The Johnny Bacardi LiveJournal Show

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 33.

: jbacardi; June 17th, 9:20

Current Music:: Blue Oyster Cult- Mirrors

A sketch of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, done during a slow period at work. He's jumping down on tiger or gorilla soldiers which are just out of the picture (because I don't have any visual ref handy for them).

It's funny- in the 70's, when the Kirby run came out, I didn't buy many issues of Kamandi even though I liked other Kirby DC titles such as Mister Miracle and The Demon. Something about the storylines and ideas Kirby used seemed kinda recycled and second-hand. Of course, I was missing the point, and seeing many of those old comics posted here and there on the Net makes me want to get a collection and read them from beginning to end, because now they look like a lot of fun and balls-out action.

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 32.

: jbacardi; June 3rd, 15:16

Current Music:: ELO- Time

Another pencil sketch of Poison Ivy, this time pitching a product that would seem to be a natural for her.

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression, poison ivy

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 31.

: jbacardi; May 26th, 11:25

Current Music:: Roger Daltrey- Daltrey

I was having a good time hunting up pics of Batman villain Poison Ivy on the Intarwub yesterday, and posting them on my Tumblr site...and apparently that inspired me to do one of my own that I now share with you. Hope you like.

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression, poison ivy

Hello? Is this thing on?

: jbacardi; April 17th, 14:49

Current Music:: Adrian Belew- Inner Revolution

Just thought I'd see if this thing still worked.

How y'all doin?

See ya when I see ya, and I'm still reading all the blogs on my friends page.

Tags: me myself and i

10 Books that Dog-Eared My Brain

: jbacardi; March 19th, 20:45

Current Music:: Wings- Venus and Mars

My brain feels dog-eared quite often, actually. Anyway, Dave Fiore tagged me with this on Facebook, so how can I refuse? These will be in the order I think of them.

The spiel: "This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it! Ten books you've read that will always stick with you. First ten you can recall in no more than 15 minutes."

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker. The diary-narration format fascinated me, plus it was so damn different from any movie I had seen. I bet I've read this a dozen times.

2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The copy I read and read and read again came from the town public library (as did Dracula above), and was illustrated by David Levine. I do believe it was the first book I ever checked out of a library.

3. Snake Baked a Hoecake, author unknown. This one came from the Elementary School library; it was a collection of old Americana-style songs and rhymes, mostly from pre-1900's. "Asked my mom for fifteen cents/to see the elephant jump the fence/he jumped so high/ he reached the sky/ and didn't come back till the Fourth of July". That kind of stuff.

4. Slovenly Peter, by Dr. Henry Hoffmann. AKA "StruwwelPeter". I'm sure many of you are familiar with this crudely illustrated book of cautionary tales for kids, with a surreal, cruel edge. I was fascinated by it. Mine was a mid-1900's American translation. I still have it.

5. 13 Ghosts by Dorothy Spicer. A collection of ghost stories from different countries. Go here: http://johnnybacardi.blogspot.com/2005/04/submitted-for-your-approval-one-of-my.html

6. Ball Four by Jim Bouton. Bouton's legendary expose of Major League Baseball. I thought this was the funniest thing I had ever read at the time.

7. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. You all know this one, I'm sure.

8. The D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths. Simple reference book to Greek mythology, gorgeously illustrated in color pencils.

9. A Golden Field Guide: Stars by Herbert Zim and Robert Baker. When I was a preteen, I was fascinated by stars, planets and constellations in the night sky, and the attendant mythology behind them. I spent a lot of time in my backyard, with a flashlight, trying to locate all the different patterns and significant stars. I still spend a lot of time gazing into the sky at night, whenever I'm out there. The more things change...

10. 1950 World Atlas. This was a big reference book (and I forget the publisher) left with my grandparents when I stayed with them in the 1960's. Might have belonged to my Aunt, who knows. Anyway, it was stuffed full of pictures, and of particular interest to me was a choice assortment of political cartoons which occupied the last dozen or so pages. I have clear distinct memories of looking at those cartoons and listening to Meet the Beatles many times.

As always, I'm not tagging anyone but if you'd like to do this, please let me know so I can read yours.

Tags: thanks for the memeories

What's Your Personality Type?

: jbacardi; March 12th, 22:15

Current Music:: Sparklehorse- Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer

You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal.
A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways.
In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music.
You find it easy to be devoted to one person... a partner who you do special things for.

In love, you express your emotions through actions.
Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well!

At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time.
You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

via

budgie_uk ,

grandmofhelsing , and others

Tags: quizzy quiz quiz

What Kind of Superhero Would You Be?

: jbacardi; March 3rd, 19:54

Current Music:: Kate Bush- The Red Shoes

You Would Be a Upstanding Superhero

You are alert and observant. You can see through people easily. You know who's evil and who's good.

You need a lot of freedom in your life. You like to do your own thing, and you don't fit into any normal mold.

Through lots of life experience, you understand the world well. You can often predict what people will do before they even think of doing it.

You tend to feel apart from the rest of the world. You don't really fit in, and you don't try to!

You are a true intellectual. You are thirsty for knowledge, and you are curious about the world.

What Kind of Superhero Would You Be?

via

grandmofhelsing

Tags: quizzy quiz quiz

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 30.

: jbacardi; February 27th, 7:58

Current Music:: Strawbs- Ghosts

For Dave Lartigue, here's a commissioned drawing of Space Cabby (or "Cabbie", if you will), another of DC's "only in the Golden Age"-type characters, who operated under a simple premise: in the future, in outer space, people will need transportation from one planet to the next, and what better than a cab? And that's what our boy here did. Now, I've only read one or two of the stories, so I don't know if he was a solo operator, or if there were fleets of celestial cab drivers, or if they ever revealed his real name. But the stories were fun, and I plan on reading more in the future. It would be NICE if DC would collect them, but I won't stand on one leg waiting.

I really wish I was a better inker- I had a good idea, but my incompetent inking skills have made this pretty hard to look at, for me anyway. I can also see a couple of lines I should have extended farther back, stuff like that. But hey- perhaps I'll get better with repetition, so if you would like to take a chance on me (like ABBA once sang) and commission me to do something for YOU, send me an email or comment! You'll find I'm disgustingly cheap. And I don't charge much either.

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression

Top 25 Most Influential Albums meme

: jbacardi; February 24th, 12:56

Current Music:: Patty Griffin- Children Running Through

Boy, Facebook has gone meme crazy lately! And I have my own flesh and blood to blame for this one! Britt tagged me with this, and I figured what the heck, I'll put it up on the LJ as well.

The title is self-evident, and I'm taking it to mean 25 albums that were most influential in shaping my music-listening tastes for all time, or at least for the duration. This is, as many I've seen have noted, VERY DIFFICULT- mostly because I'm trying to list albums that were truly influential, rather than just being a favorite. Case in point: The Flaming Lips' SOFT BULLETIN, one of the best albums I've ever heard in my misbegotten life- I love it dearly, but it didn't really shape my musical tastes to speak of, since it's a relatively recent (app. 5 years ago) discovery...so it will not be on the list. Another: Eels' DAISIES OF THE GALAXY.

Enough blather- here goes nothing, and in no particular order other than when I though of them:

1. MEET THE BEATLES- ever since hearing my dear Aunt Lavana's copy at the tender young age of four. Other candidates: REVOLVER (my favorite), ABBEY ROAD.

2. VEEDON FLEECE- Van Morrison. Evocative, heartfelt jazz/R&B/blues/folk release by the Celtic Soul Brother at the height of his powers. Opened my eyes and ears to a whole different style of music.

3. SCHOOL'S OUT- Alice Cooper. This was my first classic Cooper Group album, and as so often is the case it stuck with me. I love 'em all, but you never forget your first.

4. SOLOMON'S SEAL- The Pentangle. The final 70's release by the great British Folk/Jazz group, although I didn't know it at the time. Wonderful mix of styles, from modern to traditional, and you can't beat the combination of Bert jansch and John Renbourn on guitars, and the great Danny Thompson on bass.

5. ELEMENT OF LIGHT- Robyn Hitchcock. Arguably the best album by the benignly loopy pop-rocker, I picked it up after reading a rave review in CREEM magazine. His Syd Barrett meets John Lennon circa 1970 style hit me in just the right place, and helped me to appreciate a lot of other great alternative music that was popping up in the mid-1980s.

6. MASTER OF REALITY- Black Sabbath. My first exposure to Ozzy & Co, and by extension what was just beginning to be called heavy metal. I was fascinated by Ozzy's weird, nasal voice and the droning guitar sound of Tony Iommi. I was also impressed by how easily they could segue from sludge to lovely acoustic ballads, done to greater effect on subsequent releases.

7. A WIZARD/A TRUE STAR- Todd Rundgren. Todd at his most creative and playful.

8. MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION- Parliament. Listening to this in the kitchen of Carmen's Pizza, I gave up the Funk and became born again hard in the P-Funk Army.

9. STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK- King Crimson. I liked other Prog bands, like ELP, whose BRAIN SALAD SURGERY should probably be on this list, but KC were the Prog genre's leading light, in my opinion. Loved everything about this record, from Robert Fripp's guitar sound to the complicated arrangements. When I went exploring further into their catalog, I found others I liked even more, but again, this was the first.

10. DIRTY MIND- Prince. After I saw Prince perform "Partyup" on SNL back in 1980 or so, when he slammed down the mike and stormed offstage after the acapella ending, I knew I had to check this guy out. This spare, minimal but still very funky album holds up well to this day. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, anything he did from 1979 till 1994 or so is golden.

11. PUSSY CATS- Harry Nilsson. I already owned the 45 of the goofy but endearing "Coconut", with its excellent gospel/rock b-side "Down", but this was my first Nilsson long player. I think it was John Lennon's co-producer credit which enticed me to bum 6 bucks off my mom to buy it off the rack in 1974. Came to find out it was a bit of an atypical album, with a somewhat complicated backstory, but I came to love it and was a steadfast Harry fan until he died in 1995.

12. TIM- The Replacements. Another album, like R.E.M.'s LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT, the Rainmakers' TORNADO, Matthew Sweet's GIRLFRIEND, and the Rave-Ups' TOWN AND COUNTRY, which opened my ears to the by the late 80's-early 90's in full force alternative, and alternative country, scene. Hard to explain how much I love this album. I consider myself fortunate to have seen these guys twice, but unfortunately never with original guitarist Bob Stinson, who bowed out on this release.

13. IV- Led Zeppelin. For memories of sitting cross-legged in the floor, burning incense, listening to this on my old 8-track player, and reading all kinds of books and comics, if nothing else. They never did a bad album, and I love III and HOUSES OF THE HOLY almost as much.

14. APOSTROPHE (')- Frank Zappa. Actually, I like HOT RATS and BURNT WEENY SANDWICH a bit more, but again, this was my first exposure to FZ, surely one of the great American composers. And a right fair guitarist.

15. A PASSION PLAY- Jethro Tull. People either loved or hated this album-length suite of songs; I found it amazingly clever, both lyrically and arrangement-wise. Of course, i was 13, whaddaya expect?

16. THE GREAT LOST KINKS ALBUM. This was an odds-and-sods 1973 release by Reprise records, who the Kinks owed one more album when they signed with RCA. The Kinks didn't know that Reprise was going to do this, and didn't approve of it, so it got deleted real fast. Of course, I didn't know that, and fell in love with this amalgam of B-sides, TV/movie soundtrack cuts, and selections from an unreleased Dave Davies solo album.

17. GOAT'S HEAD SOUP- The Rolling Stones. As with Dylan, who (surprisingly) doesn't make this list although I love many of his albums, I was really slow to dig into the Stones' catalog. My first was the kinda sorta best of MADE IN THE SHADE (Junior year in High School, I think it was, we listened to "Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" a LOT when we were building homecoming floats, and it stuck with me), but this, surprisingly, was the first Stones album I owned. Features the aforementioned "Doo Doo Doo" song, as well as the lovely "Winter", "Starfucker", one of the best Chuck Berry nicks ever, and of course big hit "Angie". That said, EXILE ON MAIN STREET is by far (well, not THAT far) their best and my favorite.

18. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE'S GREATEST HITS. Not a bad cut on this best-of. I'll always be in debt to WT Stinson for bringing the cassette to school in 6th grade, so we could listen to it through our headphones when we were supposed to be listening to reading lessons or some crap like that.

19. DRAGON FLY- Jefferson Starship. This was the first release by the reconfigured Airplane; I knew nothing of their past history (except "White Rabbit", which I heard on the radio), but I loved the album cover...and as is the case so often, I liked the music within even more (see album #2 above). They got really crappy not long after, but this record cuts almost everything else in their catalog, even the Airplane stuff. In my opinion.

20. THE HOOPLE- Mott The Hoople. My first was the best-of from Atlantic Records, ROCK AND ROLL QUEEN, but this was from their more creatively fertile Columbia days, and when I brought it home at age 14, I had never heard anything like it in my life.

21. BOULDERS- Roy Wood. Creative, inventive, playful, and always melodic. I had already heard ELO, and had picked up the grab-bag BEST OF THE MOVE (Roy's previous engagements), but nothing I heard on those records prepared me for this amazing one-man-band effort.

22. ON THE BEACH- Neil Young. Had a Wet Willie album here, but I simply could not leave this album, which meant so much to me as a kid, off the list. I'm a little dismayed that I overlooked it when I was trying to come up with the entries here anyway. Neil's glum masterpiece, it helped me through a lot of down times as I tried to navigate high school.

23. SONGS FOR THE NEW DEPRESSION- Bette Midler. Go here: http://johnnybacardi.blogspot.com/2003/02/songs-for-new-depression-1976-release.html

24. ON THE THIRD DAY- Electric Light Orchestra. I loved all the early ELO albums, but this one stands out in my mind and cemented my fandom, which admittedly flagged in their Bee Gees-lite disco late 70's period and beyond.

25. THE SLIDER- T.Rex. My first exposure to the meteor that was Marc Bolan, thanks to Keith Martin, who gave me one of his brother's old 8-tracks of this record that his bro didn't want anymore. To this day, I dig Bolan as much as any musician I've ever listened to.

I left off a LOT of excellent records which I loved as a kid and on up; no Elton, Rod Stewart/Faces, Beefheart, Beach Boys, Donovan, Dylan, Maria Muldaur, Wendy Waldman, Bonnie Raitt (HOME PLATE), and so on. I could probably do a 50 or 100-long list. You wouldn't want me to do that, would you?

Again, I will tag no one but If you're foolish enough, I mean want to do it, please tag me so I can read yours.

Tags: music, thanks for the memeories

You know if there's a rock show/at the Concertgebeau...

: jbacardi; February 20th, 19:34

Current Music:: Joni Mitchell- The Hissing of Summer Lawns

I saw where someone else had posted a list like the one I'm about to lay on you, and it intrigued me- I don't think I've ever tried to compile one. I've been to see a fair amount of concerts, although I know many have me beat by miles, but here's my attempt to list every concert, or to be more specific, every musician of note, that I've seen in my so-called life. I've left off shows by local musicians that never really got signed or have never released music on a major label, although one or two might sneak on here before I'm done. To the best of my admittedly hit-or-miss memory, I present to you MY CONCERT LIST:

Alice Cooper
Suzi Quatro
Boston
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Journey
Jethro Tull
The John Miles Band
The Rolling Stones
Eddie Money
Bonnie Raitt
Cheap Trick
Roadmaster
Blue Oyster Cult
Thin Lizzy
The Producers
The Tubes
Heart
Warren Zevon
James Taylor
Culture Club
The Black Crowes
ZZ Top (twice)
Prince (twice)
Sheila E.
Neil Young
The Replacements (twice)
R.E.M.
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Todd Rundgren
Big Bam Boo
Adrian Belew
Matthew Sweet
Living Colour
Michael Penn
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Paul McCartney
ProjeKCt 2 (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn)
drivin' n' cryin'
Bob Dylan
The Alarm
The Beach Boys
Aerosmith
White Lion
David Lee Roth
Poison
Dan Fogelberg
Wendy Waldman
Joan Osborne
Jill Sobule (twice)
The Kentucky Headhunters (on several occasions)
Royal Crescent Mob
Too Much Joy
The BoDeans
Webb Wilder
Lloyd Cole and the Negatives (w/Jill Sobule)
Victoria Williams
The Jayhawks
Wilco
Elvis Costello
Tommy Womack
Ned Van Go
Government Cheese
The Williams Brothers ( I wish these guys were still making music)
Foster and Lloyd
The Georgia Satellites (opening for the Replacements under the alias The Famous Unknowns)
The Acoustic Strawbs
The Everly Brothers
John Prine

...and that's all that come to mind. If others occur to me, I'll add them. I started out trying to list them chronologically, but gave up about a quarter of the way through.

Tags: lists, music

A Senior moment.

: jbacardi; February 16th, 13:34

Current Music:: Beastie Boys- Paul's Boutique

This is a widdle meme I saw going around on Facebook, where I posted it first. Then, it occurred to me that I haven't put anything up here for a while, so I thought I'd repost it for all of youse.

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school!

1. Did you date someone from your school senior year? Yes, at the VERY end.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Why yes, yes I did.

3. Did you car pool to school? Yep.

4. What kind of car did you drive? A 1972 Chevelle SS and a 1978 Datsun B210 hatchback.

5. What kind of car do you have now? Chevy Blazer

6. It's Friday night...where were you (in high school)? Working, most likely.

7. It is Friday night...where are you(now)? At the radio station, last Friday night.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? Pizza Hut

9. What kind of job do you do now? Prepress graphics at the Print Shop in Glasgow, part-time jack-of-all-trades at WLOC radio station.

10. Were you a party animal? Pretty much. I think we all were.

11. Were you considered a flirt? By some

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Unfortunately, by my senior year, no. That was a mistake, he says 30 years later.

13. Were you a nerd? I didn't think so, but I'm sure others did.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? No.

15. Can you sing the fight song? I can hum it- I'm not sure if it has words.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? I liked my new Facebook friend Mrs. Claycomb, but I only had her for one class that year. Mr. Kesslar and Mrs. Robinson were OK. Most of the teachers didn't know what to say to me or do with me by that point, and even fewer showed any inclination to care.

17. Where did you sit during lunch? Here and there. I didn't eat lunch in the cafeteria all that often; usually I'd go hang out somewhere and eat when I got home.

18. What was your school's full name? Caverna Independent

19. When did you graduate? 1978

20. What was your school mascot? A straight-up old fashioned southern Colonel.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Knowing what I know now? Sure. If I had to do it cold, hell no.

22. Did you have fun at Prom? I didn't go. Theresa Doyle called me that night and asked if I wanted to go, I said no, I don't have anything to wear and not much money, would you like to go out and do something anyway? And the rest, as they say, is history.

23. Do you still talk to your prom date? Oh, from time to time.

24. Who was your best friend? Kevin Carter. Haven't seen the sumbitch in over 10 years.

25. What did you want to be when you grew up? Comic book artist, musician

26. Any regrets? Nothing but.

27. Biggest fashion mistake? It was the golden age of wide lapels, long hair and bellbottoms. So pick one.

28. Favorite fashion trend? I was always fond of my Army jacket, which always was there for me in trying times.

29. Are you going to your next reunion? Perhaps, if they ever have another one...

30. Who did you have a secret crush on? All my crushes were out in the open for everyone to see and ridicule.

31. Did you go on spring break? Nowhere special.

***IF YOU WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH THE PERSON THIS IS ABOUT, LEAVE YOUR FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL MEMORY THAT INVOLVED THAT PERSON!***

From our 1978 yearbook.

Tags: thanks for the memeories

Diversion.

: jbacardi; February 10th, 18:59

Current Music:: R.E.M.- Accelerate

The way this works is that each answer you give has to start with the same letter as your first name. You're not allowed to repeat an answer and if you're "tagged" by someone whose name starts with the same first letter, you can't repeat any of their answers, either. Here's what I came up with...

1. What is your name: David
2. A four letter word: Dumb
3. A boy's name: Desmond
4. A girl's name: Dierdre
5. An occupation: Dietitian
6. A color: Drab
7. Something you wear: Dickey
8. A food: Doughnuts
9. Something found in the bathroom: Dish (as in Soap)
10. A place: Des Moines, Iowa
11. A reason for being late: Death
12. Something you shout: "Duck!"
13. A movie title: (The) Day the World Ended
14. Something you drink: Daiquiri
15. A musical group: Dramarama (shoutout to Mik Cary, who I never hear from anymore)
16. An animal: Dingo
17. A street name:D'Arblay Street, London
18. A type of car: Delorean
19. A song title: "Days" by the Kinks, Flo & Eddie, Elvis Costello, and others.
20. A verb: Drag

via

ersie37 .

Tags: thanks for the memeories

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 29.

: jbacardi; February 4th, 15:46

Current Music:: John Lennon & Yoko Ono- Some Time in New York City

A quick one, while he (the boss, that is)'s away. A pencil sketch, done at work while supposed to be engaged in productive labor, of someone I'm surprised I've never drawn before- the official mascot of the JB Show, SUPER-HIP!

I think I should work this up a little bit more at some later date.

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression

JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PREDICTIONS! SUPER BOWL EDITION!!

: jbacardi; January 31st, 11:47

Current Music:: The Beatles- Hey Jude

Here we go again, one more time, with another edition of JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PREDICTIONS, in which I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to choose the winners of each and every National Football League contest in that particular weekend.

This time, I'll attempt to pick none other than that most brobdingnagian of televised sporting events, the Super Bowl. Against all odds, this year we have a newcomer to the event, the Arizona Cardinals. Their opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are a little more battle tested as a team, although there are a handful of Cardinals players that have been in the SB with other teams. Pittsburgh is, last I checked, a 6.5-7 point favorite. The way I see it, if Arizona is to win, their defense must stifle Pittsburgh's so-so offense, and create turnovers to shorten the field for Warner and the Zona offense because the Steelers' D is damn near impossible to score on.

Now, I have a natural tendency to root for the underdog, so know that I will be rooting hard for Zona to pull out the W. That said, I just don't think they'll be able to put up enough points to come out on top...so I'm saying

PITTSBURGH over Arizona, 23-12.

The Standard Disclaimer:

Remember, these picks are for my own, and hopefully your, amusement. I don't have any inside info that you can't access on your own so I beseech, beg and implore you NOT to bet your hard-earned money on these picks if you gamble legally or otherwise. If you do so, and lose your ass, IT'S NOT MY FAULT. You've been warned, sucka.

Two weeks ago, my record: 2-0. I am now 5-5 in the playoffs.

Enjoy the game, everyone!

Tags: football

Going to get on up and fly away.

: jbacardi; January 29th, 19:18

Current Music:: Strange Little Mysteries- The John Martyn Anthology

Sad news today; musician JOHN MARTYN has died.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I've been a fan since his early years or anything like that; my history with his music is a somewhat fractured one. Like many of the musicians of the 70's, I first heard of him via CREEM magazine, probably a review or something. Having recently fallen under the spell of the Pentangle via Solomon's Seal, I was curious about other artists in that Britfolk style such as Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, and Fairport Convention, just to name a few. However, it took me a little while to get one of his albums, partially because I didn't see that many of them, and also because of Robert Christgau's somewhat condescending opinion in his first collected Consumer Guides of the 70's book:

John Martyn: John Piccarella: "The shameless romance of his singing is balanced by his own tough-minded guitar style, which explores the wide range of tonal possibilities inherent in an acoustic instrument amplified and modified by various electronic devices." But Piccarella also mentions Martyn looking "as if he were seeing more of God than Jerry Garcia ever had," and that's the rub.

Still, this casual dismissal also was a bit intriguing, and I had decided that I still wasn't done with John, so eventually sometime in the early 80's I found a cutout copy of Martyn's 1977 album One World, and that was my first exposure to his music. The opening track, a haunting and passionate ballad "Couldn't Love You More", grabbed me hard at the very beginning. Problem is, subsequent tracks, with one or two exceptions, kinda suffered from weak melodies and some attempts at modernizing his sound with synths and modern production techniques. Thinking it an aberration, and believing that his earlier work might be more along the lines of what I was looking for, I found a copy of 1973's Inside Out for a buck, brought it home...and wasn't especially impressed with it, either. The songs just didn't stick with me. So, I pretty much wrote Martyn off until one morning about 1983 or 84, when I had gotten off my 11-7 shift early and not wishing to wake Theresa up, had gone upstairs to the attic room where I had my comics, books, art stuff and records to read, listen to some music (turned down LOW) and just chill for a while. Wanting to hear "Couldn't Love You More", I put One World on and let it play until the last song on side one, "Small Hours" came on- and as the mesmerizing, lovely tune unfolded in its deliberate fashion, in the grey predawn upstairs in that small room, I had a little epiphany of the sort that just doesn't happen to any of us very often. It was a track that I'd heard before and probably just didn't focus on due to its length and meandering tempo, but hearing it in that setting, well, the memory of it sticks with me to this day- it was moving and evocative and hard to describe, for sure.

After that, I did eventually get one more of his albums, Solid Air, with its title track about Nick Drake...and I liked it more than I did Inside Out, but that was about it, other than a handful of tracks I've downloaded via the internet in the last few years- "May You Never", "Head and Heart", to name a couple, both of which were very good. I came to respect his talent and craft, although I was not compelled to buy anything else. That may change. I believe that it must have been wonderful to see him perform live, especially in an intimate club setting; my friend Brendan (whom I haven't heard from in ages, sorry to say, since he's not blogging too much anymore) related such an account to me once in a comment on a post I made about him years ago.

Anyway, another talented, soulful musician is gone, and the world is poorer for it, I think.

Also, below is the track "Small Hours", for your listening pleasure. Listen to it anytime, but if I may, I recommend around 4 AM or evening twilight. I hope you have a little epiphany of your own.

Tags: music, obit

Where in the hell am I?

: jbacardi; January 23rd, 20:18

Current Music:: Kings of Leon- Only By the Night

I don't know if I've done one of these lately, but in lieu of actual content, here's my little Internet Empire. Just so's ya know.

My first love: The Johnny Bacardi Show. A humble little six-year-old blog in which I do most of what I laughingly refer to as writing, and mostly about comics. Occasionally I'll comment on film, music, or post art.

Of course, there's this, my LiveJournal blog, originally started so I could comment on LJ-friends' LJs without having to do so anonymously. It's become kind of my catchall blog, in which I write about stuff that I don't particularly want to put on the Blogspot site, like the football predictions and various quizzes and memes. I have met a great many fascinating people via this LJ, and I intend to keep it in some form as long as possible. I still like the "Friends" page function as much as any on any other blogging platform.

I also have a brand spanking new Tumblr site, called I Come Tumbln'- I'm still learning what I can and can't do with this kinda fun site. Mostly, I see something cool here or there, and post a pic and/or a link to it. Similar in function to LJ, but without the commenting capability.

I'm on Facebook, as well as MySpace. I don't really check my MySpace all that often, not nearly as much as I do my Facebook, that's for sure.

After leaving in a huff, or was it a snit? Anyway, I'm back on Twitter. Follow me at your own risk.

I have a Flickr page, on which I sometimes post personal pics as well as sketches and stuff I post from time to time on blogs.

At one time I felt a strong urge to write about music on a more regular basis than I do now, and the result was Johnny Bacardi's Off the Record, which is at present sadly dormant. I may get back to it someday. Don't stand on one leg waiting.

On the subject of music blogging, Solar Prestige A Gammon is/was my Elton John-themed commentary blog in which I examined tracks from 1968-1977. It was fun but now it's done.

My Last.FM page. It's another wonderful webthing that I know I haven't explored to its fullest possibilities. Story of my life.

Speaking of not living up to possibilities, here's my DeviantArt page, in which I post most of the same stuff I post here. Humor me, it makes me feel like a "real" artist, m'kay?

And that's about it! Feel free to follow/friend/whatever, I always appreciate it.

Tags: me myself and i

JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PREDICTIONS! PLAYOFF WEEK THREE EDITION!!

: jbacardi; January 17th, 16:16

Current Music:: The Mighty Jeremiahs-s/t

Time once more for another edition of JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PREDICTIONS, in which I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to choose the winners of each and every National Football League contest in that particular weekend.

The Standard Disclaimer:

Remember, these picks are for my own, and hopefully your, amusement. I don't have any inside info that you can't access on your own so I beseech, beg and implore you NOT to bet your hard-earned money on these picks if you gamble legally or otherwise. If you do so, and lose your ass, IT'S NOT MY FAULT. You've been warned, sucka.

Last week, I improved slightly to 2-2, making me a putrid 3-5 for the playoffs so far. So either I run the table the rest of the way to finish 6-5, or I go nuts and pick an outcome like this:

ARIZONA over Philadelphia
PITTSBURGH over Baltimore.

Well, picking the Steelers isn't so much of a stretch, but all I have to justify my pick of the Buzzsaw is a hunch, a feeling if you will. I like the way they're playing defense right now, and I think they can shut down Donovan McNabb & co. this time. Their ability to score is unquestioned. Anyway, we'll see! Enjoy the games, everybody.

Tags: football

Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 28.

: jbacardi; January 16th, 11:38

Current Music:: Butter 08- s/t

John Ostrander and Tim Truman's GRIMJACK, for

tomthedog , via the request meme I posted a week or two ago. This guy's ensemble is a BITCH to draw...I'd go batshit insane if I had to draw it 20 pages a month 12 times a year...no wonder nobody's publishing it right now!

Tags: pathetic attempts at self-expression

RIP Ricardo Montalban.

: jbacardi; January 16th, 11:09

Current Music:: Jill Sobule- Pink Pearl

I have been remiss, I believe, by eulogizing Patrick McGoohan the other day but not the other pop culture acting luminary that died at the same time, Ricardo Montalban. So, here's my attempt to redress that oversight.

When I was a kid, it seemed like Montalban was in everything- he did tons of TV shows, everything from Westerns to Supernatural shows to Sci-Fi (Star Trek, as Khan, as I'm sure you know), and of course I saw him quite a lot. Kinda took him for granted as that smooth operator Latin type. Probably his most noteworthy TV role had to be as Mr. Roarke, the fellow in charge of Fantasy Island, which screened in the mid-late 1970's, a time when (let's face it) I was more interested in running around trying to score weed and booze and make out with girls than I was staying at home and watching TV. Of course, I also remember his Chrysler ads, with the legendary "...smooth Corinthian leather" line. A few years later, I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed his reprisal of the Khan role in the big-budget Star Trek II- The Wrath of Khan feature film; it was an inspired idea to bring back the one-shot character from the TV series' first season and update/develop him, and he and Shatner were tons of fun as they chewed the scenery from both ends, meeting in the middle. Much, much later, I enjoyed his voice work in such animated fare as Freakazoid!, as the villainous Armando Gutierrez, and in Kim Possible, as the ineffectual Señor Señor Senior (above right), always trying to inspire his doltish son to take up the mantle of super-villainry. As recently as a few years ago, when I became such a TCM junkie, I enjoyed a few of his early films such as Neptune's Daughter, which he did with Esther WIlliams and Red Skelton and in which he sings one of two versions (Skelton performs it later in the movie, too) of the newly designated holiday classic "Baby It's Cold Outside", fitting seeing as how he was such a mack in his early career.

So, even though I wasn't his biggest fan and didn't look forward to seeing him like I do many stars, his contribution to the whole popular culture was immense and as with McGoohan, the world is poorer without him.

Tags: obit

Good night, sir.

: jbacardi; January 14th, 22:19

Current Music:: Shuggie Otis- Inspiration Information

RIP Patrick McGoohan.

Tags: obit

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