THE AMAZING BONZONI, DEREK BAILEY, EVAN PARKER, SAKI, etc.

  According to my extensive research, Stan Laurel's comedy formula was "tell them what you're going to do, then do it, then tell them what you just did."
  In this spirit, I posted about a Hot Plate! recording session, then went to the recording studio and recorded the session, and now I will tell you how it went.
  We recorded a few different segments. One recurring feature of the show, Devil's Music Advocate, focused on avant garde music this time around. We listened to music by infamous British guitarist Derek Bailey, who some consider to have been a notorious charlatan or con artist. The list of people who don't like Derek Bailey's music is not a long one, because if you've even heard of him at all you're probably an adventurous listener. He pings, plonks and scrapes his way through a tiny personal universe, creating musical statements that are absorbingly beautiful if you know how to listen to them. Devil's Music Advocate is about learning how to listen to music. I have years of musical training etc., but learning how to listen doesn't require much training or effort. If you've ever taken a yoga class, sat through a Super Bowl, or watched an episode of the heinous sitcom Two Broke Girls, you're more than intellectually qualified to listen to avant garde music. And contrary to the assumptions of many of my friends, it's actually fun.
  One of my favorite overheard quotes about avant garde music (in this case it was a jazz skronk session filled with squealing and shrieking saxophone) is "I just don't see how any human can enjoy this, except for the musicians and their spouses."
  We avoided skronk territory on this episode, in favor of a more low key chamber music kind of aesthetic. In addition to a lot of Bailey, we looked at solos and duets by Eugene Chadbourne, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker. One track that may surprise some listeners was from a glittering banjo duo performance with Chadbourne and the much more mainstream Tony Trischka.

DEVIL'S MUSIC ADVOCATE-- DEREK BAILEY, STEVE LACY, MUDDY WATERS, LED ZEP, ETC.

  Tonight in the studio we are recording some conversations for the radio show.
  One segment will be the first installment of Devil's Music Advocate, which is more or less "Karl Straub for the Defense" of whichever benighted music genre we're dealing with on that episode. Tonight it's Avant Garde music, and my friend and colleague Martin Beam will be on hand to help me take a look at some improvised solos and duets by guitarists Derek Bailey and Eugene Chadbourne and soprano saxophonists Steve Lacy and Evan Parker, as well as Min Xiaofen on the Chinese pipa and Tony Trischka on banjo.
  Another segment debuting tonight is Total Ripoff, where I'll discuss the fine line between music plagiarism and music borrowing. We'll look at controversial connections between the music of Led Zeppelin and Muddy Waters, and we'll listen to an early pre-fame interview Muddy did with Alan Lomax that touched on these issues, recorded a couple years before Jimmy Page was born.
  If we get to it, we'll also talk about some early B.B. King singles where the master was still getting his sound together, and cranking his amp up to a level of raunch that we don't usually associate with him these days. But we might have to get into B.B. King another night-- I have to sleep sometime.

NEIL SIMON'S MUCH LESS FAMOUS OLDER BROTHER, DANNY SIMON

  I'm stumbling around with bloodshot eyes this morning, following yesterday's late night HOT PLATE recording session.
  Did a great interview with Dave Nuttycombe, where we talked a bit about his checkered past making hilarious films with Travesty, Ltd., but our main topic was Neil Simon's much less famous older brother, Danny Simon. Danny was an underappreciated comedy writer (Sid Caesar, Danny Thomas, The Facts of Life, etc.), and Dave told me some stories about Simon and the comedy writing seminars he taught years ago.
  Monday night is the panel discussion with Thomas Alderson and Keith Grimes, where I'll shift gears from the serious subject of TV comedy to a much more ludicrous area-- today's political discourse.

NOODLES--THE SILENT KILLER

http://www.aqueoustudio.com/camarillo_concerts/index.html

Practicing today for the show. I would have started already, except my son's ramen noodles spilled all over his bag and had to be abandoned, necessitating my trip to his school with an alternate lunch. Be careful out there, people! A dry turkey sandwich with no mayo isn't the most delicious way to fortify a middle schooler, but it's hard to imagine a dry turkey-related mishap that would require your dad to bring you a change of clothes.