Archive for September 2009
A(nother) good reason to take a Cab on Monday morning…
If Ellington was the Beethoven of the jazz band era, its avatar of majesty, then surely Cab Calloway was its Mozart– its imp of pure joy:
…Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing “Jumpin Jive,” in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. Special Monday Morning Bonus: they are joined by the incomparable Nicholas Brothers.
(A tip o’ the hat and a tap of the toe to Jesse Dylan!)
As we give ourselves over to smiles, we might recover the serious tone appropriate to the start of the work week by recalling that it was on this date in 1927 that Isadora Duncan exclaimed “Goodbye my friends, I go to glory!”– then hopped into a sports car for a brisk drive near Nice… on which she died, strangled when her scarf became tangled in one of the car’s wheels… 662 years to the day after Dante Alighieri died.
(It’s been suggested– in the diary of an eyewitness to Isadora’s departure– that her actual last words were “Goodbye my friends, I’m off to love”– an allusion, its suggested to her likely “destination” with the handsome young Italian mechanic driving the car… In any event, as Gertrude Stein observed of Duncan’s death, “affectations can be dangerous.”)
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Quizzically yours…
In the spirit of “Dead or Canadian?“…
Test your command of these two exalted domains…
As we reach for the spreading knife, we might ponder another question: it was on this date in 81 CE that Roman Emperor Titus (Titus Flavius Vespasianus, son of Vespasian), then aged 41, died– after only 26 months in office (apparently of malaria; it is said that a mosquito flew up his nose and picked at his brain). Titus’ last words were, “I have made but one mistake.” To this day, no ones seems to have a clue what that was…
Illustrative examples…
From the end of the 19th Century through the middle of the last, the center rings of commercial art were window dressing (L. Frank Baum was a retail celebrity well before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) and magazine cover and advertising art… as readers can see at Magazine Art— a wonderful online gallery of “magazine cover and advertising art from the Golden Age of American Illustration.”
As we wax nostalgic, we might pull out our manual typewriters to tap out a birthday greeting to “The Sage of Baltimore,” Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken, born on this date in 1880… The author of The American Language (and many, many other things) is credited with having coined the term “ecdysiast,” in response to a request from a practitioner who requested a “more dignified” way to refer to her profession.
Often called “the American Nietzsche” (by virtue of his scholarship on the German philosopher), Mencken might better have been considered “the American Wilde”; consider:
Democracy is the theory that holds that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
Nature abhors a moron.
Puritanism – The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.
Food Fight!…
As students return to high school and college cafeterias around the country, it’s an occasion to consider the technological advances that have turned old fashioned food fights (like the one immortalized in Animal House) into the Twenty-First Century slap-downs enabled by implements like these:
The Zing (“Launch Your Lunch!”) is available at Fred and Friends, purveyor of fine novelties since… well, since a while ago.
As we mash our potatoes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1997 that a pre-legislative referendum in Scotland decided the Scots should have their own Parliament with (relatively) independent taxing authority; the process of devolution was begun.
All that glitters…
In the age of Photoshop and Auto-Tune, it’s no real surprise to find that icons don’t actually look nor sound as they do in the media for which they are adored (see, e.g., here and here). Still, as this Britney Spears feed reminds us, the reality can be jarring…
Your correspondent has done his best to confirm the legitimacy of the loop. While there’s (understandably) been no confirmation from Ms. Spears’ camp, it’s included here, as he can find no meaningful refutation… rather, mostly just comments expressing no surprise whatsoever that things are not as they are meant to seem. The “T-Pain effect,” as it’s come to be known, is now so widespread (again, see– and listen– here) that it seems to be taken for granted. Indeed, readers can download a T-Pain iPhone app that will do a similar job for them… all of which must be a frustrating state of affairs for performers like Billy Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, who actually do their own singing, unaided and beautifully.
In any case, it’s a (painful) reminder that too often these days, what glitters isn’t even nearly gold… indeed, too often it’s tin.
As we reach for the earplugs, we might recall that it was on this date in 2002 (in anticipation of the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon) that the TSA “Threat Level” was raised to Orange. It bounced between Orange (high) and Yellow (elevated) from then until mid-August, 2006, when it returned to Orange– where it remains to this day.
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