Fifty years ago, July 17–21, 1972, it was Duke Ellington Week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here, from the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden, is an account of the proceedings, with links to the program and recorded excerpts.
And here, also from the DESS, is a Zoom discussion of Ellington Week, with Patricia Willard’s firsthand account of the proceedings, followed by a half-hour television broadcast of Ellington talking to and playing for a Uwis audience. I think having an audience mostly of young people must have pleased Ellington: I’ve never seen him speak with greater ease and openness. The highlight: Paul Gonsalves’s unexpected appearance on stage, an episode I wrote about in a 2016 post.
Why Uwis? Because Ellington marked the occasion with with The Uwis Suite. It’s in three parts as released on the The Ellington Suites (Pablo, 1976): “Uwis,” “Klop,” and “Loco Madi.” A recording of a fourth (first) section, “The Anticipation,” for solo piano, was released on Duke Ellington: An Intimate Piano Session (Storyville, 2017). Here they are, all four: “The Anticipation,” “Uwis,” “Klop,” and “Loco Madi.” “Uwis” is one of my favorite pieces of late Ellington: serene, urbane, with just a hint of the polka that appears in “Klop.”
Related reading
All OCA Ellington posts (Pinboard)
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Ellington at Uwis
Another Miller vote
Mary Miller (R, IL-15) was one of just eighteen members of the House of Representatives (all Republicans) to vote against H.Res. 1130, a resolution expressing support for Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join NATO. Here’s the vote.
There’s something about Mary.
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
A new strain
In The New York Times, “How ‘Stop the Steal’ Captured the American Right”:
History, faith, crime, retribution: These are the rudiments of a new strain of Republican politics, shaped by the last year of Trump’s presidency — the second impeachment trial, the coronavirus pandemic, the campaign — but destined to extend far beyond it.
Monday, July 18, 2022
“Always meeting ourselves”
Stephen Dedalus speaks. From the “Scylla and Charybdis” episode:
James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).
Stephen’s words click with a Bloom thought earlier in the day: “Wander along all day. Might meet a robber or two. Well, meet him.” “Meet him”: a pun on metempsychosis (“met him pike hoses”), a word Bloom attempts to explain to Molly earlier in the day. There’s another click to come.
Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)
Aloe, hallo
[As seen on a window sill.]
The sun was just right the other day. I drew on the picture, not on the curtain in front of the aloe.
“Always meeting ourselves,” as Stephen Dedalus would say. Faces everywhere.
Sunday, July 17, 2022
Sol. Lou. 25¢ a Lesson
Two weeks ago in these pages I was admiring the symmetrical presentation of Kubrick Self Service Stores at 1267 40th Street, Boro Park, Brooklyn. One week ago I was in a reverie about the Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market, one side of which ran down 40th Street, north of Kubrick. Today it’s time to see what once stood at the corner of 13th and 40th, just south of Kubrick.
[3920 13th Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. As seen from 13th Avenue. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]
That’s quite a corner, with nearly every available surface used for text. Sol. Fruit & Vegetable Mkt. Lou. Sol・Fruit・Vegetables・Lou. Quality Fruits & Vegetables. But Sol. and Lou. had nothing on the Community Schools of Music, Courses for Beginners & Advanced, Courses for Children & Adults. And in case you missed it: the price of a lesson was 25¢.
I can find nothing online about these establishments. Not a single advertisement: maybe that’s how they kept prices low. (See below). Something produce-related was still happening on this corner in the not distant past, as this 1980s tax photograph shows. As of October 2021 (Google Maps), the corner of 13th and 40th housed a mobile-phone store and a referral service for home health-care.
When I was a kid in Brooklyn in the 1960s, we may have shopped at this market. Or it may have been another market, also exposed to the open air, Burdo Bros. Poor People[’]s Friends, at 13th Avenue and 39th Street. Here’s a photograph by Anthony Catalano from the early 1970s. A 1980s tax photo shows produce still being sold on that corner, under an awning with what appear to be the same words: Burdo Bros. Poor People[’]s Friends. Whichever market we went to, I remember the handwritten (handnumbered?) signs with prices: everything in red and black, mixing thin and super-thick lines. Something like this. As of September 2021 (Google Maps), the corner of 13th and 39th housed a deli and grill.
Further reverie: just down the avenue from Burdo Bros. in Anthony Catalano’s photograph is the storefront for Vinny and Roger, or Vinny and Roger’s, or Vinny & Rogers, the butcher shop where we bought meat and poultry. I remember also the jars of Aunt Millie’s Spaghetti Sauce lined up on a shelf, with the odd silhouette of a woman with her hair in a bun. I knew a kid named Millie in Brooklyn. I knew a kid named Vinny too. He had an teenaged uncle, Uncle Tony, whom he would call for assistance. Ah, Brooklyn.
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July 18: I made the mistake of searching Brooklyn Newsstand for “community schools of music.” A search for “community school of music” shows the project getting underway between 1926 and 1927, with classified ads selling furniture and soliciting salespeople, followed by a 1927 advertisement offering lessons. Thanks, Brian.
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July 20: By 1943, it was Sol’s Fruit & Vegetable Market. Still WIndsor 5-3868. Thanks, Brian. And thanks, telephone directory.
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November 13: As I now know, it was Vinny & Rogers. See also this photograph.
Related reading
All OCA Boro Park posts (Pinboard) : More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives
Thel’s usage
[The Family Circus, July 17, 2022.]
Thel’s verb choice in today’s strip made me open Garner’s Modern English Usage:
Any may take either a singular or a plural verb. The singular use is fairly rare.Let’s make Thel sound less rare:
[The Family Circus revised, July 17, 2022.]
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Today’s Saturday Stumper
The Newsday crossword is still unavailable (at least to me) at the Newsday website, so I found today’s Saturday Stumper here. Today’s puzzle is by “Lester Ruff” (Stan Newman), and 1-D, six letters, “World Chess champion, 1975-85” seemed to portend an easy puzzle indeed. (Why am I using a word like portend early on a Saturday morning?) The one sticky part of the puzzle for me: the northeast corner, where 7-A, eight letters, “Highly attuned to others” and 10-D, five letters, “Takes in" baffled me. But not forever.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
1-A, six letters, “Former members of the OfficeMax family.” Perhaps common knowledge, but news to me.
8-D, six letters, “Heretofore.” I had the wrong start.
14-D, eight letters, “Plant regulated by the EPA.” Not anymore?
37-A, fifteen letters, “Sales promotion phrase.” Oh, that kind of, &c.
37-D, eight letters, “Rallying cry of the 2000s.” I have to think it’s still the case.
47-D, six letters, “Escarole alias.” I had no idea. When I was a grad student, esacrole meant “cheaper than lettuce.” The alias has always seemed to me a fancy-pants word.
53-A, five letters, “The origin of civilzation.” Heh.
56-A, four letters, “Chow chow.” I cannot see these words without thinking of Ed Norton.
66-A, eight letters, “Owlet, for instance.” Aww.
My favorite: 24-D, six letters, “Charge you shouldn’t have to pay for.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Zippy in the Nancy world
[“One Bush, Two Millers, Three Pinheads.” Zippy, July 15, 2022. Click for a larger view.]
Today’s strip finds our hero in new but familiar surroundings.
Venn reading
All OCA Nancy : Nancy and Zippy : Zippy posts (Pinboard)
