I Could Not Detest This Person More

bangs head repeatedly on desk ... I just can't stand it .,..  Breitbart gone, this vermin still extant. 


Thanks to Ace.

This!

This, this, this, this, THIS...



ought to be on the lips of every conservative in the country. (Should be on the lips of every American, but fat chance).

Bully! Rep. McClintock.

While Sitting Here Minding My Own Business ...

someone is always emailing me, or writing something that causes me to dash off to dusty corners of the interwebs and look stuff up. Sometimes it's Stoaty Weasel, who is always "making" me buy books - like when she writes about stuff like The Great Boston Molasses Flood (excellent book on that here). And sometimes it's one of my siblings, who are nearly as weird as me.

In this case, a simple discussion between little sis & me about whether (1) we should catch a show by guitarist Laurence Juber and (2) at which venue (he'll be at 2 fairly local spots this coming May). Now, I'm the family no-talent, but with 3 sibs that are musical, we talk about this stuff a lot. To enlighten me, she sends me this video of Paul McCartney & Wings, with Juber as a side man (he's the one that's neither McCartney nor Denny Laine, if that's any help. I have no more-technical description to give - I are dense). I find the video exceedingly cute - especially Macca (as the British tabloids call him), who's just as handsome as his early Beatle years, 15+ years prior.



So, after I've survived the excruciatingly slow "download over dialup" and played it 1 or 2 (or 8 or 10) times (complete with samba-ing around the joint in my jammies), it occurs to me that McCartney (actually, the whole crew) looks just like the illustrations of Jazz Age illustrator John Held, Jr. Whose work I've always loved, but it occurs to me that I've never searched him out in the ether. So ... she's off! (but you knew that)

Some Held pix:









More Held info here and here.

That second link is where I found the map woodcut (which I'd never seen before) - the author of the article calls it a "denunciation of notable places and things. 'Americana', for example, is a denunciation of all of the stereotypical symbols of American culture."

I dunno. For somebody who (in this case) is allegedly depicting a distaste for "rum runners" and "bootleggers," he certainly made a tidy profit off the alcohol-fueled antics of the Jazz Age American sheiks and flappers - and made their behavior look darned attractive, overall. I hate it when I find something in my internet sifting that queers my liking of someone/something I previously held in good regard. I think I shall just take the words embedded in the western states at face value:

"If You Don't Like This Country Go Back Where You Came From"

Or, if you started out here, pick some spot you find more beguiling. Cuba, anyone? Iran?

So there.

The Favorite Christmas Song ...

of the Obama Administration:



Merry Christmas, comrades!


********


Randolf's Party

It was Chrisbus time but Randolph was alone. Where were all his good pals. Bernie, Dave, Nicky, Alice, Beddy, Freba, Viggy, Nigel, Alfred, Clive, Stan, Frenk, Tom, Harry, George, Harold? Where were they on this day? Randolf looged saggly at his only Chrispbut cart from his dad who did not live there.

'I can't understan this being so alonely on the one day of the year when one would surely spect a pal or two?' thought Rangolf. Hanyway he carrie don putting ub the desicrations and muzzle toe. All of a surgeon there was amerry timble on the door. Who but who could be a knockingon my door? He opend it and there standing there who? but only his pals. Bernie, Dave, Nicky, Alice, Beddy, Freba, Viggy, Nigel, Alfred, Clive, Stan, Frenk, Tom, Harry, George, Harolb weren't they?

Come on in old pals buddys and mates. With a big griff on his face Randoff welcombed them. In they came jorking and labbing shoubing 'Haddy Grimmble, Randoob.' and other hearty, and then they all jumbed on him and did smite him with mighty blows about his head crying, 'We never liked you all the years we've known you. You were never really one of us you know, soft head.'

They killed him you know, at least he didn't die alone did he? Mery Chrustchove, Randolf old pal buddy.

- John Lennon, from In His Own Write, 1964

SCOTUS And Kelo

LauraW (at Ace of Spades), on the aftermath of Kelo:

SCOTUS' Chickens Come Home To Roost In New London

This cannot be emphasized enough.

The people who run your city, the politicians who are full of bright ideas for improving your life by infringing on others' rights, and the black-robed genius who is tasked with interpreting our founding documents; NONE of these people are smarter than you.

NONE of these people are gifted with superior insight on how better to run your life or use our native resources. But they believe that they are. So without the brake of morality or explicit law, these geniuses and pols and town busybodies will extend professional courtesy to each other as they go about dismantling your life for some dubious utopian idea.

Think hard about those words, particularly in the context of the current healthscare debate.

From the comments of that post:

I have kept saying this since the campaign. Obama is sooooo smart. Why? Well, uh, he got accepted to Harvard Law School (finishing is not a problem, the day you are accepted, they print your diploma). He wrote that super-awesome book about himself.

First, none of this is a serious intellectual task. There ain't no math. It's not about solving problems, it's about empty rhetoric at best. Just because pretentious people, who like to think they are smart (David Brooks) can understand nothing more complicated than prose in their mother tongue, doesn't mean someone who does it well is intelligent. Just the opposite, in my experience.

Second, this is why I rag on lawyers. If lawyers were like accountants -- experienced, professional specialists who (Doug Hoffman aside) don't try to parlay their education into some sort of divine right to rule -- then I'd have no problem. But there ain't nothin' special about lawyers. They're idiots by my scale. They usually have trouble with math. Send a native-English speaking PhD mathematician -- one of the two of them left -- to Harvard Law and see him laugh at the trivialities involved.

Law school is where you go when math is too hard for you.

So not only are these self-styled philosopher kings not smarter, they're dumber. But even if you do get a true genius, he doesn't know anything. Look at the brilliant economists who said that the unemployment rate wouldn't get above 8%. Has one of them apologized? Committed hara-kiri?

One thing math tells you is that everything, in the real world or theory, is waaaaay too complicated for even the most brilliant person to understand. It is one of the reasons American democracy has worked so far. We have resisted the siren's song -- more or less -- of the ubermensch and we are better for it.

Posted by: AmishDude at November 11, 2009 10:56 AM

What he said.

More & more excellent comments at the link.

LATER: Related only in the style over substance sense, Snapped Shot on President Pose & Prose.

h/t Carin, at Is This Blog On?

EVEN LATER: Uncle Jay Explains The News.

Après Halloween LOL

I confess, the whole way through this I heard my mother's voice wailing, "WHY didn't they take the laundry basket out of the background!??" She was a darned good photographer (my dad was, too) and had a sharp eye for the background of a picture.

UPDATE: Click here to go to the Sweet Juniper blog and see what surely must be the most fantastic (homemade!) children's Halloween costumes ever! They made my day - I was all moody and depressed, since I had no trick-or-treaters last night. While you're there, check out the writing on and photos of Detroit.

Got Candy?

Dry Bones - The Delta Rhythm Boys

This Post

is for my sister ... and only she knows why!!!



Hot Jazz Band - Christopher Columbus



Christopher Columbus
Andy Razaf, Leon Berry 1936

Mister Christopher Columbus
Sailed the sea without a compass.
When his men began a rumpus
Up spoke Christopher Columbus:

"There is land somewhere
Until we get there,
We will not go wrong,
If we sing a swing song.

Since the world is round,
We'll be safe and sound,
Til our goal is found,
We'll just keep rhythm bound."

Soon the crew was makin' merry
Then came a yell, "Let's drink to Isabelle,
Hum, bring the rum, Ho Hum."

No more mu-tin-y,
What a time at sea,
With di-plo-macy
Christy made his-to-ry.

Mister Christopher Columbus
He used rhythm as a compass.
Music ended all the rumpus,
Wise old Christopher Columbus.


Happy Columbus Day!

One Of My Favorites

Two favorites, actually - the video and Mr. Whittle:



I rewatch this to calm down when the news of the day makes me want to bite someone.

Oh, and check this comparison of Palin's pre-order book sales vs. those of David Frum (one of those GOP "elitists" that Whittle speaks of) at Doug Ross:

Memo to David Frum, re: Sarah Palin

Heh. Keep going rogue, Sarah.

Talk Talk

DrewM. has a post up at AoS: Success At Nuclear Talks! Iran Agrees To....MORE TALKS!

Wow, more talks! That's so awesome. This is so much different than all the talking and inspecting of Iranian facilities we've been doing until now. No, this is nothing like the almost 10 years that came before. It's different because this time it's S-M-A-R-T.

See? You don't, do you? Because you're a wingnut.

*snip*

EXCLUSIVE: Must Credit Ace Of Spades HQ---Obama plan to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons uncovered!

Step 1-Talk to Iran
Step 2- ???
Step 3- Victory!

*le sigh*

Speaking of wingnuttery, there's confessional talk in the comments of this Stoaty Weasel post of conversion to same and how it came to be for some folk.


All this talk makes me weary made me think of this:



Prolly my favorite "garage" number - Music Machine MySpace.


Talk Talk
Music Machine (1966)

I got me a complication
And it's an only child
Concernin' my reputation
As something more than wild
I know it serves me right
But I can't sleep at night
Have to hide my face
Or go some other place

I won't cry out for justice
Admit that I was wrong
I'll stay in hibernation
'Til the talk subsides to gone
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Can't seem to talk about
The things that bother me
Seems to be
What everybody has
Against me
Oh, oh, all right

Here's the situation
And how it really stands
I'm out of circulation
I've all but washed my hands
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk


Yeah, I know, I have strange musical tastes - from Gilbert & Sullivan to garage punk/psychedelia in 2 posts! :-D

I Can Die Happy

I'm on iowahawk! Hey, I'm unemployed & don't have much to live for.

My submission letter:

Having endless respect (okay, slavish worship) for the talent that is Burge, as well as life-long love of all things Gilbert & Sullivan (particularly The Mikado), I imagine the noble iowhawk as the humane Mikado himself. Who else in the the blogosphere could be described thus?

A more humane Mikado never
Did in Japan exist,
To nobody second,
I'm certainly reckoned
A true philanthropist.
It is my very humane endeavour
To make, to some extent,
Each evil liver
A running river
Of harmless merriment.

My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!

(more here and here)

No one, that's who. And he's saving Teh Arts - A true philanthropist! Bow! Bow! to iowahawk!

Your humble servant,
iamfelix

********

Check out how the program started here and here.


From the 1982 Stratford Festival, The Humane Mikado:

Pants. On. Fire.

From BreitbartTV, via comments at AoSHQ. Y'all watchin' them health care debates on C-SPAN? Why not?!?


The always to-the-point Nice Deb blogs (with the supporting video I've been meaning to post all week, plus quotes from the world's other biggest liar -- Michael Moore -- on his admiration for Obama's rope-a-dope health care strategy):

Surreal: Obama Says He Has “Not Said That He Is A Single Payer Supporter”

She also attended one of Claire McCaskill's Town Hall meetings (at which, oddly enough [rolls eyes], McCaskill was no-show, but the event still proved interesting):

Claire McCaskill Town Hall, Blue Springs MO

And, as if all that was not enough, she posts another video I meant to do:

Hopey Changey Uniter Contradicts Himself…In Same Speech!

She has many other good posts on the debate, so scroll away. Thanks, Nice Deb, for doing what I and my failing laptop did not do. *bows*


UPDATE: Ace, more on health care:

Fishism Watch: Everything That Guy Just Said Was a Lie, Including the "Uhhh's" and "Ummm's"

Even the NYT disputes Obama's claim that you'd be able to "keep your current insurance."

Here's the NYT on these assurances, which they politely call "aspirational" only. As in, a lie.

These assurances reflect an aspiration, but may not be literally true or enforceable.

The legislation does not require insurers or employers to continue offering the health benefits they now provide. The House bill sets detailed standards for “acceptable health care coverage,” which would define “essential benefits” and permissible co-payments. Employers that already offer insurance would have five years to bring their plans into compliance with the new federal standards.

The Senate health committee bill goes somewhat further by offering an “option to retain current insurance coverage.”

The legislation could have significant implications for individuals who have bought coverage on their own. Their policies might be exempted from the new standards, but the coverage might not be viable for long because insurers could not add benefits or enroll additional people in noncompliant policies.

Dallas L. Salisbury, president of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a private nonpartisan group, said: “The president and Democrats in Congress are saying what they would like. Their promises may not be literally true because your health plan may change, and your doctor may no longer accept your insurance.”

You won't keep your coverage.

By design.

The Castaways, 1965:



One note: I will not be unhappy if the voting public lets Teh Won, and large segment of Congress, go in 2010/2012.

Well, Well, Well, You're Feeling Fine

Seniors and about-to-be-seniors-Boomers (of which I am one), wake the hell up. If you don't think your ass is going to be out on an ice floe if this thing passes, you're crazy. The only way this abomination can work is with extreme rationing of care ... you know, that horrible thing that eeeevil "Big Business HMOs" started doing when that total coverage model for every hangnail, burp and damaged hair follicle was found to be unsustainable. C'mon ... you were screaming about it constantly!!!ELEVENTY!!!!

1. If it was in any way beneficial, wouldn't the hogs at the trough in Congress be taking it for themselves first, instead of staying outside of it?

2. Who is expendable? Not young, working taxpayers. Or "the children." Can you say Booooomers? Sure you can. And the largest generation in the history of ever is on the cusp of becoming the largest, health-challenged demographic in the history of ever.

Found at American Digest, via Aardvarks and Asshats.



UPDATE: This, from Carin at Is This Blog On? on healthcare in France.

UPDATE II: The NY Post, Perils of Obamacare: The Three Big Lies.




UPDATE: Another video, as the first is inop:

Want

2010 Chevrolet Camaro

Video, filmed at my place of work - Yay! (Not me driving, unfortunately)







Oh yeah, and Iowahawk! for Car Czar.



LATER: Zo on bootstraps, with a shout at the end to the Camaro. :-)

I *SO* Love This

My guitar-playing sis sent this to me, and it's wonderful. Frank Vignola and others playing a medley of Hoagy Carmichael's beautiful Stardust with the Tommy Dorsey band's signature tune, I'm Getting Sentimental Over You. It's the most unsentimental version of that number I've ever heard, and it swings like crazy.




More on music: Mark Steyn on the Jerome Kern /Dorothy Fields number Pick Yourself Up, which was recalled to him by a line from (of all places) Obama's Inauguration speech. (Mark's complete take on that here with The Audacity of Dull). It's from the Astaire/Rogers gem Swing Time, and Mr. Steyn says:

On screen, it’s one of their best numbers together. Astaire’s delightful in his game efforts to dance badly, landing on the floor just in time to be admonished by Rogers to pick himself up, dust himself off, start all over again. Then, after she says disgustedly, “I can’t teach you anything”, Astaire goes into a machine-gun rat-a-tat-tat and sweeps her up and across the floor. This is one of Ginger’s best numbers: watch the way she’s initially bewildered and tentative over Fred’s sudden display of virtuoso terpsichore and then surrenders to the pure joy of the moment.

Here's the clip from Swing Time:



*sigh* I just bought the DVD of that flick - Now I must go watch it.


UPDATE: (Next day) Yep, I watched it, and now I have to include this - A Fine Romance, "a sarcastic love song."





A FINE ROMANCE (1936)
Dorothy Fields & Jerome Kern

A fine romance, with no kisses;
A fine romance, my friend, this is.
We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes -
But you're cold as
Yesterday's mashed potatoes.

A fine romance, you won't nestle;
A fine romance, you won't wrestle.
I've never mussed the crease in your blue serge pants -
I never have the chance,
This is a fine romance.

A fine romance, my good fellow,
You take romance, I'll take Jell-o.
You're calmer than the seals in the Arctic Ocean -
At least they flap their fins
To express emotion.

A fine romance, with no quarrels;
With no insults and all morals.
You're just as hard to land as the Ile de France -
I never get the chance,
This is a fine romance.

A fine romance, with no kisses;
A fine romance, my friend, this is.
True love should have the thrills that a healthy clime has;
We don't have half the thrills
That the March of Time has.

A fine romance, with no clinches;
A fine romance, with no pinches.
You never give the orchids I send a glance,
No, you like cactus plants!
This is a fine romance.

Again ... *sigh*.

Just Because They're Funny

Monty Python's Flying Circus:



Mel Brooks, History of the World Part 1:



Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

For Inauguration Day, These Are The Laws of My Administration - Groucho Marx & Margaret Dumont, Duck Soup (1933):



Groucho - Whatever It Is, I'm Against It - Horse Feathers (1932)



Just remember, there's still one place for all of us - The Brotherhood of Man! One of my favorite movie performances, Robert Morse as the manic, devilish-yet-still-endearing J. Pierpont Finch in 1967's How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying - Music and lyrics Frank Loesser.

More Basie Worship

I may just go on forever, posting all the songs I looooove.

The Count Basie Orchestra, In A Mellotone:



I'm sure Trombonology would agree that's some hot trombone-ing. For another great version of this tune, see this CD:



Stuff Smith - Dizzy Gillespie - Oscar Peterson (the whole CD is a keeper)

Now that I've mentioned Stuff, I need Stuff stuff:



The tune is Bugle Call Blues. He has a completely different style than Venuti (mentioned below), but I admire them both immensely.

Back to Basie - With Oscar Peterson, Slow Blues:



Piano heaven! One commenter at YouTube says, simply, "Elegant." And how.

One more Basie-Peterson, doing one of the Basie Band's signature numbers, Jumpin' At The Woodside.



Finally, from the 1955 movie Rhythm and Blues Review, the Basie Band and One O'clock Jump:



Basie Worship Part 1 here.

More Video

I know I'm doing practically nothing but video - still, I had to put this one up. The incomparable Teddy Wilson & the Dutch Swing College, 1976, doing the Gershwins' Lady Be Good. Check YouTube for more on Teddy & Teddy/DSC; they have lots of wonderful stuff there.




One more: My favorite Swing/Big Band, that of Count Basie, doing Corner Pocket, a real favorite number of mine (1962):



How could anyone not love that?

UPDATE: Another reason to love Basie:

My Sister Is Funny

I was emailing back-and-forth with my sis (mentioned in the post below), and I asked her if she'd seen the pic of the shirtless PE Obambi that was sending the press into such paroxysms of ecstasy -- see The Anchoress for a good roundup. She said she had, and that all she could think of was a Ren & Stimpy episode entitled Ren's Pecs, where, according to Nickelodeon:

After being tired of being pushed around on the beach one too many times. Ren's dream of having huge muscles comes true, after Stimpy makes a personal sacrifice (the fat in his butt!)

I had missed this gem, so I had to look around the Web for it. Apparently, after the operation, Ren goes off to Hollywood and Stimpy is lonely and sings this song:



I wonder if Obambi used butt-fat? If so, whose?


Totally unrelated, other than it came from the same conversation: A video of Joe Venuti, my favorite Jazz violinist, playing Sweet Georgia Brown (Italy, 1974). Joe was not only a consummate musician, but a tireless prankster, and the stories were legend. From the link:

Did Venuti really get a piano pushed out of a hotel window and make a bet on what pitch it would sound when it hit the ground? When a saxophone player’s tapping foot bugged him, did he really nail the guy’s shoe to the bandstand? While on a live TV show sponsored by a hair cream, did Venuti show his bald spot and remark that’s what the product had done for him? Did he actually send Wingy Manone, the one-armed trumpeter, a single cuff link as a Christmas present one year?

The great thing about scat-singing is that it does not require translation from the original Italian. Joe was quite a handsome devil in his youth:



Sort of youthful Ray Milland, pre-Lost Weekend. Hubba hubba!

Some Of My Favorite Songs Are

...extremely old (in case you haven't noticed). I like the old versions, and am overjoyed when someone comes up with a nifty new one.



My sister - pictured above in her precocious youth - has bought 3 new guitars in, like, a month. If she wasn't so good, I'd think she was cwazy. (I have a brother who's also an excellent musician). Anyway, this has prompted a lot of guitar discussions. I normally lean toward pianists (from Fats Waller, Nat Cole & Count Basie to Leon Russell & Ray Charles), but I do love me some Chet Atkins.

Here's Atkins and Suzy Bogguss, with fiddle player Johnny Gimble, doing one of my old favorites, After You've Gone (1918, composer Turner Layton, lyrics by Henry Creamer):



Next, Atkins and Mark Knopfler, I'll See You In My Dreams (1924, composer Isham Jones, lyrics Gus Kahn):



"British Invasion" duo Chad & Jeremy, Willow, Weep For Me (1932, Ann Ronell):



Just for good measure, The Mamas and The Papas, Dream A Little Dream Of Me (1931, composers Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, lyrics by Gus Kahn). It's not really a video, just a shot of the album cover, but the sound quality is good:



Eric Clapton, Nobody Knows You (When You're Down And Out) (1923, Jimmie Cox):



Piano & Big Band - Dr. John & Rickie Lee Jones, Makin' Whoopee (1928, composer Walter Donaldson, lyrics Gus Kahn):



One more piano! Diana Krall (another non-video video) doing If I Had You (1928, Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell & Reginald Connelly):



A song I love so much, I bought this old sheet music - I even love the cover:



The Prince of Wales' favorite fox trot! That's the abdicated Edward, not upChuck - a king, dear, uncrowned.