mittelstadt

Muffled blast from the past

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:31:18 GMT

Well, I received my CD copy of Cruisin' 1965 from an Amazon.com vendor but I'm a bit disappointed that it's missing several of the songs that were on the original vinyl version. (According to a Web site, the record company lost the rights to many of the songs in the series, which features classic top-40 radio shows from major U.S. cities.)
Fortunately I still have my patched-up cassette made from the vinyl LP, and I managed to copy it to a new cassette with little trouble. Crusin' 1965 is DJed by Robert W. Morgan of KHJ-Los Angeles.
I may or may not order any further CDs from the series, but they're good listening and readily available (unlike the vinyl records), so I recommend 'em. A few tapes from the series are still being sold, too, but I think they're abridged like the CDs.

Version 2

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:54:11 GMT

Still playing with this one; not sure if I dare post it to Jellytown; feeling outclassed with all the top-notch tributes I've seen so far.

Steve tribute cartoon idea

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:22:47 GMT

cartoon idea

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:30:11 GMT

Sign on door: PSYCHIC FAIR
sign pasted over top of it: CANCELED DUE TO PREDICTED LACK OF INTEREST

Sam the Sham

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:51:32 GMT

May as well make it 10. Here's number 9 on my song list. I seem to be stuck in 1965:

WOOLY BULLY (by Domingo Samudio, aka Sam the Sham, and the Pharaohs)

lyrics:

Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw.
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw.
Wooly bully, wooly bully.
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.
Hatty told Matty, "Let's don't take no chance.
Let's not be L-seven, come and learn to dance."
Wooly bully, wooly bully
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.
Matty told Hatty, "That's the thing to do.
Get you someone really to pull the wool with you."
Wooly bully, wooly bully.
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.

video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJOvCHD1uHY

history:

http://www.classicbands.com/samsham.html

trivia:

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4366

(Apparently "L-seven" in the lyrics was an expression for being "square."

You Got Your Troubles

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:59:26 GMT

No. 8 in a series of 7:
Another one from 1965, this time by the Fortunes. This song, which I've always liked, for some reason, still strikes me as a polite way of telling a pal to get lost. The video, according to the Youtube posts, is from some 1980s British film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oit1i21i7Jw

Topical toon idea

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:23:16 GMT

Couple throwing rice at newlyweds outside church:
"This IS the gift. Do you realize how much this stuff costs?

Cruisin' '65

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:09:55 GMT

I just ordered a CD of this to replace my worn (and repaired) audiocassette copy. Notice the Marvel Comics reference (the stack of books on the left). According to the Web site this came from, Mike Royer drew these album covers, which starred a character named Eddie. (Most of the series was released, on vinyl, around 1970.) Cruisin' was a tribute to AM radio from the '50s to the early '70s, featuring programs from top-40 stations from each year.

The whole groovy, boss shu-bop shebang is here:

http://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/cruisin.htm

another bapa idea

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:49:03 GMT

Angels looking down from clouds at rainbow signed "Bestimost." One says: "See how much brighter it is? The new colorist is a genius with Photoshop."

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:08:46 GMT

Hmm. One song to go on my Top 7 list (but I'll probably list more as the spring and summer progress because this fun, and, to quote the man who accidentally sat on his coffee-break snack: I'm on a roll. (Sorry.))

In light of my past six choices, here's the one I SHOULD be listing, but am not:

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~norm/TakeMeAway.html

(the classic 1966 novelty song by Napoleon XIV)

Instead, my last-but-not-least is the sign-off song on one of the "Cruisin'" albums in my collection. (Remember? Those discs and tapes of Baby Boomer-era radio shows, commercials and all, with jackets illustrated in pop art/romance comics style.)

This was the fadeout track played by Robert W. Morgan of KHJ Los Angeles on the show featured in "Cruisin' 1965": A pop reworking of Bach's "Minuet in G major" as a hit single by the Toys.

Lyrics

http://www.geocities.com/lyricalmusings/lyrics/a_loversconcerto.htm

sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abimoWemAjs&feature=related

This work, of course, was referenced in the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus," in a scene where music teacher Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is promoting classical tradition to his mid-1960s high-school class.

songs6: mediocrity is not a mortal sin

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:40:10 GMT

Not sure where these ideas for the seven songs are coming from, but for No. 6 (maybe inspired by the brotherhood of the Internet) I just thought of this number from "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," a show I've seen performed live twice: in the 1980s by a professional touring company and in the 1990s in a local high-school version. (Kim got me involved in shows when we started dating in 1993. I've had bit parts in a few. Fun but tiring.)

Also it's no coincidence that any day now (ulp!) I'm supposed to see my annual job-performance review.

This clip is from the movie:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=l_29IeEeZqo

Here are the lyrics:

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/howtosucceedinbusinesswithoutreallytrying/brotherhoodofman.htm

Monday sweat

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:57:48 GMT

Gym workout fact 1:
Ten minutes of vigorous effort on a rowing machine or treadmill is 3,000 times longer than 10 minutes of sleeping in.

They should measure that sometime and prove me right.

Gym workout fact 2:
If you yell at a barbell or dumbbells, the weight goes up easier but people look at you funny.

Gym workout fact 3:
I always feel better after a gym workout. Partly that's due to the fact that it's over; but probably only, say, 25%.

Do not adjust. Ever.

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:30:08 GMT

Here's an example of an old trick I often employ: using a photocopy of an old image in a new cartoon. (I had drawn the TV newscaster for something else, but for this I just photocopied him, glued down the copy at an angle, and attached the new caption. In all this scanning I have also been erasing (in Microsoft Paint) all the nasty blobs and spots that seem to get all over my work. One time, by the way, a recycled drawing of mine (unsold one, photocopied with new caption) sold to the National Enquirer for over $200. (Unfortunately they no longer publish cartoons.)

tooning in again

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:15:54 GMT

This one still hasn't sold but it's the type of cartoon quite a few mags still use. (Today I'm scanning some of my more recent stuff and posting it here and in the community called "cartooning" on LJ. Procrastinating about drawing any new material.)

songs5 hey,man, dig that-- was that a red stop sign?

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:42:09 GMT

Thought I'd throw this one into the mix, though I haven't played it lately. It's a famous 1950s novelty record from a collection Steve had in the late '70s (Kenny Everett's "YUK") and it was put on cassette for me by Steve (in a low-tech manner elsewhere described) among a bunch of tunes during my 1979 visit.

And it reminds me of how people in this town drive.

http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/548931.html

This guy's sort of interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_Norvus

songs4

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:19:33 GMT

I'm not a major fan of Billy Joel, but I sort of like the lyrics and tune of this one when I hear it (again, usually, at the gym, where the classic-rock station Zee-Ninety-Three is the standard background fare. I don't own an Ipod or anything.)

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/You-May-Be-Right-lyrics-Billy-Joel/73086F9B26BE24944825687000208E40

X-Fan 327 reporting

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:14:50 GMT

This turned up in my search last night for some Steve Whitaker letters: My X-Men Fan Club membership card from 1981 (when I lived in Johnson City, NY, near Binghamton.)

nostalgia stamps

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:08:20 GMT

Look what we bought at the post office today. (Kim needed to mail a package and a letter and I noticed the stamp the clerk put on the letter was a vintage Hulk cover. So I pleaded enough and Kim bought me a sheet of these.) I probably won't use them, just keep 'em as souvenirs. Just as well. The price of a first-class letter goes up a penny next month.

songs3: Another Challenge for the Green Hornet

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:41:53 GMT

I just remembered this one, which I have been listening to (via reruns on the American Life cable TV channel) since December: The "Flight-of-the Bumblebee" theme tune, orchestrated by Billy May and played by trumpeter Al Hirt, for the old "Green Hornet" TV show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee (as Kato).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Zm54tGCHo

I was going to mention to this to Steve Whitaker in our next conversation, which sadly was not to happen. I somehow missed the Green Hornet in its original airings (maybe it wasn't shown in the UK, where I then lived; anyone?) Anyway, its similarities to Batman (by the same people) are apparent, but I'm glad they played it as a straightforward (if low-budget) action series and not "Pow-Zap"-style.

Martin: So far this has been fun; never thought of it as a chore at all. It's an interesting springboard for more blog material and it gets me thinking about my musical tastes (which have been dormant of late). Sorry that so far I haven't listed anything I own on CD, record or cassette, though. Will get to some of those soon.

My musical tastes are a bit off the wall (PTHEGHH!) Maybe that's why they taste like wallpaper paste.

More later.

welcome to Watertown

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:03:49 GMT

And while I'm in a link-posting mood, here's the online edition of the paper I work for:

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/

songs2

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:55:41 GMT

Number 2 on the list of seven songs: One I heard on the radio at the gym this afternoon; a '50s-style bopper by Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats that always stays with me for hours after I hear it:

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/coyoteugly/rockthistown.htm

Here's the radio station (which, I should note, I don't listen to anywhere but at the gym):

http://www.z93.fm/home.php

Listening to it online is probably complicated, what with plug-ins and all, and may not even be possible from outside the USA. But it's a typical Watertown, NY station.

An Alexander day

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:59:38 GMT

Judging by the crowds both days (see program cover in previous post) Kim's show, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day" (a Dramatic Publications musical by Judith Viorst based on her children's book) was a success. The story is about a kid who's having a day in which everything goes wrong for him and he wants to move to Australia.
And herewith, in response to worldofagwu's request, we have the first of seven songs shaping my spring: the opening number from "Alexander." The Shelly Markham tune (which unfortunately I can't provide in this format) is still going around in my head:

If I Were In Charge of the World (lyrics by Judith Viorst)

If I were in charge of the world
I'd cancel oatmeal,
Monday mornings,
Allergy shots, and also Sara Steinberg.

If I were in charge of the world
There'd be brighter night lights,
Healthier hamsters, and
Basketball baskets forty eight inches lower.

If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn't have lonely.
You wouldn't have clean.
You wouldn't have bedtimes.
Or "Don't punch your sister."
You wouldn't even have sisters.

If I were in charge of the world
A chocolate sundae with whipped cream and nuts would be a vegetable
All 007 movies would be G,
And a person who sometimes forgot to brush,
And sometimes forgot to flush,
Would still be allowed to be
In charge of the world.

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:04:57 GMT

Kim's show starring local kids goes on today and Saturday here in Watertown NY.

?

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:47:55 GMT

Supervillian, at computer:
"I have devised a fiendish scheme to bring the world to a standstill, entangled in useless chatter and trivia. I call it--the INTERNET."

Chat Man

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:26:02 GMT

Last night, from all this Web surfing, I thought of some names for new characters: Chat Man and Login, who sit around at computers all day and try to solve crises, but are lost when the power goes out or something.

Item the second: An excuse not to sit at a computer all day (which I have to do at my newspaper-office job.) It is finally spring in Northern New York, with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 50s and 60s (we still have Fahrenheit here, all you continental folks, but we also get the Canadian TV weather reports in Celsius, a scale which sounds awful cold to me.) All those huge piles of snow have all but melted. However, the "white stuff," as the broadcast clichecasters like to call it, could still return--even as late as May. Here we use the old joke that we have only two seasons: winter and the fourth of July.(In 1996 we had a snowstorm on the U.S. Mother's Day, around May 14.)
I have again relayed this unpredictable-weather warning to my mother and stepdad, who will be here from Bedford for a few days starting May 11. (They are then going to warmer climes, to Tennessee, to attend the high school graduation of one of my brother's daughters. They will fly from JFK to the airport in Syracuse, where we shall meet and return them. They made a similar trip in 2005. My brother's family at that time lived in Connecticut, their home for a long time; they moved south last year.)