SOUNDTRACK: TEDDY ABRAMS-Tiny Desk Concert #491 (November 30, 2015).
Teddy Abrams is a young piano player (he was 28 in 2015) and he was recently made conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. Here’s some fun details from the Tiny Desk blurb:
For his first week on the job in Louisville, Abrams played jazz piano in the streets and took his orchestra players into nightclubs and African-American churches. PBS made a web series on his first season. Earlier this year, he put two first symphonies on the same program — Brahms’ First and a debut symphony by Sebastian Chang, a composer still in his 20s — just to gauge audience reaction. Abrams filled the hall by giving out free tickets to first-time symphonygoers. He was happy to hear that many of them liked the new piece best, saying they appreciated hearing the composer introduce it onstage.
Abrams plays three pieces. Two originals and one from Beethoven. The first, “Big Band,” [from the blurb: swirls with jazz history. Hints of Thelonious Monk fly by, along with tips of the hat to the stride style from the early 20th century] is a fun and fast piece with Abrams playing fun and bouncy rhythms and very fast solo runs. It’s infectious.
Abrams decided to begin the opening movement of Beethoven: Sonata No. 30 in E, Op. 109, I. Vivace, ma non troppo with a short improvisation, noting that the great composer was known for riffing at the piano for hours on end and was often getting into improvisation battles. At he end, he says that we shouldn’t have been able to tell where the improv ended and the song properly began (although fans of the song could probably tell). By the end of his life Beethoven was experimenting and some of his later stuff is pretty out there and modern. That may be true if you know classical music, but it just sounded pretty to me.
He ends the set with a bluesy number, “The Long Goodbye,” [from the blurb: describing it as a slow ballad halfway between “My Funny Valentine” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”]. It is indeed a wonderful conglomeration of jazzy melodies. A lovely and fun piece that is familiar but new at the same time.
[READ: July 26, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1983-1984
As 1983 opens, Schroeder finally goes on the attack against Lucy “I have resolved not to be so serious..I’m going to try to laugh more” and then he pulls the piano out from under her and laughs like crazy.
For the past few books there have been a lot of jokes with Schroeder’s musical staves like Snoopy crawling through them. Most have invoked Woodstock interacting with them. As Schulz tends to do he will go on tears were he makes similar jokes every day for a week and then drops the joke for a while. There’s also been some strips with Woodstock singing . In one of my favorite, he is singing and the rain comes and actually washes the notes away from the stave. Even funnier is in Nov 1984 whee the rain comes and makes the notes droop really low.
For Valentine’s Day this year, Linus did not send Sally a card and she is very upset. Charlie says he should punch Linus in the nose. But he says instead that Linus should just walk into his fist. Charlie holds out his fist but Lucy walks into it instead. That’s pretty funny.
More abuse for Lucy comes from Linus. he gets a small bit of revenge by using Snoopy as a strange catapult and launching a snowball at her.
In the summer of 1983 while Snoopy is on a hike with the troops, the birds Bill and Harriet run off and get married and they stay in Point Lobos.
There’ a very funny joke about it being very cold and how school should be cancelled because “no one can expect a teacher’s ten-year old car to start on a day like this.”
In Feb 1983, Marcie and Patty go to a classical performance for Tiny Tots (Patty hates being called a Tiny Tot). They watch “Peter and the Wolf.” Patty thinks it weird to sit still and listen to the music, but she loves it and it turns out Marcie falls asleep. After the show, Patty calls Chuck to say that the show was great but now they have to write an essay about it: “But I guess that’s what education is for, huh Chuck. To keep us from enjoying ourselves.”
In a timely (now) strip, Lucy on March 29, 1984 says “By the time I’ve grown up we’ll probably have a woman president.” (From your pen to God’s tablet, Lucy). But she’s mad because it means she won’t get to be the first one.
I enjoyed this existential crisis for Charlie:
Some morning you wake up knowing that today you’re going to do something really dumb…[like] forget you’re not having pancakes and pour syrup all over your cold cereal. Its nice to get that over with.”
Even though Snoopy is the Brown’s pet there are not a lot of jokes about pet ownership (except the suppertime jokes). But there is a funny one with Snoopy sitting in the rain saying there is nothing more pathetic than a dog sitting in the rain when nobody cares. And then Sally yells, “Hey Stupid come on out of the rain,” and Snoopy has to stop wallowing. The next day Charlie even says “Dogs are nice but they’re also a lot of trouble. The sequence ends with Snoopy giving everyone a big hug because he has been listening to Leo Buscgalia tapes (he was Dr Love, a motivational speaker).
Spike has become much more prominent in these strips. He seems to get a few strips every other day for a couple of weeks. In Feb 1983 he asks for help because he is under attack from coyotes. Snoopy calls his soldier team of birds to action. They perform an air rescue with Snoopy as their helicopter.
In March, Patty asks Charlie to be the mascot for her team the Pelicans, and for a few days we see Charlie in a pelican suit. It ends with Marcie telling him she wants him to take of that costume and stop getting humiliated “If you don’t it for yourself do it for someone who likes you” with sally screaming “Kiss her you blockhead.” Later in July, Marcie kicks Charlie in the shin and Sally says “She likes you”–but again he doesn’t do anything about it! And while she and Patty are away at camp, Marcie writes to him every day, and when Patty gets jealous she writes to him too. But Chuck doesn’t write back right away and everyone gets mad at him. He does write back but with that horrible ink smudging. By the end of the week Patty wonders if she should call him a cute nickname and Marcie says “Dear Smudgy.”
There’s a lot of retorts between Marcie and Patty that end in “You’re weird Marcie” or “You’re weird, Sir.” Marcie also diagnoses Patty as having narcolepsy. So she goes for a sleep study. She doesn’t have narcolepsy, she just stays up too late.
There’s some amusing 80s speak in this book, with Patty saying that back in school, her dad had handed in a paper and the teacher wrote “fiddlesticks” on it, which hurt her dad’s feelings. So when she goes to school she get a paper that says “grody to the max.” In Nov 1983 Snoopy is in a cut off shirt dancing to Flashbeagle. In July 1984, when Charlie asks why Lucy plays baseball is she’s so bad, she says, “Girls just want to have fun.” And in August she says he glove isn’t user friendly. There’ also joke about Roy Hobbs, the layer from The Natural who wants to play for their team.
In April 1983 Linus makes the grand proclamation that he has given up his blanket–and he has–it is gone! He decides to help other kids who are stuck with their blankets as well and he offers up business cards and everything. He gets a client and this client manages to undermine everything he’s done wit one well placed line.
Snoopy’s water dish has often been the site of ice skating by Woodstock but it Oct 1983 it become the site of the bug world series (and then football season).
In 1983 Charlie Brown refuses to kick the football! He says hes glad Lucy is the only one who thinks he dumb enough to fall for it–cut to Snoopy, Sally, Marcie, Patty and Woodstock each holding a ball for him to kick.
Oct 1983 sees Spike come to visit with his friend the cactus. They show up in the pumpkin patch and Linus thinks they are the Great Pumpkin.
In Dec 1983, sally says she hates reading “reading takes effort. I hate to do anything that takes effort.” She asks Charlie to read to her. he says, “Listening takes effort too, you know.” She replies, “I wasn’t going to listen.” In another “joke” strip, one of the kids says,
My dad finally believes in miracles, he went to a restaurant last night “no one sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to anyone the whole time they were there.
In the 1983 Christmas play, Sally has one line. She is an angel and must say HARK! but when she gets on stage she says Hockey Stick. She says she is followed on stage by Harold Angel. Lots of puzzlement about this until Harold Angel shows up at the door. Harold make a return visit in May of 1984 and Sally tries to play it off that her Sweet Babboo is jealous, which of course he isn’t.
On Jan 1 1984 Snoopy make a George Orwell joke.
Patty’s bad grades are a source of trouble in 1984. First she says “I dont believe in grades! I dont believe we should be judged and labeled. If I ever got an A then I’d believe in grades.” But in the next strip we learn that Patty failed! She is not being promoted. And she blames Chuck–she needs to blame someone). She goes to the therapist who suggests that her father take her to Europe on his business trip. The next day Marcie is beside herself: I got straight As on my report card this term. Peppermint Patty failed every subject. Now her dad is taking her to Europe for the summer. You know where I’m going? No place! Every time I try to figure that out, I get dizzy.
When Patty starts school in the grade below, she is in Eudora’s class. And she gets n trouble immediately. Weirder still, the kids in her old class can still hear her snores at her old desk–which freaks out the teacher. She winds being senty back to her previous class.
One of my favorite jokes comes in Oct 1984 where Sally is writing “Britain was invaded in the year 43 by roman numerals.” Charlie says they probably had them outnumbered.” “What?” “Nothing.” Another comes in November, when Sally says, I just signed up for a great new course called Controversial French.” Charlie notes, “That’s Conversational French.” Sally: “forget it.”
Pig pen makes his semi annual return in Nov 1984 “Oh yes I’ve been in your class all year.”
In Dec 1984 patty reveals that she is a “latchkey” kid–a growing breed. Marcie says sometimes she is one too when her mom is playing bridge. Patty: “That’s not the same Marcie, and you know it. Then Marcie talks about a potential stepmother for Patty “Of course she might turn out to be a wicked stepmother like in all the books. Maybe she’d leave you in the woods and you’d have to follow bread crumbs to find your way home.” Patty can only say, “You’re fun to talk to Marcie.”
Last year Sally crossed 0ut her Christmas card list. This year she is down to one last name: “And there goes Jessie! These are people I’m, scratching off my Christmas card list. I’ve never had so much fun in all my life.”
And in one of the sweetest strips that backfires, the book sends with Schroeder actually communicating with Lucy. She brings him a cupcake for Beethoven’s birthday. He is so amazed he kisses her on the cheek. But when she turns, she see Snoopy and thinks he did it so she runs off having been kissed by dog lips. Aww.
The year ends with Woodstock inviting Snoopy to a party with a “big crowd and lots of chicks” but it’s only snowmen and Woodstock cracks up.
Leonard Maltin wrote the Introduction. In college, my friends and I used to mock Maltin because he provided the introduction to some Bugs Bunny tapes we had. He was so pedantic and dopey, we had a lot of fun yelling “shut up you, jerk” as he made his observations about what we were to watch.
I find myself thinking the same thing here too–that Maltin seems to state the obvious and be proud of it . I’m sure it’s just my own connection to laughing back in college but I can hear the tone of “You can count on each entry to give you a smile, and as often as not that smile comes from your knowledge of the characters, not the brilliance of the punchline.” The whole paragraph goes on like that and while it’s all true, it makes me laugh to think of us as yelling at the poor guy who is just trying to share his joy at something I also enjoy.
When he writes, “Schulz draws on life as a husband, father, pet owner and sports fan… surely Snoopy’s reaction to a pizza that’s too hot must have come from a first hand human experience,” don’t you just want to shout: “shut up! shut up! Shut up you jerk.”
So I’m happy to see that he also includes a lot of information that I didn’t know.
- He drew every appearance of his character except the Dell comic books.
- Tennessee Ernie Ford’s The Ford Show was a weekly variety show and was the first place to air Schulz’ animated strips.
- When he was younger, Maltin says he sent his own strips to Schulz and received a personal full page typed letter brimming with encouragement and a signed original of a daily from Peanuts.
- More than twenty years after writing that letter to Schulz, Matlin interviewed him for Entertainment Tonight. Maltin told him about that letter and print and Schulz gave him a new autographed Sunday comic.
Sparky was the best.
I Just Read About That... 
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