A Fond Farewell

Ronnie Drew, the great Irish folk singer, died last August of throat cancer. He was 74. Drew once confessed to his son some regret that he had spent career singing what he called "diddly aye" music. As Ronnie was a jazz fan, it seemed natural to gather together jazz musicians to help him complete what everyone knew would be his final album, called The Last Session: A Fond Farewell.

Although not well known outside of the trad music community and his native Ireland, Drew was a major figure in folk music. A founder of The Dubliners, his gruff, foggy baritone must have seemed out of place in an Irish tradition accustomed to perfect pitch and vocal precision. Drew had neither of those, but he did have a wonderfully evocative voice and knack for getting at heart of a song, be it humor or pathos. One of his most famous vocals, "The Rare Auld Times" evoked a sentimental Dublin with a heartwarming nostalgia that would bring a tear to Dick Cheney.

The ravages of throat cancer affect but do not defeat Drew's voice on The Last Session. The jazz musicians provide an autumnal elegiac tone that fits the intent of the album perfectly. He's ably accompanied by Damien Dempsey on The Pogues "Rainy Night In Soho," Mary Coughlan on the signature song "We Had It All," and classical singer Emmanuel Lawler on the excellent "Loves Own Sweet Song." Drew warbles "September Song" with the conviction of a man who knows that it's his last recording, and has one last joke with a witty reading of "Molly Malone."

The Last Session is not a jazz album or even an attempt at one. It's a Ronnie Drew album that happens to be one on which he finds his voice with with jazz musicians. It has an intimate, parlor-music feel fitting for a valedictory statement, a quiet, understated three-point landing for a man whose talent was exceeded only by the good will he brought with him wherever he went...

The RTE reports on the release of The Last Session:

Bono leads a group of Drew's colleagues and admirers through "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew." Fittingly, a visibly moved Shane MacGowan, has the last word:

Citizen K.has more on Drew here...

A Blogger's View

We made it! The flight is more and more a test of stamina. We sat in the back row of the Alaska flight from Seattle to Newark; ugh. Although our seats were better on the Newark-Shannon part, Continental's absence of leg room is second only to United's. I yearn for the days when a guy could fly to Ireland on a one-third full 747.

Anyway, we're here and fighting off jet lag: I've already taken three naps. Now, I'm drinking my first cuppa and all is well with the world...

A few CDs awaited our arrival -- for some reason, Amazon sent them here instead of to Seattle. Creole Nocturne, pianist Tom McDermott and cornetist Connie Jones, is an absolute delight, a series of duets of Louisiana and southern jazz and gospel standards as well as original compositions by McDermott. But don't take my word for it; here they are at last year's Louisiana Music Factory Jazz Festival:

Sunday Funnies & Arts

As always, click to enlarge. For more Pat Oliphant, Tom Toles, Ben Sargent, and Calvin and Hobbes, click here, here, here, and here...

Rushbo Stupidism of the Week:

Empathy is nothing more than spirit or feelings or what have you, so based -- and -- but there's one caveat to this: empathy is a code word when Obama talks about judges having it. All he means by it is, "I want people who are racists and bigots on my Supreme Court who are always going to find for minorities and the underprivileged simply because they've gotten the shaft all their lives. I want people on my court who are going to rule against the so-called rich and the so-called powerful because they have carried the day for too long. So I -- empathy is just a code word for somebody who has sympathy for the downtrodden...

Miles Davis plays Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", with Kenny Garrett on flute and tenor sax:

Just A Song

Two more entries on Just A Song:

• Cliff remembers Michael Jackson through The Jackson's "That's What You Get For Being Polite";
• Roy compares different versions of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

Roy writes:

What is it about this song? The RIAA has declared it the #1 song on their "Songs of the Century" list. Artist after artist takes their turn at singing it. And I'll be willing to bet that the most hardcore, baddest metal-heads and rappers all saw the movie when they were kids and listened open-mouthed and transported as Dorothy sat on that tractor and sang to Toto. This isn't a song, it's a bloody archetype - The American Song. How did it get there?...

Cliff thinks that in "That's What You Get", Michael:

was trying to tell everybody that all he really wanted was just a chance to find out who he really was but knew there wasn’t a chance of that happening. He disguised it as a love song with lyrics about buying things for girls but the way his life played out fits the tone of this song perfectly...

Read their complete thoughts on these two very different but affecting songs about longing here.

The Emerald Isle Awaits

Tomorrow, Premium T. and I leave for our annual sojourn to Ireland -- the Emerald Isle, the Auld Sod, or (as an Irish-American priest once told me) the Holy Land. I'll blog less regularly, but hopefully with greater interest. I'll have some great pictures, at least!...

This is not good for 50-year Polish men...

If this is a joke, then I'm an ape. What gets me is the "I'm sorry if I've offended anyone" apology, which is typical conservative weaseling when they've been caught out. Rusty, this is an apology:

I apologize for making a vicious and offensive racial slur. I especially apologize to the First Lady and to her family, who have enough on their plate without an idiot like me adding to the burden.

Oh, and blaming the person you've slurred is about as low as it gets. (Thanks to KLou.)...

Stick figure at prayer...

Speaking of prayer...

Friday's Choice. R. I. P. Michael Jackson:

The Gay Place

The First Lines above are taken from The Gay Place, Billy Lee Brammer's classic 1961 novel set in the demimonde on Texas politics, based in part on his experiences as an aide to Lyndon Johnson and as an associate editor of the Texas Observer. The title comes from this poem by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

In the fall of sixteen

In the cool of the afternoon

I saw Helena

Under a white moon--

I heard Helena

In a haunted doze

Say: "I know a gay place

Nobody knows."

It's been nearly thirty years since I read The Gay Place, so I won't review it here other than to say that I remember it being very good. And that rereading the first chapter after discovering the First Lines made me want to pick it up again. The first chapter contains this priceless exchange between Governor Arthur Fenstemaker (a fictional hybrid of Johnson and Earl Long) and his butler:

"Siddown for Christ sake," Fenstemaker said.

"Yes sir."

"Goddam."

"Sir?"

"I'm just goddammin'."

Although critically heralded for The Gay Place, Brammer never wrote another novel, although he did work on an unfinished sequel called Fustian Days. Brammer died in 1978 of drug overdose. He worked in the kitchen of Austin's Driskill Hotel...

angels and people/life in New Orleans: Home construction in Elysian Fields...

Who did the laundry at Walden Pond?...

The Death of Charlie Parker, another artist who died before his time:

A Quick One While He's Away

New Just A Song post called "I Want My Country Back" about two songs by Greg Brown and Jimmy Lafave...

Facebook Word Verification: Discharged bliss. I am not making this up...

Reclaiming a New Orleans bayou with recycled plastic...

Ho ho, ha ha ha. And on Father's Day weekend, no less...

Why Obama Is Right On Iran

The usual gaggle of right-wing geese have criticized President Obama, honking and squawking at his supposedly tepid response to the events in Iran. Charles Krauthammer, never one to get the main point, avers without citing evidence that the protestors "await just a word that America is on their side" and instead receive only an august presidential "silence" (not true). ("Await just a word" to do what is never made clear.)

It is the case that Obama has not upstaged the protestors by promoting the "freedom agenda" on the international air waves. He plainly stated in a interview with CBS News' Harry Smith that "we believe that the voices of people have to be heard, that that's a universal value that the American people stand for and this administration stands for" and went on to say that

the last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do. That's what we've already seen. We shouldn't be playing into that. There should be no distractions from the fact that the Iranian people are seeking to let their voices be heard.

What's more, the president has a point. In Legacy of Ashes, his epic history of the CIA, Tim Weiner lays out in detail the agency-driven coup that toppled the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadeq in August of 1953. Mossadeq had incurred the wrath of the west by threatening to nationalize Iran's oil production and imposing the radically unacceptable condition requiring that his country receive 50% of the revenue produced by a natural resource that it owned 100% of.

Then-President Dwight Eisenhower approved the coup, and the CIA installed Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran (This happened despite warnings from the CIA station chief in Tehran, who predicted that sponsoring a coup would be an historic mistake. His honesty got him recalled.) The CIA helped the create SAVAK, an internal security service. According to Weiner,

The CIA wanted SAVAK to serve as its eyes and ears against the Soviets. The shah wanted a secret police to enforce his own power. SAVAK, trained and equipped by the CIA, enforced his rule for twenty years. (p. 103)

Most pertinent to current events, what was a closely held secret in the United States was common knowledge to Iraqis: Their emerging democracy was now a monarchic police state courtesy of the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency. The chickens came home to roost during the hostage crisis of 1978-79, during which Americans learned for the first time that many Iranians regarded the United States as "the great Satan."

The theocracy headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the shah and imposed a fundamentalist Muslim rule on a society that was becoming increasingly diversified. For an outstanding account of life as Iranian secularist, read Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's excellent graphic novel. (I thought that the film based on the novel was arguably the best picture of 2007.)

Iraq, Iran's secular neighbor to its west led by dictator Saddam Hussein, sought to take advantage of the turmoil caused by the change in regimes. In 1981, Hussein invaded Iraq, touching off an eight-year war that killed millions. Despite the fact that Iraq's population is roughly half of Iran's, Hussein undertook the invasion supported by modern weaponry provided by the United States, a reality not exactly lost on the people of Iran.

Twenty years after the war ended in a futile draw, it's not at all clear that even "just a word" from the President of the United States would be received in Iran without unintended controversy. By affirming American commitment to Iran's sovereignty, by supporting the values of the protestors, and by recognizing that this is a matter for the people of Iran to sort out, the President Obama is doing the right thing...

Harry Smith's complete interview with Obama follows. In addition to Iran, they discuss North Korea, recent remarks by George Bush and Dick Cheney, and the increased regulatory powers of the Federal Reserve:

Watch CBS Videos Online

The New Orleans Photo Alliance is seeking documentary, fine art and conceptual photographs that explore and interpret the many meanings of the word CALIENTE (Spanish) or HOT (English). More here...

A cool interactive map of the West Wing...

New First Lines today, replacing the first lines of The Beatles' "No Reply"...

Thought for the day...

Ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard...

I (Heart) This Blog!

Muchos garcias to Roy of Roy's World for bestowing the I (Heart) This Blog award on Citizen K. Roy sez that I'm a

"political commentator extraordinaire, lover of all things NOLA, fellow lover of the best in music, and especially fellow Red Sox diehard fanatic (Swing, Big Papi, swing!)."

Coming from an exceptionally talented guy who writes and photographs one of the best and most eclectic blogs out there, this award makes me prouder than usual to accept!

BTW, Roy has joined Just A Song as regular contributor. Read his first entry, about Cheryl Wheeler's harrowing "Addicted", here.

There are, of course, rules to accepting these awards, as is usual. For this award they are:

1) Grab the Award and link love the person from whom you got the award.

2) Pass the award to different bloggers who you think are deserving of this award.

3) Write a post about the award and there you’ll link the person who gave the award to you and those people who you’d like to pass the award.

4) Continue your passion in writing because your hard work will always be appreciated.

I'm passing this award on to four New Orleans blogs by people who have kept the faith against long odds for nearly four years now. Congrats to

• The New Orleans Ladder. Day in and day out, Editilla collects news items and blog entries about Katrina politics and policy and NOLA culture into this fascinating compendium of life in the city that care may have forgotten but that still won't give up. His cayenne-flavored commentaries add spice to one of the best blogosphere gumbos out there. A labor of love if there ever was one.
• A new discovery for me, Cliff at Cliff's Crib writes with near perfect pitch about the nexus of social policy, politics, and the daily life of the individual. Plus, like any good Gulf Coaster, he can bitch about the heat with the best of 'em!
• As near as I can tell, Susanna Powers of angels and people/life in new orleans carries her camera with her everywhere she goes. Accumulated, her photographs comprise an honest, compelling portrait of a fascinating city.
• Steve Buser's New Orleans Daily Photograph celebrates life in the Crescent City with appropriate joie de vivre. His bird pictures, particularly of egrets, are not to be missed. They make one suspect that Steve might be part egret himself...

I get it: Nice mugs. (Hats off to anyone who gets that old movie allusion.)...

Harlem dancer, 1925...

Team Witchcraft, 2012...

Sunday Funnies & Arts

As always, click to enlarge. For more Doonesbury, Ben Sargent, Pat Oliphant, Mother Goose and Grimm, Tony Auth, Tom the Dancing Bug, Tom Toles, and Zippy, go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here...

JUST A SONG: Los Lobos' "Will the Wolf Survive"--

A wonderfully conceived allegory, "Will The Wolf Survive" tells the story of a working man envisaged as an endangered species beset by social forces ("Hunters hard on his trail") beyond his control. Considering that the song was written 25 years ago, its bridge is remarkably prescient in its depiction of the shrinking middle class...

When I was a small boy growing up in New Hampshire, the Boston Red Sox radio broadcast team of Curt Gowdy and Ned Martin were my constant companions. The Sox radio sponsor in those days was a Massachusetts beer called Narragansett (after the Bay). I can still hear Curt and Ned extolling the virtues of this "Bay brew" and closing their promos with a hearty "Hi, neighbor -- Have a 'Gansett!" Today, the beer is long gone, but the legacy remains. Here's photo from the Boston Craft Brew Fest (thanks, Bill!):

An Oregonian recalls his working class roots...

Cliff's Crib turns the spotlight on black fathers...

Hell0, cowgirl in the sand...

Dust-to-Digital: Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography...

Premium T. finds a skull in an unusual place (scroll down)...

Congratulations, Reilly!...

The older I got, the smarter my father became. Here's a Father's Day thought from Mark Twain (thanks, Clever Pup!):

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years...

A Father's Day Message from Lakewood, OH...

Sailing on Lake Ponchartrain...

New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore of Galactic anchors the CD by Tom Morello's new project, the Street Sweeper Social Club...

Sunday Gospel Time: Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole "Steal Away":

Weekly Address: Financial Reform to Protect Consumers

The President explains the role of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which will have the sole job of looking out for the financial interests of ordinary Americans by banning unfair practices and enforcing the rules...

The reasoned, principled conservative response to David Letterman (thanks, Helen):

When the levee breaks (on purpose)...

Justicia! Sonia Sotomayor and the long march of Puerto Rican history:

“The media keeps telling us that she (Sotomayor) has a ‘one in a million’ story,” says Miriam Jimenez Roman, a visiting scholar in Africana Studies at NYU and director of the Afro-Latino Project. “But what they forget to tell us is how the million made the one possible. Many people struggled so that she might become the first Latina on the Supreme Court..."

Rushbo Stupidism of the Week -- Calling the Kettle Black:

This man's ego's not containable. There is no container in the world that will contain his ego, because it's constantly expanding anyway. Even if you could find a container large enough to fit his ego in, it would eventually be blown up with the expanding ego. This guy's ego is expanding faster than the Soviet Union was expanding back during the '60s and '70s. But there's no telltale birthmark on Obama to indicate it like there was on Mikhail Gorbachev.

For the record, the Soviet Union was not expanding in the 60's and 70's. It was already rotting from within, riddled the self-inflicted cancer of the overwhelming economic, social, and political expenses of maintain a garrison police state.

Idiots

Idiots. Senate Democrats are getting cold feet over meaningful health care reform because -- gasp! -- it might be expensive. Here's the thing:

YOU HAVE A 59-40 EDGE IN THE SENATE AND A PRESIDENT WHO WANTS TO DO THIS. HEALTH CARE IS ALREADY EXPENSIVE: THIS COUNTRY ALREADY SPENDS MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE. THAT'S ONE REASON WHY WE NEED A PUBLIC OPTION. ANYWAY, WHY IS THERE $7 TRILLION TO BAIL OUT WALL STREET AND NOTHING TO BAIL OUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING STRANGLED BY HEALTH CARE COSTS. THIS OPPORTUNITY MIGHT NEVER COME ALONG AGAIN. AND YOU'RE CHOKING. DON'T BLOW THIS.

AND LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE TELLING YOU.

Amy Goodman writes that while profiteers pollute health care reform, "62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical"...E. J. Dionne says that when it comes to health care, beware of bipartisanship...

Angels and People/Life in New Orleans: Expressive life.

The poor, persecuted Army Corps of Engineers. And, BTW, calk up another win for the blogosphere:

During Hurricane Katrina, NOLA.com’s blogs, forums and other community tools became a primary way for New Orleans residents to communicate – to report their experiences, share their photos, send out cries for rescue and search for missing friends and relatives. The community used these features to inform one another of destruction, or the opening of a grocery store, or the switch flipping electricity on. In the most horrible moments of the deluge, people trapped in attics messaged friends on cell phones, and this information was posted on NOLA This lead to uncounted rescues. Rescue agencies begged NOLA to keep the reports coming – the blogs were guiding their rescue efforts. A mother who lost her children after she collapsed at the Superdome and was evacuated separately was reunited with her kids weeks later. A man clinging to his roof at the height of the storm in Chalmette sent in 83 photos that captured the drowning of St. Bernard Parish...

Conservative judicial activism with an assist from the Obama Administration...

JUST A SONG: Teena Marie's "Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before)", contributed by Clifton Harris. Cliff lives in New Orleans and blogs at Cliff's Crib. He writes about music and living in New Orleans, and perfectly captures the impact of politics and social policy on the daily life of the individual. I’m excited about his contributions to Just A Song and look forward to many more.

I love the song because unlike most ballads it doesn’t take you to a place of lost love or a personal reference to anyone. The lyrics are an escape and it makes me want to take a long ride through the city at night just to enjoy the moonlight. It’s also a great song for sitting by a lake and watching the waves just to get your mind off of reality for a few minutes. I can tell you that living in this post disaster environment there are times where mental escape is a necessity for those of us who try not to give in to the insanity. With a song like Déjà vu you can close your eyes and accomplish that...

Boiling mad!...

FRIDAY'S CHOICE: Billy Joe Shaver goes to "Georgia On A Fast Train" with his late, lamented son Eddy on lead guitar.

Those Poor, Persecuted Conservatives

URGENT: If your senator is on the HELP Committee, call or write them to support a strong public option as part of any health care reform legislation. Details here...

Pity the oppressed conservatives, writes Leonard Pitts. After all, a bad joke about Sarah Palin's daughter is easily the moral equivalent of the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. On the mark as usual, Pitts writes that

...modern conservatism is defined by an Alice-through-the-looking-glass incoherence: small government except when it is growing larger than ever, fiscal restraint except when we are spending like Michael Jackson in a Disney gift shop, foreign policy pragmatism except when we are trying to transform the Middle East.

Indeed, sometimes it feels as if it is no longer defined by principles at all, nor by energy and ideas, but rather, by a limitless ability to feel put upon and slighted. To be a conservative these days is, or so they would have you believe, like being black in Birmingham in 1952. It is to be the victim of media, culture and law that hate you just for being.

If there's anything consistent about modern conservatism, it's hypocrisy. These practitioners of victimology are the first to blame the victims (see: Dr. George Tiller, the people of New Orleans) when it suits them.

Then there's the sheer number of sex scandals, the proportion of which has reached the bizarre. To be sure, it's none of my business whether John Ensign (R-NV) has an affair with a campaign volunteer. But it is the people's business when the practitioners of an ideology that both asserts its moral superiority in everything from so-called "family values" to foreign policy and decries its opposition as treasonous moral lepers put themselves above their own standards. That's rank, sordid hypocrisy and we must continue to call them on it.

Something for which I say "thank God for the blogosphere." If newspapers had been doing their jobs, they wouldn't be whining about about what we "lose" as they shrink and close down. If the blogosphere had been as widespread and effective in 2004 as it is now, John Kerry might well be entering his second term: Liberal bloggers would have made the Swift Boat smear about Republicans instead of the bogus "story" about how Kerry responded to something so unthinkably low....


NOLA Happenings: Start your weekend tomorrow night at Concerts in the Courtyard with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys...Saturday, check out the Bywater Art Market ("affordable art by New Orleans artists") before heading out to Abita Springs for the Louisiana Bicycle Festival...

Disbar The Torture Lawyers

Tell me this isn't torture. I saw a film clip of that awful man -- our former president -- on Keith Olberman's show last night justify the CIA interrogation "program." He -- the awful man -- actually smirked when he said "program."

Seeing him always gives me these mixed feelings of personal satisfaction and civic shame. He never fooled me: I remember telling a conservative friend before the the war that the Bush Administration did not have anything close to the political skills to pull off rebuilding Iraq and that we would be sorry we had ever heard of the place. I've had people tell me "you were right and I was wrong." Then I think of the destruction he wrought at home and abroad...Why did we do it? Why did we put the leadership of the country in such brute, psychotic hands? As Dr. House might put it, there are answers to everything. But will we as a country ever have the courage to face up to these questions, much less the answers? The Bush presidency was the biggest failure of democracy since Adolf Hitler took power in 1932...

JUST A SONG: Follow the evolution of "I Fought The Law" from rockabilly burner to punk anthem. See fetishistic go-go dancers while you're at it!...

Another Historic Day at Fenway Park: Michael Dukakis observes the Red Sox' 500th consecutive sellout and explains the secrets to the Sox success: Strong ownership, a commitment to Fenway Park, and serious community involvement...Is Big Papi back? If he is, the Red Sox will be mighty tough...

Is the Rolling Stones' Get Your Ya-Yas Out the best rock live album? If not, it's one of the best...

Roy's World has the most erudite blog entry I've ever read...

More proof that if you haven't seen a Gulf Coast sunset, then you haven't seen a sunset...

Who wants a public option? We do. Who do Americans trust on health care issues? Let's just say that the Republicans are the Washington Nationals of the health care debate...

New First Lines above. If you didn't notice, the last ones were from Frederick Exeley's 60's classic A Fan's Notes..

Boomerang

Boomerang (1947). D: Elia Kazan. Dana Andrews, Ed Begley, Sr., Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Jane Wyatt. After police arrest a drifter for the murder of a beloved local priest, District Attorney Andrews begins to suspect a rush to judgment. Based on a true story and filmed in a then-innovative documentary style, Boomerang builds to a dramatic courtroom conclusion buoyed by a typically excellent Andrews. Cobb as the crusty, honest police chief who doesn't like politicians, Malden (in his first film) as an inexperienced and overzealous detective, Begley as corrupt real estate speculator, and Jane Wyatt as Andrews' stunning, poised wife all shine. That's Arthur Miller on the right of the police lineup.

The film holds up well on its own merits, but what strikes one today is the almost unrestrained pre-Miranda power of the state to prosecute. At the time in which Boomerang, the suspect had no Miranda rights, meaning that he was not informed of his right to remain silent or that questioning did not cease when he requested an attorney. In fact, the police questioned him ceaselessly for hours on end, eventually eliciting a confession under duress. Andrews subsequently visited the suspect in his cell without an attorney present. Seven witnesses simultaneously identified the suspect in a lineup, meaning that they were in one place for the identification and subject to groupthink. In the end, only Andrew's doubts saved the man from certain conviction on what turned out to be flimsy evidence. (Andrews' character was based on Homer Cummings, who served as Franklin Roosevelt's Attorney General from 1933-1939.)

There's also a quaintness to the film. "America The Beautiful" plays softly in the opening scene when a narrator introduces the small Connecticut city where the events occurred. Cobb eschews the rough stuff during interrogation despite the urgings of a gruff uniformed sergeant. And the film's ultimate conclusion? In politics, the one thing you can't beat is an honest man...

CIA Director Leon Panetta has fired all contractors involved in the torture interrogation program, including the two psychologists who defecated on their profession and reputations by lending their expertise. Just My Little Part of the World has more here. And she asks the relevant question: What hell took so long?...

Hive...

For someone who claims not to know much about health care, Cliff over at Cliff's Crib sure writes eloquently about it...

Are American intellectuals blind to the attacks on them? Not so in France, another thing about that country that wouldn't be bad to emulate here...

Downy woodpecker and scarlet pimpernel...

Angels and People/Life in New Orleans: For rent...

Dad's Photos #10 (great old cars)...

R. I. P. Tacoma native and Ventures guitarist Bob Bogle, "architect of the distinctive guitar sound" of "Walk, Don't Run" (with Bogle on the right) and many other Ventures hits. Here's a live version of "Walk Don't Run" and an weird psychedelic video of The Ventures miming "Hawaii Five-0":

Sunday Funnies & Arts (A Day Late)

As always, click to enlarge. For more Tom the Dancing Bug, Ben Sargeant, Funky Winkerbean, Calvin and Hobbes, Mother Goose and Grimm, Tony Auth, Tom Toles, and Zippy, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here...

The Naked Ride Home:

Though lawful, the bicyclists were offensive to some observers. Out for a stroll on Frenchmen Street, Jason Price, 40, grew enraged as the riders passed him.

"All I saw was a bunch of indecent people and perverts," he said.

In New Orleans?...

Yesterday, Wolf Blitzer had this edifying exchange with Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH):

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a serious health problem when I was unemployed in France. I was able to choose all of my doctors, all of my treatments and my health care was covered at nearly 100 percent. If this had happened to me in the United States, I would have had to declare bankruptcy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Senator. What do you say to Sally?

GREGG: Well, first off, I have no interest in turning the United States into France. We're not going to Europeanize this country, even though I regret to say that the policies that this government right now appear to be moving us down that road, toward the nationalization of an awful lot of stuff.

I believe that we produce the best health care system -- delivery system in the world. We're on the cutting edge of technologies, we're on the cutting edge of procedures. And the reason we're able to do that is because we have a private health care system in this country.

Now, set aside for a second that Judd Gregg, scion of a wealthy mill-owning family, son of a former governor of New Hampshire, and educated at Phillips Exeter, Columbia, and Boston University, has never had to sweat out health care access in his life. When he claims that the United States has the best health care system in the world, he's patently wrong. By the most basic of measures -- life expectancy -- our health care system ranks 45th in the world, behind every country in the European Union. (France, for the record, is eighth.) On the other hand, no one denies that the United States spends more on health care than any other country. By any definition, the bang for the buck here is terrible -- a scandal, really...

After hearing Gregg denigrate France, my father and I began listing the things about France that we would like to see in this country:

• French food
• French wine
• cheese
• mass transit
• art
• cinema
• health care
• Paris
• Provence

Oh, and the language: You have to admit that French is a great language. Anyway, it turned into a real What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us moment...

Welcome to Acadiana...

Frank Gehry in Newport Hills...

Philly in the Phifties...

Projections recalls growing up in Southern California in the 1940s...

We're Always At Your Service (thanks to Jacqueline T. Lynch at Another Old Movie Blog):