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WONDERFUL WORLD / OVER THE RAINBOW

                  From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):


        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82
July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14       4142    15512         1151        189       712              
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar     2        1989      9490       1726       110      194
April   6         906     11787         4211        631       37
May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 
June    1         287     10637        2346      3205      95
July     7         251      8440         1595        817      411
Aug    4         656    10120         1118         532      423
Sept    1       1480   10470           703        505      235 
           7          815     8469          342        358      282
           8       1700     9836          250        339      253
         15       2282    10251           793         432      167

Summary:
  • With all those vaccinations, why is the USA continuing to show more and more deaths?
    • Schools have opened, and those students who are younger than 12 are bringing home the disease.
    • This Delta variant is definitely more contagious than the Alpha.
  • The U.S. new cases figure yesterday was 164,509.
  • India, Brazil and Turkey are next with around 30,000 new cases.
  • Several African countries are now showing new cases in four digits.
  • Texas was worst with 22,407 new cases and Florida next with 10,723.
  • Alaska, with half the population of Hawaii, had twice the number of new cases, with 1068.  Hawaii, however reported 11 new deaths, to 1 for Alaska.

My morning began reading my email.  Someone sent me:  Miss Hawaiis sing/dance Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful Day.  She is not among those who created this video, but the current Miss Hawaii is Courtney Choy.  Apparently,  plans are to hold the 94th Miss Amerian pageant at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut in December.   Not sure yet of the date.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole included this medley in his 1990 album Ka 'Ano'i, but the acoustic version became notable from this 1993 Facing Future (entire 56 minute album).  It only reached #12 on Billboard in 2004 but hit #1 in various European countries.  Has been used in a numerous films and TV series, plus commercials.

Louis Armstrong you would think came out with What a Wonderful World in the '30's.  However, it was written only in 1967 and his version then did nothing in the U.S., but the following year was the biggest selling single in the UK.  After Good Morning, Vietnam, in 1988 it was re-leased, but only rose to #32 on Billboard.

Over the Rainbow was written for The Wizard of Oz (RT: 99/89) in 1939 for Judy Garland, the song winning the Oscar the following year.  Turns out that Richard Arlen must have had the Intermezzo (known as Ratcliff's Dream) from the opera Guglielmo Ratcliff, by Pietro Mascagni (written in 1995) on his mind.  But I guess that must have been okay, because I don't recall this being controversial.

This song was actually deleted after the initial preview because Louis B. Mayer thought it slowed down the picture.  That would have been a shame, for in 2004, Over the Rainbow was named American Film Institute's #1 song, with As Time Goes By (Casablanca, RT:  99/95) gaining the second spot and Singing in the Rain at #3.  The rest:  Breakfast at Tiffany's, White Christmas, Mrs. Robinson, When You Wish Upon a Star, The Way We Were, Stayin' Alive and #10, The Sound of Music.

Three films had three songs in the Top 100:

The oldest was #73 Isn't It Romantic, with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in 1932 (Love Me Tonight, RT 100/83), said to be the first to link a song to the plot.  The newest from 2002 were All that Jazz with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger from Chicago (RT: 86/86) and Eminem's Lose Yourself at #93 from 8 Mile.(RT:75/54). Two almost jokes were Springtime for Hitler at #80 from The Producers,(RT: 90/85) and Puttin' on the Ritz #89 from Young Frankenstein.(RT:95/92).

AFI celebrated its 100th birthday with these 100 songs (from a list of 400), picked by 1500 from the U.S. cinema industry.  Did you see that show on CBS, hosted by John Travolta?  Well, if you want more:

The full list of 100, and from Wikipedia, where you find that:

  • Richard Rodgers composed the most songs with 6.
  • Oscar Hammerstein, lyricist, 6.
  • Judy Garland and Gene Kelly each had 5 songs.
  • #100 was Old Time Rock and Roll from Risky Business (RT:92/72), with Tom Cruise.

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Chanthu is now a tropical storm, and after going around in a circle off Shanghai, has decided to change course, and will now head straight for Japan and bring a lot of rain:

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