In My Garden

Just listening to some "Lost" Out Of Bodies tracks and came across this one... I was laughing to the point where I couldn't breath... take a listen, but be reminded it's not for the faint of heart!! heh heh heh...

In My Garden - The Out Of Bodies

RIP Wheezer

It was bound to happen one day... we all saw it coming... but my ole' Sharp Double-Deck cassette recorder (aka, the "Wheezer" due to it's infamous excessive tape-hiss noise) has finally BIT THE DUST tonight...  (Actually it's technically a Wheezer II, but let's not confuse things by getting into THAT!!)

Yes...... It has ceased to be!...  It's expired and gone to meet it's maker!... Bereft of life, it rests in peace!... It's metabolic processes are now history!... It's kicked the bucket, shuffled off it's mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!!!...

THIS IS AN EX-WHEEZER!!!...  

Recording in the living room with Dan and Joe, 1995.

The very, very last cassette tape to MP3 transfer I was able to squeeze out of it was THIS... and already you can hear the death rattle. The hubs began to slip... the tape began to unravel... and in spite of my last ditch effort to clean the heads and oil all of it's accessible moving parts it was clearly the end. 

I'm going to miss the ole' gal - the other fellas and myself enjoyed hours of fun and hi-jinx kneeling down before her and recording Out Of Bodies songs, comedy bits, and what have you... and now, well, it feels like an END to an era...

Lloyd and recording in my attic bedroom, 1986.

I haven't even begun to think about what would I possibly get as a replacement cassette to MP3 transfer device... perhaps I shouldn't be thinking about that quite yet... perhaps it's too soon... I need to mourn a bit first!!... Rest In Pieces - - uh, I mean Rest In Peace, Wheezer... you will be missed...

Someone actually took the Wheezer before the
garbage trucks showed up...
perhaps it hasn't met it's end after all!

Pondering Freaks

Hey, apparently somebody got it right... just happened to come across this little review of Tod Browning's "Freaks" (1932) - one of those movies that kind of... *stays* with you, whether you like it or not - and it brings up pretty much everything *I've* wondered about the film... only I've never bothered to say it out loud! Heh heh heh... Anyway, you can check out the review I stumbled upon here... Enjoy...

Simon’s Film-Related Rants and Musings

A little flashback...

I suppose I am a nostalgia buff harboring a not-so-secret fondness for things I grew up with as a kid... old toys, puppets, the TV shows and cartoons which filled my afternoons, and lots of little childhood memories - all of which continue to reside in a seemingly bottomless pit of my brain that surprises me every now and then with an impromptu flashback...

I have no idea what prompted this one - perhaps because it's almost Halloween, and Halloween reminds me of monsters and ghosts? Anyway, something took me back to my old bedroom on Vanderveer Street in Queens Village, NY. There was my brother Vinny and I as two little nine year old kids... sitting up in our beds, playing in the dark as we often did - trying not to make too much noise as we were both supposed to be sleeping. Upon hearing approaching footsteps we'd flop down and try our best to look like we've been sleeping for hours - usually successfully, sometimes not.

We were caught playing with toys so often (which subsequently meant us getting in trouble) that after a while we devised a way we could play WITHOUT them - simply by using our own HANDS as puppets! I called it the "Duck and Bee Show". What was hilarious about that, was that while it remedied us from being caught holding up TOYS - we were STILL caught laying on our backs, holding up our arms in these peculiar hand formations - like we were two deaf kids conversing in sign language! My mother probably thought, what's this sudden obsession with their hands? But she would just whisper "go to sleep" and close the door. She was well accustomed to our odd behavior - perhaps even a bit thrilled, that in spite of our usual preferences to do things apart from each other, we were at least doing something which appeared collaborative.

What the Duck and Bee Show might look like today.

Well, anyway - back to the flashback... this one time we heard the steps approaching but before we could dive into sleep mode the door swung upon and in stepped my older brother Jeffrey. Normally when someone came into the room all we'd see was their silhouette with the bright hallway light beaming in from behind them - but THIS time was oddly different - there were two glowing objects in Jeffrey's hands, approximately a foot in height each, that were illuminating him from the front! It was a little spooky seeing Jeffrey come in that way holding two glowing objects in his hands. Both Vinny and I sat up and tried to determine what these two glowing objects were.

As it turned out Jeffrey had surprised us both with buying us two glow in the dark Casper The Friendly Ghost coin banks! Today, a hard to find collectible - made by the Transogram Company in the USA. These stood approximately 12" tall, so one could imagine after filling them with coins you probably couldn't lift them off the ground without rupturing your spleen.

Picture two of these
glowing at once!
We probably thought
we were hallucinating!

Coincidentally, Jeffrey had also bought me my very first ventriloquist dummy - which was both a source of delight and horror to my brother Vinny and I. Because he reminded us of Jerry Mahoney from the Paul Winchell Show, that's what we named him. It wasn't until years later as an avid eBay buyer and seller that I discovered he was more or less a Jerry Mahoney knock-off, referenced simply as the "ventriloquist's friend" (probably due to copyright issues)...

Me, Jerry and Vinny.

Funny though, how these little flashbacks pop into your head again... Vinny and I playing in the dark, those Casper The Ghost Banks, and my brother Jeffrey - who had a real knack for surprising us with the coolest things!

Play your metallic piece...

Dan always mentions the lo-fi limitations he had recording this song, and I suppose yes - it's true, but regardless of that - this is still probably my most favorite out of all of his songs. It always boggles my mind that Dan recorded this whole thing by himself in his bedroom on a beat-up Fostex 4-Track recorder. It's an ambitious piece - layers upon layers of sound - sort of reminds me a little of early Bowie... and even though Dan is not the type of guy who ever explained what his songs were about - this one is perhaps the most self explained...

Dan created an android and taught it to play guitar... "the rockin' man was built to make you swoon and sway... he's a rockin' little robot, you know - I taught him how to play..." My favorite part of the song is when Dan leads his friend into the guitar solo when he goes "Play your metallic piece!" Then there's that sound... how did he make that sound? It's a guitar, I know, but it's different somehow - sort of like an orchestra at half-speed. I've listened to this song many times and I still don't know what he did there. It's a secret we may never know.

Anyway, give the song a good hard listen and tell me what you think... oh, and thanks, Dan!!

Click here to listen to Rockin' G'Mon!

Yul FOUND!!

Today, when I woke up my bleary eyes were happy to discover that my long quest for Yul has been answered by a drunken hobo.... well, actually a collector of white doo-wop music who's screen-name was DrunkenHobo. He was happy to share the details I had compiled, along with my rare publicity photo of The Companions on his blog - and even more-so his YouTube video of the song - and now I'm thrilled to share it with all of you!! It really is a great song and I'm glad I can now hear it whenever I want - cruising around with the top down in my car (well, technically I can't do that because I drive a Hyundai Sonata, but YOU get what I mean!)... ENJOY!!...

A download of the song "I Want A Yul Brynner Haircut" is also available here!

Off The Wall

Just some random funny pics done for Facebook friends... granted, they probably won't make a lick of sense to anyone else... or maybe they will??...

While standing in line to get a bagel and coffee one
morning, an old woman who looked just like this
cut the line.

Dan was convinced he could outsmart
Facebook's Timeline Conversion by laying low.

I altered Mark's cover photo.
He wasn't about to blow his brains out in HIS version.

There's a LOT of cute on Facebook.
I hate cute.

Best Birthday gift ever.

My reaction after the 1,000th Bubblerock
advert from Dan.
What's a Bubblerock? ...Exactly.

Avant Garde Don.

Another Bubblerock reaction. Not good...

A somewhat controversial observation.

Someone's kid had built this bird feeder.
I added the note from the cat next door.

Mark's profile pic reminded me of Lester.

Something to ponder.

Otto, George and John Lennon!

Throughout the years I've heard the names Otto and George come up every now and then - mostly during conversations with comedians on various shows - but I never really got to fully appreciate who Otto and George were, until just recently, when Otto suddenly passed away in his sleep - and suddenly the internet was aflood with Otto and George YouTube clips. My brother Jeffrey was the first to tell me the news. He said he's been watching lots of Otto and George clips and laughing so hard he was crying. And so I did, and within seconds I was crying too.

 

In summary, Otto & George was an adult-themed ventriloquist comedy team composed of comedian Otto Sol Petersen and his dummy George Dudley. Petersen began performing with George as a street act in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the early 1970s. In the late 70s the act moved into night clubs and began to evolve into an X-rated act. Most of the clips on YouTube that you'd find are Otto from this later period. If you're easily offended I'd suggest you stay away from them - but I found his act to be hilarious. Filthy... but very, very funny...

Anyway, for THOSE clips you can do your own searching - but here's a little something I came across (a safe, terrestrial radio clip)... in which it's revealed that a young Otto Peterson during his street performing days met up with John Lennon! ....JOHN LENNON!!!

Enjoy...

Jump to 8:53

 

Otto back when he met John Lennon.
It was the bowler hat that caught Lennon's eye.

Going Psycho

A sneak peek at the Bates Motel location!

An exact replica of the original Bates Motel resides in a secret off-limits location somewhere in Aldergrove, British Columbia.... currently being used for A&E's Bates Motel mini series... but being a working set doesn't stop curious Psycho fans from finding it every now and then and snapping a few quick pictures! Heck, who could blame 'em - I would love to poke around that set myself!!!

Here are a few shots as it looks today during it's second season, courtesy of Cecilia Flaming Photography, and a couple of season one pics I came across credited to yvrshoots where evidently they matted in the top of the Bates house using CGI in post production. Sometime just before filming for season two they managed to add a real one.

Psycho buffs will tell you, the original Psycho house on the back lot at Universal Studios was built to two-thirds scale to make it appear much higher and much farther away from the Bates Motel than it really was - but this one is full scale size, done so with the intention to enable it's actors to get up close and for the cameras to utilize it to it's full potential. Just as the previous houses were - the ones used in production of the Psycho movies that came after Hitchcock's original - the house is just a facade... and inside scenes for this current production are shot in Vancouver.

Regarding the Bates Motel itself only a few rooms are used as sets, the rest of the "rooms" are again, a facade. In an interview I saw recently with Vera Farmiga (who plays Norman's mother, Nora Bates) she revealed that in-between shooting scenes on cold nights they use cabin #4 to warm up in - as it's equipped with heaters and other comforts - and she said she believes that the ghost of Anthony Perkins must be making visits - as it always locks her in when no one is around, and usually a stagehand or someone else needs to be called upon to open it for her!! How's that for spooky, eh?

Well, after the pics make sure to check out the videos below where a reporter stays the night at the Bates Motel and lives to tell about it - and a clip from A&E's Bates Motel website that shows you more of what goes on behind the scenes as explained by cast and crew members.

Season Two, the house is complete (well, at least that's what your eyes will tell you)...

 Season One, The Psycho house was topless...

 

Inbetween seasons...

The windows and doors get all boarded up, fences go up around the house and the property, plastic tarps cover the motel, the steps and the neon sign, a security guard polices the area - and Hitchcock watches over everything! (Note the silhouette!)

 

A candid shot...

Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins, without whom none of this.......

Twelve cabins, twelve vacancies...

And last but not least,

Freddie Highmore (Norman Bates from Bates Motel) visits the original Psycho house at Universal Studios Hollywood for the first time...

What's an Out Of Bodies?

Found this old band description from the now long defunct IUMA Underground Music Archive... the explanation given as to why the OOBS have never bothered to take their act further than their own bedrooms deserves some sort of spin doctor reward!

_______________________________________________ 

The Out Of Bodies began when two aspiring young artists, Donald Jefferes and Dan Banic, met while attending the High School of Art & Design in the late 70s. Throughout the 80s they were joined by Don's long term buddy Lloyd Goldfine, Don's cousin Joe Vento, and another A&D artist, Mark DeGross. Traveling back and forth to each others homes in the Bronx and College Point, Queens they recorded all of their music on a beat up portable 4-track Fostex recorder, and occasionally a boom-box they dubbed "the wheezer".

A creative group of artists/film makers/horror buffs - The Out Of Bodies have worked on many projects both on their own and in collaboration with each other - but their most notable body of work continues to be their music. As diverse as their own personalities their music has been compared to, foremost, The Beatles (as a group and solo artists) - but they also share a particular interest in the diverse musical and vocal styles of Harry Nilsson, Cat Stevens, Sting, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra, Beck, Squeeze, Radio Head, Neil Innis, David Bowie, Motown artists, Michael Penn and Sly and The Family Stone - to name but a handful.

None of them professional musicians, with the possible exception of Dan - who has self taught himself to play virtually anything - one can easily find themselves perplexed on why, throughout the years, the Out Of Bodies have never bothered to cut an album for themselves or to record any of their material in a studio. It is only their close friends and relatives that can tell you how they've witnessed themselves, that unlike your average band, the OOBs prefer to commit their bursts of creativity to tape spontaneously and without obligation. In short they will tell you that they do it "just for fun."

Whatever the reason, it is perhaps this "quirk" that makes the OOBs so appealing rather than being the nemises that holds them back. Within their vast collection of their music on cassette tapes, many of their songs are sandwiched between comedy skits, impromptu takes, and a whole lot of laughing. They're a silly bunch. Individually and a little bit older the OOBs are still drawing a curious audience.

For more on the Out Of Bodies including more photos, songs, fan commentary, bios and up to date OOB information, make sure to visit their external website. Submit your own commentary to their recently added "OOB TALK" page and read what others are saying.

Thousands Show Up For 50th Anniversary of Worlds Fair

NYS Pavilion Named 1 Of 44 'National Treasures' In United States

APRIL 22, 2014 - - CBS NEWS

Fifty years ago, the New York World's Fair opened in Queens. Many who were there returned Tuesday to mark a very happy anniversary. They lined up by the thousands, just like they poured onto the grounds on this day back in 1964. They carried their World’s Fair identification cards, and so many memories.

“It brings chills to me because it was a very special time in my life,” Gail Fiorelli told CBS 2’s Dick Brennan. “I grew up dirt poor in Brooklyn, and this was like beyond Disney World to me,” Sheldon Lapidus added.

In an age before theme parks, there were exhibits and rides at the World’s Fair. “To ride the monorail was like the new subway, I thought,” Tom Piragnoli said.

Hans von Rittern said he attended the fair and told Brennan he became obsessed with the “It’s a Small World” exhibit. “Yes and it can’t leave your head, and it’s still in everybody’s head today,” von Rittern said.

“Everybody my age remembers the Pieta,” Maureen O’Connor said, referring to the famed Michelangelo sculpture that was brought to the fair.

The fair also brought the introduction of a breakfast revolution, including the Belgian waffle, and the unisphere, which, despite being a target of destruction in the movies, still stands 140 feet tall.

Restoring The New York State Pavilion

Best known as the centerpiece of the World's Fair, The New York State Pavilion has been designated as a “National Treasure” by The National Trust For Historic Preservation.

Officials made the announcement during a special celebration marking the anniversary of the fair. The famed pavilion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is now one of 44 “National Treasures” in the entire United States. The designation is given to “structures that are built to our architectural, social and political history. The kind of buildings we cannot imagine being without,” said Paul Goldberger of The National Trust For Historic Preservation. The pavilion was designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson.

It closed following the World's Fair, though was occasionally used as a concert venue and a movie set. Through the years it fell into a state of disrepair and has been rusting away for decades. Recently there has been a push by activists to preserve the pavilion. Volunteers have even taken to painting the lower level of it red, white and yellow to spruce it up, CBS 2's Scott Rapoport reported. Now with it's newly minted designation as a National Treasure, many are hoping that talk of preserving and restoring this special structure will turn to action.

Tuesday was the first time in decades that visitors were allowed to go inside an tour the pavilion.

“I hope they fix it up and make it nice for the future generations to see,” said Tom Robinson, of Lindenhurst, who was first in line to take the tour. “I grew up here, I saw this back in ’64, I rode with the Mustangs in the Ford pavilion, I had my first Belgian waffle here.”

It will cost about $40 million to restore the pavilion, preservationists said.

Haunted Barn closes (for now)...

A couple of days ago Joey packed up the last remaining artifact of wonder from his garage-turned-museum "The Haunted Barn". On his Facebook page he announced "...today, it is just a barn again" - in which I replied, "Joey, it will never be JUST a barn again..."

Good luck my friend, on your eventual move - and wherever the NEXT Haunted Barn ends up...

The Royd's release their debut album, Royd Rage!

Hey friends, please check out (and purchase) my nephew Andrew's debut album, The Royd's "Royd Rage", now available for download at theroyds.bandcamp.com Share it, pass it around, shout about it - I was very much impressed with their sound - my personal favorite song being "Rebound Girl"... reminded me a bit of something Mike Nesmith might've done with The Monkees, sort of... kind of... but the many sounds on their album here (while no doubt influenced by many) is very much their own. I was drawn into all their songs immediately, and with each listen I notice something else that makes me smile... and there's a sense of humor on there too - I almost spit out my coffee when I heard "My Boots Give Me Street Cred" and "Divinity Of Mr. Johansen"... those silly guys... oh, and "The Park Is Closed" - I wonder how many people besides myself have caught THAT innuendo!

Jump back a few months from now... I was happily surprised when Andrew and Robb asked me to do their cover art, asking (almost apologetically) "really? You know my style, right?" and Andrew answered flatly "yeah, that's what we want!" - so I was really glad when after sending the fellas the art Andrew called it "brilliant" - that was really quite nice!! The guys already had a color scheme worked out in their heads, and they knew exactly what they were looking for.

The finished album cover.

Thanks guys for helping bring me out of a sort of lazy, somewhat semi-retirement - it seems to be a nice match to the album's contents and I'm already envisioning it on promo cards and t-shirts!... this was a great experience and I think you guys are really going to get some really cool feedback!!....

The pencil sketch. 

Incidentally, Andrew's other band "Swear To Me" just played Mulcahy's last night - sorry I missed it, I will have to catch you guys the next time!

The New York Grimpendium features the Out Of Bodies most cordial member...

The New York Grimpendium - The Haunted Barn Movie Museum in the Hudson Valley town of Monroe feels like the room of the coolest 12-year-old boy on the planet. Located in a shed behind the house of its owner and curator, Joey Vento, the museum is filled top to bottom with monsters of every sort, all jumbled together in a glorious hodge-podge like somebody took apart every Creature Feature ever shown and threw them haphazardly about the place. The only difference is that most of the things in the museum are actual costumes and masks and props (or pieces of props in many cases) from movies that range from the original Planet of the Apes; to the not-original I Am Legend. 

Collector Joey Vento is not a 12-year-old boy, but that's probably the worst thing I can say about him. He’s a genuine and enthusiastic monster movie fan, as well as a genuine and enthusiastic person. He runs an entertainment business called Movies to Go that is basically a portable movie theater for events and functions, and his museum also doubles as a venue, so that you can watch a movie while the bug creature mask from the film looks over your shoulder...

more...

Delicious News - OOB site adds SIDES!

Website UPDATE: A keen eye would notice... gone is the old "contacts" tab, and in it's it's place "SIDES", which in a nutshell is going to be a page devoted to whatever things we may have worked on - individually or collaboratively - that WASN'T what we'd refer to as an Out Of Bodies project.

First up is a very silly bit of nonsense culled from our vast collection of recorded comedy bits, featuring my buddy Lloyd (as Bud Abbott, and other cast members of the old Abbott and Costello TV Show) and myself (Donald) as Lou Costello - or as it's eventually explained, not the REAL Lou Costello, but a cheesy Hanna-Barbera cartoon voice actor filling in for him. Listening to the ten tracks assembled from the many comedy cassettes where these impromptu bits would appear sporadically - you can clearly hear us remembering bits and pieces of the REAL Abbott and Costello story and working them into the premise.

Lloyd and I had always thought it a bit tragic (and yes, funny) that in the sixties the real Budd Abbott was nearly broke and suffered from poor health and several addictions - making it impossible to refuse the offer from the undisputed kings of limited animation - Hanna-Barbera - when they asked him to supply the voice for his own character in the Abbott and Costello cartoon series, which was produced from 1965 to 1966. By this time his comedy partner Costello had already been dead for 6 years, having passed away in 1959. The guy who filled in for Costello was horrible - and predictably so was the whole cartoon.

One day while Lloyd and I were playing around, recording our improvisational bits - we somehow found ourselves mimicking the old Abbott and Costello TV show, whistling the theme song - but for some unknown reason instead of placing ourselves in 1952-1954 when these shows took place - we catapulted the situation to the Hanna-Barbera years - hence the opening lines...

Bud Abbott: "By the way, I know you're not Lou - I just CALL you Lou..."
(Not the real) Lou Costello: "Well I'm JUST GONNA HAVE TO DOOOOOO!!!!!"

Out Of Bodies SIDES: Wow Ink-corporated's Abbott and Costello

The What Song?

Many Out Of Bodies recordings happened without planning, without lyrics and without any real sense of purpose! Hah hah!! Well, here's another Out Of Bodies 4-Track recording that Dan recently uploaded to YouTube, a song without planning, words, or purpose - other than to make you smile... called "The Bam Bam Song"!!

Don't question things!! Just enjoy it...

Another Lost Track from the Vaults

Another rare find from Dan's extensive 4-Track library of Out Of Bodies jams, demos and impromptu takes...

I like when Dan asks, "Why do we always gotta stick a Beatles chord there at the end?" Hah hah!! ...Enjoy!!

More Tracks from the Vaults

Dan digs up another track from the vaults, this time not a jam with the other fellas - but an unpolished Beatles cover he recorded on his own using his Fostex 4-Track recorder...

...and there's more where this came from, stay tuned!

Jam Tracks from the Vaults

Dan unearths yet another couple of jam session tracks and turns them into a delightful video in which you can watch as you sip your morning java...



...more to come!!...

Look At It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe's hilarious phone message response - to a disturbing photo of Lady Elaine Fairchilde that I put up on his Facebook wall...


Click HERE to hear the message To Donald

Veteran's Day - November 12, 2013