Interesting Record #3

Here is an interesting find. It is a record by the artist who came to be known as Frankie Valli, lead man for The Four Seasons. At the time this record came out, it was Frankie Vally with a "y", and not even a single season in sight. In fact, Frankie also had records under Frankie Valley, The Four Lovers, The Travelers, Frankie Valle & The Romans, and The Wonder Who among others.

This particular disc came out in 1959, and while a pleasant sounding couple of tunes, it doesn't have that distinctive Four Seasons sound.

As you can see from the photo, this is a DJ sample copy intended for airplay on the radio.

Air New Zealand - The Bare Essentials

You know how boring the safety announcements are when you board a commercial flight. After all, if you don't know how to fasten a seat belt and how to find a door out, you likely shouldn't be flying alone anyway. Still Air New Zealand is trying to get you to pay closer attention to their pre-flight safety video, so some of their employees went all out to get you to notice. Yep...that's nothing but body paint!

Interesting Record #2

This record is one of the first records I procured in my collection. I got this one as a premium by sending in box tops from Kellogg's Corn Flakes, back in 1965. I would have been 12 years old at the time.

This record actually contains three songs. The side Doin' The Flake is obviously a promotion for corn flakes, and introduces a dance called..what else...The Flake.

The other side has two songs on it The first is the hit single This Diamond Ring, followed by a second track entitled Little Miss Go-Go.

Gary Lewis is the son of comedian Jerry Lewis, but the group didn't promote this fact when they got a gig playing at Disneyland. When producer Snuff Garrett heard the group, he felt that featuring that fact and calling the group "Gary Lewis and The Playboys" rather than just "The Playboys" would help sell records. Garrett wanted this to hit, so he also brought in studio musicians on the lead tracks, relegating the band to playing only backup on the recording. Notable of these session players were drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Joe Osborn, Tommy Allsup on guitar, and Leon Russell playing the keyboards. By the time Garrett was done adding another vocalist and overdubbing Gary singing, little was left of the original band, but it did produce a hit. With that, the group was on their way to producing other hit records.

As you can see, the label shows lots of wear over the years. You can also see where I put my initials on the label in permanent marker all those years ago. This premium originally came with a custom sleeve, something that has long since gone by the wayside.

Interesting Record #1

In browsing through some of the old records I have sitting around in boxes, I have found some of interest for one reason or another. Let's start off with this one.

This particular record, Alvin's Harmonica, reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. It was the second record issued under the artist name of David Seville and The Chipmunks. Of course David, along with Alvin, Theodore, and Simon, were all the voice of Ross Bagdasarian. The first with this artist credit was The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late).

Bagdasarian played around with speeding up tape recordings to build the tracks for each chipmunk, and hit it big with the resulting novelty records. He also had a huge #1 hit in 1958 without the Chipmunk credit, singing as David Seville. That record, Witch Doctor, was his first experiment with speeded up voices on a commercial recording.

This record also has something I like. That is silver ink printed on a dark colored label. Something about that combination is just pleasing to me.

Robot's Job Sent Offshore

Outsourcing of American jobs is now beginning to put US robots out of work, according to parody news source, The Onion.

Card Catalogs

I have written in the past about cultural artifacts that have disappeared from the scene over my lifetime. Today, I thought about another one that escaped while we weren't looking. I was recording the movie Awakenings, and did a spot check on it. The scene I saw was Robin Williams in a library, searching through a card catalog. I suspect many younger folks today would not know what this is. One of the first things we were taught in the elementary school library was how to use the card catalog, along with the Dewey Decimal System to classify books.

Now replaced by the much more versatile and manageable computer database, the once ubiquitous card catalog has come and gone. I don't know of any library that still uses one, although I would not be surprised if some very small libraries do so.

There was something edifying about the feel of the file drawers, and their collection of data cards inside, typed by a librarian and placed in the correct sequence in the catalog. The procedure was to take a piece of scrap paper and jot down the title and the Dewey Decimal Number, and then proceed to the shelves to find the particular book of interest. It was a skill so critical that it was reinforced in high school as part of the exercise of researching and writing term papers.

So even as we gain new technologies, let's not forget what came before. The sample card here is actually a product of computer technology. I created it at the Catalog Card Generator.

Gale Storm Makes Seven

Seems that my counts of recent celebrity deaths was one off, since I had forgotten about the death of actor David Carradine in Thailand. So adding that one brings us to six, and now we have actress Gale Storm who died yesterday to raise the recent celeb deaths count to seven.

Gale was born Josephine Cottle, and achieved stardom in the cowboy movies, including some with Roy Rogers. Later moving to television, she co-starred in the program My Little Margie, and later The Gale Storm Show. Margie started as a CBS summer replacement for I Love Lucy, and quickly found a following. The show moved to NBC where it had a successful run.

Gale Storm was 87 years old.

And Fred Makes Five

The deaths of celebrities continue to mount. Comedian Fred Travalena succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at his home in Encino, California. Coincidentally, Travalena appeared in the premiere episode of a 1991 sitcom titled Good Sports, which starred the late Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal. Fawcett, of course, died last Thursday after a lengthy struggle with cancer.

Fred Travalena was 66 years old.

Denver International Airport

Today was one of comings and goings to Denver International Airport for the family. The lovely spouse and I took my mother-in-law to the airport for her flight back home after a two-week visit in Colorado. In addition, my middle son and daughter-in-law returned from a honeymoon trip to San Francisco.

Of all the major airports around the country, Denver's is one of my favorites. It is new, modern, and easy to get around in. Locals refer to it by it's initials...D-I-A...even though its airport code is DEN, same as the old Stapleton International used to be. Situated out on the high plains northeast of the main part of the city, Denver International is easily seen for miles. The unique suspended peaks of the tent-like roof over the main terminal echo the majestic Rocky Mountains west of the airport.

D-I-A has not been without controversy. A project championed by former mayor (and later Secretary of Transportation) Federico Peña, the airport was known for its automated, state-of-the-art baggage handling system that cost gazillions of dollars and never worked right. That system was finally scrapped in the last year or so and replaced by the "tug and cart" system used at every other airport. The automated system was famous for losing and/or mutilating luggage in its care. Today D-I-A operates with great efficiency.

While it is much better equipped to handle adverse weather conditions that can occur on Colorado's prairie, no airport is "weatherproof". That lesson was learned a few years ago when a major blizzard blocked Peña Boulevard, the main freeway for access and egress to and from the airport. While people were trapped in their cars and snow plows were unable to keep the airport open, we saw what the priorities were. Somehow a cadre of snowplows were able to get the Denver Broncos busses to D-I-A so that Denver's NFL players could make it to their game.

In any case, once most of the bugs were worked out, Denver International has turned out to be a great airport. A guard at the airport told me today there are plans for future expansion to add a second main terminal just like the existing one, along with three more concourses. Even during a recession, D-I-A managed to add 2.8 percent to its traffic and have a 2 percent revenue gain in 2008. It is a major hub for both Frontier and United Airlines, as well as a major presence for Southwest since its return to the city a couple of years ago.

The only bad incident in the airport's history so far was last December, when a Continental jet bound for Houston ran off of a runway while trying to take off. Luckily it missed a fire station beside the runway and all passengers and crew escaped from the broken and charred wreckage alive.

And Billy Makes Four

Holey Moley, it has been a bad few days for celebrities. First Ed McMahon dies, then Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson, and now TV Pitchman Billy Mays goes to bed feeling ill and doesn't wake up. Even though Billy's TV pitches are very annoying, I have been enjoying his new show Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel. The program showed a side of Billy you don't get on the ads. He seemed to be a genuinely nice guy and family man, who helped inventors get exposure for their products.

Mays was scheduled for a 3rd hip replacement on Monday, and had been on the road quite a bit. His last Twitter post was about the hard landing when a tire blew out on his plane yesterday. He had been to Los Angeles to appear on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last Tuesday, followed by some work with his clients on the east coast.

Billy Mays was 50 years old.

Limited-Time Offer on Windows 7

On October 22, 2009, Microsoft will make the new version of their Windows operating system available. Named simply Windows 7, the new OS is the successor to the much maligned Windows Vista. Supposedly, this new Windows, while based on Vista, fixes many of the complaints people have about the current version.

I hope so. My current laptop machine came preloaded with Vista, which took forever to boot to a useable system. I ended up replacing it with Linux (first PCLinuxOS, then Fedora 10), which gets me to a useable desktop in well under a minute. It is doubtful that I will migrate back to Windows with the release of version 7, as I find Linux more flexible, secure, and complete. Plus, I can get an application to do anything I need from the Fedora repositories. As I am not flush with cash, free software is a big help. Besides, I find most free and open source programs are as good as their commercially-available counterparts, so why waste money?

Still, that doesn't make Windows a bad OS. I know lots of Linux fans tend to disparage the dominant OS, but I do not. I simply like Linux better. Still, if you plan to upgrade your Windows system, now is the time to do so. Microsoft announced on Friday that they are offering a deep discount for pre-orders placed within a 15-day window (no pun intended). Until July 11, Microsoft is offering Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99, and Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. These will ultimately sell for $119.99 and $199.99 respectively.

Of course, Microsoft is also repeating its past policy of offering purchasers of new computers a free upgrade to the next version if they buy between now and the release of the new version.

So here's the recommendations for those of you running Windows. If you are using Vista, this is a worthy upgrade. Take advantage of this offer if you can. If you are running XP and have the hardware to run the new Windows 7, then it is also worthwhile. But if you have an older computer, be sure to run the Windows Upgrade Advisor, as both Vista and Win 7 run best on newer, high-end hardware. If you decide the time is right for a new PC, then you should get the free upgrade offer with your purchase.

If I wasn't dealing with a deductible for the thousands of dollars in hail damage we got at my house, I would be tempted to buy the special price upgrade just for future use.

Kodachrome No More

A while back, I wrote about the demise of Polaroid instant photography film. Now another photographic film iconic brand is going down the tubes. Kodak has announced it is ceasing production of Kodachrome.

The fact of the matter is that Kodachrome constitutes less than one percent of Kodak's still picture film, and a photo processor in Kansas is the only place in the world that still develops it.

Still, Kodachrome retains a place in American culture. It was Kodachrome movie film that was used by Abraham Zapruder when he captured the only motion picture of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dealey Plaza. And of course, in the 1973 hit song, Paul Simon pleaded, "Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."