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Johnny Otis, the "godfather of rhythm and blues" who wrote and recorded the R&B classic "Willie and the Hand Jive" and for decades evangelized black music to white audiences as a bandleader and radio host, has died. He was 90. Otis, who had been in poor health for several years, died at his home in the Los Angeles foothill suburb of Altadena on Tuesday, said his manager, Terry Gould. Otis, who was white, was born John Veliotes to Greek immigrants and grew up in a black section of Berkeley, where he said he identified far more with black culture than...

The Year of the Dragon starts officially on January 23rd of this year (this would be officially the “Water Dragon Year”). The Dragon Year will be very interesting as far as elections are concerned. This will be a particularly wild year, not only uproarious due to the Dragon, but this is the Water Dragon Year and will be like a dragon rise from the sea and riding the waves. At least, according to superstition, and other such pagan ideas. However … Chinese War Deity General Kwon Kong (the Red Faced) has a beard and stands nine chi (Chinese approximate to...

Ran across this Web Site: http://vintageaerial.com/

Share this article Elaine’s, the Famous Eatery, Will Close After 47 Years Elaine’s, the Famous Eatery, Will Close After 47 Years 420x316-alg_elaine_kaufman4 05/17/11 12:27pm Roger Friedman 0 I am sad to report that Elaine’s will close next Thursday after 47 years. Diane Becker, the manager who inherited the restaurant from my dear friend, Elaine Kaufman, called to give me the news this afternoon. Facing a long summer, Diane felt that she couldn’t make it without Elaine sitting in the dining room, greeting guests and friends every night. The closing will be a blow to the regulars, to the past customers,...

Hazel Dickens wrote and sang songs about West Virginia coal-mining towns and working-class women. She influenced bluegrass, folk and country singers like Emmylou Harris and Allison Krauss, who inducted her into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. She died Friday at the age of 75. Dickens was born in 1935, but one critic, Robert K. Oermann, called her voice "the sound of the mountains in the 19th century." She grew up poor in West Virginia's coal country, listening to the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts and the unaccompanied singing in church. She brought those sounds with her to Baltimore, where...

Couple years before my time, but I sure remember eating there and similar places back in the sixties.   I also recall when prices were in this vicinity, too... back when a dollar was a dollar: One time when I was about twelve, just walking through the isles of Woolworth's with my buddy for what I don't remember...  I found a $20 bill on the floor. There was nobody around, so I kept it... a lot of money to a kid who mowed lawns for like $3 apiece.  BUT, I insisted my friend take half, 'cuz he was there...

Once upon a time, back in the days of my childhood, there was an orange soda (or as we called it, an "orange Co-Cola") called SunCrest. NB: this is SunCrest, not to be confused with Sunkist orange soda, which was only introduced in the late Seventies). I vividly remember drinking buying bottles of this out of the Coke machine at the local laundromat when my family was washing. SunCrest was created and originally marketed (1938) by the NuGrape people. But in 1982 it was bought by the Monarch company of Atlanta, GA and it became very scarce, as Sunkist pretty...

Without doubt, Charley Pride is one of the most respected and successful personas in all of country music. After all, it was the three-time Grammy winner who made music history when his 1969 classic "All I Have To Offer You Is Me," bolted to the top of the US Country chart, making him the first African American in country music to land a No. 1 hit. To date, the multi-platinum selling Pride holds 36 No. 1 hits and has sold more than 70 million records (albums and singles combined). On March 8, 2011, Pride releases Choices (Music City Records), his...

A spokesman for Blake Edwards says the filmmaker has died in Southern California at age 88. Publicist Gene Schwam says Edwards died from complications of pneumonia at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. His wife, Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side. Edwards directed "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "The Pink Panther" and many other popular films. He also was a screenwriter, producer and actor.

WHO-TV in Des Moines is reporting that the "Van Meter Heater", Iowa's greatest-ever baseball player, Bob Feller has died in a Cleveland hospice at the age of 92

If you live in the Bay Area, chances are you’re familiar with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Chances are you’ve even attended at least once over its 10 years running. It’s hard to disregard a massive, three-day festival that’s six-stages large and hundreds of thousands of attendees deep with a star-stacked lineup that takes place out in the emerald expanse of the Golden Gate Park every first weekend of October—the sunniest, warmest time of the year in San Francisco. This coming weekend, Hardly Strictly is poised to throw what could be the biggest and best year yet with a staggering lineup that...

...This weekend, enthusiasts gathered at the House of Blues in the French Quarter to revel in the presence of not-to-be-forgotten types such as the Bay Area's 74-year-old red hot mama Sugar Pie DeSanto; the ax-wielding "King of Twang" Duane Eddy; the trumpet-blowing Dave Bartholomew; the barrel-voiced Cajun patriarch D.L. Menard; the suave Minneapolis surfers the Trashmen; and East L.A.'s own beloved party band Thee Midnighters. Fans howled when Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan of the Flamin' Groovies briefly took the stage Saturday... The shows were a blast -- a chance for some artists long out of the spotlight to revel...

To many Asian-Americans, Charlie Chan is an offensive stereotype, another sort of Uncle Tom. Chan, the hero of six detective novels by Earl Derr Biggers and 47 Hollywood movies between 1926 and 1949, not to mention a 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, is pudgy, slant-eyed and inscrutable, and he speaks in singsong fortune-cookie English, saying things like, “If befriend donkey, expect to be kicked.” The California-born author and playwright Frank Chin, who has written essays denouncing Chan, would like to see him disappear altogether. But Yunte Huang, who was born and grew up in China, can’t get enough of Chan and...

Aside from Keith, most of the musicians on our list earned the majority of their income from successful tours. Rascal Flatts' top 10 2007 tour helped put the trio at No. 2, with $40 million in earnings. Rascal Flatts has a younger fan base than most country music stars, partly due to their significant crossover appeal. Tim McGraw's $23 million lands him the No. 3 spot on our list. His Soul2Soul II tour with his real-life leading lady, Faith Hill, was the second highest-grossing country tour of 2007. He's hitting the road alone this year, which shouldn't be a...

The Road to Omaha is a common phrase for any college baseball fan. The mecca of the sport is Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, NE. The history, the pageantry, and the atmosphere make this event one of the greatest sporting events on the planet. With the pleasure of growing up in Omaha, I have been able to attend games for the past 15 years. I have seen the past 10 National Champions crowned. Not many people are able to make a claim like that. With the 2010 season beginning

Dale Hawkins, the rockabilly pathfinder who made a national mark with his 1957 single "Susie-Q," has died after a fight with colon cancer. He was 73. Though he was active in the studio and on stage into his 70s, Hawkins is best known for his clamorous first hit, which featured striking lead work by teenage guitarist James Burton, later a mainstay of Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley's bands. Hawkins, who died Saturday in a Little Rock, AR, hospital, was known for his exceptional ear for guitarists: His other accompanists included Roy Buchanan and Presley's original picker, Scotty Moore. He was...

For a time we had a "Currier & Ives winter" look hereabouts. No horse-drawn sleighs, of course. But the landscape had an old-fashioned look to it; actual white stuff, everywhere, not yet turned dingy brown by snow-blowers and plows. {Eight Currier & Ives prints}

You gotta see this video of Dragnet's Jack Webb giving Obama a lesson on what it means to be an American. Jack Webb Of Dragnet Fame Scolds Obama

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford, the only Detroit automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a "solidly profitable" 2011.

Back when Norman Rockwell ruled Saturday evenings, Adobe wasn't even a gleam in some nerd's eye, but a new book shows that the painter was, nevertheless, a photoshop god. Very few Gizmodo readers were even born when Rockwell painted his last Saturday Evening Post cover, but we all know them. You hear that name and suddenly you can picture those overly detailed, cartoonishly dramatic but ultimately kinda corny depictions of American life. Well, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, written and compiled by Ron Schick, has given me immense newfound respect for the man, for the meticulous photography, the real people...

This weekend's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — the name changed in 2003 to reflect the inclusion of multiple music genres — is expected to draw upward of 500,000 people to Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow, about what it did last fall. Beyond the size of the crowd, the scope of this event is just enormous. The 2009 lineup will include some 80 acts, ranging from bluegrass titans Ralph Stanley and Del McCoury to banjo-playing comedian Steve Martin and '60s rock icon Marianne Faithfull, performing on six stages this Friday through Sunday.

"WHAT'S up, old friend?" I asked the other day. But there was no response. The old friend was muffled, muzzled, unable to say anything, trapped in his new black straitjacket. I looked at him sadly. He looked back silently. I wanted to offer comfort, but what could you say? What could you do? "Thanks for the memories," I said, walking away. And Yankee Stadium -- the old one, the real one, the one presently wrapped by black scaffolding as it undergoes a painful transformation from national treasure and civic landmark to picked-apart, torn-asunder rubble -- didn't say a word. Noble...

Neil Cavuto interviews Lee Iacocca about the newest Mustang from Ford Motor Company. The man who saved Chrysler in the 1980s reveals that the very limited edition model will be limited to just 45 vehicles, in order to celebrate the 45th anniversary of America's Pony Car.

Guitar legend Huey Long, the last surviving member of the original Ink Spots, died June 10 in Houston at the age of 105. Long was born in Sealy, Texas. He worked various jobs in the Houston area until he got his big break playing banjo in the Frank Davis Louisiana Jazz Band. In 1936, Bill Kenny, the leader of the Ink Spots, talked Long into leaving the jazz trio joining the Ink Spots. ...He moved back to Houston in the 90s, having written and arranged more than 80 songs. Long is survived by his daughter, Houston resident Anita Long, and...

“You’ll be back again,” sang Barry & the Remains, starting their headlining set on Tuesday night at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp. It’s a song about a straying girlfriend, but the Remains could have been singing about themselves and many of the four dozen acts — rockabillies, bluesmen, R&B shouters, swamp-rockers, honky-tonkers, psychedelic bands — playing the House of Blues here in the Stomp’s two nights of nine-hour shows. In the mid-1960s Barry & the Remains toured the United States with the Beatles and made an album of crafty, surly garage-rock. Then they broke up, becoming one more rock-history footnote....

Yet again, a Saturday Wall Street Journal "Remembrances" column is filled with another interesting American personality, who isn't well known, but his story is entertaining. Apparently and sadly, Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton recently committed suicide rather than serve his second sentence in the federal pen for moonshining. I don't know about you, but this Appalachian legend producing moonshine without a license wasn't harming me, and it smacks more of big brother at work and big government over-regulating Americans literally to death than it does a crime that harmed society. There is no justice when this harmless 62-year-old hillbilly was about to...

World Champion Cowgirl Loves Horses and Shooting  By Joseph P. Tartaro President, Second Amendment Foundation They don't make training wheels for horses or guns. However, if a youngster has a desire to master either or both, they can do so with the proper supervision and support from loving and attentive parents and teachers. Melissa Dragoo of Scottsdale, AZ, is a role model for any child who wants to reach for her or his dreams as she has.She started riding horses at age 4 and shot her first firearm at age 6. Now, at age 14, she is a perennial...

You'd be forgiven for never hearing of designer Alfred Shaheen. Yet he inspired one of the most colourful, amusing and unforgettable styles of fashion ever known - the Hawaiian shirt. Sadly the pioneering textile manufacturer has died at age 86, his family have confirmed. As tourists from the US to Hawaii after World War II, many began to bring home colorful but cheesy looking shirts and sundresses that would be cause for much amusement among friends. Shaheen began to change that in 1948 when he opened Shaheen's of Honolulu and began designing, printing and producing "aloha" shirts, dresses and other...

...Elvis Costello asked James Taylor to name his favorite new songwriters. Mr. Taylor seemed momentarily stunned by the question, as if he'd never considered it. Finally, he cited his talented son Ben and conceded he didn't listen to much new music. Which means when Mr. Taylor sets out to record an album of other people's songs, he's off to the familiar recycling bin... written in the '50s, '60s and '70s. As for the past three decades of great songs... ...If talented singers like these don't have to pay attention to new songwriters, what happens to the great American songbook? ...Other...

Tin Pan Alley, the home of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and other great American songwriters, is up for sale. Five buildings on West 28th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea district are being offered as a group for $44 million. A listing on real estate Web site Loopnet recommends that the buildings be torn down and a high-rise take their place. Preservationists and tenants aren't happy... Tin Pan Alley housed a concentration of music publishers and songwriters from the 1890s to the 1950s.

For more than 40 years, author Tom Wolfe has challenged the way Americans look at themselves. His unconventional style of mixing literary techniques with factual reporting became known as the "new journalism." His novels include the bestsellers "Bonfire of The Vanities," "A Man in Full," and "I Am Charlotte Simmons." TCS contributor Ben Wattenberg sat down with Tom Wolfe in New York following a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Derriere Garde, a loosely organized group of artists and composers working to rediscover and reinvent traditional forms and techniques. The full video of this interview can...

Bo Diddley has died...details upcoming

I always get in on music threads after about 100 posts so I thought I'd start my own.What is the best country music...old and new? Here's mine. Buddy Miller Kieran Kane Billy Joe Shaver Slaid Cleaves Hayes Carll LeeAnn Womack Charlie Rich Paul Burch Thad Cockrell

Gustavo "Gus" Arriola, the celebrated Mexican-American cartoonist who created the strip known as "Gordo," died Saturday at his Carmel home after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 90...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Zl7ssPAXw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvqIcURaXTw

This weekend over 10,000 classic cars will converge on Västerås at the Power Big Meet as car enthusiasts from Sweden, Europe and as far afield as Russia, Israel and Australia make their annual pilgrimage to the biggest Classic car event in the world. For Sweden’s Raggare, the Power Big Meet is more than just a car show - it’s a celebration of a way of life that is peculiarly Swedish, despite being entrenched in the fashions, music and motor cars of Americana. Since the 1950s, a version of the American Dream has been embraced with an enthusiasm that has endured...

Barbie has been up against tough competition recently, like interactive video games and her glitzier rivals from MGA Entertainment, the Bratz dolls. But her maker, Mattel (NYSE:MAT - News), said on Jan. 29 that it's been keeping sales up nonetheless and managing to improve profits. The El Segundo (Calif.) company's fourth quarter results got a lift from things like its acquisition of the electronic entertainment toys maker Radica Games completed on Oct. Mattel posted net income of $286.4 million during the three months ended Dec. 31, up 2.6% compared to the same period of 2005. "I am pleased with our...

The family-owned chain has been successful enough to spawn a famous commercial jingle, earn several loving write-ups in the New York Times and have its burgers served to A-list celebs at swanky post-Oscar parties. The great taste hasn't changed, but the mystique that inspired our carnivorous cross-valley quests sure has. The earlier, spartan drive-throughs, which once kept us at arm's length, a sheet of glass sealing off the inner sanctum where clean-cut workers frenetically packed the grill with meat patties, has given way to brightly lighted indoor seating no different from the national fast-food chains. The fabled secret menu, for...

BE WILD, NOT EVIL: THE LINK WRAY STORY A tribute by Jimmy McDonough © 2006 Link Wray seemed so strong, so invincible, like he'd be lurking around forever, just wailing away in some East Jesus s**thole, terrorizing another doomed amp while he stuck the neck of Screamin' Red in the dazed faces of a new batch of converts. I guess I took him for granted. The music business sure did. Link is the music for the midnight ride. No question about it, he sounds best when you have somewhere to go. Tearing down the highway in some s**tbox of a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart sold for $8.136 million on Wednesday to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby's in New York, a record for a U.S. artist at auction, the auction house said. The price was below the $10 million to $15 million pre-sale estimate. A second portrait of Washington failed to sell, a Sotheby's spokesman said. The portraits on sale on Wednesday were among a group of works being sold by the New York Public Library to raise money for books and other materials. Stuart is known for his portraits of the first...

NASHVILLE — The Grand Ole Opry, the world’s longest-running radio show, turns 80 this month. And the Opry has been pulling out all the stops, with Nashville festivities under way since spring. The official birthday weekend is Oct. 14-15, and a star-studded November show at New York City’s Carnegie Hall will cap the celebration. Visit the Grand Old Opry at www.opry.com or www.wsmonline.com. The Opry remains the pinnacle of country success for artists like Opry member Trace Adkins, who calls the Grand Ole Opry stage “the most special stage I get to perform on.” “There is a respect and a...

MEDIA MONITOR Elegy For A Ballpark And A Ballplayer By Jason Maoz Senior Editor The New York Mets, if all goes according to plan, will be getting a new stadium in time for the 2009 baseball season. Media coverage of the announcement was rather animated for a couple of days — lots of speculation about what the new park might look like and what it might be called — before being abruptly cut short by news that the Yankees would be moving into a new stadium of their own, also in 2009. The Mets had once again been eclipsed by...

A Traitor "On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. ..... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in...

Okay, y'all. I don't post vanities but this one is a doozie. If you can help, great. If not, that's fine, too. And if this gets pulled, I understand.This young (15-year-old) Texas performer has a chance to make it huge, and bring real rootsy-feeling music to the masses.Maren Morris has been invited to compete in CountryThunder.com's Young Guns 4 competition, which has 40+ performers battling (through internet voting) for the opportunity to share the stage with folks like Darryl Worley, LeAnn Rimes, Sara Evans and Montgomery Gentry.Country Thunder is a huge 5-day fest in Wisconsin next month.I believe this young...

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - America's Junior Miss pageant will crown its last winner this summer after an almost half-century run because of problems attracting sponsors and a major television contract, pageant officials said Wednesday. The board that governs the pageant in which high school seniors compete for college scholarships voted Tuesday to end the event after the June 25 show. The 48-year-old program once had big-name sponsors such as Coca-Cola. It produced future celebrities such as TV newswoman Diane Sawyer (America's Junior Miss 1963). The pageant said in a statement that "to attract a sizable viewing audience in these times"...

Whatever happened to Jewish baseball players? Not that they`re an extinct species – several Jews are currently playing in the major leagues or working their way through the minors – but Jewish baseball fans will tell you the present-day crop is relatively unaccomplished and unknown. Why is this generation different from other generations? Generations that boasted not just a slew of recognizably Jewish ballplayers, but at least one bona-fide Jewish star per decade? Where have you gone, latter-day versions of Harry Danning, Sid Gordon, Hank Greenberg, Al Rosen and Sandy Koufax? To medicine and law, for starters. As professional opportunities...

The last of my grandparents just passed away. We had been keeping a vigil over my grandmother for the last couple of weeks knowing that her time was near. About 2 months ago she fell and broke her hip and leg as well as fracturing several vertebrae in her back. Since that time she had progressively deteriorated to the point we knew her death was inevitable. Interestingly enough - apparently this morning my uncle was sitting with my Grandmother and she sat up and asked him 'why won't you let me die?' He responded with 'mother, if that's what you...

Simon Schama divides us into two nations. One America is a perimeter, lying on the oceans or the fuzzy boundary with the Canadian lakes, and is porous and outward-looking. The other America is continental and landlocked, its roots of obstinate self-belief buried deep beneath the bluegrass and high corn. It is time we called these two Americas something other than Republican and Democrat. How about "Godly America" and "Worldly America?" Godly America is "mythic, messianic, conversionary, given to acts of public witness. Worldly America is a lot more like Europe. It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans...

TV Science Classics Weekend In a special weekend celebration, the Science Channel returns to the roots of science television to pay tribute to the landmark series that pioneered the genre. From 1951 to 1972, before the introduction of computers and other sophisticated technology, Mr. Wizard (Donald Jeffrey Herbert) relied on clever experiments and simple props to make science exciting and easy to understand. James Burke created his award-winning series Connections in 1978. Burke detected how "triggers" bring together seemingly unrelated ideas and innovations. In 1988, Tim Hunkin turned his comic strip into a widely popular television series: The Secret Life...