We’ve talked a lot about time flying by.

Here comes another milestone.
Winter solstice.
Midwinter.
An astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year.

For us, just another milestone to pass; time moving inexorably onward.
Ironic that the next ten weeks in the Boston area, our coldest season, will slowly see the lengthening of days, the growing daylight.
The cold temperatures so dominating of our energy and attention, we don’t notice the incremental changes in sunlight.

Until we do.
On the day we set aside to glorify couples’ love.

Valentine’s Day, ‘rookie’s night out’ in restaurant parlance, brings smiles to our faces, most of us.
And when we have a moment, we think: the days are now noticeably longer.
There are only three or four weeks of very cold weather left.
We can tolerate that.
We can count the days.
We can create a 30-day calendar and check the days off as they pass.

Even if we don’t go out for Valentine’s Day, even if we don’t have someone for whom to buy a card or a chocolate, we will still celebrate the imminent season change.

And smile.

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Tagging Today
Monday, December 17, 2018
My 249th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
Time is 12.01am.
Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 44* with a feels-like temerature f 38*.
Rain and drizzle in the morning.
Then cloudy.
Tonight getting very cold.

Dinner is a cold cut sandwich.

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Question of the Day:
What is the music genre called ‘rhythm and blues?’
Definitely not the Mountain Music of Ralph Stanley.

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Love your notes.
Contact me @ domcapossela@hotmail.com

From Tommie, So. Carolina

Ralph Stanley performed many times at Bill's Pickin Parlor in West Columbia - across the river from the city of Columbia.

What a joy!

Bill's Pickin Parlor gives opportunity to local musicians a chance to perform. . . it is an open mike.

He is sorely missed in the South Bluegrass and mountain music genre.

Web Meister Responds: So great to taste a bit of such a splendid subculture.
Thank you.

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Some shots from My Brilliant Friends.
The neighborhood is making an attempt to put family vendettas in the past.

Left:
Our heroines, Lila on left and Lenu on right. The neighborhood peace is being threatened.

Middle
A neighborhood party to improve relations.

Right:
Making nice. The children of a murderer and his victim.

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Answer to Question:
What is the music genre called ‘rhythm and blues?’
Rhythm and blues, commonly abbreviated as R&B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African American communities in the 1940s.
The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.

In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists.

R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.

The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records.
Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.
In the 1960s, several British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands; posters for the Who's residency at the Marquee Club in 1964 contained the slogan, "Maximum R&B".

Their mix of rock and roll and R&B is now known as "British rhythm and blues".
By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk.
In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "contemporary R&B".
It combines elements of rhythm and blues, pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music.
Popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Prince, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.

The term was used in Billboard as early as 1943.
It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
The term "rhythm and blues" was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles".
Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term "race music" with "sepia series".
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By reaching into the hearts and souls of white American youths, these four artists did more for race relations than the most famous of political activists.

Left:
Fats Domino.
Only Elvis Presley sold more records in the 1950s.
In 1955 Fats’ “Ain’t that a Shame” became the anthem of inner city white kids.
“I found my thrill…” Happy Days.

Second from left:
Little Richard.
A pop music and culture icon, Little Richard's most-celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship presaged the rise of rock and roll.
His music influenced many other popular music genres, including soul, funk and hip hop and shaped generations of rhythm and blues artists.

Second from right:
Chuck Berry.
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music.
With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive.
Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

Right:
Clyde McPhatter
Clyde Lensley McPhatter (November 15, c. 1932 – June 13, 1972) was an American rhythm and blues, soul and rock and roll singer.
He was one of the most widely imitated R&B singers of the 1950s and early 1960s and was a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B.
McPhatter's high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the gospel music he sang in much of his early life.

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Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans".
He has used the term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues.
However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences.
Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.
Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use (in some contexts) to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians.

In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone.
Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists.
Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound.
While singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control.
The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure.

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Good morning on this Monday, December 17, Christmas now only 9 days away.
Today we talked about time and the winter solstice, we heard from Tommie on Ralph Stanley and Bill’s Pickin Parlor, and we discussed r&b. We looked at pictures of four great r&b artists. We even got a couple of screen shots of ‘My Brilliant Friend.’

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom