Jerry Lee’s Whiskey Talking

I love this song that was on the 1990 Dick Tracy soundtrack. Here's a Rolling Stone review of the album it appeared in.

It Was The Whiskey Talkin' (Not Me), Jerry Lee Lewis

"Young Blood" (Jerry Lee Lewis)

"Dick Tracy" (Walt Disney Video)

Last Halloween

I’m really late with this photo set. It is from a show on Halloween night at The Garage. Anyway, I thought The Dex Romweber Duo (record label site) was the highlight of the evening: gritty roots rock 'n' roll. Turns out, Dex is quite well-known. The other half of the duo is his sister Sara, who has her own long career in music. The duo’s new album, Ruins of Berlin, has been well-received in Spin.

"Ruins of Berlin" (Dexter Romweber Duo)

Salon Gone Wrong

Jojo Lazar, the Burlesque Poetess, organized and hosted an evening of variety entertainment, featuring music, poetry and fiction reading, juggling, walking on broken glass, comedy, a contortionist, and partial stripping. It was held at the Amazing Firehouse in Framingham, MA.

You know the drill with the clicky clicky.

Technorati Tags: amazing things, burlesque, circus, contortionist, fiction, juggling, music, photography, poetry, theater

HUMANWINE, Jake von Slatt, and Make:TV

This is the first of a series of photo backlog-clearing posts…

First, a little background. PBS is shooting a TV series based on Make Magazine, called Make:TV. It’s all about techie DIY, and empowering ordinary people to void their warranties. ;)

So, for the pilot episode, they feature Jake von Slatt of Steampunk Workshop. Besides being a DIYer who makes steampunkish things, he had donated a bunch of stuff to Holly and M@ of HUMANWINE, who have converted a bus to biodiesel and in which they will live and tour with the rest of the band. HUMANWINE played a small show with a few other bands (which I didn’t stay for, it being a Sunday evening) at the old warehouse complex that Pan9 used to be in. Here are the pix. (Click on them to see the fullsize, and get to the rest of the set.) Jake also blogged about this, and put a video up at Google Video:

Technorati Tags: allston, gig, humanwine, music, photography, steampunk, tv

Lantern Festival @ Forest Hills Cemetery; Jon Hendricks show

A few friends and I went to the annual Lantern Festival at Forest Hills Cemetery, a couple of blocks from where I lived last year.

Also, went to see Jon Hendricks sing a couple weeks ago. He was great. He sang with Aria Hendricks (his daughter), and Kevin Burke. I don’t remember the backing trio line-up. I have more from the show, but on film: it’ll take a couple of weeks for developing and scanning.

Click for more.

Technorati Tags: art, boston, festival, jazz, lantern, show

Straight out of Canton

Been a long time. Stuff happening. In particular, job hunt.

In the mean time…

Technorati Tags: chinese, hiphop, music

DJ Ryusei and DJ Sara

These kids are amazing. DJ Ryusei is 5, and DJ Sara is 8. More.

Technorati Tags: hiphop, music, turntablism

The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore

“The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore: a madrigal opera in one act” is a lovely work by Gian Carlo Menotti, probably best known for the Christmas classic “Amahl and the Night Visitors”. It’s for chamber choir (with some solo parts), small instrumental ensemble, and dancers.

I performed this while with the Oregon State Choir at Oregon State U. (It looks like that has morphed into the Chamber Choir.) Since that performance, I have been looking on and off for a recording. I finally found one last weekend, performed by the Carolina Chamber Choir (T. Koch, conductor).

Here’s the Introduction (1.3MB MP3).

Oh, and this month marks 4 years on TypePad.

Technorati Tags: gorgon, manticore, menotti, opera, choral, unicorn

Stormy Weather

I just got a copy of Stormy Weather (since I got a 30% discount coupon in email), featuring Lena Horne, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, Cab Calloway, and other huge names. Am watching it now: opening scene is Bojangles drilling a time step with a bunch of kids. :D

This clip is not from this movie, but was a deleted scene from “Café Metropole”:

Stormy Weather (20th Century Fox)

Technorati Tags: dance, music, bojangles, tap, tap

The Puppini Sisters

My new favorite group: The Puppini Sisters. They do Andrews Sisters-style arrangements of pop songs (a lot from the 80’s), in addition to the standard 1930s and ’40s jazz material the Andrews Sisters covered. I heard their CD “Betcha Bottom Dollar” being played at a Barnes and Noble store, and I had to get it when I recognized them covering Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights.

Listen to their cover of The Smiths’ Panic (3MB MP3). Here’s a video of them doing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy:

Betcha Bottom Dollar (Puppini Sisters)

Technorati Tags: andrews sisters, girl group, harmony, music, puppini sisters