Well, my friends at Food & Wine keep me refreshed with so many intoxicating drinks.

This intoxicant came to me from Rich Manning, a writer and spirits and food competition judge based in Los Angeles. He has been writing about spirits, wine, beer, food and travel since 2004. I understand Rich wants to battle; An East Coast vs. West Coast battle, which he is ready to settle.

This is timely news, for I just cancelled my river cruise on the Neva River.

And, BTW, Rich -The Moscow Mule, being a type of buck, is sometimes called vodka buck.

But Who Really Invented the Moscow Mule and Why Is It in a Copper Mug?

Courtesy of Rich Manning

The Moscow Mule’s most famous component isn’t an ingredient, it’s the copper mug that traditionally holds the simple cocktail of vodka, ginger beer, and lime. It’s the mug’s burnished sheen that set the drink apart in the early days of the cocktail revival when vodka-based drinks were considered passé.

The mug is the very reason the Moscow Mule exists in the first place. Where this began is up for debate, however.

While some people trace the post-Prohibition cocktail’s origins to Los Angeles, others insist the drink was created in New York City.

“It kind of comes off as a Biggie vs. Tupac, East Coast vs. West Coast kind of argument,” says Gina Hoover, bartender and consultant for CURE in New Orleans. “But I’m not surprised at all why the argument exists. If you ask an American to name five drinks, 90% will probably name the Moscow Mule as one of the five,” she says. “If you’re a city, and a drink has that kind of power, you’d naturally want to take credit for it.”

There are shared traits to each city’s tale. Both pin the drink’s creation to 1941, a relatively modern date compared to other cocktails with convoluted beginnings. They also stake claim to some of the same players, including a struggling-at-the-time vodka brand that’s now a household name. The theories’ part ways from here.

New York: Three guys walk into a bar…

According to the New York theory, the Moscow Mule stems from Midtown Manhattan’s Chatham Hotel.

A Los Angeles-based beverage executive named John “Jack” Morgan was in town to promote his own Cock ‘n’ Bull ginger beer, a product that shared a name with the Hollywood bar he also operated.

He was hanging out with a couple of industry folks – John Martin, president of the now-defunct G.F. Heublein & Brothers distillery and distributor, and Rudolph Kunett, president of Hublein’s vodka division, Smirnoff. After a couple of drinks, the trio wondered what would happen if they combined vodka, ginger beer, and a squeeze of lime juice. Deliciousness ensued.

They named their creation the Moscow Mule. Shortly thereafter, they purchased 500 copper mugs embossed with the phrase “Little Moscow.”

Los Angeles: Pick one…

There are two Los Angeles origin stories to consider.

Morgan and Martin show up as in the first account. Instead of Kunett, they’re joined by Sophie Berezinski, a Russian woman living in Los Angeles, struggling to find buyers for the 2,000 solid copper mugs she designed.

Though not confirmed: The Moscow Mule method (courtesy of the European Bartending School).

Step 1

Start building your vodka ginger beer cocktail by pouring a scoop of ice cubes in your copper Moscow Mule mug. We’re pretty traditional about our cocktails here at EBS, so we think these cups well worth investing in.

But why do you need one? Well, copper is an excellent conductor of heat, and a copper mug will keep your Moscow Mules perfectly chilled as you sip it. Mystery solved.

Step 2

Next, pour your vodka and lime juice over the ice.

The original Moscow Mule recipe uses Smirnoff vodka, which is one of our favourites. You can go for their classic Smirnoff original, or if you want to push the boat out (which we always encourage), try one of their premium blends, Smirnoff Red or Smirnoff Black.

These two are filtered using the traditional charcoal method, giving them a deep and authentic flavor.

Step 3

Fill up your glass with ginger beer, and garnish with a fresh lime wedge.

As we said earlier, the world won’t end if you use ginger ale instead. But a good cold ginger beer can really be the star of a Moscow Mule recipe.

Which ginger beer brands do we favor? Fever Tree Ginger Beer is decent option. It gives the cocktail a spicy kick that complements the zingy lime and sharp vodka.

If you are a fan of this drink, you’ll be pleased to know there are tons of Moscow Mule variations that use other spirits instead of vodka – like the Kentucky mule (with bourbon) and the Mexican mule (with tequila).

Grab that copper mug and start experimenting!

Moscow Mule ingredients as per the European Bartending School

(Makes 1 cocktail)

• A copper mug
• 1 scoop of cubed ice
• 40ml (1.5oz) vodka
• 20ml (¾ oz) fresh lime juice
• Ginger beer (just fill that glass right up)
• A fresh lime wedge for garnish

For the vodka, we’d recommend the OG, Smirnoff. Also, if you prefer, Absolut works just as well. The ginger beer should be just that – beer. But if you have to switch it up with ginger ale instead, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

And it goes without saying, freshly squeezed lime juice is always better than the bottled stuff.

Or, if you are feeling particularly adventurous, you could even make your own ginger beer.

Well, there you have it. And please have fun creating your own Moscow Mule, regardless of the ingredients. But, most importantly, remember not to Drink & Drive. – Audrey

POST SCRIPT

Peter the Great’s Quest for the Holy Moscow Mule

By Ringo Boitano

Peter I was Tsar of Imperial Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia, known as “Peter the Great,” but to his friends as “Sparky.” Tsar Peter I was disappointed that he was unable to find the Holy Russian Mule in his empires’ capital city of Moscow. He decided to lead his Imperial Army to the Baltic Sea to engage his enemy, the Swedish, in battle. His ultimate plan was to find the source of the elusive Moscow Mule. After defeating the Swedes, their top generals were captured, and he asked them at gunpoint, “What exactly is this thing called the Moscow Mule?” The generals all smiled, and then in unison, said one word: “Nej!”

Peter was fluent in many languages, but was a little weak in Swedish. He was once a master of it, but had forgotten much of it, after having watched his relatives murdered before his eyes when he was a little boy. He was particularly annoyed for he had already made plans to torture and murder them later, which had caused him to cancel his weekly bowling night with his sensitive Cossack bowling team. Even more so, for his cousin Dimitri had planned to join them, and he was the only one who could actually score the bowling card without cheating, despite the fact that Dimitri would often pretend to be asleep whenever Peter the Great threw a gutter ball.

Peter then asked his generals to translate the Swedish word into Russian. The generals, despite a sense of obvious nervousness, finally replied that it meant,”Nyet!” in Russian.

Peter, now “Peter the Great,” was clearly disappointed, and decided to concentrate on building Imperial Russia’s new capital city in a marsh, which he christened, St. Petersburg. Throughout history, many Moscow Mule aficionados have assumed that he had named St. Petersburg after himself. But later, in the last century, despite the confusion if it was the Julian Calendar, the Byzantine Calendar, the Russian Orthodox Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, the Free Willie Calendar or the Doomsday Calendar of 3000 ACE, where all Dutch waffle irons which were timed to explode in 43 second sequences to the tune of “Froggy Went a Courtin.'” Finally, an elderly Basque shepherd in Bakersfield, CA, who had signed an oath to only eat lamb meatballs prepared in a microwave, confirmed, after a sleepless night in the fields, due children throwing snowballs at him with rocks in the center, that the city was actually named after the Catholic Christian, Saint Peter: the world’s first Pope! Sadly, not recognized in the US Bible Belt by tele-evangelicalists, who preach regularly in a unique form of American-English, often crying, while pleading for donations from innocent viewers.

Epilogue

Peter the Great’s Last Will and Testament was just discovered in a snowbank in Siberia by Terry Cassel. Sources indicate that it was hidden in a Beatles Handpainted Nesting Doll 5 PC Matryoshka Stacking Doll Set. Apparently. Cassel was enjoying his free day on a Volga River cruise. He decided to hire a group of retired Russian Serfs to pull a sled 7,008 miles to Siberia. The Serfs were available after rescheduling their weekly mix-couples’ Parcheesi Board Game (Gold Seal Edition Vintage 664 COMPLETE, Confirmed, Like New!) to a later date. The game had been postponed due to heavy showers of Tartar bombs.

Though strangely reluctant, Cassel was eventually forced to reveal the contents when 16 retired Nazi Storm Troopers, who had been living comfortaby in the Bavarian Aps as cattlewomen, pointed AK-47s Soviet assault rifles, possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent Avtomat Kalashnikova, Russian for “automatic Kalashnikov,” named in the honor of its designer, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947. This confused Cassel, for the day before, he had watched repeated viewings (on his phone) of the January 6th assault on the US Capital Building, and had noticed many of the Trump cultists boasting that they had inherited identical ones in the rural US Territory of Idaho by their grandfathers. This only confused Cassel more, for he remembered old photographs (not on digital) of grandfathers in Idaho who all had similar brown stains on their MAGA T-shirts.

Mr. Cassel understood why there were brown stains, after having acheived a PHD at Trump University in the delicacy of log cabin construction (and with a Swiss Pocket Knife, complete with toe nail tweezers and a gold-plated toothpick!). Cassel was stunned by his repeated viewings of the January 6th assault on the US Capital Building, noticing many of the Maga domestic terrorists were hoarsely screaming, Hang Mike Pence! (something about the US Vice President not having the courage to do the right thing, and there was some kind of noose waiting for him inside). This upset Cassel, realizing their hoareness might have stemmed from drinking a bad batch of Trump Wine, currently on sale at CVS for $1.99! Even more so, assuming the patriotic MAGA domestic terrorists did not have the courtesy to drink Moscow Mules in a proper copper-colored glass, traditionally consumed annually every January 6th.

AFTER MUCH DELAY: The contents of the Beatles Handpainted Nesting Doll 5 PC Matryoshka Stacking Doll Set was revealed:

An Official Imperial Russian Document to NEVER Send Vladimir Putin any Christmas Cards.* ** ***

* Sealed by a Kiss.

** Translated to poor American-English from a unique Cyrillic Script.

*** Sadly, this confused Terry Cassel further; believing it was TOP SECRET documents which belonged to the People of the United States, stored in an emperor’s bedroom at an overpriced building in South Florida, converted into a hotel, in a particularly bad and ostentatious design. Cassel was unable to confirm if there was still a large US Flag outside that blocked neighbor’s views. Or, if there was one at all, and wondering if it was waving upside down.

The post Summer is Here and the Time is Right for Drinking the Moscow Mule appeared first on Traveling Archive.

To see US Presidents and their Pets, Part I, visit Presidents and Pets: A T-Boy Odyssey Into Why They Loved One Another. For Part II, see Pet Owners Who Love Their Pets: Precious Pix, which includes many photographs of owners and their pets with uplifting texts.

Our first president, General George Washington, never lived with pets in the White House – it was not completed until the administration of our second president, John Adams. President John Adams is credited with owning the first White House Presidential Pets: two mixed breed dogs, named Juno and Satan. John Adams’ tenure in the White House was short-lived (he lost reelection later that year), but many dogs and cats have served as First Pets ever since.

Abraham Lincoln and Fido

Like Barron, Rover and Spot, the name Fido has long been a popular one to name a pet dog. The birth of the name was coined by an English language newspaper, asking for help, finding a small white Greyhound with a Collar, who answers to the name of ‘Fido.‘ But the popularity of the name started in the US during Abraham Lincoln’s life in Springfield, Illinois. Five years before becoming the 16th president of the US, Lincoln was a victim to many episodes of depression and Fido helped to relieve him from the pain.

Throughout his childhood and into his presidential years, Abraham was kind to animals and always made time for his pets. Fido is taken from the Latin word “Fidus,” which means, always faithful, instilling a similar sense of loyalty. Semper Fidelis (also from “the faithful”) is the motto of every US Marine. It is an eternal and collective commitment to the success of our battles, the progress of our Nation, and the steadfast loyalty to the fellow Marines we fight alongside. Semper Fidelis was also the motto of my US Marine Corp father, Louis Boitano, who participated in D-Day: Battle of Iwo Jima and D-Day: Battle of Okinawa. I still remember his words today when I was a child: Eddie, You see a lot of guys today sitting around playing video games and talking about battles, but I doubt they‘ve experienced a ‘real’ battle.

Fido didn’t get to live in the White House. Instead, he stayed in Springfield, Illinois. Sady, both Lincoln and Fido met a similar demise, both assassinated in different venues and with different weapons. Lincoln took a bullet hole in the back of his head, by the culprit John Wilkes Booth at Ford Theater in Washington DC, and Fido took a knife deep into his gut, by a drunken culprit on a derelict porch in Springfield. Fido would become euphoric upon seeing other people, and had an excitable tradition of standing on his two back legs and embracing them with his two front legs, leaving his stomach vulnerable to attacks. But the drunken vagrant took exception to this; why should a mongrel mutt bother me when I’m in a drunken bliss? Apparently, Fido survived the initial attack and managed to run away, but was discovered months later in his deathbed below a dilapidated shack.

Thomas Jefferson, our third US President (In office 1801-1809) was the second US President to maintain a farm, after George Washington.

Dick was Jefferson’s favorite of his four mockingbirds; Bergère and Grizzle were shepherd dogs from France; two grizzly bear cubs were gifted from Captain Zebulon Pike; Caractacus was a horse named after a 1st-century British chieftain. Beginning in 1807, the president bred sheep from, Four of the most remarkable varieties. By spring 1808, there were nearly 40 sheep grazing at the president’s house.

William Henry Harrison served the shortest presidential term in history, dying 32 days after his March 4, 1841 inauguration, but still had the energy to own two pets; a cow name Sukey and a goat, whose name is still unknown. For now, let’s call him Ringo.

Franklin Pierce made history when his miniature teacup Japanese Chin dog was part of a gift exchange with Japan following the Perry Expedition.

President LBJ owned Him and Her, that is the beagles, Edgar and Freckles. Yuki was a mongrel dog, famous for “singing duets” (howling) with Johnson for White House guests.

LBJ and his Beagle

In 1964, when President Lyndon Baines Johnson lifted his pet beagle by its ears in front of reporters, he enraged animal lovers and animal rights groups around the world. Johnson, a Texan and dog lover, pulled the stunt to make the dog yelp before some visiting businessmen, according to Life magazine, and said “It does them good to let them yelp.” He claimed he didn’t think he was hurting the dog, but Humane Society spokespeople begged to differ, and Johnson caught heat from activists’ public statements and newspaper editorial pages. It was a public barking match that LBJ was not going to win. Today, the photo and the botched response stands as one of the most memorable presidential gaffes of all time.

Richard M Nixon and Checkers

Before Richard M Nixon was vice president, he was hounded by the human press, when he accepted a pet dog named Checkers. Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. His place was in doubt on the Republican ticket as vice president with General Dwight David Eisenhower, who was on a quest to become our 34th US President. So, Nixon flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half-hour television address, known as Checkers speech, in which he defended himself and attacked his opponents. During his speech he stated that he intended to keep one gift, regardless of the outcome: a black-and-white Cocker-Spaniel that his children had named Checkers.

Donald J Trump and Malice

Former president Donald Trump never had a pet while in the White House. And all the animals in the world now pray, that he’ll never have a chance again. Many pet owners were riled up, when the former president would refer to the human species of women as dogs, horsefaces, pussies and pigs. It seemed to imply that animals and the human species of women were inferior to him. And the more they thought about it; shouldn’t it be the other way around.

And how his human cultists would laugh, when he’d do crude pantomimes, mocking members of the human species due to their mental and physical disabilities, stuttering, and because some are below average height. Something that no animal would ever do. Animals are known to help other animals when they’re hurt and distressed. And, often times, when they are abandoned, regardless of whatever species they are, they adopt each other, making it a wonderful large family of love and acceptance. Animals also defend us from perpetrators. I remember that was something that a few US politicans had sworn an oath to do. But how can all the animals throughout our Republic ever defend us from a powerful army of a human monarchy?

President Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan

And hail to the Commanders and Chiefs, Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer, and Ronald Reagan, a rancher, who were once adversaries. Eventually they forged a friendship, but not certain if it was because of their pets.

Lieutenant James Earl Carter Jr., USN: Georgia Governor and Our 39th American President

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something… My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. – President Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. He was often labeled a dove and a pansy by the right-wing media and politicians, but they never seemed to notice that he was a graduate from the US Naval Academy in 1946. He spent a number of months in the design and development of nuclear propulsion plants for naval vessels. Starting in March of 1953, Lieutenant Carter was preparing to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf, one of the first submarines to operate on atomic power. 

However, when his father died in July 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Plains, Georgia to manage his parent’s interests. When he saw the condition of their family farm, he realized his family was hopelessly in debt. Jimmy moved his wife, the former Rosalynn Smith, a noted author and humanitarian, and their three young kids, settling into a shack on a dirt road, where the area was almost entirely populated by impoverished African-American families. Through this, Jimmy and Rosalynn saw first-hand how tragic racism really is. They were stunned that African-Americans, many who had protected our nation in the Second World War, were forced to live in such deporable conditions.

Later, the USS Jimmy Carter, the third and final Seawolf-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines in the United States Navy, is named in his honor due to his courage in defending the values our nation.

President Carter was fond of pets and also of children. When he was in the neighborhood, he would secretly teach Chrisitan Sunday School to kids. But why did he do it in secret? Once again, Jimmy had remembered the US Constitution, where there was a thing about a separation of church and state, and that our nation does not have a national religion. Jimmy looked at the theocracies of Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia and saw that our Founding Fathers were right. There was never a theocracy in world history that was fair to all of its citizens. Later, when our Nation issued a ban of all Muslims entering the US, including American citizens, Jimmy tried to warn us that some politicians were trying to redefine our Republic as a theocracy.

Nonetheless, President Carter marched on, continuing to teach Christian Sunday School in secrecy. But once again, why in secret? Jimmy realized that this would be offensive to our US citizens who might believe in Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and so many more that it’s made the US a rich tapestry of different cultures. Imagine our Republic without beans, maize, pizza, chili pepper, Wiener Schnitzel, sushi, and pumpkin pie and the Mexican Turkey Hen for Thanksgiving. And, most importanly, pet food from England for our animals to survive.

President Jimmy Carter: Born October 1, 1924, reached his 100th birthday on October 1 ,2024, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.

Happy Birthday, Jimmy –

America really does love you. Some of us were just too busy to tell you.

The defining image of you that many of us will always remember, is when you’re smiling and wearing you work clothes, holding a hammer and pounding nails, building a home for forgotten Americans who need shelter and unconditional love.

Ronald Wilson Reagan: Governor of California and then the 40th president of the United States

President Reagan was a man who also loved his pets. But even more so, he loved Reaganomics, which meant economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending.

Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the U.S. economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then, longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic spending.

As the right-wing Republicans, whose logo is an elephant, were hard on Carter, the left-wing Democrats, whose logo is a donkey, were hard on Reagan, too, due to his harsh cuts to domestic spending. America’s poor and homeless felt abandoned. Even more so with the cut backs on children’s free lunch programs for they really did need to eat in order to survive and be attentive in our nation’s classrooms to learn how to read and write. If you’re someone who never inherited a large amount of money, education is often the only way to succeed financially in life without being a criminal.

Today, Ronald Reagan is often regarded as one of our greatest presidents; but for the poor, the forgotten, ethnic minorities and the U.S. citizens who were condemned to death by a new pandemic called AIDS, he is regarded as something less.

But, on a personal note, I will always admire him, back when he was caught in the illegal Iran-Contra Affair; for he did something that our later despicable, cult messiah would never do. He sat in the Oval Office and looked at America’s cameras directly into their lenses and said: I made a mistake.

Yes, President Reagan loved his pets. In particular his dog, Lucky, a female Bouvier des Flandres, who was given to first lady Nancy Reagan by the 1985 March of Dimes poster child, Kristen Ellis. The dog was named after Mrs. Reagan’s mother, Edith Luckett Davis. Lucky was moved from the White House to Rancho del Cielo during the 1985 Thanksgiving holiday, because she was getting too big for the White House.

The Reagans went dogless in the White House for a while, but Nancy was known to be clairvoyant and didn’t want the First Family to end up like a later president would, a later president who would compare his own stature to her husband, President Ronald Reagan. So, their next new puppy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, was named after Rex Scouten, the White House chief usher.

One of Rex’s first official duties was to throw the power switch to light the national Christmas tree in 1985

Because Rex planned to leave his luxurious doghouse at the White House at the end of President Reagan’s second term, he was presented with a new doghouse that was a mini-replica of the White House. Lining the inside was a piece of familiar carpet from Camp David.

Frequently Asked Questions

The animals whose abuse is most often reported are dogs, cats, horses and livestock. Undercover investigations have revealed that animal abuse abounds in the factory farm industry. But because of the weak protections afforded to livestock under state cruelty laws, only the most shocking cases are reported, and few are ever prosecuted. Data on domestic violence and child abuse cases reveal that a staggering number of animals are targeted by those who abuse their children or spouses. There are approximately 70 million pet dogs and 74.1 million pet cats in the U.S. where 20 men and women are assaulted per minute (an average of around 10 million a year). In one survey, 71 % of domestic violence victims reported that their abuser also targeted pets. In one study of families under investigation for suspected child abuse, researchers found that pet abuse had occurred in 88 % of the families under supervision for physical abuse of their children.

What is the most common animal cruelty?

Neglect is the most common type of animal cruelty. Hoarding is a severe form of neglect in which the owner accumulates an excessive number of pets, is unable to provide even minimal care.

Is kicking a dog or cat abuse?

Animal cruelty involves inflicting harm, injuring, or killing an animal. The cruelty can be intentional, such as kicking, burning, stabbing, beating, or shooting; or it can involve neglect, such as depriving an animal of water, shelter, food, and necessary medical treatment.

Can a dog be emotionally abused?

Yes, dogs can experience emotional scars as a result of traumatic events, abuse, neglect, or the loss of a significant person or companion animal in their life.

Are you hitting the animal and causing it pain?

If yes, it’s probably abuse, because hitting an animal doesn’t teach it anything in a way it can understand – it just teaches the animal to be afraid of you and the circumstances in which it’s being hit. A gentle tap to get an animal’s attention is one thing – and that should be tailored to the animal’s capability, so for example a kitten might require a literal finger tap on the flank, while a horse might need a nudge with your heel – but if you’re doing anything that makes the animal yelp or otherwise indicate PAIN, you’ve got it wrong.

Are you withholding food, water or other necessities for more than the duration of a short training session?

If yes, then it’s more like neglect (and is abuse). Although an animal can understand “I didn’t get a treat for what I just did” they are not capable of understanding “I did a bad thing so I don’t deserve my meal.” If the dog doesn’t sit when you ask it to do so, it doesn’t get a treat right then, it should still be fed its normal meal at the normal time.

Are you isolating a social animal away from you or the rest of its social group for more than the duration of a short training session?

Withdrawing attention briefly in order to negatively reinforce a behavior is one thing – turning away from a dog that’s jumping up, for example, until he puts all four feet on the floor. But throwing that same dog into a crate in a back bedroom because he’s jumped up at you, and leaving him there, is again running into the neglect side of things.

How to Heal the Emotional Scars of an Abused Dog

To help an emotionally abused dog, you should first seek veterinary care. It is important to rule out any underlying physical issues and to get a thorough health evaluation. Then slowly and gradually expose the dog to new experiences, people, and other animals in a controlled and positive environment. Encourage the dog’s good behavior with treats, praise, and affection. Avoid using punishment or force-based training methods. Provide a stable and predictable routine: Regular meals, exercise, and plenty of rest can help establish a sense of security and stability. A veterinary behaviorist can help create a tailored behavior modification plan and provide support during the recovery process. Healing takes time and patience. It is important to remain consistent in your approach and to never give up on the dog. Offer the dog plenty of affection, love, and positive reinforcement. Show the dog that they are safe and loved. Remember, healing from emotional abuse is a slow process, but with patience, love, and the right support, many dogs can make a full recovery.

Do dogs get traumatized when you hit them?

Yes, dogs can get traumatized when they are physically punished, such as being hit or kicked. Physical punishment can cause fear, anxiety, and aggression in dogs and can result in long-lasting emotional scars. It can also damage the bond between a pet and its owner and can lead to trust issues. Using physical punishment is not an effective or humane way to train or discipline dogs. Instead, positive reinforcement training techniques, such as rewarding desired behaviors and ignoring undesired behaviors, are more effective and do not cause emotional harm. If you are struggling with training or behavior issues, it is best to consult with a professional dog behaviorist for guidance.

WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 6.5 million members and supporters. PETA exposes animals suffering in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry.

Advocating For Animals | Nonprofit For Animals

List of Animal Welfare Nonprofits in Los Angeles | Deep Sweep

We have a moral obligation to report any felon who is abusing an animal, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, wealth and political domination. Feel free to contact Traveling Boy directly **@tr*******.com and we’ll do everything in our power to bring the felon to justice.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.– Mark Twain

Happiness is a warm puppy. – Charles M. Schulz

Animal Trivia

Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee; let’s see how well you do with these 25 Question Trivia Game about Animals

To play the 25 Question Trivia Game about Animals, see below:

First Animal Trivia Set

Are Pigs smart enough to play video games? Name the most intelligent animal in the world? Do Elephants never forget? Is the Grandview rattlesnake the most venomous snake on earth? In The Beatle song, Martha My Dear, is “Bungalow Bill’s Mother,” a code name for “Martha?”

No one will see your answers, except for you.

Second Animal Trivia Set

Is the Giant Rat  invisible when seen in infrared cameras? Is it true that we call a group of Kangaroos a “Kangaroo Court?” Did Winston Churchill say something alarming, which caused Richard Burton to throw his MBE back into Queen Elizabeth, Number Two’s face? How much wood does a woodpecker chuck wood per second? Did the Scottish poet, Robert Byrne, write the poem, “Howl?”

And remember, no one will see your answers, except for you.

Third Animal Trivia Set

Do horses sleep while standing up? How can you tell if your pet dog is dreaming. Can camels go without water for over a month? Panda Bear’s sleep the longest of all animal species. Is the Yakima Yellow Tail the most poisonous critter on earth?

As noted above: No one will see your answers, except for you. And all winners, not suckers and losers, like Trump said about courageous Americans who join the military to defend our way of life, will be awarded prices. And this will be on an honor system; so good luck with that, too! — The T-Boy Staff

The post US Presidents and their Pets: Part III appeared first on Traveling Archive.

In this T-Boy article, please consider it to be an invitation to join me on a personal journey in search of the source of many of the cinema’s most popular musical soundtracks. I’ve tried to make the categories specific, where the composer worked with the director before the film was shot, or used a pre-existing composition after the movie was in the can. Categories also include the innovation of using songs in films that have not been done before. I hope this makes sense once you see the line-up of film soundtracks on the list, where you’ll also notice that there are many others not included which would make the list too long – so here’s a few below:

But first, let’s begin with a quotation by French director, François Truffaut:

“It’s very difficult for a musician to make music for a film, because he is shown a film at a stage of the assembly where the lengths are false, the rhythm is not there. It seems as it is the film, but it is far from the final result. I think you really have to know the cinema and really love it so that you can see the film at that stage and imagine its intentions and its qualities. The musician is called at a time when the director is a little demoralized. We count a lot on him. We say all the time in the editing rooms: ‘It will work out with the music!’ In short, we wait for the musician as we wait for a sort of savior.” – François Truffaut

PSYCHO

Hitchcock and Herrmann

When Alfred Hitchcock, the master of everything, wrote his screenplay for 1960’s Psycho with composer Bernard Hermann at his side, every musical note was placed on his storyboard long before the film was shot. And by the time all the sketches were finished, which also indicated the exact placements of edits, camera angles and lighting, sound effects and more, Hitchcock would become bored before his camera even rolled because all the hard work had already been done before.

So, let’s look at the chilling shower scene in Psycho, where Hitchcock drew and Hermann scored such a precise storyboard, so precise that the audience actually thought that Anthony Perkins’ character’s knife had slashed Janet Leigh’s body.

Overall, Herrmann wrote the scores for seven Hitchcock films, from The Trouble with Harry (1955) to Marnie (1964), a period that included Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho. He was also credited as sound consultant on The Birds (1963), as there was no actual music in the film, only electronically made bird sounds, which succeeded in making some of us have a lifetime distaste for birds. This also applied to Psycho, too, where others were actually afraid to take a shower after seeing the film. Hitchcock coined a knew film term with The Birds, where a high-angle shot looking down on the subject, is now called a Bird’s-Eye Shot. The perspective makes the subject appear short and trivial, often illustrating a fatalistic doom.

It should be noted that Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Vertigo, topped the 2012 poll of the British film magazine, Sight & Sound’s, The 50 Greatest Films of All Time.

Later, many film directors would use new musical compositions by Herrmann, along with Hitchcockian images, which included Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) and François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black (1968). And also with Hitchcock emulater, Brian De Palma, in his film’s Sisters (1972) and Obsession (1976), in an attempt to capture the magic in which Herrmann and Hitchcock had created.

ALEXANDER NEVSKY

Eisenstein and Prokofiev

In 1938, composer Sergei Prokofiev and film director Sergei Eisenstein worked closely together throughout the production of the film, Alexander Nevsky. Sometimes Eisenstein would do a short episode and give it to Prokofiev to set to music and other times the composer would write a piece and Eisenstein would change the rhythm of the film’s action to suit the music. The climactic Battle on the Ice is spectacularly staged, which starts with a low rumbling of the chorus that depicts the troops riding toward each other. The Russian and Teutonic hymns are played again to represent the opposing forces. The pace quickens to a gallop and then to a cacophonous clash of cymbals, horns, and drums that conjure up the chaos of a medieval battle.

Eisenstein and Prokofiev’s matching of sound to action has made orchestral art music accessible to the general public and also established the use of compositional music as an important part of creating a masterpiece.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

Leone and Morricone

Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles with more than 400 scores for cinema and television

His film scores for director Sergio Leone were regarded just an important as his images. The Spaghetti Western maestro incorporated Ennio Morricone’s musical scores, not just to be background music, but to define many of his characters in his films. In Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), each of the five main characters, played by Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Gabriele Ferzetti have their own theme song in the music score. After listening to one of Morricone’s film compositions, audiences felt as if they were blessed with a sense of heavenly euphoria. In fact, with Once Upon a Time in the West the choruses really did sound like angels singing.

Many important films directors also included Morricone’s film scores into their films, as did T-Boy favorites, Terence Malick in Days of Heaven (1978) and 1976’s Novecento (1900) by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Ennio Morricone also influenced many younger artists including Hans Zimmer, Metallica, Radiohead and the Dire Straits with fingerpicking guitarist virtuoso, Mark Knopfler, who was inspired to  compose and produce his own film score soundtracks, such as Scottish film director Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983) and Comfort and Joy, as well as Cal (1984) and The Princes Bride (1987). And Knopfler was particularly taken by Leone and Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, too, and created the Dire Straits – Once Upon A Time In The West (1979), which you can visit below.

THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD

Powell and Rozsa

Francis Ford Coppola once said that his favorite movie is the British film adaption of The Thief of Bagdad (1940) directed by Michael Powell, along with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan. Michael Powell’s films were profound in in their technicolor imagery, in particular when his co-director was Emeric Pressburger, but they reached unsurpassed heights with the haunting movie music by famed composer Miklos Rozsa. The Thief of Bagdad is scored for full orchestra with extensive percussion (including gong, cowbells, glockenspiel, xylophone, jingle bells, harp, celesta, piano) and both mixed and children’s chorus as well as solo singers. Later, after a frequent revisit to the film, I was surprised upon reading, “There is no real melodic focus, for it is essentially a rhythmic piece, with the vocal parts providing a stabilizing centrum, and with lyrics such as ‘sweet fruit,’ and ‘melons’ sung in syllabic fashion. Unsung words are also noted, such as ‘Oh you nasty little wretches, Oh you dirty pack of thieves.'”

The overall effect of the piece is not really that of an ensemble number in a musical, where there is usually a strong statement of the song melody with refrain by the chorus, but rather a group recitative in an opera. Miklos Rozsa is best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, but nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout his career what he referred to as his, “double life.”

I VITELLONI, LA STRADA &

LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA

Fellini and Rota

Witnessing the images of Italian Maestro, Federico Fellini, could be an enthralling, hypnotic and mesmerizing event. But what made his images work was due to the brilliance of the musical compositions of another Italian Maestro, Nino Rota. In Fellini’s early work, the films they did together, included The White Sheik (1952), I vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), and Le notti di Cabiria (1957). At first Rota’s Le notti di Cabiria score sounded comedic, almost a bit cumbersome, like Chaplin’s earlier Mack Sennent Keystone Kops shorts, after music was later added. But then Rota’s music would transition into the heart wrenching quest of the road for the hope of better things to come. Yes, Fellini was Rota, and Rota was Fellini. And Fellini was highly influenced by Chaplin too; in particular, during his Neo-Realist period. With La Strada, translated in English as The Road, Fellini’ wife of 50-years, the remarkably talented, Giulietta Masina, really does go on the road, and plays Chaplin’s Little Tramp.

Both La Strada and Le notti di Cabiria won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and were described as having been inspired by Masina’s humanity. Nino Rota scored nineteen films written by Fellini, and all of Fellini’s directorial features from 1952 to 1979, the year of Rota’s death at 67-years-old.

Rota wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions at an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period. Among the films included, were Luchino Visconti’s Il Gattopardo, Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, (in particular, the Love Theme) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, which were often better known with casual movie goers than the films he did with Fellini. But, many of us will always remember Nino Rota best for his collaborations with Federico Fellini.

CHINATOWN

Polanski and Goldsmith

Composer Jerry Goldsmith’s musical score for Chinatown (1974,) considered by many critics as one of the cinema’s greatest neo-noirs, transforms movie goers back to a time and place that had no longer existed. At first Goldsmith’s Chinatown Love Theme sounded simple, played by a lone trumpet solo, yet somehow felt lush and romantic. Apparently, director Roman Polanski insisted that Jerry Goldsmith should be a last-minute replacement for Phillip Lambro, though not necessarily due to Goldsmith as a superior composer, but because he was one of the last Hollywood composers to have grown up in the film’s period setting, and was able to capture the mood of the not-so-innocent era. And, as a last-minute replacement, Goldsmith’s contract stated he was to submit his work in ten-days. Yet, Goldsmith delivered compositions which had emotional hooks, providing Chinatown with its own identity.

But how really simple is Jerry Goldsmith’s masterful score, which features a unique ensemble which features strings, four pianos, four harps, guiro, and solo trumpet, which the composer revealed he saw in his head while watching the movie for the first time. The latter instrument went on to define the film noir aspect with its hypnotic bluesy theme for Jack Nicholson’s private eye, and love theme for the mysterious Evelyn (Faye Dunaway). But the score to Chinatown has a darker, more avant-garde heart to it, where Goldsmith presents a series of unsettling cues for the movie’s thriller and mystery elements, remaining a stark contrast to his memorable opening theme. Consider when John Huston’s Noah Cross is introduced. We hear sound from the lowest registers with bells and harp joined by guiro to create dissonance and motion, while strings and eventually a trumpet resonates on an alternate theme. The Jake and Evelyn passage introduces a more contemporary 70’s sound with a beautiful reading of his main theme; here Goldsmith captures intimacy and anticipation with tremolo strings and a delicate piano motif. Later, Chinatown producer, Robert Evans, commented that Goldsmith single handily saved the picture.

JULES AND JIM, DAY FOR NIGHT &

THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR

Truffaut and Delerue

In a span of 24-years, between 1959 and 1983, composer Georges Delerue collaborated with François Truffaut on ten films, which included Jules and Jim (1962), where Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, as an alluring young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating love triangles. For many of us, it was the first time we heard the French expression, ménage à trois. In 1973, Truffaut directed Day for Night (La nuit américaine), a film that changed my life, which chronicles the troubled production of a film melodrama, and the various personal and professional challenges of the cast and crew. It stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dani, Alexandra Stewart and the floppy-haired actor, Jean-Pierre Léaud, often signaled out as Truffaut’s son or alter ego, due to his appearances in six films and one short of the director’s 21 films. And also for his recurring performances as Atonine Doniel, from 1959’s Les quatre cents coups (the 400 Blows), based on Truffaut’s childhood, to the lighter 1979 comedy-drama, f L’amour en fuite (Love on the Run).

Truffaut cast himself as the director within the film, in Day for Night, whose character is partially hearing impaired, due to his position in the French army’s artillery division during WW2. Truffaut was regarded to be kind and generous, and would often cast handicapped people into his films to remind audiences that they too exist, and show us and other disable people, that they have found a way to march through life as well. Dare I add, that I once sent him a spec script without ever having met him, and to my surprise, he read it and introduced me to the former Czechoslovakian film director Ivan Passer to direct. And this is one of the reasons why I write this article today, for Truffaut’s passion for cinema embodied us to love it just as much as he did, too.

The last collaboration between Truffaut and film composer, Georges Delerue, was The Woman Next Door (1981), where two ex-lovers, played by Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant (Truffaut’s companion, who also appeared in his next and final film, Vivement dimanche! (Confidentially Yours). Delerue also composed film music for Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Renaiss and Bernardo Bertolucci. Truffaut/Delerue are regarded to be in the same pantheon of Fellini/Rota, Hitchcock/Hermann as well as the many pairs that T-Boy just coined in this article, above and below.

Pre-existing compositional music used in film

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Kubrick and Classical Music

Many of us fell out of our seats when Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) began with the bombastic opening theme from Richard Strauss’ classical tone poem, Also sprach Zarathustra. Strauss’ symphonic tone poem was popular among classical aficionados in 1968, but today its popularity has surged to such unfound heights, that it is frequently used in other films, TV shows and commercials where manufacturers sell everything from washing machines to trucks and perfume. Kubrick wanted 2001: A Space Odyssey to be a primarily nonverbal experience that did not rely on the traditional techniques of narrative cinema, where pre-existing music would play a vital role in evoking moods and emotions.

Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to be profound for its innovative use of classical music taken from existing commercial recordings, in contrast to most feature films, which the images are generally accompanied by elaborate film scores or songs written specially for them by professional tunesmiths. Kubrick’s soundtrack also raised the profile of other classical composers and their compositions, which also includes, Johann Strauss II and his 1866 Blue Danube Waltz, where Kubrick made the poetry of motion with the association of the spinning motion of the satellites and the dancers of waltzes. And, there are also compositions by György Ligeti, who was almost completely unknown in 1968, with Atmosphères, which evokes a sense of timelessness where the listener is lost in a web of texture and tonality, Requiem For Soprano; Gayane Ballet Suite (Adagio), and Lux Aeterna; as well as Aram Khachaturian’s Adagio from third Gayane ballet suite.

And, who could not forget about HAL: The 9000 series computer – You know, the most reliable computer ever made. And, we are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error and No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information.

So, let’s close with HAL’s singing the 1892 song, Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two), written by songwriter Harry Dacre, at the moment when his logic fades to simplicity, and he regresses by 40 years. Which is also notable as the first song ever performed by a computer – specifically, the IBM 704.

The song takes HAL back to its childhood, and emphasizes that Dave, play by Keir Dullea, is killing that child just as much as he is dismantling a malfunctioning computer system. Adding to the overall themes and interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL’s callback to an earlier system command suggests that evolution may be just as possible for computers as it is for humans, given a sufficient level of sentience.

Film critics ponder about HAL

Andrew Sarris:

Film critic and father of American Auteurism, Andrew Sarris, initially panned Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but later changed his opinion after seeing it “under the influence,” which he later said was a contact high. Was Kubrick a visionary? Well, according to Sarris, he did tell us how boring space travel would really become.

“2001 now works for me as Kubrick’s parable of a future world toward which metaphysical dread and mordant amusement tiptoe side by side. Even on the first viewing, I admired all the stuff about HAL literally losing his mind. On second viewing, I was deeply moved by HAL as a metaphor of reason afflicted by the assaults of neurotic doubt. I have never seen the death of a mind rendered more profoundly or poetically than it is rendered by Kubrick in 2001.”

Robert Eggers:

US filmmaker and production designer, Robert Eggers, is best known for directing the horror films, The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019), and the historical fiction epic, The Northman (2022). It was reported to T-Boy that Egger would direct a remake of FW Murnau’s 1922 German Expressionistic masterpiece, Nosferatu, also remade by Werner Herzog in 1978.

I had once thought that Murnau’s Nosferatu was the first horror movie, but later learned that director and magician, Georges Méliès, predated it in 1896 with Le Manoir du Diable. As Kubrick once took us on a trip to the moon in 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Méliès did so too, but much earlier with his 1902 film, A Trip to the Moon, which took audiences on a trip into the world’s first science fiction film.

“HAL is the most human character in the film despite his perfect computing abilities. The genius of Kubrick is that he makes you sympathetic to HAL comparable to Frankenstein or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. HAL made a mistake, like all humans have done once. Yet, that mistake cost him his life. His final pleas before the Bowman character disconnects him are saddening and remorseful, connecting the viewer’s humanity to the most artificial character in the entire movie.”

A Hard Day’s Night

Lester and The Beatles

Director Richard Lesters’ A Hard Day’s Night is a 1964 musical comedy film starring the Liverpublian rock band, which many of us refer to as The Beatles. The narrative is written by Alan Owen which covers two typical madcap days in the life of the Beatles, where the Fab Four struggle to keep themselves and Paul McCartney’s mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance. The songs featured are written by Lennon and McCartney, which include the title song, taken for a nonsensical Ringoism. Also in the film is I Should Have Known Better, played in a railway storage car where Harrison met future bride, model and muse, Patti Boyd; If I Fell with Lennon at lead vocals in an attempt to heal Ringo’s hurt feelings; and McCartney’s vocal lament about his girlfriend and female actor, Jane Asher, famous for her performance in Jerzy Skolimowski’s stunning 1970 psychological masterpiece, Deep End. Jane’s brother is Peter, the other half of the duo, Peter and Gordon, famous as well for their hit single recording, A World Without Love, penned by McCartney, natch’.

I’m Happy Just to Dance with You is often mistaken as a composition by George Harrison due his taking the lead vocals. But he had a lot of help with John and Paul’s lyrics and harmonies. The film closes with abbreviated versions of Tell Me Why and She Loves You, where the lads conquer the TV stage, complete with screaming fans in the audience. Among the many highpoints is in the middle of the film when the Fab Four break out of the restrictive studio building and charge down the fire escape’s stairs to an open field where they would swing, jump and dance to the explosive, Can’t Buy Me Love. Did this sequence by Richard Lester, who was already famous for his The Running, Jumping & Standing Still (1959) short film, he made with Spike Millidan and Peter Sellers, give birth to MTV? All I can say is, let’s see it again.

It should be noted that in this film, Lester and Owen defined the persona of the four Beatles that many of us use today: John as witty, Paul as cute and choir boyish, George quiet, and Ringo sad and lonely. In The Beatles’ final song release, Now and Then, many us were surprised to see Lennon cutting-it-up, twisting the night away, playing the clown. But when we look at past footage, John really does play the clown, and loves being one.

Did someone really say that A Hard Day’s Night is best to be enjoyed when you’re young and a committed Beatlephile. Let’s remember that film critic, Andrew Sarris, once proclaimed, A Hard Day’s Night to be one of the four greatest musical films of all time.

Richard Lester followed up with the 1965 Beatle musical Help! As can be expected the songs were remarkable and often served as soundtracks in our own lives, but some found it to be bizarre when Lennon was asked to compose the title song for a musical-comedy-adventure, and he delivered a plea for others to Help me! during a rough passage in his life. The narrative of Help! played almost like a James Bond spoof, which didn’t work with moviegoers about an eastern cult and a pair of mad scientists, who are obsessed with obtaining a sacrificial ring sent to Ringo by a fan. Nevertheless, the soundtrack was released as the band’s fifth studio album, and proved to be another Beatle smashing success.

And let’s see what T-Boy’s own Emperor of Oldies has to say about it: My favorite Beatles album is “Help!” (the Capitol version) but that may be because I was slightly too young to experience “A Hard Day’s Night” in real time like I did with the “Help”! LP. One thing I noticed about the song performances in the “A Hard Day’s Night” film… they appear to have taken the audio from the LP tracks and slowed them down drastically…. always wondered why? It’s a great album however, with one clunker in my view… “When I Get Home.”

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Bogdanovich and Country Western Music

Set in 1950-51, Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film, The Last Picture Show (1971) is about people who live in a small, dying north central Texas town that never really should have existed. It is a sad story where most of the students at the local high school will probably go nowhere in their lives and are aware of it. Bogdanovich’s images of the tired landscape of this piece of Texas tell us what we already know. But the music Bogdanovich uses in the soundtrack is profound, so profound that it was never done before. It consists as a compilation of popular Country & Western music, heard throughout the film from real sources in real time; music in car radios; on records in homes and on TV; in diners, pool halls and jukeboxes; and at dances and parties, perfectly setting the time period, and most importantly hearing what the characters hear, and, in a sense, defining who they are and who they’ll always be.

The movie begins with Hank Williams’ Country and Western song, Why Don’t You Love Me (Like You Used to Do) and follows with nine other Hank Williams’ songs, and also songs performed by Tony Bennett, Eddy Arnold, Frankie Laine, Pee Wee King, Hank Snow, Jo Stafford, Webb Pierce, Tony Bennett, Johnnie Ray, Lefty Frizzell, Eddie Fisher and Kay Starr.

As noted above, the soundtrack of The Last Picture Show is all source music from the early 1950s. At the time of the film’s release there were only two soundtrack LPs available, one from MGM records that included Hank Williams songs and one from Columbia with the selections from their catalog including Tony Bennett and Johnny Ray songs. The CD release from El Records is the first to collect all 28 cues from the movie. Several of these cuts are rare and difficult to find. So, kudos to El/Cherry Red Records in the UK for putting this collection together.

MARIE ANTOINETTE

(Sofia) Coppola and Teenage Angst

Sofia Coppola’s historical drama, Marie Antoinette (2006), is filmed in a stylistic display of sweeping monarchical images, while the movie’s soundtrack consists of punk and indie rock songs. Recently, there has been much discussion regarding the dialectical collision of sound and images, primarily due to Jonathon Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Sofia Coppola does this as well, creating a unique film experience with eye candy for your eyes and something a little bit more darker for your ears.

The narrative of Marie Antoinette takes us on a journey into a world of despair about a 15-year-old Austrian Hapsburg archduchess, Maria Antonia, who is far too young to be the dauphine and then the queen of France. Her struggle is reflected in the 1970s and ’80’s contemporary music by the Gang of Four, the Strokes and New Order.

We first see Kirsten Dunst in the title role, wearing a decadent feathered headpiece, sticking her finger into a cake’s frosting while the Gang of Four’s Natural’s Not in It, is heard in the background. The Strokes’ What Ever Happened? plays as Marie longs for an extramarital affair that is finally over. And Ceremony by New Order dominates the scene of Antoinette’s 18th birthday party. What can be said, other than Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette soundtrack tells us that teenage lust, angst and loneliness continues throughout eternity.

Marie Antoiniette: A Historical Lover of Dogs

Marie Antoiniette’s disparity is illustrated in an early moment in the film, upon her arrival at the French border, when Marie’s new royal family ruthlessly grabs her childhood pet dog, a Pug named Mops, for the more appropriate French Poodle. Thankfully, there was a happy ending in real life, where they were reunited, apparently due to the intervention of new king, her husband, Louis XVI. Sofia Coppola’s film does not close with revealing Queen Marie Antoinette’s less-than happy ending with her beheading, but it is believed that she carried her pet Papillon with her to the guillotine.

Oddities & One Shots

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

Stigwood and the Bee Gees

Despite John Travolta’s pulsating dance moves on the disco floor, without South Australia’s producer, Robert Stigwood’s 1977’s Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, it would not be considered a Hollywood classic. Stigwood licensed a mostly fictional 1976 article about working class Italian-American men with menial labor some jobs, who would spend their entire paycheck for a Saturday night at a local Brooklyn discothèque. It seemed obvious that the young men were on a fast track to nowhere, but while drinking and dancing on the floor, it was clear that everyone had a chance to become a star.

Saturday Night Fever‘s soundtrack stayed on top of the Billboard charts for six months, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Stigwood was the manager of the Bee Gees and commissioned the Brothers Gibb to contribute three of their songs: Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love, and Night Fever – which all became number one hit songs. Yvonne Elliman’s version of If I Can’t Have You, which the Bee Gees also wrote, topped the charts, as well. Good or bad, Stigwood’s soundtrack has been ingrained into our consciousness and used so often that it’s regarded more than a cliché. Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees later commented that every time he turned on the radio a Saturday Night Fever song was playing, to the point where he would become ill.

THE 007 FRANCHISE

Barry and Bond

The narrative of 1964’s Goldfinger is typical of many of writer Ian Fleming’s plots: While investigating a gold magnate’s smuggling operation, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve. Guy Hamilton, an English film director, who directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four James Bond films, is noted in the credits as director. But, with no offense to Hamilton, this is a franchise movie, and does it really matter who directed it. So let’s give it to the duo producer team of Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, better make that Cubby Broccoli, who took exception when people assumed that his last name stemmed from a vegetable. Later, it was revealed that it really did, but his family replied it was the opposite, with broccoli name after the Broccoli family.

A viewing of Goldfinger will take you into a sinister world of suspense, intrigue and betrayal. And you’ll see in action: Sean Connery as MI6’s 007, the only real Bond; Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, who made the 1960’s seem so carefree and less PC; Harold Sakata’s Oddjob, the man with a sharp hat, who gave us a new name and new meaning to Head Over Heels; and finally, Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger, who turns everything he touches into gold, though still not determined if his hands ever touched a former US president’s gold-plated bathroom toilet.

The soundtrack is the work of composer John Barry, who created a musical vocabulary that will forever be synonymous with 007. Barry is also famous for his first marriage to the deceased and equally iconic, Jane Birkin. While it was hard to choose between his Bond soundtracks, Barry perfected his sound with the bold and brassy theme for Goldfinger, performed by Shirley Bassey.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL

Arkush/Dante and the Ramones

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is a 1979 musical comedy, co-directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante, billed as jukebox extravaganza. The title cut is a song performed by the rock band, the Ramones, who were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States, the Ramones are often cited as the world’s first true punk band. Though initially achieving little commercial success, the band is seen today as highly influential in punk culture. All members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname Ramone, although none were biologically related; they were inspired by Paul McCartney, who would check into hotels under the alias Paul Ramon.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll High School theme song opens with an extended drum beat, with lead singer Joey Ramone eventually singing the opening line, “Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.” And why did we include it: Let’s just say, Because it feels so goddamn good. – Attributed to Sam Peckinpah in his film, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, a 1974 Mexican-American Neo-Western.

Stay tuned for The Film Soundtracks in Our Lives, Part II: The relationship between auteur, François Truffaut and orchestral composer, Maurice Jaubert. In fact, you can see it now at https://travelingboy.com/travel/the-film-soundtracks-in-our-lives-part-ii/.

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Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man’s side, consequently on the Lord’s side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.
– Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (University of California Press, 2010)

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Our current T-Boy Society of Film, Travel and Music poll is devoted to souvenirs you purchased or found in a foreign land or country. The specifications included any item that leads to a thoughtful remembrance of your journey and still colors your thoughts today.

The intention of the poll is to offer you a chance to see another side and perspective of our esteemed staff of writers.

Bookmarks in My Pages of Travel by Deb Roskamp, T-Boy Photographer.

I love reading.  When we travel, I try to pick up some bookmarkers to remind me of where I’ve been.  That way, I can mark my books as I travel through the pages. – Deb Roskamp

The Fab 4 Invade Cambodia by Ed Boitano, T-Boy Editor.

My time in Sihanoukville, Cambodia was far too brief. But it was easy to see a fledging nation still recovering from the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime and their own war with Vietnam. I was stunned to see such poverty in this nation attempting to make tourism an important component in their infrastructure. Animals grazed in open garbage dumps, and derelict homes on stilts tilted towards the sea. Yet young children with open smiles rushed up to me to say hello in English. I couldn’t help but to notice a rather haphazard swap meet, surprisingly blessed with items from foreign lands: Britney Spears CDs, Mickey Mouse Paraphernalia, Hollywood movie plaques, and, most ab fabulously, a vintage Beatles lunch bucket, which still adorns my kitchen cabinet today. – Ed Boitano

A Maya Pot in Remembrance by Richard Carroll, T-Boy Writer.

Driving the back roads of Mexico in the African Queen, a 1972  VW Camper, I spent weeks in Southern Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in the State of Quintana Roo. The semi-tropical landscape wraps around ancient history, and stony temples standing for some 3,000 years. Flights of fantasy and puzzlement swirled about while driving on narrow dirt roads to remote villages, and where time was firmly locked in place in a continuance of the ancient Maya civilization.

I often came upon Maya temples covered with vines and foliage, most of them not listed on maps, and the village people speaking the ancient Maya language. My Spanish produced questionable smiles. It seemed as if I was discovering centuries-old altars and shrines with sun-bleached stones and a mystic otherworldly setting where large iguanas sunbathed on the ancient structures, eyes blazing.

Easily out numbering the ancient pyramids of Egypt, hundreds of Maya sites in Mexico and Guatemala are yet to be uncovered. The Yucatan Peninsula is tropical, dense and lush, with a green coastal lowland featuring gently rolling terrain, mangrove swamps and a porous limestone base that produces caves and cenotes that were favored by the Maya.

One afternoon, the sun high in the sky, I was lost, the birdlife mocking me in a squabble of songs. I found a village but failed to communicate with anyone, my Spanish going downhill. Beyond the village was a ruined Maya site with a temple that looked as if it has been hit with a lightning strike. I walked past the temple along a stony path to a pile of stones wondering if I would ever find my way out to a paved highway with signs. I was carrying a long stick to ward off any snakes that might be lingering on the path or undergrowth, when I uncovered a small Maya pot buried beneath a flat smooth stone. It was smaller than my hand but intact, and crusted with dirt and a few ants. The classic Maya pot was a splendid omen. I wondered who held it last, what was its use, who was the potter, and how many Yucatecan sunsets had it endured?

Somehow, I found a paved road to Guatemala, the Maya pot resting on the passenger seat leading the way. Strangely enough, things stated running smoothly, no more flat tires, petrol stations aplenty, and with the Maya pot I made it home to Southern California safely. The little pot is displayed in our home reminding me of the sweeping Maya world of Middle America, full of great mystery and intrigue, a complex enigma that can lay hold of the sensibilities, and can fulfill a longing for adventure and discovery. – Richard Carroll

All That Glitters by Susan Breslow, T-Boy Writer.

On my first visit to San Miguel Allende (which Condé Nast Traveler readers named Best City in the World), I headed to the Jardín Allende, where wrought-iron benches offer a place to relax or meet friends under wide shade trees. Lining both sides of the park, vendors display their wares.

I was attracted by the variety of earrings, many of which incorporate hearts, an iconic symbol of the city. Before I left, I’d acquired a collection of pressed-tin danglers, and none cost more than $5. Mexico is also known for Oaxacan embroidery, and San Miguel offers everything from clothing to furnishings enlivened by colorful threadwork. In this area, just about everything was affordable, including the variety of tasty ice cream flavors sold from pushcarts. Those with a taste for more upscale shopping are advised to visit Fabrica la Aurora, a collection of galleries, shops, and restaurants inside a renovated textile mill. For sustenance, take a break at Chocolate and Churros San Agustin, which offers an extensive menu of chocolate drinks and just-made churros to dip. That, you can’t take with you… just the memory. – Susan Breslow

Postcards From Everywhere by James Boitano, T-Boy Writer.

Back in the olden days, there was no Facebook or Instagram. When you traveled, you were cut off from your friends and family back home. It wouldn’t be until you returned home and you got your rolls of film developed that you could share your travel experiences with them.  To create a bridge of contact, post cards were invented: a tangible cardstock souvenir literally from that place, printed with a colorful set of photos of the place and adorned with an exotic postage stamp. This little rectangle of cardstock though would be personalized with your own message and handwriting, and then laden on an airplane, barge, to be delivered weeks or even months later to the loved ones back home. Often, the sender would have returned long before the post card arrived. But who cares? What a unique souvenir for the recipient: a little piece of ‘over there’ which would never disappear. Of course, now on we can connect instantly and send blanket greetings on social media. But long after our profile pages fade away, these little post cards will remain.

So, I still send postcards when I travel. I try to send them from the farthest and most interesting destination, I try to find the most interesting card, the most colorful stamp. And years ago, when I would send out a batch of post cards to my friends and family, I’d always mail one to myself as well. I have dozens of these now, and they are all in one big binder, a wonderful souvenir from my years and years of travel. – James Boitano

A Fashionable Souvenir by Tom Weber, T-Boy Writer.

I brought back “fashion” as a souvenir from Oz on our just-concluded, month-long vacation. The fashion is a handcrafted pair of wooden eyeglasses by a Queenslander, via Germany, boat maker who also dabbles in eyeglass frames (Fritz Frames) and furniture when he’s not restoring wooden boats. Be on the lookout the next couple of weeks IF my glasses arrive soon by DHL courier. – Tom Weber

Not the Running of the Bulls by Ringo Boitano, T-Boy Writer.

With the advent of bulls, introduced by the Spanish to Peru, no longer would the pre-Columbian populace have to use human strength in dragging their stones and materials over 500-year-old Incan terraces. I noticed many life size bull decorations on rooftops in the Sacred Valley, intended to bring good luck, prosperity, crops and livestock fertility. Though never a fan of knickknacks, I couldn’t resist purchasing a small ceramic Toritos de Pucará (Pucara Bulls), readily available by artisans, as a souvenir and symbol of the Andean farms. Plus, I never shied away from good luck. – Ed Boitano

Magnets of Memories by Fyllis Hockman, T-Boy Writer.

After decades of traveling the world, my walls and shelves are covered with mementos and souvenirs. I finally reached the point where I hesitated to buy anything more simply because I knew I had nowhere to either hang or put it. So now I simply buy an appealing magnet and relive memories every time I access my refrigerator. – Fyllis Hockman

My Own Laughing Buddha by T.E. Mattox, T-Boy Writer.

Back in the 70s when I was still in uniform and stationed in Asia, I drew two weeks of R&R. I thought I’d visit some countries nearby, so I picked Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Being a young sailor, Hong Kong and Singapore were pretty much an alcohol-infused haze, hey it was R&R and I still had most of my liver. 

But Thailand was sobering. As our plane touched down in Bangkok, our pilot informed us that a coup d’etat was currently underway throughout the country. He also stated it shouldn’t be a problem but we should stay alert, stay in groups and have a nice visit. 

I’m not the brightest bulb in the lamp, but coup d’etat and have a nice visit don’t belong in the same conversation much less the same sentence. After clearing customs and boarding the bus to our hotel, wouldn’t you know about six to eight very angry young men all carrying Kalashnikovs, waved our bus to pull over and stop. After yelling at our driver through the closed door, he relented and opened it. Collectively, we all wished he hadn’t. Three of the armed individuals came aboard the bus, very animated, yelling at the driver. Not understanding a word of any of the three main Thai languages, I can assure you my underwear immediately recognized the AK-47s. Then I heard the bus driver say clearly… tourist followed by the word, American. After another heated exchange and a few more angry scowls, the head ‘coup’ conspirator yelled something at all of us and pushed his way back off the bus. The driver closed the door and drove us straight to the hotel. Every single one of us walked directly into the hotel bar. The rest of the visit was non-eventful…

The following day near Patpong Road I found my favorite souvenir. It is a 14 lbs. solid teakwood carving of a laughing Buddha that I have to this day. With my dog tags still hanging around its neck, it reminds me that tomorrow is never guaranteed and you should enjoy every minute that you have. The next rounds on me. – T.E. Mattox

An Old Poncho in Old Bogota by Skip Kaltenheuser, T-Boy Writer.

Traveling overland with a big backpack from Kansas to South America in 1975, I wildly overpacked. Scout motto “Be Prepared” echoed in my mind. Along the way, I shed items that proved not worth their weight on my back, gifting or trading them. By the time I hit Bogota in the Andes, the third highest capital in the world, I’d shed too much. Morning chills had me envying the ponchos worn by local sheepherders. A blanket with a hole for your head, brilliant! Still have that first poncho, a tear just repaired, wearing it to keep down my DC thermostat. Harkens back to a trip that changed my perspective on the world through young eyes. Also, to buying emeralds in a bar on Bogota’s notorious Emerald Row, one of the world’s most dangerous pieces of real estate before Colombian authorities shut it down. Emeralds intended for a girl with green eyes. I still have the stones. And the memory of being chased at night through the narrow, winding cobblestone streets of Old Bogota by a one-legged beggar, but no time for that here. – Skip Kaltenheuser.

Pinatubo Pebbles by Raoul Pascual, T-Boy Webmaster & Illustrator.

My wife and I went to visit family several years ago and our son tagged along. My wife and I were content to catch up with loved ones but our spritely son was gung ho to explore. After days of nothing but family time, he realized he was surrounded by old foggies. And so he did research on Philippine tours and booked us for a trip to Mount Pinatubo, one of the most powerful volcanoes in recent history. The eruption was so terrifying, several nearby towns were covered by volcanic ash. In one town, the only visible remnant was the church steeple. For years, a left wing political movement cried for the ouster of US bases (personally, I did not agree with their politics) but within a few days Pinatubo covered Clark Airbase and Subic Naval Base with so much ash the US decided to abandon its operation there. The Pinatubo ashes drifted over the Pacific and even reached California.

We almost died walking up to the mountain to reach the lake inside the huge crater that had formed. Along the trail were yellow powdery phosphorous stones and other volcanic rocks. I picked up a few and I’ve given some to friends. But a few still remain in my collection. – Raoul Pascual

The post Souvenirs of Travel appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Granted, many celebrity hotel rooms and suites have been refurbished with mementos, books, letters, photographs and furnishings once the artist was deemed famous. So, for the first part of the series, we take a look at the images and history of the Hemingway Suite at The Sun Valley Lodge, the John & Yoko Suite at Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, and the Oscar Wilde Suite at L’Hotel in Paris, where he spent the last two years of his life.

Ernest Hemingway:
Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho – Suite 206

“Time is the least thing we have of.” – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway’s study at the Sun Valley Lodge. Photo courtesy of Sun Valley Lodge.

Hemingway had slept above me. That is one floor up from my own room at the Sun Valley Lodge, while I was enjoying a winter’s vacation at the resort. According to Sun Valley Lodge Press Department, it was love at first sight for the widely acclaimed writer and outdoorsmen upon his first arrival in 1939. The Sun Valley Lodge was new at the time, and executives invited a number of Hollywood celebrities such as Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman and Clark Gable in an effort to drum up publicity. Hemingway, an avid hunter and fisherman, was overwhelmed by Sun Valley’s vast great outdoors which he found both recreational and inspirational. Despite his famous face known throughout the world, he enjoyed a sense of anonymity, preferring to be in the company of local people as opposed to the Hollywood elite.

The PR department described the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize recipient as a quiet, reserved man who spent most of his time writing and enjoying Sun Valley’s terrain, where fall was his favorite season. It is in Suite 206 where Hemingway completed his masterpiece, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” He would wake up in early morning and start writing, oftentimes standing up. He once commented that he never missed a sunrise. Visitors can stay in Suite 206, decorated with photographs of the novelist as well as a bronze statue of the author at his typewriter.

The Hemingway living room at the Sun Valley Lodge. Photo courtesy of Sun Valley Lodge.

Later in my trip, a PR representative escorted me to Hemingway’s final residence, a two-story house on 14 acres in nearby Ketchum, where he had taken his own life at age 61 years old. Hemingway never published any work about Sun Valley, with the exception of a single 1951 hunting article for True: The Man’s Magazine. But, in 2020, educator Phil Huss wrote “Hemingway’s Sun Valley: Local Stories Behind his Code, Characters and Crisis,” which focused on Hemingway’s adventures in Idaho.

Left: Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” at the Sun Valley Lodge. Photo courtesy of Sun Valley Lodge.. Right: Hemingway, Bobbi Powell, and Gary Cooper magpie shooting at Silver Creek, Idaho. Photo courtesy of Sun Valley Lodge.

Perhaps Hemingway’s Sun Valley legacy is best represented by the inscription on his memorial sculpture, which he initially penned as an eulogy for a deceased friend who died in a hunting accident. The eulogy was requested by the man’s widow, but many believe it was about Hemingway himself.

“Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills the high blue windless skies
… Now he will be a part of them forever” – Ernest Hemingway.

For more on Hemingway, read Traveling Boy articles:

• Three Things About Ernest Hemingway
• A Magical Walk Through Hemingway’s Paris
• and Hemingway Trivia Game

For information about Sun Valley Lodge, visit www.sunvalley.com

John Lennon and Yoko Ono:
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montréal, Canada – Suite 1742

“All we are saying is Give Peace a Chance” – John Lennon & Yoko Ono

The John & Yoko Suite today. Photo by Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

The song was written and recorded by John & Yoko during their ‘BED-IN’ advertising campaign for Peace, held in Montreal, Canada at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969. Singing along were Tommy Smothers (also on guitar with Lennon), Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg and whoever happened to be present. Much of the group would join in by clapping and singing the chorus. The original recording was cleaned up in a studio and augmented with more voices. The hotel staff and guests were less than impressed with their arrival where they were accompanied by a huge entourage of reporters, fans and Hare Krishna. Complaints were also made from the housekeeping team who had to vacuum the corridors three to four times a day as Lennon was prone to scattering flower petals.

The John & Yoko Suite at Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969. Photo by Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

But why a “bed-in” for peace? Well, as the most publicized couple on the planet, they decided they would use that publicity for something that was important to them: Peace. ”We knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers. We decided to utilize the space we would occupy with a commercial for peace, ” Lennon later commented. ”We would sell our product, which we call ‘peace.’ And to sell a product you need a gimmick, and the gimmick we thought was ‘bed,’ because bed was the easiest way of doing it, because we’re lazy.”

The term “bed-in” also played on the ’60’s idea of a sit-in, love-in or a communal consciousness-raising event.

The John & Yoko Suite 1742 today. Photo by Deb Roskamp for Traveling Boy.

The living room and bedroom now feature memorabilia composed of press articles, framed gold records, stickers on the windows, and pictures of the famous couple.

The John & Yoko Suite 1742 can be rented for parties. Sometimes I will only make a pilgrimage to the room’s exterior, just to see the plaque on the door.

For more on the Beatles, read more Traveling Boy articles:
The Magical Mystery Tour: The Beatles Experience, Liverpool

For information about the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Luxury Hotel.

Oscar Wilde:
L’Hotel, Paris, France – Room No. 16

“I have the simplest taste. I am always satisfied with the best.”– Oscar Wilde

The Oscar Wilde suite is nothing less than a stunning homage to the brilliant writer. Photo by Elliot Wakefield for L’Hotel.

Irish novelist, playwright, poet and lyricist Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wilde took a basement room in Paris at the L’Hotel, previously known as L’Alsace, for the last two years of his life. Wilde first visited Paris in 1867 with his mother at the height of the “Belle Époque,” which made a profound impression on him and his art. Considered one of the greatest writers in the English language, the Dublin born Wilde achieved remarkable fame and fortune in the early 1890s. His work included “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (his only novel), and the plays, “The Importance of Being Earnest” (subtitled, “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People”), “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” “An Ideal Husband” and “A Woman of No Importance.” His talent was only met by his witticisms and flamboyant lifestyle.

In 1897, Wilde sought refuge in Paris after a two-year sentence (between 1895-1897) of hard labor in prison in London for sodomy and gross indecency – ‘crimes’ considered laughable by today’s standard. After leaving prison, Wilde adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth upon his arrival in Paris; where he was described as sick, poor and reliant on the few friends he had who had not turned their backs on him.

Oscar The Oscar Wilde bedroom at L’Hotel. Photo by Amy Murrel for L’Hotel.

Wilde died in atrocious conditions… It is something we accept and make sure does not get forgotten, explained L’Hotel’s general manager, Julien Révah. He lived an austere existence, spending his days mainly eating soup and drinking plenty of wine, but not a good quality wine.

The hotel refurbished room number 16 on the first floor in his honor, where designer Jacques Garcia recreated what Wilde’s living room in London might have looked like. The room is decorated with personal details like photos of the author, caricatures, prints of newspaper articles and the last hotel bill which he was unable to pay all on display. The hotel has even kept the original headboard Wilde used during his stay.

L’Hotel is a boutique hotel, the smallest five-star hotel in Paris, and boasts a broad celebrity guest-list which included Salvador Dalí, Luis Borges, and Jim Morrison.

For further information about L’Hotel, or email

st**@l-*****.com











.

The post Celebrity Hotel Rooms & Suites: Part I appeared first on Traveling Archive.

After WWII, Perkins was just 14 when he and his brother Jay began playing every barn dance, roadside tavern and honky-tonk they could book. By the end of the 40s, the Perkins family had moved closer to music’s melting pot; Memphis, Tennessee. Carl had also recruited his younger brother, Clayton to play stand-up bass and their style of up-tempo country music made the Perkins Brothers a very popular regional draw.

“With guys like Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich…and you know, we didn’t really know what we were doing. But we knew there was something in the music…that the kids were getting up and knocking dust out of them old gymnasium floors.” —-Carl Perkins

Working outside jobs to survive, Carl was writing more and in 1955 signed a record deal with a subsidiary of the Sun label; Flip Records. When you recorded and released a record in the 50s, you immediately hit the road to play ‘live’ in support of it. It was while touring with Sun label – mates Elvis and Johnny Cash, that a young Carl Perkins overheard a conversation from the stage that would inspire him to write, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ the first million-selling record for the Memphis Recording Service and Sun Records.

Back in the 1980s, I was given the opportunity to sit and talk with Carl after a festival show in Southern California; the band, which included two of his sons, was tight and Perkins couldn’t get the smile off his face. After the applause died away and he sat down to catch his breath, we started with current events. After all these years, that crowd reaction must feel really good. “I started recording in 1954.” Perkins smiles. “And have been trying to make a living out of it now for way over 40 years. You know, really when you’re out there and you look around and your kids are smiling at you and your good friends that work with you and the audience is going… Man, I don’t know how old I am. I’ll put the liniment on when the thing’s over.” (laughing) “That’s the way it goes.”

It’s not every day you get to sit next to one of the members of the ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ much less ask them questions. Not only were you in the right place at exactly the right time; you were literally in the delivery room for the birth of Rock n’ Roll. “I look back now and realize that I am a very fortunate man to have been there when the creation of Rock n’ Roll music was taking place. With guys like Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich…and you know, we didn’t really know what we were doing. We were doing what we liked to do, and we noticed that the country audiences who we were playing for and we played with the Grand Ole Opry guys; Hank Snow, Eddie Arnold, people like that. But we knew there was something in the music…that the kids were getting up and knocking dust out of them old gymnasium floors. We felt good about it and I always have. I never felt that our music contributed to the delinquency of the youth of America. I think looking back, it was so innocent and it was a good time, man. The fifties… it was a great period and some of the greatest talent in the whole world.”

Why do you think your music connected to people the way it did? “It was innocent, it made you feel good. I always felt that if my music caused that working man or woman out there, that Mr. and Mrs. America, if it caused them to forget about a car payment or a house note, if it was only for a two and half minute record then there was something about it…that wasn’t bad. And that’s what it does, how are you gonna’ worry about payin’ a phone bill if you’re…” (Carl breaks into song) “Wop-Bop-a-Lou-Bop-a-Lop-Bam-Boom Tutti Frutti! It makes you feel good.”

You can say the same about ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ “That was the first million-selling record on Sun Records, sure was. I was playing a club in my hometown. I heard a boy say that to a girl one night, a beautiful girl and they were dancing right in front of the little bandstand. I was living in a government project house at the time and I had two small children. I didn’t own a pair of the shoes, but they were getting popular in Jackson, Tennessee where I lived down around Memphis. If you saw a fella’ with a pair of them on, it’s what they called a ‘cool cat.’ And this dude did have on a pair and he told the pretty girl; ‘Un-uh, don’t step on my suede’s.’ I don’t know if it made me mad or it hurt me because she was hurt. But she said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ And I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I went home to the projects and I couldn’t go to sleep… ‘do anything, but don’t step on my blue suede shoes. And I thought of the old nursery rhyme, ‘one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go.’ I said, ‘Whoa, that’s it!’ And I got up and I took three potatoes out of a brown paper sack and wrote ‘blue S-W-A-D-E shoes, I didn’t know how to spell it. I still think it oughta’ be S-W-A-D-E!” (laughing)

You’ve performed, written or toured with some of the most talented musicians on the planet; everybody from the Judd’s to Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, just incredible. Tell us a little about your friend, Chuck Berry? “I was talking to somebody the other day, back in ’56 I did a tour with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats Domino. It was called the ‘Stars of ’56’ and I remember it so vividly now, that being the first artist on Sun to sell a million records, Sam Phillips, the guy who owned the label gave me a new Fleetwood Cadillac and Chuck wanted to ride in it with me. I said, ‘Sure man!’ Many mornings we would leave a hotel going to another town, he’d say, ‘Hey Carl, I started me one last night…how this go, ah ‘flying across the desert in a TWA, I seen a woman walking across the sand.’ I said, ‘Oh man, that’s great!’ Then the next day he said, ‘I finished it’ and he’d sing it and then out would come the record. This man has written…I think he’s the Shakespeare of Rock n’ Roll music, I really do. If you tear the tune away from his songs, you still got beautiful poetry, man. ‘Two men out in the bottom of the third, there was a high fly into the stands, around third base he was struttin’ for home, it was a brown-eyed handsome man.’ You can’t top it, you know?” (laughing)

Perkins’ music has been an influence to almost every major artist of the past 60 years from the Beatles and the Stray Cats to Ricky Nelson and U2. His songs have been recorded by everyone from Elvis and Jimi Hendrix to Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline. “A few days ago I was at home and the phone rang and my wife says, ‘Carl, it’s George Harrison.’ I said, ‘Thee George Harrison?’ She says, ‘Yeah. And he sure is nice.’ She had never met him or heard him talk. I got on the phone and sure enough it was…and he has asked me to play in London. George is having the tenth anniversary of his Handmade Film Company. He said I’ve invited all the people who have worked in my films; Madonna, gosh he mentioned so many great people, big stars…Faye Dunaway. And he said since I’m going to do that, I’m going to invite some of our people, too. He said Phil Collins will be there, Jeff Lynn, Eric Clapton…I said, ‘that’s enough, son! Don’t tell me anymore, I’m getting scared!”(laughing) “As it turned out, I’m scheduled to be in Norway and Sweden, I start a tour over there the 12th. Let me call you back tomorrow. So I called the promoter and told him about it…so George is sending a jet to Norway the morning of the 23rd; we’ll do that and then fly back to Sweden and do four more days. And I’m doing the promoter an extra day to get to do it.

I know this maybe the highlight of my career. I spoke to George about filming it and I’m in the process of putting me an HBO Special together, another one, you know? I did a thing for CINEMAX, which is owned by HBO. George was on that, Ringo and other people, so he told me on the phone, ‘let’s just tape it, let’s film it and go for it.’ He said I’m gonna’ have three or four musicians on the show and after you do your performance would it be alright if some of us start coming up there…? Oh, God! It probably could turn out to be a very, very big thing. I’m excited!”

Carl Perkins with George Harrison -1985 ‘Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby

As you look back on how far you’ve come and the music you’ve created…the people you’ve influenced…any life lessons you can share? “I’ll tell you and I’m very sincere. It’s a very humbling thing for me to every once in a while realize they may be telling me the truth when they say, ‘Carl, I was listening to you play on ‘Matchbox’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and I decided that’s what I want to do.’ I’ve been so fortunate; the Good Lord has come a long way with this old man, I started with my two brothers and now two of my sons are out there with me. I tell you, music…I often say from the stage, ‘You don’t grow old if you like Rock n’ Roll, man. Just hit the beat and GO!” (laughing)

Perkins battled lung and throat cancer in the early 90s, and like every other challenge in his life, he fought through it. But complications from multiple strokes ended his life in Jackson, Tennessee on January 19, 1998. The ‘King of Rockabilly’ was 65 years old.

The post The King of Rockabilly – Carl Perkins appeared first on Traveling Archive.

As the World Turns

Let’s think of happy thoughts today.

I had a funny feedback from Lito (one of my subscribers). He said my TGIF emails remind him of a telenovela (television novel or soap opera) but he looks forward to it every week. We had a good laugh. Well, I can assure you that the stories I share are all real. I don’t make these things up.

WHY I DO MY TGIF EMAILS

Another subscriber asked me why I do this. I thought it was obvious. Mainly, this is my way of rewarding all you hard-working people out there who slave away from Monday to Friday. This email is a preview of the fun you should be having during the weekend.

Of course there are other motivations. I shared some of them before. Growing up, I was amazed at Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts, Charlie Brown, Snoopy) who churned out a comic strip each day. I wanted to be like him. A consistent Friday email is a personal and I am proud to say that I have been sending my TGIF greetings since 2003. I may not be as successful as Schultz but I can think of the many happy friends I have made. That’s good enough for me.

BAND ON THE RUN

Many sent me suggestions to name the music band I/we formed months ago and the most popular name was “The 5th Dementia” but we felt it might offend some people. We decided to go with the name “4Track” which is based on the antiquated 4 track recording technology. I have no aspirations of grandeur with this group. I do it for the fun of it. Our first official performance is happening this Sunday at the La Habra Art Gallery starting at 2 pm. Emceeing the event is world-famous (?), stand-up comedian (and my good friend) Amy Brick. You should come. It’s free. Earlier on that day there will be an Antique Car Show and we invite artists to come over and draw, paint and converse with the owners of these magnificent locomotives.

BIG NEWS

My daughter was among 530 other applicants vying for a job at one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. She was told she was an early favorite but, like everyone else, she still had to go through a battery of 4 different interviews. Let me tell you, before and after each interview, she was so nervous and the family had to keep her confidence up. Last Friday, they called and invited her to join the company. Choirs of angels and the Tournament of Roses marched down the street! Well … not really … but it felt like it. So many people were praying for her. My little girl trained her whole life for this job. She’s really good. God is good.

NEW BUSINESS

I am currently doing some research about a new business. I’m partnering up with a friend from Tanzania. We’re bringing in lots of goods from his country: Jewelry, leather goods, coffee, macadamia nuts, octopus, shrimp, fishes, a safari tour, etc. I know, I know, it sounds like a lot. It really is. But we’re two dreamers who enjoy a challenge. What I like about this partnership is we both agreed to give a tithe of our profits to charitable organizations. We’re going to start small to “test the waters.” I think we’ll start with selling tanzanite — some sort of bluish diamond which is only found in Tanzania . I think we’ve got all the connections needed (from the miners to the purchasers) except for the cutter (the artisan who cuts the stones). Please let me know if you have any leads or if you are interested in purchasing. Open to your advice.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

In mid-May, I will be leaving for a little beach village in Southern Philippines to be with my Dad for a month and a half. He’s been isolated from the rest of the world long enough. I’ll see what I can do to start a Bible study group there. My one big problem? I can’t find my passport. Lord, help me remember!

GYM MEMBERSHIP

To get in shape for my 24 hour flight (including a stop-over in Singapore) I decided to visit my local 24 Hour Fitness gym. Corey, a trainer, asked “How long was your last real exercise?” I said “My last basketball game was 10 years ago … and ever since my hernia operation, I couldn’t do stomach crunches anymore because of the mesh rubbing on my insides.” Being a good salesman, Corey jumped at the opportunity to sell a $300 training program and proceeded to give me a metabolism test. He took my height, weight, age hoping to find a reason for me to sign up. But when the results showed I was actually healthy, the sunshine on his face eclipsed. I felt sorry for the guy.
When he took samples of my fingerprint, I asked him why they didn’t have retina scans yet. He had no answer. So I suggested maybe it would be a problem for Asians like me. “Why?” he asked. I said, “imagine how difficult it would be: every time Asians would use the retina scan, you’d have to say ‘OPEN WIDE!’” Corey and I couldn’t stop laughing.

TELENOVELA

As you can see, life goes on. I guess Lito was right. My life IS a telenovela. But you know what? Everyone’s life is a telenovela. Some people just know how to tell better stories. And that’s why I enjoy listening to people’s stories. When I travel, I enjoy the scenery like everyone else; but more than nature, I look forward to watching, listening to people. I want to know how God is treating them and how they see God (if at all) in their lives. The ones who do seem to be happier than the ones who take things for granted.

Just think, when we reach the end of our worldly adventures, when we’re all in that great big pie up in the sky … think of all the telenovelas we will be able to share. Definitely something to look forward to.

TGIF people!

Raoul

“In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.” — John 14:2-3

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Peter Paul of S. Pasadena, CA. This is pretty long and subtle joke so you will either hate this or love it.

Video of the week

FUNNY: Thanks to Peter Paul of South Pasadena for these funny yearbook quotes. These kids are so self-aware they make fun of their own insecurities. I can imagine the teasing and bullying during their high school.

FUN MOVIE: In commemoration of Saint Patrick’s Day, here’s a classic 1968 musical: Finian’s Rainbow. A movie about leprechauns and racial discrimination starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark. Can’t believe they’re actually showing a full length movie for free. It’s one of Francis Ford Coppola’s early directorial jobs. Fair warning: It’s hosted by a Russian website that will constantly remind you to register with your phone number. You don’t need to register if you don’t mind clicking the CLOSE link every 3 minutes (which is what I did).

Parting Shots

Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA

Thanks to Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Thanks to Efren of Caloocan City, Philippines

The post The Inspiring Shoeshiner appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Sullivan is not really new to the music scene; he’s been carrying around a guitar since he was four. When his father took him to see Buddy Guy at a local theater, Guy invited the then eight year old Quinn on stage to play. As a teenager he would find himself touring the world, playing and hanging out with other guitarists, including Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana. You know… just normal teenager stuff.

His discography now includes a fourth album, ‘Wide Awake’ that he released in the summer of 2021. Having accomplished so much at such a young age, you might think in our world of selfies, lifestyle and bling that Sullivan would be enticed by the ‘rock star’ image. But you’d be wrong. “I still live in New Bedford” he says. The more we talked the more I realized Quinn Sullivan is well-grounded. He knows what he wants in his music and he’s laser-focused on making it happen. Our conversation began with those early days

You’ve got to tell me a little about the Toe Jam Band.
“That was the first band that I used to go see as a kid. They used to play at a zoo close to my house. Every Monday my dad and I would go see these guys play; it was a kid’s band. We got to know a couple of kids in the band and at the same time I was learning how to play guitar. I probably was about four. They saw me with my guitar, I was just hanging out playing it, strumming along with them and one day the lead singer said, ‘Hey, how about we have Quinn come on stage with us and play along?’ So, I came up with my acoustic guitar, unplugged just strumming away with the band … thought that would be so awesome and so much fun to do. So every week I would go and hang out and play. It was such a great thing to do as a kid, especially loving music.”

What is it about Massachusetts and guitar players?
“I don’t know, nobody really thinks of Massachusetts as being a music place unless you do your research and look at history. I don’t know man, like I said I grew up in New Bedford and there are a bunch of great musicians around this area that play all over the downtown area. We call this area the South Coast and it’s just a bunch of cool musicians, bands and artists playing. I was lucky enough to grow up in a place where that was going on a lot as a kid. I was just surrounded all the time; I’d go to open-mike jams and various events going on in the area. I was always around music growing up.”

You’ve been mostly considered a blues player but your collaboration with Oliver Leiber on your latest project, ‘Wide Awake’ gives fans some fresh perspective on the music of Quinn Sullivan.
“What a fun process it was. Yeah, it’s funny you said the blues thing. It has been my title for a long time. This album allowed me to see what I could do, the avenues I could go down, musically. As Carlos Santana put it, ‘expand your Rolodex!’ “(laughing)” The record was really fun to make. I made it in Oliver’s home studio in Los Angeles and it was such a fun process. We wrote the album in about five or six months and I enjoyed the writing process so much. We got together the first time probably in mid-2018 and the first writing session off the bat was just great. We wrote a song called, ‘She’s Gone’ which is actually one of my favorite songs off the album. We wrote it in about two hours. I spent about a week writing with him and it was the first time I ever met him, never met him before, never really knew much about him. It was a mutual friend who hooked us up together and we immediately had this great friendship that just sparked an immediate chemistry…and we did the whole album in a year and a half span. We wrote fourteen or fifteen songs and I came back to L.A. at the end of 2019 to record. And all of these incredible musicians he put together for this album; Abraham Laboriel, Jr. “(Paul McCartney’s drummer)” Aaron Sterling “(John Mayer, Taylor Swift)” just phenomenal musicians, Paul Peterson’s playing bass and keyboards, you know a Minneapolis hero. Oliver got a bunch of these people together and that in itself was incredible because I never thought I’d ever be in a room with all these people.” (laughing)”I am such a huge fan of music and a huge fan of looking at the liner notes on albums, seeing all the people that played on the songs on great albums. I’m just a huge music lover in that sense and to have these people’s names on one of my albums is just out of this world. I couldn’t have had anybody better on this record.”

The track ‘All Around the World’ really hits home right now. I think it gives us all a little inspiration, some light at the end of the tunnel.
“Absolutely, that was one of the reasons we chose that to be the first single. Funny enough, we wrote the song before any of this even happened. We wrote it in 2019 about how the world was at the time, which was not great. Obviously, things began to get a lot worse, but we had no idea. It just resonated with me and my whole record company and my manager. We just decided it would be a good song to put out as the first thing that people hear of mine, because I hadn’t released any music for a good three to four years, so it’d been awhile. I thought the first piece of music I put out, I wanted it to be something positive, with energy and good vibes, really.”

Sounds like you’ve been pretty productive during the pandemic?
“Well, I have. It’s been a drag for us all, but the album was done before the pandemic started. I was very fortunate to not have a half done album and then have to cram to finish it. If anything it gave us more time to work on it, refine things, more time for mixing. So I had a lot of time to think about it, reflect on it and add things I thought needed to be added. Oliver would do things to it and that added a good six months to it. We pushed it all back a year. It was suppose to come out in 2020 and have it done by the summer. Obviously, it didn’t make sense to put it out in 2020, so we waited a year and the start of 2021 let’s have a new single out and let’s just push this thing out there, so that’s what we did.”

Blues it seems, more than any other genre of music is handed down from teacher to student. That truly was the case for you when you met Buddy Guy, wasn’t it?
“Well when you look at all these people in the blues world, even the rock and British blues world, like Jeff Beck, Clapton, Carlos Santana, I kind of put them all together in a group. You grow up listening to these people, seeing them on TV, posters on your wall, but you never think ever in your life you’ll be in the same room with them. Through Buddy Guy I’ve gotten to meet some of my heroes. It’s a full circle moment for me. The Buddy Guy thing happened when I was about eight years old; I got to see Buddy play at a theater called the Zeiterion, which I actually just got to headline a show there a few months ago…another full circle moment for me. We went to the theater in 2007 and I went with my dad and we knew some people at the theater and hoped maybe we could finagle our way backstage. So, we did and met Buddy’s guitar tech. I think we knew that Buddy was notorious for bringing kids on stage and giving them some time if they could play, because Buddy’s just so generous like that. We walked into his dressing room and I had my little Squier Fender Stratocaster with me and I was definitely a shy little kid at that time so I probably wasn’t talking much. I remember him being so gracious and so nice to me. I think he was just geeked out because I had a guitar (laughing) I was a little kid with a guitar and he was like can he play this thing? So I played a little bit for him and apparently that was good enough for him to call me on stage that night because that’s what ended up happening. He called me up and I played the last half hour of the show and it was like the greatest night of my life. I mean for an eight year old kid to get an opportunity like that you don’t really realize how cool that is at the moment. I’ve just begun to realize it now, how incredibly amazing that is for a little kid to do. And also having no idea how it would change my life course; I always knew I wanted to be a musician and it would be something I would want to do, but I never thought it would come so quickly. Through Buddy Guy, it’s jump-started the career I have today, so I owe Buddy so much and obviously thank him so much for all he’s done.”

Did I see you playing a Sitar at an event, one time? A Sitar?
“Yeah, that’s just from my connection to the Beatles and George Harrison and the love that I have for that music. I love Indian music; I love all different kinds of stuff. I did that in India, I got to play a festival in Mumbai a few years ago in 2017.

Let’s talk about your writing, do you have a process…do you write with your guitar?
“My process is always changing for me. Normally it does start with the guitar, or an idea or concept for a song. Lately, I’ve been trying to teach myself how to play the piano a little bit so I’ve been messing around with that. Writing on a piano you get different chordal ideas versus playing guitar, it’s just a different weapon of choice to use to write. But yeah, most of the time it’s on the guitar and it usually starts with a vocal line, a chord progression or any sort of melodic thing I hear in my head, I just have to put down. And once you start you really can’t stop!” (laughing) “You have to just get it done…I mean, I have like a thousand, if I showed you my phone I have a thousand voice memos and ideas that sometimes are just insane, but you have to put them down.”

As the world comes out of hibernation, talk a little about the tour you’ve got coming up with Beth Hart.
“It starts in San Diego on February 3rd at the Balboa Theater, I believe and we’re going to go all across the country and we end in Boston, which is really cool because that’s home for me. It’s going to be so fun and Beth is an extremely gifted singer/songwriter and so cool. I’m so excited to do some shows with her, she’s so amazing. This is really my first major tour in quite some time. It’s been a few years since I’ve gone on this big of a tour. I’ve just finished rehearsals for it and I’m looking forward to playing the new music for people and meeting new people, obviously as safely as we can do it. It just feels really good to be out again and playing live. It’s really the bread and butter of what I do and why I love playing music, playing live for people.”

You’re playing some outstanding venues, too?
“Yeah, we’re playing the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, two nights at the Wilbur in Boston, the Foxwoods in Connecticut, just all over the place.”

Check out Quinn Sullivan live during his current national tour with Beth Hart. It’s going to be a party!

Quinn Sullivan Tour Dates 2022

• Tue, FEB 1
  Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
  Santa Rosa, CA
  
• Thu, FEB 3
  Balboa Theatre
  San Diego, CA
  
• Sat, FEB 5
  Saban Theatre
  Beverly Hills, CA
  
• Mon, FEB 7
  Mission Ballroom
  Denver, CO
  
• Thu, FEB 10
  Uptown Theater
  Kansas City, MO
  
• Sat, FEB 12
  The Pageant
  St Louis, MO
  
• Mon, FEB 14
  Center Stage Theater
  Atlanta, GA
  
• Wed, FEB 16
  Ryman Auditorium
  Nashville, TN
  
• Fri, FEB 18
  Old National Centre
  Indianapolis, IN
  
• Sat, FEB 19
  Taft Theatre
  Cincinnati, OH
  
• Tue, FEB 22
  The Palace Theatre
  Greensburg, PA
  
• Thu, FEB 24
  Warner Theatre
  Washington, DC
  
• Sat, FEB 26
  Keswick Theatre
  Glenside, PA
  
• Sun, FEB 27
  Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center for the Arts
  Red Bank, NJ
  
• Wed, MAR 2
  The Town Hall
  New York, NY
  
• Fri, MAR 4
  Turning Stone Resort Casino
  Verona, NY
  
• Sat, MAR 5
  Foxwoods Resort Casino
  Mashantucket, CT
  
• Wed, MAR 9
  The Wilbur
  Boston, MA
  
• Thu, MAR 10
  The Wilbur
  Boston, MA

The post Quinn Sullivan: Music for a New Age appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after his failure to shut down a puppy mill in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

Dog Quotations

Together in Spirit – The Best Friends Animal Society

At the core of Best Friends Animal Society’s work is the dream that one day animals will no longer be killed in America’s shelters.

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The call of the walrus in remote Alaska

Story & Photographs courtesy of (Acacia Johnson Https://www.acaciajohnson.com/)

“The Indigenous Yup’ik people — who have hunted walruses here for over 5,700 years-call Round Island Qayassiq: ‘place to go in a kayak,'” writes Acacia. “Committing to the journey helps the walrus and the people who depend on them. It keeps the place staffed and protected. Walrus may not be an endangered species yet, but they are worthy of attention and conservation.”

READ FULL STORY

Judges are ‘overwhelmingly’ upholding COVID-19 vaccine mandates in many states

Despite legal challenges from “a range of people” — judges have “overwhelmingly upheld” many state orders requiring health care workers, public employees, and government contractors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk termination. T-Boy researches found: ”The exceptions to the mostly-failed challenges are limited, typically involving anti-science religious objectors.”

READ FULL STORY

This Beer Is the Secret to Living 100 Years, 106-Year-Old Says

This centenarian says America’s oldest beer is a daily part of her diet.

It sounds like a long, healthy life might not be all about swearing off treats and forever avoiding alcohol. A nearly 107-year-old Pennsylvania woman reportedly credits one unexpected habit—a beer a day—with her longevity. But not just any beer!

READ FULL STORY

Why “Don’t Let Me Down” Is the Whole Beatles Story in One Song

Courtesy Rob Sheffield, RollingStone

Of all the revelations on the Beatles’ new Let It Be box set, the biggest is the song that didn’t even make the original album. “Don’t Let Me Down” is John Lennon’s raw love ballad to Yoko Ono, much like “Two of Us,” Paul McCartney’s song for Linda. John sounds terrified of the emotional leaps he’s taking, but he leans on the other Beatles to back him up and carry him through the song. You can hear the band develop “Don’t Let Me Down” over the course of the box, until it comes to feel like the whole Beatles story in one song: a map to the long and winding road of their messy, doomed, inescapable friendship.

READ FULL STORY

Facebook Oversight Board says the company must ‘urgently improve’ its transparency

Facebook’s independent Oversight Board is criticizing the company for a lack of transparency, finding it failed to be “fully forthcoming” regarding a policy for high-profile users.

READ FULL STORY

CDC signs off on Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters and says people can get a shot different from their original one

Americans can now sign up for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters after the nation’s top public health official endorsed recommendations from expert advisers that the shots are safe and effective at bolstering protection against the coronavirus.

READ FULL STORY

The slaughter of Thomas Becket

When King Henry II’s knights arrived at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 searching for Archbishop Thomas Becket, monks tried to block the door. But Becket forbade the effort, declaring that the church was “a house of prayer” and not “a fortress.”

As a result, Becket was hacked to death, practically at the foot of the church’s holiest spot, the altar.

Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic church architecture reflected that the covered porch abutting the church door was traditionally known as the vapenhus (“weapons house”), a place to store arms when entering a church. Even acts of violence committed within the vicinity of a church carried increasingly severe penalties.

Potato Pie and Tortelli Recipes, Nonna-Style

Mediglia is a small village in the countryside just outside Milan. Here, in an old renovated farmhouse, Margaret Dini welcomes us who, for the occasion, has organized a real gastronomic meeting. Her cousins Giusi and Silvana are there, “summoned” to help her cook the family dishes. For the occasion, they also brought along sbrisolona, a crumbly almond cake found in Mantova, a city in Lombardy.

SEE RECIPES HERE

‘Delinquent’ Matt Gaetz Currently Blocked from Practicing Law

Faced with an onslaught of accusations that he engaged in underage sex trafficking—and bracing for criminal charges— Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has allowed his license to practice law in his home state of Florida to lapse. This is one bar tab Gaetz may regret not paying.

SEE RECIPES HERE

READ FULL STORY

10 Best Films of 1971

In Focus: MACBETH

• Director Roman Polanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by members of Charles Manson’s Family two years before the making of the film. It is believed that due to this traumatic event, Polanski developed the story to be a more violent representation of Shakespeare’s play. For instance, the scene in which Macbeth murders King Duncan was not in the original play and was instead implied.
• The scene in which Macbeth’s thugs massacre Macduff’s household was based on Roman Polanski’s memory of Nazi SS officers ransacking his house as a child.
• Filming began with four grueling weeks in Snowdonia National Park. Richard Vetter’s TODD-AO 35 lenses won an Academy Award for reducing anamorphic distortion in close-ups.

READ FULL STORY

Covid-19 Direct Relief

Covid-19 Direct Relief addresses the courage of health workers on the front lines, honoring them with meaningful support, and making sure that the people most at risk in this pandemic are cared for — regardless of politics, religion, or ability to pay.

DONATE to DIRECT RELIEF

Airlines Testing Touchless Technologies to Ease COVID-19 Concerns

Courtesy: Mina Kaji, Gio Benitez & Sam Sweeney

As air travel hits record numbers since the pandemic began, U.S. airlines are testing and implementing new technologies aimed at reducing contact — both with surfaces and with people.

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Health Passports: The Future Of Travel?

Courtesy: Justin Hayward, Simple Flying

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Vienna Brothel Offers Vaccinations & FREE Sessions

Forget free beers, lotteries and discount food, a brothel in Austria has come up with a sure-fire way to incentivise people to get the coronavirus vaccine. Not only is Fun Palast in Vienna administering jabs, it’s offering up a 30-minute session in the ‘sauna club’ with the ‘lady of your choice’ to anyone who gets the vaccine at the on-site clinic. 

Read the full story

Our City Tonight

Author Michael Posner on Leonard Cohen

Return to Investment Learning

Often, we think of ROI as a financial term related to a tangible item.  Dr. Kathy Allen challenges us to overcome the limits of ROI thinking by considering the time, reflection, and experimentation that comes with learning and adaptation …

Read more about Return on Investment in Learning here

How to Take Your Own Passport Photo

Courtesy: Caroline Morse Teel, SmarterTravel

After paying $15 to have an awkward photoshoot in the aisle of a CVS, only to have my passport photos rejected twice (once for being too dark and once for being too bright), I decided there had to be a better way to take your own passport photo. Turns out, snapping your own passport photo is easier, cheaper, and much more convenient than going to a “professional” (a.k.a., the cashier at your local drugstore). Here’s a few tips:

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How to Stay Safe While Traveling

With travel set to resume as coronavirus restrictions ease, travelers should inform themselves about the cleaning procedures at hotels and Airbnb properties before choosing the best option for them. Ask about cleaning protocols, be on the lookout for red flags such as accumulations of dirt and grime, and inspect surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen, recommends Brian Sansoni of the American Cleaning Institute.

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5 Ways to Support Small Businesses from Home During the Pandemic

Courtesy Caroline Morse Teel, SmarterTravel

Small businesses are really hurting during this time of isolation. Here are five simple and safe ways you can help support them so that they’ll still be there for you when the pandemic is over. (And remember — the best way you can help small business is by staying home, so that we can end this isolation period faster.)

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Royal Caribbean will offer first ever world cruise in 2023

If you’re in the market for an epic cruise, how about one that goes around the world?

Royal Caribbean announced a new 274-night Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas that will promises to bring you to amazing destinations across all seven continents.

Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley hinted at this announcement earlier this week, when he promised “big news” and included an emoji of the Earth.

This is the first ever world cruise for Royal Caribbean International, and it will visit more than 150 destinations in 65 countries and 11 great wonders of the world.

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The post Call of the Walrus, Thomas Becket & Lennon appeared first on Traveling Archive.