Ronnie and the Daytonas - Little GTO

Today marks the official passing of the Pontiac automobile, established in 1926. To mark the occasion, here's one of the best-known car songs of the past fifty years. Adios, Pontiac -- rust in peace.

The Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

H/t Chris Bowers.

Darkbasicer - Parking Lot Blues

More piano playing, this time from a YouTuber playing at home. The world is full of music -- you just have to look for it.

Del Wood - Down Yonder

An anomaly: a piano instrumental that became a country music hit.

Alan Parsons Project - I Wouldn't Want to be Like You

Eventually you're going to meet someone who makes you feel like this. It's just a matter of time.

Big Mamou - Doug Sahm and Queen Ida

From the album The Return of the Formerly Brothers.

Frank Rich on Obama the Politician and the Financial Sector

Mr Rich as usual makes a good case.

Since Obama has neither aggressively pursued the crash’s con men nor compellingly explained how they gamed the system, he sometimes looks as if he’s fronting for the industry even if he’s not. Voters are not only failing to give the White House credit for its economic successes but finding it guilty of transgressions it didn’t commit. The opposition is more than happy to pump up that confusion. When Mitch McConnell appeared on ABC’s “This Week” last month, he typically railed against the “extreme” government of “the last year and a half,” citing its takeover of banks as his first example. That this was utter fiction — the takeover took place two years ago, before Obama was president, with McConnell voting for it — went unchallenged by his questioner, Christiane Amanpour, and probably by many viewers inured to this big lie.

Paul Simon - Long, Long Day

Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling in Love

Count Basie - Green Onions

Basie does one for the kids, in a sense. Or that would have been the case in 1966 or so.

Booker White - Aberdeen Mississippi Blues

Also frequently spelled Bukka. His driving rhythm gave him obvious appeal for the young musicians of the early sixties who went on to create rock music a few years later.

Krugman on China as Economic Partner and Economic Competitor

China may be the best eaxmple of a frenemy that the US has. Dealing with it effectively requires a sort of cautious strength. Krugman, as usual, nails the essential points.

Major economic powers, realizing that they have an important stake in the international system, are normally very hesitant about resorting to economic warfare, even in the face of severe provocation — witness the way U.S. policy makers have agonized and temporized over what to do about China’s grossly protectionist exchange-rate policy. China, however, showed no hesitation at all about using its trade muscle to get its way in a political dispute, in clear — if denied — violation of international trade law.

Nada's lack of curiosity is curious in itself

Nothing today, sorry.

The King's Singers - Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy

The Paul Simon song performed a capella.

In Memoriam A.G.

November 17, 1977 -- October 14, 2010





Requiescat in pace et in amore.

Krugman on the Mortgage Foreclosure Mess

So it's a little sloppy of me to link to Krugman two days in a row, but hey, when he's good, he's good.

True to form, the Obama administration’s response has been to oppose any action that might upset the banks, like a temporary moratorium on foreclosures while some of the issues are resolved. Instead, it is asking the banks, very nicely, to behave better and clean up their act. I mean, that’s worked so well in the past, right?

The response from the right is, however, even worse...

Krugman on the research behind this year's Economics Nobel, and why it's relevant

This posting is actually from a few days ago, but it's too good not to use.

So, this line of research concerns the fact that many markets, and above all the labor market, don’t fit the classic supply-and-demand paradigm, in which prices quickly rise or fall so as to ensure that everyone who wants to buy finds someone willing to sell and vice versa. Instead, the labor market, or the housing market, is one in which heterogeneous sellers confront heterogeneous buyers, and it takes time and effort to find appropriate matches. That’s why the unemployment rate isn’t zero at “full employment”; it’s why structural unemployment is an issue.

Opener to "Route 66" US TV series, 1960--64

What Don Draper's young colleagues watched every week. Draper's adventure fantasy was his own life.

Gene Vincent - Be-Bop-A-Lula

As one of the commenters on YouTube said,"Squid pro sweeps him and a beast, he sweeps pro squid and a crossbow." Or at least that's how the online translator rendered the Portuguese "ibop pro lula ele e uma besta, ibop pro lula ele  e uma besta."

Krugman on "Big Government Spending"

Dr K on the size of the stimulus, the size of the recovery, and (once again) Obama's messaging.

Actually, the administration has had a messaging problem on economic policy ever since its first months in office, when it went for a stimulus plan that many of us warned from the beginning was inadequate given the size of the economy’s troubles. You can argue that Mr. Obama got all he could — that a larger plan wouldn’t have made it through Congress (which is questionable), and that an inadequate stimulus was much better than none at all (which it was). But that’s not an argument the administration ever made. Instead, it has insisted throughout that its original plan was just right, a position that has become increasingly awkward as the recovery stalls.

Solomon Burke - Cry To Me

Goodbye, Mr. Burke.

John Lennon - Working Class Hero

Oops, lost track of time. Let's honor the man of the day.

The Drifters - This Magic Moment

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five - Oriental Strut

Recorded in 1926.

Queen - '39 (Live 1977)

The Chiffons - One Fine Day

Some more girl group music. "Girl group" in this case refers very specifically to groups from the early to mid sixties, usually performing material written and produced by Brill Building talent In this case, that BB songwriting talent was Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

The Orlons - South Street

Frank Rich on Why O'Donnell Is Not Bad For the GOP (Despite What You've Heard)

FR explains.

By latching on to O’Donnell’s growing presence, the Rove-Boehner-McConnell establishment can claim it represents struggling middle-class Tea Partiers rather than Wall Street potentates and corporate titans. O’Donnell’s value is the same as that other useful idiot, Michael Steele, who remains at the Republican National Committee only because he can wave the banner of “diversity” over a virtually all-white party that alternately demonizes African-Americans, Latinos, gays and Muslims.

Cousin Joe - Crippled Crab

Some more New Orleans piano.

Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway - Where Is The Love

Remembering Donny Hathaway on what would have been his sixty-fifth birthday -- this is the one that sticks in my head. Roberta Flack was already an established star when this was song was released, but it was the first time a lot of us had heard him. It made an impression.