This is walto.com

Month: March 2009

  • My Very Last Vinyl Album

    I would imagine that, for those of us who are old enough to have been alive when vinyl LPs were the medium of delivery for new music, anyone who actually purchased vinyl LPs can remember exactly which album it was that was the very first purchase. I do.

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    For a couple of years in the mid 1970’s I was a huge Elton John fan. I lived, breathed, ate and slept Elton John. I was a member of the Elton John fan club. It was in late 1974, and Elton John’s Greatest Hits had just been released, and I remember standing in the record department of the Big C in Fairless Hills, nearly ready to make my first album purchase… and when it came time to make the decision on which album I would buy, I decided on Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and I have never regretted that decision.
    Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale
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    I’m also pretty certain that all of us can remember our very first CD purchase; mine was in 1986, shortly after I purchased my Sony CDP-11 CD player for something like $350. Actually, I bought two CDs at the same time: Peter Gabriel’s So, and Paul Simon’s Graceland. I had already So in my collection of LPs, but the CD offered a bonus track with Laurie Anderson, This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds).
    Peter Gabriel - So Paul Simon - Graceland
    I remember the guy in the stereo store telling me how the best selling CD at the time was Primitive Love by Miami Sound Machine, because of the way the horn section on Conga sounded so great in CD clarity. I wasn’t buying it.
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    Here’s where I am going with this post – as I metioned a few days ago, I’ve been listing to The Decemberists The Hazards Of Love a lot recently, and I happened to notice from their web site that they are offering a duo-gatefold vinyl LP version of this album. This gave me pause to think: what was the very last vinyl LP I bought? I’m not talking about the stuff I might have picked up in a bargain bin somewhere or at a garage sale, I’m talking about something that at the time was a new release, purchased in a record store. Something that was offered in the CD format, but I made the deliberate choice to buy the vinyl LP. I’m not really sure at all, but I took a look at my LP collection, and based upon the release dates, I’m thinking it was either Joe Jackson’s Will Power, or Go West’s Dancing On The Couch, both released in 1987. What I find interesting is that I have since purchased Fulfillingness’ First Finale on CD, and listened to it just the other day, while I do not have digital copies of Will Power or Dancing On The Couch (although I do have The King Is Dead, which I do listen to occasionally.)
    Go West - Dancing On The Couch Joe Jackson - Will Power
    I’d be curious to know of anyone else’s final vinyl LP purchase…

  • Morning Drive to B-MS

    I had decided one morning, nearly 7 years ago, to mount my videocamera on my dashboard and film my morning drive to work. It is usually a one hour drive, but this particular morning in November 2002 traffic was especially light, and the trip completed in only 50 minutes.

    Still, that would be much to long a video to post up to this blog, so here is the condensed version, sped up by 500%.

    Watch it below or click here.

  • Head Cold

    Ugh – the sore throat from a few weeks or so ago has simply refused to go away, and has now blossomed into a full blown head cold. I took the day off from work yesterday to medicate, hydrate and rest; back at work today, I felt even worse than yesterday! It would be so nice to take the day off again tomorrow, but I’ve really got too damn much to finish up at work that will only pile up otherwise.

    Another birthday weekend – the lovely E-A turns 42 on Sunday – we’re celebrating with tickets to the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark for an evening of Broadway tunes with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. Gotta love a good Broadway tune…

  • Every Father's Dream

    Pride comes in many forms. As a father of two remarkable children, I’ve been fortunate to share in so many astonishing and proud moments in my kids’ still-young lives, and can only imagine the things yet to come as my children continue to grow and learn and inspire. To watch one’s children grow and develop into genuinely good, self-confident men and women should be an experience with which all parents should be graced, and I am quite certain that Bubs and MizBubs are beaming with pride as their eldest embarks on her career as a horror-movie makeup artist. I truly, truly mean that in a very good way.

    That being said, why oh why am I not at all surprised here…? Seriously, to anyone who knows Bubs now, or ever knew Bubs, say, 30 years ago, it should come as no surprise that his progeny is following in the footsteps of dear old Dad’s love of the horror genre. Not that there’s anything wrong with this at all, mind you, but it certainly is no surprise!

    Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s my bit to promote one half of the O’Sullivan girlies’ attempt to win fame and fortune in Hollywood as the next Fangoria Spooksmodel, and to maybe pick up a marker from Bubs for some free drinks someday. You never know when that will come in handy.

    So, as they say in Philadelphia, vote early and vote often, You know, deep down in your heart, that Nurse Nora is the best of the best.

    clipped from sprawlingramshacklecompound.blogspot.com

    Horror’s Girl Next Door
    Listen up, dear readers–our eldest Nora is a semifinalist in the Fangoria Spooksmodel contest and she needs your help!Nora is competing against quite a few professional models with some pretty slick photo spreads. A few of the girls (and I mean this with no disrespect whatsoever) look like budding alt-porn starlets, and they show a bit of skin. Nora, on the other hand, is the wholesome girl-next-door of horror. Proof that gore-soaked splatter movies are really good old-fashioned family fun. That’s our girl. The top 13 contestants get to go to the finals in Los Angeles. And, as a maniacal stage father, I’m dying to take a trip to L.A.
    So start voting. Click on this link here, and scroll down until you see Nora in her evil nurse costume. Here’s a special offer–anyone who features Nora on their blog will be the happy recipient of free alcoholic drinks the next time I see you in person. Promote Nora on your blog, and let Bubs help you get your drink on for free.

  • The Hazards of Love

    It has been quite the long time since I’ve been this entusiastic about some new music, but the new release by The Decemberists, The Hazards Of Love, has been playing non-stop on the iPod for the past two days.  I first heard the haunting track The Rake’s Song on this past Friday morning’s drive to work on WXPN, (click here for the day’s playlist – esp. the 8:00AM – 9:00AM slot… Look! there’s Feist in the 9:00AM – 10:00AM hour!) and it stuck in my head all day.

    Yesterday, I downloaded the album from iTunes (I hate iTunes, btw…)

  • Lean Six Sigma

    Sat through an all day training session on lean six sigma today.  I was not so much looking forwrd to this, as I really thought it would be dry dry dry… but it was surprisingly quite a fun session.

    I am so looking forward to the weekend – not that I have any big plans, but I’m just want to be able to sleep in until sometime later than 7:30 for a change.  Miss K. is the early riser, and loves to climb into our bed and under the covers just about every morning.  I’m getting <yawn> sleepy now just thinking about sleeping in… I’m going to bed now!

  • Quote for the Day

    new_gravatar

    Anyone can tell their story, but an artist will make it a story worth telling.

    Damn, this is good.  Sometimes I wonder how I keep from going under.

    While you’re here, be sure to check out my new gravatar.  It is much older, grayer me.   Times change, and so do I.

  • The Birthday Girl

    img00093-20090315-1014_edited-11Miss K. celebrates her 3rd birth day today!  She’s been anticipating this day all week… she would ask if “tomorrow, when the sun pops out, will it be my birthday?”

    Today was finally the day.  She celebrated with her friends at school yesterday, and today we hosted a party with her cousins: 7 kids between the ages of 1 1/2 to 8, running amok around my house… I need a drink.

  • I Married The Eiffel Tower

    I Married The Eiffel Tower

    OK, I also know I vowed not to be a re-publisher of content found at other Internet sites, but this one has been consuming my thoughts for the past few days.  At lunch the other day, a co-worker was talking up that morning’s Howard Stern show; the show was “discussing” for lack of a better word a BBC documentary on persons with a very rare condition: objectum-sexuals whereby the afflicted fall in love with inanimate objects, and not the kind that you might necessarily be thinking of… we’re talking about things like The Golden Gate bridge… The Berlin Wall… a high-powered compound archery bow… and the object that gives the film its name I Married The Eiffel Tower.  I was compelled to find this film on YouTube, and was absolutely mesmerized by this film (it’s available in several parts – I don’t have a link to point to just yet, but I’m sure you can find it yourself if you search YouTube for the movie title.)  The main character of the film is a woman, about my own age, who seems completely normal, coherent, etc., … I would never be able to tell by looking at or listening to her that she’s got this condition, but wow!  Anyway, if you’ve got the time, I suggest you take a look – again, I found it very, very compelling.

  • We’ve Got Hamentaschen!

    hamentaschen

    Once again this year, the Hamentaschen fairy has delivered a batch of freshly baked hamentaschen to my desk at work, in celebration of Purim… thanks so much to Mr. and Mrs. Clark for making these fresh baked goodies possible.

    Wondering about hamentaschen and Purim? Click here for more info.

  • Where on Earth Have I Been?

    OK, so I vowed to be more prolific in 2009, to write more frequently, to be forward-looking, etc…  So where have I been for the past month?  Let’s just say,things have been, um. busy…  Yeah, it’s not much of an excuse, but take it for what it is…

    Anyway, now that I’ve got a few minutes, let’s catch up, shall we?  The weather around here is finally getting warmer, although it’s been a bit overcast/drizzly for the past three days, which kind of stinks.  I’ve already mentioned that I’m not a big fan of this Daylight Savings Time thing.  I do appreciated it around June 22nd or so, but the loss of an hour’s sleep, on a night when I’m already up until 2:00AM, does some serious damage to my well being and peace of mind, i.e., I get cranky.

    At this rate, I may be cranky all the way through the 1st Sunday in November, when I get my hour sleep back.

    What’s been going on?  Not too much, really.  Things tend to slow down around here in the Winter, and it’s been pretty much the get-up-go-to-work-do-some-work-come-home-do-stuff-go-to-bed syndrome.  March is when things start to warm up, the crocuses and snowdrops start to bloom, and the grape hyacinths, mini-daffodils and tulips start to push their heads through the soil.  The house gets cooler, since the thermostat doesn’t need to regulate the daytime temperatures as much, and the windows start to open to the first warm breezes of Spring.

    W. made his first reconciliation on 02/21, in preparation for his first Holy Communion on May 9 (which leaves plenty of time to commit a few more sins…)

    W. and I had a Cub Scout sleepover at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City… All of the packs in the Patriots Path council had the museum to themselves from 6:00PM 02/28 through 9:00AM 03/01.  We slept in our sleeping bags on the floor of the Breakthroughs exhibit (albeit lights out was at 11:30PM – lights on at 6:30, so maybe I got 4 hours sleep??) which was a unique experience, to say the least.  All in all, it was a fun time. 

    March is also the birthday month – both K. (on 03/14) and Mom (on 03/29) will be turning the page on another year…

  • I hate Daylight Savings Time

    I’m not the morning person, so this waking up in the dark is simply not helping things this morning…

    Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry