Weekending again
(Acknowledgments, as usual, to Jim J. I'll devise my own formula soon, but this one seems so convenient at the end of a long week. Sorry, also, that this post has ended up so bloated.)
As I've finished on Mr Denham, this week's video is Lady Day and Pres with "Fine and Mellow", a Billie Holiday composition. The lovely, understated trombone solo is Vic Dickenson, the pencil mustaches and hats are very cool, but the real pleasure of this video is Billie Holiday's face. Her and Lester Young, who had not played together for some time before this, were both less than two years from their untimely deaths.
As a bonus, here is an mp3 of Nina Simone singing "Fine and Mellow" two years later. It's cool and bluesy, but lacks the depth of Holiday's version. It's from a wonderful playlist at Motel de Moka.
- Inspiring fighter for co-existence: Mohammad Darawshe is an inspiring and important figure. Mira at Engage has a lot more. She adds: Follow their (unofficial) blog, donate, join the Facebook group, and contact them about getting involved. Hassan Khader, writing on the Nakba narrative, is also an important voice who we need to listen to.
- The artist formerly known as... I've been added to the blogroll of the very interesting blog of Nahrat (in the fine company of my comrades Shiraz Socialist and Tendance Coatesy, among others). About me, she says: "has a very charming blend of old-school British socialism, Jewish issues and South London doings. Good links too!" Through her I find a blog I can't believe I've not visited before, Another Nickel in the Machine, which, Nahrat says "somehow manages to roll into one photo-and-music-intensive package everything that you need to know about London, twentieth-century history, music and pop culture." If you like Transpontine or Caroline's Miscellany, you'll like Another Nickel: fascinating marginal cultural history, a great example of citizen scholarship.
- Beyond the fragments: In the wake of yesterday's elections, the soul-searching about the renewal of left politics will no doubt continue. Some contributions I'd recommend include: Dave Spencer on the closure of the Campaign for a Marxist Party, Left Luggage's Beyond The Sect, The Fat Man on "Middle England", David Semple on social weight. On a related note (and the previously linked bloggers won't like sharing a bullet point with him), I very rarely agree with David Blunkett, but I kind of agreed with most of this.
- Wet look porn: Our previous London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, hardly ever came to my borough, Lewisham. Well, Boris Johnson was here yesterday (in Bellingham to be exact), and fell in a river, which is nice. (Incidentally, if you don't already know, Boris Johnson claimed £16.50 for a Remembrance Sunday wreath on his expenses during his time as an MP, although the Telegraph don't seem to mind that much.)
- Big tit porn: I can't say I like Jacqui Smith, but have some sympathy with her for the way the media seem to be so obsessed with her breasts - see Stephen Moss on the "buxom barmaid" meme. The conclusion, presumably, is that if you are a woman you can only be involved in British politics if you are flat-chested and skinny...
- Can't see for the looking: Jon Pike, who has fought so hard for democracy and decency in my trade union, the UCU, has resigned his National Executive Committee seat, protesting against the SWP's killing off of democracy in the union, most recently demonstrated by the appalling antics around the move to boycott Israeli academics. Read and consider signing the petition against a "silent boycott" from the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Max Dunbar is scathing about the academic boycott of Israel and (via the late Steve Cohen) contrasts this with the dons' lily-livered stance about the real contemporary apartheid.
- More on Avigdor Lieberman: Snoopy returns.
- Comment trail: Taking a leaf out of Noga's book, just a couple of the places I've been lately are: ZWord (arguing about antisemitism with Eamonn) and La Tendance (ranting about health and safety). There's a connection between the two; see if you can work it out.
- Tiananmen Square, 20 years on: If you only read one thing about this important anniversary, read Jim D.
As I've finished on Mr Denham, this week's video is Lady Day and Pres with "Fine and Mellow", a Billie Holiday composition. The lovely, understated trombone solo is Vic Dickenson, the pencil mustaches and hats are very cool, but the real pleasure of this video is Billie Holiday's face. Her and Lester Young, who had not played together for some time before this, were both less than two years from their untimely deaths.
As a bonus, here is an mp3 of Nina Simone singing "Fine and Mellow" two years later. It's cool and bluesy, but lacks the depth of Holiday's version. It's from a wonderful playlist at Motel de Moka.
Comments
And well done for name-checking the great Vic Dickenson on trombone. As you say, a most relexed solo, and something of a welcome relief after the high drama of Billie and Pres. once, as a very young jazz fan, I had the privilege of holding Mr Dickenson's trombone while he signed autographs. I still remember that moment with the joy of a star-struck youth.