music clip of the day

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Category: movies

Saturday, 11/20/10

I don’t know how boys do it these days—grow up, that is, without ever dreaming of being a cowboy.

Sunshine Boys (featuring J.D. Sumner), “We’re Gonna Ride on the Golden Range,” 1951 (Prairie Roundup)

Monday, 11/15/10

Madonna would’ve been a big star back then, too.

“Snake Hips (Do The Wiggle Waggle Woo),” Happy Days (1929), with Sharon Lynn (singer), Ann Pennington (dancer)

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lagniappe

reading table

As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, — John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.

—Robert Creeley (I Know a Man)

Want to hear Creeley read this? Here (MP3).

Monday, 9/27/10

Something new to sing in the shower.

Felix del Pilar Perez Castro, “Amor Loco,” Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba, 1964)

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lagniappe

Paul Anka, “Crazy Love” (1958)

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mail

In response to yesterday’s clips:

Amen!

Wednesday, 9/15/10

Here’s a MCOTD first—music by someone who’s been featured previously (here, here, here, here, here) as a visual artist.

William Eggleston, piano

Live (Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me [forthcoming])

*****

Live, Japan (Tokyo, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art), 2010

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lagniappe

art beat

William Eggleston

Monday, 9/6/10

Morocco—it’s just a click away.

Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway, excerpts (2007)

Thursday, 8/12/10

my new mantra

Say ‘bye bye, bogeyman.’

—Whispering Jack Smith

Whispering Jack Smith, “Happy Days” (Happy Days [shot in 1929, released in 1930])

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lagniappe

more music to chase away the bogeyman

Sidney Bechet (clarinet, with Henry “Red” Allen, trumpet; J.C. Higginbotham, trombone; James Tolliver, piano; Wellman Braud, bass; J.C. Heard, drums), “Egyptian Fantasy” (1941)

Wednesday, 6/16/10

movies/part 3

Once upon a time, before the Gulf oil spill, before Katrina, there was a city . . .

*****

*****

New Orleans (1947)

Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong

“Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?”

Want more Billie Holiday? Here. Here.

More Louis Armstrong? Here.

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lagniappe

The impact of the oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill now soiling the Louisiana shoreline was felt far inland on Thursday as P&J Oyster Company, the country’s oldest oyster processor and distributor, ceased its shucking operations.

“The bottom line is that the guys that we purchase from are not working,” said Sal Sunseri, referring to the oyster harvesters who’ve been idled by the mass closure of harvesting areas and freshwater diversions. “Today’s our last day of shucking.”

***

“Having the guy down the street deliver oysters that were shucked just that morning to our doorstep is an amazing thing,” said John Besh, who featured P&J Oysters at his five New Orleans area restaurants. “The relationship is so valuable, knowing that I can count on them to source the best oysters from the saltiest areas and deliver them in a consistent, uniform manner.”

“They provide wonderful oysters,” said Darin Nesbit, chef at the Bourbon House, whose relationship with P&J is so tight Sal Sunseri helped shuck oysters the first night the restaurant opened following Hurricane Katrina. “Even in times of trouble, they’ve always taken care of us.”

P&J was started in 1876 by John Popich, a Croatian immigrant who took on partner Joseph Jurisich at the turn of the century. In 1921, Popich and Jurisich purchased a shucking house at the corner of Toulouse and North Rampart streets. Alfred Sunseri, the current owners’ grandfather, who was married to Popich’s cousin, joined the company soon after.

—Brett Anderson, “P&J looks to bring oysters in from the West Coast for the first time In its 134 years,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/10/10

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mail

You’re right, not only can’t you lip-synch this stuff; you can’t really sing it if you don’t know it in your heart. That’s why it’s sooooo good. [The Pilgrim Jubilees, 6/13/10]

Tuesday, 6/15/10

movies/part 2

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Stormy Weather (1943)

Cab Calloway and His Orchestra; Nicholas Brothers, dancers; “Jumpin’ Jive”

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lagniappe

Fred Astaire told the [Nicholas] brothers that the “Jumpin’ Jive” number in Stormy Weather was the greatest number he had ever seen on film. He would have been more impressed had he known that the choreography was filmed all in one take.

—Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History (2010)

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Want more tap-dancing?

Here (Will Gaines).

Here (Marilyn Miller).

Here (Teddy Hale, Gregory Hines, Will Gaines).

Monday, 6/14/10

movies/part 1

I feel a rhythmic brainstorm comin’ on . . .

—Slim Gaillard

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Slim Gaillard, piano, guitar; Slam Stewart, bass; Rex Stewart, drums; Elmer Fane, clarinet; Jap Jones, trombone; C.P. Johnston, drums; Harlem Congeroos, dancers

Wednesday, 4/28/10

As I mentioned a while back, I’m leaning toward a career, in the next life, as a tap-dancer.

Marilyn Miller, “All I Want To Do, Do, Do Is Dance” (Sally, 1929)

Want more? Here.