CYBERSPACE "SHOW AND TELL"...

...yet another way to needlessly take up space on the 'net...

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Lord have mercy! It's already the End Of August. I can't believe it. Long ago, I heard someone remark that as you get older, the days go by faster. Of course that's not true...is it? Labor Day's right around the corner, and it seems like just a few days ago it was July 4th. Someone stop this train! Wait, don't! It's supposedly better to stay alive than to consider the alternative...all of a sudden this paragraph is getting waay too analytical. I'll close this graph with a bit of philosophy courtesy of Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick...she said something along the lines of "Man is the only creature on Earth that knows he's gonna die, so he invented Heaven to keep himself from going crazy." THUD!!! Back to reality...
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Every musician these days, young, old or, like Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones (who should be dead, due to his drug intake level, but isn't), is represented on various websites, but Way Back When, before computers, many, many trees died to create the paper that Fan Club Newsletters were printed upon, stapled together, and postage paid, they winged their way to the enthusiastic faithful. How quaint that sounds. Old-school, even. The Beatles have legions of websites out there, but circa 1990 and before, this is how Fan Clubs got their message out:

Here's the "Write Thing", which originated in Minneapolis, which carried Beatles news way back when, even before John Lennon was killed. I came into possession of about four YEARS' worth of quarterly-published newsletters, which also featured ads from record stores, collectors' groups and other business ventures. Now, the internet makes everything so easy to find, but way back in the dinosaur days, this is How You Became Aware. Once, I saw an ad in "Rolling Stone" Magazine placed by a record store in Berkeley, California, and I ordered, by mail, an item on their 'for sale' list, and about a month later, it arrived. As I recall, it was an album by Brian Auger & The Trinity. Received by Snail Mail. Maybe the next new invention will be a computer that, once you've placed your order and given out your credit card number, the item will be Instantly Teleported to A Location Near You. That would be kinda cool, huh? Same-day Service!

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Did you ever join some kind of fan club...waiting days and days for the mail to arrive with all the neat goodies you'd bought? Back in the day, getting the info out, even on a semi-regular basis, took a whole lot of work. Back in the day when a Computer was the size of a Sherman Tank. Well, courtesy of my fractured brain, we Revisit The Past with More Beatles-Newsletter fotoz...

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Included with all the newsletters, were various pages authored by The Beatles' Fan Club, telling you how you could start your Very Own Chapter! Among the pages (above) was a (duplicated) handwritten page with The Fabs' Signatures which would be sent out to everyone who joined. Wow, huh? These pages were originated way back in the '60s, and the second page above is about as close as I'll ever get to having Genuine Beatles' Signatures.

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I've been getting into some music from the 1930's lately, which probably would've been impossible without the internet. I've been collecting records by Miss Lee Morse (see left side of this blog for more on her), and along the way, I've run into others who dig those early sounds. One lady told me about Al Bowlly, who was a huge star back around 1927-1930, so I went over to YouTube.com and heard a couple clips of him, and he's sounds okay. Now here's where the serendipity happens; while shopping at the local Goodwill, I found 5 ALBUMS of Al with the Ray Noble Orchestra. I now have 80 songs by Al Bowlly in my collection. I'm finding that I enjoy the 'lightness' of the '20s and '30s records as compared to the 1940's which were more lush and very serious. Mr. Bowlly was an Englishman, and so was Ray Noble, but Bowlly became hugely popular in the States, and he resided here for a couple of years. He returned to Britain in the late '30s, and in 1941, he was killed in one of WWII's London air-raid bombs. But as they say, the music lives on.

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While delving into Craigslist, I ran across something I never knew Existed. Well, I'd never thought about it, anyway. I was surfing in C-L's 'Pets' category, and there it was. "FerretSheen", a shampoo for Ferrets. You know, it looks suspiciously like Herbal Essence Shampoo. Maybe an added bonus of using Ferret Shampoo is that you'll never come down with rabies or dysentery? Finally, I cannot think of the word "Ferret" without thinking back to the days of the M*A*S*H TV program, when Major Margaret Hoolihan would call her wimpy love interest, Major Frank Burns, "Ferret Face". Well, he had no chin to speak of, what can I say?

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Now, Into The Outdoors we go. What you see here is my trusty old Yamaha Guitar, that I've had since the Mid-'80s. It was dinged up and scarred when I bought it, so I didn't have the added pressure of trying to keep it scratchless and all new-looking. I'm proud of the fact that it's never been back in the pawnshop since. And I've had experience with musical instruments and pawn shop owners. It's never fun when you've got an instrument in pawn. I have a rhythm machine that I used to pawn regularly. Bring instrument in, get money for it, bail it out later and pay more money than you received when you first took instrument in. Anyway, my guitar is pointing oceanward; I like to sit in the beach grass and not have to worry if I hit bad notes (and I hit more than my share); the only ones who listen with any regularity are the seagulls. And we know how sophisticated THEY are. Squawk!

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I haven't been to the beach as much as usual this year. It's been a weird summer down here on the O-Coast...It's been foggy and really drizzle-ly a lot lately. But every now and then Ma Nature decides she's gonna open the window and let the world see what she is up to. Many times Ocean Sunsets get obscured by layers of clouds, but not on this particular evening...

Not a cloud in sight. First, an overall view, and then a close-up. The Sun is slipping, slipping, slipping. The birds head home to wherever they go at night, little fishing boats try to get in before nightfall, and we all have the promise that this Lucky Old Sun will rise once again tomorrow, to Roll Around Heaven some more.

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Just a pinch of sunlight in this next photo; I've seen photos others have taken doing this, so I did my version. I guess you could say I've got the world (or at least the sun) at my fingertips here. I probably also have too much time on my hands, but that's another matter altogether. This was one of those "perfect sunsets" where the sun looks virtually atomic as it sinks below the horizon.

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And, Here Comes The Moon. You know how big the Moon gets when it first rises, due to the earth's atmosphere acting like an out-of-control lens? I wanna see it set over the Ocean. Will the Moon double its size as it sets over the Horizon? Anyway, I had thot, quite a while ago, that Nights are just Darker than they used to be. And I've read that as a person ages, their eyes don't soak in as much of what little light there is at night. Great. Now, visually speaking, I'm an old Geezer.

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I don't listen to Opera. I can't take it. My dad once told me that All Operas are sung in Italian, except in Italy, where they're sung in French. Those opera voices can peel paint. The warbling vibratos of Opera Singers' Voices elevate my blood pressure and make me dizzy. I've seen albums which came out in the '50s, such as "Opera for those who can't stand opera"...yeah, right, like I'll be converted and feel I've got to have every Arthur Fiedler Orchestra record. NOT! Well, we all know that "It's Not Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings", but this next little item promises to cruise by without needless vocal hysteria, so I proudly present...
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"Opera Without Singing"!!! Now, you, too, can TURN IT UP to full-volume and not have to worry about your precious collection of empty Avon bottles shatter while the music's playing. I just can't listen to classical music At All. Maybe I'll give this disc a shot, though, and actually take the record out of the sleeve and play it. I may have to get drunk first. Wait, I don't drink anymore...

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Well, crimestoppers, that was certainly fun, wasn't it? I said, WASN'T IT??? I keep thinking that, hey, I can do a photo-post because it won't take as long as a standard post. Well, I'm right except for the fact that Photo-posts take Three Times As Long. The typewritten copy never comes out all neatly arranged as The Finished Blog. But at least I got to check in one more time before the Month of August actually ends. See you in September...la la laaaaaa...(is that the fat lady trying to sing?).