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Rockin' Bones Laid to Rest
Rockabilly legend Ronnie Dawson dead at 64, Allston Underground Cinema goes under, and more

Ronnie Dawson: 1939–2003

The last time I saw the rockabilly singer-guitarist Ronnie Dawson, he was at the top of his game. The then-61-year-old was dashing through a set at New Orleans’ revered Rock ’n’ Bowl club, and as he kicked into his minor 1958 hit, "Action Packed," Dawson propelled his lean, wiry frame off the stage and landed on his knees in the middle of the cement floor. As he twanged out the number’s sturdy riff, sporting a mile-wide smile and spiky blond-brown hair, he looked like the devil-may-care daddy of X guitarist Billy Zoom.

For Dawson, who was a legend of the Texas rockabilly scene, the game ended September 30 when he died at 64 of throat cancer in his native Dallas after a year-long battle with the disease.

Although Dawson almost entirely disappeared from the nation’s concert stages after his string of regional singles for labels like Big D and Levee ran out in 1962, his tunes "Muddy Coffee," "I Make the Love," and "Rockin’ Bones" remained collectors’ items. He was lured back to performing in the mid-’90s by fans within the then-burgeoning British rockabilly scene and was a regular at England’s annual Rockabilly Rave festival, where he last played in February. After the British discovered Dawson still had the stage panache he possessed as a teenage star, word spread to the states, and he began to tour and record domestically again in his original style. More Bad Habits (Yep Roc) is the best of a handful of rockabilly albums he cut over the last decade, and in 1996, a definitive two-CD collection of his early sides, Rockin’ Bones, was released by Crystal Clear Sound.

One reason Dawson retained his musical spirit is that he never stopped playing and recording. After the regional hits ceased, he had a successful career as a jingle writer and producer. He also made enough money from his commercials to occasionally finance recordings of his new songs and undertake small, infrequent tours. In the ’60s he also had a folk band called the Levee Singers, and in the ’70s he formed the country band Steel Rail. Both played the Dallas area. But the "Blond Bomber," as he was known, largely restricted his performances to jingles until his ’90s comeback, when his new, high profile propelled him into such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

When I last spoke with Dawson in 2000, he outlined his philosophy of writing rockabilly tunes. "There has to be a little sense of humor to it," he said. "This music shouldn’t be too deep or have much of a message. If you get a groove, you’re in tune, have some clever lyrics, and try to make it as musically good as possible, you’re on the right track."

- Ted Drozdowski

Food and art

Watching Odette Bery hack and snip the fins off a two-foot-long red snapper, you can tell she’s feisty. Watching her rub salt in the cavity of the cranberry-colored fish’s head, her fingertips all slick with blood, you can tell she’s got capable hands. Listening to her outline characteristics of different types of chilies with a misty British accent, you can tell she knows of what she speaks. And watching her dip a spoon into a pot and taste its contents ("More spice!") is like watching a painter step back from the canvas to survey the work ("More red!").

Bery wanted to be an artist, but her father said no way. She learned to cook instead at London’s famed Cordon Bleu. The pantry became her palette, and the palate became her canvas. She is currently the chef and manager of the Collins Café at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center on the Wellesley College campus. You can watch Bery practice her culinary arts — and even better, taste her masterpieces — as well as digest the Davis Museum’s visual offerings as part of the Appetizing Art series, a fine art–fine food fusion in which Bery demonstrates how to cook a meal based on one of the works in the museum’s collection.

The first of five programs, "Mexican Cuisine and Enrique Chagoya’s Abenteuer der Kannibalen Bioethicists," drew a chatty crowd to the Collins Café one evening last week. Bery welcomed her audience and explained her intentions: to demonstrate and achieve a light and flavorful Mexican meal that’s fairly quick to prepare. She started with the soup, tossing garbanzos and roasted vegetables into a broth, giving tips on preparation, technique, equipment, and safety. The soup simmered, and Bery brought out the red snapper and demonstrated how to ready it for baking (much to the chagrin of the squeamish cardigan-clad woman in the front row who had to turn away when Bery sawed the fish’s head off). Wiping fish blood from her fingers, Bery announced that it was time for the art part of the evening and asked the group to follow a museum docent over to the galleries. Out of my kitchen, in other words, I’ve got work to do.

Just as Bery appropriates flavors and ingredients from other cultures in her cooking, so, too, does Chagoya in his artwork. Raised in Mexico and currently an assistant professor of art at Stanford, Chagoya juxtaposes and fuses ancient Mayan symbols, 19th-century European prints, comic-book art, and pop-culture icons. Abenteuer der Kannibalen Bioethicists, a recent acquisition at the Davis Museum, is a codex, a book made of bark paper folded out accordion style. Images of Mickey Mouse with Mao’s face, an Amazon warrior/Las Vegas showgirl, Warhol’s soup cans labeled with "Artist Brains" and "Critic Tongues," the thorn-crowned head of Jesus, and a Mayan celestial bird, among others, fill the panels. Chagoya deals with issues of cultural assimilation, the docent explains. He explores how dominant cultures absorb and obliterate other cultures, and how cultural identity can be overpowered. The piece is compelling. But you can tell everyone’s getting hungry.

Back at the café, the soup was served with a wedge of avocado, and one woman joked that maybe the grim contents of Chagoya’s Campbell’s cans had been added. The soup, lip-tinglingly spicy, was followed by the red snapper with cilantro-based salsa verde, and salmon with a brothy tomato-and-chili sauce. Then came pork tenderloin with a sweet and spicy chipotle-orange sauce, and finally pumpkin crème caramel with fresh whipped cream.

Appetizing Art continues October 29 at 5:45 p.m. with "Provence: Food of the Sun and Fernand Leger’s Woman and Child" and a menu that includes mussels in saffron broth, roast fish with fennel and herbs, poached chicken with lemon sauce and asparagus, eggplant crisps with tomato, yellow peppers and herbs, and pear almond pudding. On October 25 and November 8 at noon, in conjunction with the current exhibition, "Two and One: Printmaking in Germany 1945–1990," Bery presents "German Repast and a Guided Tour of ‘Two and One,’" with sautéed trout with walnut-and-tarragon sauce, pancakes with a sour cherry sauce, split-pea soup with celery root and smoked German sausage, and beet, endive, and asparagus salad. On November 5 at 5:45 p.m. it’s "Recipes from a Cajun Kitchen and Alison Saar’s Ulysses" with crabmeat gumbo, roast fish with mushrooms, braised chicken with peas, tomatoes with rémoulade dressing, and orange-caramel cream puffs. Each program costs $35, and advance registration is required. For more information call (781) 283-2051.

- Nina Maclaughlin

"Underground" goes under

More bad news for fans of alternative cinema: the Allston Cinema Underground has gone under. Started last June by Coolidge Corner Theatre program director Clinton McClung as a venue for cult, esoteric, and independent films screened at the venerable Allston Cinema, the program in its brief run garnered press enthusiasm and good turnouts for films such as the compilation of silent-era pornography, The Good Old Naughty Days, and the critically lauded indie film Melvin Goes to Dinner. But a recent lull, culminating in disappointing returns for the ongoing Boston Underground Film Festival, have compelled McClung to bury the project.

"We were hoping that in September with the students coming back we would start building an audience," said McClung. "But we weren’t bringing in enough money to satisfy the theater owner."

The Allston Cinema will continue with its programs of Indian Bollywood films (programmed by theater owner Anil Mehortra), and McClung also hopes that the theater’s Wednesday night series of classic kung fu movies (programmed by Allston projectionist Garo Nigoghossian) will continue, at least through November.

On the brighter side for movie lovers, McClung also has announced the establishment of the "Boston Cult Movies" mailing list, a weekly e-mailed newsletter compiling the various movie alternatives around town, ranging from Jamaica Plain’s Film Revolution to the Brattle Theatre, from the Coolidge’s own Midnight Movies and Video Balagan to such prestigious series as the Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive. Those interested should contact bostoncultmovies-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

- Peter Keough

Amistad to Boston

A replica of the slave ship Amistad will be docked at Fan Pier October 14 through 26, during which time it will be open free to school groups and the public. The Freedom Schooner Amistad will be welcomed by an invited escort of sailing vessels and is scheduled to dock at Fan Pier at 11 a.m. on the 14th. In addition to tours, the 13-day visit will be marked by citywide educational activities and culminate in a "Conversation on Race" October 25 led by Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree, and including various scholars and community leaders.

The subject of a 1997 film by Steven Spielberg, the 1839 African slave revolt aboard the Spanish cargo schooner Amistad resulted in a case that eventually went all the way to the US Supreme Court, where the Amistad captives were defended by John Quincy Adams, with strong support from Massachusetts abolitionists. The captives were exonerated, and 35 of them eventually made it back to Africa. Local activities this week will include a welcoming ceremony October 14, public forums on race, special activities for educators, and the October 25 "Conversation on Race" at the Hall of Ideas, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 200 Mass Ave, from 6 p.m. to 9. It’s free to the public, but reservations are required. Call (800) 261-2006. The Amistad itself will be accessible through the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse, where related historical exhibits will be displayed. For general information about Amistad to Boston events, call (781) 431-4681 or go to www.amistadboston.org.


Issue Date: October 10 - 16, 2003
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