Good news!
Our “please be civil” Comments policy has been followed decently (though not perfectly) so far.
Moving forward, the maximum number of comments allowed for each reader on a thread will be raised from 3 to 5.
Thanks for commenting. And, as always: Please use your full, real name. Deleting anonymous comments is really, really annoying.
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Starting last night, and running every Sunday this winter, La Plage offers a Locals Night Menu.
The prix fixe offering includes a family-style chef’s selection appetizer, entrée (a pinsa. Scottish salmon, fish and chips, homemade squid ink fettuccine, fried chicken or burger) and drink for $39.
The Sunday night kids’ menu has also been upgraded. For details, click here.
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Westport resident David Meth’s play, “To the Death of My Own Family,” has won another grant from Artists Respond from the Connecticut Office of the Arts for Equity and Racial Justice.
Meth calls it “an intensely dramatic nonlinear play about an Afghan-American woman who returns to Afghanistan to help her father escape, only to witness the carnage of her entire family. Upon her return to the US she is detained, interrogated, and forced to justify her journey in order to reclaim her citizenship.
“We then learn about a deeper, darker secret that has shadowed the family for many years, but which they do not want to confront until they are forced to confront each other in the face of death.
With the grant, Meth will seek an opportunity to create a playwriting workshop for high school and college students. Click here for more information.
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These icicles are a “Westport … Naturally” reminder of the fragile beauty that surrounds us, in even the most ordinary places.
(Photo/Judith Marks-White)
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And finally …
Mary Weiss, the leader of the “Leader of the Pack” bad-girl group The Shangri-Las, died last week. She was 75.
Her Los Angeles Times obituary says: “They were poor white teens from New York City, occasionally singing with pronounced Queens accents and always performing with a stylish swagger….
“Though their time in the spotlight lasted a little under two years, the Shangri-Las created an enduring rock ‘n’ roll archetype: Girls who were every bit as strong and sexy as their doomed boyfriends, boys who were ‘good bad’ but ‘not evil,’ as Weiss said on ‘Give Him a Great Big Kiss.’
“This attitude and the group’s heightened music — equal parts operatic pop and exuberant R&B — proved influential, particularly on the punks of New York City in the 1970s.
“Blondie covered their ‘Out in the Streets’; the New York Dolls swiped the spoken intro from ‘Give Him a Great Big Kiss’ for their ‘Looking for a Kiss,’ then hired Morton as the producer for their second album, setting the stage for Aerosmith covering ‘Remember (Walking in the Sand) during the height of punk.”
In 2019, “Leader of the Pack” was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
LOCAL ANGLE: In the mid-’60s, the Shangri-Las performed downstairs at the Terpsichore — the Ice Cream Parlor’s (very) short-lived discotheque. I was about 13 years old, but somehow I managed to see them there.
(Click here for the full obituary. Hat tip: Michael Taylor)
(If you’re an “06880” commenter, you’ll like today’s lead item. And whether you comment yourself, or just read them, please click here to support this blog’s commitment to conversation. Thank you!)
Just curious. Why not stick with 3? Sure, there was some whining but that will dissipate as maturity prevails. Stay the course!!!!
Mary Weiss, like our beloved classmate Charlie Karp, was indeed quite young when she had a breakthrough in her musical journey. She was only 15 when “Walking in the Sand” became a hit in the summer of ‘64. What a great song that has stood the test of time.
Thank you! a memory from my teens
Is the 5 comment limit for new threads, or can it be applied retroactively to threads started under the 3 comment policy?
Maybe we should also have a family limit? 😉
Five comment limit applies to cash donors. Credit cards get three. Freeloaders get squat. Donors to the tile wall can visit them at the storage facility that Jen and Bill are using your tax dollars to underwrite.
Starting now. Don’t look back.
Dan Woog, As you know, I NEVER exaggerate and I’m always truthful! Changing to five responses is better than hitting tonight’s Powerball AND having Taylor Swift beg me for my autograph!
The Shangra Las’ “Out in the Street” was the last record played on 1010 WINS radio, on Easter Sunday in 1965. WINS was New York’s first rock station, starting with Alan Freed in 1954.
John, at one time around 1961-ish, Alan Freed was spotted at the Westport Golf Range! Also, Murray the K showed up one night. I personally saw Murray the K, but not Freed. That one was told to me.
To tie it together, I saw the Shangra Las perform at one of Murray the K’s shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theater in the fall of 1962. A last minute addition was the blind “Little Stevie Wonder,” who was not yet used to performing and had people walk him to the microphone.
Murray the K replaced Alan Freed on WINS. Freed had rock shows the Brooklyn Paramount.
My sister , who passed away in 2014, met her husband in the downstairs bar area of the old ice cream parlor. That was quite the place at one time!
My sister Susie Campbell, our partner Arthur Gorson and I produced a couple of Murray the K shows in the early 60’s. It was 5 shows a day for a week, and the wonderful artists we were able to get hated it. Nancy Black, who owned the big late estate at Schlaets Point rented her house to Murray for a couple of summers.