Bunny Hop!

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Jack LaLanne

I was thrilled a few years back—visiting her Dolphin Club in San Francisco with my friend Anne Hamersky—to run across LaLanne’s name on an old member roster. Very cool old swimming and rowing club on the Bay.

I remember his amazing feats of strength from childhood. Fitness for the masses was still kind of a novel idea.

I love this magazine cover. Posted on Facebook by my friend Linda. “Well...Just happened to be up here on this mountaintop in my muscle-man posing panties. Oh, sure, you can take a picture!”

96...rest in peace Jack, you can stop exercising now.

Arrivaderci, Moody.

Not many of the original old cats left these days. Moody was a good one. A sweet, funny, humble, talented man. He passed on Thursday aged 85, in San Diego. Nice replay of a 90s Fresh Air interview with Moody here. There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go...

Nice NPR remembrance here.

“I used to look at the saxophones every day, I'd just look at ’em, you know. And when I first got my first saxophone, I put it in bed by me and just used to sleep with it, man. Just looking at it.”

Moody’s passing made me remember what a big old hole John Birks Gillespie left in the world.

Little piece of Moody’s NY Times obit (entirety here):

“Defying the stereotype of the modern jazz musician as austere and humorless (and following the example of Gillespie, whom he considered his musical mentor and with whom he worked on and off for almost half a century), Mr. Moody told silly jokes, peppered his repertory with unlikely numbers like “Beer Barrel Polka” and the theme from “The Flintstones,” and often sang. His singing voice was unpolished but enthusiastic — and very distinctive, partly because he spoke and sang with a noticeable lisp, a result of having been born partly deaf.”

If you want to check out the man’s music, I’d recommend “Moody’s Mood for Blues” (Prestige OJC) a compilation of two 50s Prestige records, or “At the Jazz Workshop” (GRP) a 1998 reissue of the 1961 album “Cookin’ the Blues” plus some unreleased bits.

(Ithink the photo of Moody below is by my friend Chuck Stewart, but it wasn’t credited where I found it)

4th Amendment UNDERPANTS (?!?!?!).

What needs to be said? Funny stuff, serious matter. Thanks to Jeff Frazier for sharing. There’s something here about speaking out (and also making a buck) that’s America to the core.

Check the site here.

Transnormal Skiperoo.

In the music-I’ve-been-meaning-to-check-out department. Jim White. Vaguely remember his album “Wrong-eyed Jesus” from years back. Seems like it also became a documentary film theme with the same name.

Have just given this one a cursory listen, but it seems like good stuff.

One of my new favorite record covers. Love the school-notebook doodling style lettering and the simple, silly, oblique simplicity of the whole thing. Looks like it could have been found in a dumpster out behind a 1-Hour photo-finishing place and transformed into a thing of odd, unpretentious beauty. And I definitely mean that as a compliment.

Apple’s Sexy Design

Hasn’t always been so sexy. Witness the proto-MAC, the Apple One. Yep that’s plywood. 8KB of RAM and a processing speed between 1 and 2 Mhz!! (What was the snail on the turtle’s back overheard saying?...Wheee!) The cheapest digital watch in the world could probably kick this thing’s ass in computing power.

Christie’s has one up for auction now and it’s estimated to go for up to a quarter of a mil. Does Jobs need the dough? Couldn’t they just GIVE the damn thing to the Smithsonian? They originally fetched $666.66

(The MAC of the Beast?)

He enjoys commit murder. He lives in clarinet.

This is Okusan.
He has slim body.
He doesn’t have teeth.
He likes throw banana.
He enjoys commit murder.
He likes a microwave oven.
He lives in clarinet.
He joins life insurance.
He likes salt.


I have a sweet friend currently living in Japan. She sends me this sort of funny business on the interwebs.

(From an exercise with Japanese middle-school(?) kids who had to invent a monster and write things about it in English. Non-native speakers are a pretty easy target for laughs, and to be fair, my Japanese likely wouldn’t be any better. But it’s still funny. And weirdly poetic.)

The link to the original Facebook post is here, but I’m not sure if you have to be on Facebook to be able to view it.