A vocal version of “Little Rootie Tootie”? I’m there. Metropole Orchestra Arrangers Workshop live concert February 18, 2011 at Lantaren Venster, Rotterdam. Thelonious Monk’s “Little Rootie Tootie” arranged by Scott Routenberg; Vince Mendoza, conductor; Roberta Gambarini, vocals and lyrics. Monk’s original piano solo is transcribed in the vocal part and orchestrated. Posted by “scottjazz78”.
Lost in the Ozone
Poor President Obama! When he murders innocent kids in Central Asia, I attack him. When he cancels overly restrictive regulations of ozone and promotes a pipeline to bring Canadian oil to the U.S. to fuel our economy, Ralph Nader attacks him. Yes, Ralph Nader, the guy who gave us Dub-Ya, is still talking, still bitching,…
Let Chris do it!
Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican who would kill Medicare, the man without fear, is sort of wishing that some Republican would do something that he’s afraid to do—run for president. “It is not too late,” Ryan tells Politico. “Look it is 2011 still. The election is in 2012.” I give the guy credit. He has…
Egyptology II; Plus, Eunuchs!
I’m back to piling on Francis Fukuyama (see below), who totally disses not only “Western Civilization” but the Ancient Middle East as well in order to glorify the role of China in his recent book The Origins of Political Order. For Fukuyama, channeling Max Weber, “civilization” really means “an impersonal bureaucracy possessing a monopoly on…
Matt Welch and Hillary Clinton: Whom is meaner?
Hillary Clinton—“I make a mean tossed salad.” Matt Welch—“ I can still do a mean box-step, if pushed” As Lily Tomlin, channeling Jane Wagner, once said, “No matter how cynical I get, I can never keep up.”
Steven Brill, not entirely brilliant
I’ve been reading Steven Brill’s Class Warfare, his free-swinging account of the latest chapter in America’s ever-continuing education wars. Filling us in on the historical background, Steve tells us how Albert Shanker’s American Federation of Teachers pumped up starting teachers’ salaries in the Big Apple from $5,300 in 1962 to $45,530 in 2007, “more than…
The New York Times, Shamelessly Misspeaking
The NYT has a headline: “Political Cartoonist Whose Work Skewered Assad Is Brutally Beaten in Syria.” Um, guys, don’t you mean “Political Cartoonist Whose Work Skewered Assad Is Harshly Interrogated in Syria”?
Cheney releases memoirs; heads fail to explode
Well, they’re out—Dick Cheney’s memoirs—and contrary to Big Dick’s prediction, nary a head has exploded, in DC or elsewhere. Because it’s not news that Dick Cheney is in fact as big an asshole as everyone assumed all along. A thoughtful (five second) perusal of the matter suggests that Dick’s revelations are limited to the following:…
Why Do the Heathen Rage, Part XLVIII
One of the many projects that I have—lumbering towards completion like weary mammoths journeying across the darkened Arctic landscape of my mind—is a political novel set in the near present-day, with the lives of its characters coming to a halt shortly before the 2008 election. To pick up a little background, I’ve been reading, among…
Charles to Rick: You’re embarrassing me!
Hear that moanin’? It’s right-wing intellectuals, a-wishin’ and a-hopin’ that someone other than Rick Perry and Mitt Romney would run for president.* “I would hope that whoever the Republican candidate is, he or she will not tell us that creationism or intelligent design is the equivalent of evolution — just another theory about the origins…