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-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
NO POLL TODAY, UNFORTUNATELY — this happened a few months back: no matter how hard I try, creating a poll just does not take. I’ve tried five times, using Firefox, IE and Chrome … no luck. Too bad, as I had a couple of goodies today: Hissène Habré, Drew Peterson, Glenn Beck, Francesco Schettino, the Oracle corporation … and even Justin Bieber. Hopefully, will be fixed by next week.
ART NOTES — a break from the onset of the summer heat: a collection of woodblock winter landscapes by the Japanese printmaker Kawase Hasui is at the Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts through August 3rd.
On display in Richmond, VirginiaHAIL and FAREWELL to the jazz flutist Jeremy Steig— the son of noted New Yorker cartoonist William Steig and someone who was among the first to explore jazz-rock (when he worked with Tim Hardin in the 60’s) — who has died at the age of 73 …….. and to the folk-rock violinist Dave Swarbrick— best known for his time in Fairport Convention and who soldiered through three tracheotomies and a double lung transplant (due to emphysema) because he loved playing so much — who has died at the age of 75.
WEEKEND READ #1 — many have already cited it, and if you have not read it: do have a look at conservative writer David Frum’s take on the seven guardrails of democracy that Donald Trump has run-over during his campaign.
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING signing-up for the program known as TSA Pre-Check— where for $85, you get a five-year chance to skip the ever-increasingly long security lines at airports in favor of a much shorter one (and where you don’t have to remove your shoes, plus a few other niceties) — I got my number less than two weeks after appearing for a fingerprint session (electronically, no ink). Not everyone can lay out that much money at once, but worth considering.
THURSDAY's CHILD is a kitteh who is (believed) to have been thrown down a garbage chute at an apartment complex in Iowa City … but is recuperating nicely and will soon be up for adoption.
Iowa City kittehAMONG THE CANDIDATES to become the next governor of Vermont is the former major league baseball pitcher Bill ‘The Spaceman’ Lee— whose aunt Annabelle Lee pitched in the “League of Their Own” and who has been a long-time adult baseball league pitcher/manager — running on the left-wing Liberty Union Party (led by perennial candidate Peter Diamondstone).
WEEKEND READ #2 — Kevin Drum notes a Washington Post essay that does not focus (as most essays do) on for-profit liberal arts colleges … but instead for-profit vocational schools— and you will not be surprised at the verdict.
CHEERS to a senior district chief in the African nation of Malawi, Theresa Kachindamoto — who has banned child marriage in her district, saying “No child should be found loitering at home or doing household chores during school time."
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Jefferson the Cat— a Scottish kitteh left in a carrier at a park in Glasgow …. but doing well, and will soon be up for adoption.
Jefferson the CatFOR A SHORT TIME theater-goers in Long Island, New York can take in the play Anything Goes— with musical numbers by Cole Porter — that stars the original star of “Annie” (Andrea McArdle) and the Emmy-winner ………. Sally Struthers.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at finally achieving a bucket-list goal (twenty-nine years after setting this target) — seeing a total solar eclipse (back in 1999).
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
FATHER-SON? — film star Tom Cruise and Ford Agency male model Paolo Anchisi.
Tom Cruise (born 1962) Paolo Anchisi (born 1991 in Italy)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… one of my favorite singers has been Nancy Wilson– in large part because she seems so comfortable in genres besides that of a jazz singer. Add to that her role as host of a regular radio program plus her fifty years as a performer, civil rights and AIDS activist - and you see someone who has indeed been a star in many walks of life.
The Chillicothe, Ohio native was born in 1937 and after singing in the church choir and winning a high school talent contest made a name singing in clubs around the Columbus area. After touring for two years with bandleader Rusty Bryant she met the alto saxophonist Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley– who told her she should move to New York, which she did as a 22 year-old in 1959. Singing in clubs at night (and working as a secretary by day) Adderley’s manager sent demo tapes to Capitol Records who signed her in 1960.
After some success appearing on an album by the pianist George Shearing her breakthrough album was Something Wonderful– with the single Guess Who I Saw Today? becoming one of her signature songs. In 1962 she recorded with her old friend Cannonball Adderley - with the future Weather Report founder Joe Zawinul on piano – on a critically acclaimed album. And a 1963 single "Tell Me the Truth"" became her break-out song, leading to a 1964 Time Magazine review.
From the late 1960’s through the 1970’s, she frequently moved in R&B circles, even dabbling on the fringe of disco in the late 1970’s. All along, she sang material from a wide range of composers: Broadway tunesmiths, Bill Withers, Jerry Jeff Walker, Marvin Gaye, Leon Russell and Stephen Sondheim. In the 1990’s, she often performed what came to be known as "New Adult Contemporary" (aka 'smooth jazz') ….. at the same time that she could sing with a piano trio playing the Great American Songbook.
She recorded over 65 albums, including some in this past decade with the pianist Ramsey Lewis– who serenaded her (along with his trio) at a Hollywood Bowl concert for her 70th birthday in 2007.
Her most recent albums: 2004's RSVP and 2006’s Turned to Blue– feature mostly ballads, along with the last album's title track (a Maya Angelou poem with added music) and a guest instrumental soloist on each track, continuing a trend of hers this decade.
Although it lasted only a year, she won an Emmy for her own TV variety musical The Nancy Wilson Show in the mid-1960’s. Besides performing on many variety shows, she also appeared on numerous TV programs – either as a nightclub singer or simple acting – from Hawaii 5-0 to The Smothers Brothers to Moesha. And beginning in 1995, she hosted the NPR series Jazz Profiles - bringing her to a new audience too young to know of her 1960’s recordings.
She has received much recognition, and not all of it for music. She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2004, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and had a street named after her in her hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio.
But she also has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP, a Pioneer Award from the Brotherhood Crusade and in 2005 was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame– for her willingness to participate in the great civil rights marches of the 1960’s (when it could have been risky to her career) – of which she said, "This award means more to me than anything else I have ever received”.
In 2011, at age 74: Nancy Wilson performed her final concert at Ohio University, in her home state. To show the breadth of her career, she has three Grammy Awards to her credit: one from 1964 … and the other two from her two most recent albums in 2005 and 2007 ... to come full-circle.
Nancy Wilson in the 1960’s And in more recent yearsOf all of her work, my favorite is one she recorded back in 1962 with Cannonball Adderley – the Buddy Johnson tune “Save Your Love for Me" – and below you can listen to it.
Wish I knew why I am so in love with you ….. No one else in the world will do ….. Darling, please save your love for me
I can feel it even when you’re not here …..Can’t conceal it, I really love you my dear... And though I know no good can come from loving you …….I can’t do a thing, I’m so in love with you
So darling, help me please ……. Have mercy on a fool like me…... I know I’m lost, but still I plead: ….. Darling, please save your love for me
x YouTube Video