Category Archives: Tuneage

NYC, Tuneage

Give ‘Til it Hurts So Good!

goodguys.jpgThe Freeform Station of the Nation, WFMU has begun their annual marathon. So give ’em some money. Then, give ’em some more, because they’re pretty much the only radio station worth listening to in Ye Olde Tri-State.

I know I pimp The Best Show on this site all the time, but they have many, many fine programs worth your ear-time: Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T, Fool’s Paradise with Rex, Music to Spazz By, and much much much much more.

Last year, The Best Show had in-studio guests like Ted Leo, Ben Gibbard, and Patton Oswalt as “The Famous Flamer”. This year promises to be just as good, and the 2009 edition of The Fun Pack is face-meltingly awesome. So send ’em some change, folks. It all goes to making this area’s airwaves slightly more tolerable.

Tuneage

The Ever-Increasing Inflation of the American College Diploma

Via a tweet from Ted Leo–who is a veritable fount of information–I found out that eight original members of Sha Na Na hold advanced degrees. Eight. Don’t believe me? Click here.

And in case you don’t know who Sha Na Na were, they were kinda like a greasy Polyphonic Spree, but they wore wifebeaters instead of choir robes and moussed their hair within an inch of its life and sang doo-wop. So I guess, not at all like the Polyphonic Spree except that both bands have five thousand members.

Regardless, would you want to go to a school that gave one of these guys a doctorate? (Bowser excepted, of course; I enjoy his essays in The Economist.)

Pointless Nostalgia, Tuneage

RIP Antoinette K Doe

A few weeks back, I relayed the sad news about the passing of Stefan Lutak, the proprietor of The Holiday Cocktail Lounge, one of my favorite joints of all time. Now another one has been taken away from us–Antoinette K Doe, proprietress of The Mother-in-Law Lounge in New Orleans.

millounge.jpgAntoinette was the widow of Ernie K Doe, who had a big R&B hit back in the 1960s called (wait for it) “Mother-in-Law”. She rescued Ernie from a decades-long alcoholic funk and helped him open the aforementioned bar on Claiborne Avenue, where Ernie entertained into the wee hours and performed with himself (via jukebox).

The Mother-in-Law Lounge was a little like the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, in that its operating hours were determined by the whims of its owners, and it seemed to exist for the enjoyment of its patrons and its proprietors, rather than to make money. But it was even more of a cottage business because The Lounge was literally Ernie’s living room. And when you were there, you totally felt like you were just having some drinks in a friend’s living room.

I never got to see Ernie there, sadly, but I did go a few times in the years after his death, when Antoinette carried on his legacy via The Lounge. The ceiling hung with cardboard cutouts of stars, each containing the name of a star who’d passed into the great beyond–everyone from Buddy Holly to Frank Zappa.

One time I went to The Lounge, I was completely beat from a combination of lingering jet lag and New Orleans-induced party exhaustion. I didn’t want to chump out on hanging out with pals, but another drink would’ve totally leveled me. Antoinette–who always manned the bar–seemed to sense this without me saying a word (maybe it was the enormous bags under my eyes).

So she offered me some coffee, then refused to let me pay for it. “I got it on anyway,” she said. I left a generous tip on the bar.

I hope someone keeps The Lounge open, but even if they do, it won’t be the same without her.