Spitball Army

Card is titled: “939 / Triple Tunnels in Shoshone Canyon on Cody Road / Eastern Entrance to Yellowstone National Park / 2A-H685.”

Printed on back of postcard:

TRIPLE TUNNELS
The wonders of the Yellowstone trip begin on entering Shoshone Canyon, the mighty gorge through which the Shoshone River takes its course.  The walls of the canyon are nearly perpendicular and yet along the side of Rattlesnake Mountain a road for a length of 8 miles has been blasted from solid rock.  In many places the road passes through tunnels in the granite walls.

Publishing information: “C.T. Art-Colortone, Sanborn Souvenir Co., Denver, Colo.”

Make mine peanut, please.

Approximate playing time: 78 minutes.

1. Rod Stewart  “Maggie May”  (1971)
2. Drive-By Truckers  “Marry Me”  (2003)
3. Eurythmics  “Missionary Man”  (1986)
4. Honk  “Move Me”  (1974)
5. The Doobie Brothers  “Music Man”  (1975)
6. The Rolling Stones  “Monkey Man”  (1969)
7. Noctorum  “My Museum”  (2003)
8. James Gang  “Midnight Man”  (1971)
9. R.L. Burnside  “Miss Maybelle”  (2000)
10. The Streets  “Memento Mori”  (2006)
11. The Monkees  “Mary, Mary”  (1967)
12. Joan Armatrading  “Mama Mercy”  (1977)
13. Earth, Wind & Fire  “Mighty Mighty”  (1974)
14. Koop  “Modal Mile”  (2001)
15. George Benson  “Moody’s Mood”  (1983)
16. Ella Fitzgerald  “Muffin Man”  (1941)
17. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles  “Mickey’s Monkey”  (1963)
18. The Kingbees  “My Mistake”  (1980)
19. Heart  “Magic Man”  (1976)
20. Squeeze  “Melody Motel”  (1989)
21. Joni Mitchell  “Morning Morgantown”  (1970)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_040311.mp3]

[Postcard picturing the Banff Springs Hotel and Sulphur Mountain at Banff, in the Canadian Rockies. Postmarked on 4 August 1941 at 9:30 p.m. at Banff, Alberta. Addressed to Miss Crystal K., Berwyn, Ilinois, U.S.A.]

Hi, Kiddle,

                This, on the other side, is where I am now.  No matter where one looks, the eye meets a breath taking sight; its beauty is unbounded.  I am told that this is an $18,000,000.75 hotel, and it looks every cent of it.  I only wish you could be here with me.

Missing you,
                Dick

“May I help you?” The old woman shuts her eyes, drops her head in sleep. Her friend hands me a 40W bulb: “Her lights are too dim.”

Dimes go in a sweetgrass basket; nickels in a glass jar. Now and then, there’s a nice meal out. Meanwhile, it’s noodles and Jell-O.

[Postcard picturing Cathedral Peak, altitude 10,454 feet, Yoho National Park. Approximate mailing date: 3 August 1941. Addressed to Miss Crystal K., Berwyn, Illinois, U.S.A.]

Hi Kiddle,

     This (on the other side) is what we will be seeing to-morrow. All day to-day, Sunday, we have seen Minn., N.D., and Canadian wheat fields flat as a table. This CxP.R.R. is awful.

Missing you,
Dick

30 years on, he disappointingly says to me: I was sure you’d’ve made at least a million by now. But I’d never told him I hadn’t.

Card is titled: “Majestic Hotel and Bath House, Hot Springs, Arkansas.”

There is no blurb, description or publishing information printed on the back of this post card.

Card is addressed to Miss Mary S. Calvin, Athens, Ala.  Postmarked in Hot Springs, Ark. at 11:30 a.m. on 22 October 1910.

Text of written message:

10/22/10

Have been here four weeks – will leave Monday for Knoxv – will write you soon.  Hope you won’t think me ungrateful, have been very ill since I saw you – feeling better now.  Appreciate the water color so much & want to thank you with all good wishes, I am sincerely, Clara B.

Today’s playlist theme was suggested by Kellie Walsh, who – to quote her exactly – thought that “songs in unusual time signatures” would make an intriguing theme for this Sunday’s program. I felt challenged (my other favorite theme).

These songs might actually be in standard 4/4 time or in waltz time, which are not so unusual, really, but are just disguised under a heavy masking of rhythmic textures. I’ll let you be the judge. Each of them had sufficient rhythmic irregularity to stand out to my ears, though. If you can think of other songs that fit Kellie’s mercifully loose definition, I’d really like to hear them. If I get enough of them, I might put together a sequel.

Approximate playing time: 79 minutes.

1. Chicago  “A Hit by Varèse”  (1972)
2. Dave Brubeck  “Unsquare Dance”  (1961)
3. Dire Straits  “Once Upon a Time in the West”  (1979)
4. Jethro Tull  “Thick as a Brick”  (1972)
5. Arcade Fire  “Modern Man”  (2010)
6. Led Zeppelin  “Black Dog”  (1971)
7. Crosby, Stills & Nash  “Guinnevere”  (1969)
8. Sam Yahel  “Money”  (2008)
9. Dionne Warwick  “Promises, Promises”  (1968)
10. Bread  “Could I”  (1969)
11. Radiohead  “Pyramid Song”  (2001)
12. Sting  “Saint Augustine in Hell”  (1993)
13. Air  “Alpha Beta Gaga”  (2004)
14. The Beatles  “I Me Mine”  (1970)
15. Nick Drake  “River Man”  (1969)
16. U2  “Breathe”  (2009)
17. Pat Metheny Group  “The First Circle”  (1984)

Some notes on the songs:

• Radiohead has so many songs that fit this description that it was tough to choose just one. I chose “Pyramid Song” because the vivid memory of replaying that track dozens of times at Laser’s Edge when Amnesiac was a new release was so strong in my mind. We had endless debates about what the actual rhythm was, a la the now-classic in-store scenes from High Fidelity at Championship Vinyl. There is a steady signature in this song, but you have to be patient to find it, and it is easy to get distracted from it. I’m sure the band did that on purpose. By the way, there is a Facebook page devoted solely to the puzzle of this song’s time signature, and it’s great geeky fun.
• “Money,” from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, fits this playlist well, in my opinion. But, rather than the original version, the rendition here is by jazz organist Sam Yahel’s combo. It retains the original’s rhythms very well. The album it is drawn from is titled Jazz Side of the Moon, an entirely jazz-leaning performance of the entire Floyd album.
• Burt Bacharach, like Radiohead, uses odd time signatures in a great number of his songs. This is confounding when you think of how very popular so many of his songs have become (working off of the premise that songs with odd time signatures are inherently unpopular). His voice of choice – Dionne Warwick – is one of my favorite singers, currently sitting in my last.fm account’s top 30 listened-to artists. But recently (and we’re entering extreme sidebar territory here), I’ve had the urge to toss all of my Dionne records and CDs in the garbage after watching her snarl “Hussy!” at her competitors on Celebrity Apprentice.
  
• Hand-clapping bookends this playlist, with Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance” and Pat Metheny’s “The First Circle.” Classical composer Steve Reich uses hand-clapping to great effect in one of his phase shift works, “Clapping Music.” Check out a very brief excerpt of it here.
• There is no Primus and there is no Rush on this playlist because, frankly, I’m just not that familiar with them. From what I do know, they’d probably otherwise have made the cut. Red Hot Chili Peppers, too.
• And while we’re on the subject of “time,” there’s this:
  

[Postcard picturing the train Hiawatha, claiming “Nothing faster on rails between Chicago-Milwaukee and St. Paul-Minneapolis.”  Postmarked on 3 August 1941 at 10:30 p.m. at Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Addressed to Miss Crystal K., Berwyn, Illinois.]

Hi Kiddle,

                How are you, I’m fine.  We reached St. Paul about 8:20.  The train crossed the Mississippi at La Crosse and followed it all the way up.  Naturally, the scenery was beautiful.

Thinking of you,
Dick

The blurb on the back of the postcard reads:

The Milwaukee Road’s Hiawathas cruise easily at 100 m.p.h. and are capable of more than two miles per minute, but speed is not all.  Silence and riding ease, luxurious cars, air conditioned comfort, delightful meals and courteous service have combined to make the Hiawathas the most popular trains in the world.  No extra fare.