moon traveller herald

MoonTraveller recognizes the passing of astronaut Neil Armstrong , who together with Buzz Aldrin, landed on the Moon in July of 1969. Neil is pretty busy in this landing audio, Buzz is reading-out the computer telemetry etc, and Neil is focused, but this NASA transcript includes debriefing commentary (what he was thinking) and later historical reminiscences by Neil. On touch down he says  "Engine arm is off. Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." He had the Midwestern pilot drone attitude down cold. Uninterruptible, he was thinking, and going to land this thing come hell or high water. Before the moon he was a famed test pilot. His coolness when a prototype model LEM blew up [he ejected] was part of his legend. From this transcript I detect a call out that I take it as his descent engine had 30 sec of fuel left about 26 sec before he landed. The press asked questions. He'd laconically respond. Actually, he was thinking. Tom Wolfe: "You'd a...

Walter Davis was a St.Louis blues pianist, well recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. He is usually mentioned as part of litany of Missouri players that could include Pettie Wheatstraw, Henry Townsend, Roosevelt Sykes. It's not too well known that Missouri was a hotbed of blues activity at one time. Sunnyland Slim told me he more or less spent 10 years in the area, after leaving Mississippi but before going to Chicago. Davis style is something like the other Mo. players.. but different too. He had a staccato approach that shows the way to drone-like rocknroll (and even the Velvet Underground) more than boogie woogie does! His lyrics could be racy, and quite evocative, as Doing Something Wrong (I Can Tell by the Way You Smell). His biggest song perhaps (recorded widely by others) was ComeBackBaby. I wouldnt mind crediting him with the original Sloppy Drunk. He did a number called Sweet Sixteen that was used in part for a later version by St. Louis's Charles Berry. Davis (no relatio...