Monthly Archives: March 2015

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Whitlock’s About Me

Now that I have a driver’s license, I have a local bookstore to frequent. It’s Whitlock’s Book Barn, just three miles down the road in Woodbridge. I’ve been there at least once a week since passing my driving test, and have purchased dozens of books. My daughters took to it immediately, each finding antiquated children’s books that they want to display in their rooms as well as tomes that suit their more grown-up tastes.
A few finds from this very day:
LP albums by Petula Clark (the intriguingly double-titled Color My World/Who Am I) and the Swingin’ Blue Jeans (containing their hit “Hippy Hippy Shake” and featuring a cover photo of jeans—black ones—hanging rather than swinging on a clothesline).
Coley B. Taylor’s hardcover essay Mark Twain’s Margins on Thackeray’s Swift, which in one fell swoop unites three of my all-time fave writers.
English Masques, Selected and With an Introduction by Herbert Arthur Evans. Contains my favorite Ben Jonson masque, News of the New World as Discovered in the Moon, which inexplicably is left out of most Jonson anthologies.
Always Belittlin’ by Percy Crosby. This is an awesome purchase for me, as I’ve only ever owned it as a photocopy. Crosby was the creator of Skippy, one of the most popular comic strips of the first half of the 20th century and an acknowledged influence on Peanuts and many other kid-based comics. He was a great artist, whether doing the Skippy strip or elaborate watercolors for magazines. He was also a fine prose writer and philosopher. Always Belittlin’, published in 1927, is a collection of essays and humor pieces starring Skippy, most of which were originally published in the old Life magazine. “Always Belittlin’” is a Skippy catchphrase similar to Rodney Dangerfield’s “I can’t get no respect,” except that it’s uttered by a young boy who’s trying to find his place in the world. There’s a Tom Sawyer quality to Skippy, but Crosby delivers much more than a middle-class street urchin retread. He adds his own style and character and beliefs to his boyish adventure tales. The comic strips (happily being reprinted daily on the GoComics websites) are wildly imaginative and detailed, and the written essays only build upon that.

Whitlock’s Book Barn is located at 20 Sperry Rd., Bethany CT. The store, which encompasses two large book buildings, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.whitlocksbookbarn.com.

Rock Gods

Rock Gods #369: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

The Pink Hairs played three instrumentals before they got around to doing a song with words, last Thursday at the Bullfinch. And that song only had three or four words, depending on how you spell. “Gimme! Some! Now!”
So we gave them some applause, then, and drinks afterwards, and became fast friends with this young suburban sensation who claimed they “could not have been more nervous” but didn’t show it. Perhaps it was because we were looking at their pink hair (wigs) without noticing quivering shoulders or such.
In adorable new-band fashion, PH played every song they knew, then one of them again. their set was sped up (nervousness, natch) so they filled in the extra time with half-practiced tunes they hope to have improved upon when they play The Bullfinch again sometime next month.
One thing the Pink Hairs might not have next time: pink hair.
“The wigs got in the way. We never rehearsed with them. We’re not that good,” claimed singer Cassie Wary. “I need to look at my fingers when I play and I couldn’t sometimes because the wig would fall forward.
The band is not changing its name. They Pink Hairs insist that they will find another way to work pink hair into their act. We drunkenly suggested a few ways ourself, and we’ll just have to see if they take our suggestion.
Tonight: Outline of Sanity and Do We Agree at the Bullfinch… Queen of Seven Swords at Hamilton’s… Gloria in Profundis at D’ollaire’s…

Music reviews

Scribblers Music Review

JEFF the Brotherhood. Before tackling the rest of the thing, I had to immediately check out a song called “In My Mouth.” It didn’t disappoint; a big heavy rock beat, a squirrely keyboard solo and a guy telling you about things he put in his mouth. I don’t remember JEFF The Brotherhood, which I’ve always dismissed as lame college rock, being so centered and classic-minded. “Coat Check Girl” could be by Status Quo or a similarly longlived generic rock crusade. “Black Cherry Pie” sounds like a parody of all things ‘80s. “Melting Place” has a deep Sabbathy opening. So many of the songs start with drums that you feel that you’re being summoned to a tribal meeting. And yes, T-shirt clad sweaty dudes, you are.

Book Reviews

Frankbook

Barney Frank wrote a memoir, and I dropped everything so I could begin reading it immediately. I didn’t know it was coming out, but clicked on an article in Politico which turned out to be an excerpt from it, about how Frank came out as gay in 1987. The excerpt was magnificent—informative, humble, quotable—and I waited patiently for a couple of days before the official release date of the Kindle edition of the book.
The book is propelled by a thesis rather than a chronology. Frank notes at its outset that he is a politician and a gay man, and in his lifetime he has seen the respect for politicians plummet while the acceptance of LGBT persons has risen. This gives the book an immediate focus and perspective, so that Frank doesn’t have to constantly tell you what’s important or what things were like 40 years ago. The narrative moves confidently and clearly. It’s the story of accomplishments, but mainly the story of what can be accomplished when people accept you.
Reading the coming-out chapters reminded me that I knew Barney Frank was gay long before much of America did. It seems to have been a fairly open secret in Boston, the kind of thing gossips liked to spread around in the gossipy ‘80s, especially in the club and arts scenes where being gay was not so much scandalous as dishy. A lot of people clearly knew or suspected. I knew because Barney Frank used to shop at the Paperback Booksmith bookstore/newsstand where I worked in Copley Square and buy gay porn there. He was very open about it. My first night working there, a co-worker told me flat-out “Barney Frank buys gay porn here.” I was at the register at least a couple of those times. I was polite and respectful, as I am always, but it would have been an awkward time to discuss politics with him or even make a big deal about him being Barney Frank. Wish I could have been more forthcoming. My admiration for his work, his intellect, his sense of humor has never wavered. So glad he wrote a book.

Rock Gods

Rock Gods #368: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

The Running Hits are becoming bolder and bolder with their hit-and-run rock shows. They’ve played in the middle of Main Street—literally the middle, on that little island by the church—and in the food aisle of the Dollar Store. They’ve played in a classroom (between periods) at the high school they all attend and in a tree on the Town Common. All in the last few weeks and all unannounced in advance. What a letdown, then, for The Running Hits to be playing a club stage. It’ll be the Bullfinch on Thursday.
Tonight: Mask of Midas and Platitudes Undone at the Bullfinch, while some of those bands’ ex-bandmates, The Prophets of Orthodoxy, are at Hamilton’s. All part of the same neo-this-or-that scene… Sidelights of New London and Newer York at D’ollaire’s; sidemen you haven’t heard of from bands you have…