Daily Archives: August 10, 2008

Music

That’s what you are

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I was watching a YouTube clip of some old TV show host interviewing the late actor Peter Sellers. The host brought up that Sellers started out as a drummer in a band, and asked why he didn’t stick with music as a career. Sellers’ answer was that life on the road as a musician wasn’t that glamorous. He proceeded to tell a story about how musicians often get asked to play the strangest requests.

Apparently there was a piano player at a party who was asked to play a request. “Can you play, ‘That’s What You Are’?” The piano player was stumped, having never heard of the song, but offered to go through his books there and see if he could find it. A little later, the guy came back and asked if he was ever going to play “That’s What You Are.” The piano player said, “I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard that song, and it’s not in any of my books, so I can’t play it.” And the guy was kind of ticked off — “Well I never thought I’d see the day in this country that a guy hadn’t heard the song ‘That’s What You Are,'” and all that. So finally the piano player said, “Well, maybe if you would sing a few bars, I’ll see if I can pick it up.” “Okay,” the guy said. It goes like this: “Unforgettable, that’s what you are…..”

It reminded me of people who would come up and ask me if I could play “The Sting.” And by that, of course, they meant “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin, which was played by Marvin Hamlisch in the movie called “The Sting” starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. I always want to say, “No, I’m sorry sir, I don’t know any song called ‘The Sting.’ Do you mean, ‘I Got Stung’ by Mr. Elvis Presley?”

And it also reminded me of back when I used to play keyboards with JammSammich back in the late ’90s. We were playing ’70s funk, soul and disco, and would dress the part with retro clothing and even the occasional afro wig. After a full set and a half of playing stuff by bands like The Commodores, KC & the Sunshine Band, and Kool & the Gang, we’d inevitably have someone come up and ask if we could play “Sweet Home Alabama.” Uh, no.

General News

The contrast: Olympics and Georgia

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I’ve been doing a number of things this weekend, but two in particular got me thinking.

One is watching the Olympics. The Olympic rings, which are part of the permanent NBC bug in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, symbolize unity. You have athletes from just about every country represented, including athletes from Russia and Georgia. The athletes are there to compete under the Olympic Creed: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

But then I’ve also been reading about the escalating violence in Georgia as Russian forces have gone beyond just the separatist region of South Ossetia and have started bombing and moving ground forces into the heart of Georgia. Their aims, according to Western officials, “could go as far as destroying its armed forces or overthrowing Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.”

Quite a contrast.

Bradley University

What’s not feasible for Bradley is feasible for Drake

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Intrepid reporter Jonathan Ahl, the former WCBU news director who recently moved to Iowa, still has Bradley on his mind.

It seems Drake University offers incentives to its faculty (up to $2000 in down-payment and/or closing costs) to live near the school there. Would that work here? In fact, isn’t that just the kind of thing that the City is trying to encourage through their “urban living initiative”? Ahl reports:

I suggested to Bradley officials several times that some kind of program to encourage faculty and staff members to live in the Arbor, Moss-Bradley, and Uplands areas would be a good idea. I was told on several occasions that such a plan was “unfeasible”.

I guess Bradley just isn’t quite as creative or resourceful as Drake. Then again, it’s hard to encourage people to live in, say, the Arbor District, when you keep knocking down their houses.