Okay, this is just spooky weird

[womzilla]

Most of the music that I listen to on my way to and from work is downloaded from radio shows--Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight, Sarah Ovenall's Divaville Lounge, and Little Steven's Underground Garage. Vin is "freeform"--he plays whatever comes to the top of his brain, with an emphasis on rock and folk, but jazz, spoken word, rambling and funny monologues, whatever.

The other two are much more focused: Divaville Lounge is jazz and pop vocalists, big band, and lounge/exotica, from (as she says) "Tin Pan Alley to the Swing Era". The Underground Garage is, as the name says, garage rock from the days of rock and roll to the present.

I wasn't surprised when two of the shows (Idiot's Delight and Underground Garage) had tributes to September 11th. More surprising back in June was that both Sarah and Little Steven did tribute shows to Clarence Clemons. Now, of course, Little Steven was Clemons's friend and bandmate for 40 years, so it would have been more surprising if he hadn't done a memorial show; but Sarah's tribute--two hours of saxaphone-heavy jazz--was quite unexpected and inspired.

Even that, though, didn't prepare me for both Divaville Lounge and Underground Garage, this Sunday just past, to do tributes to Groucho Marx. Sometimes the world collides with itself in ways that are pleasantly shocking.

Comments

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

So glad you enjoyed those tributes! The "Sax Heroes" show came about because one of my Facebook friends is a dedicated Springsteen fan, and posted tributes to Clemons all day. I said something about maybe doing a tribute and she seemed so into the idea that I had to do it. (As I recall, the timing was also great because it bumped another planned theme show that wasn't inspiring me at all. So it gave me an excuse not to do the other one.)

It was Groucho's birthday last Sunday, so not that much of a surprise that there would be tributes afoot. I could have done more! I thought about playing "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and maybe a dialogue clip or two, but I was worried about overdoing it.

Next week is going to be a fun one: a tribute to the State Fair. All songs about livestock, produce, fair food, and carnival rides. I sat down to plan, worried that I wouldn't have two hours of material, and within an hour I had a list of twice as many songs as I need. It's nice when it works out that way!

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

also, I mentioned your post to Georg and he told me about his fond memories of Vin Scelsa. Apparently Georg started listening to him decades ago on WNEW.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

He is a legendary figure among a certain (wide) generation. The WXYC djs I knew back when I was in Chapel Hill all knew about him, and the WXYC Christmas Special includes a song recorded off his show.

I still remember the time you visited the Castle and we all just sat in the living room and talked while Vin played on the radio. You were amazed at him a) having a long period of dead air and then b) talking at length about the dead air.

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

I remember that! As I recall it was the talking about it that threw me more -- at XDU we're instructed not to call attention to mistakes, just move on. But Scelsa's show is so personality driven that it makes sense for him to talk about things that happen to him on the air.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

"So personal" is just it, exactly. Spinning off the recent guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that most prostate cancer screening is unhelpful, he spent 10 minutes talking about his own prostatectomy and how it left him impotent.