Jerry Clower : Coon Huntin’
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I’m willing to accept the possibility that maybe – just maybe – Jerry Clower is a Southern thing. If you were to suggest such, I wouldn’t rule you out of order, at least not right away. But, in the end, when everything was said and done, you’d still be wrong. Because Jerry Clower is no more a Southern thing than Moby Dick is a book about a whale. Jerry Clower is, instead, about the larger truths in life: like grits, and possums, and, as shown here in these two short routines, coon huntin’. So press the big green play button and sit back and enjoy.
Hawwwwww!
Rest in Peace: Andrew Love (The Memphis Horns)
Tenor saxophonist Andrew Love, who partnered with trumpeter Wayne Jackson to form the Memphis Horns, died this past Thursday at the age of 70. The Memphis Horns were part of the original house band at Stax Records in Memphis, and they played on virtually every Stax recording during the 1960′s. In later years, they played with such diverse artists as Elvis Presley, The Doobie Brothers, Neil Diamond, U2, and Alicia Keys. Their discography is staggering. A small selection of the songs the Memphis Horns played on: Respect, In The Midnight Hour, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, Hold On I’m Coming, Knock On Wood, Respect, Mustang Sally, When A Man Loves A Woman, The Dark End of the Street, (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman, Funky Broadway, Try a Little Tenderness, Think, Hooked on a Feeling, Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Sweet Caroline, In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, The Letter, I Just Can’t Help Believing, Theme from Shaft, Tired of Being Alone, Let’s Stay Together, I Can’t Stand the Rain, Takin’ it to the Streets, and Angel of Harlem.
Rest in peace.
Fifteen Great Quotes About Elvis
“I don’t want him on my show. I don’t care what anyone says about him – how great a talent he is – he just won’t be in my show and that’s that.”
- Ed Sullivan.
“I want to say to Elvis Presley and the country that this is a real decent, fine boy.”
- Ed Sullivan, on the occasion of Elvis’ third appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“Rock and roll is the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression – lewd, sly, in plain fact, dirty – a rancid smelling aphrodisiac.”
- Frank Sinatra.
“There have been many accolades uttered about his talent and performances through the years all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I shall miss him dearly as a friend.”
- Frank Sinatra.
“It isn’t enough to say that Elvis is kind to his parents, sends money home, and is the same unspoiled kid he was before all the commotion began. That still isn’t a free ticket to behave like a sex maniac in public.”
- Cosmopolitan, December 1956.
“On a scale of one to ten, I would rate him eleven.”
- Sammy Davis, Jr.
“He taught white America to get down.”
- James Brown.
“Before Elvis, there was nothing. … My crushing ambition in life was to be as big as Elvis Presley.”
- John Lennon.
“He had so much energy we had to sit up nights to wear him out so we could sleep.”
- Scotty Moore.
“You have no idea how great he is, really you don’t. You have no comprehension – it’s absolutely impossible.”
- Phil Spector.
“He was an instinctive actor. … He was quite bright. … He was very intelligent. … He was not a punk. He was very elegant, sedate, and refined, and sophisticated.”
- Walter Mathau, who co-starred with Elvis in King Creole.
“There’s got to be a reason why he was the most successful guy of the past decade. He’s a giant and any man who can influence all of those people must have something. He had expert guidance, of course, but there was a lot to guide.”
- Isaac Hayes.
“When I first heard Elvis’ voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. … Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”
- Bob Dylan.
“Elvis Presley was the greatest cultural force in the 20th century. He introduced the beat to everything and changed everything – music, language, clothes – it’s a whole new social revolution – the 60′s comes from it.”
- Leonard Bernstein.
“I wasn’t exactly James Bond in Double Trouble, but then, no one ever asked Sean Connery to sing a song while dodging bullets.”
- Elvis.
Picture of the Day : April 9, 2012
Elvis and Ann Margret on the set of Viva Las Vegas (1964).
The Battle of Shiloh
“Shiloh” is a Hebrew word meaning “place of peace.”
One hundred fifty years ago today (give or take a day or two),the Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, was fought on April 6 and 7, 1862. Confederate forces led by Albert Sydney Johnston and PGT Beauregard caught the Yankees completely by surprise and nearly achieved a complete route, but the Northerners, led by the unflappable U.S. Grant, rallied on the second day of battle and recaptured almost all of the ground lost on the first day.
The Battle of First Bull Run had been fought nine months earlier and was considered the first “big” battle of the Civil War, but it was a cakewalk compared to Shiloh. At First Bull Run, the two armies had total casualties of 4,700. Nine months later, at Shiloh, the two armies had combined casualties of 23,746: more casualties than America had suffered in all previous wars combined. The United States and the Confederacy were totally unprepared for the staggering casualty lists, and it was the Battle of Shiloh much more than the Battle of First Bull Run that signaled there would be no easy resolution of the war.
Below: Albert Sydney Johnston, PGT Beauregard, Ulysses S. Grant
Rest in Peace : John Barton, Sr.
Mr. Barton – John W. Barton, Sr. – passed away over the weekend. Born in 1917, he was 95 years old at the time of his passing. He was one of the kindest and most generous persons I ever knew. RIP.
California Surf
I took these pictures last week while my wife and I were in Orange County taking my oldest son to college (Go Chapman Panthers!). Some of the pictures were taken south of LA in the Crystal Cove / Laguna Beach area, and some were taken north of LA between Malibu and Santa Barbara. The rocks-and-surf compositions lend themselves to different styles of images – use a very fast shutter-speed to freeze the crashing waves, or slow the shutter-speed down to smear the surf and create the illusion of movement. I have a Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo filter that allows me to slow the shutter down to a crawl, but, unfortunately, I did not have it with me on this trip. I will not make that mistake next time around. Regardless of the exposure, I put the camera in Continuous mode so that it will take pictures in rapid-fire sequence for as long as depress the shutter release button.
This first set of three photographs demonstrates the different styles of images you can take. All three pics are of the same rock outcropping on the coastline somewhere between Ventura and Malibu (I wish like hell I could remember the specific location). The first image was taken with a shutter speed of 1/200, which has the effect of freezing the spray as the waves slam into the rocks. The second and third pics were taken with a shutter-speed of 1/30, which blurs the incoming waves and salt spray. In the second picture, the waves are exploding around and completely enveloping the rocks. The tension in the third pic is more implied, the waves appear as though they are just beginning to spring from among the gaps in the rocks. All three pics were taken hand-held with the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6.
This next picture was also taken somewhere between Ventura and Malibu. It was late afternoon, and the shafts of warm light striking the surf and rocks made for a nice pic. The shutter-speed was a relatively slow 0.4 seconds, which once again blurred the surf. At the time I took this picture, there was a news crew and a crowd of people on the beach behind me because the police were tracking a group of illegal aliens who had landed a boat on the beach and fled into the hills. I was more interested in the surf. This picture was taken with the 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 mounted on my Gitzo tripod.
The next picture was taken somewhere in the vicinity of Laguna Beach. The shutter-speed was set to 1/160 seconds, which slowed the action. At first glance when I downloaded these photos to my computer, I was about to trash this image, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked the way the wave in the center of the frame looks like its about to uncoil and punch the rock right in the face. Hmmm, maybe I’m getting a little carried away.
This final surf-and-rock image was also taken in the vicinity of Laguna Beach. Back to a slow shutter-speed: 1/10 second. You can see the way the slow shutter-speed causes the individual droplets of spray to streak across the frame. Some people don’t like this effect, but I do. Like any technique, it can be overdone, but in moderation it provides a different way for seeing the same landscape in a different way.
Finally, here are a couple of other pictures I took while hanging around the beach. The kite surfers are everywhere in Southern California, but I had two things working against me trying to get some good pics. First, I needed more reach, the ol’ 70-300mm just wasn’t long enough. Second, the surf appeared to be relatively tame everywhere we went, and so good action shots were hard to come by. I’m going to try again in the fall or winter, maybe the waves are bigger then. That’s the great thing about having a kid in school out there, gives me an excuse to visit.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, the super cool dude who is responsible for this web-site, has four children. Four! What was he thinking? Wait, don’t answer that. You can see more of his pictures here, and his pictures of the Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel here.[/author_info] [/author]
Mississippi River Bridge
Took this photo right at dusk.
Santa Monica Pier
I live in Baton Rouge about 3 miles from the College Drive exit/entrance onto Interstate 10. If you get on I-10 at College Drive and drive 1,831 miles due west, the interstate abruptly comes to an end at the foot of the Santa Monica Pier. The Santa Monica Pier is not your average pier, at least not if you’re from Louisiana and your idea of a pier is what you see lining the banks at False River. Nope, this is something entirely different. The Santa Monica Pier extends almost 2,000 feet out into the Pacific Ocean and is home to several bars and restaurants, as well as various street (make that “pier”) vendors. Oh yeah, the pier also has its own amusement park called “Pacific Park.”
“Pacific Park” includes a small roller coaster and a very large ferris wheel. I took these pictures of the ferris wheel using a wide-angle lens and an exposure time ranging between 1-2 seconds.
Here’s a pic I took from the top of the ferris wheel looking down at part of the amusement park.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, the photographer who took these pictures and the Big Cheese of this web-site, annihilated a group of ten-year-olds in a game of Wack-A-Mole shortly before taking these pictures. You can see more of John’s Pacific Park pictures by clicking here. [/author_info] [/author]
Balloons
Here are some pics I took at the 2011 Baton Rouge Balloon Festival in August. Unfortunately, thunder storms canceled all of the night activities on both Friday and Saturday, including the balloon “glow” and the fireworks. But the morning events went off without a hitch, and I was able to get some decent pics. All of these pictures were taken with my D300 and the great 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR IF-Ed. Liz and Paul volunteered on a “chase” crew, and on the last morning of event, the pilot – Bill Spreadbury, who is also a fantastic photographer – invited Paul to ride with him. In the last picture in this sequence, you can see Paul and Bill in his balloon, “Bag of Blues.”
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, the photographer who took these pictures and the Big Cheese of this web-site, cannot stand anything by Dan Fogleberg. You can see more of John’s balloon pictures by clicking here. Check out Bill Spreadbury’s pictures by clicking here. [/author_info] [/author]