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Nothing like the separation between the distant past and the present, huh? Well ... not so fast ....
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - English TV star Ricky Gervais and French composer Claude Debussy.
Keep this crazy train rolling - and stop in 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.....
ART NOTES - works by the late film star Dennis Hopper are at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art through September 26th.
BOOK NOTES - a new work detailing the strange life of the Italian painter Caravaggio was ten years in the making.
MUNICIPAL NOTES - an extensive account of the future plans for the city of Detroit by Dave Bing's administration: concentrate its shrinking population into a smaller area and let the remaining areas go green - including much in the way of urban farming that is already taking hold.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Kiki the Cat - one of several rescue cats (in the arms of a Marine serving in Afghanistan) where they are helping to find homes for displaced animals.
FOOD NOTES - British ex-pats living in Austria finally convinced the Heinz company to sell the same version of its Baked Beans there that they grew up with in the UK (and immortalized in "The Who Sell-Out" album).
IN a PROFILE of the Canadian actor Mike Myers he notes his English immigrant parents, the source of his "Austin Powers" films.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges and baseball player Hideki Matsui.
CHEERS to the veteran golfer Paul Goydos who - this past Thursday - became only the fourth player ever to score a round of 59(!) on a PGA Tour event. Although he came back-to-earth and finished the tournament in second place - this was enough to earn a spot in this coming week's Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland.
A favorite of the sportswriter John Feinstein - who has featured Goydos in some of his books - the other day Feinstein fleshed-out this old story he has told about how Goydos was a schoolteacher in the inner city of Long Beach, California. And as the passage below indicates, how Goydos has a different perspective than many elite golfers do.
One night at dinner in 1994, Tom Watson began railing against welfare families who, in his opinion, made no attempt to find work.
Goydos, who was awed to be in the same room with Watson, waited until he finished and then said quietly, "You know, Tom, I worked with a lot of kids from welfare families. Almost all of them want very badly to work. Sure, there are some cheats. But I'm betting there are fewer people cheating on welfare than there are people cheating on their taxes on Wall Street."
Watson happens to be both smart and inquisitive. Rather than shout Goydos down, he asked him questions about his teaching experiences and the people he was talking about. Two years later, Goydos won his first tournament, at Bay Hill. That night I happened to run into Watson.
"I thought about you when Paul won last week," he said. "I know you're friends. I thought it was great. The tour needs more thoughtful guys like him."
Watson might not have agreed with Paul, but he respected him.
MONDAY's CHILD is Mr. Pooh the Seagull - who was found by an English family in their fireplace as a baby, adopted by them and now ...... well, thinks he is a cat.
BUSINESS NOTES - twenty years after it closed, a deteriorating federal penitentiary in Québec may finally be put to use (as a public-housing project that would include space for community organizations).
A RECENT CARTOON by Tom Tomorrow demonstrates how tough it is for wingers to feign concern about issues .... they really don't care about.
CHEERS to making the first batch of my grandmother's mint iced tea this summer. I can't make it with the love that she put into it for us as kids, but I do try to make a reasonable facsimile 2-3x each summer.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - comic and film star Jonathan Winters ......
... and baseball legend Babe Ruth - whom Winters has portrayed.
MUSIC NOTES - in advance of a concert in Dublin, Ireland: the Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek tells of a 1965 gig backing-up Van Morrison, who asked Manzarek if ever got sick of being on the road. Ray had to inform him, "This is our first gig. We absolutely love it".
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled Europe's Exoticized East are at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario through September 6th.
WHILE IT's NOT NEW - there has been a program at the Indiana State Prison to allow inmates contact with some of the kittehs who wandered in through prison fences. And more than a few of them state how therapeutic it is (caring for another living thing) in controlling aggression.
TV NOTES - Entertainment Weekly nominates its choices for the "19 Greatest Game Shows" of all time.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Oscar the Cat - an English foster kitteh who conducts numerous panty raids ... by swiping young girls' underwear off clotheslines.
DEVELOPMENT NOTES - an ambitious plan for large-scale redevelopment of the former shipyards in Belfast aims to transform 185 acres of mostly derelict, post-industrial landscape into a whole new face for Northern Ireland's largest city.
RELIGION NOTES - the Economist magazine examines the rise of right-wing Christian fundamentalism in East Africa.
ART NOTES - an exhibit honoring the artists and architects who died from the Haitian earthquake is at the Queens Museum of Art in New York City through August 1st.
CHEERS to attending a family reunion this weekend. I know people who hate arriving at these and enjoy leaving them. I'm lucky: it's just the reverse for me. Have a good weekend, everyone: probably won't make it back here until mid-week next.
SIGN of the APOCALYPSE - easily the most famous of the Russians who lived quiet lives as typical Americans - and were recently swapped for US agents in Russia - was Anna Chapman who has been featured in many an Internet site (and a recent Separated at Birth last week). Now, should a film ever be made about this series of events, Ozzy Osbourne's daughter Kelly says that she'd like to portray Chapman.
THURSDAY's CHILD are Bailey and Taz the Cats - who star in an episode of Animal Planet's "Housecat Housecalls".
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - a new line of greeting cards called Nasty By Design should appeal to some of the pre-verts here.
SPORTING NOTES - the trend years ago for NHL franchises in Canada was to relocate to the US. Now, with the strengthening Canadian dollar, salary agreements and a breed of possible owners: this trend may yet reverse itself.
POLITICAL NOTES - the continuing rapprochement between the UK and Ireland leads to new issues unthinkable of before: whether to establish a truth-and-reconciliation process ... and when to arrange the first-ever state visit by a British monarch to the Irish Republic.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - as suggested in a recent USA Weekend magazine: TV star Paget Brewster ("Criminal Minds") and film star Jane Brucker (the sister of 'Baby' from "Dirty Dancing").
......and finally, for a song of the week ................... in the history of rock bands whose ability was not recognized until years after they had split-up: the British Invasion band The Zombies would be in the first tier. Ahead of their time in many ways (including the use of minor keys) they were more popular away from Britain than within it. They are known primarily for a few hit singles (and only one of its members achieved success after the break-up). But a re-formed band (with two original members) have helped focus attention years later on their entire body of work, a revelation to more than a few.
They formed in suburban London in 1959 (when they ranged in age from 13-16) and yet did not consider music a career until a London Evening News talent contest five years later. The line-up consisted of: Colin Blunstone (lead vocals), Paul Atkinson (guitar), Hugh Grundy (drums) and the band's main songwriters: Chris White (bass) and Rod Argent (keyboards and its most accomplished instrumentalist). The Zombies won that talent show and thus given a chance to record a demo for Decca Records. Rod Argent's She's Not There reached #12 in the UK charts and - after WINS jockey Stan Burns featured it - amazingly reached #2 in both the US and Canada, featuring an early use of an electric piano.
They were promptly shipped over to do the Murray-the-K revue shows in New York - with drummer Grundy asked to assist the Shangri-Las by revving the motorcycle when they sang "Leader of the Pack" - and appeared on a Hullabaloo show complete with screaming girls. Returning home, they were rushed into the studio to record more single tunes, so that their first album Begin Here had little thought behind it as a statement. They had another hit single with Tell Her No which once again reflected a dichotomy: reaching only #42 in the UK but #6 in both the US and Canada. It that proved to be the last hit during the band's initial lifetime.
Yet while not selling well: the quality of many of the band's other releases ("I Want You Back Again", "Indication" and "She's Coming Home" for example) are highly regarded by today's critics. The All-Music Guide's Richie Unterberger considers them "too adventurous for radio: songs with wind-swept organ solos, downbeat lyrics, jazz waltz-like sounds". In addition, he felt they were saddled with an un-hip reputation (their schoolboy image in the 1st photo, without the racy R&B lyrics of their peers). Rushed into stardom, their finances were stretched tight (the three non-songwriters were still living at home) and having no manager: when their Decca contract was not renewed, they signed to Columbia for one album, hoping to make enough money to enable them to split with a modest nest egg (in Atkinson's case, to afford a wedding). The budget they were given to work with precluded the use of session musicians, forcing the use of the (then-new) Mellotron to emulate strings and horns.
The 1968 album that resulted was entitled Odessey and Oracle - its mis-spelled title and album cover designed by artist Terry Quirk - and sold poorly at first (having tough competition from releases by the Beatles, Stones and the Kinks just in the UK). It was only released in the US due to the efforts of musician/producer Al Kooper who recognized its potential. Today (apart from its one hit single to be mentioned later) it is considered both a masterpiece by music critics (#80 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time) as well as inspirational to many younger musicians (such as Paul Weller of The Jam, Robert Plant and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters). Rod Argent says that while it's not a huge-seller, "it gives us a continuing source of income" to this day.
Sadly, its success a year later came too late for the band - even offers by record companies to re-form were rejected as everyone had moved on (Blunstone even having become an insurance agent). In particular, the band Argent was headed by Rod Argent (with Chris White as a non-performing songwriter) for a few years in the 1970's. They're best known for the 1972 single Hold Your Head Up that reached #5 on both the US and UK charts.
Fast forward to 1991, twenty-three years after the band's demise. Singer Colin Blunstone, bassist White and drummer Grundy came together for a studio album New World - though it was primarily aimed at preventing bogus Zombie bands from using the name. It wasn't until 1997 that all of the original five came together for a British reunion concert. It was their only such reunion, as Grundy and guitarist Paul Atkinson had retired from music (Atkinson becoming an A&R man in Los Angeles).
Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent have toured off-and-on since 2001 as The Zombies. They've been joined by other veteran UK performers off-and-on: The Kinks' former bassist Jim Rodford on bass (who happens to be Rod Argent's cousin) and guitarist Keith Airey (the brother of Deep Purple's new keyboardist Don Airey). They released a 2004 album As Far as I Can See but were dismayed when former guitarist Paul Atkinson died that year at the age of 58. They played at last year's Isle of Wight Festival and the current lineup will be performing in the UK and Spain this summer, and in Rockville, Maryland on September 10th.
The four survivors commemorated the 40th anniversary of the release of Odessey and Oracle with an entire album performance in London in March, 2008. This has been released on CD as well as DVD - and with a plethora of compilation albums available: it's good to see a band receiving its due, however many years later.
The best-known tune from Odessey and Oracle is Time of the Season (fair-use extract below). Rod Argent modeled it after a song (which the Zombies played live in their early days) - George Gershwin's Summertime - showing up in the breathy vocals asking "What's your name - who's your daddy?" and helped the song reach #3 in the US and #1 in Canada (although only #196 in the UK) - but which only became popular after the group had split-up. It has been covered by many performers (the Dave Matthews Band frequently performs it live) and below you can listen to it.
It's the time of the season
When love runs high
In this time, give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands
To take you in the sun to
Promised lands
To show you every one
It's the time of the season for loving
