Lya Graf Meets J.P. Morgan
After the 1929 stock market crash, the Senate created a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the cause of the U.S economic meltdown.

After a year of hearings the committee had made little progress into the inner workings of Wall Street. With only 6 weeks left to complete the findings, Ferdinand Pecora, an assistant DA for the County of New York, was brought in to write the final report. Since little had been accomplished there wasn’t much to write so Pecora asked for a month-long extension of the hearings and he brought in the heavy-hitters of Wall Street for questioning, including J.P. Morgan.

On June 1st, 1933, J.P. Morgan was called before the committee. It was his first public appearance in 20 years!

Pecora exposed evidence that Morgan Bank had a preferred list of influential friends which included former president Calvin Coolidge and Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts. The hearings also revealed that Morgan hadn’t paid any income taxes in 1931 or 1932.

Anyway, on that same day in Washington DC, the Ringling Bros. Circus had come to town. One of the star attractions was the smallest woman in the world, Lya Graf.

As the publicity-shy Morgan sat alone at the witness table during a break he was taken by surprise when a circus promoter, looking for  a chance to use the hearings to get some publicity for his show, placed the 27 inch tall Lya in Morgan’s lap. The photographers went crazy! Despite pleas to keep the photos out of the press, all the photographers ran out of the courtroom and back to their offices. By the end of the day the image of Morgan with Graf on his lap appeared on front pages across the country and became a symbol of the hearings.

The Pecora hearings led to the creation of the SEC, the Securities Act and the now repealed, Glass Steagall Act.

Enjoy Enter The Circus by Christina Aguilera:

Cocoa from Africa’s Ivory Coast
From Egypt in the north to Cape Town at the southern tip, Africa is an amazing continent. A continent of never-ending beauty and rich in natural resources. Sad to say, the most precious resource – its people,  have been ravaged since the days of the Arab slave trade in the middle ages.

The slave trade still exists today and slavers have easy pickin’s going after the children. Some slavers simply kidnap the kids. Others buy them for as little as $30.

Many are taken to the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast, which produces 70% of the cocoa beans coming into the U.S. There,  kids usually 12-to-14-years old, but sometimes younger, are forced to work 80 to 100 hours a week carrying 13 lb. sacks on their shoulders.

Some work so hard they get sick and die. Some are imprisoned on the plantations and beaten if they try to escape. Some commit suicide.

In 2001, U.S. Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin introduced The Harkin-Engel Protocol, commonly referred to as the Cocoa Protocol. It’s an international agreement aimed at ending child labor in the production of cocoa.

The Protocol stipulated that by July 2005, the chocolate industry would develop standards of certification to develop and implement voluntary standards to certify cocoa produced without the “worst forms of child labor.”

This deadline was not met. An extension of the Protocol was agreed upon, giving industry 3 more years to implement the Protocol. Again, after 3 more years, the key promises of the Protocol have not been met.

So what can we do to force the chocolate industry to stop using from plantations where children are used as slaves? We can start by buying only Fair Trade products. Look for the logo:

Some brands that use Slave-free chocolate:

•    Equal Exchange (Whole Foods, New Seasons)
•    Endangered Species (Whole Foods, Target, New Seasons)
•    Rapunzel (Whole Foods)
•    Green and Black’s (available at Target!)
•    Newman’s Own (New Seasons, Whole Foods)
•    Tropical Source (New Season’s, Whole Foods)
•    Any fair-trade certified brands

Toto performing Africa:

Big Ships
The sinking of Carnival’s Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy is a tragedy that might have been avoided if the ship were smaller and more agile. So much for bigger is better.

Why anyone would want to travel with more than 4,200 other people in a confined space is beyond me. Waiting in line like cattle to get on and off the ship is a dreary thought when you only have a limited time in each port.

Before the days of the mega-ships, cruising was relaxing and there was always a group of cruise mates who became your friends for life. The captain of the ship was accessible to all the guests at one time or another during the sailing.

Years ago my mom and I went on a cruise down to Puerto Vallarta for a week. We had a blast hanging out with our new “best friends” and continually got all the latest gossip about the crew, as well as our ship mates, from the concierge. I learned that the 5 young, attractive women at the captain’s table were his “girls” – if you know what I mean. I also learned that a ship has an upstairs/downstairs culture thing going on  – think Downton Abbey on steroids.

Anyway, as far as the Costa Concordia, we will have to wait to find out why the ship hit the rocks and how a chicken-shit pretty boy became a captain responsible for the lives of more than 4,200 people. Captain “Sully” Sullenberger he’s not.

In the meantime enjoy Matthew Sweet & Darius Rucker performing Sail on Sailor at the 2001 All-Star tribute to Brian Wilson:

Chinese Lunar New Year
In 2012, Chinese New Year will be celebrated on January 23. The celebration actually starts on January 22 (Chinese New Year’ Eve) and ends on February 6 with the Lantern Festival. 2012 marks the 4,710th Chinese New Year, and this time it is the year of dragon.

The 5th sign of the Chinese zodiac is regarded as an auspicious symbol which stands for power, good luck, success, and happiness. There are more babies born under this sign than any other.

Legend has it that in ancient times there was a monster named Nian who used to harass villagers by eating their crops and animals and taking away their children. (A good reason for kids to behave.)

The villagers found that the monster was afraid of the color red, firelight and loud noises, so every household in the village adorned it’s doors and windows with red paper cutouts, set off firecrackers and lit candles. Nian was so frightened by the display, he ran away and never again came back to the village. The Chinese have been celebrating ever since.

Of course, not all of us can be born at the same time, under the most favorite sign. There are 11 other Chinese zodiac signs. All the Laundelles, with the exception of Chris, were born under the sign of the Pig. Not just any pig, but the Fire Pig! That’s right, fire pigs born under the water sign of Aquarius. How special is that?

According to astrologists, those of us born under the pig sign are active, outgoing and extroverted. Fire Pigs come through in everything they do. They’re gutsy risk-takers and once they put their minds to something, it’s all or nothing. That applies to work, romance and goals. Fire Pigs make excellent leaders and bosses.

Well there you go.

Enjoy Fire by the Pointer Sisters:

Previously show on Laundelles – Bruce Springsteen perorming Fire:

moscow-burning

Things Are Looking Up
As 2011 comes to a close I haven’t spoken to anyone who isn’t hopeful that things will be better in 2012.

We live in the most enlightening time in human history. Anyone with a computer or mobile device can communicate with almost anyone almost anywhere in the world with only a touch! That’s pretty powerful. Information and ideas have given new power to people all over the world and they’ve begun using that knowledge and power for change – good and bad.

If we can handle earthquakes, tsunamis, fires and wars, we can handle corrupt dictators, politicians and non-government organizations. This isn’t our grandma’s world – it’s ours and I’m feeling pretty good about it.

Enjoy Michael Bublé – Feeling Good:

The Christmas Song
From Mel Torme’s autobiography, It Wasn’t All Velvet:

One excessively hot afternoon, I drove out to Bob’s house [Robert Wells] in Toluca Lake for a work session. The San Fernando Valley, always at least ten degrees warmer than the rest of the town, blistered in the July sun…. I opened the front door and walked in…. I called for Bob. No answer. I walked over to the piano. A writing pad rested on the music board. Written in pencil on the open page were four lines of verse:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire


Jack frost nipping at your nose


Yuletide carols being sun by a choir


And folks dressed up like Eskimos

When Bob finally appeared, I asked him about the little poem. He was dressed sensibly in tennis shorts and a white T-shirt, but he still looked uncomfortably warm.

“It was so damn hot today,” he said, “I thought I’d write something to cool myself off. All I could think of was Christmas and cold weather.”

I took another look at his handiwork. “You know,” I said, “this just might make a song.”

We sat down together at the piano, and, improbable though it may sound, “The Christmas Song” was completed about forty-five minutes later. Excitedly, we called Carlos Gastel, sped into Hollywood, played it for him, then for Johnny Burke, and then for Nat Cole, who fell in love with the tune. It took a full year for Nat to get into a studio to record it, but his record finally came out in the last fall of 1946; and the rest could be called our financial pleasure.

Enjoy!

Peace on Earth
During the American Civil War, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s oldest son, Charles, joined the Union army without his father’s blessing. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left.

“I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer,” he wrote. “I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good”. Charles soon got an appointment as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church, in Virginia.

Coupled with the recent loss of his wife Frances, who died as a result of an accidental fire, Longfellow was inspired to write the poem, “Christmas Bells”.

He wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1864. It wasn’t until 1872 that the poem is known to have been set to music.

Hope you enjoy I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day performed by Casting Crowns on TBN special in 2008 :

Where and When

From Zev Yaroslavsky’s website:
The Rock cometh—no, really. 
After months of postponements, the 340-ton boulder that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been awaiting since August has cleared what museum officials hope will be its final road blocks and is now scheduled to roll shortly after the first of the year. Read the rest here.

Enjoy Diana Krall – Where or When:

A Great Festival of America
Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday in the United States until the fall of 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring that the last Thursday in November would be a day of national thanksgiving.

While Lincoln issued the proclamation, credit for making Thanksgiving a national holiday should go to Sarah J. Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a popular magazine for women in 19th century America.

Hale, who campaigned for years to make Thanksgiving a nationally observed holiday, wrote to Lincoln on September 28, 1863 and urged him to issue a proclamation. Hale mentioned in her letter that having such a national day of Thanksgiving would establish a “great Union Festival of America.”
And so, he did:

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
 Secretary of State

Enjoy a little music to celebrate – Vivaldi Concerto in C Major by Europa Galante:

Road Trip
The LA County Museum of Art and earth artist, Michael Heizer have been waiting for the arrival of a 340 ton boulder.

For five years the artist has been planning an exhibit called ‘Levitated Mass” which will open – hopefully, before the holidays. Heizer actually conceived the project back in 1968. That’s right, 43 years ago!

What took so long? The problem was finding just the right boulder. Heizer spent years (decades) searching quarries and finally found what he was looking for at a quarry near Riverside, CA in 2006. The artist paid $120,000 for the rock in addition to $100 a month storage fee for the last 5 years.

Installing the museum’s latest exhibit isn’t as easy as hanging a painting on the wall. There are two parts to the project. The first part, was installing a concrete trench – which was completed earlier this year. The second part of the project will be the installation of the boulder which will be suspended over the trench. Once the rock is in place, it will straddle the 456-foot-long, 15 foot deep concrete walkway. As people pass under it, the boulder will have the illusion that it is floating unsecured above them. Not to worry, California seismic officials have signed off on the project and are comfortable that no one will be squashed by the boulder should we have an earthquake.

Dig a ditch, suspend a boulder over it. Sounds simple enough until you consider the boulder is one of the largest monoliths to be moved since ancient times. That’s right – think pyramids of Egypt.

A team from Emmert International built a special transport vehicle with 196-wheels and 44-axles around the 21 foot tall, 340-ton megalith that is strong enough to carry more than a million pounds.

So how many people does it take to move a 340 boulder? An entourage of some 60 drivers, steerers and police escorts. The move will take 9 nights at the speed of 6 miles an hour to travel over 120 miles of roads.

Although the transport vehicle is as wide as three freeway lanes and nearly as long as a football field, it will only travel a few hours each night when traffic is lightest. People along the route will be told in advance that it’s headed their way.

Originally scheduled to arrive at the museum on Oct. 3, we are still waiting for the rock. I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of waiting.

Segue…

From 1965 The Kinks -‪ Tired of Waiting‬: