Leroy Grey's Birthday Blog

How It Works

2010-08-23T11:43:00.003-04:00

On August 22, 2010, I wrote 366 entries for this blog, one for every day on the calendar. So, it's time for me to catch up with my other writings.
I'll also look for ways to make this blog more interactive. In the meantime, just use the archive or the Search function to find whatever day you like. (Archive is more reliable; one of the things I'd like to fix...) As always, comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

August 22

2010-08-22T08:05:00.004-04:00

Why write about Ron Dante on his birthday? Because he sang the biggest song of 1969, but nobody knew his name.
He left his behind birth name, Carmine Granito, when he joined his first band in the early 60's. Eventually, he was working with producer Don Kirschner, songwriting and singing demos.
In 1965, he was the lead singer of a comedy band, The Detergents: they hit the Top 10 with the parody "Leader of the Laundromat" (they got hit with a lawsuit, too; that was settled out of court.) They hit the Hot 100 one more time with "Double-0 Seven" (not a parody, just a comedy song about dating a James Bond fan) before they called it a day:

"Leader of the Laundromat" was written by the team of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, who wrote some successful original hits ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", "Catch a Falling Star".) They recruited Dante to sing vocals for a demo(all the vocals: lead, and all harmonies.) The agreement was, if the song was a hit, Dante would record an entire album for them; the song became a Top 10 hit by the end of 1969.

After the success of "Tracy", Dante recorded all the songs for The Cuff-Links' first album in two days (at the boards, up-and-coming music producer Rupert Holmes...)

The reason for all the rush was that one of Dante's singing sessions was becoming the biggest hit of 1969. Don Kirschner, having just washed his hands of The Monkees, was hired to create music for a TV series based on the comic book character Archie Andrews; Kirschner hired Dante to sing vocals for their songs (and "Leader of the Pack" composer Jeff Barry as lead songwriter; small world...) "Sugar Sugar" was the Archies' monster hit, a global sensation that set the bar for cartoon rock for decades.
The Archies would hit the Top 40 four times; here's their other million-selling single, "Jingle Jangle", taken from the Ed Sullivan archives:

(Trivia: which member of the Archies is singing lead on "Jingle Jangle"? Betty? Veronica? It's Ron Dante, falsetto!)

So, Dante recorded hit songs for the Archies and the Cuff-Links in 1969, without having to tour for either of them. Instead, Dante accepted a solo recording contract with Don Kirschner, which excluded any outside work (except, of course, Don Kirschner projects...)

"Let Me Bring You Up", the lead-up single from his 1970 solo album, was written by the "Sugar Sugar" songwriters. Despite this, they couldn't strike lightning twice. By 1972, Dante was the lead singer in another cartoon band...

It wasn't the end of his music career; he made it through the 70's producing some of Barry Manilow's greatest hits ('Copacabana', 'Mandy'), before parlaying into Broadway production (Ain't Misbehavin, Children of a Lesser God). Today, he raises dalmations and tours for the festival crowd; he resumed his solo career in 1999, and released his most recent in 2010.

August 21

2010-08-21T03:02:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to Stephen Hillenburg, animator; today, we're going to feature his pre-Spongebob work.
His first college degree was in marine biology; in fact, he taught marine biology for several years before he pursued his second life passion, animation. Before he graduated in 1992, he had two short films making the festival circuit. One of those films, "The Green Beret," also appeared on the "Liquid Television" anthology:

His festival shorts caught the notice of animator Joe Murray, who hired Hillenberg as a writer and director for Rocko's Modern Life, which ran for four seasons on Nickelodeon.
The following clip, from "Jet Scream", is one of Murray's favorite episodes in the series:

After Rocko's Modern Life was done, a colleague encourage Hillenberg to pitch the Spongebob character to Nickelodeon. Since his debut in 1999, Spongebob has become Nickelodeon's most successful series; their most recent contract guarantees a ninth season, and enough episodes to make it the longest running series on the network.

I can't offer much insight on post-Spongebob projects: the Spongebob Squarepants theatrical movie, intended as a series finale, was Hillenberg's farewell as an active creator of Spongebob's adventures. Although he heads United Plankton Pictures (which oversees the Spongebob empire), his most prominent activities appear to be on the academic circuit, speaking about his twin loves: marine biology and animation. So, no telling what he'll do once this Spongebob train runs out of steam...

Apologies if this clip still auto-plays: it's still my favorite Spongebob moment, a typically atypical moment that let me know that, within its all-ages confines, anything could happen...

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Band Geeks"

Watch all your favorite shows on Nick

SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes SpongeBob SquarePants Games

August 20

2010-08-20T10:13:00.004-04:00

Quick, name the year:

That sea of feathered hair was brought to you by the 1985 benefit single "Give a Helping Hand", recorded by Swedish Metal Aid, a collective of Swedish hard rock artists. The song was written by Europe frontman Joey Tempest, who celebrates his birthday today.

His hair's calmed down since those days, but he's still rolling. When hair metal took a backseat to grunge, Europe went on hiatus and Joey got his Richard Marx on. In fact, he released three solo albums, which did well in his native Sweden:

In 2002, around the release of his third solo album, Tempest and the rest of Europe reunited:

Europe - Last Look At Eden

// EUROPE // | MySpace Music Videos
So far, they've released three albums and done several world tours. No sign of them slowing down yet.

No signs of any US dates this year, either, so here's the Europe that American fans know best:

August 19

2010-08-19T06:59:00.004-04:00

John Deacon, bassist of Queen, is considered the Ringo of the band, the quiet, unassuming one that willfully stepped back so the other members could stand in the spotlight. (In fact, that's the exact reason he got the job; the prior bassists the band auditioned were trying too hard to keep up on-stage with Freddie Mercury and Brian May.) But even though he cheerfully accepted the role of The Boring One (and the nickname "Deeks"), Queen would not be the history-making band it was without him.

In the first place, he brought the funk:

"Another One Bites the Dust" is undisputedly Queen's biggest hit, topping nearly every chart it touched. John Deacon wrote the song (inspired by a visit with 70's dance band Chic) and developed the arrangement for the band. Although the rest of Queen was initially cool about the song, an endorsement from Michael Jackson encouraged the band to release it as a single, and it became one of the most irresistable songs ever.

When Queen started, it had a hard rock sound that had extracted the blues influence out of their songs(hence, songs like "Ogre Battle" and "Bohemian Rhapsody.") But all four band members began exploring every musical genre they could, from Tin Pan Alley to opera. The follow-up single to their operatic "Rhapsody" was "You're My Best Friend," which became Deacon's first hit single songwriting credit:

He's written songs for every Queen album since "Sheer Heart Attack"; other songwriting credits to hit the charts include "Back Chat", "I Want to Break
Free", and "One Year of Love".

Pretty much, his music career begins and ends with Queen. John had graduated with honors from Chelsea College with an electronic degree when he joined the band in 1971(another reason Queen chose him; he built and repaired equipment for the band!) After Freddie's death in 1991, John would play some benefit shows and record the remaining songs Freddie had contributed before retiring from music altogether. In the between, he had done studio work with other members' solo projects, but his highest profile solo gig was The Immortals, who recorded one song for a children's movie soundtrack:

No, he put down his sticks and went home to his wife and six kids and songwriting royalties (in 2009, his estimated worth was reported at about £50 million.)

I can't end this post without mentioning his greatest contribution to civilization: his bassline for "Under Pressure". John Deacon playing the opening seven notes to "Under Pressure" are enough to qualify him for the blog. The song resulted from a jam session, an impromptu visit from David Bowie to one of Queen's recording sessions. John credits Bowie with the riff, but Bowie - and the surviving members of Queen - credit John with its creation. Whatever percentage his participation, he helped create an anthem for our civilized world:

August 18

2010-08-18T00:03:00.002-04:00

Let's sing Happy Birthday to Jon 'Bermuda' Schwartz:

Bermuda's been providing percussion since the day they met, and he used Al's accordian case to provide the backbeat for Al's first radio performance of "Another One Rides the Bus":

Nearly 30 years later, he's helped Al emulate the most popular sounds in pop culture on every album and every tour stop but 3. He even webmasters the official Weird Al site, among others...

Here's a rarity: Bermuda performing with another band. Here he is, assisting behind the skins for rockabilly artist Rip Masters:

August 17

2010-08-17T00:16:00.003-04:00

Let's talk about Eric Johnson, musician's musician and guitar god. If you're a Guitar Hero player, you know how hard it is to play along with "Cliffs of Dover," his biggest charting hit. The song came from the 1990 album 'Ah Via Musicon', his Grammy-winning platinum record. Here's a performance of the song from the 'Tonight Show':

If you're not convinced of his awesomeness after that performance, you don't have to apologize. Sometimes in this column, we talk about why certain talents aren't superstars. Eric Johnson's downfall is a more pronounced but typical demonstration of why musician's musicians don't become superstars.
Let's put it in context: 1990's "Ah Via Musicon" is a technical masterpiece. In that album, he achieved the ultimate artistic goal of revealing his unique voice within his medium of guitar playing, of establishing his own sound.

When you get beyond the guitar wizardry, you can't ignore the fact that it's a soft rock record. It is so easy to believe that this guy got his big break doing studio sessions for Christopher Cross. Here's another song that Eric Johnson did with ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist John5, just to remind you that Johnson can still rock:

Back to Eric Johnson: Some of the songs on "Musicon" are barely songwriting, just skeletons to let the guitar drift and zoom around the room... that's why people gave up on jazz. It's what they call "guitar wanking", and it sets a divide between the audience and the musician. It's like any athlete or artist flexing their muscles: after a while, the only audience the performer is concerned about is the performer. And while there's something to be said about the purity of the artistic expression, what gives art its resonance is its connection with an audience.
Let me encapsulate the difference: listening to most Eric Johnson songs, at best, makes me want to play guitar like Eric Johnson. But a song like "Cliffs of Dover"... it makes me want to fly like Superman.

I don't know if he's ever going to try to hit the charts again; heck, I can't tell if he'll release another solo album on schedule (every six years.) But Eric Johnson has found great success as the 'musician's musician'. After two successful world tours with G3 (a triple bill with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai), he's doing a Guitar Masters tour in 2011, alongside other guitar masters. That's success aplenty...

August 16

2010-08-15T23:58:00.004-04:00

Today, we're talking about Reginald VelJohnson, veteran actor and go-to guy when you want a friendly cop in your movie or TV show. There's plenty of tough, no-nonsense cops on TV, and they come in two flavors: deadpan (CSI) and trigger-happy (NCIS). As Carl Winslow, Reginald was the happy, not-quite-bumbling (at least, compared to Urkel) policeman that was more than his badge. He was a decent cop with good values (because Family Matters, y'know?...) And the dude could dance...

No wonder his walk-on character from Perfect Strangers became the anchor of a TV series that lasted 215 episodes.

Before he patrolled the streets of the TGIF lineup, he was most famous as the cop on the other end of John McClaine's walkie-talkie in the original Die Hard. He also played a cop in Turner & Hooch (playing neither, just a colleague). Heck, he played a jailer in Ghostbusters.

He doesn't just play cops:

Time Upon a Once from Zach Lipovsky on Vimeo.

That was a short film produced for the reality series for moviemakers, "On the Lot." After ten years 'on the force', he concentrated on the stage, which allowed him more diverse roles, as well as the chance to write and develop his own material. However, he didn't disappear from TV screens, making guest appearences on everything from Crossing Jordan and CSI to Will & Grace. In 2010, he returned to series television, accepting a role on the Disney sitcom I'm in the Band, as a different type of authority figure: a high school principal.

This last clip is to make the point that although the subjects in this Birthday Blog may be unappreciated in a general sense, it doesn't mean that they're not somebody's hero:

August 15

2010-08-15T11:01:00.002-04:00

Today, we feature Jim Dale: an actor/songwriter that's a near icon in his native Great Britain, but might seem comparatively invisible in the US. But even if you haven't heard of him, you've probably heard him.
As a singer/songwriter under the guidance of Beatles producer George Martin, he made several trips up the UK charts in the late 50's.

His biggest songwriting success, the theme to 1966's "Georgy Girl", went to #2 in the US for the Seekers; as for himself, he was nominated for an Academy Award.

During the 60's, he appeared in 11 films of the "Carry On..." series, a series of bawdy satirical comedies.
The 70's brought him to the US, most prominently to Broadway (receiving his first of five Tony nominations in 1974, and winning a Best Actor in 1980.) He also played some hissably funny villains in such Disney comedies as Hot Lead Cold Feet and Pete's Dragon

In the last decade, Jim Dale's voice has gained a magical quality for millions of listeners. He is the narrator of all seven US releases of the Harry Potter book series, as well as for the Harry Potter video games. His work for the Harry Potter won him two Grammys, got him an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II, and earned him a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records (for voicing 146 characters for the Deathly Hallows recordings.)
His voice also narrated such fairytale worlds as those "Perfect" Walgreens commercials and the cult TV series Pushing Dasies...

Of all the good things and great actors I associate with that show, I've gotta say that Jim Dale's narration's the best thing about it...

August 14

2010-08-14T00:54:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to Mogwai drummer Martin Bulloch. Bulloch and his mates started Mogwai (a cantonese word for "demon" - or a cute and fuzzy monster, depending on what decade you grew up in...) in the 90's, and the band's sound was first placed in the 'shoegazing' section of the record store, back when there was such a thing. These days, they're called 'post-rock' by critics, which does nothing for the imagination. I prefer the term 'cinematic', which is the way I also describe Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky: bands that create soundscapes, usually of the slow-blooming variety, that give a feeling over any particular story or chant.
So here's a few Mogwai tracks to choose from:

(This fanvid for "The Sun Smells Too Loud" chops up a music video for The Tommy Seebach Band's "Apache")

August 13

2010-08-12T23:48:00.004-04:00

Philippe Pettit describes himself as a funambulist, but he's mostly known as a daredevil tightrope walker. In fact, there's one particular walk that he did that put him in the history books. That walk was also the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, where he came onstage and made one of my favorite Oscar acceptance moments ever.

But what did he do? Well, I'm going to let someone else tell that story...

These days, he teaches other people to walk tightropes, among other things. The documentary 'Man on Wire' is just one way that he continues to share the story of the 'greatest art crime of the century", whose story has become even more potent as a reminder of a time lost...

August 12

2010-08-12T08:15:00.000-04:00

Today's the birthday of the mindbending Del the Funky Homosapien, an undercelebrated artist if ever there was. His rapping demonstrates that hip-hop as an art form has not yet reached its potential (no matter how much radio music sounds like the same old...)
Here's an example which you're familiar with, if you played a lot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3:

He got in the game as a lyricist, writing for his cousin's group Da Lench Mob (his cousin, being Ice Cube.) In 1991, even as Dr Dre's "The Chronic" was setting the standard for hip-hop production for the next 20 years, Del's debut album "I Wish My Brother George Was Here" was charting an alternate course for hip-hop. Throughout the 90's, his audience was finding him, even as he was distancing himself from the hip-hop industry that came to be. He would eventually help start an artistic collective, the Hieroglyphs, that would be home for his music.

In 2000, he co-created Deltron 3030, a sci-fi rap opera collaboration with producer Dan the Automator.

The album featured many other artists, including British singer Damon Albarn for one track. Albarn was so inspired by the experience, he invited Del onboard to help shape the sound of his next project, the Gorillaz:

To date, it's still Del's most high-profile gig.

In 2010, he's very much the Internet-friendly independent artist; his latest album is available, among other formats, for free download off his site (for a while, anyway.)
Meanwhile, here's the song I'll be singing all day, an Arsenio Hall performance of a song he did for the Judgement Night with alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. Here's "Missing Link":

August 11

2010-08-11T07:02:00.004-04:00

Today, we're lighting candles for Amy Holland, 80's soundtrack siren.
Show business was a family business for Amy (mom was a country singer, dad sang in opera houses;) in 1980, she produced her debut album with her future husband Michael McDonald (yes, the Doobie.) She got her sole Top 40 appearance out of it. But her real big break was when two of her songs ended up on the Scarface soundtrack.

(This song found a second life on the Grand Theft Auto 3 soundtrack, and a third life as a Lil Wayne cover.)

She had one more solo album in 1983, but the rest of the decade was all about movie soundtracks, and not just any spot in the movie:

You see, you need just the right song over the credits, to help preserve that warm feeling inside as you walk out of the theater (totally ignoring the people who do the location coordination, set design, post-production work- but I digress...)
'Teen Wolf', 'St Elmo's Fire', 'Night of the Comet', 'K-9', 'The Lion of Africa': nothing put a button on a movie like an Amy Holland ballad...

[her duet w/ Chris Farren, "Learn to Love Again", kicks in around the 3:20 mark...]

Meanwhile, Amy enjoyed her time as Mrs McDonald, moving the family to Tennessee in the 90's. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and survived a series of difficult treatments. She's even recorded a new album as Amy Holland-McDonald, 2008's The Journey to Miracle River, which has been well-received. No word on any soundtrack appearances, however.
That's my cue...

August 10

2010-08-10T07:29:00.003-04:00

Today's birthday goes to Jon Farriss, the drummer for the Australian band INXS. The members have been together over 30 years, ever since they were a new wave/ska band called the Farriss Brothers (Jon's brothers, Andrew and Tim, play keyboards and lead guitar, respectively.) A former manager, who almost convinced them to become a Christian band, gave them the INXS name.

Instead, they developed their own rock sound (and their confidence to follow the beat of their own drummer, so to speak) and became one of the biggest music acts of the 80's. In their first 20 years, five of their albums went platinum, and they charted singles in the US 22 times (including "Disappear", which Jon co-wrote with lead singer Michael Hutchence.)

After the death of lead singer Hutchence in 1997, the rest of the band struggled to determine their next step. Over the next few years, the band would perform one-off shows with guest vocalists, then almost found a new singer - who left before they could record an album. Finally in 2004, they took the audacious step of making a worldwide search for their next lead singer, and making it part of a reality TV show. Though met with criticism, the show did produce what they were looking for: their next singer, J D Fortune, a guy as rebellious as the band is. He got the job and toured with the band for the next few years.

What happened after the tour is still under debate. Either JD got sent home after the tour, or he got 'sent home'. [As of 2010, the band and JD have confirmed that he is definitely the lead singer of INXS.] Either way, the next INXS album isn't with JD Fortune; it's a tribute album to Michael Hutchence, with guest singers performing covers from the first 20 years of the band's history. Among the names confirmed are the Killers' Brandon Flowers, Rob Thomas, Nikki Costa, and Ben Harper.
Here's a Ben Harper concert performance, with birthday boy Jon sitting in, of "Never Tear Us Apart":

August 9

2010-08-09T00:59:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to Amy Stiller, a girl in the family business of making people laugh (Her parents are Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and Ben's her baby brother.) Her highest-profile gigs have been on TV (including three different characters on 'The King of Queens') but she's appeared in movies with her family as well (my favorite character of hers is the film studies teacher in The Independent.)

Chasing the fame game feels even tougher when it's a family thing, but her response was co-writing and starring in the award-winning short, Amy Stiller's Breast (her aspiring actress character discovers there's an image of the Madonna on her left boob.)

Amy just got married a few years ago. Considering her upbringing, it makes sense that she would have to find someone funny, and someone comfortable with show business. So she married this guy:

No, she's not Mrs. Amy Tentacles. She married voice actor Roger Bumpass; she's Mrs. Bumpass now.

Oh, well... at least, she doesn't have to seduce Spanish furniture movers anymore...

August 8

2010-08-08T06:48:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to Chris Foreman, long-time guitarist of Madness and developer of the "Axecam", a mount for a portable camera (okay, a cellphone camera) on the guitar strap, so audiences can get a 'guitar's-eye-view' of the concert.

Good for short doses, but even the best guitarist has other things to think about in concert than cinematography. Still, great to see the nutty boys still at it.
Here's one of the first of the new ones, featuring guest vocalist/punk legend Ian Dury:

And here's something we can all sing-a-long to:

BTW, did you know that "Our House" became a jukebox musical (like Mamma Mia and American Idiot) featuring all Madness songs? It had a 10-month run on the West End, won the Olivier award for Best New Musical; don't know if there's any chance of that show crossing the pond - or anything Madness, for that matter. It's enough to drive a fan... well, y'know...

August 7

2010-08-07T08:36:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday to veteran actor David Rasche, the That Guy that found, for a moment and a half, the perfect leading role.

He first made his reputation on the Chicago stage; he's particulary received acclaim for his Mamet performances. He also developed his comedic chops in Chicago, assuming John Belushi's spot when Belushi was called up to Saturday Night Live. Perhaps it was the same combination of machismo and buffoonery that made Sledge Hammer such a perfect role.

Sledge Hammer!, a parody of Dirty Harry and NBC's "Hunter" series, lasted two seasons.

"Sledge Hammer" was only one high point of a long TV and movie career. (His longest running series, by five episodes, was the NBC sitcom "Nurses.") He tends to play bunglers or smarmy weasels of the corporate (LA Law, Ugly Betty) or political (West Wing, In the Loop, Burn After Reading.)

But he's so under the radar that he was the most recognizable face in the movie United 93, a movie they wanted to film without any actors that would take the audience out of the story.

Still there are plenty of fans who would recognize him in any role, even if they only see him in one. And they're all going to be in one building!

August 6

2010-08-06T07:45:00.004-04:00

I'm writing about Elliot Smith because he reminds me of somebody. Elliot chose the name Elliot growing up because "Steve" sounded like a jock's name and "Steven" sounded too 'bookish' for him. After four years in college, he did odd jobs and collected unemployment, anything to support the music he played with his friends in Heatmiser:

But it's his music on his own that made Elliott Smith renowned - his music, and the melancholy of his own life. Elliott was content playing in the band; he just happened to end up with a solo career, just like he happened to end up an Oscar-nominated songwriter.

Elliott Smith released five albums in his lifetime, so there's a lot of music to discover. But the reason I'm writing about Elliott Smith - the reason he reminds me of somebody- is because he still feels gone too soon, even if he was expecting it.
I knew somebody - barely knew somebody - whose funeral is happening the day after his birthday. I don't have enough stories, good memories, to sustain me, and I can't stand it. I'm even apologizing for not knowing the right Elliott Smith song (if there even was one) to dedicate, and just picking one, because rain is rain. This one kind of feels right, though:

August 5

2010-08-05T01:14:00.003-04:00

I'm shining a light on Adam Yauch today, who you know as MCA of the Beastie Boys. You might think of him as a rapper, or a bass player. But I want to talk about him as a filmmaker.

Beastie Boys - Shadrach (Abstract Impressionist Version)
Uploaded by EMI_Music. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

See, as Nathaniel Hornblower, Adam has also directed some of the Beastie's most memorable videos, as well as their experimental concert film, "Awesome; I... Shot That!" In fact, since 1998, he's been the exclusive videographer for the Beasties.

Beastie Boys - Body Movin'
Uploaded by EMI_Music. - Explore more music videos.
(I apologize; DailyMotion's kinda in your face, but they're record label owned.)

Besides his efforts as Nathaniel Hornblower, he also started Oscilloscope Laboratories, with its own film distribution arm - but it's not just for Beastie Boys movies. Oscilloscope's garnering a reputation as a tastemaker studio, with its collection of critically-embraced documentaries (Dear Zachary, The Garden, A Film Unfinished) and dramas (Wendy and Lucy, The Messenger, Howl...)

Adam was laid low a few years back with a cancer diagnosis, which derailed plans for the Beasties' next tour and album, a two-part release currently called "Hot Sauce Committee". Although I'm satisfied with him making videos and sharing movies he loves with the world, I certainly wouldn't mind hearing more from the Beasties (especially if it convinces the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...)

August 4

2010-08-04T00:01:00.005-04:00

Sometimes, these blog posts generate themselves:

Good to fit in two birthday wishes, but this post is for Helen Thomas, who has sat in White House press conferences since the Kennedy Adminstration. Plus, she was born in Winchester, Kentucky (down the holler from me), so she gets some hometown love.
Here's a great encapsulation about her career, and its recent (and controversial) ending:

However you interpret her statement, she conceded the insensitivity of her remarks. (But that's kind of common for folks her age; that's why we retire them [See what I did there? Just to be clear, that's an attempt by me to offer humor through a sarcastic ageist statement... unless I'm really prejudiced against old people... or I'm trying to boost blog hits by making incendiary remarks... some of my best friends are old people...]) And because she considers herself a journalist (and not a Fox News correspondent [see what I did there? Just to- never mind.]), she retired.

I don't know if anyone is poised to pick up the torch, regarding her relentless equal-opportunity questioning of every administration of the last 50 years. And her record for crushing press secretaries' souls will likely remain unchallenged for centuries to come. (I think I might be ageist. Forgive me.)
Look at what she did to Stephen Colbert (fast forward to 04:20)

August 3

2010-08-02T23:24:00.006-04:00

Today's the birthday of Jimmy Nicol, a rock n' roll drummer that became the Biggest Drummer in the World - for almost two weeks.
Born in London, his professional career began when he was 18, playing in rock and roll bands around the city. In those days, rock and roll was defined by Chuck Berry around the world, Tommy Steele in the UK. Steele's little brother, Colin Hicks, was starting a band as well, and his manager recruited Jimmy for drums.
Colin Hicks and the Cabin Boys had their greatest success in Italy, after filming this performance in the 1959 film, Europe By Night:

But he didn't stick around to tour Italy; he stayed in the London scene, doing session work and playing in bands for guys like Oscar Rabin and Georgie Fame. He even started his own combo, The Shubdubs.

It was a case of tonsilitis that got him his biggest gig ever. Ringo Star collapsed on June 3, 1964, on the eve of the Beatles' world tour. Manager Brian Epstein urged the other Beatles to get a replacement drummer until Ringo could get better and catch up with the rest of the band. Producer George Martin suggested Nicol, who had impressed Martin at previous sessions for other artists (and had, coincidentally, learned and recorded several Beatles songs for the studio band The Koppykats, in one of those 'inspired by' knockoff albums that record labels do.) He was auditioned, got his mop top cut, and played his first concert with the Beatles in Copenhagen, on June 4th.
For the next week, he fit well with the Beatles and kept up as best he could, while the band played the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Australia...

On June 14, Ringo was ready to return. Jimmy was plucked out of Australia in the middle of the night, and sent back to London with his check and a gold watch, presented in gratitude. He was a Beatle for ten days.
He contributed a footnote to the Beatles songbook, too. During his time as a Beatle, whenever John or Paul would ask how he was dealing with things, he would say he was "getting better", every time. The phrase stuck with Paul, and inspired the song "Getting Better" that would end up on the 'Sgt Pepper' album.

By his own account, he never recovered from his time as a Substitute Beatle. After Australia, the Shubdubs got a boost, but it wasn't enough to get the band's music on the charts. "Humpty Dumpty" wasn't that great a song, to be honest; but the B-side, the Shubdubs' arrangement of "Night Train", was pretty good:

He eventually ended up drumming with the Swedish instrumentalists the Spotnicks for a few years; then, he ended up in Mexico learning samba rhythms and starting a button factory. Eventually, he got out of music altogether.
Today, he's rather reclusive, and hasn't recorded in decades. Meanwhile, his son, Howie Nicol, is in the TV industry, and has become an award-winning sound recordist. He's never released a tell-all book or sold the movie rights (because he respects the Beatles that much), but I'd love to know the full story of this rock and roll Icarus: why he played and what he was working for when it started, what it was like to be a rock star for a week, and how hard was he chasing it after it was gone... Fortunately, he's not a statistic or even a rock music cliche, but I feel there's something to learn from his experience...

There's more to Jimmy than the Beatles, and that's why I'm going to finish up with another song by the Shubdubs, because I love that mod-rock instrumental sound:

August 2

2010-08-01T23:45:00.006-04:00

Today's the birthday of Wes Craven, and if you pay attention to movies, you probably know his name already: as a film director and writer, he's shaped the American horror film for decades, from 1972's The Last House on the Left, to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the Scream series. Today, we're going to take a look at his excursions beyond the horror genre.

1982's "Swamp Thing" was his comic book movie, his attempt to show that he could handle action films, big stunts, and big-name actors (the film starred Adrienne Barbeau, Louis Jordan, and Ray Wise. The film garnered enough of a cult reputation to inspire a sequel and a popular TV series.

At one point, Craven was signed to direct "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace". Those legendary "creative differences" (with star - and eventual director - Christopher Reeve) got Craven replaced.

How did Wes Craven end up directing the Meryl Streep movie "Music of the Heart"? He demanded it. In fact, he only agreed to direct a third Scream movie if he got to direct "Music". At the time, Madonna was attached to the biopic about a music teacher in New York that was saving the world one violin at a time. Madonna and Craven had "creative differences", but Craven got to stay in his chair this time.

The film would end up nominated for two Oscars. Critics spoke well of Craven's directing, surprised by his understated handling of the film's melodrama.

"Vampire in Brooklyn" should have worked. Craven and Eddie Murphy wanted to work together; Murphy wanted something darker than his typical urban comedies, and Craven knew how to inject humor into his macabre movies. And "Brooklyn" has real-deal horror fx, plus Eddie Murphy in multiple roles; it's got the two great tastes...

...that taste kind of off. Was Murphy trying too hard to be a leading man(is it a coincidence that he got the gothic mullet look, ala Tom Cruise's Lestat one year prior?) or was he leaning too much on his comedic timing? Was Craven trying too hard to make a comedy, or did he just lose control of the film? "Brooklyn" has its fans, but most people call it an Eddie Murphy film...

Finally, we feature Craven's contribution to the motion picture menagerie known as 'Paris Je T'aime'. As befitting the theme, it's a short romantic comedy about love in Paris, and the most supernatural element is Oscar Wilde.

Apparently, this was Craven's concession to his reputation as a horrormeister. (BTW, "Paris Je T'aime" is a warm and fuzzy film, but the chapter before Craven's has a hot and savage vampiress versus Elijah Wood... so everybody's happy!)

August 1

2010-08-01T04:05:00.002-04:00

I think I'm heading to a place of closure with only 21 days left to cover. I'm pondering what to do next, and what the future of this blog is. Meanwhile, I'm throwing a short entry in today, due to being out with family for the weekend. Today's birthday spotlight shines on Dean Wareham, who started two indie rock classic bands, Galaxie 500 and Luna. Today, he records with his wife under the name Dean & Britta, with an emphasis on film scores (apparently.)
But here's a Luna song that still haunts me:

July 31

2010-07-30T23:47:00.005-04:00

One of the trickiest things to achieve in the music business is a musical identity. It's twice the challenge for a DJ, who plys his trade by, essentially, repurposing other people's sounds. Norman Cook managed that trick, although it certainly took a while - and a lot of aliases.
Born in Brighton, UK, he was putting together block parties in his teens when he helped a friend out of a pinch, replacing the bassist for his friend's band on the eve of their national tour. That's how he became the bassist for the Housemartins.

The Housemartins sounded a lot like the Smiths, but less angsty. That was good enough to get them on the charts a few times before they called it a day in 1988.

After the Housemartins, he returned to the turntables. By 1989, Norman Cook had a top 30 hit, "Blame it on the Bassline." The guest rapper on the track, MC Wildski, joined Cook's next band, Beats International; their number 1 track, "Dub Be Good to Me", was a hit mashup before there was a mashup trend. In 1994, Freak Power was Cook's foray into acid jazz. In 1995, he whipped up a house album under the name "Pizzaman".

All these projects led him to a sound that he began releasing under the name Fatboy Slim. In 1997, he had enough Fatboy Slim songs for a proper album, Better Living Through Chemistry. Fatboy Slim is his most successful alias; see how many of these songs you recognize:

In 2009, he released "I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat," under the name of Brighton Port Authority - essentially, a Fat Boy Slim duets album. Each of the album's tracks features different collaborator, such as Dizzee Rascal, DJ Danger Mouse, and Iggy Pop.

This video features the "Hitchcock cameo moment" that Cook normally fits into every Fat Boy Slim video.

For his latest album, he delivered Fat Boy Slim's first concept album: 'Here Lies Love', featuring David Byrne, tells the story of former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos and her personal assistant. Meanwhile, Fatboy Slim the deejay continues to play for arena-level crowds across the globe...

July 30

2010-07-30T02:06:00.003-04:00

Sonu Nigam is the answer to a long-standing question of mine: where do the songs in Bollywood films come from? Nigam is what's known in Bollywood circles as a playback artist, the singer of a movie's song that the actor lip-syncs for the film. Contrary to the experience in Western entertainment, it's expected and respected. Here's an example from one of my favorite Bollywood films:

The scene is from "Om Shanti Om", one of my favorite Bollywood films. And though I had figured out it wasn't movie star Shah Rukh Khan singing (else, I'd have read about his magnificent music career, instead of just his magnificent movie career) I didn't know who in the credits sang the songs. Now I know: it can be a different singer for each song.
Sonu Nigam is a second-generation singer, whose star rose after he began appearing on a popular music talent show in his 20's. He's worked extremely hard to reach his level of popularity in India; he's released albums in over a dozen languages (because India's that big, and I'm still wrapping my head around this.)
Here's the real Sonu Nigam, in a music video for one of his songs:

He's trying to launch his own film career (no idea if he sings all the songs in his films) but he's more recognized for his musical talent.

I'm used to Hollywood standards, taking for granted that the actors singing onscreen are generating their own musical voices (Glee, Moulin Rouge, Across the Universe) even if I know they're not generating the songs on-set. The first Western equivalent that comes to mind is Turturro's "Romance and Cigarettes," and the effect was jarring, too obvious (one of many problems with that film.) I've also seen it work (John Waters' "Crybaby" comes to mind.) It's one more string to the illusion, and it can still achieve the desired effect; one character unleashing the song in their heart for the world to hear...)

July 29

2010-07-29T01:21:00.005-04:00

It's time to wish 'Hyvää syntymäpäivää!' to Finnish cellist Paavo Lötjönen. A Sibelius University graduate, he first picked up the cello at 7 years old. And he might have ended up a cello teacher or symphony member, except for a band he and his friends started in college, called Apocalyptica.
Their first album, "Plays Metallica by Four Cellos", is exactly what it says it is. It's wonderful.

Their second album set the tone of the band's musical evolution: they delivered some more Metallica covers, along with some songs from other metal stalwarts, and four original compositions, allowing the four cellists to exhibit individual identities.
Paavo, for example, tends to provide the backbeat and deeper refrains.

By the way, Paavo's the short haired one, and the member with the most umlaats in his name (and therefore, the most metal one...)

It doesn't seem likely that a band would achieve any longetivety by playing metal music with classical instruments. Heck, starting a band with four people playing the same instrument seems ridiculous enough. But Apocalyptica's a great example of how to build a band right: start with playing your versions of your favorite songs, until they're your best versions, then write songs that show off your best talents - and just rock. Apocalyptica's evolved since their humble beginnings: they became three cellists and a drummer in 2003. They also began collaborating with accomplished vocalists and guitarists from around the world.

That's "I'm Not Jesus", featuring Slipknot's Corey Taylor; it was the lead-off single
of 2007's "Worlds Collide" album, their most successful album to date. Personally, I like the songs as songs, but think the collaboration songs are so traditionally structured that the cellists have to assume traditional rock arrangements (cello as rhythm guitar, as lead, as bass); fine for the radio audience, but not what I listen to Apocalyptica for.

I'm going to finish this post with what I consider Apocalyptica at their best. This track's called "Farewell," from their self-titled fifth album; Paavo said in an interview that the band self-titled it because they felt the album best represented Apocalyptica. This video, BTW, is a fanvid, using clips from the Kurt Wimmer film "Equilibrium":

July 28

2010-07-28T08:27:00.003-04:00

Today's the birthday of Jon Arbuckle, the owner of the world's most sarcastic cat, Garfield. (Jon happens to share the same birthdate as his creator, cartoonist Jim Davis.) Garfield has now been around for over 30 years, and I'd have to say it's the most influencial comic strip of my generation.
You might like Calvin and Hobbes or the Far Side better, but where are they now? Where are their knockoffs and spinoffs? Where are their cartoons and CGI movies, their mugs and plush toys and fruit snacks? If you have a Meijer near you, you can get Garfield spaghetti rings. Take that, Dilbert!

32 years is a long time to play second banana to an overweight cat, but he continues to grin and bear it. And he's been rewarded for his patience in the comic strip; this year, the perennial bachelor finally has a steady romantic relationship with Dr Liz, the veterinarian.
The accusations about Garfield the comic strip spinning its wheels will persist until the strip's end; I believe, at that point, Garfield's artistic and philosophical merit will be re-evaluated. And it will all hinge on Jon's journey.

(Fun fact: Garfield creator Jim Davis is the uncle of Jonathan Davis, lead singer of Korn! Ginchy!)

A few years ago, some Garfield readers began digitally extracting Garfield the cat out of his own comic strip. "Arbuckle: Garfield through Jon's eyes" is a webcomic where the thoughts balloons are removed from the strips, giving a glimpse of what Jon actually sees and hears in his world. Even more popular has been "Garfield Minus Garfield", where the comic strip becomes Jon soliloquizing, ranting to no one. Efforts like these hint at the madness hidden within the comedy and aphorisms.
Here's what one of those beloved Garfield TV specials look like with the "without" treatment:

Happy Birthday, Jon. You deserve a fruit snack of your own...

July 27

2010-07-27T00:33:00.008-04:00

Here's a birthday wish to Bobbie Gentry, who may be one of the most mysterious entries that I'll write about in this blog. Let me employ a contemporary reference: she's the Lauryn Hill of country music.
First, let's listen to the song that defined her career: the Southern Gothic tune "Ode to Billy Joe".

The mystery of what happened on the Tallahassee Bridge was a phenomenon in 1967; it was #1 on the Pop chart, a top 10 hit on the Adult and R&B charts (but not country!) The album knocked 'Sgt Pepper' off the top spot. The song managed 8 Grammy nominations, of which Bobbie won 3 - including Best New Artist. (If you pay attention to the Grammys, you might know where this is going...)
Her second album, "The Delta Sweete" was a semi-autobiographical concept album, continuing her swampwater songbird sound. It didn't sell as well as the other 3 albums she put out in 1968, mostly covers and duets.

After "Billy Joe", her next composition that achieved some resonance was "Fancy"; the song and album were released in 1970.

The song's become a Reba McEntire standard, and, in its way, a feminist anthem. For Bobbie Gentry, it was her last Grammy nomination, her last hit single.
The album "Fancy" was one of three Bobbie Gentry albums released in 1970. In all, she had recorded nine albums in four years.

The 70's were her cashing in period. There would be no more new songs. She toured Europe, then managed a big payday for a Vegas revue, where she had complete creative control. In the summer of 1974, she had her TV Variety show, the Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour. In 1976, "Ode to Billy Joe" became a feature film starring Robbie Benson and Glynnis O'Connor.

The film promised to answer the long-debated questions of why Billy Joe jumped off the bridge and what the girl knew.
By 1980, she was retired from performing altogether.

My biggest question is, were there any more songs? She certainly had the artistic ambitions; although Kelly Gordon received producer credit for "Billy Joe" and several other albums, Bobbie revealed that she produced most of her songs (and had to list an established producer at the label's insistence.) She resorted to covering pop and country standards to retain some measure of "Billy Joe" success, while the creative follow-ups - songs like "Casket Vignette" and "Apartment 21" - were ignored by the masses.
So, she did retire to enjoy motherhood and her spoils? Was she frustrated or heartbroken with the business? Did she just leave while the leaving was good? She was a mysterious woman from the first; no use expecting answers now...

We'll let her say goodbye with her buddies Bing Crosby and Tiny Tim:

July 26

2010-07-26T06:37:00.003-04:00

Another request: Dobie Gray, who led me to a musical movement that wasn't created by the musicians, but by their fans.
In the late-60's UK, the Motown sound was making almost as big a splash over there as the Beatles were in the US. As the sounds of soul music began to evolve, a clear line was drawn between the early soul sound that was influencing the mods and the blue-eyed soul scene, and the soul music that was embracing funk, psychedelia, and the politics of the times. While the new soul music was changing, the mod scene wasn't ready to change with it.
That's where the Northern Soul scene comes in: fans of the early sound began scouring their old record collections for undercelebrated songs to celebrate anew. B-sides that came and went in their original release found a new lease on life.
And that's where we pick up the story of Dobie Gray, whose "Out on the Floor" was on his first full=length album in 1965. The song made the British charts in 1975, and it's considered among the top 10 Northern Soul songs.

That 1965 album was a singles collection, brought on by the success of his first hit single "The In Crowd". A Top 20 hit in the US, the song was also adopted in the Mod scene.

But Dobie would have his own musical evolution in the 60's. In the latter half of the 60's, he joined the cast of the Broadway musical 'Hair'. During that time, he was also the lead singer in the band Pollution, most remembered for being managed by the guy who played Jethro on the 'Beverly Hillbillies'.

In 1972, he moved to Nashville and recorded a solo album on the Decca label, working with Mentor Williams, brother of songwriter Paul Williams. From here on, he would perform songs like the soul ballads and gospel tunes that he preferred. These songs would be categorized as 'country rock'. The album's title track was the Mentor Williams written-and-produced track "Drift Away"

Far and away his biggest hit, "Drift Away" carried him to his record label when Decca was swallowed by MCA. He had several singles bubbling under the charts over the next few albums, but no more breakthroughs, and none at his next home, Capricorn Records. He began increasing his efforts at songwriting, penning tunes for George Jones and John Denver. He toured well, particularly in South Africa; he convinced the apartheid goverment to allow him to play for integrated crowds, which was unheard of at the time.

By the 80's, he was recording again - this time, for the country charts.

But "Drift Away" is still the song Dobie Gray's known for, and it's also a great encore. When he re-recorded it as a duet with Uncle Cracker, "Drift Away" did even better the second time around - finally becoming a number 1 hit (and for half a year!), on the AC charts.
So, let's end this with a reprise, because it's a Monday as I write this, and because we all need this feeling, even if we don't listen to the Beach Boys...

Uncle Kracker - Drift Away
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July 25

2010-07-24T21:50:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to the Prince of Darkness, Peter Suschitzky. This second-generation cinematographer (his father was camera operator for the original 'Get Carter') got his nickname for pulling off scenes such as the Luke/Vader duel in 'Empire Strikes Back':

Suschitzky's the first cinematographer I learned to associate with a film, with the help of a hundred shouting fans. His first Hollywood film was the 1975 cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and his name in the opening credits has spawned a popular callback. He also shot a good looking film:

(This is a enjoyable shot scene, fourth wall broken and all. I'd intentionally left it off the Tim Curry tribute, but didn't realize I'd get the chance to use it again...)

His "Empire" work put him on the radar of David Cronenberg, who lost his long-time cinematographer to the 80's remake of 'The Blob'. Cronenberg tapped Suschitzky for "Dead Ringers", the beginning of a collaboration that's lasted over 20 years and 8 films. Here's a scene from the underappreciated eXsistenZ (recommended Not Safe For Work... or within an hour of eating...)

Their next team-up, a sequel to Eastern Promises, is scheduled for release in 2011. Besides Cronenberg, Suschitzky's also worked with John Boorman(Where the Heart Is), Tim Burton(Mars Attacks!) and Randall Wallace(The Man in the Iron Mask).

July 24

2010-07-24T00:46:00.003-04:00

A Happy Birthday wish to former child star Mara Wilson. In her best roles, she distinguished herself by displaying an intelligence and precociousness that seemed more genuine than her peers; she really put the 'actor' in kid actor.

Born in 1987, she inherited a love of acting from her older brother, and Mara started acting at the age of 4. Two years later, she made her feature film debut, in the psychological thriller Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams:

'Mrs Doubtfire' was a box office smash, and Mara's star rose. The following Thanksgiving, her name was above the title of her second film, the 1994 remake of 'Miracle on 34th Street.' The following spring, the National Association of Theater Owners presented her with the ShoWest Award for "Young Star of the Year", a testament to her growing audience appeal.

Danny Devito was also impressed with Mara's talent. Devito cast her in what has become her most iconic role: Matilda.

Devito's Matilda brought to life the dread and delights of Dahl's stories like no one else had before or since, and Mara's performance as Matilda Wormwood was central to that.

2000's 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' is the last movie she did before she concentrated on school and being a normal teenager. In the decade to come, her biggest project was in an Odessa,Texas production of Rogers and Hammerstien's 'Cinderella'.

She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2009. In her senior year, she created a one-woman-show called "Weren't You That Girl...?" It was an autobiographical piece about the child star phase of her life. She managed to avoid the typical post-child star cliches; it'll be interesting to see where the next chapter in her acting career takes her...

July 23

2010-07-23T02:12:00.007-04:00

This post is dedicated to That Guy Ronny Cox, a folk singer who became an 80's Hollywood action staple. Born in New Mexico, Ronny had an affinity for music: he was calling at square dances at 11. As a teenager, he sat in Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue sessions in nearby Clovis, and recorded music for producer Norman Petty. He even earned his way through college through a rock n' roll band he played in with his two brothers.
In 1972, his musical ability helped him secure his first movie role, in the action film 'Deliverance'. He qualifies for this blog for this scene alone:

When Deliverance became a box-office smash, Ronny Cox suddenly had an acting career. He had his own series in 1974, playing the head of a modern family moving to a small town in 'Apple's Way'. But he found more success as a character actor, playing cranky doctors, slimy corporate executives, disapproving dads and plenty of cops. After his role as Police Captain Bogomil in the Beverly Hills Cop series, he became the go-to guy for The Police Chief Who Has to Reign the Loose Cannon In.
Here he is, playing that role, in what was supposed to be ex-Oakland Raider John Matuszak's breakthrough action film:

(Matuszak's greatest role in his brief career would come later, in 1985's "The Goonies"...)

Ronny Cox also developed another speciality character: the slimy bureacrat. Whether it was political ('Total Recall') or just business ('Robocop'), audiences found him eminently hissable. Here's a recent meme, featuring a memorable scene from 'Robocop':

Besides bellicose police administrators and creepy corporate climbers, he's played plenty of politicians ('Murder, She Wrote', Stargate SG-1... he's even played the President in 3 different movies) and military types (Taps, Star Trek:TNG).

The roles that ask him to pick up a guitar have been slight in his resume. There was, however, his moment while playing the police chief in 'Cop Rock', the 90's version of 'Glee':

In the 90's, he resumed his focus on his first love: music. These days, his music's squarely in the folk/americana vein. He tours regularly, and has recorded six albums so far.

July 22

2010-07-21T20:39:00.003-04:00

I'm featuring Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls today, because I'm something of a fan. I don't have any albums, but there's a few songs of theirs I've learned by heart and can strum them on guitar. I don't know what they call male Indigo Girls fans (besides naive, I guess), but I've liked their music since high school.
And it turns out Emily's the one I prefer. She tends to sing the higher parts in the harmonies. Also, she sings the vocals for my two favorite songs, which means she wrote the lyrics to my two favorite songs:

Arguably, Emily's highest charting hit isn't with the Indigo Girls, but in a duet with Vonda Shepherd, from one of the Ally McBeal albums:

Anyway, the Girls are in Lexington tonight, so if there's any tickets available, snatch them up and enjoy the show. Tell her Happy Birthday if you see her...

July 21

2010-07-20T23:34:00.004-04:00

Today's the birthday of international singing sensation Taco. It's not a nickname; seriously, his momma named him Taco Ockrese. He was born to Dutch parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, but I can't find the word 'taco' in either Dutch or Indonesian dictionaries. Was she rushed and did she just put two sounds together for the birth certificate? Was she really hungry when he was born? For now, the origins of his name remains a mystery to me (although I find myself saying 'Taco Ockrese' and thinking of big bad masterminds in Van Damme movies...)

Taco is, and will always be, known for one global hit:

But you know this blog's mission, and we wouldn't be talking about the man if he wasn't so much more, and he is so much more...
Before his pop music career blast, he had a well-stocked stage resume, culminating with a lead role in a Hamburg production of "West Side Story." "Puttin' On the Ritz" may be The Song that the world remembers, but he had several other showtunes sprinkled in his "After 8" album, including "Cheek to Cheek", "La Vie En Rose", and "Singing in the Rain":

Two years later, the world was ready to move on, and Taco tried as well. Here, he performs "Superphysical Resurrection", a single from his 1984 follow-up album. Notice the increase in hair volume...

The song wouldn't sound out of place alongside Go West or ABC, but it didn't click; the next year, he had another album of swing standards. By now, the song's begun to follow him around like Poe's Raven:

Here's a performance from the late 80's, where he's covering a 50's tune. Two items of note: the show host's intro riff, and Taco's developing mullet:

By this point, he was concentrating his efforts in Germany, finding success on stage and on German TV screens throughout the 90's. He was releasing new songs in the 90's, too, in the Stock/Aiken/Waterman vein.
In the millenium, he began releasing his renditions of rock and soul classics, likely emboldened by his two-year run in Berlin's hit stage show "Shakespeare Rock n Roll." Currently, he still performs the all-time classics on the casino circuit- including, of course, the standard that he made his own...

If you're going to have a one-hite wonder, you might as well have one that defines 'class'...

July 20

2010-07-20T01:49:00.003-04:00

Nam June Paik was a Korean-born artist who began using television as his media in the early 60's. Not as a mass media, though- as the world's first recognized video artist, he used televisions as his canvas and paints.

This artwork is called 'Something Pacific'. The outdoor version, on the University of California San Diego campus, was his first public installation.

Growing up, Paik went to Germany to study at a music conservatory. While there, he befriended John Cage and several artists in the Fluxus movement, which wanted to destroy the definitions of what makes art in the name of returning art to everyday experience. He started experimenting with televisions.

His TV sculptures and art pieces (particularly his collaborations with cellist Charlotte Moorman) hit a nerve in the art world. His work also predates MTV and the post-millenial media saturated way of life we know today. Although he died in 2006, several of his works are on permanent display around the world, including 'Electronic Superhighway' in the Smithsonian's collection. (Incidentally, he coined the phrase 'electronic superhighway' in 1974, to describe what we call 'information superhighway' today.) Whether he was using TV to build giant robots or build bras, Paik used television to show us ourselves and what we could be.

July 19

2010-07-18T23:05:00.005-04:00

Here's a discovery: Dame Evelyn Glennie, professional solo percussionist.

Before her, a percussionist (drummer, xylophonist, etc.) would be part of an ensemble, band or orchestra. Growing up loving the drums, she noticed there were no solo percussionists in the way there are solo pianists or guitarists. So she created the job.
Her musical skills allowed her to advance to the Royal Academy of Music. From there, she focused on a solo career: searching for solo pieces to perform, commissioning performance pieces, until she became the world-traveling, Grammy-winning artist that she is today.

To explain just how much of a unicorn she is, perhaps I should add that she has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. (No, she didn't read Oscar's lips.) She's learned to use the rest of her body to listen to her environment, so she hears her music, among other things, in a very different way.
In 2010, she received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Cambridge University, and she continues her worldwide crusade to move the percussionist's place from the back of the orchestra.
Here's a collaboration with Bjork, called "My Spine":

July 18

2010-07-18T02:04:00.002-04:00

When a character actor's built a good career, they become a storytelling device just by showing up. Case in point: Margo Martindale

She's one of the supporting cast members in 2010's "Secretariat" movie. Which one? You'll recognize her. Two words: 'best friend'.

She has that southern drawl and pert smile that says "Middle America".

Here's a short list of some of her higher profile roles:
*the mom in Million Dollar Baby
*the mom in Wedding Daze
*the mom in Walk Hard
*the mom in Management
*the grandma in Hanna Montana: The Movie
She's also played her share of nurses, nuns, and nosey neighbors. Over two decades, she's became a familiar face, a comfort to the audience, shorthand for her character's identity and value to the story. Sh's the epitome of a That Guy.

Presently, the closest thing she has to a cult character is Camilla Figg, from the
TV show Dexter. Another minor character role, she had a memorable send-off in the third season:

Once in a while, she might find a stretch, like her role in the Alexander Payne segment of "Paris, Je T'aime". Margo's resume will very likely continue to fill with matronly and grandmatronly roles; considering how exceptional and distinct she makes them, that's not a bad thing. She's as American as apple pie:

July 17

2010-07-17T07:10:00.003-04:00

Director Alex Winter fulfills so many purposes for this blog. He's a successful writer/director who's been unfairly eclipsed by timing and one particular acting role.
See, if you went looking for Alex Winter in the video, you'd probably grab one of the Bill and Ted movies. If you wanted to show off, you might grab "The Lost Boys"

But it's the works you can't find so easily that make me an Alex Winter fan. Collaborating with Tom Stern and Tim Burns, Winter started working in the director's chair, making music videos for bands like Extreme and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, lensing the cult classic Freaked, and creating the psychotic MTV sketch comedy show The Idiot Box:

BTW, that's Tom Stern playing Lockjaw. Burns would become a head writer on 'Crank Yankers', while Stern would be a director on such TV comedies as 'The Man Show', 'The Andy Milonakis Show', and 'The Chimp Channel'. As for 'The Idiot Box', the show only made it to six episodes; not even enough for a DVD release, apparently...

For the rest of the 90's, he got married and directed music videos and commercials. His next movie - and his first solo directing effort - was 'Fever'; it was invited to the Director's Fortnight at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival that year.
But his directing breakthrough seems to have become the Ben 10 live-action movies.
The two movies are currently the highest rated programs ever on Cartoon Network (and unfortunately, might be why the 'CN' stopped making cartoons for a while...), and has made Alex Winter a director in demand.

As of 2010, he's working on a remake of the cult horror film The Gate (in 3-D!) and recently directed test footage for a proposed TV series based on the underappreciated comic book hero The Blue Beetle. (You can keep up with his future endeavors on his website for Trouper Productions.)

I'll end this post with a musical note, with a video he and his posse made for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Knock Me Down':

July 16

2010-07-16T07:13:00.003-04:00

Graham Robertson has been a professional set dresser since 1996. He's the guy (or one of the guys, depending on the size of production) that arranges the props and furniture on the set, and makes sure everything's at their marks, for continuity's sake. He's done this for movies like Rush Hour 2, My Sister's Keeper, and Star Trek. Recently, he's been busy on the television front: Monk, The Closer, Hot in Cleveland, $#*! My Father Says... That's his Hollywood career for the last 15 years...

well, except for this one thing...

In 2000, he cut together a version of the Budweiser "Wassup?" commerical, using clip from the Superfriends cartoon series:

The video clip became a bonafide viral sensation, inspiring a glut of "Wassup?" clip parodies (and this is five years before YouTube made it easy for any 7th grader and grandmother to upload.) There was talk of the co-creators (Robertson worked with Philip Stark, screenwriter of "Dude, Where's My Car" and a producer on "That's 70's Show") turning the clip into a series for Cartoon Network, but Robertson's next move was creating what the Guiness Book of World Records recognizes as the first all-green screen feature film: Able Edwards.

Shot for $30,000, Edwards was filmed with no sets over a two-week period. While in post-production, he received a visitor in the editing suite: Steve Sodebergh. Sodebergh liked what he saw so much, he became an executive producer.
Able Edwards was released in 2004; it won the Robert Rodriguez award at the Hollywood MiniDV Festival, and then...
...nothing. His experience with Able Edwards informed his book, "Desktop Cinema: Feature Filmmaking on the Home Computer." Five years later, he's keeping busy arranging furniture on sitcoms.
This is the part of the story that fascinates me. Why no second movie? Did the film's lack of box office success dissuade him? There's no website, no sign of any current distribution; did things go sour behind the scenes? Did he, after creating an entire movie with no physical sets, being writer/producer/director/editor/one-man studio- did he find more fulfillment on movie sets? Did he tell the story he wanted to tell? Did he, in the story of Able Edwards, tell his own story and fortell his own fate? Or does he have something else in the basement, bubbling under? (and is "Land of Enchantment" that project?)

Does Graham Robertson have a second act?

July 15

2010-07-15T06:35:00.006-04:00

The first thing I can say about Millie Jackson is she's NSFW. Hearing Millie do what Millie does best requires that warning, because she 'tells it like it is...'
She's got a fine singing voice, sounding more than a little like Gladys Knight. And she's certainly not the first to sing the kind of soul music that's a long way from Sunday morning. But what really makes her stand out is what she does between the lyrics: maybe it's the breakdown, maybe it's the intro, but there's a moment in her song, on the way to the song, where she starts talking to the audience, shining a light on the hundreds of stories finding shelter within that song... These moments have become her forte.
One of her signature songs, "If Loving You is Wrong", got her two Grammy nominations. "If..." was more successful on the charts for soul singer Luther Ingram, and it was also more successful for country artist Barbara Mandrell. But while she only made it to #42 on the pop charts, her version is the definitive one because she steps aside of the song and redefines it:

Performances like this particularly resonate with a live audience, when the singer strolls up to the song and points to the strings that tie the singer and the people in the crowd to a musical moment, a lyric that speaks a common truth in their lives. Singers like to do this, to get some call-and-response from the audience and sometimes to cover for a quick tech repair or bathroom emergency for one of the other band members. But Millie Jackson really made it an art unto itself.
On the net, she's more legendary for her tasteless album covers. They've become something of a meme for reminiscing about the golden age of vinyl.

As for Ms Jackson, she managed almost 40 R&B singles in the 70's and 80's, 6 in the top 10. She also had a duet with Elton John that was a hit in England, but didn't cross the pond:

She was a drive-time DJ in the Houston area for the following decade. Also in the 90's, she wrote and produced the play "Young Man, Older Woman", which was a hit on the urban theater circuit. Her daughter's also in the music business, singing with Eryka Badu.

July 14

2010-07-14T06:53:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday to Bob Casale. But if you know Devo, you know him as Bob 2.

And if you don't know Devo, then read on:

Devo was formed in Kent State University, in the shadow of the protest shootings. Devo fit closest to the New Wave sound, with a double dose of art school aesthetic. Bob was recruited by his brother, Gerald, and is considered part of the 'classic lineup'.

If you feel like shopping, that's not accidental. In its original release, "That's Good" was just one of Devo's songs commenting on America's conspicuous consumption culture. In the 2K's, the song was a cornerstone in a marketing campaign for Target department stores. That's how Devo irony works.
This is the same band who concocted Devo 2.0, which used Disney's child actor factory to cast a Devo cover band.

Another example of how the everyday looks when distorted through the Devo lens: their version of the Rolling Stones' classic "Satisfaction".

Devo lingered in the fringes through the 80's, and dissolved after their 1990 release fizzled. Several members continued to work together at Mutato Muzika, a recording studio and music lab in west Hollywood; Bob became a recording engineer there. The ex-Devo would help each other on splinter projects and soundtrack scores, recording together in several bands not named Devo, before formally reuniting for what became a world tour.
In 2009, they released their first new album in 20 years. Here's the first single:

July 13

2010-07-13T02:13:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to Professor Erno Rubik, architectural engineer and creator of the world's most popular toy. He invented the Magic Cube in 1974, but when the Ideal Toy Company signed for international distribution rights, they changed the name to Rubik's Cube in 1980 (which is why they're celebrating a 30th anniversary so much later.)

The Cube was a phenomenon in the 80's, and it's still a global best-seller, probably because solving the puzzle remains shorthand for 'smarter than the average bear'.
Speedcubing competitions gather fans to see who can solve the Cube fastest (current record: 7.08 seconds); then blindfolded, or underwater, or with their feet, or blindfolded with a spotter...

Professor Rubik was able to start his own company, desigining more toys, as well as furniture (would you buy a Rubik's Couch? Would you ever be able to open and close a Rubik's Futon?) The international Rubik's site offers official 3X3 cubes, plus 4X4 cubes, 5X5 cubes, customization and lubrication kits (if your stickers are wearing out, for example), build-your-own 3X3 cubes... I also found a website that not only found various permutations of Cubes available, but such tchotchkes as cufflinks and coffeetables.
I wasn't a Cube-ist in the 80's; I preferred a Rubik's snake (officially, the 'Rubik's Twist'). My family had two: the classic blue/white and a sturdier orange/yellow one. While it has nowhere near the Cube levels of fandom, it's still a reliable seller. It's like a self-contained sculpture piece:

A Rubik's toy that I haven't seen in years is Rubik's Magic, which was several flat panels that connected together like snakes and ladders. It was almost as addictive, but not as durable.

But it's the Cube that makes him a star among contemporary Gepettos. I've read that he doesn't like doing interviews, and I could understand that if every other person I met asked me 'so, how do you do it?' In fact, if I was him, I'd have a basket of Cubes on the ready and make a reporter solve a cube for she could ask another question. I mean, it's just a toy; how hard can it be?

July 12

2010-07-11T21:06:00.003-04:00

They say the other half of a movie is sound. Somebody who would agree is Ben Burtt, who has made some of the most memorable sounds in movies.

Those sounds include: R2-D2, the lightsaber, ET, Wall-E, and the Darth Vader breathing apparatus.
Here he is, explaining the history of the lightsaber hum:

He also returned the "Wilhelm Scream" to popularity. Here's a retrospective:

I know I haven't written a lot for Mr Burtt; I figured his work can speak for itself...

July 11

2010-07-11T09:00:00.004-04:00

Today, we tell the story of Tab Hunter, ex-teen heartthrob. His second film, 1952's "Island of Desire" made him a box-office draw, and the 1955 war film "Battle Cry" (where he was cast over James Dean) made him the box office king for the rest of the 50's. This period includes his most enduring role, in the film version of the Broadway smash "Damn Yankees"

Like any respectable 50's teen idol, Hunter began a music career: his first single "Young Love" hit number 1 in 1957. Hunter was such a cash cow for Warner Brothers, they blocked Hunter's recording contract and started Warner Bros Records, just so they could release his records. In 1960, he got his own sitcom, The Tab Hunter Show.
Five years later, he was on the dinner theater circuit. So, what happened?

Well, there's the whole 'growing up' thing, which usually ends a teen idol career all by itself. Then, there's the whole 'acting range of Paul Walker/Megan Fox' thing. His homosexuality may have also been a factor (Henry Wilson, the agent that named him, sold him out to the tabloids to buy silence about another Wilson client - Rock Hudson.) While it was never entirely out (until 2005), his other life was a persistent rumor, even at his career's height.
On the other hand, his reputation may have led to his resurgance.

He returned to the big screen in the 80's, starting in John Waters' "Polyester", then in such films as "Lust in the Dust", "Grease 2", and "Cameron's Closet". While he hasn't returned to A-list status, he seems to have become something else: a genuine actor.

July 10

2010-07-10T02:10:00.004-04:00

Today is Ellen Kuras Day, a cinematographer with a unique distinction: she's the only person to win the Cinematography Award at Sundance three times. Her experimental eyes have also served Spike Lee (Bamboozled, He Got Game), Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind), Rebecca Miller (Ballad of Jack and Rose, Swoon) and Sam Mendes (Away We Go).
So let's get a sense of her aesthetic with a mini-retrospective of her work, starting with a trailer for the award-winning Swoon:

Swoon was the first of Kuras' Sundance winners. Besides 1995's Angela, Kuras also won for Personal Velocity:

In 2008, she sat in the director's chair for the first time, for the documentary "Nerakhoon" (translation: "The Betrayal"), about a Laotian family's struggle to emigrate - and then survive - America.

July 9

2010-07-08T23:59:00.002-04:00

Don't know if I've written about a That Girl yet, but here's one: Pamela Segall/Adlon. The slash is there because she actually has three or four name permutations she's been credited with.
She started her acting career in the 80's, most notably on the Facts of Life for a season and a half. She played Kelly the shoplifter, and the girl who could out-Jo Jo:

While she continued appearing on TV shows (Wiseguy, Redd Foxx) and movies (Say Anything, Ford Fairlane), Segall was really hitting her stride in voice work. She could hit that tough-cute vocal tone that says 'scrappy kid hero', so she found work on several cartoons, including Recess, Rugrats, Teacher's Pet, and King of the Hill, for which she won an Emmy.

Married in the 2K's, she now gets credited as Pamela Adlon. As of this writing, she can be seen on the TV series 'Californication' and she can be heard in those direct-to-video Tinkerbell movies. But here's a funny scene from the overlooked series Lucky Louie:

July 8

2010-07-08T05:51:00.002-04:00

I just feel like listening to some tunes today. Happy Birthday to Jamie Cook, guitarist for the Arctic Monkeys. Apparently, he's the tastemaker for the band, too; he's the indie aficionado that introduced the band to their post-Strokes sound.
Here's the video for a between-album release, "Leave Before the Lights Come On". It stars Paddy Consadine(Hot Fuzz) and Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead).

Today's entry's a little light(their first album came out in 2006), so here's another video, with a clown brawl:

July 7

2010-07-06T23:17:00.003-04:00

By default, my first choice for today's entry has to be Berry Sakharof. He taught me how to say "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew.
First, let me introduce you to Mr Sakharof. He's considered a guitar god in the Israeli rock scene, since the days of his first band, Minimal Compact, in the 80's. Now a successful collaborator, producer, and solo artist, he is a major concert draw in Israel.
"Yom Huledet" ('Birthday') was a song on his 1995 album "Cham al hayareach" ('It's hot on the Moon') that got a trance-y remix from Infected Mushroom in 2002. Here's the Chemical Brothers-esque version:

July 6

2010-07-06T00:07:00.004-04:00

I didn't expect to return to the world of burlesque, but it's the birthday of Candy Barr, who has been called "the first porn star".
She was born Juanita Slusher, from a small town in Texas. She ran away at 13, to the bright lights of Dallas. She got work as a cigarette girl and cocktail waitress; she even got married (at 14!) but that didn't last... At 16, she got a dancing job at a Dallas gentleman's club, went blonde, and became Candy Barr, the girl that wore cowboy boots and a gun holster - and little else... She became a top draw...
But just before she became Candy Barr, she participated in a 'blue' film, the kind of short film that got shared at bachelor parties and fraternity houses. Today, "Smart Alec" is considered a classic of the artform; a critic for Film Threat called the short "the 'Citizen Kane' of stag films."

No, I'm not showing it here.

Here's a clip from "My Tale is Hot", where the devil tries to tempt someone with a Candy Barr clip. No, I'm not being ironic...

Anyway, her dancing got her seeing the country and making new friends... like gangster Mickey Cohen (who helped her skip to Mexico to escape a drug possession charge) and nightclub owner Jack Ruby (who gave her the puppies that started her dog breeding business... months before he shot the guy that shot Kennedy.) She was Joan Collins' choreographer in the 1960 film, "Seven Thieves," the closest Candy would come to a Hollywood career. (Her life story almost became a Farrah Fawcett movie, but that never got past the development stage...)

Eventually, she made right with the state, served her time, and took care of her family and dogs for a while. She returned to the burlesque stage around '68, made another stir when she posed for Oui magazine in her 40's, and even published a book of poetry. She passed away in 2005. In one of her later interviews, she said she was never interested in arousing men, she just wanted to dance.

Here's another look at a lovely lady, Miss Candy Barr...

July 5

2010-07-05T00:32:00.003-04:00

Today goes out to songwriter's songwriter Marc Cohn. Cohn's most famous for his song "Walking in Memphis", from his self-titled debut.
If you want to hear that song and its origins, the Iso Tank blog has already done a great job of recounting the Walking in Memphis story, plus they've got a primo recording that starts up as soon as you click onto the page, so adjust your volume first...
The song propelled his album to Platinum status; two more singles made some ripples, but got lost in the noise of 'Memphis'. (If you want to pop the question but don't like making speeches, just play "True Companion" so she hears the words, and then show her the ring in the middle of the second verse.)

He released a greatest hits in 2006, even though, besides "Memphis", he only made the charts three more times.

In 2005, after a Denver, Colorado performance, he was shot in the head when someone attempted to carjack him. Apparently, it hit him in the writer's block; he was released from the hospital the next day with no significant injuries, and he would end up returning to the recording studio for the first time in ten years, releasing an album in 2007. Here's a TV appearence of him performing one of those songs, called "Live Out the String" (because "Driving in Denver" would have been, y'know, repetitive.)

In 2010, he's releasing his latest album, which happens to be a covers album. In fact, it's all songs released in 1970, which is a pivotal year of inspiration for him. I admit, he picked a lot of winners for his setlist: Cat Stevens, Wings, Badfinger, Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder... Basically, he sang his own mixtape, and we all win. If you're reading this before the album release, and you want a sample, join his mailing list and you'll get a free download of his John Lennon cover "Look at Me".

July 4

2010-07-04T07:28:00.002-04:00

The Fourth of July is recognized as America's birthday, and while I'm proud to be an American, this blog is about the people who get a murmur while everybody's celebrating the big day. And a real good candidate is 60's musician and blues revivalist Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, guitarist and harmonica player for Canned Heat.
Canned Heat is one of those underappreciated 60's bands with a familiar name but not quite icons. But they're defintely part of the 60's soundtrack - no, seriously, their song "Going to the Country" is the opening theme to the Woodstock documentary, but their concert set was cut from the film for time issues.

In the mid 60's, Wilson was a music student at Boston University and a blues aficionado, trading records and writing academic articles about the artistic merit of the genre and its practicioners. He joined several blues enthusiasts in weekly jam sessions, recreating their favorite songs; these sessions metamorphosized into the band Canned Heat.

The band's greatest commercial success coincides with the summer of love, with "Going up the Country" and "On the Road Again" becoming worldwide hits. But they didn't keep their success to themselves; they brought several classic blues musicians back into the spotlight, including Memphis Slim, Son House, Albert Collins, Sunnyland Slim, and John Lee Hooker. Hooker's double album with the band, Hooker n' Heat, would be the first album in his career to make the Billboard charts.
Hooker n' Heat was also the first Canned Heat album released after Wilson's death.

Wilson died in 1970, at the age of 27, another 'gone too soon' like his contemporaries Joplin, Hendrix, and Morrison. And while he never achieved the visibility that they did, Wilson's contributions to rock and to the blues make him at least as essential to the architecture of American music.

July 3

2010-07-02T22:05:00.008-04:00

Happy Birthday to the Chinese Hercules, Yang Sze, known to English-speaking action fans as Bolo Yeung. Bolo has been one of the most menacing villains ever onscreen, often without saying a word:

That's him in Double Impact; he's around 50 years old.

I'm still trying to verify his age; several sources say he was born in 1938, but his personal website says he was born in 1946. His story goes, he was already a renowned weightlifter in the 60's when he swam from the Mainland to Hong Kong to escape communism. He won the Mr Hong Kong weightlifting title for several years by the time he was discovered by the Shaw Brothers, and his acting career began en force.

Western audiences were introduced to Bolo in Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon", where Bolo plays the mastermind's main goon. Bruce and Bolo had been friends for some time, and Bruce even promised they would have a fight scene together in "Game of Death", but that scene was never to be.
The closest to an on-screen spar between the two are these between-takes photos from the set of "Dragon."

sparring w/ Bruce Lee

"Enter the Dragon" was enough to make him a big star in the East. (He even had a doppelganger, Lee Chun-Wa, who tussles with the like of Jackie Chan in 'Drunken Master.') Bolo's next breakthrough was in 1988's "Bloodsport", as Jean Claude Van Damme's nemesis. He became an action-star mainstay, starring alongside Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock, Billy Blanks...

He even played a good guy in Shootfighter, cast as the sensei forced to fight for his students' honor. The movie has the bonus of pitting Bolo against the evil sensai from the Karate Kid, That Guy Martin Kove:

Now long since AARP eligible, he lives in California as a fitness and martial arts instructor. He announced his retirement from acting in 2008; with nearly 100 films under his belt, that's plenty for fans to discover...

July 2

2010-07-02T06:07:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to Jerry Mathers, one of TV's first child superstars. Jerry was the star of "Leave It to Beaver," a sitcom that's become synonymous with a decade and a way of life.

By now, the child star life trajectory's become a cliche, and you're probably expecting the same story about Jerry - that's not the case. Maybe it's because his father was a school principal, maybe it was a more naive time, maybe it was because at his audition, he said he'd rather be with his Cub Scout troop... But it seems that he never lost perspective about his career in relation to his life.
"Leave it to Beaver" ran from 1957-1963; after the show ended, he essentially retired from acting to concentrate on school, and used his merchandising residuals to financing a successful career as a real estate developer and banker. He returned to star in a TV-movie sequel, "Still the Beaver", which turned into another "Beaver" series that lasted six years.
Besides "Beaver", his most significant role might be in the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Trouble with Harry" (which he did two years earlier):

Jerry still acts occassionally (including a turn on Broadway's Hairspray production), but he's certainly not the True Hollywood Story cliche we've come to expect. To me, it's because he made two important decisions through his life: 1)he built a life outside of his show business career; 2) he didn't declare war on his iconic role. It seems that the cast of "Beaver" became a second family as well, and that had to help. (The guy that played Lumpy, his best friend? He's Jerry's investment manager. The guy that played Eddie Haskell, the troublemaker? He's a retired LA cop...) Jerry's lived the "hip to be square" life to the hilt, and that's not so bad.
The most 'rock n' roll' thing I could find was something from his brief music career: he fronted a garage band, "Beaver and the Trappers". They recorded a few singles on the Arista label, but mostly played sock hops in California, and... yeah, that's as rebellious as I can find.

July 1

2010-07-01T00:25:00.002-04:00

Here's an Australian legend: John Farnham is Australia's 'king of pop', a singer who, thanks to 74 singles, has been on the Australian charts for the last five decades. He's so big in Australia, he's got a statue in Melbourne harbor. He's enjoyed success almost everywhere else in the world - everywhere, that is, except America.
He started as a teen idol in the 60's, bouncing between a recording career and the stage throughout the 70's. In the 80's, he took over the microphone spot in the Little River Band, touring with them and recording two albums. The Little River Band would only make the Top 20 once with Farnhma singing lead, with two other songs making the charts.
Here's a performance of that second single, on the TV show "Solid Gold":

By 1985, he was on his own again. His 1986 album 'Whispering Jack' went platinum in Australia 24 times over; it's the best selling album in Australian history.
A great deal of that success was due to the song "You're the Voice", a single that went #1 in six countries, top 10 in four more. In the US, the song made it to #82 - on a re-release.
Fortunately, the song has a life of its own. (I wish I could have found the clip from the 2007 film "Hot Rod", which uses the song to hilarious effect, especially if you remember the music videos they used to play on VH1. Seek it out...) It's a song that's been re-recorded several times over, although for most people, it's Farnham's version that stays with them...
Here's some famous fans, at a benefit concert, starting a singalong:

June 30

2010-06-29T22:14:00.002-04:00

Today is the birthday of Matisyahu, a Hasidic Jewish reggae artist, and probably one of the artists I most admire today.

He's the most vital reggae artist since Bob. He expresses and sings about his faith without hesitation, but he's not trying to convert the world to his way of thinking. He's more like Youssou N'Dour or Johnny Cash: musicians sharing their own spiritual journeys, and pointing out the common ground between all souls, regardless of church or musical preference.

He's probably bigger than I need to feature here, but I really think the world is just beginning to discover him. "One Day" got lots of play in the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, but his best is yet to come.
Meanwhile I found a clip from this reggae compilation of Disney songs. I'm even going to run out and get this album:

June 29

2010-06-28T22:37:00.003-04:00

Here's to Colin Hay, a trobadour who didn't let a bit of good luck near the beginning of his career be the end of it. Colin was the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the Australian band Men at Work, an essential ingredient to any 80's New Wave party.

Eventually, the tide went out on New Wave, and Men at Work called it a day.
Hay got a few solo albums out by the end of the decade, but no chart traction. That would be it for most people, but he kept recording and releasing his own material. Chad Fisher, a musician that worked outside the music industry with his band Lazlo Bane, recruited Hay for a cover of Men at Work's "Overkill"; Fisher records and tours with Hay to this day.

One of Lazlo Bane's fans, actor Zach Braff, persuaded the producers of Scrubs to use Hay's songs in the show; Hay even appeared on the show several times.
His most recent album, American Sunshine, came out in 2009; several of his solo albums have also been re-released. All indicators suggest that his best work's yet to come...
Here's a promotional performance of "Waiting for My Life to Begin", alongside his wife and frequent singing partner, Cecilia Noel:

June 28

2010-06-28T06:32:00.005-04:00

Now that the Karate Kid has been successfully re-invented for another generation, it's a good time to remember Pat Morita. After all, it was his Oscar-nominated performance that elevated a teen movie into a signpost for a decade, and cemented his title as the most popular Japanese-American actor in history.
He managed quite a few firsts in his career. Morita was the Arnold that ran Arnold's on "Happy Days". He became the first Asian-American sitcom lead in "Mr T and Tina"; the cancellation of that show and "Blansky's Beauties" would make him one of the few actors to lose two shows in one season. In the wake of "Karate Kid", he got his own cop show, "Ohara":

Yup, that's Catherine Kenner,from "Being John Malkovich", as a junior detective. "Ohara", the first drama with an Asian-American lead, didn't do much better in the ratings; it lasted two seasons.
Morita's enthnicity was a double-edged sword, but he used it adeptly through the decades. He played at least as many roles in his native California drawl as he did laying on his Migayi-think accent. He was just as comfortable lampooning his iconic sensai character as he was reprising or ripping it off. Whether he was earning an Emmy nod (for the Kirk Douglas TV-movie Amos) or starring in a buddy cop movie with Jay Leno:

[Take THAT, Prince Humperdink!]
Morita schooled us all. Happy Birthday, Sensai...

June 27

2010-06-26T20:50:00.006-04:00

Here's to Lisa Germano, another legend along the outskirts of popular music. Lisa's career began as a violinist; she was good enough to join John Mellencamp's band.

Besides her seven-year run in Mellencamp's band, she became an in-demand session player for scores of artists, and not just for her violin playing.

She began to get notice for her singing - and her songwriting. In the 90's, she signed with Capitol Records, then 4AD; 4AD would release several of her critically acclaimed releases. But one very bad year (1998) nearly discouraged her from performing altogether: she was invited to join the Smashing Pumpkins, then fired the night before their US tour, then she did a solo tour for her most recent album, only to learn mid-tour that her label dumped her. She quit music after the tour, and got a job at a bookstore.

But she couldn't give up writing songs, or singing them, and returned to the game, but found better partners. Today, she's signed with an indie label (Young Guns) and has resumed her prolific tendencies. That's good; we need more songs as beautiful as this...

june 26

2010-06-25T23:47:00.002-04:00

Today, it's the birthday of Georgie Fame, which is as real a name as you'd expect it to be. Born Clive Powell, he started as a piano player on the early rock n' roll circuit in Britain, inheriting his backing band when they were all fired from backing up 50's rocker Billy Fury. Absorbing the beats of ska, blues, jazz, and Motown that he played in Soho nightclubs, he gave up piano for a Hammond organ, and found his sound.
He hit his stride as a solo artist in the Mod 60's, with three Top 10's; he even got them across the pond. In the 70's, he got the wife of a Marquess pregnant; she divorced, and her marriage to Fame lasted 20 years, until her death.
In the 80's and 90's, he played with artists like Bill Wyman and Van Morrison; today, he still plays out, alongside his sons.
Since it's summer, I'll throw in a clip of "Yeh Yeh", the song that ended the Beatles' 1964 streak of number 1's. A jazzy number, great to dance to on the road...

yeh yeh

June 25

2010-06-25T01:06:00.003-04:00

If you've read the entries earlier this week, you might have noticed the pattern: everyone I wrote about was a birthday girl. I was wondering if I hadn't featured enough females in the blog (considering the planet's about 50/50 gender-wise, why wouldn't a random sampling of undercelebrated celebrities be the same? Discuss...) so I intentionally searched for females to write about. I made it to 6 in a row; why did I stop?
Because I can't let by the birthday of Peyo, Belgian cartoonist and the father of the Smurfs. Smurfs were a major toy phenomenon in the decade of major toy phenomenons, the 80's. But before that, they were a spin-off from a comic strip that Peyo created after World War II, called Johan et Pirlouit (in the 80's cartoon, that's Johan and Peewee[or Peewit?]) About ten years into Johan's comic strip adventures, he meets the Smurfs. They were immediately popular, and received their own newspaper strip. The plastic figurines also started in the 50's, and hasn't stopped production since.

The most fascinating aspect about the Smurfs, to me, is how one of the most popular children's shows in the Reagan administration could look so... communist. I mean, what are Smurfs? A bunch of little blue men barely distinguishable from each other, most of them named by their role in the community(Brainy, Jokey, Hefty, Handy, etc.) Replace "smurf" with "comrade", and see how well it fits.
Also consider: Papa Smurf, the leader dressed in Red, with the Karl Marx beard and the French revolution hat.
Also consider: Gargamel, the wanna-be wizard that keeps trying to capture Smurfs so he can melt them into gold. In the Smurf world, he's a greedy giant, a Capitalist. Think that's a stretch? The producers actually changed his motivation in the last two seasons: apparently, it was more acceptable for the kids to think that he wanted to eat them! There's even umblings that Gargamel's design is consistent with anti-Semetic caricatures(bald, big nose, greedy), which would make the Smurfs Stalinists, I guess...
Anyway, they're about to experience a resurgence; they're a tentpole movie for the 2011 summer season, and that song will be in my head for another decade. But then, I can always turn to that Unicef ad they did a few years ago, to bring attention to the inscription of children in partisan fighting throughout several African nations.

I'm sorry; I can't end this article on such a low; here's a full episode of the Smurfs, which you can find at thewb.com:

T

June 24

2010-06-23T22:16:00.002-04:00

Siedah Garrett was a protege on Quincy Jones' Qwest label in the 80's. She made her career singing backup vocals for acts as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Starship, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.
During the recording sessions for 'Bad,' Michael didn't have a vocal partner for a duet he had written (Barbara Streisand, then Whitney Houston, had been offered, but schedule conflicts prevailed.) Siedah was ushered up to the mic, and the duet, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," was the album's leadoff single, and its first #1.
But her most popular song might be the one she wrote for Michael: "Man in the Mirror". "Mirror" would top the chart for two weeks.

This version was recorded for Siedah's 2004 album.

In her own time in the spotlight, she would end up placing in several charts: a dance hit here, an R & B hit there... Here's a song she put in the Adult Contemporary chart, from the movie "Baby Boom":

But in her time at Qwest Records, the label only produced one album of hers, and that was to capitalize on the success of "I Just Can't Stop..."

In 1991, she became a TV host, counting down the charts on America's Top 10. She continued her studio session work and backing singer gigs for Michael Jackson and Madonna. In 1996, she became the vocalist for the Brand New Heavies - for one album.

She continues to concentrate on her songwriting for others, although her singing voice still gets her in the spotlight: for the 2010 World's Fair, she sang for the US at the fair's opening ceremonies in Shanghai.

June 23

2010-06-22T22:06:00.004-04:00

Today's birthday girl is a request: Duffy, part of the wave of 21st century blue-eyed soul girls, was inspired to sing from watching Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Her 2008 debut was 2008's biggest album in the UK. She made her inroads in the rest of the world, too, although I don't understand why they used the song "Mercy" to hype the American Gladiators show when it was on; oh, well. She
Here's another of her tunes, a fave of a friend of mine, "Rain on Your Parade." She's performing on Jools Holland's stage, which is where she made her breakthrough:

In 2010, she's recorded album number 2, aiming to release it before year's end...

June 22

2010-06-21T23:46:00.005-04:00

I've got a category called "Japan" that I don't use very much. It's a designation I cribbed from other blogsites to signify those things that come off as so mind-bogglingly weird, something must have been lost in translation... Basically, it's another way to say "WTF?"
I haven't used it as much because:
1) it's kinda racist
2) a lot of the Japanese stuff I end up finding isn't that weird.
3) the Koreans have been much weirder, but who's gonna say "That's So Korea..."?

I've kept the label, because it's a flaw of mine worth learning from. Case in point: Emmanuelle Seigner, the current Mrs Polanski. Polanski's only directed her in 3 of her 29 films; she's been nominated for France's version of the Oscar, and best known to American audiences for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

Seigner also sings in the band Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle, which sounds like Nico singing shoegazer music:

But the 'Japan' moment for me was her starring role in the Death in Vegas video "Hands Around My Throat":

Because who knows "WTF" better than the French, right?

Maybe I haven't learned anything...

June 21

2010-06-21T01:01:00.004-04:00

I can't help but post up about Marcella Levy, a.k.a. Marcy Levy, a.k.a Marcella Detroit... She's got a fistful of reason to write about her.
Marcella Levy was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1952.
Her first songwriting credit is shared with the other writers of "Hungry", which was a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. Her singing and her songwriting skills in the early 70's were good enough to get her in Bob Seger's band and out of Detroit. She played with several bands throughout the 70's in touring and session musician capacity: she wrote several songs for Eric Clapton, including "Lay Down Sally". She even recorded a duet with Robin Gibb, which almost cracked the top 40:

Now, here's someone I didn't expect to write about again: she was introduced to Siobhan Fahey, fresh out of Bananarama and recruiting people for her solo album. They began writing songs together, and their partnership turned her solo project, Shakespeare's Sister, into a duo.

The partnership lasted two albums, before Fahey called it quits. Marcella managed to get one solo album in the charts from the fallout.

By the mid-2K's, she had left the synth-pop sound (and the Marcella Detriot name)behind her. Today, she performs blues numbers with her own band, releases them on her own label, and writes songs for others. She was also a finalist on a British reality show, Popstar to Operastar. Who knows what she's going to do with her next decade?

June 20

2010-06-19T23:33:00.003-04:00

Tress MacNeille is one of the most prolific character actors today, having been in more than 200 TV shows over 30 years. You know her voice: Babs Bunny [Tiny Toons], Agnes Skinner [Simpsons], Chip [when he was a Rescue Ranger], Mom [Futurama], Daisy Duck [since 1999...] every other cranky woman in an English dub of a Studio Ghibli film...
One of her most popular characters is Dot Warner, one of the Animaniacs. It's a good starting point, if you want to figure out what characters she's done in your favorite cartoons. I know it's probably the least wacky scene Animaniacs ever did, but it's a good spotlight.

Voice-over artists tend to be invisible to the audience, so let's rectify that. Here she is, in a Designing Women parody (sorry it's more clever than funny.) She's the one in the glasses, for people who don't know the show.

Of course, if there's any kind of Weird Al connection, I'll exploit it. So here's Tress MacNeille's assist on Weird Al's "Ricky":

Happy Birthday, Ms MacNeille. Can't wait to hear what's next...

June 19

2010-06-19T00:05:00.002-04:00

Here's to honorary doppelganger Elaine "Spanky" Macfarlane. In the 60's, one of her bandmates said she looked like Spanky from the Little Rascals; just like that, the band became "Spanky and Our Gang". I guess they're doppelgangers times two, because their songs and performances tend to get lumped in with the Mamas and the Papas.
But let's be clear: "Lazy Day" belongs to them. "Sunday Morning" and "Give a Damn"- the Gang. And their biggest hit, "Sunday Will Never Be the Same":

Before their third album, the band guitarist died, and the band essentially dissolved by decade's end, although they would reunite several times. In fact, the band got back together a few years ago, to record an americana-style album.
Here's a performance from the Smothers Brothers show. It's not one of their chart climbers, but it's just too much fun.

June 18

2010-06-17T23:06:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to my globe-trotting cousin. She's only a few chapters in her story, so it's a little premature to celebrate it in these pages. But she's a legend in the making, assuredly...
Meanwhile, let's talk 21st century troubadours. I've written about a few in this blog, but I even admit there's a peril of sameness to the genre. I mean, a guy with a guitar? Hasn't that been done?
But, Ray LaMontagne... He's the Marvin Gaye of the genre. First of all, he sings. He's got an ethereal tone, rough on the edges, that sounds like a scuffed-up soul. And he can roar with it.
Give a listen to this piece of a BBC4 performance:

UPDATE: apparently, he's got a new album coming out this summer, so here's a song from it. See if you like it:

June 17

2010-06-16T23:37:00.004-04:00

Why does Paul Young get an honorary holiday today? Because Wikipedia's got 10 Paul Youngs. And particularly because the Paul Young that comes to mind of the average person on the street is the singer of such hits as "Every Time You Go Away" and "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted." But this is a different Paul Young. Today's Paul Young has had an uphill battle, particularly since he passed away in 2000.
He first made a go of it when he joined the Toggery Five, a British Invasion-era band. Two of the five would eventually join Jethro Tull; Young, meanwhile, would end up struggling for another decade before he would end up at the Sad Cafe, who offered straight-ahead rock songs in the late 70's post-punk era. They put a few songs in the UK charts, before calling it a day in 1981:

By 1983, Young and his family were almost penniless, when he got offered a job as a Mechanic. Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford suddenly found the time for a solo project, so he began recruiting band members. He needed a proven, talented singer; he chose Paul Carrack. Then he decided he needed another one, and his drummer recommended Young.
Here's my favorite Mike and the Mechanics track, and its epic video:

The success of Mike and the Mechanics was the ultimate turnaround for Young; it even allowed a brief resurrection of Sad Cafe. He died in 2000, shortly after his sixth Mike and the Mechanics album. Jason Young, Paul's son, curates the Forever Young website, offering historical notes and re-release updates on the approximately twenty bands that featured the Paul Young he knew best.

June 16

2010-06-16T08:26:00.003-04:00

Today's undercelebrated celebrity is that soft-rock Samson, Gino Vannelli. He's an Italian-Canadian that hit the charts on the 70's/80's border, with songs like "People Gotta Move", "I Just Wanna Stop", and "Living Inside Myself". If you had a dentist appointment in the 80's, you heard this song:

So, how the heck did Michael Bolton steal this guy's career? It wasn't the U.S. music industry that turned its back on Vannelli; Vannelli turned his back on the chart machine. When he signed with A&M in the 70's, he was a 21-year old genius singer/songwriter, using his three-octave vocal range and his brother's experimentation with a new technology called the synthesizer to take over the charts and make his TV debut on the most un-Canadian of TV programs, Soul Train. When his record label wanted a disco album, he jumped labels, held fast to his yacht rock-ish sound, and went higher up the charts. He even did the theme for a James Bond film:

He kept label hopping through the 80's, which may account for his lack of traction. Although he was still making signature 80's music, Vanelli was finding more success in Canada and Europe. By the end of the decade, he was married, touring the world, and giving up on the music industry almost entirely.
Since then, he's been walking his own path: starting his own label in the 90's, recording jazz albums, then operatic albums that got him invited to perform for the Pope...
He still has a North American following, enough for a series of sold-out Katrina benefits and a blockbuster Vegas run a few years back.

Apparently, he's still taking second billing to his hair, too...

June 15

2010-06-14T23:42:00.005-04:00

As Twilight's next movie prepares to rear its head, and the Harry Potter film series approaches its final chapter, Hollywood continues looking for the next literary gold mine. The landscape's littered with efforts in vain (Vampire's Assistant, Lemony Snicket, The Seeker, etc...) but I think I know what the next book-to-film dynasty will be: the 20-volume (so far) series of Redwall novels by Brian Jacques. It's such an easy sell these days, too: Lord of the Rings meets Alvin and the Chipmunks!
The closest this series has come is a British animated series from ten years back:

If Ralph Bakshi's Tolkein movies didn't stigmatize Peter Jackson's, this cartoon shouldn't be a problem.
So who's got the film rights? Apparently, that's been a complicated issue since the era of the animated series, so when the world of Redwall will hit the big screen is anybody's guess. Meanwhile, does this look like it would be worth the wait?

June 14

2010-06-14T08:28:00.003-04:00

I've talked about emo as a misused appelation before, but I just realized that I have yet to demonstrate what emo is. Today, I can rectify that, thanks to Bob Nanna. After the dissolution of his first band Braid (which fans and critics would either call emo or post-hardcore), he formed Hey Mercedes, which comfortably wore the emo badge on the arm where its sleeve was supposed to be. It's all there: the soft-loud-soft rocksong structure, the sentence fragment songtitles, the replacement of cockrock bravado with confessional yearning...

It's not hard to see what some people don't like about emo: confessional intelligence in the wrong hands sounds like a bunch of whiny smartasses. Which is probably why emo resonates so well with teenagers, then tends to get outgrown fast.
Bob Nanna moved on, too. He now plays in the band Certain People I Know, and has his solo project The City on Film. Plus, he's got a day job, at Threadless.com. Among other duties, he's written songs about several of the ubiquitous T-Shirt. Over 150 of them. Each song is linked under its inspiring t-shirt, but there's links to all the songs on his profile page.
Meanwhile, here's footage from the first public performance of Certain People I Know...

June 13

2010-06-12T22:35:00.004-04:00

David Gray is experiencing something of a reboot in this decade -
[pardon the detour, but we're still in the 00's, right? There's never been a year zero, has there? so each decade starts with 1 and ends with 10... but wouldn't that put 2000 in with the 90's?]
-anyway, David Gray is experiencing something of a reboot these days. He crossed the pond in 1998, the first artist signed to Dave Matthews' record label, and he made a big splash with "Babylon", a post-electric folk song that scaled the pop charts.
This year, he's releasing "Foundling", a double album, picking up where last year's release, "Draw the Line", left off. The band lineup's had a shakeup, he changed record labels, and he's had a chance to build up a reservoir of songs, after spending half a decade on the road. He's also re-releasing "Draw the Line", so it's a good chance to immerse yourself in the new David Gray.
To see if you like it any better than the old Gray, here's a song from "Draw the Line":

June 12

2010-06-12T02:43:00.002-04:00

Today's featured artist is a Giant to me, no question. John Linnell is the skinny, slightly quieter half of They Might Be Giants, the band that plays those songs that seem silly enough for kids, all the while planting little intellectual C4 charges that go off in our mind as we grow up and study all those things we're supposed to learn in school, college, and real life.
I didn't have a favorite John (Flansburgh is the other one) until they took a group hiatus and put out their solo stuff. Flansburgh actually put together a band named Mono Puff, while Linnell released "State Songs" as his solo project. He only managed 18 of the 50 states, but I've got a couple of favorites, while I can't name any Mono Puff songs. (I still need some Flans action for a proper TMBG song; he brings the savoir faire...)
Fortunately, they resumed business as TMBG, eschewing radio charts for multimedia success with all ages. (They learned a lot from Malcolm in the Middle.) Not sure if State Songs will ever be completed (They Might Have covered that with their Deranged Millionaire series.) For today's blog, I've chosen a bootleg recording from an in-store "State Songs" performance:

June 11

2010-06-10T23:51:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to That Guy Peter Dinklage. In the industry, he's beaten Danny Devito and Tony Cox for front runner status for any role requiring a short guy (Elf, Underdog, Prince Caspian) Fortunately, he's carefully cultivated a career that asks for more than a lack of height (The Station Agent, Death at a Funeral, Penelope). He got a heck of a gift with his debut film role: here's his rant in "Living in Oblivion."

June 10

2010-06-09T23:53:00.002-04:00

Has anyone ever pointed out that Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards have the same birthdays? Maybe it's a coincidence, but it's just the kind of thing I watch out for with this blog.
See, one of the underlying questions of this blog is, do people that share the same birthdays share any characteristics? That's the basis of horoscopes, right? Let me tell you, if someone had told me that my future babymomma shared a birthday with Hitler, I might have paid attention...
But that hasn't been proven yet, despite thousands of years of observation. Not everybody born on Elvis' birthday is gifted to sing or dance or seduce a generation... So maybe the Spitzer-Edwards alignment is a Feynman Point in this blog; all I'm saying is, Mrs Bobby Jindal better keep her man on a tight leash...

This was from a Valentine's Day episode, but it's SNL's version of Eliot Spitzer with greeting cards for special occasions...

June 9

2010-06-08T23:29:00.003-04:00

I'm working a twofer in here: first, let's throw out a Happy Birthday to Johnny Depp, who is probably the best paid character actor today. Between his collaborations with Tim Burton and his turn as Captain Jack Sparrow, he's making A-list money while being allowed to play unpredictable roles, which is an anomaly. Million-dollar actors don't get millions of dollars to deliver unpredictable product. You know who Ben Stiller's character is the moment you see his face in a movie; same with Will Smith or Robin Williams. The further the actor wanders away from that type, the more confused the audience tends to get. Johnny Depp appears to be that exception; he's developed his taste and talent over the years that enough moviegoers trust wherever he's taking them. Plus, he's got genetics on his side.
Here's one fan's top 20 Depp movies list:

While I'm at it, let's throw in a trailer for a Johnny Depp movie, directed by fellow birthday boy David Koepp (I think that rhymes!):

While I'm at it, let me shine a light on Mr Koepp, the guy I wanted to feature today. He's not a movie star, I know - he's just written some big movies (the Jurassic Park films, the first entries in the Spiderman and Mission Impossible franchises, Angels and Demons, Panic Room, Carlito's Way,...) I'm in a scriptwriting mode this month, so I'm really digesting stuff like these tidbits Koepp offers about the process.

If you've made it this far, you're probably a writer, too. So I'll tell you what I'd want someone to tell me - get back to staring at that page!

June 8

2010-06-08T00:44:00.003-04:00

Bonnie Tyler wasn't born with the voice that would make her famous.
This is her in 1976, singing her first UK top 10 single, "Lost in France":

The next year, doctors discovered nodules on her throat so severe that her ability to speak was in jeopardy. Surgical removal was successful, but she resumed using her voice before rehabilitation was complete; she developed a rasp to her voice that changed her voice forever.
Here she is, performing the same song in 1977:

Instead of becoming the girl that sounds like Tom Waits, she became the girl that sounds like Rod Stewart. Her first single with the new voice, "It's a Heartache," became her first worldwide hit.
She didn't like the country-pop direction her sound was taking, so she found Jim Steinman, the man who helped Meatloaf develop his rock opera sound. That turned out to be the perfect fit:

That is so 80's Action Hero...

You may have noticed, if not outright laughed, at the music video style. Hey, it was the 80's. They made videos with whatever was lying around, you were lucky if the concept had anything to do with the chorus.
Here's a video for her biggest hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," if the lyrics actually were about the video:

Anyway, when the 90's rolled in, she stayed in Europe and settled into a soft rock mode, and continues with a successful music career to this day... in Europe.
I'm holding out for her re-collaboration with Jim Steinman. They started recording new songs in 2009; here's hoping they get enough time to finish an album's worth...

June 7

2010-06-07T07:13:00.004-04:00

Today's another discovery for me: Harry Crews. He's a writer in the Southern Gothic style, and the impression I receive of him is that he is at least as interesting as his own characters. He has an e.e.cummings quote tattooed on his right arm; probably the most effective testimony of his literary roots. I'm hunting up his books now (half of them are out of print since the 70's, and only one of them so far is a movie: The Hawk is Dying.) I'm also hunting up Flannery O'Conner, who he frequently cites, and who may be responsible for the way I write as well (another story for another time.)
I wouldn't post a writer here unless I had some visual aid to attest: here's the first part of 'The Rough South of Harry Crews', a documentary about the man and the world his stories come from.

It's an interesting watch in general, and as an aspiring writer ('aspiring' seems more descriptive than 'struggling' or 'unpaid'), I find his story particularly stirring.
I have a feeling I will learn a lot by reading him.

June 6

2010-06-06T05:46:00.006-04:00

Happy Birthday to Dwight Twilley: he's a practicioner of power pop, a genre that always loved the radio more than radio loved the genre (see: Badfinger, Big Star, The Knack, OK Go.)

Raised in Tulsa, OK, Twilley met fellow Beatles fan Phil Seymour at a screening of "A Hard Day's Night" in 1967. They started writing songs together and playing them out as the band Oister. They made the trip to Sun Studios, ingesting the rockabilly rhythm into their sound. They moved to LA and signed to a label that renamed them the Dwight Twilley Band. Almost without trying, they got their first top 20 single "I'm On Fire". That turned out to be the apex of the band's success; label interference (they didn't release the second single "Shark" because they didn't want to piggyback on the success of "Jaws"... what?) and difficulties (first album delayed almost a year, second never released, label sold and resold) wore the band down to pieces.
By 1978, the band was broken, and Twilley had a solo career... and it's his return to the charts that I remember. In 1984, I was 10 years old and a bit of a troll, which didn't bother me so much at the time. And yet there was something missing which I couldn't explain, until I discovered cable television, and MTV, and Night Flight, and Dwight Twilley's "Girls" (this might be the NSFW version:

I can't be certain if I actually saw the unedited version or not; the only copy I have on VHS is the 'dialectic' version, which re-edited the video with clips from Eisenstein and 30's exploitation films. Also, don't remember the video using a girl to lip-sync Tom Petty's vocals in the video. But that video got me on the road to years of late night viewing, whether it was all-night Marx Brothers marathons, weirdo cartoons, schlock sci-fi or the vibrating Rorscach tests that were unscrambled Skinemax broadcasts...
As for Dwight Twilley, "Girls" was his last top 40 hit. The digital revolution finally rolled things his way, with most of his recordings finally seeing daylight in the 00's. In 2009, he even released a Beatles covers album.
Here's a couple of other tracks. The first is "Why You Gonna Break My Heart", his other top 20 hit (released just before "Girls".) The audio is the studio recording, overlaid on a performance on "American Bandstand"...

...and this is just one more song I liked.

June 5

2010-06-05T00:21:00.003-04:00

I've got family in town this weekend, so here's a quickie (and that's no innuendo):
Happy Birthday to Aesop Rock, an alt-rapper in a scene that sorely needs re-invention. Eminem and Kanye are the only distinct artists in commercial hip-hop at the moment; practically everyone else sounds the same, even before they're auto-tuned. But out in the frontiers of music, there are folks like Atmosphere and Aesop Rock, who are making the sounds that are coming up next, hopefully. This is what tomorrow sounds like:

June 4

2010-06-04T07:55:00.004-04:00

I do not have a one-track mind. It just so happens that today's the birthday of Dr Ruth Westheimer, who's kind of the Yoda of sex. Literally, she's a short, funny-talking guru who seems to know everything you ever wanted to know about the powers you have inside you, and beyond. Growing up in the 80's, before I even knew what sex was, I knew who she was. (Something about the 80's really liked people with funny Germanic accents.)
But her work on TV and radio transitioned American sexuality. Before she became part of the pop culture, sex was largely discussed in innuendo, focused primarly on the acquisition of such, and otherwise treated like a dirty secret. Dr Ruth allowed people to listen to, and begin to talk about, all aspects of sexuality in a mature manner.
She's still dispensing advice, on top of simultaneously teaching at Princeton and Yale. Here's a clip she did for a cable channel:

June 3

2010-06-03T01:04:00.004-04:00

Today's a good day to remember the most famous woman in Montreal, Lily St Cyr, the burlesque star that taught Marilyn Monroe how to be sexy. Born Willis Marie Van Schaack, she studied ballet in her youth, which led to work on the chorus lines of the Hollywood stages. She hustled for her time in the spotlight, accumulating a collection of creative stripping routines like "The Wolf Woman", "The Flying G", and "Jungle Goddess".
She became a major sex symbol in the 40's and 50's, at the height of the burlesque scene. She was a frequent feature in the tabloid, for her romantic exploits as much as her scandalous performances (she married six times.) After she retired from the spotlight, she established a lingerie business for strippers and strippers-at-heart; she personally modeled most of her products in the store's catalogs and magazine ads.
(Elvira established her trademark look with the support of a Lily St Cyr undergarment.)
St Cyr passed away just before the 20th century did, but her good vibrations continue to inspire the sexuality of today. How out of place would she be today with an act like this:

June 2

2010-06-01T21:55:00.007-04:00

Happy Birthday to the perennially underestimated Wayne Brady. Dude has more skills than he knows what to do with. That's probably why he first got the world's attention on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" It could change from episode to episode whether Ryan Styles or Colin Mochrie was funnier, but nobody could keep up with Wayne Brady on on sheer talent.

Since the show ended, he's been everywhere, seeing what sticks. The powers that be tried to give him his own show, which started as a variety show (like all those 70's celebrity specials) then became a Regis-style talk show. He kept winning Emmys, but the show got cancelled, anyway.
He's started and stopped enough projects for a dozen stars. He's had his share of TV pilots, TV movies, and guest appearances in practically every genre on TV. He's recorded several albums, plus a weekly Vegas show. He's on his third (or fourth, I've lost count) game show hosting gig, doing the relaunch of "Let's Make a Deal."
One I didn't know was him: he wrote and song the theme to one of the better cartoons of the last few years, "the Weekenders."

So why isn't Wayne Brady taking over the world? Is it because everybody's expecting him to sing, dance, and be funny every time they see him? Or is he so cool to everybody that it's not cool to like him? Does he just seem too, well, nice?
Maybe he's holding back...

June 1

2010-05-31T22:18:00.001-04:00

Big-name music acts don't come to my town that offer (especially the ones that don't wear cowboy hats.) Apparently, it's a big deal that Brandi Carlile is coming to town. She's a new name to me, but the last time this singer-songwriter came around, tickets to her show were gone as soon as the word got out.
Guess there's a lot of "Grey's Anatomy" fans in the area; four songs from her first two album have been used by the show. "The Story", her second album's title track, was used as a 3rd season recap, and became an iPod darling shortly thereafter.
She's got a new album this year, and her new tour's brought her back to my neck of the woods. (Two weeks, Grumpy, if you haven't got your tickets already!) Rick Rubin produced her latest, so I might give the album a try. Meanwhile, here's Brandi's biggest song so far...

May 31

2010-05-31T08:41:00.003-04:00

Been a while since I did a twofer, but it's easy when they're in the same band. First, happy birthday to Karl Bartos, formerly of Kraftwerk. You can hear the echoes of their music in everybody from Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails to T-Pain and Blue Man Group. Plus, anybody who uses an electronic keyboard.
Here's a Top of the Pops clip, with a great encapsulation about the band's style and mission:

The trippiest part for me is, "Autobahn" was inspired by the Beach Boys. One of the vocalists said that the Beach Boys made music that sounded like California, and Kraftwerk wanted to make music that sounded like Germany.
Regarding Karl Bartos, he joined Kraftwerk for the Autobahn tour; he's now part of the classic, electro-pop lineup that would become the global face of Kraftwerk. He played and toured with Kraftwerk through the 70's and 80's. In 1991, he left to collaborate with other artists, and released his own album in 2003.

Kraftwerk entered a new phase in the 90's with a new lineup - including birthday boy Fritz Hilpert (he actually joined the band before Karl left, but it's an undeniable transition.) The emphasis since the 90's has been on live performances, although the technology has streamlined to the point that there's minimal exertion required for performing the music, and more concentration on the presentation (exactly why Bartos left.)

That's not to say the people in Kraftwerk have become irrelevant in a Kraftwerk show; in fact, Hilpert fell ill on an Australian stop in 2008, cancelling the night's show and threatening the tour.
Since 2008, only one founding member remains in Kraftwerk. They still do festival shows, and they've been re-mastering and re-releasing the discography, but no word about new music yet. Then again, they've been traditionally reclusive, so there's no telling when Kraftwerk's latest sound will emerge.

May 30

2010-05-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

I'm in the mood for some brit-pop, so let's give a nod to Tim Burgess, lead singer of The Charlatans. They've been together since the 90's started, a product of the Mad-chester scene.

Why have the Charlatans not make a bigger splash across the pond? In the first place, they had a 60's psychedelic band with the same name that forced the band to slap "UK" on all their North American releases. Another point of contention was their first keyboardist, Rob Collins. At their height of their buzz, he was arrested for driving a getaway car from a convenience store robbery; a few years later, he died in a DUI.
Then there's the fact that Tim moved to LA in the 2K's and released a solo album. But they recorded together again in 2004, and keep on keepin' on. He's got his fingers in a lot of pies: he's sang for the Chemical Brothers several times, is part of the Britpop supergroup The Chavs, appeared on Joaquin Phoenix's upcoming rap album, and DJs at spots across the globe. In fact, between his producing credits and concert programming/curating, he's become quite the tastemaker.

2010 should be a banner year for the Charlatans, between a new album and the 20th anniversary of their first. They've thrown country, ska, psychedelia, and electronic sounds in their previous releases; interesting to see where Tim and his mates' next album takes us... maybe even the US. Meanwhile, here's the biggest splash they've made in the US so far, and the song that made me a fan...

May 29

2010-05-29T00:32:00.002-04:00

It's easier to let the music of Danny Elfman speak for him, but I wouldn't be doing my job then, would I? Danny first made the world sit up and notice him as part of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The band formed from the afterbirth of "Forbidden Zone", which also happened to be Danny's first film score. The band lasted until the mid-90's.

Paul Reubens introduced Danny to Tim Burton, who was set to direct Paul in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." In that time, all the way to Alice in Wonderland, Elfman has composed all but two of Burton's films.
I can't believe that for all the films he's written for, Elfman's been nominated for an Oscar a mere 4 times - and only one nomination is for a Burton film (Big Fish). Here's a great retrospective of his music libray so far:

May 28

2010-05-27T22:39:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday, Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens... her proper name, from her knighted husband. In Great Britain, she's been a TV regular for decades, guest starring on such BBC mainstays as "I, Claudius," "Minder," and "Dr Who". She's stayed just as active on the West End stage, with a career just shy of 40 years. Her second most memorable performance might be as Mrs Williams, the Sex Ed Instructor's wife in "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life."

As to the first... First, let me mention that Lady Patricia is a former Playboy Bunny; not one of the magazine models, but a former floppy-ears-and-corset wearing employee of the Playboy Clubs, back when they were world-wide and top of the line. Even today, she's a stunner of a redhead; she looks like Susan Sarandon, but with well-rested eyes.
And then, there are the lips...

Lady Patricia's lips are among the most celebrated and adulated in cinematic history (sorry, Angelina.) Let's clear up about "Science Fiction Double Feature": the movie opening has Richard O'Brien's voice, but it's Lady Patricia's lips mouthing them, drawing the audience in. She actually sang the opening in the original stage production, but the movie producers preferred O'Brien's less vampy version.
Since I never turn down an opportunity to share some Rocky Horror:

May 27

2010-05-27T00:45:00.004-04:00

A rare commodity in modern film is the 'scream queen'. The nature of the typical horror film makes it so; there's little time for character development before the majority of the cast become roadkill. To make the most of a thankless role, the actress has to bring in her own charisma and talents, and not just a good set of lungs.
Linnea Quigley's a great example. She brought her certain something into movies like "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and "Night of the Demons". My favorite role of hers was Spider in "Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama"; she presaged my adoration of punk girls, biker babes, and Angelina Jolie (ah, so that's why she's fallen off the map for me...)

It's her dancing that highlights some of her most adored roles. She even toplined her own exercise video. Here's a star turn from "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers"

May 26

2010-05-26T08:46:00.003-04:00

I've wrote about the Iron Chef program before; today is the birthday of my favorite Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto. More than anyone, he embodies the spirit of ingenuity and adventure that Iron Chef purports to be. He first became adept at Keiseki cuisine and sushi preparation, with his own restaurant by age 30. He sold his restaurant to travel to the US, cooking in exclusive restaurants like New York's Nobu, while developing his fusion style.
And it was that style that was a game changer for Iron Chef. The show was sold to audiences as an Olympic-style cooking competition, where French cuisine would take on Chinese style, or Italian would clash with Japanese; the styles were in competition, with the chefs as conduits. But Morimoto's style was so exciting and unpredictable that his competitions inevitably became chef versus chef, particularly when conservative Japanese chefs would challenge Morimoto for the honor of Japanese cuisine.
He's a cast member with the Iron Chef America series, as well as owner of several Morimoto restaurants around the world. Dinner at Morimoto is something on my personal bucket list, somewhere between driving a motorcycle and riding into space.
Here's a demo that the once and future Iron Chef Japanese did at Google:

May 25

2010-05-25T00:05:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday, Sir Ian McKellen; your Shakespearean pedigree has elevated two of the geekiest cults into the pop culture stratosphere. You make everything sound sophisticated and haughty.

Observe these tributes:

May 24

2010-05-24T00:50:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to "Little Nell" Campbell, the girl with the tap shoes, the Betty Boop voice, and a BLT. She's an automatic guest on the blog, due to her ubiquitous turn as "Columbia" in the many iterations of the Rocky Horror (Picture) Show. But there's more to her than that...
"Rocky Horror" led to a recording contract for Little Nell; her biggest single, "Do The Swim", benefited from a notorious performance on the BBC (that BLT, again...) She also spent some time on Broadway in various productions.
But her biggest mark was Nell's, one of three New York nightclubs she ran in the 80's and 90's. Nell's picked up where Studio 54 left off; in fact, Notorious BIG filmed his "Big Poppa" video there. (It also happened to be Patrick Bateman's favorite nightclub.)
Around the age of 45, she became a mother, and got out of the nightclub business. She continued working in show business until a few years ago, and got out of New York altogether. She's retired and raising her daughter in her homeland of Australia.
But we'll always have the music (and the boop-oop-eedoop...)

May 23

2010-05-23T00:19:00.003-04:00

Never mind Raymond; it seems everybody loves Mitch Albom. As a sportswriter, he's been the Associated Press's sports columnist of the year a record 13 times; nobody else has won it more than once. As a novelist, he wrote Oprah favorite "Tuesdays with Morrie", the most printed memoir of all time. He was Ted Koppel's choice as the final guest on Nightline. He founded several charities for the Detroit area, targeting illiteracy, homelessness, and the deterioration of Detroit's neighborhoods.
And I'm writing about him because of a song about hockey. He wrote "Hit Somebody(The Hockey Song)" with Warren Zevon, for Zevon's 2002 album, "My Ride's Here". It's an ode to one of those rarified creatures, the hockey goon, and it's a bittersweet and hilarious song, even without David Letterman's contribution. Of course, the song's getting turned into a movie, and Kevin Smith's going to direct. Smith and Albom are writing the script together, so it's already shaping up to be Kevin Smith's best movie ever.
For this reason alone, I want to wish Mitch Albom a happy birthday and a thank you. I think you'll feel the same after you listen to this song:

(I'm not even a hockey fan. Have to admit, tho, it's the Flyers' year...)

May 22

2010-05-22T07:53:00.002-04:00

A Quickie: John Vanderslice, San Francisco transplant, is becoming an indie rock star far too quietly. Playing in MK Ultra in the 90's, he started the Tiny Telephone recording studio that has hosted acts like Beulah, Mountain Goats, Death Cab for Cutie, and Spoon. In the 2K's, he started his solo recordings, and has been a critical darling since.
Here's a song of John's that wouldn't leave me alone:

May 21

2010-05-21T00:42:00.003-04:00

Today's Laurence Tureaud's birthday, but you can call him Mr T. He is the closest thing we have to a living American myth, but I can share some historical tidbits with you: He created the Mr T persona while working as a bouncer. While working the door at some club, he would wear the gold chains, rings and other jewelry that got left behind after some fight in the establishment, so whoever lost their items could get them back without re-entering the club. He wears the Mohawk in the style of a Mandinka warrior, an ethnic group of the African continent; he discovered the hairstyle while reading National Geographic.

His combination of radiating strength and public saavy made him a natural as a celebrity bodyguard, in every sense of the phrase. He parlayed that into an acting career, then into cartoons and pro wrestling, then merchandising. Matter of fact, I started a cereal box collection a few years ago, just to have an excuse to buy a box of Mr T cereal again.

Never mind that the box was empty. Never mind that the cereal tasted like tart packing material, even back in the day. Ebay had that box, and I went for it.
A new generation's discovering Mr T: besides his current status as a pitchman and reality TV star, he's been doing impressive work in cartoons like The Proud Family and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. In 2010, he has a CGI "Mr T" movie in development, and he's got his own video game forthcoming, as well. That's not so surprising, considering what he did to World of Warcraft.

That's enough jibba jabba for today. Stay in school!

May 20

2010-05-20T08:42:00.002-04:00

Hawaiian Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (say it like it's spelled) brought the music of his people to the attention of the world in his time on Earth. Like the land for which he was named, Israel sang and spoke about reclaiming the land of his people for his fellow native Hawaiians. He first got notice in Mahaka Sons of Ni'iHau, a band he started with his brother in the 80's. In the 90's, he released several solo albums, to massive acclaim, before his passing in 1997.

His most famous recording is a cover medley, inserting "What a Wonderful World" into the lyrics of "Over the Rainbow". Recorded for his 1993 album 'Facing Futures', Israel's version persists, long after his passing. It's become a turn-to song for sentimental TV commercials and wistful movie scenes (Meet Joe Black, 50 First Dates, Fred Claus,...) The song anchors three of Israel's best-selling albums ('Futures' is the only Platinum album by a Hawaiian artist) and is on its way to becoming the preferred performance of "Over the Rainbow" (if American Idol auditions are any indication.)
So, here's Brudda Iz, and his signature on the song:

May 19

2010-05-19T02:02:00.004-04:00

Is Australian David Helfgott a geniune savant, or does he just play piano better than we'd expect him to?
Helfgott is known for his piano playing, along with his psychological burden. As a youth, he showed genius potential in his musicianship, but by the time he was awarded scholarships to international music conservatories, he was also battling mental illness. By his 30's, he was institutionalized.
Eventually, he found the coping mechanisms that allowed him to return to society. He got a job playing piano at a wine bar in Perth, and from that ignominious perch, began dazzling everyone that could hear with his music again.

It's the kind of story that the movies love to tell (and the movie based on his life, Shine, would be nominated for 8 Academy Awards.) But there are music critics who feel he's been too mythologized by the movies; that beyond his on-stage tics and behaviors, his piano playing is only slightly better than ordinary. So are crowds gathering to listen to a genius? Or just to cheer on a man who they wouldn't expect to play piano at all? Is he being appreciated or exploited?
Undeniably, his story has brought to light the challenges of dealing with mental illness and trying to find a place in the world. In 1999, he played piano on the Silverchair track, "Emotion Sickness".

May 18

2010-05-17T22:59:00.004-04:00

I can't think of a mellower man in music than Jack Johnson. He's the closest thing to a Yacht Rocker in my generation, philosophically speaking. Unfortunately, this means he's going to be less appreciated in his time than by the generation that's being created by his music.

Seriously, he's managed to out-mellow Dave Matthews and spearhead this easy-feeling music that has yet to crest. Consider the sounds of Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat, Matt Costa... heck, John Mayer may get a lot more magazine covers, but he tries too hard. Jack Johnson still has the image of the surfer who just happens to be able to pick up a guitar; he is the proverbial man that men want to be and women want to be with.
That's why, even though he's gone platinum with his last five albums (including a children's album, fer pete's sake...), I still consider him undercelebrated, and qualified for this column. Here's something from his next album...

May 17

2010-05-16T21:37:00.002-04:00

I know practically nothing about Seoul singer Lim Jeong Hee, but this video for "Don't Go My Love" just has to be seen. There's not enough sci-fi torch songs videos out there...

Okay, so Lim's the robot. She's also a Korean pop star after years of street shows; her third album included a cameo from Outkast's Big Boi, a prelude to her search for a music career in America.

Her most recent song is a duet with Korean pop star Lee Hyun, which may mean a return to her Korean career. Which is fine by me, if it means more sci-fi torch song videos. Here's a PSA about the dangers of scarves, called "30 Minutes Ago":

May 16

2010-05-15T23:27:00.003-04:00

Hell yeah! It's Danny Trejo day! He's the most exciting That Guy to graduate to movie star since Samuel L Jackson. The most amazing thing to me is the fact that he's eligible for AARP membership.
He's also a good example that the movie business is all about who you know, all about networking. In the early 80's, he met someone in his 12-step support group in the movie business, who got him a job as an film extra. (The film would be called Runaway Train.) On the set, the film's screenwriter recognized Trejo from when they did time in San Quentin; he got Trejo promoted to boxing trainer for one of the film's actors. Those sparring sessions impressed the director enough to boost Trejo to a larger speaking role - and that is how a career in movies begins.
Speaking of who you know, he's apparently cousins with Robert Rodriguez, who's given him his best roles, including his topliner, "Machete". Incredibly, it started as a gag trailer in "Grindhouse", a trailer too awesome not to be made real: