Let’s see what happens when your host (me) has nothing to say, and instead it’s open mike night. Step right up, speak your mind, tell a story, sing a song, whatever.
12/7/2024
Anything goes #5
34 responses to “Anything goes #5”
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I try hard to not chase random Web memes because, in part, I’ve never figured what the fuck a meme is. But I was on this one early and actually followed the career of one of the singers (it was not in music). I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this on your site before. So here it is > > >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs3JDm18HvA
jtb
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17 years ago, says YouTube. I *think* I saw it once, a lot of those years ago, and I loved seeing it (again?) today. This is the real thing, man: Music as art.
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Speaking of a loss for words. How about a damaged 1990’s VHS tape that someone found in the dump.
On Invidious
https://inv.nadeko.net/embed/5LXDgvwhscE?t=495Or YT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LXDgvwhscE
Skip intro to 8min 10sec. Glorious 240p.I’m the 38yo actor on the far right (long blonde hair).
No one I know has ever seen this. Or ever will.
Yee Haw!-
Oh man, that is righteous! So many questions…
• Was liking country music a requirement?
• How did this end up in a dump? It’s delightful!
• How long was the rehearsal to get everyone well choreographed?
• Are you still getting residuals?-
• Was liking country music a requirement?
Only for the people that bought the video.
• How did this end up in a dump? It’s delightful!
It was fished out of a Goodwill dumpster. By a YouTuber who hoards 1990’s, VHS CRINGE. I’m guessing no one wanted to fork over fifty cents, on pink tag day.
• How long was the rehearsal to get everyone well choreographed?
10 minutes. The only thing rehearsed, was the opening shot. And there was tape on the floor. So we’d know, where our marks were.
We had to “sight-read” whatever Yee Haw Lady did, on the fly.
Two extra cameras always rolling, for cut-aways.Whenever there’s a close-up of the band, at least 2 of us are screwing up.
• Are you still getting residuals?
I think I made $200 for the day. No residuals. It was pulled off the shelf. Because of the girl, on the left (who was really nice).
Girl on the left:
She won a Gold Medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
https://usashooting.org/athlete/launi-meili/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launi_MeiliApparently Olympic athletes have to follow rules, associated with their image. She appeared in the video in 1992, without permission. Lawyer stuff, ensued.
Yee-Haw Lady:
She used to be pro Cheer Leader. Owned a big dance studio in Spokane. She moved to Palm Springs ~1995, and made a small fortune producing dozens of kooky dance videos. Still does, to this day.-
> We had to “sight-read” whatever Yee Haw Lady did, on the fly.
That’s a talent. One of many never dealt to me. I’d fall on my face.
$200 for a day seems like good money in the 1990s. Woo-hoo!
The Olympic Committee owns an athlete’s image? Enough to go all legal, when she wasn’t even doing her sport? That’s aggravating. Makes me hate the Olympics more than I do, and I already dislike the Olympics. Crazy that we let rich bastards gets even richer off the sweat of amateur athletes.
Did you call her Yee-Haw Lady at the time? Ha!
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Did you call her Yee-Haw Lady at the time? Ha!
I worked for her, several times. That was one name, of many.$200 for a day seems like good money in the 1990s. Woo-hoo!
Minus 40 bucks to the agency. Had to travel a few hours. It was good money.The best money I ever made, was waiting tables. In upscale restaurants.
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Hope you called the regulars ‘honey’. All the best waitresses do. Of course, I wouldn’t know nuthin’ ’bout upscale restaurants. Suppose they’d frown on honeying.
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Honey or Sweetheart. My grandmother used Sweetheart, so I picked that up from her.
She owned a joint in Wolf Creek, Montana named Frenchy’s. 1937 til 1968.
It’s were I learned how to wait tables. I could pour a Ditch (bourbon and water) when I was 12.
She used to give me cigarettes. She taught me to play pool. Called me Jamie-Dear, and curled my hair.
I miss her.
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You have lived a life! And dagnabit, that’s the whole point of being alive! Love it!
People our age should have a life’s worth of life behind them (and plenty ahead), and man I don’t want to be too harsh and judgmental but there are lots of old-timers whose most amusing anecdote is a prank from their college days, or an argument with the boss circa 1979.
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I’ve been a fan of the Hot Club of Cowtown for 25 years or so, and Elana James keeps playing the fiddle hotter as she gets older. Here are a couple of numbers from YouTube from across the years . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWgVT1Yq9lo
OK, if you’re gonna hear a Hot Club trio, you have to open with Orange Blossom Special, but how bout “Deed I Do” . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2hsYWJ1YB8
Or “Ida Red” . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv-03ISRAGE
John
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I was 30 or so before someone ‘splained to me the difference between a fiddle and a violin. That lady plays a fine fiddle.
My toe’s tapped out so I haven’t clicked the second and third links yet, but I will.
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John,
Elana James, the Hilary Hahn of Swing!Here’s more to listen, if interested.
Rendezvous In Rhythm
Studio Album
2013
https://musicmp3.ru/artist_hot-club-of-cowtown__album_rendezvous-in-rhythm.htmlWishful Thinking
Studio Album
2009
https://musicmp3.ru/artist_hot-club-of-cowtown__album_wishful-thinking.htmlViolin, dear to my heart. Started 4th grade, on a pint size rental.
By age 14, I’d saved enough baby-sitting and allowance to buy my very own full-sized violin. 50 cents/hour – one dime every Saturday – $200 – respectively.
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Musicmp3.ru is music to my ears. Wonder how long they’ll let me listen to “low quality” recordings before demanding that I buy the “high quality” version. Probably my ears could tell the difference, but low-q for free is for me and I am totally digging the instrumentals, so far Dark Eyes/”Ochi Chornye” and Minor Swing and I’m Confessin’. I could listen to this all day. When they start singing I’m less enamored, but it’s still good.
First ever cover I’ve heard of “The Continental”, from THE GAY DIVORCEE.
Do you still play?
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Dark Eyes/”Ochi Chornye” and Minor Swing, are two I also liked the best.
I do still play that same violin. And a beat-up fiddle (bridge is shaved down for easier double stops).
Picked up the mandolin a few years ago. Same strings and tuning. 8 strings, instead of 4.
Musicmp3.ru, almost too good to be true.
I use every add-on known to man to block cookies/ads/scripts. On an old fork of Firefox. So half the internet is broken.
If Musicmp3.ru gets “stuck” (won’t play, no sound etc), then “clear recent history” in your browser, and refresh the page. Happens to me. if I skip songs.
First thing I look at every day,
https://musicmp3.ru/new_albums.html
to see what’s new.Scroll down, and it’s a digital version of Tower Records (rip). Hot off the press.
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That page of new albums scrolls on and on and on and it’s still only new albums from 2024. You listen to something new every day?
The four instrumental songs off that Cowtown album are still playing on a loop, softly, in the background here…
Do you do your violining and fiddling for your own amusement, and/or in a band?
I’ve been a Firefox guy since it was Netscape Navigator. No problems for me on that page, but between all my adblockers and Firefox’s small market share, I do have to use Chrome for a few websites and some purchases.
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I use the latest build of plain-no-peanuts Firefox for anything bank.
Used to play in Orchestras, String Quartets. A couple bands. I really like acoustic blues. I don’t play out, anymore.
Play everyday, for my amusement (sanity) though. I like to write.
MuseScore, Audacity, Finale, Pro-Tools, Tabledit etc. The usual culprits.
I’ve transcribed professionally for a few musicians that don’t know how to read, or write music.
I also like to arrange, and write variations.
Would have danced all those years, even if no stage. Same with music.
You listen to something new every day?
Yes-
Respect for doing the music. Never have, and find myself listening to music much less often now that I’m neither driving (car radio) or working (sanity headphones). My room is usually quiet, except for the sound of reading, and old movies, and the cat’s near-nutty meowing.
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Jaime,
My favorite rock mandolin is, oddly, Zep with John Paul Jones dropping his bass (and keyboard) and getting it on with the mandolin on Going to California. On an album with STH, I still think Going to California is the most engaging cut, and the mandolin seals the deal.
John
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John,
That’s cool that you know that!
Going to California, is hauntingly beautiful.The Battle of Evermore is another one, featuring epic Zep mando.
Figured out Evermore a couple years ago, from this clip of a 1997 tutorial produced by Nancy Wilson (Heart’s cover).
“Nancy Wilson–How she plays Battle Of Evermore on mandolin”
Invidous (no ads)
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=FMyn1ItURys
or
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyn1ItURysOther Zep Mando Trivia, retrieved from the description under the aforementioned vid:
Jimmy Paige wrote “The Battle of Evermore” noodling around on JPJ’s mandolin.
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Just wanted to let you know I unsubscribed from your followit, not because of you but because of their emails had close up pics of chest moles in their (likely AI) news story addons. Not my ideal way to start the day.
I still hit your site a least once a day so their notifications were lagging in any case. I came across Pathetic Life back when you were selling magnets in Berkeley and I’m very to happy to have found you again.-
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve been paying that company to send those emails, and they’ve either just started adding ads, or my ad-blocker kept me from seeing them. Having now seen the ad, I’m no longer a customer of that company. Their software was hinky anyway.
I *ABHOR* ads, would never knowingly send ads, and apologize for the chest moles.
The good news is, if you or anyone still want email reminders, they’ll still come, but they’ll come from me, not that company, and with no ads. And any time you’re ready to unsubscribe, just hit reply and send ‘unsubscribe’.
Gotta ask, do you still have the fish magnet?
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Oh, I wish I was a proud owner of one those magnets, but that’s just time reference to when Reading Frenzy up in Portland started carrying your zine.
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Is Reading Frenzy still there? Googling yields inconclusive but pessimistic results. Hope they’re still in business. Chloe was always great to me.
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Chloe was awesome. It’s been years since I’ve visited her shop. She had to move from her space near Powells as the landlord jacked the rent up something fierce. She did a sucessful kickstarter and was able to move but she ended up closing her shop in 2016.
She did sucessfully run for Portland City council in the same year and her tenure had mixed results. Portland politics tends to devour even the most qualified, best intentioned pols.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloe_Eudaly-
Weird that came in as anon, but that’s on me for not paying attention.
Via Chloe’s store I found you, Dishwasher Pete, Cometbus, and the various zines Jeff Zenick put out. I loved going through that place and finding all the voices.-
Whoa, man, what an all-caps FASCINATING AND WONDERFUL LIFE Chloe Eudaly has had! Reading Frenzy was always good to me, paid up front and even had nice words to say, and it was always Chloe I dealt with, and the wiki page lists some serious accomplishments politically too.
Probably I never even met her, unless she came to a zine festival or something, it was all by mail. And yet all these years later I knew her last name and even how to spell it.
And she changed your life too, leading you to all those great zines and also mine. In my dotage I find it more and more awesome when I come across the rare people who honestly have, like the cliche says, made the world a better place.
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But I wouldn’t tell her, of course, because that would be intrusive and anyway, I’m shy.
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Although my brain was washed away by alcohol and restored by John Prine, I have a vague recollection of commenting this poem last year about this time. It’s one of my favorites and shouldn’t be confined to December, but usually is.
John
Karma
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Christmas was in the air and all was well
With him, but for a few confusing flaws
In divers of God’s images. Because
A friend of his would neither buy nor sell,
Was he to answer for the axe that fell?
He pondered; and the reason for it was,
Partly, a slowly freezing Santa Claus
Upon the corner, with his beard and bell.Acknowledging an improvident surprise,
He magnified a fancy that he wished
The friend whom he had wrecked were here again.
Not sure of that, he found a compromise;
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men.-
It’s supposed to be cynical as fuck, right? Dude fucked over a friend, and thinks giving a dime to a Santa bellringer makes it all better?
My recap is admittedly less poetic than the original…
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The cool part is that it’s a sonnet of form ABBAABBA CDECDE, which, I think, makes it at Italian sonnet, but don’t quote me. You might want to quote poet/singer Patti Smith though. “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.”
John
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Cool quote, but I don’t think Jesus died for anyone’s sins. Not even his own. He died because he was an inconvenience to people in power, a story older even than the story of Jesus.
I checked the archives, and you did not submit that poem last year. It was the year before! (:
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Jesus in hell, I can’t believe I’ve been haunting you that long.
jtb
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It’s been a pleasure. Stick around.
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