'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Baron Dave Romm
The Roches
By Baron Dave Romm
The Roches were one of my favorite groups for many years, but I wasn't going to write about them since I'm nearly two decades behind in their CDs. My housemate in the early 80s was a major fan of theirs, and made me tapes of four vinyl albums that were out at the time, and I've picked up one new CD since plus replaced the three which had been reissued. They have done so much more since that I feel a little guilty in only talking about their early efforts, but the music still stands up. Maybe I'll seek out later CDs and review them here, but they've done a lot as a group and in solo efforts. Their web site is good and contains a lot of information including ordering info and lyrics, though you have to navigate through the frames to find them.
I met the Roches before I saw them perform. Three of us programmers at KFAI-FM drove from Minneapolis to the 1983 Winnipeg Folk Festival where they were performing, and we did interviews and hung around the performers tents a bit. I offered to give Suzzy Roche a massage, which she turned down. The Roches gave a performance in one of the side tents, and it was packed. I used my Press credentials to sneak in the back way and got a good seat. They gave a great concert: At ease on stage, joking amongst themselves and the audience, singing terrific songs in tight three-female harmony. Their performance on the main stage later in the Festival was shorter but also great.
The Roches' songs tell a story, usually from the first person and I assume a lot of them are personal anecdotes (suitably enhanced/altered for the song). They manage to be independent, smart, vulnerable, angry (usually at a man), caring, earthy and self-effacing... without being brassy about it (usually). All their albums have a wide variety of subject matter but always have something about themselves. Whether this is really them or part of their public persona, I don't know, but they bravely reveal more than most.
Maggie and Terre and Suzzy Roche have paid their dues. They were street singers, knocking about the clubs in New York for many years (as well as backing up Paul Simon on Here Comes Rhymin' Simon). Before Suzzy joined the act, Maggie and Terre had an album, Seductive Reasoning, that has a song produced by Simon and engineered by Phil Ramone, in 1975. The album lacks the full harmonies associated with later efforts by the three sisters, but the sophisticated song writing and great vocals still shine. This is the album that hadn't been reissued on CD back then and I confess listening to the tape for this review was the first time I heard it in years. They're pretty angry at men, as usual. The first song states the case: "Good men want a virgin so don't you give yourself to soon. Unless it's an emergency, like underneath the moon." Wigglin' Man is a countrified ode to a "chewed up man" who still chases women and occasionally get a mellow gal. A female performer getting hit on replies dismissively, If You Emptied Out Your Pockets You Could Not Make The Change. Yet the same performer is lonely onstage and poignantly sings to her absent former lover at Malachy's. Nearly three decades later, the album is still fresh, providing a glimpse into their lives then and, presumably, now.
Three years later, Robert Fripp produced (in "audio verite") their epynomous first CD as The Roches. The album made them many new fans, and Maggie was on the local NYC tv news singing The Married Men: "...never would have had a good time again if it wasn't for the married men." The first song introduces the group:
We are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy.
Maggie and Terre and Suzzy Roche
we don't give out our ages
and we don't give out our phone numbers
(give out our phone numbers)
sometimes our voices give out
but not our ages and our phone numbers
(Naturally, the web site has a link for their ages and phone numbers, which I shall leave for the reader to explore.)
The album has tells more of their story as struggling artists, with one failed singer imploring her old boss, "O Mr. Sellack, can I have my job back, I've run out of money again." The Troubles tells of going to a gig in Ireland: "We'll try not to get in the way of the guns as we always do." A very personal album.
Nurds is another personal album, almost scary in how much it reveals about the singer. Most guys won't own up to being picked on in school, but Terre scornfully recalls being one of the Nurds. I used My Sick Mind as the theme for a radio show of the same name. A delicious self-putdown where she presents a different face to the world than to herself. Few singers could look at themselves in a mirror without trying to make light of the subject; the Roches spit bile from the other person's point of view as a fellow laundromat patron wishes The Death of Suzzy Roche. Perhaps Suzzy is guilty about being rude and needs to suffer penance or even catharsis; I hope it works. They cover Cole Porter's It's Bad For Me about a dysfuncitonal relationship: "I wish you'd go on forever, I wish even more you'd stop." If you're going to be hard on yourself, you might as well do so in a good cause. They compare their comparitively rich life with that of The Boat Family, refugees from Cambodia. In a traditional Irish song, a Factory Girl spurns the love of an suitor. Nurds is another very brave album from a personal perspective, rich in harmony and craft.
I have their next two CDs as well, which I'll talk about later, Heck, I may have inspired myself to pick up some of their newer material...
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here, and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio here (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air, and I'm collecting extra-weird stuff for a possible CD compilation.
He's Been Busy!
The Worried Shrimp
NOAA Photos
Blackout
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
The Wall Street Poet
'So Many...'
It's official. 135 people will be on the California governor recall ballot...
Day #5
Dr. Paul Is An Idiot
Dr. Paul, your analogy is slipping ...
Thanks, Mark!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not quite as hot today, and there was a pleasant breeze, too.
The kid's 'Terrarium O'Death' seems to be going dormant a bit early.
Finally got the WTC films page up - if you know of any others that should be included, please drop me a note.
The kid asked if he could have a bedtime again - he's worried about school already. Cripes, if I'd asked that, my mom would have looked under my bed for a pod.
Tonight, Monday, CBS begins the evening with a RERUN 'Yes, Dear', followed by a RERUN 'Still Standing', then a RERUN
'Ryamond', followed by a RERUN 'King Of Queens', then a RERUN 'CSI: Miami'.
On a RERUN Dave are Eugene Levy and the Eels. (RERUNs all week)
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Robert Evans, Jennifer Morrison, and Drive-By Truckers.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN 'Fear Factor', followed by a FRESH 'For Lu$t Or $' that runs over by 10 minutes, then a FRESH
'Meet My Folks' (remember, it statts at 10 minutes after the top o'the hour).
On a RERUN Jay are Colin Farrell, B.B. King, and Jeff Beck. (RERUNs all week)
On a RERUN Conan are Luke Wilson, Jeff Garlin, and Solomon Burke.
On a RERUN Carson Daly are Eddie Kaye Thomas, The Teutuls from "American Chopper", and Junior Senior. (RERUNs all week)
ABC has more 'NFL Preseaon Football', so the left coast has local programming - here, it's the movie 'Rocky V'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Mark-Paul Gosselaar and the Music, with this week's guest co-host Horatio Sanz.
The WB offers a RERUN '7th Heaven', followed by a RERUN 'Everwood'.
Faux has a FRESH 'The O.C.', followed by a FRESH 'Parasite Hotel'.
UPN has a RERUN 'The Parkers', followed by another RERUN 'The Parkers', then a RERUN
'Girlfriends', followed by a RERUN 'Half & Half'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Jane Pauley), 'Cold Case Files', and 'City Confidential'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Raggedy Man', followed by the movie 'Out Of Africa', then the movie 'The Quiet Man'.
BBC -
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Pudsey;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Chiswick;
[8pm] 'Red Cap' - H-Hour;
[9pm] 'Rebus' - Black and Blue;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - John Waters/ Edie Falco;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Dixie Chicks/Ashton Kutcher;
[12:00 am] 'Rebus' - Black and Blue;
[2am] 'Red Cap' - H-Hour;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - John Waters/ Edie Falco; and
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Dixie Chicks/Ashton Kutcher. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', followed by the movie 'Extremem Measures', then 'West Wing', again.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Jim Hightower.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Mail Call', 'Conquest', 'Boone & Crockett: The Hunter Heroes'
SciFi is all 'Stargate SG-1' all night.
TCM celebrates the fabulous Marlene Dietrich for 24-hours.
[6am] 'The Monte Carlo Story' (1956);
[8am] 'Around The World In 80 Days' (1956);
[11am] 'Manpower' (1941);
[12:45pm] 'Kismet' (1944);
[2:30pm] 'Morocco' (1930);
[4:30pm] 'Shanghai Express' (1932);
[6pm] 'Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song' (2000);
[8pm] 'Witness For The Prosecution' (1957);
[10pm] 'Judgment At Nuremberg' (1961);
[1:30am] 'Rancho Notorious' (1952); and
[3:30am] 'The Blue Angel' (1930) [Der Blaue Engel]. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Ozzy Osbourne, center, and his wife, Sharon, right, get a hand from Cubs announcer Steve Stone, left, after singing during the seventh-inning stretch of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs game Sunday, Aug. 17, 2003, in Chicago. The Cubs lost 3-0.
Photo by Brian Kersey
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
'A Decade Under the Influence'
Independent Film Channel
Cable's Independent Film Channel presents "A Decade Under the Influence," a look at American cinema of the 1970s: feisty, fresh and defying the Hollywood formulas that came before.
Accompanying this original IFC documentary, to be broadcast in three parts Wednesday through Friday at 8 p.m. EDT, are a trio of celebrated films of that era, each airing at 9 p.m.:
Wednesday — "Mean Streets" (1973), directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.
Thursday — "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), directed by Scorsese, starring Ellen Burstyn and Kris Kristofferson.
Friday — "The Conversation" (1974), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman.
Among those who discuss the reasons in "A Decade Under the Influence" are Scorsese, Coppola, Robert Altman (director, "M-A-S-H" and "McCabe and Mrs. Miller"), Peter Bogdanovich (director, "The Last Picture Show"), Julie Christie (actress, "Shampoo" and "McCabe and Mrs. Miller"), Dennis Hopper (actor-director-co-writer, "Easy Rider"), Paul Schrader (writer, "Taxi Driver"), and dozens of others.
The documentary, co-directed by Richard LaGravenese and the late Ted Demme, will be repeated in its three-hour entirety Saturday at 8 p.m.
Independent Film Channel
Beneficiary Of Recall
California TV Stations
Amid the chaos of California's gubernatorial recall election, one thing is clear: the state's TV stations could rake in more than $50 million as hastily assembled political advertising campaigns blanket the airwaves during the next seven weeks.
Aside from short ramp-up time, the windfall is remarkable because California generated about $130 million in political TV ad spending last year during the regularly scheduled election cycle, which included a gubernatorial race.
There are 135 candidates hoping to unseat Davis in the Oct. 7 election, but the heaviest spending is expected to be done by Davis and the Democratic Party, surprise candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger and last year's Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bill Simon.
At the same time, network-affiliated stations are gearing up for the launch of the primetime season and heading into the November sweep. And they are required under federal law to sell the political ad spots at the "lowest unit rate," though critics say loopholes allow that pricing to remain highly flexible.
For a lot more, California TV Stations
A Chinese woman touches a huge 'Laughing Buddha' lantern float, at a lantern festival in China's eastern port city of Qingdao, Shandong province, August 16, 2003. The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China dating back to over 2,000 years ago. Colorful lanterns come in different shapes and sizes like mythical animals, traditional folk heros, cartoon characters, sports figures and religious icons.
Photo by Claro Cortes IV
Says Gray Davis Is A 'Good Kisser'
Cybill Shepherd
He has been accused of being bland, stiff and unemotional, but according to actress Cybill Shepherd, California Gov. Gray Davis does know how to kiss.
Shepherd was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday as saying she had obtained first-hand experience on a Hawaiian beach 36 years ago that Davis was "a good kisser."
She was 16 years old and he was 24, and although they did get covered in sand, "we were never lovers," she said.
Cybill Shepherd
'Seabiscuit' Jockey Injured
Gary Stevens
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who has a starring role in the movie "Seabiscuit," remained hospitalized Sunday, a day after he was thrown to the turf and nearly trampled.
Stevens fell off Storming Home a few strides past the finish line in Saturday's race. After he remained motionless for five minutes, Stevens sat up and moved his legs before he was carried off the track on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
In "Seabiscuit," Stevens portrays jockey great George Woolf.
Gary Stevens
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Sues Tabloid Over Affleck Stories
Antonella Santini
Antonella Santini, the exotic dancer featured in salacious National Enquirer stories that purported to detail a sexual encounter she had with actress Jennifer Lopez' fiance, Ben Affleck, has sued the tabloid, saying she never had sex with the "Gigli" actor.
In a lawsuit filed on Thursday in Los Angeles, Santini, whose stage name is "Felicia," contended the whole incident was fabricated by another dancer, Tammy Morris, who she claimed in court papers was paid $100,000 for her story.
Santini named Morris and three Enquirer reporters as defendants in the libel suit, along with the Enquirer's parent company, American Media, Inc.
Antonella Santini
Indian Hindu female followers of the goddess Shitla Mata have their tongues pierced with small tridents during an annual procession in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, August 17, 2003. Devotees subjected themselves to painful rituals in a demonstration of faith and penance to the diety during a procession to a temple dedicated to the goddess.
Photo by Ajay Verma
Battle For URL
Bimbo
The U.S. owner of Web site bimbo.biz has beaten off a legal challenge from Spanish food and consumer goods giant Bimbo S.A., pledging that he would never use it to sell competing bread or cakes.
Californian Lars Taylor insisted on Wednesday that not even the famous Iberian baker, which also produces clothing and books, could claim as a trademark a common word defined in Webster's dictionary as slang for "a morally loose woman".
His still blank site, Taylor said, would probably cater for the "adult, novelty and humour" market -- far from the family oriented merchandise associated with the Barcelona-based firm, and unlikely to confuse Web surfers.
Bimbo S.A., which is also a big name in Latin America, itself owns a series of sites ranging from bimbo.com and bimbo.es to bimbogames.net.
Bimbo
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Makes Hell Its Home
Microbe
A microbe that thrives in boiling water and "breathes" iron has stretched the limits of where scientists believed life could exist, according to a recent report.
The bacteria-like organism lives in a hellish undersea environment where water boils out from underwater vents called black smokers. There is no light, the pressure of the water would instantly crush anything living on land and the water is loaded with toxic chemicals.
The discovery suggests that life could exist on planets very different from Earth. It also suggests that life did not always evolve in the ways biology teaches -- in warm, soupy waters bathed in sunlight on the planet's surface.
Microbe
Fireworks explode over the 'Neues Palais' (New Palace), the largest building of Prussia's Frederick the Great's summer residence Sanssouci Castle , during a historic music festival in the city of Potsdam, south of the German capital Berlin, August 17, 2003. The 'Potsdamer Schloessernacht' (Potdam castle night) invited visitors to enjoy a summer night in the illuminated parks and castle grounds of Sanssouci Castle, to experience an opulent European program of theater, music, literature, dance and cabaret on ten different stages.
Photo by Fabrizio Bensch
Cameraman Killed
Mazen Dana
U.S. troops shot dead an award-winning Reuters cameraman while he was filming on Sunday near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Eyewitnesses said soldiers on an American tank shot at Mazen Dana, 43, as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad which had earlier come under a mortar attack.
Dana's last pictures show a U.S. tank driving toward him outside the prison walls. Several shots ring out from the tank, and Dana's camera falls to the ground.
The U.S. military acknowledged on Sunday that its troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they had thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since war began on March 20. Two others have been missing since the first days of the war.
Married with four young children, Dana was one of the company's most experienced conflict journalists and had worked in Baghdad before, shortly after U.S. troops entered the city.
He was awarded an International Press Freedom Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.
For even more, Mazen Dana
Hunting For Yeti
Yoshiteru Takahashi
A Japanese mountaineer left Nepal's capital Kathmandu Saturday on an expedition to prove the existence of the legendary Yeti.
Yoshiteru Takahashi, 60, and his six-member team left for the basecamp at the foot of the Dhaulagiri mountain range in the Himalayas.
He is confident the mysterious creature exists after having seen footprints in the snow in 1994 when he was on previous search expedition.
Takahashi, a house-fitter, said the team would set up camp on August 23 and then spend six weeks trying to capture the Yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, on film.
Yoshiteru Takahashi
A man cleans a watermelon weighing more than 154 pounds (70 kilograms) at the Fourth Changchun International Agriculture and Food Fair in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2003. More than 2,000 kinds of agricultural products were shown at the fair, which attracted a large number of visitors.
Photo by Xu Jiajun
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
Steve and Lilith flee to the heart of the anomaly and attempt to alter the structure of hell.
'The Osbournes'
Freshly Updated 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 5
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
