An Event Update and A Few Musical Comments

Starting with a few musical comments.   Harry Chapin is known for a number of songs ---just as Tom Paxton is known for some songs that no person realizes he wrote.  Harry Chapin is known, of course, for Taxi, Cats In The Cradle and for the real believers a few others.  For the true aficionados there are more.  So many more.   Yet there is one song which seems to have eluded many since it was written for a musical he composed and was not on any of his recordings---only on the original cast album  In fact, if memory serves, it was on his trip into the city to work on the show that the fatal crash occurred.   Cotton Patch Gospel was the show and it is still being performed by various school and amateur groups around the country.

Jesus in Atlanta and the Gospel told in those terms---musical terms is the basis of the show.   Some great music in it and one song  in particular has always grabbed me and it is, of course, on the original cast recording (you might find it on the Harry Chapin website).  I speak of "Jubilation" which was performed by Scott Ainslie in the original cast and who came many moons ago to our local library benefit program and at Tom Chapin's request joined him in doing the song---here is Tom Chapin doing it with the brilliant Michael Mark (I have not video of Scot Ainslie)



There are many other great songs in that show and if you can find the recording it is truly something to cherish---Harry Chapin as a Bway Musical Creator with a terrific show.

Which brings me to the events update---AUGUST 9. The annual Harry Chapin night at Eisenhower Park in Long Island (around 7:30). It is a very well attended Free concert (just bring some food for the local food banks---the price of admission---you know of Harry Chapin's cause about Hunger) and of the many performers there that evening Judith Zweiman has taken me up on the suggestion of doing "Jubilation"-=--she can do many things but Gospel is something she excels at and last year she blew the house (well, there is no house there) away. Hope to see you there.

One last item---and you will hear more of it on TRADITIONS this coming Sunday. Pete Seeger and a new CD produced by David Bernz and Danny Einbender called "Tomorrow's Children" (Appleseed Recordings). There is a great story behind this and how it came to be---you will hear it on TRADITIONS this coming Sunday along with some of the tracks from this most meaningful and important piece of work.

SInce we cannot give the store away---here is the cover of the CD which contains some wonderful liner notes by David Bernz---carrying on the tradition of Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and so many more. He is, as you probably know, one of the founders of Work O The Weavers----for that alone I add---bless that man.

THURSDAY---Another Edition of .......

A flip of the fedora to Jimmy Cannon

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT......

1)      A simple rule for electronic work on your audio items---it is like sex.  For every “in” there is and “out”.   Thanks to a Cablevision rep for that bit of knowledge.

2)      The P A announcer of the NY Yankees died at age 99 and I am still wondering why all the fuss---a long, full life and he was a P A announcer---not a commentator of note.  Coincidently Geo. Steinbrenner passed on too.  This will allow him to keep hearing the announcements at whatever locale they will be residing in. 

            The NY Times had it right---while the tabloids focused on the sensational they editorialized—correctly---he was not the owner we wanted but perhaps the owner that was deserved.

3)      The new CD that Appleseed recordings has released featuring Pete Seeger (and many others of note) with children of the Beacon Schools area (note I did not say district---read the liner notes to find out why----or listen to my next broadcast) is just a marvel---plaudits to David Bernz and Dan Einbender for their production.

4)      Since we were speaking of children one has to wonder why people in NYC have to go into “hock” to move into areas where they feel their is a good public school (and the zones are not guaranteed) when there was a time when ALL the schools were first rate.

5)      Perhaps there is a trade-off---suburban living and good schools (in general) or NYC living and children with more self sufficiency and a few very prestigious high schools.

6)      The best things in life are free but I bet you cannot make people who buy $150.00 (or 10x that) seats to a stadium concert believe that---they are sure that is the best thing in life.   Live Nation agrees.

7)      Tennis is not really an elitist sport anymore.  You realize that when you attend a major league baseball game and want a drink or food---after the ticket price.

8)      The more I re-visit older recordings by topical singers (Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, Ernie Marrs, etc;) the more I see how prescient they were and are.

9)      I can really empathize with Woody Allen’s Danny Rose and his relationship to former clients.  

10)                    Tuli Kupferberg died and a lot less note was made of it than of “The Boss” and “The Announcer”---surely there is a happy medium known as moderation in things.  At least Kupferberg will be memorialized (briefly) on WFDU’s TRADITIONS---not so the others.

11)                     Does “big” mean better?   Perhaps it was a bubble but smaller homes in the 1950s and 1960’s and reasonably affordable apartments combined with an easier life style until McMansions came along and forget about keeping up the “Jones”—they have to be surpassed---at all costs.   The builders are smart---and they are not named Jones.

12)                    Having read about the tragic events in Gaza and a human interest sidelight I have to ask—given the sidelight---why a woman, 28 years of age, (and, of course, dear unemployed hubby) have 8 children.  Hubby needs work---he is much too busy at home.  Sympathy not needed.

THURSDAY and Another Edition Of.....

A flip of the fedora to Jimmy Cannon

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT......

1)         I have not seen the Shakespeare in The Park version of Merchant of Venice but the film with Al Pacino as Shylock was, to me, brilliant.   This must be awesome---a nuanced and tortured Shylock rather than the cartoon figure of Anti-Semitic lore from previous incarnations.

2)         Lebron James has not yet made a decision where he will make his fortune---should we really care?

3)         Gout is supposed to be the disease of the rich and the very expensive foods they eat. So how come I have the disease and not the positive parts?

4)         Does anyone remember when a presidential candidate lost credibility if he (there no ‘she’s then) was divorced? Now we take seriously sleazy folks like the Palins and her upstanding family.

5)         Little Italy in the Bronx is slowly becoming Little Mexico and it just shows us all the evolution of NYC.  It is all to the good as time moves on and life changes---I will, however, still miss Calavolpe Brothers Bakery---well, I have missed it for some 15 years now.  You had to love the Pastachiotti and the espresso.

6)         Has anyone here ever wondered why you can find out the most interesting artifacts about people, places, and things in the NY Times and find nothing but **** in the last remaining alleged newspapers in NY?

7)         Since everyone seems to be “texting” these days it would seem appropriate for people at a dinner table to “text” each other rather than converse.  After all, they text others so why not the dinner companions since conversation seems to be a lost art.

8)         I would not ban smoking on public beaches since the price in NYC is now some $11.00 a pack it is a good place to kick the habit after finishing last of the smokes and walking into the waves ala A Star Is Born.

9)         Andrew Cuomo just announced that he found people “gaming” the pension system with overtime in the last year or so of employment to receive pensions---some over $100,000.  Gee—there is a surprise---try looking at the suburban police forces who retire from a fairly risk free environment by gaming their systems with even more---paid for by the home owners who can ill afford the tax burden.

10)   Do you remember when people had 7” B/W TV sets with 7 channels?   Then came hundreds of High Def channels on super size flat screens.  So, I have to wonder what the intrigue is in watching TV on a 3” (or less) cell phone screen?  Considering the nothingness that is offered on TV NPR might well be a better choice.  You do not need a screen.   As to “Nothingness”—The Fugs have a very good definition of it in one of their songs  “Nothing”

11)   The World Cup is almost over and while I cannot truly understand it being called “the world’s game” it surely is closer than the U S constant barrage of terms like---World Series, World Championship, etc—for things that are only germane to the U S.   Just last evening I heard a commentator on a TV Special about Baseball claim that “it” was the only real and pure game in the world.   Bottom line---all honest games are pure and meaningful and Xenophobia is not a very positive thing 

       to witness.

                                       

THURSDAY and ANOTHER EDITIONS OF.....

A flip of the fedora to Jimmy Cannon .

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT......

1)      Since they allow tie-breakers up until the 5^th set at Wimbledon would it not be worthwhile to go all the way and allow them at the 5^th set as well?  If they really want to stick with tradition they should not have tie-breakers at all.   What would the queen say?  She is probably at the Polo Ponies (or is it, as Jackie Gleason famously said  Polloponies)

2)      Why are writers so amazed when Federer loses some tournaments and call it the end of an era.  No player can last forever---none have and 28 is a ripe old age in tennis.

3)      If there are Gay Pride parades should there not be Heterosexual Pride parades?  I doubt it is written anywhere that your sexual orientation, your race, your religion requires an acknowledgement of “pride”---it’s just a fact.  How about a Sunrise Pride Parade---also a fact and it happens everyday.

4)      Never thought I would see the day when a Helen Mirrin film would be panned by the NY Times and compared unfavorably  to some sleaze from HBO billed as a documentary---“Cathouse”.  Her film may be bad but HBO is nothing but a bit of porno on cable.

5)      I am always amazed, when thinking back to some sporting goods stores of yore, that Modells is still there (albeit a corporate giant) when the Davegas, the Vims, and such are gone.  I never would have picked Modell to last---it was the grimiest of them all.  Now it is the ---as Gilbert and Sullivan said---The Model of A Modern Major General (Sporting Goods Store)----overpriced name brands and all.

6)      Speaking of stores of yore---gone but not forgotten---to this person---Lafayette Electronics (you got your tubes tested---not bad---no Urologist needed), Trader Horn, Chock Full O Nuts, The Automat (they still own a lot of the real estate and are the largest purveyor of franchised fast food in NYC), and, of course, all those nice local businesses that are now gone and replaced by the corporate giants---Staples ( for the local stationer), The Corner Kosher Deli—(no one really unless you think Hebrew National is a personal friend), and so many more including the local butcher who recently retired his thumb that pressed on a scale and retired along with that digit.

7)      One has to be amazed how old becomes new---and fashionable and pricey.  “Balaboosta” is a Yiddish expression for “Boss of the House”(usually the woman) and now that the lower East Side is not the land of immigrant tenements anymore but an “in” place there is a restaurant serving the food Mama might never have served at the humble immigrant table and for a much higher price.  Shamefully, named Balaboosta.  I wonder if the clientele even know what the hell that is all about.

8)      In speaking of restaurants let me have a brief remembrance of authentic Hungarian restaurant that had dinners (all prepared individually) from soup to ---well, not nuts but better—Crepes—for 12.95.  The NY Times critic once recalled that is was like a stop at her psychiatrist to recall all those good times of her youth---and a cheaper session.  Mocca.   It was on 2d Avenue and 81^st St in NYC.  Long gone. 

9)      Summer Camps that make the campers stay in semi-rough surroundings and make their own entertainment, offer sports and crafts avoiding the electronic games and pop entertainment are really good character builders.  Also---they should also wait their own tables for some sense of responsibility.   Best to avoid the ones that offer hotel like accommodations ---unless you want to create your own monster.

10)                    Strangely summer camp fees are approaching college tuition.  Maybe they should offer partial life experience degrees---if they offer life experience as described above.

 

Senator Robert Byrd---A Remembrance

There are only a few people who can be leading statespeople (note the political correctness in that word) and also record some brilliant music and all the while still be taken seriously as leading political lights.  Robert Byrd was such a person.

TRADITIONS was on yesterday and had the Senator passed on prior to the program rest assured what you will see below would have been included.  Happily he lived longer than the time that is allotted to the program.

No sense to go into his many accomplishments, his strength of character, his ability to change, and more here since you have probably heard them many times on NPR and the like today.  Briefly--


Raised by and uncle and aunt and dirt poor (his mother died before he was 1), joined the KKK later, apologized later, served in the Statehouse of his state then on to Congress---and now dying as the longest serving Senator.  A Senator who truly embodied the tradition of what the Senate was and should be.  He carried with him a copy of the Constitution and was proud to talk of the equality of the 3 branches of government---and never as strongly as when he chastised the Bush Administration for riding roughshod over the Constitution and the equality of the 3 branches.  He was also one of the rare politicians (statespeople) who was willing to apoligize for mistakes made----KKK,  his vote for Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and was also willing to name the names in the Bush administration that he felt have usurped the Constitution.  

If you read, a while back, the novel Advise and Consent he was not the Southern senator depicted there.  Truly a man open to change and to honesty---and, finally, we get to what this is about since you can read and hear about Sen. Byrd on radio, TV, and forthcoming books (for sure).  He was a talented musician.

We have Ralph Stanley, The Osbornes, Bill Monroe---but there is also a wonderful practitioner of the form---Sen. Byrd.  In fact, at many of his rallys he performed and was known to say that people of his W Virginia area believe in 2 things---well, maybe a few more but this is a praphrase---God and Robert Byrd. So as to his music---time to see a video of some music he made on a recording issued by County Records---honesty now---what is not on YouTube these days---but the good part is it preserves our history so well.



To be able to be talented in this area and have it respected by his peers and still be a leading and, frankly, honest light in the Senate the Shakespeare comment comes back to us once again---"....when shall we ever see his like again".

THURSDAY--Another Edition of......:

The weekly flip of the fedora to Jimmy Cannon.

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT......

1) The more I think about it the more I realize that radio is what it is supposed to be on WFDU---eclectic, multi-genre, hosts present what they feel appropriate, and, of course, the fact that a real on air person picks up a phone---it really is “The Right Place On The Left Side of The Dial”. The rest is left to your thoughts. Oh---only one fund raiser a year which garners over 90% fulfillment –a record (Simcha had 100%---such a Kvell).


2) The ASPCA should really try to get Brian (of Family Guy) to be their spokesperson. It could be the next evolutionary step for the canine world against the human world.


3) The judge hearing the case for banning drilling in the Gulf rejected the argument because the government did not prove it unsafe. He is now an oil drilling expert I suppose and, as I recall, BP’s work there was also fairly safe---according to them and the government.


4) I bet you cannot guess what company is having a windfall from the publicity regarding how its product helps clean up those poor critters that are oil soaked. Of course they are not going to mention that it, as much else in our lives, is petroleum based.


5) The World Cup is entrancing the world and, while I do believe it more interesting than U S Football, I have to wonder why that is given the lack of scoring and the unending clock. Tennis, to me, is still more fascinating even though I heard that Federer was behind at Wimbledon (and then won) but during a break was concerned about the World Cup scores---eclectic fellow.


6) Tennis, at least, does not puncture anyone’s ear drums with the sounds found in World Cup (horns), Baseball (bugle calls), and oh so many more invasions of those poor overworked aural canals.


7) I know that times and issues are different but one really has to call the Gen. McChrystal business Pres. Obama’s “Harry Truman Moment”—even Lincoln hesitated regarding Gen. McClellan.


8) In the continuing quest for the answers to Bob Dylan’s ever so deep questions ( some covered in the last few weeks) the question now is ---why won’t he work on Maggie’s Farm anymore? Seemed like it worked out, metaphorically, quite well for him during the heyday of the folk protest movement that he seemed to want to rise above.


9) That was a great documentary about Bill Kunstler on POV this past week. What a wonderful project his daughters created---warts and all. That is real honesty. Just like the daughter of Ramblin’ Jack Elliot a few years back.


10) I liked what the lady who handles jury selection said when she got to the question about waiving your Jury fee---“..never saw anyone say yes to that and if they did I would have to wonder about their competence to serve”. Great sense of humor from truly not over-worked civil servant.

11)  You have to hand it to the Brits and Wimbledon---no tie breakers for them.  Now we have the longest game ever played---time now to sing "Tradition"