Gruesome Twosome: Kids Are All Right Edition
The Brady Bunch: “Everything I Do”
LP: The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album, 1973 | BUY
Rodney Allen Rippy: “Eenie-Meenie-Minee-Moe”
LP: Take Life a Little Easier, 1974
On today’s menu: kiddie music, funky style. The Brady’s recordings consisted of frenzied shoutalongs and/or inappropriate covers of the day’s hits (such as “Baby I’m a Want You”), but “Everything I Do” from their final album proves there’s an exception to everything. Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick sing their parts beautifully, and the bridge’s gorgous harmonies (by some unknown, yet talented, backup singers) are breathtaking. Pint-sized Rodney Allen Rippy became a playground sensation when he sung “Take Life a Little Easier” in a Jack in the Box commercial. Sensing an opportunity to reach fans of childrens’ music and processed meat, Bell Records subsequently cut an entire LP of Rippy’s off-key warbling. The Jackson 5-lite “Eenie-Meenie-Minee-Moe” is noteworthy for the contrast between Rippy’s wobbly singing and the slickness of his backing musicians. Special thanks to Ion for both of these tunes.
Four Phases of VH-1
I’ve been thinking about VH-1 lately. More precisely, the good old VH-1 from five or ten years ago. I miss it, but there’s always hope that things will change. As this handy Wikipedia entry demonstrates, the channel has had a complex history. The interesting thing about VH-1 lies in how, unlike MTV, they never established themselves with a singular, generation-defining image. Maybe that explains why they’ve gotten away with massive personality shifts over the years. I would characterize them in four distinct cycles:
Phase One (mid ’80s) VH-1 launches in 1985 to little fanfare; in contrast to MTV, music videos skew older and snoozier (Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Julio Iglesias); bizarre assortment of veejays include Don Imus, Rita Coolidge and John “Bowzer” Bauman.
Phase Two (late ’80s/early ’90s) Agressive marketing campaign promotes the channel as a thirtysomething MTV, complete with viewers’ icky, self-indulgent recollections of their favorite ’60s/’70s albums; videos skew toward the yuppie-ish (Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman); Stand Up Spotlight with Rosie O’Donnell marks a tentative step towards non-music programming; veejays include O’Donnell, Ellen Foley and Bobby Rivers (aka gayest veejay ever).
Phase Three (mid to late ’90s) “Music First” branding serves as a contrast to MTV’s increasingly non-music image; programming trends toward the the ironic and self-referential with Behind the Music, Pop Up Video and kitschy repeats of Solid Gold and The Midnight Special; videos skew in a mainstream pop direction (Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows, Eric Clapton); live performance rules with VH-1 Storytellers and VH-1 Divas In Concert.
Phase Four (’00s) Popularity of I Love the ’80s leads to avalanche of cheaply produced pop culture-themed originals; superfluous awards shows and tabloid programming (Driven, The Fabulous Life Of) abound; music videos quietly migrate to the wee hours only; increased influence from corporate owner Viacom results in synergistic nightmares such as ET on VH-1; trashy “Celebreality” programming brings gainful employment to has-been celebrities; catches up with MTV in its tenuous connection with music.
Love (and T-Shirts) For Sale
Somebody I know gave me an ultimatim this week — get my art online for sale or else. In response, the Scrubbles Store has been reopened at CafePress. “It needs to be called the Matt Hinrichs Store,” responded the somebody. Whatever, I’ll address that later. Right now the only artwork per se for sale is a set of cards with my pink hippo illustration, along with a small variety of scrubbles.net logo items. The thing is, I don’t like CafePress all that much — the interface is convenient and everything, but they don’t pay much. Does anybody know of alternatives? I just want to sell basic things like t-shirts and cards. Heck, I could probably just buy a bunch of blank cards and do ‘em myself.
I’ve also updated my portfolio with a couple of pieces — a Mama Cat illustration and one of my Rurouni Kenshin book cover designs. I looove the dramatic artwork on the Kenshin cover. Things are rather bitersweet right now on the RK front since I’m currently designing the final two volumes (which are due out out this Summer), a huge project that consumed much of 2005. I’m gonna miss that guy!
Repeat Steps 1-5
Currently I’m in the process of correcting a stupid mistake — I accidentally trashed a design project and now have to rebuild it from scratch. D’oh!
I guess that makes it a good time to point out a couple of semi-old reads that I missed. First off is Michael Beirut’s Design Observer post on the design history of The New Yorker and the concept of “slow design”. Found this via The Minor Fall, The Major Lift and it’s really excellent. Second is this long-ass book review by Geoffrey O’Brien for Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson. Emerson’s book lies in my pile on the old night stand. Although his previous volume on Stephen Foster was somewhat dry, I’m chomping at the bit to read his take on the Brill Building songwriters (after I finish this one and this one).
She’s No Bebe Shopp!
Does anyone still think about Miss America? For the first time in years, I actually tuned in to the CMT broadcast of last weekend’s pageant. It was exactly as I remember it — kind of kitschy, kind of boring, completely fascinating in its earnestness and increasing irrelevancy. The winner, Miss Oklahoma, projected a somewhat plastic personality in contrast to the bubbly and sweet Miss Georgia. I demand a recount! Lots of Co’s Max actually attended the ceremony in Las Vegas and posted some fun photos on Flickr. Although being there in person would be a scream, perhaps the best way to experience Miss America would be watching it on the telly in a roomful of snarky gay men.
Here’s a hilarious take from the wayback machine: Peter Bagge at the 2000 pageant, courtesy of suck.com.
Motel Googie
Doncha just love the cleanliness, color and optimism in this painting? Real fresh and breezy, like that strip of paper the maid put around the toilet lid. It comes from James Lileks’ work-in-progress Motel Postcards site. He’s planning to post vintage cards and witty commentary from all 50 states throughout the year.
Badass Wicker
The Nonist has done an entertaining history of wicker furniture as signifier of hipness (via PCL Linkdump). Love it!
The Grumpy Old Man
I had a $25 Barnes & Noble giftcard burning in my pocket recently (thanks to Christopher), so I spent it on a book that I’d been wanting to check out for a while — The R. Crumb Handbook by R. Crumb and Peter Poplaski. It’s quite a unique little book, a compact and chunky hardback that serves as part autobiography, part art book (oh, and it comes with a CD of his old-timey music, too). While the text seems patchy, Crumb writes in a refreshingly candid, self-deprecating tone completely in line with his art. It seems like his life is constantly guided by things that both fascinate and disgust him: his childhood interest in kiddie pop culture, his period with San Francisco’s hippie subculture, his weird sexual fetishes. Neat excerpts from throughout his comics career illustrate his ramblings, scrapbook style. As for the samples, I was surprised to find that his celebrated Zap Comix stuff is actually … flat and uninvolving (guess you have to be on drugs to fully appreciate them). The area where he truly shines lies in the painfully autobiographical work he did in the ’70s and ’80s. For any Crumb newbie, this one comes highly recommended.
Dude Needs Jenny Craig
The Chicago Tribune asks a nagging question that has been haunting us here in Chez Scrubbles: Why is Hurley on ‘Lost’ still fat? We’ve been noticing that the actor playing Hurley is actually looking heavier this season than last. How is that possible (unless he’s been snacking on the other castaways)?
Download Brigitte
CBC: “Both Sony and Universal Music have announced plans to reissue classic recordings in digital form.” Very cool news. Universal’s plans include 100,000 vintage songs by mostly European artists, with the first batch being available on iTunes next month. I’m especially looking forward to finding out what old material they’ll have from Brigitte Bardot.
Gruesome Twosome: Poet, Fool, Bum Edition
Lee Hazlewood: “What’s More I Don’t Need Her”
LP: Cowboy In Sweden, 1970 | BUY
Honey LTD.: “Louie, Louie”
LHI Records single, 1968
For today’s aural delights, I turn to the enigmatic Lee Hazlewood. Richie Unterberger nicely sums up Hazlewood’s appeal in his book Unknown Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll: “How can you judge a man who sounds like Johnny Cash might after gargling razor blades? Who can’t seem to decide whether to be a Nashville cornball or a brooding desert Leonard Cohen? Who experienced immense commercial success producing pop stars like Nancy Sinatra and Duane Eddy, but regularly churned out oddball solo albums that could only have appealed to the most narrow of audiences? Who invested a great deal of time and effort in the sessions he produced for others, but seemed to make many of his own records as if he were in a race with the studio clock?”
I can’t elaborate much on that, except to say that Lee’s two songs here are a testament to doing your own, quirky thing. The Cowboy In Sweden track layers Hazlewood’s laconic speak-singing atop a lovely David Whitaker string arrangement. Honey LTD was a quartet of groovy looking ladies signed to Hazelwood’s own LHI Records label. Hazlewood infused their swinging remake of “Louie Louie” with simultaneous Girl Group and hippie sensibilities, even contributing a spoken intro (in which he sounds bizarrely like George W. Bush).
Horizontal Hold
Sometime yesterday afternoon, my computer went all wonky on me. After I restarted, the iMac’s desktop and Finder were unaccessible and everything was slow. Whenever something like this happens, you go through a panic and then you take stock of what you’d miss if everything on your hard drive had to go. It’s like undergoing the seven stages of grief, only stuck in the bargaining phase: “Okay, Mac, you can have all the iTunes purchases and mp3s as long as I can retrieve all the freelance projects I was too stupid to not back up.” Luckily I was able to successfully reinstall the operating system and all went well.
I’ll be back with a Gruesome Twosome tomorrow. In the meantime, pop over to Christopher’s and answer his query: What is the greatest invention of the 20th century — other than computers and anything related to computing?
A Shelley Winters Memory
Farewell to Shelley Winters, who died Saturday at age 85. The Shelley I grew up with was the blowsy, muu muu clad Poseidon Adventure lady who’d arrived at “The Tonight Show” looking like she knocked off a few Jack Daniels before showtime. It wasn’t until much later when I saw her in stuff like A Place in the Sun and The Night of the Hunter that I realized what a multifaceted actress she was. In these days of vapid magazine-cover celebrities, she was and will remain a true talent.
My favorite memory of Shelley was an early ’80s “Tonight Show” appearance. Shelley had finished her spot with Johnny Carson and they’d moved on to the next guest, a pre-Designing Women Annie Potts. Annie and Shelley were happily chatting away when Shelley suddenly asked “Haven’t we met somewhere before?” Well, it turned out that the two had actually made a movie together which Shelley had completely forgot. Her gradual realization, on national TV, that Annie Potts was one of her former co-stars was unforgettably hilarious.
Wannabe Film Critic Blues
The Internet Movie Database has accepted my mini review of the 1943 Roy Rogers vehicle Silver Spurs, which I submitted solely because nobody else commented on it. The same reason I just finished another mini-review, for the uneven ‘41 Warners ‘B’ Steel Against the Sky. That one hasn’t yet been approved.
Speaking of the IMDb, I just noticed that they’re linking to my Mindjack Film reviews in the external reviews sections for each film. Their pages for Kinsey, In the Realms of the Unreal, The Razor’s Edge, Anna and the King of Siam and The Best of Everything all have my name on them. Makes me feel like a real, bona fide film critic! I’d love to do more of these reviews, but the larger DVD companies make it so difficult to get review copies and press releases. One such organization wouldn’t send anything because my editor is based in Canada. Another has a Byzantine online application process, and my many queries to them as to why I’m unacceptable have gone unanswered. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to deal with any Joe Shmoe wannabe with a website, but come on. I now have lots of respect for full time freelance writers who have to deal with this. Nobody needs to constantly be jumping through hoops to prove their validity.
A Found Find
The Christian Science Monitor just did a nice article on FOUND magazine. The FOUND empire — website, magazine, book, and traveling exhibit — is devoted to found notes, photos and pieces of paper. In their words, “We decided to make a bunch of projects so that everyone can check out all the strange, hilarious and heartbreaking things people have picked up and passed our way.” Like this melancholy snapshot of an abandoned BBQ:
