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First update in 10 years!

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Old Vinyl, New Life

I often tend to approach my hobbies with a collector's mentality. Unfortunately, this means I always have shelves overflowing with media, not to mention the never ending search for storage solutions. Still, the hook always comes in the form of those random, unexpected finds. 

Once a week or so, I'll stop into a Goodwill which is situated between my house and where I work to check out their CDs and vinyl. Any vinyl collector knows the usual thrift store fare rarely consists of more than collections of religious hymns from the 1970s, Herb Alpert and records by the 101 Strings. However, I recently stumbled upon stacks of old Capitol and RCA Victor discs. This means a lot of Perry Como, recorded using RCA Victor's much-derided Dynagroove technology, Jackie Gleason Presents Music for Lovers Only, Harry Belafonte, and several records by Vera Lynn (one of which I almost bought just to hear the song referenced by Pink Floyd in their song, "Vera Lynn"). I might not have been interested in any of the records at all, but the $0.99 price tag encourages me be a little more adventurous. Besides, at that price, it isn't like I can't just roll the dice and donate them back if I don't like it.

I brought home two discs; Harry Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean, a simple collection of gentrified calypso songs in mono, and Henry Mancini - Our Man in Hollywood.

Our Man in Hollywood was part of RCA Victor's popular "Our Man in..." series, in which they "place" their recording artists in various locations and genres (e.g. Chet Atkins - Our Man in Nashville  and Sonny Rollins - Our Man in Jazz ). 

Our Man in Hollywood is a collection of movie and television themes arranged by the brilliant Henry Mancini, and was offered in mono and "LIVING STEREO." I was lucky enough to find the stereo version since it gives the already quirky arrangements an also quirky sense of stereo separation, which was very common in the 1960s, but doesn't detract from the arrangements at all. Instead, thanks to plenty of natural reverb and the skill of the recording engineer (see below), it gives the recordings an extraordinarily wide soundstage and tons of space and clarity. Not all of the tracks are exactly stellar, but the majority of them sound quite amazing. Especially "The Theme from The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm," "Too Little Time ('Love Theme from the Glenn Miller Story')," and an absolutely 'swingin' 60s' version of "Seventy Six Trombones" from 'The Music Man.'

Side 1:

Days of Wine and Roses

Walk On The Wild Side

The Theme From The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

Love Song From Mutiny on the Bounty

Mr. Hobbs Theme

Seventy Six Trombones

Side 2:

Love Theme From Phaedra

Bachelor in Paradise

Too LIttle Time

Drink More Milk

The Wishing Star

Dreamsville!

It should be noted that the album was recorded by Al Schmitt, one of the all-time great recording engineers who has also recently worked with Diana Krall and Shelby Lynne on her wonderful sounding 2008 tribute to Dusty Springfield, Just a Little Lovin'  (which was produced by Bacharach's old collaborator and the 1967 Casino Royale soundtrack engineer Phil Ramone).

All in all, I consider it 99 cents well-spent.

Today - Put Together A Grill

Alberta is big into backyard grilling, what with some of the world's best beef being located here, and today we joined the fray. Never had a propane setup until now. Hank Hill would be proud.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007

Yee-Haw

We went to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show last night at Reliant Stadium. I got free tickets at work which were one (1) row closer than the ones we had and tried to sell but couldn't. I'm too nervous to sell tickets on the street and always feel like a scumbag trying to do so. I only did it once at a Cubs game and felt like a criminal even though I sold them at face value.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures I snapped from the event and the Sheryl Crow set that followed. Her set sounded crappy due to the venue dimensions, but she did a great version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" as her finishing number.

New Speakers

I recently brought home a new set of speakers and a pretty nice Rotel receiver, and effectively upgraded my system from 'virtually no stereo' to 'STEREO!' The nice thing about that first jump into the realm of home audio, and building your home system from scratch is that you're also, in a sense, buying your entire music collection all over again. That is, listening to your old CDs becomes a completely different experience - especially if you're like me (and I know many people who are), and have, for years, only listened to new music via their computer, iPod or, at best, their car's CD player. As a music lover, nothing beats the feeling of playing an album you thought you knew by heart and hearing new elements that were always there, but just out of your system's range. Whether it's an interesting bass line, a Hammond organ humming in the background or the actual sound of saliva breaking in the singer's throat (if that's your thing), it makes for an awesome experience.

The bad thing about that first jump is the realization that for everything you hear, there may be that little bit still hidden on that disc which you still don't hear. It's that whole "the more you learn, the more you realize you've yet to learn" paradox which department heads at universities love to talk about. But the quest for new horizons begins with being happy and experimenting with what you've got. That last sentence might make no sense whatsoever, but what I mean is you can wind up chasing your tail before you've had a chance to enjoy what's literally in front of you. I know I'll have these speakers for years, and I look forward to it.

However, that brings me to the only thing I can already complain about. If you look at the close-up of this tweeter, you can see a small dent on its dome. These speakers sat on the showroom floor and were in a dimly lit demo room where details such as these are hard to spot. This picture was taken after I had already popped the dent out with a bit of tape which I knew would leave no residue. It's still there, though. No worries so far, however; the store said they have another diaphragm on order for me to switch out whenever it arrives. Do I hear any difference between the two speakers? No. Might some imperceptible difference exist? Almost definitely. Although my ears don't hear it, I'm afraid my subconscious mind does. Even if it's just cosmetic, it's a free fix, and therefore, a no-brainer.

Now back to listening.

Random Movie Project: 'The Ballad of Billy Blue'

These cover sleeves for the movie Jailbreakin', and indeed the titles Jailbreakin' and Breakin' Out themselves (for a christian drama originally called The Ballad of Billy Blue) may be the most deceptive attempts to cash in on a famous name in the history of VHS B-movies. Although Erik Estrada famously appeared in another Christian action/Drama called The Cross and the Switchblade, a movie even I remember being shown at least three times in Sunday school, in The Ballad of Billy Blue, he appears in only three scenes, and never once, thankully, without his shirt on. You only get about five minutes of Estrada and about ninety minutes of Jason Ledger (??).


The Ballad of Billy Blue (1972)
AKA
Jailbreakin'
Star-Crossed Roads
The Legend of Billie Blue

Director: Ken Osborne



Summary:

The Ballad of Billy Blue is the uplifting tale of a famous country singer called Billy Blue (Jason Ledger) who, at the end of a long, exhausting tour is approached by his greedy manager to attend some PR party and really blow the lid off his middling career - all while a local gossip columnist played by Marty Allen (of the famous 1960's comedy team of Allen & Rossi) badgers poor Billy to get an up close & personal scoop for all his fans. He expresses his growing dissatisfaction of the whole show business life and, at the behest of both his manager and his gold-digging floozy of a wife, opts out and spends the next 30 minutes of the movie drunk and playing college pranks with his bast friend, Al (I think). After breaking into a local farmer's barn to steal a pig, Billy decides he wants to attend the party after all -- and bring his pig with him!

After an embarrassing display of drunkenness and glamorous ladies running away from a squealing pig, Billy gets confronted by his cold-fish wife in a darkened bedroom where an argument ensues, and, when the manager enters the scene to help settle matters, Billy's wife konks him on the head, killing the manager and Billy, left holding the murder weapon takes the rap for his wife who he, inexplicably, seems to love. As witness after witness enters the room including his friend, the gossip writer, the hotel manager, the local butcher and the mayor (just kidding about the mayor), Billy is soon arrested and is shipped off to prison.

While in prison, Billy meets a young, hot-headed lifer called Justin (Erik Estrada). One day, near the end of Billy's seemingly very short his prison sentence, the inmates are visited by a local preacher who brings the Bible to read to the inmates and try to, perhaps, save a few souls in the process. This is where it starts to become apparent that this movie has a decidedly pro-salvation message. Young Justin rejects the offer of religion, repeatedly saying the the only "freedom" he wants it to be freed of the chains on his feet. Later that night, he files the chains off and attempts to escape, where he is promptly shot and killed.

There's your "jailbreakin." All five minutes worth.

At the funeral, the preacher sits down with Billy and offers him salvation, which Billy gladly accepts. After the conclusion of Billy's term, he's picked up by his best friend, Al (I think), and immediately asks about the well-being of his lying, two-timing spouse. Against the wishes of all his loved ones, he goes off to find her and offer her his help and forgiveness at her new residence - a whore-house. After a highly animated "leave me alone - can't you see I ain't no good" speech she accidentally falls over the railing and falls down one story to her....something. All we see is an ambulance take her away.

Billy then wanders the streets when he stumbles up the steps of a church and becomes fixated on a big bright cross as gospel music jangles in the background. He breaks into tears and the credits begin to role over scenes of his new, happy life while one the worst (and best) songs I've ever laid ears on ("The Ballad of Billy Blue", find it if you dare) plays on and on and on and on.

The End.


Impressions:

This was a hard one to get through. The whole movie had that annoying claustrophobic feel of scenes shot in small rooms and not on sound stages; and not in that dynamic Scorsese sort of way, either, but in that I'll set the camera here, and you walk over there two feet and so stuff kind of way. Even the outdoor and concert scenes felt like they were shot in small rooms. None of this was helped out at all by the script, which was lifeless and had too much contemporary slang and and too many era-specific sets and costume styles to keep it from looking sounding extremely dated. I'd be surprised if more than nine people have even watched this movie since around 1980 or so, including myself, so I guess that's okay.

And as for the acting; laugh if you want, but I actually think Erik Estrada did a pretty decent job in this movie as a young hoodlum and total spazoid. His two-and-a-half scenes were dim highlights in a dull, dull movie - if that makes any sense. Marty Allen was a sweaty and oily as ever, too. And as animated as he was in this film, he didn't do very much to bring any zest to his scenes, either.

So there you go - the movie stunk.

But as always, I try to bring something positive away from the experience, and while the movie offered nothing in that regard, I did encounter a nice surprise while actually renting the movie. Behind the counter at Audio Video Plus, I spied an 8½×10 glossy of a certain perm-headed fitness guru. I said to the girl "wow, that's pretty funny that you have a picture of Richard Simmons back there." She explained that as they were cleaning out the stuff from their other store (which closed its doors, recently), they found boxes full of just really weird stuff. While my head practically swims with all the possible random goodness can come from the back storerooms of a vintage VHS video store, but all I could muster was "That's awesome."

She said I could have one if I wanted. I did not reject.

She went back there and asked if I also liked Evel Knievel. Though I wasnted to clarify that I did not acually like Richard Simmons, all I said was "I do." She came back and presented me with these: