Fitzgerald: Jihad Watch Interlude

Classic Rock and Roll. Beautiful woman. Handsome guy. Kissing. Ahhh. Life is good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBGQ1AyQh2A

You want some Gershwin with that pumpkin pie?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WodGQZqefro

Bless you Hugh (now squirm).

A fine tube song production.

It's great to be winning, which is also a win for Jihadwatch.

(is it the coalition of the winning ?)

While the offerings above are good, they present a problem. For many, no doubt, will be prompted to put up their own favorites, a poem or a song or a snippet of a movie (if retrievable on-line). The Interlude then would cease to be, as it was intended to be, a place to remind the audience of performers who have been forgotten or remain unknown or, if not entirely forgotten or unknown, then insufficiently appreciated because they were from another time, another space.

A thread full of links to music that is already well-known, and likely to consist mostly of American or rock-band English, from the last few decades, would defeat part of the incompletely-stated purpose. And too many pieces being offered, on the Interlude thread, even when individually good, can weaken the impact of what has been chosen for that day.

However, those with a particular pressing request for an old favorite should send it in and if it meets the criteria of our stern panel of circuit-riding and incorruptible judges, it may see the light of pixillated day.

A new link will ideally be offered each day, placed at the top of an ever-lengthening cumulative list, and at some point -- possibly at the beginning of each month -- a new list will begin, the previous one having been removed to the archives, where it will remain, retrievable, and free from rust and the other ravages of time.

The aim, of course, is not only to remind visitors of things that have nothing to do with Islam, and that could never have been produced under Islam. It is also to engage in the refashioning of taste. If there is to be a revolution in taste, why not let it begin here?

refreshing...

Happy Thanksgiving all.

I really like it. Great idea.

Another reason to be thankful... and thank you too, Hugh.

Hugh do you like Artie Shaw?

Looks like we have been invited to contribute a posting on our tastes in music.
Well here goes.

Question: what do Robert Spencer and I have in common?
Answer: we are both huge Bob Dylan fans!

I have seen him in concert about 6 times.

Try this, as popular as Wafa Sultan!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0gSJGJ7Fs

or

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6i6NOfD48Gk

Most pop music I find too simple. Dylan, of course, combines simple music with the talents of a great poet. For a period Dylan became the soundtrack to my life, it was all I listened to.
But then I had to move on.

What to listen to? Most pop music I found too simple and a Beethoven piano sonata was only enjoyable if I listened to it while driving in a car.
I generally don’t like labels but could there not be a type of music that was situated somewhere between the popular and the classical?
Indeed there was.

Try this by the one and only Genesis

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ2Gpu1Z8Ug

Or this by Yes, probably their finest piece, “awakenings.”

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=89b0-CAdzKg

Or try Mike Oldfield, forget Tubular bells, it is not his best.

Actually all this just seemed to be a passing phase. Nowdays I would estimate the greatest composers ever to be Beethoven, Bach and Mozart.

Try this

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk

Or this

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LU_QR_FTt3E

And this. Enough to melt a heart of stone.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QrEwmqhXT1s

"do you like Artie Shaw"

Yes, especially when Helen Forrest is singing.

Hugh, I enjoyed it, I have heard it before, it reminds me of what we have lost and are in the process of losing.

In the spirit of "and that could never have been produced under Islam" Kate Bush, the Sensual World.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AJc64xncBt4

Go to Google (yes, there, of the egregious politics and censorship of Robt. Spencer himself) and type in lucinda williams you tube world without tears and listen to the world's most beautiful voice coming out of the beautiful face of a beautiful woman. Feminine, the daughter of a famous poet, a poet herself, a great songwriter and lyricist, and best of all a southern girl.

A fine reason to give thanks to the sky above.

http://www.joslyn.org/Collection/Search-Detail.aspx?ID=f5da12a3-1849-40d1-b550-b790bc00e030

My something completely different is the painting The Return Of Spring by William Bouguereau. Created by one of the finest French Academy painters, and is in every way (whispers...un Islamic).

Infact, Bouguereau's works are so beautiful, here is a link to some of his other works for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=19

So long as I'm blabbing about beauty and giving thanks, here's a poem from a hero of the Viet Nam war, a war that the Marxists claimed was waged by Imperialist America to steal Viet Nam's rich tin reserves (you read that right, tin), a war that stopped the sustained push by the Communist Russia and China in their world takeover push.

Now we're dealing with another, much older, world takeover ideology. But there's always room for poets and heroes.

610 * 623 * 632 * 1066 * 1215 * 1453 * 1492 * 1683 * 1928 * 1938 * 1948 * 1996 * 2001

REMEMBRANCE

If you are able,
save them a place inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them,
though you may or may not have always.

Take what they have left,
and what they have taught you with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide
and feel safe to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes
you left behind.

— authored by Major Michael Davis O’Donnell, U.S. Army Pilot, 1st Aviation Brigade, 170th Assault Helicopter Company ("Bikinis")
KIA in Laos in March 1970, when he flew his helicopter into heavy fire in an attempt to extract a long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP). An ARVN company was closing in on the LRRP patrol when his helicopter made a final extraction attempt at LZ when the helicopter was destroyed in mid-flight and its occupants (crew and LRRP soldiers) killed.

O’Donnell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, as well as a posthumous promotion to the rank of Major following his loss incident.

He wrote this poem just weaks before being killed in action to defend our freedom; freedom we are now handing over to the Moslems voluntarily.

George Shearing is playing in my kitchen while the pumpkins pies are baking. (FYI - when the store runs out of sweetened condensed milk, use eggnog)Aaaaaah...........Interlude. I'm soaking in it now.

Someone from your era Hugh...Paul Robeson, especially his rendition of 'old man river'...
I liked his movies a lot, they used to be on tv in the middle of the night...but I am sure you remember that...

Here's one I was going to suggest: I don't know the title, but some of the lines went:
"Close the doors, they're coming in the windows,
Close the doors, they're running up the stairs,
Close the doors, they're hanging on the ceiling,
Those blankety-blankety-blanks are everywhere."
But I guess that's ruled out, since it sounds too much like ban . . . immigration now.

"Looks like we have been invited to contribute a posting on our tastes in music.
Well here goes."
-- from a posting above

No, not exactly. Please read carefully what I posted at 10:21 a.m., just after having deleted Pelayo's posting of three lee-fortunes, which was no more, though no less, a violation of the stated rule than all those that have been posted after. That deletion was done by way of demonstration. Why, Pelayo is now fuming, should his posting be the only one so deleted? Why indeed?

I don't wish to be a mean-minded ogre, dampening innocent enthusiasms. But I do wish the Interlude to reflect a single taste -- my taste -- and not to become a kind of open-mike or karaoke festival and free-for-all, where everyone puts up whatever he feels like singing along to, or wishes to inflict on others in the spirit of those delinquents who turn up the sound on their boomboxes or their car radios to make absolutely sure the entire neighborhood has to hear those hideous sentiments set to semi-demented "music."

Besides, how can I affect this revolution in taste if I am not to be sole arbiter elegantiarum?

So please. Indulge a despot. Just this once?

"Thank Heaven for Little Girls"

by Learner and Lowe for the film "Gigi"

Each time I see a little girl
of 5 or 6 or 7
I can't resist a joyous urge to smile and say,
thank heaven for little girls
For little girls, get bigger, every day
thank heaven for little girls
they grow up in the most delightful way
those little eyes so helpless and the appealing
one day we will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling
thank heaven for little girls
thank heaven for them all
no matter where, no matter who
without them, what would little boys do
thank heaven, thank heaven, thank heaven for little girls

Never mind: Maybe it's not such a good choice, now that I look the lyrics over, as something antithetical to Sharia.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

HAID

Here is another submission for your consideration and amusement: http://www.chat.carleton.ca/~tcstewar/grooks/grooks.html

Written by a Dane during WWII.
Pithy little poems of great wit.

Haid, thanks for the memory tickle; now I'm off to fish through old VCR tapes for my copy of Gigi. What a wonderful movie!

Any time, Shakey.

Regards,

HAID

"Written by a Dane during WWII.
Pithy little poems of great wit."

Not just "a Dane." But a unique Dane. To wit: "Piet Hein." I like Piet Hein's Grooks and his compressed wit and suspect I would like them even more if I had been born, say, in Odense, or possibly in a windy castle overlooking the sea at Elsinore. Martin Gardner introduced Piet Hein and the Grooks to a mass American audience through his column in "Scientific American," just the way he did so many other things, famous puzzle-masters, and that little book by Newman and Godel.

Last year,at a used-book sale, I found a signed copy of one in the series of small-format Grook-books, the signature being that not of "Piet Hein" but rather of the Dane behind that feathery pseudonym, a book presented to a now-dead, celebrated American physicist abd refugee from the Nazis -- and I promptly snapped it up. "Piet Hein" was a curious nom de plume to choose, for it is the name of a celebrated Dutch, not Danish, admiral.

Sometimes there is nothing like a Dane.

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

Hugh:

Try this one, by a bonnie English lass singing in Norwegian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x31HlSn3qSY

Nice guitar work, too.

Thanks Hugh for this wonderful idea. :)

Hey anime fans and baby boomers:

While we are way off the topic of jihad, remember Astro Boy? Here is the original Japanese intro from the early 1960’s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4HVYZhohGw&feature=related

Here the color intro from the1980’s in English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zspGKUk9mE0&feature=related

And here is the new intro from 2002(?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV7UtEKKkBw&feature=related

And here is “Zone,” the the all girl Japanese rock band that composed the new theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azQYn9i3K48&feature=related

Sad to day, zone broke up in 2005.

Last but not least, here are some video clips of Astro Boy beautifully juxtaposed with the song “Hero” by Maria Carey. Some of you might think it is a bit corny. But in today’s anxious times I feel no guilt saying this almost made me cry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ZlO6ux8h4&feature=related

I'm probably the only person on earth who likes this guy.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ_O7Od74Ec&feature=related

(And obviously I don't know enough html to make a link of this. LoL)

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Son of a gun--the link worked!

I see that harsher methods may have to be employed. But I won't get on the phone to Kim Il Sung just yet.

One more time: if you have a suggestion for a song, a poem, a scene from a movie, and the choice meets the stated criteria, email it. If it is not already on the Master List of several hundred items, you will be given credit for the suggestion.

Otherwise, I will with reluctance have to block all suggestions and links that, in careless or deliberate disregard of the stated purpose of the Interlude, have been or will be posted here. That is not a task for which I can muster much relish.

Oh. Sorry. Wrong national holiday.

The previous reference to a Gershwin video led me to this, which is not familiar.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E4rZ0eY4mic&feature=related

Hugh, is it in Danish or English?
I pity the circumstances that caused it to be relinquished to a second-hand sale, but rejoice (and envy) that someone who appreciates is intrinsic worth found it. You lucky dog!

I think the book is in English, but don't know where I put it. You would, if in science, recognize at once the original owner's name; he had a long and productive life in the country that rescued him.

Read up on your favorite or find your new best friend: http://www.akc.org/breeds/index.cfm

The link to the American Kennel Club suggests the wrong domestic pet.

Surely the task on this particular thread has nothing to do with dogs, but has degenerated into something akin to herding cats.

Re: Jihad Watch Interlude

Mr. Outdoor Cat-

Aristotle said the greatest pleasure was in logical thought, in thinking that grasped objective truth. There is no pleasure principal in I-slam. Not really. They are a wee bit primitive in their understanding of pleasure. I-slam is doomed because it does not understand that pleasure is in the intellect's grasp of objective truth. I-slam prefers deception as in "war is deception".

I will not arouse the anger of the benevolent despot by linking to favorite songs. But this, the Jihad Watch Interlude, is an excellent idea.

Is the emphasis on late 1920 - early 1930 singers a subtle reference to those innocent (or not so) and carefree (well, except for that global Great Depression, but back then "we were all in it together" which took some of the edge off it) times leading up to the horrors to follow?

And as we have come round to domestic pets, and therefore to domestic petting, in a holiday mood I will put up one bonus link today, pour decourager les autres:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qj83T2_CGeQ

I don't know what "pour decourager les autres" means, but I like the pussy cat, Hugh. In any case, it made me think about pussy cats. It focused my attention there.

"I don't know what 'pour decourager les autres' means..."
-- from a posting above

Merely a twist or possibly two, a double-lutz, performed on the thin ice of that overused French phrase "pour encourager les autres." I call it htus because there is more than exchanging one word for its semantic opposite. The original use of the verb was not straightforward, and the deliberately chosen opposite, while more so, is not quite so. One kind of meaning is drained; the opposite reintroduces the literal, and thus becomes more than literal, because one keeps in mind the underlying, and prompting, original.

The phrase comes from Voltaire in his otherwise sunny-side-up "Candide," as a way to mordantly describe the reason behind the English execution of Admiral Byng in 1756. Voltaire wrote that "dans ce pays-ci [Great Britain], il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres." Very freely tranlated that means "in that country, it has been found useful from time to time to execute an admiral in order to 'encourage' the others."

There are quick ways to look things up. Reference books, for example. And we'll always have Google.

An interlude from Islam is most welcome, but one that strictly, by the written decree of a despot, bans pop music, that omits humor, that indeed, by default, banishes the musical peccadilloes most abhorrent to islam’s charter; the salacious hard rock, the degenerate heavy metal, even the prurient crooning of those Backstreet Boys, leaves me declaring in the fashion of Otto, the bus driver, . . .Zeppelin Rules! Would even ABBA pass muster under this interlude regime, or is it too modern, too new-fangled, just too damn ubiquitous?

This exercise seems less like celebrating what islam derisively thinks of our pop culture, and more like paying homage to the favorites of our resident likely-octogenarian. This is not an interlude, I dare say, but an "interhughed". There, a new word for the day.

I will not submit.

Strike me down if you will, for this infidel blasphemy, but I can assure you . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY

Comment on the above:

1) I am not an octogenarian, though I hope to be one some day.

2) If I am trying to effect, a Revolution in Taste, or possibly, if you prefer (I don't) the Vendee to Lexington and Concord, a counter-revolution, then I'll be damned if I'll offer more of the unendurable same, the crap one kind find, at any hour, on virtually any station, anywhere you listen or look.

3) You will find the very song you posted, in a fit of spirited defiance, already posted by me nearly a month ago, at www.newenglishreview.org, under the article "How They Sang the War...When The War Was World War II."

The other songs were representative of their respective countries. In the case of the Italian "Bella Ciao," I chose the best version (with the original song of the rice-women on which the famous song of the Italian partigiani was based, not to mention their beautiful rustic delivery)) despite the "evviva liberta e communismo" placard, the second part of which must be received with some historical sense).

Ah me. I have screwed up yet again.

I was listening to one of Ahmed Deedat's videos when I turned to JW and clicked the link. Imagine my distress to hear Mr. Deedat's sanctimonious brayings and hee-hawings overlapping the dulcet tones of Ms. Matthews. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Ah, indeed, so this "interlude" is not a break from the reporting of the jihad and sharia menace at all, as it was originally billed and enthusiastically embraced, but actually a C. Montgomery Burns-style "revolution in taste" in defiance of all that "crap" one can find on "virtually any station". So basically, that means everything from ABBA to ZZ TOP and perhaps even the recent off-key caterwauling of those four mop tops on the Ed Sullivan Show.

And the point of this anti-pop music decree on Jihadwatch is what? If I want to hear the negative opinion of pop music, present and past, I can go to memri.org and listen to the imams rail.

Ernie K. Doe - Here come the girls

http://hypem.com/track/419246

We have a winner :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0oCmDXrVk

"The relief provided may be literary, musical, cinematic, philological, historical, or anything-at-all in nature." 8:38

Pelayo is not fuming, he is just perplexed.

Dalai Lama

The power of intention, guided by the altered perception that sees no obstruction, can create its own reality.

Hugh said

In the case of the Italian "Bella Ciao," I chose the best version (with the original song of the rice-women on which the famous song of the Italian partigiani was based, not to mention their beautiful rustic delivery)) despite the "evviva liberta e communismo" placard, the second part of which must be received with some historical sense).

If you insist on taking the role of Major Winchester, from that other war, in that other theatre of operations, it relegates the rest of us to the part of Hawkeye Pierce, or failing that, Radar O'Reilly. There's probably even a Hotlips Hoolihan or two out there.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

An interlude, a reminder of a simpler time when "Sixteen Candles" or "Turn Around Look at Me" did not indicate a song by a pedophile or a stalker. I was just trying.

If I had posted "Sixteen Candles" or "Turn Around Look at Me" they would have been stricken.

A clash of generations?

Hugh has a thing for girl singers of the 20s and
30s. Good on him. That's certainly a wonderful
time in popular music, vibrato was widespread,
and the songs were better than today's. However,
I got the impression that Hugh disparaged the
instrumental side of jazz in deference to the
vocal, so I offer this as a remedy to his Trane
induced trauma

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hKEqEBAo6FE

I'd offer this too, but for the fact that the
name of the song is a target on account of
you-know-what...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U1MGX8SLU&feature=related

From Hugh:

"… a place to remind the audience of performers who have been forgotten or remain unknown or, if not entirely forgotten or unknown, then insufficiently appreciated because they were from another time, another space."

Here's something that has nothing to do with Islam and never will, with music by a composer who is unknown, and never will be: me. I cobbled this together today from Apollo and Space Telescope imagery and bits of original composition. The background is a sonata of sentimental, then syncopated, synthesizer music… with the drumbeat of chaos in the background.

Thanks To The West produced by RalphInfidel

Imagery by NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STSci/AURA)

Insufficiently appreciated? Taste? Probably not.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was obsessed by Jessie Matthews at one point and was attracted to Sarah Brightman because of her physical resemblance to star in her thirties heyday.

Hugh, please make your selection:

"Marie"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zuPNZwq10QQ

"Marie"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1rGQ3LH_Mqk

Three replies to three different postings:

1.

"a clash of generations?..."
-- from a posting by Pelayo, whose early posting (originally #3) I now see I should not have removed, and now apologize for so doing, since I have subsequently failed to remove others even more egregious

Nothing generational about it. Plenty of people my age or much younger are Deadheads or worse. Plenty of people far older than I are completely indifferent to what quickens me about certain songs that go back to the 1920s and 1930s. But “The Interlude” is not simply a place for everyone and his brother to put up whatever he feels like, because he wishes to “share” something, that something being well-known, easily accessible all day and all night, on a million radio and Internet channels. That would be an uncontrollable mess. Those who are indignant because they think that an Internet site is akin to a place of public accommodation, and that it should not only be open to all those who wish to visit, but also be willing to countenance any and all contributions by those visitors, no matter how that may cause long-laid plans to gang agley, have another think coming. Apparently there are some who want democracy, or still worse, equality in such matters. I don’t much care for that idea. The Interlude as conceived is intended to reflect, as I wrote, one person’s taste, my taste, my own sense of what is being overlooked undeservedly, or perhaps known (even well known) in one country, but hardly known outside that country. Everyone can suggest songs for posting by email, and if they meet the described criteria, they may well be posted. There is nothing unreasonable about that.

2. "Hugh has a thing for girl singers of the 20s and 30s..."
-- from another posting above

The statement might more accurately reflect my past propositions were “the” replaced by “their” and “of” replaced by a different preposition. In any case, it certainly reflects a rush to judgment. So far exactly two songs have been up. The haunting one by Jessie Matthews, and the amusing by Dorothy Lee. Nothing can be concluded from such a small sample. Give it a month. Last I looked, Al Bowlly, Sam Browne, Jack Buchanan, Bunny Berigan, Jean Sablon, Charles Trenet, Leo Monosson, Adam Aston, Bulat Okudzhava, Pyotr Leshchenko, Domenico Modugno, among the dozens who will appear, were never “girl singers.” And even the “girls” will not always be chosen because they are from the “20s and 30s.” The intent is to emphasize those who have been unjustly forgotten, sometimes because of the passage of time and the change in the musical weather, sometimes because their careers were cut short by war and its aftermath, sometimes because mere considerations of profit caused record publishers to ignore them. Until now it has not been technologically feasible to go outside the usual closed channels of distribution to find and then disseminate such material. But it is now possible, and that is what I am going to do.

3. “Ah, indeed, so this "interlude" is not a break from the reporting of the jihad and sharia menace at all, as it was originally billed and enthusiastically embraced, but actually a C. Montgomery Burns-style "revolution in taste" in defiance of all that "crap" one can find on "virtually any station". So basically, that means everything from ABBA to ZZ TOP and perhaps even the recent off-key caterwauling of those four mop tops on the Ed Sullivan Show.
And the point of this anti-pop music decree on Jihadwatch is what? If I want to hear the negative opinion of pop music, present and past, I can go to memri.org and listen to the imams rail.”
--- from a posting above

You are peeved that I choose not to put up the kind of music that is all around us. You even manage to drag in, as a point of absurd comparison, C. Montgomery Burns. When you see some of the “cinematic” interludes I intend to put up, especially those from Dennis Potter’s “Lipstick On Your Collar” you will realize just how absurd. Mr. Burns no doubt would regard all music as a waste of time, a distraction from the real business of living, which is for the Montgomery-burnses of this world is making money. I doubt he would see much to write home about in the Jessie Matthews song I put up, or in that by Dorothy Lee.

One more time: I have no intention of offering here what is already on offer everywhere on radio, AM, FM, shortwave, Internet, or on television, with dozens of MTVish channels. That refusal hardly constitutes a “negative opinion” of “pop” or any other kind of music. Some pop singers produce versions of old songs better than, or as good as, the original. One example: Mama Cass’s version of “Dream A Little Dream Of Me.” But I’m not going to put it up here because it is so well known and relatively recent. And I’m certainly not going to jettison my own clearly-stated criteria in order to satisfy yours.

Pelayo--

Tommy Dorsey's version.

For another "Mary" song see "Parlami d'Amore Mariu" which I put up on November 9 at www.newenglishreview.org. The link:
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/11210

A very nice interlude; thank you. That song slows me down from a couple of hours of eating, family and fantasy football. This cleansing of my palate readies me for another binge of anti jihad consumption.

OK. If you're looking for things that cannot be easily found...does this qualify?

Right now I am listening to the rich contralto of Ashkenazi singer Sarah Gorby, and the shining tenor of an unnamed man (perhaps a synagogue cantor?) as they perform Jacques Lasry's mesmerisingly beautiful "Cantique des Cantiques: Cantate Hebraique", that is, a series of passages, sung in the original Hebrew, from the Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs.

Lasry is Jewish, from Algeria, and this is, I think, his tribute to his people and his culture. It was recorded by Philips in Paris in either the 50s or 60s - I'm not sure, the record jacket doesn't say; it was sponsored by the World Sephardi Federation of London.

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce here, either, the exquisite - and subtly naughty - illustrations by Raymond Moretti of Nice, that were used in the album design.

I heard it just once, on the radio, years ago; and had absolutely no luck getting hold of a copy of the recording until google and the internet made miracles happen and I found someone selling it second-hand.

No, I don't think it will be heard on MTV anytime soon (though I did send a digital copy of the black vinyl recording that I possess, to the people who present the Hebrew program on our 'ethnic' broadcaster, SBS Radio).

I never get tired of it. Lasry's use of the flute and the luth (North African lute) is exquisitely sensual.

So far as I could discover from my researches, Sarah Gorby is otherwise known only for a collection of Jewish folk songs entitled something like "Songs from the Russian Ghetto".

I dare anybody to find a link to an online recording of this one!

Such a song might qualify. Certainly it is little known. But I had in mind more popular music,of a certain sort, and my search-time is limited. If someone reading this has the music on record or tape, and wishes to up-load it to YouTube, I'll listen.

In the category of Yiddish music, I have two things that I have found at YouTube that are likely to evenutally be put up: a song by Adam Aston, and a touchingly happy (and, because viewed after the fact of Nazi mass murder, also difficult to watch) scene of fiddle-playing by Molly Picon and others in mid-1930s Poland, an excerpt from the movie "Yidl Mitn Fidl."

Interlude:

Winds of Jihad cartoonist Shem with his latest cartoon on racism and discrimination:

http://sheikyermami.com/2007/11/22/racism-discrimination/

And another one:

Malaysia builds the Islam-O-bile with a compass for Mecca and a clock announcing prayertimes with the 'azzan'-

http://sheikyermami.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/mecca-mobil1.jpg

Tables for Ladies
http://www.shorpy.com/node/1968?size=_original

Leave it to Beaver
http://www.shorpy.com/leave-it-to-beaver

Please consider, as an expression of the indominable human spirit ascending the heights, this example: Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, opus 82.

the Sound Track to A Clockwork Orange.

Quiet nights and quiet stars
quiet chords from my guitar...
Not Tony Bennett's version but good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSgvvbCQq9c

One of the most beautiful pieces ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sjppLW0pvg

Hugh, if it were not for the internet and places like Youtube, everything would be obscure and inaccesible, especially videos of perforamances by the likes of Tommy Dorsey, or The Easybeats (Friday on My Mind.)

Nobody in cable TV is going to waste air time showing real music videos. (A real music video is in my opinion a tape or film of a performer doing their music.) I'm going back to Youtube and look for more Shindig or Action videos.

Lost in the stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSK7OgqSLCQ

Here's the theme song for Thanksgiving -and a clever musical rescue from the mess that Britney made of it- by a girl with talent and a sense or irony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6GqWpuefc8&feature=user

Time for a last piece of pumpkin pie!

I once heard that so much of the music and movies from the preww2 era were escapist because of the grim circumstances of the day. I applaud your effort in exposing others to styles and tastes that they may have not ever experienced, who knows some bloggers may find that they enjoy hearing something different.

I don't know if this will quite meet Hugh's criteria.

Whenever my blood boils and the instrument panel exudes that monstrous wail that denotes impending mechanical disaster, my children come to the rescue. When the worlds seems to be falling apart and the leaders are clueless, my daughters need help with their dress-up clothes. When it seems all is in flames, my children climb into my lap and tell me they love me. Then, all is right.

I took a long nap after dinner and can't get back to sleep. Ah, Thanksgiving!

Random Thoughts

Once Upon a Time

A record was made with all the musicians in the studio at the same time. An animated film was produced by real artists with real paint and brushes. New cars were painted by people. A radio was a piece of furniture, made of wood and varnished to a high sheen. Assembly instructions were in English. US Highway 66 still existed. News reporters respected the need for secrecy.

"Turn Around Look at Me" is now about a stalker, and "Sweet Little Sixteen" is about pedophilia. The lyrics to "Chattanooga Choo Choo" are now too racist to be sang - "Pardon me boy . . . you can give me a shine." Playing Ray Steven's "Ahab the Arab" will result in the death of the racist, Islamophobic disc jockey.

Find the lyrics to Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" and think about how things have changed. Maybe, except for the part about Selma, Alabama, it's all the same. The world is more dangerous now than it ever was.

We actually feared the Russians?

Listen to "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and see if it means the same to you as it did in 1968.

We lost our innocence, or maybe it was stolen.

My all time favorite, priceless:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q&feature=related

Took me a while to find it, but this is sooo good, don't miss it!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJMYlw2VyU&feature=related

"We actually feared the Russians?"

Funny you say that. My recurring thought of the day has been wondering why we bothered to fight the Cold War given the list of 2008 candidates.

Kudos Hugh on this welcomed lateral shift.
A few ramblings….
My Mom used to tell me ......
"Never borrow trouble from tomorrow "
And a good friend of mine used to drive me mad with his pet saying ..... "what is, is".
Mainly because of, whenever I asked him what he meant, he would put on a look of extreme smugness
on his face and answer with “what is, is”.
I’d ask him again what he meant and got the same reply.
This happened MORE than once, very infuriating.
Many years later I came to judge that saying as profound.
The two together form a formidable ally against those harder times in life.

kevin,

That is a precious bit of home-spun wisdom, of domestic philosophy.

Freedom,

Your friend's pet saying is more profound than William Jefferson Clinton's deconstruction of the word, "is," is. Antithetical. Has anyone else attempted to render the verb, "to be," utterly meaningless?

I mean, in this world. I already know that His Satanic Majesty, Lucifer, is a master at attempting such, of such nihilism.

"I am that am not."

"I doubt, therefore I maybe"

Here is another effort.

From my own recollection as a person possessing no musical training or background, let me put forth the following examples of their composers' mature styles and of Western cultural achievement: the various Symphonies No. 5 of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Howard Hanson, Gustav Mahler, Carl Neilsen, Serge Prokofiev, Jean Sibelius (cited above), and Dimitri Shostakovitch; respectively.

These are those I can recall, several of which have similarities, both musical and extra-musical--triumph over tumult, especially.

Popular music of the past is the alternative to the unappetizing popular music of the present that is most likely to succeed. Besides,the classical music department at this site is run by Marisol, and I couldn't possibly comment.

The 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony with the word "Freiheit" substituted for "Freude", performed by the Berlin Philharmonic in about 1990 to celebration the re-unification of Berlin.

Hugh,

If you know the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth, that adequately suffices.

I think that Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 is quite impressionistic, just listen, if you can, to the final movement. An avid mountain climber could sense it--the wind rushing, the expansive feeling, the exhilaration, the drifting echoes--experience it.

Besides,the classical music department at this site is run by Marisol, and I couldn't possibly comment. - Hugh

Sure you can. At least while I'm busy finishing my Nocturne for Bagpipes and Steam Calliope. I have to save early and often-- my notation program keeps closing with a "Fatal Aesthetic Error."

Wild Horses, a little different than the Stones version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_CDuyw4nRE

Keep pushing against technical limitations, Marisol. Iconoclastic innovation never easily succeeds, at first. But, then again...

...It may never quite catch on.

Marisol,

However, there IS always the possibility that the corpus of your works may be discovered some day--even after generations of aesthetes pass on.

Provided, one may hope, that that corpus doesn't emit the distinct odor of cultural decay and societal collapse. Even so, it may then serve as a landmark, and evoke nostalgia and romanticism--however perverse.

Yes, I can picture it, even now:

"The New Gothic Revival."

Been there, done that...

HHhmm... Wait, I know:

"The NEW New Gothic Revival."

and I’m certainly not going to jettison my own clearly-stated criteria in order to satisfy yours.

I suggested no criteria. Nor had I any intention of sharing my musical tastes. (Although I did offer up Vera Lynn, to which you snorted that it was insufficiently new to you.) I don't come to jihadwatch for musical interludes. Nor does anyone else. Consequently, I think you will find the ratings for this pilot program rather dismal. (Thankfully, the production costs are negligible.)

However, one can argue, as I have, that this call for an "interlude" was disingenuous as it was billed for it sent out a request for suggestions and/or contributions when in fact it was nothing more than a request for tribute. For what purpose? Why call for an interlude, when you have made it clear it is merely the cultural indulgence of one man? Why not call it paying homage, or giving oblation? More to the point, why should others, who come to this site for news reporting on global jihad and hometown sharia, indulge you so, pay you homage, come and leave a bag of gold coins on your step, aside from the observation that you are boss, or, at least, consiglieri? Thus, my earlier question, as to the meaning of this, remains unanswered.

Reminds me of, at least in milieu if not in degree, the Suetonius story told of the emperor Caligula, true or not, we do not know, but his penchant for indulgence and tribute was legendary, who, in the process of taking a bath, would have little boys swim around and under the water, as goldfish in a pond, taking little nibbles of the emperor's penis for his delight.

Just an interlude from the dreary business of state, I suppose.

Not that it matters, but, due to the strictures placed on the 'Interlude' content, my interest in it has been squelched.

But, that's just me, of course.

I believe what Hugh is looking for is relief from the constant stream of jihad stories, in the form of snippets and reminders of our civilizational legacy worth fighting for - not so much those snippets and reminders worth surrendering over.
Opinions on what those might be will differ.
Herding cats indeed.

Well, I don't know your e-mail Hugh because I send everything to Robert, but I thought you might be interested in this. It is a little know recording by a well known artist who is no longer with us. I heard it on the radio once about 20 so odd years ago and have asked DJ's to play it for me but because it is not P.C. to do so, they have declined for the past decade. Pity, because it is haunting and beautiful, and it is one of the reasons I fight the good fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KicG-FP9xv8

Herding cats?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONmhQJy1ViA

"I suggested no criteria. Nor had I any intention of sharing my musical tastes. (Although I did offer up Vera Lynn, to which you snorted that it was insufficiently new to you.) I don't come to jihadwatch for musical interludes. Nor does anyone else....this call for an "interlude" was disingenuous as it was billed for it sent out a request for suggestions and/or contributions when in fact it was nothing more than a request for tribute. "
-- from a posting above

In rejecting my criteria, in more or less insisting that I had no right to impose them (genreally, works that are now insufficiently known, though once known far better or never sufficiently known, possibly because they were by obscure performers, or by performers in distant lands whose works never received attention in this country, you were indeed suggesting criteria: for you were arguing, essentially, that recent works, and well-known works should also be included.

When you posted Vera Lynn, I merely observed that I had, at another website, already put up that very same song, and far from "snorting" as you describe it, I was clearly implying that I would not only be putting up that song, but others from the same era that reflected or embodied the musical response to World War II -- by the United States, France, Italy, and the Soviet Union. You chose not to comprehend.

When you write that "this call for an "interlude" was disingenuous as it was billed for it sent out a request for suggestions and/or contributions" but in fact was a request for "tribute" I don't know what you read. I said clearly that I would do the choosing. Read the original posting again. It was unambiguous. There was no attempt to level "tribute" but merely not to make this a free-for-all, karaoke session. It was one person's choice; I am that person. After many continued to make their own suggestions and to post links to various favorite songs, often overlooking or ignoring the criteria, I at that point said that it would be better to send suggestions to me, via e-mail, and that they would then be considered if they met the criteria listed. That hardly amounts to, as you put it, my having "sent out a request for suggestions and/or contributions." I never, not once, changed my criteria and I never once "sent out a request" for anything; I merely said that if one had a suggestion one dearly wished to make, by all means send it in rather than simply post it. End of story. Your indignation is misplaced, is baseless.

When you say "I don't come to jihad watch for interludes" that is one thing. Chacun a son gout. You are perfectly free to look at anything or nothing here. I can't prevent that. But you also have not the slightest right to start getting annoyed if things don't satisfy you. Are you a paying customer here? I assume that you pay nothing to come here, right? Yet you are quick to complain. My, my. And then you further add that not only do you not "come to jhad watch for interludes" but that "no one else does either." Really? You are quite wrong. Robert was very enthusiastic about the idea, and kept after me about it. Many other visitors to this site, over the past two days, have by email expressed similar enthusiasm. Do you speak for all these people? Since when?

As for your Suetonius story -- well, that's a nasty little tale, isn't it? What is the point? Spell it out. You have the gall to think that I have no right to choose the selections I will be choosing; you are indignant this, indignant that I won't listen to you in the way that you think you deserve to be listened to. The boarding school I went to had a rule: students could be discharged who were found guilty of conduct "unbecoming a gentleman." An open-ended standard. It has a lot going for it. While the right to comment at this site is sweetly extended at first to everyone, it is not an indefinite invitation to behave as one likes, however outrageously. It can and has been removed from those who offer sufficient provocation, and therefore reason, for its removal.

Here is some beautiful singing of a beautiful song:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jzugNXvDxSc

"...due to the strictures placed on the 'Interlude' content, my interest in it has been squelched."
-- from another poster above

Really? After all of two songs have been put up? Already your interest has been "squelched"? Not willing to see what goes up in the next week or two? Your mind is made up?

prman--

A very fitting song. "Core 'ngrato" indeed. Cori ‘ngrati. Or were you not intending to make an oblique comment on the busy day at the Complaints Department here?

I will be putting up, over time, some Roman stornelli (sung by Gabriella Ferri), and Neapolitan songs by Domenico Modugno. In the "Cinematic Interludes" there will be lots of the inexhaustible Sordi (and a bit of Monica Vitti in "Polvere di stelle"), Silvana Mangano’s most famous movie performance, Anna Magnani, and Toto. Meanwhile, here's something that you might like that I will put up in a month or two under the regular “Interludes” rubric:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSVYOXOvFg

Attempted levity. (I hope there is no law against that.)

Marisol,

Now, about your sketching a "Nocturne for Bagpipes and Steam Calliope":

It's about your chosen media of expression. Sounds much too newfangled to me--too much mechanical apparatus. I am, after all, a member in good standing of the Ned Ludd Society, so I am rather an avowed technophobe.

BTW, here's a thought even more deliciously decadent (I have anarchic tendencies)--just think, this may all, ultimately, usher in a new era--"The NEW New Retro-Gothic Punk Revival," aka: The End of Civilization as We Know It.

Please don't take me to task--the preceeding impertinence is not, after all, directly related to our present difficulties.

Go back to an article I put up on September 12, 2007, called "The Schadenfreude of the Arabs." The posts on the thread under the article are worth reading.

Here's one of those posts, one that I put up:

"Connoisseurs of the not-immediately-obvious will perhaps share my suspicion that the poster who calls himself "jihadwatcher" above has previously appeared here as "Norseman," and subjected me to the same kinds of criticism, in virtually the same words. For example, here is what he wrote, complete with that tell-tale word “bloviation” that he is so fond of, on September 22, 2006:

“The other day, I took some abuse for mentioning the "bloviations of the insufferable windbag Hugh Fitzgerald." What an injustice!

Is is possible that we are looking here at a new record? Mr. Fitzgerald, may I suggest that you buy a few periods (full stops)? May I also note that it is not good to begin a sentence with a conjunction?

You, sir, are indeed a semiliterate, bloviating, insufferable windbag. I rest my case.”

[Posted by: Norseman at September 22, 2006 10:17 AM]

The same poster – whether he calls himself “Norseman” or “jihadwatcher,” also seems to have unusual views for someone who visits this site. For example, he was ecstatic when the news was posted here that two men, neither of them Muslim, were arrested for the murder of the Armanious family [Egyptian-American Copts], because he thought it would undo this site and its principals.

Here is how he put it:

“Surely you people realize that you, Robert Spencer, and Jihad Watch have now been completely discredited by your hateful and prejudiced actions. Will you not now at least do the decent thing, appologize to the Muslim ummah, and abandon your opposition to Islam?"

[Posted by: Norseman at March 5, 2005 10:02 AM]

Another poster promptly provided additional information about "Norseman":

"I remember Norseman from AOL's MidEast forum. He's pro IslamofFacist and a rabid Jew hater."

[Posted by: Kemaste at March 5, 2005 12:06 PM]

So perhaps there is a bit more going on than an attempt at literary criticism. Perhaps Norseman/jihadwatcher doesn’t like the way I put things for other reasons.

[Posted by: Hugh at September 12, 2007 5:22 PM]

"Jihadwatcher" never responded to this posting directly. Had the charge been false, I would have thought he would respond, loudly and at once. But he never did. Instead he has chosen to quietly reappear, and to complain about the "Interludes" that I apparently intend to choose the songs that will be put up at JW, and he is greatly offended that he will not be in charge, or at least have an important say in the matter.

Read through that thread under the article posted on September 12, 2007 and see if, having read his other attacks on me, crude and coarse as they are, if you suspect what I suspect about "Norseman" and "jihadwatch."

In any case, I repeat the warning to "jihadwatcher" made in the posting 12:36 p.m. But this time with even greater determination not to tolerate such presumption and such insolence.

Here's another from the brilliant "Shorpy - The 100 Year Old Photo" blog,

Little Italy: 1908
http://www.shorpy.com/node/1781?size=_original

Is that Don Corleone, 63rd from right?
Just kidding.

Actually, I'd like to recommend the entire Shorpy collection as a place to go to appreciate what our forefathers lived through and fought for.

The photograph is described as being of the "Little Italy festa." Which "festa" is that? I would have thought a particular saint, especially revered in, because connected to events in, a particular city or region, would be the object of the observance., and those obsevances would be held throughout the year on various saints' days. The Festa di San Gennaro, for example, would be celebrated by those who came from Naples (even though "Gennaro" is a quintessentially Sicilian name). Or a different saint and saint's day would be celebrated by those who came, say, from Avellino. Or Caltanisetta. Or Palermo. Think of San Martino, or Sant'Agata, the celebration of whose festa is said to be quite something, and was even more so fifty years ago, in Catania (with the most devout crawling on hands and knees through the town, and up the steps of the Duomo, then all the way to the altar) and in America naturally celebrated by those who came from Catania. And so on. Was there really, in 1908, or since, a single common shared "Festa" for all the denizens of "Little Italy"?

Youth wants, or at least would like, to know.

Hugh, I think those guys just liked pasta...and pizza!

The tradition has carried over to San Diego!
http://www.littleitalysd.com/festa/index.asp

And golf!
http://www.littleitalysd.com/festa/index.asp

"Really? After all of two songs have been put up? Already your interest has been "squelched"? Not willing to see what goes up in the next week or two? Your mind is made up?"

Sorry, Hugh. I was bummed out, when I wrote that. I enjoyed many of the suggestion offered in this thread by other posters.

However, I'm just not into that stuff you like. It's simply a matter of differing tastes. As for what goes up in the next week or two, it seems pretty clear that it's only going to be more of the same.

I'm afraid I lack the competitive drive to try to impress judges of any kind. (If I had that, I would be a writer, rather than a reader.)

As another poster mentioned, I, too, am ignorant of your email address. For those who do wish to compete, you might want to add that in, someplace.

Cindy

"I'm afraid I lack the competitive drive to try to impress judges of any kind. (If I had that, I would be a writer, rather than a reader.)"
-- from a posting above

For god's sake, this country is crawling with so-called "writers." Hundreds of thousands of them. What it lacks is good readers. Nowadays, it's a rarer skill, and a harder task.

And the same comment goes for the hundreds of thousands of "artists" -- the sheer number of which so often prevents the good ones from being winnowed from the chaff of all the others, and properly discovered and encouraged, and appreciated, and collected, in time to make a difference. How many connoisseurs and intelligent collectors or encourages of painting and drawing do you know? And how many people have you heard of, real-estate tycoons, hedge-fund operators, the lot, have you heard of spending vast sums of money on celebrated crap that they have been told by some cunning art dealer playing to their ignorance and sharing, perhaps, the same execrable taste or no-taste-at-all, that this or that "artist" -- preferably "cutting-edge" and preferably doing something involving video or photographs or performances or anything at all or perhaps they merely read it in Time, or ArtForum -- produces work is "really significant" and besides, "it's a great investment."

Wade through the swamp with me. Surely we can find some higher ground. There's a spot -- Barzun Hill. Let's climb it.

"For god's sake, this country is crawling with so-called 'writers.'"

"And the same comment goes for the hundreds of thousands of 'artists' . . . "

"Crawling" is a perfect verb in this instance. Everybody is an artiste, actors, architects, novelists, and movie directors. We have too many artists and not enough craftsmen (craftpersons?).

How are artists judged? Bluenose "critics" who think a crucifix in a Mason jar full of urine is "art" are usually the ones who set the standard. As for me, I prefer commercial success as the standard. Norman Rockwell was an artist.

That was not exactly my point. My point was that "numbers marreth man." Too many people clamoring for intention, too many people convinced that they deserve attention, and often the wrong ones getting it, and the sheer numbers getting in the way of the right ones. It's a bit like job applications. If there are five resumes for the job, you might have a chance of selecting the right candidate. But if you have 500, as you so often do, it's impossible. In all the gallery hype of the businessmen (read The New Criterion contributors on the art racket), and the businessmen-collectors, among all the Tracey Emins and Jeff Koonses, do those of merit get noticed?

We've been on this route before. Sonnet 66. "And captive good attending captain ill." But it's worse now.

More impertinence. (Until I exhaust stale cliches.)

Marisol,

That earlier suggestion of mine has to be retailored.

Style that, "The New Retro-Punk/New Gothic
Revival in Review."

It's sooo hard having to repackage a commodity for a fickle listening public--take, for example, Madonna--PLEASE!

Meanwhile, On With The Counterjihad. Deus vult!

O, dear me--I had a creeping suspicion, since confirmed, that Howard Hanson didn't WRITE a Symphony No. 5! Oh, well--eight out of nine can't be too bad, what?

Thinking of Australia today. Lyrics by one of the world's best-loved Australian band, INXS. RIP Michael Hutchence.

Dancing on the Jetty

Watch the world argue
Argue with itself
Who's going to teach me
Peace and happiness

We could sit here forever
Just never get old
Listen to the world
Letting God's tires down

Hit cities, sharp nights
Rag clothing
Dancing on the jetty
So our feet stay dry

Watch the world argue
Argue with themselves
Who's going to teach me
Peace and happiness

Blood is upon the steps
Two thousand years ago
Pray like hell then we go to fight
Another war in a holy land

Shot the world
True story
Snap decision
In a moment's glory

We're gonna watch them keeping it strong

Watch the world argue
Argue with itself
Who's going to teach me
Peace and happiness

We're making trouble
We change tracks
Fool the system
Take time to take notice

Hit city
Sharp nights
Rag clothing
Dancing on the Jetty

Watch the world argue
Argue with itself
Who's going to teach me
Peace and happiness

Oh, do go over to the left, just under the picture of Oriana Fallaci, and click on "Jihad Watch Interludes." There you will find not one but two singers from Australia, Marjorie Stedeford "Black Coffee") and Anona Winn ("Sittin' in the Dark"). And that's just in the first half-dozen entries. Take that.

Youtube!!!

I have discovered a wealth of clips of 60s rock and roll. Where else can an American view videos and kinescopes of concerts from Wembley Sadium in 1964? That's my interlude.

Oh, so you want POPULAR?

OK then, recall this--what do you hear after skivvy-clad Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), crewmate of the space freighter Nostromo, goes mano a mano against the ALIEN, blasting It into the void?

Yeah, that's right. You guessed it--music by HOWARD HANSON. The lilting final strains of "Symphony No. 2, opus 30, 'Romantic,'" written 1930, to be specific. He's a passable second-rank American composer.

[Who might be a first-rank American composer? Igor Stravinski--by naturalization.]

Score one for vulgarianism, the leveling of taste!

Up With The Counterjihad and all that. Deus vult!

Roll the credits.

John Barry?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rX5CNUmiE

"Igor Stravinski..."

If you can find or have a tape of the television program about Balanchine in which he reminisces on-camera with Stravinsky (Stravinsky: "let's get drunk"), and later, for the interviewer, recalls visiting Stravinsky during his last days, cheering him up by describing dishes he, Balanchine, intended to cook for him, and are able to up-load that onto YouTube, I will certainly post it at the JW Interludes.

Hugh:

Consider this, the product of American literature, cinematography, and music combined:

The 1949 movie, "John Steinbeck's The Red Pony"--its complete title; Steinbeck wrote the screeplay--starring Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum, based on Steinbeck's 1945 novel, "The Red Pony." American composer Aaron Copland wrote an enchanting suite of incidental music for the film, which is independently a popular concert piece.

This is an artistic achievement for a mass audience, which we can view as emblematic of a confident post-war America, flexing her cultural, economic, political and diplomatic influence in the world; the very America that Sayyid Qutb hated, loathed, and willed to destroy.

Popular and programmatic, these accessible productions are worth looking back on.

I confess, Mr. Fitzgerald, that I truly am a technophobe or neo-Luddite; or at least a computer neophyte dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st [Christian] Century.

I profess my inability to edit or paste a plugged nickel.

Mr. Fitzgerald:

The interview you speak of must be over 35 years old. When Igor Stravinski passed on, I was a 9th grade jr. high school student, and a not-too-stellar one at that. At the time, I recall commenting to my benign, dedicated world history teacher, Mr. Olsen, how unbecoming it was to hear of President Nixon's Medal of Freedom recipients, sans Stravinski. He, in turn, characterized the Nixon administration as low-brow. Reminds me of Mr. Olsen's presentation of Neanderthal Man. Mr. Olsen had an LP of "Rite of Spring." The teacher and his course were my favorite.

These days, I most desire to see Ayaan Ali Hirsi receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Now, THAT would be a finger in the eye of intolerance.

Did CBS' eternal "60 Minutes" air this ancient interview; and who, do say, was the interviewer? The names Mike Wallace and Morley Safer are etched in my memory.

"Le Sacre du Printemps," that is.

I can't remember who conducted the interview. If I could set some of the robert-crafted diaries of Stravinsky to his music, I'd post them too.

Ever hear of European classical music? Among the greatest triumphs of Western civilization.

HO! Messr. Hugh, we're doing Musical Interludes now, eh? I LOVE it!

How 'bout this one?

Awake in A Dream
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JB1ev-mnUsg

I just loved that woman - a delight of a song (although Cooper looked like an idiot schoolboy to the thoroughly, mature woman). Dietrich played the piano herself.

Now, THIS is a woman ( in the way of Stanwyck- WHAT LEGS!)- yeah - yeah - I know the rumor - but still these were red-blooded WOMEN!:

Drum Boogie from "Ball of Fire."
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qEdh2MmIIVs

Lady of Burlesque
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8lTmtHoBhnA

For all of you, take time out to check out the 1940's comedy "The Lady Eve," with Stanwyck and Henry Fonda,"

I can't find my favorite online. In 586BC the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem was lamented by Jeremiah. The Tallis Scholars "Lamenta" CD (Gimell Records) is a beautiful rendition.

I would like to add the Great Rogers and Astaire:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1L0a1pecLCI

Beauuutifull!

Pardon me, but I just found this - I'm left speechless with wonder:

Gershwin's :

I've Got A Crush on You:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9E00IpRr07k