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Posts Tagged ‘Music’

“Music is Normal Life”

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on April 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In 1966, when Bob and I were going to our Senior Prom in NJ, a suburban Jersey housewife, mother of two daughters, was busy writing songs and trying to keep her husband, Gerry Goffin, away from LSD. Carole King is one of the most prolific, phenomenal pop divas of our generation. And her song, the one Aretha Franklin performed to No 1 stellar star status, is the title of her new memoir, “A Natural Woman.”
This will absolutely be on my must-read list!

And natural she is, with her halo of grey hair and make-up-free face, King was always true to her music, and herself. Over the years she’s had four husbands, four kids, and won four Grammys in 1972. You have to love a woman who is unapologetic, who still comes across like the Jewish Mama from Brooklyn (originally), who only wants to take care of her family and make everybody feel good. “I kept pushing music away because I thought it was keeping me from having a normal life. At this moment, I understand that for me, music is normal life,” King says.

Let’s think about what a natural, and normal life is like for a woman in the spotlight. Becoming famous is almost like putting a magnifying glass between the star and the light – it can only burn. Look at Ashley Judd. A brilliant woman, who happens to be from a musical family but chose acting instead, is speaking publicly about the objectification of women. You’all know my feelings about this. Thank you Ashley for not just explaining your “puffy face,” but for calling our culture and the media to task. “You have to suffer to be beautiful,” that’s what the Flapper would tell me as she combed and pulled my hair out of my head to make perfect braids. It’s time we gave our daughters a different message. “Normal” life is whatever you make it, and a natural woman is beautiful. Beauty is illusory.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/09/ashley-judd-slaps-media-in-the-face-for-speculation-over-her-puffy-appearance.html

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Dogs

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on October 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

They’re on the road again. “The band’s on the bus… And they’re waiting to go We’ve got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago Or Detroit, I don’t know We do so many shows in a row And these towns all look the same We just pass the time in our hotel rooms And wander ’round backstage Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd And we remember why we came…” …OK, so I have a thing for Jackson Browne, don’t blame me, I just sing that way. Whiny and soulful.

the Bride and the Rocker

I’d like to thank my kind neighbors, Polli, Stacy, Sheila, you know who you are, who endured the Rocker’s teenage years with his first band in our Jersey garage. No one ever called the police or complained about the noise level, even after a noise ordinance was passed by the Borough and I had to write it up in the newspaper. He wasn’t the drummer, he always played guitar and would sing. But for some reason, probably having to do with those kind neighbors, the drums stayed set up in our garage. Almost every day after high school, I’d supply the soda and offer up snacks like bagel dogs and ask them to keep it down to a low roar. Our garage was the last stop for a Heavy Metal angst from neighboring Monmouth schools who played clubs up and down the shoreline.

The new Parlor Mob album “Dogs” comes out on Tuesday, 10/11. They’ll be playing The Horseshoe in West Toronto that night. I’ve already pre-ordered Dogs on iTunes.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/dogs/id460723913

TPM flew out to LA this past week, packed the Viper Room, sold out shows on the way, rocked radio PR meetings, and will be packing it up for Canada tomorrow. Then they return to play to their hometown fans at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park later this week. Once the record starts selling, I’m pretty sure their Booking Agent will ship them off to Europe again, where they have won over legions with their bluesy/rock hybrid style.

The Mob’s new single “Into the Sun” is available now, and I can guarantee, it’s a far cry from my garage with the beat up sofa and the big American flag hanging over the door.

The boys have grown up and they’ll be back in town again. Maybe I’ll see you on the road? Their show is really something, rousing, raucous and beautiful. I’m proud of you all, love and luck to Mark, Paul, Sam and Tony and to my Rocker, I love you More! Rock ON!! Roadrunner Records has their tour dates here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/tour/search.aspx?artistID=1137&stateID=0&countryID=0


					
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Movers and Shakers

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged ,  on August 23, 2011|
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Don’t know if the earth moved for you, but I just downloaded Into the Sun from iTunes. Come out of the darkness and listen to the rumble.





					
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Facebook Fever

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , ,  on August 12, 2011|
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A quick good morning to ask a favor. My son, the Rocker’s band needs only 957 more “Likes” to make 10,000 by tomorrow, would you be kind enough to click “Like?” Thanks a bunch.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Parlor-Mob/5962064315


TPM in French Vogue


August 2011 in your local Barnes and Noble now folks!

					
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Parlor Mob

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged ,  on May 31, 2011|
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Once upon a time when my high schooler, the Rocker, had a metal band in our garage, Bob and I caught a midday movie called House of Rock, at the Monmouth Mall. With a handful of people in the darkened theatre, in walked a family during the previews with 3 little kids. They sat in our row. They laughed at the same jokes. As we were all getting up to leave, I said to the dad who was closest to me, “Just wait ’till you have a heavy metal band in your garage.” He laughed and said, “I know.” That voice under the cap. While walking up the aisle, I looked at the back of his skinny legs in tight jeans and knew it was the Boss.


Bob's blue light cell pix


Last weekend my son’s band was headlining at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. It’s an iconic music venue that was nearly torn down during a 90s urban renewal craze. The beautiful carousel horses on its Boardwalk were split up and auctioned off. Luckily, the Pony, where Springsteen got his start, remains refurbished and ready to welcome the next generation of Rock and Roll. It was well known that Bruce would even occasionally drop by in the wee hours to play with some astonished young musicians. But on this night, nearly a thousand young people were here just to see the Parlor Mob.


The Rocker endured 2 years of violin lessons, through 2nd and 3rd grade, in order to play his coveted guitar. And once that 9 year old little boy got his first Sunburst Fender, it never left his hands. The Rocker was reluctantly launched  for college, leaving his garage band behind after one of his bandmates had already left for NY to study sound engineering. But a band called What About Frank beckoned, and he left TCNJ to play guitar at the local hot spots. He delivered pizza. This was one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as a parent, that my expectations for my children are not theirs. That at some point, you have to let go, and let them follow their passion.


Our Rocker on Right


Now The Parlor Mob has recorded their second album (not counting the first they produced as What About Frank), they have a contract with Roadrunner Records, and are getting really good bar food! They played for nearly 2 hours and I could look into the crowd and see kids singing along with them, some even transported into another world by their music. The industry has changed since Bruce started out, but the story and the music remains. TPM is an amazing live act, incredibly tight and anthemic in their range; everyone a brilliant musician with a singer whose voice is rich and strong. And that’s not just one proud rocker mom talking.  I can’t wait for this next record to be released, and to see them at some point of their European Tour next year?

					
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Picasso

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged  on May 15, 2011|
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While my daughter the Bride was exploring Seattle, and my son the Rocker was debuting his band’s sophomore album in Brooklyn, Bob and I decided not to sit around on our laurels, so we traveled to Richmond to see Picasso at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). I knew I wasn’t a Northerner anymore because while strolling through this crowded museum space, people would apologize for either bumping into me, or crossing in front of me. I almost clicked my heels over the sheer civility of it all!


Born in Spain in 1881, Pablo Picasso made Paris his home at the age of 22. The sheer volume of this exhibit in Richmond is extraordinary, but only a small example of the 50,000 works he produced over his lifetime – all done in different mediums. As the museum’s literature so succinctly put it: “Picasso … remained open to all kinds of stimulation and restlessly moved on to new forms (and women I might add) before depleting any one style of expression.” He and his room mate, Braques, developed a different way of interpreting their world, they called it Cubism. 


By the age of 12 Picasso was a better painter than his own father, and could paint in the representational style of Dutch masters. But as he said when he painted his son in a jester’s costume, his paintings had to leave space, things unfinished, because that was his art. Soon afterward, he was deconstructing and fracturing the human form in ways almost unrecognizable. His paintings and sculpture not only represent his own inner world, they reflect the tumultuous times, the wars, and a movement – the “modern” aesthetic that sustained him.


Touring the exhibit was a most holy ritual. Seeing up close and personal his style of plastering paint on canvas and then hatching it off, the sequential photos of him preparing his masterpiece of war, Guernica, and the brilliant  portraits of his wives and mistresses, left me breathless. I came away realizing genius and madness are closer than we think. His advice while living in the South of France after WWII was to, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”


Waiting in Line


We always encouraged our children to follow their passion, which explains the scientist and the artist traveling around the country. Music coursed through our son’s veins, he could never deny that muse. And I wish him and the Parlor Mob an amazingly  successful second album and world-wide tour! Here is a picture of the Rocker a couple of years ago in Paris. I would love to see how Picasso would paint those long red legs!




Photography was prohibited inside VMFA (included is a  shot standing in the line). But here is a website that lets you create an artistic portrait, not in Picasso’s style unfortunately, with a photo.  I wish you a life as long and vitally creative as Pablo, and fun playing with computer imagery. This is what becomes of my face, when treated to a Modigliani interpretation! What makes me think he may have had astigmatism?




http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/index.html

					
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