102 y/o Dancer Sees Herself on Film for the First Time

Alice Barker was a chorus line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance of the the 1930s and 40s. She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, and Zanzibar Club, with legends including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.

Although she danced in numerous movies, commercials and TV shows, she had never seen any of them, and all of her photographs and memorabilia have been lost over the years.

With the help of Mark Cantor of http://jazz-on-film.com we finally our hands on three “Soundies” Alice appeared in, and were able to show them to her for the very first time. She had never seen herself in motion in her life!

 

Posted in Touching | 1 Comment

Top Lobbying Spenders in First Quarter of 2015

Monday, April 20, marked the deadline for companies and organizations to file their 2015 first quarter federal lobbying disclosure reports. Below is a list of the top ten organizations and how much they spent lobbying Congress and federal agencies between January 1, 2015, and March 31, 2015.

MapLight.org

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Posted in Political | 3 Comments

Bag of Randomness

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  • Google is expected to unveil their new U.S. wireless service today, and it’s speculated that they will allow customers to pay only for the amount of data they actually use each month and customers can only use the Nexus 6 smart phone.  My contact with Sprint ends in September, and I’ve been frustrated with the lack of coverage in the area and have been wanting to jump ship.  This Google news is quite interesting, but it looks like Google will be using both Sprint and T-Mobile networks, the worst two in the area, so it might not be worth it for me to switch to them.
  • I’ve got a feeling this will be the next big news story for at least the rest of the week, starting off slowing and then gaining a lot of traction – U.S. marshal caught destroying camera of woman recording police – Just check out this GIF of a marshal creeping up on that lady and then snagging and what appears to be breaking her camera.
  • Yesterday on the ‘CBS Evening News’ I learned one in every five eggs consumed in the U.S. comes from Iowa.
  • The morning show on The TICKET brought up a subject I always wondered about – If you own a home on a golf course and a golfer accidentally breaks the your window with a bad shot, is the golfer liable for the damage?  I’m not saying the random person that called with the explanation is the final authority, but is answer made sense.  He stated there’s a Florida case that sets the precedence.  The homeowner assumes liability for buying a home on the golf course, and the golfer is only liable if he willfully or purposely tried to damage the house.  FORE!
  • For a ninety-day supply of a certain medication (technically, a super vitamin that’s labeled as medical food) I’m prescribed, it costs about $180 via mail order.  Recently a generic has become available which will only cost me ten bucks every ninety days.  With an unopened bottle of the $180 medication, I was wondering if I could return it for a refund.  To my surprise, the mail order pharmacy said I could keep the medication and would just refund me the entire $180.  Even though I’m sure they can’t give out an unopened sealed bottle to another customer for safety concerns, I was surprised at how easy my request was.
  • The new NFL schedule was released yesterday which caused me to take a look at the Cowboys schedule and the weekend I’ll be traveling.  The Cowboys will be playing on Sunday night against the Saints, and I think I’ll luckily be able to catch most of the game.  But I have to admit, the older I get, the less important watching any sort of sporting event gets.  I guess it helps that all my teams (sans Rangers) have won at least one championship in my lifetime.  Other than the Packers, the Cowboys seem to have a pretty easy second half of the season.
  • Over the weekend, I was in a conversation about how we no longer get excited about any upcoming event like when we were kids.  I use to get this zeal, an eagerness with butterflies in the stomach that would keep me from falling asleep when it came to things like a birthday or Christmas , traveling, or going to a special event.  Now, nada, zero, zip.  Some in the group felt this was just a male thing.  I miss that feeling and would like to know how to reclaim it.  Heck, even my trip to Vietnam or any U2 concert didn’t even create that long lost feeling.  Maybe I’m dead inside.
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
  • This was a popular video yesterday.  Little kids were blindfolded and were able to find their mother from a lineup of other mothers.
  • The pictures in this Metro.co.uk link don’t contain nudity but it may not be appropriate for the workplace – Game Of Thrones series 5: Meet Rosie Mac the official body double for Daenerys Targaryen
  • Toyota’s North American headquarters in Plano will be about twice the size originally proposed – more than 2.1 million square feet — bigger than a downtown skyscraper.
  • Ralph Nader waits for Bush and Obama to answer his rude, bizarre letters
  • Here’s a three-year-old NPR article that starts out with a terrible death of a cosmonaut.  His molten remains are displayed at the top of the article.
  • Letterman had the Piedmont High School Bird Callers on his show last night, their 19th appearance.  Overall, they have appeared on ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’ and ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ for a total of fifty times.  The first kid who did his bird call is the son of a man that appeared on Carson who did the same bird call.
  • GIF – This would be a great summer camp prank.

Posted in Personal | 7 Comments