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Sometimes, there are only temporary doppelgangers .... so you have to take notice quickly ...
SEPARATED at BIRTH - Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson and Spain's King Juan Carlos (now wearing sunglasses after suffering a bruised eye).
Before the holiday season begins in earnest - stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
LAST SUMMER cars were set on fire and buildings were looted in the western Canadian city of Vancouver when its hockey team lost the NHL's Stanley Cup decisive 7th game (eerily recalling a similar reaction to a similar loss, sixteen years earlier). Recently, 25 people have been charged with rioting, arson and breaking and entering stemming from last year's riots.
UNABLE TO BRING ABOUT the building of a museum to showcase her collection: the veteran performer Debbie Reynolds will hold a Beverly Hills auction to sell artifacts and costumes from her movie memorabilia collection, yet she continues performing on-stage even as she turns age 80 next year.
MONDAY's CHILD is Puss Puss the Cat - a missing, pregnant English kitteh thought to be heard meowing in a clothes recycling bin, resulting in a major rescue effort. It turned out to be a toy cat, instead ... and so Puss Puss is still missing.
MUSIC NOTES - for several years, the singer Ruth Hohmann - known as the First Lady of East German jazz - was unable to perform because Walter Ulbricht (the hardline communist who ran East Germany from its separation from the West in 1949 until 1971) felt she was singing in 'the language of (Joe) McCarthy'. But after the British Invasion, Ulbricht turned his attention to rock'n'roll, declaring it to be 'American atonal noise' .... and so jazz was able to make a comeback. Today at age 80: Ruth Hohmann has a full schedule, marking 50 years on-stage.
LITERARY NOTES - the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra has won the Cervantes Prize - the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two noted comics from stand-up and TV: the late Sam Kinison - also appearing in the Rodney Dangerfield film "Back to School" .....
.................. and Louie Anderson - former host of "Family Feud" and author of three books.
SOMETIMES one feels like a shepherd losing sheep: as two veteran R&B musicians I have profiled in 2011 have recently passed away. Howard Tate died the other day at the age of 72, and yesterday Dobie Gray - of "Drift Away" fame - died at the age of 71.
ART NOTES - an exhibition entitled The Storyteller's Art is at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington through the end of December.
JUSTICE NOTES - in a gripping article, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper is called as a witness against former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - who now stands trial at The Hague - and finds himself cross-examined in a private, close encounter with the man accused of masterminding genocide.
ART NOTES #2 - an unfinished self-portrait by the Dutch painter Rembrandt has been discovered ... under another painting using advanced scientific techniques.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Wenty the Cat - who was discovered (as alert reader Fonsia noted) at the Seattle-Tacoma airport after going missing.
THE ANNUAL corruption index by nation for 2011 from [Transparency International Http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/01/corruption-index-2011-transparency-international/print] has been issued: with New Zealand considered the best, and Somalia (as well as North Korea) the worst.
DANCE NOTES - Breaking an unspoken rule among Italy's elite dance corp: one of the stars of the ballet company at Milan's La Scala has dramatically revealed the extent of bulimia and anorexia among ballerinas.
ART NOTES - works by Cally Krallman in an exhibit entitled Simplistic Beauty are at the Coutts Museum of Art in El Dorado, Kansas through January 12th.
ART NOTES #2 - Italy has long searched in vain for Leonardo da Vinci's greatest lost fresco. Evidence suggested the fabled fresco of the Battle of Anghiari was behind a secret wall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, but officials balked at the idea of knocking through a (later) wall painting. Now, authorities in Florence have given the green light to boring through that wall this week.
LITERARY NOTES - a historian from Serbia claims Dracula is Serbian - and not a Romanian from Transylvania - due to the language on the tombstone of 'Vlad the Impaler' who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's novel.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Drago the Cat - a 14-year-old English kitteh who was discovered under the hood of his family's Jeep after being there for ... two weeks.
FILM NOTES - a series in the Guardian newspaper (rating the historical accuracy of films) gave good marks to the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film Ed Wood - who managed to make being the world's worst director look charming.
SCIENCE NOTES - though it won't be as much fun as a preacher declaring the the end of the world is nigh - science is moving ever closer to understanding how (and when) humanity may be extinguished.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - veteran ABC correspondent Ann Compton and the former First Lady, Laura Bush.
POLITICAL NOTES - the center-left Kukuriku coalition won a majority in elections this past weekend in Croatia - winning 80 out of 151 seats in parliament - hoping to arouse a weak economy, as Kukuriki means "Cock-a-doodle-doo" or "Wake up!"
ART NOTES - a look at 300 Years of Women in Art in an exhibit titled Breaking Down Barriers is at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina through January 8th.
MUSICAL NOTES - there will be eleven inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year in Cleveland. More recent acts (Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys) will join older performers (The Faces/Small Faces, Donovan and the late Laura Nyro). The late blues guitarist Freddie King enters in the "early influence" category. And in the non-performers category: inductees will include the late promoter Don Kirshner as well as three studio recording engineers/producers: Cosimo Matassa (a major New Orleans studio owner), the Englishman Glyn Johns (producer of numerous groups including the Eagles and, appropriately enough, The Faces) and the late Tom Dowd (of Atlantic Records).
THURSDAY's CHILD is Gigio the Cat - a five-year-old English kitteh who was shot in the chest by an airgun, and is recovering from surgery due to a bullet that was lodged ... just a millimeter from his heart.
POLITICAL NOTES - last year, in becoming the first right-wing elected president of Chile since 1958, Sebastián Piñera didn't let the grass grow under his feet: during an official visit to Germany, he wrote "Deutschland Ueber Alles" into the guest book of German President Christian Wulff. Now, he's made a sexist joke at a heads of state meeting in Mexico.
ECONOMIC NOTES - the city of Benalup used to have the greatest number of luxury cars per head in the south-western province of Cádiz, Spain - but now has not only the worst unemployment rate in the country, but the worst in Europe.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas ("Home Improvement") and Nancy McKeon ("The Facts of Life").
HAIL and FAREWELL to the Brazilian World Cup star Sócrates who has died at the ga eof 57. In a nation where many of its stars are known by a one-word nickname (such as Pele, Ronaldo, Zico, Junior, etc.) I always liked his name best. Yet until his death, I was unaware that Sócrates ... was his actual first name.
FRIDAY's CHILD is a Florida kitteh who was rescued from a tree after a three-day drama.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... this past Saturday was the 67th birthday of the English singer-songwriter Ralph McTell who is known for not only his own works but also two shows on UK television as well as tribute recordings of works by some of his heroes, including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. In turn, he has been an influence on folksingers across the British Isles and North America.
He was born in 1944 as Ralph May, named after the English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams - whom his father had worked as a gardener for before the war. He grew-up in post-war London after his father left the family when Ralph was only two. He began playing in skiffle bands in his teens, and developed a fondness for the Beat generation writers Kerouac and Ginsberg, as well as John Steinbeck. It was a performance at the College Jazz Club in London - by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, performing the Jesse Fuller classic San Francisco Bay Blues - that was pivotal in him gravitating towards a music career. In his travelling musician early days, he made the friendship of two future members of Steeleye Span (Jacquie McShee and Martin Carthy).
He began as a teacher (by day) and a folk club musician (by night) adopting the last name of Blind Willie McTell - a noted blues singer. He landed a recording contract in late 1967 and released his first album the next year, mixing traditional blues with more modern folk songs. His second album contained the song "Streets of London" but which (at this time) garnered little airplay. His 1969 third album "My Side of the Window" became his best-seller to date and garnered a Folk Album award from the Melody Maker newspaper. He was now appearing at major festivals, including the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight show along with Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez.
In time, Warner Brothers became his American label, and he toured the US along with the band Fairport Convention - and once again, making lifelong friendships. Recording now mostly his own material, his 1971 album You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here includes "The Ferryman", one of his most popular tunes, along with 1972's Zimmerman Blues - yes, about Bob Dylan. Finally, in early 1974 Ralph McTell re-recorded Streets of London - and this version became his signature tune, as will be noted later. Ralph McTell had always been a quiet man and - with a growing family - decided to leave music, spending several months in America and also at his home in Cornwall, England.
Refreshed, he began performing in 1976 and had several album leases including some live recordings and a song called England which he wanted not to be about 'marching', just simply about his love of country. But for much of the 1980's he worked on two British television programs: Alphabet Zoo - which begat a show created for him, Tickle on the Tum - both of which introduced Ralph McTell to a younger audience. He did tour and record during this period, including being the opening act in 1987 for a UK tour by the Everly Brothers (whom he says were favorites from his youth).
He recorded a 1988 tribute album called Blue Skies, Black Heroes - because as he stated, "Most of my heroes are black, American, usually blind and most of them dead". In 1992, he recorded an album dedicated to the welsh poet Dylan Thomas - part music, part narration - and had a renewal of success in the US, when the US folksinger Nanci Griffith recorded one of his best-liked songs, From Clare to Here on her 1993 album Other Voices, Other Rooms - which won a Grammy Award. It led to a US tour in 1995 for Ralph McTell, along with several North American releases.
In the past fifteen years, he has released several more albums, with a 2007 album Gates of Eden - with songs by Bob Dylan, Big Bill Broonzy, Woody Guthrie and others - and his most recent album is Somewhere Down the Road from 2010. He has a 2011 Bob Dylan 70th birthday tribute EP available, an autobiography from the year 2000, and his final concert of the year takes place this Sunday in London with a January show in Dublin, Ireland at the Temple Bar Festival.
Ralph McTell has been awarded two Lifetime Achievement Awards: one by BBC Radio 2 and another by the British Parliament Folk Group (who previously gave such an award only to Tom Paxton). Not a bad recognition for someone working on nearly 45 years of performing.
I normally avoid focusing on a performer's signature tune - but with Streets of London being so popular, it's worth a look. Originally to be titled Streets of Paris (as he spent some of his early years there) he changed it to London after he learned of a song covering the same topic. This song - if nothing else - serves as a reminder that somewhere, someone has a more difficult life than yours. It reached #2 in Britain when it was re-released in 1974 and has been recorded by a wide range of performers: Ritchie Blackmore, Glen Campbell, Josh White, Jr., Liam Clancy, Cleo Laine, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin .... even the punk group Anti-Nowhere League. And at this link below you can listen to it.
Have you seen the old man
In the closed-down market
Kicking up the paper
with his worn out shoes?
In his eyes you see no pride
Hand held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She's no time for talking,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.
So how can you tell me you're lonely
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand
and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something
to make you change your mind
