duaneiac

I haven't followed baseball since the year they had no World Series due to a player's lockout. (Was that in 1994?) I decided it's just millionaire owners vs. millionaire players and neither side really gave a sweet patoot about the fans. That said, I don't understand the animus towards the St. Louis Cardinals so often expressed here. I grew up in Missouri and had to suffer the perennially sucky Cards of the 1970's as an integral part of my youth. Granted, they had Bob Gibson still back then and Lou Brock, but not a whole lot more going for them. Still, one's boyhood team remains one's team to some degree for the rest of one's life, so I wish the Cards well, although I don't expect much of them this year. (My ideal World Series would be the Cards vs. the A's, as the A's of the early 70's were my favorite team of that era and I went to a lot of A's games once I moved here to the Bay Area - before I wrote off baseball entirely. It doesn't look that matchup will ever happen as both teams have a tendency to fold in the post-season.)

Best birthday wishes to you, MG!!!

A new interactive trivia quiz is posted each week. Here's this week's quiz http://www.uclick.com/client/spi/uftr/ I did poorly this week -- score of 1,046.

Not having seen these episodes in many years, it was a nice surprise to be reminded just how good this show was. The writing was consistently good and Jack Klugman and Tony Randall were outstanding actors who kept their respective characters from ever becoming one-dimensional roles.

Seasons 2 and 3 of this series had their good moments, but Season 4 was just awful. Not one really funny moment in the entire season. It seemed like every one involved was trying oh so hard to be funny and every single joke just fell flat.

"digs deep into the musical crate of history and comes up with standards including Summertime, God Bless the Child and I Cover The Waterfront." That does not appear to be very deep. Those songs sort of indicate a lazy singer just once again taking a stab at the same tired old warhorses that far too many aging baby-boomer former rock stars have taken a crack at. "Among some of the lesser-known songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dublin's September In The Rain and Memphis In June," Ahem -- lesser known by whom, exactly? Of course, I must admit, anything popular on radio today would be "lesser known" to me. (Also, the lazy style of writing would lead one to believe that "Memphis In June" is a Warren & Dubin song when it was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Paul Francis Webster.)

Carmen McRae's final studio album was top-notch

That Buddy Rich CD is very good. It's his big band of, I guess, the late 1960's (LaserLight releases are often short on details). There was also a LaserLight CD called Tuff Dude with a Buddy Rich small band that is worth getting. The Joe Pass Christmas CD is okay. It's fine for it's purpose (background holiday music) but it is not a major item in his discography. I have the Ella Fitzgerald CD too. Haven't listened to it in a while, but I recall it being good, but not dramatically different from many other "live" CDs one can find by Ms. Fitzgerald. I think the same company put out the LRC label (with recordings from Sonny Lester's catalog) and LaserLight. Other worthwhile LaserLight/LRC CDs I have include: For some reason, the system would not allow me to post more images, but the other titles included Blue Bossa by McCoy Tyner Dedication by the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra Parisian Thoroughfare by Stephane Grappelli Velvet Soul by Carmen McRae Crown Royal by Woody Herman Funkiest Little Band In The Land -- Jimmy McGriff

Yes, that is a good one. Another LaserLight CD that is well worth picking up is this It's a typical Armstrong concert probably from the very late 1950's or early 1960's. Very good sound quality and it's quite an enjoyable concert which should be easy to find for a very reasonable price.

Since Mr. Allison announced his retirement, we will have to assume this was his final album and it was a good one

Indeed. Dig this: Anybody out there qwho would have recognized Barrett Deems, former drummer with Louis Armstrong's All Stars?? My first thought upon glancing at that photo was "That looks like Barrett Deems", so I guess I'm one who would recognize him.

I saw her in concert in San Francisco about a month before this concert was recorded. She was a wonderful performer right up to the end. Another singer who was terrific until the final curtain dropped: And there was no such thing as a bad Ruby Braff album, right up to the end, which was this concert recorded in Aug. of 2002: I believe this was Marian McPartland's final recording and it demonstrates that she was still a creative and talented pianist even at the age of 90

This show makes me genuinely LOL.

You should read the original short story by Richard Matheson entitled "Prey", the movie version is tame by comparison. All three stories in this movie were based upon short stories by Mr. Matheson, but he only wrote the screenplay for the attacking doll one. The DVD contains a "special feature" interview with him and he said he knew that story would be the clincher and he wanted to keep it for himself. Ms. Black said in the commentary portion that she made up some of the dialogue she used on the phone calls in that segment to help her flesh out her character and she said the idea for her character's final, unforgettable transformation in the end was her idea.

Any one who was a youngster and saw this made-for-TV movie when it first aired some 40 years ago (such as myself) most assuredly had nightmares for a while afterwards. There were 3 stories in this anthology -- each featuring Karen Black in a different role -- the first two of which are rather tame and not at all terrifying. The final tale though, which featured that little Zuni fetish doll (depicted on the cover) which came to life and attacked Ms. Black's character, was genuinely terrifying. Even watching it today, it is both very scary and very absurd. That episode is a completely solo performance by Ms. Black and her work and the direction of Dan Curtis (creator of the TV series Dark Shadows) makes the story believable and viscerally frightening.

Bought these for 50 cents a disc at the local library used items sale. They were apparently all donated by some one as none are library discards.

She is rightfully a screen legend. I saw her on stage in the musical Woman Of The Year. She wasn't exactly what one would call a singer, but she could put the songs over by sheer dint of personality. I like the old radio series, Bold Venture, she and Bogart did together. Not great drama by any means, but more of that wonderful interplay by the two stars.

I would guess the way the fictional movers and shakers of Washington D.C. are depicted in this series is uncomfortably close to the self-serving, backstabbing, petty and vindictive behavior that our "leaders" exhibit today.

The Always Fabulous Hair of Abbey

The MJQ tried -- I'm sure they tried -- to fit in with the times back then. They did manage to ditch the ties, but they just could not bring themselves to abandon suits entirely. This was their groovy, flower power, compromise solution -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqCrHuFbFs

For some reason, the David Sanborn pic made me think of this:

Not an album (a single or EP, I guess), but still a great haircut!

That tune is called "Dancers In Love". It was part of the original "Perfume Suite" it appears on a number of live albums.

Don't forget Desi Arnaz. This is a decent compilation from RCA of his 1940's band recordings , including perhaps his two biggest hits, the title song and "Cuban Pete". (There is a special "guest vocalist" on one track -- guess who.)

"Has there ever been a more white, middle-class show than Friends?" Well, not if you don't count Leave It To Beaver, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Our Miss Brooks, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Patty Duke Show, Family Affair, The Brady Bunch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Happy Days, etc.