BRUCE JAY FRIEDMAN (LUCKY BRUCE)
My learned brother-in-law, Pat, sent me as a Christmas gift a copy of Bruce Jay Friedman's memoir Lucky Bruce. I believe I introduced him...
80s POP Part I
Thought I'd resurrect some videos from those halcyon days of the early to mid 1980s, when an eclectic group of pop bands, complemented by...
RUSSELL HOBAN, 86, RIP
Depressed to hear of the death last week of the American writer and illustrator, Russell Hoban, who had a unique career, exhibiting an...
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part III
Today we have a look at some legendary jazz performances of holiday standards. Let's begin with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Canadian born,...
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part II
Thought I'd focus on some variants on a single tune today. The selection is "Christmas Time is Here," by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. That...
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part I
People who know me recognize the reverence I hold in my heart for the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, with a special...
THANKSGIVING TREAT
Couldn't resist the opportunity on this Thanksgiving to add Arlo Guthrie's immortal Alice's Restaurant Massacree to this blog. Played it...
NICK ADAMS-That's How It Is When You're Nineteen!
My students got a big kick out of the just slightly overripe voiceover to this trailer for the 1962 film Hemingway's Adventures of a...
THE AWFUL TRUTH
One of cinema's top ten sight gags-from Leo McCarey's sublime classic comedy of remarriage, The Awful Truth, starring Cary Grant and...
JAMES HONEYMAN SCOTT
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the last studio recordings of the late James Honeyman Scott, a woefully underrated guitar player...