Category: From The Vault

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My Moral Compass

Monkeystador’s conceptions of truth and justice may have been heavily influenced by these shows, now that I think about it. They hit me at just the right age and I watched them all the time.

I was right angry when a new Shazam! (2019) came out and they called the main character “Shazam.”  No, you fools, he SAYS Shazam but his NAME is Captain Marvel. I can’t even with this stuff. Hollywood needs to consult me on more of its releases.

Now that I think about it, the “Seven” gods from Game of Thrones were just a variation on the six elders that advised Billy Batson: Solomon, Hercules, Apollo, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Apparently Shazam! is an acronym of their names. I never knew that because we didn’t have wikipedia when I was a kid. You youngsters have it too easy.

Also, schoolteacher Andrea Thomas / Isis is highly underrated as a 1970’s pinup. All my friends were Farrah Fawcett or Wonder Woman stans, but Bionic Woman and Isis deserve some love.

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Music In The Air

Sister Rosetta rocks a mean axe and sings like she means business.
Enjoy the guitar compilation:

I can’t confirm whether or not she ever opened for Renfield. She played a Les Paul custom with three PAF humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; and gold-plated side-action vibrato system.
She helped to pioneer distortion, and her 1964 Manchester show with Muddy Waters was cited as an influence by Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards.

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What, Me Worry?

Gone but not forgotten!

This video is only concerned with the artists who contributed to Mad in it’s first two decades – even if some of them carried on for longer. I’ve got nothing against those who came later but I’m selfishly only dealing with the ones who inspired and influenced me as I grew up. They taught me more than 4 years of college ever did. Apparently in the early Kurtzman comic years Mad was printed in colour, although all the examples I found were black and white only, and according to a particularly grumpy viewer Dave Berg didn’t die until 2002. Mea culpa.

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La Cathedrale Engloutie


Claude Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral” is based on a myth involving, well, a sunken cathedral off the coast of Brittany. The beautiful princess of a prosperous coastal town named Ys had an affair either with Satan or one of his many lieutenants on earth (as beautiful princesses tend to do). As punishment, the town was destroyed by sinking into the sea along with most inhabitants. Local legend held that on certain days you could hear the bells of the cathedral of Ys ringing from below. On other days, it was believed to rise briefly to the surface. Debussy begins by representing both waves and the ringing of the cathedral bells. As the cathedral rises, chanting monks and priests emerge, culminating with the great organ at 2:25: a brief emergence of a grand, underwater zombie Mass of the damned. Then it all sinks again until we just hear the bells. Near the end, the great organ melody makes a muted reappearance from the murky depths.

Beautifully creepy stuff here, with the obsessively perfect Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli looking like he’s playing this from deep within his castle in Transylvania. (He actually never lived in a castle in Transylvania, but for a while he did live in one near Brescia).

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This Was Quite A Ride

… experiencing it as it happened, and now watching this.

Some solid tunes amidst the abhorrent soft rock. Boney M was in here two or three times and I swear I’ve never heard of them.

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Goldbergs


I’m sure you all have a lot of music you have to hear a few times a year. On my list is Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I’m kind of addicted to theme and variations pieces, and this is one of the best, inventive and resourceful as hell. Bach can get too dour and Lutheran for me, but not here. Consists of an aria, 30 variations, then the aria again at the end. The common theme is not the aria but the bass line, which is repeated in every variaton, although not always overtly. The melodies of the variations are not necessarily related to one another. A huge range of material from a single bass line. Reminds me of how many rock songs use the same bass/chord structures a million different ways. But these are all from one work by one guy.

If I’m in the mood to hear a crazy young person play it, I go to Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording. This record made him an overnight sensation, and I would guess that it’s the #1 selling classical album of all time. If I’m in the mood to hear a crazy middle-aged person play it, I like GG’s 1981 re-make. When I want to hear it played by someone from this planet, I like the one posted above.

Musicologists wet their trousers when Bach is played on a piano instead of a harpsicord. They shit themselves too if the pianist is as individual and “inauthentic” as GG. All the more reason to love these records.

A musicologist is a man who can read music but can’t hear it. -Sir Thomas Beecham

Without music, life would be a mistake.-Friedrich Nietzsche