Duke Ellington, 1953

“I have been mistaken for an actor, yes.” Duke Ellington on What’s My Line?, July 12, 1953.

On Duke Ellington’s birthday

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born 111 years ago today.

Rex Stewart (1907–1967) played cornet with Duke Ellington from 1934 to 1945. Stewart’s immediately recognizable half-valve playing is heard on his signature piece, “Boy Meets Horn,” and on many other Ellington recordings. Stewart was an elegant, witty writer. Here he describes the working habits of “the Governor”:

The Duke’s creativity works in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform. He snatches ideas out of the thin air. Many’s the time that I’ve seen him on the Ellington orchestra’s Pullman with his feet propped up and a towel draped over his eyes, seemingly in complete repose. Then, he’d suddenly jump up as if a bee had stung him, grab a sheet of manuscript paper, a yellow pencil, and scribble madly for hours — or sometimes only for a minute. Other times, he has been observed riding in a bus of ancient vintage that seemingly had never heard of springs, jounced around like a dodg’em at a carnival. But the Governor wrote on and on, not concerned as we, the members of his band, were with the lack of comfort. As I recall, it was a rare day that Duke didn’t write something, even if it was only four bars.

Rex Stewart, Jazz Masters of the Thirties (1972)

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On Duke Ellington’s birthday (2009)

David Hockney and the iPad

David Hockney is drawing on a iPad:

“‘I do love it, I must admit,’ Hockney, 72, says. ‘I thought the iPhone was great when I bought one the year before last, but this takes it to a new level.

‘It’s a new medium, eight times the size of the iPhone.’”

An Apple’s the way to a free Hockney each day (WA Today)

J.D. Salinger photographs

From the Baltimore Sun: eleven Salinger-related photographs. No. 2 is a little scary.

New York, 1964: record stores

From Harold H. Hart’s Hart’s Guide to New York City (New York: Hart Publishing, 1964). Illustration by Ruby Davidson.

I know: Amazon. But consider a world in which record stores were open until midnight. The Colony Record & Radio Center, also listed in Hart’s Guide, stayed open until 4:00 a.m., every day, or night.

A related post
Record stores (memories of a misspent youth)

Also from Hart’s Guide
Chock full o’Nuts
Greenwich Village and coffee house
Mayflower Coffee Shop(pe)
Minetta Tavern, Monkey Bar
Schrafft’s

“Is country music right for you?”

A quiz by Charlie Hopper:

Is country music right for you? (via Coudal)

I scored 118. Time to redo my record collection.

PowerPoint and the military

Brigadier General H. R. McMaster, quoted in an article on PowerPoint and the United States military: “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” Read more:

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint (New York Times)

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PowerPoint and the war

New York, 1964: Schrafft’s

From Harold H. Hart’s Hart’s Guide to New York City (New York: Hart Publishing, 1964).

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has had a Schrafft’s luncheon menu from 1959 — close enough. Liverwurst? Pineapple fritters? Anyone? You can still find the menu here.

The photograph below predates Hart’s Guide by many years, though it does show a “feminine contingent.” Note too the dumbwaiter at the far left and the knickknacks topping the display cases:



[“Schrafft’s.” Photograph by Cornell Capa, 1948. Via the Life photo archive, where there’s a larger view.]

That empty chair awaits the plucky time-traveler.

[This post is for my mom and dad, who sometimes met for lunch at Schrafft’s. They once had a star as their waiter.]

Also from Harold Hart’s Guide
Chock full o’Nuts
Greenwich Village and coffee house
Mayflower Coffee Shop(pe)
Minetta Tavern, Monkey Bar
Record stores

New York, 1964: Chock full o’Nuts

To every food, its adjective(s). From Harold H. Hart’s Hart’s Guide to New York City (New York: Hart Publishing, 1964).

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Chock full o’Nuts

Also from Harold Hart’s Guide
Greenwich Village and coffee house
Mayflower Coffee Shop(pe)
Minetta Tavern, Monkey Bar
Record stores
Schrafft’s

War, soldiers, trauma

From a New York Times report on transition units “for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma”:

For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers. Because of their wounds, soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are particularly vulnerable to depression and addiction, but many soldiers from Fort Carson’s unit say their treatment there has made their suffering worse.

Some soldiers in the unit, and their families, described long hours alone in their rooms, or in homes off the base, aimlessly drinking or playing video games.

“In combat, you rely on people and you come out of it feeling good about everything,” said a specialist in the unit. “Here, you’re just floating. You’re not doing much. You feel worthless.”

Read more:

In Army’s Trauma Care Units, Feeling Warehoused (New York Times)

And consider what Sophocles can teach us:

Theater of War (“a project that presents readings of ancient Greek plays to service members, veterans, caregivers and families as a catalyst for town hall discussions about the challenges faced by combat veterans today”)