Airports

Airports are not just for travel anymore. Now you get to listen to any number of inane telephone conversations — many at maximum volume.

Use your inside voice folks, please.

Update: You know, my opinion of the whole human race has diminished since I’ve been privileged to hear other people talking on the phone.

Earth Day Travels

NewMexiKen thought it would be good to share in the burning of some high-octane jet fuel in commemoration of Earth Day, so I am writing from the Albuquerque Sunport about to fly over, by my count, about a dozen states (and perhaps a bit of Canada). One can’t always get from Albuquerque to Virginia, without connecting in some seemingly out of the way place — like Minneapolis.

Should you care to drop by Casa NewMexiKen while I am away visiting the east coast Sweeties, be alert for the rattlesnakes. They like to curl up behind the electronic gear. The scorpions in my closet are nasty little fellows, too.

We’ll see if the Sweeties have plans for Grandpa, or if I can just spend all day blogging like at home.

Earth Day

Earth Day was first observed in Spring of 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities out of which came the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history, and the impetus for national legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. By the twentieth anniversary of that event, April 22, 1990, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.

Earth Day is not without historical precedent. Both Arbor Day and Bird Day were established in the late 1800s to support forestation, conservation, and the appreciation of nature. Native American peoples have long recognized and celebrated in story and song the interdependence of the earth and all her creatures.

Library of Congess

April 22nd ought to be a national holday

Jack Nicholson is 71 today.

Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times, eight times for best actor in a leading role and four times for best actor in a supporting role. He won for best actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976) and As Good As It Gets (1998). He won for best supporting actor for Terms of Endearment (1984). Nicholson has been nominated for an Oscar for films made in the 60s (Easy Rider), 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s (About Schmidt).

The best actress Oscar went to a co-star each time Nicholson won — Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment and Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets.

According to IMDB, Nicholson “was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine researcher uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star.”

Glen Campbell is 72 today, as is Estelle Harris, Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld.

Peter Frampton is 58.

And Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona, on this date in 1922.

Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became universally lauded only after he was no longer around to bug people. As a bassist, he knew few peers, blessed with a powerful tone and pulsating sense of rhythm, capable of elevating the instrument into the front line of a band. But had he been just a string player, few would know his name today. Rather, he was the greatest bass-playing leader/composer jazz has ever known, one who always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse, spirit, spontaneity, and ferocious expressive power of jazz.

All Music Guide

Mingus died in 1979.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin was born on this date in 1870.