You know those cute folksy expressions that, at least in the popular imagination, are the mark of rural
speech patterns? Well, I think we urban folks need some of them too. So I'd like to propose some folks-sounding urban phrases and expressions.
The first one, by the way, harkens back to my high school days. There was some guy I vaguely knew (he was two grades ahead of me) who used it as the quote under his picture in the yearbook. I think I know what it meant, but I'm not sure. Anyway, After that one, the rest are from my fertile mind. I am open to suggestions for more expressions.
If you can't get a seat at Roosevelt Avenue, you're not really trying.
Even Times Square gets snow.
Don't open a bodega and call it Whole Foods.
He couldn't get mugged if he tried.
Don't snatch my purse and then say you have no ID.
Like homeless to an E train.
If you'r crossing sixth, watch out for the roaches.
Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 3 Movie: Hunchback of the Morgue (1973) Directed by Carlos Aured As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL Plot:
Gotho is a hunchback, distraught over the death of his lover -- the only person who was ever kind to him. He supplies body parts to a mad scientist in the vain hope that his love -- the only person who was ever kind to him -- can be brought back to life. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
After two weeks in which a travelling party is somehow stranded with the monster in a dwelling off the beaten track, I was under the impression that we'd be seeing four weeks of that same basic outline. So, leave it to Keith to throw us a curveball. Instead, this is kind of a variation of a theme that's been visited and revisited many times over.
But this does have a few nice touches that make it stand out. For starters, this time the focus is the assistant, rather than the mad scientist. Also interesting was the fact that we don't actually see the monster until the very end. That ensures that this movie isn't really about the monster, but about the process of building it -- a process in which Gotho is both villain and victim. It also helps keep the suspense high. We keep hearing the screams from the monster and can't help but wonder what it looks like.
It should also be noted that this movie also gave new meaning to the phrase "flaming rats."
The original Broadway cast album to Oliver! was one of my parents' records that I loved when I was a kid. My favorite song was "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two." There's a certain playful quality to it that appealed to me as a young kid -- long before I actually understood anything about the story. Often I would just listen to that one song. But occasionally, as a special treat, I got to listen to the whole album.
This was the first Broadway soundtrack that I got into.
Sixth grade. class play. It's Oliver! And I draw the role of Fagin -- which, admittedly, was well suited to me. Because of my ...limited...singing abilities, I am coached to sort of rap "Pick a Pocket."
Thanks to "Pearls Before Swine" (the best comic strip around, IMHO), I realized something interesting about the Trump presidency. Note, by the way, that "interesting" is subjective.
For the rest of this post, I am ignoring the six cases where two presidents had the same last name.*
Trump is the first president whose last name begins with the same four letter sequence as a past president. The past president in question is Truman. Both "Trump" and "Truman" begin with T R U M.
There have been several pairs that began with the same two letters, and one (Harrison and Harding) that began with the same three letters. But Trump colluded with Truman to up the ante.
Who says these are boring times?
*Adams, Harrison, Johnson, Cleveland, Roosevelt, Bush
Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 2 Movie: Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) Directed by Carlos Aured As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL Plot:
Centuries after Alaric de Marnac is beheaded and his wife is tortured to death, they keep their vow to return to life and avenge themselves. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
The plot here bears a strong resemblance to the plot of last week's film. A traveling party is stuck in the a dwelling in the woods after a breakdown. Oh, and they're stuck there with a source of grave danger. I thought I was really clever during the film to notice this parallel, but Keith and Joe noted that that was part of Naschy's formula. Instead of a castle, it was a French chalet. Instead of a vampire it's a long-dead warlord. Instead of stagecoach it's a Mercedes. But the basics are the same. This did confuse me a bit, since it was written by Jacinto Molina (as opposed to Naschy). My confusion was cleared up as they told me that that was Naschy using his real name.
There are some things to really give them credit for. The prologue, which takes place somewhere in Europe centuries ago, lasts long enough that I, the viewer, had gotten to the point of figuring that that was the setting for the film. But then, once you have the executions, we cut to a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and we're in present-day Paris.
On another matter, Joe (or was it Dave?) noted that Naschy played bot the villain and one of the victims. As such, it was kind of expected that the climactic battle would feature Naschy on Naschy. To his credit, the film avoids that trope.
On the visuals, the opening did a good job. with the extreme violence -- de Marnac getting beheaded. His wife, being suspended upside down still cackling her vows of revenge against her executioners. And the scene, later on, where we see de Marnac's disembodied head, is just fabulous. Admittedly, I am told that it owes a lot, visually, to The Thing That Wouldn't Die. THere was also a zombie sequence that owes a lot to Night of the Living Dead.
But, despite the really interesting stuff, I had a hard time getting into the story. There's two more weeks for Naschy to make an impression on me.
Through March, the JEA Gardening Club has had five meetings. They've all been local -- mostly at
members' homes, though one was at a St. John's University residence hall. We've discussed gardening issues. When to plant what. Good places to get our bulbs and such. All that's been good as far as it goes.
With the sixth meeting, things went to the next level, giving us a taste of the club's potential.
Ed Morrill, who heads the JEA's landscaping committee arranged for us to have a meeting at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, with a guest speaker and a tour of the QBG's greenhouse.
Regina Minerva gave us a talk about the history of QBG, some of its activities and plans for the future. After that, Karl McCoy took us to the greenhouse and shared wisdom about growing. Both speakers were gracious and informative, and our dozen and a half (or so) members were really enjoying the day. Ed, Regina and Karl all deserve our thanks for the day.
The next meeting will be a working session as we plant in the public triangle at Surrey Place and Midland Parkway.
COMMENT: looking back at this I realize that I, somehow, messed up the format of these posts. Oh well. If I had noticed this right away, I'd fix it. But now that it's days later and there are commenst and everything, I'm just gonna note it and apologize. Sorry.
Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 1 Movie: Count Dracula's Great Love (1972) Directed by Javier Aguirre As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL Plot:
Paul Naschy is one of those names that keeps coming up when we talk about horror film history. He's not quite a Bela Lugosi or Boris Karlof. But he's up there. Enough that he's known as the Spanish Lon Chaney. In the years that Keith has run this class, he's shown a few Naschy films, but this time he's spending a month showcasing the man.
Reflecting on this first movie, I have to withhold judgement. I can't help having the nagging feeling that the starring role was tailor made for Vincent Price. Naschy seemed kind of...bland. In this role, anyway. Price, I think, would have been more memorable.
That said, there are some things to like about this movie. The opening scene before the credits was really good and set the mood nicely. Plus, well, let's just say that I hope I never get a splitting headache like that poor delivery man. But I didn't think that the movie was well served by having that one scene repeated multiple times during the credits. Joe's opinion notwithstanding.
I enjoyed the humor in the ending. Dracula's victims are chained up in the sunlight, terrified. He tells them, "You have served Dracula well. Now you can return to your original form. Dracula needs you no longer." And we think that somehow the chains will come undone so these women, devampirized, can return to their lives. Then, as they scream in agony and smoke pours off their bodies, we realize that that's not exactly what he meant. Watching Dracula commit suicide is also quite a nice touch for the ending.
But despite the scenes I liked, I have to face the facts. Sometimes Keith shows us movies that stick with me afterwards. Movies that I liked better as time went on. I Spit on Your Grave and Cannibal Holocaust are notable examples. This, however, is the opposite. I kind of liked it when we saw it. At least there were things to like, even though I was kind of lukewarm on the movie when we saw it. But nearly a week later, I find that it really didn't stay in my mind. If I were rating it at this point, with the knowledge of how I feel about it now, I would give it a lower grade. Probably a 4.95
Reaction:
Keith wanted to have a Paul Naschy month
Ratings:
Me: 6.95
Dave: 9.7
Joe: 9.9
Sean: 2 out of 4
It's been quite a while that Sharon has been interested in art. I honestly don't recall how long it's been, but I do vaguely recollect her wanting good calligraphy pens. More recently, she turned to digital art.
It took me a while to realize how good she'd gotten. Maybe I was just too much of an obliviot. But she had all these drawings on her computer screen, and I just assumed that she had downloaded them or something. But then, while I was in her room I saw her draw one. And meanwhile, we've gotten her various tools. An electronic drawing tablet for the computer. A pen for the iPad. The suite of Adobe editing programs...
But the last time we were at Microcenter (our local electronics store of choice) buying her a drawing tablet, the salesman started talking about the importance of real media -- pens, pencils, paper. He wasn't disparaging the electronic art. But he said that it would benefit her to learn the basics. He does digital art -- and he showed us samples of his work. But he regrets not having taken classes in real media.
Well, the message hit home, and Sharon got a recommendation from a friend who takes (or has taken?) classes at the Bridgeview School of Fine Arts.
Registering her for the class was not what I expected. I'm really glad we called to talk to someone instead of just registering online. We were advised that the class she was hoping to take wouldn't be a beginner's class (even though the website listed it as one). I was also surprised to learn that her experience with digital art wouldn't help with traditional media. I realized that this would be a different process, but not how different. I also had to give an OK for Sharon to be in a class that would have nude models.* I guess that makes sense. I don't have any objections, but I can understand that some parents might, and the school needs to play it safe.
The first class was tonight. Yeah, I may be biased, but I'm impressed with the classwork she did. The teacher is tough, but Sharon seemed pleased to get the helpful feedback. And, since he was tough on everyone, she didn't feel singled out. She pointed out that she felt particularly proud when she could identify what she had done wrong before the teacher found it.
Sharon was the only kid in the class -- and I think I recall being told that this would be a class of adults. I think that was mentioned around the same point that the topic of nude models came up.
The verdict? Well, Sharon seemed really happy about the class when I picked her up. And she's excited to go back next week. That's what I wanted. It's really nice to see her excited about this.
*How does one apply to be a nude model for art classes? I could use the extra income. Of course, not for a class that Sharon takes...
Anyone who knows me and my musical taste knows that I'm a big Dave Edmunds fan. And DE 7th, his seventh solo album, was where I started with him. On day one I chose a compilation of material by Ducks Deluxe, and noted that it was my rock and roll ground zero. Well, DE 7th is arguably ground one*.
Edmunds, as one of the Ducks' producers, was pictured on the back of that album, and I mistakenly thought he was part of the band. This solo album was a new release at that time, so it was displayed prominently in the store, and I bought it.
It is one of a handful of records that I adored from start to finish the first time I listened to it. ANd I was a fan forever. Fans don't generally consider it to be Edmunds' best work -- that distinction goes to Repeat When Necessary. And I can see the argument. But for me money, this record edges the other out.
Edmunds's sound is a bit more complex than it was on the four solo albums he did for Swan Song records (backed, for the most part, by Rockpile). There's some bouncy accordians, horns, and some mandolin. He experiments with Zydeco. But he never loses sight of the roots rock that he was known for.
A favorite song? Hard to choose for this album, as it's an embarrassment of riches. But I'll present a few candidates and leave it at that.
0) "One More Night," a piano-driven ballad that is, stylistically, very different from the rest of the record.
1) "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)," a Bruce-Springsteen-penned tale of rags to riches to ruin:
2) "Other Guys Girls," a relationship song with an ironic twist:
3) "Dear Dad" a lesser-known Chuck Berry tune (also with an ironic twist):
4) "Louisiana Man" a bouncy tribute to the Cajun life:
I didn't really "get" the humor of Allan Sherman's music when I heard it as a kid. Which kind of makes it odd that I liked it so much. He wasn't a particularly good singer, but the humor was the main attraction.
But, despite my missing the point, I used to listen to this. Over and over and over again. And it became part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I remember those summers at sleepaway camp, when I was absolutely obsessed with Allan Sherman. I was quite the annoying pest back then.* I'd be singing his songs at any opportunity. And, I'll tell you, I sang worse then than I do now.
For the uninitiated, Allan Sherman was a comedy writer who turned his attention to humorous songs. Mostly parodies. In a sense he was the Weird Al Yankovic of his day. But there are two major differences:
Weird Al parodies records. His recordings are meant to sound like the originals. Allan Sherman just parodied songs. And many of his parodies were of older traditional songs of which there isn;t even one definitive recording anyway. As an example, his first album included "Sir Greenbaum's Madrigal, which was a sendup of "Greensleeves."
Allan Sherman's humor was distinctly ethnic. Specifically Jewish. In "My Zelda" (a parody of "Matilda") he bemoans that he hasn't "seen her since Tisha B'av." And the Jewish jokes aren't just in the references. There's also Yiddish phraseology. In "The Streets of Miami" (a parody of "The Streets of Laredo") he recalls that "I shot and Sam crumbled just like a piece halvah."
In one sense, I think of Allan Sherman and Tom Lehrer as occupying a similar space, since they both performed humorous songs at roughly the same time. But Lehrer's humor was more in the realm of biting satire, and he didn't parody existing songs. They were both good, but for some reason Lehrer never worked hisway into my childmind the same way.
I remember reading the reviews from other comedians that comprised the liner notes, and begging my father to buy these other records. For some reason I didn't realize that these were positive comments about the record I had (as opposed to descriptions of other records).
And for years -- decades, actually -- I was still picking up on jokes that I had previously missed.
Years later I bought my own used copy. And then used copies of the followup albums, My Son, the Celebrity, and My Son the Nut. They were good, but not as good as the first. Now, of course, my collection is largely complete, as I have My Son, the Box, a six-disc box set covering most of his career. There are some odds and ends that aren't on it, but...whatever.
The jokes are corny, but I love them.
For years -- decades, in fact -- I was still catching jokes that I had previously missed.
Back to my days as a music editor for a college newspaper. In came this record. Heroes, Angels & Friends, by Janey Street. My contact at Arista noted helpfully that Janey was from Queens. Which, I guess, mattered to me since this was Queens College. I wasn't very hopeful, but reluctantly gave it a listen.
I loved it! The record kind of made me think of Bruce Springsteen. Janey lacked Bruce's raw edge, but there was a lot of the same ethos -- these stories of working class folk struggling and dreaming of escape. And there was an infectious energy. And, yes, and edge of sexuality that I found appealing. To this day, it's one of my favorite records.
One of my favorite events as a music fan was when Janey did a house concert on Long Island in 2012. It was bittersweet because I was kind of hoping to hear those songs from HA&F. But Janey had moved on in the nearly 30 years since that album came out. She played more recent material, which kind of makes sense. But this new stuff didn't really interest me. Not that it was bad. It just wasn't of a style I was interested in hearing. Still, I got to see Janey Street in concert, up close and personal.
As far as I can tell, the only song on HA&F that got made into an official video was "Under The Clock," which was actually my least-favorite song on the album. But, since that's the one with a real video, that's the one I'm sharing above. I much prefer the more energetic "Say Hello to Ronnie" or "Me and My Friends."
Sadly, Arista has never seen fit to rerelease it on CD, and you can't buy a CD version. You can, however, join Janey's fan club and get a copy as one of your membership perqs.
For my fifth day of the favourite albums challenge I went with The Monkees Greatest Hits.*
This was actually a tough decision to include because I generally think of it as a cheat to pick greatest hits collections. But I'm making an exception here because of what the Monkees have meant to me as a music fan.** And, by the way, this was the first album I ever bought.
The Monkees were the first musical group I ever got into. And, yes, it was because of their TV show. That was part of my after-school viewing schedule when it was on. I used to put a tape recorder by the TV to record the musical songs. And I still remember walking around the neighborhood with that crappy quality tape recorder playing, deludedly thinking I was cool. The first song on my tape was "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow." The second was "Sometime in the Morning." Then came "Randy Scouse Git." and "Valleri." Yeah, I remember that. And they stuck with me to this day. I still love the classic Monkees records.*** I love their movie, Head even though it being a self-centered pretentious effort.****
I gave some thought to picking one of their nine classic albums, but I realized that that didn't really make sense. All nine albums have some good stuff on them (yes, even Changes, which is much better than the dreck it is often regarded as). The first record I bought was this greatest hits package, so that's what I should list. And that's despite the fact that the eleven songs on this disc are most decidedly not my eleven favorite Monkees songs. Hey, none of them is "Shorty Blackwell."
*Despite the way they fucked their fans over with the way they released that reunion album, Good Times!, a couple years ago. **Despite the way they fucked their fans over with the way they released that reunion album, Good Times!, a couple years ago. ***Despite the way they fucked their fans over with the way they released that reunion album, Good Times!, a couple years ago. ****Despite the way they fucked their fans over with the way they released that reunion album, Good Times!, a couple years ago.
For the fourth day, I chose a various artists compilation -- Songs in the Key of Z -- lovingly curated by Irwin Chusid, possibly as a soundtrack to his book of the same name.
Z is a tribute to musical outsiders -- people who are giving it their all, making music as best they can, and maybe unaware of just how doubleplusungood they are. For some reason I don't fully understand I have a soft spot for a lot of the musical outsiders. They strike a chord with me. And, putting that aside, there are a bunch of tracks on this album that I like. I mean, really like. Not in an ironic "oh isn't this funny because it's awful" sense. I realize that this stuff isn't conventionally good, and that most people don't like it. But I do. Not that I like all of it.
For the third day of the album challenge, I went with Haven't Lost a Thing by The Milner Brothers.
I am very fond of the music on this Kingston Trio-inspired album. The Milners' take on "Saro Jane" and "Run the Ridges" are great, even though this isn't really my favorite style of music. I do note that this album didn;t really lead me on any kind of discovery of other groups the way my picks from days one and two did.
At any rate, given what I have to say above, why would I pick this album? One important reason. It includes a song I co-wrote. "Music No One Else Can Hear, which is the seventh track on the album, is one of mine. Honestly, at this point I'm not crazy about the song. And I've gone back and rewritten it. But this is the song that got me into ASCAP, and on the virtue of which I can say (with tongue planted in cheek) that I'm a professional songwriter.
I couldn;t find any videos of the Milner Brothers. But here's a video of my song being done by Dolce Canto, another group that Scott Milner played with while he was living in Montana. It's less folky and more klezmer-y than the Milner Brothers version. Also, the lighting and sound quality are poor in this video. But it's the best I could come up with.
Yesterday, we had another Stack-Up event that involved our partnering with The Mission Continues Newark.
This time it was setup work at Ironbound Boxing Academy in Newark. The boxing academy is set up in the bowels of the long-abandoned Ironbound Stadium -- which is now in the early stages of refurbishment. You can read about that here. The short story is that the gym will serve the disadvantaged youth of the area as well as military veterans.
We weren't really sure what we were in for, but it turned out to be mostly bagging up crap for removal, and some help with setting up weight racks and mats. The Mission Continues Newark is amazing at mobilizing volunteers, so with several dozen people working together, we were able to accomplish a lot in relatively little time.
Senator Corey Booker's office had representatives there -- and, of course, Blair was chatting them up about StackUp. In addition, the event was covered by the local media. That article is here. Ethan is clearly visible at a couple points in their video.
One of the interesting things is how, over time, we seem to be building more and more partnerships with other organizations outside of Stackup.
The second album I listed under the Facebook ten-day favourite album challenge was Tales of the New West, the debut album by the Beat Farmers.
The purpose of this post is to explain that choice, but first, the prior choice was Don't Mind Rockin' Tonite by Ducks Deluxe. My explanation of why is here.
So, back to Tales of the New West...
I came across this album when it came out in 1985. I was music editor for a college newspaper, and Rhino sent us a review copy, and I -- as was my prerogative -- took it for myself. It was a style that I hadn't heard before; kind of a mix of rock and country. Too country to be rock and too rock to be country. There were many terms used to describe it, but I kind of latched onto "cowpunk," a label I still use today. Of course, the late Buddy Blue (one of the original members) told me in an interview that he preferred the term "Americana Music." Maybe I should honor that preference. But I haven't been.
Anyway, From the opening riff of "Bigger Stones" to the final fade at the end of "Happy Boy," I was spellbound. I loved every note. This was a whole new style for me. And from there I started getting interested in other cowpunk bands -- Rank and File, E*I*E*I*O, Country Bob & the Blood Farmers. I even managed to snag a paid writing gig out of it, writing an item about cowpunk for the "Building*" feature in Tower Records' Pulse! There were a whole lot of great cowpunk bands, but none of them mattered as much to me as the Beat Farmers.
I remained a fan of the Beat Farmers through their changes until they broke up upon the death of drummer, Country Dick Montana, onstage in 1995. I bought all of their albums, and saw them in concert when they came to New York. Those were among the best concerts I've ever been to.
For all that -- and especially for introducing me to "cowpunk," this is one of the albums that has to be among my ten picks. No question.
