if charlie parker was a gunslinger,there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats: September 2009

The Explanation
(for those who require one)

And, of course, that is what all of this is -- all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs -- that song, endlesly reincarnated -- born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 -- same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."
-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather

They Were an Item #87

Clifford Odets and Luise Rainer

Politicians in Action #38

Governor Ronald Reagan rehearses the big speech

Before and After #197: Upton Sinclair

Before

After

The Art of American Fantasy #39

Sex Education #139

Laura Antonelli

The Art of the Gig #24

Artists and Animals #31

Arthur Fellig (aka Weegee) and his apprentice

The Art of the Big Top #25

When Legends Gather #549

Bette Davis and Tommy Dorsey

Faces of Science #2

Grace Hopper

The Future is Now #4

George Jetson gets white walls.

The Heretofore Unmentioned #93

Carolyn Jones

P is for Pulp #46

Mammoth Western
(January, 1949)

The Cool Hall of Fame #178

Sean Connery

The Art of Jazz #103

Angel Eyes
(The Dave Brubeck Quartet)
(Columbia Records; 1962)

Adventures in the National Pastime #12

Today's Adventure

Original Caption:

St. Louis -- Members of the New York Yankees and their wives arrive on the eve of the World Series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. Left to right: Mr. and Mrs. Joe DiMaggio, manager Joe McCarthy, Mrs. Vernon Gomez, Mrs. McCarthy, Lefty Gomez, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles 'Red' Ruffing.

Adventures in American Filmmaking #121

Today's adventure: On the set of Suspicion, Harry Stradling focuses the camera while Cary Grant pretends to read a letter and Alfred Hitchcock pretends to care (1940)

Tricky: Scenes from a Life #89

Tricky pretends not to notice the cold stare of evil clowns (1968)

They Were an Item #86

Charlie Chaplin and Oona O'Neill.

Visionary Film #24
Signs and Meaning in Cinema #34

Signs and Meaning: White of the Eye
(Donald Cammell; 1987)

When Legends Gather #548

Gloria Vanderbilt, Pearl Bailey and Truman Capote

The Art of the Panel: Archie #8

from The Quiet Man
(Artists Unknown)
(Laugh #151; October, 1963)

Artists in Action #525

John Barrymore wonders where it all went to.

The Art of Cinema #414

Thunder Road
(Arthur Ripley; 1957)

The Future is Now #3

Platinum blonde alien with flying saucer phallus.

Politicians in Action #37

Jimmy Carter waves.

Shutterbug Friday #4:
Francis Wolff and the Empire of Cool (Vol. 1)

In his years as an executive at Blue Note records, Francis Wolff repeatedly called upon his earlier training as a Photographer to document a veritable pantheon of American musical wizardry. Here, in the first of three installments, is a sampling of that fearsome chronicle: