Month: May 2008

From each end of the Mississippi River

Today, as I’ve noted, Bob Dylan is 67. Thinking about him and listening to four decades of his music — love those iTunes smart playlists — as I was walking around doing other stuff, I concluded Dylan is arguably one of the two or three most significant Americans of the past 100 years — in music I mean.

Who else?

Louis Armstrong certainly. Chuck Berry most likely.

Keep in mind that I am talking significant and that implies influence. These are not necessarily the most important “entertainers” of the past 100 years — Sinatra and Elvis make that list. What I am asking is who had the most significant influence on subsequent music?

I say Armstrong and Dylan.

In McCain’s Court

The question, as always with McCain these days, is whether he means it. Might he really be a “maverick” when it comes to the Supreme Court? The answer, almost certainly, is no. The Senator has long touted his opposition to Roe, and has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial appointments; the rhetoric of his speech shows that he is getting his advice on the Court from the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. With the general election in mind, McCain had to express himself with such elaborate circumlocution because he knows that the constituency for such far-reaching change in our constellation of rights is small, and may be shrinking. In 2004, to stoke turnout among conservatives, Karl Rove engineered the addition of anti-gay-marriage voter initiatives to the ballots in Ohio and other states; last week, though, when the California Supreme Court voted to allow gay marriage in that state, only hard-core activists were able to muster much outrage. When it comes to the Constitution, McCain is on the wrong side of the voters, and of history; thus, his obfuscations.

Jeffrey Toobin

Follow the link to read more of Toobin’s analysis.

No, May 24th REALLY ought to be a holiday

Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory, stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the notions that in order to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally good voice, thereby redefining the role of vocalist in popular music. As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the tip of his achievements. Dylan’s force was evident during his height of popularity in the ’60s — the Beatles’ shift toward introspective songwriting in the mid-’60s never would have happened without him — but his influence echoed throughout several subsequent generations. Many of his songs became popular standards, and his best albums were undisputed classics of the rock & roll canon. Dylan’s influence throughout folk music was equally powerful, and he marks a pivotal turning point in its 20th century evolution, signifying when the genre moved away from traditional songs and toward personal songwriting. Even when his sales declined in the ’80s and ’90s, Dylan’s presence was calculable.

The beginning of Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s profile at allmusic.

Bob Dylan – Thunder On The Mountain

May 24th ought to be a national holiday (and it is in Canada)

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24th 67 years ago. That’s Bob Dylan, of course.

From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Bob Dylan is the pre-eminent poet/lyricist and songwriter of his time. He re-energized the folk-music genre, brought a new lyrical depth to rock and roll when he went electric, and bridged the worlds of rock and country by recording in Nashville. As much as he’s played the role of renegade throughout his career, Dylan has also kept the rock and roll community mindful of its roots by returning often to them. With his songs, Dylan has provided a running commentary on a restless age. His biting, imagistic and often cryptic lyrics served to capture and define the mood of a generation. For this, he’s been elevated to the role of spokesmen – and yet the elusive and reclusive Dylan won’t even admit to being a poet. “I don’t call myself a poet because I don’t like the word,” he has said.

Here’s a video of Tangled Up In Blue.

Tommy Chong, he’s Chong of Cheech and Chong, is 70.

Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, that is Gary Burghoff, is 68.

Patti LaBelle is 64 today.

Priscilla Presley is 63.

Alfred Molina is 55.

Rosanne Cash is 53. She was born a month before her father released his first record, “Cry, Cry, Cry.”

Kristin Scott Thomas is 48.

Michael Chabon is 45 today.

After Wonder Boys, Chabon stumbled on a box of comic books he’d kept since childhood. He hadn’t looked at them in 15 years. He said, “When I opened it up and that smell came pouring out, that old paper smell, I was struck by a rush of memories, a sense of my childhood self that seemed to be contained in there.” It gave him the idea to write a novel about the golden days of the comic book trade called The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It came out in 2000, and won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the story of a Jewish kid who flees the Nazis just before World War II — has to leave his family behind and come to America. Along with his cousin, he creates a comic book super hero called “The Escapist.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

John C. Reilly is 43. “Shake ‘n Bake.”

Victoria was born on May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III. None of her uncles had legitimate children who survived, so when her uncle William IV died in 1837, she became queen at age 18. Her reign lasted until 1901; the longest of any British monarch. She had nine children and is Elizabeth II’s great great grandmother.

Victoria Day has been celebrated in Canada since 1845. The holiday is now the Monday before May 24th, unless Monday is May 24th.

The first passenger railroad in the U.S. began service between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, on May 24th in 1830. That’s 13 miles.

The first telegraph message was transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse on May 24th in 1844. Sent from Washington to Baltimore it said, “What hath God wrought!”

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24th in 1883. Click here for every fact you ever needed to know about this landmark.

The first Major League Baseball night game was played in Cincinnati on May 24, 1935. The Reds beat the Phillies 2-1. The Reds played seven night games that year (one against each National League opponent).

We’ll take Manhattan

Legend and a number of historical accounts have it that on this date in 1626, Manhattan Island was purchased from the Canarsee Delawares by the Dutchman Peter Minuit. Most accounts state that Dutch beads were part of the deal.

The only known document specifically relating to the acquisition was written in Amsterdam late in 1626 as a report to the board of the West India Company. It said, in part:

They [the crew and passengers of a returning ship] report that our people are in good heart and live in peace there; the women have also borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders; ’tis 11,000 morgens (about 22,00[0] acres) in size.

60 guilders has been estimated as worth from $24 to $300. Manhattan is actually about 15,000 acres, not 22,000.

The late bead historian Peter Francis argued in his prize-winning 1986 article “The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island” that, because this contemporary report does not mention beads, we cannot assume that beads were part of the transaction. According to Francis, beads were added to the story by Martha J. Lamb in her History of the City of New York (1877). It was only from then on that Dutch beads became part of the story. And, as a result, making the Delawares seem even more ignorant in light of Manhattan’s growing importance and wealth.

NewMexiKen however, wonders whether “for the value of 60 guilders” does not imply trade goods rather than coin. What use would Dutch money have been to the Delawares? And, if the transaction was strictly for money, why not report “for 60 guilders” rather than the vague “for the value of 60 guilders”? Trade goods were used in the purchase of Staten Island in August 1626 according to a copy of the deed – “Some Diffies, Kittles, Axes, Hoes, Wampum, Drilling Awls, Jew’s Harps, and diverse other wares” [Diffies are cloth]. What does “Wampum” mean in this Dutch account if not beads? The word “Wampum” comes from the Narragansett word for white shell beads.

More than likely the Delawares assumed they were “leasing” the use of the land. Permanent title would not have occurred to them. And $24 to $300 for a lease (whether in cash or goods) would not have been unattractive.

As the result of war, the Dutch traded New Amsterdam to the English in 1667 for what is now Suriname (Dutch Guyana).

Been readin’ me some novels

 

NewMexiKen read both of the above these past few days. Both are from series, Blood of Victory (2002), from Furst’s succession of World War II espionage books, and Tularosa (1996), the first of McGarrity’s Kevin Kerney mysteries. It’s the third of Furst’s books I’ve read; the first of McGarrity’s.

Furst’s books describe the kind of world we know from the back story of Casablanca — individuals in small groups, possibly with some sort of “official” sanction or support, doing what they can to thwart the Nazis from one end of Europe to the other. They ride trains, have love affairs, smoke cigarettes, and blow up stuff. All in black in white, too.

McGarrity’s Kerney is the detective novel’s typical ex-cop, wounded in duty, loner, but respected. In Kerney’s case he’s an ex-Santa Fe cop, raised in the Tularosa basin (site of today’s missile range). He drives a pickup, rides horses, wins fights, loses fights, saves the girl, gets the bad guys. Good reading, if somewhat predictable. I expect to try another in the series soon. And another.

Probably not a good idea to fill up the tank in La Jolla

Gas prices 

Photo from The New York Times.

Of course, if you can afford to live in La Jolla, the price of gasoline is not likely to be much of a concern for you.

(That absurd 9/10ths of a cent still hanging in there.)

Update: AAA says the AVERAGE price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide went up 4.4 cents since yesterday. I want my 18.4¢ tax rebate! (Gas has gone up TWICE the amount of the tax since McCain and Clinton first proposed suspending the tax last month.)

Harry S Truman National Historic Site (Missouri)

. . . was established on this date in 1983.

Harry S Truman National Historic Site includes the Truman Home in Independence, Missouri, and the Truman Farm Home in Grandview, Missouri.

Truman Home

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), 33rd President of the United States, lived here from 1919 until his death. The white Victorian style house at 219 North Delaware Street was built by the maternal grandfather of Bess Wallace Truman (1885-1982), and was known as the “Summer White House” during the Truman administration (1945-1953).

National Park Service

10 best road-trip cars

Just in time, Kelley Blue Book has provided a list of the top 10 new vehicles best suited for road trips. Based on factors such as driving enjoyment, passenger comfort, cargo space, and — perhaps most important — fuel economy, the experts suggest travelers consider the following options. To sweeten the deal, we’ve offered some fun destinations to consider.

The Top 10
Audi S5
Bugatti Veyron
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
Dodge Grand Caravan
Ford Flex
Infiniti EX35
Mini Cooper Clubman
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Eos

The 10 best road-trip cars and where to take them from the Los Angeles Times.

May 23rd — the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Jewel is 34 today. Joan Collins is 75. Drew Carey is 50.

Jewel’s last name is Kilcher.

Lauren Chapin, who played the youngest daughter, Kathy or Kitten, on “Father Knows Best,” is 63.

Benjamin Sherman Crothers — known to us better as Scatman Crothers — was born May 23rd in 1910. Crothers is best remembered as the permissive orderly in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the concerned chef in The Shining and as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man. He was also a successful composer and singer and did a number of cartoon voices. The nickname Scatman came from his scat singing. Crothers died in 1986.

Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23rd in 1934. The FBI has a web page with details about Bonnie and Clyde, including a photo of each. Not exactly Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman (who portrayed Clyde’s brother Buck). All three were nominated for an acting Oscar, as were Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons. Parsons, who played Buck’s wife Blanche in the 1967 film, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

William Harvey Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on May 23rd in 1900 — for duty performed nearly 37 years earlier at Fort Wagner, S.C. Sergeant Carney was the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor. Carney was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, the regiment whose story was told in the film Glory (1989) with Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick. Carney was not portrayed in the film by name. The citation for Carney’s Medal of Honor reads: “When the color sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.”

From the heart of America

Nearly 500 Californians have lost their lives while in service to their country in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 58 were immigrants; more than 160 were parents, who left behind more than 300 children. One descended from two presidents; another was a Guatemalan street orphan taken in by an American family as a teenager. One high school lost six of its graduates.

The above from an article in the Los Angeles Times describing a study by the paper to be published Sunday.

“He was Mexican, but he thought like an American. And he gave his life for this country.”

It’s Larry Craig “Bobblefoot” Day!

Capitalizing on Senator Larry Craig’s restroom bust, a Minnesota minor league baseball team this Sunday is giving away a promotional item celebrating the Republican politician’s arrest last year at the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport. Dubbed a “bobblefoot” (as opposed to a bobblehead doll), the polyresin giveaway depicts an occupied bathroom stall (the inhabitant’s pants and shoes can be seen below the stall’s panels). When the St. Paul Saints’s “bobblefoot” is shaken, one of the spring-loaded feet taps. The keepsake, which will be handed out to the first 2500 fans attending the Saints’s May 25 game against the Fort Worth Cats …

The Smoking Gun

Click on the link for photos of the “booblefoot.”

Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means say ‘cheese’

Investigative reporting forced Denver, Colorado to lengthen the yellow at four city intersections where red light cameras are to be installed. In late March, the Rocky Mountain News uncovered how these intersections had quick, three-second yellow times that fell short of recognized engineering standards. Drivers will now enjoy up to two additional seconds of warning at some intersections by the time automated tickets start landing in the mail on June 10.

TheNewspaper

Follow the link for details on the four intersections. Lengthening the yellow at one Fort Collins intersection by one-second reportedly reduced the accident rate 30 percent.

One of my favorite lines ever — “Madrid [New Mexico] doesn’t have any traffic lights yet; there is one in the works, they just haven’t decided what colors they’re gonna use.”

Best line of the day, so far

“$4 gas is annoying. $8 gas, if it happens, will be… different.”

Gas PricesAtrios commenting on $135 a barrel and downward revisions in supply forecasts.

According to AAA, today’s national average price is $3.831 for regular, $4.068 for mid-grade, $4.214 for supreme, and $4.590 for diesel. If only I could have that 18.4¢ a gallon rebate from McCain and Clinton.

Update: That the gasoline tax rebate discussion has seemingly disappeared from Clinton’s repertoire is interesting, don’t you think? Kind of proves the pandering charge doesn’t it?

The Gold Old Days

“I want to say also that the press is to be commended — complimented — on the manner in which the program was explained to the country. I think the press made a great contribution toward informing the people of the United States — toward showing just exactly what the intention of the legislation is.”

President Harry Truman 61 years ago today after signing legislation providing economic aid for Greece and Turkey, as reported then in The New York Times.