Max Black (Kat Dennings) centre, and Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs) right, plan to attend a big fashion gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Martha Stewart is scheduled to be a guest, in an attempt to have her taste their cupcakes and get her seal of approval, on the one-hour season finale of 2 Broke Girls. Photo: Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Tonight is Mad Men redux in sepulchral Sherwood Forest . . . so as the Doncaster duo prepares to join neighbours gathering to celebrate two episodes of a universally acclaimed TV show on a channel we don’t get at our house, here are a few words of praise for a guilty pleasure, 2 Broke Girls.

This sterling sitcom closes its 2011-2012 debut season with Martha Stewart guesting & a whole hour of comedy . . . without belabouring the point, the Citytv on our dial sitcom is a Lucy & Ethel brought up to date. The Ethel character (Max) is freed from real-life second banana status  to Lucille Ball & her fictional old poop of a husband Fred Mertz in TVland.

The Lucy character (Caroline) may not be up to miming along with Harpo or other Lucy gestures but she is elegant enough to keep on keeping on as a one-per-center who has plummeted way down into 99 per cent ville.

Here’s what JBNBlog likes about 2 Broke Girls.

Hard work is valued. The two young women bond over their fledgling cupcake business & forego most of life’s pleasures (sex . . . they’re almost nuns or athletes or something in their near celibate pursuit of the dream).

Money is important, but not worshipped. Many a time, our heroes give up their hard-earned cash for something uplifting or just plain adult acceptance of realities  . . . in one remarkable series of sub-plots, Caroline guides Max from outsiderland into social norms by a) helping her pay off student loans and b) finally filing her income tax on time. Caroline’s father was a Bernie Madoff style fraud & while she believes in him, all their friends shun her like the (your choice of word here) & she sees the corrosive effects of moneylove clearly now. Dickensian moments on the Micawber express indeed.

They admire & like each other . . . but unlike other such shows do value the friendship of some other women . . . well, the women they think work hard at least.

No faux feuding over men. This fool sitcom staple is not a factor on 2 Broke Girls.

Chestnut the horse. Caroline’s beloved pet is the Mr. Ed of our era . . . Chestnut may not speak but listens well & even when Caroline was covered in Chespoop, JBNBlog could defend it (a bit desperately) as Shakespearean in the same way Bridesmaids is Shakespearean.

There are many reservations about the world of 2 Broke Girls . . . JBNBlog will leave that list to others. As with Oscar-worthy Bridesmaids, which still seems to annoy a few co-workers.

When you love something, you overlook a few flaws, no? When JBNBlog returns after Mad Men & plays the 2 Broke Girls later tonight or sometime Tuesday, it will be a loving farewell until the fall. (I will admit 2 Broke Girls reruns are not as much fun as they ought to be if all my theories are correct).

Lucy & Ethel, your granddaughters are here . . . meet Caroline & Max & see what you can get up & down to without Ricky or Fred around.

*An occasional series (with a derivative title — Who knows where it came from?) devoted to what’s on TV channels available in northwest London on the old over-the-air, bunny ears basis — ie. TVO, CBC French, CBC, CTV Two (aka CFPL), CTV, Citytv, the Omnis, CTS & CHCH.

Two of the great artists who were the guests of London Pro Musica on Saturday: Hemant, left, and Vaishali Panwar in an undated photo courtesy of kathakdanceduo.com

There was so much A&E fun on the weekend, JBNBlog can only take a deep breath & say here we go &, oh yeah, there is a language alert for Hair, when we finally get there:

Working backwards, on Sunday afternoon, Alain Trudel & Gene DiNovi led Orchestra London & two other jazz aces — bassist Dave Young & drummer Ernesto Cervini — through a salute to jazz giants . . . already the jazz concert of the year for Trudel & Young teaming on Blue Monk, something added to the program, or for Trudel playing the famous trombone solo (Jack Jenny or Jenney) on Artie Shaw’s Stardust & also Shaw’s clarinet solo . . . on trombone! Plus DiNovi’s piano throughout & his reading of the lyrics for Gordon Jenkins’s This is All I Ask . . . (after the concert, oboist Ian Franklin said how deeply moved he’d been by the reading & recalled the version on A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night where so many of the orchestral players on the Nilsson-Jenkins collaboration are pictured, a great idea) . . . plus the farewell to principal flutist since 1978 Annelie Metrakos, who is retiring at the end of the season, with the jazz quartet’s There Will Never Be Another You. Amazing medleys & it would appear Duke Ellington, who once said of a 1970s era forerunner of Orchestra London “These cats can swing” was right.

Everything sounded swell . . . Centennial Hall’s sightlines from our corner in NW balcony meant we couldn’t see a few happenings on stage . . .we applauded the Bev Petch volunteer award recipients w/o seeing them. Bev, you are missed. What a contribution you made.

Political detour: the fun had started a little earlier Sunday when our guest from France, basking at a mutual friend’s in Old South, was overjoyed to see, via Internet from France & earlier details via Belgian commentators, that Hollande had beaten Sarkozy.

On Saturday night, London Pro Musica sang beautiful South Asian choral material & outstanding guests from Richmond Hill’s Panwar Music and Dance Productions added movement, sounds & beats from India to the night. It was tremendous & JBNBlog salutes his Kala Manjari neighbours & all involved for a wonderful evening at Gateway church, missed by 353,000 Londoners.

A salute to the soloists, conductor Andrew Petrasiunas and accompanist John Yun for all their contributions . . . & for the Holst on the program, too.
This night richly deserves a revisit.

Saturday afternoon, Stratford Shakespeare Festival had the official opening of MacHomer at the Studio Theatre. JBNBlog is mulling more on MacHomer — but can recommend Rick Miller’s tour de force  blend of the Bard & Bart (well, Bart has a small role) & dozens of characters from The Simpsons as laugh out loud funfunfun. Some of the biggest laughs arrive via celebrity guest impersonations such as bang on Sean Connery.

On Friday night at the Grand Theatre, Hair provided strongly sung & splendidly played top-flight enjoyment. There is so much ace music in Hair, the words (the drama that is) tend to lose out . . . at least on my Friday night experience. Maybe the era is gone . . . it used to have menace, edge or something & as much fun as was had & laughs aloud, it would be even more so to have that sheer edge . . . still, to hear (language alert language alert) the occasional “motherfucker” on the Grand stage — where hell or damn once produced hilarious fainting fits of nervous giggles  – & see group nudity albeit through a screen darkly is plenty of 1968 rebellion for now. Also recommended . . . & you  have about a week to get on down &  experience the Grand production. So go.

Lilian Ottaway Beck, in an undated photograph which was on display as part of the London Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. London Sports Hall of Fame committee chair Tom Dalby mentioned how she looks like the original for Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey . . . & she does!

The London Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2012 is outstanding.

JBNBlog admires them all . . . & was knocked out by the way the Hall’s committee put together this morning’s event at the John Labatt Centre, where the Hall honours are on display.

It was an honour to induct Lady Beck (Lilian Ottaway Beck) into the Hall in the Athlete, Legend category.

Hall of Fame founding chair Bruce Huff passed along excellent words:

Here is the way the speech Bruce wrote for JNBLog started:

You know JBNBlog loves Emm Gryner . . . seen here in a finefinefine photo by Jessica Weiser. well, here’s your last chance to see Emm for a while. Right in London. At the London Music Club.

EMM GRYNER TO PERFORM AT LONDON MUSIC CLUB BEFORE TAKING HIATUS

3-time Juno Award nominee and St. Marys-based musician Emm Gryner will be performing on Saturday May 12, 2012 at the London Music Club. The performance will be one of the last chances to catch the critically-acclaimed indie musician locally before she takes a hiatus to prepare for the release of a Greatest Hits double album.

Gryner, whose accolades include a nomination at the Canadian Folk Music Awards as songwriter of the year, has toured the world in David Bowie’s band and has released 10 albums of her own original material. In the 20th anniversary of Q Magazine, Bono noted her song “Almighty Love” as one of 6 songs from the last 20 years that he wished he had written.

Gryner also appeared alongside Canadian musician heavyweights Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip and Joel Plaskett in the beloved Canadian film, “One Week”. Her label Dead Daisy Records is responsible for launching the career of acclaimed musician Royal Wood.

The compilation of Greatest Hits comes just one year after the release of her 10th studio album “Northern Gospel”, which featured the single “Ciao Monday”. The single received heavy radio rotation, particular on CBC Radio2. The collection of well-loved ballads and pop songs will be released in fall 2012.

Also in the works for Gryner is a new all-girl folk/roots super-group called “Trent Severn” featuring fellow songwriters and Stratford musicians Dayna Manning and Laura Bates. The band, heavily inspired by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as well as Tom Petty will be a shift away from Gryner’s pop roots.

“I’ve been doing my own solo material for 15 years. I won’t stop doing it but this year I’ve been so inspired to start a new project. These women are masters of their crafts, and we’re basically going to kill in our live show.”

Trent Severn will not debut its live show until November 2012, when the band releases it’s debut album, “45 Locks”.

Emm Gryner plays The Mary Webb Centre in Highgate, Friday May 11th. London Music Club, Saturday May 12th. Early show 6pm doors. Tickets $22 advance, $25 door. Tickets available through ticketscene.ca

A fairly ridiculous, MewdMewzak cover but the music inside on Lonely Weekends is great. Image courtesy of musicstack.com

Physics books.

Aquinas’ record store.

Joey brought ‘Lonely Weekend’ back from Toronto.

– May 2, 1970

Start of the Great NIHILIST campaign.

– May 3, 1967

Worked on Physics Essay.

Grampa Reaney over for dinner.

Goat Band Practice.

– May 3, 1970

My buddy of 42 years, Joe Chertkow, brought back a gem . . . Lonely Weekends sounds great on this 2012 morn — Charlie Rich became a big country star in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Wasn’t he known as “the Silver Fox”? . . . the LP was one of a ton of mid-1950s Sun Records material which became available on reissues. Charlie Rich sounds a lot more cool & anguished than the Carl Perkinses, Cashes, Jerry Lees &c. Just digging his v. jazzy That’s How Much I Love You — “when I’m sad or when I’m gay,  before our final fling is flung”: what lyrics — if you can imagine Elvis crossed with Michael Buble & Ray Charles with Nat Cole (that piano!) with Tirez sur le pianiste Aznavour (worldweary), Charlie Rich c. 1956 was something like that. He also had to sound teen enough to work his way through Rebound, a rockabillylite co-write with Bill Justis. Charlie, who may have written the lyrics, admits to doing “something I ought not to have done.” The credits say Rich wrote C.C. Rider so who knows?

The LP is terrific & its cover art stands out in the el cheapo reissue jackets slapped on the product by whosoever took control of the magnificent “Sun Catalog” masters . . . most of the others at least have pix of the artists, even if they are fool ones like Jerry Lee looking pensive by the cherry blossoms. There is a bleary looking b&w head and shoulders of Charlie Rich on the backside. Presumably woman & small dog & distant lighthouse & tideswept beach was more likely to move folks who had never heard of Charlie Rich. Or loved him so much, it didn’t matter what was on the cover . . . which would be me, I guess.

“When I’m drinking, I am nobody’s friend,” Charlie is singing on his Sittin’ and Thinkin’ as the album closes on a down, autobiographical (?), regretful despairing note. “Please baby wait for me until they let me out again.” Sung in that silk bluesy voice.

The Nihilist campaign at Central in our Centennial year consisted of a few tiny posters produced via stencils saying: “Don’t vote they’re all the same” or more positively in its negation “Vote Nihilist!” . . . the message of the Nihilist Party of Canada. As the Nihilists have always said, look at the popular vote in almost any election. The Nihilists & their don’t vote option are the winners almost every time . . . fortunately, only fools such as I would mock high school democracy in this way & our feeble efforts at satire produced a witty riposte from tres cool Latin teacher Ms Jones: ex nihilo nihil fit (quotation approx) meaning “Out of nothing comes nothing” sez the Latin scholar in my life.

*An occasional series based on a v. cryptic diary kept as a pen&ink forerunner to JBNBlog during the late 1960s, when our family lived in London, Stratford (parts of summers of 1966 & 1967), Victoria, B.C. (July 4, 1968-July 4, 1969) and then London again until June, 1970 when I was in Grade 13.