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 — a photography exhibit entitled Ming Smith: Jazz Requiem, Notations in Blue — covering the 1970’s and 80’s, with many of her images taken in Europe — is at the Portland, Maine Museum of Art through June 7th.
Judith Jamison (1981)
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this short essay in The American Prospect by Henry Burke, who described a two-day conference in South Carolina by the centrist group Third Way as lacking any sort of platform (or even opposition to the Trump regime). Instead, it was mostly opposition to liberalism … and seeking the most conservative Democrat to run in 2028.
THURSDAY's CHILD is the recently deceased Nemo the Cat - who served fifteen years at the Lincoln, Nebraska county jail: comforting both employees and inmates alike.
Nemo the Jail Cat
TRANSPORTATION NOTES — the soon-to-open Gordie Howe Bridge, connecting Windsor, Ontario with the city of Detroit (where the late hockey star played most of his career) announced toll rates less than the existing Ambassador Bridge (owned by a major GOP donor, who enticed Krasnov into threatening to stop it).
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Zoey the Cat - who was surrendered to a Minnesota Humane Society (when his elderly owner went into a nursing home) with a simple note: "Don't take away Zoey's Bear." Zoey is expected to be up for adoption soon.
Zoey the Cat
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 a look at the Bum of the Month Club — a term the boxing press used (unfairly) to categorize the longtime heavyweight champion Joe Louis’s over-matched challengers. I think it does apply today to the hapless attorneys forced to file frivolous lawsuits to please the White House (and thus risk future bar association disciplinary action).
SEPARATED at BIRTH — film star Ethan Hawke and the lead singer for the band Sugar Ray, Mark McGrath.
Ethan Hawke (b. 1970), Mark McGrath (b. 1968)
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… no time for anything but a song … and one that — since the era of LBJ — has had salience.
Written by Eugene McDaniels, the jazz-soul protest number Compared to What took a firm stance against the Vietnam War. He was a member of jazz pianist Les McCann’s group briefly in the mid-1960’s, and in his solo career had hits with songs such as A Hundred Pounds of Clay and Tower of Strength.
Compared to What was recorded by Roberta Flack as the opener for her 1969 debut album First Take, but the song exploded when Les McCann and tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris performed it at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland — just one day after Flack's album hit the shelves.
I had a chance to see Les and Eddie’s band in Vermont in 1988, and in the midst of a fine (and often humorous) set — this song was the star attraction. The single sold more than a million copies and landed at #35 on the R&B chart. The live album Swiss Movement it was on: peaked at #1 on the Jazz Albums chart, #2 on the R&B chart, and #29 on the US Albums chart.
I have highlighted the third set of verses, as it perfectly encapsulates the times we are in, I’m sure you’ll agree.
I love to lie and lie to love
I'm hanging on, they push and shove
Possession is the motivation
That is hanging up the goddamn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Everybody now
Trying to make it real compared to what
Slaughterhouse is killing hogs
Twisted children killing frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rolling logs
Tired old ladies kissing dogs
I hate the human love of that stinking mutt
I can't use it
Trying to make it real compared to what
The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us a rhyme or reason
Have one doubt: they call it treason
We're chicken feathers
All without one nut
Trying to make it real compared to what
Donald Dean (the drummer in this song) is still alive at age eighty-eight.
