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 featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
Politics, meet Entertainment .... or something like that ...
SEPARATED at BIRTH - the Politico reporter Maggie Haberman and the star of '30 Rock' and "Weekend Update", Tina Fey.
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES - a photography exhibit by Annie Leibovitz entitled Pilgrimage - without (most unusual for this noted portrait photographer) any people in it ...
..... is at Hamiltons Gallery in London, England through January 20th.
TV NOTES - the Guardian newspaper takes a look at several noted TV therapists - with many of them fixtures on US television.
PROGRAMMING NOTE - with my holiday travels, next week's Odds & Ends will be posted this coming Friday morning. Not sure if I'll have much to post on New Year's Day. Either way, things will be back-to-normal in January.
HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY to Cheers & Jeers ..... hopefully, you'll avoid this fate:
CULTURAL NOTES - the blogger Kevin Drum cited this essay from Vanity Fair - about how you could distinguish a film set in 1972 from 1952 easily (via the automobiles, hairstyles, lack of hat-wearing) and also a film from 1992 vs. 1972 (from automobiles, hairstyles, music, etc.) .... but approaching 2012: you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish a new film from a 1992 film (except in subtle ways).
MONDAY's CHILD is Tommaso the Cat - the world's richest kitteh, after the death of his 94-year-old mistress last month.
TIME MARCHES ON - The United Kingdom's defense secretary Philip Hammond said that women sailors will be finally able to serve on Royal Navy submarines (beginning in 2013).
HAIL and FAREWELL to the late poet Vaclav Havel who has died at the age of 75. Besides being the last president of Czechoslovakia, he was a noted Western jazz and rock fan, plus an example of how one could be anti-Communist without having to be a right-winger.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - Canadian musician Avril Lavigne and film star Kristen Stewart (from the "Twilight" saga).
EARLIER THIS WEEK some 560 cinemas (including at least one in all 50 American states) broadcast a high-def live showing of New York City Ballet's production of the classic ballet The Nutcracker - which is so much part of the Christmas season (and to the survival of ballet companies nationwide) that there is a jazz version, and 33 productions feature live horses.
ART NOTES - the first US exhibition by the Australian artists Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro is at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC to March 11th.
OF NOTE - with Barack Obama as the 44th president, an interesting note about our 10th president John Tyler. He lived from 1790-1862, with one term as president from 1841-1845. But because he had a son (named Lyon Tyler) when he was 63 (in 1853) ... and Lyon had a son (named Harrison Ruffin Tyler) when he was 75 (in 1928) ... someone who was president two decades before Abraham Lincoln .... has a grandson who is still alive .... and is only age 83.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Daniel the Cat - who was previously featured in this space, since the shelter which this Wisconsin polydactyl kitteh resides was facing an unacceptable rent increase. Basing their fundraising on his twenty-six toes: the Milwaukee Animal Rescue Center says it now has enough funding to relocate.
IT's WORTH REMEMBERING a 2010 extended profile of Newt Gingrich in Esquire magazine (when he told his second wife Marianne he wanted a divorce):
He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"
"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."
GET WELL to the 70 year-old Englishman Reg Presley - the lead singer of The Troggs, who sang these tunes ....
......... and is now recuperating from a stroke at age 70.
NAUTICAL NOTES - the British-built boat that co-starred with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in the 1951 film The African Queen is to be restored and will sail again.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - the jailed Tyco Int'l CEO Dennis Kozlowski and Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer.
AS SOMEONE who has been an Antarctic exploration enthusiast since childhood, it's worth noting that this past Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of the date that Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole.
ART NOTES - the first museum exhibition to examine the role photography played in the development of Conceptual Art from 1964-1977 is at the Art Institute of Chicago to March 11th.
YUK for today - the Guardian's "In Praise Of" editorial series tips its hat to nonsense lyrics - such as Little Richard's "Awopbopaloobop alopbamboom!" - but also pondering the lyrics of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by asking, "Why is Israel captive .... and who's paying a ransom?"
EVEN THOUGH former premier Silvio Berlusconi is gone: the word condom is still taboo on Italian state broadcaster RAI and the ministry of health - even on World AIDS Day, commemorated December 1st by various programs on Radio 1.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is a 2-month-old California kitteh that wedged himself in a scrap piece of drainage pipe - who was rescued by firefighters using the Jaws of Life, expected to recover in a week and who will be then be up for adoption.
CONGRATULATIONS - for his work in rescuing more than 1,400 children from drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro in the past three years, the Dutchman Nanko van Buuren has been awarded the Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Fellowship, which he will receive from Princess Noor of Jordan in February.
THIS PAST JANUARY the Illinois-based pharmaceutical company Hospira stopped making a key ingredient in the lethal injection cocktail used by several US states to execute death-row inmates - now, a new EU regulation set to go into effect at the end of this week will prohibit the export of some barbituric acids unless a special permit has been issued.
ART NOTES - landscapes by Bob Stuth-Wade in an exhibition entitled Landforms are at the Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas to February 18th.
POLITICAL NOTES - in the city of Berlin, Germany: its newly sworn-in Justice and Consumer Affairs Minister Michael Braun was forced to step down (after only eleven days) following revelations about his previous job, inadequately assessing sub-standard real estate properties for clients.
MUSIC NOTES - The vibraphonist and six-time Grammy award winner Gary Burton will instruct an intensive, 12-week music improvisation course (via the Berklee College of Music’s online extension school) beginning in January.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Skippy the Cat - a Welsh kitteh who went missing for nearly three years before being located last year due to his microchip.
SPAIN's ROYAL FAMILY has blocked the king's (scandal-prone) son-in-law - the Duke of Palma - from representing the crown while a police investigation into alleged fraud and misuse of public funds continues.
FILM NOTES - a black comedy by Chilean director Pablo Larraínnow is being filmed to commemorate the 1988 campaign to vote down a plebiscite that would have extended the regime of General Augusto Pinochet for another eight years (in which the 'No' vote carried nearly 60% of the total) and will star Mexican actor Gael García Bernal (who played Che Guevara in the "Motorcycle Diaries" film).
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two European film stars: Englishwoman Helena Bonham Carter and the Spaniard Elena Anaya ("Van Helsing", "Talk to Her").
BRAIN TEASER - try this Weekly World News Quiz from the BBC.
I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT that the expression "Beat them like a rented mule" was nonsensical ..... many people don't treat mules well .. even if they bought them outright ...
HAIL and FAREWELL to the veteran trombonist Bob Brookmeyer who has died just short of his 82nd birthday. He was the winner of numerous polls (from Downbeat to Playboy to Melody Maker) on his horn during his heyday.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Asimov the Cat - who rules-the-roost at Seek Books in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... in this space I have profiled music stars, plus some who may not be household names but whose work you likely are familiar with. Today: someone who should have been a rock star (but isn’t) is the English guitarist/vocalist Terry Reid - due to critical decisions, a sense of loyalty, some very bad luck and a quirky style that sees him today as a minor player. But he is one who has had fame (even being recommended to Atlantic Records by Aretha Franklin), was a sideman on many famous musicians’ recordings … and still performs today.
Born in 1949 about 65 miles north of London, he left school at age 15 to join Peter Jay’s Jaywalkers. In 1966, the group had enough success to be the opening act for the Rolling Stones at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall. At that time he became friends with Graham Nash of The Hollies, who helped the Jaywalkers get a contract. They had a minor hit in 1967 with "The Hand Don’t Fit the Glove" (presaging Johnnie Cochrane?) but the band split not long after, and Terry was signed by Mickie Most - the noted UK record producer.
And while Most was an able producer, thus began a tension between the two: as Terry Reid saw himself as a hard rock guitarist (which was now becoming a major force) while Most wanted him to become a blue-eyed soul protagonist. But not at first, as his 1968 first album Bang, Bang showed both sides: rockers like "Summertime Blues" and "Season of the Witch" along with Cher's "Bang Bang". This album, interestingly, was not released in the UK but did manage to dent the Top 200 in the US. Mickey Most was then managing both Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group, and so you hear not only cover versions of songs they did, but also production work that was reminiscent of their sound. from that album: The Hollies recorded a cover version of his song "No Expression" as did Crosby, Stills & Nash (re-titled as "Horses Through a Rainstorm").
His 1969 next album Move Over for Terry Reid for example, had a cover version of the Donovan song "Superlungs My Supergirl" - and 'Superlungs' became Terry Reid's nickname, as he did have a strong voice with quite a bit of soul in it.
His touring was beginning to pay-off - as he had been the opening act for (a) Cream on their final US tour in 1968, (b) Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac on the UK tours in early 1969 and most notably (c) the famous Rolling Stones tour of the US in 1969 (although he mercifully was not at the infamous Altamont concert in December of 1969). He was receiving excellent album reviews, some pick-up in record sales and even better concert reviews.
And it was here that his career began to turn, because other musicians saw his value. A prominent guitarist asked him in 1968 to join his band, which was initially dubbed the New Yardbirds as it was rising from the ashes of that band in 1968. Terry Reid turned him down, as he had not only committed to the tour with Cream, but was becoming more confident about his solo career and loyal to Mickie Most. But Terry Reid did offer the guitarist some advice, suggesting two members of a group that had been his opening act a year earlier. Well, Jimmy Page took that advice and brought Robert Plant and John Bonham into his new band that took the name Led Zeppelin - as Robert Plant once remarked, "He should have had my life".
If that wasn't enough: he was soon afterwards asked to replace Rod Evans as the singer in an up-and-coming band ... but once again decided to remain on the Stones tour (not wanting to upset Keith Richards) .... and this time it was Ian Gillan who was chosen to join Deep Purple in 1969. As one reviewer wrote decades later, "perhaps he's too much in thrall to music to perform the manipulations necessary to become a star".
Then in December of 1969, he and manager Mickie Most had-it-out over how his career should go (with Most holding out for a singer/songwriter style, and Reid wanting to rock out). They eventually became embroiled in litigation and during a most fertile music period, Terry Reid sat out a year in California, waiting for his contract to end (other than a performance at the famed 1970 Isle of Wight Festival).
This caused some of his bandmates to go their separate ways, including David Lindley (later to star with Jackson Browne) and Michael Giles (the drummer in King Crimson during the "Crimson King" days). But it was not until 1973 that he released his fourth album - by which time he had become forgotten, so the expression "Who Is Terry Reid?" became a tag-line. He had some original songs such as "Rich Kid's Blues" (later a hit for Marianne Faithfull) and "Speak Now" (later recorded by Cheap Trick) .... but nothing clicked for him.
He did release some other 1970's albums but none seemed to take off - and in the 1980's he left the road to become a session musician. And given his reputation for singing and guitar playing, he got calls from Don Henley, UFO, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.
He returned to recording in 1991 with The Driver - and toured for parts of the 1990's with former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. In this past decade, he has been touring under his own name for the first time in over twenty years, playing in the UK for the first time in nearly that long. One reviewer felt his nickname "Superlungs" was still appropriate and raves over his version of Brian Wilson's "Don't Worry Baby" - and has been garnering his best reviews in some time.
Terry Reid is age sixty-two, has both a two disc as well as one disc compilation album of his work and has worked with bands such as Alabama 3 - whose song "Woke Up this Morning" was the theme song for the "Sopranos" television show. And in a touch I always appreciate: in 2009, he appeared at his old bandleader's club in Yarmouth, England - and he and Peter Jay performed together for the first time in years.
And in 2011, he performed at Britain's major Glastonbury Festival this past summer - forty years after the festival premiered. If there is any fairness in this world: he ought to at least have the 15 minutes of fame that he deserved.
Of all of his work, it's a 1976 song entitled Seed of Memory which is my favorite. A more contemplative song that still gets to feature his voice and guitar, it was used in the 2005 film The Devil's Rejects (directed by Rob Zombie). And at this link you can hear it.
Brave dreams that are kindled from ashes
Rise out over all the battle below
Spread wings over all that he passes
So his life can stay immortal to his country
All the shades of green that fall beneath this tree
So let the winds of change
That rearrange the country
Let it also sow a seed of memory
Marlena in the cool satin sashes
Spread dreams over the battle below
Bring love with a song as she passes
So his life can stay immortal to the country
And let every man aware of being free
When she talks of times
When wine is handed to me
From a face that walked out of a memory
