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 Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled The Bodice Project— a traveling sculpture exhibition about breast cancer survivors and their emotional healing post-breast cancer — is at the Huntington, West Virginia Museum of Art to July 25th.
SIGNS of SPRING— the incredible variety of shades of the color green on trees and other vegetation. Also, remembering to leave extra distance between the vehicle in front of you in residential areas …. as they may hit their brakes upon seeing a “YARD SALE” sign.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this ProPublica essay on how dollar stores not only tend to dominate poor neighborhoods …. their store practices almost act as an incentive for area criminals.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sage the Cat— one of two kittehs now at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma who work in pest control at the museum’s gardens.
END of an ERA— across the street from NYC’s Pennsylvania Station, the Hotel Pennsylvania— which has been closed since the pandemic went into full force — is now slated to be demolished in the future. Built by the same architectural firm (McKim, Mead & White) that built Pennsylvania Station (and the majestic Post Office now converted into the Moynihan Train Hall) — at the time of its 1919 opening, it was the largest hotel in the world and its telephone number (PEnnsylvania 6-5000) was not only the subject of a 1940 Glenn Miller Orchestra song: it’s believed to be the oldest continually working phone number in the city.
QUOTEfor today #1:
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Nimbus the Cat— an Oklahoma kitteh who has now been named Summit Cat at the Mt. Washington weather observatory in New Hampshire …. the Northeast’s highest peak.
QUOTEfor today #2— the ending of a Politico story (on how social media bans are hurting FormerGuy more than his supporters let on, publicly):
A Republican strategist texted me a lament. “The ‘Big Lie’ press release was just sad,” he said. “It’s like an old rock band after they lose the lead singer. You’re seeing Journey … but it’s not like you remember.”
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).
MOTHER-DAUGHTER?— Academy Award winner Laura Dern and motivational speaker/author Rachel Hollis (Girl, Stop Apologizing).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in the late 70’s in NYC I happened to see an opening act known as The Cramps— and had no clue how to describe them. Punk era, so there was that … garage band, OK …. early R&R like Link Wray …. B-horror movies ... turns out they are considered part of what’s referred to as pyschobilly. There was also part of them that was glam rock — a genre I have never cared for. Yet there was something memorable about their show, which didn’t go as far in ghoulishness as, say, Alice Cooper. They fell prey to multiple battles with record companies, plus a revolving-door of musicians (twenty-four over their history) … yet had quite a thirty-year history worth noting.
The story begins in 1972 in Sacramento, California with a young woman named Kristy Wallace — a true non-conformist rocker — hitchhiked a ride from Erick Purkheiser, an LSD and Alice Cooper enthusiast. Yet their partnership did not form until they saw each other in a Sacramento State University class, “Art and Shamanism”. They fell in love and bonded over music: driving cross-country to Sam Phillip’s Sun Records warehouse, buying numerous rockabilly singles.
They relocated for a year to Purkheiser’s hometown of Akron, Ohio — which was germinating its own music scene (Devo, Tin Huey, the Bizarros) — and began planning a band where Kristy Wallace would be named Poison Ivy Rorschach and Purkheiser as Lux Interior. They’d be the only constant members of this band.
Making their way to NYC in 1975, Lux worked in a record store where a co-worker named Greg Beckerleg became Bryan Gregory — a guitarist with a Veronica Lake long-hair style. They became a quartet with a woman on drums named Miriam Linna — whom they had met during their sojourn in Ohio — and was one of the few band members never to adopt a stage name.
They began playing at some of the NYC punk clubs in 1976, when Miriam Linna left after a year to co-found a music magazine (and later, the rockabilly label Norton Records). She was replaced on drums by yet another Ohio native, Nicholas Stephanoff (with a stage name of Nick Knox) — and this quartet could be considered the classic line-up (if any of them could be so).
They recorded some singles in Memphis, produced by The Box Tops’ Alex Chilton and gave a landmark 1978 free concert for patients at … the California State Mental Hospital in Napa. The next year, they were signed by Miles Copeland to his I.R.S. label, and they opened up for the band that his brother was the drummer for — The Police — on a European tour.
This led to their first album — again travelling to Memphis, this time to Sam Phillip’s new recording studio in 1980. Songs the Lord Taught Us had some fan favorites: TV Set, Garbageman, I’m Cramped and their take on the film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf. They were planning a tour to promote this when … Bryan Gregory quit the band abruptly, taking the band’s van … filled with equipment. It is believed that he did so due to his heroin addiction and twenty years later he died of an overdose at the age of forty-nine.
The following year they filed suit against I.R.S. Records over unpaid royalties, and this kept them on the recording sideline for another two years (though they did have some live recordings released on indie labels). Yet their rockabilly sound caught-on in more subtle ways, with one reviewer believing it paved-the-way for the Stray Cats (and even Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love).
They came back in 1986 with A Date with Elvis, where they moved away from the horror/humor film to a more overt sexuality — hinted at in the opening track How Far Can Too Far Go— in their music (which had always been there). In 1987 they hired their first bassist (Candy Del Mar), who was with them for five years and long-time drummer Nick Knox left in 1991 (he died in 2018 in his native Cleveland at age sixty-five).
They released three more studio albums from 1991-1997, with their final recording being 2003’s Fiends of Dope Island— hearkening back to their B-movie fancying. In 1995, they appeared on a Halloween episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.
Their final concerts were in late 2006, and one reviewer noted how Lux and Poison Ivy tried their best to maintain their rebellious looks at advanced ages. There is a 1998 Greatest Hits compilation and the formal end came on the death of Lux Interior in 2009 at the age of sixty-two.
A song that I heard them play in the 70’s was not one they wrote — instead, it was a 1958 hit for the Canadian-born rockabilly/country singer Jack Scott— and The Way I Walk was performed in a rather boisterous way. Unsure when this was recorded; assume it was in the second-half of their career.
The way I love is just the way I love Come on and be the one I'm thinking of Touch me baby, it feels so good Sometimes I think I wanna but I don't know if I shouldThe way you love me's got to cramp my style Oh, little baby, I would say bye-bye Love me, baby, love me right Love me morning, noon and night
The way I walk is just the way I walk The way I talk is just the way i talk The way I smile is just the way I smile Touch me baby and I'll go hog wild!