the ivy-style influence

IVY LEAGUE STYLE

A influência do estilo Ivy League americano está definitivamente instalada na moda ... não só na label "rugby" da Ralph Lauren ou na versão desportiva da "Hackett" mas em muitos ambientes de qualidade vejam por exemplo esta série de imagens no 'post' acima ...

Prince Week, Day Three: Madhouse

All of the writing on my blog, unless noted otherwise, is done by myself. I genuinely enjoy writing my own content and consider it important that I don't use other people's writings without making it clear who did the work. That said, most of today's post is taken from wikipedia's Madhouse reference. Now, I am very familiar with the Madhouse story and know all the details to put in such a post, but after reading the wikipedia page, apart from a minor detail or two, whomever wrote that article hit the nail on the head as good, if not better, than I believe I could have written such a post. So, I have to give respect to the original contributors to that wikipedia page and I'm going to link it here for all to see. As I noted, there is a minor correction or two that I've added to the original text and I'm also including links for all the albums, making my post more complete, but the original writers have done a fantastic job and I want to give them the credit they are due.


Prince had considered the idea of an instrumental jazz-funk album ever since he recorded his first tracks with Eric Leeds for his 1985 side-project, The Family. In late 1985-early 1986, he recorded hours of instrumental music with Leeds and other musicians from his band, Sheila E. and musicians from her own band, as well as members from Wendy & Lisa's families. From these sessions, Prince compiled an album called The Flesh, supposed to be released by an eponymous pseudo-band, but the project was abandoned and its concept lightly modified to become Madhouse.

All instruments on "8", the first Madhouse album, were performed by Prince except for the saxophone and flute parts which were performed by Eric Leeds. The album consists of instrumental jazz-fusion tracks. A remix of the track "Six" was released alongside with the b-side "Six & 1/2", composed by Leeds and featuring Atlanta Bliss on trumpet.

"16", the second Madhouse album, featured contributions by Eric Leeds on saxophone and flute, Sheila E. on drums and Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass guitar (the three of them co-composed a few tracks besides playing on the album.) "Doctor" Matt Fink (keyboards) and John Lewis (drums) are also credited in the album's booklet but their participation to the recording is more than uncertain (though both were part of the short-lived live-version of the band.) "16" features more aggressive and minimalist jazz funk tracks than its predecessor. Two singles were released, "Ten" and "Thirteen", with the title tracks remixed and two b-sides.

The most unusual thing about each of the albums is that the title of each song is also its numerical designation on the record (e.g., the third song on the first album is titled, “Three”). Cover art for both albums featured a voluptuous Maneca Lightner playing with a small dog, reminiscent of a 1940s pinup photograph. The videos from "16" were 1940s gangster-themed. The cover of "16" features the subtitle "new directions in garage music", which is an homage to Miles Davis' Directions In music series (in 2002-2003, Prince would dub a jazz album series of his own "New Directions In Music") The only vocals on either album consisted mainly of choice snippets of audio lifted from the first two Godfather films, clips of sped up phone conversations which would be used later on The Black Album and samples of Vanity simulating an orgasm (from the Vanity 6 outtake "Vibrator", later used on Prince's own song "Orgasm" from Come.) There is also a short unreleased movie, featuring Madhouse, named "Hard Life", also from 1987.

In 1987, Madhouse served as an opening act for Prince’s headlining tours, with each of the musicians heavily disguised in baggy cloaks and sunglasses, to be removed for the final set. Prince himself often guested with Madhouse, incognito.

At least two other Madhouse albums were later recorded and remain unreleased to this day, both being named "24". The first was recorded in 1988, mostly by Prince and Eric Leeds. Only one track eventually emerged, severely edited, on Eric Leeds' 1991 solo-album, Times Squared, and only bootlegged copies of the whole album are available. This album was more "electronic" than the first two, with a lot of drum programming, samples and keyboards.

The second album was recorded in 1993 with a line-up consisting of Prince (keyboards), Eric Leeds (saxophone), Levi Seacer, Jr. (guitar), Sonny T. (bass) and Michael B. (drums). Only two tracks were officially released, "17 (Penetration)" as "17" on the "1-800 New-Funk" 1994 compilation and on the cd-single "Standing At The Altar", the other one "Asswoop" (or "Asswhuppin' in a trunk") in 2001, via Prince's website. There was also a confidential release on a promo cassette named The "NPG Sampler Experience", which contains excerpts from 3 tracks from this album: "Asswoop", "Ethereal Seque" and "Parlour Games". The "NPG Sampler Experience" was handed out during "The Gold Experience" tour in 1995. The whole album has been circulating on bootlegs too and it features more sophisticated arrangements than the first three albums.


Pretty good article, eh? I want to add that Miles was very much the inspiration for these works and rumors abound about his involvement. For instance, it has long been rumored that Miles performs on the B-Side, 6 and 1/2, although this is most likely Atlanta Bliss. Prince also, offered the 1988 version of 17 to Miles. He did record it, but it remains unreleased and is not circulating between collectors.

The film mentioned in the above article, Hard Life, never gained an official release, yet it did somehow end up online. Prince directed it and you can view it here. It's not great, hell, it's not really that good, but it is kinda funny and enjoyable.

The only other thing that came of the Madhouse project was that the 1988 version of 19 was considered for use in the 1989 Batman movie. An early trailer for the film features it playing in the background as well as another unreleased Prince song, We Got The Power. I've even seen it listed online as The Batman Theme, but that's kind of ridiculous.

So, for your listening enjoyment, here are links to all the available Madhouse studio recordings. This includes their first two albums, 8 and 16, both versions of 24, and all the remixes and B-Sides that were released. In my opinion, this is some of Prince's best work outside of his regular persona. It's also the best jazz oriented music he's ever done, far better than any of his other attempts at jazz, like the NEWS album. Be forewarned though, as much as I love 8, 16, the 1988 version of 24 and the B-Sides, they 1993 version of 24 is a completely different beast. It's basically Prince with The NPG and Eric Leeds making generic jazz funk, and, at least to me, it's totally forgettable. The 1988 version of 24 was a masterpiece, so I have no idea why he would record schlock like the 1993 version, but it happened, so while it's worth listening to, apart from it being named a Madhouse record, I wouldn't consider it one.


Madhouse - 8

Madhouse - 16

Madhouse - 24 (1988 Version)

Madhouse - 24 (1993 Version)

Madhouse - Non-Album Tracks


NOTE: Updated Madhouse 8 and the 1993 version of 24 for anyone having problems with the files. Also, here is Rootie Kazootie from the 93 version of 24 if you don't want to re-download the album again. Enjoy!

THE CAMBRIDGE SPIES

Este senhor aqui representado, Anthony Blunt, parente da Rainha Mãe, formado pela Universidade de Cambridge, e membro de uma elite secreta activa à volta dos míticos Trinity e King's Colleges chamados os "Apostles", foi além de conceituado Historiador de Arte, com obra publicada, alto membro do Courtauld Institute e finalmente Curator of the Royal Paintings Collection in Bunckingham Palace, espião durante a guerra e até aos anos cinquenta ao serviçp da União Soviética!

Ele pertencia a um famoso grupo de quatro espiões que se conheceram nos anos 3o como estudantes em Cambridge :Kim Philby,McLean, Guy Burgess e Anthony Blunt. A "Box" ilustrada acima representa uma série de grande qualidade sobre estas personagens produzida pela B.B.C.

Entretanto as memórias de Blunt foram tornadas públicas ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eOmut0ev-k
Ver ainda:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrcNPjHoqbM ou aindahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45rO73levwY
Ainda de outra produção A Question of Attribution onde Blunt é representado por James Fox:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRjWtRvwW94

2009 Sport Car Renault Megane Trophy

The 2009 Megane Trophy will go on sale at the end of the year in the form of kit after the completion of its development programme which will enable existing cars to be upgraded.The 2009 Renault Megane Trophy is based on the new Megane Coupe which is powered by the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s mid-rear 3.5-liter V6 24V engine that produces 360 hp.The front and rear light units and windscreen are

Prince Week, Day Two: The Family & Jill Jones

The Family was a rather short-lived Prince side-project that gave birth to a number of hallmarks in his career. After Purple Rain, Morris Day left The Time bringing that band to an end. With Morris going his own way and Appolonia 6 disbanding just as quickly as they were formed, Prince was concerned he would be short of a devoted channel for his additional output, so he summoned St. Paul, Jerome Benton, Eric Leeds, Susannah Melvoin, and Jellybean Johnson to discuss their futures. With the quickness, he announced that a new band would be forming, named The Family, and St. Paul would be the lead singer with Susannah, Wendy's sister, contributing vocals. Everyone was understandably stoked.

Prince soon had an album's worth of tracks written and recorded, mostly on his own with Eric Leeds on sax. He even recorded scratch vocals for St. Paul to learn his new vocal performances with. Most of the new songs could easily pass for Time tunes, but Prince brought out the big guns with a number named Nothing Compares 2 U. That song would later gain popularity due to a fabulous rendition by a somewhat hairless female singer, but that's a different story.

Prince rehearsed The Family till they were a well-oiled machine, all on the promise that they would play a show at First Avenue and then they'd hit the big time. The First Avenue show came, and that was both the first and last show The Family played for over fifteen years. The band went into hibernation with Prince focusing on his career and St. Paul, angry at being unable to do anything without Prince's okay, left for a solo career. Prince proceeded to taunt him in public, sometimes calling him the "punk of the month", but none of that mattered because The Family was over and the record was quickly forgotten.

A similar set of problems surrounded Jill Jones, a long-time friend and sometimes girlfriend of Prince. After years of devotion and background duties, Prince decided it was time for Jill to have a chance at the spotlight. Her self-titled album was released in 1987 and Prince gave her some of his best leftovers, including G-Spot, a leftover from the unfinished second Vanity 6 album, Mia Bocca, a Parade outtake, and All Day, All Night, a Purple Rain leftover. Best of all, the excellent ballad, Baby, You're A Trip made the album, much to fans of the purple-one's satisfaction. Unfortunately, much like The Family's sole album, Jill's release and singles were under-promoted and went nowhere in the US, furthering Prince's love-em-and-leave-em habit of nurturing artists in his image.

Unlike The Family, Jill stuck around for a while, even making an appearance in Graffiti Bridge. She was working on a new album with Prince around that time but, due to a falling out for unknown reasons, the album wasn't finished and the completed songs remain unreleased.

It's really a shame that Prince didn't give Jill or The Family more promotion, as they were great acts in their own rights. The fans know how great they were and cherish their albums. A reissue is in order, but judging from Prince's list of should haves, I wouldn't expect it any time soon.

The Family have reunited several times since 2003 and continue to perform to this day as fdeluxe. You can read more about them at their wikipedia, myspace and official pages. Jill is still performing as well and you can find out a lot more about what she's been up to at her Peace Bisquit page.


The Family - The Family

01 High Fashion
02 Mutiny
03 The Screams Of Passion
04 Yes
05 River Run Dry
06 Nothing Compares 2 U
07 Susannah's Pajamas
08 Desire


Jill Jones - Jill Jones

01 Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)
02 Mia Bocca
03 G-Spot
04 Violet Blue
05 With You
06 All Day, All Night
07 For Love
08 My Man
09 Baby, You're A Trip

Prince Week, Day One: BLAME PRINCE

I don't think I've said much about my relationship with the purple one, but it's rather convoluted and has led me to the point where I love his older stuff but have no appetite for anything new he may release, at least not if it's "new" music. With Prince, just because he says it's "new" it doesn't mean he didn't write it twenty years ago. A lot of his songs, both for himself and other artists, are re-treads he wrote and recorded years earlier. Sometimes the re-treads are practically identical. A great example of this, which I'll post later this week, is The Time's Chocolate. It was written for Purple Rain/Ice Cream Castles but shelved. A tape exists of the 1983 recording with a guide vocal by Prince doing his Morris Day impersonation and the backing track is IDENTICAL to that of the released version! Hell, Morris went so far as to use most of Prince's improvisations on the released version and Prince even makes an appearance, from the scratch vocal, as the annoying waiter! It's pretty incredible but, after listening to enough Prince records, these things aren't that shocking.

If we want to talk about shocking, or at least confusing, we can talk about Prince's long list of proteges and the unavailability of their catalogs. Prince owns the rights to just about everything released on his Paisley Park label, despite the fact Warner Brothers were his source of income for it's signings, and everything the label released, apart from his own albums, is out of print, has never been reissued and most likely never will be. The only exceptions are pre-Paisley Park releases by Sheila E. and The Time, all of which use the same masters that they have been pressed from for years, same as all of Prince's Warners catalog. Apparently, within the last decade Warners/Rhino had green-lit a Time greatest hits release, but due to Prince's bullshit, even a remastered collection of their hits and some rarities could not be issued, and it looks like Warners owns those masters to boot! I guess that's what you get when you let one of your most prolific artists write, record and create bands for your label, but it honestly seems very unfair, both to the label and the artists.

Anyway, there are tons of great records Prince was involved in that are no longer unavailable for reasons only the purple one and his lawyers may know, but due to the power of the internet we can now enjoy these classics regardless! So, to kick off the week, I've prepared a small compilation of some rather rare Prince-related singles and productions which are otherwise completely unavailable. This will probably be the smallest of the Prince posts this week, at least in terms of content, so make sure you come back for much more over the next few days. I've got lots more where this came from!


BLAME PRINCE

01 The Time - Tricky
For many years, this was the last new track The Time had ever released, and it barely qualifies as a Time recording, let alone a full-fledged track. This was released as the B-Side to Jungle Love and, despite starting with Morris goofing on someone (I've heard reports the whole track is a goof on George Clinton), Prince takes over doing his best Morris impression while Morris and others laugh in the background. The backing track may be from the same sessions that produced Cloreen Bacon Skin which was recorded during the What Time Is It? sessions.

02 Apollonia 6 - Sex Shooter (Long Version)
This is the 12" version of the fabulous Sex Shooter. Unlike the album version, this goes on for near seven minutes and is much closer to the original draft of the song. A demo with Vanity singing over a less complete version of the backing track with Prince on backup vocals exists, and it's a bit funkier to boot, but this version is still great.

03 Andre Cymone - The Dance Electric (Long Version)
Andre was a member of Prince's earliest professional band before The Revolution became Prince's official group. He went solo and was openly miffed with Prince, but Prince, surprisingly enough, tried to squash whatever disagreement remained by giving Andre this excellent track recorded around the time of Around The World In A Day. There are versions of this with Prince singing, and apart from the vocals, they are identical to one another. There is a actually a VERY LONG version of this track where Prince solos all over the place and the bands rocks out. That will be hear soon enough, but for now you can enjoy the excellent released version.

04 Jill Jones - Mia Bocca (Extended)
This song was written around the time of Parade/Under The Cherry Moon and actually makes a brief appearance in the film as background music early on. It was given to Jill for her solo album in 1987, easily one of the best Prince-produced albums ever released. This version is a little different from the album version, having been remixed for single release.

05 The Family - The Screams Of Passion (Extended Version)
Another song from a Prince-produced project. The Family and Jill Jones' albums are some of the best things Prince ever did that didn't carry his name, and it's ridiculous that they're not available at least digitally. This song is a great slice of eighties dance/funk and this version was released on it's corresponding 12".

06 Sheila E. - Holly Rock (Extended Version)
Holly Rock was released on the Krush Groove soundtrack and as a single, but has never appeared elsewhere. Despite being listed as an Extended Version, this is probably the complete track with the album and single versions being radio friendly edits. It's pretty obvious Prince is all over this one, you can hear him counting off the band at the beginning heaven's sake! More reasons that his proteges should be given greatest hits collections at the very least. Great songs like these shouldn't be stored away to gather dust. Simply put, this track is THE SHIT!!!

07 Taja Sevelle - Wouldn't You Love To Love Me?
Trying to explain Taja is really difficult, so you should simply visit her wikipedia reference and official site where you can learn much more about this incredible woman. As for the song, Prince had been kicking this one around since before signing with Warners. He had recorded a very sweet version around the Dirty Mind era, but it simply wasn't right for that album. He re-recorded it in 1987 with his then-current personnel, and then gave the track to Taja for her debut album which was released on his own Paisley Park Records. The backing track is identical to Prince's 1987 version, although it fades out a little earlier.

08 The Time - Grace
This is the B-Side to 777-9311 and features Vanity, as Bridgette Harrington, trying to interview Morris as he keeps calling her Grace. The backing track is actually an edit of 777-9311, so it's really not a new track, more like a goofy skit, but memorable nonetheless.

09 Vanity 6 - Drive Me Wild (Extended Mix)
Susan Moonsey handles vocals on this minimal Vanity 6 classic. Oh god, how hot Susan, Brenda and Vanity were! No, I am not dissing Apollonia, lord knows she is hot as hell too! This version has a kickin' guitar solo towards the end.

10 Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life (Club Edit)
This was actually intended for the second Vanity 6 album, but with Vanity leaving the production of Purple Rain, Prince found a new use for it with Sheila. This version is from the 12" single, and is, as the title infers, a re-edit for clubs. This has appeared on some versions of the album released on CD, and may actually still be available for purchase, but how many people actually have it? I don't think I'm doing any harm by posting it here for all to enjoy, so let's enjoy it then!

IMAGENS DE LONDRES 1959

THIS IS LONDON

Este fantástico livrito que pretende introduzir os ambientes de Londres às crianças foi publicado em 1959 por M.Sasek depois de uma viagem de férias do mesmo em Paris, tema que iniciou uma série de "this is" dedicado a várias cidades. "This is Paris" que antecede portanto este, foi também publicado em 1959.

English Eccentrics

O famoso actor John Hurt .

Garech Browneheir

Gavin Pretor-Pinney, presidente da associação dos apreciadores de nuvens.

O Marquês de Bath no seu domínio em Lonleat.

TERRY THOMAS

O grande Terry Thomas. Ele representava de forma sublime o "Upper-Class" cad.

Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz - 2 Hype 2 Wype

You know how I said that Kool Keith was demented? This is a different kind of dementia. Yes, this is all probably an act, unlike Keith who seems to suffer from genuine issues, but this is carried out so well that it's amazingly entertaining and hilarious. To quote DJ Jessi's bio for the group from the Wordsound page:

For most people it's resemblance to Rap was like what a bootleg Bart Simpson "crack kills" t-shirt was to that lovable little crown-headed scamp we all know so well.

I can't say much about this union of Guy Albino, Duke Crapmore and Fly-Bot VanDamn that the above sentence doesn't already illuminate, other than you have to hear this stuff. Please, if you're expecting something serious, don't bother. If you have a twisted sense of humor and can tolerate people making fun of hip-hop, gangsterisms and the ridiculous amount of violence in a lot of mid-nineties rap, I'm sure you'll find this very entertaining.

This is available for download at Amazon and can be purchased from Wordsound's page so I didn't post the highest quality version of the album I could have. If you like this you should definitely support the artists and buy a copy or download. After listening, I'm sure you'll agree they could use the money!

As always, props to Skiz and the whole Wordsound crew! Visit Wordsound and let that shit blow your mind!


Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz - 2 Hype 2 Wype

01 Mind If I Fart?
02 Off The Hook
03 Landshawk
04 Bloody Thursday
05 DJ Brownfinger
06 Hello, Don't Be Afraid
07 Walter AKA Teachers Pet
08 Richard Simmons
09 Mackro
10 Three Wrongs
11 Reactions
12 Fooky Nuckets
13 Hummin' Mad Coney
14 Burnt Reynolds University
15 Ducrapolips Now
16 V Is For Victum
17 MCMonkey Fried
18 Rollaround Like A Slob
19 I Do'nt Tip

Osbert Lancaster

Richard Merkin Ilustrador

Osbert Lancaster educado

em Lincoln College, Oxford onde se tornou amigo para a vida de john Bejteman.

Foi ilustrador famoso, critico de arte e cenografista.

Ficou famoso pelas suas ilustrações ao longo dos anos no Daily Express.

Um "True Gentleman" .