Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog

This Saturday At The Historic Bal Theatre: A Mini-Psychotronix Film Fest

2012-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Monsters! Go-Go Girls! Newsreels! Trailers From Bad Movies! Classic Commercials! Warped Cartoons! That's what will be on hand when Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Paul Etcheverry, co-founders of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival bring a slice of Psychotronic movie mayhem, hosted by the wonderfully ghoulish Lord Blood Rah and Miss Misery, to the Historic Bal Theatre this Saturday night, January 28, 2012 at 7:00 PM.

Bay Area Film Events presents a program of celluloid rarities unearthed and archived by collectors Bob Ekman, Paul Etcheverry and Tom Wyrsch. The show's piece-de-resistance will be some some Creature Features and Bob Wilkins clips so rare even we haven't seen them.

All of this pungent treasure trove will be brought to you on glorious 16mm film, presented as a sleep-deprived, psychedelics-addled DJ would spin discs.

East Bay residents, get ready for our customary delirious romp through B-movie trailers, commercials, off-the-wall comedy shorts, Soundies, Scopitones, training films, cartoons, snack bar ads and public service announcements: that under-the-radar world of entertainment that mainstream Hollywood would rather forget..

The Historic Bal Theatre is located at 14808 E. 14th Street in San Leandro (south of Oakland and north of Hayward). Buy tickets here. The theatre's phone number is 510-614-1224.

The Return Of Noir City

2012-01-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

Eddie Muller's tribute to all hard-boiled world-weary cinema chiaroscuro, Noir City, celebrates its 10th anniversary January 20-29, 2012 at San Francisco's Castro Theatre. Special guest star Angie Dickinson, who will be interviewed by Mr. Muller (A.K.A. The Czar Of Noir) in between screenings of Don Siegel's THE KILLERS (1964) & John Boorman's POINT BLANK (1967), headlines the 10-day festival of dark, corrosive and foreboding-filled celluloid rarities.

This year's extravaganza will include the Film Noir Foundation's recently completed preservation of Michael Curtiz' The Breaking Point (starring John Garfield), as well as brand new 35mm prints of the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby and Naked Alibi, co-starring Sterling Hayden and Gene "Burke's Law" Barry with perennial favorite blonde bad girl bombshell Gloria Grahame. Brian Darr's Hell On Frisco Bay blog covers the 10th anniversary lineup in detail.

Tickets are available online via Brown Paper Tickets. For more info, visit the Noir City website.

Raising Our Tankards To Oliver Norvell Hardy On His 120th!

2012-01-18T11:00:00.001-08:00

On the topic of celebrating the birthdays of those who have not been physically present here with us for quite a few decades, I am hard pressed to think of another person who brought more joy and laughter to the world than Mr. Oliver Norvell Hardy, A.K.A. "Babe" and "Ollie", born on January 18, 1892.

This scene from The Boys' 1937 feature Way Out West gets me every time.

Unfortunately, the classic comedy films of Laurel & Hardy, once the toast of every capital and a box office hit in the farthest corners of the globe, have receded somewhat in the age of 2500 cable TV channels - and that's too bad.

That is due to the spotty availability of their films, as well as a culture with a very short attention span; the last time Laurel and Hardy comedies were shown regularly on television was nearly 20 years ago (on Sunday mornings, by the American Movie Classics channel).

Until the recent Laurel And Hardy - The Essential Collection DVD release, their films remained largely out of circulation.

Laurel & Hardy silent comedies, including the hilarious You're Darn' Tootin' and Liberty have been posted on Hulu.

Film & Television Archive has launched an ambitious restoration project devoted to Laurel & Hardy. I have posted the piece on the restoration effort by film historian Leonard Maltin before - and it bears repeating.

Chet Atkins, 1954

2012-01-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

The topic has been guitars and guitarists in the postings thus far in 2012. The thread has included music by Hank Garland, Roy Clark, Django Reinhardt and Joe Pass.

Today's posting, featuring the amazing Chet Atkins, is dedicated to the late and much missed San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Ted "Lightnin' Fingers" Kratter.

I don't know what television shows or movies these excellent, fingerpickin' good clips come from, but the quintessential Nashville Sound of Chet is never less than a rare pleasure to listen to.

Thanks for the music, Chet - you made the world a better place!

More Golden FIngers And Fun On The Frets For January 2012

2012-01-09T05:19:00.000-08:00

My guess is, in the immortal words of John Lennon, these guys have "blisters on their fingers", although more discreetly than he did.

While the legendary Django Reinhardt, by all accounts, loathed playing the electric guitar during his 1946 performances with The Duke Ellington Orchestra, I've always wondered how those gigs sounded. As it turns out, the recordings from them have circulated, and are available, due to the wonder of YouTube. The answer to that question is. . . "gadzooks - this is indescribably wonderful", as well as signature Django.

Listen and learn.

The Golden Fingers Of Hank Garland And His Successors

2012-01-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's posting about Peter Frampton regaining his long-lost favorite guitar after 31 years led my music-obsessed subconscious directly to another guy who knew his way around a custom Gibson: the incredible Hank Garland, ace session guitarist on recordings by Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison and more.

In this clip from Country Style, U.S.A., Hank's distinctive "country jazz" radiates joie de vivre while demonstrating awe-inspiring guitar mastery.

Hank Garland's bouyant music brings to mind one other album for me: the 1993 pairing of jazz guitar guru Joe Pass and veteran country-western entertainer Roy Clark.

Joe and Roy's summit meeting of serious pickin' and grinnin' over the simple yet supple, challenging and enduring music of Hank Williams, Sr. recalls a certain phrase again: Joie De Vivre.

ATTN: Guitar Geeks Of The World

2012-01-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

A question and subsequent story to warm the hearts of guitar geeks everywhere: what if your personal favorite guitar was lost for 31 years and then somehow returned?

This happened to rock and pop songwriter-guitarist-bandleader Peter Frampton, of Frampton Comes Alive who was, indeed, reunited with his favorite axe after 31 years. Indeed, to quote the title of a Peaches N' Herb song I never liked, "reunited and it feels so good."

Peter's vintage 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom was literally the only survivor when a cargo plane that crashed on takeoff in Caracas, Venezuela. Of course, Peter didn't know this, as the instrument circulated in the three decade interim and ended up in the hands of a guitarist, customs agent and tourist board member on the island of Curacao.

Now, I heard Peter play in those days and recall a lengthy and very enjoyable set, propelled by the ringing tones and melodic conception of his rock guitar stylings. All these decades and many subsequent fearless plunges into complex, dark, dissonant modernism later, I still find that Peter's upbeat, tuneful British Invasion-influenced sounds - with 1960's popsters The Herd, his Frampton's Camel band, as a sideman with sonic chameleon David Bowie, and a member of Steve Marriott's hard rockin' Humble Pie - brings a big smile to my line-enhanced face.

Now, frankly, gorgeous as the varied Les Paul models are, I'm more of an SG and L-5 man, myself!

Then again, if the very Les Paul Jr. played with steamrolling abandon by Luther "Ariel Bender" Grosvenor in Mott The Hoople were to fall into my hands. . .

One Year Of Cartoons In Five Minutes, Eleven Seconds (A.K.A. Crack For Toonheads)

2012-01-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

I designated the topic of classic cartoons as no more than a tertiary landing point for this blog, largely because there are so many terrific blogs on animation, several by the best historians in the country. All are by ambitious enthusiasts who are anything but Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. However, today I'm compelled to call attention to something astounding on 1930's animation I viewed via hard-working blogger Ted, mastermind of the comprehensive Cartoons Of 1939 and Cartoons Of 1943 sites.

Ted compiled the highlights from Cartoons Of 1939 - dozens of animated theatrical shorts from a year that also brought Pinocchio, Gulliver's Travels and a preponderance of classic live-action feature films - into the following kaleidoscopic and blindingly fast 5:11. It doesn't just concentrate on Disney and Warner Brothers: every studio is represented.

And here are the main title cards from these Cartoons Of 1939:

Ted will soon start reviewing the Cartoons Of 1935 - and completing that task will take the remainder of 2012. What will he have to say about the many strange, surreal and rather dark cartoons that were released that year? We'll find out, and I look forward to it!

Released To Theaters 75 Years Ago Today

2012-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

While it's tough to, when it comes to starting a new year right, equal Ernie & Edie, as well as George & Gracie, here goes. . .

Friz Freleng and the boys at Warner Brothers created this "Frankie and (Abusive Dirtbag) Johnny" tale, released on January 2, 1937. It's obvious that Friz had been wanting to break loose from seven years in the "all talking, all singing, all dancing" artistic strait jacket, so this Merrie Melodie - unlike the cartoons Tex Avery and Frank Tashlin were producing at that time - presents a Depression-era melodrama, hardly "merrie" and at times stark. And the stars are. . . MICE. Yes, rodents, seven decades before Pixar's Ratatouille.

Enjoy this subversive animated poison pen letter and bear in mind that John Hubley would get - and keep - the last word on the "Frankie And Johnny" genre 15 years later with his UPA cartoon, Rooty Toot Toot.

Happy New Year From Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog

2012-01-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

The Best New Year's Eve Cartoon Ever

2011-12-31T07:21:00.000-08:00

Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog bids a not particularly fond farewell to 2011 with this stellar, upbeat and good-natured seasonal cartoon, which is available for purchase on the Popeye The Sailor 1933-1938 DVD box set.

Let's Celebrake is one of the rare cartoons in the series in which Popeye and Bluto aren't literally at each other's throats - and that's a refreshing change, even for toon heads such as I. It is NOT a rare instance among the Fleischer Studio Popeyes in which voice artists extraordinaire Jack Mercer (both Popeye and Grandma), Mae Questel (Olive Oyl) and Gus Wickie (Bluto) outdo themselves throughout.

To all readers of this blog, make it a fun and safe New Year. In other words, don't booze it up, toke it up and drive, PLEASE - that's what friends' couches and cheap motels are for!

Tonight On WGXC Radio: The Alex Chilton Belated Birthday Special

2011-12-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

WGXC, the community radio station for Greene and Columbia counties (New York), will be presenting their Alex Chilton tribute from 9:30 to midnight Eastern Standard Time. To listen to WGXC streaming, click here.

Now, readers of this blog know that I'm a huge fan of the music of Alex Chilton in all its phases and incarnations. He was great with The Box Tops, the ill-fated but wonderful Big Star and on his many solo albums, which try out everything from punk to soul music covers to experimental rock to standards.

Never afraid to tackle varied material, both as producer and performer, Alex was often the only person to perform covers of various 1960's R&B chestnuts and goofy novelty songs. For example, this 1967 hit by Brenton Wood, which qualifies as both:

Indeed - here Alex tackles gentle pop in a heartfelt cover of the lullaby Brian Wilson wrote for his daughters (originally recorded in 1977 on The Beach Boys Love You):

He also produced one of the most original and incendiary albums of crazed rockabilly ever recorded, Songs The Lord Taught Us by The Cramps.

The 1996 Live in Glasgow recordings Alex did with Teenage Fan Club are, IMO, a standout among his later work.

Alex couldn't care less about current fads or what the recording industry wanted and, sadly, paid a price for being true to himself and his artistic vision; the fact that he could not afford to see a doctor about recurring chest pains directly led to his untimely passing on March 17, 2010.

Since he shared with Elvis Costello and Mike Patton a musical taste that was gleefully, aggressively all over the freakin' map, one can present a veritable panorama of clips and just barely scratch the surface of Alex' sonic oeuvre. He could not be contained.

This - and a sense of person behind the performer - is best expressed in the following article, The Alex Chilton Panel At SXSW, written by Ann Powers for the L.A. Times not long after Alex' passing.

Photographer Kathy Sloane Tells The Story Of Keystone Korner

2011-12-27T15:34:00.000-08:00

"There should be a book about those jazz clubs that have been a vital part of the evolution of the music…with reminiscences by the musicians who played and hung out there.” Nat Hentoff

With Keystone Korner: Portrait Of A Jazz Club, photographer Kathy Sloane has delivered that very book.

It is tough for me to articulate into words how it felt to go to a place like Keystone Korner - where John Coltrane Quintet bandmates McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones played a benefit so the club could afford to buy a liquor license - and not just see fun, enjoyable, entertaining music but be in the presence of GENIUS, night after night.

Without a doubt, I and the other long-haired youths who hung out at the jazz joint of jazz joints, nestled next to a police station in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, got an unparalleled music education. I personally saw everything from swing legends Mary Lou Williams and Earl "Fatha" Hines (who recorded with Louis Armstrong, the guy who started it all, in 1928) to joyfully hard bopping Art Blakey, George Coleman and Horace Silver to explosive ultra-virtuoso Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the fearlessly eclectic multi-genre Art Ensemble Of Chicago there - and loved it all.

Kathy's book includes 109 photographs, fascinating oral histories from the musicians who made it happen, and a CD of remarkable music recorded there. It will give future generations a reference to see what greatness looks like.

Today, jazz fans around the world mourn the passing of music giant Sam Rivers, who is featured in the book.

Thinking of Sam, it compels me to say that, as 2011 comes to a close, the best thing we could leave for young people today - besides hands-on music and arts education - would be a place where, like Keystone Korner, it was all about the music and miracles could happen. And did.

Gene Deitch's Excellent Idea: Gift Giving That Supports Your Neighbors And TheCommunity

2011-12-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

Post-Christmas, I've been pondering how to plan more effectively for next year's holidays - and also listening to those great Ella, Nat, Sinatra and Dino holiday albums with awe yet again

I've also been re-reading a piece about the holidays that filmmaker Gene Deitch (creator of the wonderful "Tom Terrific" cartoons) posted a few weeks ago on his Roll The Credits blog. Gene is dead-on about the topic of moving the modern holiday gift-giving rituals away from the mindless consumerism so well described by the thoughtful, against-the-grain protagonist of A Charlie Brown Christmas and towards a more enlightened approach.

The memory of my local hardware store's "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" sign fresh in my memory, I shall paraphrase (with some revisions - once a professional editor, always a professional editor) Gene's piece.

I'm Dreaming of a RIGHT Christmas!

In these difficult times, when we seem to be helpless to do anything meaningful to make things better, I received one simple idea from a friend and put it into my own words to send to my contacts.

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous mountains of cheaply produced goods - merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American workers.

This year could be different. This year Americans can give a gift of genuine concern for other Americans.

No excuse that there’s nothing to buy that is produced by American hands. There is!

It's time to think outside the box.

Yeah, maybe many would like a flat-screen TV, but they also may be just as thrilled to have their driveway repaved, or lawn mowed and garden groomed for a year, or driveway plowed during the winter.

How about . . .
Free games at a local golf course.
Gift certificates from your local hair salon or barber for one or more trims.
A gym membership - it's great for all ages thinking about health improvement (Note: if you reside in the more metropolitan parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, there are small "mom and pop" neighborhood gyms to support).
A car tune-up? Small, American garages should be happy to sell service gift certificates. . . and also for maybe a year of car washes! How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by an American working guy?
See a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.
Musicians need work, too, so find places showcasing local bands, and venues who could provide all-expense gift evenings.
There are still plenty of owner-run restaurants -- offering gift certificates. Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. Avoid the big national chains.
Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day each week or month.
There are surely plenty of computer firms who’d be happy to contract for a year, keeping you online and your hard disk humming.
There are many local crafts people who can make pots, make jewelry, spin their own wool, and knit them into sweaters and scarves.

This is about supporting your home town people with their financial lives on the line, trying to keep their doors open. Isn’t that what Christmas should be about?

Christmas is now about caring about us, encouraging American small businesses to keep going.

And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine.

If we all could do this, we could have an effect, and make a social statement without having to march and camp in the streets: a painless but effective statement about how we think about the spirit of Christmas gift-giving, and about caring for each other.

THIS should be the new American Christmas tradition!

If you have any bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

A Very Merry Christmas From The Count, The Duke and Dexter

2011-12-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

Vote For This Charming Video In The Electro Swing Awards

2011-12-22T04:17:00.000-08:00

This fun video, starring friend of this blog Kitten On The Keys, is quite the charmer. It is sweet, genuine, the real deal (not contrived as a lot of entertainment for kids can be) and has been nominated for an Electro Swing Award.

Directed by Eve St. Ramon
Song by Bart and Baker
Costumes by Monique Motil

Vote here. Voting ends tomorrow! (December 23rd).

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Although this blog is largely on hiatus at the moment, I can pause long enough to post this song by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager.

If you count yourself as a Sentimental Sap (and at least some of the time I do), "That's What Friends Are For" registers a very high rating on the Sap-O-Meter. Some Burt Bacharach songs register way past the end of that dial, while others (the ones co-written with Elvis Costello), barely register.

Actually, this is my snide way of suggesting that I like this song a lot, provided the vocalist delivers it honestly, straight from the heart and without a diabetes-inducing dose of sickly, syrupy sugar. It ain't easy.

In this case, Trintje Oosterhuis, a fabulous singer, does a very nice job with this: knocks it out of the park.

On Hiatus - Enjoy This Obscure Comedy Short From 1930

2011-12-17T05:58:00.001-08:00

Crazy House by redhotjazz

BRAVO, Los Angeles & Albany City Councils

2011-12-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Big time Psychotronic Paul Kudos go to the Los Angeles, CA and Albany, NY City Councils, the first to vote unanimously to support constitutional amendments that would undo the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. . . A.K.A. the 21st century's Dred Scott Decision.

After all, the pay-to-play subversion of American democracy, driven by unlimited contributions by The Big Boys to candidates (and the high cost of media-drenched, hit advertisement-laden campaigns) is just one of the variables in the complex algebraic equation that caused the financial meltdown, nicely explained in the following:

Inside Job, Narrated by Matt Damon (Full Length HD) from jwrock on Vimeo.

I hope many more city councils and organizations on the local, state and regional levels have the guts to follow suit - but I am not holding my breath.

Remembering Hubert Sumlin (Nov. 16, 1931 - Dec. 4, 2011)

2011-12-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today, I will break with my own assertions and be The R.I.P. Blog. Must post a few clips of innovative blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin, responsible for musical genius both on stage and in the recording studio over six decades. He is best known for his stinging solos on numerous 1950's and 1960's Chess Records sides waxed by the great Howlin' Wolf.

Hubert Sumlin's guitar work has been much mimicked, frequently out-and-out plagiarized, but never equalled.

In Person At Amoeba Records On Tuesday December 6: Maestro Brian Wilson

2011-12-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

The recently released SMiLE Sessions box set - an in-depth look at the making of these recordings - is a treasure trove for instrumental music fans. Here are some scholarly reviews of the 1966 opus by Brian and lyricist Van Dyke Parks:

BBC - Music - Review of The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions

Chicago Tribune

The Guardian (UK)

Metacritic

NPR

Pitchfork

Rolling Stone

Uncut

Brian will be at San Francisco's Ameoba Records, in person, signing the box sets for music fans on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

I love these recordings, and, as with Pet Sounds, never tire of listening to them. The more times I hear Brian's "way outside the box" arrangements, orchestrations and highly original choices of instrumentation throughout SMiLE, the more I enjoy them. The more I listen, the more interesting ideas I pick up.

The SMiLE Sessions have received the spotlight in the following 12-part series on YouTube. Here are some intriguing installments from The SMiLE Sessions chronicles - enjoy!

And This Blog Loves Elvis Costello

2011-11-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

If any recording artist today is clearly a musician after Psychotronic Paul's jazzed-up heart, it would be Elvis Costello. In this piece from Reuters, Don't Buy My Box Set, Buy Satchmo's, he plugs the new Louis Armstrong DVD box set and gives some love to the intrepid musicologists who put it together.

Here's Elvis, on stage with Chet Baker. What a great concert that must have been!

This Saturday Night: KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival At Foothill College

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

The amazing 1955 Kelvinator Foodarama Refrigerator-Freezer

Alas, another December has rolled around, so that means it's time for the customary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival to present yet another hallucinatory excursion through the irritated bowels of popular culture.

Yes, that means the usual suspects - trailers from schlocky drive-in movies featuring guys in stupid-looking robot and gorilla suits, well-meaning but now ridiculous 1950's educational films, vintage TV commercials and theatre ads, cartoon rarities, Japanese "thunder lizard" epics, musical comedy shorts, kidvid, serial chapters, puppet animation, Busby Berkeley style pre-Code insanity - will be on hand.

As will be the inevitable uber-campy Soundies. . .

And such high-stylin' tres cool Scopitones as these:

I am, indeed, way too damn lazy to write a blog or a manifesto, but present these shows as something of a personal reaction against all standard rules of curating.

Since I personally find devoting a screening to one director, one genre or one series about as fascinating as watching Black Friday-priced-to-move white latex paint dry, the Psychotronix Film Festival throws a wide variety of celluloid snippets from different places, genres, running times, techniques or time periods together for no apparent reason other than that sticking to one thing bores me.

Curator-archivist-producers-mad scientists Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and myself, supported by ace KFJC soundman Austin Space, create the program on the fly; we respond to audience reaction and select films accordingly in what I've repeatedly termed the "And Now For Something Completely Different" approach to film programming. Works for us!

The next KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival will return (by nothing remotely resembling popular demand) to spacious room 5015 on the Foothill College campus in the lovely Los Altos Hills, not far from the dreaded Silicon Valley on Saturday, December 3, 2011. Showtime is 7:00 p.m.

Ever-facile movie music expert and linguistically nimble host of "The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show" Robert Emmett m.c.s the festivities with panache, bon mots and a carefully picked selection of cheesy door prizes.

$5 admission benefits the innovative, un-corporate and fearless KFJC 89.7. You'll also need $2 for a parking permit.

The Return Of Cinema Insomnia

2011-11-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

I Still Have Nothing To Say - Enjoy These Posters And Lobby Cards From Lost Films

2011-11-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

I Have Nothing To Say Today, So Enjoy These Classic Movie And Cartoon Posters

2011-11-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

November 5, 2011 Is Bank Transfer Day

2011-11-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

To paraphrase something I wrote on my January 2, 2010 posting:

"Every now and then I stop producing classic movie events, listening to jazz music, watching ancient short comedies and Scopitones long enough to ask . . . questions. And I invariably end up wandering circuitously through the dark woods of further questions."

Here are a few questions I like:
What can we, as citizens, given the massive corruption in our political system, do to make a difference?
Any way I can have checking and savings accounts that do not support sleazy business practices, sleazier lobbyists and the even - if one can imagine such a thing - sleazier politicians they bribe?"
Want to stop supporting ridiculous profits made by banks bailed out by TARP (and bonuses to the same greedy bastards who crashed the global economy. . . but got rewarded handsomely for their staggering ineptitude)?
Have I, unwittingly, Elmer Fudd-like, been aiding and abetting all of the above via my 401 K or IRA account and thus, am absolutely part of the problem?

Well, one way and signpost towards a solution, folks is to pull your moolah, your cashola, your simoleons, your do-re-me out of the Too Big To Fail banks and relocate it to smaller financial institutions and credit unions - the places that actually invest in our communities.

Supporting this worthy goal, Saturday, November 5, is Bank Transfer Day.

The Move Your Money website makes it pretty darn easy for consumers to identify community banks and smaller financial institutions in their neighborhoods.

If enough squeezed middle-class consumers migrate a substantial chunk of their business from irresponsible "too big to fail" banks. behemoths to community banks and credit unions, the message - which has yet to reach our elected representatives from the totally slimy GOP and only somewhat less slimy Democrats (and possibly never will) - will be loud and clear.

One can do a little research and find out which financial institutions spent gazillions - in some cases TARP money - to successfully bribe Senators and Representatives to kill or at least severely weaken financial reform (note - the bastards succeeded; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was watered down from the blazing Bacardi 151 we needed to tepid, weak lemonade).

Let's hit the greedy assholes where it hurts most: their wallets.

And Psychotronic Paul Approves Of These Editorial Cartoons

2011-10-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Presenting. . .Trixie Friganza

2011-10-25T14:11:00.001-07:00

Psychotronic Paul's 20th - Early 21st Century English Language Slang: Term #246

2011-10-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Martha Stewart Universe: The good news is that in this universe, everything is organized, neat, tidy, color-coordinated, table settings are gorgeous, the clothes pressed, the linens without a single wrinkle, the living space is immaculate.

The bad news: citizens in general are treated like crap, status is king, employees are denied vacations. Spouses are interchangeable and children are ragged on. Neglecting to say thank you and not ever telling your partner, your family, your closest friends that you love them is the order of the day.

Then again, in The Martha Stewart Universe, the environment looks awesome, those perfectly placed doilies are comprised of the highest quality lace, and everything is as symmetrical as a fugue by J.S. Bach.

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-10-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Bard Of Radio Theatre Passes At 101

2011-10-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

There's been big news this month. The Occupy Wall Street protests are - well, maybe, as it's too early to tell - showing vague stirrings of genuine grassroots activism.

This blogger sees the protest as most of all, a response to the scandalous, pervasive political corruption and wholesale bribery of our elected representatives in America, as well as the fact that the public - lacking lobbyist slime and billions of ill-gotten gains which successfully buy influence - feels frozen out of the political process.

Could actually activism that is not from the far right happen? We haven't seen or it in the U.S.A. in almost 40 years - sorry, conservative friends, the Koch Industries- bankrolled "Tea Party" does not count. One can only hope the OWS protests stay non-violent, on message and on task - and do not get infiltrated by hooligans out to bash a few heads.

An even bigger story was the passings of Apple founder Steve Jobs and sports world mad genius and Oakland Raiders owner-coach-football wonk Al Davis. Both were giants and innovators in their respective fields. Jobs quite literally changed the world and could be considered the Thomas Edison of the present era. Although Al Davis made lots of enemies along the way, he ranks with Bill Walsh and Paul Brown among the gurus of NFL football.

This week, there was an additional non-untimely but culturally significant passing to call attention to. Norman Corwin, gifted dramatist, brilliant wordsmith, in many respects to radio what Rod Serling was to 1950's and early 1960's television, passed on at the very advanced age of 101.

The documentary A Note Of Triumph The Golden Age Of Norman Corwin offers an overview of his work and especially his moving VE Day broadcast: the eloquent words of Corwin, backed by Bernard Herrmann's outstanding original score, set a very high bar line for radio as an art form. Few could match Corwin's ability to orchestrate language, sound and drama. Fewer can now.

I am too lazy (or too tired from stressful events in my own life), unfortunately, to write an involved piece about the great Norman Corwin for this blog, but will point readers in the direction of some well-written obits

Columbia Journalism Review

Roanoke Times

L.A. Times

Variety

Washington Post

Psychotronic Paul Ponders . . . Heroin Addiction and Ready-To-Eat Cereals

2011-10-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Among my too many questions about mid-20th century pop culture: did William S. Burroughs start his day with a healthy breakfast starting with Kellogg's Sugar Smacks?

Uh. . . probably not. In actuality, the kids born a few years after notorious wordsmithWilliam S. Burroughs, would have been the target audience for such print advertising as this 1928 campaign for Kellogg's Pep.

Burroughs, novelist, junkie, provocateur and originator of punk rock literature 20 years before the term existed, was born in 1914.

The kids who were glued to the boob tube for the original late 1950's telecasts featuring Ruff N' Ready, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss were the post-WW2 babies, the Andy Kaufmans of the world, the offspring of what news anchorman-author Tom Brokaw termed The Greatest Generation.

Were The Beats, by that time home with children watching The Flintstones (and then listening to Art Pepper's Smack Up after the snot-nosed brats were in bed) the target audience for the following?

Maybe. Then again, maybe not. . .

My friends who are ten years younger than me were the audience for the following hilariously fraudulent commercial, no doubt heartily endorsed by the Future Diabetics Of America.

Shifting gears but staying somewhat on the topic of kidvid, today would have been the 90th birthday of stop-motion animation guru Art Clokey (1921-2010).

Clokey was an immensely creative soul who, in a way few in literature or animation come close to doing, succeeded in tapping into a genuinely childlike innocence and sense of wonder. This pre-speech consciousness permeates the very earliest Gumby cartoons such as the following - and would vanish not far into the series, once the main characters started talking and the "let's go to the moon" or "let's explore toyland, Pokey" scenarios got replaced with more conventional storylines.

Any doubts that Art listened to far-out cool jazz while thinking up clay animation ideas are dispelled by the following, his first film, Gumbasia.

The Woman No Man Can Resist

2011-10-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

"I won't make more than two pictures a year because I don't want to. I don't read books. I hate exercise. I like to sleep late and I'm not in love with my work." Lyda Roberti (1906-1938)

The scythe of early death is one brutally unkind tool in the writing of film history. Die young and you're forgotten, or remembered if scandal accompanies tragedy. Remarkable stage and screen careers get reduced to a footnote.

Consider the inspired but ill-fated comediennes of the 1930's. The biggest stars were screwball comedy queen Carole Lombard and "blonde bombshell" Jean Harlow, who showed tremendous (but, alas, unfulfilled) promise as a comedienne and character actress in Libeled Lady (1936), only to die a year later. There were also the diminutive, very funny, up-and-coming comedienne, singer and dancer Marjorie White (known today for co-starring in Woman Haters, the first Columbia 2-reeler starring The Three Stooges - yes, the one in which Moe and Larry sing), the ubiquitous Thelma Todd, a stellar comedy performer often under-utilized and relegated to the role of eye candy, and the always outrageous Lilyan Tashman, whose impact and Hollywood legend were primarily offscreen - all of whom passed away in 1934-1935.

Today's posting pays tribute to, IMO, the funniest of all the 1930's comediennes, Lyda Roberti, who had a brief but eventful life - chronicled in this capsule bio-timeline from the well-researched Glamour Girls Of The Silver Screen website. Born in Warsaw into a circus family, Lyda had already traveled the world and experienced a lifetime in showbiz before emerging as a star of movies and Broadway (among many shows, in the 1933 production of Roberta, opposite Bob Hope). She had a certain mixture of the adorable, vulnerable and fall-down funny reminiscent of Gilda Radner 45 years later.

Lyda made the most of her appearances in eleven feature films and a handful of short subjects in 1931-1938 to rank among Hollywood's most wonderful and original comediennes. She had a prime role as "Hatta Mari, The Woman No Man Can Resist", in the hilarious Million Dollar Legs.

Lyda also co-starred with Eddie "Banjo Eyes" Cantor in The Kid From Spain, directed by 1920's and 1930's comedy powerhouse Leo McCarey.

The way Lyda plays off of ever-unsteady Eddie, as both comic and "straight man", is priceless.

She then was among many performers who co-starred in College Rhythm, Paramount's attempt at a musical comedy that would surpass its Big Broadcast vehicles at the box office - and hopefully give those "showgirls, surrealism and Hugh Herbert" Warner Bros, musicals featuring hallucinogenic production numbers by the dangerous Busby Berkeley a run for their money as well.

Among other things, comedian Joe Penner, then the hottest thing or radio with such catchphrases as "you wanna buy a duck?" "you nasty man" and "don't ever dooooooooooooooooo that" sings a love song to a duck in this movie.

In the following Paramount Pictures short subject, studio songwriters Mack Gordon and Harry Revel promote the songs from College Rhythm (and other Paramount features) plays a few bars from Lyda's production number.

And here's the complete "Take A Number From One To Ten" number. Lyda enters with style at 1:47.

In the latter 1930's, Lyda was signed by the Hal Roach Studio, after the tragic death of Thelma Todd and the firing of studio mainstay Charley Chase. She was teamed with brash and brassy comedienne Patsy Kelly for a series of short subjects and features.

Lyda Roberti's sudden passing from a heart condition on March 12, 1938 recalls the health problems that also would very prematurely end the life of singer-actor-comedian Bobby Darin in 1973.

Great stars both - and much missed all of these decades.

Buster Keaton is Turner Classic Movies' October "Star of the Month"

2011-10-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Turner Classic Movies will be showing Buster's movies every Sunday night in October, beginning tonight with a Keaton marathon, starting with his incomparable Civil War epic "The General."

Ladies and gentlemen, set your DVRS:

THE GENERAL (1927), 10/2 8PM
COPS (1922), 10/2 9:30PM
OUR HOSPITALITY (1923), 10/2 10PM
LOVE NEST (1922), 10/2 11:30PM
THE NAVIGATOR (1924), 10/3 12AM
THE BOAT (1921), 10/3 1:15AM
THE GOAT (1921), 10/3 1:45AM
THE PLAYHOUSE (1921), 10/3 2:15AM
THE SCARECROW (1920), 10/3 2:45AM
ELECTRIC HOUSE (1922), 10/3 3:15AM
THE BALOONATIC (1923), 10/3 3:45AM
THE PALEFACE (1922), 10/3 4:15AM
CONVICT 13 (1920), 10/3 4:45AM
SPEAK EASILY (1932), 10/3 5:15AM
SHERLOCK JR. (1924), 10/9 8PM
GOOD NIGHT NURSE (1918), Buster Keaton & Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, 10/9 9PM
STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928), 10/9 9:30PM
THE CAMERAMAN (1928), 10/9 11PM
CONEY ISLAND (1917), Keaton & Arbuckle, 10/10 12:30AM
BACK STAGE (1919), Keaton & Arbuckle, 10/10 1AM
LIMELIGHT (1952), 10/10 1:30AM
THE BELL BOY (1918), Keaton & Arbuckle, 10/10 4AM
SHE WENT TO THE RACES (1945), 10/10 4:30AM
SEVEN CHANCES (1925), 10/16 8PM
ONE WEEK (1920), 10/16 9PM
THREE AGES (1923), 10/16 9:30PM
MY WIFE'S RELATIONS (1922), 10/16 10:45PM
DAYDREAMS (1922), 10/16 11:15PM
NEIGHBORS (1921), 10/16 11:45PM
SPITE MARRIAGE (1929), 10/17 12:15AM
FREE AND EASY (1930), 10/17 1:45AM
THE GARAGE (1920), Keaton & Arbuckle, 10/17 3:30AM
THE BLACKSMITH (1922), 10/17 4AM
SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK (1931), 10/17 4:30AM
BUSTER KEATON: SO FUNNY IT HURT! (2004), 10/17 6AM
COLLEGE (1927), 10/23 8PM
THE HIGH SIGN (1921), 10/23 9:15PM
GO WEST (1925), 10/23 9:45PM
THE FROZEN NORTH (1922), 10/23 11PM
BATTLING BUTLER (1926), 10/23 11:30PM
THE SAPHEAD (1920), 10/24 12:45AM
THE DOUGHBOYS (1930), 10/24 2:15AM
PARLOR, BEDROOM AND BATH (1931), 10/24 3:45AM
THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER (1932), 10/24 5:15AM
WHAT! – NO BEER? (1933), 10/24 6:30AM
IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949), 10/30 8PM
SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE: The Silent Partner (1955), Keaton & Joe E. Brown, 10/30 10PM
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1966 Widescreen), 10/30 10:30PM
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1960 Widescreen), 10/31 12:15AM
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956 Widescreen), 10/31 4AM

This Friday Night: Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project CD Release Party

2011-09-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

There are numerous worthy events in the San Francisco Bay Area to promote, and if I wrote 365 entries each year, I still would not get to all of them. While this weekend features the behemoth Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park, the best stuff to check out is invariably the smaller gigs in smaller venues the evenings after these performances.

Friday's record release party at The BeatBox Club on 11th Street & Folsom is particularly cool. Ralph Carney, known as one of the co-founders of the wonderful, original and indescribable Akron band Tin Huey, as well as a presence on recordings by The B-52s, Tom Waits, and a fellow whose signature sound on numerous instruments can be found in a gazillion bands and soundtracks, will be leading the Serious Jass Project at 10:00 p.m., and then its offshoot ensemble, The Cottontails, for the 11:00 set.

Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project has a new CD, Seriously, out on Smog Veil Records. This band, featuring Michael McIntosh on piano, Ari Munkress on bass and Randy Odell on drums, pays tribute to the music of Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Benny Moten, Henry "Red" Allen, Coleman Hawkins, Andy Kirk and Ben Webster - with touches of Sun Ra and Spike Jones thrown in for good measure.

I'm bias when it comes to Ralph Carney; he and approximately 47 musical instruments were involved in several shows I produced. Although my company-on-a-shoestring, Reet Spleet Productions, certainly could not afford a symphony, we could hire Ralph and Beth Custer to essentially provide a two-person orchestra. If you're running a 1921 Felix The Cat cartoon and need someone who can improvise the perfect sound effect, on the spot, something sonically amazing that you would never think of - Ralph is your man!

Ralph's encyclopedic riffology and swing will be in the spotlight this Friday night. There will be fun and stellar musicianship with good humor (but no ice cream that I know of).

Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project's Gala Record And CD Release Party
The BeatBox Club
314 11th Street (cross street is Folsom)
San Francisco, CA
9pm - Rob Reich Trio
10pm - Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project
11pm - The Cottontails
Buy advance tickets here

How To Feel Miserable As An Artist

2011-09-28T20:07:00.001-07:00

I more accurate name for the following list would be How To Feel Miserable As A Human Being.

Of course, what one is supposed to do is not admit publicly to having actually done any of these ten things, not now, not in the past, not ever.

Alas, #1 ("constantly compare yourself to other artists") invariably leads to #5 and the not mentioned #11 "beat the shit out of yourself repeatedly and unrelentingly for no reason" are particularly lethal bear traps and time holes to be avoided. I don't mind doing #9, provided the pay rate is decent, the check is good and the parameters are well-defined.

And I haven't done all of these ten things. . . really!

One Week From Tonight At Alameda's Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge: Tikitronic Film Festival

2011-09-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the (shudder) real world, Will "The Quill" Viharo, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Psychotronic Paul and The Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge present The Tikitronic Film Festival, featuring trailers, drive-in snack ads, Scopitones, commercials, cartoons, industrial films and cinematic ephemera in glorious 16mm on the big screen!

The Tikitronic Film Festival
The Date: Thursday, September 22
Showtime: 7:30 p.m.
The Place: The backyard parking lot of The Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge
Where: 1304 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda, CA

Reasons To Go: Mixed drinks in the lounge, customized tiki door prizes and, outside, delirious entertainment that will have you un-squarely way deep in WTF Land within the first 137 seconds. And, of course, Scopitones like this one:

Eternal Music From The Incomparable Mel Tormé

2011-09-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Born on September 13, 1925: legendary vocalist-arranger-actor-drummer-author Mel Tormé.

Although Mel (lucky for us earthlings) lived long enough to record tons of albums and tour the globe many times over six decades - boy, do we miss him!

Yesterday, September 9, 2011 Was. . .

2011-09-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday would have been the 70th birthday of rhythm-and-blues vocalist and architect of The Stax Sound, the incomparable Otis Redding.

With Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield, Otis was one of the giants of the field, towering figures in 20th century popular music - and gone far too soon.

Karla Redding-Andrews wrote an excellent tribute to her dad in the Huffington Post. There is also the Legacy Of Otis Redding DVD compiling his performances.

Although he died in a plane crash with four members of backing band The Bar-Kays, at the end of the same year that claimed John Coltrane, 1967, Otis recorded and toured prolifically in those few years of his performing career and, like fallen jazz trumpeters Clifford Brown and Booker Little, left a legacy of amazing music behind.

I don't care if some tunes are repeated in these clips. Can't get too much of Otis tearing it up with the mighty Booker T and The MGS in support.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, Rick Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughn and (much later) John Denver - DAMN!

My Favorite "Comedian And Showgirl" Glossy

2011-09-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

Psychotronic Paul Ponders The English Language: Observation #17

2011-09-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

(Imagine Andy Rooney voice here) Do you ever notice that there is only one letter of difference between "deprived" and "depraved"?

Just one letter. . . the lives of King Henry VIII, wordsmiths Lord Byron and William S. Burroughs, not to mention countless never broke but ever libidinous hedonists from 1965-1980 notwithstanding.

A product of emotional deprivation, perchance?

Ladies And Gentlemen: The One And Only Spike Jones (And His City Slickers)

2011-09-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Need a laugh? Call on Spike Jones. Enjoy the following half hour compilation of mayhem-filled excerpts from The All-Star Review.

If that was simply not enough, more barely-controlled chaos by Spike Jones and The City Slickers is available on DVD.

Spike's"Musical Depreciation Revue" can be found on two multi-DVD sets: The Best Of Spike Jones and Spike Jones: The Legend.

Join My Facebook Group

2011-08-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

My Facebook group is called The Dead Comedians' Society. I am not the first person to have an online group or a blog with this sobriquet and my Facebook group is not associated with the sketch comedy ensemble of the same name.

The group's purpose: post as many clips as humanly possible by long-gone talented folks who made us laugh on the big and small screen.

I am certain that the sheer breadth of dead comedians represented in my group blows all other attempts out of the very water that a mustached star of an L-KO comedy fell into in 1916.

Network Awesome Pays Tribute To The Dana Carvey Show

2011-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

This week, Jason Forrest's Network Awesome has thrown the spotlight on the short-lived but memorable sketch comedy series The Dana Carvey Show, which aired on ABC during the spring of 1996. While not quite as famous among comedy buffs as The Richard Pryor Show, both series got yanked quickly after continual run-ins with Standards and Practices over controversial material.

Since the series disappeared after seven of the planned ten episodes aired, many comedy fans, myself included, did not see it until clips were posted on YouTube more than a decade later.

After seeing how funny the YouTube clips were, one wonders why HBO or Comedy Central didn't pick the show up after ABC cancelled it.

The show's humor was very over-the-top, at times with a sheer silliness recalling Spike Milligan. Its cast featured a bunch of Second City troupe veterans, including Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, a few years before their rise to fame on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and in movies.

As the writers included Robert Smigel and Louis CK, this program was not afraid to go way out for a laugh.

All eight episodes are up on YouTube. The season finale was arguably the funniest episode in the series.

Of course, the Carvey show couldn't have Robert Smigel on the writing staff without including episodes of TV Funhouse: the thrilling adventures of Ace & Gary, The Ambiguously Gay Duo (starting at 1:33).

These Guys Were Born On The Same Day?

2011-08-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

Although 19th century author-lecturer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain were both born on the 29th of August, the contemporaneous fun fact that floors me much more is the duo from the world of music who share this birthday: Charlie Parker (1920-1955) and Michael Jackson (1958-2009).

Charlie Parker, the saxophonist, songwriter and bandleader (A.K.A. "Bird", Yardbird", etc.) passed away 55 years ago, after turning the post-WW2 jazz world on its collective ear. Here's one of the few existing clips of Charlie, playing soulfully following a strong solo by legendary swing icon Coleman Hawkins.

The links between Charlie Parker and Michael Jackson are many and the degrees of separation surprisingly few. Miles Davis, who played alongside Bird in the late 1940's Charlie Parker Quintet, worked extensively with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.

Parker Miles and Michael all crossed paths with Quincy Jones, a giant of 20th century pop and jazz who began his career as a brass player and arranger. At one point Quincy played in the same orchestra with the trumpet virtuoso who was the closest thing to a "Bird" of the brass, Clifford Brown (1931-1956), as well as in the ensemble of formidable bop era composer-arranger-pianist Tadd Dameron. Quincy's production genius complemented Jackson's vision as Sir George Martin's gave The Beatles an expanded tonal palette to get creative with.

In another way, the King Of Bop and the King Of Pop - one famous today primarily among musicians, historians and jazz fans, the other plagued by mega-celebrity on an insane scale - share a certain polarizing "you love 'em or you hate 'em" place in 20th century culture. Their music either transports to the stratosphere or leaves a person cold.

This blog tips the Jimmie Hatlo hat to Mr. Parker and Mr. Jackson, who, irregardless of their flaws and difficulties as human beings, brought joy to millions around the world through their music - and still do. One hopes that in the next world they found some measure of peace that clearly eluded them in this one.

Today's Blah-Blah-Blah: The World's Worst Job

2011-08-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

"There's a near-total disconnect between our real, large, urgent problems and the who’s-up-who’s-down cage match that is the daily bread of our pundit class." Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler

That is the opening of a New York Times piece in which various scholarly correspondents tell what they would do if they had the utter, unrelenting and grinding misfortune to be President Of The United States (a.k.a. POTUS).

Anything my substantially less scholarly voice could add to this discussion besides harsh, Draconian limits on the amounts of campaign contributions? Yeah - any POTUS would do the country a world of good by not only serving just a single term, but telling NO ONE, not even their spouses or mistresses, until convention time; that's right, NOBODY, not even a breath of it to a single member of the corrupt political parties or ratings-driven mass media.

Anything else? Overturning the Supreme Court's hideous Citizens United decision and then banning political advertising would be a start; the exorbitant cost of television attack ads (brought to you by lobbyist and Billionaire Boys Club slime), is only surpassed by their ability to create a citizenry even more docile, unquestioning, uninformed and - if such a thing can be imagined - downright stupid than they already are.

And, of course, I am compelled to close this edition of Blah-Blah-Blah with a shiny two cents from the world of classic cartoons. . .

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-08-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

When I started writing this blog in 2006, in a completely arbitrary decision, I decided the 20th of every month would feature a clip of Burt Bacharach music, because I like his melodies, chord changes, arrangements and unique ability to incorporate elements of bossa nova and jazz harmonies into pure pop.

My favorite Burt Bacharach composition is "Nikki". Something about that song gets me right there in the broken heart every time.

Many more Bacharach songs, especially those on the Burt n' Elvis album Painted From Memory, resonate deeply with me.

While I periodically miss a Burt Bacharach Day just by getting stuck for a clip I like, there's always Dionne Warwick in German (thank you, Bear Family Records and The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show on KFJC for alerting me to this).

Today's posting also reminds me to mention a concert tonight in Woodstock, New York by the much loved but short-lived pop group, The Left Banke (note: the 2011 version, led by Tom Finn and George Cameron, is based on the 1967-1969 ensemble that recorded The Left Banke Too, not the earlier Michael Brown incarnation of the band). The Left Banke's 1966 hit Walk Away Renee is a cornerstone of Baroque Pop. The genre's string arrangements and vocal harmonies strike me as artistic parallels both to The Beatles and Burt Bacharach.

Burt would very likely have, a la Brian Wilson and Sir George Martin, expanded the sonic palette yet further, incorporating nylon string guitars, Brazilian percussion and whatever other creative instrumental combinations his imagination could find.

This Blog Likes Jon Stewart And The Daily Show

2011-08-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

I like satire. Like, for example, the late and incomparable George Carlin.

Or the late, great Bill Hicks.

My big problem is that what often stands for satire these days is way too nice. Give me some bilious stuff that really goes after the bastards. The nastier and funnier, the better!

Alas, we don't have anything remotely like Mark Twain these days - and if we did, the writing would be suppressed!

As a consolation prize, here are recent segments from a program that still runs on cable TV that covers mass media and current events in a humorous way. Yes, indeedy, the last faint gasp of this sort of thing available on what Ernie Kovacs altar ego Percy Dovetonsils called "the orthicon tube", Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

This Sputtering Blog, Part 2

2011-08-15T01:37:00.000-07:00

Wrote on February 13 that this blog was running out of steam - and, indeed, it was. Then the For The Love Of Film (Noir) Blogathon came along and inspired a few decent postings, followed by occasional bursts of activity since: just enough to keep the blog alive and get it to the 500 posting milestone.

Looks like I have run out of things to say for the moment. Shall continue posting, even if my writing mojo has vanished to the extent that I am seeing pictures of it on the back of milk cartons.

When utterly devoid of creative writing impetus, I will direct readers to other blogs. The subject of my last posting, Gene Deitch, writes Roll The Credits, a scholarly blog previewing excerpts from his upcoming book about his life in animation. On June 28, I championed cookbook author Tinky "Dakota" Weisblat's invaluable blog chronicling caring for a parent with Alzheimer's Disease and also called attention to Only Solitaire - George Starostin's Music Reviews recently.

Today's Psychotronic Paul-picked blog, direct from Bristol in the United Kingdom, is a frequently hilarious one titled The World's Worst Records, frequently including such lines as "someone pass me a bucket - I'm going to be sick." The blog lives up to its subtitle of "An Arcade Of Audio Atrocities" and, like my writings and celluloid mixmaster presentations, can offer hours of questionable amusement.

This Blog Wishes Animator Gene Deitch A Happy 87th Birthday

2011-08-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Gadzooks - It's Another KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival (Saturday, August 6)!

2011-07-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Besmirching the hallowed Room 5015 of Los Altos' Foothill College a week from today: the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival.

Will the show be jam-packed with movie stars, CGI and cool effects? In a word - NO!

Will there be trailers from wretched movies, well-meaning 50's educational films, schlocky drive-in movies with guys in stupid-looking robot and gorilla suits, vintage TV commercials and theatre ads, cartoon rarities, Japanese monster epics, Scopitones, Soundies and other even more obscure musical shorts, silent movie excerpts, kidvid, serial chapters, puppet animation, double-entendre packed pre-Code clips and more? To paraphrase the immortal celluloid hero Gary Cooper, "yep".

The visual music (?) draws from a wide range of oddly tuned instruments - and we don't know what riff we'll play until the show is underway.

The festival is also something of a reaction against all standard rules of film programming. Instead of devoting a screening to one director, genre or series, the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival tosses a wide variety of films from different places, genres, techniques or time periods together into quite the kaleidoscopic salad.

As far as content goes, the more obscure, the lower the budget, the more under-the-radar, the better. If we can establish a subject link or a Monty Python-esque visual or verbal link between the segments, great, but this is not absolutely necessary.

Or, to make a further Monty Python reference, this could be called the "And Now For Something Completely Different" approach to film programming.

Archivist-producers Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and myself create the program on the fly, responding to audience reaction and choosing films accordingly. Rob Emmett, host of KFJC's "Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show" since 1986, presides over the festivities with panache and bon mots aplenty.

The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival

When? Saturday, August 6. While showtime is 7:00 p.m., get there early - these shows sell out

Where? Room 5015, Foothill College campus, Los Altos Hills, CA (El Monte exit off of Highway 280)

Why? We give away cheesy door prizes at intermission.

How Much? $5 donation benefits the fearless and un-homogenized KFJC 89.7. You'll also need $2 for a parking permit.

Psychotronic Paul's Op-Ed Passage Of The Year

2011-07-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

About once every two or three years, I read an op-ed piece that actually strikes a chord other than a boring G major with me. Here's a passage from one of the rare examples:

"There's another wrong assumption controlling this debate over debt, that the banks, the debt holders, must be paid. When the bankers and the Chinese and the Saudis lent Bush three trillion dollars for his wild-ass buying party, they were betting, like any investor, on the good faith of the borrower to pay it back.

So, let Hu Jintao and King Abdullah stick a collection agency on Cantor and the other Republican shirkers. Repossess their limousines or send The Boys around to remind Cantor what happens when you don't pay what you owe.

The President should say to Hu, the Sheik and Goldman-Sachs:

I have identified $3 trillion in Treasury notes issued between 2001 and 2008 which were lent to fund President Bush's expenditures. Unfortunately, those who borrowed your money don't want to pay it back. You made a bad investment -- but that's how the free market works. Therefore, I am suspending payments on these Treasury notes until we can round up the deadbeats and make them live up to their commitments.

As President, I have the Constitutional duty to pay the bills of the Veterans Administration, the Social Security fund and other vital services already voted and appropriated by Congress. Military pay before banker pay. Get used to it."

Greg Palast, journalist (and there are so few of that breed left that journalists, along with fearless, no-holds-barred political satirists, ought to be added to the official Endangered Species list)

Found 15,000 Music Reviews By One Guy!

2011-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am exaggerating just a tad.

The prolific music review writer I am referring to is Russian journalist George Starostin, author of the Only Solitaire blog.

While I didn't count the number of reviews in Starostin's websites - that would be rather time consuming - their scope is comprehensive.

The Only Solitaire blog runs the gamut from folk and folk rock, The British Invasion, garage bands-psychedelia, prog rock to early precursors of punk and metal.

Although Mr. Starostin does not review jazz, he does tackle enormous chunks of the histories of 20th century rock, pop and rhythm and blues.

Even when disagreeing with his album ratings or artist career overviews - and I often do - I find George's reviews consistently entertaining, informative, well-researched and well-written. That said, I will let gladly George off the hook for his love of ABBA if he'll excuse my soft spot for the pre-Rumours versions of Fleetwood Mac.

For lots more, check out Only Solitaire - George Starostin's Music Reviews - and enjoy.

Born 75 Years Ago Today: 20th Century Music's Most Dangerous Man

2011-07-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

"To have heard Ayler in the flesh launch himself into evangelical multiphonic furies from those simple, diatonic and frequently hymnodic lead melodies was to have experienced, I think, one of the primal American musical experiences of modern times." columnist Jeff Simon, Buffalo News

Who would have hit the 75 years of age milestone today? The single most controversial 20th century musician, bar none, Mr. Albert Ayler, born July 13, 1936. More than four decades after his November 1970 passing, the gritty and provocative tenor saxophonist still inspires awe and wonderment from some listeners, while scaring the shit out of others.

Although there are many times in life when sunny, vocal harmony-drenched melodicism (or peace and quiet) is absolutely the ticket for me, nonetheless, I find myself very much in the awe and wonderment viewpoint when it comes to Albert Ayler, whose fundamental sound is somewhat along the lines of an emotionally unfettered King Curtis on one doozy of an acid trip. For sheer timbre, Albert was quite the powerhouse: his extreme high-register pyrotechnics are more searing and his low-register blasts are more earthshaking than any other saxophonist I have ever heard.

Once I understood how to listen to and comprehend the Rorschach Tests for how much unadulterated dissonance a listener can handle known as new music, avant-garde or free jazz, the genius of Ayler's incendiary, at times overpowering sound became apparent. And besides, I can't help but like a guy who, as a member of The Cecil Taylor Unit, quoted "Cocktails For Two" in the middle of a blistering, insanely fast high-voltage tenor saxophone solo.

Now, as far as avant-garde music goes. . . if one can listen to the "skronk meets garage rock meets modern classical meets doo-wop" opuses Uncle Meat and Weasels Ripped My Flesh by Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, latter-day industrial and experimental noise-rock or such uncompromising post-modernist jazz artists as Anthony Braxton, then Albert Ayler's music will NOT elicit a AAAAAAAAAAACK! response, followed by a mad headlong dash into treacly, gushy, sickly, diabetes-inducing commercial easy listening by The Kennys (Kenny Loggins, Kenny G) or The Lawrence Welk Show Meets Up With People.

Albert Ayler doesn't use a melody as a reference point or anchor, he completely deconstructs it and delves into a no-holds-barred scorched earth search for a song's essential emotional truth. In the moments when he finds that truth (YOW!), Albert can be deeply moving in a most unexpected and inexplicable way.

For example, Albert's harrowing take on "Summertime" is beyond expressive. 360 degrees from the numerous tepid, sanitized, safe versions of the George Gershwin/Du Bose Heyward epic, the stark, brutal, devastating reality emanating from Ayler's saxophone packs an emotional wallop, slapping the listener upside the head precisely where the catfish are jumpin'.

Curiously, most of Albert Ayler's particularly aggressively atonal performances, those that absolutely scared the bejeesus out of people - and still do - were mostly early in his recording career, in 1962-1964, often as part of an uncompromising trio with ridiculously nimble bassist Gary Peacock and innovative drummer Sunny Murray. Like the abstract expressionist painters of the 1940's, Ayler erased the last "don't go there" tonal barriers left, no doubt leaving his contemporaries (other than adventurous barrier-smashers Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra) to think, "WTF do we do now?"

At the same time as the Albert Ayler free jazz recordings for ESP-Disk were waxed, he also recorded an album of spirituals and hymns, largely sticking to the basic melodies. This "hymnolodic" approach and his more raw, visceral, gutteral avant-garde sound were the two interrelated poles of Albert's musical universe.

In 1965-1966, Albert started experimenting with orchestration and expanded his ensembles from trios and quartets to sextets and septets. The results continued his path of blending the utterly post-modern with the traditional: avant-garde skronk and elements of 20th century classical meet hymns, spirituals, folk melodies and pre-swing era polyphonic improvisation (reminiscent of New Orleans brass band arrangements and very early "riverboat jazz").

In 1966, he toured with a band consisting of his saxophone plus brother Donald on trumpet, concert violinist Michel Sampson, two upright basses (sometimes a cellist) and percussion, which presented a unique mix of all of the above elements not heard before or since.

After 1967, Albert tried his hand at more commercial jazz/soul fusion records. Most of the time they are valiant efforts that don't work, because the band's lead singer Mary Maria did not possess the truly extraordinary chops needed to power those songs home - and also because Albert's singing neither mirrored his leather-lunged saxophone heroics nor reminded anyone of James Brown. On the other hand, if Albert tried out his "skronk + soul" idea with say, Patti Labelle, The Staple Singers and/or the mighty musicians from the Stax label (Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Albert King), the results would have been glorious.

That sense of restless experimentation in jazz led by Ayler got obliterated by a nuclear bomb that hit the music world - the death of John Coltrane on July 17, 1967. One could argue that the concept that jazz music was not just enjoyable listening, but a powerful, wide-open, groundbreaking, life-changing force perished with him. And Albert was among the musicians who played at John Coltrane's funeral.

In the same way that rock music got absolutely hammered by the untimely "crash and burn" deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons, jazz was devastated by the loss of Coltrane, preceded in 1964 by the death of Eric Dolphy, then followed by the equally tragic demises of Ayler and trumpet genius Lee Morgan, shot by his estranged wife.

While much of my favorite Ayler music is from 1966-1967, corresponding EXACTLY with the same timeline of my favorite pop and rock music albums - Pet Sounds, Revolver, The Byrds' 5th Dimension, Forever Changes by Arthur Lee & Love, The Doors - one of his most shattering yet soulful performances turned out to be his last recordings, released posthumously, from concerts at the Foundation Maeght, in St. Paul De Vence, France on July 27, 1970.

While both rock and jazz suffered mightily from the descent into heroin addiction and poverty of too many outstanding and innovative musicians, at least we have the recordings to listen to, enjoy and argue over.

Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin, who produced and directed the documentary My Name Is Albert Ayler, reflects, "Maybe he did not really succeed in the way he wanted when he was living, but the interest in his music now is much, much bigger today. I think there's a lot of people coming to this music from more alternative, rock music. It's not really a jazz thing, really. But I think there's a lot more open-minded people today."

Should a fascination with Ayler's music of the spheres hit like the proverbial ton o' bricks, check out The Holy Ghost, an epic 9-CD box set from the multi-genre and fearless indie label Revenant Records.

Another Newly Discovered Philosopher-Guru by Paul F. Etcheverry

2011-07-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

Found in the ruins, alongside ribald drawings and disgusting, unwashed rice bowls: crumpled, scrawled foolscap jam-packed with the folksy 6th century B.C. wisdom of Richard "Dickie" Zhu. Lao Tzu, A.K.A. "The Old Master", vehemently denounced Dickie, repeatedly denied that the two were related and changed his address to avoid him on seventeen different occasions.

“Whoever can see through all fear is one crazy motherfucker.”

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with cheap airfare and an airport bar."

"He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know. He who does not know and speaks hosts a talk radio program."

"He who knows that enough is enough will always remember how to spell enough."

"Even ordinary women at the rice wine bar can be brilliant.
I alone grope in the dark.
Please let me remember what her name is before sunrise."

"Nature needs few words. And it's FUCKING COLD out."

"A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to buy my comfy La-Z Taoist couch."

Psychotronic Paul's Quote Of The Day

2011-07-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

"Some years ago I had a complete nervous breakdown, was dead broke and had to be put in a charity ward with 30 others. I was there 18 months and doctors didn`t give me long to live. So now each day to me is a special dividend, so I live it to the hilt". Ernie Kovacs

Laurel And Hardy On Hulu.com

2011-07-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

On Hulu, dependable source of classic movie and TV goodness (or badness and, even better, what Frank Zappa aptly termed cheepnis), ten hilarious Laurel & Hardy silent two-reelers - Leave Em Laughing, Flying Elephants, You're Darn Tootin', Their Purple Moment, Two Tars, Liberty, Big Business, Double Whoopee, Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down - have been posted and can be viewed for free (with some irritating commercials interspersed here and there), at least for now.

Enjoy these examples of the silent screen comedy gold standard while you can. If the availability of Laurel & Hardy films on DVD is any indication, these comedy jewels will very likely get pulled from Hulu soon enough.

Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A July 4th Posting

2011-07-04T00:14:00.000-07:00

And here's to the great Americans responsible for the following songs:

This Saturday At 9:00 A.M. PST: Bernard Herrmann Tribute On KFJC

2011-06-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

"In orchestrating the picture I avoided, as much as possible, the realistic sound of a large symphony orchestra. The motion picture soundtrack is an exquisitely sensitive medium, and with skillful engineering a simple bass flute solo, the pulsing of a bass drum, or the sound of muted horns, can often be more effective than half a hundred musicians sawing away." Bernard Herrmann, 1941 New York Times interview

On KFJC this Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to noon Pacific Standard Time, film soundtrack music expert Robert Emmett will be presenting a three hour tribute to composer-conductor Bernard Herrmann.

Yesterday was the centenary of Bernard Herrmann's birth. If perchance you aren't a music or movie buff and do not know who Bernard Herrmann is, you certainly know his striking, dramatic scores for such films as Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, North By Northwest, Taxi Driver and many more.

He also conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra and created the music for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio broadcasts prior to his film score composing career.

While saying that Herrmann's creative scores and varied orchestrations added tremendously to the impact of these iconic movies would be the understatement of the decade, they also stand alone as works of art.

One does not have to be a film music buff to hear his scores, independent of whatever celluloid opus they provided counterpoint for, and find them fascinating and immensely pleasurable listening.

Among the tributes that continue to hail forth through 2011 is a good overview written by Tom Huizenga, Bernard Herrmann At 100: Master Of The Movie Score.

There are also a number of documentaries available via YouTube. Here are the first three segments of Channel 4's documentary, Music Of The Movies - Bernard Herrmann (embedding is disabled on subsequent parts):

Herrmann, like noted pianist-author-raconteur Oscar Levant, wanted more than anything else to be an internationally recognized, respected classical composer/symphony conductor - and thus was never at peace with even resounding and sustained success in the craft of writing scores for motion pictures. It's also a bit reminiscent of the talented animation director Shamus Culhane, whose memoirs expressed how he didn't care for cartoons per se and, as what he really wanted was to play the violin or viola in a symphony orchestra or string quartet, his entire career was something of a "Plan B".

That said, Bernard Herrmann did write a cantata based on Moby Dick and an operatic take on Wuthering Heights, as well as symphonies.

One would hope that if he only knew of the sheer number of prestigious orchestras around the world performing his music in 2011 and beyond, Mr. Herrmann would feel some measure of satisfaction and vindication.

The KFJC tribute will be available via their Broadcast Archives through July 16.

We Nominate Tinky Weisblat For Alzheimer's Advisory Council

2011-06-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today, your semi-intrepid correspondent breaks from his customary clip-laden tributes to mid-20th century movies/cartoons/music - or occasional short, snotty, snarky humor pieces - to take on a topic close to home.

The Department Of Health And Human Services is in the process of assembling an Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care & Services. Two of the council members will be caregivers.

We join those who support the nomination of author Tinky "Dakota" Weisblat - not just because we love her name and enjoy Tinky's prose on far-flung topics - but because she is a caregiver, an eloquent advocate, and currently resides in close proximity to Washington D.C.

Tinky, author of The Pudding Hollow Cookbook, has turned her wordsmithing ways to chronicling the day-to-day life of caregiving for a mother who suffers from dementia. Her blog, Pulling Taffy - A Family's Year with Dementia and Other Quirks, has provided a tremendous service to those of us - LOTS of us - who are both caring for family members stricken by Alzheimer's Disease and attempting to be as positive as we can through the experience.

She would be a terrific choice as one of the caregiver-advisors for the council.

Nominations can be e-mailed to Helen Lamont at Department Of Health And Human Services. In the following online version of Federal Register (Volume 76 issue 112), just scroll down past SUMMARY and DATES to ADDRESSES for further instructions.

The deadline is EOB on June 30, 2011.

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-06-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Since June 20 is the birthday of Brian Wilson, I'm posting the one clip available involving Brian (with or without The Beach Boys) covering Burt Bacharach music. Posted this clip of an intriguing but never finished demo - The Beach Boys covering Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" - a couple of years back. Don't have the particulars, but it would appear to have been very likely recorded between the Wild Honey and Friends albums in 1967-1968.

Listening to how deftly the Burt and Brian styles of composition and vocal arrangement dovetail, one concludes that had Capitol Records encouraged the Brother label to release non-Beach Boys solo projects by The Wilsons - all spotlighting new original material and musical ideas that broke with the BB's "sun, surf n' babes" Top 40 formula - the results would have been rewarding.

Fortunately for music lovers, Brian re-emerged 30 years after this recording, Wondermints and Stockholm Strings in tow, to set things right and celebrate both the commercial and more experimental aspects of his music in style.

Saluting The Sultans Of Swing

2011-06-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today, the finger poppin' jazz-crazed author of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog salutes The Sultans Of Swing.

It's a well kept secret to all but the most obsessed jazz buffs that the various Sultans Of Swing continued to record superb albums, and lots of them, long after the heydey of the genre was a dim speck in the rear view mirror.

No doubt, had the incomparable Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Art Tatum not died young, they would have waxed another slew of outstanding latter-day swing albums.

Some of the greatest swing music sides were actually were recorded contemporaneously with the swing-to-bop revolution in jazz. This is no news flash: the post WW2 recordings of the restlessly creative Artie Shaw (who quickly reached the point when he never, ever wanted to play "Begin The Beguine" again), Woody Herman's saxophone riff-powered Second Herd, as well as the harmonically advanced music of Nat King Cole and Mary Lou Williams are closer in spirit to the next wave - Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk - than to the commercial pop-oriented big bands of the era.

The great Nat Cole actually hosted his own TV show in the 1950's! Imagine, jazz on television; in the corporate music-dominated 21st century, even the once music-friendly PBS is largely a jazz-free zone!

Benny, Basie, Hawk, Stephane, Hamp and their swinging alumni did us all an enormous favor by never jumping the shark or becoming tired, boring, godawful "oldies" acts.

Satchmo, Mary Lou and Teddy Wilson in particular continued to create masterpieces fairly late in their lengthy musical careers.

Pianist-composers Ellington and Williams kept writing new material right up to their last days.

The Count, The Duke, The Earl Of Hines and their various royalty/alumni, disregarding the ever-ephemeral and shifting public tastes, just continued swinging like mad, in many cases well into their seventies.

At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we can't ever get enough of The Sultans Of Swing.

My Favorite Music Clip Ever

2011-06-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

25 years ago today, the great bandleader/clarinetist Benny Goodman passed away at 77 years of age, pretty much the way we would all like to leave this world - expiring during a post-practice nap after a five decade career in music.

Turns out my favorite music clip ever is the following incendiary performance by Benny's 1937 Quartet, featuring Lionel Hampton on vibes, pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer extraordinaire Gene Krupa, from Hollywood Hotel.

There are some excellent CD box sets of BG available, not the least of them the following beaut from the fabulous Mosaic Records.

And This Blog Loves Film History Researchers

2011-06-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ever since seeing Buster Keaton's Cops on Paul Killiam's Silents Please TV show as a pre-schooler, I have been fascinated by vintage films and film history.

That said, this blogger is pleased to call attention to any worthy initiatives and projects benefitting film preservation - and regards today's posting as a rather belated birthday tribute to film historian, author, documentary producer and 2010 Oscar winner Kevin Brownlow.

One of our favorite San Francisco Bay Area organizations/venues, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, is on the list for the annual Community Challenge contest by the National Trust For Historic Preservation. The organization that receives the most yes votes from the This Place Matters list gets a $25,000 grant: manna from heaven in these lingeringly moribund economic times.

While the museum, soon to be hosting the 14th annual Broncho Billy Film Festival, is faring quite well in the voting, it will need all the support we silent movie mavens can muster to land that grant.

Film history buffs, merely click here and give the museum your yes vote. To harken back to the not wonderful days of machine politics, Vote Early And Vote Often! Well. . . er. . .uh. . . let's paraphrase that to say if 10,000 classic film buffs all vote yes, it's excellent news for the good folks at Niles. Voting ends June 30. Go, Niles!

To go through all the ways that the J.R. Bray Studio helped establish the art of cel animation would be longer than the grocery shopping list for a NFL team's caterer.

Patents and technology established by J.R. Bray and Earl Hurd a century ago were the beginnings of a foundation that subsequent animation producers, especially the brilliant and driven Walt Disney, took to the max just a few years later. And between 1913 and 1927, a host of important animators (including this blog's favorites, New York cartoon producers Max and Dave Fleischer) got their start in cartoonland with films produced under Bray's auspices.

That said, it's fantastic news that Tom Stathes of the Cartoons On Film blog, unquestionably among the youngest and most conscientious animation historians in the western world, has joined forces with quite a lineup of scholars to launch the Bray Animation Project. This will be an invaluable source for researchers and animation aficionados. Go, Tom!

Happy 100th Birthday, Vincent Price!

2011-05-27T10:26:00.001-07:00

34 years ago today, Johnny Rotten wrote "God Save the Queen". 89 years ago, Hammer/Amicus horror mainstay - and star of Horror Of Dracula - Christopher Lee was born. And today is also the 100th birthday of Vincent Price.

While I don't have a clip of Vincent, the master of chilling character roles, singing "Anarchy In The U.K." with The Sex Pistols or cracking jokes on the set with Christopher Lee, unfortunately, this blog presents the next best thing: the following inspired animated tribute by soon-to-be feature film director Tim Burton, who would feature Vincent Price ten years later in the splendid film Edward Scissorhands.

The ten-day Vincentennial festival presented by Cinema St. Louis has been offering a veritable Plethora O' Price.

The bonanza for Missouri movie mavens includes such classic Vincent Price chillers as The Fly, House Of Usher, The Pit And The Pendulum, The Raven, The Tomb Of Ligeia, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre Of Blood.

Quite a few intrepid bloggers have penned scholarly tributes to the post-Lon-Boris-Bela classic horror movie king. Particularly noteworthy are:
Ivan G. Shreve's Centennial Tributes: Vincent Price
Roger Corman: Vincent Price's Vincentennial by Pete Timmermann
In Praise Of Price by Jeff York
From Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies, the excellent blog by Paul Castiglia, The Price Is Fright

I personally enjoyed the following deftly edited compendium of chiller-diller Vincent Price moments a great deal.

And I can't resist the clip from The Monster Club (1980) of Vincent, a few years before his soliloquy in Michael Jackson's Thriller, waxing poetic about the foibles of humanity and then singing "The Monster Mash."

Also can't resist the inevitable freakin' slew of trailers from Vincent Price's AIP backlog, ranging from William Castle chillers to (the very Outer Limits-like) The Last Man On Earth to his roles as evil incarnate in The Masque Of The Red Death and The Witchfinder General - and ultra-campy comedies!

Yet More Cool Classic Movie Events In The San Francisco Bay Area

2011-05-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

To call San Francisco Bay Area a hospitable locale for classic film buffs craving big screen fun is quite the understatement. The schedules of the Castro Theatre, the Pacific Film Archive, the Stanford Theatre and the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum are jam-packed with excellent screenings 52 weeks a year.

I could devote this blog entirely to announcing upcoming classic movie events, but don't - alas, time to write this isn't all that plentiful.

I am, however, happy to give a quick shout-out to various upcoming shows this summer.

I Wake Up Screaming is a splendid annual two-week Film Noir Festival that curator extraordinaire Elliot Lavine programs for The Roxie Theatre.

Tomorrow night, this year's cornucopia of hard-boiled pulp cinema closes with Robert Aldrich's 1955 piece-de-resistance, the incredible Kiss Me Deadly.

In June, the Roxie hosts the Horror Society's fifteen days of 21st century Grand Guignol movie mayhem, the Another Hole On The Head festival: while not my personal cup of tea, this will absolutely be the cat's expensive designer pajamas for aficionados of (quite literal) cutting-edge contemporary indie cinema. On a somewhat more sedate level, the Pacific Film Archive will pay tribute to prolific director Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man) from June 10-29.

Two silent movie retrospectives will present big screen rarities of the first order this summer. On June 24-26, Niles' Broncho Billy Film Festival will screen rare nuggets from The Mack Sennett Studio, where Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, Edgar Kennedy and many more started their careers in celluloid funmaking. The Castro Theatre will host the 16th San Francisco Silent Film Festival from July 14-17. Both festivals will draw international historians, archivists and diehard classic film buffs like the most powerful of mega-magnets.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones - For Rice Krispies!

2011-05-22T10:19:00.001-07:00

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-05-20T14:33:00.003-07:00

Released 45 Years Ago Today: Pet Sounds By The Beach Boys

2011-05-16T05:35:00.001-07:00

I regard 1966 as something of a watershed year in 20th century music, across the genres. The sheer number of legendary figures from rock, blues, soul, old-school country, jazz (and those musicians who bravely cut across the genres) still at the top of their game in 1966 and recording great albums boggles the mind.

Smack dab in the middle of this feverish period of creative experimentation, on May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds, the acknowledged piece-de-resistance of Brian Wilson And The Beach Boys, was officially released by Capitol Records.

While the average teenage record consumer of the time may well have not known what to make of Pet Sounds, the music community - and especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney - knew that Brian's "orchestral pop" had set a new and most ambitious bar line.

Although Pet Sounds now stands comfortably atop this blogger's short list of absolute favorite pop albums, I must confess that the intricacy, beauty and creativity of the vocal and instrumental arrangements by maestro Brian Wilson were pretty much lost on me in my guitar hero and prog rock-obsessed youth. Perhaps influenced by the rampant over-exposure and saturation of The Beach Boys' numerous Top 40 hits, I didn't "get" Pet Sounds (and such later Beach Boys masterpieces as Sunflower) at the time for a good reason: I didn't actually sit down and listen to the album in its entirety until many years later.

It took repeated listenings to Brian Wilson's music, decades later, sparked by an inspirational viewing of Don Was' 1995 documentary I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, to convince me.

This blogger/music lover's mind was seriously blown by the following YouTube clips about the making of Pet Sounds, which illuminate Brian Wilson's role as producer-arranger-conductor-mastermind.

In 2011, I am still listening to Pet Sounds and finding sonic nuances I had never perceived before.

I still love all that amazing mid-1960's music, from the ever-tuneful Beatles and Beach Boys to the soulful blues and propulsive hard bop, right through to the audacious avantgardists (Zappa, Beefheart, Ayler, Ornette), but will always have a soft spot for the following favorite songs from Pet Sounds:

Brian Wilson produced the "Good Vibrations" single later in 1966 and had planned his "and now for something completely different" followup, SMILE, which departed even from The Beach Boys pop hitmaking formula than Pet Sounds.

With apologies to Bob Dylan, The Doors, The Kinks, The Byrds, The Zombies and The Small Faces for the sin of omission, my brief "desert island" list of pop masterpieces that never fail to be satisfying listening, preferably with headphones and without any interruptions, includes:

The aforementioned SMILE sessions, recorded and arranged by Brian Wilson in late 1966 and early 1967
Arthur Lee and Love's Forever Changes

#1 Record by Big Star
The Beatles' Revolver

Of 1950's pop, the recordings that rival the aforementioned psychedelic era chestnuts for profound, sublime artistry - and I never tire of listening to these, either - would be the ultra-atmospheric Frank Sinatra studio masterpieces (Songs For Swingin' Lovers, In The Wee Small Hours, Only The Lonely), many featuring the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. And those ravishingly beautiful albums will be grist for another blog entry.

To Brian, the boys and intrepid Hollywood Studio aces The Wrecking Crew, thanks a million for the music and the memories.

'

The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection

2011-05-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

This blog's friend and colleague Will The Thrill Viharo has been on fire writing 21st century noir tales for quite some time now. Here's the coming attractions trailer that offers a glimpse of Will's intriguing literary world:

I'm (uncharacteristically) at a loss for words to describe Will's fiction: to term it an original, improvisational, at some times harrowing, at others quite funny "James Cain meets Robert Rodriguez meets Sam Fuller meets the infinite cosmos" blend is an oversimplication. I look forward to Will's next book, which no doubt will be completely different than all the others and cause me to eat my words with a judicious dose of Thai chili sauce.

Tonight At The Historic Bal Theatre: The Rock And Roll Horror Show

2011-05-14T09:13:00.001-07:00

TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m. at The Historic BAL Theatre
14808 East 14th Street, San Leandro, CA 94578

Bay Area Film Events (Godzilla Fest, Bob Wilkins Tribute, Creature Features At The Giants Game, Beatles Film Festival) and KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival co-founder Sci Fi Bob have joined forces to produce The Rock And Roll Horror Show.

This evening of schlocky big screen fun features The Cave Girls and surf-rockers The Deadlies from the late-night series Creepy KOFY Movietime.

After The Deadlies conjure the rockin' spirit of the late, great Link Wray, archivist Sci Fi Bob will present a screening of spine-chilling 1950's commercials, Frankenstein trailers, vintage rock clips and monstrous cartoons.

Cringe in abject terror AND rock out at the historic Bal Theatre!

Happy 80th Birthday, Willie Mays!

2011-05-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

The 80th birthday Willie Mays is a big deal for your correspondent, a San Francisco Giants fan since he was old enough to comprehend the sport.

Willie celebrated his 80th birthday in style, with a luncheon bash, followed by the pre-game ceremony at the opener of the weekend series between the Giants and the Colorado Rockies.

Standing beside Mr. Mays at the festivities were fellow Hall Of Famers Willie "Stretch" McCovey, Gaylord Perry and Orlando "The Baby Bull" Cepeda, as well as two gentlemen who played with Willie on The Birmingham Black Barons in the 1940's! The game that followed turned out to be a thrilling come-from-behind walkoff 4-3 victory over the formidable Rockies.

Mr. Mays is unsurpassed in baseball legend, but arguably equaled by George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who only tore up the American League with 714 dingers, 2213 RBIS and a .342 average after a career as a dominant pitcher.

There have been great hitters (Ted Williams, Barry Bonds), paragons of consistency in the excellence of their all-around game (Henry Aaron, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio), baserunning daredevils (Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Ricky Henderson) who changed the nature of baseball, guys who inspired with clutch hits, amazing throws from the warning track and sheer swagger (Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Roberto Clemente), but none combined all of the above quite like Willie Mays.

Willie was also known as a singularly brilliant baseball strategist, a coach on the field, often trusted by managers to relay the latest and greatest signs to his teammates from his roving outfield post. Chris Haft of MLB.com penned a superlative tribute focusing on Willie's Jedi Master or chess champion baseball mind.

Any discussion of the Say Hey Kid and Sunday sermon in the hallowed halls of the Holy Temple Of Major League Baseball, first and foremost, begins with viewing of a certain play Willie made in the far Siberian depths of center field at New York's Polo Grounds.

If that the catch and throw of the screaming line drive off the bat of the Cleveland Indians' Vic Wertz did not impress the living daylights out of you, dear reader, consider that the game-winning play took place in the freakin' 1954 World Series and emphatically took the oxygen out of the Giants' opponents.

The website of Psychotronic Paul favorite The Daily Show features an interview of The Say Hey Kid by witty comedian and rabid baseball fan Jon Stewart. Even better among the various interviews with Willie available on YouTube are the following splendid two-parter:

Thankfully, Willie, a frequent visitor to the Giants' clubhouse, got to relish the first San Francisco Giants World Series victory in 2010, take the trophy to New York, visit the elementary school he attended and share baseball lore with East Coast baseball fans, some of whom were there for the Giants' upset of the mighty 111-43 Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series.

In the city of San Francisco, May 6 is officially Willie Mays Day. SAY HEY!

The Jazz Guitar Genius Of Eddie Lang

2011-05-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

Before Django, before Oscar Alemán, before Charlie Christian, there was Eddie Lang.

Trained as a violinist, the Philadelphia-born Lang switched to banjo and guitar and, after a prominent role in the popular Mound City Blue Blowers, ultimately became New York City's studio ace with the OKeh, Columbia and Victor record labels - in a role not dissimilar from fellow "house guitarists" Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis at Norman Granz' Verve Records a quarter century later - working with recording artists of diverse styles and persuasions.

Using the nom-de-plume Blind Willie Dunn in those 1920's days of segregation, Eddie played guitar with Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Lonnie Johnson and many more jazz and blues innovators.

When the guitarist joined the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, which also featured Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, he met Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer. The trio soon got down to business recording such Roaring Twenties classics as the following:

Arguably, Lang's best known musical partnership was with violinist Joe Venuti.

Here's a brief clip of the inspired Venuti/Lang duo - without a doubt, an enormous influence on The Hot Club Of France - from the "meet the band" segment of Universal Pictures' 1930 musical (and tribute to Whiteman), The King Of Jazz:

The following bit of Fun On The Frets features Eddie performing a beautifully arranged duo with another superb early jazz guitarist, Carl Kress.

Eddie, like The Boswell Sisters, had a guest shot in The Big Broadcast Of 1932. He plays his customary stellar guitar and shares the screen with Bing Crosby:

Unfortunately, in one of those pointless tragedies, Eddie Lang passed away on March 26, 1933 as a result of a botched tonsillectomy. Music fans are very lucky that he recorded prolifically.

This blog extends 21st century bravos and huzzahs to this trailblazer of jazz guitar.

If this piques your swingin' heart's interest, by all means read Sally-Ann Worsfold's excellent and comprehensive liner notes from The Quintessential Eddie Lang CD - and we thank those who create the Red Hot Jazz website for posting them.

Remembering Ted Lightnin' Kratter

2011-04-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Ted Lightnin' Kratter, a force on the local bluegrass scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, walking encyclopedia of American roots music and much beloved friend to many, passed away of cancer on Sunday.

Those who knew Ted's driving guitar and mandolin music marveled at his unique synthesis of protean elements from Jerry Garcia, Clarence White, John Fahey, Bill Monroe, Leo Kottke, David Grisman, Robbie Robertson and Duane Allman, as well as his ability to recall all the verses from "Smoke On The Water". Those who knew Ted as a friend, colleague and bandmate enjoyed his original blast of positive energy, good humor, generosity and insightful knowledge on diverse topics.

Adieu and good night, Ted, and we'll talk some more when it's my time. Peace out.

And This Blog Loves The Boswell Sisters

2011-04-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

When reflecting on the many splendid musical talents from New Orleans – and the mere thought of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Henry "Red" Allen, Irma Thomas, Fats Domino, Guitar Slim, Dr. John, James Booker, Professor Longhair, all variations on The Meters, Radiators and The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Allen Toussaint, Ed Blackwell, The Marsalises, The Batistes, The Nevilles, Donald Harrison, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton and swingin’ Harry Connick Jr. brings a big, fat, deep-in-the soul smile to my face – don't forget the fabulous Boswell Sisters: Martha (1905 - 1958), Connee (1907 - 1976) and Vet (1911 - 1988).

With Glenn Miller arrangements and the skilled backing of New York's finest session musicians - Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey, Carl Kress, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, etc. - The Boswell Sisters recorded numerous sprightly tunes for Okeh and Brunswick.

Like their contemporaries - Satchmo, Fats, Cab, Basie, Billie, Django, Duke, Earl "Fatha" Hines, etc. - they made recordings that swing like mad and still sound great 80 years later!

Here are The Boswells at the top of their game, in The Big Broadcast Of 1932, a wonderful Paramount Pictures musical that also features the original Swooner Crooner himself, Mr. Bing Crosby. Swing it, Boswell Sisters!

Three cheers for The Boswell Sisters, three gals linked in sweet harmony.

This Blog Digs Trailers From Bad Movies

2011-04-22T02:22:00.001-07:00

Amazing B-movie trailers from Archive.org - enjoy!

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-04-20T14:39:00.001-07:00

The Latest Treasure Trove For Classic Comedy Geeks by Paul F. Etcheverry

2011-04-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

Firing up that Beatles classic Revolver album for the annual ceremonial listening of George Harrison's Taxman and pondering when I will attend The Stanford Theatre's Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, this blogger must call attention to some recent additions to the category of now available cinematic rarities: these DVD releases, combined with last fall's epic Chaplin At Keystone box set, present nothing less than a classic comedy bonanza.

First and foremost, there's The Ernie Kovacs Collection. Arguably, Ernie Kovacs, who first hit the airwaves almost 20 years before Monty Python and a quarter century before Saturday Night Live and SCTV, is still the most brilliant, forward-thinking comedy auteur to have ever worked in television.

On the heels of Tuesday night's Kovacs tribute at Manhattan's Paley Center For Media, the 6-DVD box set will be officially released by Shout Factory on April 19.

We can think the wonderful singer-comedienne (and Ernie's wife) Edie Adams, who bought all the Kovacs footage she could, for the very existence of this DVD. Edie's son, Josh Mills, elaborates:

Ken Tucker, prolific writer on 20th century pop culture over the years, has penned a glowing review of the new Ernie retrospective in Entertainment Weekly. David Bianculli followed suit on NPR's Fresh Air from WHYY.

This 6-DVD box set, curated by film historian and silent film accompanist Ben Model, concentrates on Ernie's NBC shows of the 1950's, which (with the exception of a brief run on Comedy Central in the early 1990's) have rarely been seen since their original broadcast and never were issued on VHS or laserdisc. Those who pre-order the set will get a 7th DVD in the bargain.

Not to be outdone, Warner Archive released a 4-DVD set of the historic and often quite funny Vitaphone Varieties one-reelers on April 12.

This compendium of 60 short films from 1926-1930, restored from the last surviving film elements known to exist and never before released on DVD, is quite the "dawn of talkies" (A.K.A. the "boom microphone in the plant" era) time capsule - filled with musical novelty acts, nutjob comics, vaudevillians, opera singers and stage character actors picking up a little extra dough.

Alas, your correspondent is still catching up to last year's Warner Archive releases, especially the pre-Code "showgirls n' surrealism" packed Vitaphone Cavalcade Of Musical Comedy Shorts

As well as the Classic Musical Shorts From The Dream Factory box set.

And then's more. . .

Those ultra-geeky (in the best sense of the phrase) dyed-in-the-wool film buffs who have a multi-region DVD system which will play discs other than NTSC, specifically the the PAL broadcast standard, will love Edition Filmmuseum's riotously funny retrospective of Hal Roach Studio comedies starring Yiddish comedian-character actor Max Davidson.

The Max Davidson series was Leo McCarey's pet project at Roach in 1928, between his very successful stints writing and co-directing outrageous comedy shorts featuring Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy.

All of the above present the entertainment equivalent of crack for incurable classic comedy and vintage movie geeks.

April 11 Is International "Louie Louie" Day

2011-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm glad there's a day set aside to honor Richard Berry's iconic tune, Louie Louie, first recorded in 1957. Since our favorite radio station, KFJC, played it for 63 hours straight without repeating the same recording twice, the least we could do on the blog today is spotlight a handful of worthy renditions, starting with Richard Berry's.

Berry's magnum opus would be immortalized just a few years later by Pacific Northwest garage bands The Kingsmen and Paul Revere & The Raiders - and was soon covered by Southern California's pride, The Beach Boys and British invasion faves The Kinks.

There's even a reggae version of "Louie Louie".

The following version by The Doors has terrible sound quality and would appear to be an example of Jim Morrison's 1970-1971 downhill spiral - but here it is, nonetheless. This blogger can imagine "Light My Fire", "Touch Me" or "L.A. Woman" morphing deftly into "Louie Louie" in a Doors set.

Once The Lizard King himself had sung "Louie Louie", every punk and proto-metal band on and off the block would follow suit.

Even Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention got into the act, at the Royal Albert Hall no less!

Happy 50th Birthday, Eddie Murphy

2011-04-03T00:56:00.001-07:00

Eddie Murphy, most recently a mainstay of Dreamworks' Shrek franchise and an Academy Award nominee for his performance in Dreamgirls, celebrates his 50th birthday today - and man, does that make those of us who remember his rise to prominence as the up-and-coming teenage comic on Saturday Night Live feel old.

The urban legend goes that Eddie, showing the tenacity required for success in show business, got hired as a featured player for the 1980-1981 season by auditioning daily and unrelentingly for the show's staff. He joined a young cast in a no-win situation: succeed the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players (Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Akyroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman, joined by Bill Murray in season 2) in the first season of the late-night comedy show not produced by series founder Lorne Michaels - and with most of the ace sketch writers who cranked out material for the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live having abandoned ship.

Eddie soon became the cleanup hitter on the spotty but at times outrageously funny SNL of the early 1980's, with such over-the-top sketches as Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, The Velvet Jones School Of Technology and James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party.

It was no surprise when Eddie soon hit the big time in Hollywood movies and earned Brinks trucks full of do-re-me for Paramount Pictures.

On the one hand, this blogger salutes Eddie Murphy, who will be hosting the 2012 Oscars, for making him laugh loudly - very loudly - and often over an extended stretch of years.

On the other hand, it's disappointing to not see Eddie's formidable acting and comedy chops more often these days. A new chapter as a versatile actor in a wide variety of provocative indie films, or even in offbeat comedies produced and written by Judd Apatow, Christopher Guest, Robert Smigel or the Coen Brothers does not sound like his style, but sure would be an intriguing prospect.

Psychotronic Paul's Quote Of The Day

2011-03-31T04:45:00.000-07:00

From the March 2 repartee between New York Times op-ed columnists Gail Collins and David Brooks. Ms. Collins nails it with her customary good humor:

"The biggest effect of the gizmos, from my perspective, is that the national attention span, which was formerly the equivalent of a gnat’s, is now about the same as a hyperactive baby gnat with attention deficit disorder." March 2, 2011

The Classic Comedies Of Laurel & Hardy: To Be Restored At Last

2011-03-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

The many loyal aficionados of this blogger's favorite comedy team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who rocked audiences on stage and screen around the world, will be tickled to learn that the ace preservationists of the UCLA Film & Television Archive have launched an ambitious restoration project focusing on The Boys.

This topic is close to my heart, as I produced a two-day 100th birthday tribute to Oliver "Babe" Hardy in San Francisco in 1992, and even wore a derby for the occasion!

One of our all-time favorite film historians, author Leonard Maltin, tells us more about the why behind UCLA's excellent fundraising effort.

Here's a link to the UCLA Archive's donation page. Every little bit will help restore Laurel and Hardy's long-neglected legacy of big laughs on the big screen.

Bar none, no comedians make me laugh harder than Laurel and Hardy, although their multi-talented pal and contemporary Charley Chase ranks a close second.

Stan, Chase and Leo McCarey were arguably the greatest comedy writing-directing trifecta to ever work simultaneously at one film studio at any time.

This Saturday at Foothill College: The KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest

2011-03-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, back by nothing remotely resembling popular demand, the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival returns to besmirch the hallowed halls of Foothill College yet again.

Yours truly will be on the radio plugging the show tonight from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time: fast forward past the first couple of minutes and here we are, the Three Archivists of Psychotronix, interviewed by host Robert Emmett.

The Date: Saturday March 26, 2011

The Time: 7:00 p.m.

The Place: Room 5015, Foothill College 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA

The Cost: $5 donation plus two bucks for the campus parking meters

The Master Of Ceremonies: Robert Emmett, movie music expert and host of The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show.

The Reasons Why: Big screen fun for the whole dysfunctional family benefits the fearless and fabulous KFJC-FM!

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-03-20T00:20:00.001-07:00

Fundraising Efforts For March 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami

2011-03-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

We in the San Francisco Bay Area send our hopes, prayers and donations to the people of Northeast Japan, who are suffering the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11.

To put your money where your mouth and heart reside, here are just a few of the relief efforts:
American Red Cross offers two options: donate on the website or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 from your phone.

Save The Children's emergency fund donation site

The Global Giving Japan Earthquake Tsunami Relief Fund

The International Medical Corps has been responding to disaster victims with relief teams and supplies. Text MED to 80888 from any mobile phone to give $10. For more info, refer to this excellent article from Huffington Post article and a similarly stellar piece on relief efforts from CNN.

The Attack Of Les Fleetwood-Mac

2011-02-28T18:52:00.000-08:00

Must digress from this blog's February 2011 obsession with classic cartoons, hard-boiled film noir (as if anybody ever made a soft-boiled noir) and "finger pickin' good" sounds by gifted Chicago bluesman Magic Sam to indulge another shamelessly guitar-related addiction (not Jane's Addiction, Perry Farrell's hard rock-metal-folk ensemble, this time around).

And that would be the early incarnations of Psychotronic Paul's favorite British rockers, that most unpredictable of 20th Century rock n' roll and pop music ensembles, Fleetwood Mac.

Guitarist Peter Green formed the band in 1967, naming it after rhythm section mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie while the latter was still keeping his day job in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Bob Brunning played bass on the first Fleetwood Mac appearances, until McVie left Mayall.

The Fleetwood Mac lineup I personally, like Stuart Smalley, require a conscientious 12-step group to stop listening to is Version 2, together from 1968 through May 25, 1970 (the date of their last gig at London's Roundhouse): the quintessential, incomparable British blues-rockabilly-garage-punk-classic rock-vaudeville-misterioso-psychedelic jam band, featuring three virtuoso blues-rock guitarists (each unique and markedly stylistically different from the other two): Peter Green, Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer.

The Three Faces Of Mac (version 2.0)

Peter Green

A.K.A. "Greeny" or "The Green God", Peter still plays music and sings with a rough-hewn blues voice he didn't have in his Mayall and Fleetwood Mac days; he does not make live appearances frequently but can be seen playing the blues in venues in England. He was one ferocious rocker back in the day.

Danny Kirwan

Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968 and wrote quite a bit of original material, ranging from ethereal instrumentals to sprightly McCartney-esque rockers, for all the Mac albums from "Then Play On" (1969) through "Bare Trees" (1972).

Here's his recording of "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues", the B-side of Mac's "Santo And Johnny" tribute Albatross and the only song I've ever heard that merges the 1960's British Invasion sound with the phraseology of Hot Club Of France swing guitar genius Django Reinhardt; it (and some of the retro-style pop tunes on Danny's 1970's solo albums) explains why Greeny nicknamed him "Ragtime Cowboy Joe".

And, speaking of McCartney-esque rockers, here's "Only You", a frequent centerpiece of the 1969-1970 Fleetwood Mac set list.

Jeremy Spencer

The third of los tres guitarristas, class clown, Elmore James lovin' slide specialist, rockabilly, Elvis impersonator, vaudevillian and salacious, crazed rocker Jeremy Spencer. Has lived literally all over the world in the four decades since leaving Fleetwood Mac and periodically plays concerts and festivals, adding his signature slide guitar to his current band of enthusiastic blues aficionados from Norway.

After Peter Green's departure, Kirwan and Spencer co-led the 1970-1971 lineup. Green was not replaced, but bassist John McVie recruited his wife Christine, a key member and driving force of popular 1960's English blues band Chicken Shack, to Fleetwood Mac. Christine, who contributed piano to several studio recordings of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, brought her considerable talents as a pianist and vocalist, as well as a pronounced flair for pop songcraft, to the mix.

The Fleetwood Mac lineup (version 3) that recorded the Kiln House album was a wonderfully loopy blend of Spencer's blues/rockabilly with Kirwan's rocking romanticism and Christine McVie's formidable songwriting.

One could argue that "early Fleetwood Mac" ended either with Peter Green leaving the band or the sudden, impromptu February 1971 departure of Jeremy Spencer during the tour promoting the Kiln House album (note: live recordings from said 1970-1971 tour can be found on the Madison Blues double CD). . . or trace the end to Danny Kirwan's subsequent meltdown during the 1972 Bare Trees tour, involving a backstage altercation, the destruction of his beloved black Les Paul and his walking out on the band during a gig. He was, not surprisingly, canned and the tour came to a screeching halt.

Save a handful of performances in England and three indie solo albums in the 1970's, that meltdown was the end of Danny Kirwan's musical career. At the end of the day, this gifted songwriter/guitarist, like Peter Green, was capable of creating loving, healing music but unable to heal the pain within himself.

Christine McVie and songwriter-guitarist Bob Welch picked up the pieces and co-led a more pop-oriented, jazzy and under-appreciated Mac lineup in 1972-1974; while receiving little attention at the time, this ensemble created very listenable albums featuring strong songwriting and musicianship, with Christine's vocals (not surprisingly) a standout.

As if the band had not gone through enough turmoil: an affair between new guitarist Bob Weston and the boss' wife blew up Mac version 6, the Mystery To Me tour was abruptly cancelled AND manager Clifford Davis hired five unknown musicians to play the tour's remaining dates as a bogus Fleetwood Mac. Seems Davis figured that, as far as the real band members were concerned, "no one would be the wiser" and the early 70's audience would be too stoned to know the difference; yes, they may well have been loaded to the gills, but not so much so as to not notice the absence of both Mick Fleetwood and John McVie!

No doubt weary of the unending drama, Bob Welch bailed at the end of 1974, after the Heroes Are Hard To Find tour. Songwriters Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came on board for version 8, bringing the pop sensibility and signature three part harmonies of Southern California folk-rock (along with an uncanny gift for writing amazingly catchy hummable hooks) to the band, thus completing Fleetwood Mac's chameleonic transformation from scruffy English rockers to gazillion-selling American popsters.

Happy Birthday, Tex Avery

2011-02-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

Today's posting recalls a line from The Last Hurrah, the Spencer Tracy vehicle directed by John Ford: "how do you thank a guy for a million laughs?"

You can't, really, but one of those I would thank first is the great Tex Avery.

A year ago, I wrote, "Whatever modest snippet of humanity reads this blog very likely not only knows the legend of innovative and outrageous animator Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery, born in Taylor, Texas on February 26, 1908, but owns DVD copies of every cartoon he directed for Warner Brothers and MGM." Tex passed on in 1980, and would have been very uncomfortable with anyone calling him a comic genius, but that's exactly what he was. In live-action comedy, only Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Charley Chase and Ernie Kovacs could go toe-to-toe with Tex in consistently writing brilliant, original sight gags.

Tex Avery was, among other things - rescuer of various members of the Warner Bros. cartoon staff during a ski trip mishap, blind in one eye (due to a prank gone terribly wrong at the Walter Lantz studio), a descendant of Judge Roy Bean - the guy who brought the cartoon biz out of post-Production Code of 1934 (and Disney envy) doldrums by joining the Warner Brothers cartoon studio in 1935.

Here is one of the Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoons Tex animated on at Lantz, back in the "rubber hose animation" era of 1933; whether Tex was personally responsible for some of the Pre-Code "bad taste" jokes here, we'll never know!

Tex had helmed a couple of Ozzie cartoons, but had not headed up his own unit when he presented himself to producer Leon Schlesinger as a director of Looney Tunes.

Tex joined Warner Brothers' cartoon outfit at a time when the Schlesinger Studio had only been in operational for less than two years, Disney reigned supreme, Fleischer was still both competitive and original with their gritty Popeye cartoons - and everyone else in the cartoon biz was racking their brains and pencils trying to figure out a way just to keep up.

The fledgling Leon Schlesinger studio had been producing passable but far from scintillating "Buddy" cartoons and Merrie Melodies musicals for Vitaphone release.

The Merrie Melodies series, while now in color, hit a serious rut and were infinitely less peppy than the entries cranked out by former producer Rudy Ising just a few years earlier in 1931-1932. Tex' opportunity arose as a result of the sudden departures of former Disney staffers turned Looney Tunes directors Earl Duval and Tom Palmer in 1934.

The "Termite Terrace" boys in the summer of 1935: (from left) Virgil Ross, Sid Sutherland, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett

Schlesinger assigned veteran animators Sid Sutherland and Virgil Ross, along with young troublemakers Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, to Tex Avery's new Looney Tunes unit and made sure this band of wackos was separate from Friz Freleng's Merrie Melodies group. The result: Termite Terrace, where Tex challenged the gospel according to Disney and started making damn funny cartoons pretty darn quickly.

Even Gold Diggers Of '49, the first Looney Tune released theatrically that the Termite Terrace boys produced, has sight gags and pacing that hadn't been seen before in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, even those directed by Friz Freleng.

After seven years at Warners, Tex moved on to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

One of the most hilarious of the Tex Avery's MGM cartoons is the following delirious 1940's-style spin on Robert Service's macho Yukon saloon poem The Shooting Of Dan McGrew, featuring classic jokes (I especially like the "drinks are on the house" bit), Droopy, Red Hot Riding Hood and the ever-lascivious Wolf.

For The Last Day Of The Film Preservation Blogathon: A Recipe For Film Noir And Musings On Its Predecessors by Paul F. Etcheverry

2011-02-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

(Note: there are general, if not specific, spoilers in this post, if you have not seen all the films referenced)

Today is the last day of the For The Love Of Film (Noir) blogathon, in support of the Film Noir Foundation. Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog tips the Jimmie Hatlo top hat to hostesses with the mostest Marilyn Ferdinand of Ferdy On Films and the Self-Styled Siren, Farran Smith Nehme. And Greg Ferrara, who designed the Maltese Falcon logo and cool promotional trailer.

The blogathon's extended wave of scholarly and thoughtful writing has me pondering how the heck one defines the genre, once establishing that the 1970 Florence Henderson vehicle The Song Of Norway

. . . is definitely not a film noir.

While positively reeking of that distinctive dark, foreboding sensibility, the genre's stylistic predecessors, German Expressionism (usual suspects: Lang, Murnau, Pabst and von Sternberg) and gritty American pre-code movies lack that 1941-1956 period flavor and hovering influence of pulp fiction icons James Cain, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and thus, aren't quite film noir.

Noir predecessors include both the silent-era futurist/surreal brand of Expressionism (Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis) and tough early talkies (The Threepenny Opera and the still disturbing M) from Ufa Studios and, also from the mean streets, various European and American melodramas involving obsession/sexual addiction that propels beautiful babes, dirty young men and dirty old men on what punk rocker Iggy Pop termed a "Death Trip". The symbiotic relationship between entrapment and wanton self-destruction seen in film noir are fully evident in both the Weimar Republic and Hollywood takes on this scenario.

Among these racy and often corrosive films that blasted a searing light on sexual politics and social mores: G.W. Pabst's now iconic Pandora's Box and Diary Of A Lost Girl, Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich humiliating the crap out of perennial "poor sap" Emil Jannings in The Blue Angel and fever-pitched American pre-codes Three On A Match, Baby Face and The Story Of Temple Drake.

Film noir is also a direct outgrowth of cynical urban crime stories, fast-talking newsroom tales and provocative social dramas, many from WB-Vitaphone-First National: The Public Enemy, Two Seconds, Five Star Final, The Mouthpiece, I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, Heat Lightning, Blessed Event, The Front Page, Heroes For Sale and the aforementioned Baby Face are uncompromising dispatches from the cheatin' heart of The Great Depression.

What are some essential ingredients in the recipe for a well-prepared film noir?

City, preferably naked, dirty and tawdry

Handsome but messed-up anti-hero

Not-so-handsome but dogged protagonist

Hard-boiled private dick

Wiseguy who knows all the angles

Femme fatale

Adultery, followed by murder of oafish "lousy lay" spouse

Alcoholism (private dick, wiseguy and screenwriter)

Escaped convicts and/or killers on the lam

Fedoras, preferably battered (not beer-battered)

Struggling men, down on their luck, preferably battered

Out-of-left-field plot twists

Lethal accidents

Kidnappings

Sleazy hoodlums

Sleazier cops

Handguns

Greasy diner food, washed down with crappy coffee

Bicarbonate of soda for chronic indigestion

Directions: Hire an ambitious director, creative cinematographer who adores shooting fast black and white film with dramatic lighting and (preferably) a blacklisted screenwriter. Bake all actors, extras and production staff with a short, brutal, taxing shooting schedule. Mix well but don't take too long. Do not exceed limited budget or use moralism, sweet butter or cheese!

The blogathon extends through today, so there's still time to make a donation. Need motivation? Imagine sitting in your favorite movie palace seeing The Sound Of Fury in restored 35mm glory! Then envision seeing Cy Endfield's 1950 noir on the big screen again, at the late show!

Burt Bacharach Day

2011-02-20T00:30:00.000-08:00

Since I started doing this blog, I've set aside a day a month as Burt Bacharach Day. Why? Because I like his harmonies, melodies, piano and arrangements - and I think he's wrongly shoehorned into the bloodless, tepid "easy listening" category by many (some of whom don't know better). And I've only forgotten to set aside the 20th of a given month for Burt two or three times!

Now, if I could continue this week's noir theme, the best course would be to find a clip of the great Mel Tormé singing Burt Bacharach and Hal David's truly Spillane-ish art song The Desperate Hours, a promotional piece for William Wyler's 1955 noir of the same name. Alas, I can't seem to find a single clip along these lines among the numerous uploads by Burt, Mel, Wyler and noir fans, so I'll go with another clip, this one of the Australian instrumental ensemble Sex On Toast (white, whole wheat or pumpernickel, I wonder?) performing Burt's ballad "Nikki".

More clips of this top-notch group performing can be found on their YouTube channel.

Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary

2011-02-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Big time congrats to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, one of the few places on the planet that screens amazing vintage silent-era movies every weekend, on their first decade of stellar contributions to the South Bay cultural landscape.

As the poster notes, there will be a screening of Lilac Time, co-starring silver screen icon Gary "Coop" Cooper with the winsome Colleen Moore, a week from today, February 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the museum's Edison Theatre. Dr. Jon Mirsalis, who, among countless appearances accompanying silents, performed an exceptional, rousing original score for Wild Bill Wellman's epic Wings at the museum, will be waxing poetic on the Kurzweil.

Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, 37417 Niles Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94536-2949