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 and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled WE THE PEOPLE: Portraits of Veterans in America — as watercolorist Mary Whyte traveled across the U.S. to paint a large-scale portrait of one veteran in every state — will be at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia to November 17th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by Rick Perlstein on how the right wing is seeking to ban any discussion of race … unless it involves crime.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Oscar the Cat - the official town mascot of McCordsville, Indiana with a tumor on his mouth requiring hypothyroid medications (as at age 16 is considered too old to have the tumor surgically removed) and a donation box has been set-up in Town Hall.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this hopeful story of how a mosque in Liverpool responded to a right-wing demonstration outside its doors … and after offering them food, saw that many were not truly Islamophobic, but alienated … and just latched-on to a cause.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named George the Cat - an Australian kitteh who went missing 2-1/2 years ago and lived in drainpipes in an industrial park ... before being trapped, scanned for a microchip and returned home.
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 at BIRTH—
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… the death this past May of guitarist “Spider” John Koerner brought to an end the legacy of an early 60’s folk/blues trio from Minnesota in the pre-Beatles era. Koerner was an influence on people ranging from Bonnie Raitt to Bob Dylan, and more than sixty years after their debut album they deserve some recognition.
Koerner and fellow guitarist Dave “Snaker” Ray met while students at the University of Minnesota, and they joined up with harmonica player Tony “Little Sun” Glover in the local music scene (all adopting the sorts of nicknames Delta bluesmen might use).
Koerner, Ray and Glover released a 1963 album Blues, Rags and Hollers that was released on a small label (only 300 copies) that gained so much critical acclaim, it was re-released on Elektra Records … which gave that label extra notice as the British Invasion came on (with both John Lennon and David Bowie praising it). They followed-up with a second album and had a noted performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.
Yet the trio performed separately much more often, with each finding their own niche (yet still reuniting for shows from time-to-time). Dave Ray also founded his own Sweet Jane record label before his death from lung cancer in 2002 and Tony Glover wrote several books on the blues harp (even giving advice to a visiting Mick Jagger), with a column in Rolling Stone for several years before his death in 2019. The trio were inducted into the Minnesota Music Academy Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame in 2008.
John Koerner played in the Boston folk scene in the late 60’s (befriending Bonnie Raitt) before moving to Denmark for a few years in the 1970’s. Upon returning he focused more on folk music than blues, with several album releases (as well as an avid interest in astronomy).
“Spider” John Koerner died in May at the age of eighty-five. Possibly the best tribute came from a roots musician named Ian Anderson (no, not from Tull):
Spider John Koerner is an American national treasure, a genuine folk blues hero. Bizarrely, most of his fellow countrypersons remain blissfully unaware of this, in spite of his being one of the key figures of the 1960s folk boom.
Two first album songs (featuring all three): the first written by Spider John.
This is a cover of a song by Blind Lemon Jefferson — whose name would be the inspiration (just two years) later for naming the Jefferson Airplane.