Category: Art

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Just My Imagination

Peter Adrastos Athas
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The Legend of John Brown #19 by Jacob Lawrence.

I decided not to whinge about the heat to open the post this week. Why? We’ve had our first genuine cool front of the fall, that’s why. I was tempted to dance in the streets but that would be undignified even for me. I only dance in the streets during Carnival.

This week’s theme song was inspired by last week’s successful fundraiser. Posting the Temptations show and Oscar begging made me want to hear some more sweet, sweet soul music. Ain’t nothing sweeter than hearing Eddie Kendricks croon Just My Imagination (Running Away From Me.) It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong who specialized in funkier tunes than this lilting soul waltz. They nailed it: Just My Imagination went to number-1 on both the pop and R&B charts.

We begin with the Temptations’ glorious studio version produced by Norman Whitfield:

The Rolling Stones covered Just My Imagination on the 1978 album Some Girls. I’m terribly fond of the live version they did during their 1981 tour, which I saw at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Here’s a backstage view of the Stones live in the swing state of Arizona:

You may have noticed that I didn’t use the entire title in the post header. There’s method to my madness for a change. There’s also a swell Cranberries song of the same title. Let’s give it a spin:

That video gave me butterflies: Irish butterflies. It’s time to regress from a butterfly to a larval caterpillar. Trust me, I know that’s impossible but I wrote myself into a corner. Guess it’s time to give y’all a break by going to the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Feels Like Rain

Peter Adrastos Athas
Rain, Steam, and Speed by JMW Turner, 1844.
Rain, Steam, and Speed by JMW Turner, 1844.

Tis the season for New Orleanians to freak out over the tropics. Social media is *great* after a disaster but it’s a disaster as storms line up in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s what happens at the end of every August, y’all. It’s too early to freak out about storms that may or may not pay us a visit. Here’s what I said on the Tweeter Tube the other day:

It doesn’t matter if a storm is named if it has your name on it. Look at what happened in the Baton Rouge area: that was an unnamed storm and it wreaked havoc.  My advice to people who are new to the hurricane zone is to prepare but take a deep breath and relax. Freaking out never helped anybody even if Freak Out is the title of the first Mothers album:

End of obligatory Zappa reference.

It’s been a hyper-allergenic week here in New Orleans. I’m not sure if the wind has blown allergens our way from the Gret Stet flood, but I’ve felt like warmed over shit all week. Sinus headaches are no fun, y’all; neither is being dizzy because your sini are clogged. I prefer them to be as dry as the Sinai. I have a tell-tale allergy related red spot on my right cheekbone. It’s usually dime-sized, this week it’s like a Kennedy half-dollar. Instead of day drinking like a proper New Orleanian, I’ve been day benadryling. Enough whining, wheezing, and whinging, Let’s move on to our theme song.

It’s been raining a lot so this week’s theme song is one of John Hiatt’s finest, Feels Like Rain. It’s so well crafted and constructed that it’s been covered by a wide variety of singers. I also like it because of the Lake Pontchartrain reference.

We have three versions for your enjoyment. First, the songwriter’s original version from his classic Slow Turning album. Buddy Guy loves the song so much that he made it the title track of a 1993 album. Finally, Aaron Neville crooning Feels Like Rain with the Neville Brothers to a crowd that included Dr. A and little old me.

Aaron sure can sing, y’all. There’s more to come after the break. I’m not sure if it qualifies as a full English breakfast but it’s all I got.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Poison Love

Peter Adrastos Athas
Texas Bluebonnets by Porfirio Salinas.
Texas Bluebonnets by Porfirio Salinas.

It’s been a wet week in the Gret Stet of Louisiana complete with flooding in outlying parishes and Red Stick. A low front has stuck around for days, keeping it damp, rainy, and cloudy. I like the cloudy bit: it keeps the temperatures down. It’s bloody hard to wake up when it looks like midnight outside. The cats are constantly confused by that but they’re usually confused about something. Just give them a box and they’re happy.

The big story in New Orleans is the City Planning Commission’s vote on short-term rentals. It was a partial albeit temporary victory for those of us opposed to unregulated STRs. Hmm, that sounds like STDs; an apt analogy as they’re nearly as contagious. The CPC voted to ban full-home STRs but opened the floodgates for other forms. The City Council has the power to override the vote. Nothing is ever permanent in New Orleans politics. It’s one reason I’m less involved than I used to be. When one pounds one’s head against the wall long enough, you draw blood. I’m tired of bleeding, y’all.

This week’s theme song is a country classic. The choice is partially inspired by the Porfirio Salinas painting that’s our featured image this time around. Btw, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson collected their fellow Texan Salinas’ work. And the first version I ever heard of Poison Love was by uber-Texas artist Doug Sahm. It’s a venerable song, but let’s start with Doug’s 1973 version followed by bluegrass great Bill Monroe.

Time to slip in a live rendition by Allison Krauss and Dobro deity Jerry Douglas:

I’ll have more poison pen love after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Wish You Were Here

Peter Adrastos Athas
Kirchner-strasse-in-der-daemmerung
Street In The Twilight by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

First, a prologue. There’s been another horrendous terrorist attack in a beautiful place in a country that’s our oldest friend: Nice, France. The French Counsel General, Grégor Trumel, made the following remarks at a Bastille Day event at the New Orleans Museum of Art:

“I think more than ever we should stick to our values together — French people, American people,” he said, citing the national motto of France to hearty applause. “The words ‘liberté, égalité and fraternité’ are stronger than ever.”

Trumel led the crowd in a moment of silence and later, a rendition of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” But before that, Trumel thanked supporters for attending the reception and reminded gatherers that France is not just a country, but an ideal.

“Perhaps for 5 seconds, 3 seconds, we thought that we could cancel the reception, but no — never,” he said. “Never. Never. It would be a victory for our enemies, and we should not compromise with violence, terror and horror.”

In the spirit advocated by Monsieur Trumel, let’s resume our regularly scheduled programming:

It’s been a less stressful week here in New Orleans. The weather remains blisteringly hot but we’ve had the odd bit of rain to cool things down and the tropics are quiet for the moment. Plus, the news from Red Stick may not be good but it’s not as bad as last week at this time. It will simply have to do.

I watched Hillary-Berniepalooza this week. It went fairly well. Bernie was scowling at the beginning but, eventually, warmed to his task. It had the hardcore Dudebros squealing like stuck pigs, which warmed the cockles of my heart whatever the hell those are. Watching it, I realized that if I were casting an actor to play Bernie it wouldn’t be Larry David (who can only play himself) but Walter Matthau circa Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys:

Walter Meme

You’ll have to see the movie or play to get the running “enter” gag. Y’all should see it anyway. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Neil Simon? The man knew his way around a joke. His work has become somewhat overlooked. It’s a crime, I tell ya.

Let’s move on to this week’s theme song. I’ve picked two repeat artists, Nick Lowe and Pink Floyd, with different songs with the same title. Nick’s song features the great Paul Carrack on second lead vocal and is pretty darn chipper. The more famous Pink Floyd tune is wistful but awesome nonetheless.

Now that I’ve alternatively pepped you up and gloomed you out, it’s time for the abominable showman to take a bow and go to the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: The Winding Stream

Peter Adrastos Athas
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The Hailstorm by Thomas Hart Benton, 1940.

It’s been a scorching hot and depressing week in New Orleans. The Alton Sterling case is too close to home for comfort. The reaction from some white Gret Steters has been dispiriting while not altogether surprising. Apparently, it’s okay for a white dude to pack heat but not a black dude. The distinction eludes me. Additionally, the events in St. Paul and Dallas have cast a bloody pall over the week. I don’t usually let the news affect my mood but these events have. If you missed it, please read Doc’s post No Lives Matter. It sums my mood up quite well.

The good news is that I wrote most of this post before the appalling police shootings in Dallas. The combination of that city’s name and the word sniper has some bad juju for many of us. The post was already rather somber, so let’s get back to what passes for normality at First Draft.

The heat has been oppressive even by NOLA standards. When you step outside, it hits you in the face like a damp washcloth. It’s August level heat and humidity, and my body hasn’t even adjusted to the high 80’s let alone the mid-to-upper 90’s. There’s a huge difference between the two. When it’s 95 here the “feels like temperature” goes as high as 105-110, which is like Phoenix, AZ only wet, wet, wet. Dare I make a Wet Willie joke? Nah, I’ll skip it since it could get obscene and I’m not in the mood.

We spent some time outside last Saturday at a one-year-old’s birthday party. I found a shady, comparatively breezy spot, and in the feline manner staked it out as my own. My friends pointed out that cats seek out sunbeams but I hissed and declined to move.  The birthday girl is named Luna and one of the Spanksters made a piñata that looked like the image from Georges Melies’ landmark 1902 flick A Trip To The Moon:

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Piñata by Lara Desmond.

It was decided that it was too beautiful to be smashed to smithereens, so it’s now hanging on a wall at Luna’s folks crib. As Mad Men’s Weird Glenn would put it, Nice digs. Have I mentioned lately how much I miss Mad Men?

This week’s theme song is something of a bucolic antidote to my urban angst. It was written by AP Carter and has been recorded by oodles of artists. It’s also the title of a recent documentary about the Carter Family but more about that anon. The first version is by the original Carter Family: AP, Sara, and Maybelle. The second version features Carlene Carter, June Carter Cash, and a grand total of four generations of Carters:

Old-time Country music can be so comforting, in between tales of drunken depravity; of course, the Carters weren’t in to that sort of thing. They were traditionalists in the best sense of the word. On that note, it’s traditional for us to go to the break at this point.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: The Day I Get Home

Peter Adrastos Athas
economy-555x276
Economy of Grace by Kehinde Wiley.

It was a long ass road trip, y’all. Our first destination was Richmond, VA to attend our nephew Zachary’s high school graduation. He goes to a small public school for super smart-n-independent kids. There were 42 graduates, which meant that each of them got to say something. They even introduced the entire staff including the custodian. It’s a racially mixed class so, naturally, the black parents were loud and raucous whereas most of the white folks were polite and quiet. Boring. I tried to make up for that by whooping it up but I could not come close to the African-American mother who shouted out “Don’t you cry, baby girl” when her daughter approached the podium. It did not work. Profuse tears were shed.

Another highlight of the trip was seeing the Kehinde Wiley exhibit at the Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts. It’s entitled A New Republic and offers a fresh take on the masters by a talented black artist. If it comes to or near your town, check it out. Don’t tell them I sent you, they won’t give a shit.

We attended the Wiley exhibit the day after a horrible storm front blew through Richmond causing 150K power outages and general havoc. I’m not sure if General Havoc sided with the Union or the Confederacy. We had to drive through it but, much like the Rain Man, Dr. A is an excellent driver. Things were so hinky in Richmond that the museum alarm went off as I was looking at the VMFA’s fine collection of George Bellows’ work. It started bellowing so we exited, it had nothing to do with brexit. I’ll probably write something about that for Monday. I’m too pooped to mock Cameron, Corbyn, Farage, and Bozza right now. Note: the Johnson blond straw ‘do is real as you can see from this picture with his father:

Boris-Johnson-with-his-fa-007
Photo via the Guardian.

Let’s move on to this week’s theme song. Thursday was actually the day I got home but what’s a bit of artistic license among friends? Artistic licentiousness is an altogether different matter. A musical highlight of the road trip was blasting a bootleg of a 1993 Squeeze show as we barreled through Birmingham, which according to Randy Newman is the greatest city in Alabam. Me, I prefer Mobile or the town in Alabama where the tusks are looser. The rim shot belong to Groucho Marx, not me, y’all.

Where the hell was I? Oh yeah, this week’s theme song. It’s The Day I Get Home by Difford and Tilbrook from the Play album. We have two versions for your listening pleasure; including one from the phenomenal 1993 Some Fantastic Place tour with Pete Thomas on drums and Paul Carrack on keys and vox:

After the break, I’ll post a few more trip tales as well as another homey/homely tune. Gotta stretch my legs, it was a long road trip.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Rave On

Peter Adrastos Athas
RR NOMAjpg
Melic Meeting (Spread) by Robert Rauschenberg, 1979. Via NOMA.org

It’s been a long, hot week in New Orleans. My head cold lingered but finally faded. The termite swarms have abated but it’s hotter than hell. And the heat leads to short tempers; when the hotheads have guns, it brings a murder wave. I hate it but it happens every Memorial Day weekend. Eventually, things will calm down but despite all the talk, murder remains the hardest crime to deter. It’s often spontaneous and ego-driven. I hate to sound fatalistic but as long as the wider culture resorts to violence to solve its problems this will keep happening. So it goes.

How was that for a cheerful way to start your Saturday morning? Let’s talk about the Robert Rauschenberg artwork that’s this week’s featured image. It’s part of the permanent collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art in gorgeous City Park. I always spend more than a few minutes studying it and pick up on something new every time.  I hope you’re feeling better but in case you’re not, here’s a pre-theme song tune to cheer you up:

Thanks Carlos and Greg Rolie. The world may have stopped tilting on its Abraxas after that rousing song.

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, it’s time rave about this week’s theme song. Rave On was recorded by rock pioneer Buddy Holly in 1958 and is one of the few hits he didn’t write himself. Bad me. I decided to use it-sans explanation point-because of the second version below.

While we’re on the subject of raving, here’s some Van Morrison:

Now that we’ve raved on about poets and crazy feelings, I’ll have some Words of Love for you after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Walk On By

Peter Adrastos Athas
Kale Halved- Edward Weston
Kale Halved by Edward Weston.

It’s been a grim week in New Orleans. Much loved former LSU and Saints running back and Saints color man Hokie Gajan died of cancer at the age of 56. As a broadcaster, Hokie was folksier than all get out. His catch phrase was an odd one: I tell you what. Hokie deployed it at the drop of a hat. He’ll be missed, I tell you what,

In New Orleans crime news, former Saints defensive captain Will Smith was shot and killed. Initially, it looked like a classic road rage shooting but things keep getting curiouser and curiouser. It looks as if it’s a complicated road rage shooting complete with odd coincidences and heavily armed participants. It’s not a stone whodunit but it’s not as open and shut as it looked at first blush.

A word about this week’s featured image. It’s a 1930 veg-photo taken by the great Edward Weston, Kale Halved. It reminds me of the great New Orleans kale kerfuffle of 2014:

In faux defense of the honor of my adopted hometown (I’m a transplant but I didn’t expect anyone to applaud me for moving here) I will start calling it KALEVILLE. No, not K-Ville like the crappy short-lived Fox cop show but KALEVILLE. Hmm, maybe that show would have made it if they’d had kale parties instead of gumbo parties because it’s more on trend according to Gwyneth and GOOP.

I never called the city Kaleville again and the veggie dustup is largely forgotten. I only revived it because of my insane love of self-quotation.

Speaking of dudes named Edward Weston who may or may not have halved kale:

How pedestrian. If you’d like to learn more about the Other Edward Weston, Karst has a piece up at the Zombie-Picayune.

This week’s theme song *does* involve walking. It was written by the great songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Dionne Warwick got the first crack at Walk On By and had a monster hit:

In 1969, Issac Hayes recorded his own idiosyncratic take on the tune. In many ways Issac was the proto-Barry White, bay-bay. This is the single version, there’s actually a 12 minute album track for those who love their soul hot buttered:

Here’s a punky version by the Stranglers:

It’s story time. I was an indifferent piano student as a kid. We had a baby grand in the living room so naturally I had to have lessons. My piano teacher was a nice neighbor lady who assigned me the Bacharach-David songbook because we both liked their tunes. It made my playing a bit better but I was always like the guy in All The Way From Memphis:

Well I got to Oreole y’know – it took a month
And there was my guitar, electric junk
Some spade said rock’n’rollers, you’re all the same
Man that’s your instrument. I felt so ashamed

I’ll let Mott the Hoople play us into the break. It’s a mighty long way down rock and roll:

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Saturday Odds & Sods: What’s Shakin’ On The Hill

Peter Adrastos Athas
Der Niesen by Paul Klee, 1915.

I’m feeling uncharacteristically terse this week.  Stop cheering, y’all. I can always indulge in some windbaggery another week.

There’s some news on the NOLA white supremacy monuments front. A bill giving the state the right to intervene died in committee at the lege. Remember when Republicans stood for local government? In 2016, they only believe in local governance when it’s one of *their* pet issues. So it goes.

This week’s theme song comes from Nick Lowe’s 1990 album Party of One and has become a staple at his live shows. I selected What’s Shakin’ On The Hill after picking the Paul Klee painting as the featured image. Klee was a Swiss artist best known for his small paintings as opposed to an expansive mountain scene. It made me ask myself, What’s Shakin’ On Klee’s Hill? Beats the hell outta me…

I’ve picked three versions of the theme song. The first is Nick’s original. Followed by two versions by Nick Lowe related artists. First, Paul Carrack was in Nick’s band for several years in the 1980’s. Second, Lowe produced a flock of Elvis Costello albums hence the EC version. Enough exposition, on with the music:

As you may have noticed I am fond of saying so it goes. I picked that up years ago from Kurt Vonnegut. It just occurred to me that it’s the title of a Nick Lowe tune as well:

We’ll see how it goes after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: These Foolish Things

Peter Adrastos Athas
Full title: Music in the Tuileries Gardens Artist: Edouard Manet Date made: 1862 Source: http://www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk/ Contact: picture.library@nationalgallery.co.uk Copyright (C) The National Gallery, London
Music in the Tuileries Gardens by Edouard Manet via The National Gallery, London

It’s primary day here in the Gret Stet of Louisiana. I don’t expect surprises on either side unless Ted Cruz uses his proximity as a creep from Texas to beat the creep from New York. There aren’t enough white lefties for Bernie Sanders to do better here than in other Southern states as pointed out in this tweet:

After a closer examination, I spotted one African-American guy holding the R sign. I guess you can add Bernie Sanders to the list of things white people like.

I used the Manet painting as the featured image so I could tell a cat story. Really. While a college student, I named a black cat after the artist. I don’t recall why but I did. I’m one of those demented cat people who likes talking to my kitties. My shtick with Manet was to play comparative artists. I’d ask her, “who do you like better, Picasso or Manet?” The answer was invariably “Manet.” Admittedly, I supplied the answer but what cat wouldn’t prefer themselves to Miro, Magritte, or even Monet? End of crazy cat person story.

This week’s theme song was written in 1935 by the English songwriting team of Jack Strachey and Eric Maschwitz. Oddly enough, I discovered this wonderfully wistful tune as the title track and closing number of a 1973 album by Bryan Ferry. I’m posting that version along with a killer 1936 rendition by Billie Holiday with the Teddy Wilson Orchestra.

Here’s hoping these foolish things do indeed remind me of you, you, and make me feel like you do. We’ll learn if that’s the case after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Splendid Isolation

Peter Adrastos Athas
Father Mississippi by Walter Anderson.
Father Mississippi by Walter Inglis Anderson.

It’s been a relatively quiet week in New Orleans. There’s a new gentrification controversy involving changes to an Uptown green space known as the Fly. I’m for the status quo but I’ve decided to keep my fly zipped on this issue. I hereby apologize to everyone for that joke.

Meanwhile in Baton Rouge, the budgetary sky is falling. 8 years of Jindalnomics have left the state in such dire straits that not even Mark Knopfler could fix things. Once again, I need to apologize for that joke, which means I have to take the walk of life in atonement:

The new Governor gave a sort of chicken little speech about the state’s financial woes, which doesn’t seem to have moved many votes in the lege thus far. John Bel Edwards did, however, imply that if there were more budget cuts to higher education, the LSU Tigers might not play football next fall. Now that’s a serious threat here in the Gret Stet of Louisiana: No Leonard Fucking Fournette? Only time will tell if that helps, but the lege is loath to raise taxes on our 1%, which consists mostly of oil tycoons and people named Benson who own sports franchises. I have no idea what’s going to happen but it won’t be pretty. Neither was PBJ now that I think of it…

PBJ Spanked

This week’s theme song was, in part, inspired by the artist who painted the featured image. Walter Inglis Anderson was born in New Orleans but did much of his painting in nearby Ocean Springs, MS. Anderson was plagued with mental health issues and in 1965 rode out a hurricane with his own form of Splendid Isolation:

In 1965, months before his death, he rode through Hurricane Betsy on his beloved Horn Island, tethering his little skiff to his waist, climbing at night to the highest dune, wanting to feel the storm first hand. The water rose to his chest.

“Never has there been a more respectable hurricane,” he wrote, “provided with all the portents, predictions, omens, etc. The awful sunrise — no one could fail to take a warning from it — the hovering black spirit bird, the man of war, just one, comme il faut.”

Warren Zevon also lived life on the edge, but even the most extreme story told about him isn’t as wild as the tale of Walter Anderson and Hurricane Betsy. We grow our eccentrics larger than life here in New Orleans, y’all.

Splendid Isolation is one of my favorite WZ tunes; so much so that I’m posting three radically different versions. We begin with the piano driven studio version from the Tranverse City album:

Next up is a version with David Sanborn and the house band from the, uh, splendid but short-lived teevee show Night Music:

Finally, a live acoustic romp featuring Zevon’s fellow rock eccentric Neil Young:

Instead of putting tin foil on the windows like the character in the song, we’ll pull up our socks and muddle through after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Keep On Truckin’

Peter Adrastos Athas
DSC_2258
Image by R. Crumb.

It was a long week here in New Orleans. There was a six-alarm fire on Canal Street in a building owned by a slumlord/tourist trap tycoon who I call the Sam Walton of crap. It resulted in much fretting before the fire was extinguished because it’s located near three recently renovated architectural treasures: the Roosevelt Hotel, and the Orpheum and Saenger Theatres. Mercifully, they emerged unscathed from the smoke and flames, and no one was hurt in the blaze.

Carnival rolls on. One good thing about the early parade season is that there will be fewer college kids in town to get drunk, puke in the nearest gutter, and flash their naughty bits. It’s always a relief because locals don’t play that except for the drinking thing. It’s an all-ages event despite all the dicks in Krewe du Vieux.

R. Crumb week at First Draft continues. I posted his most famous image as this week’s featured picture. The keep on truckin’ dudes were Sixties icons even though their creator was neither a hippie nor cared for them. Bummer, man.

It’s always fun when there are two wildly different songs with the same title. That’s why we have two theme songs this week. They come from the same era, but from different genres. We begin with Temptations vocalist Eddie Kendricks with his biggest solo hit-you guessed it-Keep On Truckin’:

Now that I’ve posted something for the soul music fans, here’s one for the hippies and old-time music folks out there:

I suppose I *should* discuss the Summer of Love, but it’s not on this week’s agenda. You’ll have to make do with another song with Truckin’ in the title:

Guess I threw you a curve ball with the Dwight Yoakam version. Sounds more like a knuckleball to me. Just ask the Niekro brothers:

Brother- Niekro

We’ll keep on truckin’ after the break.

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Saturday Odds & Sods: Black Tie White Noise

Peter Adrastos Athas
Bowie-Is-sign-MCA
Photograph via Metrolingua.

It’s been a busy week in New Orleans. I’ve been hard at work helping with the Krewe of Spank’s theme, float, and throws. This year we’re having fake royals on our float and I’ve been the royalty wrangler. Krewe du Vieux floats are small so they’re customarily  riderless. We had to get approval from the Mother Krewe to have riders. It should be fun. Here’s hoping they don’t fall off the float. All hail King Pratfall.

In other Gret Stet news, Governor John Bel Edwards kept his most important campaign promise and brought medicaid expansion to Louisiana on his second day in office. The Feds gave us the same terms they gave states who entered the system when it first came down the pipeline. Let’s call it the Jindal mulligan.

David Bowie tribute week continues here at First Draft with the theme song. It’s the second Bowie tune to make the grade/cut or whatever the hell it is. My only complaint about all the Bowie tributes is that they tend to recycle all the biggies so I have gone in the opposite direction. It’s what I do. Black Tie White Noise is the title track of a 1993 album. It features the vocal stylings of Al B. Sure. We’ll kick things off with the promo video, followed by a live appearance on The Tonight Show, which means we have to see Jay Leno-jaw but you have to take the bitter with the sweet.

This week’s edition will be mercifully brief because I’ve got a lot of shit to do. I do, however, have time to post a White Tie tune in rebuttal to Bowie’s cravat noir:

I posted that clip because I think of Bowie as the Astaire of rock: long, lean, elegant, and a snappy dresser. More oddball comparisons and strange analogies after the break.

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Adrastos, Art, Carnival, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Guns, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Sports1 Comment

Saturday Odds & Sods: A Day In The Life

Peter Adrastos Athas
Man Ray
Noir et blanches by Man Ray.

I decided to post this famous 1926 image by the surrealist artist/photographer Man Ray because this week has been rather surreal. The dust from the New Orleans monuments flap hasn’t quite settled, but I expect it will take some time for General Lee to be toppled from his pedestal. Nothing in this town happens quickly or on time. There’s a phrase for that: NOLA time. It’s got something to do with the summer heat, people mosey around like they’ve got all the time in the world:

Adding to the surreal aura has been the weather. This El Nino weather is some weird shit, y’all. It’s muggy and warm one day, cold and windy the next. I wish the weather gods would make up their fucking minds. I can hear you saying: he’s on about the weather again. I plead guilty. When your life is torn upside down by a weather event, you get a bit obsessed. After all, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows; not even Jim Fucking Cantore. Actually, Cantore usually gets Jimmy Buffetted about by the wind when he’s on the job…

Equally surreal has been the fearmongering on the national scene after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. I never thought I’d write a sentence with those two city names in it. Until recently San Berdoo was, in Frank Zappa’s words, “where they take all the cars that get hurt.”

The Republican candidates have been dick waving, claiming that if they were the Oval One the terrorists would just surrender. Yeah, right. They ought to try that out on their pals at the NRA. Of course, they’re as afraid of the gun lobby as they want the rest of us to be of Daesh/ISIL.

Let’s move on to this week’s theme song. It’s one of the Beatles best known album tracks, A Day In The Life. It’s 90% Lennon but Macca contributed the “woke up, fell out of bed” bridge, which makes the song something of a marvel. I wish I had a Benjamin for every time I’ve picked up the morning paper, scanned the front page and sang, “I read the news today, oh boy.” It’s a lifelong earworm; there aren’t many of those.

We begin, of course, with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Billy Shears will be along directly:

Here’s a swell live version by Cheap Trick. Congrats on their election to the Jann Wenner Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which, apparently rocks. I’m still waiting for Yes and Jethro Tull to be inducted. But while we’re waiting, here are the swell fashion and vocal stylings of Robin Zander:

Finally, an instrumental interpretation of Lennon’s haunting melody by Sixties guitar god, Jeff Beck:

It’s a pity that Beck has no imagination when it comes to band names: the Jeff Beck Group may have been rough and ready but it’s a boring moniker. Here’s my suggestion:  Jeff Beck and the Bowl Haircuts. It’s an even better Moniker than Lewinsky…

On that discordant note, it’s time for the break. That reminds me of an old joke I liked when I was a young bloke. If someone said, “Gimme a break.” I’d say, “Arm or leg?” I thought that was droll when I was 15…

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Adrastos, Album Cover Art, Art, Music

Album Cover Art Wednesday: Introducing The Eleventh House

Peter Adrastos Athas

The Eleventh House with Larry Coryell were an early jazz-prog-rock fusion band. They were also one of the best because of guitarist Coryell, trumpeter Randy Brecker, and the funky drum stylings of Alphonse Mouzon. Their first LP also has a swell cover by surrealist artist, Jacques Wyrs: Here’s the LP in the YouTube playlist format:   Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Introducing The Eleventh House

Adrastos, Art, Books, Diary, Film, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Sports, Television2 Comments

Saturday Odds & Sods: Time The Avenger

Peter Adrastos Athas
Dali Persistence of memory
The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.

Fall has fallen as have the acorns. It’s my fall allergy season with the yellow stickiness of oak pollen augmenting the construction dust that is our lot in life in Uptown New Orleans. Getting around town is not unlike running a gauntlet. We not only have pop-up restaurants, we have pop-up construction. Advance planning is not a big deal here in the Big Easy.

In local sports, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. The Saints have been so bad that all the bandwagon hoppers and newbies are disoriented. They’re used to a winning team but these Saints have conjured up images of by-gone ineptitude, UNTIL upsetting the hated Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night. We call them the Dirty Birds and they got roasted. I’m skeptical that it’s a turning point in the season, but ya never know. That’s why they play the games.

My LSU Tigers continue to surprise. Most years Tiger fans have greater expectations than Pip but that was not the case in 2015. Holy pleasant surprise, Batman. It’s been a weird season thus far. We’ve had a home game cancelled because of lightning and a road game moved to Red Stick because of the great Palmetto State flood of 2015. We’re undefeated, largely because of my main man Leonard Fournette. A personage I respect so much that I have thus far declined to pun on his surname. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or depressed by my nearly unprecedented restraint.

This week’s theme song comes from the Pretenders album Learning To Crawl. I thought it was high time that I used one of Chrissie Hynde’s tunes. It’s also high time that I commented on the flap she got into with the social media outrage machine. She wasn’t making universal comments about rape, instead she was blaming herself for something that happened to her when she was young and dumb. Do I agree that women are to blame for getting raped? Hell to the no, but Chrissie has the right to discuss her own life in her own terms even if her views are unfashionable or even retrograde. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar or a pipe is just a pipe. Unless, that is, you’re Rene Magritte:

La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe). 1929. Oil on canvas, Overall: 25 3/8 x 37 in. (64.45 x 93.98 cm). Unframed canvas: 23 11/16 x 31 7/7 inches, 1 1/2 inches deep, 39 5/8 inches diagonal. Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7).
The Treachery of Images by Rene Magritte.

To quote this week’s theme song, “Nobody’s perfect, not even a perfect stranger.”

Since time may or may not be on my side, it’s time for another musical interlude followed by the break:

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Adrastos, Art, Diary, Elections, Film, Fog Of History, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Religion, So Called Liberal Media, Television2 Comments

Saturday Odds & Sods: Wrecking Ball

Peter Adrastos Athas
Swing Landscape- Stuart Davis
Swing Landscape- Stuart Davis (1938) via IUB.EDU.

I’m not feeling particularly destructive this week but the heat is getting to me. We’re on target to break a record that nobody wants to break: consecutive days of highs of 90+ degrees. We’re at 48 days and counting and the record is 51. I’m just trying to stay cool, which is why I posted Stuart Davis’ Swing Landscape. Ain’t nothing cooler than that, y’all.

In other local news, some knucklehead tried to move a house in Uptown New Orleans and it  got stuck for several days on General Pershing Street between Camp and Magazine, which is not far from Adrastos World HQ.

Photo by Jennifer K. Lloyd.
Photo by Jennifer K. Lloyd.

It’s half a shotgun house sliced lengthwise, which was being moved to another lot where it was to rejoin its woody mate, replacing a circa 1970’s house. I believe the other house was demolished, which brings us to this week’s theme song. Make that theme songs, 3 different tunes with the same title: Wrecking Ball. We begin with a Wrecking Ball written by Neil Young and recorded by Emmylou Harris as the title track of an atmospheric album she made with producer Daniel Lanois in 1995:

Our second song reflects another theme this week, Wrecking Ball as album title. This more political song was written and recorded by some guy from Jersey:

Our final Wrecking Ball is wielded by Joe Walsh. It comes from Joe’s fine 2012 album, Analog Man, which was co-produced by Jeff Lynne. I guess that’s why it sounds like the James Gang meets ELO:

Please follow the bouncing wrecking ball after the break.

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Adrastos, Album Cover Art, Art, Music

Album Cover Art Wednesday: Disraeli Gears

Peter Adrastos Athas

Cream were (was?) like a meteor that flashed across the musical sky for a short time but still made a substantial impact. They were one of the first jam bands and were, arguably, pioneers of heavy metal. Their music was particularly interesting because Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were non-rock musicians bringing their skills to rock and roll. The band lasted for only 2+years because of the extreme tension between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. The latter is a great musician and a horrible human being prone to outbursts of invective accompanied by violence.

Disraeli Gears was recorded in New York City under the watchful eye of Atlantic Records honcho Ahmet Ertegun. It was Cream’s commercial break through as well as an artistic triumph. What’s not to love about an LP that incorporates the name of one of my favorite British Prime Ministers? The story of how it came to be is a good one. Here’s Mad Ginger’s take on it:

“You know how the title came about – Disraeli Gears – yeah? We had this Austin Westminster, and Mick Turner was one of the roadies who’d been with me a long time, and he was driving along and Eric (Clapton) was talking about getting a racing bicycle. Mick, driving, went ‘Oh yeah – Disraeli gears!’ meaning derailleur gears… We all just fell over… We said that’s got to be the album title.”

The album cover was painted and designed by Martin Sharp who also wrote the lyrics for Tales of Brave Ulysses.

Disraeli Gears Front

More on Disraeli Gears after the break.

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Adrastos, Art, Books, Diary, Fog Of History, Law/Justice, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Race, So Called Liberal Media, Television2 Comments

Saturday Odds & Sods: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

Peter Adrastos Athas
Sideshow banner by Fred G. Johnson.
Sideshow banner by Fred G. Johnson.

Summertime, when the living is sweaty. The NOLA heatwave continues and I’m not hearing much from those folks who claim they can live here without air-conditioning like in the good old days. The local good old days contingent is busy freaking out about the debate over Confederate monuments. They’re acting as if the plan is to replace Lee with Spoons Butler. I’m inclined to think that their brains are baked from overexposure to the blazing sun. In any event, the Lee statue’s life expectancy is even shorter than that of a pre-AC New Orleanian, which was 10 years below the national average. The heat goes on and so do I.

This week’s theme song comes from the fertile (febrile?) minds of David Byrne and Talking Heads at their peak. The refrain “take a look at these hands” embedded itself in my consciousness from the instant I first heard Remain In Light. The heat goes on and so do I is the refrain for this week’s post. I’m feeling a bit surrealistic so I should just say hello Dali and get on with the theme song already:

Guess I was born under punches myself or am I just punchy? We’ll try and figure that out after the break. Now where did I put my Surrealistic Pillow?

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