Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails (1969)

To enjoy Quicksilver Messenger Service is to hear them in a live setting, to hear the chemistry and seeming psychic connection between the exceptional musicians so their solos seamlessly blend into one another creating a stunning aural painting.

Unfortunately, being born on the wrong coast and several years too late, I never knew this pleasure first hand-- Luckily Happy Trails captures QMS in that setting. In particular the late John Cippolina is on top form, truly an underrated guitarist this album puts on display some of his best musical efforts on the band's epic cover of Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love (spanning over 20 minutes), much of which is pure jamming that even the Fillmore audience gets into.

Cipollina also shares vocals with David Freiberg (also on bass and guitar) and Gary Duncan (also on bass and guitar) and the unit is rounded out by Greg Elmore on drums. Although he was technically a member, Dino Valenti (aka Chet Powers) was-- at the time in jail on a marijuana posession charge and wouldn't rejoin his bandmates until 1970 after the release of their Shady Grove album.

This is the 2nd and final album to feature the core quartet and it was, arguably, this core quartet that saw the band at its best (although their brief stint as a sextet in 1970/71 also produced some exceptional music).

Part of what makes this album so enjoyable that it is both a snapshot of the psychadelic era and a collection of timeless well-crafted music as QMS were not only torch-bearers but also transcended the very genre they were at least in part responsible for making popular in the late sixties.

So pop on your headphones, close your eyes, and let Quicksilver Messenger Service take you on the aural ride of your life!

The Cameraman (1928)

In 1928, after writing, directing, and starring in many films, and against the advice of his friends, Buster Keaton signed on with MGM Studios.

Keaton's gradual loss of autonomy in the filmmaking process marked a sharp decline in his career. Despite having to relinquish control to the studio and having to script many of his gags-- something in the past he'd relied heavily on improvisation for, The Cameraman is an excellent film.

Turner Classic Movies recently released on DVD a 2 disc set with 3 films and a documentary of Keaton's work with MGM studios including The Cameraman. The restoration is crisp and rather clean. The acting is superb, and Keaton, if not at his absolute best, was certainly at his best within the confines of the studio system.

Perhaps what is most poignant about this classic is the chemistry between Keaton and his completely captivating leading lady, Marceline Day who manages to capture the viewers attention and never truly let go, even in the scenes in which she is absent. For even when Day's character is absent-- everything Keaton's character does-- he does for her.

Some of Keaton's better gags, riding a double-decker bus on the wheel well OUTSIDE the bus, sharing a small changing room with another man, and his filming of a gang war in Chinatown with the "help" and distraction of a small spider monkey.

This film provides a rather interesting capsule of the state of film at the end of the silent-film era just as the "talkies" were starting to come into play. To watch it within the context of modern films, one might get bored-- but to fully appreciate silent film is to view it within the context of the time in which it was created-- a simpler era, before the Great Depression, before World War II, before the Hayes Code. Film is similar to music in its evolutionary scope and watching classic Buster Keaton is akin to listening to the music and musicians which inspired and paved the way for The Beatles.