October 2022 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

A Bug Sandwich for Sunday Stealing

People watching

This week’s Sunday Stealing is A Bug Sandwich, though only two questions address that animal category.

1. You are walking down the road, and you look down. There is a bug. Do you step on it?

Goodness, no. The great outdoors is its turf. Now, in the house, that’s quite another matter.

2. What is one fantasy that you want to come true more than any other?

I REALLY wanted to fly. It more hovering about 10 meters above the ground. Dreams, fantasies big time.

3. Someone knocks on your door. Do you look out the window to see who it is before you open it? Do you open it regardless of who it is?

I tend to look through the glass door, largely because we don’t have that many people ringing our doorbell. Most of them are people who drop off a delivery, mail, UPS, cat food delivery, or human food delivery. In this COVID-endemic period, this is even more true.

Another factor is our cats. Midnight is hostile enough to go out and harass strangers, even though he is an indoor cat with no skills in the wild. (He got out once, and I wasn’t sure he’d make it back.).

Most likely, my wife or I would slip out the door and talk to the visitor.

4. Have you ever eaten Play-Doh?

Maybe, possibly. I have no specific recollection of doing so.

5. What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon as a child?

Probably Top Cat, the theme of which is here.

Watching people go by

6. Are you a people watcher?

Oh, goodness, yes. On Friday afternoon, in a ten-minute span:

A guy was walking across New Scotland Avenue near St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, NY. The driver, wanting to make the right turn from South Allen, waited patiently for the pedestrian to finish. Car behind vehicle #1 laid on the horn. The pedestrian yelled to car #2, “Chill out, man!” Then driver #1 and the pedestrian locked eyes in a nod of mutual appreciation.

I walked to the bus stop on South Allen. It used to be a thrift shop, but it, and several other buildings, were razed, and the area fenced off. The driver of the car parked behind me got into the vehicle. I recognized immediately that they would have to back up to get out. So I stepped onto the narrow curb and closer to the car in front of me. The driver made a U-turn and looked at me, and gave me a head nod, noting that I had enough situational awareness to get out of the way. I returned the gesture.

The driver of the car parked in front of me walks to the car. They ask me, “Can somebody help you?” I said, “Nope, I’m just waiting for the bus,” pointing to the sign. To be fair, the bus route sign was obscured by a mesh material. The no-standing zone sign, though, was more visible. They got in the car confidently. But as they got into the seat, they shrank down just a little as to suggest they had made a false assumption about my motive when I was standing there. BTW, I got out of the way of that vehicle but got no eye contact from the driver.

Citrus and its friends

7. I have a bowl of fruit. There are apples, oranges, and pears. You help yourself to one. Which one do you choose?

If it’s Barlett pears, MacIntosh apples, and oranges, it’ll be Bartletts. If it’s other pears, Mac apples, and oranges, it’ll be Macs. But if it’s other pears and apples, then it’s oranges, assuming I have enough napkins.

8. What is your biggest pet peeve in the blogging world?

Those damn Captcha things designed to prevent comment spam. I have had difficulty reading distorted words, and I’m sure that others experience it too. Those image recognition CAPTCHAs are almost as irritating.

9. What was the last really funny movie you watched?

Perhaps Knives Out.

10. What word do you use far too often?

Suboptimal.

11. How long do you spend in the shower?

Seven minutes, maximum.

12. What is something you’ve never done that you secretly are dying to do?

Pieing a politician I dislike. The list is long.

13. Your favorite flavor of soup is?

New England clam chowder.

14. You are sitting on a bench in the park, and a bug walks in front of your feet…

I say, “Hi, bug.”

Hair covers, er, covers of songs from Hair

blond, brilliantined, Biblical hair

I have had the musical Hair stuck in my mind since a friend of mine sent me links to some hair covers. I mean, covers of songs from Hair. And there were a LOT of them, only some of which are represented here.

Fifty-five years ago, Hair debuted off-Broadway (October 17, 1967). It opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,750 performances. Like certain phenomena – Laura Nyro for a brief time, and The Beatles forever, the songs were covered by a variety of artists.

I saw a production of Hair in Binghamton c. 1975, and I was captivated by it. Conversely, when I saw a technically superior production at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady in the 2010s, it was less satisfying. It felt as though the performances treated the material as nostalgic camp. And maybe it is. But it generated some great songs. You may find even more versions listed at Secondhand Songs.

Tunes

Aquarius – The Undisputed Truth
Sodomy – Stan Kenton (!)
Ain’t got no/I Got Life – Nina Simone, #94 pop in 1969; I have this
Hair – The Cowsills, #2 pop for two weeks in 1969. The group took some heat for excising one verse. Did people think this verse was going to appear on the radio in 1969?

They’ll be ga ga at the go go
When they see me in my toga
My toga made of blond
Brilliantined
Biblical hair

My hair like Jesus wore it
Hallelujah I adore it
Hallelujah Mary loved her son
Why don’t my mother love me?

Easy to Be Hard – Jennifer, #128 pop in 1969; Three Dog Night, #4 pop in 1969; of course, I have this
Frank Mills – Lemonheads
Hare Krishna – James Last
Where Do I Go? – Carla Thomas, #38 RB, #86 pop in 1968; I own this

Walking in Space – Quincy Jones
Good Morning Starshine – Oliver, #3 for two weeks pop in 1969; Strawberry Alarm Clock, #87 pop in 1969
The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In) – Jennifer, B-side of Easy To Be Hard

Munich: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring / White Boys / Love to Love You Baby – Ariana DeBose, from Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In – The Fifth Dimension. #1 for six weeks pop, #1 for two weeks adult contemporary; #6 RB in 1969. I love the story about how the group came to record the song, involving a lost wallet.
Querschnitt, 20 videos

Jennifer became Jennifer Warnes, an excellent interpreter of the music of Leonard Cohen

NY: released from prison? you can vote

Poll workers are needed

My sister Leslie and I attended the service at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, NY, on October 9. During the announcements, it was noted that “if you are convicted of a felony and released from prison, you can vote. If you are convicted of a felony, and your sentence is suspended, you can vote. Visit the New York State Board of Elections website to register or re-register to vote.”

Read this information from nycourts.gov. “All other criminal convictions do not take away your right to vote. So, misdemeanor and violation convictions do not prevent you from voting even if you are serving time in jail.” The legislation that allowed this was passed in September 2021, yet I managed to miss it.

Moreover, “before being released from prison, you will be notified verbally and in writing by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”) that your voting rights will be returned once you are released. You will also receive a form of application for voter registration and declination form, help filling out the form, and written information on voting. You can submit your forms to the state or county board where you live or have the DOCCS submit it for you.”

I’ve long been frustrated by states who decided that a felony conviction permanently disenfranchised someone. Once someone has “paid their dues,” they should be given the rights of any citizen, if only so they can feel ownership in the society they are returning to.

Voting

In New York State, early voting starts on Saturday, October 29, and runs through Sunday, November 6. One must request an absentee ballot online or by mail by October 24 or in person by November 7. One must return the absentee ballot by November 8.

Poll workers are being sought in NYS for early voting, as well as on Election Day, November 8. And one gets paid! I worked for the general election in 2021.

But does it matter?

My great concern is that there are so many election deniers running for office across the country that the very fabric of our democracy is likely in peril. Their general narrative is “if I win, I won fairly, but if I lose, it was rigged.” This is particularly problematic when these are candidates for governor and secretary of state, who have a hand in certifying the state’s election results.

Other threats to democracy, such as gerrymandering and disinformation, are also problematic. I’ve read stories with the same basic facts; one says the candidate or official is “rattled” or “confused,” whereas another will make no such characterization.

In the NY governor’s race, Alan Singer notes that “MAGA lunacy is not just rampant in the Red States. Republican Party candidate Lee Zeldin is bringing his version” to the Empire State. True enough.

He’s running against the current governor, Kathy Hochul. Frank Robinson calls her the “Worst Candidate I’ll Have Ever Voted For,” and he’s not wrong. He concludes, “At least Hochul’s corruption is merely business-as-usual for New York, not as far down on the vileness scale.”

One of my US Senators, Chuck Schumer (D), is up for reelection. I’ve seen a couple of his warm-and-fuzzy ads. But I have NO IDEA who his Republican opponent is. (Who the heck is Joe Pinion?) There is also a LaRouche party candidate named Diane Sare.

Still, I vote. I ALWAYS vote.

Angela Lansbury: stage, screen, TV icon

The Manchurian Candidate

When I was crashing at my parents’ house in Charlotte, NC, in the spring of 1977, I went to the downtown library to watch the 1944 version of the movie Gaslight. It starred Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten. In her film debut, 19-year-old Angela Lansbury, as the young maid Nancy, received a best-supporting actress Oscar nomination. (Some folks did not know the meaning of gaslighting in 2013.)

In 2018, my family went to the cinema to see Mary Poppins Returns. In her antepenultimate film, she had a cameo at the end as the Balloon Lady. Her final film appearance was Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, in which she played Angela Lansbury.

Her greatest film role was as the mother of a would-be assassin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Casey Seiler of the Albany Times Union newspaper says she was “absolutely perfect” in “one of the few paranoid political thrillers that haven’t been outstripped by reality.” Here are just three minutes.

One of my favorite parts, though, is her voicing Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Here’s Tale As Old As Time.

She received an honorary Oscar in 2013 for her career as “an entertainment icon who has created some of cinema’s most memorable characters, inspiring generations of actors.”

Cabot Cove, Maine

Of course, the performer was best known as Jessica Fletcher, novelist and an amateur sleuth in Murder, She Wrote. She appeared for a dozen seasons (1984-1996) plus four TV movies between 1997 and 2003. She received an Emmy nomination for best actress in a drama series for every season, yet never won.

As The Hollywood Reporter noted, the program was “a huge ratings hit on Sunday nights following 60 Minutes. Both CBS shows appealed to intelligent, older viewers, and Lansbury was the rare woman in the history of television to carry her own series… ‘Nobody in this town watches Murder, She Wrote,’ Lansbury, referring to the TV industry, said in 1991. ‘Only the public watches.’

“The show was ranked in the top 13 in the Nielsen ratings (and as high as No. 4) on Sundays in its first 11 seasons but plummeted to No. 58 when CBS moved it to Thursdays in 1995-96 against NBC’s then-powerful lineup. The series finale, quite appropriately, was titled ‘Death by Demographics.'”

LA Times quotes her: “What appealed to me about Jessica Fletcher is that I could do what I do best and [play someone I have had] little chance to play — a sincere, down-to-earth woman. Mostly, I’ve played very spectacular bitches. Jessica has extreme sincerity, compassion, extraordinary intuition. I’m not like her. My imagination runs riot. I’m not a pragmatist. Jessica is.”

I freely admit to watching the program regularly. Maybe, as one critic noted, it was an opportunity to try to solve the crime with, or maybe before, the author.

Theater!

As the Los Angeles Times noted, “It was her deep roots in the theater, and the many Tony Awards that followed that won the hearts of theatergoers and critics, who were often rhapsodic in their praise…

“Critic Rex Reed declared that she brought ‘the Broadway stage about as close to an MGM musical as the Broadway stage is likely to get,’ according to the 1996 biography ‘Angela Lansbury.’

“Her charismatic performance as the eccentric title character in a 1966 production of Mame vaulted her to Broadway superstardom and resulted in the first of her four Tonys for best actress in a musical.

“At 83, she tied the record for most Tony Awards won for acting when she received a fifth for portraying a medium in the 2009 revival of ‘Blithe Spirit. (Audra McDonald set a new record in 2014 when she won her sixth.)”

I saw the TV movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 1982, which was quite compelling. Her Broadway performances were undoubtedly even greater.

Here are Hollywood notables paying tribute to Angela Lansbury, plus A Critic’s Appreciation by David Rooney.

Electric Light Orchestra and the Beatles

a reasonable choice

For my next answer to Ask Roger Anything, our contestant once again is Kelly Sedinger, the fine Buffalo-area blogger at ForgottenStars.net.

I read somewhere that ELO did the kind of music that The Beatles WOULD have done had they remained together into the 70s. Agree? Disagree? (I’m not really equipped to assess the claim, but it kind of feels right to me, at least in part.)

First, I have to note that you wouldn’t have gotten this question from Kelly two decades ago because he wasn’t a fan of the Beatles at all and likely was unfamiliar with the Electric Light Orchestra. For some reason, I remember what I believe was his first Beatles song of the week, Don’t Let Me Down, a B-side.

In 2010, I asked him: “OK. How the heck could you dislike the entire oeuvre of The Beatles for so long? I can see if one doesn’t like the more avant-garde stuff or thought the early material wasn’t as good as the later tunes. But to reject the whole eclectic eight years? And how did you finally become enlightened?”

His reply: “The flip answer is, ‘Tastes change.’ The more serious answer is… ‘Tastes change.'”

Me? Obsessing?

Anyway, I started obsessing with this. I found a list of bands with three or more songwriters. Eh. The Band, the Eagles. Nah, not the right vibe.

Reddit has a list of Beatlesque bands, but of a later period. The only one I even considered was the Christine McVie/Buckingham/Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac, which is unrecognizable from the Peter Green Days. Heck, they even have their own white album, Tusk.

I thought the snake-bitten band Badfinger could have been it. The group was on Apple Records; their first hit, Come and Get It, was written by Paul McCartney. Day After Day has a lovely guitar line by George Harrison. And No Matter What is definitely of the Beatles genre.

I began fixating on When The Beatles Hit America by John Wesley Harding, the very strange song in which “John, Paul, George and Ringo are going to be reforming as The Beatles in 1993.” Which was, of course, impossible.

But it has this section, “And for anyone who didn’t realize or know, it sounded a lot like ELO, or ELP, or XTC, ABC, YMO, BTO. But it didn’t sound much like P.S., I Love You.”

The candidates

Well, not much like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, though the Billy Preston organ, especially on I Want You (She’s So Heavy), is very nice. Bachman- Turner Overdrive? Not really.

ABC is an interesting consideration. Wikipedia notes, “Their early-1980s success in the US saw them associated with the Second British Invasion.”

Yellow Magic Orchestra, I’ll admit I don’t know musically. It’s a “Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978… The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music… and effectively anticipated the “electropop boom” of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.”

XTC was actually the band I first considered. “The band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in a variety of styles that ranged from angular guitar riffs to elaborately arranged pop.” Eclectic, like the Beatles.

And, in the end

But Electric Light Orchestra is a reasonable choice. The group formed in 1970, the year the Beatles officially broke up. They were more commercially successful than many of the other candidates, selling “over 50 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music groups of all time.” They made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

John Lennon remarked that ELO were the “Sons of the Beatles.” George and Ringo played with ELO. Jeff Lynne played with Paul McCartney. And of course, Jeff shows up in the Traveling Wilburys with George and produced an album of his and the 1995 Beatles songs. This is a bit ironic because “In an article from the 1970s, when the writer described an ELO song coming on the radio, [George] said, almost dismissively, ‘Sounds like the Beatles.'”

Check out the 2008 article in The Guardian. ELO: The band the Beatles could have been. “Critics called them ‘dull’ and laughed at the spaceships. Did they not realise Jeff Lynne was a songwriter to rival Lennon and McCartney?” And Lynne visited the Abbey Road studios while the Beatles worked on the white album.

So, sure, ELO can claim the title. How are Jeff Lynne, ELO, and The Beatles connected?