Overheard in Philadelphia, Part IV

Older guy, discussing the plusses and minuses of modern media:

Now television, that controls my thoughts. Radio doesn't control my thoughts.

All dogs go to Heaven-official Catholic position

The subject of doggies in Heaven seems to have caused a major theological dispute, as I posted a few days ago.

Seems the Calvinists among us, who may be only too happy to exclude loads of humans from the Elect, would like to block Fido as well. We Catholics know better.


H/t-Irish Elk.

Profile in wussiness

Obama snubs Dalai Lama. China is happy.

Our quite slender President has a hard and fast rule-he only meets with leaders who do not dwarf him physically. So he will be perfectly happy to meet, even with no Marquis of Queensbury pre-conditions, such puppy-sized leaders as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen below.

But the Dalai Lama, a peaceful man but one with a mean temper when crossed, frightens him.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the tiny fellow on the left. The other is his bud Hugo Chavez.

Buddy Rich v. "Animal"

The Muppets' Animal fails in "grudge" drumming match vs. the immortal Buddy Rich.




UPDATE: More Buddy-here the classic chart "Time Check"-Steve Marcus on tenor sax.

Bernard Herrmann-Cue for "On Dangerous Ground"

For anybody who thinks "movie music" is inherently lightweight stuff, they need to listen to Bernard Herrmann-or Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, Max Steiner, and others. Here's Hermann's exciting, frightening cue The Death Hunt, from 1952's "On Dangerous Ground". As good as the others mentioned were, Herrmann was the best-no wonder Hitchcock used him so often. "On Dangerous Ground" was directed by Nicholas Ray and Ida Lupino.

Herrmann was also a world-class jerk. Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, who did a lot of studio work at Paramount and elsewhere in the fifties, told a story about  a studio session in which  Herrmann was humiliating, at great length, one of the guys in the studio orchestra. Eventually another musician, a trumpeter, had had enough, showed Herrmann a gun, and said he'd use it if Bernard didn't quit. He did.


H/t-About last Night.

Not only is wearing Crocs a fashion faux pas...

....such an offense against nature can also result in grave personal injury-especially when a gator doesn't like your Crocs.

"The rush to support Roman Polanski shows how isolated the entertainment industry is from the rest of the world"

Says Terry Teachout, who knows whereof he speaks.

Forced statuatory rape is fine, when commited by a great "artiste", since artists create their own moral universe.

The average Joe, being more in touch with both reality and common sense than his supposed cultural betters, rejects this notion out of hand.

Keep in mind, by the way, that Polanski pled guilty to the offense before fleeing justice.

Ahmadinejad-My son, the despot

He's, at least partly, Jewish:

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.


A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.


The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.


The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior...

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that "jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.



"He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had," said the Iranian-born Jew living in London. "Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran."

So Mr. "I'm a dinner jacket" turns out to be a Jew.

Talk about over-compensating: "The Nazis didn't kill my people because, they really weren't my people. Not anymore, anyway."


H/t-Ann Althouse.

Barack Obama-He, Robot

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.


Creepy video of the Pres with the exactly identical smile as meets some 130 foreign dignitaries at the UN. His lips don't move a centimeter. Even his eyebrows hardly move.

Talk about trying to run the world on a smile and a shoe-shine.


H/t-Dustbury.

Tine Thing Helseth-Marcello Trumpet Concerto, 1st Move.

Here's Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth with the Marcello Trumpet Concerto, 1st Movement. (Actually, it was written for oboe.)

Great sound, assured technique on the very challenging piccolo trumpet-she has to be the best of the young trumpet players-she's only 22! This is a name you'll be hearing a lot more of.


Helseth's Wikipedia page.

H/t-Trumpet Kings.





UPDATE: Here's Tine with the perhaps over-played Hummel trumpet concerto (3rd Move.)-but in her hands it sounds anything but over-familiar. Super smooth tonguing, effortless upper-register, wonderful interpretation...really impressive.

Frank Sinatra-"Fly Me to the Moon"

I posted (another version) of Frank and "Fly Me to the Moon" previously, but it was removed after some heated phone calls from Tina Sinatra and the administrators of the Sinatra estate. Lawyers scare me.

Let's try it again-this is Frank, in fine mid-'60's form, singing what was in Nat King Cole's magnificent hands a straight ballad you could call "In Other Words", as Will Friedwald has suggested.

But Frank swings it all the way.

Signs of the times

The list of Hollywood and "art-world" types who think Polanski's the victim

The "Polanski's being victimized" crowd includes more than a few women, like Debra Winger, Isabelle Adjani, and Monica Bellucci...and in a startling turn of events, one Woody Allen.

You can't make this stuff up.

"Sentences we didn't finish"

"Sentences we didn't finish" is a Weekly Standard feature, in which off the wall liberal commentary is quoted briefly, then cut off, as its inanity is self-explanatory.

Here's a bit of what The Standard so effectively mocks without a word-this is from "The Votemaster" at Electoral-vote.com, as the blogger there wonders at Sarah Palin's popularity.

This can be cut off after a mere four words:

Despite losing the Vice Presidency...