skylab

re. Upstairs At The Downstairs:

 

I don't know about these days, but back in my days of frequenting such places, I found Jimmy Ryan's and Birdland to have better music in NYC. In Chicago it was the Blue Note. That's where I met and was photographed with, Dave Brubeck.

Wasn't this guy was it?!?!

 

Well, I'm sure there's someone somewhere with a pet rattlesnake, but I wouldn't want one. I'll stick with Labs. By far the only pet. Naturally, IMHO.

Let's see now.....how does it go? "I like cats; they taste just like chicken!" Or, is it; "The only good cat is a dead one."

 

Why is it that cats know you dislike cats?! Cats always seem to know that I don't like cats (had Labradors), but yet they still come to me. "Get away, ya darned cat!" They just start purring and rubbing up against me knowing full well that I'll give in and rub them back.

 

Cats will just never be a smart as dogs.

 

When I was 7-ish, we had a Black Lab that I was in charge of feeding. I was to feed the dog outside on the back porch; rain or shine. I started feeling sorry for this poor guy. I decided he should be fed inside like the rest of us and on his first night eating inside he had company. My older sister had this small black kitten. Now, if you don't know, dogs are happy when they're eating and wag their tails. Well this wagging tail was just too much for this little kitten and it began batting at it with its paw. Well VIC (the dog) stopped eating and turned around and gave the kitten a stern growl (warning). He turned back to his eating, but the kitten continued to bat at his tail. VIC gave the kitten one more warning to no avail. The next swipe the kitten made at VIC's tail was its last. VIC simply turned around and put the kitten's head in his mouth and clamped down. I heard the skull crack as did my sister, who let out a scream that could be heard for blocks! I kinda chuckled and said that VIC had given fair warning. That was the last time VIC ate in the house. Gosh, I loved those Labs!

No apology needed. Guess I shudda put a smiley in there. Glad you figured it out.

>>>Tell us about Viscounts.

 

I DID tell you about Viscounts: their high-pitched whine.

 

That's all I really know about them. I never wanted to fly it because the Co-Pilot was as busy as a one-armed paper hanger in a windstorm. So I was told by Viscount Co-Pilots. Some of us had to be dual-qualified on both the DC-6 and Viscount. It went by senority (from the bottom up). I was fortunate to be senior enough NOT to be dual-qualified. I didn't think it was safe anyway being dual-qualified on such two different types. While I did have to ride in them on occasion, I was glad I didn't have to fly them from the front seat. I think they were louder than pure turbo-jets!

 

Now, the Electra; that's a different story. Wish we'd had those; I'd still be flying. Best turboprop ever. Flew one (for a whole hour ! ) once when I was with EAL. Loved that airplane. Too bad it got off to a bad start.

While everyone tries to tell me the ringing in the ears was caused by so much exposure to airplanes, I think it came from one day way back when, when we were shooting clay targets. I went through a whole case of shotgun shells that day. Of course I didn't have any ear protection either. (smart move) Even one of my labs got affected I believe from all the noise. From that day on she became gun shy. The male lab wasn't bothered at all. Although I'm sure airplanes had something to do with it; Viscounts in particular with their high-pitched whine.

>>>And with that I declare this blog to be ended.

 

Not quite.

 

 

>>>Trust me, this business of always hearing music is a curse...

 

Does ringing in the ears count?!

I can handle some funk, but I won't be d/l that one.

 

Mańana

All of the above. Like I said; I didn't list all my favs because there's just too many. My kids can't believe the music I listen to. They say I'm too old!! Can you believe that?! But, sittin' in my desk chair at the computer with my feet just a tappin' keeps the blood flowing.

No URL for the Booker T version, but it is identical to the others, as is one by Santana. So I got a War, Booker T, Santana, and a ZZ Top version of Low Rider, and they're all exactly the same. I think some people just make these things available and don't really know who the artist is. And, I don't know who the "real" one is either. But, I don't really care in this case.

Gerry Mulligan started out in the "West Coast" jazz scene. I admit to not liking all of his stuff as I said for the rest of them. I probably like the baritone sax that he plays better than anyone. I have a recording of him doing Take Five along with Brubeck that is GREAT.

 

As to:

Richard ("Groove") Holmes - Jazz Organ.

Hank Crawford - Tenor Saxaphone usually with Jimmy McGriff.

Ray Prysock - Saxaphone from the Fifties.

Prayful - Not sure what genre you'd call their stuff. Newer. Try a fileshare d/l. I like their "Corpo Saudo".

 

Bryan Shanley - Local Clarinet player that made good and went with the Dukes.

(Howard Rumsey's) Lighthouse Allstars - West Coast Jazz from back aways. No longer active.

Gene Ammons - Great Saxaphone player from back aways.

Cal Tjader - Latin Vibes.

Keiko Matsui - Great, newer piano player.

 

Surprised you didn't have Doc DeHaven on your list. You know of him?! Extremely small world if you do.

 

I don't know what happened to the Dukes. Just kinda faded away I guess. It's not my favorite music, but there's some of it I really like. I liked dixie more back in the Fifties and Sixties. The Dukes do a fantastic rendition of Midnight in Moscow. I think maybe that Bryan Shanley is the clarinetist on that one. Harry Conick Jr. has some good dixie as well.

 

Already have that version of Low Rider on here. I've got the same recording by War and Z Z Top? Another one by Widespread Panic (8:34). I likee all.

 

No deja vu here. Don't recall discussing this in the past, but who knows?

 

P.S. Got a Low Rider by Booker T & the MG's also: same recording. So.....who's is it?

>>>Now ... Tell me about Ragtime. Who did/do you like?

 

No ragtime on this machine either. Closest thing would be some Dixie.

 

Short list of favorites, NOT in any particular order:

 

Dave Brubeck

Richard "Groove" Holmes

Jimmy McGriff

Hank Crawford

Ray Prysock

Bill Doggett

Prayful

Aritha Franklin

Doc DeHaven

Bryan Shanley

Jimmy smith

Jimmy Buffett

Pinetops Perkins

Jolls Holland

Santana

Rare Earth

Doobie Brothers

Three Dog Night

Lighthouse Allstars

Dukes of Dixieland

Gene Ammons

Louis Prima

Stanley Jordan

Gerry Mulligan

Cal Tjader

Keiko Matsui

 

Oh.....there's just too many to list. And, I don't necessarily like ALL of what each of the above have done. Usually, my foot has to be moving in order for me to enjoy any music unless I'm trying to take a nap, in which case I have set aside a few to listen to while I'm falling asleep. Like some Boston Pops, Enigma,etc.

>>>...you were happy to simply fly the aircraft that engineers had designed.

 

That was true as long as the engineers realized that their pay should not necessarily be equal to ours. One of them wrote in to Aviation Week Magazine many years ago with that idea; that he should be making as much as the pilots. I responded with words to the effect that he could take his time to make his decisions and call upon countless others for advice before committing to anything. I went on to say if he could move his desk through the air at 600MPH and make his decisions instantly, then he indeed was worthy of a higher salary. He did NOT answer back.

 

 

>>>...because of my musician background...

 

Well, I'm one of those "frustrated musicians". My baby sitter taught me boogie woogie on the piano when I was 7 or so. My parents suggested piano lessons. I thought; hey, good idea, I can learn more boogie. So I told my piano teacher right off that I wanted to learn boogie. She said, fine, and put a piece of sheet music in front of me. I said I couldn't read it. So she said, ok, we'll start from the beginning and learn how to read. I tried for one week and gave up. Probably one of the great mistakes I made in my life; not continuing with music lessons. I continued to "play" the piano for years and got my repertoire up to about 15 minutes. I even played "tops and bottoms" with a 'real' piano player in a bar. And of course, (in my other life) I played at bars, yacht clubs and parties. No more though. My wife has a keyboard and I don't even play that now even though it has headphones.

 

However, I am a great music appreciationist. I can listen to anything but Polka and enjoy it. In fact, there's almost always a music file/s playing in the background on the computer. And if you think Millie Vanille (or whoever they are) are good, you ought to see me mime the sax, guitar, piano, organ, trumpet, trombone, or just about any other instrument!

 

I've got over 52MB of Midi music. Some of it real good stuff, but I'm into MP3-type stuff now with it's better sound on the computer. I've only got a little over 20GB of that stuff! That's 'GIGA'!

 

 

>>>...Energy Independence thread in The Yard ...

 

Oh, I could get into that thread real easy, but have not done so and probably won't. This whole 'energy crisis' is a farse. There's more oil right beneath the US than we could burn in the life of the planet. Look at the trouble we went through to get the Alaska Pipeline in. Now there's ten times the oil in ANWR, and the "environmentalists" have such a strong lobby for some reason (even though they're such a small percentage of the population), we can't go there. There isn't one person in 20 million who will EVER set foot in ANWR, so what's the big deal? Gas here got up to 4.20 for awhile and when it dropped 10¢ people were lined up down the street thinking there was a gas war! Doesn't take long for the people to get brainwashed, does it? There are just too many S-T-U-P-I-D people here to get anything meaningful done any more. And most of them are running this show. Sad. Glad I'll be 'checking out', hopefully before the whole thing colapses.

 

 

>>>Like a certain arrogant member who departed this site the other day...

 

Not aware of that.

Well, I read it and it's clear as mud to me!! (smile)

 

Hey.....all I did was fly these things; never tried to understand too much about the "why" it works.

 

If it made it in, it'll make it out.

OK...disregard; I found a site for approach charts.

 

edj.net/cgi-bin/echoplate.pl/

Good luck with your Forum(s).

 

The "Cheers" was just a salutation. But, perhaps a "goodbye" for the Yard, dunno.

 

Did you see my ? about a site to d/l approach charts? I had one: ...naco.faa.gpvondex.asp?...but I can't d/l from it any more. ??

>>>How can I identify the thread you started? (It might have been deleted?)

 

Well, I guess you can't now. They're still there. You used my Flight-sim "handle" over there and some of those might be lurking here and put the two different handles together, which is what I was trying to avoid. So I guess you'll just have to guess.

 

No big deal, but that's the way I want/like it.

 

I glanced in the Yard a few times after it was started and never participated because it wasn't "my cup of tea" really. Unless I get responses of any caliber, I won't be going back there.

 

 

Cheers.

Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them.

Looks like an [rgarber] doesn't want you or I there. I'd just as soon keep two separate identities if you don't mind between there and here. Like I said, I posted some stuff there this AM that has already generated a PM from one of the Moderators claiming I was trying to start a flame war. I wasn't (but it probably appeared to be) and told him so. I thought you said that "anything goes" over there?

OK.....I put some stuff in the Yard. We'll see what happens. I didn't see any of your stuff there though.

Ah, the WEATHER: one of those things that everyone talks about but can't do anything about. Kinda like politics.....but that's a subject for a different blog!

 

Anything you want to know about the weather though, all you have to do is ask Al Gore; he knows all about it. After all he got a Nobel Prize for it!

 

Funny; this "global warming" debate. A few million years ago we had the Ice Age. That's (the receeding of the ice) what caused our Great Lakes along with other natural geographical features. So, if the ice receeded way back then, why shouldn't it continue to receed? Besides, it seems we're running out of water so maybe this will improve the situation.

 

Next.....

>>>C'mon, skylab, I'm trying to have a serious conversation with myself.

 

Oh, but I WAS serious. Who or what in their right mind would want to get involved in the mess this planet is in? If they had the ability to know of our existance, they certainly are far more advanced than we will ever become before we destroy ourselves. And being that far advanced precludes their ever trying to communicate or associate with us.

 

I agree that there are no doubt countless galaxies with some form of life; some that may resemble our own. But none like us or they would not last very long.

 

It truely amazes me that we have lasted as long as we have with the violence that has existed forever. I'll never understand the need for it.

I don't know about you, but I'm convinced the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us!

Ahh.....slight correction, Mike: I said one of our "kids" lives in California; not our daughter. Happens to be one of the sons. There's seven of 'em (sons and daughters) and they're scattered all over the country! No big deal. Just setting the record straight.

 

For me, I can't think of a place in the Lower 48 where I would want to live LESS than ANYWHERE in California. I have an older sister who has lived there forever, it seems, and loves it. I've been there and no thank you! Oh, up in the mountains and away from LA and San Fran aren't all that bad, but I just don't like the thought of being there when that whole State slides into the Pacific! And, there's just too many "political" problems in that State to suite me.

 

Another reason for us getting out of Florida was the imminent collapse of the real estate market there, and as it turns out, everywhere else for that matter. Yes, I'm psychic in some areas. Although we were about six months late to maximize our investment. Took me that long to convince a certain person that it was time to go!