The Musical Saw

Here's a stereo image I had scanned by a lab because the original image wasn't showing up in my own scans with  the detail I was able to get from a darkroom. I used to see this fellow occasionally around the Centre Pompidou in Paris. One day in the mid-eighties I asked if I could take his picture and he said okay:

It's a nice 3D image, with the saw and the bow making for some nice relief. As I recall, his playing was haunting and lovely, and he was very good-natured about getting his pitcher took.

Ernest Tubbs's Record Shop, Nashville

 Ernest Tubb had a record shop on Broadway in Nashville Tennessee. It's still there! Here are some clothes that belonged to Ernest and his singing pals:

 Pete Drake's amplifier! And a Nudie Suit belonging to Texas Troubador (Ernest's band) Jack Drake!

Holy Moley! Pete Drake's talking steel guitar itself!
Dig the standup cutout of Marty Stuart, rocking his own Nudie Jacket and holey blue jeans! Lots of memorabilia and a great selection of CDs. I got a Connie Smith, a Rockabilly compilation with lots of great obscure tracks and--are you ready for this? A Stringbean CD. When in Nashville, go check it out and buy some music.

Jake's Wake/Kirby's Reunion!

Last weekend in Wichita some friends organized a reunion of the grizzled sots and wised-up former grifters who hung around in Kirby's back in the 8-0s and early 90s. Unfortunately the thing turned into a wake for uber-regular and comic genius Jake Euker, who died earlier in the week. Nonetheless a good time was had, as they say, by all, and in the best tradition of wakes many Jake stories were told and many glasses lifted.
Without naming names:

 Standing outside in the grand parking lot tradition.

 Who is this sultry, leering temptress?

 Someone looks surprised! Perhaps an "off color" remark?

Music! Featuring on vocals a young lady whose parents were regulars before she was even born. Proud papa is on sax at left.

This guy's laughing because he doesn't own the place any more.

For a view of the place in those long-gone, halcyon days, see: http://pocketfulofginch.blogspot.com/2010/03/kirbys-88.html
More to come!

Two Mexican Film Posters from the 50s

 The first one, "el Ciclòn del Caribe," seems to be a musical. Click on it and savor its full-size garish glory.

(I don't know why the lady is green!)

 The second, "Trotacalles," seems to be about streetwalkers (Spanish speakers, am I translating "Trotacalles" correctly?) Unfortunately it's in pretty bad shape and  it may be past salvaging. The artist's name is Vargas and I'm told he was a very prominent figure among the Mexican artists painting movie posters back in the day.

Hey! Remember me?

All right, I'm the world's most unreliable blogger. I'd make some excuse like "I was busy" or "I had better things to do" but the fact of the matter is I am a lazy SOB.

Anyway, I went to France a month ago in preparation for a TV movie based on a book that's coming out there in September, Nocturne le vendredi. A large chunk of the book is set in an abandoned industrial kitchen underneath a women's dormitory owned by the University of Paris. There was some concern about this regarding the film adaptation, because the producers and my editor assumed I'd made the place up.

Not so! In fact, it's a building whose cafeteria I managed back in the early eighties. The building's director is still a good friend of mine and she and a colleague (who's the daughter of the woman who ran the building back in the day, I knew her as a small child running around the building with her sister) were kind enough to take me and my editor on a guided tour:



And on the way to the airport I shot this footage of the best busker I've heard in a while:

Hey, look! I'm collecting records!

Filmmaker/journalist/renaissance man Jon Scorfina profiled me for the Riverfront Times's blog and revealed some of the more embarrassing items in my record collection:

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/05/last_collector_standing_scott_phillips_author_ice_harvest_harold_ramis_michael_nyman.php