Doodles!

Wow, has it really been that long since I added some doodles to this site? According to this blog last doodle entry was March 2015 - okay, okay - so we are long overdue... to make up for it I dug deep into the archives. Mind you there's a lot of cobwebs in there and more creepy crawlies that I care to mention - so I hope you all appreciate this, folks...

Okay - picked at random, with no rhyme or reason... ENJOY!!

....and I think that'll hold you folks over for a while... until the next batch!! G'nite!!

23 Cases of Walking Pneumonia Can't Be Wrong!

The New York World's Fair (1964/1965) Gathering

Joey Vento 

The World's Fairest FALL Gathering took place [October 9th] and we were treated to something very special! We entered and explored a place that the general public has not seen in decades....the old New York World's Fair Post Office 64/65!! This had been in the works for some time and Diane and i couldn't believe it actually happened. First, we want to thank EVERYONE who came out on a wonderfully blustery and rainy day. Your determination amazes me!

We made many new friends, and of course, our group has the most sweetest and loving people around! Thanks to Meira Berkower of the Parks Dept for assisting us and arranging the whole thing in such a fantastic manner! The guys inside the Post Office were just delighted that we were there, probably wondering why we would all stare intensely at a cinder block wall for 20 mins....they let us take our time and answered questions about the current use of the building, which is now the Queens Storehouse.

We saw remnants of the 2nd roller rink which operated here in the mid-70s when the activities at NYS Pavilion ended. The elusive "murals" were right above our heads when we walked in, even though we were told they were long since gone...Charlie Aybar had painted these when he worked here at the rink....pale yellow and beige paint still could be seen on the floor, remnants Charlie told me of the laminate used to coat the surface. This place was amazing!

The 9 foot high ramp for Fairgoers that suspended them to observe mail operations during 64/65 was long gone however, but the catwalks are still there, now loaded with boxes of paint, Park clothes and signage. During the early 70s, poisonous barrels of DDT were moved here from the NYS Pavilion, and remained for 2 years until they were buried elsewhere. The ceiling revealed red, white and blue rafters which might be Post Office colors, no one seems to know and the cinder block walls are painted "festive"....more of Charlie's work. It was one of the greatest days the group ever had!! I wish more of you could have seen this. Perhaps one day, we'll return.

 

 

 

 

We could not check out the Singer Bowl happenings because of the rain, but we'll be back for that. Thanks Alan Sherman for assisting us too in contacting "the right people"!! The day ended at Airline Diner with a great meal, great friends and thank you Dino for putting the World's Fairest Bronto Burger on the menu!! Ask for it by name!!!

Hope to see you all at Haunted Barn's Surprise All Hallows Eve Show October 22 and we'll see all of you once again at our spring gathering. You guys are simply the best!!!

Joey, Diane, and Jessica Rose.

Bil Baird's Marionettes

I know she's just a puppet but va-va-va-voom!! This wooden creation is that of the late great Bil Baird - American puppeteer of the mid to late 20th century. Not exactly a household name to most - but some may recall the famous marionette scene in the 1965 movie "The Sound Of Music" - with all that yodeling and the dancing goats - yes, those were Bil Baird puppets.

Anyway - just had a bit of a flashback today remembering how my sister-in-law Joan had brought me as a kid to an actual Bil Baird puppet show. It's a hazy memory - might of been a production of Pinocchio, I'm not sure - and it might've been held at the Bil Baird puppet theater that used to be at 59 Barrow Street in Greenwich Village - - and no, Bubbles (pictured above) wasn't there - but I do recall seeing many of Baird's marionettes after the show, up close and personal, upstairs above the stage - where I also got my first ever glimpse at many friends of Mr Baird's who were also puppeteers... most notably muppeteers from the Jim Henson group!

With some further digging I found out that Bil Baird (along with his wife Cora) lived in that very same six-story building I was in. It housed a theater which held 193 seats - offered children afternoon programs as well as evening revues for adults (probably featuring Bubbles!) and attracted international puppeteering talents - many of whom eventually ended up working with Jim Henson, who was also a huge Bil Baird fan and student! Later, Henson credited the inspiration for his Muppet Show program to Bil and Cora's 1950 TV show "Life With Snarky Parker".

Bil Baird's career spanned over 60 years, he put on puppet shows from New York to The Soviet Union and India. His Marionettes starred in the Ziegfeld Follies, broke box-office records on Broadway, was part of the 1964/65 World's Fair, and danced on early television shows including Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar and Sid Caesar. Scour through YouTube and you'll see he did hundreds of commercials and public service announcements - some of which feature one of his most popular puppet creations, Charlemagne The Lion.

After Bill passed away in 1987 at the age of 82 (his wife Cora had passed away in '67) over 600 of his handcrafted puppets were auctioned off just a few blocks away from where he lived at the Greenwich Auction Room on 13th Street. Some of Baird's more famous puppets were given to the Charles H MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa where Bill grew up.

An excerpt from Baird's obituary read: "He grew in recent years to look a bit like an elf himself, fey and silver-haired, with twinkling eyes and a little beard, as he labored away in his Barrow Street workshop. A visitor there in the early 1980’s said he alternately resembled a medieval wizard and one of Santa’s helpers in the midst of walls and ceilings dripping with puppets and marionettes."

Funny - it's the little details that sometimes stick out in your head... as I can recall those same walls and ceilings "dripping with puppets and marionettes"... in particular I can recall a donkey marionette - hanging within my reach, and yet I knew I'd better get permission before reaching out to touch it - which I was granted and I did. Very carefully I just sort of took my forefinger and pushed upward from underneath one of it's hoofs - and just as I expected it to, the leg bent amazingly lifelike - the donkey's hide had a surface of smooth, crushed velvet - it's eyes were saucer-like, with big goofy protruding teeth. I may have even let out an involuntary giggle. I had just finished watching a show where many of these creations were dancing, jumping, and creeping about - and now I was studying it's mechanics - I was fascinated.

Before I left the theater I took one last look around. High above my head was a line of can can dancers - the types you'd see at a burlesque show in France. Ingeniously Bil Baird had constructed them so that they would always kick up their legs in perfect unison - they were attached at the hips! The operator would pull one string and all their left legs would kick - they'd pull another and all the right would do the same. Little did I know then that I was looking at something that I'd probably never see the likes of again - a dwindling art form that I'd be looking back at with a bittersweet feeling of nostalgia forty-three years later...

Click here to enjoy some more of Bil Baird's imaginative marionette creations - most of which you will probably never see again in your lifetime!

UPDATE: October 9, 2016

  

As it turns out, it WAS a production of Pinocchio I saw - seeing this pic (below) reminds me of the very moment I first saw this scene - I was already fixated at that very mysterious chair opening behind Pinocchio's head, and rightfully so... as Pinocchio lied his nose grew more and more (obviously a pole being pushed through the back of his head) until it practically reached the first row in the audience! I must've been one smarmy 12 year old kid to have seen through that magical moment!

Glowing Pearl - The Radio Mix

Lately Dan's been adding echo to a lot of our songs and putting them up on Bandcamp... he calls these new versions "radio mixes" - for whatever that means - and personally I think he's gone off the deep end...

...however with THIS track, Glowing Pearl, it kind of works! Dan thought it added a Bowie-esque flavor to it, and it does kind of remind me a little bit of his "Space Oddity" - sort of, a little bit... maybe...

Anyhoo - here it is! Sit back, hit play and enjoy... wanna hear more of Dan's remixes just follow his links!

Close Encounters of the Turd Kind

Courtesy of Mark DeGross

Homer has an Out Of Bodies experience...

Okay, so things are a little slow around here...

Jack Davis and his Mad Monster Party creations!

Just recently one of the greatest cartoonist/illustrators of all time and inspiration to aspiring cartoonists everywhere, MAD Magazine's Jack Davis, had passed away - he was 91. Jack Davis, to anyone who's met him, was the quintessential laid back Southern gentleman known in the field to be one of the fastest and most prolific illustrators of our time. Anyone who's ever picked up a MAD Magazine would recognize his works immediately - his signature style, often described as "controlled chaos" - multiple characters, each having their own distinctive look, spilling out onto the page - running, swinging, crashing - his drawings often conveyed action.

Just a quick Google Image search will show you how prolific the man was throughout his lifetime - and it's nothing short of amazing - but if you want to get a quick run-through of some of his best works at a glance you need not scour the web too deeply, just drop in at the blog website of another illustrator who I admire - the Vermeer of the Borscht Belt, the undisputed King of liver spots, Drew Friedman - who honored Mr Davis at an event which took place December 2011. Drew conducted a great interview with Davis as well as having compiled an accompanying slide show which spanned a long and prosperous career - surprising Davis with many pieces he had forgotten he did - which was perfectly understandable, as the man had just done so much... magazine illustrations, comic art, album covers, movie posters, animated commercials - he did art for EC Comics "Tales From The Crypt", TIME Magazine, and of course, the aforementioned MAD Magazine. 

An early notebook drawing
from a monster-obsessed young man.

But it was the monsters that really got my attention...

I had known for a long time that Jack Davis had designed all of those amazing creatures featured in the Rankin/Bass made-for-TV stop motion movie "Mad Monster Party" - and as a bright-eyed impressionable 6 year old those creatures took up permanent residence in my brain. Later as a young teen attending Junior High School it was not unusual for me to fill up my used composition notebooks with similar creatures everywhere there was a blank space. Among that days lessons I would add my own interpretation of the classic Universal monsters I would see played on TV - they weren't always direct interpretations of Davis' Mad Monster Party character designs, but the influences were certainly there I think.

Without even realizing it I got an even stronger dose of Davis influence when I picked up my first MAD Magazine - although it wasn't just Davis alone, I was similarly bit by the bug via others from the "usual gang of idiots" like Don Martin, Sergio Aragones and Mort Drucker - to name a few. But those monster designs he did - I'm always drawn back to those amazing monsters!

A bit later on, around 2003/04 - the influence continues...

Thanks Jack, for the MADness!!

Here's to you, Jack - here's my little testament to you and your influence! For this blog's readers I can't stress enough - especially if you're an artist yourself - go out and seek out all you can find on Jack Davis' illustrations! Study them - look at the expressions - the details - the craftsmanship! So much today is drawn digitally with tablets, but Davis was what you'd call "old school" - markers, pens, watercolor, pencils - and at the risk of sounding like some old crank lamenting about the past, I'll just say it anyway... they don't make 'em like this anymore...

Check out the quick handful of Jack Davis monster drawings I quickly grabbed from the net... it was drawings like these that got me hooked, and I hope they "bite" you too - enjoy!!

Jack's creatures...

Oh - and I should add - although totally unrelated to his monster work... while looking through Friedman's tribute I came across something I did not know about Davis - and that was that he had also designed The Rankin/Bass Jackson 5ive Saturday morning cartoon! Yep - you know the one... Check out the groovy character drawings!!

...and here they are as they were featured in TV Guide... all the likenesses are spot-on - there's not "one bad apple" in the bunch! Heh heh heh!!

Howdy Doody

I have many, but this is perhaps my most favorite cartoon ever
drawn by my buddy Lloyd Goldfine!!...

Daisy House - Superman (the video!)

If you follow this blog (you do, don't you? Please tell me you do...) you've probably seen the posts where we've announced Daisy House (a Long Beach, California folk-rock band consisting of Tatiana and Doug Hammond) covered a couple of Out Of Bodies tunes - firstly, Dan's "Willow" and then more recently, "Superman".

Well, we're quite happy to announce that they've just released their third album, "Western Man", which features BOTH of those songs - and they've even made this video for "Superman" for you all to enjoy! Discernible ears will pick up that both "Willow" and "Superman" are slightly different mixes than the versions we've previewed on outofbodies.com!...

Superman

Like a song from long ago
like a love letter
Like a swan the summer goes
like a superman…..

Life's a song that can't go wrong
Do you remember when
you'd go, wherever you'd want to go my friend…Superman?

The life you know is on the go
like no other
Like a lovely summer ghost
like a superman…..

Life's a song that don't last long
there's no time to pretend
so go, wherever you want to go, my friend Superman

Like a robin on the wing
with no master plan
just Go…wherever you want to go again….Superman, superman.

Life’s a song that don't last long la la la laaa
life’s a song that don't last long
life’s a song that don't last long
life’s a song that don't last long 

The Out Of Bodies - Stripped... Naked

Well, since people have been begging for some "NEW" Out Of Bodies content on this website I have decided to oblige the masses by going back into the OOB vaults, once again, and dig real deep... What I've come up with this time is something I've found from as way back as 28 years ago! Hence the quotation marks around the word "NEW"! - - It's hardly new, but it's new to YOU folks!

Also mixed in there were a few audio snippets found randomly, which were recorded - more or less - around those same years... and then it hit me... Where have I heard something like this before? Aha! I know, there's a Beatles CD I have called "Let It Be... Naked" which is a 2003 remixed and remastered version of their 1970 "Let It Be". When this CD came out it included a bonus disc called "Fly On The Wall" - which contained candid spoken dialogue among the group and additional song excerpts. So THIS is, if you can just stretch your imagination for a few moments, the Out Of Bodies version of that similar concept... The Out Of Bodies raw... no overdubs, no rehearsing, not even a single lyric sheet... just one big improvised mess!! (Wait a minute, did I just say mess out loud?)

When Dan heard it he wrote me "That was fun, so many gems that we done, it's unbelievable, that "I Call Your Name" Bones-style was really good! I'm adding this to my youtube channel, give us more, give us more, Ha Ha!!!"

And so I DO plan on making more of these... there's always plenty of these little Out Of Bodies surprises lying around the bottom of the barrel! Stay tuned - - and enjoy!!

The mystery of the strange man with the light weight trunk

And now it's time for yet another Out Of Bodies mystery (courtesy of my pal, Dan Banic... who is FULL of unsolved mysteries!!)...

I don't know where to begin here except to say I have no idea what this song of Dan's is about. Something about a Chinese man carrying a light weight trunk handing out candy to little children... wha-WHAAAAT???

Dan also made this little video, which similarly creeps the bejeezuz outta me. I'm not sure why, but it might have something to do with that awful attempt at a Chinese accent Dan does when the character in the song is handing out candies... "Here's some candy for you too - everybody get candy! Ooooh, I didn't leave you out! Here's candy for YOUUUUUU TOOOOOO!!!!"

Then there's the subtle mix-ups which I can only assume were non-intentional - where the song references a Chinese monk, but then mentions Japan? And that part that goes "I'm so sorry-NARA!" (Sayonara) - that's Japanese for "goodbye" isn't it? And what's in that light weight trunk? What frightens me even more is that I'm even spending a minute pondering this!

Oh, I'm so Confucious!!....

Anyway..... enjoy.... I think.......

Norman's back... again...

Oh good... I was wondering a while back what happened to the A&E Bates Motel series... it went into some sort of hiatus, I lost track of it, it came back, I didn't notice - and then by the time I did it was gone again... I even fell behind with the story ...which if you've watched the series you'd know that's a very easy thing to do, with it's whole sub-plot involving some seedy underground pot farm operation - which seems neither integral to the story nor interesting...

But they've just released a quick teaser for their upcoming season 4, which promises to begin this March 7th at 9/8c - so with a fresh season come new beginnings... or new endings......

The show's also been renewed for a 5th season - which is one of those good/bad scenarios... Good because, well, it's more Norman Bates... but bad because it could also be an indication that we won't be seeing any events which cross-over into the Psycho movie until the end of season 5 - so what's to hold our interest throughout the two final seasons leading up to it? Certainly not Norman's half brother, Dylan, who in spite of his good intentions to help out Norman and to re-connect somehow with his estranged mom - is as interesting on-screen as watching paint dry. 

Add to that other characters which barely hold my interest; Emma with the oxygen tank, Bradley who's father gets toasted (literally) by the drug trade he's involved in - and who herself eventually gets killed by Norman in his mother's persona for convincing Norman to run away with her, Sheriff Romero - good cop/bad cop - who sometimes holds a striking resemblance to Anthony Perkins, Caleb (father of Dylan, Norman's brother - who is also the incestuous brother of Norman's mother Norma)... in short, Bates Motel is a show which is much easier to hate than it is to love...

...and yet I watch...

David Bowie, and may God's love be with you

 

What a bummer it was to wake up on a chilly monday morning, dragging myself out of bed to get ready for work (that alone can cause me to crawl right back under the sheets) - - only to find out that David Bowie - a major contributor to the soundtrack of my life and a gigantic influence on The Out Of Bodies - had passed away only a few hours ago. It wasn't publicly released until now that he had been battling cancer for about a year and a half - and according to his long-time friend and record producer Tony Visconti, Bowie wanted to leave his fans with a parting gift in the form of what critics are saying is his most extreme album ever, titled "★" (Blackstar) which was released on January 8th, just days ago on his 69th birthday. 

Visconti wrote on his Facebook page "He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life - a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry."

In spite of some downright creepy visuals (which Bowie is known for creating in his videos) and obvious lyrical references to his own mortality, Bowie's last album is also somewhat dreamlike - driven by, as one critic noted "long, jazzy jams mixed with the kind of driving beat pioneered by Seventies German bands Can and Kraftwerk." About it's origins Visconti elaborated "We were listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar. We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn't do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that's exactly what we wanted to do. The goal, in many, many ways, was to avoid rock & roll."

Tonight I'm going to pick up my copy on compact disc rather than just downloading it - I'm imagining Bowie would appreciate the fact that there are still those out there who, in spite of all that technology offers, prefer to hold something visual in their hands. Bowie was, after all, just as much a visual artist as he was with his music. I guess I can also safely assume I will be listening to Blackstar during many car rides - perhaps even getting a little spooked. I'm looking forward to it.

Enjoy the videos... and thank you, David, for everything...

New Video added! B1 Bomber!

This new year has (so far) brought outofbodies.com not one, but TWO new video additions for you to enjoy!... last week's Origin Of Ka Ka Cat, and today - a week later, B1-Bomber - an early Out Of Bodies song of Dan's! When Dan first saw it he was quick to note the in-joke that starts off the video - a brief, limited-animation segment pointing out Dan's mispronunciation of Russia's "Moscow"... Dan accidentally fumbles the intro and says "This is B1-Bomber heading for Bosco!" (Yep... the delicious chocolate syrup) and Bosco the Bear's eyes dart nervously about the room as if to say "Did he just say what I thought he said?" It's quick - and not too many people will get it - but I just had to throw it in there...

Dan responded, "Oh man , I'm on the floor laughing, the video, lyrics, footage and the added sound efx' makes this just the best, Ha Ha !!! Great job Donald. One more thing, in the very beginning I meant to say the words "Moscow" but got nervous on the mike and blurted out B first so it came out Bosco ...but I tried to change it quickly to Moscow, Ha Ha!, true. You brought back memories of when I did my first early 4-track songs, I kept getting nervous on the mike worrying about the record button and me forgetting my lines when singing! After a while I said to myself, "what the hell you got to be nervous about? You're recording in your room on a cheap machine and there's nobody here!!" That's when I started to relax and didn't give a crap, Ha Ha!!!"

The clip's Facebook debut was prefaced with the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer "Play loud!! Just make sure the kids, your boss, and anyone else offended by the f-word aren't within earshot - as this song contains a bit of that... it's a catchy tune though, you will find yourself humming it at inappropriate times!" Also included was a shout-out to The Royd's "I should add I got the idea for the lyric treatment from the Royd's - a much classier video!"

 

Still unexplained after all these years is WHO is it supposed to be who's saying "I think we F@#&ed up"? The guy DROPPING the bomb or the unfortunate RECEIVERS of the bomb below? And at the end it changes from "we" to "I" think I F@#&ed up... who's the "I"? Well, like most of Dan's songs - it's the lyrical ambiguity that only adds, not detracts, from the song's charm. Add that to the many unanswered questions... "who's Jacob Shotwell?"... "was Wendy in Wendy Will Die a real person?"... "who's telling who to back away in Just Back Away, and why?"... "The Son Will Come sounds like a dialogue between father and son - was it actual advice?"... We may never know.

Anyway, folks - enjoy the video!!

The Origin of Ka Ka Cat

Another treat culled from the Out Of Bodies archives - one of Dan Banic's earliest films - The Origin of Ka Ka Cat, featuring another surprise from even deeper in the archives, a rare Out Of Bodies "lost" track, "Green Tangerine" - a tune I haven't heard in years! Enjoy - and Happy New Year!!!

My favorite part of the song... "Mongrels.... ask no questions!" I hope Dan tells me what the heck that means!!

Jeff Lynne - When I Was A Boy

One of my favorite songs from Jeff Lynne's new album, "When I Was A Boy"...reminds me a little of The Beatles "Free As A Bird", in both sound and visuals.... enjoy!!