Web surf # 1…from Grant-Lee Phillips to Back to the Future
Courthouse Square
I was listening in the car to FM Radio on the low end of the
dial where all the public radio stations are-and came upon a folk-rock song
with vocals that sounded a little like Bono.The DJ didn’t say what the song was –and so when I went home, I tried to
figure it out.I had trouble googling
the lyrics because I hadn’t been able to make out the words to well.All I could remember was “She is a lily” or “She
is like lily”.So I tried figuring which
radio station I had been listening to –it turned out to be WUMB and then I looked
on their website to see if they had a playlist-they did.
The song was called “Lily-a-passion” by Grant- Lee Phillips.
It’s an original song
available on a solo album of his called Virginia Creeper.So what’s a “Lily–a-passion”? I don’t know,
maybe Grant is referring to the flower called the Passion Lily. Yes indeed so here's the video for that song -assuming it' working at the time you read this
I had vaguely
remembered an act called Grant Lee
Buffalo-and that it had some sort of connection with Husker Du. The connection turned out that Grant Hart , one the members of Husker Du also had
the first name Grant, and that another Husker-Du-er , Bob Mould , had helped release one of Grant Lee Buffalo's recordings .
I eventually figured out that Grant Lee Buffalo had disbanded and that Phillips now went by the Grant-Lee Phillips moniker
and that he was a recurring character on the Gilmore Girls TV show-where
he playeda troubadour who sang songs in
the town square on the show.There is a
video that compiled Grant's appearances on the Gilmore Girls on YouTube (see below).
The town square on the video looked familiar-and I thought
to myself that it was the same town square that was used for the Back to
the Future movies.Well I was correct , the location was a back lot called Courthouse Square which is movie set
for Universal Studios. Somehow from there I looked up the Back to the Future movies
and learned that Eric Stoltz (of Mask fame) was the original Marty
McFly.Five weeks into the shooting of the film, director, Robert Zemekis recast McFly because Eric Stoltz wasn’t funny enough.Michael J. Fox took over the role and the rest is history and future
history.I was also reminded that
the second and third Back to the Future movies were shotback to back-one of the earliest set of big budget films to be filmed in tandem, so as to save production costs.
Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly. Eric with dark hair-that's wrong right there!
Reparata and the Delrons-Mid 1960's lineup Lorraine, Reparata, and Nanette.
I discovered the obscure New York girl group, Reparata and the Delrons whilst looking up backing musicians. The group's lead singer, Reparata (her real name was Mary Aiese) took
her stage name from a nun who was one of her teachers. Mary Aiese left the group in 1970 to be a teacher herself. The tall girl,
Lorraine Mazolla , later sang with Barry Manilow's backing group, Lady Flash. I don't know anything about Nanette the third girl. Some other chicks sang with the group as well.
This vocal trio never had an American Top 40 hit, yet somehow continued to make records between 1964 and 1972. They only made two studio albums. One of the group's claim to fame is that they were among they were among the backing singers on the 1969 Rolling Stones hit, "Honky Tonk Women". They also were one of the opening acts on the Stones 1965 Tour of North America.
Reparata and the Delrons did have a Top 20 hit in the UK with a song called "Captain of Your
Ship". The video of "Captain of Your Ship" above is from a German TV-show. It is the only archival television footage of them.
The girls performing" I'm Nobody's Baby Now" -a great song written by Jeff Barry.
TWA Terminal, JFK Airport, 1962
Reparata and The Delrons -Look In My Diary
The song below (Look in My Diary) was actually not released till the 1997. Hard to believe, since it sounds like a hit to me. It's my favorite song right now. It was recorded around 1966 but never used on any of their original singles or albums.
The video above is actually a unofficial mash-up video compiled by Mr. Trubec. The first bit is from a Longchamp commercial featuring super model Coco Rocha. She is a Canadian born model of Irish-Welsh and Russian descent. I don't now where the other bits with the oriental girls and the redheads are taken from.
The original 2013 Longchamp commercial (above) featured the Bee Gees song-"You Should Be Dancing". The other model featured is another Canadian Liisa Winkler. Yes that's two"i"s.
The airport terminal where the video was filmed is unmistakably the former TWA terminal
building at JFK International in NYC. Surprisingly, Eero Saarinan's
classic space age terminal is now a hotel.
Boston Strong is the motto of the 2013 Boston Red Sox
I was surprised to see that this year’s edition of the Red
Sox tied for the best record in baseball with a won-loss record of 97-65. The
Red Sox have had the best record in baseball in only one other year (2007) since
1946.So that is something to be
celebrated.
Yet, I must admit I am bored
by the Red Sox, I used to be big fan, but over the past few years I would just
say I am fan.The team just doesn’t hold
my interest.I became a Red Sox fan during the 1970's when the Red Sox had great teams and a lot of bad luck. Prior to 2004, the Red Sox had a number of
legendary teams that found a way to lose big at the last minute (1946, 1948,
1972, 1974, 1978, 1986, and 2003 justto
name a few). The Red Sox broke the string of bad luck in a spectacular fashion in
2004 by coming back from a three games to none deficit in a league championship series against the Yankees,
and then went on to win the World Series for the first time since 1918.They won the world series again in 2007.
Luck is no longer a factor, now that the curse is over, but that makes the team less interesting.The team doesn't have really have too many stars with personality-though admittedly baseball stars in general have less personality then they did in 1970's. It is
considerably more expensive to see a baseball game .Baseball players make such huge salaries that it
costs a lot more to see a game than it did in the 1970’s and as a result I have been to
only one Red Sox game since I moved to New England. I saw the team a lot more when I lived in Maryland.
Over the past three
seasons, The Red Sox have been a Jekyll and Hyde team. In 2011 they had the 2nd
best record in baseball up till a late season collapse, the worst ever in
baseball history. They lost 18 of their last 24 games, and fell out of playoff contention on the last day of the season. That season was hardly the Greek tragedy of previous Red Sox collapses, because by the end of the season people were glad that the 2011 Red Sox were not playing in the post-season since they had become that embarrassingly bad and unlikable.
The team continued their late seasons woes of 2011, throughout
the entire 2012 season, and they ended up in last place in their division with
a 69-93 record.It was their worst season
in 46 years.
Surprisingly, the top notch early 2011 team returned to the playing field in 2013, and thus they had 28
more wins in 2013 than in 2012. This actually was more of a turnaround than the 20 game win increase of from 1966 to 1967 when people were amazed by the1967 Impossible Dream team.
I think this Red Sox team lacks the pizzaz of the great Red Sox teams of the past. They have no pitcher with more than 15 wins, their best pitcher, Clay Buckholz had only 12 wins. Clay’s career year was
marred by a injury in the middle of the season, but the rest of year he won 12
out of 16 starts (with only one loss) and had an amazing 1.74 Earned Run Average.
Only one of the team's batters had good slugger numbers-that was David Ortiz with his 30 home runs and 102 RBI's. Indeed, other than David Ortiz and Clay Buchholz, none of their regulars had outstanding years. The Red Sox succeeded this year because they have a well coached deep team with a lot of talent, solidarity, and
experience. The
post season will tell us whether or not this is a great Red Sox team or simply
an overachieving one.
UPDATE:October 30, 2013 The Red Sox defeated the St.Louis Cardinals in six games to win the 2013 world championship.
2nd UPDATE:October 5, 2014 The Red Sox went back to their losing ways and were last in their division with a 71-91 record in 2014. They became the first team to go from worst to first to worst.
Rockville, MD. is in Montgomery County, a prosperous suburb of Washington, D.C. Rockville is far enough away from downtown D.C (15 miles) that till recently, farmland still existed in it's environs.
Rockville was chosen as county seat of Montgomery County in 1777, but it didn't get the name of Rockville (Derived from Rock Creek) till 1801. In the 1800's it was a small town, but by WWII had become a small suburban city.
1803
Since WWII , Montgomery County has been quite a rich county, largely recession proof due to it's proximity to the federal government and it's well educated workforce that comes from all over the country and the world. Partly due to the availability of sections of undeveloped or partly undeveloped land in most of the county, there has been a constant flow of development and redevelopment all through out the post war period. Thus, many of the streets, plots, buildings, highways, in Rockville have all been redeveloped since I first moved there in 1972. I moved there from a residential district in Northwest Washington D.C.called Chevy Chase. I lived in Chevy Chase in the 1960's.
Rockville appears in the movie 1964 movie Lilith. It's a 1964 movie starring Warren Beatty that was partly filmed in the town of Rockville, MD . Right away I was struck about how much at changed in 50 years since the movie, and all at various times. To start with the mental hospital (Chestnut Lodge) , that was depicted (but not shown) in the movie, has been closed (apparently the main lodge burned down) and the land turned into a housing development.
But ,The Rockville of 1960's is nearly almost un-findable today, They blew up the downtown to build the Rockville Mall in the early 1970's and the renovated the mall a couple times before demolishing it. In recent years they restored some of the streets that were taken away to build the mall.
In recent years the main library was rebuilt, , the main shopping strip on Rockville Pike has been redeveloped constantly. The main highway through Rockville, was widened to become a 12 lane parking lot. One of the main roads into town, Montrose Road was redirected in the 1990's. Another road, the Wootton Parkway was slowly built as sort of a town beltway. Most of the open land around the town has been developed.
Ramp to the Rockville Mall
Congressional Plaza when it had a Giant Grocery Store
"Deep and dark are my true love's eyes,
Blacker still is the winter's turning
As the sadness of parting proves."
That is Eva Cassidy's take on "Dark Eyed Molly'. The recording is found on her album, American Tune. "Dark Eyed Molly"
is a reconstructed folk song first written and recorded in 1976 by Scottish
singer/songwriter Archie Fisher, M.B.E.
All right, so why do
I feature this song? It's not a well known song-unlike many of the
songs that Eva Cassidy sung. Her performance is quite good, but there any many better known songs by her.
So, let me elaborate further.
In the late 1980's the British folk/rock group, Fairport Convention became my favorite current group-but it
actually took me a little while to warm up to the Simon Nicol version of
the group. In the 1960's, Simon Nicol was originally the group's non singing rhythm
guitarist-and the the group originally was fronted by folk legends Sandy Denny
(a intense singer very much like Eva Cassidy), and Richard
Thompson. The lineup for the group changed many times, the group's
first 9 albums boasted eight different lineups- that is part of the
group's charm-but truth be told , that as enjoyable as all of the group's work
is-most of the group's reputation rests on the three remarkable albums
that the Sandy Denny/Richard Thompson lineups released in 1969. Indeed, Eva Cassidy recorded a Sandy Denny song from this period-"Who Knows Where the Times Goes".
Over the years during in the 1970's, Simon Nicol began singing
more, and due to attrition by 1985-he had become the group's main lead
singer,and somehow, over time he had became a better singer, with a deeper
voice. Under his leadership, the group's repertoire, now became mostly
modern folk songs written by others, as opposed to self-penned songs,
or folk songs of the 1800's, that had been found on most of Fairport albums from 1960's and 1970's.
Anyway so "Dark Eyed Molly" was recorded for Fairport's late 1988 album-Red and Gold.
" The compatibility of unrequited love and strong drink has been the theme
of many a traditional song. Speaking from experience, it doesn't help in the
long run, but think of the songs we'd miss without the experiment. The melody
is that of a Basque lullaby and the words are my reconstruction from a line
or two of Gaelic poetry." -Archie Fisher
Archie
Fisher wrote about this about "Dark Eyed Molly -which is a song about how
unrequited love often makes you want to sit in a bar-and get drunk.
It's a powerful emotion- that I have experienced many times, even though I
never spent any time in a bar.
I felt that way about some women in 1989-although not very strongly-but she did have dark eyes-so the song seemed appropriate.
Well,
apparently two years later, on April 28, 1991 Eva Cassidy, myself and 100 or so
others saw Fairport Convention perform the song at a concert at the
Birchmere night club in Alexandria, VA .
Laura Bligh's website says that Eva got the idea to
perform "Dark Eyed Molly", from having seen Fairport Convention play the song at
the Birchmere. Now it might have been another year that she saw them,
but 1991 was the only year they performed that song at the Birchmere. So perhaps , Eva
Cassidy was only a few feet away from me that night and I had no idea who she was. At the
time she had not released any records. Over the next few years, she
recorded or sung a remarkably varied repertoire of songs and excelled
at singing in many genres. Sadly, illness overtook her and in November 2, 1996 Eva died at age 33 of melanoma. She never
became famous in her lifetime, but became so in 2001 after Great Britain
took her to heart after hearing her on Terry Wogan show and on the Top of the
Pops.
Eva's vocals combine
purity, power and interpretive ability. The purity is probably what
awes many listeners when they first her one of her recordings. Their is
no emotional separation between the singer and the song. She is not
trying to have a hit-she is just singing a song.
What I find unusual about her is that she covered so many well
known songs (many of which have only been sung well by their original
artists) -and yet most of her versions stand up well to the
originals-that is very hard to do.
I can
relate to Eva Cassidy in another small way. She was born in the same city I was, a few weeks after I was, and she left the Washington area the same week I
did-she left by passing away, and I by moving away.
The original 52nd album cover superimposed on a picture of the location it was taken...*
"Until the Night" is from Billy Joel's 52nd street album. 52nd Street won the Grammy for the best album of the year for 1978, against the
tough competition of the time. It was one of those albums where I find
myself preferring the album tracks to the hits. I loved the light jazz
of "Zanzibar", and "Rosalinda' Eyes", and the percussive insistent piano
work of "Stiletto". But "Until The Night" was my favorite, a wonderful
melodrama evoking the Righteous Brothers at their best.
One of the best things about YouTube when it came out was it's ability to showcase excellent video performances that were otherwise unavailable. Here is a case in point. This performance was originally only available in fan upload, but Billy's label, CBS has now uploaded an official version. For some reason the sound is little off -but it's still an epic performance.
This is a 1982 live performance by Billy Joel and his band of his song "Until the Night". This performance was left off the commercially available video from that time called Live in Long Island. It's an excellent concert video that has yet to be released in it's entirety on DVD. At the point that this was recorded most of Billy's classic band is still there, and Billy still has hair. This video is unusual , in that you get to hear guitarist Russell Javors sing some lead parts- almost making the song a duet. Javors actually provides a perfect complement to Billy Joel's smoky unnaturally low voice. The best part of the song is at the end, when Mark Rivera comes out for the dramatic horn solo, that in the original studio version was performed by Richie Cannata. This song has one best ending
crescendos of any song I have ever heard.
* The cover image shown above comes from Bob Egan's fascinating website-Pop SpotsNYC http://popspotsnyc.com/
Published originally April 28, 2013 by J.C.Bernhardt
The great big book of horrible things : the definitive chronicle of history's 100 worst atrocities / Matthew White
An excellent straight forward historical read. You will learn a lot of things you didn't know, which is one of my criteria for a good non--fiction book....
The book ranks the events of history in terms, of the number of people who died. Here is description from Amazon.com:
A compulsively readable and utterly original account of world history—from an atrocitologist’s point of view.
Evangelists
of human progress meet their opposite in Matthew White's epic
examination of history's one hundred most violent events, or, in White's
piquant phrasing, "the numbers that people want to argue about."
Reaching back to 480 BCE's second Persian War, White moves
chronologically through history to this century's war in the Congo and
devotes chapters to each event, where he surrounds hard facts (time and
place) and succinct takeaways (who usually gets the blame?) with lively
military, social, and political histories. With the eye of a seasoned
statistician, White assigns each entry a ranking based on body count,
and in doing so he gives voice to the suffering of ordinary people that,
inexorably, has defined every historical epoch. By turns droll,
insightful, matter-of-fact, and ultimately sympathetic to those who
died, The Great Big Book of Horrible Things gives readers a
chance to reach their own conclusions while offering a stark reminder of
the darkness of the human heart. 20 black-and-white illustrations and 4
maps
Sometimes your just not sure where you want to go!
So here's a new post...On the process of writing...They say that the one way to create traffic for your blog to create lots of posts. That may explain why some bloggers post too much, and create lots of filler posts. Other bloggers are actually good at creating interesting material on a regular basis, and I suppose those are the bloggers that are actually successful.
I just like to write, I have a list of ideas to write about-that sits unpublished on this site-eventually I will probably get to some of the ideas on the list. The things on the list are things that I want to write about, or things I have some knowledge of. I usually find, that I don't have the patience to write an article and get it to communicate exactly what I want to communicate and when I go back to read such articles I am not quite happy. The first book I wrote was a genealogy book, it took over ten years to finish it, simply because I envisioned it being a certain way, and until I could it get there I wasn't going to be happy.
A have long planned a ABBA discography book based on my ABBA website-for a long time I have never finished it-because I am not sure it would come out the way I want it too..t took eighteen years of work-but finally I was able to get and done. And if I die tomorrow -that will be a small legacy.
Well anyway, so there's a new post ... Here's a picture or two....
My house from above...
A doodle by Stevie!
Published originally February 16, 2013
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