Moseying through Madisonville

Shapira/Wallis Hotel



Madisonville

"When the Night Comes"

Three things I like about Dan Auerbach's first solo album, Keep It Hid:

From Wikipedia:

1. Auerbach's debut solo album Keep It Hid was released February 10, 2009 on Nonesuch Records. The album was recorded in Auerbach's Akron Analog studio using mainly analog and vintage equipment.

2. In a technique similar to many early blues players, Auerbach often uses a fingerpick on his index finger along with his thumb to play chords (that's how I play). Dan has declared a preference for vacuum-tube amplifiers over solid-state amps.

3. The song "When the Night Comes" - there are a couple of sustained notes within the chord progression that create a sense of longing, yearning. Additionally, Auerbach's haunting vocal (drenched in analog echo) sends shivers up the spine. The keyboard gives the whole thing a spectral layer of melancholy I can't resist.


When the night comes
And you lay your weary head to rest
No more trials, no tests
When the night comes

When the night comes
You dont have to be afraid
Of any choice you made
When the night comes

Dont be afraid
Youre only dreaming…

When the night comes
The headlines read
Whatevers in your dreams
When the night comes

When the night comes
And you lay by the one you love
The one who knows you and the things you do
When the night comes

Dont be afraid
Youre only dreaming…

When the night comes…

Welcome to the Electro-Harmonix machine

When I was a kid, learning to play guitar around 1981, Electro-Harmonix pedals were the Holy Grail of effects pedals. Probably still are. I could sit in a room plugged in through a chorus or delay pedal for literally hours and need nothing else. The NPR All Things Considered Blog has this really cool video in which someone pretty much recreates Pink Floyd's classic "Welcome to the Machine" (from 1975's Wish You Were Here) using only "an electric shaver, a few guitars and a whole lot of pedals." In other words, no keyboards or synthesizers were used.


For comparison's sakes, here's the original:

"Hello, Young Lovers"

I find this Frank Sinatra performance of "Hello, Young Lovers" to be very poignant. The date was May 5, 1951, and it was on The Frank Sinatra Show. Sinatra's career was virtually unrecognizable from what it had been at its pinnacle in the mid-40s. At moments throughout this particular episode, Sinatra seemed to be trying way too hard; desperate even - smiling a little bit too easily and often, nervous, stumbling over his words in several places, not to mention the pencil-thin mustache. It's a little unnerving to watch a Sinatra who isn't confident. But I guess that's what happens to a guy when he falls from the very top of the Hollywood food chain, and everyone (but a few) kicks him as he falls.

More about The Frank Sinatra Show from this site:

It was a low point in the singer's career. His record sales declining, dumped by his movie studio, his radio series canceled, and perhaps most frighteningly, sidelined for over a month with a ruptured vocal cord, Frank Sinatra was in the depths of despair. He was dogged by bad press, due to an affair with movie star Ava Gardner while still married to first wife Nancy. It didn't help that his thin skin and ill temper (not to mention an overindulgence in alcohol) sometimes fueled violent confrontations with reporters and photographers he felt had wronged him.

So it was that, in 1950, Sinatra found himself casting about for a vehicle that could help him resuscitate his career. Television was the new thing and had helped a number of has-been entertainers, so why not give it a try?

The show was plagued with problems right off the bat, suffering from disappointing ratings, a high turnover in personnel, and a shortage of sponsor support.

But on this evening, he had his voice. Sinatra sang "When You're Smiling," "If," a duet with June Hutton on "My Romance," and as a lonely figure, wringing his hands while strolling quickly out into the bright spotlight of a darkened stage, "Hello, Young Lovers." Maybe I read too much into these things, but it's as if he's appealing directly to his Bobby Soxer fans, who'd all grown up and lost interest, to like him anew ("Hey! Remember me?"):

The fact this is at the Paramount Theatre, where the whole "Swoonatra" craze began in 1942, just adds an extra layer of Sturm und Drang (or angst).

Better days would come for Francis Albert Sinatra...

W5RAn

W5RAn is featuring my photography, at least for three hours. It's always interesting (and educational) to see one's work through another's eyes. In other words, which of my pictures are any good? I often wonder.

W5RAn chose my shot of the 1935, Art Deco Heights Theater in Houston of all my pictures as the one to feature. Perusing their photography archive, I had in fact wondered where I fit in to their aesthetic and tastes, and if someone at W5RAn had not made some mistake in their selection of me. My first submission is my shot of the Henry Beissner House. We'll see if they run that one.

In case you didn't know:

W5RAn
is an indie online show-&-tell
for you, for me, for all of us.

we're creating the context for art-in-the-everyday
and we're looking to you to show it as you see it
in an online magazine
that is
new
fresh
and changing
every hour on the hour.

D’Ette Cole, previous co-owner of Uncommon Objects, whose artistic stylings for Patti Griffin were nominated for a Grammy, is the lead editor of W5RAn.com.

(Link)

Shots from weekend strolls

This is the Old Opera House, built in 1888, and designed by Diedrich Rulfs. Legend has it, the Marx Brothers had fortuitous night in that very building.

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Right across from the Old Opera House, this the the Old Commercial Bank/M.G. Hazel Building. It was built in 1901, and designed by Diedrich Rulfs.

Here is a side view of the Maria Davidson Apartments. Built in 1928, this is considered to be one of the last of Diedrich Rulfs' designs. He would not have lived to see it, passing away in 1926. The building is the Spanish Revival/Mission style. Ironically, despite the fact Nacogdoches was a Spanish colony as one of its earliest incarnations, this is perhaps the only building in town done in the Spanish Revival style. It is certainly the only one Rulfs did, making it an experiment in my mind.

When those trees are full of their leaves, this view of the Roland Jones House doesn't really exist, so I've made a couple of attempts over the last couple of winter months to get a good one at this angle. This is the view from the corner of Church and Hospital Streets.

Built in 1895 by Diedrich Rulfs, this is the rear view. And finally, the front, "classic" view of this, Rulfs' Victorian masterpiece:

"100,000 People"

I just Netflixed the 2003 documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. It is an excellent film, which deals with a very heavy topic with grace and style, never once getting overly grim. But the revelation for me was the soundtrack (which does the job of being grim), composed by Philip Glass. Dude! I love the brief, little melodies which pop up. My favorites at this point are:



and "IBM Punch Cards":