Pas de Deux with Chris Blackwell

Millie's Boy, "Lollipop"

Chris Blackwell is a dashing and charismatic creative genius, superior businessman, and has an incredible life story.  He discovered, published or managed some of the biggest acts to break out in music from the 60's to the 80's, most notably Bob Marley and U2, but also favorites Jethro Tull, Free, Traffic, King Crimson, ELP, Cat Stevens, Melissa Etheridge, and on and on.

Dapper Gent Chris Blackwell

When I met Chris, it was 2002 and we were dancing to the music of potential merger - he with Palm Pictures, and my colleagues and I with Artist Network Ventures.

Anyway, back in 1972 Chris had produced the soundtrack to "The Harder They Come" starring Jimmy Cliff and had made it a supreme international hit, and a major steppingstone in the popularization of reggae in North America.  Through my father I knew Ekweume Mike Thelwell, author of the 1980 adapted novel based on the earlier film.  But our connection to Chris here was made through Jimmy Cliff, who by now was on our label in London.

Marquee: Hendrix Ate Here

We first met in NYC for discussions about connecting Chris' Palm - and its movie, music and publishing businesses - with ANV.  We Art-Venturers were cultivating a small stable of UK-based musicians, developing television concepts, and renovating the storied Marquee nightclub venue in London.

We were also trying to develop a Napster-like service and, separately, a wildly weird installation module concept featuring 5.1 Surround Sound egg-chair listening stations for Barnes & Noble's college bookstore business... but I digress.

Talks lasted for a few rounds, and Palm was at the time involving itself with former colleagues of mine at National Geographic Society in Washington DC - connecting Palm's 'world beat' and 'indigenous' musics with NatGeo's various exoticisms.  Think "Koyanisqaatsi," Philip Glass' avant-masterpiece from Palm-predecessor Island.

Blackwell in his element, digging new music, 1982.

Ultimately, the only transaction that resulted from all this speed-dating was not between Palm and ANV, nor, really, between Palm and NGS, but rather between a junior executive of Palm placing himself into the NGS firmament... but I digress.

Anyway, on a sojourn to DC, Chris was to visit NGS and I was his envoy.  He and his entourage stayed at the new, trendy Hotel Rouge, where we sipped highballs in the dark at happy hour on Friday and then all went off together to the evening's film screening.

Kate Simon's Marley Portrait, Govinda

I asked Chris to entrust his Saturday morning to me and to trust my judgment.  Being of notoriously impeccable judgment himself - he did!  And he wasn't sorry.

My wife and I returned Saturday morning to schlepp Mr. Blackwell to the finest rock photography gallery in the US - my acquaintance Chris Murray's Govinda Gallery on 34th street, NW in Georgetown.  We enjoyed a fantastic exhibition rife with exquisite Dylan, Hendrix and other 60's/70's iconic imagery - some instantly recognizable, much deliciously unique and unforeseen.  Chris lingered and studied, immersed in the beauty of the prints and paying special attention to a set of b/w Rolling Stones images from 1964.

Coda:

Knowing Chris Blackwell and working with him, just a brief while, was greatly inspiring.  He's a decent, enthused and remarkable man with an incredible ear for talent.  And what's more, I learned something from him about keeping one's principles, even in the venal and cutthroat star-maker machinery of the business of music.  Although he'll do plenty fine without my well wishes, Chris is a super nice guy and I do wish him well in the resort biz - 

For old time's sake,

here's a beautiful video set to Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain."

To Rome With Love - and an Espresso with Vincent Gardenia

The Path to Celebrity Begins on the Via Veneto...

My first youthful brushes with Celebrity involved chance encounters with actors Vincent Gardenia and Jim Nabors (no, they weren't together) - the latter at the then-stately-later-tawdry-now-defunct New Haven Motor Inn, and the former on the always-grand Via Veneto.

At the time - long before People Magazine begat Entertainment Tonight begat E! network begat The Kardashians and their appalling ilk - as a kid from the provinces I was jolted by, then later conditioned to celebrate, the honor of having luckily shared space on mortal ground with "somebody famous."

"Birds fly to the stars, I guess . . . "

The meeting with, rather sighting of, Vincent Gardenia occurred one beautifully sunny spring afternoon in April, 1970 as our family strolled away to the southeast from the Villa Borghese and down the Via Veneto on our Easter-time Roman Holiday.

Passing the glorious Hotel Excelsior,it was la mia cara madre, native of Avella in the Campana province inland of Naples, who spotted the star.  Signor Gardenia, nee Vincenzo Scognamiglio and also a Naples paesano.  He was sipping an espresso at an outdoor table and "watching the world go by."  E anche noi: he watched us go by too.

Perhaps Vincenzo was studying a script as he sipped, for his upcoming project, Norman Lear's Cold Turkey, to shoot that summer in Des Moines.  Co-staring with an incredible cast that included among many others Dick Van Dyke, Tom Poston (as town tippler), Jean Stapleton and evil Bob Newhart, our Signor Gardenia would play the Mayor in this fantastic farce.  Among later work, he is well recalled as Frank Lorenzo from All In The Family, Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, and Cosmo Castorini in Moonstruck.

Mayor Wappler Goes for Broke, as the Clock Strikes Midnight

And while we're in Rome together, . . .

[ - SPOILER ALERT -

I will explain the crux and creative impetus of "To Rome With Love," as it will of me, a questo punto: ]

To Rome With Love treats the Woody Allen fan to a comic collage of four (five) parallel plots involving ten+ relationships (the term "relationships" being understood to span a continuum of consummated human interactions).  Comedy and pathos abound - it's a good Woody film, nearly on par with Midnight in Paris, not as 'whole' but rather a rollicking mash-up, and equally effective as una posta-carta magnifica (senza francobolli), for the national tourism industry - in this case, the Italians.

Quando dico che ti amo . . .

The common thread?  Celebrity.

Its pursuit by Monica destroys Jack's earnest but illicit dreams; its unaccountable appearance makes Leopold a reluctant, anonymity-craving sensation - and its disappearance drives him mad; its allure leads Giancarlo to allow Woody/Jerry to parade him naked and soaking wet across Rome's Teatro dell' opera stage; and its attraction mesmerizes la paesana Milly into forgetting her new marriage on the chance of bedding down with film star Luca.  To a degree, everyone - even the pro-bono idealist and hard-leftee Michelangelo - succumbs sooner or later to the lash of celebrity.  Nearly everyone, that is: the one honest, psychologically 'healthy' line of the film is uttered by il Rapinatore, the hotel thief (who 'also dabbles in break-ins and hold-ups').  As screen star Luca Salta weakly protests robbery, saying "Don't you know who I am?" the thief retorts, instantly and con forza: "I Don't Care!"

I encourage everyone to see To Rome With Love.  Any film in which Alec Baldwin ("I'm here from Downtown - I'm here from Mitch an' Murray!") plays the foreseeing conscience, the angel Clarence, is going to be a winner in my book [Note: Baldwin's character, architect John Foy, does not really exist - or, probabilmente, he is the only character in his vignette who exists].  But moreso, To Rome With Love a splendidly entertaining and inventive paean to the fickleness, elusiveness and risk of celebrity - and our obsessions with it.

Arrivaderci, Roma!

 

Feeding the World with Harry Chapin

Harry Chapin - Gone too soon, too soon.

"Hunger is an obscenity and hunger in America is the ultimate obscenity.. We have to stop feeding the symptoms and get to the real root causes of hunger and poverty"

Harry Chapin

Wild About Harry

At the height of Harry Chapin's considerable impact and well-earned acclaim as a troubadour in the pop music world, he was actively involved in a number of social reform movements including the Union for Radical Political Economics.  And in the summer of '79 the URPEs came to Hampshire College for a few days of fomenting to envision a new world order.  Yours truly was earning money before returning to Hamilton College, by scrubbing pots for Food Services in the Hampshire dining hall, and working occasional extra hours at special events.

One afternoon, I joined a couple of co-workers including my brother and signed on to man the cookout grill for these Radical Economists.  Experience on the grill at McDonalds made me a good man for the job.  We clowns did set-up, fired that thing up, and got the burgers and dogs cooking.  Up the hill came marching the grimy throng - one with guitar case in hand.

We the noble laborers watched, rapt, as Harry jawboned with professors and organizers - his eyes lit up, his speech and body highly animated.  It was clear he was passionate on the topic, and very inspiring to those within earshot.  Then we rang the chow-bell, and it was time to line 'em up at the trough.

To Each, According To Need

As they all filed through the line with paper plates, each had to declare "Hamburger" or "Cheeseburger."  Harry requested a cheeseburger, saying "I'll take a Cheeseburger!"  I made sure he got one, responding "Here's your cheeseburger!"

It is worth pointing out that my brother Dave was inclined in these situations to tape a sheet of paper to his apron, announcing the hand-written message "I am the Condiments Man. If you Don't See It, we Don't Have It.  So, Don't Ask Me For It."

Rumor had it that Harry would be performing, campfire-style, to rollick the assembled rabble rousers after dinner as night fell.  And we learned the next day this is precisely what happened.  He'd played Chapin, Seeger, Guthrie, and Kingston Trio numbers.  But we working stiffs had been shoo'd away (by management, not URPE mind you) as soon as the last burger was issued and the grill scraped.

Chapin was then lobbying and cajoling the Carter government to establish the Presidential Commission on World Hunger and - with New World Order subversive Bill Ayres - he co-founded World Hunger Year (now Why Hunger).  The Chapin family continues this work today.

Note: Harry's older brother Jim had graduated from Hamilton College in 1963, and by this time in 1979 Harry's step-daughter, Jaime, was attending Hamilton along with me.  Although we had not previously become acquainted, Jaime and I had a brief and lighthearted moment when I introduced myself to her later in the fall of 1979 to recount my "cheeseburger" anecdote.

31 years ago this week - a year after I graduated, but before Jaime's senior year - Harry was killed in a car accident at 38.  His stories and works live on, and on.

Chapin recorded long narrative ballads ... that told stories about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, about the social and political events of the day and the angst and struggles of human existence.

(excerpted from a really nice post on Colin Pinter's blog).

Yasher Ko'ach, Chuck Todd!

Shirat Ha'Yam congregation on Nantucket is a quirky little synagogue, tucked like a hemit crab into the historic Unitarian Church at 30 Orange Street in town, enlivened by a highly-transient summer population and - I'm told - a tiny but hardy off-season crew.  Many hoi polloi move-&-shake through in the summer months, and the sked of Friday evening services is programmed like Fred Silverman's Friday evening TV network slate, with guest speakers and stars a-plenty.

CBT - Scene of Intrigue

Shirat HaYam at Nantucket Unitarian

This past Friday was a Washington "power" theme, with guest rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Congregation B'Nai Tzedek in Potomac MD, and NBC News Chief White House correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd both in town.  Chuck is such a savvy prognosticator and an insightful handicapper of the political scene, so I was interested to hear what he would say.

Lo and behold, we found ourselves seated directly in front of Chuck and his lovely wife Kristian (who turns out to be a Democratic operative - Fritz Hollings, John Edwards, Gary Condit..), which means I got to give him the standard 'Well done' upon exit from the bimah following his erstaz d'var torah, and was able to chat afterward at some length.

Chuck shared a number of keen observations:

• On the election: "The race will be extremely, extremely tight .... Each week, I go back and forth believing one will win, then the other ... It's the economy versus demographics... at the moment, Obama is running a better campaign" (this last at precisely the instant Obama was telling a crowd in Roanoke "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.")
  
  
• On the simplistic campaign messaging so far, both sides: "It's small politics, and we've got big problems, and both candidates know it."
• On bias: "All corespondents are biased because of our personal histories - I grew up in Miami and I will typically be the only one in the pool bringing up Cuba, because I am so interested in it."
• On cynical character assassination: "Obama can't win on 'Are you better of than you were four years ago?' so he's trying to change the discussion to 'You'll be better off four years from now if you stick with me' by demonizing Romney."  Chuck astutely characterized Obama's current villainization of Bain as an obvious, transparent attempt to "Swift-boat" Romney.
• On the "father/son" impetus: "Every presidential candidate seems to have a drive related to his father: Obama, Clinton - they didn't have fathers. Bush, W. - his father's legacy, and George H.W.Bush's father Prescott before him.  Romney? His father's unfinished business as a candidate in 1968."

That's Sen. Kerry's (wife's) house, to left of Brant Point...

Gamely sporting the de riguer Nantucket reds yarmulke, our speaker took questions on topics like "Why do those mean Republicans keep trying to suppress and dis-enfranchise voters with Voter ID laws?" - which Chuck explained as a Republican strategy for getting out the vote.  He went on to argue that there is very little evidence of fraudulent vote-casting that would harm Republicans, although he was willing to say that Democrats will not admit that virtually all voters DO have ID, and there's no good reason a voter cannot obtain an ID in the next 4 months if s/he cares to vote on November 6.  Chuck's reasonable compromise? Grandfather the grandfathers: anyone over 65, who's been voting w/o ID for that long, gets to go on voting incognito.

"Black Hat" Todd

We talked about polling a bit, and Chuck classified only NBC and Fox as having truly first-class national polling activities - comprehensive, properly-weighted processes that involve a balanced oversight by paired Democrat and Republican polling professionals working together.

Another question pertained to viability of a third party, and Chuck laid out had a cascade of comparisons to 1992 (Perot), 1980 (Anderson) and even invoked T.R.'s Bull Moose party.

I was especially happy to hear him bring Americans Elect into the conversation - innovators who attempted this year to organize the first online Presidential nomination giving Americans a direct voice in the process.

My friend and old classmate Dan Winslow, future Attorney General of the U.S., is Chief Legal Counsel for Americans Elect.  Although unsuccessful in its maiden voyage in 2012, AE represents a robust, positive and non-partisan effort to advance and elevate American presidential politics and I wish them well.  Chuck expressed intrigue too.

All in all, a nice evening that provided equal measure of enlightenment (Mr. Todd) and atonement (Mr. Weinblatt), making for a fine start to a sunny week on-island!  Mazel Tov, Mr. Todd!

Two summers ago, Shirat Ha'Yam attendees were treated to the words of an earnest gent, recently departed of the Washington Post to toil for new Obama US representative to the United Nations Susan Rice.  This mensch assured the congregation that Obama would be "a strong ally to Israel" and "good for the Jews."  After three years of Obama's shredding of a lifetime of US-Israeli relations, this gent no longer can show his face on the island, for fear of being taken into the harbor and keelhauled - at sunset - by "Song of the Sea" congregants....

On-Island w/ Peter Barnes, the Nantucket Cat

 Arrival 5:00pm today!

With a three year old in tow, my wife and I were strolling out of Black Eyed Susan's on Nantucket's crooked little India Street after a fantastic stack of pancakes (batter made with a special ingredient - Orange Juice), when we spotted a small commotion next door in the children's clothing/toy store.

Turned out to be a book signing, and the kiddie-lit author was (then-)CNBC financial news correspondent Peter Barnes.

Nantucket Islander Peter Barnes

Got to shake hands and speak with him a bit, and we yakked about Washington DC where we then lived, and where he served then as host for the CNBC financial/political analysis show "Capitol Gains."  Today, Pete's the senior Washington correspondent for Fox Business News.  A class act, and a Nantucket fanatic.

Like An Ac-Ro-Bat

There is now an entire genre of formula-driven book titles for kids, with endearing characters (bears, dogs, etc.) set in resort locations.  For instance one can find Barnaby Bear in Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Central Park, and probably by now in Aspen and Carmel.  Well, in June, 1997 the formula wasn't yet old and it was a refreshing novelty to find a book set on Nantucket.  Nat quickly became a family favorite.

We enjoyed this book dozens, perhaps a hundred or more times.   And we still recite the sing-song rhymes about Nat and his pal, Captain Pat, whenever prompted.

Blow, Man, Blow! Archie Shepp and Jazz School

Archie Shepp, Professor of Jazz

Archie Shepp came to UMass in 1971 to teach Jazz Ensemble and History of African American Music, and it was the beginning of a long and fruitful association.  On tenor sax, Shepp was among a cadre of recruited faculty who would build a pre-eminent jazz braintrust in swingin' Amherst.

Drummer Max Roach was aboard for the ride.  So, by the way, was horn-blowin' elder statesman Yusef Lateef, nee Bill Huddleston, who also performed as Bill Evans ("I"), not to be confused with other jazz musicians Bill Evans ("II" - pianist) and Bill Evans ("III" - other tenor saxaphonist)... Oy!

In-Crowd scene-ster

On arrival in Amherst, Archie was already established as a giant since his groundbreaking 1960's work, which included performing on Coltrane's Ascension (Shepp's earlier contributions in collaboration on the A Love Supreme sessions were left on the cutting room floor, but can now be enjoyed here).

Archie's eldest son Pavel, two years behind me in school, was a good friend of my brother's and Pavel also played drums in Jazz Workshop, where I was swinging the bass my senior year.

I saw Archie a number of times, and met him first, when he would come to pick Pavel up from football practice as we soccer booters too were being released from locker room miasma into the same rich Amherst air.

Shepp/Porter: Rhythm Unlimited.

But it was with awestruck reverence that we Jazz Workshoppers - runny-nosed mere mortals - performed when Archie seated himself among the parents for our year-end concert.  My big moments as bassist were on the Mingus standard Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat and on Bill Evans II's awesome So What? that everyone associates with Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue LP.

As we self-consciously plowed through these standards - in-form to begin, free-form to unwind, back into form to close - I saw Archie rocking slowly to the former, and then nodding in time as I kicked off the latter.  Fortunately, I had managed to not disgrace myself.  As it turns out, 'twas the pinnacle of my jazz career.  Hot socks, we wuz hittin' on all sixes.

Archie's still at it, mostly in Paris but, like a giant who steps down from Olympus, he visits Amherst from time to time.

Here's a video of Archie playing recently, and featuring Tom McClung (Amherst Regional H.S. too!) on keys.

... to Olympus

From Earth...

How bold of UMass to assemble the jazz all-star club.  Archie and Max collaborated, and everyone grooved.  And I mean everyone!

Professor Roland Wiggins, whose daughter Roz cooked me crepes once, was the svengali behind this recruiting triumph.  We in this lovely town are truly, truly blessed.

I Tell Ya, Things Have Got To Change!

Pinning that Monkey Tail on Donna Rice!

You all remember the excitement in 1987 when a rare role model in the American Rhapsody, Yale Divinity School grad Gary Hart, dared the media to put a tail on him and try to substantiate the rumors that he was fooling around.  Well, Gary got his wish.


From Wikipedia:

Hart '88? Monkey Business '87!

Soon after meeting Rice, Hart announced that he would run for nomination as the Democratic candidate for President. Having enjoyed a surprisingly strong campaign in 1984 against the eventual nominee, former Vice President Walter Mondale, he was widely perceived as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1988. However, rumors shortly thereafter began circulating about his having an extra-marital affair, leading the candidate to challenge the media to surveil him, and to also claim that anybody who did so would "be very bored." The day before Hart's dare to the media was to appear in The New York Times, however, two reporters for the Miami Herald observed Rice coming out of Hart's Washington, D.C. townhouse, and their story was published on the same day that his challenge appeared in the Times.

"President Hart"

While Hart contended that the reporters could have no knowledge of exactly when Rice arrived or why she was there, his popular appeal nevertheless suffered a major blow, and polls taken almost immediately afterward found him to be 10 points behind Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Two days after their initial story, the Herald obtained a photograph of Rice sitting on Hart's lap in Bimini aboard a luxury motor yacht named Monkey Business lent by socialite Lillian Briggs. The celebrity tabloid National Enquirer immediately published the photograph, and within five days, Hart had decided to drop out of the Democratic Presidential nomination race.^[2][3]

Early on, a 'Marketing' career

Well, turns out that the comely Rice had tried her hand at a variety of callings.  She had been a marketing specialist in south FL for a pharma company before all the fuss.  After the fuss, she found an audience as celebrity endorser for No Excuses jeans, but by 1994 had found her true calling - protecting children from exploitation and abuse on the internet. 

For almost 20 years she's done a great job with Enough Is Enough, and she's still at it.

So it was in that mode and guise that Donna appeared, in 1998, and we came face to face.  I was out hob-nobbing at a big weekday-evening confab in Reston,VA with Mario Morino and the NetPreneur crowd when, Lo and Behold: Ms. Rice (by then Hughes, married to NoVa area venture capital guy Jack).

She was instantly-recognizable, very friendly, vivacious, and/but totally on-message.  I shamelessly referenced my then-four-year-old daughter to get the ball rolling, and eventually, artlessly, brought up politics (but not Presidential) - however, I couldn't get her out of trade-show-booth mode. . .

A bit like Jeannie Francis ?

. . . Just as well.