duaneiac

I got a shipment confirmation email from DeepDiscount today, so it should be here by week's end. It came to $11.14 + tax buying from them.

Disc 2

A pretty good movie. I only checked it out because of my recent interest in Harry Belafonte, but I'm glad I did. Sidney Poitier plays Buck, a wagon master who specializes in leading groups of freed slaves who are headed out West. Cameron Mitchell leads a team of "labor recruiters" who tries (by violent means) to get these groups to return from whence they came. Harry Belafonte is an itinerant pseduo-preacher who at first is an antagonist of Buck, but they come to realize they have a common enemy. A good, solid Western movie making use of some themes not exactly common to Westerns.

! The discs released from that tour are really good! To mix things up a bit this afternoon, I've had these 5 discs on random shuffle play:

Two albums originally from 1967-68 with arrangements on both by Billy May, Oliver Nelson and Sid Feller.

My favorite recording for this time of year . . .

Recorded at Ronnie Scott's in Nov. of 1995 with an octet that included Guy Barker, Alan Skidmore and Peter King.

I recently finished listening to the audiobook version of Harry Belafonte's memoir. Now I watched this documentary which is kind of a condensed version of that story. And what a story it is encompassing Broadway, Hollywood, Vegas, best-selling albums (the very first million seller), award-winning TV programs, in addition to the whole civil rights movement in which he played several important roles, in addition to leading the international fight against apartheid and to free Nelson Mandela, in addition to helping organize the whole USA For Africa and the "We Are The World" recording, in addition to being a UNICEF representative on the ground in famine stricken Ethiopia and later in war-torn Rwanda, in addition to (in his 80's) attempting to bring peace and a path to another way of life to gang members in L.A. Like him or hate him, no one can ever say this man didn't make a difference with his life.

A compilation of recordings for Muse made from 1972 to 1994. I've always loved his version of "Stolen Moments". In addition to the names mentioned on the CD cover, these tracks also include appearances by Ron Carter, George Mraz, Claudio Roditi, Gene Bertoncini, Joe Puma, Roy McCurdy and Smith Dobson among others.

A spy movie directed by Ken Russell, so even if the plot is absurd, at least the film is visually interesting to watch. Michael Caine is reliably good and Ed Begley made for a surprisingly good super villain.

It's always a pleasant discovery to be reminded of just how good an album Ode To Billie Joe was/is. Nine of the ten songs were composed by Ms. Gentry and several of them are just as evocative, in their own ways, as the smash hit title track. We're probably past the deluxe boxed set glory days, but I was always hoping there would have been such a collection for Ms. Gentry. There were only the handful of albums plus whatever singles were out there, all recorded for Capitol, so it should have been easy to produce. If any previously unreleased material is around and they needed the cooperation of the performer to release, that might have been a problem. Once Ms. Gentry left showbiz, she left it entirely and for good. I suppose she still cashes whatever royalty checks come her way, but she is apparently well-off financially and not the least bit concerned with either her previous life or her legacy as a singer/songwriter. Now playing Disc 3 of 10 from

Well, once again here it is, "the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day" -- so you know what that calls for

DeepDiscount.com currently lists this item for $12.38 (with an additional 10% off all items with the promo code "bikinibeach") . It is a "backordered" item, but I have had pretty good luck with them eventually shipping such items, so long as they are of pretty recent vintage.