Greatest Disk Jockey Ever?

When I was a kid I remember listening to Jackson Armstrong on WKBW back when that station was one of the most powerful in the country (both in transmission wattage-- they could be heard all up and down the east coast-- and in breaking hit records). They had a lot of great personalities at the time, but maybe the best, and certainly the wildest, was Armstrong. A few years a go, after the station came back to music after years as all-talk (to which they've recently returned), Armstrong once again became their evening jock, and it was a kick to become re-acquaited with his unique style. This clip is from a return engagement with a station in Cleveland, but it's pretty much the same way he sounded in Buffalo (and I'm sure all the other places he stopped during his long, itinerant career).



I'd be interested in hearing your memories of the good old days of personality radio (which sadly doesn't seem to exist anymore in too many places), if you're inclined to share in the comments.

One of My Favorite Dion Songs

Sometime back I wrote about Dion DiMucci as perhaps the most underrated rock and roll star of all time. I'm sure everyone reading this is familiar with his big hits from the fifties and sixties, but here's some evidence of how he was still rocking in the 90s. More recently he's turned to more of a blues vein, and still sounding great.

A Favorite Painting 22

George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845

I think I've mentioned that my favorite book id The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and though this paiting precedes the novel by a good 40 years, it evokes much the same spirit with which Twain infuses his narrative. This paintings is one off the earliest by an American artist where the human figures start to outgrow their surroundings. Much of the previous generation of American paiters placed humans in a clearly subservient or inferior place in relation to nature, emphazising the power of the environment in shaping (and often limiting) human endeavors. But with the opening of the west (this image is contemporaneous with the heavy migration along the Oregon Trail), it was becoming more and more evident that man was shaping the environment to his own ends, and so they were portrayed as in command of the landscape rather than being dwarfed by it. All of that places this painting in an interesting historical context, but to raise an immediate question about the image-- what is the animal seemingly tied to the prow of the boat? It looks like a cat, but why would you need to tie up a cat? If it's some wild animal, I guess that it suggests a degree of domestication consistent with the theme outlined above, but that doesn't necessarily reveal what it is. If you have any ideas, feel free to put them into the comments.

Quote of the Day

Helen Keller (1880-1968) is mostly famous for overcoming some pretty significant physical handicaps as a youngster to become a prominent American intellectual. Here's something she wrote in 1957, that remains relevant today:

"Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature....
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing"

Easter Parade by Irving Berlin

This movie Easter Parade (1948, directed by Charles Walters) is probably showing all over the TV today, but in case you miss it, or just want to cut to the chase (that is, the classic song from which the movie takes it's name), here's Fred Astaire and Judy Garland from the final scene (Fred's dressed almost as sharply as I was in the previous post):

Happy Easter Everyone!

Say wasn't I a dapper youngster? This is me from my snap-brim, ring-a-ding-ding days (along with Sally and Liz in their white gloves phase). You know, when you're wearing a red, crested jacket like this one, you feel like you've got the world on a string. So, does anyone need any insurance, or maybe some aluminum siding?

Sunday Philosophy

Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, was a tenth century Persian physician and pharmacist. Today's quote comes from him:

"The function of the human, rational soul is the
noblest function of all, for it is itself the noblest
of spirits. Its function consists of reflecting upon
things of art and beauty: its gaze being turned
towards the higher world, it loves not this lower
abode and meaner station. Belonging as it does
to the higher side of life and to primal substances,
it is not its business to eat and drink, neither does
it require luxury and coition; rather its function
is to wait for the revelation of truths."

Recommended Reading

I'm co-teaching an Honors Seminar this semester on Sports and Society, and consequently reading and thinking a lot about that topic. I thought I'd start posting some mini-reviews of books in the sports genre that some of you may be interested in reading (some of them, assigned in our course).

The first I thought I'd mention is Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (which I didn't assign, but thinking back, wish I had). It's a wonderful memoir of Hornby's growing up a fan of the Arsenal football club in London (that's football in the European sense, i.e. soccer). He paints a vivid portrait of the ups and downs of fandom, and you'll never read a better description of the elation that comes when your team finally, after years of frustration, breaks through with a championship win. If this were only about sports, it wouldn't really be all that special, but Hornby's genius (also evident in his more famous novels) is to capture the complex road to maturity traversed by contemporary males for whom popular culture-- including sports-- defines a pretty narrow road map for the journey. Hornby is enough of an intellectual to see through the illusions, even as he finds himself often wallowing in them, finding their often banal but occasionally transcendent familiarity reassuring in the face of the more sinister elements of real life (that is, relationships, parenthood, the working life, etc.). There have been a couple of halfway decent movies made based on the book (the Hollywood version translating the football setting to Fenway Park and the Red Sox), but they lack the book's depth and a lot of its humor. Do yourself a favor, and seek out the original. You won't be sorry.

What's the Password?

I'm posting this mainly for Nicky and Helen (and any other nieces and nephews I've held hostage over the years):

Saturday Morning Cartoon

I can't say for sure that I first saw Gerald McBoing Boing on Saturday morning, but it's definitely a cartoon. In fact it was somewhat revolutionary when first released in 1950 (as I learned later), since it eschewed the lavishly detailed animation associated with Disney, MGM and Warner Brothers, with its stripped down, modernistic design. Now, I see a connection with the jazz cartoons of Gene Deitch from the same period, which I encountered in doing research on my dissertation back in the early nineties. Anyway, here's Gerald McBoing Boing's debut, directed by Bob Cannon and written by Dr. Seuss:

Saturday's Words of Wisdom

I recently read an interesting essay about the death of Leo Tolstoy in Harper's Magazine, which made me think he ought to be represented on my blog. Tolstoy (1828-1910) was one of the great literary figures of the modern era, most famous for his novels. Here's something that appeared in his collection of essays entitled On Life and Essays on Religion:

"Freethinkers are those willing to use their minds
without prejudice and without fearing to understand
things that clash with their own customs, privileges,
or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it
is essential for right thinking; where it is absent,
discussion is apt to become worse than useless."

One of My Favorite Movie Scenes

I know some people who consider Stanley Kramer's 1963 comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World to be the greatest motion picture ever made. I think they're nuts, though it's a very entertaining film. I will concede though, that the scenes collected in the following clip (featuring the tragically underrated Dick Shawn) are some of the funniest bits I've ever seen. The counterpoint between the deadpan girl dancer and Shawn's frenetic hipster goofball, Sylvester, cracks me up every time. Ethel Merman is pretty good too, though she has better scenes in the movie not represented here. Check it out:

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Here's another "where was it taken" deal. What is the setting for this sweet mother and daughter tableau? As always, put your guesses in the comments section. Maybe this time it'll take more than one or two guesses.

In last week's quiz, you were asked to identify the comic book being read by Sara, and Mom nailed it right out of the box: it was Tarzan (I guess the tiny picture from the comic in her lap was more legible than I thought). But nobody got the followup question about the greeting "Okay hotshots" and what it had to do with the first question. The answer is that it is the title of a famous Roy Lichtenstein pop art painting in which he replicates a blown-up comic book page (which also indirectly referenced the previous day's "Favorite Painting" post). Well, here, take a look:

Roy Lichtenstein, Okay Hotshot 1963

In the bonus midweek quiz, Ben was the first to identify Marenka as the toddler giving Pilgrim the smiling lesson. I thought for sure that would be tougher because Marenka's back was to the camera, but I guess you all know your relatives just too well.

More Friday Family Blogging

It's dinner time at the children's table. Who among us was never exiled to the folding table set up in the family or living room while the adults consumed their Thanksgiving/Christmas/[insert other holiday here] repast in the comparative luxury of the dining room? Yet, it doesn't seem to have dampened this crew's bonhomie.

Friday Family Blogging

What say we start off with a picture of Nick and Raechelle. Evidently, they were just back from the Renaissance Fair; Raechelle resembles the children I saw in 16th century paintings in Florence!

More Stupidity

On the episode of WKRP in Cincinnati that I watched this morning while exercising, several new clues were revealed with respect to the layout of the station (namely, I spotted a couple more windows and a sign). It's convinced me that my previous diagram was seriously flawed and I've undertaken to draft a new floor-plan. I should have it posted in a couple of days. I know you're all on the edge of your seats ;-)

Quote of the Day

For many years in the early history of our country, there was a pronounced attitude amongst our leaders in favor of the Agrarian ideal, that the yeoman farmer was the stalwart of liberty and democracy. Here's the way Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) made the case, even before independence in 1769:

"There seems to be but three ways for a nation to
acquire wealth: the first is by war, as the Romans did,
in plundering their conquered neighbors-- this is
robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally
cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest
way, wherein men received a real increase of the seed
thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle,
wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for
his innocent life and his virtuous industry."

Weird Movie Moment

If you are registered with YouTube, as I am, and you do searches on particular people or things, the site generates a set of "recommendations" based on your unique search history (Amazon and I'm sure a lot of other commercial sites do the same thing from your buying habits). So, after I did a search for Maynard G. Krebs last week, the video below popped up in my recommendations. I can't make up my mind if this is one of the coolest or weirdest things I've ever seen-- so I guess it's both. From the 1964 film For Those Who Think Young, here's Bob Denver displaying his heretofore unknown (to me) talent for... well, you have to see it:



I don't know exactly why, but watching this kind of gives me the willies.

I Think About Stupid Things Too

Every morning when I wake up, I ride my exercise bike for about a half hour, usually while watching some old sitcom on TV. Recently, I've been watching the first season of WKRP in Cincinnati. You probably remember the program-- a down-in-the-dumps radio station is reinvigorated when the new program director switches the format from easy listening to rock and roll, though some of the older staff don't quite understand why. I guess you could say the main theme is one of generational conflict ("the suits vs. the denims" in the words of WKRP Sales Manager Herb Tarlek). It's a funny show, and it helps makes the cycling go by quickly and painlessly.

Anyway, here's what I wanted to mention: in watching the show I've become obsessed with trying to figure out the layout of the WKRP offices. There are a number of sets seen suggesting just how big, physically, the operation is, and of course there are a lot of scenes where we see characters moving from one set to another, suggesting something of the spatial relationship of one to the other. Among those sets are the reception area (Jennifer Marlowe's domain), Mr. Carlson's office, the broadcast and production studios, Andy Travis' office, the bullpen (where everyone else hangs out) and a storage room. All of these appear on screen, and provide certain clues as to their dimensions, layout, and proximity to one another. Here's how I've mapped it all out, so far:

The problem is, I know this can't be right. Windows are one of the prime features I use to orient the different rooms to one another, and although this is close, it does not, for example, accommodate the window clearly seen in shots of Andy's office (which in this configuration would look into the bullpen). Also, in the window looking out of the bullpen, we clearly see another side of the building, suggesting it sits inside an L-shaped wing, which seems impossible in relation to this layout when one considers there is an open sky outside the window of the broadcast studio. Another anomaly: there's a sign in the hallway of the left doorway in the reception area with an arrow pointing to the left labeled "Studio;" but if that is accurate, then it implies the studio is behind Carlson's office , which we know can't be right from the episode in which Les climbs out on the ledge threatening to commit suicide.

This is like some intricate puzzle that I haven't cracked the code of yet... but I plan to keep trying. And yes I know "it's only a TV show" but now it's gotten under my skin and I can't let it go. So, if you have any suggestions (any architects or architecture buffs reading this?), please feel free to comment (and maybe put me out of my misery).

A Favorite Painting 21

Franz Kline, New York, NY 1953

As a contemporary of Jackson Pollack's, it's easy to lump Franz Kline in with the other abstract expressionists of the post-war period, and obviously, there are stylistic similarities to justify that categorization. But whereas Pollack seems to represent the chaotic nature of that era, to me Kline represents a more ordered perspective, based on solid, tangible structure and an almost mechanical precision. Granted, his structures-- as in the above painting from the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo-- are under stress (and that stress is part of the link to other abstract expressionists) but his tough, angular constructions are clearly meant to withstand the pressure applied to them. Even in the absence of any establishing base or plain, the composition appears grounded (partly the effect of the black line on the right being cut off by the edge of the canvas) on a solid foundation that creates the impression of strength and stability. Because of that, I find it very reassuring even as it presents a somewhat warped perspective of... what? a bridge? a framework of a building? a mechanical crane? In emphasizing the component parts, any of these are possible; but in stripping the image to its bare essentials, Kline conveys aesthetically the core features of all of them, regardless of their specific utilitarian functions, and suggests (to me anyway) an urban landscape almost as striking as anything produced by nature. On another level, I also like how this image evokes a woodcutting (especially evident through the stark contrast of black and white), establishing an almost folk-like quality to the painting.

Maybe all of the preceding is just a lot of nonsense, except that if a painting can inspire this much thought (however rambling it is), then I definitely think the artist has done his job.