"The decision to be a writer had come over [Briggs] while the fleet was cruising in the Caribbean, pausing in St. Thomas, Montego Bay, Port-au-Prince and other playlands where he met fellow Americans and British ladies and gentleman lounging around swimming pools with tall frosted drinks in their hands, being fanned by tireless natives.
"'Who are these people', Briggs had asked, and on being told that these fortunate folks were all writers - novelists, playwrights, journalists - Briggs cried out, 'Then that's the life for me! How do I begin?'
"With the flattering letters these genial professionals obligingly wrote for someone they felt could never be a rival, Briggs had no trouble landing the magazine job when he got out of the service. His honest statement that he had never written anything but clear, straightforward reports for superior officers charmed the City Life editor. Briggs had hoped for assignments in the field of sports but the editor felt that literary training and education were required for that, whereas art was a department where inexperience and ignorance would not be noticed."
Dawn Powell, The Wicked Pavilion
Friday, December 31, 2010
Finishing Up 2010
I mentioned the Motorola smart phones last week, but didn't mention that we also indulged in a new DVD player for Christmas. We took the old, tired one upstairs to the bedroom and put the new one downstairs where we do most of our TV watching. The DVD player is equipped with Blu-Ray, which really doesn't interest me much. What I like about it is the Internet capability which allows one to stream Netflix movies to the TV. As long as it's available on the Watch Instantly section I can stream it right to the television when I'd like. I watch mostly older movies so almost everything I am interested in is available in this format. I've already taken advantage this week, watching three movies - Our Man In Havana, To Be or Not To Be, and The Man Who Never Was (all three terrific) - with another dozen or so queued up. I'm feeling a bit under the weather this morning so I'll use that excuse to spend New Year's Eve day, and perhaps night, finishing a wonderful book, Dawn Powell's The Wicked Pavilion (if you love biting wit and blistering take downs of the pretentious and snobbish, you'll do no better than reading Dawn Powell, one of America's great writers) and indulging in more movie watching. A Happy New Year to all.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Snow Job
Much has been made about the snow cleanup, or lack thereof, in New York City since the blizzard. I have first-hand knowledge of the nightmare conditions the city experienced in the immediate aftermath: my wife and I drove up on Tuesday morning, a bit more than 24 hours after the snow had stopped. We'd booked a day trip back in November for the specific reason of seeing Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave, more about which anon. During the snow the previous day we were a but concerned about the drive up, specifically the conditions on the New Jersey Turnpike, but we needn't have been as the Turnpike was near-perfect. All lanes were open and dry, even around Elizabeth City where I heard they got 31 inches. Not only that but in most places both breakdown lanes were clear. That would never happen in the D.C. area under similar conditions. Here we'd have no breakdown lanes open and the snow would probably be piled up in one of the driving lanes for a few days. Certainly the lanes would not be totally clear of all snow and ice. But all the way up the NJ Turnpike it was as if they'd received no snow at all. Kudos to the state for performing a necessary and vital government function with aplomb. As a result of their good work it took us the normal 3 hours and 45 minutes to get from home to the Lincoln Tunnel exit.
And that's where the trouble started. Normally (during the week at noon, when we hit the exit on Tuesday) it would take us about 15 minutes to get from the exit to where we stay in midtown. On Tuesday it took us two hours, crawling the final four miles to the hotel at 55th and 7th. That's 2 miles per hour folks, virtual stand-still conditions. It was a full hour before we got through the tunnel and another hour through the city. It might have taken longer had I not cut over from 10th Avenue to 8th Avenue - I correctly surmised that the inner avenues would not be as jammed as the outer avenues - where I caught a break at about 40th street and got to 56th in a few minutes, where I cut over to 7th and then to 55th. We arrived at the hotel at 2 pm, our afternoon waning.
We'd planned on going to the American Museum of Natural History because we figured it would be cold and windy, not terrific walking conditions. But it was surprisingly nice outside, the sun shining and the wind down. So we walked through Central Park, taking our time. By the time we got to the museum it was nearly 4 and with the show starting at 7 and dinner plans down at 24th and 9th (the museum is at 79th and Central Park West) we had no time to do it justice. So we walked back, again through the park, which was jammed with people enjoying the snow.
We took the E train, the 8th Avenue local, down to 23rd street, right around the corner from Co. (pronounced "Company") for dinner. We'd heard they had terrific pizza but after looking at their website my wife was more interested in the bread. Which was delicious indeed. We sampled the bread with ricotta cheese and the toast with eggplant and both were yummy. The pizza, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. John's or Angelo's is better. This pizza was burnt, and I think purposely, to judge by the pictures on their site. Once a pizza has even a little black on it that's all you taste, that burnt flavor. There is a fine line between crispy and burnt, and this place crossed it. I was afraid going in that Co., simply from its name, might be one of those places all the in-crowd start crowing about but isn't really that good and my fears were justified. Add to it the exorbitant prices and, well, we won't be back. Let the chi-chi folks have it. Like I said, you can eat better pizza for half the price at Angelo's. But I'll give it its due: the bread really is delicious.
We walked from 29th St. up 8th Avenue, past Madison Square Garden, to the play. It was good. Not great, but very enjoyable, especially James Earl Jones' performance. Vanessa Redgrave seemed a little bit off and I think it was that she never really got the southern accent down. She didn't seem quite right and I was a little disappointed in her performance given her reputation as a great stage actress. But that's a quibble. James Earl Jones was worth the price of admission.
Not our best trip to NYC given the crawl in but any day in New York is better than most elsewhere. I love it there, even with the horrible traffic conditions. Truth be told, I'm now quite enjoying the spectacle of Nurse Bloomberg taking hits from all sides, even the New York Times, because of the city's response to the snow. And the twitter traffic over the past few days has been quite funny, lots of good Bloomberg jokes ("Alert from Bloomberg to city residents: if you must resort to cannibalism eat only people that are low in transfats"; "The real reason the streets are still not cleared is Bloomberg won't allow the trucks to use salt": "If you really want Bloomberg to do something about the snow tell him some people are enjoying it".) That giant sucking sound you're hearing is Bloomberg's future political ambitions being flushed down the toilet. And I couldn't be happier. The pretentious boob has it coming.
And that's where the trouble started. Normally (during the week at noon, when we hit the exit on Tuesday) it would take us about 15 minutes to get from the exit to where we stay in midtown. On Tuesday it took us two hours, crawling the final four miles to the hotel at 55th and 7th. That's 2 miles per hour folks, virtual stand-still conditions. It was a full hour before we got through the tunnel and another hour through the city. It might have taken longer had I not cut over from 10th Avenue to 8th Avenue - I correctly surmised that the inner avenues would not be as jammed as the outer avenues - where I caught a break at about 40th street and got to 56th in a few minutes, where I cut over to 7th and then to 55th. We arrived at the hotel at 2 pm, our afternoon waning.
We'd planned on going to the American Museum of Natural History because we figured it would be cold and windy, not terrific walking conditions. But it was surprisingly nice outside, the sun shining and the wind down. So we walked through Central Park, taking our time. By the time we got to the museum it was nearly 4 and with the show starting at 7 and dinner plans down at 24th and 9th (the museum is at 79th and Central Park West) we had no time to do it justice. So we walked back, again through the park, which was jammed with people enjoying the snow.
We took the E train, the 8th Avenue local, down to 23rd street, right around the corner from Co. (pronounced "Company") for dinner. We'd heard they had terrific pizza but after looking at their website my wife was more interested in the bread. Which was delicious indeed. We sampled the bread with ricotta cheese and the toast with eggplant and both were yummy. The pizza, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. John's or Angelo's is better. This pizza was burnt, and I think purposely, to judge by the pictures on their site. Once a pizza has even a little black on it that's all you taste, that burnt flavor. There is a fine line between crispy and burnt, and this place crossed it. I was afraid going in that Co., simply from its name, might be one of those places all the in-crowd start crowing about but isn't really that good and my fears were justified. Add to it the exorbitant prices and, well, we won't be back. Let the chi-chi folks have it. Like I said, you can eat better pizza for half the price at Angelo's. But I'll give it its due: the bread really is delicious.
We walked from 29th St. up 8th Avenue, past Madison Square Garden, to the play. It was good. Not great, but very enjoyable, especially James Earl Jones' performance. Vanessa Redgrave seemed a little bit off and I think it was that she never really got the southern accent down. She didn't seem quite right and I was a little disappointed in her performance given her reputation as a great stage actress. But that's a quibble. James Earl Jones was worth the price of admission.
Not our best trip to NYC given the crawl in but any day in New York is better than most elsewhere. I love it there, even with the horrible traffic conditions. Truth be told, I'm now quite enjoying the spectacle of Nurse Bloomberg taking hits from all sides, even the New York Times, because of the city's response to the snow. And the twitter traffic over the past few days has been quite funny, lots of good Bloomberg jokes ("Alert from Bloomberg to city residents: if you must resort to cannibalism eat only people that are low in transfats"; "The real reason the streets are still not cleared is Bloomberg won't allow the trucks to use salt": "If you really want Bloomberg to do something about the snow tell him some people are enjoying it".) That giant sucking sound you're hearing is Bloomberg's future political ambitions being flushed down the toilet. And I couldn't be happier. The pretentious boob has it coming.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Surrender
As you can tell from the previous two posts, I received a smart phone for Christmas with which I have already become well acquainted. If you've read this blog from the beginning, or the middle, you'll also know that I am, to put it mildly, anti-cellphone. So I guess you can call this my surrender post, surrendering to the technological miracles that have occurred these past few years. But in a way, I really haven't changed those opinions - I'm still anti-cellphone. I didn't get my new Motorola Droid 2 Global in order to be on the phone all the time. I decided to get it for all the other things it can do, i.e. the camera and camcorder, the ability to get mail, weather, and news, the ability to connect on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. I went with an Android phone because I think it will eventually surpass the iPhone. Open-source systems will always win out over closed-source. Apple has the lead right now but I expect that to fade, and rapidly, over the next few years.
Getting the phones themselves was quite an ordeal. My wife has had a cell phone for years and she wasn't due for new equipment until April, according to the Verizon contract. So we called Verizon last Saturday to see if we could get out of that contract in exchange for us both getting a new Droid 2 global and adding me to the plan, along with the new family package. No problem, they said. I spent an hour on the phone with the guy working out all the details. He gave me my order number, I wrote it down, he said I'd have my phones by the following Tuesday, and we hung up. All set.
Not so fast. The following day, Sunday, I checked my email to discover....nothing. Normally when buying these devices you'll receive and email from the vendor immediately after the order is placed. I searched online for the order number I'd been given, to no avail. So I called Verizon back, asking them to check on the status of the order. I spoke to three people, none of whom could find the order. So it was back to the drawing board. We set up the same contract again: my wife kept her old line, I received a new one, we got the 2-for-1 deal on the phone, the contract, and a couple of other goodies thrown in. They said they would overnight it, meaning we would get them Tuesday.
At work on Tuesday morning, my wife called to tell me she received an email from Verizon directing her to sign into our account to look at the details of the new plan. She did and discovered that there were three phones on our plan: hers, the one I got on the Sunday re-call, and some other mysterious number we'd never heard of. I called Verizon back.
After explaining the situation to the salesperson she put me on hold for awhile. When she came she told me that what happened was that since my wife was not due for new equipment until April they had to add an extra phone number to the order to get us the 2-for-1 deal on the new phones. All we needed to do once we received the phones was to activate the mystery number, then call them back for an equipment change to change the new device over to my wife's number. Since we were getting that third line for a $9.99 monthly fee and they were holding a promotion that deducted that fee for the life of the contract, we would not be charged anything extra. Just call us in two years once the contract is up, she said, and we'll drop the third line.
Well, you can imagine my frustration. No one had ever mentioned a third line to us, much less this convoluted way of getting my wife's number changed over to the new phone. I told the woman that some manager over there MUST be able to override this nonsense but she assured me she was part of the management team and that's the way it had to be done. If she could do anything about it she would, but nothing could be done. I called my wife back, explained the situation, and when she started asking me questions I advised her that it was better for everyone if I just stopped talking about it now. She understood.
Fedex tried to deliver the phones on Tuesday but we weren't home. They left a note saying they would try again the following day. Funny though, there were two separate orders from two separate delivery guys. I thought it strange they would send each phone out in a separate order. You can probably guess what happened next. I was home when Fedex came back on Wednesday to deliver the phones. Four phones, to be exact. I realized what had happened immediately. The very first order had been placed after all. Why no one could find it when we called back the following day, who knows? And the third line was the phone number they had assigned to me on the first day's order. It had nothing to do with the way the order had to be placed in order to get us the 2-for-1 deal, as the Monday salesperson had assured me.
After another hour on the phone with Verizon on Wednesday straightening things out, and mailing back the phones from the second order yesterday, we're all set.
I think.
And that's the story of how we got our new smart phones.
Getting the phones themselves was quite an ordeal. My wife has had a cell phone for years and she wasn't due for new equipment until April, according to the Verizon contract. So we called Verizon last Saturday to see if we could get out of that contract in exchange for us both getting a new Droid 2 global and adding me to the plan, along with the new family package. No problem, they said. I spent an hour on the phone with the guy working out all the details. He gave me my order number, I wrote it down, he said I'd have my phones by the following Tuesday, and we hung up. All set.
Not so fast. The following day, Sunday, I checked my email to discover....nothing. Normally when buying these devices you'll receive and email from the vendor immediately after the order is placed. I searched online for the order number I'd been given, to no avail. So I called Verizon back, asking them to check on the status of the order. I spoke to three people, none of whom could find the order. So it was back to the drawing board. We set up the same contract again: my wife kept her old line, I received a new one, we got the 2-for-1 deal on the phone, the contract, and a couple of other goodies thrown in. They said they would overnight it, meaning we would get them Tuesday.
At work on Tuesday morning, my wife called to tell me she received an email from Verizon directing her to sign into our account to look at the details of the new plan. She did and discovered that there were three phones on our plan: hers, the one I got on the Sunday re-call, and some other mysterious number we'd never heard of. I called Verizon back.
After explaining the situation to the salesperson she put me on hold for awhile. When she came she told me that what happened was that since my wife was not due for new equipment until April they had to add an extra phone number to the order to get us the 2-for-1 deal on the new phones. All we needed to do once we received the phones was to activate the mystery number, then call them back for an equipment change to change the new device over to my wife's number. Since we were getting that third line for a $9.99 monthly fee and they were holding a promotion that deducted that fee for the life of the contract, we would not be charged anything extra. Just call us in two years once the contract is up, she said, and we'll drop the third line.
Well, you can imagine my frustration. No one had ever mentioned a third line to us, much less this convoluted way of getting my wife's number changed over to the new phone. I told the woman that some manager over there MUST be able to override this nonsense but she assured me she was part of the management team and that's the way it had to be done. If she could do anything about it she would, but nothing could be done. I called my wife back, explained the situation, and when she started asking me questions I advised her that it was better for everyone if I just stopped talking about it now. She understood.
Fedex tried to deliver the phones on Tuesday but we weren't home. They left a note saying they would try again the following day. Funny though, there were two separate orders from two separate delivery guys. I thought it strange they would send each phone out in a separate order. You can probably guess what happened next. I was home when Fedex came back on Wednesday to deliver the phones. Four phones, to be exact. I realized what had happened immediately. The very first order had been placed after all. Why no one could find it when we called back the following day, who knows? And the third line was the phone number they had assigned to me on the first day's order. It had nothing to do with the way the order had to be placed in order to get us the 2-for-1 deal, as the Monday salesperson had assured me.
After another hour on the phone with Verizon on Wednesday straightening things out, and mailing back the phones from the second order yesterday, we're all set.
I think.
And that's the story of how we got our new smart phones.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Test post using voice functionality on my phone
I'm using the voice functionality on my new global phone in order to create this post. It seems to work pretty well. Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Blogging from my droid
Just testing a short blog from my new Motorola Droid 2 Global phone. Merry Christmas!!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Dead Birds for Christmas
That's what the cat has brought us the past two mornings. Well, yesterday's was dead. Today's present we found still alive, behind some boxes up in the spare bedroom. There were feathers everywhere but the poor little thing was okay. After we moved the boxes he hopped away under the bed and when I went for him under the bed he flew into our bedroom. That's when we knew he was okay. So I opened the windows, closed the bedroom door, and off he flew, free at last.
I guess I should have known something was up when I heard the cat-door open and the cat running around like a maniac. I thought he was just burning off steam because he's been cooped up lately due to the cold and snow. My wife was exercising downstairs with the TV volume turned up loud and I had music playing in the kitchen loud enough to drown out the TV. So if the bird was making any noise during the episode I couldn't hear it. All the while he was being tortured by the damned cat. I didn't know what was up until my wife came back up the stairs and saw feathers everywhere.
I hope this isn't the twelve days of Christmas, cat-style. Two mornings in a row is plenty. No more birds please. Though I guess it's better than the bunnies he brings us each spring.
The cat shows no remorse whatsoever. He sleeping soundly in his usual spot, his day's work complete.
I guess I should have known something was up when I heard the cat-door open and the cat running around like a maniac. I thought he was just burning off steam because he's been cooped up lately due to the cold and snow. My wife was exercising downstairs with the TV volume turned up loud and I had music playing in the kitchen loud enough to drown out the TV. So if the bird was making any noise during the episode I couldn't hear it. All the while he was being tortured by the damned cat. I didn't know what was up until my wife came back up the stairs and saw feathers everywhere.
I hope this isn't the twelve days of Christmas, cat-style. Two mornings in a row is plenty. No more birds please. Though I guess it's better than the bunnies he brings us each spring.
The cat shows no remorse whatsoever. He sleeping soundly in his usual spot, his day's work complete.
Movie Critic
More positive confirmation on your host's excellent taste in movies. Last week James Lileks, this week Terry Teachout, who tweeted last night:
Follow the links in the link above, then go rent "Local Hero".
Mrs. T and I just watched a movie called "Local Hero" that I found utterly disarming.
Follow the links in the link above, then go rent "Local Hero".
Excerpt
"The Church’s enemies forgot that it does not have adherents because of its personnel, but because it is an ark of faith. The atheists, though often articulate and courageous and knowledgeable, and heavy-laden with the ammunition provided by the fatuity and hypocrisy of much Christian history, can never deal with the insuperable evidence of spiritual forces, miracles, and any ecclesiastical concept of grace. Nor can they surmount the challenge of man’s inability to grasp the infinite, the absence of an end and beginning of space or time. In these vast areas, notions of the supernatural and the deity will always circulate, no matter how great dissent may be."
Conrad Black, Catholicism, and the Oceans, Will Survive, at NRO
Conrad Black, Catholicism, and the Oceans, Will Survive, at NRO
Monday, December 13, 2010
Podcasts!
I've decided to add podcasting to my repertoire. I recorded this a few minutes ago and added it to the site. It's simply a vocal version of the Rock and Roll's Greatest Singers post just below. I still have to work out the details about submitting to iTunes and RSS feeds and the like, but that will come when I have a little more time. This was just a test and I'm fairly happy with it. I stumble a few times and mispronounce "sui generis" (it's soo-eye, not soo-eee) but for my first time out of the gate I'm happy with it. Anyhow, let me know what you think.
[audio:RollingStonesGreatest.mp3]
[audio:RollingStonesGreatest.mp3]
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?
And say yes to one and leave the other behind? Yes, once again I've changed my blog theme. So in two days I went from iNove to Copyblogger and now to the Carrington Blog theme. I like this one too. Today. Who knows tomorrow?
Rock and Roll's Greatest Singers
I've had much pleasure recently reading neo-neocon's blog, which I discovered a few weeks back. She's good. I disagree with her take, however, on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Of course I have my quibbles but I think they pretty much got it right. It's hard to argue with Aretha at #1. Her voice has always seemed a bit of a miracle to me, a combination of power, range, passion, and control that no one else can even come close to. If one were to argue it would have to be on the grounds that, since her late-60s pinnacle, she really hasn't been making great music overall. The sparks of brilliance over the years have been overshadowed by bad decisions, career missteps, lousy song choices, etc. The voice remains though, and I will accept her at #1.
Likewise, I won't argue with Ray Charles at #2, though I wouldn't have put him there myself. Undeniably great, top-ten certainly, but I would have picked John Lennon at #2, just ahead of Dylan and Elvis. As it is, Rolling Stone has him at #5, so it's not as if he's slighted. And that's my point: the list has all the right people just about where they should be. They have Elvis at #3 and Dylan at #7 so again, they are in the ballpark. I would have dropped Sam Cooke a few notches - Rolling Stone has him at #4 - not because I don't love his voice but because his songs in the rock and roll genre, while quite good, aren't overwhelming. He wasn't around long enough to build up the body of work a #4 should have and besides, his greatest singing was done during his days singing pure gospel with The Soul Stirrers.
Al Green gets his due at #14 though I would have switched Green's place on Rolling Stone's list with Otis Redding, who comes in at #8. Al Green was sui generis, there's never been anyone like him. Otis, as great as he was, had a tendency to worry his songs to death. Had he lived longer, I expect he would have discovered the value of restraint in his singing and challenged for the #1 spot. That's how great his voice was. (Oh my, I'm just rereading this before posting and that last line I wrote is nearly the title of what I consider his greatest song, "That's How Strong My Love Is." I wasn't even trying for an allusion there but I got it. Heh.)
Some people on the list don't deserve to be anywhere near it. Some day a generation will look back on #47 Jim Morrison, see through the hype, and recognize him for what he really was - an egotistical, no-talent hack, with an overblown and pretentious vocal style beyond all reason or taste. Until then we must all endure. The Doors had a few top-forty hits during their time but they weren't the be-all-and-end-all people make them out to be now. Their real popularity came later, after Jim Morrison was dead and his myth was created. But that's all it is, a myth. The music is there to listen to, if anyone really cares to. Had he lived, I'm certain The Doors would have faded from sight within a few years and would just be a footnote in rock and roll history.
There are two glaring problems with the list. To begin with, how can Rolling Stone rank Robert Plant, at #15, ahead of Mick Jagger, at #16? Besides The Beatles, The Stones are the only band that could possibly make a claim to the greatest in history. And Mick Jagger's voice was the most distinguishable part of the band. He's great, a voice made for rock and roll, perfect for the type of music he sang. It's one of the touchstones of rock and roll, that voice. Robert Plant was a screamer, an effective on to be sure, but no way can he be compared to Mick Jagger. This was a bad miss by Rolling Stone and by ranking the one immediately ahead the other, they made sure everyone noticed.
The final bad call is similarly glaring, and the biggest outrage in my book: Van Morrison at #24, with David Bowie ahead of Van at #23. Excuse me? Van Morrison is one of the all-timers. The man has a voice for the ages and he's been proving it for almost fifty years now - he is still making terrific music and exploring new territory with his vocals. Like Mick Jagger (and like Dylan) the most distinguishable thing about Van's music is his voice. To me, he's a top-five pick (so there's my top five: Aretha, Lennon, Dylan, Elvis, Van.) I understand he's not for everyone so I'll accept him ranked somewhat lower, but please, #24 with David Bowie (!!) ahead of him? What are David Bowie's great vocal performances. Does he have anything that can even touch "Madame George" or "Cyprus Avenue" or "Listen to the Lion"? Even on a minor song like "Cul De Sac" (which admittedly after forty years I still have no idea what it's about but hey, with Van, that's part of the charm), he's spectacular. Listen to it whole but pay particular attention to the scream at about the 4:56 mark - it's one of the greatest screams in rock and roll history and it blows Rolling Stones rankings right out the door. Thank you.
[audio:CulDeSac.mp3]
Likewise, I won't argue with Ray Charles at #2, though I wouldn't have put him there myself. Undeniably great, top-ten certainly, but I would have picked John Lennon at #2, just ahead of Dylan and Elvis. As it is, Rolling Stone has him at #5, so it's not as if he's slighted. And that's my point: the list has all the right people just about where they should be. They have Elvis at #3 and Dylan at #7 so again, they are in the ballpark. I would have dropped Sam Cooke a few notches - Rolling Stone has him at #4 - not because I don't love his voice but because his songs in the rock and roll genre, while quite good, aren't overwhelming. He wasn't around long enough to build up the body of work a #4 should have and besides, his greatest singing was done during his days singing pure gospel with The Soul Stirrers.
Al Green gets his due at #14 though I would have switched Green's place on Rolling Stone's list with Otis Redding, who comes in at #8. Al Green was sui generis, there's never been anyone like him. Otis, as great as he was, had a tendency to worry his songs to death. Had he lived longer, I expect he would have discovered the value of restraint in his singing and challenged for the #1 spot. That's how great his voice was. (Oh my, I'm just rereading this before posting and that last line I wrote is nearly the title of what I consider his greatest song, "That's How Strong My Love Is." I wasn't even trying for an allusion there but I got it. Heh.)
Some people on the list don't deserve to be anywhere near it. Some day a generation will look back on #47 Jim Morrison, see through the hype, and recognize him for what he really was - an egotistical, no-talent hack, with an overblown and pretentious vocal style beyond all reason or taste. Until then we must all endure. The Doors had a few top-forty hits during their time but they weren't the be-all-and-end-all people make them out to be now. Their real popularity came later, after Jim Morrison was dead and his myth was created. But that's all it is, a myth. The music is there to listen to, if anyone really cares to. Had he lived, I'm certain The Doors would have faded from sight within a few years and would just be a footnote in rock and roll history.
There are two glaring problems with the list. To begin with, how can Rolling Stone rank Robert Plant, at #15, ahead of Mick Jagger, at #16? Besides The Beatles, The Stones are the only band that could possibly make a claim to the greatest in history. And Mick Jagger's voice was the most distinguishable part of the band. He's great, a voice made for rock and roll, perfect for the type of music he sang. It's one of the touchstones of rock and roll, that voice. Robert Plant was a screamer, an effective on to be sure, but no way can he be compared to Mick Jagger. This was a bad miss by Rolling Stone and by ranking the one immediately ahead the other, they made sure everyone noticed.
The final bad call is similarly glaring, and the biggest outrage in my book: Van Morrison at #24, with David Bowie ahead of Van at #23. Excuse me? Van Morrison is one of the all-timers. The man has a voice for the ages and he's been proving it for almost fifty years now - he is still making terrific music and exploring new territory with his vocals. Like Mick Jagger (and like Dylan) the most distinguishable thing about Van's music is his voice. To me, he's a top-five pick (so there's my top five: Aretha, Lennon, Dylan, Elvis, Van.) I understand he's not for everyone so I'll accept him ranked somewhat lower, but please, #24 with David Bowie (!!) ahead of him? What are David Bowie's great vocal performances. Does he have anything that can even touch "Madame George" or "Cyprus Avenue" or "Listen to the Lion"? Even on a minor song like "Cul De Sac" (which admittedly after forty years I still have no idea what it's about but hey, with Van, that's part of the charm), he's spectacular. Listen to it whole but pay particular attention to the scream at about the 4:56 mark - it's one of the greatest screams in rock and roll history and it blows Rolling Stones rankings right out the door. Thank you.
[audio:CulDeSac.mp3]
Christmas Movies
I watched The Red Shoes last night, skipping Meet Me in St. Louis, which was playing on TCM. I love Meet Me in St. Louis, especially the music, but I've had The Red Shoes recorded for awhile now and one of my goals this weekend was to watch it. So I did, assuming there would be other opportunities to see Meet Me in St. Louis over the next few weeks - it's one of the great Christmas movies. And it has my favorites Christmas song, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I think I mentioned that in one of my very early posts on this blog. Terry Teachout did catch Meet Me in St. Louis last night and he posted the following tweets while watching:
I agree with those opinions. Nothing makes me feel like Christmas more than hearing Frank Sinatra singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." It conjures up memories from my childhood like no other Christmas music, not even Johnny Mathis' original Christmas album, which my father played constantly during the Christmas season.
I should have recorded Meet Me in St. Louis but I'm running short on DVR space and I wanted to record some others coming up today, including my favorite Christmas movie, The Shop Around The Corner. You want a great Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie, there's your ticket. It's A Wonderful Life is okay, I suppose, but it never really did much for me. On the other hand, The Shop Around The Corner is a perfect little gem, a beautifully told story with not a line out of place or a moment that's missed. It has humor and drama and romance, and it has one of Jimmy Stewart's finest performances. Of course, it was directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch and if you've heard about the famous "Lubitsch Touch," that combination of grace, elegance, wit, and charm, you won't find it in more abundance than here. It's on TCM this morning at 10:15 but if you miss this run it plays often on TCM during the Christmas season so there will be other opportunities. Just to give you a taste, here is a clip of the first few minutes. See how brilliantly all the characters are in introduced. Within minutes, we've already formed opinions about them:
[youtube]ixppr_TVQHY[/youtube]
I also recorded Roman Holiday and The Lady Eve, neither one Christmas movies but movies I'll happily watch again during this Christmas season. I've got a lot of time off between now and the new year and I traditionally watch a lot of movies during this period. This year will be no different.
As for last night's The Red Shoes, it is very well done. I didn't think a backstage drama about ballet could keep my interest for over two hours but it did. Powell and Pressburger film the ballet scenes with great skill, making it a movie rather than just a film of a stage performance. The acting are fine, especially Anton Walbrook as the dictatorial director, and Moira Shearer is lovely and an awfully talented dancer. My reservation with the movie is the end and what leads to the end. SPOILER ALERT!! The character Ms. Shearer plays is so down to earth, has such a level head, it seems implausible that she'd fling herself out a window in a suicidal act. It comes out of nowhere, even though we know it's coming. Perhaps they should have made her less lovely, shown how much dancing meant to her, rather than have her mouth the words. She doesn't have the glint in her eye when she talks about her dancing, that monomaniacal passion that the great ones have. We don't get that without dancing her life is meaningless. She has to choose between her lover and her dancing but we never get the feeling that dancing is everything to her. So she jumps to her death. The irony, of course, is that Moira Sheater was one of the greatest ballet dancers of her time - she undoubtedly had what it took to convey those feelings. Still, it's not a reason not to watch the movie. It's terrific in all ways except that slight misstep of characterization.
Every musician I know thinks that "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a perfect song--and so do I.
The tune is as good as anything that Schubert or Brahms ever wrote.
I agree with those opinions. Nothing makes me feel like Christmas more than hearing Frank Sinatra singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." It conjures up memories from my childhood like no other Christmas music, not even Johnny Mathis' original Christmas album, which my father played constantly during the Christmas season.
I should have recorded Meet Me in St. Louis but I'm running short on DVR space and I wanted to record some others coming up today, including my favorite Christmas movie, The Shop Around The Corner. You want a great Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie, there's your ticket. It's A Wonderful Life is okay, I suppose, but it never really did much for me. On the other hand, The Shop Around The Corner is a perfect little gem, a beautifully told story with not a line out of place or a moment that's missed. It has humor and drama and romance, and it has one of Jimmy Stewart's finest performances. Of course, it was directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch and if you've heard about the famous "Lubitsch Touch," that combination of grace, elegance, wit, and charm, you won't find it in more abundance than here. It's on TCM this morning at 10:15 but if you miss this run it plays often on TCM during the Christmas season so there will be other opportunities. Just to give you a taste, here is a clip of the first few minutes. See how brilliantly all the characters are in introduced. Within minutes, we've already formed opinions about them:
[youtube]ixppr_TVQHY[/youtube]
I also recorded Roman Holiday and The Lady Eve, neither one Christmas movies but movies I'll happily watch again during this Christmas season. I've got a lot of time off between now and the new year and I traditionally watch a lot of movies during this period. This year will be no different.
As for last night's The Red Shoes, it is very well done. I didn't think a backstage drama about ballet could keep my interest for over two hours but it did. Powell and Pressburger film the ballet scenes with great skill, making it a movie rather than just a film of a stage performance. The acting are fine, especially Anton Walbrook as the dictatorial director, and Moira Shearer is lovely and an awfully talented dancer. My reservation with the movie is the end and what leads to the end. SPOILER ALERT!! The character Ms. Shearer plays is so down to earth, has such a level head, it seems implausible that she'd fling herself out a window in a suicidal act. It comes out of nowhere, even though we know it's coming. Perhaps they should have made her less lovely, shown how much dancing meant to her, rather than have her mouth the words. She doesn't have the glint in her eye when she talks about her dancing, that monomaniacal passion that the great ones have. We don't get that without dancing her life is meaningless. She has to choose between her lover and her dancing but we never get the feeling that dancing is everything to her. So she jumps to her death. The irony, of course, is that Moira Sheater was one of the greatest ballet dancers of her time - she undoubtedly had what it took to convey those feelings. Still, it's not a reason not to watch the movie. It's terrific in all ways except that slight misstep of characterization.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Christmas Rituals
I don't have many but putting up the tree while listening to The Robert Shaw Chamber Singers Songs of Angels is one of them. Unfortunately this joyful task was rudely interrupted this morning by - what else? - a strand on lights on the tree going dark. Now I need to go buy a new strand before I can start hanging the ornaments. Plus I have to get the oil changed in my car. And do the grocery shopping. And start Christmas shopping. And go to the pet store to get food for the two boys. So I guess I should get started rather than writing useless blog posts.
Just to give you something worthwhile, here is a taste of the glorious music I listened to this morning:
[audio:OComeOComeEmmanuel.mp3]
Just to give you something worthwhile, here is a taste of the glorious music I listened to this morning:
[audio:OComeOComeEmmanuel.mp3]
Friday, December 10, 2010
New Theme
I got tired of the old one. When I first saw it I thought it looked clean and professional. But after awhile it was just boring. This theme, iNove from Wordpress, is pretty neat. There are a few others that I liked but iNove won out, probably because it supported everything I'd already developed. Anyhow, I've got a new personality. Yes, yes, I know - I needed one. Enjoy!!
UPDATE: I lasted about ten minutes with the iNove theme. I decided it was just too busy. Too interesting. The look of it overwhelmed all the fascinating things I have to say. The theme you're seeing now is one of the competitors I mentioned above, the Copyblogger theme for Wordpress. I like it. I think. We'll see.
UPDATE: I lasted about ten minutes with the iNove theme. I decided it was just too busy. Too interesting. The look of it overwhelmed all the fascinating things I have to say. The theme you're seeing now is one of the competitors I mentioned above, the Copyblogger theme for Wordpress. I like it. I think. We'll see.
Local Hero
Readers of this blog know how self-satisfied I get when I find that someone I respect agrees with me. You'd think at this advanced age I wouldn't need such validation. At any rate, reading The Bleat this morning, as I do every Mon.-Fri. morning, I find that James Lileks agrees with me on the wonders of Local Hero. I took my wife to see it on one of our first dates and it's always stuck with me. It's the story of a successful....er, wait a minute. Let me check something....
Okay, back. I guess I'm getting to the point in this blog where I start repeating myself. It occurred to me mid-sentence above that I've already blogged about how much I love the movie. Not much more to add, except that, if you love movie magic, that mystical, bewitching, feeling only a great movie can provide, see Local Hero. One of Lileks' commenters states:
Here is that marvelous final scene, along with the 2:26 moment that Lileks describes (though it arrives at the 2:16 mark in this video):
[youtube]JPuj9_94TBQ[/youtube]
Okay, back. I guess I'm getting to the point in this blog where I start repeating myself. It occurred to me mid-sentence above that I've already blogged about how much I love the movie. Not much more to add, except that, if you love movie magic, that mystical, bewitching, feeling only a great movie can provide, see Local Hero. One of Lileks' commenters states:
I think there are two kinds of people in the world: those who watch the final scene of Local Hero and either think “I don’t get it” or “that’s nice,” and those who almost gasp at the emotional impact of seeing a phone booth in a small Scottish fishing village, hearing the ring of the phone, and >get it<.
Here is that marvelous final scene, along with the 2:26 moment that Lileks describes (though it arrives at the 2:16 mark in this video):
[youtube]JPuj9_94TBQ[/youtube]
Excerpt
"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when one can’t see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel."
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
It Was Thirty Years Ago Today...
,...that John Lennon was murdered, announced live to the nation by Howard Cosell during a Monday Night Football broadcast. Within minutes of the confirmation I got a phone call from a friend who knew of my love for The Beatles' music but I was so distraught I couldn't talk. I was twenty-two years old and The Beatles, and especially John Lennon, were my musical heroes. I was very shaken up, the way a young person would be when confronted with the death of someone they figured would be around forever. I spent the few weeks afterwards writing a twenty page tribute to the man and his music. It's still somewhere around here, in a box downstairs buried deep among many other boxes.
One of the things I stated in that paper was my conviction that John Lennon was the primary reason for the band's success, the musical force that put it all together. It was his toughness, his cold-blooded thirst to make good music, that mattered. Without Lennon, Paul McCartney was (is) a talented pop-star. With Lennon adding the necessary edge to Paul's sweetness, they were titans. It can be argued the other way, I admit. Paul's pop-music mentality and keener sense of melody smoothed out some of Lennon's jagged edges. Alone, as their post-Beatle careers prove, they were one-dimensional and somewhat limited musicians who occasionally produced sparks of brilliance. Together, they stormed the world.
I don't have much time tonight to flesh out my thoughts here but I do want to say that it always baffled me about Lennon's leftism. As a kid, during the movies and interviews, he always seemed to be having a ball and laughing at the entire Beatles spectacle as if he knew it was absurd. He seemed like a man who saw the world as it was, a man of few illusions. How could he fall for all the socialist shibboleths?
I blamed Yoko, and I'm still convinced she had something to do with him turning more political. By the time of his death however, he was no political activist. He was a stay-at-home dad, concerned primarily with his family and their well-being. Fatherhood and experience had forced him to grow up.
I say all of this as an introduction to this column by Jordan Michael Smith in The American Conservative in which he dredges up an interview Lennon gave to Playboy a few weeks before he was murdered. In the interview, Lennon says some things which make it clear he had left his leftist illusions behind:
How many current pop-stars have that kind of realism, to admit that these events they put on do little good? Probably some of them realize it but which of them would admit it?
And then this:
That's the clear-eyed realist I always thought he was. Read the whole thing because their is much more. The interview shows a man who'd grown up, who was facing the world with a new attitude, and who was finally comfortable in his own skin. Things were much simpler for him now: he was happiest spending time with his wife and child. John Lennon was always a work-in-progress (aren't we all?) The saddest part about his murder had nothing to do with us. It had to do with his wife and his child and himself, his life cut short just as he'd arrived at a moment of peace and contentment.
One of the things I stated in that paper was my conviction that John Lennon was the primary reason for the band's success, the musical force that put it all together. It was his toughness, his cold-blooded thirst to make good music, that mattered. Without Lennon, Paul McCartney was (is) a talented pop-star. With Lennon adding the necessary edge to Paul's sweetness, they were titans. It can be argued the other way, I admit. Paul's pop-music mentality and keener sense of melody smoothed out some of Lennon's jagged edges. Alone, as their post-Beatle careers prove, they were one-dimensional and somewhat limited musicians who occasionally produced sparks of brilliance. Together, they stormed the world.
I don't have much time tonight to flesh out my thoughts here but I do want to say that it always baffled me about Lennon's leftism. As a kid, during the movies and interviews, he always seemed to be having a ball and laughing at the entire Beatles spectacle as if he knew it was absurd. He seemed like a man who saw the world as it was, a man of few illusions. How could he fall for all the socialist shibboleths?
I blamed Yoko, and I'm still convinced she had something to do with him turning more political. By the time of his death however, he was no political activist. He was a stay-at-home dad, concerned primarily with his family and their well-being. Fatherhood and experience had forced him to grow up.
I say all of this as an introduction to this column by Jordan Michael Smith in The American Conservative in which he dredges up an interview Lennon gave to Playboy a few weeks before he was murdered. In the interview, Lennon says some things which make it clear he had left his leftist illusions behind:
When it was pointed out that a Beatles reunion could possibly raise $200 million for a poverty-stricken country in South America, Lennon had no time for it. “You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. After they’ve eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles.” It’s a critique of foreign aid readers of P.T. Bauer would be familiar with. “You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I’m not ready for it.”
How many current pop-stars have that kind of realism, to admit that these events they put on do little good? Probably some of them realize it but which of them would admit it?
And then this:
I dabbled in so-called politics in the late Sixties and Seventies more out of guilt than anything,” he revealed. “Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something, or get punched in the face, to prove I’m one of the people. I was doing it against my instincts.
“The hardest thing is facing yourself,” he told Rolling Stone. “It’s easier to shout ‘Revolution’ and ‘Power to the people’ than it is to look at yourself and try to find out what’s real inside you and what isn’t, when you’re pulling the wool over your own eyes. That’s the hardest one.””
That's the clear-eyed realist I always thought he was. Read the whole thing because their is much more. The interview shows a man who'd grown up, who was facing the world with a new attitude, and who was finally comfortable in his own skin. Things were much simpler for him now: he was happiest spending time with his wife and child. John Lennon was always a work-in-progress (aren't we all?) The saddest part about his murder had nothing to do with us. It had to do with his wife and his child and himself, his life cut short just as he'd arrived at a moment of peace and contentment.
Friday, December 3, 2010
My Favorite Mozart
A simply marvelous performance of Mozart's best Piano Concerto (i.e. my favorite) #20, in D minor. I've listened to a dozen different performances over the years but this is the finest. Ivan Klánský, the pianist, is weird and wonderful; he plays this piece like he owns it. Here is the first movement in two parts. Enjoy.
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[youtube]OjL1kD0h7QY[/youtube]
[youtube]TKW83XXnveA[/youtube]
[youtube]OjL1kD0h7QY[/youtube]