I just started reading a book, "In Search of the Blues" by Marybeth Hamilton. From page one it promises to be a hatchet job about those individuals who preserved the Delta Blues. The first thing she writes about after unholstering the hatchet is to swoon at Greil Marcus' feet. This is odd as he traced these self same blues people as being the recent ancestors of rock and roll figures he elevates. Well, blimey (she is a limey), he wrote a book blurb for her. While my slide guitar gently screeches..Who "created" the world of the Delta Blues is of no importance to me. Most academics, if not all, have ideas that lose significance when their words travel about two feet beyond the speaker. Hurricane Katrina? Lets have a seminar to discuss its horrors...What? No salmon and lox for breakfast break? and only one type of granola? Pity...Hmm....we discussed Dafur last month. The croissants weren't fresh.
The people pictured above are mostly former Negro League players. Their accomplishments are the stuff of similar legends. However, while some tales of their athletic prowess have been enhanced (by retelling, not by HGH) over the years, it is still possible to put together their athletic accomplishments. Although Ken Burns and his army of similar haircuts made these players seem warm and fuzzy and brought the NPR brigade down on thier heads, it was a good thing.
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