Bunk Johnson’s Bunk and the New Orleans Revival 1942-1947

Bunk and the New Orleans Revival 1942-1947. Not something you’d like if Sidney Bechet gives you the shits. I’m not really the hugest fan of revivalist stuff any more. I did go through a massive phase, but I’m kind of coming out the other side… I mean, I like it, but I have limited tolerance for it. It can go badly when DJing, and I know I’ve had moments when I’ve really not liked dancing to it. I think you have to pick your songs and artists carefully, otherwise it can just be a bit too annoying.
But this was an interesting CD (another from the Tasmanian jazz shop guy – gotta keep supporting him as they’ve just opened a JB in Hobart. Argh!), and I’m kind of interested in the parallels between the revivalists in Australia and the US. In fact, jazz in Australia is kind of interesting, when you consider the fact that there weren’t any African American artists in Australia to keep things fresh…. I’m sure you could make all sorts of provocative arguments about white Australian jazz… but I won’t.

The Jimmie Noone Collection

I’m especially liking The Jimmy Noone Collection from Collectors’ Classics.
Favourite tracks? Very scratchy versions of familiar songs like:
After You’ve Gone by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
Love Me or Leave Me by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
My Melancholy Baby by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
Ain’t Misbehaving’ by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
And a few others, including
Wake Up! Chill’un, Wake Up! (as above)
My Daddy Rocks me (as above, with female vocals)
The vocals aren’t all ok for dancing – they can be a bit cheesy, but there are some goodies. Love Me or Leave Me is really fab. As is My Daddy Rocks Me. I’m not sure any of it’s really of a high enough quality for DJing, though it’s better than a lot of the really old recordings I have. Once you get into the 1920s, unless it’s a super Mosaic set, you really can’t be sure the quality will rock.
But I’m quite keen on Jimmie Noone atm. And Wingy Manone. It’s all pretty olden days, and not necessarily something I’d DJ for lindy hoppers, but it’s definitely stuff I like to listen to.

intertube moofies

Because we are queen of media, and because our local video shop sucks arse, I am considering an online DVD ordering arrangement. It’s terribly old school – DVDs coming in the mail. Just like ordering seeds from a catalogue (my favourite thing ever), and I guess as soon as the internet becomes a superhighway rather than a single lane (covered) central Queensland highway it’ll be superseded by downloads. But for now, it’s about the most exciting thing I can imagine.
So does anyone use any of these things? We’ve looked atquicklix and bigpond, but quickflix is winning at the moment. Once you get to the $36 per month plan, you get unlimited DVDs per month, 3, 4 or 5 at a time. It’s a bit cheaper on Bigpond (especially as we have a Telstra phone account for our internet), but Bigpond don’t do the unlimited DVDs and they have some slightly dodgy small print. Both offer free trials.
I’m not sure which account we should get. I’m a massive DVD renter, so I think there’s definitely the potential for unlimited DVDs. When we had a halfway decent DVD shop, I’d get DVDs out every other day – 2 and 3 at a time. So we’re looking at a family who’d hire about 10 DVDs a week, possibly 5, and that’s about 20 a month. That’s $46 on Bigpond or $36 on quickflix. The issue would be how many you can have at a time – only 3? Would 4 be better? It’d depend on your turn around time and how good you were at putting them in the mail. We’re weak on returning DVDs round here.
And you have to keep 20 DVDs in your list to be hired on quickflix. There are no overdue fees, but you are paying for the service, monthly, so you’re losing money if you don’t return DVDs.
… I guess we’d take advantage of the films (especially the older, harder to get arty ones and others that I think of as ‘weeklies’ – musicals, classics, foreign, etc), and would really benefit from the telly. It’s easier to get through multiple discs of a telly show than multiple movies, because you watch them in 30 minute, 45 minute and 1 hour blocks, rather than committing to one and a half hours at a time. That’s good for me because I like to watch an episode of something over lunch, to take a break from work.
So, does anyone use any of these services? Which? What’s good about them?

let’s say no to perforations

Three interstate trips in one month. No more, thanks. Conference, christmas and a funeral. Brisvegas was interesting and I quite liked seeing it – it’s changed, I’ve changed, so it’s kind of nice that we could get together again after seven years and find that we had lots to talk about and quite liked each other.
Acclimating to mega-humidity? Tick.
Family visited, without incident? Tick.
Old mates visited. Tick.*
It is hot today, and I have cleverly booked in an appointment with the doctor for another ear inspection. It’s becoming an annual thing. Well, something I do a few times a year, actually. I have had enough of not being able to hear properly – it makes me irrationally furious, inciting Shouting, Stamping and Offensive Language. So I will have them irrigated today at 3. When the ambient temperature is about 40 degrees C. I’m hoping it will soften the wax and aid its removal.
I have plans for films to see, and I have started thinking about redoing the thesis. I have decided that it will now be known as The Book rather than The Thesis. I will start thinking about fonts immediately, as that is obviously the most important part of the process. Pav articulates my current feelings about the project quite nicely. As an ob-con type person, proof reading and editing is really the best place to site my natural abilities and interests. Serious Tidying will commence in a few hours, once this post is written, a cup of tea made, and a little clothes mending completed.
What fillums have I seen lately? Well, one of the most pleasing was Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. I hated this when it came out, but now, after a few years of Howard government, it makes a lot more sense. It’s also part of a recent spate of early 90s sci-fi fillum delightfulness, after we watched Total Recall the other night. In discussion with a fellow nerd yesterday afternoon, I realised that they’re both actually Verhoeven fillums, and that’s probably why they’re both so wonderfully specrappular. Having read this type of SF as a Young Person, first discovering the Adult part of the family bookshelves (at about the age of 11, when carefully scanning the Adult stuff for the least hint of sauciness), these two fillums really capture the mood of terrible authors like Peirs Anthony. It’s lovely, teenage stuff, and absolutely low-brain. So that’s a tick tick and a V.G. from us.
ITMFL.jpg
Last night on SBS I also stumbled over In the Mood for Love, a Kar Wai Wong film that I absolutely love. I keep hoping their relationship will end well, but it never does, no matter how many times I watch the film. I love the obvious stuff – the colours, the framing of shots, the slo-mo, the soundtrack, the almost-love-affair ness of it.
Let’s have a look at a couple of PR shots:
ITMFL2.jpg
ITMFL3.jpg
And just in case that’s not enough, here’s the trailer:

I think I might have a Thing for Tony Leung. My Thing for Maggie Cheung continues.
This new Thing is only fuelled by the immanent arrival of Ang Lee’s latest film, Lust, Caution, which I’ve heard has heaps of hot sex, which I know will be an absolute visual feast, and which I’m terribly excited about. I’m thinking about special preview sessions on Friday day. It also stars Leung, which is very nice, and Joan Chen, who I also love (you might remember me crapping on about this stuff a little while ago in this post). I have rewatched Lee’s Sense and Sensibility in preparation. Because no one does suppressed lust and caution like Austen.
The nicest part about catching this film last night was discovering it’s part of an SBS series screenings of films by the cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The worst part was realising I’d missed Hero. Dumplings is on Wednesday 23rd January. I’m not sure if the others have already been on or not, but the SBS search function on their site sucks a bit, and I can’t be bothered figuring it out. Guess I’ll have to go to the video shop. Oh wait, our video shop SUCKS, so that won’t work. Guess I’ll be the last kid on the block to get into it, and use Netflix/Quickflicks.
Additionally, I also missed the first episode of Skins, a new series by the doods who made Shameless. And that’s a big poo.
Well, think of me as I make it by PT (it’s probably too hot to ride) to the doctor this afternoon, and pray for my ear drum. Let’s say no to perforations.
*twice in a year! Dang, we’ll have nothing left to talk about next time!

want

fcjb.jpg

And, because it’s not all want, I’m quite enjoying the Loose Marbles CD the lovely D sent me. Check out their version of ‘When I get low I get high’ (yes, a drug reference, yes one of the bestest songs evah). You can hear and watch them here, playing one of my favourite songs, ‘Four or Five Times’, heading towards the version I most prefer (a la the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers). The lyrics?
Four or Five times – McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, 1928
[scat]
I’m never about,
??
Just keep a-strolling,
Keep the ball a-rolling,
This isn’t a boast
But what i like most
Is to have someone true
Who will love me too,
four or five times.
Four or five times
Four or five times
there is delight in doing things right
four or five times
[four or five times]
Maybe I’ll sigh,
Maybe I’ll cry,
And if I die,
I’m gonna try…
four or five times.
We like to play
We like to sing
We like to go scedadilah do
Four or five times.
Bibop one
Bibop two
bibop three
Didahdiladee
Four or five times
[scat]
Yes, sure, ok!
What?
Yes. ! !
Four or five times,
Four or five times,
There is delight,
In doing things right,
Four or five times.
There’s a bunch of scatting in there I couldn’t transcribe, but you get the point.
Oh, and yes, it’s all about double entendre, yet again.
I love this song a whole lot, especially this version, though I never get to play it (too old, too fast, to obscure for mainstream lindy hoppers). I do play a pretty fabulous 1930s version by Woody Herman and his Orchestra which always really rocks the dancers. It’s a lot straighter and safer and very lindy hoppable, but still lots of fun.
There’s a version by Jimmie Lunceford (c 1935) which gets a fair bit of play in Melbourne, and I do prefer it, musically, though it’s lower energy than the Herman version. I play the Herman far more often than the Lunceford version. I also have a fully sick version by Lionel Hampton, which I never seem to play. I have no idea why not – it’s freakin’ awesome.