VLVL2 (15): The Great South Coast Plaza Eyeshadow Raid

[joeallonby]

on 4/29/04 7:26 PM, Dave Monroe at monropolitan at yahoo.com wrote:


> 
> ... but I've always been fascinated by the equation,
> slow motion = fast action.  Yeah, I know, the idea is,
> how slow everything seems from a bionic reference
> frame, the implication that, were bionic movement NOTR
> slowed won, it'd be too fast for us even much to
> perceive, but ... brilliant, Orwellianly so ...
> 
Actually, it makes perfect sense. It's a neurological reaction to extreme
traumatic stress. I experienced it classically in the chaos of a brutal
traffic accident involving horrific dismemberment when I was the first on
the scene and for various reasons seemingly in charge. I later described my
bizarre sensations to a close friend who was a former Force Recon Marine. He
knew exactly what I was talking about and described it more eloquently than
I could at the time.

>>It's like fast and slow motion at the same time, right? You know that things
are happening so quickly as to seem impossible but you're so much faster
that it seems slow. That's because the adrenaline rush - the flight or fight
response - is so strong that it catapults you over the shock and fear so
that you can function. You become more normal than normal. Later, when
everything is OK, you crash hard and feel all the emotions that you should
have at the time. You can become addicted to that rush. But the crash gets
harder each time.

> "The tune coming out of the speakers as the girls all
> dispersed into the evening happened to be a sprightly
> oboe-and-string rendition of Chuck Berry's
> 'Maybellene.'" (ibid.)
> 
> In May, 1955, with an introduction from Waters, Berry
> went to Chicago to audition for Leonard Chess in hopes
> of landing a recording contract.  Berry thought his
> blues material would be of most interest to Chess, but
> to his surprise it was the hillbilly "Ida Red" that
> got Chess' attention. Chess, a great blues label, in
> recent years had seen its market shrink and was
> looking to move beyond the rhythm and blues market and
> Chess thought Berry might be that artist that could do
> it. So on May 21, 1955 Berry recorded, "Ida Red"
> renamed "Maybellene," the name taken from a line of
> cosmetics, with Johnny Johnson, Jerome Green (from Bo
> Diddley's band) on the maracas, Jasper Thomas on the
> drums and blue legend Willie Dixon on the bass.
> Johnson's piano playing, the heavy drums and maracas
> and Berry's lead style gave Maybellene the hard rhythm
> and blues feel that balanced the country elements.
> Maybellene reached the pop charts and #1 on the rhythm
> and blues charts.
> 
> To help get airplay Chess gave a copy of the record to
> the influential disc jockey Alan Freed.. In return
> Freed and his associate Russ Fratto were given
> two-thirds of the writing credits, something that
> Berry was unaware of until the song was released and
> published. Freed aired the single for two hours on
> WINS in New York. The song went on to sell over a
> million copies, reaching #1 on Billboard's R & B chart
> and #5 on the Hot 100.

Musicians get the same rush sometimes. I recently did Berry's "Nadine"
backing the great Dennis Brennan in front of a packed house. "I was shouting
waving screaming like a southern diplomat,"