Monday, June 26, 2006

Suffragette Formby!

A friend forwards us the following from late last month in San Francisco:

SF Weekly:

"Ziggy Stardust has many singular moments, from the plaintive howl of Five Years and the heavy riffs of Moonage Daydream to the orchestral trills of Starman and all the stuff about the children who boo-gay, not to mention the fuzzy guitar of the title song...The journey ends with the brassy swell of Rock 'N' Roll Suicide, on which David Bowie has a breakdown while trying to establish that you - the young, sad thing that you are (or will surely imagine yourself to be by the end of the album) - are not alone (and that you are wonderful). The record brings up a lot of profound questions, the least of which might be, How would it sound with ukeleles?

The Rise And Fall Of Uke-Y Stardust And The Spiders From Mars has the answer. The show presents Ziggy Stardust, start to finish, using an abundance of the funny little instruments and featuring Ukelele Apocalypse, Megan Lynch, Uni and her Ukelele, Tippy Canoe, 5 Cent Coffee, Henry and the Heymen, and Amy Zing."

How did Miss Templeton miss this? And I look forward to seeing what they do with Low.


Re: Geno's and the English-Speaking Cheesesteak - A former Philadelphian writes in to his local paper:

Boston Globe:

"Reading the stories about Joey Vento's recently erected English-only sign at his Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia, the town of my birth, I laughed privately at the hypocrisy of the Vento family. But Jeff Jacoby's June 21 op-ed, 'Misreading a sign of the times,' made me decide to share.

I have strong memories of my one and only visit to Geno's in 1965, when Mr. Vento's family owned and operated the place and, reportedly, Joey worked behind the counter.

At that time, all the menus in Geno's Steaks were in Italian only, and the staff spoke Italian exclusively and refused to speak English to non-Italian-speaking customers. Even the 'Employees must wash hands before returning to work' sign in the men's room was in Italian. You had to either order in Italian, use charades, or point to a picture. Luckily, I was with my Italian-speaking girlfriend who translated the menu for me and ordered for us.

Amazing how things change, isn't it? And how, in some ways, they never change?

RICHARD F. WHITE, Sudbury"

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