My kids have asked for 2 songs by name: me & Patton. Not bad.

Had an odd experience tonight. I took the guitar into the boys’ room as they were going to sleep and they asked for it. They have named one of my songs. I never talked about it or made any kind of deal about it, but it’s probably the best thing I’ve written and I’ll play it along with a dozen other things here and there.

I was amazed that they (a) knew it and (b) named it even and (c) asked for it. And when I played it, they got real quiet and relaxed and they just listened to it, and you have to realize that they had been cutting up just prior to that.

In fact, the other odd thing is that when I play the chords to Charley Patton’s Shake it and Break it, they both just crack up! It’s an F, C7 and C-something, I don’t even know the name of it. (the GBE strings across the 3rd fret–what chord is that? An exotic C-something I think). Anyway, if I play those chords, they laugh. Every time. It is really odd to see the effect that music has on a person who has almost no cultural pollution yet, because they are too young and don’t watch TV. It’s more powerful than you think, is the point I guess I learned. Reminds me of Angie Fenimore’s description of music and the good and bad that it can do; the vibrations themselves, she said, are composed of light and dark and can affect people deeply. Her book is “Beyond the Darkness”, where this is discussed and it’s an amazing book.

Prior to this, the only song the boys knew was “The Prayer of Death”, by Charlie Patton. If I have my steel guitar tuned to open A or open G, I can play the opening riff to that and sound just like Charlie and they love it and my wife rolls her eyes when they happily ask for daddy to play, “The Prayer of Death”. “It’s an old Protestant hymn”, I tell her, “what could be wrong with that?”

Anyway, my kids have only ever asked for two songs: Me and Patton. I play a letter perfect version of The Beatles’ Blackbird, and no, they’ve never asked for that. I used to call my song Feb 1998, because that’s when I thought it up and recorded it and thought, “wow”. It’s hard to put names on instrumentals. I will use the kids’ name from now on.
***
Reading a great book now called The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy.

It makes me wish like heck that I’d taken more math and especially more statistics. I was intimidated by it in school but I find it really interesting now. I think the trick is to find more real-world applications to the material instead of just pure abstract math. I honestly would consider, if I had the time, taking some math classes as a hobby. You know, just for pure enjoyment with no pressure for grades or anything. Someday.

I’ve been thinking about math since we are trying to teach basic math to the 4 yr old. How does he learn? What’s his capacity? How do you make it fun? Make it concrete and not abstract memorization? He has amazed us with his reading at 3 years old (my wife’s doing) and recently, we found some flashcards and he memorized all the presidents in about 3 or 4 days and the states.

He and his brother know all the states by shape and name. We had a game where I draw the outlines and they guess and they are good. Then we did a deal where I would bite the outline of a state into my pumpernickle toast and the first time I did that, he said “Delaware”, before I had ripped off the last chunk. The rate of uptake is flabbergasting. Photographic memory for visual and verbal at times. You really have to watch what you say.

You’ll hear a phrase come out of his mouth and wonder where he got that? Then, you’ll remember that you said those exact words 2 days before. Yikes.

Milt Hinton

Milt Hinton website

According to a search of The Jazz Discography, Hinton is the most-recorded jazz musician of all time, having appeared on 1,174 recording sessions.

Thought of Hinton while watching a Cab Calloway piece last night. Hinton played for his band in the mid to late 30′s. He was an amazing bass player and then later on became a good photographer. He was good friends with Armstrong. He knew and was respected and liked by all the greats. A fellow I work with knew him a bit before he changed worlds and said he was great. Milt Hinton. Fump-fump. The Judge. Far out.

Thinking about Calloway reminded me that I almost saw him in the 80′s when he was quite old and that I really wish I had bothered. He was very unique. You see footage of the old Minnie the Moocher stuff and you just think what it must have been to see his band in its prime at the Cotton Club or in the 30′s anyway. There was no other remotely like him. And, apparently, Hinton’s playing was integral to the timing and thus, sound of that Cab’s big band.

Eliable

Before I do the post, let me say the superbowl was amazing. Eli Manning just doesn’t look like some intense football toughguy, but he has become pretty much immortal tonight. My goodness. I did not believe. I still don’t.

And the refs took 2 drives away from the Giants! The holding call was a joke and the non-call of pass-interference was also really dodgy. If the Giants lost, it would have been tough to swallow with those 2 calls, especially the hold.

***

Click here to hear Lie for a Lie by Nick Mason and Rick Fenn with Dave Gilmour on vocals

Onto the post. Music. Floyd. I have posted a link to a song that might as well be a Floyd song. It’s Nick Mason’s 1985 solo album with Gilmour singing. It’s a nice tune. I bought that album on cassette, I recall (no, not 8-track) after freshman year of college. It reminds me so much of that summer. I recall many, many Mets games with my gf at the time and the 1985 Mets, my favorite year, chasing and catching and chasing and catching the Cardinals and then finally, after the Strawberry homer off the clock in St. Louis, succumbing.

I recall having a big exam and having to study the night of the game and when I was walking back from the library wondering if the Mets won, I heard the whole KA house go nuts and at that moment, I knew the Mets had won–I just didn’t know how. Later I found out about Straw’s homer off the clock. When my wife and I went to St. Louis for a game at old Busch, the first thing I wanted to see was “the clock”. She thought (and still does) I was nuts. Women: They don’t get this stuff.

So, to me, this album was great, but I don’t think a lot of them sold. So I’m pointing out that it’s decent, as are Dave Gilmour’s solo albums. He has such a great, ethereal, yet male, voice. I don’t get Roger Water’s act. I think he’s angry and negative and I just don’t dig it. I heard that they are going to stage the old Wall show in Yankee stadium and I’m sure a lot of folks will go and enjoy it but I won’t be one of them.

Why? Well, this is funny, but one of my good friends at work is a pro-bassist and we talk about music all the time. We talk Armstrong and Charlie Patton and Cab Calloway and Coltrane and Floyd and The Beatles and Eartha Kitt and you just name it. He plays a lot of gigs still and I said the other day that there really wasn’t ANY act that I would pay to go see. I just don’t have ANY interest, at my age, of seeing someone play music. I just don’t. The last musical things I saw were the German Singer Bund (took my aunt), Harry Connick Jr. (several times) and before that maybe Plant-Page in 1994 or Blue Oyster Cult at a club once or twice (I love those guys). But I just don’t want to do it. And really only Connick could get me out of the house now but it would have to be with the BIG BAND–full blown.

And now I realize that next week, I’m taking my mom to see Uncle Floyd, which is technically a musical act, so I guess I’m full of it.

Other notes, I recently found out that my grandfather (mother’s dad) used to sit in on drums at the famous Riviera nightclub on the palisades in Fort Lee, NJ. I just bought the book on the subject that just came out. My grandfather never really talked much, so he didn’t say anything, but this was a big place to play. It featured all the top talent from Manhattan and had the gangsters and the secret gambling room “upstairs” as well–you could only reach that room by a secret stairway in the janitor’s closet.

It was kind of odd to hear this old timey bit of family history. You know, you usually hear “good” family stories about 20 times too many and here’s one, no one knew about!~

Some Creedence for Page

Just ordered the complete Creedence Clearwater Revival boxed set on amazon containing every note they ever put on vinyl as well as some outtakes which are always fun. Fogerty is unique and the playing is great for the sculpting work–long jams that get you in a groove and keep you there. So it’s basically a business expense. It’s amazing how quickly you blow through 11 gigs of music on an MP3 player while sitting/crouching/kneeling/standing around with the tools and wood. So much so that I’ll even take a flyer on some Edith Piaf. Anything.

And musically, I don’t much care anymore about the music that I used to get all worked up about in my youth. In fact, the one overwhelming thought whenever I listen to, or think about the music that I listened too (mostly classic rock, the usual), is embarrassment. Because we took this stuff so seriously and it is SUCH A JOKE! These guys had really very little talent and we just worshipped them all out of proportion with what it was. I see it all from my dad’s perspective now. Dad, you were right. They were a bunch of overpaid bums.

That’s not to say that I still won’t appreciate some artistry from time to time, but for the most part, it’s not worth talking about. Take Jimmy Page for instance. I was listening to the new Zeppelin channel on XM coming into work today and they were playing the live Dazed and Confused and they get to that part where Page plays the electric guitar with a violin bow (cue Spinal Tap). I almost drove off the road laughing and I was laughing at how reverently we kids talked about this act. How much esteem we held this in. It was like Page was Jesus for banging a bow on a guitar and making just the most rudimentary amplified noisy sounds! hahaha! He’s a real Joshua Haifitz, isn’t he? hahaha. What a rocket scientist there. Actually, it was brilliant, just not musically, but rather it was brilliant in the same way that P.T. Barnum was brilliant in that he hoodwinked a generation of some pretty smart people into thinking this was “cool”. I bought in. Now I laugh.

But Page is special musically in some ways still. I laugh at his sloppy play and just horrible technique; particularly live. You can listen to the drugs take his playing as the years go by. It starts out decent and steadily declines all the way from 1970 to 1980, when he was so cooked that he wouldn’t have won a high school talent show (Knebworth). But Page was a great producer of records and he got some great sounds like the tube miking for Houses of the Holy and In My Time of Dying. Good production, sloppy play. But the sloppy play is forgivable because most don’t listen close enough to really hear it anyway and it certainly didn’t hurt their sales.

There is a phrase in the song, In My Time of Dying where Plant is singing in silence, “Oh My Jesus, Oh My Jesus, Oh My Jesus, Oh My Jesus,” several times. On the “Oh”, start counting. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 etc. Page comes in with the slide on a 3, and I’ve always thought that where he comes in is TOTALLY unexpected, but perfectly brilliant, if such a thing can be. The timing is exquisite. I would never think to DO that, if it were me. And I find that while listening to Page, you follow along and mentally try and anticipate what note should follow and he’s always going to a note that (a) I wouldn’t think to (b) is very pleasing.

So I look at it this way. If you broke everyone’s guitar solos/riffs into one-note-at-a-time, and graded them for each note selected in “pleasingness” to the general public, Page’s batting average would be Ty Cobb high. He just “gets it” and selects the best note most of the time or certainly a high percentage of the time. There’s a reason everybody liked, and still likes, those Zep tunes. You want to say he’s brilliant? Ok, fine, whatever. But leave the bow out of it.

Reading a tremendous book on Kid Delicious called Running the Table. What a great book! You hate to finish it because you just don’t want it to end. It’s interesting reading for me also because of the statue I’m doing. I find a lot of the stuff Delicious deals with or experiences to be similar–very, very, eerily similar, but of course on a much smaller scale. The maniacal aspect of it and the highs and lows of self esteem and mood swings, tied directly to how it’s going. Getting in the zone when time becomes elastic and you just feel like superman for a while. Then also the times where it all seems so elusive and pointless. A very good book. I hope they don’t scroogie up the movie (they will). Kid Delicious should play himself!

Click here to launch Kid Delicious’ site in a new window

Delicious’ Road Partner is a pretty fair painter.  I like the style and I am tough

Beatles on Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, Joe Garagiola

There was a post recently and someone asked about the Beatles Lennon/McCartney appearance on The Tonight Show while Joe Garagiola was the guest host. I have never seen the bit and would guess that it doesn’t exist or it would have turned up somehow, somewhere. I seem to recall that much of the early Carson 1960′s era shows were not saved. That stuff always amazed me but I guess it was considered too expensive. You can buy every show Jack Benny ever did from 1938 to 1960 on ebay for about 10 dollars. Go figure.

But this had come up and I wrote the original post from memory and the memory was reading a book by Craig Tennis called “Johnny Tonight”, published in 1980. I was at my parent’s house last night and I found the book in a desk and opened it right to the Beatles page. Weird. So since I was photographing old family photo albums to digitize the shots, I took shots of the story from Tennis’ book. His words:

 

 

Louis Armstrong: Great. Posada? Lucky.

This is an interesting thread from Bugs and Cranks that I happen to agree with: Jorge Posada’s batting average on balls in play (or BABIP) in the last three years has been .312, .294., and .302. This year? .406. This stat says that basically, he’s lucky right now.

Is he exhibiting better plate discipline? No, his walk to strikeout ratio, 0.63, is in line with his career average, 0.66. Is he hitting more flyballs? No, his groundball to flyball ratio, 1.21, is a tick off his career average (1.20). So what IS he doing differently? Nothing. Balls are falling in freakishly more often this year than in the past.

Prediction: Posada’s average comes down with a vengeance. Now we’re deep into the year so it would be hard to offset all the early going, so he’ll have himself a great year for a 36 year old catcher with a career .275 average. And, of course, he hit .675 with 3 HR’s and a clutch of 2B’s to destroy my fantasy team this week, so he’s got that going for him.

***

Click the photo to open a new window to JSP records and order the 4 cd boxed set.

TO ORDER FROM THE JSP CATALOG, SIMPLY SEND PAYMENT TO – JSP RECORDS P O BOX 1584 LONDON N3 3NW ENGLAND PRICES:ALL BOX SETS £20 OR $30 inclusive postage. PAYMENT SHOULD BE BY CHECK OR INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDER. ANY QUERIES, PLEASE CONTACT john@jsprecords.com

I didn’t do a real good job on the Louis Armstrong Hot Five post because I was hot and tired. Luis Castillo left the game at Wrigley Field in Chicago yesterday with “heat exhaustion”? Pulease, Looey, come on up in my attic and see how you like the heat. In fact, yesterday, with the fuse pulled so I could rewire things, the attic fan was out of action and it was inhuman up there.

I’ve been listening to the Hot Five recordings for many years. They are amazing. They are genius. A group of artists, absolutely peaking. It’s brilliancy on top of brilliancy and if you know the history at all, you know that like most genius stuff, at the time it came out, NO ONE else was doing anything of the sort and after it came out EVERYONE else was trying to catch up–and most couldn’t touch it.  Armstrong was 24 when the Hot Five sessions began.

In The Arts or Sports (also an art), there are a few eye-popping, legendary performances that live on and on. Ruth’s called shot in the 1932 World Series. Williams’ .406 season. The first 4 minute mile. And so on. Most of these things are now word-of-mouth, hearsay, so it’s hard to put yourself right there and understand maybe WHY those things are so special.

But with the Hot Five recordings, you can listen to them all, end to end, over and over. You can hear a guy who is so beyond his peers that it’s a joke. In this case, the hardest thing to imagine is the context of all the other music that came out around the same time. It’s hard to find any of that because it’s long ago just hopelessly dated and virtually unlistenable to modern tastes. You would have to hunt for it. It’s gone. But Louis work is still very much available and very listenable even today. And that is probably the truest test of a real subjective thing, which is, music, and which music is “good” or “great”.

People throw around that term too loosely for it to have any meaning anymore. A lot of words got written since Shakespeare’s time but very few of them are still being read. I would think that very little of the music that the Baby Boomers grew up listening to will be found in 80 years time anywhere other than the Library of Congress archives. Perhaps the Beatles will, but not all of their stuff by any means. The Rolling Stones? The Who? Led Zeppelin? Probably all their stuff will be 100% forgotten and dead by that time. You get my point. But in another 80 years time, in 2087, there will STILL be folks listening to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and it will still be as amazing as it was in 1926.

Louis Armstrong, Hot Five

I was doing a long home improvement project today (well, the last few days)  in an impossibly hot attic and I stumbled on a radio show on 88.9 FM in New York.  It was 31 straight hours of Louis Armstrong in honor of his true birthday and it was AMAZING!  The guy handling most of the mike work was a walking encyclopedia of Armstrong and Jazz knowledge.  I tuned in while they were keying on the Hot Five and Sevens.  I learned that it’s a misnomer and most of what we think of is the quintet and they really only did a few septet and sextet recordings.  It made the project a lot easier to do and I actually bagged baseball and the Mets game and the dopey Yankees rout of poor old KC.

Speaking of the Yankee game: What’s with the breathless countdown to 500 homers for a healthy 32 year old?  That’s like standing outside McDonalds and waiting for the sign to change.  Historic?  Don’t make me laugh.  And don’t compare this guy to Jimmy Foxx, either.  Foxx was the youngest to 500 before this guy.  If I were choosing up sides in a game for my life and I could choose anyone, Foxx would be a starter.  This guy Rodriguez would have to buy a ticket.  Foxx would kill people today if he was hitting this rabbit ball in these bandboxes.

And if I was managing a game for my life, who would I pick?  Hmm…let’s see.  Off the top of my head:

Grover Cleveland Alexander RHP, Bob Feller RHP, Bob Gibson RHP, Grove LHP, Plank LHP

OF Ruth, Mays, Williams

1B Bill Terry 

2B Hornsby/Frisch

3B Foxx (played 1B, 3B, C, OF and P)

SS Jeter

C Bench 

Subs: Stan Musial, Ty Cobb 

They Can’t ALL Be Tommy Lee

Most rockers are knuckleheads.  You know, the guys who were out smoking when the rest of us were in class.  And some of them hit the rock “lottery” and become wildly rich and usually, they destroy their lives with it (See: Behind the Music). 

But occasionally there are bright bulbs who would have made it in any endeavor that they pursued.  You get the impression that Brian May of the old band Queen, was one of them.  Have a look: Click here to read about May’s doctoral thesis 

Thanks Ed, for the tip.  –fog

Cash Plays LaMaze

Mrs. Pinetar and I finished the LaMaze classes last night.  Near the end, the teacher spoke of when the baby’s head is crowning and stuff is stretching and she said that, “Midwives, might call this ‘the ring of fire’ but that’s not a medical term…”

And that was it.  For the rest of the night, all I could hear were the Spanish trumpets: pah-pah, pah, pah-pah-pah–paaah …..puh-puh, puh, puh-puh-puh–puuuuh…

And then Johnny Cash of course: “I fell in to a burning ring of fire….I went down,down,down….and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns…the ring of fire….the ring of fire.”

All night.

No exceptions.

And on the way home.

I don’t believe any song ever written can get into your head and STAY there, like the Ring of Fire.  And now you’re all hearing it.  Hearing the trumpets.  And  humming it.  Good luck.  –fog

AP picks up story from The Pinetar Rag

The Pinetar Rag has shaken the world media industry. Ok, here’s how it went: My wife’s cousin, married a guy who happens to be Japanese. They moved to Japan after living in the USA for over 10 years. My wife’s cousin works for the AP in Japan. Recently, I became fascinated by this new Pepsi Cucumber softdrink. I asked Mrs. Pinetar to ask her cousin if they had it in the stores in Japan where it is being marketed. Here is that section of my wife’s email to her couz: “[Foggy] saw Pepsi iced Cucumber soda on the internet but it is only available in Japan. He wanted to know if you ever had any and what did it taste like? Is it big there? Don’t worry if you don’t know, I just needed to ask.“

So today, she gets the reply:

Hello,

I’m glad to hear you’re feeling good. I thought you’d get a kick out of this- I was telling my co-workers about the cumber pepsi and our writing staff decided to do a small story on it. I’ve attached a copy of our picture that went with it:

 
TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with “Pepsi Ice Cucumber” _ a new soda based on the crisp green gourd.
¶ The soft drink, which hit stores here on Tuesday, doesn’t actually have any cucumber in it _ but has been artificially flavored to resemble “the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber,” said Aya Takemoto, spokeswoman of Japan’s Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd.
¶ “We wanted a flavor that makes people think of keeping cool in the summer heat,” Takemoto said. “We thought the cucumber was just perfect.”
¶ The mint-colored soda is on sale just for the summer and only in Japan, Takemoto said. She said initial sales were brisk, and Suntory aims to sell 200,000 cases over the next three months.
¶ Pepsi trails behind industry leaders Coca Cola (Japan) Company, with about 15 percent of the Japanese cola market, and also faces stiff competition from non-fizzy bottled drinks like green tea and coffee, which are popular here.
¶ Suntory said it sold 20.5 million cases of Pepsi brand drinks in 2006, including its popular Pepsi NEX zero-calorie soda.

 

So you can tell [Foggy] he officially led to the tip on our story. Things are good on this end. I’m gonig to bring a ton of pictures on stuff we’ve done since we’ve been here so you’ll get to see all our crazy wedding pics and some cute ones of Mimi also.

I can’t wait to see everyone

**********

We are movers and shakers here at The PineTar Rag. Cutting edge.

***

In other news, this morning in Franklin Lakes, NJ, my parents were awakened to a Bear in their garden. The bear was rooting through dad’s strawberries. He got tangled in the net and got freaked out and walked away. My dad said the bear was limping. And as always, there was obligitory: “…well, you could aways gut-shoot him, and he would go off and die somewhere else…”

***

Pool with Ciro saw my first ever “defeat” in Rotation. It’s in quotes. First of all, I was completely exhausted and my knee was killing me. But that was ok. Then, in game one, I got 60 and Ciro made the last ball and also made 60, so he won on the 2nd-guy-to-60-rule-in-Rotation. Phooey. I thought that 60 to 60 ties were rare but apparently not. Maybe I should buy lotto tickets.

In the second game, Ciro cheated. He had a shot where the 1 ball was partially eclipsed by a pocket-hanging 3 ball. I went over and stood over it and said, “…I’m reffing this one, you better hit the 1 first…”, to discourage him from doing what I knew he would do–pocket the 3 and claim that the 1 was first contact. He did exactly as I expected and 4 balls total fell on that shot. I objected, saying that he hit the 3 first (he did) and he was not going to admit to it. It wasn’t an accident. I take it as a compliment and figure if he wants to beat me that bad, then fine.

I also use these little events to galvanize my concentration and try to spank him. And it usually works great only this time, I guess I was tired and the balls were not falling, so he won. I was quiet after that shot for the rest of the night and left early so I think he “gets” it but that doesn’t stop him. All will be forgotten but I owe him one baaaad night on the table. I’m laying in the tall weeds for him. Next time. And I guess the softball game was part of it. And I guess my taunting him all night about the softball and looking out the window and saying, “…isn’t that your wife?” every couple minutes didn’t help.

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Yankee fans are all out of breath that they wooped up on the Pirates. I think ARod and Giambi combined make more than the Pirates whole squad. Oh boy.

***
On one of my favorite blogs (deadspin? thebiglead?) they had a great story of the one year anniversary of Ben Rothilsberger’s motorcycle accident. Did you know that Steeler fans actually COOKED OUT outside the hospital when he was having his operation? My goodness, only in America. –fog