Category: Family

I still call them albums

Today I mentioned on Facebook that my boys and I were listening to Christmas music on an 8 track. The reaction was more than I would have expected. Not so much that we were listening to Christmas music, which only happened because James asked nicely, but the medium on which the music was re-produced.

I guess it is a bit rare that an 8 track player is fired up, even here where we have an old stereo in our basement. I swear that somewhere we have several 8 track tapes boxed up. For now we must content ourselves with a nice mixed tape my mother-in-law has entrusted to our care. Perhaps I really should spend sometime at garage sales to acquire a more complete collection.

I think the quintessential album for the 8 track is Meatloaf  Bat out of Hell. Or possibly Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. If you happen to have either, let’s talk.

The general topic of recorded music media that have fallen out of vogue is one that fascinates me. In vinyl I posses 45  RPM singles,  33 1/3 RPM albums, 12″ EPs and Singles, as well as 78 RPM mini albums and singles of the Victrola era. I also have the 8 track and “Mini” cassettes. Joyce brought to our music collection cassette singles, something I never had. We have two turntables and after the boys are older I’d like to pick up a Gramophone or Victrola.

Of course there are CDs – and lots of them, thanks to my stint at both record stores and radio. I still remember writing a report in my first college English class about the new Compact Disc technology. At that time there were still those who called them Compact Disk. One of my favorite scenes in The Wedding Singer is when Julia’s fiancee buys a new CD player for multi-hundreds of dollars.

I never owned an MP3 player, leapfrogging right to my Droid. But I buy most of my new music in the digital form and then burn to CD.

So thanks for joining me on this little inventory of my odd music collection. Perhaps I’ll add a “music” category so I can share some of the unique music on these diverse media. Music from Star Wars by the Electric Moog Orchestra might be a good place to start.

Looking like a little slugger

Joyce and I were looking at old movies on our computer and came across this. Here we see John emulating his favorite Indian at the time, Coco Crisp. John still LOVES baseball. He might be a little embarrassed if his current teammates see this. But what good is having old video if you can’t use it to embarrass the people in it? Note to my family  members – this rule does not apply to Super 8 movies from the 70s.

Looking Like an All-Star

Our eldest is crazy about baseball. From morning until night everyday the topic will usually turn to who the Indians should try and get or when he will play next. If he can’t play, he makes up imaginary line score on imaginary line-ups. And then there is always Wii MLB 2K10 – something to get us through the winter.

He is seven years old now. But here is a link to a  clip from when he was two. Coco Crisp played for the Indians then. I think that is one of the reasons he is a lefty at the plate.

Slugger Jack 2005

 

Master of Sock Puppets

I recently found a cache of pictures from my childhood. That can be fun. It is made even more fun these days because today’s technology allows a much larger audience to reminisce with you. I scanned several and shared them on Facebook.

Here is a cropped version for the latest “Looking Like..” entry. I look like a kid who realizes he’s got a pretty crummy sock puppet, but also sees that his classmates are not really doing much better.  I really don’t have a great memory for details of grade school. This day day I do remember, however. That was a wool sock and by the time our little story-time play was over my hand and forearm were blazing, itching mess. I also vaguely remember that there was some drama with my mother that morning surrounding my last minute demand for a fully-formed billy goat sock puppet. Poor woman. I suspect that my brother Joe was mysteriously missing one of his socks soon before school started.

It’s Mother’s Day

It’s Mother’s Day. My boys provided many good memories for Joyce.  Memories are a funny thing. You might think they are indelible. They might be. But they can also get jumbled and fragmented. I saw Mom today. It was a nice visit.

I remember seeing the video below when the album “Spike” was released. I thought the video was touching then.  At the time I had sympathy. Today I have empathy. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

Christmas Music Then and Now

One of the best parts about having four young boys is I get to see first-hand Christmas excitement that is enthusiastic and sincere. iTunes & Pandora on the computer and the Music Choice channels on our cable keep the boys well supplied in the holiday tunes.Of course, we also have several CDs, albums, tapes, DVDs and even one very memorable 8-track to keep the sing-along going.

Nothing beats being in the Dodge Caravan with a CD of familiar tunes cranking and having the boys belting it out in varying degrees of intelligible English from the back. It reminds me of sitting in the back of my dad’s Plymouth Fury as we drove around looking for Christmas lights and the radio fading in and out.We still listened to AM for music back then.

Maybe this year I’ll introduce the boys to the MP3 of “Santa Drives a Truck“; it could be the start of a new tradition.