Sidney Bechet. Jump jazz.

This is the the most quintessential artist of this sound that I think I’ve ever heard.

I went to see a grumpy Woody Allen play this music in New York with his band and lemme tell ya there weren’t young girls with pageboy haircuts swishing their beaded shorty dresses around pinky nails of white snuff whilst doing the Charleston. Or whatever. It kinda broke my heart.

But on a lighter note:
Just get this guys greatest hits and put it on repeat and random. dress up. have a cheap french champagne party. that’s always a super fun drunk anyway. Boys in tuxedos with your hair slicked back. Wear a monocle.

Awesome.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Here’s an interesting person whom I’d never heard of before recently. Emma Goldman. Thought you might dig on her tendency toward saying these kinds of things:

“Here, then, are my answers: I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made.

As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth.”

What a rebel. It seems that she also may have coined the phrase “free love” sometime around the turn of the century. I haven’t read her whole wiki, but in a couple of the things I’ve read of her she was defending that phrase as though it were her own.

Damn interesting lady.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

For years I have wondered what the hell she could be singing about in this song.  This chorus is so grand and sweeping that I of course hoped the lyrics and subject matter lived up to the sweeping grandeur of the melody.  Well guess what…. holy shit.

Here is the older Edith singing it with English translation:

Here’s a great shot of her in her younger grace and beauty:

This chick sings like the ultimate heavyweight champ of the world.  Damn.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Apparently not having had one when he died, Baltimoreans staged a funeral for the great/young/dead man Edgar Allan Poe this Sunday.  I really would’ve liked to have been there in my  turn of the century tux and topper with maybe just a little blood seeping from an open wound.

Here is the local newspaper page from the day of his death including his obit.

DREADFUL CALAMITY – We learn from a correspondent, that the Rev. James Nicols, of Caroline Conty, Md., who has for a long time been laboring under an aberation of mind, on Thursday last, shot dead Miss Julie Nichols. …

STRAYED from home on Friday, 5th instant, a  COLORED BOY namde BILL, about ten years old, slightly marked with small pox. … All persons are warned not to harbor said boy, at the peril of the law…

DEATH OF EDGAR A. POE — We regret to learn that Edgar A. Poe, Esq., the distinguished American poet, scholar and critic, died in this city yesterday morning, after an illness of four or five days. This announcement, coming so sudden and unexpected, will cause poignant regret among all who admire genius, and have sympathies for the frailties too often attending it. Mr. Poe, we believe, was a native of this state, though reared by a foster father at Richmond, Va., where he lately spent some time on a visit. He was in the 38th year of his age.

FITS! FITS!! FITS!!! HART’S VEGETABLE EXTRACT is the only remedy for EPILEPSY, a FALLING SICKNESS, CONVULSIONS, SPASMS, &c. …

THE SEWING MACHINE, which attracted so much attention at the Fair, has been removed to the corner of Baltimore and South streets, where the public can witness its operation.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

But about the bangs…We used to call this haircut “The Louise Brooks” or “The Lulu” and here’s why:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9AsN_jAxaE

And you probably noticed a few other currently trendy looks in there too.  The nerdy guy with round glasses plays in every indie band that ever comes out of Glasgow.  There’s surely a picture of him in an attic somewhere that he must look pretty bad in by now cuz he looked just fine last year in that Vampire Weekend video.

There seemed to be a lot of movies being made in the twenties and thirties about young, pretty, working class girls hooking up with horrible old rich men.  International travel by cruise ships had maybe spread the new American classless society to London, Berlin and Paris where a shiteload of films were being produced.  The great depression probably fueled the fire.

Here’s a video Gothman made from my favorite movie about a poor girl getting destroyed by a rich pig.  Of Human Bondage,  starring Bette Davis and my periodically favorite actor of all time Leslie Howard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqjTMJYdZ2k

I will be making a whole section on Leslie Howard, arguably the coolest man who ever lived.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

We are going to put up a new website (which is currently under construction) and it will be far simpler to navigate, so for now he will just stick it in the “news” section. 

Okay.  Yesterday whilst finishing my “Amigos” remix with Jacob, he showed me this: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae7Ld_8Y6tE

It reminded me that Bauhaus is indeed my favorite band ever and why.  Also that I was the singer for Bauhaus for a few minutes in DC once.  I like to call it that cuz it’s funny but really all I did was sing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” with Daniel, Kevin and David J. which is pretty much the same as when sammy hagar sang for van halen but that we were smart enough to limit it to one song.  Ever.

Sorry for the cheap shot, Sammy, but it was just right there, ya know.

Anyhoo.

This next clip is dark, sweet and campy and basically everything I love about old film.  the lighting is so beautiful and the story is obviously very sad.  Marlene just looks amazing.  She actually did have Bette Davis Eyes back when they called them “bedroom eyes”.

Now here’s a quick look at Marlene Dietrich, my favorite female archetype ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BniYAiuQBeg

Incidentally she is also my favorite singer from the 20′s / 30′s era largely because she has a low voice that never gets shrill as many of those old recordings do. btw the movie is called Dishonored.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR