Sound & Vision: June 2008

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Wrigley tradition

Each morning as I'm getting ready for work, I tune in to ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning." The hosts, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, have developed the radio personas of just a couple of regular guys who still are awed by the company they keep, even though they have become two of the best-known sports entertainment personalities in the business. Greeny is a best-selling author, to boot.

This morning, one of Mike and Mike's guests was Chicago Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney, who turned out to be a classmate of Golic at Notre Dame in the early '80s. They talked about the baseball team, then Kenney extended an invitation to the Mikes: Come sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the time-honored tradition at Wrigley Field.

Golic has been known to sing on the air and has a decent voice. He suggested Greeny's microphone be turned way down, or off. But either way, they seemed genuinely thrilled to follow in the footsteps of the late Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, whose seventh-inning-stretch renditions of the song became legend.

Since Caray's passing the honor of leading the crowd in song has gone to various celebrities, not more than a few of whom have been ridiculed for their performances. Mike and Mike expressed some concern about how they'll be viewed. But they had little doubt that they'd do better than British rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, whose "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley really is the stuff of legend. See and hear for yourself:

He should have sung "Crazy Train"! Maybe he'd have known at least some of the lyrics.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Duck and cover!

On recent travels, I picked up a "Fallout Shelter" sign in a curiosity shop, and I nailed it to the fence up by the street in front of my house.

My kids started asking me what the deal was, and I started talking about how we grew up on the ’60s and ’70s (and for folks a bit older than me, the ’50s) under the constant threat of "commies" dropping atomic bombs on us. So much time has passed that we can laugh about it now, and I guess I consider the "Fallout Shelter" sign a bit of nostalgic kitsch. And if anyone wants to take the sign seriously and haul up in my basement, there are a lot of CDs down there to play.

I also mentioned the films they used to show via projector, about how to ostensibly protect yourself in the event of a nuclear attack. Almost immediately, one of my sons found this video, which brought back plent of memories:

What's up with the monkey holding the firecracker on a string? I didn't know they had suicide bombers back in the '50s!

And I don't know about that turtle surviving a nuclear blast, but those diligent, adult-obeying, all-American kids stood no chance whatsoever, unless they were ducking and covering inside a lead-lined room.

The powers that be obviously didn't want to tell us about the effects of radiation back then. I don't remember seeing any films about eyewitness accounts from Hiroshima or Nagasaki ...

I spent lunchtime Tuesday in Pittsburgh at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, watching the Jason Kendall Band play a set. I'd heard (and really enjoyed) his CD "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and I'd intended to see him play one night in California, PA, before Hillary Clinton decided to make a campaign stop at the local university and I had to film that.

Here's a video of "St. Augustine," which closed the show. I'll post more soon, including footage of Jason showing off his prowess on the saxophone.

And thanks to Ron, who was manning the soundboard for the festival's main stage and let me patch right into the soundboard!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Joy Ike in Washington

Music aficianados should be glad that Joy Ike has made Washington a "tour stop" the past two years, performing at the Main Street Farmers' Market.

Her visit Thursday coincided with the mercury shooting upward (do they even put mercury in thermometers anymore?), creating less-than-ideal conditions for playing music. But as Joy mentioned, it was better than playing in the rain!

Joy's set featured numerous songs from "Good Morning," her first full-length CD, which is scheduled to be out later this month. A CD release party is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 28, at the EastSide Borders and will feature a full band.

In Washington, she performed with her piano and her exceptional voice, which was fine with those who were listening. Often, there are requests for musicians to "turn it down" during the farmers' market; while I was out in the heat shooting video, I didn't hear anything of the sort during Joy's show.

Here's some biographical information about Joy:

The 24-year-old has been writing and performing only snce 2005, but already she has received acclaim from local and national media alike. She was voted second for "Best Solo Artist" by the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2007 and was featured on Allhiphop.com's "Alternatives" as "one of the artists [who] will ultimately be responsible for placing Pittsburgh's music scene firmly on the map.

Ike's music has earned a reputation for being lyrically challenging, addressing issues of social awareness, faith, loneliness and the complexity of relationships. "Good Morning" is an anthem to all four concepts and specifically tackles our human need for dependency and the growing obligation to realize that the world is bigger than our own individual problems.

Joy says: "This CD is especially good for Monday mornings. If you can't seem to wake up, just stick it in your player and turn it up. No coffee necessary!

I'll be giving "Good Morning" a good listen and let you know more about it. In the meantime, check out the video of Joy performing "Hey, Where Are the Kids?" at the farmer's market. We posted her playing this song last summer, but we've improved our equipment since then. I patched directly into the mixer, and I think the audio conveys Joy's voice particularly well.

Also, see her perform "City Lights."

Monday, June 2, 2008

Goodbye, Bo

The final album that Bo Diddley cut was called "A Man Amongst Men," and the title s descriptive of the impact he had on a generation of rock 'n' roll musicians.

Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, who took his stage name from a song he composed – or maybe vice versa – died today in a year that would have seen his 80th birthday. His passing means that just a few pioneers of the early days of rock, roughly half a century ago, still are with us.

"A Man Amongst Men," released in 1996, features performances by some of the guitarists he influenced: the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ron Wood, and Texas axeman Jimmie Vaughan, all of whom obviously held Bo in high esteem.

Bo Diddley never sold a ton of records, but he brought plenty to the table: a resolute self-assurance emulated by many of his predecessors; his trademark square-body guitar; and, of course, the "shave-and-a-haircut" cadence that became known as the Bo Diddley Beat.

His compositions turn up on countless albums of the rock era, many of which fail to spell his name properly. One of the more notable tributes to Mr. McDaniel's songwriting prowess is "Happy Trails," released by Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1969, a full two-thirds of which is based on a couple of Bo Diddley tunes, "Who Do You Love" and "Mona." (If you can find it, give it a listen, if nothing else for the transcendent guitar playing of the late John Cipollina.)

"Who Do You Love" is probably the most covered of Bo Diddley's songs, done by everyone from Ronnie & the Hawks – that's Ronnie Hawkins backed by musicians that later would form The Band – to George Thorogood & the Destroyers playing the version that's received the most airplay.

Around Pittsburgh, his "Bring It to Jerome" gained brief notoriety around Super Bowl XL, in relation to Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. In fact, the song was about Jerome Green, who accompanied Bo on maracas for decades.

If you're curious about Bo Diddley, your best bet is to locate "The Chess Box," which features most of his essential work on Chess Records from the '50s through the '70s.

No. 15: a milestone, of sorts

In the ever-changing world of newspapers, we're trying out new ideas that we never dreamed of doing as recently as a couple of years ago.

At the Observer-Reporter, we've come up with a concept called "What's Up With That?" The premise is self-explanatory: We find something we're wondering about, and do our best to impart ... what is up with that.

The tricky part about the series is that it requires a complementary video component. That's not a particularly easy concept to grasp for journalists who have worked strictly on the print side for decades. Nor for the person in charge of producing the videos (that's usually me), who worked strictly on the print side for a good 20 years.

The current video episode of "What's Up With That?" is our 15th. We hope that the individual episodes have gotten more polished and more entertaining as we've proceeded. We're learning all the time.

The latest episode is Scott Beveridge's "Mysteries of the courthouse," detailing some of the unusual stuff you'll find at the Washington County Courthouse. Scott was hesitant to appear in front of the camera, but he came across well. And I had a lot of fun programming the opening of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" (or some facsimile thereof) to use as theme music.

In case you want to catch up, or compare and contrast the various episodes, here they are so far: