The great Bob Dorough, composer of Blue Xmas, many beloved Schoolhouse Rock tunes, and loads of other cleverness, has died at the ripe old age of 94.
This is my favorite Bob Dorough song, performed by Blossom Dearie.
And here’s Bob himself singing one of his lovely Schoolhouse Rock tunes.
Fresh Air has a wonderful episode of past interviews with Dorough, including lots of music.
May he rest in a peace as peaceful as his cool, soothing voice.
These Edouard Vuillard paintings seem to me to perfectly capture the chilly sunlight of early spring.
A lovely song, and an evocative video, by Brymo.
Found on the excellent Everlasting Blört.
I was in London recently. A layover, really. I only had a couple of hours, so I decided to see Baker Street before catching my flight home. I needed to stash my luggage at the train station, but there were no lockers. Apparently there are no lockers in any of the London stations. I asked if I could leave my bag at left baggage, and the woman behind the counter smiled at me and said sorry. As I was leaving I noticed an old closet, and thought I might hide my bags there. The door was unlocked. On a dusty shelf were some paint cans, and what appeared to be a doctor’s bag. I confess I took the bag, and never did see Baker Street.
The bag holds, and I am not making this up: an Erlenmeyer flask full of blood, I think; a dissecting kit; a bat skeleton; a rat skull; a locust; a stylized frog’s head; a death certificate; a hand written list; the interior workings of a music box; a locket; a medallion with Hebrew lettering; a key in the grip of some hemostats; and a brass unicorn.
The death certificate is for a woman named Victoria Phibes. Died at 21 years of age. Cause of death was possible carcinoma and “syncope following radical resection”.
The 10 plagues of Egypt.
So maybe this is Victoria Phibes. And, weirdly and creepily, the music box plays Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I really don’t know what to make of all this. Any thoughts?
On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while fighting for workers’ rights.
Sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968 made about a dollar an hour. They had no uniforms and lax safety rules. When two garbage collectors were killed by the crusher in a garbage truck, they went on strike. Martin Luther King came to Memphis to support them.
His support was practical and concrete. In his speech the day before his death, King said:
It’s all right to talk about “long white robes over yonder,” in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s all right to talk about “streets flowing with milk and honey,” but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day…
… We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles, we don’t need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”
And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain.
King’s work for economic justice was as controversial as his work to end Jim Crow laws, and is the aspect of his legacy that is most neglected in school curricula and public celebrations of his life.
The Backstory podcast had a thorough episode on King’s Poor People’s Campaign and his legacy. Here are two interesting segments from the show:
April 3, 1968: the Poor People’s Campaign.
From Activist to Icon: Have we forgotten just how radical Martin Luther King was?
You can listen to the whole episode here.
A glorious montage of films by women directors.
By Emma Piper-Burket, courtesy of Rogerebert.com’s Women Writer’s Week
Columbo. Season 2 Episode 1. “Etude in Black”
Society Lady: It seems you had questionable taste in friends.
Groovy Jazz musician: Well, some of them were busted for smoking grass.
So what? Two members of the board of trustees are on indictment for breaking antitrust laws.
Society Lady: I wouldn’t try to be funny, Mr. Rifkin.
Groovy Jazz musician: I smoke grass sometimes, just about like you drink gin.
Didn’t you ever have a drink of gin during Prohibition, when gin was illegal?
Society Lady:
FELT Cooperative
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