Monday, August 23, 2010
anything at all....but not that.
In the previous post I wrote about how our open minded Art teacher would encourage us to bring is albums to listen to during class- this reminded me of another teacher, a music teacher, who asked us kiddies to bring in some music we liked to share with the class.
The year was 1967, so I'm 10 years old, in 4th grade (?) and I take my teachers request very seriously- As a matter of fact I will bring in two songs that I love to share with my peers.
The teacher was Mrs.Fontana, Isabella Fontana, barely five feet tall, but a force of nature. An entire web site could be devoted to students memories of this one of a kind gal. In an odd connection to the previous post and to the book ALL HOPPED UP....., she was Neil Sedaka's music teacher in high school (maybe jr. high)
So the day arrives and I have my two albums with me- Wild Honey by the Beach Boys (the first album I ever bought for myself) and Hank Williams Greatest Hits ( one of my Dads albums)
WE go to Music, Mrs. Fontana asks "Did anyone bring in some music?" Boom! My hand is in the air. I hand her the album, she removes the record, being very careful to handle it by the edges (vinyl ,you know) and places it on the Hi- Fi
Wild Honey begins. This is Rn'B Beach Boys style. The theremin is doing that swooping octave thing at the start, then the band kicks in and.......she stops the record and takes it off the turntable , all the while berating the "noise" that I was subjecting the other kids to.
Oh..... "I have another record, no, not by the same group. It's by Hank Williams." Not a glimmer of recognition from Isabella, she has no idea who Hank Williams is. I already know Hank and I are doomed.
The album is removed respectfully, placed on the turntable and the greatest singer/songwriter in the history of country music begins to sing....
"Hey Good Loo....." That's as far as he got. This time no lecture from Mrs. Fontana, just a shake of the head and a withering look. Wow...dissed and dismissed.
Within five minutes she had made mincemeat of Hank Williams, Brian Wilson and Me.
When I got home I played "Wild Honey"..........loud
The year was 1967, so I'm 10 years old, in 4th grade (?) and I take my teachers request very seriously- As a matter of fact I will bring in two songs that I love to share with my peers.
The teacher was Mrs.Fontana, Isabella Fontana, barely five feet tall, but a force of nature. An entire web site could be devoted to students memories of this one of a kind gal. In an odd connection to the previous post and to the book ALL HOPPED UP....., she was Neil Sedaka's music teacher in high school (maybe jr. high)
So the day arrives and I have my two albums with me- Wild Honey by the Beach Boys (the first album I ever bought for myself) and Hank Williams Greatest Hits ( one of my Dads albums)
WE go to Music, Mrs. Fontana asks "Did anyone bring in some music?" Boom! My hand is in the air. I hand her the album, she removes the record, being very careful to handle it by the edges (vinyl ,you know) and places it on the Hi- Fi
Wild Honey begins. This is Rn'B Beach Boys style. The theremin is doing that swooping octave thing at the start, then the band kicks in and.......she stops the record and takes it off the turntable , all the while berating the "noise" that I was subjecting the other kids to.
Oh..... "I have another record, no, not by the same group. It's by Hank Williams." Not a glimmer of recognition from Isabella, she has no idea who Hank Williams is. I already know Hank and I are doomed.
The album is removed respectfully, placed on the turntable and the greatest singer/songwriter in the history of country music begins to sing....
"Hey Good Loo....." That's as far as he got. This time no lecture from Mrs. Fontana, just a shake of the head and a withering look. Wow...dissed and dismissed.
Within five minutes she had made mincemeat of Hank Williams, Brian Wilson and Me.
When I got home I played "Wild Honey"..........loud
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Hey, Ho.........
I just finished reading a great book called- ALL HOPPED UP AND READY TO GO by Tony Fletcher. The book is a look at popular music in New York City from 1927 to 1977.
Mr Fletcher is certainly a man of some ambition- but lo and behold he succeeds at making all these different scenes (jazz, latin, folk, rock, punk and rap) come alive. Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Pete Seeger, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone- the list of performers and songwriters and producers and hangers on is staggering but he tells everyones story with interest and enthusiasm.
I particularly love the fact that he shines the light on some folks who are often overlooked ,like Neil Sedaka and the Rascals and Allen Vega of Suicide.
A terrific read, it makes you want to run out and buy (or at least listen) to all the bands and songs he is writing about. Tony Fletcher has to "curate" an ALL HOPPED UP..... box set. (it would probably be impossible to get the rights for 99% of the songs and on top of that does anyone buy box sets anymore?)
One of the people he writes about is David Peel- a new york street singer/character from the late sixties early seventies. He and his "band" the Lower East Side (or as I remember them -The Lower East Side Orchestra) recorded an album I have very fond memories of.
During Art class in junior high the teacher ,being a groovy artist, would play records during class. We kids were encouraged to bring in stuff we liked- the boys mostly wanted to play Grand Funk or the Allman Brothers, the girls tended towards sensitive singer songwriter selections. Every once in a while the teacher would play something of his choosing- one Day it was "Have a Marijuana" by David Peel and the Lower East Side. An Album recorded in Washington Square Park- An Album that had a decidely unpolished sound- an album that contained the song "Up Against the Wall Motherfuc-er" the lyrics of which are basically the the title repeated for about two minutes.
Needless to say, we junior high boys had a new hero and a new favorite song and a new appreciation for art.
Mr Fletcher is certainly a man of some ambition- but lo and behold he succeeds at making all these different scenes (jazz, latin, folk, rock, punk and rap) come alive. Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Pete Seeger, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone- the list of performers and songwriters and producers and hangers on is staggering but he tells everyones story with interest and enthusiasm.
I particularly love the fact that he shines the light on some folks who are often overlooked ,like Neil Sedaka and the Rascals and Allen Vega of Suicide.
A terrific read, it makes you want to run out and buy (or at least listen) to all the bands and songs he is writing about. Tony Fletcher has to "curate" an ALL HOPPED UP..... box set. (it would probably be impossible to get the rights for 99% of the songs and on top of that does anyone buy box sets anymore?)
One of the people he writes about is David Peel- a new york street singer/character from the late sixties early seventies. He and his "band" the Lower East Side (or as I remember them -The Lower East Side Orchestra) recorded an album I have very fond memories of.
During Art class in junior high the teacher ,being a groovy artist, would play records during class. We kids were encouraged to bring in stuff we liked- the boys mostly wanted to play Grand Funk or the Allman Brothers, the girls tended towards sensitive singer songwriter selections. Every once in a while the teacher would play something of his choosing- one Day it was "Have a Marijuana" by David Peel and the Lower East Side. An Album recorded in Washington Square Park- An Album that had a decidely unpolished sound- an album that contained the song "Up Against the Wall Motherfuc-er" the lyrics of which are basically the the title repeated for about two minutes.
Needless to say, we junior high boys had a new hero and a new favorite song and a new appreciation for art.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
behold!
Doris Day
one of the great crushes of my youth
Bob Hope said she had the best behind in Hollywood
I have an autographed photo of Doris that I won in a raffle (the raffle was rigged, but in my favor, so I'm all for it)
one of the great crushes of my youth
Bob Hope said she had the best behind in Hollywood
I have an autographed photo of Doris that I won in a raffle (the raffle was rigged, but in my favor, so I'm all for it)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
don't hold my breath
Read a small item in the paper the other day- This past June was the hottest on record.
Don't know about records yet, but this July seems pretty darn hot.
I still have yet to hear anybody who jumped on the fact that we had a blizzard this winter (which proved beyond doubt that there was no climate change) crack wise about the heat.
Maybe I just missed it
Don't know about records yet, but this July seems pretty darn hot.
I still have yet to hear anybody who jumped on the fact that we had a blizzard this winter (which proved beyond doubt that there was no climate change) crack wise about the heat.
Maybe I just missed it
Monday, July 19, 2010
you say......
As previously stated I enjoy the world of food- eatin, reading, watching the TV, (oh PBS showed "A Hot Dog Program" the other night, one of my all time favorite food shows. I watch it every summer- a trip around America discovering the nuances and subtlety of all things frankfurter. If you can watch this show and not want to jump in the car and o to every place they feature- you have no soul.)
I do stop shy of callin myself a "foodie" There is something a wee bit too precious in that name. I love fresh fruits and veggies and few things make me happier than a nice salad but I am always put off by the messianic zeal of the locavore and/or farm to table crowd.
Yeah, Yeah, I get it fresh food = rapture, factory farm stuff= the spawn of satan. It is a bit tiresome to hear a hipster extol the virtue of an heirloom zucchini grown in community farm located in what used to be a parkin lot in Brooklyn.
That said- I have a few plants growin in containers on my deck in the back yard (a Roma tomato, a grape tomato, and a japanese eggplant). I water them everyday but mostly they are on their own. A bunch of the grape tomatos were all ripe the other day, I picked a few to put in a salad. Oh my dear god in heaven! These things were amazing! They barely made it into the kitchen- I was eating them like jelly beans (could you imagine if jelly beans grew on trees? )
I still will not align myself with the locavore mafia -but I get it.
A quick tomato aside: years ago the cesspool at the house overflowed leaving a puddle of "muck" in the backyard. The words have not yet been coined to describe how foul this was- but it was cleaned up and eventually forgotten.
The next summer, lo and behold, there were a bunch of tomato plants growing in the back yard! "Isn't that funny?" no one planted tomatos but, here they were.
AS summer went on the plants grew and the tomatoes looked like something out of a cookbook , big and red and ripe. Just as the harvest was about to begin, two and two were put together. Tomatoes-that no one planted- growing - in what just eight months before had been a puddle of cesspool muck.
I'm sure you were way ahead of us figuring that one out.
Needless to say none of the magic tomatoes made it to the table.
ps the G key on the computer is bein stubborn -so any missing G's are a mistake and not an attempt to be folksy
I do stop shy of callin myself a "foodie" There is something a wee bit too precious in that name. I love fresh fruits and veggies and few things make me happier than a nice salad but I am always put off by the messianic zeal of the locavore and/or farm to table crowd.
Yeah, Yeah, I get it fresh food = rapture, factory farm stuff= the spawn of satan. It is a bit tiresome to hear a hipster extol the virtue of an heirloom zucchini grown in community farm located in what used to be a parkin lot in Brooklyn.
That said- I have a few plants growin in containers on my deck in the back yard (a Roma tomato, a grape tomato, and a japanese eggplant). I water them everyday but mostly they are on their own. A bunch of the grape tomatos were all ripe the other day, I picked a few to put in a salad. Oh my dear god in heaven! These things were amazing! They barely made it into the kitchen- I was eating them like jelly beans (could you imagine if jelly beans grew on trees? )
I still will not align myself with the locavore mafia -but I get it.
A quick tomato aside: years ago the cesspool at the house overflowed leaving a puddle of "muck" in the backyard. The words have not yet been coined to describe how foul this was- but it was cleaned up and eventually forgotten.
The next summer, lo and behold, there were a bunch of tomato plants growing in the back yard! "Isn't that funny?" no one planted tomatos but, here they were.
AS summer went on the plants grew and the tomatoes looked like something out of a cookbook , big and red and ripe. Just as the harvest was about to begin, two and two were put together. Tomatoes-that no one planted- growing - in what just eight months before had been a puddle of cesspool muck.
I'm sure you were way ahead of us figuring that one out.
Needless to say none of the magic tomatoes made it to the table.
ps the G key on the computer is bein stubborn -so any missing G's are a mistake and not an attempt to be folksy
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Brutal
Oh it was hot yesterday and it's going to be hot tomorrow (tamale , for you fans of the old joke)-but to day it was HOT. The hottest day in 9 years said somebody.
You kinda forget that it gets this hot and humid and oppressive and just plain nasty.
I got in my car around noon today (the windshield had been facing the sun all morning long) ouch! I went to a local hardware store to get one of those "aluminun foil looking, put in the windshield so the inside of the car don't heat up like the kiln back in junior high thingys" they were sold out. ouch.
oh by the way I watched a lil' bit of news tonight, just to see if any of those trusted newsmen who mocked global warming because we had a big snowstorm this winter commented on the record breaking heat . I must of missed that part of the show.
You kinda forget that it gets this hot and humid and oppressive and just plain nasty.
I got in my car around noon today (the windshield had been facing the sun all morning long) ouch! I went to a local hardware store to get one of those "aluminun foil looking, put in the windshield so the inside of the car don't heat up like the kiln back in junior high thingys" they were sold out. ouch.
oh by the way I watched a lil' bit of news tonight, just to see if any of those trusted newsmen who mocked global warming because we had a big snowstorm this winter commented on the record breaking heat . I must of missed that part of the show.
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