***The Official Wikkidpissah Irish Wake Thread*** (2 Viewers)

[Mister CIA]

Alright y'all, I had a little too much yesterday (wake and bake), but I'll get the ball rolling tomorrow on the project to capture all Dale's post here on the boards. Please PM me if you want to join the copy and paste brigade.

Obviously I confused people with my approach,  but I think it will all make sense after we all get warmed up.  I assume people helping will be using a full-sized computer.  If you attempt this with your phone,  bless your heart.

 

[krista4]

Alright y'all, I had a little too much yesterday (wake and bake), but I'll get the ball rolling tomorrow on the project to capture all Dale's post here on the boards. Please PM me if you want to join the copy and paste brigade.

Obviously I confused people with my approach,  but I think it will all make sense after we all get warmed up.  I assume people helping will be using a full-sized computer.  If you attempt this with your phone,  bless your heart.

I'm here and still excited to help memento-ize our dear friend.  No rush, and you're doing great work here.  Put me in, coach!

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I have found that reading people's memories and clips of Wikkid's writings make it seem like he's still here for a just a bit longer. 

And since I'm crying again, I can't really post more.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Obviously I confused people with my approach,  but I think it will all make sense after we all get warmed up.  I assume people helping will be using a full-sized computer.

I can try to help although I'm not sure how.  You'll need to give me specific instructions.  I do have a real computer.  Also tech support.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Warren Zevon says it all.

 

[Chaos Commish]

Warren Zevon says it all.

Ohhh. I am not clicking on that. No no. I will think of him often, but not gonna let Warren get me. I been got enuf.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

And whatever Warren didn't say, Jim Croce did.

 

[krista4]

I’m out in a TouchTunes battle with a fan of metal bands I’ve never heard of.  Hi, @simeyTaking suggestions for any Dale-inspired songs to fast track and put on.  Did Helter Skelter once so far.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I’m out in a TouchTunes battle with a fan of metal bands I’ve never heard of.  Hi, @simeyTaking suggestions for any Dale-inspired songs to fast track and put on.  Did Helter Skelter once so far.

???

 

[rockaction]

Now Mary - White Stripes

Before I knew wikkid like I later knew him, I mentioned this song reminded me of his stories with Mary. He told me how much he appreciated Jack White's genius. I was intrigued by that. Never did quite find out what about Jack was cool with him, but he was. 

There was always an "if only..." to a lot of wikkid's praise. That was one time he did that among many times. The process of producing and creating music had sort of gotten too democratic and insular (as in the artist creating solely for his or her own edification without considering the audience) for him, I think. I think. Anyway, that's what I always took away from his otherwise abstruse comments about that. That might be incorrect and I hope he isn't roiling while looking down at me typing that. 

Come to think of it, he never was really direct about that particular element of his personal beliefs. It almost seemed like he regretted not being there to shape some of the people he was bowled over by, and that maybe if he and some of his friends would be placed in that position things would be better, but maybe he knew better than to say that on the internet. 

That last part is speculation, but that was always a mystery to me. He was trying to say something, that's for sure. 

Anyway, he was kind to me when I said that. He could have had a million different responses, but to compliment Jack and reassure me in doing so that it was cool to bring up him and Mary (even though I didn't know wikkid that well) -- that was his first instinct. 

 

[rockaction]

If you're looking for a metal song to keep the mood, you could go 

Suite Sister Mary - Queensrÿche 

It's a little more proggy and is less, um, bombastic than most modern death metal or grindcore -- in fact, it sounds darn near too sweet for modern metal ears -- but it's a quick one off of the top of my head. 

 

[krista4]

Now Mary - White Stripes

Before I knew wikkid like I later knew him, I mentioned this song reminded me of his stories with Mary. He told me how much he appreciated Jack White's genius. I was intrigued by that. Never did quite find out what about Jack was cool with him, but he was. 

There was always an "if only..." to a lot of wikkid's praise. That was one time he did that among many times. The process of producing and creating music had sort of gotten too democratic and insular (as in the artist creating solely for his or her own edification without considering the audience) for him, I think. I think. Anyway, that's what I always took away from his otherwise abstruse comments about that. That might be incorrect and I hope he isn't roiling while looking down at me typing that. 

Come to think of it, he never was really direct about that particular element of his personal beliefs. It almost seemed like he regretted not being there to shape some of the people he was bowled over by, and that maybe if he and some of his friends would be placed in that position things would be better, but maybe he knew better than to say that on the internet. 

That last part is speculation, but that was always a mystery to me. He was trying to say something, that's for sure. 

Anyway, he was kind to me when I said that. He could have had a million different responses, but to compliment Jack and reassure me in doing so that it was cool to bring up him and Mary (even though I didn't know wikkid that well) -- that was his first instinct. 

Gorgeous story.

I'm home now.  I didn't see any of this while the Touch Tunes - Battle of the Bands was occurring, but I'll definitely keep this one for next time.

As it was, I just scatter-shotted songs I knew meant something to him, mostly without thought but just going on stuff we'd posted recently.  I put in Helter Skelter first as it was already on my TouchTunes frequently played list and was a song I associated with him.  Then I went with What's Going On, a Bonnie Raitt/Jon Prine duet, The Flamingos doing "I Only Have Eyes for You" and a few more I don't remember.  The lineup was amazing for this bar where they were trying to throw in Def Leppard.   

I went to the bathroom with several songs still lined up, and when I came back there was a golf-pro-looking dumdum hovering over my barstool.  I politely gave him a moment to move, and when I sat back down, Mr. krista said, "That guy was upset about your playlist."  Turned out this dude has "intro music" that he plays every time he comes in the bar.  His intro music is Taylor Swift.    And he was complaining generally to people that "someone" had "Fast Tracked" so many songs that he wasn't going to get his intro music until these 4-5 songs were over.

My songs.  All my wikkidDale songs.  

Luckily Mr. krista hadn't given me up, so I could enjoy my songs without the ire of the golf pro.  And then I put a few more in there for good measure.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Turned out this dude has "intro music" that he plays every time he comes in the bar.  His intro music is Taylor Swift. 

Wow.  People actually do this?  

Sadly, it's probably the highlight of his life.

 

[simey]

I’m out in a TouchTunes battle with a fan of metal bands I’ve never heard of.  Hi, @simeyTaking suggestions for any Dale-inspired songs to fast track and put on.  Did Helter Skelter once so far.

I'm too late to the battle, but it sounds like you battled well with wikkid-Dale songs vs golf pro intro guy.    

 

[ProstheticRGK]

Gorgeous story.

I'm home now.  I didn't see any of this while the Touch Tunes - Battle of the Bands was occurring, but I'll definitely keep this one for next time.

As it was, I just scatter-shotted songs I knew meant something to him, mostly without thought but just going on stuff we'd posted recently.  I put in Helter Skelter first as it was already on my TouchTunes frequently played list and was a song I associated with him.  Then I went with What's Going On, a Bonnie Raitt/Jon Prine duet, The Flamingos doing "I Only Have Eyes for You" and a few more I don't remember.  The lineup was amazing for this bar where they were trying to throw in Def Leppard.   

I went to the bathroom with several songs still lined up, and when I came back there was a golf-pro-looking dumdum hovering over my barstool.  I politely gave him a moment to move, and when I sat back down, Mr. krista said, "That guy was upset about your playlist."  Turned out this dude has "intro music" that he plays every time he comes in the bar.  His intro music is Taylor Swift.    And he was complaining generally to people that "someone" had "Fast Tracked" so many songs that he wasn't going to get his intro music until these 4-5 songs were over.

My songs.  All my wikkidDale songs.  

Luckily Mr. krista hadn't given me up, so I could enjoy my songs without the ire of the golf pro.  And then I put a few more in there for good measure.

Intro music? Now, I'm imagining a WWE-style entry into the bar: lights drop down low and spotlights start sweeping the bar. And suddenly, the dulcet, saccharine tones of Taylor Swift fill the bar as everyone inside starts to head for the bathrooms, or outside to smoke, or to grab another drink at the bar. Basically, anywhere to get away from Taylor Swift intro music. Then in comes our hero, looking to dole out high-fives to the crowd, wearing a unitard stitched from scraps of used astroturf from the driving range where he works, a visor with a mini-pencil stuck behind his ear. And definitely spiky hair with frosted tips.  

 

[krista4]

Wow.  People actually do this?  

Sadly, it's probably the highlight of his life.

I’ve never heard of such a thing before.  It was…special.

Intro music? Now, I'm imagining a WWE-style entry into the bar: lights drop down low and spotlights start sweeping the bar. And suddenly, the dulcet, saccharine tones of Taylor Swift fill the bar as everyone inside starts to head for the bathrooms, or outside to smoke, or to grab another drink at the bar. Basically, anywhere to get away from Taylor Swift intro music. Then in comes our hero, looking to dole out high-fives to the crowd, wearing a unitard stitched from scraps of used astroturf from the driving range where he works, a visor with a mini-pencil stuck behind his ear. And definitely spiky hair with frosted tips.  

 

 

[-fish-]

Turned out this dude has "intro music" that he plays every time he comes in the bar.  His intro music is Taylor Swift. 

Wow.  People actually do this?  

Sadly, it's probably the highlight of his life.

I've never heard of this but if someone is playing particularly annoying music I will leave a bar with "mmm bop" by Hansen played 4 or 5 times in a row.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I politely gave him a moment to move, and when I sat back down, Mr. krista said, "That guy was upset about your playlist."  Turned out this dude has "intro music" that he plays every time he comes in the bar.  His intro music is Taylor Swift.    

I like Taylor well enough but 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I've never heard of this but if someone is playing particularly annoying music I will leave a bar with "mmm bop" by Hansen played 4 or 5 times in a row.

Tweezer from Phish's A Live One. It's 35 minutes long. 

 

[krista4]

I've never heard of this but if someone is playing particularly annoying music I will leave a bar with "mmm bop" by Hansen played 4 or 5 times in a row.

Tweezer from Phish's A Live One. It's 35 minutes long. 

My go-to is to Frankie Teardrop them.  Only 11 minutes, but made up of chilling music mixed with terrifying screams.

 

[Don Quixote]

Just realized that I have on my DVR the PBS “Great Performances” of “Anything Goes” that was directed by wikkid’s cousin.

Going to make a cocktail and put that one on tonight.

 

[krista4]

Just realized that I have on my DVR the PBS “Great Performances” of “Anything Goes” that was directed by wikkid’s cousin.

Going to make a cocktail and put that one on tonight.

And she was nominated for best director and won an Olivier award for best choreography!  I'll spare you wikkid's review in favor of hearing yours instead.  He told me about this while I was on vacation, and I couldn't figure out how to set up a recording remotely.  :(  

 

[CletiusMaximus]

Just a note that I was looking for a movie to watch this weekend and remembered that Wikkid loved Dolemite Is My Name from a few years ago. If you do a search, you can find several of his posts about it.  I found one in the "Mt Rushmore of 2010s movies" thread - Dale's list is here

The Imitation Game

Lady Bird

My Name is Dolemite

Lincoln

I've never seen any of these, but respect his taste so will add them to the que.

 

[krista4]

Just a note that I was looking for a movie to watch this weekend and remembered that Wikkid loved Dolemite Is My Name from a few years ago. If you do a search, you can find several of his posts about it.  I found one in the "Mt Rushmore of 2010s movies" thread - Dale's list is here

I've never seen any of these, but respect his taste so will add them to the que.

Thanks for this!  I've only seen Lady Bird, so will be checking out those three as well.

This all reminds me, Dale's not going to be around for my live blog of watching "Give My Regards to Broad Street."   @Pip's Invitation  

 

[Pip's Invitation]

This all reminds me, Dale's not going to be around for my live blog of watching "Give My Regards to Broad Street."   @Pip's Invitation  

DRUNKEN live blog. That part is important. 

 

[krista4]

DRUNKEN live blog. That part is important. 

Oh, I figured if I'm writing at night, that part was implied.

 

[krista4]

Mentioned here that I put both Helter Skelter and I Only Have Eyes for You on for Dale during my jukebox battle last night.  Those were his last two "phantom picks" in the Third Round of @Captain Cranks charity music drafts in December, representing "rock" and "pop."

As I also referenced earlier, he was boycotting the FFA at the time due to moderation policies, but he decided to send me what would have been his picks, at 5 pm EST each day, on the condition that I not share them with the forum.  I don't think that vow extends to now and that he'd love to have his write-ups out there.  They are, as always, perfect.

@Chaos Commish, note Paul Newman reference!

3.xx Helter Skelter, The Beatles, Rock

The difference between rock&roll and rock? A slap.

I only do one thing (besides take my prescriptions) in the name of health anymore. Every morning i fill the bathroom sink with cold water (i live on a walkout floor, so the underground pipes keep tap water pretty cold year-round) and smash my face into it til i need a breath. My heart jumps, adrenaline lights my pilot and my brain turns on like it has an ignition. i hear it's great for wrinkles too (Paul Newman credited icewater splashes for his improving w age) atho fat as fat as mine dont crack anyways. The oldest, healthiest people in Ireland are the ones who dip in the ocean every day of every season. "Bracing" is the word, and it goes even ahead of rebellious as an element of great rock. *slap*

If those two elements go hand-in-hand and you add "unprecedented" to boot, it's an instant classic. I was still a reluctant Beatles guy then and, although those things usually happened by osmosis at the time, i think it's this that put me over the top with them because it achieved what my Stones had been trying to do for 2-3 years - rescue rock from the blues. *slap*

It all comes from the blues. The mistake white people kept making & making with the blues is that they tried to sound sad. If the blues were sad it was cuz of the stories & circumstances of the singers, but they werent trying to be sad. The singers were trying either to get inside their blues to master them, get out from under their blues by making declamations against them or get attention, money, drinks & laid by preaching it in ways their audiences could related to. They was trying to feel good. Unless it's trying to conquer bad feeling, blues is just complaining. *slap*

Well, white people didn't get that. They thought they would be insulting black people if they didnt try to mine the same level of misery (which is largely impossible or they woulda invented the blues). So all that chromatic, minoryness always came with it  and almost r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d what was happening in white music while black people zoomed into R&B. The Stones, according to Keith Richards, were purists but the guy responsible for them becoming a band (pianist Ian Stewart) was accomplished at several forms of music and kept after them to make it their own. That and Jonesy's  whole "Lady Jane" tip bubbled and blurgled until Jagger came up with the declarative elements in form & lyric that worked for white people making blues and resulted in the Jumping Jack Flash/Honky Tonk Women phase that finally wrested rock from blues and made it sumn black people would be copying if they tried to do. *slap*

But Helter Skelter did the same thing, almost at the same time and did it better in many ways coming from a completely different angle. And its all because of the infernal musicality of Paul McCartney and studio skill of George Martin. If i'm not mistaken, Paul took a dare from Pete Townshend to make the noisiest song. So he threw discordance into the board but is so naturally musical - Jagger, Plant, Daltrey, Stewart and others are better rock singers but McCartney sings rock better - that his white noise still had strong melodic elements. But Martin kept and even enhanced the discordance, the metaphor of a Blackpool amusement ride as the descent to Hell fit the gestalt seemlessly and the best rock song ever (apologies to my favorites - "Whipping Post" "Monkey Man" and "Kashmir") was the result. *slap*

Hmm. Did the whole thing and didnt really address "new" as part of Rock. "New" is the qualifier - what made prog, punk, grunge, rap, etc branch from Rock on the music tree is the quest for sumn you aint never heard b4 and i could did that instead but, like the TV & the telephone, Rock was so inevitable by the time it happened that any of a dozen coulda claimed the patent. *SLAP*

 

[Ilov80s]

Just realized that I have on my DVR the PBS “Great Performances” of “Anything Goes” that was directed by wikkid’s cousin.

Going to make a cocktail and put that one on tonight.

I think I am going to make a cocktail and put on the Brando Mutiny on the Bounty. It's on HBO Max and was one his Wikkid's favorite flicks. It's not very good IMO but I know he loved it and it would fit in with the epics I have been focusing on.

 

[krista4]

And, his final unpublished pick in the draft.  That second paragraph is :chefskiss:

4.xx I Only Have Eyes For You, The Flamingos, Pop

What makes Pop? The moment. The created moment. The moment that consecrates life & music as part of the soundtrack of existence and crystalizes both into a synesthetic element.

Dbop-shbop. With that reverberating in my ears, my heart, my deepest places, I see daylight fade, bright midnight, starry eternity, misty dawn, musky dusk. I see ecstatic forms writhe above and below me. I see yesterday, now and forever. All at the same time and one-by-one at once. And only have eyes for it.

I'm reminded of the moment i realized i could be a songwriter. Having come to "my book" late in life, i was unsure (which i rarely am) at first so i started experimenting in as many musical genres as i could think of. When i was exploring doowop, i wrote a stanza on a whim and was so struck by the beauty & simplicity of it that i could go no further.

Ruby baby
Ruby baby
She smiled at me
Now I can see
No one but Ruby baby

Many times over several years did i go back to build a song around it and find again & again that any addition besmirched, if not insulted, its purity.

I found a way to use it, though. It's in GLASS, my Alice musical. The premise is a successful Manhattan publicist, whose inner life doesnt match her outer, has a date with yet another charming loser - a struggling musician who shoots publicity stills as a sideline - falls asleep at home alone afterward, reading her favorite book and has a wine & Ambien dream where the people and aspects of her life are represented by Alice characters. She ends up on trial @ GLASS, the hottest club in town which is the principal domain of the Queen of Hearts. As she defends her life (in song) she has the Scroogian revelation of her dream and starts to grow, gigantically as she sings until, at the big note, she breaks the GLASS ceiling. It awakens her, only to find that she's just knocked her wine glass over because someone's buzzing. It's the dateboy she's been dreaming about, with bagels & coffee. They play tag, in and out of song, until they find a reason to continue and a closing song.

Part of the tag is that she asks him if he has a stock song to hit on women. He shyly reveals...........Ruby Baby, cept it's Lisa Baby (Alice is Lisa in real life, the Loon in her dream gets her to say "Lisa" over&over until the emphasis changes and becomes "Alice"). So i dont have to fill out the song, yet get to use it for great moment. Pop!

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I've never heard of this but if someone is playing particularly annoying music I will leave a bar with "mmm bop" by Hansen played 4 or 5 times in a row.

Fair.

 

[Don Quixote]

And she was nominated for best director and won an Olivier award for best choreography!  I'll spare you wikkid's review in favor of hearing yours instead.  He told me about this while I was on vacation, and I couldn't figure out how to set up a recording remotely.  :(  

Choreography is incredible, particularly during the “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and “It’s De-Lovely” numbers. At times, I felt like the filming did not do justice, as a lot of close-in shots, but I could make out some other dancing in other parts of the set.

Sutton Foster was great as Reno Sweeney. Her multiple talents and all-out performance makes me miss the fact that I haven’t seen a musical live since COVID. 

I have not seen any version of “Anything Goes”before. Musical holds up well for something from the 1930s, when I compare to others from that era. Combination of P.G. Wodehouse and Cole Porter probably helps gives it a good combination of wit and liveliness.

 

[-fish-]

Wikkid's contributions to the horse racing threads were as entertaining as they were valuable.   As a degenerate horseplayer, I'll miss his poetic takes on betting the ponies.   Bet a bunch of random races yesterday in his honor (and did pretty well).   

Rest easy.

 

[Judge Smails]

Wikkid's contributions to the horse racing threads were as entertaining as they were valuable.   As a degenerate horseplayer, I'll miss his poetic takes on betting the ponies.   Bet a bunch of random races yesterday in his honor (and did pretty well).   

Rest easy.

Yep - he knew something about everything. And his racetrack stories from back in the day were legendary. Reflecting more I’ve come to realize what I loved most about Wikkid was that he wasn’t wishy washy. He had a take. He didn’t spend his life straddling the middle. But he did it in a way that let you have your own take without judgment. 

 

[geewill]

Yep - he knew something about everything. And his racetrack stories from back in the day were legendary. Reflecting more I’ve come to realize what I loved most about Wikkid was that he wasn’t wishy washy. He had a take. He didn’t spend his life straddling the middle. But he did it in a way that let you have your own take without judgment. 

Facts

Yep - he knew something about everything. And his racetrack stories from back in the day were legendary. Reflecting more I’ve come to realize what I loved most about Wikkid was that he wasn’t wishy washy. He had a take. He didn’t spend his life straddling the middle. But he did it in a way that let you have your own take without judgment. 

 

[ChiefD]

Is there an official obit out there somewhere on the web?

 

[krista4]

Is there an official obit out there somewhere on the web?

I just searched and don’t see one.

 

[Atomic Punk]

He had a take. He didn’t spend his life straddling the middle. But he did it in a way that let you have your own take without judgment. 

Well put and what a skill! I like to think I try this more often than not but just don’t have the panache to pull it off without teetering toward either pissing someone off or playing too nice and watering down my thoughts/perspective. What’s a guy to do but keep trying ...

 

[jamny]

Posted May 17, 2009

the wikkid menu for this evening begins with fricaseed chickadee lips on a bed of spring bedsprings, cream of giraffe soup with rhino bits, Irish washerwoman fingers in a peat moss coulis, blackened moccassin with a rawhide aioli topped off by a Double Bubble flambee. I havent decided whether an '87 Aqua Velva or the footbath water of a 8 yo Mexican virgin (about as aged as they get) will be the best accompaniment.

 

[krista4]

May 22, 2009

From the Great Works Draft, a reading recommendation from wikkid.  I'm going to have to take his suggestion.

20.12 BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT, Trans. by Sir Richard F. Burton (1884) - wildcard

My favorite assembly of prose. I would have taken it in the 1st five rds if there had been a category for it. Now that Canterbury & Decameron, etc have been allowed into categories they dont belong the gloves are off and, since it & La Commedia are the two works i most must have in this thing, i better get busy on it. i will, however, draft it into the only proper category for such collections.

If I can convince anyone reading this thread of anything, my 1st choice would be to get them to read the Burton Arabian Nights Entertainments. You're all familiar with Alladin, Ali Baba & Sinbad, but these stories are sososososo much more. I have become radically anti-Islam (in its modern form, at any rate) for reasons which have little to do with current events. When one sees the beauty, magic, ribaldry & depth of yearning/learning of the pre-Mohammedan Arab (and Persian) culture, one hates what has come to obstruct that. and you'll get no better portrait of desert peoples than in these volumes. if you do, be sure to get the Burton translation - he made a conscious effort to stage the stories across Middle Eastern world & was a bit of a perv, which really gives life & the right feeling to the Ways of the Jinna.

 

[Rattle and Hum]

Dale introduced me to Sigur Ros and it's been a favorite video of mine for the past few years. I hope you also enjoy it. Peace, my friends.

 

[Mister CIA]

Dale introduced me to Sigur Ros and it's been a favorite video of mine for the past few years. I hope you also enjoy it. Peace, my friends.

Totally missed that he was into Sigur Ros. Full disclosure: all my prog rock takes are half-assed. 

Two of my favorites:

1. Svefn-g-englar perhaps the most beautiful music video I've ever seen.
   
2. and this beast:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAQ0MZTJmg
   

 

[krista4]

Tonight I'm focusing on Dale's relationship to food again.  It's an Irish wake, and I did have potatoes tonight!

I'm a novice cook, having taken it up only in the last couple of years.  I went from childhood homes to dorm food (college) to roach-infested apartments we couldn't keep food in (law school) to eating most meals at work and going out for those I didn't, with an occasional Lean Cuisine mixed in (first 15 years of being a lawyer).  Then I met Mr. krista and made the brilliant decision to send the husband who was already the best cook I knew to culinary school.  10/10 - would do again (the schooling, not the marrying).  When he and I divorced, I was thrown into the first "I should really be able to feed myself" thoughts I'd ever had and decided to learn.

I shared with Dale a lot of my attempts, for better or worse, and especially my generally horrendous knife skills.  He'd have a lot of follow up questions such as asking if I made my own injera when I attempted Ethiopian food or if I made my own curds when I made Paneer Jalfrezi.   I don't know if he gave me too much credit or was merely being encouraging.

Last weekend I had a plan for the long weekend to make some more complex dishes than I usually do, but got the word of losing Dale and lost all interest.  Each day I said, maybe tomorrow, but for about a week, I lost all interest in much of anything.  

Tonight I decided to cook for the first time since his death.  Couldn't find the heart to do anything difficult, so just some really simple stuff.  But being me, I managed to fail hilariously on some of it.  I was going to make a sauce with apples in it and quickly realized I've no idea how to dice something evenly when it is...apple-shaped.  About a quarter of the way in, I decided I'd just make the apple pieces ludicrously uneven.  Eight days ago, I probably would have sent Dale a picture of it.

I think @Mrs. Rannousis the one who mentioned that Dale thought food was love.  Couldn't have been more right.  This is the message I wanted to share from him tonight.  He sent it to me after asking if I made my own curds, and I responded to say he was giving me too much credit, and also thanking him for telling me something I won't share about his seeking me out purely for friendship instead of as one of his "mentees."  It's pretty personal, but I can't excise the personal parts without losing the overall meaning.

"cookin' is love - for the earth, oneself, everybody. it's even sex, in its way. about the time i became too ungainly to show a woman what i got on the dance floor i had learned to cook risotto, and inviting a shiny new fancy over to help me coax the creamy starches out of arborio rice with wine & warm oils became our furtive field..

curds aint hard, like scoopin poops out da catbox. did it with mi abuela waybackwhen on the fam farm

believe me, i was aware i could be useful to you because of my understanding of personality. i profile everybody cuz i cant help but do. but our correspondence is based purely on affection & respect. we would likely have become close whether or not you were a woman but i must admit to miss the beauty and bother of female ways here in my frozen tomb, for they were most of the social noise during my active life. so, its good one way & two ways and long may there be more ways. hope to always be worthy of you leaving any of your joys, cares & woes at my doorstep.

cookin' is love."

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I think @Mrs. Rannousis the one who mentioned that Dale thought food was love.

That was me, all right.

I'm not sure there would be an obit yet.  It sometimes takes a while to do that stuff.  It was about a month before I could do my dad's.  And Wikkid's is likely to be complicated.  And a novel.

 

[krista4]

This ain't fallin' off the first page yet long as I have something to say about it.  If my daily posts are too much, please let me know.  And then I'm gonna ignore you.

Working on the Wikkidpedia project has made me embarrassed to realize that I had no idea wikkid loved SNL so much and commented on every. damn. episode.  It never came up in our conversations, maybe because I haven't watched since the early-ish days.  wikkid took SNL early in the Great Works Draft:

9.09 SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, Television

dont think its safe to wait any longer & i MUST have it. not only may it be the most important institution in broadcasting history, is certainly ground zero for the setting of comedic trends & blazed the way for the blending of comedy & information but, as many of you know, your humble servant auditioned for the post-Belushi/Radner incarnation in 1980. good cast or bad, it has been my touchstone for staying connected to the world for 35 yrs. nufced

But I'm not here tonight to share just that.  I'm here to share the story of the time he auditioned.

most of my life, i've had a problem with stagefright. it didn't start out that way. i saw the great Zero Mostel on Broadway when i was like 8yo and, from the moment i saw that fat, ugly man become the most glamorous person alive and balance an audience on his pinky, i KNEW i wanted to do summin lik'at.

i joined the first school production i could and me, Kim Relick (a little girl with ona them freakatron voices u see on contest shows now) and Mickey Oguri (next to Lowell George, the most talented person & one of the most tragic figures i ever knew - got a scholarship to Julliard, but the burdens of being a gay Japanese actor in the early 70s overwhelmed him & he killed himself @ 23yo. shout up, mick!) were so good that the local amateur theater built some productions around us.

in one of those shows i went-up on my lines, for some reason. Mickey magically turned the scene into just a conversation between us and, with his eyes fixed on mine, led me thru without doing much harm to the show.big sigh of relief but, the next time i went on stage, my ears started burning, i sweat like a pig & thought i was gonna have a heart attack. end of performing for wikkid. a bunch of comics i wrote for yrs later talked me into trying standup one time, but i lost 10 lbs in 20 mins & is the only time ive been onstage since (ive even had two plays produced and would not do curtain calls for either and, now, i start to shake when my # comes up at the deli).

again, i'm gonna serialize these, cuz this is brownout season here & i dont wanna hafta rewrite stuff if i lose my modem connection. right back with pt 2...

Had no such prolims on radio, though. as i recounted in my Presidential Penis story, i turned helpin my gf produce radio commericals for her clients into some announcing, and then reporting work for her station. but what i do best is some funny and, each time i taped one of those loud, awful commercials for Bob Schwab's Dodge or The Blinds Man or whatever, i'd tape a satirical 2nd take of them for grins.

well, some of the DJs heard my alternative commercials and asked me if i would do some blackouts (sketches radio plays out of commercials in the hopes that it will keep u from pressin the button) for them, and i did. they werent half bad, neither. now this all occured during the 1st season of Saturday Night Live & every fool who ever wrote a joke wanted to be on that show & i was no exception. i turned the blackouts into an audition tape which one of the WCOZ DJ's ended up playing on the air without telling me. we got a lot of reaction, though, which was pretty cool.

anyways, a radio syndicator heard it and offered to buy a halfhour scripted show from me if i could put one together. and the show Zero Hour was born. if you're around 50 & went to an eastern college, u might have heard it at 11pm on your college station on the nights SNL was on the air. he gave it to a bunch of colleges as a promotion but only got a half dozen real stations (buffalo, albany, hartford i remember, as well as boston). my crowning achievement was that Belushi & one of his writers reportedly heard my sketch of The Gary Gilmore Christmas Special (if youre too young to remember Gilmore, it would take too long to 'splain) drivin up the Hudson and stole it for the next show. at any rate, SNL had a sketch of same very close to my version the wk after it was on Zero Hour. i was thrrrrrilled (intellectual property werent worth squat, in those days, in case youre wondering), it all was a blast & got me an agent, but after a year or so, it wasnt makin any dough & the pressure got too great & my head exploded & i got an ulcer. when a hippie chick i knew invited me out to her commune in NM and i saw that there was like a half dozen guys & about 40 gorgeous chix out there & the country was as beautiful as the girls, i decided to leave it all behind.

anyways, i was in the hills soakin up the rays, the tang & other powders but 20-some episodes of Zero Hour provided much better material for an audition tape, so my agent put one together and started shopping it around. in the late 70s, both Westinghouse & RKO General made an attempt to resurrect the radio network system which fell apart after TV got popular in the 50s, so any scripted shows were gold to them so my agent (Serge) worked them like a whooah and it was great cuz the option $$ helped finance my partying & gave me a reason to go to Manhattan & take a meeting now & then.

nothing really came about (though RKO gave me a memo offer of 9K a show, which was monstrous dough back then, but it didnt work out) & i was havin too much fun anyways. fast fwd to the summer of 1980 - everybody who was anybody had quit SNL after the 79-80 season. NBC, in its infinite wisdom, promoted the highest ranking executive who didnt quit the show as the producer for the next season. this happened to be a woman named Jean Doumanian (uuuuuhuhuhh, i get the shakes just writing her name), who was an associate producer for the original show. the entirety of her responsibilities, however, was booking the host & musical guests and she had a knowledge of comedy approximate to my knowledge of Estonian folk dancing.

anyway, Serge had my tape & my two plays ("Oh, to Be in Casablanca" and "Dinner & Divorce") to work with and went to the right parties and got Ms. Doumanian and some of her people to look at my stuff & called & called & lunched & met & hounded & called some more until they agreed to see me. thing is, because the original SNL cast had two members (Garrett & Chevy) who'd been hired as writers, so they were asking even the writing applicants to do eight minutes of audition as their interview, in case there was that special nugget of talent in them which would make the show..

now, my agent hadn't told me of his attempts at Rockefeller Center. i had stopped dreaming about SNL long b4 cuz it was mostly a Lampoon (Harvard & National) & 2nd City club & Lorne Michaels wouldnt pay no attention at all to people from standup or radio or theater. so, when they agreed to see me, i was nailing girls in macrame dresses in the Jemez Mts, completely oblivious to Serge's machinations. now, he had both the most wonderful and terrible news imaginable for young wikkid - that he had an appt on the 17th floor of 30 Rock, but had to perform when he got there. how it went....in our next segment.

now, thanks to the time the SNL staff were takin to join the old tradition of evacuating Manhattan in late July, early Aug, there were 3 wks between the time they agreed to see me and the audition itself. normally an agent would have got right on the horn & told his client to stop puttin magic together, but Serge knew that, with my stagefright, the 3 wks would have me frettin & fussin over havin to perform and overwriting it to make it stagefright-proof so much that i'd be a basket case when the time came & that i'd prolly snap, set my pants on fire, hump the water cooler & start licking Ms. Doumanian's face when the fire was out. he'd seen me write 18 of Zero Hour's 24 minutes the night b4 taping so many times that he knew the best way to go was tell me as late as possible.

so Serge called me & said i hadda fly out on so-and-so day for a meeting. he picks me up at the airport, drops me off at a mid-town hotel around dinnertime and tells me i gotta PERFORM 8 minutes on the 17th floor of 30 rock (executive offices of SNL) @ 2:00 the next afternoon. whoa! after i got my pulse under 200, i set about to writing 8 mins. now, i knew i was at an instant disadvantage, cuz SNL just didnt hire from raaaaaadio, so i immediately set about to try and turn that into an advantage.

i wrote a bit that they shouldnt hire me, cuz hiring someone from raaaaadio or community theater for the grrreat SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE would prolly cause the end of comedy as we know it. and.........what would the world be like without comedy? i could do pretty decent impressions of Groucho & Chico Marx, as well as Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis so i wrote versions of routines of theirs with the funny removed (y'know Chico's shtick without the italian accent, Groucho without sarcasm, and Jerry interrupting Dino by just saying "lady........lady..." very deadpan without the manic inflection).

i got there & one of the 1st people i saw was a PA from the ol show who i'd met at some parties. that made me more comfortable & he gave me some tips. i stepped into a room of a half dozen strangers and survived 8 mins of a World Without Comedy. take that, stagefright!

i dont remember much except Ms. Doumanian staring at me like i just shot her dog the entire time, but there was enough chucklage from the rest for me to wanna hang around for a few days when they said they'd call. we waited..waited...waited....reached the time that an agent hasta call or we'll never hear from them. Ms. D's secretary asks Serge to hold, then says that the Producer of Saturday Night Live was under the impression that Mr. Wikkid was not interested in working for them. whaaaa?!?!

he demands to speak to Ms. D., but he cant til the next day. his call gets thru this time and Ms. D explains that Mr. Wikkid told everyone in the audition that he didn't want us to hire him. For his next 8 mins, my agent tries to explain that it was part of the bit & when that doesnt work, fairly screams into the phone asking why the #### a guy would do 8 mins if he didnt want the job, etc etc.

for several yrs after, my agent kept a framed montage of sheets noting the calls he made to 30 Rock where he continued to try & convince Ms. D. that i would be a willing & able asset to her program on the walls of his office. except for helping a standup comic friend write a pilot for ABC in '82, i been outta showbiz ever since. Jean Doumanian lasted half a season as Producer of SNL (most notable for letting her staff hire Eddie Murphy but then refusing to let him advance past featured player) went on to produce some Woody Allen movies (no coincidence that it was right around the time Woody stopped being funny) & went on to run seminars on comedy production (where, from what i hear, she spent most of the time taking credit for Eddie Murphy's career - maybe that explains Norbit). i saw her for the first time in 28 yrs this spring on the Tony Awards broadcast as part of the production team for the Best Musical (i shuddered like Dorothy at a burning broom). bet that show's hilaaaaarious - wikkid say, check it.

 

[simey]

But I'm not here tonight to share just that.  I'm here to share the story of the time he auditioned.

I never would have guessed that Wikkid had stage fright.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

This ain't fallin' off the first page yet long as I have something to say about it.  If my daily posts are too much, please let me know.  And then I'm gonna ignore you.

Working on the Wikkidpedia project has made me embarrassed to realize that I had no idea wikkid loved SNL so much and commented on every. damn. episode.  It never came up in our conversations, maybe because I haven't watched since the early-ish days.  wikkid took SNL early in the Great Works Draft:

But I'm not here tonight to share just that.  I'm here to share the story of the time he auditioned.

Please bump this thread and share Wikkid stuff as often as you want.

It's amazing that Wikkid was so comfortable "performing" in writing but so uncomfortable "performing" in any other format. The human psyche is a strange thing. 

For that SNL cast, he lost out not only to Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, but also to Gilbert Gottfried, who was fired at the same time Doumanian was. 

 

[krista4]

Please bump this thread and share Wikkid stuff as often as you want.

It's amazing that Wikkid was so comfortable "performing" in writing but so uncomfortable "performing" in any other format. The human psyche is a strange thing. 

For that SNL cast, he lost out not only to Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, but also to Gilbert Gottfried, who was fired at the same time Doumanian was. 

IIRC wikkid enjoyed Gottfried.

For today's post, I'm turning back to food again.  Made shrimp tacos tonight and thought of Dale - "did u make ur own tortillas" - and me - "NO, but I did make a really good nectarine salsa."  It reminded me again that he always seemed to have more faith in me than I did in myself, and it's hard to think of a better quality in a friend.

I bought some arborio rice a couple of weeks ago, but Dale's death and my cooking insecurity meant I haven't busted it out to make, the bane of every Top Chef's existence, risotto...dum dum dum DUM!  Think I'll fire it up later this week, using Dale's method from his description in the Foodapalooza draft.  Throw on some Keith Jarrett for good measure.  Cookin' is love.

"Comfort food #3 and Foodapalooza finale: risotto

Comfort? Yeah, that's sumn that happens when no one else is around. Always sought exciting over nurturing company, my antennae run too high in range & gain when people are around and there's just too much bouncing around in me Gulliver to find peace, quiet & succor anywhere but in focused, solitary tasks. Risotto was waiting for me.

Sidebar, your honor, for a brief encomium on my favorite aromatic. The shallot reigns supreme on my counter. They are in all chopped meat i  serve - even tuna sammiches - my jar of homemade slow-caramelized-w-balsamic shallots are one of the the things i always bring out when i'm riffing & if i bought too many this wk, they get sliced, battered & fried and could go on top of ice cream if they had to. And mincing the purple is how i gain my focus as a cook.

So, a couple bulbs of minced shallot go into a tablespoon of Trader Joe's Spanish olive oil - did you know the Italians sell their olive oil internationally and buy Spanish for use? - for a light saute, then a cup or two are poured in for a nice toast. An honest splash of pinot gri and the Keith Jarrett music starts in my head. From here, it is a seduction, how to get so intimate with a few hundred kernels of grain that they scandalously slip out of their starch all at once for your creamy enjoyment. It's similar, but not the same every time, like playing a great song. Every cup of stock, stroke of spoon, splash of wine, swirl of pan coaxes the crescendo just a little closer to climax and then, just when you wonder if you've blown it and will just have rice for dinner, the catharsis of starch surrender is under way, and you're ready with cool cubes of butter and feathers of parmesano to bring it to completion. i dont believe in Beatles/I just believe in me/ Risotto and me/deliciality.

Pour the rest of the wine,  melt in some squash or sauteed mushrooms if desired and enjoy your pillow talk with the porridge of the gods.

ETA: It's been fun serving y'all the many courses of my love for and belief in food these past coupla months. thank you to @Eephus and the dice and all the personal enthusiasms on display. what's for dinner?"

 

[Eephus]

It's a quiet Sunday night.  Mrs. Eephus went to bed early so it's just me and the dog and Bill Evans.

Dale loved the pianist Bill Evans and called him the most important artist of his listening  life.  He favorites from were Evans' solo piano pieces (and the few he did as duets where he overdubbed himself). I found that interesting because Evans may have been the greatest practitioner of the piano trio format with bass and drums.  Wikkid wasn't doctrinaire about it, he liked most Evans but especially when he sat down at the piano in a studio somewhere and just played.

Evans is the point guard of music. Listen to "Here's That Rainy Day" - he's just standing at the top of the key, rockin' back 'n forth, sizing up what's in front of him. He knows everywhere he can go, everything he can do, but not where he will go, what he will do. Every fake (will it be a sub-reference from showtunes, to other jazz artists,  back to the blues?), every move (suspend, invert, go modal?), each cross (will he do the melody all in chords, break the chords into a secondary theme?) takes him closer to the hole even if it seems to move him farther away. Every choice on the fly, but ground in everything he feels, knows, has heard & practiced. And, vroomp, he's past you to his perfect ecstasy. And you feel blessed to have even stood across from him and borne witness.

 

[krista4]

Nope, page 2 is not acceptable at this juncture.

Had Dale on my mind today for a few specific reasons:

1.  Started my online Beatles class (student not teacher) this morning, and remembered how much I was looking forward to sharing what I glean with him.

2.  Better Call Saul final session starts tonight!  Picturing him, sitting with an Italian beef/sausage combo I'd sent, watching this season's premiere just a few months ago.

3.  I've been working on this Wikkidpedia project, fairly non-stop over the weekend but much more sporadically today due to work.  While it was a pleasure when I was going through 2009 posts about the Great Works Draft, yesterday and today I've had to wade through a lot of posts about the TV show Mr. Robot and, worse yet, big chunks of the libertarian thread.  I think Dale is having a good laugh at me somewhere.

Today I'll do a Dale music post again, in honor of my Beatles class.  This one is kind of a downer, but I thought at the time (about three years ago) that it was one of the most sublimely deep and deeply stunning things I'd read from him.  I had alleged that Side 3 of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" might be the best side of an album in history.  So Dale re-listened to it, and what he wrote is what I think of every time I hear it now.   

"I've heard ATMP a thousand times but have listened to it maybe thrice. As someone who always hated bliss, i usually gave it short shrift. During my runaway years, i encountered dozens of alternative communities filled w Blissies and all this city boy could think of was "we've spent 200 years fighting our way out of the yolks of altar & throne........for THIS?! Just trade it all in for yet another myth?!" And, unfortunately, Harrison was the unofficial captain of the "oh....yeah.....cool......peace" movement, so i gave his music much less attention & respect than it deserved. My loss.

I check out that side one more time and i hear everything i want to hear from a side - invention, melody, humor, wisdom and, most important, the ability to hold my sway for a while. That's one thing artists seldom understand any longer, the responsibility of being better than other people being to make other people better. The power to make them offer to put themselves in the palm of your hand that they may be comforted, enlightened, inspired, relieved of life's awful burdens for a short time and given a view from above it all.

He warned us. George Harrison was a product of what he saw, not what he knew, as most great artists are in their approach to their work. And, relieved of the onus of great inner fire, he was able to say, quite early on in counterculture terms, "It's all bull####, don't you know. Find peace in your heart and you will see that it's so. I don't have to be complicated and neither do you. Here are some songs about complicated people and how silly is all they do."

Beware of Maya. Beware of illusions which become delusions. Open your heart before you open your mind and it will go oh so much more easily. And now, almost 50 years on, almost everything is Maya. My gen did indeed cast the bliss aside and what for? Identity & individuality, liberty & license, consumption & concupiscence. Now all we look for is peace, take pills for peace, be mindful for peace. ####ed out, tensed up, pissed off, shut down are we. Oh....yeah.....cool......peace. Sounds pretty good all of a sudden. All things must pass."

 

[Mister CIA]

I think of Dale every time I hear a J. Geil's Song.