There's an interesting retrospective piece about Rodney Dangerfield, in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine.
Writer AlexThe one-liners were impeccable, unimprovable. Dangerfield spent years on
them; he once told an interviewer that it took him three months to work
up six minutes of material for a talk-show appearance."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-rodney-dangerfield.html
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Ursula K. Le Guin
Last Monday (January 22nd), the prominent and influential novelist Ursula K. Le Guin died, at age 88.
A few days later, I was looking through a 1998 book about television, CBS: The First 50 Years, by Tony Chiu (General Publishing Group). The book's epigraph is a quote from Ms. Le Guin:
"There's a good deal in common between the mind's eye and the TV screen, and though the TV set has all too often been the boobtube, it could be, it can be, the box of dreams."
The quote is from a 1980 magazine piece by Ms. Le Guin; the piece then appeared in her 1989 nonfiction collection, Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places (Grove Press).
Here is the New York Times obituary about Ms. Le Guin:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html
A few days later, I was looking through a 1998 book about television, CBS: The First 50 Years, by Tony Chiu (General Publishing Group). The book's epigraph is a quote from Ms. Le Guin:
"There's a good deal in common between the mind's eye and the TV screen, and though the TV set has all too often been the boobtube, it could be, it can be, the box of dreams."
The quote is from a 1980 magazine piece by Ms. Le Guin; the piece then appeared in her 1989 nonfiction collection, Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places (Grove Press).
Here is the New York Times obituary about Ms. Le Guin:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html
Friday, January 19, 2018
Dion, 1968 Smothers Brothers TV appearance
On Wednesday (two days after the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's
birthday), I came upon the following video, on YouTube: it is from a November 17, 1968 episode of the
Smothers Brothers program, on CBS.
The
video is of the singer Dion, performing the exquisite song "Abraham, Martin and
John," which had been released in August of that year. The song was written (by Dick Holler) in the
aftermath of the assassinations of Dr. King, and Robert Kennedy.
Dion's performance of the song, on the TV show (as on his
original recording of it) is extremely beautiful--both his singing, and his
guitar playing.
I don't remember being aware, prior to watching the video, that it
was Dion who played the guitar on the record itself.
The Wikipedia page about the song notes: "Dion felt
during post production that the song needed more depth and added a track
featuring him playing classical guitar notably at the bridge, lead ins and the
close."
The record had first
appeared on the Cashbox music chart near the end of October, 1968 (and on
Billboard's chart the following week). A little over a month after the
Smothers Brothers appearance, the song reached #2 on the Cashbox list. It would also reach #4 in the Billboard ranking (and became a #1 record in Canada).
Here is the video of Dion's television performance:
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