Friday Check In

Day late....

Tonight starts the pre-recorded 4 hour-long "Dusty Attic" programs on Radio Talking book service. Great fun... details at https://cobaltclubannex.forumotion.com/t217p200-the-big-story#22745

Having troubles getting the Suspense posts of the series up. Finally think I have a workflow settled, unfortunately with Google Docs, but we'll manage.

Disappointed by the search function in Forumotion. Yields little for phrases and names I have used often, and then they can be found in Google. I know Forummotion uses Google for its internal searches, but it's weird how it doesn't work well at all, and yields zilch.

My two sai kata are looking good, but I have to practice without them to minimize stress on my 1995-repaired shoulder. How strange and illuminating that is to do weapons kata without the weapon. I will soon start learning kama, and they have blunt blades and points, thankfully much, much lighter. It is amazing that the Okinawan royal family banned weapons hundreds of years ago, so the peasants found ways to defend themselves with farming tools that are now kata that I'm learning today, on a totally unknown continent to them. Thank you Okinawan royal family for forcing karate and kobudo underground so it was preserved for this getting older man! My weapons test is in May and I'll put video up sometime.

Hello everyone,

busy, busy so no time to stop and smell the roses. Busy is okay in the blah days of January.

Loads and I mean loads of music. In the last month I have added almost a 100 new jazz albums to the collection. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakely, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, and so many more....

Lets not discuss the books... I am in all out war with unread books. Thats what the jazz is for put on jazz read books. Method here folks ..

Got some new classic horror movies on DVD and Blueray as they finally released them again. Happy with that.

Stay safe my friends...

A belated but sincere Happy New Year to you all. The last four and one-half months have been beyond crazy, but with God's Grace maybe the new year will be better. Hereby is a spoiler alert: I'll bring everyone up to date with complications and machinations from our middle Michigan.

As I may have mentioned, She Who Must Be Obeyed was respectively in the ER, hospital and rehabilitation home from September through the literal week before Christmas, with complications from a fall and a new spinal lesion from MS. But she was home for Christmas in good spirits, and we were blessed with family, good food and love.

Though still immobile and unable to move from her lounger (the hospital bed didn't come until the New Year), she developed Stage Two and Stage Four wounds from not-moving, and so it was back to the ER, hospital and now Special Care Unit from the third of January till now with another two weeks to go if all goes well. She is comfortable in a "sand bed" which allows her wounds to be packed twice daily with some painkillers to ease the hurt.

But she's a faithful fighter, Friends, and she is where she needs to be, in the best hands and care. I get to see her every other day since she's an hour away from home, but she is in good spirits.

I'm been occupying myself--with a nod to Seamus--reading and finding movies to keep the mind alert. I'm making my way through *The Great* with Elle Fanning, which is not something my dear wife would enjoy due to the crassness of the Emperor Peter of Russia, but it's darkly hilarious.

I have also found stupid folly and enjoyment in weird, over-the-top comic horror movies; caveat: these are hilarious but seriously sanguinary films played solely for outrageous Monty-Pythonesque abandon: *The Babysitter* and its sequel *The Babysitter: Killer Queen*, and a relatively obscure cheesy-in-more-ways-than-one laughfest *Mad Heidi*, a self-referential retelling of the little Swiss girl's opus, only this time she is 24 and seeking vengeance against evil Cheese Dictators forcing the village folk into monopolized lactose-high diets. It's Tarantino Meets Marx Brothers Anarchy filmed as a "Swiss=ploitation" callback to grindhouse.

In a similarly dark vein is *The Menu*, which I also enjoyed. But the topper is probably *Everything Everywhere All At Once* which is mind-bendingly fun.

Well, I've droned on long enough. Thanks if you're still with me. My friends at Cobaltia, especially Space and Seamus, have been a Godsend over these months. I humbly bow to you all with respect and love.
Jeff

Jeff, thoughts, prayers and a ton of positive positive energy continue to flow to you and the missus. Some times we just have to grind through the life imposed strife, to get back into the sunshine. But the sun will shine again. And as long as you're gnoshing cheesy goodness for fun, check out the Tubi app for tons of free cheese with a few commercials. They even have a grindhouse category, just for you.

The only notable event here this week, was when I took my oldest grandson to the gun range, for his first lesson in gun safety and etiquette. Very heavy on the safety and responsible behavior. He did amazingly well for his first time out. But his papa rode him like a pony the whole time. While using a sihlouette target, he managed a head shot from 50 meters with my 40 caliber handgun. I could have called it luck. But he called his target before he took the shot. He may have a bright future as a competition shooter. We'll see.

And on the subject of my 15 year old genius grandson. He's really getting in to the retro world. I can't imagine who influenced him, but he's really digging on Swing, Big Band, Blues and Jazz music. I want to introduce him to OTR. But I want it to be a positive first experience. I wish there was more quality sci-fi to start him out on. But compared to what he reads today, I'm afraid that most of what's available might come across as kid's shows. He likes horror, so I'm thinking about starting him with selected episodes of Suspense, Lights Out and Nightfall. But I'm open to suggestions of any sci-fi or fantasy episodes, as well as other horror shows the group might offer.

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

Jeff - Sorry to hear of your travails; they do seem to accumulate, for us Silver Agers. Over the Holidays, I developed a vitreous detachment - not nearly as dire as a retinal detachment, but a visual annoyance. (And of course, in my better eye...)

Space - Though I'm not one of those who thinks we should foist our likes onto the next generation (hey, we had our own shot then, right?), it is nice to be able to pass the torch a bit sometimes! As far as those genres:you mentioned some good series. For SciFi, you can't beat DIMENSION X (for my money, even a hair better than X MINUS 1.) And one of The Old Masters, Orson Welles, and his Merc, are always a solid genre bet. Over the course of his life, that included DRACULA - WAR OF THE WORLDS - CHRISTMAS CAROL - SREDNI VASHTAR - MOAT FARM MURDERS - THE HITCHHIKER - DONOVAN'S BRAIN - SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES - and more.

Best to all,
- Craig

Craig, I agree with not requiring the younger generation to follow in our footsteps. But in Landon's case, he's thoroughly fascinated by the prewar and WWII era. And he's constantly asking me about the period and what went on. You should have seen the look on his face when I introduced him to The Andrews Sisters music. That sent him on yet another search for more. He's already asked me what he should listen to of OTR from the period. I just want to offer him a solid starting place, which already fits within his entertainment preferences. Then I'll let him explore on his own.

And thank you so much for your suggestions. Dimension X and X Minus One are already on my list. As well as a few of episodes of Lux Radio Theatre.

Space

HOLY FRIJOLES!!! I completely forgot that he's never experienced the Universal Monster Movies!

Space, I think it's perfectly acceptable parental power to sit Landon down, pry open his eyes with little clamps (a'la *Clockwork Orange*) and forcefeed him old radio through headphones while watching a repetitious loop of kids dancing in harmony, hand in hand, over fields of daisies. . . just stop the film before Lyndon Johnson juxtaposes a shot of a nuclear bomb in the distance.

Seriously, though, one of the first shows I ever heard--and it still lives in my memory as one of my favorites--is *The Shadow: Night Without End*. That was quickly followed up with *Dimension X: Mars Is Heaven* and *The Mysterious Traveler: Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitarium*. For absolute scares, try *Inner Sanctum: The Vengeful Ghost*. Or *Murder At Midnight*.

If he likes Sci-Fi, try out *The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy*--I died laughing when I first heard Slartibartfast and Marvin The Paranoid Android. (But that's Newtime Radio)

Heck, we raised our kids with twenty-six nightly episodes of *The Cinnamon Bear* before Christmas, years ago, and they turned out okay.

Here to help, pal.
Jeff
PS--Just stay away from *Ma Perkins*.

Space Cadet wrote:
HOLY FRIJOLES!!! I completely forgot that he's never experienced the Universal Monster Movies!

 

ghemrats wrote:PS--Just stay away from *Ma Perkins*.

And The Hummerts! And... (it's always grounding to recall that Sturgeon's Law applies here, as everywhere!)

Best,
- Craig

P.S. - Orson and The Merc don't get seem to get the love they deserve any more...

Two days late....
but this catches up
https://cobaltclubannex.forumotion.com/t456p575-suspense-upgrades#22796

Jeff's story is inspiring. I have no other words beyond what commitment and covenant are in real life.

Finally typing my Friday check-in on Friday

The Suspense Project is finishing up its first week, and the biggest post of them all comes this morning, The Hitch-hiker with lots of info that has not been around or considered before. This is a good post especially for new hobbyists. Please pass it around to your friends.

As of this moment, I'm a week ahead on posts, trying to write two a day to get the backlog built up with the crazy idea that by the end of 15 months I will have the next 15 months of posts all done. At least that's the plan!

Cobalt has a spot in the Suspense blog link list


So many marvelous things happening... need more volunteers, especially if the upcoming acquisition of 25,000 reels actually comes through. Logistics still being worked through... especially in sorting out what's worth doing...

Nursing a cold... tested negative for the Covid stuff, and my IQ test came back with the same result.

Have great weekend....

Thanks for all your work on the Suspense Project, greybelt! I've been enjoying reading the blog posts.

Well, winter term teaching is almost done, but Spring semester teaching starts on Monday. So, very busy grading and doing class prep. Of course, my research has had to take another pause and I'm still working through the Season 5 scripts for the Dennis Day Project.

I'm actually getting my 13-year-old interested in archival research and old newspapers, but not for classic radio projects. He's writing an historical novel on the great flood of Dayton in 1913, so I've been helping him with getting access to historical Dayton newspapers, along with some other old publications.

Hope you all are doing well!

folks,

lovely sunny day here so grand. Loads of Jazz, reading and movies watching. Tonight watching Frightnight II so that will be fun.

GB thanks for all the amazing work you have been doing with your crew its an amazing block of work that will live on.

Space and Ghem always happy to hear you are moving into sunny times and shenanigan's are rolling back around.

Stay safe my friends...

Well, it was a mixed week here. The downside was losing a freezer packed with meat. There was half a grass fed local steer sleeping comfortably within. And the freezer is under warranty  but out of the return window. So, we couldn't just return it or call a local repairman. We have to wait for the warranty holder to schedule the repair. Of course all of that beef didn't want to cooperate and stay frozen while we wait. Everything was pretty much thawed but safely within refrigeration levels. So all of our neighbors received some quality gifts and I did a beef cooking marathon. Now the in town and out of town refrigerator freezer compartments are stuffed to the max with pre-cooked beef. The only really tragic loss, was ten pounds of salmon fillets. Trust me, "fresh" salmon is not cheap in northwest Alabamy. And I had plans to plank smoke the whole batch. Oi...

On the other side of the coin. With my son now being here and adding his talents to the toy buying binge "I have no idea where he inherited that trait", there is now a new seven passenger pontoon boat on the property. Yes, it's a bit early to think about river cruising. But the savings by buying in the winter means more luxury for the $$$$. And come the spring, much lazy cruising/fishing enjoyment shall be had by all.

Boss, every week I remind myself, that it's been far too long since I went totally off the rails. I haven't even jumped in a year. Since that time I sneaked off and jumped in a rented rig in Hawaii. It's as if the "Spirits of Goofballs Past, Present and Future" are all lurking just behind my shoulder whispering "Hey, what if we...?". Then there's my wife "She Who Must Not Be Angered", speaking in an authoritative voice and saying "You're Too Damned Old" for whatever hair-brained scheme I've come up with. But it's coming. Yes, it's coming. My two bucket list dream rides, are a P-51 Mustang and an F-16 Falcon. And I know both can be arranged... Now, if the timing and budget can be made to fit the situation...

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

It's been a curious week, suffering from NOTcovid and NOTpneumonia but similar symptoms throughout. Tea and honey. Lots of it. Guafenesin syrup without augmentation ain't around so Mucinex tablets and private label substitutes have been the main course. Supplemented by tea and honey. Did I mention that earlier? I don't remember.

Busy week, especially with the first installment of the 10-week Suspense series on the podcast Golden Days of Radio. The podcast is on every podcast platform you can think of, with thousands of subscribers (can't go into details) and I believe I heard more than half in the 18-35 age range. Encouraging numbers for listenership! How are they cultivated into enthusiastic volunteers? That remains to be figured out.

Word of yet more reel collections of a pioneer nature. When it rains, it squeals until you lube the heads and bake the reels. Something like that. Need more hands on deck, and more hands on decks! Could use more folks to transfer and we may be seeing some reel decks be made available on loan to some volunteers. So very much is happening.

OTRR's lending library has to stream only now because the costs otherwise are headed up. You can only put so much stuff up online for "free" before someone has a bill to pay. And now that the decisive move is to lossless files, think of this: the library started with mainly 32kps mp3s. When you shift them to FLAC, the file space is 8x! The combination of more downloaders and bigger files is a challenge. There are solutions in the works!!

Have a great weekend!

We had a pretty bland week this week. Yay! No crazy. Just some seasonably crappy weather.

We did manage to try another local "Home Cookin'" restaurant. This one called Mama Jean's. We loved it. The service friendly and eager to please. The decor is what I describe as low budget homey, with a twist. The twist being Bible verses stenciled on chairs, tables and in the artwork on the walls. Yup, we're definitely in the Bible Belt. The food was authentic and very enjoyable. The biggest surprise was when I paid the check. Just under $50 for dinner for five. That included an entree, 3 sides, choice of bread, drinks, dessert and a huge three excellent items appetizer platter with dipping sauces for a starter. We'll defintely be back. We hope to try a place called Bonnie's Kountry Kafe in the next week or so. It's been  described as one of the states best kept secrets. I can hardly wait to see if it lives up to the hype.

My son and I also plan to visit the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in the near future.
https://www.alamhof.org/

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

GB as always amazing work. Hope you get to full health again soon. Beating down those flu's.

Space I love finding places like that where the food is great. Home cooking with good prices you can't beat that.

Its still super busy for me I said I was done with this but I am having fun so why not one last hurrah before I switch over to doing something else.

Gonna admit it to lads as my support group the vinyl and book collection has got way out of hand. I got the guitar buying under control now need help with the other things.

Space accidentally bought a early 90's Japanese superbike. A Suzuki GSX 1100. Immaculate condition low miles been in storage for years just had full service. Its in the garage and neither you me and more importantly my wife knows where this bike came from...remember Space I bought this years ago.... its not new to the collection ...nope just back from service.... yeah thats the ticket....I wasn't even there ...I know nothing...bike what bike....

Life is all about being spontaneous sometimes when crazy good deals come up you get things quickly that you spend a lot of time explaining lol.

Stay safe my friends....

Boss, life's too short. I decided before retiring, that I'd spend this time enjoying and sharing what joy I can. After all, it's taken me a lifetime to get here.

Space

Lads,

weather has been lovely here so been out and about a lot.

Still busy at work but carving out time to watch movies, read and listen to music.

Its a fun old world. Keep getting into trouble

Stay safe my friends....

Folks,

got more old movies. Flash Gordon, Salems Lot, Escape From New York, Logans Run, Lost Boys. Been enjoying those.

Running through Barney Miller complete set I am in season 1 show is still hilarious. No stale jokes its just plain funny. Will then move over to Laverne and Shirley.

Weather is lovely so been out a lot. Books getting read, vinyl getting played so life is pretty good.

Stay safe my friends...

Howdy Folk's. We had a couple of warm days, but now we're about to go back to cold and rainy. Blah!  We have some visitors in town this week. A cousin (who is more like a brother) and his wife are visiting their son and daughter in law, who live near us. They're leaving Sunday but we're planning a huge dinner Saturday. Gonna smoke a brisket and some chicken. Yum! I'm glad we have two smokers. The Traeger and my ever trusty electric smoker. I love that thing. It's a real comfort to be able to control heat levels so accurately.

I've been doing a lot of reading during the cold rainy weather. Specifically, I'm gorging myself on David Weber's Honor Harrington series. Modern space opera at it's finest. My grandson's musical indoctrination is moving right along. Lately, it's been a lot of classical music and classic rock. Brahms, Bach, Schubert, ZZ Top, Jefferson Airplane, CCR and much more. He really likes the 60's rebellious rock.

Be safe, be well and be happy'
Space

I oughta rename this the Weekly Check-In thread!

Howdy Folk's. Nuthin' new to report. Can't wait for warmer weather. My son, grandson and I plan to do some kayaking on the local streams when it gets warmer. Tomorrow, we're planning to take a first cruise on the river aboard my son's new boat. It'll still be a bit cool, but we just plan an hour or two cruising in the afternoon. Temps in the low to mid 60's, so it should be OK.

The musical adventure continues. This week it's been more of the same, plus a heavy dose of 60's folk music. Next up, Mo Town.

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

Folks,

weather is nice here this week. Spring has arrived.

Space I want pics of that boat launch and you wrassling a Gator...

Thats the bare minimum then eating pie to celebrate. Or good BBQ probs both.

Stay safe my friends...

Here Ya go Boss. Just after splashdown with my son at the helm.