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 The Land Carries Our Ancestors:Contemporary Art by Native Americans is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through January 15th.
PROGRAMMING NOTE — I’ll be travelling for the Yuletide: thus, there will neither be a Friday C&J post, nor a normal Sunday Odds & Ends next week (though I will have a “Who Lost in MAGA World ?!?!?” poll). If you celebrate it: Merry Christmas. And I’ll see you all on the New Year’s weekend.
YOUR WEEKEND READS are two essays (somewhat related theme) — one by Amanda Marcotte on the Hallmark movie genre — which many others have analyzed — looking at how the audience for these flicks support policies that encourage women to leave small towns … the other by Timothy Noah in The New Republic on the red state brain drain, caused by the effects of the culture war.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sandy the Cat— a sixteen year-old Tennessee kitteh who survived a tornado that leveled his family’s home (when they were away) yet discovered in the rubble and is recuperating well.
ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES— after suffering through a 2011 bout of flooding from torrential rains, Copenhagen, Denmark has sought to rebuild itself as a sponge city— able to absorb water more efficiently and release it more slowly.
FILM NOTES— moviegoers in Italy have seen one of their own works edge Barbie in 2023 box office receipts — C'e' Ancora Domani (There's Still Tomorrow) is a black-and-white film of an abused housewife in post-war Rome and confronting issues of patriarchy in the year Italian women got to vote for the first time.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Smokey the Hero Cat— an Australian kitteh who in 2018 detected a woman’s illness and kept head-butting her, leading to her calling an ambulance in time before her organs began shutting down from colon disease.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… while this week’s New York Times quiz .. is a Faces of 2023 quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at three former GOP members of Congress whom their caucus supported one day … but not the next.
Reader suggested SEPARATED at BIRTH— (from Audri) — TV star Melinda Clarke (The O.C., CSI series) and film star Fairuza Balk (Almost Famous, The Waterboy). Whaddya think?
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… my annual tribute to a performer that one reviewer declared to be "the most listened-to jazz pianist of all time" and with the Yuletide season upon us: if true, it should be noted that Vince Guaraldi achieved that status - in a quiet way - due to a certain comic strip of note.
His breakthrough hit (in more ways than one) was the 1963 Grammy-winning tune Cast Your Fate to the Wind - a gorgeous melody that eight years later the guitarist Joe Walsh - later to join The Eagles - worked into a medley (most improbably) with a hard rock song with the James Gang entitled The Bomber in 1971.
In the early 1960's, Vince Guaraldi was successful in the jazz world — first as a sideman in vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s band— yet comparatively unknown to the general public. But that changed - dramatically - with a 1965 cab ride that TV producer Lee Mendelson took across the Golden Gate Bridge. He had already contacted Dave Brubeck and also vibraphone player Cal Tjader about composing for his project (and turned down by both, for lack of time).
Just as The Sopranos producer David Chase decided upon his show's theme song - by hearing the UK band "Alabama 3" perform it on the radio - Lee Mendelson heard "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on the radio in that fateful cab ride.
He asked for help from the noted San Francisco music writer Ralph Gleason (who helped co-found Rolling Stone magazine later that decade) and was thus able to contact Guaraldi about composing for the upcoming Charlie Brown Christmas special. In 2018, the Jersey City Ballet Theater did a dance version of the special.
Sixteen TV shows (and one feature film) later, the music of Vince Guaraldi is an integral part of the Peanuts experience - with the theme song Linus and Lucy plus the irresistible song Skating among his best-loved Peanuts music. One reviewer noted that Linus and Lucy borrows its syncopation and A-flat key from “Cast Your Fate”. And Guaraldi was a later influence for Gary Burton and Pat Metheny.
As a child, my mother bought the Vince Guaraldi album for me … mistakenly believing it was the soundtrack of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” (and apologizing to me for it) — but I was delighted to be introduced to his music, and it was a stepping-stone (among other recordings) to becoming a piano trio lover. When people say there is no Thanksgiving music to speak of — while instrumental (and quite short), Guaraldi wrote Thanksgiving Theme to offer a possible gift to us.
Vince Guaraldi died in 1976 (at only age 47) in-between sets of a gig in Menlo Park California. The musician David Benoit cites Guaraldi as an inspiration, and it's difficult to imagine Peanuts with any other music backing it. If you are a fan of George Winston: he had a meeting with Guaraldi in 1971, saying "He was very gracious and encouraging when I occasionally had the opportunity to play intermission piano between his sets” (a common practice at jazz clubs then).
Some long-lost film archives of Guaraldi were discovered in Ralph Gleason’s attic, and his son has helped restore them for a new documentary The Anatomy Of Vince Guaraldi— seeking to bring it to home video at some point.
For the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis,"Peanuts" was the only chance to hear jazz on television in his youth. Wynton also loved that his late pianist father Ellis— the patriarch of the Marsalis musical family whom we lost to Covid — knew Guaraldi. "Our father knew somebody who was connected to television!", he exclaimed.
While most of Vince Guaraldi's work is instrumental: appropriately for the season, the song Christmas Time Is Here had lyrics written by the show's producer Lee Mendelson — who prophetically died on Christmas Day in 2019 (at age 86) — for kids to sing. A nice grown-up version was recorded a few years ago by Diane Reeves - the featured nightclub singer in the film "Good Night and Good Luck". And below you can hear Vince Guaraldi's original version.
Christmas time is here Happiness and cheer Fun for all that children call Their favorite time of year
Snowflakes in the air Carols everywhere Olden times and ancient rhymes Of love and dreams to share
Sleigh bells in the air Beauty everywhere Yuletide by the fireside And joyful memories there
Christmas time is here We'll be drawing near Oh, that we could always see Such spirit through the year