Christiern

Back in 1958, only 5 months after I came here as an immigrant, I landed a job at WCAU in Philadelphia. When I was being shown around the station (which is quite large), one of the stops was the MUZAK room and it really scared me. Banks of tape recorders with relays clicking as one stopped, another started, etc. It was explained to me that this music was programmed (along with strategically timed pauses) pauses to boost productivity. There was different music with different beats and pauses, scientifically aimed at different working environments. It was Big Brother come to life and very far removed from anything we had in Denmark. Incidentally, there was a daily show, "The John Trent Show", that was a part of our regular AM-FM broadcast schedule, aimed directly at housewives and sponsored by a cleaning product (as I recall). The guy named John Trent who did it had a suitably mellifluous voice and a delivery that came as close to being sexual as the day's mores allowed. One day, John was ill, but the show went on, seamlessly, with another "John Trent" whose voice and delivery was identical. I was told that this show came from an outside company and was heard--as a local show with the same sponsor--all over the country. There was a school where John Trents were carefully trained and groomed to allow such seamless substitution. Stepford radio hosts--and that was 50 years ago!

Apropos AWNG (always wanted, never got), I used to dream of having a toy car that one could ride around in. There was a time when my mother was having a secret affair with a golf pro who periodically lent legitimacy to a Copenhagen department. store's (Magasin du Nord) sports dept. She used to take me along when she went to see him, and park me in the adjoining toy dept. I think I made a nuisance of myself when I rode around in one of their cars. The hint was never taken and I remained a child pedestrian.

When it comes to Vocalion, a very thin line separated Columbia and Decca. Sometimes, reissue producers inadvertently crossed that line, but neither label did anything about it. Here's the story.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALOCISPEPRALUGER 102!

They obviously didn't believe you when you said you wanted a lie detector or they feared overload.

I have to wonder why you wonder. The first page of Stowe's piece should have answered your question--then, too, as Jim points out, there's the Internet.

Yes, a bunch of spoil-sports! Thank you, Conrad.

I guess this is a rare recording, Tony gave it to me about 40 years ago: Do you know if this is the same as Tony Schwartz's "New York 19" (1954, Folkways records)? Some of the tracks on NY19 are: Band 1. STREET MUSICIANS / Times Square accordionist, Carnegie Hall fiddler, Moondog ... Band 4. SOUNDS OF THE CITY / Street driller and comment, 9th avenue "L" and comment Same Tony.

I wasn't really disappointed, but when he showed up in civies and told me that he was my mother's second husband...

I guess this is a rare recording, Tony gave it to me about 40 years ago:

Betcha Puppini, Bottom Puppini, and Dollar Puppini. They made Papa Puppini proud, I bet.

Rather than one jolly fat man, we (Scandinavians) tended to have a bunch of Yule elves, some of whom weren't exactly good role models...

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! The old Danish way...

It sounds more like a naughty spam than a virus.

I strongly advise staying away from Norton products, they are destructive (at least the Mac versions). I do recommend Virex. It may not be needed but, just in case.

I don't think the "spirit of Christmas" has to be religious--in my family's later generations it came upon us annually with no bible strings attached. I don't think I became a worse person for it. In the English language, the holiday is named after a semi-mythical figure whose birth it celebrates, but look what has happened to it--whatever spirit there once was has morphed into gimmemas. It's all about making and spending money. A friend of mine received his two grand-nieces' Christmas list earlier this month. they are 7 and 9, respectively and the least expensive items on their list was $200! If people give in to that, I think they are doing the children (and themselves) a disservice. Whether we call it Christmas, Xmas, or Yule, this holiday will always have at least a symbolic tie to the carpenter, and a more real presence in a strenuously jolly fictional character with an unlimited gift budget. It will also not go away as long as there is money to be made, so I feel children ought to be leveled with at an early age and taught real values. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but he exists solely in our mind and we should look upon him as a non-secterian figure who symbolizes unselfishness. To end this rant on a real hackneyed note, if children are taught real values, they will have a much healthier outlook and it will stand them in good stead as they become adults. If you celebrate Christmas with your children, use the opportunity to put it into a proper perspective--that, imo, includes unmasking but not eliminating the guy in the red suit who, btw, could be a gal.

I never believed that there was a Santa Claus--in Denmark we called him "Julemanden" (the Christmas man)--simply because there were too many of them and I had enough imagination to be a realist. That did not, however, dilute my enjoyment of Christmas--I played the game and dutifully placed my slippers on the window sill for someone to fill with candy, etc. (we did not hang stockings in the old country). I also knew full well that it was not by coincidence that the Christmas almond always appeared in my rice pudding--it was supposedly a random thing and it yielded an "almond gift". Mysteriously, that gift also always happened to be something suitable for a boy of my age--I was the only child--and I joined the rest of the family in feigning surprise. We always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, after dinner (goose), and it was all a joyous reality. Of course the highlight was unwrapping the gifts, but I enjoyed just as much the pre-Christmas activity of creating ornaments for the tree. It, tree, was always slightly taller than I, growing with me each year. That describes the wonderful Christmases I spent with a loving family, but--to be real--there were also years when it was difficult to generate the right mood. Anyone who has not heard Dylan Thomas read his "A Child's Christmas in Wales" should correct that.

No, it's Chris Olsen, the artist who does all the cover designs. Mona Granager, Anders Stefansen and Chris are great, truly dedicated people who worked for Karl Emil for many years--I have known them personally for decades. It has been great to see the development of Storyville over the years. Karl was its driving force, a workaholic with an abiding love for the music. As some of you may know, I became involved in Storyville Records shortly after Karl founded it with 3 78rpm reissues. I recorded the label's first original releases, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, on my tape machine (B&O's first) almost 55 years ago! BTW, I believe those recordings are still available. I just hope that the new owners allow Storyville to continue and not just as a rehash label.

Stick to the golf angle and I think you'll be okay.

She obviously has failed, so she can only write the book as an outside observer. Who knows better what not to do?

I just asked my friends at Storyville about this and the news is not good. The set has been ready for several years, but was held back due to the release of the Duke Box set. At the present time, there is no date set for release, but I have the impression that it won't be any time soon. I should add that my friends, who are in charge of what is now a division of a much larger concern, seem eager to see this set released, so I gather that decisions are being made higher up (and farther away). A petition?

The last train to Vermont hasn't left the station--let's hope there are no more passengers departing the music scene.

I don't like fake trees, although some are visually acceptable--aluminum is as tacky as a bad plastic tree, IMO. I shudder when I look back to my childhood and the untreated trees to which we attached real candles--it was beautiful and it created a great holiday mood, but there wasn't a Christmas when one didn't hear of these things going up in smoke. Huge trees were decorated with live candles, too, so ballroom children's Christmas parties were perilous affairs. In case you wonder what an avowed atheist is doing with a Christmas tree (I still have them most years), one can enjoy the holiday mood of friendly exchanges and good thoughts without attaching the occasion to a bible or religion. In Denmark, Jews nought and decorated Christmas trees at this time of year--I'm sure that it was not a substitute for their own religion, just a natural go-with-the-flow thing. Many years ago, when Victor Borge (whom we knew as Børge Rosenbaum) substituted for Carson during the holiday week, he explained how he grew up in a Jewish home that did the Christmas thing without the religious aspect. Well, my family was registered as Lutheran (Denmark's state religion, ugh!), but no one had religion forced upon them--celebrating the Christmas holidays seemed natural--sometimes, we even went to church on Christmas Eve, because the music was so beautiful and the mood felt good. I don't recall any family member actively practicing a religion, but some might have. If so, it was a private thing--"to each his own". My grandfather had a very sensible approach, which was to never try to influence or put pressure on children when it came to religion, but rather to allow them to make their own decision when they became old enough to do so sensibly. Back on topic, much as I find aluminum trees to be a poor, tacky substitute, I prefer their return to any thought of bringing back live tree candles.

They were published simultaneously in Germany. I don't know why they were on the English market. My gg (I made him greater than he was ) also traveled on the Continent, but I have a letter from Liverpool in which he mentions having picked up these 3 volumes there. And, yes, it is a special trip to read the very same books that someone enjoyed in a very different age. I'm close to finishing the 3rd vol. now. BTW, here he is with my great grandmother.

Until they reduced them and made them symbolize the fight against HIV/AIDS.