Above, signage of the dowdy world. Note the note above the tam. My eyes too are rolling.
This image reminds me of the cartoonish Scot who graced the signage of a local supermarket food mart that offered "McThrifty" values (before selling out to a chain). The thrifty Scot seems to have been a familiar figure in grocerydom. Has anyone else seen him?
Illustrated Supermaket Signage (from Roadsidepictures, found via Mad Professor)
All "dowdy world" posts (via Pinboard)
Proust, like Jane Austen, often lets characters reveal themselves in dialogue, no narratorial comment needed. Here is the Duchesse de Guermantes, explaining why she doesn't want to see Charles Swann, who is now dying:
"I am not myself excessively anxious to see him, because it seems, judging by what I was told a short while ago at Mme de Saint-Euverte's, that he would like, before he dies, for me to make the acquaintance of his wife and daughter. Heavens, it grieves me infinitely that he should be ill, but I hope, first of all, that it's not as serious as all that. And, then, that's not after all a reason, because it would really be too simple. A writer devoid of talent would only have to say, 'Vote for me at the Academy because my wife is about to die and I want to give her this last pleasure.' There wouldn't be salons any more if one was obliged to make the acquaintance of all the dying. My coachman could use it on me: 'My daughter's very ill, get me an invitation to the Princesse de Parme's.' I adore Charles, and it would upset me greatly to refuse him, which is why I prefer to avoid his asking me. I hope with all my heart that he's not dying, as he says he is, but, truly, were that to happen, it would not be the moment for me to make the acquaintance of those two creatures who've deprived me of the most agreeable of my friends these past fifteen years, and whom he would leave on my hands at at time when I wouldn't even be able to take advantage of it to see him, since he'd be dead!"
Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah, translated by John Sturrock (New York: Penguin, 2002), 82-83
All Proust posts (via Pinboard)
From Sunday's New York Times:
It's a happy accident that two of the most self-absorbed legends in the history of jazz — the bassist Charles Mingus and the alto saxophonist Art Pepper — married women who wound up equally absorbed in the preservation of their legacies. The men have been dead now for a quarter-century, yet their widows, Sue Graham Mingus and Laurie Pepper, keep unveiling major discoveries.Re: Cornell 1964, Ms. Mingus reports that the tapes were discovered twenty years ago. “There's more tapes where that came from, and I plan to release them soon too.”
Still Married to the Music (New York Times)
There are two kinds of moviegoers: those who stay to watch the credits and those who — never mind; they're already gone.
If, reader, you go to The Simpsons Movie, stay to watch the credits, and you'll be rewarded with a few surprises.
The movie proper has many fine touches, including a well-detailed low-budget motel room (in the Red Rash Inn), a Disney spoof, and a swipe at Fox Broadcasting. My favorite touch: the split-second that evokes the famed George Tames photograph of JFK leaning over a desk in the Oval Office.
The Simpsons Movie (Official website)
From another fine newspaper comes the sad news:
Blame microscopic alien vampires, or the general shift in media away from papers, but the Weekly World News tabloid will soon only be available online.I've been an occasional (and at times regular) reader of the Weekly World News since the late 1970s, when my grad-school friends and I discovered it at a newsstand on Fordham Road in the Bronx. One had to dig to get the WWN, which was buried beneath a dozen other tabloids. It was cheaper than the other tabloids too: only 35¢. (Yes, I like seeing the cent sign too.)
In Memoriam: Weekly World News Dies At 28 (Washington Post)(Thanks, Stefan, for reminding me!)
Weekly World News (Official site)
Weekly World News (Wikipedia)
My son Ben and his friend Dan have entered the Heinz Top This TV Challenge. Give it up for the next generation of stop-motion animators:
Heinz Untoppable, by Ben Leddy and Dan Shick (YouTube)
Barry Greenberg, Iowa Memorial Union executive chef and director of IMU Food Services at the University of Iowa, has won the Culinary Challenge of the National Association of College and University Food Services:
Each chef had 75 minutes to prepare her or his entrée using this year's featured ingredient: extra firm tofu.Note: Every dish Mr. Greenberg prepared would appear to be vegan or vegetarian.
When the dust settled, Greenberg emerged the victor with his entrée, Asian Bento Box, composed of tofu sushi, seaweed and tofu salad, edamame shumai, smoked shiitake spring rolls, mango and ginger tofu smoothie, and miso soup.
While Greenberg, who has spent 15 years with the IMU Food Services, felt that some chefs may have chosen not to compete because of their unfamiliarity with tofu, he had no difficulty in making the food his own.
"When you work with a product like that, it's a blank canvas; it will take on the flavor and texture of what the chef wants to do," Greenberg said.
Morgan Lucero, the meeting and logistics coordinator at the food-service association, said the competition's venue and featured ingredient change each year.
"We have a culinary-challenge committee that is made up of representatives from each region, as well as a committee head," she said. "The committee mulls out the suggestions of the chairperson and eventually decides on a protein."
The featured ingredient usually follows the theme and locale of the contest. For Seattle this year, the theme was fresh and organic, so tofu was a natural choice, Lucero said.
"Next year's theme is striped sea bass and will be in Washington, D.C.," she said.
UI chef nobody's tofu fool (Daily Iowan)
Charles Mingus Sextet, Cornell 1964 (2 CDs)
Blue Note (2007)
Charles Mingus, bass
Johnny Coles, trumpet
Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute
Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone
Jaki Byard, piano
Dannie Richmond, drums
Recorded March 18, 1964 at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
ATFW You (Byard) (4:26)
Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington) (4:23)
Fables of Faubus (29:42)
Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk (15:05)
Take the "A" Train (Billy Strayhorn) (17:26)
Meditations (31:23)
So Long Eric (15:33)
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (Olcott-Graff-Ball) (6:07)
Jitterbug Waltz (Thomas "Fats" Waller) (9:59)
All compositions by Mingus except as noted
Like the 2005 releases Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945 (Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker), Cornell 1964 is a newly-discovered concert recording. And as with those 2005 releases, the performance just happens to be extraordinary. I'm past the two-dozen mark when it comes to buying Mingus recordings, and I think that Cornell 1964 is the most exciting Mingus music I've heard.
What a concert those lucky students were given:
"ATFW You": Jaki Byard's fleet, witty parade of Art Tatumisms and Fats Wallerisms.
"Sophisticated Lady": for bass. Mingus never stopped paying tribute to Duke Ellington.
"Fables of Faubus": A Weillian send-up of Orval Faubus, segregationist governor of Arkansas. The lyrics here are, alas, inaudible. (A sample: "Two, four, six, eight, they brainwash and teach you hate.") A very lengthy "Fables," dipping into various streams of musical Americana along the way. Here, as elsewhere, Mingus and Richmond are the most inventive bass-and-drums pairing in jazz, changing tempos and textures and thereby pushing soloists to dig deeper: the rhythm section as personal trainer.
"Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk": One of Mingus's most beautiful compositions, with overtones of Ellington, "Blues in the Night," and "Body and Soul."
"Take the 'A' Train": I think it's here that everything rises to a very high level of energy. As Clifford Jordan begins his second chorus, Mingus calls to Johnny Coles and Eric Dolphy: "Join in," and the band takes off. Jordan is the great surprise on this performance and on the rest of the recording, playing with greater intensity and freedom than on the European tour recordings (or at least the ones that I've heard). And Coles, who missed much of the European tour with a stomach ulcer, is brilliant here and elsewhere. I'm only now realizing that he was an influence on Lester Bowie, one of my favorite trumpeters.
"Meditations": like "Orange," a composition in markedly different sections. Particularly powerful solos from Byard and Dolphy (bass clarinet).
"So Long Eric": Twelve-bar blues. Mingus plants the endpin of his bass in the floor, and not for the first time: "Well, we got several holes now." The tempo here is slower than on other recordings of this tune. Mingus calls to Johnny Coles: "Come on, Johnny." He calls to Jaki Byard: "By yourself," and bass and drums drop out. No problem: Byard turns into Art Tatum and Erroll Garner. It's Clifford Jordan's turn to solo: "I know you swing," says Mingus. And before Dannie Richmond's solo: "Go!"
Two encores follow, the first featuring "the only Irishman in the band," "Johnny O'Coles." (Note the concert date.) And finally, a giddy, slightly wobbly "Jitterbug Waltz," the elegant Fats Waller melody that Eric Dolphy loved to play.
For a newcomer to Mingus's music, Cornell 1964 is a perfect start: three major Mingus compositions ("Fables," "Orange," "Meditations"), some blues, some strong evidence of Mingus's reverence for his musical ancestors, and a charming novelty, all played by what many listeners regard as Mingus's greatest band.
What are you waiting for? Go!
Cornell 1964, with 18 minutes of streaming music (Blue Note)
Related posts
Charles Mingus in Norway
I dream of Mingus
As she walked beside me, the Duchesse de Guermantes allowed the azure light of her eyes to float in front of her, but undirected, so as to avoid the people with whom she was not keen to come into contact, but whom she could sometimes make out in the distance like a menacing reef.Likewise small-town residents navigating supermarkets (azure aside).
Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah, translated by John Sturrock (New York: Penguin, 2002), 70-71
All Proust posts (via Pinboard)
Ex-residents of the "dowdy world" will enjoy an online visit to the American Package Museum. Curator Ian House describes the Museum:
The primary objective of this website is to preserve and display specimens of American package design from the early decades of the 20th Century. The secondary objective is to establish a community for those interested in such an endeavor. It is my hope that this website will eventually develop into a significant archive of corporate heritage and branding.The Museum features 142 items, beautifully photographed against a dowdy background (fabric? wallpaper?). I'm not sure that everything here is from the early 20th century: I remember the Canada Dry Wink bottle from kidhood.
The American Package Museum
All "dowdy world" posts (via Pinboard)
