Take me where my future's lyin'

Yes kids, life really was a little bit like St. Elmo's Fire, back in the day...
The future was so bright, we should have been wearing shades:
Christmas 1984
I've been unfairly compared in this picture with Jack Torrance at the end of The Shining, right?

Wait a minute. I blew it up (so it's blurry) and just noticed this....

"Century's End"

I just Netflixed what was at one time a favorite movie of mine, Bright Lights, Big City, but is in hindsight probably a better book. While the appeal of the movie has considerably faded for me, the soundtrack has sort of held up. In addition to a couple of what were no doubt NYC club scene mainstays around the time (mid-80s) the events of the film take place, "Pump Up The Volume" and "True Faith," there is a rather obscure Prince tune from his "mysterious" Crystal Ball album and Bryan Ferry's "Kiss and Tell." But for me, the real stand out is Donald Fagen's "Century's End." Sounding like an outtake from one of my favorite albums of all time, his 1982 masterpiece, The Nightfly, hearing "Century's End" is like seeing an old friend again.

A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

Cover by Nick Volpe
From Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art by Will Friedwald:

Old-fashionedness was exactly what Sinatra and Voyle Gilmore (Sinatra's Capitol Records producer) were looking for when they assigned Jenkins the task of orchestrating A Jolly Christmas with Frank Sinatra. The twelve tracks on this seasonal set fairly hang from the chimney with simplicity. That's because Jenkins has chosen to wait before letting his cat of high, moaning strings out of his Santa sack. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" contains the sole discernible glimmer of the patented Jenkins string sound, and even there it's audible only for a brief instrumental passage.

Christina (Tina), Frank, and Frank, Jr.
Intriguingly, the most distinctive chart is the least Jenkinsy of them all: the opening "Jingle Bells" commences with the chorus cooing a jivey "Rag Mop" version of the ancient tune, over which Sinatra swings lightly and politely.

Whether he's tossing off references to "baby" or "Jack" with Billy May or ever so sincerely intoning "Merry Christmas" at the end of Sammy Cahn's "Christmas Waltz," Sinatra is never less than convincing. He even seems to have talked himself into believing that it was really Christmas--after the third and final date. Sinatra traded in his "ring-a-ding ding" for a "ho! ho! ho!" when he threw a Christmas party for the musicians, chorus, and engineers in the middle of July. (pp. 337, 338)

My two cents worth and humble onion is, even I, a committed Sinatra-phile, have a difficult time taking him seriously on several of these. It's particularly hard to accept him singing some of the more "sacred," almost hymn-like, things such as "Silent Night," "Adeste Fidles," or "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem," especially knowing as much about his private life and personal philosophy as I do. But, I absolutely adore a few of them, particularly "Mistletoe and Holly" and especially "The Christmas Waltz" (man, that's pretty). Enjoy:


Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas
may your every New Year dream come true!

Rebirth of The Kay

Another old, single-screen movie theater has been reborn, this one being the Kay, in Rockdale, Texas.

Three years ago:


A week ago:

"Bright Lights, Big City"

Jimmy Reed

Impressions: Carlsbad, New Mexico

Hello, my little lovely:



Saving the best for last, a Streamline/Art Deco, former car showroom:

"Cast Your Fate to the Wind"

Great piece this past weekend on Weekend Edition Saturday about Vince Guaraldi, and how he got the "Charlie Brown gig":

...filmmaker Lee Mendelson was looking to make a documentary about Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. One day, Mendelson was traveling across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and heard Guaraldi's minor hit "Cast Your Fate To The Wind."

On what some consider to be Guaraldi's best jazz recording, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" earned the composer/musician a Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963. Another thing I learned from the NPR program is Guaraldi was nicknamed "Dr. Funk" (haha):


Mr. Dr. Funk