NAME: Nat Pike
BLOG NAME: Nat Pike’s Wired For Sound
NAME OF CD: We Don’t Need No Stinking Lyrics
NUMBER OF CUTS: 15
RUNNING TIME: 50:23 (only the second disc shorter than mine)
COVER ART: Nicely typed
SONG LIST: His post of June 10
ALREADY REVIEWED BY:
GENERAL THOUGHTS: I think the instrumental compilation is the trickiest. In songs with lyrics, you have another aspect that might grab you. But these are all or nothing. Not that there aren’t vocals on here – you’ll find whistling, vocoder, ahs. This is a very diverse set, and I enjoyed much of it.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: the accordion in Madagascar; whistling and banjo in Air; Dan K guitar and running bass; Wall of Voodoo; and especially, the jazz banjo feel of the Spidey theme. A suitable ending. Too bad ELP song was co-opted by Beef, because it’s a great piece of American music.
ON THE OTHER HAND: There were periods when it became background music. Pleasant background music; it wasn’t an individual cut, but the flow. Sticking Wadsworth or Van Halen, or indeed anything from cuts 8-14 within cuts 4-7 might have changed it up a little sonically.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: Well, no dirty words.
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: I’ve been told that the Tomita piece is the theme to the show Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer, a very brief (5 minute), very quirky show that airs on our PBS station just before sign off.
Geologically, Madagascar could be defined as a continent.
Category: Uncategorized
The blog in Mid-September
I added a couple links: Johnny Bacardi (belatedly) and Tegan’s Bloggity-Blog-Blog, both in the Comic Book section of this here electronic communicator.
And I also, reluctantly, added the word verification feature to the comments part of the page. I started to believe all the nice things those spam bloggers were saying about the blog. What I discovered almost immediately is that my per day “hit” average went down by 5, but I’m OK with that.
3 TV ?s
In honor of the Emmys this weekend, I decided some time ago on the topic of television. Then Lefty beat me to it, but I’m going to use it any. Of course, I’ll ask some different stuff:
1. What show that went off the air in the past year will you miss the most? (The fact that it may now be in syndication or on DVD notwithstanding.)
2. What show did you use to like but keep watching out of habit, or in the vain hope that it’ll get better?
3. What is your favorite show from your childhood (or now) that you would be embarrassed to acknowledge? (No one will see it here, so feel free to unburden yourself to ol’ Ramblin’.)
Toxic building
This is what School 16 in Albany, just across the street from the Ellenbogan house and visible wheen I leave the house each morning, looked like at the end of June:
But because it’s 99 years old, difficult to make accessible, etc., etc., it started looking like:
and
and
Now it’s gone, save for the rubble.
It’s good that Lydia will be going to a new school. The district is rebuilding and expect to be done by January 2007.
The problem I ‘ve been having lately, ever since the first part of the demolition, is that I can TASTE it. I know they did asbestos remediation in mid-June, before the deconstruction. But the dust or mold or whatever that’s been released was so bad that we have ceased taking Lydia for a walk.
I know progress is messy, but does it have to burn my throat? And my nose?
Neighbors
Good neighbors are sometimes difficult to find. We had two great neighbors, one right next door, and another that was a half dozen houses down that we lost this calendar year.
Harry was of Greek heritage. Even though he was in the United States since at least 1958, he never lost his heavy-duty accent. Sometimes he’d speak, and you would just nod if you had an inkling of what you thought he was talking about. Harry was a big time flirt, in that non-threatening, non-creepy way. He flirted with my wife, my mother-in-law, my sister, almost any visiting woman. I’m still not convinced that he knew MY name, but my spouse’s, he knew.
He was very active in his church, which runs a very dynamic Greek festival each year. If we couldn’t make it, he’d be sure to pick up some baklava and other taste treats. He also was an avid gardener, and he supplied us with more vegetables in the summer than we could eat; we froze some. And he grew some nice flowers, that he presented to my wife on a regular basis. Truth is, she got more flowers fronm Harry than she did from me in the past four years. Unfortunately, Harry became ill and died in February at the age of 82.
Mrs. Ellenbogen was an elegent lady of 85. (Her name was Mary, but WE never called her that.) She was a master gardener and the front of her house was meticulous. She was spry, walking all over the neighborhood. Her husband Bernard, a retired lawyer over a decade her senior was understandably lame. They’d both head for the corner, she’d get there then go back and walk the rest of the way with him. She was very vital and very devoted to her spouse. She was very interested in our daughter’s well-being, and would talk with her when we met on the street.
The Ellenbogans wintered in Florida for about half the year. One day in April, Mr. Ellenbogan fell into their pool down in the Sunshine State; she jumped in after him, and they both drowned. Unlike Harry, who had shown signs of decline over the last year, her death was a particular shock to us and to the neighborhood.
I found out just this month that Harry’s daughter Cookie (her name is Maria, but we never call her that) is buying the Ellenbogan house. Harry, she and her brother Dino had all been living on separate floors in Harry’s house. Dino will stay in Harry’s old house, and rent the upstairs.
We miss Harry and Mrs. Ellenbogan very much, but I think that they’d be pleased that their houses will remain in good and loving hands.