Show Notes:
Recorded Friday, July 20 2007 (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM), at Silver Sands Resort, Mears MI
“A remote podcast from the upper reaches of the Lower Peninsula. Mickey joins Mike & Schmoe on their annual Silver Lake pilgrimage, by the shores of Lake Michigan, to review White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean and to hold an HP7 vigil.”
Your humble podcasters spent most of the last week on vacation, up north at Silver Lake. Since the core group was all together, we recorded two shows, both of which have now been uploaded. Along with recording, we also shot lots of photographs, many of which can be viewed over in our Gallery.
And now, the notes: 01:59 – I’m trying to recall information I learned twenty years ago in one my geology class, when my instructor described the North Pole glaciers growing bigger, increasing southward, and pushing sand into the moraines which became the dunes along our Lake Michigan shoreline. According to this informative PDF from the Geological Survey Division, “These dunes are a result of massive ice sheets which covered Michigan, and much of North America, during what geologists call the Pleistocene Epoch, some 1,800,000 years ago. Glaciers transported sand and other materials and deposited them as glacial drift. Large masses of glacial ice gouged out the basins that now confine the Great Lakes.” 03:29 – I’m revealing a common prejudice. Your right palm is not a map of Michigan, it’s a map of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. You’ll need your left palm too, pinkie tucked in if possible and thumb pointing slightly upward, for the Upper Peninsula. 06:10 – it was actually my coworker’s jury duty. I could not take a vacation day because I had to cover for him, and if he was chosen for a jury I probably wouldn’t be able to go up to Silver Lake at all. He was part of a jury pool in a case with a black defendant, and the defense attorney was fairly obviously trying to get as many African Americans onto the jury. My coworker’s name got picked, but he was quickly dismissed. And that, since it allowed me to take Thursday and Friday off, is the kind of racism I can live with! 06:54 – long story short, I dropped a brand new HD camcorder into the lake. I was disembarking from our boat and the camera fell into the surf. Mike spotted it first and when he lifted it up the camcorder had water pissing out of it from every opening and crevice. What really hurt it more than the water was the sand. Even though it was in the water for only a few moments, it somehow got gritty sand all inside its works. I’ve let it sit for several days and was eventually able to power it up, get the LCD viewfinder working, as well as its CMOS chip; but there’s still so much sand in the works that I yet to get the tape ejected. 07:51 – Goin’ Coastal. Goin’ Coastal! Goin’ Coastal. Why couldn’t I think of that during the show?! 08:46 – some piece of shit with the inevitable “.ru” extension took advantage of the fact our e-mail was a catch-all. We had fun creating new e-mail names to use, secure that they’d all wind up safely at our podcast@northcoastcast.com location. But, early on the morning of July 9, some took advantage of our catch-all and started spewing out all sorts of bullshit, male enhancement e-mails with our domain name. Between that asshole’s spam and all the Mailer-Daemon replies, we were inundated with hundreds and hundreds of e-mails filling up our inboxes.
And now the fun is over. Because of that shitsucker, we had to disable our address being a catch-all.
Our three working e-mail address are podcast@northcoastcast.com, podcast@wastinaway.net, and, if you’d like to send us an audio comment, northcoastcast@gmail.com. 14:30 – in fact, Texas Connection, which ran weekly on TNN (1991-1992), was hosted by Jerry Jeff Walker. [Source.] I can’t find any video links, so maybe I might have to dredge up some 3/4″ player and digitize my tape. 20:48 – this is answered in Episode 46 22:15 – the book was torrented the previous Tuesday. Despite what Scholastic said, it was obviously not a fake, and I couldn’t resist finding out the ending. I figure it’s not a spoiler when it’s the book itself giving the secrets away. And besides, it was too difficult to read as much as I wanted to on vacation, and now the pressure was off me trying.
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, June 13 2007 (10:00 PM – 11:15 PM), at Joe’s Prime Time, Brownstown MI
“The group is kicked outside, where we discuss Barometer Soup and make fun of Greg. Special guests: Schmoe’s kids and Elise. Background music by AC/DC.”
No bikers keeping us out of the back room this week. Instead, it was a wedding rehearsal dinner. It was nice outside, except for the mosquitoes; so big thanks to Prime Time Gina for the citronella candles. Schmoe wanted enough to start a citronella bonfire; he took a liking to that name and wondered if he could fashion a drink for it — at the same time I was wondering if he was going to try steeping citronella in his next tequila concoction. (And thanks to Gina for also turning down the AC/DC, later in the episode.) Scott was unable to join us today, as he’d injured his knee last Friday, competing in the 2007 Shark Invitational.
As mentioned, here’s Listener Sandy’s first-hand report of the Paris concert:
The trip to the concert today was great. As soon as the taxi dropped me off at the New Morning at 6pm for the 8pm concert, there was Utley and Greenidge walking on the sidewalk next to me. After getting in line (approx 50 at this time,) behind three guys from Chicago, we were exchanging pleasantries and all of a sudden Jimmy comes walking down the street on the way to what I think was a pre-party at the Best Western a few doors down, waving to all of us calling his name.
After going in to the club, it reminded me of some dive bars that you find at MSU. Red walls, a small stage , a small pit area and bistro tables and chairs. While you were waiting for the concert all of the band members were walking back and forth thru the bar saying hi to everyone. I got a seat approx 20ft from the stage. Grass skirts and shark hats were everywhere.
Jimmy and the entire Coral Reefer band comes out. He starts with Changes in Latitudes and it only gets better from there. He played all of the big 8 (fins, pirate,southern cross, etc.) He also played Artour Roche, petites enfants, pencil thin mustache and woman gone on caroline street. He ended the concert after the encore with He went to Paris. He kept saying he was playing songs that he’s wanted to play in Paris for 30yrs. He also said that this is not the last time he would be playing in Paris. (I’d go back!)
They were video taping everyone at the concert…a dvd is probably to come. They taped everyone . they went in between rows, closeups , when you were walking in…
The best of all … I got one of Jimmy’s guitar picks! It was a once in a lifetime experience. Classic Jimmy having fun.
00:02 – according to FSGL.net, Greg’s nicknames include Oops, Gregular, Dr. Feelgood, Giggles, Veal Parmesan, Mack Daddy, DAMF, G.Love, Poison Ivy, Slingblade, Oh Shit, and Chicken Taco Guy 03:59 – Schmoe’s aural double-take gets my vote as the highlight of the show 04:32 – Wal-Mart’s 2007 Shareholders Meeting page. The news about Buffett playing there comes from Blogging Stocks.com (by way of BuffettWorld.com). 11:10 – sorry Scott. That was just uncalled for. 12:21 – Schmoe is teasing Greg because a search for 1995 setlists led Greg right to my own Buffett fan site, causing Greg to e-mail us and ask if we thought the guys in the page’s photo look like us. 12:26 – and I’m teasing Mike over his belief, back in college, that the best way to study is to sleep with your text book under your pillow, where you can learn through “osmosis” 12:51 – don’t listen too closely to the AC/DC songs; this section of the episode was heavily edited. But fear not, it ends at 19:00 14:13 – the audio from Jimmy’s CompuServe upload is actually an edit. Here’s the complete “BADHABIT.WAV” sound file, plus some historical context:
17:24 – We go into more detail on how I ruined “Jimmy Dreams” for Mike in Episode 32. 17:59 – We seriously need to do a Buckeye Lake podcast, but until then here are Mike’s and my parody lyrics, for “Don’t Chu-Know” and “Remittance Man“, from August 5 1995. 20:58 – here’s an excerpt from my journal for August 1995, describing Mike’s and my first listen of the Barometer Soup CD, at Dearborn’s Blockbuster Music, on Saturday, July 30 1995:
I didn’t see Mike’s car and I didn’t spot him inside when I got to the place. I parked on the side. As I walked around the front to enter I spotted someone I assumed was Mike already sitting at the circular counter in the center of the store. It still didn’t look like him, but the other two people I could see were definitely not him. As I went inside and approached I realized it was indeed Mike. He had shorts, a tank top, and a gray and black Caribbean Soul cap on. The girl manning the counter said something to me but I didn’t catch it; I even had her repeat it too. I think it might have been about my t-shirt. She probably recognized the radiation symbol but not what the shirt meant. [It was my red Simpsons Radioactive Man t-shirt, which I’d won in a Bongo Comics contest.] The girl asked if she could help me and I pointed to the CD in front of Mike and told her I’d come to see it, that I had weekend visitation rights. She promptly disappeared, replaced by some skinny tall nerdy guy. He asked if he could help me, I asked if he had another copy of the album but sadly they didn’t. Mike and I had to share.
Mike told me the album was great, especially the opening title track. He touched a flat colored button on the panel in front of him and gave me the headphones. They were light, cheap, black Koss headphones. There was no bass whatsoever. We could’ve been hearing an AM broadcast on a tiny transistor radio. The song was okay but I wasn’t as impressed as Mike. I got so wrapped up in reading the liner notes that I hogged the headphones and almost heard all of the song. I gave Mike back the headphones and continued to read. He jumped around the track listing and we continued to switch shifts. The booklet was very attractive and certainly much nicer than I’d been led to believe by those Internet descriptions [at AOL’s Parrot Head Madness, Usenet’s alt.fan.jimmy-buffett, and the Buffett listserv]. Mike was pretty harsh about those reviewers too, saying what jerks they were and how they knew nothing. There was a sign on a stand directly in front of us bearing the cover of the album and the announcement that we could hear it in advance, starting Friday July 29, and then buy it on sale Tuesday August 1. It was nice to see MCA was actually promoting a Buffett album. Mike said it was a shame they didn’t allow drinking here; the counter and stools were very much like a bar, and it would be perfect to just have a margarita sitting there in front of us.
Our panel had no kind of read out to tell us what tracks we were on so we pretty much had to guess when switching between tracks, consulting the lyrics to find out where we were. I have little recollection now of what songs I listened to. I do remember thinking “Don’t Chu-Know” was a standout which I instantly liked. I couldn’t believe this had only gotten passing grades when Buffett had performed it live during his spring tour. In order of appearance, but in no way the order I heard them: “Barometer Soup” was an instant favorite of Mike’s, but didn’t strike me as particularly special; “Barefoot Children” was a pretty obvious attempt at connecting at the young parents in the audience and I could understand why it hadn’t been received too well in the spring; we both thought it was pretty funny how “Bank of Bad Habits” sounded just as tinny now on these headphones as it sounded on our poor quality upload, there was no difference despite what we’d hoped; “Blue Heaven Rendezvous” sounded like “Pre-You” all over again, but at least was a better attempt; I remember hearing “Jimmy Dreams” but pretty much tuned it out as soon as Mike informed me, handing the headphones over again, that it was a slow one; I remember reading about the Jim Harrison/Legends of the Fall influence on “Lage Nom Ai” but don’t recall much about first hearing the song; “The Ballad of Skip Wiley” sounded like “Hey Bartender” to me: Mike thought the lyrics sounded like the explanatory tale which would begin a sitcom: “It’s ‘The Skip Wiley Show!”; “The Night I Painted the Sky” was one of the songs I desperately rushed to get to before we left — I didn’t hear much but did enjoy the lovely string introduction; Mike played “Mexico” for me and said sadly it wasn’t what he’d expected. He said he was uncertain about the horn parts, and that it might take some getting used to. Being unfamiliar with the original, and not knowing the extent Mike had been privately hoping Buffett would cover this song, the arrangement didn’t bother me. I thought it was catchy and likeable, and I told Mike I doubted it would take too long for him to get used to it.
Perhaps I should take this opportunity to include Stu Gittelman’s review from many weeks ago, since it was much on our mind during our first listen:
Subject: Barometer Soup – Comments and Critique
Date: 12 Jul 1995 20:22:52 -0500
Well, my advance copy of Barometer Soup (I can’t wait to start calling it ‘BS’ in alt.fan) came today…so, it’s time for the King of the Grumpy Old Parrotheads to speak…my overall reaction: eeehhhh. I think this is certainly a much more *consistent* album than Fruitcakes (and somewhat better) overall. It at least has an overall texture to it that doesn’t leave you quite as schizoid as FC. It’s also certainly better than OTSTL, and, I guess, about the same as HW to me. All in all, it seems JB is trying to be the King of the Ballad on this one. That said, I’m not sure this album is that *good* either – but, after the last few, a step in the right direction. Good points summary: less produced, more Fingers Taylor, more downscale songs, fewer covers, consistent. Bad points summary: silly ranting on several tracks, it ain’t A-1-A a bit dull at times. As for the individual tracks: Barometer Soup – sets the tone pretty well: eehhh. Nothing to dislike, nothing really to like. The yuppies will like the part about escaping. Barefoot Children – given the “Buffet (sic) and Terrible Twos” thread going now on alt.fan, I’m sure this’ll become a favorite for a couple of weeks over there. A nice song, but not great. Bank of Bad Habits – I had high hopes for this song. Thought it might be a chance to have some fun. Which it was, at first. Then the crap about the seven deadly sins and the 8th deadly sin: PIZZA! Sheesh. Ruined a perfectly good song. Prediction: The pizza thing will make 5 .sig files in alt.fan w/in 1 week. Upbeat. Remittance Man – This is a good one. He put some thought into this one and it really shows. Downscale, good lyrics. Diamond as Big as the Ritz – I didn’t care for this one in concert, although it sounded better on disk. Again, not bad, not great. Blue Heaven Rendezvous – There’s a stinker on every album and this one is it. Combine his awful crooing on the Sinatra duet with an idiotic song like ‘Frenchman for the Night’ and you can get the picture. Brutal. Jimmy Dreams – WOW!!! This one blew me away. What an absolutely fantastic song. This is the best song he’s done in many years, IMHO. For the first time in a while, we’ve got an ‘honest’ song. Jimmy wrote this one for Jimmy and not for money. Far and away the best song on the album. Great lyrics. Lagie Nom Ai – We’ll need to find out what this means because I can see 20 posts a day about it. Upbeat song – definitely the successor in the Fruitcakes genre. Don’t You Know (Don Chu Kno) – I liked this one in concert and it still is a peppy tune. I thought it was pretty good until the end with this silly fade into the notes of Volcano and some White Man Rap. The killer part, for me, was when JB said “I can name that song in two notes” – and he wasn’t talking’ about God’s Own Drunk. Spoiled an enjoyable tune for me, but that comment speaks volumes about what’s happened to his music over the years. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here, you haven’t listened to You Had to be There lately. Ballad of Skip Wiley – I guess I need to read the Hiasson books to really understand this one, so I’ll pass on commentary. Decent music. The Night I Painted the Sky – another winner. Probaby the second best on the album. Quiet, but very evocative. Again, the downscale thing works well. Mexico – not being much of a James Taylor fan (I find him depressing), I was leery of this one and was pleasantly surpried by it. He sounds like he enjoys doing this one, whereas Uncle John’s Band sounded like he was going through the motions. Once again, the White Man Rap at the end was totally unecessary. I don’t know who told him this stuff was cute and funny, but it’s not. It’s silly.
———- Stu Gittelman
We found out the store closes earlier than we expected. The employees started getting a little more active. Mike told me they must close at eleven. I had the headphones then so I quickly tried to hit every song I hadn’t heard, just for the sake of it. After we left, we hung out in front of the store for a while, by my car. Still talking about the album, Mike suggested getting a beer at Miller’s Bar, next door. I of course agreed.
23:31 – no, I don’t have an actual background in musical theater. What I meant is that I have an interest in musical theater, stemming back to when I was a kid and my parents would play Broadway cast albums on Sunday afternoons. 29:48 – the guys are enamored with Elise’s “fried gold” expression (among other things), but I heard it back in 2004 on the highly-recommended Spaced DVD.
I took some photos during the postscript. You can see them here, here, and here.
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, May 30 2007 (10:00 PM – 12:00 AM), at Joe’s Prime Time, Brownstown MI
“Schmoe and Mickey review You Had To Be There, Mike celebrates a birthday, Scott waits for his burger, Joe asks questions, Greg leaves early, Ashley serves us shots, DJ keeps checking his watch, and Elise tells a joke.”
Breaking news: Mike is changing jobs and might not be able to podcast with us. Therefore, Schmoe wants to do as many shows as possible before the change; hence, our reviewing You Had To Be There before we were prepared for it. Need a YHTBT cheat sheet so you can play along? Try the one at Buffett News’s discography or the one at Buffett World’s.
Remember when we said how nicely quiet Joe’s Prime Time was last week? That all changed this week. Evidently Joe installed a few more speakers — in our back room, and also behind us on the deck, blasting out in the empty woods beyond the bar; and when we tried to start podcasting, the noise was deafening. I have the feeling the speakers might have been newly installed because Joe wasn’t even sure how to disable them. He ended up forcibly yanking out the speaker wire for us! (You can hear Joe during the show, quizzing us on tour dates; but most of this was cut.)
Scott’s missing food order was a Western burger. He believes it was the added barbecue sauce which threw everyone off. In the interest of ful disclosure, the neon “Eat at Joe’s” sign was not directly behind Scott, but would be visible through the windows in the doors. Mike’s birthday shots cost $19, for those keeping score. We mostly had Cabo Wabo Blanco while Scott asked for Sex on the Beach.
The “hot girl”, we believe, was Staci Swartzenberg. [ Hi Staci! 🙂 ] Greg also shared the story of how he tried to impress her back then by doing stunts on his bicycle, but ended up wiping out, on his face.
One segment that arguably should have been included was when Mike’s observation (of how he got You Had To Be There a year before he ever saw Jimmy live) caused Schmoe to add that his first concert was in 1982. Scott’s was in 1986. And I’m fuzzy on my first concert, but I think it was 1984. I can’t remember if we stated this so explicitly before.
One question I’d still like answered. If Son of a Son of a Sailor came out in March 1978 and You Had to Be There came from the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” tour of Summer 1978, in support of the new album, why is there only one song from SOAOAS on it? And one thing that struck me was how clean the sound is on CD. And how quietly attentive the audience is! I especially like the solo acoustic numbers, where you can actually tell Jimmy is looking down from the way his guitar’s sound-hole picks up his voice.
For those not up on Internet memes, Schmoe’s “banter banter banter” accompaniment comes from the infamous “Badger Badger Badger” song. Unaware of the litigation over “God’s Own Drunk”? The COB,O FAQ has a brief synopsis (19th question down or fifth from the bottom).
We didn’t get to say much about “Dixie Diner” (one of Greg’s stated favorites, as well as a reported favorite of Mike’s mom), due to everyone being so distracted once Elise arrived. One point of contention was whether this should be considered an instrumental, considering Fingers’s rhyming intro. Fingers recorded this for a solo album (1996’s Harpoon Man, I believe); but since that intro was not included there, maybe the Trivia Handbook (mentioned in Episode 29) was correct after all and the track should rightly be considered an instrumental Addendum: DJ has a problem with his portrayal in the Show Description. “The summary is incorrect,” he writes. “I do not wear a watch (hence I could not be checking it). I believe I had a mosquito bite on my wrist that was distracting me for some reason???”
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, April 18 2007 (10:00 PM – 11:00 PM), at Zodiac Racquet Club, Southgate MI
“We spend our last night at Zodiac talking about the Live at Texas Stadium CD. Scott gets back pain, Schmoe writes a new pirate play, Mickey is blind as a bat, and Mike has a long drive.”
We’re sorry about the delay in getting out this new episode. (We meant to record last week but our schedules would not allow it.) And now for the show notes, in a different format this time. 07:28 – Eli Zaret, is a local sports reporter and announcer. He’s known for a voice so husky and gravelly it makes you wonder how he got so big in broadcasting. 09:00 – the Season 1 Kids in the Hall skit is actually about the film Citizen Kane. Transcript here. 10:17 – Listener Tom of Maryland points out BuffettNews has already posted the full setlist of the Texas Stadium show. CMT also has a setlist and review. 16:44 – link to Amazon’s page for the Willis Alan Ramsey album; and you can read-along-with-Schmoe here 21:44 – the reason Scott sounds so far away is, by this time, he was sitting on the floor, resting his back against the wall 23:38 – “Heaven” is the name of this Uncle Kracker / Kid Rock / Paradime collaboration, off the CD Double Wide 25:33 – this week’s pirate joke, perhaps from Pirate Jokes.net, turned out to be such a cluster it was assumed I would edit it down into some semblance of coherence. However, hearing the whole thing fall apart was too much fun. Even so, this final product is still slightly edited down (mostly to remove all the times everyone had to repeat my lines for me). 27:09 – you can learn more about my afflication from the National Keratoconus Foundation or the Center for Keratoconus 27:22 – I link to James Gunn’s links to the infamous David O Russell video. Gunn is himself a film director (Slither) and I found his comments on Russell’s behavior illuminating 28:48 – Jason Alexander used the same joke in the finale of the third episode of NBC’s Thank God You’re Here, which aired Monday, April 16 (and not “last night”, as I implied) 29:06 – my snotty response to Schmoe’s pirate joke is based on a David Letterman catchphrase 29:54 – a boat being named the Seaward is from the Arrested Development episode “The One Where They Build a House” (and a boat being named C-Word is from the series finale “Development Arrested”)
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, March 28 2007 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM), at Zodiac Racquet Club, Southgate MI
“Our album review is Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes—containing plenty of latitude changes itself, as we detour past class songs, our first CDs, Roger Clyne, broken iPods, hidden tracks, and pirate jokes. Guest appearance by Smooth Jazz 98.7.”
Larry, proprietor of Zodiac Racquet Club, offered, on the Friday prior to our recording (our so-called “monthly” poker night), to set up a special and secluded spot for us this time. He assured us it would be quiet, but as you can tell it was not. I swear the Smooth Jazz sounds must be so constant the Zodiac staff have become immune. But, as Colonel Tigh would have pointed out, “It’s in theFRAKKINGSHIP!”
We were in a room neighboring the salon. Larry promised us a table and chairs, but these turned out to be a kind of end table and an assortment of bar stools and chair parts. Scott, in fact, reclined on a seatback resting on the floor, while I stood by the doorway. Behind me was the salon area, but about the only remaining fixture was a black sink. I was tempted to turn on the tap, for some aural evidence, but Mike warned me we had been told not to run the water. The sink was not connected anymore and turning it on would probably send water gushing into the racquet court below. This felt like even more of an incentive, but I restrained myself.
And thus, with the stage set, let us proceed with the show notes:
First off, the oft-mentioned Watering Hole.
Are there any Parrotheads interested in old Snoop Dogg news?
Read along with Schmoe! Here’s that Norbert Putnam article, from Mix Online.
The Euphoria spelling was brought up in Episode 29.
Greg also talked about WJR’s JP McCarthy playing “Margaritaville” in Episode 12.
Schmoe’s predisposition for commas was also exhibited in Episode 32.
Show Notes:
Recorded Saturday, March 10 2007 (6:30 PM – 12:00 AM), at Casa de Schmoe, Dearborn MI
“This week’s episode is dedicated to C.E. Smith. Another Saturday Night podcast, although the music under review is Don’t Stop the Carnival. Mickey, Mike, and Schmoe are present, with Scott reporting in on video chat; and with Schmoe’s and Mike’s kids in the background playing basketball.”
Did I get my Spanish right?
We were all assembled on Wednesday yet we were still unable to record. The lounge at Zodiac was very full and, like we said during the episode, we were unable to reserve our usual recording studio room. Even if we’d chosen to record in the main lounge, it would’ve been much too loud for decent audio. Thus, we quickly scheduled a backup recording date for the following Saturday, at Schmoe’s domicile. It turned into a nice little party, with plenty of beer, tequila-based Schmoetails, and lots of food. In fact, you can hear me munching away on chips as the show begins. (I also change places many times, in the stereo spectrum, because I didn’t want to chew too closely to the microphones…and I also enjoyed moving around.) Scott was unable to attend in person, but managed to spend a little time with us through iChat.
Why the talk about Daylight Saving Time? First because it’s a sham, but mainly because prepping and installing the patches for it ruined two days at work that week. (Fortunately the actual time change went smoothly.)
The Feedburner page for BuffettNews.com’s Buffett news podcast can be found here or you can subscribe here in iTunes.
While checking out the winner of Radio Margaritaville’s contest, Mike took a liking to this avatar in the BuffettNews discussion boards. It might interest Mike to know the owner of said avatar is described as a “grumpy old man”. Here’s the article proposing Jimmy Buffett’s material for Florida’s state song. This is Mike’s link to learn about Wicked. And by the way, it did not play the Fox Theatre when it was in Detroit; it was at the Masonic. And near the end of our tour dates discussion, it sounds like Schmoe is paraphrasing Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
By Scott’s request, we review Don’t Stop the Carnival this week. A quick overview of Herman Wouk’s work can be found in Wikipedia. The one thing that struck me most when reading Don’t Stop the Carnival was how episodic it was, with a hotelier’s worst-case-scenarios cropping up one after the other like a weekly sitcom. It almost reads like a precursor to Fawlty Towers. I was thus interested, when doing my research for the podcast, that TIME Magazine had noticed the same thing, in their review from 1965.
We have a Best Buy promo CD called Calaloo but nothing from Target. (I seem to recall something from Target though, but maybe I didn’t get it since it had nothing unique or original on it.) Scott mentions “Cairo”, from the Best Buy CD, which is also available on Club Trini’s Margaritaville Cafe New Orleans: Late Night Live. And the character I was trying to remember from South Pacific is of course “Bloody Mary”.
My iMix of Buffett covers can be found here [iTunes link]. Where is Joe Merchant? was approximately six years old when DSTC came out. And by “revolutionize” I meant “revitalize”.
Wikipedia has this to say about “calaloo” as a food. This episode’s excerpt of “Calaloo” comes from August 9 1997. (Jimmy mentions “Miami” because the preceding song was “Everybody’s Got a Cousin in Miami”.)
“No DRALS” was the slogan of the 1991 Outposts tour.
Hear the noises off to the left that sound like a basketball game? That’s Schmoe’s kids outside. My microphones picked it up with almost three-dimsional Holophonic™ quality — and it drives me crazy! (Later on you can hear Schmoe’s kids on the right side, playing video games.)
In our defense, the connection between G.E. Smith and Jimmy was established in 1994, when they collaborated on “Six String Music”, hence our natural assumption that “C.E. Smith” was simply a misprint in the liner notes. And I don’t want to point fingers, but we’re not the only JB fan site to have made this mistake. I’m disappointed it took us so long to make the correction, that the “Kinja Rules” vocalist is not only really C.E. Smith but that he was also part of the original theatrical cast; but my PowerBook was being used for Scott’s audio which prevented me from doing any web searches while we recorded. Here’s my page on my 1064-step climb up Mt Saba.
Norman Paperman needs H2O but some people actually want to ban it. Here’s more about the wandering comma in “God, Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. The noises Mike is making are an ode to the inimtable Victor Borge and his invention of Phonetic Punctuation. (There’s another cute clip of the routine here.)
I promise to digitize my “Green Flash at Sunset” video but until then here’s a cruder copy (in RealVideo) plus some other images from that Antigua trip of mine.
DSTC Phone Card, from Best Buy
Our big finish was blatantly stolen from comedian Todd Barry.
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, December 13 2006 (10:00 PM – 11:00 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
“Mickey, Schmoe, and Mike learn the true meaning of Christmas Island, as they present their all-singing all-dancing holiday special. Guests include Debby Boone, Donny and Marie, Charo, and Rosey Grier.”
I forgot to mention performances by Lola Falana and Joey Heatherton.
There’s a bit more background noise this week. Our room was commandeered by a group of women right before we arrived. Somehow they did not recognize it as our recording studio and just thought it was some non-smoking room. Scott promised to attend, but family illnesses got in the way. And I did find my CD of Christmas Island soon after the show.
And now, onto the show notes:
Not that it needs any more publicity, but in the interest of completeness this is the Taylor Hicks story to which Schmoe refers (via Buffett News). Here’s Amazon’s link to Tennessee Christmas, Amy Grant’s own link to A Christmas Album (again: highly recommended), and Mike’s approved Amazon link to his favorite Mitch Miller album. (By the way, I know Amy Grant is married to Vince Gill. Gary Chapman was her husband from 1982 to 1999 during which time A Christmas Album was recorded.) There were nine volumes in the Goodyear series of Christmas music compilations, 1961 through 1969, released through Columbia Records. My personal favorite is Volume Five, 1965. My old maxim was the only Christmas CDs you need are Amy’s A Christmas Album and Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas. Sadly, I’m so sick of every Mannheim Steamroller CD sounding the same that I can no longer endorse my own words.
You can learn more about Billy Idol’s Happy Holidays album here; and about the Who’s the Boss? there song here. Schmoe found a link where the Andrews Sisters sing “Christmas Island”.
Brian Wilson’s recording of “South American” is off his Imagination CD, released June 16 1998; and we saw Jimmy and him perform it in Cincinnati on July 25 1998.
The ukulele on “Mele Kalikimaka” was played by Peter Mayer. The “-buca” drink I was trying to think of was Sambuca. And the reason I cite Harry Potter podcasts as the worst has nothing at all to do with the books themselves. It’s just that almost everyone on PotterCast and MuggleCast annoys the crap out of me.
Much the same reason I don’t listen to ours either.
And speaking of goodwill to men: Happy Holidays everybody!
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, December 6 2006 (10:00 PM – 11:00 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
“Back with another recording, back to doing album reviews. Mike, Schmoe, and Mickey discuss Floridays, with additional (pre-recorded) comments from Hud, Dave Attell, and Leonard Nimoy.”
We’re back from our Thanksgiving break.
As you might have guessed, the bit was Hud was recorded the same night before we started the show proper. Hud did not stick around to be on the panel, but he shared a few words before he left. The Dave Attell comments are from his Skanks for the Memories CD. His store is closed but you can order the CD here.
My memory was slightly fuzzy in recalling “Creola”. What was cut from the LP was actually the “Forget about mumbo jumbo / Hello to the world of gumbo” couplet.
The comment about my personal “First Look” refers to a Windjammer trip to the Leeward Islands in 1998.
I thought there was a “Hoodlum Drink” explanation on some JB FAQ somewhere, but the best I can find is a Hoodlum Drink recipe.
I’m pleased searches for Run C&W show the CD is still available. Here’s their story, from one of the band members.
The last line of the show — “You want the pie?” / “Take it to your boys” — reminds me of a scene from The Godfather.
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, October 4 2006, (7:30 PM – 9:30 PM) at Casa de Schmoe in Dearborn MI
“Thanks to Radio Margaritaville, Sirius 31, we got to hear Jimmy’s new album ahead of its October 10 release date. Here are our pizza-and-tequila-fueled thoughts on the new material, from our listening party at Casa de Schmoe.”
Scott and I assembled at Schmoe’s house by six to listen to Radio Margaritaville’s preview of Take the Weather With You. Mike showed up about a half hour late, due to his long commute from work. Although scheduled for two hours, the preview lasted more like ninety minutes. We started recording almost immediately afterward, sitting around Schmoe’s kitchen table. Without wallyball or racquetball (or golf) preceding it, what we assumed would be a big night of podcasting actually ended earlier than our usual Wednesdays.
The pizzas came from Benito’s. The Coronas, margaritas, and Twisted Teas were Schmoe’s.
If you’ve forgotten, Hud’s cameo starts off Episode 7. Here’s some “Free Bird” history. And here’s some “Curtis Lowe” history. Scott pictures Heather Dee Perry.
Scott’s Brush with Greatness: Shock coach and former Piston Bill Laimbeer and former Lion coach Steve Mariucci.
Upon further reflection, “Cinqo de Mayo in Memphis” reminds me even more of “Clichés” than “Cuban Crime of Passion”. And I forgot to mention the presence of banjos in “Wheel Inside the Wheel”. Is this the first appearance of banjos in a JB album? [Update: once again Mickey has overlooked the License to Chill album, and its song “Piece of Work”.]
The guys yelled at me for adding “Cha cha cha” intermittently to “Silver Wings”, during the Sirius show.
Some of our research was helped by the fact the original versions of “Weather With You”, “Cinqo de Mayo in Memphis”, “Elvis Presley Blues”, “Wheel Inside the Wheel”, “Silver Wings” are available on iTunes.
Have fun listening to the album when it comes out! See you in a couple weeks. And, finally, how ’bout our new theme song!
P.S.: so, did you hear the news? Jimmy was arrested for injecting heroin in a Turkish airport. …Actually, French authorities insist they found Ecstasy during a baggage check. Jimmy has stated that the pills were actually a vitamin supplement called Foltx, and that customs was confused by a heart shape imprinted on the pills. Looks like Jimmy might be telling the truth.
Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, September 27 2006, (9:30 PM – 11:30 PM) at Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
“Scott, Mickey, Mike, and Schmoe review License to Chill, look back at the last concert, and look forward to the new album.”
I know the title is presumptuous, but it was the best I could do this late at night. (Not that we’re losers — that you will play us [and then do so again].)
This week’s episode kicks off with an immediate defection: Don, our resident Michael Bolton fan.
I don’t remember when Emeril came to Michigan, but I guess it was some time in the late 90s.
The only “occupational hazard” I found in 21 Jump Street is a chapter name of “The Narc” episode in the Season 3 DVD box set. And The Doctor, a 1991 film starring William Hurt, was mentioned as “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” plays a part in the story.
My apologies for the audio dropouts during the JB interview. It was recorded off the Sirius downstream feed.
Jimmy’s new album features several covers. We sought those out on iTunes and were planning to base the episode on our impressions of these songs — our attempt at a scoop. But this also meant we’d be reviewing the same songs twice, once the new album is released. It was Joe’s idea to review the most recent album instead, License to Chill. Although I like the songs, I have a hard time remembering that this is in the discography. I guess it’s because of all the guest stars; it feels more like a “various artists compilation” or tribute album more than a “Buffett album”. License to Chill was released July 13 2004, the nineteenth anniversary of Live Aid.
I was confused in my discussion of “Quietly Making Noise”. We heard it July 4 1993, during the Chameleon Caravan tour. The Fruitcakes tour I mentioned obviously followed the Fruitcakes album, in 1994.
The Sports Illustrated CD-ROM can be seen here (bottom right).
This is the e-mail Scott sent out, the morning the CD was released.
From: Scott Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:09 AM To: All Subject: License to Chill Review
Well, jumped out of bed at 11:30 to hit Meijer’s CD department. The kid working the aisle was moderately upset because he had chosen to start with the new Pistons DVD and did not really want to dig through the boxes of CD’s at that moment. However I convinced him I was not in a hurry and would help him stock the pistons DVD that he chose to start with. 10 minutes later we were done and he went to find my CD, after another 10 minutes he came back with my $15 CD — which I thought was outrageous, but Jimmy needs the money! At the register it rang up $9.98. I was pleasently surprised!
So I walked hastily to my car tearing off the plastic and having a reserved yet good feeling. After all, this was supposed to be a Country album and my friends know Country scares me! But, for Jimmy I would ride the tide and remain open-minded!!
Song One: “Hey Good Lookin'” (Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and some more country people): We all know the song and CMT has been playing the heck out of the video. It’s an ok song it will be fun in concert.
Song Two: “Boats to Build” with Alan Jackson: Solid Buffett. Easy to listen to. This song will grow on me! Well be fun to sing in concert!
Song Three: “License to Chill” with Kenny Chesney: Same as above
Song Four: “Coast of Carolina”: Stopped on this one and listened to it twice! Great Buffett!! This is an outstanding song both lyrically and musically! Thank you Jimmy — you still have got it!!
Song Five: “Piece of Work” with Toby Keith: This song is has interesting lyrics I’ll have to listen to it a couple of times to be sure but it seems good!
Song 6: “Anything Anytime Anywhere”: This song is going to have to grow on me. My initial reaction is to put it at the end of my iPod “License to Chill” playlist!
Song 7: “Trip around the Sun” with Martina McBride: I like the two of them together. I think they sound good! It is pretty twangy but I won’t skip to the next song!
Song 8: “Simply Complicated”: This song reminds me of “Math Suks”! It’s fun but nothing you are going to be humming. Put it at the end of your JB mix, next to “Math Suks”!
Song 9: “Coastal Confessions”: Once again Buffett reminds us of why we follow him! Solid song!!
Song 10: “Sea of Heartbreak” with George Strait: Very Country, but you can listen to it!
Song 11: “Conky Tonkin'” with Clint Black: (This was the original title of the Album according to my sources.) This is classic country and to be honest I don’t like Clint Black at all. It will be near the bottom of my playlist!
Song 12: “Playin’ the Loser Again” will Bill Withers: Once again, very country but I enjoyed this one a little better then the last! The song behind the country is a good song! Bill Withers sounds good. The second time around I enjoyed this song even more! God, I hope I am not becoming a redneck!
Song 13: “Window on the World”: I enjoyed this song first time out. Moved its way to #3 on the play list!
Song 14: “Someone I Used to Love” with Nancy Griffith: This does not sound like a Buffett song at all. Not knowing Country I have never heard of Nanci Griffith, but they sound good together. Damn, I think I am going to have to buy a beat-up pickup truck and a dog and start drinking beer!!
Song 15: “Scarlet Begonias”: This is a solid tune! Great concert song! This will move to #1 on the playlist!
Song 16: “Back to the Island”: Jimmy reminds us that he has not forgot his roots and will indeed return to the islands!
All in all, a solid album and has this boy enjoying a short boat ride through the Country! As long as it is a short ride I am willing to expand my horizon and I give this album an enthusiastic thumbs up!!
2:08 AM! That’s a wrap!!
Incidentally, this is the first episode with our new logo artwork. It was designed by my niece Heather, who runs Asteriou Designs. As Joe said, it looks too professional for our little podcast, but we’ll use it anyway.
> Download Episode 45A
