A Letter from Summer Camp

Amilcare Ponchielli
(31 August, 1834 – 17 January 17, 1886)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 09-08-2006:
Allan Sherman (1963) - Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
(adpated from the ballet music "The Dance of the Hours"
of Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda)

Vocal: Allan Sherman (1963)


Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining

I went hiking with Joe Spivy
He developed poison ivy
You remember Leonard Skinner
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner

All the counselors hate the waiters
And the lake has alligators
And the head coach wants no sissies
So he reads to us from something called 'Ulysses'

Now I don't want this should scare ya
But my bunkmate has malaria
You remember Jeffrey Hardy
They're about to organize a searching party

Take me home, oh muddah fadduh, take me home, I hate Grenada
Don't leave me out in the forest where I might get eaten by a bear
Take me home, I promise I will not make
Noise or mess the house with other boys
Oh please don't make me stay, I've been here one whole day

Dearest Fadduh, darling Muddah
How's my precious little bruddah
Let me come home if ya miss me
I will even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me

Wait a minute, it stopped hailing
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing
Playing baseball, gee that's better
Muddah Fadduh kindly disregard this letter

The Breeze and I

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-30-2006:
Enoch Light and The Light Brigade
The Breeze and I (Lecuona)

From My 2006 Travel Notes - 2 of x

Log Date: 17 May, 2006
Log Time: ~ 2300 H EDT
Location: Jekyll Island Club Hotel, GA
2nd Floor Guest Room

As we approached the turn-off on Route 520- Highway 17 North onto the Jekyll Island Causeway leading to the island, we saw an abundant growth of salt marshes and Spartina grasses along the road. These were the anchor plants of the marine-estuarine ecosystems commonly found in the Georgia and South Carolina low country. Surely, the early trans-Atlantic settlers had had to wade through the mud flats, marshes, insects, and what not to go ashore. Would they have been as beholden to these confounding natural wonders as we do today? Then again, when all things considered, having survived a long and perilous ocean voyage to reach the New World, muddy salt marshes and other natural impediments were of little significance to the settlers.

When we arrived at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, William said, if we could, we should view the sunset at 8:18 PM. Why would a hotel shuttle driver bothered with celestial events, much less to impart such knowledge to strangers? He was a rare bird, indeed. As the twilight glare of a slowly consuming ember spreading wide and deep over the island, William’s invitation beckoned me to stray from checking in at the front desk...

Kiss of Fire

Georgia Gibbs
26 August, 1926 -  

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-27-2006:
Georgia Gibbs (1952)
Kiss of Fire


Kiss of Fire (1952)
Georgia Gibbs
Music: AG Vilodo
Words: Lester Allen and Robert Hill

I touch your lips and all at once the sparks go flying
Those devil lips that know so well the art of lying
And though I see the danger, still the flame grows higher
I know I must surrender to your kiss of fire

Just like a torch, you set the soul within me burning
I must go on, I'm on this road of no returning
And though it burns me and it turns me into ashes
My whole world crashes without your kiss of fire

I can't resist you, what good is there in trying
What good is there denying you're all that I desire
Since first I kissed you my heart was yours completely
If I'm a slave, then it's a slave I want to be
Don't pity me, don't pity me

Give me your lips, the lips you only let me borrow
Love me tonight and let the devil take tomorrow
I know that I must have your kiss although it dooms me
Though it consumes me, your kiss of fire

Since first I kissed you my heart was yours completely
If I'm a slave, then it's a slave I want to be
Don't pity me, don't pity me

Give me your lips, the lips you only let me borrow
Love me tonight and let the devil take tomorrow
I know that I must have your kiss although it dooms me
Though it consumes me. your kiss of fire

From My 2006 Travel Notes - 1 of x

Log Date: 17 May, 2006
Log Time: 1930 H EDT
Carrier: Jekyll Island Club Hotel Shuttle
Ambient Temp: 80°F/27°C. Humid.
Destination: Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island, GA
ETA: 2030 H EDT
Present Ground Space: North Interstate 95, Jacksonville, FL

I am impressed. A Jekyll Island Club Hotel shuttle is waiting for its guests, while the passengers are disembarking the plane.

We are onboard the shuttle heading north on Interstate 95. It is about 60 miles from JAX to Jekyll Island. Tooling along on the expressway, both sides of the verdant freeway are pleasing the eyes. There is about three or four cars traveling north beside us. A hotel guest asks William, the driver, why the traffic is so sparse. On peak commute hours, William says, there would be about eight cars on the road. Funny man is he.

It's now 5:30 PM on the west coast. Here in Florida and the eastern seaboard, the evening tinct is already setting over the shores. It’s been a long day. Here we are, finally. Georgia's Jewel, Jekyll Island, awaits us.

Louis Teicher's Birthday

Jack Lemon & Shirley MacLaine in 'The Apartment' (1960)

Louis Teicher, pianist
Member of Ferrante & Teicher twin Piano team
24 August, 1924 -

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-26-2006:
Ferrante & Teicher
Theme from 'The Apartment' (1960)

Back in the Saddle Again

The music server is fixed.

The Question

What is God's greatest desire?

Music Server Is Down

My music server is down. No new music posts until further notice. Thank you for your patience.

Big Band Larry Clinton's Birthday

Larry Clinton, His Orchestra, and Bea Wain
Larry Clinton, Big Band Leader and Musician
(17 August 1909 - 2 May, 1985)

This MP3 Selection Expired
Larry Clinton and His Orchestra with Bea Wain (1941)
Because of You (Hammerstein & Wilkinson)

Because of You
Words: Arthur Hammerstein
Music: Dudley Wilkinson
1940

Larry Clinton and His Orchestra
Bea Wain, Vocal (1941)

Because of you there's a song in my heart
Because of you my romance had its start
Because of you the sun will shine

The moon and start will say you're mine
Forever and never to part
I only live for your love and your kiss
It's paradise to be near you like this

Because of you my life is now worthwhile
And I can smile
Because of you

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Charles Tobias
American lyricist/composer
(15 August, 1898 - 7 July, 1970)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-24-2006:
Nat King Cole (1963)
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer (Tobias & Carste)


Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer
Words: Charles Tobias
Music: Hans Carste
Vocal: Nat King Cole (1963)

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies
Then lock the house up, now you're set
And on the beach you'll see the girls in their bikinis
As cute as ever but they never get 'em wet

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

Don't hafta tell a girl and fella about a drive-in
Or some romantic moon it seems
Right from the moment that those lovers start arrivin'
You'll see more kissin' (wolf whistle)
In the cars than on the screen

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here

You'll wish that summer could always be here
You'll wish that summer could always be here

What a Difference a Day Made

Stanley Adams II
American lyricist
(14 August, 1907 - 27 January, 1994)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-15-2006:
Dinah Washington (1959)
What a Difference a Day Made


What a Difference a Day Made
Music: Maria Grever
Words: Stanley Adams II
1934

Vocal: Dinah Washington (1959)

What a difference a day made
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain

My yesterday was blue dear
Today I'm a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine

Lord, what a difference a day makes
There's a rainbow before me
Skies above can't be stormy
Since that moment of bliss
That thrilling kiss

It's heaven when you
Find romance on your menu
What a difference a day made
And the difference is you

Truth is Truth, No Matter How Dated and Unfashionable

A poem the white-guilt harboring liberals, Islamofacists hugging, and America hating Democratic Left, and the down in the gutter Old Gray Lady, The New York Times, would love to hate.


The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Rudyard Kipling, 1919

Aa I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.

A Summer Reverie

Summer Swing
This post was delayed because of some other pressing matters I needed to attend on 10 August.

Alexander Gluzunov, Russian Composer
(10 August, 1865 – 21 March, 1936)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-14-2006:
Gecevicius (Horn) & Bendoraitiene (Piano)
Reverie in D Flat Major, Op. 24 (Glazunov)

In A Persian Market

Albert William Ketèlbey
English composer, conductor, and pianist
(9 August, 1875 - 26 November,1959)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-12-2006:
Enoch Light and The Light Brigade
In A Persian Market (Ketèlbey, 1920)

Solamente Una Vez

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-08-2006:
Carmen Cavallaro (piano)
Solamente Una Vez (You Belong to My Heart)

Tony Bennett at 80

Tony Bennett
3 August, 1926 -

This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-05-2006:
Tony Bennett (1962) - I Left My Heart in San Francisco