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Like I said the other day, there’s a kind of perfect storm of STUFF all coming to a head at once that isn’t leaving me with a ton of time for posting, so posting much, I have not. This is likely to continue for the next week, maybe even two, depending on how things transpire. None of this is bad, by any means: we have a big work event that’s taking up tons of time to prep coming up, and then next weekend is our annual getaway to Ithaca and the Finger Lakes, and right after that, The Wife has aDown the rabbit hole….

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(Normally I try to wait longer than just under four months before I do a re-post of something I’ve already written here, but Chuck Mangione has died, and I like what I wrote about him and this song back in March, so here it is again. I’m listening to it anew as I write this. Thanks for the music, Mr. Mangione!) So for Tuesday Tones the other day, I went to feature a piece of music that I know I’ve featured here before but I couldn’t remember how long it’s been, so I looked it up. I featured it lessDown the rabbit hole….

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If not for Monty Norman and John Barry’s work on the James Bond Theme, the most famous theme for an action-packed spy series would almost certainly be Lalo Schifrin’s theme to Mission: Impossible. Schifrin passed away today at the age of 93. He was one of the bigger names in film music, and he had a long and distinguished career composing for film. His voice will endure, though. It absolutely will endure. Here is Mr. Schifrin himself, leading a performance of what might be his most famous work. I honestly had no idea he was this good a pianist! ShareDown the rabbit hole….

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Sports writer John Feinstein has died. I have only read a few of his books, but that is hardly damning as Feinstein was very prolific, and he wrote about just about every sport that’s out there. Not only was he a superb prose stylist, but he was especially gifted at translating the human stories of sport into words. He made you feel what it was like to be a ballplayer, or a basketball player, or a golfer, or whatever it was he chose to write about. I will miss his voice and I feel I should make it a bitDown the rabbit hole….

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The quote in the title of this post is from the West Wing episode “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen”, the second season premiere, in which the present-day Bartlet White House is reeling from the assassination attempt on the President, coupled with flashbacks to the early days of the campaign. In one of the flashbacks, Leo McGarry says those words to then-Governor Bartlet, who is the good man who has not entirely signed onto the whole idea of running for President in the first place. Jimmy Carter was absolutely a good man who got elected President. He chose his momentDown the rabbit hole….

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Actress and singer Mitzi Gaynor has died. She was 93, and she was one of the very last remaining stars with ties to the great era of the Hollywood movie musical. Her biggest role was likely South Pacific, the Rodgers-and-Hammerstein classic (which I may have never actually seen all the way through, it’s not lodged in my memory all that well at all), which is set in–of course!–the islands of the South Pacific during World War II. This particular song is the one from that show which I know best, though I am abashed to admit that it’s not because ofDown the rabbit hole….