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8559. David Ehrenstein - 4/8/2008 4:38:25 AM TA-DAH! 8560. alistairconnor - 4/13/2008 7:38:43 PM My friend the street theatre artist is in the middle of a cultural shitstorm...
She arrives to do her show "Kristin" in the small town of Cuers... this is in the Deep South, near Toulon. The town had an active avant-garde arts program... then came the municipal elections, and the new mayor, hard-right, is determined to put a stop to all this nonsense.
But he didn't cancel the show, which had been programmed by the former mayor. The artist spray-paints half a dozen sentences on the street, using temporary paint. This is a regular part of her shows. She demonstrates that the paint is indeed removable...
... but during the show, the municipal services turn up and cover up her texts with tar. Then afterwards, the mayor sends the cops to her dressing room, to charge her with vandalism... And insult to the flag too (during the show, dressed as a marching girl, she dances on the French flag)
The whole thing is completely nutty... the most literal example of artistic censorship I have ever seen. I really hope it comes to trial, I will take a day off and go myself. I might even be legally implicated, as I am the treasurer of the association that employs her.8561. anomie - 4/14/2008 5:03:42 PM I like to think of Europe as being more liberal and enlightened than this. I mean the artist went so far as to use washable paint. That's more than fair. 8562. alistairconnor - 4/14/2008 5:12:16 PM Just remember, folks, if you want to see this sort of mayhem in a town near you... The artist is planning a US tour for later this year! 8563. anomie - 4/14/2008 6:52:15 PM Tell her to put Vegas on the itinerary. If she gets arrested, she might rub elbows with OJ. 8564. wabbit - 5/9/2008 12:14:26 AM I don't know about everyone else, but I get asked "what kind of music do you like" a lot. My standard answer is boring...I like just about everything, with a couple exceptions. I cannot abide country music from the late 1960's-early 1970's. It's just way too whiny and all that "Stand By Your Man" crap makes my skin crawl. And believe me when I tell you I know whereof I speak; whenever my father was around it was all I heard as a kid.
Not that he had no musical taste - he still adores anything Benny Goodman, and I learned of Ben Colder (think country music's Weird Al a decade or more earlier - Fifteen Beers Ago is pure genius) because of an album he bought in one of the Dakota's. But pretty much anything not big band or country escaped him entirely.
This morning, one of his favorites died. Eddy Arnold, just days shy of 90 years old, died at a care facility near Nashville. His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip. He had many hit songs, but one of my favorites was Come Live with Me and Be My Love.
RIP Eddy Arnold. 8565. wabbit - 5/9/2008 12:57:01 AM Not meaning to be a tease, let me tell you a bit about Ben Colder. He is Sheb Wooley's alter ego...yes, that Sheb Wooley, of Purple People Eater fame. Sheb was in many movies as well.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Ben Colder. It helps to know the original country hits he parodized (if that isn't a real word, it should be). Fifteen Years Ago was a #1 hit in 1970 for Conway Twitty, and then Ben got hold of it and recorded Fifteen Beers Ago - an improvement, imho. Fifteen Beers Ago is the only song anyone could ever get me to sing in a karaoke bar. Trust me when I say that is a blessing to all. 8566. David Ehrenstein - 5/10/2008 8:49:42 PM Irving Rosenthal Day Redux 8567. concerned - 5/13/2008 4:34:04 AM Recently, when I practice on drums, my cat hangs around to listen. Hey, I guess that must be progress.
Btw, I've starting to be able to drum Motorhead's 'Overkill' kick line with a single kick drum. Of course, I'm not hitting it too loudly, but I'm keeping up:) I'm thinking about graduating to a double kick drum set to really kick some ass. 8568. concerned - 5/13/2008 4:35:51 AM Ooops. 'I'm starting...' 8569. concerned - 5/13/2008 4:39:00 AM If I get a double kick set, I can work on some awesome double kick 'blasts'. 8570. concerned - 5/13/2008 5:14:51 AM Re. 8560 -
Well, don't keep us in the dark. What are the content and context of these 'sentences'? 8571. alistairconnor - 5/13/2008 10:14:52 AM Here is a sample of the scandalous satanic texts :
Kristin, age 52, seeks work.
To live without worrying about one's origins, perhaps it's best to keep dancing.
I revolt, therefore we are.
I'm a redskin, but I'll never march in single file.
Being a marginal means you are subjected to laws that are edicted by someone else who is not subjected to those laws.
Pologies for the poor translation.
 8572. David Ehrenstein - 5/13/2008 5:29:24 PM Robert Rauschenberg is dead. (Though why the AP chooses to call him a "Pop Artist" I'll never know.) 8573. David Ehrenstein - 5/19/2008 3:43:29 PM Blossom Dearie Day 8574. anomie - 6/6/2008 10:50:07 PM Nonfiction Book Recommendation: Down the Nile by Rosemary Mahoney. I checked it out to browse through and ended up reading every word. Mahoney wants to rent a row boat and row down the Nile alone, but must overcome cultural obstacles because of her gender. Along the way she observes aspects of daily life in Egypt and recounts some interesting tidbits related to Egyption travel through the 19th and 20th centuries. (I never knew Egyptions did so much pot smoking and beer drinking.) Reads like butter. 8575. concerned - 6/7/2008 7:05:14 AM Btw, 'A Hot Day in Harlem' by the Rimshots has the funkiest drums I've heard on any recording. I've been doing variations of it as a practice drum track for years. 8576. concerned - 6/20/2008 4:55:48 AM Speaking of drumming, when I practiced this evening, my cat came up to me five times to be petted or to rub up against my leg - while I was drumming or during breaks while I was seated at the drum set. She also actually listened to me drum from a distance of less than 15 feet right in front of the drums for at least a third of the time.
This is fairly typical when I practice. Considering how loud drums are, I'm a bit surprised. Maybe my cat just likes rock and roll drumming:) 8577. Wombat - 6/20/2008 4:00:25 PM I am reminded of a lecture my professor was giving on the calming influence of music on animals. He noted that cats responded better to jazz than to classical music. Someone in the back piped up: "they were probably black cats!" 8578. arkymalarky - 6/20/2008 5:20:13 PM Maybe she thought you were purring. Were you playing the snare a lot?
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