A · Mammal's · Notebook

It seems like an age since I was last here. I re-read some old posts and found  myself missing it all a tad. Perhaps I ought to revive this...?

Meanwhile, here is a (signed!?!) picture of SC from Zardoz:

I am on the hunt for some rare records, and wonder if anyone out there can help...I really want MP3/CDR copies of these two records:

Ottilie Patterson "3000 years with Ottilie" (Marmalade records 1969)

Lal & Mike Waterson "bright phoebus" (Trailer 1972)

That's it! Of course I will be happy to furnish you with something equally glorious, or if you have an original LP to sell...let me know!

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Peter Wyngarde:

We are just back from a trip to the UK. It was all rather nice overall, but of course very hard work with a little 2-year old girl. Everyone was very happy to see her again, and I was happy to show her off. Here are some pics from our inevitable visit to see the Antony Gormley exhibit at the haywood. It was good to see all of the figures dotted around the river-

'The cloud' (as my daughter called it) is a glass room filled with steam. It is pretty crappy as far as ART goes, and plainly unoriginal, but still very fun like a funfair ride. I illegally snapped some pics, baby, wife, father and I-

Tonight!

A song from the Lullaby Baxter LP "fontana fontaine" will be featured (somehow or other) on the show "grey's anatomy", airing on Thursday night. This show apparently is the biggest thing on TV (20 million viewers), so this potentially big exposure, etc. etc. blah, blah. This is a song that We (Peter Baldwin & I: Hercules) wrote, arranged and produced. That's me on hot piano, slide guitar and glockenspiel, too.

Tune in if you can...the song contains the line "Wonder will I, see you sometime". Enjoy!

* * *

Finally, the Lullaby Baxter album gets a review on allmusic.com - surely the most visited music website? Luckily, it is er...positive.

Once again, the wife and I blasted this LP of hopelessly dated buddha-rock in an attempt to ward off the evil christian spirits in our neighbourhood. This being the sunday before christmas, it was especially appropriate.

The wife, baby and I went for a quick post-prandial stroll around the museum of outdoor art last night. It is a lovely little space in the deserted-at-night business district here, and at this time of year have a super lights exhibit, with a Christmasy feel. Best of all, they handed out special glasses that made the experience far more psychedelic. That, mixed with the 2 pints of Guinness I had for dinner made for a pretty trippy time. The ride home, with Rogerio Duprat's version of "flying" and the original "Homburg" on the stereo, was like the final 10 minutes of 2001!

Bought a tub of this, for pretty obvious reasons. I'm not much of an iced cream eater, so it may linger in the freezer for some weeks. Not sure what flavour it is- o yes, Coffee liqueur...hmmm sounds yummy. In related news, I just bought the criterion "Life of Brian" DVD- not much Python left to own now.

Little thing about the Lullaby Baxter album on 'the world'- a BBC world service production.

The other day I started filling up those CD case-logic things with CDs that were orphaned by the flood. I think I have about 1000 discs sitting on spindles without covers. So, one of these cases ends up in the car, and it makes a pleasant change indeed to listen to entire albums for a change. Usually, I make mixes, or best-ofs. But here, I was hearing lost album cuts that perhaps I hadn't given a chance, and entire LPs in the right context. About 4 days ago, I put in "watertown" by Frank Sinatra. It has been in ever since. I have even been spinning my vinyl copy when I get home from work.

         

This album came about when Frank heard The Four Seasons baroque song-cycle "genuine imitation life gazette", and "dug it". I suppose he wanted to make an attempt to enter the rock mainstream, so he picked The Four Seasons team to help him. The trouble was, I suppose, The Seasons themselves were viewed as utterly irrelevant by that time. No matter, the songwriting team of Jake Holmes and Bob Gaudio, as well as Seasons arranger Charles Callelo came up with a tremendous work, better even than "gazette". I have really been glued to this beautiful, fascinating piece for days. The square, yet funky backing, the ghostly american-gothic lyrics and Frank. He really sells this piece. Recommended!

...I can now rest peacefully. "'Allo 'allo" season 5 is finally out on DVD.

         

Now all I need is the complete "Hi De Hi" in region 1 and I'll never go wanting again.

A few years ago my father shipped over his father's (cir. 1910) Grotrian-Steiweg grand piano to my house, in New Orleans. Seeing as I was the only family member with a serious interest in music, it was decided it should go to me. Of course I was thrilled. It was a beautiful piano bought by my grandfather who had written a book called 'the pianoforte' among others. Of course, when Katrina came along, one of the things I was most worried about was the family piano.

Luckily, the 'water' did not reach the body of the piano (an advantage of having a grand!), and it looked like it was save-able. Here is a picture of the piano in our post-Katrina house-

         

After my third trip back to New Orleans, I had managed to get everything out of the house EXCEPT the piano. Luckily, we stumbled upon a fellow named Peter Spring who, in an act of almost-charity, got the piano out of the house and brought it up to Denver. After almost a year, it is back with us, set-up and tuned.

         

         

Thank you Mr. Spring. Now our family piano can be enjoyed by a fourth generation of Sumner.

         

Trip to Seattle was a raging success. What a cool city, but with a few too many pimps, whores and junkies for my taste. Just a small complaint.

Our friends Alex and Darcy's wedding was great, with Tilly exploring the outer realms of cuteness as a flower-girl. Here are a few pics:

         

          Mathilde the flower girl and her mother's legs.

         

          With flowers.

         

          The rehearsal. Mathilde was tentative.

         

         

          With the blushing groom.

Fantastic McDan Sugartooth show last night at red rocks. It was the first real night out my wife and I have had in 2 years. Baby sitter and everything. I'm not complaining. I'd rather have a baby than a social life, but it was nice to get away, especially to this amazing event!

Steely Dan.

What I expected: Mostly new material and a few golden hits played by indifferent/mulleted LA session cats with 5/6 string basses and the like. I expected grotesque sax and hideous guitar solos, kinda like the ones one their tours a few years back. I expected a DX7 or something like that. All I expected really, was to see the wonderful Don, Walt and Michael McDonald in person.

What I got: All golden age material, cherry picked. Not a single filler track. Not a single post-Gaucho song. They didn't even play "Cousin Dupree" or any of the other pretty decent material from that album (released sometime this century). The band: NY session cats, not LA. The had nice haircuts. No rat-tails or mullets. No basses with more than 4 strings. In fact, the bassist played the best bass guitar ever. The Fender P-bass. The guitar player played a tele. Walter played a strat. Donald played a Rhodes. There was a 4 piece brass section, but these cats were heavy. No David Sandborn-esque nonsense here. Suffice to say all the guys had serious chops. The guitarist played a good Skunk solo.

Michael McDonald was kinda what I expected: a soul/gospel review with some highs and lows. It was great to see his uncompromisingly-unbalding white mane in person, and when he kicked into "minute by minute" and "what a fool believes", yes it was exhilarating.

The Dan Setlist. It was bookended by cuts from "countdown to ecstasy". They opened with "bodhisattva" and closed with "my old school"- these were fantstic fun. Most of the rest of the set was from the 75-80 period, their best IMNSHO: "Dirty work", "Do it again" (from the 1st LP), "Black Friday", "Kid Charlemagne", "Green earrings", "Don't take me alive", "time out of mind", "Hey nineteen", "FM" and bestly, ALL OF "AJA" bar one song ("Home at last")!!!!

I was quite surprised they didn't play some of their bigger hits: "reelin' in  the years", "Rikki", "Rose Darling", "Doctor Wu", "The Fez" or "Babylon sisters". No matter.

Really, the best thing was just to see The-Donald in person. See him moving and talking. He really is an enormous figure in my life and in the life of Hercules. The band played these songs with spirit, class, style, pizzazz. The high point: When Donald sang "I cried when I wrote this song, Sue me if I play too long"....from probably the best song they ever wrote "Deacon blues". I welled up. My wife's fave was "Peg", which was especially wonderful because MIchael McDonald sang his original parts as on the LP!

Aaaah. I could go on for ages. Viva Dan!