BLOG TO COMM

LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO MY BLOG, MAW!

Remember yesterday's post? So do I, and I also remember editing the dadburned thing this morning only to lose the entire writeup into the proverbial ether once I hit the "publish" button which certainly didn't do my stomach any good! Well, now I hope I have this and most all of the other problems that were plaguing this blog (and blogmeister) under control, and if I do say so myself a great deal of thanks must go to a certain Mister Joe Dolson for helping this internet pinhead out with the obvious. Dolton's most definitely a guy who was more'n eager to give me a much-needed hand (responding to my queries rather quickly at that!) while the fine folks at Blogger couldn't care one way or the other about my plight and CONTINUE to ignore my emails weeks after the first problems with my compose page started popping up. A tip of the hat must go to thee Mr. Dolson, and I'll even try to link you up on the sidebar once I struggle through getting this post up on the web, whenever that'll be!

For those of you unlucky enough to get an eyefulla yesterday's post don't worry. There wasn't much on it anyway other'n a solitary review and some other musings which will get reshaped for current-day consumption once I get this opening schpiel over with. Not that it was exactly a slow week here at BLOG TO COMM central---far from it in fact but the thing is that a lotta the items that were received for my own personal pleasure will be written up at a later date as part of larger theme-based posts rather'n be reviewed on their lonesome. Anyway, what I have heard as of the past few days which doesn't seem to fit into any of my planned posts just might interest you, so as Gregory Peck once said "Let's run him up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes!"

Various Artists-THE WARRIOR HEART OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND 2-CD set (Another Rolling Stone Records, Japan)

The world needs another Velvet Underground "tribute" Cee-Dee just about as much as Genesis P-Orridge needs another body piercing, but lo and behold up pops another one of these fannish rah-rahs dedicated to the ol' Vee-You, and it's a twofa at that which besides featuring Velvets covers and homages from a mostly-unknown bunch of Japanese upstarts is dedicated to none other than the late Sterling Morrison! Now if I got him right (at least from the few interviews I have read o'er the years), wasn't Sterling the kinda guy who most certainly wouldn't have appreciated this collection of pretentious twaddle in the name of perhaps thee most outre of late-sixties experimentalists? After all, he seemed extremely wary of a lotta the late-seventies new wave acts out there a la Elvis Costello, and if he didn't care for the eyeglassed one's patented form of angst you kinda think he really woulda had it in for these Far East hits and mostly misses even more! Anyway, it's sure great to know that keen minds like ours THINK ALIKE which is a feather inna cap for this much-berated blogster, dontcha think???

It's not that I didn't get a kick outta hearing Japanese voices sing classic VU numbers phonetically knowing nada about what they were singing, or that the Up-Tight (the only group on this platter with any past credentials worth their weight in tempura) "cover" of "Melody Laughter" sounded like an original which only made this brilliant number stink just as much in the company of the rest of this offal. (Nor did I mind that fourteen-minute "title track" which was a short guitar riff snatched from "Move Right In" which reminded me of some R. Meltzer readymade using a Hendrix feedback loop back in '67.) But sheesh, call me a horse-blindered old fanabla if you disagree but acoustic re-dos of "Sister Ray" and Japanese voices talking over each other sans music passing for "The Murder Mystery" just ain't my idea of a high-energy rock & roll album! And yeah, I know that music doesn't always have to be "high energy" to succeed but it sure can be exciting, thought-provoking, jamz-inducing and generally pleasure-point probing unlike most of the pretentious and narcissic sounds to be found on these discs!

It's so funny...I remember Lester Bangs writing about that line of bared-wire intensity that shot itself down from Brando and James Dean to Elvis and the Beatles and Stones through garage rock and the Velvets and Stooges, only to end up with the "ersatz jive" as Bangs called it of Suicide and the late-seventies New York punk scene. Funny, I woulda thought that Suicide, at least as they stood in '77, was part of that same fine continuum that continues to thrill me to this day, but really if anyone can hear even a shard of electricity in most of this boring musical jagoffism then they certainly must have eardrums of iron. And the fact that all this stench is derived from one of those musical acts that made 1969 a year worth living in only rubs more of the ol Morton's inna wound dontcha think??? As Meltzer shoulda said, "NO LATER THAN EIGHTY!!!"

IN OTHER NEWS> Got a copy of none other'n the second season of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN courtesy none other than Lou Rone and man is this package the surprise hit of the year and it's only March! You've undoubtedly read all of my previous raves about this series (def. top ten placer as far as all-time best tee-vee series go!) before, and after all these years I gotta say that watching SUPERMAN is an even bigger trip mostly because all of the tee-vee programming they're coming up with these days is such junk (in the most impure sense) that programs like this only shine on the more. By this time Noel Neill has taken over the Lois Lane role from Phyllis Coates and yeah, Neill is better at it...less frightening to not only a six year old boob but even old types, and more motherly like you would've expected her to be! Jack Larson as Jimmy is still cool sorta like the older brother I never had while Clark/Superman woulda made a great dad even though I woulda blabbed his secret to all the kids at school. And Perry White...wouldn't the old "gruff-but-lovable" guy have made a fine grandfather even though he wouldn't've been plying you with toys every time he visited??? Yes, you can't get any more nuclear family than THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, a program which would've made a boffo switch from alla that alternative lifestyle family drivel one tends to see nowadays.

Only got to eyeball about six of these episodes so far but they're all top notch as I assume the rest will be once I get a chance to do some more viewing these next few weeks. Tops to bop include "The Boy Who Hated Superman" (an early fave) where this cool Gabe Dell kinda guy rooms with Clark and Jimmy in order to grab hold of some helpful information that'll spring his jailed uncle, not forgetting "The Clown Who Cried" which AIN'T that infamous Jerry Lewis deathcamp romp but a saga about some clown who robs the Metropolis Telethon hosted by Clark Kent! Hmmmm, maybe they shoulda got old greasehair in that one! The show hadn't become more geared towards the kiddie crowd just yet so a lotta these SUPERMANs come off like those great early-fifties detective and newspaper shows (HEART OF THE CITY obviously comes to mind) only with this costumed guy in it who flies around and appears just in the nick of time to ward off disaster. I dunno, but things like THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN tend to make me a little happier once evening rolls around and I don't have to put up with the evils of modern day living...give yourself a break and buy a few copies for yourself and even your significant other if you so desire! Your bastard child will love you for it!