Last night, Marion and I went to see the Colorado Symphony perform “Bugs Bunny on Broadway.” This is a traveling show that’s been performed for 18 years. It’s a celebration of the classical music that was used in the old Warner Brothers cartoons. Some of them were played with the standard soundtrack; others had the symphony playing the musical backing.
Overall, it was quite an enjoyable evening, although the show wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
I’ve been busy, and haven’t kept up with posting recently. I have, however, marked a few things of interest:
Via Coyote Blog, we have the World’s Hardest Easy Geometry Problem.
Via Jed, we have some cookies that sound absolutely delicious. I think my daughter will try these, actually.
Via a Yahoo Group to which I belong, we have a delightful a cappella holiday music performance by Straight No Chaser:
If that performance inspires you, perhaps you will wish to make your own motivational poster.
I happen to meet the Programmer’s Dress Code. I do occasionally wear suspenders, though, and the only pair I saw there was in part 2. It wasn’t even worn by a programmer.
A few days ago, Slashdot noted that Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I have most, if not all of them, but I’ll freely admit that I haven’t read all of them, and I kind of lost interest around book 5 or 6. The best comment in the thread is this one:
Hansel and Gretel, outlined in the style of Robert Jordan:
Book 1: Hansel and Gretel live happily with their mother and father. Their mother falls ill and dies. The family mourns her loss. The father starts courting another woman in the village, to the dismay of Hansel and Gretel. At the end of the book, she wins over the hearts and minds of the two children and marries her father. They live happily ever after.
Book 2: Oh, wait, they don’t live happily after all. The stepmother turns out to be hateful and cruel. Ultimately, Hansel and Gretel resolve to run away from home. Gretel expresses fears about the wicked witch who is rumored to live in the Forest, but Hansel insists nothing could be worse than living at home with their stepmother. After much bickering, they depart.
Book 3: Hansel and Gretel cross the boundary between Village and Forest. Gretel reprises her misgivings about the dangers of the forest. Hansel reiterates his arguments in favor of running away. After much bickering, they agree to continue, using bread crumbs to mark their trail. They get lost. Gretel blames Hansel. Hansel stubbornly refuses to admit his mistake.
Book 4: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Wise Owl, who warns them about the Wicked Witch of the Forest.
Book 5: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Cunning Fox, who encourages them to visit the Wise Woman of the Forest.
Book 6: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Cryptic Raven, who warns them about the Wicked Witch of the Forest.
Book 7: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Devious Serpent, who encourages them to visit the Wise Woman of the Forest. … and that’s about the point where the Faithful Reader finally realizes that this hack has stretched a simple fairy tale into seven giant novels in which nothing actually happens.
And finally, Don Surber points us to to wacky warnings. Hie thee hence, and find out who won a copy of Remove Child Before Folding, and with what.
I have a copy of the book, “Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer,” but that doesn’t have the annotations. I also got to see a performance of the musical, “Tomfoolery” sometime in the 80s. That was a lot of fun – it was staged in a commercial greenhouse, so there wasn’t a lot of stage area. About the only clear memory I have of it is the performance of “Smut” by one of the female cast members, who was dressed in a very “little-girl” dress and carrying a teddy bear during the song. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
That reminds me … I need to get my Tom Lehrer CD back from my daughter.
Aaron Parson’s A Compilation of Sing-Along, Folk, & Rock Guitar Songs (with chords and lyrics)
There are 186 songs there at the moment, and you can transpose the songs and produce printable versions of them in different keys. Neat.
Following a link from David J., I clicked on a link Shawn Macomber included more or less in passing.
Although the link was about the Rod Stewart song Maggie May, it included information about the song In A Broken Dream, by Python Lee Jackson. I have that somewhere, on a K-Tel or similar LP, and had always thought that “Python Lee Jackson” was a name Rod Stewart had used when he was starting out. I never looked it up, though, and it appears that I was mistaken.
From research… The story unfolds like this. Disc jockey John Peel had signed the group (Python Lee Jackson)to his Dandelion record label, but they were having problems with the vocals. From the liner notes of a little misunderstood – The Sixties Sessions: Around October 1968 – or possibly month or so later – Rod recorded the infamous In a Broken Dream with Python Lee Jackson. Although originally put down as a guide vocal, Rod’s performance was so strong that the band’s lead singer, Dave Bentley (who’d penned the song), never got around to putting his own vocals over the top. Although it flopped upon its initial 1970 release, it became a huge worldwide hit when reissued in 1972. As Rod later recalled: “It was all John Peel’s fault. He said, ‘come down and show this guy how to sing the tune’. So me, being naive, and in no particular group at that time [which was patently untrue – Rod was always in a group, and was at that time in the Jeff Beck Group], I went and showed him how to sing it. Then suddenly, three years later, it ends up as a hit single. I don’t think Peely had anything to do with that, though. On the other side of the single [the 1970 release] there’s a really bad version of the Temptations’ Cloud Nine, with me singing the wrong words. But it wasn’t called ‘Cloud Nine’ on the record…they renamed it ‘So Fine’ [NB: Rod got it wrong – it was actually mistitled Doin’ Fine]. I didn’t even get a mention.” Peel was quick to confirm he had nowt to do with the reissue: “It all happened about four years ago … I’d seen this Australian group called Python Lee Jackson at the Arts Lab in Drury Lane. We tried various singers on the song and one of them happened to be Rod. I didn’t particularly want to issue anything with a session singer because it wouldn’t be representative of what the group was really like, so when Miki Dallon [who’d produced the session] offered to buy the tapes, I was more than willing to sell…” The initial 1970 release, on Dallon’s Youngblood label, had indeed paired up In a Broken Dream and Doin’ Fine (YB 1017); however, a different B-side, Boogie Woogie Joe (which didn’t feature Rod), appeared on the 1972 reissue (YB 1002). Rod had also recorded a third track with the band, The Blues, which appeared on their album, In A Broken Dream (SYB 3001), and was later paired up with (a by now correctly titled) Cloud Nine on a 1976 Younglood single (YB 1077). Confusing or what ? [NB: Rod later said that the fee he was paid for singing these three tracks was a set of new mats for his car!!!] — liner-notes by N. E. Fulcanwright
I’d have been slightly uncomfortable titling a post anything like, “Arrgh, it do be ‘Talk like a Pirate‘ day, ye scurvy rats!”
Rather than merely note the day, or go into full-blown faux-pirate speech, I thought I’d have a more music-related post.
I like music.
First, I’ll mention a couple of songs related to the subject that aren’t on the list:
Arrgh! is new to me … I picked up the CD when we were in Vermont. It’s quite fun, and I should be able to sing it without help in the next day or so. It mentions Calico Jack, Henry Morgan, and Blackbeard.
The Ballad of Mary Read is also pretty fun, and I sing that one in the car a lot. Actually, I probably do most of my singing in the car – both by myself and along with the radio. In any case, it mentions Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Blackbeard, and Dancing Jack Duvall.
Dancing Jack is an invention, I believe … all the others are historical characters, however inaccurately portrayed.
I also sing Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers (the link goes to Google Music because the official site appears to be down). I learned this one back in the 70s. I had two versions of it. One was from the “Between the Breaks” LP, and the other off the “Fogarty’s Cove” LP. I may still have them on cassette, somewhere.
There’s plenty more “pirate music” available, but I’ll finish with a link to Music to Maraud By.
The Japanese, however, know how to take it to the next level:
Via Scribal Terror.
I got this from Julian on Software. Im pretty sure hes wrong about cats not seeing anything on CRT screens – when Butch was younger, she used to be fascinated by National Geographic-type wildlife specials. If a scene showed birds flying across the screen, shed run to the side of the TV to get them when they came out.By the way, the post title comes from a ragtime tune.
Update 5/15/2007: I don’t know what happened. I noticed that the Metacafe link screwed up my font size on the rest of the page and tried to correct it. Ever since then, I can’t get the video to appear, although the blank area at the beginning of the post sometimes seems to act as a link to the original video at Metacafe. Strange and frustrating.
But this video put a smile on my face.
The Washinton Post had a world-class violinist perform as a street musician in L’Enfant Plaza during rush hour to see what would happen. Read all about it here.
Via Ace of Spades HQ.