Teasing the Korean

Dave Brubeck Quartet at the College of the Pacific - Fantasy (red label, red wax, mono). with Paul Desmond. Happy 90th!

Ray Brown All Star Big Band with Guest Soloist Cannonball Adderley - Verve (mono)

Obsession with album covers as a little kid was in large part responsible for getting me into music!

Arthur Lyman at the Crescendo - GNP Crescendo (red label, stereo)

Happy Holidays To You - The Whispers - Solar. Love late 70s early 80s R&B records with that Atari video game "ping" sound!

Thanks. It must be exhausting to be Sting - Everytime someone makes a documentary of a musician, Sting has to think of something profound to say.

Oh, Christ, I have to endure STING AGAIN if I watch the Brubeck? Thank God for fast forward.

Mimi Perrin

In Leslie's honor, I will spin the Louis and Bebe Barron soundtrack to "Forbidden Planet" and also the soundtrack to "Naked Gun" by whoever composed that one (I've forgotten).

I'll have some pix as we get closer to Christmas. I'm still working out some of the details.

Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles - Blue Note (stereo, decadent 70s label design).

STILL decorating for Xmas. So what else can I possibly spin? Johnny Mathis - The Sounds of Christmas - Mercury (black label, mono) The Three Suns - A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas - RCA (living stereo)

Well, the tree is up and the train is running around it. It looks great. All 1950s (and earlier) vintage freight cars, nothing from the era of the giant corporate mergers and ugly logos. The engine is a two-piece Great Northern, of the deco diesel design. I am piece by piece replacing the cheaper knuckle couplers with Kadee couplers. Also, I am replacing the wheels with higher-end versions that use real miniature springs for the shock absorbers (as opposed to the molded ones. I am very excited!

It's amazing that so much of this stuff has survived. I saw Prelinger do some screenings under the name "Our Secret Century" at the Harvard Film Archive in the mid 1990s. I first saw "American Look" there. At the time, he said the collection was so huge that he hadn't even catalogued the whole thing yet. I think at the time he was seeking grant funding to do this.

Understood. All advertising/PR is, I suppose, a form of propaganda, but many (including me) have come to interpret the propaganda as being used for more nefarious purposes. But I understand. You can get lost in those two Websites. Fascinating stuff.

The Leon Thomas Album - Flying Dutchman

Nino Rota/Armando Trovajoli - Boccaccio 70 OST - RCA International (mono)

Jack Jones Christmas Album - Kapp (mono)

Propaganda is a political hack declaring "mission accomplished" when the war has barely started. Putting a spotlight on contemporary design is not propaganda. The worst thing about that film is its title - "American Look." Many of the designs are European, or Euro inspired. Here is an AMAZING film about the Southern Pacific Railroad (this is part 1): http://www.archive.org/details/ThisIsMy1940 Great color footage of trains back when they used to look like trains. Gorgeous color, lots of freight yard detail, and also coverage of snow storm response. This is the best train film I've yet found on Prelinger.

If that's your idea of propaganda, then I love propaganda more than life itself.

STILL decorating the tree. Ferrante & Teicher - Snowbound - UA (black label, stereo)

And it's not like they asked him to do "My Fair Lady" or "West Side Story." It is conceptually a compromise, PLUS the show sucked.

Swingle Singers - Swingle Bells - MMG Shorty Rogers - The Swingin' Nutcracker - RCA (black dog, Living Stereo)

Stan Kenton - A Merry Christmas - Capitol (rainbow, stereo) Yes, it's a little early, but I'm decorating the tree and want the full experience. EDIT: First time spinning this album. I was afraid of this record for years, but it's actually very nice!