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| Author |
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| 25 new of 256 responses total. |
oddie
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response 156 of 256:
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Feb 24 05:33 UTC 2000 |
I've a question for you, John--I should probably know this, having done
a 'research project' on jazz last year, but I can't remember--
Was ragtime originally an improvisatory music, or one that strictly adhered
to the composer's score?
How is it played today in that respect?
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remmers
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response 157 of 256:
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Feb 24 15:39 UTC 2000 |
Ragtime was always improvisatory to an extent, but not in
the same way as jazz. The ragtime syncopated style of
performance appears to predate by several years the
appearance in print of pieces that were labeled as "rags".
So at the beginning, the music wasn't written down, but
rather, musicians learned it by ear from hearing other
musicians perform it. Under those circumstances, it was
seldom the case that two musicians played the same piece
exactly alike. However, once a musician had learned a
tune, he or she tended to play it pretty much the same
way every time, perhaps occasionally incorporating some
new variation that they'd thought of; improvisation per se
wasn't part of the ragtime style. Pieces generally
consisted of three or four sixteen-bar strains, repeated
in some fixed pattern such as AABBCCDD or AABBCCB, and
musicians usually didn't depart from this architecture.
Around 1898 ragtime piano solos, songs, and band
arrangments started to be published. In short order
the ragtime craze took hold and ragtime publishing became
a huge business. Nonetheless, professional musicians
continued to play the music in their own styles, seldom
performing it note-for-note as written. For one thing,
a musician's image and reputation was founded in part on
his or her unique style of playing. For another, many
musicians of the time didn't even know how to read music
and learned pieces by ear. In the musical circles in
which he moved in his younger days, Scott Joplin was
known as the "King of the Ragtime WRITERS" because he
was one of the few who knew musical notation and
actually wrote his compositions down.
Those ragtime composers -- such as Joplin, Joseph Lamb,
and James Scott -- who wanted ragtime to be taken
seriously on a par with classical compositions, said that
they preferred that their music be played note-for-note,
as written. I don't think they had much success getting
their contemporaries to do that. Even Joplin didn't follow
his own advice, as we know from the testimony of people
who heard him play, and from the few piano rolls that he
cut. In repeats of strains, one hears significant departures
from the written scores in the bass line.
Nowadays, ragtime players seem to fall into two camps: the
note-for-note camp and the variations-are-desirable camp. To
the former group belong Joshua Rifkin, Scott Kirby, and
David Thomas Roberts, and Glenn Jenks, for example. In the
latter one has Bob Milne, Richard Zimmerman, Tony Caramia,
and Sue Keller.
This is a bit of an oversimplification, because I don't know
of any current ragtime musician who plays everything exactly
as written; limited variations on repeats are considered to
be okay, even by the note-for-noters. And there are musicians
whose adherence to the written score depends on what composer
they're playing. Jeff Barnhart or Sue Keller might stick
close to the score with a Joe Lamb rag but go wild with
variations on Jelly Roll Morton.
A musician who departs from the printed score doesn't
necessarily draw the variations out of the air. A couple
of years ago, I heard Richard Zimmerman perform a Charlie
Johnson piece that I'd also been working on. He threw in
an enormous number of variations: interior melodies, doubled
bass lines, etc. Later I asked him about that. He told me
that ragtime pieces were often published in band arrangments
as well as piano solos, and that he studies the band
arrangments and incorporates elements from them into his
solo performances, trying for a kind of orchestral effect.
Zimmerman has prodigious technique, so it works.
I'm not the ragtime scholar that Zimmerman is, but in my own
playing -- although I tend to play pretty close to the
written score -- I incorporate variations that are consistent
with common practice during the ragtime era. This includes
such things as playing the melody an octave higher on repeats,
doing the bass line in octaves, or playing the final strain of
a piece at slightly slower tempo for a "grand finale" effect.
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oddie
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response 158 of 256:
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Feb 25 05:06 UTC 2000 |
Thank you John -- that was far more information than I found in any of the
books I read on jazz history. (Of course, if I'd concentrated on that early
period I probably would have found out more...) I remember reading about
Jelly Roll Morton, however, as many seem to consider him the "bridge" between
ragtime and jazz.
I also think I read somewhere that Scott Joplin studied formal classical
composition at a music school (or possibly with another composer.) And he did
seem to have some classically-minded ideas, publishing a book of ragtime
studies and writing a full-length ragtime opera (which, sadly, won almost
no popular acclaim...)
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remmers
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response 159 of 256:
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Feb 25 18:20 UTC 2000 |
Joplin attended a small all-black college in Missouri, where he
studied music. He is one of the few ragtime musicians of that
era (certainly one of the few black musicians) to be college-
educated.
Morton was definitely a bridge between ragtime and jazz. He
liked to claim that he invented jazz, although that is no doubt
an exaggeration.
Joplin appears to have written two operas: "A Guest of Honor"
and "Tremoneesha". The former has been lost, although I
believe I've read that his composition "The Ragtime Dance",
published both as a piano solo and as a song, is taken from
it. We have the score to "Tremoneesha", and there have been
a few productions of it in the last 25 years or so. The
quality of "Tremoneesha" is rather uneven (especially the
lyrics -- Joplin was not the master of lyrics that he was
of instrumental music), although the finale, "A Real Slow
Drag", is one of his most splendid creations.
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oddie
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response 160 of 256:
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Feb 26 04:43 UTC 2000 |
I was thinking of "Treemonesha," as I hadn't heard of "Guest of Honor". Isn't
it also true that Treemoneesha was unsuccessful partially because it featured
a solo piono accompanying the voices, rather than a band or orchestra?
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remmers
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response 161 of 256:
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Feb 26 14:28 UTC 2000 |
I thought I might be spelling it wrong, so I looked it up, and
I was. It's "Treemonisha."
Hm, I'll have to look up the bit about piano accompaniment. I
know that a piano arrangement of the score was published, but
I had always assumed that it was scored for full orchestra
originally. Modern productions of the opera have featured
orchestral accompaniment.
One of my most moving and memorable experiences at last summer's
Scott Joplin Festival was hearing a performance of excerpts
from "Treemonisha", performed by the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra,
a chorus, and soloists -- all from Oslo, Norway.
The Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra also performed at other festival
events. I don't know to what extent they tour in the United
States, but if you ever get a chance to hear them, don't misss
them. They are wonderful.
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lumen
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response 162 of 256:
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Feb 28 01:03 UTC 2000 |
resp:156, resp:157 Perhaps it is partly because of that reason that I
haven't finished the rag I started.
When I visited Ann Arbor last summer, I met with remmers to discuss
ideas on how to improve it. He played it with a few lovely
embellishments, improving bass lines and just generally playing it much
better than I could. He also improvised a small part to give me ideas
on the next section, inverting the melody line and dropping the key down
a major 3rd.
Well, my music dictation stinks, so I've procrastinated writing anything
more. remmers recorded it to disk using a Yamaha Disclavier, and so I
could tape what he played, but I couldn't transcribe it using MIDI
equipment. The lab proctor, who is one of the composition majors in the
department, said the signal was probably too degraded coming from the
Disclavier.
So, until I work up the nerve to attempt further painstaking writing,
"Ann Arbor Rag" probably won't be finished any time soon.
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remmers
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response 163 of 256:
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Mar 11 01:05 UTC 2000 |
Spoke to Karen the ballet teacher today -- after listening to the tape I
made multiple times, she's decided to do George Botsford's "Black and
White Rag" for her ballet recital. It's a deligtful piece and fun to
play, so I have to say I'm pleased with the decision. Another reason
for the choice is that her students' ballet costumes are black and
white. I'm anxious to see what kind of choreography she works out for
it. She'd like me to wear black and white too. (Remmers in a tuxedo?
Hmm, I'll have to give this some thought...)
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scott
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response 164 of 256:
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Mar 11 01:24 UTC 2000 |
But_as_an_established_entertainer,_you_already_own_a_tux,_right?__;)_________
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davel
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response 165 of 256:
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Mar 11 14:31 UTC 2000 |
Scott, why are all your responses these days filled with underscores instead
of blanks?
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scott
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response 166 of 256:
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Mar 11 16:06 UTC 2000 |
See_item_188_in_Agora.__It's_on_purpose,_anyway,_but_item_188_explain_a_bit__
more.________________________________________________________________________
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remmers
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response 167 of 256:
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Mar 13 12:47 UTC 2000 |
Dunno how "established" I am, but in any case I don't own a tux,
so I'd have to rent one. Another possibility is some kind of
ragtimey "saloon" get up with red armbands.
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lumen
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response 168 of 256:
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Mar 13 17:36 UTC 2000 |
I think the latter sounds very appealing, but of course, I'm sure it
would depend on the sensibilities of the audience.
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remmers
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response 169 of 256:
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Mar 29 03:10 UTC 2000 |
Tomorrow I'm off for the Tom Turpin Ragtime Festival in Savannah,
Georgia. This will be the fifth annual Turpin Festival and the fourth
that I've attended. I've heard it will also be the last -- the person
who runs it isn't planning to do it any more.
One purpose of this year's festival is to honor "Ragtime" Bob Darch,
whose 80th birthday is this year and who has been active in researching,
performing, composing, and promoting ragtime music since the early
1950's, essentially before anyone else was doing it. His contributions
to the genre have been immense.
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remmers
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response 170 of 256:
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Apr 4 00:19 UTC 2000 |
Had a great time at the Tom Turpin Festival in Savannah.
Headliners were Mimi Blais, John Arpin, Sue Keller, Dick
Zimmerman, Dick Kroeckel, Terry Parrish, Terry Waldo, Steve
Spracklin, and Bob Darch. The only one I'd never seen before
was Spracklin, who turned out to be a Mississippi river boat
cruise director who plays excellent ragtime in a strong
rhythmic style.
I learned a lot that I didn't know about "Ragtime Bob" Darch,
whose 80th birthday the festival celebrated. Over the last 50
years, Darch has probably done more than anyone alive to
promote and preserve ragtime. Back in the 1950's and 1960's,
he traveled all over the country, seeking out rare sheet music
and inteviewing all the oldtimers he could find from the
ragtime era who were still alive, supporting himself by playing
piano in saloons. In particular, he was instrumental in
rescuing Joseph Lamb (composer of "Ragtime Nightingale") from
obscurity and bringing Eubie Blake back into the public eye and
to the concert stage. Darch is himself a composer, having
written over 150 rag instrumentals and songs. He's still in
pretty good shape and performed at several of the festival
concerts.
Another thing I didn't know about Darch was that he had eight
children. (!) A sizeable number of them showed up with their
families, which meant that a significant portion of the
attendees at the special Darch dinner were, in fact, Darches.
Regarding Lamb in particular -- he dropped out of the music
business around 1920 but continued to compose. When Darch
found him in the late 1950's, it turned out that he had dozens
of unpublished manuscripts lying around the house, some of
which were among the finest music he ever wrote. A few were
subsequently published, in a now out-of-print folio called
"Ragtime Treasures". Most have not been, however. Darch
brought a stack of unpublished Lamb sheet music with him to the
festival, and I had an opportunity to look through it. Lamb's
daughter, Patricial Lamb Conn, was at the festival and will be
sending me a few things that I requested -- "Spanish Fly", "Joe
Lamb's Old Rag", and "Chasing the Chippies".
My friend Nan Bostick from California was at the festival to
present a seminar on Detroit ragtime. It turns out that
Detroit was an important center of ragtime playing and
publishing. She and I did a couple of two-piano numbers at
after-hours: Charles Daniels' "Louisiana" and Harry P. Guy's
"Pearl of the Harem." I also played Joplin's "Peacherine Rag"
and "The Entertainer" with another amateur pianist, John Yates,
from Toronto. I also did a few solo numbers at after-hours. I
find that the more I perform in front of audiences, the more
comfortable it gets for me.
Another friend who showed up was music collector Audrey Van
Dyke, who gifted me with yet another stack of Xeroxed rare
sheet music. Audrey is also an excellent ragtime piano player,
and a fine interpreter of Scott Joplin. She's not comfortable
playing in front of people though. When the audience had
cleared out after one of the concerts, she and I took over the
piano and took turns playing some pieces.
This is in all likelihood the last Savannah Festival. Ann
Steele, the organizer and director, has moved to New York City
and is now a full-time theatrical agent, leaving her no time
for ragtime festival organizing in distant cities. I'll miss
it. Top quality entertainment, yet relatively small, with
plenty of opportunity for audience members to meet and talk
with the performers.
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omni
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response 171 of 256:
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Apr 4 05:37 UTC 2000 |
I would like to meet Zimmerman one of these days. I have one of his CD's
and it is fantastic. Remmers is no slouch either, I just wish he made a few
CD's as well.
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remmers
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response 172 of 256:
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Apr 18 01:07 UTC 2000 |
Spent last Friday and Saturday at the Zehnders Ragtime Festival, held
at Zehnders Restaurant in Frankenmuth, Michigan. This is an annual
event that I've attended for four years now. It expanded somewhat in
length and scope this year, starting with a Wednesday evening concert
and concluding with a Sunday brunch, but due to work obligations and
the fact that I didn't try to get tickets until the Saturday and Sunday
concerts were sold out, I attended only two days of the festival.
Featured performers this year were Bob Milne, Jeff Barnhart, Martin
Jaeger, and the Etcetera String Band. All were familiar to me except
Jaeger, who comes to ragtime from a classical background and who heads
the music department at an institute in Switzerland.
I got in early Friday morning, a good hour before the first festival event
of the day. I noticed that Zehnder's lounge was unoccupied and contained
a piano, so I killed time by playing for about an hour, to an audience
consisting of a few Zehnders staff who wandered in from time to time.
At 10:30 there was a seminar on string bands in ragtime, featuring
the Etcetera String Band, a three-man group out of Kansas city that
features a banjo, a mandolin, and a guitar. They're superb musicians
with an encyclopedaic knowledge of the history of their instruments.
One interesting point brought out in the seminar was that although
ragtime is today thought of primarily as piano solo music, during
the ragtime era (roughly 1898 to 1918) it was commonly played by all
sorts of ensembles, ranging from small mandolin groups to full sized
concert bands and orchestras.
Following lunch in a restaurant with overpoweringly Bavarian decor
but highly American food, I attended the second seminar of the day,
on ragtime piano playing styles. Milne, Barnhart, and Jaeger --
all of whom have very different approaches to ragtime music --
held forth and gave demonstrations.
Friday evening's dinner concert was quite interesting and at times
ranged outside the boundaries of what is normally considered ragtime.
Jaeger did a selection of Gershwin pieces, including an impressive
rendition of Rhapsody in Blue in Gershwin's original arrangement
for piano solo. Before that, I had only heard the piece performed
in the familiar "concerto" format with orchestral accompaniment.
I learned something that I hadn't known -- the orchestral
arrangement is not by Gershwin but rather Ferde Grofe' (of "Grand
Canyon Suite" fame) who at the time was the arranger for Paul
Whiteman's band, which premiered the piece. In any case, the
solo piano version is much more difficult for the piano player,
since it includes various orchestral effects that in the standard
version are played by an actual orchestra.
Also in the Friday night concert, the Etcetera String Band played
a few delightful selections of Caribbean music -- a Haitian
"marange" (sp?) and some other things. Since ragtime was
greatly influenced by folk music of the Caribbean, I didn't feel
that this was out of place at all.
Following the concert there was the usual "afterglow" session in
Zehnders Tap Room, in which any performers who aren't too tired,
plus anybody else who feels like it, plays. Jeff Barnhart did
a nice set with washboard player Mike Schwimmer, following which
the Etcetera band and Bob Milne did a few tunes. When they
were ready to pack it in, I and another person played a couple of
numbers. We closed the bar around 1 a.m.
Saturday started with three hours of silent movies to live piano
accompaniment. I sat through the first hour -- a couple of
Charlie Chaplin shorts from circa 1912 -- then took off to have
a shopping moment at Birch Run, a mega-size outlet mall a few
miles from Frankenmuth. Returned to Frankenmuth for a "meet the
artists" session later in the afternoon, held at the food court
in Zehnders basement. Each of the piano players played a set
and chatted with anybody who felt like chatting with them. At
the end of it there were a few minutes left over. Barnhart
invited me to play, so I did a couple of Charlie Johnson tunes,
"Barber Pole Rag" and "Snookums". These were well-received.
Being sans tickets for any further events, I then headed back
to Ann Arbor.
Although I didn't attend the whole thing, I thought this was the
best Frankenmuth festival I've been to so far. It was also the
best attended -- in past years I wouldn't have had trouble getting
tickets when I did. I'd say this bodes well for the health of
ragtime.
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remmers
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response 173 of 256:
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Apr 20 10:31 UTC 2000 |
By the way, Martin Jaeger also composes rags. At Frankenmuth
I picked up a folio of three of them: "Welcome Rag", "Baroque
Rag", and "China Rag". The first two are especially delightful
and not too difficult technically, so maybe I'll learn to play
them someday. Jaeger's classical background show -- "Baroque
Rag" is based on the J.S. Bach chorale "Sanctify Us by Thy
Goodness".
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remmers
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response 174 of 256:
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May 5 12:12 UTC 2000 |
Last night I went to a run-through of the piece I'll be
performing in the ballet recital, so that the girls could
try it out with live piano and I could see how it had been
choreographed. Pretty cute, especially the part at the
end where the girls all run around the piano.
The recital is Saturday, May 13 at Mercy High School in the
northwest Detroit suburbs, Middlebelt Road at 11 Mile. Start
time is 7:30pm. Tickets $7 at the door, $3.50 for children.
(My spot is about 5 minutes out of a 90-minute program.)
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remmers
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response 175 of 256:
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May 10 11:40 UTC 2000 |
I'll be in period costume, more or less, for the ballet recital:
black vest, red bow tie, red garters on the sleeves, and a straw
hat with black band.
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happyboy
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response 176 of 256:
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May 10 11:41 UTC 2000 |
you're gonna put parliament funkadelic on yore straw hat!?
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remmers
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response 177 of 256:
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May 10 18:05 UTC 2000 |
Would that be authentic for the time period (circa 1910)?
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orinoco
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response 178 of 256:
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May 10 20:34 UTC 2000 |
Nahh....for an early 1900s black band, you'd need a banjo group or some
dixieland musicians. Which is a pity, because George Clinton could have
really stirred things up in 1910, I suspect.
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happyboy
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response 179 of 256:
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May 11 16:38 UTC 2000 |
john could just don *blackface*
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mary
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response 180 of 256:
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May 11 20:46 UTC 2000 |
It wouldn't work with his reddish hair and complexion.
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