Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 3.22.2019
time in a bottle edition
Welcome, friends, to another Weakly Reader, i.e., a week’s worth of Dr Frank Webbage at your fingertips.
The week was slightly crippled and obscured by some migraine effects, as well as by some listlessness, but that didn’t stop time. Time flowed on. And here, I have saved it all in a bottle, just to spend it with you. Sip on what you missed.
I will stand around awkwardly, and wait.
FRONT BURNER
— Mtx forever: we’re no longer actively soliciting votes for the Mtx forever project, not specifically, but the form is still up if you feel like having your stats included. (And we’re still reading the comments.) Still mulling over the possibilities, but next up is… sequencing. More on that soon, but I’m hoping to ask for help with that as well, once I figure out a good way to go about it.
— Dr Frank Live at the Court Tavern boxes have started arriving. Here’s Sarah’s, # 90 / 250, and it’s looking good. And here’s Don’s and likewise.This and other product may be found here, if you want in. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the deep background.
— And here it is “in action”:
— Dr Frank Kepi Dan Janisch Kevin Seconds live at the Octopus Literary Salon, Oakland. March 29. Details here. This is coming right up!
DEEP INSIDE THE MR T EXPERIENCE
— Our friend Jessica posted a series of pics showing her various MTX shirts a couple years back and they came up again via that Facebook “memories” thing, and they still look good so: Denver; Little Type’s Songs about Girls; Houston; Oakland.
— A top five shows at the now-closing-down Trocadero list seen on twitter.
— MTX, Cringer, Krupted Peasant Farmerz, Immoral Minority at the Pony Express Pizza in Redwood City, September, 1990. A flier.
— Oh and um: from here.
IN THE MATTER OF DR FRANK
— Dr Frank and the Bye Bye Blackbirds — “Population: Us”. Song on YouTube. “Minor secrets” here.
— …and your Friday morning “Population: Us” from your very own Cydne Danielle Whiskey Knockout.
— minds.com/frankportman update: there was a flare-up of the familiar problem where minds links were not loading for users who were not logged in. (It seems to have been caused, this time, by a system update.) While not ideal, the problem was resolved very quickly after my initial report, just a few hours really. I’d say things are improving over there, despite all the bugs, and they are far more responsive than any other platform I’ve ever dealt with. Anyway, all links now work, including those from groups, which had had problems previously. (In case you missed it, minds.com is currently my main “platform,” from which I share material to other platforms, which shred, disorder, and bury it according to their own mysterious criteria. My channel is here; and here’s a referral link if you’d like to join in.)
— If you’d like to see a picture of what last week’s migraine felt like, go here.
— Les Hérétiques: reliable.
— I got an email saying George Horn Mastering is still in operation, same George Horn, same location (which must mean the struggle continues in his old room, an island amidst the Fantasy ruins.) Just passing it on. God bless him.
— Play the New Yorker game on the internet.
— Cheer up, Dr Frank: back in 2016 I posted something on my blog about a Facebook thread where people were saying nice things about my songs, linking to it “so the future Dr. Frank can go back and cheer himself up next time he’s feeling sorry for himself. Cheer up, buddy.” Well, of course, the link is broken because we live in a world where all the links have been broken (when did they all get broken? why, just now.) Nevertheless, it kind of worked when I stumbled on it yesterday.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— Good morning world: Tom Jobim & Elis Regina — "Aguas de Março”; Dirty Hands — “Baby Life’s Too Short”; Walter Murphy — “A Fifth of Beethoven”; and Pete Skellern — “Snakebite”:
— All My Vinyl Part IV: in which I’ve aggregated my recent minds.com Vinyl Collector posts, plus some extra. Tuff Darts, Gymslips, Sex Pistols, Getz/Gilberto, James Taylor, Jerry Lewis, Mama Cass….
PICTURE BOOK
— Look: Vanity; Irish Eyes; the saint is given poison…; c*m processit factura digits Dei; ROAR!; Bardot & Picasso; oh how I wish it could be 1974 again; great exposure.
IN THE NEWS
— Here’s hoping you had a happy World Frog Day.
— Meet “Lady”, an electric guitar illegally built inside a prison.
— Dick Dale died. Alex Scordelis reminded me that my band played on a bill with him once at the Edge in Palo Alto ca. 1998. It was a wild time, of course.
