I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TIME FOR THREE-Tiny Desk Concert #291 (July 27, 2013).

Time for Three are a string trio who play many types of music.  There are two violinists Zachary De Pue and Nick Kendall with a double bassist Ranaan Meyerand.  And over the course of their three songs (all original) they play classical, jazz, bluegrass and just about everything in between.

“Banjo Love,” features two contrary violin solos which get support from Meyer’s expressively propulsive bass.  It opens with the two guys strumming the violins before breaking into some lovely bowed playing.  Both violinists switch off solos (the blond player is a bit faster and more “showoffy” (but great)).  There’s even a bit of a bass solo after which the three guys all make a big grunt before continuing to the end of the song.

They say they are honored to be on the Tiny Desk series and compliment them on their new offices.

“Sundays” is a slow piece that features lots interesting bass parts behind the slow violin melodies.

They have funny stories about the origins of their songs.  “Don Don” is so named because the baseline goes don… don.  This has more of a bluegrass fiddle feel than a classical feel.  It’s super fast and fun with perfect slides and solos to really keep the song moving.

The notes say that they wished the guys played more, and I do too.  Interestingly I see that they have covered Daft Punk and Kanye West, so I guess they’re up for just about anything.

[READ: December 8, 2015] The Complete Peanuts 1965-1966

A whole bunch of ideas that I think of as BIG PEANUTS ideas come along in this book.  May of 1965 introduced the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm and Snoopy’s desire to meet his siblings.   In July of 1965 we get the first instance of snoopy at the typewriter writing “it was a dark and stormy night.”  We see Charlie Brown refer to the tree as a “kite eating tree” for the first time.  In July 1965 it’s the first time I can recall seeing the phrase “jelly bread.”  It’s the first appearance of Snoopy as Beau, the World War 1 flying ace (Oct 1965).  And in September 1966 we get the first appearance of Peppermint Patty!

The pop culture references seem to have dimmed somewhat too, although in January 1965, Linus cries “Annette Funicello has grown up!”

The “Happiness is” quotes are fewer, although Lucy squeezes Snoopy and says “Felicitas est parvus canis calidus,” which is Latin for “Happiness is a Warm Puppy.”   Of course later when he kisses her she freaks out “get some disinfectant, get some iodine” and he says “next time I’ll bite her on the leg.”

Linus’ blanket also takes on a mind of its own in March 1965 actually hissing at and attacking Lucy.

Although Snoopy has skated a lot,  I feel like there’s some real attention to him doing so in January 1965.  He has the long cap on and everything.  And a first…Schulz uses the same gag (with slightly different drawings on January 24, 1966 and December 20, 1966: “I think my feet need sharpening”).  While skating Snoopy sees…a beautiful girl beagle!  He falls in love and even asks her to marry him!  (Her father says no).   Later in the summer, he rides a surfboard and sees the same beagle (although we never see her).

Most of Charlie Brown’s anxieties seem to surround the little red-haired girl.  He’s a little less afraid of nobody liking him, it seems.  But he keeps coming back to the girl.  And then, horror of horrors, in Nov 1966 Charlie and the little red-haired girl are assigned to be partners in science, but he can never get the courage to talk to her.

In the summer of 1965 Charlie Brown goes away to camp and (actually) makes a friend, Roy.  The following year, Linus goes to the same camp and he meets Roy, too.  (Roy talks about the funny big-headed kid).

Schulz’ preoccupation with eyes continues as Sally is diagnosed with a lazy eye and has to wear a patch for six weeks.  And in March of 1965 there’s a joke about Snoopy wearing contact lenses.

Lucy’s psychiatry business is still booming (she sometimes has Snoopy sit in for her).  In June of 1966, she changes the sign (for this one strip) to Psychiatry a Go-Go.  Lucy continues to have some of the best lines.  In October, Charlie Brown worries about his dad who is acting weird.  He has just turned forty…Lucy says he is right on schedule.  I also enjoyed this strip: “our generation has been given the works…all the world’s problems are being shoved at us.”  Linus asks, “What do you think we should do?”  Her reply, “Stick the next generation.”  She also envisions Snow White as a missed chance to get a really good nights sleep because some prince woke her up.

Linus gets a quarter from the tooth fairy and Lucy says she must take the teeth and grind them up to make billiard balls.  He also gets a “cinch notice” for lunch.  A cinch notice is an official notice from a teacher that your grades are unsatisfactory.

Pig Pen hasn’t made too many appearance lately, but he does in August and for the first time, he is insulted when someone calls him dirty.

In March 1965 it’s the first strip I can remember of them playing basketball.  March also sees some major talk of skateboarding.  And in July of 1966 Snoopy is surfing again “wearing my jams” (who knew that was a thing back then).

There’s a funny spelling bee strip (which I feel like I have seen recently) in which Charlie misspells “maze” like Willie Mays (baseball always on his mind).  The pitcher’s mound is covered in dandelions and the girls won’t let him cut them down.  And there’s plenty of losses.

April 1965 shows the great double play team of Snoopy and Linus.  Although in August Linus decried the heat of the baseball field.

In May of 1966 we see the shocking news that … Linus and Lucy are moving!  Charlie freaks out and stars using a  blanket.  They are gone for a couple of weeks and then come back (something about their dad not liking his new job).

I feel like the strip never really deals with the future although in September 1965 Charlie reads that there will be a shortage of 8,000 vets in 1980.  It’s funny to think that 1980 is now further away from 2015 than it was from 1965.

The birds continue to bother Snoopy and when he kicks the babies out too early, they fly upside down….(although Woodstock is not here yet).

In terms of Snoopy’s house, there are several references to his Van Gogh.  But in Sept of 1966 Snoopy’s dog house burns down!  He loses his Van Gogh.  He sleeps on a frame for a few weeks and then the kids build him a new one.  Now he has a an Andrew Wyeth.

Peppermint Patty’s first appearance is unusual–she is also friends with Roy from summer camp.  He tells her about Linus saying that their baseball team that could use some help.  She marches across town and plays great for the team–strikes out several people and hits five home runs.  The team loses anyway and she says they are hopeless. But in the meantime she calls Charlie Brown “Chuck,” calls Lucy “Lucille” and thinks that Snoopy is a peculiar kid–everything was in place for her.  She returns one or more times, too.

In Nov 1966 Charlie Brown gets to be Safety Patrol!  He finally achieved something!  Although people do make fun of him and Lucy calls him “fuzz.”

In Nov 1966, the Sunday funnies now have the subtitle “featuring Good ol’ Charlie Brown.”

And in December 1966, the Christmas Sunday strip is the biblical quote from the Christmas movie (which aired last year).

Hal Hartley wrote the introduction to this book, and in a very strange opening he talks about how he didn’t grow up reading comic strips, although he thinks he must have read Peanuts.  He was given strips to refresh his memory.

And then somehow claims that the sparseness of the Peanuts world might have inspired him to make the sparseness of his film worlds.

He talks about jokes that are not in this book (which is maddening).  And he has yet another reference to a future Peppermint Patty strip–people love her!

By the end of the foreword he says that as a kid he laughed and cried a lot at Peanuts, which seems to contradict what he said earlier.  And by the end he wonders to what extent his “sense of humor, thinking about life, and storytelling inclinations might have been influenced by my regular and casual contact with Charlie Brown.”  Given what he said earlier, I’d have to say none.