'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Minneapolis Music '05
By Baron Dave Romm
Minicon 41 is this weekend here in Mpls, and several local musicians are going to be performing.
Water Over the Bridge is the second and most recent CD by Nate Bucklin, one of the pillars of local fan music parties. He's a long-time friend and former housemate. Nate's jazzy guitar and intensely personal lyrics have brightened thirty plus years of filk circles, music circles with fans that didn't want to call themselves "filk", science fiction conventions, various professional bands and just about anything else where music was to be found. This recording is as close as he's come to capturing his presence in a music circle. Produced by his wife Louis Spooner Bucklin and recorded by Mark D. Sterling, Nate gets some of the area's best musicians to sing and play with him. He does great versions of some of my favorite Nate songs: The Road is a very moving song, even if you don't know the people Nate is singing about, and I don't; it's a sad song about the end of dreams based, like many of his lyrics, on real events in his life. Louie and Becca Allen of Riverfolk provide harmonies, Gary Schulte on fiddle and Nate playing all other instruments. Preposterous is a great song that never seemed to work as well recorded as live. Much of the fun is finally captured thanks to the harmony from Howard Ashby Kranz and a sassy clarinet line by Max Swenson.
I'm not entirely sure what Cow Got the Measles is about, but it's not about cows. I think it's about a lost love. Nate write a lot about failed romances, such as the bouncy but creepy Pieces of the Weather:
Nate brings several science fiction fan friends together for a great version of New Life nominally about aliens taking us away, but really about a failed romance:
Similarly, Hurt Again and I Can't Get Over You So Why Don't You Get Under Me and even We Kept on Dancing ("what else is there to do?"). Nate Bucklin neatly straddles the old-time filk tradition of sing-along parodies and the newer filk tradition of performing parodies to rap eg the great Luke Ski. As a time-tested performer/songwriter, Nate has powerful lyrics, a steady bass, an innovative lead guitar and sense of craft that few can equal. Recommended. More than iPod worthy.
Water Over the Bridge should be your introduction to Nate Bucklin... unless you can see him live. From there, go to his previous CD Rainbow's Edge or get the tapes, still available through his site.
At The Edge of the World, songs by Howard Ashby Kranz, "is in some sort of limbo," says Nate Bucklin, who appears on the CD with many of the same cast as Water Over the Bridge. Even his web page cited above doesn't have anything, and inquiries should go to Nate or Louie. Just as well: While the music is good, the packaging is off-putting: Basically a songbook with a CD stapled in the middle. It doesn't fit in any of my CD holders, and is likely to get lost in theshuffle. And my copy works in the CD player but not in the computer And that's too bad.
Hard to Be Human is a blues doo-wop wherein a man tries to explain to his son, "Life's a weird puzzle and then you die." Dinosaur's Dream is a soaring warble with a similar topic to Dr. Jane's Ambition:
Hey! I'm Dancing should be a companion to The Red Shoes or Frosty the Snowman, since it's about uncontrollable terpsichory. Middle Class Tax Cut Blues is political doo-wop. Howard bounces off religious topics asks his heart to tell him how to love. I'm not sure whether to recommend At The Edge of The World until a better pressing/release comes out. But if you follow such things, watch for it.
My friend Laurel has recommended many great groups I'd never heard of, the most recent is The Auto Body Experience (who are from St. Paul, but that's close enough) They've been performing for over a decade, and I got their most recent CD.
Forgotten Lots combines Big Band arrangements with bouncy rock tunes, Beatles-like background harmonies and a gentle sense of humor. Imagine Wayne Newton channeling Dilbert, sort of. Scott Yoho is the lead singer "and frequent memorization seminar participation" who wrote all the songs and did the arrangements. Scott wants to be interviewed by NPR's Terry Gross. When he gets a bad grade in class it's Everyone's Fault but his own. He wants to leave his job to come home to Six Friends which Scott says is about beer but a band member from Wisconsin interpreted as "that Dahmer song." Many of the songs are comments about Scott at his day job. For his music gig in 1992, "the crowd demanded both Herb Alpert and some Polka" so Tom Fixed His Spit Valve Spring. He conscientiously took a CPR course and promptly fell in love with Annie.
Forgotten Lots is an unexpected pleasure, since I usually know about guys like these but they were under my radar. I've been hanging out with musicians at sf cons, and tend not to go to bars to hear music; my loss, I guess. I've already played a cut on Shockwave: Guess which one. Recommended; more than iPw. Note to self: Get the other three Auto Body Experience CDs.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. To receive the show as podcasts go to Shockwave Radio Theater Podcast or paste the following string in your podcast software: http://www.romm.org/podcast and if that doesn't work try the link from Podcastalley.com's listing. All podcasts also on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air. --////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
John F. Ince: Crumbling Under Debt (AlterNet.org)
America now relies upon the kindness of strangers to finance almost 50 percent of the government debt, with the lion's share coming from the Asian central banks. We now borrow over 6 percent of our GDP from abroad. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet puts this in perspective: "If the country does not change course, within 10 years the rest of the world would end up owning $15 trillion worth of the United States, equivalent to owning every share of American stock."
Feingold comes out for gay couples (Advocate.com)
Wisconsin's Russ Feingold has joined the handful of U.S senators who have expressed their unequivocal support for marriage equality. And he's a serious contender for the White House in 2008. The Advocate's Sean Kennedy talks to the Democratic firebrand.
MARUSYA BOCIURKIW: Toiling at sweatshop U
Part-time profs are like underpaid, overworked fast food workers
Greg Mortenson and David Oliver: Haji Ali's Lesson (beliefnet.com)
While building schools in Pakistan, Greg Mortenson learned a lesson from an illiterate man--the wisest man he had ever known.
Roger Ebert's Review of "Brick" (3 stars)
Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) turns into a '30s-style gumshoe in "Brick," a crime film that transports the dialogue and attitude of classic detective fiction to a Southern California high school.
Miriam Axel-Lute: Miss Manners Is Watching, Blindly (metroland.net)
Your workplace e-mail scanning system knows more bad words than you do.
MICK FARREN: Kill Bill Vol. 3 (lacitybeat.com)
'The O'Reilly Factor' may be proven dumb, but it's still dangerous
New Documentary Film Raises Awareness Of America's Debt Crises
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & seasonal
No new flags.
17th Annual Media Awards
GLAAD
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation presented its Vanguard Award to Charlize Theron at the 17th annual GLAAD Media Awards for increasing "visibility and understanding in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."
Last year, Theron told TV's "Extra" that she and her partner, Stuart Townsend, would not wed until gay and lesbian couples attained the legal right to marry.
Other winners included Felicity Huffman's transsexual road trip "Transamerica" for outstanding film in limited release; cable TV's chic lesbian ensemble "The L Word" for outstanding drama series, and NBC's "Will & Grace" for outstanding comedy series.
Actress Laura Dern presented Grammy-winning singer and openly lesbian breast cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award.
GLAAD
Cinematheque Tribute
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford will make his first public appearance in 15 years when the American Cinematheque salutes the actor May 1 on the occasion of his 90th birthday at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
The evening will include a screening of 1946's "Gilda," in which he starred with Rita Hayworth; a 1937 short film that marked his screen debut; and a postscreening discussion led by his son, Peter Ford.
Among Ford's numerous credits are the features "The Big Heat," "Blackboard Jungle," "The Teahouse of the August Moon" and "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." He received a Golden Globe for his performance in 1961's "Pocketful of Miracles." His last screen roles were in 1991's "Raw Nerve" and the TV movie "Final Verdict."
Glenn Ford
Posthumous Mayoral Bid
Ernie K-Doe
Ernie K-Doe has some big hurdles to overcome to win his bid for mayor of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans: he lacks the political experience and financial clout of many of his rivals.
He's also been dead for almost five years.
No matter, said the widow of the flamboyant rhythm-and-blues singer and one of the city's most enduring characters as she launched his tongue-in-cheek campaign for the April 22 vote.
"He's the only one qualified -- that's my opinion," Antoinette K-Doe said on Saturday at a rally outside the Mother-in-Law Lounge, the nightclub that bears the name of K-Doe's biggest hit song.
Ernie K-Doe
'Young Frankenstein' - The Musical
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks, who made a monster hit musical out of his 1968 movie "The Producers," says he is adapting another of his classic film comedies for the stage -- this time the 1974 "Young Frankenstein," a spoof on the Frankenstein saga which he says is perhaps the best movie he ever made.
With no deadline set, Brooks says he is in the middle of writing the score, including a song for scary Frau Blucher, the caretaker of the Frankenstein castle still madly in love with that late, unlamented mad scientist.
"It is going to be wonderful," Brooks said in a telephone interview, just before he burst into a German-accented version of his Frau Blucher song:
"He vus my boyfriend; He vould come home in a snit; He vould have a terrible fit; I am the first thing he vould hit but I didn't give a shit; He vus my boyfriend."
For a lot more, Mel Brooks
Ireland Celebrates Centennial
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett is everywhere in Dublin, glowering down on the home town he deserted as a young man.
A hundred years after the playwright's birth on April 13, 1906, the Irish capital has decided to embrace its difficult native son.
Ireland loves to celebrate its writers - at least the dead ones - but in many ways, Beckett is an unlikely Irish literary hero. He's a contrast to another Dublin literary star, the loquacious James Joyce, for whom the young Beckett worked in Paris.
Samuel Beckett
Beckett Centenary Festival
Crashed Rare Ferrari
Stefan Eriksson
A man under investigation in the crash of an exotic $1 million Ferrari in Malibu has been booked on suspicion of grand theft, officials said Sunday.
Stefan Eriksson, 44, was arrested at his Bel-Air home Saturday night after detectives served a search warrant, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement. It wasn't immediately clear whether sheriff's officials suspect Eriksson stole the Ferrari.
Eriksson was in a red Ferrari Enzo that was traveling an estimated 162 mph when it hit a pole along Pacific Coast Highway and all but disintegrated in February. He escaped the crash with only a cut lip.
Last month, police impounded a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren driven by Eriksson's wife after learning that the vehicle may have been improperly exported from Britain.
Stefan Eriksson
New Staff Complaints
Hong Kong Disney
Mickey Mouse and friends are not happy -- at least the staff who wear the cartoon characters' costumes in Hong Kong's Disneyland aren't.
The city's troubled Disney theme park has been stung by yet more complaints when a staff union accused management of setting unfair pay scales and overworking crew.
It also said the company had begun hiring staff on short-term contracts to avoid paying health and other benefits.
In February hundreds of customers went on the rampage outside the park after confusion over a new ticketing system saw them locked out despite having paid their 300 Hong Kong dollars entry fee.
Hong Kong Disney
Officer Suspended for Psychic Consult
Australian Federal Police
An Australian federal police officer has been suspended for consulting a clairvoyant as part of an investigation into a death threat made to the country's prime minister, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The officer, whose identity has not been released, reportedly consulted clairvoyant Elizabeth Walker after inquiries into the threat to Prime Minister John Howard hit a dead end, The Sunday Age reported.
In a statement to the newspaper, an Australian Federal Police spokesman confirmed an officer was being investigated.
"I can confirm we are currently investigating the matter. A member of the AFP has been suspended," the statement said. "The AFP takes seriously all allegations of misconduct by officers, and does not condone the use of psychics in security matters."
Australian Federal Police
Book Found In Leeds
Anthropodermic Bibliopegy
A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday.
The macabre discovery was made on a central street in Leeds, and officers said the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary.
Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.
The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin.
Anthropodermic Bibliopegy
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