Hi all. It's great to be back. Have a happy and safe Halloween. (If you don't have a costume, why not go as the divine Tim Tebow trying to be an NFL QB? That's about as scary as it gets.)
Bark Bark Woof Woof: George Will calls Romney "the pretzel candidate." (I hear Mitt, whom Huntsman called "a perfectly lubricated weathervane," is at his best heavily salted and dipped in honey mustard.)
Pruning Shears: Race and the (largely white liberal) Occupy movement. Can't we all just get along?
The Duck of Minerva: War and the Eurozone. Conservatives like Cameron and Merkel are responding to the Euro-crisis by talking statism.
Newshoggers: At this point, there's no way to avoid major, destabilizing climate change. So think adaptation. Now.
And did you hear Pretzel Romney would let Israel dictate U.S. foreign policy? Shameless pandering, of course, but standard Republican fare these days. (American exceptionalism? Ha!)
Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction. I'll be here all week.
"1%, Your money's spent to circumvent the People's intent...
You jacked the rent, caused this descent 'cuz you broke our sacred covenant.
I'll pop a tent and we'll pound cement. We won't back down, no we won't relent
till we un****, to the full extent, what you did to corrupt to our government..."
Those private issue aircheck transcriptions this week. This one via a broadcast by The Boston Symphony conducted by Serge Koussevitsky from April 13, 1948 featuring the radio premier of Walter Piston's Symphony #3.
Before the days of tape recorders and doing it yourself, there was a flourishing gray market for "private recordings" of broadcast concerts among collectors. Usually a small recording studio would grab a particular concert off the air, turn it into an album of 78 rpm acetates and offer them to collectors via the local record store or via clubs. Very often rare items would show up and in some cases they were the only recordings of a particular event to have survived. Very often the sound wasn't all that good (the source usually being an AM radio broadcast) but it was the piece or the performer that mattered.
So that's a bit of the background on this weeks offering, and probably something of an explanation as to why the sound is a bit iffy in places. The bottom line is it's a first recording by an orchestra and conductor known for their support of a notable American composer from the mid-century period and for that reason there is historic value in giving it shot at listening.
. . .and maybe hearing something you haven't heard before.
I've gathered updates from Occupy Wall Street solidarity movements across the nation that have grabbed headline news over the weekend, as well as this CNN coverage that includes a brief interview with civil rights leader Angela Davis in New York City.
"Nearly 30 people were arrested Sunday morning as “Occupy Portland” protesters refused to leave Jamison Square, but the demonstration ended without violence, police said."
"When the park closed just after midnight, police warned everybody that they would be arrested if they didn't leave."
"The arrests occurred after numerous warnings to people remaining in the park that Jamison Square Park had closed at midnight and anyone remaining in the park could be arrested."
"Six mounted police and approximately 65 police in riot gear pushed supporters to the sidewalks and conducted the arrests over a period of several hours," the group said in a statement."
"A Twitter post from the group as police entered the park said, "This is what a police state looks like."
"Police also arrested 38 people in Austin, Texas, who had set up a table with food and other items outside City Hall two days after the city issued rules saying food tables at the event must be put away between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. When the group was asked to leave the area, the 38 refused and were arrested, police said."
"A number of individuals decided to try to prevent the police from taking the food table, so they formed a ring around it. That's when they (police) started pulling people out arresting them," Occupy Austin member Ronnie Garza told CNN affiliate YNN."
"Group members questioned the legitimacy of the city's new guidelines, saying they were not passed by a City Council vote, YNN reported."
"Tennessee’s governor and his administration have twice sent state troopers to handcuff and haul away Occupy Nashville protesters camped out just steps away from the Capitol. And twice, a relatively obscure local official refused to throw them in jail."
........
"Under Tennessee state law, a judicial commissioner determines if there is probable cause that a crime has been committed. That official in this case has set the demonstrators free, despite Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s efforts."
"The magistrate, Tom Nelson, says state officials have no authority to set a curfew requiring the protesters to clear out or face arrest."
Someone following the letter of the law? Three cheers for the magistrate!
"A day after New York authorities confiscated their generators, hundreds of protesters struggled to stay warm and dry after more than an inch of snow fell in the city with temperatures forecast to drop to freezing overnight."
“We knew this would be tough. We didn’t start this as a sort of summer of love, it’s the winter of discontent,” said Alan Collinge, 41, from Seattle, poking his head out a tent."
"He estimated one in five protesters in the park had left due to the unusually early storm, but added, “They’ll be back, we’re not going anywhere.”
"Occupy Boston protesters said they were going to stick out the weather. Many of them used tarps that were large enough to cover the top of the tents so no water would leak through. Throughout the night, protesters dusted off the snow from the top of the tents so it wouldn’t weigh them down."
"There were problems with hypothermia leading up to the storm, so many people took as many precautions as they could going into Saturday’s nor’easter."
Much more coming for you on Monday. We've delivered more solidarity pizzas, and more of you have sent in your "Occupy" photos for us to share with everyone.
It seems Herman Cain has finally had some GOP oppo research catch up to him, regardless of his campaign's claim that this is just the "liberal" media out to get him. I'm just curious whether we'll ever find out if it was Mitt Romney or Rick Perry's camp that put this out there since they're the two most likely suspects IMO.
Herman Cain just became the latest politician to face sexual allegations that could undermine his surging career.
Poiltico went up Sunday with a blockbuster story of Cain’s time as president of the National Restaurant Association, the industry trade group that was Cain’s first foray into the Washington political scene.
Politico reports “at least two” women working at the NRA when Cain ran it “complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior” by the man who is now the national frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
More:
The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.
Details on the incidents described in Politico include “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature” and “descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship.”
As they noted, the Cain campaign declined to answer questions posed to them by Politico. They did however respond to Geraldo Rivera on Fox, with some shall we say, fairly awful results.
My guess is we can now finally stick a fork in the Herman Cain presidential campaign that wasn't looking all that serious in the first place to me. The man looked like he was a whole lot more interested in selling his book and auditioning for a spot on Fox "News" as we've seen from other grifters like Palin and Gingrich than making any real effort to ever actually try to win the nomination, even though he was taking off in the polls.
I confess I wasn't all that familiar with Malcolm Braff before hearing this gig, but I've been digging around the various festival recordings, and rebroadcasts from this past Summer throughout Europe and realizing more than ever, Jazz is not only everywhere, it's absolutely adored in Europe. And there is some astonishing talent to be had without breaking a sweat to look. Braff is a brilliant pianist, who has been compared to Bill Evans in places, but his Senegalese and Brazilian roots are more than abundant in this one hour concert that goes by really very fast. It's always easy to draw comparisons between newer artists and legends, but in the case of Braff, his talent is in his remarkable point of view and virtuosic playing which is purely his own. He is joined by Alex Blake on Bass and Yaya Ouattara who hails from Burkina Faso. Together, they make for a very satisfying and enjoyable hour and the festival audience wholeheartedly agrees.
This recording comes by way of the great Swiss radio outlet Espace 2 and it comes from the 2009 Jazz Onze Plus Festival in Lausanne.
A reminder that a good message is timeless. Check out Braff's Myspace Page for updates and a list of his albums (there are several).
Believe it or not, there actually is an Amato's pizza place, no relation to John, that we know of! Many thanks to Tina for snapping this one during her travels.
Mad props to all who contributed to the Solidarity Pizzas! We've received a lovely thank-you note from the people on the ground in Tacoma, who tell us that we have excellent timing.
"Your timing was incredible. We had just erected a new larger tent for our food and media center. We were all soaking wet and shivering when your pizzas arrived like manna from heaven! You have no idea what a boost to our morale. Thanks so much from one of the occupiers! I think I can speak for all when I send you hugs and warm wishes."
Included with the note were some awesome photos from Occupy Tacoma, and I've put them into a slideshow for your viewing pleasure. Note that among the photos is the new tent they were building when the pizzas arrived. I especially love the Tacoma "Peace Tree."
Thank-you for sending these, Tacoma! We're all with you in solidarity. Keep donating if you can.
Just click on the photo below to move the slideshow.
