Birthers of a Nation

Snow? What an intresting choice. Motherfucking SNOW?

And speaking of Doris Day. We saw Love Me or Leave Me last night for the first time in years and I urge any of you who like to hear great songs brilliantly arranged and performed to watch it. It’s a masterful movie, the studios at their zenith, with every single element brilliantly done. Design, performances (Doris is sensational as is J Cagney. Though – full disclosure – I’ve always admired Ms. Day. In fact, It could well be that listening to her radio show when I was a boy was what turned me.), music, script, and the work of one of my fave directors Charles Vidor. As a taste, here’s Ms Day singing Ten Cents a Dance by Rogers and Hart. And lets remember that this style of singing, this kind of song, are American inventions. It’s brilliantly staged and the arrangement is by Percy Faith.

Class dismissed.

Oh like, what? You’re too good for a blind item? And I quote:

There is a Republican out there who is in the top 3 or 4 potential candidates for President. He wants to desperately run, but is trying to come up with a payoff for his mistress. Cheating is not unusual for him considering he even married a mistress in the past.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.:
Trump or Newt… but Newt’s not even a top 10 candidate.

Trump.

These are the same people that think that Sarah Palin is smart and wise and a leader.

/snicker/

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Sadly, you have link fail. Is this what you were pointing to?

Delightful!

My only complaint is that the length of that black dress makes her look like she’s got cankles.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Yes.

No. No. NO.

Gowns by Helen Rose. That is one of the great costumes. Equal to how they dressed Hayworth for Put the Blame on Mame, Boys. If you think any kind of clumsiness could creep through you’re wrong. D Day was a strong woman. Her kind of helmet head – alignment of neck and back of head – was unusual but so was Louise Brooks’s. Her legs, ankles, waist, etc, in this movie are flawless. Don’t make me come out there and hunt you down.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: I’ve put the movie in my Netflix queue. Thanks!

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: I would say that Ella is the Queen of the American Songbook. But she could not have been a star at a major studio in those days. Same for Sarah Vaughan, etc.

@Dodgerblue: Sometimes the local jazz station will play the Ella performance where she forgets the lyrics to Mac the Knife. And sometimes they’ll play the later Ella performance where she recreates forgetting the lyrics to Mac the Knife. Jazz was postmodern before its time.

@Dodgerblue: I saw them both in London as a boy. My father would take me to concerts. Very different kind of singing. I can’t think that either of them would have wanted a career in movies. Mahalia Jackson is used to good effect in the overblown remake of Imitation of Life.

@nojo: Are you using Terra on your iPad? It seems too good to be true.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Your Dad had good taste. Did you ever see Billie Holliday?

@Dodgerblue: Never heard of it. And looking at the site page, I’m not sure I see the point. But what the heck, it’s free.

@Dodgerblue: Plus, if you wanna get into the Geek Weeds…

Apple programs the Safari app. Apple also provides developers with an easy “web view” function so that app developers can access the web as well. (Early version of the Netflix app were really just “framing” the live website.)

During the latest iOS update, Apple made some substantial improvements in how Safari handles Javascript. But — it didn’t include those improvements in the “web view” that apps use. Whether Apple intends to provide those improvements later is an open question.

So, on my understanding, Terra wouldn’t be taking advantage of the improvements. But whether it’s apparent to civilians, dunno.

@nojo: Well, so far I’d say it’s faster than Safari (yes, I have the upgrade) and the tab function is slightly better, but it doesn’t handle links to YouTube very well. If I can’t enjoy Maru, WTF?

@Dodgerblue: Ah. More Geek Weeds…

“Classic” YouTube uses Flash. When Safari detects that, it swaps in some special code that uses an iOS-friendly video format.

In recent months, YouTube has switched to embed coding that’s better at detecting mobile browsers, and providing the appropriate video feed. But that still leaves a lot of old video using the old embed coding.

So: Dunno if the older code-swapping trick is available to apps that use “web view”.

@nojo: Can’t we all just get along?

@Dodgerblue: @nojo:
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………….

@Dodgerblue: @nojo:
i’m just jealous. one cannot be good at EVERYthing, can one, i tell myself.
do you know how humiliating it is to call your 82 year old father for tech help?
NICK…tell me what to do! you have mad skillz and don’t *cough* torture us with them. which computer do you recommend?

I did see Billie Holiday. We also listened to her a lot at home as my mother loved her. I saw Sassy with the Basie band several times. I met Billy Strayhorne and others from Duke’s band when they were in London. My father got to know them all and ended up playing with the reconstituted band at Lincoln Center. I was most impressed by Philly Joe Jones because he made the most noise. I also worked with Mercedes Ellington, who is a fine choreographer. We talked about why is it that the Ellington/Strayhorne song-book is not better known and why Such Sweet Thunder is not performed more in concert halls.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Most impressive. You should write about those experiences. Didn’t Strayhorne write Lush Life while in his teens? Have you heard the Coltrane/Hartman version?

@Dodgerblue: Yes he did. I think was 19. He also wrote much of the music that is credited to Ellington.

I can’t listen to jazz.