CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, the substitutes lying-in-wait and ....... those you never have to wait for (except on weekends) - the C&J army.

CHEERS to Thanksgiving - I'll be travelling tomorrow to visit family/friends the rest of the week. I may do a drive-by in the interim; otherwise, a Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow U.S. readers, and see you again next week.

ART NOTES - an exhibit on the work of Finnish architect Eero Saarinen entitled "Shaping the Future" is at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan through March of 2008.

MUSIC NOTES - the veteran saxophonist Charles Lloyd will perform with his band Sangam when Al Gore receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway this coming December 10th.
A saxophonist performing with two percussionists (a drummer and a tabla player) sounds weird - but worked fabulously when I saw them at the Montréal JazzFest two years ago.

PORTLAND Meet-Up ACTION PHOTO of the day: BiPM, Michael....and some of their adoring public.

TUESDAY's CHILD - was pleased that this past Saturday was Black Cat Day in Italy, where an animal-rights group is working to prevent cruelty to them (not only due to superstitious citizens, but laboratories believing that black fur can yield better results in experiments).

HOPES are high that in the Australian elections this coming Saturday, that Kevin Rudd will be able to unseat Prime Minister (and Friend of George) John Howard. Interestingly, Kevin Rudd is from Queensland, Australia's most conservative state.

SEPARATED at BIRTH - two Englishwomen: film star Kate Beckinsale and Victoria Beckham (a/k/a Posh Spice).

.........and for a song of the day....................................seeing The Who perform in the 1970's was quite a sight: singer Roger Daltrey swinging his mike like a lasso, Pete Townshend jumping and doing windmill power chords, and the late Keith Moon was a whirling dervish on drums...and then one noticed the late John Entwistle standing still while churning his bass lines, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him. "The Ox" was the glue-and-nails that held this all together - and he joined a band called The Detours with Daltrey in the early 1960's (that morphed eventually into The Who) while he was still working as a tax clerk at Inland Revenue (Britain's equivalent of the IRS). He later decided to ditch the day job - and the rest is rock history.

Proficient on several other instruments (most notably the French horn that he used on several recordings) Entwistle played his fills and countermelodies in a way that you noticed primarily on record, rather than in person. And while The Who is most noted for the songs written by the prolific Pete Townshend, John Entwistle contributed tunes with rather dark humor ("Boris the Spider" and "My Wife" prominently) and was the first bandmember to record solo albums: "Smash Your Head Against the Wall" and "Whistle Rhymes" in the early 1970's. His solo career was rather uneven, although he did eventually form The John Entwistle Band (with veteran guitarist Godfrey Townsend) that did some touring in the 1990's.

John Entwistle participated in a reunion tour with The Who in 1989 (plus brief reunion gigs now-and-then) and was in Las Vegas in June of 2002. There, he was to open an art show featuring his work at the Grammy's Art of Music Gallery, as well as begin another Who reunion tour with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, when he died of a heart attack (at age 57) at the Hard Rock Hotel. A compilation album of his work was given a title that summed up his Quiet Man status - "So Who's the Bass Player?"

Of all of his compositions, it's the song "I Wonder" (fair-use extract below) from his second solo album "Whistle Rhymes" that is my favorite, especially with its abrupt ending:

I wonder what would happen
if my dog could talk?
Would he look me in the eye
and say "Take me for a walk"?

When I gave him his dinner
would he shake his head
And say "Take it away,
I want caviar instead?"

Thank you Mother Nature
For the way you got things planned
Don't ever change a thing,
I'm happy as I am

I wonder what would happen
if the moon fell down?
Would it leave a white circle,
Where they painted around?

I wonder what would happen
if the sun went out......