Jericho...Again!

At the time I am writing this the new CBS TV show Jericho starring Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney has just come on with its first episode. The show is about a small town that finds itself cut off from the outside world when a nuclear bomb explodes. Skeet is the prodigal son who comes back home just for a visit and to get the inheritance his Grandfather left him. However, there is some bad blood between him and his Dad, who happens to be the town Mayor. So I doubt he will get his inheritance. With the bomb going off it won’t do him much good anyway. With them not knowing if they are the last people left on the planet or not they now will have to face the problems they have in their little town. After all there is no place for them to run.
The reason I am writing about this show is that 40 years ago on September 15, 1966 CBS aired another TV series called Jericho. It is very coincidental I think that 40 years apart there are 2 shows with the same name that aired on the same network and they really have nothing to do with each other.
The one from 1966 was a war time drama. It starred Don Francks, Marino Mase and John Leyton. They were three Allied agents during World War II. They went undercover behind enemy lines and took on saboteurs, espionage agents and did intelligence gathering.
The first Jericho didn’t last long. It was canceled and aired its last episode on January 19, 1967. I don’t think this one will do much better. While this first episode looks pretty good it seems like it makes a better made for TV movie then it does a series. I could be wrong. The next few months will tell. 

Timex speed boat challenge

This old commercial is actually a remake of an even older timex commercial. In the older commercial the Timex was taped to the boat but the the tape broke and the watch was lost in the water. The John Cameron Swayze was the spokesperson and he said that where ever the watch is you know it is still working because Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

19 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity!

 
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
 
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
 
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write " For Smuggling Diamonds"
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don't use any punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

This Day In Music History: John Waite and Missing You

On September 22 1984, this day in music history, John Waite had the #1 song in the country with “Missing You.” Mr. Waite was from Lancaster, England and was born on July 4, 1955. He had been performing in rock and jazz bands since he was 14 years old. In 1976 he was a founding member of the group The Babys. Their manager didn’t waste any time in getting them attention in the United States. To get attention for the group he had them do something unusual for the 1970’s. He had them make a video. It helped them get a deal with Chrysalis Records. Their first song was “Isn’t It Time” and it went to #13 in 1977. After three albums the group broke up. Mr. Waite went solo. His first single from his first album was called “Change.” While the video was popular it didn’t sell many records. His second album was called “No Brakes” and “Missing You” was the single that was released from the album. The video was given heavy rotation on MTV. Another way they used to sell the song was when Mr. Waite guest starred on three episodes of the prime time soap opera “Paper Dolls.” He sang parts of the song on each episode. He wanted to use parts of the film “Privilege” into his stage act for the TV show but the ABC network felt that parts of it were inappropriate.
The song was about a lot of personal feelings that Mr. Waite had about some issues that were going on in his life. He really wanted to keep them to himself but it all came out when he wrote the song. He said that when the song went to #1 it really changed his life. It gave him a different view of himself, the lady in his life and of other people who he wrote about in the song. Mr. Waite said “I was so proud of myself and the people that were involved in that song when it got to number one because it was so unselfconsciously put together and so honestly written.” He said “I’ve always found it very hard to take a compliment. But I don’t say no, I’m not very good anymore. I say thank you. Because I was #1 and I think that really helps me now to consider myself in some ways worthy of success and worthy of being an artist, and maybe worthwhile.” 

Boyce and Hart

I saw this on Bedazzled about Boyce and Hart. A short item giving links to items about the duo. They were friends on the east coast. Boyce moved to the west coast to begin his music career. Hart followed not too long after. They wrote songs together and seperately but their biggest success was together. After numerous hits for others they decided to start their own preforming careers. They never reached #1 on the charts as preformers but they did have a few top 40 hits. Their biggest hits were "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" and "I'm Gonna Blow You A Kiss In The Wind." The latter I remember seeing the preform on Bewitched. They also appeared on I Dream of Jeannie. In the 70's they joined half of the Monkees to form Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart. Later Tommy Boyce died a tragic death. There are many books written about the Monkees but I think someone needs to write one on Boyce and Hart. 

Credit Card Scam

This is a warning to all credit card holders. I got a call tonight from someone saying that they were calling from my credit card company offering me something that would lower my interest rate and stop any late fees if I was late with a payment. They just wanted to verify my name and address. I asked them why I was getting this call. Suddenly they hung up. I thought that was rude and I called my credit card customer service to make sure that I was not going to get the offer they had called me about. The customer service rep said they did not call me. If they had he would have seen it on my account on his computer instanly. He said that it was probably someone calling to get my credit card information. He said that it was good that I asked them a question. It let them know that they weren't going to get information out of me and their scam had been discovered. He said if that happens again I should tell them I don't talk about my finances on the phone and to ask them for thier phone # so I can call them back later. I thought that everyone should know this in case you ever get a call like this.

My Space page

For those readers who would like to read my articles on My Space.com you can go here to
Find me on MySpace and be my friend!
However you may not see everything on myspace.com as that is only an addition to this page where all my blogs will appear. Just an FYI.

The Monkees A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, Double Sided Hit or Double Sided Threat?

During the Monkees first round of popularity in the 60’s for some reason the music public became angry when they found out that they didn’t play their own instruments on their records. The group had been trying to get more control over their music. They reluctantly agreed to the first album being released as they really had no control over that at the time and it had to be released to coincide with the broadcast of the show. What fanned the flames of the Monkees anger, mostly Mike’s, was when Don Kirshner released the 2nd album, More of the Monkees, a few months later without telling them. The album was compiled of songs that the Monkees had recorded and were rejected for the first album. The show was such a big hit that Kirshner rushed the 2nd album into release. The Monkees only found out when they were on tour and saw it for sale. They bought it and listened to it. They couldn’t believe that they were not told of its release date. I believe this all happened after the meeting where Mike put his fist through the wall but I could be wrong. However, it added fuel to the fire for the next meeting with their producers. They must have realized this was a problem that would not go away and was getting out of hand. They told the Monkees that from now on they could produce songs that would be released as the B side of their singles starting with the next one. Rafelson and Schneider told this to Kirshner. He apparently didn’t take it well as he secretly released the song “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” in Canada with the B side version of “She Hangs Out” that he produced. Davy sang lead on both and the promo was released to DJ’s labeled as “Davy Jones My Favorite Monkee Sings.” It has always been a bit of a mystery to me as to why Davy sang on both when he had been told his group would produce the B sides. Perhaps this was recorded before that order had been given. Another explanation sort of comes from the actor John Goodman. He was on the huge hit show “Rosanne” but kept taking offers to appear in films and guest spots on other TV shows. The man never seemed to take a vacation. He was asked why he didn’t take any time off and kept taking so many roles. He said an actor’s mentality is that they never know when the next job will come along. So they take the next role that is offered to them. That way they keep working. Perhaps that is the way Davy was thinking at the time and he would sing whenever Kirshner or anybody would ask him.
When the producers of the Monkees found out they called Don Kirshner on the carpet. During that meeting Kirshner was fired from the Monkees project. The producers recalled the 45 that he released in Canada. Some of those 45’s were sold and exist today in music lovers record collections. If one is in mint condition today it would be worth $100 or more. The recall made it and the DJ promo very rare. The Monkees did record one of their best songs as the B side to “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” It was the Mike Nesmith song “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” Nez was pretty smart. Not only did he get to produce what he wanted but he also made money as the writer of the song and I am sure he still gets royalties from it. Their next project was their biggest. They produced the 3rd album Headquarters. They were given their chance and they ran with it and produced one of the best pop bubblegum music albums of the 60’s. There were only 2 problems. One is that it still sounded like something Kirshner’s people would have produced. In a way that is understandable. This was their first time producing as a group and Kirshner’s people, mostly Boyce and Hart and Jeff Barry, had already established their sound from the recording studio. However, I think they would have made a better point to Kirshner and their producers if they could have had time to invent a new sound. In the end the third album was still their baby with all the music coming from them or under their control. The album was even recalled. Not because of the music but because of the back cover art. One of the photos showed Mike, Peter and Micky with beards. The producers wanted only clean shaven photos of the guys on the album so they recalled it. The 2nd version was the same as the first but the offending photo was replaced with a picture of the recording engineer Hank Cicalo and Douglas Farthing Hatelid who the Monkees hired to help them produce the album. The second thing that hurt it was that while the album went to #1 on the Billboard charts it still didn’t sell as many copies as the first two albums did. It isn’t that the album wasn’t as good as the first two. It is just that the music scene had changed almost over night. You see the album that was released later was the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The whole landscape of the rock and roll music business changed with that album for everyone. Still the Monkees proved they could produce their own music and for a brief time became considered part of rock and roll royalty. The August 26, 1967 album charts was as follows.
1. Sgt. Peppers – The Beatles
2. Headquarters – The Monkees
3. Flowers – The Rolling Stones
4. The Doors – The Doors
5. Surrealistic Pillow – Jefferson Airplane
Still, after that all too brief moment, the Monkees were back to being seen as TV stars who were just playing at being rock stars. Another thing that may have hurt the sales of the album was that there was no single released from the album in the United States. There were plenty of good songs on the album that would have made good singles for the top 40 radio. Randy Scouse Git was released under the different name of Alternate Title in England because it was causing a minor controversy their. You see in England R.S.G. is considered a vulgar term. Dolenz wrote the song and heard that phrase when he was in England. He didn’t know what it meant but liked the sound of it and used it as his title. I heard Forget That Girl was released over seas. Their 2nd season closing song, For Pete’s Sake, was on this album. Just think how big that song would have been if it was released in September of that year. It was heard every week at the end of the show. It was heard by millions of TV viewers every week and that alone could have sent it to #1. The Nesmith tunes You Told Me and You Just May Be The One were also good top 40 tunes. Why was there never a single hit in the USA off of this album? We may never know.
Headquarters is the only album from the 60’s where they recorded as a group. Micky said that Peter was happiest when they did this album. Peter later confirmed that. He said it was because they finally came together as a musical group and played to their musical strengths. Eventually the pace of recording, doing a TV series and concerts caught up to them and their next albums were produced pretty much the same way as Kirshner and his company did. They came in and added their instruments and vocals to tracks already recorded. The difference was that it was all under their control and they didn’t have to do what Krishner told them. Eventually the group members went their separate ways. Their next group effort with all 4 members was in the 90’s with the album (CD) Justus. It was recorded the same way as Headquarters but didn’t do as well on the charts. Still the Monkees adventures in the music recording studio can be traced back to the song “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” Without the controversy that 45 caused the album Headquarters may not have been recorded or turned out as we know it today. The 45 itself under its second release became one of the biggest double sided hits in rock and roll history.
The above photo is the picture sleeve from the Japan release of the song. You can buy it at this site.

Are You Equiped For The Battle?

Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.

Ephesians 6:13-18 NLT

Spiritual warfare

Soldiers are trained to keep their equipment in battle-ready condition, Weapons are cleaned and oiled, communications equipment is checked and double-checked, and helmets are kept in place in case of sudden attack. If we prepare so diligently to face a human enemy, Paul says, how much more ought we to prepare for battle against our spiritual enemy? Satan will attack, he says, and only the believer who is grounded in the truth of God's Word will recognize his lies. Only a personal acceptance by faith of God's love can protect our hearts from Satan's fiery temptations. Only a sure knowledge of salvation protects our minds from doubt. And only the Word of God and power of Jesus Christ can cause Satan to flee in terror. Are you fully prepared for battle?

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