After being unseasonably hot for weeks, it’s cooled off in New Orleans. Not a bad trade off if I do say myself. And I da doo ron ron. Excuse me: the needle on my internal record got stuck for a moment.
New Orleanians often get confused about St. Patrick’s Day. Our local parades typically take place the week before the actual holiday. You don’t have be drunk to be confused by that. Of course, drunkenness is what American St. Paddy’s Day is all about. I once asked an Irish Irish friend what they thought of this: “In a word: Disgusting.”
A Florentine Pogen is a cookie, but Frank Zappa anthropomorphized said cookie in 1975 and wrote a song about “the daughter of a wealthy Florentine Pogen” for the One Size Fits All album. It’s my favorite Zappa album.
We have two versions of this week’s theme song for your listening pleasure: the studio original and Zappa live in 1991.
I dig cookies almost as much as FZ. Apparently, Oreos gave Stevie Ray Vaughan the blues:
I wonder if Stevie Ray was a Hydrox guy. Beats the hell outta me.
We begin our second act with a story about crime and a thief who left an old VHS tape in the back seat of the car he filched.
Bad Tape is a swell piece at Longreads by Dan Hernandez. He decided he had to see what was on the aforementioned VHS tape left in his stolen car. I don’t want to spoil the mystery. Suffice it to say, he borrowed a VCR and played the tape. For the details, click here.
Dr. A and I had a car stolen after Katrina. It was totaled by the thieves.
The Bad Tape story gave me an earworm. This time, it’s the obvious one.
Talking The Barbara Walters Talk: New York Magazine’s Irin Carmon-a name I like as much as Hermione Gingold-interviewed 17 leading women broadcasters recently. The subject was the late Barbara Walters. The big revelation for me is that Connie Chung has a potty mouth.
The last word of our second act goes to Dave Edmunds:
We begin our second act by skipping our favorite stolen feature. Separated At Birth will return next week.
The Movie List: My Worst Oscar Winners post caused a sensation. Not really but I saw Michael Cohen interviewed this week so I lapsed into Fixer Speak. Hyperbole is Cohen’s jam.
Anyway, the post was a hit so I thought I’d follow up with the worst of the worst and best of the worst.
The Worst Oscar Winners
- Greatest Show On Earth
- Crash
- Braveheart
- Ben-Hur
- Chariots Of Fire
- Titanic
The Best Of The Worst:
- Dances With Wolves
- Birdman
- The Last Emperor
- My Fair Lady
- Ordinary People
- Rocky
Speaking of the worst, here’s the 5th Dimension:
To clarify matters: the song has worst in the title. The Fifth Dimension were a swell singing combo featuring Adrastos crush Marilyn McCoo.
We have a new feature this week. Who among us doesn’t like the Marx Brothers? I’m also pandering to my Tar Heel buddy Al Dunn. That’s why I done did this…
Marxist Clips: People who ran into Groucho in real life we’re bummed if he didn’t insult them. Here’s a collection of some of his best movie disses.
Saturday GIF Horse: This week, we look back at Pulp Fiction Thursday and forward to the Burt Lancaster Dozen. It’s a GIF of the featured image for my killer post about The Killers.
One could have called Ava Gardner’s femme fatale in that movie a Killer Queen:
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.
Saturday Closer: I’m still bummed about the passing of David Lindley. So is my friend Chuck Taggart. He dedicated last week’s Safe At Home podcast to Mr. Dave’s memory.
That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Frank Zappa and the Mothers circa 1975.
