The Bitter End – A Winner Never Quits

The Bitter End is one of those classic Greenwich Village venues that have been around since the 1960s. With regard to The Bitter End, the venue has been hosting live music, comedy and other entertainments since 1961.

So many famous and infamous musicians have performed at the Bitter End, that it would take a couple of pages just to list them all. However, how about these for starters: Woody Allen, America, Tori Amos, Joan Armatrading, Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Harry Chapin, Tracy Chapman, Judy Collins, Shawn Colvin, Chick Corea, Jim Croce, David Crosby, Billy Crystal, Miles Davis, John Denver, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Jose Feliciano, Steve Forbert, Steve Goodman, Stephane Grappelli, Arlo Guthrie, Bill Haley, Tim Hardin, John Hartford, Richie Havens, Gil Scott Heron, Norah Jones, Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, Patti La Belle, Jay Leno, Neil Young, Lady Gaga, and many thousands more.

I have made a point of going to The Bitter End (at 147, Bleecker Street), on both my stays in New York City. More specifically, I have made regular visits to catch the All Star Jam that performs from 10pm until late on the second and fourth Sunday of each month.

I filmed the clip embedded here, during one of the Jams in August, 2010. On drums is the shows host, Mark Greenberg, along with regular bassist Brett Bass. Singing duties on the number filmed here are by Danny Thompson (guitar and vocals). Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the other guitarist’s name, although at one point Thompson seems to refer to him as ‘Benny’.

I have a number of other clips waiting to be turned into videos and as soon as I have done so, I will upload them to my YouTube page and let you know via this blog. In the meantime, enjoy...

Visit The Bitter End website…

A Master Class in Animation From Terry Gilliam

Open Culture has fast become one of my favourite online sites. There is so much great information on there that I find myself regularly sharing interesting links and content through these pages.

Today’s Viewing List includes another nod to Open Culture for bringing the inimitable Terry Gilliam to my attention. Terry, you should know, is the legendary animator with the Monty Python team (and if you don’t know who they are, you should hang your head in shame).

Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota, and began his career as an animator and strip cartoonist, and went on to become a highly regarded screenwriter, film director, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. To name just a handfull, among his many directorial credits are Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Since this is a travel site, embedded here is a video of Gilliam’s 1974 animation, The Miracle of Flight.

If you are tempted to try making your own animations, the following 14+ minute video shows you how to make your own cut-out animations.



Thanks to Biblioklept and Open Culture for bringing this to our attention.

Famous Letters and 1880s Brooklyn

The Reading List today looks at the letters of famous (and infamous) writers of notes, letters and other correspondence. Appropriately enough, we begin with …

Letters of Note

Letters of Note is an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos. Scans/photos where possible. Fakes will be sneered at. Updated every weekday.

Fascinating correspondence from such luminaries as the writers Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, and Charles Bukowski. There is correspondence from Francis Ford Coppola to Marlon Brando; from Hunter S. Thompson to a 'Production Executive' at indie movie studio The Shooting Gallery; and a very creepy letter from Mark Chapman (the man who killed John Lennon), to an unnamed person enquiring about the possibility of auctioning his copy of Double Fantasy. The very same copy that Lennon had signed just hours before Chapman shot him! Read more...

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Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archives

Now here is something right out of the vaults. It is an online collection of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a newspaper that has been in publication since 1841.

Incredibly, the early issues of the paper, dating from 1841 until 1902, have been archived by the Brooklyn Public Library, and readers and researchers can trawl their way through 60 years worth of publications for specific names, events, and other historic information.

The screen shot here shows the cover of the edition for Thursday, May 24, 1883. It was on this day that the Brooklyn Bridge was officially opened, and in a special 12 edition, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle covered all the major particulars of the opening including guest lists, speakers, a history of the construction project, and a whole lot more.

It is fascinating stuff, and history buffs looking to capture a sense of what it must have been like living in New York City and in particular Brooklyn during the late 1880s, will get a lot out of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives.