Posted on May 5, 2024 by Scott Johnson in Music

Sunday morning coming down

John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey celebrated the centennial anniversary (on April 28) of the birth of Blossom Dearie on yesterday’s Radio Deluxe show (posted here). With her girlish voice, I thought the first time I heard her, some creative genius must have come up with that stage name. But no, Margrethe Blossom Dearie was her real name. I was introduced to her late in life courtesy of Pete Lee’s Bop Street show on Minneapolis’s KFAI.

I thought I would follow John and Jessica’s celebration of Dearie at 100 with the four songs by which they chose to remember her on this week’s show. There is much more in her catalog, but this is not a bad start.

I believe Dearie is the singer who originally put Dave Frishberg’s insanely witty “Peel Me a Grape” on the map. John and Jessica played the version of the song that can be found on My New Celebrity Is You — Volume III (1976). She wasn’t the first to record the song, and she recorded it several times, but her original version landed. Frishberg, by the way, was a native of St. Paul. “Insanely witty” only begins to capture the quality of his work. I paid tribute to him here when he died in 2021.

“Bruce” is a song for our time. Popularized by Dearie, it “offers facetious tips to a clueless drag queen,” as Stephen Holden put it in his New York Times obituary for songwriter John Wallowitch. I say it is a song for our time, but it may be too witty for our time. It is hilarious. “Bruce, you read too much Proust.” One joke buried in the wordplay is Wallowitch’s heavy deployment of a variation of feminine rhyme (rhyming words on their stressed penultimate syllable) in the lyrics. In this case, Wallowitch frequently rhymes the lines’ penultimate words. The name of the album from which the song comes is Me and Phil: Live in Australia (1994). Phil Scorgie accompanies Dearie on double bass. Dearie accompanies herself on piano.

“‘Deed I Do” comes from the album Blossom Dearie (1957). It features a dream team of jazz players assembled by Norman Granz for her first album on his Verve label. Dearie accompanies herself on piano with Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Jo Jones on drums.

“I’m Hip” returns us to the work of Dave Frishberg. She covered it on Blossom Time at Ronnie Scott’s (1966), her first live album.

John and Jessica played “Moonlight Saving Time” in two different versions. The one below is from Once Upon a Summertime (1959), also on Granz’s Verve label and again featuring stellar jazz musicians — Mundell Lowe on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drum backing the lady Blossom on piano. Covered by many performers over the years, it goes back to the Depression era. The song was written by Irving Kahal and Harry Richman.

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Lloyd Billingsley in Leftism

Campus Jihadists Real Target Is America

The surge of pro-Hamas “protesters” on American campuses has some pundits puzzled. On the other hand, past events help explain the dynamics in play. On August 3, 1981, some 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), walked off their jobs. “They are in violation of the law,” said President Ronald Reagan, “and if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.” Two days later, President Reagan fired and replaced the strikers. As one wag put it, the PATCO strikers must have thought Reagan was a college president and would cave to their demands. That’s what’s going on now.

With few exceptions, college presidents are overpaid, spineless figureheads, so their campuses are soft targets for the pro-Hamas forces. They have doubtless noted that Joe Biden,  a waxworks effigy of a president, is something of an invertebrate. He proclaims that the Chinese are “not bad folks” and allows a Communist dictatorship to fly a surveillance balloon over most of the United States, including strategic military bases. Like the composite character president he served, Biden backs the Iran deal. As it happens, Iran’s Islamist regime has been hosting rallies in support of the campus occupiers in America, and like Iran they are now sending the message of  “Death to America.” According to David Horowitz (Radical Son), that has always been the goal of the American left, from the Communist Party though the Weather Underground, with Nazi-style anti-Semitism now in the mix. As David explains:

Most Americans, including conservatives, have been blinded to what the Neo-Nazi left is.

They believe that the Left agrees with them on basic principles and everything else is “just politics.” Killing babies because they’re Jewish or white isn’t just politics. It’s genocide.

The Hamas campus riots are a wake-up call about what the Neo-Nazi Left truly is.

The Neo-Nazi Left cannot be negotiated with. There is no living alongside it. Either Americans defeat the Neo-Nazi Left or the Neo-Nazi Left defeats America.

Meanwhile, for a history of the PATCO matter, see this essay.

Posted on by John Hinderaker in 2024 Election, Google, Media Bias

Trump: Still Too Hot to Handle

President Trump is running this ad in Georgia, reportedly targeted to specific geographies within that state. Its message is powerful and, if you are a Democrat, nuclear:


Google reportedly censored the ad. Instead of the ad playing, there was a notice that it was “removed for a policy violation.” What could that policy possibly be? Republicans are not allowed to run effective ads, apparently.

But if the Democrats think they can make the appeal of ads like this one go away, they are whistling past the graveyard.

Posted on by Steven Hayward in 2024 Election, Academic left

Columbia’s Disgrace

It is tempting to quip that Columbia University has succeeded splendidly in bring ‘Colombia’ to its campus. But that is an injustice to Colombia, which has largely rooted out its corruption, unlike Columbia University.

In any case, I got to reflecting on how perceptive leftists understood the previous iteration of the meltdown at Columbia University back in 1968. Not long after the police cleared out the campus back then, Columbia political scientist Herbert Deane and Diana Trilling (Lionel’s spouse), wrote that the worst effect by far was the boost the disturbances were giving to the right, especially the Governor of California.  Trilling: “And before [Columbia], in Berkeley, when the New Left was still young, the campus disorders had brought about the election of Reagan.” Deane: “The most likely consequences of violent protests by the left, such as the demonstrations led by student ‘revolutionaries,’ are, therefore, a resurgence in ultra-right-wing movements and an even more widespread swing towards conservatism in this country.  We already see ominous signs of these developments, such as . . . the surprising strength of the pro-Reagan forces across the nation. . .”

Likewise the current campus protests are an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign.

I think Trump ought to air TV spots that just feature the speeches and signs of the protestors at Columbia. No voiceover is necessary. Just a tag line: “Joe Biden’s America.” But I suppose Alvin “the Chipmunk” Bragg will bring fresh charges of campaign finance violations against Trump if his campaign does this.

Posted on by Lloyd Billingsley in Biden Administration, Joe Biden

Biden Picks the Winners

Joe Biden’s 19 recipients for the Presidential Medal of Freedom include “Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi,” and as the Delaware Democrat explains:

Nancy Pelosi served as the 52nd Speaker of the House and has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years. A staunch defender of democracy, she has shaped legislative agendas and Democratic priorities for decades.

As Joshua Muravchik noted in “Pelosi’s Favorite Stalinist,” Pelosi once “took to the pages of the Congressional Record to effuse her sentiments on the hundredth anniversary of Harry Bridges’ birth.” As Muravchik explained:

Bridges had been not merely in the party but a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA, a position for which, the documents show, he was directly approved by the Kremlin. This means, plain and simple, that he had devoted his life to the service of the Soviet Union and its ruler, Joseph Stalin, one of the three greatest mass murderers of all time. (Hitler and Mao Zedong are the other two.)

So the former House Speaker celebrated a staunch defender of Stalin. In another medal pick Biden proclaims:

Secretary John Kerry is a former Secretary of State, United States Senator, and the first Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. His bravery in combat during the Vietnam War earned him the Silver Star and Bronze Star, and history will remember his public service career that has spanned seven decades.

 Veterans might remember the swift boat controversy, but there’s more to the man. Recall the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, which claimed 17 lives. According to Kerry:

There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of – not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, “Okay, they’re really angry because of this and that.”

In a televised speech in French, Kerry described the attack as “obscurantisme.” That means opposition to the spread of knowledge, not the practice of murdering journalists for publishing cartoons of Mohammed.

Biden’s picks for the Presidential Medal of Freedom include Rep. James Clyburn who “transformed the lives of millions of Americans and created a freer country.” Al Gore “accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity.” Phil Donahue won his medal for “the first daytime talk show to feature audience participation and one of the most influential televisions programs of its time.” Actress Michelle Yeoh, “continues to shatter stereotypes and enrich American culture.”

Posted on by Steven Hayward in Academic left

Guest Column: Stop the Cultural Appropriation!

“Lucretia,” our “International Woman of Mystery” on the 3WHH podcast, is not our only academic friend who needs to proceed pseudonymously from time to time so as to avoid a struggle session with our sub-moronic college administrator class. A loyal Power Line reader of some academic prominence who goes by the name “Norm D. Ploom” sends along the following query about yet another double-standard in play in the current campus scene:

I am troubled by what seems like serious, repeated, and unreported cases of cultural appropriation:

Caucasian students are wearing Palestinian Keffiyehs.

This appropriation is happening on many campuses, but it has not received the attention it deserves.

True, they are wearing it out of solidarity with those who hate Israel, but my understanding is that even good intentions like these are not an element of this cultural crime. They certainly are not a “get out of jail” free card for students in other instances of cultural appropriation. In those cases, their intention is usually to have fun at a party. But that is not considered a sufficient excuse on many campuses.

And what about consequences? Normally, the “appropriation” of other students’ cultures lead to consequences at universities where sensitivity reigns in the dean of students office (they/them). That usually means students accused of cultural appropriation are told to sit with counselors from that office, who give them “voluntary” instruction about cultural sensitivity. 

Our campus is better than most, though some students wish it were not so. A few years ago, I was present at an Israel-birthday celebration in the open area between the [Name Redacted] Library and [Name Redacted] Gymnasium. The Jewish students served falafel sandwiches with hummus for free. They also had a small stuffed camel beside the table. The Palestinian students and their political allies repeatedly yelled at high volume that the sandwiches and the stuffed animal were unacceptable “cultural appropriation.” It did no good to tell them both were commonplace in Israel itself. The only good news is that the Jewish students were not required to meet with counselors for remedial cultural instruction. As far as I know, none were sent to the rice paddies to learn from the “glorious peasants.”

Personally, I oppose these limits on freedom of speech.

But I also support the even-handed application of the rules on every college campus. That includes the rules on cultural appropriation. I don’t think that is being done on any campus. Administrators should not have the discretion to impose these rules for appropriation when they don’t like its political meaning and ignore it for appropriation when they support different political stances.

If students can engage in this kind of cultural appropriation without consequences, I fear it could easily lead to rock-n-roll based on rhythm-and-blues and fast-food restaurants that serve tacos. Where does it stop?

Reminder:

Posted on by Steven Hayward in Podcasts

Podcast: The 3WHH on “Never Murder a Man Who Is Committing Suicide”

John asserts library dominance while getting his pre-squash-game face on.

Lucretia hosts this week’s episode, reminding us once again that Republicans are living up to their reputation as “the stupid party” with the proposed “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” that seems to have overlooked this quaint old thing called the First Amendment. Steve gamely tries to defend the political strategy behind it, but Lucretia is having none of it (putting her in rare alignment with the New York Times), wondering why anyone would want to distract attention away from Democrats tieing themselves in electoral hangman’s knots over the anti-Semitism raging wild inside their party and their wholly-owned subsidiary college campuses. Republicans ought to impose a gag order on themselves, and crusade against the gag order on Trump in his current trial in New York. Concerning which, John has several observations.

And about that campus scene: another week, and another data point for Steve’s thesis that “it’s going to get worse before it gets worse.” About the only sensible conclusion is that somewhere in the Great Beyond, Tom Wolfe is behind the whole current scene. Maybe we can still get a sequel from him, Bonfire of the Inanities.

As usual, listen here, from our hosts at Ricochet, or wherever you source your favorite podcasts.

 

P.S. This is another two-fer podcast week, as I filled in for Rob Long on the Ricochet podcast yesterday, with special guest H.R. McMaster. Give a listen!