“Instant Composers Pool” Orchestra is an Amsterdam-based group. This track was posted by Vera Vingerhoeds.
Two or three things I know about Nancy Reagan
I know I’m a bit late with this, but it took a while to find the right picture. This is Nancy Reagan circa 1946, “Broadway Nancy”, three years before she got to Hollywood, for a career that lasted all of seven years. Nancy Reagan really didn’t belong on the stage, or the screen. That chin,…
Alfred Hitchcock—A coupla white guys sittin’ around talkin’, Part I
Nerdwriter1, a voluble sort who posts at YouTube, has a nice take, shown above, of an early scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in which “Scottie” (Jimmy Stewart) is put on the case that will prove his undoing by Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). As Nerdwriter1 points out, in his pains-taking analysis of the scene’s “blocking”, it’s…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “ ‘You have to bring some to get some’ is not a part of our dharma.” “Lose the cap. And the attitude.” “It had best not be shag.” “That’s a whole lot of samsara you’ve got under your arm.” “Natural fibers only, please.” “Some folks are just…
What kind of woman writes for Playboy?
Over at Jezebel, Susan Braudy takes us waaayyy back to 1969 for a tale of consciousness raising Playboy-style, when Playboy’s editors decided they would take a poke at this feminism thing by hiring a woman (yes, you heard that right) to write about it. As Susan tells it, she was encouraged by her agent to…
Miles Davis—“Round Midnight”
Miles Davis Quintet featuring Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Recorded at Berlin, West Germany, on November 4, 1967. Posted by Miles Davis Performance Album I doubt if Thelonious would care for this rendition, since both Shorter and Hancock use his most famous composition as little more than a jumping-off point. Davis…
Justice, South Carolina style
The Washington Post’s Radley Balko has a horrifying story, “Video shows white cops performing roadside cavity search of black man”. The next time you hear racist right-wingers like Chris Christie ranting about President Obama’s “War on Cops,” think about stories like this one.
Pathetic Congress
Back in the day, Dwight Eisenhower, provoked beyond endurance by the right-wing posturing of forgotten California Republican mossback Sen. William Knowland, remarked that “With him there is no final answer to the question ‘How stupid can you get?’” With today’s Congress, there is no final answer to the question “How petty can you get?” Politico…
Today in Blimp News: Airlander 10 “Flying Arse” readies for take-off
Over a year ago I made remark of the fact that every ten years or so, the lamestream media runs a “Here Come the Blimps” feature predicting a stunning renaissance in lighter-than-air craft, a renaissance that, sadly, never seems to pan out. Last fall, I reprised my skepticism when a U.S. Army blimp, moored outside…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “The bigger the man, the littler the shovel, sonny boy.” “In cases like this, leverage resolves the inequalities. You’ll find it in Archimedes.” “Don’t sweat the small shit, kid. That’s my job.” “Yeah, you make it clean, but I make it pretty.” “You got to swing the big…