He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where “…nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”
Part of a letter to “Friends and Fans” from Bruce Springsteen.
“If Michelle runs in eight years, anyone who bitches about ‘dynasty’ voting gets smacked.”
Bitch Ph.D. Go see the video accompanying this headline.
How about an Obama-Edwards ticket? Michelle and Elizabeth!
Yesterday Smokey, the apartment maintenance man next door, helped me haul a dead washing machine to the city dump. I asked him what he thought about the Obama thing.
“Huh?” he said.
He spoke for millions.
Bageant also tell us: “And I wouldn’t vote for any of the three even if they knocked on my door bearing a bucket of smoked pork ribs and a bottle of Jack Daniels.”
This is addressed to any readers in the Albuquerque area. I need the name of a reliable tree service. Casa NewMexiKen has about a dozen piñons that appear to have black scale. The needles are dying quickly. I called a service and they came out and sprayed and talked a good story, but frankly I felt like I was doing business with somebody headquartered in a motel on Central on their way through town. That’s probably not fair, but I feel like I feel.
This is an emergency, but it gets expensive fast and I need reliability — and a strong comfort zone.
Anyone? You can comment or email.
“You know, President Bush actually met the Pope at the airport? And that wasn’t easy because, you know, they don’t let you stop at the curb anymore. So, Bush had to keep circling, the Pope runs out and Bush is driving by. The Pope is trying to get him. Oh, it was a huge, huge, big deal.”
“President Bush also told the Pope that he has prayed every single day since he became president. Hey, since Bush became president, we’ve all prayed every single day.”
— Jay Leno
“But when he was getting on his flight in Rome, he was almost not allowed on the aircraft because he tried to bring on more than three ounces of holy water.”
— David Letterman
“This morning, Pope Benedict arrived in the United States. More than 10,000 people are on the waiting list to get into the Pope’s mass at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. That’s Hannah Montana big.”
— Jimmy Kimmel
Mr. McCain also called for wealthier Medicare recipients to pay higher premiums to qualify for the prescription drug coverage that President Bush and the Congress added to the program a few years ago, over his objections.
“People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don’t need their prescriptions underwritten by taxpayers,” he said.
John McCain as reported in The New York Times
Hello! Bill Gates is 52. He’s not eligible for Medicare. Once again McCain’s example is a bad one.
Besides, even among the “wealthier Medicare recipients” just how typical is Warren Buffet?
This is just plan demagoguery — or stupidity.
Here’s what the tobacco pharmaceutical gun plastic industry spokesman said about the potential harm in their products:
Steven G. Hentges of the American Chemistry Council’s polycarbonate/BPA group said the findings “provide reassurance that consumers can continue to use products made from bisphenol A.”
“The limited evidence for effects in laboratory animals at low doses primarily highlights opportunities for additional research to better understand whether these findings are of any significance to human health,” he said.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Today we celebrate (or at least acknowledge) the birthday
. . . of Pope Benedict XVI, infallible at 81.
. . . of Bobby Vinton, his roses are still red my love at 73.
. . . of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 61.
. . . of Bill Belichick, 56.
. . . of Ellen Barkin, 54.
. . . of Peter Billingsley. Ralphie is 36.
Wilbur Wright was born on this date in 1867. He died of typhoid fever in 1912.
Charlie Chaplin was born on this date in 1889.
In a 1995 worldwide survey of film critics, Chaplin was voted the greatest actor in movie history. He was the first, and to date the last, person to control every aspect of the filmmaking process — founding his own studio, United Artists, with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith, and producing, casting, directing, writing, scoring and editing the movies he starred in. In the first decades of the 20th century, when weekly moviegoing was a national habit, Chaplin more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art. In 1916, his third year in films, his salary of $10,000 a week made him the highest-paid actor — possibly the highest paid person — in the world.
Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini on this date in 1924. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1994.
Mancini won four Oscars and twenty Grammys, the all-time record for a pop artist. For 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s alone, Mancini won five Grammys and two Oscars. Breakfast at Tiffany’s includes the classic “Moon River” (lyrics by Johnny Mercer), arguably one of the finest pop songs of the last 50 years. At last count, there were over 1,000 recordings of it. His other notable songs include “Dear Heart,” “Days of Wine and Roses” (one Oscar, two Grammys), and “Charade,” the last two with lyrics by Mercer. He also had a number one record and won a Grammy for Nino Rota’s “Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet.” Among his other notable film scores are The Pink Panther (three Grammys), Hatari! (one Grammy), Victor/Victoria (an Oscar), Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark, and 10. His television themes include “Peter Gunn” (two Grammys, recorded by many rock artists), “Mr. Lucky” (two Grammys), “Newhart,” “Remington Steele,” and The Thorn Birds television mini-series.
Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was born on this date in 1939. We know her as Dusty Springfield. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 1999, just 13 days after she died of breast cancer.
One of the finest pop-soul vocalists ever, Dusty Springfield was blessed with a powerful, smoky voice that ran the emotional gamut from cool sophistication to simmering passion. Over the course of a long, episodic career, she tackled adult pop, Memphis R&B and Motown-style soul, traditional folk and country, and contemporary dance music. She’s been called “one of the five mighty pop divas of the Sixties”-the others being Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Martha Reeves-and no less an authority than Berry Gordy credits her for helping the Motown sound take root in the U.K. Moreover, Springfield forcefully asserted herself as an artist and personality at a time when women were generally not given much leeway in the music industry. In 1964, she became Britain’s most popular female vocalist, and her popularity proved durable, as she enjoyed hits in four successive decades.
Be certain to catch the 35 seconds or so at 7:25.
At what time actually can the sun be said to be over the yardarm?
Just askin’.
“Day Tripper”: The Beatles
“Layla”: Derek & the Dominos
“Sunshine of Your Love”: Cream
“Oh, Well”: Fleetwood Mac
“Funk #49”: The James Gang
“Gimme Three Steps”: Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Aqualung”: Jethro Tull
“Heartbreaker”: Led Zeppelin
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”: The Rolling Stones
“The Train Kept A-Rollin'”: The Yardbirds
“Mannish Boy”: Muddy Waters
“Sunday, Bloody Sunday”: U2
“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”: Van Halen
From a discussion at Achenblog which takes exception to a list from the London music schools.
If I understand the concept of riff properly — “a brief, repetitive musical figure designed to be the ‘hook’–or most memorable instrumental component–of a song” — then I might have to add Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
I thought that whole Google Maps street view thing was pretty cool until I looked at photos of Casa NewMexiKen today.
Yikes!
Leaving aside the whole “who’s baby is that” thing, it appears Amy Winehouse is going to need a little more “Rehab.”
From Rustbelt Intellectual via Brad DeLong, some thoughts for tax day.
NewMexiKen is reminded of the woman who wrote my office at the National Archives asking us to do research for her. We could make the records available I wrote her back, but we couldn’t actually do the research. Back came an irate letter culminating with the assertion that I was denying her “the only government service” she’d “ever requested.”
I wanted to write back and say then how the hell did I get your letters. (But I didn’t.)
From MSNBC Live‘s Mika Brzezinski this morning:
“Less than an hour from now, John McCain will lay out a new plan to help Americans deal with high gas prices. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, McCain wants to eliminate the federal gas tax — that’s about 20 percent of the cost.”
The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. Saturday I paid $3.209 a gallon. Let’s see Mika, three point two zero nine goes into point eighteen four — gee, it’s just 5.7%.
(Not to mention that the gasoline tax goes to repair roads and bridges and we all drive too much anyway.)
Item from Media Matters.
“New controversy arises as it is revealed the Barack Obama’s wife’s college roommate wanted segregated dorms. Also, Obama’s uncle’s neighbor’s grandchild’s classmate’s cousin’s sister has cooties”
DataQuick’s final count of Orange County home-buying activity last month shows the median selling price for all residences at $506,000 — the lowest since March ‘04 and off 19.6% from a year ago. Buyers grabbed 1,663 homes last month down 46.9% from a year ago. It’s the 30th consecutive month where total sales failed to beat the year-ago level.
Finally, I have found the blogging holy grail — The Celebrity Fugprentice, none other than Omarosa.
Thanks to Jill, the official tacky celebrity website scout for NewMexiKen.
Have a Mac? Need info? Right click on any word in Mail, Safari, iWork or most other Mac OS X applications and the Dictionary pops up — giving you instant information from a dictionary, thesaurus and/or Wikipedia (somewhat slow).
“It’s possible that Clinton hammering Obama with a concerted ad campaign over his remarks about economically depressed small towns will hurt him. But it’s also possible all that hammering with just give Clinton a swollen thumb.”
Bessie Smith was born on this date in 1894.
Bessie Smith earned the title of “Empress of the Blues” by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery and command of the genre. Her singing displayed a soulfully phrased, boldly delivered and nearly definitive grasp of the blues. In addition, she was an all-around entertainer who danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company. She was the highest-paid black performer of her day and arguably reached a level of success greater than that of any African-American entertainer before her.
. . .Some of her better-known sides from the Twenties include “Backwater Blues,” “Taint Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” “St. Louis Blues” (recorded with Louis Armstrong), and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” The Depression dealt her career a blow, but Smith changed with the times by adapting a more up-to-date look and revised repertoire that incorporated Tin Pan Alley tunes like “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” On the verge of the Swing Era, Smith died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident outside Clarksdale, Mississippi, in September 1937. She left behind a rich, influential legacy of 160 recordings cut between 1923 and 1933. Some of the great vocal divas who owe a debt to Smith include Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. In Joplin’s own words of tribute, “She showed me the air and taught me how to fill it.”
And this from a review of The Essential Bessie Smith.
. . . Bessie could sing it all, from the lowdown moan of “St. Louis Blues” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” to her torch treatment of the jazz standard “After You’ve Gone” to the downright salaciousness of “Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl.” Covering a time span from her first recordings in 1923 to her final session in 1933, this is the perfect entry-level set to go with. Utilizing the latest in remastering technology, these recordings have never sounded quite this clear and full, and the selection — collecting her best-known sides and collaborations with jazz giants like Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Benny Goodman — is first-rate. If you’ve never experienced the genius of Bessie Smith, pick this one up and prepare yourself to be devastated.
There are no lyrics today that surpass “Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl” for sexual imagery.
And, there is no more important recording in American musical history than Smith and Armstrong’s “St. Louis Blues.”
In listening to the earliest recordings, keep in mind there were no microphones until 1925. The artists sang or played and the sound was recorded acoustically, i.e., without electrical amplification.
… was born on this date in 1889.
Named after his great-uncle, Missouri’s first senator, Thomas Hart Benton was born on 15 April 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, an Ozark town of 2,000 people. … In 1935 they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Benton directed the Art Institute until 1941, and where he contiued to live for the rest of his life. Albert Barnes, the Philadelphia collector, purchased some of his paintings, which raised the level of public success for the artist. Benton published his autobiography, An Artist in America, in 1937. He completed several murals in the midwest and on the east coast. Shortly before Harry Truman’s death in December 1972, Benton finished a portrait of the former President. Thomas Hart Benton died on 19 January 1975 in Kansas City, the day he completed a large mural for the Country Music Foundation of Nashville.
Click on the painting to see larger version.
In the 1950s and early 1960s the top tax rate — on taxable incomes over $400,000 — was 91%.
Ninety. One.
[Caveat: $400,000 in 1960 dollars would be about $2,800,000 in 2007 dollars.]
The Revenue Act of 1964 reduced the top rate to 70%.
Today’s top rate is 35%.
An income tax was first collected during the Civil War from 1862 to 1872. During the administration of President Grover Cleveland, the federal government again levied an income tax, enacted by Congress in 1894. However, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year. Supporters of an income tax were forced then to embark on the lengthy process of amending the Constitution. Not until the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913 was Congress given the power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census of enumeration.”