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Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-07-20

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".

OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.

CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.

ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World — with more than 120 works including paintings, works on paper, photographs, and other ephemera from throughout his career — is at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois through October 5th.

Boating Party, circa 1877

YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this blog post (by an anonymous person) relating a visit he made to a Dept. of Homeland Security job fair (which included ICE, CBP and other agencies) near Washington, D.C. where he describes both the types of people he met, and their motivations for being there.

MUSIC NOTES — the estate of the late folksinger Woody Guthrie has authorized the release (in mid-August) of thirteen previously unheard songs he recorded at home on a tape recorder … including the quite timely song Deportee — about 28 migrant workers rounded up in 1948, put on a plane for Mexico which crashed, killing everyone onboard — for which previously, only cover versions have existed (by Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, the Byrds and Guthrie’s son Arlo, among others).

THURSDAY's CHILD is the late, great Coal the Cat - the last surviving member of a cat colony near Parliament Hill in Ottawa, who was a stress reliever for elected officials and a hit with visitors - who has died at the age of seventeen.

Coal the Cat

YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by the podcaster Cliff Schecter, on how flying home from a Mediterranean vacation to Ohio, he is pondering the existential question … “Why did I return”?

HAIL and FAREWELL to the songwriter Alan Bergman — who along with his late wife Marilyn composed such songs as The Way We Were, The Windmills of Your Mind, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? and How Do You Keep the Music Playing? — who has died at the age of ninety-nine.

FRIDAY's CHILD is the omnipresent Larry the No. 10 Cat — who was saluted by the recently visiting French president Emanuel Macron for his “wonderful” social media presence (where he praised the upcoming art loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France to Britain), and then Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said that Larry ... “is the most popular person in Downing Street”.

Larry the No. 10 Cat

BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.

SEPARATED at BIRTH — Duncan Wickel, violinist for the roots music band Rising Appalachia and Weird Al Yankovic.

Americana musician

Parody musician

..... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in reading of last year’s list of nominees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I noticed the name of someone I was familiar with from the jazz-rock world, drummer ‘Narada’ Michael Walden. And while he did not make this year’s actual inductees: I was unaware of the depth of his songwriting, producing and even his own dance music career, which has taken him to many fields — even a recent short stint in the rock band Journey (when they were in-between regular drummers). So this profile is as much for my own benefit as for anyone else.

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1952, he played in a number of rock bands before meeting John McLaughlin, founder of the legendary jazz-rock Mahavishnu Orchestra, after he had broken up its original incarnation. As a twenty-two year-old in 1974, he took over the drummer’s chair from the nonpareil Billy Cobham, and so I saw him at a young age. He met McLaughlin’s then-spiritual advisor Sri Chinmoy, who gave him the nickname Narada. He was involved in other jazz-rock efforts throughout the 70’s, most notably on Jeff Beck’s album Wired (where he wrote four of the songs). In a short stint with the band Weather Report, he grew to love bandleader Joe Zawinul’s ballad A Remark You Made — and in a 2007 memorial concert for Joe, you can see how emotional he was in performing it from the 8:00 — 8:30 finale portion at this link.

He never left that world, yet expanded into the dance music world in the late 70’s and 1980’s, with hits such as I Remember, I Don’t Want Anybody Else (To Dance With You) and the ballad Why Did You Turn Me On — and for a compilation album of his own dance music era: in 1996, Rhino released Ecstasy’s Dance.

After mentoring with Quincy Jones, he moved into the songwriting and producer’s role — which grew when he bought his own Tarpan Studios in 1985, leading to a prolific career (which will be noted fully later on). Two songs of note from his producing Aretha Franklin’s 1985 Who’s Zoomin’ Who? album — the title track (which he had a partial songwriting credit (reaching #7 in the charts) as well as Freeway of Love — which won the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal song.

At age seventy-three, he has teen-aged children, and thus seldom tours at present. When he does, there’ll be no shortage of opportunities.

Among the songs he has written (or co-written) for others: Heartbreaker (Mariah Carey), Shiver (George Benson), How Can I Ease the Pain (Lisa Fischer), License to Kill (Gladys Knight), Only Love Can Conquer All (Diana Ross) and Undecided (Chris Brown).

Here is just a sample of those whom he has produced (in bold for those he also wrote or co-wrote): Whitney Houston (How Will I Know), Jefferson Starship (Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now), Al Green (Your Heart’s in Good Hands), Elton John & Kiki Dee (True Love), Regina Belle (Baby Come to Me), Mariah Carey (Vision of Love), Stacy Lattisaw (Let Me Be Your Angel), Steve Winwood (Junction Seven), Santana (Song for Cindy) and many others.

Here are some films he has scored or contributed works for: 9-½ Weeks, Bright Lights-Big City, Free Willy, Crooklyn and The Associate (among others).

He has eight Grammy nominations and three victories: besides the aforementioned Aretha Franklin’s Freeway of Love, he also won in 1987 as Producer of the Year and in 1993 for Album of the Year for the soundtrack album to the film The Bodyguard.

Narada in the 70’s ...

… and more recently ..

Two selections to give a quick look at his career — first, something from his dance music era, I Need Your Love from 1977.

And this 2011 reunion show with Jeff Beck — where he sings the Jimi Hendrix classic Little Wing (as well as handling the drums with aplomb).

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