Mary Cassatt was born on May 22nd in 1844.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was a unique artist because she was a woman who succeeded in what was in the nineteenth century a predominantly male profession, because she was the only American invited to exhibit with a group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists, and because she responded in a very distinctive way to their mandate to portray modern life.
Click images for larger version and to learn more.
Peter Matthiessen is 81 today and Garry Wills is 74. The Writer’s Almanac has background on these two exceptionally insightful and important American writers.
You can hear Garrison Keillor’s audio of same by clicking here (RealAudio).
NewMexiKen has a first edition of Matthiessen’s wonderful and wonderous The Snow Leopard.
Johnny Carson last hosted The Tonight Show 16 years ago today. The mental_floss Blog has “5 Memorable Moments from The Tonight Show.” Videos.
I fear somewhere in the back of my mind I may have turned reading Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story into an assignment more than just acting on a recommendation. In any case, I found the book interesting and amusing but — honestly — he writes about a lot of music and a lot of bands I’ve barely just heard of — and certainly not listened to. While I try to keep up with current music, the music that absorbs my interest ended somewhere around 1965 or 66. Klosterman was born in 1972.
I found his obsessing about the women in his life (while on a cross country roadtrip) more interesting than his obsessing about the music; narcissistic, but interesting.
Klosterman does have a clever style though and at least three great lines:
“By now, the sky is as dark as Johnny Cash’s closet.”
“At this show, there aren’t many people with a job that includes air-conditioning.”
“Tina was always a case of good news/bad news (for instance, she was a part-time swimsuit model . . . but only for Target).”
What did I miss?
NewMexiKen thinks everything is working, but I’m not too sure about the comments.
Maybe you should test them.
Ranked by Sports Illustrated, the Top 25 athletic programs for 2007-08.
Number one, Barack Obama’s Alma Mater, Punahou (Honolulu).
Number eighteen is Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.), the Alma Mater of Byron, official son-in-law of NewMexiKen.
Click image for larger photo and the story, which ends: “Anyone know what book John McCain is — or should be — carrying around?”
From Josh Marshall —
Zogby’s latest numbers: Obama 47%, McCain 37%, Nader 4%, Barr 3%.
Without Barr and Nader it’s Obama 48%, McCain 40%.
“Barack Obama is expected to do well with more affluent, educated voters, and Hillary Clinton is expected to win Kentucky.”
Jay Leno
You know, you can’t say “fuck” on the radio, but here’s a real obscenity —
“The poor guy’s been suffering for years, you know? Unfairly he’s been accused of alcoholism, but we see now that it was something much more deep-seated. And so, to cut this out in some respect for Ted Kennedy, here’s a tune coming at you from the Dead Kennedys. Go ahead and play it, please.”
Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage yesterday, the day Senator Edward Kennedy’s tumor was announced.
Another interesting personal playlist, this one from Rebecca Walker, author of Baby Love and Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self.
Four of the 15 are tracks NewMexiKen has — and particularly likes, so I thought this list needed exploration. It did.
NewMexiKen checked and I’ve never posted the birthdays for May 21st. Here’s why:
Al Franken is 57. Mr. T is 56. Judge Reinhold is 51.
TV actress Lisa Edelstein is 40. I didn’t even know what show she’s in.
However, Thomas “Fats” Waller was born on this date in 1904.
Here he is in the 1943, shortly before he died at age 39, singing his most famous composition, “Ain’t Misbehavin'”
And here’s a great version of the same tune with Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli (no video, just the music).
And the Muppets have a nice cover, too.
How about some guitar misbehavin’?
Lindbergh landed in Paris on this date in 1927, 33½ hours after take off.
From the take-off in New York, he flew north over Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, navigating by checking maps against the landmarks he could see on the ground. He reached Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and then flew in toward the city of St. John’s because he wanted people to know he’d gotten at least that far. People who saw his plane said they could almost read the serial number on the underside of the wing. It was the last land Lindbergh would see until he reached Ireland.
He turned east toward Europe just as night was falling. For the next 15 hours, no one would know if he was alive or dead. People across America would later say that they stayed up thinking about Lindbergh that night, praying for his safety. The humorist Will Rogers wrote in his column, “No attempt at jokes today. A … slim, tall, bashful, smiling American boy is somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where no lone human being has ever ventured before.”
After reaching the halfway point of his journey, Lindbergh began to hallucinate, and even saw a coastline before his calculations said that he should. When he flew toward it, the coastline vanished. After more than 24 hours, Lindbergh spotted fishing boats on the water. He reached Ireland a few hours later, and turned south toward Paris.
From a longer essay at The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media.
“This just in: Hillary Clinton refuses to concede the Hornets are out of the NBA playoffs.”
Maybe she stays in because she is a Yankees fan and a Cubs fan. A Yankees fan always thinks they’re going to win and a Cubs fan knows there’s always next year — or the next primary.
James Stewart was born 100 years ago today. Stewart received five best actor Oscar nominations in his long career, but won only for The Philadelphia Story in 1941.
Joe Cocker is 64. Timothy Olyphant is scowling at being 40.
Cher is 62.
Charles Lindbergh departed Long Island for Paris 81 years ago today.
Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland on May 20th in 1932, the first woman to solo the Atlantic.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of continuous residence. Designed to spur Western migration, the Homestead Act culminated a twenty-year battle to distribute public lands to citizens willing to farm. Concerned that free land would lower property values and reduce the cheap labor supply, Northern businessmen opposed the act. Unlikely allies, Southerners feared homesteaders would add their voices to the call for abolition of slavery. With Southerners out of the picture in 1862, the legislation finally passed.
Why is it that the music they play while you are on telephone hold is (usually) so horrible?
Are they trying to make the waiting that much more difficult irritating?
Bob Ormond sent along this item:
Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science — and especially evolutionary biology — tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.
The quote is from an article at New Scientist
And LP sent along a link to this good story that analyzes some mythology about Thurman Munson, the great Yankee catcher in the 70s, and his competition with Carlton Fisk.
“Obviously, something happened. Somewhere. At some time. But I’ve got three versions of the same story, and none of the versions checks out.”
Local congressional candidate Martin Heinrich finds time two weeks before the primary to list his Ten Favorite Things About Albuquerque.
8. Eating chile-laden breakfast, on the patio at Las Mananitas in the spring when the cottonwoods are greening.
7. The Ta Lin Market, the South Valley Dia de Los Muertos parade, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and all the diverse communities that make up Albuquerque
4. The fact that a pair of boots and a bolo tie is considered formal-wear.
(My friend Donna and I have a running discussion about whether there are one or two restaurants in Albuquerque where blue jeans (or shorts) might not be de rigueur.)
But Martin, why then the rush to go to Washington to live? Trust me, if you don’t have any Sweeties near there like I do, it’s not all that great.
Albuquerque averages 63 days each summer when the temperature reaches 90º F.
At Casa NewMexiKen today is the first of those days for 2008. (Currently 90.3º and 7% humidity.)
Via Oh Fair New Mexico —
Several lanes of Interstate Highway 80 were shut down for hours overnight after a truck hauling Oreos crashed into a median, spilling tons of the chocolate cookies across the highway, police said.
The crash occurred at about 3:40 a.m. Monday on I-80 just east of Morris, said Master Sgt. Brian Mahoney of the Illinois State Police.
The truck was westbound, hauling about 20,000 pounds of Oreos, when the driver lost control and the rig hit a median before veering into the eastbound lanes. The impact ripped the trailer open, spilling its cargo across the eastbound lanes of the highway, he said.
The driver was not hurt, but police had to shut down the eastbound lanes for several hours while the cookies were cleaned up, Mahoney said.
I’m thinking the cleanup might have gone faster if the crew didn’t stop and split each cookie to lick the creamy stuff in the middle.
NewMexiKen once blew a VW Bug engine on I-80 near Morris, Illinois. But no, not an Oreo in sight that day.
Little girls have pretty curls
But I like Oreos
Admission for two, ninth row behind the plate: $26
Food and drinks including a margarita: $32.25
Sunny Sunday afternoon doubleheader with 27 runs (including nine home runs): Priceless
Gotta love the Isotopes and AAA baseball.
Malcolm Little was born 83 years ago today in Omaha.
Your assigned reading: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the best book Alex Haley wrote.
Essay question (after reading the autobiography): What would 83-year-old Malcolm say about this year’s presidential election?
Dusty Hill is 59 today. It ought to be an American holiday.
The genius of ZZ Top is that they’re reverential about the blues but loose and funny about the subject matter of their songs. Their songs are laden with pop-culture references, sexual double entendres and the determined pursuit of a good time. They have written about fast cars, fishnet stockings, sharp clothes, TV dinners, cheap sunglasses and “tush.” They visually connected with the MTV generation by virtue of Hill’s and Gibbons’ long beards and fur-lined guitars. For many, ZZ Top have been the premiere party band on the planet. Certainly, they have been Texas’s foremost cultural ambassadors.
Pete Townshend is 63. It ought to be a national holiday in Britain too.
From Mod-era “maximum R&B” to rock operas and quintessential Seventies hard rock, the Who reigned across the decades as one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. At their best, they distilled the pent-up energy and chaos of rock and roll into its purest form while investing their music with literary wiles and visionary insight. In their prime they were a unit whose individual personalities fused into a larger-than-life whole. Pete Townshend provided the slashing guitar work and much of the material. Vocalist Roger Daltrey injected the songs with expressive muscularity and passion. Bassist John Entwistle anchored the band with his stoic demeanor and expert musicianship. Keith Moon, one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers, embodied their explosive energy and anarchic wit.
And AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd is 54. So it ought to be a national holiday in Australia as well.
For three decades AC/DC has reigned as one of the best-loved and hardest-rocking bands in the world. Featuring guitarist Angus Young as their visual symbol and musical firebrand, they grew from humble origins in Australia to become an arena-filling phenomenon with worldwide popularity. They did so without gimmickry, except for Angus’s schoolboy uniform, which became mandatory stage attire. From the beginning they have been a straight-ahead, no-frills rock and roll band that aimed for the gut. “We’ve never pulled any punches,” vocalist Brian Johnson has said. “We just play music that’s fun and simple–the way our audience likes it.”
Elsewhere, Jim Lehrer is 74, Nora Ephron is 67 and Kevin Garnett is 32.
Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19th in 1890. Pol Pot was born on May 19th in 1925. So probably not a holiday in Cambodia.
In last week’s New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones had an interesting profile of American Idol. It included:
“Idol” watchers have been trained to think about aesthetic concepts like arrangement and song choice, and, by the time the judges weigh in, we have already been sorting out our thoughts. The viewers need compete only with Cowell; Jackson and Abdul both give us plenty of opportunities to feel superior. The self-flummoxing Abdul is physically incapable of not reassuring the contestants. One of the few variables that Jackson seems able to track is pitch.