To T or Not To T. To I or Not To I. Those Are The Questions.

I have been a customer with Verizon for over 20 years. I have stayed with them because I knew that if I was traveling I would have a good signal. When I was DJing, I had their Jetpack which allowed me to use internet to download songs if I had to. Today, I rarely travel far and I no longer DJ. I had to really look at things.

I won’t go into my financial situation, but it recently became clear that we had to cut back a little. We have been paying about $250 for my phone and my wife’s phone. We also pay for a line for her Apple Watch. My mother and father-in-law have four phones on their plan (maybe with AT&T?) and pay about $100. So I began the search.

You would think that if you’ve been with a carrier for as long as I have that there would be some incentive to stay with them. Every time we get a new phone or the bill creeps up, I call Verizon. I tell them what I need and they may be able to bring the bill down a bit, but over time it begins to creep back up again.

T-Mobile’s coverage has increased a lot since they took over Sprint or whatever other carrier they merged with. They have a couple plans to choose from, and even their most expensive one is considerably less than what we pay at Verizon. I guess it helps that I am 55, because they have a 55+ plan. I will make a decision by the end of the day today, but it seems like we will make the switch. With that switch comes another issue.

I have been an Android user for what seems like forever. I have never had issues with it. I have things backed up to my Google account and on the Verizon Cloud (I suppose I will have to grab all of that if I switch). I always felt like it was easier to use than an iPhone. My wife has been bugging me to get an iPhone since we got married. I guess primarily for Facetime. I have no issue using Google Meet or even Facebook Messenger for video calls now, but she likes Facetime.

If we switch to T-Mobile, I can get an iPhone 17 for free. My wife would get an upgrade to the same phone for nothing (as long as she trades in her current iPhone). One of the things I love about my Android phone is that it seems to take better pictures than the iPhone (even my wife has said that). I like how quick I can edit photos with it, too.

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I do not do good with change. Even though I have worked through a lot of it over the last 8 years, it just is not easy for me. I am a creature of habit and I worry about not having the familiarity that I have with my current phone. Every time I have ever had to do something on my wife’s phone, I end up having to hand it to her because I have no idea how to navigate it.

I have the guy from T-Mobile calling me back this evening to finalize things, should the switch be what happens. I guess I really need to think about this.

Tune Tuesday – Jerome Kern

Born on this day 141 years ago, one of the great contributors to the Great American Songbook – Jerome Kern. He was born January 27, 1885.

Jerome Kern was one of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century. He wrote more than 700 songs that were used in over 100 stage works.

Wikipedia states:

A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejected, earlier musical theatre tradition. He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals. Although dozens of Kern’s musicals and musical films were hits, only Show Boat is now regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently performed and adapted. Many of Kern’s songs have been adapted by jazz musicians to become standard tunes.

Among the songs he wrote were: Look For the Silver Lining, Ol’ Man River, The Last Time I Saw Paris, I Won’t Dance, and All The Things You Are. To celebrate his birthday, I’d like to present some of my favorite Jerome Kern compositions and my favorite versions of them.

First, written for the 1933 musical comedy “Roberta,” here are The Platters with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes:

From the 1936 film Swing Time, here is Frank Sinatra with The Way You Look Tonight:

Again from the 1933 musical comedy Roberta, here are Jane Monheit and Michael Buble’ with I Won’t Dance:

You cannot go wrong with Ella Fitzgerald. Here is Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Kern! Thanks for the music!

Enter Year Nine

This week I was informed of another blogging milestone!

8 years ago, I created this blog for a couple reasons. First, I needed a place to vent my frustrations during a very trying time in my life. Second, I wanted to start getting stories and memories somewhere in writing.

Over the years, I’ve shared personal things both good and bad. I opened up about dark days and the woman who changed it all for me. I shared the anticipation of babies on the way and observations from parenting as an older adult.

I found many blogs that shared my love for movies, television, music, and books. I’ve become friends with many of the bloggers from those sites, and contributed pieces for them and vice versa.

After eight years, I’ve kind of found a groove. I think (maybe I’m wrong) there’s a nice balance between life stories, music, books, and random silliness. I like that I have flexibility to change things up every once in a while too.

As far as growth, I don’t have a ton of followers, probably less than 500. That’s fine with me, I never really thought that that many people would be interested in what I have to say. It’s never been a goal or a way to measure the success of this blog. If subscribers come, I welcome them. If subscribers leave, it doesn’t hurt my feelings. The blog has always been for me, and I can’t force people to read it.

I’ve never had a button to “buy me a coffee” although, I can never get enough coffee. I’ve also never had anyone gift me a subscription. Times are tough and we’re all struggling to stay in the black. I hope to never get to the point where I need a Go Fund Me page.

I’m just here because I love to write and I hope to bring laughter, joy, and pleasant memories to readers. If I can do that, then I’m doing exactly what I hope for.

To those who have been with me since the beginning, I’m glad you are still here! To newer subscribers, I’m glad you are here, too. I can’t wait to get to know you better.

Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to make my blog more enjoyable or interesting to you. I look forward to what year nine has in store.

Movie Music Monday – The Color of Money

Born today in 1925, the legendary Paul Newman. He was in so many great movies. One of my favorites was the 1961 film The Hustler. Newman played “Fast Eddie” Felson who is a small time pool hustler who challenges Minnesota Fats played by Jackie Gleason. He would reprise that role again 25 years later in The Color of Money.

In the sequel, “Fast Eddie” isn’t as fast as he used to be. He has given up the game and is now a liquor salesman. He comes across a guy who is a skillful pool player and approaches him and his girlfriend and tells them they’d be pretty good at hustling. The trio then head out for six weeks of travel and hustling.

The soundtrack of the film is filled with great music from Willie Dixon, Robert Palmer, BB King, Don Henley, Robbie Robertson, Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. It has a very bluesy feel to it which fits the feel of the film. One of my favorite tracks is It’s In the Way That You Use It by Clapton.

(From Songfacts.com) Clapton wrote this with Robbie Robertson, whose work with The Band in the ’60s encouraged Clapton to get away from the long, heavy solos he was playing with Cream. Robertson was in charge of the music for The Color Of Money, but because he was not finished with his first solo album, his record company would not let him sing on any of the songs. He got around it by contributing instrumental songs to the soundtrack.

Billboard magazine called the tune a “neatly executed rocker [that] strongly recalls his mid-’70s.”

Here is the song, with some clips from the film featuring birthday boy, Paul Newman:

Shake Your Pom Pom

Friday night, Ella made her debut as a cheerleader. Their group of gals cheered at a basketball game. At the beginning of the game, they dimmed the lights and introduced the cheerleaders and the teams. The girls made a “tunnel” that the players ran through as they shook their pom poms in the air.

Before the game, I waiting with her as the team gathered. After taking a selfie with her, she said she had an idea for a pose. She gave me “hair” and that is funny enough, but her face in this pic is priceless.

In total, I think the girls have learned four cheers. One of them is a variation of one our high school cheerleaders used to do. It is a call and response cheer. “When we say fire, you say up” “Fire!” “Up!” I was not about to let the lame crowd ruin their cheer…so I made sure to yell, “up” as loud as I could. Now we weren’t that far from them, so after they finish the cheer, I can hear Ella say to her teammate, “That’s my dad. He’s loud!”

She did such an amazing job. I took a few videos, but the crowd noise drowned them out.

Andrew caught Sam and I both off guard. At the beginning of the game, they played the national anthem. I took off my hat and placed my hand over my heart, as did everyone. In the middle of the song, Andrew asks why we are standing. Sam says “This is how we honor America” or something to that effect. As the anthem is about to end, he asks in all seriousness, “What if someone doesn’t like America?” That kid is always thinking!

He can make some great faces, too. His teachers posted a few pictures from their classroom recently. Andrew is working on spelling his name. He was spelling it out with what looked like those magnetic letters. This cracked me up.

There is never a shortage of material to blog about as long as these two keep it up.

Turntable Talk #45 -“That’s New”

This is the 45th Turntable Talk that I have been lucky enough to participate in. Thanks again to Dave from A Sound Day for offering up a new and interesting topic each month. I am happy to see new contributors and always look forward to reading everyone’s post.

Since this month kicked off a new year, Dave’s topic is “That’s New.” His instructions to us were to “dig back into your memories and recall one artist you heard that was unknown to you but made you instantly react with a ‘Wow! That’s good!’ . It might be someone you discovered as a kid, could be someone you just found out about this month, could be a first release or could be some old, established artist you didn’t know about… just something that was new and exciting to you.”

Ask any Texan who Lyle Lovett is and they’ll know all about him. However, for a 19 year old kid from Michigan, I didn’t know him from Adam. He began his career as a singer-songwriter and became very popular as an acoustic artist in Texas. After sitting in with a house band (David Sloan and the Rogues), he began to appreciate how songs could sound with more musicians playing.

Sloan liked what he heard and offered Lyle some time to record in his studio. He recorded almost 20 songs, some of which wound up on a demo tape that led to his first record deal. He released his first album (Lyle Lovett) in 1986 on MCA Records. He second (Pontiac) was released in 1987. It was his third album, however, which caught my ear.

Lyle is primarily associated with country music, but there is much more to him than that. His music will often incorporate R&B, Swing, Jazz, Gospel, Folk, and Blues music. His third album (Lyle Lovett and His Large Band) actually has a bit of a big band sound on some tracks. It is that sound that led me to buy the album.

It was 1989. I had been at the local record store looking through the albums. I recall their being a turntable (and later a CD player) near the cashier where they played new music. They’d put the album on a wooden podium under a “Now Playing” sign. They had just put on Lyle’s album and the opening track, “The Blues Walk” started. I immediately stopped and listened. It was a saxophone heavy groove that led into a swinging jazzy instrumental. It reminded me of music that might play as an announcer presented the main artist of the evening at a concert.

I found out later on that the song was actually a hit for trumpeter Clifford Brown and Max Roach. I love the sound of a group of saxophones playing in unison then breaking into harmony. I really loved this tune. But I thought, “Should I spend money on the album for just one song?” The next song started and I remembered that they were playing the whole thing.

The next song, if you want to call it that, features Lyle speaking ridiculous thoughts, much like “Deep Thoughts” from SNL. Each spoken part is followed by a bluesy/gospel chorus. It was bizarre and cool at the same time.

After hearing that, I didn’t know what to think. It was just so … out there. But immediately after that, “Cryin’ Shame” was the next cut and I was hooked. It was a swingy/bluesy/gospel cut that sealed the deal.

I grabbed a copy of the album and took it home. It would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance that year. I had to laugh at the review from the New Yorker:

“Lovett reveals his weird splendor in a schizophrenic jumble of smoky jazz and twangy country that revives whole swaths of neglected popular American music.”

That album was my introduction to Lyle Lovett. He was so cool he would be mentioned in Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I Feel Lucky,” and would go on to act in some big movies, including Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He would pop up on TV as well in shows like Mad About You, Dharma and Greg, and recently on Blue Bloods.

Since 1989, I have grown to appreciate Lyle as an actor and musician. For me, his music kept me guessing. I wondered what was next and found myself surprised at what I heard. He has recorded a dozen albums and is out touring right now.

In 2006, Esquire magazine said of Lovett: “The secret of Lyle Lovett’s endurance comes down to the three C’s: class, charisma, and consistency… In the studio and on stage with his giant orchestra, he’s spent two decades gracefully matching genuine songcraft with A-list musicianship” I think that sums him up nicely.

I want to thank Dave for once again hosting this feature and inviting me to take part. I can’t wait to hear what we’ll be writing about next month.

Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.

Book Recommendation – Not Quite Dead Yet

When I listen to an audiobook, I use the Libby or Hoopla apps in my car. Most of the time I will go to my Goodreads “Want to Read” list and search the apps for what is available. One thing that I have noticed is many of the recommendations on all of the apps are the same. I will see some of the same books popping up on them. I also see them being recommended by other bloggers.

One of those books that seemed to come up a lot was Not Quite Dead Yet By Holly Jackson. It has been on my “to be read” list for a bit. My wife read it and said I needed to read it next.

I won’t lie, sometimes I worry about reading a book that has a lot of hype. When it is all hyped up and it is good, it’s no big deal, but if it is hyped up and is a let down, it bugs me. I am happy to say that this one did live up to the hype.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

A twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.

It was a unique murder mystery because the dead person wasn’t dead yet. We follow her from the night she is attacked through the week that follows. The police are running their own investigation, but it is not fast enough for Jet. So she sets off to do her own investigation.

The hardest part of the book for me to swallow was how much she is able to do after being injured. I even asked my wife, “How is she able to do this and that when she had that head injury?” She told me, “Well, she is a very strong and determined woman driven by the need to solve the crime.”

That didn’t deter me from finishing the book. As she goes through the week, there are things that begin to happen to her body that lets you know her time is almost up. So, I guess it’s not like she is Super Woman.

The book has many twists to it. It is one that has you believing one person did it, and then makes you think someone else did it, and then pulls the rug out from under you. I had a hunch, but kept ruling out who I thought it might be the more I read. I was totally wrong and surprised at the end.

Worth the read. Lived up to the hype.

4 out of 5 stars

Friday Photo Flashback

In 2013, I was in the final semesters of our sleep program. For one of the classes we were given an assignment involving a presentation. We were to pick a partner (or partners) and do a presentation on a sleep disorder. There was a catch however. The presentation could not be something that was a typical dull presentation.

We were encouraged to be as creative as possible in presenting our topic. Our instructor showed us a couple examples from previous classes. One was a simple video that was recorded in the school sleep lab on nightmares. Two students played parents and another played a child with the disorder. We were told of another group who did a “newscast” in front of the class on their topic and a group that presented their topic as a song they wrote and performed.

I had a connection with the production director at the local Fox affiliate and he allowed us to shoot our presentation there. We did ours as the SNL version of Celebrity Jeopardy. Thanks to the use of a green screen, My buddy Matt played Clint Eastwood and Alex Trebek, while I played Elvis and Sean Connery. It truly looked like the real show thanks to props from the TV station.

I say all that to set up today’s photo:

One of the presentations was done as a sort of talk show. One of our classmates was the host who was to interview “Key Thallen” a brilliant play on my on air name (Keith Allen). My friend Jackie portrayed Key. If memory serves me right, she asked if I had any radio station T-shirts she could borrow for their presentation. Not knowing that she was going to go the extra mile, she walked into the room wearing the T-shirt and the “old man” hat I always wore. She topped it off with obnoxiously large eyebrows and goatee that were stuck to her face.

I honestly don’t remember much of their presentation because I was laughing through the entire thing. I have to say, her impression of me was spot on! Finding this photo brought back memories of some really fun days.

2025’s Top Ten Blogs

I continue to play catch up on my look back at 2025. Usually I have these things up in early January. I guess I need to plan a bit better next year.

I went back and checked out the stats from 2025 and made a list of the ten most popular blogs viewed last year. I’ll present them in just a moment. I’ve seen a few other bloggers who have looked at their stats and felt like they may be skewed a bit. They were also bombarded with visits from robots from China.

Other blogs had well over a million views from these Chinese bots. This humble little blog almost did the same. Despite those stats, I believe that the 10 most viewed blogs are truly represented. Many of them have been in my previous year’s Top 10 lists.

The numbers in parenthesis represents a rounded number of views. Here are the Top 10, should you want to revisit:

10. Making Spirits Bright (3100)

From 2022, the blog talks about getting ready for Christmas. It is fun to see the kids so young in these photos. It is also a bit sad, because this was the year that my sister-in-law, Grace, passed away.

9. Share Your Nostalgia Round 3 Wrap Up (3300)

This year I thought I’d host a few topics based on nostalgia. One of those was about your favorite cartoon or cartoon character. There were a lot of fantastic picks by the guest bloggers who participated. This blog was my wrap up to the topic.

8. Share Your Nostalgia Round 3 – Max (3400)

Max from the Power Pop blog has written more than one guest blog for me. He took part in the Share Your Nostalgia feature and picked one of my favorite characters – Underdog

7. The Music of My Life – 1985 (3500)

Another feature that wrapped up earlier in the year was The Music of My Life. I featured my favorite songs from every year that I’ve been alive. Only 1985 made it into the top 10. ’85 was a good year for music, but I’m surprised that some of the other years didn’t show up first.

6. Some Favorite TV Episodes (3800)

This blog was from 2019. It was part of a blog-a-thon that I keep meaning to participate in, but haven’t recently. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it when it is announced. This one features The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone, and WKRP in Cincinnati.

5. Guest Blogger: Beatles Covered Songs (Max Part 2) (4500)

Max from the Power Pop blog gets a second entry in the top ten. Max is a Beatles fan like me and this is his second Beatles write up featured on my site.

4. Fatherly Observations (5040)

Written just 19 days after my daughter was born and a couple weeks before Covid shut down the world. For those who don’t know, there are 13 years between my second oldest son and my daughter. I find this humorous to look back on now.

3. Why No, I Haven’t Seen That (5090)

This is a rant from 2019. This blog may have been pushed up the list by those Chinese Bots. It is about how I used to have to watch popular shows for my radio gig, but no longer have to now. It also talks about a lot of the “hyped up” shows that I don’t watch.

2. List: Top 50 Overplayed/Hated Songs (8700)

This is simply a list. It is a list of songs that people felt were overplayed or songs they hate. The fact that it is this high on the list tells me how passionate and opinionated people are about music.

1. My Top 20 Favorite Christmas Characters (26,000)

This blog goes all the way back to 2018 when I had just started blogging here. It is the one blog that has shown up in the year end Top 10 every year since it posted. It is a very biased list I put together after thinking about all of the Christmas specials I watched growing up. I’ve never felt the need to update it, because I still feel the same.

I did consider a year or so ago writing a list of Christmas movie characters. You know, Clark Griswold, Ralphie Parker, and real people. Perhaps I will do that next year.

Thanks for all your views and comments throughout the year.

Huh? Pardon Me? What?

This weekend was very odd. Saturday my mother-in-law called to see if the kids wanted to go to the circus on Sunday. They were excited and I took them over to spend the night, so they could go with Nana after they woke up.

I went home Saturday night and played on the Xbox for a bit and finished a book. When I woke up on Sunday, it was just me and the dog. When my wife got home, she went to bed after working all night. So I sat on the couch and finished listening to a book I had started, but didn’t finish because it was due back before I could finish it. I had to wait for it to come available again before I could finish it.

I wasn’t supposed to get the kids until after dinner, so I goofed around on the Xbox while doing laundry. I watched some TV and read some more. As I pulled into my in-law’s driveway, I got a text saying, “They want to stay another night.” When I walked in, they both looked at me and said, “What are YOU doing here!?” That made me laugh. I hung out for a bit and then went back home. They came home Monday night and I got them bathed and ready for bed early because they had to be back at school Tuesday morning.

Yesterday morning, I took Ella to school and then had an appointment with the hearing place. My wife has been asking me to get my hearing checked for some time. I finally made the appointment. When I arrived they doc asked me quite a few questions. I told her about the ringing/buzzing in my ears that I have had forever. I told her about the 30 years I wore headphones while working in radio. Then we got ready for the test.

They put me in the small room with a door that was like 4 inches thick. It was a soundproof room. They had me put headphones and then they started sending pulsating tones that I had to push a button when I heard them. It had to pulsate because of the ringing in my ears. It was more difficult than I thought. I felt like I couldn’t hear with my left ear, but they said that it was better than my right ear.

They had me repeat a few simple words: hat, safe, theft, feet, etc… that was the weirdest part of the whole thing. When they let me out of the room they showed me my results. I hear low tones better than high. So male voices don’t give me an issue, but high pitches I have difficulty with. Female voices can be difficult for me to hear at times. This, thankfully, proves to my wife that I am not ignoring her or the kids when they talk to me and I don’t hear them.

Bottom line, I will be getting hearing aids. My goodness, everything that screams “You’re old” just keeps catching up to me. I’m not sure what the cost will be, as they are waiting for the insurance company to get back to them. I haven’t looked at them yet, but I guess the new ones have Bluetooth on them, so when I answer my phone, it will connect to the hearing aid. Should this really excite me? I don’t know. I’m still trying to process this.

I suppose now I will have no excuse for not hearing what my wife says … unless I turn them off. LOL