Chuck Mangione Joins Land of Make Believe

 

Land Of Make Believe (Live At The Hollywood Bowl / 1978)

I saw Chuck Mangione live at a concert my oldest sister gifted me with many years ago. The experience of seeing this extraordinary and passionate musician, wearing his trademark hat and playing his magical flugelhorn was electrifying. He played with a joyful love for music and life. The man and his horn seemed as if they had merged into one spirit.

I will never forget the love I had for my big sister at that moment as I turned to look up at her in the concert hall with Chuck playing away. I suppose I was beaming because she hugged me as if to say, "I know, I feel it too and it's intoxicating," the music along with the shared moment.

And so it was, with my big sister at my side and Chuck Mangione giving us an unforgettable evening of music, that I discovered the magic of seeing, hearing, and feeling the harmonious convergence of a live performance. And it was intoxicating!

Upon hearing the passing of this musical legend today, I became filled with the wonderful memories and incredible music I was blessed to experience in my youth. And I owe as much to Chuck and other great musicians as I do to those family members and friends who introduced me to what music can bring to a soul who is open to its magic.

Life is truly a song that one must sing, play and/or dance to, right up until the final note vibrates its beautiful melody into your ear and settling on your heart.

Thank you, Chuck, for sharing what it means to be alive and feeling it!

Chuck Mangione

1940 - 2025

Chuck's Biography - Mangione Magic

Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good (Nana's Journey Into Song, March 8th, 1979)

Dominoes Donald Byrd

The Harafish - Book Review

The Harafish

by Naguib Mahfouz

This author writes like no other. In very short paragraph-chapters he gives readers everything a good story requires. Mahfouz is a poet, and yet he holds back from making his stories overly imaginary and surreal. His stories fully express everyday encounters people experience in life. And he does it with such flair.

The story "The Harafish" is an epic, multigenerational tale that takes place mostly in this one Egyptian alley (neighborhood). The people and their relationships are in constant motion, entangling themselves into what makes them a surviving community. Nothing stays the same as time moves on, babies are born and the old die off. Of note is how quickly time passes in this story. A child can age thirty to fifty years just as quickly as an old man can take his last breath and depart. It only takes a few pages for anything to occur in the alley. And yet nothing is left to rot. 

What I personally like about reading "The Harafish" is I can stop and start my reading with little effort before getting wrapped up in the ongoings of the alley once more. The older names sometimes dimmer with the passing of generations, but the new names are so active and vivid that they keep refreshing the story. It's like having a built-in floor cleaner, constantly coming through and buffing away remnants of waste from previous tenants.  Yes, the story always seems to refresh itself. Never boring and always offering something new while occasionally reflecting on the old. I like it.

A theme in this story is family member disappearance, while others arrive to eventually carry on family character traits and tradition. It is a battle between good and evil within a family and community. Between these two extremes lie "The Harafish." and all that comes and goes and comes once more into the alley.

pg236. She was struck forcibly by the idea that a woman's weakness is her emotions; and that her relationships with men should be rational and calculated. (Zahira, a most beautiful young woman realizes every woman should be Rational and Calculating in their relationships with men)

I found the sixth of the ten tales most striking in its telling of the life and character of Zahira. Wow, what an end to a tale. You saw it coming and yet you raced on through paragraph after paragraph, hoping to see the oncoming destruction right down to the dark, smoldering smoke and cinders left in a pile for all in the alley to see. A woman driven wicked by her own beauty and desires.

If only her mother had not arranged her marriage as a child.

If only she had found contentment with being the wife of a baker.

If only she weren't so beautiful.

Beauty cannot co-exist with power and money. They will somehow destroy her beauty and leave behind an ugly pile of rubble. Zahira had become rich and powerful, but the beauty that helped her acquire all this was the same perpetrator who sealed her fate.

Zahira became Irrational and Miscalculated her relationships with men. The tale warns us of this behavior in women earlier.

"A woman must be rational and calculated in her relationships with men."

Oh yes! Of all the tales I had read up to that point, Zahira's gripped me the strongest. It is an episode I will long remember for its power in showing the connections between beauty and tragedy in life.

pg405. The first Ashur had relied on his own strength, while he had made the harafish into an invincible force. His ancestor had been carried away by his passion; he would stand firm like the ancient wall. No, he repeated firmly. That was his sweetest victory: his victory over himself.

(Know and conquer Thyself. Ashur learned from stories of his ancestors' things to avoid in life if he were to be a great leader. Even greater than his al-Nagi namesake who began it all.)

pg406. He squatted on the ground, lulled by his feeling of contentment and the pleasant air. One of those rare moments of existence when a pure light glows. When body, mind, time and place are all in harmony.

And the voices sang:

Last night they relieved me of all my sorrows

In the darkness they gave me the water of life.

A Wonderful Story. Not just a great story well written, but one in which its assemblage and linking of each short chapter as you read onward is uniquely genius.

I had read this author's "Midaq Alley" many years ago while traveling across country via Amtrak. This story and style brought back to me that wonderful first discovery of his writing. My only little gripe might be in similar names confusing me at times when returning to the book, but never enough to completely lose me for any length of time.

I am so glad this book chose me off the shelf. What an amazing epic of short stories weaved into a family historical saga. 5 stars

Born December 12, 1911, Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"

Man of Gamaliya | The New Yorker

The Lord is My Shepherd - Canada Lee

 

Canada Lee recites "The Lord's Prayer" in the 1944 movie "Lifeboat"

Former jockey and boxer Canada Lee was one of the most talented actors of his generation, but he appeared in only five films before his death at the age of 45. He was also a musician and stage actor. You can read more about his fascinating life here: Canada Lee (1907-1952) | BlackPast.org

I have always been moved by this segment of the classic Hitchcock movie "Lifeboat." Something about the feeling he put into the recital of "The Lord's Prayer" made it feel as if he were praying for more than just rescue from the unforgiving sea. His character, nicknamed "charcoal" by another character, was the only person of color on the lifeboat. And although there were obviously some racist undertones directed toward him, "he maintained a dignity and rational presence throughout the film."

Years ago, I read a very interesting book about him titled "Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee." The book was a very enlightening read with lots of American history from the era written into the story. I came away from the book with the impression Canada Lee would have been successful at whatever career chosen in life. But for the era of segregation and stereotype casting racial roles in movies, the name Canada Lee would likely be remembered as an iconic leading man from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Unfortunately, it was McCarthyism/The "Red Scare against communism which led to his blacklisting and acting demise.

McCarthyism, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy, refers to the period of intense anti-communist suspicion and accusations in the United States during the Cold War era. It was characterized by accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason, often without sufficient evidence, and the persecution of individuals and groups suspected of communist sympathies. This period, also known as the Red Scare, involved public figures like McCarthy using unsubstantiated claims and intimidation tactics to target perceived enemies, particularly within the government and entertainment industry. 

"inside dust jacket flap"

Imagine an actor as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Morgan Freeman are today - who is then virtually deleted from cultural history. Such is the story of Canada Lee. Among the most respected black actors of the 1940's and a passionate civil rights activist, Lee was reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, and his death was one of a handful directly attributed to the blacklist.

Born in Harlem in 1907, Lee was a Depression-era Renaissance man, reinventing himself numerous times during one of our country's darkest periods: a musical prodigy on violin and piano, he made his concert debut at New York's prestigious Aeolian Hall at eleven; by thirteen he had become a successful jockey; in his teens, a pro boxer; and in  his twenties, a leading contender for the national welterweight title, until an unlucky blow to the head cost him the sight in one eye and his fighting career. After wandering into auditions for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, Lee took up acting and shot to stardom in Orson Welle's Broadway production of Native Son. He later appeared in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's classic Lifeboat and the original Cry, the Beloved Country with a young Sidney Poitier.

But Lee's meteoric rise to fame was followed by a devastating fall from grace. Labeled a Communist by the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee as early as 1943, Lee was pilloried during the notorious spy trial of Judith Coplon in 1949, and his career was ultimately destroyed when his longtime friend Ed Sullivan denounced him in his nationally syndicated column. Lee died in 1952, forty-five and penniless, a heartbroken victim of a dangerous and conflicted time. Now, after nearly a decade of research, Mona Z. Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim.

Canada Lee - IMDb

Cry, The Beloved Country (1951)

Lost Boundaries [1949]

ALFRED HITCHCOCK - The Silver Screen Oasis

Patrick Bailey Inside The Park HOME RUN!

"Now We've Seen Everything!"

With one swing of Patrick Bailey's bat our San Francisco Giants restored the faith of hometown fans. In the bottom of the 9th inning, trailing 3-1 with men at first and third and one out, Big Bat Pat crushed a first pitch, four-seam fastball to right center for a rare baseball feat, an Inside the Park Home run.

These Giants continue to struggle hitting with men on base. Pitching has been mostly lights out, but the Phillies continued what many Giants opponents have done this season in limiting or eliminating clutch hits. We fans almost expect a pop-up, strike out or ground ball into a double play from Giants hitters with men on base. Well not on this Tuesday night, ninth inning rally.

Watching the play unfold is classic baseball. Listening to Dave Fleming's call on the play brings back nostalgic sports radio moments the likes of Russ Hodge's 1951 "The Giants win the pennant" walk-off win call.

"The Shot Heard Around the World"

Even the Giants new City Connect Uniforms, which I've been opposed to, looked majestic as Giants players celebrated with Patrick Bailey at home plate. With this win, their second over the NL East leading Phillies in a three-game series, the Giants are warming up for a showdown series against their division leading rival Dodgers. As of this posting the Giants are five games back and second in the NL West division. Go Giants!!!

Patrick Bailey's Historic Inside-The-Park Walk-Off Home Run!

Congratulations Patrick Bailey and the 2025 San Francisco Giants! 

The story for this season is still being written, but for one glorious July evening we got a peek at what could just be Orange October 2025. Don't Stop Believin'!