Shane come back...

 

sub hunting bay of biscay d-day...

On the eve of the Normandy invasion, the German Kriegsmarine (navy) had 35 operational U-boats located in the Biscay ports of which nine were equipped with snorkels. With the onset of the invasion, the Germans dispatched these nine snorkel boats into the Channel while seven non-snorkel U-boats accompanied them as far as the area between the Isles of Scilly and the Start Point in Devon. As additional U-boats became available, they too were dispatched to join the effort including 19 U-boats from Germany and Norway that were diverted into the contested area. Unfortunately for the Germans, these U-boats ran into a gauntlet of Allied defenses. This included 29 squadrons from RAF Coastal Command’s No. 19 Group that saturated the western approaches and Bay of Biscay thus subjecting the transiting U-boats to the most intense aerial interdiction effort yet encountered. They also faced substantial naval forces including ten support groups that patrolled the western entrance to the English Channel and the area beyond Land’s End. The result was a slaughter of immense proportions. Of the Biscay-based U-boats, eight were sunk while most of the rest were forced to turn back due to battle damage or exhaustion. Of the 19 U-boats circumventing Britain from the north, the situation was even worse as ten were sunk before month’s end while three more aborted their southward trek. When added to four U-boats that were sunk off Norway, this brought to a total of 22 U-boats that were sunk in Western European waters during June 1944. Against this loss, only a handful of U-boats were able to penetrate the Allied defences and engage elements of the invasion fleet. Of these, even fewer scored successes sinking a paltry three American liberty ships worth 21,550 tons, a LST and the British frigates Mourne and Blackwood. Given the size of the Allied invasion fleet, these losses had no practical impact on the Allied build-up in Normandy. Pictured here is the British frigate Holmes attacking a suspected U-boat off Normandy. McNeill, M H A (Lt), Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain]. For more information on this and other related topics, see The Longest Campaign, Britain’s Maritime Struggle in the Atlantic and Northwest Europe, 1939-1945.

BRIAN WALTER
 

Ruth Brown, If I can't sell it, I'll sit on it

Bull Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch

R. Crumb & his Cheap Suit Serenaders - My Girl's Pussy

for bonnie a...

 and many more...

Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to it's heat
Your temperature's too hot for taming
Your flaming feet are burning up the street

I am homeless come and take me
Into the reach of your rattling drums
I gotta know babe all about my fortune
Down along my restless palms

Gypsy gal, you've got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes so fast and slashing
And your flashing diamond teeth

The night is pitch black, come and make my
Pale face fit in the place, ah please
I gotta know babe, I'm nearly drowning
If it's you, my lifelines trace

I've been wonderin' all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding
I know I'm 'round you but I don't know where

You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh half ways off my heels
I got to know babe, will you surround me?
So I can know if I'm really real

spanish harlem incident...

 Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem

Cannot hold you to it's heat
Your temperature's too hot for taming
Your flaming feet are burning up the street

I am homeless come and take me
Into the reach of your rattling drums
I gotta know babe all about my fortune
Down along my restless palms

Gypsy gal, you've got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes so fast and slashing
And your flashing diamond teeth

The night is pitch black, come and make my
Pale face fit in the place, ah please
I gotta know babe, I'm nearly drowning
If it's you, my lifelines trace

I've been wonderin' all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding
I know I'm 'round you but I don't know where

You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh half ways off my heels
I got to know babe, will you surround me?
So I can know if I'm really real

how does it feel with your head under that in your leopardskin pillbox hat...

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And they furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says, she knows me well
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that
But then again there's only one I've met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
And punched my cigarette"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he'd lost control
When I speed built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Now, the senator came down here
Showing everyone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
An' me, I nearly got busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck?

Oh, Mama, is this really the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Now the T-Preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved to him
Then I whispered and said, "Not even you can hide
You see, you're just like me
I hope you're satisfied"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Now, the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, "Jump right in"
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

When Ruthie says, "Come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon"
An' I say, "Aw, come on, now
You know you know about my debutante"
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?

Now, the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice

Oh, Mama, is this really the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again? 

chief dan george...

 June 24, 1899: Happy Birthday, Chief Dan George. Yes, he really was a chief of a First Nations tribe; the Tsleil-Waututh tribe of British Columbia. He made only a handful of movies, but he is memorable in every one of them. Born Geswanouth Slahoot, he was given the name Dan Slaholt as his “English” name and then the surname George when he was sent to a Canadian boarding school to be assimilated into white Canadian society. He worked at a number of jobs over the years and it was not until 1960, when he was 60 that Chief Dan George began acting when he landed a part on a Canadian TV series, “Cariboo Country”. He did his first film work in 1969 for Disney in “Smith!”. Dan George’s work in Arthur Penn’s “Little Big Man”, alongside Dustin Hoffman, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Over the next 10 years, Chief Dan George appeared in a dozen films including “Harry and Tonto” with Art Carney, “The Bears and I” for Disney, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” with Clint Eastwood, and in the TV miniseries “Centennial”. In addition to acting, Dan George was a published poet and his “My Heart Soars” was quoted as part of the opening ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:

“The beauty of the trees,

the softness of the air,

the fragrance of the grass,

speaks to me.

And my heart soars.”

Chief Dan George died in 1981 at the age of 82.

be bop and more...

 had a little John Coltrane bag yesterday. Unbelievable what that man got from his horn.

While I was parsing the media player checked out a number of compilations from that marvelous but very short recent era when the EU was knocking out the highest quality music cd's by the boatloads.

As usual got sidetracked down Louis Armstrong lane and plucked a couple of tunes from the top album.

they went past in the usual fashion but this morning when I booted up the lptp the first thing that cam out was C Jam Blues by Louis and it stood up with the rest.

I hunted through an amazing collection of Armstrongs albums in google images while telling mhself that my one, the one I wanted would not be there but right at the bottom hey presto.

High Society indeed.

grooving on my two favourite coltrane lp's...

 

money for crissakes...

 

how badly do you want it...

 

Groovin' - The Young Rascals

reserve bank act. a very efficient bill...

 

this is the life...

 yep.

memo to Gisborne...

 sorry to hear of the floods.

now my advice is to flood the east coast with acorns

do not listen to the naysayers.

real forests will arise in 20 years

faster than anything else

dig?

p.s. there is no quick fix for the injuries done to the earth but here is a start.

keep ya busy hehehe...