Dino Danelli

Dino Danelli was a tremendous drummer, playing with one of rock and roll's best bands, The Rascals (known earlier in their career as The Young Rascals).  He died on Thursday, at age 78. 

The Rascals, as a group, had a full, rich, soulful sound.

The following is a video I enjoy very much; it is a live performance by the group of one of their many hits, 1968's "A Beautiful Morning."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zewzkHBCcVM

Felix Cavaliere--an extraordinary singer and organist--sings the lead vocal in the above performance; Eddie Brigati sings, and plays the conga; Gene Cornish plays the guitar and sings; and Mr. Danelli is at the drums.  The song was co-written by Mr. Cavaliere and Mr. Brigati; the two co-wrote many of the group's best-known songs, in addition to "A Beautiful Morning"--including  "Groovin'," "I've Been Lonely Too Long," "A Girl Like You," "People Got to Be Free," and "How Can I Be Sure."  Mr. Brigati sang a beautiful lead vocal on the latter recording.

Mr. Danelli had great style as a drummer.  He was, for example, known for twirling, deftly, his drumsticks (sometimes one stick, as in the video above; sometimes both) during performances.  

I also like the following detail, in the above video: within the first several seconds of the song, Mr. Danelli, in pauses between left-handed beats, drops his left arm abruptly, a few times, his hand out of sight. I'm not sure I've seen another drummer do this, and while this is not, certainly, a matter of enormous significance, it is nonetheless eye-catching, stylistically. 

His drumming, all told, was vibrant, skilled, electric.

Here is an earlier Rascals video--from 1966--of the group performing "Good Lovin'" on Ed Sullivan's program (a song the group did not write). The odd outfits (perhaps schoolboy-like?) the group wears in the video, and which they wore on other occasions in the earlier part of their career (outfits The New York Times, in its obituary of Mr. Danelli, refers to as "foppish"), may, unfortunately, distract from the terrific performance of the song--which includes, incidentally, multiple enjoyable instances of Mr. Danelli twirling both drumsticks, simultaneously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNJbVFW5Pw

Here is the Times's obituary of Mr. Danelli:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/arts/music/dino-danelli-dead.html

Brittney Griner

It is very good news that America secured the release of Brittney Griner, held prisoner for ten months by Vladimir Putin's Russia.

One hopes that Paul Whelan, still imprisoned there--as well as other Americans held in Russia and elsewhere--will also return to the U.S., sooner rather than later.

Kanye West

Am too nauseated by Kanye 'Ye' West's latest burst of Jew-hatred, yesterday (including his repeated praising of Hitler and Nazism, and his Holocaust denial), to write, at the moment, at any length about it.  I'll be posting further about the subject at another time.

As of this writing, a day after West's appearance on conspiracist Alex Jones' program (along with West's virulently bigoted friend Nicholas Fuentes), Donald Trump (not surprisingly) has said nothing publicly about his friend West's sickening comments.

West, Fuentes, and Trump:  all three are dangerous, revolting, and morally depraved.

(This post was edited, slightly, in February of 2023.)

Brief thoughts, after the Mar-a-Lago dinner

Donald Trump's mind (the infinite self-obsession; the endless need for flattery and adulation--regardless of the repugnant sectors from which the flattery or adulation might emanate; the unrelenting lies, the cruelties, hatreds, bigotries--and the routine fanning of them) is profoundly disturbed. Yet really, though--it seems far too constricting, regarding Mr. Trump, to simply speak of a disturbed mind.  It is also, in the end, a deep sickness of the soul. 

The election

It is one of the most significant, and perilous, moments in American history: the country either turns in the direction of democracy, or Trumpism.

Ken Burns; a follow-up

Since its airing last month, over three nights on PBS, I have continued to think about the very fine Ken Burns documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust.

The film (co-directed by Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein) was wrenching, deeply moving, illuminating.

The documentary is, most certainly, a significant addition to the body of works about the Holocaust.

A recent column

From a Sept. 24th piece by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd:

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, long entwined, continue on vile parallel paths: They would rather destroy their countries than admit they have lost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/opinion/putin-trump-ukraine.html

Bill Plante, of CBS News

I always admired, and enjoyed, the reporting of Bill Plante, of CBS News.  Mr. Plante died on Wednesday at age 84.

He joined CBS in 1964, and retired from the network in 2016.

In the 1960s he covered the civil rights movement in the American South, reported from Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, and served for three decades, beginning in the 1980s, as Senior White House correspondent.  He was also, from 1988 to 1995, the anchor of CBS's Sunday Night News.  

During his career, The Washington Post noted in its obituary about him, he became "one of the most visible newsmen on television."  

From The Post's obituary:

“Bill was a friendly rival, always willing to share insights,” Tom Brokaw, the longtime former anchor of “NBC Nightly News” wrote in an email, describing Mr. Plante as “a smart, serious journalist with a droll, self deprecating style.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/28/cbs-correspondent-bill-plante-dead/

(CBS photo of Bill Plante, 1989)

Rosh Hashanah, beginning tonight

Good wishes for the New Year...

Ken Burns, and the film "The U.S. and the Holocaust"

Modern life moves increasingly fast.  The work of the outstanding documentarian Ken Burns offers a counterpoint to such acceleration.

His films--his America-centered histories--move slowly, in the best sense of the word. Their unhurried pace allows for depth, nuance, and rounded portraits--from 1990's The Civil War, to the recent films Benjamin Franklin (2022), Hemingway (2021, co-directed by Lynn Novick), and Muhammad Ali (also from 2021, co-directed by Sarah Burns and David McMahon).

I find that Mr. Burns's films routinely stay with me--images from them, words, stories, emotions. One continues to admire the (signature) sense of orchestration:  the use of still pictures; the rare, often startling, archival films his production company manages to locate; the superb interviews, commentaries, narrations.  

Tonight, from 8 until 10:15 (Eastern time), the first installment of Mr. Burns's new documentary (co-directed by Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein) appears on PBS. The film is The U.S. and the Holocaust.  Its subsequent two episodes air later in the week. (Broadcast times may vary, depending upon location; one should check one's local PBS listings.)  I'm very much looking forward to watching the program.

Please see these links, from PBS:

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/about-the-film

September 11th

One continues to think, often, of September 11th.

One of the (many) ways to remember the catastrophe--to focus upon, reflect upon, the magnitude of the terror, the loss, and the heroism--is to read. 

As such, a few days ago, I began reading the 2019 oral history of September 11th, and its aftermath, The Only Plane in the Sky, by Garrett M. Graff (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster).

Historian Jon Meacham said, of the book, in 2019:  “This is history at its most immediate and moving. In The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff has crafted an enduring portrait of a deadly and consequential day, a day that has shaped all other subsequent days in America..."

https://www.amazon.com/Only-Plane-Sky-Oral-History/dp/1501182218/ref

CNN, tonight

Will be watching CNN this evening, from 9-10 p.m. (Eastern time). The network is airing one of its "special report" broadcasts; tonight's is titled "Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America."

The program's host is the excellent reporter and political analyst Dana Bash.  She is CNN's chief political correspondent; she is also the co-anchor, with Jake Tapper, of the Sunday morning program State of the Union.

https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2022/08/15/cnn-special-report-rising-hate-antisemitism-in-america/

Cassidy Hutchinson, and the January 6th House committee

Today's House testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson--who served in the White House as a top aide to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's last chief of staff--was remarkable, riveting; it felt akin to the 1973 appearances by John Dean and Alexander Butterfield, in front of the Senate Watergate panel.

Poem by Frank O'Hara

A while ago I read the poem "Music," in the 1964 book Lunch Poems, by Frank O'Hara (City Lights Books).

The poem, the first in the book, is dated 1953.  Mr. O'Hara died in 1966, at age forty, two years after Lunch Poems was published.

There is a phrase in the poem--just part of a sentence--which has stayed with me; I have re-read it several times.

Mr. O'Hara wrote:

It's like a locomotive on the march, the season 

      of distress and clarity

D-Day

The image, below, is of the front page of New York's Daily Mirror, a tabloid paper, from D-Day, June 6, 1944 (seventy-eight years ago today). 

I've had the newspaper (along with other newspapers about D-Day) for decades--probably fifty-plus years.

At some point (as is perhaps evident, in the image), the front page separated from the rest of the paper.  Also, at some point, the page itself split in half, around the area of the fold.

I believe--I am not certain of this--that the group of newspapers was given to me by my maternal grandparents. 

 

 

Ken Burns's "Benjamin Franklin," on PBS

Am eager to watch, tonight, the second (and concluding) two hours of Ken Burns's new PBS documentary, "Benjamin Franklin."

The program's first two hours, last night, were outstanding.

https://www.pbs.org/show/benjamin-franklin/

Contributions for Ukraine

Here is a link to the organization CARE's Ukraine Crisis Fund:

https://www.care.org/news-and-stories/news/ukraine-emergency-how-you-can-help/

Putin's war

Am praying, as are so many others, for the people of Ukraine.

A Painting of Abraham Lincoln

An interesting story, from The Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/02/18/abraham-lincoln-painting-restored/