Saturday, July 13, 2013

Dolly, Faut y croire. Happy Bastille Day!

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Dolly was one of France's most popular rock bands from the early 1990s until 2005, when their bassist, Mickaël "Micka" Chambe...
Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Michael Simmons, "As I Walk by the Moon"

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My erstwhile Lion's Head drinking companion Michael Simmons , now living in L.A., has been a steady source of mostly music related mate...
Monday, July 08, 2013

British Pathé Newsreel: S.S. United States wins the Blue Riband on her maiden voyage.

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The Blue Riband ? It's an award that is not likely ever to be given again. It was for the passenger ship that made the fastest crossings...
Thursday, July 04, 2013

Messrs Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, and Usher, wish you a happy Fourth.

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Shreve, Lamb and Harmon's 1931 masterpiece, still the world's tallest art deco building, is resplendent in its Independence Day il...
Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Pirates best in MLB?

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My Mets have been showing some signs of life lately, so my earlier speculation that they might give the 1962 Mets a run for the season loss...
1 comment:
Sunday, June 30, 2013

Neil Young sings Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds." Happy Canada Day!

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One great Canadian singer and songwriter performs a song by another, with some help from Willie Nelson.
Saturday, June 29, 2013

The Texas Archives War

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The statue in the photo above is of Angelina Eberly.  I'd never heard of her until I read Gail Collins's column Wendy and the Boys...
Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Sounds of the Niagara Frontier: the Rockin' Rebels, John Fogerty, and Screamin' Dick Biondi.

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"Wild Weekend" by the Rockin' Rebels was recorded in 1959 by two Buffalo DJs, Tom Shannon and Phil Todaro, for their Mar-Lee (...
Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day; happy Bloomsday.

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Today is Father's Day, so best wishes to all my fellow dads. This year it's also Bloomsday, the anniversary of the day in 1904 whe...

Van Dyke Parks, "Donovan's Colours."

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Van Dyke Parkes is a musical genius who surprised and mostly delighted the rock crit world in 1968 with an album titled Song Cycle . My frie...
1 comment:
Monday, June 10, 2013

The (short) life of pie.

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We were expecting company Sunday evening, so my wife made a good sized pie using rhubarb and strawberries sourced (maybe even curated ) fr...
Saturday, June 08, 2013

Cape Cod photos: the walk to Skaket Beach and back.

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Following our visit to Cape Cod Brewery on Saturday morning, and a satisfying pizza lunch, the sun came out. I decided to take a walk. Th...
Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Lou Reed and Sharon Jones

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There was good and not so good news last week about two of my favorite musicians. The good news about Lou Reed was that he had a successful...

Cape Cod Beer

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On our Cape Cod weekend, rainy, chilly Friday begat rainy, chilly Saturday, so we headed down the Cape, around the elbow (see my description...
Monday, June 03, 2013

A visit to Truro Vineyards, Cape Cod.

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Last summer we visited friends who have a house at Orleans, on Cape Cod. While we were there, I browsed in Main Street Wine & Gourmet , ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Could this year's Mets rival those of 1962?

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A bright start to this season led me to some very qualified optimism . The Mets managed to stay at or above .500 for most of April, but it...
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Amygdaloids, "Mind-Body Problem"

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Kids were very different then. They didn't have their heads filled with all this Cartesian Dualism. --Monty Python, Episode 14 I...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Tampa comes to Brooklyn

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 The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tampa, WMEC 902 , named for my old home city, was docked at Pier 7, Brooklyn, my adopted home, last weekend. I ...
Monday, May 13, 2013

Grand Central's Centennial Parade of Trains

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Grand Central Terminal recently celebrated its one hundredth birthday . As part of the centennial celebration, this weekend there was the ...
1 comment:
Friday, April 26, 2013

George Jones, as remembered by Lacy J. Dalton

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Lacy J. Dalton's album Hard Times  was a comfort to me back in the spring of 1980, when I was going through the emotional backwash of a ...

Cockney rhyming slang.

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So, what's a Godiva? It's a five pound note, or, in Cockney speech, a "five-ah," which rhymes with "Godiva." T...
5 comments:
Sunday, April 21, 2013

Neil Diamond singing "Sweet Caroline" at Fenway Park, April 20, 2013.

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For my wife, a cradle Red Sox fan, and for Boston. I've never been much of a Neil Diamond fan, and don't know why this song became a...
Friday, April 05, 2013

Puss N Boots--Norah Jones, Catherine Popper, and Sasha Dobson--do Neil Young's "Down By the River" at Bell House.

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During my last year of law school I bought Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I knew of Young from Buffalo Spri...
Monday, April 01, 2013

Perfect ending to a perfect baseball opening day.

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The Staten Island Ferry glides past Ellis Island as the sun sinks behind New Jersey's First Watchung Mountain; taken from the Brooklyn...

Mets trounce Padres in season opener: a bad omen?

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As I've noted before, my wife, a lifelong Red Sox fan, is convinced that a hot start is always a prelude to a bad season, and vice ver...
1 comment:
Friday, March 29, 2013

J.S. Bach, O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.

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Five years ago I posted a video of Paul Simon singing his "An American Tune." I noted that the melody was based on Tom Glazer...
Saturday, March 23, 2013

The infant (and lopsided) universe.

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This image, which was spread across four columns of the front page of Friday's New York Times , is of the universe ( our  universe, for ...
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Vivaldi, "Spring," from The Four Seasons.

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From a conservatory in the National Botanical Gardens of Wales, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performs what is perhaps Antonio Viv...
Monday, March 18, 2013

Why did the white ibis cross the road?

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(A) Julene was giving her secret ibis call. (B) Ennui. (C) Better bugs on the other side. (D) To get away from that scary guy with t...
Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Brennan on the Moor."

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It's hard for me to believe they're all gone now. Liam was the last ; he died just over three years ago. I had the pleasure and hon...