Last sunset of July 2011

Memory Lane: Miss Martha Tilton

In the days of big bands, Martha was a famous vocalist with bands like Benny Goodman, and she sang songs like 'It's Only a Paper Moon'.

And speaking of Benny Goodman, here he is from an early part of his career, doing a tune called Clarinet Marmalade.

And Martha Tilton's husband, Jim Brooks, was a P-51 pilot in W.W.2, and here's a video of him and his restored P-51 - many years later. Gray Eagles P-51.

Lovely flower garden....

This may be the most colorful front garden in North Vancouver, and up close, it's a real delight to see. There's flowers here that will almost take your breath away.

No wonder the bees are attracted - so am I. This is lovely.

And how about these? Aren't they wonderful?

View on KatKam....

Our thanks to KatKam for another nice view from above the Burrard bridge looking westward. It's a nice summery day.
 

Let's revisit 1943 for a couple of minutes....

And while we're there, let's watch the Nicolas Brothers dancing with the Cab Calloway Orchestra doing the Jumpin' Jive.
 

Driveway paint-job....

The sign says "Terry's Driveway Sealing" and a phone number. They had the driveway repaired, and it left it two shades of black and gray, so this makes it all the same. 
 

Not a picture of Mars -

It's the inside of an eyeball - specifically, mine. The machine that takes these can display them on a computer screen in another room, and this is a picture of that other computer screen. The doctor says this looks OK and there's nothing showing that we should worry about. That white spot is the optic nerve, not the North Pole, and this isn't a picture of Mars, although there is some similarity.

 This one, on the other hand, really is Mars - and it is similar, except that the white spot on this one really is its North Pole, not its optic nerve....

Here's one from the Old Victrola.....

I'm trying to recall who is doing the singing here on My Blue Heaven with the Dukes of Dixieland.... and thanks to Google, I don't need a memory, which wouldn't have helped anyway, because this gal turns out to be Betty Owens, the wife of Fred Assunto, the trombone playing one of the two founding brothers of the band. She sounds a bit like Kay Starr or Brenda Lee, but she isn't either of those, of course. But it fooled me.... and she isn't 'The Singing Rage, Miss Patti Page' either. I wasn't even close..... but she sings nicely. And that mystery is now solved.

Now, something culturally significant - The Tubes

Who can forget the '80s? Remember The Tubes? You must remember a great tune like Wild Women of Wongo. Or that other classic Monkey Time, and let's not forget that other one, Drums. Ah, the good old days! Don't you really miss them? - No?

Remember the Dean Martin Show on the old tube?

Well, here's a reminder - and you really ought to check this out because The Duke, John Wayne himself, actually sings - yep! sings! 'Everybody Loves Somebody'.  And you thought you'd heard everything......
 

As the sun sinks slowly in the west.....

This has a little of everything..... so I took the picture.
 

Sunrise....

Just after 5:00 A.M. this morning. Looks like another nice day. Is it summer yet?
 

Sunset...

Sunrise ! And I can see it.....

 

Today's 'Question Everything' is: "Do two sunny days in a row make a summer?" - So far, so good.

Here's a vid with some familiar ah - er - um....faces - that's it - faces!

And if you watch closely, you'll see them, I betcha....So have a look!

While we're doing videos, here's another one - Betty Grable in 'Mother Wore Tights' doing 'You Do'. Back in 1947, they gave you an Oscar for things like this.

Today's video selection is Betty Grable and Dan Dailey....

They are a couple of my favorite entertainers from the 'good old days' and this may show you why..... 'I Love A New Yorker'

And have a peek at this one: ' I Wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate' 

Been to the bike shop....

A view of the showroom's selection of cruisers. The sport bikes are in a section on the other side of that wall to the left. And up in the front window in this picture is an old Kawasaki triple 500 H1 from around 1972 or so. There's a closer picture of it next here.

 Here's the old H1 in the front window, and Bryan the owner of the dealership says that it went like hell, but you couldn't hardly get it stopped, because the brakes on it were very poor. But in its day, it was the fastest street bike around. That's what probably started Kawasaki's reputation for its fast bikes. They're still fast today, and they're much better handling now. Today's bikes have more performance than anyone ought to try testing to its limits.

This evening's snow report.....

You'd never guess this was a color picture, would you? And we did get more snow than usual last winter, because we've still got some of it. This peak is usually bare by this time in the summer. Or maybe that's it - we haven't had summer yet. 
 

Today's music vid is Bernadette Peters ....

In 1981 Bernadette put out an album featuring some sexy cover art by the famous Alberto Vargas of Vargas Girls pinups fame showing her in a wispy black nightgown holding a hand mirror. I've turned one of those drawings into a nice wallpaper for the old computer. The second song on Side 1 of that LP is 'Broadway Baby' which Bernadette did in a rather subdued tone. Here's that song from a live show, and it isn't so subdued this time - 'Broadway Baby'.

Remember 'Bugsy Malone' ?

If you were around in 1976, you probably do. Polydor put out an LP of the music from it, done by its crew of young people, in their roles as older adults in this send-up of depression-era gangster movies. The kids did a great job of it too. Here's an example: 'My Name Is Tallulah' 

And here's one we can't miss - 'Tomorrow' 

And in case Tallulah looks familiar, she should - it's Jodie Foster. How 'bout that? She was about 14 at the time.

No sunshine, just promises

Adding to TC[Girl]'s list of Sun Songs.....

Let's not forget that old standard from the Roaring Twenties, 'At Sundown' - done here by Ruth Etting who was the inspiration for a Doris Day movie in the fifties called 'Love Me or Leave Me', which was the title of another of Ruth Etting's big hits in the 1920s and 1930s. I like the music from back then, because it had words we could understand and remember, and it had tunes we could whistle or sing along with, if we liked. And you didn't put your back out, trying to keep time to the music of them as a rule, unless of course you were into the Charleston or The Black Bottom, or something like The Tapioca.....( I love that tune!) But here is Ruthie, doing At Sundown. 

And while we're strolling down Memory Lane again, but thinking of our less than wonderful weather, here's 'The Clouds Will Soon Roll By' 

These oldies are so good, I can't hardly quit - so here's one more,  with another tune from that same 'Pennies From Heaven' movie of 1981, starring Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin. Its music was all authentic oldies from the Roaring Twenties, done by the original artists who first made it popular, and some of these are really classics. Here's 'Yes, Yes - My Baby Said Yes, Yes' and it really moves.

Here's a number with Bernadette Peters and the kids, from that same old movie, 'Pennies From Heaven' in a dream sequence: 'Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You'.

Dawn creeps over the hill, looking good.....

This was taken at about 5:08 A.M., looking northeast.

This was taken about ten minutes later, when I noticed it changing. I hope this means we will have a nice day. We're a few short this summer so far.

Summertime..... Ain't it grand?

And now for a little Homer and Jethro......

This one goes all the way back to 1949 - every chance it gets! To find out why, just give it a listen.....I've Got Tears In My Ears

Now aren't you glad you didn't miss that classic?  And you thought you'd heard everything, I betcha.

Adding a bit to this, it turns out that an unknown named Chet Atkins played electric guitar in the background on some of Homer and Jethro's recordings and this got him noticed as a performer in his own right, and got his records selling. Chet credits Homer and Jethro with giving him his start in the business. He later managed the recording studio for RCA in Nashville and gave others their first starts in show business, as well as becoming very famous himself with his guitar.

Stitches, but not sewing....

Fun with my photo editing program, Arcsoft's PhotoStudio.

Two words for music lovers: Xavier Cugat

If you were born about the time that Elvis The Pelvis got popular, you probably have never heard of Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra, and that's a shame, because he played a lot of happy music, and he also had some sexy gals up front doing the singing on some of them. And 'up front' was not just where they stood.... anyway here's a couple of examples of Cugie in action.

The Peanut Vendor 

Mambo No. 5 

Siboney

Enjoy the music, everyone!

One of my former fun spots

This is the upper part of the mountain at Marmot Basin near Jasper, Alberta, in the famous Canadian Rockies. From the top of it, you can see halfway to forever. It may not be as big or as popular as Whistler/Blackcomb, but it's a great place to ski or board and the scenery is breathtaking from up on top of it. Its prices are more reasonable than some of the others too. 

Now, for a little James Last -

The James Last Orchestra taking us back to the seventies - enjoy it, Folks!

A Duke Ellington tune, done by Steely Dan....

East St. Louis Toodle-oo is a seventies update of a tune made popular by the Duke away back when an orchestra didn't mean fifty guitars and some raggedy-assed kid trying to swallow a microphone. Ah, the Old Days!

A look at today's weather

Our thanks to KatKam for the use of this image this morning. You can find their website right here.

Today's Flowers, Part 2

Today's Flowers - part 1

My nice old bike....

....Is visiting Dr. Kawasaki today, for a transplant of the switch that controls the electric fan on the radiator, so it won't overheat when stuck in gridlock, and while there, it's also getting the valves adjusted, so all of those 137 horses can pull their own share going down the road. And it goes down the road quite nicely. 

Up on the hill coming down from Cypress Mountain there's one part of it with a straight stretch just long enough to test how straight the bike runs without any input from me - hands off the handlebars, in other words - and it goes down the road as straight as an arrow, unless I lean to one side or the other, and then it steers with 'body English' to one side or another. All of which tells me that its frame and alignment hasn't been bent out of shape by a major crash, and that's good news considering the bike is 22 years old this year.


In those 22 years, it has gone some 84,400 Km, or 52,497 miles, proving that it can be done. I've seen reports that these bikes have gone further than that by quite a lot too. Over a 100,000 Km isn't uncommon I'm told. And I hope to find out with mine....

Yesterday before sunrise.....

This was made from two shots which were combined using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor (I.C.E.) which you can get by clicking here.

President Obama should play this for the Republicans....

It's a great old tune sung here by Bing Crosby, and the visuals are something to see also..... 'Brother Can You Spare A Dime'

What do we think of the Shuttle Program?

There's a very good article in the L.A. Times by their former Science writer about all that, and it makes for interesting reading, because he was covering this since it first began. He gives us a quick summary of the whole thing, and you can find it by visiting the L.A. Times.

More help for Windows users - improve the memory use

I like hunting for 'freebies', and I find quite a few. Some I try and then throw back but others I keep and tell others about. This is one of the latter kind, and it's a little program that really doesn't do a whole lot by itself, but it makes Windows do a lot better job of managing the active memory - your RAM. 


How much difference does it make on a PC that's running Windows 7 Home Premium you ask.....and the answer is it reduces the usual RAM usage by nearly a gig, and that's quite a saving, especially if you don't have a large amount of it installed. Before I installed this program, I was using about 1,600 Mb of RAM for ordinary computer use. That's now down to about 800 Mb, so there's a significant reduction. For the download just click CleanMem 2.2.0 and then click the download button.

Vancouver Sunset

Our thanks again to KatKam for another lovely picture of English Bay and Burrard Inlet from the mouth of False Creek at the Burrard Street Bridge.
 

A little more Taco - just because....

Here's a short medley of golden oldies: 

Taco, from those disco days 

Today: - Take The 'A' Train......

You'll be glad you did....... 'Take The 'A' Train'
 

Puttin' On The Ritz - revisited

The other day, Tommy from New York and I were commenting on the old tune 'Puttin' On The Ritz' and he has his favorite, and me mine. So I thought maybe I should post mine, by Taco.......

'Puttin' On The Ritz'

  

Today's tune: Dardanella, and it moves...

'Dardanella'  

This ought to get your toes tapping....
 

Today's weather.....

It's a nice sunny day, light breezes, the 9th of July, full-on summer, and the temperature is only 64 degrees F. What were you saying about Global Warming?
 

End of an Era

This is wallpaper-sized if you'd like a copy - just click inside it to enlarge it and then save it to your own file.

I sent this image to an email pal back east who spends his winters in Florida and he was unimpressed. He said, "What have they done except build the space station and fix the Hubble telescope, and prove that man can survive in space as long as he has an earth-like environment?"

To which, I cheerfully replied that they've created lots of pollution with all those blast-offs, used up lots of non-renewable resources, and contributed for 30 years to the fantasy that we will one day 'conquer the stars' and zoom around the universe in our magical craft, spreading our self-destructive ways to untold new and possibly virgin worlds. But it ain't going to happen folks, because things out there are just spaced out too far apart for commuting between them at anything less than light speed, and to go that fast requires an infinite source of energy, which, fortunately, we don't have and will never get. So the planet you're standing or sitting on right now is the only one you're ever going to visit - get used to it.
And maybe think about taking better care of it.

Watch this video, Folks........it's like on Star Trek Voyager

3D Printer like a Star Trek 'Replicator'

This looks like the future has arrived, almost. Now, if we could only replicate more of that powder and binder as our spaceship approaches the planet Zenon, a small foreign planet in a solar system far, far away......

And before I forget my manners, a big 'thank you' to Uncle Ron in South Carolina for sending me the link to this video. Thanks, Ron - Live Long and Prosper!

Today, a real classic oldie....

'Summertime' with Louis and Ella.

I can't help wondering what George Gershwin might have thought of this version.
 

This should take our minds off the rain....

Ann Miller doing 'Too Darn Hot' .

So - How hard is it raining ?

Like a tall cow, peeing on a flat rock! It's bouncing back up about six inches.
 

Today's tune : The Old Piano Roll Blues

The Old Piano Roll Blues

Not the most popular version but it moves right along, so give it a try.
 

Yesterday's flowers

Tommy - This one's for you!

Here's a Golden Oldie of Satchmo and Der Bingle doing a couple of tunes with the Dukes of Dixieland, called Muskrat Ramble and then Sugar, and you can't get a whole bunch better than this: 
Bing, Satchmo, and the Dukes of Dixieland 

Turn up the volume and educate the neighbors on how real music sounds.

And here's one I just couldn't resist adding, about how jazz got going....

Bing and Louis on how to make jazz

Today's pictures - some of them....

I took this one, of the Whatchamacallits in bloom.....

And then Teri came along and said, 'No, no - you're doing it from the wrong side! It's the sunny side you should do it from...' - so she did it. Looks much better.

Here's another she took. She has an artsier eye than I do....

And here's Tami slaving away over a worn-out sprinkler head. One of our prize-winning gardeners here. We've known each other for over 30 years now.

Last but not least, some of our roses on the front lawn, looking good.

And let's not forget Dixieland......

'Down By The Riverside'  is a great example of Dixieland. Reminds me of a theme bar that used to be on Yonge Street in Toronto, with four different rooms each themed after a certain concept, and one was a Dixieland jazz spot where the music was always hot and lively, and the gals were always cute, and the booze was always the best.
 

Remember 'Puttin' On The Ritz' ?

If you do, then you're probably thinking of the Fred Estaire version on film, but this ain't it, Folks. This is one you can understand and enjoy, and the music's better. 'Puttin' On The Ritz'
 

Tonight's Moon

Today's Dance: The Hustle - remember it?

'Do The Hustle' - right now!

Put on your dancin' shoes, Kiddies, and fly at it.....

And now, here's the traditional instrumental of it....'The Hustle' 


Enjoy it, Everyone!

Old Kawasaki took the camera and I for a ride....

There's still some snow on the upper parts of the runs at Cypress Bowl.

 And they've got the Restaurant open daily for the summer  in the lodge.

 And the tourists are still enjoying the wonderful view from halfway up at the viewpoint.

 From which, we can see Mount Baker in Washington State, and just above those trees at the bottom and a bit to the left, those three high-rises are where Old Kawasaki calls home. It's been a grand afternoon. I loved it!
 

Meanwhile, back at the movies....

Please click on the links.....

'The Tapioca' from Thoroughly Modern Millie 

And this is a real dandy - Carol Channing in a rare appearance:

'Jazz Baby' - Carol Channing 

You can't hardly find this kind of stuff any more, so please enjoy!

Opening title song 'Thoroughly Modern Millie'

  

Nice Day - I have proof....