Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Groovin' at 33 1/3
So, Dr. ER and I and three friends -- MM, and Mr. and Mrs. DrLoboJo -- ushered in the new year last night with the eating of gooseflesh with all the fixings and listening to records on the hi-fi.
The dandy appliance pictured. Very cool. Very Santa-y of Dr. ER to get me!
And I am such a hick. The very first tune I played was "Down Yonder" by Del Wood (amateur, but damn good, version of the ragtime classic here).
Then some Marty Robbins (DrLoboJo's, now mine!), a couple of songs from The Beatles' "Let it Be" album -- "Let it Be" itself and "Across the Universe," which Dr. ER had never heard! (mine) -- a Donna Summers cut (DrLoboJo's), a scratchy recording of Mrs. DrLoboJo made when she was a chillum in 1951 -- and to great explosions of mirth and frivolity, sides 1, 2, 3 and 4 of a two-record album of one of Kermit Schaefer's radio blooper records.
A record player! My coolest gift this Christmas -- edging out to portable, 12-bottle wine fridge Bird and Beau got me, which is also very cool.
What was your coolest gift this year?
--ER
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Coolest gift? I really didn't get anything "cool", except perhaps Tom Waits' Frank's Wild Years CD, which was the basis for a one-man show Waits did in Chicago in the late-1980's.
I got myself, two days after Christmas, a pair of inexpensive, but very fine, speakers (plus subwoofer) for my laptop. All the better to listen to Pandora, don't you know.
That's a very cool little device, there. If I still owned any vinyl, I might consider it.
I got myself, two days after Christmas, a pair of inexpensive, but very fine, speakers (plus subwoofer) for my laptop. All the better to listen to Pandora, don't you know.
That's a very cool little device, there. If I still owned any vinyl, I might consider it.
My coolest gift was the iPhone I got earlier this year, which we agreed would be both a Christmas and Birthday gift. However, I also got "The Absolute Sandman" volume II (a compilation of the Sandman comic book series) which is definitely cool too.
Yes, I'm 12 years old. :)
Yes, I'm 12 years old. :)
Hey: The Sandman was wonderful.
I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand vinyl records, and the same turntable that's been following me around since 1986. It no longer plays 45s, and my girlfriend saw fit to buy me not only a new turntable, but a new CD player too.
Coolest gift though? The Ove Glove! My mom got it for me as a joke, but dammit, it's awesome.
I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand vinyl records, and the same turntable that's been following me around since 1986. It no longer plays 45s, and my girlfriend saw fit to buy me not only a new turntable, but a new CD player too.
Coolest gift though? The Ove Glove! My mom got it for me as a joke, but dammit, it's awesome.
Allen, I bought my oldest son, 30, all the Sandman compleations I could find about four years ago for Xmas. I think there may have been five or six of them. Of course I had to read them.
Sandman rocks and the art rolls. Of course I am retired and into my second or third youth so maybe we are both 12 years old.
My coolest (and damn near only by way of its cost) gift was a some what well used 1874 Remington Rollingblock 16 gage shotgun bored out an extra inch to take a slug in a brass casing. The kind of thing you shot buffalo with up close and personal. It fits in my buffalo hunter collection. Of course it can never be fired, and will hang on a wall except when I take it down and fondle it and pretend I am a buffalo runner.
Sandman rocks and the art rolls. Of course I am retired and into my second or third youth so maybe we are both 12 years old.
My coolest (and damn near only by way of its cost) gift was a some what well used 1874 Remington Rollingblock 16 gage shotgun bored out an extra inch to take a slug in a brass casing. The kind of thing you shot buffalo with up close and personal. It fits in my buffalo hunter collection. Of course it can never be fired, and will hang on a wall except when I take it down and fondle it and pretend I am a buffalo runner.
An Ove Glove? I think I might need to investigate that. . .
The shotgun sounds very cool, indeed, drlobojo. When he was but a lad of sixteen, back in 1937, my father was given a Winchester lever-action .30-.30, date stamped in the 1870's. I have fired that rifle at a few cans and other lifeless targets, and can testify that there is power, and noise, in that machine of death. A similar model was copied and used often by John Wayne in many of his films (Rooster Cogburn flips it in his hand to cock it as he tries to kill Robert Duvall in True Grit, after emitting the immortal line, "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!"). When my father was disposing of his collection of firearms, he asked me if I wanted it. While a part of me did, I know I shall never use it, and I do not have space for a gun cabinet in which to store it safely, so I let it go to my oldest sister's son, the oldest grandchild, who shall actually use it.
Dad also had a 16-gauge, a double barrel. I once made the mistake of pulling both triggers at the same time and had a bruise on my shoulder for over a week. Of course, that was nothing to the bruise on my shoulder from a friends' 10-gauge . . .
One final note on my father and firearms (which is all totally off-thread). When my father was in basic training in the army, in the spring of 1945, all the M-1's were overseas, so rifle practice was done with WWI-surplus Springfields. My father loved that rifle. It was heavy, far too long, awkward to load and reload, and almost knocked him down the first time he fired it. He also said that would rather have a Springfield than any other rifle. Ever. Hunting, combat, whatever.
The shotgun sounds very cool, indeed, drlobojo. When he was but a lad of sixteen, back in 1937, my father was given a Winchester lever-action .30-.30, date stamped in the 1870's. I have fired that rifle at a few cans and other lifeless targets, and can testify that there is power, and noise, in that machine of death. A similar model was copied and used often by John Wayne in many of his films (Rooster Cogburn flips it in his hand to cock it as he tries to kill Robert Duvall in True Grit, after emitting the immortal line, "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!"). When my father was disposing of his collection of firearms, he asked me if I wanted it. While a part of me did, I know I shall never use it, and I do not have space for a gun cabinet in which to store it safely, so I let it go to my oldest sister's son, the oldest grandchild, who shall actually use it.
Dad also had a 16-gauge, a double barrel. I once made the mistake of pulling both triggers at the same time and had a bruise on my shoulder for over a week. Of course, that was nothing to the bruise on my shoulder from a friends' 10-gauge . . .
One final note on my father and firearms (which is all totally off-thread). When my father was in basic training in the army, in the spring of 1945, all the M-1's were overseas, so rifle practice was done with WWI-surplus Springfields. My father loved that rifle. It was heavy, far too long, awkward to load and reload, and almost knocked him down the first time he fired it. He also said that would rather have a Springfield than any other rifle. Ever. Hunting, combat, whatever.
Our online friend Jolene sent me a diabetic cookbook, all the way from California. It was a complete surprise, which is what makes it such a wonderful gift.
GKS when I was 12, I did my serious Jack Rabbit killing with a 1890 Springfield bolt action 22. (Serious because they were a plague on the new spring cotton plants and we had to replant twice)
An effective long range killer that was. It was totally worn out by the time we finished with it, My brother still has it.
Haven't use a weapon in against anything other than a squirrel (chewing on my house)since 1969.
An effective long range killer that was. It was totally worn out by the time we finished with it, My brother still has it.
Haven't use a weapon in against anything other than a squirrel (chewing on my house)since 1969.
The coolest gift I got was a pair of book-ends my son made in his grade 11 art class.
Sound boring? I'm not the biggest fan of book-ends either, when you have a couple of thousand books, what's the use? But these are triply cool because
1. I "convinced" him to take art because he had always had a gift as a little child, and I believe that you should learn to love all the disciplines - actually I had to force him to take it: "if you don't take a fine arts class you will never see natural light again" - now (in his school of over 1000 students) he's one of the star artists, and he loves it!
2. They are beautiful! (And not just because he's my child!) (His very strict art teacher gave them 100%)
3. They were made by my little snoopy-poopy(don't tell im I said that...)
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Sound boring? I'm not the biggest fan of book-ends either, when you have a couple of thousand books, what's the use? But these are triply cool because
1. I "convinced" him to take art because he had always had a gift as a little child, and I believe that you should learn to love all the disciplines - actually I had to force him to take it: "if you don't take a fine arts class you will never see natural light again" - now (in his school of over 1000 students) he's one of the star artists, and he loves it!
2. They are beautiful! (And not just because he's my child!) (His very strict art teacher gave them 100%)
3. They were made by my little snoopy-poopy(don't tell im I said that...)
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