*Why Have You Been Hiding?

Monday, August 31, 2020

Saturday was the 100th birthday of Charlie Parker, the alto saxophonist who revolutionized jazz in the mid-20th Century.  He died young at age 34, leaving a generation of musicians in awe and inspired by his enormous improvisational skill.  

The New York Times provides a very good overview of Parker's work and legacy.   https://nyti.ms/3jjhXqa 

Parker died within days of my Bar Mitzvah, too early for me to be interested in his music.  However, my brother's good influence kicked in soon thereafter and I started listening to jazz.  As a result, I was fortunate to see and hear in person almost every major modern jazz figure of the 1950s and 1960s - Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, the Modern Jazz Quartet, John Coltrane, Chico Hamilton, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Charlie Mingus, all gone now. 

This extraordinary photograph, taken on August 12, 1958, captures some of these great musicians among many more.   

For background, see:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2018/dec/17/a-great-day-in-harlem-behind-art-kaness-classic-1958-jazz-photograph

Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Tonight, I am joining a discussion of Kwamboka's Inquiry, a novel by the multi-talented Arthur Dobrin.  At one point, a character asks “If you were to have a chance to ask God a question, which one would you ask?”  I think that this is a great question, probably eliciting better answers from non-believers.  Want to give it a go?*
. . .

While Donald Trump failed in the casino business, he has been a success by proxy in the publishing business.  One survey shows that 1,200 books were published about him in his first term, to about 500 for Obama.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/books/trump-books.html

One Washington literary agent says, "When Donald Trump recommends a book, it has little impact on sales, but when Trump hates a book, it rockets to No. 1."

Wednesday, September 2, 2020
I don't recall ever going to a state fair.  In a normal year, New York holds its fair in Syracuse, over 260 miles away from Palazzo di Gotthelf, not even near a subway stop.  Although, while in graduate school I was less than 60 miles away, I felt no need to seek amusement beyond Johnny's Big Red Grill right there in Collegetown. 

Even though just about every other state holds a state fair, I've never managed to catch up with one in my travels.  The result is that there are some shall we say unusual food items that I have not consumed -- fried beer, fried Kool-Aid balls, fried butter, for instance -- typical fare on the midway, which you might never consider if sitting down with a place setting in front of you.  https://kitchenette.jezebel.com/the-most-ridiculous-deep-fried-foods-from-state-fairs-a-1572769682

This brings me to the tale of a frustrated food vendor who is being stymied by Covid-19 from continuing to push the culinary envelope to its edges at the North Carolina State Fair.  Last year saw the introduction of the "Chickenator: a cinnamon roll sliced like a hamburger bun to hold a deep-fried chicken breast, bacon, pepper Jack cheese and a drizzle of honeyed Sriracha."    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/dining/state-fair-food-coronavirus.html

It seems that "Chickenators don't ship well," so those of us having the misfortune of living beyond a 30- minute drive from Greensboro, North Carolina will be denied the pleasure of enjoying Chickenators from the source this year.  As for the legendary deep-fried Oreos, a Google search discloses more than half a dozen alleged hits on Manhattan Island.  Is there any excuse to try it without a Ferris wheel in sight?  

. . .
 
Apologies to my dear friend Tom Adcock, whom I've labelled Tom Terrific here over the years.  With the sad death of Tom Seaver, recognized as the greatest Mets baseball player of all time, the original Tom Terrific, the nickname has to be retired.  Seaver suffered from Lewy body dementia, characterized by anxiety, sleeplessness and paranoia, the same terrible disease that Robin Williams had leading to his suicide.  Our terrific Tom will henceforth be properly addressed as Terrific Tom, recognizing both his substantial virtues and in homage to what we have lost.

Thursday, September 3, 2020

There's cultural appropriation and there's cultural appropriation.  In an interview with Maureen Dowd, a fine Irish lass, Jane Fonda, whose cheekbones belong in the Shiksa Hall of Fame, uses the Yiddish words mishegoss and mensch.  Is this grounds for protest?

Friday, September 4, 2020
At present, comparisons of our country's situation to Nazi Germany may seem to be exaggerated.  However, many Americans are already complicit in, more than willfully blind to, the evident injustices of yesterday and today.  In that, we find precedents in a documentary film just shown at the Venice Film Festival, Final Account.  

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/03/final-account-review-german-war-testimonies-luke-holland-documentary

 

Some Jewish activists have adopted the slogan Never Again.  I wonder if we should replace that with Never Too Late as a reminder that the battle remains with us.