Adventures in chutzpah

I've been using Blogger's Comment Moderation feature, and I'm very happy with it. It's proving very useful--for instance, "Anonymous" wrote me earlier today to relate, without punctuation, how much he loves a particular cash advance service, which he names in the body of the post. "This website is the number one I liked it a lot," says Anonymous. Included was a link to the service.

Now, I wasn't born last week, and when I receive a post containing an advertising link and a testimonial, then I have to pause and consider the very real possibility--nay, probability--that the poster is up to something. Just call me cynical after all these years.

And so the "comment" did not go up. Nice try, Anon.

And, a day or so earlier, someone (under, allegedly, his actual name) left a payday-loan link. Again, I had to stop and think, "What, if anything, does this have to do with the post?" (The post being one of my Halloween slaylists of nearly two years ago.) I smelled a rat. Had the cats dragged something in and left it where the odor could come up through the floor vents? Or... was I sensing something disingenuous about "(assumed name)"'s comment? Yes. I do indeed believe I was.

I rejected it. Sorry, (assumed name).

By contrast, the raccoon (or raccoons) who recently raided our back porch refrigerator were simply being raccoons. Clever little beasts. They made off with a number of jelly doughnuts, though I arrived before they could carry off the chocolate chip cookies. Knowing how to enter the cat window was just the beginning, apparently--now they know how to open refrigerators. What's next? The back door?

Wouldn't put it past them.

Anyway, the contrast here is interesting. I refer to the sheer chutzpah of the link-inserters, who somehow expect me to willingly post their ads, vs. raccoons who are simply being their clever little scavenger-genius selves.

Wait a second--a new comment just in: "WE NEEDE TO INSPEKT YOUR REFRIJERATER--PLEEZE LEEVE OPIN. --RAKKOON INSPEKSHUN SQWAD." The note is filled with pawprint icons and backwards E's.

Raccoon Inspection Squad? Is that a squad of raccoons who inspect, or a squad formed to inspect raccoons? Kind of ambiguous, seems to me. I don't think I'll approve it.

Sorry, Rakkoon Inspekshun Sqwad.


Lee

Vernon Geyer--Pop organ sounds from 1937 and 1938.

Apparently, the pop organ styles of Jesse Crawford, Lew White, and Vernon Geyer magically morphed into "space age pop" when they appeared in the persons of Ethel Smith, Lenny Dee, and Eddie Layton. Reason being, the latter folks are known from long-playing records, and pop music history, being Boomer-centric, is necessarily LP-centric. In case you were wondering why the history of pop music is nearly always told in vinyl terms.

At MY(P)WHAE, we do our part to correct the historical record by bringing in pre-vinyl (and even pre-sound-recording) media, though, in the battle of received wisdom vs. carefully picked artifacts, artifacts don't have a chance. But lost causes are the funnest kind. He said, trying to convince himself.

Anyway, these artifacts found me. There, sitting in a 78 set-sale list, was a copy of Hammond electric organist Vernon Geyer playing 12th St. Rag on the Bluebird label. I eagerly looked up the year--1937. Ah, space age pop before space age pop, I figured. I was right, too.

Now that I have enough Vernon Geyer to fill a playlist (thanks to a follow-up 78 list from the same dealer!), we're ready to roll. Like I said, these artifacts find me. They knock on my door, beg me to tell their story, and I say, "Sure." And Bev says, "Lee, are you talking to your computer?"

I've been able to dig up all of practically nothing on Geyer, save for the fact that his career predates these late-Thirties 78s, which of course is nice to know. But no photo, no major career tidbits, no scandals. I love his playing, despite the sloppiness thereof and the general lack of flashiness--he just has the right touch and feel for what he's doing, and that's often more important than sheer technique. The trio side (Avalon) is especially nice. If Vernon had simply waited a few decades to step into the studio, he might have become a "space age pop" name. Instead, he opted to do his thing in the age of radio shows and shellac. Tsk, tsk. Don't these people ever think ahead?

The Sheik, by the way, is better known as The Sheik of Araby, as you will hear.

To the pre-space age pop: Vernon Geyer

PLAYLIST--Vernon Geyer, Hammond electric organ solos, 1937-1938.

THE SHEIK (Ted Snyder), 1937.
LET 'ER GO (Larry Clinton), 1937.
RAGGING THE SCALE, 1937.
MY MARIE (Arr. Geyer), 1937.
AVALON, w. piano and vibraphone, 1938.
SLEEPY TIME GAL, w. piano, 1938.
BEALE STREET BLUES, 1938.
I AIN'T GOT NOBODY, 1938.
12TH STREET RAG, 1937.
APPLE BLOSSOMS, 1937.



Lee

More Phipps Family...

...at this extremely cool blog that I've been meaning to link to. Jeremy's Saggy Record Cabinet.

The Phipps are shown in a different pose, but somehow it looks like the same photo. Same period, definitely.

And, by all means, download the Fa Sol La Singers 78 on the same page--it's absolutely incredible.


Lee