Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

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 Wyoming delegate to the DNC gathering Philadelphia, Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.

ART NOTES — a collection of prints, drawings, pastels, and watercolors in an exhibition entitled Masterworks: Paper is on display at the Albany, NY Institute of History and Art through October 16th.

   now in Albany, New York

HAIL and FAREWELL to not only the oldest living man in the United States but also its oldest living WW-II veteran, Louisiana resident Frank Levingston— who served in a segregated Army as a private during the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943 and did a tour in North Africa — who has died at the age of 110.

YUK for today: Philadelphia selected this fellow in the 1973 NFL Draft, and he is my choice …. for the best sports name of the 20th Century.

I want him on my team

FOR the FIRST TIME a contemporary music concert inside Vatican City's historic Sistine Chapel took place when — at a conference where over 200 doctors, scientists, researchers and philanthropists gathered to discuss ways to combat diseases via regenerative medicines — the U2 guitarist Dave ‘The Edge’ Evans played a short acoustic set.

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Duchess the Cat— a Texas kitteh struck by a vehicle but whom an animal hospital went the extra mile to save (including wiring her jaw shut in order to heal it) … and is now on the road-to-recovery.

        Duchess the Cat

AMONG THE GOALS of Canada’s relatively new prime minister Justin Trudeau is to help his country’s scientists— who already enjoy a higher level of public spending on R&D than in both Europe and the US — to improve their abilities to transform ideas into marketable products.

FRIDAY's CHILD is named Jo the Cat— a kitteh who wandered onto the ice of the San Jose Sharks hockey team’s arena (was later found and turned over to the local Humane Society) ….. and for a black cat: turned into a good luck charm, rallying the team to a comeback win in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

           Jo the Cat

BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC, as well as the Science Friday quiz from NPR.

GRANDFATHER-GRANDSON? — TV network (Viacom) owner Sumner Redstone and TV host Conan O’Brien.

        Sumner Redstone           Conan O’Brien

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… a song that is believed to be over 100 years old, falls out of mass favor … then gets a new lease on life once again ... is A Man of Constant Sorrow— which began as a country tune, yet has been performed by folk and rock performers as well.

Credited as having been written in 1913 by Kentucky fiddler Dick Burnett— although in an interview he gave late-in-life he was unsure if he had heard the song elsewhere — its first recording was by Emry Arthur in 1928, and had some minor success with other musicians before fading away.

Then it became popular in the 1950’s when recorded by the Stanley Brothers —  and Ralph Stanley believes that fate brought the song to them, as he told radio host Diane Rehm in 2009: 

"Man of Constant Sorrow" is probably two or three hundred years old. But the first time I heard it when I was a small boy, my father  had some of the words to it, and I heard him sing it, and we – my brother and me – we put a few more words to it, and brought it back in existence.

I guess if it hadn't been for that it'd have been gone forever. I'm proud to be the one that brought that song back, because I think it's wonderful."

Then in the 1960’s and early 70’s, it was the turn of folk singers. Bob Dylan recorded it on his debut album, then was later recorded under the titles of "Girl of Constant Sorrow" by Joan Baez, "Maid of Constant Sorrow" by Judy Collins, and "Sorrow" by Peter, Paul and Mary. Again, the song began to fade somewhat.

Fast forward to the year 2000 ….. for which it was re-recorded for us in the hit film O Brother, Where art Thou? (starring George Clooney). The Coen Brothers hired as music producer T-Bone Burnett— who later produced the Grammy-winning Robert Plant — Alison Krauss collaboration — to put together the folk, blues, country and gospel of the movie's Depression-era setting. It became a runaway hit, selling roughly nine million copies and scoring a Grammy for Album of the Year.

For “Man of Constant Sorrow”, the original plan to have George Clooney sing it did not work out (although T-Bone Burnett said that if he had more time to work on the song, Clooney’s version may well have become good enough to use).

Instead, a version by some musicians that Burnett assembled and called the Soggy Mountain Boys was used — with Dan Tyminski (a member of Alison Krauss’s band Union Station) as principal vocalist. Tyminski wasn’t chosen for his Southern roots, being a native of Rutland, Vermont.

And this version has carried the song forward into the 21st Century, where it may be simply lying-in-wait … for its next revival.

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

A recording that I like (that gives it a different flavor) is one sung by original Moody Blues member Denny Laine— who later was a member of Paul McCartney’s 1970’s band Wings. Denny Laine, having been born in Birmingham, England … naturally changes the reference from Kentucky to his hometown.

Just before joining Wings, Laine was a member of the nonpareil drummer Ginger Baker’s band Air Force— a floating rock band (w/jazz and African flavorings) that Baker intended as a sort of Count Basie band, rather than the partnership of the band Cream that he had just left. It lasted from 1969-1971, and was reformed late this past year … before Ginger Baker had to withdraw from music (at least temporarily) due to heart problems this past February.

And this 1970 live Ginger Baker’s Air Force recording features the violin of Rick Grech (to stay close to the song’s origins) plus organ work by Steve Winwood …. and the unmistakable drums of Ginger Baker. This song actually reached #85 in the Billboard charts of 1970, and if you’ve only heard this tune played by country, folk or bluegrass musicians … below is something different.

I am a man of constant sorrow …….… I've seen trouble all my days ……….... I’ll say goodbye to Birmingham …….... Where I was born and partly raised

x YouTube Video