‘Lovecraft Country’: The True Story of Josephine Baker

“Lovecraft Country” Episode 7 saw Hippolyta blasted through time and space, including a passage that saw her dancing with the real-life icon Josephine Baker.

Lovecraft Country Episode 7 was the trippiest episode yet of the HBO show, with Hippolyta Freeman (played by Aunjanue Ellis) heading through a crack in time and space and into what seemed to be a very Afrofuturist future. Just as she got used to this strange new future, however, she found herself on stage with none other than Josephine Baker (Carra Paterson), the 1920s screen icon.

In the latest episode of Lovecraft Country, we see Baker on stage in a nightclub in Paris, but dancing was just one of the many things the Missouri-born woman did in her 68 years on this earth. She was also the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, a medal-winning French Resistance agent and a civil rights activist.

The most enduring image of Josephine Baker in the popular culture is the costume she used to wear while dancing in Paris’ Folies Bergère in 1927 (the same year she made her movie debut): a skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded brasserie. This outfit caused a sensation in Paris, where she had moved in 1925 after a successful career in the U.S.

In America, she was named, “the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville” for her act, which saw her pretending to mess up the routine throughout the night before perfecting a more complex version of the dance at the encore. Continue reading “‘Lovecraft Country’: The True Story of Josephine Baker” →

French Guy Cooking tackles the 5 Mother Sauces

 

“Each and everyday, we strive for quality and modernity. Like perfumers, we create flavors.”

“Making sauce is an art,” explained Alex Gabriel, AKA French Guy Cooking, in a video last week announcing his new project: sauces.

Gabriel is known for his enthusiastic DIY approach to cooking, paired with instructional interviews with the best in the biz. In this new series on the 5 French Mother Sauces (béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, and tomato), Gabriel sets out to learn about the dynamic and delicious world of sauces. He visits Christian Le Squer, the Chef de Cuisine of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris, a 3-Michelin star restaurant, where Le Squer explains to Alex that cooks are sauciers, first.

Executive Chef, Romain Mauduit, introduces Gabriel to the importance of thickening sauces through reduction. “As volume decreases, concentration increases, so flavor intensifies.” The copper pots full of monstrous quantities of veal and chicken stock will make your mouth water.

“Each and everyday, we strive for quality and modernity. Like perfumers, we create flavors. From tradition to modernity.”

Source: French Guy Cooking Tackles the 5 Mother Sauces – Frenchly

Beegie Adair Trio “Autumn Leaves”

The iconic Beegie Adair Trio performs the jazz classic “Autumn Leaves,” (“Les Feuilles Mortes”) written by Joseph Kosma

“Autumn Leaves” is said to have been recorded nearly 1400 times by mainstream and modern jazz musicians alone and is the eighth most-recorded tune by jazzmen.

The first commercial recordings of “Les Feuilles mortes” were released in 1950, by Cora Vaucaire and by Yves Montand. Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric and gave it the title “Autumn Leaves”

Reda Caire interview from 1960

Reda Caire interviewé ,il chante accompagné au piano par Max Boyat il chante une nouvelle chanson puis “les beaux dimanches de Printemps”,”si tu reviens”,”jeunesse”.

Filmé le 12 Novembre 1960.désolé pour la qualité de l’image.

Reda Caire interviewed, he sings accompanied on the piano by Max Boyat
he sings a new song then “The beautiful Sundays of Spring”, “If you come back”, “Youth”.

Filmed on November 12, 1960. sorry for the picture quality.