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CHEERS of course to a new start. I was a John Edwards supporter in the New Hampshire primary, and while (for obvious reasons) I am glad he did not become our nominee: even if his star had not fallen, I couldn't be sad at all with what took place yesterday. Hope springs eternal, and never more than today.
ART NOTES #1 - an exhibit entitled American Artists Abroad/American Seascapes runs through the end of the month in the Pensacola Museum of Art in Florida.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO yesterday Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston - and in the time between then and his death in Baltimore, one reviewer believes that he laid the groundwork for the entire crime/detective story genre that was to follow.
ELEVEN YEARS AGO this past weekend the veteran character actor Emil Sitka (photo left) died at the age of 83.
He was the only actor to have appeared with all members of the Three Stooges (Moe, Curly and Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita) in their shorts and feature films and - in Sitka's later years - he attended several Three Stooges conventions as the guest of honor.
  
His most memorable role came in the 1947 short Brideless Groom in which Shemp has just received an inheritance, provided that he marry within 24 hours in order to collect. Sitka plays the harried justice of the peace (photo right) who tries in vain several times to begin the ceremony by exclaiming "Hold hands, you lovebirds" but is constantly waylaid by mayhem.
Notably, a clip of this short is featured in "Pulp Fiction" for which Sitka's name even appears in the credits as "Hold Hands, You Lovebirds" - which is inscribed (photo center) on his gravestone and for which many Stooges fans asked him to attend their wedding ceremony, just to utter those words.
"Brideless Groom" is especially well-known since it fell into the public domain after the copyright was inexplicably not renewed in the 1970's - and since no royalties need be paid, it frequently appears on TV marathons or DVD compilations.
TUESDAY's CHILDREN come from Nancy Pelosi's "cat cam" at this link ....
.... that shows a pair of kitties in action ......
.... before it lapses into Rickrolling at the 37 second-mark.
CONGRATULATIONS to this year's inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this coming April. They are: Little Anthony & the Imperials, Metallica, Run-DMC, Jeff Beck and Bobby Womack. Also being inducted in special categories are Wanda Jackson (early influence) and (as sidemen) session musician Spooner Oldham and two of Elvis Presley's musicians: drummer D.J. Fontana and bassist Bill Black.
RELIGION NOTES - in a piece for GQ Magazine, New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson composed a prayer for the new president that includes these lines:
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain for these times, not a fierce warrior who knee-jerk reacts to every real or perceived threat.
Give him patience and perseverance, the strength to find family time and privacy and please, God: keep him safe.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - comic/TV/film star Billy Connolly and Buffalo Bill Cody.
 
POLITICAL NOTES #1 - President Obama's new OMB chief Peter Orszag was cited as being "a member in good standing with D.C.'s economic elite" but then goes on....
"It's the sort of background usually associated with self-appointed wise men who advise that fiscal responsibility requires that we cut Social Security benefits, means-test Medicare, and limit our ambitions to expanding children's health insurance. Orszag, however, has been leveraging his establishment credentials to wage a quiet war on this limited vision of 'fiscal responsibility.'"
The THOROUGHLY DISGRACED British historian David Irving ...............
... who apparently learned nothing from his loss of a libel suit .......
.... nor from his imprisonment in Austria for Holocaust denial - now declares that "Hitler appointed me his biographer".
ART NOTES #2 - appropriate for today: a post WW-II photography exhibit entitled The Americans is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through April 26th.
MUSIC NOTES #1 - as The Decider leaves town: an essayist looks at various Bush protest songs - from Pink, Public Enemy, Pearl Jam and James McMurtry.
MUSIC NOTES #2 - the 1960's Scottish folksinger Donovan Leitch has received a prestigious cultural honor (the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters) from the French government.
The MODERN WILD WEST is how the coal mining town of Center, North Dakota has been described, with numerous bar fights causing authorities seeking bar owners to install surveillance systems.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? - singer Kid Rock and actor McCauley Culkin.
 
POLITICAL NOTES #2 - while the nationalization of one of its banks symbolizes the fall-to-earth of Ireland's economy - one essayist notes that the factors that led to its rise are still present, which can help assist its recovery.
....... and for a musical biography of the day............................................................. though my favorite blues figure is the bassist/bandleader/composer extraordinaire Willie Dixon, it was through Muddy Waters that Dixon's work shone: Muddy Waters became the face of the Chicago blues.
Before founding Motown, Berry Gordy owned a Detroit jazz record store and says he told customers, "I don't want to sell you Muddy Waters" before realizing (too late to save his store) that he had misread his customers.
If you've ever seen a songwriter's credit for McKinley Morganfield - well, that's the man who was born in Mississippi in 1913 and whose childhood fondness for playing in the mud (gradually) morphed into his later nickname.
Inspired by fellow Magnolia State guitarists Robert Johnson and Son House, Waters developed a sound that was discovered by the Library of Congress musicologist Alan Lomax who recorded him in 1941 on what later became "I Can't Be Satisfied". Hearing the copy that Lomax sent to him gave him the courage to make the move to Chicago to make his fortune.
He became a regular South Side performer, with Big Bill Broonzy asking him to be the opening act for him. Eventually he began recording for Chess Records) and by 1950 had become a local favorite. Chess subsequently allowed him to choose his own musicians (rather than record with in-house ones) and he began to assemble some of the best over the next few years. (Little) Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Otis Spann on piano and Jimmie Rogers on guitar helped establish the Chicago sound in the public's eye (along with another Mississippi native, Howlin' Wolf) in the 1950's. And the two of them also sang many songs that Willie Dixon wrote (such as "Hoochie Coochie Man"). "You Need Love" was one that Muddy Waters made famous that Led Zeppelin borrowed heavily from for "Whole Lotta Love" (and which are now half-credited to Dixon).
Even excluding the Dixon-composed songs: if you are a rock fan, you've no doubt heard some of Muddy Waters' own tunes covered, which include: "Rolling & Tumbling" (Cream), "Trouble No More" (Allman Brothers), "Forty Days and Forty Nights" (Eric Burdon and the Animals), "Long Distance Call" (Butterfield Blues Band), "The Blues Had a Baby" (Johnny Winter) and a 1950 tune Rolling Stone which inspired a band, as well as a song, as well as a magazine ... all of which you may have heard of.
Muddy Waters' time in the spotlight faded after the British Invasion; many UK visitors to Chicago were stunned to see him working odd jobs in the mid-1960's at Chess Records. Waters was later championed by rock'n'rollers, eventually reviving his career in the 1970's.
He performed on The Last Waltz by The Band in 1976.
One 1968 album Electric Mud was a controversial album that attempted to blend traditional blues with the psychedelia of the day that was panned universally by critics as a sell-out.
But decades later Chuck D of Public Enemy stated that many hip-hop artists were inspired by the album, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin has cited this recording as the inspiration behind the song "Black Dog".
 
Muddy Waters died in April, 1983 at the age of 70. He is portrayed by Jeffrey Wright in the new film Cadillac Records and his legacy is immense:
Inducted into the Halls of Fame for Blues ......
... for Rock & Roll .....
... and for Grammy Lifetime Achievement ......
... and on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list: Muddy Waters came in at #17.
PHOTOGRAPHY NOTES - have some fun looking at a gallery of rock stars with their parents from the 1970's.
OVER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS after the death of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe - scientists are preparing to exhume his body to determine if he had been poisoned with mercury.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV/film star Amy Smart ("Scrubs") and "La Femme Nikita" star Peta Wilson.
 
THIS YEAR Italy plans to hold a series of events to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's breakthrough discoveries.
BEVERAGE NOTES - much like the sales of Guinness rising everywhere except Ireland: sales of whisky in Great Britain are (broadly) declining, while consumption elsewhere has risen. The exception? Single malt Scotch sales forged ahead.
CLASSICAL MUSIC NOTES - the 27-year-old Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel becomes music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic next season and adds, "People say we Venezuelans are crazy and we are. It's our soul."
ART NOTES #3 - opening this Sunday is a look at the Cold War-era art of East/West Germany at California's Los Angeles County Museum of Art through April 19th.
PUBLIC WORKS NOTES - seeking a 10-decibel reduction in surface noise on its roads, The Netherlands is expanding the use of rubber road surfaces near the city of Appeldoorn. If successful: will we have to change an old phrase to "when the rubber meets ... the rubber?"
ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES - a scientist at the prestigious Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California believes that painting roofs white - as done in southern Europe and North Africa - would reflect enough sunlight to help reduce global warming.
MAGAZINE NOTES - as a child, I recall seeing for the first time in a friend's home a copy of Highlights Magazine - which I had previously thought was only available in doctors or dentists offices.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS #2? - "Project Runway" star Christian Siriano and TV star ("Lost") Fisher Stevens.
 
....... finally, for a song of the day................................................................ here is a song that - even if you are of a different ancestry - ought to be worth a smile.
The Corrigan Brothers are an Irish band that began life as "Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys" in County Limerick. In February, 2008 - buoyed by the campaign of Barack Obama - they wrote a song about the Irish roots that he has from his mother's side: in a town of only 300 people (photo right).
In 1850 at the age of 19, Falmouth Kearney emigrated from the central Irish town of Moneygall (in County Offaly) to America and as our new president's great-great-great-grandfather, Obama has 1/32 Irish ancestry. Small, to be sure: but just enough to send some Irishmen into ... well, a wee-bit-o'-blarney. (All in good fun, I'm sure).
During the New Hampshire primary campaign the Irish Times quoted Obama as saying "There's a little village in Ireland where my great-great-great grandfather came from and I'm looking forward to going there and having a pint". And the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Brian Cowen has invited him to do just that.
The Corrigan Brothers have a big success with the song: appearing on the BBC and many other programs. And today .... they appear in the inaugural parade in Washington, D.C. ....
...performing There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama for all to hear.
 
And at this link you can hear the band perform it (fair-use extract) on the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC.
In the spirit of bi-partisanship: in the audience were both former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and former Conservative leader William Hague. Neither made it into #10 Downing but seemed in good spirits, nonetheless.
You don't believe me
I hear you say
But Barack's as Irish
as was JFK
His granddaddy's daddy
came from Moneygall
A small Irish village
well known to you all
He's as Irish as bacon
and cabbage and stew
He's Hawaiian, he's Kenyan
American, too
He's in the White House
He took his chance
Now let's see Barack
do Riverdance
In 2009 the White House is green
They're cheering in Mayo
and in Skibereen
The Irish in Kenya
and in Yokahama,
Are cheering for President
Barack O'Bama
The Hockey Mom's gone
and so is McCain
They're cheering in Texas
and in Borrisokane
In Moneygall town
the greatest of drama:
for our famous president
Barack O'Bama
O'Leary, O'Reilly
O'Hare and O'Hara
There's no one as Irish
as Barack O'Bama
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