Uncategorized

Today is the traditional date for the invention of champagne by Dom Perignon in 1693. He was a French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of Champagne wine in an era when the region’s wines were predominantly still red. Popular myths frequently, but erroneously, credit him with the invention of sparkling Champagne, which did not become the dominant style of Champagne until the mid-19th century.

The famous Champagne Dom Pérignon, the prestige cuvée of winery Moët & Chandon, is named after him. The remains of the monastery where he spent his adult life is now the property of that winery.

n Pérignon’s era, the in-bottle refermentation (now used to give sparkling wine its sparkle) was an enormous problem for winemakers. When the weather cooled off in the autumn, fermentation would sometimes stop before all the fermentable sugars had been converted to alcohol. If the wine was bottled in this state, it became a literal time bomb. When the weather warmed in the spring, dormant yeast roused themselves and began generating carbon dioxide that would at best push the cork out of the bottle, and at worst explode, starting a chain reaction.

In 1718, the Canon Godinot published a set of wine-making rules that were said to be established by Dom Pérignon. Among these rules was the detail that fine wine should only be made from Pinot noir. Pérignon was not fond of white grapes because of their tendency to enter re-fermentation. Prior to blending he would taste the grapes without knowing the source vineyard to avoid influencing his perceptions. References to his “blind tasting of wine” have led to the common misconception that Dom Pérignon was blind. Contrary to popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not introduce blending to Champagne wines but rather the method of blending the grapes prior to sending them to press.

The quote attributed to Pérignon—”Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”—is supposedly what he said when tasting the first sparkling champagne. However, the first appearance of that quote appears to have been in a print advertisement in the late 19th century.

A major proponent of the misconceptions surrounding Dom Pérignon came from one of his successors at the Abbey of Hautvillers, Dom Groussard, who in 1821 gave an account of Dom Pérignon “inventing” Champagne among other exaggerated tales about the Abbey in order to garner historical importance and prestige for the church.

Groussard’s myth achieved more than prestige for the church, it helped commercialize champagne at the turn of the twentieth century. The Syndicat du Commerce used the myth to promote Champagne and the Champagne region, producing a pamphlet called Le Vin de Champagne in 1896 that celebrated Perignon as the inventor of Champagne by following “ancient traditions”. The myth served to protect Champagne made in Marne as the original sparkling wine and dismiss other wines as imitators.

---

Cats walk anywhere…

covering all the bases…

Architecture and Design!

Here’s a beautiful little piece with Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94h2L9oBOHM&list=FLiw-UsuRDUjLQSHOmQ7_x4Q&index=11

I was watching something on TV the other night (I think it was ‘Duster’ – mediocre but with great music). One of the songs they played was Long Cool Woman by the Hollies. As soon as I heard the opening bass line I knew the song and I began wondering what other songs had such memorable bass lines. I looked around and here are a few.

John Deacon rips out a propulsive bass line on this one with Queen. You’ll recognize it immediately.

This one by the Jackson Five is another song that you will recognize immediately by the introductory bass line at least if you’re old enough.

And while we’re with Michael Jackson, who can forget the bass line from this? “Billie Jean” is pretty understated; it’s the vocal delivery giving much of the emotional punch. But those vocals need something to walk along, much like the music video’s light-up sidewalk, and it’s Louis Johnston’s bass providing that path. Johnston’s notes feel dangerous.

Paul McCartney is amazing with the low pulsating bass work: There are sexy basslines and then there are sexy basslines, and McCartney’s sensual slides across the strings are firmly the latter. His work adds an addictive tempo to this classic Beatles song, all the more powerful due to its restraint.

Nice, slow and propulsive bass on this one…

Another old one…

Here’s another unforgettable bass intro

And this one has a great bass line…

Okay, one more…

I’m sure I’ve missed many but these come to mind – enjoy!

Today is Independence Day in Benin, a public holiday there. The region of modern day Benin first came to the attention of the Europeans as a source of slaves with the shores of the region earning the name ‘the Slave Coast’.

The Kingdom of Dahomey was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like Whydah on the Atlantic coast which granted it unhindered access to the tricontinental Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade and diplomatic relations with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun.

The kingdom fought the First Franco-Dahomean War and Second Franco-Dahomean War with France. The kingdom was reduced and made a French protectorate in 1894. In 1904, the area became part of a French colony, French Dahomey.

In 1958, French Dahomey became the self-governing colony called the Republic of Dahomey and gained full independence in 1960. It was renamed in 1975 the People’s Republic of Benin and in 1991 the Republic of Benin.

A group portrait of the “Amazons from Dahomey” during their stay in Paris, 1891

---

Aladdin…

I have questions….

Today is the birthday, in 1951, of Canadian guitarist and vocalist Tim Bachman best known as a member of Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Bachman was one of the four founding members of BTO, a group that have sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide and also featured his brothers Randy (guitar/vocals) and Robbie (drums). He died on 28 April 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cia_v4vxfE

Today is World Ranger Day. World Ranger Day is celebrated worldwide on July 31st to commemorate Rangers killed or injured in the line of duty and to celebrate the work Rangers do to protect the planet’s natural treasures and cultural heritage. Their diverse roles span from wildlife protection, law enforcement, environmental education, and community engagement to fire management, disease prevention, and sustainable resource use. These functions are fundamental to the effective management of Protected and Conserved Areas—whether carried out by state, community, Indigenous, or voluntary rangers. Let’s pause for a moment to reflect on the courage and sacrifice that Rangers make; by honoring Fallen Rangers and standing with Rangers who bravely undertake their role on the frontline.

---

Uh oh…

BUMPer

Today is the birthday, in 1953, of Hugh McDowell, English cellist with Wizzard and Electric Light Orchestra who had the 1979 UK No.3 & US No.4 single ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ plus 26 other Top 40 hits. ELO have sold over 50 million records worldwide. McDowell died of cancer on 6 November 2018 aged 65. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9nkzaOPP6g

Today is the anniversary of the passage, in 1729, by the Maryland General Assembly of an act establishing the Town of Baltimore. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, an English politician and lawyer who was a founding proprietor of the Province of Maryland. The Calverts took the title Barons Baltimore from Baltimore Manor, an estate they were granted by the Crown in County Longford as part of the plantations of Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of Baile an Tí Mhóir, meaning “town of the big house” in Irish.

Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean. The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there. Baltimore established its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today.

In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792. The British bombardment of Baltimore in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, and the construction of the Battle Monument, which became the city’s official emblem.

Baltimore pioneered the use of gas lighting in 1816. The construction of the federally funded National Road, which later became part of U.S. Route 40, and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest. the city created the world’s first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840, and shared in the world’s first telegraph line, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in 1844.

Between the Civil War and the start of World War I—approximately 1.2 million Eastern European immigrants streamed into the South Baltimore peninsula, making Baltimore the second or third busiest U.S. port of entry (depending on the year) for new arrivals and the busiest south of New York. The Locust Point immigration pier was privately funded and built by B & O Railroad, the first common-carrier railroad company in the U.S, and by the 1890s, an estimated 90 percent of immigrants arriving at Locust Point traveled directly to a destination further west. The rest, often the poorest of the immigrant groups, remained in Baltimore, heading into the city’s burgeoning canning, steel, garment, shipbuilding, railroad, and manufacturing industries.

A panoramic view of Baltimore in September 2016, including the Inner and Outer Harbors at dusk

---

Helping with the housework…

Beautiful Pole…

Today is the birthday, in 1944, of Jamaican ska and reggae musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer Jimmy Cliff who had the 1969 UK No.6 & US No.25 single ‘Wonderful World Beautiful People’, and the 1970 UK No.8 hit with his version of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae across the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c