LOVE IT TO DEATH

...and a piece of art







While not exactly a light (summer) read, Christine Montross's gross anatomy 101 and it's philosophical and moral implications for the living is a must-read for those who wonder about what it takes to be a doctor, and the much larger implications of the way western civilization feels about death, and the body.
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Montross, a first time author with Body of Work, weaves an incredibly graphic yet tender look at
what is considered to be a necessary right of passage for medical students, but
which would make 95% of the populace gag.
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After all, carving up embalmed, leathery, mottled and downright grotesque
specimens of former human beings takes a special kind of (live) human being.
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The details described by Montross should bring out the horror factor in just about everyone who reads this treatise on the dissection of a cadaver that Montross named "Eve," but the triumph is the way the author turns a Frankensteinen subject matter into a gentle en joiner as to what makes us alive.
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Montross comes to have a real empathy for "Eve," a woman she never knew in life, but knows very intimately in death.
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Interestingly, although Montross and her med school class spent many months rooting through bodies and all major organs, few of the students would go on to have any surgical or internal medicine practice.
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Montross became a psychiatrist, and she writes that perhaps her inside knowledge of the body may help her understand the mind, the fundamental and basic humanness of the being.
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And since this is shaping up as a summer where already a lot of Baby Boomers have taken (death) on the chin-Farrah, MJ, Billy May, etc.-reading this book and reflecting on what it is to be living might just be a prescient thing to do.

BEAT IT

Shocked and stunned. very stunned.

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What is it with continuing bizarro troika of major celebrity deaths?

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Again, always, in 3's.

This week brought the demise of Ed McMahon, and then on the same day, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

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With the Jackson thing being the most shocking, or was it?

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Snowballing reports allege that MJ was heavy on the painkilling narcotic meds such as Dilaudid, Demerol, or stronger, and that obviously, a miscalculation or too high a residual dose could prove fatal, even to a healthy heart.

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In any event the King of Pop is dead, long live the King.

(When you as a child have 4 number one singles in one year, and sell 100 million copies of one LP, then you can call yerself just about anything you want.)

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Still, other media outlets were less than kind at the out-of-left-field news.

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Within hours of confirmation of MJ's death, The Smoking Gun website reprised some grand jury testimony from a young man who accused Jackson of molestation. Not even in death, etc.

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And some fans of the Beatles are less than shocked, and stunned, what with their noses still outta joint from 1985, when MJ bought up publishing rights to 259 Lennon/McCartney tunes for a measly 47 mill, whilst Macca and Mz. Ono failed to get on the same page.

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Regardless, an immense talent, no matter how weird and even distasteful is gone at 50, and that, is the real story.

EVEN MORE (ICKY) TRICKY DICKY

He never looked so good...





As I inch my way through Andy Warhol "Giant Size", a near 630 page biblical in scope tome on the pop culture art of Mr. Warhola, I keep finding images that must be shared with you. (My full review of the near 10 lb(!) book will appear soon at www.boomermediareview.com)
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Love Warhol or hate him-or anywhere in between-you gotta be impressed by the sheer audacious volume of his output.
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Case in point for today are the silkscreen images AW undertook in the 70s.
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Up top is Andy's take on Richard Nixon circa 1972. Charitable, really.
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Did you know that Dick and Andy go way back?
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Give a click on the scan of the letter, at left.
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It seems that Nixon, in keeping with his glib, Machiavellian manner was even in 1969 interested in recruiting Andy and some of his gang for the new administration.
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Good Lord. Guess the only Warhol Nixon knew about was the Campbell soup can one, and not the various other artrocities and Factory debauchery whom anyone within 100 miles of New York City had surely heard of.
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Actually, too bad Nixon never appointed Andy to the cabinet.
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Him and John Mitchell would have got on terrific!

TIME FOR AN OLDE NEW AGE RANT

ATTENTION: Snotty, whiny, brats!

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Last week, a major media outlet that may or may not have been the New York Times had a piece about how "today's kids" consider Holden Caufield-the famous phony-fighter from the Catcher in the Rye, to not only be an anachronism, but a whiny brat who holds no intrigue for "today's kids," that may if true, may make them be dumber than I ever gave them credit for.

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OK, forget the fact that Mark David Chapman basically used J. D. Salinger's masterpiece about teen and even young adulthood alienation as a loose template for the murder of John Lennon-and I very much doubt that "today's kids" have any friggin' clue who MDC is-and maybe just barely, who John Lennon is. (Besides, Chapman was/is nuts.)

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Oh, and don't even get me started on "today's kids" calling ANY other "kids" whiny!!! "Today's kids," of about 18 anums, many times behave like 8 anals. Spoiled little pisiform buggers that many are...

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Anyway, I'd bet me copy of If that most, that's most of the babies of Baby Boomers, are just pathologically narcissistic featherweights, who if they ever had to go through what earlier, tougher generations have, would have ended up with shitty britches.

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Sorry, "today's kids." As as a lot, me thinks you are mostly whiny wankers.

IRONY OF "THROAT" RUNS DEEP

Ahhh; 1972!
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Think-or say-what you want about heterosexual porn, it has, since Deep Throat, become almost (that's almost) mainstream with not much chance to shock or make one stand in awe of the superstars of filmed/videoed sex. VCRs and the Internet make it available 24/7, no questions asked. (Well, maybe your Visa number.)
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But, of course that proliferation came about (partly) to the innovations and sacrifices made by a small cadre of actors, directors and producers who turned "smut" into what was called at the time, "porno chic."


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And this is on my mind today after reading some of the incredible material contained in a 400 page plus FBI dossier on Deep Throat, just made public last Friday.
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To say that the FBI-courtesy of the religious right wing and Richard Nixon had a hard-on for the perps of porn, is to understate.
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The fact that Nixon and his gang of state Attorneys General tried to throw Harry Reems-the male lead in Deep Throat-in prison for 5 years should say it all. Even theatre owners were indicted in the "conspiracy."
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Not even sure the bearded black-robed boys in Iran would go for that one.
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And notwithstanding that porn was shown in (public) movie theatres back in the 70s, even at drive-ins, creating Jurassic pricks, Deep Throat, with only a half dozen rather tame sex scenes that seem almost quaint by today's standards and was considered by the authorities to surely be the end of western civilization as we, or they, knew it.
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Plus the delicious irony of Nixon being brought down by a Watergate informant who was not only a senior FBI agent, but whom also went by the nom de phallus, "Deep Throat," could not have been written by a dime store novelist worth his starving artist bona fides.
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But if you were not around during the day, and want to really get a flavour of what it was like to get eaten alive by a pop culture phenomenon, I highly recommend you seek out the 2005 video doc, Inside Deep Throat.
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Not only is the film itself superb, there are copious bonus features and two sets of commentary tracks that fill in gaps not discussed in the film. (Sadly, two relevant voices, Deep Throat director Gerad Damiano, and Behind The Green Door deb, Marilyn Chambers, have passed since the documentary was made.)
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My fave is when Reems recounts how after being led away in the middle of the night in 1973 from his apartment by beefy FBI agents, the cops actually asked for autographs and posed pictures back at HQ.
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Linda Lovelace, she of the film fabled clitoris in her throat was at the time of her death in 2002 still signing Deep Throat items despite having claimed in 1986 that she had been "raped" during the film.
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As I said, deep irony as well as throat.

BRUNO BESTS BORAT?

Oh, boy!

Homophobes, and even thin-skinned gays, get ready to have your gym socks rocked.
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Sasha Baron Cohen nee Ali G nee Borat nee Bruno is back next month with a second-well third if you wanna get real technical-satiric look at the human condition.

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And while it is tough to imagine how the effeminate (very) gay, Austrian faux fashion interviewer Bruno can top Borat in laughs, or especially box-office, we, shall see.

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Getting on the cover of GQ mag can usually impart a certain manly cache, yet unless you see the

man as a catcher, rather than pitcher, then I'll leave it you you'se to decide
which is up, and that which is down.

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But no denying that Bruno contributes mightily to the GQ July ish.

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Priceless dillio on do's and don't in the world of first rate fashionistas are the stock and rough trade of Bruno, and in this, mein hair does not disappoint, even if you are dirty arschenhaller, or even have one for that matter.
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And, words of wisdom straight from zee bleached blonde Boy Wonder about "bum bleaching":
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"If Bruno didn't get his schmutziger arschenhaller bleached twice a month, his shtinker would

resemble Dizzy Gillespie during a trumpet solo."

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Bruno also discuses his last boyfriend, Diesel, who "vas a genuine pygmy only three eight, so ich made (heem) vear heels so he could give me plow jops mitout me having to bend mein knees."

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As you may guess, Bruno's new movie due July 10 is gonna be a politically incorrect mouthful, or more. A mighty millstone, in the anals of gay history.

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Some nervous-nellie Gay Rights Rainbow peeps are on record saying that

they wonder if all proletariat wankers taking in Bruno will be un-thick enough to "get the joke."

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But from what I have seen and read about Bruno the movie, one would have to be quite retarded, or barring that totally beyond redemption not to get the joke.

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Heil Bruno, and be GLAAD!!!

FROM BEATLES TO BOWIE, 30 YEARS ON

Cor, those wuz the daze!

Readers have previously endured my shilling for UK music mags, so wot the bloody 'ell. why not more?

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I even have a news peg to hang this one on.

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Record Collector-as you can see from the upper toppermost of the bloggermost-started thirty annals ago as part Fabs, part others publication.

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Interestin' that, as 1979-save for the release of the Hollywood Bowl LP two years earlier-was not exactly the age of Beatlemania, redux.
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Yet here RC is, 780 fortnights later-look it up-still going strong.

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Beatle coverage is still top shelf, but Record Collector is also tuned in tightly to many other iconic pop groups and stars.

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This month, RC devotes a lot of script and pix-12 pages worth- to David Bowie's Hunky Dory album, itself now going on 38 years of age.

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Hey Beatle fans, did you know that former Abbey Road Studio engineer Ken Scott was Bowie co-producer on Hunky Dory?
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This is the kind of great factoid stuff that fans of classic rock can get when perusing RC, and I strongly urge you to seek out a copy-or even maybe a subscription-and get the full story, mate.
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Then find out first hand if there's Life on Mars?

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Maybe next month's RC, with Telestar Joe Meek, will let us in on the truth...

BIG WOODSTOCK 40th BOX WELCOME, BUT SURE TO CONFOUND

You wot; No I'm Goin' 'ome????







Don't get me wrong boys and girls of the Woodstock (first) Gen: I just LOVE anything to do with the August 15-19, 1969 gathering at Max yasgur's diary farm in upstate New York, near the town of Bethel.
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So, when it was announced earlier this year that the 40th anny of the fest would be the BIG one, for unreleased material from the shows-of which there is a TON-this here Woodstock warrior via the 1970 theatrical run of the film and original two sets of soundtracks, was brown acid giddy.
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Yes, the job done by Rhino-who else?-for the aptly skedded release date of Aug. 18 of their new 6 CD boxset, containing 77 songs, with 38 previously unreleased recordings, appears to the usual superb.
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BUT, is it really Woodstock without perhaps thee seminal moment, which would be the frenzied Ten Year's After take of I'm Goin' Home... by Helicopter.
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According to a recent, nice, report in Billboard, Ten Years After, for some bloody reason, mate, refused to allow their iconic tune to be included on this box set. Go figger, man.
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However, can't see how Rhino could have left TYA off, and the moneychangers must be at fault.
(The Band and Keef Hartley-who?-also declined to be included. despite the fact that some of the Band's set has already appeared on the Woodstock Three Days of Peace and Music box released in 1994.)
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Now, if we can forget about Alvin Lee and company not making the bill, we can say that there are some very good things on this box, and some things that perhaps only very serious completists will care enough to fork out the $80, for.
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Although it has been claimed that the Grateful Dead's Woodstock show was not up to par, this new set will include their 19 minute version of Dark Star. The Who will get two previously unreleased Tommy tracks, and the entire, honkin' 30 minute take of Canned Heat's Woodstock Boogie will appear for the first time. (The Woodstock Two set had a 10 minute version.)
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The above is very good news, indeed. So is the effort to restore the chronological running order of the fest, and include full set lists, which to my knowledge, has never been made public, before.
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Oh, and also very good is the inclsuion of an extra Mountain track, as well as the actual Woodstock version of Theme For an Immaginary Western, that original soundtrack producers had ixnayed for a claimed better take from another live Mountain show.
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Yet a first disc packed with the somewhat B-list of the fest-click on upper left for full track listings-the relegation of Santana's Evil Ways set opener-previously unused due to a out of tune Carlos guitar but now overdubbed by Santana himself-to a new Sony Legacy Woodstock series, is not so good, at all. (More on the Woodstock Legacy releases at a later date.)
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And Rhino VP of A&R Cheryl Pawelski's rather (green) acidy comment in the press release that the new set "feels like dirt..like a field," is, even for Woodstock, over the top.
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Again, don't get me wrong; this 40th anny box will be in my hands as soon as I can get it, BUT, and this is a BIG but, the clock is running on this Woodstock material.
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Many of the original festival attendees are shortly collecting old age pensions and even those-like moi-who were not there, and yet were surly radicalized by the film and music, are well into our 50s.
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Soon, many of us may not care to re-live the olden days. Makes us feel even older, even bitterly nostalgic.
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Hell, what are the keepers of the Woodstock camber waiting for? The 50th anniversary when many of us will surely be part-hardy with Jimi, Janis, and Jim?
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Director of the Woodstock film, Mike Wadleigh made a remark about what may come for the 50th, and I just hope he was kidding.
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Regardless of how many years from that August 1969 we get, MUCH MORE of the Woodstock tape archive needs to thrown open, and fast.
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While most of us, still care.
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Latest Boomer Media Review Woodstock stuff:
http://www.boomermediareview.com/Woodstock/40thAnnyRemasters.html
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AND, this, on the new DVD box:
http://www.boomermediareview.com/WoodstockUltColEdDVDBox.html

MOTOWN-and SONY-WERE OUT IN FRONT

One of the first digi pop recordings.






Thirty years ago, no longer "little" Stevie Wonder became among one of the handful of pop music artists to embrace the then new fangled digital recording medium.
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Despite the fact that Wonder was coming off the monster success of the analogue recorded Songs in the Key of Life, and his new digital recording, The Secret Life of Plants would be relegated to curio partly due to its soundtrack roots (sorry) and lack of set-piece songs, the double LP would just happen to be recorded on Sony's audio new game-changer, the PCM 1600 two track digital recorder.
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Never mind that Sony would quickly add an additional 22 track capability within a year, the two tracks of the PCM 1600 made an amazing sounding recording, despite having many portions of the final mix squeezed on to the two channels.
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Yet that was the real attraction of digital; theoretically-notwithstanding the claims of the digi-haters-that a producer could put as much sound on a track as needed, without any degradation
of audio quality as would be expected with multiple analogue overdubs. Eg: tape hiss and signal loss.
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So, when MOTOWN-who seemed to offer more of and in better audio quality for the new CD format-released much of their back catalogue on compact disc in the mid 80s, Wonder's Secret Life of Plants was one of the few releases that had actually been specifically recorded for the medium.

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And Plants did sound good on CD-better than most- but has lately been available only as a German import, long out of print in the US, it sadly was.

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But now, Wonder's mini-masterpiece is available via Japan, and in the pricey yet

very worthwhile SHM format, acronym for Super High Material CD.
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Won't glaze your eyes with the tech bits, but suffice to say this new version of
Plants will really grow on you-sorry, again. (Click on scan at upper left for more on early digital recording.)

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Plus, SHM is backwards compatible which is an audio geek's way of saying that the disc will play on any CD player, although it is quite possible the better your player

is, the better the music will be reproduced.
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Watch shortly for a full review of the SHM Plants CD at our sister site, http://www.boomermediareview.com/

THE ERROR THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND + NEEDLE-DROPS!

Sir George was wrong.

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Some thoughts ahead of the long-long, long, long-awaited Beatle CD remasters skedded for September:

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When about 22 years ago, the world was hyped to death with the Beatles first appearance on CD, the producer of the material, George Martin, claimed that the first four Fabs albums were not up to snuff, stereo-wise, so we got Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale in digitally drecky mono that most hated.

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Martin said in interviews that the first four were never really recorded in stereo, but rather, "two-track mono."

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Well, he was the one that was there, but to my ears, only the first LP could be categorized that way-and even that is a stretch-and certainly AHDN and BFS were 4-track full stereo productions that demanded stereo CD releases.

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And Apple being, well, Apple, there may have been a question of time/issue(s) to wit, the CDs were eagerly awaited, and Martin knew that to let the old stereo mixes out would have at that time ended up sounding like some of the future Capitol Albums Vol. 1, so the mono mixes were technically superior.

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But, to my ears the first four always sounded flat, and stale. Even sickly sterile.

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Of course capitalism hates a vacuum, so those devilish bootleggers conjured up some pretty decent needle-drops of the first four LPs in stereo. And even though-as Martin alleged-they did not sound right, they were nonetheless what most North Americans-and some Europeans- grew up with, crap, or not.

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And I have digressed to this historical wank-fest by way of setting up my thoughts of what the new remasters of the first four will sound like.

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Unlike Martin, who probably had 18 months at best to prepare the releases, the Apple rocket scientists have had about 6 years.

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So, look for half decent stereo mixes of even Please Please Me, as going back to the two track tapes and centring the vocals-which by the way Martin did for I Want To Hold Your Hand for the Red CD comp in the early 90s-should produce much better imaging than vocals, hard right, centre, mostly nadda.

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But perhaps even a bigger audio addendum will be whether they get the mono mixes of the first four to sound fresh and alive.

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THAT outcome, may be the real news!

FRANK WAS THE MAN

Surrounded, by ring-a-ding-ding!






For those who believe sincerely Frank Sinatra peaked in the 50s, I direct you to Sinatra at the Sands, circa 1966.

And I especially urge you to seek out-if you can find it-the original DVD-Audio 5.1 Surround Sound Edition of this incredible recording.

The combination of Sinatra, and the big-really big-sounds of Count Basie's band, was/is fabulous.

And-unless you were there at the Sands 45 years ago-the best way
to experience fully the performances of two virtuoso's, is via DVD-A.

If you are one of the lucky few that have a first-gen DVD-A player
or its equivalent, you can rnjoy the 70 minute concert via high rez stereo at an incredible sample rate of 192kHz/24 bit that will blow your (audio) doors off.

DVD-A surround players can also muster a healthy 94kHz/24 bit sampling from this disc, and that is impressive.

But even if you are just playing this disc on a regular Dolby Digital AC-3 Surround Sound format, prepare to wowed.

The head room and width and breadth of this recording is on full display in the 6 channel format, and the bass and percussion is window-rattling good.

It is unfortunate that the DVD-A format did not really catch on, but if you can somehow get this multi-format DVD and play it on your home theatre system, I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

And that's the real smack, Jack!