A tip o’ the ol’ Dog Rat virtual toupee to my friend Morris for tipping me off to a guest appearance by Stan Lee tonight on the CBS sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory.’
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2010/MAR/StanLeeBigBang.flv 512 384]
The fifty year circus
Charles M. Schulz lived to see ‘Peanuts’ reach its 50th anniversary year, but not the actual anniversary date of October 2. Bil Keane’s ‘The Family Circus’ comic strip first appeared on February 29, 1960. Unlike Schulz, Keane has had help for many years producing his strip, but it’s still an anniversary worthy of recognition.
WGBH: The Jazz Decades, 1972-2010
A Sunday night ritual I’ve had for many years is listening to “The Jazz Decades,” hosted by Ray Smith, on WGBH radio Boston.
http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programid=282
Tonight, it was announced that Smith, 87, passed away on Friday. Considering his age, I can’t say this is a surprise, but it is sad news, and a loss for radio and music. The realization that I am now five years older than Smith was when he started at WGBH, and that I first listened to him while still in my 20’s, certainly gives me something to think about.
Some of the names of the Jazz greats from the 20’s and 30’s that Smith often featured, like Teagarden and Beiderbecke, I first learned from a set of cards by Robert Crumb. Hover over the picture to read the back of the card.
At this moment, Smith is playing a recording by the legendary Belgian guitarist Django Reindhardt, with the equally incomparable Stéphane Grappelli on violin. For moi, it doesn’t get any better dan dat.
One of the Internet stations on my list of favorites on my Logitech Squeezebox Radio is WGBH’s 24-hour stream of “The Jazz Decades.” So although Smith is gone, with nearly 2,000 programs in the library, he shall remain.
Quick, call the Patent Office!
A couple of years ago I featured adorable Sumpy the sump pump. We’re getting a lot of rain, and I was expecting Sumpy to kick in, but he can’t help tonight, because there’s water coming in from the other side of the basement, around the water supply pipe, where it’s never been before. After getting tired of using the wet-dry vac, I came up with this idea to get the water into a bucket, and it’s working OK.
Hotel Penn: From Big Bands to Comic Books
Denro is heading to New York for a comic book show at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Seventy years ago, the Cafe Rouge at the hotel was a hotspot for hipsters to hear the biggest of the big bands, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra…
What do they want? Nothing.
Why doesn’t the GOP just come out and say they want no changes at all to the way health care is paid for? And why don’t Democrats sidestep the 60-vote requirement?
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