Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sunday Funnies & Arts







As always, click to enlarge. For more Tom the Dancing Bug, Ben Sargent, Pat Oliphant, and Zippy the Pinhead, go here, here, here, and here...

The White House: Criminal Intent...

Canadian: (Proper noun). A unarmed American with health insurance...

Shaq sighting and twittering here...

Black Delta Religion: Check out this amazing footage of services at an African-American church in the Mississippi Delta. Shot in the mid-Sixties, the film shows a woman possessed by the Holy Spirit and includes a baptism and -- near the end -- a terrific performance by a male gospel quartet. Thanks to Cowtown Patty over at Texas Trifles for passing this along...

Friday night, we saw Richie Havens at the Kirkland Performance Center. Incredibly, Havens doesn't sound a whole different than he did 40 years ago: His voice remains deeply resonant and he continues to strum his guitar aggressively. Havens remains among the most gifted interpreters of Bob Dylan: He opened the show with a fiery take on "All Along the Watchtower," and the highlight of the evening's performance was the medley of "Maggie's Farm" and The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again." The performance also included Haven's best new songs, such as the lovely and elegiac "Say It Isn't So" and "We All Know Now" -- both from his fine new album Nobody Left To Crown. If the evening had a drawback, it was the between-song patter, which meandered and was often pointless. (Although Havens scored when he pointed out the oddity of Superman's credo of "truth, justice and...AND?...the American way." Think about it.) But all in all, a fine evening's work by a Sixties legend who continues to persevere along the road to peace and freedom...

Don't miss Clare McLean's photo here of a yellow-rumped warbler in flight. Breathtaking...

The gang at Renegade Eye discusses and debates the Academy Awards...



Mardi Gras Sunday parades, featuring the Krewe of Okeanos, the Krewe of Midcity, the Krewe of Thoth, the Krewe of Bacchus, the Corps de Napoleon, Grand Isle Independent (Grand Isle), Krewe of Tchefuncte (Madisonville), Terreanians (Houma), Krewe of TUT (Houma), and the Krewe of Montegut (Montegut)...

Over at Time Goes By, Ronnie Bennett's memory of a Greenwhich Village neighbor's love of Johnny Mercer becomes an assessment of the great man's career...

Sunday Gospel Time: Sister Rostta Tharpe performs "Didn't It Rain":

11 comments:

Patricia said...

Oh, you saw Richie Havens. Nice! Now that you mention it, I realized that the last time I remember seeing him was 10 years ago this some, in Bethel, NY. He was amazing. Sounding great, dancing and whirling tirelessly, while our group, most of whom were at least a decade younger were struggling to get up and down from our blankets. Sad, really.

My son's band is doing a festival that he's also doing this year - and that we could actually get to. I don't know yet if they're scheduled for the same day. I hope so.

SparkleFarkel said...

Glad to have Sister Rosetta singing in my head the whole live long! Thanks!

K. said...

Zen: A word of warning: Richie seems to have consumed more than his share of mind-altering chemical enhancers.

Sparkle: Thanks! That clip was a real find. Don't miss the Black Delta Religion short film that I just posted a link to.

Anonymous said...

Damn K! What a great Sunday Post! When ya'gotta post ya'gotta post I always say.

You know I grew up cotton farming in the Mississippi Delta.

Please get this book wit'out further ado:
"Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta"
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Space-Photographs-Mississippi-Delta/dp/0878056416

And here is another cool link:
"Like a River Flowing with Living Water": Worshiping in the Mississippi Delta
by Joyce Marie Jackson
http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/Festival1997/likeariv.htm

Thank you,
Editilla

K. said...

I just ordered Sacred Spaces. Can't wait until it gets here!

Unknown said...

Hi K:

Really great post-- loved the Rosetta Tharpe video a lot-- & envy you seeing Richie Havens, no matter how many chemicals he ingested along the way-- also liked the bird pix. Say, speaking of food safety, check out this link

There's some really good coverage of food safety stuff-- great coverage of the senate hearings on the peanut problem, e.g., & some "tongue in chic" stuff mixed in.

Frank Partisan said...

I haven't heard Havens's name many moons.

Thank you for the plug. I post about the Oscars yearly. Last year No Country For Old Men, was the main topic.

K. said...

Yes, I remember the No Country discussion. I thought the movie was racist and anti-immigrant, a point of view that got me bludgeoned on Daily Kos.

Frank Partisan said...

When the movie Blue Merdian comes out, the Cormac discussion will reappear. Louis Proyect is real good on McCarthy.

K. said...

Thanks for the pointer to the Louis Proyect post. From what I've read of McCarthy, he overwrites fearfully.

Frank Partisan said...

I'm certain his books are all going to be movies. They do apapt well to the screen.