ART NOTES - nearly eighty original drawings by Margret and H. A. Rey - in an exhibition entitled Curious George Saves the Day - is at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson through July 22nd.

WITH THE OPENING of the mass murder trial of right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik - who gave a Fascist-like arm salute on his first day in court - xenophobic, anti-immigrant parties in Scandinavia distanced themselves from Breivik yet are largely unchanged, with the exception of Norway's Progress Party - which after some examination has made some changes to its rhetoric.

WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Boots The Cat - an Illinois kitteh slated for euthanasia as specified in a 76 year-old woman's will, concerned there would not be a safe home for Boots (whom she raised after rescuing him from an abusive situation).

However, given that Georgia Lee Dvorak left her entire $1.3 million estate to animal charities: a judge granted the trustee's request to allow them to conduct a proper search for Boots to be placed in a home, instead.

FIRST IT WAS my old pal Silvio Berlusconi departing the Italian right-wing political stage, and now Umberto Bossi - the long-time leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant, separatist Northern League - was forced to resign as party leader after taxpayer money supplied to the party ... was spent on his family.

DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - a women-oriented, eco-friendly sex shop in Berlin, Germany - seeking to lure customers away from big name stores (which they believe sell poor quality, potentially hazardous sex toys) - now offers organic, vegan sex aids, such as organic lubricants and silicon vibrators.

SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV stars Alison Sweeney ("Days of our Lives", "The Biggest Loser") and Kristen Johnston ("3rd Rock from the Sun").

   

AN EXTRADITION HEARING is being sought by the Ecuadorean government against the brothers Roberto and William Isaias - who have lived in the US since 2000 - both of whom were convicted in absentia of falsifying their Filanbanco's financial statements, leading to a 1990s financial meltdown that cost Ecuadorian taxpayers more than $8 billion.

HAIL and FAREWELL to some iconic figures from my mis-spent youth: The Band's drummer Levon Helm as well as the aforementioned Dick Clark - who, interestingly, died just a few weeks after his music show rival Don Cornelius - and finally the actor Jonathan Frid - who died just a few weeks before the new film "Dark Shadows" will be released (with Johnny Depp portraying Frid's character Barnabas Collins) - although Frid will appear in a cameo in the film. Time passes at warp speed these days.

ART NOTES - a showcase of recent acquisitions by area artists entitled Lure of the Local is at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Museum of Art through May 13th.

STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM it was fifty years ago that a newly-independent nation of Ghana founded sub-Saharan Africa's first flight school for girls - with the help of Hanna Reitsch, Hitler's own private test pilot.

WITH THE ELECTION once again of Vladimir Putin the Kremlin will seek to purge Russia's internet of 'western' influences, especially those guiding liberals and gay rights activists.

THURSDAY's CHILD is Horace the Cat - an English kitteh who went missing for nearly three weeks before managing to limp home with two broken legs, yet after two operations is recuperating well.

SWISS CITIZENS LIVING ABROAD - and especially in the US - have passed a unanimous resolution calling on Swiss banks not to discriminate against its citizens living in foreign countries.

A HEARING WILL TAKE PLACE in the Senate of the nation of Nigeria - after charges that foreign airlines (particularly British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) have colluded with Nigeria aviation authorities to preserve discriminatory internal airfares for Nigerians.

BRAIN TEASER - try this week's Weekly World News Quiz from the BBC.

FRIDAY's CHILD is Rufus the Cat - an English kitteh who has been missing for nine weeks, leading Chris Hirst to conduct an Internet search for a pet detective .... for which he was so impressed by the numerous testimonials made to one of them that he sent an e-mail ... all the way to Seattle, Washington ... and has been pleased by the advice Kat Albrecht has given him.

......and finally, for a song of the week ............... for a time, I thought that Jimi Hendrix had the most new recordings released after his death, and he may still be. But someone who has also had far more recordings released in death than in life is Eva Cassidy - whom I first learned of via a front-page story on the Wall Street Journal, recounting her following in Europe. And if her name is not familiar to you .... well, let's remedy that situation.

The Maryland native was born in 1963, the daughter of an American schoolteacher who met his horticulturalist wife Barbara Krätzer in her native Bad Kreuznach, Germany. Eva took to music at an early age (idolizing Buffy St. Marie) and played in a family band as well as various groups across the Washington, D.C. metro area. She studied art for a time after high school, but worked at a nursery while she sang back-up for various friends' groups in the area.

It was as a twenty-three year-old in 1986 that she first began recording back-up tracks for a friend's band, and her talent was immediately recognized by producer Chris Biondo - who became her boyfriend for a time, and her biggest booster always. He eventually convinced her to join a band and perform in the region, while he worked to secure her a recording contract.

Although most people recognized the qualities of her voice, Eva Cassidy had two quirks that worked against her becoming a star: (a) she was painfully shy, not only in-person but also on-stage (which affected her ability to find steady work), and (b) her material covered such a wide-range of sound (i.e., blues, soul, jazz, rock, pop, R&B), etc.) that record companies of the day shied away from someone they would have to work hard at marketing.

In 1992, producer Biondo finally found the perfect match for Eva Cassidy - a "go-go" soul/funk performer in the D.C. area who had wanted to branch out into more sophisticated jazz and blues. Chuck Brown was a showman who offered Eva Cassidy a chance to avoid the limelight with ease, and who played the sorts of R&B she wanted to add to her repertoire. The two released the album The Other Side in which, uncharacteristically, they sang mostly ballads and standards. In 1993 a malignant mole (resulting from melanoma) was removed from Eva Cassidy's back, yet she did not follow-up on the doctor's recommendations.

The famed Blue Note jazz label was headed then (and, up until 2010) by the former Columbia president Bruce Lundvall - who in 1994 offered Eva the chance to record with the jazz-pop band Pieces of a Dream - which was not a satisfying experience. Lundvall, though, was an astute judge of talent and was willing to offer Cassidy a solo contract - which she balked at when it was clear Lundvall wanted a jazz album, for which she was unwilling to restrict her material to.

All that was left was for Biondo and Cassidy to make their own album - which they did at the famed Washington club Blues Alley in January, 1996. But it was the only solo album to be released in her lifetime: as she developed a pain in her hips which - by the time it was discovered to be the melanoma returning with a vengeance - was too late to treat.

Eva Cassidy gave a stirring farewell performance - concluding with What a Wonderful World - before she died in November of 1996 at only age thirty-three. In 1998, the family allowed a release of the album Songbird - a compilation of the various recordings she had made in the preceding years, all of which garnered much praise ...... locally ..... yet she died in relative obscurity.

Her rise to fame came two years later in the year 2000 – when the BBC Radio 2 popular morning disk jockey Terry Wogan played her version of Over the Rainbow - truly her most famous performance. The response was immediate: with Britain’s "Top of the Pops" show airing that amateur video (of Cassidy singing at Blues Alley) which became their most-requested video ever.

In May, 2001, ABC's "Nightline" had this extended profile (narrated by Dave Marash below) which summarizes Eva Cassidy's career quite nicely - along with a remorseful Bruce Lundvall on not signing her (although in fairness, many other record company people didn't even give her a chance the way he did).

And since then, the legend of Eva Cassidy has only grown, with several posthumous releases - including last year's Simply Eva - that are beginning to rival that of Jimi Hendrix. Her songs have been used on TV and film ("Judging Amy", "Love, Actually", "Smallville" and "Maid in Manhattan"), used by several figure skaters during their routines (Michelle Kwan, Kristie Yamaguchi and others), she has been mentioned by name in songs (by Chris de Burgh and Mary Chapin Carpenter) and her former bandmate Chuck Brown dedicated an album to her. The British-Georgian singer Katie Melua - citing Cassidy as one of her idols - arranged to record a duet with Eva Cassidy on "What a Wonderful World", with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.

A book entitled Songbird was published in 2003, and a long-rumored biopic - to be produced by Robert Redford's daughter Amy - is still a possibility. Either way: it's a sure thing you haven't heard the last from Eva Cassidy.

   

One thing I most admire about Eva Cassidy was her willingness to take on songs that moved her, even when they were so identified with another singer they were risky to perform. That was obviously the case with Judy Garland and "Over the Rainbow", Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" and Aretha Franklin's "Natural Woman".

Here, she does considerable justice to the Fairport Convention song Who Knows Where the Time Goes? written by the English singer Sandy Denny - who died young (at only age thirty-one, albeit from much different circumstances) and did not achieve legendary status until a few years later .... as Eva Cassidy did.

Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving
But then you know it was time for them to go
By the winter fire I will still be dreaming
I do not count the time

Sad deserted shore your fickle friends are leaving
But then you know it was time for them to go
But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving
I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?