RIP

Baseball Legend Yogi Berra Dies At 90

Born: May 12, 1925, The Hill, St. Louis, MO

Died: September 22, 2015, West Caldwell, NJ

 

Yogi Berra, known as much for his quotable malapropisms as for his baseball career, has died at his home in New Jersey, according to Dave Kaplan, director of the Yogi Berra Museum. The Hall of Famer was 90 years old.
Berra was a Yankee alongside fellow legends Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle from 1949 to 1965, helping the team win 10 World Series championships. He played in more World Series (14) than any other major leaguer and was named MVP three times.
In the grueling role of catcher, Berra caught the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956. But his skill in the batter's box is what first made him famous — and feared.
Standing 5 foot 7 and weighing 185 pounds, Berra had a reputation for rising to any occasion. He drove in 100 or more runs in five seasons and flirted with the mark in four more. In the 75 World Series games he played, Berra struck out only 17 times.

"He was one of the most feared hitters the game had ever seen. Teammate Hector Lopez said, 'Yogi had the fastest bat I ever saw. He could hit a ball late, that was already past him, and take it out of the park. The pitchers were afraid of him because he'd hit anything, so they didn't know what to throw. Yogi had them psyched out and he wasn't even trying to psych them out.' "

Berra, born Lawrence Peter Berra in St. Louis, dropped out of school in eighth grade to go to work to support his family. Still, he went on to publish three books, including It Ain't Over... in 1989 and 1998's The Yogi Book: I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said, which made The New York Times best-seller list.

The Times obituary has a roundup of some of Berra's "both nonsensical and sagacious" Yogi-isms:

"'You can observe a lot just by watching,' he is reputed to have declared once, describing his strategy as a manager.

"'If you can't imitate him," he advised a young player who was mimicking the batting stance of the great slugger Frank Robinson, 'don't copy him.'

"'When you come to a fork in the road, take it,' he said while giving directions to his house. Either path, it turned out, got you there.

 ~NPR

Literary Pick (***)

The Lost Daughter
-Elena Ferrante

Not nearly as good as Days of Abandonment.

RIP

Jackie Collins 
-Born Jacqueline Jill Collins 4 October 1937 Hampstead, London, England 
-Died 19 September 2015 (aged 77) Beverly Hills, California, United States

Best-Selling Novelist Jackie Collins Dies At 77
Best-selling novelist Jackie Collins has died of breast cancer at the age of 77. Collins' wildly popular books included the Lucky Santangelo series and Hollywood Wives and its sequels. Her latest book, The Santangelos, came out this summer; Collins gave numerous interviews about the book without mentioning her diagnosis or any treatments. PEOPLE magazine reports the English novelist had decided to keep her illness private, and that a few days before her death she told the magazine she had no regrets over that decision. Collin's novels, filled with glamour and high drama, sold more than 500 million copies. And her tales of life among the rich and famous in Hollywood were often inspired by real-life experiences. Jackie Collins' Mob Princess Serves Up A Cookbook You Can't Refuse April 12, 2014 As a teenager, she followed the lead of her older sister, Joan Collins, and was briefly an actress. But in an interview with NPR last year, Jackie Collins said she knew movies weren't going to be her life. "I was always an out-of-work writer," she said. "So I wrote a book called The World is Full of Married Men," she said. "I found that in my teenage years married men would be chasing me everywhere and going, 'Oh, yeah, well, my wife is different, but you know, she doesn't really understand me.' ... I wanted to write and turn the double standard on its head." Not all her books centered on the Hollywood elite; the Lucky Santangelo series revolved around the daughter of a mob boss. "She's such a brilliant character because she does all the things that women would like to do, she says all the things they would like to say — and she gets away with it," Collins said. In their statement, Collins' family described a "wonderfully full life" and four decades spent entertaining readers. "She was a true inspiration, a trail blazer for women in fiction and a creative force," the family statement continued. "We already miss her beyond words."

~NPR

Vintage TV Show Theme Song

 Mary Tyler Moore Show

Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it's you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all


How will you make it on your own?
This world is awfully big, girl this time you're all alone
But it's time you started living
It's time you let someone else do some giving

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all

Funk of the Day

Mestizo
Joe Bataan

Album Cover

Best Of New York Sessions, Vol. 1

Literary Pick (****)

Factotum
-Charles Bukowski

It's quite possible I enjoyed this novel just as much as I did "women", which has been my favorite of his for a long time. No other writer makes me laugh out loud the way Bukowski does. He always rocks my world.

Vintage TV Show Theme Song

Good Times

Good Times.
Any time you meet a payment. - Good Times.
Any time you meet a friend. - Good Times.
Any time you're out from under.
Not getting hassled, not getting hustled.
Keepin' your head above water,
Making a wave when you can.
Temporary lay offs. - Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times.
Scratchin' and surviving. - Good Times.
Hangin' and a' jiving- Good Times.
Ain't we lucky we got 'em - Good Times.
Mmmmmm
Just lookin' out of the window.
Watchin' the asphalt grow.
Thinkin' how it all looks hand-me-down.
Good Times, yeah, yeah Good Times
Keepin' your head above water
Makin' a wave when you can
Temporary lay offs. - Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times.
Hangin' in a challenge - Good Times
Scratchin' and a'hustlin'. - Good Ti-imes
Ain't we lucky we got 'em - Good Times.

Literary Pick (****)

A Death in the Family
-James Agee

One of my biggest fears is losing my partner in the same manner Mary lost Jay. I guess you could say it's one of the reasons I wanted to read this book. It's one of those novels that really hits home, and stirs up your deepest and darkest fears. My favorite part of the novel was when Mary's father pulled her to the side after Jay's death, and gave her the most tender words of solace and advice a father could give a daughter at a time like that. It most definitely was a depressing read, but very insightful, and will stay with me always.

Acid Jazz

 Thievery Corporation- Om Lounge

Album Cover

Joe Bataan 
Mr. New York and the East Side Kids

 

Funk of the Day

Bobby Hutcherson San Francisco featuring Harold Land

Bobby Hutcherson's late-'60s partnership with tenor saxophonist Harold Land had always produced soulful results, but not until San Francisco did that translate into a literal flirtation with funk and rock. After watching several advanced post-bop sessions gather dust in the vaults, Hutcherson decided to experiment with his sound a bit, but San Francisco still doesn't wind up the commercial jazz-funk extravaganza that purists might fear. Instead, Hutcherson and Land stake out a warm and engaging middle ground between muscular funk and Coltrane-style modality; in other words, they have their cake and eat it too. Joined by pianist/keyboardist Joe Sample (also of the Jazz Crusaders), acoustic/electric bassist John Williams, and drummer Mickey Roker, Hutcherson and Land cook up a series of spacious, breezy grooves that sound unlike any other record in the vibist's discography (even his more commercial fusion sessions). The selections -- all group-member originals -- often skirt the edges of fusion, but rarely play it as expected; they might float some spare tradeoffs over a loping, heavy bass groove, throw in an oboe solo by Land, or -- as on the slowest piece -- keep time only with intermittently spaced piano chords. It's all done with enough imagination and harmonic sophistication to achieve the rare feat of holding appeal for traditional jazz and rare-groove fans alike. It's a shame Hutcherson didn't explore this direction more, because San Francisco is not only one of his best albums, but also one of his most appealing and accessible. [Note: The song descriptions in the liner notes often match up with different titles on the CD reissue, suggesting that the tracks may have been scrambled to a startling degree. If the liners are correct, the actual CD running order is "A Night in Barcelona," "Goin' Down South," "Procession," "Ummh," "Jazz," and "Prints Tie."] 

A Night in Barcelona