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Dec. 8th, 2013
Alistair Cooke "Letter From America" (Penguin)
Part of the Sunday morning routine of my childhood was to listen to the weekly ten or fifteen minute "Letter from America", one of the world's longest radio programmes, produced in a stunning 2.689 editions over 58 years before Cooke gave up in 2004, a few weeks before his death at the age of 96.
The BBC has a tribute section on its website, where you can read and hear all about it. The primary way to appreciate Cooke's pieces is of course by listening to them, but there is no harm in having this selection in the form of dead trees.
They don't all work as well on the printed page, but there are some that do - a brilliant lyrical description of the New England fall; a lovely account of a family Christmas; his eyewitness account of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. It is interesting that in his early pieces on race relations, he really didn't seem to get the nature of the problem; but he redeems himself partially with a reflection on the life of Duke Ellington, and then completely with his reminiscence of covering Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. There are three pieces included about the assassination of JFK; only one about Watergate, from years later; and several about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which from the perspective of only a very few years later seems excessive.
Anyway, it's a heavy book, probably better for dipping into than reading straight through as I did, but worth having as a perspective on America.
Part of the Sunday morning routine of my childhood was to listen to the weekly ten or fifteen minute "Letter from America", one of the world's longest radio programmes, produced in a stunning 2.689 editions over 58 years before Cooke gave up in 2004, a few weeks before his death at the age of 96.
The BBC has a tribute section on its website, where you can read and hear all about it. The primary way to appreciate Cooke's pieces is of course by listening to them, but there is no harm in having this selection in the form of dead trees.
They don't all work as well on the printed page, but there are some that do - a brilliant lyrical description of the New England fall; a lovely account of a family Christmas; his eyewitness account of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. It is interesting that in his early pieces on race relations, he really didn't seem to get the nature of the problem; but he redeems himself partially with a reflection on the life of Duke Ellington, and then completely with his reminiscence of covering Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. There are three pieces included about the assassination of JFK; only one about Watergate, from years later; and several about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which from the perspective of only a very few years later seems excessive.
Anyway, it's a heavy book, probably better for dipping into than reading straight through as I did, but worth having as a perspective on America.
- Sat, 14:21: Why? http://t.co/uQ0RXoEwAn
- Sat, 18:09: Book 53 - Jack Kerouac "Maggie Cassidy" http://t.co/YzcN0u4XrI
- Sat, 19:28: I favorited a @YouTube video from @NienkeSnoop http://t.co/q49iXiHh3b Feelin' good Pussycat Dolls with lyrics HQ
- Sat, 19:35: I favorited a @YouTube video http://t.co/xmEgF9heif Nina Simone Feeling Good
- Sat, 19:41: I favorited a @YouTube video http://t.co/wPs1SDOTqV Labelle - Far As We Felt Like Goin.mpg
- Sat, 19:46: I favorited a @YouTube video http://t.co/vF6tWjNSV5 Pussycat Dolls - We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going
- Sat, 19:51: I added a video to a @YouTube playlist http://t.co/hgoDRd5Bzl Mel Torme - Right Now (1966)
- Sat, 19:54: I favorited a @YouTube video http://t.co/l2EoRWZ5DV Pussycat Dolls- Right Now
- Sun, 10:05: Book 54 - Alistair Cooke "Letter From America" http://t.co/sMESJLlcsw
Holmes I Presume
Dec. 8th, 2013 12:59 pmSo there will be a third series of the new BBC series of Sherlock Holmes as revealed in the Independent yesterday. Something i shall look forward to, and as always following the Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Benedict Cumberbatch was a terrific Khan in the last Star Trek movie i saw at the cinema., and he does make an interesting version of him. Which reminds me, i must catch up with the American version of the sleuth, Elementary.
That's Enough Reading For The Day
Dec. 8th, 2013 03:05 pm
Been reading the papers, go and get a coffee, to come back and find that Flo is sitting on them.
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