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The nexuas of entertainment and politics, part 73 ......
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - TV star Eddie Munster (as portrayed by Butch Patrick) and congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Who knew that he came from 1313 Mockingbird Lane .... well, instead of going there, why not stop in here for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
POLITICAL NOTES - in an upset, Park Won-soon was elected mayor of Seoul, South Korea - as the self-styled citizens' candidate (an anti-establishment independent) trounced the articulate and glamorous legislator representing the country's ruling conservative party.
RECENTLY there was a rush of good news, as Beauty the Cat - an English kitteh who was stolen last year by the wife of the Liberal Democratic member of Parliament John Hemming (while committing a burglary at the home of her husband's mistress) - had been found and that - after going missing for two months at New York's JFK airport - Jack the Cat had been located, and seemed on the road to recovery.
Alas, it appears that in Britain it was not Beauty the Cat, after all. And now ....
MONDAY's CHILD is Jack the Cat - who has died from his wounds at age five.
THEATER NOTES - a stage musical based on the music of The Monkees - which will feature a 20-strong cast acting out a 'madcap Austin Powers-style plot' according to its producers - will premiere at the Manchester Opera House this coming March before moving to other UK cities.
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - as the Southern Hemisphere's 2011-2012 summer season begins in earnest, Playa Luna - Chile's only nudist beach - will now give guided tours and (at season's-end in March) will also host a conference of nudist movements all over Latin America.
FATHER-SON? - TV stars Barry Williams ("The Brady Bunch") and Zachary Levi (from NBC's "Chuck").
NICE WORK if YOU CAN GET IT - Rupert Murdoch gave his loyal lieutenant Rebekah Brooks - who resigned as CEO of News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal - £1.7m in cash, the use of a London office and a chauffeur-driven limousine as part of her severance package from News Corp.
ART NOTES - works by 68 American artists in the 1920's entitled Youth and Beauty will be at the Brooklyn Museum in New York through January 29th.
CRIME NOTES - a report by the World Bank called 'The Puppet Masters' has investigated cases of what it calls grand corruption - and nearly all involved companies in which the real ownership was concealed, with anonymous bank accounts. By far the worst was the USA, where one could set-up a corporation with almost no verification.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Jessie the Cat - an Australian kitteh whose family moved across the continent (over 2,000 miles) from South Australia to the Northern Territories ... and then Jessie escaped ...
.... and she has (seemingly) walked back to their old home - where the new owners saw this strange cat hanging around.
FILM NOTES - the Guardian newspaper examines the 10 best silent movie stars - in photos.
MUSEUM NOTES - the Netherlands has a newly opened Amsterdam Tattoo Museum - unique because you can also offer up an arm or leg as a 'pallet' for the tattoo artist.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV stars America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty") and Jordin Sparks ("American Idol").
NOT THAT THIS COMES as any surprise to us - but in Britain, female bloggers hesitate before publishing their opinions, as a result of hateful trolling.
ART NOTES - works by Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Fernand Léger and Francis Picabia in an exhibition entitled Modern Antiquity will be at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California through January 16th.
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - a Swedish branch of a Scandinavian lingerie chain is under fire after making employees wear name tags displaying ... both their bust circumferences and cup sizes.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Pyro the Cat - an English kitteh at the side of superstitious young crews flying on WW-II experimental bomb tests above the Atlantic - who has been awarded a posthumous commendation for his service.
TRANSPORTATION NOTES - construction work for a new subway line has begun in the Romanian capital of Bucharest - with plans to equip all 49 stations with elevators for people with disabilities by mid-2012 (up from only 12 today).
LEST YOU THINK this is limited to Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson, it turns out that there are Islamic televangelists - wearing Western suits, speaking local dialects and with hordes of teenage girls as followers.
ART NOTES - works by Seventeenth century Dutch painters and printmakers in an exhibit entitled Darkness Into Light: Mezzotint Rediscovered are at the Cincinnati, Ohio Art Museum through January 1st.
MUSIC NOTES - Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music has premiered its production of Keep A Song In Your Soul: The Black Roots Of Vaudeville - featuring more than 20 songs written and performed by black artists between 1830 and 1930, including 'Underneath The Harlem Moon,' 'Raise A Ruckus' and 'Keep A Song In Your Soul' (composed by Fats Waller and Alex Hill in 1930).
IT's NO SURPRISE but still distressing to read the Far right is on the rise in Europe - with thousands of self-declared followers of hardline nationalist parties.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Furball the Cat - a Virginia kitteh rescued from a pine tree after being chased by neighborhood dogs five days earlier.
FILM NOTES - a biographical film is planned for the late trumpeter Miles Davis - with its producer saying that they are aiming for a film in the same vein as the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" and the Ray Charles film "Ray".
SEPARATED at BIRTH - film star Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite") and singer James Blunt ("You're Beautiful").
BUSINESS NOTES - in the African nation of Liberia - where security has been a big issue after years of conflict - Charles Ananaba's Omega Insurance Company has become successful offering all sorts of policies, from accidents to marine and travel insurance.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Nemo the Cat - an English kitteh whose back right leg had to be amputated after X-rays showed an air rifle pellet lodged there.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... when I heard the song "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, I was surprised to learn that it was a band from the UK (as the song had so many Bob Dylan influences). In a similar vein, after hearing him play with David Bowie and King Crimson, I was surprised to learn that the guitarist Adrian Belew is an American. It's not the only surprising thing about him (his guitar style will do that to you, regularly) and even if you don't recognize his name: chances are you've heard him as a guest artist or sideman with many famous musicians. And often by twists of fate over 30 years.
Born as Robert Steven Belew in the Cincinnati suburb of Covington, Kentucky in 1949, he switched from the drums to the guitar in his youth when he was bedridden with mononucleosis. Inspired by The Beatles (at first) and later Jimi Hendrix, he performed in a high school covers band called The Denems. He eventually moved in the mid-70's to Nashville where he adopted the name Adrian, which he always liked. He performed with a regionally popular band called Sweetheart - whose members performed in 1940's-style suits - when fate intervened in 1977.
Frank Zappa had performed earlier in the evening in Nashville, and told his chauffeur to bring him to hear some music ... and so the chauffeur brought him to hear Sweetheart. He eventually joined Zappa's band when Sweetheart split-up the next year. Belew appeared on the Zappa disco-parody album Sheik Yerbouti - and on his 1978 tour (which led to the "Baby Snakes" concert film). And whaddya know ..... during that tour, one attendee was David Bowie ... who offered Belew a job once the Zappa tour ended.
Adrian Belew was thus a touring member of David Bowie's 1978 Heroes Tour - which resulted in the live album Stage as well as the 1979 Lodger studio album. Would you believe ... just as that tour was winding down, Adrian Belew met the producer Brian Eno - who was producing the 1980 seminal Talking Heads album Remain in Light - and Belew thus was not only on the album but also on tour (and thus appeared on The Name of This Band is Talking Heads album).
The internal tension in recording that album helped lead to the (eventual) break-up of the Talking Heads - and Belew wound up as a sideman on all of the band members' solo projects, including the Tina Weymouth/Chris Frantz band the Tom Tom Club - with Belew actually co-writing Genius of Love, their most famous hit.
In 1982, he released his first solo album before meeting up with the veteran guitarist Robert Fripp - who invited Belew to join his revived band King Crimson with drummer Bill Bruford. Having caught up with Adrian Belew's career at this time is when I realized that Belew - along with Boston-native bassist Tony Levin - were Americans, and thus making ½ of the lineup of King Crimson not from the UK. And Belew (along with Levin) has remained in the band's lineup to this day, albeit in an on-and-off format over the past thirty years.
One reason why so many musicians have offered him a job in a touring band (and we'll get to session work later) is that Adrian Belew combines both traditional song stylings along with some very experimental guitar work (imitating animals, birds and machinery) along with some biting slide guitar and tremolo-bar sound effects. At the time he was hired by Frank Zappa he was the only band-member Frank had who did not read music - but said that that was when he truly became a musician.
During the 80's, Belew released several solo albums (notably Mr. Music Head from 1989) and for a time belonged to a band named GaGa (now, you don't suppose ...) plus his own band called The Bears - which is another on-again, off-again project he comes back to every few years. In 1990, he re-joined David Bowie for his Sound and Vision tour and had some chart success with "Pretty Pink Rose" as well as "Men in Helicopters" from the album "Young Lions".
And since then, his tours with King Crimson, The Bears and his solo albums have kept him busy. But just to make sure: he has been a sideman for such performers as Paul Simon's seminal 1986 album Graceland as well as with the J. Geils singer Peter Wolf, Cyndi Lauper, Mike Oldfield, Tori Amos, Jean-Michel Jarre, Laurie Anderson, Nine Inch Nails ... and even William Shatner's Has Been album from 2004.
Adrian Belew turns age 62 in late December, just completed a major tour with his most recent album being 2009's e for Orchestra - and chances are, you'll be hearing him ... even when you don't realize it.
His one solo minor-hit single came on his 1989 solo album Mr. Music Head ... and it came in the form of a duet with someone whom he recorded with on Lone Rhino - his 1982 first solo album. The title track had him accompanying his four year-old daughter Audie (on piano).
Fast-forward seven years to 1989 and Audie (now age 11) sang on Oh Daddy - which reached #58 on the Billboard charts. And at this link you can listen to this self-explanatory song.
Oh daddy, when you gonna write that big hit?
Oh daddy, when you gonna hit it real big, real big?
Well, now that's a tall request
for such a small little girl
but I'll try, try till I get it just right
'cause I'm gonna make it ... maybe even twice
Oh daddy, when you gonna make it to the big time gig?
Oh daddy, when you gonna blow off the lid?
Well, it's like a backstage pass into paradise
there's a long lonely waiting list
but I'm gonna give it everything I've got to give
Oh daddy, when you gonna be a big star? I got the suit and a pink guitar
Oh daddy, when you gonna break it wide open? I don't know, but I still keep hopin'
Oh daddy, are you gonna make a million bucks? All it takes is a whole lotta luck
Oh daddy, when you gonna have that fat Cadillac like you always said?
Oh daddy, when you gonna put on some stretch pants, yeah?
Well, don't hold your breath 'cause it'll make you blue
but the whole opera's not over yet
and I aim to make the fat lady sweat
Oh daddy, when you gonna make it to the top? All I know is I'm not gonna stop
Oh daddy, what are ya' gonna buy your little girl? Hey, I'm gonna getcha DisneyWorld
Oh daddy, you could hit the jackpot yet Like I told now, don't hold your breath
