Billions of Views

I saw on news segment on CNN this morning with the data guy describing the current use of social media and comparing it with past years. The trends were showing less use of Facebook and Twitter and a significant increase in YouTube which is also very popular with young people. He then told the morning show hosts that the most popular video on YouTube had over 9 billion views. To no one's surprise the video was the original Baby Shark.  According to Wikipedia there have been over 12 billion views of the original video.

With us having four young grandchildren we certainly are familiar with Baby Shark and we can both unfortunately sing along. Our experience with the Baby Shark song goes way beyond watching the video which in itself was significant... again, the kids would keep saying. They also had toys that would suddenly and without warning start playing the Baby Shark song. During our many visits at Katie's we had lots of time hearing that song... over and over again.

Becky had bought the kids a few of those toys before we understood the extent of the Baby Shark phenomenon. Katie was a little mad at us. One of the toys was a puzzle that constantly sang the song. The kids loved it and took it with them on vacation to Long Lake where we heard it over and over again in the cabin.

So the news story was interesting but not surprising because the video and the song has been a world wide success with lots of spin offs. I wonder what the count would be if they included all the different versions of Baby Shark.

Apparently the song originated as a camp fire singalong for children where the kids used their hands to imitate the jaws of sharks. The song was said to be a response to the movie Jaws and has been around for fifty years. The song described various sharks in a family.

The current popular video was created by a South Korean company although there have been many other earlier versions on records and videos going back many years. There have also been many copyright infringement lawsuits involving Baby Shark.

I Am The God Of Hell Fire - Songs 1968 FV

And I bring you... another mix of music from my collection released in 1968.

I saw about half of these artists in concert in 68-70 but the one I saw the most... Lothar & The Hand People. How's that? They were a NYC based band an hour and a half away and constantly opened up for bands in the Philly rock clubs.

I also saw that crazy guy Arthur Brown and his group in concert back in the day and it was an incredible show especially with Dr. John The Night Tripper, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on the same bill.

This is a very old mix that I recently updated. It was once on a cassette tape and then a burned CD. Now I have it on a flash drive. It part of my Final Version group of mixes. It's also posted here on Spotify.

I Am The God Of Hell Fire - Songs 1968 FV

1. Fire – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
2. Voodoo Child – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
3. Helter Skelter – The Beatles
4. Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
5. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf
6. Magic Bus – The Who
7. Living In The U.S.A. – Steve Miller Band
8. Shape Of Things To Come – Max Frost & The Troopers
9. Oscillations – Silver Apples
10. White Light / White Heat – The Velvet Underground
11. I’m Not Like Everybody Else – The Chocolate Watch Band
12. Flower Punk – The Mothers of Invention
13. Monterey – Eric Burdon & The Animals
14. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Single Version) – Iron Butterfly
15. Hush – Deep Purple
16. Five To One – The Doors
17. Ride My See-Saw – The Moody Blues
18. Rambling On – Procol Harum
19. A Hazy Shade of Winter – Simon & Garfunkel
20. Long Walking Down To Misery – The Beau Brummels
21. This Is It – Lothar & The Hand People
22. Little Girl – The Troggs
23. She Loves The Way They Love Her– The Zombies
24. I Started A Joke – Bee Gees
25. Safe In My Garden – The Mamas & The Papas

Raquel Welch RIP

I was saddened to see yesterday that Raquel Welch passed away at the age of 82. I can't say that she was one of my favorite actors or that I had seen most of her movies but she did make an impression on me back in 1966. I was 14 years old and in that year she was in two films that I saw and loved at the New Lyric Theater three blocks from our house. They were the science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage and the dinosaur flic One Million Years BC. I had that classic poster of her wearing the deerskin bikini hanging on the wall in my bedroom back in the day. 

I saw her in a few more movies in the late 60's such as Bedazzled, Lady in Cement, and 100 Rifles. Then The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers in 73 and 74. That was about it. I don't think I saw any of her later movies or television shows but I certainly remember those first two movies when I was a young teenager.

Just Like Me - Songs 1966 FV

Another mix of songs from my collection released in the year 1966 when I was just getting started seriously buying albums and singles. This set has some soul music too which over the years would be a significant part of my collection.

I got that Paul Revere & The Raiders album in the summer of 1966 by winning a copy playing some game on the boardwalk in Wildwood on the Jersey shore.

This is another mix that evolved over time and now we have the final mix. 

Just Like Me - Songs 1966 FV

1. Just Like Me – Paul Revere & The Raiders
2. Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love) – The Swingin’ Medallions
3. La La La La La – The Blendells
4. Little Latin Lupe Lu – Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
5. Money Won’t Change You – James Brown
6. Knock On Wood – Eddie Floyd
7. 634-5789 – Wilson Pickett
8. You Don’t Know Like I Know – Sam & Dave
9. I Got A Woman – Them
10. Stupid Girl – The Rolling Stones
11. Biff! Bang! Pow! – The Creation
12. Taxman – The Beatles
13. Spoonful – Cream
14. In The Midnight Hour – The Young Rascals
15. One More Heartache – Marvin Gaye
16. Standing In The Shadows Of Love – The Four Tops
17. You Can’t Hurry Love – The Supremes
18. (I’m A) Roadrunner – Jr. Walker & The All Stars
19. She Put That Hurt On Me – Otis Redding
20. Misty – Richard “Groove” Holmes
21. Tide is High – The Paragons
22. Sloop John B – The Beach Boys
23. Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel
24. Sit Down I Think I Love You – Buffalo Springfield
25. Straight Shooter – The Mamas & The Papas
26. I Can’t Let Go – The Hollies
27. When I Come Home – Spencer Davis Group
28. Saturday’s Child – The Monkees
29. Do You Still Love Me – The Dave Clark Five
30. I’ll Keep Holding On – The Action
31. You Burn Me Up and Down – We The People

Art Show

Becky has been working very hard the past few months getting ready for her art show at Niagara County Community College in March. Her friend Jim, who runs the gallery and invited her to show there, put together this poster of the event.

The other day he came by her studio with his van and he and I loaded it up with Becky's artwork in boxes. He then drove it up to NCCC and he and some of his students unloaded the van and put the artwork in a storeroom until the installation day.

The opening of the show is March 1 with a reception in the afternoon at 1 pm to accommodate the students. The installation is scheduled for a few days before the opening and Becky has a few more art works that we will bring up at that time but overall she'll leave the installation to Jim.

Do It Again - Songs 1969 FV

Do it again indeed. 1969. One of my favorite years for music and the last year I would be buying a lot of albums for awhile because of military service. Went to lots of concerts this year and some anti-war demonstrations too. 

I had a lot of friends and neighbors in the military and heard many of the war stories from returning vets. The draft was affecting everyone. 1969 was the first year of the draft lottery based on your birthday. I came up with number 10 so I was definitely going in one way or another. Here is a link to the playlist on Spotify.

Do It Again - Songs 1969 FV

1. Do It Again – The Beach Boys
2. Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone
3. Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In – The 5th Dimension
4. Come Together – The Beatles
5. Come And Get It – Badfinger
6. You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
7. What Goes On – The Velvet Underground
8. Plynth (Water Down The Drain) – Jeff Beck Group
9. Barabajagal – Donovan & Jeff Beck Group
10. I’m A Man – Chicago
11. Time Is Tight – Booker T. & The MG’s
12. Born On The Bayou – Creedence Clearwater Revival
13. Polk Salad Annie – Tony Joe White
14. Up On Cripple Creek – The Band
15. This Wheel’s On Fire – The Byrds
16. Genesis Hall – Fairport Convention
17. Light Flight – Pentangle
18. Bouree – Jethro Tull
19. Sugar On Sunday – Tommy James & The Shondells
20. Christine’s Tune (Devil In Disguise) – The Flying Burrito Brothers
21. See – The Rascals
22. Feeling Alright – Joe Cocker
23. Pretty Smart On My Part – Phil Ochs
24. I’m Still A Struggling Man – Edwin Starr

Another Winter Sunny Day

Sunny days have been few and far between this winter which I already commented on last week but today is another winter sunny day and I am out in our backyard sunroom again doing some reading and listening to music. Actually I've been out there twice in the past few days. On Sunday I sat out there and wrote for about an hour and today I have a big book on my lap. 

Unfortunately the warmth in the sunroom is very fleeting. It is only comfortable for

an hour or so in mid afternoon as long as the sun stays out and there is no wind. But as the sun moves across the sky and starts to get lower I can feel the difference and I can see it clearly with the thermometer I installed in the room. So this winter I'm happy to get an hour or so out there on occasion. 

Eagles Lose Super Bowl

The Super Bowl game last night between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs was overall a very exciting and entertaining football game between a couple of evenly matched teams with great quarterbacks. Unfortunately the final minutes of the game was marred by a significantly controversial and suspect penalty call that determined the outcome of the contest. That was not a blatant holding penalty and that kind of call that is let go in a close championship game's final minutes. Just let the teams play. But that didn't happen last night and essentially that unnecessary penalty call gave the game to the Chiefs.

Otherwise, it was a great game and very exciting. It was also a typical super bowl with lots of stupid commercials and a few good ones. Most of the time I ignored them. Although it was my hometown team playing, I was not especially interested in the Eagles. I've never been a big fan of the team even during the years I lived in Philly. I've only been to a few of their games in my life. It was always hard to get tickets and expensive back in the old stadium. I much rather liked going to baseball, basketball and hockey games. 

The half time show was the usual mess. Rihanna was good but not really interesting to me unless she did some soul music. Most of her performance was auto-tuned hip-hop pop with lots of fancy dancing. There were on other performers which was unusual for the super bowl. 

One of the things that bothered me about the game was the ongoing and continuous commercials promoting gambling and betting on sports games and football in particular. I've been very upset about the recent laws allowing sports gambling commercials on television and in particular the NFL's embracement of gambling to the point of partnering with these betting companies. I've always been very much against all forms of gambling since the experience of seeing what gambling addiction can do to people back in my Navy days. Since then I've avoided all manners of gambling and games of chance to point of even refusing to attend a concert at a casino because I will not support them in any way. So it pisses me off to see the NFL become part of the gambling problem. It's like we can't watch any professional sports games on TV anymore without being inundated with gambling commercials. The betting commercials throughout the game last night made it feel dirty and the controversial ending has fueled the fire of conspiracy theories that the game was rigged or at least influenced by the gambling companies and their bettors. 

I had been hoping that the Bills would have made it to the super bowl to play the Eagles. That would have been an interesting experience but was not to be.

The New World - Songs 1983 FV

Here is another set of music from my collection released in 1983. I was acquiring lots of new albums that year to play over at the Pastime Lounge. I was making lots of mixes back in those days... on cassettes of course. We were seeing lots of these bands perform too and some of them multiple times like U2 and R.E.M.

This mix runs a little over an hour and a half. Photo of X.

The New World - Songs 1983  FV

1. The New World – X
2. The Wall Came Down – The Call
3. New Year’s Day – U2
4. In A Big Country – Big Country
5. One Thing Leads To Another – The Fixx
6. Grey Victory – 10,000 Maniacs
7. Radio Free Europe – R.E.M.
8. Working With Fire And Steel – China Crises
9. China – Red Rockers
10. The Cutter – Echo & The Bunnymen
11. Song For A Future Generation – The B-52’s
12. Mad World – Tears For Fears
13. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry – Heaven 17
14. The Man Whose Head Expanded – The Fall
15. Swamp – Talking Heads
16. Cat People – David Bowie
17. Major Tom (Coming Home) – Peter Shelling
18. Tour de France – Kraftwerk
19. Clear Trails – Shriekback
20. Sitting At The Wheel – The Moody Blues

Mister Fix-It

Our father was a machine shop foreman. He was a great machinist and mechanic and could fix almost anything. I have lots of memories of Dad working on various appliances around the house. He was especially good at fixing the clothes washer and dryer and I often sat next to him handing him tools as he worked. He worked a lot of hours at his job and often needed to stay well into the second shift to make sure things were going well. Many times when he was finally home he would spend an hour on the phone talking the night shift foreman through some tricky problem at the shop. So Dad didn't always have a lot of time in the evenings and spent a lot of it fixing something around the house. Of course we had an old house with six kids running around and a couple of elderly people living there too. 

When I turned 16 I started working at his machine shop where I was a helper. He also took me over to Sears and bought me a toolbox and set of tools. I still have that toolbox. He wanted me to learn how to fix things too. Later I would be a machinist in the Navy working in the engine room but early on I was his helper around the house when he was fixing something. He was our Mister Fix-It.

The only thing we wouldn't touch was the television set. When something went wrong with it which seemed to be fairly often even after we got that first color TV around 1966. He had to call the TV repairman. We called that guy Mister Fix-It. He had a TV repair shop on Germantown Avenue a couple blocks away and he made house calls with his big toolbox that was mostly full of glass tubes. His special talent was knowing which tube to replace in our television.

It was ironic that we called someone else Mister Fix-It when it was Dad fixing everything around the house... except the TV. Now for us that was probably the most important thing in the house that needed fixing right away and we couldn't wait for Dad to come home from work. Mom had to call Mister Fix-It right away. For all us kids having the washer break or ever the refrigerator stop working was no where near a disaster as having the television not working when we got home from school which is probably why Mister Fix-It was so important and memorable to us. I can still remember that guy with his toolbox open on our living room floor while we anxiously waited for him to do his thing which mostly was putting that right tube into the right spot inside the TV.