Bowie is 60

In honor of the 60th birthday of David Bowie today, I decided to indicate the albums I have, after I list my top 10 Bowie songs.

1) Panic in Detroit (from Aladdin Sane)-"looks a lot like Che Guevera". Great background singing.
2) Under Pressure (with Queen)-with a bass line so good, even Vanilla Ice sounded (relatively) good.
3) Star (from Ziggy Stardust)-I did so much hard dancing to this song in my dorm room, I was grateful to the slowdown at the end.
4) Golden Years (from Station to Station)-I saw Bowie do this on Soul Train. The kids didn't know what to make of the Thin White Duke, but they liked the song.
5) Fame (from Young Americans)-the original, not the inferior Fame '90 remix that I have on the Pretty Woman soundtrack. Co-written by John Lennon. LOVE the scales of "fame, fame, fame, fame..."
6) Young Americans (from YA)- also on Soul Train. "Do you remember your President Nixon", whose birthday, BTW, is tomorrow.
7) TVC15 (from STS)-because I like the beat.
8) Changes (from Hunky Dory)- from the first Bowie album I owned.
9) Fashion (from Scary Monsters)-I was at Fred Hembeck's house this summer, and Fred, his daughter Julie and I were watching Bowie videos. Boy, is the video of this one of its time.
10) DJ (from Lodger)-Reminds of the day when "I am the DJ, I am what I play" applied to many disc jockeys, not just a relatively few.

I must make special mention of David Bowie's duet with Bing Crosby, "Peace on Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy", and the strange story behind it: Bowie's hatred of "Drummer Boy", the quick rewrite, Crosby's death before the special aired in 1977. I watched it (and you can, here or here) when it was originally broadcast and saw the bizarre banter about John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, then this duet, which, improbably, really worked. I STILL want to know: did Bing really know who Bowie was?

1971 Hunky Dory #3 UK, #93 US LP
1972 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars #5 UK, #75 US LP, CD
1973 Aladdin Sane #1 UK, #17 US LP, burned CD
1973 Pin Ups #1 UK, #23 US LP
1974 Diamond Dogs #1 UK, #5 US LP
1975 Young Americans #2 UK, #9 US LP
1976 Station to Station #5 UK, #3 US LP
1976 ChangesOneBowie #2 UK, #10 US LP
1977 Low #2 UK, #11 US LP
1977 "Heroes" #3 UK, #35 US LP
1981 ChangesTwoBowie #24 UK, #68 US LP
1983 Let's Dance #1 UK, #4 US LP
1984 Tonight #1 UK, #11 US LP
1989 Tin Machine #3 UK cassette
1990 Changesbowie #1 UK, #39 US CD

Roger (Finally) Answers Your Questions, Scott

Scott wants to know:

1. What is your best/happiest New Year's Eve moment?

It was 1997. My ex-girlfriend (now my wife) Carol, her brother Mark, her ex-roommate Leanne and a couple others came over to my apartment. Mark dropped off a used computer, then we went off to First Night, catching the bus on Lark Street. It was evident that by the time we got to the State Museum five or six blocks away that Mark and Leanne were quite smitten with each other, and they got into "testing" each other to see if the other would stick around or go off to another event. They got engaged about four days later, got married on January 1, 1999. (And are still married with a lovely five-year-old daughter.)

2. Has a movie(or movies) ever made you cry?
Oh, geez, lots of movies make me cry. I got a little misty at the end of Dreamgirls, e.g.

I was half watching It’s A Wonderful Life on the computer in Charlotte (at this site, recommended by this person on Christmas Day, when I caught the early scene where the pharmacist mixes up a prescription and George doesn’t deliver it. "It’s poison, I tell you, poison!" I’d seen that scene a dozen times, but I really got caught up in the pharmacist’s pain at losing his son to the war.
Philadelphia, a very flawed movie, but that damn last scene when they’re showing the home movies, with Neil Young’s title song in the background...
I’m not sure if I cried during the scene when the Kevin Costner plays catch with his father in Field of Dreams when I first saw it, but I have since my father passed six years ago. So does Johnny Bench, I've read.
Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins free in Shawshank Redemption.
I’m sure there are scenes in In America, but I’m not remembering the specific moments.
Liam Neeson In Schindler's List when he does the "I could have saved" speech at the end. Also the second appearance of the little girl in color.
The original Brian’s Song near the end.
At the end of Glory.
After the end of the blackout in Apollo 13. (That must be a good movie, given the fact that I knew the outcome.)
I’m SURE there are others.

3. Do you think that in 20 years George W. Bush will be regarded as one of the worst US Presidents in history?

One never knows, of course. Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon was blasted at the time, and now is regarded as healing the nation. The audiotapes that Bob Woodward has released after Ford's death, though, make me wonder if he was just feeling sorry for an old friend. Perhaps it set up a bad precedent that a President is somehow above the law, which the current occupant seems to feel.
Oh, but one mustn't lie about sex. I'm convinced that if Clinton hadn't been impeached, W. would be this year, but the Dems don't want to appear vindictive, or tear thwe country apart, again.
Recently, I read an article in the Baltimore Sun that suggested that Harry Truman was as ill-regarded in 1950 as W. was in 2006, and that Truman is now considered favorably. Moreover Truman had Korea; Bush had 9/11.
So, I don't know, but I'd think Yes, he'll be treated poorly by history. He put all of his eggs in the "war President" basket, and they got scrambled. If he had gone into Afghanistan, captured bin Ladin, isolated Saddam, as we had in January 2003, when we occupied the country without a shot being fired, he'd probably have come off as one of the better Presidents. And the primary reason I think he'll suffer will be in comparison with Poppa Bush, who sent troops to fight in Iraq, but didn't invade Baghdad. Some thought it was a mistake (I didn't), and he proved to be right. Oh, BTW, I watched one of the Ford funerals on the DVR yesterday - there were at least four; this is the one in the Episcopal cathedral in DC on Tuesday last - and Bush 41 did a GREAT imitation of Dana Carvey doing Bush 41 ("Not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent.") Bush 43's speech, by contrast, was an OK text with a bland delivery.

4. It appears that you enjoy your job. But if there was something else you could do for a living, what would it be?

Something in baseball. Official scorer, base coach. Unless I could make money pontificating as I do in this blog.

5. Do you think the Detroit Tigers can repeat as AL champs? (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

They can, but they probably won’t. I don’t pay that much attention to the game until spring training, but it seems that the Red Sox may have made themselves stronger. The Twins and the Yankees are still around. But I figure it'll be some team I wasn't expecting, such as the one in Cleveland.

Great questions, Scott! Thanks.

States of the Union QUESTIONS

When I travel through many states, as I did recently, I'm compelled to play license plate tag. I saw plates from every state from Maine to Florida, plus DC, Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The big finds, though were Alaska (in Virginia, southbound), and Oregon (in Virginia, northbound). No California, although I saw one in Albany just yesterday; and strangely, since I usually see several, no Ohio. It used to be much easier before some states got specialty plates. Pennsylvania has a standard plate, white with blue and yellow stripes, but it also has one with wildlife on it. Maryland has a mostly white plate, but I saw one with orange that I would have though would have been from the southwest. New York has some variations, but the color scheme is largely the same. Wikipedia has an article on vehicle registration plates. (Of course, it does.)

So, I have two different types of questions for you. One is you describing your experiences, the other is me looking for facts.

1. How many US states have you been to? I've decided that "been to" means you've actually stopped there and ate or slept, which means I'm counting Illinois, even though I've only eaten in O'Hare. I've been to all of the states east of the Mississippi, except Indiana. I've been to Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and California. That makes 31 out of 50, plus DC. I had a chance to go to Hawaii in 1995, but it didn't work out. (Sob.)

2. Does anyone know why so many trucks on US highways have plates from Oklahoma, Illinois and Maine? Tennessee seems to be fairly represented as well.

3. Those of you from beyond the United States and Canada: do your cities or states and/or provinces have plates that designate that geography? Are they notable by color and design or merely alphanumeric?
***
2007 changes in Daylight Saving Time in the USA.

DVD REVIEW: Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show

Early January represents at least two important events to the fans of Elvis Presley. One is his birthday on January 8; he would have been 72. (I'm assuming here that those reports of his living are greatly exaggerated.)

The other is his third and final appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, January 6, 1957, fifty years ago tomorrow. Elvis was signed to do these shows for the princely sum of $50,000 after Elvis' appearance on The Steve Allen Show beat Sullivan in the ratings. Late last month, I received a review copy of the three-disc set of all three appearances.

Disc 1 covers the show of September 9, 1956, which was the last of five consecutive shows the host missed because of a severe auto accident, the results of which are shown on the disc's extra features. So it was British actor Charles Laughton in New York who introduced the shy young singer who was in Hollywood, as he did his four numbers, including "Ready Teddy", but they were well done. Fortunately, one could zap past some of the intervening acts, though Laughton's reading of "The Girl and the Wolf", based on "Little Red Riding Hood", was interestingly bizarre. Other extras on the disc includes interviews, all done in early 1992, with Elvis confidants such as Sam Phillips and Wink Martindale, who said he still has a kinescope of an early interview he did with Elvis.

Disc 2, October 28, 1956: Ed is back, and Elvis is in the building, a tad more confident. As Sullivan noted, Presley just moved his shoulders and the girls in the audience would go wild. Apparently, the host had implored the fans not to scream during the songs, which, curiously, included "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel" and "Love Me Tender", AGAIN, plus "Love Me". It was on "Hound Dog" that we see Elvis the Pelvis, most tame by current standards. Most of the other performers were unfamiliar, save for Senor Wences, who was doing much the same gig when I started watching Sullivan a few years later. The show also includes a couple songs from a Frank Loesser musical, "The Most Happy Fella"; it doesn't really age well, but its appearance with the cast of 40 showed the clout Sullivan had in the theater community. The disc extras include promos for Elvis' first two appearances.

Disc 3 is the infamous program where Elvis was shown only from the waist up, and after each set, the screen would go briefly black. The songs included a medley of "Hound Dog"/"Love Me Tender"/"Heartbreak Hotel" and "Don't be Cruel" in an early segment; "Too Much" and "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold" a bit later, and at the end, "Peace in the Valley". Presley is far more confident in this show. The rest of this program was the most interesting of the three, including the comedy dance of Bory and Bor, a Brazilian powerhouse female vocalist named Leny Eversong, and a young comic singing woman named Carol Burnett in her Sullivan debut, who tugged on her ear before she started. Extras include home movies and items from the Graceland archives.

Another interesting thing about these shows are how the commercials are integrated into the show: Sullivan announcing the "good news" about the sales of the 2006 Mercury, or plugging the November 12 release date of the 2007 "Big M", fascinated me.
But the key value is watching the rapid development of "the King" and his performing style over a four-month period.

$29.99 list ($20.99 at Amazon) from Image Entertainment, Inc., released November 21, 2006.
***
1 Vs. 100 -- starring Tom the Dog and Adam West airs tonight on NBC!

Roger Answers Your Question, RK and Gordon

Roger,

Hi! RK here! I've noticed that you have quite a few blog entries dealing with music. (Well, one has to feed the monkey, somehow!-- whatever that means!) And I suppose there certainly is a lot to be said about the political scene at present. But I do have a musical inquiry for you. Perhaps you've dealt with it in the past already (in which case I humbly apologize in advance).

Well, here's the thing. I recently picked up a book on the making of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and afterwards, naturally, I went back for a listen. Now, I never was much of a Floyd fan, myself.
In fact, before reading the book, I knew virtually nothing about the group. Still, I must confess, it IS quite an album. So here are my questions:

a) What are your favorite "headphone" albums?

Pretty much anything I like to listen to at some volume: Who's Next (The Who); In the Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson); anything with a good bass line. Music that gives me a physical, as well as intellectual, reaction. There are jazz and classical albums that work well. But the #1 album has to be Abbey Road (the Beatles), because it was in a period (spring of 1975) that I didn't have a stereo or much in the way of anything, so I would go to the Binghamton Public Library and listen to albums to keep my sanity.

b) Which albums stand out for you in terms of production??

Never have been that much of an audiophile in that way, except when something sounds off - one example of that is "I Saw Her Again" (Mamas & the Papas) on "Farewell to the First Golden Era" on LP, where the lead vocal is mixed down and the background voices are more upfront, very different from the album on which it originally appeared. I've bought some cheap classical LPs that sounded like mud.

That said, I think albums can be OVERproduced to a point that the very lifeblood is sucked out of them. Couldn't give you a specific example.

And not that you asked: maybe it's because I've been making mixed cassettes and now mixed CDs, but it's a lot more noticeable to me NOW, the sheer drop-off in volume from one album to the next.
***
Gordon asks "What's the best part of being a librarian? Worst part?"

The best part is learning cool new stuff almost every day. It's also the case that, by and large, librarians are very collegial folks who help each other find answers to life's persistent problems.
I suppose the worst part is trying to answer questions, usually multiple-part queries 1) for which I'm pretty sure there is no answer and 2) for which if there WERE such an answer, I don't know how it would help them, the "How many left-handed, black, homosexual Hispanics with children drive a manual transmission on the Upper West Side of Manhattan?" questions. These folks are trying to define their market - a reasonable goal - but sometimes they parse it so finely that no one, even a paid resource, is going to have what they want. The librarian wants to please, so the librarian hates the dumb@#$% question that the librarian couldn't possibly give a good answer to.

(Scott, I'll answer your questions on Sunday. Gordon, I'll answer your other question when I review the book some West Coast blogger sent me.)

MOVIE REVIEW: Dreamgirls

Last Thursday down in Charlotte, I asked my family to watch Lydia so that Carol and I could go to the movies. Some folks wanted to invite themselves to come along, but I needed to uninvite them, as this was Carol's and my monthly date.

I know quite a lot about (Diana Ross and the) Supremes and about Motown generally. But, aside from the hit song from Jennifer Holliday from a quarter century ago, "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going", I knew relatively little about "Dreamgirls", the popular musical, beyond what was widely known.

In the cover story in JET magazine about the new movie, the writer announces, "Most people think [it] is about ...the Supremes. It is not." Someone should have told director Bill Condon, for there were loads of stylistic touches that echoed Diana, Mary, Florence (and Cindy), starting with hairdos, costumes (The Dreams in Liverpool was spot-on) and the album covers. The homage to the Supremes album cover to the left is very prominent in a couple shots.

Still, this is ostensibly the story of Effie White (played here by seventh-place American Idol candidate Jennifer Hudson) was pushed aside as lead singer in favor of Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles) by record label owner Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx). The early scenes rang true, from the ersatz Motown Review to the music being co-opted by Pat Boone types. Where the movie lost me for a time was during a scene where several characters were singing to Effie, trying to keep her in the group in a lesser capacity. It felt like people singing in a musical, and I mean that in a bad way. Another scene, not much later, when Effie is thrown out of the group, I felt pretty much the same. I didn't notice consciously, but my wife detected poor lip-synching, and maybe THAT was the problem.

However, right after that, Effie sings "And I'm Telling You", which got thunderous applause in the theater I was in. It brought me back into the picture. Much of the next portion of the picture involved Deena and Curtis, the Berry Gordyesque character, blending late Supremes with early solo Diana Ross (movie career).

I should mention Eddie Murphy's James "Thunder" Early was partially James Brown, but at least partially Marvin Gaye at the point he wanted to release "What's Going On", right down to the cap he wore, similar to the one Marvin has on the Let's Get It On cover. His performance was very good, not the sometimes over the top schtick he sometimes engages in. The other performances were fine, although Foxx seemed to have a constant sneer.

The early awards suggest that Jennifer Hudson will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. I'm not sure that would be appropriate, since it is her character that is the emotional core of the picture. But the first time actress is excellent.

It was an enjoyable experience.
***
Tosy's review. His assessment of applause I agree with totally.

Did You Miss Me While I Was Gone?

To which you say, "How are we supposed to miss you when you never leave?" Good point.

Actually, I've been away from December 23-31, but thanks to a savvy co-conspirator, I was able to post every day. (Thanks, co-conspirator.) I had written something for every day before I left, some of it short, and would have used it them all save for the fact that James Brown and Gerald Ford passed away.

Carol, Lydia and I trekked to Charlotte, NC to visit my mother, sister Marcia, and niece Alexandria. My sister Leslie and her boyfriend Bobby came from San Diego in midweek. I hadn't realized it until we thought about it, but I don't think I'd been in Charlotte since January 2002, and now I remember why: it's tricky.

Even before we left, my wife announced that we wouldn't be going NEXT year, because arranging all the things one needs to do before one goes away by car with two adults and one child seemed to be endless. [That may change, though.] It didn't help that she got one last-minute project that took three hours, and another that took two. Initially, we were going to leave on Friday night, December 22, but that was causing too much stress.

New York drivers must have been feeling the Christmas stress, for I saw one woman just laying on the horn behind a car that was trying to turn left, but couldn't because of traffic. One driver roared into the gas station in Oneonta, not seeing that our car was at the pump, saw that I was just starting to fill up the car, then stormed out, leaping the curb in the process.

Our "early morning" departure on Saturday the 23rd turned out to be 9:30, and with a lengthy stop the Powell grandparents, we didn't hit the Pennsylvania border until 1 p.m. We ended up, exhausted, in Harrisonburg, VA at 8:30 p.m., 475 miles later. The next day, we went the rest of the 305 miles. Fortunately, Lydia is a MUCH better traveler than she was a couple years ago, when she'd fall asleep for an hour, then wake up screaming for the duration of the trip. Now she's satisfied with her dolls, food, and occasional conversation from the parents.

Based on our limited examination, I've discovered that fast food places in NY and PA have changing tables in the men's bathroom, but the ones in VA do not, only the women's room. But one in a rest area south of Wilkes-Barre, PA had the changing table blocking one of the two urinals in the men's room, and (I'm told) one of the two bathroom stalls in the women's room.

I have a very irrational attraction for West Virginia based on remembering listening to WWVA in Wheeling, a powerful country station, during my childhood; it's also the last state to enter the Union east of the Mississippi, in 1863, when it broke away from Virginia during the Civil War. But I need to remember that when I order tea in the South, and that apparently includes WV, they'll serve you iced tea. (If you want tea, you have to ask for "hot tea".)

Invariably, I get lost in Charlotte. Even though we were on WT Harris Blvd, a major road which wasn't far from our final destination, I found myself pulling out the city map, to no avail, while standing in a mall. Fortunately, some former New Yorker took pity and gave us directions; we STILL got lost again, even though we were clearly in the neighborhood.

Found the house, finally, and eventually ate dinner. Watched some videos, and went to bed. Lydia was supposed to sleep on an air mattress, but THAT didn't work, so she slept with her mother in my niece's very teenager (i.e., disorganized) room, while I slept on the air mattress. Lydia, though, had a coughing jag, so I got her cough medicine, which she didn't want to take, and she started to cry. Carol gave her the liquid anyway and she REALLY started to cry, which woke up my sister. It also woke the dog, who started barking, which woke up my mother and my niece. It's 1 a.m., and the whole house is awake. Merry Christmas.

More on this trip later, alternating with whatever strikes my fancy.

My New Year's Resolution Didn't Say Anything About Not Pilfering

Happy New Year! Been away. More details soon. Little time for blogging or reading the news. Something about the flags at half-staff because Michael Jackson showed up at James Brown's funeral? That can't be right. So I'm going to go read a week's worth of newspapers and get my DVR below 95%. Meanwhile:
From Tosy again. It's that he's SUCH a good thief himself.
1) My uncle once: Well, I never had an uncle. My parents were both only children. received a Purple Heart. Now my great uncle died just before the family, who were rushing to the hospital, could see him. First recently dead person I ever saw.
2) Never in my life: Been to Minnesota.
3) When I was five: My baby sister was born.
4) High school was: A balancing act, getting along with the politicos and the theater people and the music people and being tolerated by the jocks.
5) Fire is: what burned down a whole apartment complex on my grandmother's street when I was nine. Four or five buildings. No one hurt, I don't think, but dozens dispossessed, and the smell reeked for months.
6) I once saw: Daniel Patrick Moynihan walking down the street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
7) ThereÂ’s this woman I know who: Constantly underestimated her worth until she moved out of his house.
8) Once, at a bar: I got a really high score on Ms. Pac-Man.
9) By noon IÂ’m usually: Just getting started.
10) Last night: I went to bed, exhausted at 10:30 p.m.
11) If I only had: the power of flight, so I could get more things done.
12) Next time I go to church: it'll be to sing.
13) What worries me most: Escalating violence in the world.
14) When I turn my head left: I see 50% of my books.
15) When I turn my head right: I see a mess.
16) You know I'm lying when: I'm talking about cars or going shopping in a positive way.
17) What I miss most about the eighties: won't appear in this blog any time soon.
18) If I were a character written by Shakespeare, IÂ’d be: melancholy.
19) By this time next year: I'm hoping Lydia will be sleeping better.
20) I have a hard time understanding: people who LIKE to shop. Seriously - it's like something out of a Lord of the Rings novel; impenetrable.
21) You know I like you if: I tell you something "real", not just conversational piffle.
22) If I won an award, the first person I'd thank would be: Well, I suppose it would depend on what I got the award for.
23) Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens & Geraldine Ferraro: All were alive in the past 250 years.
24) Take my advice, never: Lie, particularly about substantive stuff. It's too hard to keep track of.
25) My ideal breakfast is: Waffles, eggs, sausage. Which I almost never have.
26) If you visit my hometown, I suggest you go to: the junction of the rivers.
27) Why doesn't everyone: Vote.
28) If you spend the night at my house: We'll find a wayaccommodatedate you.
29) IÂ’d stop my wedding: If pigs actually flew.
30) The world could do without: Rudeness.
31) My favorite blond is: Big Bird.
32) If I do anything well, it's: Think too much.
33) And by the way: When I become rich, I'll get a massage every single day.
***
WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Market For Africa At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa that took place on Saturday, November 11, the WTO announced the creation of a new, much-improved form of slavery for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500-year history of free trade there.

WNBF-TV

This guy I wrote about a few months back who was interested in finding out about my grandfather wrote this about that station where Pop used to work. And since it's New Year's Eve:

I am a nostalgia person. I'm always looking up things from my childhood that evoke pleasant memories. WNBF-TV was the first channel that Binghamton had. One of the things I discovered Monday night before I hit your site was a listing of the first commercial TV stations from 1950. WNBF started Dec. 1, 1949. We received our first TV for Christmas 1951. In those days I believe channel 12(WNBF) was located in the Arlington Hotel at the corner of Chenango & Lewis Sts. across from the train station.
My first memories were coming home from school and watching Kate Smith and then "Chuck Wagon Playhouse" from NYC. That was like 4 or 4:30. WNBF started the broadcast day at 3:30, I think, and went to about midnight. This was a few years before Bill Parker started his shows. I remember the Ranch Club, Officer Bill and a couple of others that he had of course. In those days a lot of programs were 15 minutes or a half hour and very short commercials. My favorite night was Thursday when my mother's father(who lived up the street from us) would come down for The Lone Ranger at 7:00 and right after was the Cisco Kid. We had a 17" Admiral TV (B&W naturally) that my brother made a stand for. We were the first in our neighborhood and all my friends would come over to see the westerns and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. I was about 10 or 11 then. As a matter of fact the TV signals use to come by microwave(I think) through Albany and Cherry Valley. Whenever they had signal problems they would flash a sign saying "Trouble with signal from Cherry Valley".

In those days too, WNBF and WKOP Radio had disk jockeys. Bill Parker, Ken Kirkander, Bill Kunkel and several others would ply the time on WNBF. They also filled in on TV since it was the same ownership, Clark Associates, I think. Several years later in the late fifties they moved to the Sheraton Hotel on Front St. which is now a senior housing facility. As far as I remember WNBF was always a CBS affiliate primarily but they carried programs from all the networks (NBC, ABC, DuMont and syndication) until WINR-TV started in 1957. It was owned by Gannett Newspapers and was primarily NBC. By then, I think, DuMont was gone and they split ABC programming.

I don't remember just when channel 34 started 1962 but it was the ABC affiliate.

Sitting watching what was there then something there. I thought Sat, clearly a Sunday (Nov 25, 1962)

Anyway, I just usually go on Google on nights when the Yankees aren't on and type in things that are pleasant for me and see what comes up. That is how I came across McKinley Green by accident and to my great pleasure. The only problem is I have dial-up because I'm too cheap for Roadrunner. I'm also a fan of Jerry Colonna and Jimmy Durante. There is a great site from England... http://great-song-stylists-uk.com/ that has Colonna, Durante, Danny Kaye, Eddie Cantor, etc. with songs and radio programs that I go to quite often for a few laughs.

I read that you used to listen to the out of own stations when you were a kid, so did I. In the 50s I'd pick up Boston, Charlotte, Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis, DesMoines and even Tulsa. When rock-n-roll was in I used to listen to Dick Biondi on WLS-Chicago every night. When I was going to Broome Tech in 1959-61 it would start coming in at about 9PM very clearly to about midnight. I used to listen while doing my assignments. One of my favorite programs was easy listening music. Holiday Inn and American Airlines used to have a female disk jockey that sounded very sexy. It was syndicated I think and on several clear channel stations that I could pick up. Ah, those were the days.

A couple pieces I found re: this here and here.

2006 QUESTIONS; I mean, QUESTIONS about 2006

So, looking back on the past year, what were the most important/interesting things did you do/learn?

For me:

Going another year with Lydia without doing her appreciable damage.

Seeing my mother, sister Marcia, and niece Alex this summer; more importantly, my mother seeing, and getting to know, Lydia. Lydia recognizes my mother's picture now.

Went on about 9 dates with my wife this year; not so great, but it's something.

The office move to Corporate Woods: I know I used to complain about it a lot, though not so much lately. I still hate it, especially now that things have started disappearing from people's workstations on the floor. Since no one can get on the floor without badges, it's either other people working on the floor or the cleaning crew. And me without a door.

Listened to a lot of good music, and a little I wasn't so crazy about, largely due to the efforts of Fred, Lefty, Gordon and their compatriots. Merci! I'm devastated, though, to have sunk to #5 on Lefty's musical guru list. Ah, well, the price of fame.
Lost about 20 pounds this fall, then gained about half of it back after the bicycle crash. Eh.

Donated blood six times this year, again, even though I'm peeved by the ban on gay donors.

As a political science major, I'm as turned off as ever by politics. Yet I still vote, every time.

I've pretty much abandoned church committees. Not where I'm at, presently. Still doing the choir thing, though.

Yet I have taken on being Vice-President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library, and I'm trying to create definition for the job whose only actual function is to run the monthly meeting if the president''s away. I've lined up a speaker for National Library Month and started a blog, so far.

I'm sure I'll think - or you'll think - of other things.

"Stir Fry Barbie" and Other Copyright Issues

Sometimes ya gotta cheat. Have a bunch of family stuff, so it'll be next year (i.e., next week) for answering your questions, a book review, a movie review and sundry other ramblings, though I do have something for tomorrow and Sunday. Meanwhile, for my work blog, I wrote this series of pieces on copyright, which I like, especially the third part, which talks about the Air Pirate Funnies and Tom Forsythe's "Food Chain Barbie", an example of the latter which appears above.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
***
Then go over to Greg's blog and read his robust, 77-part saga about his recent trip to Egypt.

Bye.

Gerald Rudolph Ford

The 93-year old Gerald Ford went into the hospital at least four times this year, so the death this week of our longest-living President didn't surprise me. But his career has long interested me greatly. As our first person selected as Vice-President and then President under the 25th Amendment, rather than elected, the House minority leader didn't much have a lot of political leverage.

The whole Ford Memoirs Behind the Nixon Pardon thing led to an interesting, and for Ford's legacy, a rather sad court case. In HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, INC. v. NATION ENTERPRISES, 471 U.S. 539 (1985), Time magazine had an exclusive right to excerpt from Ford's memoirs. Nation magazine wrote a news story of 300-400 words about it. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue (fair use), but since they focused on the Nixon pardon, which was the only thing that anyone really cared about, it led to the resulting lawsuit.

On one hand, I felt sorry for the man. Ford had two offers, from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, to play professional football when he graduated from Michigan in 1935... Ford could have gone league. "I wish I could've played one year for either the Lions or the Packers...". If he had, maybe he wouldn't have been so easily painted as a klutz by the press and most notably by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live. (I read on AOL that Chase is now saying very nice things about Ford.)

On the other hand, he was responsible in large part for the success of two members of the GWB administration, one current and the other recent. He made a rising young administrator in the Nixon cabinet, Donald Rumsfeld, his chief of staff in 1974. In 1975, when Rumsfeld moved to the Pentagon to become the nation’s youngest secretary of defense, Ford appointed a still younger White House staffer, Dick Cheney, to succeed him. Had Gerald Ford been still alive, I might have called this piece, "I blame Gerald Ford". But it's still hard for me to speak ill of the dead.

At least he'll be eligible to be on a coin in 2016.

Godfather of Soul

JamesBrown: I think of his name almost as one word.

When I was growing up, our family always got JET magazine. On the last pages were the black (or R&B) music charts. More often than not, there was a song or two or three from James Brown on the singles charts and and an LP on the album charts. Peculiarly, many of these songs I had never heard of, let alone heard, because there was no black radio stations that I can recall in my hometown. This was particularly true when I was younger, before he had most of his big crossover hits.

So, if you look at some of those Billboard books of the top pop artists, James Brown will appear in the top ten, even though he had a relative dearth of pop hits, compared with his total output. However, he had a MASSIVE total output.

James Brown came to Albany in the mid-1980s, and I didn't go, and this during a period when I was attending concerts. It was largely that his shows - like Bob Dylan at the time, now that I think of it - were considered very inmconsistent. One show, he earned his nickname of "The Heardest Working Man in Show Business", while the next show, he seemed to be mailing it in. For the life of me, I can't remember what category JB's show that year fell into.


What with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the initial grouping and Kennedy Center Honors, among other awards, he was feted vigorously. But I think the greatest complement is to be so well recognized that you'll be well parodied:

RIP, JB.
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Speaking of the Kenedy Center Honors, no Jessica Simpson -alas. But Alison Krauss - my wife's other favorite singer - on two songs!

The Lydster, Part 33: "Omigod"

So, I had these brand-new pictures of the daughter, but, to paraphrase the great philosopher Dolby, "I've tidied up, and I can't find anything." I'll blame the stress of the holidays.

Not often, but occasionally, and only recently, Lydia has been saying, "Omigod!" It's not a word/phrase than generally crosses the lips of her mother and me, so I asked one of her day care teachers about it. She thinks it's another student who Lydia is mimicking.

The thing is that she says it when surprised, like a veteran user would. Of course, what surprises her may differ from what surprises others. Carol sometimes keeps her earrings under her pillow - no, I don't know why - and Lydia discovered them, and came up with the retort.

It's our inclination to discourage her, we get over the fact that, for some unknown reason, I find myself stifling laughter when she does it. Bad daddy!

We want her to be sure she knows the given names of her mother and me, which she does, without actually calling us by our given names. She's only tested that idea once. Interestingly (to me), she stopped when I started calling her "daughter" instead of her name.


This is Lydia's first Christmas where she is starting to understand this Santa Claus and presents gig. Her mother and I are trying to limit the amount of things she gets, buy she's got grandparents and aunts and uncles. Even before the big day, she's been receiving lots of STUFF, so we're busy trying to regulate the volume she has at any one time, lest her toy box explode. At the same time, we appreciate the kindness and wisdom of these folks who had children before we did, so it's a balancing act.

Happy 2 3/4, Lydia. Love, "Daddy" (not "Roger")
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Peanut-sniffing dog.

Merry Christmas; Boxing Day Manana

Some Christmas links:
History Channel
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works
Holidays.net
Yahoo! links
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I actually still own the treasury-sized comic book, Superman VS Muhammad Ali


Tomorrow is also The Feast of Stephen, commemorating the first Christian martyr.
Good King Wenceslaus went out
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even.

Some Favorite Christmas Moments

This is a card that we sent out, obvious at Christmastime 1982, the last time that we all - Tom, Mitch, me, Raoul, and Rocco (L-R) - worked at FantaCo. Yes, we were TRYING to look mysterious/strange/sinister.

So here's a lovely Christmas tale from 1991 involving my ex. You all right with that?

Z and I were poor graduate school students. I don't think we actively decided not to get a tree as much as we failed to get one until it was the week before Christmas, then decided it was pretty much not cost-effective to buy a tree that late.
We took the bus to do some last-minute shopping at Sears when we noticed the retailer was GIVING away trees. OK, for NOTHING, maybe we'll get one. But how to get it home? Z asked if we should ask the bus driver. I said, "Heck, no. If we ask, he could say 'no'." The bus arrives, fortunately with only about six people at 6 p.m. The driver looks askance, but says nothing as I take the tree on the bus. We get off the bus, carry it the three blocks home and had a lovely tree that we decorated that night.

Merry Christmas to all.

Roger's Quarterly Attempt to Make YOU Do All The Work

OK, pilgrims. Now that it's the first or second full day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I just KNOW there are questions you want me to answer.

For instance, some guy I know wrote: "One leftover query--you can't videotape? Huh? Splain (in your blog, if you prefer--consider it a request!)"

O.K., Lucy, maybe I miswrote. I CAN use a VCR, though I hardly ever do anymore. What I CAN'T do is take a program that I recorded on the DVR and record THAT to videotape. I need a couple of wire connections, but not sure what; I've been told, "It's EASY!" They have no idea how difficult "EASY" technological things can be for me. This is not a complaint, merely an observation. The result is that I must keep the number of programs on the DVR at a certain limit, lest I run out of room. I'm saying here that running out of room is a GOOD thing, because it limits my TV consumption.

dwvr writes:
"Hey Roger-
Will they still let you be a Christian Blogger if you link to raw PANDA PORN?
Since there were no standards in the first place, other than acknowledging my Christian faith, probably yes. But you never know. If I were to write about, say, manatees, I'd probably be in trouble.

"Do you own any overalls?"
No, but I'm not constitutionally opposed to it.

"Why haven't you stolen Lefty's Top Ten List? You've stolen several of his other ideas."
I'd write what Mr. Tosy (I think) said about stealing except I can't find it, something along the line of "If I'm eating a hamburger, and you come along and want to eat a hamburger, it's not as though you stole the idea of eating a hamburger, you just wanted a hamburger." I'm sure I've done him (or someone) a grave injustice, but you get the idea.

So, please e-mail me, or leave me queries in the comments section, and I promise to answer all of your thousands of queries. Eventually.
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ADD reminded me of the late Tom Natell's musings on winter.

You Better Watch Out

One of my pastor indicated this week how much he dislikes the lyrics to Santa Claus Is Coming to Town; it's that "sees you when you're sleeping" stuff and he got into what type of God we envision. It was with that thought in mind that I listened to an album put together by some obsessive-compulsive sort (not me) of 24 versions of that very same song! When I played it last year, I discovered that it was surprisingly listenable, not at all monotonous. Actually, this year, I put it in on random play with an equally exhaustive collection of "Little Drummer Boy" renditions. As a straight listen, one can be "pa-rum-rummed" out by LDB, but in the alternating play, it's not so bad. I'll tell you what version of "Santa Claus", though, I HAVE tired of. It's the one done by the dancing, singing plush toy snowman that one of my in-laws gave to Lydia last month. It's not a terrible version, as stuffed toys go - it seems to be trying to do Springsteen - but Lydia can play it over and over (and over...)

Generally, though, I didn't play much Christmas music at home or at work, mostly because my wife CONSTANTLY has the radio tuned at night to some local radio station playing nothing but the seasonal tunes - unless Dominic the Donkey comes on; then she'll shut it off for three minutes. In fact, I've played Christmas music on only a couple occasions so far this season, one being when I received a couple discs in the mail recently - both very good, BTW.

Another occasion was this Sunday past. I had gone to church at the early service to light the Advent candle with Carol and Lydia, then stayed through the second service so that I could sing in the choir - I was churchified. By the time I got home, there was a bunch of my in-laws in the house. Carol said, "Why don't you play some Christmas music?" So I grabbed the first five CDs in the Christmas section of the collection, put them into the player, and hit random play. The first song to come up was "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer". My father-in-law said, "Are you trying to send a message?" Oy.

Actually, I bought the single of "Grandma" when it first came out - who knew it'd become a perennial? - and the version is different from the one on the CD. When, in the original, Elmo asks "Should we open up her gifts, or send them back?" There's no "Send them back!!" response. The "Rudolph" coda doesn't exist in the original, either.

I find that's true with a number of songs. The Harry Simone Chorale's version of "Little Drummer Boy" has a last verse which is not so nearly as slow as the now-common recording.

There is this absolutely beautiful song called "The Bells of Christmas" by Julie Andrews, which I still have on a Firestone Christmas LP. I looked for it on iTunes, found it, bought it. I was disappointed, though, that they grafted on almost a full minute of extra instrumentation (from 1:08 to 2:02), which throws off the balance of the song. It's longer (3:54 vs. about three minutes), but not better. Still, it will appear on the mixed CD I made for my colleagues.

I have a lot of tolerance for Christmas music - I think it's a function of my parents having the single of the Chipmunks Christmas, which I used to do a fairly great rendition of - but some things do bug me.
* In search of the lost T: It's Silent Night, not Silen Nigh. And Jesus Christ, not Jesus Cries. (Or maybe He does.)
* EE-yuk. I have this recording of Charlie Pride doing "O, Little Town of Bethlehem", and he says, Beth-LEE-Hem, rather than a more modulated Beth-leh-hem. Others do it, too, but his is most egregious. Ironically, he also says "tha everlasting light", instead of "thee everlasting light".

Oh, and why were my in-laws in town on Sunday? After dinner, we all went to see the Melodies of Christmas at the beautiful Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady. This is the 27th annual benefit for the Child Cancer Program at Albany Medical Center, sponsored by WRGB-TV, Price Chopper grocery stores, and the folks that make Freihoffer cookies. The program featured Empire State Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorale. Also participating, Professor "Louie" & The Crowmatix, a Woodstock-based band who got those primarily suburban kids to - almost- swing. I must say that, having seen it on TV a number of times, it's better live. Still we'll watch it Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We'll probably still see the "honey shots" of the high school co-eds that the Channel 6 cameramen seem to concentrate on each year.

Duplicates

I have long had an interest - OK, fascination- with songs with the same title. I'm not talking about cover versions of the same song, but different songs that share the same title. Back in the early 1980s, my favorite radio station (the late Q104)had this feature called the Breakfast Fourplay, in which listeners were asked to contribute four songs with a common theme. One time, I picked four songs all titled "I Need You", by the Beatles, the Who, America and Joan Armatrading, all of which I owned except the Who. I left off the Paul Carrack song of the same name, which I also own/owned. Ellen, the DJ, seemed to like the choices. Subsequently, I got versions by Eurthymics and Paula Abdul. (I also have the L. Ronstadt/A. Neville song, but that's a cover of the Carrack song.)

Without looking, I'd guess there would be a number of songs called Gloria. It used to bug me that the songwriters were so unimaginative; now, I've reframed and can note how universal it is that certain themes come up.

How would I put together such a list of songs in my collection? Tosy compiled such a list by going to his iPod. But:
1) I don't own an iPod and
2) I wouldn't want to miss my LP cuts
Then I thought to use the Billboard book Album Cuts. It's a pretty useful tool that lists the name of every cut of every album that charted on the Billboard charts from 1955 to 2001. However, for this task, it would have been maddening, for while it would list every song named Angel, it would not indicate which are different songs and which are cover versions. Besides which, it's 750 pages of six-point type.

Ultimately, I used the index to Top Pop Singles. It's only 150 pages of much larger type AND it distinguishes between cover versions and differently named songs. This list is hardly complete - undoubtedly, there are album cuts I've forgotten.

The / indicates a cover version, NOT that they performed it together.

America-Frank Sinatra; Simon & Garfunkel/Paul Simon/Yes; at least four different West Side Story versions
Angel-Aerosmith; Sarah McLaughlin; Madonna; Jon Secada; Aretha Franklin; Rod Stewart
Another Day-Paul McCartney; Sting
Breakaway- Art Garfunkel; Beach Boys
Call Me-Aretha Franklin; Blondie
Candy Man-Sammy Davis; Roy Orbison
Cherish-Association; Madonna
Chicago-Graham Nash; Frank Sinatra
Crazy-Seal; Patsy Cline [and others]; Aerosmith
Crossroads-Cream [and undoubtedly others]; Tracy Chapman
Dance, Dance, Dance-Beach Boys; Chic
Dance with Me-Orleans; Peter Brown; Drifters
Day by Day-Godspell; Hooters
Do It Again-Beach Boys; Steely Dan
Don't Be Cruel-Elvis Presley; Bobby Brown
Dreams-Fleetwood Mac; Cranberries
Drive-Cars; R.E.M.
Everlasting Love-Carl Carlton/Gloria Estefan; Howard Jones
Fallen-Elvis Costello; k.d. lang
Fire-Ohio Players; Arthur Brown; Pointer Sisters/Bruce Springsteen; Jimi Hendrix
Friends-Elton John; Bette Midler; Beach Boys
A Girl Like You-Young Rascals; Edwyn Collins
Gloria-Them/Doors; Patti Smith; Laura Branigan; U2. And this doesn't count classical pieces titled Gloria, of which, undoubtedly, I own a few.
Good Times-Chic; Edie Brickell
Hold On-En Vogue; Santana; Kansas; Rascals; Herman's Hermits
Holiday-BeeGees; Madonna; Kool & the Gang
Home-Sheryl Crow; Roger Miller
Hot! Hot! Hot!-Buster Poindexter; Cure
How Long-Ace; Pointer Sisters [with parenthetical extra title]
I Love You-Frank Sinatra; Zombies; Sarah McLachlan
I Threw It All Away-Bob Dylan; Elvis Costello
I'm a Man-Spencer Davis Group/Chicago; Yardbirds
I want You-Marvin Gaye; Beatles [with parenthetical extra title]
Jump-Van Halen; Pointer Sisters
Love and Happiness-Al Green; Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
Lucille-Kenny Rogers; Little Richard/Everly Brothers/Beatles
Magic-Olivia Newton-John; Cars
Memphis-Chuck Berry/Johnny Rivers/Beatles; Joe Jackson
Money-Pink Floyd; Beatles/Barrett Strong
My Baby-Temptations; Pretenders
My Love-Petula Clark; Paul McCartney
One-Three Dog Night; U2/Johnny Cash
Rag Doll-Four Seasons; Aerosmith
Real Love-Doobie Brothers; Beatles
Runaway-Janet Jackson; Corrs; Bonnie Raitt/Del Shannon; Jefferson Starship
Shout-Tears for Fears; Beatles [and a number of others]
Sign Of The Times-Petula Clark; Prince [OK, the Minnesota guy used 'O' instead of Of]
Silver and Gold-Neil Young; U2
Stand-R.E.M.; Sly & the Family Stone [with !]
Surrender-Elvis Presley; U2
Temptation-Diana Krall; Elvis Costello
Thank You-Led Zeppelin; Boyz II Men; Sly & the Family Stone [parenthetical addition]
Time-Hootie & the Blowfish; Pozo-Seco Singers
Tunnel of Love-Dire Straits; Bruce Springsteen
Wait-White Lion; Beatles
Why-Annie Lennox; Beatles with Tony Sheridan; Tracy Chapman [with a ?]
Without You-Nilsson; Doobie Brothers; Dixie Chicks; David Bowie
Wild Horses-Rolling Stones; Garth Brooks
Woman-John Lennon; Peter & Gordon
Words-Monkees; BeeGees
You-George Harrison; Marvin Gaye; Bonnie Raitt

This probably WOULD have been easier with an iPod.

Who ARE these people?

Or maybe, as friend Dan might say, What were they thinking? Check out the comments.

Picture taken from here.
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TV Guide managed to take an unnecessary pot shot at my city. In the December 25 cover story about the ubiquitous Rachael Ray: "She began offering a series of classes that promised to teach 30-minute Mediterranean meals. In Albany, where a trip to the mall passes for excitement, the tutorials were a hit." I could spend time talking about the virtues of Albany, or note that I LOATHE the mall and why, but I'll just note that it was a cheap shot for no good reason. Feh.
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The 2000 year old calculator.