This is one of my favorite pictures ever. I first saw it from an old good friend of mine. The other day, I saw a copy of the Bill Evans and Jim Hall jazz album 'Undercurrent'. The same pic was used for the cover art:
I was like hey! I've seen that before! I gave the album a good spin. The album is quite stripped down in sound and is pretty much jammin' around with just a piano and guitar.
It's a really mellow album, but it's what I like to call 'wallpaper music.' It's good to just throw on in the background and doesn't change too much. Kind soothing, kinda boring. Anyhow, here's what's supposed to be the original track listing of the album:
1.My Funny Valentine
2.I Hear a Rhapsody
3.Dream Gypsy
4.Romain
5.Skating in Central Park
6.Darn That Dream
7.Stairway to the Stars
8.I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
I was thinking it'd be cool to have a parody album called 'Underflow', and it'd be a lot less mellow and a lot more metal, and with a sort of rip-off photo on the cover, say, something like this:
The track titles would be changed to:
1.My Bloody Valentine (also a name of a cool group and scary movie!)
2.I Hear a Fallacy
3.Nightmare Gypsy
4.Rogaine
5.Skating on Thin Ice
6.Damn That Dream
7.Stairway to Hell
8.I'm Getting Apathetic Over You
I really like both the photos for 'Undercurrent' and 'Underflow.' Upon a bit of research I found out the photo for 'Undercurrent' is called 'Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida (1947)' by Toni Frissell. This led me further to find out about the place Weeki Wachee. It's one of those towns with less than 100 people, super small. The name came from Seminole Indian tongue, it means 'little spring'. The nearby springs (where the photo was taken) are a tourist attraction founded in 1947 by Newton Perry, once a U.S. Navy frogman. They are the only of their kind in the world, so deep the bottom has never been found. Reportedly, 117 million gallons of fresh new warm water bubble up from the springs every day. Though originally quite a rugged area more full of animals than people, slowly the tourist attraction was developed by Newt Perry. In some shallower spots, people had illegally dumped old fridges and cars and random pishposh. Newt cleaned it up, installed a sort of amphitheater with glass to see right under the water, brought in parking lots and all the rest-including mermaids. Mermaids?? Really? Well, he hired a bunch of pretty girls to dress up us them and sort of 'live' under the water for a steadily increasing number of tourists to see. They were taught to be fluid and graceful and even do things such as eat and drink under water. They breathed by using hidden air-hoses. This became a huge attraction worldwide, and some girls from other corners of the earth came to audition to be mermaids.
Now the word wouldn't have spread so much if it wasn't in part for ABC buying the springs (trust them to ruin everything) and doing massive promotion just as the 60's were about to roll in. A corny Disney style twist was added when the mermaids began performing stories like 'Snow White' and 'Alice and Wonderland'. The tourist attraction also predated the town...which actually didn't exist until '66. Over the years many things transpired and many changes came about. At several points the springs were used as Hollywood film locations. Elvis was said to have visited them as well. Today, there are not only the mermaids..but a large water park, animal shows, a riverboat cruise, opportunities for water-sports (like diving and canoeing and kayaking), and more...including volunteering positions and training camps to 'learn to be a mermaid'.
