Little Freddie King, May 2009
link: Little Freddie King, May 2009 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Great photo, Charles!
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Saturday, July 4, 2009
Little Freddy King, photo by Charles Silver
Felice Beato's Japan
THE TOKAIDO. THIS magnificent highway is attractive from being in many places one continued country lane—although a broad, level, well kept one—varied by having rows of thatched cottages on either side. It occasionally leads through populous towns, still however, with the same unpretending cottage bordering it. There is no traffic on the roads of a nature likely to cut them into ruts, or necessitate their frequent repair; there are no carriages, public or private, of any sort in Japan—no rattling teams of fast horses with heavy “Busses" behind them—no coaches with emulative whips trotting along at an exhilarating pace—such a profession as a Post boy is unknown! The echoes of the lovely dells, of which there are many on the Tokaido are never roused by the cheering sound of the Guard’s horn, the remembrance of which, still suggests to ancient lovers of the days of posting in England, the wish, that stage coaches in their glory had not been superseded by the rapid whirl of the railway engine—foot passengers and horses, shod alike with shoes made of straw, or coolies carrying goods or norimons or native chairs, are the only traffic taking wear or tear of any road. . . .
--Felice Beato
link: MIT Visualizing Cultures
Forgotten Masters Profile: Earl Bostic
Biography
Born: April 25, 1913
Earl Bostic - alto saxophone ((1913 - 1965)
Bostic's distinctive style, strong on the sax and heavy on the beat, was quite successful in the rhythm and blues market in the 1950s. One of the few jazz musicians of his generation with formal training, Bostic studied composition at Xavier University in New Orleans in the early 1930s, and then spent several years performing with territory bands in the Midwest as well as with Fate Marable, who led one of the last Mississippi riverboat bands.
His reputation as a superb instrumentalist earned him an invitation to come to New York City, where he played with Hot Lips Page and Lionel Hampton. After a couple of years with Hampton, during which he became more and more active as an arranger, Bostic left to work as a free-lancer, writing for bands such as Jack Teagarden's and Louis Prima, and taking occasional playing jobs. He was a regular at the legendary sessions at Minton's nightclub, where Charlie Christian, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others helped create what became known as bebop, and Bostic was considered one of the hottest players on that stage.
Then, after the war, he bucked the trends and formed his own band while others were folding theirs. His success at first, recording for the small label Majestic, was nothing special. But then he trimmed the group down to a seven-piece ensemble and adapted his arrangements to emphasize a simple melody line on sax and a strong dance beat, and switched to the Gotham label, where he had a Top 10 R&B hit with a cover of “Temptation.” Two years latter, Syd Nathan lured him away to his Cincinnati-based label, King, and Bostic remained one of King's featured artists until his death. Ironically, Bostic sold better in white markets than black, perhaps the only black artist of who that could be said.
Bostic went on to place four other tunes, including his most famous single, “Flamingo,” in the R&B Top 10 list. Although he kept a core group that included Gene Redd (later a successful R&B producer) on vibes, the list of musicians who spent time playing for Bostic is pretty impressive: John Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, Blue Mitchell, Don Byas, Cozy Cole, Tiny Grimes, Sir Charles Thompson, Jackie Byard, Benny Golson, Richard “Groove” Holmes, and Earl Palmer, just to name a few. Although Bostic's sound was rather strident on most of his King hits, Art Blakey once said that, “Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird.”
In the late 1950s, Bostic suffered from severe heart problems and stopped performing and recording for nearly two years. He moved to Los Angeles and resumed performing intermittently in 1959, but he never returned to the pace of the early 1950s. He also returned to recording, but this time with a more laid-back kind of soul-tinged jazz. He died after suffering a second heart attack while playing a hotel opening in Rochester, in 1965.
link: Earl Bostic at All About Jazz
RIP Allen Klein
Former music manager Allen Klein, a no-holds-barred businessman who bulldozed his way into and out of deals with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died.
A publicist for Klein's company, ABKCO Music & Records, says Klein died today at his New York City home of Alzheimer's disease. He was 77.
Klein became one of the most powerful figures in music world in the 1960s. Known for his tenacity in tracking down royalties and getting better record deals, he garnered clients including Sam Cooke, Bobby Darin and Herman's Hermits.
But he was most famous for signing on the Rolling Stones and then the Beatles. Both arrangements eventually spurred lawsuits, with some Beatles fans blaming Klein for contributing to the tensions that broke the Beatles apart.
link: Allen Klein: Ex-Beatles, Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein dies - Los Angeles Times
Torture is Torture is Torture: We Have Become the Pot--What Do We Call the Kettle?
Virtually every tactic which the (New York Times) article describes the Iranians as using has been used by the U.S. during the War on Terror, while several tactics authorized by Bush officials (waterboarding, placing detainees in coffin-like boxes, hypothermia) aren't among those the article claims are used by the Iranians. Nonetheless, "torture" appears to be a perfectly fine term for The New York Times to use to describe what the Iranians do, but one that is explicitly banned to describe what the U.S. did. Despite its claimed policy, the NYT has also recently demonstrated its eagerness to use the word "torture" to describe these same tactics . . . when used by the Chinese against an American detainee.
Notably, the NYT article today seems to take particular offense that the Iranian Government is putting people on trial using confessions they obtained via torture ("the government planned to put on trial several Iranian employees of the British Embassy — after confessions were extracted"). Just two days ago, The Washington Post reported:
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
link: The NYT calls Iranian interrogation tactics "torture" - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Elephant Catapult Takes Animal Abuse To New Heights
Eduard Wulff, a circus manager and resident of Bruxelles, was granted this patent in 1904 for a device that would “project horses, elephants, monkeys etc into the air” so that they would perform a sommersault. Elephants? Flying, somersaulting, elephants?
link: Ptak Science Books
Yellow-Billed Chough in Flight
Information |Description=''Pyrrhocorax graculus'' {{en|Alpine Chough (also known as the Yellow-billed Chough) seen at altitude 1600 meters above sea level at Wengen, Switzerland.}
link: File:Pyrrhocorax graculus -Wengen -Switzerland -flying-8-4c.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Postcard: Berlin Gymnasium
{{Information| |Description= *{{en|an old postcard from 1901 showing the '''Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster''' in Berlin-Mitte}} *{{de|eine alte Postkarte aus dem Jahr 1901 mit dem '''Berlinischen Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster''' in Berlin-Mi)
link: File:Berlin, Mitte, Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster, 1901.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Struggle in Ingushetia, Russia
Concerns have grown in recent weeks about the stability of Ingushetia, one of Russia's most violent regions.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Ingushetian leader, was gravely wounded when a suicide car bombing hit his armoured car on June 22, and he remains in hospital.
After the attempt on Yevkurov's life, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, ordered Chechen security forces to assist Ingushetia in batting fighters there.
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, said he had given orders to be personally informed of all aspects of the investigation and characterised the ambush as a desperate act by anti-government fighters.
"All they can do to us today is crudely shoot us in the back from the bushes. And we are going to put an end to this," he said, RIA Novosti reported.
link: Al Jazeera English - Europe - Chechen police killed in Ingushetia
"Sorry Non-Performance": Battered Women Constitute Another Immigration System #Epicfail
William Fisher writes:
Here's a note for the "to do" list of the Obama Administration's newly appointed Domestic Violence Czar - or Czarina in this case: Battered wives and significant others pose a serious law enforcement and public health problem affecting as many as one in four women in this country. But they are not just an American problem. Women are being whacked all over the world. And some of them are trying to find safety in America - and are being turned away.
Why? Because of the inept and bureaucratic foot-dragging of our Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Thanks to their sorry non-performance over more than a decade, domestic violence is still not a legal basis for seeking asylum in the U.S.
link: William Fisher: Give Us Your Huddled Masses - But Battered Women Need Not Apply!
Iraq to "Liberators": Butt Out
Iraq on Saturday ruled out foreign involvement in its efforts to reconcile rival factions, just after visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Iraqis to do more to bury grievances and stave off renewed conflict.
Biden, on a three-day visit, offered U.S. help in what he said was a long road ahead in uniting a country deeply split by years of sectarian war and riven by violence.
But Iraq has been forcefully asserting a newfound sovereignty in the week U.S. combat troops pulled out of city centers, a milestone that was feted by flowers and dancing.
"We made it clear that national reconciliation is an Iraqi issue and involvement of a non-Iraqi party won't make it more successful," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.
link: Iraq declines offer of U.S. help with reconciliation | International | Reuters
Social Media No Holy Land
Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April.
While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”).
The trouble began in the second hour.
Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.
link: Our Father, Lead Us to Tweet, and Forgive the Trespassers - NYTimes.com
Iran: "Confessions" Obtained Under "Duress"
“If they talk about the velvet revolution 24 hours a day people don’t care,” said Omid Memarian, a former Iranian journalist who was arrested and forced to issue his own confession in 2004. “But if reformers and journalists say they are involved in it, it makes the point for them. Once my interrogators said, ‘Whatever you say is worth 100 times more than having a conservative newspaper say the same thing.’ ”
link: Top Reformers Admitted Plot, Iran Declares - NYTimes.com
Nazi Superplanes
The bad news is that this plane could have completely changed the course of the war if Germany only had one or two extra years of lead time. Not only in the fight against Britain, but also against the US and the Soviet Union. The Horten brothers had another design based on the Ho 2-29. A design for a intercontinental strategic bomber, the Ho 18.
link: Gizmodo - The Nazi Stealth Planes That Could Have Dropped a Nuclear Bomb in NYC - Horten 2-29
First Native Born Australian Elephant
SYDNEY'S Taronga Zoo has welcomed the first elephant calf to be born in Australia.
The male calf was born to Asian elephant Thong Dee at about 3.08am (AEST) in the zoo's Elephant Barn this morning.
After a three hour labour, Thong Dee, who was a street elephant in Bangkok, was surprised by the calf and took time to calm down after the birth.
She greeted her new baby by touching his trunk.
link: Taronga zoo welcomes Australia's first elephant calf | The Australian
Scores are in--Palin, Zero
Geoffrey Dunn writes:
Palin has absolutely zero interest in running the State of Alaska. She steadfastly refused to live in Juneau after her first year there, had the gall to charge the state for residing at her home in Wasilla 600 miles away, and she basically mailed in her performance as the state's top administrator during Alaska's most recent legislative session. She has alienated virtually all the key legislators in her own party--that's right, Republicans--and had failed to move any key legislation forward since her return to Alaska from the national campaign trail last November.
In fact, her bizarre appointment for Attorney General, Wayne Anthony Ross, was rejected nearly unanimously by the state legislature--a first in Alaskan history. Even in respect to energy policy, her supposed bailiwick, she has been categorically ineffective. When I asked those in-the-know what role Palin had played in putting together the recent pipeline deal between TransCanada and Exxon, their response was simple: "None."
None. That about sums up Palin's accomplishments as Governor of the Last Frontier.
link: Geoffrey Dunn: The Real Story Behind Palin's Bombshell
Mission Impossible: Zeppelin Jailbreak Intercepted
Spanish police said on Friday they had foiled an Italian drug trafficker's plan to break out of jail in the Canary Islands using climbing equipment and a four-meter-long zeppelin.
"The plan consisted of using a remotely controlled zeppelin to bring him night-vision goggles and climbing equipment with which to escape," a National Police statement said. The prisoner, named as Giulio B., 52, was in jail after being caught piloting a seaplane taking 200 kg (440 pounds) of cocaine from Mauritania to the Canaries.
link: Police foil radio control zeppelin jailbreak | Oddly Enough | Reuters
Methland: Social Dementia is Coming for You
Think globally, suffer locally. This could be the moral of “Methland,” Nick Reding’s unnerving investigative account of two gruesome years in the life of Oelwein, Iowa, a railroad and meatpacking town of several thousand whipped by a methamphetamine-laced panic whose origins lie outside the place itself, in forces almost too great to comprehend and too pitiless to bear.
The ravages of meth, or “crank,” on Oelwein and countless forsaken locales much like it are shown to be merely superficial symptoms of a vaster social dementia caused by, among other things, the iron dominion of corporate agriculture and the slow melting of villages and families into the worldwide financial stew.
The book, wrought from old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting of a type that’s disappearing faster than nonfranchised lunch counters on Main Street, isn’t chiefly a tale of drugs and crime, of dysfunction and despair, but a recession-era tragedy scaled for an “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder stage and seemingly based on a script by William S. Burroughs. The madness stalking tiny, defenseless Oelwein may eventually come for all of us, we learn, and once again, as happens in America whenever our collective attention wanders from the gray struggles of the little guy to the purple capers of the big wheels, attention must be paid. Right now. Or else.
