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"Zimbabwe ex-President Robert Mugabe Dies at Age 95" on aljazeera.com

In doing research for the 1970 World Series, I learned that Emmett Ashford was the first black umpire ever to officiate a World Series Game (I've updated my post about Game One of the World Series to reflect this fact.) Not only that, Ashford was the first black umpire ever to be in Major League Baseball - working from 1966-1970. Feb 7, 2011 - "Ashford Broke Barriers behind a Mask" by Danny Wild on milb.com (note milb, not mlb) Incredibly, Chuck Meriwether became the second black umpire in the American League - in 1993. In 2008, the donrockwell.com community was three-years old, and Barack Obama won the Presidential election. That same year, a pair of black umpires would work a major-league game for the first time. When I was younger, I thought affirmative action was demeaning and unnecessary; I could not have been more wrong. How is Emmett Ashford *not* in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Oct 10, 2009 - "Chapman Students Want Black Ump in Hall of Fame" by Doug Irving on ocregister.com

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT Do Not Read Unless You've Seen The Film Rather than analyze this great and tragic movie, I will simply summarize the plot for those who need a reliable study guide. Please feel free to discuss any and all aspects, and I will chime in with as much depth as you'd like. On Amazon (not HD) 0:00-2:52 Credits, boxing by himself in ring, B&W 2:52-4:05 1964, NY City, Jake LaMotta (Middleweight World Champion 1949-1951, Robert de Niro, Best Actor winner), smartly dressed, improvising bad poetry (comedy routine) 4:05-7:42 1941, de Niro vs. Jimmy Reeves (Light Heavyweight World Champion 1939-1940, Floyd Anderson), LaMotta undefeated but behind on points, KOs Reeves at bell in 10th, but Ohio rules say Reeves wins on points (saved by the bell). Melée ensues. 7:42-8:26 1941, The Bronx, Joey LaMotta (brother, Joe Pesci, Best Supporting Actor winner) talks with mafia connection Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent) 8:26-9:45 Jake argues with his wife Irma LaMotta (Lori Anne Flax) about an overdone steak, and overturns a table 9:45-10:17 Joey and Sal (Salvy Batts) continue their heated discussion while strolling 10:17- 15:02 Jake, Irma, and Joey argue, Irma leaves, Jake asks Joey to hit him in the face multiple times which he eventually does to no avail (to prove (to himself) he can take a hit) 15:02-17:18 Jake and Joey (his sparring partner) spar in a gym, Sal and two friends walk in, Jake gets furious at the mafia being there and starts beating up Joey badly, the mafia is impressed and leaves, telling Jake "˜not to hurt himself.' 17:18- 20:35 Jake and Joey are at a public pool, the three mafia men are there talking with Vickie Bowman, to eventually become Vickie Lamotta (Cathy Moriarty, Best Supporting Actress nominee), a 15-year-old neighborhood girl, Joey insists she's a nice girl, he went out with her twice, but nothing happened even though he tried, Jake becomes enamored with her from afar. 20:35-21:30 Jake and Joey get dressed to the nines for a night on the town, to Irma's loud and profane protests 21:30-24:05 Jake and Joey walk into a jazz club, nominally a church dance, but quite jazz-bar-like and raucous, then leave shortly after arriving 24:05-31:25 The Courtship Scene, Jake and Joey drive to the swimming pool to see Vickie, Jake asks Vickie for a ride, takes her to play miniature golf, then takes her back to his father's apartment, a romance developing in subtle, nuanced tones 31:25-33:20 1943 in Detroit, Jake fights Sugar Ray Robinson, (World Welterweight Champion 1946-1951, 5-time World Middleweight Champion 1951-1960, Johnny Barnes) Jake pummels Robinson, and is awarded the fight on a decision, Robinson was now 40-1 and would end his career 5-1 against Jake 33:20-38:07 At Jake's father's apartment, Jake and Vickie were seconds away from lovemaking, although the viewer was sure it would happen, Jake then gets up and pours ice water on his privates, saying "I gotta fight Robinson" 38:07-39:40 1943 in Detroit, a new fight between Jake and Robinson, this time Robinson wins convincingly on decision 39:40-41:15 Post-fight tension and reflection in Jake's locker room 41:15- 43:50 1944-1947 - Montage of scenes (shocking the viewer by being the first color sequences in the film), including fights against Fritzie Zivic, José Basora, George Kochan, Jimmy Edgar, Bob Satterfield, Tommy Bell, Jake's wedding to Vickie, Joey's wedding to Lenora LaMotta (Theresa Soldana), and happy family scenes with children, three years duration in less than three minutes 43:50-49:30 1947, Jake's house on Pelham Parkway, The Bronx, Jake is furious at Joey that he weighs 168 pounds, and that he can't get down to the needed 155-pound weight, Jake starts becoming jealous of Vickie, and shows signs of needing to be in control 49:30-55:20 At the Copacabana Club, Jake is introduced to great applause, Vickie gets up and sees Sal and Jake is very jealous, the mob boss Tommy Como (Nicholas Colasanto) arrives and Vickie goes over to say an innocent hello, making Jake more jealous, this was the second longer (3:30+) scene in a row (the 1st time this has happened in the film) 55:20-57:00 At Jake's apartment, he wakens Vickie and asked her why she said Janiro (his upcoming opponent) had a "pretty face," he is showing signs of extreme jealousy and rage even though they haven't become manifest 57:00-58:20 1947 in New York, Jake fights Tony Janiro (Kevin Mahon) and beats him to a pulp, obviously enraged with jealousy, "He ain't pretty no more," Tommy Como says 58:20- 59:03 Jake working out in a sauna, being hectored to lose 4 pounds by his trainer, in the shortest scene thus far in the movie 59:03-63:02 Joey is in a nightclub, chatting with the mafia, he sees Vickie walk in a group which includes Sal, Joey pulls Vickie aside and berates her, she complains that she's in a sexless marriage, Joey throws a drink on Sal, who pursues him outside, Joey starts beating him, and in the melee forming outside, beats him badly 63:02-66:30 Coffee at the Debonair Social Club at a table including Joey, Sal, and a lecturing Tommy Como who insists the two shake hands, Sal walks out and Tommy lectures Joey about Jake becoming an embarrassment, 66:30-68:10 Joey meets Jake at the swimming pool where he met Vickie, he said he wants to catch her in the act just once, Joey informs him he gets a shot at the title, but only if he first flops in an upcoming fight 68:10-68:22 Weigh-in between Billy Fox (Eddie Mustafa Muhammad) and Jake 68:22-69:13 Jake and Joey meet in an underground tunnel with a mobster who said he heard Jake was going to flop, Jake assured him it wasn't going to happen 69:13-71:28 1947 in New York, Jake fights Billy Fox, lots of mafia there, Jake clocks Billy then lets him off the hook, Jake is purposely taking a beating in round 4, lets himself get TKO'd 71:28-72:18 Jake breaks down crying in the locker room in disgrace for throwing the fight 72:18-73:36 Headline: "Board Suspends LaMotta," at Jake's apartment, Joey is trying to justify Jake throwing the fight, Jake cannot justify it in his mind, Jake and Joey eat Chinese carryout, Joey assures him he'll get his title match for throwing the fight 73:36-78:20 1949 in Detroit, Jake vs. Marcel Cerdan (World Middleweight Champion, 1948-1949, Louis Raftis), the LaMottas are discussing things in their room, it's a stadium fight and it's raining, they order food, Tommy stops by the room, Jake gets furious when Vickie kisses him goodbye on the lips, Jake is disgusted with Vickie and with Joey for sticking up for her, 78:20-82:07 Jake finishes warming up on Joey's mid-section, walks out to ring to great applause, Jake winning on points, Cerdan can't answer the bell in Round 10, Jake wins the World Middleweight Championship for the first time in his life 82:07-90:50 1950, Jake's apartment on Pelham Parkway in The Bronx, Jake gets angry at Joey for kissing Vickie on the mouth, Joey chides Jake for eating and drinking too much and gaining weight, Jake asks Joey what happened when he beat up Sal, Jake suspects there was an affair between Sal and Vickie, Jake works himself into a frenzy, he accuses Joey - completely without merit - of "fucking Vickie, Joey walks out, Jake goes upstairs to find Vickie making the bed, he accuses her of fucking his brother, she locks herself in the bathroom, Vickie finally taunts him after being smacked around, Jake storms outside, the longest scene in the film so far 90:50-91:04 Vickie pursues him outside, he shoves her on the ground 91:04-91:55 At Joey's dinner table, Jake enters (followed by Vickie), and pummels Joey for "fucking his wife," nobody can stop him, he beats him in front of his children, everyone is helpless 91:55-93:55 Jake is home alone, Vickie walks in and starts packing, Jake (in classic wife-beater fashion) asks her not to leave and woos her, incredibly, she stops packing and puts her arms around him 93:55-95:03 1950 in Detroit, Jake vs. Laurent Dauthuille (Johnny Turner), Jake plays possum and is losing in the 15th round, then unleashes a furious onslaught and KOs Dauthuille 95:03-97:06 In the locker room after the shower, Vickie talks Jake into calling Joey to apologize, he does, but can't bring himself to say anything when Joey answers 97:06-101:34 1951 in Chicago, the 6th and final fight against Sugar Ray Robinson, the famous "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" fight, Jake is pummeled in the 13th round into a TKO, but never leaves his feet, he taunts Sugar Ray, seemingly placing more importance in Ray's inability to knock him down than winning the fight, amazingly, this was Ray's first world championship 101:34-102:50 1956 in Miami, Jake (notably larger), Vickie, and their 3 children are relaxing by their pool being interviewed about his retirement, he mentions he just bought a nightclub 102:50-109:26 The neon lights of "Jake LaMotta's" nightclub are lit up, Jake grabs a microphone, and yucks it up with the patrons, clearly trying his hand at stand-up comedy, he mentions he and Vickie will soon be celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary, Jake nevertheless starts kissing young girls in his nightclub, Jake is told his wife is waiting outside for him 109:26-110:30 Jake walks outside to meet Vickie, it's broad daylight, she's in her car and tells him she's leaving him, she's taking custody of the kids, and if he shows his face she'll call the cops on him, she comes across as quite resolute 110:30-112:10 Jake, remarkably fatter, is woken up by two DA agents, the "young girls" in his club were 14 years old, they say they're taking him downtown 112:10-113:07 Jake knocks on Vickie's door, saying he has to get one thing, he goes after his championship belt, and starts hammering off the precious metal, making a lot of noise, 113:07-113:39 Jake at a pawn shop, trying to sell the jewels from the belt; the dealer wants the belt itself, he gets offered $1,500 but wants $2,000, he refuses and leaves 113:39-113:59 On a pay phone outside the jeweler, saying "I can't raise the $10,000." 113:59-117:00 1957 in the Dade County Stockade, forcibly led into a cell by two men, he contemplates things in his dark jail cell, and begins pounding his head against the wall, begins punching the wall, saying, Why? Why?! Why?!!, a very sad, total meltdown, he might have killed himself if he had a gun 117:00-118:26 1958 in New York City, Jake telling stand-up, he gets heckled, and challenges the heckler, it doesn't escalate, Jake introduces the next act, Emma 118:26-121:03 Jake leaves with Emma, and puts her in a cab after he sees Joey closing up his shop, he pursues Joey trying to make up, he tries to apologize, Italian-style with kisses, Joey tells him "later," this is not the right place, then gets in his car 121:03-123:55 Barbizon Plaza, a sandwich sign says, "An Evening of Jake LaMotta featuring the works of Paddy Chayefsky, Rod Serling, Shakespeare, Budd Schulberg, Tennessee Williams - Tonight," he's rehearsing in the dressing room, smoking a cigar, "Go get "˜em, champ," he says to himself, before going on stage, before shadowboxing in the mirror several times, you can tell he wants those days back badly 123:55-124:45 The text appears on the screen, one line at a time, in black and white: "So, for the second time [the Pharisees] summoned the man who had been blind and said: "Speak the truth before God. We know this fellow is a sinner." "Whether or not he is a sinner, I do not know," the man replied. "All I know is this: once I was blind and now I can see." John IX. 24-26 the New English Bible Remembering Haig P. Manoogian, teacher. May 23, 1916-May 26-1980 With Love and resolution, Marty. 124:45-129:04 Closing credits A magnificent film. I won't usually take this type of notes while watching films because it's a brutal amount of work, and detracts immensely from the enjoyment of the film, but in this case, I'm glad I did because I feel like I really know it well now.

Albert Pujols might be one of those all time greats whose historical stats might take a "hit": specifically his batting average. Just checked him out. As of last year his career average is .302. For the Cards during his first 11 years his average was .320. Over the last 7 years for the Angels his average is .260 and it keeps trending downward. He is one of those few players over time that I like to watch from time to time. During his first decade his hitting exploits rivaled that of the greatest players in history. Injuries, age, and advanced defensive alignments are combining to turn him into one of the most overpaid, under performing players in the game. (Nevertheless I still like watching him) Check back on this in a year or two. Pujols might drop out of that impressive group of players.

I didn't realize that I'd only seen "The Shining" start-to-finish one time, but I saw it again yesterday. Disclosures: I'm very much of a Stanley Kubrick fan, and I think Stephen King is "good but not great," as he writes a little too much for the masses, for my taste. "The Shining" is a long film, with some very good moments, but it's also a drawn-out film, with some very bad moments. I wonder if there's anyone out there who truly loves this film, and everything about it. I could list probably a dozen things about this movie that I strongly disliked, but taken as a whole, it's a good horror film when you factor in everything. One fundamental thing I didn't like was the introduction of the two, competing, otherworldly powers which have no explanation - I don't need to be spoon-fed explanations for the supernatural, but personifying evil through the silly ex-caretaker, Delbert Grady (Philip Stone, who played Alex's father in Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange") was a bit much. There are other things that I found annoying ("Redrum," for example), but I don't want to sit here and rattle them all off. I liked, didn't love, "The Shining," but without taking inventory, my guess is that I'd put it in the bottom half of all Kubrick films I've seen up until now. I know this is supposedly an "intellectual" film, and I'm sure that repeated viewings would reveal additional layers and nuances. --- Room 237 (DonRocks)

Happy Birthday John! If it weren't for a crazy man with a gun, he would have been 75 today.

If you are a progressive rock lover, and if you have never listened to "In The Dead Of Night" by U.K., it will blow your mind. Highly recommended. Lightning in a bottle. "In The Dead Of Night":

I wouldn't be surprised if it returns to Hains Point now that it would have an active audience to water taxi over from the Wharf.

If you enjoy a Louis CK-style of standup, you might enjoy Rory Scovel, who has recently come out with a Netflix special called "Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time." If you aren't familiar with Scovel (I doubt this is his first-ever stand-up, despite the name), he's a solid, somewhat unorthodox, talent whom I would put in the second tier behind the best-of-the-best. This is not to say that he isn't funny - there were moments in this routine that were laugh-out-loud funny - merely that this probably won't be "The Best" stand-up special you've ever seen. Still, I found it well-worth watching. He is absolutely influenced by Louis CK, but his humor, while extremely crude, doesn't quite hit the border of "inappropriate" (CK's bit about pedophilia shocked even me). Still, Scovel isn't afraid to make jokes using topics such as genocide, anal sex, etc. - he isn't crude for crude's sake, but he is often crude, so if that offends you, be forewarned. I enjoyed this special, and can recommend it to others - not as anything ground-breaking, but as good, solid, stand-up comedy.

"Newspaper Headlines: Mugabe's 'Fall from Grace' in Zimbabwe" on bbc.com Robert Mugabe, considered by many to be a dictator, has ruled for 37 years.

Considering how many threads we have on both our Film Forum and our Television Forum by the Master of Suspense, the great Alfred Hitchcock, it's absurd that he doesn't have his own thread. To date, we have threads for: 1927 - "The Lodger - a Story of the London Fog" - (Ivor Novello) 1934 - "The Man Who Knew Too Much" - (Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre) 1940 - "Rebecca" (Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine) 1941 - "Suspicion" - (Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine) 1943 - "Shadow of a Doubt" - (Joseph Cotten) 1946 - "Notorious" - (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains) 1948 - "Rope" - (James Stewart) 1954 - "Rear Window" - (James Stewart, Grace Kelly) 1955 - "To Catch a Thief" - (Cary Grant, Grace Kelly) 1956 - "The Wrong Man" - (Henry Fonda) 1956 - "The Man Who Knew Too Much" - (James Stewart, Doris Day) 1958 - "Vertigo" - (James Stewart, Kim Novak) 1960 - "Psycho" - (Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh) 1963 - "The Birds" (Rod Taylor, Tippi Hendren) 1964 - "Marnie" - (Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren) 1955-1962 - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (very much of a work in progress) 1962-1965 - "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (this thread will be split into two one day) 2015 - "Hitchcock/Truffaut" (Documentary about the 1962 interview between the two directors) And, for your amusement: Alfred Hitchcock, Lee Meriwether (Miss America 1955!), and two other guests on "What's My Line?"

I had never before seen "Ordinary People," a quadruple Oscar winner for 1980 which included the award for Best Picture. This was Timothy Hutton's first major role, and because of that, he was nominated for (and won) the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor even though, in my mind, he clearly had the lead role in this film. I'm not sure how nominees are made, but perhaps it's the motion-picture companies that submit entrants to the Academy for consideration, and Paramount neither billed, nor perhaps nominated, Timothy Hutton as a lead actor due to his inexperience - while Donald Sutherland was extremely strong, it was Hutton who made this film what it was. Mary Tyler Moore, to me, will always be Laura Petrie, and to some, she will always be Mary Richards, both slightly neurotic, but lovable, characters in polar opposite roles (the former, a homemaker; the latter, a career-oriented woman) - but in both cases, slightly neurotic and intentionally a bit silly. I have since seen her in two major roles in motion pictures ("Thoroughly Modern Millie" and now "Ordinary People"), and in both roles, she seemed completely out of her element - yes, she's typecast to me, and there's nothing I can do about it, just as Leonard Nimoy will always be Spock, and therein lies the difference between "bias" and "prejudice" - prejudice is something that is much, much more difficult to overcome, and goes deeper than a simple "preconceived notion." The music in Ordinary People was "composed" (more appropriately, "arranged") by Marvin Hamlisch, and aside from an extremely astute and clever use of Pachelbel's Canon, which clearly represented Timothy Hutton and Friends reliving the same agonies over, and over again, without a logical endpoint, there wasn't much "there" there - in fact, there was a particularly cloying violin solo during a sad moment to which I said, aloud, "They can lose the violin anytime now." Ordinary People is a great movie - whether or not it merits being named "Best Picture" is up for debate, as two of its competitors were, in my mind, *clearly* superior films: "Elephant Man" and "Raging Bull," both of which were not just "great," but transcendent.

I thought I'd seen "Brubaker," and perhaps I did, because there are individual scenes I clearly remember. However, in seeing this movie again today, I thought it was much more boring than it should have been - it's a good story on paper, but actually watching it just wasn't very fun. Brubaker isn't a "bad" movie; but given its star power, and the fact that it took itself so deadly seriously, it should have been better. One thing I learned is about the Trusty System, which, yay, educated me and made me a better person. Yippee, get me a beer. This is beautiful cinematography:

I try to read at least one novel by each Nobel Prize Winning Author, just for the hell of it - for my own self-improvement, I guess. Having always considered myself fluent (or at least highly conversational) in French, and having read some pretty tough little books in French before, I decided to tackle one of Patrick Modiano's works in his native language, so I had my mother-in-law find and ship me a really nice copy of <<La Place de LÉtoile>>, one of his most important works. I read the preface, and understood the double-entendre. Great! I was going to blitz through this 211-page book in a couple of months. Then I got to the second page, and was staring down things like this list of idiomatic invectives, one right after the other: ... rantanplan ... Vlan! ... cet effréné empaffeur de petites Aryennes! ... Rastaquouère des cocktails infâmes! and so on, and so on. It took me an hour - with a dictionary - to read one page, and I closed the book and said, "To hell with it - this isn't French; this is Martian." So I took the more sensible route - or so I *thought* - and bought a translated book (and there weren't many available): "Missing Person," translated by Daniel Weissbort. One mistake was followed by another, the second being so significant that it stole six months from my life. First of all, "Missing Person" is some editor's *impossibly bad* translation of the novel's real name: <<Rues des Boutiques Obscures>>, which translates much more appropriately - and poetically - to "Streets of Obscure Boutiques." This book is, you see, a mystery novel in which the detective is also the subject - he can't remember who he is, so he spends the entire book chasing down leads as to his real identity, some of which are good, some of which aren't - hence, the beautiful title which was completely ruined in translation, the imagery of some poor man scurrying up-and-down streets with strange, but familiar, looking boutiques a near-perfect allegory of his search for himself. I was hell-bent on giving Modiano the respect of trying to solve this mystery before I got to the end of the book - so much so, that I wrote down, and kept track of, every single name, proper noun, street, etc., in the *entire book*, so when they were referred to again later on, I could go back and find the page on which they were originally referred. That's dedication, right? Yeah, that's dedication. Assuming the book has an ending. When I was 20 pages from the end, after spending about six months reading it, studiously assembling my study guide, an uneasy feeling came over me ... this book wasn't going anywhere. And then I cursed the author when I was 5 pages from the end, because I knew then that this was going to be one of "those" novels - this wasn't a mystery novel; it was a meditation on existence, and all that work I did was for *nothing*. Nada. Zilch. This was going to be a story without an ending. Then I read the final word, closed the book, and said to myself, "That bastard." It was like having read "Waiting for Godot" (for those who don't know: Godot never shows up), diligently writing down every possible clue throughout the entire story, only to have zero payoff at the end, and to have realized you wasted about forty hours of work. If I had only known, I would have read it differently, but I had no way to know. Well, I hope you all enjoy my Study Guide to NOTHING. I even went so far as to separate Rues, from Boulevards, from Avenues, and to think with about 50 pages left, I thought to myself, "You know, I'm going to have to read this a second time and write down all *phone numbers*, because what I'm doing isn't going to be enough. Listen up! Learn from my mistake in attempting to read this as a novel in which you can figure out clues. Had I done this properly, I would have included phone numbers, and also the page numbers for the dates at the very bottom. As it stands, *the entire project was a mistake*, and the novel is best blasted through without worrying about details. Read it in a week; not in six months. Trust me - my loss can be your gain. I will add that I just this moment purchased the hardcover version of this novel in French, and I'm going to "blast through it," <<sans dico>>, both to improve my French, and because I know I'll understand it very well, even though I won't know certain individual words - plus, I now have a brand new hardcover copy for my tiny, personal library, and also a paperback English-language copy to lend to my friends - one thing I am not, is a quitter. Enjoy! I sure as hell didn't. There are no spoilers here, and the page numbers represent the very first time in the book that something was referenced. This is an important note: The reason these lists look so "condensed" is because I often tapped them in on my cell phone, and was trying to keep one note per line. I had no intention of making these public, and they were for my own benefit - but it's obvious to me (now) that someone, at some point in time, might get some use out of them, so here they are in their "raw" format, with my apologies. Don Rockwell's Study Guide to ... NOTHING! Note: This ONLY applies to This Edition of "Missing Person" The sleuth *and* the subject is named Guy Roland - the entire story is about him trying to find out his true identity. Links that Guy Roland uses to get from one lead to the next: Hutte Sonachidze (how?) -> Heurteur Styoppa (funeral of de Rosen) Blunt (photo & funeral of Orlov) Howard (Lutte's directories) Pilgram (Howard's pic + Hutte) Ruddy bartender (Denise born) Mansoure (magazine cover) People mentioned in the story (again, the page cited is the very first time a name or person was referenced in the book - if something "important" shows up later, I'll sometimes write something such as [see 119] which means "see also page 119"): Guy Roland 1 Constantin von Hutte 1 "The dark little man, puffy face" 1 The dark little man's wife 1 Another dark little man 1 Paul Sonachidze 5 Jean Heurteur 7 Styoppa de Dzhagorev 10 Marie de Rosen 13 Georges Sacher 13 Giorgiadze 27 Mara "Gay" Orlov 27 Pedro the South American 27 [identified by Bob 64, lying on bed 115] Bernardy Mac Mahon 32 Kyril Orlov 32 Irene Giorgiadze 32 Waldo Blunt 33 Jean-Pierre Bernardy 33 [see 159] Lucky Luciano 38 Howard de Luz (Jean Simety) 40 (48) John Gilbert 41 Dany Blunt 42 MmeMabel Donahue Simety 48 Claude Howard 49 Freddie [Alfred Jean 158] Howard de Luz 50 Robert "Bob," the Valbreuse caretaker 54 [named 58] French billiard-playing woman 61 Freddy's jockey friend 64 [see 124] Robert Brun 66 (same as Bob 54?) R.L. de Oliveira Cezar, CG 67 Helene Pilgram 68 Policemen standing sentry 71 Mr [Pedro?80] McEvoy 72 [Dominican Republic working at legation 119] Denise [Yvette Coudreuse] 73[79] ["Muth" 119] Leon Van Allen 73 [Dutch 119] Paul Coudreuse 79 Henriette Bogaerts 79 Jimmy Pedro Stern 79 Oleg de Wrede (Paris) 81 [see 137] Ruddy bartender 86 Jean-Michel Mansoure 89 Hoyningen-Huene 95 Alec Scouffi (Greek-Egypt) 97 Blue Rider (Scouffi's killer) 99 Richard Wall 102 10-yr-old girl w/Denise 103 Fat, bald man in pic w/cig 104 Jacques [F 119] dressmaker Denise worked for on Rue la Boetie [#32 119] 107 Sir Basil Zaharoff 108 Pretty dark-haired tropical Latina 112 Man on beach with son 114 King Gustav of Sweden 117 De Swert 118 Mrs. Kahan 118 Georges Stern 120 Giuvia Sarano 120 Cueva 122 Colonel de Basil 122 Andre Wildmer 124 Porfirio Rubirosa 127 [killed in car under?accident 129] Bob Besson 132 Mrs. Jeanschmidt 136 Mrs E. Khan 137 Louis de Wrede, Comte de Montpensier (called Oleg) 138 Duchess rof Uzes 138 Duke of Windsor 138 Mrs. Henri Duvernois 139 Fair-Haired Man at Gare de Lyon 143 [Kyril 146] (Not Gay's father) George (Bar Owner in Megeve) 150 Joseph Simety Howard De Luz 158 Louise Fouquereaux 158 Alex Maguy 162 Japanese actor and his wife 162 Evelyne and a pale young man 162 Jean-Claude the Belgian 162 Fribourg 165 Fat Maori 165 Alain Gerbault 165 Rues (a <<Rue>> is a Street - I left the word "Rue" out of every one except the very first)Rue Vital 1 Anatole-de-la-Forge 5 [see 162] Cambon 7 [Hotel Castille, 8th 119] Claude-Lorrain 13 Charles-Marie-Widor 15 Marie-Widor 15 Boileau 16 Chardon-Lagache 17 [#9 121] Julien-Potin 22 [Pedro McElvoy? 121] [Porfirio Rubirosa 129] Ernest-Deloison 22 du Mont-Thabor 25 du Cirque 33 [21, 23] Rayounard 48 de Bassano 49 [10A] Cambaceres (8th) 68 Jenner (school) 89 [1] Gabrielle (18th) 92 Coustou 93 Lepic 93 des Abbesses 93 Germain-Pilon 93 [97] de Rome 5th floor (17th) 96 [26] de Naples (8th) 105 [11] de Berne (8th) 105 [99] de Rome (17th) 105 [97] de Rome (17th) 105 la Boetie 108 [97] de Rome 4th floor (17th) 110 Molitor (16th) 112 Mirabeau (16th) 112 Royale 114 Saint-Honore 114 Longchamp 117 [24] Bayard (8th) 120 Jouy-en-Josas 123 du Docteur-Kurzenne [22] de Picardie (Nice) 137 Francois-1er 137 [16] Foucault #5 160 Rude 162 de Saigon 162 Chagrin 162 Avenues (for some perverse reason, I thought it might be important to separate out rues, avenues, and boulevards - again, I only used the word <<Avenue>> in the very first one): Avenue Paul-Doumer 1 Niel 3 de la Grande-Armee 7 [see 162] des Champs-Élysées 7 de Versailles 18 Montaigne 33 [25] du Marechal-Lyautey 33 de New-York 40 Hoche 108 Victor-Hugo 109 Boulevards (again, I only used the word <<Boulevard>> in the very first one>>): Boulevard Maurice-Barres 22 Richard-Wallace 22 de Clichy 93 Moulin Rouge 93 Graff's 93 des Batignolles 107 de Courcelles 108 Emile-Augier 113 Places (again, I only mention <<Place>> in the very first one - a <<Place>> is like a Square, i.e., Times Square, Mount Vernon Square, etc.) Place Pereire 3 Blanche 92 des Abbesses 93 Clichy 107 de L'Etoile 108 de Levis 109 de l'Alma 114 de la Concorde 114 Malesherbes 140 des Saussaies 142 All other nouns except for People: Paris 1 Hutte's office and furnishings 1 Nice 2 Hortensias (cafe) 3 Ville d'Avray 6 Saint-Cloud 6 Porte de Saint-Cloud 7 Langer's 7 Hotel Castille 7 C.M. Hutte Agency 9 Tanagra 9 Alaverdi 11 Sainte Genevieve-des-Bois 13 Russian Orthodox Church 13 Le Herisson 18 School of Pages 19 Porte Maillot 22 Pont de Puteaux 22 Seine 22 The Emigration 23 Georgian Consulate 27 Yalta 28 Quai du General-Koenig 29 Bar-Restaurant de l'Ile 29 3 Addresses for Gay Orlov 33 Hotel Chateaubriand 33 Hilton Hotel Bar 33 Sur les quais du Vieux Paris 34 Sag Warum 35 Que reste-t-il de nos amours 35 Quai Branly 37 Pont Bir-Hakeim 37 Palm Island Casino 38 Arkansas 38 Quai de Passy 39 Trocadero Gardens 40 [see 161] Pont d'Iena 40 Hollywood 41 Pont d'Alma 41 Museum of Modern Art 41 Eiffel Tower 44 Auteuil Race Course 46 Military Cross 48 Club du Grand Pavois 48 Motor Yacht Club of the Cote d'Azur 48 Valbreuse, Orne (61,Alencon) 48 Square Henri Pate 16th 49 Golden Tripe Competition 49 Mauritius 49 [Port Louis 158] Chateau Saint-Lazare 54 [named 67] Biarritz 59 The billiard table in the summer dining-room 62 LU Biscuit box 63 Photographs in biscuit box 65 La Baule 65 Port of New York 66 French Argentine Consulate 66 DominicanRepublic passport67 ANJou15-28 67 Ph#s - 10A RueCambaceres68 Lists of embassies/legations 69 Dressmakers workshop 73 Paramaribo, DutchGuyana 74 Dominican Embassy 74 Megeve 74 Gilt box - English cigarettes 75 Dominican Legation 75 "Charlie Chan" 79 "Anonymous Letters" 79 Department du Seine 79 (13th) 9A Quai d'Austerlitz 79 AUTeuil54-73 81 "History of the Restoration" (L. de Viel-Castel) 85 A La Marine (cafe) 85 "Men Spreekt Vlaamsch" 85 Photo of Antwerp 86 Gare d'Austerlitz 87 Belgian cigarettes (Laurens) 87 Quai d'Austerlitz 88 [#9, 13th 119] Belgium 88 Botanical Gardens 91 Wine Market 91 Montmartre 94 Sacre Coeur 94 Vogue 95 Wehrmacht musicians 96 Marie Brizard 97 Alexandria, Egypt 98 "Ship at Anchor" (Scouffi) 98 Skeletal phone conversation 99 Montmartre funicular 100 Sacre Coeur gardens 100 Seine-et Oise (was 78) 103 Seine-et-Marne (77,Melun) 103 Versailles 103 Hotel de Chicago 105 "At The Golden Fish Residential Hotel" (Scouffi) 105 Salle Playel (Brussels) 105 Theatre de la Monnaie (Brussels) 105 Cafe at corner of Rue de Rome and Boulevard de Batignolles 108 Parc Monceau 108 Basque restaurant w/ Gascony fresco 109 The Royal-Villiers, Place de Levis 109 South American legation (Hutte's townhouse) 112 16th arrondissement 112 Cafe at intersection of Rue Mirabeau and Avenue de Versailles 113 Auteuil 113 Chausee de la Muette 113 Russian restaurant with zither player 113 Cours-la-Reine 114 Queen Astrid's 115 Faubourg Saint-Honore 115 Portugal via Switzerland 116 #6 Square de l'Opera 9th 119 Megeve, Haute-Savoie 119 Annemasse, Haute-Savoie 119 Hotel Lincoln 8th 120 Via delle Botteghe Oscure 2 Rome, Italy 120 Valparaiso 122 Plaza Echauren 122 Cerro Alegre District 122 Avenida Errazuriz 123 Protestant church 123 Robin Hood Inn 123 Jouy-en-Josas 123 Wine bar / grocery store on Ave Niel 124 Giverny, Oise 125 Alsace-Lorraine Gardens 127 Eden Roc 127 Square des Aliscamps 128 Neuilly 129 "El Reloj" and "Tu me acostumbraste" (guitar tunes) [129] Luiza School - Pedro's father would pick up him and Freddie [130] [Luiza and Albany School 135] Vincennes 132 Vichy 133 Parc des Sources 133 Hotel de la Paix 133 Cafe de la Restauration 133 Border at Hendaye (closed) 135 Chez Arkady (Russian restaurant) sometime around 1937 137 Siberia 138 Courcelles Metro Station 140 Square Edouard-VII 141 The Cintra 141 Côte d'Azure 141 "Collection du Masque" novels 142 Gare de Lyon 142 Sallanches 143 "Invisible" Mentioned 146 "The Southern Cross" Chalet 147 Rochebrune 147 Paris-Sport Magazine 147 Hotel du Mont-Blanc 149 L'Equipe (Adult Chalet) 150 Comet Garage 153 [see 160] Valda Lozenge 157 Port Louis, Mauritius 158 5 Addresses for Alfred Jean Howard de Luz 158 Island of Padipi 159 Papeete, French Polynesia 164 Bora Bora 165 Salle Pleyel 165 Tuamotu Archipelago 165 Marquesas 165 Moluccan Blackbirds 166 Seaside Resort in Southern Russia 167 Dates (Often given in the form of letters written to Guy Roland from people he asked questions to in his quest to find out about his life - I should have written down the page numbers also, but I didn't): 1872?Marie Rosen born 1885-04-28 Scouffi born 1910-09-30 Waldo Blunt born 1912-07-30 Alfred Jean Howard De Luz born, Port Louis, Mauritius 1912-09-30 Jimmy Pedro Stern born, Salonica Greece 1914 Mara Orlov born 1914 Photo of "black and white" dinner party 1914/1918SalonicaArchivesFire 1917-12-21 Denise born 1920 Scouffi to Feance 1936 Mara Orlov USA->France ????-02-14 Denise and Pedro 1939-04-03 Pedro weds Denise town hall (17th) 1939-04-03 Certified Abstract 1940 Jimmy Stern disappears 1940-12 Pedro McElvoy resides at #9 Rue Julien-Potin, Neuilly, Seine 1941-04 Van Allen opens fashion house #6 Square de l'Opera 9th 1941-07-15 Consulado letter 1945-01 Van Allen's fashion house closes 1943-02 Denise disappears crossing French-Swiss border 1947 C.M. Hutte formed 1950 Mara Orlov dies 1950 Jean Alfred Howard de Luz leaves France for the Island of Padipi, Polynesia, near Bora Bora (Society Isles) 159 1952 Waldo Blunt in Paris 1965-10-23 Gay Orlov memo 1965-11-07 Scouffi memo 1965-11-27 Letter to Pedro from Mrs E. Khan (representing Hutte) telling Pedro all she knows about Oleg de Wrede

The record label Analog Africa, which specializes in out-of-print music from Africa and Latin America from the 1960s and 1970s, has released 1973-1980, an anthology of the 10 songs recorded by Amara ToureÌ during the 1970s. ToureÌ is an afro-cuban percussionist and singer form Guinée Conakry who played with bands in Senegal, Cameroon, and Gabon. After 1980, ToureÌ's recording career was over. Apparently he returned to Cameroon, but little is known about what happened to him. The music is smoky, groovy, jazzy: listening to this music just transports you to some hot, sultry, nightclub cafe serving strong cocktails. Lamento Cubano

I've sort of run out of steam with the 20th-century chanteuses I was highlighting. Lots and lots of recordings to listen to, of course, but not a lot of my favorite female jazz singers I haven't posted about at least once. So what about the great rock-n-roll singers? I find that almost all of them were men. I'm setting aside R&B and soul singers, like Aretha Franklin, one of the greatest singers of the 20th century (to anyone with any discernment), and ditto James Brown, say, or Otis Redding. It's not a matter of race: Little Richard and Chuck Berry, along with Jimi Hendrix and others, certainly inhabited the world of rock-n-roll, but it became more and more dominated by white artists as time went by in the 50s and into the 60s, and the only black rock-n-roll singer whose star shines in the highest firmament to me is Little Richard, of whom more later. The prominent female rock singers, like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, are largely over-rated, in my view. Joplin might have become a really great singer, but her career was so terribly short. Probably my favorite female rocker is Marianne Faithfull, but it's hard to put her in the same category as the greatest male r-n-r singers, such as John Lennon. Charlie Pierce famously maintains that the only wrong answer to "what's your favorite Beatles song?" is "Revolution Number 9", a point of view I'm in sympathy with, but can't agree with in the detail. "Revolution Number 9" isn't a song, but there are songs from the white album that are wrong answers: "Piggies" and "Oh-bla-di", for example. But the white album also includes much of John Lennon's best work with the Beatles. Not just his best writing, but his best singing. Take as an extravagantly great example one of my very favorite Beatles songs, probably not well known to generations younger than mine, but which features one of John's most wonderful vocal performances, among other things - "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" (1968): I loved him as if I knew him.

Another baseball icon departed us -- RIP Minnie Minoso. We're not entirely clear about his age....he is considered the only ballplayer to have played in five different decades. He was Mr. White Sox like Ernie Banks, who died six weeks ago, was Mr. Cub. Please Lord, let's not allow this streak to continue....Yogi Berra is on the clock.