Upcoming performances: July 19 and 20

I have two gigs coming up soon:

Saturday, July 19, 5-7 PM with the New Horizons Big Band, at ArtSplash 2014 in Tualatin, OR. (I'm subbing for their regular bassist)
More information here: http://www.tualatinoregon.gov/recreation/artsplash

Sunday, July 20, 2-4 PM with the 7th Street Jazz Band at Wild River BBQ Cook-Off in Molalla, OR.
More information here: http://www.molallaswildriverbbq.com/

My YouTube channel

I've set up a YouTube channel, mostly for the purpose of posting songs that I've recorded over the years, but there will also be a few actual videos there (when I finish them).

Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/user/pinksts/

I'm starting off with the tracks from the "Sometimes Things Work Out" CD, including the great photos Pete Uchytil shot in the studio. I'm also putting together some live videos recorded in 1997 at Paul Bass's 50th bithday bash.

Back to the bass

Well, I seem to have come full circle. I'm back playing bass with the Seventh Street Jazz Band - a community big-band based in Oregon City. I last played with them in August of 2005, and if you dig far enough back in this blog, you'll find some of my posts about the group.

I left the band back in 2005 for various reasons, but mostly because I was getting more involved with the small-group jazz and jam scene up in Portland, and didn't think I had enough energy to do both effectively. A couple of years ago, I quit playing bass because it was physically difficult for me to load equipment in and out, and arthritis was keeping me from playing at the high level needed to be competitive with the other fine players in Portland.

So, I switched to baritone uke, and have been having a ball playing it - no pressure or competition. I plan to continue with that instrument for the foreseeable future.

But I missed playing jazz, and when Pat, the director of the band, contacted me to see if I knew any bassists that could read charts, I decided to see if I could still hold my own in a large group. I auditioned a couple of weeks ago, and apparently did well enough to get the gig. I'll post more as the concert season gets closer.

Complimock

OK - a little off-topic here...

We all know what a humblebrag is - bragging in a way as to seem like you aren't. Such as:

"It is such a chore having such a gifted child."
""UGH - I have to buy all new clothes after losing 7 pounds."

etc...

But the flip side is what I call the complimock - complimenting someone in such a way as to knock them down a peg. A complislam might be the same thing, but perhaps a little more direct. What's funny is that we hear complimocks all the time, but we don't have a word for it (or at least we didn't until I coined one). Here are a few examples, some of which have been directed at me:

"What a pretty dress! It's great that it comes in plus-sizes."
"I like that sweater - my 2-year old has one just like it."
"That color is great for you - very slimming."
"I admire your bravery for making such a statement that goes against established fact."
"I like your new CD a lot - when I listen to it I go right to sleep!"

Heard on today's Clare Teal show on BBC:

"You have such a lovely radio voice - I'm sure you have a face to match."

(That one's pretty subtle - it's the old joke about an actor having a "face made for radio.")

Please feel free to add complimock to your everyday lexicon. You are welcome.

Back on my feet

OK, I know it's been a long time since I posted.

The truth is, I did not have a whole lot to talk about with regard to music. Physical problems were slowing me down, and making me a bit depressed -- not really conducive to posting positive things, I guess.

In mid-October, I had an operation to replace my left hip joint with a shiny new titanium one. The difference is amazing! I'd been walking with a cane most of the time for over 10 years, and absolutely couldn't get around without one for the past 3 years. The constant, daily pain interfered with everything I did, including sleeping. I could not stand up to play an instrument - I always had to sit to play. The operation removed my pain completely. I was up and walking right away, and returned to my normal activities in a couple of weeks. I could not have even considered doing this without the support and encouragement of my wife, June.

"Normal activities" - this includes music, of course. A couple of years ago, I quit playing the bass on a professional level. The progression of arthritis and nerve damage had taken enough of an edge off of my technique that I didn't feel I could be a solid contributor in a jazz setting. Lugging my equipment around to gigs was a challenge, too.

Gerry Garcia on pedal steel

I started looking around for an instrument that I could pick up that might better accommodate my limitations. I considered the pedal steel guitar; other players seemed to have picked it up as a second instrument. But after a lesson with local pro (Larry Behm), I decided that -- despite my fascination with that wonderful contraption, I most likely would not be able to develop an acceptable level of proficiency in my lifetime. I actually think I'm more attracted to their complicated mechanics than their musical qualities, anyway. Plus, they are damned expensive and heavy!

I found a terrific new instrument: the baritone ukulele! It's small, light, and fun to play. For those who don't know, the baritone uke is the largest and lowest pitched of the uke family (not counting the recently invented bass uke). From smallest to largest, the family is: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. The first three ukes are all tuned the same: gCEA, while the baritone uke is tuned DGBE, just like the top 4 strings of a standard guitar. The three smaller ones use what's called "re-entrant" tuning - that little "g" means it's an octave higher than you'd expect. The baritone uses "linear" tuning. This guitar-like tuning made it really easy for me to pick it up, and to start playing with others right away.

I've been very fortunate to be allowed to sit in at regular weekly jam session hosted by local blues artist Ben Rice. I usually only play the first set or so, and Ben has been very supportive and generous with me and my funny little axe.

Playing the baritone uke at Voodoo Martini in Newberg, Oregon, with Dan Seymour

I'm also looking for other opportunities to play, and I'll post about them here. I've joined the Portland Ukulele Association, and I hope to hook up with other friendly uke-players through that organization.

Little Mountain Music

I'm pleased to announce that our CD Sometimes Things Work Out is now available at Little Mountain Music in Molalla, Oregon.

I met Tony Hill, the owner of Little Mountain Music on Saturday and gave him a 'short stack' of  CDs. They're very nice folks, and they stock a terrific selection of CDs as well as vintage vinyl -- something that's hard to find in a physical store these days. I'm old-school, I guess. I enjoy finger-walking through bins of old LPs, finding records I didn't know about or had forgotten, and reading the back-cover. My guilty pleasure is also looking for LPs I played on back when LPs were THE medium for recorded music.

Little Mountain Music is located at 1585 W Main St., Suite O (that's the Safeway shopping center), in lovely Molalla, Oregon. Stop by and flip through their bins, and maybe ask about taking home a copy of our CD.

Of course, downloads are also available on iTunes and Amazon, but you'll miss out on the nice artwork and extra information about the players and the tunes. There are also some photos in the booklet that were taken during the sessions by my friend Peter Uchytil.

Exhale...

If you read this blog (you both know who you are) you may have wondered why there has been no activity for a while. The short story is that I've been a bit ill, and correspondingly worried. The musical tie-in is that I get into something of a worry-fugue that tends to block out most creative activity, and my blogs and music are the first areas to suffer.

I got good news today. The results of my biopsies came back negative, meaning I won't have to make a memorial mix-tape for myself anytime soon (although I did start making lists...)

Here's a little gift that came my way via yet another XM Radio free-trial period. The Rolling Stones:

Yes, that's Keef on lead vocals, and I think it is a really sweet tune. And yes, this was on one of those lists I was making.

It's a Bad Brains Christmas

I love a parody:

It's a Bad Brains Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Understand Music

When a musician or a composer talks about music, do you feel like they are talking a foreign language? Here's a short film that can help.

Understand Music on Vimeo.

The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles performs 'Chanukah in Santa Monica'

I've read that Tom Lehrer originally wrote this song in 1990 in order to remedy the lack of Hanukkah songs. (via Boing Boing):

I'm spending Hanukkah, in Santa Monica,
Wearing sandals lighting candles by the sea.
I spent Shavuos, in East St. Louis,
A charming spot but clearly not the spot for me.

Those eastern winters, I can't endure 'em,
So every year I pack my gear
And come out here to Purim.

Rosh Hashona, I spend in Arizona,
And Yom Kippa, way down in Mississippa.
But in Decemba, there's just one place for me.
'Mid the California flora,
I'll be lighting my menorah.
Every California maid'll
Find me playing with a dreidl.
Santa Monica, spending Hanukkah by the sea.

(c) 1990 Tom Lehrer

The Orchestrion

A fine article at Collector's Weekly details the history of the orchestrion, a mechanical contraption to make music.They describe it as "The iPod’s 4,000-Pound Grandfather", and I guess that is as good a description as any. Check out the article - it's full of pictures and video links.

The inside of a Hupfeld style A Phonoliszt-Violina,
featuring three violins accompanied by an expression piano.

Wrecking Crew Orchestra

OK, this is not really about music, but about awesomeness, and something I call EJW - Essential Japanese Weirdness. That's not a cultural put-down. Japanese culture produces some astoundingly weird (to us) artifacts, which I enjoy tremendously.

Here's a recent example - the Wrecking Crew Orchestra. Do you like Techno? Dig the movie Tron? Fan of locking & popping? Know what EL wire is? These guys have all the bases covered for you.

Arlington - by Lisa Nemzo

My friend and former employer Lisa Nemzo has done something remarkable, and I would like to share it with you, if you have not seen it yet. Please turn on your speakers or headphones, and watch this video.

I was thrilled beyond words to see this video. Lisa and I go way back; I played bass for her for several years in the mid-1970s, including a lot of gigs in and around LA, some recording, and some touring. Lisa is a tremendously talented singer and songwriter, as you can tell from this video. This video - directed by Mary Ann Skweres - was clearly a labor of love for Lisa on a number of levels. It was the last tune she co-wrote with her longtime collaborator and friend, Artie Colatrella, before his tragic and senseless death in 2011. It is also based on a true story.

In this video, Lisa shows herself to be quite a good actress, in addition to her other talents. In fact, it took me a few moments to realize that it was Lisa playing the 'mother' in the video. It also took me a while to recognize the bassist in the video - Freebo!

Lisa is asking for donations to some worthy causes - see the video's official website for details.

Carmina Burana Flash Mob

Yet another excellent flash mob from our friends in Germany!

Star Wars flash mob in Germany

I really love these musical flash mobs. They are getting more audacious all the time.

Changes to the blog

Well, actually...NO changes to this blog, really. But I've ended my "Musical Shares" column in the Oregon Mensa newsletter, so I've also discontinued updating the blog that was related to that column, and merged all of its content into this blog. That's why you'll see a lot of "new" posts, going back about a year.

There are several reasons I ended the Mensa column after a year of publication, but the basic reason is that almost nobody from Mensa was reading it (or the blog, if I can believe my traffic stats). I got very little feedback about it, and what I did get was negative (dull and not interesting were phrases I heard). It's kind of a shame, because the blog posts are full of links to what I think are cool things, but that was understandably hard to convey in a print publication. People would have had to retype long URLs or do their own Google searches.

So, I'll continue to post items of interest in this blog when I find them, and I ask for any comments or correspondence to be sent to fdmundo@yahoo.com.

UPDATE: I've also migrated my posts from the old Fin de Mundo website, so now you'll see posts going back to 2003.

Younger and younger...

Is it my imagination, or are there more little blues phenoms around than ever before?

Found on Doonesbury

Ox Cam: "Won't Get Fooled Again"

OK, this post is just possibly of interest only to my fellow bass players. Others may go back to what you were doing - nothing to see here, move along.

One of my favorite bassists is the late John Entwistle of the Who. He never moved around much on stage or did much to draw attention to himself. Frankly, who could compete with Daltrey, Townsend, and (for a while) Moon for sheer kineticism? No, Entwistle (known as "Ox" by many) just "stood there like a statue" (to borrow a well-worn lyric) and played his ass off.

Most folks don't think of the bass as an important part of a rock 'n' roll band's sound. Here's a bit of a rebuttal. An isolated camera on Ox, with his bass part isolated as well. The video is a bit degraded, but the audio thunders!

No, he's not playing a solo - that's just Ox laying down the bottom end of the tune!

Story Time: Welcome to Canada!

In the mid-1970s, I was touring with a band that was backing up a Vegas-style singer on the hotel/nightclub circuit. Robert York was a really sweet, guileless fellow who always paid us on time, and he had a lovely voice. Robert was perhaps not the brightest fellow I'd ever worked for, but that was part of his charm. As an example, he billed himself as "Robert York, the Singing Baritone." He couldn't understand why I giggled whenever he uttered that tautological tagline

At that time American bands had to post a bond on their instruments when they crossed into Canada to work. The amount of the bond was equal to one-third the retail value of all of your music equipment when it was new. This applied to all equipment that had not been manufactured in Canada, and supposedly was to ensure that we would not sell our filthy American gear in Canada . As you can imagine, this created quite a hardship for many touring entertainers, and you generally had to prearrange the bond with a Canadian bondsman (at a substantial fee) well before you got to the border.

We were just wrapping up an engagement in Idaho Falls, and our next venue was a two-week stint in Lethbridge, Alberta, to be followed by 3 or 4 months playing some of the nicest hotels in western Canada. I had heard from other touring musicians that there was one remote border crossing called Kingsgate where the guards—all long-haired music fans—were sympathetic about the bond problem to the point that they would let American bands cross without the bond. The only problem was, this crossing was nearly 300 miles out of our way, and so remote that if it wasn't true, we'd have to backtrack an additional 300 miles to go to another crossing. I managed to convince Robert and the other guys to take a chance and give it a try.

We got to the Kingsgate crossing about 6:00 in the evening. Sure enough, there were a couple of Canadian hippies in their official uniforms. They seemed really happy to see us. "Hey now! An American band, eh? Come on in and have some coffee, eh?" We started chatting with them, while Robert started filling out the considerable pile of paperwork involved in allowing us to work in Canada.

"Hey, you know we're supposed to have you guys put up a bond on your instruments, eh?" None of us said anything, but shot nervous glances at each other. We didn't have a back-up plan. The hippie guard went on, "But we think that's a bunch of political BS from those hosers over in Ottawa, eh? We never make the Yank bands do that; just don't spread it around, eh?" We silently relaxed, and went on chatting with the guards, letting them play with our instruments and listening to their self-deprecating, eh-punctuated jokes. Robert kept on filling out the immigration and work-visa forms for all of us.

After about an hour, all of the forms were filled out. The head hippie-guard said, "OK, then, all we need now is to see everybody's ID, and you can get on to your 'gig,' eh?" We all pulled out our driver's licenses and started showing them to him. Everything went smoothly until he got to Robert. The guard looked at Robert, looked at his ID, looked at him again, looked at his ID again, and said, "So… who the hell is Riley P. Farkas?"

Robert smiled in that sweet, clueless way we had seen many times before, and replied in his lovely singing-baritone voice, "Well, Riley P. Farkas is my legal name. Robert York is my stage name. See, it's printed on all of these 8x10 publicity pictures. Would you like one?" Our Canadian pals suddenly were not so friendly anymore. The head hippie-guard said, with barely controlled rage (an emotion I'd never seen before in a Canadian), "You stupid **** Yank! You wrote your **** stage name on all these official papers, eh? What do they teach you in school down there?" Then he grabbed the inch-thick pile of official papers—all duly signed by the fictitious Robert York—and tore them in half. "OK, start over; and this time, mister FARK-ASS, you put down your real, legal, honest-to-God, stupid Yank name, eh? Oh, and you better see about getting that bond arranged. Since we're gonna have to explain why we voided twenty-five official forms, we have to do this by the book, eh?"

Robert called his agent in Calgary, who found a bondsman the next day who was willing to drive the bond paperwork out to the lonely little Kingsgate border crossing. By the time we got across, we had been there for nearly 20 hours, through two shift changes, eating candy and the Canadian equivalent of Slim Jims from the vending machine, and had listened as each shift of Canadian hippie border guards told the story to the great amusement of the next crew of Canadian hippie border guards. We made it to Lethbridge just in time to set up and play our first set. On our first break, Robert said, "Gee, Steve, you sure were wrong about that border crossing. Those guys didn't seem friendly at all!"

Crooked Still

Here's a band with a big budget for rosin:

Seriously, isn't it cool to see a band like this with a cello player? I heard this group on the always interesting Montana Radio Cafe.