Sunday, July 23, 2023

Tony Bennett - "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

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  If you've wondered what Tony Bennett's first hit was, this is it. He was  born Anthony Dominick Benedetto  (the late British humor...
Thursday, July 13, 2023

I can't give up on the Mets

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  The All Star Break is a traditional time to assess a team's performance and its prospects for the rest of the season. On May 21 I  exp...
Wednesday, July 05, 2023

Alan Arkin, folk singer (and more), 1934-2023

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Alan Arkin, who  died last Thursday  at 89, was blessed with many talents. Before his career as an actor began in earnest he played guitar a...
Monday, June 19, 2023

Some thoughts concerning the legacy of Daniel Ellsberg (1931-2023)

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First, I consider  Daniel Ellsberg a hero. He broke the law. but did so not out of desire for personal gain but to expose to the public a p...
Friday, May 26, 2023

10,000 Maniacs & David Byrne, "Let the Mystery Be" -- a (sort of) theological reflection.

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The clip above shows  10,000 Maniacs , with their then vocalist  Natalie Merchant  and a guest appearnce by  David Byrne , doing "Let t...
Thursday, May 25, 2023

Tina Turner (1939-2023) - "What's Love Got To Do With It?"; a remembrance.

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As I  noted twelve years ago , and gave the reason there, actors, artists, and musicians I have loved over the years are dying with frequenc...
Sunday, May 21, 2023

Fairport Convention - "Reno Nevada" by Richard Fariña at Cropredy 2017

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A lttle over a year ago I  posted about Fairport Convention's doing Emitt Rhodes' "Time Will Show the Wiser" on their fir...

The Mets are showing some life ... Updated!

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Updat e ... as are the bats of  Pete Alonso  and of  Francisco Lindor  (photo). True to form, the Mets started the season hot, but this year...
Sunday, May 14, 2023

Another friend gone: Anne Hagman McDermott

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The photo above shows Anne Hagman McDermott as I most remember her, in the company of a group of friends. I'm at the right, in my Mets c...
Saturday, May 06, 2023

Some thoughts on English and Portuguese history, an admirable woman, and two boroughs of New York City

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Today  King Charles III was crowned. This led me to think of the last British monarch to bear his name, Charles II (portrait by Philippe d...
Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023), "Seven Islands Suite"

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No, this isn't turning into a music blog. It's that every week lately seems to bring news of the death of a musician I've loved....
1 comment:
Sunday, April 30, 2023

Harry Belafonte, "Jamaica Farewell"

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Harry Belafonte died last Tuesday at the age of 96. According to his New York Times obituary his singing career began while he was a teenag...
Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Born to Be Wild: Ann-Margret rocks!

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Ann-Margret, at 81, has recorded "Born to be Wild", an album of covers of rock classics, with help from Pete Townshend, himself no...
Monday, April 10, 2023

Oh, no! There's now an "AI Assistant" named for me.

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Will anyone now believe that anything I write is really mine, not a product of this robot ?
1 comment:
Sunday, April 09, 2023

Happy Easter! Zissen Pesach! Ramadan Mubarak!

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According to Magee Hickey on WPIX 11 Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, three important holidays of the three Abrahamic faiths, overlap only on...
Sunday, April 02, 2023

King's College Cambridge Choir, ""All Glory, Laud and Honour"

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This morning's Palm Sunday service at  Grace Church, Brooklyn  began, as it customarily does, with the joyful hymn "All Glory, Laud...
Saturday, April 01, 2023

Scarlatti Harpsichord Solo: The Cat's Fugue, Elaine Comparone

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  The prolific Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) wrote many single movement fugues for solo harpsichord. One of thes...
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Sarah Stone plays Bach's Cello Suite No.1 - Prelude -- Happy Birthday J.S.!

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In honor of Johann Sebastian Bach's 338th birthday, here is our friend and superb cellist  Sarah Abigael Stone  playing the prelude to h...
Sunday, March 19, 2023

Sane in the City by Sophie Malleret: a tribute to our friend, Barbara Cahn, 1952-2023

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Barbara Cahn and her husband, Alan Ginsberg, have been treasured friends of Martha's and mine throughout our now almost thirty two year ...
2 comments:
Saturday, March 18, 2023

Twelve days until Opening Day and things are looking bad for the Mets.

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Edwin Diaz , arguably the best closer in Major League Baseball last season, has been lost for the entire 2023 season because of a knee injur...
Friday, March 17, 2023

FourWinds FleadhTV TG4 The Rollicking Boys Around Tandragee

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Four Winds  is a band that does   " Irish Traditional Music in a modern and creative context, while maintaining deep roots in the tradi...
Saturday, March 11, 2023

Malachy McCourt beats the Reaper

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Laurie Gwen Shapiro, in this New York Times story , tells how Malachy McCourt, at age 91, was "kicked out of hospice for not dying qui...
Sunday, March 05, 2023

Wayne Shorter, 1933-2023 - "Footprints"

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"An important cog in the ever turning wheel of universal humanism has passed through leaving all he touched better than it was befor...
Saturday, February 11, 2023

Burt Bacharach, 1928-2023, "What the World Needs Now is Love"

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Burt Bacharach, who died on Wednesday, had a peripatetic life. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, spent his teenage years in Forest Hills...
Friday, February 03, 2023

Aly Bain with Jenna Reid - Sophie's Dancing Feet / Andy Brown's Reel

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  I had the pleasure, and honor, of meeting the great Shetland fiddler  Aly Bain  after a  Boys of the Lough  concert at Town Hall in the mi...
Sunday, January 29, 2023

Go Iggles!

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The Philadelphia Eagles, or "Iggles" as true Philadelphians call them, have won the NFC championship, and so will face the AFC cha...
Saturday, January 28, 2023

R.I.P. Tom Verlaine

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Lately this blog has been a sad series of death notices of musicians I've loved:  Jeff Beck , then  David Crosby , and now  Tom Verlaine...
Saturday, January 21, 2023

How I learned to love David Crosby

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The past few months have seen the passing of three musicians who profoundly influenced the development of rock music:  Jerry Lee Lewis ,  Je...
1 comment:
Wednesday, January 11, 2023

R.I.P. Jeff Beck; another rock great lost.

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Certainly one of rock's most exciting guitarists, Jeff Beck, died today. In the clip above he plays "Little Wing" as a tribute...
Sunday, January 08, 2023

Remembrances and appreciations, 2022

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 On June 2, 1953, Coronation Day, I was with my parents and Rex, the bull terrier mix puppy I had been given as a seventh birthday present, ...