A Sweet Nightbloomers Jazz Concert

These ain't the Cestrum nocturnum (Night Blooming Jasmine)
They are The Night Blooming Jazzmen Dixieland Band
Performining at Central Park
Huntington Beach, CA
21 August, 2011

George Shearing Birthday Anniversary

George Shearing, OBE
UK-born jazz pianist
(13 August 1919 - 14 February 2011)
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George Shearing Trio (2004)
- So Rare (Herst)

Spring and Summer Reading 2011

Initial Post: 2011-07-15 1757
Status To Date: 2011-08-09 1436

Books read:

1. Brenner Assignment, The - Patrick K. O'Donnell
2. Gold Age Trilogy, The - John C. Wright
3. Dreadnought - Cherie Priest
4. Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy, The - Mary Simonsen
5. Guns of Navarone, The - Alistair MacLean
6. Black Wolf - Dale Brown
7. Queen's Play (Book 2 of the Lymond Chronicles) - Dorothy Dunnett
8. Key to Rebecca, The - Ken Follett

Two of these read books with written reviewes posted at Amazon.com

1. Brenner Assignment, The - Patrick K. O'Donnell
2. Golden Age, Book 1 - John C. Wright

André Gagnon's Birthday

André Gagnon
Canadian-born pianist and composer-conductor
2 August 1939 -
André Gagnon, piano (1996)
True Love (Porter)
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Robert Farnon Birthday Anniversary

Robert Farnon
Canadian-born conductor, composer
and strings arranger par excellence
(24 July 1917 - 23 April 2005)

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Robert Farnon and His Orchestra (1989)
- How Beautiful Is Night (Farnon)

Chili Out

First crop of Anaheim chili, 20 July 2011.

Keep That Breathless Charm

Dorothy Fields
American-born lyricist
First woman elected to the Songwriters' Hall of Fame
(15 July, 1905 - 10 July, 1974)
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Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano (1993)
- The Way You Look Tonight (Fields & Kern)

The Way You Look Tonight
Movie: Swing Time (1936)
Music: Jerome Kern
Words: Dorothy Fields

Some day
When I'm awfully low
When the world is cold
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight

Oh, but you're lovely
With your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft
There is nothing for me but to love you
And the way you look tonight

With each word your tenderness grows
Tearing my fear apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose
Touches my foolish heart

Lovely
Never, never change
Keep that breathless charm
Won't you please arrange it 'cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight

With each word your tenderness grows
Tearing my fears apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose
Touches my foolish heart

Lovely
Never, never change
Keep that breathless charm
Won't you please arrange it 'cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight

Just the way you look tonight

Comes Blue-eyed Summer Like a Girl Along

Summer

Hang out your loveliest star, O Night! O Night!
Your richest rose, O Dawn!
To greet sweet Summer, her, who, clothed in light,
Leads Earth's best hours on.
Hark! how the wild birds of the woods
Throat it within the dewy solitudes!
The brook sings low and soft,
The trees make song,
As, from her heaven aloft
Comes blue-eyed Summer like a girl along.

-- Madison Cawein, Summer I

Dorothy Kirsten's Birthday Anniversary

Dorothy Kirsten
American-born operatic soprano
(6 July 1910 - 18 November 1992)
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Dorothy Kirsten (1951)
- Long Ago and Far Away (Gershwin& Kern)

Long Ago (and Far Away)
Movie: Cover Girl (1944)
Music: Jerome Kern
Words: Ira Gershwin

Long ago and far away, I dreamed a dream one day
And now that dream is here beside me
Long the skies were overcast but now the clouds have passed
You're here at last

Chills run up and down my spine, Aladdin's lamp is mine
The dream I dreamed was not denied me
Just one look and then I knew
That all I longed for long ago was you

[Orchestral Interlude and Chorus]
Long the skies were overcast but now the clouds have passed
You're here at last

Chills run up and down my spine, Aladdin's lamp is mine
The dream I dreamed was not denied me
Just one look and then I knew
That all I longed for long ago was you

America, Why I Love Her

On celebrating the 235th Independence Day on 4 July 2011...
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John Wayne (1973)
- America, Why I Love Her

You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain.
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?
Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines?
Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore
Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock?
Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea?
Or bow your head at Gettysburg in our struggle to be free?
Have you seen the mighty Tetons?
Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan when on a winters day
Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?
Does the word "Aloha" make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief when you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?
From Alaska's gold to the Everglades
From the Rio Grande to Maine
My heart cries out.
My pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her?
I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America beneath God's wide, wide sky.