In which David Combines Leon Redbone with Tico Tico

A couple weeks ago, in the very wee hours of Sunday morning, I accidentally caught a rerun of an ancient Saturday Night Live. The musical guest was Leon Redbone - with a couple sidemen, all sitting in a sort of Palm Court, wearing tuxes, doing an old-timey tune. Nice.

Leslie has several Leon Redbone LPs which I ripped to MP3s. All the songs are very laid back, stylistically pre-jazz and feature his lightly graveled voice on tunes like Shine on Harvest Moon, Melancholy Baby, Polly Wolly Doodle.

A few days later, on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, I came across an archive of sixty-some versions of the Latin-music-for-Americans tune Tico Tico. It's one of those pieces that attracts musicians who like to play fast and over orchestrate. "Cool!" I downloaded them all.

Listening to 3 hours of Tico Tico is a strong audio drug. "How 'bout some methedrine?" "No thanks I'm doing Tico Tico." It takes a long time to clean that twisty melody out of your brain.

My friend Scott commented on the many obvious differences between Leon Redbone & Tico Tico. This gave me a Light Bulb Moment! I created a playlist with both sets of tunes (total 4 1/2 hours) and turned on shuffle play - that is I mixed them randomly.

It actually works pretty well. Individually the two tend towards the monotonous. But in combination, they balance out pretty well. Two different musical worlds. That's why I like it.

If you want to listen to a few Ticos, - I suggest Xavier Cougat (#1) as urtext, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Perez Prado, Ferrante & Teicher (#1) (there's a little fugue) and Ebony & Ivory (interesting Brahmsian motion).

Oh, just listen to them all. I guarantee you'll move your hips more when you walk.


Music Reviews

The Strange Case of the Lost Rabbit

A white rabbit, approximately 5 feet tall, stuffed, not so clean, wearing an ermine-trimmed purple robe but no pants, was seen sitting on a residential street corner leaning against a stop sign.

Are you looking for Lost Rabbit? Click here. (And you can hear someone else's idea of a thirty-second piece of music.)


Stories

30 Second Spots - It's Sixty Bucks a Week

click here to hear It's Sixty Bucks a Week which really ought to have been called "It's Like Sixty Bucks a Week" because the man who said it used the world "like" a lot, in between giggles.

33 Seconds

Copyright © November 27, 2005 by David Ocker

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

In which David Picks Two Free Movies

Because of some lawsuit Blockbuster Video gave me coupons for two free 'non first run" movies. I decided to rent pictures I knew a lot about (because they're often in the media) but which I'd never seen. My choices were . . .

THE BLUES BROTHERS - Leslie says I like any movie with car crashes, explosions and chase scenes. She's pretty much right. This movie, about two unlikely musicians on a Mission from God, has all those things plus great music. My favorite - Cab Calloway singing Minnie the Moocher.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST - Since I'm not a Christian, I've never read the book. When this came out I wanted to decide for myself if was anti-semitic (I think it is) but I didn't want to contribute to Mel Gibson's bottom line. Hence "free" was the only way I could see it. I feel it quite sad that this violence could be an expression of anyone's religious faith.

LIFE OF BRIAN - I paid money to Blockbuster to rent this because I needed a good antidote to Mel's movie. "He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy."

Movies
Religion

30 Second Spots - Exclusion & Embrace

click here to hear Exclusion & Embrace - which is the name of a book someone sitting near me was reading (and underlining eagerly) as I wrote this.

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

The Strange Case of the Marketing Blimp

A Pasadena Thanksgiving tradition since 2005. The Geraldo At Large Blimp; small, noisy and unimpressive - like the show.


Media

In which David Recommends Three NPR Pieces

• I've read several of L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez's articles about a homeless, schizophrenic Juilliard-trained violinist named Nathaniel. It's a powerful story that could yet have a positive ending. Articles might be available be at the Times' website (if you register you can see pictures). Instead, here's Lopez's NPR piece about how Nathaniel visited Disney Hall.

• If you need proof that our country has revived the fifties, I suggest the fatuous NPR series called "This I Believe". When it comes on I change the station hoping to stifle the urge to submit my own article about how I don't believe any of that, er, stuff. Fortunately Penn Gillette has written something even better. (P.S. Leslie decided that I don't really look like Penn Gillette. But do I think like him?)

• I mentioned earlier that I'd like to boycott corporate voice mail systems. I learned on NPR about a catalog of tricks on how to avoid the computer and go straight to the human. Here's the NPR article or, to save time, go directly to the list of phone menu cheats.

Media

Religion

Music Reviews

30 Second Spots - While He's Doin' a Run

click here to hear While He's Doin' a Run - you probably won't like it. It's thirty two measures long - sort of divided into four 8-bar phrases - each measure lasts one second. Plus a fermata at the end and a kind of one-chord coda. Formal, huh?

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

In which there are Three Cat Pictures

Leslie is in Costa Rica for two weeks as part of her never ending search for the perfect worm. She mentioned that her hotel room is insufficiently stocked with cats. So I'm posting new pictures of our three felines to keep her up to date. The rest of you are probably not interested.

This is Batty on the left) with Chickapea

This is Miss Ivy Turnstiles, the six-toed cat

This is OJ

Biology
Cat Pictures
Stories

In which David links to Richard's Website

A friend of mine from graduate school and from Zappa days has started his own website. His name is Richard Emmet. His website is here. Check it out.

He has the obligatory biography and audio examples of his music. If you click on "Zappa Stuff" you can read Richards essay about working for Frank. And there are pictures.

Something about those pictures seems really familiar to me. With Richard, Frank and John Steinmetz there's a guy with a beard and not a single gray hair (yet). And he's playing the clarinet. Hmmm. That was ME more than 20 years ago.

(And do check out the pictures of Richard back at Cal Arts in the 70s.)

Music Reviews
Stories

In which David talks about Bird Flu, Pizza and Chicago

I noticed a bit of "news" about Richard Nixon - apparently he lied to us about the war in Cambodia. Now there's a surprise.

I like to point out that the real job of the President is to lie to the people.

Sometimes they call it "leading" getting us to follow him. Sometimes it's putting the best face on a situation which is called "spin". He doesn't always have to speak the lie - he has peo