Cole Porter, ever heard of him? No? Well, certainly the name Miss Ella Fitzgerald must ring a bell, yeah? Of course!
As threatened earlier in the week, we have started watching this whole Truman Capote limited series on the television, and we cannot help but think of the Old Guard, the Northeastern U.S. WASP culture that had the ascendancy for forever, before the seats of power drifted West toward entertainment & technology, when the old BosWash corridor was the center of the universe. Generational wealth, restrained tastes (mainly), refined & time-honored Ways of Living.
Cole Porter is one of those totems. He ticked all the boxes: wealth, education, The Old Boy Network, the whole thing. So it was only natural that when he started writing his songs, now immortalized, they would instantly become the standard playlist for that sturdy set of Brahmins. ‘Night and Day’ here is our favorite, especially with its unorthodox (for Porter’s time) chord-changes and exquisite lyrics, especially the constructions ‘whether near to me or far’ and ‘the roaring traffic’s boom’. These were the craftings of a wordsmith!
So, back to Truman Capote, the Northeastern WASP establishment, etc. When we were growing up in the late-1970s, it was the dying days of this kind of blind allegiance to the Old Money, stiff-upper-lip crowd. Their tastemaking stronghold soon would be eclipsed by more outré styles & expressions of individualism — disco, cable-TV, prosperity-Gospel broadcast evangelism etc. all would eat away at the foundations of WASP culture. But there were still times in the late-1970s and early-1980s that The Count Basie Orchestra might roll into even modest-sized, provincial towns, play Cole Porter & all those other standards. You could still expect Lester Lanin or Peter Duchin to play at your residential secondary school’s gala. You could whip out your measured Arthur Murray foxtrot and rumba on the orderly dance floor as the musicians played.
Our parents were of that generation. They passed it down to us a little bit. And even though our parents were not native-born like the WASPS and the Brahmins they looked up to, they understood America & its cultural traditions way better than most other immigrants: They were from the Philippines, and the Philippines were a colony of the U.S. Our parents’ generation were among the last colonial subjects; they lived through Japanese occupation in WWII, the Bataan Death March, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s prophetic return & triumph. They were quasi-Americans, and when they emigrated and had us (ANCHOR BABIES!) we had no choice but to be Americans too.
Thank you, WASP Brahmins, for your Cole Porter & your Lester Lanin & Peter Duchin. Thank you, Count Basie & Ella Fitzgerald for your contributions to American pop culture. We are happy to appropriate these time-honored social conventions every now & again, even in this era that long ago shed your taste, refinement & elegance.
BestLine Racing Society Recap:
Today it was Laurel, Tampa, Santa Anita, Golden Gate, Turfway & PennNat.
Starting with Race 5 from Laurel, Md.; in it, #1 Arden’sluckytobe (.190 Win Prob / 4.26-1 Fair Odds / 6.37-1 Premium Odds) also possessed sufficient skill in a $16.80 win. In Race 7, #1 Chickahominy (.206 / 3.85 / 4.83) was all grit at $10.80. In the finale, #6 No Easy Days (.200 / 4.00 / 5.00) made it his day anyway, prevailing at $13-even.
To Oldsmar, Fla., now for Race 7, in which #10 Spanish Noble (.120 / 7.33 / 10.67) won it for the Duke of Híjar at $29-even.
At Grantville, Penna., Race 3 went to #2 Noble Jon (.234 / 3.27 / 4.13) at $10.60.
BestLine Racing Society Nightcap:
Back to Chas. Town tonight…
Strongshots
Longshots
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