Amphiteatrics

The Tew's day's mailbox was full of fog ahead of more rain here in TulseyTown, and a handful of notable notes:

Derek Walcott was born on this date 94 years ago. The Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature – poetry and theatre – was born in 1930 Castries, Saint Lucia, West Indies.

It's the birthday of Django Reinhardt. The Romani (‘Gypsy’) guitarist, was born in 1910, Liberchies, Belgium. Despite the loss of two fingers, he was one of jazz’s greatest ever guitarists.

Édouard Manet was also born on this date. A leading artist in the transition from realism to impressionism, he was born in 1832, Paris, France.

Once upon a time: a poet might fill an amphitheatre … today it's in the backroom of a Barns and Noble wannabe. The whole of the art world once filled a small New York restaurant, now it won't fit in all of Chase Manhattan Bank and Deutsche Bank combined. At least according to Fran Libowitz and perhaps Siri.

And, today in 1986, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was inaugurated. The inductees of the inaugural class were Chuck Berry; James Brown; Ray Charles; Sam Cooke; Fats Domino; The Everly Brothers; Buddy Holly; Jerry Lee Lewis; Elvis Presley; Little Richard; Robert Johnson; Jimmie Rodgers; Jimmy Yancey; Alan Freed; John Hammond; and Sam Phillips.

There is no illness worse

than forgetting

what we must never forget.