Okay, so yesterday I had that all-star chorus singing "What a Wonderful World." I thought that today I should post the original. One of the entertainment treats of my life is that I got to see Louis Armstrong in concert. Better still, it was just three years before, the summer of 1964 when he had his massive hit with the song, "Hello, Dolly!" I was a kidling, but had the good sense to not only want to go to the concert at the Ravinia Music Festival, outside Chicago in Highland Park, but was anxiously looking forward it. The most memorable thing about the show is that when he sang "Hello, Dolly!" the crowd went so crazy that the had to sing five encores of it! Really. He didn't sing it all the way through six times, but he did twice and I believe he did three times. But the crowd was cheering so much that they wouldn't let him move on. The last three times were just one time through the song. But still... Anyway, three years later he had another enduring hit with this.
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I saw a headline about Anderson Cooper mocking Trump for trying to "re-write history." I swear to the heavens that at first glance I thought it said trying to "re-white history."
When I first mis-read it, I burst out laughing and thought “Good for him!” Then I realized my mistake. Though I might trademark this… After seeing this cover of this latest edition of the magazine "Stern" (which is all the most ghastly when you realize that it's published in a country which is so highly-conscious of and appalled by its horrific Nazi past that the use of the swastika has been banned), I just realized -- perhaps to Trump and his most loyal, core followers, "MAGA" actually means Make America German Again.
This is a great article from New York magazine in collaboration with the excellent ProPublica -- a deeply researched and detailed look at the utter emptiness of HUD under the direction of Ben Carson. (I was going to say, "under the leadership of..." but having read the article, I can't really use that phrase.
The author is Alec McGillis who spent months diving into HUD before Carson officially took over and a Trump official oversaw running things and also following Carson around, to the point of drawing the concern and disdain of his handlers. It's very long, but immensely readable, told as much as an unfolding story as a piece of rich journalism. You can find it here. This is an impressive group sing. Albeit with one oddity. It starts with Meryl Streep (sorry, I mean the over-rated Meryl Streep), who is joined by Bette Midler, Olivia Newton-John, Goldie Hawn, and Cher, And toss in Lily Tomlin for good measure, to join in on the chorus, as they sing "What a Wonderful World." (By the way, contrary to what the script and Meryl Streep say, the song wasn't remotely that "old" at the time. Originally recorded by Louis Armstrong, it was written by Bob Thiel and George David Weiss in 1967, which was only just 23 years before this 1990 broadcast. That's the equivalent of a song today having been written in 1994 and being called very "old" and that "it's been around a long time." In fact, if someone sang Billy Joel's "Piano Man," I don't think they'd introduce it even today as "Here's an old song, it's been around a long time" -- yet that was written in 1972, only five years after "What a Wonderful World." But I digress... ) This comes from a special on ABC called An Evening with Friends of the Environment. What's odd is that for some reason, Cher doesn't get a solo here. And Bette Midler gets two. The only thing I can think of is that this was recorded over a couple of days, and when it came time for the finale, Cher perhaps had a sore throat, but still wanted to join the group at the end and at least sing in the choruses. Though for an event like this, which appears to be a fundraiser, those usually are done live. Oh, who knows? Regardless the reason, what a wonderful performance. This may be the funniest, most-telling, pathetic video I've seen for a while. Right-wing videographer Dan Dicks of the "Press for Truth" website was doing his best to be a provocateur at the recent anti-racism rally in Vancouver. (Because, as we know, Canada is a hot-bed of violent anarchist...) And at one point, he goes into a screed about getting hit and roughed up. "Yeah, they’re throwing stuff at us now, guys. See this is what happens, people, when they can’t handle an actual intellectual debate, they resort to violence and start — somebody just threw a ball at me." Able to retain his composure, he continues on like the intrepid reporter he is. "I got smoked in the face — popped my glasses right off, and so did my buddy Jamie there. So we’re going to continue documenting this because now the original protesters are not showing up." Oh, by the way, he was hit by a beach ball. (Hey, this is Canada, after all. And the West Coast.) But wait, the video is even worse. Because it's not like the beach ball was even thrown at him. If you watch the video up to that point (and I recommend doing so with the sound off, to retain your equilibrium), you can see the beach ball being tossed around the crowd, as beach balls are wont to do. It's most noticeable at the 1:10 mark. Bouncing around across the top of the crowd, batted around. But if you prefer to just to around 2:40, you'll see the beach ball again floating around in the background, right before poor Mr. Dicks get accidentally bopped on the head. But a BEACH BALL. "See, this is what happens, people, when they can’t handle an actual intellectual debate, they resort to violence and start — somebody just threw a ball at me." And it's even worse. Take a look how Dicks himself titled his own "Press for Truth" (sic) video -- "Crowd attacked us." And this is knowing that it was a) a beach ball, and b) it was just being toss around all over the place in the background...because that's why beach balls were put on the Earth. Poor baby. And liberals are supposedly the "snowflakes." (NOTE: There is utterly zero need to watch the full, inane video. Only the 30 seconds or so referenced here. I thought that would be clear, but a reader watched more than that and we almost had an exploding head.) There is a real problem of hate-violence in America right now. We've seen mosques, temples and churches fire bombed. We've seen immigrants attacked -- or merely people who look like immigrants. And here is a provocateur with a public platform getting hit by nothing more than a beach ball and twisting it to not only try to cause division, but to try to turn those who cause actual acts of violence into the supposed victims. I am sure the mother of Heather Heyer only wishes that it was a beach ball that hit her daughter. It's one thing to toss around a beach ball. That's manageable, even for little kiddies at the beach. It's another to toss around words like "actual intellectual debate." If you can't handle a beach ball, you probably shouldn't ratchet things up that far. Probably better to lower things down a bit and stick with balloons. At least they fit with clowns. I suspect that Mr. Dicks got all flummoxed because his concept of an intellectual debate seems to have something in common with a beach ball. In Dicks World, they're both full of hot air. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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