SOUNDTRACK: JOAN SHELLEY-Tiny Desk Concert #473 (September 25, 2015).
When I first started listening to this Tiny Desk Concert, I thought Shelley was going to be singing more of a country music style. But more careful listening revealed an early British Folk songwriting style. Because I’d heard Richard Thompson talking about Sandy Denny recently, I thought of her. So I was pleased to see that the blurb (and Shelley herself) references Sandy Denny as well.
The Concert is Joan on acoustic guitar and Nathan Salsburg (she describes him: “my band, we are Joan Shelley”) on the second guitar. They play beautifully together.
The songs, like “Easy Now,” are really pretty with a delicate finger-picking style from Shelley and fairly complex finger-picking soloing/accents from Salsburg. But the best thing is her voice. Clear and powerful–no warbling or hesitation, just clear beautiful singing.
I didn’t think I knew Joan Shelley, but “Stay on These Shores” sounds incredibly familiar to me. She says that she is from Louisville Kentucky so it doesn’t make sense to her that she would write songs about the ocean. She attributes it to the Sandy Denny lineage. The way she sings the first line of this song is just hauntingly beautiful. I really love this song a lot.
In “Not Over By Half” it is almost uncanny how much she sounds like a 1960s British folksinger. Her delivery and phrasings are just amazing. This is another beautiful song, all three of which came from her album Over and Even.
Shelley is an amazing force in folk music.
[READ: August 31, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1985-1986
Schulz had been writing Peanuts for about 35 years when these strips came out. Wow. It’s interesting to see how many themes have stuck around and how many have gone away or come back and been updated. I also love seeing the few pop culture references that he deigns to throw into his strips–things that he assumed would be eternal, I guess, or maybe things so ubiquitous he had to mention them?
Snoopy’s brother Spike is on the cover of this book. I am somewhat surprised at how much attention he gets (especially since I don’t remember him at all). The problem is that almost all of his jokes are about cactus. I feel like Schulz was going for a loneliness angle, but it all seems to involved cactus “arms” or thorns.
The year starts off great for Patty because she won an essay contest on what she did during her Christmas vacation (she got a D- on the paper in school, however). She even gets to read it out loud (where things don’t go so well). Of course, she continues to get D miuses and in July 1986 she even get a tutor. He is quite snarky with her and she calls him Joe Sarcasm. (There have been dozens of Joe ____ characters, although almost all of them have been aliases of Snoopy, this is one of the few for someone else). Then she calls him Captain Tutor. He shouts that his name is Maynard. So Patty calls up Marcie to say she should meet him–he’s just her type…weird. It turns out that Maynard is Marcie’s cousin (ha). Eventually Patty just throws him out.
For Valentine’s Day in 1985, Charlie has Snoopy pretend to be the little red-haired girl and Snoopy puts on a curly wig–is that the first insight into the girl’s appearance? That week people are all hit by lost love. It seems like an unusual and very specific emotion for Schulz to deal with–something he never really talked about before. He’s certainly talked about lost loves, but never so directly.
Marcie continues to be one of my favorite characters. Especially the way she picks on Patty. Patty is still falling asleep in school all the time. In Feb 1985, Marcie puts a binder on the back of her head, walks her up in front of the class and then shows off a “full-scale model of the human head” to the class. Genius. Patty doesn’t even wake up.
Linus decides that building a rock wall is good therapy. It is suggested that he can do this instead of needing his blanket. But let’s not go crazy. Later, Linus tries to do his own laundry and Lucy catches him trying to stuff his shirt into the laundry detergent bottom
Every once in a while there’s a really wordy strip that I find very funny. In March of 1985, Charlie is telling Sally a story from his grandpa about WII: “all the enlisted men were issued two pairs of shoes, but a lot of them men wore only one pairs so they could keep the other pair shined and looking nice under their bunks. Battalion headquarters decided that the men should alternate shoes each day and to make to sure they did, the men had to lace their shoes on a certain way. One day they had to wear the shoes which had the laces crossed and the next day they to wear the shoes which had the laces going straight across.” Sally sensibly asks,. “How did they ever win the war?”
Sally is always asking her big brother for homework help, which he tends to refuse. In March she says if he helps, he’ll get her everlasting gratitude. When he doubts she knows what that mean she says “’til I ask you again.”
Sally has also been doing a lot of handwriting practice over the last few years. Mostly it’s different pieces of punctuation (with funny comments about them). In May 1985 she works on commas and possessives and quotation marks. After telling Charlie all about it she says “stay tuned for the inside story of what goes on in the glamorous world of punctuation.”
And in some wonderful Sally mistakes that make me laugh: “behind the barn the farmer had a pastor” or “the walls were covered with naughty pine.” For this one, she looks at Charlie and says “You looked like you were going to say something” and he wisely says, “not for anything in the world.”
In the realm of deliberate puns, Snoopy tells Woodstock to get a job in a tree “you could be a branch manager.” Sigh.
Pop culture: in May 1985 it is revealed that Woodstock has a satellite dish. In August 1985 Patty reveals that she and Marcie are “mallies” : They go to the mall to hang out. But Patty is distraught that Marcie actually buys something there. They even meet “a punker” which is snoopy with a kind of mohawk. In October 1985, Sally does a presentation on Halley’s Comet saying that the next time it comes by will be in 2062–we’ll all be 80 years old when that happens. [It passed by us in Feb 1986]. In May of 1986, Lucy starts a “swimsuit issue” campaign for the school paper. She gets all the boys to wear swimsuits. And in June 1986 Charlie’s desk comes equipped with an airbag.
In August of 1986, Linus asks Snoopy (the attorney) is he thinks cameras should be allowed in the courtroom.
August 1986 has Sally saying “I’ve decided to embark on a program of serious discipline. I’m going to eat properly, sleep properly and exercise properly.” Charlie asks, “Then what?” She replies, “You’re right, forget it.”
April 1985 sees an Easter Beagle strip (not as many of these as you might think).
There’s always baseball, and in April 1985 Charles mentions the new commissioner of baseball Peter Uberrroth (he took over in 1984).
There’s a lot fewer hockey references these days although Rerun is riding on his mother’s bike with a helmet and says people confuse him with Wayne Gretzky. A few months later in March 1986 he has a Baby on Bike sticker on his helmet (That was a huge fad in 1985).
There’s not that much about football this year, although Sally wants to know why the guy is always holding up John 3:16 and then says she assumed it had something to do with John Madden.
There’s some tennis but not as much. In March 1986 Molly Volley returns for a brief run with Snoopy.
Schulz must have been displeased about technological advances: Charlie tells Sally “if we watch TV all the time, we won’t have to learn to read. if we use word processors and calculators we wont have to learn to write or do math. Pretty soon we wont have to know anything.” Sally replies “That’s when I’ll fit in.”
On the environmental front, in November Sally does a paper that she ends with “This report was written on recycled paper… no trees were destroyed to make this report.”
Summer camp in June of 1985 is all rain all the time. The only thing worse than all the rain is the prospect of a sing-along. Ha In 1986, the kids go to a survival camp which is pretty funny: “there are people out there who want to destroy our way of life.”
In August of 1985 Charlie and Sally are told that they are going to start taking the bus to school. I love the way the joke plays out that they decide to walk instead, but the computer says they are on the bus, so they get in trouble.
Last book, Patty an Marcie went to a lot of Tiny Tots concert (Patty hates being called that). They always see Peter and the Wolf. I wish that my kids went to Tiny Tots concerts. But anyhow, in June 1985, Patty saves her ticket stub in hopes they will have raffle at the end–maybe she’ll win a violin. Later in August 1986, Patty shows off her musical knowledge by asking why it is called Mostly Mozart, why not “Regularly Rachmaninoff, Principally Prokofiev, Frequently Franck, Largely Lehar, Chiefly Tchaikovsky [my favorite joke], Mainly Mussorgsky, Essentially Elgar, Supremely Schubert or Generally Gershwin”.
Every once in a while Charlie gets a small victory. Like when Linus tells him that he knows Charlie would like to cry but that he’s too macho. Charlie gets excited “I am?!”
There’s few jokes of Woodstock getting attacked by a can of worms. And even though i like Woodstock as a character a lot, for some reason, it’s always funny seeing him getting beaten up.
The World War I flying Ace continues to appear. In a new twist he often speaks to Marcie in French. Although in 1985, instead of the ace, he pretends to be Charles Lindbergh, the “Lone Beagle.”
Lucy continues to be a voice for women’s rights. When Snoopy is flying over No Mans Land she asks what about No Woman’s Land. So he changes it to “No Person’s Land.”
In February of 1986 Sally believes that the LL on the elevator button in the library stands for Louis L’Amour “that’s pretty neat having your initials on an elevator button.”
Schulz also taught me something new. A ganglion cyst is also called a bible bump. It is a cyst that forms on your wrists and they say you should hit it with a bible. I’d never heard of this, but apparently it is a thing and quite common. Of course Schulz uses it as an excuse to make a joke about the different translations of the Bible.
In another funny sequence, Snoopy and his scouts get a cannon. And they fire it! But it destroys not only his dog house but also Lucy’s doctor booth and even Schroeder’s piano (over the course of several strips).
In May of 1986 they elect a May Queen. In Charlie’s school, Lucy is elected (which makes Patty say that the school has low standards). In Patty’s school… Patty is elected!
Sally gets a great joke in. A speed limit sign says 25 When Children are Present. She says, “I never realized we had so much influence.”
And the best one liner of all: Sally has to go to the dentist “I have to go have my teeth criticized.”
Two new characters arrive in 1986. One is a girl who is unnamed. The joke with her is that Linus is two months older than her but she keeps referring to him as if he is an old man.
And in September 1986 we meet Tapioca Pudding. Her dad is in licensing and she always talks about how her face is going to be everywhere. Every time she talks to someone she introduces herself by her full name and everyone says “I know.” Linus asks her out on a date (which makes Sally really jealous), but all she can talk about it herself and her licensing. She asks Linus if she is boring him “No I always like to rest my face in a marshmallow sundae.” Finally Snoopy the agent gets her a gig appearing at the Opening Ceremonies in the Olympic Game in L.A. (which were two years earlier).
In October 1986, Sally develops a new philosophy “Who Cares.” From now on nothing bothers me.
When Patty wants to organize a football team, Marcie says the costumes aren’t feminine enough. Then she wraps the football in a bow. Patty gets mad and says she won’t kick a ball that’s wrapped in a bow, but Marcie says “The Icebox would” Patty: “Refrigerator” Marcie: “Whatever.”
Lucy didn’t pull the ball away in 1985 (there was no mention of it). But she does in 1986 with the excuse that it is a special moment to look forward to every year. Then she pulls it away and sighs “it’s over before you know it.” There’ also a Great Pumpkin joke in 1986. Patty says she believes him about the Great Pumpkin. And then jokes that “On Secretary’s Day the Great Secretary rises from her desk and rides through the city in a taxicab with notepads for all the secretaries everywhere. And on Grandparents Day the Great Grandmother rises out of her condominium with cookies for all the grandchildren in the world.”
As 1986 draws to a close, Charlie gets up the nerve to wink at the red-haired girl. There is no reaction because she wasn’t in school that day.
And the musical jokes continue in December 19896 with Patty saying the enjoyed the concert because Marcie spent the whole time “Flauting with the flirtist.”
Patton Oswalt wrote the introduction.
He mentions how he bought the third Calvin and Hobbes treasury in 1988 and Schulz wrote the introduction to that. Schulz’ introduction was full of praise for Watterson’s technical skill and all the wonderful details he put s into his strips.
Oswalt talks about how over the 35 years the strip went from kids writing with desktop inkwells and now he’s talking about answering machines. Oswalt is dismayed that Schulz had to include an attorney as an imaginary Snoopy character–a sad reflection on our world
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SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-“Shipwreck” (MGM Grand Garden Arena, Friday 10, 31, 2014).
In honor of Halloween, these Ghost Box stories will be attached to a recent Phish Halloween show [with quoted material from various reviews]. 
I first discovered MST3K when I lived in Boston (on The Comedy Channel) in 1992 (just before it merged with Ha! and became Comedy Central).
I Just Read About That... 