Hawaii Five-O Girls: Robyn Millan

Robyn Millan appeared in Season 4 of Hawaii Five-O in the episode “R&R…& R”, but it was her salacious turn as Rosalie Ferguson in the wickedly fun “One Big Happy Family” as the uncontainable sex kitten wife of Jed Fergusen that takes the cake!!

 This episode is dark humour at its best- Jed and his hillbilly family are hopping island to island, taking odd-jobs and then killing the owners for the cash register money. But it’s Robyn Millan who shines best here- Jed’s Dad calls her “Nudie Gal”, and why not? She’s always dressed up (down) to bikinis and hot pants…what more could one ask for?!

Robyn Millan

“Ella Syzmanski”

Hawaii Five-O Episode 96: “R & R & R”

“Rosalie Ferguson”

Hawaii Five-O Episode 124: “One Big Happy Family”

The Seeding Of Summer Lawns

While hunting online for some of the more obscure Joni Mitchell tracks that seem to be floating all over the place, I came across an interesting little curio- an unauthorized “Companion” to Joni’s incredible (and one of my very, very favorite) 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

In France They Kiss On Main Street:

This collection, humorously entitled The Seeding of Summer Lawns, consisted of demoes and work-in-progress versions of songs that would eventually make it onto the actual album, and it was quite a thrill to experience the bare bones takes of songs like In France They Kiss on Main Street, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, and The Boho Dance, all before they would get transformed into the wonderful lite-jazz masterpieces that we know and love.

Shades of Scarlett Conquering:

One thing thing that I thought was pretty neat was that in these original demoes, Joni sings parts that would eventually be played by horns, and there’s no place more evident than in the demo of Edith and The Kingpin, where each verse is punctuated by an echo-ey chorus harmonizing to simulate the horns to come!

 Edith and the Kingpin:

One song that was prepared and demoed for this album was a song called Dreamland, and while the song didn’t make it to the final stages of Hissing, a polished and very world-beat influenced version would later appear on the epic Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.

Now, I’ve always liked Dreamland (though I was never a big fan of the percussion laden Tenth Circle track that was connected to it)  and I was excited to hear how this tune sounded in its original state… but WOW! NOTHING could have prepared me for what I heard upon clicking on that track- Just the most FUN, swingin’ and shufflin’ tune all set to the VERY “George of the Jungle”-esque bopping beat!

Dreamland:

The collection concludes with a cool piano-and-guitar take of the pretty “Sweet Bird”, a song that would have fit perfectly with most of Joni’s earlier folk catalog (especially Court and Spark!) , and a version of “Shadows and Light” that sounds just about identical to the album version (at least to MY unprofessional ears), a perfect little sampling of a GREAT album in progress!

Sweet Bird:

Favorite Songs: "I Can Depend On You" By David And The Giants

  Back in the 90’s I was working for a Photo Imaging Studio where the supervisor in the Developing Room was a Junior Pastor who would play nothing but Christian Radio, and though I’m not Christian in the least, over time I fell in love with quite a few of the songs and artists coming over the airwaves!
Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Margaret Becker Michelle Pilar, more rock-oriented artists like Dana Key and PETRA, even Mark Farner (!), etc, I suddenly found myself making trips to the local Christian Bookstore to pick up the latest favorite song discoveries! Even my fellow employees ended up buying cassette tapes of those Christian artists! (though theirs were the more Jazz-oriented ones like TAKE6).
  Usually when I liked a new artist, I could simply make my way down to the Christian Gift Shop and pick up the latest tape, but there were a few that never seemed to be available, and while there seemed to be no reason that they didn't have the latest Greg X. Volz, one of the other albums I really wanted wasn't available simply because it was too old and out of print, and that was "Inhabitants Of The Rock" by David and the Giants which I wanted because it featured one of my all-time fave songs called "I Can Depend On You".
 I don't know quite what struck me about this song, but there was something about its utter simplicity that instantly hooked me, and thankfully, though an older song, the radio station (the late great KAIM) played it all the time!  For years after that, I'd occasionally call up the radio station and request to have them play it (and of course they always did!), but aside from taping the song off the radio during one of those occasions, I still really wanted to have the song.
Then with the arrival of the internet and EBAY, a whole new avenue opened for me, and it was here that I thought I could actually get my hands of that song, and in the end, I found someone selling it on VINYL, and I had to make do with that.
 When the album  arrived in the mail, I was horrified to see that he record was slightly heat-warped (Ah! The maladies of an archaic format!) and for most of the album, it played slurry and made the needle jump! Fortunately, luck was on my side and one of the few songs that I COULD play was in fact I Can Depend On You!!!! Success!!

My Favorite Group Of Them All: The Who

The Who

If I had to say once and for all which group (of the many, many groups that I love) that I love the most of all, It would have to be THE WHO.  No other group has had the profound effect on my life like the works of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

 As a kid, my favorite artist was Paul McCartney and Wings ( first single ever bought: Band On The Run). This led to a love (read: obesession)  of the Beatles as well, and by the time I was eight grade, my world was saturated with the lush sounds and melodies of The Fab Four.

This in turn led to an overall hunger for all the “British Invasion” groups, and I remember picking up a few albums of groups like The Rolling Stones,The Yardbirds, The Kinks, and yes, THE WHO. At the time, I was just in love with the Rickenbacker sound and that whole english scene in general.

Around that time, I had purchased a magazine called Best Of Rock Stars for a cover story they were featuring on British groups, and while perusing the issue, came across an article they had done on The Who called simply, “The Who: Then and Now”.

  It was your standard article, covering the basics of The Who with a brief synopsis of their beginnings and discography, but the thing that really caught my attention was the PICTURES. I couldn’t believe how COOL this group looked! They showed The Who from 1964 all the way through 1978, from Mods, to Hippies and finally to their long-haired bearded hard rocking 70’s look. I was just amazed at the different phases the group went through, and they looked WAY cool in every variation they undertook!

  At this point, all I really knew about the Who’s music were the songs You Better You Bet and Who Are You, and I knew that they’d been the original artists of the Elton John song “Pinball Wizard, but that was about it. (Actually, it turned out that I knew quite a few songs of theirs, but  just didn’t know it was them at the time!)

    I mentioned The Who to my friend James, (who was a Beatlemaniac like me) and he offered, “Oh yeah, The Who…they’re alright…Ringo’s in that movie of theirs, “The Kids Are Alright”…” I asked what songs he’d recommend and off the top of his head, he said “Well… there’s “My Generation” …” I made up my mind that the next time I was over at Tower Records, I’d pick up the album of the Who that had My Generation on it.

 When I eventually moseyed on down to the record store, I was disappointed to discover that the “My Generation” album by the Who was out of print, and the only way you could get it was by buying a double album set, featuring both “The Who sings My Generation” and “A Quick One”. Well, I didn’t feel like springing for a double album, and was deciding what to do, when I found that the import section of Tower Records had the British version of My Generation for sale! This was truly destiny, for the cover for this import edition was Cool, Colorful and VERY MOD, just the kind of music and style I was really into at the time! I excitedly bought the LP and spent the whole bus ride home poring over the pictures of the Who on the cover, and on the back, They looked so cool, and I was reminded why I was interested in them in the first place!

   So when I got home, the first thing I did was get that record on, and right away, I have to say that I was awestruck. Having grown up with the lush and wistful song stylings of Messers. McCartney & Lennon (and the whole Beatles sound in general), I wasn’t prepared for the barrage of sound coming out of that album! The power driving bass riffs, the howling guitar feedback, and, THOSE DRUMS! It was like the drummer was going MAD on the songs! And yet, among the crunching power chords and beats, there was sweet harmonies backing up the gruff lead singer, and there was no denying the fact that these songs were REALLY CATCHY! My Generation, The Kids are Alright, Much Too Much, La La Lies, The Good’s Gone…just great stuff, mod three-minute masterpieces. Throw in the Surfaris inspired song “The OX”, a powerful instrumental that kicked the roof off,  and you had yourself a solid introduction to a simply kick-ass band!

   Riding in my Dad’s car one afternoon, the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” came on. I loved this song, as well as its counterpart Baba O’Riley (although I didn’t know the names of the song at the time) because both of them featured the looping Moog synthesizer organ in the intros. Imagine my surprise when the song ended, and the DJ said “That was “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who!!!”  I sat up in shock! This synth-driven Prog-Rock song was the same band that had released My Generation?! Then I thought of The Best of Rock Stars article, and was reminded that The Who ran the entire musical gamut, from wide-eyed mop-headed teens to the stadium giants of the 70’s. This band’s diversity was much, much more vast than I would have imagined, and I knew that I had to investigate further, and so on my next visit to the record store, I immediately snatched up the album featuring both Baba O’Riley and “Won’t Get Fooled Again, the classic Who’s Next.

 I don’t think I can say anything asbout this album that hasn’t already been said a million times over, suffice it to say that it was one of the most incredible albums I’d ever heard, with songs like Baba O Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Bargain, Getting In Tune, and the incredible “Behind Blue Eyes”, every song was just epic in sound and the lyrics just took me away to a futuristic “Teenage Wasteland”! Like most fans, this quickly became my favorite WHO album, and remained such for years, til time eventually turned ALL my Who Discs onto an even playing field of equal appreciation!

   By now I had fallen in love with Pete Townshend’s Concept Pieces thanks to Who’s Next, and the natural progression (for me at least) was to move on to the much-celebrated Rock Opera classic Tommy. I remember cutting class one day, going down to the record store and buying the album, and then spending the rest of the day listening to the majestic album and trying to analyse the musical story of Tommy Walker. It just blew me away, and it got to the point where I had the whole “movie” created in my head to accompany the album! For awhile there It was all about TOMMY, and I remember trying to turn many of my friends onto it, especially songs like “Go To The Mirror” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. Heck, I even got them to buy some of the WHO albums!

Around the time I got around to finally purchasing the two double albums featuring (respectively) My Generation / Magic Bus and A Quick One / The Who Sell Out, a wonderful, wonderful thing happened. I found out that a communtiy college was going to have a showing of The Kids Are Alright, the must-see movie for any fan of the Who!

  The only problem was that the college was practically on the other side of the island, easily a two-hour bus ride with a transfer in town and add in that I knew absolutely NOTHING about exactly WHERE this school was, it promised to be quite a trek! I asked my good friend Jas if he would mind accompanying me on my journey to see the Holy Grail of Who fanatics, and , trooper that he is, said, “Sure”. By the time we got there, it was almost time for the show to start. I’ll never forget that feeling, of being in this huge, empty college during sunset-time, excited beyond belief waiting for that show to start!

   I seem to remember that there wasn’t a really big turn-out, maybe twenty five or so kids? And as I recall, it was more like a big classroom than a theater, and I remember sitting at desks in the dark! But MAN, once that movie started rolling, I completely forgot my surroundings, immmersed myself in the film, and proceeded to get my world SERIOUSLY ROCKED!! The Kids Are Alright was simply the greatest damn rock movie I’d ever seen before (or SINCE) in MY LIFE- every scene blasted with the greatest songs,zany hijinks, and the most killin’ performances ever!

  From the opening scene where Keith detonates his Drum Kit on the Smothers Brothers during a performance of “My Generation” through the historical Woodstock appearance to the sensational “A Quick One” on Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus ,the shattering Monterey Pop performance and ending with Keith’s very last live performance onstage with “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, there was never a moment to catch your breath!

    After the movie a couple of guys from my father’s workplace offered to drive me and Jas back into town, and of course the FIRST THING I wanted to do was pick up the “Kids Are Alright” soundtrack, There were just too many songs I got introduced to in that film, and I didn’t want to go home empty-handed, so they dropped us off and I went home with yet another awesome WHO album to add to my growing collection!

  Well, the next few months was spent in a WHO frenzy, with me attempting to acquire all the albums in The Who’s catalog, The Who By Numbers, Live At Leeds, Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy, Who Are You,  and even Face Dances, scouring the imports section for discs like Story of The Who and Pefect Collection, even poring through the used record shops for the LPs that were out of print, like The Who Sings My Generation, Sell Out, Magic Bus, Happy Jack and (strangely hard to find) Odds And Sods. Eventually I had a pretty nice collection of WHO releases, but the “Hardcore Collecting” was still to come!

   That Summer of 1982, I was with my family at an electronics store  so my brother could look at stereo equipment. I was wandering around, when I came upon a display of Gene Kelly promoting a new video format that had just come out, a system called a Videodisc. They were displaying a few players, and had a few rows of Videodiscs to choose from. And right there on a spindle rack, right in front of my eyes, sat the Holy Grail:

I couldn’t believe it! There is was, The fr*cking Kids Are Alright, for chrissakes! I remember standing there, holding the videodisc in my hands, thinking “The price tag for this is around $25 which I think I can handle, but I don’t have a Videodisc Player! How The HECK am I ever gonna watch this?”

   But then my parents came to my rescue and made a deal with me- If I bought the disc myself, they’d buy the Player for me…DEAL! And so I walked out of there with Player and Video in hand, and that was the beginning of my “Summer Of The Who”. For the next two months straight, I watched that damn disc almost EVERY DAY, and sometimes even TWICE! This is no joke, as my poor suffering siblings can attest. Every person living in that house got to know The Who’s songs as well as me, and every friend I had was forced to watch the disc with me, This was quite simply The Most Obsessive thing I’ve ever been obsessed with, and brother, that’s saying a lot.

   

  I was now clearly into maniac fan territory, and having completed all the domestic albums I could, began my next level of collecting, the obscure (and oblique!) releases of the Who. Through a mail-order catalog I aquired a bunch of great WHO books, including the WHO collecting Bible, a book called “The Illustrated Discography” by Ed Hanel. This book listed ALL the Who relelases, including pictures of the covers, I got to know all the US relelase, all the UK releases, all the singles, and it was through this book that I discovered the wonderful world of WHO Bootlegs. With its strange titles and beautiful covers, these albums became the new things to set my eyes on.

     The “Summer Of the Who” only got better as the band released their tenth studio album, an angst filled rocker called It’s Hard! There is something about any new album that comes out by a band when you are frothing at the mouth high on fandom, and I really took that album to heart! Listening to it every night, it became the unofficial soundtrack to that summer, and despite what people may say about It’s Hard, it remains a top-notch album in MY book!

  Every night we ventured out, I had to make stops at several used bookstores and record shops, to see what I could uncover. Rock Music Books like Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia were purchased simply for the Who section, Magazines like Rolling Stone, Creem, Hit Parader, and especially CIRCUS were carefully scrutanized for even miniscule pictures of Pete and the Boys, and I remember my friends helpfully joining in the maniacal scavanger hunt with me! To this day I still have a completely filled scrapbook of all those magazine clippings, and it’s interesting to look over at it now, the yellowed pictures arranged in collages on the pages, all clearly showing the mind of an obsessed Who fan at work! J

   In 2004, a dream came true for a lad like me stuck all the way out here in Hawaii, when The Who dropped in for a one-night concert here at the Blaisdell Arena! I was on a giddy high all night at that concert, but there was one defining moment I’ll always remember clearly: The Who were performing “Love Reign O’er Me”, and when that sweet, heartfelt middle played, with Pete beautifully playing the chords of his guitar as Roger sang:

“On a Dry and Dusty road,

the nights we spent apart alone,

I need to get back home to cool, cool rain

I can’t sleep and I lay and I think…the night is hot and black as ink

Oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool rain…”

I remember it was at that exact moment It really hit me. I said to myself: “ I AM SEEING THE WHO WITH MY OWN EYES! AFTER ALMOST 25 YEARS, I AM WATCHING ROGER DALTREY SING AND PETE TOWNSHEND PLAY THE GUITAR, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!”

It was the “At Last, Now I Can Die In Peace!” Moment!

We are now in 2007 and I’m still over here in WHO land, enjoying The Who’s Endless Wire CD, still taking in the majesty that is The Who. While the days of Bookstore hunting are probably behind me, It seems like the fan in me will always be here, ready for the latest Who album to lift me up!

Signs You're In a John Byrne Comic!

Beautiful Girls Sleep In The "Buff"!!

Avengers #185

X-Men #137

Fantastic Four #241

About “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic”:

Like many of you out there, I am a HUGE fan of John Byrne, and have voraciously read just about every title he’s done over the years, from Marvel to DC, Dark Horse, and Beyond!

And as any fan of Byrne can tell you, there are many things that are BOUND to happen in a any given tale of his, and the “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic” entries are just fun captures of similar links between his wonderful stories that give you a sense of Deja Vu!

Favorite Songs:"They Don't Know" (Three Different Ones)

Sometime during the early eighties, a peculiar PV began airing on Night Trax starring a Lucille Ball-ish singer in a very kitschy retro-50’s style video called “They Don’t Know”. I’d later learn the woman was a popular British entertainer named Tracey Ullman.I was directed towards the video by a friend who knew my love of The Beatles, and one day the video came on and he told me, “Hey, you should check this video out- at the end of the song, her boyfriend turns out to be Paul McCartney!” Well, he was right, and I found the video, with Sir Paul as a country bumpkin truck drivin’ fool and bubbly Tracey as his lil’ lady, was so sweet and charming, I fell in love with the song in an instant!

Although no more significant singles came out of Tracey, she’d would later become a household name when she started her TV show The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987 (the skit show most famous for launching the careers of The Simpsons), and she'd go on to star in the award winning HBO shows “Tracey Takes On…” as well!

 Fast forward to the year 1994, where Britpop music had taken over my life. My favorite groups at this time were the usual suspects like Belly, Lush, Darling Buds, Sundays, etc, and I was a big collector of these giant CD collections called VOLUME (fill in the number) that featured new and unreleased singles of the latest Britpop outfit!

VOLUME 10 had just arrived, and I immediately snatched it up as it featured both Tiny Monroe and Echobelly as well as a new song from Lush. Listening to the CD, I was plasantly surprised to hear a group called GIGOLO AUNTS doing a VERY Beatlesy rendition of the Tracey Ullman song!! Their version was so jangly and poppy (rather Smithereens-ish in tone), I ran about, getting all of my friends to listen to it!

  It has since become one of our very favorite tunes, and the point was never clearer than when my friend Gerg found his copy of VOLUME TEN had oxidized(!) and wouldn’t play any more! He called me in a panic, first making me make sure that MY copy was okay, then begging me to burn him a copy so he could still have the song! I, of course, happily did so!

Fast forward again to around 2001, and I’m listening to a newly released greatest hits package of artist Kirsty MacColl’s work called “Galore!”, a collection I wanted for favorite tunes “Walking Down Madison”, “Innocence”, “I Can’t Stop Killing You”, and the catchy Smiths cover of “You Just Haven’t Earned it yet, Baby”, but was surprised to find what I assumed was another cover of “They Don’t Know”…and found out that the tune was originally written and recorded by Kirsty herself- Tracey Ullman and Gigolo Aunts had been covering KIRSTY all along!

  Listening to Kirsty’s version was quite stunning- to hear the “actual version” which sounded so sincere and melancholy really hit home with me.  But you know, in their own way, all the versions of the song are terrific, whether it be the Tracey Ullman version, the Gigolo Aunts one or Kirsty’s original song, so I decided to cobble together the three versions of Kirsty’s beautiful, upbeat and utterly unstoppable tune for everyone to lend an ear to- there’s no doubt in my mind that you will like at leat ONE of the versions of this song- it’s just TOO GOOD!

They Don't Know

You've been around for such a long time now

Oh maybe I could leave you but I don't know how

And why should I be lonely every night

When I can be with you

Oh yes you make it right

And I don't listen to the guys who say

That you're bad for me and I should turn you away

'Cos they don't know about us

And they've never heard of love

I get a feeling when I look at you

Wherever you go now I wanna be there too

They say we're crazy but I just don't care

And if they keep on talking still they get nowhere

So I don't mind if they don't understand

When I look at you and you hold my hand

'Cos they don't know about us

And they've never heard of love

Why should it matter to us if they don't approve

We should just take our chances while we've got nothing to lose

Baby

There's no need for living in the past

Now I've found good loving gonna make it last

I tell the others don't bother me

'Cos when they look at you they don't see what I see

No I don't listen to their wasted lines

Got my eyes wide open and I see the signs

But  they don't know about us

And they've never heard of love

No I don't listen to their wasted lines

Got my eyes wide open and I see the signs

But  they don't know about us

And they've never heard of love

©1979

Catching Up On My Walking Dead

Just about 3/5ths of the way through THE WALKING DEAD Omnibus (or , rather, COMPENDIUM), that massively jumbo Graphic Novel that collects issues #1-48 of the awesome Robert Kirkman/Tony Moore/Charles Adlard series...soooooo good so far, such intriguing characters and interesting plotlines! 


Wonder if they're planning on making another Compendium like this when Walking Dead hits issue #100?

Mad Magazine Special "It's A Super-Spectacular Day"!

  Back in 1979 or so, MAD Magazine  came up with this pretty nifty novelty included in one of their quarterly Super-Specials- a flexi disc called “A Super-Spectacular Day”, which would play a total of 8 different endings...which one would it play?

 Man, this was a fun disc! With a catchy tune the singer sang about how great the day felt like it was going to be

“It’s…A…

Great Big Beautiful Wonderful Incredible

Super-Spectacular Day

And your Heart is hummin’ with good times comin’

And you’ve got the happy feeling things are going your way

All the bells are ringing and a little bird’s singing while he sits on your window sill, saying, “Yessiree, I can surely see this will plainly be MOST DEFINITELY a Super- Spectacular Day!”

…then an obnoxious voice yells out “UNNTIIILLLLL…..!”

Then the “surprise” second half of the song sang about bad things happening all day, ending with the refrain “It’s not such a Super- Spectacular Day”

After a few days of spinning that disc, me and my friends started wondering if we’d heard all 8 tunes yet. We tried comparing notes with each other to get an accurate “list” of what each “surprise” ending  consisted of. Trouble was, the song endings had no official titles, and so we inevitably had to describe them thusly: “OK, I heard that one where he gets abducted by an alien”… and so on, making it EVERY hard to keep track of!

 After much discussion and arguments about what was heard and remembered, we more or less nailed it down to SEVEN tracks, and trust me when I tell you, we were entirely SICK of the intro part of the song by then! Funny, it seemed so CATCHY the first 65 times we heard it!

1. Alien Abduction

2. Blind Date

3. Labeled School Nerd

4. Afflicted by Strange Disease

5. Stalled on the Train Tracks

6. Beaten by the Mob

7. Relations show up

 SO…what was that 8th track? We couldn’t remember if we’d heard any more than the seven we confirmed, so we grudgingly went BACK to spinning the record, hoping in VAIN to hear the final song!

One thing my brother noticed upon careful examination was that though it seemed like the song played the first half of the song, then went into one of the eight variations, it actually was eight complete songs fitted onto that flexi, so your ending was already decided when you first dropped the needle on the beginning of the disc…not that it helped us any.

So after days of attempting to uncover the elusive eighth track without success, we became convinced that there was, in fact, no eight track to be found! Plus, this was MAD Magazine we were talking about, and it would be JUST LIKE “the usual gang of idiots” to have their readers losing their minds trying to find an ending that didn’t exist!

Fast forward to a few years ago- through the wonder of the internet, SOMEBODY (I forget exactly WHERE I got it- but whoever you are- a BIG THANKS!)  finally came to my rescue- they had the original flexi disc (mine had long gone the way of most childhood things- worn to death!) and took the time to rip all the different endings! I was finally able to take a listen to that wonderful flexi of my childhood again, and YES, there WERE in fact EIGHT songs after all!

Wow, listening to the tune really brought back great memories of those days back then, when my friends would come over after school and we’d sit there spinning that flexi til the tune was spilling out of our ears! Ah, Great Times!

And that elusive eight track? Turns out it was some version about neighbor problems or something…really had a hard time understanding the lyrics! But you know, it DID sound familiar, so maybe we DID hear it a few times, after all!

Lend an ear and check out ALL EIGHT chapters of the extremely catchy and funny  SUPER-SPECTACULAR DAY! 

Favorite Albums: The Electric Prunes / Underground

Most people are familiar with The Electric Prunes as the one-hit-wonder group who did the song "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”. And while that song rocks, (as does the entire album it is from), my favorite album from the Prunes is their second album, UNDERGROUND.

   Unlike the first album, this one featured a more focused group that was branching off into psychedelia and concept songs. Like the first album, the songs balanced between rocking, bluesy and just plain silly songs, but here the group started really experimenting with effects and studio trickery, and you end up with a far out album that is as great as any of the other concept albums around ’68.

Highlights for me are “The Great Banana Hoax” (which has nothing to do with bananas or hoaxes, but features a groovy rumbling drum beat!), “Captain Glory” , “Hideaway”, and the mystifying dreamy rocker “Antique Doll” .

 Even the silly songs here are catchy enough...(though not enough that I felt like uploading 'em here!) and the zany song "Dr. Do-Good" was even released as a SINGLE?! Sounds a bit like "They're Coming to take me away!"

Heck, I even like their take on Nashville in the wacky country tune "It's Not Fair"!

Ray Garton's "Live Girls"

Here’s a Vampire Book that I really, really dig! Long out of print, it has happily recently been re-released by Leisure Books! If Holden Caufield had been bitten by a vampire after getting kicked out of College in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, that might be as close as you could get to Ray Garton’s tale!

Live Girls is a story about Davey, a down on his luck proofreader for a pulp-style gun magazine. Davey’s life has just gotten from bad to worse-He’s been passed up for promotion, his girlfriend has left him, and he has to start looking for another job!

    He wanders into a seedy Peep Show club called Live Girls, where he meets a beautiful stripper named Anya, who enthralls and captivates Davey with her hypnotic charms. After paying for his way to her booth, she proceeds to rock his world both physically and mentally. Davey is mesmerized by her, and finds he cannot keep his mind off her. He finds himself compelled to go back again and again for her incredible sexual favors. What Davey doesn’t know is that Anya is a vampire, and every time she has performed fellatio on him, she has also been drawing blood out of him-to satiate her hunger AND to slowly turn Davey into one of her kind!

Day after day she takes a little bit more of Davey’s humanity, until there is almost nothing left. But she has not reckoned with Davey’s friends: his co-worker Casey, and a reporter for the Post, who has been trying to track down the group responsible for the outlandish murders that have been occurring.

 Together they are able to prevent Davey from going over to the dark side completely, and with their backing, he finds the strength to fight back against the creatures who have possessed him, and with his knowledge of weaponry from his Gun-Magazine job, he attempts to take down the club and all its inhabitants with it!

I love this story because its underlying message is about having people in your life that you can trust. Above all, this is the story of a weak willed person who becomes a strong-minded individual when he is faced with an almost insurmountable challenge. Together with friends who believe in him and stick by him, he is able to overcome the tragedy that has befallen him, and move on.

From Wednesday Addams to Cricket Montgomery : Lisa Loring

Lisa Loring went from cute child actress on The Addams Family 

to gorgeous vixen on As The World Turns!   My recollection...

Back around 1981 or so, my friend Herb and I were talking about the Addams Family and the Munsters. As readers of this blog know well, I am a fervent supporter of the Munsters Camp, but did watch the Addams Family as well, especially to see Carolyn Jones as Morticia. I wondered aloud what had ever happened to her, and Herb piped up, “Hey, she’s on this one soap opera that my mother watches- this one political soap called CAPITOL!” I went kind of, “Whaaa?” and he said that the show would be on later on in the day (about 2:30), and we could check it out! Well, it came on, and  I have to say it was a pretty interesting show, although it was a shock to see Carolyn Jones looking more like Endora than Morticia!

At some point watching Capitol, Herb suddenly remembered something else about our initial conversation. “Hey, I just remembered - that girl who played Wednesday is on As The World Turns!” I said “What, you’re talking Lisa Loring?  How old is she now?” He thought about it and said “I dunno, probably 20 years old or so…but I think you’re gonna like it...She plays this chick called Cricket Montgomery, and she’s SUPER PRETTY!”

  Well, that was all I needed to hear, and we tuned in to As The World Turns, but  it was anticlimactic as Cricket didn’t appear in that particular episode. It wasn’t until a few days later that I was up at Herb’s house with the television going on in the background when he finally pointed  to the TV and said- “There! That’s Wednesday Addams!” I quickly ran to the set and saw Lisa Loring in all her grown–up glory. Herb wasn’t kidding- She was FINE! Cute little Wednesday Addams had grown up into a gorgeous BABE!

We actually ended up tuning in to CAPITOL  and AS THE WORLD TURNS a bit during that summer, There were pretty interesting storylines going on, and with pretty actresses like Kimberly Beck-Hilton and Deborah Mullowney on CAPITOL, what’s not to love?  Throw in Lisa Loring in AS THE WORLD TURNS, and you had a pretty full soap watching schedule- and there was still gals like Eileen Davidson on The Young And The Restless to discover! Ahahahahha…

  Nowadays you can still find Lisa Loring appearing at conventions and events, still supporting her fans, and there's even a cool video clip of her on TV Land reminiscing about her child star days back in the sixties! Check It Out!

Favorite Albums: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

There was a time when my favorite group was The Kinks, and I was busy trying to get all the albums that featured my favorite songs by the eclectic British Invasion group. From You Really Got Me, through Lola and All Day and All of the Night, I picked em all up! But there was one particular album that I didn’t know anything about. It was called The Village Green Preservation Society, and was one of the last albums featuring the original 4-man lineup of Ray, Dave, Mick and Pete. What WAS this album? Was it Country? or, by the look of the cover, was it Folk?

Well, I didn’t know, but since the album was one of the few Kinks albums in the NICE PRICE line, (for those who don’t remember, the NICE PRICE albums were these selected cheaper priced albums that sold for $3.99) I didn’t have anything to lose by purchasing the album and checking it out- and MY GOSH, did THAT end up being a BARGAIN!

Like I said, I assumed it was going to be a country or folk album just by the title and cover picture, so I was COMPLETELY TAKEN UNAWARE when I was hit by one of the most witty, sentimental and HILARIOUS concept albums I’d ever heard in my life! Listening to this album was like foraging through an old chest of treasures in a dusty attic- all these little gems singing about the most mundane things in life, tunes that were innovative AND catchy at the same time!  We only had to listen to it once before the album became THE soundtrack me and my friends listened to for MONTHS, and to this day, The Village Green Preservation Society still remains one of my most beloved albums in my collection, easily one of the top twenty LPs I own!

The Village Green Preservation Society

An Ode to all things pure and simple in the world, championing such things as antique tables, little shops and virginity! This song about celebrating all the everyday things in life sets the template for the theme of the Village Green Preservation Society LP!

Do You Remember Walter?

A sentimental song about a childhood friendship. After reminiscing about adventures he’s had as a kid with a friend named Walter, he realizes that if he were to meet Walter now, He’d probably be nothing like the childhood friend he knew, and would probably not even care about the things they did. But that’s okay, because he still has his memories of their childhood days.

Picture Book

A song about the magic of looking through old Photo Albums, this song is more recently known for its brief stint as the theme song for one of those computer photo printers.

A sort of precursor for the album closer “People Take Pictures of each other”.

Johnny Thunder

We’ve always debated whether this song was about a true Paul Bunyan-ish hero or a misunderstood savior, but one thing is sure- Johnny Thunder’s a tough  ol’ guy, and he has a little sweetheart named Helena who has all the faith in the world in him.

Last of the Steam-Powered Trains

A sad song sung in the first person of a now passé Steam-Engine lamenting his replacement by the more slick and modern express Trains  that progress has presented. But he perks up by saying that by being an antique and placed in a museum, his well-being will be seen to!

I love the way this song’s beat trudges along like a train chugging, slowly picking up speed as the song progresses, to its big end!

Big Sky

And just who might the character “Big Sky” be, if not our Father who Art In Heaven?

A song about the sometimes callous indifference God has regarding the trials and tribulations we petty humans go through, while reminding us that one day, all our suffering will be rewarded. “One day we’ll be free, til that day can be, don’t let it get you down!”

Sitting By The Riverside

Ah, a song drenched with shades of Maurice Chevalier! This song completely encapsulates a dreamy scene sitting in a little café sipping tea as gondolas go by in the orange sunset, soaking in the Joi de vivre…

A sweet way to end Side One!

Animal Farm

Side Two’s opening track about leaving the headaches and bustle of the big, noisy city and moving to the country, where a man can rest easy and clear his head, free of traffic and superficial people…

Village Green

A sort of sequel to Animal Farm, this one’s about a fine, upstanding young man who has made a name for himself in the big city, but has fond memories about his days growing up in the simple country.

Phenomenal Cat

And what would an album  about the sweet and innocent things in life be without a NURSERY RHYME? A song that conjures up the images of “The Owl and The Pussycat”, the highlight of the melody is Ray’s own distorted singing as the voice of the Phenomenal Cat merrily humming away!

Starstruck

A fun ditty about a young girl who gets obsessed by the glitz and glamour of the  Hollywood scene, and her subsequent transformation into a wanna-be socialite, this tune is made fun by it’s showtime revue refrain: Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba!!

All of My Friends Were There

A trauma all of us go through- drinking too much and making a fool of yourself in front of everyone!

Wicked Annabella

Once you’ve sung a nursery rhyme, what could be more appropriate than to follow it up with a Fairy Tale? And a pretty spooky one, at that! The story of a wicked old Witch that flies the skies at night, looking for kids who haven’t gone to sleep like good little children…

Effectively sinister guitar riffs for this one, too!

Ah, haven’t we all known girls like the songs titular heroine? Smart, sexy, and oh-so-highly desirable, Monica knows she’s too good for just about ANYONE, and enjoys shooting hopeful young suitors down in flames! A man obsessed with a gal just aglow with confidence and charisma!

People Take Pictures Of Each Other

A HILARIOUS, fun way to end the album! The song sings about the wonder of Photo taking and photo sharing, and as the nostalgic host shows more and more pictures to his guest, the bored captive audience begs, “Don’t show me no more, please”! Something that ANYONE who’s been forced to watch somebody else’s family slideshows can relate to!

A Mark and Brian Christmas: Bacardi Rum Cake

More Classic Gems from Mark and Brian Christmas Past!

As the days got closer and closer to Christmas, the Mark and Brian gang started getting more and more winsome and sentimental, and a lot of the conversations  leaned towards childhood/early memories of Christmas...

While discussing the various food items that they’d brought for their Christmas potluck, Frank “Mr. Owl” Murphy related a short but interesting story about the Bacardi Rum Cake his wife had made for the occasion…

A Mark and Brian Christmas: Top Nine Rejected ELMO Dolls

More Classic Gems from Mark and Brian Christmas Past!


In the spirit of Christmas Shopping for Children's Toys, Mark and Brian offer up the Top Nine Rejected ELMO DOLL themes before the manufacturers finally settling on the famous "Tickle-Me Elmo"one!

Favorite Albums: Duran Duran / Rio

It was actually my sister who introduced me to the music of Duran Duran as a whole. Before she started bringing home all their albums and EPs, the only song I knew from them was the heavily-played on MTV song Hungry Like The Wolf. But after a few months of listening to her playing her albums over and over, I actually began to dig their music quite a bit!

I had an RCA Videodisc Player which I had purchased so I could watch The Who’s “Kids Are Alright” movie (the only format it was available in at the time), so most of my music concerts were in the Videodisc format as well. Discs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” (Yes! They released it on Videodisc!) and Fleetwood Mac’s “Mirage” Tour Concert were bought on a regular basis, and one day my sister asked me if I’d let her use the Videodisc Player if she bought a Videodisc of her own. I said sure, and the following weekend, she came home with a video collection of DURAN DURAN!

For a guy who didn’t know much about Duran Duran , this was a  mind-blowing and very educational experience! You got to see the band go through their early new wave roots up to their current (at the time) status as video-as-art mavericks! You got to see them go through several phases of “looks”…The songs segued into each other, making the contrasts of each type of video all the more palatable! And the SONGS were so damn good!

Eventually I had to go ahead and purchase their albums myself, including both versions of their “first” album, as well as what I consider their pop-art masterpiece, RIO.

The cover art for Rio was the (soon to be) iconical image of a smiling woman done by Patrick Nagel, at once capturing the whole “Nu-Romantic” feel before you’d even started playing the record!

1.Rio

The album starts off with a single synthesizer note, then the drums kick in to introduce the beat and then the song turns this into a jumping, rocking piece, setting the stage for your musical trip!

 2. Most of the songs here had videos shot on exotic locations (like, famously, Sri Lanka) and so when hearing songs like “Lonely in Your Nightmare” conjures up visions of faraway lands, giving you a melancholy (and quite lonely) feeling, John’s bass solos are particularly expressive here.

3.The version of the song “My Own Way” I learned was from the video, which featured the dance-“night” version of the song, and when I first made a cassette to play in my car, it was THAT version I inserted into the album’s playlist. And even now I still would prefer to listed to that version than the decidedly slower one originally on the album!

4. The one song I’d already known before coming in, this is a fun number that’s only marred by an EXTREMELY irritating end with a lady loudly moaning during the fade out. WTF, this wasn’t so noticeable in the single version!

5. Hold Back The Rain

Side One ended with this longish song in ths style of the above Hungry Like the Wolf track, this one foreshadowed later songs New Moon On Monday and Union of the Snake.

7. New Religion

This is one ROCKING number, another one driven by John’s distinctive bass plucking.

ME and my friends would LOVE to sing this song with its interesting lead vocal overlaid with a counter vocal during the choruses! One of my faves from this album!

8.Last Chance On The Stairway

 Ah, another BIG favorite  of mine- this one begins with an almost whimsical and romantic feel (with him sweetly reminiscing "I don't remember quite how I met you, wasn't long ago") but turns into a rocking song full of desperation!

9. Save A Prayer

Like Lonely In Your Nightmare, this one was shot on location and so gives an added feel of displacement, loss and loneliness. One of the more famous MTV videos by them, I might add. A truly beautiful and haunting song!

10. The Chauffeur
Did I mention Haunting? MAN, songs like  album closer “The Chauffeur” go even further by giving you the strangest sense of unease!  its Magical Toyland feel to it, I've always imagined the picture on the cover of Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic" with the dolls and hobby-horses coming to life, and there's even a disembodied voice asking about "the toys in the attic" A mesmerizing end to an amazing album!!

Years later, and though they’ve made many video collections after that, they’ve never released that original Duran Duran Video Collection on DVD. Sure, the videos themselves are (for the most part) available on other collections, but there was something about the way that old video was put together that just made it…perfect!