Tabishland

Continuing with our penguin theme....

Like to make a women's-network TV movie but don't know where to start? The Lifetime Movie Title Generator is here to empower you. This is a great function that works after you enter some parameters. Here are a few examples:

Brother, Forgive Me My Scurvy: David's Test

A Brutal Cry of Pregnancy: The True Story of Ian

My Stalking Came First: The Life of Tim Weiner

The Tim Weiner Story: I Woke Up Paranoid

Joe's Story: What My Purging Taught Me

Love Me, Love My Need: The True Story of Nell

An Attorney's Secret Disappearance: The Life of Eric Hansmann

Now yunz can go have some fun with this.

No pictures, but Kim will like the lyrics.

btw, the Tull catalog was recently loaded into iTunes.

This will change music forever. Huzzah!

Happy 60th (yesterday) to the guy who used to sing "I've no wish to be living sixty years on."

This is really funny, if you've seen the movie.

I think Ginger played in the band with the blonde who's now married to Cameron Crowe. And the drummer-- the guy in the back in the pantaloons--I'm pretty sure is Pino. I just can't place the goat....

Wasn't this band a bunch of Manson groupies?

Do I look more like Walter Cronkite or Bill with a Freddie Mercury mustache (so called nappy 'tash)?

Ian looks like some comic superhero here. The Green Hornet?

I found this blog that had no comments to it's posting and it made me sad. Based on the picture ID, I think it's written by either a young Madonna or Janet Contrucci.

Give it a visit!

Patti Smith got inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month. I saw her on my TV tonight being inducted. It made me think a lot about 1978.

Before cynicism completely took over my life there was Patti Smith.

I remember I owned copies of Easter and Horses when I was in High School. Easter because she had a radio hit with Because The Night and Horses because I liked Easter. I loved both records, but sometimes I had to play them quietly as not to offend anyone- Horses started with potentially the most offensive line in Rock and Roll to that point- “Jesus died for somebody’s sins…. But not mine” and then the song with perhaps the MOST offensive- Rock and Roll N-------, which to this day, I can’t sing along to because it’s too damn offensive. “Jackson Pollack was a n------, Jesus Christ and Grandma too!”

I really liked those records. I thought she was original and gutsy and interesting and beautiful/ugly. Other people hated her- hated her bad. I mean, even LouReed hated her- “F--- Radio Ethiopia, I’m radio Brooklyn” he shouted on his Lou Reed Live album. (well, as it turns out, Lou was from Massapequa, Long Island and went to school, at University of Syracuse- so f--- Radio Brooklyn too!) But still, even Lou???

The music was sometimes pretty good, sometimes forgettable, but Patti really seemed like she had something she wanted to say. I don’t think I knew what it was. Her songs were kind of like “I don’t F--- much with the past but I f--- plenty with the future mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble” but the platitudes were shouted with such conviction- like me at 16- I didn’t know what I wanted to say, but I meant it maaaaan.

But she was great- the cover of her Easter album had he unshaved armpits- really threatening to a 16 year old boy, but really, really exciting too. Dangerous in ways that I couldn’t even fathom then.

“Horses, horses, comin’ in in all directions” A hugely homo-erotic song that I was oblivious to the meaning of- but sang along to nonetheless.

I found myself in the East Village in 1980- visiting a friend in NYC- and I came face to face with the people I saw on album covers and in articles in Cream Magazine, but hadn’t come near Indiana, Pennsylvania- the town so nice they named it once. I loved to dress up like the pictures- but these people seemed like they meant it. They scared me shitless. I knew at that point that I was a fake- a phony… (until The Clash gave me permission to wear army surpluss just a few years later). Yeah, that made me authentic!!!

Maybe, since that time, I’ve just been trying to prove that all those sincere rebels were really fakes like me. So, I'm the first to pooh-pooh anyone out of the ordinary- "oh yeah, non-conformity- that's sooooo original" But Patti wasn’t a fake at all. I just saw her tonight on TV and she was clumsy, homely, nervous, inarticulate, passionate – but, I think, sincere.

Shit. I was wrong. Everyone wasn’t a fake like me.

P.S. I rented Marie Antoinette (the movie, not the historical figure) this last week and was delighted to hear the movie open with a Gang of Four song- something off of Entertainment- I thought- “wow, this could be a really interesting movie.” In the end, I think Sophia Coppala just used the song because she liked the guitar riff and she probably thought it made her movie seem hip- kind of how I used to reference famous writers when I was younger- whose books I hadn’t read, but by mentioning their names- I thought it made me sound cooler.

"It's a Fine Life" as the song in "Oliver" goes, and so it is. I have to agree with Julianne's judgment: Sendracs' production of "Oliver" is first-rate. The talented cast treats their audience to some stellar performances making for one enjoyable evening. The fine traditions of the high school musicals we knew and loved are in the expert hands of those who have followed in our footsteps.

I try to attend Sendracs productions as often as I'm able, so I'm no stranger to the auditorium and the experience, but tonight I felt an extra twinge of excitement and pride. Some thirty years after performing in my first high school musical, I had the joy, and honor, of seeing my own daughter revel in the enjoyment of performing in "The Musical". What a fine life, indeed!

I have to say I delighted in her exuberence after her first make-up call. She'd been to the downstairs dressing rooms and seen "the blocks" for herself. Her fine life burst forth as she read all YOUR names, exclaiming, "I know him!", "She stayed at our house!", "He came to the picnic!", "We went to her house!". She even counted how many people's names she recognized as the other Sendranians stood in awe.

Do you remember Rush in the late 1970s-early 1980s? I've been reading something that aims to explain--musically, lyrically, visually--how this band spoke to millions of white suburban middle-class listeners in the last quarter of the 20th century, give or take a few years.

I don't remember having any reaction at the time but would like to hear Tabishlanders' memories or reactions to put this reading in some more personal context.

I know someone out there is thinking: "Oliver? Rush? What's next? Barry Manilow?" But I have no concerns that the blog will turn middlebrow anytime soon.

If you're in Indiana this weekend, be sure to see Oliver! It's a GREAT show! My review can be read under the comments section in Nell's previous post. I couldn't figure out the new Google system, and in complete frustration, I wrote my comments as....well....ummm....comments (to another post). Did I mention that it is a GREAT show???

I dare you to sit still while you watch.

I was cleaning out a desk drawer when I found this "Top 10" list. I cut it out of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about a million years ago. Somewhere in my sub-conscious, I must have known the perfect time to share it would come along one day. That day is now, and the perfect people (who love silly things) to share it with are you. Which is your favorite?

1. Salmon Rushdie.
2. Tim Salmon.
3. Salmon Dave.
4. Salmon Legree.
5. Richard Salmons.
6. Salmon Ella.
7. Salmon Signoret.
8. Salmon Chanted Evening.
9. Song of Salmon.
10. Salmon to Watch Over Me.

-Post Gazette staff writer
Ron Weiskind

Thought you all might be interested to know that the 2007 musical happens this weekend at IHS. They're doing Oliver on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Gretchen Kunst Barbor is directing.

This is really Joe's fault. We had a conversation a couple of months ago about self promotion, and it inspired me to try to get the word out when we have a gig. I sent info to a few papers and this one chose to do an article on us...which has already led to another booking!

I told Joe about this idea I had for an internet-base clique that we could probably patent and make a zillion dollars with. He was skeptical and said he whould beta-test it as "Tabishland" to prove how dumb an idea it was. Well, I could have retired by now and would be living in a triple wide in Clymer with satellite TV if I'd gone with this idea.
I should have known since he was also dismissive of my ideas for an easy-to-use self-posted video site and for little yellow notes that you could use to stick in places as reminders but could peel off later.
Dammit.

For Dave and Irene and anyone else who missed it the first time around. Or if you're like me and Tim and Joe and find this irresistibly appealing.

As Duke and NC State went into overtime on the TV over the bar and-- no shit-- Nouvelle Vague's "Dance with me" played in the background, we met at the pig on the roof at a renowned Chapel Hill eatery to recognize the day of birth of Kim and my father.

Tabish even wrote a little sonnet to commemorate the event:

Don't throw a hissy or act like a sissy
'Cause our Sendrac missy
Get's our hugs and kissy
It's her special day
When she's a pr...pr...pr...princess
Happy 24th, Kimmy!!!

I stumbled across this today -- imagine my delight and surprise. Must be somebody's birthday....

I enjoy reading any number of blogs and thought I'd share this one written by Tara Bradford. It contains her thoughts on everything from politics to art to culture and a lot more besides. There are also links to dozens of other blogs, both American and International. Be sure to click on the map--yesterday her blog had 849 hits.

It's abnormally large, wouldn't you agree?

I also found this so hard to believe, but there it is. Chuckles in a box. They even come individually wrapped!
xi___
x(HA!)x

That's a wrapped chuckle in ASCII mark up language for yunz.


What a slogan, "Even the name says FUN."

I may have to get some at the Fort Pitt Candy Company in the Strip for the June 2nd Ellicott City confab....

I seem to remember an English class where it was stated that there are only a couple of stories in the world and they just get told over and over.

This is a pretty funny blog - you should all subscribe to the feed.

I've never been one for fancy cars - to me cars are things to carry groceries and get me from A to B and back again. But I would definitely go for any of these babies.

This website is a hoot, and at the bottom of this page and on the next is Indiana. I love the "reassuring" signs.

I knew there was a reason I liked this show.

From a 1924 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Look how happy that girl is!

No parents with lawyers anywhere to be seen!

No one barking about how dangerous it is, instead praising the difficulty and skill level it will teach!

And you know the ground underneath it is dirt with lots of rocks. Sharp pointy rocks.

I bet the kids were lined up to use this. I know I would have been.