Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuba Skinny - "Moaning the Blues and Nobodys Fault but Mine" at The Sp...
Double click on the videos to watch full screen.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The Case Of The Missing Turkeys At The Washington Plaza Hotel
This is a story about some missing turkeys at The Washington Plaza Hotel back in the day.
This happened sometime around 1988 or so.
The hotel used to give a Christmas party for all the employees with free food and drink. And that included alcoholic beverages. There was always a jolly good time with music and dancing. But some of the help drank too much and would argue over who was going to dance with who. Sometimes this would lead to fights.
Plus the management became worried about liability of those driving home intoxicated. I know one engineer was drunk enough to get a DUI on his way home to Virginia.
So the Christmas parties were cancelled and word went out that all employees would receive a free turkey for Christmas instead.
These were frozen turkeys to be kept in a freezer across from the Security Office located by the employee entrance and exit.
The Security Officers were to hand out the turkeys and get the person to sign for them or in some cases sign for the person receiving the turkey. So far so good.
Except. Lo and Behold we ran out of turkeys before everyone received one.
Turns out some of the Security Officers were giving them out to their friends outside the hotel and
maybe to friendly cab drivers who stopped by.
Maybe some took more than one turkey. Who knows?
It was quite an embarassment to the management and to the Director of Security. But more turkeys must have been acquired and the incident was soon forgotten.
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Victor/Victoria -- (Movie Clip) Gay Paree
Well worth watching on Youtube. Robert Preston singing Gay Paree from the movie
Victor/Victoria.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Paula Broadwell And General Petraeus First They Were Embedded Together Then They Went ALL IN
ALL IN
The Education Of General David Petraeus
Well I should say so.
You can't make this stuff up.
http://www.amazon.com/All-In-Education-General-Petraeus/dp/1594203180
Now another General becomes implicated in this soap opera scandal.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/twists-petraeus-case-another-general-accused-inappropriate-emails-162656131.html
One lesson from this so far is don't let a General anywhere near a computer keyboard.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
EUREKA BRASS BAND
This is the Eureka Brass Band around 1950. The video above this one is for the funeral of the leader of the Eureka Brass Band Percy Humphrey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_brass_band
The video below about the movie The Cincinnati Kid has the Eureka Brass Band playing a Jazz Funeral in the
opening credit sequence.
The Cincinnati Kid Full Movie
cBP!uM5c8jg~~60_57.jpg)
This is a link to info on Jazz Funerals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_funeral
You can watch the full movie via the link below. My friend Jack Newell and I worked as extras in this film in Jan. 1965 when it was being filmed in New Orleans.
Click on the label The Cincinnati Kid in the Labels box below for more posts I have written about this.
And look for Jack and me over on the sidewalk at 3:33 in the video. We are the only two white people there. MGM was very good about paying all the people who appeared in that opening credit sequence.
They fed us meals three times a day during the filming. The opening credit sequence with the band playing after the funeral and marching was filmed on a Sunday morning. They had given us a breakfast of coffee and pastries. Doughnuts and maybe more. Then while they filmed that scene over and over many in the crowd and those dancing enjoyed some adult beverages. So each take got better and better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUvHOhLg9ig&feature=related
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
The Cocktail Waitress By James M. Cain
I just finished reading this book. It was written many years ago and Cain has been dead for many years but someone found this old manuscript and published it.
It is clearly not as good as his early novels like The Postman Aways Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity but being by James M. Cain it is worth reading.
James M. Cain like Patricia Highsmith often tells his stories from the point of view of the bad guy or the bad girl. In this case it is not clear whether the girl is good or bad.
I suppose the novel Crime And Punishment is like that also.
I was interested in this book also because it is set in Hyattsville, Maryland. He mentions a few real places like Prince Georges Plaza and a nightclub called The Wigwam.
in the 1950s or 1960s.
Click on the picture to enlarge it. It was on Route 301 in Waldorf, Maryland. Later it became a bakery and just recently it was demolished.
Cain lived the last years of his life in Hyattsville Maryland. He admitted it was a mistake to leave California which was the inspiration for his best work.
This book has a very unusual ending which I will not give away.
But it ends with the reader knowing something the character in the book does not know.
Something that will happen in the future. I have never read another novel with such an unusual twist at the
ending.
Read more about the book and James M. Cain here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/long-lost-james-m-cain-novel-published/2012/09/27/dd1046c4-074e-11e2-858a-5311df86ab04_story.html
Monday, November 5, 2012
Tuba Skinny - Broken Hearted Blues
This is tuba skinny. They are my favorite band. They play traditional New Orleans music and old blues
songs. See more in the posts below this one.
http://tubaskinny.blogspot.com/
Tuba Skinny - "Six Feet Down" - "Live at the Hive" 6-24-2011
Eddie Hunter told me that he saw tuba skinny on Treme on HBO. I looked it up. The band plays this song.
Six Feet Down. And Broken Hearted Blues.
http://www.nola.com/treme-hbo/index.ssf/2012/11/treme_explained_promised_land.html