Comments on: How To Speak Hip

How To Speak Hip

Del Far — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:24:17 -0800

How To Speak Hip with Del Close and John Brent

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:33:46 -0800

Del Close is great. I used to read the Wasteland comic he co-wrote with John Ostrander for DC, pre-Vertigo, and it blew l'il Shepherd's mind. He bequeathed his skull to a theatre group to use as Yorick in performances of Hamlet. Pure class. Even though they apparently wound up using some other skull instead.

By: Del Far

Del Far — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:43:36 -0800

Yeah the fact that he donated his skull always makes me wonder what awesome things I could do with my body when I die.

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:11:43 -0800

Cool, thanks...I think I first heard of this LP via Brian Wilson being a big fan of it while making Pet Sounds.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:12:28 -0800

Sounds like first you need to figure out how to get your skull actually donated.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:13:46 -0800

double

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:18:42 -0800

wow, this may be the greatest thing I've ever heard. anyone know of a list of songs that sample this thing?

By: Del Far

Del Far — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:23:48 -0800

Oops, sorry, if it helps at all there is also a new biography on Del Close called The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close also an interview with the author.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:27:37 -0800

Oooh, I was thinking of scaring up some FPP having to do with Del Close or Lord Buckley. Thanks!

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:42:22 -0800

Bob Harris (whose Prisoner of Trebekistan was mentioned here yesterday) reminisces about Close and plugs the new biography.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:46:27 -0800

I just went crate digging today to find fun samples to scratch, I come back and MeFi... provides.

By: [son] QUAALUDE

[son] QUAALUDE — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:01:13 -0800

oh, i LOVE the widget. Terrible coolness!!!!!11 **I wish i could listen to tektonik on it** (flails arms about)

By: phrontist

phrontist — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:49:42 -0800

Can someone parse the obfuscated javascript and give us a straight mp3 link?

By: quin

quin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:56:08 -0800

I'm not sure which thread would be more appropriate to make this comment, but sorta following [son] Q's lead, I was opened this clip from the Tecktonik thread (with the volume down), and the main link from this thread with the narration, and it worked really way too well. Not sure what that means, exactly.

By: reishus

reishus — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:21:02 -0800

Direct MP3 Links: Side One Side Two

By: snsranch

snsranch — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:54:15 -0800

Dig it baby.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:56:14 -0800

Dig it, baby. Dig, it baby. Dig it. BABY!

By: salvia

salvia — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:58:34 -0800

"In other words the phrase, 'I dig,' not only means 'I understand' but 'I am a special sort of person who understands in a very special way.'' Funny.

By: not_that_epiphanius

not_that_epiphanius — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:05:53 -0800

Anyone else from Toronto familiar with the name Geets Romo? The Toronto Geets has a wikipedia entry of sorts. I guess he swiped the name from this, elder, Geets; though he made the most of it, appearing as Mctavish McRomo, if memory serves, and other variations. He and his straight man Pete made mornings in 1970's Toronto more enjoyable than they would have been otherwise. Any more Geets trivia out there? Is the original Geets on the "Talk Hip" record, or does he go further back?

By: Wolof

Wolof — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:21:55 -0800

Dig yourself, man.

By: Herodios

Herodios — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:38:14 -0800

If you dig this stuff, check into Rhino Records' (now out of print) Beat Generation 3-CD box set. Wild Bohemian Tower Records Discogs Music Match In addition to exerpts from How To Speak Hip, there's music, prose, poetry, comedy, and noise from Lord Buckley, Langston Hughes, William Burroughs, Dizzy Gillespie, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Slim Gaillard, Charlie Parker, Allen Ginsberg, Edd Byrnes, Lenny Bruce, Tom Waits, Jack Kerouac, Gerry Mulligan, Ken Nordine, and Perry Como(!?). For hip jive at its most impenetrable, take Manhattan Fable by Babs Gonzales. If you can follow it, you've earned your degree from how-to-speak-hip school. Along the way, Charles Kuralt and Howard K. Smith try to make sense of it all for the squares at home. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get in the wind. . . -

By: jinjo

jinjo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:51:52 -0800

schmegegge: I only know of this little thing...

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:29:57 -0800

Del Close provided the voice-over for the opening credits of the Upright Citizens Brigade show. In the Pro Thunderball episode they have a decrepit stadium named in his honor.

By: Seekerofsplendor

Seekerofsplendor — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:48:35 -0800

This makes me really miss all those cool Lenny Bruce albums I used to have. I guess I still talk a bit like this, but then again, I'm a jazz player. It just sort of happens. (Man, I must be old.) Great post Del Far! Thanks also to resihus for the MP3s.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:18:10 -0800

I guess I still talk a bit like this, but then again, I'm a jazz player. I do it too. Half my vocabulary is on this CD. *bongos*

By: sleslie

sleslie — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:27:31 -0800

schmegegge: The Orb's remix of Semisonic's Secret Smile uses the "...stop beating that gong, man. It's a drag; very hard on the nerves." quote.

By: lookoutkitty

lookoutkitty — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:23:17 -0800

What a great site. I think I learned something, dig? That was probably so un-hip to say.....

By: MildlyDisturbed

MildlyDisturbed — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:05:20 -0800

I met Del Close back in 95 or 96 I think at the Big Stinkin' International Improv Fest and saw him many a time at improv meetups after that. To this day he remains the only person who has ever walked in, sat at my table, ordered drinks and then left me with the bill without asking. very cool cat most of the times I met him, just downright bizarre another...