April 1, 2011
END OF AN ERA: Last year, the Weekly made journalist history of a sort, announcing that it was ending its print edition and going all online in a cover story headlined “End of An Era," with a backdrop of a forlorn looking news rack against a black background.
The reports of the death of the newspaper business in general, and of the Weekly in particular, seem to have been greatly exaggerated, but it was fun to play a part in perpetuating the spoof—and heartening to hear the supportive reactions of readers who wanted the paper to say it wasn’t so.
It wasn’t, but without that spirit of irreverence, we’d all be in trouble.
Rather than inducing potential coronaries for regular readers (or advertisers) this year, I’m content to pass on this clip from The Who, playing at the post-9/11 “Concert For New York City."
WEATHER REPORT: And, in honor of the astonishingly beautiful weather days, here are some homages to spring from some of the greatest songstresses of all time.
Here’s Blossom Dearie crooning “It Might As Well Be Spring" in French on her debut album, and Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most."
And let’s not forget Doris Day, the local girl who remains too underrated as a jazz vocalist.
An 87th birthday celebration honoring Doris takes place 5:30 and 8 pm Sunday Night at the Cypress Inn. Pianist Jim Martinez and singer Laura Didier will perform at the free show. Contributions to the Doris Day Animal Foundation are welcome at ddfaf.org. Information: www.DorisTribute.com or www.cypressinn.com.
>Here’s Doris looking radiant as she sings “Mean To Me" in the 1955 movie “Love Me Or Leave Me," in which she played a fictionalized version of the jazz singer Ruth Etting with co-star James Cagney. She was underrated as an actress, too.
It’s also worth checking out her version of “April In Paris" in her 1952 movie of the same name.
No fool, she. Have a great weekend.
China House
Pacific Grove
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