“This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts.”
Audrey Hepburn…
would have been 75 today. (She died in 1993.)
Ms. Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role five times, winning the first time for Roman Holiday in 1954. She also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, posthumously in 1993. Hersholt had presented the Oscar to Hepburn in 1954.
Audrey Kathleen Hepburn-Ruston was born in Brussels, Belgium, daughter of John Victor Hepburn-Ruston and Ella van Heemstra.
In 1963, it was Audrey Hepburn who sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy.
Link Wray and Dick Dale…
two guys who ought to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Link Wray was 75 Sunday. Cub Koda begins his essay about Wray for the All Music Guide:
Link Wray may never get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but his contribution to the language of rockin’ guitar would still be a major one, even if he had never walked into another studio after cutting “Rumble.” Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists. Listen to any of the tracks he recorded between that landmark instrumental in 1958 through his Swan recordings in the early 1960s and you’ll hear the blueprints for heavy metal, thrash, you name it. Though rock historians always like to draw a nice, clean line between the distorted electric guitar work that fuels early blues records to the late-’60s Hendrix-Clapton-Beck-Page-Townshend mob, with no stops in between, a quick spin of any of the sides Link recorded during his golden decade punches holes in that theory right quick. If a direct line from a black blues musician crankin’ up his amp and playing with a ton of violence and aggression can be traced to a young, white guy doing a mutated form of same, the line points straight to Link Wray, no contest. Pete Townshend summed it up for more guitarists than he probably realized when he said, “He is the king; if it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble,’ I would have never picked up a guitar.”
To continue reading what Koda has to to say about Wray, go to the All Music Guide and search on Link Wray. (Direct link seemingly not possible.)
Dick Dale is 67 today. Steve Huey begins his essay about Wray for the All Music Guide:
Dick Dale wasn’t nicknamed “King of the Surf Guitar” for nothing: he pretty much invented the style single-handedly, and no matter who copied or expanded upon his blueprint, he remained the fieriest, most technically gifted musician the genre ever produced. Dale’s pioneering use of Middle Eastern and Eastern European melodies (learned organically through his familial heritage) was among the first in any genre of American popular music, and predated the teaching of such “exotic” scales in guitar-shredder academies by two decades. The breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique was unrivalled until it entered the repertoires of metal virtuosos like Eddie Van Halen, and his wild showmanship made an enormous impression on the young Jimi Hendrix. But those aren’t the only reasons Dale was once called the father of heavy metal. Working closely with the Fender company, Dale continually pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing the thick, clearly defined tones he heard in his head, at the previously undreamed-of volumes he demanded. He also pioneered the use of portable reverb effects, creating a signature sonic texture for surf instrumentals. And, if all that weren’t enough, Dale managed to redefine his instrument while essentially playing it upside-down and backwards — he switched sides in order to play left-handed, but without re-stringing it (as Hendrix later did).
To continue reading what Huey has to to say about Dale, go to the All Music Guide.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Duane Eddy was 66 April 26.
The toughest living conditions I’ve seen
Report in the Arizona Republic on a Congressional visit to the Navajo reservation:
NAVAJO RESERVATION – Marie Keams, 49, humbly welcomed members of Congress into the two-room house south of Cameron where she raised seven children.
One room held two beds, two couches, dressers and a wood stove. The other room had a propane stove and an U.S. flag taped over the door.
No electricity. No running water. And the well outside is contaminated with oil, so Keams is forced to get her drinking water from the Cameron chapter house several miles away.
“I’ve been to 48 or 50 different countries, and that housing is comparable to the Third World,” said Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on housing and community opportunity.
“Those are the toughest living conditions I’ve seen.”
Best line of the day, so far
“I wonder how we’d react if we saw some pictures of what goes on in maximum security prisons here in the U.S.”
Dave Pell, Electablog*
Curious about interest rates
Brad DeLong interprets the Federal Reserve.
Missing in action
Anyone seen a blogger’s muse? Mine seems to have run away from home.
Late-night lines
“According to the recent polls, Bush has a slight lead over John Kerry. So today, Bush hung a banner over the White House saying, ‘Mission Accomplished.'”
David Letterman
“The Supreme Court is now deciding whether the president can detain an American citizen indefinitely without legal counsel. What? Isn’t this why we left England? Didn’t we have a King George once already? Hello?”
Jay Leno
Choose a running mate for Kerry
Veep-O-Matic from The Washington Post. See who best matches the criteria you choose.
Challenge yourself
True hero athlete from Gwen Knapp in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Link via Eschaton.
Best line of the day, so far
“Why do people still, after Enron, after Arthur Andersen, after all the major scandals that have been reported exhaustively in the press, still think out loud in e-mails?”
Former Federal prosecutor Zachary Carter quoted in The New York Times.
Cuties
John & Belle Have A Blog tells a cute story about Zoé, and the photos alone are worth a click.
Yeah, where did they have to go?
“Bob Kerrey and Lee Hamilton left the meeting [with the 9/11 commission] early to go to another meeting. Where do you possibly have to go? You’re meeting with the president and the vice president about the future of the free world and who do you have to meet, the cable guy?”
Jay Leno
Deadwood
Deadwood is slipping. From a story in USA Today: “On Sunday’s show, there were at least 63 mentions of the f-word in the hour.” Only 63?
The article goes on to discuss the pros and mostly cons of the high profanity quotient. Among others, Dennis Weaver isn’t pleased.
“When you use it and use it, it loses its emphasis and loses its dramatic effect.” Weaver says. “That doesn’t mean to say that the people in the West didn’t use pretty raw language.”
NewMexiKen has already expressed his own discomfort with too much profanity (in my case, the film Ladykillers). Deadwood is still pretty rough and sometimes the profane language just doesn’t resonate. (After you hear and use the f-word a few times you develop a feel for it.)
That said, Sunday’s episode (Number 7) was superb. The acting and writing is outstanding — across the board. The scene near the end where Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) and Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) are talking to their departed friend Wild Bill at his grave site was both amusing and moving. When you can get two opposing emotions going at the same time in a TV drama, you are definitely doing something right.
Important finding
Goldfish® crackers should only be eaten by children who have mommies and daddies nearby to control quantity.
Yes, this is a cry for help.
“[F]ar below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts”
“I continue to believe that the Diebold voting machines represent a huge threat to our democracy.” Johns Hopkins University Professor Aviel D. Rubin, quoted in a New York Times article, Who Hacked the Voting System? The Teacher.
Best line of the day, so far
From an op-ed piece regarding grammar by John Rosenthal in The New York Times — “the kind of people who worry about whether anal-retentive has a hyphen.”
iPod leads the pack
Apple had 34.9% of the MP3 player market in March. It’s next three competitors — Rio, RCA and iRiver respectively — had 34.8%.
The margin
According to a story in The New York Times today, in the Google data centers “every part in the system that can fail is mounted with a Velcro fastener, so that it can be quickly and easily removed when necessary.”
What, no tiny Phillips-head screws to mess with?
Pete Seeger…
is 85 today. The following is from The Kennedy Center Honors page for Pete.
Pete Seeger is arguably the most influential folk artist in the United States. He was instrumental in popularizing the indigenous songs of this country, and his own songs, among them “If I Had a Hammer,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” have served as anthems for an entire generation of Americans.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
The Godfather of Soul…
is 71 today. That’s James Brown, of course. Click to hear a James Brown trademark.
If you have Flash, you can hear some more of James at his web site, godfatherofsoul.com.
Oops
NewMexiKen inadvertently turned off the comments for all entries prior to April 28. I had intended to close comments for entries older than 15 days, but the fickle finger of fate intervened, and I hit enter before I had made the change from 5 days to 15. Oh well, it’s not as if you were standing in line waiting to comment.
Turning off the comments only prevents new comments for those entries. It does not erase existing comments. They’re still there. Some blogs have been barraged with spam, so the comments are turned off to diminish the danger (to the blog, not to you).
Should you absolutely need to comment on an entry from before the 28th, let me know. I can reopen the comments. I’m just not going to do it manually for ten days worth of entries.
Well, no, it’s a three letter word
Largest free standing bronze statue may be built in Tulsa
From Native American Times:
Tulsa has the opportunity to be the home of the largest freestanding bronze monument with an observation area. The proposed statue, called “The American,” depicts a young Native American warrior standing firm with the wind blowing his hair across his face. His right arm is raised as a bald eagle, with an 82-foot wingspan, lands on his forearm, while his left arm, relaxed at his side, catches a blanket falling from his shoulder. Visitors would ride an elevator to an observation area in the warrior’s head.
The statue would stand about 17½ stories tall, reaching a soaring 21 stories with its limestone-concrete base. Its $26 million price tag would be privately funded, but the project would require incentives and a site to build on.
Shan Gray, the artist, is part Osage. Gray hopes to secure a site by April 1 and to complete the monument before the 2007 state centennial celebration.
“The American” would be 25 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty without her base, and more than nine times the height of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial.
Fake Indian art hurting real Native artists
From Native American Times:
Imitation Native American art is being mass-produced in places like Mexico and Asia, and the fallout from this manufacturing of Indian culture is hurting Native artists and craftspeople.
“The people that are in the business and attempting to make authentic stuff have to contend with imports,” Michael Kirk, a craftsman from Isleta, New Mexico, told the Native American Times. He said that import laws are not properly enforced.
Kirk is one of the lucky ones, though. His jewelry and carvings are geared toward higher-end consumers like museums and galleries. He specializes in one-of-a-kind art. Those most harmed by the cheap imitations are the artists who make smaller items like silver rings, Kirk told the Native Times.
The fakes are bad for business in New Mexico. Tourism is the second biggest industry in the state, but some visitors get counterfeit art when they try to buy the real thing.