the electronic museum, jane and george.
last night we went to the GULF COAST ELECTRONIC MUSEUM which is owned by a friend of mine, jane wiley. it was orginally a warehouse for military surplus electronic equipment from world war II and then after the war it became a factory for making high end stereo equipment for both personal and concert use. jane's late husband owned it and when he died she and some artist friends made it into a museum with displays, sculptures and wall designs all made out of the electronic equipment in the warehouse. part of the building has been made into a little showroom complete with stage from the original COMEDY WORKSHOP ANNEX. to be in this place is, to use an old hippy term, a trip. a combination of futuristic and historic, the visuals are such that one alternates between being in some kind of space ship to being in an electronic workshop of the 1940's. amongst all of that, jane performed a concert for us, singing and dancing with a sax player and a one-armed piano player backing her. she went through a play list of tourch songs from the 40's and 50's, september in the rain, old black magic, the lady is a tramp, foggy night in london town and several others. then she did some of her orginal compositions playing off the saxaphone player in a jazz duet.
for most of the "concert" there were only 5 of us in attendence but as the night got longer various artists and muscians came in and then some of them performed including a young man who appeared to be a teenager playing a bass guitar as though it was the lead instrument and just blew the room away. he was a genuine talent. by the time midnight rolled around the place was full of interesting people. the whole scene was reminesent (sp?) of a 60's coffee shop in greenwich village in new york city. beautiful women, singers, actors, musicians of all stripes from reggae to blues plus some straight looking lawyer-types all were wandering in and out of the club from the patio outside where the aroma of fine weed mixed with the magnolia tainted night air. great conversations were to be found inside and out.
jane, herself, is worth the visit. my friend, brookie, said the way she described jane is a brunete marilyn monroe who has grown up but not grown old. that description pretty much fits her; she is attractive in a 1950's sort of way, dramatic and flamboyant. she also has a husky singing voice that is well suited to the songs she sang. (think julie london singing "cry me a river" and you have jane)
it was a night and a place to remember. if you are ever in houston and you have made it to radio music theater then your next stop should be jane's place. have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and hang out and see just who all comes in.
on to something else: george bush yesterday tried, in a speech, to tie the war in iraq to not only vietnam but to world war II. it does have a real tie-in to vietnam; bush didn't fight there either nor did any of his family. to try to equate the reconstruction of japan to the iraqi debacle is quite a stretch; japan wasn't full of people who hated one another and we left the emporer in place in japan giving the people a leader with whom they were already familar. also iraq did not have anything to do with 9-11 and trying to compare pearl harbor to the attacks on nyc by osama to justify attacking iraq shows, once again, that georgie boy has no concept, whatsoever, of history. his statements about vietnam were even more historically incorrect. communism did not spread across southeast asia and then into the phillipines as was predicted by the war hawks of that time. in fact, vietnam went to war with two communist countries. yes, hundreds of thousands of vietnamnese did flee the country after we left but millions have already fled iraq. and in another feature that the revisionists tend to leave out, the south vietnam government was a MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. actually a series of military dictatorships, during the years we were there, the south vietnamnese had 13 changes of government and all of them were by military coup. hard to say we were fighting for democracy now isn't it?
oh well, life goes on. tonight we go to radio music theater and then tomorrow i scoot back on up to arlington for the friday and saturday shows.
the only thing i worry about this long road trip is my poker game will get rusty. well, that and i do miss rhonda when i am out here. she would really have enjoyed last night.
for most of the "concert" there were only 5 of us in attendence but as the night got longer various artists and muscians came in and then some of them performed including a young man who appeared to be a teenager playing a bass guitar as though it was the lead instrument and just blew the room away. he was a genuine talent. by the time midnight rolled around the place was full of interesting people. the whole scene was reminesent (sp?) of a 60's coffee shop in greenwich village in new york city. beautiful women, singers, actors, musicians of all stripes from reggae to blues plus some straight looking lawyer-types all were wandering in and out of the club from the patio outside where the aroma of fine weed mixed with the magnolia tainted night air. great conversations were to be found inside and out.
jane, herself, is worth the visit. my friend, brookie, said the way she described jane is a brunete marilyn monroe who has grown up but not grown old. that description pretty much fits her; she is attractive in a 1950's sort of way, dramatic and flamboyant. she also has a husky singing voice that is well suited to the songs she sang. (think julie london singing "cry me a river" and you have jane)
it was a night and a place to remember. if you are ever in houston and you have made it to radio music theater then your next stop should be jane's place. have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and hang out and see just who all comes in.
on to something else: george bush yesterday tried, in a speech, to tie the war in iraq to not only vietnam but to world war II. it does have a real tie-in to vietnam; bush didn't fight there either nor did any of his family. to try to equate the reconstruction of japan to the iraqi debacle is quite a stretch; japan wasn't full of people who hated one another and we left the emporer in place in japan giving the people a leader with whom they were already familar. also iraq did not have anything to do with 9-11 and trying to compare pearl harbor to the attacks on nyc by osama to justify attacking iraq shows, once again, that georgie boy has no concept, whatsoever, of history. his statements about vietnam were even more historically incorrect. communism did not spread across southeast asia and then into the phillipines as was predicted by the war hawks of that time. in fact, vietnam went to war with two communist countries. yes, hundreds of thousands of vietnamnese did flee the country after we left but millions have already fled iraq. and in another feature that the revisionists tend to leave out, the south vietnam government was a MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. actually a series of military dictatorships, during the years we were there, the south vietnamnese had 13 changes of government and all of them were by military coup. hard to say we were fighting for democracy now isn't it?
oh well, life goes on. tonight we go to radio music theater and then tomorrow i scoot back on up to arlington for the friday and saturday shows.
the only thing i worry about this long road trip is my poker game will get rusty. well, that and i do miss rhonda when i am out here. she would really have enjoyed last night.
posted by Ron Shock | 12:50 PM
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