#Alberta Hunter

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Remember My Name

In the hands of most Hollywood directors, the tale of a prison parolee out for revenge on the ex-husband whose behavior led to a 12-year sentence would be a straight-up thriller. In the hands of Alan Rudolph, REMEMBER MY NAME (1978, TCM, Plex, Prime) is a moody character study, a deconstruction of personality as a series of masks.

Geraldine Chaplin stars as Emily, who did time for running down then-husband Anthony Perkins’ mistress. She’s come to the small town where he’s reinvented himself as a construction worker living with his younger wife (Berry Berenson, Perkins’ off-screen wife). She cons her way into a job at their local thrift store (run by a young Jeff Goldblum and Alfre Woodard), seduces her building’s super (Moses Gunn) into adding special touches to her threadbare apartment and starts stalking her ex. Little pranks — ruining a flower bed, late-night calls, a broken window — escalate until she simply walks in and confronts Berenson. This is all told elliptically. You get to assemble hints about how Chaplin ended up in prison, why Perkins, the least working-class of Hollywood actors, is working a blue-collar job and the nature of his current marriage. Tak Fujimoto shoots it all fluently, moving through the mundane world as if it were an alien landscape, and Rudolph scores it all effectively to songs performed by blues singer Alberta Hunter. It all gives the film a seductive air.

Robert Altman produced the film, and his influence on Rudolph is clear in the snippets of strange conversations overheard in the background, quirky supporting characters and unconventional casting. But it all works. Chaplin knows how to modulate her little-girl face and light voice to put on the various masks the character adopts to survive. There are scenes where her transitions from flirtatious to pleading to vicious are almost breath-taking. And Perkins performs with a furtive air, as if even before he becomes aware of Chaplin’s presence, he were waiting for his past to catch up with him. He even pulls off the macho persona required for his job and his casual dominance of his wife. Berenson isn’t really an actress. Her line readings are flat and often unconvincing. But Rudolph uses her face beautifully to write her character’s psychology on screen. People looking for a conventional revenge thriller will be disappointed, and the film was met with mixed reviews and poor box office. But if you go in looking for an exploration of characters fighting to adjust to a hostile world, you’ll find a lot to love.

[rockincountryblues]

Alberta Hunter

[randomrichards]

T’AINT NOBODY’S BIZNESS: QUEER BLUES DIVAS OF THE 1920’S

The black gay women

Celebrated jazz artists

Forced to hide true selves

[suzilight]

Nobody Know You When You're Down and Out - Alberta Hunter

[abwwia]

Alberta Hunter #bornonthisday (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s.

(...) She peeled potatoes by day and hounded club owners by night, determined to land a singing job. Her persistence paid off, and Hunter began a climb from some of the city's lowest dives to a headlining job at its most prestigious venue for black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. She had a five-year association with the Dreamland, beginning in 1917, and her salary rose to $35 a week.

She first toured Europe in 1917, performing in Paris and London. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her. (...)

Hunter said that when her mother died in 1957, because they had been partners and were so close, the appeal of performing ended for her. She reduced her age, "invented" a high school diploma, and enrolled in nursing school, embarking on a career in health care, in which she worked for 20 years. (...)

After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977. via Wikipedia

#AlbertaHunter #PalianShow #musicherstory #jazzherstory #musicbywomen #herstory #womeninmusic #blackherstory

[cbjustmusic]

The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, released her first record 100 years ago today on February 13, 1923. “Down Hearted Blues” went on to become one of the most popular songs of 1923, and Smith went on the become one of the most popular recording artist of the 1920’s. ___________________________ Down Hearted Blues Music by Lovie Austin; Lyrics by Alberta Hunter

Gee, but it's hard to love someone When that someone don't love you

I'm so disgusted, heartbroken too I've got those downhearted blues Once I was crazy 'bout a man He mistreated me all the time The next man I get has got to promise me To be mine, all mine

Trouble, trouble I've had it all my days Trouble, trouble I've had it all my days It seems like trouble Going to follow me to my grave

I ain't never loved but Three mens in my life I ain't never loved But three men in my life My father, my brother The man that wrecked my life

It may be a week It may be a month or two It may be a week It may be a month or two But the day you quit me, honey It's comin' home to you

I got the world in a jug The stopper's in my hand I got the world in a jug The stopper's in my hand I'm gonna hold it until you Meet some of my demands

[fleetwood-rendezvous]

[musicmags]

[modern-music-through-the-ages]

Alberta Hunter, right (1920s?)

Alberta Hunter was 87 when she recorded her last album. That was in 1983. Her first 78 came out in 1921, more than sixty years earlier.

Hunter hadn't planned on making any more records but she had been forced out of nursing - which she adored - following mandatory retirement at the age of 70. What the authorities didn't know that Hunter was already 82, having lied about her age after enrolling on a three-year nursing course when she was almost 60.

Hunter's remarkable musical journey began in 1911, singing in a Chicago bordello in her mid-to-late teens. She had run away/relocated with her mother (depending on who you believe) to escape a gruelling life in Memphis four to five years earlier. Either way, her mother - with whom she remained close - joined her soon after.

Alberta progressed to bars and clubs, ultimately landing a spot and a road to stardom in the storied Dreamland Cafe, which also hosted King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (including Louis Armstrong and soon-to-be friend Lil Hardin).

Over the following decades, the Sweetheart of Dreamland ended up on stage in Broadway, London and Paris as well as in New York and London recording studios. She also wrote songs, notably including Downhearted Blues, which Bessie Smith turned into a hit.

Hunter finally stepped out of the limelight (or so she thought) after her mother died in 1957. Little did she know that a musical renaissance, and even greater fame, were yet to come.

[abzeronow]

Another 1923 sound recording that will become public domain on January 1, 2024 is Bessie Smith's (1894-1937) first single "Down Hearted Blues" (B-side was "Gulf Coast Blues". The song was written by Alberta Hunter (1895-1984) and composed by Lovie Austin (1887-1972). Smith's single sold 780,000 copies in its first six months. Smith's version was recorded on February 15, 1923 in New York City for Columbia. It was released in 1923.

(Sources: Discography of American Historical Recordings for photo, and info on recording. Deborah G. Felder's 2001 book The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time pg. 285 via Wikipedia for sales info)

[cakerybakery]

It took all morning but Adam tracked the hellish bear down. Adam was always a large man, he was created that way and death made him even taller. So when the bear stood on its hide legs and towered over him by a good three feet Adam nearly shit himself.

He steadied his nerves and thrusted his spear into the monster’s chest. Oh the bear did not like that. Adam found himself holding back the large and deadly venomous claws from scratching at his flesh. The beast’s jaws snapping at his head, just about reaching.

The ridge under Adam feet was crumbling. He pushed with all his might to turn them, to force the great beast to the edge and let gravity do Adam’s work for him.

There was a deafening roar as the side of the mountain slid away, taking the bear with it.

Adam barely stepped back in time and waited for the ground to settle a bit before taking up his spear once more and sliding down the cliff side on his own.

The beast was not dead but stunned. Adam made short work of burying the spearhead into the demon bear’s neck. Letting it bleed out.

Then he got to work proper.

He cut the skin from the base of the tail up to near the mouth, then from the paws to the cut in the abdomen. He gutted the creature carefully first. Then Adam severed the feet from the carcass but left them attached to the hide, then worked on peeling the skin off the hind legs and worked going forward.

Wrapping to keep clean and hanging the meat to cool, Adam went back to the skin. Scraping off the fat.

Back on earth he would have kept it. But it was useless these days. He salted the hide.

His work for now being done. The imps he hired to help transport everything came when he radioed for them. They carried the meat but Adam took the hide. It was special. It was nice in these modern times that he could hire a butcher and a taxidermist for the next part of the job.

A few days later he and a delivery imp were back at the hotel.

“Oh you’re back. How was the trip?” Charlie looked up from her conversation with Lucifer at the dinning table.

“Successful. I killed the problem bear. Brought some of the meat back for you.” The imp hefted it onto the table and Adam signed that the job was complete so the imp could leave.

“I left most of it with the town and the farmer the bear injured. It’s not the best meat but meat is meat. It’ll help replace some of what the bear took in livestock.” Adam dropped the cape of the bear into Lucifer’s lap. “For you.”

“Oh! Umm. Thank you. Wow this sure is a lot of bear.” Lucifer tried grabbing at the skin but there was just so much and he was rather small.

Adam had been right, Lucifer did look cute when he was flustered. “It was no big deal.”

He didn’t know what people complained about. Flirting was easy. Kill a bear, save a village, field dress the animal, present the skin as a gift to your chosen mate and meat to his child to prove you’re a good provider who can keep them safe and fed. Easy.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"FAMILY CONTINUES HUNT FOR DINOSAUR," Sault Star. May 8, 1934. Page 12. ---- Sternberg Father and Sons Comb Hinterlands For Animal Bones ---- (By Guy E. Rhoades, Canadian Press Staff Writer) Toronto, May 8. - (C. P.) - If Levi Sternberg goes to the field this year, and he hopes he will, it will be his 14th expedition as a dinosaur hunter in 16 years, but that, he says, is nothing compared with the record of his father and two brothers.

Levi, preparator of paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, is the youngest member of a dinosaur-hunting family that has gained the plaudits of scientists for almost six decades. His father, C. H. Sternberg, made his first expedition to the Kaлsas fossil beds in 1876 with the late Edward Drinker Cope, professor of geology at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the most noted pal- eontologists of the last century.

The old man, now 84, is still working on the Pacific Coast, making his headquarters at San Diego, Cal., Levi has been working for the Oftario museum since 1919. Charles has been with the National Museum in Ottawa since 1912 and George is now at Kansas Teachers College in Hays.

Sternberg senior started collecting fossils in Kansas when he was 17, at a time when many people did not know the strange rocks with patterns in them were remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. He did little work in museums, but he was recognized as one of the greatest fossil hunters and is now the veteran of them all.

He and all his sons worked for the National Museum before the war, searching the badlands of Alberta for the petrified bones of monsters that roamed that weather-scarred, barren country when the land was a steaming swamp covered with tropical vegetation.

The father and George returned to the United States, but Charles and Levi remained in Canada and continued to make trips to Alberta, usually along the Red Deer Valley, bringing back their specimens in the fall and spending the winter mounting them for exhibition in the halls of their museums.

[josephsmutt]

my collection of trail cam pics <3

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

April 15, 2024

Mr. Hunter: I rise in support of Bill 204, the Municipal Government (National Urban Parks) Amendment Act, 2023. I am going to start off today by speaking about a distant cousin of man’s best friend, the dog; wolves. The grey wolf is a canine located in North America and Eurasia. Like people, wolves organize themselves into nuclear families and have highly social behaviour. Wolves like to settle in one place and put down roots in a home. They are highly territorial, establishing large territories to ensure that they can hunt enough food for their pack and their young to survive. On average wolves’ core territories are a size of 35 square kilometres. They typically will only leave their territories in times of famine or if other wolves are breaking away from the pack.

The most notable and important characteristic of wolves, Mr. Speaker, is their specialization in pack hunting. Wolves use their numbers to great success when hunting large prey. A pack of 15 wolves can take down even a moose. By banding together and working for the good of the whole, they are able to conquer challenges and opponents which they could never face down on their own. A lone wolf would get trampled and easily put down by an adult moose, but together they are stronger and can face it. In the same way, the federal government seeks to divide us, making us weaker and not able to stand up to its overreaches.

...

In January of 2023 wolves in Yellowstone national park were able to band together and win a fight against a grizzly bear. The wolves, despite their smaller size, were able to win against this fearsome and larger opponent. We need to support this legislation so that our province and our municipalities can do the same.

[boricuacherry-blog]

Conductor-arranger Gene Page introduced Marvin to Jewel Price, a black woman with whom Marvin would become extremely close. Nearly twenty years Gaye's senior, Mrs. Price was a real estate agent. Marvin found her effusive, energetic personality both earthy and charming. A woman with connections to millionaires throughout southern California, she'd sold homes to stars such as Nat Cole, Art Tatum, and Earl Bostic. A passionate music lover, Jewel had an almost mystical power of persuasion over Gaye. 'Mrs. Price could get him to do things other people - even I - couldn't,' said Marvin's mother. 'Get her to tell you about Marvin.'

'I loved him,' Jewel explained enthusiastically as we sat in her spacious Los Angeles home, "and he loved me. He said he'd never met anyone like me before. I treated Marvin like a king, because that's what he was. I'd send him flowers, buy him candy - that kind of thing. He appreciated my thoughtfulness and would return the favors.'

Was the relationship sexual?

'Honey, please! Once he playfully suggested something, but I said to him, I said, 'Marvin, I'm a Christian lady with Christian morals. We're friends and nothing more.' No, Marvin was always a perfect gentleman with me.'

She added, 'He trusted me. In fact, he had me take Anna and her sister Gwen around looking for homes. That was fun for a few hours, but I couldn't keep up with those ladies. They never stopped partying. Marvin also had me looking for houses for him. He never bought one, though I did find him a three-acre place to rent in Palm Springs for awhile. He took me down there all the time. Meanwhile, I'd take him to Malibu where we'd visit my rich friends, sit by the beach, and look at the ocean. With me, Marvin could relax and be himself. When he needed something done, I'd find a way to do it.

I was forceful with Marvin. I told him when he was doing something wrong, and I wasn't afraid to scold him. He respected that. In fact, he put me on a pedestal. He treated me like a queen. I love Mrs. Gay, but she was never firm or frank enough with Marvin. He was so good to her, she was afraid of angering him.

Marvin confided in me when he started having problems with Jan, and that broke my heart. You see, he loved that girl heavily and strongly. But she had a very strange and powerful effect on him. She controlled him. After talking to Jan on the phone, he might spend the next three hours staring into space, looking so lost and sad. I'd say, 'Marvin, what is it?' and he wouldn't even reply. His moods changed minute to minute, and Jan could change him quicker than anyone. He was such a beautiful man, but so unstable.'

[in-sightpublishing]

The Greenhorn Chronicles 53: Emily Fitzgerald on Equestrianism (1)

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014 Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal Journal Founding: August 2, 2012 Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access Fees: None…