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Movement, music & lyrics: Fred Astaire with George & Ira
Gershwin.  Over a wet, grey Seattle weekend, I immersed myself
in Wilfred Sheed's delightful book about the architects of the
American popular song, "The House That George Built: With a
Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty." (This
is one of the big reasons I love Seattle: There's nothing better
on such a day, when the leaves are just starting to pop yellow
orange and red against those dark slate skies, than kicking back
with such a book and the Sunday New York Times, and spending the
day quietly and cozily soaking it all in.)  Sheed's
memoir/survey is an idiosyncratic/anecdotal appreciation of the
greats -- Berlin, Gershwin, Arlen, Carmichael, Ellington, Kern,
Porter, Rodgers, and others who ar