Crossword Music Videos - Used to be my favorite Sunday blog

 

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Constructor: Ned White

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

 

Word of the Day: EEL GRASS (38D: Freshwater plant also called wild celery) -

Vallisneria is a genus of freshwater aquatic plant, commonly called eelgrass, tape grass or vallis. The genus has 6-10 species that are widely distributed, but do not grow in colder regions. // Vallisneria is a submersed plant that spreads by runners and sometimes forms tall underwater meadows. Leaves arise in clusters from their roots. The leaves have rounded tips, and definite raised veins. Single white female flowers grow to the water surface on very long stalks. Tape grass fruit is a banana-like capsule having many tiny seeds. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, this one put up almost no resistance, and my experience of Saturdays being easier than Fridays continues. More often than not, in recent months, I've dusted off the Saturday faster than the Friday. I thought Fridays were supposed to be easier, but I'm just not convinced they are any more. Can't imagine someone taking longer to finish this one than it took to do yesterday's, for instance (which took me about 50% longer). I started with the cinchy MEL (4D: TV diner employer of 9-Down), which gave me the obvious ALICE at 9-Down, and that pair gave me toeholds in two different parts of the grid. Pretty serendipitous. Crossed MEL with WHOEVER (15A: "It doesn't matter ... anyone's fine"), then crossed that with SWEATSHOPS (1D: Much of New York's  Garment District, once) and proceeded to take the NW apart. I might have gotten slowed down here and there, but I never got stuck. Not once. Not complaining; just puzzled.

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Today's puzzle provides an excellent illustration of how the joints, or narrow passageways connecting the more wide-open white spaces, bear a lot of stress so that the longer answers can shine (which is as it should be).

The ugliest things about this grid are these passageways: OVIS over ATA in the SE, KOH in the N (27A: Soapmaking compound, chemically), AIS (aieee!) in the NW-all bad, but all holding big chunks of deliciousness in place, and therefore all forgivable and forgettable. Nothing terribly obscure today, except perhaps this IVOR guy (5D: English poet/composer Gurney), and EELGRASS, which I'd never heard of but got easily from crosses. Didn't know what [Lazuline] meant, but I had the BLUE and just guessed the SKY part (confirmed by ENYA-see, she's good for something; 55D: Mononymous four-time Grammy winner). In the "Lesson Learned" category today we have BANDBOX (58A: Smallish ballpark, in slang), which baffled me earlier in my solving career. I was told then that "any baseball fan knows what that means"-but I'd been a baseball fan for 30 years and had never heard it. To this day, the only place I've encountered it is in crosswords. Twice now. [Note, that may be a lie-I have a faint memory of seeing the word in print *just* after my first crossword BANDBOX experience]

Bullets:

• 1A: Eric ___, Google C.E.O. beginning in 2001 (SCHMIDT) - I think I just read that this won't be true anymore, or maybe already isn't true. Something about going younger, getting back the entrepreneurial spirit, businessspeak businessspeak, etc. Yep, it looks like Google co-found Larry Page (b. 1973) will take over as C.E.O. in April.
•  
•  
• 8A: Period between Shaban and Shawwal (RAMADAN) - "Period between" and Arabic-sounding names tells me all I need to know to get this one.
• 16A: Home of Nascar's longest oval (ALABAMA) - the whole damn state is the "home?" Random.
• 18A: Title for Columbus, in the Indies (VICEROY) - when you've got "-ICERO-" in place before you ever see the clue, this one's not hard, though I thought briefly CICERO might be involved...
• 40A: Present day figure in Paris? ("PÈRE NOEL") - i.e. Father Christmas
• 2D: Upscale wedding reception amenity (CHAIR COVER) - interesting answer, though "amenity" seems weird to me. They're usually plain and don't exactly provide added pleasure. Also, not terribly "upscale," in my experience.
• 7D: TV host with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame (TREBEK) - off the "R" in WHOEVER, I honestly considered DR. PHIL.
• 11D: He had righteous blood, per Matthew 23:35 (ABEL) - nice little misdirect there, using N.T. to clue O.T. figure.
• 28D: Texas city near the Coahuila border (DEL RIO) - really helps to know your southwest geography today, with DEL RIO and TAOS (21D: County with the restor town Red River) holding the key to the grid's NE territory.

• 31D: Staples of jazz music (TENOR SAXES) - Didn't think of Mavis Staples as a jazz singer, so took "Staples" at face value and was eventually rewarded for doing so.
• 45D: Emmy-winning reality show host of 2008, '09 and '10 (PROBST) - Jeff PROBST of "Survivor" fame. I used to watch that show. Wife still does. It's a (very) minor point of contention in the household.
• 42A: Cheap cigar, in slang (EL ROPO) - I know almost all my cigar terminology from crosswords. I can only think of CLARO right now, but I'm sure there's more.
• 33D: Big creature in un zoológico (OSO) - a bear. I had the last "O" and just guessed. Correctly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Crossword Music Videos - Used to be my favorite Sunday blog   Saturday, January 29, 2011 Constructor: Ned White Relative difficulty: Easy THEME: none   Word of the Day: EEL GRASS ( 38D: Freshwater plant also called wild celery ) - Vallisneria is a genus of freshwater aquatic plant , commonly called ...... Read MORE » on Dogmeat

it's ex-girlfriend saturday morning roundup | sean yseult for Carol Cutshall

Fabulous Monsters (aka Famous Monsters)

Fabulous Monsters (aka Famous Monsters)

Apologies for ripping-off the Kerrang! interview below, but there was so little material about the band on-line, I thought it was worth a scan. Oh, and they changed their name to “Fabulous Monsters” for legal reasons, shortly before disbanding for unknown reasons. Shame… they make me laugh, and there’s too little fun in the music world these days. For some reason only the Japanese seem to understand that…

———————————

From Kerrang! circa 5/98
Words: Joshua Sindell

The Beastie Girls

DUFF McKAGAN leans back against the bar of Los Angeles’ famed Troubadour club and stares in abject disbelief. The object at the erstwhile Guns N’ Roses’ bassist’s gaze? The three wildly dressed masked women on the stage gyrating madly to their own sound.
     The fanged Vampire Girl jabs away at her guitar’s strings, churning out twangy surf-rock riffs. Over on drums, the tall and green-wigged She-Zilla stands and pounds away, slamming her snare drum as her tail sways gently behind her. It’s the final song of the Famous Monsters’ set – a cover of the Cheap Trick chestnut ‘Clock Strikes Ten’ – and lead guitarist/vocalist Devil Doll beams as she watches her band bashing out the final chords.
     The horned lass in the tight red outfit quickly thanks the crowd for their warm, if slightly astonished, applause and the trio swiftly head upstairs to their dressing room, passing their tourmates, sci-fi garage rockers Man Or Astroman?, on the way. Duff McKagan decides that this is his cue to depart as well. But not before the bleached-blond one hesitantly approaches Kerrang! with an important question on his mind. “Say,” he says, a quizzical expression contorting his face, “wasn’t Sean Yseult from White Zombie supposed to be in that band?”
     The next day, we’re gathered at the expansive Silver lake home of While Zombie guitarist J Yuenger. J has offered the costumed creatures a place to crash before they continue their tour up the California coastline. When the Duff McKagan incident is related to the outlandish trio, the Famous Monsters howl with laughter.
     Devil Doll smiles a knowing smile. Sean Yseult – for it is indeed she, her corkscrews of lime-green curls tightly coiled under a red wig, plastic horns on her head and a pointy tail waving behind her – is having the lime of her life. For the White Zombie bassist, Famous Monsters are a chance to return to her trashy, garage rock roots.
     A non-stop party straight outta the Crescent City of New Orleans, the Monsters have given Yseult a break from the Zombie’s thunderous sounds and unbelievably lengthy touring schedules. For their part, both She-Zilla (Carol Cutshall) and Vampire Girl (Katie Campbell) claim that they’ve never heard of Devil Doll’s other band – although they admit to having seen the movie of the same name.
     Will this project cause any conflict between the two camps?
     “I think there’s room for two bands on this planet,” notes Devil Doll. Her two colleagues nod vigorously in agreement. It’s a rare moment of seriousness for the threesome. Famous Monsters refuse to be addressed by their real names or remove their masks. All three claim to hail from a planet called Monster Island, but say they’ve now “emigrated” to Earth. They have, quite clearly, superglued their tongues to their cheeks.
     "”We’ve come down from our Monster Island planet to try to inhabit Earth for a little while, explains Devil Doll with an impressively straight face. And play these songs that we just wrote a couple of months ago.”
     "”We knew that Cheap Trick were from here!” exclaims She-Zilla.
        All three of the Monsters name the legendary Chicago band as their all-time musical heroes.
     "”We had a hard time finding a place on Earth that was comfortable,” Devil Doll continues. We finally came across New Orleans. It was just like Monster Island: a 24-hour party with lots of monsters, ghouls and drag queens.”
     Vampire Girl: "”And fiends!”"
     She-Zilla: "”And graveyards!”"
     The Famous Monsters’ sound is a whacked-out mix of creepshow instrumental themes and ’60s surf sounds. Songs like ‘Vampire Cosmonaut’, ‘Murder Beach USA’ and ‘Destroy Puny Earthlings’ are rollicking examples of their single-minded (and simple-minded) pursuit of hauntingly good fun.
     Famous Monsters first came together three years ago. Back then, they had a male drummer by the name of Frankie Stein.
     They released a seven-inch single, ‘Monster Girls… Are Go!!’, on US indie Estrus Records and then promptly disappeared. Of course, now that they’ve emigrated to Earth they’ll be able to put out their self-titled debut album in October on Bong Load Custom Records and take their creepy-music-for-party-people ethic to the world at large!
     Devil Doll ponders her fascination for the surf-rock sound, eyes wide behind her crimson mask.
    “Maybe, down in Hell when I was a baby, I got influenced by someone surfin’ on those fiery waves!” she improvises wildly. “I dunno, is anybody dead from (US surf legends) The Ventures? I must have been raised on that music somehow.”
     That, or she’s been inspired by the clutch of instrumental bands, like the aforementioned Man Or Astroman? and Guitar Wolf, who’re currently burning up the club circuit in the US.
     “I just picked up the guitar a few months ago and started writing all these songs, and I’m not really sure where they came from,” she insists. “We might have had a satellite dish beam down some interplanetary sounds to us on Monster Island, possibly when Man Or Astroman? were flying by.”
     We’ll take that as a ‘yes’.
     "”I’ve been hitting and destroying things all my life,” interjects She-Zilla, twitching restlessly, “and the drums were the first thing I could find that I could hit and not destroy!”
     With White Zombie currently in a coma – what with mainman Rob Zombie preparing for the release of a solo album and a tour -this is the perfect lime for Sean, er, Devil Doll to express herself in new and unexpected ways.
     “I’m enjoying (playing lead guitar) immensely,” she says, fiddling with her tail. “I just have these little melodies in my head and it’s nice to be able to play them. I’d played some of them on a four-string bass guitar, but it just doesn’t make a nice sound. It’s good to be able to play chords. And I especially like the whammy bar on a guitar!”
     It’s a beauty of an axe, too, with a glittering red finish and Devil’s pitchforks printed all along the fretboard.
     As for Zombie guitarist-in-residence J, looking youthfully clean-cut without his dreadlocks, he maintains that he isn’t the slightest bit threatened by his bass-playing bandmate’s move into his territory.
     “Not at all,” he laughs, happily picking at a guitar in another room of his house, decorated in eccentric fashion with dozens of fez hats. ”But I do think I’m the only member of White Zombie not totally into the surf music thing… although I do like it.”
     The Famous Monsters now have their claws extended and sharpened for mass destruction on a global scale.
      “If we can handle the climate here on Earth we’re going to stick around,” deadpans Devil Doll, “because people so far have been very nice, and New Orleans is very conducive for our music. I think we’ll be around for a least a year, or 10, or a100.”
     “But there’s other things I want to do!” wails She-Zilla, tearing at her green hair.
     “Such as?” asks Devil Doll.
     “Well, I’ve always wanted to be a… manicurist! I love to rock, but I do have other interests.”
     Do Famous Monsters write their songs with a certain type of fan in mind?
     “They’re especially for teenage boys in Japan,” replies Vampire Girl, her smile showing off her fangs.
     Devil Doll: “We’re hoping that Tokyo enjoys our music.”
     Have audiences been screaming out for ‘More Human Than Human’ or ‘Thunder Kiss ’65′?
     “No,” says Devil Doll, “but we keep hearing of this thing called ‘Freebird’.”
     “All animals should be free,” concludes Vampire Girl with an air of authority.
     Have people been yelling out the name of Devil Doll’s alter-ego, then?
     “No, but I’ve heard a few people yelling out ‘Godzilla’ a few times,” she grins. “They must like She-Zilla’s Daddy a lot.”
     In Kerrang! 705, Rob Zombie talked at length about his solo album and his Zombie A Go~Go record label. Zombie A Go-Go is devoted to releasing records by surf-rock bands such as LA combos The Bomboras and The Ghastly Ones, but Rob claimed he had no idea what Sean was doing or of the Famous Monsters’ existence.
     “That’s interesting,” ponders Devil Doll, “Our guitarist J knew about it.”
     Our guitarist? Don’t you mean White Zombie’s guitarist?
     “Right, right,” she laughs. “And I later found out that Rob was trying to get a lot of the bands on the Estrus label for his label. But I don’t think he knew who Famous Monsters were. Very interesting. “
     With that, the three Monsters rise to take in what’s left of the LA sunshine. We idly inquire where they got their fabulous costumes from.
     “Costumes?” they cry in unison.
     “They are our outfits,” snorts Devil Doll. “We’ve been wearing them forever!”
     “This is my favourite outfit,” smiles She-Zilla.
     “She-Zilla,” gasps Devil Doll, “it’s your only outfit!”

via deecrowseer.wordpress.com

Fabulous Monsters (aka Famous Monsters) Fabulous Monsters (aka Famous Monsters) Apologies for ripping-off the Kerrang! interview below, but there was so little material about the band on-line, I thought it was worth a scan. Oh, and they changed their name to “Fabulous Monsters” for legal reasons, sh ...... Read MORE » on Dogmeat

You thought Jerry Lee Lewis on T.J. Hooker was Killer, But you hadn't seen him speak Italian in Police Story!

JERRY LEE LEWIS: POLICE STORY [ITALIAN DUB TV 1973 Pt. 1

JERRY LEE LEWIS: POLICE STORY [ITALIAN DUB TV 1973 Pt. 1

must be a mrjyn Dailymotion http://dailymotion.com/mrjyn video!
Only from Dogmeat! Don't accept the plagiarizers, unless you like that sort of thing!

You thought Jerry Lee Lewis on T.J. Hooker was Killer, But you hadn't seen him speak Italian in Police Story! JERRY LEE LEWIS: POLICE STORY [ITALIAN DUB TV 1973 Pt. 1 JERRY LEE LEWIS: POLICE STORY [ITALIAN DUB TV 1973 Pt. 1 must be a mrjyn Dailymotion http://dailymotion.com/mrjyn video! Only from Do ...... Read MORE » on Dogmeat

You think Jerry Lee Lewis on T.J. Hooker is Good, You should see this Italian Police Story

...... Read MORE » on Dogmeat