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, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend (for some, extra-long) .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Andy Warhol: Endangered Species— reflecting his interest in nature and ecology — is at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming through November 5th.
Now in Jackson Hole, WYTHE G-20 SUMMIT takes place next month in Hamburg, Germany … and extra security will be needed. But authorities have decided they do not need three officer units from the capital city of Berlin… sent back after having a party with loud music, having sex in public, urinating (in a group) on fences … and one officer was also involved in a punch-up with a colleague from the city of Wuppertal.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Bridges the Cat— discovered in the median of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco before being rescued …. by a California Highway Patrol officer.
Bridges the CatAN EXTRADITION BATTLE is brewing in Australia, where the government is under pressure to extradite to the nation of Chile a long-time Sydney resident (recently working as a nanny), Adriana Rivas — accused of involvement in kidnapping, torture and murder as an agent of former military dictator Augusto Pinochet's feared secret police.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Prissy the Hero Cat— who alerted a sleeping North Carolina family to a high carbon monoxide level (due to an auto being left to run with the garage door closed) — and all members managed to escape safely.
Prissy the Hero CatSAD ENDINGS in SPORTS — released by the Chicago Cubs was catcher Miguel Montero— who was 0-for-31 in throwing out base stealers this season and publicly ripped the team’s pitching ace Jake Arrietta as being a major reason why.
And also Phil Jackson— who won two NBA titles (as a player) and eleven (as a coach) — yet whose career (at age 71) may have ended on a sour note: being fired as president of the NY Knicks, who failed to make the playoffs in his three-year term, alienated players … and whose firing was publicly cheered by Spike Lee.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — stand-up comic (and Laugh-In co-host) Dick Martin and film star Peter Lawford (who actually was married briefly to Mary Rowan, the daughter of Dick’s comedy duo partner Dan Rowan).
Dick Martin (1922-2003) Peter Lawford (1923-1984)........ and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… if you are someone who believes in curses …. one of the most prevalent is that of the Grateful Dead keyboard player who dies prematurely. First there was Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (age 27), Keith Godchaux (32), Brent Mydland (37) and Vince Welnick (age 55). (This applied to those who had been official members, not a guest like Bruce Hornsby).
However, there was one other who has lived to a normal lifespan — and perhaps the least-known, who left after less than two years tenure (and before the band’s foray into larger arenas). He has had an eclectic career since then, yet Tom Constanten was always a different member of the Grateful Dead, anyway — still, he has also performed with Dead offshoots, from time-to-time.
The New Jersey native grew-up in Las Vegas and had a fateful encounter with future Grateful Dead co-founder Phil Lesh. It took place in 1961 at the UC Berkeley campus music department, where Lesh heard “T.C.” say that ….. “Music stopped being created in 1750 ...… and began again in 1950”. As someone who also loved modern classical and avant-garde music, bassist Phil Lesh found a kindred spirit.
The two took a class in electronic composition at Mills College, before T.C. left to study in Europe for two years. He returned to the SF Bay Area to perform in a quintet headed by Steve Reich, dedicated to both jazz and the avant-garde sounds of Karlheinz Stockhausen. A 1964 performance included original works by T.C. and Lesh.
As the Vietnam War began to unfold in 1965, Constanten joined the Air Force as a computer programmer (in order to avoid the draft). Tellingly, after proving his worth as a programmer, he began to reveal Communist sympathies, which had the effect of keeping him stateside — and he was able to compose music after being promoted in 1967 to sergeant at a base near Las Vegas. In his off-time, he heard from Lesh, who asked him to be a guest musician on the Dead’s second album Anthem of the Sun (from early 1968).
On three-day passes, he performed with the Dead in some local shows, and when he was discharged from the Air Force in November, 1968: he joined the band the very next day. His hiring was based partly on the recommendation of Phil Lesh, who saw his technical skills and ideas as helping to push the band in a new direction — and T.C. was also intended as a replacement on keyboards for Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who was more suited as a lead vocalist/frontman.
While they were different in some ways — McKernan was a biker and heavy drinker, while T.C. was a thinker and Scientologist — they hit it off in other ways (neither liking hallucinogenics, in contrast with their bandmates) and became road roommates. As McKernan’s drinking problem (which led to his death in 1973) became more pronounced, T.C. was able to provide some innovative sounds on their third album Aoxomoxoa and shone on their seminal 1969 concert album Live Dead— with the other-worldly epic-length Dark Star as T.C.’s big moment.
Tom Constanten, though, left the band in January, 1970 — ostensibly due to the band’s drug bust in New Orleans, which left him cold. Yet there were several other reasons, as well: (1) the band was moving away from its blues/psychedelic/experimental sound into a more bluegrass sound, (2) he found it difficult to play with the band in public (vs. rehearsals) as he was not an organist by training, rather a pianist, (3) his practice of Scientology left his bandmates put-off, (4) he was not a user of LSD, (5) he had an offer to write music for an Off-Broadway play, and (6) he felt the volume of the guitars was drowning him out on-stage. All agree, though, that his parting from the band was amicable.
That play Tarot was not a hit, but Constanten joined a band with Country Joe’s drummer Gary Hirsh and was later awarded a fellowship at the SUNY Buffalo campus in 1974. Over the years, he has performed many solo piano concerts (or with string ensembles), was a 1986 artist-in-residence at Harvard University and later taught at the San Francisco Art Institute.
When the Grateful Dead organized a series of final reunion shows in the Bay Area and Chicago in 2015, Constanten turned down the idea. Yet over the years, he has performed on several Jefferson Starship tours and also with two noted Grateful Dead tribute bands: the Dark Star Orchestra and Terrapin Flyer (the latter of which also featured Vince Welnick for a time after the Grateful Dead broke-up in 1995). He also performed and recorded with Hot Tuna’s Jorma Kaukonen.
In more recent years, two projects of his are noteworthy. One is a keyboard duo (named ‘Dose’ Hermanos) with someone he met at Jerry Garcia’s 1995 memorial service: Grateful Dead sound engineer Bob Bralove. And he has also performed with one of my favorite bassists (Alphonso Johnson) in his band Jazz is Dead— which interprets Dead tunes in a modern jazz style.
Tom Constanten was among those listed on the Grateful Dead roster (and thus appeared with them) when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He has, though, had his own health problems the past few years. He suffered a heart attack in 2012, and just last year suffered a broken neck (falling on the way to the post office where he lives in North Carolina). He has no performances on the calendar as a result, but at age 73: we may not yet have heard the last from the only surviving Grateful Dead keyboardist formal band member.
Tom Constanten (in 1969) ... and much more recentlyTwo instrumental selections for you — one is his 2009 solo piano version of the aforementioned iconic Grateful Dead tune Dark Star (albeit much shorter) - and in this short piece, he works in two other songs, ending with Turn On Your Lovelight — a vocal tour-de-force for his old bandmate Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan.
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The other comes from his aforementioned collaboration with Jorma Kaukonen — who reprises his noted solo piece from the Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 breakthrough album Surrealistic Pillow. And Embryonic Journey sounds fresher-than ever with Tom Constanten’s piano accompaniment, methinks.
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