So… due to personal issues, I de-activated my Facebook account last week. The crisis resolved itself (sort of… it’s a long story), but I’ve actually been enjoying my time away from Facebook, as it tends to be a distraction.
I learned a valuable lesson when I de-activated my account: Social Networking sites don’t necessarily strengthen already existing social bonds. Several of my closest friends made an attempt to contact me, asking me if there was a problem and how they could help. On the other hand, several people on my friends list freaked out, as if I had vanished from the face of the earth. These are people who know where I live, have my phone number and whom I see on a regular basis, yet because they can’t contact me on Facebook, they assume they’ll never hear from me again.
Strangely enough, leaving Facebook actually strengthened a few friendships…
Now to the apology. I feel bad for neglecting my blog, but there are two factors at play:
I’m working on another website for a friend, and that’s eating into a large portion of my online time. I hardly have time to read my favorite blogs, much less comment at them, and I don’t have much time to write for my own blog. I don’t want to turn this site into a repository of YouTube clips, but I might have to do that for awhile, to keep the site looking lived in.
If the comments are anything to go by, Throatpunch.com is read primarily by Russian pharmacists specializing in Male Sexual Enhancement. Fortunately, askimet catches all the spam comments, but the sheer amount of spam comments I’m getting indicates that my blog might have become a dead end on the Information Superhighway.
I’m not giving up on the blog just yet, and I’m not planning on going on hiatus, either. Nevertheless, fresh content will be slow in coming over the next several weeks.
If you’re bored, it’s your own damned fault. There’s a whole world out there waiting for you. There are books you haven’t read, songs you haven’t heard, people you haven’t met and places you haven’t been. It’s not that you’re bored… maybe you’re just boring.
When I saved the screen capture for yesterday’s “Drug Debt Sparks Fued” post, I ignored my usual practice of numbering the images I upload and saved the jpeg as “fued.jpg”, never thinking that I’d be uploading “fued02.jpg” or “fued03.jpg”. KRIS-TV’s Mitch Bryan proves me wrong:
Yahoo’s new homepage features links to local news stories, most of which I never bother to check out. I couldn’t pass pass up this story, though: Drug Debt Sparks Fued. In case they’ve cleaned up the headline, here’s a screen capture for you (and note the spelling in the URL of the article):
President Obama, who campaigned with the heady pledge, “Yes, We Can!” has firmly stated “No, We Can’t” when it comes to using the executive office to correct injustice. A posthumous pardon of boxing’s first black heavyweight champion can’t be done because – as The Los Angeles Times puts it:
[Posthumous pardons] consume precious time and resources from the president and Justice Department that could instead be focused on wading through thousands of clemency requests for people still living.
When there’s an opportunity for a photo-op that will fill 30 seconds on the evening news, our president is all about Justice and Mercy. Case in point: during the recent Iranian crackdown on protesters, Obama has issued the following condemnation:
The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens…
Don’t be fooled, Iranian people. Our government is openly hostile to the civil liberties of its own citizens, do you think they give a rat’s ass about your freedom? To make matters worse, a large portion of our citizenry think that nuking your country into the stone age is sound foreign policy.
I’m sorry if that sounds depressing, but it’s true. Governments don’t want to help you. Your clergyman might want to get you into paradise, but if you want to live as a free human being, they’ll do everything they can to keep you out of the voting booth. Supposedly, someone is working on Farsi translations of Thomas Paine’s important works. 200 years in the grave has not stopped Thomas Paine from speaking more truth than any contemporary politician.
A few days ago, I noticed that three images from this site were being hotlinked at other websites.
For those of you who don’t know what hotlinking is and are too lazy to click the link I provided, hotlinking is when someone uses an image from your website without bothering to save the image on their own server space. So the’re not just using your image, they’re using your bandwidth, too. For reasons that will soon be obvious, it’s a really stupid thing to do.
But first… in my case, bandwidth isn’t really an issue. Barring some extraordinary circumstances, I will never use more than my monthly allotment of bandwidth. And it certainly isn’t someone taking the images from my site that’s the problem. Hell, all three of the photos being used are images I got from a Google image search. I at least had the decency to put the pics on my own server.
I could easily make it impossible for people to hotlink images from my domain, but then I wouldn’t be able to use my own server space to store images/media to be posted on message boards and such.
The issue with hotlinking is twofold: One, there are several free image hosting services available. If a person wants to post images on message boards, MySpace, et cetera, they are able to do so without leeching someone else’s bandwidth. Two – and this is important – it’s a really stupid thing to do, because when you use my bandwidth to put an image on a message board or someone else’s blog, you are giving me control over what image appears on your website.
Someone used a picture of Charles Bronson from one of my posts. As of this writing, they haven’t figured it out yet. Can you guess which photo is mine? In case they’ve gotten wise, here’s a screen capture of the page. It should go without saying… if you’re at work, you might get fired for clicking on these links.
What amazes me about the kid getting suspended from school isn’t the fact that the kid was suspended. Hell, repressive dress codes are S.O.P. in Texas. What gets me is the reaction to the story at The Houston Chronicle. Here’s a few choice quotes from the comments on the article:
“Nubiangoddess” has this to say:
How is this even news? If they refuse to cut his hair then they can home school him. It’s either follow the rules and regulations or hit the road, period. Besides, who gives a 4yr old choices like that?
Eat a fat dick, bitch.
HJD puts in his or her .02 with:
That’s a 4 year old. It’s his parents that think it’s “cool”. If they can’t follow the dress code, they should find another school.
You know who else had dress codes, HJD? That’s right, the Nazis.
“PickyDilly” wants you to know:
Regardless if you agree with the policy or not, the parents are completely out of line by allowing their son to be suspended for fear that me might not like his short hair. Its past the point of being ridiculous how parents now days shield their kid from ever being hurt, emotionally or physically. No, in the real world, you CAN’T do what ever you want, you DON’T always win and you RARELY get your way. It really kills me that parents will let their kids wait until they graduate from college to figure this out, and then keep falling on their faces and can’t deal with life because they can’t adapt.
That’s right, you scrote-gobbling moron, parents should instead teach their children to blindly follow stupid rules.
“Percival” warns us:
Instead of worrying about hair length, schools should worry about gang tattoos. I walked through the halls of a school in Rosenberg and saw tons of kids sporting gang tats. NICE.
We’re talking about kinderfuckinggarten, asswipe. Incidentally, I culled these from the first page of comments. There’s over 10 pages of the same crap.
Mesquite Independent School District spokesman Ian Halperin gives the official skinny (ellipses in the original):
We expect students … to adhere to the code of conduct.
It has long been the philosophy of the Mesquite Independent School District that the public school system is responsible for the total development of each child enrolled within its schools.
This total development includes the training of students in social and moral standards, ethical conduct, good manners, and good grooming as well as the teaching of academic subjects.
What all these boot-licking authoritarian assholes are missing is that the 4 year-old has the moral and ethical high ground in this situation. You see, he’s growing his hair so that he can eventually cut it off and donate it to cancer patients.
So, in order to instill a sense of moral responsibility and good citizenship in a 4 year-old, the Mesquite ISD and the readers of the Houston Chronicle believe that the proper thing to do is to tell cancer patients to go pound sand.
Go ahead, insult Texas all you want… we deserve it.
I was dicking around YouTube the other day, listening to Wanda Jackson’s version of “Jealous Heart” when I noticed in the “Related Videos” sidebar a 1961 version of the song by someone named Lydia. I’ve discovered a lot of cool shit on YouTube, but this is the first time I would say – as cliche as it may sound – a whole new world has been opened for me.
I’m not saying that Lydia Tuinenburg is some phenomenal artist – you can judge that for yourself – but clicking that link turned me on to the wonderful world of Indo-Rock. But first, here’s Lydia:
From the opening bars, I was expecting a by-the-numbers generic rendition of the song, but I was taken aback by the power of her voice; it’s like a feral Connie Francis. It’s obvious from her repertoire (Stupid Cupid, Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool) that Lydia was strongly influenced by Ms. Francis, but her band sounded more like American country music. Check out her version of a Hank Williams standard:
At 13 seconds in, you can hear the guitar player use harmonics to emulate a steel guitar; something most rock (or rockabilly bands, even) don’t do. In spite of the somewhat pedestrian instrumentation, there was something about it that made me want to hear more.
Of course, you’re probably wanting me to acknowledge the elephant in the room: Lydia’s curious accent. As it turns out, Lydia was born in Java.
As former Dutch colonies gained their independence, many native musicians who played Western-style music opted to immigrate to The Netherlands, figuring there would be better financial opportunities. Word has it that the Dutch music scene of the late 50s sucked, but they made a killing in Germany, Belgium and France. They also introduced the youth of these countries to Rock & Roll. This, my friends, is Indo-Rock.
The undisputed Kings of Indo-Rock were the Tielman Brothers. As this video clip demonstrates, they were incredible showmen.
For more info about the Tielman Brothers, go here (thanks for the link, Dave!).
Indo-Rockers gave instrumental bands such as The Shadows a run for their money. Here’s the Tielman Brothers reworking of a Mozart sonata, released in 1960 under the title, “18th Century Rock”
Being at the top of the heap on the Indo-Rock scene, the Tielman Brothers were not only trendsetters, they were innovators. They were the first non-English European band to start using Fender Jazzmaster guitars, and lead guitarist Andy Tielman customized his Jazzmaster to a 10-string model using banjo strings. Supposedly, engineers from the Fender company came to look at the guitar with marketing a 10-string Jazzmaster in mind, but it never came to fruition. Most Indo-Rock bands used cheaper European electric guitars, but once the Tielman Brothers started using Jazzmasters, it became a trademark of Indo-Rock.
The ascendancy of The Beatles and other British bands was the death knell for the Indo-Rock scene. A few bands soldiered on, but they were soon forgotten and replaced by native-born rock bands. It’s a shame, though, because as this 1964 composition indicates, the Tielman Brothers could have held their own with the British Invasion. “Hello Caterina” reminds me of The Dave Clark Five at their best:
It’s worth noting that for a time, The Tielman Brothers were the highest-paid rock act in Europe.
There were dozens of Indo-Rock bands; some good, some great, some mediocre. The Jakarta-born de Wolff brothers, recording under the name The Blue Diamonds managed to make a brief appearance on the US Top 100 charts in 1960 with their version of an old song from the 1920s, “Ramona”:
The Blue Diamonds were known as “The Dutch Everly Brothers”, and they recorded several Everly Brothers songs, here’s their version of “‘Til I Kissed You”
The Blue Diamonds lack the raw energy of most their Indo-Rock counterparts. They’re a little too polished for my tastes, but I admire their harmonies.
For my money, the only Indo-Rock band I’ve heard that comes close to the Tielman Brothers are The Crazy Rockers. Led by drummer Henry Aschman, The Crazy Rockers featured Sidney Rampersad on guitar and vocals, which set them apart from other Indo-Rock bands in that Rampersad was from Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana). Since I’m concurrently on a Sister Rosetta Tharpe kick these days, I’ll offer up The Crazy Rockers’ cartoonish version of “Down By The Riverside”:
I realize a lot of people wouldn’t be too impressed with that, but I dig the singer’s over-the-top Elvis impersonation and the fact that even the background singers have thick accents (Down By De Ribberside!). If guitar instrumentals are more your taste, then savor the flavor of The Crazy Rockers’ sweet rendition of The Third Man Theme:
I’m not a drummer, so I’m usually don’t take much notice to percussion – especially when it’s behind good guitar playing, but their drummer really stands out. Nothing jazzy or flashy – it’s more like I want to pay attention to what he’s doing to hear whay he’ll do next; the fills are pretty creative.
The Crazy Rockers are consistently good enough that they warrant the posting of three songs. I’m tempted to post their version of Louis Prima’s “Buona Sera”, but since one of the few people who regularly read this blog is a fan of Mack “They Call Me The Meat Man” Vickery, I’ll post their cover of Vickery’s shameless rip-off of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues”, “High School Blues”:
I’m going to go off on a tangent for a moment… several years ago, I used to be pretty active in the binary groups on Usenet, but then the Dutch fuckheads basically took over the mp3 newsgroups, incessantly posting their personal top 100 songs of 1974 to the 1950s and country music groups and posting vinyl rips of stuff that is easily available on CD (hint: posting mp3s of vinyl rips defeats your purpose of claiming that vinyl sounds better… dickholes). For the first time ever, I’m grateful for the Dutch presence in Usenet, because it made it incredibly simple to find a shitload of Indo-Rock. A lot of what I got was re-recordings (probably from the 80s), but what I’ve posted thus far are the original recordings, most of which were recorded between 1958 and 1965.
This leads me to another tangent: Fuck the recording industry. I don’t subscribe to an anti-copyright or anti-intellectual property stance, but this is fucking ridiculous. We live in an age where if I want to purchase an album by a particular artist, I don’t even have to get out of my seat. This has been the case for nearly a decade, but the recording industry is still locked in archaic licensing practices which make it next to impossible for people to obtain music not marketed to Americans. I can legally download an album at lala.com for less than 8 bucks as long as it’s licensed, but if I want to listen to, say, Ayano Tsuji on my mp3 player, I’d have to shell out about 30 bucks for a physical CD with liner notes I can’t read.
I’d like to purchase a decent anthology of Indo-Rock, but since the American music industry assumes that I want to listen to Taylor fucking Swift, I’m stuck out. And since rock & roll played by Indonesian immigrants will never fall into the nebulous category of “World Music”, I’ll probably be forever stuck out, unless I fly to Holland and browse the record stores.
It’s a shame, because there are enough Indo-Rock artists and apparently enough footage of Indo-Rock bands that a documentary would be very welcome resource. Until that day comes, I can only give you a couple of pertinent details about Indo-Rock:
The guitar is a popular instrument in Indonesia, so Indonesian immigrants had the drop on Dutch youth when rock & roll arrived
Many Indonesians were initially exposed to American music via the Armed Forces Network radio station; hence the jukebox-ready sound of a lot of Indo-Rock bands (AFN paid a lot less attention to the hit parade than European stations that broadcast American music). So, the rise of American Imperialism and the fall of Dutch Imperialism both played roles in Indo-Rock. Neat, huh?
Since almost nothing attracts pussy like playing in a band, early European rock shows tended to break out in violence due to Indo-Rock bands stealing the blonde, blue-eyed girlfriends of Dutch youth.
Supposedly, native Dutch males who started rock bands in the late 50s/early 60s would darken their skin and dye their hair black in order to be more credible rockers.
I’ll leave you with some Indo-Rock obscurities (I think these bands recorded out of Indonesia, not The Netherlands). First, the White Waves, with a phonetically rendered version of Hank Williams’ “You Win Again”:
Spanish police responded to a call at the Siguenza Jazz Festival after someone complained that saxophonist Larry Ochs and his band weren’t jazzy enough. The fan insisted that his doctor had warned him it was “psychologically inadvisable” for him to listen to contemporary music and he said that was what Ochs was playing. After listening to Ochs, the police decided the fan might have a case against the organizers, who refused to refund his money. They referred the dispute to a judge.
My immediate response was that the Spanish jazz fan is a bit of a douche. That may very well be true, but does he have a case against the Siguenza Jazz Festival? You make the call:
Okay, okay… I know what you’re thinking: maybe the guy painting didn’t properly tune his paintbrushes and was throwing off the rest of the band. Let’s give Larry another chance. Here he is collaborating with Wilco guitarist Nils Cline (and no, it’s not a Shreds video):
Trust me, I’m not the type of person who listens to stuff like this and reacts with, “That’s nothing but noise!” I listen to Sun Ra, John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne and Wildman Fischer, so accessibility isn’t necessarily something I look for in music, but this shit is fucking weak. If I paid money to see that crap, I wouldn’t go so far as bringing the cops in, but I’d definitely feel ripped off.
If you’re like me, you learned a great deal of music appreciation from watching Warner Brothers cartoons. (Carl Stalling was a genius!). One of Warner Brothers’ best – IMO – musical cartoons was the 1957 Friz Freleng Looney Tune, Three Little Bops:
Here it is in Eye-talian:
If that’s not enough, here it is in español:
Gone from the Spanish version is the “I wish my brother George was here”; instead, there’s a Duke Ellington reference. Oddly enough, the Liberace quote is intact in the Italian translation.
In case you’re wondering… yes, there is a Christian version of Three Little Bops:
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