CURRENT THOUGHTS & MEANDERINGS
December 5, 2013.
Necessity and the need for the spacious in all things compelled me to redesign this site for a simpler look. I'll be reposting several of my writings, tributes and assorted bits from the old site to this one, whenever time allows, so check back now and then.
Current news: I've created a company called NINJA CONTENT for assorted work in film, writing and music. Most importantly, for those of you who supported my Kickstarter project NO NEW YORK, Ninja Content is publishing a short memoir about my musical and fraternal relationship with legendary Cleveland musician Peter Laughner, called PETER & THE WOLVES. NO NEW YORK, the manuscript and Kickstarter raison d'être has proved to be challenging to finish without the help of a publisher and I don't want my generous supporters to go empty-handed for too long, so for now, I'll deliver this special reward in lieu of NO NEW YORK.
December 5, 2013.
Necessity and the need for the spacious in all things compelled me to redesign this site for a simpler look. I'll be reposting several of my writings, tributes and assorted bits from the old site to this one, whenever time allows, so check back now and then.
Current news: I've created a company called NINJA CONTENT for assorted work in film, writing and music. Most importantly, for those of you who supported my Kickstarter project NO NEW YORK, Ninja Content is publishing a short memoir about my musical and fraternal relationship with legendary Cleveland musician Peter Laughner, called PETER & THE WOLVES. NO NEW YORK, the manuscript and Kickstarter raison d'être has proved to be challenging to finish without the help of a publisher and I don't want my generous supporters to go empty-handed for too long, so for now, I'll deliver this special reward in lieu of NO NEW YORK.
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I’m including a YouTube video of an artist I've been listening to a lot lately, Rokia Traoré. I've always loved the music of Mali, singers like Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Oumou Sangare, who is Wassoulou. And the song Je Pense a Toi by Amadou and Mariam is an earwig. Here's a link to Rokia Traoré giving us a brief intro to a few tribes in Mali, and a beautiful song that I can't get enough of, Ka Moun Ké. Rokia is also a skilled lyrical guitarist. Enjoy this video of Rokia singing Mélancolie.
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For now, the current blog is in honor of Pussy Riot! Radio Ragazza features a new show on la chanson Français; French Music Hall and beyond. Current tribute is for Leos Carax, the bad boy of French cinema. And since we're celebrating all things Français, I've included a few videos I discovered of the French Apache danse, a truly theatrical throwdown (quite literally) of bastardized tango, waltz and acrobatics popular in Paris and Marseilles in the fin de siecle. The dance is a violent and often hilarious pastiche of the relationship between a pimp and his girl. A gentleman named Max Dearly seems to have taken the credit for inventing the dance, yet it was humorist and Music Hall performer Mistenguett who Max copped his moves from starting in 1903, moves Mistenguett based on the hoodlums of Belleville. The two eventually worked together to create the dance as it is known in American films from the 1920's on up. (You'll hear more about Mistenguett in the radio show.) Warning; although the dance is a parody, it's violent and thoroughly misogynistic. Don't bother to watch without a healthy sense of humor.
The first video features Ray Bolger, best known as the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz. The second has to be my favorite; less Apache and more soft-shoe/tap, it's Betty Grable giving Hermes Pan the business. (The phenomenal dancer Hermes Pan was Fred Astaire's principal choreographer throughout his career.)
Be on the look out in mid-to-late December for PETER & THE WOLVES. And thank you, once again for supporting my writing. Au revoir pour le moment mes amis! x
The first video features Ray Bolger, best known as the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz. The second has to be my favorite; less Apache and more soft-shoe/tap, it's Betty Grable giving Hermes Pan the business. (The phenomenal dancer Hermes Pan was Fred Astaire's principal choreographer throughout his career.)
Be on the look out in mid-to-late December for PETER & THE WOLVES. And thank you, once again for supporting my writing. Au revoir pour le moment mes amis! x
