Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Aged Like Fine Wine
Monday, August 30, 2010
Burt Lancaster: An American Life
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Yum, Yum
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Writing: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Magic Ring
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Writer on Fire
Monday, August 23, 2010
Good Deed for the Day
Out walking the dogs when a young dog ran over to see us. No sign of an owner.
Yesterday
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Expendables
My son, oldest grandson, and nephew -- visiting from San Francisco with his lovely wife for a few days -- and I went yesterday to see The Expendables.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Something Wicked This Way Comes ...
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Gardyloo!
Bad News/Good News - The Matadors
New TV Show
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Commercial
When I was a kid, if you needed to go pee while you were watching TV, you waited for a commercial and then you hurried. If you didn't need to go too bad, you could just make it.
Little Egypt
The version of this I most remember was done by the Coasters, in the late 1950s. Ray Stevens later covered it. I thought I saw all of Elvis's movies back in the day, but that dendrite must have short-circuited and died, because I didn't remember that he'd taken a stab at it.
Everybody loved that down and dirty sax to fill at the end of the verses.
Time is Money ...
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sweat Equity
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Dog Consciousness
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Linkery
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Busted Flat in Baton Rouge
On This Day in History
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Dial it Down
I'm a music fan. I like all kinds, from classical to rock to blues to folk to country. Big band swing, jazz, ragtime, stride piano, and even hip hop and rap. It doesn't all move me the same way, but if it is well-done, I can usually appreciate some aspect of it.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Klaatu Barrada Nikto ...
Sunday, August 08, 2010
<--- I'm With Stupid
Friday, August 06, 2010
Readers Rule!
Lest We Forget
Today is the 65th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb in warfare. Monday will be the same anniversary of the second such use.
Weaponry
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Bang ...
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Old Ammo
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Matadors
Monday, August 02, 2010
Fruit of the Vine
The long wet spring has given an early blackberry crop. Walking the dogs and lo! canes with a bunch of ripe berries a couple weeks earlier than usual over at the park. I stopped and picked a few, and I'll go back later to collect more.
La Musica! La Musica!
Bell Bottom Blues
Can’t Get Used to Losin’ You
One Toke Over the Line
Daydream Believer
Political Science
Layla
Hotel California
Lola
Walk Away Renee
We Just Disagree
Year of the Cat
Hallelujah
Angel from Montgomery
Sail Away
Way Down in the Hole
The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down
Dixie (Instrumental)
The Weight
Blackbird
In My Life
Yesterday (Inst.)
Here Comes the Sun (Inst.)
Hey, Jude
Stand By Me
Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
Brand New Key
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)
The Water is Wide (Inst.)
Ashokan Farewell (Inst.)
Born to Run
For What It’s Worth
Telstar (Inst.)
It’s Lonely at the Top
Love and Affection
Have a Heart
Ruby Tuesday
Stewball
Little Egypt
Tangled Up in Blue
Poke Salad Annie
Louisiana 1927
August Wedding
Yesterday, at a lovely botanical garden in Portland, Edwin and Irene (and Colin, aged nine) got married. A great day for it, mostly sunny but not too hot.
Juke Joints
A crossroads store, bar, "juke joint," and gas station in the cotton plantation area. Melrose, Louisiana, June 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
African American migratory workers by a "juke joint". Belle Glade, Florida, February 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Today's lesson in history and etymology concerns the word "juke." Probably you have heard this in connection with a commercial device used for playing records, beginning with 78 rpms and evolving to 45 rpms, i.e., the jukebox.
If you are old enough, you have likely seen and used these. If you are younger, think of these as giant iPods into which you would feed coins in order to play musical selections. They started showing up in the United States around 1940, and got, some of them, quite elaborate, with neon lighting or tubes that featured bubbles in liquid. Put a nickel in, punch a button or two, and the song you wanted to hear blared from speakers. They were staples of restaurants and bars for decades, and you can still find them, though the technology has changed a bit since records mostly went away. You can buy reproductions of the classic modes that play CDs, and even itty bitty ones that play MP3s.
Not the same, though ...
The term comes from the places where they were sometimes installed, juke joints, and the origin of the word itself, though somewhat shrouded in time's murk, is likely from the Gullah word, "joog," or "juke," meaning rowdy or wicked.
Originally, juke joints were typically ramshackle places where people got together to drink and dance and gamble, listen to music, mostly blues back in the day, and get into trouble. They started as gathering places for people of color, who were generally forbidden from hanging out in the white folks' establishments, though there came to be white trash jukes soon enough.
Sometimes the jukes were at crossroads, attached to stores. Sometimes they were old buildings taken over. Sometimes, private houses.
I first heard the term "goin' jukin'" when I was a teenager in Louisiana, and by then, it meant sneaking into a bar with the other underage guys, drinking beer, listening to music, and trying to pick up girls. Not all that different from what it meant a hundred years earlier, when you think about it ...