Saturday Matinee – Iguana Love, Mantis Love, Don Shaffer & Elizabeth Cotten

Henry Lizardlover, born March 27, 1954 as Henry Schifberg, is a herpetoculturist, writer, and photographer who has lived with as many as 60 lizards in his home.

Iguana love [via].

Mantis love [via].

Don Shaffer was the inspiration behind Radar O’Reilly, a character in the popular novel, movie and TV series “M*A*S*H.” It disturbs me how Hollywood co-opts and distorts the true contributions of people of merit and presents them as caricatures, as they did with Shaffer, Joe Rochefort, Adrian Cronauer, and many others.

Elizabeth Cotten had an interesting self-taught finger picking style that’s difficult to play – unless it’s played left handed on a right-handed guitar (and yes, her last name is spelled “Cotten”).

90 years old, she was still pickin’.

Playing guitar was tough enough for a lefty like me. I was never proficient on guitar or bass, and could never hold a pick; however, I knew some fakes enough to fool some folks. Learning on a re-strung guitar is probably a worse handicap for a southpaw than just flipping it over and keeping the standard tuning. That way, if there’s a guitar handy, you just pick it up and blow the right-handers away (like Jimi Hendrix did).

Wish I’d figured it out way back when. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, all on the Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, folks.

Scientific Hot Links

You Got Snakes

Sexy People.

The Party Of The Wealthy.

Canada’s House of Common addresses a potential threat to civilization [via].

This song was a hit on pop radio in the early 1960s, and it’s enough to make you wanna puke. [Wiki: The song was composed by Ghanaian musician Guy Warren in 1956 under the original title “An African’s Prayer (Eyi Wala Dong)”.]

The New Dimensions in Testimony program is pretty awesome. More here.

“‘I now have work for 20 years,’ he exclaimed joyfully.” Disturbing true story here.

Classic list of everything blamed on Anthropogenic Global Warming Climate Change: The Warmlist.

ICYMI Department: The Institute for Centrifugal Reasearch: Gravity Is A Mistake. Must see video [via].

Searching for Twitter followers with the promise of absolutely no content, no following and no retweets.

Top image found here, caption inspired by this:

Saturday Matinee – Goats, Martha’s Birthday Party, ICR Documentary, Doc Watson & Friends

Goats. [via]

Martha’s Birthday Party. This is by the same guy behind The Perry Bible Fellowship.

Fascinating short documentary from the Institute of Centrifugal Reasearch [via].

“Bury Me Beneath the Willow” performed live at MerleFest 2002 by Doc Watson, Sara Watkins, Chris Thile, Sean Watkins & Byron House. The song is an old traditional that likely originated in the 1800s. From The Mudcat Cafe, commenter “Stewie” posted this:

Meade’s earliest printed citation for this is Sandburg’s ‘American Songbag’ (1927), the same year as the Carter Family’s recording and 4 years after the first recording by Henry Whitter in 1923. Other recordings earlier than the Carters were: Ernest Thompson (1924), George Reneau (1925), Kelly Harrell (1926), Ernest Stoneman (1926), Burnett & Rutherford (1926) and Holland Puckett (1927). [Info from Meade et alia ‘Country Music Sources’ p 197.]

Very cool. You can hear the Carter Family’s version here.

That’s a wrap for this Saturday Matinee, and have a great weekend.

Fat Tuesday – Heureux Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras: Treme Jazz Band

New Orleans’ Treme Brass Band kicks it.

“Treme Brass Band parade down Frenchman Street, New Orleans, during the Satchmo Fest 2011 Club Strutt.”

[Top image found here. More Mardi Gras here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – Spoondog, New Orleans Zombie Report, “The Creation” & Joe Bonamassa

Spoondog is a dog with a spoon [via].

Since tomorrow is the SuperBowl, here’s how one New Orleans reporter trolled an inebriated videobomber.

“The Creation.” Awesome hand drawn animation by Thomas Meyer-Hermann & Film Bilder. ” (Comment on the Utoobage sums it up: “It’s cyriak but drawn.”)

Joe Bonamassa‘s  “Just Got Paid” at the 2009 North Sea Jazz Festival. So much groove crammed into one jam, and it’d take me too long to post all of the obvious influences. “Wheedlie-wheedlie-spoo” guitar solos turn me off because they sound silly and self-indulgent, but this ‘un is a good ‘un.

Have a great weekend folks, and I hope your team wins.

Saturday Matinee – Static Electricity Safety, Slide Trombone, Dancing Hard & The Superbs

I like how it makes him go ” beep.” [via]

New York Philharmonic second trombonist David Finlayson plays a tune from the slide’s perspective. [via]

PLACE: LAX Airport, Los Angeles CA.
SONG: THE BLACK ANGELS- Telephone
GIRL: Angela Trimbur

The Superbs (featuring Eleanor ‘Punkin’ Green) lip-synching Bobby Troupe‘s “Baby Baby All The Time” on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand 1964.

And there you go for another edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, and we promise you lots more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Rocket Booster Ride, R.L. Burnside, Jeff Beck & Tal Wilkenfeld

I like the soundtrack. [via]

RL Burnside‘s “Let My Baby Ride.” I don’t usually post “slideshow” videos, but this is a good ‘un.

Jeff Beck with Tal Wilkenfeld on bass playing “Nadia.” Nice tune to round out a lazy Saturday.

Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Didgeridoo, Drums, Piano & Music Theory

How to play the didgeridoo.

How to play the drums.

How to play piano.

How to sing a Christmas Song.

Now all that’s left is to figure out how to get you back here tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Eileen & The Hot Links

Michael Jackson’s 1993 Patent is cool, but he likely got the idea from this guy.

Hominid will creep you out. [via]

Sea star suppertime.

Tattoo Spellcheck.

Nothing but Plague Doctors. Prior to medical/scientific knowledge about the causes of The Black Death, Plague Doctors risked their lives attempting to treat the infected while trying to protect themselves from the  “miasma.” The very sight of a Plague Doctor terrified people as he was a harbinger of death, and due to his specialty, a Plague Doctor was often forced to be a recluse himself.

I missed the debut of the The Butter Dance, but inadvertently featured it here. Don’t try this at home, or anywhere for that matter. After all *ahem* Melati Suryodarmo is a professional. [h/t kdub]

Retro Pron – 1890s.  Drool away me laddies. Drool away.

Saturday Matinee – Operation Ivy Mike, Zippo Tricks & Ohio Players

1 November was the 60th Anniversary of the first thermonuclear blast known as Operation Ivy Mike – 10 megatons set off on Eniwitok Atoll.
[h/t Soylent Green]

Papa Strutts was on the flagship USS Estes, and said that although they were miles away,  the shock wave blew out all the light bulbs on the ship. He’s an official member of  The Glow In The Dark Society.

Zippo tricks were a necessary evil growing up, at least they used to be a million years ago when we’d flip the cap on the downstroke and flick the wheel coming up, on our jeans. A quick 1-2 flourish. Zippos rock.

And that’s about as silly a performance of pure funk that I’ve ever seen. The Ohio Players, introduced by Helen “I Am Woman” Reddy in 1975.

That’s about all I can take for tonight. Have a great weekend, folks.