late night with guy mondo

As the media-proclaimed "election of the century" draws closer I am becoming most fearful of the demographic largely ignored by the the polls because of their social status and level of education. These are the people that feel that voting doesn't matter because they feel they will be screwed anyway. This presidential race will be different because both sides have elements that have been considered victory killers in the past: A Black man on one side and a woman on the other. So, what's scary to me is the fact that this small sector of the population will probably come out to vote based on their biases instead of the actual qualifications of the candidates. These, often misinformed, potential voters will most likely be key players in what may be a close competition. There will be those who will vote against the McCain/ Palin ticket simply because they don't think a woman should be anywhere close to being the leader of this country because "it's a man...

The Washington Post, Sunday, March 16, 2008, page C3 Metro Section.

Back in the 80s I was an illustrator in an ad agency and one of the benefits of being "in the biz" was the loads of free stuff that came in the mail every day. One such freebie that crossed my desk was from a company called Eva-Tone out of Clearwater, FL. Eva-Tone made thin, mailable vinyl promo records that were used to send audio presentations to clients. The "soundsheet" I got that day was a promo for a new magazine called FAD (Fashion, Art, Design) and the first cut on side one was "Beatnik Beatch" by Beatnik Beatch and it knocked my socks off with it's retro jazz/blues bass, stompin' brumbeat, synth-horn breaks and whiney yet tough-guy vocals. The title cut and the song "Maria" make getting a copy of this worthwhile if you can find it. Years later I found the Beatnik Beatch lp in the cutout bin and was pleasantly suprised that the whole lp kicked ass, too. Later still, I heard Jellyfish's "Belly Button" and couldn'...

The coolest thing I know about this album is that the 5th Dimension played a singing group invovled in a mystery on a TV show called "It Takes a Thief" starring Robert Wagner. It was on that show that the single "Puppet Man" debuted. I imagine that helped it sell like hotcakes as the group was still riding high on the strength of "Aquarius". As for the album itself, the standouts are "Puppet Man", "One Less Bell to Answer", "This is Your Life" and the supremely cheesy (like a frozen pizza), faux-radical nod to the "younger folk" (i.e.: hippies and hippie wannabes) of the "Medley: The Declaration / A Change Is Gonna Come / People Gotta Be Free". Also, you gotta dig the sweet LeRoy Neiman cover painting and inside the gatefold sketches. This was part of the soundtrack to my "rose coloured glasses" youth a few years before the end of the Vietnam War changed the culture of the US to one that was much...

I like Andy Williams as much today as I did when I was a kid. While most of my peers were crankin' Aretha Franklin and making the 70s the Golden Age of Motown, while The Byrds and Hendrix and "In a Gadda Da Vida" were the soundtrack to many a pot party, I was alone at home singing along with Andy. Then I would go out to a pot party...