation – returned to busking in Paris.
She returned in 2004 with her second album Careless Love– with noted producer Larry Klein – and Rounder Records had an (uncommon) million-selling album on its hands. Again, she matched a wide range of cover songs (from Leonard Cohen to Bob Dylan to Hank Williams) along with a French tune and an original, Don’t Wait Too Long for material. As with her debut and (by now) regular subsequent releases, she has enjoyed critical acclaim and can perform in any number of venues easily.
2006 saw the release of Half the Perfect World– with k.d. lang joining her on a duet of the Joni Mitchell tune “River”, plus more eclectic covers (from Frenchman Serge Gainsbourg to Tom Waits) … and again some originals. That same year, she appeared at a Live at Abbey Road session along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (so you can see how versatile her appeal is).
2009 saw the release of Bare Bones– with all songs she either wrote (or co-wrote with people such as Joe Henry and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker) and that same year released a live album (which is also available as a DVD).
Then in 2011 came her first release on Decca Records, Standing on the Rooftop– with guest appearances from musicians such as guitarist Marc Ribot (from the Robert Plant – Alison Krauss project) to New Orleans stalwart Allen Toussaint. Once again, a panorama of cover tunes: the Beatles' Martha My Dear to Robert Johnson’s blues classic Love in Vain and a Marc Ribot composition set to the poem Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love by W.H. Auden.
In 2013, she took on an ambitious project: a tribute to a landmark Ray Charles album, whose 1962 Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music showcased a side of him that was surprising to many, and helped establish him as more than simply an R&B genius. Madeleine Peyroux covers some of the songs, but adds works by Warren Zevon, Buddy Holly and the classic Gentle On My Mind by John Hartford.
Her most recent release is 2018’s Anthem— the title track is her rendition of the Leonard Cohen song. Some of her works (including "Don’t Wait Too Long") you may have heard played in TV ads and films, and she won a 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best International Jazz Artist.
At only age forty-seven, she has a long career ahead of her — her 2020 tour is awaiting a re-launch — and with that sort of versatility and musical taste, she certainly will not lack for places to sing.
Of all of her work, my favorite comes from her 2009 release Bare Bones - and the opening track Instead is co-written by the guitarist Julian Coryell - a fine player in his own right (and son of the late pioneering jazz-rock guitarist Larry Coryell).
Instead of feeling bad Be glad you got somewhere to go Instead of feeling sad Be happy you're not all alone Instead of feeling low Get high on everything you love Instead of wasting time Feel good about what you are dreaming ofInstead of trying to win something you never understood Just play the game you know, eventually you will you both look good It's silly to pretend to have something you don't own Just let her be a woman and you'll be her man