duaneiac

CDs I bought for a buck each at a library sale today:

A run-of -the-mill potbolier which never reaches the boiling point. Vitorio Gassman plays a Hungarian refugee who stows away on a boat to NYC after WW2. Since he is a stowaway, he can't enter the country legally, but if he can prove that he helped the Allied forces in the war, he can gain entry. He had helped an American GI escape capture, but all he knew about the man was that he was named Tom and was a clarinet player who said he just wanted to get back to his job in Times Square. So, Mr. Gassman's character jumps ship and makes his way through NYC trying to find this "Tom" chap (played by future Rob & Laura Petrie neighbor, Jerry Paris). He helps a tough, down on her luck girl (played by Gloria Grahame) out of a jam and she in turn helps him in his quest. Jack Teagarden has one line. Shelly Manne is seen as the drummer in Big T's band. Also on the DVD was another 1953 Columbia pic. I could not make it very far into this one, though. Charlton Heston's scenery chewing was just too much. Not even the usually watchable Lizabeth Scott could keep me watching this one. Once they reached the obligatory scene where the two characters express how much each infuriates the other and then they end up in a passionate kiss, I turned it off. But hey -- "Ghost Surgeon"!!! Now that's a movie I really want to see!!! Also on the DVD is an episode from a TV series called "All-Star Theater" starring Howard Duff and Janet Blair. It's actually a pretty good rehash of a Sam Spade type story in which Mr. Duff's character, Johnny Abel, gets mixed up in some case by an attractive, mysterious dame, gets knocked unconscious a couple of times and then solves the case.

Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson (photo taken at George Harrison's little cottage)

CD insert back (I don't think this ever came out on LP)

I don't know if it's "bad art" or not, but I bought this Christmas ornament a couple of years ago

The front cover of this album actually opens up as a hymnal with pages that have all the music and lyrics to the songs sung on the album.

The one and only time I ever saw him was when he was perhaps with the same group CJ Shearn mentioned. In 2015 he was at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest with Bombay Jazz, a quartet of Larry Coryell, saxophonist George Brooks, bamboo flutist Ronu Majumdar and tabla player Aditya Kalyanpur. I only saw the last half of their set, but it was very interesting music. May he Rest In Peace.

For some reason, instead of boogie woogie, this painting makes me think of Pac-Man . . .

This image is actually on the Wikipedia page for "Jazz" since it is a 1915 painting by Albert Gleizes titled "Composition pour Jazz" and marks an early use of the word "jazz" It does nothing for me as "art", but it's in the Guggenheim Museum. Better it should hang on their wall than mine, is all I can say.

I always thought this painting left something to be desired

and still more pics on the LP sleeve inside --

Oh man, I used to love Side One of this album. "I Am What I Am" was a big hit in the dance bars at the time, but I also really loved the track, "Strive". I still have this LP around here somewhere.

At least I don't think Pat Boone was prone to wearing a leather vest and an earring in real life . . .

Too Forrest Gumpy for my taste.

It's a shame this CD is out of print. Clever title, clever pic. And it does include at least one song actually recorded by Ol' Blue Eyes, "Bein' Green"