YOU can Ask Roger Anything, one question or several.
I just don’t think you understand.
It’s actually fairly easy for me to write about holidays or people’s birthdays or movies I’ve seen or the like. What is NOT so easy is coming up with content for all those days in between. That’s where YOU come in.
If you have been around here long enough, you know the drill. YOU, in the spirit of faux democracy, can Ask Roger Anything, one question or several. (Arthur and Jaquandor KNOW I can ASK several when they post similar requests.) Then I will ANSWER said questions, more or less honestly, depending on the nature of the query.
Oftentimes, y’all will ask stuff that I might be perfectly willing to write about, but it had not occurred to me. Other times, you’ll ask something that might be more uncomfortable, so it’s fun to try to obfuscate while still holding on to the truth of the matter.
I will likely respond within the next 30 days, as I have always done in the past. Now if you manage to inundate me with SO many questions that I can’t respond in a month – it’s never happened before – then I’ll take longer. Bury me with questions. Think of it as your belated birthday present to me. (I LOVE presents.)
I’m still uncertain that The LEGO Movie was designed for children.
The Wife recently purchased, as a fundraiser item for our school’s PTA, this coupon book called SaveAround; I had never heard of it.
One of the items in the Albany edition is an opportunity to go to one of the Regal Cinema locations, for free, on one’s birthday. Hmm, I had a birthday coming up, AND I had taken the day off from work, per usual.
Took the bus up to Colonie Center, and indeed got a free pass to see The Lego Movie. I was the first to arrive, and for a time thought that it might be a private showing. Eventually, three parents and a total of five children arrived.
Emmet, the main character, was initially such an unthinking cog in the wheel of society that I found his character mildly depressing. Yet he seemed quite believable as that guy who thinks that fitting in at all costs is actually a good thing. In general, I could not help but think about the bigger societal issues this movie addressed – corporatism, copyright infringement, the banal music industry, vapid television programming, to name a few – while watching this film.
I’m still uncertain that this was a movie designed for children. A lot of the jokes seemed geared towards adults who had grown up with some of the characters. I particularly enjoyed the relationship among Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Batman.
This is an impressive effort. I think it’s easy to take for granted the skill needed to put the thing together. With over 180 characters in the movie, LEGO VP of Design Matthew Ashton noted in a recent interview: “We had a huge chart on the wall of our design studio to keep a record of who had been approved and who was still work in progress.”
That interview, BTW, is in the 28th issue of the Brick Journal, in which one finds everything LEGO: “Many of the figures were designed the same way LEGO does when creating actual toys, being hand-sculpted and 3D-scanned, with accessories created in digital 3D programs, so the movie would look like real LEGO mini-figures had come to life.”
FOX Business news has attacked the movie as being anti-business. If by “business”, it means exploitative, mind-numbing, subsistence-wage paying drudgery, they may have a point, and I suggest that the irony of interchangeable Legos making that connection is part of the humor.
If I didn’t love this quite as much as most of the reviewers, I think it’s that raised expectations thing. But no doubt, this is a very good film.
When the group moved from Motown to Columbia/Epic, Jermaine stayed at Motown, largely because he was married to Motown boss Berry Gordy’s daughter Hazel for a time. Little brother Randy replaced him as the group became The Jacksons.
L-R: Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie, Jermaine
My sister Leslie, who’s a little younger than I, had each of the first four non-Christmas LPs of the Jackson Five (or Jackson 5ive, as Motown sometimes cutely designated the group). I wanted to write them off as a silly piece of “bubblegum soul”. The problem with that was twofold:
1) I rather liked many of the songs, and
2) I discovered that my vocal range was quite compatible with Jermaine, who had the second lead on many of the songs (Tito sang low harmonies, Jackie high harmonies, and Marlon somewhere in the middle)
Oh, there was a third thing: 3) that preteen Michael was pretty darn good
The first album had I Want You Back [LISTEN], a #1 hit in 1970, but also Who’s Lovin’ You [LISTEN], a cover of a Smokey Robinson song that, when I listened to it, I thought, “How old IS this guy?” He was an old soul.
The second album included both ABC [LISTEN], the title song, and The Love You Save [LISTEN], both of which went to #1 for two weeks in 1970. The imaginatively titled Third Album contained I’ll Be There [LISTEN], #1 for FIVE weeks in 1970. I was always a sucker for Maybe Tomorrow [LISTEN], the title song from the fourth album, which only went to #20 in 1971. They had other hits, most notably Dancing Machine [LISTEN], #2 in 1974.
I won’t necessarily admit to having watched their animated series, which is now available on DVD.
When the group moved from Motown to Columbia/Epic, Jermaine stayed at Motown, largely because he was married to Motown boss Berry Gordy’s daughter Hazel for a time. Little brother Randy replaced him as the group became The Jacksons. Their first hit was Enjoy Yourself [LISTEN], #6 in 1977.
Michael, who had done some solo work even with Motown, had some subsequent massive albums on his own, with Off the Wall, and Thriller. But the brothers, including Jermaine, got together for the 1984 Victory album and tour. Michael, of course, went on with his own career arc.
The group never broke up officially, but they haven’t recorded an album since 1989, though Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, and Marlon did appear in some bizarre reality show back in 2009, which ended up including their reactions to brother Michael’s death.
This is fascinating, because all the Census records I came across suggests that she was black.
I discovered only recently that my maternal grandmother’s brother Ernie, born in 1904, was arrested in 1928 near Syracuse, NY and that he spent nearly five years in prison in Auburn, NY. Apparently, he was spending time with a young white woman, her father didn’t like it, and helped manufacture a charge of rape against Ernie.
In the mounds of papers filed in anticipation of him being paroled in 1932 was this “social history” such as his education, his military service (none), religion (Catholic – I did not know that), marital status (single), and family background. His father, Edward Yates, had died in 1910 at the age of 58. His mother, nee Lillian Bell Archer, remarried to Maurice Holland in 1911. (His Census track is fascinating, born either in Texas or Mexico, depending on what Census one checks.)
This, though, was the kicker for me. It indicates that she was of Irish descent! This is fascinating because all the Census records I came across suggests that she was black. Surely she was partially black, but as the rules of the time would suggest, anyone partially black was considered black. And that’s still largely true of most mixed-race people; see Barack Obama, Halle Berry, etc.
Lillian, my great-grandmother though, at least on this document, was Irish, and that’s reason enough, besides my name, to be wearing the green. Oh, and Ernie, who agreed to live an “honest and upright life” married Charlotte Berman, a white woman of Eastern European descent, in 1937, and did just that until he died in April 1954, just 50 years old, when I was but one. I have no first cousins, but most of the second cousins I’m close to, including the one who retrieved this prison record, are his grandchildren, who, I suppose, are all a little Irish, too. *** Creepy old Simon and Kirby comic: Nasty Little Man
It was a teen music magazine in which John Sebastian alerted me to the fact that the UK and US versions of Beatles albums were not the same.
Zal Yanofsky, John Sebastian, Steve Boone, Joe Butler
Also used for ABC Wednesday, Round 15 – L is for Lovin’ Spoonful:
When I joined the Capitol Record Club back in 1965 or 1966, I got 12 albums for “free”, plus shipping and handling, and had to order 10 or 12 more at full retail price, plus S&H. There was this thing called negative option (they didn’t call it that) whereby if you didn’t return a postcard by a certain date, you’d get the next selection. I believe that is how I came to get the album Daydream by the Lovin’ Spoonful, the American group’s second album.
Though annoyed by my own disorganization, in fact, I LOVED this album so much that I subsequently bought the 2002 extended CD of this, which was fine, because the vinyl version was full of pops and scratches from being overplayed. And as a liner note reader, I noticed that all but one of the songs was written by one John Sebastian, who was the lead singer on many of them as well.
I bought other albums by the group, a single, and even a couple of Sebastian solo albums, but nothing did I love as much as that first combination of rock, folk, and blues. The story of the Lovin’ Spoonful is told, in part, in a song by the Mamas and the Papas called Creeque Alley; Zal refers to the late Zal Yanovsky (d. 2002), lead guitarist/vocalist for the Spoonful. LISTEN.
It was a teen music magazine in which John Sebastian alerted me to the fact that the UK and US versions of Beatles albums were not the same. He claimed that Drive My Car was his favorite song on Rubber Soul. At first, I thought he was confused – it’s on the US Yesterday and Today – but eventually, I figured out that he must have heard the UK pressing.
John Sebastian sorta sang and rambled a lot at Woodstock. “You’re truly amazing, you’re a whole city.” And he ended up having a #1 hit song based on a TV theme song. I met him once, briefly, on Central Avenue in Albany, at a club, but I don’t recall the conversation.
FAVORITE JOHN SEBASTIAN SONGS, all Lovin’ Spoonful unless otherwise indicated. LISTEN to all except #20. Chart listings are for US Billboard singles. 20. Four of Us (from The Four of Us – solo album) – it took up a whole side of the LP. It goes through so many musical styles, I think I admired its ambition more than anything.
19. Warm Baby (from Daydream -D). Most of the songs from this album will get no explanation.
18. I Had A Dream (from John B. Sebastian – solo album.) I admire its hippie optimism.
13. Rain on the Roof (from Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful). Such a gentle song.
12. Butchie’s Tune (D). such a badly named song, about leaving.
11. Welcome Back (from Welcome Back – solo album). I just didn’t want to like a song that was the theme to a TV show, in this case, welcome Back, Kotter. But I do. AND it went to #1 in 1976.
9. Six O’Clock (from Everything’s Playing). One of the rare singles I ever purchased (and i never bought the album), it’s the opening wake-up noise that I liked. #18 in 1967.
8. Bald-Headed Lena (D). A truly goofy song and the only non-original on the album. Gargling?
7. It’s Not Time Now (D). I used the lyrics of this song to describe the 1980 Democratic primary season with Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy: Carter: I’d like to tell you that’s it’s fine, but it’s not time now. Brown: I can’t seem to get a word in edgewise anyhow. (Lyrics)
6. Do You Believe In Magic (from Do You Believe In Magic). Yes, I do believe it’s like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll. #9 in 1965, the group’s first hit.
5. Darling Be Home Soon (from You’re A Big Boy Now). This is a sad, plaintive song. #15 in 1967.
4. Daydream (D). Sounds as though Sebastian just woke up. #2 in 1966.
2. Summer in the City (HotLS). I made feeble attempts to play this on the piano. It FEELS like it sounds: “Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.” #1 for three weeks in 1966.
1. Jug Band Music (D) – a funny story-song that is about the restorative power of music.
