Ever wonder what's the big deal about Rosetta Tharpe?

Ever even heard of Rosetta Tharpe?

Don't let it get you down, few have.

Born Arkansas in 1914, Tharpe was the daughter of Katie Bell Nubin, a popular touring gospel singer of the time. Alleged to have “mastered’ the guitar by the age of six, she was certainly performing with her mother by that age, mastery or not, and continued to earn her living performing for the next 50-ish years.

She signed with Decca records in her early twenties and immediately began making hit Gospel records. She would later cross over from Billboard’s Gospel charts to the “Race” charts on several occasions, a feat that to my knowledge had never been accomplished before and rarely since.

If you like Gospel Music and the Blues, two things we clearly love around here, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is well worth looking into.

You can start here.

This performance was recorded in Manchester, England in 1964 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival recordings of the early 60s, which we keep encouraging people to go out and buy mostly because we just love it.

Just sayin'.

This is Sister Rosetta Tharpe on her 1963 Gibson SG Custom guitar, which I don't think anybody even bothered to plug in.  I can't figure out anyone else in the band ... yet.

Didn't It Rain.

We received a link to this vid from Hollow L. first I think, followed by some others, all in response to last week's meteor hit on Russia and hadn't found the opportunity to watch it.

Then we saw it this morning on Jesse's Cafe Americain.

Evidently, Jesse has some time on his hands that we don't lately.

From The Atlantic.

A more accurate title for this wonderful photo essay might have been "The U.S. in 1963", although they do offer a nice shot of tanks rolling through the streets of Baghdad.

The more things change ......

As always, click on the photo below or the little gear up there for this outstanding photo essay.

50 Years Ago: The World in 1963

A half century ago, much of the news in the United States was dominated by the actions of civil rights activists and those who opposed them. Our role in Vietnam was steadily growing, along with the costs of that involvement. It was the year Beatlemania began, and the year President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin and delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Push-button telephones were introduced, 1st class postage cost 5 cents, and the population of the world was 3.2 billion, less than half of what it is today. The final months of 1963 were punctuated by one of the most tragic events in American history, the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Let me take you 50 years into the past now, for a look at the world as it was in 1963.

I was able to come up nothing regarding this performance of my all time favorite Supreme tune except the stuff you likely already know.

This is Diana Ross up front where she belongs, Mary Wilson (center) and Florence Ballard (left) 

The Supremes, also mostly unknown as the Primettes.

Itchin' In My Heart.

That's about as lame an ending to a Motown tune as I can imagine, but ...........

I forgot to take my medicine ...... again.

Anyway, this is the first thoughtful, mostly understandable, not politicized to the point of crushing stupidity treatment on the issue of "Global Warming" anyone around here has ever seen.

And best of all, it's pretty good entertainment.

If you're into that kind of thing.

From Suspicious Observers/ very fine You Tube site.

Energy from Space.

A Review of Key Facts and Recent Developments.

From TheNews.com

As always, click on the little gear above or the photo for the entire piece.

MOSCOW: "I was driving in the car across the square. Suddenly the square lit up with a bright, bright light, not a normal light," said Vasily Rozhko.

"There was literally three or four seconds of bright light, then back to normal. As I could see from the car, this trail appeared. Then when I was driving, the explosion went off," the resident of Chelyabinsk in central Russia told Russian television

Witnesses of the falling meteor over the Russian Urals spoke of their shock and horror Friday at seeing a giant bright light in the sky that many thought was a crashing plane, followed by a loud explosion that blew out windows in many buildings.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.”

I knew a transsexual guy whose only ambition is to eat, drink, and be Mary.

I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed.

By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.

Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?

Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice”?

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front-row seat.

The future will soon be a thing of the past.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Cloud nine gets all the publicity, but cloud eight actually is cheaper, less crowded, and has a better view.

I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I’m listening to it.

Most people with low self-esteem have earned it.

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

When you think about it, attention-deficit disorder makes a lot of sense. In this country there isn’t a lot worth paying attention to.

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.

It's Westminster week, which means I'm spending the evening in front of the fire watching the dog show with the little wiffer.

Which is an infinitely better pastime than reading the chronically depressing crap I tend to gravitate towards.

And since the dog show was threatened some by the blizzard that swept through the Northeast over the past couple days, I figured dogs in the snow offered an appropriate respite from the news of the day.

Christopher Jordan Dorner has likely killed three people and presently is the subject of maybe the single greatest manhunt in American history with a million dollar price on his head.

In the process, he has so thoroughly spooked the LAPD that they are now randomly firing on innocent civilians, and/or refusing to leave their homes.

"Those of you who 'go along to get along' have no backbone and destroy the foundation of courage. You are the enablers of those who are guilty of misconduct. You are just as guilty as those who break the code of ethics and oath you swore."

We just spent an hour and a half going through Mr. Dorner's "manifesto" for lack of a better word.

Whoa ..... is about all we can think to say.

Click on the above or Mr. Dorner's photo for the entire 6,000 or so word piece of work

Recommended.