Dec 072015
RTH has been a lonely place lately. My excuse has been spending 10 days in Italy. While wondering around Rome (my wife and I walked 36 miles in 4 days!) we stumbled upon a church. And, yes, I know that’s not hard to do in Rome. This was one I’ve never been to before and I can’t even remember the name. Pretty plain by Rome standards. I snapped this picture of a side altar:
What a Marshall amp was doing on an altar in Rome I have no idea.
Do you? Any unlikely place you’ve stumbled on rock & roll lately?
Great photo, al.
Alas, I had minimal interaction with Rock and Roll when we were in Rome over the last couple of years. As you may recall, the closest I came to a Rock Music moment was seeing lots of the young folk wearing vintage Pink Floyd t-shirts. Whatevs.
Mr. Royale and I have been upping our travel quotient these days, having just returned from a quick jaunt to Connecticut to visit his family. Not much Rock and Roll in Fairfield County, and certainly not on the car stereos of my in-laws. That said, my high school-age nephew has expressed interest in knowing more about old-school rock music. During a Thanksgiving walk, as he pounced on his younger sister, I took the opportunity to let him know that he might like a band called The Ramones, as they have songs titled “Beat on the Brat” and “Rock ‘N Roll High School.”
Our next trip is down to Los Angeles in January for the opening of Mr. Royale’s painting show. At his last show, David J showed up, so I have a heightened expectation that maybe we’ll see Daniel Ash, or lord almighty, Peter Murphy. You never can tell in LA.
As I was opening another door on my advent calendar, I had another rock sighting. Imagine a artistically-drawn image of Buckingham Palace shrouded in snow and covered with wreaths and bunting. Open up one of the little windows and who awaits? Why, it’s a tiny Brian May holding his guitar with the words “We Will Rock You” in a thought bubble above his head.
I wish I could stumble over some rock ‘n roll at work. I LOVE my coworkers and know them well, but only a few if them have interesting taste in music. The most fun I get in the office us a quarterly reading over my dislike if the Smiths from one of my friends/staff members. She just told me that one of our new UK colleagues is also a Smiths fan. I bit my tongue, but the new guy’s going to hear it from me, if he doesn’t attack me first.
Friday’s Philadelphia Inquirer had a notice of the death of George Manney, a long time Philadelphia drummer, studio owner, filmmaker, rock archivist and all around good guy. Having done recordings with two of my bands as well as a weird personal demo of a song at his studio, I can vouch that he was a joy to work with and extremely gracious. I will likely revisit the recording of Madeline Manney, George’s mother, singing a nifty little tango titled “Our Love Affair” from the “Minutes to the Millenium” compilation in his memory.
Have you seen this?
http://thischarmingcharlie.tumblr.com
Peter Cetera has a secret, an announcement that is going to SHOCK the world! What could it be?
http://petercetera.com/
Merry Xmas!
Is he going to let the corpse of Terry Kath take his place?
Quite a lonely place as I had to backtrack nine weeks to post this newsflash:
The venerable “Mystery Date” theme, resurrected by the Mighty RTH, was just used as transitional babble between songs by Little Steven on his Underground Garage show on this Valentine’s Day, 2016.
Faithfully submitted by yours truly,
Douglas C. Nie…
oh wait…it’s been too long
aloha
LD