Month: May 2008

Rain!

Albuquerque had measurable precipitation overnight — the first in five weeks. Nice to have the dust dampened down. Our spring winds have been strong, dust-filled and have lasted way too far into May.

I hate it when the clouds cover the mountains, though. Where’d my Sandias go?

Shakespeare

NewMexiKen read Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives) last evening. The 199-page biography is well-paced, occasionally witty — though less so than Bryson’s usual work — and informative. He sticks pretty much to the life and times — and how little we actually know and can know about the Bard. There are quotations from the plays and sonnets, of course, but this is a biography, not comparative literature.

I liked it.

The Blues

A Democrat won a special election in Mississippi yesterday for the House seat in a district that went 62% for Bush in 2004.

It’s the third straight special election Democratic win of a formerly Republican seat..

There is an I in T-E-A-M after all

Via kottke, Bonnie Richardson a junior from Rochelle High School was the only woman from her school to qualify for the state track meet.

So she won the Texas State 1-A TEAM championship singlehandedly.

Richardson’s title march began with field events on Friday when she won the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches), placed second in the long jump (18-7) and was third in the discus (121-0).

On Saturday, she won the 200 meters in 25.03 seconds and nearly pulled off a huge upset in the 100 before finishing second (12.19) to defending champion Kendra Coleman of Santa Anna. Richardson, a junior, earned a total of 42 team points to edge team runner-up Chilton (36).

Richardson wins state team title alone.

Senators say whether they’d agree to be vice president

TheHill.com asked the other 97 senators if they’d agree to be vice president. Two of the answers:

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) : “Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I would be great. First of all, I know how to behave at weddings and funerals. And I know how to be commander in chief. I’d bring a lot of fun to the job. We would rock the Naval Observatory.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) : “I have a unique perspective on this. I am the only senator to have announced I am not running for president because there should be someone here to serve as the Senate’s designated driver. I intend to stay in that position. The Senate needs a designated driver to stay behind and work on healthcare.”

Update: Three Republican senators said they were too old — Thad Cochran, 70; Chuck Grassley, 74; and Pete Domenici, 76. Cochran is younger than McCain.

Senators say whether they’d agree to be vice president

TheHill.com asked the other 97 senators if they’d agree to be vice president. Two of the answers:

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) : “Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I would be great. First of all, I know how to behave at weddings and funerals. And I know how to be commander in chief. I’d bring a lot of fun to the job. We would rock the Naval Observatory.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) : “I have a unique perspective on this. I am the only senator to have announced I am not running for president because there should be someone here to serve as the Senate’s designated driver. I intend to stay in that position. The Senate needs a designated driver to stay behind and work on healthcare.”

Update: Three Republican senators said they were too old — Thad Cochran, 70; Chuck Grassley, 74; and Pete Domenici, 76. Cochran is younger than McCain.

What are the odds?

Last Wednesday in the fifth inning at a lopsided Mets-Dodgers game in Los Angeles, the winners of a James Loney-John Maine matchup were sitting in the stands. With the Dodgers trailing, 11-0, Mr. Loney fouled off five pitches before hitting a relatively meaningless double. Two of those foul balls, though, were caught by glove-less friends Glen Walker and Joe Castro, who were sitting in adjacent seats at field level between third base and home.

The Numbers Guy, who discusses the likelihood of this happening.

Best line of the day, so far

“On May 13, 1918, the first 24-cent stamps featuring the Curtiss Jenny biplane—the aircraft chosen to inaugurate the U.S.’s new air mail service—reached post offices.  Collectors heard that some of the stamps could be rare ‘inverts,’ so they fanned out to find them.  Some were successful.  Today the stamps are worth approximately one bazillion dollars.  Or, as it’s known overseas, a week’s stay at a cheap European hotel.”

Cheers and Jeers

Out. Out. Out.

Try here for the video.

Asdrubal Cabrera catches Blue Jays’ Lyle Overbay’s line drive, steps on second to force out Kevin Mench (running from second and not seen in the video) and tags Marco Scutaro (running from first) for an unassisted triple play.

It was just the 14th unassisted triple play in major league history; only seven have been turned in the last 80 years.

May 13th ought to be a national holiday

Steveland Hardaway Judkins was born on this date in 1950 (later Steveland Morris). As Little Stevie Wonder he first recorded for Motown as a 12-year-old; his “Fingertips (Pt. II)” was the first live recording to ever reach number one. Stevie Wonder’s greatest achievements however, began with the album Talking Book (1972), one of just seven albums to be part of The NPR 100. (Listen to the NPR report here [Real Audio].) Steve Huey tells us about Wonder’s best albums at the All Music Guide —

The result, Talking Book, was released in late 1972 and made him a superstar. Song for song one of the strongest R&B albums ever released, Talking Book also perfected Wonder’s spacy, futuristic experiments with electronics, and was hailed as a magnificently realized masterpiece. Wonder topped the charts with the gutsy, driving funk classic “Superstition” and the mellow, jazzy ballad “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” which went on to become a pop standard; those two songs went on to win three Grammys between them. Amazingly, Wonder only upped the ante with his next album, 1973’s Innervisions, a concept album about the state of contemporary society that ranks with Gaye’s What’s Going On as a pinnacle of socially conscious R&B.
. . .

Finally released in 1976, Songs in the Key of Life was a sprawling two-LP-plus-one-EP set that found Wonder at his most ambitious and expansive. Some critics called it brilliant but prone to excess and indulgence, while others hailed it as his greatest masterpiece and the culmination of his career; in the end, they were probably both right. “Sir Duke,” an ebullient tribute to music in general and Duke Ellington in particular, and the funky “I Wish” both went to number one pop and R&B; the hit “Isn’t She Lovely,” a paean to Wonder’s daughter, became something of a standard, and “Pastime Paradise” was later sampled for the backbone of Coolio’s rap smash “Gangsta’s Paradise.” Not surprisingly, Songs in the Key of Life won a Grammy for Album of the Year; in hindsight, though, it marked the end of a remarkable explosion of creativity and of Wonder’s artistic prime.

Bea Arthur is 86 today.

Harvey Keitel is 69.

Richard Steven Valenzuela would have been 67 today. But, as everyone knows, Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, along with Buddy Holly and “The Big Bopper,” J.P. Richardson. Valens was 17.

In the course of his short life, Ritchie Valens left a lasting impact on rock and roll with the classic rocker “La Bamba.” A high-energy reworking of an old Mexican wedding song, its driving simplicity foreshadowed garage-rock, frat-rock and punk-rock. Ironically, “La Bamba” was the B-side of “Donna,” a paean to Valens’ girlfriend that rose to #2 on Billboard’s singles chart. “La Bamba” also charted, peaking at #22. This double-sided smash is one of the greatest rock and roll singles of the Fifties.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

La Bamba was one of The NPR 100. Listen to story [Real Audio].

Joe Louis was born on this date in 1914. Dave Kindred listed Louis’ first round knockout of Max Schmeling in 1938 as the second leading sporting event of the 20th century (to Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics). “[T]he Louis-Schmeling rematch had become a metaphor of that coming war.” For an excellent analysis of Joe Louis’ career and its meaning to America, see Chris Mead, Champion — Joe Louis, Black Hero In White America (1985). The book is out of print unfortunately, but available in many libraries. A fine read, and I’d say that even if author Mead wasn’t NewMexiKen’s attorney.

Arlington

Pvt. William Henry Christman, 67th Pennsylvania Infantry, was buried at Arlington on this date in 1864. More than 260,000 individuals have been interred there since.

War!

The United States Congress declared war on Mexico on this date in 1846. (Open hostilities had begun in April.)

Two days earlier, in a message to Congress, President Polk had claimed:

The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte [Rio Grande]. But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are now at war.

(Of course, Mexico did not recognize the Rio Grande as the border.)

Within a few hours the House passed a resolution authorizing war 173-14. The Senate interrupted its debate about whether to abolish West Point and discussed the matter of war for a day before agreeing 42-2.

At a cabinet meeting on the 13th, Polk corrected Secretary of State Buchanan of the notion that the U.S. did not intend to acquire New Mexico or California. Such acquisition might be necessary to indemnify us Polk said, and he would accept war with “either England or France or all the Powers of Christendom” rather than pledge “that we would not if we could fairly and honourably acquire California or any other part of Mexican territory which we desired.”

100 Essential Jazz Albums

David Remnick:

What follows is a list compiled with the help of my New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. These hundred titles are meant to provide a broad sampling of jazz classics and wonders across the music’s century-long history. Early New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, hard bop, free jazz, third stream, and fusion are all represented, though not equally. We have tried not to overdo it with expensive boxed sets and obscure imports; sometimes it couldn’t be helped. We have also tried to strike a balance between healthy samplings of the innovative giants (Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Davis, Coltrane, etc.) and the greater range of talents and performances.

100 Essential Jazz Albums