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palimpsessed · 4 years ago

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Writerly Ephemera

I was tagged by @amywaterwings @mostlymaudlin @tea-brigade @effing-numpties @captain-aralias @bloodiedpixie . This is so cool, so thanks for sharing yours! ❤️

Per Amy: We add little bits of ourselves to our writing, scattering memories and places and phrases and things into our stories. The game is to find five examples of this, of YOU, in your writing and show everyone.

I don’t really feel like I put much of my own experiences into my fic, probably because I don’t feel like I have a lot of experiences to pull from. (That’s not me being self-deprecating; that’s me never going anywhere or doing anything.) So, let’s see what we come up with!

Going to tag here. I feel like I’ve gotten to this late so I’m not sure who has been tagged. Anyway. No pressure, loves. Just saying hi. 🥰 @theflyingpeach @bazzybelle @otherworldsivelivedin @unseelieseelie @wetheformidables @caitybug @nightimedreamersworld @foolofabookwyrm @stillmadaboutpetra

1. I have put the most of myself into A Man of Letters. I have my degree in English Lit and when I was in college, I was at the height of my Jane Austen obsession. So I sort of built my degree around the development of the English novel. My senior thesis was on a book called Evelina by Frances Burney, who was one of Austen’s greatest literary influences. Evelina is an epistolary novel—told entirely in letters. I love the epistolary form, for the same reason I love dialogue and texting fics. It’s such a fun narrative technique and can reveal so much about individual characters. It’s actually a bit like the way Rainbow Rowell uses multi POV in her books. Anyway, my love of the epistle was on full display in this fic, which is ofc told in letters. —Do I share a passage? That’s like...the whole fic 😅 So, idk. Here’s Simon being a disaster as he meditates on letter writing:

Dear Penny,

As I start this letter, I already know I'm not going to post it. I know I won't be able to bring myself to do it, because of what I have to say to you. I do feel bad. It's not that I don't want to tell you. And you know I'm so much better at writing things down than saying them out loud. It's only that I feel like this would all sound better coming from me in person. I just don't think I'll be able to make you understand in a letter. I'm still trying to understand myself. And writing all of this down helps me with that. Even if I'm only pretending to write to you, it makes me feel better, to think of you on the other end. I promise I really will tell you everything as soon as we're together again.

2. Also for A Man of Letters, my fascination with Regency fashions, in particular the dandy, was a major factor. I did an art book about this, comparing how fashion has changed over time, especially in regard to gender. (I also did an art book based on Evelina, since I’m on the subject. I minored in book art. 😁) I always fancied the look of a Regency dandy, so that was my gift to Baz.

Whoever has been working their magic on Salisbury should in fact be the person to whom I offer my eternal devotion. Alas, I am left to flounder under the burden of lusting after a man who is incapable of dressing himself.

The utter and unmitigated shame.

Salisbury wore a forest green wool frock coat that set off the golden highlights in his brown locks. This was accented with a green and aubergine striped silk waistcoat that was trimmed in white piping and felt much too daring a pattern for the man. (I don't care if he was a soldier; it takes a hardier man than him by half to choose a stripe like that.) His charcoal trousers were enticingly snug, but not so much to prove lethal. His cravat and points left much to be desired, though that likely reflected poorly on his ability to keep himself in order, rather than the ability of his valet. (Good God, maybe the man doesn't even have a valet!)

3. When it came to my countdown fic, To the Manor Borne, I had Shep make a reference to Cluedo, because Pitch Manor would be perfect for a real life game. Behind that, is the fact that my family played a lot of Clue and I watched the movie a whole bunch growing up, to the point where my sister and I used to quote it to each other. This was a way to pay homage to that. He also talks about playing the game Murder in the Dark, which was one I played at Halloween as a kid. One of my cousins was dressed as a ghoul with glow in the dark face paint and we were in my grandma’s creepy upstairs. Perfect vibes.

I’ve seen the kitchen and the dining room and the library and the study and the parlor. Walking through this house is like playing Clue. (They call it Cluedo on this side of the pond, because they like to be difficult.) (That was a whole thing. Do not get me started.)

I keep thinking Colonel Mustard’s going to pop up out of nowhere and brain me with a lead pipe.

And:

What kind of games do you play with magickal friends who don't have magic? Twister? Not with the wings and tail. Cards? Baz and Penny would cheat. Or accuse everyone else of cheating if they didn't win. Murder in the dark? With these people, in this house, I knew it would turn literal fast, and also it was like ten in the morning. Hide and seek? Simon and I would hide and everyone else would ditch. Snowball fight? World War III.

4. I’ve referenced Mozart in my fics a couple of times because when I was first getting into classical music, I was listening to a lot of Mozart. My sister had a CD of some of his early symphonies, and my local classical station does “Mozart in the Mornings�� which happened to fit in the exact time slot between two morning classes I had my first year in college. I’d go sit in my car with a cup of tea, and just vibe with Mozart as my soundtrack. I’ve name dropped him in both A Man of Letters and To the Manor Borne. Also, Mozart wrote 12 variations on the melody shared by Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which is a lovely tie in. (I also had the gang sing/cast The Holly and the Ivy, which is one of my favorite Christmas carols, and by strange coincidence was playing on the radio at the same time I wrote that scene. 🥰)

"It's a songbook," I tell him, like he can't figure that out for himself. "Did you know that Mozart wrote twelve different versions of the same song?"

He's laughing. "Mozart did not write Twinkle, twinkle, little star, Simon."

"You know what I mean."

"He composed twelve variations for solo piano on the French folk melody Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman."

"Sure. Anyway, this is for the violin. For you to play."

He's still laughing, and I'm trying to figure out what's so funny, but then he kisses me again, on the lips this time, so I figure maybe I'm still doing okay.

Only one more to go! What will it be? 👀

5. Therapy! Eheheh...😅 Look, it’s no secret the gang needs it. And tbh, so do I. Haven’t actually managed to get myself to go yet, and I think that’s where a lot of my “send them to therapy” happy endings come from. I did it in Use Your Words and To the Manor Borne. I started Chamber by Chamber with SnowBaz already in therapy, and then structured the whole thing around therapy that they give to each other and to themselves. It didn’t really fit in A Man of Letters, but if it had, I absolutely would have done it. I’ve only shared from two fics so far, and since it could kind of spoil the ending to Use Your Words (tho saying this may be spoiler anyway...), here are two snippets from It’s a Kind of Magic, Part I of Chamber by Chamber.

I've been working on articulating my needs. We both have. Ordinarily, I'd be afraid of pushing him away by making demands when he's on the verge of a spiral, but my therapist insists that I can't go on treating Simon with kid gloves. If I never ask him for anything, he'll think he doesn't have anything to give.

And

When I told that to my therapist, she said that I needed to talk it out of me and she'd help me find ways to work through it all. She said I needed to talk it out with Baz, too, so that he'd know how to help me when things got bad again—that was something else she said, that things would get bad again, and that I'd need to be prepared for that. That I couldn't expect things to be easy, and just go away.

6. BONUS! I think the biggest way I include bits of myself is in the AUs I’ve chosen to write. I have three I’m planning that say a lot about me, so I’m going to talk a bit about them here. There is ofc my Scooby Doo AU, inspired in large part by the fact that I watched it all the time growing up and also, my sister continues to be obsessed with it. When we were young, my parents were doing a lot of work on their house and we’d take family trips to the hardware store. My sister and I hated it, so we’d wait in the car with my mom and she would entertain us with “Scooby Doo stories”. Other AUs I’m planning? Troop Beverly Hills—please tell me someone else out there loved this movie the way I did when I was 5. It was very influential to baby me and I remember wishing for nothing more than being able to dress like Shelley Long. So, I’m going to let Baz do it, because I think he deserves it. 🥰 Lastly, tho it will probably be the first I write, is my Cupid and Psyche AU, from when I was heavy into mythology and religion. Since these are all forthcoming projects, I don’t really have a snippet. Instead, here’s Baz comparing Simon to Eros, which is what started my brain on that particular AU.

I am lost. I barely know anything about Salisbury, but I can't help being drawn in. At one time, I could have comforted myself that I was only so smitten with him because he looks like he was sculpted by Praxiteles. That excuse grows weaker with every encounter. He's the furthest thing from a lifeless tribute to beauty in marble as one can be. There is something deep and dark and feral inside of him and I want to claw it out. I want to see it, to let it free. To taste his wildness and his pain.

#tag game #writerly ephemera

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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 7 years ago

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Consumer Guide / No.55 / WFUV DJ Darren DeVivo with Mark Watkins.

MW : Do you consider yourself to be (foremost) a broadcaster? a presenter? a DJ ?

DD : I usually refer to myself as either a DJ , an On-Air radio Host, or maybe an Air Personality.

Disc jockey is sort of a passé term because the vinyl record, which was the ‘disc’, hasn’t been used in broadcasting for decades. These days, even CDs are being used less and less. In addition, DJ was a term coined decades ago to describe a music radio host, back when the host, as a person and personality, was almost as important to a broadcast as the music itself. It’s not like that anymore, unfortunately. But, DJ still has connotations to music radio hosting.

On-air radio Host is a more accurate description, but, then again, it could also be referring to various types of broadcasting (e.g., talk/news/sports radio, music radio, etc.).

It’s all splitting hairs, so any of the three or some combination of the three is okay!

MW : You debuted on WFUV on February 26th, 1984 - what do you remember about that first show?

DD : I do remember that morning! Some of it is fuzzy, but some is crystal clear. Back in those days, when WFUV was a college radio station (see the answer to the next question), rookie DJs who were newly approved to be on the air were given test runs on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6-8 a.m.

So, on Sunday, February 26, 1984, at 6 a.m until 8 a.m I hosted my first air shift. The first song I played was the “Venus And Mars” and “Rock Show” combination from Wings’ Venus And Mars album. The glaring lowlight of that first show was leaving my microphone on while playing Traffic’s “Empty Pages”. A friend of mine unexpectedly showed up at the station to hang out with me during my first show. I was distracted by his appearance and forgot to shut off the mic! Our ridiculous conversation could be heard beneath the song until my girlfriend called me on the phone to tell me my mic was still on. You can actually hear me answer the phone, say hello to her and then, the chatter stops. I noticed that the mic was on and quickly turned it off.

By chance, I ended up back on the air for my second show that next Saturday, March 3, 6-8 a.m again. I opened that second show with “The Road To Utopia” from Utopia (Todd Rundgren’s old band), off the Adventures In Utopia album. I also sampled the soon to be released second solo album from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. He was about to release About Face and in the days between my first two shows, WFUV received an advance promotional copy of the album. I played three songs from it over the two hours. I still have the airchecks, on cassette, of my first two shows. Listening back to those tapes today, it is hysterical to hear how thick my urban New York City/Bronx accent was!

After those first two shows, I was on the air very regularly, and soon, I started getting my own semi-permanent airshifts.

MW : How has WFUVs station sound changed / evolved over the years?

DD : WFUV has made many significant changes over the 34 years since I first walked through the station’s doors. WFUV, which signed on for the first time in 1947 (we just passed our 70th anniversary), was a full blown college radio station when I joined. I went to Fordham University and attended classes at their Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, which was only several miles from where I lived. WFUV is owned by Fordham University and our studios and offices were, and still are, on the Rose Hill campus.

In the early to mid-1980’s, WFUV was almost entirely student run. It had been that way for many years. The only paid professionals on the staff were the General Manager and the Chief Engineer, who were both employees of Fordham. I joined the staff as an incoming freshman in September 1983 and started taking the required classes necessary to be on the air as a DJ in the music department. You also had to be an FCC licensed engineer, so engineering classes were required, too. I completed the required classes/workshops for announcing and engineering by December. I then submitted a demo tape of a mock broadcast to the Program Director (who was also a student) around February 1984. I was immediately approved and was assigned my first air shift – I debuted on the air on Sunday, February 26, 1984, from 6-8 a.m. I was back for my second show that next Saturday, March 3, 1984, again from 6-8 a.m. It wasn’t until that summer, or early fall, that I received my FCC license.

When I started, WFUV featured a block programming schedule. The most prominent part of the week was our rock music programs, which were all hosted by students. Our rock format encompassed a mix of mainstream AOR (album oriented rock), indie and alternative rock and a few other genres, like blues, jazz and reggae. The rock programs were both formatted - during weekday drive times, and free form - during late nights and overnights. Many specialty programs were scattered through the week, as well. Shows ranged from classical, opera, ethnic (Irish, Latin, French, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern, polka), sports talk, news and public affairs, country, jazz and big band swing, early rock and roll and vocal group R&B, religious music, astronomy, and more. All of these shows were hosted by volunteers, some of whom were Fordham/WFUV alumni. WFUV was required to broadcast Fordham sports – mainly the Fordham college basketball and football games - and Sunday mass from the University chapel.

Over a few years in the second half of the ‘80s, Fordham’s administration started to lay the groundwork to make WFUV a professionally run, non-commercial public radio station. Students would still make up the largest percentage of the staff, but each department would be helmed by professionals hired by Fordham University. It was during this period, mainly 1988-1990, that the station made its gradual transformation. During that two year span of time, I remained on staff as a part-time volunteer, even though I had graduated Fordham in 1987. Under normal circumstances, staff members usually left the station upon graduation, but as an alumnus, I was asked to remain and fill in here and there whenever necessary. I even ended up with another regular air shift once again (Friday night/Saturday morning from 11 p.m-2 a.m).

It appeared the end of the line had finally come for me in June 1990, but within several months, I was once again being offered fill in slots both on-air and behind the scenes. Then, I was hired as a permanent On-Air Host in January 1991. My first airshift as a professional was the weekday afternoon drive slot (approximately 2-6 p.m). With all of the pieces now in place for WFUV to thrive as a professionally run non-commercial public station, the “present day” WFUV began to slowly evolve. Our contemporary music mix (which was concentrated to weekdays), was a potpourri of styles - adult rock, contemporary folk, blues, bluegrass, Celtic and world music. Only a handful of the specialty programs survived the transformation and a handful remain today. That said, the majority of them were gradually canceled during the early 1990s. Over the next decade, WFUV continued to grow and fine tune its programming.

For me personally, upon getting hired at WFUV as a professional in January 1991, I was assigned to the afternoon drive shift, from 2-6 p.m approximately. Exactly a year later, in January 1992, I was made the morning drive host, from 6-10 a.m approximately. I remained on mornings for nine years. In January 2001, I was made the midday host, from 10 a.m-2 p.m. That was my favorite shift and it was mine for over twelve years. In the spring of 2013, I was moved to evenings, from 6-10 p.m Monday through Thursday. Finally, in the summer of 2015, I was moved to my current airshift – late nights, from 10 p.m -2 a.m Monday through Thursday and midnight until 2 a.m Monday mornings. I am also one of the voices on our weekend, or secondary (HD2), channel, called “FUV Music. I’ve been hosting there since either 2008, or 2009.

MW : How has WFUV's record library changed over the years, and how is it maintained?

DD : It has drastically changed, and, unfortunately not for the better. In the 1980s, our library was very deep, but there were the occasional holes. Unfortunately, as a college station, we didn’t have the budget to invest financially into the library. But, record companies (and sometimes the artists, too) kept a semi-constant flow of free promotional records coming our way. We had virtually all the current releases, both relevant and irrelevant, and sometimes, we could obtain replacement titles and artist catalogs when necessary. CDs began to move in around 1987.

By the early 1990s, vinyl was on the back-burner and CDs were virtually all we played. During the ‘90s, the vinyl library was scaled back drastically, with albums deemed irrelevant to the “new” WFUV sound removed and either sold, or given away. Thefts in the late 80s also damaged the record library.

Today, only a disorganized collection of a thousand or so misfit records have survived the years and collect dust on the shelves. Our CD library grew nicely for many years, but with radio transitioning to digital and computers taking over for physical formats, the emphasis on physical CDs has decreased. As a result, our library has fallen into some degree of disarray, with only a portion of the air staff relying on CDs. Technically speaking, 85% of the music heard on WFUV today, maybe more, is coming from the computer hard drive. We have transferred a sizeable portion of the CD library onto the hard drive and continue to do so as needed. We do continue to accumulate many necessary new releases, but not all.

No one person, or persons, manages the library. It sort of manages itself. Unfortunately, it has fallen into a small state of disarray.

MW : Do you request / receive individual promo, or does it all come through the radio station? Tell me also about your relationship with record labels...

DD : The music industry has changed a lot over the past twenty-five years. Many years ago, I usually received my own mail service from many major, and a number of smaller, independent, record labels. Record companies were more generous and financially able to make sure all key radio station personnel received product, if they wanted it. Even if I wasn’t on a permanent mailing list, I would be able to get promotional copies of many titles by simply requesting them.

As time passed, record companies started tightening their belts and promotional product was scaled back. Today, I only receive a fraction of what was sent out years ago. Sometimes, I can still contact a label representative or promo person if I want a certain title, but that has decreased considerably.

Since the emergence of the download, many labels will now only offer audio files. This goes for both airplay copies and copies for individual station personnel. The physical product may be sent when (or if!) it becomes available. In some cases, physical CDs (or vinyl) won’t be sent out unless they’re requested

When it comes to airplay and reporting airplay to labels, promo companies, trade magazines, etcetera - that is something the Music Director is in charge of. Label reps and promo folks work with the station’s Music Director, or an assistant, to try to promote an artist, song or album and, hopefully, gain airplay. Ultimately, it is the Music Director, with input from the Program Director, who decides what is going to get our attention. I have no input into those decisions. If I get any inquiries, I direct them to the music department.

MW : How do you usually prepare for your radio shows, and how much input do you have on the music played?

DD : I am fortunate to have a pretty detailed knowledge of music, especially when it comes to what WFUV is playing. So, I could, if need be, go on the air occasionally and host a show with just the information that I have in my head. But, I prefer to prepare for virtually every show and I do this by reviewing the entire playlist, looking up facts about the songs, albums and/or artists, fact checking what I already know and gathering a sampling of upcoming concert dates and record release dates. We all have access to computers during our air shifts, so, if there’s a bit of info we want to clarify or verify on the spot, we can. As for personal anecdotes, stories, recollections, etcetera; those usually pop up as I go. I do want a certain amount of looseness and spontaneity in my shows. I’d rather not be too rigid. Sometimes, a concrete plan is good, but other times benefit from spontaneity.

Unfortunately, I no longer have much input into what gets played during my shows. Some time ago, each DJ was required to create their own daily playlists, but, here and there, over time, things have changed. I have a set playlist I am expected to follow, but there are still some freedoms that are allowed…within reason. It really depends on the situation. For example, I will add a handful of songs to the playlist to pay tribute to an artist that might have just died. Or, the Music Director may ask me to play some songs to honor an artist, but leave the selection of songs up to me. Really, it’s both rigid and fluid at the same time!

MW : What are "presenters" meetings usually like?

DD : At this point, the only meetings that involve the DJs are our staff meetings. Also, when our on-air fundraisers approach, the air staff will gather, with others, for pre-drive meetings to “plan our attack”.

MW : Why doesn't WFUV use jingles?

DD : It’s not really a non-commercial thing, I guess. It has never been something that’s ever been considered, that I know of. That’s more of a commercial radio trait. We do have slogans, though.

MW : Tell me about your Top 3 interviews...

DD : Wow. It’s so hard to answer this because I’ve done so many interviews over the past twenty-five years; more actually. So, I’ll answer this way:

The first interview was with Joey Molland of Badfinger. I did that remotely - not at WFUV’s studios, but at a hotel we were both at. This was early 1987. Joey and the late Mike Gibbins were in the process of a Badfinger reunion and they were appearing as special guests at “Beatlefest”, now called “The Fest For Beatles Fans”. (“The Fest” is a Beatles fan convention held every year in the New York / New Jersey area, and also in Chicago. It was started in 1974.) The interview was great and I turned it into a four hour Badfinger special on WFUV, also in 1987. The second interview was a phone interview with author Karl Dallas, who published a Pink Floyd book called “Pink Floyd Bricks In The Wall”. We had an awful phone connection from New York to England. Only portions of the interview were salvageable and those were used in an overnight (six or seven hour?) Pink Floyd special. The first in person interview I did at WFUV’s studios was in 1991 with guitarist Laurence Juber. Laurence was the last lead guitarist in (Paul McCartney’s) Wings – 1978-1980. He also went on to collaborate with Al Stewart (essentially replacing guitarist Peter White as Al’s right hand man), starting in 1994. At the time, Laurence was promoting his first solo album, Solo Flight. (He now has well over twenty!) The most recent interview I did was the art pop band, Sparks. Coming up, I’ll be interviewing Dhani Harrison and the Dream Syndicate.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed (in no particular order) – Ringo Starr, Donald Fagen, Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof (twice), Neil Young and filmmaker Jonathan Demme, Robbie Robertson, Sting, John Fogerty (twice), CPR (featuring David Crosby), David Bowie (phone interview), Robert Plant (phone interview), Brian Wilson (phone interview), recording engineer and producer Geoff Emerick (who was the Beatles’ recording engineer from 1966 until their breakup), some of the members (those not named John, Paul or George) of the pre-Beatles band, the Quarrymen (twice), David Sanborn, Dr. John (in his Manhattan apartment; with his dog, Stupid, in the background!), Al Kooper, Bob Mould (multiple times), Thurston Moore, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio (of Phish), Richard Thompson (multiple times), Tori Amos (twice), Richie Havens (multiple times), Nick Lowe (twice), Robyn Hitchcock (multiple times), Jorma Kaukonen (multiple times), Hot Tuna, (jazz legend) Charlie Haden, Glenn Tilbrook, Bruce Cockburn (multiple times), Julian Lennon (twice), Daniel Lanois, Warren Zevon (I also interviewed his widow, Crystal Zevon, about her book on Warren), Los Lobos (multiple times), Ian McLagan and the Bump Band, Warren Haynes, Matthew Sweet (multiple times), Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, Al Stewart (multiple times), Garland Jeffreys (twice), Graham Parker and the Rumour, Jack Johnson, the Waterboys, John Mayer (twice), Marshall Crenshaw, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Sarah McLachlan, Leon Redbone and more!

MW : Describe your own record collection, picking out some of your favourites, maybe even rare records...

DD : In a nutshell, it’s VERY LARGE! Unfortunately, it was once very organized, but in recent years, I’ve allowed it to fall into a state of disarray. So much to keep organized and not enough space (or time)! As for vinyl, I’d guess I have over a thousand albums and a perhaps two hundred singles (and some other odds and ends). As for CDs, we have to be talking well over ten thousand. The quantity of CDs is greater because I have received, and continue to receive, a lot of free/promotional material from record companies over the years, including stuff I really don’t need to keep, but I do anyway!

As a fan, collecting the Beatles, together and apart, is my primary hobby. I’d say collecting Pink Floyd is second. I am trying to replace many of the singles I had as a young boy and obtain copies of albums from my father’s record collection - albums that I grew up hearing when I was between four and, say, seven years old. There are other “target” artists and albums for me, as well. Trying to explain what appeals to me, what I look for, how much I’m willing to spend, etcetera, is difficult to briefly sum up. Condition is very important to me as I collect music and I will walk away from a record, or CD, I really want if the condition is not up to my standards.

My collection centers on: CDs and vinyl records – both new and used original pressings, original issues, reissues, box sets, deluxe editions, etcetera - some collectables, BluRays/DVDs/VHS tapes, music magazines, Beatles and Pink Floyd publications, books, concert souvenirs, and other assorted oddities. That’s not to mention a decent sized accumulation of Woodstock and New York Mets publications and other assorted memorabilia. Oh, I do leave a little room for my family!

MW : ... do you ever de-clutter?!

DD : Much to my wife’s dismay, I never declutter! Why would I want to get rid of anything?!

MW : What role, if any, does your wife Sherri play in your own “magical mystery tour”?

DD : In general, my wife has been involved in numerous aspects of my career, mostly providing behind the scenes support and encouragement and offering occasional feedback on my radio shows (although these days she isn’t awake when I am on the air!) and when I emcee live shows.

MW : Do you kids wish to follow you onto radio?

DD : My son has developed a bit of an interest in sports broadcasting, mostly baseball, but for the most part, broadcasting hasn’t interested my kids much. (It doesn’t interest any of my kid’s friends, either. When they find out what I do for a living, it’s usually met with indifference!).

If my children were interested in broadcasting, I would try to steer them towards sports and news and away from music. Quality opportunities for the traditional DJ/music show host have been dwindling for some time now.

MW : List in order of preference your Top 5 Beatles albums, and tell me about your No.1 choice...

DD : I always struggle with lists like this and end up spending far too much time agonizing over them to make them “perfect” and accurate (as if some sort of World Order is at stake!). Right now (and this will change in an hour or so), I’d say:

Abbey Road (1969)

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Revolver (1966)

Rubber Soul (1965)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964) - The UK versions of 3, 4 and 5.

By the way, The Beatles, AKA “The White Album” (1968) , and Magical Mystery Tour (1967) are knocking on the door!

Abbey Road is simply a perfect album. The Beatles were at the top of their game as musicians, the production was flawless, the song craft was impeccable, etc.

MW : Why do you love baseball so much?!

DD : Honestly, I am not sure. I’d assume it’s because when I was growing up, baseball was THE sport – not only in my neighborhood, or in New York City, but in the entire country. There was no doubt about that. Football and basketball have made significant inroads in American culture over recent decades; hockey to a lesser extent.

Today, I am not sure baseball is still the most popular sport in the U.S., but it’s still near the top, at least. When I was growing up in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s; there was no question that baseball was tops. Football was probably a distant second. Kids played a lot of baseball, and subtle variations of baseball, back then. So, when I hit the ages of 7 and 8, I naturally gravitated to baseball, like most boys did.

New York City is a huge baseball town and we have two teams – the New York Yankees, who play in the Bronx and have been around since moving to New York City in 1903, and the New York Mets, who are in Queens and started play in 1962. Needless to say, being from the Bronx, I was surrounded by many Yankees fans, but my allegiance went to the Mets. As I grew older, my passion for the Mets grew and my hatred of the Yankees has intensified! (“Let’s Go Mets!”)

MW : Thoughts on the demise of The Village Voice (print version) ...

DD : I was never a reader of the Voice, except for the concert venue listings. I believe the Village Voice had the most thorough concert/show listings in New York City and, before the rise of the internet, the Voice was essential if you wanted to keep up with the city’s music and arts events. Despite not touching a copy of the Voice for a number of years, I still think it’s incredibly sad that the print media, like music, has taken such a lethal blow from the internet. Sorry folks, I’d rather have a physical newspaper, book, CD, LP, etc. If you go all electronic, you’ve lost me as a reader and/or listener.

MW : Thoughts on 50 years of The Rolling Stone magazine...

DD : I’ve always enjoyed thumbing through Rolling Stone, but, I rarely thought of it as a ‘must read’ publication. It has a significant place in history and should always be around - IN PRINT. I’m not a passionate reader of it. Their record reviews often seem to be pandering.

MW : Outside of the radio studios, what do you enjoy doing / seeing?

DD : As I have gotten older, I have become very much a homebody, and I tend to enjoy quietly relaxing at home. I’m pretty easy going and I don’t need very extravagant vacations or eventful evenings to dot my social calendar.

This past summer, I went to Citi Field a lot with my son to see the New York Mets play. We attended twenty-three of the eighty-one games they played at Citi Field this past season.

I do go to occasional concerts, but not quite as many as I used to go to. I usually go see artists I have been fond of for many years – the old tried and true favorites. I don’t really venture out to the clubs to see newer acts, or just to hang out, like I used to. I miss it; sometimes a lot; but I have grown mellower (lazier?!) as I’ve gotten older.

Having a family slows the social life down significantly, as well. I just never got it totally revved up again!

MW : Tips for new artists / groups to watch out for in 2018?

DD : As hard as this may seem, I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of what might be coming or what is presently causing a stir in music. Usually, if I do have an opportunity to embrace a new artist or band, it’s just as an album (or maybe a single) is coming out.

MW : Where can we tune-in for more?!

For those in or around the New York City metropolitan area, we are located at 90.7 FM on the dial. As for listening elsewhere in the world, our website is www.wfuv.org. You can stream us there. You can also listen on our app and the TuneIn Radio app.

I am presently on the air: on the main WFUV at 90.7 FM, www.wfuv.org, and the radio apps – Mondays through Thursdays (into Tuesday through Friday mornings) from 10 p.m until 2 a.m Sunday night / Monday morning from midnight until 2 a.m (Monday) on the HD2 channel, “WFUV Music”, at www.wfuv.org, the radio apps and 90.7 FM-HD2 – Saturdays and Sundays, three times each day from midnight until 4 a.m, 8 a.m until noon and 4 p.m until 8 p.m.

Listeners, and music fans, can link to me by joining my Facebook “radio” page, Darren DeVivo On WFUV Radio. The link is:

https://www.facebook.com/DarrenDeVivoOnWFUVRadio/

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oldschoolgameshowguy-blog · 7 years ago

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TJW = WTF?

A CBS Classic is Revived But Changes Nearly Everything (And Not In A Good Way)

“From Hollywood…it’s the game where knowledge is king and Lady Luck is queen...”

Sadly, the “knowledge” is largely gone from TBS’s revival of “The Joker’s Wild”, a classic CBS game show that rewarded actual book knowledge with cash and prizes of up to $25,000. Entertainer Snoop Dogg brought back a new version of this Jack Barry vehicle in October of 2017 and for those who remember and loved the original, this one is a huge disappointment. First, though, let me comment on the few plusses the show has.

It’s worth watching the show - once - to see the beautiful new set. Barry would have been proud (even envious). The designers created a stage that’s colorful, lively and engaging. You even hear slot machine sounds like you’d hear in a real casino. The 1990 revival had its own technology-driven machine – three TV monitors where the category wheels would “spin” but they weren’t terribly exciting to watch. At least with modern technology, the new Joker machine is something truly impressive.

Sadly, that’s where the list of positives end for me. There’s so many things about the new version of the show that I disliked upon viewing the premiere. The audience. The questions. The changed flow of play. And most certainly the host. If you’re a fan of Snoop Dogg, you’ll probably hate everything I’m about to say and dismiss me as a “hater”. Fine. But if you don’t know Snoop, you may agree with me.

Snoop’s persona – at least on the show – is that of a drug-friendly casino operator party guy with a streetwise sense of humor. That, of course, is nothing like Jack Barry or, really, any other quiz show emcee of any of the classics. Even Gene Rayburn of legendary “Match Game” fame was wild and wacky without seeming stoned. And I don’t find Snoop’s manner appealing �� in the context of a quiz show. As a music performer, not being all there can add to an artist’s charisma. But not for leading a vehicle like this. (Michael Strahan of ABC’s “The $100,000 Pyramid” would have been a finer choice to helm this revival. Frankly, I can think of at least a dozen other people I’d rather had been at the helm of the new “Joker”.)

Snoop is supposed to be the main draw for the show - but with the original, it wasn't about the host. It was about the game, at least for the viewers. Jack Barry was an affable host, like many emcees of the day, but he wasn’t playing a version of himself, and a seedy one at that. He was actually trying to clean up his image, having been implicated in The Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950’s. He needed to be squeaky clean. Luckily, it worked.

A good game show host - to me - knows how to set up tension and the big moments. Snoop seems too high - or high acting - to be tense about anything. It’s all about laughs, money, and that “big-ass” slot machine. If you’re watching a game, as a viewer, you don’t want to be going, “What just happened?”

Snoop has famously said “The Joker’s Wild” was one of his favorite shows growing up, and that he used to watch it with his grandmother. Why was it a favorite? Was it the big money? The set? It looks like that the oversized slot machine what fascinated him because I don’t get the impression it was the intellect displayed by the contestants. I don’t think Snoop would have done so well as a contestant on the CBS original.

The new version of the game is not a general knowledge quiz – at least, as you’d see on “Jeopardy!” with Alex Trebek. (I wish there were more examples of knowledge game shows on American TV but they’ve all but disappeared – American TV producers presume that the average viewer doesn’t find book smarts entertaining. When I was growing up, viewers had more selections – among the better of them, “The Who, What or Where Game” and “College Bowl”. Even shows like “Gambit” or “Hollywood Squares” had questions where viewers could learn something factual.)

On the new version of “Joker” questions are more about streetwise subjects or comedic themes. The category names are too silly to recount here, but I was reminded of the equally frivolous names chosen for categories on the 2000 “Pyramid” revival with Donny Osmond (which I was glad to see bite the dust). Sometimes it’s possible to be too cutesy.

Even the 1990 version with Pat Finn, disappointing as that was, had quiz questions about real topics – they were given as definitions, where the player had to define the person, place or thing Finn read off his cards. The message Snoop’s “Joker” sends is that there's zero value in knowing school subjects or facts. With who made it into the White House in 2016, this show is suitable for a “post-fact” era.

New “Joker” isn’t even the same game structurally. Designed to fit within a single-half hour, with no carry-over champions (even the current incarnation of Family Feud with Steve Harvey lets families stay five days to win a new SUV), this version of “Joker” is a contest to see who can amass the most money during game play, not whether they can reach a particular amount. That dramatically changes the game. There are fewer moments for natural tension. A wrong answer to a question can’t be picked up by an opponent for credit, as in the original version. There is no “final spin” rule if a player reaches the winning amount before players have had an equal number of spins. And a three-Joker spin is lame, as it only counts for $500 towards a daily total. There is no Joker’s Jackpot, no five-game big payoff, and no sizzle associated with getting Jokers anymore, no matter how much the audience joins in with “Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!!”

Speaking of the audience (and the players), in scanning with my eyes, I didn’t see anyone present over the age of 30. Just a soundstage full of twenty-somethings. Snoop is probably the oldest person on that stage. The original “Joker” wasn’t so narrow in its appeal, and that might have been part of the reason it was a classic – you could see students, fathers, mothers, teachers, artists, young adults, older adults, everyone. It seems that Snoop’s version of the show basically says, “If you ain’t a club kid, or you don’t dig me, you too old.” I think lots of college students across the country who tune in “Jeopardy!” daily would disagree. (I was also non-plussed by the standing ovation at the beginning of the show – I remember when standing ovations had to be earned.)

If you ran the original CBS version of “Joker” now, it wouldn't connect with Snoop’s target audience on the TBS version, because that target audience doesn't value book knowledge – at least not in this arena. Get outta here, nerds – you’re not wanted here.

I am also not a fan of “lovely assistants” unless they “work.” It seems that these days, a female assistant (it’s always gotta be a female) is comely and attractive but doesn’t necessarily have much in the way of personality. Catch 21’s Nikki was pretty but bland also. The last show with a “lovely assistant” I could handle was “Wheel of Fortune” - Vanna White may be long in the tooth, but she has depth and seems more real. On the original CBS version, Jack handled the entire show, solo – and even the 1990 revival with Pat Finn was a single-star affair.

How could this version of “Joker” ever have been green-lighted for production? Simple - times have changed. Broadcasters and production companies are greedier than ever, and ever eager to push the envelope to get a new generation of viewers, and the eyeballs advertisers covet. I suppose some of that is to be expected, but taste seems to have been lost with it. And it borders on sacrilege to take an old brand and put something else entirely with it - it’s just wrong.

“The Joker’s Wild” was never intended to be a comedy game show. There have been other game shows that were expressly designed as humor vehicles - “Make Me Laugh”, “The Hollywood Squares”, “The Gong Show”, “Match Game”, “Every Second Counts”, “Can You Top This?” - but taking a venerated quiz and turning it into a comedy vehicle isn't a good idea. If I had my way, this show would have been called something else.

Another part of the problem is that the industry itself has changed since the 1970s - indeed, the concept of entertainment is more than TV and radio - and producers, accountants and suits are greedier than ever, wanting a guaranteed success. Most folk under 30 now have TV, streaming music, social media, gaming consoles, and dating/hookup apps to entertain themselves. And so TV has to have bigger and bigger spectacles to push the envelope – witness, a game show with open drug references (“420”).

And then you have what I could call “new generation” producers – folks whose interest is in leaving their own mark on a classic genre rather than respecting what made the genre work – it’s all about them. I have seen revivals come and go in recent years, but they never stay. They all have to be edgy. They all have to be “explicit”. They all have to be bawdy. I dare one game show packager out there to bring back a classic (I’m thinking “The Big Showdown” from ABC) without retooling every g’damned thing from top to bottom for an exclusive 18 to 24 aged demographic. If I had the independent wealth and connections, I’d do it myself but...here I sit, typing a blog instead.

Richard Kline’s company tried to redo “Joker” in 1990 by changing nearly everything and it was a flop – only after several months in did they try to retool the game with classic “Joker” rules, but it was too late then. However, having seen this new “Joker”, that ‘90 version is no longer the worst.

TBS is a cable channel so they can show offerings like this. I just cannot imagine CBS running this - except as a gag. If Snoop’s “Joker” gains traction, look for an SNL parody one of these coming weekends.

If you wanted to have a game show in a night club - and all that implies - you'd get Snoop’s reboot of “The Joker’s Wild”. With the exception of the beautiful new set, there is little that a fan of the original CBS “Joker” will enjoy. “Jeopardy!” or quiz show fans can rightfully wince. And TBS? Nice gimmick, guys, but you better promote the hell out of this show to your millennial “base” to make it a commercial success.

Meantime, I will stick to reruns of the classic CBS show on You Tube.

GRADE: F

#the joker's wild #snoop dogg #snoopdogg #game show #game shows #CBS #TBS #cable #1972 #1990 #2017

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ricardosousalemos · 8 years ago

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Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes

Billie Jo Campbell was discovered at age 3 while walking down a street in Los Angeles with her mother. A photographer approached, told the mother that Billie Jo was adorable, and asked if she wouldn’t mind her daughter appearing in a photo shoot at a house in Laurel Canyon. The mother—“a free spirit,” Billie Jo explained—promptly set up an appointment. They later learned that the shoot was for the cover of an album by an obscure acoustic-punk trio from Milwaukee about to release their debut. In the photo, barefoot Billie Jo wears a cute white dress and strains to peer inside a darkened house through a window. She had no idea that this was an apt metaphor for the band’s songs, which capture that precise moment when childhood innocence is corrupted by the obsessions of the adult world—sex, violence, perverted religiosity, and omnipresent death.

Years later, when Billie Jo was a teenager in the ’90s, she realized that the album was pretty momentous. “This was my bragging point,” she recalled in 2007. “I’d be at parties, and if the girls in the dorm knew you were trying to meet cute boys, they’d tell them I am on the cover.”

What’s amazing about this story isn’t just that Billie Jo Campbell was still recognized, well into her college years, as the kid on the cover of the Violent Femmes’ self-titled 1983 LP. It’s that people knew what the cover even looked like. “I think the majority of people found out about our music because somebody had made a tape and played it at a party. I’ve heard that so many times,” said Violent Femmes’ singer-songwriter Gordon Gano in a 2016 interview, still cherubic even in his early 50s. “A few years ago, I had somebody that was a big fan say, ‘What does your album cover look like? I’ve never seen it because it’s always been on a tape that somebody made.’”

Violent Femmes are perhaps the greatest mixtape band of its era—they were to Maxell what Drake now is to Spotify playlists. Long after the Femmes’ initial wave of underground fame came and went in the mid-’80s, choice cuts from their first album kept popping up on countless tapes dispensed throughout teenage suburbia. For those that encountered the Femmes in this manner, the band’s songs were akin to outsider art—found musical data that offered bracingly unfiltered takes on lust and alienation and the yearning to belong, written on an acoustic guitar by a misfit kid who sang in an untrained pubescent whine. Mixtapes gave Violent Femmes renewed life divorced from the context of their own up-and-down career, infusing songs from their first and most successful record with the adolescent angst of each subsequent generation of middle-schoolers in search of a spokesman.

This is the art of the mixtape, finding songs that will expose your innermost self to whoever is receiving the tape. And Violent Femmes songs were catchy and simple enough to work especially well as plainspoken musical messages. If you wanted a killer kick-off for your “I’m an Edgy Outsider and Want to Be Appreciated As Such” mix—one of the most popular mixtape genres—a common choice was “Blister in the Sun,” in which Gano snakes allusions to heroin and premature ejaculation behind Brian Ritchie’s relentlessly busy bass line, like a shoplifter stuffing cigarettes down the front of his jeans. And the perfect closer for that tape would inevitably be “Add It Up,” a relentless rant that argues against involuntary celibacy on the grounds that it can make you homicidal. (“Gone Daddy Gone” also worked in this slot, particularly if the tape had an “all marimbas” theme.)

The other most popular mixtape genre was “I’m Into You and This Is My Way of Showing It,” and Violent Femmes delivered there as well. Gano wrote the most romantic song on Violent Femmes, “Good Feeling,” when he was just 15. An affectingly pure expression of fairy-tale love, “Good Feeling” is a rare moment of unfettered tenderness on an otherwise brash record, revealing the nice young man behind the bravado who was raised by a Baptist minister and a theater actress. Gano actually wrote a collection of gospel songs around the same time as Violent Femmes, but Ritchie, an atheist, refused to record them. He and excitable stand-up drummer Victor DeLorenzo—who was the oldest member by several years—were more comfortable with the nervy “Please Do Not Go,” in which Gano pledges to “patiently pray, pray, pray, pray, pray” for sex rather than salvation.

Gano and Ritchie later admitted that the members of Violent Femmes had virtually nothing in common except for music. But in the beginning, at least, that was enough to bond them together, because nobody else in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wis. took Violent Femmes seriously. The affectations that later endeared them to fans —the ramshackle instrumentation, the spitefully witty lyrics, Gano’s habit of wearing a bathrobe in public—stigmatized the Femmes in the Milwaukee club scene. They were forced to busk in the street with acoustic instruments because nobody would book them.

According to legend, Violent Femmes were “discovered” in 1981 by James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders, who invited them to open for his band during a performance at Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre after seeing them busk outside the venue. Gano had just graduated from high school, and it was rare of the Femmes to perform indoors on an actual stage.

This story became an oft-repeated talking point in press releases after the Femmes became semi-famous in the American indie underground. But as the band members themselves were quick to point out, Violent Femmes were hardly set up for a professional career after that minor acknowledgment. As always, they were left to fend for themselves, eventually borrowing $10,000 from DeLorenzo’s father to fund recording sessions at a studio in Lake Geneva, about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee. Producer Mark Van Hecke later described the studio as being “in a state of collapse. You’d go into the studio and there would be this equipment, and the next day you go in there’s a piece missing because it got repossessed.” Van Hecke’s intention was to give Violent Femmes a classic Sun Sessions sound, though this naturalistic approach required lots of takes, as the band tended to move around a lot while playing. For Van Hecke, working with the Femmes was an act of faith—he had previously tried to shop a three-song demo to a few dozen record labels in New York and Los Angeles, and all of them said no. “A lot of people thought I was nuts and this was shit. I knew it wasn’t,” he said later.

Nevertheless, Violent Femmes were oddly confident in themselves. “When we made the first album, we thought it was destined to be considered a masterpiece,” Ritchie claimed in 2015. The first prominent person to agree that Violent Femmes were destined for greatness was New York Times music critic Robert Palmer, whose rave review of two performances opening for Richard Hell at the Bottom Line and CBGB in 1982 was instrumental in getting the Femmes a deal with Slash Records.

Palmer, a blues scholar who had just published the definitive history Deep Blues the previous year, compared Gano to his most obvious antecedents, Lou Reed and Jonathan Richman. But Palmer also heard a new strain of Americana in Violent Femmes’ revved-up, snotty confessionals, likening songs to “the discursive, rambling structures of folk-era Dylan.” In a subsequent review of Violent Femmes’ second album, 1984’s overtly spiritual Hallowed Ground, Palmer detected “a subterranean mother lode of apocalyptic religion, murder, and madness that has lurked just under the surface of hillbilly music and blues since the 19th century” in the Femmes’ knowingly primitive music. Perhaps Palmer was also thinking of Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone,” which lifts a verse from Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” or the teenage murder ballad “To The Kill,” in which Gano fantasizes about vengefully hunting down his ex in Chicago, like so many Delta musicians decades earlier.

Flash forward to the ’90s, and Palmer’s conflation of Gano’s songs with the timeless quality of the blues felt truer than ever, even as Violent Femmes also seemed more contemporary than ever. In the ’80s, Violent Femmes were strictly an underground phenomenon; a slow but steady seller, the self-titled debut finally went platinum in February of 1991, though it didn’t actually crack the Billboard 200 chart until later that year. By then, Violent Femmes had achieved a measure of mainstream recognition thanks to the alt-rock explosion. They became a fixture of nostalgic movie soundtracks—Ethan Hawke sang “Add It Up” to needle Winona Ryder in Reality Bites, and Minnie Driver blasted “Blister In The Sun” on the hip underground radio show that John Cusack obsesses over in Grosse Pointe Blank. Violent Femmes even appeared in an episode of “Sabrina The Teenage Witch”—mean girl Libby casts a spell on Gano, making him serenade her with “Please Do Not Go” while Sabrina and her aunts do an awkward skank.

Violent Femmes' influence was now discernible in the legion of underground rockers who had codified Gano's quirky vocal style into what is now commonly recognized as the "indie guy" voice. In years to come, Gano’s vocals—recently described by author J.K. Rowling as sounding “like a bee in a plastic cup”—would echo in Stephen Malkmus, Jeff Mangum, Colin Meloy, Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and countless less heralded reedy young men.

Violent Femmes remain a band out of time. They are rarely mentioned with the “canon” bands of ’80s American post-punk—lacking the sales and accolades of R.E.M., the Replacements, and the Pixies, the Femmes don’t signify an era so much as a time of life. Violent Femmes is children’s music for teenagers—uber-elementary sing-alongs that have their time and place, and then are set aside as facile once they’re outgrown.

But Violent Femmes deserves better. If the blues survived because of the oral tradition of passing down songs from one singer to another, Violent Femmes endured because the tunes were shared via word of mouth at dorm parties and high school keggers. (Even the girl on the cover learned about Violent Femmes that way.) And don’t discount those precious mixtapes, a primitive form of social media that worked exponentially slower than the internet but were ultimately no less effective at creating a lasting legacy.

For young people growing up in the internet age, Violent Femmes is part of a shared language. In 2013, after a period of estrangement marked by lawsuits and public in-fighting, Violent Femmes were persuaded to reunite for a performance at Coachella. “As soon as we started out the set with ‘Blister in the Sun,’ when that riff hit, it was like a swarm of insects coming towards our stage. They all started running from the other stages,” Ritchie recalled. All these years later, whenever teenagers listen to songs from Violent Femmes, they also hear themselves.

#reviews-albums

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