(Move Over, Georgia, I’ve Got...) LOUNGES ON MY MIND

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STARDUST 
by Willie Nelson
1978
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In 1989, Girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to find a nice little lounge that we could call our own – a quiet place that we could slip away to from time to time and enjoy an adult beverage. A place where everyone would know our names, but they would mostly just bring to our table the things we asked for and then leave us alone. So we began the quest one evening, and the first place I suggested we sample was the intimate cocktail lounge located at the rear of THE CREST HOUSE RESTAURANT on Washington Boulevard in Culver City. We went there, and we went to two other places that night. Over the next couple of weeks, we visited several other drinking establishments in the Los Angeles area, and when the alcoholic haze finally settled in our minds, we found that nothing could compare with the very first place we’d tried.
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So, THE CREST HOUSE lounge became our home away from home, and for years it was like an oasis of yesteryear in contemporary times. The quaint lounge featured a cozy little fireplace, nostalgic red booths, little twinkling Christmas lights year ‘round over the bar, a couple of televisions for the showing of Dodger games, and an ancient, reticent fixture at the end of the bar whom Girlfriend and I referred to as “Mr. Doom” because he reminded us of the old gaunt ghost who sometimes hitched a ride with us in our “Doom Buggy” on the HAUNTED MANSION ride at Disneyland.
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"Mr. Doom" dead center.

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And then there was that jukebox filled with great music from a variety of decades – most of it conducive to relaxation and gentle conversation about good times shared. Girlfriend and I gave that machine most of the exercise it got. (The geezers and geezerettes – God love ‘em – were forever complimenting us kiddies on our exquisite taste in music.)
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Our favorite selections were:
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Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller); Boogie Woogie (Tommy Dorsey); I Wish You Love & That Old Black Magic (Louis Prima with Keely Smith); Desperado (The Eagles). And when I punched G5 and G6 on that old jukebox (which I frequently did) we got BLUE SKIES and MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT by Willie Nelson. Both of those lovely songs are found on this collection.
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In 1978, Ol’ Willie Nelson departed from his hometown, “Countryville”, and with the great Booker T. Jones producing and arranging, he released STARDUST, an album of Pop standards. (If you’re not familiar with Booker’s old ‘60s band, BOOKER T. AND THE MG’S, you have missed out on some of the greatest dance music ever recorded. I mean, even Ol’ Stephen T. can dance to Booker T., and I’m as White as Wonder bread!)
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Now the initial reaction one might have at the thought of Willie’s nasal voice singing GEORGIA ON MY MIND is understandably, “What the--?!” That’s got to be bad, right? Does a bear crap in the woods? Does a dog put out a fire… hydrant? Does a ghost haunt the building where I work? Well, the answer to the above questions is “yes”... except for the first one.
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Believe it or not, somehow Willie’s schnozzy voice works perfectly with these mellifluous classics with their sparse but perfect instrumentation. (When Ol’ Waylon used to sing Willie’s part while performing their Country duets live and solo, he would hold his index finger up high for the entire audience to see, and then with great deliberation, bring it down to press one nostril closed and – voila! – Willie Nelson!) Well, fact is, Booker T. is a musical genius, and he knew exactly how to sculpt the ideal sonic form to compliment Willie’s “unique” vocal quality.
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Now, I’ve never cared for the song SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME – not by Willie, not by Frankie, not by no one – but to my ears, the rest of these songs are gentle, gorgeous, and romantic. ROMANTIC?! Yes, I said, “Romantic.” Somehow Booker T. made Willie sound romantic and that’s alchemy of the first order! You could play this album at low volume over a candlelight dinner with your Special One and it would almost work. I say “almost” only because most of the songs are steeped in a melancholic marinade. So, the album might be better suited for playing at low volume while enjoying a warm glass of robust red wine and reminiscing about beautifully serene evenings you spent sipping Old Fashioneds with old flames in old-fashioned lounges. Or calling to mind past barroom brawls you participated in with old Mr. Doom while you and he were still in your youth. (Hoo-Wee! He had a wicked left hook... for a dead man!)
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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"AND STILL THOSE VOICES ARE CALLING FROM FAR AWAY..."*

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIALAND
by Charles Phoenix
2004
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[*Lyric from the song, 'HOTEL CALIFORNIA' by The Eagles.]
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I acquired SOUTHERN CALIFORNIALAND by Charles Phoenix just over a week ago in a Christmas gift exchange game. The book is a true celebration of Southern California in its glorious, paradisiacal decades of 1940 through the 1970s. Charles Phoenix who oddly became obsessed with the old 35 mm Kodachrome slides taken by strangers in memorializing their family trips, gatherings, and everyday lives, shares about 150 of his favorites with us in this absolutely charming book. His love and enthusiasm for his subject (SoCal in its glory days) just oozes from every page. Like the author, I grew up in SoCalLand in the '60s & 70s, and so I share his fascination for the magic that it once held.
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Enchanting, dreamy, nostalgic, and a tad melancholic (because the enchantment and the dream has been reduced to nostalgia) are words that best describe this picture book. But "surprising" is another word that fits, because I was surprised by the wealth of information to be found in the brief text that accompanies each photograph. Even I - who has traversed so many of these locations - learned some interesting bits of trivia.
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For example: Did you know that when Vice President Richard Nixon cut the ribbon and became the Disneyland Monorail's first official passenger, unbeknownst to that famous rider, it was the first time the unique transportation train completed a trip without catching fire? Phoenix describes Walt Disney as being very nervous. Yeah, I suppose he was! Did you know that the Luer "Quality Meat" Rocket (a forerunner to the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile) was discovered in a Prescott, Arizona junkyard in 1997, "weathered, but restorable"? (And here I always thought that I was the only good thing to wrench free from the evil clutches of Prescott! I made good my escape in early '94, also "weathered, but restorable".)
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I loved perusing the lost details of places where I have traipsed: the famous Brown Derby restaurant and the Pan-Pacific Auditorium; White Front of Anaheim, one of the discount chain of stores fo' po' folks. (My Ma used to drag us to one as children in Orange County. I don't know how many the O.C. boasted of, but this might well be the same White Front.); the Pacific Ocean Park amusement park, which I guarded as a young Police Explorer during its demolition in the Winter of 1973-74; the L.A. International Airport Theme Building where I experienced my first Red Dog beer. The beer wasn't memorable, but the location was.
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Phoenix includes insightful and sometimes funny commentary. When he describes the cover photo (a white, 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible parked near the corner of Walnut & Allen in Pasadena, with palm trees, an orange grove, and snow-capped Mt. Baldy in the background) as "a perfect Southern California shot", he's right on the money! When he writes of the 1954 Mineral Baths photo in Desert Hot Springs, "Hundreds of thousands of acres of beautiful undisturbed desert scenery and someone had to build a wall around this place and paint in [desert] scenery," it's genuinely funny.
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This book is a treasure trove for any pre-Hotel California SoCalLand lover. Where else are you going to find a photograph of a 1956 teenager with the perfect ducktail waiting to test Disneyland's Autopia track? Or a photo of President Eisenhower blowing his nose in Palm Springs? Or a photo of Lee and Katie Kellogg eating meatloaf sandwiches in 1955 Alhambra? This book is a vibrant, eye-popping gem of pop culture which I urge you not to buy.
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I'd rather you didn't purchase this fun Charles Phoenix book. Why? Because on page 144 we learn that SOUTHERN CALIFORNILAND was "Printed in China". Yes, this is the same China that embraces Communism, a failed economic/social system responsible for murdering approximately 100 million human beings worldwide, and torturing and starving many millions more. The same China that enforces its one-child family policy with forced abortions. The same China that got caught smuggling AK-47s into the U.S. to be sold to Los Angeles street gangs; threatened to nuke L.A. if the U.S. militarily defends Taiwan; kills its citizens who have the audacity to publicly request freedom; sells body parts of executed prisoners to medical facilities; enslaves political opponents and Christians for their faith, and puts them to work in forced labor camps, producing all imaginable types of goods, and printing books, all to be sold to Americans.
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Every time we purchase a Chinese-made product, we are feeding the human rights-abusing monster that has made no secret of its hatred for us - a monster that is increasing its military might at an astonishing rate and will someday overrun its neighbor, Taiwan, and declare war on the United States. Let's have a little foresight for once. Let's stop building our enemies. Let's boycott ALL Chinese products and sleep better at night. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIALAND is a nice book, but until it is being produced in a country that values human life, it's a book that we can LIVE WITHOUT! (Of course, if you're buying a used copy, this is not an issue.)
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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MURPHY’S LAWS (The Spiritual Variety)

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SONGS OF GOD
by Joseph Murphy, D.D., PhD., LL.D., D.R.S.
1979
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It’s kind of funny how I came by SONGS OF GOD by Joseph Murphy, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S. (Man, that’s a lot of “letters” after his name, isn’t it? Is that supposed to add weight to what he has to say? Well, it certainly adds alphabet – no argument there! But then Moses, Elijah, King David, John The Baptist, Christ Jesus, and Saint John didn’t need any additional “letters” behind their names in order to get my attention.)
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A couple of years ago, I posted on Amazon.scum a review for [link> The Holy Bible From The Ancient Eastern Text, translated by George Lamsa. Sometime later, a woman living in the South if I recall correctly (Selma, Alabama?), posted her own review in which she contradicted a point I had made in my review. It was immediately apparent to me that she either misconstrued my meaning or else she didn’t have a real firm grasp on the interrelationship of the Old and New Testaments. I thought I would be “a funny guy” and explain it to her. So, I went to the library, found her listed in her local telephone directory, and made a long distance call:
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“Hello, this is Stephen T. McCarthy. Does that name ring a bell?”
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“Um. Kind of.”
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“Do you remember a review for The Holy Bible that you posted on Ammyland?”
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“OOOHHHHHhhhhh...”
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Well, I thought it was pretty hilarious, but she sounded a bit like a Southern Belle caught in the headlights. Anyway, we had a pleasant (and rather expensive) conversation; I explained my review’s meaning to her, and she made me promise to read one of her favorite books on spirituality: SONGS OF GOD by Joseph Murphy, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S. (I don’t know what all those letters stand for, other than the D.D. for “Deputy Dog”, of course. I realize it’s really “Dawg”, but I’m trying my best to keep this review very highbrow.) Anyhow, I always come through on my promises (even if their fulfillment sometimes takes years), and I recently finished my Southern friend’s recommendation, although she’s undoubtedly forgotten all about me and my promise... wherever she is.
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I had a mixed reaction to SONGS OF GOD. Overall, I would say it’s a worthwhile book that unquestionably contains some real insight into the deeper meanings of some of The Bible’s Psalms, and Murphy, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S. brings to light some of the great spiritual principles that are rarely recognized and activated by the minds of even very devoted students of God’s Word. These principles are classified as “New Thought”, which in varying degrees was promoted by the schools of Christian mysticism such as Christian Science and Unity. With time, New Thought underwent a kind of metamorphosis and emerged as the more occultic “New Age” teachings which enjoy such popularity today.
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While I do gingerly recommend an investigation into the New Thought system, I also strongly warn against its very dangerous cousin, the New Age movement, with its misplaced angel worship, channeled “bibles”, and deliberate seeking for and development of psychic “gifts.”
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Some of the positive aspects of SONGS OF GOD includes:
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* The recognition that there is only One Power... namely, “God.” (It is the dualism in Man’s mind that allows for the manifestation of error, i.e., “evil.”)
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* The Law Of Faith. (It is our faith in God that is the catalyst for the expression of His Love in our experience. Without our faith, half of the ingredients in the recipe is missing!)
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* The “Sin” of Fear. (Amazing! Murphy, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S. discovered Job’s “sin.” Many years ago, I too discerned this important lesson in the book of Job only through determination, diligent study, and prayer. I never knew that anyone else had found it.)
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* The Creative aspect of the mind. (God’s Word tells us that He created us in His Image, and He is a “Creator.” Is it any wonder then that His children have imaginative minds and such a capacity to bring into manifestation – or to “create” – the pattern that the mind dwells upon?)
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* On page 216, the author reveals his awareness of the ability to materialize and dematerialize that Jesus displayed. Something else that I also recognized by careful Bible study, but never heard acknowledged by another Scripture student... until now!)
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Some of the negative aspects of SONGS OF GOD include:
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* An irritating amount of repetition.
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* Too many long-winded, impromptu prayers composed by the author, when simple Bible verses would have as adequately and more economically conveyed the same principle.
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* Numerous carelessly written expressions bound to confuse spiritually immature seekers (i.e., neophyte metaphysicians) regrettably leading to the error of self-enthronement. (I don’t believe this was deliberate on the author’s part, but one must be exceedingly careful not to inadvertently mislead the student into even greater egoism. After all, that was the “original sin”, and what we are all hoping to unlearn.)
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* A few passages in which the author is simply in error (unenlightened) and in effect, spreading misinformation (e.g., His misunderstanding of the purpose behind early Christian martyrdom. Did Murphy D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S., mean to imply that he was further along the spiritual path than were Saints Peter and Paul? Oh, come on! Likewise, his “explanations” for the pillars of cloud and fire that assisted the Israelites in their wanderings are utter nonsense!)
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* At times, the author almost seems to be concocting metaphysical dogmatism on the fly; that is, inventing preposterous symbols, and offering no evidence to support his wild reinterpretations. Examples: “Mother” in PS. 51:5 means “universal subjective mind”?
“Heathens” in PS. 98:2 have “no reference to other human beings”?
The “man” and “woman” in 1 COR. 11:7-8 are our conscious and subconscious minds respectively?
BONG!! "Wrong! But thanks for playing, Mr. Murphy, D.D., PhD., LL.D., D.R.S. As a consolation prize, Vanna Offwhite has a lovely briefcase for you to keep all your extra letters in.”
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I sincerely wish I could have given SONGS OF GOD a higher grade than I did because it DOES illustrate very nicely some of the higher Spiritual laws. But it also contains a pretty fair amount of passages that I find objectionable. I can recommend it, but also urge you to offer up a heartfelt and faithful prayer to Jesus for Spiritual insight and guidance before reading it. You’ll need elevated discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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The writings of Murphy, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., D.R.S. are HIGHLY reminiscent of the similar New Thought teachings of JOEL GOLDSMITH. Other than The Holy Bible itself, The Infinite Way books of Goldsmith (especially “A Parenthesis In Eternity”, “The Master Speaks”, and “The Art Of Meditation”) had a more profound influence on my Spiritual understanding than any other publications. Goldsmith teaches the same principles, but I feel his writing makes an even greater impact – his imagery and way with words being more powerful – and I would gingerly suggest that anyone determined to explore these “New Thought” mystical concepts peruse the aforementioned titles.
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But again, great caution and advance prayer to The Master (Savior, King, Christ Jesus) is urged, as Goldsmith was a 33rd degree Freemason. The “in-the-know” spiritual students realize that this should set alarms sounding, bells ringing, sirens blaring, red lights flashing, eyes closing and minds praying for protection and guidance. Although my eventual, rather in-depth investigation into Joel Goldsmith never turned up anything “shadowy” beyond his Masonic affiliation, when one plays with the Freemasons, one is dancing in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. And unless you’ve got the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you’re liable to get burned. Proceed... with caution.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy, S.A. with a Ph.D. in B.S., and an S.O.B. who’s S.O.L.
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MY, OH MY, WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY...

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SONG OF THE SOUTH
starring: James Baskett, Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten
1946
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MY, OH MY, WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY... IT WILL BE WHEN THE DISNEY COMPANY GETS ITS HEAD OUT OF THE INKWELL AND RE-RELEASES SONG OF THE SOUTH. That day may be a long way off, however, because the shrieking unthinking have muted this SONG! And here in purified, sanitized, synthesized, homogenized, and anesthetized contemporary America, we must be protected from anything that might accidentally induce genuine contemplation and intelligent discussion. Heaven forbid this country should start thinking for Itself!
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SONG OF THE SOUTH is important for a couple of reasons: It was the first time live action was mixed with animation throughout an entire full-length motion picture. It also represented a high-water mark of artistic achievement in the context of storytelling and moralizing. SONG OF THE SOUTH is probably nothing less than the finest example of American folk art! But America - land of the free and home of the brave - isn't allowed to see it!
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I was very fortunate to find a copy of SONG OF THE SOUTH (in English with Japanese subtitles) over a decade ago, and have been watching it regularly since; it remains one of my Top 25 favorite films. I wish there were some way I could make a copy for everyone who desires one: I'd surely do it!
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The overall story is a little too sketchy, but JAMES BASKETT (Uncle Remus & the voice of Br'er Fox) gives one of the most engaging performances in motion picture history. His character is the true hero of the story. Only he and Miss Doshy (Lucile Watson) have a clue.
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So, where's the controversy? Well, 'SONG' takes place on a post-Civil War Southern plantation where the Blacks are working as sharecroppers. For the most part, everyone is happy, even singing when they work. Perhaps some feel that this whitewashes the slavery issue. And of course the Black characters speak in a grammatically butchered Southern dialect. That's historically accurate! After all, they were unjustly denied an education. But the language is far more tame than I have encountered in other old movies featuring Black characters, and in fact, no more outside of mainstream English than current ebonics. And that's the extent of SONG's controversy! OOOoooh! OOOoooh!
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It's the same small group of maroons who would protest SONG's release that have tried for years to get Twain's 'HUCKLEBERRY FINN' banned, never realizing that Chapter XVI of that book (in which the Divine spark in Finn's heart wrestles with the callousness of his society-indoctrinated conscience and wins) constitutes the single greatest anti-slavery statement ever recorded in a novel! SONG's humanity easily outweighs any of the marginal stereotyping it commits in conveying its time period.
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[Interestingly, Joel Chandler Harris (creator of the Uncle Remus stories) once wrote to Mark Twain and said of 'HUCKLEBERRY FINN', "It is the most original contribution that has yet been made to American literature." Later, he publicly wrote, "There is not in our fictive literature a more wholesome book than 'Huckleberry Finn.' It is history, it is romance, it is life. Here... we see people growing and living; we laugh at their humor, share their griefs; and... we are taught the lesson of honesty, justice and mercy."]
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The handcrafted animation (no computer graphics or live action tracing) is WONDERFUL! There is one sequence in which Uncle Remus, fishing with Br'er Frog, casts his animated line directly at the viewer; it disappears above the screen, and moments later the cork splashes into the stream and bobs in the viewer's face while the rest of the line softly descends into view, landing in the water. It's the most beautiful and imaginative 12-seconds of animation ever put on film.
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If the Disney Company realized how much money it would get by making SONG OF THE SOUTH available, it would accede to our wishes because MONEY is now what drives Disney. We must continue to dog Disney until it STOPS TREATING US LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN and re-releases SONG OF THE SOUTH.
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WE WANT OUR CARTOONS!
CARTOONS NOW!
CARTOONS NOW!
CARTOONS NOW!
WAAAAaaaaa.......
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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