A Mad, Mad World

Wild Women of the Accordion

madmags — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:01:01 +0000

Last night’s Wild Women of the Accordion/ Accordion Babes Pin-Up Calendar Release party at Cafe du Nord was super fun and a resounding success. Several accordion goddesses helped out at the merch table selling all the calendars we had and autographing many for enthralled accordion babe fans. Kugelplex, Big Lou’s Polka Casserole and Renée de la Prade and friends dished up oh so danceable tunes. Rhian, the Mad Maggies’ whistle goddess worked the swag table with her vivacious charm. We made new friends. The moon was full. The air was warm.

Calendars are available for $20. They include a compilation CD with a song from each of the “babes”. The Mad Maggies all new online store will be ready in just a few days but meanwhile email me if you’d like one. And of course, I will be selling them at our upcoming shows.

Ms. June (Isabel), Ms. July (Joan), Ms. December (Amber Lee) & Ms. February (Mad Mags)

(l-r) Ms. August (Luz), calendar designer Tim Gennert, Ms. December (Amber Lee), Ms. February (Mad Mags), Ms. September (Diana), Ms. October (Big Lou), Ms. November (Skylar Fell

(click on photos to see them larger)

Accordion Babes Calendar Release Party

madmags — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:10:48 +0000

Meet many of the talented beauties of the Bay Area Accordion Babes Pin-Up Calendar!

Thursday November 13 8pm
Café Du Nord
2170 Market St
San Francisco CA 94114
415-861-5016
www.cafedunord.com

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole
Kugelplex w/ Isabel Douglass
Renee de la Prade and Friends

Tickets $12.00

Calendars will be on sale. Perfect holiday gift!

Pirates who don’t say “Aaaaarrr”

johnyblood — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:33:54 +0000

After her recent post on Robert Newton, Maggie asked me to find some more movie pirates. Of course, Errol Flynn is probably the most famous, in the role of my noted ancestor Peter Blood - Captain Blood. In addition to him and Johnny Depp there are such natural swashbucklers as:

Douglas Fairbanks The Black Pirate, 1926
Tyrone Power Black Sun, 1942
the deep-voiced, knavish Charles Laughton Captain Kidd 1945
and his 60s avatar Peter Ustinov, in the Disney movie from my youth Blackbeard’s Ghost
Orson Welles played Long John Silver in his hand-trembling, Gallo wine-selling days (to wit, 1971)
Wallace Beery played the role in 1934, in a version of Treasure Island directed by The Wizard of Oz’s Victor Fleming, and the Wizard himself
Frank Morgan, was in an early Technicolor (1936) called The Dancing Pirate
Burt Lancaster was in the pirate comedy Crimson Pirate in 1952
Anthony Quinn and James Coburn were in 1965’s High Winds in Jamaica
Yul Brunner in The Buccaneer (1958)
Walter Matthau in Pirates (1986, directed by Roman Polanski).

Other movie pirates include:

Fred MacMurray Fair Wind to Java (1953)
Gene Kelly The Pirate (1948)
Bob Hope The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
Bugs Bunny Buccaneer Bunny (1948),
Kevin Kline The Pirates of Penzance 1983),
Geena Davis Cutthroat Island (1995)
and Jackie Chan ‘A’ gai waak (1983)

Roguish Locution

madmags — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:28:22 +0000

Aye, my hearts, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day (Thanks to Miguel for reminding us.)

And seeings as our upcoming CD has to do with piratical riff-raff and adventures on the high seas, I enthusiastically encourage you to delve into you inner buccaneer.

There is not one way to sound like a pirate. Those who plied the waves came from all over — Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, continental Europe, colonial America, Africa, the Carribean, the Crimea, the Far East. The sounds of the language on board were much more diverse than “Aaargh, mateys”!

What we think of as pirate talk today is based largely on one particular actor’s interpretation of Long John Silver. (”Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson.) That be Robert Newton, a native of Dorset, England who became famous in the 50s for his work as Long John Silver for Walt Disney films and later in a TV series.

Newton was familair with the accent of nearby Bristol from whence the character Long John Silver hailed and he used that accent to infuse his characterization of the one-legged, story-telling, salty dog.

Enjoy a clip of Robert Newton’s now classic portrayal.

more about pirate language
a tribute to Robert Newton

Flick Pick: When the Road Bends

madmags — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:33:21 +0000

When the Road Bends - tales of a Gypsy Caravan

GDub found this documentary at NetFlix. Fabulous musicians, up close and personal filmmaking.

Esma Redzepove, Maharaja, Fanfare Ciocalia, Taraf de Haidouks and the Antonia el Pipa Flamenco Ensemble.

Pork Pie

madmags — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:32:01 +0000

I love hats.

We are playing live on KPIG tomorrow afternoon. As I was writing our Mad Alert newsletter for the gig I got to pondering porcine metaphors which led my hungry mind to pork pie hats.

A pork pie is a meat dish baked in pastry crust. The hat gets its name from its flat-topped resemblance to that savoury comestible. I won’t recommend eating pork but I will recommend wearing this quintessentially hip topper.

Many a Mad Maggie are crazy enough to sport one.

Buster Keaton, Lester Young and Tom Waits are are other crazy cool cats in pork pie hats.

Tune in at 1pm KPIG 1510 AM

Cotati Squeeze Fest this weekend

madmags — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:15:11 +0000

Call me sentimental. The year I started to play the accordion was the same year the Cotati Accordion Festival began. That would be 1991. That same year GDub and I fell in love. 17 years later I’m still squeezin’, GDub and I are still squeezin’ and the Cotati Accordion Fest is still rockin’.

Sat August 23 and Sun August 24
Downtown Cotati all day gates open 9:30

Fun for the whole family

johnyblood — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:12:22 +0000

I’ll be participating in another multimedia extravaganza on August 23 and 24 at 1512 62nd Street in Emmeryville, featuring text, film, theremin and of course tuba. It’s 7:00 Saturday and 3 pm Sunday. It’s a benefit for the La Casaita Preschool, so the admission is a rather steep $35 for the premiere and $20 for the matinee, but would hope anyone reading this knows the magic words, “Hey, I’m with the band!”

RIP Ronnie Drew

GDub — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:36:18 +0000

Sad news that Ronnie Drew of the legendary Irish group The Dubliners passed today. RIP Ronnie.

Bellows and Babes

madmags — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:19:25 +0000

As promised, you will see a couple small versions of me as a pin up for the Accordion Babes Calendar project but first here’s the pitch.

The Accordion Babes calendar will include 12 full-color pin-up photos of women and their accordions; previews of some of the content are available here. Not all of these are final photos, but they start to give you an idea.

A compilation CD of the calendar artists will be attached to the inside back cover of the calendar.

Participation can happen in two ways: presales and sponsorships. For shops and accordion clubs who would like to order advance copies at a wholesale rate, we are selling copies of the calendar at $10 per unit; the list price of the calendar will be $20. (There is a 6 calendar minimum for presale orders.) For businesses who are interested in having ad-space on the calendar, there is a pricing scale for sponsorships.

Please pass on this info to any potential sponsors you can think of.
For more info and inquiries: accordionpinupcalendar@gmail.com

These will make wonderful gifts.

And now for the teasers. They are tiny because they are, well, teasers

I’m hoping you’ll buy the calendar to see all the accordion goddesses at full size.