Reasons To Be Cheerful: week-end of 05/16/08

Last week was so busy that I find myself finishing writing my wrap-up to it on the following Monday.
And so it goes...

1. I'm pleased to report one big blog update recently completed;

I've added an additional 125 images to my flickr set - - 'Nostalgia for the Scholastic Book Club, circa '60's & '70's' - - bringing the total in the set up to 187!

Because no one demanded it!
Too many juvenile lit memories!

More cover scans, more illustrations, more links to author and illustrator info, back cover images & info now appearing on the same page as a book's cover image, more, more more!

Please follow this link to my flickr set - - 'Nostalgia for the Scholastic Book Club, circa '60's & '70's'!

















































2. One nugget thrown my way this past week included a peek at the charmingly disturbing ◀ManBabies.com.

Father / Son photo switcheroos that are the stuff of nightmares!

(Thanks to My Friend Topic for the link)

3. I've been all over the San Francisco bay area in the last week or so, as I start to lay the groundwork for moving back home after my two-year Idaho experiment.

Those wheels are turning, but I've also been greatly enjoying visiting friends, family, and locations both familiar and new.

I've pretty well boxed the compass here; Down the South Bay towards San Jose to see my Godson and his folks, over to the East Bay and up to Sonoma for home-cooked meals with my siblings and their families, great lunches, dinners, and hangtimes with folks in various parts of San Francisco, Berkeley, and all over Marin County.

It'll be good to come back.

A few days ago I met a friend at the wonderful de Young Museum in San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park.

We went to catch the Gilbert and George ▶ exhibit they'd been running, before it was gone.

Found the show a bit disappointing, a little overrated, derivative.
As so much of the work reminded me of advertisements, CD jackets and club flyers, I felt as though the pieces often suffered due to their lavishly large scale.

More is less.


◀ Fortunately, the de Young is a wonderful adventure in itself - -

- I'm still marvelling at the beautiful 2005 remodel that I'd long ago been determined to hate.

- It's impossible not to enjoy their 360-degree view observation tower (it won't be long before the remodeled California Academy of Sciences will be ready to re-open, just across the park's band concourse!!).

- And the new underground parking garage with its entrance at 10th & Fulton is so elegantly civilized and forward-thinkng that it's slightly difficult to believe it's in San Francisco.

One painting I spotted near an entrance to the deYoung's bookstore resonated for me unexpectedly - - Painter
Harvey Dinnerstein's figurative work can stand out among the often less realist fare of a fine art museum.

Dinnerstein's 1999 painting, 'Sundown, The Crossing' ▶ looks like it could be the cover image on a genre fiction paperback, and I confess that helped to draw me to it. (It sends its message more successfully when the details are clearer)



- you can see more of Harvey Dinnerstein's artwork at the Frey Norris Gallery website.


The icing on my slice of deYoung cake that day was spying an old
Morris Minor 1000 ▼ sitting parked in the garage.

Just another memorable work of art...






4. I'm quite certain that She & Him don't need a bit of help from me in getting the word out about their charming debut album 'Volume One', but I do feel compelled to say that I've really been enjoying listening to it.

Big thanks are sent to my buddy Snappy for the definitive reminder about the existence of this collaboration between musician M. Ward and actress / singer Zooey Deschanel.

The blend on their album of sunny pop music combined with a country twang and occasional girl-girl group vibe hits me just right.
Cute without being precious, light but not lite, sweet without too much processed sugar.

There's plenty of info, audio and video available at the official website and (of course) at
She & Him's MySpace page.

Road Sounds: Hoo Doo Girl and others

This weekend I was driving the long haul across open spaces in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, bound for California. Here's a few words about the sounds that helped fill some of that open space as I traveled...

1. I was thriled to finally grab myself a copy of the first CD by Hamburg-based gal-gang Hoo Doo Girl.

Released towards the end of last year on Germany's Hazlewood label,
'Hoo Doo Girl... Calls The Shots' is a wickedly fun mix of girl-group harmonies, southern soul, swamp roots and rock.

The trio includes the fabulous and multi-talented Silky Toss, which was how I was lucky enough to hear about them and the album.

I'd already falen in love with Silky a few years back via her other band,
The Watzloves. (Follow link and scroll down for my previous post)

Together with new bandmates Peta Devlin and Susie Reinhardt,
Hoo Doo Girl has a wonderful, refreshing sound.

You can hear a few tracks from the album by clicking over to Hoo Doo Girl at MySpace.Com, including my personal favorite, 'Your Cake Aint No Good'.

From their band notes:

"HOO DOO GIRL is three women that sing a lot. You know - Oohh, oohh and ahhh ahhh. That kind of stuff.
"Remember the big girl groups from the 60s? The Shirelles, the Ikettes, the Dixie Cups...

"Well, that's sort of what it sounds like when Hoo Doo Girl sing.
"BUT what does a Dusty Springfield song sound like when you play it on the accordion and sing the horns? Good question, huh?
"But dont worry your head about it too much. All of Hoo Doo Girls songs are originals anyway.

"Silke, Susie and Peta are passionate fans and collectors of music from the deep South states of the USA, and thats where they found the inspiration to cook up their own volatile stew - -
A cup of Stax Soul, a bowl of Rhythm and Blues, dont forget the Motor City, a pinch of Country and Zydeco all rounded up with a big dollop of
Rock n Roll.

"But what the hell. Why not just listen to it yourself? Bon Appetit."

Below, Hoo Doo Girl performing '1*2*3*4*5'...



2. Also on my drive, my first experience hearing The Dells perform their awesome 1965 group harmony version of the Tom Jones classic 'It's Not Unusual' was made all the more memorable as I crossed the Snake River and passed slowly through the small town of Marsing, Idaho.

It shows up on a nice comprehensive Dells collection that Shout! Factory released as part of their 'Best of the Vee-Jay Years' series.


3. Words fail - - I can't say enough good things about the
Gozalo -- Bugalu Tropical Vol. 1 CD compilation.

It's a BRILLIANT collection of late '60's Peruvian grooves, and the liner notes give the gist:
"...an exciting, spicy mix of tropical gems that fill in the missing link between the mambo era and the dawn of salsa in South America."

Just thrilling. Rocking and beautiful, and now I'm all excited to go check out the recently-released Vol. 2, also on the Vampisoul label.


4. And then, finally, there's Jean Shepherd.

Long and meandering spoken word can be just the thing for a long and meandering road-trip.

I'd seen that there were a few CD collections of Shep radio broadcasts, and I'd found one a while back, but hadn't yet found time to settle in with it.

Little did I know at the time that the couple of discs I selected of the 8 discs available in the 'Jean Shepherd: Life Is' collection of mid-1960's shows would prove to be such apt Road Sounds, providing such perfect and humorous insights as I contemplated life while piloting my car across the trackless void.

- Previously on 'I'm Learning To Share':
Jean Shepherd Reads 'The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill' by Robert Service

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 03/28/08

I returned several days ago from a truly wonderful trip back to the bay area, but I still feel as though I'm playing 'catch-up'. Maybe that's just my normal state these days?

Still, a few things caught my attention amidst the blur...

1. 'Be Seated?' - - A gathering of unusual chairs, like Livio De Marchi's
Sedia da sera,
cartoonist Gerald Scarfe's
'Chairman Mao' and a few others.

- Found at TheMishMash.com, via the appropriately-named Slideshows for your Website & Blog.


2. From the New York Times this past week: 'Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison'
- - Read this article!

It's a fascinating bit of audio archaeology, in which new technologies are used to make audible a visually represented sound recording from 1860.

Though never intended for audio playback, French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville's murky 10-second recording of a human voice singing the folk song 'Au Clair de la Lune' created on his 'phonautograph' predates Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph by 17 years, and Edison's earliest successful sound recordings by 28.

Adding to the fun of the tale of this artifact's discovery is that of the efforts of scientists at Lawrence Labs in Berkeley, California.

They used "...optical imaging and a 'virtual stylus' on high-resolution scans..." of the original 'phonautogram' - - the graphic sound-wave image captured by Léon Scott's device.

The odyssey and unlocking of this relic is made all the more profound merely by the action of having the brief 19th-century song snippet made available as an archived soundfile embedded in the text of the web article.

(Thanks to Joe Sixpack for sending along the link!)

3. Speaking of arcane noises, I can't say enough good things about a CD compilation I stumbled onto while I was on vacation:

'Intoxica! Strange and Sleazy Instrumental Sounds From the SoCal Suburbs' - - It made for great driving music!
Britain's Ace Records released this assortment of 1960's tracks from the Downey label back in '06.
The collection includes 'Comanche' by The Revels (which you might recall from the
'Pulp Fiction' soundtrack), along with 25 other 'boss' tracks by different lesser-known bands.

Ranging from gutty, raw & rocking, to quirky, outré, or just plain silly, the disc provides a good time!

- Read a CD review at E Man Grooving.

- You can read more notes and sample a couple of tracks at the Ace Records website.

4. As previously mentioned, here's a reminder that coming to one of the few remaining independent record stores that's hopefully still near you here in the U.S.;

It's RECORD STORE DAY - - April 19, 2008 !!

"On Saturday, April 19, 2008, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate 'Record Store Day.'

"On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally.

"Plans are underway to set up special events at all of the stores on this day, as well as provide customers with a goodie bag that promotes new formats, new releases, and exciting information on music, theatrical, and gaming releases."

Click over to www.RecordStoreDay.Com for all the info you need!

5. As stated by Coudal Partners
(where I found this link), it's "...a huge gallery of VHS Cover Art from completely forgettable movies".

They neglected to mention (perhaps intentionally) that the gallery page is Swedish, and the cover art is often to the Swedish-released edition of an American film.

They didn't say '- - and it rocks', either. (Which it does.)

Golan-Globus, anyone? Vestron?

(click on rad images to ENLARGE in a new window)






6. A small update I should mention: The tail end of my previous blog post on 'The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.' (The 1953 live-action Dr. Seuss musical epic cult film) now includes a review of the latest version of the film to come to Region-1 DVD here in the US.

It shows up on the recently-released 'Stanley Kramer Film Collection' DVD box set, and includes some wonderful interviews and behind-the-scene photographs not previously available.

Those curious should follow the links...

Reasons To Be Cheerful - - Monday Addendum

As recently mentioned, I'm away from home base as I write this, enjoying a visit back home to the
SF bay area.

Weather wonderful, having great fun, wish you were here.

- - Oh wait, I suppose that you are, in a way...

A couple of whatnots that've popped up...

1. Driving around in the silly rental car, I've been enjoying listening to my copy of a new collection of old music by innovative bandleader Raymond Scott.

The 'Ectoplasm' CD arrived in my mailbox just the afternoon prior to my hopping a plane, so I've been lucky enough to be traveling with it.

It's great!
The music is from Raymond Scott's *Second* (6- and 7-man) 'Quintet,' the one he had in 1948-49, ten-or-so years following his original ground-breaking small jazz ensemble.

This music comes closer to sounding like his older recordings than much of the big band music he'd made earlier in the forties, or the experimental mood music he crafted in the fifties and beyond.

- You can read a good summary of the CD where it's listed at the Basta Music label website, and another piece with reference to the cover art at the Jim Flora blog site.

If you take the distinctive sound of Scott's late-1930's 'chamber jazz', add a few years to fold in new seasonings reminiscent of bebop, film score cues, 20th Century Classical and perhaps composers like Andre Popp, you'll get a bit of an idea of what to expect from this exciting new collection of little-heard material made up of original compositions and takes on pop standards.

It's still clearly Raymond Scott music, perhaps a bit more a 'challenging' listen than some of his earlier material.

Perhaps not a suitable starting point for the uninitiated, but well worth your investigation!

2. Carmina Burana: The Alternate Lyrics?!?

You may have already seen a link to this video piece, forwarded to your In Box. Here it is again.

You may not be entirely familiar with composer Carl Orff's mid-1930's cantata, based upon the medieval manuscript collection of secular songs.

It is highly likely that you have at least a passing familiarity with 'O Fortuna', the
most-widely known movement of the dramatic choral piece - -

-- Y'know, the one that's been overused so terribly often in movies and advertising, etc.

You may be interested in learning alternate lyrics to 'O Fortuna'.

Good luck in NOT hearing these lyrics every time from now on...

Carmina Burana - Alternate Lyrics

(Via You're The Man Now Dog, with thanks to MC 8th-Grader)

3. Another thread picked up from Gary Busey's recent and previously mentioned '15 minutes', tilting at the celebrity machine outside the Oscar ceremonies a few weeks back. Follow the link to a further
Gary Busey Red Carpet moment from the same evening, via DailyMotion.

Bo Diddley - We're Gonna Get Married b/w Do The Frog (1966)

Regardless of any musical changes his sound may have experienced during the course of a long career, Bo Diddley has always been just about the toughest badass on the block.

Arguably, the classic highpoint of Bo's recorded output occurred between 1955 and 1963, but that in no way means that he was done making good music after that.

The two funky tracks on this '66 single came during something of a 'loosening up' period a few years before Bo's second big creative period in the late '60's and early 1970's.

⬅ (Bo's 'Black Gladiator' look came from that later stage)








Listen to:
Bo Diddley (with The Bo-Dettes) -
We're Gonna Get Married
Checker 45 (1966)
(click for audio)











Listen to:
Bo Diddley - Do The Frog
Checker 45 (1966)
(click for audio)









- - And by the way, if you're curious about some of the crazy soul and funk departures that Bo took during that later 'blossoming', check out this recent compilation CD of reissued brilliance,
⬅ 'Drive By Bo Diddley: Tales from the Funk Dimension 1970-1973' released on Australia's Raven Records label.

Some different and unexpected facets of Mr. Diddley, but still too tough for words!

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 12/21/07

Another week, another batch of bits and pieces and debris...

1. Follow the link to: Alice Illustrations other than Tenniel - - an ongoing project found over at
Hugo Strikes Back!

Different artist's visions through the looking glass, old and new and from all over the globe.

(clicking on images makes them larger...)

⬆ Top row, L-R: Jan Svankmajer, Dmitry Che, Michael Hague, Willy Pogany

⬇ Bottom row, L-R: Arthur Rackham, Saulo Corona Gtz, Khodozhnik S. Goloshchapov, Aleksandr Dodon




2. This week I've been enjoying listening to The Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band's NEW studio album, 'Pour L'Amour Des Chiens'.

It feels so very strange to be saying that, as it's been 35-or-so years since the last one.

The big UK reunion tour that the Bonzos staged not too long ago seemed delightful by all reports.

Bless them, the remaining original band members are still full of spark and whimsy, despite getting a bit long in the tooth.

The new CD is good fun, and if it's not the mad sixties group dipped in amber and perfectly preserved, the album is still SO much better than it probably needed to be.

But clearly, this is an album for the fans, a fine addition to the Bonzos canon, but certainly not the place to begin for the novice curious about the band.

There's a healthy amount of the tweaked twenties-trad-jazz that is unmistakably Bonzo. It's wonderful to hear Rodney Slater's exquisitely tortured saxophone again.

There's something slightly off however, as the sound of seasoned older musicians recreating that vibe now comes off so much different than the one created by young art students bucking trends in the swinging sixties.

Now they also seem to be making an effort to hit on a wide variety of different musical styles as the album bounces merrily along, almost as if they need to make up for lost time since their last recordings.

As always, Neil Innes' contributions are practically perfect in every way, though it sounds like some of his tunes are ones he may have been toting around a little while.

I suppose I miss the psychedelia-tinged fringes of the old albums, and the feeling of rough edges. Thankfully, it sounds entirely like the band is doing what they please, not trying to hit an expected mark.

Of course it's the presence of the departed Vivian Stanshall that's missed the most, though 'shiny new millenium' Bonzos Stephen Fry, Ade Edmondson and Phill Jupitis seem only too willing to try to fill the gap. Who could blame them for living a dream?

3. Being released to US-Region 1 DVD in a few months is
'Shemp Cocktail: A Toast to the Original Stooge'.

It could easily turn out to be as dreadful and shoddy as much of the apocryphal Stooge residue floating around out there, but this release sounds promising to me:

"This long-overdue 2-disc spotlight on Shemp – one of the first and one of the last Stooges and older brother of Moe and Curly Howard – contains five early ‘30s solo Shemp shorts; a trio of Shemp’s Three Stooges shorts; a live TV Camel Comedy Caravan with Shemp, Larry, and Moe; the complete 1942 feature Private Buckaroo, starring Shemp and The Andrews Sisters - and more, including outtakes from Africa Screams and sequences from the 1935 drama Convention Girl, in which Shemp plays it straight as a smalltime hood!"

Shemp definitely turned up in a lot of places, and was working hard in Hollywood for a long time - - apart from the Stooges more often than not.

I've often been curious about all those hundreds of Hollywood film shorts from the 1930's and '40's that mostly we NEVER get to see anymore.

I recall some late-night surfing at IMDb, following one
cross-reference to another. I was amazed at how many different series of comedy shorts there were at Columbia Studios alone, in a vein not disimilar to that of the Stooges.

Take a peek sometime at listings for some of the 'repertory company' of folks you might associate with The Three Stooges. Producer/Director Jules White, actors Christine McIntyre or Emil Sitka - - There's a heap of appearances they made in shorts and two-reelers that sound very familiar, but for the fact that they're Stooge-free.

See also: Follow the link to In The Balcony.Com's Short Subject Department, and scroll down the page to the 'Solidly Shemp' listing.

4. This 'Wheelbarrow Race' ⬇ clip on YouTube should be worked into a 'Wide World of Sports'-type
'Thrill of Victory' opening credit sequence on TV, don'tcha think?

Wait for the thrilling and slick home-stretch manuever that sends the crowd into a frenzy and makes you proud to be human...



(Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath, via David Thompson.)

The Moonlighters - Rush Hour (1983)

Recently I've been enjoying listening to
Bill Kirchen's latest CD, 'Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods'.

Though it retains much of the 'dieselbilly' flavor of his other albums, I was surprised to find it often shows a more mellow and soulful side than what I usually associate with Kirchen.
I was also surprised to find a different line-up in his band, but pleased to discover him in familiar company - - the album is produced by Nick Lowe, and it's Lowe and his band backing up Kirchen, along with their 'common denominator', Austin DeLone. ⬇

For me, the result brings a bit of a Rockpile feel to some of the upbeat numbers, and a mood fine as wine to the quieter ones.

Hearing all of them together put me in mind of this old album by The Moonlighters, the one I hadn't heard in a while, their second album, the one that Nick Lowe had produced back in 1983.




The personnel on 'Rush Hour':
Austin DeLone: keyboards, guitar, vocals
Tony Johnson: drums, percussion, vocals
Bill Kirchen: guitar, vocals
Tim Eschliman: bass, vocals


Nick Lowe was still in Brinsley Schwarz when he met
Austin DeLone back in the very early 1970's.

DeLone and his band
Eggs over Easy had gone to London to record an LP, and became regular performers at London's Tally Ho club, where many credit them as having pioneered the British 'Pub Rock' sound.

Back in the states, several years later and following the demise of Eggs Over Easy, DeLone joined the changing line-up of the Commander Cody band, performing alongside Eschliman, Johnson and Kirchen.

The Moonlighters came together during some of the various 'on-again-off-again' years of the Cody band, and proved to be a memorable stop for the band members' ongoing game of 'musical chairs'.

From The Moonlighters' 'Rush Hour' LP
(Demon Records, 1983),
Listen to:

This Livin' Ain't Lovin'
Wait In Line
I'm Gonna Put A Bar In The Back Of My Car And Drive Myself To Drink
Coming Up On Happiness
All Tore Up
Soul Cruisin'
World To Lose
Big Noise In The Neighbourhood
Here She Comes
I Feel Like A Motor
Seven Nights To Rock
Workman On The Nighttime Shift

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 12 tracks in one 29.5 Mb zipfile.

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 10/12/07

More various and sundries that have popped onto the radar this past week...

1. Cute Overload alert! Check out Snowball the dancing cockatoo, over at Bird Lovers Only Rescue.

2. Earlier this month, a jury found a Minnesota woman guilty of copyright infringement for sharing music via Kazaa. It was ruled that she now has to pay $220,000 in damages to the record labels that sued her.

Among the 24 downloaded songs in question was that old chestnut from Journey, 'Don't Stop Believin' (recently resurrected by The Sopranos).

I did a bit of searching, and was very pleased to discover that someone's been good enough to archive that ancient 'Journey: A Tribute to America' piece of early flash-animation - - the one that was popping up in e-mail accounts back when The Information Super-Highway was still something of a novelty item.

(click on link - - NOTE: You may want to reduce the size of the window to improve the image)

Do you remember it? I sure do.

I'm sure there's some kind of important statement mixed up in here somewhere - -
There's the (perhaps simplistic and muddled) message of the song, the internet's promise of a level playing field in a global village, the pre 9/11 tongue-in-cheek patriotism in this quaint video, the song being dusted off just recently from oblivion for use in the finale of everyone's favorite gangster soap opera, and the amount of time, energy, money, and inflationary importance needed to levy an outrageous fine against An Average American.

Oh well, I suppose it's just one more thing to keep us all feeling afraid, feeling like we're criminals...

"Heaven is defined A Moose" - - heh, heh...

3. Speaking of infringements...

A few days ago, via Boing Boing, I saw the 'Complete Beatles in One Hour' post at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

(click on link!)

It presents 'all The Beatles UK LP releases compressed at 800% into a one-hour MP3', resulting in either a trance-inducing frenetic sound collage, or a god-awful mess, or both.

An interesting contemplation, but the part I found fascinating was the results some folks have found slowing some of the individual tracks back down to their proper tempo.

Surprise - - it doesn't quite work - - but in my opinion, that's where the fun lies.

Go take a listen. I especially like the decompression-altered version of 'I Will'.

'Tomorrow Never Knows' is fun too, but that's almost a given.

Likewise for 'Lucy In The Stretch', posted by The Evolution Control Committee using a slightly different software process. As of this posting, the soundfile hadn't yet been added to the main body of the post, so you can hop to it here...

4. Speaking of music ingrained in your psyche, here's a link to a page of instrumental cues from 'The Brady Bunch' TV show, over at The Brady Bunch Shrine.

They're the little snatches of background music, composed by Frank DeVol.

Y'know, the ones you may *think* you don't remember...?

(Thanks to Cuppa Joe!)


5. Click here to wing over to Cliff Muskiet's Stewardess/Flight Attendant Uniform Collection.

If you've not seen his site, it's pretty amazing.

Cliff works for KLM airlines in The Netherlands, and explains how he's always been fascinated with air travel.

He's a 'don't stop believin'' kind of guy, makin' his dreams come true.
He's amassed a collection of over 600 different stewardess uniforms from around the world, and he's happy to share his obsession with us.

Go, Cliff, go!!

6.Speaking of travel, I received word this morning that a brand-new online travel site has just gone live; JetLag RocknRoll - - 'The Ultimate Travel Guide for Your RocknRoll Lifestyle'.

It's run by an old DJ pal of mine, Tiger Lily, and it looks very promising! Day one for the site brings only listings for San Francisco, but the depth offered bodes well for other destinations as they fill in...

... If nothing else, do not fail to take a look at Lily's gallery of superb photographs. Eclectic scenes from far-flung locations. Makes me feel like goin' places!

7. Just heard the new Bettye LaVette CD,
'The Scene of The Crime', and it's every bit as incendiary and flat-out amazing as everyone's been saying.

I loved that last album, too, but - - Wow.
Her voice, her presence, and the seemingly left-field collaboration with Drive By Truckers - - it's all working, and you should check it out. (There are audio samples available at her website)

I can also strongly recommend her 'Child Of The Seventies' collection that Rhino Handmade assembled a little while back.
It's all her Atlantic/Atco label material, most of which is hard to find, some of which has never been available, and all of which is inspired.
The earliest tracks are charming, and most of the later ones are just plain badass tough!

8. Speaking of big smiles, there's Al Gore's Nobel. 'Nuff said.