Muffin Bottoms [not] Just another WordPress weblog

07/04/2014

ANNOTATIONS: Marc Frucht’s American Songbag.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,Pop Culture,Tech — admin @ 8:53 am

Here goes some “explication” about the two newest recordings I’ve mastered and edited up. Enjoy.
Recorded live from the soundboard at a Bonfire in Groton, CT.
I noticed while I was organizing these tunes that it kind of serves as the best kind of ethnomusicology lesson you could ever receive for free. Pro Bono, my gift to you. Call now, operators are standing by…

16th Century Greensleeves. (cover of a Ritchie Blackmore arrangement of a very old song)

Old Folksinger – by Merle Kessler, aka “Ian Shoales.”
Need a real audio of my studio version?
http://frucht.org/audioclips.html

Other Side – Orig. Someone I was very sweet on turned to me one night and said, “why don’t you write a song about turquoise and silver and a pebble and a ring.” So I did.

Johnny B. Goode – Standard (played very non-standard)

Oh Boy – written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty. Made most famous by Buddy Holly

Hey Mon – Orig.

One Tin Soldier – Coven. Made most famous by the movie “Billy Jack.”

Little Things – Orig.

Wicked Wicked World. – Medley arranged by Marc Frucht. “Wicked World”
by Black Sabbath’s Ozzie Osbourne, “When The Levee Breaks” collected
folk style by Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Last verse Original.

Happened Just That Way – Roger Miller

Seminole Wind – John Anderson
Want to hear just a cute cover of it by a little girl named Mary Elizabeth Kirkpatrick? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsN0zk7VojA Neat how sometimes a song can be kept immortal by lots of people giving it some love!

Mary Had a William Goat – I learned this parody from Carl Sandburg’s publication “American Songbag.”

Merry Minuet – I first heard the Kingston Trio version of this song from my mom and dad’s massive record collection. It was written by

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes – from the Movie of the same name.
I’ve actually been asked to sing it a capella at movie premieres and stuff.

Dream On Again – You notice how they sing, “sing with me” and it’s a song written in like Fm7 with a flatted 9th in the bass, and it’s a key that only Bessie Smith can sing but she’s gotta warm up all opera style before she even tries to sing it?

Evil Ways – Carlos Santana

Milli Vanilla – I wrote this as a parody to the Poison song “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”

FUN song – from Sponge Bob Square Pants. Just don’t ask me to sing the Campfire song or “I Ripped My Pants.”

Blister In The Sun – Violent Femmes. Done as a medley together with “American Music” and “Free.” Proof that the Bodeans stole liberally from the Violent Femmes. J/K they’re all friends with each other.

Oh Freedom – medley. My version of Pete Seeger’s version of Odetta’s version of several ancient spirituals

Do Wacka Do – more Roger Miller

FryBread – Orig.

* Recordings engineered in Groton, CT by Andrew Barnes

Listen to the entire thing in two parts at: http://soundcloud.com/atizine/marcofruchtsamericansongbag-part2

12/16/2013

Free CD — Last year’s entire 18 song Christmas record!

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,News,Pop Culture — admin @ 3:00 pm

Hi all,
Last year I engineered and mastered a Christmas record that I was quite happy with. I printed my own jewelcases, and mass produced hundreds of copies and passed them out to everyone I knew personally the weeks leading up to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa.

I thought of doing the same thing this year; but suddenly decided, “maybe instead I’ll just print up download cards.”

So I’ve placed the entire CD, 18 songs and color .PDF album cover as one big .zip file.

 

pixOfDLcardz

Here’s where you can get it for free:

http://www.frucht.org/christmas.zip

You simply download the file, unzip/unpack and burn to a blank cdr, print out the artwork and fold it into a holder for your CD. Then play the thing in your car, media center or stereo or right there on your laptop.

And of course these days if you don’t even feel like printing a CDR you can just make a playlist on your phone or ipod with the MP3’s themself.

Cheers,
marco

 

02/04/2013

OPINION: Beyonce Knowles; Underachiever Of The Millenium

OK,

Beyonce LipSync’d the National Anthem and she sang her medley of perishable non-memorable hits “LIVE.”

Anyone hardly even know what LIVE means anymore??? Yes, she cranked up the mains and left her full-on backing track pumping loudly in her monitors so you mostly heard her, and faintly heard everything she prepared. She really could have just skyped the entire show in but she had something to prove. Back when she was young, she sang a capella on late night shows. She was one of the few artists who didn’t put a rider in their contract refusing all a capella songs, even Happy Birthday. Many artists resented her that. She was very talented. She can sing like a bird, and she often does, but she isn’t very courageous and she most likely never wrote a real song in her life.

Flash forward to the present. She has been singing more and more with the Backing Track dialed in and cranked up to… well to 11. Yupper, she can’t dance OR sing live as well as Madonna. (and that’s not saying much.) Should we compare/contrast her voice with Odetta’s? Aretha? Mario Lanza? Nina Simone. South Park’s Chef even… OK I’ll stop there. As for dancing, right! She’s no madonna, she’s not even a Paula Abdul or a Janet Jackson. In fact can I complain about something as far as dance moves go? Janet and Paula already did all that. I rarely see anything done by anyone that hasn’t already been regimented 15 times already the past 50 years! (except maybe Pink but that’s different)

Who’s going to be the next James Brown, Little Richard, Madonna or MJ? It’s not Nicky Minaj and it’s not Lady Gaga and it darned sure isn’t Ms. Knowles.

So OK, she admitted publicly she lip sync’d the National Anthem, and then belted it out a capella to show the world that she can carry a tune if asked. And then she proceeded to lip sync a medley of potent soundbytes during the Superbowl’s halftime that was so stunningly flawless that she can now forever say she did it “live.” Yup, virtually live. What’s the truth-in-advertising quotient on that one, does it have to be 26% live to call it “live?” Well she nailed it at something like 66% or more. Yay. Happy for her.

Songs that are “not worth lip-syncing!” as many of my friends keep suggesting, I’m serious people. We’re going to remember “Yesterday,” and “Summertime,” “Johnny B Goode” and “Follow The Drinking Gourd” forever, trust me. “Wipe Out,” yes, and the “Hawaii 5-0 Theme song;” but “put a ring on it?” “If I were a boy?” “Me myself and I???” Oh come on. I already attribute “If I were a boy” to little Mimi Sledge of the Sledge Grits band because she does it with just vocals and an acoustic guitar better than Beyonce EVER could.

Well, Pete Seeger, his Grandson Tao and Bruce Springsteen led a civic choir of hundreds in This Land is Your Land. 100% live with a very meaningful song. All the verses to boot! Not a backing track to be found for miles. I would challenge people like Beyonce to write a real song for once or get out of the way so people like Beyonce’s little sister Solange, Frank Waln, Kinnie Starr, Crystal Crow Dog, Wab Kinew and I can make our way up there where we belong.

Idle No More.

That’s all I can say for now.

Pete Seeger sings “This Land Is Your Land” for President Obama’s Inauguration

follow the drinking gourd: (Audio)

Immortalized song Summertime from Porgy and Bess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_db7zHR7cc

Same for Johnny B Goode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG7UL9NfP8c

01/19/2013

DOGFOODING DJANGO: I Compare & Contrast The Movie & The Script

Filed under: Academic,Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff — admin @ 8:52 am

Here’s a humble little C&C (compare & contrast) of Tarantino’s movie and script for “Django Unchained.”

http://twcguilds.com/assets/screenplay/django/screenplay.pdf

These are raw notes and I’m not going to bother editing. You get me thinking out loud on many levels from the straight up, straight forward, straight and true, to the anthropological, mythophilosophical and metaforical too. Enjoy!

Carrucan Plantation. My mind wanders to Caracas pretty quickly.

I believe “Field N____” on page 8 of the script is the first use of the ‘N’ word. Spike Lee and others are bothered by what they’re calling overuse of this word but of course the entire movie is about plantation life in the early moments before and after Lincoln’s ever so famous “Emancipation Proclamation.”

It was never clear to me that it was a $20 gold piece to purchase the horse, just a large looking coin. Too easy in today’s society to think maybe it was a Quarter or a Silver Dollar maybe.

Pg 10: King Shultz insists Django name his acquired horse. He has great difficulty agreeing to accept ownership. I wish they would have kept that in the movie. Could have been a great treatment of Indigenous thought versus anglo philosophy.

17: Love the smalll derringer extended from a handshake. Early foreshadowing maybe, of the Three Musketeers references to come.

Umm, afraid to say this out loud but I noticed Quentin Tarantino is not good at a/an with words starting in vowels. “a onion,” “a honest person,” etc. hehehehe

I tend to overthink things now and then, but Town of Daughtry makes the word Husbandry come to mind, like marriage but also animal husbandry, like chattel slavery as well.

THINGS WE MISS in movies that stay in a script:

20: “don’t make any quick movements and let me do the talking,” Django looks at him like, “as if…”

The movie’s signage specified Servant Uniforms I think but I don’t remember seeing “House Negruh,” or “House N___” whereas the script calls for it.

27: A little bit of cognitive dissonance for me in both the movie and the script. Jerry the boy who works with glass. His mama works at the lumber yard. I can’t tell if he’s a white or mixed indentured servant or a kid of a freed slave or what.

Oh Betina ribs Django for wanting to dress in blue Flauntleroy. In the movie he picked it. In the script Shultz made him wear it.

Spyglass the type a Sea Captain might use. Shades of Frederick Douglass maybe.

So “I’m sure he dead,” was an ad lib? Go Jamie Foxx!”

47: “Frankly I’ve never given anybody their freedom before. And now that I have, I feel vaguely responsible for you.”      Wow. I ponder that when looking back at my marriage and divorce. I’ll say no more about that, just that I truly feel like I freed someone who just couldn’t consider herself free and stay married.

54: Django finds Broomhilda, I think in the movie Shultz found out from rumormill or word on the street.

Not sure why the auction complete with bidding was cut out of the film, maybe time constraints?

“A seventy-five year old Indian on a mule makes a bid.” I would’ve wanted Tarantino, someone part Cherokee to expound on that one, that’s for sure.

57: “She climbs into the driver’s seat in more ways than one.” If it can be done, without being too preachy, I would have loved more documentary stuff about free/slave sexuality and also the dynamics and power differentials exploited using ones’ body or someone elses’ body, etc. Is “pony” legit from history? I never read about that before. That’s new to me for sure.

70: “You want me to play a black slaver?? There ain’t nothing lower than a black slaver. Black slavers are even lower than head house N___’s, and buddy that’s pretty F___ing low.”

Mandingo fighting pretty much lines up script and movie both. Even, “He’s just being cheeky…”

Confirmation of Broomhilda’s presence is about the same too.

“Candie gives Django a creepy smile.”  I don’t remember seeing that in the film.

86: “I pay 500 dollars I want 500 fights. So what about my 500 dollars? You gonna reimburse me?”            The whites (except for Schultz) laugh. He’s comfortable with the wider economy of the deep south in Chattel Slavery but not supportive of it ethically or morally. The script shows that well. I’m not sure the movie does. Only mention I remember is in the saloon while asking Django to hire on as his sidekick.

I didn’t catch in the movie that getting emotional and wanting to pay the 500 was a break in character. In the script I see that.

That Django has seen worse doesn’t come to me in the movie either. I think Tarantino expected both Schultz’s and Django’s characters to be more developed at this point than they already are. Time probably didn’t permit but maybe more could’ve been done in the soundtrack or with visuals maybe.

Calvin blinks. Django wins a staring contest I didn’t notice. I’ll want to see the movie again just to see if it happened and I just didn’t see it.

I think a lot about the fact that all this was just 120 years ago or so. Someone alive today could have a grandparent or four who would be children of recently freed slaves. This is not ancient history, and I feel that many of the attacks on Tarantino’s use of the N word or the very mention of slavery in a comprehensive way for that matter, might be misplacing a defensiveness over their own family name. Or guilt by neutrality maybe.

Similar to issues over Native American genocide if you ask me.

I wonder if Tarantino’s treatment of Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) comes along from a desire to get the subject of “house N____” back on the table for discussion; it’s been hushed since whatever year Harry Belafonte called Colin Powell one for his “step n fetchit” obedience to Bush’s Iraq war.

Hahahaha. Stephen only misses Calvin Candie like a rock in his shoe in the script. All the other descriptives must be Samuel L. Jackson ad libbing. Script characters that didn’t make it to the movie, but I won’t belabor those details.

The cruelty to mandingos in the script wasn’t something I particularly missed in the film. Good choice not overdoing that I think.

The interaction between Stephen and Django in the Big House might have been illuminating. Freedmen treating a House N___ as if he’s his owner. Shows a lot of deep south dynamics including contemporary emotional issues I bet. Which brings me back to Harry Belafonte and Colin Powell jousting again.

114: The two weeks in boston joke worked much better in the movie than in the script for me. The southern accent probably did it.

Stephen calling Candie’s Boston joke unfunny shows a closeness between the two of them that’s only shown a little bit in the moive. That could’ve helped develop that relationship I think.

Ace Woody telling Django that with Calvin dead Lara probably won’t care much about Mandingo fighting could get into some dynamics too but was probably superfluous to the film. Quite a bit more torture in the script than the movie. Maybe discussed in group was how to imply it without showing everything. Or even just showing a little and not having to belabor the point.

“Seemed like folks never had a bright idea in their life,” says the script but I’m pretty sure Stephen says “white folks” in the film.

146: “Django is damn convincing.”

Damned straight this inner piece of Tarantino writing is a Tall Tale within a Tall Tale that would make Mark Twain proud.

“Instead of [Gambling] chips they play with “N____ ears,” yes the ears of slaves.” Where on earth did you find this?

162 Closeup of Broomhilda as she watches this.

I would’ve liked this kept in the film. Don’t want to give any spoilers but I’ve wanted four characters developed from beginning to end. Django, Hilda, Stephen, and King Schultz.

A lot can be done with eyes and hands.

Last comment for now. I would’ve wanted the song “Follow The Drinking Gourd.” Maybe Richie Havens’ version, maybe mine, hint, hint…

In two places in this movie, maybe a few other places.

Especially whenever the North Star is mentioned.

More about Django?

http://muffinbottoms.org/?p=990

Comparing Navajo Joe with Django.

01/02/2013

Django Unchained Is Navajo Joe; Just Like Inglourious…

Filed under: Academic,Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,Pop Culture — admin @ 2:15 am

Earlier I did a compare and contrast between Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and one of his favorite Spaghetti Westerns ever,  “Navajo Joe.”

Title: ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Was ‘Navajo Joe??’

Well here I’ll do the same, essentially some raw notes after seeing ‘Django’ (the d is silent) twice and then sitting myself down and watching Navajo Joe again.

Navajo Joe callbacks to/from Django Unchained

by Marc Frucht

7:47 Tips over a horse with rider falling to the ground.

of course scalping, letter R on cheek for runaway slave

10:18  Wanted posters. Bounties. Scalps. Corpses

13:11   “no sale.”  Arresting you for murder.

15:10   “you won’t have to run around chasing stinking indians just for a few dollars…”

17:21 the music is very very similar, thank you Ennio Morricone

A lot more hand to hand combat in Navajo Joe than Django, but shooting and shooting into dynomite is similar.

21:35  Posse horseriding up over the crest of the hill has the same feel as the klan riders before they start their argument.

24:06  shoot em ups are much looser in Navajo Joe than anything Tarantino does. Everything seems more calculated and direct in Django Unchained

26:17  rosepetals in the wind. Note the blood spatterings on the cotton in the fields early in Django

Burt Reynolds is a one man vengeance machine killing everyone on his way to doing his nemesis Duncan in; whereas Django is helping a bounty hunter go after a new person each scene.  Although there is the focus on freeing Broomhilda for the entire back 2/3’s of Unchained.

29:30 whistling for the horse to follow a command. Kind of parallel to the victory dance at the end when all of Candyland was destroyed.

31:00 Estella interrupting something important. I’ve forgotten where there were interruptions of conversations throughout Django but I’m pretty sure there are some parallels there too. The womens’ characters are better developed in Navajo Joe than in Django I think. Tarantino kind of makes everyone besides Uma Thurman kind of “flat.”

34:55 I don’t think Navajo Joe has said a word yet, just killed and killed.

35:19 “I brought you a train.” He speaks simple words, but never in an accent making fun of NDNs perhaps because Burt Reynolds is part Cherokee and fought against that.

38:26 “plus the reward that’s posted for Duncan” there’s the bounty hunter.

44:57  “and one more thing. I’ll need some dynomite.”

49:50 “and his father before him, and his father before him… now which one’s American…”

55:07 No tricks Duncan. Don’t worry you’ll get your half. Safes. Remember the tooth at the top of the Dentist wagon?

56:12  Chester, the NDN has it all. He tricked you.

Dynomite thrown.

Empty rolls to look like sleeping people under the dental wagon?

57:16   Hostage. “I’m gonna kill this woman.” ‘Hilda? “she’s an NDN just like you

58:01 torturing Joe… parallel to the castration scene maybe. (close to the end of Django so I don’t want to give away too much there)

59:10 Spurrs on boots. again at 59:30 on Navajo Joe’s neck. I think in Django they were 5 pointed stars or something, and looked more for show than poking horses’ bodies.

59:47  horsewhip and something resembling eaglebone whistle sounds. very high pitched, maybe piccolo.

1:00:47  String him up by his feet.

1:05:22 gets out of the “string.” I don’t remember how Django gets out of his mask and shackles.

1:14:09 “my revenge” — Duncan.

1L17:05   “navajo joe” on the horse. foiled. it’s Jeffrey symbol carved in his forehead with a longknife.

1:18:10  Dynamite in the saddlebags.

1:25:29 “you won’t escape now, redskin”   — reminds me of “I count 6 shots, nigguh; I count two guns nigguh…”

1:27:32  “I know you’re a bounty killer, you want to have my bounty.”

this belonged to my woman. do you remember her?

OK, the tomahawk flying through the air into someone’s head has a similar feel to someone flying from one room to the next being shot. I’m avoiding two spoilers there, or I’d say more.

The horse delivering the town their money all by his/her self. Humanizing horses shows up in lots of westerns, not least of which is Django.

I’ll end this essay with a question that’s not rhetorical. I’d love an answer some day. Is Quentin Tarantino a guitarist? I know his stepdad played guitar and piano. But it doesn’t say he plays anywhere. But not only does he have writer credits in many of the songs to the Django soundtrack but I’m noticing that the whole soundtrack is very very guitar driven. Lots of Dm, Gm and Am pieces. 🙂

11/30/2012

When Does A Usenet Reply Become An Essay:

Filed under: Academic,Humor,Music and Stuff,Pop Culture — admin @ 4:33 am

When Does A Usenet Reply Become An Essay:

(Another Accidental Guitar Lesson)

by marco frucht

You caught me. It was me all along.

I invented tapping in the middle 1700’s when I was in Paris picking up chicks. There was something majikal about playing the guitar back then. You ended up with scores of wives. I mean before weddings even. They were all willing to call themselves your wife with no strings attached. Imagine a wife in every town taking care of your children with no commitment save for an occasional waltz or sarabande. All you had to do was send a buck or two once in a while or maybe a manuscript to show some progress, and of course you must tell them when you’ll be there performing next; if even a year later!

Oy!

I felt like Mischy Barishokov, I had so many wives. And none of them were formal weddings. So no paternity suits! And all because I could tap. We called it “tokarring” back then.

It was my 35th wife, Elena Sanz, who coined the phrase “tapping.”

“My husband can tap like a racehorse,” she was heard saying. And then I was challenged by guitarists all over France, Spain and also Honduras for some strange reason. It wasn’t until I got to Chiapas, in the late 1800’s before I knew that people had been tapping since long before me. Chiapanecas can tap your socks off. I believe Charo was the best at it, even if she wasn’t the first.

Oh, April 1, 1894, I remember that date well. Charo and me tapping by the moonlight until 4 am, maybe 5. But then her father came by with a huge musket and called me a “dirty Castillian tapper” and told me if I didn’t stay away from Charo he’d have my P, I, M AND my A cut off.

Last I knew Charo was married to a cabinetmaker and recorded a dozen or so albums herself. All her children know how to tap. Actually it comes naturally to them.

Tapping was a lost art until the 1960’s. Before that I thought for sure, I was the only one still doing it. Then suddenly Andres Segovia added tapping to his repertoire. And next thing you know, going into his 70’s Segovia’s got newborn babies singing his praises in NY, Boston, Paris, and Honduras just like me. Oh, Andres, Viagra’s got nothing on you, babe.

Everyone knows the story of how Eddie Van Halen learned to tap. He found out about it in a musty old issue of Playboy behind the orange barn in Santa Cruz, CA on a hot september day in 1970. The thirteen year old was reading an interview I gave to George Plimpton where I basically described tapping in full detail.

“You put your pinky here…”

The story was called “Making Her Sing,” but I swear I had nothing to do with the titling. Probably Plimpton’s sick sense of humour.

Eddie (EVH became his nickname, or Vertical Hold for short) couldn’t wait to try it himself. He was doing it in front of television one day and saw a flamenco star named Bertilucci Valderon tapping her little butt off on one of those Brady Bunch type shows and he just knew he had to tap with her.

“Get me Valderon,” he told his agent on the phone. The agent called her, but she wouldn’t return the calls for days. So vertical hold Halen took matters into his own hands. He hopped into his maserati and found out where she’d be driving her mustang. He came to a stop light and speeding up next to her, he tapped into her.

The rest is history. They have 72 children, almost all of them of tapping age, and Eddie gives an occasional tapping lesson at one of the local guitar shops; where he still furthers the myth that he invented the techique of tapping.

Nah, I don’t say anything, because I know who started it.

And besides, who else has to know besides you and me? Oh and my wives.

Tapped In Wisconsin,

marco

http://marcosongs.com

On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, Craig Nelson wrote:

> tapping was a classical technique long before evh or anybody else tried it.

correct.

> Steve Cobham wrote in message

> > On 26 Jun 1999 15:22:37 GMT, (Magicween) wrote:

> > >Give me a specific example to prove me wrong, that guy from Genisis is

> known as “The Father of tap”.

No! What was said, was “that is one tapped daddy.”

> > Harvey mandel before Steve Hackett and before HM some jazz guy, but the name escapes me.

Byrd? Reinhardt?

11/11/2012

FREE GUITAR LESSON: Supplemental Notes About The A-String Pages Of The Mel Bay Book

Filed under: Academic,Music and Stuff,Pop Culture,Tech — admin @ 8:39 am

Notes about pages 18-21 from the Mel Bay Grade 1 book.

A free lesson from Marco Frucht:

Not to be too much the complainer; but all four songs in the Mel Bay book work you out on the A string’s ‘C’ note but not the ‘B’ and ‘A’ notes even once.

I’m afraid this might be an oversight that has gone unnoticed by teachers all over the world for something like 65 years now!


I’ve written an Etude in Am that includes all three of those notes as well as everything on the four higher notes that a student has already mastered and worked out on inside of the Mel Bay book, so the learner won’t develop too many bad habits before moving on to the 6th string.

I’ll put up an mp3 of how I play it, for any who wish to work out with it.

[ http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/15130863 ]

I’ve made Standard Notation of the first two passages so far, and as soon as I’ve done two or three more, I’ll put up a youtube with the same audio and a page of notation to refer to so you can play along fairly easily.

 

UPDATE:  Here’s the Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75SwKORBauE

I might propose that this be added to any next edition of this book that has dominated the guitar learning world since 1947.

Sincerely,

Marco Capelli Frucht

http://www.frucht.org

http://www.marcosongs.com

10/11/2012

New Movie Short About Police Corruption

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,News,Pop Culture — admin @ 1:18 pm

THE BADGE: Chasing The Beast

Produced by Marco Frucht

Directed By Andrew W Proctor

DP Alan Smithee

Edited by Andrew W. Proctor

Audio Boom/Mixer Marco Frucht

Additional Boom and Audio / Wife

Alexandria Hellwig

Police Chief White  — Elle

Hitman — Arnet

Capt. Richard Douglass — Andrew W. Proctor

Music by

Marco Frucht – “Revelation 13”

Suicide Dolls – “Drive”

“Want”

Royale Brothers – “Kill Hand”

Written by

Mike Merli

Andrew W. Proctor

Daughter – Stephanie Schmidt

Corpse under sheet – Mike Merli

Prank Caller – Marco Frucht

Big Thanks to Captain’s Pizza and Joey Royale

09/16/2012

Blogging A Trip To Milwaukee And Back

Filed under: Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,News,Pop Culture — admin @ 6:00 am
Here’s a copy/paste blog of my trip to Milwaukee and back for the ISMAs and the Indian Summer Music Festival.
I played on the Potawatomi stage and the Miller Lite stage and had a blast!  So glad I went. Definitely one of the high points of my music career.
Marco Frucht shared a link.

September 6

One work shift, twice as much driving and then a performance in ILLwaukee (Potawatomy stage at Summerfest Grounds,) then an entire weekend of enjoying one of the nicest 26th annual festivals in our whole entire nation.

Listening to ‘Cult of Personaliy’ a a Sonic west of Stroudsberg. This is livin’ !!

I ride a Danville paint /
I ride a Danville paint /
I’ve never used the word aint in a song /
I ride a Danville paint /

In Sandusky stretching out the new knee the army gave me way back when. I don’t remember to do that as often as I should.

Greeting the sunrise in Indiana helps me not care that gas here is 4.39 a gallon lowest price! Also having filled up in Ohio at 3.69 helps me not care either.

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_14468442

Here’s a live recording of Cody Blackbird guest soloing on my song “Beauty Way” at NDN Summerfest in Milwaukee Wisconsin last night.

I rolled off the bass, and added some light breathiness and hard limiting to the recording but other than that it’s pretty pure and raw. I thought it didn’t come out too badly for having simply placed a stereo mic right onstage near my feet.

High point of my time at NDN Summerfest so far was sharing a stage with seasoned flute player Cody Blackbird I hope someone got pics or video.

Last night backstage I got to hang out with old school comedian Charlie Hill quite a bit and at some point he told me that Tito Ybarra is the funniest young man he’s met in his entire career. I can’t wait to tell him that. So this is one of several high points of my trip so far, including seeing Wade Fernandez and Dustin Leeperform again, and getting positive feedback about my CD from my peers and my mentors, but I think the highest point is still sharing a stage with Flute Player Cody Blackbird. 🙂 Oh, and I have a special announcement coming soon.

OK, I just don’t know how to articulate just how funny this theater troupe were:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQjTBDxz8K4

I got more video but this is all I can put up for now.

Enjoy

This once-a-year ecumenical Church service is the only one that has ever felt just like the one I participated in at the National Cathedral in 1992. Thank you Creator and also thank you, Father Ed!

Wow, Milwaukee must’ve invented the Americano. I’m in Hi-Fi cafe right in the heart of BayView having one that would make any Starbucks barista cry. 😉

Yes, I had some frybread. Yes I also had some wild rice and some buffalo meat. Mmmm. NDN Summerfest was a blast. I don’t think any of my personal friends won an ISMA but of course several FB friends did. And I probably feel the same way they do, bummed a little but just plain happy to have been considered. It was a wonderful weekend. Seeing so many old friends again, both people in and out of the

industry was wonderful, and so was watching the last quarter of the Packer Game with my friends Joel and Mollie and their kids. Lastly I’ll mention that three mornings in a row I was reminded how much I miss the cool lake breeze that keeps you gently air-conditioned until about 10 or 11 am when it starts to get hotter than one of Dante’s chambers. Having lived in Milwaukee for 4 years and Green Bay for 7 will remain a goodly part of my life’s story and returning to NDN Summer each year as often as I can keeps me feeling a part of it all.

Leaving Milwaukee, I’d better quote some Dustin Lee:

It took your city to believe/ You put your heart out there for me/ That’s why I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to leave/ Oh, Milwaukee, you got the best of me.

Two new places to purchase my CD’s are:

http://www.dryhootch.org/

on Brady Street, Milwaukee and:

Peace Action Wisconsin on East Keefe Avenue

QUANTUM MOMENT: Breezed by Chicago too fast to remember and reflect that their teachers struck this a.m. I’ll have to send them some solidarnos yesterday.
Another reply that belongs a status I think:

I gravitate toward people who write a song or three every day and try to ignore people trying only for grammys or sound exactly like someone else. Ironic, that this is much of the reason many grammy and emmy winners call me “peer” and I call them and many other nonwinners my mentors.

12 dollar toll for gw bridge??

Unreal. Wasnt this bridge paid off back in Benedict Arnolds years???

Thnx exponentially inflated toll booths between ny and mke. You’ve taken one of my best guitar gigs ever and just destroyed my memory of it. Half your lights are not on, the roads are still terrible, and your perpetual construction projects as far as the eye can see are dangerous and a huge bother. I’m simply lining your pockets and I’m left very bitter and resentful.
Here’s a poem I read at the Miller Lite stage called Journal Poem 23, which will be on my upcoming album “Poems 4 Roberta Blackgoat.” The theme this year to NDN summerfest was storytelling, and Joy Harjo, Joe Bruchac, and Denise Sweet and others were there too this year performing spoken word, comedy, poetry, everything too, not just music. Cody Blackbird accompanied me on flute for both poems that I read. I thought it added a lot.http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_14513836
Here’s Nammy winning flute player Cody Blackbird accompanying a native youth fashion show during the NDN Summerfest in Milwaukee last weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic0TJi8fw14

Marco Frucht shared Joel Butler‘s video.

Thursday

Sunday night I watched the last quarter of the Packer game over the house of my friends Joel and Mollie. Their 5 year old, Lucy informed me that she has had “Frybread” in her favorites for a very long time. I played the song live for her, and shortly after that she wrote up some new lyrics to it. Yes, right on the spot. Here’s her rendition right from that moment. 🙂

IMG_1896

One more bit of footage from the Aztec dancers. Amazing performers, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lEgBnl4E2w

Here’s more from New Native Comedy Theater out of Minnesota performing a “traditional” hand drum song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6sFTnqJWzQ

Wait, you mean I can add “Award winning filmmaker” to my name? Neat. Thank you 48hour filmfest!

http://www.48hourfilm.com/en/newhaven

Hear Me – YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=niLWdYJ8C8oAug 3, 2012 - 5 min - Uploaded by TES4Jones
http://www.48hourfilm.com/ Third Eye Productions and Olive You Crew Productions entry to the 2012 New

Well there goes the neighborhood. A short and to the point video essay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmq-mri2ITw

Copies of Marco Capelli Frucht’s CD Soffty Fasnfftof can now be purchased also at Looney Tunes in Wakefield! So all you URI profs who might remember my dad and students who might remember me… Go get em!

And if you’d like to hear it before purchasing, go to Cool Beans Coffee and ask them to play it for you.

😉

http://www.coolbeanscaferi.com

08/05/2012

Blogging About The World Getting Smaller Twice In One Story

Filed under: Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,Tech — admin @ 8:55 pm

I really need to tell the marvelous two-level “world-is-getting-smaller” story of how I brought my Navatone guitar home. I bought one of Bruce Zinky’s Smokey Amps to go along with it and had it in the case. So I bring it into my favorite luthier’s shop, Frets in Westerly, owned by Zachary Dustin and when we opened the case, Zach’s wife at the time looks in and goes, “Isn’t that that little amp that Tony Palazzolo helped invent?”

Why yes it is, and I go, “any relation to Mike Palazzolo?” and they say yes, his brother. Small world. I know Mike pretty well from different bands the past 4 or 5 years around New London County and Rhode Island and stuff, right?

So that’s that, the world is getting smaller, eh?

But wait, there’s more.

So the following January I’m at Namm in Anaheim and I actually get a couple opportunities to meet Bruce Zinky the guy who invented the Smokey amp. I’m telling him the whole story about bringing the guitar to Westerly and seeing the amp in my case, etc., and at some point a guy walks up and says, “Excuse me, could you tell that part about Stonington and Westerly again?” So I backtrack and when I get to the part about “Tony Palazzolo,” he reaches his hand out and says, “Tony Palazzolo, nice to meet you.”

What a trip!!!

Every time I tell this story I can feel the planet shrinking a little more…

That is all I can say for now.

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