Our Culture, Frankenstorm...Resilience

HURRICANE SANDY and all the giant weather strangeness and what some have called Frankenstorm hit the Eastern Part of the U.S. hard.  But the thing to remember is the fact all Americans know how to pull together in the difficult times.  Our culture is full of resilience and terrific strength.  Let's all pray that things get better soon with all this storm situation..

Peter Cushing

The actor, Peter Cushing, gives grand performances. Saw him
In good scary Turner Classics film
today. The man is clever.

Karin Slaughter

GOOD WRITING  pleases me so much.  The novelist, Karin Slaughter, has a quite clever approach to plot stylings.  Her brash, engaging writing draws readers in so well.  Her thriller, 'Triptych' is especially compelling.  Good read. 

Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars Really 'Rock'

GILLESPIE is an inspiration!  His All-Star groups are so fabulous.  One of the best men holding all this jazz strength together is the genius jazz bassist, the incomparable John Lee.  Hearing the bass work of John Lee at The Blue Note last Tuesday night energized me so much...His work on two Diz tunes...'Birks' Works' and 'Tin Tin Deo' was truly fantastic.  Another superior man is the elegant Cyrus Chesnut.  Last Tuesday his All-Star performance on the charged, emotional 'My Funny Valentine' was so very, very strong.

Great Friday

October Fridays in the Atlanta area are great...oh yes'

Chinatown lunch..NY.

Good fun.

Cool lunch in NY Chinatown..

Great food at China Village restaurant,

Highest Quality Jazz in NYC

Last night (10-16-12), We enjoyed truly fantastic, exciting jazz at The Blue Note down on 3rd Street in The Village. The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Band guys were so great and 'hip.' Paquito on clarinet and saxophone, Terrence Stafford on trumpet, Cyrus Chesnut on piano, and Louis Nash on drums were all wonderfully great. Mr. Chestnut's interpretation of 'My Funny Valentine' was the most marvelously gorgeous I have ever heard. Trumpeter Stafford did brilliant soloing on the Immortal Dizzy's tune 'Birk's Works.

Blue Note Jazz Club ..NYC.

This Village Jazz spot is so very 'Hip.' Enjoying New York so much.

Fun at Rockefeller Center

30 rock. We visited home of SNL and it was so "cool."

Enjoy All!

LOVELY...that is right now.  The time of autumn is a grand one.

John O'Hara

GREAT NOVELISTS help our brains so much.  The clever characters in the novels of the masterful John O'Hara are so imaginative.  My two favorite books of John O'Hara are 'Appointment in Samarra' and 'Ten North Frederick.'  These are novels that are so good.  O'Hara is an excellent word man.

Culture/Pro Football Etc.

CULTURE comes in many forms.  In the American South the Pro Football topic is always "hot" in the fall,  In Atlanta right now, our Pro Football unit, The Falcons are a mighty strong team now.  They beat the Washington Redskins this merry day of Sunday, October 7, 2012.  And now the Falcons are 5-0.  Wow!  How grand is the fiery ethos that is the Culture of Sports!

Cy Twombly

ART IS SO UNUSUAL sometimes.  The American painter, Cy Twombly, is a fine exponent of Abstract Expressionism.  His paintings are bizarre...one can hardly figure them out.  The ideas engulf one when looking at these works.  The Twombly painting called 'Ferragosto II, 1962' is quite unique.

Rene' Magritte

BELGIUM was the home of the articulate artist, Rene' Magritte.  He developed an oeuvre of art essentially posited as Belgian Surrealism.  His work is clever.  Indeed the good aspect of Magritte is his belief that nothing is really what it seems.  This odd but compelling way is delightfully unique, I believe.  His pipe picture is grand...indeed you wonder what he is really telling with his sleek artistic vision.

'Cosmopolis'

INDEED the author Don DeLillo is an incredible modernist.  His stories articulate a provocative verbal  landscape that is thick with so much meaning and drive.  When one reads his work entitled 'Cosmopolis' one finds out that this man can really sculpt a fascinating mod story.

Wynton Kelly...Superb Jazz

PIANIST Wynton Kelly is so profound.  When one listens to the man with his brilliant concepts on the keyboard...it is fantastic.

Flannery O'Connor

THE VIGOROUS STYLE of Flannery O'Connor is remarkable.  This writer can come up with good stories that work so well.  'Wise Blood' is a great work to enjoy by the incomparable Ms. O'Connor.

Culture and Elmore Leonard

ELMORE LEONARD  is a very gifted writer.  His characters spring full grown from the printed page.  He has a sense of conjuring up gritty scenes that hold the reader's interest. Much like Damon Runyon, Mr. Leonard can make his characters really stir people with their unusual goings-on.  Leonard's novel, 'Get Shorty' is a "cool" modernist story that engages our souls so well.

Such A Beautiful Day

GORGEOUS AFTERNOON:  I enjoy the autumn days like this one.  Plenty of good sunshine.  The poetic aspects of my soul are invigorated with the exciting colors of fall.

Stan Getz Quartet with Chet Baker

GETZ AND BAKER are so dynamic.  The sax sound of Stan Getz is lovely and the unusual trumpet sound of Chet Baker is rhapsodies incarnate. The men's version of the lilting tune 'My Ideal' is memorable.

'The Human Stain'

GRAND DAY:  Watched again a clever film called 'The Human Stain.'  This movie with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman is a grand tour of many mental oddities.  It is a robust story that showcases poignant performances by Hopkins and Kidman.