Alice Cooper - Don't Give Up (Official Video)

That nice Alice Cooper has some encouraging words for us.

Phoenix, Arizona part II

Continued from part I

The other school mentioned in Alma Mater (the School's Out album track) is of course Cortez.

I always go to the really highbrow cultural places when I'm on me hols. 

The song lyrics say, "We got no principals", but Cortez nowadays has a principal, and a psychologist (probably necessary). 

After that, perhaps tiring of the hurly-burly of high culture, we went to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, the winter home of his architectural school. (Which, on contemplating some of the things the tour guide said, was as close to a cult as you could come and still be respected.) It's still a school and the students still spend summers in Wisconsin and then pick up and spend winters in Phoenix, in a house they design and build themselves as part of the course, which seems admirably grounded. 

Looking out of the front door of Taliesin West, you can see Camelback (the hump is behind the sa gyu ro cactus, head towards the right), where Alice Cooper's famous school lies. 

And facing the opposite way, the main building of Taliesin West. Among hundreds of other facts, the tour guide said that the stone and concrete foundations and translucent-blind covered roofs were put down first but it was years before the glass was put in. I find it really hard to imagine working with large pieces of architectural paper with the desert wind (and rain) howling through the four or five foot gap between the wall and roof, but that's what she said. 

It also took years to get a well drilled and get this pool filled. And don't even think about the students digging latrines for the first couple decades. 

The tour is completely fascinating and to be recommended. 

And last but not least, STB taking his oath of citizenship in Phoenix. Due to the odd logistics, I wasn't very close to him, but he's in there somewhere. 

More photos of Phoenix here.

Phoenix, Arizona

I spent the weekend of 17 March in Phoenix. I traveled to witness STB take his oath as an American citizen.

A bird's nest in a cactus in Phoenix. 

Phoenix.

Disappointingly, Phoenix's mountains are mostly piles of decomposed granite with pebbles in. What gives?

The mighty Sa Gyu Ro. I first came to Phoenix in the nineties, when a Grateful Dead fan convinced me to come to Tempe to see the band.  At that point I'd lived in the states for about ten years (and of course had heard of some aspects before then), but she was in a good mood and wanted to point out all the authentically American things around.  "This," she said, pointing at one of these in the photo, "Is the Sonoran SA GYU RO cactus." Dead heads turned. One said, loudly, "SA HWA RO cactus."

It's a Saguaro. I knew it and vaguely how to pronounce it before then, but this really rubbed it in. 

Important stop in Phoenix. This is Camelback High School, made famous in Alice Cooper's songs. It's one of the two schools that were *out* in School's Out, and namechecked in another song on the album, Alma Mater. The mountain just visible behind it is...guess...Camelback Mountain. 

Continued in part II

More photos here.

Happy 40th, Glam Rock! My 1972 Diary, September.

Happy 40^th, Glam Rock!  My 1972 Diary

September 1^st

Bought Alice Cooper poster at antique bicycle shop in C[arnaby] Street.

[I remember the poster, but why in a bicycle shop? Those crazy Carnaby Street hippies!]

September 2^nd

Came through London and went to Olympia DIY Ex. Ran out of money. Bought Masai statue though.

[My parents loved the Ideal Home Exhibition. Whether that was "DIY Ex" or not I can't remember. Dad also used to go to Olympia for a big electronics fair we always called the Ideal Ohm Exhibition too.  In those pre-credit card days it was quite easy to run out of money, and dad did. Please note it wasn't me that bought the Masai statue, a two-headed, bright magenta sandalwood monstrosity that scared the daylights out of visitors for years to come. I seem to remember we actually ran out of said money in an Angus Steak House, where we had to hurriedly cancel an order after the soup course and flee.]

September 7^th.

School's back again. And School's Out is now number 11. Big drops.

September 8^th.

I prithee, gentle Samaritan, abolish homework and Sweet and Slade.

[I know I'm celebrating Glam Rock, but I'm me. And anything that could possibly threaten T. Rex in the charts got deprecated.]

September 11^th.

Heavy sounds regale the chart! Up with Mott the Hoople, Alice and T Rex and whoever else. Sink the Stones!

[I don't know what the Stones had done to me, as the album that year was the immense Exile on Main Street. Perhaps I meant something else. If I was thinking of the sublime Rocks Off, Shame on me.]

September 19^th.

Ziggy Stardust for Chief Sewage Inspector! He's insulted Marc.  [Mary] Whitehouse thinks Alice is insulting.

[I think that was the interview where David Bowie called Marc Bolan "prissy and fey and engrossed in his own image", which even at the time I thought was a case of pot/kettle/black.  Mary Whitehouse was a Campaigner for Decency who never did grasp the difference between Art and Having Low Morals. She was the PMRC of her day.]

September 23^rd.

Got tickets for Lindisfarne!

[I was becoming all grown up! Phew, rock and roll!]

Happy 40th, Glam Rock! My 1972 Diary, August

Happy 40^th, Glam Rock!  My 1972 Diary

August 3^rd.

Bought music papers. Hadn't got Melody Maker.

[I bought ALL the music papers? Blimey. I guess I demanded the balanced view. The weeklies were Sounds, NME and Melody Maker. I think Disc was still going but no one bought it unless it had a special in it.]

August 10^th

Bought music papers.

[OK, I guess I did buy them all each week.]

August 11^th.

Bought Killer. Alright.

[Maybe Alice Cooper was wearing off. My dad hated the record, but mainly because of the snake on the cover. I hid the cover. I never played it for him. I mean, Dead Babies. ]

August 14^th.

New joke – Mummy, mummy, I hate daddy's guts. – Well dear, put them to the side of your plate and eat your vegetables.

[These were a fad. I remember a handful. For instance – Mummy, mummy, why am I going around in circles?  –  Shut up or I'll nail your other foot to the floor.  Mummy, mummy, can I play with grandma? – No dear, you've dug her up twice this week already.]

August 18^th.

Roxy Music in charts. Schools Out very high in charts.

[Due to the sort of incompetent marketing I thought only Brits were capable of, Schools Out was released in England as a single AFTER the start of the summer holidays. It doesn't seem to have hurt its chart places, but I think we would all have enjoyed it more if it had given us something to look forward to. Since I read ALL THE MUSIC PAPERS I, of course, knew about it much earlier.]

August 23^rd.

Joke: What do you say when you see an elephant on the table?  - Shout, "Look! An elephant!"