tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72119108782714475352024-03-12T00:50:17.057-04:00Ted Lehmann's Film, Books, Music & CommentaryWelcome to my Blog. I write primarily about whatever happens to interest me - Streaming video, Books, Music, and News I also review books I read as well as offering road notes and travel entries. Be sure to check the archives and the labels. Please leave comments. I try to respond to all of them.Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.comBlogger1482125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-91395550765780315042024-02-22T16:35:00.001-05:002024-02-23T08:12:08.025-05:00The Soul of America by Jon Meacham<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHlxKMnIVT6rO58z8xY9tU_YdfV9NkiS1_io_l-b_UTK9rb6XbhC0QNg8x-oNvZQLPhHIqN_PT_a_Z68nmj9MbYhAyL6v5DUOgwon1hBkhPfJgzY6QNDFMVHPynoOsw0oORlD-w_-rNA5WNZHC4oPsY0AKTajWZ6H046YL9tQkioZ7bkg0c0owXnjbAVfB" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="392" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHlxKMnIVT6rO58z8xY9tU_YdfV9NkiS1_io_l-b_UTK9rb6XbhC0QNg8x-oNvZQLPhHIqN_PT_a_Z68nmj9MbYhAyL6v5DUOgwon1hBkhPfJgzY6QNDFMVHPynoOsw0oORlD-w_-rNA5WNZHC4oPsY0AKTajWZ6H046YL9tQkioZ7bkg0c0owXnjbAVfB=w284-h431" width="284" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The painting, <i>Rainy Day on Fifth Avenue, 1916 </i>by Childe Hassam captures the faith, risk, hope for the future, and the challenges which have faced our country ever since its foundation. There has almost never been a time when the delicate balance of interests represented by our diversity of populations, size of our land-mass, degree of independence, and the challenge of our founding as a democratic, representative republic has not existed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We're living through an era of division along social, ethnic, racial, age, and technological, and more lines than most of us can imagine. And we find it scary! We imagine that we're in worse shape than our country has ever before seen, filled with complex issues most of us cannot see our way through. Into this era of fear and sense of lost direction, comes Jon Meacham's 2018 book, <i>The Soul of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels,</i> available from all your favorite outlets. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meacham's narrative focuses on the leadership of often flawed but effective terms of U.S. Presidents, faced with seemingly intractable problems that threaten the continued effectiveness of our system. He presents both Democratic and Republican presidents who respond with both inspiration and, sometimes, subtle political maneuvering and at others blunt exercises of Presidential power. He looks at presidents whose behavior does not deal easily with their reputations (the intractable racism of Woodrow Wilson, who was once seen as one of the four great presidents, but is now nearly forgotten, for instance.) He also points out how history often is made by having the right person in the right place at the right time Abraham Lincoln provides a great example. In each era he describes, the future of our Republic often is questioned, yet we survived, adjusted, and often triumphed. As I read this highly readable book, I found that I gained increased insight into the strengths, weaknesses, and difficulties encountered by the great, and not-so-great, as they navigated the issues raised and the difficulties involved in building and maintaining a democracy. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">People accustomed to Meacham's television guest appearances will recognize his upbeat personality and positive viewpoints expressed about individuals and situations. He radiates confidence in positive outcomes, as does this book, without ever sounding heedless of the real challenges these men face. Despite my own gloominess about our current level of anger, division, and violence, reading Meacham increased my confidence that we will emerge a stronger and better nation.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Jon Meacham</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk5M0AtgEZG648kkMUVYtRgS80e0iLixdvjftQjsnLb_qf1MV_n_nl-h_dDExfIDMBc80CAK0ZnRbZ5YtcJ53NZZL-IJYriZgQTEN0Ub_RpsZHAOvCUptxQBydgWW4h3alaWDDFD1LCtxjduycd5y9aV6y8n80bha00oyWdwhBQ9wKHdLXQ7RfnjX2lgkM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk5M0AtgEZG648kkMUVYtRgS80e0iLixdvjftQjsnLb_qf1MV_n_nl-h_dDExfIDMBc80CAK0ZnRbZ5YtcJ53NZZL-IJYriZgQTEN0Ub_RpsZHAOvCUptxQBydgWW4h3alaWDDFD1LCtxjduycd5y9aV6y8n80bha00oyWdwhBQ9wKHdLXQ7RfnjX2lgkM=w257-h386" width="257" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">John Meacham is a visiting professor of History at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN. He graduated with honors from <i>The University of the South, </i>after which he embarked on a long and successful career as a newspaper and magazine writer as will as a prolific writer of historical works. He has won the Pulitzer Prize as well as numerous other awards and recognitions. He is also a frequent guest on television programs, interpreting history in context delivered with warm good humor. I highly recommend this book to history and politics buffs. It's highly readable and filled with insight and wisdom. I bought John Meacham's <i>The Soul of America </i>in a trade paperback edition from <a href="http://ThriftBooks.com">ThriftBooks.com</a>. As usual, the book arrived in a timely fashion and in very good condition. </div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-91917644315120685032024-02-12T09:47:00.000-05:002024-02-12T09:48:44.782-05:00June - A Documentary Life of June Carter Cash<p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>June Carter Cash</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiPrZ_D0tSFIlRD2dUKuapQhe2eYyLYB9Vq2jwVxgcurgmk2VxStOsgkkMM4UR8T7AMwqP9JVsHOCAmQEcSu0kB1KgTOz8X2oJ3t3ZCv2UhwfyZc48Dea1xSVB3-JxNn0CmMkFBpN8U1tinabEyX6shG0AM9Dj4VnGSkXaO2bQrcQ-gaVuKNeUS3DBq6w/s1500/June%20Carter%20Cash.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiPrZ_D0tSFIlRD2dUKuapQhe2eYyLYB9Vq2jwVxgcurgmk2VxStOsgkkMM4UR8T7AMwqP9JVsHOCAmQEcSu0kB1KgTOz8X2oJ3t3ZCv2UhwfyZc48Dea1xSVB3-JxNn0CmMkFBpN8U1tinabEyX6shG0AM9Dj4VnGSkXaO2bQrcQ-gaVuKNeUS3DBq6w/w499-h332/June%20Carter%20Cash.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18350228/">June</a>, a documentary film now available for streaming on Paramount+, strikes all the right notes. It allows fans who only knew June Carter Cash as Johnny Cash's wife, to understand and revel in the career she built in country music before she married him. June provided him with an anchor and a fully committed love, helping him build his career as became one of the most recognized and successful artists in country music history. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><b>The Carter Family at Bristol Sessions</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qUhw2DGSny4" width="385" youtube-src-id="qUhw2DGSny4"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">June Carter was country music royalty. The Carter Family lived in the rolling hills of southern Virginia, where their father, A.P. Carter farmed while spending most of his time trekking off to collect songs in the nearby mountains. The Carter Family, A.P, his wife Sara, and his sister-in-law Maybelle travelled south to Bristol TN/VA to participate in the first recordings of country music, made by Ralph Peer in 1929. The next generations of Carters emerged as Sara, along with her daughters Anita, June, and Helen emerged and continued to perform and record, while staying anchored in Mace's Springs, VA. (We visited the <a href="https://tedlehmann.blogspot.com/2010/10/carter-fold-with-boxcars.html">Carter Fold</a> fifteen years ago, finding Carter descendants continuing the Carter Family legacy of acoustic music and country dancing. It felt like a genuine pilgrimage.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>The Carter Sisters - It's My Lazy Day</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="353" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/687Sc6MqbcA" width="424" youtube-src-id="687Sc6MqbcA"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When June Carter met Johnny Cash, she already had two daughters, was currently married, and a Grand Ol' Opry star in her own right. They fell in love (or perhaps "exploded into" would be a better term), and were soon inseparable. The rest is still more music history. Fortunately, there seem to have been movie cameras around both June and Johnny from early in their careers, and the Opry kept excellent records of its performers. Thus, the film is also visually stunning and moves along quite quickly. Lots of interviews with big and lesser known people along with their children permit a well-balanced and nuanced view. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>June Carter Cash & Johnny Cash - Jackson</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="416" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m67eqm0mNCQ" width="500" youtube-src-id="m67eqm0mNCQ"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">We didn't realize how much of Johnny Cash's musical life had impacted us during our musical journey, or how important June Carter Cash was to both the history of country music and the success of Johnny Cash. June subordinated her own ambitions and talents to care for Cash, even deep in his years of drug addiction. When he joined The Highwaymen, she practically disappeared, sidelined while keeping him propped up and able to perform, creating a whole new career. We laughed, cried, and thoroughly enjoyed this marvelous documentary film. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">June is currently streaming on Paramount+. It runs for an hour and thirty-eight minutes, and seems too short, leaving the viewer wishing to see more about the family and their surroundings. It's well worth your time!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><p></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-55827280898764836992024-02-02T15:36:00.000-05:002024-02-02T15:36:25.822-05:00Sing Me Back Home: Southern Roots and Country Music by Bill C. Malone<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpMcSQjce8EKb-asQai5-n60GEAlosZhg4RPd-tEU8AGitRBDgiKWYqh6JWZ9wZ6z0AuCO4vGBi2iwJQCENcfjFVJs5XgqraNeRFjphmhsmgyL51MUy09bK9UGHNiz6T2Bu6dUuRict9SOJlub8YtDCvUML_HEHahE4JU2nCMF9MNA7plJ1QHfLID6gUMR" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="298" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpMcSQjce8EKb-asQai5-n60GEAlosZhg4RPd-tEU8AGitRBDgiKWYqh6JWZ9wZ6z0AuCO4vGBi2iwJQCENcfjFVJs5XgqraNeRFjphmhsmgyL51MUy09bK9UGHNiz6T2Bu6dUuRict9SOJlub8YtDCvUML_HEHahE4JU2nCMF9MNA7plJ1QHfLID6gUMR=w291-h438" width="291" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bill C. Malone, a name unknown to many people who are performers or fans of country music is the man who virtually invented a body of research and experience which has helped to define and broaden various kinds of music referred to as Country. Without his thoughtful scholarship informed by his rural roots in East Texas, country music would be less widely distributed and understood. His book, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sing Me Back Home: Southern Roots and Country Music,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> published in 2017, contains sixteen meticulously annotated essays exploring the roots, spread, influences, and importance of Country Music, not only in music, but in the wider American musical culture. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b1d85380-7fff-888d-9976-7f044f52599b"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Born in East Texas near Tyler (where we lived for three years while I taught at what was then Texas Eastern University and is now The University of Texas at Tyler) Malone grew up on a hard-scrabble cotton farm, where his first interest in music was sparked by his father’s bring a battery operated radio into the home in the mid-1930’s. Soon, his inexpensive first guitar was given to him as a gift. Malone, showed an interest in the music he heard, and later, as a student at the University of Texas at Austin, widened his interest into his studies and his research. Encouraged by his faculty advisor, he wrote his doctoral dissertation at UT on country music. It was published as the still-in-print book </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Country Music U.S.A.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sing Me Back Home: Southern Roots and Country Music</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, published in 2017, is a collection of serious, well documented essays previously published in scholarly journals or delivered as speeches to university audiences. Despite his academic excellence, Malone’s country roots and essential decency shine through on every page. Examined in its overall focus, lies Malone’s highly knowledgeable awareness of the deep variety and wide-reaching roots of what has become known as country music. He looks carefully at the roots from which much of the music sprang, discovering more complexity and nuance than most fans attribute to their own version of the sources and nature of their preferred version of country. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In his chapter on Bill Monroe, for instance, he looks at the lonely boy who picked up a mandolin, as well as the young man who followed his brother to the industrial Midwest. He was influenced by all the musical strands he encountered as well as bringing his own personality and strength towards developing the basis of what others came to call </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">bluegrass music.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> He finds the same diversity in early country music, discusses the influences of going to war, the wide dispersal growing from radio and, later television, on the development of country music. He examines how jazz, pop, the movement of rural people to the cities, and other factors make country music and bluegrass variants on the same tree trunk. He particularly examines how various ethnic and cultural communities in America have contributed to the music. Purity is not what you find, but, perhaps, a greater understanding of much of what makes America great emerges.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If you’re interested in a book that helps you solidify your personal conception of what country music </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">really</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> is, this book may not be your best choice. If, on the other hand, you think you can benefit from getting a more eclectic understanding of how common people from America’s rural roots became one of the most powerful and influential musical formats in contemporary life around the world, this book will thrill you. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I bought <i>Sing Me Back Home: Southern Roots and Country Music </i>as a used book from ThriftBooks.com in a hardback edition. The book is published by the University of Oklahoma Press and is widely available</span></p><br /></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-58178846277579406422023-12-15T20:40:00.000-05:002023-12-15T20:40:50.669-05:00Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders & the Birth of the FBI by David Grann<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFc72B7VILg9-Dt2567bxKIsVQ_7HsS3dMOkTOIAFDrfZvQSxF6OQKEry68XmUK31d_vGGoPCA22L9tAW2rH9-wAerBIeo-9PFTr-eyRIP23HpnylxM7xVDxGcKr4bco1ClkW4zMq3YHdFKKPsQ5BWw4CsNE1kBuSsV3PpRrJhwH_qR_QtY210h79vvKKx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="258" height="465" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFc72B7VILg9-Dt2567bxKIsVQ_7HsS3dMOkTOIAFDrfZvQSxF6OQKEry68XmUK31d_vGGoPCA22L9tAW2rH9-wAerBIeo-9PFTr-eyRIP23HpnylxM7xVDxGcKr4bco1ClkW4zMq3YHdFKKPsQ5BWw4CsNE1kBuSsV3PpRrJhwH_qR_QtY210h79vvKKx=w307-h465" width="307" /></a></div><br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The plight and treatment of Native Americans in this country cannot be overemphasized as we become more aware and sensitive to the way they have been treated throughout our history. </span><i style="text-align: left;">Killers of the Flower Moon</i><span style="text-align: left;"> stands out, at least partly because it has provided both the title and the source for a hugely popular movie, just released for streaming on Apple+. However, the book was a best-seller, listed as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2017. Author David Grann, spent a number of years digging into the story of exploitation, murder, government disinterest, and simple graft which allowed this too typical rape of a people and the land during the first quarter of the twentieth century.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The Osage people were settled on a barren piece of unwanted territory in Osage County, Oklahoma, the largest county in the state, with Tulsa anchoring it at the southeast corner. It was sandy, dry, and unwanted until oil was discovered underneath it in 1897. The Osage people owned the mineral rights underneath land, making them, for a while, some of the richest people in the world. Soon, a number of white </span><span style="text-align: left;">entrepreneurs and politicians realized the could gain control of the oil money only by marrying some of the women on the reservation. This led to a period, between 1917 and 1925 of local and imported men marrying Native people. Soon, a strange increase in the death rate of these Indian wives and the increased riches of the men, who gained control of much of the oil, began to occur. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">When called upon to investigate what was happening in Osage County, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI was just at the point of organizing his agents as a national police force and creating the FBI myth for integrity and efficiency that lasted for nearly eighty years. He had little time and less inclination to seriously investigate the situation. Moreover, there were numerous investigation of the deaths and trials, all featuring extensive corruption, the the increasing exploitation of these not well educated or sophisticated people. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The story, told by David Grann, brings the characters and the setting to life. Furthermore, his deep dives into archives long gathering dust in the State Library and other depositories lay waiting to be carefully collated, read, and interpreted. While the Osage people knew much of the history, they were not able to become good advocates in their own interests. As he digs through the various archives he uncovered, the horror of the treatment the Osage people received becomes increasingly horrifying to Grann and to his reader. This is a story you should read to shed additional light on the story before seeing the film. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>David Grann<br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEvs-nJOQvuk29Yg1EkWcRsddeJBxhfo-WSZSSNXQc3JR76mVEXymsPRGJcG2Uoz3XxpZaiL4fY8pFvmDA-pjOS307SJgB-D6bKDy-gLMu9v8nP39BLL4aLcgTvIkRxhJbTqM632Bqv1oDdOr3aVMeiPT5WJzcocP3gNRRRm5RDYy3AgdSKfKDCpsXT2gp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEvs-nJOQvuk29Yg1EkWcRsddeJBxhfo-WSZSSNXQc3JR76mVEXymsPRGJcG2Uoz3XxpZaiL4fY8pFvmDA-pjOS307SJgB-D6bKDy-gLMu9v8nP39BLL4aLcgTvIkRxhJbTqM632Bqv1oDdOr3aVMeiPT5WJzcocP3gNRRRm5RDYy3AgdSKfKDCpsXT2gp=w286-h430" width="286" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">David Grann is an award winning writer whose works have received best-selling status. Several of his books have been New York Times best-sellers, and he was a longtime staff writer for <i>The New Yorker</i> magazine. I bought the book and read it on my Kindle reader. </span></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-78810359204779822002023-12-04T08:58:00.001-05:002023-12-04T08:58:54.296-05:00The Innovators by Walter Isaacson <p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGs9V-2meE3aaFE_TmXm_WqLO_6dpYB2Zl-aMoscUKcCqW0_8TVqNPB8a3-hFPYIaYpaBbPM5-zSK3JCU0MxUItUL0q1fTELC_6gP_wbg8p40kV7QhO2tpMi7hyozDlX2nVZOIWCT9bpDoPpzNE_Kb85lX06ko7NG9FflmdwEaMCB7XDSCGXPSJqio7ci3" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="232" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGs9V-2meE3aaFE_TmXm_WqLO_6dpYB2Zl-aMoscUKcCqW0_8TVqNPB8a3-hFPYIaYpaBbPM5-zSK3JCU0MxUItUL0q1fTELC_6gP_wbg8p40kV7QhO2tpMi7hyozDlX2nVZOIWCT9bpDoPpzNE_Kb85lX06ko7NG9FflmdwEaMCB7XDSCGXPSJqio7ci3=w251-h378" width="251" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>The seemingly <span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Google Sans, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #001d35;">ubiquitous biographer, scholar, university president, think-tank director, CNN chief, and editor of Time Magazine, Walter Isaacson, wrote </span><i style="color: #001d35; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Innovators</i><span face="Google Sans, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #001d35;"> way back in 2014, which looks like a lifetime in the history of the development of computers. Nevertheless, with the exception of scanty attention paid to the development of artificial intelligence, this volume presents a lively and comprehensive picture of the development of calculating machines that have become indispensable in the modern world. Author of at least twenty volumes during the last thirty years, Isaacson has focused on the "great man (or woman)" theory of human progress, always writing about the people behind the ideas while making the ideas cogent for the thoughtful reader.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Google Sans, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #001d35;">The story begins with Ada Byron (Lord Byron's only legitimate child) who became Ada Lovelace, and whose reputation remains bright in the world of applied mathematics, who saw the possibilities of Babbage's counting machine for more advanced applications. She is so important in the development of the idea of computers, that at least one major modern computer system was named after her. From mechanical devices, the computer industry developed as a variety of mechanical and then electronic devices made their appearance. Each idea, from learning to program machines to produce answers, electric wires to transistors, to microchips, and more required reliance on past advances and the imagination to advance to the next step, as well as applications for those advances. Neither the microchip, the computer, the Internet, software, nor the World Wide Web itself was inevitable without the foregoing work or forward looking visionaries. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Google Sans, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #001d35;">Isaacson is a master of making links between advances that don't always easily emerge as inevitable advances growing in an ever widening universe of possibilities and making them coherent. Thus, the works of industrial giants like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs become necessary, but not sufficient, cogs in an ever-widening electronic universe. This is all presented in an approachable, almost friendly, writing style which makes the ideas we can't quite grasp into concepts the reader can see an appreciate without ever having any of the necessary skills to contribute to the ever expanding world of computers. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;"> Isaacson takes a great person approach to the development of the ideas needed to culminate with the cyber world in which we're currently living, while also emphasizing the fact that great advances in nearly all areas of advance rely upon cooperation and collaboration between innovators, organizers, and entrepreneurs. Often great ideas in seeing the implications of an advance or in doing the math require someone to make the connections. It takes a different sort of personality to turn the resultant innovation into a salable product, making it possible for consumers to understand that they have a need it might fulfill. Thus, he emphasizes conjunction of brilliant ideas, useful applications, and finished products.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;"> <b>Radio Shack TRS-80</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgHQlImjhsaalMVU-e53o0oPqV3ygzNBr8uR2aYmAtbR8QOYosdkL2HMmhrQDutGqFlVwSAAg_2M8GA5-2P8AC7bjzEw8LSxUwRwHAu4yEn7KlhkXYAp5-RPvftvS1v8dTnC1JE3rdP8BYDOVmSuf9Wjqj212Lj33_8H_WP2-p_a9RMweTAFHzSCn-ecgX" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgHQlImjhsaalMVU-e53o0oPqV3ygzNBr8uR2aYmAtbR8QOYosdkL2HMmhrQDutGqFlVwSAAg_2M8GA5-2P8AC7bjzEw8LSxUwRwHAu4yEn7KlhkXYAp5-RPvftvS1v8dTnC1JE3rdP8BYDOVmSuf9Wjqj212Lj33_8H_WP2-p_a9RMweTAFHzSCn-ecgX" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;">I have one, perhaps, personal quibble with the account of innovators who made computers available to the masses. Isaacson left out the role of Radio Shack and their TRS-80 home computer. Released in 1977, this home computer was the first computer I owned and where I began my learning curve. I got it from my mother and, later, sold it to a friend, so it did mighty work, back when so many of us were learning to function in the cyber world...I never did learn to be a programmer, but I sure have worked any number of computers to the death over the years. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;"><b>Walter Isaacson</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #001d35; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFJeagMTh3ibVFWoRat57_zP3W3rB9sg05_zrpB8Kl9b5JwZrzBdtTjwXj7_jXIUb5-doMsI5762sVAv78KeSCWM8JzxVYoDdpMd92mURhn4-mX1AYfdUOUp_17PqG8SwSszw64rw0gh6WG3V4EP8V2MSoffjbj00PaGYbFAMgGQvHYnN5HDH2uN3BN7QI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="600" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFJeagMTh3ibVFWoRat57_zP3W3rB9sg05_zrpB8Kl9b5JwZrzBdtTjwXj7_jXIUb5-doMsI5762sVAv78KeSCWM8JzxVYoDdpMd92mURhn4-mX1AYfdUOUp_17PqG8SwSszw64rw0gh6WG3V4EP8V2MSoffjbj00PaGYbFAMgGQvHYnN5HDH2uN3BN7QI=w310-h372" width="310" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #001d35;">Walter Isaacson is a widely known and widely read writer/administrator/television personality, and political advisor who has published numerous fine biographies. He's always readable!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #001d35;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #001d35;">I bought my copy of <i>The Innovators</i> in a bookstore as a remaindered book. </span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #001d35;"><br /></span></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-69097658631723406302023-09-27T10:51:00.000-04:002023-09-27T10:51:21.318-04:00The Pioneers - David McCoullough<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgFgDsrZDjm-MAreQEwHu3HGyAmW42tZgJ9eXi4Dhphw-KnZp-DP6x5bnz91nX7I2hD8882mvELvBqMCTfm80EfuphLGehHsIX_Pg_ya9INwRYRBcQtYDLgg06wGF2BSoTrT76-ps1f87SWUQkHqYu9Gk0rnwzvDqZjEmzKUk18cAYvgqY7ZtWk26uuWACQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="252" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgFgDsrZDjm-MAreQEwHu3HGyAmW42tZgJ9eXi4Dhphw-KnZp-DP6x5bnz91nX7I2hD8882mvELvBqMCTfm80EfuphLGehHsIX_Pg_ya9INwRYRBcQtYDLgg06wGF2BSoTrT76-ps1f87SWUQkHqYu9Gk0rnwzvDqZjEmzKUk18cAYvgqY7ZtWk26uuWACQ=w309-h459" width="309" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br style="text-align: center;" />Pulitzer Prize winning writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McCullough">David McCullough</a> could always be relied upon to tell a terrific story while presenting the reader with a good read. With eleven major titles to his credit, he managed to pick up a couple of Pultizer Prizes, a National Book Award, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also narrated some of Ken Burns' PBS historical series, and kept busy with freelance writing. McCullough was a great writer who kept his readers' attention with lively prose that keeps the reader with him to the end. <i>The Pioneers, </i>published in 2019, two years before his death at age 89, showed he had lost none of his narrative skill. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Pioneers</i> opens in Massachusetts around the end of the Revolutionary War, in June of 1787. The book focuses on the lives of Manasseh Cutler pastor of the First Congregational Church in Ipswich and Rufus Putnam, who fought with Washington during the Revolution, who began to look westward. They helped lead the move westward from New England at a time when, having won The Revolution, the United States suddenly found itself as a country hugging its Atlantic coastline and having won control of millions of acres west of the original states, most of which was unexplored wilderness as far as they were concerned. He managed to commit Congress and President Washington to support a trip West with Revolutionary War General Rufus Putnam. The land they were headed for was the vast Ohio valley, west of Pennsylvania and across the Muskingum River, hundreds of thousands of acres of vast, mature woodlands inhabited only by a variety of Indian tribes. Forty-eight men set off for the Ohio River in the Winter of 1788.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Along the way, the first company encountered rough or nonexistent roads, cold winter hardships, and dense wilderness that none of them had ever encountered before. They had to break a trail across western Pennsylvania, cutting their way through deep forests and building rafts to cross rivers or to use them for transportation. Overcoming great hardships, the men reached the Marietta River separating western Pennsylvania from the Ohio Territory, built rafts to travel down-river, and chose to settle near what became Marietta, OH. They found the land filled with huge trees that had never heard the sound of an axe, as well as plenty of game for food. These men were determined to maintain Ohio as a non-slave territory, as the issues leading to the Civil War were already lively concerns. On their next trip West, they were joined by family members and more people seeking land and riches. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Soon they were able to establish a ship-building center based on the availability of large timber. Women came to join their spouses, and both shipping and trade on the rivers flourished. The rest of the book contains lively descriptions of the development of communities, the building of churches, and, possibly the most important, the establishment of schools and colleges in an area previously devoid of any formal education. As the Ohio territory grew in population and wealth, many of the heroes of the American Revolution came there to visit, and newer political figures came to marvel at the areas progress and promise. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>David McCullough</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihBcm8MsIIpuLuzsVogUlGpXQZnlkfSdxBIQZXydBmk7mAdLmxjbWWC2po8AY6hY5FKwy5SqzW2vfV-Y1FADew8mZbsVLG9k6Gqqx7Xqe6MW9-fpNRONrPVRqEpCEZMQYnWXBSz4QN11Jen7aeyTunCqOKkX00aSxl4L4FNa4r11LO_qVD-IkwijO84mSp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="250" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihBcm8MsIIpuLuzsVogUlGpXQZnlkfSdxBIQZXydBmk7mAdLmxjbWWC2po8AY6hY5FKwy5SqzW2vfV-Y1FADew8mZbsVLG9k6Gqqx7Xqe6MW9-fpNRONrPVRqEpCEZMQYnWXBSz4QN11Jen7aeyTunCqOKkX00aSxl4L4FNa4r11LO_qVD-IkwijO84mSp" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Pioneers </i>by David McCollough is top of the shelf history reading for anyone interested in American History, the opening of the West, the resistance to the spread of slavery, or simply a good story-teller bringing American History to life. I bought the book as a used book from<a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-mccullough/198099/"> ThriftBooks.com</a>, which is one of my go-to sources for good reading at a reasonable price. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-47338479779772864632023-08-12T11:57:00.000-04:002023-08-12T11:57:50.776-04:00A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horowitz - Book Review<p> </p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvqraBrPi7x1zg6CESZ2vT1PJT8snsmsE9yuOaeECAzYfgoHA_gcBscwJZEU-E0qLdQEEHpVeU_QvGB8PLK_QHq8MnK8W4YCyKIQC4Drv_AUGJaRXa4VgbiShCrCi_J4VroTGaouud78SzxFgl-iPd6WeZ3SkGAk4BBW45q2Tj6PTlZ-x0zN_YYimlE1xY" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="342" height="415" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvqraBrPi7x1zg6CESZ2vT1PJT8snsmsE9yuOaeECAzYfgoHA_gcBscwJZEU-E0qLdQEEHpVeU_QvGB8PLK_QHq8MnK8W4YCyKIQC4Drv_AUGJaRXa4VgbiShCrCi_J4VroTGaouud78SzxFgl-iPd6WeZ3SkGAk4BBW45q2Tj6PTlZ-x0zN_YYimlE1xY=w283-h415" width="283" /></a></div><br /><br /></div></div><p>We all grow up in America with an image of who we are and how we got here based on visions of how America was populated and where our belief systems developed. These understandings suggest that English Protestants seeking to escape the Church of England, who came to be known as Pilgrims, first stepped onto the rocky shores of what is now Massachusetts in 1603, establishing a strong community which grew into and spread a new nation. Little in our understandings of who we are and how this country evolved from in indigenous native populations. For instance, the Miamisburg Mound in Ohio may date from 800 BC - 100 AD. The remains of thriving Indian cultures have been discovered in almost every part of what is now North America. These people, perhaps, millions of what are now called Indians farmed, grew crops, herded animals, and fought wars between themselves. </p><p>We also have been taught little about the other, earlier explorations of North America from Scandinavia, Spain, and Portugal which took place for several centuries before the Pilgrims arrived. In <i>A Voyage Long And Strange</i> (Henry Holt & Co., 2008) Tony Horowitz sets his readers straight in his own unique and often amusing explorations of places Europeans visited, the peoples they met when they got here, the hardships they endured within the context of how those experiences have been ignored by school history. Written in the context of his own journey in the early 21st century, Horowitz presents the history and reality as well as a strong sense of place in this enlightening and insightful book about whom we are and how we "discovered" America.</p><p>Horowitz takes the guise of an interested amateur as he follows the routes taken by Vikings arriving before the year 1000. Columbus, may have sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but he never found the North American continent during his explorations, Evidence suggests that Spanish explorers not only explored what are now the Caribbean Islands, but also crossed what is now the southern United States from Florida to the Midwest as well as Mexico and Texas, as well as sailing up the West coast of California and Oregon. At every placed they explored they found complex cultures which we grouped together as what are now known as Indians. These people lived in complex societies, practiced effective, abundant farming, and fought wars against their enemies. All this happened before explorers landed at what is now Virginia beginning in 1540, where they sought to establish permanent livelihood before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.</p><p>Horowitz plays the role of an innocent traveler looking for evidence of about the alien (that is: European) explorers to sites in North America and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean Islands. At each site he visits, he plays the role of a naïve visitor with little or no information about the European incursions on local places. In seeking to explore the cultures of an indigenous population and the effects of the exploration and exploitation of this continent the explorers thought of as a large land-mass separating them from the Far East. What they encountered were organized societies from hunter-gatherers to sophisticated kingdoms. </p><p>Since most of the explorers were there to chase riches, rumored towers of gold and silver, to return to their native country and gain fame and fortune back home, they were mostly unprepared for the natives they met. Depending on the nature of the lands they found, the explorers discovered a variety of indigenous peoples that, for at least a few centuries of European exploration were lumped together as Indians who lived in tribes. Depending on the climate and resources available in various places, these people were grouped into everything from rather rich kingdoms to highly organized agricultural societies, less organized groups of people able to live off the land. They had not discovered gun powder, so were much to the mercy of their invaders. Worse still, they had never been introduced to the various diseases these explorers brought with them from Europe. They had developed no resistance to the variety of disease common in Europe. Disease, rather than military prowess, probably tipped the odds to the favor of the invaders from the east. </p><p>As Horowitz travels, which range from Nova Scotia and Labrador to the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, and much of the The American Southwest, Jamestown, and finally to where we think our history begins, New England. In every location he visits, he finds sites destroyed by time, development, and ignorance of the cultural riches which had once dominated the continent only to be destroyed by visitors who cared not at all for these people they "discovered." Horowitz discovers places that are still preserved, descendants of the local tribes as well as people dedicated to preserving the few remaining sites as well as some serious archeology. He maintains a good humor about the contrasts between contemporary tourists and the genuine wars of conquest fought over a period of two or three hundred years in North America. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Tony Horowitz</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyd9__LtQEokM2KjuOKWxoCJ1c6ITrrVO1JIwDUb6HulPoxMDMDEA8u6vlP8m_R1QwLk_1Sle3ncqTNebmJmG1nSr4zddovA6aiTGigE3fpdlqoTqVjuwY9DlSiyJlrK3573CGGHQpNNnO01i_CH2crahDizox0WpRa9yzSln0vRWCkg6zE7CDZpZqpVZs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1024" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyd9__LtQEokM2KjuOKWxoCJ1c6ITrrVO1JIwDUb6HulPoxMDMDEA8u6vlP8m_R1QwLk_1Sle3ncqTNebmJmG1nSr4zddovA6aiTGigE3fpdlqoTqVjuwY9DlSiyJlrK3573CGGHQpNNnO01i_CH2crahDizox0WpRa9yzSln0vRWCkg6zE7CDZpZqpVZs=w388-h318" width="388" /></a>e</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Tony Horowitz (1960-2019) published a number of books in which he created a sub-genre of the explorer social observer. "<span style="color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">His journalism was always participatory, and he took readers along for the ride,” Joel Achenbach, a reporter for The Washington Post, said by email on Tuesday. “He climbed masts on sailing ships, rode mules, marched with Confederate re-enactors, and ventured into dive bars in the remote crossroads of America.” (NY Times Obituary, May 28, 2019) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">I purchased </span><span style="color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><i>A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World</i> from ThriftBooks.com, a site I highly recommend to people wishing to purchased used books which are usually in very good condition. </span></div><p></p><div class="css-79elbk" data-testid="photoviewer-wrapper" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="css-z3e15g" data-testid="photoviewer-wrapper-hidden" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; inset: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; text-size-adjust: 100%; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="css-1a48zt4 e11si9ry5" data-testid="photoviewer-children" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; transition: opacity 0.3s ease 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;"><figure aria-label="media" class="img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0" role="group" style="border: 0px; display: flex; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 2.5rem auto; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><div class="css-zgakxe erfvjey0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 240px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: #333333; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">Image</span><div><br /></div><div class="css-1pq3dr9" data-testid="lazy-image" style="animation: 300ms ease-in 0s 1 normal forwards running animation-e89dhw; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 240px;"></div></div></figure></div></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-80237419544975614332023-07-29T19:46:00.212-04:002023-08-03T05:36:47.808-04:00Oh, Didn't They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music by David Menconi - Book Review<p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGRagFIOKhEU4M7OQuniSaWEHymHELb9ujrPupBTKtGu5TfljSTQysW9BudW20GX93Y_jI7zMSXwbvonJ8vou-ua3psqolgt_tys1jO5mJgfIeyEBW2DGESs17fQ6ikQp0XBmBP1USPyD-_lP0leQ6L1Hnp7YIcUxuk2FI-typy-aZcvfxozLYOhtTopE2" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="429" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGRagFIOKhEU4M7OQuniSaWEHymHELb9ujrPupBTKtGu5TfljSTQysW9BudW20GX93Y_jI7zMSXwbvonJ8vou-ua3psqolgt_tys1jO5mJgfIeyEBW2DGESs17fQ6ikQp0XBmBP1USPyD-_lP0leQ6L1Hnp7YIcUxuk2FI-typy-aZcvfxozLYOhtTopE2=w299-h452" width="299" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">While I was busy going to a local state college, getting married, and beginning a career as a teacher during much of the period in which the cultural revolution of the 1960's into which Rounder Records was created, I wasn't unaware of the musical revolution going on at the time. I played a guitar, badly, and sang folk songs, listened to many of the bands that emerged in this time, without either dropping out or really tuning in. Nevertheless, David Menconi's history of Rounder Records and the Rounder Founders (Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy and Bill Nowlin) brings back a wonderful, dangerous, and scary time dominated by the "drop out and tune in" musical and cultural vibe of the time. The book is simply a joy to read! The fact that it's written by a career newspaper writer who trod the musical beat, rather than an academician, brings an immediacy and liveliness to the book that many university press works often lack, lifting its creditability and enjoyment quotient. </p><p></p><p>Attendees at bluegrass festivals, concerts, and conferences are well aware of at least two of the Rounder Founders, as they are known. Ken Irwin and Marion Leighton Levy can often be spotted sitting in seats, plying the hallways, joining in meetings, or talking quietly with members of both well known and not easily recognized bands. The third member of the triad, Bill Nowlin, is less often recognized, but equally responsible for the development of one of the most important labels from its earliest nascent beginning selling albums to fans at southern festivals to its sale to the Concord Music Group in 2010.</p><p>Two relatively short set-pieces provide deep insight into the context of Rounder's development and the adventuresome qualities of Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton. During a summer between college semesters, two of the Rounder founders took a risky, dangerous cross-country trip, hitch-hiking to the West Coast. This is followed up by a quite useful chapter on the development of the recording industry from the late nineteenth century wax cylinders to the growth of compact discs, with an emphasis on the development of what are now known as niche recordings. The two pieces emphasize the counter-culture roots, the risk-taking spirit, and the technological savvy that characterized the life of Rounder Records.</p><p>Obviously written with the strong backing of the Rounder Founders, the narrative describes in detail the growth and development of the three founders in the midst of the counter-culture years of the late 1960’s into the’70’s with both admiration and a strong sense of the era. Three smart, educated hippies who lived the communal ethic of the time while creating a very much capitalist record company. The combination leads to humorous as well as nostalgic responses. Meanwhile, through years of growth, changing relationships, and unimaginable, at the time, success, Rounder Records continued to grow and thrive, hitting its first employees while increasing the size of its catalog beyond what the founders had originally imagined.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Rounder Founders</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg13800POwAMlpy7wl5UH7qOWuFoiMMAROm3m5BJzyHTIYzIyqlMaStEojRSBmXeQvLOLCEf7JD-_G_duvbBF-XCMRQdNaGx4PNaayUe7JjoC2VszMPDNDiJbeQB5g4e4NdH5eF04k88CHgKT9xignEEoGG-msKEWbk3KXmQ5TSsbAEUT77jt0Dur6ogdeH" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="570" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg13800POwAMlpy7wl5UH7qOWuFoiMMAROm3m5BJzyHTIYzIyqlMaStEojRSBmXeQvLOLCEf7JD-_G_duvbBF-XCMRQdNaGx4PNaayUe7JjoC2VszMPDNDiJbeQB5g4e4NdH5eF04k88CHgKT9xignEEoGG-msKEWbk3KXmQ5TSsbAEUT77jt0Dur6ogdeH=w315-h405" width="315" /></a></p><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ken Irwin, Marion Leighton Levy & Bill Nowlin</b></div></b><p></p><p>There’s not enough space in a review to catalog the older traditional artists as well as the new and innovative ones Rounder then proceeded to record. Suffice it to say that much of the charm of this exciting and enjoyable book lies in the commitment and drive to expand while always seeking to keep their eyes on their original mission. The chapter on what became known by its album number, 0044, the first album by J.D. Crowe Crow and the New South, that altered bluegrass in serious ways as well as placing Rounder in an increasingly powerful position in the recording industry is typical of the risks the company took as well as its luck in being at the right place at the right time. </p><p>Through the years, Rounder matured as a business and a leader in finding new artists across a broad range of genres and sub-genres while the Rounder Founders kept their original leftish perspective and collective approach to running their business. None of the above seemed to have stopped them from making ground breaking recordings, growing as an organization, signing new artists, and out-working many of their competitors. The crucial breakthrough growth point came when a warehouse worker discovered George Thorogood and the Destroyers playing an especially exciting form of rock & roll music, a genre into which Rounder had never ventured before. Other major artists signed included Alison Kraus, providing them with the leeway to continue taking risks with unknown and small niche performers. Most of the book details, with deep understanding and enough humor to keep it approachable, the journey of a small, niche record company into an industry giant. Meanwhile, the Rounder founders remained true to their values while learning to operate in a much broader universe.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Rounder Founders (more or less) Today</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNa17BTVZEA82f1sLSHVCUvhgSjHQsRAh91RUWf_lOpnCtrCaAkWbRCiZw2tFvVeSsre55c9n9dZuZEpdwyefbIBGqB7bknpdadwHqHNVW8bvCZc8s5ViTMBrElImM3Ii0_eFdYArrU7KXhYqLBCxVNdNB6_IxBYtuQ_Q8cnhvti8BgtBM5L_F0G0DR1Dk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="960" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNa17BTVZEA82f1sLSHVCUvhgSjHQsRAh91RUWf_lOpnCtrCaAkWbRCiZw2tFvVeSsre55c9n9dZuZEpdwyefbIBGqB7bknpdadwHqHNVW8bvCZc8s5ViTMBrElImM3Ii0_eFdYArrU7KXhYqLBCxVNdNB6_IxBYtuQ_Q8cnhvti8BgtBM5L_F0G0DR1Dk=w435-h302" width="435" /></a></b></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ken Irwin, Marion Leighton Levy, Bill Nowlin</b></div><br /></b><p></p><p>Other artists found or were found by the three Rounder founders as well as staff members. Because they remained true to their founding precepts while open to music that simply didn't appeal to larger, more commercial recording companies, they discovered artists who later left for seemingly greener pastures. Some came back and others continued to sell on Rounder as well as their new label. The company grew beyond anything they had imagined when they came together to record their first album. The story shows the value that people of principle bring to developing a thriving company, while keeping a close eye on the values that led them to found Rounder Records. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>David Menconi</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7so3IX46Q-F431ubwfdCXwl9EY1KZO0SAA4_b4ftDs3iuO46j9bylYq1HlMOXWrknzW-1CQRAVAYbszcKFZozeULwcmU2BGBhjx1Xzp22MGHusRG0tbSBhp_9qDG_Wj-8bP21gz3AB9_9imlTwKwzLN9Vcg3wUZ6HiUEhNiZMndg-JVACO0_zA-0p_QKo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7so3IX46Q-F431ubwfdCXwl9EY1KZO0SAA4_b4ftDs3iuO46j9bylYq1HlMOXWrknzW-1CQRAVAYbszcKFZozeULwcmU2BGBhjx1Xzp22MGHusRG0tbSBhp_9qDG_Wj-8bP21gz3AB9_9imlTwKwzLN9Vcg3wUZ6HiUEhNiZMndg-JVACO0_zA-0p_QKo=w390-h390" width="390" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://davidmenconi.com/">David Menconi</a> has put together an extensive Spotify playlist to accompany this book. For those interested in listening along to some of the featured artists and tunes, here's a link: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XQ6cE2gbwdE1C1JGxm7YB">Rounder Playlist</a>. He worked as a reporter for the Raleigh News & Observer for 28 years. His most recent book before this, titled <i>Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music.., </i>published in 2020 was also reviewed in this blog. He has also written for <i>Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin, </i>and the <i>New York Times. </i></p><p style="text-align: left;">I received a copy of <i>Oh, Didn't They Ramble</i> from the University of North Carolina Press in return for a review. </p><div><p><br /></p></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-8992188749555845472023-07-10T09:44:00.000-04:002023-07-10T09:44:13.139-04:00The Gibson Brothers at Silver Bay<p> On Saturday, we drove to Silver Bay YMCA Camp on Lake George, NY. This gem of early twentieth century architecture serves as a summer getaway for a number of long-time summer visitors as well lectures, shows, conferences, and much more. On Saturday, we drove down for a Gibson Brothers concert in this wonderful old concert hall, built in 1909. Built entirely of wood, the auditorium proved itself to be a perfect place to hear the band with a special sound we seldom find in many other venues. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Silver Bay Auditorium</b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJ66rkAkaDYwQcX_ANgoAtXstBpkpOk69NhQu3_5cqI0yONIPQZS8RVgvasTDbKMcdDrFuzFipCyaz8DXVpY1ugCqodbMghP88npJaDMpjkNLgawgncdbvTfgyf7PeX6s_ZqajT_HxivYv96Prr8QCJR0sbZrAKt5J03NObB7LHX0GlncQLx0abvLrx7s/s4000/20230708_185727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJ66rkAkaDYwQcX_ANgoAtXstBpkpOk69NhQu3_5cqI0yONIPQZS8RVgvasTDbKMcdDrFuzFipCyaz8DXVpY1ugCqodbMghP88npJaDMpjkNLgawgncdbvTfgyf7PeX6s_ZqajT_HxivYv96Prr8QCJR0sbZrAKt5J03NObB7LHX0GlncQLx0abvLrx7s/w640-h480/20230708_185727.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">The Gibson Brothers were in fine voice and good humor as they welcomed the Silver Bay crowd and a few people from outside that community. Darren Nicholson on mandolin makes a terrific addition to the band, when he stands in on mandolin, bringing first rate mandolin work along with, when needed, an additional harmony voice. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The Gibson Brothers</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiT15PQSPjT68yMLi1QCcbJJZ3rC54St5OZogKRzUkK5DkE7zK7jCEzASnq-9t56n_ULToaOi72EBHIjFYjSPxpcUtj8EnAQsGzk0CE_rSkx8g0wxDXYB4RxdDDH2q8DMHRQ6YR6ZALDb0lq5uD4NPPtk1S4eMhcg5MGbyODxw8ClrK1gfnIHAqcb-oMZTc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1830" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiT15PQSPjT68yMLi1QCcbJJZ3rC54St5OZogKRzUkK5DkE7zK7jCEzASnq-9t56n_ULToaOi72EBHIjFYjSPxpcUtj8EnAQsGzk0CE_rSkx8g0wxDXYB4RxdDDH2q8DMHRQ6YR6ZALDb0lq5uD4NPPtk1S4eMhcg5MGbyODxw8ClrK1gfnIHAqcb-oMZTc=w640-h325" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Eric & Leigh Gibson</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiV9IQOJZ8TL3LT2XTlrkkMnR19k_UtApR0HwgwtuLuQpX9Vfho7in68qEk-QFoERiESuMe-F0pFaVJYSL2gpWSoYXavsbVzU2ZMFgXGGXs1Mz4gOkkL6IWkxvuArAuEjY70GNuTH2JTi19yUXVHRFn5letE4-0iJ-CI4-YhKiSDrXf0p7902E5A3F7zmgJ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="949" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiV9IQOJZ8TL3LT2XTlrkkMnR19k_UtApR0HwgwtuLuQpX9Vfho7in68qEk-QFoERiESuMe-F0pFaVJYSL2gpWSoYXavsbVzU2ZMFgXGGXs1Mz4gOkkL6IWkxvuArAuEjY70GNuTH2JTi19yUXVHRFn5letE4-0iJ-CI4-YhKiSDrXf0p7902E5A3F7zmgJ=w431-h368" width="431" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">With their brotherly duets, high quality instrumentality, and unique humor, Eric & Leigh Gibson have now graced bluegrass stages, recordings, and song writing for well over thirty years. Maintaining their performance and always adding something new and/or surprising. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Leigh Gibson & Mike Barber</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8l-FNyzBLKl6Vkh-11J_yyIOaVQEFGLk7W1J4EjSXopztJGC6x4kvsROxKLJonlBOHm6BzW-QRpM2lpkv9rARxw8IcbrEvM09FpW4cJAgCsAX8xz7ir-uReGhGJuPRPatiWrYXoAT33xkWKbfUHkir2HfDR2O52BnYvqqdpByXaOLwxWEIbVLoFxovNC/s2677/20230708_200444-EDIT-EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2677" data-original-width="2447" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8l-FNyzBLKl6Vkh-11J_yyIOaVQEFGLk7W1J4EjSXopztJGC6x4kvsROxKLJonlBOHm6BzW-QRpM2lpkv9rARxw8IcbrEvM09FpW4cJAgCsAX8xz7ir-uReGhGJuPRPatiWrYXoAT33xkWKbfUHkir2HfDR2O52BnYvqqdpByXaOLwxWEIbVLoFxovNC/w420-h459/20230708_200444-EDIT-EDIT.jpg" width="420" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b>Eric Gibson</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ei-lT79pjmEerVgRnFuAjrK2xQOw6TgOMmvOCYfLCJuJEFiiAbovPNO4sRPbQClt0VhHRY2_kKTlbwGa92n_yRGAGGLiu_4wObpsgWq9x294WkRQMuCAv_P_SUOd-0R38-ON8Av23Ar0PFHpw9cQNQ5ZPVl7S7qtBSiPUG0CHraSq9tZbS1DF6fI7K8Q/s4000/20230708_200506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ei-lT79pjmEerVgRnFuAjrK2xQOw6TgOMmvOCYfLCJuJEFiiAbovPNO4sRPbQClt0VhHRY2_kKTlbwGa92n_yRGAGGLiu_4wObpsgWq9x294WkRQMuCAv_P_SUOd-0R38-ON8Av23Ar0PFHpw9cQNQ5ZPVl7S7qtBSiPUG0CHraSq9tZbS1DF6fI7K8Q/w414-h552/20230708_200506.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b>Leigh Gibson</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLrY152YAuGtbPJ73HqaRqRgFIWSpcNQoJuqtl7i4xSPPXE0Tbn52xQmiWi2syiaQWpE0VRoYa6vT5NjzXxgXNadZhkouE5U1ThcGiaqrru0BMP4s6rZcQFHXi9iDAE3Werh4vU68usH6AIx1M2s3P2Z0gtuZLJGVixcUQQCoByxaW_lNiTFMNZ9HKsOc/s4000/20230708_201208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="547" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLrY152YAuGtbPJ73HqaRqRgFIWSpcNQoJuqtl7i4xSPPXE0Tbn52xQmiWi2syiaQWpE0VRoYa6vT5NjzXxgXNadZhkouE5U1ThcGiaqrru0BMP4s6rZcQFHXi9iDAE3Werh4vU68usH6AIx1M2s3P2Z0gtuZLJGVixcUQQCoByxaW_lNiTFMNZ9HKsOc/w410-h547/20230708_201208.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b>Mike Barber</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC9sTr8yUemNJjsMBL5cH4sMBDvvmam9j0szw0JcvABRGbdWn0ZHdZ9boGhitUphScOFzZPp6m_8t8wmUw3QDsph3FD7RIDl4-xl-DhahZ2bq2nQB_qsxIVyct8kARBQK2Yj6BIYZgdiHarlbjFW6nszdbgZ1rqG46-AbZK-sR7bjPuD8kMxoqQo-FuLD/s4000/20230708_201140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="547" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC9sTr8yUemNJjsMBL5cH4sMBDvvmam9j0szw0JcvABRGbdWn0ZHdZ9boGhitUphScOFzZPp6m_8t8wmUw3QDsph3FD7RIDl4-xl-DhahZ2bq2nQB_qsxIVyct8kARBQK2Yj6BIYZgdiHarlbjFW6nszdbgZ1rqG46-AbZK-sR7bjPuD8kMxoqQo-FuLD/w410-h547/20230708_201140.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">Often underestimated, the role of bass players in bands represents both a major percussive sound and provides timing for the band. Mike has been with the band since their early days as a regional New England band through two IBMA Entertainer of the Year awards and more. Softspoken and quiet, Mike represents a crucial voice within the band. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b>Eric O'Hara</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ei-lT79pjmEerVgRnFuAjrK2xQOw6TgOMmvOCYfLCJuJEFiiAbovPNO4sRPbQClt0VhHRY2_kKTlbwGa92n_yRGAGGLiu_4wObpsgWq9x294WkRQMuCAv_P_SUOd-0R38-ON8Av23Ar0PFHpw9cQNQ5ZPVl7S7qtBSiPUG0CHraSq9tZbS1DF6fI7K8Q/s4000/20230708_200506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3311" data-original-width="2130" height="613" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtqNKajC6ta5Phnb91SRqcVov4R2HkhTe4dhqW999jnZVi4Vw6jQYxsQTtek83x54Sj2jmRu0vA2-ptlUUwGejhcELH5uYiAAhL4FeeXVY3ge7gBbRtqaphiPeZTOgtFIhEC0iJTppY3SU0lJg_dR4WDLLtMOjlQShMYC2k5Gm3lk2pMTknH7P9-GyIav/w394-h613/20230708_200524-EDIT.jpg" width="394" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">Eric O'Hara has been a regular member of the band for several years on Dobro and/or electric steel. Eric was also their first teacher as a teacher at Dick's Country Store and Music Oasis in nearby Churubosco, NY.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Darrin Nicholson</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWK_4VQUxrlk7Vz9WiZS9Ut6fKcXSpv86BuT_XT8KT5_BvfABLccCo1Imgb34RMD_zZgmkQ0s3OBg99FhcXmn2Gf43qatJw6IxaALNp0tUooiY5bvo6lul_5sMkSxLftBPuJxMJAyh2emTlGAInz_Zd5QbpABrCl-sInEf1DmwtRRmSAyZ_aqCIYVnJzu8/s1499/20230708_200536-EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1499" data-original-width="893" height="672" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWK_4VQUxrlk7Vz9WiZS9Ut6fKcXSpv86BuT_XT8KT5_BvfABLccCo1Imgb34RMD_zZgmkQ0s3OBg99FhcXmn2Gf43qatJw6IxaALNp0tUooiY5bvo6lul_5sMkSxLftBPuJxMJAyh2emTlGAInz_Zd5QbpABrCl-sInEf1DmwtRRmSAyZ_aqCIYVnJzu8/w403-h672/20230708_200536-EDIT.jpg" width="403" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Darren Nicholson, a fine musician from western North Carolina, has been a frequent stand-in with the Gibson Brothers for several years. He brings subtle, often virtuoso mandolin play to augment the bands already fine sound, as well as some subtle good humor. On the rare occasions when they require a third vocal contribution, he adds a unique voice and well-blended voice. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Eric & Kelly Gibson</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFGR2IN9pHDl14qQ-ADWxXRh8AJ8V7LtZlBJucsp8oyeIKUwZGRwaeHLVxv_FRYUk33zkXrNJHTYDIATKrw809gog265BmUzuRnxhp_pjhZaG2UAZwD0ivIa7mrb6mhTKPdYLjtm05VK5902quqDCz2DWGhlIAszkaeb7XKkXBX6LedGDkLhp6mPttuim/s2711/20230708_205102-EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFGR2IN9pHDl14qQ-ADWxXRh8AJ8V7LtZlBJucsp8oyeIKUwZGRwaeHLVxv_FRYUk33zkXrNJHTYDIATKrw809gog265BmUzuRnxhp_pjhZaG2UAZwD0ivIa7mrb6mhTKPdYLjtm05VK5902quqDCz2DWGhlIAszkaeb7XKkXBX6LedGDkLhp6mPttuim/s2711/20230708_205102-EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLf_N9WvI7sGjCD1chYrzqzepGNSGWv1HVz9wRhBbJ1poN2QBm3MvJldJxleZMw73dMpsoZRHBv-1RARf51gOqFSNh1iwnqqUNGl5DJeqAlEbHrqS4m2Y8uerKTOEFTWNwhQ-3PXf6l32X1mpVhaMg_QlImzhjoKwgjr1utAx2lkFWTvpNqx8ZtKZxtCPd" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="685" height="483" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLf_N9WvI7sGjCD1chYrzqzepGNSGWv1HVz9wRhBbJ1poN2QBm3MvJldJxleZMw73dMpsoZRHBv-1RARf51gOqFSNh1iwnqqUNGl5DJeqAlEbHrqS4m2Y8uerKTOEFTWNwhQ-3PXf6l32X1mpVhaMg_QlImzhjoKwgjr1utAx2lkFWTvpNqx8ZtKZxtCPd=w408-h483" width="408" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Kelly Gibson</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKSo7YE1nuLu1LMKIPXgO74xOPJCglZTVEhYLrhFMCiwrqT7-PKZi05gspzveSnfdLta7hSoHBCq_WI0u9sTN9YeW6rJS2hCQI41NDX8jodC5vz4BYlZf0cZu0UGor6c5zAU7ZydRt4L7VdFiXYVZ8Y4vaQ4pDDCLv9dBXSaIwNLY6AfthEIW-sWVLYID/s4000/20230708_205057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2267" height="740" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKSo7YE1nuLu1LMKIPXgO74xOPJCglZTVEhYLrhFMCiwrqT7-PKZi05gspzveSnfdLta7hSoHBCq_WI0u9sTN9YeW6rJS2hCQI41NDX8jodC5vz4BYlZf0cZu0UGor6c5zAU7ZydRt4L7VdFiXYVZ8Y4vaQ4pDDCLv9dBXSaIwNLY6AfthEIW-sWVLYID/w419-h740/20230708_205057.jpg" width="419" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Kelly Gibson performed one of his own songs with competence and good stage presence. He's a welcome addition when he joins the band for a song. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZoR056w4md8-cxyHlbbClXfneZO3Th04XD8O_qHKYLOlsNSK6oHsQ4cviL47dXxAXklVNxtxi2xJDKj6c5KgY5rwed2OHUCQdSYuAEXwbTtU7X5PwamQRmqgnt2l_6LZnKWzD8jIc4kGCgCIg8bEbW7GqH0UEFKQa4k3W1DMKwA9KF-bdHAxTd42dU-M/s4000/20230708_205018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZoR056w4md8-cxyHlbbClXfneZO3Th04XD8O_qHKYLOlsNSK6oHsQ4cviL47dXxAXklVNxtxi2xJDKj6c5KgY5rwed2OHUCQdSYuAEXwbTtU7X5PwamQRmqgnt2l_6LZnKWzD8jIc4kGCgCIg8bEbW7GqH0UEFKQa4k3W1DMKwA9KF-bdHAxTd42dU-M/w497-h373/20230708_205018.jpg" width="497" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>All told, it was a delightful evening of Gibson Brothers music. Ask for your local or national festival to book this first rate band.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-40897534923800207112023-07-01T15:47:00.000-04:002023-07-01T15:47:31.978-04:00Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Legend by Taylor Hagood - Book Review<p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAjIvWq3QyTJxVEUGBkq7MxoitgCgSH8du7nn1Py2LcIaYa5wetXkm2mRJCsZZWLYICPTVV9a60zDUvCQnV1tpGIoyv6EM6bL8Ow6UVhARjOx3xhCmS7crWMl_GPRYWoSpy0qdwM-GtxYGODZP2Ksii25Kl5rNMDT8fmDRAlcYP08KrDO2NqAibZh8jWkf" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="667" height="495" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAjIvWq3QyTJxVEUGBkq7MxoitgCgSH8du7nn1Py2LcIaYa5wetXkm2mRJCsZZWLYICPTVV9a60zDUvCQnV1tpGIoyv6EM6bL8Ow6UVhARjOx3xhCmS7crWMl_GPRYWoSpy0qdwM-GtxYGODZP2Ksii25Kl5rNMDT8fmDRAlcYP08KrDO2NqAibZh8jWkf=w330-h495" width="330" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Almost as soon as I picked up Taylor Hagood's biography of David Akeman (Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Legend) I knew I could put aside my instinct to find fault in order to luxuriate in a well-documented, carefully constructed, combination of biography and true crime story that would introduce me to a musician I had only heard about, who along with his wife Estelle, was murdered in a gruesome plot to steal the money that was supposed to hidden away in his modest farmhouse.</p><p>The first several chapters use the few early available published resources and public records to locate David Akeman without ever overstepping what he can actually document. Then Hagood artfully and accurately portrays the environment in Eastern Kentucky, the rise of country and bluegrass music on the radio, and the increasing visibility of Stringbean as he worked with ever more prominent bands, appearing with them on the radio and travelling with them on the southern country music trail. He writes about the influences of Uncle Dave Macon and Grandpa Jones on Akeman's approach to the banjo. By creating an environment and maintaining scholarly demands for citing details, Hagood, a writer of imagination and agility, builds a fully believable environment without ever making leaps of credibility.</p><p>As the late fifties and sixties arrived, the influence of folk and rock music showed in Akeman's approach while he was always true to old-time traditions in his music and life, Hagood draws interesting and important distinctions between the emerging folk music craze, changes in country music, and the emergence of rock & roll. He focuses on the seemingly great difference between folk music's rising star, Pete Seegar and Stringbean, pointing out that their approaches to traditional music were quite different, while marveling that, apparently they never met. (pp. 86 - 91)</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>David Akeman</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbJ4LrhJXHrrRoIeWFCpSVYC1fIlXYCn1fnumPXoC-jgFbolQ7CcypH8-6aIYhbH_hdmhUvssjHmdfvji_VJWA8V5paueKMS8B3Fd9e5LWqrJdt-Hm3F-vh6j6W7ZSEOjI2kCQsR87FjSskxUbDUHLrZkkEdcjj6jmltdIkNO2PDqGWfXPmK80rFN0i38z" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="300" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbJ4LrhJXHrrRoIeWFCpSVYC1fIlXYCn1fnumPXoC-jgFbolQ7CcypH8-6aIYhbH_hdmhUvssjHmdfvji_VJWA8V5paueKMS8B3Fd9e5LWqrJdt-Hm3F-vh6j6W7ZSEOjI2kCQsR87FjSskxUbDUHLrZkkEdcjj6jmltdIkNO2PDqGWfXPmK80rFN0i38z=w331-h336" width="331" /></a></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Stringbean's career, as Hagood clearly points out, spans the period between the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth, with his musical background on the banjo reaching back almost to the days of blackface, while lasting long enough for him to have travelled with Bill Monroe, and to be featured on both the <i>Grand Ol' Opry </i>and <i>HeeHaw </i>on television<i>. </i>Hagood is able to draw on television film archives through the sixties, when Stringbean emerged as a national figure as well as later, even more modern material, yet remains respectful of the traditional world of country music. </p><p>As Stringbean matures into middle age, he becomes recognized as a transitional figure from old-time string band music reaching back into the late nineteenth century, while still keeping the respect and love of a new generation of musicians in country music, reflecting a more modern face through television. Just as Akeman had received extensive national attention because of the larger platform he enjoyed, his life was ended at the age of fifty-eight, largely because he had a reputation for storing large amounts of money in his home, because of his distrust of banks, growing out of his experiences during the Depression. The final chapters focus on the search for Akeman's killers and their trial, showing how difficult ferreting out the truth can be. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Taylor Hagood</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFYwY9jv2AFygUVCJ7omfAR6IdHzcKS_VoYa7453aWVk96HtdUxgXzxfkSDbqz_UHyXZDM8363fNqZzeCTVlnEYIRShT_C1Xw3s9J5PwMteTgXUOYfJfSQRF3mVm_Ci3DjabcA-cfBD-nFVxO_4AH9kNWbQ2m6GC8g0H4kDpPTVRzek48IHsQRR_o8KOKg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="689" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFYwY9jv2AFygUVCJ7omfAR6IdHzcKS_VoYa7453aWVk96HtdUxgXzxfkSDbqz_UHyXZDM8363fNqZzeCTVlnEYIRShT_C1Xw3s9J5PwMteTgXUOYfJfSQRF3mVm_Ci3DjabcA-cfBD-nFVxO_4AH9kNWbQ2m6GC8g0H4kDpPTVRzek48IHsQRR_o8KOKg=w307-h325" width="307" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://taylorhagood.com/about">Taylor Hagood</a> is a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University with a wide variety of interests in literature, music, and history. He has a busy career as an internationally known, in demand speaker, humorist, and musical performer. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Stringbean: The Life and Music of a Country Music Legend</i> by Taylor Hagood supplied to me by the University of Illinois Press and available from Amazon as well as other major vendors. I read a review copy sent to me by the publisher. I highly recommend this well-researched and highly readable (the two don't always go together) book. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><br /></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-17882040894735761652023-06-02T10:47:00.000-04:002023-06-02T10:47:10.168-04:00The Aftermath by Philip Bump - Book Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4769tsPRaOsGoXkJFMyALdr7cFV_bPNWSM3PAcfSR1-H00MEHcc2-_x7sT2tGnmf0w0nupCcq8maSKpivvAMtmU4skgEubKeDfIR9dsl4HXpFj-saEFzRze87XuYw3YDlsaE1dlRPwWRWnjW5kTquDHCB4yqOtk4RhDE5du2ucHumjNjUw07PzIfmw/s1934/Aftermath.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1934" data-original-width="1280" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4769tsPRaOsGoXkJFMyALdr7cFV_bPNWSM3PAcfSR1-H00MEHcc2-_x7sT2tGnmf0w0nupCcq8maSKpivvAMtmU4skgEubKeDfIR9dsl4HXpFj-saEFzRze87XuYw3YDlsaE1dlRPwWRWnjW5kTquDHCB4yqOtk4RhDE5du2ucHumjNjUw07PzIfmw/w278-h420/Aftermath.jpg" width="278" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">Philip Bump has written an interesting and important book for anyone living in contemporary America who wonders why and how we got to the state we're in, as well as what the long-term future might look like. Most of us living in 2023 are aware, more or less, of what's going on in politics, lifestyle, entertainment, and every other element of contemporary society. We look at today's children, young marrieds, middle-aged people, and the elderly, trying to figure out how they have come to be the kind of people they are. If you're young, you might wonder how those middle aged people you know seem to have accumulated so much, or you might think their taste in music, television, and activities are somehow out of step with what you grew up hearing, watching and doing. If you're a member of my generation, labeled <i>The Silent Generation</i>, those of us born between 1928 and 1945, you might see us as completely out of touch with reality, while we might see you as rude, self-indulgent, and irresponsible. But the greatest influence during the past century and long into the future, according to Bump, is the group born between 1946 and 1964, the largest, and seemingly most influential, generation in American history.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Whether you perceive the Baby Boomers as young upstarts who pushed aside as they became the most powerful group in the country, or, if you're younger than they are, the group that's keeping you from reaching your full potential or continues to insist on all the attention you think you're ready to assume, the Boomers simply cannot be ignored. Bump details their influences in a usually highly readable text accompanied by way too many charts and graphs demonstrating their influence and standing in relationship to the other age cohorts in America. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Bump's data comes largely from research studies he makes clear and understandable and a large number of interviews of academics and other writers who have written about economic, social, and cultural aspects affecting life in America. His narrative particularly focuses on issues of race, social class, education, and culture as our country slowly, but inevitably, changes through time and each succeeding generation's reaction to the ones that came before influencing their lives. </p><p style="text-align: left;">While not a scholarly work, <i>The Aftermath</i> relies on the work of many scholars and serious data collectors. This is both a strength and a flaw in this book. While the narrative is clear and explains much of the data presented, at times the amount of data is hard to digest into concepts making real sense. Another issue, for me, was the sparse coverage of the roll of labor unions and organized labor in the rise and fall of the economy, as well as the welfare of middle-class non-college educated men and women in the labor force. Nevertheless, the decline in college enrollments, as well as the increase in elderly reliance on social programs and generous retirement plans to clearly meet the needs of age cohorts following the Boomers. This book seeks to answer many of these kinds of issues and, for the most part, succeeds in pointing the way towards greater understanding. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Philip Bump</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5TYr1BEag1AKic8xKG_ZQ9ZBaFbidAjNsEqE4BBEmxeJwAP2BMOE1R80FM66rWcs-LwxuYT_cwY8231091TYmXvn71gtuS5Oq34EjRz8b8aRyZaH4_z7c8UI8gNqdaLa8ECGuaBWWECfN1u5qM1tG6x2V3CY9Mszb8UodSEs4kEDmfwSFmmkqDxD6yw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="300" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5TYr1BEag1AKic8xKG_ZQ9ZBaFbidAjNsEqE4BBEmxeJwAP2BMOE1R80FM66rWcs-LwxuYT_cwY8231091TYmXvn71gtuS5Oq34EjRz8b8aRyZaH4_z7c8UI8gNqdaLa8ECGuaBWWECfN1u5qM1tG6x2V3CY9Mszb8UodSEs4kEDmfwSFmmkqDxD6yw=w246-h287" width="246" /></a></div><p></p><div><div data-qa="author-long-bio" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a;"><div data-qa="author-long-bio" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Philip Bump is a columnist for The Washington Post based in New York. He writes the weekly newsletter How To Read This Chart. </div><div data-qa="author-long-bio" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div></div><p class="mb-xs" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a; margin-bottom: var(--paragraph-margin-bottom); margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <span style="background-color: transparent;">I read </span><i style="background-color: transparent;">The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of America </i><span style="background-color: transparent;">in a hardback edition published by Random House, it is also available from Amazon.com in Hardback, paperback or Kindle editions. </span></span></p></div><div><div data-qa="author-long-bio" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></div><div data-qa="author-long-bio" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="mb-xs" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: var(--paragraph-margin-bottom); margin-top: 0px;"> </p></div></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-10185282407755492152023-03-25T11:38:00.009-04:002023-03-25T12:08:00.196-04:00Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson <div class="separator"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 553px; overflow: hidden; width: 359px;"><img height="553" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/JTwhK744thV4mZpaC7ehifdkkF4IXIYktiLiYKloDUzexhJJXOO02fq0hxIW6TcHxUnwOkvjChiisJcUYrmcCGNIsSv90flVJ6zMx8L6FyaomqT48tVexqt0MEHHg-de92eRitd_YBdfEzXEzGWmSoI" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="359" /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3127e3ce-7fff-2494-7489-178833d9f0f5"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this comprehensive biography of Apple Computer’s founding member and longtime chief executive, no matter what his title was at any time, Steve Jobs emerges as both a genius and the most innovative creator of a computer which combined utility and style to become the most cherished brand name in technology. In compiling this compelling, highly readable account of a man who many saw not possible to fully describe, Isaacson has interviewed over 100 people who worked for or with Jobs as well as any number of his family and competitors. Having been chosen to write the biography by Jobs, it never becomes a hagiography, showing the man with all his flaws, many of which contributed to his success. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5f4eb977-7fff-dfe5-e7b4-1610b1c183f8"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve Jobs was abandoned by his birth parents and adopted by a couple in northern California, his adoptive father was a tinkerer with cars and a lover of automotive design. Nevertheless, despite warm and loving adoptive parents, one of Jobs’ many devils remained throughout his life a sense of abandonment, perhaps leading to his own flaws as both a husband and a parent. Nevertheless, he was born at exactly the right time and adopted at the right place to be well-positioned for the emergence of the technological revolution that became Apple. </span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walter Isaacson may have been the best choice Jobs could have made to write his biography. The book details Jobs’ strengths and flaws in detail without ever seeming to lose contact with the volcanic personality he was exploring. Chosen by Jobs to write the book, he also was able to maintain his independence in order to create a full picture of a genius who was neither a saint nor a villain. Neither was a great computer designer or software architect. He emerges as a person who stood for great design and the highest possible software along with a vision for how such could be achieved and how it could be accomplished and the ability to interpret that to his employees while building a great and lasting corporation. Isaakson maintains that Steve Jobs will live in history as one of the great tech creators of all time. As an industrialist, Isaacson places Jobs in a pantheon with Edison and Ford…pretty high praise. </span></p><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Walter Isaacson</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 399px; overflow: hidden; width: 399px;"><img height="399" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/U9Yjr3919GExppz5-pFZ3OsXYfajzUBELZu6Zv_wTf8itrx-ybt1ZE13x6J9XVjhWRMv3TCMkXY8GwrcmJ3nh8te-mLJOH-3j35TJOVs9JcCm0iMfB-Cj2Z8w44pMp7Id6eVH6NP6C7cMJQhn483X1E" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="399" /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-757f15b6-7fff-e2aa-908a-dd83d274e274"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-63a78d4f-7fff-6d97-2745-7e09fcbb4526"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He is the author of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leonardo da Vinci</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovators</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Steve Jobs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Einstein: His Life and Universe</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Benjamin Franklin: An American Life</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kissinger: A Biography</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and the coauthor of</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu. (Simon & Schuster)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-1cb3ce95-7fff-f486-1ff6-cdbe123ddb58"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve Jobs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 675pp) in a hardback edition I purchased from </span><a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/steve-jobs-by-walter-isaacson/248446/#edition=6140133&idiq=2064293" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thriftbooks.com</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> . </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It can also be bought for </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=steve+jobs+by+walter+isaacson" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kindle at Amazon.com</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I found the book to be highly readable for both general readers and those more interested in sharp, thoughtful analysis of a complex, difficult and important American industrialist. Enjoy!</span></p><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3210ce70-7fff-86ab-49e4-1c3bef01ab07"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p></p></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-39563087589275049832023-02-28T11:19:00.006-05:002023-02-28T13:59:06.969-05:00The Gibson Brothers - Darkest Hour<p><span style="font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first time we saw the Gibson Brothers perform, as best we can ascertain, was at the 2005 or 2006 Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival, then held at the small municipal park in Weston, VT. For this show, they had a six member band, with Junior Barber coming out of retirement for a guest appearance. We were struck by their wonderful melodies, close harmony, sometimes edgy brotherly byplay, and far ranging repertoire, which had always contained many of their own songs. We became instant fans, and their being in the lineup became one of the criteria we applied for choosing which festivals to attend. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-54bb0c40-7fff-662c-f1a3-acf610bdf0c6"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gibson Brothers at Jenny Brook - 2006</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 308px; overflow: hidden; width: 463px;"><img height="308" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/jnvBeYAsqCJEhrHG6fK5wl6QMTDTFh7gCt55rkviKf7cAc_bQpJfweQUN_7cGbr1eZhNApX42DvCcA20LoZ_wXLO8ADMdLAejjG-cmDAz-C5wbDn8n1LXtL8wN7MMsWMwCMDYw-hAHchh5oJZPAvNOg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="463" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we grew in our understanding and appreciation of bluegrass music, we also became aware that they fit into some special niches. Coming from northernmost New York State, they had grown up on a hardscrabble farm in an almost desolate area quite close to the Canadian border. Yet they had become, at quite young ages, masters of the banjo and guitar, and knowledgeable about the southern rural roots where the music emerged. To it, they brought their own fine song writing and wonderful brother harmonies. As they’ve grown as musicians and individuals, they’ve followed their own unique musical skills into places where many bluegrass musicians never venture, while continuing to develop their own unique sound. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">We’ve been listening to the new Gibson Brothers recording “Darkest Hour” for over a month in concert, on CD, and now on an excellent podcast presented by </span><a href="https://www.bluegrassunlimited.com/podcasts/121-bluegrass-unlimited-podcast-with-the-gibson-brothers/" style="font-size: medium; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bluegrass Unlimited and the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">, as well as individual songs used in a variety of interviews. The recording as well as the Gibson Brothers themselves only grow on us with each hearing, whether live or recorded. Always thought provoking, the two brothers have, in this marvelous album, become mature, seasoned performers, The longing for and glorification of two boys growing up on a marginal farm has been replaced by new perspectives showing their maturity as men and as performers as they move into middle age, It’s filled with reflective songs accompanied by their always heart-grabbing harmonies and musical excellence,</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 475px; overflow: hidden; width: 475px;"><img height="475" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/9FWlqeDjfvD5S41RENX8jCM_Q1bLPzKZS6iRsIEVxpHFmY1PfbbasxQwohW9HV6J4l5zRp13tFviA0xVOd0sD8xmo4LNaWLcIkus-0bW0waahjFEIcTuzEN4STGYBGCPuCQOWFYmR44sIEI2DHtZ2j4" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="475" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grounded in reflection and based on the rich Gibson Brothers harmonies, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Darkest Hour </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is built upon their long-time well-recognized musical excellence, and honed clean and pure by Jerry Douglass’ excellent production, featuring some of Nashville’s brightest lights (Euen McGlocklin, Barry Bales, Alison Krauss), the recording shines like a diamond!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leigh’s song “<a href="https://youtu.be/9aunVNy_Qtg">One Minute of You: A Song for Annie Gray</a>” is a love song from a father to his daughter, filled with the desire a parent feels to cling to every minute of a child’s growth, knowing the letting go is, in the end, necessary. Eric wrote “I Go Driving” to capture the power of driving alone in the country to regain perspective and recapture the lost beauty of the farmland he grew up in, from the perspective of a lost era. The song is simply heart-rending. The Gibson Brothers manage to capture the richness of a lost past without the maudlin sentimentality found in many other contemporary bluegrass songs. Meanwhile, their music continues to be forward looking and optimistic.</span> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Simultaneously a bit darker than their earlier work, their natural effervescence and optimism still shines through - courageous and confident. It’s like reading a novel instead of a book of short stories. The Adirondack songs, written over a period of twenty-five or so years and never collected in a single album, remain</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">grounded in reflection (The Barn Song, Song of Yesterday, Iron and Diamonds, Safe Passage, Railroad Line), yearning for a lost world. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The Darkest Hour, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">chosen from previously never released songs and several of brand new ones, provides a sense of structure as well reflections on living a meaningful life. This newest recording by The Gibson Brothers continues their record of releasing exciting meaningful bluegrass collections.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 364px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="364" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/0GwvQJAYz2XCkowujUlq_dKiSVzyQ5qmZ4J6B6MrL9HTpUIejONxxiGX31DprpRPIubv6KQbQrtFKgobxwjxLF_vUnt8OXbKkzAVFtyb4AMUJfY5RXhVZ_JqDktzgfKvGaEmX9nP-wsvj0BV4DZDOw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 364px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><br /></span></span></div></span></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-40308488978382195552023-01-12T09:54:00.003-05:002023-01-12T10:47:37.562-05:00Lady Justice: Women, The Law, and The Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick <p style="text-align: center;"> <img height="456" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Pa3y-fWp0y3j9MqJrFJTojtfOKYcls9FyYGQaOjeoaYGxkIDQeuovP-vE4uRKMh8rHiVr2_5znH7gMpWWnKsprqFmM9cYfq8EU5IZY3VYBdvgs03Ner03ZeHBraHx9qrm4-GbefSg0urbfu4mwMpKyAzqc7sdTrWDkv27zO4D3irI3p_zlMQsafkv_S8eg" style="font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" width="300" /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1d011204-7fff-30a5-1698-3fc406bd365d"><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Justice: Women, The Law, and the Battle to Save America</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Dahlia Lithwick tells the stories of ten women who, through years of developing their legal practices, emerged, mostly, during the Trump administration as heroines for the rights of women and minorities, as well as helping to advance the awareness of men about the dangers of any profession being dominated by them. The book shows these advances through Lithwick’s clear understanding that effective legal practice requires not only tough-minded legal argument, but a strong emphasis on sharp storytelling. Through Lithwick’s clear thinking and penetrating narrative, each of the subjects emerges not only as a game changing attorney, but a woman of courage and persistence. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book opens with a profile of Pauli Murray, one of the most important and least known pioneers in combining the law and women’s experience in high levels of energy, intelligence, perseverance, and effectiveness. A civil rights activist who earned her law degree at Yale, along with other degrees from first-rate graduate schools across the country, she influenced an entire generation of Black and civil rights attorneys as well as helping mold arguments for the Supreme Court. She later became an Episcopal Priest, influencing that once stodgy denomination. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other chapters look at a series of attorneys who wove their influence through persistent effort against social reluctance for change in, often, male-dominated law firms where they experienced professional blockages and sexual harassment. They knew, however, they often could not openly resist without possibly (almost certainly) risking their personal advancement in an historically male-dominated profession. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lithwick tells her own story in a chapter called “#MeToo,” in which she describes when, early in her legal career, she became a clerk for a Federal judge who was, among insiders, notorious for his sexual harassment of woman clerks, all of whom felt constrained from outing the judge because of the negative effect it might have upon their own careers. Most, torn between fighting back and fearing the loss of their own legal careers, chose silence. Lithwick eventually left legal practice to become a legal writer covering the Supreme Court and other issues, as well as hosting an informative and entertaining weekly podcast called “Amicus,” available on many platforms. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dahlia Lithwick</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 225px; overflow: hidden; width: 225px;"><img height="225" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5IQYxvlLTIcxZYBB-nejvEe8a5fZYl3dv5Go-OkV3v_HDsPRwiIaDZnowT7pQJewpZJIr8vIHeNF96Rm67kCs3i0W5pvfmoRPP14MLXucaTQXPvKBbhCc-j73SAmFnp4TXIzFLv9wEPUDUcyuCNMVpF1tyKHKNQBp5Isr-o_oy8fldFTQIBHt0W5peMKaw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="225" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Dahlia Lithwick is the senior legal correspondent at </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slate</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law. Her work has also appeared in </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The New York Times</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harper’s</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The New Yorker</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Washington Post</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The New Republic,</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commentary</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, among other places. Lithwick won a 2013 National Magazine Award for her columns on the Affordable Care Act. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October, 2018.” Penguin, Random House</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found the book to be riveting reading, from a writer who knows that dry academic or legal language doesn’t really do a good job telling stories. Lithwick turns history into the kind of stories that increase understanding while holding onto a reader and simultaneously educting. I purchased the book from Amazon and read it on my Kindle app.</span></p><div><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-39353189262178792562022-12-28T09:55:00.000-05:002022-12-28T09:55:58.895-05:00<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"> <img height="422" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/lEVvl5lyY2FbTa4x_9FXksMGo4BG_07J6iFiCdQfw1TgSl-lnCAdEizZPWORnKYtOUxXZNqoMEeVD-J3Q2BBmjI6qxU1-FWumyL4Oo_qVaELrSMjm9yUhbqeYjvlnXLnFA0L7BAzp8jSjGynLZDC6p1UNeJMQRAFCdXl8YbCvkJ5MiZZNGmYmwQNanJ67w" style="font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" width="280" /></p></blockquote><span id="docs-internal-guid-5572bf42-7fff-90a1-53cb-22b6bef3d49f"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York, The Novel</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Edward Rutherfurd is a sprawling historical novel, much in the Michener style, following the lives, fortunes, and a good deal of drama focusing on five fictional families, serving as possible examples of the fortunes, trials, troubles, and triumphs as one of the greatest cities in the world develops from a small island village at the end of a great river through the economic, social, and cultural changes brought by each new group of immigrants coming to the New World and deciding to stay in New York. This seductive, interesting, and massive (862 pages) novel offers a fictionalized picture of the growth and development of a great metropolis through the eyes of, primarily, five families who helped populate it through the next three hundred years. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The narrative follows families of Dutch and English early settlers who turned the quiet, agricultural society of the early New York into a bustling city of trade and commerce as English settlers came, and later were joined by other people who had come to Boston, Philadelphia, and the deep South, each bringing changes in attitude as the English lost control of this sprawling piece of ground during the first two hundred or so years. Later immigrants, coming from Ireland, Italy, and Jewish settlements throughout Europe each struggled to survive and ultimately to grow rich and powerful in a city where the real nobility has always been money more than social class. Through the years, each group, represented in the novel by a particular family’s integrates itself into this large, complex city, thrives and rises or falls on its ability to find their own way to success. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each major chapter of </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> represents a time period in the city’s busy history and is headed by a date. Focusing on the development of New Amsterdam, the British dominance, the Revolutionary War, expansion westward and the canals followed by railroads, and the influence of mass immigration beginning in the late nineteenth century, bringing new flavors and cultural experiences to enrich this ever-growing city. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the child of two separate Jewish immigration waves, first in the mid-nineteenth century and later in the early twentieth century married to the daughter of family composed of a marriage between the descendants of early-post Mayflower father and a mother whose parents were both born in Italy, much in this fascinating book was of interest to me. The fact that much of my early life was centered around the upper west side of Manhatten, where my family and my Dad’s family lived, this book was a natural for me. However, anyone interested in a good origin story, or a rather simplified view of a piece of American history providing insight to most Americans, it proved itself to be attractive across many of my interests and understandings. I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through history which manages to stay grounded in the city’s development while wrapping it in believable prototype characters who add character and humanity to the vast sweep of this novel. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Edward Rutherfurd</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 260px; overflow: hidden; width: 260px;"><img height="260" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/a9b9uvWG9-HzdGJ51fnGxQ93usUgI60tIRGUPJO2YdyGaYo632ufiyxpfoOZgh8nn75dl9DbTT-9ocz7QUqqfn8C5qVaBNJUiPODhZ-1UvpPFkpiq1K1BYUbt_iNac7iYM_igaxFJ6RhPDieTjPyZKRVg2p5POMt3lbNt8c3dAhmUQbvqJpchFM3hKPtPg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="260" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Edward Rutherfurd, born in 1948, is a pen name for Francis Edward Wintle who has written nine historical novels using the same strategy of using fictional characters to represent prototypes existing during particular time periods.Rutherford is English, but attended graduate school in the U.S. and has He has received numerous awards for his writing in the U.S., England, and other countries. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read the book in hardcover, which I bought as a remaindered book, but it’s also available as a Kindle book, and in several paperback editions. </span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-79696063294198003532022-11-11T07:17:00.000-05:002022-11-11T07:17:43.123-05:00Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwroiMTmVF8xVIspc0cQlyquZREaLI1N6GcZvVeDd4PQTemoC3_r1_AVACqjyXlVj0dn1gxN00Nal4aUoufxuo7kYYYlTGF9z4iyi2zf02UeX_6q6Nu4CPKKuJ5qUIiOAzNdiG9N0Z3iRqy3T7HDnu804D65SWj7blymfXC6XyZeVA5q0hqvTrVn7bw/s499/Chasing%20History.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="330" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwroiMTmVF8xVIspc0cQlyquZREaLI1N6GcZvVeDd4PQTemoC3_r1_AVACqjyXlVj0dn1gxN00Nal4aUoufxuo7kYYYlTGF9z4iyi2zf02UeX_6q6Nu4CPKKuJ5qUIiOAzNdiG9N0Z3iRqy3T7HDnu804D65SWj7blymfXC6XyZeVA5q0hqvTrVn7bw/w289-h436/Chasing%20History.jpg" width="289" /></a></div><br /><p>For those readers seeking to find new and interesting insights in Watergate or juicy disclosures about Carl Bernstein's work with Bob Woodruff, this book is NOT for you. On the other hand, if you're looking for an engaging narrative about the growth and development of an eager, smart, observant kid who became a first-rate newsman in the environment of Washington, DC, this is the book for you. </p><p>Raised in an observant Jewish family in Washington, Bernstein early discovered that formal education wasn't for him. However, when he discovered the news room of the (late) Washington Star, he found a school that provided him all he needed: skills, insights, structure, friends, and a lifetime career. </p><p>Beginning as a copy boy, a runner who picks up news in progress and moves it from desk to desk, Bernstein moved quickly into taking dictation on the phone from reporters in the field, to filing news himself, to getting bylines for the stories he wrote. In other words, he became a professional newsman while still a teenager. Because he loved prowling Washington neighborhoods, he often found himself on site when interesting things were happening. He was a quick learner and accurate in his descriptions and reporting. </p><p>The mentors he found at The Star, as well as the bad examples he was smart enough to identify and avoid, provided him with the education his infrequent attendance at the University of Maryland never accomplished. After five years of what can best be called an apprenticeship, he left the failing Star to join a colleague at a newspaper in Newark, Nj, a far cry from the excitement of Washington. After working for several other papers, he returned to Washington and has spent most of the rest of his distinguished carrer as a reporter for the Washington Post.\</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Carl Bernstein</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh325zvoGGh5tLb98yfXi4n1gnzmiv3a-d697cg7rvN5gJAtS3o4TwkIxlWLj5sDnwWor27XobCWVxm74nvtgGpYXbyFrIx3kQ0uJP2yhExOw19iJbj-4OF5v_jHCSru-tPsXr9-bSzjliuE3_AdkhhVO1uvLseSmEQYfB7N1rxHOpGSn-IcvCX2X36A/s1200/Photo%20Bernstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh325zvoGGh5tLb98yfXi4n1gnzmiv3a-d697cg7rvN5gJAtS3o4TwkIxlWLj5sDnwWor27XobCWVxm74nvtgGpYXbyFrIx3kQ0uJP2yhExOw19iJbj-4OF5v_jHCSru-tPsXr9-bSzjliuE3_AdkhhVO1uvLseSmEQYfB7N1rxHOpGSn-IcvCX2X36A/w389-h389/Photo%20Bernstein.jpg" width="389" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">This is a lively, fun-filled book worth your attention. You'll learn a lot about the news business in a most enjoyable presentation. Highly recommended!</span></p>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-72279825632755511232022-09-22T10:46:00.000-04:002022-09-22T10:46:06.096-04:00Washington Black by Esi Edugyan: Book Review<div class="separator"><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"> <img height="500" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JY6Eap_S_Vd-6u045ZHpcT61NcPrGC8MFat3tkqc7yGIZvP8_yTvAUYGcHkyYUzsigsARZVCKITMudpBke4q8TSpNcIDcrb6ZnGOeoMaZDbOu6Odx76dIe-vstPDMXWn5WyV4edUosJOvyFY1pqJdUFWjjSmjqt3FjHpvCFgijY2T5sFi3zTx1jlNg" style="font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" width="326" /></p></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-318265f2-7fff-cebe-f776-b9c73bac61ac"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Named to The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year in 2018 as well as short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Washington Black</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> captures the reader quickly dropping onto the island of Barbados on a plantation in 1830. The story is told by Washington Black, a young slave who doesn’t know whether he’s ten or eleven years old. He has no memories he considers worth remembering while he lives on a plantation under the strict and sometimes violent vigil of on older slave woman he knows as Big Kit. Work and frequent beatings in blinding heat are the constants in his life. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the sons of the plantation’s owner, Christopher Wilde, known as Titch, plucks young Wash out of his miserable life to assist him in launching a strange lighter than air vehicle…a doomed to failure venture, which leads to Wash’s being burned almost beyond recognition, and to his escape with Titch to America. There follows a strange, often frightening, journey to escape a slave catcher, and learn to live on his own in America and, later, Canada. Throughout his travels, his skills as a draftsman/artist grow along with his interest in marine life, which turns out to be his greatest skill, beyond survival. At first seeming a little strange, the novel turns into a page turner as Wash continues his search for the meaning of his own existence. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Author Esi Edugyan, is a Canadian writer educated who studied at the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University. She has published three novels and one work of nonfiction. Her works have earned a number of prizes and mentions for major awards in fiction writing. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Esi Edugyan </b></blockquote></blockquote><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 315px; overflow: hidden; width: 220px;"><img height="349" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qUutsxoW7nmKh09r9l-lzPNOG2mDBHiGoFEJAqENDamB4Zghys3Nd0Y7U93uLIv1bfAFPTmPDZTsLpMYWuMR1rQPvy1oGY2PNkRX3lZ9ZnYj5ctB9rCDuCn7hnzkjerTE3N7RTqmlAWpzzIIihX9dlY3JDSEaKU0aG4cjooX5CZmzYgUcJMIdEFFzw=w244-h349" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="244" /></span></span></p><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Washington Black</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> captures a reader at the start and retains interest as he struggles to learn who he is as well as where he might fit in as he grows in self-awareness through a series of harrowing and then satisfying growth experiences. Edugyan’s writing has narrative drive along with close observation and character development. I bought the book from ThriftBooks and it is available in all the usual outlets. Highly recommended. </span></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-63399796052888415832022-07-03T19:36:00.000-04:002022-07-03T19:36:36.862-04:00My American Journey by Colin L. Powell<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfbUHupXHDRNZzkDptXSOvVkVXYeUHrs2n4ZNhiu-mpUTf_1BkGZ8gR-il_0B_olTExa-6IqvVBPrhK_Srn2FsANy0j3VYHXkWKiMXlSRkFmN5wsPrQXu5a0tSPFcDjTwapJfnqldmiSXagENQctrisVi7J1Wdxe1_tgkDc77srOcQtnL56EYG81GO4A/s500/Colin%20Powell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="471" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfbUHupXHDRNZzkDptXSOvVkVXYeUHrs2n4ZNhiu-mpUTf_1BkGZ8gR-il_0B_olTExa-6IqvVBPrhK_Srn2FsANy0j3VYHXkWKiMXlSRkFmN5wsPrQXu5a0tSPFcDjTwapJfnqldmiSXagENQctrisVi7J1Wdxe1_tgkDc77srOcQtnL56EYG81GO4A/w312-h471/Colin%20Powell.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">Colin Powell's journey from being the son of immigrant parents from Jamaica and growing up in a working class environment in Queens, New York, New York stands as a shining example of the possibilities for ambitious, upwardly mobile people. A graduate of Queens College and ROTC, he rose to become the highest ranking officer in the American armed forces as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Serving under mostly Republican Presidents (Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush) he maintained, in the best manner of an American soldier a neutral political stance while striving go serve each administration in which he worked with the best advice he could, while leading four often competing military services. His story is filled with wit, wisdom, and insight. Until the end of the book, he expresses no political philosophy. At the end, he outlines a moderate governmental viewpoint, which would be a model for us, today, to seek to follow. He turned down an offer from President Bill Clinton to run as his Vice-Presidential running mate, and refused to run for President after retiring from the Army in favor of going home to his wife a family.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">Colin Powell emerges as likable yet determined to create change in the armed services where necessary and to effect American foreign policy where action, often wished for by the men he served under, would have cost American lives for no good purpose than to meet political goals.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">My American Journey provides exceptionally interesting insights into our problems today while still relevant and meaning, despite having been published a dozen years ago. Highly recommended</span></span></p></blockquote>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-23861792516052153382022-03-28T13:32:00.008-04:002022-03-28T13:39:24.015-04:00Rock of Ages: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-369ff842-7fff-cb5e-68d6-4c1af6e84da2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 400px; overflow: hidden; width: 267px;"><img height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GNYwp8Z_SJV0Wx_ExjyuPdtp4vM8EPg8NJadLb-B9cHcattvK7gaENtz3iROUhtBDTXAufieshkkxpMVWtd_W8pEnwEMGXZAesYJwzKQ8tjEC-H6mD_mmFaK2k1V20SxdwFXCnmp" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="267" /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Junior Bender is driving along the street with his teenage daughter Rina, when she pops the question he’s been dreading. She asks what he does for a living. Bender, a career thief, specializing in high value thefts for underworld denizens, gulps, considers his obligations, and decides to answer her questions honestly while spending the weekend engaged in his profession. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-87f7f8a1-7fff-910e-9f41-1f81ced4b927"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the delights of any new Tim Hallinan novel is that you don’t need to have read the preceding novels in the series to catch up with the characters. In <i>Rock of Ages</i> (Soho Crime Jun 07, 2022 | 336 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9781641292184) we find protagonist Junior Bender, with his teenage daughter Rina at a legacy rock concert featuring bands that might have been well known fifty years ago. As a brick wall collapses, a musician is killed and the stage is set for Junior to track down the murderer, protect his daughter, continue his storied career as a master thief, and provide plenty of thrills and laughter for his legion of readers. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The plot of <i>Rock of Ages</i> once again takes Junior into the friendly but risky world of uber gangster, the not quite retired, elderly and still dangerous Irwin Dressler, who remains dangerous despite being completely charmed by the ingenuous, smart-as-a-whip Rina. Dressler wants his investment in a dicy legacy rock tour which he has helped finance for four aging fringy rock promoters/gangsters. The final concerts take place in a fifty year old movie palace, no longer the great venue where major Hollywood blockbusters had their world premieres. connoisseurs of aging movie theaters and fading rockers will find this lively novel particularly delightful, as will Hallinan’s fans as well as those not yet familiar with his work. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two of Tim Hallinan’s series, Junior Bender and Poke Rafferty often mix first rate detective fiction with the problems inherent with fathering teenage girls and being a responsible family member while also engaging in a dangerous occupation. Achieving such a balance in a conventional occupation remains challenging enough. Succeeding within a life of danger and possible death creates tensions and risks that feed the imagination of hungry fiction readers. Doing so with humor and wit turns Rock of Ages into vintage Hallinan. As always, he mixes vivid descriptions, twisted plot-lines, and quirky characters to serve up a delightful frolic through the shady Hollywood underworld. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timothy Hallinan</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 409px; overflow: hidden; width: 300px;"><img height="409" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/twSuBSMBtFvZaTaELvLtkImedbo--gk3QS5N0sY0q5HZIAN4hc471-3wOrb1rQgh1s2E8TaWLf2Dqn2FnIy0zaHSPYf18c-CaS09NrbeY53xKkktzKaibfJc71ShPmGlRaAzgxco" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="300" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timothy Hallinan lives in Southern California, where has based two of the three protagonists for his quite different series of novels. He has received high critical praise for his three series as well as increasingly widespread recognition for his Poke Rafferty series, set in Bangkok, where he once lived a portion of each year, and his Junior Bender series set in LA and surroundings. He has also served as a consultant to the movie and television industry on a range of issues. For more information, look </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Hallinan" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Rock of Ages</i> (A Junior Bender Mystery) by Timothy Hallinan will be published on June 7th, and is available from all the usual (Amazon, Target, and bookstores everywhere). I found the book to be filled with good laughs, sharp insights, and believable relationships surrounding revealing insights into the sadness of aging rock groups, the decline of once great movie theaters, and the terrors of fatherhood. It does not require prior reading in the series to enjoy, although I recommend all three series as worthy of your attention, if you have not encountered Hallinan’s work before. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A digital copy <i>Rock of Ages</i> was provided to me by the publisher in return for an unbiased reading and possible review. </span></p><br /></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-29278059351328297712022-01-20T15:52:00.019-05:002022-01-21T06:01:52.558-05:00On the Bus with Bill Monroe by Mark Hembree - Book Review<p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEin83vuxZ_s1UuXymn4h-nQskPCCNoqpWEl3g79yHkjBBdNQVj3DEz-Sq6EinPgbFIujNY8k5mqt1gchgb3LDYMPy-q6rplKwoy7fiPnooGlKwbL2BbZ8FJABUj5S-EqdQeAgHzxm-iXErq_iNV3hLcDw5ry0pJrPpjyjumi0vsMe6nqLvLonccDdzCUA=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="667" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEin83vuxZ_s1UuXymn4h-nQskPCCNoqpWEl3g79yHkjBBdNQVj3DEz-Sq6EinPgbFIujNY8k5mqt1gchgb3LDYMPy-q6rplKwoy7fiPnooGlKwbL2BbZ8FJABUj5S-EqdQeAgHzxm-iXErq_iNV3hLcDw5ry0pJrPpjyjumi0vsMe6nqLvLonccDdzCUA=w266-h418" width="266" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was the late seventies. Mark Hembree was an itinerant musician playing bluegrass with a Denver-based band called </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monroe Doctrine. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The band broke up, he moved back to Wisconsin, and a few months later happened on a chance</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to audition for Bill MonroeThe tryout went well, but he was still surprised when Monroe called a few days later and offered him the job. Two weeks later, he joined the band. That was the beginning of five years learning to work with the father of bluegrass music, a lesson that was never completely learned, always evolving and completely unpredictable. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6f746606-7fff-b518-937d-112702e13f7d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hembree’s approach to writing </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Bus with Bill Monroe</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is anecdotal, and incidental, as if it were based upon stops along the way or incidents on the bus. Each brief chapter presents a complete incident illuminating an aspect of life on the road with Bill Monroe, his character, its hardships, quirks, strengths, needs, great vision, ability as a teacher, and sense of the immortality of his music. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark Hembree approaches Bill Monroe from a distance of forty years after spending five years in his band, using a macro lens to put a microscope on his experience. He adds nuance to his time with Monroe, putting the man’s life into perspective in ways that nothing else I’ve read about Monroe has succeeded in accomplishing. His writing is fresh, illuminating, open, and delightful.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hembree’s chapter on legendary fiddler Kenny Baker may define his writing style as well as any. Instead of providing an encyclopedic discussion of one of the defining fiddler's roles within the band, Hembree paints in haiku-like fine strokes, defining the man, his music, and his greatness. If I want to learn more, this provides me with the platform from which I can dive but it’s all I need to know to begin to understand the importance of Baker and his music to Bill Monroe. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, encounters with Monroe himself illustrate all the strengths and flaws that come together to make up his genius. His tight-fistedness alongside his sometime generosity, his flintlike hardness beside his sometimes warmth and understanding, his commitment to his originality and awareness of change. And so many other internal contradictions making up this complex genius. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">More than one hundred and sixty musicians came and went during the history of Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, some became famous in their own right, others are hardly remembered today. Each contributed in some way to the legend of the man and the music. But Bill Monroe assured the purity of his music, retained a constancy uniquely his own, always recognizable, whoever was in the band, no matter where in they were, from the smallest Appalachian village to Jerusalem, to the White House.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Mark Hembree<br /></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7MZpXfmcQObehR2lla7m28GoP8ZxIU3QYzBweM_P46ZhbeHES57aMiJ6dlByLibCda9EPNrbVpRPnBDZcJzrSZ1Q4W7njVDaSzHBKngXxKbbPtArgMKJAvAoa3ysyMAEPliXqsA3UjIbyb_Ixk8PP9exrECfX9pwuhUNwpu-n1mGBUY2iRUBHwoubrA=s221" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="180" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7MZpXfmcQObehR2lla7m28GoP8ZxIU3QYzBweM_P46ZhbeHES57aMiJ6dlByLibCda9EPNrbVpRPnBDZcJzrSZ1Q4W7njVDaSzHBKngXxKbbPtArgMKJAvAoa3ysyMAEPliXqsA3UjIbyb_Ixk8PP9exrECfX9pwuhUNwpu-n1mGBUY2iRUBHwoubrA=w255-h313" width="255" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="font-size: medium; white-space: normal;" /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Hembree joined the Blue Grass Boys in 1979 after a stint playing bass with </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Monroe Doctrine. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">He played with the Monroe until 1984, when he joined the </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Nashville Bluegrass Band</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> as a founding member with Alan O’Bryant, Pat Enright, and Mike Compton. After a bus accident, he retired to a publishing career in Wisconsin and now edits and writes as well as playing bluegrass with the </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Hembree Band </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">and western swing with the <i>Best Westerns</i></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys play Rawhide</b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">at </b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>The White House - 1980</b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/JiM-sLinfiw" width="480"></iframe></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many books have sought to capture the quality of the man who created such an enduring legend, planted such vibrant and rich seeds, commanded such fear and respect. There’s almost an industry of scholarly study devoted to discovering the real Bill Monroe. Perhaps the incidents and anecdotes Mark Hembree brings together with his light, mostly humorous touch do as good a job as any of the much heavier pieces of serious scholarship. He presents a complex genius who emerged from poverty, illiteracy, and the Great Depression with a massive chip on his shoulder as well as great, unrecognized ability, fighting for every advantage he could achieve. The details are available in the many books. The core personality emerges in the stories lovingly, humorously, and admiringly told by Mark Hembree. <i>On the Bus with Bill Monroe: My Five Year Ride with the Father of Bluegrass Music</i> by Mark Hembree is published by the University of Illinois Press, a volume in the series Music in American Life. It is available in April of 2022 from all the usual outlets. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-39068409958037068022021-03-29T08:50:00.003-04:002021-03-29T08:54:25.760-04:00Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records by Bill Nowlin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigI4Lq1ir4JWn__CyBzng_BbimIH20BK6x-NrYDlblcLplV7gbj6hFOQwv7ejLrQqYYnXpqhzyczPjItfOAGHg4gGi-mVEV1aEbH4iPxHw48ThI7ff_YPqv3zHelX1Kc_xx02iOnL7w1Jg/s1382/Vinyl+Ventures.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1382" data-original-width="921" height="467" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigI4Lq1ir4JWn__CyBzng_BbimIH20BK6x-NrYDlblcLplV7gbj6hFOQwv7ejLrQqYYnXpqhzyczPjItfOAGHg4gGi-mVEV1aEbH4iPxHw48ThI7ff_YPqv3zHelX1Kc_xx02iOnL7w1Jg/w310-h467/Vinyl+Ventures.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-544d8491-7fff-bd6f-62c4-af123dae4221"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In many ways the story of </span><a href="https://rounder.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rounder Records</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Ventures-Rounder-Records-Popular/dp/1800500068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JYLCKYOWNIY0&dchild=1&keywords=vinyl+ventures&qid=1617020473&s=books&sprefix=Vinyl+V%2Cinstant-video%2C181&sr=1-1">Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records by Bill Nowlin</a> (Equinox Publishing, April, 21, 2021, 320 pp, $29.95) and the story of bluegrass music grew together when three college students from Tufts University began heading to Appalachia during the 1960’s to enjoy, record, and collect this music. Now, Bill Nowlin, one of three Rounder Founders has written the entire story of Rounder Records from close up. The book shows some of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of a writer broadly interested in the world of music and a world beyond, without ever losing its focus on the birth, development, and integrity of its subject, a record label of distinction and longevity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rounder Records, founded by Bill Nowlin, Ken Irwin, and Marian Leighton Levy in 1970 was unusual for independent labels in having three founders with different tastes, who sought out music to record from a wider palette than many early independent labels. Rounder emerged just as a yearning to discover the roots of the then popular folk revival was cresting. The three Rounder Founders set out to find, record, and collect the music of those roots, at first in the American South, but soon expanding to a much wider, more comprehensive world.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Rounder Founders</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkEk-v3wTZLsmD-xGw2w6XcbO-ciZtY_LPObJfw-I-RGNMTtdhZQjfAdX2YMBozqC6p_D2DTItfrr5-f-ptHKqKEdXHAq7tcjMzt00xo3U-5L-lfAiKq8ER8n6zodo9clSbDCn53l9LPz/s1440/Rounder+Founders+early.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1197" data-original-width="1440" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkEk-v3wTZLsmD-xGw2w6XcbO-ciZtY_LPObJfw-I-RGNMTtdhZQjfAdX2YMBozqC6p_D2DTItfrr5-f-ptHKqKEdXHAq7tcjMzt00xo3U-5L-lfAiKq8ER8n6zodo9clSbDCn53l9LPz/w411-h342/Rounder+Founders+early.jpg" width="411" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reading about the early adventures of the Rounder Founders is a little bit like watching puppies playing in their infant box when one considers the size Rounder grew to, and the speed with which it achieved a level of maturity. They hitch hiked to North Carolina and Virginia, haunted record stores in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, attended live shows at small venues, earned free tickets by promoting those shows, built a cut-and-paste recording business at little or no cost, all as an adventure without thought to making it a career. As many of the other new labels left folk music for rock and roll, the field opened to allow three dedicated young Boston students who hung with what they loved, to begin to prosper. It’s the story of three “counter culture” kids doing what they loved with passion and conviction while discovering a lifelong enterprise that worked out for all of them. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the early 1970’s, the recording industry was still pretty informal, especially among the multitude of independent, one person operations. Rounder benefitted from having three partners who worked hard while trying to be fair to artists and buyers simultaneously. Over time, and with added success, they remained true to their original ideals while, of necessity, having to become better organized and more businesslike. Nevertheless, for those who know them, the Rounder Founders still give off a whiff of counter culture kids from the late sixties and early seventies. There’s an informal construction to the book, as early friends pop in with memories along the way. Reading the book often feels like a conversation with many people from many eras. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Originally collecting, recording performances, and producing these often rather highly specialized recordings focused on previously obscure performers in Appalachia, expanding to early bluegrass festivals and musical gatherings. Over time, their interests took them to cajun and zydeco in Louisiana, reggae and ska in Jamaica, and to Africa for both traditional and contemporary music. All of this became a part of what turned into an international catalog of over 3000 recordings. Meanwhile, the Founders always took care to represent the interests of the performers in terms of both publication and payment. In order to accomplish these sometimes contradictory goals, they took extra care in choosing partners to collaborate with. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In order to manage this huge collection, Rounder’s business model had to expand as they kept tight control over their expenses. Rounder grew into both a recording company and a distributor, eventually leading them to partner with many other small companies to become a major distributor of niche roots music labels. The Founders learned to be nimble and innovative, while always looking out for the welfare and artistic/economic welfare of the artists they signed. During these periods of expansion, challenges, and opportunities, Nowlin’s narrative describes in detail the corporate interactions and complexities, often with the help of long lists. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ken Irwin expressed the criteria the company used for selecting music to record, saying, “There are three things we look at when we’re signing artists. One, do we like the music and do we feel that it will hold up over time? Two, do we like the people and their representation? Three, do we think we can make money from it?” Furthermore, if the music doesn’t pass the first test, the next two questions were never even asked. (p.204) As the music recording and distribution environment changed after the introduction of the CD, to digital online distribution through iTunes, Spotify, satellite radio, the role of music publishers and labels became increasingly less prominent. Rounder’s practice of being both a promoter of historic, regional, or local performers became viewed as important but less commercially viable. As such, their business changed as they focused on identifying excellence, publishing materials only available through national archives or private collections. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vinyl Ventures</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in a print edition with Spotify and YouTube at hand, so I could sample the albums and/or performers Bill Nowlin writes about in his clear, informal, narrative style. The e-version has built in links taking readers directly to Spotify versions of the music. Digital Sources often provided me with a setting for the places where the music was made in addition to providing invaluable insights into the range of music Rounder recorded. I was able to find and hear every artist I looked for on one or the other outlet, but I can’t verify the availability of every one. Nevertheless, since it’s inevitable that many musicians referred to in the book are unfamiliar to many readers, using such sources increases the pure pleasure of this book. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b>Bill Nowling</b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYxD-WXyf6q7C3fioP3QjqSNNiPCg2UKi_KQT3khPqyvgtAL7rdTO_zCJmNKjRiPjBo6hTlH5G51MwCiCHbe-OwxzI4pymt0s09pJp5Or1Hl3aQ197gi91EtcpVQR5UpzfnRKBeXorqri/s480/Bill+Nowlin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="399" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYxD-WXyf6q7C3fioP3QjqSNNiPCg2UKi_KQT3khPqyvgtAL7rdTO_zCJmNKjRiPjBo6hTlH5G51MwCiCHbe-OwxzI4pymt0s09pJp5Or1Hl3aQ197gi91EtcpVQR5UpzfnRKBeXorqri/s320/Bill+Nowlin.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill Nowlin is the author or editor of nearly 100 books ranging from this history, through other books about music, more than twenty titles concerning the Boston Red Sox, other baseball titles, political history, fiction, and more. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, as well as being one of the original three Rounder Founders. He taught Political Science at UMass Lowell from 1970 - 1982. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research, he claims</span><span style="font-size: 15pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #031a3a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to have traveled to more than 130 countries, but says there’s no place like Fenway Park.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #031a3a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #031a3a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Rounder Founders</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #031a3a; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUT9L8eMRr0wfzkhvlILzirMMIukCAsgt4EzPpLXkMEKe_1xXdGGfN488oUv5u7cYl8mwHF5-p0qqzufqK3ipTZkrG26_mDYSoNM-vKC7Ho3HoclBTrH7vesaSiDTE-kSzdZ9OdEhXDc1P/s366/Adult+Rounder+Founders.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUT9L8eMRr0wfzkhvlILzirMMIukCAsgt4EzPpLXkMEKe_1xXdGGfN488oUv5u7cYl8mwHF5-p0qqzufqK3ipTZkrG26_mDYSoNM-vKC7Ho3HoclBTrH7vesaSiDTE-kSzdZ9OdEhXDc1P/s320/Adult+Rounder+Founders.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b><br /></b></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the many delights of Vinyl Ventures lies in Bill Nowlin’s seemingly idiosyncratic asides into his travels, love of baseball, and other interests. One particularly useful segment describes the decline and fall of both the recording and book publishing industries to the allures and dangers of digital publishing found on pages 249 - 254. These five pages alone, devoted to the world’s digital environment changing before our eyes would make the whole book worthwhile, even if so many other delightful insights, observations, and useful elisions didn’t exist. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a person whose experience with Rounder Records grew from encountering bluegrass music relatively late in life with limited familiarity with popular folk and country music, encountering a book like Vinyl Ventures is simultaneously a daunting experience and a mind-opening revelation. The range of enthusiasms, deep scholarly exploration, and sometimes daunting physical challenges, even exposures to danger in order to collect and catalog a significant portion of the world’s music, is difficult, at best, to describe. Bill Nowlin with an expansive writing style sometimes losing track of chronology captures the courage, imagination, and capacity for risk taking, both personal and financial, the Rounder Founders exhibited in building their company.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A problem with books like this one is the possibility of becoming mostly a list of artists recorded, trips taken, awards won, problems overcome, and changes made. All those elements lie within this highly readable account, yet it includes the human experiences of the Rounder Founders as they built a recording empire based on their enthusiasms while including the broad range of interests they pursued. Their recorded music and choice of artists reflected and taught the world the broad range of music and cultural experience available, exposing the musical roots of who we are as people and who we can become. Therein lies the thrill and the charm of </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Ventures-Rounder-Records-Popular/dp/1800500068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JYLCKYOWNIY0&dchild=1&keywords=vinyl+ventures&qid=1617020473&s=books&sprefix=Vinyl+V%2Cinstant-video%2C181&sr=1-1">Vinyl Ventures</a></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-46193046242446120622021-03-12T17:03:00.000-05:002021-03-12T17:03:32.442-05:00Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz - Around the World with Captain Cook<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-650d93c8-7fff-1d1b-21ad-8dc9246768a4"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGV2oCIfQ04ZdisUTAZg1NdKA_whJEyMaDTVZIcxlHhj7prnQSHYU7_y8ltn2FHv0SbkiOHRNs3DZLk7i3iL-dXX5XX8G66G1Mn8NVoErVv2F42AGVW1z6h9gHx5KMY82G8xWv0mTcGneU/s475/Blue+Latitudes+-+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="325" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGV2oCIfQ04ZdisUTAZg1NdKA_whJEyMaDTVZIcxlHhj7prnQSHYU7_y8ltn2FHv0SbkiOHRNs3DZLk7i3iL-dXX5XX8G66G1Mn8NVoErVv2F42AGVW1z6h9gHx5KMY82G8xWv0mTcGneU/w258-h358/Blue+Latitudes+-+Cover.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most people are aware of a mid-eighteenth century British explorer named Captain Cook. Fewer of us know that he was the first person from the West to visit the extensive island chains in the Pacific Ocean as well as to explore and map the outlines of Australia and New Zealand. Fewer still know of his huge influence on later explorers, exploiters, and developers of a world-wide view or the development of what became the British Empire. Tony Horwitz in his marvelously informative and entertaining travel cum history book </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3rK6G71">Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before</a></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3rK6G71"> </a>(Henry Holt & Company, 2002, 480 pages) brings the man, history, and the present together to provide lots of answers while raising not a few issues and some additional questions in a hugely entertaining and informative volume. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Cook's Ship - Endeavour</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKCZ-JcTpOtWldOufxcHGdjmA8KbTqbvVriPvguw-x4KD4bkdOVFjrYmYNQw2-mfE2XgUfW97HLE2G00G3PUltuehgyiDuMy3J4CTxUwFfUi7jHf680MHjKYFTz7GCGhimbSrleEqvzno/s1237/Endeavour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1087" data-original-width="1237" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKCZ-JcTpOtWldOufxcHGdjmA8KbTqbvVriPvguw-x4KD4bkdOVFjrYmYNQw2-mfE2XgUfW97HLE2G00G3PUltuehgyiDuMy3J4CTxUwFfUi7jHf680MHjKYFTz7GCGhimbSrleEqvzno/w425-h373/Endeavour.jpg" width="425" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-81f0556e-7fff-fe90-c34a-b1ac182c1be7"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a narrator seeking to write a serious account of Cook’s three voyages of exploration, Horwitz carefully describes the context and times of Cook’s explorations while including how these widespread Polynesian peoples have adapted to and been corrupted by the modern world. To do this, he decides to visit the places Cook visited. To add spice for the reader as well as a companion for himself, Horwitz invites Roger Williamson, an old friend with whom he has travelled and sailed before, to accompany him on his voyages. The contrasting viewpoints, perspectives, and lifestyles between the two men provide humor as well as insight into the world Cook uncovered and the way these far-flung islands have developed as they encounter the modern world. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James Cook, 1728 - 1779, during three voyages to the Pacific Ocean explored and mapped from the edges of Antarctica to the northernmost navigable waters on the Western edge of North America. He was particularly noted for his navigation skills, which provided maps still in use into the early twentieth century. He proved himself to be a remarkable leader - resourceful, relatively humane and brave. He discovered and/or mapped lands unknown to exist before he arrived, and extended the available knowledge of places already touched. While this book is not a biography, a picture of a smart, resourceful man who would not, under other circumstances, have had the opportunities, because of his humble birth, to rise to command or encounter the difficult situations in which he thrived. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Cook Entering Kealakekua Bay</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>by</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Herb Kane</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsdscPywCoaZLkx7mGtCFSuG1weEMviLoA8wZJqF-_2vIS0hxy6nUdv1hrz78ozf06ACqFVoBxLY6KlBuEYXzca_O7BVKPNftht3r0tPACqOWIUETwrLMn5PoY0weR1Wi3S66wO08l2sa/s1500/Herb-Kane_Cook-Entering-Kealakekua-Bay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="1500" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsdscPywCoaZLkx7mGtCFSuG1weEMviLoA8wZJqF-_2vIS0hxy6nUdv1hrz78ozf06ACqFVoBxLY6KlBuEYXzca_O7BVKPNftht3r0tPACqOWIUETwrLMn5PoY0weR1Wi3S66wO08l2sa/w477-h273/Herb-Kane_Cook-Entering-Kealakekua-Bay.jpg" width="477" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Horwitz’ book skillfully moves between accounts taken from Cook’s captain’s log and other writings as well as the writings and art of other members of his crew and adventurers who were carried aboard ship, possibly to help defray the costs of the voyage itself. In these segments he accounts for the “unspoiled” islands and their relatively primitive inhabitants. Then he spends time ashore meeting local inhabitants, both former visitors who have been attracted to the Pacific islands through readings and pictures of the lifestyle there who came to visit and stayed, as well as long-time peoples who have settled there earlier. The indigenous population, by this time, no longer contains very many, if any, pure Polynesian </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">descendants</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The cross cultural stories of exploration, exploitation, epidemic, and genetic melding create new societies as the tragic disappearance of a traditional peoples’ culture continues.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Tony Hurwitz</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXGrzc8Bd3mRm84j3FM0FLWBvSUtrkl1y6kAnnBio3gXyovE87ZI_YWTP8GU3rhEG27u6PbPghGeT669BsH_-DVFNGuI2e5xTN-AKq8mdWyWYGt4rUJwjyPr3bd8qtUKI_DFTgypShkfJ/s449/THorwitz2_000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="374" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXGrzc8Bd3mRm84j3FM0FLWBvSUtrkl1y6kAnnBio3gXyovE87ZI_YWTP8GU3rhEG27u6PbPghGeT669BsH_-DVFNGuI2e5xTN-AKq8mdWyWYGt4rUJwjyPr3bd8qtUKI_DFTgypShkfJ/w316-h379/THorwitz2_000.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p><p style="font-size: medium; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tony Horwitz (1958 - 2019) was a Pulitzer Prize winner for his reporting on low wage working conditions in </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wall Street Journal</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He also wrote for </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The New Yorker </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as well as publishing several books. Sadly, he died suddenly while on a walk in 2019. He was sixty years old. </span></p><p style="font-size: medium; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3rK6G71">Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before</a></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Henry Holt & Company, 2002, 480 pages) provides interested readers with variety, enrichment, humor, and vision by showing the primitive paradise Captain James Cook found on his voyages in contrast to the diverse, complex societies which have developed in modern times. Readers of travel as well as those interested in primitive cultures and their introduction to the modern world will find this book a fascinating and worthwhile voyage of discovery for themselves. </span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-51430931611925616112021-01-18T09:48:00.000-05:002021-01-18T09:48:56.044-05:00Wartime Farm - An Historical Recreation<p style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXmbb5cgUrTHWzfb1O0stePtytQQg9osaZHmuNhZRuo5MJLzYOjuBIq_LqEJ0rytX2Ls8izxjyD5mNpkfO8J985KDlRYqfTDJTGRKST5kDiqY4eZ-yFCd-nRCmRHnC1qZ8_861s8n3CSi/s1008/81bbvYAkY9L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="780" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXmbb5cgUrTHWzfb1O0stePtytQQg9osaZHmuNhZRuo5MJLzYOjuBIq_LqEJ0rytX2Ls8izxjyD5mNpkfO8J985KDlRYqfTDJTGRKST5kDiqY4eZ-yFCd-nRCmRHnC1qZ8_861s8n3CSi/w339-h438/81bbvYAkY9L.jpg" width="339" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-37c9b336-7fff-7e11-a3f3-405040ba2ed3">Nostalgia has a strange and funny effect on people. We often yearn for the “good old days,” finding something strange and wonderful about a golden past we yearn for, whether it existed as we remember it or not. At other times, our nostalgia may cover up many less pleasant or difficult times with a rosy glow. My wife, Irene, and I were both born in 1941, about six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into World War II. However, the war had been raging in Europe for two years before our formal entry, even though the U.S. was supporting England with weapons and material. We both lived through the war as small children, each of us having fleeting memories of crushing cans, saving rubber bands, and ration books limiting the availability of gasoline. This series brought back some real and, perhaps, some media coached later images to our consciousness</span></p></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f635eaf-7fff-260b-30de-3584a3e550ee"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Manor Farm</b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDkVznws2wdOEvt8O_DZNWH0URqQudCB4r2yR0Q6zw476jprPeOegGbgJaVEO4GRZ_Tv1VIeE11ijn4hPDfPQPMj472PBTUtB8YDYl2i2bNQr5lHOO2P4_G4e2Z5e0ibxir89ZN8Sw-Ny/s2048/957651_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDkVznws2wdOEvt8O_DZNWH0URqQudCB4r2yR0Q6zw476jprPeOegGbgJaVEO4GRZ_Tv1VIeE11ijn4hPDfPQPMj472PBTUtB8YDYl2i2bNQr5lHOO2P4_G4e2Z5e0ibxir89ZN8Sw-Ny/w470-h353/957651_original.jpg" width="470" /></a></p></span><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The BBC production of </span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mmt8t" style="text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wartime Farm</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, recreates the British farmer’s experiences of the War, bringing its hardships, advancements, and struggles to life in an arresting, revealing, and engaging eight episode documentary bringing realities of the war as it affected life in the English countryside to reality. Currently running on <a href="https://www.britbox.com/us/">Britbox</a>, this highly engaging eight episode program, filmed at the living museum </span><a href="https://www.hants.gov.uk/thingstodo/countryparks/manorfarm" style="text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Manor Farm</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, contains many points of nostalgia while never glossing over the hardships, dangers, and changes the war brought about in English rural society. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Cast</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9Jupveg8GWEoRyykacSEpR-SBhB1L1h-3zlx6hj0vkaVHZxfI6osXwALF7B7VqCjabobpX-tIndtzmQu8_F78M0MlohisIobTHveLJ7sw0m5twMktolkhPtR5yO_u4dZcFiLSYwNM8KI/s620/The+Cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="620" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9Jupveg8GWEoRyykacSEpR-SBhB1L1h-3zlx6hj0vkaVHZxfI6osXwALF7B7VqCjabobpX-tIndtzmQu8_F78M0MlohisIobTHveLJ7sw0m5twMktolkhPtR5yO_u4dZcFiLSYwNM8KI/w463-h262/The+Cast.jpg" width="463" /></a></div><b><br /></b></span></div><p></p><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The main characters in the film are Historian Ruth Goodman and archeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, who work the farm together, learning the farming and domestic skills necessary as well as confronting the hardships of farm life during the war. While all the filming, except for black & white film clips from during the war, is clearly contemporary and all the characters in every role are re-creators/interpreters, there’s an almost overwhelming sense of authenticity, as the three central characters learn to live in a time period clearly taking place before they were born. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOiOvRLIYdu1Y0GL2v3ABsF3fTA8nq7pzAFaArhjE9azsd_ldAzAknHQSAwTD4jN5SEQLKB8R0Mz0mmIOPGmlcxEzdjS7_ntM0j-J4gF2G3kWB3Cg7gQ6nQBYQQN8PP_Adfcrd-ptWMvr/s640/Farming+c.+1941+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOiOvRLIYdu1Y0GL2v3ABsF3fTA8nq7pzAFaArhjE9azsd_ldAzAknHQSAwTD4jN5SEQLKB8R0Mz0mmIOPGmlcxEzdjS7_ntM0j-J4gF2G3kWB3Cg7gQ6nQBYQQN8PP_Adfcrd-ptWMvr/w475-h267/Farming+c.+1941+-+Copy.jpg" width="475" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wartime Farm is currently streaming on </span><a href="https://acorn.tv/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Acorn TV</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which can be ordered separately or through your </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Prime-TV-Shows/b?ie=UTF8&node=7613705011" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amazon Prime</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> subscription for $5.99 a month. An annual subscription is available directly from Acorn, saving subscribers two months payments. We’ve found it to be intensely interesting in its own right as well as creating cultural and historical context for much of our current streaming of British television programs portraying various aspects and post-war time periods. Even programs like the </span><a href="https://acorn.tv/georgegently/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inspector George Gently Mysteries</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, set during the 1960’s show elements of the effects of World War II in their action. </span><a href="https://www.britbox.com/us/season/The_Inspector_Lynley_Mysteries_S1_p04m556r" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Inspector Lynley Mysteries</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, too, take on greater nuance when the class structure explored there is put into a context of post World War II England. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All in all, <a href="https://acorn.tv/wartimefarm/">Wartime Farm</a> provides fascinating glimpses into social and cultural changes made in England during the 1939 - 1945 period which still resonate through the culture, while never losing its intrinsic entertainment value. Presented in eight episodes, the program offers glimpses into a life fast disappearing from living memory, yet crucial to the modern world. </span></p><br /></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-82321913279470271742020-12-14T09:36:00.000-05:002020-12-14T09:36:21.360-05:00Rascally Mountain Boy by Marc Pruett - Book Review<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42_zwOsOHnYYamXuFLeYgknn6yq_XaCcpUcgxvC1-4CTwi20acVa9EAF89hSY7GNsxmV_x6uV1JG9sXcPW1090vLpy042ZHAf_lXvCSUKnkVsMJ7LkrDaxR014QVd3o8BPuy0U80oceR7/s722/Rascally+Mountain+Boy+-+Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="532" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42_zwOsOHnYYamXuFLeYgknn6yq_XaCcpUcgxvC1-4CTwi20acVa9EAF89hSY7GNsxmV_x6uV1JG9sXcPW1090vLpy042ZHAf_lXvCSUKnkVsMJ7LkrDaxR014QVd3o8BPuy0U80oceR7/w323-h438/Rascally+Mountain+Boy+-+Cover.png" width="323" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nostalgia means looking back at earlier times through the gauzy haze of many years, making much that happened in the past preferable to today’s sometimes awful reality. “Remember when the times were so much better than they are now,” remains a constant lament of the mildly to wildly unhappy living in today’s complex, challenged world. Nostalgia, however, can also serve as an appreciation of the events, behavior, and circumstances from the past serving to form the views and understandings through which individuals see the world, forming their own values and behavior. Memories mix with character- building and appreciation of today to form what, for want of better words, forms our life experience. It’s within this context that musician Marc Pruett has written </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.balsamrange.com/store/rascally-mountain-boy-by-marc-pruett">Rascally Mountain Boy - A Lighthearted Memoir (Life, Music, Songs)</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a delightful collection of stories, memories, and reminiscences from his childhood, touring career as a well-regarded banjo player, and triumphs with major bands. In short, well-written, charming, and insightful glimpses at life and living, Marc Pruett offers a book filled with warmth, reminiscence, memories of many bluegrass greats, and wisdom in a book built for people who enjoy reading in small bites. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f2b9529-7fff-fa1e-83c9-68faed267164">Part I of <i>Rascally Mountain Boys </i>contains stories from Marc Pruett's childhood memories and experiences, told in a folksy, friendly, and winning manner drawing the reader into the world of mid-twentieth century rural North Carolina. He then turns to engaging stories from his long and successful career as a professional banjo player, including fronting his own band. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Marc’s description of how Jimmie Martin broke him in as a young banjo player, molding his delivery to match what Martin was looking for from the banjo is the best Martin profile I’ve ever read. It adds dimension to my understanding of Martin as a performer and a leader as well as showing how a young banjo player learned his trade in those days. Part II consists of stories built around songs finding memories of real life events evoked from songs in his own life. Finally, he looks at songs he himself has written, showing how the meaning of each reflects incidents in his life and values he holds dear as well as the song-writing process itself. </span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f2b9529-7fff-fa1e-83c9-68faed267164"><br /></span></blockquote> Marc Pruett Demo at IBMA<br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f2b9529-7fff-fa1e-83c9-68faed267164"><iframe frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FUYZucy1xdg" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FUYZucy1xdg/hqdefault.jpg);" width="459"></iframe></span></blockquote><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marc Pruett was born and grew up in Haywood County, North Carolina, an area dominated by the Smoky Mountain National Park, small towns, the paper industry, and bluegrass music. Born in 1951, he was nurtured in rural living, growing up in an idyllic rural environment where it was safe for young boys to explore, test themselves, and get into more than a little mischief. His professional career started when he was fifteen years old, and soon he began reaching further afield to play with the bluegrass greats of the sixties and seventies, bands like Jimmy Martin’s, James Monroe, and Ricky Skaggs, where he earned a Grammy Award for his participation in the album </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bluegrass Rules, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">one of the five albums he played on while with Skaggs. As is true of many musicians, he also had another career, working in local and regional government in environmental areas. (</span><a href="https://banjonews.com/2011-10/marc_pruett.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marc Pruett Interview by Wayne Peeler</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) In recent years, Marc received an Honorary Doctorate from Western Carolina University for his contributions to bluegrass music and regional culture. For more than a decade has played with </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.balsamrange.com/">Balsam Range</a></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which began in the Ashville, NC area, founded in 2007, and has risen to national acclaim, twice winning the IBMA Entertainer of the Year Award as well as wider recognition. (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balsam_Range" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balsam_Range</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Balsam Range - Caney Fork River</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="346" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/owaPqOQfzuM" width="416" youtube-src-id="owaPqOQfzuM"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://www.balsamrange.com/store/rascally-mountain-boy-by-marc-pruett">Rascally Mountain Boy</a> </i>by Marc Pruett is a delightful book, perfect for light reading and dipping into when time for concentration is not needed. It successfully captures rural America in the mid-twentieth century, celebrating the simplicity and values of that era. Readers will find evocative memories as well as keen insight into the period and life of growing, rambunctious boys. It also reveals how a regional. Appalachian folk music grew into a national voice for rural life not available to everyone. I highly recommend it. You can purchase a copy through the <a href="https://www.balsamrange.com/store/rascally-mountain-boy-by-marc-pruett">Balsam Range Website</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yiKT9vM6HNskkcfcW_YWM7eLdKgGsUYv2q8o3YxiwcGgdc1Wv29lsa-lXN7ZPU7dhzdKBZ6u62s1xoGTlmkCtGQrGsy8nXTx58KJr5fIoXVpeSZ9OYPw33L15_eZgIRPsKJjrXgINEtC/s400/Marc+Pruett.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="400" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yiKT9vM6HNskkcfcW_YWM7eLdKgGsUYv2q8o3YxiwcGgdc1Wv29lsa-lXN7ZPU7dhzdKBZ6u62s1xoGTlmkCtGQrGsy8nXTx58KJr5fIoXVpeSZ9OYPw33L15_eZgIRPsKJjrXgINEtC/w427-h419/Marc+Pruett.JPG" width="427" /></a></div><br /></div><p></p></span>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7211910878271447535.post-79599920583548028722020-11-09T10:31:00.000-05:002020-11-09T10:31:12.840-05:00The Queen's Gambit - Netflix Series Review<p><span style="font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kwrQzTz16w4" width="320" youtube-src-id="kwrQzTz16w4"></iframe></div><span style="font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d8cee715-7fff-2c11-8744-7b29582f356e">What could be exciting about a little girl in an orphanage learning to be a chess player and following her progress as she becomes a prodigy on her way to world class competition? I’m not interested in chess. We don’t often watch “women’s” dramas. Who cares about lost orphans? Well, I dare you not to binge this magnificent drama which becomes a metaphor for the game of life - its joys, dangers, pitfalls, and searches for meaning. The Queen’s Gambit, currently streaming on Netflix, will provide you with a hugely satisfying coming of age story about a remarkable young woman as well as a new appreciation of the dramatic possibilities found in a game in which two people sit opposite each other for hours with all the drama taking place in their heads. </span></p></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <b>Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nyLKgm1J_H6CrkdKMsax3vvI0wMOY31PxKN6iiFNPaT7zei9eRap3DN5v_HkV9h8Sqeg6Q-ZsDZ6q8-VXefCVDGwD-IhQDgK5eDJ5PmYE5F6gJHnaaXPyOHc4SVRxPD6H7bHwVNOyvbS/s1024/Beth+Harmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nyLKgm1J_H6CrkdKMsax3vvI0wMOY31PxKN6iiFNPaT7zei9eRap3DN5v_HkV9h8Sqeg6Q-ZsDZ6q8-VXefCVDGwD-IhQDgK5eDJ5PmYE5F6gJHnaaXPyOHc4SVRxPD6H7bHwVNOyvbS/w474-h316/Beth+Harmon.jpg" width="474" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div></blockquote><span id="docs-internal-guid-9601efa4-7fff-8cc3-2c76-1bdef1c4deb4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c4df184f-7fff-b6ca-5230-ac7554978d67"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story begins as nine year old Beth Harmon, played as a child by Isla Johnson and later by the remarkable Anya Taylor-Joy, arrives at a cold, rule-encrusted, emotionally stark orphanage in rural Kentucky. An impressionable and repressed little girl with little understanding of the world she is entering, Beth seems shut off and lost. She soon finds her way to the school’s basement, where the school janitor, Mr. Shaibel, played by Bill Camp, silently plays through chess problems between times spent sweeping floors and changing light bulbs. Beth asks about the game, which he quietly and patiently introduces to her, while discovering that she has remarkable aptitude for the game. She has also discovered a refuge for emotional and intellectual support that will become a foundation for her story.</span></span></span><div><span><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually, Beth is adopted by a cold, distant couple, and raised by her doting, but alcoholic mother, who gladly live off her daughter’s increasingly successful chess career leading to fame, money, and increasing international prominence. As Beth’s story continues, chess is always prominent, somehow becoming both a frame and the story’s centerpiece, while never becoming exceedingly formulaic or cliched. On the contrary her triumphs at the chessboard set the frame for her struggles with drugs, alcoholism, and relationships. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, let’s take a look at chess as the centerpiece of this fine film drama, </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">according to Dylan Loeb McClain, former chess columnist in the New York Times. He says that the setting is eerily reminiscent of chess tournaments around the time in which the film takes place, one of the many reasons that the series is one of the best and most successful screen adaptations of the game.” I can add that for a person who was in high school and college during the period the series portrays, there’s a clear familiarity. The actors were trained to avoid chess mistakes to the point of learning to move chess pieces the way real players do. Even the games are real recreations of actual competition. McClain points out parallels with the great American chess champion Bobby Fisher, while suggesting that making the protagonist of this series a woman is not only dramatically satisfying, but represents a rebuke of Fisher’s often sexist remarks about women in chess.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While voicing some criticisms of the series, former world chess champion Gary Kasparov says, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But trust me,” he said. “This is as close as one can have it.” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktxG8tWCXSYYuYJd8N8ZBVhRvniTz78lZKIxjqMpIjjT6bUOjLHt48IWyZuJG-xs_aA3T56qVrh_zYj3g-90GrMibB1mE9OfQ9WHZOQvefpXb7h_eOVcsd45SQ6DRKLYRxjrlpqxeE53_/s2048/the-queens-gambit-harry-melling-Anya-Taylor-Joy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktxG8tWCXSYYuYJd8N8ZBVhRvniTz78lZKIxjqMpIjjT6bUOjLHt48IWyZuJG-xs_aA3T56qVrh_zYj3g-90GrMibB1mE9OfQ9WHZOQvefpXb7h_eOVcsd45SQ6DRKLYRxjrlpqxeE53_/w428-h285/the-queens-gambit-harry-melling-Anya-Taylor-Joy.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Actress Anya Taylor-Joy commented that learning to communicate the passion engendered by chess as well as to control the movements on and around a chess board were relatively easy for her to master as she compared them to her own passion for dance, also seen in Beth’s self-discovery through dance music in the show. Beth’s increasingly rich relationships with chess players who undertake to teach her while eventually falling to her in chess competitions and for her as an increasingly alluring woman become a centerpiece of this drama. Taylor-Joy truly inhabits the role. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/">The Queen’s Gambit</a>, the name of a chess opening as well as of this delightful film series, takes its time, which is one of its glories. The camera lingers, moods evolve, problems present themselves and then are slowly and thoughtfully resolved. Meanwhile, the sense of movement and action keeps attention high. This series is never hampered by the chess setting, whether you know the game or not. While I fall in the “not” category, just barely knowing how each piece is supposed to move with no sense of the complexities of the game, the growing excitement and tensions within Queen’s Gambit kept me involved throughout. I highly recommend it to adherents of first rate, cerebral drama. </span></p></span><div><span>_______________</span></div><div><span>1 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/arts/television/chess-queens-gambit.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/arts/television/chess-queens-gambit.html</a></span></div><div>2. <span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/arts/television/queens-gambit-chess-netflix.html?" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/arts/television/queens-gambit-chess-netflix.html?</span></a></div></div>Ted Lehmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12948477139450253563noreply@blogger.com0