Today’s Desert Island Disc conversation is with my friend Joan G. Joan is another in a string of Bronx Science graduates that Mary and I know. I’ve known Joan for about 30 years (she is a very close friend of our family) and she still one of the bravest (she’s traveled to Russia, China and Africa) and smartest persons I know (who doesn’t seem to know that she’s the smartest person in any room she enters.) I’ve had some very great adventures with Joan, among them were; the first porno movie I ever saw in a movie theatre (I’ll just leave that dangling there,) and ordering Peking duck in Beijing with Joan and friends.
I went on one of the most Romantic (non) dates with Joan in Los Angeles. We both had to work in L.A. and I was able to wangle a limo to pick her up to grab dinner. It was a very Chandleresque evening: it was a warm, foggy evening and the local landmarks floated vaguely ominously in the night sky.
Among Joan’s many accomplishments is that she is the the Senior Writer & Producer for the Fred Friendly Seminars.
Joan's Desert Island List
Music:
In no particular order:
1. Stubby Kaye, Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat, from Guys & Dolls.
Guys & Dolls is my favorite musical. I've never gotten tired of it. And Stubby Kaye's “I've Got the Horse Right Here,” and especially “Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat” are my two favorite songs in it. Much as I love all of Guys & Dolls, when I watch it now part of me is just waiting for that show-stopper.
2. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – London Symphony Orchestra
Here's where I reveal my utterly plebeian tastes. With all the classical music I've been exposed to in my life, I don't really have something I've become powerfully attached to. But, like everyone else on earth, I like this. If I have to listen to the same eight pieces of music over & over, one of them should be complex enough that over time I'd come to understand more and more about it. This should qualify. Yes, it's the most popular piece of classical music of all time, but there's probably a reason for that.
3. Frank Sinatra, I Get a Kick Out of You.
I'm killing two birds with one stone here: I love Sinatra and I love Cole Porter. When the kids were babies I'd sing along to Rat Pack and Cole Porter tunes endlessly while trying to get them to sleep.
4. Talking Heads, Life During Wartime.
If I remember correctly, I got a hold of Talking Heads 77 my junior year in college, didn't know what to think of it at first, then found myself playing it over and over and over. I was hooked. If I had to pick my favorite band over the course of my life, I think I'd have to pick Talking Heads.
When I was clerking at the Supreme Court, and still young enough to feel “waking up in the morning and going to work five days a week” to be a bit of a hardship, I played Life During Wartime every single workday morning, to get me in the mood to get shit done.
5. Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side
I have no story to go with this. I have always loved Lou Reed. For some reason, the darker his songs, the more they make me smile. (In fact, for ages I tried to track down a “phantom” Lou Reed song, a fantastic version of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend that makes it sound like the most cynical thing you've ever heard. I only heard it once, but years later I would still, every so often, try to find it. Turns out it's by T. Bone Burnett – but other people have noticed the resemblance.)
6. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
Hey, why not? I like shaking my head to it.
7. Pet Shop Boys, Being Boring.
They do wistful very well. I'll probably be spending a lot of time on that island engaged in wistfulness.
8. They Might Be Giants, Birdhouse in Your Soul.
I said above that, if I had to pick a band as my favorite “over the course of my life,” I'd have to say Talking Heads. But if we split my 53 years down the middle, I'd give the first half to Talking Heads, and the second half to They Might Be Giants. I went to a TMBG concert, I think at the Puck Building, with a friend, having never heard them before; this, I think, was when I was at Davis Polk, around 1987-90. Just seeing the name of one of their songs on some paper while we waited for the concert to start – Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head – tickled my brain. By the time the concert was over I was in love.
Their stuff for kids is also great – and a perfectly timed development as far as I'm concerned – but my heart belongs to their grown-up stuff. “Birdhouse” is not my favorite of all their songs. I don't have a single favorite; I like too many of them too much. But I had to pick one for this list (not wanting to include any artist more than once), and this seemed like a good example.
What was one piece of music did you not get to pick?:
I'm sure if I were asked this a year from now, several songs on the list would change, just because I had forgotten about them before. While some picks are definite, Pet Shop Boys or Queen could be replaced, and I might go with a different Sinatra or Cole Porter song. But, taking the list as it is, if I could add one more, for the moment I'll say the song Now That We're Men, sung by SpongeBob and Patrick in the SpongeBob Movie.
Have your muscial tastes changed over the years?:
Not much. I think only one big change occurred. When I was in high school, my favorite artists were Elton John, Billy Joel and Jethro Tull (all conveniently located under J in the record store). After Talking Heads, I think all my favorite contemporary stuff falls into a general nerdy/geeky sort of rock, with clever (and usually dark) lyrics that you can make out easily. If I had a much longer playlist, Violent Fems and the B52s would be in there too, and one or two from REM. I once saw a humor piece that predicted people's other interests based on their musical preferences, and it nailed me exactly: The TMBG fan who loves Monty Python and MST 3000.
What Book would you take with you?:
I'm assuming that some sort of “How to Survive and Escape from a Desert Island” book either won't be necessary or won't do any good. So: Do I bring a book I've already read, and figure is dense enough to engage me multiple times, or do I use this opportunity to finally finish Gravity's Rainbow? (I've given up on ever finishing Ulysses – Stately, plump Buck Mulligan will be holding that bowl of lather forever.) This is a very tough call. I think I'll go with Brothers Karamazov. But I was also thinking about going with some gigantic tome on the Chinese language. Maybe I'm taking this “stranded on a desert island” thing too literally, but I'm afraid that I'd be bored out of my mind, and would need things to accomplish to keep from going nuts. So perhaps I could work on my Chinese.
What one luxury item would you bring with you?:
Once again, I'm assuming that somehow my survival is being taken care of, and I'm already getting enough to eat and at least a sleeping bag or something. I would definitely want unlimited paper and pencils. If I could have something else, it would be something on which I could see all my photographs of all my family and friends. And if I could have a third luxury item, it would be an Xbox and Grand Theft Auto.
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