dueling banjos

On You Tube, type in

Deliverance - Dueling Banjos (HQ)

uploader / channel: Gilded Entertainment Group

...and play

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you can stand here with me if you want, but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat

Jack Cassidy in an episode of Columbo

        The first episode of the Columbo series has the title, "Prescription:  Murder."  It was a TV movie in 1968.

        Compared to other episodes, the style of Columbo's personality is a little different.  He is more harsh and aggressive.

        The "People Who Decide And Advise" must have watched and said, "Soften his character.  Make him more gentle, more subtle, more circumspect."

        Some of the dialogue in Episode 1 sounds like the old movies that were based on the "hard-boiled" detective novels by Dashiell Hammett, or Raymond Chandler.  That's different from other episodes, where the way the people talk is more typical, common, perfunctory Early-1970s style.

The old-movie-type of dialogue is more stylized - like Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell Of Success ("I'd hate to take a bite out of you - you're a cookie full of arsenic") or Kathleen Turner in Body Heat ("You're not too smart, are you? - I like that in a man").

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5, 6, 7, 8!

a video on You Tube - title:

Maria & the Captain dance the Laendler

uploader / channel:  Rodgers & Hammerstein

        (1 minute and 47 seconds)

Play! - and rock out!  (Or, maybe - politely enjoy...)

        Also on You Tube, there's a tutorial for how to do this dance.

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"a smile relieves a heart that grieves"

J.A. Preston; William Hurt; Ted Danson in 1981 film, Body Heat

Saute celery:

soy sauce

garlic

rice vinegar

        (and, of course, celery)

20 minutes

...to put in a pasta salad

------------------------------------------------

        One of the aspects of Columbo that one might notice, in the year 2026, is the ubiquity of Police Detective Columbo's cigars.  He has a partially-smoked cigar between a couple of his fingers - not every time, but many times, as he goes about trying to solve a murder case.

He enters people's homes with the cigars; restaurants; public buildings....there's one scene in one episode where he is smoking a cigar in - an art gallery.  (? ! ?? !! ??? !!!)

        The early Columbo seasons were made in the 1970s, when the idea of not smoking everyplace (and later, maybe not anyplace) was just beginning.

I thought about this when I watched the 1981 film Body Heat, and after the courtroom hearing at the beginning, Ned Racine (played by actor William Hurt) and Peter Lowenstein (played by Ted Danson) go into a local cafe to have a refreshment and William Hurt smokes a cigarette right by the food being brought out of the deep-fryer near the counter.

        The first time I saw that movie, in 1982, I didn't bat an eye at that scene.

        Decades later, re-watching it for however-many-times, one day I thought, "Wait a minute, he's smoking right by food that's just been prepared and is going to be served to - somebody else...??!"  lol

        Awareness - had been taught to us, and - increased, over the years....

-----------------------------------------------

On You Tube, type in the song "Waiting On A Friend" and listen and enjoy.

It has a lot of atmosphere.

I'm just standing in a doorway

I'm just trying to make some sense...

actor Peter Falk in TV series Columbo

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oh, just one more thing...

        Columbo - the police detective Lieutenant Columbo has that tradition, when he visits with a suspect, as he is saying Good-bye and leaving, he stops, turns back around, and says to his quarry, "Oh, just one more thing..."

        Just - when the suspect thinks the interview is over and he or she is "off the hook," Columbo surprises them - catches them a little off guard, somewhat relaxed, with - one more question...just - one more thing.

The suspects are real convivial at first, and then, as the teleplay progresses, some of them start to become a little irritated, but they try to hide it.  You might say that Lieutenant Columbo sort of raises the passive-aggressive approach to new heights....

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a magnificent masterpiece - ?

 Sometimes you can see a movie and just be left with a feeling of - 'What was the point of that?'  And then go on You Tube and type in the movie, and in the Comments there are people saying, "It's magnificent!"  "A masterpiece!"

        At some point in time - I don't know when - I watched a movie called The Game.  Michael Douglas plays the main character; it came out in 1997.

some of the Comments:

--   There's just something I love about 90s - early 2000s atmospheric music for the movie trailers.  They just don't make trailers like they used to.  It's like an open book nowadays, but this movie is a gem.

--   David Fincher makes his own trailers, so that's why they're so good

--   that movie has always stayed with me.

            [not me - I cannot even remember it, except that I didn't get it...]

--   The definition of "it's just a prank bro"

--   ... Absolutely love this movie!  Older movies just hits different

--   Underrated masterpiece.  I saw this movie as a kid renting it from blockbusters based only on the cover art and the most cryptic plot summary.  One of the few times I saw a movie knowing next to nothing about it.  It was so so good.

--   It's ok but it isn't a masterpiece.  It's actually a bit weird and stupid

--   What a film.  You can only watch it once but it is a complete rollercoaster

--   One of the best movies.  You know it's good when you can watch it over and over again

--   This movie is surprising, suspenseful, and at times hilarious.  If you're bored with movies about cartoon characters that give away the entire plot in a 30 second trailer then give this film a try.  David Fincher makes some kickass movies.

Michael Douglas, promoting his autobiography (2026)

Karl Malden and Michael Douglas in Streets of San Francisco TV series  (1972 - 1977)

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in nature for a minute

 An expression that I have read and heard is "in nature."  Like - people saying, "I like to get out in nature."

        To me, the phrase sounds kind of unnatural - ironically. ...

"get out in nature" -- you mean - go for a walk?

        Or - sit out on the porch?

But then, sitting out on the porch, or cooking out in your yard or on the driveway, doesn't seem to fit in with the description "get out in nature."

        One kind of feels like to be 'out in nature,' one must be walking in the woods.

If we go for a walk on the sidewalk for a few blocks, were we "out in nature"?  We were definitely outside, but when we hear or read the phrase "out in nature" we don't really picture a walk in the city.

Earlier in my life, in past decades, I never encountered the phrase "in nature."  But now you hear it sometimes - it has come into usage, as a term.

        I recently noticed it in Bob Dylan's book, Chronicles, published in 2004:

--------------------- [excerpt] ------------- Al Capone had been a successful gangster and was allowed to rule the underworld in Chicago, but nobody wrote any songs about him.  He's not interesting or heroic in any kind of way.  He's frigid.  A sucker fish, seems like a man who never got out alone in nature for a minute in his life. ----------------------------- [end / excerpt]

        When I read this, it reminded me of the Nancy Guthrie missing persons case in Arizona: 

------------------ [Google excerpt] ----------------- The phrase "buried with nature" (or "buried in nature") was written by Nancy Guthrie's unidentified kidnapper or kidnappers in a second ransom note sent to media outlets (such as KOLD-TV) and the family in February 6, 2026.

* The Note:  The second ransom note (sent on February 6, 2026, from the same IP address as the first note) stated that the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie had died shortly after her abduction - purportedly from heart-related issues - and that she was "buried with nature now."

* Investigation Status:  The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI publicly released details and excerpts of the ransom notes to seek the public's help in identifying the author's writing style and linguistic patterns, as no suspects have been named in her disappearance. ----------------------------

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a mysterious disappearance

        The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie makes me think of this movie title.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

1938

Screenplay written by Sidney Gilliat, Alma Reville, and Frank Launder

(Alma Reville was Hitchcock's wife.)

------------------------------------------------------

        Recently some podcasters have speculated that the puzzling event in Tucson was a murder, "staged" to look like a kidnapping.

        I have listened to some lengthy podcast conversations about the case on a You Tube channel called "The Interview Room."

The front door;

the back doors;

the porch guy;

Nancy's pacemaker;

Nancy's medications;

the reward money that has been offered;

a nine-second phone call to Nancy's son-in-law;

the hoax-y ransom notes...

        The commentators on The Interview Room go over and over these things and trade ideas back and forth.  It makes me think, maybe this is one of the ways crimes get solved - just keep going over it and going over it, analyzing possibilities, until something pans out.

The sentence, "It doesn't make sense" has been said - multiple times, on all the podcasts, and in the Comments.

Rincon Peak Sunrise, Tucson, Arizona

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the lady vanishes

TUCSON - month 9.  It was at the beginning of February of this year when Nancy Guthrie disappeared.  Still no answers.  And the latest thing is, people seem to be under some kind of direction to Not Talk About Nancy.  

        From Kathie Lee Gifford to the local church ladies in Tucson, people answer, "I can't talk about that."  Or, "We've been asked not to talk about Nancy."  Or, "That door is closed."

And Sheriff Nanos showed up at a press conference with a piece of paper in his hand, and opened by saying, "I have some talking points from the family.  I'm not very good with a script..."

Since when do civilians dictate "Talking Points" to law enforcement?

Well - Nancy Guthrie, a widow, has a son and two daughters - one of those daughters is Savannah Guthrie, who is on a morning show on the NBC network.  Because she has a TV job, she is rich and famous, in addition to that, she is married to a man who worked in public relations for Bill Clinton.

        So there is a sense, among podcasters who comment and speculate on the case, that there are concerted efforts to "control the narrative" because Savannah and her husband together have knowledge and "clout" in the area of narratives.

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over in Palm Beach

 

"that big society murder over in Palm Beach"

eight words

        Referring to it as that big society murder brings the idea of the subject close to the listeners, implying their pre-existing familiarity with it.  ("you know the one!")  Capturing their interest.

        Calling it "big" communicates that it's an important murder; and using the further modifying word "society" says it's a classy murder.

        The word "murder" is powerful by itself - shocking, attention-grabbing.

And then the remaining four words:  "over in Palm Beach" -- Palm Beach means it's a classy and important location, as well as wealthy and glamorous.

        The words "over in" tells the listener that this glamorous, classy murder location is away from us, (over in; over there), but simultaneously lets us know that although this mysterious, scary, rich place is away from us, it isn't that far away, 'cause it's - right over there....

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that big society murder over in Palm Beach

 On Monday when I re-printed that Comment about The Golden Girls here, the reason I liked it was the way the speaker used the English language.

...when one of his uncles "traveled to the US for his higher studies"

his uncle was "excitedly talking" about his life in the United States

"Cut to 13 years later" (!)

..."to my luck, the show was aired..."

"Oh! How excited I was"

        excitedly talking

        to my luck

        higher studies

        cut to 13 years later!

I just love this guy's enthusiasm - both expressed and implied.

-----------------------------------------------------

As I was reviewing that Internet comment which I just had to sit down and type out, I noticed a three-by-five index card where I had noted a phrase from the show:  Blanche Devereaux hurries into the room with a newspaper in her hand, telling the other ladies about a local report on "that big society murder over in Palm Beach."

        That phrase packs a lot of information and atmosphere.

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picture it. 1989....

[comment on a You Tube video] ------------------- I am from India.  It was in the year 1989 when one of my uncles travelled to the US for his higher studies.  A month later I spoke to him on the phone and he was excitedly talking about his life in the US.  

Among the various things he mentioned was this sitcom Golden Girls.  

        He said he is watching a show on American TV named Golden Girls and it's one of the best comedies he'd ever seen.  As a 15 year old, I was so curious to watch it but unfortunately I had no way to.   It was before the Internet era and I did not have any way to find out more about this show.

Cut to 13 years later.  2002.  I was posted to Ohio for an assignment from my company.  By then the 29 year old me had forgotten all about the golden girls and what my uncle had said.  But to my luck, the show was aired on TV (a re run) and all the memories of my uncle talking about this show came back to me.  

Oh! How excited I was.  I absolutely loved it.  These ladies are lovely.  I am sure all 4 of them are entertaining the Gods above in heaven with their humour.

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origins of inspiration

 Toward the end of the book, Tina has left Ike and is in the process of rebuilding a career on her own, with her manager Roger Davies.

------------- [excerpts] --------------

        Roger Davies:  They said, "Hello, we need to get some names on your guest list - there'll be sixty-three people from Capitol coming down to the show tonight."... They asked David Bowie what he was doing that night, and he told them, "I'm going to see my favorite female singer."  They said, "Who's that?"  He said, "Tina Turner."... 

It was perfect for us.  David brought Susan Sarandon, who had starred with him in The Hunger, and he brought Keith Richards and John McEnroe - it was the weirdest combination of people.  And the show that night was fantastic - Tina had the place standing on its head.  Incredible.  It was a real event, exactly what we needed.

        Tina:  David and Keith and I posed for all kinds of pictures, and David asked when I'd be doing a new record.  We started talking about material, and after a while he said, "Let's go back to Keith's and listen to some songs."  

So around three in the morning we all headed over to Keith Richards' apartment in the Plaza Hotel.  He had this great big tape machine set up there, and you could see that he used it constantly.  

We had some champagne, and Keith cranked up his machine and started playing all this old music, and suddenly it dawned on me:  This was what these guys did.  They would go back to all this old music that they loved - blues and R and B - and they would change it around and make something of their own out of it.  

        Because the feeling that was in that old music was something they felt, too.  But they made it new again, and that was what had always attracted me to the Rolling Stones' songs.  I had never actually realized it before.  That was a magical evening.

Keith Richards at the piano, in the early days

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carrying on as usual

[excerpts from I, Tina - written by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder.  William Morrow; Harper Collins; Copyright 1986 and 2010, Tina Turner.] -------------------------

Ike's marathon stints in the studio were fine with Tina, however, as long as she didn't have to participate.  By now it was his presence at home that she dreaded.

        Tina:  It was real hard by then.  Ike got worse and worse.  You never knew what you were getting hit for; only Ike knew.  He'd just say you were "messing" with him.  He'd lock the door, and then you knew you were gonna get it.

        Bob Gruen:  Ike said that Tina was leaving him.  I said Nadja was leaving me, so we sort of had that in common, and we were discussing it.  

He said he didn't understand why.  I said, well, women today don't want to be a shadow to a man - they want to be their own individual person and pursue their own destiny.  And if you're not up to making those life-style changes . . . I mean, instead of being home with my wife and kid, I was always out somewhere drinking with some band.  

And so we were splitting.  

But I understood that Nadja wanted to live a more stable life, one that had more feeling and more meaning than a rock 'n' roll-show biz kind of scene.  I knew how happy John [Lennon] was about coming back to Yoko and stopping the drinking and the drugging, and those were things I was starting to learn, too - although it took me five years, and in the meantime I lost my wife.  But at least I knew why.  

        And I was trying to explain this to Ike - about this new feminist movement, that you can't just boss a woman around and expect to be considered a powerful man.  That you have to respect a woman, and really believe that she is an equal partner in life.  

This was something that he had never heard before, and it didn't make much sense to him.  Particularly since he was so successful in using women as sex objects, and having many of them enjoy it.  

It just didn't make sense for him when all of a sudden his own wife says, "You can't treat me like that."  He was saying that she had never acted like she was feeling bad before, and that this was the way guys were.  He just didn't get it.

        Ike attempted to carry on as usual. 

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they wanted the blues and we'd give it to them

The book I, Tina is arranged in a way where you have different people "talking."  You're reading it on the page, but you can almost "hear" them, the story-telling is so evocative.  

It will say, starting an indented paragraph, Tina: - the print is bigger than the rest of the text, and it's bold.  And after her name, it will be her telling you something.

When it's Ike telling it, you see a paragraph, indented, starting with Ike: ... etc.  In my opinion, it's very effective.

        And there are places where there are words to read, but no name is put in front of that section, then you know it's the background narrator - rock journalist Kurt Loder, who produced the book with Tina, in 1986.

Here are some excerpts from the book, starting with Harry Taylor, Tina's high school boyfriend.

        Harry Taylor:  I had to keep that thing going between Alline and John, because if he didn't go along, I couldn't get there.  I lived in Brownsville, and Anna Mae lived on this farm out around Nut Bush, down a gravel road, with no telephone.  John had a 1937 Plymouth - it was in great shape - and so after school we would get in his car and drive out to see them, following their school bus home.

        ...Sometimes Anna Mae's Uncle Gill would go out to some all-night joint out there, and Ann and I would stay at the house and sit on the porch and swing.  Or we'd just sit in the living room, you know.  Nothing like what happens today, I guess.

        Tina:  ...Well, on weeknights after work Alline had the dates.  But on weekends, she and her girlfriends would get together and they would go to see Ike Turner, first at the Club D'Lisa, and then, after hours, from about two A.M. on, at the Club Manhattan, across the river in East St. Louis.  

        None of the doctors and things that Alline was dating would go to places like that - they'd go to the high-class restaurants and cocktail bars, you know?  So Alline would go with the girlfriends.  

Because Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm were what was happening - in St. Louis, they were as big as the Beatles would be later on.  But they had a pretty rough reputation, too....

        Clayton Love:  We'd play pop music at the Club Imperial, anything they wanted.  Then we'd go to outlyin' areas, like Boonville, Missouri, and we knew what they wanted out there - they wanted the blues, and we'd give it to them.  

And some clubs, they'd just be fascinated by the moves we made.  Ike and Junior would turn a flip with their guitars onstage and never miss a beat - never.  Boy, it was something.

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"Jazz Goes to College"

One of the boldest things about Ike and Tina Turner's "Playboy After Dark" performance is them covering a Beatles song, and a Rolling Stones song - as well as the other two covers, from CCR, and Sly and the Family Stone.

        An aspect of the event that makes it kind of unique is the format of that show - it's like a party in someone's living room at home, a different vibe from how it would be if they were playing in an arena, or nightclub. 

        (Can any of us imagine having the Rolling Stones, for example, performing in our living room?)

Hugh Hefner's first television program, "Playboy's Penthouse" (1959-1961, produced in black-and-white) had the same set-up ... Sammy Davis Junior, or the Dave Brubeck Quartet, etc. - playing or singing / dancing right next to you in the 'living room.'

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oh yes, I'm touched by this show of emotion

 The dress Tina Turner wore in the "Playboy After Dark" appearance in 1969 was short and gold-colored, with rows of dangling, sparkling, identical embellishments that dance and sway and shake as Tina herself dances, and sways and shakes....

        I want to describe the dress, but I can't, really.  I wish I had a fashion writer to say it properly and tell us who the designer is, or did she just buy it off the rack...?

Movement was the key element in a design like that.

Watching the Playboy After Dark performance, one wonders if, when Tina took the dress off afterwards, in the dressing room, if maybe the dress just kept going, on its own....

1969

1997

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next, we talk about The Dress

 The Ike and Tina Turner Revue's performance on the "Playboy After Dark" television show astounds, partly because of the precision.  The dance moves and onstage emoting are fast and furious, and powerful, so an audience senses spontaneity, and wild fun - but it's practice makes something like that.

practice  -  practice  -  practice...

        Hugh Hefner is amazed by it, in real time - he calls it "the most exciting performance," and refers to "the way you all work together."

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one and one and one is three

 On You Tube, there's a video:

IKE & TINA TURNER-live at 'playboy after dark' 1969

15 minutes, 48 seconds

uploader / channel:  pieroangelo2

        Now, this performance is more than 10 years after Anna Mae (later, stage-named Tina) sang into the microphone at a nightclub in St. Louis, Missouri and felt like a star - 1969.

They come in with a fast intro-tune, and then sing "I Wanna Take You Higher" - a Sly and the Family Stone hit song of the Sixties.

Then a little conversation between Tina and Hugh Hefner about "cooking with grease" and "telling it like it is."

        And after that, three more songs:

"Come Together" (The Beatles)

"Proud Mary" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

"Honky Tonk Women (The Rolling Stones).

Unbelievable.

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Anna Mae covers a B.B. King song

*In Which Tina Wants To Go Up Onstage And Sing

[excerpt from I, Tina] ------------------ ...So I told Alline to tell Gene, her boyfriend, to ask Ike if I could try a song.  Ike said something like, "Yeah, sure, I'll call her up," but he never did....

        Finally, one night, I made my move.  It was intermission and things were quiet.  Most of the band had gone outside for some air, and Ike was up onstage by himself, just playing the organ.  

He stayed up there sometimes between sets to avoid troubles with all his women. ... Suddenly I realized that I knew the song he was playing.  It was "You Know I Love You," the B.B. King tune....

So I took the mike, and I started singing:

        Darling, you know I love you, and love you for myself . . .

And boy, Ike - that blew him away.  He went, "Giii-rrrlll!"  And he stopped playing the organ and he ran down off that stage.... He said, "I didn't know you could really sing.  What else do you know?"...

        I said, "Everything they play on the radio."  I told him I knew some Little Willie John songs and some of the blues stuff, and a lot of the things that he and the band were playing.  

So Ike started playing the things that I knew, and I started singing, and the band began drifting back in....Soon they're going, "Girl, you can siiing!"  

It was the first time I ever felt like a star.

---------------------------------------------

{I, Tina - by Tina Turner with Kurt Loder.  Published in 1986 by William Morrow.  Copyright 1986, 2010 by Tina Turner.}

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