retro-the-best....: Jan 1, 2011

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Retro: Kimmer

FAKES FORGERIES & MYSTERIES AT THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS!
LOU CHRISTIE: LIGHTNING STRIKES!
GUEST POST FROM MACHINEGUN THOMPSON AND DENIZ TEK!

FAKES FORGERIES & MYSTERIES AT THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS!

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 10:38 PM PST

A painting of flowers continues to puzzle museum researchers. Is it an original Van Gogh or not? Visitors to the exhibition get to weigh in on this mystery as part of the cell phone tour.

Detroit Institute of Arts

Fakes, Forgeries and Mysteries highlights some of the mistakes and other discoveries made through the years regarding artist attribution, authenticity and value of works in the DIA's collection. The exhibition illustrates how the DIA constantly re-assesses artworks through research, science, and technology, revealing an aspect of the museum's work rarely seen by the public.

The show includes 60 paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, drawings and decorative arts from diverse cultures—European, African, American, Asian, Islamic and Ancient Near Eastern. This diversity of objects provides opportunities to explore issues such as who really created a particular work of art, when it was made, if it is real or fake and other research mysteries at the DIA.

The exhibition begins with a focus on works for which the artist attribution has changed. These came into the collection as being by a recognized artist or culture, but were later determined to be either in the style of a major artist, an exact copy, or by an anonymous artist.

The next section displays known forgeries, with explanations on how the museum came to that conclusion. In some cases, they will be displayed next to authentic works so visitors can see for themselves the different characteristics and clues that led the DIA to determine they were fakes.

The last section contains ongoing "mysteries," for which the jury is still out. For example, the museum is currently examining works by Monet and Van Gogh to determine if they are by the artists, or are forgeries.

Visitors will be able to get a peek into the research that occurs behind the scenes through interactive activities and opportunities for discovery. For example, they will be able to undertake their own artwork investigations at a hands-on lab in the exhibition, which will bring the connection between art and science to life.

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LOU CHRISTIE: LIGHTNING STRIKES!

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 01:49 PM PST

Lou Christie

One of American Pop Music's first rebel singer songwriters is Lou Christie. Lou's songs really pushed the envelope lyrically. His music was absolutely pop gold. You know... I don't think I have met anyone who doesn't love "Lightning Strikes". All of Lou's songs are on my top list.

Lou Christie's chart topping, multi-million selling career as a songwriter, recording artist, and performer started in a two-track studio in Glenwillard Pennsylvania, his rural hometown near Pittsburgh. Lou's first million selling song, "The Gypsy Cried", transformed a local choirboy, Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, into Lou Christie and then into a national teen idol, while still a teenager himself. Lou's Bio HERE

Over the decade of the 1960's Lou followed success with greater success. "Two Faces Have I" was his next big hit featuring his stratospheric falsetto. Lou forever embedded himself and his uniquely talented voice into America's consciousness with his number 1 multi-million selling success "Lightning Strikes".

Lou Christie

Lou's chart success continued with two more million selling hits, "Rhapsody in the Rain" and "I'm Gonna Make You Mine". Rhapsody's success was fueled by the fact that it was the first song banned on the radio due to its suggestive lyrics.

Churches helped get Rhapsody banned on many radio stations, which only made people want to hear it more. It's really mild today, but back then you didn't sing about "makin' love in the storm".

According to Lou, the original lyrics were changed from: "We were makin' out in the rain" to "We fell in love in the rain" and "In this car, we went too far" to "Our love came like a falling star."

Princess Margaret David Bowie and Lou

Highlights from Lou's performing career include appearances on "Dick Clark's Caravan Of Stars", sharing 72 consecutive one-nighters with The Supremes, and a command performance for Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family.

Lou has shared the stage with many of the greats of Rock 'n' Roll including The Rolling Stones, The Who, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard.

GUEST POST FROM MACHINEGUN THOMPSON AND DENIZ TEK!

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 10:45 AM PST

Deniz Tek and Mike Davis (DKT Tour)

What on earth can I say about Doctor Deniz Tek? Plenty, that's what. How about Buckaroo Banzai meets Top Gun? Or ER meets Nascar… I could go on, but I do not remember when exactly we first met. I only know that Deniz is one of my truest friends. He has been dispensing free medical advice to me for years. I trust this Doctor with my life.

Deniz Tek (Iceman)

He is one of the best rhythm guitar players in the world. His lead solo's are blistering. The man just emanates heat and serenity at the same time. He is a jet fighter pilot, became one while in the Navy. So is his brother Kirk. He is a doctor who loves to work in Triage (Emergency) in many hospitals. And he is a bad ass guitar player… And women, he is goooood looking!

Deniz Tek

No worries mate! What a wicked Sheila! Cheers mate! Crikey!

I was in Australia just long enough to start my version of Aussie-Speak. Wherever I go I tend to begin speaking in the dialect of the locals. Its fun and if I spend a lot of time there I get pretty good at it. 1981. Sydney Australia. The New Race begins. Or Fried Rice as Deniz pointed out in his post. I plumb forgot that one.

Ronny Asheton called and asked. "Hey Den, ya wanna go to Australia with me to play with Dr. Deniz Tek?" I thought about that for maybe a second and replied, "When do we leave?"
Well, we hopped on a Jumbo and 24 hours later we are in the land down under. In those days on those long flights, they would serve unlimited free drinks.

Ron Asheton

Ron and I got plastered about three or four separate times. Get buzzed, fall asleep, wake up and do it again. Almost everyone on that plane was high. Even the nuns. One of them was playing an acoustic guitar and the back of the plane was a happy, rockin, singing lot. Everybody let their hair down and took off their shoes. What a riot!

Rob Younger Ron Deniz and Dennis

We land in Sydney, Australia and we are still half in the bag, exhausted, and tripping over each other. Deniz and a couple of fellas pick us up and we anticipate a short ride to a hotel with double beds and sweet, sweet sleep. But noooo, they had to show us something… After all, we are in a brand new land.

They take us to this place, park the car and we pour out to walk up this 7 foot grassy mound. We get to the top and I'll be damned! It's South Bondi Beach! The hippest college beach in Sydney for God's sake. Oh my, oh my…

''

This beach is a man's version of heaven. It is topless, and there are gorgeous girl's everywhere. I, the ugly American whip out my little Instamatic and immediately start to begin photo documenting this 6 week tour. Ahem… (Dennis Thompson, your roving reporter here). Girls, girls, girls everywhere, and this was a weekday.

This just one of the reasons to play rock n' roll guys. I could not believe my eyes.
Now Ron and I are not only exhausted, we are stunned. We are in the end zone, cloud nine, nirvana, the top of the mountain. We have arrived!

We are already in love with Australia and what a welcome to this wondrous land. Damn! I ask the guys if we can come back to this beach when we aren't so tired and get out there and romp around a day or two. Deniz sez "Sure", and he also taught us how to body surf too. Thanks Den.

Firstly, rehearsals for a solid week every day. This was a tad rough on me as many of the songs are moving along at 200-230 beats per minute. A beat per minute means the tempo of the tune. For example, "Kick Out the Jams" is 150 BPM and "Gotta Keep Movin" is 232 BPM. The set list consisted of about 70% Radio Birdman material and 25% Stooges songs. We played "Gotta Keep Movin'", which I wrote for the MC5, and "Hail Columbia" (a tribute to the doomed space shuttle) which we wrote together as a group.

I had big fun nonetheless. I was 33 years old and in my prime. We did very well on the discipline chart, as we were tight as a drum. This was going to be out of the bleachers home run fun!

Australia was like the newer version of America without all of her blemishes. People were extremely friendly everywhere we went. They knew how to work hard and party just as hard. I'd highly recommend a trip there to really get away. It is 12,000 plus miles away from home, so the earth being approximately 25,000 miles in circumference, you could go in opposite directions and still take the same amount of time.

Many bands do not tour there because it takes large money in expenses. I didn't make much money, but who cares? I love the music and the stage. There is much more to living than just making money.

It is a beautiful land with the interior mostly desert-like outback, but the major cities located on the perimeters are an excellent combination of European and modern architecture. Plenty of steak and ale for all. Did I tell you guys about the women? If you're a yank, they will eat you alive, in a nice way…

Our tour began a little wobbly performance wise at first, but after a few gigs we got our stage legs. Playing in this band was quite the challenge. Lots of sweating and broken drumsticks. We had good crowds at every venue and we played our asses off. We should have kept that band together. Who knows where we could have wound up? We were that good. I know Den agrees to this statement now.

You know, I wish Ron was with us today so we could do a reunion tour. That would be radical. I know one day soon I will work with Deniz again. I can't wait…

Cheers Mates,
MGT

Most of my memories are hazy, so I think I'll let Dr. Deniz Tek tell you his version of the New Race Tour. Scroll down for the entire story.... Or just click HERE

[New post] Doctor Who Classics -The Sixties

Doctor Who Classics -The Sixties

dailypop | January 1, 2011 at 11:36 pm | Tags: doctor who bbc hartnell troughton, doctor who matt smith best of | Categories: Doctor Who- 1st Doctor, Doctor Who- 2nd Doctor | URL: http://wp.me/p4kUt-2dO

It's that time when we bloggers make lists, best of the best compilations and recommendations on various subjects. I'm not much for lists personally. I can be found describing many Doctor Who stories as my 'favorite,' which always makes me self conscious because surely one is meant to have only one favorite rather than several. In any case, I have lots of favorites.

In the case of Doctor Who, a program over 40 years old and featuring over 11 actors on the part (if you count spin-offs and the Peter Cushing films), I can't bring myself to compose a single list of what I consider classics. Instead, I'm going to break it down into four categories; the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's and the BBC Wales program (I'm leaving the interesting stuff for last). I'll try to restrict myself to just a few main choices and will note a few 'runners up' as well.

The 60's is a tough era because so much of it is not available as it appeared back when it first aired. I have braved a few reconstructions but it's not the same and leaves this period of Doctor Who sadly lacking in material for rating.

1960's Part One: William Hartnell

William Hartnell played the first Doctor with such gusto and sincerity that the delivery of his defiant dialog to various alien threats was bombastic and bold, challenging the weird and terrifying monsters had on children. This was the version of the Doctor who fought against the creatures that went bump in the night with strength of purpose. This is a quality written into every incarnation, but it was so strong with Hartnell who genuinely believed in the part and was playing the role of hero to children at home, even his own granddaughter.

There was no room for flowery prose of an insistence from the supporting cast that the Doctor would win in the end. In many cases the companions doubted the Doctor's motives, but he always came through in the end.

Dalek Invasion of Earth
The first Dalek story is a high water mark, a magnificent mixture of high adventure, science fiction and prophetic horror. With the demand for more Daleks on screen, the sequel had a lot to accomplish and did so with flying colors. Dalek Invasion of Earth starts with a robotized zombie committing suicide by drowning himself in the Thames as the TARDIS materializes into a bombed out London of the near future.

When the Doctor discovers that the Daleks have escapes their fate on Skaro, he takes the mission of stopping their progress on Earth personally. As this is the second Dalek story, it is the only time that such a declaration held any dramatic cache. Ever since it has been without question that the Doctor will stop the Daleks, but in this case he roars at them like a champion.

The direction is stunning with eye catching sequences of the Daleks roaming all over London, declaring their supremacy in Trafalgar Square in chilling visuals as a maddening drum beat dominates the soundtrack. The Daleks travel by flying saucer, have adapted massive skirts and radar dishes to travel almost anywhere and have even enlisted the human race against itself with their robo-men (strangely played for laughs in the Peter Cushing version). It's an obvious choice perhaps, but Dalek Invasion of Earth remains one of my all time favorite Hartrnell stories.

The War Machines
A less obvious choice for a 1960's classic is the War Machines. A predecessor to many Troughton adventures and in some ways the message of the Cybermen, the War Machines is essentially a pulp science fiction thriller in which technology has progressed so far that machines can do all of the thinking for mankind, then the unthinkable happens and the machines revolt. The plot is nothing new, but the storytelling style is very different for Doctor Who as two new characters are introduced (the under-rated Ben and Polly) and the superfluous Dodo is cast aside.

The real reason that I love this one is because of the echoes of what is to come along with the Doctor's stalwart courage against insurmountable odds. It's something else to see the Doctor, a frail old man in a cloak, stare down a war machine as it lumbers toward him, the military cowering in the background. For me, it is one of those defining moments of the character as the Doctor has no real plan or scheme just yet, he is simply so sure of his success and reviles the robotic threat posed against a helpless population. Great stuff.

Honorable mentions: The Aztecs, The Romans, The Time Meddler.

All three of these stories are wonderfully written and very clever as well. The Aztecs is also remarkable in that it allowed a supporting cast member to take the limelight! The Romans by Dennis Spooner is a wonderful mix of comedy and adventure the likes of which Doctor Who has rarely seen since. The same can be said about the Time Meddler which introduced the idea that the Doctor is not the only member of his race by showing the Meddling Monk played by the incredible Peter Butterworth.

Because of the lack of material on screen, several stories are missed such as Marco Polo, the Dalek's Master Plan, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve and The Savages.

1960's Part Two: Patrick Troughton

With the loss of the leading man, a replacement was not an easy task. Veteran character actor Patrick Troughton stepped into the role with such energy that can only be imitated by his successors. Troughton's era is mainly the same story over and over, monsters attack, the Doctor defeats them. Whereas the previous era had some variation of historic and science fiction stories, the second life of the series was all about the monsters. The Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Yeti, Quarks, Krotons and more were battled during the short three year stint that defined the program all over again.

Tomb of the Cybermen
Tomb of the Cybermen is the earliest complete story from the Troughton era. Before it was recovered in 1991, it was regarded highly by fandom as a lost classic. Images of the Cybermen emerging from their honeycomb tombs and the terrifying Cybercontroller towering over his troops haunted fans of the program for ages. When it was finally released on VHS, it was apparently derided by fans and removed from, its point of reverence, which... if true.... is ludicrous.

Tomb of the Cybermen not only has some of the best dialog and character interactions (check out the amazing scene between Troughton and Deborah Watling as he discusses how strange and remarkable their lives are... something that not even the BBC Wales version has achieved) but it also makes the Cybermen damned creepy. These are the steel-encased boogey men that come in the night and whisk you away to be ripped apart. I am a huge fan of the 60's Cybermen stories and have watched the reconstruction of Moonbase more times than I'd like to admit, but this is an excellent adventure. The Doctor is shown as manipulative, cunning, brave and rather neurotic as he places himself into deadly situations only to freak out when threatened. The second incarnation of the Doctor is a Chinese puzzle, appearing to be a cartoon character on the surface while beneath he is a brilliant mastermind. There are many moments that spotlight the greatness of the 2nd Doctor, I'm just listing this one and the next as personal favorites.
The War Games
Another case of an obvious choice, the War Games could be the second Troughton adventure I saw all the way through on public TV(after the Seeds of Death). War Games is a few episodes too long but it is poised on the most interesting and entertaining concept that Doctor Who has ever explored, so the length can be excused surely.

The Doctor and his companions think that they have landed on Earth during one of its many wars only to discover that there is something far more sinister at work. Alien beings using technology very similar to the Doctors are pitting armies against each other in a weird historic conflict over several war zones. The victors are trained and equipped as the deadliest army ever assembled. The problem proves so difficult that the Doctor concedes to call upon his own people to put everything back in place, and nothing is ever the same again.

The Troughton era was full of humor, action, stunning special effects such as stop motion animation and other visual trickery and a menagerie of monsters. The last adventure seemed to be a cacophonous crescendo of madness that closed one chapter only to start another.

Honorable mentions: The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Enemy of the World, The Abominable Snowmen, the Ice Warriors and the Invasion.

The Troughton era was hit the hardest by the BBC wiping of tapes, with what appear to be many excellent stories lost. I have watched reconstructions and can vouch for this three year period as being one of the best and perhaps the one I am fondest of. The Macra Terror is an oddity, full of paranoia and social statements aplenty and I mourn its loss daily. The Faceless Ones was an exercise in horror and the single remaining complete episode is a stunner. There is simply too much high quality material here and my attempting to summarize it is almost an insult.

More to come as I venture into the 70's where curls, stripes and sweets took over Doctor Who. Please feel free to chime in with your own choice selections below!

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