Tuesday, November 29, 2011
PETER NARVAEZ
Sunday, November 27, 2011
DON DeVITO
JEROME ARNOLD: HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY
Jerome Arnold, bass-player for Howlin Wolf and in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band - and thereby the man who played bass at Newport 1965 for Bob Dylan's debute electric performance - turned 75 yesterday. An interesting man, who subsequently changed his name to Julio Finn (which Wikipedia still doesn't seem to know), here's his entry in my Bob Dylan Encyclopedia:
Arnold, Jerome [1936 - ]
Jerome Arnold, a year younger than his more famous harmonica-playing brother Billy Boy Arnold, was born in Chicago on November 26, 1936. He was playing bass guitar in the city in the 1950s and from around 1957 played in HOWLIN WOLF’s band (though he didn’t play on Wolf’s records till the 1962 session that yielded ‘Tail Dragger’, to which the lyric of Dylan’s 1990 blues ‘Cat’s In The Well’ slyly alludes.) He and SAM LAY were poached from Wolf in 1963 by PAUL BUTTERFIELD, who was forming the pioneering Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Arnold and Lay were the bi-racial band’s black members, and the authentic Chicago blues rhythm section on which the band’s white soloists built. Arnold kept things solid when MIKE BLOOMFIELD introduced Indian music into the band on their second album, East-West, yet while reportedly uneasy with the ‘progressive’ organ-playing of Mark Naftalin (who joined in 1964), he was more than capable of laying down jazz-rooted bass lines flowing around behind Bloomfield on the 8-minute-long ‘Work Song’, which emerged on the Bloomfield compilation Don’t Say That I Ain’t Your Man: Essential Blues 1964-1969. He continued to play on Howlin’ Wolf records after joining the Butterfield outfit.
Arnold, described by Butterfield Blues Band enthusiast Charles Sawyer as ‘quiet and unassuming; a conservative dresser given to double knits and loafers’, was nevertheless one of those who played behind Dylan - with Bloomfield, AL KOOPER, BARRY GOLDBERG and Sam Lay - at Dylan’s controversial electric début at the 1965 NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL. It was the only time he played behind Dylan; he continued with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which Butterfield disbanded in 1972.
By 1978 he had changed his name to Julio Finn and moved to London. Now playing more harmonica than bass, he played with jazz acts, including Archie Shepp (for instance on the album Black Gipsy) and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Certain Blacks, recorded in Paris in 1970). On the 1970 eponymously-titled album by Archie Shepp & Philly Joe Jones, Finn is credited as composer of the 21-minute-long ‘Howling in the Silence’, on which he contributes vocals as well as harmonica.
In 1981 he was asked to write the sleevenotes for the UK label Charley’s album Crying and Pleading, by his brother Billy Boy Arnold. He agreed, mentioned their relationship in his notes but still signed as Julio Finn. Interested in gay rights and in black history, he wrote the 1986 book The Blues Man: The Musical Heritage of Black Men and Women in the Americas, which was published in London by Quartet Books.
Finn / Arnold still keeps open his playing and academic options, and still ranges widely without abandoning the blues. In 1998 he played harmonica on the Linton Kwesi Johnson album Independent Intavenshan; in 2000 he was the respondent at a panel discussion on ‘The Blues as Individual and Collective History’ at a conference on ‘The Blues Tradition’ at Penn State University.
[Bob Dylan with Jerome Arnold et al: ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ & ‘It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry’, Newport RI, 25 Jul 1965. Charles Sawyer quote from ‘Blues With A Feeling: A Biography of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’, 1994, online Jul 2 2005 at www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~sawyer/bwf.html.]
Thursday, November 24, 2011
TWO NIGHTS AT HAMMERSMITH: GUEST POST BY NIGEL HINTON
MUCH BETTER VIDEO OF THAT TOUR-END FOREVER YOUNG
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
How To Finish Your Feast: Sandwiches
Thanksgiving is the one time of year you really buy/prepare food in bulk. It is a waste not to continue eating, especially with our tight food budgets. Plus, what luxury is there but having an excuse to eat as much food as possible? I say it's got to go somewhere.
The best way I have found putting Thanksgiving leftovers in my stomach has been by means of the sandwich. The sandwich is a revolutionary invention of its time, with the ability to be loaded with a sizeable chunk of food in a relatively small amount of space. This equates to more food in your belly and less food sitting uselessly in the refrigerator.
In honor of this November holiday, please use Carla Emery's sandwich recipes as inspiration for your own. The list might have just the thing for your post-Thanksgiving meals.
Sandwich Mixes
These sandwich fillings are meant to be spread on homemade bread. Store-bought bread is too salty and generally "strong"-tasting for them. Any leftover meat can be made into a fine sandwich filling. Just remove bone and fat (except for old-time potted ham). Slice or grind the meat. Moisten the grindings with a salad dressing, such as mayonnaise or tartar sauce. You can make plain meat fillings this way or with the variations that follow. Croquettes are another good way to use meat leftovers. So is sliced meat warmed up in leftover gravy and served with rice or sliced boiled spuds that have been sautŽed in a little butter with some chopped fresh green onion.
Ham and Egg
Grind the ham with chopped hard cooked egg. Moisten with mayonnaise or cream dressing. Add finely chopped red or green pepper and mustard.
Ham and Pickle
Grind 2 c. ham. Mix smooth with 1 small ground pickle, 2 t. prepared mustard, 2 T. butter, and 1Ú2 t. pepper.
Ham and Everything
Mix together 1 c. chopped ham, 1 chopped hard-cooked egg, 2 T. chopped green pepper, 2 T. chopped sour pickle, and a pinch of pepper. Moisten with mayonnaise. Add thin pickle slices and strips of green pepper, if desired.
Old-Time Potted Ham
Grind one-third fat and two-thirds lean meat to a smooth paste. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Heat and pack in small pots.
Ham and Chicken
Grind 1 c. cooked chicken meat, white or dark, and 1Ú2 c. cooked ham. Mince 1Ú2 c. celery and 1 T. green pepper, and mix with meat. Moisten with about 1Ú2 c. mayonnaise.
Chicken Salad Sandwich Filling
Grind cooked chicken and moisten with mayonnaise. Add crumbled crisp bacon or chopped celery.
Chopped Veal
Grind about 11Ú2 c. veal and season with 1 t. salt, 1 T. lemon juice, and a little pepper and mustard, if desired.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
BOB DYLAN, MICK GOLD, PAOLO BRILLO AT HAMMERSMITH
BOB DYLAN'S PHOTO LOCATIONS: NEW STUFF
Monday, November 21, 2011
Crontab: premature EOF
$ crontab -e
no crontab for flexman - using an empty one
crontab: installing new crontab
"/tmp/crontab.XXXXyiIUqY":1: premature EOF
errors in crontab file, can't install.
Do you want to retry the same edit? n
crontab: edits left in /tmp/crontab.XXXXyiIUqY
you cannt solve using crontab -e "userid" but you need to enter the carriage return at the end of the line.
cron is actually looking for end of the line after each cron.
Small things took me 10mins to identify the issue
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Special Recipes for a Special Holiday
It's that time of year again.
Thanksgiving. The time of year when we gather with our families, give thanks, love each other, and stuff our faces full of whatever food we can get our hands on.
I love this holiday. It's the one time of year I can eat any amount of food and not one person will judge me for it. I have a tremendous appetite, especially when there is enough food being served to feed a village of Hobbits.
For those of you who have as big of an appetite as I do, you know what it's like. We deserve to have a day of deliciousness every year. In a world where we sometimes feel frowned upon for occasional self-gratification and gluttony, Thanksgiving wipes the whole slate clean and gives us one whole day to eat! To me, that is amazing.
You know what else is amazing? Thanksgiving recipes, and that is exactly what Carla Emery has written in a portion of her book The Encyclopedia of Country Living. Sure -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy are all great, but perhaps you have been pondering some alternative Thanksgiving ideas this autumn season. Well, Carla has provided recipes from her unique Thanksgivings in 1972 and '73, years she claims were her "banner years for home growing and good cooking." Yes, her recipes are a bit unorthodox by American standards, but they are every bit as delicious. Here are her menus from these special years:
Thanksgiving 1972
Gander (the turkey that bit our son Danny twice) stuffed with sage dressing; sliced tomatoes (last of the fresh ones - picked green just before frost and stored to ripen gradually)
Cooked pumpkin mashed with butter
Boiled green beans with onion and bacon
Boiled potatoes with giblet gravy
Sweet crock pickles
Bread and cheese;
Brandied peaches (buried in September and dug up for Thanksgiving)
Root beer.
Thanksgiving 1973
Roast goose stuffed with sauerkraut
Giblet gravy
Mashed potatoes
Baked acorn squash halves (a dab of butter and honey cooked in the heart)
Boiled Swiss chard
Brandied peaches
Mincemeat pie.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
MORE BOB DYLAN PHOTOS BY PAOLO BRILLO
And best of all:
I think I like the pictures better than the sound . . .
Thursday, November 10, 2011
NEAR-SUBLIME VERSION OF A FAVOURITE SONG
Chopping Wood The Right Way
Its officially fall. You can see it in the trees, which have stripped themselves of their bountiful vegetation. While trees are now missing their most lustrous beauty, they offer us an opportunity to use them.
Chopping wood is an essential task if one is living outdoors. It is also a more adventurous way to warm oneself than simply turning up the temperature. Whether chopping wood to build a fire or house, this activity offers a great opportunity to learn about living off the land. It is also a great father-son bonding experience; there isn't a dad out there who hasn't attempted to teach "survival man" tactics to their son or daughter. At least with this particular task, it is a practical activity that can be applied to many situations, especially as we approach winter.
When chopping wood, it is essential to know proper technique. But more important than chopping technique is safety. When using a sharp, heavy tool like an ax, it is important to remember you are wielding a dangerous object. Carla Emery chopped wood all her adolescence, and details her knowledge of chopping technique and safety in the Encyclopedia of Country Living.
Chopping Safety.
Strive for accuracy before you strive for force - at least enough so that you don't hit your foot. Then, once you're sure you can put the blade onto the wood, you want to give it all the power you can. Use a good big ax, a heavy one, because you can get a lot more force with it. Wear heavy boots in case you miss. Chips can fly up into an eye or the ax blade can hit a knot and be deflected, so don't let children, or anybody, stand near when you're chopping. If you want to be really safe, wear goggles, a hard hat, and steel-toed boots!
Chopping Technique.
Everybody's got his or her own way of chopping. A friend of ours only lifts the ax to shoulder height, then brings it down with a big grunt and the wood splits. Another friend raises it straight over his head. He holds the ax strong in his left hand, loose in his right hand, and then brings it down kind of pulling with the left hand and pushing with the right hand. The best stroke for me uses both hands on the ax - as if you were holding a baseball bat, only farther apart. To do it my way, if you're right-handed, start the ax out back of your right shoulder behind your head with your back arched backwards just a trifle (or you can alternate shoulders with every swing) and then bring it forward and down, moving your shoulder and chest forward at the same time. Try to hit your block of wood right in the center. You don't want the ax absolutely perpendicular to the stump when it strikes. I aim to get it square on. If your wood doesn't split from the center you can try taking slabs off the edge awhile before you tackle the heart. If you can get your ax into the tree but not out the other side, pull it out and try again. Look for a natural crack to strike into. There usually is one in old wood. If you're still finding it hard, use wedges and a wood-splitting maul or sledgehammer instead of the ax.
HOW DYLAN CONCERT EXPECTATIONS HAVE CHANGED
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
A Post-Halloween Pumpkin Treat
As children are stuffing their faces with candy and goodies, we can now acknowledge this year’s ghostly tradition has passed. Over are the trips to the doorsteps of neighbors for handfuls of candy. Done with are the costumes that frighten us, and so, some say, is the usefulness of our festive pumpkins.
Halloween may be over, but the usefulness of our pumpkins is just beginning! While pumpkins have served us well in acting as canvases for our carving delight, I refuse to believe we should simply toss them into our yard wastes! Like yard waste, this would be a waste.
Each year, we make a visit to the pumpkin patch and purchase these orange fruits to decorate our porch. They are plants that perfectly fit our spooky fall season, but by no means are they useless carcasses just because the month has changed. So if you have a pumpkin sitting on your porch, why not use it for a post-Halloween feast? Give this Pumpkream Pie recipe a taste.
Baking.
Arrange your peeled pieces cut side down in some sort of baking pan. Bake about an hour at 400˚F. Then scoop out the part that stayed soft and mashable. Another system is in Ruth’s Vegan Squash Pie recipe a bit later on. Of that one, Lane Morgan says, “That’s how I always prepare my pumpkins for pies, except I scrape out the seeds before I bake because I don’t know how good they’d be for roasting after being cooked in all that moisture. You don’t have to peel or chunk the pumpkin, and I hate peeling pumpkin. Don’t use a rimless baking surface because the pumpkins will ‘weep’ as they cook. I save that liquid to get the puree going in the blender.”
Pumpkream Pie
Mix together 1 c. granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 t. cinnamon, 1⁄4 t. cloves, and 1⁄4 t. nutmeg. Beat in 2 eggs. Then add 1 c. wellcooked–down (cooked-dry) pumpkin. Add 1 c. thick cream or whipping cream. Bake in an 8-inch pie pan, which will be full, for 20 minutes at 425˚F. Then reduce to 375˚F and bake until it rises and then makes small cracks around the edge.