I told you in a recent post that our March 2nd Symphony Space show would be a celebration of New York City. In addition to saluting our town in song, we're also going to use the show to do something concrete to help NYC communities. Organizations all over the city are still working to help neighborhoods recover from Hurricane Sandy but they're also doing the same essential work they were doing before the storm to help those most in need. We'll be spotlighting different non-profits that we think do great stuff in the five boroughs and doing different promotions to help them.
The first non-profit we're going to spotlight is Red Hook Initiative. I took a lot of supplies and food down there donated by folks in my neighborhood and collected money and presents at my sing-a-longs for their holiday parties. They've been extremely active post-hurricane but have been a huge force in that community since 2002. Check 'em out here: http://rhicenter.org/
Here's the first promotion: If you buy tickets to our March 2nd show by MLK / Inauguration Day (Jan 21), we'll donate $2 per ticket to Red Hook Initiative. We don't have access to the Symphony Space box office system so you have to let us know by sending me an e-mail at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com that tells me how many tickets you bought. Don't bother sending your ticket confirmation or any of that nonsense. If you tell me you bought tickets, I'll believe you. And either way, Red Hook Initiative will get some money. I'll list all the people who bought tickets to benefit Red Hook Initiative on a big honor roll we'll display at the show and online (please let us know if you'd rather we didn't list your name).
You can buy tickets here: http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7482-the-deedle-deedle-dees
Lloyd
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Ulysses / Odyssey book club
I'm doing a Ulysses / Odyssey book club this year. "Ulysses" as in Ulysses by James Joyce and "Odyssey" as in the epic tale by Homer that provides the structure for Joyce's book.
We're reading both of them simultaneously. Pick any editions you want but I'll be reading the 1961 translation of Joyce's book and probably the Fitzgerald or Fagles version of Homer's tale. In addition I'm already reading Gareth Hinds' graphic novel of The Odyssey with my kids (ages 4 and 7). It's very cool. This past summer we read part of the Odyssey adaption by Mary Pope Osborne (yes, of Magic Tree House fame) and they got hooked. I got hooked as well, both by reading MPO to them at bedtime and by working on some Joyce-related music for an Irish lit professor who asked me to sing some songs in her classroom.
I'm going to use Joyce's book as a guide for our schedule. His Ulysses has 18 "books," which divides up to 3 every two months. So read about 3 books every two months + the corresponding passages of Homer and we'll meet -- online and in person. Did I mention this is a musical book club? It is. We'll be singing most of the songs we come across in Joyce's book and writing some more based on Homer. If you live in or near Brooklyn you can do this with me in person but if you don't you can do it with me on YouTube.
Yeah, this is a big undertaking. But if what your Facebook and Twitter avatars are saying is any indication, it seems you folks have a lot of time on your hands that you mostly spend taking pictures of plates of food and watching cable TV. So just eat a little less (or don't waste time taking pictures of what you eat), watch a little less of that critically-acclaimed series television and you'll have plenty of time for my club.
This is not a literary club. Although I do have an annotated companion to my Ulysses that is as long as the book itself, I'll only be consulting it haphazardly and our discussions, both real and virtual, will be very free-wheeling and focused on whatever we think is fun to talk about in relation to the books.
Get your kids involved! The graphic novel and the Mary Pope Osborne versions are well done and provide a great way for you to have a real family book club.
Go! First meeting sometime in late February.
Lloyd
We're reading both of them simultaneously. Pick any editions you want but I'll be reading the 1961 translation of Joyce's book and probably the Fitzgerald or Fagles version of Homer's tale. In addition I'm already reading Gareth Hinds' graphic novel of The Odyssey with my kids (ages 4 and 7). It's very cool. This past summer we read part of the Odyssey adaption by Mary Pope Osborne (yes, of Magic Tree House fame) and they got hooked. I got hooked as well, both by reading MPO to them at bedtime and by working on some Joyce-related music for an Irish lit professor who asked me to sing some songs in her classroom.
I'm going to use Joyce's book as a guide for our schedule. His Ulysses has 18 "books," which divides up to 3 every two months. So read about 3 books every two months + the corresponding passages of Homer and we'll meet -- online and in person. Did I mention this is a musical book club? It is. We'll be singing most of the songs we come across in Joyce's book and writing some more based on Homer. If you live in or near Brooklyn you can do this with me in person but if you don't you can do it with me on YouTube.
Yeah, this is a big undertaking. But if what your Facebook and Twitter avatars are saying is any indication, it seems you folks have a lot of time on your hands that you mostly spend taking pictures of plates of food and watching cable TV. So just eat a little less (or don't waste time taking pictures of what you eat), watch a little less of that critically-acclaimed series television and you'll have plenty of time for my club.
This is not a literary club. Although I do have an annotated companion to my Ulysses that is as long as the book itself, I'll only be consulting it haphazardly and our discussions, both real and virtual, will be very free-wheeling and focused on whatever we think is fun to talk about in relation to the books.
Get your kids involved! The graphic novel and the Mary Pope Osborne versions are well done and provide a great way for you to have a real family book club.
Go! First meeting sometime in late February.
Lloyd
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Big NYC area shows coming up soon
The Deedle Deedle Dees are deep in rehearsal and preparing to re-emerge with performances at BAM in Brooklyn on Feb. 2nd and at Symphony Space in Manhattan on March 2nd. Here's what makes these shows unique:
Saturday, Feb 2nd, 12pm, 2:30pm - BAM, Brooklyn
Original guitarist and founding member Anand Mukherjee (AKA Innocent Dee) will take the stage with us for these performances that are part of the BAMkids Film Festival. These will be celebratory shows spanning the Dees' nearly 10-year career featuring fan favorites, songs you haven't heard in a while, and previews of some of our newest compositions.
http://www.bam.org/programs/bam-kids-film-festival
Saturday, March 2nd, 11am - Symphony Space, Manhattan
A show all about our home, New York City made up of almost entirely new material that we've been writing over the past year. NYC is a town built from seemingly disparate but somehow wonderfully compatible elements and so is this show: hip hop, klezmer, old jazz, punk rock, mariachi, salsa, old string band music, and all the other sounds you're used to hearing collide at our shows will all be there but mixed together in new and surprising ways that we think will tell the story of our town especially well. As you might expect, the Dees tour of New York is an esoteric one, one down the forgotten side streets and under those streets (yep, there's a song about rats), one that reaches deep into the outer boroughs to find new neighborhoods and the people who live there and the delightful stories they tell.
http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7482-the-deedle-deedle-dees
See you there!
Lloyd
Saturday, Feb 2nd, 12pm, 2:30pm - BAM, Brooklyn
Original guitarist and founding member Anand Mukherjee (AKA Innocent Dee) will take the stage with us for these performances that are part of the BAMkids Film Festival. These will be celebratory shows spanning the Dees' nearly 10-year career featuring fan favorites, songs you haven't heard in a while, and previews of some of our newest compositions.
http://www.bam.org/programs/bam-kids-film-festival
Saturday, March 2nd, 11am - Symphony Space, Manhattan
A show all about our home, New York City made up of almost entirely new material that we've been writing over the past year. NYC is a town built from seemingly disparate but somehow wonderfully compatible elements and so is this show: hip hop, klezmer, old jazz, punk rock, mariachi, salsa, old string band music, and all the other sounds you're used to hearing collide at our shows will all be there but mixed together in new and surprising ways that we think will tell the story of our town especially well. As you might expect, the Dees tour of New York is an esoteric one, one down the forgotten side streets and under those streets (yep, there's a song about rats), one that reaches deep into the outer boroughs to find new neighborhoods and the people who live there and the delightful stories they tell.
http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7482-the-deedle-deedle-dees
See you there!
Lloyd
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Our next album: "work" in progress
On our last album, Strange Dees, Indeed, we developed the song "Mayor LaGuardia's Stomach" around a story Esther Levine (grandma of Ari Dolegowski AKA Moby Dee) told us. Ari and I spent a whole afternoon interviewing and recording Esther and she told us dozens of stories. We chose her tale of bumping into Fiorello LaGuardia as a young woman because it was really well suited to a quick snappy jazz composition Chris (Booker Dee) had written but she told us lots of other great stories, many of which might make for good songs, either ones where, like on "Mayor," she would narrate backed up by our music or where we would sing a song inspired by what she told us. It got me thinking that I'd like our next album to be a collection of tunes derived mostly from stories people tell us rather than stories we've read in books. Sort of Studs Terkel / StoryCorps approach to songwriting.
For much of the last year I've been considering different themes for such a record. After much deliberation, experimentation, and consultation with my wife I've finally made up my mind. The next Dees record is going to be all about work. The work we do, the work our parents and grandparents did, the paid work and the unpaid work that's the substance of our daily lives, the work kids do, the work parents do, the essential work that goes unnoticed… We're going to talk to a lot of people and, when possible, involve them in the actual songwriting process. Esther has some great stories about jobs she used to have and so these might show up in some form. There are a number of friends and acquaintances (among them, a firefighter, a surveyor, a lice picker, a neurologist, a deep sea diver, a subway track repair engineer, a chef, a cop, a "trash-out" contractor, an actor, a mechanic, and many many teachers). I'd like to interview, preferably with the help of kids, about their jobs. I'd like to interview kids about jobs they'd like to have and what they think is involved in certain jobs (they have some interesting ideas about this). I'm going to Haiti in October to do a songwriting project with some kids at an orphanage and so I'm going to talk to them about their daily work. I'm volunteering with Sing for Hope and would like to write songs with people at hospitals, adult care centers, schools, and other places where I perform. I might write songs about the many jobs I've had and the ones I have now.
We're planning to do an official debut of this project March 2nd at Symphony Space in NYC. We might have the album done by then or we might just play a set of songs we've written by that point. Between then and now, we'll be collecting stories and trying to involve as many people in this collaboration as possible. Will you join us?
I'm starting a blog, probably a Tumblr, where anyone can post their own stories, photos, videos, and songs related to this project. I'll also be putting drafts and works-in-progress up there. Details on this soon.
Send us your thoughts. And let me know if you have a class or other group you think might have some stories to share with me.
Lloyd
thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com
For much of the last year I've been considering different themes for such a record. After much deliberation, experimentation, and consultation with my wife I've finally made up my mind. The next Dees record is going to be all about work. The work we do, the work our parents and grandparents did, the paid work and the unpaid work that's the substance of our daily lives, the work kids do, the work parents do, the essential work that goes unnoticed… We're going to talk to a lot of people and, when possible, involve them in the actual songwriting process. Esther has some great stories about jobs she used to have and so these might show up in some form. There are a number of friends and acquaintances (among them, a firefighter, a surveyor, a lice picker, a neurologist, a deep sea diver, a subway track repair engineer, a chef, a cop, a "trash-out" contractor, an actor, a mechanic, and many many teachers). I'd like to interview, preferably with the help of kids, about their jobs. I'd like to interview kids about jobs they'd like to have and what they think is involved in certain jobs (they have some interesting ideas about this). I'm going to Haiti in October to do a songwriting project with some kids at an orphanage and so I'm going to talk to them about their daily work. I'm volunteering with Sing for Hope and would like to write songs with people at hospitals, adult care centers, schools, and other places where I perform. I might write songs about the many jobs I've had and the ones I have now.
We're planning to do an official debut of this project March 2nd at Symphony Space in NYC. We might have the album done by then or we might just play a set of songs we've written by that point. Between then and now, we'll be collecting stories and trying to involve as many people in this collaboration as possible. Will you join us?
I'm starting a blog, probably a Tumblr, where anyone can post their own stories, photos, videos, and songs related to this project. I'll also be putting drafts and works-in-progress up there. Details on this soon.
Send us your thoughts. And let me know if you have a class or other group you think might have some stories to share with me.
Lloyd
thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Musikfest Aug 12, 2012 set lists
Not sure if we played 'em exactly in this order but here are the tunes we played at Musikfest in Bethlehem today.
Lyrics, related books, and other stuff connected to these tunes should be easy to find on this blog -- scroll down through the list of titles on the left or search for a particular song. If
there's something you can't find, send me a note: thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
set 1 (3:30-4:30)
a song for Abigail Adams
Baldy
Birds of America Don't Care-Oh
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
Henry Box Brown
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Major Deegan
Growl Growl
Marie Curie
¡Sí Se Puede!
Dead Horse Bay
Bring 'Em In
set 2 (5-6)
Bluebird > Redbird, Redbird > Reef
Sojourner Truth
Ah Ahimsa
Little Red Airplane
Camperdown Elm
Sacagawea
The Brooklyn Bridge Song
Nellie Bly
River of Blood
Skating in Old Bryant Park
Cool Papa Bell
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Zora
Here are the scribbled set lists on top of the sweaty shirts I wore. As usual, our actual sets diverged from what I originally wrote down.
Lloyd
Lyrics, related books, and other stuff connected to these tunes should be easy to find on this blog -- scroll down through the list of titles on the left or search for a particular song. If
there's something you can't find, send me a note: thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
set 1 (3:30-4:30)
a song for Abigail Adams
Baldy
Birds of America Don't Care-Oh
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
Henry Box Brown
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Major Deegan
Growl Growl
Marie Curie
¡Sí Se Puede!
Dead Horse Bay
Bring 'Em In
set 2 (5-6)
Bluebird > Redbird, Redbird > Reef
Sojourner Truth
Ah Ahimsa
Little Red Airplane
Camperdown Elm
Sacagawea
The Brooklyn Bridge Song
Nellie Bly
River of Blood
Skating in Old Bryant Park
Cool Papa Bell
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Zora
Here are the scribbled set lists on top of the sweaty shirts I wore. As usual, our actual sets diverged from what I originally wrote down.
Lloyd
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Revised summer and early fall schedule
We'll get this stuff up on our various calendars shortly, but we wanted to let you know about some additions (and one subtraction) to our summer schedule right away.
June 9 - Library Love benefit at the Knitting Factory CANCELED
This show was to be a benefit for the Shutesbury, MA library. Why did we cancel the show? In brief, the library lost a crucial local vote that essentially put their fundraising goal way out of reach.
June 10 NEW La Flaca -- 8pm
A Dees After Dark gig featuring three Dees and guest star Janelle Reichman on the clarinet. Country, swing, klezmer, mariachi, and lots of surprises. www.laflacanyc.com
June 14 - Madison Square Park - 10:30 am
Can't remember how many years we've been playing MSP. Always a great event.
June 16 - Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA - 11am
July 11 NEW - Fort Greene Park - 10am
July 11 NEW - La Flaca - 8:30pm - 21+ - This is a Dees After Dark show for grown-ups. Roy Nathanson will join us for the first set as we try out some mariachi, standards, and other stuff. Second set (around 10 / 10:30) we'll veer into hip hop covers and old country and also do our regular mix of klezmer, old jazz, and bluegrass.
July 14 - Green River Festival - Greenfield, MA
August 12 - Musikfest, Bethlehem, PA - 3:30pm and 5pm
September 9 - Discoveroo Festival, Charlottesville, VA - details soon
Sept 19th - the Stone 8pm
The Deedle Deedle Dees, Roy Nathanson, Curtis Fowlkes, and David Orr (poetry critic for the NYTimes) are creating a set of music and poetry that's not to be missed.
Sept 28th -- the Stone 10pm
The Jazz Passengers with Lloyd Miller (Ulysses S. Dee) on guest vocals
Roy Nathanson and I are writing a musical movie script based on Exiles in Eden, Paul Reyes' gorgeous book about the foreclosure crisis in Florida. The songs will have their debut this night, performed by the untouchable Jazz Passengers with me as a guest vocalist.
September 29 NEW - Carroll Park, Brooklyn - 4pm
Note: Carroll Park website says Sept 30 but the show has been moved to the 29th to avoid a conflict with the Atlantic Antic
October 14 - Littlefield, Brooklyn - 2pm
With special guests Dog on Fleas!
Nov 3 - Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art - Amherst, MA - Details soon
June 9 - Library Love benefit at the Knitting Factory CANCELED
This show was to be a benefit for the Shutesbury, MA library. Why did we cancel the show? In brief, the library lost a crucial local vote that essentially put their fundraising goal way out of reach.
June 10 NEW La Flaca -- 8pm
A Dees After Dark gig featuring three Dees and guest star Janelle Reichman on the clarinet. Country, swing, klezmer, mariachi, and lots of surprises. www.laflacanyc.com
June 14 - Madison Square Park - 10:30 am
Can't remember how many years we've been playing MSP. Always a great event.
June 16 - Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA - 11am
July 11 NEW - Fort Greene Park - 10am
July 11 NEW - La Flaca - 8:30pm - 21+ - This is a Dees After Dark show for grown-ups. Roy Nathanson will join us for the first set as we try out some mariachi, standards, and other stuff. Second set (around 10 / 10:30) we'll veer into hip hop covers and old country and also do our regular mix of klezmer, old jazz, and bluegrass.
July 14 - Green River Festival - Greenfield, MA
August 12 - Musikfest, Bethlehem, PA - 3:30pm and 5pm
September 9 - Discoveroo Festival, Charlottesville, VA - details soon
Sept 19th - the Stone 8pm
The Deedle Deedle Dees, Roy Nathanson, Curtis Fowlkes, and David Orr (poetry critic for the NYTimes) are creating a set of music and poetry that's not to be missed.
Sept 28th -- the Stone 10pm
The Jazz Passengers with Lloyd Miller (Ulysses S. Dee) on guest vocals
Roy Nathanson and I are writing a musical movie script based on Exiles in Eden, Paul Reyes' gorgeous book about the foreclosure crisis in Florida. The songs will have their debut this night, performed by the untouchable Jazz Passengers with me as a guest vocalist.
September 29 NEW - Carroll Park, Brooklyn - 4pm
Note: Carroll Park website says Sept 30 but the show has been moved to the 29th to avoid a conflict with the Atlantic Antic
October 14 - Littlefield, Brooklyn - 2pm
With special guests Dog on Fleas!
Nov 3 - Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art - Amherst, MA - Details soon
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Real-Time Shelby Foote
So I finally have a companion in my Shelby Foote book club! We're reading his Civil War trilogy over the course of five years, attempting as much as possible to sync our reading to the 150th anniversaries of the events. Doesn't this sound like great fun? ("Yes," replies everyone in monotone unison)
Seriously, though, it's truly a fantastic work. Check out his Tolstoyian (Tolstoyesque? Tolstoyish?) introduction of Jefferson Davis (right at the beginning of book 1) and tell me you really don't care to read this thing.
If you're concerned that we're way ahead of you and you'll never catch up, your fears are unfounded. The first year of the war only takes up about 150 pages so you can easily meet us where we are -- March 1862 -- by reading about 150 pages this weekend. You will read 150 pages this weekend.
I won't beg.
I beg you.
Lloyd
Seriously, though, it's truly a fantastic work. Check out his Tolstoyian (Tolstoyesque? Tolstoyish?) introduction of Jefferson Davis (right at the beginning of book 1) and tell me you really don't care to read this thing.
If you're concerned that we're way ahead of you and you'll never catch up, your fears are unfounded. The first year of the war only takes up about 150 pages so you can easily meet us where we are -- March 1862 -- by reading about 150 pages this weekend. You will read 150 pages this weekend.
I won't beg.
I beg you.
Lloyd
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