If You Want Another Kind Of Love I’ll Wear A Mask For You
The Leonard Cohen - Phil Spector Horror Show and Masked Ball
If you want a lover
I’ll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I’ll wear a mask for you
From Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man”
The Horror Story
By this time, it seems, as the astute Mr. Cohen himself sings, “everybody knows” about the chaos and weirdness that marked the production of The Death of a Ladies’ Man, the album on which he and Phil “Wall of Sound” Spector collaborated. Those who somehow haven’t heard the story (and those who are just into nostalgia and gunplay) may wish to read the account of the grand finale provided in Item #8 of my post, Ten Items About Leonard Cohen:1
The Evocation
What better time than Halloween to commemorate such an event?
And what better way to celebrate it than with genuine, way cool, certified, high quality Heck of a Guy Halloween masks of Phil Spector and Leonard Cohen?
And, if you order now, I will throw in - at no extra charge - the Anjani mask as a one time bonus. (Scroll down to see masks)
Printing Instructions:
To print a full size mask on a sheet of US Letter size (8.5in x11in) paper,
- Click on the thumbnail of the mask you wish to print
- From your browser window, click “File-Print Preview”
- Adjust the printing settings to prevent printing of headers and footers
- Depending on the browser, turn on “Print Wide Pages” or set the print size at 125%
- Click “Print”
Credit Due Department:
The graphic of the Phil Spector mask is from Forbes.
Footnotes
- Those jaded to the re-telling of this tale and those with an appreciation of the macabre may prefer the following version, which was Item #10 of my post, 10 Fake Items About Leonard Cohen:
New evidence has come to light that contradicts Cohen’s description of the Phil-Spector-With-A-Gun episode. The following account is representative of the several similar renditions previously published:
Cohen would later recall how on one occasion in the studio Spector approached him with a bottle of Manischewitz (Jewish ceremonial wine) in one hand and a pistol in the other, placed his arm around Cohen’s shoulder, shoved the gun in his neck and said: ”Leonard, I love you.” Cohen, with admirable aplomb, moved the barrel away, saying: ”I hope you do, Phil.”
A sound technician who reports being present during the confrontation and claims to have been paid to remain silent has now come forth with his story, apparently because of the publicity generated by Spector’s murder trial. In this version of the incident, Spector, frustrated with the lack of progress being made on the album, had fired several shots at windows and furniture and then approached Cohen with a gun pointed toward the singer. Cohen, rather than retreating, took a step forward, executed a devastating flying knee strike, dropping Spector, now barely conscious, to the ground and disarming him. Cohen then, according to the alleged witness, “picked Spector up like a rag doll, applied a chokehold, and, just before Spector passed out, quietly said, ‘Phil, you don’t point guns at people you love. If you ever do anything like that again, I’m going to seriously fuck you up.’” Careful questioning of the witness, however, reveals that Cohen, indulging his predilection for speaking in Mock Swedish, actually said, “Pheel, yuoo dun’t pueent goons et peuple-a yuoo lufe-a. Iff yuoo ifer du unytheeng leeke-a thet egeeen, I’m gueeng tu sereeuoosly foock yuoo up.” This linguistic idiosyncrasy may explain the confusion in the previous accounts of the incident.) After Spector regained consciousness, the official story was concocted and the witness paid off to maintain everyone’s public image
. ~back~
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All Saints Day Eve
AKA - AKA Halloween
AKA Only One Shopping Day Left Until DrHGuy’s Birthday
Some readers may benefit from a project to bind the anxiety generated by the anticipation of tomorrow’s double holiday: All Saints Day and DrHGuy’s birthday.1 If you’ve already purchased and wrapped your birthday gift, by all means, feel free to indulge in the traditional seasonal sport of pumpkin carving. To facilitate this effort, DrHGuy has provided three pertinent web sites.
Halloween Help: Pumpkin Carving
For the record, I remain a stalwart fan of Extreme Pumpkins and their gung-ho power tool and pyrotechnics approach.2
If, however, you’re the sort who favors a lighter touch, you might try How to Carve a Fancy Pumpkin, a tutorial on creating more subtle effects by only partially removing pumpkin shell so that those areas of the finished pumpkin glow from the light (see example on the right).
But the hip and trendy, too cool for school pumpkins this year are sporting non-traditional designs from the house of PumpkinGlow.com. Check “Patterns” for - well, patterns in PDF format for downloading. Some of the categories are shown below.
There are other categories, such as cartoons and sports, as well.
For an example of the products resulting from these designs, check out The Carpenters all aglow:
All Saints Day
Again, DrHGuy finds it necessary to remind those overeager disciples out there that the official pre-Rapture party line is that it’s only a coincidence that both All Saints Day and DrHGuy’s birthday fall on November 1st (which is, by the way, TOMORROW). And please don’t wink, roll your eyes up, or elbow folks, muttering “eh, eh” as though you were auditioning for a Monty Python skit, when you say that it’s only a coincidence.
Credit Due Department:
The Red Sox Pumpkin photo is by thebristolkid, who is also responsible for the carving.
PumpkinGlow.com was revealed unto DrHGuy by LifeHacker.
Footnotes
- One who speaks of himself or herself in the third person is, it turns out, an illeist, according to the inevitably reliable Anu Garg at words-at-wordsmith.org. DrHGuy is fascinated by this discovery and hopes you are as well. ~back~
- For details, see the 2006 Heck of a Guy Halloween post, Pumpkins, Pictures, and Presents: Preparations For Halloween ~back~
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How To Select A Personal Medication Record
Today At AlignMap1 - The Personal Medication Record - Part II
Today’s AlignMap post is the second in a series offering pragmatic advice for decreasing unintentional medication noncompliance. It is also the follow-up to The Personal Medication Record - Part I: Everyone Needs A Personal Medication Record.
The post focuses on the two major factors to consider in choosing a Personal Medication Record and how they impact the PMR:
- Who provides the PMR and thereby controls access to it
- Is the PMR is accessible on-line
This post is available at Choosing The Right Personal Medication Record
Footnotes
- AlignMap is my professional web site and blog that focus on patient compliance, also known as adherence to treatment ~back~
Possibly Related Posts:
Posts Riposted
Things Change - Except When They Don’t
When I serendipitously found three articles this morning, all published in the last two days, dealing with topics specifically covered in old Heck of a Guy posts, I recognized my obligation to bring Heck of a Guy readers, many of whom have no contact with the world except through this blog, up to date on these events.
1. Chief Illiniwek Kinda Sorta Returns To University Of Illinois Campus
How It Was: Chief Illiniwek: The following excerpt is from the Heck of a Guy post, Mascot Madness, Part II, published 6 March 2007:
In 2005, the NCAA banned American Indian mascots deemed “hostile or abusive” from its postseason tournaments. At that time, at least 18 universities had such mascots, most notably Florida State’s Seminole and Illinois’ Chief Illiniwek.
No one familiar with the NCAA will be surprised to learn that this ruling was a how-many-
angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin sort of proclamation. For example, some schools using “Warrior” without attendant Indian symbols were not affected.1 And, the mighty “Braves” of North Carolina-Pembroke were exempted because, according to NCAA president Myles Brand, “the school’s student body has historically admitted a high percentage of American Indians and more than 20% of the students are American Indians.”
That sort of convoluted reasoning2 … was reciprocated by capriciously pedantic arguments made by Chief Illiniwek’s supporters in hopes of sufficiently manipulating the semantics to designate the fake Chief a “symbol” of the University rather than its “mascot.” … While that kind of legalistic bickering seems more a distraction than a legitimate debate, the NCAA is not exactly an exemplar of of moral clarity in such matters. It can be swayed.
Florida State University, in fact, won an exemption from the NCAA’s policy on Indian mascots3 because the Seminole Tribe of Florida supported it and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma declared it wouldn’t oppose the mascot.4
Creating a special category of acceptable Indian mascots predicated on approval of that mascot by the relevant Indian tribe5 raises interesting questions for the future … . Does, for example, the Seminole Tribe of Florida have the right to withdraw its support later if the mascot’s behavior begins to annoy them, and, if so, would the NCAA be morally bound to ban the University’s use of the Seminole mascot at that time? Or, consider this scenario. Scoundrels, rabble rousers, or even your typical legitimate political radicals determined to revenge historic exploitation of the native Americans gain power among the Seminole leadership and threaten to reverse their stance toward the mascot and demand that the NCAA avenge this insult by forbidding the University’s use of the Seminole - unless the school forks over $100 million or so in reparations to the tribe, changes its name from Florida State University to Florida Seminole University, and opens a Graduate School Of Casino Science. Perhaps I’ve read too much Carl Hiaasen, but that seems pretty believable to me (and a better plot than the one in Nature Girl. Carl, if you’re out there, have your people call my people. We should talk.)
The NCAA ruling did lead, finally, to the termination of Chief Illiniwek’s tenure as mascot of the University of Illinois. A video of his last performance on 21 February 2007 during the game between Illinois and Michigan is available at Media: Chief Illiniwek’s Last Performance
How It Is Now: Chief Illiniwek: According to the New York Times article, New York Times,
And from Chief Illiniwek OK for Homecoming Parade, we learn
So there you have it, sports fans. As of this past weekend, free speech is paramount on the University of Illinois Campus - during he homecoming parade. During football games, anti-racism continues its streak of wins over free speech - except in the case of the Florida State University Seminoles.
2. Porter Wagoner: Dead or Alive?
How It Was: Porter Wagoner: This excerpt is from The Heck of a Guy Post, He’s OK; She’s OK, which was published 26 June 2006:
For example, Then, I speculated on Dolly’s feelings about Porter Wagoner after their professional split and tried to recall if Porter were still alive.
According to the Dead or Alive? web site, Porter Wagoner is still alive and will celebrate his 79th birthday on August 12 2006.
And, if one reads between the lines of this excerpt from a 2004 interview , it would seem that Dolly is still happy about having left one of the most popular and most successful singing groups in the Country & Western pantheon.
Interviewer: Maybe you should’ve stayed with Porter. Who knows how many more great songs that would have inspired?
Dolly No, I shouldn’t of either. I’d of been dead and wouldn’t of wrote nothing! One of us would have been dead!
How It Is Now: Porter Wagoner: According to the USA Today article, Country music’s Wagoner dies at 80,
Wagoner’s working life began in a butcher’s shop in West Plains, Mo., where he occasionally stopped to sing for a local radio show. He made his earliest records, including his first No. 1, A Satisfied Mind (1955), at a radio station in nearby Springfield, but he eventually moved to Nashville.
In 1957, he joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry and celebrated his 50th anniversary with the show this spring. He eventually became the radio show’s public face.
He was best known, perhaps, for his flashy, custom-made stage suits that cost thousands of dollars. He sometimes joked that the suits forced him to stay thin, saying he couldn’t afford to replace them.
In 1960, he launched TV’s syndicated Porter Wagoner Show, on a budget of less than $1,000 an episode. It predated Hee Haw and CMT. At its peak, it aired in more than 100 markets, making it the most important country-music TV property of its time.
Wagoner introduced a young Dolly Parton in 1967. They recorded many duets together, including The Last Thing on My Mind and Just Someone I Used to Know. Wagoner produced some of Parton’s early solo hits (1975’s The Seeker). The partnership ended acrimoniously in 1974, but Parton wrote I Will Always Love You for him as she left.
3. This Just In: University of California, Berkeley Offers Lecture Videos On Web Site
How It Was: University of California, Berkeley Lectures On Video: This excerpt is from the Heck of a Guy post, Autodidactic Videophilia 101, published 1 Oct 2006:
The University of California, Berkeley now has its own dedicated section of Google Video with over 250 hours of educational content, including course lectures and symposia, available to the public free of charge.
… Currently, the section includes a half dozen UC Berkeley courses in their entirety, including “Physics for Future Presidents, “Integrative Biology,” and “Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business.” … the UC Berkeley offerings at Google Video can be found at
UC Berkeley Google Video Home Page
How It Is Now: University of California, Berkeley Lectures On Video: According to the Wall Street Journal article, Web 2.0 101: Berkeley courses hit YouTube,
This one is a bit of a puzzler. See those four videos I selected for the graphic to illustrate Autodidactic Videophilia 101, posted over a year ago? Now, take a look below at three video selections I found on the YouTube Berkley “Most Viewed” page:
Notice any similarities? Like, say, two of the same titles being exactly the same in the two graphics and one title being similar and featuring the same lecturer? I didn’t look past the “Most Viewed” selection but wouldn’t be surprised if “Structural Aspects of Biomaterials” were lurking on the new Berkeley YouTube listings as well.
As far as I can determine, the Wall Street Journal has dedicated an entire article to the appearance of University of Berkeley lecture videos on YouTube for the first time - only a year after the same or similar Berkeley lecture videos appeared on Google Video.
Google Video is, of course owned by Google - which also owns YouTube.
On the other hand, the background on the Berkley YouTube page is lavender instead of plain white, so that’s nice.
Footnotes
- This did not save the Marquette Warriors who are now the Golden Eagles ~back~
- Convoluted reasoning appears to be endemic to the Indian mascot issue. The first such nickname change took place in 1970 when the University of Oklahoma dropped “Big Red,” an Indian caricature. Shortly thereafter, the the Stanford Indians became the Stanford Cardinal - the color, not the bird. More recently, St. John’s University transformed their moniker from the Redmen to the Red Storm, which sounds as though it makes sense; here’s the kicker - the “Red” in both “Redmen” and “Red Storm” originally referenced “Red” the color (not so different from “Cardinal” the color) rather than “Red” the slang term for Native American. Or maybe it’s “Red” that is the problem. During the McCarthy anticommunist paranoia of the 50’s, Cincinnati’s baseball team officially changed its name from “Reds” to “Redlegs.” After reviewing a few such cases, one begins to sense the wisdom of mascot choices such as “Banana Slugs” and “Stormy Petrels.” ~back~
- This is, of course, the origin of the oft-quoted aphorism, “In accordance with the rules and regulations of the NCAA, the only good Indian is a Seminole Indian ~back~
- The position of the Seminole tribes regarding the University of Illinois and Chief Illiniwek is unknown. ~back~
- Incidentally, my elder son, The Prodigal, is half Mayan and declares himself
ready to sell out his heritage to the highest bidderwilling to discuss his endorsement of an athletic mascot based on the Inca warriors contingent on the school retaining him as consultant to assure that the mascot thus created is one that shows respect for his people. And his fees are reasonable. ~back~
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The Picaresque Prodigal’s Pictorial
The Prodigal1 is putting together his photobiography2 to fulfill a requirement of his vocational rehab program.3
Because I was pulling photos for this presentation during a good portion of the time I had planned to spend merrily blogging away and because the project and my son were on my mind, some of the pictures have transmogrified into today’s post.
My personal favorite of the shots occupies the top right corner. The caption (not shown on the collage) is “My father has always stood behind me and supported me”
The Prodigal and I crack ourselves - each other - up
Footnotes
- The Prodigal, for newcomers, is my 21 year old son who is recovering from head trauma caused by an auto accident earlier this year ~back~
- I suppose this compilation would be more correctly or at least more precisely termed a photoautobiography, which also has the advantage of being more fun to say, but that construction looks suspect. ~back~
- While I would not argue against the value of this task, my immediate and automatic response to similar assignments I have received to compose a narrative of my life has been and continues to be the opening line of Salinger’s Cather In The Rye, If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. ~back~
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Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 12 Now Available
Needlework
A Novel
by
Julie Showalter
Julie Showalter
Julie Showalter was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer.
This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed literary efforts are already available under the heading, Julie’s Writings, in “Categories.”
Unpublished Julie is a group of pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories.
Needlework, The Novel
Julie completed a novel, Needlework, by 1997 but was revising portions of it for some time afterward. I have searched her files and have compiled the latest versions I have discovered.
I plan to publish that compilation of her novel on the Heck of a Guy Blog, a chapter at a time in serial fashion. Links to all currently published portions of Needlework can always be found at this link: Information About Needlework With Links To Published Portions. PDF versions of the posted sections of Needlework can also be found at that page.
Chapter 12 of Needlework Now Available
Read
Chapter 12 of Needlework can be found at
Download
To download a PDF version of this section of Needlework by Julie Showalter, right-click on the link below and then choose “Save Link As … ” or “Save Target As …” from the context menu:
Previously Posted From Needlework
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Opening and Prologue~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 1~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 2~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 3~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 4~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 5~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 6~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 7~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 8~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 9~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 10~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 11~
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Cyber-Bookmarks From DrHGuy: 26 October 2007
A sporadically promulgated annotated listing of arguably worthwhile, recently published online reading, new or revised websites of potential utility or ostensible interest, and other internet-accessible experiences that, were it not for the casually collected, cavalierly collated, & capriciously collocated components comprising these posts, could easily be overlooked - which would be, in some cases, a shame
Suspended Elegance
Walking On Air: The Joy Of Footbridges By Witold Rybczynski
Slate. 24 October 2007
I’ve long had a thing for footbridges. Indeed, one of the few disappointments in the process of designing Heck of a House was that, regardless of how the house was sited, I couldn’t rationalize a footbridge or two. Consequently, it’s no surprise that I’m taken with Rybczynski’s footbridge slide show with annotations featured in Slate this week. The specimens shown range from spectacularly functional to wonderfully aesthetic with some combining the best of both qualities.
This display of fascinating footbridges can be found at Walking On Air: The Joy Of Footbridges
In The Nude For Travel
Top Places In World To ‘Let It All Hang Out’ By Amy Rosen
CanWest News Service. October 2007.
I suppose I’ve had a thing for naked even before I had a thing for footbridges. In any case, when I ran across this article about the best buff beaches and boats, it seemed worth exploring, but I was convinced to include it in this edition of Cyber-Bookmarks after I read the intriguing, albeit ambiguous declaration that
$400 million of the U.S. economy
OK, I admit I am also enthralled by the vision conjured up with the discovery of “the 12-hectare Mira Vista Resort, a nudist dude ranch in Tucson, Ariz., which is done up like an 1800s Wild West town.” Immediately the picture of DS wearing only spurs comes to mind.
Several resorts in the US are listed as well as a retreat in the Mexican Caribbean, a French coastal resort in a town of 40,000 naturists, and a luxurious nude cruise marketed under the name - get ready - Hidden Jewels of the Caribbean.
This piece on travel au naturel is available at Top Places In World To ‘Let It All Hang Out’
Putting The Fix On The Pix
Altered Graphics From The Heck of a Guy Files
[Click on graphic to view larger image]
Top 15 Manipulated Photographs By jfrater
TheListUniverse.com. 19 October 2007
DrHGuy has, as indicated by the above collage of samples taken from Heck of a Guy Blog, occasionally fine-tuned a photo to remove a distraction or highlight some portion of the image. These amateur-level antics, however, are not in the same league as the big-time manipulations on exhibit in this listing. I’ve included one sample below to give readers a taste of the offering.
This impressive and worrisome photo essay can be viewed at Top 15 Manipulated Photographs
Once You Go Mac You Can Still Go Back To PC
The Complete Guide to Mac/Windows Interoperability By Gina Trapani
Lifehacker.com. 19 October 2007
If, like DrHGuy, you’ve got a crush on a Mac and are considering leaving your PC but can’t afford to lose those PC programs in the property settlement and don’t want to worry about the incompatibility problems between the blended families, now you can set up housekeeping with your beloved Mac and still enjoy a friends with benefits arrangement with your old PC.
Today, Mac OS and Windows can work together on the same network, share files, and use many of the same gizmos. Lifehacker offers a nifty primer about what does and doesn’t work when one dallies spontaneously with Mac and PC.
This timely info can be found at The Complete Guide to Mac/Windows Interoperability
Welcome To Babel: Translating Sacred Poetry
Psalm Springs - How I Translated The Bible’s Most Poetic Book By Robert Alter
Slate. 26 September 2007
Translation of poetry is a puzzle so complex, multifaceted, and difficult that it seems to most of us as mystical as advanced physics calculations. In the case of the Psalms, of course, one adds to that task the burden of dealing with one of the world’s major religious texts that is also replete with historical import. Oh, and also add the fact that the Psalms were composed by “anonymous poets over a period of more than five centuries,” and one quickly realizes that this is not a job for the timid. Yet, the process involved in translating poetry offers a unique insight into the workings of literary thought. I’ve re-read this essay about the translation of these Hebrew poems into contemporary English a half -dozen times in the month since it was published and found it rewarding each time.
This excerpt is typical:
This article, as well as a link to a sound file of the author reading from his translations, is online at Psalm Springs - How I Translated The Bible’s Most Poetic Book