Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Marty Brown Is From the Country But Sings From the City This Week

Marty Brown Kentucky State Fair

Marty Brown returns to the America’s Got Talent stage this Tuesday. As Marty Brown has continued his comeback with the help of America’s Got Talent, fans have been lucky to see him performing in a variety of places. Recently, he opened for Montgomery Gentry at the Kentucky State Fair. At the show, Brown played “I’m from the Country,” a song he co-wrote that became a hit for Tracy Byrd. It’s great to see him performing his hit at a sold-out show. Check it out.

Marty Brown will be back on America’s Got Talent this Tuesday, September 3, so make sure to watch and check out our previous post on how to vote by phone, Internet, and Twitter. To vote by phone, call the number they show on your screen for Marty Brown, which looks like it will be 1-866-602-4802 but double-check your TV. To vote by Internet, go here. To vote on Twitter, tweet using the hashtag #voteAGT followed by “Marty Brown.” You get one vote on Twitter but can vote up to ten times each on the phone and on the Internet (for each email address).

Voting begins 10:55 p.m. Tuesday, and the phone voting goes until 1 a.m. EST while the online and Twitter voting goes to 6:00 a.m. Wednesday. For more information and details on the voting times for your time zone, check out AGT’s website.

For another original Marty Brown song, check out “I’m Gonna Make It Fly” below, and make sure to catch the show on Tuesday, where Brown will continue to make his comeback fly. [October 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the video is no longer available but we hear that “I’m Gonna Make It Fly” is going to be a new single, so we will post a video once it becomes available.]


What song would you like to hear Marty Brown sing? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    P.T. Barnum Brings “The Swedish Nightingale” to New York

    Swedish Nightengale On September 1, 1850, Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind — “The Swedish Nightingale” — arrived in New York City from Liverpool, creating a sensation. Showman P.T. Barnum negotiated to bring Lind to the states. His idea paid off, as the tour ended up netting him nearly half of a million dollars.

    Barnum offered Lind a high price for the 150-date tour of the U.S. and Canada, an offer he increased after her first shows immediately made the tour a success. Lind agreed to the tour partly because the deal also required certain payments to charities. Her charm won over audiences, and it also helped bring opera to a wider U.S. audience.

    This scene from 1934’s The Mighty Barnum captures Barnum negotiating for Jenny Lind as he hears her sing. The film stars Wallace Beery as P.T. Barnum and Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind.

    In the scene above, Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind sings the Irish song “Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms.” Unfortunately, the real Jenny Lind lived in the very early years of recording and no known recordings of her voice survive. But there are several things named after her, including streets in Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

    Lind did live on after her triumphant American tour. She spent most of the rest of her life in England with her husband and three children. She stopped doing opera, but she performed concerts until 1883. Starting in 1882, she became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. She died in 1887, and as she had done in her lifetime, she left much of her money to charity.

    Photo: via public domain.

    What is your favorite P.T. Barnum character? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Thurgood Marshall’s 1967 Appointment to the Supreme Court

    Justice Thurgood Marshall On August 30, 1967, the United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall for the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 69-11. Thus, after almost 200 years, the country had its first African-American Supreme Court Justice. It would be even longer until the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, joined the Court in 1981.

    Marshall, of course, made history in a number of ways. While on the Court, he sided with the rights of the oppressed, becoming a fighter for equal treatment of all Americans while leading on such issues as his opposition to the death penalty.

    The following newsreel footage covers President Lyndon B. Johnson’s nomination of Marshall to the Court.

    Regarding the 69-11 Senate vote, twenty Senators abstained and did not vote.  The vote took place after what has been called a “heated” debate for six hours, with conservative Senators concerned about Marshall’s “liberal” work for Civil Rights as a lawyer.  The eleven “Nay” votes came from southern states: both Alabama Senators, both South Carolina Senators, both Louisiana Senators, and one Senator each from North Carolina (other NC Senator abstaining), Florida (other Florida Senator abstaining), Georgia (other Georgia Senator abstaining), West Virginia, and Mississippi (other Mississippi Senator abstaining).

    This short video captures some images and a few short interview excerpts from Senators involved in the nomination process. Early on, you may see New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy next to Marshall, and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy speaks about the nomination.

    Marshall’s fight for equal rights went back long before President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court. After becoming chief counsel at the NAACP at the young age of 32, he oversaw many important cases. He also won 29 cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, where the Court struck down “separate but equal” school segregation.

    By all accounts, Marshall also was a decent man and fun to be around, as he often regaled his colleagues with stories of his experiences. I have been reading Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove, which recounts a fascinating period where Marshall was involved in a case helping defend four black men accused of a 1949 crime in Florida.

    In the following video, Mike Wallace interviews Thurgood Marshall on 60 Minutes. The video is undated, but the conversation and the reference to “President Eisenhower” (and apparently to his 1956 re-election) place it within several years after Brown. I like Marshall’s response to the question about who he voted for, as well as Wallace’s promotion of the game Jotto at the end. Check it out.

    A few years back, I caught the HBO one-man show Thurgood, where Laurence Fishburne portrayed the legendary lawyer and jurist. Fishburne does a very good job of capturing various sides of Marshall and his long career, and it is worth tracking down.

    Here is the trailer.

    Thurgood Marshall remains one of the giants of American history. Although I did not learn about him while I was in grade school or probably even high school, every school child should learn about his life.

    Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

    What is your favorite story about Thurgood Marshall? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Bob Dylan and George Harrison: “Time Passes Slowly”

    One of the songs on Bob Dylan’s new “Bootleg” release, Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10(2013), is the demo “Time Passes Slowly #1.” featuring George Harrison on guitar and background vocals. Harrison stopped by one of the Self Portrait sessions and the two recorded this version of the song.

    Another version of “Time Passes Slowly” would end up on New Morning, but it is cool we get to hear this one from the vaults.

    Of course, the two played together on other occasions. Harrison played slide guitar on Dylan’s Under the Red Sky (1990) album. And Nelson Wilbury (Harrison) and Lucky Wilbury (Dylan) were part of The Traveling Wilburys.

    What is your favorite Dylan-Harrison collaboration? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    What if Nicolas Cage Were Everywhere?

    Movieclips has put together a video imagining if Nicolas Cage were to appear in many movies. And, since they label it “Volume 1,” we probably can expect even more in the future. Check out the funny Nicolas Cage Gets Around Vol 1 – Parody Nicolas Cage Mashup (2013).

    What is your favorite part of the Nick Cage mashup? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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