Category: All Posts

Saugerties salutes native son Joe Sinnott

The 4th of July parade in Saugerties, NY featured grand marshall Joe Sinnott. Joe served in WWII, enlisting in the Navy after his brother Jack was killed in France.

Joe is 84, and take a look at his perfect-as-ever finished ink art over Alex Saviuk’s pencils for yesterday’s Spider-Man comic strip. Joe has said that he thinks he hit his peak about 50 years ago, and he’s just stayed there. It’s no brag, it’s just fact!

Here’s an example of Joe’s supremely masterful and clean inking over Jack Kirby’s pencils for Fantastic Four #63, in 1967 (borrowed from Rob Steibel’s Kirby Dynamics blog). The notes in the margins were written by Jack, and those notes get into the extremely contentious subject, that’s currently being litigated, of who created the characters of the Marvel Comics universe.

Red Sox and the deathly innings

When we started watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 tonight, to get ready to see Part 2 this week, the Red Sox at Tampa Bay were in the sixth inning. The movie is two-and-a-half hours long, it’s over, and the game is in the 13th inning, still scoreless! Now they’re going to a 14th inning??

And now, inning 15! I don’t know when NESN stopped carrying the game, but they’re showing infomercials now. WEEI radio is hanging in, so maybe I will too, but it’s 1:15 AM! Fortunately, I’m taking tomorrow — I mean today — off from work.

Finally! Pedroia delivers in inning 16. Red Sox 1. But it’s not over yet, and it’s a quarter to 2!

Whew! It’s over. One nothing, Red Sox.

From matchsticks to margueritas

I love BBC Radio 2’s Sunday programme lineup, because it’s all over the place musically and the hosts are sincerely enthusiastic about their respective genres of interest. Today, Paul O’Grady, who’s all over the place all by himself, played an 80’s UK hit called Marguerita Time. I didn’t recognize the tune…

… but the name of the band, Status Quo, I knew from a psychedelic 60’s favourite, Pictures of Matchstick Men.

http://youtu.be/_kG-mU7wgW4

With fifteen years between the two songs, I wondered if it could be the same band, and the answer is yes, albeit with some personnel changes along the way.

Special Guest Post – D.F. Rogers on the groovy sounds of ’68

This is a message from Denro that I thought would make a good blog post.

I found a DVD while searching for something else and this was on it. I’ll search to see if more songs from it are on youtube.

Let’s travel back to 1968 with the Groove-meister himself, Ed Sullivan! This is a nice use of late 60s video effects – clever, colorful and uncluttered. A perfect slice of ’68 in sound and vision – “SO SIXTIES!” Ah….

http://youtu.be/69RWdwNgTPE

Warning – not the full selection – probably to stop from being pulled from youtu.be…

Oh, okay, this one was on the DVD, too.

Note prominent use of cowbell! Plus, they appear to be playing “live”, although the cowbell has a lot of echo. Where the heck are they playing???

http://youtu.be/niDmkXnWdVA

Hey, I can almost recreate the whole DVD!

The reason why The Union won the Civil War! Pastel Uniforms! Appears to be a “live” vocal with a pre-recorded backing track. Have to give the Sullivan show people credit for keeping the sets colorful and contemporary. We saw Gary Puckett – “live” – a “long” 18 years after this was made – which was a “short” 25 years ago.

http://youtu.be/1e3pl1kmkOA

Okay, I’m getting it all! This one is on there too – with a LIVE full band/orchestra – complete with a leader who is really into it. I’m hoping they leave the ending in – Ed Sullivan REALLY liked Tom Jones. Nuff said?

http://youtu.be/PUmi46hVh9U

D’oh! They clipped it! No Ed!!!

Hey, I’m doing it! Five for Five so far. Here’s another one. How was this not a #1 song? Dennis, what happened? I do think John Travolta borrowed his suit for SNF! Plus, there is only one Mike Love. Fresh from his stay in India [with the Beatles – dograt]!

http://youtu.be/8s5WCDcmGq4

One more to go from the 1968 portion…can I find it? Yes!

They cut out Ed’s introduction! Ed has some serious sideburns. It’s from a Jan 1969 show, when Crimson and Clover was #1, but they play “Mony Mony” – “just like the record.” Hmm, they also cut out Ed’s short conversation with Tommy, where Ed thinks he’s a local New York boy! Everyone knows he’s from Niles, Michigan. 😉

http://youtu.be/TV-kjJLvbhE

I guess I’ll have to bring the DVD over so you can see the full clips in all their 1968 Ed Sullivan Psychedelic Glory!

Shredding my past away

I got started on a major shredding project, getting rid of ancient bills, and of course my old, toy-quality shredder died. Most of the new models I looked at weren’t right for the space I have, then I found the Fellowes P-12C for $80 at BJ’s Warehouse.

Sorting old magazines and comic books takes a lot of time, because I end up reading and remembering, but I was surprised that old bank statements have something of the same effect on me. This is a summary of my checking and savings accounts in August, 1984.

The deposits included business travel reimbursements, because I didn’t have a company credit card. The savings account is interesting. I had less than $1500 (about $3200, adjusted for inflation) and on that I earned over $6 interest. My savings account is much more substantial now, but it doesn’t earn that much in a year, even unadjusted for inflation; but, as you can see, the gain in ’84 was offset by the monthly fee for the checking account.

Follow-up: The shredder died in 2019, having seen only occasional light use.