Audio and video interviews with Poets, Writers, Musicians and other great creators as well as book, movie and music reviews.
Send your published Fiction, Non-fiction and Poetry Books for review to BL KENNEDY, 1201 P Street, # 5, Sacramento, CA. 95814.....
Send links to your original music and spoken word CDs, art sites and coolest art videos for KEITH THOMPSON and me to review to gypsysubmissions@yahoo.com
An approaching steamer, with
its new so of other places and much-needed goods, generated plenty of
excitement when it landed in San Francisco in 1854. On the decks, passengers
lined the railings to gaze upon the young city and its undeveloped backdrop of
rolling hills. Incoming vessels dropped anchor off North Beach, and the
passengers were rowed in shore as crowds of people blackened Telegraph Hill and
witnessed the influx of San Francisco’s new denizens.
You know, its really hard to write a book review about a
book that chronicles this history of a newspaper. And that is precisely what
‘War of Words’ is about. We have everything here: we have the history of
newsprint, we have intrigue and murder, all of which culminates in the birth of
the San Francisco Chronicle. This book is a history of one of the Northwest’s
coast most prominent periodicals. So for all those budding journalists and all
those historians, librarians, and geeks for the written word, buy this book. It
is indispensable and beautifully written.
I love many musics. Some musics, like Hindu music, seem exotic. Some musics,
like European, seem dense. Some musics, I was there near their beginning, like
rock. Some musics were there near the beginning of me, like jazz. I believe I
was conceived to the music of a big band record playing on a phonograph.
I became aware of Freddie Hubbard music in 1970, with Red Clay, toward
the early middle of Freddie Hubbard’s brilliant career. In those years I was a
regular to the jazz clubs of Manhattan, especially the Village Vanguard. I
would step under the awning and down those stairs to that vivid room, with John
or Jane or Dennis visiting from Erie. We were all very advanced what with the
drinking age 18. We could down at least the required number of
whiskey-and-waters before finding the D train for the long ride north.
In those years Freddie Hubbard began recording for Creed Taylor, Hubbard one of
a number of genius players turning out beautiful records like Red Clay.
In those years I found instrumental music perfect for typing. I’d drop Red
Clay with a stack of other records, Equinox, Maiden Voyage, Follow Your
Heart, on the player next to my desk while I worked to turn a hand-written
draft into a darn good college paper. I wish I could retrieve even one of the
papers typed to that music.
I have the album, Red Clay. I believe Red Clay to be available as
a CD, with bonus tracks, and of course you can sample Freddie Hubbard right
now, even with video. Go ahead. I can wait. We can listen together.
Red Clay opens with Red Clay, side 1, track 1. That’s Hubbard, on
trumpet. That electric piano? Herbie Hancock. Ron Carter, bass. Lenny White,
drums. Some albums start strong, like Red Clay, the opening trumpet solo
very strong, yet temperate, with a touch of blues, Hancock’s keyboard lead
congruent, and articulate, a sax next, Joe Henderson, coming from that same
groove, getting ecstatic, the trumpet screaming along. A melodic bass lead,
only a few bars of drums, then the return of the theme, end. I’ve written a
poem as tribute to this song, Red Clay.
Track 2, Delphia. Starts as a ballad, smooth like the sky above Manhattan, picks
up gospel speed, drifts back, picks up, Fred and Herb sharing the lead,
especially the gospel parts, a couple of choir boys after church robes flying
as they run down the court, passing the basketball. End side 1.
Side 2, Suite Sioux. Another gospel blues beauty, tinged with bebop. Freddie
just blows, chorus after chorus, through a tempo change or two, Lenny White
picking up before Joe Henderson steps up, Hancock backing them up, Carter
plunking away, his paws like a cat’s, a blue cat, a blue cat in a black hat,
Hancock carrying a lead, then a way bigger solo from drummer Lenny White, Fred
and Herb bringing us home with a reprise of the complex opening statement.
Last track, The Intrepid Fox. Fasten your seatbelt, we’re taking a ride, West
Side Highway, this fox is loose in the city, maybe New Jersey, poor New Jersey,
streetlights flashing on the concrete of the Turnpike, industrial sites with
big cranes out there in the darkness, a thrilling future in East Orange or
Newark, ladies in cotton dresses, a table groaning with chicken wings and bowls
of pasta. Freddie, Joe, and Herbie take their last turns on stage. Album sides
are short.
The comic code seal of approval bears the message
“Approved by the comics code authority” and first appeared on the covers of
comic books in the mid-1950s. The comics code is a sets regulatory guidelines
primarily concerned with sex, violence, and language drawn up by publishers and
enforced by the “code authority”, a euphemism for the censor employed by the
publishers. Comic books passing the pre-publication review process are entitled
to carry the seal of approval. This study of the origins and history of the
comics code examines how and why such a code came into being and the code’s
significance both historically and to comic book publishing today.
It’s no secret that I am a
comic book geek. That’s right, you’re reading it right, I said that B.L Kennedy
is a comic book geek. You see, comic books were my introduction to reading. If
not for Superman, Batman, and the Spirit, I would be the book reviewer I am
today.
Therefore, it is my pleasure to introduce this
incredible titleSeal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code.You see, kids it goes like this. In the Beginning,
comic book writers and artists let their imaginations go wild. This culminated
in lawsuit after lawsuit by concerned parents, which lead to a famous
psychiatrist whose name will not be mentioned here, who concluded that comic
books were a detriment to the American Youth. Believe it or not, this actually
went as far as congress. Then, the Supreme Court, resulting in that square
white box that you see on most comic books which says seal of approval. This
battle to create a comic book code went on until 1959 or 1960, when it was solidified
that all comic books should carry this seal of approval.
Of course, there were
comic book companies that did not go with this jive. Bill Gaines, for example,
did not agree to the code, and his E.C. publications did not bear the seal. As
a result, original copies of E.C. Comic books, which would also include Mad
Magazine, disappeared from the marketplace. To find original copies of any E.C.
comics today is a very costly pursuit. So there, you have a brief history of
what this book is about. Basically, it is the invention and implication of
censorship in comic books.
Amy Kiste Nyberg has written a very informative book about a very
important, but little chronicled, part of American history. I highly recommend
this book on several levels. For example, psychologists will find it a very
interesting text to use a tool with some clients. Sociologists will find it
important to learn about an American subculture and its censorship. So, do I
recommend this book? Hell yes. It has something for everybody.
I have never encountered the works of poet Davina
Rhine until about one month ago, and I owe that discovery to the great holy
media of Facebook. You see, I wound up adding her as a friend. And one thing
lead to another, I discovered she was a writer. And so I asked if she had any
books. And she said yes. Its title is The
Chronicle of the Pharaoh’s Daughter: Poems of Love Loss and Rebirth.
I remember the day the mailman put it in my hands. I
immediately opened the package to find the copy of Miss Rhine’s book, and I
have to admit, upon first glance, I had some problems. Not with the writing,
mind you, but with the layout. There was just something about the Table of
Contents that just didn’t set well with my eyes. I know that sounds lame, but I
have to be honest here.
Now to the poetry. The book is
broken into seven distinct sections, each with its own very beautiful poetry. I
must admit, that Ms. Rhine is a unique and very talented young writer. I
enjoyed The Chronicle of the Pharaoh’s Daughter: Poems of Love Loss and Rebirth
very much. I highly recommend it to any lover of good writing. These are poems that
will stay in your head and heart for a very long time.
