Old Records, Old Friends

Maybe I've held on to my youth longer than some. I've got all of the record albums I managed to accumulate in my life since Donny and Marie were popular. Pop, disco, new wave, rock, classic rock, lounge music, blues, soul, novelty, Christmas music, country music, polkas and even a few movie soundtracks. I found stuff I didn't know I had.... The question is.... what am I gonna DO with them all?

I pared down my 45's, at least. Gave away most back in the early 90s... down to about 50 or so now. Yes, I had Alice Cooper's Eighteen. Stolen from my sister, I think.

But these albums.... I flip through some of them, and can remember where I was when I got them. Or I find myself singing lyrics I hadn't thought of in 20 years. Remembering how it felt to have the world ahead of me. Or when all I wanted was a car...and a cassette player.

I keep thinking maybe someday I'll have a real music room in my big house I plan to buy when I'm rich. I'll frame some of the album covers that haven't completely fallen apart--- and won't they look great on the walls! The Stones, Queen, Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, Donovan, Elton John, Billy Joel, Alice Cooper, Cher, Three Dog Night.

I don't play them now. They are worn out. Crackly. I have a turntable, but rarely use it.

I asked friends what to do. One gave away her albums years ago, seemed suprized I still was lugging that stuff around... move to move. Another fellow offered to put them on Ebay for me. Neither seems right. To me it would be as painful as giving away family photographs. It sounds a bit odd, but that's how I feel.

So, back in the crates they go. I suppose they will be staying awhile longer.

The Sunday Morning Muse, July 29, 2007

Ever wonder, when you wish upon a star, exactly which star you are wishing on?

Imagine for a moment you are out in the yard, looking up at the stars. You're so impressed with the vastness of our little corner of the universe... all those little stars and planets. The big dipper is .... well, over there. You think. Constellations were never your strong point. Planets don't twinkle, right? Stars do. Ummm...

Well those days are gone. For a mere 400 bucks you can own a SKY SCOUT. Just point to whatever you want -- visible in the sky to the naked eye.... and presto! This thing tells you what you are looking at. Cool or what?

--

I was skeptical at first, it's relatively new, so there are back order problems and such.... and a few bugs with downloading software for some, but it is GPS based and seems to work well, doing what it says it does, according to some of the reviews I read online. I'd like to get one.

Maybe It's Peppermint Madness

Working at the Poles can make you a little nuts. And it has nothing to do with Global Warming.

Working for long periods in the harsh and unforgiving conditions near the North and South Poles often causes people to suffer a stew of psychological symptoms
dubbed "polar madness," scientists said on Wednesday.

--
Gives some insight into dear Yukon Cornelius, whom I discovered was actually mining for Peppermint. Not Silver and Gold. Makes a little more sense as he kept licking the end of this pick axe.

from Wikipedia:
-

The removal of the scene near the end of the special (for subsequent
telecasts) in which Yukon Cornelius discovers a "peppermint mine" by that method near Santa's workshop left audiences assuming that he was attempting to find either silver or gold by taste alone. The scene was returned to the
(Rudolph )film in 1998 as well.

A Weighty Issue

A Harvard study of more than 12,000 people finds that if you have a fat friend your risk of becoming fat increases up to 57 percent. Furthermore, if you have a sister or brother who can't seem to push away from the table either, your chances are 40 percent higher. A fat spouse? 37 percent higher.

--

It made me wonder if I am slowly making my thinner friends fat, or if I'm making my heavier friends thinner.

Masters of Science Fiction to Air in August

He's baaaaaaack!



It's supposed to be the best Sci Fi TV show since the Twilight Zone. That's pretty big billing... but a new show begins on ABC August 4th, which looks promising. They ran a lot of promos during the British Open showing a lot of familiar faces... notably, the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-files.


TV.com:

ABC at Saturday 10:00 PM (60 min.)
Status: New Series
Premieres: August 4, 2007
Show Category: Science-Fiction
Masters of Science Fiction will feature works from some of the brightest authors of science fiction, from Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and HG Wells.
--

The second show will feature William B. Davis... ( Cigarette Smoking Man) as President of the United States! (I had the priveledge of meeting him one time, and I say he would make a great president... other than the fact he is Canadian.) Also, it's odd, but he doesn't smoke. He is a spokesman for the Cancer Society! I think he said he smoked herbal type cigarettes on the set.

--

The teaser for the new program neglected to mention one other biggie writer... who I read a lot when I was growing up-- HARLAN ELLISON. I noticed a writing credit on an episode to air on August 25th, 2007, called The Discarded.

The Sunday Morning Muse, July 22, 2007

It was in1969-- 38 years ago this week.... when everyone heard the famous words “...one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as astronaut, Neil Armstrong, pilot of the lunar spacecraft, the "Eagle", made the first footsteps on the moon.

There are some who say it never happened. Yeah right. There is still a golf ball floating around up there to prove it.

Prince Charming 101 for Beginners

Still striking out with women? Just can't seem to impress one when you invite her over to watch basketball and have a nice dinner of Domino's Pizza and Milwaukee's Best?

Yahoo-Personals got your back. Sure fire tips to help you charm that new girl in the office, or the new greeter at Walmart. It won't be easy at first, but try at least some of the things on this list, and you may lure a woman close enough to your cave to drag her in, and light her fire.

Young Tiger Wins British Open

I could watch this commercial a million times! Good luck in the Open this year Tiger!

The Sunday Morning Muse, July 15, 2007

It's summer, and that means we get to see a lot more of other people's skin. Most of the time this is not a good thing. I simply cannot understand why some people get these horribly greenish, poorly made, downright ugly tattoos. Maybe I just don't comprehend the beauty of a circle of jagged thorns on your leg, or a permanent smiley face on your forearm. Speaking of arms, The Billy-Bob Tattoo just flashed through my head. What was Angelina Jolie THINKING back then?


No one will ever flip me over in a nursing home and see a badly fading butterfly all contorted out of shape by cellulite on my aging butt, that's for sure.

Cat Eating Corn

It's a lot more work than eating Meow Mix... but ohhh the butter!

Do You Remember the Name that Rhymes With. . .

Time sure flies. Do you believe this happened 10 years ago?

(from THOSE WERE THE DAYS)

1997 - Former Miller Brewing Company executive Jerold Mackenzie was vindicated by a jury in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mackenzie had brought a suit against Miller after the company fired him from his $95,000-a-year job for sexual harassment. He had been commenting on the "Seinfeld" episode, "The Junior Mint", where Seinfeld’s TV character can’t remember the name of his new girlfriend -- only that it rhymes with a female body part. One of Mackenzie’s female co-workers complained to the Miller human resources director after she heard Mackenzie joking about the show.

Latest Harry Potter Movie---Not a Lot of Laughs. . .

Because this is serious stuff.

And it's dark and scary. Valdemort is back and the Ministry is in denial or cover up mode, you can't be sure which, and Harry starts teaching his friends how to defend themselves against evil with some pretty neat commands that I myself wish I could use in everyday life.

The character who plays the most pivotal role in this movie is Delores Umbridge, dressed in pink, played brilliantly by Imelda Staunton. After reading the novel, author Stephen King, in Entertainment Weekly, called the character "the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter."

I enjoyed the movie as a casual Harry Potter book reader, but since I am not a fanatic, I can't sit here and point out what was or wasn't in the book or what was left out. As a side note, I thought the Luna Lovegood character, actress Evanna Lynch, was right on target. That little girl, though she had a small part, was memorable. Just quirky enough to be cute...in a "Wednesday Addams" from the Addams Family kind of way. You sense an intelligence and depth in her.

There's a lot of stuff going on in the movie... so if you hadn't seen the last one recently or read the book in awhile you may be a bit lost at times.

As for the end.... well the saga continues... we all know that. The last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out July 21st.

Black Cat's Lament

A black cat will definately cross my path Friday the 13th. And I don't expect Sambo will bring me bad luck, since I see her every day. I have been reading about black cat superstitions, and apparently, owning a black cat is actually considered good luck. Even having one cross your path can be good luck instead of bad, depending on where you live. If you can believe what you read.... in Britain and Japan, having a black cat cross your path is considered good luck, but if you live in the USA it is thought to be bad luck.

"Whenever the cat of the house is black, the lasses of lovers will have no lack." ~ English Proverb

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous

"A cat's eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world." - Irish Legend

Whatever Happened to Einstein's Brain?

Well? in short, the man who did the autopsy on him took it home and kept it in a jar! For 43 years. Imagine that. When he turned 85, back in 1998, he gave it to the pathology department at University Medical Center at Princeton.

"Eventually, you get tired of the responsibility of having it. … I did about a year ago," Dr Thomas Harvey said, slowly. "I turned the whole thing over last year [in 1998]." (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

There's actually a book about it, and it is described here:

"Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain" by Michael Paterniti. In its 207 pages, the book tells the story of a loopy road trip the author made in a rented Buick Skylark with Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the Princeton Hospital pathologist who performed an autopsy on Einstein in 1955, and, in a Tupperware container in the car's trunk floating in a yellowish liquid, chunks of Einstein's brain.

96 Degrees today... Hot Enough for Ya?

The Three H's-- that's what the weather people call it. A day when it is so hot you can fry an egg on a sidewalk. Or stand still and sweat. A day when you want to be outside because you wait all winter for this kind of day.... yet, the airconditioning beckons you back inside.

--

When I was a kid, on a day like today it was enough to just sit on a blanket under a tree and maybe look for four leaf clovers. Or run through the spray of a hose; swim in a 2 foot plastic pool... maybe even let grownups take pictures of me and my friends with silly hats.

The Sunday Morning Muse, July 8, 2007

A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.-Leonard Cohen

There's a commercial on TV where this nervous woman puts on an itsy-bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini for the first time after months of dieting. It's kinda sweet really, to see her embarrassed-- pulling this beach raft around her thighs, hiding herself at first, and then... in one moment of daring, sit there for all to see, eating her yogurt. It's a great commercial. But I still won't eat yogurt.

How Much is Your Body Worth Dead?

Ever thought about selling your dead body for medical research? Once you factor in a bunch of health and lifestyle questions, I'm worth a whopping $3540. Not bad, though. My survivors won't exactly get rich on it. Perhaps a trip to Bermuda or a used car is about all they'll be able to splurge on. The Cadaver Calculator Quiz is revealing. I wanted to say I ate a healthy diet and that I was tall, but I'm not. At least I could answer no to any serious surgeries. Longer hair may have helped, too, I think.

Anyhow, I can remember a while back someone calculated the cost of all the basic ingredients in the human body... the carbon, water, etc. and came up with something like 78 cents. Remember that?

Take Cadaver Calculator Quiz yourself.

Sex and the City, the Movie-- in the Works

Sex and the City... loved the Series, loved the girls, loved Mr. Big...but not sure if I'll love the movie. Dare I say it? I think it "Jumped the Shark." Oh... even writing that hurt. I LOVE that show. It's soooo hard to criticize it. The writing was great... the actors were terrific, but when Miranda had the kid and moved to (gasp) Brooklyn, Samantha got that goofy young boyfriend, and the girls started drifting apart....I lost interest. The whole Paris- fairy-tale type ending just seemed "un-Mr.Big-like." Not believeable. And where do you go from here? Do we have Carrie and Mr. Big settle down, have babies, buy a mini-van, and have the girls up for a bar-b-que on the weekend? Join the Country Club and take up golf?

I'm not for this at all.

The alternative is to try to re-create what was so great about the series to begin with.... the sexy outfits, the boyfriend bashing sessions... the sexual dilemmas, the awkward date moments... it was all like spying on young singles... and living vicariously through their adventures. When the show progressed to marriages and babies and even cancer-- It was leading down a path of no return. It can never be as carefree and funloving again.

Oh God, don't let them become Desperate Housewives.

Signing Off Into That Good Night

Art Bell --- the late night weekend talk show host on Coast to Coast AM announced his retirement last night. He is still with Premiere Radio Network and may 'fill in' once in awhile. I suppose after close to 25 years of UFOs, chem-trails, Big Foot, crazy callers, quacks, and bizarre guests perhaps he is serious this time. (But he has announced retirements before....see below.) This time he says he wants to spend time with his wife and baby.

I've been an on and off listener of Coast to Coast since about 1999. I keep a transistor radio beside my bed incase I wake up in the middle of the night and I turn it on when I do, just to hear about the latest news of the paranormal, or laugh at the peculiar things that make it onto the website --like this story Art was talking about over the weekend--the humanoid that looks like a Witch flying over Mexico.... (It's a Mexican TV news story with subtitles.)

Art's annual New Year's Eve Show, which I wrote about in January, was always a hoot. Art had callers make a prediction for the coming year--- then at the end of the year he would replay them and give them a Ding... if he deemed them to be true...and a Bonk if they didn't come true.

If you like him or not, he was what he was. The paranormal- themed radio show was a welcome relief from the right wing shouters out there. Doesn't everyone wonder the truth about Roswell and the Alien Autopsy? (I have the grainy film on a CD-rom somewhere in this house... don't ask me where.)

And ya know, I gotta admit, more than once, he got me. I realize some people think of him as a charlatan...and maybe he does put us on a bit.... but late at night when I heard his famous "sounds from Hell" deep from a hole into the center of the Earth, or those eerie ghostlike soundbytes caught on tape in a cemetary... I shivered a bit under the covers . Just like a kid at camp.

--------------------------------

Art's previous retirements....from Wikipedia:

His first retirement, highly unexpected, was announced on October 13, 1998. He returned two weeks later, leading many to believe it was merely a publicity stunt. Bell asserted that the brief departure was brought on by threats made against his family.

In April 2000, Bell again retired, but offered no details other than stating he intended to "resolve a family crisis." Mike Siegel was left in charge of the program. It was later explained he had left to deal with the aftermath of a sexual assault against his son. Brian Lepley, a substitute teacher, was convicted of sexual assault and attempted transmission of HIV and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years.

In late 2002, recurring back pain (the result of a fall from a telephone pole during his youth) forced yet another departure, and Bell was permanently replaced by George Noory as weekday host of Coast to Coast AM.

The Sunday Morning Muse- July 1, 2007

1000 pirates fans walked out of the Pirates game in protest yesterday at PNC Park. Many of the fans wore green, to symbolize the $200 million of taxpayer money spent on the new ball park. They are upset over 15 years of losses, bad trades, and what they see as mismanagement. Some people who control broadcasts attempted to put a bad spin on this, as if this is some blight to Pittsburgh. SHHHHH don't report it, don't show it....don't even talk about it and maybe it will go away.


I was suspicious of that mentality from the start. It's news, number one. Number two... which is MY take on all this, it is ...... GREAT. 1000 people care. They are fans. The biggest threat to the ballteam itself is not silencing those who disapprove, or trying to shield the world from its plight, the real threat is indifference.

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The Sunday Morning Muse is a new Goosepath regular commentary. Views expressed are purely those of the Goosepath and are not necessarily amusing, factual or unbiased. They are also not illegal, immoral or fattening, and may be quoted freely to people who may or may not understand their intended content. Views are subject to change at any time. Terms and conditions may or may not apply.