A Mid-’60s Smoker’s Haven

I remember pipes and pipe racks and ashtrays around the house throughout my childhood. I can still see the vacuum-sealed tobacco canister on the floor by the loveseat and remember my fascination with the uniquely designed mechanism to pop the lid open. There was the rubber change-purse-meets-woopie-cushion styled tobacco pouch on the end table. But more than anything else, I remember the smell of L.L. Bean cherry pipe tobacco. It was the smell of my dad and his clothes. It was the smell of the family room. It was the smell of home.

From sometime around 1964 or ’65, I found this amazing photo of my dad taken at Smokers’ Haven, a specialty tobacconist in Columbus, Ohio. My dad picked up the pipe smoking habit while attending Ohio State University, and continued to smoke until the mid-’90s. He would stop in at Smokers' Haven after he’d left Columbus and moved back to Northeast Ohio – sometimes even making special trips down just to visit the shop.

Smoking sucks. I know that. (And I don’t believe my dad’s pipe smoking had any influence on my eight-year, pack-a-day cigarette smoking habit back in the day.) I remember my sister doing a project for school, maybe in middle school, where she tried to get my dad to quit smoking. She didn’t succeed, and I don’t know why my dad ultimately kicked the habit. I do know that when he did quit he sold his pipe collection and used the money to buy my mom a tennis bracelet. It was years, however, before my mom found out that was where he got the money to buy it for her.

Archiving the Past

One of my projects for this year is to rescue all my family’s photos, organize them, and scan them into the computer. I say “rescue” because back in the ’80s my parents put our photos into those magnetic photo albums... you know, the kind with the subtly tacky pages that, combined with the static of the plastic overlays, kept your photos in place on the page. Of course, what we didn’t know then is just how damaging those pages are to photo paper. My mom and dad had five large albums with photos arranged primarily in chronological order, beginning with their wedding shower in 1962 and carrying through the mid-’80s. I was able to successfully save all but three of the photos. There was one page that just wouldn’t give up the goods. All the other photos were extracted over the course of a week with varying degrees of success – the most common violation being some portion of the backing paper staying with the album page. They are, however, in good enough condition to be saved and, certainly, to be scanned.

It was a trip for me to just see each and every photo as I liberated them from their albums. The nostalgia factor amped up considerably and nudged my creative juices into overdrive as well. I suspect over the course of the coming months, there will be more than one or two blog entries inspired by the memories evoked or weird associations with the images as I work through the long process of scanning each photo, making any corrections to it in the photo software, and organizing both the digital files and the physical photos for long-term archiving.

I’m fortunate to still have both of my parents around and geographically close for all the obvious reasons, including helping me identify people and places and dates in all these photos. Once I get through this Besenyodi nuclear family era, I will probably ask my parents for the photos that never made it into albums -- those of previous generations and those of the family after my sister and I moved on and made them empty nesters.

The Science of the Seventies

In the mid-’70s, there were a lot of things wrong in America. There was an oil crisis. Nixon had disgraced the highest office in the land and resigned. And with the end of the Vietnam War, one of the biggest problems our returning GI’s faced was how to “get it all together.” Thankfully, if they were reading comic books, these guys knew the Cleveland Institute of Electronics, Inc. was there to give them the break they needed.

After earning their FCC license from CIE, servicemen were able to sit around dressed in nice suits sharing drinks with pretty blondes, and were so flush with cash they had to keep the extra dough right out on the table in front of them. Now that’s livin’, man.

Digital Deus

In the three years since publishing Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan, I have had a great time connecting and re-connecting with fellow comic fans. I don't know that I realized just how universal my experience was until the book started getting into the hands of others.

Deus has been available for purchase via physical copy or PDF since the beginning through the publisher, Lulu, but the way we consume our pop culture has changed. I love getting a digital copy of a movie when I pick up the Blu-Ray, and I'm all about the subtle moves toward digital copy codes being included with comics. In that spirit, at the end of 2011 I decided to reach out to all of the people who have purchased a copy of Deus ex Comica direct from me over the years (I don’t have access to who purchases the book from the publisher, via Amazon, or elsewhere. Sorry.), and offer them a free digital copy of the book. The response has been overwhelming! I know people love to get free stuff, but the personal notes included with the responses to my offer have been amazing and fun... from providing a reason to reread my book to aiding in the excuse to purchase a tablet!

With such an overwhelming response, it seemed right to extend the offer to all future sales of my book purchased direct from me. So, as of now, anyone who purchases a copy of Deus ex Comica direct from me not only gets the opportunity to have the book inscribed if they'd like, but also will receive a free digital copy of the book for their reading pleasure!

The PDF is still available for purchase if that's the only version you want, but I'm all about getting this thing into as many people's hands -- virtual or otherwise -- as possible. Read it, share it, enjoy it!

Book List 2011

Non-Fiction

1. Role Models - John Waters
2. The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean - Susan Casey
3. Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City - Nelson Johnson
4. You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up: A Love Story - Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn
5. Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir by the Man Who Knew Him Best - Peter Freestone
6. Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends - Barney Hoskyns
7. The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
8. Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog, and a Lot Less Hair - Gary David Goldberg
9. Just A Geek - Wil Wheaton
10. Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg
11. It’s So Easy (And Other Lies) - Duff McKagan
12. Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny - Nile Rodgers
13. I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution - Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum
14. Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” - David Bianculli

Fiction

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
2. Star Wars: Fool’s Bargain - Timothy Zahn
3. Star Wars: Survivor’s Quest - Timothy Zahn
4. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Trade Paperbacks and Hardcover Collected Editions

1. My?tery Society - Steve Niles, Fiona Staples
2. The Last Days of American Crime - Rick Remender, Greg Tocchini
3. North 40 - Aaron Williams, Fiona Staples
4. Chew, Volume 3: Just Desserts - John Layman, Rob Guillory
5. American Vampire, Volume 1 - Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquerque
6. Proof, Book 4: Julia - Alexander Grecian and Riley Rossmo
7. Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Omnibus - Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck
8. Star Wars Adventures: Han Solo and the Hollow Moon of Khorya - Jeremy Barlow
9. Marvel Essential: X-Men, Volume 5 - Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr., Barry Windsor-Smith
10. The Walking Dead, Book Six - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn
11. Dead @ 17: The Witch Queen - Josh Howard
12. Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures, Volume 3 - Various
13. Hellboy, Volume 1: Seed of Destruction - Mike Mignola, John Byrne
14. Avengers: Hawkeye - Mark Gruenwald
15. Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble - Roger Stern
16. Thor Omnibus - Walt Simonson
17. Sweet Tooth, Volume 1: Out of the Woods - Jeff Lemire
18. Empowered, Volume 2 - Adam Warren
19. Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition, Book Five - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra
20. I Kill Giants: Titan Edition - Joe Kelly
21. Ghost Rider, Volume 1: Vicious Cycle - Daniel Way
22. Ghost Rider, Volume 2: The Life & Death of Johnny Blaze - Daniel Way
23. Ghost Rider, Volume 3: Apocalypse Soon - Daniel Way
24. Ghost Rider, Volume 4: Revelations - Daniel Way
25. Ghost Rider Omnibus - Jason Aaron
26. Marvel Essential: X-Men, Volume 6 - Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr., Barry Windsor-Smith
27. All-Ghouls School - Marc Sumerak, David Bryant
28. Bomb Queen: Woman of Mass Destruction - Jimmie Robinson
29. Bomb Queen II: Dirty Bomb - Jimmie Robinson
30. The Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga - Chris Claremont and John Byrne
31. The Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past - Chris Claremont and John Byrne
32. Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher - Jonathan Mayberry and Goran Parlov
33. The Homeland Directive - Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston
34. Mystique: Ultimate Collection - Brian K. Vaughan
35. Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine - Jonathan Mayberry and Laurence Campbell
36. Fantastic Four Omnibus, Volume 1 - John Byrne
    
37. Queen & Country: Definitive Collection, Volume 4 - Greg Rucka
38. The Walking Dead, Book Seven - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn

Concert Regrets

One of the things about learning to brew your own beer from somebody is you better get along with them because that first session takes hours! Thankfully, my first brewing session meant I was able to hang out with my buddy Jeff. Killing time in his garage on a brisk Saturday afternoon in early October, sitting around the kettle as my winter spiced ale brewed, the conversation wandered at that nice, familiar pace that only comes from having been friends for over 20 years. Of course, considering our history, music was a big topic of the day, including concert regrets. I have two concert regrets – not shows I wish I’d never seen, but shows I missed.

My Number One with a Bullet is Roger Waters’ Radio K.A.O.S. tour stop at Blossom Music Center in August of 1987.

It was the summer before my seventeenth birthday, and I was working a couple of jobs, including mowing the lawn at the local community park and busing tables at a crappy restaurant. Up to that point in time, I had only attended two concerts – David Lee Roth the previous fall, and Mötley Crüe earlier in the summer of ’87. I seem to remember it being a combination of my own money management issues and my parents not being all that comfortable with my concert going activities yet as the main reasons I was unable to attend the show. I’m sure the normal teenage notions of independence and arguing with my parents about “freedom” and “space” came into play, too.

I don’t remember who I was even going to go to the show with, but I knew even then that this was a show I really needed to see. And, by all accounts, it was a spectacle. Radio K.A.O.S. wasn’t a huge hit, but it was and still is one of my favorite albums. (I did an in-depth piece on it back when I wrote for PopMatters. You can check that out here.) Waters took DJ Jim Ladd on tour with him, and the show was staged as a giant radio show, complete with phone booths set up around the venue for audience members to “call in” and ask questions. Of course, it was never filmed and the likes of it will never be seen again, but, man, I think it would have been amazing.

Of course, a month or so after the Roger Waters show, I did see Boston at the Richfield Coliseum. I’m sure my parents’ fears and my money woes were cast aside because I saw the concert with my older sister, my health teacher (who my sister was dating at the time), and my best buddy Mark. I wouldn’t attend my first concert at Blossom until a year later when I saw The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band on a triple bill the next summer. And, for what it’s worth, I did see Pink Floyd on their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour in the fall of ’88, so I guess that’s something.

My other concert regret is a little different and much more recent, so the wound is still fresh. Jack has been taking private drum lessons for just over a year now, and he just started up with fifth grade band this school year. He loves percussion, and I’m always eager to share anything I think he’ll appreciate – like The Black Keys, The Who, and Rush.

So when I saw Rush was touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Moving Pictures, I knew I was going to take Jack. I was able to get in on the presale and get us some amazing seats in the lower bowl, stage right, near the stage. I was ridiculously excited. Then, after purchasing the tickets, I realized that there was a good chance we were actually going to be in Hawaii the day of the show.

This was a trip Tracy was trying to earn through work, and you don’t turn down free airfare, five-star hotel accommodations, and all food and entertainment included. I get that, and I was not then, nor am I now, ungrateful for the opportunity to return to the islands and enjoy a fantastic family vacation. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there is a tiny little part of me that is still disappointed that Jack and I didn’t get to share that concert-going experience.

I have seen Rush numerous times throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but this was different. The band was playing Moving Pictures in its entirety, I was taking my kiddo with me, we had killer seats from the pre-sale, and the band was taping the show for release on DVD and Blu-Ray. I have never, to my knowledge, attended a show that has been officially released like that, and even though we weren’t at the show, you damn well better believe that Blu-Ray is on my Christmas list this year!

Living Large

Tony Bennett
29 October 2011: State Theatre at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio

So for the third time in ten days, I found myself at the State Theatre in Playhouse Square Sunday night. Playhouse Square is made up of five primary theatres: the Allen, Hanna, Ohio, Palace, and State. Combine those venues with all the other options in Northeast Ohio, like the Akron Civic, House of Blues, and EJ Thomas, and it’s pretty remarkable that I would end up at the same place for all three shows.

While not the quite the 3 Shows In 3 Nights endurance marathon Tracy and I embarked on in early 2010, the events I attended this month were certainly as varied. Duran Duran the previous Wednesday with Tracy kicked things off, continuing with the Kathy Griffin show Sunday night with my buddy Alan, and concluding with Tony Bennett Saturday night.

The night began, fittingly, in Little Italy at the Trattoria on the Hill, an institution in the neighborhood that Tracy and I have been to numerous times over the years, just not often enough because of proximity. Located east of downtown Cleveland near University Circle and Case Western Reserve University, Little Italy is a great place to stroll and dine and soak in atmosphere. Unfortunately, it’s not really close enough to be convenient enough to just pop over for an afternoon. It is a destination location for us when we have a show or special night out, and we had both Saturday night. The Tony Bennett tickets were a gift to my in-laws for my father-in-law’s birthday.

The in-laws had never been to the Trattoria, so it was fun to share this unique bit of Cleveland with them before heading down Euclid Avenue to Playhouse Square. Bennett’s show was scheduled to start at 8, and a few minutes after the hour the house announcer welcomed us to The Tony Bennett Show and asked us to first greet Antonia Bennett. I don’t think Antonia would be singing professionally if she weren’t opening for her dad. Her short set was disappointing in that it was unexpected and because she clearly did not inherit her Father’s vocal chops. Unremarkable is the nicest way to describe Antonia’s voice. Thankfully, she worked her way quickly through a half-dozen or so standards and brought her dad on stage without an intermission.

Bennett, the elder, has not missed a beat. He perfectly nailed every song through the nearly hour-and-a-half long set. His rendition of “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret was simply stellar, probably my favorite of the night. But matching his song selection was Bennett’s easy banter with the audience. Following his run through of “Cold, Cold Heart”, he told the story of songwriter Hank Williams calling to give him a hard time for “ruining” his song. And Bennett introduced an amazing rendition of Charlie Chaplin’s classic “Smile” by talking about the handwritten note he received from the songwriter thanking him when he recorded the cover.

There was a dedication to Lady Gaga, who performs with Bennett on his Duets II album, and at one point Bennett’s daughter returned to perform a duet with her dad. There were age-appropriate jokes about how the 85-year-old crooner and Rosemary Clooney were the first American idols, and pop music trivia history lessons delivered through tales of his being discovered by Pearl Bailey and how (Clevelander) Bob Hope came up with his professional name.

The crown jewel of the evening, however, was Bennett’s show closing “Fly Me to the Moon”, performed without a microphone while his band quietly backed him. I have extolled the virtues of Playhouse Square’s SmartSeats in the past. Most shows at all of the Playhouse Square venues tend to offer the $10 cheap seats tickets for the last row or two of the theatre, and Tracy and I take advantage of the offer anytime it’s available for a show we want to see. The Tony Bennett Show was no different. You get what you pay for, and we were appropriately seated in the very last row of the auditorium. However, as testament to both Bennett’s vocal ability and the amazing acoustics of the venue, we heard every word, every note, perfectly. The man can sing. Period.