There’s no health update this week because there’s one in my Irked In May post. I decided to spread it around, sort of like risotto spreading across the plate, which is apropos of nothing.

It was a frustrating week because I missed the Neville Way dedication ceremony in my hood. Several blocks of Valence Street are now Neville Way. It’s an honorary thing covering the area where Art Neville and his Uncle George Landry lived. George was better known as Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian tribe. I missed the event, so all I can do is link to my 2019 tribute to Art Neville.

If the featured image looks familiar, it’s because I memed it for the final Friday Cocktail Hour in April. It’s still got me hypnotized.

We have three theme songs with the same title this week, Magic. We begin with The Cars:

Next up, Scottish rockers, Simple Minds.

Our last co-theme song is by Bruce Springsteen:

What’s magic without a magician?

We begin our second act with a piece about Clara Bow and Taylor Swift. I am not making this up.

The It Girls: Swift has written a song about silent movie star Clara Bow. There’s a swell article about the song and the stars at Vanity Fair.

I suspect I’m one of the few people in the country without strong opinions about Taylor Swift. I do, however, dig silent movies.

Richard Tandy, R.I.P. Richard Tandy died this week at the age of 76. He was ELO’s keyboard player for most of its lifespan. He was integral to the band’s sound and success. What’s not to love about his playing on this classic song?

We move from the sublime to the sleazy with our next segment.

The Impeccable Mr. Pecker: There’s a swell piece by the director of a documentary about the National Enquirer on how David Pecker came to be the lead-off witness at the Trump porn star hush money election interference case. The director’s name is Mark Landsman and I apologize to him and everyone reading this for the length of that introductory sentence. Please do not diagram it.

The last word of our second act goes to Neko Case:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: When I think of magicians, I think of Houdini. On the left, we have Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh as Harry and Bess Houdini. On the right we have Adrien Brody and Kristen Connolly.

Your Weekly Oscar: We keep the magic alive with OP’s version of a Harold Arlen classic.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

The Best Of Cavett: I haven’t posted a Cavett clip in quite some time. Here’s an entire episode of his PBS show with the great sleight of hand magician Quinto Marucci DBA Tony Slydini.

Did someone say Sly?

Did someone say Dini?

I thought they said Deano. Never mind.

Saturday GIF Horse: I wasn’t crazy about the magician GIFs I saw online, so I went with this OTT GIF of Ricky reacting to Lucy. Clearly, Ricky is the one with some ‘splaining to do.

What a slab of Cuban ham.

Tweet Of The Week: It looks as if we underestimated this CNN anchor,

So you agree that people who break in and vandalize a building should be prosecuted?

J.D. Vance: "Exactly."

I’m just checking because you did help raise money for people who did so on Jan. 6th. pic.twitter.com/74AzrHuXXx

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 2, 2024

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

Saturday Closer: I may have missed the Neville Way ceremony, but I never miss a chance to post their music. This is a song about a magical chick from my neighborhood: the 13th Ward in Uptown New Orleans.

That’s all for this week. We’ve already seen the reel Houdinis, the last word goes to the real Houdini: