THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
Break Out Area
Charles wrote: "Good news for GoodReads - they're rolling out re-reading! Very beneficial for the annual challenge, that's for sure.More info here:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/8......"
I think it's a good move by GR, Charles.
There are a few books that I love to re read every so often.
message 1505:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Tony wrote: "Charles wrote: "Good news for GoodReads - they're rolling out re-reading! Very beneficial for the annual challenge, that's for sure."I'm sure many will love that.
Being a slow reader with an eve..."
Good facility but I'm like you Tony.
There are a few I reread every so often, so I agree it's a good move by GR
There are a number of books I read over again from time to time. The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
Dune
And in a World War II vein.
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
A Time for Trumpets
A Bridge Too Far
I would not be embarrassed one bit to go to my Spitfire (or any airplane) with my walker at age 100 if I can still fly it:https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2856272...
So cool!
Doing pretty good for his age although I wouldn't be too keen seeing him getting into the cockpit of a plane I was a passenger in :)
So I am sharing this here, though I am not expecting a resounding response, since it isn't related to the group in any real way. The online comic I was writing for has become avaliable for purchase on Amazon. Here is the link for it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WRWNPQQ/...
If you decide to get a copy I hope you enjoy it.
thx
I hope it does well Dj, congrats on being published!
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I hope it does well Dj, congrats on being published!"Not much congratulations needed there. It is self published. Errors and all. I hope it does well, but I will accept what comes one way or the other.
Haven't quit my day job yet. LOL.
Dj wrote: "So I am sharing this here, though I am not expecting a resounding response, since it isn't related to the group in any real way. The online comic I was writing for has become avaliable for purchase..."Best of luck to you, Dj. I hope it's a resounding success.
Manray9 wrote: "Dj wrote: "So I am sharing this here, though I am not expecting a resounding response, since it isn't related to the group in any real way. The online comic I was writing for has become avaliable f..."Thank you. It would certainly make my year.
Best of luck Dj. May the world of publishing be a success for you.
Damn, I guess I'll have to move Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam up a few places on my 'to-read' list. I'm frankly amazed that President Dumb-ass made such an apparently good choice for National Security Advisor...P.S.: Good for you, Dj! Best of luck!
Liam wrote: "Damn, I guess I'll have to move Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam up a few places on my 'to-read' list...."I have the book as well and will have to move it up too. Let's keep the political comments oriented on the appropriate historical context and not on current politics/politicians.
For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with Gil Evan in 1958. But I've discovered a stellar version by Shelly Manne and His Men recorded live at the Black Hawk in San Francisco in 1959. It's from the live album At the Black Hawk, Vol. 1. Very cool and very bluesy with great piano work by Victor Feldman and the exquisite trumpet of Joe Gordon.Here it is from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCaN2...
Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with Gil Evan in 1958..."Thanks, Manray9. I've heard Shelly Manne and His Men on John Pizzarelli's "Radio Deluxe" show, but it's cool to see the video. I've spent the last few days listening to a lot of Larry Coryell (who passed earlier this week and was inspirational to me as a jazz guitarist). The first time I heard him, he was playing Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" which is written for piano by adapted wonderfully by him and performed live in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95rnw...
Paul wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with ..."Paul: I read of the passing of Coryell. I saw him in concert back in the early seventies when I was a college student.
I have just read another good book about 14th Intelligence (The Det) The controversial Northern Irish conflict close quarter intelligence group. One Up: A Woman in Action with the SAS It is well worth a read for anyone interested in this area of military history.
Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with Gil Evan in 1958..."What a weird coincidence; I just heard that Shelly Manne version of 'Summertime', of which I had not been previously aware, on the radio while mopping the floor at my new second job early Saturday morning. I quite liked the track, and found it interesting that even though I'm not particularly an aficionado of Manne's music, his style is so distinctive that I knew he was the drummer before the song ended & the line-up was announced by the DJ...
I had not heard of Larry Coryell's passing until just now; more sad news for the world of music. A couple of weeks ago I was at a friend's record store looking at a copy of the 'Level One' LP by The Eleventh House, which featured Coryell along with the absolutely brilliant Alphonse Mouzon, who is one of my favorite drummers, and also the great bass player John Lee, whom I was lucky enough to see when he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie's band at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 1989.
P.S.: Apologies to Mike & anyone else who may have been offended by my comment above. Obviously working two full-time jobs simultaneously is already having a deleterious effect on my judgement vis-a-vis what is or is not appropriate...
Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with ..."Liam: I know the Eleventh House music too. Alphonse Mouzon was the drummer with the original Weather Report with Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, and Airto Moreira.
Fat Tuesday is opun us, but where I am supposed to find these babies ? https://crazypolishguy.wordpress.com/...
Dimitri wrote: "Fat Tuesday is opun us, but where I am supposed to find these babies ? https://crazypolishguy.wordpress.com/..."
Hmm, it would seem that they are just a jelly or cream filled doughnut. How hard can it be to find those, although it does seem that you need to find ones with powdered as opposed to glazed sugar. I would imagine that most good bakery's would have them. They probably don't call them what the Poles do. You can if you want though.
Dimitri wrote: "Fat Tuesday is opun us, but where I am supposed to find these babies ? https://crazypolishguy.wordpress.com/..."
No Dunkin' Donuts in Belgium? ;-)
We have them here along with fastnachts, which are generally not filled. Both are delicious.
Manray9 wrote: "No Dunkin' Donuts in Belgium? ;-)"No, they're present in Germany but they get around to expanding their market here. "Panos", a Belgian bread-and-pastry chain, stocks basic varieties of donut (plain, pink and chocolate) of very mediocre quality. Maybe something went wrong when the Americans liberated us.
Dimitri wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "No Dunkin' Donuts in Belgium? ;-)"No, they're present in Germany but they get around to expanding their market here. "Panos", a Belgian bread-and-pastry chain, stocks basic variet..."
There is at least one in England as well, that one is a real diet breaker shop, it is paired up with a Baskin Robbins.
Dimitri wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "No Dunkin' Donuts in Belgium? ;-)"No, they're present in Germany but they get around to expanding their market here. "Panos", a Belgian bread-and-pastry chain, stocks basic variet..."
One of the least positive aspects of liberation would have been Dunkin' Donuts.
Unfortunately, American junk food is too common as an export commodity. Several decades ago, when I was still a naval officer, my ship docked in Saudi Arabia. I was excited to sample the mysteries of the Near East. Walking to end of the pier, the first shopping strip encountered boasted a bright and shiny Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. I didn't steam halfway around the world to enjoy liberty at KFC! I pushed on to find a local eatery.
carl wrote: "stop on in ! http://www.slovacekwesttexas.com/bakery/"
Enticing, but still not enough of a reason to make me go to Texas again. LOL.
ok, it would be a bit of a road trip for most of you (all).
I'm making enquires for a friend here in Australia who wants to buy some original WW2 flying goggles for his father, anyone have any ideas/suggestions where he can look to make such a purchase?
I think a lot of that stuff has gone online to eBay, but you could just be paying a lot for a knock-off unfortunately. I found some of the country antique shops used to be a treasure trove for these things (weirdly, northern NSW thanks to Singleton and Williamstown), but most of the time you have to go in and ferret about, as the owners haven't a scooby as to what they have in stock.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I'm making enquires for a friend here in Australia who wants to buy some original WW2 flying goggles for his father, anyone have any ideas/suggestions where he can look to make such a purchase?"Rick-
There's a company here in the states of which I've been a customer for more than twenty years now, who used to get, and occasionally still have, amazing military surplus from around the world. One of the first things I ever bought from them was a pair of early 1950s vintage Bundesgrenzschutz jack-boots, which are probably the best boots I've ever owned- every time I wear them, people stop me on the street to ask where I got them! Right now, in addition to the above, I have a pair of '80s Bundesarmee enlisted men's uniform boots, '70s Volksarmee EM boots, 2 pairs of '90s Czech Army boots (mine & my wife's), '70s or '80s French Foreign Legion paratrooper boots, and probably 3 or 4 pairs of various engineer/motorcycle boots in various stages of wear- all of which I purchased for very little money from the same place. The company is called Sportsman's Guide, and their main website is here: (http://www.sportsmansguide.com/). SG has re-organized their website several times in the last few years, and it has never been the easiest one to navigate, so here's a direct link to the military surplus section: (http://www.sportsmansguide.com/depart...). Actually, I would highly recommend this company to everyone; they have served me exceedingly well over the years, have great customer service, and I really can't say enough good things about them...
Manray9 wrote: "Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collab..."Manray9-
Yes, he was great with Weather Report as well. When I was in the last of the three high schools I attended, there was a fairly large group of us who were young musicians, playing in the school jazz band and/or our own outside bands, who hung out with each other listening to & playing music; Weather Report was one of our favorites in those days, particularly 'Heavy Weather' but earlier and later stuff as well. Some of the other things we were heavily into then were 'Spectrum' by Billy Cobham (of course), Chick Corea's 'Elektrik Band', 'School Days' by Stanley Clarke, and anything Jaco Pastorius played on, particularly his first solo LP and Al Di Meola's 'Land of the Midnight Sun', which was actually my introduction to Alphonse Mouzon's incredible drumming... Bizarrely, the city that high school was in, Wyandotte, MI (just about 4 miles south of Detroit), was truly a rhythm-section town and had an over-abundance of extremely talented drummers & bass players, many of whom had been playing together for years- but practically no guitarists at all! Obviously, most places have precisely the opposite of that situation...
I just now saw the news of Alphonse Mouzon's death this past Christmas; what an absolutely fucking terrible year 2016 was for music. So many great musicians, including several who were particular favorites of mine, passed away during the last year or so. Many of us who were active in the "punk rock" scene during the 1980s & early 1990s have been hit particularly hard by the death in early January of Mike "Gabby" Gaborno (1965-2017), who was the lead singer of a great band called the Cadillac Tramps as well as other bands; he had just turned 51 a few months before his death, and left a widow and 6-year-old son...
There is an amazingly cool video of Weather Report in 1971 with Shorter, Zawinul, Vitous, Mouzon and Dom Um Romão on YouTube; here is a link: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bIk1...). When I first saw it, about three years ago, I had posted a comment that mentioned how much I loved Mouzon's playing. To my great surprise, a few weeks later I got a notification that someone had responded to my comment- Mr. Mouzon himself, who graciously thanked me for my kind words! Not only a great drummer, but a truly great gentleman as well; he will be missed. R.I.P. Alphonse Mouzon (1948-2016)...
P.S.: R.e. Middle Eastern food- if you are ever in South-East Michigan, there is an extraordinarily good Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn, MI called Cedarland, which I would highly recommend; a bit further down the street is the New Yasmeen Bakery, which is one of the oldest & best of the numerous Middle Eastern pastry shops in the area...
Thanks for that link Liam, very much appreciated.
Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collaboration with ..."Liam: As I get old, the music I listen to ages as well. Two recent albums I can't get enough of are Booker Ervin's The Blues Book from 1964 -- including the unparalleled No Booze Blooze -- and Curtis Fuller's Blues-ette recorded on the Savoy label in 1959.
Manray9 wrote: "Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Miles Davis' collab..."Yes, I've noticed that tendency in myself as well, Manray9; I never would have predicted as a kid that as I got older, the percentage of Jazz would eventually completely outweigh all the other styles of music I listen to. Great minds, right? I have not yet managed to get hold of a copy of 'Blues-ette', though I was lucky enough to find a cd of 'Boss Of The Soul-Stream Trombone' a few weeks ago for only a few dollars. I presume you are familiar with Fuller's work as a member of the Jazz Messengers? I find that I simply can't get enough of 'Free For All', 'Indestructible' & ''S Make It'... Curtis Fuller is one of my favorite musicians ever; it made me sick that I missed his performance at the Detroit Jazz Festival a couple of years ago. That was the first time in years that he had played a gig in his home town, and I really hope he plays here again soon...
I haven't really listened to much of Booker Ervin's work, aside from the recordings he made with Charles Mingus. He did some nice playing on several of those albums, which I quite liked.
Are you familiar with Gary Bartz? He was in the Jazz Messengers briefly in the late 1960s, right after Wayne Shorter left, then replaced Wayne in the Miles Davis band in 1970. He had a minor hit with 'Music Is My Sanctuary' in the mid-1970s, did a great record with Alphonse Mouzon around the same time, and last I heard was leading a small group with Kirk Lightsey on piano. I was originally introduced to his playing via Miles' 'Live-Evil' LP when I was a teenager, and recently was lucky to find a copy of the album he made as leader of the Candid All Stars in 1990, 'There goes the Neighborhood!', which despite being somewhat difficult to find is absolutely great and has been in heavy rotation on my car stereo lately while I drive around for work...
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Thanks for that link Liam, very much appreciated."You are quite welcome!
Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "For any jazz lovers in the group: Summertime from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is certainly a jazz standard. There are many great renditions, including Mil..."Liam: Bartz and I are Baltimoreans. I've had his JuJu Street Songs since it came out in 1972. Check out his version of Stevie Wonder's Black Maybe with the vocal by Andy Bey.
For those of you who get the cable channel NBCSN, I just watched an hour show on the Reno Air Race of this yr. Saw several heats.Most interesting for our group was the T-6 Texan class and the open modified class which has the P-51s and a Sea Fury. What great stuff.
They threw in a few archive WW2 footage too to educate the viewers. Lots of folks in attendance. There's another show on March 25th. doesn't say what the contents are, but hope it's the finale.
I'm going to be away for a few days, going on a road trip with my father to visit a military vehicle gathering in rural New South Wales:https://www.corowaswim-in.org/
I should be back on Sunday so take care of the site and try not to break anything while I am away! :)
Have a wonderful time in New South Wales!
I'm hoping it will be fun :)
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
The Shepherd (other topics)The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View (other topics)
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View (other topics)
New Contributions to the History of the Ukrainian Language (other topics)
Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Frederick Forsyth (other topics)Edward N. Luttwak (other topics)
Edward N. Luttwak (other topics)
Michael Moser (other topics)
Mary Elise Sarotte (other topics)
More...
I'm sure many will love that.
Being a slow reader with an ever-expanding tbr list, I rarely reread. There are just too many shiny new books for me to crack open.