Mi permetto ancora un’incursione “in the other side” della San Francisco  psichedelica.

Ho trovato su You Tube (una vera miniera!) questa bellissima performance in acustico del 1970 di Jorma Kaukonen e Jack Casady (chitarra e basso dei Jefferson Airplane, per chi non si ricordasse), coeva all’esordio discografico del gruppo riunito sotto il nome di Hot Tuna.

Godetevelo!

I due sono ancora on the road e sono spesso anche nel nostro patrio suolo. Per maggiori info.. http://www.hottuna.com/

Dead’n'Tuna Freaks Unite!

The Coen Brothers have been entertaining audiences with their off-beat filmmaking techniques for many years now.  In “A Serious Man,” their artistry shines bright as they lead you through a miserable string of luck in the life of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg).  It is easy to get lost in their style while they present these events that are undeniably captivating.  Knowing that they are Oscar-winning directors and screenwriters lends a sense of confidence that they know what they are doing.  But when the dust settles and the film cuts to black, I couldn’t help but sigh, “Huh?” with a great deal of dissatisfaction.

As I walked out of the theater, the worst feeling was looming over me – not only did I not know what the filmmakers wanted me to take from the movie, I had absolutely no idea what I had just watched other than a life being ripped apart at the seams.  This is tough for anyone to feel, but I am a critic of sorts.  I couldn’t help trembling at what my readers would think if I couldn’t understand it.  ”What a philistine, that Marshall, can’t even appreciate simple art,” I thought you might say.

But I’m going to imagine this as “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” because I used lifelines so I could report to you something other than my confusion.  With the help of Google and a friend’s mother, I was able to decode some of the movie.

“A Serious Man” is, in essence, a study in decomposition.  The object rotting is Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor in Minnesota, who seems to be an upright man when we first meet him.  He hasn’t wronged anyone.  He has stayed true to his faith, raised a decent family, and earned the esteem of his peers where he teaches.  But for some reason, he becomes proof of Murphy’s Law that states: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”  Problems sprout in his marriage, with his children, with his brother, with his neighbors, and at his job.  These troubles in turn drive him fiscally and spiritually bankrupt.  So what do the Coen Brothers want us to learn from watching one man go through hell?

They leave us two clues.  One lies in a religious text, the other in a ’60s pop song.

1. The story of Job. In both the Torah and the Christian Bible, Job is a god-fearing man.  All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, bad things just start happening to him.  According to a friend’s mom, it is about questioning your faith in God while knowing that he is there and accepting that stuff happens.  The main question it hopes to raises is why bad things happen to good people.  Ultimately, Job’s toil is rewarded with blessings by God, restoring what he had lost twofold.
2. Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love”.  In the movie, the song is featured prominently in various places, played at the beginning and the end of the main narrative.  The lyrics say:

When the truth is found to be lies,
And all the joy within you dies,
Don’t you want somebody to love,
Don’t you need somebody to love,
Wouldn’t you love somebody to love,
You’d better find somebody to love.

Both can clearly relate to Larry’s predicament, but the overall message is still somewhat nebulous.  Do the Coens want us to believe that God is an uncaring figure who will not only let bad things happen to good people but also scorn those who ask with sincerity for Him to wrap His loving arms around them?  The brothers were raised Jewish but admit to not being terribly devout, so this doesn’t seem to be too improbable of a conclusion.  But I think the most likely explanation is that there isn’t one.  The Coen Brothers’ intelligence has earned them the privilege to do a lot of things, but they have the common sense to know that they cannot put words in God’s mouth.  By simply raising the question, they give us the answer: there really isn’t one.  They don’t tell us what we should do to keep bad things from happening, but they do show us how we can bring them on ourselves.

So with a little reflection, “A Serious Man” has turned from an unrewarding enigma to a perplexing rumination on a question that has baffled mankind for millennia.  Aesthetically and morally, it is one of the Coens’ finest.  Content wise, it is not.  Larry is the only character they really nail; all others just seem strangely out of place and undeveloped.  However, it does succeed in getting you to really think about what is outside the frame and puzzle out your own beliefs.  As a filmmaker, what could be better than that?  B- /

   Je n’ai aucune idée de comment (re)commencer mon blog.

   Je devrais me présenter mais je n’arrive jamais à faire court. Je m’appelle Ced, je suis né en 1990 mais j’aurais dû naître à la fin des années 50 et grandir quelques part au Etats-Unis ou en Angleterre pendant les 60’s et les 70’s. Il y a pas si longtemps encore je rêvais d’être à l’image des héros tels que Kurt, Jim, Janis, Ian, Jimi, Sid… J’aime la musique plus que tout, Nirvana, the Doors, David Bowie, the Clash, the Rolling Stones, Joy Division, Lou Reed, Janis Joplin, the Sex Pistols, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, etc, etc. J’écoute à peu prêt tous les styles de musiques, bref vous aurez l’occasion de voir ça tout au long de mon blog.

SPACE ODDITY - David Bowie

   A part la musique j’aime beaucoup le cinéma, (les séries), l’art, voyager, etc… J’aime glander et j’aime par dessus tout avoir “la flemme de…”. J’aime la solitude et j’ai souvent besoin de me sentir seul. J’aime jouer de la batterie. J’aime les lives, les festivals et leurs ambiance.  Je suis fasciné par ce qui touche à l’univers. Je rêve d’aller vivre à Londres quelques temps, d’aller voir les temples Maya au Mexique et de faire le tour du monde. Et enfin je suis le genre personne capable de débarquer dans son lycée pour massacrer tout le monde avec un fusil à pompe. Bon j’estime que c’est tout ce qu’il y à a savoir sur moi, hin, hin. Bon aller je vous laisse avec du Surf Rock  et une video de Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

MARIACHI’S FEVER - Hawaii Samurai

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

THE BYRDS – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star / Everybody’s Been Burned (Columbia 43987 1967)
They had a bit of a nerve poking fun at the Monkees when just a couple of years earlier only McGuinn played on their own debut single. Still it’s a fun piece of satire. The flip is one of the best things the Byrds ever did, a dark but hopeful Crosby ballad.

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE – Soldier Blue / Moratorium (RCA 2081 1971)
Ralph Nelson’s 1970 western Soldier Blue was unlike any other before it. Shockingly violent and, for once, the good guys were definitely not the US Cavalry. Based on a true massacre that happened in 1864, it was also as much about Mai Lai and the Vietnam War. Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree herself, invested the song with both anger and bitter sorrow and yet it is just as much a celebration of the natural wonders of a country and her own ancestry.

DUKE ELLINGTON & HIS ORCHESTRA – Solitude / Mood Indigo (Columbia 35427 1940)
Ivie Anderson is one of the most underrated jazz vocalists, and she shines on these two Ellington ballads, both of which have become standards crooned by virtually every nightclub and torch singer since.

PETER GABRIEL – Solsbury Hill / Moribund the Burgemeister (Charisma 301 1977)
Fresh out of Genesis, Peter Gabriel launched his solo career with this, still one of his most poignant songs. Solsbury Hill itself overlooks Bath in Somerset, and the song captures that very special pleasure of sitting somewhere still and peaceful and watching the lights and bustle of the city night below.

JESUS & MARY CHAIN – Some Candy Talking / Psychocandy / Hit (Blanco Y Negro 19 1986)
By 1986 the screech of feedback had largely been excised from the Mary Chain’s records, replaced by cavernous echo. With it went a lot of the vigour and excitement, but that didn’t matter so much on songs as good as this, with its booming Spectorish sound.

LEE HAZLEWOOD & NANCY SINATRA – Some Velvet Morning / Oh Lonesome Me (Reprise 651 1968)
How trippy is this? Essentially it sounds like a verse taken from two completely different songs intercut. Hazlewood’s bit is dark and rumbling like Johnny Cash meets Link Wray while Sinatra’s is hippy-dippy flower child stuff, well away with the faeries. It’s like a cocktail of quaaludes and acid.

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – Somebody to Love / She Has Funny Cars (RCA 9140 1967)
When Grace Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane she brought this song along from her previous band the Great Society, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick. The Airplane version is tighter and punchier with a chorus so strident it’s almost accusatory.

EDDIE COCHRAN – Somethin’ Else / Boll Weevil Song (Liberty 55203 1959)
STANDELLS – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White / Why Don’t You Hurt Me? (Tower 257 1966)
By 1959, most of the first generation rock and rollers seemed to be mired in gloopy ballads and sounding little different to the pre-rock generation of singers like Johhny Ray and Frankie Vaughan. Eddie Cochran, on the other hand, still had a raw spirit about him: still sounded like someone a teenaged girl would think twice about introducing to her mother. That’s why he was so popular with the punks nearly two decades later, along with his friend Gene Vincent. The Standells, too, had that snotty fuck you attitude. But as they say in the song “You think those guys in the white collars are better than I am baby? / Then flake off!” True blue-collar working class pride…from a bunch of LA rich kids. Oh, well.

BLUR – Song 2 / Get out of the Cities (Food 93 1997)
The indignation this caused from my Pavement loving underground rock friends always made me laugh. It’s noisy and fun. What’s not to like?

LEFTFIELD – Song of Life / mixes (Hard Hands 002 1992)
A nine minute progressive house monster that pretty much defined the genre and still stands as one of the best tracks of its kind.

THIS MORTAL COIL – Song to the Siren / 16 Days (4AD 310 1983)
Originally This Mortal Coil were convened as a one-off project for this single, but its success was such that they ran to three albums, each with a constantly changing cast of performers. Liz Fraser hadn’t really tackled a proper lyrical song before, her voice more used as another instrument in the Cocteau Twins. But she gives Tim Buckley’s classic song a ghostly innocence that is absolutely captivating. The backing is so subtle that she’s almost on her own, but there’s no sign of nerves – she’s absolutely lost in the song. An amazing performance.

JOSEF K – Sorry For Laughing / Revelation (Postcard 814 1981)
Famously a band who seemed happier the flatter their records sounded; a band who scrapped their first album because it sounded too warm and produced and instead put out something tinny and stark. Paul Haig’s bored drone of a voice isn’t the most appealing instrument, but it gives this song a dry sarcasm. And it’s pretty much the touchstone record for the C86 generation.

LAVERN BAKER – Soul on Fire / How Can You Leave (Atlantic 1004 1953)
She’s better known for appealing, but ultimately disposable pop ditties like “Tweedle Dee” and “Jim Dandy”, but Lavern Baker was happiest singing the blues. If anything, though, “Soul on Fire” is deep southern soul a decade too early.

DAVID BOWIE – Sound and Vision / A New Career in a New Town (RCA 905 1977)
A long long way from Ziggy in just four years. “Sound and Vision” was the introduction to Bowie’s leftfield masterpiece Low and about as traditionally pop as the album got. Which isn’t very.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL – The Sound of Silence / We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’ On (Columbia 43396 1965)
Dylan had gone electric, the Byrds were having big hits doing jangly folk-rock. It made sense for Simon & Garfunkel to add drums and rock arrangements. Unfortunately they weren’t working together at the time, and Paul Simon was touring folk clubs in Europe armed only with his trusty acoustic. Producer Tom Wilson stepped in anyway, gave the track a new “with it” backing and Columbia watched another of their folk acts have a huge hit. Simon might not have liked it, but he could hardly complain at the new levels of exposure, and the duo quickly reconvened.

MEMBERS – Sound of the Suburbs / Handling the Big Jets (Virgin 242 1979)
They came from around ten miles away from me, and lyrically this song captured perfectly the tedium of North Surrey / East Berkshire Sundays. Nothing else to do but kick a football around with your mates. Nothing on telly, nothing on the radio (except David Rodigan’s Sunday show on Radio London) and school next day.

More soon

There. I uploaded a drawing (actually, a doodle… but it’s something). And since I put “boobs” in the tag, maybe I’ll actually get a hit. Anyways, I spent this afternoon scanning in drawings and sketches from a couple sketchbooks from the past few months. So I should have more stuff up here soon, and on my devART as well. Here’s some more pages.

Sketches of water beetles that I was using for  a drawing for my drawing (duh) class.

Inspired by Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” song.

Eu tenho um gênio ruim pra c****** quando eu quero.Sou Peixes com ascendente em Gêmeos.17/03 mesma data de nascimento de Elis Regina, Paul Kantner, Nat King Cole e dia de St. Patrick na Irlanda em que todo mundo cai bêbado em comemoração.Dá pra sentir o grau de loucura em torno da data.

Até ai, achava uma coincidência.

Mas depois de ver esta imagem de Paul Kantner brigando com um bando de motoqueiro da pesada no meio do show, não me restou dúvidas.Astrologia dá certo e é coisa séria.Pessoas de 17/03 são críticas demais, mesmo que isso o leve a forca.Jefferson Airplane é uma banda muito foda.E Acho minha data de nascimento muito, mas muito digna.Orgulho Pisciano mode on.

Soundtracks, we all have our favorites and some of us refuse to acknowledge their existence all together. I, on the other hand, have a good relationship with soundtracks, depending on the movie/television show/web series it comes from. These are pretty good choices that I just happen to own, interested? Read on.

#A – Girl Interrupted.My first glimpse into WILCO, a lovely little band that may see a bit on the pretentious side but really have some amazing songs. One of those bands that make you love every song, sound, word, vibe. They start off this semi-depressing group of misfit songs that work well with the movie of the same description. Title works fantastic with the motif of this album, “How to Fight Loneliness”, this first glimpse was not the end of my relationship with Wilco, they are still alive in my soul to this day. This album also has one of the greatest bands and one of my favorite songs from them, Jefferson Airplane with “Comin’ Back to Me”, such a beautiful song, really beautiful is the one perfect word to explain this song, and most of their music as a whole. Other artists include, Aretha Franklin, The Band, The Mamas & The Papas. Take a listen why don’t you?

#B – The Craft.

Witches who just so happen to be a bunch of bitches, makes for a great soundtrack, well its more of a sentimental one for me with a couple good songs that make me reminiscent of the first viewing of the movie. Great pop song with Letters to Cleo’s “Dangerous Type” and some heavy grungy hate music with Sponge’s “All This and Nothing” and a surprisingly good song by Our Lady Peace with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, (you can tell I’m obviously not their #1 fan). A not so good cover of a Harry Nilsson song, Tripping Daisy’s “Jump into the Fire”, I’d rather” they have put the original but they never asked my opinion on the subject. Some other good jams, like Spacehog’s ”Horror” & Love Spit Love’s “How Soon Is Now”, but the gem is Matthew Sweet’s “Dark Secrets” which made me want to own it to begin with, it pleases the ear gods for sure.

#C – Jawbreaker

Yes, pranks that turn deadly mixed with pretty girls who look nothing like the regular high school student, proves great for a rockin’ soundtrack. (Plus, Julie Benz, a young vampire on BTVS, classic). Songs to get you pumped and sent back into the 90’s like a whirlwind. I’ll start of with the favorites, The Friggs ”Bad Word for a Good Thing”, those Frigg girls can belt and rock, plus rock while never becoming famous, some hardcore girl power going on with that song. The icing on the cake? Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo”, again the reason I even wanted the album in the first place, an amazing jam with the most intoxicating sound, voice is prime on this one. Ending it out with one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever heard in my life, The Transisters “Flow”, its beautiful and sad and painful, if I ever needed to be heartbroken with a theme song, this is it. Having a bad breakup? Lost a person close to you? Listen UP.

#D – The Wedding Singer

Get ready for some 80’s! This soundtrack has the “good shit” from the 1980’s, and its a double disc-er! Unfortunately I only have one half the album but that’s alright by me.  The half I have has bands like, Billy Idol, David Bowie, New Order, Musical Youth, Elvis Costello, The Thompson Twins, The Police, Culture Club, The Psychedelic Furs, and so on. If your in an 80’s mood, then stick the sucker in and enjoy your weird flashback that ensues.

yeah, tricked you. I know its not a song, but Buscemi rocks.

#E – Garden State.

We’ve got some good ones on here folks. Of course their is the “what lead me to own it” song, which we’ll begin with. Frou Frou’s ”Let Go”, a very graceful sound and is a basic recap of the movie itself. Jump in, what are you waiting for? Date Natalie Portman, Zach Braff, just DO IT! But any who, next up is another great jam, that I didn’t come in contact until long after I had the Cd, but when a friend of mine did it in a talent show, another song full of beauty, Bonnie Somerville’s “Winding Road”, pretty voice meets pretty sound, good good. The entire beginning of this Cd gets me in a crazy odd mood, I used to listen to it on my Ipod walking through the halls of high school, very surreal. First, Cold Play’s “Don’t Panic”, and No, I am not a cold play fan or freak, its the only song I dig, so get over it. Following it, is The Shins with “Caring is Creepy”, great sound, goes right through to the bone. And after that? Zero 7’s “In the Waiting Line”, one of the other songs I am in love with on this soundtrack, a main reason you might as well just go out and get it right now.

#F – Once More With Feeling – BTVS

A musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer belongs on this list, if not dominating it. Joss Whedon, the entity himself, wrote the songs, music, all of it. Which would be good reason for me to love it so, and I do. Its addictive to the highest extent. These actors, just people, who yes, famous, but normal; not singers, (well not all of them, James Marsters, Amber Benson, & Tony Head), just people, made beautiful music together. I probably listen to it at lease a couple times a week. I don’t think I would have the power to actually say out loud, or type, my favorite song from this album. I’ll just go through most of them for you to decide.

So, we start with Buffy complaining shes lost her mojo for her job, we can all sing a long as the demons agree with her and she diss’s the gentleman in distress.

Then you’ve got a group jam with the gang, which turns ugly with Anya, the demon, yelling about bunnies, and ending with a who-even-gives-a-crap attitude brought along by sad-sap Buffy.

A song about Mustard being removed from clothing.

A lesbian love song between the 2 most believable, non-skanked-out-for-the-sake-of-MALES-everywhere lesbians on television ever, and probably will always be. You just gotta love Willow & Tara, for ever, and ever, and so on.

Then we have the couple, demon and construction worker, Anya & Xander, talking about the things they can’t stand about each other that they could never say out loud, without song of course, which leads towards the end with Anya “dancing crazy!”. You have to love a song  that has a line about penis diseases, classy.

One of great writers of the show finds herself singing about a ticket she’s getting for parking in front of a hydrant, which has become one of my favorites to sing in the car.

Then the addictive song of Spike, the whiny love ridden fool song, he even admits he’d be Buffy’s slave, talk about being whipped. Just let him rest in peace, Buffy. Just let him be buried and go get Angel to sooth the pain. Sorry…

Next, a snippet of dawn’s voice before she gets kidnapped, pretty voice while its lasts.

Pretty Ballet instrumental leads to the dancing demon, Sweet, singing out with his great deep man singing voice trying to hit on 15 year old Dawn, Hawt.

A big hit in my car sing-a-long, the Giles song, sad but upbeat and lovely, he doesn’t want to leave Buffy, but needs to, sweet slow-mo scene with some kick-ass dodging of sharp things while pulling off some gymnastic moves, go SMG.

Here we have 2 songs emerge which is a high on the list for me, putting together the two amazing voices of Tony Head and Amber Benson, wonderful actors and brilliant singers. Such a beautiful addition to the already amazing track listing.

Up next, everyone joins in while wanting to walk through the fire, another great song, with some awesome lines, “things are turning out so dark”, “No, I’ll save her then I’ll kill her!” &  “I think this line mostly filer”. The best part is when the scooby gang chimes in and does their little part, is the slayer too far gone to care?

Then us listeners get something to sing about, a glittering world, and a dancing almost-to-her-death Buffy ending with dropping the heaven bombshell.

And to help finish it off, sweet rubs it in all our faces that things didn’t quite go our way with the whole dancing thing, that lead to the death thing, and the “aw we all have so many secrets!” thing.

Ending with the cast leaving confused, not knowing where to go from there. And a big sloppy wet one from Buffy & Spike, which I wish i could scrub from my brain.

If you’ve never see the episode, watch it. If you’ve never heard the soundtrack, listen to it. You’ll have to track it down like I did, since the boyfriend and I bought the only 2 copies in our area. Plus, if your REALLY lucky, like me, you’ll get to take a trip to Indianapolis and watch actors act out the episode, sing the songs, and dance the dances, an amazing experience, especially on the night before Halloween.

#G – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog

How shocking, right? Another Joss choice, you get my love yet? Do you? Do You? Well you’ll figure it out eventually. Now, this sound track is Uh-Maze-Ing, seriously. NPH (For the less hip folks, Neil Patrick Harris) really shows us the talent that Doogie never really did, he sings, and he sings well. Fantastically well to be exact. He’s a villain looking for his big villainy break, to belong to the big-bad’s club, that’s of course ran by a horse, derr. Then we have the love interest, with a killer voice, no other than the beautiful Felicia Day, (who if you don’t watch the guild, START, I’ll explain more later), the helpless-helping-homeless-home-giving goddess that the villain is head-over-heels in love with. But in walks the bad guy, wait no, the GOOD guy. He just happens to be a prick, with a picture of a hammer on his chest. But he is played by no other than the mystical, magical, stud-man-guy Nathan Fillion. The guy crushes of the world surround this guy, which makes it easy for your Felicia, “Penny”, to fall for instead. (sad). So with this comes amazingly catchy songs that, yet AGAIN, Whedon is responsible for, also making it a family affair adding brothers and a sister-in-law. This is another Cd that is found being played in my car multiple times within a week. You’ve GOT to get this soundtrack, like now, LEAVE, GO!

#H – Pick of Destiny

Okay, Tenacious D is the best band EVER. Maybe this statement is not something you would agree with, and if it isn’t, stop lying. Seriously you know the truth, they probably ARE the greatest band EVER, why you ask? Because they have it ALL. What other band can use curse words like poetry, I mean really, “Mother Fucker” never sounded so good. If you haven’t had the chance to gander at the power that is the D, its time my friends. My passion for the D is forever deep, I was hooked the first time I heard them, saw them, and inevitably fell for them. “The Pick Of Destiny” is a movie and an album, and both are glorious. Watching Jack Black and Kyle Gas for 93 minutes straight has to be an experience, and sir, it was. But, the soundtrack that came along? GODLIKE, truly amazing music, which is not surprising from this duo. Another album i could not possibly begin the misery of deciding the best song on it, so you will have to venture out on your own and taste the taste that is TENACIOUS D.

be blown away by Rage Cage & Jables, KG & JB.

#I – Nashville

Great movie, wonderful soundtrack. Robert Altman is an amazing director and he did an amazing job on all the movies I’ve seen of his. They always have crazy relationships, and madness masked in innocence and he didn’t shy away from that with this one. Country singers, singing and crawling in drama filled situations; if you get a chance make sure to check this one out, i have a feeling you’ll be pleased if your in anyway cool, or hip, or happenin’ in the way I am. So rent it, steal it, borrow it, either way watch it, and make sure you listen to the songs you hear, it won’t be hard. I’ve leave you with a video of my favorite song from the movie that happens to be a great part of the film. Watch and aw.

So that’s it for now, I might come back and surprise you with more amazing songs that go with amazing movies/tv shows/web series, or I wont, don’t hold your breath. I leave you with a thought… Come back and see me, I mean read me, sometime.

sas

Con’t…And believe me, so far this has whole thing has been a trip.  As I reflect on the words from “White Rabbit” I see that these words shimmer with great metaphorical parallels to my mid-life “waking up,” “self-healing” experience.  Here’s some of the words I connect with:

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall…
When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go…
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!
“
Remember what the dormouse said;
“feed YOUR HEAD.  Feed your head.…

Over the last six year of tunneling into my unconscious and desiring to connect with my sub-conscious in order to become conscious and experience inner healing, I have done a lot of falling.  I have had more moments than imaginable where what had seemed logical to me at one time, needed to go all sloppy dead.  And so I replaced it with true logic.  Then there have been realities I have had to face at times that have seared so deeply that it seemed my head floated off and and I tripped out into the delirium that pain inflicts.  In that place White Knights were talking backwards and chessboard men were telling me where to go.  And more times then I can count the Red Queen has been waving her hand in the air screaming, “Off with her head.”  And it only stood to reason, my head needed to come off.  I needed to replace it with reality.   Then finally I have needed to feed my head.  Feed it with truth.  The only way to true healing.  True awakening.  In the words of Jesus, “The truth shall set you free.”   True.  True.  But let me tell you friend, it’s going to hurt like hell first…

Grace Slick at Woodstock singing, White Rabbit

Continua para ver los videos:

Amarillo: Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter

Naranja: R.E.M. – Orange Crush

Verde: Pink Floyd - Green Is The Colour

Negro: Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

Azul: White Stripes - Blue Orchid

Blanco: Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit

Rojo: Rush – Red Barchetta

Purpura: Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

Rosado: Aerosmith – Pink

Escarlata: Grateful Dead – Scarlet Begonias

The following is going to be my first in a segment of entries.  A continuation series.  Too long for one post.

Done a lot of thinking about this.  Drummed my fingers on my desk more than once contemplating it.  Began and scrapped a bunch of prior attempts.  What am I talking about?  The part of my life I only hint at.  You know, you’ve seen the bits trickle into my blog.  Where I mention appointments with my life coach, inner healing work, waking up, becoming conscious, and all those books psychology/spiritual books that are crammed among the chick lit and horror on my Shelfari shelf…–lots of words there I know.  After all this time I myself don’t know exactly how to label this whole thing.

I’ve gone back and forth on this note.  Should I share?  Yes, I should.  Then.  No.  No I shouldn’t.  Well today I decided.  Yes.  I’ll share.  Why?  Well, this journal is about me.  About my journey into the new me–well, really the me that’s always been there, it’s just that she/me/I was on the other side of the looking glass–My trip down the rabbit hole.  My going to ask Alice.  The trek to find me in the newest of terms.  Yes to become… a business woman.  But there is so much more then I put in my “about me.”  That was the tip, hinting at more.

And today begins the “more”.   Especially since I went and did it again, had another stop business day, as I had mentioned I might do yesterday, therefore it must bleed over into my blog making it business free.  The direction was spurred on by the fact that I began my day with an intense session with my life coach.  Making it the logical place to begin this post as well as begin to take you deeper into my rabbit hole.

It isn’t by mistake that my side bar, on my Blogger Blog and under About me on my WordPress blog reads as it does.  And, as a side note, why I didn’t come up with a name for my blog that played off from Alice in Wonderland I’ll never know.  Since I have a looooonnnggg history with good old Alice and white rabbits…

In my life I’ve taken many trips.  I’ve seen a lot of our country on them and then I’ve seen a lot of, well, not our country on others.  During those my eyes were bloodshot, squinting through smoke, and you might hear me say, as I exhaled, through small gasps, “Damn.  This is some good shit.”

Once upon a time I took these trips because, being a kid, I was trapped.  Couldn’t get out of the horrid home that I lived in, so I found other ways to trip on out.  Into other unseen lands where I followed many a psychedelic white rabbit…

Back then Rock and Roll was it for me.  Loved the stuff.  Loved the whole movement it represented.  Had I piled my records from the floor up they would have reached the top of my head and Jefferson Airplane was up there at the top.  Burned holes through their vinyl.  In my mind Grace Slick was one of the greatest female singers of her time.  And her song “White Rabbit” was my favorite.  I never knew why.  I just connected with it.  When that song came on I could be in a room full of people surging with booze and drugs and I would stop dead, as if to pay homage.  To listen and sing along till it was done.

I never could explain it before.  Defiantly not back in the day.  Then it was, “I love that fucking song.”  Now, as I rethink it, I think in some strange way I was forward seeing into my future.  Preparing myself.  Preparing to be ready to tumble down the deepest rabbit hole of my life.  To be ready and willing to go…

More tomorrow, Love ya,
Theresa Jane
-don’t worry we’re going somewhere.  It’s just that in order to get there we have to sit and drink some tea with the Mad Hatter and listen to his ramblings…

The Grateful Dead playing in San Francisco's Winterland Auditorium, 1971

Known for the “San Francisco Sound,” San Fran has had a steady music scene since at least the ’60s. With huge bands like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Journey forming there it’s been a hot spot for trends and great music. In addition to an interesting history of mashup DJs, ’Frisco has also thrown its two cents into West Coast hardcore and punk music with pioneers such as The Dead Kennedys and Green Day.

Listen up and listen good. WERW and City Sounds are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for one hell of a night on Monday, 11/16, from 11pm-1am. We’ll send you off into the wee hours of the morning with some of the great new artists coming out of the Bay Area and give you some of their great mashup artists during the second half of the show.

– Kyle Kuchta

I love Grace Slick.  How could anyone not love the Godmother of the psychedelic, the woman who had a schemed a plan to dose Nixon with LSD at the White House.  The woman who we owe thanks for the White Rabbit.

Photo: Herb Greene

More photos of Grace Slick after the jump…

I, for one, tend to prefer older music to the music of today. There will be a much longer post about this coming soon. However here are a few of my favourite older artists and songs.

Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now

Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit

Blue Oyster Cult: Don’t fear the Reaper

Kansas: Carry on my Wayward Son

Ted Nugent: Stranglehold

Triumph: Fight The Good Fight

A ban on literary allusion in rock lyrics strikes me as a good idea.  Wouldn’t it be great if Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On” didn’t have those Tolkienisms?  Isn’t Grace Slick’s “rejoyce” more enjoyable as pure piano-driven dada than as a farrago of Ulysses references?  Isn’t “Killing An Arab,” Camus via the Cure, a major drag?  Is there anything in rock we really value that we’d lose with the ban?

Well—we might lose great songs that were inspired by literary sources.  Without the Tolkien connection we might not get “Ramble On” at all (or “Sympathy for the Devil” without The Master and Margarita, or “Kid Charlemagne” without The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test—or the neat band name Steely Dan without Naked Lunch—or—).

All right, it would be madness to forbid literary inspiration, but wouldn’t it often be better to disguise the debt?  Do I have to hear (every time) about Mordor and Gollum in the calm verse before the perfect storm chorus of “Ramble On”?  —Worse, must we take seriously the kind of commentary that thinks literary allusions make rock songs more seriously interesting?[1]

Allusion has a notable power to turbo-boost the action of thought in a purely literary context, but does any of this power carry over to rock songs, which are designed to appeal immediately and viscerally to a youthful audience (I mean all of us as youthful) for whom fresh experience must matter far more than either cultural reminiscence or artistic cleverness?

To the point, then:  Is there any such thing as a great rock allusion hook, an exception that proves (or, if not so exceptional, wrecks) my rule?

Probably there are many contenders.[2]  One I admit I like is the Lolita reference, “just like the old man in that book by Nabokov,” in “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by the Police.  The allusion is charmingly external, simple and naked, and actually adds meaning, too, since the sexual deviance of the schoolgirl hitting on the teacher in “Don’t Stand” is complementary to Humbert Humbert’s famous perversion in Lolita, and we glimpse with the teacher the horrid possibility of being turned involuntarily into something like a Humbert.   Plus it’s cute to rhyme “that book by Nabokov” with “he starts to shake and cough” in the preceding line (which sets the scene for his horrid transformation, as though into Mr. Hyde).

But the cuteness of the rhyme and the connection begins to undermine the whole experience.  Is it a one-trick song after all, a gag?  Without the allusion, this doubt wouldn’t have been sown.

I do know one allusion that impressively hits a rock nail on the head.  It’s the reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice books in Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit,” bridging two worlds of mind-expansion, the Victorian fantastic and the 60’s psychedelic, drilling to just the right depth of cultural memory and perfectly leveraging the implicit claim of all allusion that the mind can make a greater truth.  Someone might object that my example isn’t a specific reference within a song but rather a whole song made of references to Carroll, like an Alice mini-opera.  I contend, however, that (a) with its sharp thematic focus (in glaring contrast to “rejoyce”) the song really works as an extended allusion, for we never forget that its primary subject matter is not Alice, who remains relatively in the distance, but our own possibilities of out-of-bounds experience; and (b) the allusion is so effective because it is so dominant, forcing everything else in the song to agree:  the bass line becomes a scuttling march over thresholds of wonder, the slightly dirty lead guitar becomes the sizzling forward edge of the exploring mind, the eventual big beat becomes the discovery of the hungry center—the head that must be fed.

Unlike “Sympathy for the Devil,” which alludes interestingly to a Russian novel that few of the Rolling Stones’ listeners have even heard of, “White Rabbit” makes a crackling connection with a book everyone knows well, a book that has already injected us with subversive joy.[3]  Never mind Slick’s boring claim that she wrote the song merely to make a point about how the flower children’s parents had set them up for drug use by reading them drug-allusive texts like Alice and The Wizard of Oz.[4]  “White Rabbit” reminds us that our original trip through the looking glass was an unsettling, exhilarating initiation into mental freedom, a revelation of the volatile truth that consciousness is—and can launch us again, whenever we want to continue the adventure.

2.  Almost any of them will raise interesting questions about the nature of allusion.  For instance, does Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” allude to Romeo and Juliet as elements in Shakespeare’s play, or as the source idea that Shakespeare worked with, or as post-Shakespeare cultural icons? Consider also Dire Straits’ beautiful “Romeo and Juliet,” which uses R & J as a general archetype for star-separated lovers but specifically alludes to the balcony scene in the play (and also to West Side Story’s take on R & J:  “‘There’s a place for us,’ you know the movie song”).

3.  Much of what I’ve claimed for “White Rabbit” could be claimed also for Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses” in relation to the Odyssey, but “Tales” has to work too hard to make the Odyssey material vivid for us, so that Homer’s world becomes more like a contemporary Western tourist’s plunge into Aegean waters.  But this migration among worlds could be seen as a strength.

4.  Interviewed in Jeff Tamarkin, Got a Revolution!  The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane (New York:  Atria, 2003), p. 110.

MaMaMahhh/PaPaPa Pokahhh Face/KaKaKahhh.

And we just outperformed ourselves again in the weekly pub quiz.

And I am quite sozzled. Courtesy of me pub quiz team mates.

And I am sitting on my host’s spare bed. Knees up, Mac balancing. So me Mac can’t get overheated.

And I don’t understand why. Coz my host’s more than, is more than Unbelievable.

But.

And.

And a.

And a 19 year old Californian is sending me her haikus.

No, Haiku.

No plural in Japanese.

And. Written when she was 11.

Coz she is getting rid of them. Throwing them out. In the garbage can.

Coz her mum. Told her to do “chores”.

Coz.

My lovely is being.

GoOd.

Nvm.

But. Nvm.

And.

Don’t you want/Don’t you need/Wouldn’t you love/You better find

And I don’t understand why.

And she trusts me.

And I don’t understand why.

And they are personal.

And I don’t understand why.

And they are GoOd.

And I am saying to not get rid of them.

Coz I did that once and hugely regret it now.

But.

No.

Now.

I realise. I am patronising.

Or.

Am I?

And she is having some of it.

Coz she is not your average 19 year old.

In my eyes.

Your eyes. Your eyes.

Our eyes.

Her eyes.

Fuck your/her/our eyes.

…

Her nose.

Lovely, lovely nose.

And thank God.

And GoOd.

Coz i nearly caught myself writing shit poetry. Writing shit.

And we can’t have that now, can we?

On Fall On Me.

Don’t you wanthh

Don’t you needhh

Wouldn’t you lovehhh

You better findhhh

Don’t you want/Don’t you need/Wouldn’t you love/You better find

Somebody to love.

- 1967, le monde explose. Ce n’est pas la bombe atomique tant redoutée, ni la poudre qui parle. Si poudre il y a, elle ne s’allume pas avec une mèche, bien que le pétard ne soit pas loin. Non c’est musical, social, pacifiste. Depuis quelques mois, quelques albums voient le jour tout en proposant plus ou moins des nouveaux sons, une nouvelle vision de la musique teintée d’étrange et de concepts innovateurs. C’est ainsi que paraît l’Oreiller Surréaliste de Jefferson Airplane. Ce n’est pas leur premier album, mais le second. Certains prémices peuvent s’entendre dans la première livraison. Mais l’arrivée d’une nouvelle chanteuse, Grace Slick va bouleverser la donne. Elle va prendre une part majeure dans l’avènement du groupe, chose assez rare dans un groupe aux 4/5 masculin. 40 ans plus tard, c’est même le nom dont on se rappelle en premier. Les autres? Ah oui, il y a Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen.
La belle Grace va charmer de sa voix des millions d’auditeurs. L’album contient un tube, “Somebody To Love” qui aidera la légende à s’installer sur son piédestal. Il restera dans les mémoires, mais pas autant que la composition de la chanteuse “White Rabbit”, allusion au lapin de Lewis Carroll dans Alice, mais surtout cachant la pilule de LSD dans les paroles pour la vigilante censure qui n’y verra que des lapins en civet. Un album intégralement beau du début à la fin, planant ou moins calme, musique compliquée ou simple, c’est à découvrir la tête posée sur son oreiller (surréaliste) en regardant passer ces drôles de voitures.

Ecouter gratuitement et télécharger Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow sur MusicMe.

I suppose everybody knows that yesterday was the big celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.  It was interesting, and inspiring to be reminded of those amazing events (if you are old enough to remember them).   I found the falling dominos at first a strange idea (since in International Relations we used to talk about the “domino” theory–go look it up), but as I learned more about it, I think it was a good metaphor.  As it happens, in the mid 80s, because I was teaching courses to American soldiers in Berlin I could travel back and forth from West to East Berlin, and I visited some people who lived not far from the Brandenburg gate (on the Eastern side !).  I swear that as you went from East to West on the subway you could feel the moment you passed the wall.  To me at least, it was palpable.

Anyhow, I saw on French TV last night that there is a young photographer (whose name now escapes me) who at this moment has an exhibition of photographs of other major walls in the world.   She made the point that  these walls exist to, supposedly, protect one group from the “evils” of another:  poverty, terrorism, illegal immigration, etc…  You probably know where some of these walls are, and I don’t want to point political fingers here.  What came to my mind was how the “fall” (or simply removal) of such walls are concrete signs of peace and can facilitate (obviously) more exchange and unification (or in the case of the Germans reunification) among alienated groups and peoples.   So, in a sense these remaining walls, and what is or is not being done about are gages for the evolution toward peace in the world.   Crudely put:  walls going up, peace getting farther away; walls coming down, the possibilities for peace increasing.

Does that make sense?

IGbarb says “tear down the walls!”

“Everybody together
We should be together
We should be together my friends
We can be together
We will be
We must begin here and now
A new continent of earth and fire
Come on now gettin higher and higher
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Won’t you try”

(Jefferson Airplane, “We Can be Together”)

Berlin Wall

Para quem estiver lendo e entender a respeito de uma das bandas que mais ouvi na adolescência e continuo curtindo até hoje, de uma das minhas músicas prediletas e de uma das letras de músicas que mais gosto.Podemos viver em harmonia neste mundo sendo tão diferentes.

Largehearted Boy Report:

Click here to go to LB to check Blitzen Trapper covering Neil Young “Harvest”…plus Grace Potter covers Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit”, and Smashing Pumpkins “Today (live)”

La música de Jefferson Airplane, grupo de rock influenciado por la psicodelia y las drogas alucinógenas contemporáneo de The Mamas & The Papas o Scott McKenzie, suele ir ligada, como muestra el primero de los vídeos que aparecen a continuación, a un periodo muy determinado de la historia reciente norteamericana, los años sesenta y setenta, a acontecimientos como la guerra de Vietnam, Woodstock o la lucha por los derechos civiles y a figuras como los hermanos Kennedy o Martin Luther King. No se le escapó este detalle a Robert Zemeckis para Forrest Gump y ese doble compendio de rock, pop y folk que constituye su banda sonora, todo un éxito de ventas en su día que incluía joyas de la música imprescindibles. Precisamente la abre Volunteers, un clásico del grupo californiano convertido en himno contra la intervención militar norteamericana en el sudeste asiático. Otro de los grandes clásicos del grupo, Somebody to love, tenía una presencia destacada en Apolo 13, de Ron Howard, y además es perpetrada por Jim Carrey en esa cosa llamada Un loco a domicilio, bodrio dirigido por Ben Stiller, el eslabón perdido de Atapuerca.

Imagine a talk show where the host’s face is, often, momentarily obscured by a plume of smoke from one of his guest’s cigarettes. Or a boom mike quite obviously dropping into a stoned guest’s personal space so as to better capture his incoherent ramblings. Or the host, again, being caught off guard by an impending commercial and then making little attempt to hide his frustration about yet another interruption to his conversation; crankily, and through rings of smoke, he announces the show will return after a brief commercial message.

Nowadays such qualities in a show would be openly mocked by a media-literate audience. Any imperfections that do occur in the dozens of talk shows that now poison the airwaves are well-planned attempts by the host or producer to keep it “real” or to convey an air of spontaneity or off-the-cuffery. Perhaps that’s why the fall-back technique for most non-fiction programs is to illuminate the production flaws, thereby perpetuating the myth that what is being viewed has not been plotted with meticulous precision. It didn’t used to be this way. People who worked in non-fiction television didn’t always try to dupe their viewers.

Lest anyone suspect I’m about to launch into a nostalgic riff about the glories of live television, that era was well before my time. I’m referring to the Dick Cavett Show, which in its various incarnations aired on seven different networks, most memorably for five years on ABC starting in 1969 and then in a scaled down version on PBS from 1977-1982.

The talk show has been around since the earliest days of television. For as much as television has changed in the last 50 years the talk show has changed very little. Neither have TV executive’s admiration for it. The reason talk shows are held so dear by the suits is not because they are a more highly evolved form of entertainment. It’s because they’re cheap. The only major outlay is the salary of the host, which is not insubstantial, but it pales in comparison to the cost of shooting on location, where a cast and crew must be paid, fed, housed and insured. In a time when viewers of prime time network television are dwindling like a 401k it should come as no surprise that a popular host landed a gig at 10 o’clock five nights a week.

Even though hundreds of channels are now available for every imaginable niche group, as a format, the talk show remains much it like it did at its inception. There is an opening monologue, a sidekick, a desk (usually), a band and invited guests (who are paid a few hundred dollars for their troubles). The guests, generally, are actors, musicians or comics. Occasionally, politicians, authors or athletes find their way onto the seat next to the host. Other variables include skits, stunts, and conceits that invite audience participation.

Dick Cavett made every effort to reject these clichés over the course of a forty year career. 

I recall my mother watching the Dick Cavett Show during the PBS iteration, but I can’t honestly recall a specific episode or guest from that period. Later, I heard my mother draw a comparison between Cavett and Charlie Rose. Since I’ve always admired her taste in anything cultural, I put myself on notice for anything bearing his name.

In 2005 Shout! Factory released several theme-based multi-disc DVD sets of Cavett’s old shows. They include specials with blandish titles like “Hollywood Greats” and “Comic Legends.” I recently rented the three-disc “Rock Icons” set through my Netflix account and I expected that the discs would feature only music performances and interviews, but the shows are available in their entirety, with a brief introduction from Cavett himself. Presently, he writes semi-regularly for The New York Times website and often includes clips from his old shows in his column.

In all the clips I’ve seen of Cavett’s shows I can’t help but having the impression that the only reason he had a talk show to begin with was because it gave him an excuse to meet and chat with a lot of really interesting people. The opening monologues from the ABC shows are terrible. They are too often referring to events germain only to New York, which is where the show was shot; garbage strikes, the incompetence of Mayor John Lindsay and local weather are common topics. He had a bandleader/sidekick who he tried, usually without success, to engage in witty repartee. Cavett himself could barely conceal his distaste in these talk show tropes. The PBS version of his show suited him much better as it dispensed with bandleader banter (there was no band to lead) and the opening monologue was more of an introduction than a series of one-liners. Cavett is at ease in this format, a mood that was probably exacerbated by a very small audience as opposed to the large studio audience that greeted him on the ABC version. There’s little doubt as to which version Cavettheads prefer.

Nevertheless, the ABC show aired during what could be fairly described as the salad days of popular music in America. The first program on the Rock Icons disc aired the day after Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix was slated to appear but had back out since his performance had lasted into the early morning hours of the day of shooting. The guest appeared more or less together. Joni Mitchell, looking childlike, sang three songs, one of which was performed a cappella. She had declined an appearance at Woodstock in favor of preparing for her appearance on Cavett’s show. A scheduling faux pas that her career was able to overcome. The other guests were David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane, whose singer, Grace Slick, referred to Cavett as Jim. Crosby is his usual grating self, commanding attention through the quantity, rather than the quality of his thoughts.

What’s interesting about this show is neither the guests nor the now-classic music, it’s Cavett. He and the musicians are seated in a circle, on what look to be pillows. Cavett, ignoring his usual jacket and tie, briefly dons an ascot—which he tosses into the crowd, recognizing the absurdity of its presence around his neck—and opens at least two buttons on his shirt. He looks like a complete square—to use the parlance—yet the musicians see that his curiosity is genuine. Watching this scene, I tried to imagine fellow talk-show host (and fellow Nebraskan) Johnny Carson in such a setting. And this, really, was the essence of the difference between the two men. Carson, who had his beginnings as a game show host was a master at making his guests feel comfortable and the best way to do that was to exude an air of comfort himself. He had great timing as a comic, and his monologues expertly combined self-deprecation with Midwestern sensibilities. Mostly though, Carson loved the Hollywood-ness of being the host of The Tonight Show. Sure, occasionally a topical guest found a spot between him and Ed McMahon, but he loved talking to Jimmy Stewart and Buddy Hackett and Shelley Winters and Phyllis Diller, about their latest movie or vacation or pet or hilarious circumstance. Very few people, besides Tiny Tim, made news on The Tonight Show. Carson specialized in being familiar.

By contrast, Cavett was willing to step out of his comfort zone if it meant he could book non-traditional guests. While it’s possible this was for the sake of ratings, it’s more likely that he was fascinated by people like Salvador Dali and Ingemar Bergman. Not only was Cavett willing to rattle his own cage he was not above rattling his guest’s when he felt it was merited. He interviewed Lester Maddox and Angela Davis, until she was forced to cancel. A guest, Jerome Rodale, died on his show (it was never aired) and he talked bluntly about pornography. He had no reservations about playing a role in the “Symphony of Emotions.” Try to imagine Carson doing this.

The first disc of the “Rock Icons” series concludes with interviews of David Bowie and Sly Stone. I’ve never been much of a fan of Bowie, but his appearance with Cavett was mesmerizing. He’s probably high at the time of the interview and once seated, his frame is so lean his bones seem ready to burst through his suit. As Cavett questions him, he grips a cane for balance, emotional or otherwise. Whether it’s Cavett’s presence or the narcotic effect, Bowie is as forthright any rock star I’ve ever seen. His very British smile (cosmetic dentistry apparently was not among Bowie’s expenses at the time) reveals an air of uncertainty about his well-established career. It’s Bowie as raw as he’s ever been.

Of all the performances on the set, Sly Stone’s is the best. He and the Family Stone are vibrant, enthusiastic and utterly charming. Unfortunately, Sly seems to also be under the influence when chatting with Cavett, his beaming smile providing little clue to what was actually coming from his mouth. At one point, Cavett looks like he has no clue what Sly just said—a very un-Carson like loss of poise—but plows on, knowing that another musical number will render this lapse in coherence irrelevant.

The second disk is dedicated to Janis Joplin. As with Bowie, I’ve admired her music more than I’ve enjoyed it, but here she is heartbreakingly endearing. Of course, I know what fate awaits her, but Cavett, who has acknowledged his own battles with depression, senses that this is a woman worn out. Cavett tries to build her up through praise, but then Janis talks about the loneliness of the road. He sympathizes with her complaint about overly cerebral European audiences. He lights her cigarette. In one memorable sequence, seated among Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, and Chet Huntley, she and Racquel Welch talk about current events and overzealous fans. Try to imagine say, Lady Gaga, talking with, say Harrison Ford, Tom Brokaw and Kate Winslet. It would be impossible in today’s heavily regimented, self-promotion environment, where guests have been trained to speak only of themselves.

Later, Janis finds herself on the same set as Gloria Swanson. Cavett seems to make an effort to include her in every conversation like an older brother guarding his baby sister in her first days in high school. He wants to indulge her and protect her.

The final disk opens with Paul Simon performing, talking about songwriting and working out an early version of “Still Crazy After All These Years.” Once Simon departs Cavett himself is interviewed by three authors—Jerzy Kosinski, Barbara Howar and Anthony Burgess—on the occasion of the printing of his own memoir. The authors critique the book and  Burgess is wonderfully frank while Kosinski attempts, with moderate success, to penetrate Cavett’s psyche. In a moment of meta-media, Howar reminds Cavett that what he does on a nightly basis as a talk show will quickly be forgotten, having written a book will be a more permanent accomplishment. I wonder which sells more these days, the book or DVDs of old shows?

The next artist featured is the effervescent Stevie Wonder. Even when writing about inner-city violence and despair, he manages to remain bubbly. Here, Cavett is somewhat placating, he appears unsure of how to refer, if at all, to Wonder’s blindness. The format of the traditional talk show, demanding some sort of acknowledgement of the obvious, is something Cavett would rather ignore, and I got the feeling that there many questions that went unspoken.

Finally, the series concludes with the quiet Beatle, George Harrison (Cavett’s interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono comprise a separate series on Shout!). Harrison performs anonymously as a guitarist with Gary Wright. The interview with him is all-encompassing. He and Cavett talk about the Concert for Bangladesh (and what a hassle it was to manage the money), why the Beatles broke up (he was tired of his “quota” of one or two songs per album and wanted to perform his own material), drug use and Ravi Shankar. Harrison mocks the convention of talk shows by reading from the commercial cues before Cavett. Cavett groans at every station break like a child being told to go to bed on Christmas Eve. “Commercial??? Can’t you see I’m talking to George Harrison!!!”

Whatever his frustrations, he is clearly enjoying his time with Harrison (and later, Shankar) so much so that he seems sincerely disappointed when Harrison compares his appearance on the show to a performance. “Do you really look at this as a conversation or a performance?” he asks. When Harrison assured him it’s the former, I felt Cavett’s relief. And that really was why Cavett endured. He understood that smart people respond to other smart people and a smart audience would understand and appreciate that. While he never garnered the audience of Carson, the devotion of his fans has never faded.

“Somebody To Love.”

The song raced through my head as I reached out to shake her hand.  Royal and I had gone to an art gallery to see Grace Slick’s artwork, and to meet the woman in person.  Her eyes looked just like the hundreds of pictures and interviews that I’ve seen over the years.  At 69, Grace still had the beauty.  As I stood in the line of people wanting to talk briefly with her, I was nervous.

What would I say?

Back in the late 70s, documentaries on rock music were just starting to become the norm.  Invariably, the subject of the late 1960s rock scene was the topic, and “Somebody To Love” by the Jefferson Airplane would pop up in the soundtrack.  I don’t remember the first time I heard the song – it’s like it was embedded into my DNA.  I bought the re-issued single 12 years after it first appeared in early ‘67.  Backed with “White Rabbit,” Grace’s signature song, I thought that I knew all there was to know about the woman and the band.

Not so.

As I got older and the music of the 80s grew more artificial with synths and electronic gadgets, I headed back to the music of the 60s and started collecting Airplane records.  After the “Somebody To Love” single, I purchased my first copy of the Airplane’s second album, Surrealistic Pillow. I was blown away by the material that appeared on that album.  Grace’s vocals were a large part of the sound that captured my ears.  Hers was the voice of a siren that shone brightly through the instruments and the two male vocalists.  Besides her soaring lead vocals on “Somebody To Love” and “White Rabbit,” check out her counter melody vocal lines on “D.B.C.A. 25,” and “She Has Funny Cars.”  And she sings wonderfully, and plays the recorder, on the beautiful and folky “How Do You Feel,” as well as the beautiful “Coming Back To Me.”

How cool is that? Only very, that’s all.

Grace was partially responsible for the experimental sound on the band’s next album, After Bathing At Baxter’s.  The album took some time to grow on me; it was a big departure from their first 2 albums, and was a purely psychedelic experience from the opening guitar wails.  I found Grace’s tunes “Two Heads” and “Rejoyce” were the perfect portals for me to go through to arrive at the heart of this album.  The following album, Crown of Creation, contained Grace’s wistful “Lather,” as well as my favorite Grace song of all, “Greasy Heart.”  Filled with her clever wordplay and a great vibe provided by the band, it struck a chord in my young musical mind.  I just could not stop playing it.

You are your own best toy to play with
Remote control hands
Made for each other
Made in Japan

Woman with a greasy heart
Automatic man
Don’t ever change, people
Your face will hit the fan

I am standing in front of Grace Slick!!!

After hemming and hawing, I said hello and stated out loud, “This is just too surreal for me.”  I told her that I wasn’t rich enough to afford any of her wonderful artwork yet.  I just wanted to tell her thanks for her inspiring work.  I told her that she inspired me to write, to sing, and to draw.  I stuck my hand out to shake hers, and was struck by the warm in her grip.  She smiled at me.

I walked away as giddy as a 14-year-old girl who just met an idol.  I grinned from ear to ear as I turned to Royal and whispered loudly “Wow, Grace Slick.”  And I do mean “WOW!”

Grace, if you should ever read this one day I just want to say that I’m getting closer to buying my favorite pictures from the night my friend and I met you at your art show in Vegas.  The full impact of the distinction between idol and friend registered when I viewed your painting and drawings.  I realized then that some of your art subjects are not just my musical idols; they are your friends and your history.  Please keep being creative as long as you can.  You may not want to sing anymore; that’s fine.  You inspire in more ways than one.  Thank you.

(Lex Neon is also known as Alex Oliver, the quirky and often eccentric musical genius of “sunshine pop / rock” band Poppermost.  Check out their music and Lex’s rock rantings at http://www.poppermost.com/).

Note: Original release date of the ‘currently listening’ album below is listed as September, 1968.

Currently listening: Crown of Creation