Lake George is slowly being pumped out, but the culture of New
Orleans and the Southern Mississippi/Gulf Coast area will take a long
time to heal. Here are a few recordings that feature the culture and
music of the region.
Here I Stand:
Elder's Wisdom, Children's Song records the voices of a time gone
by, and good riddance. This Smithsonian/Folkways CD is half spoken
word and half singing, and comes with a nice booklet with annotation
and pictures. The remembrances include those of a "negro farmer" and
the wretchedly poor miners and housewives. The tales are
heart-wrenching, all the more because the stories aren't so far
removed from today's poor. The songs, generally older people leading
youngsters, include old Negro spirituals and gospel.
With luck, the tragedy of Katrina will force the area to take a
hard look at how the poor are treated and wipe away much of the
culture that still survives in areas that still fly the Confederate
flag. We, as a democratic nation, need to grow up, and this is what
we need to grow up from.
River of Song: A
Musical Journey Down the Mississippi is a two-CD set of songs
from the PBS tv series produced by Smithsonian Folkways. The second
half of the second CD features Louisiana, Where Music Is King
and the journey is worth the trip. Starting up here In Minnesota,
with a Chippewa Nation chant and a Swedish song about a Smorgasbord
and continuing downstream, the CD traces the many and various
cultures that reside on or near the Mississippi. From sea chanties
to Dixieland instrumentals to raw delta blues to quirky versions of
classic songs, you will find something for you. I suspect this part
of New Orleans culture will return to, if not exceed, normal.
When I was in Gulfport, MS in July with my brother and his family,
we stopped at the Seabee
Museum's Gulfport Annex. We had to get clearance and be escorted
to the museum inside the Naval Construction Battalion Center. The
base was sufficiently inland that the buildings are probably still
there, but I suspect the place was hard hit and the museum won't open
again soon if at all. And if it does, the exhibits remaining will be
very different. In the gift shop, I picked up a tape Pieces of a
Patriot's Heart, which is a twenty-minute tape of soldiers
singing about Desert Storm and reciting poetry about their military
comrades. I can't find this anywhere on the net and wouldn't mention
it at all except to commemorate a trip that I won't be able to
recreate for a long time.
There's quite a bit of music from or inspired by New Orleans and
the cajuns in the area, far too many to review here, so I'm going to
mention two: One you might even have in your collection and another
more obscure.
Fiyo
on the Bayou, by NOLA fixtures the Neville
Brothers, is cool jazz and hot cajun. The classics are given
fine treatment: Sitting In Limbo and Brother John/Iko
Iko may not be the definitive versions, but they're contenders.
The Ten Commandments of Love and Fire On the Bayou and
others are reminders of the range of the Nevilles. Highly
recommended.
The
Bone Tones came to the Minnesota State Fair, many years ago, and
I picked up only one of their records. For a Minneapolis group who
manufactures their CDs in Canada, they play a Cajun tune like they
were fresh from France. Chez
Nonc Bob is definitely worth the $0.99 in the used listing. I
couldn't find a more reliable source for the CD; you could try
e-mailing their manager Doug
Lohman, the contact person on the 1995 CD. The songs are mostly
in French or fiddle instrumentals. They shouldn't be your first
introduction to zydeco, but they will nicely expand a collection.
Bill Moyers: Soul Freedom (AlterNet)
The notion of spiritual freedom is at risk, and the fourth observance of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is an appropriate time to think about it.
Sheerly Avni: The Uses of Laughter (AlterNet)
Political comedian Margaret Cho talks about Hurricane Katrina, stupid white men, and the question on everyone's lips: when can we be funny again?
Dennis Sebayan: In the Mood for Food (out.com)
... if you're cooking dinner for a date, you light the kitchen on fire, and everything becomes a total disaster, what you should do is open a bottle of wine, order a pizza, and laugh about it.
Brent Hartinger: The Gay Teen Breakout
In other words, there was a market for a book about gay teens! All those publishing houses and their accountants were dead wrong. Nah, nah, nah.
Roger Ebert: An Unfinished Life (3 stars)
"An Unfinished Life" was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who has made a better movie about a dysfunctional family ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape") and a worse one ("The Cider House Rules"). This one, based on an original screenplay by Mark and Virginia Korus Spragg, is modest and heartfelt, dealing directly with straightforward material. We don't expect any twists and there aren't any, but as Jean tries to put her life back together, her healing makes it possible for the others to get on with things. That is enough.
I remember seeing Naomi Judd and her daughter Christina (Wynonna) sing at Rancho Nicasio in Marin County way back in the early 80's. A rock a billy guitar playing friend of mine named Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airman) had recorded a demo with Naomi and said she and her daughter were great. Naomi was putting herself through nursing school after her break-up in L.A. with her ex she had moved back to Kentucky and then here to Marin County California….Besides Naomi and Wynonna's amazing voices, I always remembered their HAIR!!!!!
So the Lifetime Channel was airing this made for TV movie about the meteoric Country career of the Judd's - their life and struggle to success……
They moved to Nashville and did a demo there and got signed to a big record contract and Naomi met Elvis's back-up singer Larry Strickland (Bruce Greenwood - "Double Jeopardy" (with Ashley Judd) - "Swept Away" (with Madonna) - "Woman on the Run: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story" (with Tatum O'Neal)) (I think the hair stylist pinned a Mullet on Bruce) and they got married and the Judds had 8 years of unprecedented success and then Wynonna started growing up and acting out and wanting to escape from her mother's controlling influence…fights in the hotel room, fights backstage and fights on the bus and Naomi started looking completely exhausted….so she goes to the Doc and she finds out she has Hepatitis "C" (probably from snorting Coke in Marin County!) and the rest of the movie is about the Farewell Concert in which Naomi is going to quit music and launch Wynona's Solo career…
Well you get a cameo by Dolly Parton and Ashley Judd. You get the actors lip-syncing the real Judds music (including some cool early demo stuff) and all the while you get the biggest HAIR imaginable ……(This movie received an EMMY Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling!!!). And the Farewell Concert is completely reenacted with a live audience (complete with candles), live band and Naomi in her trademark red dress and high HAIR and Wynonna in her trademark black leather and huge HAIR. This is the sappiest shit I've ever seen…."Love can build a Bridge…." Tears and cheers and then the final walk together off stage….
It turns out that this movie is based on the book that Naomi was hawking (she also produced) and I can't forget….Naomi became a "Born Again Christian" (and she divorced Larry for adultery) …so much for her…Oh…and Wynona became HUGE on her own …no I mean she put on so much weight she actually became a spokesperson for one of those weight loss companies….But I will always love the two of them singing…."Mama He's Crazy……Crazy over Me…."
Purple Gene gives "Naomi & Wynonna" 5 really colorful yet flimsy HAIR berets out of 10 for being so schlocky but with a killer soundtrack!!!
First full week of school for the kid - he's not thrilled.
Tonight, Monday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'King Of Queens', followed by a RERUN'Raymond' (the last one), then a RERUN'2½ Men', followed by another RERUN'2½ Men', then a RERUN'CSI: The 2nd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Dr. Phil McGraw and the U.S. Open winner.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Neil Patrick Harris and Karen Fisher.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'Fear Factor', followed by a RERUN'Las Vegas', then a RERUN'Medium'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Tyra Banks and Tori Amos.
On a RERUNConan (from 6/16/05) are Heather Locklear, Paul Giamatti, and Caesars.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 2/17/05) are Eva Mendes, RZA, and Chingy.
ABC starts the night on the East Coast with the SEASON PREMIERE'Wife Swap', followed by the LIVE'NFL Monday Night Football' (Eagles at Falcons).
On the left coast, the night starts with the LIVE'NFL Monday Night Football' (Eagles at Falcons), followed by some local crap, then the SEASON PREMIERE'Wife Swap'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are LL Cool J and Todd Glass.
The WB offers a RERUN'7th Heaven', followed by another RERUN'7th Heaven'.
Faux has a FRESH'Nanny 911', followed by a FRESH'Prison Break'.
UPN has a RERUN'One On One', followed by a RERUN'All Of Us', then a RERUN'Girlfriends', followed by a RERUN'Half & Half'.
A&E has 'Cold Case Files', 'Intervention', 'Growing Up Gotti', another 'Growing Up Gotti', followed by a FRESH'Airline', and another 'Airline'.
AMC offers the movie 'Mad Max', followed by the movie 'Easy Rider', then the movie 'Smokey & The Bandit'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'I'm Alan Partridge' - Episode 3;
[2:40pm] 'Coupling' - My Dinner In Hell;
[3:20pm] 'Blackadder' - Plan D-Private Plane;
[4pm] 'Jonathan Creek' - No Trace of Tracy;
[5pm] 'Monarch of the Glen' - Episode 4;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Brown;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 11;
[8pm] 'Murder in Suburbia' - Episode 3;
[9pm] 'Messiah' - Episode 1;
[11pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 11;
[12am] 'Messiah' - Episode 1;
[2am] 'Murder in Suburbia' - Episode 3;
[3am] 'Messiah' - Episode 1;
[5am] 'Murder in Suburbia' - Episode 3;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Comedy Central has the movie 'Billy Madison', an old 'Jon Stewart', 'D.L. Hughley: Shocked And Appalled', 'South Park', 'Blue Collar TV', and 'Mind Of Mencia'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Chris Mooney.
History has 'Extreme Gadgets', 'UFO Files: UFO Hot Spots', followed by a FRESH'Decoding The Past', then a FRESH'Weird US'.
[8AM] 'Stardust Memories' (1980);
[9:30AM] Short: 'Shame No More' (1999);
[9:45AM] 'The Lady And The Duke' (2001);
[12PM] 'IFC in Theaters' (2005);
[12:15PM] 'Stardust Memories' (1980);
[2PM] 'The Lady And The Duke' (2001);
[4:15PM] 'Our Song' (2000);
[6PM] 'The Flats' (2002);
[8PM] 'At the IFC Center' (2005);
[8:30PM] 'The Festival #4' (2005);
[9PM] 'Fargo' (1996);
[11PM] 'Mediterraneo' (1991);
[12:35AM] 'Pulp Fiction on the Dime: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective' (2004);
[1AM] 'Fargo' (1996);
[3AM] 'Mediterraneo' (1991);
[4:35AM] 'Love and Death' (1975). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6AM] 'Slings & Arrows': Episode 6 - Playing the Swan;
[7AM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/09/05);
[7:55AM] 'The Tesseract';
[9:35AM] 'The Housekeeper;
[11AM] 'The Al Franken Show: (09/09/05);
[11:55AM] 'John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk;
[1:30PM] 'Riot On Sunset Strip;
[3PM] 'The Tesseract';
[4:35PM] 'The Housekeeper';
[6PM] 'Keeping Time': New Music from America's Roots Episode 2;
[6:30PM] 'The Perfect Human';
[6:45PM] 'Fake Clouds';
[7PM] 'Tom Brokaw Reports: Deep Throat, The Inside Story';
[8:15PM] 'Press Any Button';
[8:35PM] 'Grandmother, Hitler and I' (Mormor, Hitler och Jag);
[9PM] 'S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine';
[10:45PM] 'Branson: Musicland USA';
[11PM] 'Herb Alpert: Music for your Eyes';
[11:30PM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/12/05);
[12:30AM] 'Die Mommie Die!';
[2AM] 'The Perfect Human';
[2:15AM] 'Fake Clouds';
[2:30AM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/12/05);
[3:30AM] 'Fuse';
[5:15AM] 'In The Mirror of Maya Deren'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Comedian Jon Stewart during the 'ReAct Now: Music & Relief' TV special, part of an ongoing effort by MTV, VH1, and CMT, to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, at MTV TRL Studios, Saturday, September 10, 2005, in New York.
Photo by Adam Rountree
Comedian Tommy Chong has spent almost three decades wringing laughs from cigar-sized joints and smoke-filled vans but now a nine-month jail term has turned him serious and revitalized his flagging career.
Promoting his documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong" at the Toronto International Film Festival, he hopes the film will expose what he says is the U.S. government's heavy-handed dealing with marijuana offenders in the post-September 11 era.
"The United States is under martial law, it's under dictatorship," the 67-year-old father of four said in an interview.
The film's producers say the federal government spent $12 million pursuing Chong and compare that to the $25 million bounty for the capture of Osama bin Laden.
Actor Robin Williams, left, and singer James Taylor talk prior to the men's final between Andre Agassi, of the United States, and Roger Federer, of Switzerland, at the US Open tennis tournament in New York, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005.
Photo by Amy Sancetta
NBC's Brian Williams says the lasting legacy of Hurricane Katrina for journalists may be the end of an unusual four-year period of deference to people in power.
There were so many angry, even incredulous, questions put to Bush administration officials about the response to Katrina that the Salon Web site compiled a "Reporters Gone Wild" video clip. Tim Russert, Anderson Cooper, Ted Koppel and Shepard Smith were among the stars.
The mute button seemingly in place since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been turned off.
Hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from a hotel where Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 were auctioned off Saturday as officials prepared to demolish most of the building to make room for new schools.
Among the most expensive items sold was the hotel's old black safe and combination, which went for $6,000. A pair of two statue light fixtures sold for $4,200 apiece. An antique mailbox sold for $2,200, while a silver disco ball that hung from the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub went for $900.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which bought the property for $76.5 million in 2001, plans to raze most of the hotel this fall and build three schools on the site that will be able to house 4,000 students.
Willie Nelson performs Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005 in Ketchum, Idaho, at a concert in part to benefit Tibetan charities backed by the Dalai Lama, who is scheduled to speak Sunday in nearby Hailey, Idaho.
Photo by Ted S. Warren
John Lennon's first wife says the late Beatle had a violent temper and once hit her in a fit of jealousy, according to excerpts from a new book published in a newspaper Sunday.
Cynthia Lennon met John in the late 1950s in Liverpool, where they were both art students. They married in 1962 and had a son, Julian, before divorcing in 1968.
Cynthia Lennon writes in her book, titled John, that he was prone to violent tantrums, according to an excerpt published in The Sunday Times, which is serializing the book. "I could put up with his outbursts, the jealousy and possessiveness but not the violence," she writes.
U.S. Philip Glass, center, accepts the audiences applause next to the internationally renowned set-designer George Tsypin, left, and the Theater Erfurt director Guy Montavon, right, during the world premiere of Glass' opera 'Waiting for the Barbarians' at the Theater Erfurt, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 10. 2005. The world premiere took place under the direction of Guy Montavon and is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Goetzee, the musical director is the internationally renowned American Dennis Russel Davies. 'Waiting for the Barbarians' will also be performed in American opera houses in Austin, Texas, and Cincinnati, Ohio, following its staging in the capital of the German state of Thuringia.
Photo by Jens Meyer
The Gulf emirate of Dubai will build a city of life-size replicas of seven wonders of the world at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion (1 billion pounds) to house offices, shops and flats, a developer said on Saturday.
The Falcon City of Wonders is the latest of a host of ambitious construction projects in the booming trade hub, which is part of the United Arab Emirates.
Three buildings will be modelled on structures that were part of the original list of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" -- the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Others will be replicas of more modern wonders -- the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Wall of China, a statement said.
About 1,500 people lying down move their legs, directed by US photographer Spencer Tunick, unseen, by containers at the Lyon docks in the Edouard Herriot harbour, central France, early Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005, in an art happening organized by Tunick, who has been doing such nude assemblages around the world since 1992, and for the first time in France on Sunday. Tunick's project is commissioned by the Lyon Biennial of contemporary art that runs through Sept. 14 - Dec. 31, 2005.
Photo by Patrick Gardin
One urban alligator down, one to go. A 3-foot-long gator dubbed Little Reggie was caught Thursday night in a Harbor City flood control channel, but its wily, much bigger namesake remained on the loose.
The gator was discovered Tuesday by a resident of the Harbor City Estates mobile home park when he ventured down to feed turtles and ducks that live in the channel.
Little Reggie was named for a 7-foot-long, 150-pound alligator named Reggie that was dumped in a nearby lake several months ago and has not yet been caught.
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the singer and guitarist who built a 50-year career playing blues, country, jazz and Cajun music, died Saturday in his hometown of Orange, Texas, where he had gone to escape Hurricane Katrina. He was 81.
Although his career first took off in the 1940s with blues hits "Okie Dokie Stomp" and "Ain't That Dandy," Brown bristled when he was labeled a bluesman.
Brown started playing fiddle by age 5. At 10, he taught himself an odd guitar picking style he used all his life, dragging his long, bony fingers over the strings.
In his teens, Brown toured as a drummer with swing bands and was nicknamed "Gatemouth" for his deep voice. After a brief stint in the Army, he returned in 1945 to Texas, where he was inspired by blues guitarist T-Bone Walker.
Brown's career took off in 1947 when Walker became ill and had to leave the stage at a Houston nightclub. The club owner invited Brown to sing, but Brown grabbed Walker's guitar and thrilled the crowd by tearing through "Gatemouth Boogie" - a song he claimed to have made up on the spot.
Brown - who performed in cowboy boots, cowboy hat and Western-style shirts - lived in Nashville in the early 1960s, hosting an R&B television show and recording country singles.
Brown recorded with Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and others, but he took a dim view of most musicians - and blues guitarists in particular. He called B.B. King one-dimensional. He dismissed his famous Texas blues contemporaries Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland as clones of T-Bone Walker, whom many consider the father of modern Texas blues.
Simon, a Red Panda, plays in a tree at Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo September 5, 2005. Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo has a new addition, a rare Chinese-born Red Panda. The eight kilogram (19 pound) bear-like mammal was purchased two months ago from a zoo in Singapore for about $11,000 and in exchange for two giraffes.
Photo by Gil Cohen Magen
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