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Created: 05 February 2011

Let us not forget James Francis Durante, born 2/10/1893, no slouch on the piano and a great "song stylist."  Durante had a show airing (on the radio) in various forms every week for 17 years(!) before he moved to television in 1950.

Here is "The Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore Show" from 11/22/1946.  Durante enters at 3:50.

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Created: 29 January 2011

Happy 90th Birthday to one of the giants of Bluegrass music -- Wilma Lee Cooper.  She's one of those rare performers, in any style of music, who makes a personal impression on audience members.  If you've had the good fortune to see her perform, I'm sure you cherish the memory.

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Created: 06 November 2010

If ya gotta explain how great it is, how great is it?

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of the Ring Cycle boasts a stage of rotating planks and computer-controlled video projections.  The "encore" presentation of Das Rheingold broadcast to movie theaters began with a "making of" documentary to educate us as to the wonders of this contraption.

Next came the bladder-bursting, intermission-free, 3-hour performance. The singing and acting were magnificent (as you would expect from the Met), but the set and effects showed the pre-performance hype to be just that.

(If you have any interest in opera, the Met's "Live in HD" showings are a bargain.)

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Created: 04 August 2010

Think you're smart?  Did you do anything like this before your 28th birthday?  ...or since?

Thank you, Louis.