Roger O Green

Denzel Washington is 70

Suppose you were to look at the cover of season 1 of the St. Elsewhere DVD. In that case, you might think that Denzel Washington was the big star of the 1982-1988 NBC medical drama about “the lives and work of the staff of St. Eligius Hospital, an old and disrespected Boston teaching hospital.” This would not be correct; it was more of an ensemble cast.

This worked to Denzel’s advantage. Because he wasn’t in every scene, he got to go out and make movies. The only one I saw in that period was Cry Freedom (1987), in which he played the South African patriot Stephen Biko. Even though the story was mostly about his friend, journalist Donald Woods (Kevin Kline), attempting to investigate Biko’s death, Denzel is compelling. He was the NAACP Image Award winner as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture. I bought the soundtrack: The Funeral (September 25, 1987).

Glory (1989) – His Oscar and Golden Globe-winning performance in a supporting role. The James Horner soundtrack, which I own, can be listened to here. It won a Grammy.

Mississippi Masala 1991. NAACP Image Award as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture

Formerly Malcolm Little

Malcolm X (1992) -He was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. But he won various other awards. I have this soundtrack too. Listen to Someday We’ll All Be Free – Aretha Franklin.

The Pelican Brief (1993) – Denzel was nominated for an MTV award as Most Desirable Male

Philadelphia (1993) – Tom Hanks said working with Washington on the movie was like “going to film school.” Hanks said he learned more about acting by watching Denzel than anyone else. I have this soundtrack as well. Here’s the final scene with the Neil Young title song.

Crimson Tide (1995) Denzel won another NAACP Image Award as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture.

Devil in a Blue Dress (1996) – I saw this at Page Hall at the SUNY Albany downtown campus. Walter Mosley, author of the book and co-writer of the script, was supposed to be present but he could not make it.

The Preacher’s Wife (1996)—with Whitney Houston. I’m sure I saw this on TV, but I don’t particularly recall it.

The Hurricane (1999), in which he plays boxer Rubin Carter. He won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama but lost the Best Actor Oscar. Once again, he won the NAACP Image Award as Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Remember The Titans (2000) – not only did Denzel win the Image Award again, but the film was deemed Outstanding Motion Picture. This I saw on TV as well, but I remember it quite well.

Best Actor Oscar

I did not see Training Day (2001), for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the first black man to do so since Sidney Poitier did so for Lilies of the Field. Denzel was also the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and the NAACP Image Award as Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

I did see the following films:

Manchurian Candidate (2004) – I STILL need to see the original

Unstoppable (2010) – in case you don’t remember this one: “With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.” It’s entertaining.

Flight (2012) Denzel was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, as well as other awards

August Wilson

Fences (2016) – the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture (Todd, Black, Scott Rudin, and Denzel); Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Denzel); and Best Adapted Screenplay (August Wilson, posthumously). Viola Davis won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Denzel played the same role on Broadway for about two and half months in 2010. It was nominated for seven Tonys and won three: Best Revival of a Play (Produced by Carole Shorenstein Hays and Scott Rudin), Best Actor in a Play (Denzel Washington), and Best Actress in a Play (Viola Davis).

Fences was one of six Broadway productions in which he appeared. He will be in Othello in 2025.

Denzel is committed to producing all ten of August Wilson’s plays for film. He’s already produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) and The Piano Lesson (2024).

His life

Of course, he’s more than his performances. Check out this 2017 interview.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia:. “On June 25, 1983, Washington married Pauletta Pearson, whom he met on the set of his first screen work, the television film Wilma. They have four children: John David (born July 28, 1984), also an actor and a former football player; Katia (born November 27, 1986), who graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in 2010; and twins Olivia and Malcolm (born April 10, 1991). Malcolm graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in film studies, and Olivia played a role in Lee Daniels’s film The Butler. Malcolm made his directorial debut with The Piano Lesson, with Denzel producing and John David starring in it. In 1995, Washington and his wife renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Desmond Tutu officiating…

“Washington has served as the national spokesman for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1993 and has appeared in public service announcements and awareness campaigns for the organization. In addition, he has served as a board member for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1995. Due to his philanthropic work with the Boys & Girls Club, PS 17X, a New York City Elementary School decided to officially name their school after Washington.”

In 2022, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2024 also marks ten years of Denzel’s sobriety. He was baptized just this month and was given a minister’s license by the church.

My music of 2024

Private Life

Here are some representative tracks of my music of 2024, CDs I bought because I’m that way. Most, though not all, are records I had on vinyl. They are listed from most recent to earliest.

Goin’ Down – The Monkees. I bought a five-pack of CDs by the group. There’s a version of the song as an add-on to the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. It was initially the B side of the single Daydream Believer, which was #1 for four weeks. Goin’ Down, which I heard on a Best of the Monkees album, got all the way to #104 on the pop charts. I think it’s a hoot, and there’s a fun little backstory here.

Love Is A Beautiful Thing – the Young Rascals. Another five-pack. Their second album, Collections, contains my favorite Felix Cavaliere/Eddie Brigati shared vocal. Usually, it’s by one of the two, or Gene Cornish.

Come and Dance – Sam Mukoro. I bought the album Kids African Party at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art.

Waiting In Vain—Bob Marley. I had never owned his 1977 Exodus album until I saw the movie Bob Marley: One Love, the last film at the Spectrum Theatre as a Landmark Theatre.

Cass, Michelle, John, Denny

Safe In My Garden – The Mamas and The Papas. The quartet put out three albums and then broke up. They put out a greatest hits collection, Farewell to the First Golden Era, but then they got back together and released an album called The Papas and the Mamas, from which this song appears. I bought the CD as a twofer with the group’s third album, Deliver, neither of which I had ever owned, although my sister Leslie had them both.

Ex-Wives – from the Studio Cast Recording of SIX. I saw the show at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.

Habits—Gary Clark Jr. is from the Jpeg Raw album. I probably saw him on a television program, The Daily Show, I’m guessing.

Private Life—Pretenders. I bought the group’s eponymous first album 43 years ago and played it incessantly.

Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix) -Peter Gabriel. My friend Rocco turned me onto the 2023 album, i/o

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore—John Prine. Oddly, I had a couple of Prine albums on vinyl but not the eponymous first one.

Going Down For The Third Time – the Supremes. It is one of my two favorite songs from my favorite Supremes albums, Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, which is a silly title since most of their songs at that time were H-D-H.

By sheer happenstance, the first and last songs share a common thread.

Lydster: Wall of boxes

miracle

When our daughter came home from college on December 20, we had a wall of boxes. The wall between the hallway and the living room was a bunch of presents we had received via UPS and the Postal Service.

The Amazon box contained a small Christmas tree we received from relatives. As you might be able to tell, the huge box contained an office chair, which, as it turned out, was for me.

The three similar boxes were packages with a bit of a story. UPS had been delivering certain deliveries to a CVS closing on Thursday, December 12th. I received a notice from UPS that the boxes had been delivered to that address on Wednesday, December 11th. So I went there, but the boxes weren’t there—hmm.

As it turned out, the boxes were delivered to the CVS in Stuyvesant Plaza. The next day, I took my cart and went to that CVS to get the three boxes much bigger than I had anticipated. They weighed about 20 kilograms apiece, but they were also bulky. Getting them home on a bus with a cart was a challenge, as only one box fit into the cart. The other two hung on the top, and it was an interesting balancing act. After I got them home, I was pretty much spent for the day.

In addition

The tall, thin box was a bed frame for our daughter’s room.

Lydia's stuff

Then, our daughter’s stuff was hanging out behind the wall of boxes. It included the things she brought home this month and some items from when she came home for Thanksgiving, so half of the living room was swallowed up.

Fortunately, she did yoeperson’s work and cleaned all this up by the evening of December 23, plus set up and decorate the tree with a friend. The big box in this picture is the same chair, and the little tree was the one in the Amazon box, also put together by our daughter.

The picture below was taken the morning of Christmas Eve. It’s not entirely tidy, but it’s considerably less chaotic than it had been only a few days before. It’s our little holiday miracle.

Christmas tree 2024

On Christmas Day in the Morning

Shchedryk

Merry Christmas! While searching YouTube, I came across this 1915 track, Christmas Day in the Morning ~ Olive Kline with Chorus and Orchestra. The rest of this post will be more conventional.

She turns 70 today! (HT, David.) The Holly and The Ivy – Annie Lennox.

Something from the third A Very Special Christmas (1997). Children, Go Where I Send Thee – Natalie Merchant.

We had a carol sing at my church 11 days ago, but we didn’t sing one of my favorite Christmas hymns, Lo, How A Rose e’er Blooming (Praetorius), performed here by the Atlanta Master Chorale.

In high school, we often sang Carol of the Bells. It always seemed too… chirpy. Then, a couple of years ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine, I heard a slower and, therefore, more melodic version by a Ukranian choir. Here’s Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells) by Bel Canto Choir Vilnius.

One of my wife’s K-girls: The Wexford Carol – Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma. (HT, Gus.)

The Shepherds’ Farewell by Hector Berlioz features an inverse pedal point, one of my favorite musical effects. The Brandenburg Camino, Step5 performs it.

Kelly linked to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. One familiar segment for me is Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, by the College of King’s College. In the post, Kelly pointed out that he refuses to associate Handel’s Messiah with Christmas (for him, “that work is all about Easter.”) Yet I have sung the Christmas portion at least a half dozen times during Advent. So there’s that. Here’s Handel Messiah (Christmas Portion) – Robert Shaw and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.

Annie Lennox is 70 (Christmas Day)

Eurythmics

Annie Lennox poses on the red carpet during an award reception at the Library of Congress for 2023 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoree Joni Mitchell, February 28, 2023. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.

Scottish-born Annie Lennox dropped out of the Royal Academy of Music to become part of the late 1970s new wave band the Tourists. I wasn’t familiar with them. They had a couple of UK hits, the familiar tune, I Only Want To Be With You (1979) and So Good To Be Back Home Again (1980).

The band broke up in late 1980. Lennox and Dave Stewart split up as a couple but decided to continue working as the musical duo Eurythmics.

I have two of their vinyl albums, plus their greatest hits on CD. After she went solo in 1992, I got two CDs.

Five years ago, my wife and I went to MassMOCA to see ‘Now I Let You Go…’ an art installation by Annie Lennox.

Coverville 1514: The Annie Lennox Cover Story II

Some songs

When Tomorrow Comes – Eurythmics. It was no released s a single in the US.

Missionary Man – Eurythmics. “Upon the single’s US 1986 release, the song was described as being inspired in part by Lennox’s 1984–1985 marriage to devout Hare Krishna Radha Raman. When discussing the song’s inspiration and meaning, Lennox stated ‘Obviously, there is a personal meaning in [Missionary Man] for me, because of my past history. But I also think that there are a great deal of people in the media, in the form of politicians or religious speakers or philosophical people, people who are generally trying to have some power over other people, who I just don’t trust.'” #14 pop (1986), Grammy for Rock Vocal Duo.

Who’s That Girl – Eurythmics, #21 US pop in 1984.

Two Angels

Angel – Eurythmics It “would be the duo’s final single for almost a decade (discounting the re-release of two older singles the following year)… Lennox said in an interview at the time that the song was inspired by the death of her aunt, as she sings about a woman who has killed herself and now has ‘gone to meet her maker.'”

There Must Be An Angel (Playing with My Heart)”- Eurythmics. It “features a harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder. The song became the duo’s only chart-topper in the United Kingdom. #22 US pop (1985).

No More ‘I Love You’s – a cover of a song by a group called The Lover Speaks, the 1st song on her album Medusa, #23 US pop and a Grammy winner for pop female vocal.

Why -Annie Lennox. “It was taken from her debut solo album, Diva (1992), and reached number five in the United Kingdom. In the United States, “Why” peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Adult Contemporary chart… Stereogum ranked “Why” number one on their list of “The 10 Best Annie Lennox Songs” in 2015.

With QoS

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves -Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin. “A modern feminist anthem, it was… featured on both Eurythmics’ Be Yourself Tonight (1985) and Franklin’s Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985) albums. [I have both albums.] The duo originally intended to perform with Tina Turner, who was unavailable at the time and so they flew to Detroit and recorded with Franklin instead. The track also features three of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers: Stan Lynch on drums, Benmont Tench on organ, and Mike Campbell on lead guitar, plus session bassist Nathan East.” #18 US pop (1985)

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Eurythmics, their breakthrough hit, it reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and #1 US pop (1983)

Would I Lie To You – Eurythmics. In the heyday of MTV, it was probably one of the Top 10 favorite videos, #5 US pop (1985).

Annie Lennox has been involved with AIDS activism, wmen’s rights, and antiwar activities. In February 2024, at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, during an in memoriam segment, she performed [with Wendy and Lisa] late singer Sinéad O’Connor’s song Nothing Compares 2 U; Lennox repeated her call for a ceasefire and ‘peace in the world.'”

While it’s a bit precious, I think the description of Eurythmics’ 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not wrong.

“Much like the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film turns from black-and-white to Technicolor, the opening strains of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” irrevocably changed perceptions of 1980s pop-rock. Employing the mechanistic funk of Krautrock, the grit of gospel, and the strangeness of psychedelia, Eurythmics’ genre- and gender-fluid pop vision was both futuristic and beholden to past eras, while remaining eminently accessible.”