Author: Bunk Strutts

Boogah Boogah.

Saturday Matinee – Louis in the Studio, Kid Ory & Trombone Shorty

This exclusive video depicts Armstrong and his All Stars recording the master take of “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” as well as silent footage of them listening to the playback. Also featured in the clip are Trummy Young, trombone, Peanuts Hucko, clarinet, Billy Kyle, piano, Mort Herbert, bass and Danny Barcelona, drums.

I always thought Kid Ory came out of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (along with Johnny Dodds, Baby Dodds and Louis Armstrong) but according to Wiki:

Ory had one of the best-known bands in New Orleans in the 1910s, hiring many of the great jazz musicians of the city, including cornetists Joe “King” Oliver, Mutt Carey, and Louis Armstrong, who joined the band in 1919; and clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.

So how ’bout some more in the same vein? Trombone Shorty’s tribute to Louis Armstrong ain’t bad, and he’s got one hell of a breathing trick.

[Confidential to Calo – That one’s for you. Condolences.]

Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more, you know, stuff.

 

The .GIF Friday Post No.433 – Prince’s Hair, Anthony’s Poses & A Monkey Sucker Punch

PRINCEAnthony

Monkey-Mayhem

[Obligatory tribute to Prince created from images found here [via]. Photos of “Anthony” found here. Last one found in here.]

Three Thousand Five Hundred As Of Today.

3500 Posts

Rock on, me bloogs!

 

[Update: Greetings Blörters, and thanks to the Everlasting One for the linky.]

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco-de-Mayo_zacapoaxtlaz_Corbis-E

[Leer sobre la historia del día, clic aquí.]

4 May 1970 – Kent State

Kent State 1970 Life Magazine Cover

Always remember who started it.

Hint: They weren’t from Kent State.

NCC 1701 Enterprise Prototype?

NCC 1701

[Found here.]

It’s free, but there’s just one catch.

FreeCremation

[Found here.]

Even Kenya Goes Green on Earth Day

Kenya Goes Green

[Found here. This was originally intended to be posted on “Earth Day” but our internest access was on the fritz.]

I hate this “Earth Day” garbage. Nature has been trying to kill us off for millennia and has never back-pedaled the threat. Not once. And not once has the Earth given us the common courtesy to thank us for ignoring that undeniable fact.

So in response to “Earth Day,” we turned on all our lights, cranked up the furnace, cranked down the air conditioning, turned on the humidifier and dehumidifier at the same time, and left the refrigerator door open. I plugged in the electric weed-whacker, taped the trigger, watched it dance around the back yard and dig a trench into a fresh gopher run. Judging from the color of the dirt, it actually caught one of the little furry bastards.

We washed our socks one at a time in the Kenmore with the load setting on “full.” We flushed twice to make sure a silverfish was gone forever, and we made sure that the lawn sprinklers watered the sidewalk properly.

We also burned a lot of fossil fuel by taking numerous unnecessary trips to our next-door neighbors’ house for inane chit-chat and let the car idle in their driveway for hours until the Sears DieHard was simply glowing with happy amused electricity. We even left the TV on all night and turned the TiVo on to watch it for us.

And Gaia snickered.

[Related posts here.]

The Greatest Warship of All Time? [Survey Says…]

USNI News asked its readers, “What is the greatest warship of all time and why?” Though what makes a warship great is highly subjective, our readers offered their education and expertise to put forth their ideas as to what the answer to that question should be. And with nearly 900 reader-generated answers and more than 26,000 votes, the results are in.

The results are interesting, and this one amazed me.

turtleship

Readers also held particular esteem for the uniquely Korean “turtle boats” that came into form under Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, who in 1591 resurrected and modified the best features from designs from nearly two centuries prior to produce the Kohbukson — “turtle ship” — whose convex-covered decks resembled a turtle shell. Averaging in length from 70-110 feet, these flat-bottomed, boats, studded with spikes to prevent board and spaced with gunports, loopholes for muskets, and sporting a a powerful psychological weapon — a smoke-spewing dragon’s head at the bow — were not only virtually impenetrable, but also fast and maneuverable. The ships played a decisive role in defeating regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s numerically-superior fleets during Japan’s invasion of the Korean peninsula of the Imjin War of 1592-1598. The ramifications of that defeat still resonate to this day.

More on the Turtle Ships (including a link to a History Channel vid) here. See the rest of the poll winners here.

AND… WE’RE BACK!

tacky-tv

What an ordeal.

Once Verizon bumped off its FIOS service to Frontier Communications on April Fool’s Day (appropriately enough) stuff happened.

We started hearing an unidentifiable *beep* from somewhere in the house, but it was of such short duration we couldn’t pinpoint the source. We timed it, and the missus and I positioned ourselves in various spots every 15 minutes attempting to triangulate it with no luck. We were hunting for an electronic cricket and after unplugging/dismantling every thing we knew that could beep, it kept recurring.  We thought we we’d been pranked by a friend, cursed him while searching likely spots he might have hidden a quarter-sized “beeper.” No dice.

On a whim I opened up the FAU closet and found the culprit. There was the Verizon FIOS equipment, and every 15 minutes it was telling us that its backup battery was dead. Bastards.

BEEP

So I reset the alarm, yanked the battery. Silence for 24 hours, and then it began again – every fifteen minutes.  Hitting the reset button daily was a temporary solution, but we could finally get some sleep without that infernal beeping.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence, that I’d only imagined that the Utoobage was stuttering. Nah.

Then BAM.

Nine days later, our landline and internest access crapped out. The landline came back, but internet access and WIFI was dead. I called Frontier Communications. Technicians would be out the following day between 8AM and 6PM (a tight window) so I took the following day off without pay, as did the Frontier Communications techs who didn’t bother to show up or call to cancel the appointment.

Buh-bye, Frontier Communications.

NO FC

Time Warner Cable has been deluged with calls from disgruntled Verizon / Frontier Communications subscribers to set up new services, so we waited it out.  Three “appointments” later, Time Warner Cable finally came through this morning.

I never realized how much we depend on internest access, and having to watch TV only added to the torture. Instead, I watched “End Of The Century” and “The Imitation Game,” and read Elliot Carson’s excellent book “Joe Rochefort’s War.”

Anyway, we’re back. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll try to make up for lost time.

Bunk

[Related post here, and no, that’s not me in the .gif.]