If you haven't had a chance to check out The Not So Late Show hosted by Johnny DiLoretto, you are missing out. Along with co-host Sommer Sterud and house band MOJOFLO, Johnny interviews all sorts of interesting folks from the 614. Taping is the last Thursday of the month at the Shadowbox Bistro, advance tickets are available or you can just show up at the door. The next show is Thursday, September 29th. Click here for more details. Below is an example of the good times rolling with Pencilstorm's own Colin Gawel.
"Dad, That Wasn't a Celebration, That Was a Tribute" - by Colin Gawel
Last year, my son Owen suddenly announced he wasn't going to play flag football anymore. I was mildly surprised, as he had always enjoyed it but could understand that with most of his friends now playing tackle ball at middle school, it probably wasn't very cool anymore. And yeah, compared to the other sports he plays like basketball and baseball, flag football is a pretty loose ship. Everybody on the team plays the same amount and everybody has to get mostly equal touches. They don't even practice during the week. So for a kid like Owen who is "in it to win it" as they say, I could understand his decision.
So I was surprised this year when he suddenly announced, "I think I want to play flag football again."After all, we do live in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes so I guess he figured after a year off, SOME football is better than no football. We signed him up past the deadline and lucky for us they had room to add him to a team.
Last Sunday, he caught a ball in the flat, made a couple of moves and took it to the house. Once in the end zone, he assumed a position like he was a baseball pitcher, did a full wind-up, dropped the ball and followed through with his arm motion. He gave a big strike sign like an umpire and then dropped to one knee and pointed both hands to the sky.
I thought, "That's a pretty good one." Most kids in flag football do some kind of dance or celebration after they score, so I've seen the dab, superman & others many times. And it isn't like the kids are showing off. Like I said, flag football is all about fun. In fact, Owen's coach this year has a rule that celebrations are mandatory if your score.
So later that night, watching WWE Clash of Champions at home he said, "Dad, what did you think of my tribute today." "What do you mean?" I asked. "You know, after my touchdown?" Owen replied.
"Oh, your celebration. Yeah, that was a pretty clever one."
He muted the sound on the TV: "Dad, that wasn't a celebration, that was a tribute." I paused. "I guess I don't understand." He explained, "I told myself that if I scored a touchdown today I was going to do something to honor Jose Fernandez." For those who don't follow MLB, Jose Fernandez was an all-star pitcher for the Miami Marlins who was tragically killed in a boating accident the night before. He was only 24, full of talent and loved by fans and teammates.
"So that wasn't a celebration. That was a tribute because I'm sad Jose Fernandez died and I was thinking about him. We are both pitchers you know."
How stupid I am? I didn't even recognize what he was doing with the fake pitch and the point to heaven. "Owen, that's about the nicest thing I've ever heard. I'm sure Jose appreciated it."
We went back to watching wrestling.
Colin Gawel owns Colin's Coffee and plays in the band Watershed. You can read about him in the book Hitless Wonder or see the band in Detroit Saturday October 8th. He is currently reading the latest book by Chuck Klosterman.
Why Veep and Hamilton Matter More Now than Ever - by Amber Huston
Politics of the Present, the Past, and the Performing Arts:
Getting Confused about 2016
If you are an American, you are probably tired of hearing about politics right now. I am an American and constantly surrounded by it, so it’s something on my mind, and so something I’m going to talk about. So read at your own risk.
I suppose I am bringing this upon myself, though. I’ve immersed myself in politics - besides just trying to keep up with the current election drama, I’ve also been into politics historical and fictional. I have been listening almost constantly for the past four months to the cast recording of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, a show about none other than our very own first treasury secretary of the United States, Alexander Hamilton. On top of that, I’ve been religiously listening to the podcast Pod4Ham, in which groups of people break down each individual track from the cast recording. Yes, spending like 30 minutes discussing a 2-minute song. I’ve also been binge watching the HBO series Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It’s basically about modern U.S. politics, but in an alternate universe.
When I was walking the other day, listening to Pod4Ham, mulling over it all in my brain, I had a strange experience. It was subconscious, so I don’t remember what it was about specifically, but basically I started thinking about the historical American politics that happened at the time of Hamilton in terms of current U.S. politics. After I realized this, I also realized that while I watch the TV show Veep I’m doing the same thing. Basically I am getting confused. Which is an easy thing to get while thinking about US politics this year.
I think it’s happening because there are a scary amount of parallels between our current political climate, the political climate of two centuries ago, and fictionalized political climates people make up for the purpose of humor.
That’s what is really getting me. Veep, a show that - when you get down to it - is really just trying to make you laugh, seems realistic. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has said in multiple interviews I’ve listened to [I’m not obsessed with her, I swear!] that if she had proposed some of the events that have happened during this election cycle as a storyline to the show creators, they would have said it is too ridiculous and unrealistic. And yet, here we are. She’s also said that folks in Washington claim it’s the most accurate portrayal of the world inside U.S. politics they’ve ever seen in mainstream media. This should be concerning to anyone who watches the show.
All of the drama in the show has also given me a little bit of sympathy for our leaders. Although the storylines are completely fictional, you can see how these situations could manifest in some form in the real world, how politicians are constantly scrutinized and how they somehow have to please everyone to keep themselves afloat.
I love Veep because it satirizes our entire political system. The folks working on the show make a point to not assign her to a specific political party, just put her out there as a politician. [I figure she is definitely a Democrat, but that’s a think piece for another day.] As much as I appreciate satirizing the opposite end of the political spectrum of me, I find it wonderful that this show can connect with people on both sides of the aisle. Those on the left think it’s about those on the right, and those on the right think it’s about those on the left. It proves that all politicians are universally slimy. What a pleasant sentiment.
Are we hopeless? How did we possibly get to this point where our current politics are literally stranger than fiction? That’s where Hamilton comes in to ground us. While we are currently a mess, this is nothing new. Don’t worry, America is not going to hell, we’ve always been like this, we’ve always been on the brink. We had an especially rough start. *Spoiler alert,* but Hamilton is killed in a duel with the Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States. That really happened folks, the VP killed a man. And didn’t even get in trouble for it. They threatened each other, they blackmailed, they back-stabbed. It’s just the nature of politics, the nature of humans, really.
With that said, I don’t mean that this isn’t a scary time, because it is. I’m just hoping that since we’ve made it this far, we’ll find a way to unite [enough] and get out of the messy situation we’re in now.
All the while, I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t delved into Hamilton or Veep to do so, especially now, while they are more relevant than ever. Hamilton is probably the most brilliant piece of art I have listened to in my life, and Veep is just downright hilarious. And maybe some of the current American politics will start making sense to you too.
Amber Huston is a graduate student studying geology at Kent State University, having completed her undergrad at Thee Ohio State University. When not outdoors playing with rocks, she is hosting her show on Black Squirrel Radio [listen here: http://blacksquirrelradio.com/ ] or wasting time on the internet [follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheeAmberH uston]. She loves to travel but is restricted by the fact that - as a student - her net worth is a negative number.
Tuesdays With Ricki - week three / Mitch & Becky and 920 am
WMNI, 920 am is an oldies radio station in Columbus, Ohio. And we’re talkin’ OLDIES here, boys & girls, NOT classic-rock. We’re talkin’ all the way back to the Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Vale era; but then strangely forward all the way through the 1960’s (Beatles, Kinks, Byrds, Gerry & the Pacemakers), the 70’s (James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, anything no louder than Bread and nothing as loud as Bachman-Turner Overdrive); and up through the likes of Josh Groban and Norah Jones.
Mitch & Becky and 920 am
Mitch & Becky were each other’s first date, first kiss, first boyfriend & girlfriend. Their first date was to go see Canned Heat and Blood, Sweat & Tears at Vet’s Memorial on the West Side of Columbus, Ohio, in January or February of 1969. They broke up later that year, right around the end of August, just before Mitch’s senior year of high school and Becky’s junior year. Mitch was the lead singer of a garage-rock band; Becky was a sweet girl from Grove City, Ohio.
One warm afternoon in spring, 1969, Mitch & Becky were lazily kissing on Becky’s parents’ patio in Grove City when “Love Can Make You Happy” by one-hit wonders Mercy came on WCOL-AM – Columbus’ Top 40 station of the time – and Becky said dreamily, “Oh, I love this song. Don’t you think this is OUR song?” The dreamscape kinda got shattered as Mitch replied, “No, I decidedly DO NOT think this is ‘our song.’ I hate this song.” Realizing he might have gone a little overboard as tears started to glisten in Becky’s eyes, Mitch said, “Maybe ‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’ by Blood, Sweat & Tears could be our song, since we saw them on our first date.” But the damage was done. Mitch doesn’t think Becky ever forgot that slight. It might have been Mitch’s first definitive moment in a life as a Rock & Roll Snob of the First Order.
Today in 2016 they both have wound up listening to 920 am: Mitch because he got tired of trying to stay allegiant to an alternative rock scene that would embrace the likes of Mumford & Sons and Grouplove as its standard-bearers; Becky because she just wants to hear some sweet, sad songs that remind her of when she was a young girl.
One late summer Friday afternoon Mitch hears The Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week” on 920 and thinks, “This constitutes a savage, pounding rocker on this station,” while humming the riff to The Clash’s “Clampdown” to himself. Two songs later – on the same afternoon – Becky hears “You Were On My Mind” by We 5 while braiding her granddaughter’s hair and she wistfully tells the uncomprehending little girl, “One time a cute, brown-haired boy won me a stuffed animal at Cedar Point, and this song was playing.”
Mitch & Becky were really very happy at the start. They went to movies. They got burgers & fries at Sandy’s by Sullivant & Demorest. Becky went to see Mitch’s band play at parties & dances. But Mitch knew from the time he was 16 years old – possibly even before the first time his lips ever met Becky’s – that he never wanted to have any kids. And Becky had wanted a big family since she was 10.
Mitch went on to work in warehouses and play in rock & roll bands for the next 15 years, then as a solo act for the 25 years after that. Becky got married right out of high school and had four kids by five years after graduation.
Mitch has read a ton of books over the years: at home; in motel rooms, dressing rooms & vans on the road; at airports & bus terminals and once in a police holding cell. He sometimes thinks the most profound literary quote he’s ever encountered is, “Your name and mine inside a heart upon a wall / Still find a way to haunt me, though they’re so small,” from The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee.” He hears that song about once a month on 920 am, and thinks of Becky every time. First loves are like that.
Becky saw one of Mitch’s later bands at the Westgate Park Bean Dinner in 1978. She was there with her husband & kids when they heard a racket from the music stage over by the duck pond. “This is that punk rock crap everybody’s talking about now,” Becky’s husband growled as they got closer, “let’s get out of here.” “No, I wanna watch a minute,” Becky said. Mitch looked great, Becky thought. He was still skinny, his hair was long but cut kinda cool and he was wearing a tie around his neck over a sleeveless black t-shirt. Becky had put on 30 or 40 pounds when she had the kids, hadn’t been able to shed the weight and couldn’t remember the last time she had bought a new dress. Or the last time she felt cool.
Mitch didn’t sing lead anymore, now he played guitar and sang back-up’s, and – in fact – the girl who was singing in the band didn’t look much older than Becky had been when she & Mitch were a couple. The songs they played were all really noisy & fast and Becky didn’t think she had ever heard any of them before on the radio. Just then Becky overheard the guy in front of her in the crowd say “Mitch writes all these songs.” The guy had hair down to his shoulders & a scraggly beard and as he passed a joint to his buddy next to him, he concluded with, “Mitch has always been an elitist asshole, now he thinks he’s Joe Strummer or somebody.”
Becky didn’t know who Joe Strummer was and didn’t think she’d ever known anybody who made up their own songs before. She wondered idly for a moment if any of the songs were about her, but the tunes were so angry & aggressive she wasn’t sure she wanted them to be. Her littlest girl had her hands over her ears, yelling, “Mommy, TOO LOUD, TOO LOUD.” Becky’s husband said, “Let’s go, Rebecca, they’re scaring the kids.” Becky turned, took little Lee Ann’s hand in hers and “Love Can Make You Happy” was playing in her head as they walked back to the picnic tables in the evening dusk. She turned to wave goodbye to Mitch, but he couldn’t have seen her, in the crowd, through the stage lights. – Ricki C. / September, 2016
I consider myself something of a devotee of bad late-1960's rock & roll exploitation films and even I can't claim to have ever caught the movie - Fireball Jungle - this clip is lifted from. Judging by the fact that the producers allowed the film to grind to a halt for the entire 3:20 run-time of one-hit wonders Mercy, however, I have to ask the question: "Which member of the band had an uncle who was an under-assistant West Coast promo man?" (It looks like a pretty great movie, though, doesn't it?) (ps. For a HILARIOUS, almost Lester Bangs-esque review of Fireball Jungle, check out "LSD For Lunch" in the User Reviews section at this IMDB link) (pps. After repeated viewings, I believe this may be the GREATEST rock video EVER PRODUCED.)
The Top Ten All-Time Best Songs on the Ricki C. Planet: 1) "Won't Get Fooled Again" (The Who) 2) "Brown Sugar" (The Rolling Stones) 3) "Walk Away Renee" (The Left Banke) 4) "Candy's Room" / "Incident on 57th Street" (tie, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band)) 5) "Then He Kissed Me" (The Crystals) 6) "Isadora's Dancers" (Elliott Murphy) 7) "Roadrunner" (The Modern Lovers) 8) "All The Way From Memphis" / "Once Bitten Twice Shy" (tie, Mott The Hoople / Ian Hunter) 9) "New York, New York" / "Looking For A Kiss" (tie, The Dictators / The New York Dolls) 10) "Dimming of the Day" (Richard & Linda Thompson)
Okay, so it's fairly painfully obvious that the cats & kitten from We 5 have got "1960's Folk Club Refugees" written all over 'em, and Pencilstorm readers have probably figured out by this juncture that Ricki C. was likely NOT enamored of the Folk Club Kidz back in the day. Entirely correct, but goddamn I have always loved this kind of folk-rock tune, and I had a HUGE crush on We 5 lead singer Beverly Bivens when this song was fresh & new in 1965, and so was most of the world around me.
Tuesdays With Ricki - week two / Franklinton and The Bottoms
Tuesdays With Ricki (with apologies to Mitch Albom) will run most Tuesdays as space permits and Ricki gets pieces submitted on time. If readers have any ideas on topics they would like to see Ricki weigh in on, post below in Comments.
The West Side Is The Best Side
The Independents’ Day Festival will be held in Franklinton this Saturday & Sunday, September 17th & 18th. (Click here for more info.) It will be the second year the music & arts fest will take place in its West Side locale. I grew up on the West Side, at the corner of Sullivant & Midland Avenues, just a couple of miles from Franklinton, right at the beginning of The Hilltop. The Hilltop was the slightly classier part of the West Side. (Although everything truly is relative: compared to Colin’s upbringing in Worthington, the Hilltop was definitely déclassé.)
What is now referred to as Franklinton was then called The Bottoms. (As late as the 1950’s, the entire area between downtown and the beginning of the hill just west of Central Avenue that gives The Hilltop its name would wind up underwater due to periodic floods; thus the name, The Bottoms.) The first band I was ever in – circa 1968, when I was 16 years old – rehearsed in a house in The Bottoms. That house was on McDowell Avenue, catty-corner from where Veteran’s Memorial stood before its demolition last year. Dennis, the bass player of the band, lived in that house with his family. Actually, we didn’t exactly rehearse IN Dennis’ house, we rehearsed in the unoccupied other half of the double after his father kicked a teenager-sized hole in the dining room wall connecting the two sides of the house and ran extension cords over for us to power the amps and mics with.
The first time I went there for rehearsal, as I stood surveying the “alterations” Dennis’ father had made to the dining room I said, “Your dad didn’t have a problem tearing up your house like this?” “Oh, it’s not our house,” Dennis replied matter-of-factly, ”we’re just renting.” I couldn’t even think of a reply. I just stood there looking at Dennis, thinking, “This kind of vandalism wouldn’t fly at my house in a thousand million years.” My dad might re-wire the World War II-vintage radio we had in our basement into an amplifier for my first electric guitar – one of the nicest things ANYBODY in my life has ever done for me – but he was not about to intentionally damage the drywall for the sake of rock & roll. We lived on The Hilltop.
Anyway, I hope The Franklinton Hustle goes great. I’d love to see The Bottoms area of my beloved West Side revitalized (I can’t bring myself to go as far as “gentrified”) into a nice area to live in. I was one of the original doubters about The Short North project, back when I worked at a parking lot at Doctor’s North Hospital from 1970-1973 while I attended Ohio State University. That entire stretch of High Street was a war zone of storefront churches, bars & derelict buildings, teeming with the homeless street-people masses, and look how nice it turned out.
Kudos to the Independents’ Days organizers for utilizing the Franklinton space again, may all the angels bless the rebuilders. – Ricki C. / September 10th, 2016
Gene Wilder - by Johnny DiLoretto
OK, first of all, I hope to write something that will be distinguishable from every other Gene Wilder remembrance you’ll read online or hear in the news. And, secondly, I hope to figure out why I should write something that I know probably won’t be distinguishable and therefore won’t do the man the justice he deserves. In any event, I’ll try to keep it short and refrain from as much hyperbole and proselytizing as I possibly can ... Good luck to me.
As so often happens in a media-saturated culture, a decade or two passes, and, before you know it, the finest work of our greatest performers fades from our collective memories; so distracted are we with the antics of the Kardashians and other reality television morons, some of whom eventually wind up running for president. So, I just hope that you’ll read this and you’ll want to pay Gene Wilder a visit or two.
Singular. He was singular. Gene Wilder did not look like many movie stars. There was no one like him before or since – in looks or behavior on screen. I keep hearing this phrase “great comic actor” when people talk about him. That's true, but what made him a great comic actor was that, above all, he was simply a great actor. Certainly, he starred mostly in comedies because that’s where he excelled, but why he excelled was because his performances were all so rich, so deft and full of nuance and real feeling. Few comedic actors so deeply commit to their neuroses like Gene Wilder did. He doesn't act funny - it's simply that his behavior is funny.
We think of the movie comedy greats and we think Groucho Marx, Abbott & Costello, Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, and even Will Ferrell. But these people were comedians first and if you ever got something lasting out of them, something that hit you as really humane, it was likely an accident or the result of really great directing. Now, I’m a big Jim Carrey fan, so just to head dissenters off at the pass: yes, he is a fine actor, but if you’re being honest you have to admit - especially in dramas - there’s always something a little labored about a Jim Carrey performance.
Gene Wilder never labored - even though he sometimes gave big, manic, over-the-top turns. But even his most outsized work was always rooted in human behavior. He made humanity funny. Sometimes he made it hysterical. But he always made it human and, in making it human, he made it hilarious. Watch this scene from Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask in which he denies being in love with a sheep. Oh, he's definitely in love with it and has been having sex with it, but watch these two reactions. The first is when his wife casually comments that he smells of lamb chops and the second is when he is actually busted in a hotel room with the animal. Skip ahead to the 2:29 mark and then stick through to 3:30 for the payoff.
Wilder started his film career in the '60s with a dramatic part in Bonnie and Clyde and then rocketed to comedic stardom in Mel Brooks' The Producers. You all know those movies he made with Brooks – The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. So many great films. And don't forget that great run of fun collaborations with Richard Pryor after those. But, let’s do this thing ... His performance as Willy Wonka In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of the greatest gifts any artist gave to the world in the 20th century. There, I said it. So much for refraining from hyperbole.
I loved that film as a kid, and I watched it a million times more with my oldest son when he was younger. I was worried that we would watch it too much, that we would watch the life out of it and I would risk ruining it for us, mostly myself really. But that's not what happened. In fact, every time we watched it, Gene Wilder bewildered me again and again. He lifted me. He charmed and challenged me. Mystified and delighted me. He gave me something new. Every damn time. And it was a lot of times, believe me.
There are a few actors who, when you see them on screen, you instantly like them. Gene Wilder was that kind of actor, but he was something more than that. When we see Gene Wilder on the screen, not only are we instantly drawn to him, but we want him to like us. I don’t know if there’s anybody else in cinema like that. All I know is it’s a singular achievement. He was a singular achievement.
Now to be honest, I didn’t do a whole lot of research for this. But I did tool around the Internet a little bit and what I came across were some interviews with him. Of course, you should go back and see some of these films and you should certainly revisit Willy Wonka if only to hear him deliver the line, “So shines a good deed in a weary world.”; or to watch his entire segment in Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex. But, if you want to see what I mean about him being so absolutely, stark raving unique is to simply watch him in a few interviews talking to other human beings. I promise, you won't be able to take your eyes off him and all the while you'll be wishing you had known him. And that he had liked you.
Johnny DiLoretto writes and stars in the Not-So-Late Show at Shadowbox. The next performance is Thursday September 29th. Click here for ticket info and details.