Let’s Make the Water Turn Jimmy Carl Black

Bees and I just watched the fascinating and scholarly documentary “Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention in the 1960’s,” and we were both struck by the endearing character of drummer Jimmy Carl Black (“the Indian of the group”). It really broke my heart when nearly 40 years after the fact Black expresses his pride over having been a Mother and his confusion over the demise of the group.



Here’s a super cool 1968 instrumental version of “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black” from the German television show Beat Club. I’ve seen a video of them playing this, but I can’t find it anywhere. That’s a shame because while the band plays, Motorhead Sherwood makes a big, messy sandwich onstage while laconically shaking a tambourine. Pretty funny, I thought.



Just so you don’t feel cheated, here’s a nice video of the Mothers doing their inimitable thing in 1968, this time from French television. If you’re a M.O.I. fan you’ve likely seen this, but here goes for the uninitiated…Things to note: Bunk Gardner teasing “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” at the beginning, Zappa’s unique conducting of the band, Jimmy Carl Black holding it all together, and the sheer mind-blowing synergy of the band. The main musical theme here seems to be based on “Sleeping in a Jar.” But, heck, I won’t pretend to know what’s going on. If there are any music theory nerds, (or any other nerds), out there who care to chime in-- I’d love it. I like to learn.

“Keep an Eye on Summer”

I’m getting mighty tired of winter.
I’ve got the southern California blues again. Some Danny Heller paintings and this strange video certainly help scratch the itch.

Phish on Phriday

This week I thought I’d share with you some selections from 3-20-1992 in Binghamton, NY. This show was one the first Phish tapes I ever got. Of course, this was before the internet and getting my hands on Phish shows was way more of a catch as catch can type of affair.
So here’s the show opening group of songs, nice tight versions all:
Wilson, Reba, Brother, Glide



My cassette tape only included set one, but that's no reason you should be deprived. Here's Sanity and Harry Hood from set two:

Comrade

It's never too late to say thank you. Rest in peace.







"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
— Howard Zinn

Chris Ritson - Featured Artist

Chris Ritson - Decadent

Chris Ritson is a multi-media artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work presents an array of concerns that include the body, morphology and culture, in an entrancing and grotesque kaleidoscope. Ritson’s work reminds that underlying and supporting any cultural endeavor and achievement are mysterious organic processes, continual mutation, putrefaction and rebirth.



Images of the kind of bodies found in tabloids, fitness magazines, and pornography are clipped and reassembled by Ritson into new animals and abstract forms. Ritson employs intricate sculptural and collage techniques to create works that transform the utterly banal into complex forms that elude definition.



Ritson’s approach to dealing with the body is somewhat similar to that of Tim Hawkinson, though Ritson’s work is infused with more wonder, and more affinity for the mysterious and unnamable, as opposed to Hawkinson’s clever puns and ironies.



“I am nature,” Jackson Pollock famously proclaimed. Chris Ritson’s work approaches nature and humanity in a way that shifts the focus of Pollock’s quotation from the personal to the universal. Everything is nature.




Chris Ritson currently has a solo exhibition on view at the Basement Gallery in Oakland, California.


See more of Chris Ritson’s work at his website:
http://www.chrisritson.com/