Accelerated Decrepitude

ROCK & ROLL

2012-02-15T14:25:00.027-05:00

Lost in the Stacks #2: Hard-to-Find Video Gems from Pratt Central

It's only rock 'n' roll - but I like it, love it, yes I do!

Rock & Roll
directed by David Espar and Robert Levi
(PBS WGBH/BBC, 1995, 10 hours)

This 10-part documentary mini-series, co-produced by the BBC and WGBH and narrated by Liev Shriever, originally aired on PBS in 1995. (It was released in the UK as Dancing in the Street: A History of Rock and Roll.) The series had a companion book, Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, written by Robert Palmer. It traces the history and evolution of rock and roll music, from its rhythm and blues, country, gospel and jazz roots in the early 1950s, through the advent of folk rock, soul, psychedelia, heavy metal, glam, funk, punk, and reggae, to the emergence of rap in the early 1990s. Used copies of the five-volume VHS and DVD editions list for $60 and up on Amazon and eBay. Good thing, then, that it's still available for checkout in the collection of the Enoch Pratt Central Library!

Since I'm currently reading Will Hermes' riveting history of the New York City music scene from 1973 through New Year's Eve 1977, Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, I decided to backtrack and watch some episodes that I recalled had good footage of New York bands from that period, like the excellent "Punk" episode. And the Pratt videos are in pretty good condition, I'm glad to report.

Note that the BBC/WGBH Rock & Roll is not to be confused with Time-Life's similarly themed five-disc DVD series, The History of Rock 'n' Roll (2004). Though I haven't seen the Time-Life series, Internet user comments allege that after a promising start, it "drops swiftly into a meandering, lightweight and very unsatisfying, poorly edited mashup that's not worth the time to watch."

The nature of Rock & Roll's mission - attempting to document the evolution of R&R over the course of almost 50 years - limits it scope to selected themes and clips, but what really sets this series apart from other similar efforts is the quality of its shot-on-film archival footage. As Current magazine writer Stephanie McCrummen observed, "The look of the interviews themselves is enhanced by producers' decision to shoot on Super-16mm film. To a much greater degree than typical video, Super 16 captures intense colors and subtle shifts in lighting. Even on the tiny screening-room monitor in WGBH's studios, the look is grand."

And then there's the quality of its interviews and their mis-en-scene settings: Iggy Pop is interviewed in a Midwest cornfield, Lou Reed in a New York City boxing gym, and so on. I especially liked the episodes "The Wild Side" and "Punk." "The Wild Side" featured choice clips of Wayne County - the transexual musician whose appearance in the 1971 London theatrical production of Andy Warhol's Pork wowed David Bowie so much that he started wearing makeup and embarking on his androgynous Ziggy Stardust look after seeing the show; we also get to see rare footage of Julian Beck's interactive experimental Living Theatre in London, which so influenced Jim Morrison of The Doors and his confrontational stage style that culminated in his infamous Miami concert arrest for profanity and indecent exposure.

Watch a clip from "The Wild Side."

The "Punk" episode featured great archival clips of Patti Smith (from footage that had been stowed away in a fan's refrigerator for 14 years until the woman who shot the film died and her heir gave the film to the BBC), Television with Richard Hell, and a pre-Blondie Debbie Harry dancing around with The Stilletos. I think the "Punk" episode - which goes into great detail about the influence of Jamaican dub, rocksteady and reggae on Brit punk groups like The Clash and Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, was directed by Don Letts (who knows a thing or two about reggae!).

Watch a clip from "Punk."

As Dale Cooper commented, "the extraordinary, insightful moments are too numerous to even begin to catalog, but highlights that come immediately to mind - even now, years after seeing this for the last time- - include: Iggy Pop describing how he realized that the sounds of pistons in the machine shop he worked in were so simple that even his band could imitate them; Rufus Thomas pointing out how WDIA led to white teenagers buying Rhythm & Blues records in the late 40s and 50s in increasing numbers due simply to its extraordinary geographical reach resulting from its uncommonly high wattage - i.e. the demographic changes wrought by technology; the thoroughly brilliant "Shakespeares in the Alley" episode, which weaves together Dylan, the Beatles, the Byrds and others into one folk-rock tapestry that illuminates the complex cross-influencing of this era (particularly notable is the restoration of skiffle to its rightful place as the spark plug for British rock and David Crosby's subsequent comment that he heard folk changes being used in "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and other Beatles tunes and that this simply had not existed before--new musics resulting, he says, in his inimitable way, from previously unrelated forms being "smooshed together")."

Stephanie McCrummen's excellent review of the series is reproduced in its entirety below.

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ROCK ’N ROLL PILGRAMMAGE
PBS's big fall series looks at the music from artists’ perspective
by Stephanie McCrummen (Current, May 29, 1995)

From the beginning, the producers of Rock & Roll, PBS's biggest program event of fall 1995, envisioned a history of the music without reference to obvious names, footage and lore. The central idea throughout the 10-hour series, which debuts over five nights beginning Sept. 24 [2005], has been to tell the story of rock from the perspective of its innovators.

The resulting documentary skips over many Top-40 bands to spend time with more than 200 new interviews with artists, producers, musicians and others who made music rock.

"We were very determined that it should not be a 'clip show'," says Hugh Thomson, co-executive producer for the BBC. "We thought that there should be an attempt to understand and explain continually." Concert footage and music are interspersed with old and new interviews with the goal of demonstrating particular sounds or musical influences. Often music is layered under narration, location footage and interviews.

Each of the 10 segments, five produced by the BBC and five by WGBH, is directed to convey a strong sense of place, explains WGBH Executive Producer Elizabeth Deane. With no on-camera host, the films use narration and on-location interviews to tell the story of rock, evoking connections between the music, the artists and such interview sites as a Mississippi church and a Memphis recording studio.

"We wanted each episode to tell a story, not to just be a summary," explains Deane. "What holds people . . . is to be in the grip of a story which is unfolding, with a beginning, middle and end," she says. "It's very hard to do with a subject as encompassing as this, but that was the objective."

The approach is necessarily intellectual, because telling the story involves exploring connections between rock and other forms of music and writing. Producers seem unworried that the final product will be stodgy, however. "It's rock and roll," says Deane. "We wanted to be intelligent, but we didn't want to kill it."

Promotion plans are still in nascent stages, though several special events already are in the works, says WGBH publicist Betsy Higgins. One will be a one-hour screening at the opening of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, two to three weeks before the PBS debut.

A companion book, Rock & Roll: An Unruly History by rock critic Robert Palmer, will also be available from Harmony Books after the PBS debut date. Palmer, the chief consultant to the series, has covered rock for Rolling Stone and the New York Times.

Rock & Roll is only the second prominent series of this scope to document rock history. Last year, Time Warner produced A History of Rock & Roll, a 10-hour documentary hosted by Gary Busey, which had a play in broadcast syndication this year and is now available on videocassette.

Audiences should find few similarities between the two series, however. "Time-Warner themselves have said that theirs is very performance-driven," says Deane, "whereas ours is a deeper look at the history." The Time Warner film "missed some kind of overview," says Palmer. "A lot of ideas and conclusions were sort of dropped because there was no narrative to tie it all together," he says. "I was happy that what was wrong with it was stuff we did right."

By all accounts, Deane, Thomson and Palmer have shared similar visions of what was "right" for the film. Palmer, a musician himself (but not the suave, semi-famous rock singer of the same name), says he was "totally skeptical" when Deane first approached him in 1993 about writing the companion book and serving as consultant.

"I thought [the series] would be boring," he recalls. When he met with Deane and Thomson, production and writing teams were already assigned to do 10 roughly outlined shows, and some interviews had been shot. But Palmer saw that Deane and Thomson were treating rock as an art form with a great history.

"It's usually treated as a succession of rock stars," he says. "I'm much more interested in the musical collaboration behind rock and roll, [and] everyone was pretty much agreed to going that way."

Unbeknownst to each other, Thomson and Deane had been developing similar documentary ideas for several years before former PBS programming chiefs Jennifer Lawson and John Grant brought them together in 1992, Deane says. Thomson recalls that the BBC "wanted an authoritative history of rock" and was willing to "spend the time and trouble to do it properly." The British were also actively looking for a co-producer for their series, then called Dancing in the Streets.

In Boston, Deane had by 1992 won a PBS/CPB grant of $100,000 to research the series, and also realized the need for a co-producer. Ultimately, WGBH and the BBC split the responsibility for raising the $8 million budget. The Boston station received grants toward its half from CPB, PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. WGBH is still seeking a corporate underwriter.

When the two executive producers first met in 1992, Thomson recalls, they quickly established that they shared similar ambitions for a series. "We both wanted the same broad sort of scope to the series and the same tone to it," says Thomson, adding that in his view, the history of rock and roll "has been a history of interaction between the U.S. and Britain . . . so there is an actual logic" for an Anglo-American coproduction.

Notably, WGBH is producing the segment that includes the Beatles, while the BBC tells the story of rap music. The task of dividing the segments between WGBH and BBC production teams "went easily,'' Deane says. "I was wondering, as we approached that, how we would decide," she says, but "by preference our people had more of an interest in the earlier programs and they in the later ones."

The style and content of the 10 segments emerged from a full year of pre-production planning, a constant flow of footage and treatments across the Atlantic and what Deane describes as "huge summit-style screenings" between WGBH and the BBC, where producers worked out major editorial decisions. The editing has been "arduous," says Deane. Decisions about what to include have been guided by producers' determination to focus on the innovators, explore the collaboration behind the music, and, to a certain extent, go with what works stylistically.

Ultimately, producers have not been seriously limited by the costs and logistics of obtaining rights clearances for music and footage, which could have been prohibitive. "We did a lot of work . . . to make sure we understood what this was going to cost," says Deane. Part of the decision to begin production, Deane says, was the feeling that it would be possible, if complicated, to obtain rights to the material they wanted. Though clearance has yet to be granted for some footage, Deane says that generally their efforts in this regard have been successful. "It helped that so many musicians . . . respected the program," adds Thomson. The fact that the project was for public TV, adds Palmer, also undoubtedly gave the series a certain amount of legitimacy.

The BBC archives have proven to be a "tremendous resource" as well, says Palmer, with many performances and interviews that have never aired in the U.S.

Luck has been kind. Thomson says that segment on punk rock contains footage of singer Patti Smith that had been stowed away, undeveloped, in a fan's refrigerator for 14 years. When the woman who shot the film died, her heir gave the film to the BBC.

Location interviews set the tone for each segment. Artists typically appear with instruments in hand, in settings significant to their music and their lives. Jerry Lee Lewis is interviewed at a piano in a Dublin nightclub where he was living "when he had a difference of opinion with the IRS," Deane says. The soul singer Martha Reeves speaks for the camera in Detroit's old Fox Theater, and Lou Reed, following his own suggestion, was interviewed in a New York City boxing gym.

The film strives to be "a sort of rock and roll pilgrimage," says Thomson, "so that you felt like you've visited certain key places" in the history of the music.

The look of the interviews themselves is enhanced by producers' decision to shoot on Super-16mm film. To a much greater degree than typical video, Super 16 captures intense colors and subtle shifts in lighting. Even on the tiny screening-room monitor in WGBH's studios, the look is grand.

Each interview is carefully crafted to evoke the artist's personality. For example, the BBC-produced program on ''glam rock,'' opens with Iggy Pop in silhouette at a distance, slumping gracefully as a classical statue in a sprawling yellow corn field on the outskirts of Detroit, where he was raised. As the camera glides toward Iggy Pop, he slowly turns and stares into the camera. Again, the setting was the artist's suggestion, Deane recalls. "He said, 'they always want to film me in front of a brick wall,' but he's a kid from the country so . . . the notion of growing up roaming around in the corn fields, thinking of stuff and hiding is very much Iggy Pop and it is sort of surprising."

By subordinating their personal views about rock, the producers have allowed the artists' own insights to surface. The interviews are both probing and compassionate, the result of interviewers' attempt to pose intelligent questions and understand the artist, rather than extract preconceived responses. "There's always a danger that if the show is too well conceptualized you are putting words in people's mouths," says Palmer, who conducted a number of interviews for the film. "We were real sensitive to that."

The reward for producers has been that some of the "more recalcitrant" performers, as Palmer put it, have acquiesced to interviews. "I think what [the artists] appreciated is that we were being serious about the past music history," says Thomson, who also conducted a number of interviews for the BBC segments, and, unlike Deane, directed some. "Many of [the artists] are used to doing 'push-the-button' interviews," he says, "which made it nice [for them] to sit back and actually reflect on when they began and talk about the music [and] not so much the sort of sex-drugs-and-rock-'n-roll side of things."

Though the 10 segments are roughly organized according to musical genres — blues, Motown, folk rock, psychedelia and so on — the stories in each segment converge, overlap and diverge, laying out an intricate matrix of creative influences. To a large extent, producers have taken to heart Palmer's dictum that "any chronological history of rock and roll is doomed to failure." The "glam rock" show, for example, begins with Lou Reed, former leader of the Velvet Underground, talking about how the writer Raymond Chandler influenced his lyrics. From that point, the segment expands to other major innovators like David Bowie, the Doors and Alice Cooper, the involvement of Andy Warhol, and theatrical influences.

One sequence on the Doors, for example, shifts from footage of Julian Beck's experimental Living Theatre in London, which band leader Jim Morrison followed closely, and the Doors' famous concert in Miami, where Morrison was charged with indecent exposure. The sequence intersperses the recollections of Morrison's friend from film school at UCLA, explaining that Morrison had gone to six Beck performances within two weeks before the Miami concert, and was trying to bring Beck's ideas of theater into the realm of rock. The footage from a Living Theatre footage and Morrison's performance are strikingly similar.

Rock & Roll bares the creative process by homing in on sounds and styles of the music. An interview with David Bowie's pianist reveals the tune of "Jean Genie" to be a riff from an old Muddy Waters song. David Bowie's set designers are interviewed as the story turns to Bowie's revolutionary theatrical productions, and later in connection with the '70s band Kiss. In a segment on West Coast musical influences, Dick Dale, innovator of the "surf guitar" (a sound undergoing a renaissance since its use in Pulp Fiction) is interviewed on a California desert with guitar in hand. A surfer himself, Dale describes his fascination with the jazz drummer Gene Krupa, explaining the driving rhythm of his own guitar as an attempt to emulate both Krupa's relentless beat and the sound of waves crashing in the surf. As he explains this, a bright blue wave breaks against the sound of Dale's guitar.

Even well-known archival footage is are revitalized by interspersed fresh interviews. In one sequence, Maxine Powell, founder of the Motown Finishing School, which groomed young Motown artists for the Big Time, discusses how she gave Marvin Gaye advice on matters of style: "I said, 'Marvin, you don't need as much as some of the other artists, but you do sing with your eyes closed. It gives the illusion that you're singing in your sleep. At No. 1 places around the country, you have to have your eyes open."

She observes, "Everything had to be done in a classy way. So if they were doing the Shake, or whatever, we didn't do it in a vulgar way."

For all its emphasis on the sound and look of rock, the series does not ignore socio-political contexts; they emerge subtly through the artists' own intriguing stories, rather than a filmmaker's self-conscious attempt to add weight to the subject.

The interest, says Palmer, has been to "tell the social part of it and all of the other parts of it from the point of view of the music."

"The context is in the background and comes into the foreground when it is appropriate," adds Deane. Motown musician Beans Bowles talks about his troupe touring the South by bus and being mistaken for Freedom Riders.

For Deane, it was in part the connection between political protest and rock music that led her to do the series. "Rock and roll music has been in the background of a lot of stuff I have done," she explains, referring to her work as a producer on Vietnam: A Television History, and the American Experience bio of Richard Nixon. "What were they listening to in Vietnam? Jimmy Hendrix, the Doors, Motown . . . what were protesters listening to when Nixon showed up at the Lincoln Memorial?"

Deane says that she was also drawn to the project because she thought there was a "fascinating history" to be told, adding that she prefers to think of herself as a "history-teller" rather than a historian, borrowing a phrase from documentarian Henry Hampton.

"Rock and roll can seem like a series of random explosions," she says, "but there are stories that connect those moments—that connect the people who made the music, the people who took the risks and pushed the boundaries, and took us into a world we might never have known without the music."

TV has not always given respect to those performers for their earlier work. Thomson tells a story of David Bowie sitting in a hotel room in the U.S. and hearing his famous song, "Changes" transformed into a diaper-commercial jingle.

"The thing is that these people have got all the money they need," Thomson says. "All they care about now is what history is going to make out of them, so this series is important to them, and they wanted to be put in the right place."

Production teams at WGBH and BBC are still making final cuts, and considering how to end the series, a decision that will reflect their approach and understanding of the music and the purpose of the documentary itself. The final segment pays relatively little attention to current artists, though the form of current music is explored. Palmer says that it is difficult to name today's great artists. "Ultimately the worth of what is happening is going to prove out with the changing musical generations," he says. "Basically it's the music that lasts and influences other musicians ... and it takes a while for that to become evident."

Deane says the last program focuses on rap, techno and electronic music. At the end of the pilgrimage through rock history, Deane hopes to leave a feeling — not a message — "that the same kind of freedom that has always been part of this music is still very present."

CINEMA EUROPE: The Other Hollywood

2012-02-15T12:07:00.010-05:00

Lost in the Stacks #1: Hard-to-Find Videos Gems at the Pratt Library

Cinema Europe: Where the art of filmmaking all began

The DVD of edition of this six-part series chronicling the birth and rise of European cinema during the silent era has gone out-of-print due to rights issues, but the three-volume video edition is still available for checkout at the Enoch Pratt Central Library. Produced by British film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill and narrated by Kenneth Branagh, each of its six parts highlights a theme and a country (France, Sweden, Britain, Germany, Denmark) to show the enormous contributions they made to cinema in the early days of the movie industry. Viewers are treated to a smorgasborg of footage from early movies - including the work of Abel Gance, Afred Hitchcock, Max Linder, Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, and G. W. Pabst - along with interviews with film pioneers and luminaries. The finale episode ("End of an Era") looks at Germany, where by 1933 the jig was up as Adolf Hitler came to power and the potential of a Pan-European cinema was squandered with the mass exodus of Jews and freedom-seeking artistic talent to France, England, and the United States. As reviewer Sean Axmaker commented, Cinema Europe "captures a vital period when films readily crossed borders and distinct national cinema styles flourished. It was a cinematic garden in full bloom and it cross-pollinated through ambitious and inspired filmmakers around the world. When the lure of Hollywood and the rise of fascism pulled much the talent from Europe and the coming of sound created new language barriers, the garden went into a frosty winter."

Kevin Brownlow and David Gill previously produced the 13-episode 1980 epic Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film. They had originally planned to make this another 13-part series, but David Gill died shortly after Cinema Europe was completed in 1995.

Used/stock copies of the DVD series list for $450 and up on Amazon; used copies of the video edition go for $65 and up.

Shorts Circuit

2012-02-10T14:33:00.029-05:00

Some of the Best Shorts from Pratt's 16mm Film Archives

Saturday, February 18, 2012 @ 2 P.M.
Enoch Pratt Central Library
400 Cathedral St.
(410) 396-4616

Starting this weekend, the Charles Theatre will be screening "Oscar Shorts" - a two-part program featuring the 2012 Oscar-nominees for best live action, documentary and animated shorts - continuing the annual Academy Award-nominated shorts roadshow started by ShortsHD (a cable TV network specializing in short films) seven years ago. Among this year’s nominees are Pixar’s longest theatrical short, a live action film by Hotel Rwanda director Terry George, and a documentary about Japan's tragic tsunami disaster of 2011. I highly recommend taking advantage of this rare opportunity to see some of the best short films in their ideal environment - a movie theater (as opposed to viewing them on TV or YouTube) - in this, the appropriately "shortest" of months, February.

For those who long to see even more shorts - or who simply don't want to pay to see the ones at The Charles - I recommend checking out the free "Shorts Circuit" film program next Saturday at the Enoch Pratt Central Library. This 82-minute program features nine of the best live-action and animated shorts from Pratt's extensive 16mm film archives and includes four Oscar-nominated shorts and two Oscar-winners in Norman McLaren's Neighbors (Best Documentary, Short Subjects, 1952) and Chuck Workman's Precious Images (Best Live Action Short Film, 1987). All of the films featured at this free screening are available for loan from Pratt’s Sights & Sounds Department; call (410)396-4616 or check Pratt’s Web site at www.prattlibrary.org for more information.

Many of Pratt's 16mm film shorts are commercially unavailable (or extremely hard to find) elsewhere, including Muppets-creator Jim Henson's early live-action student film Time Piece (1965), Stan VanDerBeek's influential but rarely seen collage-montage Breath Death (1964), and Workman's Precious Images (1986). Part of the explanation why has to do as much with the nature of the format as with the market for such films; unlike Hollywood feature films (which are typically produced by a single studio), short films come from various sources and are rarely compiled into anthologies, though Pixar has released a few over the years.

"SHORTS CIRCUIT" Program Guide

SNOOKLES
(Juliet Stroud, 1980, 2 minutes, color animation, 16mm)

We open our program with macabre humor in the vein of Godzilla Meets Bambi in this unlikely encounter between a baby dragon and a baby bird.

TIME PIECE
(Jim Henson, 1965, 8 minutes, color, 16mm)

UNAVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE. This early live-action film produced by and starring Jim Hensen (of Muppets fame) documents a day in the live of one man in the urban rat race. While he is in a hospital bed, the typical day of a young executive flashes before his eyes. Realistic scenes cut to wild dream sequences that comment on the reality they interpret. Anticipates the free-form editing style Bob Rafelson would later employ in his Monkees cult film Head (1968). Nominated for an Oscar (Best Short Subject – Live Action) in 1966. Produced by Jim Henson, photographed by Ted Nemeth with music by Don Sebesky.

BREATH DEATH
(Stan VanDerBeek, 1964, 15 minutes, b&w, 16mm)

UNAVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE. Stan VanDerBeek, an early experimenter with collage-animation, creates a surrealistic fantasy based on 15th century woodcuts of “the dance of the dead” by cutting up photos and newsreel footage to produce images that are "a mixture of unexplainable fact ... with inexplicable act”; he dedicated the results “to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton." Artist/director Terry Gilliam has cited this film as an early influence on his collage-style animation with Monty Python. In 1975, VanDerBeek became an instructor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he founded the digital media center. He died in 1984.

NEIGHBORS
(Norman McLaren, 1952, 8 minutes, color, from 16mm)

In 1952, Norman McLaren was credited with introducing the technique of pixilation with this ground-breaking film that won a 1953 Oscar for “Best Documentary, Short Subjects.” Described as “the most eloquent plea for peace ever filmed,” it’s an anti-war parable that shows how a dispute over which neighbor owns a flower escalates into territorialism, war, and genocide. The film’s climax, in which the men’s wives and children are killed, was originally cut from prints (including the one shown at the 1953 Academy Awards ceremony) because the sequence was considered too shocking to the sensibilities of the time. Animator Grant Munro also acts in the film (he’s the neighbor on the right side of the picket fence.)

PRECIOUS IMAGES
(Chuck Workman, 1986, 8 minutes, b&w/color, from 16mm)

UNAVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE. No one captures "the moment" - iconographic images that define a film, an emotion or an era - better than montage master Chuck Workman (pictured at left), the Eisenstein of celluloid flashcards. In this Academy Award-winning film (Best Short Film, Live Action, 1987), Workman presents the greatest scenes from 50 years of film - from Citizen Kane to Star Wars – in eight breakneck minutes of skillful editing. Over 500 images appear in rapid-fire cuts of roughly a second each, presenting the “defining moments” of great films of half a century. Precious Images went on to become the most widely-viewed short appearing in schools, museums, film festivals and movie theaters worldwide. Precious Images is one of five Workman films in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Rosebud is just one of Workman's "Precious Images"

Workman’s montages of Hollywood films are visual highlights of each year's Academy Awards telecast and his 100 Years at the Movies (1994) is frequently shown on cable TV’s Turner Classic Movies channel. Though editing dozens of images a minute became his trademark, Workman ironically also made a feature-length documentary on Andy Warhol (1987’s Andy Warhol: Portrait of An Artist), a man whose own specialty was using only a few images and keeping them there for up to eight hours. He also directed a feature-length documentary on the Beat Generation, 1999’s The Source, and has created movie trailers for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Paris, Texas.

THE TELL-TALE HEART
(Ted Parmelee, 1953, 8 minutes, color animation, 16mm)

Director Ted Parmelee’s animated adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic horror tale of a man who is driven by an old man's "vulture eye" to kill him (only to be forced to confess his crime by the loud, insistent beating of the dead man's heart) comes from UPA, the studio most associated with Mr. Magoo, Gerald McBoing-Boing and Woody Woodpecker. It’s considered a classic in the development of the animated film because of its unusual subject matter, its use of dramatic visual techniques (created by Paul Julian and clearly indebted to the German Expressionist style featured in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and the effectiveness of its soundtrack, which includes narration by the great James Mason – reason enough to see this film. Incredibly, it was the first cartoon to be X-rated (adults only) in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system! Oscar-nominated in 1954 (Best Short Subject, Cartoons) and added to National Film Registry in 2001. For some reason, this short was included on the 2-disc edition Hellboy DVD.

LOVE LETTER TO EDIE
(Robert Maier, 1975, 14 minutes, color, from 16mm)

"I like being a star," says Edith Massey, in this tongue-in-cheek film "biography" which traces her life from a foster home, to a career as a B girl on the Block, a barmaid at Pete's Hotel in Fells Point, owner of the "Miss Edith's Shopping Bag" thrift shop at 726 S. Broadway and to the career which has made her famous across the U.S. - as the "glamorous" star of John Waters' underground films. Written, produced and directed by Robert Maier (line producer of Waters’ Desperate Living, Polyester and Hairspray), it won an award at the 1975 Baltimore Film Festival. Great period footage of 1970s Baltimore shops, bars, and people (including John Waters, Pat Moran, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Vincent Peranio, and LA showgirl Delores Delux).

We end our program with two psychedelic experimental films from the ‘60s...

OFFON
(Scott Bartlett, 1967, 9 minutes, color, from 16mm)

From Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde: “OffOn is a landmark avant-garde film, the first to fully merge video with film. Scott Bartlett’s goal was to ‘marry the technologies’ so that neither would ’show up separately from the whole.’” Made by feeding film loops into a color television channel and filming the results off a TV monitor (at 30 frames a second to eliminate flicker), Bartlett then optically printed much of the footage frame by frame, adding additional complimentary images solely on film. Then, to intensify the weaker colors of video, he dyed the film strips with food coloring.

Bartlett later commented, “There’s a pattern in my film work that could be the pattern of a hundred thousand movies. It is simply to repeat and purify, repeat and synthesize, abstract, abstract, abstract.” Significantly, OffOn opens with a close-up of an eye as if to suggest a new way of seeing. Interesting both for its technique and the implication "of the reality behind the reality we normally perceive",” this film is part of the National Film Registry.

7362 (1967)
(Patrick O’Neill, 1967, 10 minutes, color, from 16mm)

“I was interested in making something that was neither a negative nor a positive but an amalgam of both,” says filmmaker Patrick O’Neill of 7362, which takes its name from the stock number of the high-contrast black-and-white Kodak film commonly used for titles and mattes; this stock became the building block for the film’s special effects, which start with machine-like imagery and gradually merge into abstracted forms of the human anatomy. From Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde: “As they swing to the electronic throb of the sound track, the shapes grow more complex, refracting the oil pump and a dancer into mirrored patterns as they divide and mutate with strobe-light urgency...eventually the line between human and machine becomes impossible to determine. Black/white, negative/positive, man/machine, yin/yang – neither can exist without the other. In 7362, the unity of opposites enters the psychedelic age.” The soundtrack features music by Joseph Byrd and Michael Moore (no, not that Michael Moore!).

"Get Ready To Boink with the Boynks"

2012-02-09T10:01:00.005-05:00

Or: The Musical Genius of Randall Peck

The Boynks
Get Ready To Boink with the Boynks
(Mr. Basement's House of Hidden Agenda, 2011)

*** Just who are these Boynks who wish us to boink with them? ***

The Backstory: Back in the early '80s, I had the pleasure/privilege of playing drums with Randy Peck, Jay Ludwig, Rick & Stephanie Eney, and Katie "Katatonic" Glancy in a pop music group called The Boatniks. We wore silly sailor caps and Hawaiian shirts and celebrated middle class life in our 'hood, the azalea- and rhododentrum-covered suburbs.

Boatniks' '81 World Cruise

Katie and I were freshly departed from punk band Thee Katatonix, and emerged from the rough-and-tumble sonic wilderness of the Marble Bar Scene to serve an apprenticeship under the song-writing workshop that was the Boatniks - an ensemble in which Peck, Ludwig and the Eneys all wrote songs (Jay and Randy even helped me out, like Beatles Paul and John with Ringo, on my "Bake You a Bundt" and "Teenybopper" songs).

Boatniks songwriters Jay Ludwig & Randy Peck

But it was Randy Peck's "pure unadulterated pop music" song stylings that most impressed me; influenced in equal parts by the lyrical inventiveness of Elvis Costello and the melodic, harmonious musical leanings of his beloved Brian Wilson-led Beach Boys, Randy's songs pointed to all the signposts Katie and I loved in pop music: British Invasion, The Beatles, The Zombies, The Raspberries, Badfinger, 10cc. It was Pure Pop for Then People, Old School pretty three-minute melodies in an era of harsh-sounding punk rock and the cold synth-heavy sang froid of postpunk music. In a word, it was kinda corny compared to what was on the MTV and radio airwaves then. The words were clever and humorous, if you stopped to listen to them, and the melodies were unabashedly pretty. And the "middle eights"! These were a revelation to Katie and I, accustomed as we were to the one-note simplicity and repetitive three-chord onslaught of punk. The songs even celebrated love without irony - OK, maybe some irony in lines like "I bought some pizza and I saw your face in it" from Peck's masterpiece "The Honky Tonk Is Over" (which won a songwriting competition and landed us free studio recording time and a gig at Washington, DC's The Bayou). Which is why I liked it. Plus, I learned how to play drums in the Boatniks, after years of faking it (though few were fooled!) in Thee Katatonix.

The little drummer boy became a man - thanks to the Boatniks!

Post-Boatniks, Randy Peck played for a while in Saddle Soar, went to culinary school, became a chef, got married, and became Randall Peck. But he never stopped writing songs and recording them in his basement (on analog tape, the dominant medium of the time) with the most rudimentary of instrumentation (Randy was never one for fancy tech gear - back then he'd just as soon use chopsticks and an ashtray for drums rather than buy a beatbox!). The only change since then has been technology; he's gone digital, invested in a few electronic gizmos, and now records onto CDs instead of tape. But his studio is still his basement, where he retires after a hard day at work to record his musings about life and love. And, like his muse Brian Wilson, he can create a whole mini-orchestra of sound working at his own pace in the comfort of his home.

On a recent visit to Randall's workplace, he gave me a copy of one of his latest home productions, which was called Get Ready To Boink with The Boynks. Though the attractively packaged CD attributed the music to The Boynks - specifically "Chad Boynk" and "Gordon Boynk" on guitar, "Kirby Carlisle" on keys, "Christian Velcro" on bass, and "Nigel Tripper" on drums - they are merely Brit Invasion Boy Band standins for one-man band Randall Peck himself.

RP: The One-man Band

Randall explained, "I figured you would 'get' this one because we like the same kind of stuff that no one I work with, these kids, appreciate. You know, Raspberries, Beatles, 10cc, Badfinger..." Yes, the usual pop suspects. He added, "And it's real poppy and uptempo, unlike some of my other stuff, so I had a feeling you'd appreciate it."

It's official: I'm a Fan!

Well, I do appreciate it - and I think others will too. Too bad Big Deal and Not Lame and those other power pop labels aren't around anymore, because Randall Peck's Boynks CD could be released on them as is. It's that good and that pro. For, like Mark Harp and Mark O'Connor (another former Towsonite, who made his "mark" with OHO, Food for Worms, Dark Side and B.L.A.M.M.O.), Randall is another local songwriting genius I've had the privilege of knowing (and wish more people knew about); Harpo is gone (well before his time - Goddammit!), but like Mark O'Connor, Randall is one of those creative-type dreamers (and full-time romantic, to boot) who will never stop plugging away, making home recordings of his music (a genre I hereby christen "Basement Beat"). To be Randall Peck is to create, whether it be cookin' up food or sounds. And if music be the food of love, as Shakespeare said, play on.

And speaking of play on, play on we shall...

*** OK, Now Get Ready To Boink with the Boynks! ***

I played the Boynks CD on my way home and was so excited that I played it next for my classic pop-loving girlfriend Amy. She loved it as well, and we both agreed that two things stood out almost immediately: 1) Randall loves the Beatles (whose influence is everywhere) - not to mention Elvis Costello (listen for the Steve Nieve-styled keyboard riffs) and The Zombies (all those harpsichord sounds and minor keys) and The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson was and will always be his Obi-Wan Kenobi mentor) - and 2) Randall loves kissing. In fact, we couldn't remember an album that so celebrated kissing, the lip-smacking phenomenon known alternately as "First Base" or "Oral Sex" to our Baby Boomer generation. (Alas, I believe today's cut-to-the-chase, 4G-speed cream-on-demand generation considers cunnilingus and fellatio "First Base.") At least a half dozen songs either specifically mention kissing ("Wake Up Baby It's Time To Kiss") or are orally fixated on the mouth and bussing. I, for one, find oscullation incredibly sexy, as did wrestler-turned-politician Jesse Ventura when he likened the act of face-chewing to "Two carp goin' after the same piece of corn." (A beautiful image for a beautiful act of intimacy, no?) But to Randall, kissing is as romantic as it gets and he's far from tongue-tied in celebrating the elation that comes when two tingles intermingle.

Randall Peck: Bitten by the Kissing Bug?

And, with my flair for the obvious (it's a true gift), I would add a third glaring observation: 3) Randall loves being in love. Following is the evidence to support my case:

Tuned In: Track by Track

1. "HEY GWENDOLYN"

"There she is full of fizz, just about to pop/All the while I just smile and I cannot stop/Hey Gwendolyn, you make gray skies blue/Hey Gwendolyn, I'm so turned on by you."

Things kick off with a blast of irresistably catchy fun (and yet another song to add to my A-Z List of Girl's Name Songs) flavored with Zombies-styled harpischord sounds and lyrics celebrating the Zen of Gwen. "Smartly dressed, she's the best you will ever find." In Arthurian legend, Gwendolyn was Merlin the magician's wife; in modern times, she's simply the girl who's cast a spell over RP.

Oral Fixation Factor: "To the lips takes a sip, spills some on her blouse/After tea, nuzzles me, plants one on my mouth."

2. "HOW COULD I FALL IN BED WITH A GIRL LIKE YOU?"

Romance Downy Ocean

A poignant and uptempo break-up song that unfolds at a Beach Boys setting, Downy Ocean ("You went off on vacation/I'm alone at the beach"), but while Brian Wilson preached that the girls on the beach were all within reach (if you knew what to do), Randall instead finds himself out of his depth: "Now I'm drowning in sorrow, and my beach towel is wet/You have taught me a lesson I will never forget..." but seems resigned to his plight. He had his thrill and got stung by the jellyfish of love. "There will be no tomorrow, I know that we are through/How could I fall in bed with a girl like you?"

Oral Fixation Factor: "You are sweeter than sugar/When you melt in my mouth..."

3. "WAKE UP BABY IT'S TIME TO KISS"

Only shallow non-romantics forgo kissing

To paraphrase Mssrs. Hall & Oates, this "Kiss" is on my list of the best things in life. (Quite a different take on rising-with-the-sun morning fun from Ian Dury's "Wake Up Make Love with Me"!) Personally, the first thing on my mind when I emerge from the Land of Nod is peeing and gargling with mouthwash, but Randall's a romantic who's allowed poetic license.

I am a fool for you, I love you through and through
I only go to be bed to wake up next to you

Wake up, roll over (sha la la) and join me in my bliss
This is one of those moments (sha la la) that I refuse to miss
Hello, good morning (sha la la) - wake up baby it's time to kiss

4. "ONCE AGAIN THAT GIRL IS ON MY MIND"

Another girl crush song, this one finds Randall obsessively pining every minute and every hour for someone he sees in every bouquet of flowers and even in his "toast with jam and tea." She's "one too many, all too much, one of a kind," small wonder that "once again that girl is on my mind."

Oral Fixation Factor: "Even when I lay my head, her name's my final breath/I dream about her every night, kissing me to death."

5. "IF SHE KNEW"

If she knew...

Randall's variation on The Beatles' "If I Fell." But the classic heart-felt ballad structure isn't limited to just the Fab Four, as I also hear the love-smitten inclinations of Brian Wilson circa "God Only Knows."

Oral Fixation Factor: "If she knew that I really want to kiss her/She may even laugh, if she knew."

6. "ALL-WEATHER SUNSHINE HAPPINESS GIRL"

Exhilirating upbeat ditty that walks on sunshine, regardless of weather advisory.

"She look so good, she looks so cute
She's on the town in her electric suit
She plugs it in and does a twirl
She's my All-Weather Sunshine Happiness Girl"

"She knows her Bach, she knows Chopin
She knows that shit like the back of her hand
She's an endless string of cultured pearls
She's my All-Weather Sunshine Happiness Girl"

Oral Fixation Factor: "Well she kisses hard and she kisses deep, and still makes love when she's half asleep."

7. "THING FOR YOU"

Got a Thing - for you!

A finger-snappin', toe-tappin' honky-tonkin' good-time romp. Randall may have honed his Country & Western chops during his stint in Saddle Soar, but the country-flavored pop in this song is more of the Beatles variety circa "Act Natural."

8. "DADDY I WRECKED THE CAR"

As a survivor of one too many heavy metal crashes in my wayward youth, I'm greatly amused by this clever, fast-paced pop song. Maybe Randall the Dad is anticipating the not-so-distant future when his kid will get his license - and become an insurance liability. (Ah, the Parent Trap.) Junior not only laments wrecking the car while out driving with a girl from outer space, but also wrecking the house (he was just doing his homework when somehow a party boke out), and finally wrecking his mind:

"My mind, my mind, Daddy I wrecked my mind
I took a little something I don't understand
That I got last week from the Ice Cream Man..."

Ha! I remember back at college the ice cream man was the campus drug dealer (was it that way everywhere? Has the Drug-Dealing Ice Cream Man become a counter-culture stereotype?).

Nice freakout - and guitar solo - during the middle jam. As Freakbeat revivalist Dave Cawley says, whenever you're rockin' out and run out of words, just scream "Wahhhhhhh!" and wail, baby! Works every time!

9. "GIRL IN THE WINDOW"

Window shopping for love

Very Zombies-like neo-psych. I can easily imagine Colin Bluntstone singing this over Rod Argent's farfisa organ; in fact, the song has a '60s Swingin' London feel with lines like those below evoking images of whatever Brit "It" Girl - Julie Christie, Twiggy, Jeannie Shrimpton, Marianne Faithful, Jane Asher - tickles one's retro fancy:

"When she purses her lips and starts to flirt - Girl in the Window
In her go-go boots and miniskirt - Girl in the Window
Well she's just the coolest thing I've ever found
So bear with me, while I expound: Girl in the Window."

Oral Fixation Factor: "She can play it cool, she can play it hard/As she blows French kisses to the Palace Guard."

10. "SUDDEN SORROW"

There's a vacancy I have inside, and it's where true love resides
Without warning, weeping quietly, a gentle wave sweeps over me
And I feel a sudden sorrow in my heart when I think about losing her

A remembrance of past love lost, l'amour perdu. Don't we all have one (or two, or three)? Bury those memories as we might, they still come back to us at unexpected moments - during a rainfall, looking through a photo album, passing an old dating haunt. Not an uptempo toe-tapper, but then sorrow isn't supposed to be.

11. "HOT TUB LOVE"

"Hot tub love, come join me in the jets/Hot tub love, let's make it a duet."

The album mood changes instantly from "Sudden Sorrow" to wet-and-wild fun in this sonic splash about really hot love. "Hot tub love, I miss you when you're gone/Hot tub love, the meter is still on/So crawl back in, and let the fun begin, with your hot tub love."

12. "PASSING ON A TRAIN"

Ships pass in the night and trains pass in vain, with barely time for fledgling flirtations to form ("You were gone just as fast as when you came"). But a glimpse of a girl with hat and gloves and bonnet on - looking "sweet in the gentle London rain" - is enough to fill the narrator with regret:

You were passing on a train that was stopped for a moment in the dark
Just long enough for that face to break my heart (doesn't it figure?)

I love the opening train sound effects, as well as the delightful nod to the Beach Boys at the end of the middle passage that recalls their acapella chorale showpiece "Our Prayer." It's only a snippet, but it's yet another reminder of Brian Wilson's pervasive influence on RP's songwriting. Paul Westerberg never travels far without a little Big Star; Randall never leaves ground without his Pet Sounds.

13. "PLANET LOVE"

"I'll take you where the stars light your hair
It's almost time - we're almost there, on Planet Love."

This dreamy ballad closes the album of a leisurely, lilting note and sort of reminds me of Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk" (which was famously covered by another of Randall's favorite '60s artists, The Ventures) as crooned (with an occasional hiccup) in his best emo-Elvis P. voice. It's meant to sound corny with the ice-rink organs and such, but I find it charming as Randall sings of love taking flight at the speed of light before reaching the final destination: "We'll crash, we'll burn, we'll land on Planet Love."

*** Final Thoughts ***

This is easily the best new music I've heard all year, with more melodic hooks and catchy choruses in one album than some songwriters manage in their whole careers. It's also one of the greatest feel-good discs you could ever pop into your CD player and immediately feel like you're walking on sunshine. It's already taken the edge off my normal road rage during the morning commute downtown to work. Lennon & McCartney...Bacharach-David...Elvis Costello...Brian Wilson...Bob Dylan...Graham Gouldman...Ray Davies...Todd Rundgren...Dee Dee Ramone...Randall Peck. Yes, that's right - I mention him in the same breath because he can take his rightful place alongside these legends as a fellow popsmith extraordinaire. I'm not kidding. In my musical wonderland, he goes toe to toe with the heavyweights and more than holds his own.

And yet I wonder how many people will ever hear his back catalog. He's so modest about his talent that Randall reminds me of those non-traditional "outsider" artists whose work is only discovered after the fact when it's displayed at the American Visionary Art Museum. You know - the unheralded artist who works a day job and comes home at night to create a secret cache of awe-inspiring works that remain unseen by the public until he dies and the landlady cleans out his room and donates them to a museum. So too does Randall create these recordings that are only known to a select few cadre of friends and associates. But that seems to be just fine by him. He loves making music and these songs are like his day journal, his diary, an audio scrapbook of who he was and what he was thinking at a certain point in his life.

Back in the Boatniks days, our "Ahoy Maties" press kit said this about Randall: "Randy's been happy lately...The happiest day of his life just might be tomorrow." Going by the sounds on Get Ready To Boink with the Boynks, it looks like that day is here - and how!

Baltimore Vice

2012-02-06T10:33:00.015-05:00

The Night They Raided the 14Karat Cabaret
July 17, 1993

14Karat Cabaret director Laure Drogoul (photo by Kirsten Beckerman)

I was digging through the piles of yellowing newspaper clippings I've accumulated over the years and came across this City Paper article by Associate Editor Sono Motoyama (who loved any story involving sex) from July 23, 1993. It described a vice squad bust of Laure Drogoul's 14Karat Cabaret during an evening of performance art - an event I attended. As I recall, the performer who caused all the fuss was Jeffrey Clagett (aka "Hermaphrodite"), a local hairdresser and Cher impersonator who was a member of that evening's Haus of Frau ensemble; he distributed the fliers advertising "Free Blow Jobs" that caught the eye of the city vice squad, who should have known better because there's no such thing as a free munch. - Tom Warner

BALTIMORE VICE
14Karat Cabaret Director Locked Up on Permit Violations
by Sono Motoyama (City Paper, July 23, 1993)

Responding to a flier announcing a "Biggest Dick Contest" and "Free Blow Jobs" at the 14Karat Cabaret, plain-clothes officers from the central district vice unit of the Baltimore City police department and a representative from the city's zoning enforcement agency descended on 14Karat Cabaret late Saturday evening, July 17, the cabaret's final performance for the season.

Finding no violations of the type implied by the flier at the cabaret, part of Maryland Art Place (MAP), a nonprofit arts organization and gallery on West Saratoga Street, police arrested cabaret director Laure Drogoul for permit violations.

According to sector supervisor Sergeant John Baker, who was at the scene, Drogoul was charged with "operating a business without a permit and selling alcohol without a license." Licenses are required by the city and state for venues offering live entertainment and serving alcohol.

After being handcuffed and taken to the central district lockup in a paddy wagon, Drogoul spent about 13 hours locked up downtown. She was released Sunday on her own recognizance. Reached Monday afternoon, Drogoul said that she "forgot" to get a temporary liquor license as, she maintains, she has done during every cabaret performance except Saturday's.

Jack Rasmussen, director of MAP, speaking of the cabaret's lack of a permit for live entertainment, said, "We though we had all the permits we needed...We always thought we had all the permits we needed...We always thought of ourselves as an art gallery with performance art."

"You may call it art. They may call it entertainment," interjected Drogoul.

"We've been here for eleven years," noted Rasmussen, "and the cabaret's been here for four years, and it's never come up before. You have to be an attorney to figure it out.

The cabaret, which was characterized by one central district lieutenant as "primarily a homosexual or gay club," featured as emcees on Saturday night the Headhuntresses XXXtraordinaire, a duo who wore dildoes strung around their waists. Also on the bill were the experimental music group the Recordings, saxophonists John Eaton and Nancy Sexten, and Haus of Frau, a drag-queen performance group. It was the Haus of Frau who printed and distributed the fliers announcing the fictitious "Biggest Dick Contest" and "Free Blow Jobs."

"[The police officers] wanted vice and they didn't get vice," said Drogoul, "and they were just angry and looking to find anything they could. They had six [officers] here and a paddy wagon. I wonder why they weren't picking up real prostitutes on Read Street and Howard Street three blocks away. Our tax money could be better spent cleaning up crime and violence on the street."

Drogoul said she was taken across town while still wearing the gold lame dress she wore to introduce the Headhuntresses, and she was fingerprinted and photographed at the police station. She calims she was not told she had been arrested and not read her rights.

"It was very unpleasant," she said. "They just didn't like what they saw. They probably saw acts the didn't understand and music they didn't like." She characterized the officers as "mean and rude."

In a peripheral arrest, Joseph T. Brady, a comedian and a receptionist, was arrested outside MAP for disorderly conduct. After police asked everyone to leave the cabaret, Brady and some friends were standing outside MAP's front door. While waiting, they saw Drogoul being led away in handcuffs and driven off.

"We tried to find out why they were taking her away," Brady said, When he and his friends were told to disperse, Brady answered that he was waiting for a pizza he had ordered from a nearby shop. "Then they arrested me," Brady said. "I didn't expect it. When we were talking to the police, we weren't aware how serious they were being. We were upset and trying to find out what was going on. I don't believe we were going outside of our rights." Instead of enjoying his mushroom-and-onion pie, Brady commented, he spent about 12 hours locked up.

Tom Warner (an occasional City Paper contributor), who was with Brady at the time, said, "All [the pizza-parlor owners] were concerned about was who's gonna pay for the pizza. They did give us a bonus Pepsi, though - the incarceration special."

Interrobang - "Sex Obsession" 12"

2012-02-04T17:26:00.022-05:00

"Who's selling all their Mark Harp records???"

!?/Interrobang 12"
Sex Obsession/We Have the House Surrounded (Harp-DeJong)
(Big Man Music, 1989)

"Best Local Single" - City Paper, 1989

On Saturday, Amy Linthicum once again scored another vinyl record by her ex-husband, the sorely missed guitar legend and all-around musical genius Mark "Harpo" Harp (born Mark Linthicum, 1957-2004), when she found this mint condition, sealed 12-inch single in the local music bin of Normal's Books & Music in Waverly. "Who's selling all their Mark Harp stuff?," Amy wondered out loud.

She well remembered this record, dating from Harp's Interrobang days in the late '80s when, like many others in that synth-friendly era, he put down his guitar and started playing with various electronic toys and gizmos. 12-inch extended play Electro Pop dance records were the lingua franca of the decade, and Harp was an early fan and subsequent master of the medium, which emphasized big beats and repetition of simple lyrics, often mixed with sampled soundbites; in many ways they were the precursor to today's even more extended and sophisticated digital mash-ups.

"Interrobang" (a punctuation convention that combines the ! and ? marks to express simultaneous wonder and curiosity) was the moniker Harp gave his collaborations with Mike DeJong when the two were messing around in his living room learning about sampling and beatboxes. Released as a (size matters!) 12" in 1989 on the (size matters!) Big Man label, the A-side "Sex Obsession" was named "Best Local Single" by the Baltimore City Paper "and got some airplay somewhere."

Sex Obsessed: "Peyton Place"

Not only size but length matters on the 12" A-side, which goes on for 8 plus minutes as the boys sample heavy from what Amy recalls was the 1960s TV series Peyton Place (the classic ABC melodrama that, inspired by the Brit soap Coronation Street, ran from 1964-1969 and launched the careers of Ryan O'Neal and Mia Farrow, among others). That would explain the references to "Mike" (Dr. Michael Ross, played by Ed Nelson) - "Is that you Mike?" "Oh, it's you Mike!" - and the obsession with, well, sex. Like the 1956 book and 1957 film of Peyton Place, the television series was considered sex-obsessed for its times, though the more controversial issues in the novel, such as incest, gave way to less scandalous plots like, oh, teen pregnancy.

"Sex? Yes! Mike? No!...Sex? No Mike - it's impossible!" - I'm sure Harp enjoyed this little injoke with Mike DeJong, who when not sampling sounds played keyboards and sax in too many Harp bands to remember. The song ends with the musicians' laughter drowning out the PP samples "Do you love me? That's impossible!" and "Sex? That's ridiculous!"

On the web site 24 Hours w/Mark Harp, Harp himself described the B-side "We Have the House Surrounded" as "Me and Mike DeJong in the living room learning about samplers and stuff." It starts off with a voice announcing "This is high fidelity," a sample taken off one of the many stereo demonstration records he collected. It then starts sounding like a bass-heavy Art of Noise big beat percussion workout, with Harp intoning "We have the house surrounded/Come out with your hands up" in what Amy characterizes as his charmingly thick "Bawlmer accent." Thematically, "We Have the House Surrounded" seems of a piece with another Harp law enforcement song, 1991's rap-parody "Cop Killer" - the latter one of the rare ditties featuring his then-wife Amy on sampled vocals (she alternates between letting loose blood-curdling screams and querying "Really?").

(Note: Baltimore's !? Interrobang should not be confused with the similarly named Boston, Chicago or San Diego bands or Interobang?! Magazine.)

Related Links:
Normal's Books & Records
24 Hours w/Mark Harp
"Sex Obsession" mp3
"We Have the House Surrounded" mp3

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE remembers Baltimore's Punk Scene

2012-02-03T07:28:00.051-05:00

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE reviews BANNED IN DC

I came across this review of the book BANNED IN DC (long out-of-print, with used copies ranging from $86-$480!) after Googling "Da Moronics" to see if they had released any of their music on the Internet. Typical of the author's style, it was less a book review than a remembrance of the narrator's own personal experiences in Baltimore during its brief punk era - which is why I like it! (Well, that and the fact that I remember later kissing one of the girls whose photo appears in the book.) I was part of this fleeting punk scene, possibly my only (tentative) connection with the author.

Full Disclosure: I never "got" the artist who went by the impossible-to-spell and constantly changing handle "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" (not to mention "Monty Cantsin," "BalTimOre," etc.) or however he spelled it. (Most people just referred to him as "Tent" or even by his birthname, Michael Tolson. It was a blissfully short and simple way to refer to a guy who was anything but blissfully simple - though he was kinda short.) But then I never really knew him, though he was always exceedingly polite (and quiet) on the few occasions I did meet him and I knew people who knew him (my physical therapist and former N.E.M.B. bass player George Poscover once lived with him, as did my friend Melissy D's former boyfriend "Big Dave" Scheper; and Kenny Vieth of Henningers Tavern knew Tent from his Jockee Clubbe residence days, etc., etc.).

In fact, my filmmaker friend Skizz Cyzyk - who took over Tent's H.O.M.E. Viewing film series at The Mansion and turned it into (eventually) Baltimore's MicroCineFest film festival - swears he's a genius and considers him one of his all-time heroes (see Skizz's interview with t,ac on the occasion of screening t,ac's STORY OF A FRUCTIFEROUS SOCIETY at the 2005 MicroCinFest). Another filmmaker, Kent Bye, once started working on a documentary about him (tentatively entitled "Who is tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE?"), which has yet to see the light of day. I think Kent had the right idea and I really wish someone would not only make but finish a documentary about him because, like him or not, "get" him or not, Tent has led an amazing life. He seemed to know everybody - from John Doe to Vermin Supreme and everyone in between - and while I didn't always "get" his art, I can't fault his work ethic (Tent: "Work will make you Free Trade!"). This is a guy who made the commitment early on to be a full-fledged anarcho-artist 24/7 and he's never wavered from it since. In a different era, he might have been one of the nihilists Dostoyevsky described in The Possessed. Or burned at the stake in an auto-da-fe. As in the Sinatra song "My Way," Tent's had a few regrets - but he did it HIS WAY, for better or worse.

Tent - in yet another guise

He currently resides in Pittsburgh, looks a little like Ken Kesey and goes by the new handle Amir-ul Kafirs - but more importantly, he's discovered the free-publishing utility and social networking wonder of the Internet, which is a good thing because Tent is an amazing archivist; he's basically uploaded his entire life to the Web, a treasure trove of photos, writings, art and - more importantly - memories of people, places, and things he's experienced. And he's experienced a lot (Tent: "I've collaborated with so many people in so many ways that it's almost 'impossible' to keep track of it all"!) Speaking of his hard-to-keep-track-of-ness, we have some of his films - both in 16mm (Subtitles, Sound along w/ t he bouncing ball(s), Transparent SMILE) and video (H.O.M.E. encyclopedia) format - at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, but there are more that are almost "impossible" to find, "lost in the stacks" because of his non-intuitive, non-traditional, library catalog-unfriendly way of spelling and naming things! (Tent defends this approach as a refusal "to be contextualized w/in dominant careerist paradigms." All I know is: only rap artists are more problematic for librarians to look up - with all their monetary symbols and non-intuitive spellings - and my generation thought Slade couldn't spell right!). But maybe he wanted it that way. Maybe he wanted to be a puzzle to be solved, a hidden Easter Egg unearthed in the stacks.

*** tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's review of BANNED IN DC ***

Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes from the DC Punk Underground (79-85)
by Cynthia Connelly, Leslie Claque, Sharon Cheslow
(Goodreads, July 2008)

[I took the liberty of adding some photos and hyperlinks to Tent's review.]

My initial review of this was 15160 characters - 5160 over the limit. I have to cut out over a 3rd of it. Looking thru it is like looking at a high school yrbk that's for the outcasts & rebels.

Around 1972, when we were both 19, John Duchac & I went to a concert called The End of the World Show. A group played that I sometimes credit w/ being Baltimore's 1st punk band: The Grand Poobah Subway. The latter were completely irreverant, they used styrofoam guitar props that they destroyed. It was cacophonous & bombastic. I loved it, John hated it. I think it was too 'amusical' for him, too 'tasteless'.

Meet "John Doe"

John moved to LA shortly thereafter where he became John Doe of the band X. John wd come back to Baltimore from time-to-time & by 1976 he'd turned me onto Devo's 1st single. But it wasn't 'til roughly 1977 that I personally felt punk as a new phenomena when I heard the Sex Pistols & when some friends in Baltimore started a band called Da Moronics.

Da Moronics outside Odorite building, 1978 (photo by Paula Gillen)

The Sex Pistols were ANARCHIST, as was I. That, in & of itself, was exciting. At the time, I only knew one other anarchist in Baltimore. But the music? Dullsville. I'd already long since left rock behind & this was basically the same old same old.

Tom DiVenti ascends his rightful throne (photo by Paula Gillen)

But Punk Rock was saved by a few obvious things: a sortof fuck-it! attitude that encouraged DIY raw flying-by-the-seat-of-yr-pants. & Da Moronics exemplified this. For me, they were Baltimore's 1st punk band. Tom DiVenti was the guitarist & a prominent poet/performer. He had a big carriage house space that he turned into the Apathy Project. This was a great place for shows. Tom was making things happen. Bill Moriarity was the singer.

Da Moronics singer Bill Moriarty (photo by Paula Gillen)

Da Moronics probably did songs about the most miserable shit, like cancer, w/ a great deal of irony & fuck-it!-that's-the-way-it-is! frankness. They were totally ragged at 1st but, as w/ most punk bands, they didn't let that inhibit them. They were fun. I remember one nite behind the Apathy Project a guy tried to rob a petite lesbian friend of mine in the nearby alley at gunpoint. She was in an early all-girl punk band called the 45s. She punched the wd-be robber in the face. He ran off.

Bill got sick of being in Da Moronics pretty quick b/c one of the main places they'd play was at the Oddfellows Hall in Towson (a pretty fascist suburb to the north of Baltimore) where the jockier members of the audience wd throw full pitchers of beer at him. He didn't get it - why the fuck did they think it was ok to do that do him?!

In 1979, I created a series of events under the name Crab Feast - the 1st of wch was a guerrilla installation. On January 24, 1980, 4 of us played as a band at the Telectropheremanniversary - the 1st anniversary of an underground phone network that I'd cofounded.

Crab Feast performed songs about herpes (wch I'd recently gotten), telephones, the Krononautic Society (a time-travel society many of us were in), some experimental instrumentals of mine, etc.. Thinking back on it now, that one gig was pretty historical.

There was very little connection between the DC & Baltimore punk scenes at this point. Bands like the Slickee Boys & Judy's Fixation played in DC but they were really from south of Baltimore rather than from the city proper. Judy's Fixation was from Annapolis. So was Sam Fitzsimmons who was one of the best party organizers & an all-round good natured guy. DC had the rep in Baltimore as being straight-edge - eschewing drugs & alcohol. B-More was definitely the opposite & most of the B-More punks were a bit contemptuous of straight-edge.

Sam Fitzsimmons (photo by Michelle Gienow)

Baltimore's punk scene was strongly nihilistic, punks were into getting as much out-of-their minds as they cd, as often as possible. We were all freaks & outcasts & we were flaunting it w/ a middle finger to all the people who tried to terrorize us into obeying. One way of doing that wd be to be so fucked-up that we'd be genuinely dangerous out on the streets. Of course, having fun was a big part of it too. Sex & drugs & rock'n'roll.

& the Marble Bar in the Congress Hotel was the perfect venue. The Congress had been an upscale hotel earlier in the century. Stars wd come & stay there & perform in the Galaxy Ballroom on the 1st fl. By the time the Marble was a punk club, the hotel was a halfway house for prisoners freshly released & a cheap fuck pad for married art school teachers to fuck their students in.

The Congress Hotel, home to the Marble Bar & Galaxy Ballroom

The Marble Bar was great - a sortof free zone where cops never came & most of the straight people who harassed us the rest of the time were too afraid to go. Once you went in there it was safe for all sorts of weird behavior. Still, I was thrown out twice but I was allowed back, there was an attitude on inclusiveness. All the freaks that the rest of society hated were welcome there.

Galaxy Ballroom Subgenius Con/Party flyer

The Galaxy Ballroom was where the more experimental stuff happened. Sam & I co-organized the 3rd Convention of the Church of the Subgenius there in September of 1983. At the SubG Con, the lead singer of Judy's Fixation participated in the "Sex? Straight? To Hell?" panel discussion. He'd recently plunged whole-assedly into the Gay Dungeon Master scene. On the panel he proclaimed that AIDS was to help you, not hurt you! He suffered from a ruptured internal organ shortly thereafter after being fist-fucked & then died very quickly from AIDS.

"The Singer Not the Schlong": Dungeonmaster Vaughn Keith ("Ben Wah") of Judy's Fixation (photo by Jack of Hearts)

Around this time, I was living w/ Stoc Marcut, the lead singer of Fear of God. At one point he bought a pig's head to use in a performance but the performance didn't happen, or some such, so he just left the pig's head rotting.. in his car trunk.. in the summer.

"Pig-headed": Stoc Marcut of Fear of God

By 1984, I'd started a new group called "t he booed usicians". We premiered at the 5th anniversary of the phone network, "t he Telectropeheremoanin'quinquennial" where our set involved phone sex. By today's standards we were a 'noise group', but I've never thought of it that way. The other groups on the bill were Sam's Motor Morons & [Mark] Harp's P.A.B.L.U.M. - wch was a parody group referring to Infant Lunch - a great B-More band who'd played at the SubG Con.

The Motor Morons were great! One guy played cans on a grinding wheel, another played electronics by pouring beer in it. A staple intrument was the one-string bass. A related group of Sam's was Oral Fixation. They played prop instruments, w/ tapes providing the actual sounds - except for the vocals, wch were live.

Before Kegasaurus there was...Oral Fixation! (photo by Jack of Hearts)

In 1985, I toured & performed at a place in CT called "Cafe Anthrax". There I was, a naked 31 yr old guy showing weird movies to a mostly much younger crowd & the cops came in. They didn't harass me about my nudity at all. Amazing. I'm told that Cafe Anthrax is a legendary punk club by now.

For me, punk was more or less dead by then. I didn't see much new coming out of it & heroin was creeping in to ruin things. I remember being at a Dead Kennedys show where some of us drew the DK logo on our hands to get in for free. We were told by someone associated w/ the band or w/ organizing the gig that that "wasn't cool". I thought: "This is an anarchist band?! Fuck these people!"

Another time, I was w/ my ex-girlfriend, Valerie Favazza, at a show where a film crew was touring. Valerie used to spend hrs putting her make-up on. People called her the "grandmother of punk", or some such, even though she was young, b/c she was so visibly out there. I was wearing a completely uncool white linen suit w/ pictures of lepers on it that I'd specially made & my hair was in a circle going sideways around my head. I was very 'uncool' b/c punk was already stylized & codified by then. Fuck that. Then the documentary guys asked us if they cd shoot footage of us. Valerie agreed & they went back to her place to shoot her elaborate make-up process. I declined. Punk was too dead to be associated w/ anymore. Too conformist. Now I kindof wish I'd done it. It wd be a nice record of the times. I'd still like to see the movie someday.

Then, yrs later, "BANNED IN DC" came out. People were excited! A bk about the punk scene! There was triumph in the air! As if by having a bk to document DC's scene, punk in general was validated as somehow REAL - rather than just the ephemera of a bunch of suicidal losers. I didn't care, I'd long since moved on, I'd never REALLY been a punk anyway - I was too extreme even for the punk scene. Still, though, looking thru this bk, I feel how important it was all over again.

To an outsider looking at this bk, the punks might look deranged, fascistic, riotous, dangerous - but to an insider, we were people who were trying to live freely & to the fullest. Most of us were barely surviving, the music was one of the only fun ways to make some extra bucks, to possibly escape from the deadend jobs. I'm grateful that "BANNED IN DC" exists. How much of that intense era has really survived? The music, sure, but that seems somewhat secondary to me in contrast to the hell-raising so many of us did. "BANNED" at least shows the people. Seeing them in the bk makes them seem somehow 'normal' in context - but in the rest of the world life cd be pretty dangerous for us given that the hatred for deviance was being expressed violently.

Thank you, Leslie [BANNED IN DC co-author Leslie Clague].

Related Tent Links:
Goodreads author profile for tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
footnotes by a cONVENIENCE tENTATIVELY
a mere outline website

Buzzcocks - "A Different Compilation"

2012-02-01T09:59:00.001-05:00

Buzzcocks
A Different Compilation
(Cooking Vinyl, 2011)

**********************************************************************

Pete Shelley: “The original records now sound like demos. These new versions, honed by years on the road, showcase the songs as we know they should be, the way we know audiences love to hear them.”

Steve Diggle: “What were songs of sophisticated innocence are now songs of experience. ‘Harmony In My Head’ and ‘Why She’s A Girl From The Chainstore’ now have a full panoramic view!”

**********************************************************************

Founding Buzzcocks Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle have taken their most popular songs over the last 30+ years and not just remastered or updated or played them live; rather, they've gone back to the studio to rerecord their back catalogue to showcase what the songs sound like now as played by the contempo 'cocks: Shelley, Diggle, bassist (and Steve Winwood lookalike) Chris Remmington and drummer Danny Farrant.

That said, I always thought Buzzcocks got it right the first time round - the songs represented here are as good as it gets in terms of punk-pop music and lyrically the sonnets of Manchester's Shelley are always reliably clever when they're not being downright brilliant (typical verbal gem from "Whatever Happened To?": "Your emotions are a compact case you carry") - leading to the inevitable question: Why buy these songs again?

The answer is twofold. The main reason to buy A Different Compilation (the first new Buzzcocks release since 2006's Flat-Pack Philosophy) is to experience what a Buzzcocks concert 30+ years later sounds like - which is still GREAT! All the excitement of a live show recorded with today's technology. Pete's voice is basically the same and Diggle's guitarmanship has only gotten better, and both guitars are beefed up with that Green Day Dookie-wall-of-sound metallic k.o. that kids today totally dig. The second reason is, well, this really is a different kind of compilation, one in which the "older, wiser" 'cocks can offer variations on their time-tested themes. An added riff here (like the wacka-wacka backbeat strumming on "Why Can't I Touch It?"), an extended solo there (e.g., "I Believe"). Even Buzzcocks tire of playing their greatest hits the same way every night and variety, that spice of life, keeps it interesting for them as well.

Steve Diggle gets to showcase seven of his songs, as well as two collaborations with Shelley ("Promises," "Fast Cars"), including adding a little Stuart Adamson-flavored electric guitar riff to the mostly acoustic closer "Love Is Lies," which makes it sound now like a Big Country song. The new recording of "Why She's a Girl From the Chainstore" is particularly inspired, while the beefed up guitars in "Autonomy" and "Harmony In My Head" lend these hard-rocking Diggle ditties a Wagnerian sturm und drang epic-ness. And the rerecording of "Alive Tonight" (the song celebrating "armchair groovers"!) marks at least the third time Diggle's recorded this one (it was originally released on 1991's Alive Tonight EP as a Stone Roses-influenced slice of neo-psychedelia, followed by the grunged-up 1993 Trade Test Transmissions album version).

And then there's Shelley's masterpiece "I Believe." The last "great" single from the (1978-1980) golden era Buzzcocks is here turned into a virtual set-closing jam session, with Diggle and Shelley's guitars duking it out for an extended three minute solo, with Chris Remmington and Danny Farrant both getting solos as well. That's new and certainly worth hearing - I would have made it the last song on the CD, but Diggle's acoustic "Love Is Lies" works well as a catch-you-breath cooldown after I Believe"'s guitar workout, kind of like The Beatles's "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road.

My only quibble with the compilation is the absence of a decent recording of my fave Buzzcocks song "Times Up," which was one of the four original recordings released on their 1977 Spiral Scratch EP. But two other spiral scratches, "Breakdown" and "Boredom," are showcased here and have never sounded better.

Finally, no dis to Danny Farrant, but listening to this set also reminded me that there's no substitute for original drummer John Mayer. Danny Farrant is an excellent drummer, but John Mayer is arguably one of the top 5 rock drummers of all-time, one who seemed to have an extra gear when it came to lightning-fast rolls. I think he may even have had an extra limb or two that gave him the ability to beat out that extra measure in Buzzcocks songs. Still, he's gone and Farrant is probably as good a sub as possible.

The songs:
1. Boredom
2. Fast Cars
3. I Don't Mind
4. Autonomy
5. Get On Our Own
6. What Ever Happened To?
7. When Love Turns Around You
8. Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore
9. Why Can't I Touch It?
10. Alive Tonight
11. I Don't Know What To Do With My Life
12. You Say You Don't Love Me
13. Turn Of The Screw
14. Noise Annoys
15. Breakdown
16. Promises
17. Love You More
18. What Do I Get?
19. Harmony In My Head
20. Oh Shit!
21. Ever Fallen In Love (with Someone You Shouldn't've)?
22. Orgasm Addict
23. I Believe
24. Love Is Lies

Toasting Poe's (203rd) Birthday

2012-01-22T12:16:00.038-05:00

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

David Keltz as Edgar Allan Poe

A Poe Birthday Celebration Performance with David Keltz
The Theosophical Society
523 N. Charles Street , Baltimore, Maryland
Friday January 20: 8 pm ; Saturday January 21: 2 pm & 8 pm

The Poe Toaster may no longer raise a glass of cognac in salute and place three roses on his Westminster Church gravesite, but Edgar Allan Poe's birthday is still remembered and honored by countless fans and admirers in the city where Poe lived, courted his future wife, and found his final resting place (alongside his aunt, Maria Clemm, and wife, Virginia). Indeed, the Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Celebration has been a perennial tradition in Baltimore since 1980. So, on Saturday, January 21, Poe groupie Amy Linthicum (wearing her stylish Edgar Allan Poe necklace) and I paid our belated best wishes to EAP by attending David Keltz's incredible one-man show (in costume and character, edited from Poe's very own words) at the Baltimore Theosophical Society. (A portion of the proceeds from his three performances were donated to the fiscally challenged Poe House and Museum to help keep it open.)

BTS is an institution that I know little about, but their mission statement says it is dedicated to investigating "the nature of the universe and humanity's place in it," promoting understanding of other cultures, and being "a nucleus of universal brotherhood among all human beings" (a designation that I suppose includes even Republicans and telemarketers), so it sounds like an entirely reasonable and admirable group to me.

By contrast, I know a lot about David Keltz. The Baltimore actor gave his first performance as Edgar Allan Poe on Halloween night 1991 at Poe's grave and has honed his craft in countless performances over the years (in addition to one-man shows celebrating D. H. Lawrence, H. L. Mencken, Captain John Smith and others), even essaying Poe as a bingo card player in Jane King and Jeff Alphin's charmingly clever 16mm film short The Bingo Caller (as pictured above left). And while I've seen many excellent Poe performances over the years by a who's who of outstanding local actors - from Tony Tsendeas and Mark Redfield to Mark S. Sanders (star of the one-man play "A Portrait of Poe") and John "Gomez" Astin's remarkable performance in Paul Day Clemens and Ron Magid's play "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary" - none tops that of David Keltz. His is the face and his is the voice I associate with Poe, as if it's indelibly stamped in my mind. That's why, when I see him around town in his street clothes shopping at Eddie's or milling about the American Visionary Art Museum's gift shop, it always throws me for a loop (you just don't expect to see Poe shopping for groceries or knick-knacks!).

Over the course of the next hour, David Keltz brought Edgar Allan Poe to life in stirring performances of "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "To Helen," "Annabel Lee" and, fittingly - since the Baltimore Ravens football team was playing the Boston Patriots for the AFC Championship the next day - "The Raven." (Though given their subsequent heart-breaking loss, the Raven's "Nevermore" quip may be the final word on Ray Lewis's quest for a second Super Bowl ring.)

Watch David Keltz perform "The Raven."

Though Saturday's matinee ran roughly 60 minutes, Keltz can do up to five hours reciting and reenacting Poe's canon of poems, short stories, essays, literary criticism, letters, and reported conversations.

Immediately after Keltz's performance and a brief Q& A, a guitarist named Larry (Schectel?) played a song about Poe. Amy liked him right away because, like her, he was a lefty. Larry's song, which he stayed up composing just the night before, took the point of view of Poe's last day in Baltimore, wandering the streets and taverns of Fell's Point; he later apologized to Keltz if his verses about Poe imbibing various alcoholic beverages made him sound like an alcoholic. (No worries, didn't the bard himself once quip "Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today!"?)

After the show, the audience was invited to mingle with the performers to share light refreshments and this delicious cake from Herman's Bakery (a Dundalk culinary landmark according to Dundalk-native Amy):

Quoth the Raven: "Eat me, forevermore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Smalltimore": Guitarist Larry looked familiar to me; at first, I thought it was just his uncanny resemblance to British actor Bill Nighy, but then I realized I had talked to him before at my workplace across the street, the Enoch Pratt Central Library. Larry was a Jeff Beck fan, and before the show we had talked about Beck's tenure with The Yardbirds; Larry even played some Beck riffs on his acoustic guitar (though he admitted Beck sounded much better on his Stratocaster). And, this being Smalltimore, it turned out Amy had a connection to Larry as well. Larry was friends with her former Crabtree & Evelyn co-worker Lucy (a fact I learned two days later when both Lucy and Larry visited the library!).

Lefty Larry sang and played his toast to Poe

The cake was yummy, but we limited ourselves to small portions, as we planned to continue our tribute to Poe by having dinner later at Canton's Poe-themed restaurant The Annabel Lee Tavern, home of the famous duck-fat fries - not to mention David Keltz's favorite drink, the bourbon, ginger and bitters-laced "Spectacle". Keltz commented that the drink referred to one of Poe's lesser known humorous works, his 1850 story ("The Spectacles") about a myopic who's too vain to wear his glasses - and as a result ends up marrying his grandmother! (After quaffing a few Spectacles, I'm sure the mistake could be made again at the Annabel Lee Tavern - good thing it's not located near a nursing home!)

Annabel Lee Tavern

So, our appetites whetted, we bid our fellow Poe Toasters adieu - but not before Amy's requisite photo op with the day's star!

David Keltz and "Poe Groupie" Amy Linthicum

For more information about David Keltz, visit the links below or call 410-669-6582.

David Keltz Links:

David Keltz as Poe (official site)
Study Guide for David Keltz's Poe Performance (.pdf)
David Keltz on Facebook
Watch "The Bingo Caller" (Jane King & Jeff Alphin)

The Short Films of Amy Linthicum

2012-01-17T17:52:00.011-05:00

An early Fluxus-influenced installation by visual artist Amy Linthicum

Local filmmaker/criminal records clerk [it's a new combined major - check your local college catalogs!] Amy Linthicum is a master of cinematic haiku, creating brief but thought-provoking short videos using only her smartphone and small, everyday objects - such as wind-up toys and solar-powered plastic flowers. Though she claims to have no obvious aesthetic influence beyond her own collection of household tchotchkes, this reviewer sees a direct connection to the post-modern principles of the 1960s Fluxus Movement, specifically the films of the (pre-professional widow) visual artist, Yoko Ono.

As she prepares to submit a much longer work (perhaps, rumor has it, even a full-blown 60-second video installation) for consideration in the prestigious 2012 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize competition, Ms. Linthicum has graciously uploaded the following videos to her YouTube channel amylization.

Six Seconds of Cheer
(Written, directed & produced by Amy Linthicum; 2012; 06 seconds)

Brilliant! And yes, couldn't we all use a few seconds of cheer in these turbulent, dangerous and economically devasting times? The artist cuts to the quick with disarming simplicity.

Happy Squirrel Toy
(Written, directed & produced by Amy Linthicum; 2012; 11 seconds)

"Happy Squirrel Toy" evokes the spirit of German poet Friedrich Schiller's famous "Ode an die Freude" ("Ode to Joy") in enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind, as here expressed by a tiny, plastic, mechanical representation of a carefree mammalia sciuridae playing with a tiny, plastic nut. This creature's joy is measured not in arbitrary mathematical units, but in kinetic leaps and bounds!

Heads up, Maryland Arts Council, attention Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts. There's a new visual arts playa in town, and she's wound-up and ready for her six seconds of fame - maybe even 15 seconds by the time the Sondheim Award Finals roll around this July!

Starry Eyes: UK Pop II (1978-79)

2012-01-17T00:07:00.006-05:00

Various Artists
Starry Eyes: UK Pop II (1978-79)
(Rhino, D.I.Y. Series, 1993)

My MLK Day shopping score of the day (well, after nabbing the last two pairs of Medium 60-40 Cotton-Poly Blend Men's Pajamas at WalMart for my 7-fresh-PJs-per-week-wearing dad!) was this Rhino "D.I.Y." compilation of UK punk and powerpop singles from 1978-1979, which I picked up for $5.99 from the Soundgarden used record bins. I thought maybe I had it already, but he who hesitates is not only lost but also not worthy of the name "hoarder," so I took a chance and am glad I did because it turns out that all of Rhino's excellent 1993 D.I.Y. series titles are out-of-print and hence expensive and hard to come by except for used copies.

I have most of the tunes included here - as a card-carrying Punk and Powerpop enthusiast, I have everything by Buzzcocks and The Undertones and most of the other groups on vinyl 45s or albums (e.g., The Yachts, Bram Tchaikovsky, The Jags, The Records, The Tourists - the latter featuring future Eurythmics Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart) - so this was a score mainly for car- and boombox-listening convenience, not to mention the half dozen tracks that were truly obscure/rare and probably unavailable anywhere else but this compilation: Belfast's Starjets ("Schooldays"), Dublin's The Radiators (who no doubt resent being lumped in with "United Kingdom" bands and whose leader Phil Chevron went on to join The Pogues; "Let's Talk About the Weather"), Leeds' The Squares ("This Is Airebeat"), Manchester's The Distractions ("Time Goes By So Slow" - one of the first singles on Factory Records), Glasgow's The Zones ("Mourning Star"; Zones bassist Russell Webb and drummer Kenny Hyslop later joined The Skids), and London's Mod revivalists Purple Hearts ("Millions Like Us").

The Jags: "Back of My Hand" 45

And I really, really wanted a digital version of my Jags 45 "Back Of My Hand (I've Got Your Number)" (UK #17) because not only is it a great powerpop song, it's also one of my favorite Telephone Songs (if only for the lines "I'm not a fuck machine, a 1960s dream" and "When I call you I get a stack of lies/You whip them out before you dry your eyes," the latter line sounding to my ears like "You wipe 'em out before you dry yer ass" thanks to singer Nick Watkinson's oft-indecipherable brogue).

Watch The Jags play "Back Of My Hand (I've Got Your Number" (TOTP)

You see, every pre-New Millennium pop band worth its salt either had a Girl's Name Song, a Car Song, or a Phone Song in their setlist and, yes, I compile those sort of playlists (especially Phone Songs - from The Marvelettes' "Beechwood 4-5789" and Wilson Pickett's "634-5789" in the '60s to ELO's "Telephone Line" in the '70s, and Tommy Tutone's "Jenny (867-5309)" in the '80s to contemporaries like Lady Gaga's "Telephone").

The compilation takes its title from The Records' bitter anti-Record Biz rant (set to possibly the most beautifully disarming jingly-jangly 12-string guitar chords ever) "Starry Eyes," but it's another Records' tune, Will Burch's "Hearts In Her Eyes" that is of greater interest here, because we get to hear it covered by an original, 1st Gen powerpop band (then just called "Merseybeat"), Liverpool's The Searchers.

And speaking of Merseybeat, there's even an answer song to Liverpool's famed beat group-inspiring river in this anthology: "This is Airebeat" by The Squares. The Aire river runs through Leeds and though no anthemic "Ferry Cross the Airey" song emerged to rival Merseybeat's place in history, "This is Airebeat" ("This is Airebeat for deadbeats/This is Airebeat for sound freaks/Airebeat it's so neat/Airebeat keeps me off of the street") amused John Peel enough to get played on his radio show, which led Sire Records to sign the Leeds lads - Paddy Hogan (bass & vocals), Brian Hogan (guitar & backing vocals), and Kev Bates (drums, maracas, organ) - in 1979.

Listen to The Squares play "This Is Airebeat."

Bram Tchaikovsky's "Girl of My Dreams" is a great pop song that belongs on another Rock Songs List - to wit, songs about inflatable girlfriends. Add it to the short list alongside The Police's "Be My Girl Sally" and Bryan Ferry's Roxy Music paen to the emptiness of opulence, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache."

"Girl of My Dreams": Cheap, portable, lightweight & never talks back!

And, lest I forget, there's the fun single "Where's the Boy For Me" by The Revillos, the band (named after a cafe in a Marvel comic) singers Faye Fife and Eugene Reynolds formed after the breakup of (the Jo Callis-led) Glaswegian New Wave retro-rockers The Rezillos - whose Can't Stand the Rezillos has been called by some (OK, well, by one!) The Greatest Rock & Roll Record of All-Time. (I still rue missing The Revillos when they played Baltimore's Marble Bar back in the 1980s! What could I possibly have been doing more important than that?)

Watch The Revillos play "Where's the Boy for Me?"

Needless to say, the all-femme post-punk Mo-Dettes are great fun as well, and years of enjoying "White Mice" on various punk/D.I.Y. compilations such as this led me to purchase their 2008 anthology The Story So Far, a digitally remastered reissue of their lone 1981 album plus some bonus tracks. These gals, fronted by Swiss singer Ramona Carlier (who sounds like she either has a speech impediment or is singing with a mouthful of food), were once London squatmates of Joe Strummer and Sid Vicious. Guitarist Kate Korus (nee Katherine Corris) was a Yank and an original member of The Slits, while bassist Jane Crockford went on to marry Daniel Woodgate of Madness and drummer June Miles-Kingston ended up playing with Fun Boy Three, Everything But the Girl, Thompson Twins, and The Communards. They also did a song about the Kray Twins, which would have made them OK in my book even without the gem that is "White Mice" (and its great chorus of "Don't be stupid, don't be limp!").

Watch Mo-Dettes play "White Mice."

Besides all the great music on offer, the Starry Eyes liner notes are quite nice and accurately point out the massive late '70s influence of one Elvis Costello who, though not appearing on this compilation, clearly influenced the fierce rock, rapid-fire clever wordplay, and mumbly invective of The Jags and Joe Jackson. And I like the observation that the members of XTC (whose Colin Moulding-penned "Life Begins At the Hop" appears here) "grew up to make the most quintessential English records that are loved everywhere but England."

"Starry Eyes" Tracks and Artists:

1. Ever Fallen in Love? - Buzzcocks
2. Get Over You - The Undertones
3. Yachting Types - The Yachts
4. Is She Really Going Out With Him? - Joe Jackson
5. Schooldays - Starjets (bonus track) *
6. Girl of My Dreams - Bram Tchaikovsky
7. This Is Airebeat - Squares
8. Life Begins at the Hop - XTC
9. Up the Junction - Squeeze
10. Back of My Hand (I've Got Your Number) - Jags
11. Let's Talk About the Weather - The Radiators
12. Starry Eyes - The Records
13. Mourning Star - Zones
14. Millions Like Us - Purple Hearts
15. Time Goes by So Slow - Distractions
16. Hearts in Her Eyes - The Searchers
17. Where's the Boy for Me? - Revillos
18. White Mice - Mo-Dettes (bonus track) *
19. So Good to Be Back Home Again - The Tourists

"Starry Eyed" Videos:

Watch Buzzcocks play "Ever Fallen in Love" (live).

Watch The Undertones play "Get Over You."

Watch The Records play "Starry Eyes" (live)

Watch Squeeze play "Up the Junction."

Watch XTC play "Life Begins atthe Hop" (TOTP)

Watch Joe Jackson play "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" (TOTP)

Watch Purple Hearts play "Millions Like Us."

Watch Starjets play "Schooldays."

Watch Radiators play "Let's Talk About the Weather."

Watch The Tourists play "So Good To Be Home Again" (TOTP)

Watch The Yachts play "Yachting Type."

Listen to The Searchers play "Hearts In Her Eyes."

Listen to the Distractions play "Time Goes By So Slow."

Listen to The Zones play "Mourning Star."

Listen to Bram Tchaikovsky play "Girl of My Dreams."

The Graham Gouldman Thing (1968)

2012-01-12T12:50:00.008-05:00

Graham Gouldman
The Graham Gouldman Thing
(BMG-UK, RCA-US, 1968)

The Players:
Graham Gouldman: vocals, acoustic and lead guitars
John Paul Jones: bass
Clem Cantini: drums

The Capsule Description Thing: The Graham Gouldman Thing was the debut album by singer and songwriter Graham Gouldman. Gouldman had already written hit singles for Herman's Hermits ("No Milk Today" and "Listen People"), the Yardbirds ("For Your Love," "Heart Full of Soul," "Evil Hearted You"), the Hollies ("Look Through Any Window," "Bus Stop") and Wayne Fontana ("Pamela, Pamela", "The Impossible Years") and on this album Gouldman delivered his own versions of some of those songs as well as other new compositions. Gouldman, who would later become a founding member of 10cc, recorded the album at Olympic Studios in London, a studio that would later be extensively used by Led Zeppelin. It was recorded with the assistance of John Paul Jones and Eddie Kramer, both of whom would also achieve considerable success with Led Zeppelin. All songs composed by Graham Gouldman.

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"From behind the counter of a gents' outfitters shop in a grimy Manchester suburb to a place in the front rank of the world's leading songwriters in three years. This is the achievement of Graham Gouldman - six feet, rangy and dreamy-eyed...There are many great artists who have paid tribute to Gouldman by recording his music...Citations and reviews also pay tribute to the melodic invention and distinctive style of what has become known as the Graham Gouldman Thing." - Original sleeve note, 1968

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Birds of a Feather

Graham Gouldman entered the pop scene at age 19 with "For Your Love," a song he wrote while working behind the counter at Bargains Unlimited - a men's clothing store near Salford Docks in Manchester, England - and which would eventually make its way to The Yardbirds and provide them with their first (and biggest) hit. Bargains Unlimited was Gouldman's day job; by night, he was gigging with his semi-professional local band The Mockingbirds, whose drummer was none other than his future 10cc bandmate Kevin Godley (whom he'd met while rehearsing at the Jewish Lads Brigade in north Manchester). The other 'birds were the aptly named bass player Bernard Basso and guitarist Steve Jacobson.

The Mockingbirds

"I was sleeping most of the time because I'd been gigging with the Mockingbirds the night before, and then during the day when I'd got any spare time I'd write in the shop," Gouldman recalled. He favored "soulful" minor chords, explaining that "Major chords seemed pale and white. We used to go to the synagogue which must have had some sort of influence, the melodies there were very beautiful, mournful and aching."

Gouldman explained, "I used to shut up the shop at lunch time and sit in the back writing. I’d sort of dabbled a bit in song-writing but I had a band and we wanted to make a record and so we went down to Denmark Street - Tin Pan Alley was Denmark Street, where all the songwriters were - in London, and went round all the publishers trying to find a song. And anyway we didn’t get any songs that we liked or we weren’t given any songs period and the Beatles had started and I thought ‘well, I’m gonna really have a crack at song-writing.’ I had dabbled a bit but they were really my inspiration and gave me and I think gave a lot of other people the courage to actually do it. We all wanted to be like the Beatles...most of us anyway."

Beatles-inspired fledgling songwriter Gouldman had written two songs for the Mockingbirds that he thought had potential, "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)" and "For Your Love," the latter envisioned as their first single. The mental giants at the record company, however, turned down "For Your Love" and instead chose "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)" to be the Mockingbirds' first single. "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)" did nothing for Gouldman's band but Mockingbirds manager Harvey Lisberg - who also managed Herman's Hermits and would later go on to manage 10cc - was so impressed by "For Your Love" that he advised Gouldman to offer it to the Beatles.

"I said, 'I think they're doing alright in the songwriting department, actually'," Gouldman replied with considerable understatement. "What he was thinking was that they did covers of Motown songs and rhythm and blues stuff." The Beatles's publishing company passed but, undeterred, Lisberg gave a demo of the song to publisher Ronnie Beck of Feldman's, who took it to the Hammersmith Odeon, where the Beatles were performing on a Christmas show. By coincidence the Yardbirds were also on the bill at the venue and Beck played the song to their manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, and the band.

With the lone exception of their guitarist, the Yardbirds loved it. "They were a blues band who wanted some chart success so they'd started looking around for outside material. It was a simple as that," Gouldman told Andy Morten in the liner notes to The Graham Gouldman Thing. "[Georgio Gomelsky] played it to them and it fitted into what they wanted to do."

In fact, the Yardbirds would go to parrot many of its unusual (for its time) songwriting traits - the minor chords, the slow-fast start-stop tempo changes, the droning (almost Gregorian) harmonies - in their subsequent chart efforts. The Yardbirds' recording of "For Your Love" peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts, selling two million copies worldwide and becoming their highest charting single in the US at No. 6. And it also famously caused their blues-purist guitarist Eric Clapton to leave the 'birds' nest and join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in protest at this new "commercial sound."

"That song, I think I read somewhere, was kind of responsible for Eric Clapton leaving the Yardbirds – he thought ‘I can’t play that, it’s too poppy’," Gouldman recalled in an interview with Alan Thompson for the BBC Radio Wales program I Write the Songs. "I think it was more like the last straw rather than any other reason, because the Yardbirds had wanted to get a hit record and they were playing rhythm and blues, and they were a fantastic rhythm and blues band and when they made this change to being commercial, Eric couldn’t take it and he left. And," he added facetiously, "they got another crap guitarist - Jeff Beck, and then Jimmy Page."

Rumor has it that another factor contributing to Clapton's departure was "Slowhand" having to recreate the song's harpsichord on a 12-string guitar when performing it live. It would later be handily handled by post-Clapton "crap" guitarist Jeff Beck, as shown in the clip below.

Watch the Yardbirds play "For Your Love."

Though "For Your Love" may have been the final straw that caused Eric Clapton to leave the Yardbirds roost, it was undoubtably the song that helped propel the Yardbirds from being just another London blues-rock band into a chart-topping commercial pop presence, ushering in the sonic experimentations of new guitar whiz Jeff Beck and beginning what would blossom into a fruitful songwriting relationship with Gouldman.

"I saw The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck and and he just blew me away. To me he was and still is the ultimate player, so it was very exciting to be working with them," Gouldman told Andy Morten. "They ended up doing two more of mine and another one they didn't finish. I wrote those with them in mind." Those two Gouldman followup hits for the Yardbirds were "Heart Full of Soul" (UK #2, US #9) and "Evil Hearted You" (UK #3).

And so began a two-year period when Gouldman had the "Midas Touch" writing hit songs for other pop groups. The next act to reap chart success from Gouldman's songwriting pen was The Hollies. Inspired by the the view looking out a railway carriage on one of his trips to London to peddle songs, he wrote "Look Through Any Window." "They had separate compartments then," he told Bob Stanley (a member of the pop group Saint Etienne who writes the fantastic blog Croydon Municipal), "a great environment for writing."

Hollies Hits in Transit

"Look Through Any Window" - co-written with Charles Silverman and originally offered to the Country Gentleman (a group fronted by Gouldman's friend and frequent musical collaborator Peter Cowap) - was "placed" with the Hollies by his manager and became a Top 5 hit for his fellow Mancunians. But it was "Bus Stop" - specifically written with The Hollies in mind - that became their breakthrough U.S. hit, reaching #5 on the Billboard Top 100. Gouldman also offered The Hollies "Going Away," which was ultimately recorded (though never released) by Manchester's Toggery Five.

1965 was a busy year for Gouldman, with his manager Lisberg placing "I'm Gonna Take You There" with Dave Berry, "A Little While Back" and "Why Say Goodbye" with The Shindigs, and several singles for Columbia recording artist Little Frankie.

By the time 1966 rolled around, it was the Harvey Lisberg-managed Herman's Hermits who started recording Gouldman gems, including the singles "East West" (#33 UK), "Listen People" (US #3), and "No Milk Today" (#5 UK). The Hermits would later look to Gouldman's "Ooh She's Done It Again," "It's Nice To Be Out in the Morning," and "The World Is For the Young" to use on their Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter soundtrack LP and '67 B-side "Marcel."

Bowled Over: Hermits Hermits tip their hats to Graham Gouldman's hits

Still later, Gouldman would even write a Yardley cosmetics promo jingle for Herman's Hermits, "The London Look," which they released as an EP in 1968: "See the country vicars and the city slickers, pearly kings and noble dukes. Everybody moving, everybody grooving. They've all got The London Look ..."

Country vicars and city slickers - all have The London Look!

But Noone's Hermits weren't the only musicos to cut their teeth on Gouldman gold that year, as Wayne Fontana took "Pamela, Pamela" to #11 on the UK charts, while the St. Louis Union recorded "Behind the Door," P. J. Proby and Toni Basil (yes, Toni Basil!) both recorded "I'm 28," Friday Brown cut "Getting Nowhere" (actually just a retitled version of "I'm 28"), The Downliner Sect added their rhythm and blues stylings to "The Cost of Living" (credited to Gouldman-Lisberp-Peter Cowap), and The High Society (a Gouldman studio concoction) released "People Passing By."

1967 saw Cher record what Gouldman would later deem a "great version" of "Behind the Door" and a post-Yardbirds, pre-Jeff Beck Group Jeff Beck recorded "Tallyman" - a title suggested by Gouldman's dad. "Because of my connection with [Herman's Hermits producer] Mickie Most," Gouldman explained to Andy Morten, "Jeff Beck ended up a song of mine after he left The Yardbirds. This is one ofthose songs where my late father used to help me with lyrics quite a lot. He should get a little bit of the credit."

The Shadows recorded "Naughty Nippon Nights" the same year, while (future 10cc bandmate) Eric Stewart's Mindbenders (who Graham would later join on a brief touring stint) covered Gouldman's "Schoolgirl" (which was banned by the BBC for its subject matter: teenage pregnancy), and Down Under rock star Normie Rowe (the "Ozzy Elvis" whose career was never the same after he was drafted for the Vietnam War) had a comeback hit with "Going Home," which rose as high as #7 on Australia's Go-Set chart listing. Gouldman also found time to release his own "Stop! Stop! Stop!" - a rare instance of him adapting a Northern Soul/R&B style.

Gouldman's own band The Mockingbirds were still around during this period (though by this time they'd left EMI to join Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label), but success still eluded them - even when Gouldman tried to emulate the style of more popular groups, like The Yardbirds. Encouraged by the commercial success of The Yardbirds' "For Your Love," The Mockingbirds released the very Yardbirds-sounding "You Stole My Love" (with a young Julie Driscoll providing backing vocals) on Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label in 1965; not surprisingly, it would later be covered by the Yardbirds themselves in 1966.

"You Stole My Love": Out-Yardbirdsing the Yardbirds

Listen to The Mockingbirds play "You Stole My Love."

As Andy Morten characterized it in his The Graham Gouldman Thing liner notes: "One of Gouldman's best songs of the era, it almost out-Yardbirds The Yardbirds with its powerful melody and shifting tempo changes, beautifully rendered by a fierce Giorgio Gomelsky production and an ethereal Julie Driscoll backing vocal to boot. Despite being rightly recognised as a classic slice of mid-'60s Britpop these days, back then it merely became the third Mockingbirds single to do nothing." Or, as Gouldman put it: "It seemed that every song of mine we recorded failed and every one we gave away was a hit. I thought maybe that's the way it's going to be, although I didn't let it bother me."

Graham Gouldman relocated to the United States in 1968, where RCA Victor - encouraged by his hit-making track record for other artists - quickly signed him to a contract and molded him as a solo act. RCA let the maestro loose in the studio to record The Graham Gouldman Thing, wherein he played and sang his versions of the past hits he wrote for other artists, as well as some new songs like "My Father," "The Pawnbroker" and "Who Are They."

The album was originally intended to be produced by Peter Noone (whose Herman's Hermits had already reaped the benefits of numerous Gouldman-penned hits), but in an interview with Alan Betrock (reprinted on the CD), Gouldman explained:

"It was supposed to be something like the artist produces the writer, but he wasn't there on any of the sessions - though he is credited as producer. I did the whole thing with John Paul Jones who arranged the tracks, played on it and also helped produce it. It was an important project for me at the time; I put a lot of work into it." This concern is shown by listening to the album, which exudes tasteful arrangements and thoughtful production. Favourites are the hits like 'Bus Stop' and 'For Your Love,' but all the tracks have something interesting to offer. The orchestral arrangements on 'No Milk Today' and 'Upstairs Downstairs' are particularly refreshing. Strangely enough, the album was not released in the UK, and despite a heavy US promo campaign, didn't sell much to Americans..."

"I think Peter [Noone] came to the first session, had to leave early, and that was it," Gouldman remembered. "He never turned up for any of the sessions. He did us all a favour in the end because that left myself, John and Eddie Kramer [ominipresent engineer in-chief at London's Olympic Studios]. Clem Canttini played drums, John played bass, I played acoustic guitar and some lead guitar. That was the team that made the record...Some songs were made with just me, John and Clem, and some were done with a full orchestra, live. In those days you'd write the song, give it to the arranger, the arranger would write all the parts, you'd spend maybe an hour getting the sounds together and another hour getting a good performance, another hour doing the vocals and that was it. Because it was only a four-track it didn't take long to mix it. That's why these guys were so hot. I used to see John and he'd come in with his guitar in one hand and his amp in the other, plonk it down and say 'right, what are we doing?' and he'd be off. Then he'd go off and do the same thing in another studio. And we were all doing that, that's how records were made. Some of the best records ever made."

"Listening to it now," he later told Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley, "the first thing I notice is how good it is to hear real instruments. (Arranger) John Paul Jones loved strings and woodwind - you hardly ever hear woodwind anymore...Some things worked beautifully, especially 'Bus Stop'...It got nice reviews, but didn't set the world on fire." (Indeed sales were modest, with Gouldman later commenting that the album sold more upon its reissue in 1974 at the height of 10cc's fame than it had in the previous six years combined.)

Stanley christened the album's orchestral rock sound "Baroque Majesty," one influenced in equal measure by both Bach and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." I call this sound "Chamber Pop," a late-60s fusion of classical and rock music prevalent in the songs of The Walker Brothers and bands like The Left Banke, Rolling Stones, Procol Harum, Love, and The Beach Boys. And nowhere is this more in evidence than on the opening track, "The Impossible Years"...

The Graham Gouldman Thing - Side 1

1. "The Impossible Years" - 2:38

These are the impossible years
A girl must endure, adrift on the ocean
Left with her unspeakable fears
The torture of doubt and pent up emotion
New temptations, strange sensations
A great new world for explorations

An interesting song in that it takes the unusual (for a youth-oriented pop song) narrative point of view of a father trying to understand his teenage daughter and "show her the way" through the "impossible years" of adolescence when "the young bud comes to flower." I mean, it's pretty clear what we're talking about here, with lines such as:

When does the young bud come to flower
It's petals are plain with color exciting
When does the one sun choose the hour
To change the green shoot to beauty inviting
Girls are growing
And without knowing
They're the seeds that we've been sowing

Musically, "The Impossible Years" clearly shows the "baroque" or "chamber pop" influence that became so prevalent on the British airwaves in the wake of The Beatles' "Yesterday."

Wayne Fontana - yet another Mancunian artist drawn to Gouldman's work - recorded a version in 1967 that only achieved minor success in Australia; Fontana had more success in 1966 with Gouldman's "Pamela, Pamela," which he rode as high as #11 on the UK pop charts.

Wayne Fontana - "The Impossible Years"

Listen to Wayne Fontana sing "The Impossible Years."

Listen GG sing "The Impossible Years."

2. "Bus Stop" - 2:24

Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
"Please share my umbrella"
Bus stops, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella we employed it
By August she was mine

Though the Hollies had already recorded Gouldman's "Look Through Any Window," they achieved their greatest chart success with "Bus Stop," a song he had written specifically with them in mind and which they took to #5 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100.

"We were supporting The Hollies at Stoke Town Hall," Gouldman explained to Andy Morten. "They'd already recorded 'Look Through Any Window' and said that if I came up with anything else, they'd love to hear it. I remember playing 'Bus Stop' to Tony Hicks and Graham Nash in the loo there as it was the quietest place we could find. They said they loved it and told me to make a tape. In those days if they said they'd do it, they'd do it and they'd do it quick. It was recorded and was out just a few weeks later. Things were done much quicker because you weren't waiting for the artwork or the video. There was a quick turnover and things were much more exciting because of that."

Fellow '60s British songsmith Tony Hazzard claimed he was so impressed by "Bus Stop" that he was moved to write "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" for Manfred Mann in 1967.

Watch The Hollies play "Bus Stop."

Watch GG play "Bus Stop" (2011).

3. "Behind the Door" - 3:38

Behind the door of every house
In every street, in every town
A story is unfolding, a story is unfolding
Of love and hate...remorse, love's fate
Of hopes and fears and smiles and tears
Of dreams that lie emoldering

GG's melancholy, minor-chord drenched "Behind the Door" - perhaps the first-ever song to rhyme "unfolding" with "emoldering" (much less use this obscure term for - um, what exactly is emoldering?) - was first recorded by Manchester "freakbeat" mod rockers St. Louis Union, one of three singles (the others were a #11 UK cover of The Beatles' "Girl" b/w their version of Otis Redding's "Respect" and "East Side Story" b/w "Think About Me") they released on Decca Records in 1966.

Originally called The Satanists, the St. Louis Union won a recording contract after winning a Melody Maker beat band contest (where they drubbed a fledgling Pink Floyd!). They would later appear in the Spencer Davis Group movie The Ghost Goes Gear (1966), in which they performed "I Got My Pride" and "Show Me Your English Teeth" (great title!). According to Wikipedia, St. Louis Union keyboardist David Tomlinson - rechristened as "Dave Formula" (pictured right) - resurfaced on the late '70s New Wave scene as a member of (erstwile Buzzcock) Howard Devoto's Magazine, new romantics Visage, Ludus, and Luxuria, and also worked with Tuxedomoon's Winston Tong. (So there you have it, punk fans: the somewhat tenuous connection between Graham Gouldman and Buzzcocks!)

Across the pond, a young Cher also covered "Behind the Door" in 1966 (#94 US Billboard Hot 100).

Listen to Cher sing "Behind the Door."

GG's version of the song is notable for its tempo change - two-thirds of the way into this orchestral maneuvers in the dark, it shifts gears and turns into a sprightly rocker - only to return one again to its somber fade.

4. "Pawnbroker" - 3:02

Under the sign of the old pawnbroker
There rests a man with our past success
All that I value is in his keeping
He is the guardian of everything I possess
Everything I possess...

In on Monday, out on Friday
I'm the only one to blame
Waiting for that Thursday's payday
Every week it's just the same

Over Flamenco-style guitars and a sped-up Bossa Nova beat, Gouldman authors the best pawnbroker song until, well, until The Ramones' "Chinese Rock"! With incredible detail, Gouldman describes both the man and the trade in faded dreams...

Behind the grill wearing gold-rimmed glasses
The old man values the cost of fears
Trumpets, guitars, pearly concertinas
Assigned orchestra, lamenting four wasted years

Until the song's final resignation to endless debt:

Under the sign of the old pawnbroker
Trail all the losers in life's contest
Some hurry back to redeem their pledges
My promise, I'll redeem, the day that I'm laid to rest

Listen to GG sing "Pawnbroker."

5. "Who Are They" - 2:03

Drip dry dress, unshrinkable
Who can they be?
They're you and me - they're we

Gouldman showed his social conscience on a number of his mid- to late-60s songs and "Who Are They" is no exception, lyrically concerning itself with the world of 9-to-5 squares - "the faceless mass on the merry-go-round" who are too busy "getting wed, going to bed/Two kids to feed and the mortgage ahead" to ever accomplish anything. "So much to do, yet nothing's done. What a shame," the song concludes. This one makes me think of the future that awaited Albert Finney and Shirley Anne Field at the end of Karel Reisz's 1960 "Kitchen Sink" drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

6. "My Father" - 2:47

My father knows more than I'll ever know
My father's been places I'll never go
I want to know - want to know all the words and phrases
I want to show - want to show his fine airs and graces
If only it were me

The greatest influence on Gouldman's mid-60s songwriting golden era was his father, Hymie Gouldman, aka "Hyme the Rhyme" in deference to his frequent lyrical assistance (Hymie was also an amateur playwright). "My father was a songwriter," he told Bob Stanley. "'No Milk Today' was one of his titles. He used to call himself 'the mechanic' - I'd bring him a broken lyric and he'd go 'D'you write them son? Ttcchh! Come back at five o'clock.' He used to say 'art for arts sake, money for God's sake' [later to become song appearing on 10cc's 1976 album How Dare You!]. I nicked that off him, too."

Though he sings of how much he'd like to emulate his dad, by the songs coda he realizes that "it's no use being somebody else":

On my own two feet, I've got to meet
The world alone, I'm on my own
Just me - independent and free
The son of my father

Gouldman later referenced his dad's passing in the song "Ready To Go Home." Originally appearing on the 1995 (Graham Gouldman-Eric Stewart edition) 10cc album Mirror Mirror, it would later surface on Gouldman's solo album And Another Thing (For Your Love/Dome Records, 2000). Gouldman commented, "This was written not long after my dad died and it reflects my feelings at the time. I suppose I was trying to put a positive slant on his passing, remembering all the things we had done together and his artistic legacy to me. The last verse of the song best reflects my feelings on this. This song has been recorded by many artists and remains one of my favourites. Very emotional."

This is my favorite song on the album and one tied with Fire's "My Father's Name Was Dad" on my list of all-time greatest Pater Familias pop songs (narrowly edging out B-Rock & The Bizz's "My Baby Daddy").

Listen to GG sing "My Father."

The Graham Gouldman Thing - Side 2

7. "No Milk Today" - 2:15

No milk today, my love has gone away
The bottle stands forlorn, a symbol of the dawn
But all that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
Becomes a shrine when I think of you only
Just two up, two down, just two up, two down

Hymie Gouldman told his son that "No Milk Today" would make a good song title and Graham followed this sage fatherly advice to write what would become a Top 5 hit for Herman's Hermits. It was notable as the first Herman's Hermits single to feature orchestral arrangements and, in an interview with the "Forgotten Hits" newsletter, lead singer Peter Noone said, "Personally I think 'No Milk Today' is Herman's Hermits' best recording, and perfectly captures the moment and the feel of Manchester terraced houses and what was the end of a British era."

Herman's Hermits recorded "No Milk Today," "There's A Kind Of Hush" (US #4, 1967), and Ray Davies' "Dandy" (US #5, 1966) all on the same day at Lansdown Studios. "This was in the period where we had just stopped using The Hermits on the recordings and were using the best musicians available to us to try to keep up with what had suddenly become The British Invasion," Noone recalled. "We were supposed to deliver 48 tracks a year to MGM so we were always scrambling to catch up. I recall that John Paul Jones played bass guitars (an upright and a fender bass) on the tracks and was also responsible for the arrangements, which I dare say are brilliant on all 3 tracks but I know he liked 'No Milk Today' and I would suggest that his arrangement turned this perfect Graham Gouldman song into a hit."

Noone would later comment that, given all the great songs Gouldman wrote, he should have asked him to join Herman's Hermits in their heyday. Hindsight is golden...

Watch Herman's Hermits play "No Milk Today."

Now listen to GG play "No Milk Today."

8. "Upstairs, Downstairs" - 2:17

Upstairs every night
There's a boy listening to his radio
Downstairs just one flight
A girl waits patiently...
Each one knowing that the other is there
Each one hoping that the other will dare
To climb the first stair

Another song covered by Gouldman fan Peter Noone and his Herman's Hermits, who included it on their critically lauded 1967 album Blaze.

Herman's Hermits: "Blaze" (1967)

This perky pop song finds Gouldman crooning like Paul McCartney as he recounts the story of a boy and girl living in the same building who keep waiting for one another to make the first move. A happy boy-finally-meets-girl ending is guaranteed...

No more lonely
Girl and boy have met
The upstairs room is
Advertised to let
Now these two have met

Listen to Herman's Hermits play "Upstairs, Downstairs."

9. "For Your Love" - 2:34

Though the Yardbirds wrote many of their own songs as a group, it was Gouldman who wrote many of their biggest hits, though he wasn't always sure when he had struck gold. As he explained to BBC Radio Wales host Alan Thompson, "I think sometimes this knowing you’ve written a hit single or not, I’ve never been able to predict it. I mean there’ve been songs I’ve either written or co-written and you’ve thought ‘that’s a hit’ and it hasn’t been, and vice versa. It doesn’t always, I mean you have a feeling about a song sometimes and sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong but I don’t know whether the writer or the artist is the best judge."

The Yardbirds were certainly sure. Drummer Jim McCarty recalled that Gouldman's songs "...were always very original. Very interesting songs, very moody, because they were usually in a minor key, the ones we did, anyway. 'For Your Love' was an interesting song, it had an interesting chord sequence, very moody, very powerful. And the fact that it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, we liked that, that was interesting. Quite different, really, from all the bluesy stuff that we'd been playing up till then. But somehow we liked it. It was original and different."

Yardbird Chris Dreja added, "We owe a lot to that song because it sort of pulled us out from national to international and set the template for us - that time change in the middle, the weirdness of it."

Gouldman's friend Paul Thomas had played bongos on The Mockingbirds' version and the Yardbirds copied his percussion verbatim. But Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith added a number of changes to Gouldman's original song, including the use of a harpsichord (replacing Gouldman's acoustic guitar intro), which was played by session muscian Brian Auger (later to achieve solo fame and with Julie Driscoll in Brian Auger and The Trinity, whose biggest hit was the Dylan cover "This Wheel's On Fire" - which, incidentally, later became the theme song for the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous). In an August 2009 interview with Uncut magazine, Gouldman admitted: "The harpsichord was an absolute stroke of genius. The record just had a weird, mysterious atmosphere about it."

As for Graham Gouldman's version, he nixes the bongos and harpsichord altogether in favor of piano and a stately Church organ that wouldn't be out of place on a Prociol Harum record. It's a clever "alternate" version that's kind of funky in its own way.

In 1965 Gouldman's band The Mockingbirds had a regular warm-up spot for BBC TV’s Top of the Pops, which was transmitted from Manchester and the songwriter recalled how odd it was to hear his song being associated with the Londoners: "There was one strange moment when The Yardbirds appeared on the show doing 'For Your Love'. Everyone clamoured around them – and there I was just part of an anonymous group. I felt strange that night, hearing them play my song."

Many others have followed suit to cover "For Your Love," including the pre-Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham Fleetwood Mac, who included it on their 1973 album Mystery to Me and even released it as a single.

Watch the Yardbirds play "For Your Love."

Now watch GG play "For Your Love" (2011).

10."Pamela, Pamela" - 2:11

Pamela, Pamela, remember the days
Of inkwells and apples, and sick and sore plays
Where little Brer Rabbit kissed Pooh in the wood
And Fluff was the cat that sat on the rug

"Pamela, Pamela" was Wayne Fontana's final single, which placed as high as #11 on the UK singles charts.

Listen to Wayne Fontana sing "Pamela Pamela."

This classic example of the period's "fringe psychedelia-meets-dancehall vaudeville" British Cup of Twee-ness namechecks everything from A.A. Milne to Laurel and Hardy. And Gouldman's vocal is delivered with vintage Donovan BBC Radio enunciation.

Oh, Pamela
I remember so well
When Laurel and Hardy were shown at the flicks
With sticky red lollies on splintery sticks
Pigtails and ribbons and crushes on miss
Secret discussions about a first kiss
But you were young
And everything was new
Impatient to do things you couldn't do

Watch GG play "Pamela Pamela" (2011)

11."Chestnut" - 3:23

Gamine chestnuts modeling in Antonioni's "Blow-Up"

Somebody accurately described this funky instro as sounding like the kind of Swinging London party music they'd play in Antonioni's Blow-Up. It's great and, dare I say, downright groovy! As one critic astutely remarked, it would make Stax guitar ace Steve Cropper proud.

At one point the jam features Gouldman reciting a brief schoolbook elocution exercise that sounds like something the Bonzo Dog Band's Viv Stanshall would sing circa the Keynsham album:

If all of us were doomed to die when we'd lived a minute
I think I know what Ann and I would wish to happen in it
We'd let our 60 seconds run where chestnut blossoms harden
Some early morning in Kensington when Spring is in the garden

The song then features a dueling flute sequence that would not be out of place on Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die LP.

Listen to GG play "Chestnut."

***

In retrospect, Andy Morten writes:

The Graham Gouldman Thing catches our hero in a period of transition, between his stint as an internationally successful 1960s pop hit-maker and as a menber of a hugely successful 1970s art-rock band, when he was experimenting with any number of projects and saying 'saying yes more than saying no.' The album has gained an enviable reputation among '60s pop and psych fans as something more than just a curio in its creator's estimable canon. It's a jewel of late '60s chamber pop and worthy of reevaluation.

Gouldman himself reflected that "I did it and sort of forgot about it. Had it been more successful I might have paid more attention. But I enjoyed making it and it was great working with the people I worked with but then that was it. It was finished. Done."

And then Gouldman's two-year streak of hit-making genius hit a snag. "You're like a conduit when that magic happens," he told Bob Stanley. "You think, how did I do that? What happened there? In 1968 I was still doing what I did, but I was out of sync with what has happening."

Still, as Morten writes, 1968 was an eventful year in Gouldman's life. He and Peter Noone opened a short-lived boutique in New York called Zoo, and Gouldman helped get his friends Kevin Godley and Lol Creme signed to Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalde label, where as Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon they released the (extremely hard to find) single "I'm Beside Myself" b/w "Animal Song" in 1969.

But after a short spell in The Mindbenders, Gouldman decided to move to New York and the Kassenetz/Katz hit factory, where the money was good and second-rate (by his standards, at least) trash like (future K-Tel novelty compilation fodder) "Simon Says" and "Yummy Yummy Yummy" would be recorded under various group names.

"They wanted to legitimize themselves, find writers with more cred," he explained to Bob Stanley. "It was pretty horrible." He reached his creative (but not commercial!) nadir with a song he wrote for Freddie and the Dreamers called "Susan's Tuba."

"It was like [Mel Brooks film] The Producers - let's wrote the worst piece of shit imaginable!" The record sold a million in France. "I couldn't believe it. Where did we go right?"

And then Gouldman got the call that changed everything. Ex-Mindbender Eric Stewart was setting up Strawberry Studios in Stockport and wanted his friend to join him. Gouldman "boarded the next plane home, to join the ultra-successful band he'd always dreamt of," writes Bob Stanley. "I'd always wanted to play guitar in a band," he admitted to Stanley, "but I became resigned to the idea of being a writer. And then we started 10cc and that satisfied every aspect for me, everything I'd ever wanted to do."

Still only 23, the best was still to come for Graham Keith Gouldman. He still had plenty more tunes up his sleeve to make his father proud. He'd done what his dad had called "money for God's sake"; now it was time for the "Art for Art's sake."

Related Links:

Graham Gouldman music site: www.gg06.co.uk

Bob Stanley's wonderful "Afternoon tea with Graham Gouldman"

***

More GG-Related Music Videos:

Watch Herman's Hermits play "Listen People" on Telly.

Watch Herman's Hermits play "Listen People" from "Hold On!" movie.

Watch a Graham Gouldman Thing sampler homage (YouTube).

Hotlegs - "Thinks: School Stinks"

2011-12-15T11:53:00.005-05:00

10cc when they were 1 Million Years B.C.

Hotlegs - Thinks: School Stinks (Philips/Capitol, 1971)
Hotlegs - You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It
(Philips, 1976)

Musicians:
Eric Stewart / guitar, bass, vocals, synthesizer (Moog), arranger, producer
Lol Creme / guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, arranger, producer
Kevin Godley / drums, percussion, vocals, arranger, producer
- Graham Gouldman / bass ("Today")
- Baz Barker / flute, violin
- Mike Bell / saxophone
- Ian Brooks / trumpet
- Rod Morton / tambourine
- Mike Timoney / organ
- Cheadle Hulme High School Choir / Vocals on "Suite F.A."
- Tony Harrison / String arrangement ("Today")

10cc fanatic Amy Linthicum bought vinyl copies of these two LPs online and then had them transfered to CD (thanks to Gary Gebler at Trax on Wax) for our digital listening convenience. All I can say is, "Hooray!" for Thinks: School Stinks is three-quarters 10cc (7.5cc?) at their prog-rock peak, two years before their titular 10cc debut album with Graham Gouldman. It is, in the words of one fan-critic, "the album many of us wished 10CC would make. It is largely devoid of the too clever for their own good lyrics and structures, the songs being simple, well crafted pop rock numbers."

I emphasize that last sentence because I think it points to the reason why the supremely over-talented band of musical brothers known as 10cc have been so criminally neglected by pop music historians. Could it be because they were too clever by far for their own good? Too multi-faceted (each member could write, sing, play, arrange, produce) to fit into rock 'n' roll's preferred pigeon-hole classification system of genres (pop, rock, soul, prog, AOR) and roles (i.e., lead singer, lead guitarist, drummer, etc.)

Amy's ears quite rightly heard a heavy Beatles vibe on Thinks School Stinks, especially the later Beatles albums released around this time period - specifically The White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road. And, speaking of "Neanderthal Man," she astutely pointed out, "You know it's a '70s record when you hear a pop song with flute in it!" My ears found this album to be a synthesis of everything 1970s, with studio production values that rate Thinks School Stinks as a stereo demonstration record - in other words, it sounds great and uses virtually every production trick in the book, from cross-fades, cross-channel zooms (especially effective on Eric Stewart's guitar solos!) to layered overdubs, echo, strings, you name it.

OK, back to the plot...Thinks School Stinks is the album Mssrs. Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and Eric Stewart recorded as Hotlegs (Stewart coined the name in homage to the outstanding attributes of their sexy hotpants-clad Strawberry Studios secretary) to back up their insanely unlikely and massively popular (#2 UK pop charts, #22 US pop charts) reductio-ad-absurdum 1970 hit "Neanderthal Man," which sold two million copies worldwide.

Primal Stomp: "Neanderthal Man"

"Neanderthal Man" was as far from clever as a song could be, basically a sound check with a one-line lyric repeated for the duration of the song. It was so dumb, in fact, that it was the kind of thing that made bottom-line record company suits drool. Rock critic Dave Thompson picks up the story here:

In 1970, Kevin Godley, Lol Crème, and Eric Stewart were, alongside songwriter Graham Gouldman, the house band at the Strawberry Studios setup in Stockport, England. Gouldman was spending much of his time in New York, working as a contract songwriter for the Kasenatz/Katz bubblegum team - his partners remained at home, equipping the studio and testing the new equipment. It was during one of these tests, playing around with a drum kit and a new four-track recorder, that Philips label rep Dick Leahy happened by, heard what they were doing, and pronounced it an instant hit single.

"It" was a percussive experiment which evolved around a chant of "I'm a Neanderthal man/you're a Neanderthal girl/let's make Neanderthal love" and Leahy's instincts were correct. Restructured and released (under the name Hotlegs) in the summer of 1970, "Neanderthal Man" reached number 22 in the U.S., number two in Britain, number one in Italy, and ultimately sold over two million worldwide. The record was enormous. The Idle Race, heading towards the end of their brief but glorious career, wrested one final hit when they covered the song for German and Argentine consumption. Bandleader James Last included a version on his latest album; even Elton John, eking out a pre-fame career as a jobbing sessioneer, recorded his own distinctive version for a budget-priced collection of sound-alike hits.

Watch the "Neanderthal Man" music video.

"We thought we had it made," Godley thought at the time. "We were on our way baby!...We hit an unexpected nerve with 'Neanderthal Man.' It was one of those lucky accidents that turn into something both interesting and successful, without knowing how or why. When you go back and try to recreate the same circumstances it just doesn't work."

In his excellent glam rock history Children of the Revolution, Dave Thompson describes the events leading up to this unlikeliest of hits. In early 1970, Kevin, Lol and Eric were playing around with all the gear at their Strawberry Studios in Stockport, "strumming, wailing, and banging anything in sight" to test the new equipment coming into the studio. As Kevin Godley recalled to Thompson: "The first musical noises that had any cohesion...started life as an unorthodox drum test featuring fullkit overdubbed onto all four tracks, with Lol singing this spooky, retarded nursery rhyme that got mixed in via the bass drum mike. Like all the early work, it was driven by applied ignorance and adrenalin but we knew we had something. Unfortunately the track got erased but we liked the vibe so much we started again adding recorders, tone generator, anvil, backwards echo until it sounded like nothing else on earth."

Eric Stewart added: "Dick Leahy, from Philips, came in and said 'What the hell's that you're playing?' I said, 'It's a studio experiment; a percussive experiment.' He says, 'It sounds like a hit record to me - can we release it?' And we said, 'Yeah, okay. What should we call it?' 'Neanderthal Man.' And what should we call ourselves? Hotlegs.'We had a girl at the studio, Kathy Gill, who had very, very nice legs and she used to wear these incredible hotpants. Green, leather hotpants. So we called the group, ah, Hotlegs."

The flip side of "Neanderthal Man" was a song called "You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It," which later became the title of a 1976 Hotlegs compilation LP that simply rearranged the order of the songs on Thinks: School Stinks and added four more songs. The second half of the song "You Didn't Like It" would eventually evolve into the 10cc song "Fresh Air for My Mama."

"You Didn't Like It" - cover by Godley and Creme

Besides "You Didn't Like It," the "new" additional songs on You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It included "Today" (a reworking of a Godley-Creme song from their days as Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon), and both sides of the 1971 single "Lady Sadie" b/w "The Loser."

In between, Philips repackaged Thinks School Stinks as Songs (issued only in Britain, Germany, and Venezuela), omitting "Neanderthal Man" in favor of "The Loser" and "Today." According to rock critic Dave Thompson, Songs was Hotlegs attempt to nullify the "novelty hit" tag they were burdened with after "Neanderthal Man"'s surprising success:

Hotlegs broke through with a novelty hit, and they never lived it down. "Neanderthal Man" might have proven one of the most distinctive hits of 1970, but that's all it was -- distinctive, a thumping, crashing, grunting novelty its makers would rather have forgotten about completely. Certainly that was how it felt when they delivered their debut album, Thinks: School Stinks, and the suspicion grew even more intense six months later. Booked to open for the Moody Blues on a six-date U.K. tour, Hotlegs knew they could play up to the hit, and be laughed out of sight. Or they could play to their strengths, and maybe win the hearts of a few members of the headliners' audience. They chose the latter course and their U.K. record label, having long since abandoned any hope of any further hits in the "Neanderthal" vein, agreed to give it a go. Hence Songs, essentially a note-for-note reissue of Thinks: School Stinks, with one crucial difference -- no hit single. Both "Neanderthal Man" and the similarly jokey "Desperate Dan" were dumped, in favor of "Today" and the lovely "The Loser," and with the album's sleeve and title similarly revised, Hotlegs set out to try and gain some credibility. It should have worked. Even such minor surgery completely redesigns the album, planting it firmly on the edge of the soft rock boom, with the emphasis on the word "edge" -- even this early on, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were more or less incapable of writing a straightforward song, while Eric Stewart's guitar playing is seldom short of rock-god revelatory. But "Neanderthal Man" remained a hard act to follow, and Hotlegs were never up to the challenge. By the time they transformed into 10cc, a little over a year later, both band and its album were long, long forgotten.

Stunned by their success, Hotlegs set to work out the album of songs that they hoped would be the antithesis (or antidote) to "Neanderthal Man," Thinks: School Stinks. Their creativity at a peak, they were clearly inspired to try out all the gizmos the studio had to offer on this long player - and use them they did; in fact, Kevin Godley believes that he and Lol Creme built their first Gizmo guitar prototype during this period (though I don't hear it anywhere on this album). And they took their time, not completing Thinks: School Stinks until March 1971, a full nine months after the July 1970 release of "Neanderthal Man."

Thinks: School Stinks (March 1971)

Songs / Tracks Listing
1. Neanderthal Man (4:19)
2. How Many Times (3:57)
3. Desperate Dan (2:12)
4. Take Me Back (5:01)
5. Um Wah, Um Woh (5:30)
6. Suite F.A.: On My Way/Indecision/The Return (12:53)
7. Fly Away (2:43)
8. Run Baby Run (2:50)
9. All God's Children (4:55)

Total Time 44:20

The first thing that strikes ones eyes is the album cover, designed by Godley and Creme, which depicts a scratched wooden school desk. Alice Cooper must have liked it too, because two years later a similar cover adorned his School's Out LP.

Alice Cooper's "School's Out" LP (1972)

With the exception of the infectious tribal-chant rocker "Um Wah Um Woh," little on this album bears any semblance to the hit "Neanderthal Man" - and the semblance is mainly to do with both songs' irresistable catchiness! (The simplicity of both songs' rote-repetitive lyrical chants makes me think of boozy soccer fans singing away in the terraces; in fact, this may help explain the success of not only "Neanderthal Man," but of other UK terrace-singalong bands like Slade and Oasis - bands that make music easy to interact with in a large crowd). Rather, in the words of Dave Thompson, "Hotlegs revealed themselves to be a very melodic, very gentle musical concern, a far cry from the proto-industrial crashing of 'Neanderthal Man.'" Ah yes, from the primordial ooze of "Neanderthal" arose the evolved, melodic concerns of pre-10cc...

In the interim between hit single and long-awaited support album, Hotlegs' U.S. label Capitol became so antsy for a follow-up single that they released a second, slower (5-minute) version of "There Ain't No Umbopo" - a song Godley-Creme-Stewart had previously released in the U.K. under the name Doctor Father (and which was probably also recorded by Hotlegs under the moniker Crazy Elephant for the Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum factory in the U.S.) - in August 1970. Kevin Godley described "Umbopo" as "one of those runt songs that hung around looking for a home for a long time. Everybody liked it, but couldn't work out where it belonged. I remember Lol coming up with this cool open guitar tuning and two hypnotic chords and us writing the song at my parents' house...forever. It was a long song, about six minutes or thereabouts and it was eventually released under the name Doctor Father."

Alas, "Umbopo" was not a hit.

Doctor Father - "Umbopo"

Though a follow-up hit to "Neanderthal Man" was not forthcoming, Hotlegs returned to to the charts anonymously at the end of 1970. With Graham Gouldman joining them at Strawberry Studios, they backed John Paul Jones (not the Led Zeppelin bass player but a comedian-turned-singer who Kevin Godley said "had the most wonderful rich voice") on his Christmas hit single "Man from Nazareth/Got to Get Together." A subsequent court order injunction by Led Zep's John Paul Jones forced the comedian to change his moniker to John Paul Joans (in the US market, JPJ was simply renamed "Jones"). The single rose as high as #25 on the UK charts.

What's in a name?: John Paul Joans

Then, under the guise of the New Wave Band (yes, "New Wave" debuted in 1970!), and with former Herman's Hermit Derek Leckenby in tow, the trio released a cover of Paul Simon's "Cecilia" backed with "Free Free Free" on the Major Minor label. Eric Stewart's "Free Free Free" was the first track he recorded at Strawberry Studios; though Harvey Lisbery is listed as the single's producer, this was an Eric Stewart production all the way.

New Wave Band: "Cecilia"

As Dave Thompson continues:

Undeterred, the trio (augmented by Gouldman) undertook a short British tour supporting the Moody Blues towards the end of 1970, but little more was heard from Hotlegs for another year. Then, in September 1971, they released a new single, "Lady Sadie," while Philips repackaged Thinks: School Stinks as Songs...Songs did no better than its predecessor, and Hotlegs was abandoned -- less than a year later, of course, the three members plus, again, Gouldman, would resurface as 10cc and, this time, enjoy considerably more success. It was at the height of this fame that the Hotlegs material resurfaced once more, as 1974's You Didn't Like It Cos You Didn't Think of It compilation brought together all the previously available Hotlegs material.

Moody Blues & Hotlegs, 1971 Tour Book

Regrettably, the Moody Blues tour did little to win over new Hotlegs fans. As Kevin Godley mused, "Audiences were expecting 'Neanderthal Man' and we were playing Thinks: School Stinks. Consequently, any momentum evaporated, the phone stopped ringing, and it was time for a rethink."

At this point, I'd like to echo the sage observations of Bob McBeath, who under his nom-de-plume "Easy Livin," rated Thinks: School Stinks - and the four extra songs on You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It - as follows: "The tracks are pretty much all founded in the acoustic guitars of Crème and Stewart, with occasional additional instrumentation being added as required. The songs are all written by Godley, and Crème, with Eric Stewart also receiving credit on the majority. In some ways, this is the album many of us wished 10cc would make. It is largely devoid of the too clever for their own good lyrics and structures, the songs being simple, well crafted pop rock numbers."

Kevin Godley, in a 1976 interview with George Tremlette (author of The 10cc Story - one of only two books ever written about 10cc), said the album included songs and ideas that he and Lol Creme had intended recording in 1969 with entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky for his Marmalade ("the sound that spreads") record label. Gomelsky had named the duo Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, envisioning them as a sort of English Simon and Garfunkel, a notion Kevin Godley agreed with.

"Yeah, I can see that," he recalled to rock critic Dave Thompson. "The songs we were writing back then were kinda acoustic, rural-sounding stuff. When you're that kind of age, you are consciously copying someone, and we were probably consciously copying Simon and Garfunkel. It was only later in our careers, when we didn't really have too much time to think, that we started recording stuff that sounded like ourselves." Of Thinks: School Stinks, Godley added, "I still say that was a bloody good album. Most of the tracks were from the Frabjoy period and it's an interesting LP."

Eric Stewart, interviewed in 1976, recalled that Thinks: School Stinks presented a problem because it was so different from "Neanderthal Man": "It was totally alien to what people were expecting from us. It was a good record, a little ahead of its time. It was similar to the things we are doing now. It was very melodic with chord structures that hadn't been used before – and some of the sounds that we used on that album hadn't been heard at the time."

*** The songs ***

1. NEANDERTHAL MAN

Bob McBeath: "We open with the single "Neanderthal Man", an irritatingly catchy song which may not have much to do with 10CC, but it is undeniably fun."

2. HOW MANY TIMES

BMcB: "How Many Times" is a simple acoustic number with Crosby Stills and Nash like harmonies. Baz Barker adds some effective strings to the latter part of the song."

Midway through this song, a highly stylized string arrangement is introduced, recalling the type of orchestrations Marc Bolan was attempting in his pre-electric Tyranosaurus Rex days.

"How Many Times" was last single (released in the US) from Thinks: School Stinks. Unfortunately, it tanked on the charts.

3. DESPERATE DAN

"Desperate Dan" - a music hall piano-roll romp in the tradition of The Kinks (who name-check Desperate Dan in "The Village Green Preservation Society") or White Album Beatles at their most playful (think "Honey Pie," "Rocky Raccoon") - is Hotlegs' nod to the tough-as-nails (he shaved his beard with a blowtorch!), cowpie-loving Wild West character from Dudley D. Watkins's British comic strip The Dandy (which remains the world's longest-running comic strip, 1937-present!). And yes, a UK cow-pie (a meat-pie) is quite different from its US equivalent!

Desperate Dan corrals another cow-pie

4. TAKE ME BACK

Listen to "Take me Back."

"Take Me Back" is a mini-symphony of sound and, like "Suite F.A." anticipates later complex 10cc arrangements such as "One Night in Paris" from 1975's The Original Soundtrack. It's a medley of three different motifs, starting off as a pretty ballad with Lol Creme and Eric Stewart's acoustic guitars recalling "Mother Nature's Son" from the Beatles's White Album. Then the middle passage turns into an Eric Stewart electric guitar workout, calling to mind some George Harrison solo from Abbey Road ("I Want You (She's So Heavy"?), only to return back to an acoustic outro.

BMcB: "Take Me Back" is another delicate acoustic piece which offers a further glimpse of the music of 10CC, the vocals once again being particularly notable. The structure of the song is interesting, as it shows a willingness to draw a number of styles into a relatively short piece.

5. UM WAH, UM WOH

Listen to "Um Wah, Um Woh."

An absolutely amazing song, and one in which the boys throw in everything but the kitchen sink, production-wise. Highlighted by a stellar Eric Stewart guitar jam-out in the middle.

BMcB: "Um Wah, Um Woh" is a rather unfortunate title for what is actually a pretty good pop song. It may not have the class of 10CC, but it also lacks some of the pretentious indulgences too.

6. SUITE F.A.

Listen to "Suite F.A."

BMcB: "Suite F.A." is a three part, 13 minute suite written by Godley and Crème. It is similar in structure to the "One Night in Paris" trilogy which appeared on The Original Soundtrack but with a greater emphasis on acoustic and orchestral sounds. There is no great complexity to individual parts, but mood does change frequently offering at least a hint of prog."

Personally, this makes me think of Side 2 of Abbey Road, which is an unmistakable influence. Godley, for one agreed, telling Dave Thompson, "We just kept going until we had an album, complete with our version of side two of Abbey Road, 'Suite F.A.'"

7. FLY AWAY

"Fly Away" was a reworking of a Godley and Creme song that had earlier been released on a Marmalade record label sampler, 100 Proof as "To Fly Away" by Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon - with writing credit erroneously credited to Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman. Marmalade was the short-lived British record label started in 1967 by pop impresario Giorgio Gomelsky; its roster included the early Godley and Creme band Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, in addition to Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, Blossom Toes, and others. The same duo also recorded a Graham Gouldman track for inclusion on 100 Proof, "The Late Mr Great" (about a gentleman whose timekeeping was so bad he missed his own funeral!).

In fact, Gouldman proved to be the connection that brought Kevin Godley, then still a student at art school, to Giorgia Gomelsky's attention. In Children of the Revolution, Dave Thompson describes how it all happened.

One day in 1969, Gouldman asked Godley to join him at a Marmalade session. The moment Godley opened his mouth to unleash his ethereal falsetto, Gomelsky offered him a record deal. It was, Godley laughed, the prequel to a nightmare.

"More than anything, I recall the life change. The scene is still vivid in my head. A three-hour drive, in howling gale, from one life to another, leaving behind three years at Stoke on Trent College of Art and heading for London, and a totally unknown future. I remember crying and trying not to show it as Lol drove my MG Midget out of the college car park. I was missing everybody there before we even hit the road. I also remember the hood of the car flying up and smacking into the windshield and nearly killing us, then operating the wipers by hand through a crack in the soft top.

Things were calmer in the studio, but only just. "Cut to Eddy Offord behind the control desk at Advision Studios. A small, dark space smelling of last night's session. A whiff of weed and Afghan coats. Very London. Very hip. There was an old Mellotron in one corner, Giorgia, big and rumbling, coming on like a hip Rasputin and me singing in a real studio. Intimidating, impossible, the beginning of everything. When he decided to call us Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, it was almost the end of everything."

The first song they worked on was "To Fly Away" and Godley recalled it was quite a challenging session. "It was the first time I'd stepped up to a microphone."

As Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, Godley and Creme began work on an album in September 1969, recording basic tracks at Strawberry Studios with Eric Stewart on guitar and Graham Gouldman on bass; their debut Marmalade single, "I Am Beside Myself/The Animal Song" was released by the end of the month.

"We were more confident for 'I Am Beside Myself,' which had brass arranged by Tony Meehan, late of the Shadows," Godley recalled. "Graham may have played on these sessions. Not one hundred percent sure, but I do remember Keith Tippett being vaguely involved."

Of the Marmalade period, Kevin Godley recounted to Dave Thompson, "We were one of many new artists on a very cool label. We were obviously thrilled when both records came out, but learned a valuable lesson when they promptly disappeared. The rest is more haze than history..."

Indeed, Marmalade folded soon after the Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon single and 100 Proof compilation LP, but Godley had no regrets and valued the experience working in a "real" studio, an apprenticeship that would pay dividends in future.

"Giorgio certainly had the right attitude. I'm not sure anyone really knew what they were doing, but I think his overriding concern was to document the music that was around; he didn't really think the rest of it through. Full marks to him for being around, though, because nobody else was doing it. He got a lot of bands recorded that no one else would touch."

8. RUN BABY RUN

"Run Baby Run" is a basic blues rocker in the Canned Heat style, driven along by an insistent cowbell (more cowbell!) and guitar boogie vibe.

The opening lines and percussive rhythm of "Run Baby Run" were later reworked to become the basis for "Art For Art's Sake" on the 1976 10cc album How Dare You!.

9. ALL GOD'S CHILDREN

"All God's Children" closes the album on a dreamy lullaby note, with Kevin Godley's angelic falsetto leading the harmony pack as he sings about sunny California (as only a Midlands-born Mancunian can!). Makes me think of "Golden Slumbers" from Abbey Road.

*** Extra Tracks from You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It ***

10. TODAY

I'm so glad Amy purchased the You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It LP, if only because it contains this exquisite gem that makes the whole album worth it, even if it only contains four new songs. (I like it because she did think of it!) "Today" features all four original members of 10cc, with Graham Gouldman strapping on his bass guitar to play alongside Kevin, Lol, and Eric.

As "Easy Livin" critic Bob McBeath observes, "The song shows that the transition to 10cc was complete, and actually ranks on a par with pretty much anything the quartet recorded under that name. The wonderful arrangement includes orchestration and a great synthesiser ending. For fans of 10cc this is a real lost gem."

Watch/listen to "Today."

11. YOU DIDN'T LIKE IT BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T THINK OF IT

Listen to "You Didn't Like It because You Didn't Think of It."

This song, the B-side of "Neanderthal Man," spawned not one but two future 10cc ditties. The first part is an early precursor to the title track of 10cc's 1976 LP How Dare You!, while the second part turns into an early run-through of "Fresh Air for My Mama" (from 10cc's self-titled 1973 debut album).

A future two-fer!

12. THE LOSER

"The Loser" was the B-side that probably should have been the A-side of Hotlegs' 1971 "Lady Sadie/The Loser" single. A slide guitar fan's wet dream, it makes me think of what Little Feat would sound like if they weren't so boring.

BMcB: "The loser" once again has the sound of an early 10CC song, the upbeat rock melody being basic but functional.

13. LADY SADIE

Released as a single in 1971 as a hopeful followup to "Neanderthal Man"'s success, "Lady Sadie" is a mid-paced funk number that McBeath, for one, thinks should have been left undisturbed. Kevin Godley called it "a faux Rolling Stones song that explored Eric's love of dirty blues guitar. It was so obviously other people's territory. It had a nice feel but it didn't chart. Probably didn't deserve to."

***

Looking back on Thinks: School Stinks, Godley told Dave Thompson, "It was great just to try to punch above our weight. It's not bad, but it's not us [10cc] yet, is it? At the time, we didn't recognize 'Neanderthal Man' for the inspired piece of nonsense it was. No tune. Stupid lyrics. 'We can do better than this, chaps.' We were young and subconsciously aping our heroes, like you do until the real you shows up, so 'Neanderthal Man' was this bizarre anomaly that pointed one possible way forward but we failed to see it."

Thank goodness.

In 2006, Godley sampled much of Thinks: School Stinks album for the mid-section of GG06's song "Son of Man" (GG06 being his band with Graham Gouldman, the two musicians once again a dynamic duo, just as before when they were '60s bandmates in The Mockingbirds). (Godley and Creme would later revisit this strategy on 1985's The History Mix Volume 1, when they sampled three 10cc songs as the song "Wet Rubber Soup.") "I could hear something of what we [10cc] eventually became, under all the other influences," Godley recalled later. "In truth, we didn't fully discover our own musical identity until we stopped trying so hard and started feeling."

Bob McBeath sums the LP up by saying, "In all, an album which should be part of the collection of any 10cc fan. There is a wealth of indicators here of how the sound of that band came about, not to mention some fine songs in their own right too. Personally, I rate this album higher than the majority of the 10cc albums which followed."

Now that's high praise, indeed! One thing's for certain: Thinks: School Stinks offers a fascinating look at where music was in 1970 and (especially on tracks like "Today") where four talented lads from Manchester would eventually end up. Or, as Dave Thompson put it. "Take one red-hot axe-man [Eric Stewart] steeped in the stew of the British beat boom and armed with a chart-topping US hit single [The Mindbenders' "A Groovy Kind of Love"]; add the best British songwriter this side of the Beatles [Graham Gouldman, author of "For Your Love," "Bus Stop," "No Milk Today," etc., etc.]; sprinkle on a couple of eccentric art students [Kevin Godley and Lol Creme] and lock them away in a studio of their own. God knows what you'd get today, and nobody was really sure what would happen at the end of the Sixties, either."

What you got from this mish-mash stew of talents and influences would eventually be called "10cc," a band that made some of the most beautiful, clever and complex music of their era. And on this album, you get to see three-quarters of that entity as a very promising - and very listenable - work in progress.

2011 Pratt Book Sale

2011-12-05T09:17:00.036-05:00

This Year's Score: Less is More

Enoch Pratt Central Library Book Sale, December 2-4, 2011

I, the ultimate hoarder, behaved myself at this year's
annual Enoch Pratt Central Library Book Sale and only got as many items as I could carry without a beast of burden or U-Haul, limiting myself to a few CDs, books, and one video (yes, just one for Capt. Video!). And pretty much everything I picked up was intended as gifts for friends that I thought might dig these scores. Total investment: $12.50 (which is about the price of a ticket at the Landmark Theater in Harbor East - shop and compare, I say!)

Fountains of Wayne - Out of State Plates CD
Book Sale Price: $2

I go WOW! for FOW and have everything they're ever done, but like an annoying missionary I like to convert others to the faith, so I picked this one up for my friend Dave Cawley. I truly envy Dave Cawley's ears when they receive this early holiday stocking stuffer, for FOW's songwriting duo of Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood are probably thee premiere purveyors of poignant power-pop for the melodically-inclined intelligentsia. They're also personal faves because, going by their song lyrics, they must have also suffered through some temp jobs in the corporate world I used to know so well. I mean, songs like "Bright Future in Sales" show them to be well-versed in the Dilbert-dominated world of "corporate cubicle culture" (the best depiction of which is currently airing on HBO's new Laura Dern series Enlighted).

This is my favorite release by them, a double-CD collection of B-sides, outtakes, demos and other non-LP "bonus" tracks including the great "Maureen," "The Girl I Can't Forget," their straight-faced Britney Spears cover "...Baby One More Time," the Dan Clowes-evocative story-strip "Comedienne" ("Comedienne, make up your mind/Are you laughing or crying/Are you killing or dying tonight?") and their Oasis carbon-copy rocker "Elevator Up." Besides the Britney song, they also cover Gene Pitney's "Today's Teardrops," Bacharach/David's "Trains and Boats and Planes," Jackson Browne's "These Days," and Aztec Camera's "Killermont Street" (Roddy Frame!). Oh, I almost forgot their ecunemical holiday season platters, "I Want an Alien for Christmas," "The Man in the Santa Suit," and "Chanukah Under the Stars."

Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture CD
Book Sale Price: $2

My girlfriend Amy has both volumes of this excellent soundtrack from the 1996 Danny Boyle film based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. I needed this, Volume 1, specifically because it completed my collection of music by Sleeper, the mid-90s Britpop band fronted by Louise Wener (who these days writes young adult novels for teen girls). Here Sleeper cover Blondie's "Atomic" (after Blondie refused to allow their version to be used), which accounted for their only blip on the stateside music radar. For more on my infatuation with Sleeper, see my blog post "Sleeper: If You Are But a Dream, I Hope I Never Wake Up."

Feeling guilty for getting something for myself, I made sure I picked up They Might Be Giant's Apollo 18 for Amy. It was only $2 bucks and had "I Palindrome I" on it, so it was a no-brainer. Miraculously, it was right next to Trainspotting, giving me the brief hope that someone had actually alphabetized the CD table. Yeah, right - in my dreams!

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken CD
Book Sale Price: $2

I remember my brother had this 1972 double album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in collaboration with many famous Bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Bashful Brother Oswald, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others. Wikipedia claims the record is notable for, among other things, introducing fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience. I really like it and put it on as background music when I get up in the morning. It's laid-back and relaxing, like listening to Prairie Home Companion. Plus, the Civil War-era cover dude makes me think of today's current Beard Rock Revival.

Eliott Smith - Figure 8 CD
Book Sale Price: $2

Picked up this CD for myself, as I've always liked Smith and even aired his 1/2-hour documentary short Strange Parallel (featuring the "Robot Hand"!) on Atomic TV back in the day. But it's always amazed me how the poster boy of sensitive singer-songwriter Emo gave up his mortal coil in such a violent way: stabbing himself in the heart! Hmmmm...it's always the quiet, soft-spoken types.

The Mike Hammer Collection Volume 1
by Mickey Spillane
Book Sale Price: 50 cents

Picked up this collection of three Spillane classics (I, the Jury; My Gun Is Quick; Vengeance Is Mine!) for Spillane otaku Dave Cawley. If he has it, I'll keep it, though I was always more a fan of the Raymond Chandler-Dashiell Hammett-Howard Browne "School of Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction" than Spillane's heavy-handed, hit-'em-over-the-head, borderline sadistic prose. Still, Kiss Me Deadly was a great movie, and you can't go wrong with girls, guns and guts! (Though I tend to prefer liquor, love and laughs!)

Jane & Michael Stern's Encyclopedia of Pop Culture
by Jane and Michael Stern
Book Sale Price: 50 cents

I already have this book (I think I have all the non-food books by the Sterns), but I figured somebody I know would like this great (although by now a tad dated) 1992 guide to "Pop Culture" - which the Sterns call "the closest thing America has to a national faith." This A to Z of who's what and what's what covers everything from Aerobics and Bubble Gum to Valley of the Dolls and Moon Zappa. Not to mention the world's best known (and only) pan flute maestro, Zamfir! The Sterns astutely point out that "Pop Culture" is American Culture, for the rest of the world does not know us by our ballet, great painters, or poet laureates. No, they know us by Disney World, Elvis, Oprah, Levis, fast food, action movies starring Sly Stallone, and Cher's tattooed butt cheek. Naturally, my beloved Three Stooges are honored in this selective-but-impressive tome, right alongside Twin Peaks and Televangelists. I consider this a great introductory primer to an evolving American national faith that would explode with the rise of cable TV and the Internet in the decades to come. Or, to paraphrase what Darth Vader would think of this book: "Impressive, but you are no Jedi yet." Yes, for the true Pop Culture Jedi would now subsitute Lady Gaga for Madonna. For aerobics, update to Pilates, hooping, and belly-dancing. For Sly Stallone and Schwartzenegger action movies, sub Vin Diesel and the Rock. Keeping the faith, baby!

Hurly Burly video
(Video Yesteryear, 1951, b&w)
Book Sale Price: $1

This Video Yesteryear rarity (the only other mention I can find for this film is in the Something Weird Video catalog, where it's offered in DVD-R format, as shown in the picture above) - which should not to be confused with the 1998 Sean Penn-Kevin Spacey movie Hurlyburly - is a collection of 1950s burlesque shorts featuring dozens of strippers, baggy-panted comedian wags, and "pulse-pounding music." Featured peelers include Georgia Sothern the Red-Headed Bombshell, Nikki the Dynamic Pepper Pot, Francine the Tulsa Wildcat, Diane Lund the Texas Tornado, Tandalaye the Slave Dancer, Honey Alden the Dynamic Blonde Menace, and Melba Merry (she of the "Sex-Sational Dance"!)

There's actually a strong Baltimore connection to this film curio, specifically to H. L. Mencken. You see, in 1940 Georgia Sothern wrote to Mencken to ask him to come up with an alternative word for "strippers," one that would raise the tenor of her profession. She wrote: "I am a practitioner of the art of strip-teasing...there has been a great deal of...criticism leveled against my profession. Most of it...arises from the unfortunate word strip-teasing, which creates the wrong connotation...if you could coin a new and more palatable word to describe this art, I and my colleagues would have easier going. I hope...(you) can find time to help the...members of my profession."

Mencken replied, "I sympathize with you in your affliction. It might be a good idea to relate strip-teasing in some way to the...zoological phenomenon of molting,...which is ecdysis. This word produces...ecdysiast."

Sonny Watson's StreetSwing.com web site continues the story, noting that Georgia Sothern the stripper became Georgia Sothern the ecdysiast and promoted both the profession and the word.

In almost no time at all a union arose called the Society of Ecdysiasts. Nevertheless, it was more than guns and roses for the Empress of Ecdysiasts, Gypsie Rose Lee who was not enamored at all with the new word to describe her profession. In a May interview of that same year, she took aim at Mencken and fired off an angry reply, "Ecdysiast, he calls me! Why, the man...has been reading books! Dictionaries! We don't wear feathers and molt them off...What does he know about stripping?" Despite her scathing review the humorous term continues today...

Indeed, there's even a web site for post-modern burlesque hipsters called Ecdysiast: A Pole Dance Studio.

Georgia on My Mind

Georgia Sothern had one of the most fascinating lives of all the ecdysiasts. One of the hardest working gals in her profession, her career began in 1922 when she was 13 and continued until 1977 when she finally retired at age 67. (Georgia Sothern passed away four years later in 1981 due to cancer.) She was once the main dancer in Michael Todd's 1942 Broadway show "Star and Garter," which featured the likes of Gypsy Rose Lee, Lily St. Cyr, Ann Corio, and others.

Watch Georgia Sothern's "Star and Garter" dance.

She was also one of the fastest strippers in the business; today, doctors would probably write her a scrip for Ritalin! Her unique "whirling dervish" style of striptease - allegedly born out of nervousness - eventually led to having a signature tune written for her, “Hold that Tiger.” She was quoted as saying: "I have a style all my own. Most teasers, just take off their clothes and parade around for their audience. Now I really work for my fans." In her book This Was Burlesque, Ann Corio agreed: "The mere sight of this red hot red-headed temptress tossing her hips in fantastic abandon to the wild music of the band caught up everybody in its spell…the audience was almost as exhausted watching as Georgia was performing. Sometimes she would get so caught up in her exuberant dance steps that she would end up taking off and putting on her clothing several times during a number, leading one fan to remark, 'She strips just like she had dynamite for lunch!'"

Performing the carnival circuit in the later years of her career, Georgia eventually took her own shows on the road, Sothern’s Red-Headed Revue and the Top Hatters. She For more information on Georgia Sothern, see also her autobiography, Georgia: My Life in Burlesque.

And, speaking of G-strings...

The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything
edited by Richard Sandomir
Book Sale Price: 50 cents

I got the paperback edition of this a few years back and regifted it to somebody for Christmas. But for some reason there were 10 copies of the hardback at the book sale. It's pretty funny, and I thought of my colleague Marc Sober (right) when I saw that his beloved To Be Or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) trumped all comers in the Classic Film Comedy final four. But I demand a recount after seeing the Underwire Bra top the Thong (an early victor over the G-string) in the Women's Underwear final. Say it ain't so!

Thong Sung Blue

My 2011 Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival Journal - Part 1

2011-11-14T10:29:00.100-05:00

AKA, "The Amy Picks Fascinating Flix Fest"

Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival
Rehoboth Beach, DE
November 9-13, 2011
www.rehobothfilm.com

When my girlfriend Amy Linthicum gets into something, she gets into it in a BIG way. Recent cases in point are her newfangled "Is there an app for that?" smartphone addiction, her completist-bordering-on-OCD obsession with the criminally-neglected music of 10cc (including auxiliary bands, solo projects, soundtracks, web sites, merchandise, gossip, etc.), and her ongoing, never-ending quest to buy back all the music of her youth in retro (often dead) media formats (vinyl, cassette tape, VHS). So when Amy became a card-carrying "Associate Producer"-level member of the Rehoboth Beach Film Society this year, she wallowed in all the perks that membership entails - from receiving e-mail updates and a fancy laminated card to scoring an advance copy of this year's 2011 Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival Program Guide.

You see, in 2010 Amy and I had both grudgingly signed up as RBFS Associate Producers after learning that this was the cheapest membership level that allowed us to buy tix to all the films we wanted to see in advance, during a single trip to the festival Ticket Tent; this decision followed our disastrous introduction to the fest back in 2009, when (in addition to suffering through an unexpected Nor Easter storm that week) we couldn't see ANY of the films we wanted because RBFS members got the first shot at them before "non-members," who are also known around here as "the general public," "the great unwashed" or "the hoi polloi" (see my rant about the festival's snootiness here). But we forgot that one of the perks of being an Associate Producer was the ability to buy two tickets per screening - meaning that we only needed to buy a single membership, not two - which we rectified this year! (Live and learn where money is concerned - or burned!) And it's a good thing Amy got that AP privilege, because this year's five-day fest featured 51 sell-outs.

OK, what this all meant was that Amy spent a lot of time researching the festival in advance, with the result that I left it to her to pick all the films (especially after I questioned my own usually snooty judgment for inexplicably sitting through the Ann Hathaway-Jake Gyllenhaal disease-of-the-week romantic comedy Love and Other Drugs) (Yes, I am ashamed of that one!).

Film Program Pix Decoder 101
She used the "catalog photo decoding" methodology we had worked out in previous years' exposure to the festival, which helped eliminate from consideration all the gay, lesbian, bi, transgender and "whimsical" films that didn't appeal to us. (Not that we're against those films - hey, I'm as big a fan of Lesbian Vampire Films, for example, as the next guy - but they don't really relate to our day-to-day lives or interests. Sorry! Or, to paraphrase Morrissey complaining about lamestream music in The Smiths' "Panic," films like these "say nothing to me about my life.") You see, the RBIFF reflects the demographics of its left-leaning, GLBT-friendly, middle-aged retiree-dominated base (i.e, "The Gay & the Gray") - which is a good thing, and what makes Rehoboth Beach itself such a cultivated alternative to younger, more rambunctious beach resorts like Ocean City.

Our photo-decoder visual literacy approach was fairly accurate: headshots of two men = gay, photos of two women = lesbian, threesome shots (either two men and one woman, or two women and one man) = bi (or occasionally a variation on the old Jules and Jim love triangle), old man and woman in bed = disgusting, pics of children = flimsy whimsy for Pop-Pop and MeeMaw. Used in conjunction with our "keyword decoder" rules - "green"-themed movies = self-congratulatory self-righteous fodder for Yuppies and New Agers, and any film mentioning "non-narrative" or "visually-stunning" or "poetic images" typically = boring/pretentious arthouse snoozer - this approach was fairly accurate.

Two Guys = Gay

Two Women = Lesbian

Three's a Bi Crowd

After careful weeding, Amy picked seven interesting films of which five were out-and-out winners - the first five films we saw, in fact, and only two were disappointments, if not outright duds. (We knew her "5-in-a-row" streak had to end, and end it did, but what a ride while it lasted!) The first two films she picked as essentials to see were Werner Herzog's new 3-D documentary about the prehistoric Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave drawings in southern France, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (we had seen it in 2-D at The Charles, but seeing it again in 3-D was like seeing an entirely new film!) and the only Japanese-themed entry this year, a documentary about the 85-year-old proprietor-chef of an elite 10-seat, $300-a-plate sushi restaurant in Tokyo, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. We agreed we'd make a beeline for the ticket tent to try and score tix for those two films first; everything after that was negotiable.

DAY ONE: Thursday, November 10, 2011

We always skip the opening and closing nights of the festival (the Rehoboth Beach Film Fest illuminati always ensure that the opening night features are sold out anyway), prefering to hit town Thursday through Saturday and head home by Sunday). So for us, Day 1 is the second day of the festival.

Welcome to Dramaville & Other Forge Follies
Of course, whenever Amy and I take a roadtrip to Rehoboth Beach, it's always a bumpy ride. During our first visit, we experienced an act of God in the form of a NorEaster with 50-mph winds, followed by three straight Curse-of-Airhead-Tom bummers. Last year I forgot to load my suitcase in the car and arrived at our motel with the clothes on my back, a toothbrush and (fortunately!) my wallet. The year before that I left the front door of my house wide open - my neighbor thought I had suffered a home invasion and called the police (thankfully, the only thing lost was my standing in the neighborhood - already tarnished years before when the community association wrote me up for displaying a pink flamingo on my front lawn, which apparently is verbotten according to the "Rodgers Forge Community Covenant"!).

Amy: "Your battery's dead." Tom: "God hates me."

And this year, well, the minute Amy and I got in the car to head off to the film festival, my car battery died! Gott in Himmel! But no worries, AAA came to the rescue within 15 minutes and, after losing an hour or so to installing a new battery and dealing with post-traumatic car stress disorder, we were on our merry way.

"I have a musical surprise for our trip," Amy said after plugging in the GPS.

"I have a feeling I know what it is," I replied, thinking it could only be related to her current obsession with All Things 10cc. "Is it 10cc?"

"I'm not saying," she said, adding "Look away while I pop it in your CD player."

Yup, 10cc it was, from the opening power chords of "Silly Love" through the set-ending extended jam-out of "Rubber Bullets." Amy had scored 10cc In Concert, a King Biscuit Flower Hour live recording of their 1975 Santa Monica Civic Arena show. Surprisingly, though this was a tour in support of 1975's The Original Soundtrack LP - their biggest commercial success (and the one with their biggest hit "I'm Not In Love") - everything in this live set was from the first two albums (10cc and Sheet Music). Word has it they also performed material from their just-completed third album The Original Soundtrack and one track from their upcoming 1976 album How Dare You (the last to feature all four original members before Godley and Creme left to make videos and the ill-fated, three-LP opus Consequences) at this Santa Monica gig, but for some reason King Biscuit left them off this release. Pity.

Still, it was great driving music and proved once again what everyone said about 10cc: they were just as great live as in the studio. Indeed, given all their intricate studio wizardry (like the 256-voice multi-tracked "virtual choir" singing chromatic chords in "I'm Not In Love"), it was amazing to hear them flawlessly reproduce their canned sound on a concert stage. Even more interesting was the way they tweaked some songs to give them a new twist, like the all-gizmo guitar backing on "Old Wild Men" and an acoustic version of "The Sacro-Iliac" (which, as Amy cheerily reminded me, was "The first 10cc song to feature Graham Gouldman on lead vocals!").

We arrived in Rehoboth Beach well before our checkin time at the Crosswinds Motel, so we decided to stop first at the film fest ticket tent to score tickets for Cave of Forgotten Dreams (in 3-D) and Jiro. Much to our surprise, our mission was accomplished (we were sure the 3-D Herzog doc, with only two screenings at the fest, would be sold out, but were delighted to be wrong and score tickets for Friday night's screening), so we set about seeing what we could see in the afternoon before that evening's presentation of Jiro.

Many of Amy's pre-fest program picks were already sold-out, including the Israeli comedy The Matchmaker (we were intrigued by the description "Yankele, a Holocaust survivor, has an office in the back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves"), so that made our choices that much easier. Amy decided on Norway's King of Devil's Island (Kongen Av Bastoy), China's "offbeat ballad of friendship and devotion" The Piano in a Factory (Gang de Qin), and the good 'ol USA's haunting psychological thriller Take Shelter, starring Boardwalk Empire 's Michael Shannon and riveting redhead Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Tree of Life).

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KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND (KONGEN AV BASTOY)
directed by Marius Holst
(Norway, 2011, 115 minutes)
In Norwegian with English subtitles

Watch "King of Devil's Island" trailer.

Based on a true story, this youth-centered drama starring Stellan Skarsgard (and a cast of relatively unknown actors and non-professionals, including stellar leads Benjamin Helstad as "Erling/C19" and Trond Nilssen as "Olav") tells the story of a notorious "borstal" (turn-of-the-20th-Century "reform" prisons for under-21 offenders) whose boys revolted in a William Golding/"Lord of the Flies" manner against their oppressors - and in particular, the child molesting guard Brathen (Kristoffer Joner). The wooded isle where where the boys serve out their corporeal punishment, Bastoy Island (literally "Devil Island"), was a real-life Alcatraz for teenage boys located about 45 miles south of Oslo. In 1915, the Norwegian Army was called in to quell an uprising after the boys burned buildings and chased their keepers away; it was one of only two times in Norway's history when its armed services fired upon its own citizens. Ironically, today this former prison colony is trying to become an environmentally-friendly "eco-prison" with inmates housed in wooden cottages and allowed access to horseback riding, fishing, tennis, and cross-country skiing in their free time; no doubt, this is why Bastoy the repurposed "Summer Camp" prison was featured in the DVD extras for Michael Moore's 2007 the-rest-of-the-world-is-better-and-more-sophisticated-than-us documentary Sicko.

Watch Michael Moore visit Bastoy's "Prison of the Future."

Watching The King of Devil's Island's brutal bullying and the inmates' cruel "Lord of the Flies" social pecking order reminded me a lot of another Scandinavian film, Mikael Hafstrom's powerful Evil (Ondskan, Sweden, 2003), while child predator Brathen made me think of current events up in "Happy Valley" - where former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry "Just Horsing Around in the Showers" Sandusky is accused of molesting as many as 40 under-age boys. I couldn't help but think of Sandusky, who retired from college football at the height of his career at age 55 and eschewed pursuing any head coaching jobs to instead work around young boys at a charity organization. At one point in The King of Devil's Island, Stellan Skarsgard's borstal governor asks Brathen why he has stayed in his lower-rung position for so long when more ambitious men would have moved on to new challenges. It clearly raises his eyebrows, much like Sandusky's decision to work with kids in lieu of pursuing the head coaching job he was clearly qualified for. A red flag, in retrospect?

Designated Receiver: Illegal motion in the backfield

If this one sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend David Graham's Eye for Film review that sums it up very well:

...Holst's film is much more artful than many of its predecessors, quickly establishing the grim atmosphere through chilly locations and the bleak, barren landscape but utilising a stirring score and striking cinematography rather than the sort of stark in-your-face realism of Alan Clarke's 'daddy' of the genre. The story takes its time so that we get to know the boys, building to become truly epic and rousing, with riot scenes effectively conveying a sense of how dangerous their revolt was for themselves and those they were retaliating against.

Little details make the film more poignant and harrowing as barely-concealed revelations come to the fore; in particular, the way Holst sensitively handles one weak child's abuse and fate is absolutely heart-rending. Elsewhere, C19's treasuring of a letter offers up the extended metaphor of a huge whale that battled on despite being repeatedly harpooned - an appropriate allusion for the boys' experience.

In the lead, Benjamin Helstad makes quite an impression, convincingly progressing from keeping a survival-motivated distance from his peers to eventually becoming inextricably linked with their struggle to overturn the adults' tyranny. His reaction to a pivotal tragedy is especially well wrought, making us fully invested in his subsequent fight to defeat their oppressors. His character is made the more interesting for his desperate determination to get off the island, having seemingly led a more or less adult life previously, which he gradually comes to share with some of the boys. The relationships he hesitantly forges are also established believably, with initial resentment and rivalry giving way to respect and solidarity.

Trond Nilssen is also excellent as the head boy of the facility, trying to hold on to his hard-won privileges and imminent emancipation even if it means turning a blind eye to the suffering of those around him. Much of the film's pleasure derives from observing how the boys grow to trust and look out for one another, while the tension comes from waiting for their burgeoning collective strength to turn into revolt.

Stellan Skarsgard, as the governor, is as watchable as ever, conveying concern and guilt despite his authoritative stance, while Kristoffer Joner is outstanding in a crucial role as the boys' biggest enemy; his sallow features and sunken eyes are perfect for the portrayal of the predatory Brathen, a sullen bully who has been rejected by adult society.

Holst's film takes on a truly tragic tone that some will find too much to handle, but it's a massively engaging effort that should reward those that stick out its hefty running time. The chaotic climax really hammers home the savagery of both the children and the adults who they're supposed to look up to, while events become almost apocalyptically chaotic in the final stretch. There is a real emotional pay-off to the film's closing moments, done full justice by some talented youngsters who manage to do much more than merely glower. King Of Devil's Island works well as both historical drama and a William Golding-esque fable, and should strike a chord with audiences of all ages.

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JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
directed by David Gelb, USA, 2011, 81 minutes
In Japanese with English subtitles
Official Movie Site

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the master chef and proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, $300-a-plate sushi-only restaurant located near a Tokyo subway station that was the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded Michelin's coveted and prestigious 3-star rating. Sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance to get a seat at Jiro’s sushi bar. While this quiet, lushly photographed documentary shows all the intricate planning and preparation that goes into the complex art of making sushi - from getting up early in the morning to select seafood at the fish market to the laborious way to massage an octopus, and even the subtle nuances of properly serving left-handed customers and (feminists beware!) the almost imperceptible practice of serving women slightly smaller rolls - it is the family and cultural backstory that resonates most. At the heart of this story is Jiro’s relationship with his eldest son Yoshikazu, the heir apparent bound by tradition to take over his father's business - yet still waiting at age 50 to step out of his father's shadow and shape his own identity.

This is the way we roll: Jiro & his sushi crew
(Jiro is center, no. 1 son Yoshikazu to his right)

Much luckier is his younger brother who, unconstrained by the burden of family honor and tradition, was able to leave and start his own sushi business. The intergenerational tension of legacy and succession is ultimately a "beast-of-burden" situation for Yoshikazu, who reveals he was unable to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a race car driver due to family obligations. As one critic observed, "This emotionally resonant study of a son living in his father's shadow is couched in an operatic spectacle of some of the world's preeminent chefs at work, making Jiro a tasty treat that will satisfy all viewers' cinematic cravings." It sure made us crave sushi, and we made plans to finally try the highly touted (and much less than $300-a-plate) sushi on offer across the street from our motel at the Cultured Pearl Restaurant & Sushi Bar, where Master Sushi Chef Hiro reigns. (We would not be disappointed and even saw a first - a female sushi chef on staff! Think about it, it's a male-dominated craft. I wonder why?) More on this later.

Watch "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" Trailer.

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Related Links:
"My 2011 Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival Journal - Part 2" (coming soon!)

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (*****)

2011-11-09T11:50:00.020-05:00

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
by Shigeru Muzuki
English translation by Jocelyne Allen
(Drawn & Quarterly, 2011, 368 pages)

I just finished reading Shigeru Mizuki's graphic novel - his first manga translated into English! - about his traumatic experience (he lost his left arm and most of his friends) as a Japanese soldier in the South Pacific during WWII, Onward Towards Our Noble Death (Soin gyokusai seyo!, originally published in Japan in 1973 and reissued in April of this year by Drawn & Quarterly). Though Mizuki is best known for his yokai (ghost) horror manga subjects (especially those involving one-eyed boy Kitaro of the Graveyard, or GeGeGe no Kitaro, pictured at right), it was this fictionalized memoir of his 1943-1944 tour of duty at Rabual on the island of New Britain (now Papua New Guinea) that serves as one of the best anti-war testaments of all time. Though fictionalized, it is a 90% factual gunki-monogatari (war-tale); Mizuki only took the liberty, for dramatic impact, of having all soldiers in his graphic novel perish, when in fact 80 survived.

Mizuki's style is characterized by "cartoony" characters (and I have to admit, even though he lists his cast of characters at the beginning of the book, I had trouble telling them apart!) set against realistically detailed background drawings, an example of which is shown below.

"Noble death," WWII Japanese style

Scenes like those above remind me of another anti-war graphic novel, one from the other side of the world: Jacques Tardi's chronicle of pointless slaughter in WWI, It Was the War of the Trenches (C'etait la guerre des trenchees, Fantagraphic Books, 2010). Tardi also realized the absurdity of sending "cannon fodder" soldiers to their deaths in pointless charges out of the fetid, rat-infested trenches of France during the Great War, a conflict in which retreating soldiers were shot as traitors for not willingly falling on their swords - an M.O. echoed over 20 years later by Japanese brass in the jungles of the South Pacific. Stanley Kubrick masterfully captured the French military's absurd notions of "honor on the battlefield" in his early masterpiece Paths of Glory. A "trenchant" Tardi panel is shown below:

"Noble death," WWI French style

Publishers Weekly's review of Mizuki's book noted, "Onward joins the growing library of gekiga published by Drawn and Quarterly. Gekiga, roughly translated as “dramatic pictures,” is a manga genre that often focuses on the serious and tragic nature of life and can be compared to American indie or alternative comics. Mizuki is the fourth creator of the group of mangaka credited with creating gekiga in the late 1950s, a group that also includes gekiga pioneers Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Seiichi Hayashi, and Susumu Katsumata."

Perhaps Mizuki's account of wartime horrors was his attempt to exorcize his own personal demons (and lingering guilt over having survived). As he writes in the book's afterword, Rabual was one of the worst places to be in WWII for Japanese soldiers, who were considered less than human, and where almost 11,000 of these "subhumans" died during one of the war's bitterest campaigns. As a new recuit, Mizaki was beaten repeatedly for, as one officer in the story remarked, "New recruits are like tatami mats. The more you beat them, the better they are."

"In our military, soldiers and socks were consummables; a soldier ranked no higher than a cat," Mizuki writes. "Officers, NCOs, horses, soldiers: in the military hierarchy, soldiers were not even thought of as human beings, We were instead creatures lower than a horse...But when it came to death, it turns out we were human beings after all."

In other words, only when ordered to die in a pointless suicide charge against superior enemy forces - to go Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths - did the soldiers actually exist in the eyes of the honor-bound military hierarchy.

"Whenever I write a story about the war, I can't help the blind rage that surges up in me," Mizuki concludes. "My guess is, this anger is inspired by the ghosts of all those fallen soldiers."

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War Is Over? If only!

Caterpillar

2011-11-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

Sametka (aka Caterpillar, The Velvet Caterpillar)
Animated by Zdenek Miler
Based on the story by Norman Colwin
(Kresleny Film, Prague, Czechoslakia, 1967, 14 minutes)
Released in the US in 1971 by Learning Corporation of America

I work at a large public library that still has hundreds, if not thousands, of videos in this, The Digital Age of the DVD. One of the things I most enjoy about shelf-reading "the Stacks" - the movable-shelves storage area that houses most of our educational videos - is discovering old and obscure videos for which there is little or no information. Usually, these are the blandest of the bland in terms of packaging and the scantest of scant in terms of the library's catalog record. I'm talking about a video for which there's basically a black VHS case and a title (typed on an index card!) - and, if I'm lucky, maybe a date of publication, running time, and one-sentence description (often inaccurate) in the library catalog. One such delightful recent discovery matching all of the above criteria was something called Caterpillar, "an animated fantasy about a caterpillar who dances his way to success and fortune as an internationally recognized performer."

Googling this title turned up nothing betyond what I had already learned. In fact, the title, release date, and running time were all inaccurate. But I like animation and I like discovering new videos in our collection on which no previous light has shone. Taking the video home, I was immedialy struck by its style, which I loved and which was distinctly European - this even though the video was credited to Learning Corporation of America - and its bright, simplistic animation and wordless narrative structure reminded me of Czech animator Zdenek Miler's Mole films; Miler, who is considered the Czech equivalent of Walt Disney, created dozens of wordless (for international market appeal) children's film shorts starring his little mole (or Krtek in Czech) between 1956 and 2002 for Prague's Kresleny Film Studio. And there was good reason why Caterpillar looked so familiar - it was a Zdenek Miler film!

Krtek the little Mole

The importance of "the Mole" to Czechs was underscored when Krtek was recently chosen as the mascot for NASA's space shuttle Endeavor - the brainchild of shuttle crew member Drew Feustal, who has indirect Czech roots through his wife. It's rather fitting, as Krtek had previously starred in a 1965 film and book adventure called Little Mole and the Spaceship! Zdenek Miler, now 90years old, was delighted by his fantasy becoming reality: “I never imagined anything like this for Krtek." Miler approved of a toy designed specifically for NASA and of Krtek’s mission logo (as shown below):

NASA's 2011 Little Mole logo

OK, back to Caterpillar...

Warning Film Scholars: there's hardly any information anywhere about this film. The most detail I could find on the Web as this forum thread by "DavidVillaJr" (surely not the FC Barcelona soccer star?) at the fedoralounge.com:

"Learning Corporation of America, 1971. The inevitability of change is revealed to a little boy in this animated tale of the caterpillar who danced. One day a little boy playing his harmonica, discovers a caterpillar who dances to his tunes. An entrepreneur discovers both the boy and the bug, and soon the dancing bug and the boy become big business all over the world. Suddenly, one day the caterpillar disappears. The boy searched everywhere, but could not find his friend. Then spring comes, and then one day a beautiful butterfly appears, dancing to the boy's tune. The boy decides to set the butterfly free. Primary to intermediate."

Even more intriquing was another thread at fedoralounge.com by Subvet642 that claimed "There is a live action version of the same movie starring Cary Grant. Once Apon A Time (1944) A Broadway producer finds fame with his new act - a dancing caterpillar."

Cary Grant bugs out watching a dancing caterpillar

Even weirder: it's true! How had I never heard of this Cary Grant film about a caterpillar that dances only to the song "Yes Sir, That's My Baby!"? A film directed by Alexander Hall with an all-star cast including Janet Blair, James Gleason (as McGillicuddy "the Moke"), Preston Sturges regular William Demarest (My Three Son's Uncle Charlie!), and Ted Donaldson as "Pinky" the mouth-organ-playing boy who discovers the caterpillar "Curly." Turns out that Once Upon a Time was originally a CBS radio play called "My Friend Curly" by Norman Corwin (from an idea by Lucille Fletcher Herrmann).

Watch the opening of Once Upon a Time.

Reading through the thread, I liked one fan's remembrance of how the boy-with-a-harmonica and his dancing caterpillar turned into an overnight, international sensation akin to the Beatles in the early '60s. As he described the boy and the caterpillar appearing on billboards all over the world, making their escape via helicopter from throngs of swarming fans, and even journeying to the Moon to play for astronauts, I knew the film was not only an example of classic animation, but also a cogent commentary on fleeting fame and the inevitability of change. Ah yes, like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, life's only constant is change. Or as Heraclitus put it back in the Classical Greek Age, "You can't step twice into the same river." Even George Harrison noted, via Eastern mysticism, that indeed All Things Must Pass. Which is pretty heavy stuff for the Primary to Intermediate set!

Dancing on the Moon: "One tiny step for man, one giant leap for mole-kind!"

But, as usual with my raging, caffeinated ADD, I have digressed. Back to Caterpillar the film itself. For your viewing pleasure, I have tracked it down on YouTube and included the video clips (in two parts) below:

Watch "the Velvet Caterpillar Part 1."

Watch "The Velvet Caterpillar Part 2."

My Fave Dave Raves

2011-10-28T09:38:00.003-04:00

One man's favorite Berserk songs on video

I was doing some Fall cleaning on my computer last night and dug up these videos gathering dust in my hard drive. They represent my favorite songs by Dave Cawley, erstwhile bassist in my favorite Baltimore band from the '90s, Berserk. Giant robots! Ultra 7! These are the songs that defined a generation of otaku pop-punk-purists - at least in Dave's Cawley's mind.

Watch the Berserk - "Giant Robots" music video.

Baltimore's Berserk play their classic '90s anthem, "Giant Robots" - Dave Cawley's love song to a boy's best friend.

Now watch Berserk play "Giant Robots" live at Ottobar (2005).

Grand finale number from Berserk's Reunion Show at Ottobar, February 7, 2005.

Watch the Berserk "Ultra 7" music video.

Unfortunately, this great song is only available on a Go Kart records compilation record, Go Kart Vs. the Corporate Giant. Forget Wall Street - Occupy the Corporate Giant and seek it out!

Now watch Beserk play "Ultra 7" live at Ottobar (2005).

Dave Cawley continues his love letter to Japan ("How do I love thee, let me count the ways...") with his sonic celebration of Ultraman (and, for vegan Brent, burritos that contain no meato). From the Berserk Reunion Show at the Ottobar, February 7, 2005.

Martha Colburn cuts out the boring parts

2011-10-26T16:57:00.008-04:00

Martha Colburn, erstwhile Baltimore auteur

Baltimore has been associated with a number of talented filmmakers, but none more talented and creative than Skizz Cyzyk and Martha Colburn. Martha may have left town a few years back to relocate to New Amsterdam (Queens, NY actually) and ye olde Amsterdam, but her legacy lives on! Here's a recent profile of her by New York Close Up that the good folks at Art 21 alerted me to.

Watch "Martha Colburn cuts out the boring parts."

Martha Colburn Cuts the Boring Parts Out | "New York Close Up" | Art21 from Art21 on Vimeo.

In this film, artist Martha Colburn traces the evolution of her work, from her first found-footage films to subsequent hand-painted and stop-motion animations.

Anne Hornaday once described Colburn's work as "visually brilliant, politically trenchant, always imaginative and usually provocative." Speaking of politically trenchant, Martha Colburn recently created an experimental live action documentary short about the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Watch Martha's film "Occupy Wall Street."

Here's Bad Lit's Mike Everleth describing the new work:

Mostly known for her animated films, Martha Colburn returns to live action with a short experimental documentary on the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on since mid-September. The above embedded video is actually two short films that should play one right after another. Rather than get into the goals and message of the protestors, Colburn simply documents the scene, displaying the same kind of frenetic montage that her animated films have.

What’s particularly appealing about this short doc is that it also displays a heavy ’60s underground film vibe. While Colburn leaves her shots a little longer than the then-popular “single-frame” shooting technique, the effect is essentially the same, creating a disorienting, kaleidoscope documentary vision. The film is not unlike classic undergrounds like Marie Menken’s Go! Go! Go! and Shirley Clarke’s Bridges-Go-Round.

Also, the “single-frame” technique is particularly appropriate here, centering the action right in the middle of the mad crush of protestors and policemen so that the viewer can get a feel of being a participant and not just a spectator.

The music in the documentary is by Tom Carter, a frequent collaborator with Colburn, especially with performing live scores to her films.

The comparison to Marie Mencken's Go! Go! Go! and Shirley Clarke's Bridges-Go-Round (available on the DVD Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986) is spot on.

Apropos of nothing, below is one of my favorite photos (taken from a video screen grab) of George Figgs cavorting with Martha at the 1999 Maryland Film Festival.

"Martha, I vant to bite your neck!" George Figgs amuses Martha Colburn at the 1999 Maryland Film Festival; George screened Martha's shorts at his Orpheum Theater

Shonen Knife Cuts Thru Baltimore

2011-10-25T09:32:00.052-04:00

Cutting Edge J-Poppers Finally Take a Stab at Charm City

Believe it or not, Shonen Knife had never visited or played in Baltimore in the course of their 30-year career. Like most big name J-pop bands touring the U.S.(Pizzicato Five, Puffy, even Kahimi Karie), they made the obligatory stop in the nation's capital, typically at the 9:30 Club, before bypassing Charm City to traipse up the East Coast to Philadelphia, New York, and other major ports of call. In fact, the last time I saw them was back in 1997, when they performed at the 9:30 Club in support of their album Brand New Knife (Baltimore's powerpop trio Splitsville opened for them).

That all changed October 24, 2011 when founding guitarist Naoko Yamano and the "new" Shonen Knife girls - drummer Emi Morimoto (2010-present) and bassist Ritsuko Taneda (2006-present) - visited Atomic Books in Hampden to sell their new all-Ramones-covers CD Osaka Ramones (Good Charamel Records, 2011), sign memorabilia, and hang out with fans, before jumping in their tour bus to motor down the street and rock out later that night at the Ottobar as part of their 30th Anniversary North American Tour. And so, "Baltimore, the city that reads" officially became "Baltimore, the city that bleeds" - for Shonen Knife!

Watch Shonen Knife arrive at Atomic Books.

Shonen at Atomic: a rendezvous with history?

As an added bonus, Naoko's sis Atsuko (Shonen Knife's original drummer) was also on hand to roadie for the band; though Atsuko left the band in 2006 when she got married and then moved to Los Angeles, she filled in during band's 2007 tour and, being Naoko's sister, continues to be involved with the musical family she created with Naoko and Michie Nakatani in Osako back in 1981. (Original bass player Michie Nakatani left the band in 1999, with Atsuko moving from behind the drumkit to replace her on bass guitar.)

Dave Cawley, Ichiban: "The early bird catches the worm," Dave smirks as he informs latecomers that the line forms BEHIND him. "Watch me and learn, minions - and please, DO envy me!"

Dave Cawley was the very first fan to arrive at Atomic Books (all the better to genuflect before his idols), which is somewhat fitting, as Dave used to correspond with Atsuko Yamano dating back when he was in Baltimore's pop-punk band Berserk. (Dave poses with Atsuko Yamano in pic at right.) Amy and I were the second to arrive and Atomic Books owners Benn Ray and Rachel Whang were greatly amused to see that Dave and I were both wearing the same 1997 Shonen Knife Tour shirts, the ones we got when last we saw the band at the 9:30 Club and interviewed them for Atomic TV (as seen on ATV's "Turning Japanese, Part 1" - check 'em out at the 54-minute mark of this episode). Rachel Whang captured the "Misfits-in-Matching-Outfits" photo op, below:

Tom: "Dave, this is kinda gay!" Dave: "Ya think?"

Dave and I loved Shonen Knife from the moment we discovered them - he first, of course, via his Pan-Asian Pop Cultural Studies (an ongoing obsession), me rather late in game thanks to Sassy magazine's championing of "Twist Barbie." We both agreed that they were the nicest band we'd ever met, and regretted that we hadn't seen or listened to Shonen Knife in a long time; in fact, 1998's Happy Hour album (my personal favorite and the last to feature original bass player Michie Nakatani) was the last CD either one of us had purchased. We decided it was time to make amends for that criminal oversight, and we looked forward to meeting the new "Brand New Knife." We learned that the first cut may be the deepest, but the new Knife cuts a pretty sharp figure as well!

Meet and greet the Brand New Knife!

First-in-line Dave Cawley strikes a Kamen Rider pose with Shonen Knife

Dave Cawley gives Shonen Knife his personal seal of approval

The fans behind Dave "I was first!" Cawley wait their turn at Atomic Books

Tom Warner makes peace with Shonen Knife

Amy had never heard Shonen Knife, but bought their "Fun! Fun! Fun!" LP as an introduction to the fun, fun, fun

Amy enjoys Shonen Knife's autograph doodles: Emi (cat), Naoko (bunny), Ritsuko (dog)

Shonen Knife's cute critter doodles

Our Facebook pal Gary Razorpop poses with The Knife

Shonen Knife really seemed to enjoy looking through the shelves at Atomic Books - where Naoko's book Shonen Knife Land was also available for purchase; they also explored the vinyls bins at Celebrated Summer Records next door (who splurged for donuts and other edibles).

Emi lets the cat out of the bag at Atomic Books

Just as fitting as Dave Cawley being first in line at Atomic Books was Shonen Knife's decision to release an all-Ramones song album, for Shonen Knife is basically an all-girl Japanese version of the Ramones. Both work from a foundation of simplistic punk rock buzzsaw guitar and lyrics celebrating everything that's good dumb fun in life - whether it be sniffing glue, getting kicks and scoring chicks for the Ramones or eating all that food ("Cookie Day," "Banana Chips," "Hot Chocolate," "Brown Mushrooms," "Froot Loop Dreams," "Ice Cream City," "Gyoza") that Naoko sings about in countless Knife songs. Osaka Ramones contains all the classic Ramones songs you'd expect to hear championed ("Blitzkrieg Bop," "Rock 'n' Roll High School," "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker") as well as an inspired surprise cover of "Scattergun," a rockin' tune written by Dee Dee's replacement C.J. Ramone (Christopher Ward) and taken from their last studio album ¡Adios Amigos! (1995). And it's not just Naoko handling all the vocal duties: Ritsuko lends her voice to "Sheena," while Emi gets to sing "The KKK Took My Baby Away." The album was recorded in Osaka and Buffalo, NY, with Goo Goo dolls bassist Robby Takac producing five tracks at his GCR studio in Buffalo and mixing the final album. (Attention collectors: The US album features a Road To Ruin-style drawing by Miyoka Hayakawa, while the Japanese release features a black-and-white photo of the band that mimics the first Ramones album.)

Watch Ritsuko sing "Sheena is a Punk Rocker."

Watch Emi sing "The KKK Took My Baby Away."

I enjoyed meeting the new (to me) Shonen Knife rhythm section. I quickly learned that sexy long-haired bassist Ritsuko Taneda used to sing and play guitar in the J-Pop bands Keihan Girl and Denki Candy (where her nom de stage was "Marilyn"). And I discovered that super-kawaii drummer Emi Morimoto (whose Louis Brooks-style haircut reminded me of Scott Pilgrim's girlfriend "Knifes Chau" from Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World), used to bang the skins for Ni Hao!, Ultra Jr, mamastudio, and NASCA CAR.

But I really enjoyed chatting briefly with Atsuko Yamano, Naoka's sister who helped set up the merchandise table and assisted with other tour details as needed.

Atsuko helps set up the merchandise table

"Excuse me, aren't you Big Dave Cawley?" Atsuko (far left) asks a bespectacled fanboy

Atsuko now resides in Los Angeles, where she has plenty of time (and sunny weather) to indulge in her latest passion of tennis. Both of us are Federer fans, and I told her I was equally impressed with Kei Nishikori who, at age 21, is currently the highest-ever ranked Japanese player (#30) on the ATP Tour. Alas, like Kei, Atsuko also favors a two-handed backhand, though I tried to convince her of the benefits of the one-handed slice. (Maybe next tour?)

Tom Warner bonds with Atsuko over tennis and their shared adulation of Roger Federer and Japan's own Kei Nishikori

I can't say enough about how sweet and friendly these gals are. They even indulged me when I went back for yet more merchandise for them to sign - and they signed everything, for everybody. Benn Ray joked that I had forgotten to get my '97 tour shirt signed, but I'm too much of an anal-neatnik (as far as fashion, at least, if not housekeeping!) to go that far.

Tom's Shonen Knife cache: Sign here, please!

"OK Mr. Warner, last one - our hands are cramping now!"

Alas, Amy and I did not join Dave Cawley later that night at the Ottobar show, as the prospect of having to wait through three opening bands on a Monday night (doesn't anybody in this town work?) didn't gibe either with our schedules or our aging bones. (Yes, we're old!) I'm sure somebody will post some video of the Ottobar show shortly, but in the meantime, here's what the girls looked like live when they brought the "Blitzkrieg Bop" to London's Windmill club back in August:

Watch Shonen Knife play "Blitzkrieg Bop."

And here they are rocking the Asia Society in NYC with non-Ramones ditties back in September 2010:

Watch Shonen Knife rock the Asia Society.

Shonen Knife's first-ever trip to Charm City, coming less than a week before Halloween, was definitely a treat for all Baltimorons!

***

Postscript (10-26-2011):
As anticipated, videos of Shonen Knife's show at the Ottobar turned up a day later. Herein is what went down as recorded by serenab4 and motionrotarytoad.

Watch serenab4's "shonen knife @ the ottobar (10/24/11)"

Watch motionrotarytoad's "The KKK Took My Baby Away/Rock 'n' Roll High School"

Watch motionrotarytoad's "Blitzkrieg Bop/Beat on the Brat"

Watch motionrotarytoad's "Konnichiwa/Bear Up Bison"

Watch motionrotarytoad's "Banana Chips"

Watch motionrotarytoad's "Devil House"

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

2011-10-23T22:17:00.010-04:00

The mystery of the Parkville Phallus

Rock hard peter, Parkville style (photo by Amy Davis - but not the Baltimore Sun's Amy Davis!)

When Amy drove off to work Sunday morning, she was greeted by this huge dick drawing sketched in chalk on her apartment complex parking lot. It made her smile. It made me smile when I saw it later. I'm sure it made everyone smile because, well, everyone loves a big dick! They're a load of fun!

But who, we wondered, left this festive Sunday offering for the Parkville apartment-dwelling community to feast their eyes on (and tread their tires over)? Kids? Juveniles? Pube-escents? And why this tomfoolery before Halloween, still a full week away?

It made us both think of the UK's Huffington Horse etching and, while this was no Huffington Horse, it was certainly hung like one. Rather, it was more like an asphalt crop (cock?) circle, a mystery appearing at the crack of dawn to make onlookers wonder who created it and what was its purpose.

Having just seen Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the night before at The Charles Theater, we marveled at the pavement penis as if we were Herzog and his cast of archeologists deconstructing the prehistoric Cheval Cave drawings. "Vot does this primitive representation of the male genitalia tell us about sexual mores in the new Millenium?" Herzog may well have intoned upon seeing this giant dick. "Does it point tovard der sun, that giant egg-shaped source of all life on earth, as if to fertilize it with man's essence, or is it a severed organ, representing Modern Man's increasingly marginalized and metrosexualized presence in today's vorld?"

Balls of Confusion: the situation gets hairy down below

Amy keeps an eye on her Parkville Parkin'lot Phallus to be sure the erection doesn't last longer than 4 hours (thus necessitating emergency medical assistance from Balto County road crews!)

"Story of my life - I always get the shaft!" Tom laments

We may never know the Parkville Pee-Pee's origin. But it made me pine for the days when Baltimore's Woodbourne neighborhood truly had wood. Yup, it made me think of The Penis Tree.

Related Links:
The Penis Tree (Baltimore or Less)

What goes Round, comes Round at AVAM

2011-10-12T13:49:00.040-04:00

"All Things Round: Galaxies, Eyeballs & Karma"
September 7, 2011 - September 2, 2012
American Visionary Art Museum

On Thursday, October 6, Amy and I attended the "sneal preview" opening night party for the American Visionary Art Museum's new exhibit, "All Things Round: Galaxies, Eyeballs & Karma." AVAM Founder/Director Rebecca Hoffberger's 17th annual show - co-curated with Mary Ellen "Dolly" Vehlow - bills itself as "a celebration and call to awareness of the circular and voluptuous nature of life" and features "the exuberant works of 70+ inspired, intuitive artists," including Scott Weaver's 100,000 toothpick wonder "Rolling Through The Bay," Adolf Wölfli's intricate mandala-like works, spherical sculptures of sight-impaired artists, the micro dot sock-thread embroideries of Ray Materson, Stephanie Lucas's Hieronymous Bosch-styled bestiary paintings, three-dimensional sacred yarn paintings made by the Huichol Indians, pictures of crop circles, Emily Duffy's giant "Bra Ball, and even gift shop employee Shawn Theron's 75,000-image digital camera montage of one year in his life.

The opening night galas at the AVAM are always a blast and the circular theme was evident even before we stepped inside the doors, as gaily-clad gals (and one dude) entertained onlookers by twirling glow-in-the-dark hoops round and round and round in the courtyard, creating parabolas of swirling colors that lit up the night like a July 4th fireworks celebration.

Watch the "Glo-Glo Go-Go Hula Hoop Hons" in action.

Day-glo hoopsters light up the Oct. 6 preview party...

...and trip the light fantastic!

Hipster Doofus crashes gender barrier to join hula hooping hons

After chowing down on the spread set up in the AVAM party barn, we headed inside for the exhibit proper. We took the roundabout way in.

We took a look a-round!

On our way in, we turned the corner and couldn't help but bump into Emily Duffy's buxotic "Bra Ball," whose cups had runneth over!

Sisterhood is powerful: the bodacious Bra Ball

Amy really liked Shawn Theron's year-in-the-life montage of digital photos, circle paintings, and spinning Tibetan prayer bells. Theron used to wait tables and manage the bar upstairs at the old Joy's America Cafe (which is now called Mr. Rain's Funhouse). Today his art is the first thing that greets visitors entering the museum, and you can't mis sthe man himself if you tried, because he currently works in the AVAM gift shop - where everyone ends up eventually before leaving! (Read more about Shawn Theron in Mary Carole McCauley's Baltimore Sun profile.)

But the highlight for us (admittedly among many highlights) was definitely seeing San Francisco artist Scott Weaver unveil and demonstrate his "Rolling Through the Bay" sculpture, which he calls the world's largest functioning toothpick sculpture. It took him over 42 years and 104,500 toothpicks to make (and even includes "Gay Pride"-colored picks for the Castro Street section) and he traveled over 3,000 miles to bring it from the West Coast to Charm's City for the AVAM show.

Scott Weaver with his Rolling Toothpick Revue (photo by Amy C. Davis/Baltimore Sun)

Scott Weaver's toothpick citiscape "Rolling Through the Bay"

Watch Scott explain the structure and demonstrate how to roll ping-pong balls through his hometown in the clip below by the Baltimore Sun's Amy C. Davis:

"I've got some dip stuck in my gums - you don't think he'd mind me borrowing just one little toothpick to get it out, do you?" Amy whispers surreptitiously

Detail from Scott Weaver's toothpick city showcasing its labrinthine chutes and ladders

Though "Rolling Through the Bay" may look more rectangular than round, it's actually filled with an abundance of cupolas, domes and other well-rounded shapes, making it an ideal structure for Weaver's ping-pong balls to navigate through. "It reminds me of that Milton Bradley game I used to have, 'Mousetrap'" Amy said, while Rebecca Hoffberger told the Baltimore Sun, "I've seen a lot of brilliant matchstick and toothpick work, but most people use them to make squares. There aren't very many artists like Scott who can make these incredible helixes and spirals."

(Read more about Scott Weaver's exhibit centerpiece in Mary Carole McCauley's Baltimore Sun review.)

Amy and I loved the new AVAM exhibit, but it was difficult to "take it all in" in one visit, especially the opening "preview night" when we had to navigate through so many hordes of people. So, we went back two days later when it was much less crowded - plus we could spend much more time (and money) in the gift shop!

"All life comes from eggs," Tom astutely observes outside the AVAM

Amy strikes her Art Babe Pose outside the AVAM

Devilish Amy got horny in the gift shop

Tom gets in touch with his feminine side (it wasn't hard!)

Amy pays props to her Wicca and Pagan peeps in this "Wicker Man" guise

"This pictures really jump out at you!" Amy attests

I felt a compulsion to visit my peeps in the OCD Gallery!

Dave Cawley Alert: Mazinger toy spotted in the gift shop!

Then, though we hadn't had a drop to drink, we got really twisted looking at ourselves in the funhouse mirrors outside the bathrooms on the second floor.

"Wow, instant Skinny Jeans!"

"Do these jeans make me look fat?"

"Hey, how'd you get in my pants leg?"

"That's MY pants leg now, sweetie!"

Finally, we checked out the massive collection of Pez dispensers on the third floor outside the AVAM's restaurant. We had never noticed them before, and were amazed at the variety on hand, from Star Trek and Star Wars to Pokemon and Ultraman figureheads.

On our way out, both Amy I agreed there was only one thing missing from the "All Things Round" exhibit: a picture of Ohio. "What's round on the end and hi in the middle?" I sang, to which we both replied "O-HI-O!" - a reference to the line in Devo's "Jocko Homo." Still, we were more than satisfied by this well-rounded new exhibit.

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

2011-10-06T10:41:00.021-04:00

George Harrison: Living in the Material World
a film by Martin Scorcese (2011)
9 p.m., October 5 and 6, HBO Documentaries

George Harrison was my fave Beatle, not so much for his music (which was good but not as good as Lennon and McCartney's) as for his personality. John was the smart-ass intellectual, Paul was the cute cuddly one always playing to the cameras and the girls, and Ringo was the loveable goofball naif with the Zippy-like quips ("I like grapes!"). But George the "Quiet Beatle" was just cool; always effortlessly cool. So of course I watched part 1 of Scorcese's much anticipated 2-part, 3 1/2-hour doc GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD last night on HBO. But here's the thing: I was kinda underwhelmed. It was not great, it was not awful - it was just kind of ordinary. I'm still not convinced that great filmmaker Scorcese is necessarily a great documentary maker (though I loved his Bob Dylan doc NO DIRECTION HOME and LAST WALTZ - although the latter is more a one-off music performance than full-fledged doc). Especially after seeing Ken Burns's recent PROHIBITION (admittedly a hard act to follow), Scorcese's most recent attempt at the genre looks amateurish, with some questionable (bordering on haphazard) editing choices and notable omissions.

The opening in particular is one of the lamest I've ever seen and there seems to be no defining narrative arc. Talking heads pop in and out without any seeming logic or order to their appearance (son Dhanni Harrison makes a cameo, but where's Olivia Harrison?), and the music is chopped up - you hear a snippet of a George song, then it cuts out abruptly and awkwardly to give way to a talking head instead of being smoothly lowered and having the interviewee talk over it; similarly, Scorcese uses a lot of video in which he drops the audio entirely to have a narrator read George's letters, which really doesn't work. Ken Burns is the master of this when using still photographs (in fact, it's called "the Ken Burns Effect"), but the herky-jerky stop-start technique employed here comes off as amateurish, like public access TV.

And as for the narrative arc, Paul McCartney is seen almost instantly offering commentary, but it's a full 30 or 40 minutes before Ringo joins the discussion. Patti Boyd is thrown in randonly around this time, too. George met Patti when she was an extra in A Hard Day's Night, seemingly a no-brainer point to mention and an obvious clip to show in a documentary purpotedly about Harrison. Yet, Scorcese never mentions it. Other sins of omission follow. I mean, how can you not show the Hard Day's Night clip of George talking about "grotty" fashion and teen idol "Susan" while at the advertising agency.

Watch George's funny scene in "A Hard Day's Night."

"Oh, by all means, I'd be quite prepared for that eventuality."

Maybe Scorcese gleans over these details because of the surfeit of Beatles docs that have come before, like the excellent 3/4 Beatles-approved Anthology. Or, maybe it's because Yoko Ono (who famously didn't get along with George early on - she royally pissed off George after the the infamous "Biscuit Incident" at Abbey Road Studios when she ate all the cookies sitting atop George's guitar amp!) still wields control over much of the Beatles archives, but there are some glaring holes in this narrative. Maybe not as many "holes in Blackburn, Lancashire," but quite a few.

Take George's spiritual awakening. It happened during the filming of Help! (1966) when George took an interest in the Indian musicians playing in the film. This lead to his interest in Ravi Shankar and the sitar; suddenly, a door opened into a whole new culture and way of life. Not mentioned at all! The whole Majarishi Mahesh Yogi trip came later in 1967. Scorcese does touch on that, but his segue into "Sexy Sadie" and meditation and the Beatles' trip to India is the whole "Beatles are bigger than Jesus" controversy that occured after Maureen Cleave's infamous interview with John Lennon about religion. That's a legitimate segue, but Scorcese misses a prime opportunity to reference one of George's priceless one-liners, when the terrified Beatles sat inside their plane at Memphis airport looking out at a backdrop of angry pro-Christian protesters; after a clearly terrified John asked what they should do, George responded matter-of-factly, "Why don't we send John out first? He's the one they want!"

George had many classic quips (see beatlesquotes.com for a selective sampling) and unlike John's, often calculated to shock, I think they were almost always honest, spontaneous, and off the cuff. From the first U.S. invasion when a reporter asked him what he called his haircut ("Arthur" - which may or may not have inspired the great free magazine Arthur)...

Q: What do you call that haircut? A: Arthur.

...to his "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead," George was a master of the telling deadpan barb. (See "George Harrison: The Provocateur Beatle?" for more on George's barbed witticisms.)

More classic George Harrison quips:

"I've been the same all along. I talk when I feel like it and I shut up when I don't feel like talking."

Question: "Hi, you're not married?"
George Harrison: "No, I'm George."

"The biggest break in my career was getting into the Beatles in 1962. The second biggest break since then is getting out of them."

"The Beatles exist apart from my Self. I am not really Beatle George. Beatle George is like a suit or shirt that I once wore on occasion and until the end of my life people may see that shirt and mistake it for me."

Anyway, there is one thing I have learned and that is not to dress uncomfortably, in styles which hurt: winklepicker shoes that cripple your feet and tight pants that squash your balls. Indian clothes are better."

So far, I have to agree with David Hinckley who, in his New York Daily News review, observed:

"...in the end, we learn little beyond the standard biography that has circulated for years: that George sometimes felt like a junior Beatle, that he involved himself deeply in spiritual pursuits, that he was happiest in his later years when he disappeared into his country estate and tended his gardens while mulling the eternal.

There's clearly a lot of truth to that general outline, and perhaps at this point there are no significant new dimensions or perspectives anyone could add."

Maybe so. And as George Harrison once famously said of himself, "I'm not about to jump up and down shouting, 'Hey folks, look at me! I'm cool and groovy!' That's not what George Harrison is all about."

Similarly, Scorcese's doc is neither cool nor groovy. That's not what it's about, either. Maybe it will pick up the pieces when Part 2 airs tonight. I certainly hope so. If not, check out the excellent LA Times feature "George Harrison: A Video Miscellany," which has some great Harrison video clips highlighting his sense of humor. As the piece points out, all the Beatles were funny, but it was George who mortgaged his home to produce Monty Python's Life of Brian and who was the one with "the strongest connection to and affection for comedy."

OK, off to watch tonight's finale. I leave you with George's last television appearance, a 1997 VH1 performance of "All Things Must Pass."

Selected George Harrison Video Clips:

Watch George sing "I Need You" from Help!

Watch George as Pirate Bob on "Rutland Weekend Television."

Watch George as the interviewer in The Rutles.

Watch George and Paul Simon play "Here Comes the Sun" (SNL 1976).

Watch "All Those Years Ago."

Watch "When We Was Fab."

Watch the 3/4 Beatles play "Ain't She Sweet" (1994) - with George on ukulele!

Watch George on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1968).

Watch "Crackerjack Palace."

Edgar Allan TyPoes

2011-10-04T11:44:00.001-04:00

What's in a name? A lot of typos!

We know how Edgar Allan Poe felt about being dissed: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge" ("The Cask of Amontillado"). No one insulted him (or at least his "Cask of Amontillado" stand-in narrator Montresor) with impunity. Which makes me wonder how he would feel about all the typos that occur when people misspell his middle name "Allan" as "Allen."

I thought about this because I spotted a great Natty Poe mashup t-shirt at the Natty Boh Gear store (624 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231) during this weekend's frosty Fell's Point Fun Festival. I was all set to get it when I realised that it said "Edgar Allen Boh."

Broken Vowels
"Not to rain on your parade, but I have to point out a typo on your shirt," I told the vendor. "It's Edgar A-l-l-a-n, not A-l-l-e-n. Don't feel bad, even Maryland Public Television gets it wrong," I added, thinking back to the DVD we recently received at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, Edgar Allen Poe (a 2009 special edition episode of the MPT program Direct Connection with Jeff Salkin).

Mis-Direct Connection DVD

Of course, some vendors selling Poe merchandise avoid the typo snafu by nixing the middle name entirely, like the folks at Natty Poe Baltimore (‎http://shop.nattypoe.com, 826 W. 36th Street, The Avenue in Hampden, Baltimore, 21211).

Natty Poe

I wonder if the Natty Boh Gear team immediately fixed the typo I pointed out, because a quick search of their online store at www.nattybohgear.com shows the t-shirt in question spelled properly now.

Bohgear's corrected "Edgar Allan Boh" t-shirt

According to the blog "Typo of the day for Librarians," Poe's name even causes problems for catalogers (a painfully-anally-rententive breed who, of all people, should know better!), with Allan often misspelled as Allen — this is a "high probability typo" on the Ballard list and has over 1000 hits in Worldcat.

Moses Ezekial's Poe statue at U of B law School

Not only is Poe's middle name frequently misspelled by those who should know better, but even the Moses Ezekial statue of Poe that stands near the University of Baltimore School of Law has (and had) typos. The monument was erected in 1921 and its original base, inscribed with a line from Poe's poem "The Raven," read: "Dreamng dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before." Not only was the "i" missing from the first word ("dreamng"), but a superfluous "s" was added to the fourth ("mortals").

Fontaine chiseled Ezekial out of a typo

No one insults Poe purists with impunity, which is why Baltimore poet Edmond Fontaine took the grammatical slights personally. According to the blog Life's Little Mysteries:

In 1930, after several years of regularly writing letters of complaint to local newspapers, [Fontaine] finally took a chisel to the statue to remove "the offending letter … for the good of my soul," he explained at the time. Fontaine was initially arrested for chiseling off the "s" but was later released with a warning.

When the statue was moved in the 1980s, the original base was replaced, and the typos corrected.

(Natalie Wolcher, "The Most Monumental Monument Mistakes," lifeslittlemysteries.com)

Fontaine's Fix reminds me of another superfluous S in Baltimore lore, specifically that old Mash's Hams TV and radio commercial: "What's in a name? Mash's unscrambled spells HAMS. And what do we do with the other S? That stands for salt - we throw that away."

Esskay's ham-fisted Mashup

But regarding Poe typos - if only it were that easy to throw them all away like Mash's salt!

Alas Poor Greedo. I Not Knew Him.

2011-09-29T12:19:00.018-04:00

While checking out which bands were playing at this weekend's Fell's Point Fun Festival, I came across a band called Poor Greedo.

Poor Greedo the band

I know nothing about them (I know nothing about most contemporary bands on the local circuit) (in fact, I know nothing in general!), but when I asked a co-worker "Who's Poor Greedo?" she started laughing. "What a great name," she said. "That was one of those disposable aliens in Star Wars."

Poor Greedo the disposable (and poseable) LEGO alien

OK, I only saw the first three Star Wars movies (full disclosure: and I even saw the horrendous Star Wars Holiday Special!) - and really liked the first two - but I'm not Star Wars expert, and I certainly didn't remember the Greedo character or his shootout scene with Han Solo in Chalman's Cantina in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). But apparently, I am alone. There's even a Wookieepedia entry for Greedo! According to this fact-filled site, "Greedo, son of Greedo the Elder, was a Rodian bounty hunter. He lived in Mos Espa alongside the young Anakin Skywalker and W. Wald circa 32 BBY. Although his father had been an esteemed hunter, and the chief rival of Navik the Red, the younger Greedo had little of his father's prowess and was easily killed by Han Solo in Chalmun's Cantina on Tatooine."

OK, now I remember. But I had no idea there was such a cult following for Greedo's Cantina shoutout scene in Star Wars - and such controversy over who shot first. You see, Lucas-the-anal-historical-revisionist went back to re-edit the scene in 1997 to make it appear that Han Solo was merely defending himself when he blasted Greedo, sparking Original Version Purists (OVPs) to shout "Han shot first!" whenever the edited scene (as shown below) played.

Watch Han shoot first.

In 1977, Han shot first (very first!)

Now watch Greedo shoot first.

In 1997, First Responder Han Solo shot second

OK, but when I tried to find music videos of the band Poor Greedo, the first thing that came up on YouTube was this LEGO reeanactment of the Cantina Calamity, which is pretty funny (not to mention most curious)!

Watch the LEGO reenactment of Han Solo vs. Greedo.

Obviously, this issue of whether Han Solo was acting in self-defense or committed manslaughter matters to a lot of people (and especially to George Lucas!).

I still don't know from Poor Greedo's music. But, going by their name, I suspect they believe Han Solo shot first!

Nostalgia Convention

2011-09-27T22:44:00.006-04:00

6th Annual Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention
September 22-24
The Marriott Hotel, Hunt Valley, MD

This past Saturday I was all set to head down to the Baltimore Book Festival to get my read on, when my girlfriend Amy asked what our Manic-About-Town friend Dave Cawley was doing. "Oh, he's going to one of those conventions out at the Marriott in Hunt Valley, something like Nostalgia Con or something," I replied, adding, "He said Davy Jones of the Monkees is gonna be there."

"Davy Jones is in town?!?" Amy exclaimed excitedly. "We have to go see him!!! He's from Manchester [Amy loves all Mancunian pop stars] and he went to the same high school as Steve Diggle [Amy loves anything to do with pop-punk legends Buzzcocks or with their guitarist Steve Diggle]!!!"

"Davy Jones is in town?!?" Amy goes ga-ga for the littlest Monkee

Amy-the-Beatles-Completist then pointed out that there was even a Fab Four connection to the diminutive Monkee, to seal the deal with me.

"Davy Jones was on the same Ed Sullivan show as the Beatles during their first American visit in 1964," she said. "Remember? He was in the original cast of Oliver! - I think he was the Artful Dodger." [I believe another little frontman, Steve Marriott of The Small Faces, also played the Artful Dodger in a stage production of Oliver!] Amy, of course, was right, as the YouTube clip below of the cast of Oliver! on the Sullivan show (about 30 seconds in) proves:

As you can see, listening to pipsqueak Davy's mellifluous voice is akin to hearing an opera pour forth from the mouth of a flea. Ah, from the mouth of babes...no wonder the other Davy Jones had to change his name to Bowie. No competition.

Another Pleasant (Hunt) Valley Saturday

And so the die was cast. Our rendezvous with History awaited us in Hunt Valley at the convention dedicated to nostalgia (and where many aged attendees apparently suffered from neuralgia, as well); additionally, we made plans to rendezvous with Dave Cawley and Video Americain manager nonpareil Scott Wallace Brown at the Hunt valley Marriott on Saturday morning. In anticipation, Amy scurried about trying to find any Monkees records (that she didn't sell to Chick's Legendary Records back in the day) that she could bring to get signed by the former little Artful Dodger in Oliver!. The only thing she had was this Colgems picture sleeve 45 (featuring the very Tom Warner-ish looking Peter Tork - MY fave Monkee because he was the "dumb one" like me - on the cover):

For my part, I got into the spirit of things by revisiting Bob Rafelson's one-of-a-kind cinematic headtrip (and, ultimately, The Monkees' commercial deathtrip), Head (1968), yet another cult classic penned by Jack Nicholson (The Trip; Drive, He Said) with help from Rafelson. While SWB waxes poetically about the opening and closing song from this magna Monkee opus (Goffin and King's psychedelic "Porpoise Song" with solarized slo-mo visuals), my fave scene remains the Mike Nesmith birthday discotech scene, set to Peter Tork's "Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again? " (as shown below):

I've never been to Soul Night at SoWeBo's Lithuanian Hall, but I'd like to imagine that this is exactly the kind of swinging party a go-go that goes on there (with Davy Cawley filling in for Davy Jones on the dance floor, of course!).

Oh, and speaking of Chick's Legendary Records (erstwhile holders of Amy's Monkees back catalog on vinyl)...

Chick Veditz mans his classic trading card collectibles table

I didn't expect to see Chick Veditz at a Nostalgia Convention, but I should have known better. Longtime "Collector of All Things" Harry C. "Chick" Veditz - best known to Baltimore music lovers as the former owner of Chick's Legendary Records in Mt. Washington - got into trading cards back in the '90s when he ran Chick's Records Tapes & Baseball Cards in Pikesville. And here he was selling vintage pop culture artifacts like Monkees bubblegum cards. "With Davy Jones here, a lot of people are buying individual cards for him to sign," canny capitalist Chick commented, alliteratively.

Wacky Monkeemania on display

Alas, as it turned out we - HORRORS! - missed Davy Jones (but did manage to catch his Wacky Wobbler likeness at a vendor's booth, as shown above)...Thinking he'd be there all day (instead of booking right after lunch), we dawdled when we should have hustled, looking at DVDs (me) and Liverpool Cavern Club t-shirts (Amy-the-Beatles-Completist) and other convention paraphernalia and talks - like a great hour-long presentation called "The Mystery of the Enchanted Forest" (more on that later!). But Dave Cawley, who leads a charmed life, not only saw Mr. Jones, but pissed right next to him ("Boy, he's really short!" Dave quipped, non-sequitarily, referring to little Davy's vertical size) when the former Monkees hearthrob was Head-ing out. Dave Cawley had also spotted Davy Jones earlier at his signing table and when we asked if there were long lines of adoring fans gathered 'round him, replied "No, he was sitting all alone. No one was talking to him."

Ouch! Stab us in the heart with that descriptive dagger and let us twist slowly on it, Big "belittling" Dave Cawley!

Davy had left the building, but his aura was all around us. Thus, Amy spotted the Monkees reinvented as Stooges on this t-shirt vendor's tee (I like to imagine that the Stooge equivalent of "cutesy" Davy Jones in this 100% cotton triptych is frontman Moe!):

Hey hey we're the Stooges!

Dave and Scott Wallace Brown fared much better in their celebrity encounters, with SWB scoring a signed 8x10 glossy of Karen Valentine (who was seated right next to her principal on Room 222, Michael Constantine) for his buddy Carey, while Dave had a long chat with former child star Billy Gray (Father Knows Best, The Day the Earth Stood Still). Not only did Dave get Billy to sign his 8x10 still from The Day the Earth Stood still with the inscription "To Dave, Klaatu Barada Nikto," but he also gave Dave an unbreakable guitar pick - one that music buff Billy himself invented! (Billy Gray the inventor - who knew?) So excited were we all by these celebrity stories, that we forgot Sir Larry Storch (Corporal Agarn on F Troop, the voice of Phineas J. Whoopie on Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales) was also in the house! (In fact, I was surprised that I didn't run into Steve Liebewitz here, since he's the president of Baltimore's "Larry Storch Fan Club"; maybe he was still doing his own celebrity signing tour for his excellent book Steel Pier, Atlantic City: Showplace of the Nation.)

Of course, I blame myself for wasting time looking at too many DVDs. Following Dave Cawley's lead, we spent a great deal of time at vendor (and filmmaker) Ted Moehring's table, where one could find some rare Eurotrash and Asian cult oddities for $7 a pop or 3-for-$20. I kowtowed to Dave Cawley on his Japanese DVD recommendations (Ultraman Tovah, Gorath, and Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell.) But as I am currently on a Euro comics kicks (Dylan Dog, Diabolik, Modesty Blaise), I had to fall back on my Eurocentric instincts and also pick up something called Kriminal (1966).

I knew nothing about this character or film other than the cover depicted the protogonist (Glenn Saxon, who looks like a Dutch Tab Hunter) wearing a yellow skeleton suit that reminded me of John Phillip Law's screen depiction of Diabolik in Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik (1966). But I'm glad I got it because right from the opening credits on...

...it's great! We're talking a swinging '60s soundtrack, a bounty of beautiful babes, and a succession of exotic locales (traipsing from London to Madrid to Istanbul, a la a James Bond adventure). And, like Diabolik, Kriminal was an 1960s Italian comic series; Kriminal was created by Magnus and Max Bunker (who also created Satanik - a DVD I passed up at Moehring's table).

According to Wikipedia:

Kriminal is an English master thief, Anthony Logan, who dresses in black and yellow costume with a fearsome skull face for his adventures. The character was directly inspired by the contemporary (and more successful) Diabolik, with whom he shares the ability to use masks that allow him to assume any identity. In the earliest adventures, Kriminal was a near sadistic killer fighting for revenge against the criminals who had pushed his father to commit suicide. Having also lost his mother and sister, Logan spent his youth in a reformatory, from which he managed to escape, intent to pursue vengeance.

Kriminal has a female companion, Lola Hudson, who was once the wife of Scotland Yard Inspector Patrick Milton, his main enemy. Gradually over time, Kriminal's most extreme villainous features were toned down, and in the later stories he assumed more positive and heroic connotations.

The series was also notable as one of first to employ continuity in Italian comic books, as any new story would begin exactly at the point the previous had ended, and the characters' lives continually evolved (in contrast to Diabolik). Logan himself married and had a child, who soon died.

The series ended in November 1974, after 419 episodes.

Skeleton-clad Kriminal is ready to rock some bones

The comic depiction of this same scene

But unlike Diabolik, Kriminal is a real badass! As Cinema Nocturna reviewer Nick Frame points out, "While Diabolik was nicknamed "Il genio del crimine" (the genius of crime), Kriminal on the other hand is "il genio del male" (the genius of evil); he is the anti-Diabolik, a little more sadistic." I'll say; this guy not only steals and kills - he murders people, even pouring acid on one guy's face to disfigure him. Oh, and he tries to blow up his ex-wife (the lovely Tina Louise lookalike, Maria Luisa Rispoli - aka "Susan Baker"), as well.

"Ginger"-haired Maria Luisa Rispoli

Kriminal was adapted for the big screen several times. The DVD I picked up was by Umberto Lenzi. A sequel, Il Marchio di Kriminal ("The Mark of Kriminal") was directed by Fernando Cerchio and followed in 1968.

The standout eye candy in this film was German beauty Helga Line, who appears not once, but twice. That's right, she portrays twins Inge and Trude. And she turned up (as a new character) in the second Kriminal film, 1968's Il Marchio di Kriminal. Seemingly drawn to films based on masked master criminal Italian comic strip characters, she also appeared in 1967's Mister X (aka Avenger X). Line, who later relocated to Madrid, subsequently appeared in two early Pedro Almodovar films: Labyrinth of Passion (1982) and Law of Desire (1987).

Kriminal intent: Glenn Saxon konspires with Kraut kutie Helga Line

Double your pleasure, double your fun with Helga Line

All very fine and good, but for me the day's highlight was that morning's one-hour talk and screening called "The Mystery of the Enchanted Forest." Though the program guide credited the talk to Bruce Barrett, Barrett actually only worked the laptop to project a new DVD showing highlights of the Enchanted Forest as it stood in 1987, one year before closing. Rather, the featured speaker was former longtime employee Norman Cavy, who was flanked by his cousin Patsy Selby and Barrett. Also in attendance (in fact, seated right next to me) was Linda Harrison, daughter of the original owner (not the Linda Harrison who played Charlton Heston's mute galpal "Nova" in the original Planet of the Apes).

The Enchanted Forest was the second-ever fairytale/storyland theme park in America (after Uncle Walt's Disneyland, of course) and everyone from my Baby Boomer generation seems to have a fond memory of going there as a kid. Even John Waters. Speaking of fuzzy memories of bygone utopias of childhood, here's the Enchanted Forest scene from John Waters's Cry-Baby (1990) to set the scene.

And here's a YouTube clip of the current Enchanted Forest ruins.

But Enchanted Forest wasn't just for kids. In fact, back in 1975 when I was in high school, all the Senior Class Stoners (we called ourselves the "St. Paul's Bowling Team") made a field trip there to smoke hash in Ali Baba's Cave (inspired by the Barefoot Jerry song "Ali Baba"; we stopped the boat that went through this water cavern so many times to light another bowl, that the attendant came out to see what the problem was - geeze, I hope it wasn't Norman Cavy!). I also seem to recall someone feeding a cigarette to the goat on the island where Mt. Vesuvius once stood. But I digress...

From the Nostalgia Convention program's description:

On August 15, 1955, The Enchanted Forest opened for business in Ellicott City, Maryland. Appealing to families with small children, the theme park had a nursery rhyme theme and thousands flocked to see the pumpkin coach, Mother Hubbard's shoe and wave at Humpty Dumpty. Sadly, the theme park was forced to close in 1989 when much larger and elaborate attractions such as Kings Dominion and the mouse house in Florida gave people more bang for their buck. For a full hour, preservationists will show us what the park was like in its heyday, with photos and scale model, the history behind the theme park itself, and the sad state of affairs as the monuments today are still crumbling and falling apart, with neglect to any kind of restoration.

The Enchanted Forest in its heyday

Naturally, as a hoarder and amateur archivist, I had to purchase the DVD. Sure, it's a totally amateur production, but it's a labor of love by the folks who were there (and not, thankfully, but some Johnny-come-lately hipsters appropriating yet another swath of retro pop culture).

The "original" Enchanted Forest DVD (accept no substitutes!)

And, more importantly, it's a thorough guide to each and every ride, building, and character that was still standing at the Forest in 1987. Mother Goose, the Black Duck, Cinderella's Pumpkin Coach, the Crooked House and the Crooked Man, the Little Red Schoolhouse, Little Toot, the Easter Bunny's House, the Giant Mushrooms (many a drug user's fave!), Jack's Beanstalk with the Giant at the top! Ah, a veritable treasure trove of memories!

The Enchanted Forest today on Route 40

Enchanted Forest closed in 1988 when the original owners sold the property and construction of the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center began. In 1994, the park was reopened by JHP Development and it 1997 Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust (MART) became the owners. In late 2003, Kimco Realty Corporation merged with MART to take over as Enchanted Forest caretakers. Today, Old King Cole greets shoppers at the original park gate, which is still guarded by a dragon that, according to the Nostalgia Convention program notes, "warns trespassers away."

King Cole points the way to the shopping center

In 2005, most of whatever Enchanted Forest installations could be moved, were relocated to nearby Clark's Eliok Farm off Route 108 in Ellicott City. Hence, Norman Cavy and Bruce Barrett have carefully labeled their DVD and their preservation efforts as being on behalf of "the original Enchanted Forest."

Following is a video clip showing Enchanted Forest highlights on display at Clark's Eliok Farm.

Now, I don't know the exact relationship between Martha Clark of Clark's Eliok Farm and local artist Charlene Clark (charleneclarkstudio.com) - or even if they're related - but whenever I see Old King Cole it always makes me think of Charlene's wonderfully nostalgic Enchanted Forest prints; I keep reminding Amy that she needs to hang the King Cole prints I bought from Charlene at the Hampden Festival years ago.

Charlene Clark's King Cole

***

I came, I saw, I reminisced. And with that, I bid you all addio. My train of thought is now pulling out of Memory Lane.

Hairy Baltimore

2011-09-27T15:58:00.009-04:00

At this past weekend's Baltimore Book Festival, "I, Hoarder" limited myself to two purchases (I was, after all, financially challenged after that day's earlier trek to the Nostalgia Convention!), both for $2 a piece: a second edition copy of P. Adam Sitney's experimental cinema tome Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-1978 (because they just don't write 'em like that any more!) and, even-better-yet!, the Alex Fine-curated limited edition zine, Hairy Baltimore.

Hairy Baltimore zine

John Waters famously called Baltimore "The Hairdo Capital of the World," though his generation grew up with the ducktails, mullets and beehive hon-do's that pre-date a lot of the 40 "Nouveau Balto" hairstyles depicted in this booklet.

Naturally, (young Nikola Tesla lookalike) Alex Fine, Baltimore's finest artist in my humble opinion (see Alex Fine Illustration for further proof), is himself depicted in the pages of Hairy:

Alex Fine

As were other local luminaries and icons of the current film and music scene, like Dan Deacon and Reaction!'s Amanda Otto.

Dan Deacon

Amanda Otto

I hardly know any of the youngsters displayed in Hairy Baltimore, but I'm learning thanks to this handy who's who guide to the current crop of unusually coiffed scenesters of Charm City. Oh, if you missed picking up a copy at the book festival, try asking at Atomic Books. After all, iconic co-owner Benn Ray (looking like a cross between Charles Manson and actor John Hawkes) is also included in the zine. His likeness was drawn by Noah Patrick Pfarr.

Atomic Book's Benn Ray