Show #132 April 4, 2015

Hey Joanne... LET'S DANCE!!


Joanne- Times Square Joanne 7" 
Let's Dance- The Ramones Ramones 
*Do The Boob- Real Kids Real Kids
*Do The Twisteroo- The Twisteroos Twisted! 
*Do The Robot- The Saints (I'm) Stranded 
Toys In The Attic- The CRY! Dangerous Game 
#37 [Feels So Strange]- Greenberry Woods Rapple Dapple 
Born In Toulouse- Chixdiggit! Double Diggits! 
^Do The Bartman- Bart Simpson Do The Bartman 
*Do The Standing Still- The Table Do The Standing Still 
*Do The Push- The Starjets God Bless The Starjets
Dancehall Domine- The New Pornographers Brill Bruisers 
Time Will Tell On You- The Rock Club Yellow Pills Vol 3 More Great Pop 
Sucking Out My Faith- Happiness Factor Self Improvement? 
*Do The Gal-I-Gator- Travoltas Teenbeat 
*Do The Pop- Radio Birdman Radios Appear 
*Do the Vampire- Superdrag Head Trip In Every Key
You Are Here- The Rubinoos 45 
Gonna Grab It- Rosetta Stone Retrospective Roller 1977-1979 
Topshop Bands- The Greatest Liar The Girl With The Chesnut Eyes 
*(Do The) Instant Mash- Joe Jackson Look Sharp! 
*Do the Chisel- The Soft Boys 1976-1981
*Do The Mutilation- The Revillos Attack of the Giant Revillos 
Perfect Girl- Spinning Jennies Starstruck 
The Other Side of You- Lime Spiders Nine Miles High 1983-1990 
Dreamcrusher Machine- The Shazam Meteor 
>Do The Strand- Roxy Music Do The Strand 
*Do The Panic- Phantom Planet Raise The Dead 
*Do The Dog- The Specials The Specials
The British Are Coming- Weezer Everything Will Be Alright In The End 
Feel The Noise- Paul Collins Feel The Noise 
Don't Wanna Lose- Ex Hex Rips 
Let's Dance- Pezband Pezband 

Power Pop Peak:  #11 Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 11/20/90

*SacroSet[s]:  "Do The" Dance Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1973 


Like a lot of white guys I was deeply ambivalent about
dancing when I was growing up.  Out on the dance floor I'd seen countless variations of what Billy Crystal would later call "the white man's overbite" in When Harry Met Sally and it wasn't pretty. 

The W.M.O.

That said, I have always loved music and it has always made me want to move.  I've never understood those people who can sit through a rock concert and complain bitterly if anyone in front of them stands up.  

I'm a lifelong spastic bedroom dancer- when the door is closed and the music is loud.  My first experience dancing in public was in Jr. High, a dance at Duxbury Intermediate School to be exact.  It's funny but guys in my school would rag on each other about anything- shoes, pants, shirt, legs, arms, torso, face, hair, etc.- but I don't recall hearing anyone razzed for their dancing.  I think this is because we ALL looked ridiculous out there- every single one of us.  If it

I could Gopher some Barbi Benton!

weren't for the chance to touch girls I bet we'd all rather have been home watching that legendary Saturday night double header Love Boat/Fantasy Island.  We might have been missing Barbi Benton!

 
For most white guys it seems like dancing, or even the possibility of dancing, is inextricably linked with alcohol- lots and lots of alcohol. I don't drink though so I had to come up with another plan.  Back in high school I decided that, along with the unpleasant facial expressions, another area where guys go wrong dancing is with the use of their arms.  Even James Freakin' Brown couldn't make the "butter churn" look good; this move is to be avoided at all costs, especially when danced "ironically."  (I hate ironic behavior so much- for God's sake people, COMMIT!)  

Friends Don't Let Friends Churn Butter

Anyway, to this day my "dance" calls for the arms to flop around limply at my sides.  The flopping part is very important because with rigid arms in a lowered position you risk looking like this:

Lord of The Douche

Another key to my "dance" is to keep the knees bent while leaning forward slightly at the waist.  This keeps you loose and helps avert a huge dancing buzzkill- making eye contact with another helpless dude on the dance floor.  Plus it makes you look like you are listening intently to the music and concentrating on your feet.  One more thing- in my "dance" you MUST move your feet laterally.  Moving up and down with your feet planted is to be avoided at all costs and in the name of all that is holy DO NOT jut out your chin.  Of course, more important than any of my patented "dance moves" is feeling the music and not giving a crap what anyone else thinks.  It's funny but this is exactly how I feel when I'm dancing at a rock show watching a band blow the doors off the place- the thought of how I look never even crosses my mind.  That's the thing I've always

Hey! Ho!  Let's Go!

loved about Sid Vicious' lone positive contribution to our world a dance called The Pogo.  The Pogo is a reflexive jump for joy, the rock and roll equivalent of a whale breaching.  When the jocks discovered that punk was an ideal outlet to channel their 'roid rage and/or latent homosexuality, my beloved Pogo devolved into slam dancing and moshing. 

I never liked the "Pit"

No doubt "Dance Like Nobody's Watching" is a hackneyed expression but that doesn't make it any less true- especially for white guys like me.  So it really doesn't matter if this is what we LOOK like dancing:

When this is what we FEEL like dancing.

Click the link below to stream this week's show or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #132

Show #131 March 21, 2015

Tonight I say Sorry Suzanne for so many weeks away...
 
Sorry Suzanne- The Hollies 30th Anniversary Collection
I'm Sorry- Travoltas Endless Summer 
Carried Away- Sloan Commonwealth 
Bad For You- Hoehn and Duren Blue Orange 
Now We're Through- Richard and the Taxmen Now We're Through 7" 
Land of 1000 Girls- Scruffy The Cat Time Never Forgets: The Anthology 
Laser Show- Fountains Of Wayne Utopia Parkway 
Waiting To Pull The Trigger- Parallax Project I Hate Girls 
^Sorry- Buckcherry 15 
Black Eyed Girl- The DomNicks Super Real 
The Pain Don't Come So Easy- Silver Sun A Lick And A Promise 
Kings and Queens- Allo Darlin' We Come from the Same Place 
Step Down- The Cavedogs Joy Rides for Shut-Ins 
It's True- The Meanies Waiting For You 7" 
*Sorry- The Smithereens 2011 
*Sorry- City Thrills City Thrills EP 
*Sorry- Nerf Herder Nerf Herder 
*Sorry- Greg Kihn Most Fun You Can Have with Your Clothes On: Beserkley Story 
Never Let You Go- Philip John Master The Monster 
Elm Tree Eulogy- Sugar Stems Only Come Out At Night 
Sorry Sorry- Rooney Rooney 
I Just Care About Me- Stiff Little Fingers No Going Back 
Sorry Sorry Sorry- The Scientists The Scientists 
Everything The Same- Richard X. Heyman Cornerstone >Sorry- The Easybeats The Definitive Anthology 
Uniform- The Secrets Titan: It's All Pop! 
Catch My Heart- Sunnyboys Get Some Fun 
Reader's Wife- Billy Karloff And The Extremes Let Your Fingers Do The Talking 
Back To The Shack- Weezer Everything Will Be Alright In The End 
Sorry- Galaxie 500 This Is Our Music

^Power Pop Peak:  #9 Billboard Hot 100 3/8/2008

*SacroSet:  Sorry Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1966

This year marked the 18th Sonoma International Film  Festival- it's been in town almost as long as Jaime and I have.  I go every year and always manage to see something great.  For the last five years I've also done filmmaker interviews for SVTV 27, the local cable station.  Bob the Radio/TV Chief Operator e-mails all the producers and directors the Monday of festival week and by Thursday he's got twenty or so interviews scheduled.  That's when I get to work researching the films.  Most have websites where I get background information and watch a trailer, or if its a short, maybe the entire film.  

Each interview is only ten minutes so I come up with three or four questions and we're good to go.  My favorite interviews are the ones that go off script.  Most of the men and women I talk with are working the "festival circuit," living out of suitcases taking their films from town to town doing countless interviews along the way.  Knowing this I pride myself on avoiding boring questions ("what is your film about?" "what did you shoot on?" etc.) which the filmmakers seem to appreciate.  Bob gets a lot of good feedback from them afterwards which is pretty gratifying.  Here's this year's crop:



I'm a big fan of the TV show Justified and I got to interview Rick Gomez who plays AUSA David Vasquez.  He co-wrote and starred in the film The Week with three other Justified cast mates including Joelle Carter who plays Ava Crowder.   It's a prickly romantic comedy and one of Gomez' most endearing co-stars is his dog.  Our family dog Lacey hates/fears me so I was truly jealous of the unabashed love Rick Gomez' dog has for him in The Week.  Rom com is usually not my thing but the film's plot and characters easily transcend the usual pitfalls of the genre.  As if that's not rare enough, BOTH Jaime and I liked The Week- a rarity for a film with a zero body count. 

One of my other SIFF favorites is The House On Pine Streetan outstanding entry in the "haunted pregnancy" sub genre that includes films like Rosemary's Baby, Grace, and Inside but is completely gore-free.  I interviewed Aaron Keeling who co-directed with his twin brother Austin. The eerie, mute 14 year old twin girls in The House On Pine Street inspired my favorite question of the 2015 festival:  "so, twins are creepy...." which isn't really a question at all.  Anyway, I hope Pine Street gets distribution because it is a very smart, well made film.  

My top picks from the festival this year are both foreign films that have yet to secure a theatrical run in the US.  The first is The Connection which gives the Gallic perspective of William Friedkin's 1971 classic The French Connection.  Oscar winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist) plays Pierre Michel, the magistrate prosecuting the French cartel and he is a total boss.  Since it is a French film and they didn't have to allot 30 minutes for car chases you get to see all sides of Michel, including the stress his job puts on his family.  They do the same thing with Gatean Zampa, the film's bad guy.  I also appreciate how The Connection has the look and feel of those great 70's films like The Day of The Jackal and Three Days of The Condor.

The first film I saw at SIFF this year is also my favorite.  A Hard Day is just that.  It reminded me of Scorsese's Afterhours and Demme's Something Wild, yet unlike the hapless klutzes in those films, we learn early on that Gun-su, the main character in A Hard Day, is a dick.  So rather than making me anxious, as Afterhours and Something Wild do (even though I like both films) watching it rain down crap on Gun-su in A Hard Day is very entertaining.  He deserves everything he gets right up until the film introduces us to somebody even worse.  Black comedy is hard to do, but A Hard Day has it in spades.  

Click the links below to stream/download this weeks show:
Hour 1
Hour 2

Show #130 VALENTINE'S SPECIAL February 14, 2015

The Valentine's Special is dedicated to Valentina... along with the cast and crew of Carrie:  The Musical!

Valentina- Jack Green Humanesque 
Heart- Rockpile Seconds Of Pleasure
Valentine's Day- Three Hour Tour Three Hour Tour - 1969 
Valentine's Day- David Bowie The Next Day 
Valentine's Day- The Dollyrots Valentine's Day 
Heartbeat- The Knack Get the Knack 
Heartbeat- Allo Darlin' We Come from the Same Place 
Heartbeat- Jim Freeman and the Golden Gate Jumpers Romantic 
Heartbeat- The Outlets I Remember 
Valentine- Fools Face Tell America 
Valentine- Get Up Kids Something to Write Home About 
Valentine- The Replacements Pleased To Meet Me 
Valentine- Old 97's Fight Songs 
I Found Her- Boys Life Boys Life 
Lonelyhearts- The Atlantics DIY: Mass. Ave. The Boston Scene (1979-83) 
Lonely Hearts- Candy Whatever Happened To Fun 
Lonely Heart- Dirty Angels Dirty Angels 
Valentine- Bobby Bare Jr's Young Criminals Starvation League From The End Of Your Leash
Valentine- The School All I Wanna Do 
Valentine- Smoking Popes The Party's Over 
Valentine- The Wombats Jump Into the Fog 
Young Hearts- Free Energy Stuck On Nothing 
Young Hearts- The Cute Lepers Smart Accessories 
Young Reckless Hearts- Warm Soda Young Reckless Hearts 
Heartache- The Dictators Manifest Destiny 
Heartache- Protex I Can Only Dream 7'' 
Heart Songs- Weezer Weezer (Red Album) 

I hadn't done a Valentine's Day show in a few years so when February 14 fell on a Saturday this year I figured it was time.  Mrs. Love's birthday is February 7th so if I've done right by her (and I always do) I'm off the hook a week later when Valentine's Day comes around.  This year is I even convinced Jaime to come in and co-host the first hour of the show- a first for All Kindsa Girls!

It was all Carrie:  The Musical all the time this January and February.  I've been acting in plays for years but this was my first time as Production Manager and man is it a lot of work!  Securing rights, getting music tracks (unfortunately a live band is just too expensive these days), finding rehearsal space, hiring a director, musical director, choreographer, stage manager, lighting, set, sound, graphic design, front of house and concessions people, working with the venue on ticket sales and tech week, getting the poster made (above) and programs made, searching for costumes and props- it never ends.  That said, it was a lot of fun too.  We had an amazing cast and the production team was first rate.  

In this show cell phone usage is....mandatory!

Director Libby Oberlin did a fantastic job and was very open to other people's ideas.  Stephen King's 1974 novel Carrie and the original 1988 Broadway production pre-date smart phones.  Even in the 2012 revival there's only one passing mention: "Norma's already posted it."  Talking about the show last winter we decided that phones had to be a major part of the show.  Libby even used my idea for the opening number "In."  It opened in complete darkness until you see the kids faces illuminated by their phones.  VERY cool! 

High Schoolers and ISIS...compare and contrast

Libby created an open, positive and safe space from the first rehearsal- very important so the kids could be the horrible, abusive monsters the script calls for.  They were having such a good time she had to keep giving them notes about not smiling or looking happy while they were saying and/or doing heinous things to each other.  Every rehearsal began with cast members checking-in on how they're feeling and ended with them sharing, in one word, something they wanted to reinforce.
 
Moira, our Stage Manager, is always great to work with and came through with some amazing set pieces including a bank of lockers, commercial sewing machine and not one but two antique prayer kneelers.  Seriously- where do you find prayer kneelers in 2015?!?  I had a hard time picturing them when she first described the kneelers but now I can't imagine doing the show without them.

Every home should have a prayer kneeler!

Carrie's self discovery begins...

Sue asks Do Me A Favor?  DON'T DO IT TOMMY!!

From the start one of the things I was most looking forward to in Carrie: The Musical was doing a show with my daughter Nica.  We've watched each other in shows for years but this is the first one we've done together.  She was "good girl" narrator Sue Snell and I was teacher Mr. Stephens and it was every bit as fun as I thought it would be.  Nica didn't ask for any special treatment

NOT a "teachable moment"

and for the most part we related to each other like cast members- which was awesome.  I got to see her as the other cast members do- talented, professional and composed but still a lot of fun backstage. 


When you tell people you're doing a production of Carrie:  The Musical the first question you get is "what?  they did a musical of Carrie...really?" followed by "how are you going to do the blood?"  It's funny, but that was also Topic #1 at our first production meeting last fall.  At that and subsequent meetings we spent hours talking about the blood- it was my #1 "awake at 3am staring at the ceiling" anxiety.  Rules of stagecraft forbid me from giving anything away but I can

Promocalypse Now!

safely say our blood drop was FANTASTIC!!!  Tony our set designer did an amazing job- it looked very cool and was 100% safe. What's more, Mike our sound guy found this deep rumble for the scene that just about shook the fillings out of your teeth.  (The only thing I can compare it to is the old "Sensurround" films like Earthquake and Midway.)  Finally, Mikey the choreographer came up with a bunch of moves- that I dubbed "flooreo" (get it?!?)- for when Carrie is torturing us that I'm told looked very cool.

Once You See You Can't Unsee

I'm very proud of our production.  I haven't talked about how well written Carrie:  The Musical is, how it explores so many relevant themes, how it resonated with the audience and the kids in the cast.  I'll just let the lyrics to the show's Epilogue do that for me:  

SUE: No doubts. No more fears. I see you shine and the dark disappears.
TOMMY: One day you finally see her
BOYS: One day you finally see her
GIRLS: One day you finally see her
TOMMY: Finally see her
EVERYONE: Finally see her
SUE and TOMMY: For years, you look
EVERYONE: You look at someone passing by
GIRLS: And then one day you see her
BOYS: And then one day you see her
EVERYONE: One day you finally see her. Now
SUE: How can I not see?
EVERYONE: Me? Am I so blind?
GIRLS: I could say, say
BOYS: I could say
EVERYONE: Thank God that's not me. But what does it cost to be kind?
BOYS: Blinded. And silent, too scared to be
EVERYONE: And to finally see. And to finally see. 
SUE: I felt as though this girl revealed her self to me.  And now, I know
BOYS: I Fin'lly see
GIRLS: I Fin'lly see
SUE: That once you see, you can't unsee.