Friday Check In

Well here we are once more, another Friday creeps up on us. I think I figured this out... Retirement means every day is Saturday, and "Friday" is actually "the eve of everyone else's Saturday" and for some reason we have to prepare for someone else's Saturday. I'm slowly getting the hang of this.

The trip out west to the local mountains gets closer and I can't decide if I'm more excited to be seeing a minor league (high-A) ball game on the way out or the two nights in the semi-posh resort. It's free hot dog night at the stadium... Hmmmm.... hard choice... counting the days...

The Scott Suspense log is out and those who have had a chance to peer into it seem quite thrilled about it. If you haven't seen it https://archive.org/details/ScottSuspense2021

Back at daily Suspense posts... hooray... until the trip. Finished ALL of the Suspense reels from Kelez-Falk and pulled all of the episodes that are prospects for upgrades to commonly circulating recordings. As I suspected most all of the upgrade candidates were after 1950, after the 1940s emphasis on the highest Hollywood movie talent ebbed once that talent decided TV was their better publicity opportunity. OTR collecting interests in the 1970s really focused on the big stars and not the whole series, so getting the upgrades of the 1950s programs is a big deal as they were neglected by those early collectors. Now the harder work comes of processing the individual programs.

Yet, again, the Casey book got pushed to the back... but the draft is open on my screen behind all of these Firefox windows.

Greybelt the Younger turns 31 on Monday. Yikes! Didn't we just bring him home from the hospital the other day? Like Groucho says... "time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana"... or something like that.

Working on the Frank Lovejoy presentation that Don Ramlow, Karl Schadow, and me in the background will be presenting @ MANC. Don sent me this fascinating 1942 item about Frank Lovejoy...



Yep... Frank takes a courageous stand against baldness and dandruff... when others feared doing so...

Great update GB. Take pics at the ball game. Keep your eyes open for any Roy Hobbs talent out there in the minors.

Had a look at the suspense log it was very well done. Great resource.

It's been roasting here this week. So had to adjust the schedule and get up at 6:30am to get in the walk with the doggo and my workout done before the heat hits. The doggo is absolutely not happy about the new schedule. Nice thing is we are done everything including work by 2pm so rest of the day is goof off. Listening to podcasts and reading. I whacked through 6 books this week.

Really enjoying my vaxxed summer.

Stay safe my friends...

Another Friday, another amateur farmer screwup to confess. This time, I slid my ginormous mower sideways down a hill and into the brand new fence. No real damage. But I had to buy a winch and tow strap to drag said mower out of the fence and up to dry ground. My greatest regret, is that there's no video of the slide down the hill. No, I didn't scream like a little girl. But my actions had to be hilarious and the language was, shall we say, quite expressive.

Otherwise, the "test" garden seems to be a hit. The squirrels love the melons. I decided to treat myself to a Danny Kay film festival. That was a mistake. I really enjoy his movies individually. But watching them close together makes him look like the Jim Carrey of the 40's and 50's. It's like you're watching the same character put into different situations. It even carries over to the musical numbers. But that's a conversation that I need to have with Jeff. He has a much deeper technical skills than I do.

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

Space I would have loved to see that mower slide which may be a new sport.

Yes I have done the same done a movie marathon and have been able to see the actors doing the act.

Same with books I learned my lesson on that. Never read a series through as you see the cookie cutter plots. I always mix up my books now so I can hit them fresh.

Any time I think of a mower incident I think of Mad Men
https://youtu.be/iI2A8bQv2xA?t=73

Here we are once more... Started watching Whitechapel last night. Seems interesting. Doing the occasional Silent Witness pair of episodes. Did I mention we liked the final season of Bosch on Amazon Prime. We'll miss that series, but it's time. Netflix just posted more episodes of The Movies that Made Us, and we watched two of them, Pretty Woman and Forrest Gump to our great delight.

Finished all of the Jed Mercurio series like Line of Duty and Bodyguard. Wish there were more. Looked at his 2015 medical show Critical, but after stuff we've gone through over the years, modern medical shows aren't for us.

Looking forward to a quiet weekend... gosh... August starts Sunday... busy month ahead...

GB I really enjoyed Whitechapel. A bit different from your usual UK police procedural. Great cast. I enjoyed Bosch been a big fan of Titus Welliver for years.

Hot weather came to crashing halt as rain storms rolled in and I am okay with that. We had 6 weeks without rain so now we getting soaked to make up for it.

I am watching this French SciFi show called Mission about Mars landing, so far can't understand what is going on. But its so well done I am staying in it to win it.

Stay safe and enjoy every second of summer my friends...

We had a very mundane week in rural America this past week. The average age of my entertainment choices lately is about 75 years. I just revisited the Tubi free streaming app and was pleasantly surprised by quite a few top notch selections in their classics area. There was quite a bit of crap to be filtered through. But it was worth it.

Otherwise, we're getting ready for the coming week's Texas trip. Preps are mostly completed, except for the final packing. We'll be traveling considerably lighter than we did for the Hawaii trip. This is primarily a family visit, rather than a tourist trek.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Its been a stormy week here. Nice temps but bouts of torrential rain which we needed so its all good to me.

Same old summer routine. Less work, walking the doggo, exercising and listening to all the Shep summer shows. Olly's Hopnoodles haven of bliss is an all time fave. Reminds me of family hols back in the day. No phones no internet. Just good old time mixed in with bickering with siblings and enjoying the heat of a packed car on the road. Miss those days...

Hope everyone is enjoying summer and staying safe....

Decided to pop in. Went to a food truck rally Tuesday night, over 20 food trucks to choose from but a bit noise with 20+ generator running on the food trucks. Huge crowd, you end up picking what you are going to eat by the length of line almost as much as what you want to eat. Third time we have went this Summer and the Lobster Roll line is never shorter than 50 feet and usually a lot longer. I had Blacken Fish Tacos, good but could have been a bit spicier.

Been hooked on "Stuff You Should Know" podcast lately. easy to listen too while in the shop doing other things.

Howdy Folk's, from sunny and hot Texas. We're not exploring on this trip. Instead, we're chilling and playing with our two youngest grandkids. Teaching a screen addicted four year old the joys of the back yard.

It's great to hear from you Jim. I too like to go on food adventures. Sadly, we won't be doing our planned Texas barbecue quest. There's too much real world preventing that.

That's about it for now.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

A day late... sorry I did not write for Saturday Eve... again. It happens.

Looking forward this coming week to being away, headed to the west for the Carolina mountains and doing the big matchup of the Winston-Salem Dash (the only pro team I know named after a typographic symbol) and the Greensboro Grasshoppers (I guess they're the plague of the league). It's high-A baseball, so as Mrs. GB said at her first minor league game ever when the players ran onto the field "OMG! They're babies!"  NC has lots of minor league teams and it's too late in the year to do it but I hope to visit each of them, yes, even the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers... plus the pro teams in the Atlantic League, next year. That team is the High Point Rockers because of the furniture manufacturing that's still there, and not because of the older players trying to get just one more taste of the big leagues. That's also the league MLB is using to test out rule changes, including computer-based pitch calling. Just what we need... a pitch is thrown to the batter and we have to wait for an update to download.

Love Cobaltia because of the resources -- wish we could stimulate more of them. Because of a question I asked and some input of chasedad, the ideas started flowing and we learned that the original Man in Black on Suspense, Ted Osborne, was in shows at the end of the Suspense series almost 20 years later but using the pseudonym "Reynold Osborn." In the process we stumbled on a summer regional theater play with "Reynold" that included other Suspense actors of that time!

After this week away, a few days back, and then I head to the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention -- expected to be lots of fun. Will be good to see the seminars, panel discussions, recreations, and of course... so many friends...

Jim I listen to that podcast Things you Should Know I like it there are a lot of great podcasts. Lookup Blindboy Boatclub he has a great Irish podcast about everything. Very well done.

Space good to see you are getting out and about.

GB I enjoy the baseball reports you are our "man" in the field reporting on great baseball. And always enjoy the OTR updates.

It's been a lovely week here weather wise. Warm but not super hot. Lots of walks on the beach some swimming while the doggo watches from the beach. He is hell nah I am not getting in there. My bath is bad enough. Loads of books read and vinyl listened to. All in all a good summer so far.

Stay safe my friends....

Happy Saturday Eve, everyone.

Just got back from the NC mountains with driving on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway and other roads like that. They're so narrow, and so many hairpin and near-hairpin turns that I was expecting to be followed by a helicopter thinking I was James Bond or something like that. The views were marvelous and the meals we had were nothing trendy but so excellently done in their simplicity with a twist. And on the drive back we decided to have ice cream for dinner. Smart move.

Love the minor league baseball parks. But you can tell A-ball from AAA-ball quite easily. I'm not talking about the players. In A-ball, they throw t-shirts into the stands. In AAA-ball, they shoot them in air guns that look like bazookas. At this time of year, A ball players are the ones who didn't play well enough to be promoted to AA or AAA over the last months. So batting averages are low and ERAs are high. Rosters are very transient, with emphasis on teaching the finer points and crafty nature of the game. Saw a massive home run to center field Lazaro Leal, 420 ft at least. He's batting .236, one of those young players hurt by not having a real season last year. And the Cespedes in the lineup is the much younger brother of ex-MLB Yoenis Cespedes who played for my Mets and had a big 2015.
https://www.milb.com/gameday/grasshoppers-vs-dash/2021/08/10/643068#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=643068

Catching up on stuff and getting ready for next week's MANC!

Good week. Went to our favorite pizza place on Wednesday. This one has RC Cola on tap and makes the second best pizza in the area, my wife makes the best :-) All it needs is a fireplace and a moose head on the wall. We try to get there at least ones a month.

Went to a free concert on the square in town earlier tonight. OK music but not the best. It varies week to week but it is nice getting out and seeing people. We usually check the groups out online before we commit to going but this group moved it's style since they posted videos.

greybelt, we really need to get over to the Parkway. We drove it years ago when we were 700 miles away but have only drove a short part of it since we moved to less than an hour from it 6 years ago. Seems like close by things always get put off till later.

Later Jim...

Mrs GB never went to the Empire State Building despite us growing up just outside NYC... and for both of us it was true for so many of the area landmarks. We did not visit them until we moved away to RI and visited with GB the Younger when he was 8 or 9. Life is different as a tourist!

Great updates everyone. I like to hear what everyone is doing. If you guys seeing any cool old cars take pics and post here with your updates. I will post pics of the route I take on my walks. We can live vicariously

Happy Post Friday. The wife and I got home from Texas last night around 10:00. We had two great flights. I love it when we get to fly around bad weather. The skyscapes are stupendous. And that was the case on the flight home. But we're home now and bickering over which of us is crankier. I win, because I can laugh at the hypocrisy of the discussion.

My major chore this week, is sorting through about 30 cases of mixed video game consoles, games and parts. Everything from an original Pong deck through Wii U. My old video game shop was packed by others while I was at work, for the big move. They were more worried about time than about organization. So this is gonna take a while.

And finally, I plan to return to learning to play guitar this week. Mostly because it seems silly for a person who owns five guitars, to only be able to play 2 1/2 chords. I expect to be up to 3 1/2 chords by the end of the weekend. Then, the sky's the limit.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Space -- reminded of that old saw of "country music is three chords and the truth" -- you're almost there!!

Space GB is right three chords you can basically play the Beatles catalogue. Make sure those three chords are power chords and you got the amp up high (11) and the distortion set to annoy the county.

Happy Friday Eve
Early start tomorrow for the 6-hr journey from NC to the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (Martin Grams' big event, the first one since all the lockdown stuff). All the guests are there, including Wally and the Beav!

Someone who found a bunch of early collector reels had some YTJD from 1959+ that were in need of some attention. It is amazing how they cleaned up. I will post some of them very soon.

Friday is the last day of 1962 Suspense... and I'll start posting shows from early in the run upon my return...

Have a great weekend

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

GB I am Jelly you will get to meet Wally and the Beav. Great news on more YTJD that's fabs. Will look for those when you post. Have a great time at the event.

Warm but rainy old week here which I don't mind at all.

Space did you see Apple is releasing Asimov's Foundation Trilogy as a miniseries it looks epic.

Stay safe my friends...

A day late and another mundane week. Which in the world we live in is a pretty good thing. Still muddling along at sorting my "nerd" collection. I've gotta find new homes for most of my paperback collection. I won't really be losing anything, because I already have digital copies of everything I truly love and occasionally revisit. And I do most of my reading on an Android tablet.

My yard seems to be turning into a makeshift wildlife sanctuary. Especially for wild turkeys. About thirty turkeys in four different groups show up around  7:00 am every day and spend the day wandering around inside our fence. Two does drop their fawns off under different trees each morning, then come back for them around dusk. We plan to put up a couple of game cameras to find out exactly what goes on overnight.

Boss, while I love the Foundation series, I usually avoid the screen versions of books I enjoy. My usual reactions range from disappointment to outright disgust. See the movie John Carter for an example of the latter.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Happy Saturday Eve once more...

MANC was fun but the hotel's entire HVAC system conked out a couple of days before, and I can't say that the hotel did anything proactive about helping Martin out in the process. They moved guests to a hotel 15 minutes away, others across the street to another property. Martin let attendees know beforehand and the crowds looked like they were cut in half, the dealers cut by 1/3, but every guest who had confirmed weeks before came. The big hit was Louis Gossett, Jr. And of course, Wally and the Beav, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers were superb to the fans. John James, of Dynasty fame, was an excellent interview, and impressive in his knowledge of the business and production side of it all. His father was NY disc jockey Herb Oscar Anderson, and he had some great stories about 1960s Top 40 radio -- and is working on a documentary about the era. Aside from being a good actor -- what a commanding voice.

All of the fans -- the mechanical type, not the people type -- that were put in the rooms were no match for the heat, and they also messed up the opportunities for good recordings. Don Ramlow, Karl Schadow, and I had what I dare say was an excellent presentation about Frank Lovejoy, based on the audience reaction, but the audio is so difficult to process we're going to do it on Zoom and issue a video. I grew to understand and appreciate Lovejoy more than I ever thought I would thanks to the efforts of Don, who is writing a biography, and Karl, who can find all kinds detailed information from the resources at the Library of Congress. It was so marvelous to work together that I'm actually looking forward to recording it all again!

Go here for all kinds of Lovejoy goodies and our slides!
https://sites.google.com/view/frankmanc/

The banquet was cancelled, so I headed home earlier than I expected, but listened to most of the Johnny Dollar episodes I recently cleaned up. I need to do some touch-ups here and there.

Catching up on all kinds of things now that the show is over. Getting back to Suspense posts and also getting more and more of the Hehn stuff up!