George Gershwin in #TheGoodWife

I thought I was very clever for recognizing the Gershwin song "Someone to Watch Over Me" played in the background of "The Good Wife" episode "A Few Words":

Until I noticed that the song title was listed in the captions. That song was from the Broadway show "Oh, Kay!" where title character was played by British actress Gertrude Lawrence:

 who was played by Julie Andrews in a biopic "Star!"

Gertrude Lawrence also starred in the Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin musical "Lady in the Dark";  however, when "Lady in the Dark" was adapted for screen, Ginger Rogers was recast in title role:

which apparently annoyed many people, allegedly including the film's director, according to Roger's possibly biased biography.

If this weren't a stream of consciousness post I'd say it's ott ...but Blossom Dearie also sang "Someone to Watch Over Me:

Kids who grew up in 1970s would remember Blossom Dearie as voice of sad ice skater in School House Rock Figure 8 video:




which of course sounds sad and haunting b/c of all the minor chords and inverted major chords as illustrated by a "Far Side" cartoon:

How musicians can tell a bad guy is coming... #MusicHumor #MusicComics pic.twitter.com/KlGRWYwYgb

— SpreadMusicNow (@SpreadMusicNow) October 4, 2015

and explained by Bing Futch on his May 01, 2010 post "Chord Voicings - 'Figure Eight'":

"A basic 1-3-5 or 1-b3-5 chord is going to have the root note on the bottom, the middle note in the middle and the fifth at the end or top. Using different chord voicings can change the fundamental sound of a chord, even though it uses the same notes, by rearranging the order of the notes. For example, changing the order of notes so that the third is on the bottom, acting as the bass or root - it becomes a first inversion.

So, a C major chord: C - E - G would become E - C - G.
Now, make the fifth the bottom or root note, and you have a second inversion.
G - C - E"

The socialists over at the UK Guardian have, of course, decided that perceiving minor chords as sad is all part of learned societal conditioning vs intrinsic perceptions and probably a result of racist sexist ethnocentric capitalist imperialism:

"Our emotional reactions to keys are informed by our cultural preconceptions. The Western musical canon has always attached sentiment and gravity to minor keys, so we are preconditioned to indulge those notes with more emotion and sensibility. Interestingly, Asian and African music is generally opposed to this." 

Because socialists are humorless horrible people, I suspect the Guardian would also suggest that perceiving the universal symbol for shower stalls as a "Dr. Who" Dalek killer robot is also a result of racist sexist British imperialist conditioning:

Companion, Doctor, Davros, Dalek....what's not to understand? pic.twitter.com/B7GABlPKrF
— jadedjenny (@jadedjenny71) January 22, 2014

@MittRomney vs biased Brit Media

The Brit Media that bashed Romney during his recent visit to the UK is the same biased media that bashed the entire US within one week of Al Qaeda's attack on September 11, 2001. Charlotte Raven, on the leftwing Guardian, wrote an anti-American diatribe on September 17, 2001, less than 1 week after the attack:

"A bully with a bloody nose is still a bully"

Many will have woken up on Wednesday with that combination of emotions. Some were more "ha" than sorrow, but most had the proportions right and none should be accused of inhumanity. If anti-Americanism has been seized, temporarily, by forces that have done dreadful things in its name, there is no reason for its adherents to retreat from its basic precepts.

Raven's logorrhea was so over the top that she was even denounced by her fellow socialists on the World Socialist Web Site:

"Anti-Americanism: The “anti-imperialism” of fools"

In the first place, the September 11 tragedy was not “a bloody nose,” it was a catastrophe. Thousands of people were incinerated instantly when the airplanes hit the buildings, thousands more died when tons of rubble collapsed on them. Anyone who was emotionally unaffected by the terror and suffering experienced by tens of thousands as a result of this attack has no right to call himself or herself a socialist.

Hence, British socialists can't suppress their knee-jerk über-xenophobia when it comes to despising the US.

The BBC was the network that stacked a studio audience with anti-American weirdos who verbally abused Bill Clinton's former ambassador to the UK, Phil Lader, on a Question Time program aired on September 13, 2001, just two days after the attack:

Mr Lader had been attempting to express his sadness over the attacks when a number of audience members had shouted him down to voice their anti-US opinions. Mr Lader had looked close to tears.

Since these Brits were attacking a Democrat appointee, Lader, they couldn't hide behind their typical rationalization that they just hate Republicans, in general, or GWBush, in particular, as evidenced by  Guardian (a mainstream paper equivalent to the New York Times or Washington Post) nasty editorial cartoons depicting Bush as a monkey and any European leader who supported him as a dog:

Even more specifically, the Brits hate both Jewish Americans and/or the US/Israeli alliance, as evidenced by whatever brand of anti-Semitism this Guardian cartoon is communicating:

The Brits are just rabid, nasty hatemongers with no sense of tact or decorum. Having these hideous monsters lecture anyone about proper manners is a joke orders of magnitude more hilarious than anything Benny Hill ever conceived.




I love Sununu's defense of Romney on Hannity's radio show, stating that it stands to reason that the Brits were unhappy since: "they were expecting another pussy....[dramatic pause].....cat that they got from Obama's apology tour."