New Years Eve - 1957

Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians ring in the New Year. Wonderful period piece from the immediate pre-Mad Men era. The shameless and incessant plugging of the sponsor, viewed now in Time's sepia-tinted glow, seems not so much mercenary as charming.

Digby on Republican Double Standards

Love this story. Hadn't heard it before.

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that American singers could get themselves in big trouble by going to a foreign country and criticizing the President of the United States. They had their records burned, were subjected to death threats and blackballed from radio stations.

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

I could be posting something appropriate to the season, but the hell with it, this is what I feel like hearing. "Maiden Voyage" has gradually worked its way up from being an admired composition by a respected young jazz musician to being a jazz standard. Of course, it took a few decades for it to make that journey. From 1965, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor sax, Hancock on piano, with Hancock's Miles Davis bandmates Ron Carter and Tony Williams on bass and drums respectively.

Krugman on Economic Growth in the Zero Decade

His comments are, let us say, Krugman-esque:

Let me quote from a speech that Lawrence Summers, then deputy Treasury secretary (and now the Obama administration’s top economist), gave in 1999. “If you ask why the American financial system succeeds,” he said, “at least my reading of the history would be that there is no innovation more important than that of generally accepted accounting principles: it means that every investor gets to see information presented on a comparable basis; that there is discipline on company managements in the way they report and monitor their activities.” And he went on to declare that there is “an ongoing process that really is what makes our capital market work and work as stably as it does.”

So here’s what Mr. Summers — and, to be fair, just about everyone in a policy-making position at the time — believed in 1999: America has honest corporate accounting; this lets investors make good decisions, and also forces management to behave responsibly; and the result is a stable, well-functioning financial system.

What percentage of all this turned out to be true? Zero.

Willie Nelson - Stardust

To mark the passing of songwriter Hoagy Carmichael on this date in 1981, here's "Stardust" by the pride of Abbott, Texas, Mr. Willie Nelson.

Big Brother & The Holding Company - Summertime

RIP James Gurley. I actually posted this song last August as one of several versions of the Gershwin standard, but now post it to mark the passing of Gurley, who plays lead guitar on it. According to some of the comments in news articles, he was probably more responsible than anyone else for bringing the sense of freedom and openness that in the hands of people like Jerry Garcia marked the guitar styles of the Summer of Love. On "Summertime" he cuts loose, tears it up, explodes the instrument, etc. But it's all still music.

Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa

H/t BarbinMD @ DailyKos.