The wonderful singer-songwriter John Prine turned 65 yesterday (thanks Eamonn).
“Dear Abby” was an advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name of Abigail Van Buren, and was syndicated in the Washington Post. Or was it in the evening paper, the Evening Star (later the Washington Star)? We got both. I never [...]
What a beautiful film. A social fairytale about a shoeshiner, his wife and friends in le Havre, and a refugee who happens into their midst. Breathtaking. Sidesplitting. Gentle. Melancholy. True. The news is all bad, but human nature? Slow down, and there is room for hope.
When we came out of the cinema I couldn’t remember [...]
Amy Winehouse, dead, at 27. This was her at 19. So sad.
One more for the 27 Club.
Take the box – Amy Winehouse
Your neighbours were screaming
I don’t have a key for downstairs,
so I punched all the buzzers hoping you wouldn’t be there
So now my head’s hurting
You say I always get my own way
But you were [...]
“The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell is currently on display at the White House, just outside the president’s office. It shows Ruby Bridges, the most famous of the children who in 1960, at the age of 6, walked into an all-white school and helped desegregate the schools of New Orleans. Daddy’s brave [...]
Marlene in English and German and then again in English, great German accent; followed by Caroline Nin singing franco-anglo-tinged German.
ICH BIN VON KOPF BIS FUSS AUF LIEBE EINGESTELLT
(Friedrich Holländer)
Marlene Dietrich
Ein rätselhafter Schimmer,
Ein “je ne sais-pas-quoi”
Liegt in den Augen immer
Bei einer schönen Frau.
Doch wenn sich meine Augen
Bei einem vis-à-vis
Ganz tief in seine saugen
Was sprechen dann sie?:
Ich [...]
Joe Jackson has a new live album out, and I’ve just ordered it. He lives in Berlin. I found this marvellously provocative video dedicated to him by New Yorkers who want him back:
This all came out of surfing around after Ann posted something about Coney Island being the target of redevelopment, and Coney Island always [...]
Still grinning about how wery hard life was in Berlin in 1965. The German beat band, The Lords, sing and dance “Poor boy”, one of their greatest hits. Now, I’m not knocking writing and singing in a foreign language, on the contrary, it’s really great! But for an English teacher like me it’s fascinating to [...]
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