We always live in the days of Summer.
Summer good days, Summer not.
We make the best of what we've got.
Summer cold days, Summer hot.

Early morning, the sun also rises.
Eyes open brightly, what you first realize is
The new day before you is full of surprises.
And biggest of all, it's exactly the same.

Struggling forever to get where you've gotten,
You've filed all the papers and you've picked all the cotton.
You've done all you can, gave it all your best shot, an'
You find, without trying, that you've lucked into fame.


We always live in the days of Summer.
Summer good days, Summer not.
We make the best of what we've got.
Summer cold days, Summer hot.


Shadows grow long, and your good reputation
Has allowed you to rise to an eminent station.
And you've even been honored by a most grateful nation.
If only they now would remember your name.

Deep beyond midnight when the light's far behind you,
You dream in the dark of the days that remind you
Of losing and winning and all that defined you.
And you smile at the joy of just playing the game.


We always live in the days of Summer.
Summer good days, Summer not.
We make the best of what we've got.
Summer cold days, Summer hot.

     (Repeat chorus twice)
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This video from a British TV show isn't as good a rendition as the original recording but seeing Nat King Cole singing "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer" is a great treat.
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It should be added that when the government's lawyer Sarah Fabian made this argument before the 3-judge appellate panel, two of the judges responded --

“Are you arguing seriously that you do not read the agreement as requiring you to do something other than what I just described: cold all night long, lights on all night long, sleeping on concrete and you’ve got an aluminum foil blanket?  I find it inconceivable that the government would say that that is safe and sanitary.”
--  Judge William Fletcher.

“You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of ‘safe and sanitary’ conditions?... You can’t be sanitary or safe as a human being if you can’t sleep.” 
-- Judge Marsha Berzon 

Quite a bit has been made of the news on Wednesday when Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) announced that she supported an impeachment hearing.  Lawrence O'Donnell had her on his show last night to talk about it.  Among other things, she said that she had discussed her decision beforehand with Nancy Pelosi who did not try to talk her out of it -- although Schakowsky made clear that this shouldn't be taken to mean that Pelosi gave her tacit approval.

I mention all this because I've been a big fan of Jan Schakowsky for almost 15 years.  When my folks moved to their independent living residence in Glenview, the representative of their district was...Jan Schakowsky.  Actually, she wasn't at first -- it's an odd area that's split, and Schakwosky represented the other part that overlapped with Glenview.  And that was something that deeply disappointed me:  so close, yet so far.  But then, after redistricting, my folks joyously fell into her district (or did she fall into theirs?), which is now the Illinois-9th.  But I've paid attention to her for a long time, even before she represented them, as I said, and have thought from the start that she was wonderful, and even wrote her a few years back.

One thing to note.  In her conversation with O'Donnell she talked about how she had overwhelming support among her constituents for her decision, and added that it was a progressive area.  And that true.  But there is still a strong conservative undercurrent there -- not long ago, before the redistricting, that seat was held by Republican Mark Kirk, who later became one of the U.S. Senators from Illinois (until he had a stroke and was later defeated by Tammy Duckworth).  So, while Schakowsky is very popular -- she won in 2018 with about 73% of the vote -- and the district is Democratic and progressive, the general area is a mix of politics.  The Republicans there may not be of the far-right religious persuasion, but more of what we consider "traditional" Republicans (a rare breed these days) with a cross between being moderate Republican (an even rarer breed) and rock-solid, die-hard conservative.  One of my folks's dear friends there is a staunch Republican, probably for 70 years dating back to learning it from her father -- though when you talk to her, she will slam Democrats in general as a species, but when you discuss issues, it would be shocking to find he concerns so often liberal.  But she'd deny the label and always, always, always vote Republican.  Even though the party had drastically changed since the days of her father.  

But that's the area -- progressives and rock-sold Republicans for life.

So, while Jan Schakowsky does have the cover of knowing she's popular and strongly supported, she is surrounded by a wide range of conflicting views.  So, it's good to see her come forward so vocally and have the backing for it that she does.  And I think the reaction in the news to her specifically speaking out for impeachment hearings is that she's always been considered a very thoughtful, fair-minded representative.  And if her foundation is progressive, she has had to work closely with a conservative voice that overlaps with her.

By the way, before we wind things up, a brief digression:  be grateful that I didn't go with the title I initially thought of, which was going to be  "Schak-IL -- Oh, Kneel."  But I thought that was stretching things far too much for a joke.

James Corden has been doing his talk show from London this week, and had a new "Crosswalk: the Musical" on Tuesday. Somewhat oddly though he didn't do the sketch from around London, But being so close to France, they went across the Channel and performed on the streets of Paris.  And it worked really well because what musical did they put on?  Mais, c'etait Les Miserables, n'est-ce-pas?

There were no celebrities involved this time, as is often the case, but the public added a great deal of fun.  It's one thing to do the bit in Los Angeles, where people in Hollywood are somewhat used to weirdness on the streets and largely accept it -- especially considering that they're next door to CBS at Television City, so the public (and army of tourists) not only accept it, in some ways they almost expect it.  But this is clearly most-definitely not something Parisians are prepared for.

By the way, if my memory serves,when they aired this on CBS, the last part got cut off for time.  I believe it ended after he thanks his fellow-cast members and says he's going to get a croissant.  What happens next didn't make it on TV, and is exclusive to the video.

Here then is what they referred to instead as "Crosswalk: Le Musical."

Sometimes in the word political, soul-crushing angst we have to go instead for froth on occasion, and if we're going to rant, we can do so with the comfort of knowing it really doesn't matter.  It's just personal, not something that puts national security and world economics at risk.  So, thank good for small annoyances!

I suspect that the Volvo TV commercial with the opera singer is fairly popular.  After all, it's been on the air for six months at this point.  That's the one that asks the question "Can you design an SUV for an aria?" and shows how classy the Volvo is because a Mozart aria from The Magic Flute" plays throughout.

Personally, it makes me nuts. I may be in the minority -- but it still makes me nuts.  To be clear, I don't mind that while the public likely thinks it's such a sweet piece of music, in fact "The Queen of the Night" aria is sung by a murderous villain to her daughter,

Opera fans watching this commercial must cringe, if they’re not guffawing. That’s because the music on the soundtrack is no paean to grace and lovingkindness, but the homicidal signature aria of one of the most monstrous characters in the canon.  As Michael Hiltzik wrote about the ad in the L.A. Times, "she’s one vicious specimen. Think Cruella de Vil times 1 million."

The German aria begins with the words that in English mean “The vengeance of hell,” and eventually get to “Death and despair flame about me. Hear, gods of revenge, Hear a mother's oath!”  As she tells her daughter, the girl must commit murder or be "disowned, abandoned, destroyed -- forever.”.

But that's okay if people don't know what's actually be said.  What you don't know can't kill you, as the expression goes, although if you're driving at 80 MPH and don't know a blind, cliff drop-off is just around the bend, I wouldn't rely on wise adages saving you.  That aside, if people like listening to an aria, fine.  It puts things in more of an odd perspective for those who do know the opera, but so be it.

To be clear, it's a fairly well-produced commercial, and from Volvo's history I assume that it's a fine SUV.  What rubs me the wrong way is the performance of the singer, which (as I said) I suspect most people love, and certainly do from comments on YouTube.  The singer, Emily Cheung, might be wonderfully talented, but she was given a light-hearted, almost sweet arrangement that -- to my ear -- makes the number thin and just on the good side of screechy.  She's not straining to hit the notes (in what is a very difficult number), but they don't seem to come fluidly, and the result ends up sounding, as Hiltzik describes it, "chirpy."  To me, it's like she's reaching to grab each note individually, rather than having them already deliciously filling her basket.

For the longest while, I've thought that perhaps it's just me.  (Or me and Michael Hiltzik...)  After all, the ad has been running for half a year with no end in sight.  But then just the other day I received a premium gift for donating to a classical music radio station, WFMT in Chicago.  It was a CD with a variety of classical selections -- including "Queen of the Night" from The Magic Flute.  When it came on, I immediately sat up and thought, "Oh, okay, so it isn't me.  That is how I thought it was supposed to sound."

Here's the ad --

​One of the big casting-shames of Hollywood is when Angela Lansbury wasn't asked to recreate her starring role in the musical Mame for the movie adaptation which ended up fairly flat.  And alas there's pretty much no footage of her original performance in the 1968 Broadway production.  Happily, though, I've come across footage of the 1983 Broadway revival that brought Lansbury back to the role at the age of 58.  And not shockingly, she's wonderful.  Or in the words of the title song, just sensational.

(The description says it's the show's 35th anniversary.  It's not -- the musical opened in 1966.)

Here are two songs.  The joyous and very funny "Bosom Buddies," sung with Anne Francine, and then "That's How Young I Feel" -- probably my least-favorite song in the show, but it's an energetic dance number which Lansbury throws herself into.

The song quality isn't great, so you'll like miss some of the lyrics, and the video is shot somewhat at a distance and a bit washed out, but overall it's very watchable, and as a part of a Broadway history it's a nine-minute valuable joy.

As a bonus, here's a video I've posted it before.  It's Angela Lansbury reuniting on the 1987 Tony Awards with Bea Arthur, the original 'Vera Charles' from that first production of Mame to sing an abridged version of "Bosom Buddies."  It doesn't have the full choreography, but they'd included some of the original staging.  And you'll hear all the lyrics and jokes they've included in this slightly-trimmed version.
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“AOC should apologize at least and probably resign,”
-- Steve Cortes, Republican commentator for CNN

To clarify, what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had said, which Mr. Cortes is so-deeply upset about and referring to is -- "The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps," 

For the record, before we go any further, here are the two, and the only two, definitions of "concentration camp" that are shown in my WordWeb dictionary.

Concentration camp.  Noun.
1.  A penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions)
2. A situation characterized by crowding and extremely harsh conditions

That's it.  That's all it says.  Okay, so we got that out of the way.

As it happens, there were quite a lot of quotes from Republicans faking feathery outrage at the statement that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez made.  The ones that got the most attention were probably the histrionics from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) who pretended to give a "history" lesson about concentration camps, including links to books written by Jewish experts on the Holocaust, like Elie Wiesel.  I'll leave her exact quotes to the dust bin, since that's where they belong.  And as a politician who learned empty cruelty at the feet of her father Dick Cheney, I expect nothing better from her.  That said, I nonetheless do look forward to being pointed to her similar horrified outrage and history lessons she ever sent to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer who, during his time speaking for Trump, referred to Nazi concentration camps as "Holocaust Centers."  Since such criticism of Spicer by Ms. Cheney (or any Republicans in Congress or the administration) doesn't exist, though, no one need expend much energy checking for them.  You can save your energy for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez who seems to terrify the bejeepers out of Republicans, because she's liberal, pretty, danced in college on a rooftop with friends, is popular in her district, and gets news coverage -- the latter of which they have been dearly trying to emulate since she took office..Actually, much of which they wish they could to emulate.

I've also ignored Trump's own attack on Ms. Ocasio-Cortez which was laughable in its attempt to seem offended by her and to try chastising Democrats for not rising in condemnation and thereby lacking such things as, in his words, "character," "spine," "virtue" and "moral."   After all, not only are such concepts outside Trump's scope of understanding, but it's outside the Space-Time Continuum for him to criticize anyone for their language when the words he himself is stuck with are "bone spurs," "Central Park 5," "birther" and "pussy.." 

It's also worth noting that the one thread running through all these Republicans so aggrieved with the vapors is their inability to distinguish - whether knowingly or from ignorance - the difference between "concentration camps" and "Nazi concentration camps" that turned harsh prisons into hell-on-earth crematoriums used to exterminate a race of people.

The other pseudo-outraged Republicans aside, I chose the comment from Steve Cortes to represent them all  since it not only goes beyond an attempt to seem appalled and calls for resignation, but he is someone CNN feels is qualified to be a commentator for today's Republican Party.

Perhaps more than anything, it's adorable that Mr. Cortes, expert analyst for Your GOP, is so fluttery-offended by the correct descriptive use of language that it gives him the vapors -- yet as far as can be seen, he has not been even slightly-bothered by the leader of his own party who has --

Called Mexico "not our friend," "rapists" and "animals."
Called neo-Nazis "some very fine people."
Called Third World nations "shithole countries."
Called the American press "the enemy of the people."
Called the U.S. Department of Justice "crooked" and "an embarrassment to our country"
Called John McCain "dummy," "has done nothing," "failed miserably" and..."very foul-mouthed." 
Called both Guatemala and Honduras “all talk and no action,” “have taken our money for years," "do nothing.”
Called Republicans "disloyal" "selfishly opposed to me," "very sad." 
Called Hamilton "highly overrated"
Called Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro "highly overrated"
Called...sorry, there's a limit to how much of this I can type. And I haven't even included all the mentions of Trump's ongoing love for brutal dictators.

And not a word ever by Steve Cortes, Liz Cheney, or ANY Republicans for Trump to resign for any of this, let alone for all of it, let alone to...Just Once Apologize.

But to Steve Cortes, expert Republican analyst on CNN, Rep. Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez must apologize and resign (resign!!!) from Congress for accurately calling concentration camps "concentration camps."  Resign!

I know, at this point I usually say that this is not about Trump, we know who he is, this is about the officials of the Republican Party who enable him.  But no, instead I'm going to say something different.

I think it's good for TV news channels to have a wide range of political pundits giving their perspective from across the spectrum -- from liberal to conservative and all points between.  But the foundation for every person has to be honesty.  And CNN can do a whole lot better than the disingenuous, hand-wringing, clownish Steve Cortes and absolutely everyone they regularly employ like him.  It's beneath CNN and does them -- and does the American public -- a disservice..

I saw a great documentary at the Writers Guild Theater over the weekend which seems an unlikely topic for an exciting, moving true story like this.  It’s called Maiden, about Tracy Edwards, a British cook on a racing sailboat who decides to put together the first all-female crew to enter an Around-the-World Sailing race in 1989 -- despite never having skippered a boat before.  It's really well done, wonderful.  Tons of archival footage (including of the race, since there were videographers on board, as well as her earlier life) that almost makes it like watching a work of fiction, and very emotional at times with some twists and surprises.  I shall say no more, because the unexpected moments and twists -- and perspective -- are some of the fun.
 
I don’t know if it will get a theatrical release, but since it’s from Sony Classics, I suspect it will.  At the very least it will eventually be on DVD, perhaps in three months or so.

One small footnote I'll add -- when watching the trailer afterwards, I paused at the credit block...and there noticed that her name was listed as "Tracy Edwards MBE." .They don’t mention in the film that she got that impressive honor.  In fairness, I don’t recall that the documentary has an end crawl to update the story, so if not, there was no place to reference it.

As I've mentioned previously, my cousin Jim Kaplan has a small sailboat/motor boat, and when I told him about the documentary, he laughed and said, "I love sailing -- and even I wouldn't ever think you could make a film about it that was exciting."

But they did.  The video footage they have access to is remarkable, and on a 30,000 miles race there is profound danger all the boats face almost every moment, Above all, though, the film is very involving from the personal stories involved.

This is the trailer.  It does a very respectable job telling the story and giving a sense of the richness, but the documentary is even much better -- in large part because the trailer leaves out much of her early personal life that is dramatic and fascinating, and also in part because the race itself is especially dramatic with twists.
 

This is an unprecedented video from Friday to watch.  Employees say that the decision to relocate the departments is not for cost-cutting but actually "a way to disrupt their research into climate change."
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