Annual Benediction

As the last Thursday of November approaches, we prepare for a nationwide celebration of giving thanks. The facts behind this holiday blur with the abridgement of history and the passage of time. I point out certain misunderstandings not to lessen the day's import, but to illuminate how time distorts our view.

This week, eager young minds learn about the First Thanksgiving in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation. Forgotten are the thanksgivings held by Martin Forbisher in Newfoundland in 1578, by the Spanish in St. Augustine in 1569, or by colonists in Virginia in 1619.

Another fallacious fact concerns the Puritans. That first group of religious refugees who landed on Cape Cod wanted to separate from the Church of England. They called themselves Saints and others called them Separatists.

Puritans did not disembark onto our shores until several years later in Boston Harbor. They wanted to purify, not separate, from the Church of England. These strict, intolerant zealots presided over the infamous witch trials, banished or slaughtered those who would not convert to the Puritan view. Think of them as the colonial Taliban.

Those desperate settlers scratching existence on the Cape did not call themselves pilgrims. But that term is more accurate. In his Of Plimouth Plantation, William Bradford borrowed from the Old Testament (Hebrew 11: 13-16), "..they were pilgrims and strangers on earth." In the 18th century, writers like Cotton Mather began calling these emigres, pilgrims.

These trivialities don't amount to a hill of mashed potatoes as you sit enjoying food, family, friends and football. What matters most is to give thanks for what you have. I want to thank all of you for tolerating my musings and broadsides. As ever - BB

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all." - William Faulkner

Lesterese

Lester Young, a seminal figure in Swing and Bebop, played tenor saxophone with many jazz greats. Aside from his music, what attracted me most about The Prez was his fashion sense and use of language.

In the 40s, most big band musicians wore formal wear to perform. Coming from a more relaxed, Kansas City tradition, Lester wore rumpled suits and a pork pie hat. His hat became so iconic that when he died, Charlie Mingus entitled his elegy for Lester, Good-Bye Pork Pie Hat. With his horn's smooth tones, sophisticated harmonies, his relaxed dress and flippant attitude, Young embodied the ethos of cool.

For me, his most fascinating trait was the language he used. Jive is nothing new to musicians. But Lester didn't just popularize the patois like Cab Calloway or Mezz Mezzrow, he created his own vocabulary. One of words he coined, bread meaning money, made it's way into the Jive Dictionary,

His friends would marvel at this unique vernacular calling it Lesterese.

• Bob Crosby - police or other law enforcement officer
• His people - the keys on his saxophone
• George Washington - a song's bridge
• Bomber - a drummer with a heavy touch
• Way back - an old girlfriend

Like many of his ilk, the oppression of Jim Crow and personal demons shortened the life of this master musician. But his music lives on as does his language.

"My people were smooth during that George Washington. Too bad the bread didn't smell as sweet. Watch out for Bob Crosby, he's been sniffin' round that bomber's way back." - as ever BB

"I stay cool, and dig all jive,

That's the way I stay alive.

My motto, as I live and learn,
is

Dig and be dug
In return." - Langston Hughes

Doggone Good

"Blues is a natural fact, it's something that a fellow lives." - Big Bill Broonzy

Rudy "Rude Dog" Strukoff knows the Blues, plays the Blues, lives the Blues. The music's innate excitement and soul should be heard live. But Rude Dog's latest CD, Resurrection, captures the art form's essence and vitality.

This collection of previous recordings, many no longer available, shows not only the breadth of the blues, but the range of Rude Dog's talent.

Huddie Ledbetter's "Gallis Pole" and Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain" display Rudy's grasp of traditional blues. "I'm Ready" and "Back Door Man" pay homage to Chicago and "Born Under A Bad Sign" adds some Memphis spice.

Strukoff's unique style augments the selection with a half-dozen originals. "They Call Me the Rude Dog" highlights his sense of humor, and Baltimore's local color surfaces in "My Little Hampden Hon."

This CD's a keeper. Resurrection displays not only Rude Dog's outstanding technique, but his fervor for the music. That's a natural fact. - As ever BB

Clutch Hit

Clutch Cargo - maybe it wasn't a hit, but it was one of my best-loved cartoons. First aired in 1959, it ran for 3 seasons. Clutch with his ward Spinner, dog Paddlefoot and grizzled, pith-helmeted sidekick, Swampy would thrill this five-year-old every week with cliff-hanging adventures.

It also involves one of my premier cartoon/TV trivia tidbits - Swampy was voiced by actor Hal Smith. While not a household name, everyone knows Hal Smith from playing Otis, the town drunk, on the Andy Griffith show.

Clutch Cargo used the animation technique - Syncro-Vox. Human lips mouthing the lines would be superimposed onto the animation cells. Producers liked this process not because of edgy technology, but because it was cheap. Cartoons done in Syncro-Vox incurred about 1/5th the cost of those done traditionally.

Cambria Productions patented this technique and followed Clutch Cargo with Space Angel. This cartoon had good plots, some of which were "borrowed" several years later by sci-fi icon, Star Trek. The final Cambria offering was Captain Fathom. This ran for one season, 1965, and is remembered by myself and probably no one else.

Cheaply done animation, kitschy production and inferior artwork earmarked these cartoons. They were as cheesy as a bag of Cheetos, but didn't get orange detritus all over my fingers.

Snycro-Vox lives on...in Pulp Fiction where a Clutch Cargo segment can be seen on a television set, in Conan O'Brien's fake celebrity interviews on Late Night and in the talking pirate picture during Sponge Bob Squarepants' opening credits.

Obviously, I was a five-year-old who was ahead of his time - as ever - BB

"To me bad taste is what entertainment is all about." - John Waters

Thoughts on a Rainy Day

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - I never understood the title of this Dylan tune. Maybe that was his intent. Rain is a paradoxical thing. As a boy, nothing was more disheartening than a rained-out Little League game. Yet, rain during a football game was a surprise gift. Bruises and losses were inconsequential amid the joy of mud-covered combat.

The Bergeron process explains the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into liquid precipitation. How soporific! Earlier civilizations waxed far more poetically. On the southern shores of Lake Titicaca is a ruin called the Gate of the Sun. Carved in the center is the Sky God. The ancient Inca believed that rain poured forth from his eyes and called it "tears from the skies."

Be it a stormy nor'easter or a gentle shower, when you find yourself rained upon don't feel so all alone. Everybody must get wet! As ever - BB

"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby." - Langston Hughes