© Art Kane, 1967, Aretha Franklin, “Halos”, Esquire Magazine
Wanting to highlight her strong Gospel roots, Art Kane tried waving the camera in a circular motion to try to make halo shapes from the light in Aretha’s eyes. This photo is also a rare, Art Kane crop, as virtually all his images are composed in full frame.
[Found here.]
Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the Mexican Civil War of 1858, and the 1860 Reform Wars. These wars left the Mexican Treasury in ruins and nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire. [Wiki]
So in other words, a nearly bankrupt country stopped paying bills until three big debt collectors showed up. Two of them settled, but the third took it a step further. Mr. Françoise (aka Lucky Pierre) knocked on the door and said, “Nice place you got here. Shame if anything should happen to it.” The rest is history.
In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, here’s Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass with some very embarrassing people of European heritage dancing. (No one in Alpert’s band was actually Hispanic.)
Jonco finds stuff on the internest that nobody else can see, and here’s proof.
Tim Armstrong Ska. [via]
Any band named HorrorPops gets my vote (and we’ve posted about them here before). There’s something inherently cool about a mashup between punk, psychobilly, hotrods and Denmark. Besides, they got a curvy girl with tatts on stand up bass singing lead.
With that, have a great weekend, folks.
Froggy be chillin’.
“I’m just an entertainer, and I use music as a medium for entertaining. But I’m not really an entertainer either, because to be an entertainer it implies you have a great desire to want to entertain.”
Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone‘s take on Lonnie Johnson’s “Mr. Jelly Roll Baker” in 2009. (BTW, “jelly roll” was slang for something other than a pastry.)
On growing up in New Orleans Parish: “There was music all around us, and in my family you’d better play something, even if you just banged on a tin can.”
Lonnie Johnson
Lonnie Johnson created the single-note guitar solo in the 1920s, and decades passed before the guitar was regarded as more than a background rhythm instrument. I don’t know who’s on drums or piano, but that’s Willie Dixon on bass, and the vid is likely from the mid to late 1960s.
My first impression of “ethnomusicologist” Bob Brozman was that he’s a pretentious jerk. On the other hand, he’s crammed some great country/Delta blues licks into his American Steel.
Let’s wrap this baboso up with two of the greatest modern day slide guitar players, on stage together in Austin: Bonnie Raitt & Roy Rogers jamming “Gnawin’ On It.”
So gnaw on that, folks, and have a great weekend.
Nope. That’s not a charcoal study by MC Escher. That’s a photograph. Eyeball it for a bit – story and more photos below the break.
Meet Beta, a woman from Venus who collects alien monsters as a hobby. She’s the heroine of La Nave de los Monstruos (Ship Of Monsters), a classic film that’s showing tomorrow as part of a celebration of Mexican science fiction in New York. Star Lorena Velázquez appeared in 300 movies, alongside legendary Mexican masked superhero El Santo, who defeats a Martian invasion in another film.
[Found here.]
Tornado damage captured by security cams – scary stuff.
[Found here.]
Weather Report was a breath of fresh air from the garbage that was being pumped out over the airwaves in the late 1970s. Although it is pure jazz-fusion, they initiated a resurgence of a nuanced genre based upon the substantial willingness of proper associative mindset awareness and shit. Jaco was great.
Meanwhile, Tom Waits was working the other end of the jazz resurgence spectrum as a hep-cat jazzbo 50s street poet.
Leon Redbone took the jazz resurgence in a completely different direction – right to it’s early American roots. “Diddy Wah Diddy” was a song by itself, complete with the requisite innuendo, but listen to the cornet solo. It’s a note-for-note copy of King Oliver from 1926, “Sugar Foot Stomp.”
And for you babosos who don’t give a carp about weather, this vid of Dick Dale & The DelTones (ca. 1963) is supposedly a rare video of the King of Surf Guitar, but nothing is rare on the internest, and I dare you to name the dances. Double dog dare you.
Have a great weekend, folks. More stuff coming tomorrow.
Approximately 200-400 years ago during Japan’s Edo period, an unknown artist created what is easily the most profound demonstration of human aesthetics ever committed to parchment. I am referring to He-Gassen a.k.a. 屁合戦 a.k.a. “the fart war.” In this centuries-old scroll, women and men blow each other off the page with typhoon-like flatulence. Toss this in the face of any philistine who claims that art history is boring.
Ancient Japanese art is a gas – but my hoax-alert antennae are twitching with the reference to “He-Gassen” even though I found another source here.
[Found here, h/t Princess Natasha.]
Mardi Gras Indians are the Mardi Gras most people don’t see. Modern Day Indians came from a time when African Americans felt left out of the traditional Mardi Gras krewes and parades. Residents from wards around New Orleans formed their own sort of Krewe and named them after their streets or wards. The Indians created elaborate costumes and names themselves after Native Americans- as tribute to the Native American tribes’ role in freeing the slaves. They designated someone to be the Spy, the Flag boy and the Big Chief and these tribes led processions through the streets. In the past, Mardi Gras Indians were violent, but today most tribes simply act out a scene when passing other tribes. Indians do not follow any schedule or parade route and a rare thing to see on Mardi Gras.
Of course there are also a lot of beads, beer, boobs and blues:
Everyone should experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans at least once. The parades are awesome, the music is great, and there are uninhibited and inebriated college girls. There are also pickpockets, drug dealers and people who will fight you over a plastic necklace. The beer/drinks are cheap (since they deal in volume) and the streets and sidewalks flow with unmentionable liquids so you’ll need to burn your shoes afterwards. Again, everyone should experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans at least once.
[Top image and story found here; 2nd image found here. There are hidden bonuses, too – click a pic.]
Tacky Raccoons 