maren

Joanne Woodward C. Vann Woodward John Hope Franklin

Rin Tin Tin Cantinflas Flaco Jimenez

June Lockhart Barbara Billingsley Donna Reed

Jazz Kat Jazz Kitten Laurin Chapin

Eldridge Cleaver Norma Shearer Brian Blade

Ubiquitous air-conditioning! See all the electric fans in this police precinct? (from Kurosawa's Stray Dog, 1949, with Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura) [Although maybe by the time they get back to Japan, it'll be reverting to fans in an effort to curtail AC: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...n20050525a3.htm]

Haven't heard Maurice Brown, but as far as young trumpeters go, Jumaane Smith is pretty exciting: Photo from the 2001 Vision Festival, with this caption: "Drumming revolutionist Rashied Ali continued to draw inspiration from formidable young talent such as trumpeter Jumaane Smith, who pushed Ali's Prima Materia to the brink with his impassioned blowing." He's currently playing in the Rashied Ali quintet, also concentrating on composing. Studied at Juilliard -- with Wynton Marsalis. I have to say, hearing Jumaane Smith play and observing the depth, substance and lack of hype in his approach to establishing a career -- well, maybe the credit is all due to Smith himself (and his parents, and his earliest teachers) -- but to my mind it likely reflects very well on Wynton as a teacher. I guess this post kind of reads like a manager's hype! But it's not.

I walked out on the final installment of Fassbinder's Berlin, Alexanderplatz -- kind of a "made-for-German-TV miniseries" of the novel, being shown as 6 films in a 6-week series at Film Forum in New York in the summer of 1983. I happened to be pregnant, and 2 weeks overdue by the last episode... which was like a dream or after-life-in-hell sequence, with lots of gore and screaming! I pleaded contractions (though they stopped as soon as we got aside) -- more like I suddenly became a Mom who thought the vibe was inappropriate for baby, even in utero!

Whit Stillman? Barcelona ? About young wealthy American expats (one of them not blase, in fact, quite the neon-con flagwaver?) in Spain? I saw those at home on the VCR...

Looks like Ray Brinker and Jsngry have the same alma mater...

Thomas Hart Benton Billy Hart Billy Higgins

Canada Lee India Arie Cuba Gooding

Bruce the Moose Fritz the Cat Murray the K

Anita Baker Anita Loos Anita O'Day

Gerald Veasley Gerald Early Laton Carter

Jimmy Smits Rik Smits Reggie Miller

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (at 280 "The Fenway" -- red star on map below) is a really quirky, unusual little museum -- a mansion built by a wealthy patroness of the arts to house her personal collection, including portraits of herself by John Singer Sargent, Whistler and Anders Zorn. Also lots of European medieval art -- like the whole inside of a chapel plundered from some castle -- and a kind of lush garden setting, inside and out (The Fenway -- the street, that is, not the ball park! -- really is rain-forest-y marshland). It's been 25 years since I lived in Boston, so I can't venture a guess about "safe walking" -- back then it was potentially wild and woolly anywhere, anytime. But it's not far by public transportation or taxi -- not far from MFA either, I think. And if your wife's first name is Isabella, she'll get in for free! (told you it was quirky!). Edit: maybe this link to map works better than thumbnail below: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=Z8poF...y=us&cat=&trf=0

H. Rap Brown Kevin Mahogany James Coco

"Play my song!"

Have a great birthday, Jim! Just in case this year's cake doesn't get done in time, I've pulled last year's out of the freezer!

Cornelius Cardew Trimpin Jean Shrimpton

I can't help thinking that this girl obeyed her Catholic high school's teachings in at least 3 ways (plus she had good grades): she didn't use birth control she didn't have an abortion she informed the school as soon as she found out she was pregnant (story HERE) I'm really not being sarcastic -- I don't know THIS particular girl, but plenty of Catholic girls feel like they're in love and behaving morally in a "2 out of 3 ain't bad" kind of way (they got the birth control and abortion part right, and as for abstinence until marriage, they feel emotionally "married"). The school STATES IN THEIR HANDBOOK that a girl needs to notify them as soon as she finds out she's pregnant! Meaning they expect it's gonna happen! Seems like the least they could do is not pin a scarlet letter on her...

Madonna Divine Sheila E. Sheila B. Devotion Narada Michael Walden

H.G. Wells Orson Welles Orson Bean