I’m All Lost In, #112: Drum boogie; space music; and electric blues.
I’m All Lost In…
the 3 things I’m obsessed with THIS week.
# 112
1) The Club Scene in Howard Hawks’ 1941 Movie Fire Ball
The drop-down menu path that led me to the first rock & roll song of all time starts with Barbara Stanwyck.
The idea of the first-ever rock song is certainly a tiresome Boomer and/or Gen X concern. And I’ve already got a 330-song playlist filled with likely contenders. But this week I needed to add another tune. 1941’s “Drum Boogie.”
I found it via classic-era Hollywood royalty Stanwyck (one of this week’s side obsessions as I stayed up late several nights watching pre-code movies.) Her 1932 waitress-to-matrimony pre-code flick, Shopworn led me to >> her 1930 escort-girl-to-matrimony pre-code epic, Ladies of Leisure. From there it went >> 1941’s Fire Ball, a charming Howard Hawks’ screwball drama co-starring Gary Cooper as a nerdy academic. Cooper’s Professor Bertram Potts sets out on the streets of Manhattan with a pencil and notebook in hand to research contemporary slang by eavesdropping on the masses. This led Professor Potts (and me) to >> Stanwyck as 54th St.-nightclub-singer Sugarpuss O’Shea.
“What’s the name of this song?” the professor asks an insouciant waiter as Stanwyck rocks the house. “Drum Boogie,” the waiter tells him nonchalantly. “What’s ‘boogie’ mean?” Cooper follows up. “Are you kidding?” the waiter asks. An arty college girl sitting at Cooper’s table casually scoffs in disbelief at the prof’s illiteracy.
Stanwyck provides the answer.
At first, all we see is a closeup of Sugarpuss’ hand reaching through, clutching the stage curtain from behind, her index finger tapping out the big beat like a grasshopper’s hind legs in motion. Suddenly, she throws the curtain aside and shimmies to the bandstand in her glittering gown. At this point anyone with a soul will soon become a knowing hep cat by merely watching Stanwyck’s rendition of this racing blues jam. (Stanwyck is actually lip syncing to vocals by Big Band-era singer Martha Tilton.) “Drum Boogie” was co-written by jazz-age solid sender Gene Krupa and legendary trumpet player Roy Eldridge.
Barbara Stanwyck in Howard Hawks’ Fire Ball rocking Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge’s Drum Boogie, 1941. She’s a killer diller!
Miraculous drummer Krupa and his band stepped in for the film version, including a jumping solo from Eldridge. Go to the 16:17 mark here to check out their performance. It ends with a hushed unplugged encore version which Krupa sneaks in on matchsticks while Stanwyck leads the intimately-gathered-around crew with some bohemian finger snaps. “She jives by night. Root, zoot, and cute. Solid to boot,” the cool waiter sums up.
Alongside clarinet genius Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa was my father’s favorite. This explains why Dad loved my tween Keith Moon phase. I’ve got a poem about Krupa and Dad in my current poetry manuscript. It’s called Wayfinding: Gene Krupa on Skins at Carnegie Hall.
2) Apparently I’m Obsessed with Space Music
I didn’t know a single song on my Spotify-Wrapped Top-5 list this year. That’s because all the songs surely came from my generative "Inner Journey" mix which I put on every night before going to bed and falling asleep [I’m All Lost In, #83, 5/17/25.]
The five mystery-to-me songs are the sleep soundtrack jams: Deep Sleep by Jasmine Bordeaux; Stargaze by Antero Lheto; Pharithi by Sami Muni; Peace Tua by Celeste Soma; and Peaceful Harmony by the unknown Jasmine Bordeaux (again). All these artists seem to be part of an A.I.-generated genre called “sleep & healing” music.
Like these year-end top songs, my year-end Top 5 Artists come from the same realm. They mostly appear to be real. Jasmine Bordeaux didn’t make the cut. The first two are: An experimental Latin music artist and film composer named Gustavo Santaolalla, and a minimalist electronica artist called Connectionist,
The Nos. 3 and 4 top artists on the list, both real and known to me, are from my self-curated playlist, Abstract R &B. (Abstract R & B is a term I use to describe the holy grail for early 21st century musicians: the perfect blend of quiet-storm soul, electronica, dub, experimental, and non-Western sounds.) According to Spotify’s data these next two favorites are: Arc De Soleil, who I saw live at the Showbox in the Market in September, and Khruangbin, who I saw live at WaMu Theater in May [I’m All Lost In, #85, 6/1/25]. As we savor year-in-review mode, I must report that the funniest search result of 2025 came from my Arc De Soleil/Khruangbin kick when I googled Arc De Soleil. The first result was the apparently popular search: Is Arc De Soleil Khruangbin?
Coming in at No. 5 on my Top-Artists list: Neo-soul act SAULT, a recommended listening suggestion I made back in October 2024 [I’m All Lost In, #54, 10/25/24.]
As for my favorite genres of 2025. According to Spotify they are as follows:
Spotify quantifies me.
By “Oldies,” I’m assuming they mean the 1940s and 1950s jump blues rock & roll playlist I mentioned earlier, which I listen to always, including in the shower.
My apologies to readers who frown on Spotify or live their lives Spotify free. I’m sorry for tacking to this mainstream Wrapped ritual as one of my items this week. While I support and promote indie artists by writing about them, by spending dollars going to shows, and by working with them, I have not found a way to outfox techno-capitalism.
3) My Electric Blue Suit
Two weeks ago, in advance of officiating my dear friends Dan and Sara’s wedding, I fawned over Men’s Wearhouse for correctly suiting me up [I’m All Lost In, #110, 11/22/25.] I concluded that report saying: “I still need a belt and the right shoes to complete the outfit. I’ll be buying those at Men’s Wearhouse early next week when I pick up my hemmed and tapered electric blue officiant suit.”
I did go back to Men’s Wearhouse. And the chatty, young tailor was there again as I rushed through the glass doors at shop-closing time like Tony in West Side Story. And I did get a matching belt and shoes. Bronze brown. I also added the classy, soft white shirt I recently bought for $9 at Out of the Closet Thrift [I’m All Lost In, #107, 11/1/25] and the Hugo Boss tie I bought in Soho, NYC back in February 2017. That was for my then-new job at the Seattle mayor’s office. I haven’t had many opportunities to wear it since.
I looked sharp at the wedding on Saturday evening defying any Gen X expectations to wear a kooky tie, theater-kid socks, or indie-rock boots as I gave my sage remarks. (That’s what Sara called them in her run of show). Speaking as the Night Mayor of Capitol Hill I quoted William Wordsworth on joy, sharing, and transport, and I talked about affordable housing and love.
Striking my Collin MacInnes pose before heading over to officiate, 11/29/25
Sage Remarks, Vermillion Gallery, 11/29/25
The wedding party, per Sara’s wish, photographed in front of the “No Parking EVER” sign outside Vermillion Gallery, 11/29/25. (Photo by Glenn Landberg.)
This week’s Recommended Dentist:
Dr. Brigitte Higgins at Dental Care Seattle. Hadn’t been in a while.
This week’s Recommended Reading:
As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve still got Women’s Tennis Association recaps and 2026 tennis predictions to make. For now, I’ll point you to dedicated tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg and his WTA year-end ballot picks. At the close of every season the WTA offers a slate of choices respectively for: Player of the Year, Doubles Team of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Comeback Player of the Year. As always with the earnest Rothenberg, his choices are data-driven. And his dispatch about his picks simultaneously serves as a smart default recap of the season.
I diverged with Rothenberg on some of the votes. I’m more emotional. For Newcomer he picked Canadian Victoria Mboko. A logical vote. She came out of nowhere; No. 333 at the beginning of the year and No. 85 right before she went on to win the WTA’s Montreal 1000 in August. But I went with the inexplicable Loïs Boisson who stormed Roland Garros in June, making it as a wildcard (ranked No. 361) all the way to the semifinals. It took World No. 3 Coco Gauff to beat her at that point.
Lucky for a Boisson convert like me, she was on the schedule the day I went to the U.S. Open in late August. [I’m All Lost In, #98, 8/31/25.] I watched her play her Round One match on Court 10 where a few members of her French fan base (i.e. cultists) sang Allez, Allez Allez, Allez, Loïs, Loïs! every time she hit a winner.
Day 3, Round One, Tuesday, 8/26/25, I shot some cell phone video. Loïs Boisson v Viktorija Golubic, Court 10.
Ranked No. 46 at that point, she went on to lose the match. But I’m happy to report she’s now ranked No. 36 at season’s end. Mboko is ranked No. 18.
For Comeback Player of the Year, Rothenberg went with Belinda Bencic, while I went with Markéta Vondroušová.
Meanwhile, we agreed on Most Improved Player: Amanda Animisova [I’m All Lost In, #108, 11/8/25.]
We also agreed, with hearts and stars, on the WTA Player of the Year. Here’s Rothenberg… bolds his:
I won’t pretend that this was a tough call: the WTA Player of the Year for 2025 has to be Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka won a major—no woman won more than one this year—and led outright by every other reasonable metric.
Sabalenka had the most overall titles (4), the most finals (9), and the most prize money (just over $15 million). She also led comfortably in both the traditional rankings and Tennis Abstract’s Elo ratings.
We both picked Daffy Saby on last year’s ballot as well [I’m All Lost In, #58, 11/23/24.]