Ain't Misbehavin'

From 1929.  Written for the Broadway show Connie's Hot Chocolates.  Lyrics by Andy Razaf, music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.  Razaf and Waller were later to collaborate on Honeysuckle Rose.

This version by Louis Armstrong, featuring Louis on vocals and trumpet (starting at 2:02).  The horn solo includes a riff from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at 2:12.  Armstrong sat in with the orchestra during the run of the show and played the song between acts so he helped popularize it even before this recording.

Nice Soccer Field

The village of Henningsvaer (pop.510), located on an island off northern Norway.  Connected via two bridges with the mainland (photo from It's A Beautiful World).

Face Off

At the 1937 international exposition in Paris the pavilions of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union faced off against each other.  Thank God both regimes have disappeared.

San Francisco Elects The Joker As District Attorney

(San Francisco's new D.A.)

The Joker is a rage filled figure, devoid of conscience, determined to create chaos and overturn society. That's what San Francisco did in electing Chesa Boudin as its new District Attorney. The city's new D.A. is determined to encourage the forces of chaos in order to fulfill his twisted desire to overturn American society. You can read about his platform here, but it boils down to a pledge to not prosecute many crimes because he opposes the "criminalization of poverty" and will instead focus on "root causes" (the 1970s called, they want their crime policy back!).

Chesa Boudin's vision for America is a disgrace, but the bigger disgrace is how many others have responded to Chesa, his mother, and the couple who raised him, a response demonstrating the moral abdication of significant segments of our society.

Chesa's parents are Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, members of the Weather Underground terrorist group and self-described communist revolutionaries. Boudin had been on the lam after last being seen fleeing the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970 (where she and several others had been building a nail bomb which they planned to bring to a dance near Fort Dix in New Jersey which would be attended by servicemen) when, eleven years later, she and Gilbert, along with two other men, robbed a Brinks Armored Car in Nyack, NY, in the course which two Nyack policemen and a Brinks guard were shot and killed. Waverly Brown (the first black policeman hired in Nyack), Edward O'Grady and Peter Page were combat veterans with nine children between them. Another Brink's guard, Joseph Trombino, survived serious wounds, but was to die on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center where he worked. Boudin and Gilbert were eventually caught and convicted but Boudin was paroled in 2003 (Gilbert is not eligible for parole until 2058).
(O'Grady,Brown,Page)

After her release Boudin became an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Social Work and was named Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law School. With his parents imprisoned young Chesa was raised by the terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn (yes, the same folks who gave Barack Obama his political start; Obama later returned the favor by favorably blurbing one of Ayers' books).

After reemerging from their underground years in the early 1980s, Ayers and Dohrn were quickly accepted back into Chicago society, despite the fact that, to this day, they've never disavowed their terrorist acts and still describe themselves as communist revolutionaries. Their acceptance may have been helped since Ayers' father was the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison. Dohrn became an tenured Professor of Law and Director of the Children & Family Justice Center at Northwestern Law School. Ayers became a tenured, and highly respected, Distinguished Professor of Education (yes, that is the real title) at the U of Illinois where his work has helped deliver our current crop of educated youth.(1)  In retirement they live in an expensive condo in a Chicago high rise.

Blessed with the support of Chicago elites, Chesa was provided with a fine education, eventually attending Yale (where I am confident his background was considered a plus when Yale evaluated his application) and then received a Rhodes Scholarship. I have been unable to find whether similar advantages were provided to the nine children of Brown, O'Grady, and Page. Chesa was an ardent supporter of Hugo Chavez (for whom he served as a translator), approves of his parents being "dedicated to fighting U.S. imperialism around the world,” declaring, “I’m dedicated to the same thing”, and believes his parents "paid a heavy price for their radical politics"! Yes, he thinks his parents were the victims in an armed robbery they planned and conducted in which three other people were murdered. The truth is the price they paid was for their involvement in a triple murder. For more on Chesa you can read this article by James Kirchick.

Chesa Boudin is a person without a true conscience, however much he parades his concerns for the "oppressed". But the bigger problem is with those who accepted his mother, Ayers, and Dohrn back into society, granted them honors without any evidence of rehabilitation, and now elected to public office a man who celebrates their sick deeds and seeks to emulate them. In a society that actually understood the concept of social justice these people would be shamed and shunned.

If you are interested in reading more about the period during which these monsters were created, my personal experiences with some of the events of those days, and the attempt to whitewash this history you can read this post I wrote a few years ago.

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(1)  Upon his retirement, the university's Board of Trustees was about to grant Ayers the prestigious status of Professor Emeritus when one of the trustees spoke up in protest.  It was one of the sons of Robert Kennedy, who objected granting of the honor to someone who believed then and now that the murder of his father was a justified political act.  The Board decided not to grant Ayers emeritus status.

Opening

The Berlin Wall opens, thirty years ago today.  Something I never thought would happen in my lifetime.

The Long One

Another track from the spectacular new version of Abbey Road which contains remastered versions of all the original songs plus another 25 tracks including studio demos (of which Harrison's Something is a highlight), tracks not included on the original album like Old Brown Shoe, alternate takes of many of the songs, some including studio dialogue (on one we can hear that the neighbors made a request for The Beatles to turn down during a late-night session), and the isolated string and horn tracks for Something and Golden Slumbers.

What is most remarkable is the clarity compared to the original and previously remixes - you can hear each instrument and vocal line (and I understood some lyrics for the first time!).

This is The Long One, an early mix of the medley which covers most of the second side of Abbey Road and starts with You Never Give Me Your Money, one of my favorite Beatles songs.  You'll notice several differences from the final album version.  Some of the vocals are slightly different; one song is in a different place than in the final, and in the latter portion the strings/horns are missing as well as some of the guitar solos and vocals.  It is worth a listen with headphones or on a top-notch audio system.

One other note - Ringo's drumming is outstanding, particularly on You Never Give Me Your Money and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.