IVIV: Let's race

[Bekah]

If anyone is listening to the reading by Ron McLarty he "sings" it at   
2:56:39  on Part 1.   I've listened many times and can't place the  
tune but McLarty may have made one up for the purposes.  It's pretty  
authentic sounding though - mostly - in spite of McLarty's pathetic  
voice.

bekah


On Sep 20, 2009, at 7:57 PM, John Bailey wrote:

> I hear "That's Not Me" when reading Cutie in a GTO - although the
> metre is completely wrong for that ditty. You can fit the lyrics to
> the tune of Good Vibrations pretty easily. The faily inane lyrics more
> likely point back to an earlier Beach Boys style, though -
>
> 409: http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-409.mp3
> Little Deuce Coupe:
> http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-little_deuce_coupe.mp3
> Shut Down: http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-shut_down.mp3
>
> Note however that the scene with Fenway late in the novel casts a real
> pall on 1) fast car fetishism 2) beach babe chasing and 3) chili dogs.
> These mindless pleasures can easily be used to lead witless folks down
> mean streets.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>  
> wrote:
>> Fwiw,  Leo Carillo is the name of the State Beach at Malibu -   
>> about an hour
>> up the road from Manhattan Beach.  So if,  according to the song,  
>> these two
>>  are racing up Highway 1,  north starting at the corner of Topanga  
>> Canyon
>> Blvd
>>
>> "took off north from the light at Topanga..."    (where Topanga  
>> Canyon Road
>> meets the Pacific Coast Highway/ Hiway 1)
>>
>> *** And they're speeding up Highway 1 ***
>>
>> "... Grille to grille by the time we hit Leo Carillo..."   (the
>> aforementioned beach)
>>
>> "... And it still wasn't over by Point Mogu..."  (another 5 miles  
>> north on
>> Hwy 1)
>>
>> "... Shoulda filled-up when I got-off the San Diego..."  (the  
>> freeway about
>> 5 miles prior to Topanga Canyon)
>>
>> Then the singer runs out of gas and the cutie goes back  and gets  
>> him some -
>> much to his surprise.
>>
>> Just so's y'all can hear these babies:
>>
>> Here's a  1969 Ram Air "IV"  GTO - what she's driving.
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3j_5c-tubQ
>>
>> 1969 Ford Mustang 427
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtatkjDyDz8
>>
>> And I cannot place the song but I'll get it yet.
>>
>> Bekah
>>
>>
>> On Sep 20, 2009, at 3:44 AM, John Bailey wrote:
>>
>>> As I've already mentioned, I find it a bit mysterious that Tariq's
>>> ethnicity is such a point in chapter One - explicitly bringing
>>> together the displacement of African-American, Japanese, Mexican and
>>> American Indian families in the history of LA land use - when other
>>> characters are treated differently. This chapter drops a number of
>>> markers suggesting Lourdes and Motella's ethnic background, along  
>>> with
>>> those of their beaux - all except Motella use non-English phrases,  
>>> and
>>> Motella's afro (and "what it be, girl!") sound pretty black to me.  
>>> But
>>> Doc's got an afro too, which complicates things, and in this chapter
>>> the narratorial voice doesn't do any racial profiling at all.  
>>> Which I
>>> like (as an aside, one of the things for which the recently  
>>> mentioned
>>> Disgrace by Coetzee is so interesting is in the way race is  
>>> implied by
>>> the power relations it offers while rarely being made explicit).
>>>
>>> Anyway, just before Doc is off to hook up with Lourdes and Motella  
>>> he
>>> has a brief glimpse of the Chick Planet girls. We know he has  
>>> trouble
>>> telling one Californian blonde (Bambi) from another (as noted during
>>> his meeting with Hope) and when he spots Jade she's an oddly
>>> italicised *oriental cutie*.
>>>
>>> Orientalism. Hmmm. Paging Edward Said.
>>>
>>> Where's Jade from? I'm guessing California, the way she speaks.  
>>> But in
>>> 1970 LA she's just a "bubbly young Asian lady" or an "oriental  
>>> cutie".
>>>
>>> They tell him to meet them at 'Club Asiatique'.
>>>
>>> Another orientalist name that glosses over massive regional  
>>> difference
>>> in the name of commercial good times. Kitsch.
>>>
>>> The French aspect of the name might hint at Indo-China, which, given
>>> the time setting, ties in nicely to both the war in Vietnam and  
>>> the SE
>>> Asian heroin cartel connection to the Golden Fang.
>>>
>>> So Doc hooks up with those pan-continental stewardii, and hits those
>>> metaphysical freeways at an "unnecessarily suicidal velocity" and to
>>> the tune of a race-song by the Boards...
>>>
>>> (Note: the song puts a particular emphasis - twice - on Leo Carillo,
>>> an actor: his wikipedia site states: "Although he played  
>>> stereotypical
>>> Latins, Leo Carrillo was part of an old and respected Californio
>>> family who could trace their roots back to the conquistadores." He
>>> also played the sidekick Pancho in the TV series The Cisco Kid.)
>>