Showing posts with label Gravy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gravy. Show all posts

Monday and a new week begins

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, October 04, 2010 11 Of Your Sparks

Before we can begin the new week, a review is in order...
  • Saw Annie Fitzgerald at the Java Cabana on Friday in an increbily intimate setting and she was fantastic - CHECK
  • Then headed to Beale Street to see the Eric Hughes Band at Wet Willies - CHECK
  • 2 gallons of gravy made - CHECK
  • 27 meatballs made - CHECK
  • 12 Italian sausages made - CHECK
  • Replaced Wireless Router as ours had crapped out of Friday - CHECK
  • Returning the two adapters for the TiVos as the old ones worked - CHECK
  • Correcting the clerk when she tried to refund all the money and not just part - CHECK
  • Finding out the original clerk had not charged me for one of the two adapters - CHECK
  • Just glad that whole thing is over - CHECK
  • Finding out the Oncologist Radiologist (I got that part wrong) is confident dad will react great to the radiation they will begin as soon as the cruise is over - CHECK
  • Deciding to go to Florida to be with Mom Joan and Dad Vince as they will not be able to go to San Antonio for Christmas - CHECK 
phew...think that is it..OH WAIT
  • Heading to the The Levitt Shell this evening to see Keith Sykes with his band including Leo Goff (I suggest you take a few minutes and learn about one of my new friends - his history is rich), Reba Russell and Josh Roberts (guitarist for the Reba Russell band). A beautiful evening under the stars with fantastic music and a beautiful lady beside me - CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK

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Monday and a new week begins

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, May 24, 2010 10 Of Your Sparks


Hope you can join me this evening as I interview JOSHUA STEDMAN a young funk/soul/rock musician and songwriter who knows how to spin a phrase. Before Joshua, MICHEL SOKOLOWSKI of the group SOKOBAND will take a seat on The Couch. Sokoband is a trio of superb musicians who weave their skills through improvisational jazz-rock instrumentals.

Show time is 9:00pm central and you can listen or even join the chat room HERE, or listen to the show after it ends at MUSIC ON THE COUCH or you can subscribe and have it delivered to your iTunes doorstep each week, just like the milkman of yore would drop off those glass bottles of milk into your milk box each morning before dawn...for that feature, just click HERE.

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Minutia Monday...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, January 11, 2010 10 Of Your Sparks


Today - a new post:
Part 3 "Saturday In The Kitchen" -
Ground Beef & Macaroni Medley
and Stuffed Flank Steak

Come Take A Seat At My Table


This coming Sunday, Jack Bauer returns to our televisions with another season of 24! Looking forward to it with great anticipation. The show shifts to New York City, so that should be fun.

Before the season begins, let's see what Jack has been up to over the last month or so...




So I am back in Dallas on press printing some collateral material. In the past, I have not had to do these press runs, but the CMO has asked I get involved with all of his print now...

Long story, but an honor in the end, so here I am!

Not sure I will be available for the Radio happy Hour tomorrow, but if I have a window of opportunity, I will be calling in from the road.


Been booking guests for Music On The Couch and am beginning to focus on Memphis area guests as well as national artists. I like the idea of featuring artists from the Memphis area and am working on one specific guest that will amaze all y'all.


The cold that has gripped the entire country seems to be pulling back up north. Today - Sunday as I write this - we will even get a tad above freezing for the first time in a week and today - Monday as you read this - it is supposed to be in the mid 40's and mid 50's in Dallas where I am (will be? - LOL)


A shout-out to Mom Joan, who took a spill this past weekend as she was watching her grandson Joe at his swim meet at the University of Scranton. Feel better mom!

Love you!


Spent Saturday with Nancy and I cooking two big pots of gravy and meatballs and sausage in preparation to make Lasagna to be served at her mom's 85th birthday party in two weeks.

Love having all the help in the kitchen and we are a well-oiled macheine when we get going!






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Some Thoughts and Tuneage Tutelage - Stax Records

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, December 10, 2007 18 Of Your Sparks



TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
<-----------------------------------------------
Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...



Hope all y'all had a wonderful weekend...We spent Saturday making a big pot of gravy with 25 meatballs and 18 Italian sausages and about 18 chicken cutlets and then had some chicken parmigiana with linguine for dinner...it turned out way yummy...

ANOTHER POT OF GRAVY, you ask? Didn't he just do that a few weeks ago? Well yes we did, but most of that went to the lasagna we made...and it appears we might be off to Lexington for New Year's Eve and, if so, we might have to bring a tray of lasagna with us....now we are prepared if so...

OH, and Happy 16th Birthday to our friend Ernie...



We were really hoping the Oakland Raiders would bring a game with them to Green Bay on Sunday to aid us in our Survivor Pool, but as of 2:55 pm central time, it is not to be...Now we have to hope our selection for the week, Minnesota does their job in San Francisco in the late game...(they did!)





In 1957 Jim Stewart started a record company in Tennessee. He named his baby Satellite Records.

In 1958, Stewart's sister Estelle became involved by making a financial contribution in the company and they moved their studios from Brunswick, TN to an old movie theater, The Capitol Theater at 926 East McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

The first successful artists for Satellite was Rufus and Carla Thomas, a father-daughter duo. Their sound attracted the attention of Atlantic Records and Stewart made a deal allowing Atlantic the right of first refusal on distribution of Satellite artists. At that time, the records would be distributed under the Atlantic or Atco label.

That changed in 1961 with the release of the MAR-KAYS hit "Last Night" which was released nationally using the Satellite Records label. The result of this was Stewart learning of another Satellite Records out of California.

The label was renamed using a combination of Jim and Estelle's last names Stewart and Axton and thus was born STAX RECORDS.

The Original Stax Label
DJ's always talk about
'Spinning stacks of wax on the wheels of steel'

Within a few months, pianist Booker T. Jones joined the label and combined his talents with some members of the Mar-Kays forming BOOKER T AND THE MEMPHIS GROUP. This was shortened to BOOKER T AND THE MGS. The band exemplified the southern style of soul Stewart was hoping to achieve and besides recording on their own, they became the house band for Stax Records. Besides Booker, the band included Lewie Steinberg on bass (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Steve Cropper on guitar.


"Green Onions"
BOOKER T & THE MGS
Composers: Jones-Cropper-Steinberg-Jackson
1962

Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records became enamored with the sound being recorded out of Memphis and learned that it had come totally by accident. When Stewart converted the movie theater into a recording studio, they had removed all of the seats, but the floor was still sloped and this contributed to the unique sound of Stax.

In 1965 they signed a formal deal becoming the sole national distributor of Stax Records. Atlantic Records also began sending their artists down to Memphis to record. Wilson Pickett recorded many of his hits there, though they were distributed on the Atlantic label. Conversely, the duo of Sam & Dave were "leased" to the Stax label which oversaw their recordings and their records were distributed under the Stax logo.


"Hold On I'm Comin' "
SAM & DAVE
Composers: Hayes-Porter
1966

At that time Motown Records would combine their acts and send them out on the road together in 'revues'. Stax infrequently used this practice. Their first attempt as doing so was almost a disaster. In the summer of 1965 the revue began in Los Angeles, CA. The next day the Watts Riots occurred, trapping several Stax artists in Watts during the violence.

The label did sponsor a Christmas show each year in Memphis. The most notorious of these shows occurred in 1968 when a drunk Janis Joplin appeared and was booed off the stage. The most successful Stax package revue was a tour of England and France in 1967. Playing to sold-out crowds across western Europe, Stax released several live albums from the tour recordings, including the best-selling Otis Live In Europe.

After the payola scandals of the late 50's, many radio stations, hoping to avoid the appearance of favoritism, adopted a policy not to introduce more than one or two new songs from the same label at the same time. As other labels did, Stax formed subsidiary labels to continue to get their artists heard. These included Enterprise, Chalice, Hip, Safice and the most famous, Volt which was the home for Otis Redding.

As the 60's went on Stax and its subsidiaries were producing many hits. The songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter was a major contributor to this success.

In 1967 everything changed for Jim and Estelle and for the Stax label. Atlantic was sold to Warner-Seven Arts which immediately activated a clause in the Stax-Atlantic contract calling for a renegotiation.

Warner quickly pointed out to Jim Stewart that he had signed away the rights to all of the master recordings to the Stax-Atlantic released material when he signed the deal with Atlantic Records. Warner refused to renegotiate the deal or to return the masters which forced Stewart to sell his company to Gulf & Western. Estelle left the company, but Jim stayed on under the new ownership.

Stax had to continue on without the meat of their releases and without Sam & Dave who stayed with Atlantic Records. If things were not bad enough, Otis Redding and a good portion of the Mar-Lays were killed in a plane crash in December of 1967.

When the Atlantic distribution deal expired in 1968 Atlantic briefly marketed Stax/Volt recordings made after the split. These recordings feature the alternate Stax/Volt logos used on the album covers on their labels, as opposed to the original Atlantic-era logos, such as the "Stax-o-wax" logo. Stax label recordings were reissued on the Atlantic label, and Volt label material on the Atco label. Gulf and Western-owned Stax/Volt releases used new label designs, new logos (including the recognizable finger snapping logo) and new catalogue numbering systems to avoid confusion among the record distributors.


Stax continued on as an independent label and had their first hit with Johnny Taylor's "Who's Making Love" in 1968. Isaac Hayes also scored a hit with "Hot Buttered Soul" in 1969 and became the biggest star on the label by 1971 when the soundtrack to the movie "Shaft" was released. All of Hayes' music was released on a subsidiary label Enterprise Records formed in 1967.



"Who's Making Love"
JOHNNY TAYLOR
Composers: Banks-Crutcher-Davis-Jackson
1968


"Theme From Shaft"
ISAAC HAYES
Composer: Hayes
1969

Unfortunately Gulf & Western did a lousy job of marketing for Stax and record sales sagged.

In 1970 Stewart and Al Bell purchased the label and Stewart sank most of his personal fortune into the label to try and keep it afloat.

Bell began signing mainly black artists and even formed another subsidiary, Partee Records to sign comedy artists like Richard Pryor and Moms Mabley.

When the STAPLES SINGERS moved from Gospel to R&B, they began producing hits for the label and one of its original stars Rufus Thomas had a resurgence during the 70's.


"I'll Take You There"
STAPLES SINGERS
Composer: Isbell
1972


"(Do The) Push and Pull, Part 1"
RUFUS THOMAS
Composer: Thomas

On August 20, 1972, the Stax label presented a major concert, Wattstax, featured performances by Stax recording artists and humor from rising young comedian Richard Pryor. Known as the "Black Woodstock," Wattstax was hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson and drew a crowd of over 100,000 attendees, most of them African-American.

Wattstax was filmed by motion picture director Mel Stuart ("Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"), and a concert film of the event was released to theaters by Columbia Pictures in February 1973.

Clive Davis at CBS Records signed a distribution deal with Stax to help break his company into the African-American market. Shortly after the deal was signed Davis was fired and CBS lost interest in the Stax label.

One of the main problems is CBS ignored the smaller record stores located in the African-American communities and did not push the label to the larger retailers, as they were afraid of losing rack space for their other more mainstream artists.

The last big chart hit for Stax was "Woman to Woman" from Shirley Brown in 1974, and the single's success help delay the inevitable demise of the company for several months. Al Bell attempted to stave off bankruptcy with bank loans, while Jim Stewart mortgaged his Memphis mansion to provide the label with short-term working capital.

However, bank officers soon got cold feet, and foreclosed on the loans, costing Stewart his home and the fortune he had earned. Stax/Volt Records declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 1975, and its assets, catalogue, and McLemore Ave. headquarters sold for about a million dollars.



"Woman To Woman"
SHIRLEY BROWN
Composers: Banks-Marion-Thigpen
1974

Fantasy Records bought the non-Atlantic Stax recordings and continued to repackage and re-release the Stax catalogue on the Stax label. Atlantic still has the rights to the Atlantic-era Stax recordings released up to May 1968, most of which have been reissued by co-owned Rhino Records or licensed to Collectables Records.

Concord Records purchased the Fantasy Label Group in 2004, and in December 2006 announced the reactivation of the Stax label. The formal relaunch came with the release on March 13, 2007 of "Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration", a 2-CD box set containing 50 tracks from the entire history of Stax Records.

The first acts signed to the new Stax include Isaac Hayes, Angie Stone, and SOULLIVE. The first Concord distributed Stax album of all new material is a various artists CD which was released on March 27, 2007 and titled "Interpretations: Celebrating The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire". Soulive is the first Stax artist to release an album of all-new material with "No Place Like Soul" released July 10, 2007.

The Stax Museum Of American Soul Music is located in Memphis on the original site on McLemore Ave. and is a recreation of the old Capitol Theater recording studio.

Until April of 2008 they are featuring a history of Otis Redding with pictures and memoribilia of the artist.

Stax Records...what the music industry used to be like...no pun intended, but it had a heart and a soul and was there to showcase its artists. Unlike the monolithic record industry of today where new artists must struggle to get attention and it is all about the dollar...

Stax nurtured their roster and was about the music...the tuneage...



ADDITIONAL STAX RECORDINGS:


"In The Rain"
THE DRAMATICS
Composer: Tony Hester
1972


"Knock On Wood"
EDDIE FLOYD
Composers: E. Floyd & Steve Cropper
1965


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Weekend At Matt(ies)......

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Tuesday, November 06, 2007 19 Of Your Sparks




TOMORROW THE BIG CELEBRATION!!!!

FLY YOUR PEACE GLOBES TOMORROW
AND SHOW THE WORLD!!!!




Well, our flight to Baltimore was uneventful. We spent most of the flight reading the new Vince Flynn book, "Protect & Defend"...Flynn has done it again. We love Mitch Rapp and love his attitude and as we have said before, if the US could just send Rapp, Scott Horvath, & Jack Ryan over to the Middle East all of our problems would be over!

Landed and called Matt who was waiting in the 'cell-phone lot'....LOL how the world has changed in the last few years. Now almost every airport has bought property off site or converted property at the end of their borders to allow cars to sit and wait for that call to come pick up their arriving parties...

Walked outside and a few minutes later here he comes. He jumps out of the car and we grab each other in a big ole hug and kiss....(Yup...we still kiss...something I have done my whole life with my grand dad and my dad...and now with Matt)...

Jump in the car and head out. We went to his apartment which is not all that bad, but way empty. Only a couple of chairs and the TV in the living room and his futon and two small dressers in the bedroom. The microwave is on the floor in the kitchen since there is no counter space at all...

We then headed out for dinner and Matt picked a place where he could get a steak and they had a bunch of sports on the TV's...

Afterward, we headed back to his place and just talked and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday began a little slow (well, hell he is a 20 year old and still knows how to sleep!), and then we headed to the Towson campus.

We ate at one of the dining halls and had a nice breakfast. We got to meet a few of the friends he knows (all women!) at the dining hall and then did a walking tour of the campus. Dang...lots of up and down on that campus...and it is bigger than we had imagined.

We ran into his friend Aaron who informed us that his fraternity was playing football that afternoon, so we decided to shoot out to the store and then come back for the game.

Off to Wal*Mart we ran, where we purchased a 12 quart pot and some of the fixin's for a pot of gravy. Then back to campus for the game.

We got there to find out the other team had forfeited the game...

We met one of Matt's other new friends, Andrew. Andrew is also pledging the fraternity that Aaron is and they tried to get Matt to pledge. Matt's thought is to do so next semester...it is not TKE like we are a member, but that is fine...

This is Matt & Andrew
Andrew said something really interesting. He had also been playing club baseball with Matt, but dropped out because the pledging was taking too much time. He told Matt on Saturday that another guy he knew had been thinking of trying out for the club team, but had been told by some of the other team members that, since he was a catcher, his task was almost impossible...seems there is a 'new kid who has the spot locked up'.

Yup...the other kid is Matt!

Andrew then took a few pictures of us, as we picked up a throw-away camera at the Wal*Mart. We thought Matt had the digital camera with him on campus, but were mistaken.
We headed out to the store to get the rest of the ingredients we needed and even found the plum tomatoes packed in Italy(you know...where Julie is with Sara!). Basically had to buy all the spices needed...

Back to the apartment around 4:30, we began the process of making a pot of gravy. Since he did not have a food mill, this pot was made with the tomatoes whole...you just cook a with a bit more heat and let them fall apart as they cook...we also made 19 meatballs...

Matt watched and helped so he could learn and do it himself soon....
Note the whole tomatoes early in the cooking stage
Stir the pot often, making sure to get all the way to the bottom

Plans were to go out to dinner, but we decided to get a pizza and some wings and rent a movie or two and hang and do something we had never done together....

We drank beers and watched the movie. It was pretty cool that we finally got to have that 'right of passage' together. We have never just sat and knocked back a few and it was nice to be able to do with Matt.

We watched "Casino Royale" which was OK, not the best Bond movie (We tend to like the Sean Connery versions best). We knocked off some beers and all the pizza and wings while we watched and as the gravy slowly cooked.

Sunday morning, we woke early and as Matt slept, we put the gravy and meatballs into tupperware and slid them into the freezer (which obviously gets SO MUCH use! LOL)...

Each round tub - 3 meatballs...The rectangular containers - 2 meatballs
There was also a pot on the stove for his Sunday dinner - 4 meatballs
Yup..that is 19...we split one! LOL

Then off to breakfast and then to the airport where we took some of these pictures in fun...



Matt broke some news to us that we will share in the next couple of weeks if his plans pan out as he is thinking....

We did not get to see his girlfriend Danielle as she was in her dorm room sick sick sick....

When we got home, we received two calls on the 'making of dinner' and gave our recommendations...

Too freakin' short ... the time went too freakin' fast...but we have discussed his coming to Memphis in January while he is on break, if he is not booked with lessons...(Matt is an instructor at a baseball academy in NJ and has a roster of clients who he works with).

Love my son...he is everything to me...and every parent knows exactly what we mean by that...



BLOGTALK RADIO UPDATE

Coming up this week on DR. BLOGSTEIN'S RADIO HAPPY HOUR: (Live on Tuesday November 6th at 9PM ET and forever archived at BlogTalkRadio.)

To show solidarity to the striking members of the Writers Guild, the Radio Happy Hour will once again be totally unscripted!

Political cartoonist Lloyd Dangle stops by to give us his humorous analysis of current events. We'll find out from the creator of "Troubletown" which of the presidential candidates will give him the most material for his cartoon, how many death threats a political cartoonist can expect to receive and what its like to grow up with a last name like "Dangle".


Also, Hollywood producer John Loar will join us. Loar, head of one year old Red Bird Cinema, a joint venture with actor Kevin Pollak and St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, will discuss the Sugar Ray Leonard biopic they have in the works. We'll also get his opinion of the Writers Guild strike and find out if we're in for a steady diet of reality TV for the next few months.


All that plus, Dangerous Lee co-hosts, SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE CYBERWAVES Vinny Bond drags his Big Leather Couch into the Radio Happy Hour Lounge and chats live with the listeners, and your calls at 646-652-4804.

Join us live every Tuesday night at 9PM ET. The Radio Happy Hour Lounge--a live chat room during show time--is a whole new reason to make sure you listen live! It’s the show within the show!


THEN ON WEDNESDAY
THE DAY OF PEACE GLOBES IN THE BLOGGOSPHERE
A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE YOUR STORIES
IN A COMPLETELY NEW WAY...




Looks like Thursday will be "GRAVY & LASAGNA" day...

Lifelogger still acting up and not allowing us to load anything new.

So...into the vault...Roger mentioned this and we have to agree...The mix of rock, jazz and even some Latin makes this a classic...



From the Allman Brothers At The Fillmore East album. Composed by Richard (Dickey) Betts.

This is from the entry for "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" on wikipedia.com:

In this performance, Betts opens the song with ethereal volume swells on his guitar, giving the impression of violins.

Slowly the evocative, lilting first theme begins to emerge, and Duane Allman's guitar joins Betts in a dual lead. The next section has the tempo pick up to a Santana-like, quasi-Latin beat, with a strong second-theme melody being driven by unison playing.

Betts now takes a solo, featuring his usual metallic-toned guitar playing. This leads into a thoughtful organ solo from Gregg Allman, with the two guitars churning rhythm figures in the background.

Now it is Duane Allman's turn, and he starts out quietly rephrasing the first theme in his more wood-toned guitar style. He then gradually builds to a high-pitched climax, with Berry Oakley's bass guitar playing a powerful counterpoint lead underneath him against the band's trademark percussive backing.

Allman cools off into a reverie, then starts up again, finding an even more furious peak. It was this long, masterful solo that drew comparisons of Duane to jazz immortal John Coltrane.

Spent, the band drops off and a relatively brief but to-the-point percussion break is taken by Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson.

The full band then enters to recap the mid-tempo second theme, and the song is smartly finished off.

Clearly kept in rapt attention, a couple of silent beats pass before the Fillmore audience erupts in applause.

The song is named after a headstone Betts saw at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia. By no coincidence both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley are buried in the same cemetery as Elizabeth Reed, as it was a place frequented by the band in their early days, for relaxing and writing songs, among other things.




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