I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM — and wotta relief to know that our Snark Tank leader is back behind the controls — plus our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — works of European academic art of the 19th century in an exhibition entitled Academic Splendor will be at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida through April 16th.
Cleopatra in Jacksonville, FloridaCHEERS to a short trip last weekend for a family dinner in Manhattan. In returning north on Amtrak: the train was sold out, and north of Springfield, Massachusetts (where a crew change takes place) a conductor named Mike Kujula came-on there. He wouldn’t know my name, but recognizes me from travelling 3-4x a year on that route — and pointedly asked:
“Aren’t you a bit old to be going on Spring Break?”
Indeed, I was the oldest person on that car — where numerous students got off at stops near all of the colleges in western Massachusetts, then Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and finally the University of Vermont.
BELATED HAIL and FAREWELL to the Egyptian scholar (who specialized in the ancient Greco-Roman world) and also spearheaded the campaign to re-create one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Mostafa El-Abbadi (who died last month at the age of 88) was upset that the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt (which disappeared anywhere from 48 to 642 AD, depending upon which history one believes) had no modern equivalent.
So he began a campaign that eventually attracted funds from UNESCO as well as the Egyptian government. He became estranged over the direction the project took and was not present at the 2002 opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina — but he said he was quietly proud, with his cat Cleopatra keeping him company.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Grace the Hero Cat — a Wisconsin kitteh who awoke her family (over dangerous levels of carbon monoxide) by pounding on their bedroom door ….. enabling them to call 911 for help before it was too late.
Grace the Hero CatTHREE YEARS AGO … I wrote a Top Comments diary about the jazz vibraphone player Gary Burton — an Indiana native — who has long been one of my favorite musicians. In that diary, I noted that Burton (in his autobiography) was quite critical of musicians who continued to perform at concerts despite the fact that their skills had atrophied beyond a reasonable point (mentioning Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton by name) in their old age.
Well, at age 74: Gary Burton felt that he reached that point himself …. and just completed a short farewell tour …… to practice what he preached.
Last month, the band Black Sabbath — who could have played their final shows in London (where they became stars) or in Los Angeles (where several members live today) — decided that after 50 years, they should go out in their hometown of Birmingham, England.
And on St. Patrick’s Day, Gary Burton played his final concert in Indianapolis — completing the circle in his home state — which I wholeheartedly approve of.
FRIDAY's CHILD is part of a Washington, D.C. program called Blue Collar Cats— kittehs unsuitable for adoption, but able to work at restaurants, brewery grain storage sites and other commercial properties with a rodent problem.
One of the Blue Collar Cats in D.C.WHILE IT WAS OVERLOOKED in most of the numerous tributes to Chuck Berry — last autumn, he revealed that (at age 90) he had finished a new album (recorded in bits-and-pieces over a number of years) — and while he did not live to see this, it is now set for a mid-June release.
YUKS for TODAY — in the debacle over the ACA “replacement” bill: first, I have this image of John Boehner depleting his wine cellar, with so many chances to toast the downfall of the free-dumb caucus who made his tenure as Speaker misearable.
Also, Ed Kilgore recounts the ugliness over W's bill enacting Medicare-Part D legislation in 2003, citing an essay from "Young" Ezra Klein ... and I loved this line about a former Missouri GOP member of the House:
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a “no” vote, spent the night “hiding on the Democratic side of the floor, crouching down to avoid eye contact with the Republican search team.”
(She found a “sanctuary city”, in a manner of speaking).
THE CARIBBEAN region marked the 100th anniversary of the end of an immigration flow from Asia of indentured servants— and their descendants play an important role in Caribbean society to this day.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the decline in presidential letters recently ….. compared to some truly inspiring letters of the past.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — TV/film stars Christopher Lloyd and Larry David.
Christopher Lloyd (b. 1938) Larry David (born 1947)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… among the inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 were some in the non-musician category. And in a world where record company owners are thought of (if not crooks) then as lower than used-car salesmen …. Jac Holzman has earned his accolades by the words of the artists he signed. As head of both Elektra and Nonesuch Records - he has gone from small-time operations to large and back again, yet always had a hands-on approach that has served him well.
The Manhattan native attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and while there started Elektra in 1950 with $600 – half from his Bar Mitzvah money. His background as an amateur radio operator led to him to release a Morse Code instruction album that - along with a sound effects album - both sold well (and he didn't have to pay royalties). He also released albums catering to a niche audience (such as ethnic albums, and an Air Force songs album) that went … where the major labels of the day didn’t. One could characterize his strategy as that of the 19th Century baseball star Wee Willie Keeler ….. “I hit ‘em where they ain’t”.
In addition, he began Nonesuch Records by licensing classical music titles (often Baroque) inexpensively from overseas labels (many of whom had no US distributors in the 1950’s) – thus, enabling him to undercut major US classical labels on price – all of which helped finance his entry into popular music as the 1950’s ensued.
Being the head of his own label meant that he could sign artists without having to go to a board of directors: Holzman said that while a label like Columbia or Decca could take six weeks to decide, he could have a band signed and in the studio before a major label made up its mind. Notably, the folksinger Josh White was (falsely) accused of being a Communist and blacklisted: but Holzman signed him in 1955 and White not only sold well … but was also a signal to other artists that this was a record company that would take chances on performers.
And it was folk music that helped fuel the company’s growth into the 1960’s: with performers such as Theodore Bikel, Tom Paxton, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Judy Henske, Tom Rush and notably Judy Collins– who cited both Holzman’s hands-on approach as well as his wisdom on how to market his bands.
Holzman did say that (having based Elektra and Nonesuch in California) his one regret was missing Bob Dylan when he came to New York, as Columbia signed him. Yet Holzman saw Dylan when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and was delighted by the sound – so much, he signed some of Dylan’s back-up musicians who were part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band– his first electric band signing.
A young Jac HolzmanHe then went on to sign the LA band Love– a bi-racial band with vocalist Arthur Lee– that once again made Elektra a label that appealed to the new rock bands seeking an alternative to old-line major labels that didn’t understand rock. In fact, it was Arthur Lee who begged Holzman to give a second-listen to a local band in Los Angeles that had been signed by Columbia … but Columbia let their option lapse without a record release (as none of its producers wanted to take them on).
Holzman had not been impressed at first hearing this band, but took Arthur Lee’s advice and, in the summer of 1966, signed The Doors - who would become the biggest-sellers in Elektra history. The band members were impressed that they could pick-up the phone and talk to the record company president (easily contrasted with the lack of attention Columbia paid to them) and guitarist Robbie Krieger owned several Elektra/Nonesuch flamenco guitar albums in his childhood.
When The Doors recorded their debut album– which Holzman considers the best his company ever released – he convinced the band to take a risk by holding back from releasing it in time for the Christmas 1966 season – but instead, to release it in January, 1967 - "when nobody's going to come out with a record. I won't release any other album that month, so you have a clear shot." And with the first billboard ever to advertise a rock album, it took off without any competition – and the album is #42 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
And a prime reason why Light My Fire was included in the NPR 100 list of the 20th Century’s best American musical works: the increasing length of hit singles forced many radio stations to abandon short 45 lengths: indeed, it was the mark of a sophisticated radio station that played the full-length version of “Light My Fire”, “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Like a Rolling Stone” rather than the cut version meant for Top 40 stations. Elektra also signed artists such as The Stooges and MC5 that major labels were slow to react to.
As the 1970’s dawned, Elektra began to sign the emerging singer-songwriters, with Carly Simon, Harry Chapin, Mickey Newbury and Bread – but after twenty-three years at the helm (early-on making change out of his own pocket) Holzman sold the label in 1973 to Warner Communications for $10 million (not a bad return on $600).
He stayed with the label for three years by contractual arrangement – and since 2005 has returned there to oversee independent labels such as Discovery (a jazz label he acquired in the interim) and Cordless Recordings– a netlabel he founded.
In the interim, he was on the board of directors of such companies as Atari, Pioneer (which helped launch the Laserdisc and the CD along with Warners) and helped convince the former Monkee Mike Nesmith to speak to Warners about his idea for PopClips– which morphed eventually into MTV.
Jac Holzman turned age 85 last September, wrote his autobiography in 2000, was the subject of a biography in 2010 … and just last year was named Senior Technology Advisor at Warner Music Group — in many ways, a talent scout.
Jac Holzman was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for non-performers in 2008 and as mentioned was inducted in 2011 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame– introduced by the Doors drummer John Densmore (photo right, with Holzman on the left) . Densmore thanked Jac for tolerating the band’s … actually Jim Morrison’s destructive ways (when many labels might have dropped them) and summed up his remarks with, "His philosophy is ... ‘Let’s make art, and the money will come.’ And guess what? He paid his artists."
Jac H. and John DensmoreOne of the songs that The Doors played in their early days that very much appealed to Jac Holzman's offbeat musical sense - as was recounted on a Terry Gross radio interview - was the Alabama Song - written by the team of Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht for their satirical operetta The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny dating back to pre-Nazi era 1930. As Holzman has observed, "Hearing Kurt Weill's 'Alabama Song' was a surprise coming from a rock band, and their arrangement impressed me". And below you can hear it.
Show me the way To the next whiskey bar Oh, don't ask why Oh, don't ask why
For if we don't find The next whiskey bar I tell you we must die
O moon of Alabama We now must say goodbye We've lost our good old mama And must have whiskey Oh, you know why
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