Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 12:00:13 -0500 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 516 ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode for the week of January 9, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 516: Every Saturday morning i go to the free Johnny Otis rhythm and blues show at his cafe in Sebastopol. Today my step sister Holly was visiting so we went together. The lead singer, Jackie Payne, had asked a friend of his from San Jose, a white guy named Cash Ferrar, to sit in on tenor sax along with Ronald Wilson on alto, so with Larry Douglas on trumpet, there was a real horn section. It was Lucky Otis's 21st birth-day (he's Johnny's grandson, Shuggie Otis' son), so he got a lot of applause as he played his bass. Gail (Li'l Bit) Muldrow, the flashy guitarist and singer, was back after a two week unexplained disappearance that had almost gotten her fired. Johnny was still mad enough to only give her two solos, but he praised her for each, while she made amends by staying downstage, next to 14-year old Eric Otis (Shuggie's other son), teaching him licks and calling out chord changes to him. Nicky Otis, Johnny's 30-something son, came in late. Drummed his way through the first song in his overcoat and outer shirt, and went to take them off before the next song began-which Johnny didn't notice. Nicky'd gotten the coat off and was half peeled out of the teeshirt when Johnny started in on the piano riff for "Funky Funky Broadway," which requires a big two-beat bomp-bomp at the opening, and Nicky recognized it immediately by its downward cascading intro line. The look of alarm and alertness on his face as he peeled out of that shirt just in time to hit the cymbals in perfect synch with the horns (Every town i go-bomp-bomp!) was something to behold, one of the most beautiful acts i have ever seen a man perform. It was the epitome of masculine grace, equivalent to an Olympic dive. The teeshirt ended up quite a distance from him, arcing through the air. Two songs later, who should walk in but Charlie Musslewhite and the next thing we knew, he was on stage playing dynamite harp and singing like crazy. It was totally wild! Holly and i were dancing in the aisles, and so was just about everyone else in the joint. What an incredible show! After that, we went Christmas shopping, which i always love, because i love shiny things and my astigmatism causes me see up to 20 clustered images of each colourful point source of light, so it is a truly psychedelic experience for me to go to a mall at Christmas. I become overwhelmed and confused with delight. I wander around in a daze. Today was rainy, so all the sidewalks reflected more lights, and i drifted in and out of bliss, buying colourful shiny gifts and having them wrapped in colourful shiny paper and finding amazing colourful shiny figural glass tree ornaments for my collection (an Indian chief's head! a buffalo! a gnome! a crescent man-in-the-moon with a red stocking cap! a 6' long garland of fishes!) and i had the time of my life convincing store clerks to accept my U.S. passport as I.D. because i don't have a driver's license ("It has the full faith and credit of the United States Government, you know...which is harder to earn than that of the State of California if you'd stop and think about it for a moment i mean, do YOU have a passport? Do you know how hard they are to GET?") and each clerk accepted it in the end, with much head tipping and asking permission of managers, and i just smiled and smiled. Our friend Don joined us for dinner at Chez Marie, a restaurant here in town, and we had an expensive, expansive, delicious meal and shared taste treats and sat and talked and talked. It was the 31st anniversary of the owners, Shirley and Angie, and another lesbian couple, not aware of this, had come in for their own sixth anniversary, so everyone in the place, heterosexual and lesbian alike, congratulated them and smiled and felt warm and good. Now i am back in my office and soon i shall go to bed and tomorrow my fellow Claypool Comics employee Fred Burke is giving a party down at his place in Berkeley, and my daughter Althaea will be there too and we will go to the Oakland Paramount, one of the most beautifully restored art deco theatres in the entire world, and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on the big, big, screen. And, i guess, more or less, it is, isn't it? ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Backissues are available. FTP to cerebus.acusd.edu and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright 1994 Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.