JOE DOLCE NEWSLETTER
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Friday July 17, 2009
Stone Within
"I wept not, so to stone
within I grew."
Dante Alighieri
Hi folks,
This has been a month of death. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. My dad. Three mega-stars in my life. (Well, all except for Farrah and Michael, that is.) I’ve been in Ohio the past ten days burying dad, cleaning up the house etc and spending some quality time with my brother and sister and their families. Hence the newsletter hiatus. I also did the eulogy for my father’s Catholic church service and sang Louisa Lawson’s lyric, ‘Hill of Death,’ a cappella. ( I had a little head-to-head with the priest about which texts we wanted him to read. He picked a fire-and-brimstone passage from the old testament which I vetoed in favour of something a little more empowering. He was a bit taken back by my willingness to debate theology with him as noone from Painesville ever challenges the priests’ opinion on these matters. I’ve reprinted Hill of Death down below for those who havent seen it before - the song I created from Louisa’s words won Best Folk Gospel Song in the Australian Gospel Awards and has just been recorded by Alicia Bay Laurel, in the States.)
- digression: I’ve just been reading about the Oracle of Delphi:
‘ For two thousand years, a succession of closely guarded women resided within the temple to Apollo on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Each generation, a single woman ascended to the seat of prophecy and took the name Pythia. While under a vapour induced trance, she answered questions about the future. Her admirers included Plato, Aristotle and Ovid. Michelangelo painted her on the Sistine Chapel foretelling the coming of Christ. . . . In 2001 archaeologists discovered a strange alignment of tectonic plates under Mount Parnassus that has been shown to vent hydrocarbon gases, including ethylene, which is capable of inducing a trancelike euphoria and hallucinations...’
“The greatest blessings granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.”
Socrates, on the Oracle of Delphi
I flew over to the States and back on Vaustralia which is a beautiful airline. Breathing in all that communal air in such a confined space is a worry though. The person sitting next to me said they should re-introduce a smoking section in the rear of the plane so that everyone with swine flu could sit back there and get ‘cured’. (boom boom!) I flew US Airlines domestically through the States - which is another kettle of fishguts. They charge you for everything. A woman behind me asked for a blanket for her baby and she was told that the ‘Blanket Pack’ was available for only seven dollars. It won’t be long before there will be a credit card swipe facility on the drop-down oxygen masks.
FAVOURITE LETTERS OF THE WEEK
Hi Joe,
RE: Michael Jackson Fishbowl Newsletter
This is so succinct and so beautiful. x Di
Joe,
RE: Michael Jackson Fishbowl Newsletter
On Michael - BEAUTIFULLY, beautifully written. Congratulations. I will share it with my non-newsletter receiving friends.
Robyn x
- (Note: Joe Dolce Version “Thriller” (Michael Jackson)
“The Joe Dolce cover broke the almost monotony of all the recent MJ covers. Totally insane. Thanks. I had never thought of “Thriller” as a blues tune, but it works. I also love the demented medley it devolves into." That’s Andrew Denton laughing in the background. - from the Andrew Denton's Triple M Musical Challenge CD.)
http://coverfreak.com/media/090628-Thriller.mp3
Joe,
RE: Michael Jackson Fishbowl Newsletter
Thank you Joe for that glimpse into the normal and thank you, Robyn, for forwarding it on . . . so clever and the words couldn't be better. I shut my eyes for the minutes silence and saw Michael as a little boy singing and dancing, he was so talented. Beth Hale
(Note: See the startling but extremely well written article on Jackson further below.)
To Joe Dolce Music:
Please could you send a signed photo of Joe to Mr Rufus Milder, 453 Essex Road, Kent, UK.?
Could you sign it for my friend Donald who is a big Ultravox fan has never forgiven Joe for getting to number 1!
A suitable message would be great! It is for his 45th birthday. Many thanks. Rufus Milder
(Note: I signed the photo: ‘Vienna sucks and Midge Ure is a wanker. Happy Birthday Donald, from Joe Dolce.’)
Joe,
RE: “I've always thought WHITEWASH would be a good name for a white power movement. Odd title for the Grand Dragon, though, Pontifex Maxiumus, which in Roman times literally meant greatest bridge builder.”)
- More like a whitewashed gluteus maximus! Wildflower
Dear Joe,
Thanks again for your contribution to "The Mystery of The Universe's Missing Mass".
The finished paper has finally been published at:
http://www.thatchickensite.com/?p=3118
I hope you enjoy the results!
Best wishes, Alastair Craig
Joe;
Perhaps some work for your grand babies?
Evian Roller Babies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs&feature=email
Best, JJ
Behind the Facade
By BOB HERBERT
New York Times
July 3, 2009
Meeting Michael Jackson in the mid-1980s was one of the creepier experiences of my life. I was an editor at The Daily News and had to present him with an award in a large room with just a handful of onlookers and a photographer at Madison Square Garden.
I wasn’t put off by the fact that Jackson, then in his mid-20s, couldn’t make small talk. Lots of people have trouble with that. There was something about his overall behavior that weirded me out. He seemed, even then, to be a person who was trying with all of his being to step outside of reality and leave it behind.
Emmanuel Lewis, the child star of the hit TV series “Webster,” was with Jackson that evening. The undersized Lewis was probably 13 at the time, but he looked much younger, maybe 7 or 8.
Jackson seemed to relate only to Lewis. He made faces at the tiny boy and giggled as Lewis hopped around and climbed over furniture, much to Jackson’s delight. I remember thinking as I left the Garden that Jackson had treated Lewis almost as a pet.
I’ve never heard any suggestion of anything improper about the relationship between Jackson and Lewis. But what I wish I had thought more about in those long-ago days of Michael-mania was the era of extreme immaturity and grotesque irresponsibility that was already well under way in America. The craziness played out on a shockingly broad front and Jackson’s life, among many others, would prove to be a shining and ultimately tragic example.
Ronald Reagan was president, making promises he couldn’t keep about taxes and deficits and allowing the readings of a West Coast astrologer to shape his public schedule. The movie “Wall Street” would soon appear, accurately reflecting the nation’s wholesale acceptance of unrestrained greed and other excesses of the rich and powerful.
In neighborhoods through much of black America, crack was taking a fearful toll. Young criminals were arming themselves with ever more powerful weapons, and prison garb was used to set fashion trends.
Motown was the label that gave us the Jackson 5. But when Michael and his brothers released their first album in 1969, the label had already reached its creative peak and most of the best work — the stunning originality of the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, the Temptations, and others — had been done. Hip-hop would soon appear, and then the violence and misogyny of gangsta rap.
All kinds of restraints were coming off. It was almost as if the adults had gone into hiding. The deregulation that we were told would be great for the economy was being applied to the culture as a whole. Women could be treated as sex objects again as misogyny, hardly limited to hip-hop, went mainstream. (Have you looked at network television lately, or listened to the radio?) Astonishing numbers of men abandoned their children with impunity. Most of the nation seemed fine with the idea of going to war without a draft and without raising taxes.
In many ways we descended as a society into a fantasyland, trying to leave the limits and consequences and obligations of the real world behind. Politicians stopped talking about the poor. We built up staggering amounts of debt and called it an economic boom. We shipped jobs overseas by the millions without ever thinking seriously about how to replace them. We let New Orleans drown.
Jackson was the perfect star for the era, the embodiment of fantasy gone wild. He tried to carve himself up into another person, but, of course, there was the same Michael Jackson underneath — talented but psychologically disabled to the point where he was a danger to himself and others.
Reality is unforgiving. There is no escape. Behind the Jackson facade was the horror of child abuse. Court records and reams of well-documented media accounts contain a stream of serious allegations of child sex abuse and other inappropriate behavior with very young boys. Jackson, a multimillionaire megastar, was excused as an eccentric. Small children were delivered into his company, to spend the night in his bed, often by their parents.
One case of alleged pedophilia against Jackson, the details of which would make your hair stand on end, was settled for a reported $25 million. He beat another case in court.
The Michael-mania that has erupted since Jackson’s death — not just an appreciation of his music, but a giddy celebration of his life — is yet another spasm of the culture opting for fantasy over reality. We don’t want to look under the rock that was Jackson’s real life.
As with so many other things, we don’t want to know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04herbert.html
Michael Jackson Dancing with Emmanuel Lewis (rare footage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P6d3_8W0Qc
OZ-words Competition
The following are results from an OZ-words Competition where entrants were asked to take an Australian word, alter it by one letter only, and supply a witty definition.
Clearly, you need to be an Aussie to understand.
Billabonk: to make passionate love beside a waterhole
Bludgie: a partner who doesn't work, but is kept as a pet
Dodgeridoo: a fake indigenous artefact
Fair drinkum: good-quality Aussie wine
Flatypus: a cat that has been run over by a vehicle
Mateshit: all your flat mate's belongings, lying strewn around the floor
Shagman: an unemployed male, roaming the Australian bush in search of sexual activity
Yabble: the unintelligible language of Australian freshwater crustaceans
Bushwanker: a pretentious drongo, who reckons he's above average when it comes to handling himself in the scrub
Crackie-daks: 'hipster' tracksuit pants.
(thanks to Terry Dwyer)
What I’m Reading This Week
THE STRAIN – Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan take us on a dark and dangerous journey about vampires rampant in NYC. Interesting way of looking at the blood suckers but I’m a bit over vampires, aren’t you?
What I’m Watching This Week
DEFIANCE – Directed by Edward Zwick. With Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber. Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants. Another great and little known story from WWII.
RUNDOWN – Starring The Rock. My brother turned me on to this. It has one of the best and most dynamic opening sequences I have ever seen.
THE KNOWING – Directed by Alex Proyas. Starring Nicholas Cage. A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold. Three brilliant extended special effects sequences worth watching the film to see – otherwise, not that special.
THE COMBINATION – Directed by David Field. With George Basha, Firass Dirani, Doris Younane.
Set in the western suburbs of Sydney, Lebanese-Australian John gets out of gaol to discover his younger brother Charlie is caught up with drugs, hookers and crime. Charlie oscillates between the streets and school. Daily clashes between Scott and Charlie's gang escalate. This feud spills into the streets in a territory and identity battle that turns bloody. Dares to shed light on the racial tension that has often boiled over into incidents like the Cronulla riots. I saw this on the plane. Brilliant and no gratuitous violence – very focused. The powerful lead actor, George Basha, who plays John, is also the writer.
The economy is so bad that...
CEOs are now playing miniature golf.
Even people who had nothing to do with the Obama administration aren't paying their taxes.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
Obama met with small businesses to discuss the Stimulus Package: GE, Pfizer, and Citigroup.
McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
The most highly paid job now is jury duty.
Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
People in Africa are donating money to Americans.
Mothers in Ethiopia are telling their kids, "Finish your plate, do you know how many kids are starving in the US ?"
Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
The Mafia is laying off judges.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
And finally...
Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal.
Hey, neat! The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $750 billion disappear!
(thanks to Stevanne)
KATE TEMPEST’S RAP POETRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMdx0aCLEKk&NR=1
(thanks to Dai Woosnam)
3RRR FILM BUFFS
Lisa Dethridge reviews Bastardy; Nick Matteo reviews the new Australian comedy, Whatever Happened To That Guy?; Nick Black presents his interview with director Ken Annakin, who died in April 2009; Film Buffs Forecast legend John Flaus joins Paul Harris to discuss John's recent trip to the US, his thoughts on the current state of cinema and television and Fiona Cochrane's film, Four of a Kind; Mark Hartley reviews The Hangover; and Ian Thompson and Joe Dolce review the DVD releases Splinter, Battle In Seattle and Pride and Glory.
http://cdn1.libsyn.com/rrrfm/Film-Buffs-Forecast-20090627.mp3
~ FAMOUS DOLCES OF THE WORLD ~
Ludovico Dolce's
Dialogo Della Pittura
First Appeared In Venice In 1557.
L'Aretino, by which the work is known today, consists of a three-part dialogue
between two Venetians, Aretino and Fabrini, on the particular merits of works of art and artists,
including Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. It is based largely on Aretino's letters.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1y67pA8gxOQC&dq=legendary+dolces&source=gbs_navlinks_s
RECIPE
Reconstituting Black Mole Paste (Mole Negro en Pasta)
Naturally, it’s better to make your own mole from scratch but if you are in a hurry this method comes a close second.
This recipe tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen, but uses the mole paste you bought on your last visit to Oaxaca. Makes 4-6 servings or 3 cups mole negro sauce
Ingredients
3 cups chicken stock
4-6 pieces of chicken, skin removed if desired
Salt to taste
1 pound tomatoes (2 medium to large round or 4-5 plum), cut into quarters
¼ pound tomatillos (5-6 medium), husks removed and cut into quarters
1 tablespoon sunflower or vegetable oil, or lard if desired
8 ounces mole negro paste
1 ½ ounces Seasons of My Heart Chocolate Oaxaqueño or other brand of Mexican chocolate,grated
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
Method
In a heavy 4-quart stockpot, heat the chicken stock over high heat.
Add the chicken pieces, lower the heat, add salt, and cover. Poach the
chicken for about 30 minutes, or until the juice runs clear when pierced
with a fork. Remove the meat from the stock and set aside. Strain the stock,
skimming off the fat.
In a dry cast-iron frying pan, fry the tomatoes and tomatillos until they
give off their juices, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the tomatoes,
and then let the mixture dry out somewhat. Puree the mixture in a blender,
adding up to ½ cup stock to help release the blender's blades. Strain the
stock through a food mill or strainer.
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, or clay cazuela, heat the oil, then add the
mole negro paste and fry well over medium heat, stirring constantly with a
wooden spoon. When the paste is very hot, after 5 minutes, slowly add the
tomato and tomatillo puree. Stir until well incorporated, about 5 minutes.
Thin with the remaining stock, add the chocolate and sugar, and stir for
about 20-25 minutes. It should be thick enough to just coat the back of a
spoon.
Reheat the chicken in the stock.
Place a cooked chicken piece on each plate or wide soup bowl. Ladle a good
amount of mole to cover the meat. Serve immediately with a stack of fresh
corn tortillas or use to make Enmoladas de Mole Negro or Tamales Oaxaqueños.
Hint: Turkey or boneless pork shoulder can be substituted, or any
combination of the three.
Hill of Death
No downward path to death we go,
through no dark shades or valleys low,
but up and on o’er rises bright,
toward the dawn of the endless light.
For not in lowlands can we see,
the path that was and that to be,
but on the height, just where the soul,
takes deeper breaths to reach the goal.
There we can see the winding way,
that we have journeyed all our day,
then turn and view with spirits still,
our future home beyond the hill.
No downward path to death we go,
through no dark shades or valleys low,
but up and on o’er rises bright
Toward the dawn of the endless light.
~ Louisa Lawson ~
THE FINAL HURRAH
A Stimulus Story
It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea.
It is raining, and the little town looks deserted. It's tough times;
everybody is in debt and lives on credit.
Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.
He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs.
The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.
The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.
The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute who gave services on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel and pays her debt to the hotel proprietor with the 100 Euro note to pay for the room she rented.
The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.
At that moment, the tourist comes downstairs after inspecting the rooms and takes back his 100 Euro note,
saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.
No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with optimism..
and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Government is doing business today.
(thanks to Michael Leone)
