Why do I continue to drag myself out in the open like this, week after week? For one thing, it helps to counter the toxic effects of a 40-hour week in the name of another man’s dime. It’s also a great way to add extra enjoyment to my collection. In addition to the thrill of the hunt, the capture and the inevitable cataloging (always with the cataloging), I can also revel in the pleasure of sharing all this ephemeral crap with my visitors.
I also love it when the wrong people visit this site by mistake, venting their disorientation and discomfort in the comments. I especially love it when they use terms like “elevator music” as if this was incisive criticism. After all, some folks still obsess over “authenticity,” preferring “immediacy” and “spontaneity” above all other concerns. Somehow, the soundtrack to a long-defunct Saturday morning kids show or a 30-year-old vanity pressing from an unknown lounge singer just doesn’t work for them
Continue reading ‘Your Favorite Little Podcast: Episode Thirteen’
Used to be, when a popular musical group fell from favor, they’d “reinvent” themselves, ditching their perishable old shtick in favor of whatever “sound” was currently in vogue. They’d take this route as long as they could before finally being put to pasture on the oldies circuit. Albums from this period would often have “today!” or “now!” in the title (eg. “Junior Samples NOW!”). Or perhaps they’d take a more up-front approach, like “Count Basie In A Slightly Less Archaic Groove,” or allude to some sort of sudden rejuvenation, like band singer Jayne Morgan’s 1967 comeback L.P., “Fresh From A Nap.” Sometimes, they’d attempt a full-scale graft of another artist’s style, as in “Robert Goulet Tries To Sing The Contemporary Hits of Rod McKuen” or Mel Torme’s “Kickin’ It With Jobim.”
Summer is never the easiest time of year for my brother Damon. Living as he does out in the middle of the desert with nothing but generator power and water from a shared well, it can be a challenge to keep himself cool. But even during the coolest time of the year, it’s tough trying to get him to offer me any back story on the televison program he produced during the 90s for Access Tucson’s public access cable station. Though I’ve asked him to contribute to my series of excerpts from his show, so far the only response I’ve gotten from him is a terse “just keep ‘em coming.”