I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two famous New Yorkers: musician Paul Simon ....
.... as well as Michael Bloomberg - the city's mayor.
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES - a career retrospective of the US photographer Bruce Davidson - who took inspiration from Henri Cartier-Bresson, his friend and mentor - is at Chris Beetles Gallery in London, England from May 4th through May 28th.
And Davidson is seeking the whereabouts of the unknown woman in this photo entitled Girl Holding Kitten - which he took more than fifty years ago, on the streets of London.
FILM NOTES - Entertainment Weekly cites 19 favorite stoner movies of all time.
MONDAY's CHILD is Zeppelin the Cat - a Nevada kitteh who returned home, six years after having gone missing.
BUSINESS NOTES - American Airlines flight attendants have demanded an end to a company beauty contest - to find the best-looking female and male attendants at each crew base as uniform models - as a return to an outmoded era.
POLITICAL NOTES - he was once known as 'Johnny Punk' (a member of the band "The Dripping Noses") and later as a stand-up comic. But last year at age 44: Jon Gnarr was elected mayor of Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik.
ART NOTES - a conservation-themed photography exhibit entitled Yellowstone to Yukon is at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming thru August 7th.
MUNICIPAL NOTES - architects from the Netherlands are helping design self-sufficient homes in Detroit - which generate their own power and also collect, filter and re-use water.
TIME MARCHES ON - while it took until 1990 for the Augusta National golf course to admit its first black member: there are still no female members. Now, Scotland's St Andrews Golf Club - regarded as the birthplace of golf - announced plans to revise its guidelines on female membership.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Lima the Cat - who saved a Houston-area woman from an attack ..... by scratching and hissing at two pit bulls.
JUSTICE NOTES - two Rwandan Hutu rebel leaders go on trial this week in Germany, accused of masterminding atrocities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo - facing 26 counts of crimes against humanity and 39 counts of war crimes committed by militias under their command between Jan 2008 - Nov, 2009.
HISTORY NOTES - an ancient Roman mausoleum - complete with stucco work and decorations - has been found under an illegal toxic-waste dump near Naples. The owner of the site (plus the man who leased it from him) have been cited for crimes against the environment and Italy's cultural heritage.
YOUNGER-OLDER BROTHERS? - Politico web producer Alex Guillen and "Seinfeld" actor Wayne ("Hello, Newman") Knight.
MUSIC NOTES - Rod Stewart has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled The Impressionists and Their Influence is at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock through June 26th.
POLITICAL NOTES - a demonstration against the growing influence of the True Finns party - targeting the xenophobic party's views on immigration, the environment and sexual equality - drew 750 marchers to the capital city of Helsinki, who pledged to defend a tolerant and multicultural Finland.
MUSICAL NOTES - the Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim - who ten years ago conducted the first performance in Israel of music by Richard Wagner - will now conduct the first-ever performance in the Palestinian territory of Gaza by an international classical ensemble, as part of his goal to use music to try to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Elly the Cat - a kitteh rescued from atop a utility pole in Desert Hot Springs, California.
HEALTH NOTES - throughout the greater Paris region, a plan has been instituted to allow students (aged between 15 and 18) to access free contraception - organized by the former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal - without having to visit a family planning center, involve their parents or see their family doctor.
IN GREAT BRITAIN there was a referendum this past Thursday on conducting elections using the Alternate Vote (or "instant runoff") system, which some US cities use in local elections. And who did the authorities choose to explain this system to voters? Why, kittehs, of course!
A FEW MONTHS AGO a statue of Confucius was unveiled outside China's National Museum on Tiananmen Square. Its sudden removal last week (under cover of dark) has led to speculation - during the Arab spring - that the authorities now fear the words of Confucius stressing a government’s accountability to its people, and its perpetual obligation to earn the right to rule through its own ethical conduct.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - former US president Franklin Pierce and Nick Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers).
HEALTH NOTES - a project to limit the damage to crops, grazing land and human (as well as animal) health in West Africa caused by swarms of locusts - which traditionally takes place between May and August - is being organized by the World Bank and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled Breaking Ground - with some of the organization's initial holdings - is at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City through September 18th.
AT LAST an agreement has been made to place a statue of Bill Russell - the NBA Hall of Famer who led his teams to 2 NCAA titles, an Olympic gold medal and 11 NBA titles - in the city of Boston, which President Obama helped to facilitate.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Hobo the Cat - who rules-the-roost at My Shelf Books in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.
IT WAS THE BEVERAGE of many of the country's most famous and esteemed artists and writers - like Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and Paul Verlaine - but it was banned in France in 1915 for its alleged harmful effect. Later, the rule was relaxed, allowing the drink to be sold as long as it was not called absinthe - and now, the French Senate has voted to formally lift the ban on the green, anise-flavored spirit.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two Saturday Night Live alumni: talk show host Jimmy Fallon and "The Middle" star Chris Kattan.
ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES - as the founder of one of the first cooperatives for producing renewable energy - Germany’s Ursula Sladeck has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for 2011.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Weekly World News Quiz from the BBC.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Ziggy the Cat - a Massachusetts kitteh up for adoption.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... for those who only know them since their days in the MTV spotlight, ZZ Top did have a past that was not quite so synthesizer-laden … but the humor and visual props were merely an exaggeration of what had always been a staple of the band. The ‘Little ‘Ol Band from Texas’ mixes Lone Star and Delta blues with a dash of Memphis soul, and the All-Music Guide’s Cub Koda thinks they have remained popular for over forty years because they have "moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path".
The origins of the band go back to the mid-1960’s, when Houston-area guitarist Billy Gibbons was a member of the Moving Sidewalks while, in the Dallas area, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard were members of American Blues – and both were psychedelic blues bands. When Gibbons’ band fell apart by 1969 (due in part to draft notices) he formed a new band with bassist Lanier Grieg and drummer Dan Mitchell which was called ZZ Top (and more on that later).
They did record a single (Salt Lick b/w Millers Farm) for the band’s manager Bill Ham - and years later was released on the band's 2003 box set - but it went nowhere back in 1969 and, before long, Gibbons either lost (or had fired) his bandmates.
Meanwhile, American Blues had broken-up, and Beard and Gibbons had relocated to Houston. Beard was recommended as a drummer to Gibbons, and when Beard discovered that a bassist was needed, he told Gibbons about Dusty Hill - “He’s our kind of guy” – because when Beard first met Hill in a bar, Hill had passed-out drunk. They formed in late 1969 and performed their first concert in February, 1970. And so while ZZ Top has been hailed as a mega-decade band with its original line-up still intact: it’s not 100% true, as noted ... but this trio is the only one to perform in concert and the only one on album releases (beginning in January, 1971). And yes, that's a clean-shaven Billy Gibbons below.
One story has the name ZZ Top coming from a combination of both Zig-Zag and TOP rolling papers. But Billy Gibbons says in his autobiography that it came from seeing posters for both B.B. King and Texas blues singer Z.Z. Hill – and decided that B.B. King was “the top”, joining the names.
In addition to their reverence for the blues from the South, they also were influenced by the emerging British blues bands: and so when they were offered a recording contract from London Records - which had the Rolling Stones and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers - they were duly impressed. Years later in 1993, it was the members of ZZ Top who made the introductions for the bandmembers of Cream - who had also been an early British influence.
Their first and second albums established their sound, and word-of-mouth made them a draw in concert halls throughout Texas, becoming opening acts for Janis Joplin and Humble Pie. And no less than Mick Jagger liked their first album, offering them a chance to open for the Stones in Hawaii – where they were initially mistaken for a country band (with their hats and cowboy boots) but not for long ... garnering several encore requests.
Right from the start, they had more than the standard blues-boogie beat. They added the distorted guitars, lyrics with sexual innuendos, jokes and references to fast cars, and also stage props with a Texas theme (including steer and rattlesnakes). It was their 1973 third album that established them as stars: Tres Hombres was when their sound truly came together, reaching #8 in the album charts with a single that only reached #41 but is still in their set lists to this day, La Grange – about a Texas whorehouse that was later closed down – and is based upon the John Lee Hooker tune Boogie Chillen – with a growling one-note tone.
Their next album Fandango! featured the song Tush – their first Top Twenty single – as well as some live tracks, as they wanted to feature that aspect of the band. And by this time, the band was selling out stadiums across the Sunbelt and touring much of the year. This took its toll, as their 1976 album Tejas had no standout songs, and the band decided (after another grueling tour) to take a 3-month break .. which turned into a 3-year break.
In that well-needed sabbatical, both Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill (unbeknownst to each other) had grown long beards - and you know you're eccentric when you marvel over the fact that their drummer doesn't have a beard - but his name is Frank Beard. The other changes that resulted in their sound was the use of synthesizers (as an accent instrument) and some more polish - but the major difference wasn't musical.
Back when Pete Townshend was on the TV screen telling you to call your cable company and say "I want my MTV!" - ZZ Top was ready to take advantage of the situation. 1979's album Degüello started to garner a wider audience for the band, including a cover version of I Thank You - the 1968 Sam & Dave hit. Because for all of their past success before the sabbatical: other than from the single "Tush", the band had not yet become a household name outside of the Sunbelt, where concert ticket sales were much larger than in the North.
That came to an end with 1983's Eliminator - with Billy Gibbon's 1933 Ford on the cover - that made them stars. With hit singles such as Sharp Dressed Man (##56 on the charts), Legs (at #8) and Gimme All Your Lovin' (at #37) - the tried-and-true band were now considered hipsters, thanks in large part to their videos.
Their next two albums, Afterburner in 1985, and 1990's Recycler brought them to the end of their more synthesized ways, as sales just couldn't hope to match Eliminator, though they had more modest song releases such as "My Head's in Mississippi".
All along, with all of the jokes, cars and nubile women in their videos: one thing they never lost sight of were the blues musicians who inspired them. They made a guitar out of a plank of wood taken from the shack that blues man Muddy Waters had grown up in - and they used it to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
They have carried on ever since, with a 2008 live album as well as a 2-disc compilation album that provides fans with a concise band history. Yes, they did perform at the 2004 Republican National Convention - but that seemed in part due to the candidate coming from Texas. Although many right-wingers henceforth (and eagerly) listed them as "Republicans" ... they don't seem overtly political (except when Father Guido Sarducci nominated them for President) and some of the sexual-themed songs wouldn't meet 'family values' standards ... so I'm not gonna worry.
And their legacy is solid, with two entries in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that shaped Rock & Roll ("Legs" and "La Grange"), another two entries in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums" of All Time list: Eliminator (at #396) as well as Tres Hombres (at #498). And they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame themselves in 2004.
At age 41, ZZ Top is doing what they do best: tour - which are they doing with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and will bring them to Wichita, Kansas next week.
Of all of their songs, it's the self-explanatory 1979 tune Cheap Sunglasses - which captures their essential sound, humor and imagery - that is my favorite. And below you can listen to it.
When you get up in the morning
and the light has hurt your head
The first thing you do
when you get up out of bed
Is hit that street a-runnin'
and try to meet the masses
And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses
Now go out and get yourself
some thick black frames
With the glass so dark
they won't even know your name
And the choice is up to you
'cause they come in two classes
Rhinestone shades and cheap sunglasses