I want my CD drive!!; new cat; Kong Ling; Ike the liked

The far-from-homely Kong Ling, circa 1960.

So, don't everyone comment at once.

Please. At my blog. In general, I mean.

So, our new cat, Tommy, wandered in from who-knows-where. I forgot to mention that. Most of our cats are wander-ons, as I call them, though Tommy's been around for a while. We've seen him in the yard and/or down the bank over the past year, maybe. He's unfixed but hyper-friendly. Built like a prizefighter, but sweet. He's calmed down a lot over the few days he's been here, and he's already learned the cat window. An amazing creature, Tommy.

So, who's Kong Ling? A singer/actress from Hong Kong, that's who. Since 1984 or so, I've had some of her stuff on vinyl, only without knowing it was her. I bought the records in question while in Hong Kong, and the material was booted, seems like. Anyway, she was a terrific singer, and her stuff was a lot of fun (covers of American Top 40 hits by Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka, for instance), and I'll be putting up some Kong Ling when my replacement drive has arrived.

Unless I can figure out how, in the meanwhile, to convert MAGIX WAV files to mp3s without first burning them to CD. Some freeware, maybe? My MAGIX program has no mp3 feature (ain't that a kicker?), and, even though I can export files from MAGIX to my mp3 program, I have no means of 1) converting them or 2) editing them. My MAGIX files have multiple selections on them, you see.

It's a mess, this whole business of making do without a burner. It's not like I had the thing for any length of time. Wahhhhhh!!!!

I needed that. I feel better now.

So, don't everybody comment at once. It'll crash the server.

Anyway, President's Day is coming, of course (though shouldn't it be Presidents' Day?), and why not start early? Especially since I'm forced for the moment to work with stuff that's already up at Box.net. Here, already loaded and ready to link, is a really neat track (that's right--"really neat") from 1955--Paul Lavalle's Dwight D. Eisenhower March. I'm a leftie 'til I die, but I think Ike was O.K. I mean, compare him to the Republicans who've shown up on my pushing-50 watch. The guy was a saint, practically. And this is one stirring march.

People liked Ike. Hear that, Bush? A president who was liked. (Forget it--he can't hear me.)

Dwight D. Eisenhower March (Lavalle)--Paul Lavalle conducting the Cities Services Band of America, 1955.

I won't mention the dangling participle in the intro. (Oops.) I mean, I wasn't going to. Too late.

See if you can spot it. Feel free to comment. (Somebody, please!!) Sorry. Lost my cool.


Lee

Well, well--my FedEx package arrived in Virginia

Our post-plowed driveway (part of it, anyway).

A very nice lady called and asked if I'm expecting a CD/DVD burner from Hewlett-Packard. Yes, I said. Well, it had arrived at her Virginia address by mistake. Long story, but it seems they packed my item in with two of her items. She said she'd send it on to me using the address label they should have used to send it to me. "Thank you very much," I said.

I also said, "I can't believe they did that. No, wait--yes, I can."

So, had the idiots sent the thing properly, I'd have gotten it today. Thanks a lot, idiots at HP.

In other news, we have a new cat. We're calling him Tommy--that name may stick, it may not. He's very sweet, and very bossy, and very solidly-built. He'll have to go to the vet's to be fixed and to be Feline HiV tested. But we don't think he has it--he's too healthy. But, of course, it'll be nerve-wracking to take him there for that purpose....

















I can't believe those idiots sent my drive to Virginia.

Yes, I can.



Lee

FedEx hasn't shown; Christian comedy coming up

Because we got the FedEx notice yesterday, we thought my drive might show up this morning, though we weren't betting on it. Tomorrow morning, probably.

I don't sound eager to get the thing, do I? (<: And I forgot to give the link to the post about Christian comedy/stand-up comedy/(or...?) at Beware of the Blog. Here is the link. Notice how the main topic doesn't quite remain the same throughout. Especially odd are author Kliph Nesteroff's reasons for not categorizing Brother Dave Gardner as Christian comedy (or is it Christian stand-up comedy?). Something about how Gardner, in his act, was only playing a preacher (even though he was a preacher in real life. Don't ask me). And how Gardner's objective was not one of "conversion, moralization, or ministry." (Ohhh-kay.)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do my own Christian comedy post, beginning with Homer Rodeheaver's short, humorous monologues on his 1922 Rainbow recording of Brighten the Corner Where You Are, and continuing with a 1929 comedy monologue (by someone else) called The Substitute Parson. Nesteroff writes about a "long line of homespun comedy personas" which allegedly began with the "folksy Andy Griffith," so what the heck is such stuff doing on a 1929 seventy-eight? Ahhh, we're on to something. Which is always better than being on... never mind.

I may include two or three other items, though I'll have to check out their recording dates. Meanwhile, I wish I had some of the comedy LPs of Wendy Bagwell, whose smash-hit 1970 release Here Come the Rattlesnakes somehow escaped the attention of FMU.

And I've got a 10" Rodeheaver LP and a laughing record by a gospel quartet--I'm going to see whether or not the latter predates the birth of "Christian comedy" in 1971. This post, and many more, will be made possible by my soon-to-arrive CD/DVD burner.




Lee

FedEx, no less!

The replacement drive may get here sooner than I thought--HP is FedEx'ing it! Far out. How cool is that?

This blog may be back in business before we can, um... (insert funny, folksy phrase). Before we can say "Howdy-do" to a rattlesnake. Or something like that.

I'm not much on funny, folksy phrases. Andy Griffith, I'm not.

This has been a fine day. In addition to everything else, I just won seven gospel songbooks on eBay for the ridiculous sum of seven dollars. Including shipping and handling. A buck apiece. They're nice books, too--a couple of Stamps-Baxter softcovers in the lot, one from 1925. They're fairly used, but nearly all softcover songbooks of old are pretty used. Those things didn't sit around on bookshelves waiting for future collectors. They went to church, to campmeetings... you name it. I never expect Mint-condition editions; the volumes in my collection range from barely-there to excellent. I think about twelve of them qualify for the latter label. Well-used vernacular discards, these. And I love them for it.

Here are the seven. Believe it or not, this is the sort of photo that gets me excited:














Songbooks! Oh, boy, oh ,boy!

I'm weird.

Stamps-Baxter songbooks aren't uncommon, but it's nice to find '20s and '30s volumes.

Wow--FedEx. My drive could be here tomorrow!



Lee

Guess who's getting a new drive sent to him?

Far out. Never heard from our tech, but HP called back (as they said they would)--this time, it was the rep's supervisor. Had the problem been taken care of, he asked? No, I said. I was calm but extremely sarcastic, pointing out that the problem is obviously mechanical but that I understand HP doesn't want to replace it.

That did it. "Oh, no, that's not the case at all." Well, I replied, I'm not about to wipe out my hard drive, especially since our own tech considers it a hardware issue and since all of the over-the-phone tests showed the same thing.

"Let me speak to a senior person," he said. (Or "superior." Whatever.) Can I hold for two or three minutes? Sure, I said.

He came back and told me the drive would be on its way. Because this is a "special case," you see. (Give me a break.) Great, I said.

Special case, my rump. Parts break. There's nothing special about that. However....

It's supposed to be here by Monday, but since Monday's a holiday, I guess it'll be Tuesday. All I have to do is send the broken drive back to them, postage paid, within three days. Sure thing. That's reasonable. Cost to me: zero cents.

An unexpected victory! And all it took was calm but firm sarcasm. Bev was very entertained by my performance. I almost cracked myself up, too.

So, next week I'll be back in business. This time, the consumer won. That happens from time to time.

Now to see if Box.net is back up.

In other news, the ice storm is over but colllllld temps are on the way. So I scraped the ice-capped snow off our vehicles. Best of all, our friendly neighbors down the road came by with their plow and cleared our drive!

So, things could be a lot worse....



Lee

It's Valentine's--yippie-ki-yay; yee-haaaaa.

Click 0n image for much larger view....

I Love Him So Much I Could Scream--Peggy Lloyd, with Nick and His Gang, 1954. From 78.

Ohhhhh-kay. When and if Box.net returns to service, I'll post the rest.

(Later) O.K., Box is back but Blogger is taking fifteen years to do anything. It's a plot, I tell you.

Gently, Johnny--Guy Mitchell and Doris Day, 1952.

Cradle of Love (Gilbert/Wayne)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch.; vocal by Austin "Skin" Young, 1929. Arranged by Bill Challis.

How Many More Years--Howlin' Wolf, 1951.

Marrying for Love (Berlin)--Guy Mitchell and Rosemary Clooney with Percy Faith and His Orch., 1950.

Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) (Porter)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch.; vocal by Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, and Austin "Skin" Young, 1928. Arr. by Bill Challis.

Button Up Your Overcoat--Paul Whiteman and His Orch.; vocal by Vaughan DeLeath, 1929. Arr. by Ferde Grofe.

Some of my funnest, favoritest sides for my single-guy Valentine's!

Lee

Birds, Betty Grable, Jill Corey, Jaye P. Morgan, and Toni Arden

"Wow, guys! I heard about this feeder. It's famous! (Munch, munch) Is that good seed, or what?"












Me, on phone, as the HP tech-by-numbers tells me I'll need to reinstall Windows. I'm totally numb by this point.


Well, Steve (our tech) hasn't called back yet, but he's probably busy. I'm hoping he isn't stranded someplace in this ice and snow. We're getting one doozy of a storm at the moment.

A doozy, I tell you.

Our chief birdhunter, Whitey, can't understand why we're not letting him outside to munch on the little winged dinosaurs swarming around our feeders. (Birds evolved from dinosaurs, right?) Well, because 1) we don't want any birds to be eaten, and 2) we want them to eat the stuff we put out for them, which they won't do if Whitey is prowling the area. Birds aren't dumb.

Whitey is a white cat, by the way. Of course. A long-haired white cat--one who almost vanishes into the snow. He looks like a miniature polar bear. Actually, he looks for all the world like a sweet, pampered, pet-store-display cat, and he's the fiercest hunter we've ever had to restrain. (Yes, we feed our felines. Three times a day, at least.)

If my CD drive was working, I'd be putting up Homer Rodeheaver's Rainbow label 78 of Brighten the Corner Where You Are, just so everyone could hear the brief spoken bit in the middle, a short portion of what would have been longer on stage. Evangelist Rodeheaver did many a comic monologue during his career--stand-up, we call it today. Lamer than lame, but what could you expect in the days before Borat? (Yes, you may read that sarcastically. Please.)

Unless we're to believe stand-up showed up out of nowhere. That is has nothing to do with the comic monologues to be found on 78 after 78 and in book after book. Oh, no. Lenny Bruce invented stand-up.

I probably have more examples of evangelical comedy in my collection--it's a pretty sure bet. But if the genre didn't happen until 1971, then... I guess I'm deluded. (We already know that, of course.)

O.K., some female pop vocal mp3s for our Tuesday afternoon:

Let It Be Me (M. Curtis-Becaud)--Jill Corey with Jimmy Carroll, 1957. From 45.

Never--Toni Arden, with Percy Faith and His Orch., 1951. From Columbia 45. (Doesn't Toni sound a tad like Barbra Streisand?)

I Walk the Line (Cash)--Jaye P. Morgan, 1960. From MGM 45.

I Can't Begin to Tell You (Gordon-Monaco)--Betty Grable with Harry James, 1945 (?). From LP.

You Love Me Just Enough to Hurt Me (Floyd Tillman)--Rosemary Clooney, George Morgan, 1953. From Columbia 78.



Lee

State of the CD drive. Or, HP sucks.

I was hoping my CD/DVD drive would be fixed today, that I'd be back in action, burning CDs and uploading terrific tracks for this blog. All I can say to myself is--HA!!!

You fool, you. You hopeless (but lovable) dreamer.

Here's what happened. Steve, our tech, checked out the drive and came to the same conclusion I did--it's broke. A hardware issue, obviously, since the software functions all check out O.K.

Steve says, call Office Depot (where I bought my HP). He said they'll have me on the phone for a while, checking this and checking that, but eventually they'll relent and send someone over with the new drive. Okay, I said.

I called Office Depot. Yes, my computer's under warranty (at five months old, it'd better be), but since it's been more than fourteen days since the purchase, I'd have to call Hewlett-Packard.

Don't everyone run out to Office Depot to buy a computer, now. Not at the same time, anyway.

I called Hewlett-Packard. Their voice-recognition software actually worked--I was impressed. Then a real voice came on, and I was less so. The usual by-the-numbers questions and troubleshooting instructions--more than an hour's worth. Jesus. Again and again, the drive failed to read whatever disc was placed in it, regardless of brand or type (CD or DVD).

A hardware problem. A broken drive. Obviously.

Well, not to everyone. The script-reading tech still had tests to make me make. He had me uninstall the driver(s) and, after a bunch more steps, go to the HP website and download a new one. Which I did.

Then he had me run it. Whereupon the program asked me to make a boot CD. It shouldn't be asking me that, he said. Well, it was.

So, I cancelled and reran the driver program. Again, it asked me to make a boot CD. Go ahead and do it, said the tech. Can YOU guess what happened next?

A) Everything went smoothly, and my CD drive is back in business.
B) Aliens from the planet Gazorp showed up, took one look at my computer, and declared "Primitive humans! We have nothing to fear from your lame technology!"
C) I couldn't make a boot CD because the damn drive was still refusing to read/detect any disc put into it.
D) C, of course.
E) Hello. C.

The answer of course, is E ("Hello. C"). The drive wouldn't read the blank CD-R I placed in it, and so of course I couldn't make a boot CD.

So, when will they send me the new drive, you ask? Hold your horses, hold your horses. We're not done yet.

It wasn't enough that my drive failed again and again to read anything placed in it. No, it might STILL be a software problem. The next step? Reinstalling Windows. Yup--reinstalling Windows. And losing every damn thing on the hard drive. Uh, no, I said. I'll talk to my tech. Thank you.

In other words, HP is damned if it'll replace a defective part under warranty. That's the short and sweet of it. Wasting my time on the phone for 90 minutes--no problem. Replacing a bad part--no can do. Not sure how that works out for them in the long run. I guess it does, assuming they pay their phone people a few bucks per hour. Outsourcing, you know. God knows where my call went to. Somewhere on Earth, but I can't be sure.

Maybe our tech, Steve, will have a suggestion. If not, I have two choices: 1) reinstall the Operating System and say bye-bye to tons of stuff (can't save anything to disc, remember), or 2) buy a damn drive and put it in myself. Looks like 2) will be the solution.

If I'd expected something better from HP, I know better now, eh?

So now you know--HP doesn't honor its warranties. I wonder if anyone does anymore.


Lee

Sunday morning gospel--Charlotte Crusade Choir, The Lockport Q., J.D. Jarvis and Rusty York

We begin our Sunday gospel concert with James McGranahan's 1878 gem, Verily, Verily, as performed by one of Billy Graham's choirs about eighty years later:

Verily, Verily (McGranahan)--Charlotte Crusade Choir; from RCA LP.

And we continue with a terrific 1917 anthem by Charles (Send the Light) Gabriel, with words by the brilliant Fanny (Blessed Assurance) Crosby:

Thou Mighty to Save (Crosby-Gabriel)--Crusade Choir; from RCA LP.

Charles Gabriel, again--this time, the 1894 gospel standard, There Is Glory in My Soul.

There Is Glory in My Soul (Gabriel)--The Rockport Quartet.

A few Sunday posts back, we heard Smith's Sacred Singers crooning--well, belting--this next number. Now it's Rusty and J.D.'s turn. (Hit it, guys):

Life's Railway to Heaven--J.D. Jarvis and Rusty York, 1968; from vinyl.

Gabriel again--this time, the gospel mega-standard Higher Ground, written in 1898:

Higher Ground (Johnson Oatman, Jr. -Charles H. Gabriel)--The Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet; from Word LP.

Next, Angel Band (a.k.a. O, Come, Angel Band), a deathless gospel hit whose original title was The Land of Beulah. Just one of the coolest gospel tunes ever:















The words were written in 1860 by Rev. Jefferson Hascall, and the music in 1862 by William (Jesus Loves Me) Bradbury. Try telling that to the geniuses behind O Brother Where Art Thou, who credited the number to "Traditional."

Angel Band--The Blue Ridge Quartet; from vinyl.

We close with the Southern-Aires Gospel Singers, who are always welcome at this blog. Next week, I'll have a bigger playlist, on account of my CD/DVD drive being fixed on Monday. I'll let you know if, for any reason, that doesn't happen.

Gonna Rise Up and Shine (Eugene Wright)--The Southern-Aires Gospel Singers; from vinyl.

Next time, plenty of Twenties quartet singing--if my CD drive is working. Our tech, Steve, will be here on Monday, and I can't imagine he won't be able to fix it (or replace it). But will it stay fixed?

Maybe it'll turn out to be a software issue. Dunno. What do I know about these things? I'm no tech; I just press the computer keys and hope for the best.


Lee