All Purls. No Swine.
Disclaimer, before I even start: I dread the first few weeks of May. Every. Single. Year. It’s one of those stretches of awful memory that many of us have at different times of the year, when it seems that regrets/trauma/cataclysm all pile on top of one another to render certain times insupportable and sometimes just… Continue reading May the Fourth–2023
Today, April 29, 2023, is the day that one of my all all-time favorite performers begins his tenth decade on the planet, I'm reposting a piece from exactly two years ago, and looking forward to seeing the man himself in concert this upcoming August. Ain't it funny (how time slips away)? Happy 88th birthday to… Continue reading Happy 90th Birthday, Willie Nelson!
Gosh. Some of the loveliest music of my childhood, from a man who lived through, took risks, and stood tall, during a difficult, and often infamous time in which people of his color were regarded by some as less-than-human. I don't remember many of those occasions. But this one, I do. Harry Belafonte and Petula… Continue reading Harry Belafonte, R.I.P.
No, not the Rolling Stones kinda blues. March 28, it turns out, is the anniversary of the death of two giants of American music. W.C. Handy was born November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama, to Charles and Elizabeth Handy. His strict Methodist minister father forbade musical instruments in the house, believing them to be tools… Continue reading Tuneful Tuesday–I Got the Blues!
Audrey Kathleen Ruston, who died thirty years ago this month, was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of a member of minor Dutch nobility and a peripatetic English financier father who later changed his name to the double-barrelled “Hepburn-Ruston” to show his connection (probably imagined) to one of the husbands of… Continue reading Ab-so-bloomin-lutely Loverly: Audrey Hepburn
Cross-posted from Ricochet: Oh, “dear, dear, dear.” I tried out that phrase, beloved of my father when dealing with a screaming infant, on my 18-month-old niece a few days ago. She immediately picked it up and responded, “deoo, deoo, deoo,” thus instituting the first two-way conversation we’ve ever had, even if only over the phone. I’m… Continue reading Music Hall Memories
Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90. Some who know me might find my love of American country music a bit odd. Mr. Right never did. He understood that it hearkened back to centuries ago, to the traditions of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish ballads, and to the stories those songs told, stories… Continue reading Loretta Lynn, R.I.P.
Oh, Gosh. Eighty years ago today, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra made their last live radio broadcast: https://youtu.be/xQY3Qc_CM7E I'm a bit younger than many who might remember this (I was 68 this past week). But I grew up in the British West African colonies, and we were a bit behind the eight-ball when it came… Continue reading Sweet-Sounding Saturday: Eighty Years Ago Today
Disclaimer: I can’t be sure that’s true, because I’ve never owned any. But certainly, if I were to try and come up with my own undeniable truth in that regard, two of the items high on my shortlist would be flat, comfortable shoes and non-binding, full-fashioned, all-cotton underpants. But I digress; so before I head… Continue reading “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”