By Jace, a Trail Mix Contributor
They are musical moments that have captivated and enchanted us over the years. Each has a favorite or favorites. We know many of them by heart.
With your permission I will spend the next few Sundays with the great American musicals and some of those moments that are special to me. Hope that you will share some of yours as well. ?
As always enjoy the music but most especially enjoy your day!
More Posts by Jace
jace, thank you for parading the children, very fitting for the good news from trail friend jack about friends y amigos
here’s Bu again in all her tiny glory
craig, Billie Bob thanks you too for her 15 minutes of fame as thread top photo on the internet trail. she’s finally beginning to take a shine to her new playmate Bu…. even to the extent of worrying about her well-being and sharing toys.
Congratulations, Mrs Whskyjack, for your hard work & dedication. Thanks Whskyjack for being her loyal helpmate.
I always liked Yul Brenner and liked The King and I as a kid. It was an anomaly for me. Wonderful reminder.
There are so many wonderful songs in the King and I as well as a great story. thank you Jace.
Now on to the less sublime. Astaire got a lot of action out of coatrack and the Minnelli took to a chair
some thought provoking books of late quoted and reviewed in today’s op ed in wapo “Is Trump mentally ill? Or is America? Psychiatrists weigh in.”
an excerpt for example:
….what should we make of the nation that entrusted him with precisely such powers? In his new book, “Twilight of American Sanity,” psychiatrist Allen Frances asserts that Trump is not mentally ill — we are. “Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society,” he writes. “We can’t expect to change Trump, but we must work to undo the societal delusions that created him.” And those delusions, Kurt Andersen contends in “Fantasyland,” have been around for a long time. “People tend to regard the Trump moment — this post-truth, alternative facts moment — as some inexplicable and crazy new American phenomenon,” he writes. “In fact, what’s happening is just the ultimate extrapolation and expression of attitudes and instincts that have made America exceptional for its entire history.”
horsey at la times
Atlas shrugs, as do libertarians when it comes to working Americans
Who is John Galt?” That is the mystery that drives Ayn Rand’s turgid libertarian manifesto, “Atlas Shrugged.” And it is the spirit of Galt that drives the modern Republican Party.
[….]
It does not take much scratching below the surface of high-minded Republican rhetoric about opportunity and freedom to uncover some very Galtish attitudes. To the libertarian-minded, the poor and working class people who are mired in economic stagnation have only themselves to blame. Any helping hand offered by government and paid for by taxes on the abundantly wealthy is a tyrannical expropriation that robs the rich and turns the undeserving recipients of aid into social parasites.
In the same way, any governmental restriction of an industrial enterprise for the sake of preserving a clean, healthy environment for the general good is an unjustified stab at the nation’s capitalist heart. Air thick with pollutants and waterways deadly enough to kill fish are the acceptable price to be paid to liberate the ambitions of the meritocracy.
And government action to protect consumers from dishonest business operations or workers from exploitation by employers is judged equally abhorrent by the protectors of those who claim to be savvier, more talented, more ambitious and more deserving of their outsized share of the nation’s abundance.
[…he continues in same vein and concludes…]
Who is John Galt? A selfish, short-sighted, arrogant jerk, not a model for America.
Show tunes! Great idea, Jace.
Looking forward to the series.
Security Briefing: Spent the morning deleting and blocking IP address ranges for a couple dozen user registrations that came in during the night with email ending in mail.ru (Russia’s biggest email provider). All of their login attempts were blocked, so they weren’t able to invade threads, but our registration captcha should have prevented registration in the first place. Puzzling.
The King and I is a current revival. I love that show.
Patd,
Glad you enjoyed the selection. Am enjoying the pictures of Bu. That dog is cuter than a ‘speckled pup’.? Enjoy!
Jamie,
Mein Herr is one one of my all time favorites, thought about using it but you beat me to it. Nice pick?. Minnelli was simply amazing in that role.
KGC,
Did not know that the King and I was in revival but would go see it if I could.
As Jamie says, a wonderful story and a great musical.
Pogo,
Always liked Yule Brenner. Never think of him but what I think of him as the King of Siam learning to dance and dictating letters To president Lincoln. Very special performance.
Craig,
Glad you are enjoying the musical selections.
Hope that you are able to keep the hackers at bay. I guess that we on the trail have been too hard on the Russians. Perhaps they see us as a threat.?
Are we there yet?
Yul Brenner…. my vote for sexiest man to ever have lived…. YUM!
Pogo… SFB’s remarks against the protesting NFLers is nothing more than trying to create yet another distraction from his Russian woes. Mueller’s noose is getting tighter and tighter…. SFB’s squeaks are getting shriller and shriller. Putz….
Didnt see the King and I but I did see the Magnificent Seven….. Liked the old Yul Log in that one.
And, of course, The Ten Condiments……
mail.ru
Get a lot of hits from them on my
Bluescrab.blogspot.com
But never a comment.
yep, Sturg, those mail.ru bots used to hit us quite a bit, but our security filter never let them log in to comment. Just installed another filter that doesn’t even let them register, so they’re wasting their time on us.
craig, wonder if they are the same bunch who are stalking bbronc.
one of these days you might be able to compare that list to those from the election when the facebook info becomes public.
Jace it’s on tour
http://thekinganditour.com/
What is the point of the bots anyway? They don’t seem to do much
Hey SJ, wadda ya mean, I’m the one who lugged all that junk out to the sale and lugged it back, Ate my weight in street tacos. I worked hard!!
Jack
another book review re our current insanity and it’s human manifestation during the campaign from the guardian
Unbelievable review: Katy Tur’s Trump tale relives an utterly insane campaign
NBC reporter writes with the bravery and wit she showed as Trump and his fans attacked her. She also exposes the worrying decline of broadcast news itself
[….]
Tur’s subtitle is “My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History”, and there is barely a page in her book that does not confirm that description. Even the briefest summary of Trump’s outrages during his 500 days on the trail is still almost entirely unbelievable:
“I’ve heard him insult a war hero, brag about grabbing women by the pussy, denigrate the judicial system, demonize immigrants, fight with the pope, doubt the democratic process, advocate torture and war crimes, tout the size of his junk in a presidential debate, trash the media, and indirectly endanger my life.”
Trump’s relentless attacks on the press in general and Tur in particular were among the most revolting aspects of a repellent campaign, and they made Tur a hero to the decent people who were familiar with her fair and thorough work. By the end of the campaign, she needed private security at all of Trump’s rallies. Everyone covering Trump at NBC was under armed protection outside the venues.
This is not normal. Nothing like it had ever happened to reporters covering any previous major party candidate for president.
The truth is, given Trump’s constant goading of his supporters against the reporters who covered him, it’s something of a miracle that Tur never suffered anything worse than spittle through a lowered van window. After all, this is a candidate who could raise the possibility of killing journalists before saying: “I’d never kill them … But I do hate them. Some of them are such lying, disgusting people.”
At that moment Tur felt like she was in the Roman Colosseum. She wondered: “When to they release the lions? What happens if someone in here can’t take a joke?”
Even after everything we have learned, some of Tur’s behind-the-scenes details remain startling. At the end of one of her first extended interviews with him, Trump explodes, and demands that she run their half-hour interview in full.
“I know what you guys do,” he said. “Deceptive editing.”
Even more surprising: afterwards, the Trump campaign emailed a statement to Chuck Todd’s show reiterating “our disappointment with the extremely negative positioning of the questions”, the network accedes to Trump’s request and runs the interview in full.
Trump alternates between trying to humiliate Tur by kissing her on the way into Morning Joe – and then bragging about it on air moments later – and attacking her in four tweets in four minutes, calling her, “3rd rate”, “incompetent” and “dishonest”.
[….]
Tur never mentions the main problem with the way television covered Trump, especially at the beginning of his campaign. Producers realized right away that he was good for ratings, which meant he was good for the bottom line. The ultimate outcome may have been the same anyway, but this perception unquestionably translated into vastly more coverage for this obviously unqualified candidate than he ever deserved.
In the immortal words of CBS chairman Les Moonves at the beginning of last year, Trump’s candidacy “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”.
Nine months into Trump’s presidency, it looks like the first half of his observation could turn out to be the understatement of the 21st century.
Craig
You need to add Sturgeone to the blogroll: Bluescrab.blogspot.com
This one might give Melania ideas:
CNN Poll: Opinion of the Republican Party falls to all-time low
[…]
Fewer than three in 10 Americans — 29% — hold a favorable view of the Republican Party according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That is down 13 percentage points from March and is the lowest mark for the GOP since CNN began asking the question in 1992.
[….]
Overall, 20% of Americans approve of the way Republican leaders in Congress are handling their jobs, while 72% disapprove. That includes just 39% of Republicans who approve of the job GOP leaders are doing.
Republicans are signaling they prefer President Donald Trump’s vision for the party, with 79% saying he is taking it in the right direction. A majority of GOP voters — 53% — believe Republican leaders in Congress are taking the party in the wrong direction.
[….]
Both parties will have to grapple with an increasingly unhappy public as nearly six in 10 Americans (59%) say they are angry at both parties, while just 23% say they are not angry at either party. Independents are the most upset, with 68% saying they’re angry at both parties — up 10 points since March. Anger among Republicans has also spiked, with 63% now angry at both parties compared to 38% who said the same in the spring. Among Democrats, anger at both sides is up seven points, to 49%.
[…continues…]
Jamie, sturg blues crab added, good idea, thanks.
patd, re: the Wapo piece on SF’s insanity, As Bob said, You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows… and in this case you don’t need a psychiatrist to see crazy.
Jace: You can play show tunes any day of the week and I would be quite content! Started collecting Broadway cast albums as a girl. Now I collect DVDs of “filmed live” theater, as well as movie musicals. Yul Brynner was one of my favorite actors when I was young, but the King and I made him a legend. I don’t think anyone played a role as many times or was as perfectly cast as he was. His eulogy says it all: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/11/movies/yul-brynner-65-known-for-role-in-king-and-i.html
May I offer: The late great Paul Robeson in the original version of Show Boat. I have the later version on DVD because, well…Howard Keel <3 but nobody can beat Robeson in the role of Joe! Along with Show Boat, Les Miserables and Oklahoma, The King and I is in my top 10 favorite shows.
Whskyjack: Congrats to you and the Mrs for your contributions to humanity. The world needs more everyday philanthropists! It not only takes a village, but those villages need dedicated village elders for the human species to live up to its potential! Thank you for showing the rest of us how it’s done.
The old bluescrab has suffered the last couple of years from being unable to post my photos from the camera or iPad…..won’t take em, and no longer have a computer to wrest them from the eternal Have-to-join-google+ part of Hades. Have been out of sorts about this for quite a while now.
Tried joining google plus and that turned into a massive sink-hole of despair.
By the way if you missed the Global Citizen Festival yesterday, it is on You Tube. The message and the music were wonderful.
speaking of yul taking one’s breath away
Some things I learned
Net works are everything.
Mrs Jack and I both have strong national networks. Mine , here and family (BTW my niece spread the word to her network and they really came through), Mrs. Jack her work contacts. And they would have come through even stronger except for the Hurricanes hit many of their communities. She has been doing a lot of work with folks from Texas and Florida. She felt they had higher local priorities and didn’t ask many of them. Our Church partner’s in the local Hispanic community, They were essential in our neighborhood fund raisers, we raise 1/3 of the funding from right here in this little neighborhood..
Institutional networks don’t come through(school district, neighborhood leaders ect.)
Nobody clicks on a link on a public radio web site
There is no such thing a reciprocity, people we supported in the past didn’t return the support(even people who could afford it)
All in all an interesting time.
Jack
Whskyjack,
Now I feel bad! Next time you fund raise I will give double. Skim some off the top & buy an extra taco 😉
But still … kudos to Mrs Whskyjack. You are very lucky to have such a partner in life.
Could captcha be hacked? I was on another site that used it & the experience was odd – seemed like something wasn’t right so I didn’t go further. I am a fraidy cat if weird things happen computer wise.
My top hits in the last month.
United States
73
Russia
71
Ukraine
10
Canada
9
France
8
Poland
5
I seem to have many Russian fans…..I think it’s cause I put up videos of Gemma Halid…..my favorite Russian singer lady…
Way to go mr and mrs Jack…..Network is king….and queen.
Met her oncet at the LEAF Festival in Black Mt. NC….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLD1BADEA95C4EFE6E&v=QdmhXvIADxU
Her show at the time was Russian folk music, but she’s tried to go a bit more “pop” since…..still pleasing to the ear
The second song is the one I was going for, but you toob has become weird lately.
Then there’s these guys, too
That’s the Red Army Choir singing back-up, oddly enough.
Outraged by current events, I called DirecTV this morning and told them that I wanted to cancel my NFL Sunday Ticket package immediately. The woman I talked to informed that this was not possible. I demanded to know why. Her explanation was that according to their records I am not currently a subscriber of DirecTV. Unbelievable!
Jake Tapper just tweeted this statement by Jackie Robinson
Patd
cute pooches
I love musicals Pajama Game is a favorite but Brigadoon might be my all time favorite
Sturge
love both videos
The lady is really good even if I can’t understand the words.
Jack
Ok….UNO ma’s I don’t know the Russian but one word, at least, I recognize
Horsey on John Galt ignored something reeeeeeeeaaallly important : he was a labor organizer and union leader. rand’s book holds that corportions are collectives.
Thank goodness the world ended over the weekend. I just couldn’t take it any longer.