#601 – October 28, 2015

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Music, Monsters & Michael McQuary + Maria Vasquez Boyd
+ Jamie Searle & Macabre KC + Calvin Arsenia

10:00 – Haunted Music

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / Universal / Dec. 20, 1979
[WMM’s theme]

2. William Stromberg & Moscow Symphony Orch. – “Universal Signature”
from: Salter – Skinner: Monster Music / Marco-Polo / 1995
[Frank Skinner was a composer & arranger born in Meredosia, Illinois on Dec. 31, 1897. He died in Beverly Hills, California, Oct. 9, 1968. A graduate of the Chicago Musical College (now the Chicago Conservatory of Music), 16-year-old Frank found employment in vaudeville and began playing in local areas with his brother Carl on drums billed as the Skinner Brothers dance band. He began writing and arranging music for dance bands in New York, from 1925 to 1935, arranging 2000 popular songs for Robbins Publishing. After a short period at MGM, working on musical settings for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Skinner was hired by Universal Studios. Over the course of his 30 years there, he composed music for more than 200 films earning five Academy Award nominations (1938–43). His distinctive approach to scoring horror films, such as Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Wolf Man (1941), has been characterized as a ‘passion for chromatic lines … mirrored contours … [and] restrained, yet ominously mythical orchestrations’ (Marcello). He gained new recognition in the 1950s for his lush romantic scores, including those for such Douglas Sirk films as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Written on the Wind (1956). Despite many changes in the film industry, his book Underscore (1950) has survived as an excellent introduction to film music composition. The Wolf Man is a 1941 American drama horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as a werewolf named “The Wolf Man” and features Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). Lon Chaney, Jr. would reprise his classic role as “The Wolf Man” in four sequels, beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.]

3. Ed Wood – “Plan 9 From Outer Space (Trailer)”
from: Halloween Nuggets: Monster Sixties A Go-Go / Rock Beat / 2014
[Plan 9 from Outer Space (originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space) is a 1959 American B & W science fiction horror film. The film was written, produced, directed and edited by Ed Wood, and stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and posthumously bills Bela Lugosi. Shortly after Lugosi’s death the story and screenplay for Grave Robbers from Outer Space were written and finalized, with Wood planning to use the unconnected, unrelated footage of Lugosi as a means of putting a credit for him on the picture. Wood used the Lugosi footage as a means of attracting actors to the picture, by saying to them that he was making “Bela Lugosi’s last movie.” Though Wood’s actions were driven in part by the desire to give his film a ‘star name’ and attract horror fans, the Lugosi cameo was also meant as a loving tribute and farewell to the actor, who had become fast friends with Wood in the last three years of Lugosi’s life. Wood hired his wife’s chiropractor, Tom Mason, as a stand-in for Lugosi, even though Mason was taller than Lugosi and bore no resemblance to him, making him one of the earliest “fake Shemps”. Narration from Criswell was also employed in an attempt to better link Lugosi’s footage with the rest of Plan 9. Every last scrap of material Wood had of Lugosi was utilized in the theatrical cut of the film, including what are minor sprocket discolorations, film trims that would in a normal film be discarded as unusable. Cuts of the film on VHS during the 80s and 90s, the vast majority unauthorized bootleg dupes, varied drastically not only in quality but also in the amount of Lugosi material retained.]

4. Cesar Davila-Irizarry & Charlie Clouser -“American Horror Story Theme”
from: American Horror Story Theme – Single / 20th Century Fox TV Records / Oct 17, 2012
[The song was composed in 1998 by César Dávila-Irizarry. Today he’s a television sound editor in Los Angeles, but back then he was just a sophomore at the University of Puerto Rico, living at his mother’s house, futzing around with digital remixes on Windows ’95. “I started playing around with the software that other people were using then, which was Cool Edit 96,” he recalls. “I was just getting some demons out.” He grew attached to a particular sparse, haunting melody and added sounds of clattering metal hangers, dripping water and white noise—all distorted beyond recognition. To some ears, the hangers might sound like an electric guitar. He gave the song to his friend Gabriel Diaz and didn’t think much about it until Diaz—now an editor at Prologue Pictures—dusted off the track a decade later and slotted it in as a temp track for the American Horror Story title sequence. (A temp track is placeholder music that editors use while working on rough cuts.) Everyone at FX and Prologue grew so accustomed to Dávila-Irizarry’s song, they decided to keep it—even after hiring composer Charlie Clouser (formerly of Nine Inch Nails) to write entirely new music. Clouser submitted four of his own demos, but each time was told to make the music sound more like the temp track. “I remember there was one quote that came down from the producers, ‘What we need to play for Ryan [Murphy] is a version that sounds better but that he won’t know is different from the original.'” Dávila-Irizarry’s version had been recorded on a single track, which made for difficult sound mixing, so Clouser was eventually asked to simply recreate the song (which FX bought from Dávila-Irizarry) and allot each sound its own track. Clouser calls it “an exercise in sonic reverse engineering,” but agrees it was the right decision, albeit challenging. “There was a lovable inaccuracy and crust to the sound that was becoming lost when I tried to regenerate it using pristine modern technology,” Clouser says. “It became a challenge to duplicate a lot of the spontaneous magic that he had in the original piece.” The song is arguably the show’s most powerful bit of branding, evidenced by the fact that it’s used in every Season 2 promo. “It blows my mind that such a song is now so present in the American mainstream,” marvels Dávila-Irizarry. “It was only present in my mind and has been in a coffin for a decade.” – Notes from: Welcome to your Nightmare : “American Horror Story” Opens on a New Look and an Old Track, by Mina Hochberg (Oct. 17, 2012) http://www.fastcocreate.com]

10:05 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Stage & screen actor, Michael McQuary, shared his unique interpretations of the monsters of film: Béla Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, and more. Michael is the creator of the award winning one-man shows in New York City: Matinee Idol, Man of 1001 Faces, and My Own Space, and most recently, for the 2014 KC Fringe Festival “I’m Hollywood.” Currently Michael is the star of the upcoming Mile Deep Films short film, directed by Anthony Ladesich, “Corvalo.”

Also joining us was artist, writer, and teacher, Maria Vasquez Boyd, who has been a frequent contributor to Wednesday MidDay Medley. Maria is the producer & host of ARTSPEAK Radio, heard Wednesdays at Noon, on 90.1 FM KKFI. Maria is a founding member of the Latino Writer’s Collective. Maria is a graduate of The Kansas City Art Institute and has taught art at KCAI and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Maria has worked closely with The Writers Place, and currently has been working on Day of the Dead exhibitions at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

For Michael McQuary is all started with Béla Lugosi …and his cape.

Béla Lugosi’s last film, “Plan 9 From Outer Space” featured Maila Nurmi (Dec. 11, 1922 – Jan. 10, 2008) a Finnish-American actress born in Petsamo, Finland, who created the campy character Vampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV’s first horror host. She is also billed as Vampira in the 1959 movie The Beat Generation where she plays a beatnik poet.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (Oct. 20, 1882 – Aug 16, 1956), known as Bela Lugosi, a Hungarian-American actor. He’d been playing small parts in his native Hungary before making his first film in 1917, but left after the failed Hungarian Revolution. In 1927, he appeared as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. He later appeared in the classic 1931 film Dracula by Universal Pictures. He was often paired with Boris Karloff, who was able to demand top billing. To his frustration, Lugosi was increasingly restricted to minor parts, kept employed by the studio principally for the sake of his name on the posters. Among his pairings with Karloff, only in The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939) did he perform major roles again. Lugosi had been receiving regular medication for sciatic neuritis, and he became addicted to morphine and methadone. This drug dependence was noted by producers, and the offers eventually dwindled down to a few parts in Ed Wood’s low-budget movies, most notably Plan 9 from Outer Space. Lugosi was married five times, and had one son, Bela George Lugosi. Lugosi was buried wearing one of the Dracula Cape costumes, per the request of his son Bela G. Lugosi and fifth wife, Lillian in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his cape.

10:12 – Haunted Music

5. Crimson Joy — “Wake Up”
from: The Black Bible 3: The New Revelations / Cleopatra Records / October 12, 1998
[German band’s debut release Badlands, on Alice In Records, 1997. Verena Lupp on lead vocals, Olaf Lupp on guitar, Christian Lehmann on keyboards, Peter Witzki on bass, and Andreas Menge on drums. The band chose their name based on a William Blake poem titled “The Sick Rose.” …”Wake Up before it’s too late.”]

6. Dead Kennedys — “Halloween”
from: Plastic Surgery Disasters – In God We Trust, Inc. / Alternative Tentacles / Dec 1982
[“Halloween” (B-side “Saturday Night Holocaust”) is the 7th and final single by the Dead Kennedys. It was released in December 1982 on Alternative Tentacles. The song is from the band’s second album, Plastic Surgery Disasters, the 2nd album released by Dead Kennedys. It has been reissued with the EP In God We Trust, Inc., which are the last eight tracks on the CD. The cover photo is “Hands” by photographer Michael Wells. The same photo was used by another San Francisco-based punk band called Society Dog for their EP …..Off of the Leash, released in 1981. The inside cover art features Winston Smith’s collages. Dead Kennedys formed in San Francisco, in 1978. The band were one of the first American hardcore bands to make a significant impact in the UK. Their music was distinctive within punk rock in general, with influences from surf music, spaghetti western, psychedelic rock, garage rock and rockabilly. Jello Biafra’s biting lyrics tackled the sociopolitical concerns of the late 1970s and 1980s with a distinct sense of morbid humor and satire. In the mid-1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the artwork of their album Frankenchrist (1985), which included the explicit title subject of H. R. Giger’s Penis Landscape. The band was charged with “distribution of harmful matter to minors”, but the trial ended with a hung jury. Dead Kennedys released 4 studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Biafra has continued to collaborate and record with other artists, including Mojo Nixon, Al Jourgensen of Ministry, Nomeansno, and Melvins, and has become a spoken word performer, covering political topics in particular.]

7. Kenneth Alwyn — “The Bride of Frankenstein (Main Title)”
from: The Bride of Frankenstein (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) / Silva America / 1993
[The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn. The Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 horror film, sequel to Universal Pictures’ 1931 hit Frankenstein directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff as The Monster, Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of his mate and Mary Shelley, Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Septimus Pretorius. The film is rooted in a subplot of the original Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein (1818). In the film, a chastened Henry Frankenstein abandons his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by the Monster, encouraged by Henry’s old mentor Dr. Pretorius, into constructing a mate for him.Bride of Frankenstein was released to critical and popular acclaim, although it encountered difficulties with some state and national censorship boards. Since its release the film’s reputation has grown, and it has been hailed as Whale’s masterpiece. Director James Whale met Franz Waxman at a party and asked him to score the picture. “Nothing will be resolved in this picture except the end destruction scene. Would you write an unresolved score for it?” asked Whale. Waxman created three distinctive themes: one for the Monster; one for the Bride; and one for Pretorius. The score closes, at Whale’s suggestion, with a powerful dissonant chord, intended to convey the idea that the on-screen explosion was so powerful that the theater where the film was being screened was affected by it. Constantin Bakaleinikoff conducted 22 musicians to record the score in a single nine-hour session.]

10:20 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Michael McQuary performed as Boris Karloff

Michael McQuary, is the star of the upcoming Mile Deep Films, short film, directed by Anthony Ladesich, “Corvalo.”

Maria Vasquez Boyd, founding member of the Latino Writer’s Collective and currently working on Day of the Dead exhibitions at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Sunday, November 1, Noon to 4 pm, Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead Altar Installation in Kirkwood Hall of The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street, KC, MO. In collaboration with local artists through Mattie Rhodes Center, the 2015 altar will highlight the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water, and will feature a large scale suspended Papel Picado, sand paintings and four paper mache skeletons. Altar will remain on view through November 15. 12:30 to 1:00 & 2:30 to 3:00 pm. – Maria Vasquez Boyd & Latino Writers Collective will read specially selected poetry.

10:27 – Haunted Music

8. Michael Riesman & Western Wind – “Helen’s Theme”
from: The Music of Candyman (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) / Orange Mountain Music / September 1, 2001
[The film’s score was composed by Philip Glass. According to Glass, “It has become a classic, so I still make money from that score, get checks every year.” The film’s star, Tony Todd confirmed in an interview with IGN that a limited edition reissue featuring 7500 copies of the film’s soundtrack was released in February 2015. Candyman is a 1992 American horror film written and directed by Bernard Rose, based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barke. The film’s scenario is switched from England to the Cabrini–Green public housing development on Chicago’s Near North Side. It stars Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, and Xander Berkeley. The plot follows a graduate student (Madsen) completing a thesis on urban legends who encounters the legend of “Candyman” (Todd), an artist and son of a slave who had had his hand severed and been murdered. Candyman spawned sequels, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, and Candyman 3: Day of the Dead.]

9. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – “I Put a Spell on You”
from: Single – (Jeremy Sole’s Zombie Stomp Remix) / self released / 2011
[Jeremy Sole is a critically acclaimed DJ, radio show host at KCRW in Santa Monica, California (www.kcrw.com) and is Co-Founder and resident deejay of “AFRO FUNKÉ”, Sole has drawn a loyal crowd every week for the past 7 years. This is his arena for Afrobeat, Latin, Brazilian and other authentic and remixed world rhythms. Hundreds of international guests have joined him, from deejays Rich Medina and Cut Chemist to impromptu jam sessions with Zap Mama and Stevie Wonder. “Jeremy is a great DJ, presenter, producer and knower-of-music …an extremely cool dude. I cannot stop listening to his remix of ‘I Put A Spell On You’ …it’s irresistible.” – Henry Rollins]

10. Bauhaus – “Béla Lugosi’s Dead” (from 3:15 to 4:07) ( :52)
from: Béla Lugosi’s Dead – Single / Bauhuas Music / August 6, 1979
[English post punk band, formed in Northampton, England in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy (vocals, occasional instruments), Daniel Ash (guitar), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass). Together for only six weeks, Bauhaus entered the studio for the first time at Beck Studios in Wellingborough to record a demo. The band recorded five songs; one of the tracks from the session, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, running more than nine minutes, was released as the group’s debut single on 4AD Recordsin August 1979 on Small Wonder Records as Bauhaus. The single stayed on the British independent charts for two years. The song received crucial airplay on BBC Radio 1 and DJ John Peel’s evening show, and Bauhaus was subsequently asked to record a session for Peel’s show, which was broadcast on January 3, 1980.]


10:33 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Michael McQuary performed as Béla Lugosi

Michael’s NYC apartment was filmed by CNN. It was where he lived but it was styled like a mysterious residence in a forbidden city, part living space part movie set. Michael McQuary moved to Kansas City a couple of halloweens ago. in 2014 he brought his one man show, “I’m Hollywood” to the KC Fringe Festival. Michael has been embraced by the area film community, appearing in multiple short promotional pieces to the OM film festival. Michael is also the star of the upcoming Mile Deep Films short film, “Corvalo.” directed by Anthony Ladeish.

10:40 – Underwriting

10:42 – Haunted Music

11. Siouxsie & The Banshees – ” Halloween”
from: Juju / Polydor / June 6, 1981
[I had just turned 18 the day before this record was released. The 4th studio album from British post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Initially associated with the English punk rock scene, the band rapidly evolved to create “a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation”. The Times cited Siouxsie and the Banshees as “one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era.” With the release of Juju the group became an important influence on the emerging gothic rock scene. They disbanded in 1996, with Siouxsie and drummer Budgie continuing to record music as The Creatures, a 2nd band they’d formed in the early 1980s. In 2004, Siouxsie began a solo career.]

12. The Misfits – “Halloween”
from: Halloween – Single / Plan 9 Records / October 31, 1981
[Also available on Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Halloween. “Halloween” is the 5th single by the horror punk band the Misfits. It was released on singer Glenn Danzig’s label Plan 9 Records. 5,000 copies of the single were pressed on black 7″ vinyl, some of which included a lyrics sheet. This was the first Misfits release to use their Famous Monsters of Filmland-inspired logo, as well as the first to refer to the band as simply “Misfits”. American punk rock band recognized as the progenitors of the horror punk subgenre, blending punk and other musical influences with horror film themes. Founded in 1977 in Lodi, New Jersey by singer & songwriter Glenn Danzig, the group had a fluctuating lineup during its first six years, with Danzig and bassist Jerry Only as the only consistent members. During this time they released several EPs and singles, and with Only’s brother Doyle as guitarist, the albums Walk Among Us (1982) and Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood (1983), both considered touchstones of the early-1980s hardcore punk movement. Misfits disbanded in 1983 and Danzig went on to form Samhain and then the eponymous Danzig. Several albums of reissued and previously unreleased material were issued after the group’s dissolution, and their music became influential to punk rock, heavy metal, and alternative rock music.]

13. William Stromberg & Moscow Symphony -“Son of Frankenstein: Finale”
from: Salter – Skinner: Monster Music / Marco-Polo / 1995
[Frank Skinner was a composer & arranger. Son of Frankenstein the 1939, horror monster film, and is the 3d film in Universal Studios’ Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor. The picture is a sequel to James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. The film was a reaction to the very popular re-releases of Dracula with Lugosi and Frankenstein with Karloff as a double-feature in 1938. Universal’s declining horror output was revitalized with the enormously successful Son of Frankenstein, in which the studio cast both Karloff and Lugosi.]

10:48 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Michael McQuary talked about the relationship of Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi

Michael is an artist, in make up, costume, stage settings, props for film and stage. Micheal is also a visual artist of personal portraits, “life captures” with china ink that are collected internationally. Michael designs for YourPowerSign.com where he creates personal art works of metal.

10:55 – Haunted Music

14. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Red Right Hand”
from: Let Love In / Mute Records / April 18, 1994
[“Red Right Hand” is a 1994 song and single from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It first appearedthe band’s 8th studio album Let Love In (1994), where it ran at 6:10. It was later released as a single at the condensed length of 4:48. It has since become one of Cave’s signature tunes, performed at most of his concerts. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead singer Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career.]

11:01 – Station ID

15. Laurie Anderson – “Three Ghosts”
from: Heart of a Dog / Nonesuch / October 23, 2015
[The complete soundtrack recording of Laurie Anderson’s newest film, Heart of a Dog. Anderson was recently commissioned by the European TV network Arte to create a feature film — her first in 30 years. Her response was a personal essay entitled Heart of a Dog, a work encompassing joy and heartbreak and remembering and forgetting, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved piano-playing and finger-painting dog Lolabelle. Scenes range from realistic footage from the animal’s life to imagined scenes of Lolabelle’s passage through the bardo. It also includes other reflections on life and death including Anderson’s experiences in life in downtown New York after 9/11. The Nonesuch album is the full audio recording of the film, including all music and spoken text. Heart of a Dog has been shown at the Telluride, Venice, and Toronto Film Festivals to critical praise, with the New York Times calling it a “philosophically astute, emotionally charged meditation on death, love, art and dogs.” The movie will be screened at the New York Film Festival on October 8, before opening theatrically at New York’s Film Forum October 21. It will be shown on HBO in early 2016.]

16. William Stromberg & Moscow Symphony – “The Wolf Man: Main Title”
from: Salter – Skinner: Monster Music / Marco-Polo / 1995
[Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Hans J. Salter and Frank Skinner. Music reconstruction/orchestration John Morgan. The Wolf Man is a 1941 American drama horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as a werewolf named “The Wolf Man” and features Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). Lon Chaney, Jr. would reprise his classic role as “The Wolf Man” in four sequels, beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.]

11:05 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Michael McQuary performed as Lon Chaney Jr. from The Wolfman

“The Wolfman” also starred Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya

Through the film, villagers recite a poem, whenever the subject of werewolves comes up:

Even a man who is pure in heart
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright.

The poem, contrary to popular belief, was not an ancient legend, but was in fact an invention of screenwriter Siodmak. The poem is repeated in every subsequent film in which Talbot/The Wolf Man appears, with the exception of House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and is also quoted in the later film Van Helsing, although many later films change the last line of the poem to “And the moon is full and bright”. In episode 944 of Dark Shadows, Christopher Pennock (as Jeb Hawkes) recites this version of the poem.

Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi also starred in, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The picture is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal’s horror film stable. In this film, they encounter Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange), and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.), while subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Invisible Man. On a TV special in the early 1950s, the two did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The film is considered the swan song for the “Big Three” Universal horror monsters – Count Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s monster, none of whom had appeared in a Universal film since 1945’s House of Dracula.

11:12 – Haunted Music

17. Digital Leather – “Help Me Kill Myself”
from: Hard At Work / Tic Tac Totally July 16, 2007
[The band’s latest release is: All Faded / FDH Records / June 23, 2015 Omaha, Nebraska based Synth punk, New Wave, pop, lo-fi, and psychedelic musical project led by multi-instrumentalist Shawn Foree. Originally from Yuma, Arizona, Foree began calling his project Digital Leather when he moved to Tucson, where he studied American Literature at University of Arizona. He used student loan money to buy equipment. He managed to release his first three albums after recording them in his bedroom on labels such as Tic Tac Totally, Jay Reatard’s Shattered Records imprint, and FDH Records. He supported this “bedroom project” with several nationwide and European tours. Sorcerer, released on Goner Records in 2008, is a half-live, half-studio record. In 2009, Foree began working on a collection of songs in a fully operational studio. Released in September 2009 by Fat Possum Records, Warm Brother garnered positive reviews. After relocating to Omaha, Nebraska, a 5-piece band formed. They toured around and as a band Digital Leather recorded All Faded. The record sounds huge in comparison to the earlier efforts. Big drums, thick bass, great guitars, and of course biting synth-leads courtesy of The Faint’s Todd Fink.]

18. Iggy & The Stooges – “Gimme Danger”
from: Raw Power / Columbia / February 7, 1973
[3rd studio album from Ann Arbor, Michigan band, first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003. The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.After their first two albums, The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970) were released to little commercial success, The Stooges were in disarray: they had officially broken up, bassist Dave Alexander was fighting alcoholism, and singer Iggy Pop’s heroin addiction was escalating prior to the intervention of David Bowie. Pop later recalled, “Very few people recognized the quality of the Stooges’ songwriting, it was really meticulous. And to his credit, the only person I’d ever known of in print to notice it, among my peers of professional musicians, was Bowie.” Pop relocated to London, having signed on as a solo artist to MainMan Management, who also handled Bowie. Pop said that Columbia executives insisted on two ballads”Gimme Danger” and “I Need Somebody”. The album was recorded in London’s CBS Studios, from Sept. 10 to Oct. 6, 1972. Pop produced and mixed the album by himself; unfortunately, his botched first attempt mixed most of the instruments into one stereo channel and the vocals into the other, with little regard for balance or tone quality. Tony DeFries, the head of MainMan, informed Pop that the album would be remixed by Bowie. Pop agreed to this, claiming that “the other choice was I wasn’t going to get my album out. I think DeFries told me that CBS refused to release it like that, I don’t know”, but insisted that his own mix for “Search and Destroy” be retained. Due to budgetary constraints, Bowie remixed 7 songs in one day in an inexpensive LA studio, Western Sound Recorders, in October 1972]

19. Danny Elfman – “Lydia Strikes a Bargain…”
from: Beetlejuice (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) / Geffen Records / September 16, 2014

11:19 – Interview with Jamie Searle & Calvin Arsenia

Jamie Searle joined us to share information about, Macabre KC, Halloween night, Saturday, October 31, 8:30 pm to 12:30 am, at Knuckleheads, featuring MY BROTHERS & SISTERS, KC’s Dynamic 14-piece urban orchestra, playing along to iconic movie scenes with guest vocalists, Jessica Paige, Calvin Arsenia, Stephonne Singleton, Christian Robinson and Bach Aria Soloist – Sarah Tannehill Anderson. The entire event will be streamed live on the web and broadcast live on 90.1 FM KKFI. Scenes from famous horror and adventure films will be projected for the audience. Historical Kansas City will present a reading from the Paris of the Plains podcast, accompanied by orchestra. This event will benefit 90.1FM KKFI,

Calvin Arsenia sings in a 3.5 octave range, from a voice that stands 6 foot 5 inches, while playing the harp, guitar and piano. Calvin Arsenia recently came home to KC after living in Edinburgh, Scotland. His 2014 EP, Moments, was in our Top Ten, of The 114 Best Recordings of 2014. Calvin Arsenia has written, arranged and produced 5 EPs, including Prose, his 9-song collection, released February 3, 2015. He has currently been collaborating with Jamie Searle on the recording of his new song “Cardiac.” More info at: http://www.calvinarsenia.com

“The Garage” is Knuckleheads’ newest venue. Located in the East-Bottoms – a neighborhood pocketed with condemned structures and scarred by chain-link fences – the Garage offers the perfect backdrop to our urban revelry.

Macabre KC will also be BROADCAST LIVE on 90.1 FM KKFI – 8:00pm to 1:00am.
“A Halloween event like no other. On All Hallows Eve, enter the Macabre, a world where your favorite Halloween films become a reality. Experience a bone-chilling, innovative concert, that combines imagination, live music, projected motion pictures and audience participation to create fully immersive, multi-sensory experience.”

Macabre KC, Halloween night, MY BROTHERS & SISTERS, will play music LIVE along to iconic movie scenes with guest vocalists.

Featured Artists:
My Brothers & Sisters Urban Orchestra
Pop Vocal Sensation, Jessica Paige
Indie-Folk multi-instrumentalist and vocal dynamo, Calvin Arsenia
Edgy Pop Vocalist Stephonne Singleton
Singer/Dancer, Christian Robinson
Opera Soprano & Bach Aria Soloist, Sarah Tannehill Anderson

Historical Kansas City will present a reading from the Paris of the Plains podcast, accompanied by orchestra.

This event is raising money for musicians and artist throughout KC, partnering with 90.1FM KKFI, Midwest Music Foundation & KC Creative three local charities that serve our community in very unique ways. For more information go to: http://www.kkfi.org/ http://midwestmusicfound.org/ or http://kccreative.org/

Advance tickets are $20.00 for reservations: http://www.Macabrekc.com

When Calvin Arsenia was on the show back in March he performed his song “Cardiac” live in our 90.1 FM Studios. Since then he has been working on this song as a new recording, collaborating with Jamie Searle of My Brothers & Sisters. Calvin brought in a rough cut on August 5, and today he brought in a new finished recording.

11:28

20. Calvin Arsenia – “Cardiac”
[Produced by Jamie and Calvin in collaboration.]

Next week Jamie Searle will be with Stephonne Singleton on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Macabre KC, Halloween night, Saturday, October 31, 8:30 pm to 12:30 am, at Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester St, KC, MO., featuring MY BROTHERS & SISTERS, KC’s Dynamic 14-piece urban orchestra, playing along to iconic movie scenes with guest vocalists, Jessica Paige, Calvin Arsenia, Stephonne Singleton, Christian Robinson and Bach Aria Soloist – Sarah Tannehill Anderson. Scenes from famous horror and adventure films will be projected for the audience. This event will benefit 90.1FM KKFI, Midwest Music Foundation & KC Creative. More info at MacabreKC.com

11:40 – Underwriting

11:43 – Haunted Music

21. Sinoia Caves – “Arboria Tapes – Award Winning Gardens”
from: Beyond the Black Rainbow (Official Soundtrack) / Jagjaguar / September 2, 2014
[Beyond the Black Rainbow is a 2010 Canadian science fiction thriller-horror film written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, his feature film debut. It was produced and filmed in Vancouver, and premiered at the 2010 Whistler Film Festival. It also showed at several film festivals throughout 2011, including Tribeca in New York City. As a child, Cosmatos frequented a video store named Video Addict. During these trips he would browse the horror film section looking at the boxes although he was not allowed to watch such films. During such times he would instead imagine what the film was. He would later reflect upon this experience when making Black Rainbow where one of his goals was “to create a film that is a sort of imagining of an old film that doesn’t exist.” The year 1983 was chosen for the story as it’s the first year he went to Video Addict. Additionally he thought the idea of setting such a film one year before 1984 was funny. The presence of his parents haunts “every frame of this film”, said the Rome-born filmmaker. His father was film director George P. Cosmatos (whose credits include Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra), deceased in April 2005, and his mother Swedish sculptor Birgitta Ljungberg-Cosmatos, who died in July 1997 after a lengthy battle with cancer.[10] Unable to deal with his mother’s death, Panos “drifted into a slow motion mode of self-destruction and binge drinking”. When elder Cosmatos died, the grief he felt compounded. After that the aspiring writer/director started therapy and decided he wanted to make a film as part of the healing process. Cosmatos felt that his “filmmaking sensibility is a weird hybrid of both of them” – his father’s “popcorn movies” and his mother’s haunting, experimental art. Beyond the Black Rainbow was financed by DVD residuals from Tombstone (1993), directed by Panos’ father. Jeremy Schmidt, keyboard player for Vancouver-based rockers Black Mountain, was invited by Cosmatos to compose the film’s soundtrack. Jeremy ecords as Sinoia Caves as a solo artist. For his analogue synthesizer score, Schmidt used the following equipment: a Prophet 5, two Oberheims, Moog Taurus bass pedals, a Korg CX-3 organ and a Mellotron. The music was mixed by Joshua Stevenson at Otic Sound, Vancouver, Canada.]

11:45 – Interview & Performance with Michael McQuary & Maria Vasquez Boyd

Michael McQuary, star of the upcoming Mile Deep Films, short film, directed by Anthony Ladesich, “Corvalo.” Michael is also a visual artist of personal portraits, “life captures”with china ink that are collected internationally. Michael designs for YourPowerSign.com where he creates personal art works of metal.

Maria Vasquez Boyd, founding member of the Latino Writer’s Collective and currently working on Day of the Dead exhibitions at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Dia de los Muertos, translated: Day of the Dead, Altar Installation will be presented in Kirkwood Hall of The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, on display, Sunday, November. 1, Noon to 4 pm, at 4525 Oak Street, KC, MO. In collaboration with local artists through Mattie Rhodes Center, the 2015 altar will highlight the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water, and will feature a large scale suspended Papel Picado, sand paintings and four paper mache skeletons. Altar will remain on view through November 15. 12:30 to 1:00 & 2:30 to 3:00 pm. – Maria Vasquez Boyd & Latino Writers Collective will read specially selected poetry.

11:52 – Haunted Music

22. Arcade Fire – “Cold Wind”
from: Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends / Astrawerks / June 21, 2005
[Single by Canadian indie rock band, not found on any of their studio albums. Released in August 2005 via Merge Records, and featured on the television soundtrack album Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends. The song’s lyrics refer to San Francisco. The single was pressed on clear 7″ vinyl and featured the band’s cover of “Brazil” (a.k.a. “Aquarela do Brasil”). The single is out of print.]

22. John Carpenter – “Halloween Theme – Main Title”
from: Halloween (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) / Astrawerks / June 21, 2005
[Halloween, a 1978 independent film directed by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, starring Donald Pleasence & Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The film was the 1st in what has become a Halloween franchise. The plot is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois. On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old Michael Myers dressed in a clown costume murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. 15 years later, Michael Myers, age 21, escapes from a psychiatric hospital, returns home, and stalks Laurie Strode and her friends. Halloween was produced on a budget of $300,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States, and $70 million worldwide, equivalent to $250 million as of 2014, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Another major reason for the success of Halloween is the moody musical score, particularly the main theme. Lacking a symphonic soundtrack, the film’s score consists of a piano melody played in a 10/8 or “complex 5/4” meter composed and performed by director John Carpenter. Carpenter stated in an interview, “I can play just about any keyboard, but I can’t read or write a note.” In the end credits, Carpenter bills himself as the “Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra”.]

11:59:30

23. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Next week on November 5, Stephonne Singleton joins us to talk about his upcoming album, Caged Bird Sings Songs About Red Beard. Joining Stephonne will be producer Jamie Searle. We will also be debuting the 2nd single off the new album, “Dangerous,” in an exclusive live acoustic performance! At 11:15 Sondra Freeman of Midwest Music Foundation joins us to share all of the details of Apocalypse Meow 8, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 at recordBar, with Chris Meck and The Guilty Birds, Amy Farrand and the Like, and Drop a Grand; SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, at 7:00 pm at Mills Record Company in an ALL AGES SHOW presented by The Deli Magazine – Kansas City, featuring: Berwanger, and Schwervon!; and SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8, at Knuckleheads KC with Kangaroo Knife Fight, Westerners, Me Like Bees, The Noise FM, Yes You Are, Federation of Horsepower, Sara Morgan, and Jessica Paige.

Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org 


Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:

www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org,

www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM,
http://www.kkfi.org

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