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 Thanksgiving week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Edouard Manet: A Model Family— the first retrospective focusing on his depictions of family members (including celebrated painter Berthe Morisot, who married Manet’s younger brother Eugène) is at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts to January 20th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this short essay by Professor Robert Reich on why Elon Musk was playing-with-fire by making a public push to boost Howard Lutnick for Treasury secretary — especially with you-know-who— thus, Lutnick had to settle for being Commerce secretary.
PROGRAMMING NOTE— as I will be travelling next week, there will neither be a Friday post in Cheers & Jeers, nor any poll. Here’s hoping for a Happy Thanksgiving for all who celebrate, without any unpleasantness from relatives.
THURSDAY's CHILD is the late, great Barney the Cat— an English kitteh who would sleep in the middle of a footbridge in north London, staying still despite the presence of dogs (yet let everyone pet him) — and now three years after his death, the footbridge is to be named after him.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this rather lengthy (yet revealing) essay by the Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck — who has been a critic of “judge-shopping” — and his being invited to be a panelist at the national Federalist Society convention. He explains why he went, and what he felt he did/did not achieve, yet with the revealing 1958 Chinua Achebe book title Things Fall Apart.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Raymond the Cat— a Welsh kitteh who ventures all over his hometown — such as the Aldi supermarket, the penthouse suite at a local hotel, even town council offices — and now with his own Facebook page, townspeople know just who this street-wise cat is (and are not alarmed).
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with the November Just So Stories edition— a salute to the late, great budget travel writer Arthur Frommer, a heartwarming stem-cell donation that saved the life of the recipient (medically) and the donor (spiritually) ... and a board game designed by the late Kurt Vonnegut ... now on sale, more than fifteen years after his death.
FATHER-SON? — the late NHL Hall of Fame hockey player Rod Gilbert and TV/film star Josh Hartnett (The Bear, Oppenheimer).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… although his time in the limelight was rather short (1951-1953), tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest was a perfect definition of a blues/R&B oriented musician, with one classic tune and a few others that have lasted, more than forty years after his death.
Born in 1920, while still a high school student in his native St. Louis, he found work in several local bands (including the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra). After graduation, he was hired by several notable big band leaders: Jay McShann (1940-42), Andy Kirk (1942-48), Duke Ellington (1948-50) and briefly with Miles Davis that same year.
He had some notable hits in the early 1950’s leading his own band, most notably 1952’s Night Train (which was modeled on a Duke Ellington song Happy Go Lucky Local), and which John Mayall covered a dozen years later. He also had a more modest success with Hey Mrs. Jones.
Big bands went out of favor during that era, and he returned to being a sideman for the few remaining successful orchestras. He had a 1962 hit Soul Street— for the bandleader Oliver Nelson (whose magnum opus Stolen Moments was covered by Frank Zappa). His most noted work during the 1970’s was with the Count Basie Orchestra (from 1972-77).
He also worked with various groups in New York during the 1970’s, and his song Night Train was prominently featured in a 1979 documentary The Last of the Blue Devils— a reunion concert of musicians who gained fame during the Tom Pendergast era of Kansas City’s swinging music scene during Prohibition — showing him as featured soloist in the Basie band.
Jimmy Forrest died in August, 1980 at the age of sixty. The author Nick Tosches wrote a 2000 book entitled The Devil and Sonny Liston— noting that the champion (yet troubled) boxer found listening to (fellow St. Louis native) Jimmy Forrest during training sessions and before fights to be comforting.
Of all of his early 1950’s R&B hits: my favorite is Bolo Blues— a short, slow contemplative tune — which was the theme song for the late radio DJ Bob Porter’s syndicated show Portraits in Blue. Listening to it now, I can hear Bob ending his show with, “Take us on home … Jimmy Forrest”.