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 .… week ahead ….. and if you celebrate it: Thanksgiving weekend.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Visionary — featuring works normally on display in his native Prague — is at the Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art through January 23rd.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay in the American Prospect about a company (with products that treat a common female pelvic ailment) that will soon have all its FDA-compliant medical devices listed on Amazon only in the ‘adult’ category— making them invisible to general search and ineligible for on-site advertising.
QUOTE for today from the blogger Atrios (nicknamed by Kos as “The Baby Blue Cherub”, t/n Duncan Black) —
The lack of Right to Repair— which ranges from simply withholding repair manuals and parts ... all the way to arrangements which require proprietary diagnostic equipment (among other things) — turns items we have purchased …... into merely disguised rental/subscription arrangements.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Dex the Cat— a Pennsylvania kitteh who went missing three months ago, now about to be reunited with his family after being located two hundred miles away in upstate NY …. due to his microchip.
PROGRAMMING NOTE — there will neither be an Odds & Ends diary (nor a C&J posting) next week for the Thanksgiving weekend, as I will be traveling.
I will post (for the Sunday of that weekend) a “Who Lost in TrumpWorld?” poll for my readers who often request one. It won’t be current, so I suspect there’ll be lotsa write-in votes… but have-at-it.
FRIDAY's CHILD is one of a group of formerly feral cats in California not able to be homed … but now working as mousers in barns, warehouses and farms, eliminating the need for traps and poisons and also protecting home gardens.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a few subjects: Friedman Units, Dealey Plaza, wacky candidates …. and even the late press secretary Ron Ziegler.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (one common question this week … and first time I ever aced one of these: 11-for-11 on the NYT quiz).
SEPARATED at BIRTH— TV stars Kyra Sedgwick and Amy Sedaris.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… with his death this week at age eighty-eight….. I will reprise my February posting on this pianist.
At first I thought he might be limited to humorous, whimsical songs but upon further listening: I found the pianist Dave Frishberg to have a full palette of musical offerings. While I think that the All-Music Guide's Scott Yanow may overstate by referring to him as "arguably the best living lyricist" - he does have a way with words, and a more complete background than I imagined.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1933, he developed an appreciation for boogie-woogie piano and joined the house band at St. Paul's Flame Club, where big-name stars performed. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a journalism degree, Frishberg spent two years in the Air Force (via ROTC) before moving to New York in 1957.
In order to gain a union card, he worked briefly for a radio station. One of his early solo piano gigs was working at a gay club (where a then-unknown Tiny Tim was among the performers). But he spent much of the next ten years as an sideman to major stars: Carmen McRae, Gene Krupa, Ben Webster, plus a stint in the Al Cohn-Zoot Sims band (with Jimmy Rushing on vocals each weekend).
It was a chance solo album he recorded in 1970 called Oklahoma Toad that helped him find his own (singing) voice. With the first of his quirky tunes Van Lingle Mungo - simply reciting that and other old-time baseball players' names - he found some success and (after going through a painful divorce) decided to leave New York for Los Angeles two years later.
He had various success: Among his first offers was to write "Dodger Blue" for the hometown baseball team. He placed his talents for awhile writing for television; scoring a Mary Tyler Moore TV special. Another show he wrote for was the ABC Schoolhouse Rock! program, with I'm Just a Bill explaining the legislative process to kids.
Dave Frishberg cites Frank Loesser (of "Guys and Dolls" fame) as an important influence as a composer: with Loesser's "Baby, it's Cold Outside" along with Willie Nelson's "Crazy" as songs he wishes he had wrote.
But he slowly began to build-up a solo career and - after signing with Concord Records - began with a 1975 instrumental album and each subsequent album saw him performing fewer standards and more of his own compositions throughout the 1970's through the 1990's.
And those songs .... My Attorney Bernie tells how Bernie helps him navigate the business world's waters, "I'm Hip" speaks for itself, plus "Let's Eat Home", Another Song about Paris as well as "Can't Take You Nowhere", I Want To Be A Sideman - and my favorite, Blizzard of Lies - in which he asked his friends to recite all of the standard lies they heard. Just a small sample of what they (and he) found were:
It's just a standard form. Strictly by the book. I'll love you darling until I die I am not a crook.
Perhaps the song of his that has been most covered by other performers is his 1962 tune Peel Me a Grape - which was uttered by Mae West in the film "I'm No Angel" from 1933. It has been covered by performers diverse as Dusty Springfield, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, Vanessa Williams and very prominently by Diana Krall.
Since 1986 Dave Frishberg has lived in Portland, Oregon, has appeared on Terry Gross’ radio show Fresh Air a few times, in 2017 wrote his memoirs entitled My Dear Departed Past, and will turn age eighty-eight next month. Alas, he has had medical problems since 2019 and so his career is likely over. (And indeed he did pass away, just this past week).
For a compilation album, try Classics - with a studio album of his songs backing the singer Connie Evingson in 2008 and a 2012 live album of his songs backing the singer Jessica Molaskey. As the critic Stephen Holden wrote, "Few contemporary writers have produced as many songs that have been embraced by nightclub cognoscenti".
In 1994, Dave Frishberg wrote My Country Used to Be - whose lyrics (at the time) lamented how the USA no longer manufactured anything: "now we buy overseas". But following 9-11, he re-wrote the lyrics to reflect his feelings (that many of us shared) at its exploitation.
Once I pledged allegiance to the flag of the good old USA And to the values for which it stood: The home, the family, the neighborhood 'Cause while it lasted: well, it sure felt goodNow I pledge allegiance under God to the mighty corporations To the airport search to the secret police To the wiretaps to the war on peace While America marches into action with our weapons of mass distraction
My country used to be Emblem of democracy Freedom unfurled Once we were hailed and cheered Honored, world-revered Now we're despised and feared Alone against the world
My country used to be Land of productivity We stocked the store Now we make paper trails and profits Of secret sales and then when all else fails We concoct a war
My country used to be Land of opportunity Second to none My country once was proud We stood above the crowd No need to shout out loud "We're number one!"
I hope my children live to see A land like my country used to be