I guess Bo Diddley had a stroke Sunday.


The guy has to be pretty old.  I read that the stroke happened after a concert.  It's incredible and awesome that he is still out there on the road! 

The article also said that, sadly, the stroke had affected his speech. 

We keep Bo in our Oldies section here at Amoeba.  My favorite record of his is Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger. 


The man clearly kicks ass.  Hopefully he will recover soon.

Much to my boyfriend's dismay, I am once again obsessed with that little slice of Americana that is Born in the USA.

I have a car, and my car has a tape deck.  For most music fanatics, this would seem like a nightmare, but I quite enjoy it.  I see the tape deck as a challenge and a chance to listen to things I normally would have forgotten all about.  I actually really love having the deck.  There's nothing like going through your parents' old tapes to find Every Great Motown Hit of Marvin Gaye, or my early childhood Holy Grail: Born In the USA.

Bruce Springsteen, my mother always taught me as a child of the early 80s, was the hardest working man in show business. (Tina Turner was her hardest working woman selection.)  She would explain to me in all seriousness how he gave his all at his live shows and how hard he worked the crowd each and every night.  This woman has never actually gone to a Boss concert, mind you, but hey, she's never been short on opinions! (I had to get it from somewhere, right?) Guess Mom musta watched that Dancing in the Dark video a few too many times!  Anyway, Born in the USA was something we could all listen to together, my energy loving mom, my construction working dad, my annoying brother, and ME.

Obsolete
9 years of employment
Visual Merchandiser

Q:  What's the first music you remember hearing as a kid?

O: The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord.

What is the first album that made you super into music?

It was probably that Moody Blues album.  When disco rolled around I was hooked.  I was 7 years old and hooked on disco.  I loved Donna Summer and The Village People.  I was so into The Village People.  I thought they were a real representative of people in society getting together, getting along and making disco music, that The Village represented America and in this "land of the free", a cop, a sailor, a construction worker, an indian, and a leather daddy could get together and rock!

Pretty deep thoughts for a 7 year old.  Impressive.  What was your first live show?

Unfortunately General Public.  My mom dropped me off with my friend at the Universal Ampitheater at Universal Studios, California!  It was the only place I was allowed to see my first concert, being 15.

When did you start creating music and why?

A couple nights ago I had the great pleasure of attending a screening of Guy Maddin's new film Brand Upon the Brain! at the palatial Castro Theater as part of the 50th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival.  (The festival actually ends today....)

I can only bow to Guy Maddin's genius.  His films are totally idiosyncratic, totally dynamic, totally gorgeous.  This newest film was no exception.  Guy himself was there to introduce the film, and the screening included live Foley Sound Artists, a full orchestra, a castrato, and a narrator, Joan Chen.  Did i mention Brand Upon the Brain! is a silent film?  All the sounds for the movie were created live onstage in front of the audience. 

The film's plot involves a boy named Guy Maddin (natch) who lives on a bleak island off of Canada in a lighthouse which serves as an orphanage.  The orphanage is policed by Guy's overprotective, youth obsessed mother.  When she is looking for Guy, she turns the lighthouses' rickety huge lantern out and around the entire island while yelling for him to get home.  Guy's father works tirelessly and wordlessly in the basement inventing things and mysteriously producing some kind of strange nectar....

There's also this whole part of the plot involving Guy and Guy's sister ("Sis") both falling in love with the same woman, who leaves and then returns to the island masquerading as a man to try to win Sis' affection and also get to the bottom of the mysterious nectar.  Sis and "Chance" begin a hot and heavy relationship, all the while trying to keep hidden from the watchful and disapproving eyes of Guy and Sis' mother.  Guy tags along jealously, somehow drawn to and growing a "boy crush" on this new "male" figure on the island.