Classic Rant #158 (December 22, 2009): I Auto Go Broke

My daughter goes to school in Oswego. Happily, she just has to finish the spring semester and she is done with her undergraduate studies. She wants to be an elementary school teacher, and personally, I think she will be a good one.

Anyway, she came home on break, braving a five-to-six hour trip from Oswego, which is a hop, skip and a jump away from Canada, all the way down to Long Island. The trip was uneventful, according to her, and everything went fine.

Then she started to drive the roads of Long Island, and everything went awry.

From what she told me, she was entering the Long Island Expressway, didn't see a car ahead of her, and slammed into the car.

Happily, my daughter is fine. Also happily, the car ahead of her suffered no damage at all, and the driver of the car was fine too.

Unhappily, may daughter's car, for all intents and purposes, was totaled.

The repair bill is about twice if not three times the value of the care, so it really didn't pay to fix it.

And she just dropped collision on the car, so she was on her own to pay for it.

She asked me for help. I couldn't help pay for it, as I don't have the money. I asked my parents, and they could only give so much too.

Well, one thing led to another, and guess what? I had to buy my daughter a car yesterday night.

In what became a four-plus hour marathon, I took out a loan on a used car.

The agreement I have with my daughter is that I will pay for part of it, but she must pay for the other part. I am already paying for my own car, so paying for two cars is a bit much. When my daughter gets a full time job, she will take over the payments in full.

All of the finagling and doodling and games that are played when you buy a car simply amazes me. The dealer quotes you one price, says he can get you another, they go through all of this phony posturing, and finally, you get a price that is probably higher than you wanted to pay, but not as high as you thought you would pay.

And then about what car you are getting ... they promise you one, and then they promise you another, and finally, you get one that they say is better than the other two, but they are bound to the price.

As you can understand, I could not wait to get out of the showroom. After a long day at work, this is not how I wanted to spend my evening.

But again, this is what a parent does--they go out on the limb for their children. I don't want to give myself a pat on the back--I can't do that right now because I am hitting myself in the head--but my parents went out on the limb for me, and I want to do it for my kids too.

But now I am burdened with another bill.

Not to be sexist, but one day, when she finds the guy she wants to live the rest of her life with, I hope he has plenty of money ... or maybe my daughter will have a lot of cash, and can help support her dear old dad.

Right now, I am cash depleted, that's for sure.

Rant #1,505: Country Rock Legend Passes

I am not a fan of country music, nor country rock music, but I acknowledge its significance in the history of American pop music.

And like most of us, I was a big fan of Glen Campbell back in the day, I liked Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley P.T.A.," and I understand the importance of other acts, such as Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Michael Nesmith, on the creation and mass acceptance of these musical styles.

So when I heard that Owens "Boomer" Castleman had passed away, I had to take notice.

Castleman became a legend in Nashville, a smart guy who really wasn't very well known to the public, but he first came on the scene in the mid 1960s, and really, he had made his mark on several musical styles for the past 50 years or so.

Castleman first came to some notoriety as a member of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, one of the seminal country rock bands coming out of Nashville via Hollywood.

If you don't know who LCE was, please take out your Monkees records and look on the inner sleeve, where RCA/Colgems promoted their latest releases.

The LCE probably were on more Monkees Colgems innner sleeves than their own records sold their own music, but so be it.

With the influence of Nesmith, the LCE were pretty much formed as a country.rock version of the Monkees. A few of the band members had tried out for the TV band, including John London, and the LCE featured London, Castleman, and Michael Murphy.

They released one very good album, a couple of singles, appeared in TV shows and in films, but pretty much fizzled, as the thrust of RCA/Colgems promotional efforts was dedicated to their #1 act, the Monkees.

But it was a noble experiment, and LCE's music really should be searched out for anyone interested in the later incarnations of country rock, including the 1970s work of such artists as the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and even somebody like Jackson Browne.

After the band broke up, both Castleman and Murphy went to Nashville, and both artists had some success on the pop chart. Castleman scored with "Jennie Mae," which hit #33 in 1975, and earlier in that year, Michael Murphy, who had added his middle name, Martin, to his monicker by that time, scored with one of the biggest hits of the year, "Wildfire," which hit #3.

Murphy would go on to have several other country rock hits; Castleman pretty much went into the background, but he did not stand still.

Castleman was the inventor of the palm pedal, a device allowing guitar players to execute pedal steel style string bends, which is integral to the sound of country music.

He had toyed with the device beginning in 1968--while still a member of LCE--and it finally came out under the name the Bigsby Palm Pedal, which to this day is widely used by country musicians under various names.

He later founded the country music record label BNA Records, which he eventually sold to BMG Music.

With his background, Castleman was something of a country music renaissance man, not well known to the general public but a major figure behind the scenes in country music.

But when I heard of his passing, I had to think about those LCE records that I have. As I said, I am not really a fan of country rock, but yes, I enjoyed their music a lot.

Maybe it was their Monkees/Nesmith connection, but whatever the case, the LCE deserved better, but honestly, their time would come a few years later, when both Castleman and Murphy made their true mark on this genre.

R.I.P. to Castleman, and I hope I introduced you to someone whose influence you can still hear in the music of current country rock artists like Taylor Swift to this day.

Classic Rant #157 (December 21, 2009): Snow Job

Yes, in my neck of the woods we were buried in snow this weekend. We received the brunt of the pre-winter storm, a nor-easter that was somewhat unusual in that it hit Long Island during the end of the fall season.

Some parts of Long Island received upwards of 25 inches of show on Saturday through Sunday morning, which I hear is a record snowfall for my area. The whole Eastern Seaboard got hit, with the lower portions (Florida) getting torrential downpours and temperatures in the 50s, while as you moved up through Georgia, the Carolinas and up to New England, just about everybody got lots of snow.

In my area, we received about a foot, which is bad, but certainly not as bad as 25 inches. My wife and I shoveled a good portion of the morning yesterday, and the show was like rice--not that solid--so it wasn't as hard to do as it could have been.

Taking the dog for his morning walks were pretty treacherous, and he had a hard time finding a place to squat. He did--I mean, nothing is going to stop that from happening--and even this morning, he looked for a spot for a while, but finally found one.

As for me, I was fine doing the shoveling yesterday. Then, I was in my car, and I reached over the glove compartment for something, and BAM!, my back went out. I am sure it is somehow related to the shoveling--I haven't done that type of work in a year or so, so I know it stretched muscles that don't normally get stretched like this--but it didn't happen when shoveling, it happened in my car.

Today, my back is still stiff, and sitting all day probably won't do it any good. It will probably take a few days for my back to get back to normal, so I guess I will have to grin and bear it.

Now I hear that we are supposed to get some precipitation on Christmas, but happily, it will be in the form of rain. It will be pretty warm, too, in the 40s, so that is a situation that should melt a lot of this stuff.

The storm happened a day before winter officially comes, so I am wondering if this is an omen of things to come. Will we have a horrible winter in the Northeast this year?

I sure hope not. I am getting too old for this shoveling business, and me and the white stuff haven't had a joyous relationship since I was a little kid sliding down the man-made mountains when I lived in South Jamaica, Queens.

I absolutely hate the snow as an adult, and I rue the days when we get it.

Again, yesterday, at least in my neck of the woods, wasn't that bad, but I feel that the next one could be a real back breaker--if I don't hurt myself again in such a stupid, unexpected way.

Rant #1,504: So Bad It's Good

Now that we are in September, a lot of people get excited by the upcoming new TV season.

They wait with great anticipation as the networks roll out their new shows, and can't wait for the next seasons of their favorites.

I used to be that way, until I discovered that what the networks were rolling out was pure garbage. There was nothing there to interest me, nothing to get me all amped up for the new season.

So I looked for alternative TV choices, and evidently, I am not the only one who believes like I do, because the rise of classic TV channels has become a fascinating side story to the entire debate about what is good, and what isn't, on television.

The creation and rise of channels like Decades, MeTV, Cozi TV and Antenna TV has become a fascinating fad--or is it a long-lasting trend--that the networks must be looking at, at least a little bit.

There are people, like me, who won't settle for the garbage being spewed out by network TV today, where every subject is up for discussion, and where, in particular, the sitcoms are absolutely horrid.

I don't laugh at today's sitcoms. If nothing else, I cringe. The jokes are all geared around sex, and when you do that, you lower yourself into the gutter.

There is a time and a place for everything, but I think today's sitcoms have abused that privilege.

Anyway, these oldies TV stations also debut their new fall lineups, and one of these stations, Antenna TV, announced its schedule yesterday ... and I was completely taken aback.

They are bringing back two single-season shows that when they debuted in the mid 1960s, were also called garbage by the establishment, but they were two shows that I watched, liked, and always hoped would come back.

These two bottom of the barrel shows--"My Mother the Car" and "It's About Time"--are way more clever and funny than anything being shown today, but way back when, boy, did these shows get raked over the coals.

"My Mother the Car" starred Jerry Van Dyke as the owner of a classic car, but his fondness for his car is almost at the level that Wilbur has with his fondness for his horse on "Mr. Ed."

But there is a reason for the fondness, a reason which was laughed at back then as being preposterous, but turned up, in one form or another, on subsequent TV shows.

The car he owns--a 1928 Porter--actually is the reincarnation of his mother, voiced by Ann Southern. Yes, when he goes into the car, the car talks to him, and it is in his late mom's voice.

And he has a nemesis for the car, Avery Shreiber, who will do anything to get that classic automobile.

If this sounds like the precursor for "Knight Rider," well, you hit the nail on its head.

"It's About Time" is another one of those shows that critics completely shook their heads at.

It concerns two astronauts who somehow break the time barrier while on a mission, and end up in caveman times.

They meet up with a group of cavemen--Joe E. Ross and Imogene Coca--who they befriend while they try to get their ship in shape to go back home.

They eventually do this, but the two cavemen stow away on the ship, so one half of the series shows the astronauts trying to get home, the other half shows the cavemen trying to adapt to 1960s America.

Yes, the entire premise is completely preposterous, but with Ross and Coca carrying the show, it worked, at least for me.

It is also the middle show of producer Sherwood Schwartz's famous TV shows, debuting right in between "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch."

And as an aside, another reason to watch these shows is their theme songs, two of the best in TV history. In fact, Schwartz always said that the "It's About Time" theme song was his favorite of the three sitcoms' themes, and since he wrote all of them, he should know.

So while some people look forward to the spew of garbage emanating from network TV, I would rather watch the so-called "garbage" from my childhood.

I can't wait for that garbage, either. The new schedule begins September 14, and these two shows--running on Saturday afternoons with back to back episodes of each series--are greatly anticipated.

Yes, my own personal "big bang theory" will explode when I finally get a chance to watch these shows once again.

And you can bet I will be laughing, just like I did when I was a kid.

Classic Rant #156 (December 16, 2009): My Vinyl Request

I hate to cross merchandise my two blog sites, because I think that one is totally exclusive of the other. However, there are times when this type of maneuver is valid, and today’s rant is one of those times.

I recently uploaded the mono version of “The Birds, the Bees and the Monkees (Colgems COM-109, 1968), and it is accessible at my Colgems Blog site (http://colgems.blogspot.com/).

It is one of the rarest of all Monkees albums, at it was released at the point in time when mono releases had finally given way to stereo releases. Way back when, record stores (remember them?) often had two sections for their albums: mono for the general listening public and stereo for audiophiles. In mid 1968, mono was just about totally replaced by stereo, so any LPs that were released in the middle of that year in mono are usually pretty scarce.

(Of course, I am talking about the U.S. market. Overseas, mono releases were still being produced in some countries into the 1970s.)

Anyway, this has created something of a major discussion point on my Yahoo Group sites, as members are discussing the merits of the mono over the stereo version and vice versa.

There seems to be a growing market for both vinyl and mono releases in the U.S. Vinyl consumption is up once again, and audiophiles, in a great about face, now search out mono copies of classic LP releases, and not so classic LP releases.

The Beatles mono box set this year—albeit on CD—has been a great success along with the stereo re-releases of their albums, and the interest in mono recordings may be at fever pitch right now.

And I love it. I really enjoy reading about the differences between mono and stereo releases—no matter how small they may be—and this debate has no real “right” answer, it pretty much is personal preference.

And personally, I happen to like the stereo version of “The Birds, the Bees and the Monkees” somewhat better than the mono version. The mono version is muddier, which I am sure pleases a lot of people, but I like the punch of the stereo version a little bit more.

Some will disagree with me, which is OK by me.

But I especially like the discussion, the explaining of key points as to why people like mono vs. stereo and vice versa, and the dedication that people have to vinyl.

We will never fully go back to vinyl as our main recording delivery format, but the dedication that people have to this format is astounding, especially for the recordings of their youth.

I hope the record labels are listening. They have increased their vinyl output, and people are buying even new albums from current artists in this format when they are available.

Long live vinyl—and long live the debate between stereo enthusiasts and those who cherish mono. It is great debate, isn’t it?

Rant #1,503: It's September

Yes, we have gotten to September 1.

It seems like this summer has moved pretty quickly.

It has been a hot summer in my neck of the woods, and today, we should be getting another 90 degree day.

Labor Day is near, the Jewish High Holy Days are right around the corner, and school has opened or is about to open, depending on what district or area or city you live in.

So what do I talk about on September 1?

I could talk about an earworm that has been progressing through my skull for the past couple of days.

It is by a British artist who had very little success on these shores.

The artist is Chris Andrews and the song that I am talking about is "Yesterday Man," which only hit #94 here in 1966, his only Hot 100 song in America.

He actually had a string of hits in the U.K., and in England, this tune hit #3, his biggest hit in his native country.

I don't know that much about Andrews--he was an actor, too, as a kid, and he and Davy Jones did cross paths on British TV--but that song just plays on my brain.

I heard it on a CD I played in the car of British hits of the 1960s, and lo and behold, I cannot get it out of my mind.

The song has a great hook, and I have always been a sucker for songs that reel me in like that.

It is a decent song, but sometimes even good songs can get stuck in the caverns of your mind, and this one simply has. I would post it here if I could, and maybe, I will see what I can do later.

Anyway, I could talk about a pinup model that I have run into on the Internet.

Her name is September Carrino, and well, what can you say?

Va-va voom!

And yes, that supposedly is her real, actual first name.

These types of Internet-boosted pinup girls are all over the Internet, all over Facebook, and are almost unavoidable depending on who you are "friends" with.

I have put up photos where this lady is clothed, but there are plenty of her with nary a stitch on.

I won't bore you with those.

I could also talk about the New York Yankees, who sit in second place in MLB's Eastern Division, playing better than anybody had any right to think.

But the Toronto Blue Jays are currently the better team, and they sit above them, in first place.

The two teams play each other a total of seven times through the end of the season, and those games will probably determine who is the top gun in the East, and who sits side saddle as the wild card.

The Yankees are very inconsistent--they scored a total of 38 runs in this past weekend's series with the Atlanta Braves, but managed to score just three runs last night against the Boston Red Sox--and I kind of feel that the Yankees will be the wild card team this season ...

But you never know.

And finally, I could talk about Kanye West declaring for president in 2020, but I won't bore you with that nonsense.

How about another September Carrino photo?

So there you have it, my first Rant in September is done and over, but I can guarantee you one thing--

You haven't heard the last of me during this month.

Speak to you again tomorrow.

Classic Rant #155 (December 17, 2009): Read a Book … A Real One

There is nothing like a good book.

Especially during the winter months on the East Coast, delving into a good book when it is frigid outside is almost like having your own fireplace. It lights you up, warms you, and puts you in a good frame of mind.

That is why, for the life of me, I can't understand the big deal about e-readers.

E-readers are the newest devices that the electronics industry has come up with to bring the book into the electronic age.

Users can download books--and supposedly newspapers, textbooks and other printed matter--from a variety of sources and have them at their fingertips through the e-book reader.

For the college student, this would be a boon to their lives, supposedly, because using an e-reader, they wouldn't be forced to carry around weighty--and pricey--textbooks, as everything would be on the e-reader.

The price might be more cost effective, too. With textbooks costing $100 and up, if you had one on your e-reader for a limited amount of time--say a school semester--you could probably save a lot of money.

But for the casual book reader, or newspaper reader, I just can't see what all the fuss is about.

Sure, it might be nice to store certain things, like newspaper articles, on such a device, but if you just want to read a book, why use an e-reader?

You can curl up with a good book, but can you curl up with a good book on an e-reader?

I don't know.

Personally, I would rather have the book. I like the touch and feel of a book, and reading pages, I think, will produce less strain on the eyes than reading a page off of a screen.

I think the e-reader--and its possibilities--are akin to what has happened to the dispersal of popular music over the past decade or so.

Previous generations wanted to own, to hold, to handle LPs and 45s and have them in a physical collection of recorded music. In today's world, owning, holding, and handling a physical product isn't that important anymore to so many people. The file is the important thing, and people buy files--not actual physical product--that they can use on their various gadgets, including iPods.

I think it is the same thing with the e-readers. Books and printed matter are thought to be disposable, and not that important to physically have anymore.

Personally, I still love to add to my record collection, and if I want a book, I want a real book, not an electronic one.

Maybe I am old fashioned, but a book is a book.

An electronic book is nothing more than a file.

Give me the book anytime.