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.

Aniston Receives 2013 Bimbo Bakery Award for Sexiest On-Screen Dirt Bag in Horrible Bosses

HORSHAM, PA. For her role in the 2011 movie Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston has received the Bimbo Bakery award for "Sexiest On-Screen Dirt Bag". Ms. Aniston had no comment, but I do!

I actually have not been much of a Jennifer Aniston fan until I saw her in this movie. Aniston played Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S., a sexually compulsive dentist who harasses her dental assistant, Dale Arbus played by Charlie Day. For her performance, she has already won the 2012 MTV Movie Award in the category "Best On-Screen Dirt Bag," and now the coveted Bimbo Bakery award.

The clips above show her locking Charlie Day in her office while she is only wearing a white dental coat and a thong (maybe nylons), shows the compromising still photographs she has on Dale while he was anesthetized for some complementary dental work, and her undressing and performing from her front window for Kurt Buckman (played by Jason Sudeikis) who is supposed to be keeping her under surveillance. For the part, Aniston insisted on dying her hair brunette to look different from the other characters she had played.

The film has received mixed but positive reviews. The negative reviews considered it homophobic, misogynist and racist. The positive reviews thought that the ensemble casting and acting were all well done for what the film essentially was, "moronic, vulgar and juvenile". Of Jennifer Aniston's role, Roger Ebert commented that it was a surprise, a return to form with acute comic timing and hilariously enacted "alarming sexual hungers".

I would have to agree with Roger Ebert. While there were great comic performances put in by Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx (Motherfuckah Jones), Jennifer Aniston really stole the movie. Although Ms. Aniston is clearly a beautiful woman, as a blond I never found her that attractive. As a brunette, she was devastating. But wait a minute, in this role she was not supposed to be really attractive. In fact, she was supposed to be repulsive. Somehow she managed to play a dirt-bag role and still look sexy, no mean accomplishment! A fitting performance for the 2013 Bimbo Bakery award in this category.