happy tunesday! "do you think of me (now and again)?"

Another recording that I commissioned Toby Wilson to make. And this, a rarity for me, is a song for which I had co-authors. And there were three of them.

There's a bit of  history here. Go ahead, listen to the song before you read the background.

Originally, I started writing a novelty song, with the chorus:

Do you Google me now and again?
Do your fingers hit the keyboard when
Something frees your memories?
Do you Google me now and again?

I spent a lot of time -- as in years -- sitting on that. I was trying to write verses with references to the interwebs and social media. But everything I could come up with was just way too gimmicky. Eventually I decided that the whole direction was too gimmicky and risked becoming dated. I changed the chorus to what we have here:

Do you think of me now and again?
Do the feelings come flooding back when
Something frees your memories?
Do you think of me now and again?

Eventually I also wrote what would become (with some wordsmithing) half of the first verse, the second verse and the bridge. I ran it by Scott Milner, a friend and musician. He rearranged it a bit and added what would become the second half of the first verse. And we had a completed song.

Enter Eric Goulden (AKA Wreckless Eric) and Amy Rigby. They were crowdfunding what would be their third album. As part of their campaign, they agreed to record a demo. In the process they touched up the wording and improved the melody in the bridge. I explained that part in more detail in a blogpost a year and a half ago.

And that brings us to today. As part of my musical vanity project, I commissioned Toby Wilson to record it. I hope you enjoy.

cinema history class: count dracula

 

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: The Blood is the Life, Mr. Harker (week 2)
Movie: Count Dracula (1970)
Directed by Jess Franco

Plot:
A lawyer travels from London to Transylvania to help Count Dracula buy a new home. And that's when his troubles begin. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Sadly, I couldn't attend class. Work got in the way. Keith graciously lent me his Blu-ray so I could keep up. It's not the same, but that's life.

This movie is, in many ways a thing of beauty. It's shot in such wonderful vivid color, it's really a work of art. But in some ways it was disjointed, with the scenes not really connecting with each other. So it didn't really work as a cohesive whole.

I did appreciate Klaus Kinski's sanitarium-bound character. Kinski is interesting in just about everything he's in. And, of course, Christopher Lee is wonderfully imposing.

Ratings

Since I missed the class, and watched the movie on my own afterwards, I would prefer not to rate it. But here's what everyone else had to say:

Cats: No, there were no cats. But there were wolves.

stoopidstats: hits in n-year spans

I recently posted the first of my 2021 baseball stoopidstats posts. It was about the set of records for most homes run in an n-year span for positive integers n.

Stoopidstats enthusiast Emily Terwilliger Levatte suggested that it would be interesting to see the same treatment for hits. So here we are.

The process is essentially the same, and there's no reason it can't be performed for hits -- or strikesout, RsBI, triples, or any other discrete stat. That said, it did take longer to do hits than homes run. That's just a consequence of the numbers. I have a well defined process for deciding what players' careers to look at. Assuming I apply it correctly, I can rest assured that I haven't missed anything. When I was looking at homes run I had to consider 24 players' careers. For hits I had to consider 65.

Anyway, none of the records has changed since 2013. That was the year Ichiro Suzuki set the record for most hits in a 13-year span. The records are summarized below.

 

stoopidstats: homers in n-year spans (again)

 It's been quite the busy fall, so I have fallen behind in my annual ritual of updating my baseball stoopidstats. But I got the first bit out of the way: my annual update of the set of records for most homes run in an n-year span (for positive integers, n).

People may be interested -- or not -- to learn that, once again none of these records has changed. There was a flurry of change in these records during the steroid era, but it's been well over a decade since any of the records changed. The records -- all aleph-null of them are held by four players -- Barry Bonds (who last played in 2007), Mark McGwire (2001), Sammy Sosa (2007) and Babe Ruth (1935). So obviously, none of these records has changed since at least 2007.

But, for the record, here they are:

lids newsletter -- fall, 2021

I'm a bit late on this. A month late. I edit the semi-annual LIDS Newsletter. I distributed the Fall issue at last month's meeting (and then by email). I meant to share it here. You can read it below in all its four-page glory. There's an article about The 5th Man, the new documentary about LIDS member, Paul Limmer. Following that is an article about how to take cuttings. Finally, there's a brief list of new cultivars introduced by LIDS members.

Enjoy! And join LIDS if you haven't already done so.

cinema history class: nosferatu

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: The Blood is the Life, Mr. Harker (week 1)
Movie: Nosferatu (1922)
Directed by F.W. Murnau

Plot:
A vampire moves into town. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Part of the treat of watching this was the treatment this release gave the film. Nosferatu is in the public domain, so there have been many, many different versions released from different prints of various quality. This one apparently took pieces from a lot of these and pulled them together to create the most complete version of the film available. Further, an orchestra was commissioned to record the original score (based on the original sheet music) for the disc. Keith noted that the first version he saw as a kid (which, coincidentally, is also the version Christina saw as a kid) had an odd jazzy score that didn't really fit. Thanks, PBS.

This was really a masterpiece, and a great example of by German expressionism. And, damn if it wasn't creepy. I also have to admit that I loved the image of Orlok wandering around town carrying his coffin like some kind of oversized suitcase. It all kind of makes me wonder what might have been if the whole vampire mythology had continued along with the rat-creature portrayal we saw here instead of the romantic suave vampire that is so familiar now.

One of the things I noticed -- though I was hesitant to bring it up -- was the way Orlok (the vampire) and Knock reminded me of old anti-Semitic caricatures of Jews. I was hesitant to raise the issue because I don't want to be overly-sensitive, finding anti-Semitism where it doesn't exist. But Keith said that I'm not the first to make the observation. And, in fact, Julius Streicher (editor of the infamous Der Sturmer) was fascinated by the movie, interpreting it as a metaphor for Jews causing provoking the ruination of everything that is good about society.

I was torn about whether to rate Nosferatu. It's very far out of my normal movie experience, and therefore hard to rate. But I decided to just do my best and rate it. There are certainly crude elements, but this was 1922, so I can't judge it by today's standards. But there's the thing. If I were to simply judge it by today's standards it would come off remarkably well. Orlok as the ratlike vampire holds up very well a century later. He's way more creepy than any of today's movie monsters. In the end, I have to recognize how ahead of its time this film was, and how they did such a great job creating such a vividly frightening creature.

Ratings

Me: 10

Bob-O: 10
Christina: 10

Dave: 10

Ethan: 10

Joe: 10
Sharon: 10

Cats: Yes, there is a cat

happy zmedsday!! (cviii)

 

happy tunesday! skipping records

Do you know that feeling you get when you hear a song for the first time and it just seems so right? To clarify, it's not just a song you've never heard, but a band you've never heard of. Somehow you feel right at home with the song like it's been part of your soul forever, even if you didn't know it. It's a sublime moment. The kind to cherish. I had that moment today. In the car. Going to a doctor's appointment.

But it got even better. Ethan, the kid whose musical taste has virtually no overlap with mine, was singing along. I asked if he was singing along, and he quickly denied it. But a few measures later he was doing it again. That time I didn't say anything. I just enjoyed the moment.

I made sure to memorize the title and band name so I could find them later. "Spinning Records" by The Shang Hi Los. For all I knew it could have been from the 1980's -- it was played right after Graham Parker's "Local Girls" (1979). But it had a more recent, grungier sound. So it could have been newer. 1980 to today covers a lot of time. And, strictly speaking, there are clear influences from earlier.

At home I learned that the group is from Boston, and the song is from their debut album, Kick It Like a Wicked Bad Habit (my copy, ordered this evening, should be coming on Friday) which was released earlier this year. I could go on and on about it, but just listen.

happy tunesday! she'll fall for me

 Many thanks to my friends, Keith and Christina Crocker, for introducing me to this video. It's of interest for a variety of reasons.

Notably, it features Christopher Lee, whom I am most familiar with as a horror film actor. Lee is kind of wooden here as a singer, but that stiffness actually helps draw the contrast between himself and Gary Curtis, the lead vocalist.

The song also sounds a lot like Nick Lowe (circa the Cowboy Outfit era). That said, it also reminds me of Dire Straits' "Twisting by the Pool." It's a really catchy song, even if it is kind of disposable.

Finally, Gary Curtis' look and manner remind me of a guy at work. Discretion prevents me from naming him.

 

cinema history class: the screaming skull

Session: Get Some Skull, Week 4
Movie: The Screaming Skull (1958)
Directed by Alex Nicol

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Plot:
Newly married Eric, brings his rich but nervous bride to the palatial home he inherited from his first wife after she drowned. There, the newlyweds are haunted by her ghost. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Ethan put it best when he called this movie "a good fun fifties film."

SS isn't particularly deep, but it's a lot of fun. The scares are humorous, the visual effects are great, and the story itself is spooky. In some ways it plays like an extended Twilight Zone. The red herrings are good distractions, and the element of gaslighting adds interest.

This really was a fun film.  

 

Ratings

Me: 8.5

Bob-O: 9

Christina: 8.7

Dave: 9.5

Ethan: 7.5

who makes the fog surrounding the golden gate simply disappear?

When Phyllis, Cloris Leachman's spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I wasn't what you'd call a regular viewer. I loved MTM, but just didn't get into the spinoff. I vaguely recall trying a couple episodes and not liking it. But I have few specific memories other than frequent mention of "Lars" and the clever theme song. So, for decades I thought of Phyllis as a sort of inferior copy of MTM.

But, recently, I found the first episode on Youtube. I forget how or why it came up, but there it was. And I started watching it. And found it quite funny -- not hysterical laugh-out-loud funny, but clever. So now I've been watching complete episodes on Youtube -- sadly, I can't seem to find them anywhere else.

I think my favorite character is Audrey (Phyllis' air-headed but well-meaning mother-in-law). One of my favorite exchanges (as Phyllis, Audrey and Jonathan (Audrey's husband) are sitting down at a fancy restaurant):

Audrey: Why, they serve every kind of fish in the sea here. I can't imagine why we haven't been here before.

Jonathan: You hate fish.

Audrey: Maybe that's it.

Another (when it dawns on Phyllis how old her daughter is getting):

Phyllis: It was only yesterday that I nursed her at my breast, played pattycake with her, put on her booties, sprinkled talcum on her little bottom. Only yesterday...

Audrey: I thought you went to that new Woody Allen picture yesterday.

Who knows? Maybe I'll even give Rhoda a shot. I really hated that when I was a kid.

happy tunesday! living like flowers (at the mercy of the wind)

In high school I wrote a song called "Mercy of the Wind." It sucked. In the interests of full disclosure, I only wrote the lyrics. A friend set it to music. The music was fine. It was the lyrics that sucked. I'd say more about that song, but I'd have to go into all sorts of cringey cringitude. Take my word for it.

But I still liked that title, so decades later I wrote this little number. As I was writing it, I had "Mercy of the Wind" as the working title. But as it neared completion I realized that I had the wrong title. It just wasn't the right emphasis. I played with "Living Like Flowers," which I like as a song title. But that also doesn't seem right for this song. Combining the two into "Living Like Flowers (at the Mercy of the Wind)" just seems right. It's a bit long, but whatevs.

This is the eighth recording that Toby Wilson has made for me, and I happen to think this is the best of them.

Special thanks to Christina Crocker for her advice regarding how to split this as a duet. She has a real gift for that kind of thing.