US Congress Fumbles Financial Reform

Why Financial regulation will never happen given the makeup of the US Congress (from Robert Kaiser's comments in the video): "...it was the belief that it ... [regulation]... was the wrong way to go held by people who didn't understand the situation."

Mr. Kaiser does not mention the role of money in politics and Upton Sinclair's comment (here) that "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"


Watch New Book Chronicles Fight Over Financial Reform After Crisis  on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong

The great guitarist and Roy Plumb student, Lance Olson, passed on the video (above) and note (below) from the National Guitar Museum on T-Bone Walker (1910-1975), probably one of the last great blues guitar players to use a hollow-body, arch-top jazz guitar. T-bone, we miss you, RIP (I'm not sure why he got the name "T-bone" but his split below kind of looks like one)!

Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born on May 28, 1910 . . . 103 years ago. Nicknamed T-Bone, Walker learned the guitar at age 13, and recorded as early as 19. He was among the first blues players—if not the very first—to use the electric guitar as his instrument of choice. He claimed to have picked up an “electrified” guitar as early as 1935, making him one of the first electric guitarists in any genre. T-Bone put on a sensational live show, picking with this teeth and playing behind his head (something Jimi Hendrix would later do), doing splits and strutting (later done by Chuck Berry), and wrote one of the blues’ most enduring songs, “Stormy Monday” (or, as he called it "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just As Bad).” Here’s an incredible live version of “Don’t Put Your Love On Me So Strong.” Enjoy.

Stack and Tilt: The "Two" Standup Moves

In the video above, PGA professional Mike Bennett (co-founder of the Stack and Tilt Swing, S&T) gives New Zealand PGA professional Marcus Wheelhouse a lesson. Mike Bennet discusses a number of interesting issues here, but what caught my attention was his discussion of the two standup moves.

My basic swing thought in S&T has been: stack-tilt-standup. It turns out that there are actually two standup moves in the swing, one on the backswing and one on the follow through. Mike also mentions the reason for straightening the left leg and describes ground loading (squatting down and standing up on the second standup).

So, for all of us who would like a lesson from Mike Bennett, this is about as close as we'll get!

Has Anyone Been Held Accountable for the Subprime Mortgage Crisis?

In case we have forgotten about the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Frontline replayed their documentary "Is Wall Street Untouchable?" tonight -- see the video above. It has now been almost five years since the start of the financial crisis in 2007 and the statue of limitations on civil fraud cases is about to run out. It appears right now that there will be no major Wall Street prosecutions, either criminal or civil.

Can anyone see a link between the lack of prosecutions and the obscene level of income inequality in the US?

Petra Magoni and Ferruccio Spinetti: I Will Survive

My favorite Italian Jazz Duo, Petra Magoni and Ferruccio Spinetti.

Do We Really Need Income Inequality to Create Economic Growth?

Former CIA Analyst and targeting Officer Nada Bakos posted the video above on Twitter with the comment "Middle class are hardly distinguishable from the poor in US" (you can also read her blog here). The video makes the point, with a series of graphic presentations, that some inequality is one thing, but the amount of income inequality in the US is really obscene.

Over time, income inequality in the US was at its highest level right before two catastrophic historical episodes: the Great Depression and the current Subprime Mortgage Crisis (see my analysis of the data here). These events and the trends in income inequality might just be coincidentally related, but I doubt it! Minimally, none of this benefited the mass of people that had to suffer through it. Saying that people were better off in 1930 and 2007 than they were in 1873 because of economic growth is small comfort. Saying that obscene levels of income inequality are necessary for economic growth is a stretch. Saying that the US is moving toward Socialism is even a greater stretch (in a Socialist society, there would be equal distribution of income as pointed out by the video).

Petra van Nuis and Andy Brown: Alone Together

Petra Van Nuis and her quartet gave a concert this afternoon in Ephraim, WI. Petra (pronounced Pay-tra) is a jazz vocalist from Chicago, IL and is "...one of the keepers of the flame when it comes to the fading art of tasty jazz singing" (from the playbill, front page reproduced below). Her repertoire is drawn from the Great American Song Book and her biography notes that "...she enjoys unearthing obscure songs and her extensive repertoire is both impressive and unique," both understatements! In the video above she sings Alone Together, from the 1932 Broadway musical Flying Colors, a great jazz standard. In the video, she is accompanied by her husband, jazz guitarist Andy Brown, arguably the best jazz guitarist you've never heard about.

I'm always surprised when high-level jazz hits the Door County Peninsula. In this case, the connection was through double bassist Joe Policastro who is, if I have this right, married to Robert Clarke's daughter (see the playbill below--click to enlarge).

On a personal note, Petra sang the great Ella Fitzgerald song A Tisket a Tasket (you can listen to Ella's 1938 recording with the Chick Webb orchestra here). This is the first jazz recording I can remember hearing and I must have been only five or size years old. I can remember walking into our kitchen, hearing the band on the radio doing the "So do we, so do we" chorus and understanding what it meant to be hip. Petra had her group do the "No, no, no, no..." response that was originally sung by Ella and I couldn't resist chiming in! A great, nostalgic afternoon of big-band jazz!

George's Dilemma

Here's a piece from Alto Sax player Ian Henrickson-Smith with a great title. I just heard a cut from his album The Soul of My Alto. The song was titled Park Avenue Petite. My dilemma is that I can't find a YouTube video of it to play for you. If you like what you hear in the website freebie above, follow the album link below and select #2 Park Avenue Petitite, pure urban jazz/blues sax!



NOTE: "George's Dilemma" is actually a Clifford Brown tune from the Album "Study in Brown." You can listen to the original and see the lead sheet here. "Park Avenue Petite" is a Benny Golson tune (lead sheet available here). You can hear the original on YouTube here.

Jim Whittaker: Still Climbing at 83

Sometime in the 1970s, I went to a camp fire presentation by Jim Whittaker somewhere outside of Madison, WI (if anyone remembers the name of the place, they had cross-country skiing in the winter with pancake breakfasts and camping in the summer, let me know). Jim Whittaker was the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 1, 1963. Tonight on the PBS News Hour I found out that today is the 50th anniversary of the ascent and that Whittaker is still going strong.

My only remembrance of Jim Whittaker's camp fire presentation was that someone in the group (it was a very small group, a very relaxed intimate presentation) asked how one could possibly maintain a healthy diet while out backpacking or climbing? Jim paused for a moment, scratched his chin and, to the best of my recollection, said "Well, you aren't going to die from giving up your balanced diet for a few weeks of hiking or climbing. Eat lots of carbs, pack light, you'll be OK".

When you hear Jim speak in the video above, it's the same, no-nonsense guy I remember from 40 years ago. Through force of personality and accomplishment, he has evidently had a similar influence on a lot of people.