With a Little Help From My Friends

3/7/2012

Berkeley Square Photo by Hassan of Yorkshire

Even while I’m typing something else, I can hear the electronic ping of the messages, over the transom.

My friends and family post songs and photos, poems and videos. We all know the blessing of having friends in Brazil and Japan, Canada and Mexico.

It’s so easy these days.

My new email friend, Hassan in Yorkshire, writes about soccer and justice and music. There’s a common thread, I am sure.

The other day he sent me a photo from visiting London in snow. I’ve been to London, what, 50 times and have never seen snow. But there it was, Berkeley Square. My wife and I have walked uphill through that square at night, usually around 10:30, after the National Theatre, and we were tired and happy. But never in snow.

Hassan knows I consider Nina Simone one of the great masters. He found a video of her signature piano -- you always know it’s Simone, before she even sings a note. Somehow, she makes bells peal in a riff from Good King Wenceslas before drifting into Little Girl Blue.

In this amazing new electronic age, a gift from Yorkshire,

Ed Martin link

3/8/2012 10:26:18 am

no one will ever own "I Loves You Porgy" after Nina Simone. I may have told you before George, but indelibly in my memory's hearing her in NYC , probably at the Vilage Vanguard opened by an unknown Philadelphia comic, Bill Cosby.
Ciao

George Vecsey

3/9/2012 05:28:48 am

Often wondered what became of that guy.
I've got her Best on my iPad.
Mississippi G-D. Wild Is the Wind. Ne Me Quitte Pas.
This one is a jewel. Never heard it.
Best
GV

Alan Rubin

3/15/2012 08:36:15 am

You can't say enough about Nina Simone. She also appeared at the Beacon Theater on Broadway and 77th street.

A comment about Bill Cosby. I was in graduate school at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa (1957-58). Bill Cosby was just out of Temple University and was often on Philadelphia TV. He was just as funny starting out as he was during his long career. He did a great routine about the flip of the coin before the start of a football game. He is one of the few comedians who are hilarious without being filthy. A dying breed.

Most of the comedians on TV today, whether clean or dirty, are not even funny, at least to my generation.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
"....the monsters arrive."
"They come in a deafening, surging swarm, blasting from lawn to lawn and filling the air with the stench of gasoline and death. I would call them mechanical locusts, descending upon every patch of gold in the neighborhood the way the grasshoppers of old would arrive, in numbers so great they darkened the sky, to lay bare a cornfield in minutes. But that comparison is unfair to locusts.
"Grasshoppers belong here. Gasoline-powered leaf blowers are invaders, the most maddening of all the maddening, environment-destroying tools of the American lawn-care industry."

---The great Margaret Renkl, from Nashville, one of my favorite NYT bylines, Oct. 26, 2021.
(She describes our Long Island enclave to every decibel, every stink.)
lwww.nytimes.com/2021/10/25/opinion/leaf-blowers-california-emissions.html
---
"The day after my 80th birthday, which overflowed with good wishes, surprises and Covid-safe celebrations, I awoke feeling fulfilled and thinking that whatever happens going forward, I’m OK with it. My life has been rewarding, my bucket list is empty, my family is thriving, and if everything ends tomorrow, so be it.
"Not that I expect to do anything to hasten my demise. I will continue to exercise regularly, eat healthfully and strive to minimize stress. But I’m also now taking stock of the many common hallmarks of aging and deciding what I need to reconsider."
--Jane E. Brody, my pal in the NYT newsroom, oh, a few years back, in the Personal Health column, Sept. 13, 2021.

With a Little Help From My Friends

Categories

Buy the Book