Ramblin' with Roger

Who ARE these people?

Or maybe, as friend Dan might say, What were they thinking? Check out the comments.

Picture taken from here.
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TV Guide managed to take an unnecessary pot shot at my city. In the December 25 cover story about the ubiquitous Rachael Ray: “She began offering a series of classes that promised to teach 30-minute Mediterranean meals. In Albany, where a trip to the mall passes for excitement, the tutorials were a hit.” I could spend time talking about the virtues of Albany, or note that I LOATHE the mall and why, but I’ll just note that it was a cheap shot for no good reason. Feh.
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The 2000 year old calculator.

Carl Sagan, 1934-1996

I never read a Carl Sagan book, yet I feel blessed to have known him through his vociferous writing in PARADE magazine – you know, the Sunday newspaper supplement – for which he was a contributing editor, as well as the star of the PBS program Cosmos. This article notes: “Sagan is remembered by most people as one of the great popularizers of science. His newspaper articles, magazine pieces…, books, and television broadcasts reached millions, and made science accessible to mass audiences.” Though undoubtedly one of the smartest people around, he made the information interesting with either confounding or talking down to his audience.

I did see the movie Contact, based one one of his books, which I mostly enjoyed. With all he had accomplished, I had forgotten how young he was when he died, 10 years ago today.
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Frustrated “smart person” story, to which I can definitely relate: a librarian I know was picked for some trivia contest, touted as the “brain” and was then knocked out in the first round by a question about a TV event that took place five years before he or she was born: What cigarette brand did the Flintstones smoke in a series of commercials? Thing is, I somehow knew this, possibly because I saw it in the early 1960s and/or because it was my father’s cigarette brand. But more likely because I read about it here.
The ad below is different from the one I linked to above.

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Which, of course, is the segue to noting the passing of Joe Barbera. Mark Evanier has been doing a series of pieces about him, starting on December 17. Evanier and I share our first favorite cartoon character, Huckleberry Hound. Barbera and his late partner, William Hanna, put out a lot of shows I watched over a seven-year period: Secret Squirrel, Tom and Jerry, Jonny Quest, Peter Potamus, Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, The Jetsons, Wally Gator, the aforementioned Flintstones and Huck, and another favorite, Top Cat, the theme of which is STILL running through my head. Quick Draw McGraw appeared on one or more of those shows – KABONG! What a wasted youth. Thanks, Joe.
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My grade school friend Carol turns 54 today; our friend Bill did three days ago. This makes them older than I am for the next two and a half months. So there.

The Kennedy Center Honors

I’m a sucker for the Kennedy Center Honors. As I get older, I notice the honorees are, more often than not, quite familiar to me.

This year’s honorees, awarded on Sunday, December 3rd 2006, were as follows:

“Musical theater composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber“. If only for Jesus Christ, Superstar, I’d find Lloyd Webber to be a large part of my growing up. The raging theological debate that the musical generated among my friends and the religious folks I knew at the time was incredibly intense. Its revival was also the last musical I saw on Broadway, 3 or 4 years ago. I also own, also on vinyl, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, plus I have his Requiem Mass on cassette, and I saw the film version of the musical Evita.

“Conductor Zubin Mehta. Saw him on Live at Lincoln Center. I’m sure he shows up in my music collection, but it’s arranged by classical composer, not orchestra or conductor. But he’s in there somewhere.

“Country singer and songwriter Dolly Parton. She wrote “I Will Always Love You” about her long-time partner Porter Waggoner, but it became a huge hit for someone else. I have both Trio albums with Ronstadt and Harris, and saw her in the movie “Nine to Five”, but it is her many TV appearances for which I know her best. Dan Rather interviewed her in the past three years and was evidently smitten. I wonder if Jessica Simpson flub of “9 to 5” will appear on the air.

“Singer, songwriter and producer Smokey Robinson. The amazing thing about his writing for Motown is that he created for both the male and female artists’ points of view: My Guy for Mary Wells, My Girl for the Temptations. He wrote for and/or produced most of the classic Motown artists; his “Who’s Lovin’ You” appears on the debut albums of both the Supremes and the Jackson Five, e.g.
Possibly my favorite song he wrote was “No More Tear-Stained Makeup” for Martha and the Vandellas.
“No sponge has quite the power
To absorb the constant shower
Of the tears pancake and powder could never cover
Like a storm more tears have rained
Since your shirt was lipstick stained
And the stains that it contained
Were not my colour.”
And I haven’t even mentioned his hits with the Miracles, from the first big Motown hit (Shop Around) to a song covered by the Beatles (You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me) to the Tears songs (Tracks of My Tears, Tears of a Clown), plus his work as a solo artist.

“Film director and producer Steven Spielberg.”
I might have seen a few things he worked on:
Catch Me If You Can (2002) (producer, director)
Shrek (2001) (executive producer, uncredited)
Deep Impact (1998) (executive producer)
Amistad (1997) (producer, director)
Men in Black (1997) (executive producer)
Twister (1996) (executive producer)
Survivors of the Holocaust (1996) (TV) (executive producer)
“Pinky and the Brain” (1995) TV Series (executive producer)
“ER” (1994) TV Series (executive producer, some episodes)
Schindler’s List (1993) (producer, director)
Jurassic Park (1993) (director)
“Animaniacs” (1993) TV Series (executive producer)
Cape Fear (1991) (executive producer, uncredited)
Back to the Future Part III (1990) (executive producer)
Back to the Future Part II (1989) (executive producer)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (director)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (executive producer)
Empire of the Sun (1987) (producer, director)
An American Tail (1986) (executive producer)
The Money Pit (1986) (executive producer)
The Color Purple (1985) (producer, director)
Back to the Future (1985) (executive producer)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (director)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) (producer, director of segment 2)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (producer, director)
Continental Divide (1981) (executive producer)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (director)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (director, writer)
The Sugarland Express (1974) (director, story)
Plus a number of cartoons he wrote, TV shows he directed, and “The Making of” shows in which he has appeared.

The 2006 Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast on CBS, next Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 9 pm, ET (which stands for Eastern Time, not Extra-Terrestrial.)

Underplayed Vinyl: The Rolling Stones

Back in the 1980s, I bought a Keith Richards bio. I’m surprised as anyone that he’s reportedly still alive and turning 63 today.

Even at the time, I recognized Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass as a good choice as my first Rolling Stones album.
1. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
2. The Last Time
3. As Tears Go By
4. Time Is on My Side
5. It’s All over Now
6. Tell Me
7. 19th Nervous Breakdown
8. Heart of Stone
9. Get off of My Cloud
10. Not Fade Away
11. Good Times Bad Times
12. Play With Fire
However, I always thought Tell Me was out of tune, and that some of the songs sounded muddy. Unlike with the Beatles, I didn’t go out and buy every album. I’ve subsequently heard those early albums from which these songs were drawn, and they seem to hold a lot of filler, so I’ve never coveted them.

Conversely, I loved Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) instantly, even though I had a larger percentage of albums from which the songs were culled. The U.S. version:
1. Paint It, Black
2. Ruby Tuesday
3. She’s a Rainbow
4. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
5. Mother’s Little Helper
6. Let’s Spend the Night Together
7. Honky Tonk Women
8. Dandelion
9. 2000 Light Years from Home
10. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby Standing in the Shadow?
11. Street Fighting Man
For a few cuts, such as Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, and Dandelion, this was their initial appearance on album, making this purchase even more urgent at the time. The Stones’ catalog in the US was even more confusing than the Beatles’ in that certain songs appeared on more than one album from the same label (both Ruby Tuesday and Let’s Spend The Night Together on Between the Buttons AND Flowers, both London releases), so that the greatest hits collection was a better choice. Besides which, it had that octagonal cover!

Of course, these collections have been superseded by such albums as Hot Rocks (reviewed by Gordon this fall), but I’ve never purchased it, instead owning these two pieces of vinyl.

Edited to note: Beginner Guitar HQ has a new article How to Play Guitar Like Keith Richards. You may find it useful. Even as a person who can’t play a lick, it was interesting.

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I have a link to Dead or Alive, and I think it’s a culturally interesting site. Still, sometimes they just miss people I think are obvious, such as Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, who signed a number of blues, jazz and rock artists (Ray Charles, who was languishing on a minor label; Led Zeppelin), including the Rolling Stones to their own label. He added the Y to CSN. He wrote a number of R&B hits, including Ray Charles’ “Mess Around” under his pseudonym A. Nugetre. He helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the main section is now named after him. He went into a coma after a fall when he was backstage with the Rolling Stones, who were playing for Bill Clinton’s 60th birthday. Please go nag Dead or Alive to add Ahmet Ertegun to its list; I already have.

Weird Thoughts, Repentance Edition

There is on the road leading from my office, a sign, probably twice the length, and twice the height of a #10 envelope. All that is written is the word REPENT. I wonder what the person putting up that sign would think would happen when people see the sign? And I wonder what reaction – other than indifference – the sign has generated? If someone were moved to repent as a result of this little sign, to whom and what would they repent?

I just read where Charles Dickens was in Albany, NY in March of 1868, where he read “A Christmas Carol” to a packed house. I was intrigued that one of our pastors last week compared John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus, with Jacob Marley, who warned Ebenezer Scrooge of the visitors to come. Scrooge did repent of his penurious ways.

So I wonder: is the most familiar Scrooge, portrayed by everyone from Mr. Magoo to Patrick Stewart, what repentance looks like in the minds of whoever posted that sign, and dozens like them?
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Last Sunday’s Advent service went well. I heard a recording on Friday. What’s missing from the CD, though, is the Amen. There are two amens and an introductory sentence that all start off with the same notes. While some of us sang the “Amen”, others, inexplicably, started singing “I was glad when they said unto me.” Train wreck on the EASY piece after getting down the much harder one.
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See Fred Hembeck’s post of December 14, where he shows his very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very obsessive-compulsive relationship with Santa Claus.