Hugo and Hugo

Or, why I named my new cat after a legendary musician from Uruguay

Today is my birthday. I plan to celebrate by going for a hike, listening to music, playing guitar, enjoying a dinner out with my wonderful girlfriend, and taking the day off from any sort of writing or work. Work-wise, it’s been an incredibly grueling three and a half months (which have included putting the finishing touches on two book projects, and getting the ball rolling on at least one other one), and I am absolutely fried from it all.

The last year of my life has been an intense one. Hell, they’ve all been intense in one way or another. But I can honestly say that, at the ripe old age of 58, I’m happier than ever with who I am, where I’m at (geographically and philosophically), and what I do for a living. Yes, being a professional writer in a world where creativity is increasingly devalued often feels like how I would imagine blacksmiths felt in the age of the Model T. But this is what I do, this is who I am, and so I press on.

That said, if anyone wants to buy me a birthday beer by ponying up for a paid Jagged Time Lapse subscription (only $5 a month, or just $4.17 if you choose the annual subscription), I would be most delighted to accept it. I got a great compliment the other day from longtime free JTL subscriber Garrick Rawlings, who recently purchased an annual subscription:

“After getting sucked into an expensive restaurant group dinner and paying ‘my share’ that was $50 more than I actually consumed I realized how dumb it was of me (that damn human illogic condition) that I've delayed getting on board here seeing as how I get so much more out of your writing than a fucking dinner!”

Wanted: More readers (and subscribers) like Garrick!

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I thought I’d also celebrate my birthday by sharing the latest addition to my family with you, someone who — if the shelter is correct in their estimations — may even share a Zodiac sign with me…

This is Hugo. I brought him home from the Ulster County SPCA six weeks ago. As heartbroken as I was to have to say goodbye to my little buddy Otis this past November, I knew there would come a day when I would bring a new cat into my life — both because I felt my three year-old cat Angus a.k.a. Tiny was in need of a pal, and because I knew that there are so many cats out there in need of a good home.

Hugo was eleven months old when I adopted him, seven of which he’d spent at the shelter. He had become rather “shut down” after being stuck there for so long, and thus was somewhat hostile to visiting humans — which, of course, meant that friendlier, more outgoing cats got adopted ahead of him. But between his adorable face and the shelter’s report that he was actually quite good with other cats, I decided to take a chance and adopt him.

The first week or so was pretty rough sledding for us both. As much as life in my apartment is significantly quieter and less stressful than life at the shelter, it must have been pretty jarring for him to find himself here; he went into hiding almost instantly, and all of my overtures towards him were met with hissing and swatting. But once I started treating Hugo like a sullen teen who needed his space — making sure he was fed and comfortable, but keeping a respectful distance — he slowly began to come out of his shell.

Hugo has made some especially great strides these last couple of weeks. While he still won’t let me come close to him, he does like to hang out and watch me from a safe distance whenever I’m watching movies or listening to records in the living room. His extremely playful personality has really come to the fore (he absolutely LOVES the catnip crab that he’s posing with in the above pic), and he and Tiny are really starting to warm up to each other; there’s been lots of chasing going on in the wee hours, and I actually even witnessed them giving each other several nose-boops the other evening. I know it’s gonna be a while longer before Hugo trusts me enough to let me pet him, but that’s okay; I’ve got time, love and patience to spare, and just being able to give him a better life than the one he had (and to see him begin to understand and revel in the cushiness of his new situation) is reward enough for me.

So what does this have to do with music, you ask? Well, Otis and Angus were both named after musical heroes of mine, so I figured I’d name my new cat after one, as well. My original thought, after seeing his photos on the shelter’s site, was to call him Smokey. (They were calling him Marmalade at the shelter, and that just wasn’t ever gonna be a viable option for me, “Reflections of My Life” notwithstanding.) But upon meeting him, the name Hugo suddenly popped into my head. Not because of my love for Hugo Montenegro, Hugo Winterhalter or Hugo Burnham of the Gang of Four — though they all have their moments — but because of my love for Hugo Fattoruso of Los Shakers.

This is that Hugo. He first arrived at my home back in the spring of 1994, via a mail-order package from Midnight Records in NYC, though we’d first crossed paths several years earlier when I’d stumbled across a copy of Los Shakers’ first album in the oldies section of Chicago’s late, lamented Wax Trax! Records.

As this was an English language reissue, they were billed as The Shakers, a name which meant nothing to me. Judging by their matching suits — and matching faces, in that they all sort of looked like Ringo Starr — I figured that this “Band of Ringos” must be a just another cruddy and cynical mid-sixties Beatles knock-off designed to siphon off pocket money from undiscerning teenagers. So I simply snickered at the cover and moved on.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. I mean, yeah, they did all kind of look like Ringo, and they were indeed massively influenced by The Beatles — but the music of Los Shakers was anything but cruddy or cynical.

I’m not entirely sure what motivated me to purchase a Los Shakers compilation from Midnight. I have a fuzzy memory of the Midnight catalog calling them “The Beatles of Uruguay,” but that could be something my brain has invented after the fact. But I was definitely into Mexican and Japanese garage rock by 1994, so the promise of additional English-as-a-Second-Language kicks would have certainly been alluring to me at that point. I know I ordered the CD without having ever heard a note by the band; I hoped it might contain a decent fuzzed-out nugget or two, or at least some goofy tracks that could serve as comic relief when I was making mixtapes for friends. I definitely did not expect to discover a new favorite band.

Like so many young musicians of the era, Montevideo-born brothers Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso had their minds blown by a screening of A Hard Day’s Night. With Hugo on vocals, lead guitar and piano, Osvaldo on vocals and rhythm guitar, and a rhythm section of Roberto “Pelin” Capobianco on bass and Carlos “Caio” Vila on drums, they set out to emulate their new mop-topped heroes.

And emulate them, they did. The band’s three Fattoruso-led albums — 1965’s Break It All (a.k.a. Rompan Todo) 1966’s Shakers For You, and their 1968 psychedelic masterpiece La conferencia secreta del Toto’s Bar — are at times so Beatles-esque as to be practically Rutles-esque, but there’s also a wide array of Latin influences in the music. These cats could play; Hugo and Osvaldo wrote some genuinely great songs, and, as the following clips show, they radiated a ton of joy and charisma while performing (or even just miming) them.

Hugo and Osvaldo left the band following Toto’s Bar (a Pelin-led version of the band recorded the pleasant but inessential In The Studio Again in 1971), and branched out well beyond the pop world. Aside from the brothers’ long-running jazz-oriented groups Opa and Trio Fattoruso, Hugo has also appeared on records by such giants as Airto Moreira, Emir Deodato, Chico Buarque and Milton Nasciamento. And as of 2018, he was still making fantastic records — check out his Y Barrio Opa album over at Bandcamp.

As for Hugo the cat… well, he hasn’t shown any indications of musical talent, at least not yet. But now that he’s getting acclimated to his new life and surroundings, his sense of playfulness, the sweetness that he shows towards Angus, and the happiness he increasingly radiates make me think I gave him the right name.

Welcome to your new life, little Hugo. May this next year be a wonderful one for us both. I’m so glad you’re here to share it with me.

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