Two new kids arrived last night - both adorable little girls. Mother and kids are doing fine.

A welcome trend may be emerging, as people are discovering the power and many uses of of Twitter. Michael Arrington made a post after much frustration with Comcast's often difficult customer service. Seems a Comcast representative at their Philadelphia HQ was monitoring Twitter for any comments regarding Comcast, and jumped right on the case, and was able to help with his problem.

Here are some more comments on the situation, and a herat-warming story about the crappy service I usually get from them.

I was sorry to hear of the recent passing of Stu Scharf, a remarkable musician and good friend. You can see his web site (while it is still up) at www.stuie.net

He was well known as a producer, composer, arranger, and New York studio musician. He had a long time partnership with the great Bob Dorough, where they produced a series of classic recordings for Spanky and Our Gang. He wrote some of their best songs, including Give A Damn, which reflected his strong interest in civil and human rights (and the stupidity of the media; many radio stations objected to the word "Damn" and tried to censor it; thankfully to no avail).

He was an exquisite jazz and traditional guitarist, playing and arranging with the Chad Mitchell Trio, and on studio recordings for some of the brightest artists of the sixties through the nineties, including Nina Simpon, Laura Nyro, Herbert Laws, Al Kooper, Carly Simon, Burt Bacharach, Pearls Before Swine, Neil Diamond, Phoebe Snow, Iand and Sylvia, and Roberta Flack.

Mostly I'm going to miss the great emails he would send me, with observations on society, human nature, and the life of the artist.

I thought something should be said to commemorate the life of this great guy. Beneath his sometimes gruff exterior, he was a humanist, civil rights activist, and all-around mensch.

I'll miss you, Stuie!

An incredible new album has been released,the original recordings that served as inspiration for the Bonzo Dog Band. It is Songs the Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us, quite an impressive collection.

If you aren't familiar with these lunatics, they were a late-sixties English group that would be the result of mixing Spike Jones and the Mothers of Invention with the British Music Hall tradition, and giving them tons of psychedelic drugs. They had origins at the same time as Monty Python, and often did joint projects.

The Bonzos spent many an hour cruising London thrift shops in search of novelty records, many of which they remade into modernized versions that retained the charm of the originals - Jollity Farm,  Hunting Tigers Out in India, Mickey's Son and Daughter, etc. They're all here. Leave it to the Brits to make some of the most unusual records ever heard, with absurd humor bordering on surrealism. Perfect material for the Dada-inspired Bonzos.

Aha, thought I, now I can find out what the original lyrics were for Ali Baba's Camel, as the Bonzo version contains what appears to be a pretty obvious drug reference.

So I eagerly out on the 1932 version by The Rhythmic Troubadours, and imagine my surprise when I heard: 

You've heard of Ali Baba, 40 thieves had he

Out for what we all want; lots of LSD!

After a few double takes, it was off to Google, where I found this simple explanation:

It should be pointed out for the benefit of younger/US/FDA readers that the
"LSD" referred to in Ali-Baba's Camel is the "pounds shillings and pence"
variety, and not any other kind you may know of. It's a scary enough song
without psychedelic side-effefects!

One of my favorite classic west coat western wing groups: The Maddox Brothers with Sister Rose. Quite the wild gang! They were as authentic as you get; very down home, great instrumentalists, a good sense of humor, and a wild and wacky, often humorous approach to music.

They were pioneers in a more modern, electric country sound, and were noted for their use of slap-back bass techniques and other effects that later turned up in early rock and roll.

They were a real family band, too. They hailed from Alabama, and moved to California's central valley in the early years of the Great Depression, working as migrant fruit pickers. They eventually settled down in Modesto, and became favorites in towns all up and down the central valley. They recorded for Columbia and Decca, with many hit records of the day (including a killer version of Woody Guthrie's Philadelphia Lawyer).

They did a daily radio show for many years on McClatchy's station KBEE in Modesto, further spreading their musi. Arhoolie has released a record of some of these transcripts, which will give you an idea of what their sound was like. Bear Family has released a pricey but very complete box set, and there are several more affordable collections. The Bear Family set has their complete Columbia output, which is a fascinating bridge between honky-tonk country and early rockabilly.

Rose was active up until her death a few years ago, and was a big influence on Merle Haggard and other Bakersfield artists.

If you aren't familiar with their music, do yourself a favor and check them out. I love them because they sound like they are having great fun while making terrific music.

Key phrase: "eeeee-haw!".

More:

• Rockabilly Hall of Fame article
• Story on cowgirls.com
• NPR series with an episode about MB&R, includes performances
  
• Analysis at honkytonks.org

While checking out the revamped ask.com, I did a search on Bonzo Dog Band, which led me to this interesting site that reviews single-malt scotches and unusual music (my kind of place). Scroll down to "Feb. 3rd" fot a review of a recent live Bonzo performance (I think this is the one preserved on the excellent 40th Anniversary DVD).

 It does as an interesting question: were these two bands joined at birth?

Dimensional (3D) photography is a simple process, at least in theory.  You provide a separate image of the same scene for each eye, slightly out of phase.  Of course to do it right, it takes a good amount of photographic skill, an understanding of the psychological and mathematical principles involved, and some fairly precision hardware.

But, in a true do-it-yourself fashion, you can get everything you need to create your own 3D photos for a modest investment. Here's how...