Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Yes, it is possible to chart the entire 20th-century history of American pop culture, and a good deal of non-pop culture history, through an examination of the life of entertainer Dean Martin.


My Photo
Hey pallies, likes we gotta 'fess up that often we wonders how we can top a Dino-gram likes yesterday's potently powerful post on "Mad Matt" mixin' classic Dino-moments from "The Silencers" with  parts of the recent soundtrack from "Mad Max: Fury Road."  Well, likes we thinks we have found 'nother cooler then cool post that is goin' to gets you psyched up for our most beloved Dino just likes yester-Dino-day.

From the most interestin'ly imbibin' blog  "The Potable Curmudgeon - The simple pleasures of beering locally," come a dude who tags himself "The New Albanian" ('cause he's from New Albany, Indiana) Dino-gram, "Dean Martin and Foster Brooks, 45 years ago."  "The New Albanian" profile tells us that his industry is "education" and his occupation is "Publican & polemicist."  He is well qualified to speak on the subject of imbibin' 'cause he is the "owner of a microbrewery and specialty beer bar/pizzeria in the Louisville metro area."

Likes we knows this dude has good taste not only in his drinkin' preferences, but also in his selection of a Dino vid clip.  This guy who we believe is named Roger (referenced in the post) shares that most classic of classic moment from the Dino-show where our great man and Mr. Foster Brooks (as the drunk airline pilot) trade quintessential quips when sittin' at a bar together.

As mucho as we digs this vid dudes, what really is gettin' us all psyched up is that Roger makes this profoundly provocative point pontificatin':  "Yes, it is possible to chart the entire 20th-century history of American pop culture, and a good deal of non-pop culture history, through an examination of the life of entertainer Dean Martin."

Likes to prove his point he shares a quotation from some powerful prose scribed in 1992 by Miss Karen Schoemer for the New York Times.  That awesome article is tagged "ON THE POP CULTURE TRAIL WITH; Being Boswell to Dean Martin" and features wondrous wise words from Dino-biographer Mr. Nick Tosches, who bestest of best bio was first published in '92.  It's some of the most swankly sensational scribin's that we have ever read....and somethin' that we had never run 'cross before in all our Dino-searchin'!

This is primo prose dudes and all youse Dino-holics can read it for yourself by click on the link that Roger offers.   We certainly plans to return to this magnificant material sometime soon and drink deeply on Tosches reverently remarkable reflections!  We wanna sez our thanks to Roger, "The New Albanian" for puttin' us on to this deepest of deep devotion to our Dino, and we salute him for his New Year's Resolution..... "2016 is the year for me to re-read Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, a biography of Dean Martin, written by Nick Tosches." We are goin' to resolve that as Dino-well!  To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-mesage.  Absolutely Awed by our Dino, DMP

Dean Martin and Foster Brooks, 45 years ago.



It's Dean Martin, Ken Lane and Foster Brooks in "The Bar/Airline Pilot" (circa 1969). The sheer political incorrectness of this skit is fascinating. Smoking, drinking and howling at the idea of intoxicated airline pilots? These days, it would be grounds for a boycott and Facebook meme.

Why would Roger even go there? There are five reasons.


It's funny.

Foster Brooks was a Louisvillian (Cactus Tom's brother, in fact).

Brooks wasn't a drinker in real life, and he played one dead sober.

I thought about Brooks over the holidays while seated near an actual drunkard at a local bar.

2016 is the year for me to re-read Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, a biography of Dean Martin, written by Nick Tosches.


Yes, it is possible to chart the entire 20th-century history of American pop culture, and a good deal of non-pop culture history, through an examination of the life of entertainer Dean Martin.

ON THE POP CULTURE TRAIL WITH; Being Boswell to Dean Martin, by Karen Schoemer (New York Times)

 ... "I would describe Dean as a noble character in an ignoble racket in an ignoble age," (Tosches) said. "He made out his role in American culture, and American culture itself, as basically a racket. In his own way he seemed to be a man who lived by a code. Whether or not that code was light or dark, he seemed to live by it. He seemed to possess a certain honesty that's very rare. And he managed to keep the world at bay, and not interfere with the business of his being, whatever that was."

No comments: