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 Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism will be at the Albuquerque, New Mexico Museum to May 2nd.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by the estimable columnist for The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland— that those in the UK who want to see an elected head-of-state (rather than a hereditary one) have some newfound cause for hope, yet the pull for a monarchy will still remain, even when the present monarch dies.
WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION SUGGESTION #1 (via email) is the return of a long-discontinued weekly compendium of news, music and culture entitled Altercation— from author/professor Eric Alterman — arriving each Friday morning. It’s easy to over-subscribe to these (some seem to arrive each day) yet this is a favorite.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Luther the Brewpub Cat— an Indiana kitteh hired initially for its brewing operations (as a mouser protecting grains) yet now largely serves as entertainment for the pub itself, with craft beers named after him and who attracts non-beer drinkers to the pub.
WHILE IN MOST COUNTRIES young people are far more tolerant of gays, the continent of Africa — with notable exceptions such as Botswana and neighboring South Africa — the young seem to be nearly as intolerant as their grandparents.
WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION SUGGESTION #2 (via YouTube) is a short, 2-minute music video (from an English couple soon celebrating their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary) called Toyah & Robert's Sunday Lockdown Lunch. This involves singer Toyah Willcox (who regularly made the UK pop charts beginning at the end of the 70’s) and guitarist Robert Fripp (the founder of King Crimson).
They perform a short rendition of rock classics (such as “Purple Haze”, “I Love Rock & Roll”, “Black Dog”, “You Really Got Me” and“Enter Sandman”) and it’s quite humorous due to her vivaciousness …. and his phlegmatic expression.
FRIDAY's CHILD is an English kitteh who was stuck in a tree for more than forty-eight hours … and when the London Fire Brigade responded and set-up a ladder … proceeded to walk down the ladder on its own, then ran-off … with the station commander saying, “I’ve been in [The Fire Service] more than 25 years … and I’ve never seen a cat do that before”.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
SEPARATED by VIDEO— impersonator Miles Fisher and a “deepfake” of actor Tom Cruise — generated by the Belgian visual effects artist Christopher Ume.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while he has one lasting composition that was performed as a big band stand-alone song, covered by others and (forty-five years later) used as a TV theme song: you probably know the works of composer Earle Hagen mostly from TV themes. Lots of them.
Born in Chicago in 1919, his family relocated to California and he attended Hollywood High. His trombone playing was proficient enough that he left school at age sixteen to work with the touring bands of Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, then as a featured soloist with the bandleader Ray Noble in 1939. During his off-time he taught trombone for extra money, then added side work with the CBS radio network in Los Angeles. When WW-II broke-out, he enlisted and played in the U.S. Army Air Force band.
Upon his return he was hired as an orchestrator/arranger for 20th Century Fox, working on such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Call Me Madame and Carousel among others for the rest of the decade. Yet by 1952, he sensed that the golden age of movie musicals was beginning to fade, and decided to make the jump to the newly emerging world of television.
In 1953, for the new Make Room for Daddy show: he used a big-band re-working of the traditional tune Danny Boy (for its star Danny Thomas). This brought him to the attention of the show’s producer Sheldon Leonard — who gave him work on his subsequent shows, beginning with The Dick Van Dyke Show. Leonard later formed a publishing house with him, earning considerable royalties.
Perhaps his most memorable TV theme is The Fishin’ Hole— the whistling theme to The Andy Griffith Show— with him doing the whistling. His most ambitious was for the Robert Culp/Bill Cosby show I Spy— where Sheldon Leonard wanted original music for each episode. Earle Hagen travelled around the world with the film crew, using “world music” to suit the location on all eighty-two episodes, winning an Emmy in the process.
He continued into the late 60’s to mid-80’s, with the theme songs for Rango, Gomer Pyle, That Girl and The Mod Squad, plus contributing pieces to the “Dukes of Hazzard”, “Dobie Gillis” and “Eight is Enough”. In his later years, he wrote two books on arranging/scoring music and for private lessons: would sometimes only ask for boxes of golf balls, to fuel his passion. In the year 2002, his autobiography was titled Memoirs of a Famous Composer … Nobody Ever Heard Of.
Earle Hagen died in 2008 at the age of eighty-eight and in 2011 was posthumously inducted into both the Television Academy Hall of Fame as well as the Emmy Hall of Fame.
That song I alluded to in the intro is one that Earle Hagen wrote as a twenty-year old in Ray Noble’s band, intended as a tribute to Duke Ellington (in general) and to his alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (in particular). Indeed, the first time that I heard Harlem Nocturne: I’d have supposed it was written by the Duke himself.
Recently I mentioned it was utilized in 1984 as the theme song for the Mike Hammer television show (performed by Bud Shank on alto sax) and thus quite apropos considering Earle Hagen’s career path. Yet its endurance is marked by those who have recorded the song — most as instrumentals, and others with different sets of lyrics (the first by Hagen’s bandmate w/Ray Noble, Dick Rogers). For starters: Mink DeVille, Mantovani, Elvis Presley’s guitarist Bill Black, Woody Herman, the Ventures, Ernestine Anderson, Martin Denny, Edgar Winter and (fittingly) — Duke Ellington.