#aronoff

[bobateaandbooktalks]

"Ace Up Their Sleeve" by Maya Pontón Aronoff on INPRNT

[myvinylplaylist]

Cinderella: Still Climbing (1994)

Mercury Records

[fuckyeahvanhalen86-95]

Next year, Sammy Hagar will bring his 'Best of All Worlds' tour to Las Vegas for a residency. At his side will be Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and, the newest addition to the lineup, Kenny Aronoff.

Aronoff came into the picture earlier this year when drummer Jason Bonham exited the group due to a family emergency. But what initially looked like a temporary situation has now become permanent for the foreseeable future.

"There's two reasons," Hagar recently explained to Rolling Stone. "Number one, he's one of the greatest drummers on the planet. I think he's been on more million-selling records than any musician in the world. And he did so well on this tour, and he plays with Joe on a full-time basis..."

"And he blew my mind. I played with Kenny in Chickenfoot, and he blew my mind then too, because when we auditioned him, he learns every song. 'Tell me what songs we're playing.' 'Okay, here they are.' He charts them out and he sits there, and he fuckin' can read it, and play it with soul and power perfectly, just one time, the first time he plays it. If that don't blow a musician's mind, I don't know what would, especially these kinds of songs. These songs are crazy. They're fuckin' Van Halen arrangements."

THE LAS VEGAS RESIDENCY WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE 'BEST OF ALL WORLDS' TOUR

Contrary to the identical title, Hagar is promising that the 'Best of All Worlds' residency will be different from the tour version of the show. Staying in one place, the band is better equipped to slot other songs into the set.

"It's really hard, because you don't have time," Hagar said. "You're either traveling, then when you get to your bed, you're like, 'Fuck it, I don't want to go rehearse.' With the residency, we're playing Wednesday, Friday, Saturday every week. We have Thursday off. The building's [dark], so we can go in and change songs."

Like the tour, there will be a mix of Hagar's solo material, Montrose, Chickenfoot and, of course, Van Halen songs.

"The whole Van Halen catalog, mainly my catalog...I feel like I own it now, because nobody else can do it," Hagar said. "It's like there's no one that can do that catalog except a cover band. Mikey and I, we feel like we own it, and we feel this obligation to the music and to the fans to carry it on."

[jeffcbliss]

(Left to right) Kenny Aronoff, Billy F. Gibbons, Steve "Seasick Steve" Wold, playing at The Billy Gibbons Birthday Jam - The Troubadour; West Hollywood, CA (12-15-22). @AronoffOFFICIAL @BillyFGibbons @SeasickSteve @ZZTop

Photo: Jeff Bliss

[theoffingmag]

It’s for the nesting robins, she’d warble, picking at the hollow where the soft cord that once bound us used to be. Then she counted my toes and chirped me to sleep. Today, gathering bottles, baubles and boxes for the estate sale, wingbreeze and birdsong sweep sorrow to the street.

— Mikki Aronoff

[rolloroberson]

John Mellencamp

[dubsism]

Misty Water-Colored Memories - Episode 12: "Drum Riffs of the 1980s"

Buckle your chinstraps because we’re heading into new territory. Previous installments in this series have been focused on entire songs rather than just particular components thereof. You’ve been warned. A sure way to tell you’re an old drummer I’ve written about being a bass player several times, but my first love was the drums. A common trait amongst all old drummers we were all once young…

[longliverockback]

John Fogerty Deja Vu All over Again 2004 Geffen ————————————————— Tracks: 01. Deja Vu (All over Again) 02. Sugar-Sugar (in My Life) 03. She’s Got Baggage 04. Radar 05. Honey Do 06. Nobody’s Here Anymore 07. I Will Walk with You 08. Rhubarb Pie 09. Wicked Old Witch 10. In the Garden —————————————————

Alex Acuña 

Kenny Aronoff

John O’Brian

Bob Britt 

Paul Bushnell

John Fogerty

Viktor Krauss

Dean Parks 

Aaron Plunkett 

David Santos

Benmont Tench

* Long Live Rock Archive

[mitjalovse]

Some veterans' late noughts found them in the situations they regretted to miss in their careers. For instance, Tony Iommi called Glen Hughes to do a duet album. While they worked together before, they didn't collaborate for a long time, so Fused finds them together again and you regret they didn't have more chances to be on the same record. True, Fused does make up for the lost opportunities, because both of them sound happy to be there. Moreover, you can hear them suggesting the ways Black Sabbath fronted by Glen Hughes could've gone to, had he stayed longer. Sadly, Fused ended up as a fluke, because the original lineup of the group I mentioned took the whole attention from Mr. Iommi and this became yet another case of Hughes being stood up.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Last week, Senate Democrats strongly indicated that the liberal wing of the American political establishment is woefully unprepared to face the future that the US—as both the world’s biggest imperial power and a leading architect of the climate crisis—has helped create. In an attempt to score a win ahead of this year’s federal election, Democrats proposed a piece of legislation that is, in effect, a laundry list of hard-line anti-immigrant policies demanded by Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress. In so doing, they conceded the right-wing framing that an increase in immigrants and asylum seekers at the southern border—already a real phenomenon—represents a “crisis” that requires a series of punitive solutions. This marks a shift in tone and policy from the Trump years, when Democrats rhetorically placed themselves in opposition to the xenophobia of the White House and tended to downplay the idea of rising immigration pressures. It also reflects an even deeper conception of the border as a bulwark against the savage hordes that would destroy life as we know it if we let our guard down. As it happens, that is exactly how the Israeli government talks about Gaza (and like Gaza is how the American right is beginning to talk about the border). Even in the short term, the Democrats’ turn is a huge mistake; as Adam Johnson and Kate Aronoff argued forcefully in separate pieces last week, going head-to-head with the right over border toughness is a losing battle, since Democrats will have a hard time beating the Republicans at their own game (racism). But more importantly, there is no indication that deterrence can counteract the long-term economic, political, and ecological forces animating population flows. Even if it were sensible policy, there is no way to shut down the border that is not itself a time bomb for political violence. Thus, by taking the hard-line approach—or, to put it another way, by embracing the Gaza model—Democrats risk losing elections, while harming national well-being where and when they do take power.

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

That ASL Protest I was a part of, in '91...

That I wrote about here:

May, 1991: I was one of a couple dozen students at my university protesting to keep ASL as an accepted fulfillment of foreign language study (I remember we were trying to meet with higher-ups in the Languages Department, but they kept changing their meeting location; we were basically chasing them around campus. It was a bit theater of the absurd, actually)

Actually made it into the following Sunday's New York Times. I found it online when I took a stab at an Internet Search to double-check my memory. NYT requires you to set up an account and choose a password to read anything... And they've had a transphobic bias in some of their editorials.

So I copied out the whole thing, so you can read it here without supporting them (besides, I was there). Enjoy this story of my reckless (?) youth:

Campus Life: SUNY, Stony Brook; Sign Language: Foreign Or Merely an Easy A?

(Unnamed Staff Writer, New York Times. Sunday, May 26, 1991, Section 1. Page 45)

Students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook do not have to speak to fulfill their undergraduate foreign language requirement.

Stony Brook currently accepts a one-year series of American Sign Language courses to satisfy its foreign language requirement, but some faculty members are questioning both the policy and the quality of the sign-language courses.

Thomas Kerth, chairman of the Germanic and Slavic languages department, provoked student protests this month when he recommended, on behalf of several foreign language department chairmen, that American Sign Language be removed as a course that fulfilled the undergraduate requirement.

In a memorandum earlier this month to the Foreign Language Proficiency Committee, a university advisory committee on student requirements, Professor Kerth wrote that American Sign Language did not "fulfill the purpose" of the foreign language requirement because it was not foreign. He also said the course was an "easy A," which had caused its enrollment to "grow out of all proportion" while enrollment had dropped sharply in other foreign language courses. 60% Receive A's, Critic Says

Professor Kerth said more than 60 percent of American Sign Language students received an A. "This has led some of us to believe that the popularity of sign language has but little to do with the commitment to the hearing-impaired," he wrote, "and a great deal to do with the grading pattern."

In response to the memo, more than 30 students held a protest earlier this month in front of the administration building and gathered more than 1,000 student signatures urging the university to continue accepting American Sign Language for the foreign language requirement.

[Jumping in here with an aside: If I recall correctly, us chasing the Language Dept.'s higher-ups was in an attempt to deliver that petition]

"The professor is afraid of losing his job," Dane Spirio, a junior English major from Old Bethpage, L.I., and organizer of the protest, said of Professor Kerth. "He's afraid fewer people will take his class because of sign language's popularity."

Prof. Roman de la Campa, chairman of the department of comparative literature, called for "controls" on the American Sign Language courses. He said he thought sign language should be allowed to fulfill the foreign language requirement, but not in its present form.

"When you have hundreds of people taking a course, and over 50 percent get A's, there is a question," Professor de la Campa said. He added that sign language courses "should have full-time faculty who have a scholarly investment." The courses are currently taught by adjunct professors who are hired course by course.

Lou Deutsch, chairwoman of the Hispanic language department, said American Sign Language was not a foreign language and condemned the frequency of high grades in the class.

But Mark Aronoff, chairman of the linguistics department, said, "The internal structure of the words is similar to Latin, Sanskrit, Navajo or Eskimo."

Lawrence Forestal, a sign language instructor, said Mr. Kerth's information on the number of students who received A's was "exaggerated."

Mr. Forestal, who is deaf, urged the the University Senate's Curriculum Committee, which determines student requirements, to allow sign language students and deaf people to address the committee before a decision was made. "How can the committee set such policies without real knowledge of sign language?" he asked.

Charles Franco, chairman of the Foreign Language Proficiency Committee, said: "I can see both sides of the argument." He said the committee would have a recommendation for the University Senate by the beginning of the fall semester.

###

For the record: I remember a lot of people in my ASL class (Taught by the same Mr. Lawrence Forestal quoted here) admitted to signing up for it because they thought it was going to be an "Easy A." I also remember them complaining: "This is hard!" and "I don't get it." So... Y'know....

Also, Mr. Forestal was not only Deaf, but his parents were Deaf, and all his siblings. So ASL was his native language. That complaint about needing to be a full-time faculty, in order to have a true "scholarly investment" is just classist B.S.

[bobateaandbooktalks]

"Through Me (The Flood)" by Maya Pontón Aronoff on INPRNT

[myvinylplaylist]

Brian Setzer: The Knife Feels Like Justice (1986)

EMI Records

[fuckyeahvanhalen86-95]

As he sets out on the latest tour by his Led Zeppelin Evening, Jason Bonham is "a little sad" – but not angry – about losing his spot in Sammy Hagar's band.

Answering a fan's social media question a few days ago, Bonham revealed that his 10-year tenure with The Circle and last year's Best of All Worlds tour band had come to an end. "Sammy has decided to carry on with Kenny," Bonham wrote, referring to Kenny Aronoff, who filled in during the four Best of All Worlds shows in August when Bonham rushed to England to help care for his mother, who'd suffered a stroke.

The move reunited the last Chickenfoot touring lineup of Hagar, Aronoff, guitarist Joe Satriani and bassist Michael Anthony (along with keyboardist-guitarist Rai Thistlethwayte). The group, with Aronoff, has been pictured working on new material in the studio, and Bonham says Hagar let him know he'd been replaced not long after the tour's end.

"I was trying to answer fans, really, because they were asking me, 'Why aren't you involved with the new thing they're recording?' and saying, 'Aren't you gonna do it again?' 'I was let go, so, no,'" Bonham, who recorded three albums with Hagar (2015's At Your Service, 2019's Space Between and 2022's Crazy Times), tells UCR. "Sammy rang me awhile ago. He was asking about my mom, but then he said, 'Y'know, I’m not gonna do much next year,' blah, blah blah, 'and I'm gonna go with Kenny.' I was a little shocked, I must say. I'd be lying to you if I wasn't a little sad, because we were on fire at the end of the tour. And I got a little upset. That was strange, after 10 years of being with him."

Nevertheless, Bonham has nothing but good to say about Hagar. "Listen, I love the guy to bits. I don't wish him any ill. I still speak to him. Honestly, the guy has taught me so much – about business, being positive. I'm an English guy; I can be really negative half the time. Even if the sun is shining, 'but it could rain.' He really helped me in that aspect big-time, and business sense and never taking no for an answer, always believing in yourself."

"So, yeah, I had a great 10 years. He allowed me to always do what I wanted to do. When my thing would get busy he always gave me the space. I couldn't ask for more."

Bonham is pleased to report, however, that his mother is well on the mend. "Mom is absolutely doing amazing, which is more than I could ever possibly imagine – from literally being told 'Say goodbye now' to now," he says. "She is a stubborn, hard-ass woman that suddenly went, 'I'm OK. I'm gonna be good.' It's still gonna take a lot of rehab and a lot of time to get back to what she was, but the real painful part – she beat that. So she's fighting on. She's almost back to normal, almost back to not talking to me. So she must be getting better! [Laughs.] She's gonna be around for a lot longer."

Amid all this, Bonham has just hit the road again with LZE, kicking off Tuesday night, Nov. 19, in Indianapolis, with 18 more U.S. dates through Dec. 16. "It blows my mind that something I started 14 years ago, only wanting to do it once, has just naturally become a part of my life that I've enjoyed doing on a yearly basis," the son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham says. "I never intended to do so many shows each year – but we've got about 20 in the beginning of the year and 20 at the end of the year, a winter run, and then bands started to ask me to go open for them on summer tours."

Bonham has kept his LZE set lists evolving as well; during its most recent rehearsals it's "been pulling out some songs that have never been done," or rarely performed, including "Friends," "Achilles' Last Stand," "In the Evening" and the extended "Dazed and Confused" from The Song Remains the Same.

Bonham says he's also "working to do" a full-album presentation of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti for its 50th anniversary next year. "This is purely done as love, as a passion project," Bonham says. "I still get very kind of in awe or overwhelmed with the response we get. Every night I say to the audience, 'I will do it until I can't play any longer. If I can't play to the ability that the songs need, or the day I don't enjoy doing it, I will call it a day."

Bonham, who's also part of the all-star Black Country Communion, has some other points of pride for the year. He remains active with his son Jagr Henry, who had a rock radio hit with "Breed" this year.

"I'm so proud of him and the music he's making. Some of the music is a little heavy for some people’s tastes, but to me – I'm a drummer. I love riff-based music. We've got a really good start with it, and he's gonna come out and join [LZE] for a few shows and scare some of my fans a little because he's, like, 6-foot-4, he's ripped, completely tattooed, but the his band is great. I am just so pleased he's at this point, and it's just gonna get better."

HOW JASON BONHAM HELPED FOREIGNER GET BACK TOGETHER

And even though he was not an inducted member, Bonham was pleased to see Foreigner – which he played in from 2004-08 – get its due last month from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Back in 2004, I did a charity event in Santa Barbra with [Foreigner founder] Mick Jones and got [current bassist] Jeff Pilson involved and we had one of the original keyboard players and I brought an old singer I'd worked with before. ... After it was over I said, 'Come on, Mick. let's get the band back together!' That was the start of it, and they're still touring 20 years later. My time there was short, but I'm really pleased I had something to do with bringing the band back together, 'cause the music of Foreigner is timeless."

He added with a laugh: "It was always weird ... 'cause my wedding song was 'Waiting For a Girl Like You.' That's when I danced with my wife. To play that on a nightly basis always felt a little weird."

[jeffcbliss]

(Left to right) Kevin Cronin, Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Kenny Aronoff, playing with the Jim Irsay Band - The Jim Irsay Collection; Shrine Auditorium; Los Angeles, CA (1-11-24). @kcreospeedwagon @IrsayCollection @AronoffOFFICIAL @KWShepherd

Photo: Jeff Bliss

[bazwillendinflames]

Reading an academic article on how Clara reinvented the companion and I have never been so mad Chibnall fumbled Thirteen's era and companions more (justice for Yaz)

‘The post-Clara companion can now be the driver of their own plot rather than only an expositional tool, and may serve as a self-reflexive critique both of their own history and narrative role. But, perhaps most importantly, they can be a Doctor.’

reference for nerds: Aronoff, Jared. “Deconstructing Clara Who. A Female Doctor Made Possible by an Impossible Girl” International Journal of TV Serial Narratives 3 (2) (2017): 17-30.