My friend, Eric, was the choir director at my high school. While I was never in choir, music brought us together. We played many Easter services together, he matches with the alumni band, and he even provided music at my first marriage.
Every day on Facebook, he will play a song on his piano. Selections vary from classical to jazz to pop. He is currently playing a series of ballads.
Last night he played “Speak Softly Love.”. You may know it as the Love Theme from The Godfather. It was a huge song for Andy Williams. It reminded me of a version I was introduced to by my brother.
I had never heard of Petrizio Buanne. My brother shared his first album with me and I loved it. He covers the Godfather tune, entitled “Parla Piu Piano.”. Sung in Italian, it sounds SO good!
I figured I have been so focused on books lately, it was time to once again share some music. Here are all three versions of the song. Enjoy.
With my shift change, my drive is a bit longer because of traffic. It doesn’t bother me, though, because it gives me a bit more time with the audio books I am listening to. The extra time (and extra day’s commute) is also allowing me to get through each book a little faster than before.
A few friends of mine have been on vacation and posting photos on Facebook. Many of the pictures show my friends in hammocks, on the beach, or by a campfire. All of those photos include a book they are reading. So I figured I would post the last couple books I read as suggestions … in case you are looking for something to read this weekend.
Circle of Death – James Patterson and Brian Sitts
Last May I stumbled on the first book of this series and I enjoyed it a lot. It took me back to the Shadow radio shows I used to listen to. I blogged about that book here:
At the time, I had hoped that there might be a sequel and Circle of Death is it. This one was a bit harder to get into, but that may be because I listened to the audio and didn’t physically read it. The narrator was a bit bland. Over all it was ok. I bet if I had read it instead, I would have liked it more.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
When a ruthless killer seeks to overturn the world order, our only hope is vigilante justice.
Since Lamont Cranston – known to a select few as the Shadow – defeated Shiwan Khan and ended his reign of terror over New York one year ago, the city has started to regenerate.But there is evil brewing elsewhere. And this time the entire world is under threat.Which is why Lamont has scoured the globe to assemble a team with unmatched talent.
Only their combined powers can foil an enemy with ambitions and abilities beyond anyone’s deepest fears.As their mission takes them across the globe and into the highest corridors of power – pushing them beyond their limits – can justice prevail?
Just Another Missing Person – Gillian McAllister
Wow! This book was awesome! There were so many twists and turns and I loved every second of it.
I read this one because the author wrote one of the best books I’ve read this year – Wrong Place, Wrong Time. I wrote about it here:
While I saw some things coming, there were things that blindsided me. It was such a good read.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.
Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.
Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder.
If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?
This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a smart look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.
Other “book” Things
A blogger friend told me about a site called NetGalley. You can request books not yet published and review them on your blog. I signed up and am excited to start reading. There are two books I had on my Amazon Wish List that aren’t due to be published until next year. I requested them hoping to get the chance to read them.
I’ve never really did a “review” before, but I’m sure going to try. Wish me luck with that.
I have three physical books from the library that I am hoping to get done with before they are due. One of them was recommended by my blogger friend, Beth. So far I am loving it and I’ve found myself laughing out loud already.
As always, I would love to hear your recommendations – I’ll add them to my “want to read” list.
The construction continues on our street. That in itself is bad enough. They have pretty much ripped out all of the concrete from the street itself. They had removed all the sidewalks from the other side of the street early in the project. This week, they began ripping up not only our sidewalk, but our driveway.
They began doing this about 90 minutes before I had to leave for work. Naturally, I wondered if I was even going to be able to get out. Thankfully, they did lay down some sort of gravel type mess to create a way for our cars to get in and out.
We knew they’d be coming up the driveway a bit. What I didn’t know was that they were going to rip up half of my front lawn!
They had to be sure that the pipes leading to the house were copper and not galvanized. You would think that someone would have some sort of notes on something like this, right? Well, the construction guys told me that the city has NO blueprints whatsoever about our street. They don’t know where pipes are, gas lines, etc… This sort of explains why they keep hitting them while they are digging I guess.
“Plans? What plans?!”
The hole they dug in my yard is no laughing matter. It’s deep. And this picture is when they were about half done with it.
And you know, why not kill the rest of the grass by just piling the dirt you are digging up on top of it?
I can only hope that they dug up the mole – or moles – that were making tunnels under there earlier in the year!
I did give myself a chuckle, though. As they were checking the water pipe, I remembered the Three Stooges short “A Plumbing We Will Go.” In that short, Moe tells Larry to find where the water turns off. He ends up digging up the lawn. In one scene, his head pops out of the grass and he says, “I’ll find this thing or else!” and then goes back under the lawn. It cracks me up every time!
I guess I should be happy that they are working outside on the pipes and not inside …
I am about to pose a question to you. I already have my answer, however, I hoped you might contribute to the “conversation.” Let me set it up for you.
This morning, Sam and I are sitting in the living room drinking coffee. She tells me that we are supposed to be getting some really nasty storms this afternoon. I opened up my weather app and sure enough, it looks like there will be some heavy stuff rolling through.
While the kids eat breakfast, Sam jumps in the shower. When she gets out I tell her that I want to shower early before the storm. She chuckles and says, “You don’t believe that old wives tale, do you?” I stood their looking at her thinking, “It’s no wives tale. It’s a fact.” She keeps staring at me and can’t believe that I don’t want to shower during the storm.
Now, my wife is usually right about things. So I wait a bit before getting ready to shower. I know I want to shower early anyway because rain always slows the drive. As the rain starts, I look at my weather app.
It’s really coming down. I tell Sam I am going to shower real fast. She laughs again and says, “You are not going to get struck by lightning in the shower!” So naturally, I Google it. “Hey, Google. Is it safe to shower during a thunderstorm?” The response read:
I show this to my wife who laughed it off. I know that this was not something that I learned second hand. I want to say that they even told us this in school – probably the same time they told us not to stand under trees during a storm.
So I know the answer to my question. It is not safe to shower during a thunderstorm. So let me pose another question to you –
Did you know this to be true or die you think it was an old wives tale or urban legend? I’m interested to know.
On this day in 1977 – a King died. The King of Rock and Roll.
On this day in 2018 – a Queen died. The Queen of Soul.
Both were musical royalty. Did you know they both have a musical group in common? Both have “recorded” with the world famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Imagine what some of their songs might have sounded like with an orchestral background! Never mind. You don’t have to, because there are albums you can check out.
Here are a couple of my favorites from those albums (with some bonus cuts and artists later on)
Elvis
A Big Hunk o’ Love
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Steamroller Blues
In the Ghetto
Aretha Franklin
Respect
Natural Woman
Think
Until You Come Back To Me
Elvis has two albums with the RPO and a Christmas Album. Aretha has one. But there are other artists whose song’s have been reimagined by the RPO. The first being The Carpenters. Honestly, many of their songs already had some sort of orchestra background, but these new arrangements are neat to hear.
The Carpenters
I Just Fall In Love Again
We’ve Only Just Begun
The oddest pairing in my opinion is the RPO and the Beach Boys. Orchestral Surf??
Wouldn’t It Be Nice
Sloop John B
My favorite cut is this one – Fun, Fun, Fun
My favorite collaboration (besides Elvis) is the RPO and Roy Orbison. Wow! What an album! Simply amazing.
In Dreams
Crying
It’s Over
Only the Lonely
Running Scared
I have always loved Mean Woman Blues by Roy. However, I think the version with the RPO takes the original and beefs it up with some cool horns and makes it even better! My favorite cut!
Mean Woman Blues
So today we salute a King, a Queen, and some artists that would be considered music royalty – with a “royal” musical group that they all have in common. I hope you enjoyed listening. All of the Royal Philharmonic Albums can be heard on YouTube!
When I moved in with Sam, a year or so before we got married, the first neighbor I met was Dale. He came over and introduced himself. He was friendly, told me a bit about the neighborhood and the neighbors. He really made an impression on me.
I remember telling Sam that I had met him and she told me just how great a neighbor he was. He had a riding mower and mowed her grass for her every time he mowed his. He told me that when I needed it, to come and get his mower and mow the grass. When I got my zero turn mower, I returned the favor and mowed his grass if it needed it. When his mower was down, he’s borrow mine and vice versa.
He was the neighborhood watch in a way. The first night I was there, Sam had to work. My car was in her driveway and he texted her to let her know there was a strange car in her driveway. That meant a lot to me. It was nice to know that someone was aware of what was going on in the neighborhood.
One day (long before I had to re-deck the porch), he saw me out trying to fix the steps that led to the porch. He told me to wait a minute. He ran home and grabbed some scraps of the stuff they used to re-do his deck. It wasn’t wood, it was that plastic-type strong deck board. We cut a few to size with my saw, and he had his impact drill with deck screws and fixed my step in about 10 minutes. He is just that kind of guy.
Whenever he had some sort of back yard party, we’d always make sure our driveway or back yard was available for his guest parking. If I ever needed a garden tool, or his big roller to roll my yard in the spring, or help moving something – he was there to help. He is just one of the great neighbors we have in our neighborhood. Sadly, he is moving away this week.
He and his wife are moving to Florida to take care of their parents. The neighborhood won’t be the same without Dale and his family. I know I will miss those chats out in the yard while we are both working on stuff. I will miss the positive advice and support he always freely gave. I will miss having him around for sure.
I wanted to publicly say thank you, Dale. You have done so much for my wife, me, and my family. You have been such a wonderful neighbor and I truly will miss you guys. We wish you all the best in your new home. Your neighbors will be blessed to have you!
May God bless you and your family. Take care, my friend, and please keep in touch! You know where we live!
Drive careful and remember, in Florida, it is some sort of state law that your blinkers are to remain on at times!
It’s Monday and there is finally a bit of normalcy back in our life. It was a crazy weekend for us.
Thursday, Andrew had his surgery. It went better than expected and we were grateful that many of the “possible” surgeries were not needed. This time the recovery went a bit better than the last time. When he woke up from his last surgery he had what they called post op “delirium” and he began pulling the IV out and was just a bear! This time, they gave him something that let him sleep a bit more and he woke up much more calm.
On Friday we were home. He seemed to be doing well. He was eating a lot of soft foods and popsicles. He seemed a bit more like himself, but we knew he wasn’t 100%. On Saturday, we had a scare as he just didn’t want to eat or drink. We even took him out for ice cream in hopes that would work. Naturally, a trip back to the ER and what does he do? Drinks and eats.
Not sure why he felt the need to grab a winter hat for ice cream, but he did.
That night my wife caught a very cool picture. Let me set this up for you. When I put him to bed, I will lay him in his bed and turn out the lights. I will say prayers with him, cover him up, and turn on his sound machine/night light. Then I’ll put on my reading glasses, grab my mini-flashlight and read my book where he can see me. He will eventually close his eye, knowing that dad is right by him, and go to sleep.
While in our bed that night, he grabbed his sunglasses and put them on. He grabbed his Paw Patrol flashlight and one of the books my wife and I plan on reading. He said, “Wook, Mommy! I Daddy!!”
Little by little – he is acting like himself.
We were home just in time to watch the sunset yesterday. Before the rain, the kids saw fire flies lighting up the back yard. So they ran around trying to catch them. Both were successful!
It’s been years since I’ve chased fireflies, but I have vivid memories of doing so. I hope they will never forget doing it.
I was having a discussion with some radio buds from the past on Facebook over the last couple days. It reminded me of the Andy Bernard quote from The Office finale:
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in ‘the good old days’, before you’ve actually left them.”
That got me thinking more and I remembered a fantastic quote from the great Sid Caesar that I wanted to share:
“There’s a now, a was, and a gonna be. Now is now, and after now is a was. And what comes after the was is a gonna be. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s gonna happen as soon as the now is over. But if you have a good now, you’re bound to have a good was and a good gonna be. But after the bad now comes a bad was. But if you have a bad now and dwell on it, you’re going to have a bad gonna be and you’re going to have a bad cycle.
If you learn from the bad was, you can turn the bad gonna be into a good gonna be. The only way you can change the cycle is after the was. If you carry the bad wases around with you, they get heavy and become should’a could’as – I should’a done this, I could’a done that.
If you learn from the was, you’ll have a great now; you won’t repeat the same mistakes. It will bring you to a good now, which changes the cycle to a good was, and a good gonna be. You need to learn from the wases. It’s all about changing your attitude.” – Sid Caesar
I wanted to thank each of my readers who said a prayer or sent positive thoughts our way for Andrew’s surgery. All went well and he is home recovering.
We will need to follow up with ENT in about 6 weeks. We also will follow up with sleep/neurology in the weeks ahead.
He was such a trooper. We’re happy he is home. The plan is to take it slow and easy this weekend.
Welcome to my 17th contribution to Turntable Talk. Dave Ruch from A Sound Day has once again presented his “music folks” a monthly topic to write about. The topic this time is an easy one – Sum Sum Summertime. In his instructions, he says, “Just pick a song that really signifies ‘summer’ to you. It could be an obvious one about summer, or for that matter about school and end of summer I guess, or just one that either sounds very summery or brings back some great summertime memories for you.”
There are plenty of those “summer” songs to choose from! Off the top of my head:
In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry
A Summer Song – Chad and Jeremy
Hot Fun in the Summer Time – Sly and the Family Stone
Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams
Vacation – The Go Go’s
Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran
Cruel Summer – Bananarama
The Boys of Summer – Don Henley
Soak Up The Sun – Sheryl Crow
Summer Breeze – Seals and Croft
Pretty much ANY Beach Boys song
When I thought about Dave’s topic, I could have picked any one of the songs listed above. Then when I began to think about songs that brought back summer memories, there was only one that came to mind – Music Box Dancer by Frank Mills. They played it to death on the radio when we would vacation at my grandparents place up north. But even that one didn’t seem “summery enough for me.
I began to think about when I worked at Honey Radio in Detroit. Every summer, we’d add certain summer songs to the playlist, much like stations do with Christmas music around the holidays. We would play It’s Summertime by the Jamies, Here Comes Summer by Jerry Keller, Wonderful Summer by Robin Ward, California Sun by the Rivieras and so many others that got less airplay outside of the season.
As we focused on the “first decade” of rock and roll, we played music from 1955 (and a bit earlier sometimes) to 1965. Those early years would often feature Bill Haley, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Dean Martin, Chuck Berry and Perry Como. It was a big variety. There was one song that was added to the Honey playlist that I loved playing and it was not by a rock and roller. To me, it wasn’t summer until I got to spin the seasonal song from Nat King Cole – Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of summer.
The song was the title track from Nat’s 1963 album which included summer themed songs. The song was written by Hans Carste, but it was originally written “Du spielst ‘ne tolle Rolle”, with German lyrics by Hans Bradtke. It was first recorded under the German title a year earlier in 1962. When Nat recorded the song in 1963, it was recorded with English lyrics written by Charles Tobias and was a Top 10 record for Nat. It reached #6 on the Hot 100 Chart.
It was the opening track on the album. To me, it is the perfect song to open the album and it starts with no musical intro – it’s Nat deliberately prolonging the opening line: “Roll – out – those …. (uptempo music kicks in) lazy-hazy-crazy days of summer!”
From the moment the music kicks in, you can’t help but feel happy. It’s a bouncy nostalgic sound that just makes you feel good. Besides, it features a banjo AND mentions hot dogs and beer! Lawrence Welk, Tex Williams, and Lou Rawls all covered the song, but Nat’s version is the superior version.
Have a great summer!! Sing along and enjoy!
Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Those days of soda and pretzels and beer Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer
Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies Then lock the house up, now you’re set And on the beach you’ll see the girls in their bikinis As cute as ever but they never get ’em wet
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Those days of soda and pretzels and beer Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer You’ll wish that summer could always be here
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Those days of soda and pretzels and beer Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer
Don’t have to tell a girl and fella about a drive-in Are some romantic movie scene Right from the moment that those lovers start arrivin’ You’ll see more kissin’ in the car than on the screen
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Those days of soda and pretzels and beer Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer You’ll wish that summer could always be here
You’ll wish that summer could always be here You’ll wish that summer could always be here
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 