Summer is on the land, and the Dreamtime Top Cats Curly and Bear (Bear pictured to your left mind-melding with the laptop) say that means it's time for a well-deserved break.
We'll be taking the months of June and July off from a podcasting and blogging standpoint, although we'll still be posting the occasional video as time and tide permit.
The Top Cats, the Jones sisters - Jailbait and Joyride - and Your Dreamtime Host, Fred, want to thank all of our listeners/readers for your support and encouragement. You make the show a joy to do, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
One of the pleasures of doing Dreamtime is that I never know what's going to show up in the ol' email box. Back from a Memorial Day trip, I found an email from a Nobumasa Takada, one of the members of The Sweet Hollywaiians, a group that plays music in the tradition of of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as Hawaiian tunes. swing, calypso, and even Italian songs. The other band members are Tomotaka Matsui, Takashi Nakayama and Kouichi Tsutsumishita.
The Sweet Hollywaiians sound as if they'd fit comfortably into any Theme Time play list, and are worth your attention if you're a fan of sweet, hot jazz. Nobumasa noted in his email that they recently played with Tom Marion, of the Cheap Suit Serenaders, and that the band will have their first CD out at the beginning of July. More information (mostly in Japanese) at The Sweet Hollywaiians home page.
An inquiry from an Austin, TX PBS station on sources for the Juneteenth Jamboree episode I did way back in July 2000 and 6 had me thinking about Gladys "Fatso" Bentley again.
As I mentioned back in Episode 6, "Fatso's" - whose Juneteenth Jamboree Dylan played on the Summer episode of TTRH - real name was Gladys, and she was described in various reports as a bull dagger lesbian and/or male impersonator singer.
Bentley was one of the stars of Harlem during the 1920s, performing at speakeasies and gay hangouts such as the Clam House, once described in the press as "not [a place] for the innocent young."
Bentley eventually moved to California, where she sang in lesbian bars around Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in 1950 made guest appearances on Groucho Marx's TV show, You Bet Your Life. The following link - or clicking on the image - (embedding of the video was disabled, unfortunately) will take you to a most wonderful clip of one of Bentley's You Bet Your Life performances, as she plays a barrelhouse version of Them There Eyes, while Groucho and a "charming lad from Guatemala" dance away.
A couple of Theme Time connections here. The dealer is Ricky Jay, magician, connoisseur of cons, card trickster, and member of Dylan's posse (who incidentally has a wonderful CD compilation, Ricky Jay Plays Poker, which could have been the play list for a Theme Time show), and the bald player in sunglasses is Eddie Gorodetsky, producer and probable announcer of TTRH.
Interesting poker hand going on here. Eddie G. is holding four 9s, and Mr D. the King through 10 of Hearts. With a significant look at Ricky, Dylan throws away a club, and Ricky deals him the Ace of Hearts, and the Royal Flush nutz. However, a woman enters the room (a commenter at YouTube speculates it's actress Laura Harring), more significant looks are exchanged, and the two women players at the table suddenly attack Dylan. Ricky and Eddie grab for the pot and the mucked cards.
Dylan reseats himself and smiles at Jay, who returns it, so they're apparently happy at the outcome. But why? Who knows? In the art of the con maybe this was the set-up for a larger con.
Today on Cooking with Bob, Mint Juleps! Rum and Coca-Cola! Barbecue! Beer! Figgy Pudding! And Bob's Mom's Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf Bread!
[French Chef Theme]
"Bob, it's always a pleasure. What would you like to start with on today's show?"
“The world of liquid libation, booze, sauce, hooch, white lightning, firewater hard stuff, pick me up, gin and juice. moonshine, canned heat.”
"Sounds pretty ah, sodden. So, what's your favorite mixed drink?"
"Get ready with your pencil now!"
From Drinking: Bob's Mint Julep Recipe:
4 mint sprigs
2 ½ ounces of bourbon (“I prefer 3”)
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon water
Put the mint leaves, powdered sugar, and water in a Collins glass. Fill with shaved or crushed ice. Top with bourbon and more ice. Garnish with a mint sprig.
“Two or three of those and anything sounds good!”
"Now that's a good Summer drink, Bob. But I'm more of a Rum and Coca-Cola man myself. You wouldn't happen to have a good recipe for that old classic, would you?"
From Drinking:
Bob's Rum and Coke Recipe:
1 tall glass, filled with ice
2 fingers of "Bombay" rum
1 bottle of Coca Cola
“Shake it up well and go drink it in the sunshine!”
"Wait a second. I've never heard of 'Bombay rum.' Do you mean 'Bambu'?"
"Bombay rum!"
"Okay, you're the chef. Listen, after a couple of those, I'm going to need something solid on my stomach. I heard you do a mean barbecue. Care to share your secret recipe?"
From "Tennessee"
"There's a lot of good barbecue in Memphis. Here's a recipe I gave the guys over at the Rendezvous."
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup vinegar
5 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
½ small onion
a dash of black pepper
some cayenne pepper
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup water
Mix it all together in large pan
bring to a quick boil
reduce the heat and let simmer 10 minutes
“You can also figure out your own secret ingredients and dump it into the mix. I like about three fingers of Tennessee sippin' whiskey.”
"I saw our friend Hank enjoying a beer with that barbecue. What beer do you recommend to go with it?"
"Don't know what kinda beer Hank was drinking, but it could have been Michelob Lite, or Rolling Rock, or Beck's, or Dos Equis, or Irish Red, or Murphy's Stout, Perhaps it was Newcastle Brown Ale, or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, or Stella Artois, or possibly Corona. Whatever he was drinking, it's some kind of beer that has that single throw switch that old Hank likes."
[A Word from Our Sponsor - Frito-Lay]
"We're back with Our Host, and after a fine meal of barbecue, I'm ready for some dessert. Bob, what do you have planned?"
"Earlier in the show, I told you to go get a pencil. Well, you all going to use it now. I got a lot of letters about this. Here's my recipe for Figgy Pudding."
From Christmas & New Year:
Bob's Figgy Pudding recipe
4 oz of plain flour
a pinch of salt – just a pinch!
4 oz bread crumbs
4 oz shredded suet
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz dark soft brown sugar
8 oz chopped dried figs
finely grated rind & the juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons milk
2 beaten eggs
Sift salt and flour together, then mix with the remaining dry ingredients. Add the figs, lemon rind and juice, milk, and beaten eggs. Beat well. Mixture should have a soft dropping consistency. Put into a greased 2 pint pudding basin, cover securely and steam for 3 hours.
“I like it served with heated golden syrup topping, and a generous pour of custard – makes me hungry just talking about it. My engineer Tex Carbone likes vanilla ice cream on it; I don't understand that at all.”
Bob, we want to thank you for today's show, and wish you a great 66th birthday this coming May 24th.*
*Dreamtime wants to thank reader Carol B. for gently pointing out that I had missed Dylan's birthday by two days in the original post - you can still hear the mistake in the podcast. Given that I made the same error with Lord Buckley's birthday, and regularly get dates mixed up, I've decided I have some weird form of dyslexia that only involves dates. Thanks again, Carol!
"To close out the show, here's a recipe from your Mom, Beatty, first published back in 19 and 99 in the Duluth News. Your mom said the recipe was "no-fail" and took only a minute to make:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 (6-ounce) package chocolate chips (or up to 12 ounces, if desired)
2 medium disposable foil loaf pans (about 8-by-3-by-2 inches)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the sour cream and ripe bananas; mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the dry mixture to the sour cream mixture, then fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter between two greased loaf pans. Bake for about 50 minutes. Turn the loaves out on to cooling rack or aluminum foil as soon as they're done.
"Well, the kitchen timer is ringing, and that means it's time for us to start cleaning dishes. See you again real soon on your other home for dreams."
You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.
Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals, and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.
Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.dot com. Our closing theme is performed by Lounge Affaire, courtesy of Christopher Murphy Studio.
Courtesy of the folks over at lordbuckley.com, who laid the following riff down and did the very nice graphic mashup to your left ...
Play Me Some Beautiful Dreamtime, My Dear Prince
The Marquis De Roger Mexico, that intrepid Lord Buckley documentarian, has hipped LBC to a swingin' Semantic and Lobe Podcast celebrating His Lordship's Century Plus One Natal Day Swing. There is a website called "Dreamtime", a particular storyteller cat tagged Fred Bals and a segment called "Episode 32 - Dig Infinity! A Passion Play in 4 Acts" You cats and kitties that dig the modern flip and yaw of techology will be gassed by the combination of text and audio events happneing on the virtual page right before your very own peepers. There is a direct link to the MP3 file of the program. Dig that jive!
So if Your Grace twists the antennae of Your Considerable Attention to the following coordinates you can dig the riff.
We've started going back through the old Theme Time episodes and discovering/rediscovering some great music missed the first time around. This pretty, sad song by The Streets is from Episode #15 - Eyes
