I almost forgot

For years, before the advent of this Bakelite Radio Machine, there has been an internet machine shop.

here is the link for you to cut and paste:

http://www.cafepress.com/bakeliteradio

Buy a sticker for your uke case.

A Mortal Foe of Gloom!

Herewith a radio program, "The Bakelite Radio Theatre Presents: Sazerac at The Circus" in an episode (#43 of 69 BRT episodes) entitled "Doubletalk," featuring Carl Lowenthal, the Doubletalk King (he's also a drummer and Stacy Adams Shoe Salesman based in New York...really).

A Tech note: This was recorded on a 4 track cassette machine and broadcast on AM Radio WTIX New Orleans. What is here for your listening pleasure is a cassette recording of the broadcast that has been digitally transfered and brought to the internet machine via a telephone held next to an ibook speaker. In other words it is super "hi-fi."

It's all the Rage

Trying to capitalize on the popularity of Moon Man Cheese, its writers came up with this ditty, here recorded live at New Orleans' famous Neutral Ground...there are digital glitches at the end of the second verse but you'll probably turn it off before that.

By Popular Demand

Anywhere in New Orleans where the young people gather, you know the coffeehouses and some of the better taverns, you can hear them humming that smash novelty success, "Moon Man Cheese."

Herewith a timeless melody combined with a timeless sentiment. What more can you ask for?

The Genial Orleanians play Aileen Stanley's Sensational Song Hit

Remeber kids, to post this i held the phone to the perforations above my F1 key...

Testing fanciful high-tech item

This is perhaps the Gambler's Blues as performed by the Genial Orleanians posted via telephone-held-to-ibook-speaker technology.

There will be some trombones...

but nowhere near seventy-six. The New New Orleans has such a dearth of musicians these days that I had a paying job today...anyway...

Tomorrow marks the first parade of the Mardi Gras season (unless you count the streetcar number on 12th night). It's the annual Krewe du Vieux march through the French Quarter and for the first time I'm in it (against my better judgement). Look for Sazerac as he attempts to rebuild New Orleans "One Cocktail at a Time." I got to thinking about parades and the general lack of them. And then I found this photo on the internet machine. It is from an early 20th century Labor Day parade in Chicago. This is the procession of "Meat Cutters."

Butchers march!

Bakelite Radio Machine: Pro-Cigarette Girl

If for no other reason than the Ruth Etting song that follows...

Cigarettes! Cigars!

I'm one of the hicks
I came here from the sticks
Trying to find the kind of fame
the name of Broadway stands for
I'm one of the fools,
I dreamt of riches and jewels
Now I awake, find my mistake
Can't get a break, Broadway's a fake.


I work in a speak that's dim and dingy
Spenders are pretenders cheap and stingy
All I smell is rotten scotch and gin, gee
Cigarettes! Cigars!

Now I know what being too darn slow means
Among the gals who never learned what no means
They ask me if I know what making dough means
Cigarettes! Cigars!

To heaven I just send up
My lonely plea
Is this where I must end up
Oh good lord answer me

Every morning when the nighttime dies out
I go home to sleep and weep my eyes out
Can't you hear a broken heart that cries out
Cigarettes! Cigars!

Camels! Chesterfields! Luckies! Cigars!

I peddle my wares to gay millionaires
To wise guys and hoboes
And sweet gals with no beaus
To misers and spenders bootleg vendors
All of them playing their trump
I won't let them maul me
And so they all call me the fool
The virgin!
The chump!

Every morning when the night shades fade out
I see all the tramps and drunks parade out
When I sing to the last one who is laid out
Cigarettes! Cigars!

Sans Cork

The Duncan Sisters, famous in Vaudeville for their "Topsy and Eva" act.

Zellner...Protean Characterist!

One of the great artists on the Red Path Circuit.

Attended their own modern universities.

Sazzie of the Islands

Those who know, know

Prognostication

Jimmy the Greek Snyder used to have a big board with a list of keys to the game. He would put a check mark next to whichever team had the advantage in a given phase of the game..."pass defense" for example. My favorite entry on the board was "Intangibles." However I made this pick based on a tangible. Seattle has a bald Quarterback

Seattle: 24

Pittsburgh: 14

Etymology: Yiddish tshatshke - trinket, from obsolete Polish czaczko

I have lots of crap, you know knick-knacks, ephemera, baubles, curios, gaud, gewgaw, novelty, trinket, bric-a-brac, trumpery; trifle, figurines, objets d'art, souvenirs...tons of it. Here are two of my favorites, actually the same item in two different finishes. It depicts Cliff Edwards in blackface and is marked "Abneeb c. 1924." The coarser of the two is also marked "Made by Natl. Spec. Mfg. Co."

P.S. The camera on my phone is better than the digital number I bought recently...and the phone is rotary dial...I'll try for better ones later.

He hated the movie

We here at the Bakelite Radio Machine remember fondly that day in 1998 we spent on the back lot of the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus. We were especially fond of the Elephants "Conti" and "Pete" who were nice enough to let us stand right next to them. "Pete" a few years previous had killed a man in the town of Fishkill, NY who, after a night of drinking, had stumbled upon the elephant pen and reportedly threw beer bottles and cigarettes. When the interloper got close enough, Pete (actually Petunia, a female) dispatched him with dispatch. Both of those elephants have since passed. Another circus employee I met that day has also passed away, just this week, Dave Hoover. Hoover was a protege of Clyde Beatty and was by all accounts the last of the adversarial style of big cat trainers. By the time I met him, while he had had a moment of noteriety as one of the subjects of Errol Morris' film Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control ("Dave says it's the worst film he's ever seen" one of his collegues told me), he no longer performed on the show. Hoover held the honorific "Chief of Security" and wore a gun on his belt. The Big Cat Man on the show at that time was Khris Allen, a self styled "Tiger Choreographer." Hoover hated the very idea of Big Cat "Choreography," he was strictly chair and whip. Today that show has dropped the Clyde Beatty portion of its name and has gotten rid of animal acts altogether, save for a display of performing house cats.

"Lou, Lou, Lou....Gehrig, Gehrig."

When I was a kid, one of the main signs of spring would be the annual showing of "Pride of the Yankees" and "It Happens Every Spring" on TV. Tonight on TCM they are showing the former as part of their "31 Days of Oscar" celebration and you should watch it. 11pm in our central time zone. The story of Lou Gehrig won the Academy Award for best editing. It amazes me that Gary Cooper didn't win best actor...OK, maybe he wasn't so believable portraying "The Iron Horse" in his prime (Cooper was past 40 when the film was made), however Gehrig was also known as "Biscuit Pants" and Cooper filled that role admirably. The latter film concerns a college professor (Ray Milland) who invents a substance that repels wood and becomes a big league pitcher. Sadly, it did not win the Oscar it was nominated for, best writing. How it did not win for special effects is beyond me...not only does the ball go around the bat every time Milland throws it, but you should see what happens to Paul Douglas' pate when he inadvertently uses the secret substance as a hair tonic!