All Time Favorite Laurel & Hardy Moment

Elvis Costello's Spectacle -- Best Music Progam Ever?

I don't want to bore you with a review -- just a list of Elvis' guests & the songs they play should tell you how great these are.
Series One -- Elton John, President Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, The Police, Smokey Robinson, Lou Reed, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson, John Mellencamp, Rosanne Cash, Norah Jones, Allen Toussaint, Rufus Wainwright, Renee Flemming, Kate McGarrigle, Jakob Dylan, Jenny Lewis, She & Him, James Burton, Pat Methany, Julian Schnabel, Laura Cantrell, Bll Frisell & Elvis Costello's Imposters; Pete Thomas, Steve Nieve & Davey Faragher
Songs; Sunshine of Your Love, Purple Haze, Me & Bobby McGee, Sunday Morning Coming Down, You've Really Got A Hold on Me, Going To A Go Go, The Tracks of My Tears,What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding,Watching the Detectives/ Walking on the Moon, Please Stay/Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, Alison, Small Town, Almost Blue, Sulfur to Sugarcane, The Scarlet Tide,  All This Useless Beauty, Sweet Baby James, Fire And Rain, That Lonesome Road, Why, Baby Why, Crying In the Rain, Bartender's Blues, But Not For Me, A Case For You, Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word, Night Train, Exactly Like You, Makin' Whoopie, Working in a Coal Mine, Baby Let's PLay House, Mystery Train, Cold, Cold Heart, Big River, Show Biz Kids, Straight To Hell, If I Only Had A Brain, The Way You Look Tonight, I'm Old Fashoined, I've Got the World on A String, Seven Year Ache, Longest Days, How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart, April 5th, Here Comes That Rainbow Again,Willie Moore, Sweet Jane, Femme Fatale, New Paint, Nefertiti, Watermelon Man, Chan's Song, Embraceable You, No More Tear Stained Make-up, The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game, Don't Know Why, Perfect Day, Set The Twilight Reeling, Border Song, Who Cares, Ballad of a Well Known Gun, Edith & the Kingpin, Down River, Is This America, Rock Minuet, Weird Nightmare, Flow of My Tears, Memphis Skyline, Vibrate, Change Is Hard, Pretty Bird, One Headlight, On Up The Mountain, Go Away, Carpetbaggers, Vissi D'Arte, Answer Me, L'Absence, Begining to See the Light

Series Two -- Bruce Springsteen, Bono, The Edge, John Prine, Levon Helm, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Richard Thompson, Allen Toussaint, Jesse Winchester, Nick Lowe, Nils Lofgren, Ron Sexsmith, Neko Case, Mary Louise Parker, Ray LaMantagne & Elvis Costello's Imposters
Songs; I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea, Motel Matches, Shabby Doll, So Like Candy, I Still Have That Oher Girl, I Threw It All Away, Town Cryer, Brilliant Mistake, She's the One, Wild Billy's Circus Story, American Skin (41 Shots), I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down, Radio Silence/ Radio Nowhere/ Radio, Radio, Seeds, The Rising, Pretty Woman, Black Ladder, Galveston Bay, Dirty Day, Alison, I Want You, Rag, Mama, Rag, Shoot Out The Lights, The Beast in Me, Holy Cow, Tennessee Jed, A Certain Girl, The Weight, Mysterious Ways, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Stay (Faraway, So Close), Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad, Pump it Up/ Get on Your Boots, I'm Ahead if I can Quit While I'm Behind, Lake Marie, Natural Forces, Jolene, Henry Nearly Killed Me (it's a Shame), Loretta, Payday, Secret Heart, If It Makes You Happy, Don't Forget Me, Sham A Lang  Ding Dong, Brand New Tennessee Waltz, Every Day I Write The Book, Leaving Las Vegas, Prison Girls, Ring Them Bells

WHEW!!!!!

OBAMABABY

Let me say that I love President Obama. He is my hero. He takes WAY TOO MUCH CRAP -- from the right, who just LIE about him, and from the far left, who don't understand that if he got too radical it would be political suicide.
OK A) I just had to get that off my chest & B) I want to make clear that I don't present the following with the intention of making fun of Mr. Obama. I just wonder what kind of attitude you would have to have about Obama and to think it is appropriately reflected by commemorating him in this way. "Ya musta been a beautiful baby, 'cause baby look at you now"?

The Death Mask of Larry Tate

Actor David White is best remembered for his role as Larry Tate, Derwood's boss on "Bewitched". This was probably not molded from White's face after he died, so it is probably not technically a death mask. However, it can be viewed at White's place of internment, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California.   The cemetery regularly features picnic / movie screenings under the stars.

"It's Comic That It's All So Tragic" 40 Odd Years with Loudon Wainwright III

Disc 1 (1969 – 1983)

1) School Days 2) I Don’t Care 3) Uptown 4)Be Careful There’s A Baby In The House 5) Saw Your Name In The Paper 6) Dead Skunk 7) New Paint 8) Drinking Song 9) The Swimming Song 10) Dilated To Meet You 11) Down Drinking At The Bar 12) The Man Who Couldn’t Cry 13) Whatever Happened To Us? 14) Crime Of Passion 15) Kick In The Head 16) Summer’s Almost Over 17) Just Like President Thieu 18) Golfin’ Blues 19) The Heckler 20) Natural Disaster 21) Red Guitar 22) Hollywood Hopeful 23) IDTTYWLM 24) The Grammy Song

Disc 2 (1984 – 1995)

1) Westchester County 2) I’m Alright 3) Screaming Issue 4) Unhappy Anniversary 5) Your Mother And I 6) Synchronicity 7) Hard Day On The Planet 8) You Don’t Want To Know 9) Bill Of Goods 10) Thanksgiving 11) Your Father’s Car 12) When I’m At Your House 13) The Picture 14) Men 15) So Many Songs 16) Tip That Waitress 17) I’d Rather Be Lonely 18) April Fool’s Day Morn 19) The Acid Song 20) IWIWAL 21) A Year 22) Dreaming

Disc 3 (1996 – 2010)

So Damn Happy 2) Primrose Hill 3) Bein’ A Dad 4) Four Mirrors 5) It’s Love And I Hate It 6) Christmas Morning 7) Pretty Good Day 8) White Winos 9) Bed 10) Surviving Twin 11) The Shit Song 12) Between 13) My Biggest Fan 14) When You Leave 15) Make Your Mother Mad 16) Daughter 17) Grey In L.A. 18) Muse Blues 19) Motel Blues 20) The Deal 21) Rowena 22) High Wide & Handsome

Disc 4 (Rare and Unreleased)

1) Weave Room Blues (with Kate McGarrigle) 2) McSorley’s 3) Black Uncle Remus (demo) 4) Funny Having Money 5) The Hardy Boys At The Y (with The Boys Of The Lough) 6) Laid (live) 7) Outsidey (live) 8) That Cat 9) Surfin’ Queen (demo) 10) Newt 11) 4X10 (live) 12) Somethin’ Stupid (with Barry Humphries) 13) The Miles (live) 14) So Good So Far (live) 15) Big Fish 16) No Sure Way 17) Hey There 2nd Grader 18) More I Cannot Wish You 19) Florida (Lucky You) 20) Hank & Fred (live) 21) Your Eyes (demo) 22) Dead Man 23) At The End Of A Long Lonely Day (with Suzzy Roche)

Disc 5 (DVD: Filmed Performances)

Menu – Grown Man / One Man Guy / Heaven / When You Leave / Half Fist / Reciprocity / Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms (two versions) / Unrequited To the Nth Degree (two versions) / Dump the Dog & Feed the Garbage / Glad to See You’ve Got Religion / Motel Blues / Rufus is a Tit Man / Cardboard Boxes / Thanksgiving / Hitting You / Career Moves / Dead Man / The End Has Begun / Needless to Say / My Mother and my Sweetheart / Menu – I’m All right / Grey In L.A. / Daughter / Passion Play / Menu – Men / New Paint / Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder / June Apple / Unhappy Anniversary / Kings and Queens/ IDTTYWLM / Tonya’s Twirls / OGM / Menu-So Many Songs / Kick In the Head / Bicentennial / Fear With Flying / Lullabye / Living Alone / Homeless / A Father and a Son / Menu – IWIWAL / Documentary “One Man Guy” contains sections of these songs; TSMNWA / The Home Stretch / Hollywood Hopeful / Fear with Flying / Hitting You / The K.C. Moan / He Said, She Said / I Went To the Doctor / Do Not Speak Softly (?) / Talkin’ N.Y (?) / Talkin’ Bob Dylan / School Days / Reciprocity / I’m All Right / Rufus Is A Tit Man / Father & Son / Red Guitar / Career Moves / One Man Guy    

          Loudon Wainwright III is best remembered for “Dead Skunk”, a rare novelty number among the hundreds of brilliant songs the man has written since his debut in 1968. He has a great voice and a powerful way with an acoustic guitar. He has a gift for melody, and stylistically his songs cover singer – songwriter type material, rockers, country, jazz, old time country, sambas, Dixieland blues, pretty – much – you – name – it. Yet, as perfect as his music and performances are, his lyrics are his masterpieces.

           Lyrically, he is a master manipulator of the comic and the tragic, occasionally writing solely one or the other, but usually combining both to varying degrees, always to startling effect.

           He loves women so much that he will stoop to being a shameless cad to get them into his bed – consequences be damned.

           We can assume he lives by a double standard -- when he is out on the road and alone, he is desperately lonely, and pathetically paranoid imagining the cheating behavior of the woman he has left at home. In “The Home Stretch” he sings to himself;

“Your girlfriend is in a city, thousands of miles away,

And it’s full of male models,

Not all of whom are gay.”

           He remained spiteful and angry for DECADES after his first marriage ended – even long after the children had grown into adulthood. The Wainwright family is now on at least its fourth generation of dysfunctionalism. The saddest irony about his music is that he is utterly, painfully honest with us, the strangers in his audience, yet he seems to be incapable of expressing these feelings in real life to his closest loved ones.

           Still, the guy is truly cool. His honesty, his humor, and his irrepressible bad – boy attitude are irresistible. No matter how deceitful and unapologetic he is with the people in his real life, he is completely honest and sincere with us in his art.

           40 Odd Years is a lavish four CD one DVD boxed set, with a play list selected by Loudon himself. Understandably, he chose the most heartfelt songs for this collection as they mean the most to him. These tend to be tender songs aimed at his children or his ex-wives. As such, they tend to fall into the acoustic singer – songwriter genre. A different approach would have been to put emphasis on LW3’s ability to write convincingly in wildly eclectic musical styles. I am not criticizing The Genius’ approach to song selection, I am just pointing out that the HUGE sampling of material here still represents only the tip of the Loudon iceberg.

           The jewel of the collection is the DVD, containing a staggering three hours and twenty minutes of television performances. One Saturday my mom & dad, my brother and I watched the entire DVD in a single afternoon. They had not heard of him before, but we watched the entire thing and they were never bored. I have had this set for about a month now and I’ve watched the DVD all the way through five times.  

          If you’d like to sample Loudon, but don’t want to spring for more than a single CD, most fans consider “History” to be his masterpiece, but I prefer “Grown Man”. Really, all of his 24 albums are excellent.   

I Wish This Was Too Sick To Be True

May 22, 1944 Life Magazine Picture of the Week, "Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you-note for the Jap skull he sent her"

I recently read an article that described, but did not reproduce the photo shown above. It described WWII soldiers keeping body parts of the Japanese thay had killed as souvenirs. I thought this HAD to be an urban legend, but horribly, it is not. According to Wikipedia:

During World War II, some United States military personnel mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as “war souvenirs” and “war trophies”. Teeth and skulls were the most commonly taken "trophies", although other body parts were also collected.
The phenomenon of "trophy-taking" was widespread enough that discussion of it featured prominently in magazines and newspapers, and Franklin Roosevelt himself was reportedly given, by a US Congressman, a gift of a letter-opener made of a man's arm (Roosevelt later ordered that the gift be returned and called for its proper burial). The behavior was officially prohibited by the U.S. military, which issued additional guidance as early as 1942 condemning it specifically. Nonetheless, the behavior continued throughout the war in the Pacific Theater, and has resulted in continued discoveries of "trophy skulls" of Japanese combatants in American possession, as well as American and Japanese efforts to repatriate the remains of the Japanese dead."

The Wikipedia article pulls no punches --it gets into material far too disturbing to include here. If you want to read it, it should be easy to find on a search of Wikipedia.org.

This was apparently a racist based behavior, as there is no record of U.S soldiers keeping souvenirs of Germans' remains.     

Freakiest looking rock band ever

Brazil's Os Mutantes (The Mutants) circa 1968. No, they are not REALLY mutants, even though they really look like mutants in this particular photo. 

WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH RZZZZZ!

"Weasels Ripped My Flesh" was the first classic Frank Zappa album I ever laid ears on. I always thought only Mr. Zappa could have concocted such a sick, disturbing sounding album title. Imagine my amazement all these years later, learning that the title was actually nicked from an article from a men's adventure magazine from 1956. I wonder if FZ was aware of the even weirder article title "Flying Rodents Ripped My Flesh" from 1957? To be attacked by carnivorous flying squirrels! What a horrible way to go.  

Ready, Steady, Go!

READY, STEADY, GO!

          Back in the late eighties my brother loaned me a video tape he had recorded off of the Disney Channel. It contained several episodes of the classic British pop music show “READY, STEADY, GO!” It’s not likely these shows will be coming out on DVD any time soon since they are very heavy on performances by bands including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who etc, and the rights to the songs are probably cost prohibitive. Interestingly, the shows are owned by Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five.

           It’s odd what I remember about these shows. It occurs to me now that maybe I recall these moments because they all reflect that the show had an unusually comfortable intimacy with its guests.

           When another band played, or while the producer’s played a record, The Beatles would actually dance with the kids out in the audience. In one of his intros, Dave Clark explained that dancing with The Beatles was allowed on fast songs only, as touching a Beatle was strictly forbidden.

           At one point one of the hosts sees Ringo is wearing a bracelet engraved to “Richie”. The host asks who Richie is. Ringo answers, “That’s me real name – Richard Starkey – but don’t tell anybody.” The host repeats the name to himself quietly as if he’s trying to commit it to memory – as if he may never hear it again. Ringo then explains that the bracelet was a gift from his mum, after which several people react by saying “Awe!” sweetly.

           Oddly enough – since I am a much bigger fan of The Beatles than The Rolling Stones, my favorite performance in all the shows was The Stones lip – synching to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You, Babe”. It is the only time I have ever seen The Stones having fun acting silly. The girl is Ready Steady Go! host Cathy McGowan, the blond guy with Mick is The Stones original manager Andrew Loog Oldham.           

I Got You Babe by The Rolling Stones