perry-como « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Oh god, make it stop (Updated!)

Lex — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:29:53 +0000

I got home from an extra-long shift about an hour ago. Open to close, 9 to 8 without company or being able to leave. Ok, i really don’t give a shit about having company. And it wasn’t as bad as it probably sounds; in fact, it didn’t bother me at all. Except that i’m now sitting at home and i can hear…literally hear as in aural hallucination…the god-damned Christmas Crooners.

I know a man who lives in Tennessee/ He was headin’ for, Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie/ From Pennsylvania forlks are travellin’ down to Dixie’s sunny shore/ From Atlantic to Pacific, gee the traffic is terrific.

I’m past the point of polishing my versions like Jihadi Wonderland and White Bitches. I just want it to end. Saw a film once about English explorers in Africa. Might have even been about Livingston, all i remember is a scene where some poor bloke is sleeping in his tent. A big black bug wiggles into his ear. Time passes, and the guy wakes up screaming bloody murder. He runs out of the tent, falls, writhes in pain and there isn’t much that anyone can do. The guy with the bug in his ear finally takes the only option open to him. He jabs a metal spike into his own ear.

Perry Como, meet knitting needle.

UPDATE: (And in response to the comment. This morning, at the beginning of another 9 – 8, i did the deed. “Shuffle”, “Repeat All”, “Play”. And what do you think the first thing that came on was? Yep, that ole bastard, Perry Como. He’s out to get me, i know it…

Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something. Crooning all day makes Lex go something, something.

Raindrops on Roses

Kate — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:37:36 +0000

Every year I hear people complain about the Christmas season starting too early. I have tried to understand their irritation. I have tried to sympathize with how they’re feeling. But I know I will never truly understand where they’re coming from because I am one of those people who adores Christmastime. I don’t really enjoy Christmas Day — in fact, I find it rather depressing — but I love everything leading up to it. Of all the things that bring me joy this time of year, here are the ones I love most:

Christmas Movies. I watch a lot of movies around Christmas, some old favorites and some I get sucked into on ABC Family and the like. The ones I watch nearly every year include …

Yogi's First Christmas

Home Alone

Elf

The Muppet Christmas Carol

A Christmas Story

Love Actually

and

Christmas Vacation

Christmas TV. I do believe I enjoy Christmas television programming even more than seasonal movies. I have a fondness for the cartoons, especially A Charlie Brown Christmas (which I rented and watched, along with Christmas Vacation, BEFORE Thanksgiving this year) …

A Charlie Brown Christmas

… but my heart really belongs to reruns of old sitcoms (think Home Improvement, That ’70s Show, Roseanne and Who’s the Boss?) and the occasional serial (like Beverly Hills, 90210). As of this writing, my favorite Christmas TV episode — well, it’s actually two episodes — is It’s a Bundyful Life, Married… with Children’s spin on It’s a Wonderful Life that features the kickass Sam Kinison.

Hood Golden EggNog. Sadly, I cannot get this brand of eggnog in the Midwest, but I go to town on a carton when I make it back to Connecticut for the holidays. Normally I would consider writing a letter to Hood, asking them to distribute out here, but it’s probably better for my heart and my waistline if I don’t.

Christmas Music. I’m a big fan of Bing Crosby (Did he really beat his kids? Someone mentioned that to me just recently …), Perry Como, Johnny Mathis and the like. One of my very favorite songs is Jim Nabors’ Go Tell It on the Mountain. My favorite CD is Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s Once upon a Christmas. I have a really hard time with a lot of newer stuff — like the Destiny’s Child Christmas garbage they were playing at the library last week — but I’m not fully opposed to it. For instance, Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel’s version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside totally rules.

White Christmas

Lights. My husband is not a big fan of Christmas (perhaps the understatement of 2009), but he humors my yearly request to be chauffeured around to look at Christmas lights. I just can’t get enough of all the good, the bad and the ugly. Now that we live in the ‘burbs it’s even better because, though I normally despise the McMansion neighborhoods that contain nary a full-grown tree, they often feature the best holiday light displays.

If you celebrate Christmas or another holiday around this time of year, what’s your favorite part?

RIP, Aaron Schroeder (December 2, 2009) Wrote Several Hits For Elvis

themusicsover.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:37:25 +0000

Aaron Schroeder September 7, 1926 – December 2, 2009 At right with Gene Pitney Aaron Schroeder

Advent song for December 1

elsiem — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:08:59 +0000

This is a lovely song. The quality of this recording isn’t great, but it makes up for that with bags of charm. If the Christmas fairy were to grant me one wish, I might choose to be living in an age when primetime TV was given over to hour-long live performances by the popular singers of the day.

Any Major Christmas in Black and White

halfhearteddude — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:59:17 +0000

After offering a “Christmas mix, not for Mother” last year, I feel obliged to make amends to your Mom by creating a mix she might like. Yes, it’s all gloriously retro this year. The youngest of the songs, as far as I can tell, is Jim Nabor’s version of Sleigh Ride from 1968; the oldest, Eddie Duchin’s (Don’t Wait Till) The Night Before Christmas, is 30 years older. Most of the songs here come from the 1940s and ’50s. A hurriedly put-together front and back CD cover is included, and as always the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, which might sort out the Christmas prezzie for some relatives. If this mix is popular enough, I’ll do a second volume. Let me know what you think in the comments section (you do know that bloggers really like to receive comments, so don’t be shy).

Fans of The Originals series will appreciate the first version of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by Jimmy Boyd, then 13, which was released in 1952. Boyd died in Mach this year at the age of 70.

TRACKLISTING
1. Sammy Davis, Jr - Christmas Time All Over The World
2. Burl Ives – A Holly Jolly Christmas
3. Billy May - Do You Believe In Santa Claus
4. Dean Martin - Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer
5. Lena Horne - Santa Claus Is Comin To Town
6. Nat ‘King’ Cole – Mrs. Santa Claus
7. Gene Autry – Here Comes Santa Claus
8. Andrews Sisters - Winter Wonderland
9. Connee Boswell - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
10. Dinah Washington – Ole Santa
11. Fontane Sisters – Nuttin’ For Christmas
12. Frank Sinatra – Jingle Bells
13. Brenda Lee - Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
14. Ernest Tubb – Blue Christmas
15. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Santa’s On His Way
16. Jogi Jorgensen – I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas
17. DeCastro Sisters - Snowbound For Christmas
18. Jim Nabors – Sleigh Ride
19. Perry Como – Silver Bells
20. Bing Crosby – Frosty The Snowman
21. Jimmy Boyd – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
22. Louis Armstrong – Zat You, Santa Claus?
23. Lionel Hampton & his Orchestra – Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
24. Judy Garland – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
25. Ella Fitzgerald – The Secret Of Christmas
26. Eddy Duchin Orchestra – (Don’t Wait Till) The Night Before Christmas
27. Gordon Jenkins Orchestra – White Christmas
28. Les Brown Orchestra feat Doris Day – The Christmas Song
29. Red Foley – Put Christ Back Into Christmas
30. Rosemary Clooney – Happy Christmas, Little Friend

DOWNLOAD

Christmas Mix, Not For Mother
Any Major Christmas Mix Vol. 2 (2008)
More mixes

And all that jazz

charlespaolino — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:31:58 +0000

PAUL ANKA

One of my Facebook friends — and a former newspaper colleague — remarked today that she likes to start sentences with “and” and “but,” an indulgence we share. In fact, I make a point of telling my students that while they shouldn’t use a coordinating conjunction to begin a sentence while they are in the stifling atmosphere of academia, they should have at it once they’re writing on their own.

This got me to thinking about song lyrics that begin with “and,” only because four popped into my head immediately.

The first was “My Way,” which begins: “And now the end is near, and I must face the final curtain.” Paul Anka wrote that lyric, and according to him, it was inspired by Frank Sinatra’s announcement that he was going to quit show business.

FRANK SINATRA

The melody was written by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux for a French song. “Comme d’habitude,” which means something like “As is my habit.” Anka’s lyrics, I understand, have no relationship to the originals but were meant to go along with Sinatra’s mood at the time.

There have been notable covers of the song by Elvis Presley, Sid Vicious, and Dorothy Squires.

Another lyric in this category was written by Johnny Mercer for a popular version of “The Song of the Indian Guest” from the opera “Sadko” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I mentioned this here recently in connection with Mercer’s centennial. Mercer’s version is known as “Song of India,” and it begins: “And still the snowy Himalayas rise in ancient majesty before our eyes ….”

MARIO LANZA

Mario Lanza made a fine recording of that song, and Lanza also made a wonderful recording of “They’ll Never Believe Me,” which was written by Herbert Reynolds and Jerome Kern to help rescue an imported British musical, “The Girl From Utah,” in 1914. The refrain, which usually begins the song, starts: “And when I tell them how beautiful you are, they’ll never believe me ….”

The last song that occurred to me was “And I love her so,” which was written by Don McLean but is most widely associated with Perry Como.

And like that.

Reasons to Give Thanks

Cindy Leonard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:02:11 +0000

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? For many, it means food, family, fun (hopefully) and some

Perry Como: Barber to Crooner

Andrew Godfrey — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:28:46 +0000

Perry Como sang in the same era as such greats as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby but was the last one of the three to die dying in 2001.

Perry Como was born May 18, 1912 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and was a barber before he became a well known singer.

He like Sinatra was a big band singer early in his career and was known for being one of the most relaxed singers in the business when on stage.

Despite the advent of rock and roll in the 50’s he still would record an occasional hit song.

When our Pineville Elementary in Pineville, Louisiana took a trip to a Fishville, Louisiana skating rink I can remember skating to Perry Como singing Round and Round the perfect skating song.

Perry Como singing It’s Impossible in this audio version of this song accompanied by stunning visual graphics.

Perry singing If I Loved You and No Other Love. Viewers who watched the Perry Como Show will remember the “we get letters” introduction before the songs.

Found this Perry Como Christmas album in a local bookstore for 25 cents and am looking forward to playing it this Christmas season.

Perry Como died six days before his 89th birthday on May 12, 2001 with May 12 being a significant date since my mom died on May 12 of 1998.

Alzheimer's Hits Celebrities Too

childofprussia — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:31:15 +0000

I never knew just how many famous people dropped off society’s radar because of Alzheimer’s/dementia! I was surprised to see certain people in this list, because often the news would only say that so-and-so passed away; the person’s Alzheimer’s/dementia diagnosis was not always mentioned.

(Please ignore the depressing soundtrack and overly dramatic ending; the names and faces are really the most interesting part of this video.)

Favorite Christmas Songs -- Yes, It's Too Early

thegreatwellington — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:33:28 +0000

Hello All,

So I’m five days passed my deadline for writing this week’s e-mail blast for work. The topic is Christmas, and the point of the blast is to kick off the holiday shopping season at my place of business. I’ve been flipping through my brain files, and I’ve come up with absolutely nothing. Last week’s little trip to NC is still fresh on my mind, and I can’t stop thinking about 75 degrees and blue skies. Add to that the knowledge I have of potential future events involving my work that I can’t share, yet, and my firm belief that Christmas shouldn’t even be mentioned until Thanksgiving has had its due, and the result will be me sitting here without focus. I’m a living, breathing, walking, talking failure (at least at this one task). So I’m going to try to knock in a good thought or two, and I’m starting with my friends, The Lists.

So here goes . . .

My Top Ten Favorite Christmas Songs

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year — Andy Williams
What Christmas Means to Me — Paul Young
This Christmas — Christina Aguilera
Step Into Christmas — Elton John
White Christmas — The Drifters (do do duh do. do do. do do dooo.)
Mele Kalikimaka — Bing Crosby
Please Come Home for Christmas — Don Henley
All I Want for Christmas Is You — Vince Vance & the Valients
Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) — U2 (do I sense a theme here?)
Christmas Wrapping — The Waitresses

More Christmas Songs I Like

Sleigh Ride (but only instrumental versions and they have to have the horse whinny near the end)
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree — Johnny Marks
I Saw Mommy Kissin’ Santa Claus — John Cougar Mellencamp or John Cougar or John Mellencamp
Here Comes Santa Claus — Gene Autry
Carol of the Bells — but only full orchestra/full choir versions
Holly Jolly Christmas — Burl Ives
O Holy Night — Josh Groban
Where Are You Christmas? – Faith Hill (I didn’t really “get” this song until I moved to Pittsburgh)
Believe — Josh Groban
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas — Perry Como
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (it’s catchy)
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (I like snow)
The Chipmunk Song
The entire soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas

Christmas Songs I Can’t Stand to Hear at All (or Please Don’t Play These Near Me If You Want Me to Get You a Present)

Feliz Navidad — Anyone’s version
Christmas Shoes or whatever that song is
Dominic the Donkey (hee haw hee haw)
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Same Old Lang Syne — Dan Fogelberg (gosh I really hate that song – it just goes on and on and on and on)
O Tannenbaum/O Christmas Tree
The Twelve Days of Christmas

I’m sure there are more, good and bad, but these are all I can remember right now. Did it help with the writer’s block? No, but I do think I have a good list started for my next Christmas party playlist.

Kevin Dundon’s “Duncanon Seafood Chowder” Recipe (Basically “It’s Not Bleeding Chowder” from Raglan Road”)

mari — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:44:00 +0000

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! This morning, I got a comment on my blog from Kevin Dundon, THE c

THE THINGS I DIDN'T DO

haefsongs — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:50:49 +0000

00220.0000 THE THINGS I DIDN’T DO
Words & music: Ira Kosloff, Fred Jay & Irving Reid.

Lyrics Link
Perry Como Performance

I never said,”I love you”, as I should have done,
I never told you, darling, “You’re the only one”,
Will I go on regretting now my whole life through
The things I didn’t do ?
I never held my arms around you long enough,
I never dared to make my kisses strong enough,
Will I go on regretting now my whole life through
The things I didn’t do ?
I was too much afraid-afraid to get burned
In a one-way romance.
So now I’m alone, too late I have learnedI
never gave love a chance.
But if there is an answer to my every prayer,
If you can find within your heart that you still care,
I’ll gladly spend my life just making up to you
The things I didn’t do.

Captura a la little sister... [¿no se usaba una bandera?] Bioshock 2 [Video]

CesarInnMEX — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:03:12 +0000

Que Zippo de Sega Saturn ni que la merga... Incinerate!!!

Hola compadres de Overdrive [y demás amigos que no se animan a comentar... sin pena canijos], les presento este video de uno de los modos multijugador que traerá esta secuela del juegazo Bioshock, por cierto, ¿no les parecen de los más cabronas estas presentaciones en blanco y negro con los monitos cagados?, XD de lo más original de la saga.

Como podemos ver en el video el chiste de este modo es capturar a la little sister y llevarla a la tubería de donde salen originalmente y así ganar puntos, el problema será pasar por todos los disparos de ambos equipos y llegar con vida [o más o menos...] siempre y cuando la sister te deje ver bien por donde andas y los disparos porque en el tiempo que la lleves te estará manoteando y dando de chingadazos jejeje, al final tendrás que depositarla en su tubería; un captura la bandera sin lugar a dudas.

Según se acerque la fecha de salida de este juego [9 de febrero 2010] más nos dejaran ver acerca del gameplay así que… prepárense.

Bioshock 2 I`m wainting for you; Papa loves mambo…. [¿Recuerdan esa canción en una de las rockolas? XD]

Source | ºecetia.com | Destructoidº

Perry Como--Videos

Raymond — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:35:29 +0000

“People have always thought that I wasn’t ambitious. They judged by appearances and were fooled. I was competitive. I wanted success and was willing to work for it.”

“Actually, I would love to make a music video. Maybe it would finally put to rest those persistent rumours that have followed me throughout my career – particularly when I was on camera performing – that I had died.”

Perry Como sings “Someone to Watch Over Me”

Perry Como – I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now

Perry Como sings “Here Comes Heaven (Again)”

Perry Como – I Wanna Go Home (With You)

Perry Como and Bob Hope perform “Small Fry”

Perry Como sings “Hey Good Lookin’”

Perry Como sings “Sway”

PERRY COMO SCARLET RIBBONS

Perry Como sings “Papa Loves Mambo” – 1954

Perry Como – Catch a Falling Star

Perry Como – Easter Parade

When Your Smiling – Perry Como

Perry Como – For The Good Times

Days of Wine and Roses..Perry Como

Perry Como – Because

Perry Como with The McGuire Sisters — April 1958

Perry Como – Love Makes The World Go Round

Perry Como – Magic Moments.

Perry Como – Make Someone Happy

Perry Como – It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas – 1958

Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney – 1958

PERRY COMO & LENA HORNE Sing a Medley 1960

Perry Como with Luiz Bonfá circa 1963

Perry Como sings “Didn’t We”

Perry Como – And I Love You So

Ella Fitzgerald, Caterina Valente, Perry Como

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (1 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (1 of 6)From 12/20/1969
–Perry Como & singers – “Home for the Holidays,” “Love in a Home”
–Perry Como Diahann Carroll Shecky Greene – Santa Claud sketch

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (2 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (2 of 6) From 12/20/1969
–Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla & Ollie (puppets)
–Edward Villella (dancer from the New York City Ballet) – dances to “Little Drummer Boy”
–Diahann Carroll – “Sweet Beginning”

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (3 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (3 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Diahann Carroll – “Remember” & “How Deep Is the Ocean?” –Perry Como and Diahann Carroll – “Silver Bells”

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (4 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (4 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Shecky Greene (comedian) –Perry Como & singers – “Christmas Eve”

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (5 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (5 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla & Ollie (puppets)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (6 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (6 of 6) From 12/20/1969
–Perry Como & singers – “Christmas Eve,” “The First Noel,” “Oh Holy Night,” “Christ Is Born” & “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

Perry Como Killing Me Softly

ITS IMPOSSIBLE PERRY COMO

Karen Carpenter and Perry Como Medley

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 1

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 2

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 3

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 4

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 5

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 6

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 7

Perry Como – For the Good Times/The Wind Beneath My Wings

Perry Como – Seattle

Perry Como Sings – Palm Beach Fl. 1993–Part 1

Perry Como Sings – Palm Beach Fl. 1993–Part 2

Perry Como – It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas – 1994

Perry Como – And I Love You So ( Japan 1993 )

Perry Como Tribute To Bing Crosby–Part 1

Perry Como Tribute To Bing Crosby–Part 2

Perry Como at disco Studio 54 New York City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkbhuV-3qTk

Perry Como – When Your Hair Has Turned To Silver

Mona Lisa – Perry Como in Paris

Perry Como: I Think of You

Christmas Music: “Home For The Holidays”, Perry Como

Perry Como – Happy Holidays

Silver Bells – Perry Como – Christmas

Perry Como – And I Love You So

Perry Como – Toora Loora Loora

Perry Como – When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Perry Como – Ave Maria 1994

Perry Como – Bless This Hou

Perry Como – Jingle Bells

Christmas songs Perry Como – Jingle Bells Lyrics

Perry Como – Jingle Bells

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ~ Perry Como – Christmas

The Twelve Days Of Christmas – Perry Como

Perry Como – Little Drummer Boy

Perry Como – White Christmas

Perry Como – O Holy Night

Perry Como – Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Perry Como – O Little Town of Bethlehem

Perry Como – Silent Night

Perry Como – O Come Al Ye Faithful

Perry Como – Round and Round

“I worked with the world’s greatest talents and then went home to the world’s greatest woman. It was, and is, a great life.”

“My only regret in life is that I didn’t spend as much time with my kids as I now wish I had.”

Background Articles and Videos

PERRY COMO SURPRISES REGIS

Como on Como – A UK Profile

t’s Impossible – A UK Profile circa 1975

Perry Como

“…Pierino “Perry” Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. “Mr. C”, as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for RCA and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time.

A popular television performer and recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como’s behest. His weekly television hobo and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world and his popularity seemingly had no geographical or language boundaries. He was equally at ease in live performance and in the confines of a recording studio. His appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard Magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: “50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all.”

Well known composer Ervin Drake said of him, ” . . . occasionally someone like Perry comes along and won’t ‘go with the flow’ and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally.”

Perry Como received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. …”

“…Como, an Italian American, was born the seventh son of a seventh son in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, seventh of the 13 children of Pietro Como and Lucia Travaglini, who both immigrated to the US in 1900 from the Abruzzese town of Palena. He was a Roman Catholic. His father was an amateur baritone, and had all his children attend music lessons even if he could barely afford them. Young Perry started to help his family at age 10 by helping in Steve Fragapane’s barber shop for 50¢ a week.

Although he always liked to sing, and had shown his early musical talent in his teenage years as a trombone player in the town’s brass band and as organist in the local church, his first great ambition was to be the best barber in Canonsburg. After graduation from high school, he opened his own barber shop. In 1933, he married his teenage sweetheart, Roselle Belline, whom he had met at a picnic in 1929 when he was just 17. They raised three children. In 1993, he was successfully treated for bladder cancer. Perry and Roselle remained married until her death in August 1998 at age 84. Como was reportedly devastated by her passing. …”

“…Perry Como modelled his voice and style after Bing Crosby^[3] as most male singers of the 1930s and 1940s did. Perry Como’s voice is widely known for its good-natured vocal acrobatics as portrayed in his highly popular novelty songs such as “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)”. But there was another side to Perry Como described by music critic Gene Lees in his sleeve note to Como’s 1968 album “Look To Your Heart”:

Despite his immense popularity, Como is rarely given credit for what, once you stop and think of it, he so clearly is: one of the great singers and one of the great artists of our time. Perhaps the reason people rarely talk about his formidable attributes as a singer is that he makes so little fuss about them. That celebrated ease of his has been too little understood. Ease in any art is the result of mastery over the details of the craft. You get them together to the point where you can forget about how you do things and concentrate on what you are doing. Como got them together so completely that the muscles don’t even show. It seems effortless, but a good deal of effort has gone into making it seem so. Como is known to be meticulous about rehearsal of the material for an album. He tries things out in different keys, gives the song thought, makes suggestions, tries it again, and again, until he is satisfied. The hidden work makes him look like Mr. Casual, and too many people are taken in by it — but happily so. I have of necessity given a good deal of thought and study to the art of singing, and Como’s work consistently astonishes me. He is a fantastic technician. Listen in this album to the perfection of his intonation, the beauty of the sound he produces, the constant comfortable breath control. And take notice of his high notes. Laymen are often impressed by the high note you can hear for five blocks. Professionals know that it is far more difficult to hit a high note quietly. Como lights on a C or D at the top of a tune as softly as a bird on a branch, not even shaking it. And then there’s his phrasing. A number of our best singers phrase well. The usual technique is to rethink the lyrics of a song to see how they would come out if you were saying them, and then approximate in singing the normal speech inflections and rhythms. This often involves altering the melody, but it is a legitimate practice and when done well can be quite striking. But Como is beyond that. He apparently does not find it necessary to change the melodic line in order to infuse a song with emotion. A great jazz trumpeter once told me, “After fifteen years of playing, I’ve come to the conclusion that the hardest thing to do is to play melody, play it straight and get feeling into it.” Como has been doing this from the beginning. Stylistically, he comes out of the Bing Crosby-Russ Colombo school. That was all a long time ago. Como has been his own man for many years now. He sounds like nobody else. And nobody sounds like him, either. He is hard to imitate precisely because his work is so free of tricks and gimmicks. There are no mannerisms for another singer to pick up from him. All one can do is try to sing as well and as honestly as Como, and any singer who does that will end up sounding like himself, not Como. …”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Como

PERRY COMO AT A GOLF TOURNAMNET 1987

The Bob Dylan-Perry Como Christmas special

stevenhartwriter — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:24:04 +0000

Apologies to anyone who has nightmares tonight because of that headline, but I think that’s the organizing principle behind Bob Dylan’s new one, Christmas in the Heart. It’s been almost forty years since His Bobness released an album as conceptually brilliant, artistically confident, and virtually unlistenable as Self Portrait, and now that Dylan has done the trick — and I’ve done my bit for charity by buying it — I want to mark the occasion with a few words before shelving the thing.

Greil Marcus, the eminence grise of deep-dish Dylanology, pre-empted any thoughts of doing a one-liner review of Christmas in the Heart by by opening his review of Self Portrait with “What is this shit?” But the concept behind Self Portrait was very astute: if we build our identities from the things we like, then why shouldn’t Bob Dylan reveal himself through the songs he liked?

And if Christmas is the most nostalgic of holidays, a time for family get-togethers and the observance of traditions, then why shouldn’t Dylan style the musical settings for his Christmas album after the crooners of his childhood, and those Yuletide television specials featuring blanded-out whitebread singers on overlit sets, dazzling the TV camera with wide, preternaturally bright smiles? In other words, why shouldn’t Bob Dylan put out a Perry Como holiday record?

I realize you can instantly think of a thousand reasons why you wouldn’t want to hear Dylan wheezing along with King Family-style backup singers, but that’s the kind of stuff television sets beamed into households during Dylan’s youth, and Christmas brings out the child in all of us, right? The title alone revives the memories of all those Hallmark Hall of Fame TV specials that time and post-traumatic stress disorder had buried somewhere back behind my medulla oblongata. As one whose childhood occurred on the tail end of that era, I could recognize all the nostalgia zones Dylan was working in, and I acknowledge the intent even as I shake my head at the result.

Though by no stretch of the imagination is Christmas in the Heart a good album, portions are weirdly listenable in a Christmas-with-Dr.-Demento kind of way. Future generations who want to know how Dylan pronounced Latin will be thrilled to have “O Come All Ye Faithful,” or the first verse of it, anyway. The uptempo numbers tend to work best. When things slow down, Dylan sounds like a man trying to compete in a shot-put match by flinging his own larynx.

From all accounts, Dylan’s real Christmas gift to the world has been rehiring guitarist Charlie Sexton for his touring band. The recent shows are supposed to be vastly better than anything Dylan’s given the world of late. I’ll want to hear one of those sometime soon. I can’t imagine ever wanting to hear Christmas in the Heart again.

RIP - VIC MIZZY

urdead2me — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:36:43 +0000

EXPIRED: 10/17/09 – Vic Mizzy, 93, was neither creepy, kooky, mysterious or spooky. But he pr

Died On This Date (October 14, 1977) Bing Crosby

themusicsover.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:26:15 +0000

Harry “Bing” Crosby May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977 Bing Crosby was one of America

Perry Como--Videos

Raymond — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:12:15 +0000

“People have always thought that I wasn’t ambitious. They judged by appearances and were fooled. I was competitive. I wanted success and was willing to work for it.”

Perry Como sings “Someone to Watch Over Me”

Perry Como – I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now

Perry Como sings “Here Comes Heaven (Again)”

Perry Como – I Wanna Go Home (With You)

Perry Como and Bob Hope perform “Small Fry”

Perry Como sings “Hey Good Lookin’”

Perry Como sings “Sway”

PERRY COMO SCARLET RIBBONS

Perry Como sings “Papa Loves Mambo” – 1954

Perry Como – Catch a Falling Star

Perry Como – Easter Parade

When Your Smiling – Perry Como

Perry Como – For The Good Times

Days of Wine and Roses..Perry Como

Perry Como – Because

Perry Como with The McGuire Sisters — April 1958

Perry Como – Love Makes The World Go Round

Perry Como – Magic Moments.

Perry Como – Make Someone Happy

Perry Como – It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas – 1958

Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney – 1958

PERRY COMO & LENA HORNE Sing a Medley 1960

Perry Como with Luiz Bonfá circa 1963

Perry Como sings “Didn’t We”

Perry Como – And I Love You So

Ella Fitzgerald, Caterina Valente, Perry Como

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (1 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (2 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (3 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (3 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Diahann Carroll – “Remember” & “How Deep Is the Ocean?” –Perry Como and Diahann Carroll – “Silver Bells”

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (4 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (4 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Shecky Greene (comedian) –Perry Como & singers – “Christmas Eve”

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (5 of 6)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (5 of 6) From 12/20/1969 –Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla & Ollie (puppets)

Perry Como hosts Hollywood Palace Christmas 1969 (6 of 6)

Perry Como Killing Me Softly

ITS IMPOSSIBLE PERRY COMO

Karen Carpenter and Perry Como Medley

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 1

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 2

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 3

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 4

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 5

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 6

Perry Como Live in Tokyo – 1979 part 7

Perry Como – For the Good Times/The Wind Beneath My Wings

Perry Como – Seattle

Perry Como Sings – Palm Beach Fl. 1993–Part 1

Perry Como Sings – Palm Beach Fl. 1993–Part 2

Perry Como – It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas – 1994

Perry Como – And I Love You So ( Japan 1993 )

Perry Como Tribute To Bing Crosby–Part 1

Perry Como Tribute To Bing Crosby–Part 2

Perry Como at disco Studio 54 New York City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkbhuV-3qTk

Perry Como – When Your Hair Has Turned To Silver

Mona Lisa – Perry Como in Paris

Perry Como: I Think of You

Christmas Music: “Home For The Holidays”, Perry Como

Perry Como – Happy Holidays

Silver Bells – Perry Como – Christmas

Perry Como – And I Love You So

Perry Como – Toora Loora Loora

Perry Como – When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Perry Como – Ave Maria 1994

Perry Como – Bless This Hou

Perry Como – Jingle Bells

Christmas songs Perry Como – Jingle Bells Lyrics

Perry Como – Jingle Bells

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ~ Perry Como – Christmas

The Twelve Days Of Christmas – Perry Como

Perry Como – Little Drummer Boy

Perry Como – White Christmas

Perry Como – O Holy Night

Perry Como – Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Perry Como – O Little Town of Bethlehem

Perry Como – Silent Night

Perry Como – O Come Al Ye Faithful

Perry Como – Round and Round

“I worked with the world’s greatest talents and then went home to the world’s greatest woman. It was, and is, a great life.”

“My only regret in life is that I didn’t spend as much time with my kids as I now wish I had.”

Background Articles and Videos

PERRY COMO SURPRISES REGIS

Como on Como – A UK Profile

t’s Impossible – A UK Profile circa 1975

Perry Como

Perry Como received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. …”

Despite his immense popularity, Como is rarely given credit for what, once you stop and think of it, he so clearly is: one of the great singers and one of the great artists of our time. Perhaps the reason people rarely talk about his formidable attributes as a singer is that he makes so little fuss about them. That celebrated ease of his has been too little understood. Ease in any art is the result of mastery over the details of the craft. You get them together to the point where you can forget about how you do things and concentrate on what you are doing. Como got them together so completely that the muscles don’t even show. It seems effortless, but a good deal of effort has gone into making it seem so. Como is known to be meticulous about rehearsal of the material for an album. He tries things out in different keys, gives the song thought, makes suggestions, tries it again, and again, until he is satisfied. The hidden work makes him look like Mr. Casual, and too many people are taken in by it — but happily so. I have of necessity given a good deal of thought and study to the art of singing, and Como’s work consistently astonishes me. He is a fantastic technician. Listen in this album to the perfection of his intonation, the beauty of the sound he produces, the constant comfortable breath control. And take notice of his high notes. Laymen are often impressed by the high note you can hear for five blocks. Professionals know that it is far more difficult to hit a high note quietly. Como lights on a C or D at the top of a tune as softly as a bird on a branch, not even shaking it. And then there’s his phrasing. A number of our best singers phrase well. The usual technique is to rethink the lyrics of a song to see how they would come out if you were saying them, and then approximate in singing the normal speech inflections and rhythms. This often involves altering the melody, but it is a legitimate practice and when done well can be quite striking. But Como is beyond that. He apparently does not find it necessary to change the melodic line in order to infuse a song with emotion. A great jazz trumpeter once told me, “After fifteen years of playing, I’ve come to the conclusion that the hardest thing to do is to play melody, play it straight and get feeling into it.” Como has been doing this from the beginning. Stylistically, he comes out of the Bing Crosby-Russ Colombo school. That was all a long time ago. Como has been his own man for many years now. He sounds like nobody else. And nobody sounds like him, either. He is hard to imitate precisely because his work is so free of tricks and gimmicks. There are no mannerisms for another singer to pick up from him. All one can do is try to sing as well and as honestly as Como, and any singer who does that will end up sounding like himself, not Como. …”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Como

PERRY COMO AT A GOLF TOURNAMNET 1987

Hollywood Gossip - September, 1954

Vicki — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:15:47 +0000

Hollywood Gossip

September, 1954

MS – The Milwaukee Sentinel
PPG = Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SDC = Spokane Daily Chronicle
SPT = St. Petersburg Times
TM = Time Magazine

Ann Sothern was so excited about the Betty Hutton TV’er that she forgot to watch her own show. –MS: 09-18-1954

TETERBORO, N.J., Sept. 17—Arthur Godfrey got his pilot’s license back today after an hour and 15 minute flight test. . . . . The radio and TV star said it felt “very, very good” to get back into the air and fly a plane again. . . . . “it’s like and old shoe,” he added, “when you put it on, it fits.” . . . . . Godfrey took off from Teterboro Airport in his private DC-3 twin-engined plane at 3:15 (Pittsburgh Time) for the flight test required before he could regain his license. The Civil Aeronautics Board revoked Godfrey’s pilot’s license six months ago for reckless flying. –PPG: 09-18-1954

Celeste Holm, describing a recent visit to a penny arcade on Broadway: “A man came up and pointed and said, ‘CELESTE HOLM!’ He said, ‘You got taffy on your nose! Here, let me lick your nose!’ And he started for me. I ducked. The man who runs the arcade came up and said, ‘Don’t be rude to our out-of-town visitors, Miss Holm!’”

At the Marciano-Ezzard fight: Eddie Fisher, the very much in love popular singer, was at ringside rooting for his boy Rocky. . . . . Marciano plans to plane to Hollywood to appear on the Comedy Hour Sunday with Eddie. . . . . Perry Como was also sighted among the celebrities. –PPG: 09-18-1954

HOLLYWOOD—The Cleveland Indians’ virtual clinching of the American League pennant could well cost one of its owners more than his investment. . . . . Comic Bob Hope, who has a 10 per cent piece of the Indians, disclosed yesterday that he is deluged with ticket requests for the series. . . . .”Everybody in Hollywood except Crosby has hit me for tickets,” Hope quipped. . . . . “Baseball is a dirty word to Bing since the Pittsburgh Pirates went underground.”. . . . . Bing is part owner of the National League cellar dwellers. . . . . . Hope said he has even got ticket requests from Ohio. . . . . “My brother, Fred, in Columbus, wants 50 for each game, and I even heard from the prima donna who sang in my first show 30 years ago.” –SPT: 09-18-1954

Jack Webb’s betting two G’s that his “Dragnet” movie, which cost $800,000 to make, will gross five million. –MS: 09-18-1954

James Mason lists his address as Pamela Drive, Beverly Hills. There is no such street: he merely named his driveway after his wife. –SPT: 09-18-1954

Singing star Jeanette MacDonald was stricken by an obscure virus in New York last night and is confined to her apartment there with a high temperature during a “dangerous crisis period” her publicity agent said today. . . . . The office said she was stricken by a virus known as hyperpyrexia and last night had a temperature of 105. This morning she had a temperature of 104. –SDC: 09-18-1954

When comedienne Joan Davis wanted to catch TV shows at her vacation home in Hawaii, she had to build a 200-foot tower to make sure they’d show up on her home screen. –SPT: 09-18-1954

Joe E. Lewis, who was making about $10,000 a week in Las Vegas, says, “I had to leave—couldn’t afford it any longer.” –MS: 09-18-1954

Marilyn Monroe—asked what she thought of the Dior flat fashions—said, “They’d look better on Joe than me.” –MS: 09-18-1954

NEW YORK—The top-ranking magazine in the Soviet Union has discovered Marlon Brando. . . . . The “theoretical and political journal of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union”—Kommunist—described Brando for Soviet readers as “a well-known American actress.”. . . . . Kommunist quoted a statement it claimed Brando made. In an article assailing the American motion picture industry the latest issue of the magazine to reach here declaimed: “The well-known American actress Marlon Brando declares. . . “In Hollywood the golden calf which stifles everything reigns. The cinema is not art. It is big business. A reflection of ordinary, simple, genuine life is totally impermissible here.’” . . . . . In Hollywood Brando commented: “That this is a flagrant piece of propaganda is shown by the fact that they don’t even know whether I am male or female. Are they so confused they think my name might be Marlene? I deny the statement attributed to me. I wish I could think of something funny to say.” –09-18-1954

The hushed talk in Hollywood is that one of the biggest stars has leukemia. –MS: 09-18-1954

BORN

LOS ANGELES—Actress Eve Arden, the “Our Miss Brooks” of radio and TV, gave birth to a son at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital yesterday. She and actor Brooks West have two daughters and an infant son who was adopted. The new baby was named Douglas Brooks. –SPT: 09-18-1954

DIED

Eugene Pallette, 65, rotund (285 Ibs.), sandpaper-voiced Hollywood character actor; of cancer; in Los Angeles. Born in Winfield, Kans., where his actor-parents were playing a one-night stand in East Lynne, Actor Pallette made more than 1200 films, first as a juvenile lead in the Norma Talmadge era, later as an archetypical funny fatman (The Ghost Goes West, Heaven Can Wait). –TM: 09-13-1954

Geraldine Carr, 37, the gabby Mabel of TV’s popular I Married Joan; in a midnight automobile crash on Laurel Canyon Boulevard; in Hollywood. –TM: 09-13-1954

Harry Conway (“Bud”) Fisher, 69, creator of the comic strip Mutt and Jeff; of cancer; in Manhattan. Starting in 1907 with a sports-page cartoon about a chinless horse-race tipster named Augustus Mutt, Fisher added runty, harebrained Jeff four months later, made a merry fortune (at his peak in the ’20s he earned $300,000 a year) whirling them around on a ceaseless merry-go-round of fights, skulduggeries and amiable confusion. –TM: 09-20-1954

Jay Catherwood Hormel, 61, board chairman of George A. Hormel & Co.; of a heart ailment; in Austin, Minn. As a World War I lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps, Hormel won the plaudits of the brass by showing meat packers how to bone beef before it was shipped overseas (saving 40% in cargo space), came home to make a fortune for his father’s meat-packing company and fame of a different sort in World War II by inventing Spam, a canned pork product, which became the ubiquitous item on Allied military menus the world over. In 1931 Iconoclast Hormel shocked fellow packers by initiating a radical annual-wage plan to help his employees ride out seasonal employment fluctuations, later expanded benefit programs to include joint-earnings systems and a profit-sharing trust, took unceasing pride in his claim that no Hormel executive ever lived more than a block away from a Hormel C.I.O. worker. –TM: 09-13-1954*

*I included this post because of the sponsor association between Hormel’s Spam and the Burns & Allen Show.

"Dear Mum"

julesaaron — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:30:00 +0000

My mother is 83 years old with a heart condition. Ever the practical one, her parting words to me before we went on our year long trip were, “If I have a massive heart attack, don’t come back. There are enough of your siblings to sort out my estate”.

Secure in the knowledge I would get my fair share of her Jim Reeves and Perry Como records, I agreed not to come back if she dropped dead.

When I returned a year later, eager to see her, lest she died first. Her response was…

“Sorry, I can’t make Tuesday, its my Bingo night.”

Here follows some of the touching correspondence from a youngest daughter to her mother…

World Famous Capilano Suspension Bridge – Vancouver, British Columbia

This bridge is suspended 250 feet above a canyon. I managed to make it a third of the way across before having a screaming panic attack and I had to be rescued by helicopter.

Seward – Alaska

Thank you for Chris’ birthday card. He was very distressed to find no money inside. Unless you have half moon cake when we get back he said he won’t visit you.

Virginia City – Montana

We found this picture of an Indian chief who actually looks older than you do! Chris said not by much though.

Sturgis – Black Hills, South Dakota

SEND MONEY NOW. We love you lots! You are our favourite (banker) mother. Love & slushy kisses from the homeless, jobless bums.

Rocky Mountain National Park – Colorado

We are in Colorado. Money has not arrived. Assuming its in a package with the half moon cake?

Houston – Texas

We saw this hologram picture of a shark and thought of you. What a great set of false teeth he has.

Auckland – New Zealand

We went to see a Maori performance of dance and singing. Young half naked men in grass skirts. The women swung their balls around.

Christchurch – New Zealand

Not been able to afford to write much lately. Running out of money and having to reuse tea bags and toilet paper. Luckily we can hang out tea bags and toilet paper to dry on our camp washing line. I will be jumping from an airplane in next few days. Can’t afford a return flight – so have to parachute out and walk back. Getting very hungry. Cake still not arrived. Scenery looks wonderful when we get the chance to look up from pushing the camper van (because we can’t afford petrol)

Wollomombi Falls, – NSW Australia

Mum, Chris is getting on my nerves. Love Julie

New England, NSW – Australia

Ethel, Julie is getting on my nerves. Love Chris

Narrawong – South Australia

Still eating BBQ Koalas. We stayed on a campsite near a river, which was useful because we have run out of money and we caught fish to eat. Looking forward to half moon cake when we get back – as you couldn’t be bothered to post us any.

Alice Springs – Central Australia

[Postcard of an old naked Aborigine man, with a boomerang covering his genitals].

Its about time you got married again. This man told us he owns 2 million acres just north of Alice Springs. He is only twice your age (164) and wants to meet you. He arrives with his extended family on 7th March for the wedding.

Fremantle – Western Australia

[Postcard of a Skeleton lying face down in desert sand dunes].

Food Parcel still not arrived. Had to eat Chris. Don’t think I’m gonna make it home.

Appendice a Lu Uast

ilpandadevemorire — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:02:51 +0000

Dal momento che scrivo di getto -alcuni detrattori sostengono “da rigetto”…- è facile che mi dimentichi qualcosa, quindi provvedo subito.

Nel post precedente, dove vi relaziono sulla mia vacanza, ho dichiarato di aver fatto una vacanza abruzzese integralmente ignorante: non è del tutto vero, un momento altamente culturale c’è stato.

Volevamo evitarci il casino di una domenica; sì che l’Abruzzo non è la Liguria, che dispone di un ricchissimo giacimento di disperati Piemontesi, Lombardi ed in parte Emiliani, però non è un’isola, quindi ha un entroterra, popolato da cristiani che la pancia al sole ogni tanto la vogliono mettere pure loro; la differenza è che i terricoli abruzzesi, al mare, trovano a riceverli gente come loro, non dei Klingon che dicono “belìn”.

Ostia, mi scappa di divagare.
“Belìn” mi piace, mi fa ridere.
Anche se a molti Mandrogni non fa piacere ammetterlo, Alessandria è abbastanza legata a Genova: da bambino pendevo dalle labbra di mio nonno se mi raccontava “di quando si pagava dazio”, e per evitarlo si faceva “borsa nera”, oppure in tempo di guerra, quando non è che da mangiare ci fosse tutto ’sto di più: la gente partiva in bicicletta dalle mie parti col grano, la farina di mais, il vino o il riso -che prevedeva un giro in bici fino a Casale, dove ci si incontrava coi Vercellesi- e si arrivava, sempre in bici, con una quintalata di roba, sull’Appennino, dove ci si trovava coi Genovesi che portavano olio, baccalà ed acciughe sotto sale, ingrediente principe della Bagna Cauda; il fatto stesso che la cosa più piemontese in assoluto sia a base di pesce di mare, la dice lunga sui legami tra i due popoli.
Inoltre buona parte dei paesi a sud di Alessandria fanno “Ligure” di secondo nome, visto che prima che i Savoia si inventassero l’Italia, lì era roba di Genova; in realtà non ci siamo mai mischiati molto ed un esempio classico e qualificante è Novi Ligure: noi siamo conosciuti per Borsalino e Gianni Rivera, loro per Erika ed Omar…

Comunque sia, ad Alessandria è normale dire che una cosa è “una belinata” e sono molti -tra cui lo scrivente- quelli che, parlando in dialetto, elaborano il concetto e dicono “belèn”.
Proprio per il fatto che siamo più simili di quanto piaccia ammetterlo ad entrambi, esiste questa acredine latente, per lo stesso motivo per cui è più facile bisticciare coi parenti che con gli estranei.
Tutto questo per arrivare a dire che “belìn” è ok; un po’ più duro da digerire è “belàndi”, usato fuori Genova, mentre è assolutamente intollerabile il “belàndici” costantemente sulla bocca dei Liguri più buzzurri.
Augh, ho divagato.

Dunque, la gita “culturale” in Abruzzo.
Volendo spostarci verso la montagna, abbiamo seguito il consiglio della mamma di Fabio e ci siamo lanciati verso Palena, nel Parco della Maiella, sulla strada per Roccaraso: il programma prevedeva due passi al fresco, funivia fino alla Grotta del Cavallone, pranzo ignorantissimo a base di agnello e formaggi.

Ma… “Houston, abbiamo un problema”.
Bimbi è la persona migliore del mondo, con solo un piccolo problema di origine psicosomatica: al di fuori della sua amata Valle d’Aosta, ogni strada che presenti più di due curve le scombussola lo stomaco; se è nella sua Valle, la puoi mettere in quei macchinari dove fanno girare gli astronauti fino a fargli uscire l’anima dagli occhi, e lei non fa una piega; se la porti sulle dolci Langhe o su per il Monferrato o -Dio non voglia!- su un qualunque Appennino, dopo dieci km comincia ad assumere tutte le tinte tra il giallo e il verde.
Ad un chilometro da Palena mi chiede di fermarmi per fare due passi, poi si ripiglia e parcheggiamo in paese, con il fermo intendimento di lasciar perdere funivie o altri mezzi di trasporto che non siano le nostre gambe; a quel punto non ci resta che fare una passaggiata in paese, che non è esattamente Las Vegas: qualche bancarella e qualche negozio per lei e qualche informazione sui ristoranti per me.
Vedo i componenti di una banda che hanno appena finito di suonare: visto che dalle mie parti si dice “avere un appetito da suonatori” -espressione che deriva dal fatto che in passato i suonatori, ai matrimoni, ricevessero il pranzo come unico compenso, quindi si facevano più onore con le posate che con gli strumenti- quale miglior fonte di informazioni potevo trovare?

Non hanno dubbi: da Lucia.
È appena fuori paese, la distanza giusta per una camminata, affinchè Bimbi finisca di riprendersi ed io, al ritorno, mi possa riprendere dal pranzo.
Ci avviamo e dopo un attimo mi blocco: “Nooo!!…”
Vedo una targa, questa;

Conoscete il neologismo “serendipità”, brutta italianizzazione dell’anglosassone “serendipity”? Se non lo conoscete cliccate qui ma niente ve lo spiegherà meglio della definizione

La serendipità è cercare un ago in un pagliaio e trovarci la figlia del contadino.

Gente… il paese di Perry Como!
I miei cd spaziano da Sergio Caputo ai Weather Report, da Ray Gelato ai B52’s passando per The Foundations: tranne hip hop e gansta rap potete trovare di tutto, ma proprio di tutto.
Ma per questo oriundo c’è un posto nel mio cuore: per chi non lo sapesse, Perry Como ha cantato per cinquantanni ed è l’immortale interprete di Moon River e Magic Moments, e scusate se è poco, irrispettosi giovinastri del cazzo.
Mi sono fermato cinque minuti canticchiandomi Moon River in testa, sotto allo sguardo allibito di Bimbi, incredula perchè conscia di aver sposato uno che ha visitato il Louvre in un’ora…

Mi ha molto divertito l’iscrizione “Voce melodiosa e tenera della tradizione musicale di Palena…”, tenendo conto che il mitico è nato negli USA e che come genere era più americano della torta di mele; questo si chiama valorizzare ciò che si possiede, e pure quello che non si possiede.
Complimenti.
Questa cosa mi ricorda il mio nuovo amico, il Sindaco Fabbio, che da due anni organizza un concorso ippico in pieno centro di Alessandria; in occasione della prima edizione ha dichiarato che “…Questa iniziativa rinverdisce la tradizione equestre alessandrina…”, sorvolando sul fatto che la più grande e forse unica espressione della tradizione equestre alessandrina ha coinciso con la carriera di Gidòn: non era un purosangue, era il mitico macellaio di Via Guasco, che aveva capito perfettamente a cosa servono i cavalli: da quando ha chiuso, certi salamini non li ho più mangiati…
Però, marca “bravo” lo stesso al Sindaco.

A proposito di salamini, da Lucia… “Agnello, tu mi provochi? Ed io te ddistruggo, me te magno…”: un agnello alla griglia che da solo valeva le 99 fontane dell’Aquila che mi sono perso.

Beh, visto che non sono così “filistein”? Forse il mio concetto di gita culturale è un po’ personale, però…

Ancora una volta, maggico Abbruzzo.

Dottordivago

inspired by oscar

smasherjane — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:02:22 +0000

i’ve always wondered how far my imagination would take me. i probably wouldn’t be descri

Any Major Whistle Vol. 2

halfhearteddude — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:09:54 +0000

And here is part 2 of the whistling mixes. As before, I’ve tried to mix the obvious (and avoiding some of the more notorious candidates) with the unexpected.As if to haunt me, every commercial on TV seems to feature some kind of whistle today, as does every background track on TV series. As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CR-R (hence two bonus tracks). Click here for Any Major Whistle Vol. 1

* * *

1. Beach Boys – Whistle In (1967)
Yes, the Beach Boys feature twice. You can’t have a whistling collection and not begin it with a song called Whistle In, can you? Whistletastic moment: 0:01 Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum and whistle.

2. Peter, Bjorn And John – Young Folks (2006)
I have avoided the inclusion of many an obvious song. No Scorpions. No Don’t Worry Be Happy. No Roger Whitaker. But this one had to be included. It’s Swedish, it’s cheerful, it’s earwormy. Whistletastic moment: 0:08 Everybody purse your lips and whistle along! Our play the percussion bit on your thigh.

3. David Bowie – Golden Years (1976)
I cannot hear this song without thinking abut the bizarre dance sequence with Heath Ledger and Never-heard-from-again Actress in the quite wonderful medieval caper A Knight’s Tale. Whistletastic moment: 3:03 Chameleon-like, the former Ziggy trades his guitar for lips and air.

4. Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream (1966)
The Lovin’ Spoonful really covered about every genre in popular music, and then mashed the, Here we have a bit of 1920s pop and a bit of blues. Gotta love the Spoonful. Whistletastic moment: 1:14 Chirpy whistle solo, which returns at 2:06 to see the song out.

5. Otis Redding – Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (1968)
The last song Otis Redding recorded before getting on that plane, apparently. Otis didn’t whistle on here; the job was done by a session man of whom Redding inquired after a poor first take whether he knew what he was doing. We know he did. Whistletastic moment: 2:19 Perhaps the best ever whistle solo in pop.

6. Simon & Garfunkel – Punky’s Dilemma (1968)
This is Simon & Garfunkel 201 — the sort of song you get into once the many great hits have become boring. Whistletastic moment: 1:50 A breezy whistle solo, not by Paul Simon (whom we hear talking in the background) takes us to the song’s end.

7. The Beatles – Two Of Us (1970)
Recorded during the turbulent Let It Be sessions, this is one of the rare (and I think last) post-mop tops era occasions when John and Paul dueted. How nice then that the song ends with a cheery whistle solo before I Dig A Pony kicks in. Whistletastic moment: 3:14 I suppose this is Lennon whistling, as was his wont on a few of his solo tracks.

8. Bobby Bloom – Montego Bay (1970)
Anyone remember Amazulu’s cover in the 1980s? That probably had no whistling (or showtune segment). Bobby Bloom’s original has a recurring whistle hook. Whistletastic moment: 0:01 The hook kicks off the song.

9. Earl Hagen – Theme of the Andy Griffith Show (1960)
As doubtlessly whistled across America once upon a time while washing-up, sweeping the driveway, doing the paper round or constructing a skyscaper. Whistletastic moment: 0:01 The whole thing consists of whistling

10. The Steve Miller Band – Jungle Love (1977)
Terrible underrated ’70s rock band who deserve to be remembered for more than The Joker and Abracadabra. Whistletastic moment: 2:46 Freestyle whistling!

11. The Fratellis – Whistle For The Choir (2006)
Cockney geezers with jangly guitars recall the early ’70s. Irresistible. Whistletastic moment: 2:26 Whistle interlude

12. Liliput – Die Matrosen (1980)
Neue Deutsche Welle with ska sensibility searching for the young soul rebel, in English. Whistletastic moment: 0:52 Song-defining communal whistle interlude, repeated 50 seconds later, and again at 2:32 and 3:33.

13. The Flaming Lips – Christmas At The Zoo (1995)
Let’s go slightly weird: what do you think Coyne and his gang are doing in a zoo at Christmas? Whistletastic moment: 2:27 Whistle solo comes in helpful when you have no lyrics but the music still goes on.

14. Grizzly Bear – Deep Blue Sea (2007)
This sounds so like a country song. It was recorded at home by Grizzly Bear Daniel Rossen. Whistletastic moment: 2:41 Whistle bridge.

15. Guster – All The Way Up To Heaven (2003)
Another underrated group. They toured and performed with Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright. This song, vaguely reminiscent of Sgt Pepper’s and Pet Sounds, is very lovely indeed. Whistletastic moment: 0:50 You almost thing they are going to break out into the Colonel Bogey March.

16. Cat Power – After It All (2005)
One of the songs that make me appreciate 2005’s The Greatest album. And, I noticed only now, the only woman in the mix. Whistletastic moment: 0:06 The piano and a couple of guitar chords set up the song for the recurring whistle hook.

17. Sammy Davis Jr. – Mr Bojangles (1972)
The song that Sammy took over. As we covered in The Originals series, the song was written by Jerry Jeff Walker. Whistletastic moment: 0:20 Sammy whistles (unlike the other performers of My Bojangles) and does so again later to see the song out.

18. Gene Pitney – Only Love Can Break A Heart (1963)
Gene Pitney Fun Fact 1: He wrote Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson, Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee and He’s A Rebel for the Crystals. Gene Pitney Fun Fact 1: The Crystals’ version of He’s A Rebel kept Pitney’s version of Burt Bacharach Only Love Can Break A Heart from reaching the US#1. Gene Pitney Fun Fact 3: He was the first singer from the rock idiom of pop to sing at the Oscars, performing Town Without Pity in 1962. Whistletastic moment: 0:16 Tremelo whistle.

19. Roxy Music – Jealous Guy (1981)
Roxy Music’s cash-in “tribute” released double-quick after John Lennon’s murder. Hunting Tory greaseball Bryan Ferry whistled better than Rolls Royce socialist Lennon. Whistletastic moment: 3:25 Ferry cross the whistle.

20. Leonard Cohen – One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (1967)
Don’t dig Cohen? Gentlemen, remember this: when Cohen sings about love and sex, it is intensely sensual. If you want to impress a poetry-loving girl, don’t forget to include Leonard Cohen on your mixtape. This song, for example. Whistletastic moment: 3:19 Laughing Len affords himself a bit of levity by seeing the song out with a (less than accomplished) whistle solo, backed by recorder and the sound of singing hangers-on being interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition..

21. Tom Waits – Green Grass (2004)
As I am playing this song, Any Minor Dude inquires: “What the hell is this?” I reply: “Son, it’s an acquired taste, like Gin, Brussels sprouts or the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard.” “Well, it’s crap anyway. Whistletastic moment: 2:29 Tom stops groaning to sweeten the song with a melancholy whistle solo.

22. Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977)
It all starts so prettily until the cynical guitars kick in to introduce Billy’s cynical ruminations on the alienation of the self, or something. When he’s done, he reprises the pretty part, just to show that he’s not all cynical, as he’ll soon demonstrate on the LP with a soppy love song imploring Elizabeth not to go changing her hair or trying some new fashion, only to dump her a few years later for a fashion model with lovely hair. Clearly he didn’t let her see the stranger in himself. Whistletastic moment: 0:26 The whistle joins the pretty intro until the cynical guitar comes in. It returns later, with the pretty outro.

23. Glen Campbell – Sunflower (1977)
Nothing cynical in Campbell’s sunshiney, optimistic song, a catchy number even if you hate it. Whistletastic moment: 2:15 Just in case we didn’t catch in just how a good mood Glen is, he sees the song out with a jolly whistle.

24. Monty Python – Always Look On The Bright Side of Life (1979)
You didn’t think I could avoid including this, did you? Whistletastic moment: 0:30 The first whistled response to Eric Idle’s appeal to buoyancy.

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And a couple of bonus whistling tracks which I could not accommodate in the mix without disturbing what I hope is a good flow:

Guy Mitchell – Singin’ The Blues.mp3
Perry Como – Magic Moments.mp3

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November 21 - No Place Like Home for the Holidays

stitcher5407 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:18:23 +0000

I don’t know why certain days become etched in memory, days with nothing really spectacular or eventful about them. I’ve always thought fondly of a Saturday before Thanksgiving in the early 60s. I don’t know where my father was – maybe that’s why we had fun that day. Mom needed some Gurley figurine candles for Christmas gifts she was making that year, so we drove up to the old Kenwood Plaza to a dime store there, a rare outing. I don’t know what made that dime store more special than the Woolworth’s down at Hyde Park Plaza, but it was a trip Mom seemed intent on making.

There was no I71 in those days, so we had to take back roads from Oakley to Kenwood, back roads that were wooded and made me hum “Over the River and Through the Woods” to myself. I think there might have even been snow flurries that day.

At the Kenwood dime store Mom bought her Santa and angel candles, and maybe some boy and girl pilgrim ones as well. When we returned home, Mom put our Perry Como Christmas album on the stereo. This was before radio stations played Christmas music before Thanksgiving. In fact, it was impossible to hear Christmas music before late in December, so it was a special treat to have Mr. Como singing “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” that cozy Saturday. I think Mom started working on her Christmas projects as soon as we got home, so there was a delicious atmosphere of preparation. I don’t remember doing anything myself, but the mood and warmth of that day are still with me all these years later.

That was all – a simple shopping trip, a classic November day, and Perry Como. And my mother, and our home, and no conflict, just rich contentment. Every year I must listen to Como’s “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” before Thanksgiving and relive how wonderful that day felt.