2012 in Review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 160,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Claire Barliant – “From a Waxy Yellow Buildup to a Nervous Breakdown: The Fleeting Existence of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” (2010)
An October 10, 2010 article on Norman Lear’s brilliant soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, from the East of Borneo website…
McLuhan missed it: We’re not a global village, we’re a global OUTPATIENT CLINIC, and the life force itself is most fully embodied in a frenetically twitching nerve.
—Lester Bangs
The nervous breakdown peaked circa 1975. The epidemic reached, or maybe started in, the White House: Nixon is said to have suffered one in office; Betty Ford soon followed. This pervasively twitchy mood was captured in a performance by Louise Lasser, who, in the role of beleaguered housewife Mary Hartman on the television soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, freaks out during an appearance on a nationally televised talk show. In the episode, which aired toward the end of the series’ first season, in 1976, three pundits—a feminist, a media critic, and a consumer advocate—interview Hartman, who appears on The David Susskind Show as “America’s typical consumer housewife.” When the pundits start grilling her on her sex life and whether she feels “fulfilled,” she begins to panic. She stutters, leans over to whisper to the talk show host that she had expected to talk about her favorite household products, and then, flummoxed by the barrage of questions, unintentionally divulges that her husband is impotent. At this point, in an almost too-painful-to-watch climax, she turns to face the camera, makes a wiping motion with her hand, and then, in a flat, atonal way, using the kind of voice you might use if you were addressing a voice-operated machine, says, “Erase. Erase.”
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ran for only two seasons, from 1976 to 1977. When it was originally broadcast, it was a nationwide phenomenon. Louise Lasser appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and People magazines, and costar Mary Kay Place (who played an aspiring country-and-western star, Loretta Haggers) released a Grammy-nominated album of music from the show with backing vocals by Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Read the rest of this entry »
Fred Kirby – “Willows Have No Roots / Nazz: Flare No Fire” (1968)
A short concert review on Todd Rundgren’s first band The Nazz, taken from a Sept. 21, 1968 issue of Billboard magazine. Also mentioned is Debbie Harry’s obscure first band Wind in the Willows…
Two young groups created varying impressions at the Cafe Au Go Go on Wednesday (11). The Wind in the Willows had the elements and promise of being a winning unit, but were not together, while the Nazz was together, but lacked a distinctive quality.
The latter group was relentless in sound, but rarely showed an individual flair. One such rare instance was in the concluding “Why Is It Me?” when lead guitarist Todd Rundgren flashed his ability.
Until then, the strongest asset of the SGC Records quartet was the singing of Nazz’s organist, known as Stewkey, and by Rundgren. The latter’s bluesy “Skinny Boy” was a good number for him. Bass guitarist Carson van Osten and drummer Thom Mooney occasionally joined in the vocals.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the group was that, despite the emphasis on amplification, the vocals did cut through. “She’s Goin’ Down” and “Back of Your Mind,” from their SGC debut album, were included in the set. But Nazz failed to live up to the strong promotion. Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 