It’s been cold in New Orleans this week. That makes the cats happy because they can heed the siren call of the space heater. It’s their household god. Claire Trevor gets as close to it as possible leading me to move it farther from her whiskers. The smell of burnt cat whiskers is not pleasant.

In local news, WWL-TV news has rebranded. Their reporters used to end each story with WWL, New Orleans. Now it’s WWL. Louisiana. Is it in response to incoming Governor, Jeff Landry? Landry hates New Orleans for being a nest of liberals, gays, and minorities who didn’t vote for him. The WWL rebranding is likely to have been conceived before the late election BUT Landry led the race from start to finish, so it feels like a pander.

This week’s theme song was written by Bryan Ferry and Johnny Marr for Ferry’s 1987 album Bete Noire.

We have two versions of The Right Stuff for your listening pleasure: the studio original and Ferry live on Peter’s Pop Show. It ain’t me babe, no, no, no, it ain’t me you’re looking for, babe.

I dig Ferry’s cover of the Dylan song I just quoted:

I’m trying to imagine Bob Dylan in a white dinner jacket, but my imagination isn’t that fertile. Oh well, what the hell.

We begin our second act by linking to a piece in Vulture.

The Right Stuff At 40: I remember reading the excerpts of Tom Wolfe’s great book in Rolling Stone. It whet my appetite for the book and the movie, which are both classics.

Writer-director Philip Kauffman sat for an interview with Matt Zoeller-Seitz in celebration of The Right Stuff’s 40th anniversary. Kauffman reminds us that the movie didn’t do well at the box office, but its popularity has grown over the years. I’m among those who consider it one of the best films of the 1980’s.

I learned some interesting stuff from the interview:

• The first screenplay was written by the legendary William Goldman but little of it made it onscreen.
• Chuck Yeager was NOT in Goldman’s script, which was also without the right stuff.
• When Tom Wolfe screened the movie, he liked it so much that he asked to see it again immediately.

I had almost forgotten this Newsweek cover:

The answer to the question on the cover was a resounding NO. Glenn’s candidacy flopped. So it goes

The last word of this segment goes to The Tubes:

Things You Don’t Know About Me: I hate shoe shopping. My feet are extra wide in the front and narrow in the back. They seem to have gotten wider during the pandemic as well. My medical professional spouse assured me that it happens as one ages. Bummer, man.

That is why shoe shopping is my idea of hell. I’m sticking to the extra-wide Skechers slip-ons and leaving hard leather shoes behind.

The last word of our second act goes to Elvin Bishop:

I lied. Here’s one more shoe song:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: I wrote about the new Ridley Scott biopic earlier this week. Here’s Scott’s Napoleon Joaquin Phoenix next to the real guy.

The hand in the pocket pose was common among 19th Century portrait sitters. For some reason it was a favorite of Jacques Louis-David who painted that Napoleonic portrait. I don’t get it. I guess you had to be there.

Here’s an Arlen-Harburg tune about pastry:

Your Weekly Oscar: This time, a Jerome Kern doubleheader, OP’s version of The Way You Look Tonight followed by Fred Astaire with Oscar on piano.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson? That goes for Fred Astaire as well.

The Best Of Albert: Last week’s Odds & Sods was Albert Brooks-centric, so I decided to premier a new feature that’s, well, Brooks-centric.

Every time Albert drops the dummy, I laugh like a deranged hyena. The same thing happened when I saw  the title of this venerable song:

It’s not quite time to dummy up. Let’s rummage through the junk drawer.

The Junk Drawer: This video greeted me after I played a John Wetton song on the YouTube. It’s a surprisingly emotional moment from the usually reticent leader of King Crimson, Robert Fripp. Wetton was King Crimson’s bassist and lead vocalist from 1972-1974.

Fripp and Wetton remained friends until John’s death in 2017. Fripp still misses Wetton; so do I.

In this live clip John Wetton lives up to Robert Fripp’s praise of his bass playing:

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: This week, Lady Day on the radio from the Storyville club in Boston, not New Orleans. George Wein, of course, went on to create Jazz Fest.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to the stars of The Right Stuff: