I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I feature weekdays in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - man in the 1902 painting (by Englishman Henry Scott Tuke) entitled "Ruby, Gold and Malachite" and Bob Denver as "Gilligan".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's sample of the tomfoolery perceptive items I feature:
ART NOTES - a collection of Monet Water Lilies is at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia through August 23rd.
SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES with the death of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker at the age of 92. When an event like this happens, and we hear some of the old names (Hunt, Sturgis, McCord, etc.) - I'm transported back in time.
CHEERS to Roger Federer for winning the career Grand Slam of tennis, and now almost certain to be recognized as - if perhaps not the best player of all time - then certainly of the last thirty years.
MONDAY's CHILD is Pebbles the Cat - who kept Scottish singer Susan Boyle company during her recent rest from exhaustion.
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - you may have hated eating your parents' version of it, but a Croatian nutritionist has claimed pickled cabbage is a natural substitute for Viagra.
HISTORY NOTES - with graduation ceremonies taking place at nearby Dartmouth College it was noted that over fifty years ago President Eisenhower gave the commencement address and - alluding to Joe McCarthy - said the following:
Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
FATHER-SON? - film stars Montgomery Clift and Tom Cruise.
THE LATEST TREND in bars and pubs is not to be visible; instead you want to recapture the Prohibition speakeasy mood by having secret entrances.
YOUNG at HEART could be the motto of Roger Gentilhomme who - at age 100 - will compete in the 2009 National Senior Games in August, vying for a gold medal in tennis in the 90-and-over age bracket.
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled Canada on Canvas is at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba through September 6th.
NOT for the FAINT-HEARTED are photos of women (accused of having been collaborators in WW-II) undergoing head-shavings and beatings during the liberation of France in 1944.
LESS THAN a YEAR after the brutal stabbing of a man on a Greyhound bus in the Canadian province of Manitoba: passengers feel their lives have yet to return to normal.
SATURDAY's CHILD is Sol Playa the Cat - a Texas pootie up for adoption.
BUSINESS NOTES - although it's #2 to Coca-Cola nearly everywhere else, Pepsi has long been #1 in Québec - for reasons such as building Pepsi's first bottling plant outside the US near Montreal, to long creating its own ads there (rather than translate English ads with minor variations).
FILM NOTES - Entertainment Weekly suggest 20 "ace" Las Vegas flicks.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - singer Oksana Grigorieva (Mel Gibson's girlfriend) and "Octomom" Nadya Suleman.
AN IN-DEPTH PROFILE of the transition that Darryl Hannah has made into an activist caused the author to describe her as "one of the most quick-witted and beguilingly eccentric people I have ever met".
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - regulators in Europe have set different starting times in the evening as to when Durex Play O - a stimulating gel used for orgasm amplification - may be advertised on TV.
ART NOTES - paintings by Kris Risto in the collection The End of All Dreams is at the Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania through July 11th.
SCIENCE NOTES - the scientific periodic table gets a new element (#112) - and the search for a name for this new "super-heavy element" is on.
MUSIC NOTES - a blind woman from Glasgow, Scotland is to conduct an 80-piece orchestra playing Jeff Wayne's musical version of "The War of the Worlds".
OLDER-YOUNGER SISTERS? - film star Reese Witherspoon and "American Idol" star Megan Joy.
...and finally, for a song of the week.................... there are some musicians whose musical style is hard to pin down, and others who have written songs for legions of musicians from different styles. Someone who combines both is John Hiatt whose songwriting was his main claim-to-fame for a while, but who has (over the past twenty years) established himself as a performer in his own right.
The Indianapolis native had a stressful early life - at age nine seeing his much-older brother commit suicide, his father dying two years later and helping to steal a Ford Thunderbird with friends (for which they were caught yet not prosecuted). Music was his one outlet, with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and the Stones his heroes. He moved to Nashville at age eighteen in 1970 (when the city was changing rapidly) and while trying to break in as a performer had a day-job as songwriter for Tree Publishing.
And he had some early success, with a recording contract and songs covered by country performers (such as Conway Twitty and Tracy Nelson) - but in addition Three Dog Night had a hit with Sure as I’m Sitting Here in 1974. His own performing began to shift from country-rock towards the new wave sound of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker during the late 1970’s, but he lost his recording contract as well as his songwriting gig, anyway.
Signed by MCA in 1979, he had some notable success in the Netherlands (to this day, he cites that nation for sustaining him during the lean times) and slowly began to make critics lists (albeit without large record sales). He released Riding With the King - the title track of which Eric Clapton and B.B. King made famous over two decades later - and Roseanne Cash had hits with "It Hasn’t Happened Yet" and "The Way We Make a Broken Heart". Yet his personal life started going downhill, due to a bout with alcoholism as well as his second wife committing suicide in 1985 (so difficult for someone who had already lost a brother that way) and he took time off for rehabilitation, a new marriage and a chance to regroup on the A&M label.
His 1986 album Bring the Family (with Ry Cooder on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass and Jim Keltner on drums) reflected a more roots music sound.
And Have a Little Faith in Me became a hit for others (such as Joe Cocker, Mandy Moore and Delbert McClinton). The album garnered his best reviews to-date and sales began to climb.
His next album Slow Turning (produced by Glyn Johns) was his breakthrough; "Tennessee Plates" later appeared in the film "Thelma and Louise".
John Hiatt became a touring success for the first time. On Bonnie Raitt’s own breakthrough 1989 album "Nick of Time", she featured a spirited version of Hiatt’s "Thing Called Love".
In 1992, Hiatt reunited with Cooder, Keltner and Lowe as a supergroup under the name Little Village (after a a Sonny Boy Williamson song) but lasted only one album before it broke up.
He returned with his own band and has recorded a number of successful albums since, with "Perfectly Good Guitar" and Walk On among his best sellers. In 2000 he was named Songwriter/Artist of the year at the Nashville Music Awards and has had eleven Grammy nominations (although has yet to win one).
The list of performers who have performed John Hiatt songs is not only long but amazingly diverse; reflecting his own sound and cross-category appeal. In addition to the artists already mentioned, here are some more: Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Paula Abdul, Jimmy Buffett, Iggy Pop, Emmylou Harris, Jewel, Aaron Neville, Bon Jovi, Earl Thomas Conley, Ronnie Milsap, Jeff Healey and Keith Urban. Since John Hiatt will only turn age 57 this August, I suspect his work will result in an ever-growing list of performers.
My favorite song of his was the title track of Slow Turning (fair-use extract below) which was his highest-selling single (reaching #8 in 1987) and featured original Eagles member Bernie Leadon on banjo. He even managed to slip in the name of one of his early heroes (from the Rolling Stones) at the same time.
And at this link you can listen to it.
Now I'm in my car
I've turned the radio down
And I'm yelling at the kids in the back
'cause they're banging like Charlie Watts
You think you've come so far
In this one-horse-town
Then she's laughing that crazy laugh
'cause you haven't left the parking lot
Time is short and here's the damn thing about it:
You're gonna die, gonna die for sure
You can learn to life with love or without it
But there ain't no cure
It's been a slow turning
From the inside out
A slow turning
But you come about
Slow learning
But you learn to sway
A slow turning
Not fade away