Ramblin' with Roger

1922: King Tut’s tomb; these #1 hits

Fanny Brice

As the book says, “The discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 opened up new realms of the ancient world.” More relevant to music, “radio swiftly evolved from a novelty into a nationwide phenomenon, with 500 stations established by 1922 and over 1,000 three years later.”

April Showers – Al Jolson, eleven weeks at #1, gold record. He was on Columbia Records. The song was written for the Broadway musical “Bombo.” It has also been covered by Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, and Judy Garland.

Three O’Clock in the Morning – Paul Whiteman, eight weeks at #1, gold record. A waltz. All of the Whiteman hits were instrumentals. I wrote about him last year. Almost all of the remaining hits on this list were on Victor.

Hot Lips (He’s Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz) – Paul Whiteman, six weeks at #1. This is labeled a blues foxtrot. Foxtrot is always spelled fox trot on the labels.
Stumbling – Paul Whiteman, six weeks at #1. A foxtrot.
Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean “Positively, Mr. Gallagher?” – Ed Gallager/Al Shean, six weeks at #1, gold record. This is a “comedy” record. Shean was an uncle of the Marx Brothers. The dialogue is transcribed and contains…problematic references to blacks and especially women.

Angel Child – Al Jolson, five weeks at #1

In The Alamo – Isham Jones, four weeks at #1. An instrumental on Brunswick Records. A foxtrot.

Gershwin

Do It Again! – Paul Whiteman, two weeks at #1. The George Gershwin-Buddy DeSylva song was introduced on-stage by Irene Bordoni in the 1922 Broadway comedy “The French Doll.”
Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean – Billy Jones/Ernest Hare, two weeks at #1. A comedy record on Okeh Records

My Man (Mon Homme) – Fanny Brice (pictured). Originally the French-language song “Mon Homme,” Fanny performed it with the new English lyrics in “Ziegfeld Follies Of 1921”. Music-Maurice Yvain, English lyric by Channing Pollock. Orchestra conducted by Rosario Bourdon. “Thirteen years after her death, she was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.”
My Buddy – Henry Burr. Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson wrote this melancholy post-WWI ballad. This is the song I best recollect of this bunch.

THEN I come across the article about recorded music from 1922 and earlier, which touts pieces now in the public domain, with many of the same songs.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine

Paddington Bear

I’ve wanted to write something about Ukraine because the process helps my understanding. But it’s difficult when it is an ever-shifting situation. And what could I add that everyone else hasn’t said? The Weekly Sift guy indicated as much, yet this week, shared his thoughts.

I consider the possibility that I’m quite wrong about this. But I’m finding a smattering of hope in the midst of the barbaric actions by Russia. And much of it has to do with the improbable Volodymyr Zelenskyy [one Y or two?], who Newsweek says united divided Americans against Putin.

The comic actor, who was elected in 2019, was “increasingly viewed as out of [his] depth on the political stage. However, war leader Zelensky has changed all that. His defiant social media videos and determination to remain in Kyiv have won him old and new fans. Natasha Kuhrt, of King’s College London, [explained] how Zelensky’s government represented ‘a counterpoint to the authoritarian regime next door,’ and the president’s bravery is a ‘David and Goliath’ story playing into the Ukrainian president’s hands.”

Putin as an alarm clock

The United States seemingly had disdain for NATO under its previous guy. The West Was a Sleeping Giant — And Putin Just Woke It Up. “The ferocity of the Western response to Russia’s illegal, criminal, repellent war of aggression will go down in history… The West has united around the goal of taking Russia out of the league of modern democracies — a place in which it never belonged in the first place. The world is literally realigning itself. Against Russia.

“[Putin has] outlined his goals — and they are genuinely frightening. He wants a Third Reich for Russia — the first one being Tsarist Russia, the second being the USSR. The Third Reich he wants is a kind of fascist empire for Russia.”

Indeed, CBS Sunday Morning’s Mo Rocco interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum “about the long history of oppression of the Ukrainian people by Czarist and Soviet forces (including the ‘Holodomor’ famine perpetrated by Stalin), and now by the war machines of Putin.” Remarkable then are the massive anti-war rallies by the Russian people “amid ominous threats by Putin.”

Media and sports

Netflix is declining to carry Russian state channels. This is significant because, in December 2021, the country’s communications regulator required Netflix and like entities “to carry 20 major Russian federal television channels, many of which carry pro-Putin propaganda,” starting on March 1, 2022. The propaganda machine is crashing down. Disney and Warner Brothers are suspending movie releases there; no The Batman for you, Russia!

The National Hockey League is suspending business and social media ties, as well as “banning Russia as a location for competitions involving its players.” Russia is excluded from “competing in international ice skating events… after being kicked out of soccer competitions and hockey — Vladimir Putin’s favorite sport. The decisions follow the International Olympic Committee’s request to keep Russian athletes out of sporting events around the world. The International Skating Union… said no athletes from Russia or Belarus shall be invited or allowed to participate in events until further notice.”

Meanwhile, companies such as Microsoft are attempting to support the Ukrainian technological infrastructure. Ukraine universities were hacked by players identified as supporting the Russian invasion.

But what about

In some quarters, I’ve read criticism “about the amount of media coverage the war in Ukraine has received compared to conflicts in Iran, Yemen, Guatemala, Sudan, and elsewhere. And it’s not entirely inaccurate. Yemen, for certain, is a proxy war between the US/Saudi Arabia and Iran, and a clear humanitarian disaster.

Still, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell stated the situation clearly. “what Putin is doing is not only a grave violation of international law, it is a violation of the basic principles of human coexistence. With his choice to bring war back to Europe, we see the return of the ‘law of the jungle’ where might makes right. The target is not only Ukraine, but the security of Europe and the whole international rules-based order, based on the UN system and international law.

“The international community will now in response opt for full-scale isolation of Russia, to hold Putin accountable for this aggression. We are sanctioning those who finance the war, crippling the Russian banking system and its access to international reserves.” Even China abstained from the UN Security Council vote sanctioning Russia.

Mostly on the same page

Most Americans are on the same page about this situation. There are disagreements about the timing of sanctions and the like, but most find Russia clearly at fault.

There are outliers. US Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) was ‘scorched for claiming Dems weakened Ukraine by impeaching Trump: ‘FBI Warned You’. And an Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers says the “EU is building a new ‘Third Reich’ in its defense of Ukraine.” This is someone getting her talking points from Putin. For those with short memories, remember the extortion of Ukraine. Mr. Brunelle has a solution to Putin’s financial problems.

While smashing vodka bottles won’t stop Putin’s tanks, it helps galvanize people. The Boston Globe recommends these entities to contribute to. Razom for Ukraine, based in New York, is sending items like tourniquets, bandages, and satellite phones. United Help Ukraine in Maryland is supplying money, food, and medical supplies. Sunflower of Peace in Belmont, Mass., is sending first aid medical tactical backpacks to paramedics and doctors on the front lines.

Check out Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context by John Green from exactly eight years ago. Listen to Alcion by Ukrainian composer Aleksandr Shymko. The movements are titled: “Beyond Words”, “One Hour to Live”, “The End of Sorrow”, and “On the Edge of Everything”. Meanwhile, I’ll go watch one of those Paddington Bear movies, with the title character voiced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Movie review: Parallel Mothers

two Oscar nominationsm

Parallel Mothers is the new movie by director/writer Pedro Almodóvar. Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) are two single women sharing a hospital room where they are each going to give birth. Though both pregnancies were unintended, the 40ish Janis is excited. Ana, a teenager, conversely, is terrified and feels uncertain.

They bond, and, after a time, end up keeping in touch. Each has a complicating person in her life. For Ana, it’s her actress-mother Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). She is torn between her daughter and her irregular career.

Janis is negotiating with Arturo (Israel Elejalde), who is helping her with historical family trauma, unearthing the remains of her great-grandfather, who was “disappeared” by rebels affiliated with Franco. Oh, and he’s the father of her child.

Janis is a successful photographer for a magazine. But as a new mom, she has to juggle work and motherhood. At one point, a certain important plot point became obvious to me. I guessed how the storyline would then play out, but I was very wrong.

The reign in Spain

How does Almodóvar deal with the complications in both women’s lives? Deftly, in an almost Solomonic manner, I think. More than one reviewer has pointed to the director’s “delirious use of color, his ecstatic aesthetic and a sense of the theatrical.” Parallel Mothers is all about truth (and the suppression of same) and passion and what family means and dealing with history v. living in the present.

Cruz and Almodóvar have collaborated in seven films. I know I’ve seen at least two others, All About My Mother and Volver. This one is the most fully realized, IMO.

Penélope Cruz is, as most critics noted, luminescent. One of them coveted Janis’ red sweater. Ms. Cruz has rightly been nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Milena Smit, a movie newcomer, performs amazingly well.

The movie is also nominated for an Academy Award for Alberto Iglesias in the category Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score). Recommended. Oh, yeah, the film is subtitled. Here is the trailer.

My wife and I saw this on a date night at Landmark’s Spectrum Theatre in Albany, alas, in its final week.

70: Mark Evanier and Laraine Newman

Connie Conehead

Mark Evanier by Gage Skidmore found in Wikipedia — Mark Evanier by Gage Skidmore, found in Wikipedia

I have been following the blog of Mark Evanier since 2004 or 2005. But he’s been producing News From ME since December 18, 2000. He was a kid who cared – OK, obsessed – about comic books, and has written comics or about comics and related business for most of his life.

Mark had the very good fortune to become an assistant to Jack Kirby, from whom he learned a tremendous amount, not just the creative aspect but the visionary nature of “the King.” Mark attended every San Diego Comic-Con from the beginning until COVID, and none since, except online. He has directed animated TV shows. As a result, he knows a large number of imaginative folks in the comic book industry and show business.

Evanier is a historian of the industry. He has worked on the reprinting of his all-time favorite comic strip, Pogo by Walt Kelly, and he was a Pogo fan even before he met and went out with Walt’s late daughter, Carolyn.

Mark has been a gambler in Las Vegas and a magician, pretty good at them apparently, though he’s soured on the former. He is also an expert on his favorite movie, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. His 30+ year practice of feeding stray cats ended in 2021.

In memory of

Mark always notes the deaths of creative people who you and I may have never heard of or had forgotten, obscure comic book artists, unsung animators, working actors, comedians of the past. He’s been involved with the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. “The award goes to someone whose body of work has not been properly rewarded in terms of credit and/or compensation.”

He posts a link almost daily of a notable segment of an old Ed Sullivan segment, an obscure music video, a comedy routine, film clips of Los Angeles or Las Vegas back in the day, or occasionally interviews he’s involved with. Guesting on Sid Krofft’s weekly Sunday afternoon video podcast on Instagram. Talking with film critic Leonard Maltin. Chatting with his best male friend, Sergio Aragonés, with whom he works on Groo the Wanderer.

Mark’s blog has regular segments. Dispatches From the Fortress of Semi-Solitude addresses how he’s been coping with the pandemic; fortunately, as a writer, he’s used to working alone. He’s a fan of Costco, where he can buy in bulk.

Personal history

Tales of My Childhood, Tales of My Father, and Tales of My Mother are obviously biographical. Mark notes: “I am of Jewish heritage but only on my father’s side. Because my mother was Catholic and both families frowned on two such people getting married, they basically raised me to be nothing in particular. This has worked out a lot better than folks who are devout to one faith or another would probably admit.”

He likes to post Hannukka videos during the season and find several ways to spell the holiday. His caring father hated his job but stayed to provide for the family. Most of the stories about his mother that I recall involved the last decade of her life when she could barely walk or see, as he helped provide for her care.

He writes occasionally that there are “Things I Don’t Have An Opinion About,” especially when people think he should. Conversely, he can be fascinated by the fluctuating price of, say, a certain package of Planters Salted Cashews on Amazon.

Here’s a quiz he completed in October 2021.

Live from New York

Laraine Newman at Comic Con 2011 — Cartoon Voices II – Room 6A, Sunday 11:30-12:45 Comic Con 2011

Laraine Newman is best known for being one of the original members of the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975-1980), creating characters such as Connie Conehead and the Valley Girl Sherry. But long before that, in Los Angeles at the age of 19, she and “her older sister Tracy were founding members of the comedy troupe The Groundlings — which has become a launchpad for numerous SNL cast members.”

In her audio memoir, May You Live in Interesting Times – here’s one story – she says her career has been, “modest but steady and extremely fulfilling.” Much of her current employment has involved doing voice work, including Garfield segments voice-directed by her friend Mark Evanier, twenty minutes her senior. He reviewed her memoir quite favorably; he wanted MORE than the nine hours she provided. Check out a photo of the two of them together.

In fact, you couldn’t do much better keeping up with Laraine Newman than to search News from ME for her name. She shows up quite frequently. Also, check out these videos.

1972: A Hole In The Bucket

other implements of destruction

My diary notes a fight I had in February 1972 with my girlfriend at the time, the Okie. It involved the song A Hole In The Bucket.

The tune has a bit of history in my family. My father used to sing it, playing both the put-upon Henry and the, er, strident Liza. But by the time we were teenagers, my sister Leslie and I had taken over the song in the Green Family Singers shows. It was our tour de force. I did the cowering bit so well that once, I nearly rolled into a pond at a campground. And Leslie was also very good in her role.

I suspect I had in my mind our version, or maybe Dad’s, or Harry Belafonte and a female singer. Here’s one with Odetta. The Okie’s rendition couldn’t compare. I’m guessing that I was wrong here, overly and unnecessarily critical. One does get a certain version of a song in one’s ear. BTW, here’s a Sesame Street take.

And other things

Besides going to class at SUNY New Paltz and the like, I used to write letters, to Leslie and to several friends I had gone to school with at Binghamton Central High School. I played 8-ball quite often; you’d think I’d get better at it, but not appreciably so.

To no surprise, I listened to a lot of music this month, Led Zeppelin III, Beatles, Donovan, plus whatever was on the college radio station, WNPC.

Feb 4 – read Ms. magazine cover to cover, even the ads
Feb 5 – The Okie tried to teach me to drive her Saab. The manual transmission did me in.
Feb 6 – The Okie, a guy named Steve and I went to see the movie Carnal Knowledge, which I thought was a good film
Feb 7 – the assigned readings to Intro to Black Studies were Before the Mayflower [which I still have], Blues People [ditto; it’s by Amiri Baraka, then Leroy Jones], Soledad Brothers, and an anthology
Feb 8 – I put a check in the bank to put my checking account $4.39 in the black
Feb 13 – Saw the movie Yellow Submarine
Feb 14 – I bought as Valentine’s Day presents two Kris Kristofferson albums, Me and Bobby McGee, and The Silver Tongued Devil and I
The Sunday News (NYC newspaper) editorial thinks this “Women’s Lib” has gone “far enough” and that we need to get back to “normalcy”; no female at Annapolis, e.g.
Feb 17 – Leslie took the bus from Binghamton to visit me; on the 19th, she went on the bus to NYC. [The out-of-focus photo is from that trip.] Later, the Okie’s car got hit, although not seriously. Leslie and the Okie’s roommate slept in my bed, with the Okie and I sleeping on a sleeping bag on the floor. “A lot of laughing and joking for quite a while.”

The snow event

Feb 20 – Digging out several cars after yesterday’s snowstorm. There was a community spirit, but also the more cars we got out of the parking lot, the more additional vehicles could be freed. Where the Okie’s car had gotten stuck the day before on Route 299 was a huge pile of snow. But eventually, we [Uthaclena, the Okie and her roommate, me and my roomie] dig into the pile with our buckets, sticks, and “other implements of destruction.” [Yes, I quoted Arlo.] But we discovered the car wasn’t there after all.

We went to the police station. The older guy there Uthaclena thought was going to keel over, and frankly the Okie and I agreed. He said the car was at Tantello’s Texaco, so the Okie wrote a check for $15.75, but we looked and the car wasn’t there.

It was actually at Uppy’s Gulf. After the woman there told the Okie how to spell Uppy’s, she announced they didn’t accept checks. So we pooled our money to pay the $15 towing fee and the $2 for “parking.” [I have the Uppy’s voided check in my diary.]