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December 27, 2017
Work-Life Scottish: Robert Frost.
The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours a week.
--Robert Frost, Poet and Yankee. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times.
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Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2017
Life is Short. Opera is Long. Wagner Longer.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Charleston!
The Dialect. First, what about the accent you hear there? That regal way of speech? You're in South Carolina, of course--but the speech you hear is barely "Southern". Most likely, experts say, it's a blend: of Gullah spoken by African Americans, and of English spoken by Europeans, over 300 years ago. Linguists love it, and you still hear it in the streets, especially "South of Broad".
The Dance. It was popularized by a song and its accompanying footwork, "The Charleston," by James P. Johnson in the Broadway musical "Runnin' Wild" in 1923. Like the unique Charleston dialect, the Dance goes way back, too. It's been traced to descendants of slaves who lived on islands off the coast of Charleston and in the city itself. Thought to have been first performed locally around 1903.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2017
Solstice.
It’s today at 11:28 AM Eastern. As one digital resource has it:
The pagan Scandinavian and Germanic people of northern Europe celebrated a twelve-day "midwinter" (winter solstice) holiday called Yule (also called Jul, Julblot, jólablót, midvinterblot, julofferfest). Many modern Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, the Christmas wreath, the Yule log, and others, are direct descendents of Yule customs. Scandinavians still call Yule "Jul". In English, the word "Yule" is often used in combination with the season "yuletide" a usage first recorded in 900.
Stonehenge, 1980s
Posted by JD Hull at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2017
Work is Rarely About Workers. It's About Customers, Clients, Buyers, Patients, Consumers.
Let's review, shall we? Where most types of Work are concerned: Clients, Buyers, Customers, Consumers and The Served are First. Companies are Second. Workers (including Management) are Third.
Got that?
It's rarely about The Workers.
Above: Generic Dweebs getting their Customer Thing On.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2017
Pantheon: Elizabeth McGovern.
McGovern in 2012.
Her dad was a Northwestern law professor. Born in Chicago 56 years ago, she has malleable, ageless looks. At the age of 22, she played both teenagers and 65-year-olds in my favorite movie, Once Upon a Time in America. In 1980, she dropped out of Juillard and American Conservatory Theatre work on Robert Redford's first directing project, Ordinary People. In 1981 she finished {schools} and in same year earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Evelyn Nesbit in the film Ragtime.
In 1984, she starred in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America as Robert De Niro's romantic interest Deborah Gelly. In 1989 she played Mickey Rourke's girlfriend in Johnny Handsome, directed by Walter Hill.
She now lives in London--since 2010, she has played Cora, Countess of Grantham, in the British TV series Downton Abbey. Add this Eternal Total Betty to our Pantheon.
Another wonderful fact: Since 2008, she’s fronted the band Sadie and the Hotheads at The Castle pub venue in Portobello Road, London.
http://article.wn.com/view/2012/12/09/Downton_Abbey_star_Elizabeth_McGovern_touring_with_Sadie_and/
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Circa 1984.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2017
Trump.
From a Facebook post I did 2 days ago that made people nuts. Like Bonkers. Flip City.
“Didn’t vote for him. He’s flawed like us all. And he’s not out of central casting for an American President. But I think Donald John Trump is starting to look like the best POTUS we’ve had in a long, long time. Right POTUS at right time. And plays MSM effortlessly to boot. Like a grand piano. Fun to watch.”
Posted by JD Hull at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2017
Dad at 13: 76 years ago today.
Seventy-six years ago today, a Sunday, my Dad, 13, came home in the afternoon with a basketball as usual under his arm. He was surprised to find both his parents in the living room of their new house in Indianapolis, where the family had moved from Missouri the year before and my grandfather J. Dan Hull was now the new principal of storied Shortridge High School. They were listening intently to the radio, heads bowed to their Emerson tabletop model. His mom, and my grandmother, Alene Oliver Hull, mother of two, one girl and one boy, and tough-as-nails, outspoken Kentuckian schoolteacher (she died at 101), looked up from the radio at my Dad and started to softly cry.
Damaged Pearl Harbor destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 7, 1941
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2017
SCOTUS wedding cake transcript.
Transcript of oral argument of this morning’s SCOTUS gay wedding cake case. 1 hour. Real lawyers & real judges.
MASTERPIECE CAKE SHOP, LTD.
v.
COLORADO CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION
No. 16-111
December 5, 2017 10:03 AM
https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2017/16-111_f314.pdf
Posted by JD Hull at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2017
What happened to discourse?
From a Facebook post this morning by me:
I’m a long-time (now-ex) moderate Dem who did not vote for Trump but recently registered GOP for reasons—I’ve never liked unions or our unthinking PC ‘parrot’ culture & love free speech—unrelated to Trump. But I’ve applauded Trump’s entry onto the world stage since he announced for POTUS in June 2015 because I think that—long term—he is a refreshing, productive & badly-needed influence, especially on free speech. I’m amazed at the cost of this subtle shift. Before entering private practice, I worked on Capitol Hill for 4 years for both GOP & Dem MOCs (liberal D Senator & conservative R Congressman); folks well know this. My politics really haven’t changed much. But my publicly-open willingness to at least listen to Trump is apparently costing me countless friendships or prevents the continuance of developing relationships. I’m stunned. Am fortunate to be well-educated, well-read & well-traveled. I engage & talk to Everyone. Board rooms & the grittiest city streets. I’ve always had friends all over the cultural political landscape & spectrum. It makes life fuller. I do hope some of them come back or begin to mend.
https://www.facebook.com/dan.hull.37/posts/1524498210960750
Posted by JD Hull at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)