before and after.....

spot the kitty edition:

see him?

turn on the flash and viola!

a close up of him all snuggly in his closet lair.

half time update....

Ha ha! it's like Romo has said, "I'm going to win this game whether the rest of you losers want to or not." There have been some interesting plays so far, but the Cowboys are ahead in spite of it. *sniff*

update: NFL highlights. via Hot Air.

heh

we're sitting here watching the bonus features for the first (new) Doctor Who series and I'm browsing free knitting patterns when I find this




you can find the pattern here. You'll have to go there to see the pun.

There's only one "fair" in life....

and it only comes once a year.

I think that's the phrase. anyhoo, was talking to mom the other night and I said something about Big Tex. I think they, um, hoisted him up the other day. (yes, news article) so the State Fair is near. (starts Friday) If you go to the official site you can hear him and read some history. WBAP has occasional "interviews" with him.

RTO and I used to go to the fair every year when we lived in OK, but we haven't ever been to the one here. It's a bit intimidating.

Tuesday records

Swingin' - Ramsey Lewis Trio: according to the cover this is a rerelease the first album they recorded. (as Ramsey Lewis and his Gentlemen of Swing) Mr. Lewis is still alive and active (booked through April of 2008 so far according to his website and hosts a nationally syndicated radio program.) The condition of this record was not so great though, so I'm thinking I lost some things. But it's still easy to tell that he had some classical training, he works some classical phrases into some of the standards, for example opening My Funny Valentine with a bit of the Chopin Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 ("Revolutionary") and the album opens with the Habenera from Carmen. I keep thinking I'll pick up more of this recordings, probably on CD.

Holiday in Italy - Antonio and his Italianos: one of my favorite records. a lot of the standard "Italian" tunes, Torna a Surriento, O Sole Mio, Carnival of Venice. mandolin, guitar and the occasional tenor. The mandolin is just so clean on the runs and arpeggios, it makes me happy. quick online search didn't turn up anything more than label discography entries which is too bad because I would love to hear more of this "group".

today's record...s

only one so far...I'm being a slug today.

Porgy and Bess - Soundtrack: sort of, They list the stars of the movie, but not the actual singers except for Robert McFerrin. Also, for contractual reasons they sub Cab Calloway in for Sammy Davis Jr. as "Sportin Life". The imdb entry makes it sound like no-one was particularly happy with the film although it was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 4 of them. Anyhoo, most of the voices struck me as much lighter than what would probably be cast today. NTTAWWT. maybe I'll have to go see the Dallas Opera production in February.

okay, I guess it was Gershwin day

Bobby Short is K-ra-zy for Gershwin: I don't know why they always spell the title like that. I guess for novelty. anyway, 4 sides of Gershwin-y goodness (all George and mostly Ira) for a dollar! just Mr. Short singing at the piano and the occasional drum and bass. Quite a few things I'd not heard before. I liked how he worked a little Rhapsody in Blue into Kickin' the Clouds Away. There's also a Porgy and Bess medley, and he made some interesting choices on what to include in that. no Summertime, no It ain't Necessarily so, no I Got Plenty O' Nothin' some things that weren't on the soundtrack album I recorded earlier such as Oh de Lawd shake de Heavens and They Pass by Singin'. so all in all a nice little trip off the beaten path of Gershwin tunes.

Sunday records

oddly enough, RTO isn't watching football. so I'm subjecting him to records. heh.

The Best of Mancini - Composed an Conducted by Henry Mancini: RTO sez, "what, no Pink Panther?" nope, no Pink Panther theme. Seeing as how the album is copyrighted the same year Pink Panther was released I guess it makes sense. Although, there is an ad on back for the soundtrack. oh well, people had to hear it first. Anyway, there are some T.V. things I've never heard on here, Timothy, Lujon, Fallout! No idea where they came from.

Sounds of the Sixties - Album 3 - Various Artists: Where to start.... The first track, Drink More Milk by Henry Mancini had RTO marching around the kitchen while making lunch. Later though, he couldn't recognize the big band sounding I Want to Hold Your Hand arranged by Si Zentner. Let's see, oh, it also had Midnight in Moscow by Peter Nero from my favorite of his albums, Hail the Conquering Nero. Anyway I got this one many years ago from my grandparents along with album 5. I thought surely I got the rest of the set more recently when they moved, but I don't see it here. : (

Sounds of the Sixties - Album 5 - Various Artists: a lot of the same "artists" as the previous album. Peter Nero, Si Zentner, Floyd Cramer, John Gary, Living Guitars, Henry Mancini. And some tasty tunes, A Hard Day's Night, What's New Pussycat, The Girl from Ipanema, and finally the Pink Panther theme (but not by Mancini, by Frankie Carle, His Piano and Orchestra) Anyway, RTO chuckled when The Song of the Coo Coo started up.

Nostalgia - Living Strings: eh, it's a snoozer.

bad but amusing cat pictures

k, I'm just gonna.... zzzzz...

huh, wha?

go away!

something a bit more embarrassing than crocs....

I was skimming this story in the paper and this bit jumped out at me:

Representatives for five Dallas-area malls – Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, Town East Mall, Valley View Center and Vista Ridge Mall – said they have no such signs.

"We have had a couple [incidents with Crocs], but not that are so escalated," said Andrea Taylor, senior marketing director at Valley View Center. "There is not a strange amount that you wouldn't find with a tennis shoe or a skirt."

a skirt huh? now I'm even more afraid of escalators.

Tuesday records

Jackie Gleason presents Music for Lovers Only: "All the selections on side two have been added to the original album to form this newer, expanded version of 'Music for Lovers Only'" huh. I suppose that's good, otherwise I would have missed Gleason's arrangement of the Habenera from Carmen. The whole album is mellow, features Bobby Hackett on trumpet.

Mr. Music... Mantovani: strings, strings, more strings. some interesting song choices here. Yesterday and From Russia with Love. some other things I'm not familiar with, How Soon and Three O'Clock in the Morning (even though that one was on Midnight Blues from last night. nope, just not sticking in my head.)

This is probably it for today. I'm waitin' for RTO to get back and I've got days of Red Eye to catch up on and knitting to do.

Monday records

ugh, recovering from show closing here, so I didn't get started til late. oh well, i'll probably be up late anyhoo what with RTO out of town.

Glenn Miller Plays Selections from "The Glenn Miller Story" and Other Hits - Glenn Miller and his Orchestra: um, yeah, not sure about the title of this one... I mean, the movie came out almost ten years after his, um, disappearance. so it's more "recordings of his stuff that they used in the movie" or something. Anyway, of course the big tunes are here, Moonlight Serenade, String of Pearls, In the Mood, blah, blah, blah... but there are also a few unfamiliar tunes such as Boulder Buff and Farewell Blues.

Summer of '42 - Peter Nero: Lazy, Lazy, Lazy! I noticed the other night while hunting for the "I've Gotta be Me" cover that it's sold with this album on CD, which explains a lot. maybe. (checked out his discography and they're four years apart. hmmmmm) anyhoo, he arranged all the tunes on this one, but they're still pretty standard. maybe it's just the material he's working with, i don't know. How much can you really do with You've got a Friend?

Everything is Beautiful - The Living Strings and The Living Voices: Quality Cheese! Who knew you could make Dancing Queen even goofier? but I love it. There's nothing better than little choirs earnestly singing pop tunes. nothing!

Oh, I also meant to add that I found the sleeves for the albums for this to be interesting because they advertise for classical records. just struck me as kind of odd. that and knowing there's a recording of Peter and the Wolf out there featuring David Bowie.

Tara's Theme from Gone with the Wind and other Themes - Percy Faith: oh, he's Canadian (according to the album cover). Well, that explains why he's so inoffensive. Anyhoo, Dollar Record! The Dark at the Top of the Stairs? not a horror film. hmmmmm.

Blue Midnight and Other Fabulous Intrumentals by Bert Kaempfert: There are a couple things on here I would swear Herb Alpert recorded, but other than some confirmation that Alpert covered some Kaempfert tunes, I couldn't find anything about a connection between the two. oh well. I'm still trying to figure out this bit from the back cover:

Loyal Bert Kaempfert Fans will be glad to welcome another of his great albums into circulation. And by the very nature of the music in the release, Bert bids fair to add many a new fan to his following.

the "bids fair" thing is tripping me up.

Evergreen - Ronnie Aldrich, His Pianos & Orchestra *with the Ladybirds: This is not the record I thought it was.... I obviously didn't check to make sure it matched the cover. and what's even better is the album title is not on the record. But I googled the Decca catalog number and it came through for me. (these folks aren't very kind to Ronnie, heh) His cover of Dancing Queen? RAWKS! ;p

Not cool Dallas Morning News!!!

Friday's Home/Garden section had stories of critters in toilets.

This just rawks!

several of the milbloggers I read met with the President at the White House yesterday. you can find links to them here. I don't even know how to describe how good it makes me feel to know the President would take time to talk with these people that work so hard to get out news of what our military people are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reading their stuff helped keep me sane while RTO was deployed. I'm so happy for them.

first thing I see most mornings

there's nothing quite like turning the bathroom light on and hearing "myaah!" like, "I was sleepin' here!"

it's like they can read my mind

actually, for me, I think it was more about allergies today. so i took some extra sudafed and conked out for a while.

More Carousel reviews....

I told you you should come see it, mom. ;D

Dallas Observer - One Good Turn

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram - 'Carousel' is big, bold, brilliant and not to miss

Park Cities People - A New Gold Standard

Tuesday records

It's a good day for listening to old things. a little on the cool side, but sunny. I've got some windows open. yay!

Honeymoon in Paris - The Paris Theatre Orchestra: I guess I'm just a sucker for any location album. I wasn't aware that Autumn Leaves was particularly French, but whatever.

From Rome and Paris With Love - Jo Basile his Accordion and Orchestra: It's two albums for one! silly me I was listening to the first couple tracks thinking, "oooooo, accordion!" then I looked at the cover again. duh. anyway, fairly sparse arrangements so the accordion stands out and it's some pretty clean playing. nice.

I've Gotta Be Me - Peter Nero: ugh, I couldn't find a picture of the cover large enough to do it justice.



he looks way more pleased about this album than he should be. and the first paragraph on the back should have been a warning:

In the hands of Peter Nero this album becomes a richly colored, swinging tasty bag. And no small part of its total excellence is the careful selection of a great group of chart making tunes that are a part of the today scene.

ah yes, the "today scene". granted he didn't do most of the arranging on it, but it's like they didn't even take his style into account. It might be due to the recording process, but he sounds muddy and kinda lazy. I mean, Scarborough Fair? Wow! he can play octaves! maybe they were going for the Herb Alpert/Bacharach simple sound thing. That's not what I expect from Nero. just sayin'. Anyway, interesting choice of songs, not so interesting arrangements... for Peter Nero anyway.

Return of the Records!!!

I can tell RTO is getting annoyed about not having a kitchen table, so I have some free time today to record. yay!

To the Tables down at Mory's - Lee Gotch's Ivy Barflies: the cover says, "songs for getting together....drinking beer...and raising hell !!!..." ha ha! how many of these do we teach our children now? quite a few.... or maybe I just didn't know they were for drinking.... I've been workin' on the Railroad. Alouette, Man on the Flying Trapeze, Web Footed Friends and "is the record skipping? no it's just " Row, Row, Row your Boat being sung in a round.

music for a summer evening - Bianco His Harp and Orchestra: or rather, "the rainbow sound of Bianco His Harp and Orchestra" he plays a mix of pop and classical things. I probably picked it up for the novelty of a harp album. and he plays La fille aux cheveux de lin (Debussy, I played it in college, yeah, it's the "sound nice, but you need to count more" tune)

Without a Word - Various artists: just a compilation of instrumentals from Columbia Records. Kinda heavy on Paul Weston (he gets five tracks out of 12) anyhoo, it has Brazil on it. fun story about Brazil... my only year in marching band, we played Brazil... I had no idea what the tune was until years later since I was playing 3rd clarinet, just never heard the melody.

Hooked on Classics - Louis Clark conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: I don't think I could say anything that would do this justice. ;D

one weekend down....

one to go. Anyhoo, the show got a nice review. and some other coverage. I didn't realize quite what the to do was with this production with the orchestra. some interesting stuff at the links.

so here's a pic of me in my first hideous costume. yeah, I knit back stage.

I'll have to remember to take my camera and get a pic of my other costume. the one I can breathe in and doesn't give people seizures.

whatevs, it's stil comfortable.

RTO had taken the cover off the ledge to clean it. maggie had some napping to do.

random pictures

I was pleasantly surprised this one came out as well as it did. seeing as I took this around the same time




it's hard to tell how blurry something is on the little camera screen.


finally, you must click on this to see the whole crazy puppy tongue thing going on.

I can't I have rehearsal....

or a performance, whatever.

I mentioned a while back that RTO is going to D.C. with Vets for Freedom. Well, another group, Families United for our Troops and their Mission, is offering to sponsor family members to make the trip as well. The timing just isn't right for me. : (

Leading up to this, Move America Forward has the "Fight for Victory Tour" here's the info if you're in the Dallas area:

7:15 PM Dallas, TX
Pro-Troop Rally & Press Conference
Flag Pole Hill
Buckner & NW Highway
Bring letters, cards, notes of support & appreciation for our wounded warriors to this event, we will collect them and bring them to our recovering troops at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. at the conclusion of the national caravan.

8:30 PM Arrive in Dallas at Double Tree Hotel
8250 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX 75206
Supporters can welcome arrival of caravan and bring cards/letters for wounded warriors to the hotel.

Arrive Dallas, TX Hotl 8:30 PM

blurry puppy

I'm so bored