It's Blues day at Reader Rant. Telling our troubles to the world with a plaintive tune got into the lifeblood of the music scene right in the heart of Chicago. Whether it was about a woman, a man, a job, or just how life treated us in general we all sang or listened to the Blues. Here is a small sample of great songs that expressed an important part of the American soul. Just click on the pictures, and enjoy!



Christina Aguilera



John Lee Hooker[/i]


Robert Johnson


Stray Cats



The Blues Brothers



Today In History~

1791 - John Stone patented the pile driver on this day. Let’s all go pound on some concrete to celebrate.

1849 - Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, IL applied for a patent for a device to lift vessels over shoals by means of inflated cylinders. Lincoln received the patent in May, 1849. You thought he was just the President of the United States, didn’t you? Honest. Abe was an inventor, too!

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell sent the first clear telephone message -- into a nearby room -- to his assistant, Mr. Watson. “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” were the first words spoken into the invention that Bell had created.

1903 - Harry C. Gammeter of Cleveland, OH patented the multigraph duplicating machine. Why it wasn’t called the Gammeter is beyond our thought processes...

1913 - William Knox literally bowled ’em over at the American Bowling Congress tournament held in Toledo, OH. Knox rolled the first perfect 300 game in tournament competition.

1922 - Variety magazine greeted readers with the front-page headline that read, “Radio Sweeping Country - 1,000,000 Sets in Use.” Today, that very headline would have also said, “Be the Twelfth Caller and Win Free Movie Tickets!”

1935 - Nelson Eddy recorded Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life for Victor Records. The song came from the film, Naughty Marietta. Later, Eddy recorded the classic tune with Jeanette MacDonald.

1937 - An audience of 21,000 jitterbuggers jammed the Paramount Theatre in New York City to see a young clarinetist whom they would crown, ‘King of Swing’ on this night. The popular musician was Benny Goodman.

1938 - The day: the 10th of the month. The movies being celebrated were for the year 1937, whose numbers add up to 10 (1+9, 3+7); and it was the 10th Annual Academy Awards. We wonder if these winners were superstitious or had some reason to think that the number 10 was lucky. Two awards were won by The Life of Emile Zola, a Warner Bros. movie, produced by Henry Blanke, Best Picture honors and Best Actor in a Supporting Role to Joseph Schildkraut. Other lucky recipients of the coveted prize awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at Los Angeles’ Biltmore Hotel were Leo McCarey as Best Director for The Awful Truth; Spencer Tracy for his Best Actor role (Manuel) in Captains Courageous; Luise Rainer for her Best Actress role (O-Lan) in The Good Earth; Alice Brady as the Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Molly O’Leary In Old Chicago) and Harry Owens for his Best Music/Song, Sweet Leilani from Waikiki Wedding. We give them all a ‘10’.

1941 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that their players would wear batting helmets during the 1941 baseball season. General Manager Larry MacPhail (he started the Dodger dynasty in the thirties) predicted that all baseball players would soon be wearing the new devices. He was right.

1955 - The last broadcast of The Silver Eagle was heard on radio. It was said to be the last of the adventure stories on the air.

1956 - Julie Andrews was 19 years old this night when she made her American TV debut. She appeared with Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson in the musical adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s play, High Tor.

1959 - Sweet Bird of Youth, a play by Tennessee Williams, opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York City. The play starred Geraldine Page, Paul Newman, Rip Torn and Diana Hyland. Critics called Page “fabulous” and about Newman, they said, “the perfect companion piece.”

1965 - Walter Matthau and Art Carney opened in The Odd Couple, one of Neil Simon’s greatest theatrical triumphs. It would also become a hit on television, with Tony Randall playing the tidy Felix Ungar and Jack Klugman as slovenly sportswriter, Oscar Madison. The play opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City.

1985 - Dick Motta of the Dallas Mavericks became the fourth coach in the National Basketball Association to win 700 games in a career as the Mavs defeated the New Jersey Nets 126-113. The three other winningest coaches in NBA history to that time were: Red Auerbach (938 games), Jack Ramsey (733 games) and Gene Shue (717).

1986 - The Wrigley Company of Chicago gummed up the works by raising the price of its seven-stick pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum from a quarter to 30 cents. It was the first time the price of chewing gum had risen in six years.

1998 - The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) announced that food stamps were issued to nearly 26,000 dead people in 1995-1996; food stamps valued at $8.5 million were issued to 25,881 deceased people during that period. Who says you can’t take it with you?

Quote For The Day~

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower





Chuckle For The Day~






Picture For The Day~




La Jolla, California


Trivia For The Day~

Tigers are the largest members of the cat family.

I Got The Key

I got the key to the highway,
Dear Lord, I'm bound to go
I'm gonna roam this highway, untill the day I die

Yes, when the moon peep o'er the mountain,
Honey, I'll be on my way
I'm gonna roam this higway until the day I die

Just give me one, one more kiss, babe,
Baby, just before I go
Because I'm leavin' this mornin', I won't be back no more

So I said, "So long, so long baby",
Honey, I must say goodbye
'cause when I leave this time, I won't be back no mo'

Give me the key, key to the highway,
I'm movin' on down the line
'cause when I leave this time, I won't be back no more

Just give me one, one last kiss, baby,
Hold me in your lovin' arms
Because when I leave this time, I won't be back no more

~ John Lee Hooker

Though John Lee Hooker wrote the song it was perhaps Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee who made the song famous.

John Lee Hooker could write some great lyrics.

fixed that tiger pic for you Scoutgal

How to win at Rock, Paper, Scissors

its an unbeatable strategy

for the sci fi geeks among us

Allah Ackbar

Love Blues Day at the Reader Rant Scout - 'cept for the Stray Cats - never liked them.

Boy Schlacky, you do go all out for Halloween, don'cha?

...love the Blues Brothers

Kathy

I loves the blues, but I gotta take exception to including Christina Aguilera in that category. She's just pop and flash and puffery. There are plenty of authentic female blues artists out there that put her to shame.