Anybody But Ralph

Announcing a new blog in our attempt to influence the upcoming mayoral race.  We want a new mayor...

Join the discussion, pro and con, at this new blog.

More Femme Fatales

Ah, well, yes indeed...  Will dreams ever come true...   Jane Greer has always fascinated me.  She had a distinctive look, voice,  and manner...  and her films with Robert Mitchum are classics.  Give a look at "Out of the Past", probably one of the greatest and most popular film noirs.

The End of the World Pt. XVII

Death comes to us all...   (sort of super sad, tho...)

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Sadly, another old friend, Mark Richmond, passed away at the end of January 2015.  At my age, it's difficult when friends are no longer with us, there are less and less of my generation still living.  A certain loneliness creeps in.  

I'd known Mark since college days in the late 60's, and at his passing began to realize how much he influenced my life.  I was just a Midwest farm boy hitting the "big city" for my college years when I discovered that the real college classroom was a gathering place called the Huddle.  Of course the 60's was a period of immense social and political upheaval, and we were all swept into it.

Mark introduced me to so much...  blues and folk music, the Beat writers, the IWW and Joe Hill House.  He and his group of friends became mentors as well as compatriots.  

In the late 60's I started the Cosmic Aeroplane with Steve Jones.  Around the same time, Mark became the original guitarist in Smoke Blues Band.  

The band was reasonably successful around town (decades later Smokey Koelsch and I would release a CD of Smoke's recordings...  it is still available here).  Mark would eventually move on to concentrate on a teaching degree and his new family.  He taught high school in Wyoming, Southern Utah, and Arizona, becoming an important influence on many underprivileged and troubled youth.

We would see each other a few times a year when he traveled here to visit family.  There was always so much to talk about and never enough time.  I had hoped to record his music (he wrote many great songs over the years) in my fledgling studio, but, alas, it just never happened.  Opportunities lost.

He will be missed, so sad he left us so soon.  A very eloquent and comprehensive obit can be found here.

One last picture, from a visit with Smokey in Wells, Nv.  "only a hobo but one more is gone"

The New Service Industry Pt.II

From Park City... (click on pic for larger size)

And the original post... Part I...

Real Rock and Roll

Just finished the recent biography of Jerry Lee Lewis by Rick Bragg.  Needless to say, Jerry Lee was one phenomenal performer...  I've been watching a bunch of YouTube videos to complement the book.  And it confirms my belief that nearly all modern pop and rock, even Indy stuff, is basically crap.  The originals are still the greatest!

Jerry Lee mentions an important influence on his career, the blind pianist Paul Whitehead.  I can't find much at all on the web, perhaps my search criteria is poor.  But there was a reference in the book to one tune that Whitehead plays on, backing the guitarist and vocalist Gray Montgomery.

The tune is "Right Now", and can be heard, thankfully, on YouTube.  There's a nice Paul Whitehead piano break in the middle of the song, and I guess the only known recording of this great musician. (There is some background on the scene and these musicians from the '50s here).

This rockabilly tune is all you need to hear to understand the soul of rock and roll and why I can't appreciate any of the modern garbage.  Really, just listen to "Right Now", it's all there...

Freaked Me Out!

That's Los Angeles below the asteroid.  Supposedly this superimposition represents the asteroid recently visited by a spacecraft and its size representation compared to LA.  Oh, boy, scifi becomes real...  please don't hit us!