Monday, February 14, 2011

How to Guess Your Age-- Again

Seeking to answer the question "Who is Esperanza Spalding?"  I stumbled on the list of Grammies for Best New Artist.  I find I recognize almost everybody from the 60s and 70s; from the 80s and beyond, pretty year zilch.  Except, now, Esperanza. She is pretty good evidence (not so?) that Portland really is the coolest city in the US of  A.    And here she is:

3 comments:

they call me trouble said...

Not to Portland bash, but outside the ten blocks or so that squared get you the hip Portland, you get a slice of life that is best left for a nice law school in sunny California. More my speed at any rate. What is it with all those drinking establishments sans windows? It's not for nothing that Portland has been long known for having a great density of strip bars and enthusiastic call girls. And crank, lots and lots of crank. Come to think of it, that is kinda hip in a 1950's vintage sleaze novel kinda way.

Ken Houghton said...

I would conclude from "from the 80s and beyond, pretty [much] zilch" that you don't have children. Or, in some of the later cases, a decent non-Oldies/"Classic Rock" MOR FM radio station available.

Looking at the list and the selections, it's better than expected. Every selection from 1986-1994/1997, for instance, has had more staying power than its competitors (with the one obvious exception, and arguably Marc Cohn over Boyz II Men in 1992)--and the last year mihgt be in the 2000s if not for Paula Cole and Lauren Hill walking away from recording for a while.

In short, there is good reason to believe Ms. Spalding will have a long and prosperous career, certainly moreso than had she won in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Buce said...

Ah, you are off by a generation. I do have children, but by the (early) 80s they had pretty much grown up and gone. Grandchildren, too, but apparently when I am around their parents make them turn the sound down.