Saturday Matinee – Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, American Standard, and The Guy Forsyth Blues Band

“This is the sort of band that gets booked by unwary festival promoters as an early evening support only to discover they’ve stolen the show by 8 pm.”
Since their beginnings as a Copenhagen bar band, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado have been dubbed Denmark’s premier roots rockers. The septet has performed in Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, the US and Asia for the past twenty years.

Hard to find info on the Wisconsin band named American Standard, but it was a side project of The Chris Aaron Band, both fronted by Chris Aaron Shoemaker. Shoemaker passed away in 2014 due to a heart attack. He was 44. “Aaron was one of Wisconsin’s most prominent blues musicians, based for much of his career in the Fox Valley but playing regularly all over the state. He fronted a number of bands, from the Chris Aaron Band to American Standard to National Standard, and played often with other notable blues artists.”

(This video has an annoying smoke alarm beep at 2:15. Ignore it.)
Blues legend based in Austin, Texas, Guy Forsyth has a long resume of recording and performing around the world, with many awards to boot. He’s got a knack for storytelling also, as evidenced in his bio.

News of the Week: Iran’s IRGC is still dicking around, Volod Zelenskyy got bitchy during peace negotiations. An armed civilian took out a 16 year old school shooter in Oregon. The Russian plague is MIA, but there’s a brain fungus on the loose, and Elon launched a Tesla.

I may not have covered everything, but it’s hot, dry and windy here and I get easily distracted. Besides, there’s porch time to take care of whenever you get here. See you tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 976 – A Millicommute, Women with Guns & The Winds of JBL

[Found here, here and here.]

Texas Blue

The giraffe’s name is Blue and lives at Blue Hills Safari Ranch, McGregor, Texas. There’s a brief tour of the ranch on the Utubes.

[Image found here, via here.]

They Stick on ANYTHING

[Puffy stickers from 1979 found in here. ]

Tree of Sorrow

[Found here.]

Soviet Dachas

“A ‘dacha’ is a country cottage, made of wood, used by Soviet citizens to escape the rigors of the city for rural idyll.
[…]
“The word ‘dacha’ has been used to describe constructions ranging from grand imperial villas to small sheds. Originally bestowed by the Tsar to reward courtiers, this custom continued following the revolution, with Soviet cooperatives building dachas for their members. Supposedly for the benefit of labourers, in reality they were destined for those favoured by the State.”

Photos by Fyodor Savintsev from the book Dacha (2023).
[Images and caption found here, via Thompson, Blog.]

Jactitational Hot Links



I Wouldn’t Come Back, Mask Man & The Agents (1966) Harmon Bethea, Tyrone Gray, Johnny Hood and Paul Williams had performed and recorded throughout the 50s and early 60s as The Cap-Tans (and later L’Captans). The R&B quartet had little success until Bethea put on a Lone Ranger mask and renamed the group.

OPEN.

Birdies.

A close call.

I saw a sign.

OORUTAICHI.

Corn weasels.

High contrast.

It’s Crisis Season.

Orange & avocado.

Tactics instruction.

Cool camera effects.

Mouse trap for sneks.

Two acres of bargains.

Rare photos [via Miss Cellania].

Crazytrain425 [via Neatorama].

Fatima’s Coochee-Coochee Dance.

Old little cars [via Everlasting Blört].

Cyberdemonics [via Memo Of The Air].

Reparations & a lighter [via Thompson, blog].

[Top image: Retro wall art by Rzaidcraft, found here.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

The Once A Year Bunk Drive – WP forced me to either upgrade, cull the archives or close down. I chose to shut up and pay. Any amount helps offset the cost, and thanks in advance.

Saturday Matinee – Pokey LaFarge, the Nikki Hill Band, Shawn Pittman w/ The Özdemirs & La Perra Blanco

Pokey LaFarge (aka Andrew Heissler) got his nickname from his mom because he moved too slowly as a child. His chose his professional moniker because he thought it matched the music styles he was drawn to early  country swing and bluegrass (ala Bill Monroe).

“If Tina Turner and Little Richard had a daughter and raised her with the help of uncles James Brown and Chuck Berry, she’d be like Nikki Hill.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune
This line up of the Nikki Hill Band includes husband Matt Hill and Laura Chavez trading guitar solos. I’m unsure of the identities of the bassman and drummer.

Texas bluesman Shawn Pittman backed by The Özdemirs: Erkan Özdemir / bass, Kenan Özdemir / guitar and Levent Özdemir / drums. Pittman is a regular on the European blues scene, touring since 1998.

La Perra Blanco (The White Bitch), aka Alba Blanco, is a high energy blues/rockabilly guitarist from Cádiz, Spain, and has been performing since the age of 14. [More about her here.]

News of the Week:  Iran still won’t stop dicking around. Tropical storm Rachel is getting things wet on the California coast and hurricane Isaias is slamming the Florida panhandle. France is burning, and the Russian plague may or may not exist. ICE is doing what ICE is supposed to do, the MSM misquoted DJT again, and some are upset that the Fort Hood mass murderer’s execution by firing squad is planned to be televised.
That’s about all I can stomach for now. Rain is expected tomorrow, but we have a Porch and the Time to sit and watch it. See you at the arbitrary hour.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 975 – Hot Bites, Scooby Scare & A Pixellated Puss

[Found here, here and here.]

Duneball Court

Photographer Yura Borschev was a runner up in the 2026 Drone Photo Awards for this image of a basketball court in the UAE after a sandstorm.

[Image found here.]