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, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a career retrospective of prints (marking the ninetieth birthday of Jasper Johns) entitled An Art of Changes is at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota through January 3rd.
In Minneapolis to Jan 3rd
HAIL and FAREWELL to Charles Cook — who on 9/11 walked from his home in Harlem (against the tide of people fleeing, to help) and after Hurricane Katrina, lent a hand in New Orleans — who has died at the age of seventy-nine.
WHILE IT MAY SEEM that autocracy is on-the-rise in the world (and there is evidence of this) the every-five-year World Values Survey indicates that its effect is weakest in healthy democracies over the long-term.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Cutie Pie the Cat — whom a Maine man saw at the local Humane Society, seeking a replacement for his lost kitteh ….... when he realized this was his lost kitteh.
Cutie Pie with a happy man
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by Elie Mystal about the African-Americans who spoke at the RNC — who offer no policy proposals to extend economic or social opportunities to people of color, nor offset the disproportionate toll Covid-19 has taken on communities of color — whose goal is only to satisfy moderate Republicans that you-know-who is not a racist.
UPCOMING GOOD NEWS —
1) The day after Labor Day, Michael Cohen’s tell-all book drops.
2) Exactly a week later, Bob Woodward’s new book Rage drops.
FRIDAY's CHILD is a Thailand kitteh with a fungal infection on its paw … so a woman applied the spice tumeric to it (having some healing properties). It seems to have had some success, yet by applying it elsewhere: the cat is yellow for now.
Thailand temporary yellow kitteh
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 an updated look at some past stories I have looked at — including an upcoming book from a crooked London police detective who arrested members of the Beatles and Rolling Stones …. then later found to have committed perjury and was jailed.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — English/Australian actor Charlotte Kirk (Ocean’s 8) and the omnipresent Taylor Swift.
Charlotte Kirk (born 1992)
Taylor Swift (born 1989)
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… I once read a description of the R&B/rock music of Gary US Bonds this way: "like opening the door to a fantastic dance party". That after more than 50 years the analogy still holds ... is a testament to his ability: never truly going out-of-style but falling out of mass appeal at times ... before returning, yet again.
Born as Gary Anderson in Jacksonville, Florida: his family moved to Norfolk, Virginia in the mid-1950's (as his father became a professor at Hampton University nearby). Gary began to sing in church and later as a member of a band called The Turks.
Fortunately, the noted record producer Frank Guida happened to live in Norfolk and heard the not-quite age 21 Anderson sing. In signing him, Guida released a single of Gary's in 1960 and used some subterfuge in promoting it: changing Anderson's name to U.S. Bonds (hoping that DJ's would play it in the belief that it was a public service announcement). Whatever effect that had: the single "New Orleans" reached #6 on the pop charts. Afterwards, the name Gary was appended onto U.S. Bonds .... which is what it remains to this day.
This was followed-up in 1961 by Quarter to Three - which remains his signature tune. Guida often double and triple-tracked Bonds' voice (not unlike some of the technique that Phil Spector was doing around the same time across-the-country) helping to create a unique sound especially on this tune. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame includes "Quarter to Three" on its list of 500 Songs that shaped rock & roll.
By 1962, Bonds had five more Top 40 hits, including "School is Out", "School is In" and "Twist, Twist, Señora". A sign of his star power came when a 1963 British tour saw him headlining ... above The Beatles. And therein was the problem: the rise of the British Invasion and Motown sidelined many performers like Gary, and while a song that he co-wrote She's All I Got was nominated for a 1972 Country Music Association "Song of the Year" award after Johnny Paycheck had success with it: Gary US Bonds toiled in obscurity for several years.
Fast-forward to 1980: a chance encounter with Bruce Springsteen and members of his E Street Band (who had grown up on Bonds' music) led to them backing up Bonds on his 1981 comeback album Dedication that helped Bonds reach the singles charts again with "This Little Girl" and "Out of Work" and regain the limelight for a few years. But once again, this faded over time and Bonds resumed a career on the oldies circuit.
Now jump ahead to 2004 - and the release of his album Back in 20 - the title denoting that his popularity works in twenty-year cycle - and interestingly, he says that the album started as a blues recording but which in time morphed into a party album. This time the guest performers include former Allmans' guitarist Dickey Betts (on "She Just Wants to Dance") as well as Phoebe Snow ("Bitch/Dumb Ass"). Bonds followed-up with the 2009 album Let Them Talk and also has a 2012 Christmas album as well as a Best Of compilation from his early days.
Gary US Bonds has several achievements to-date (besides the awards that "Quarter to Three" and "She's All I Got" had previously garnered). He received a Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1997.
An avid golfer, he regularly plays in celebrity pro-am tournaments. And when he toured in Britain in 2009: instead of the Beatles, his tour partners were the former Stones bassist Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings band - in a sort of coming full-circle. In 2013, he released his autobiography entitled "By U.S. Bonds - That's My Story".
Earlier this year, he re-recorded his 1982 Bruce Springsteen-written hit Out of Work — with lyrics re-written for getting laid off during the coronavirus outbreak.
At age eighty-one, Gary U.S. Bonds still performs, although with no tour dates scheduled as of now. While he's apparently slowed down ... he shows no signs of shutting down the party.
An early publicity photo ….
Gary U.S. Bonds of today
My favorite tune of his dates back to 1962: Seven Day Weekend was a #27 hit for him, and in many ways captures the spirit of his music.
I wish that there could be
a seven-day weekend
I'm gonna make a plea for
a seven-day weekend
And if it came about
life would be a success
I'd run on out and have a ball
And never go to school at all
Monday: seven picture shows
Tuesday: you know, anything goes
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday too
I'd party and Twist
the whole week through
All day I dream about
a seven-day weekend
I sit and scheme and scheme and scheme
About a seven-day weekend
The teacher calls my name
and I'm in another world
I'm just thinking about
a seven-day weekend
