The Lost 45s Leaves The Airwaves Hopefully Just Temporarily

In August 2012 I reported in this journal that the Lost 45s found a new home at WROR in Boston.  For the past two weeks the show has not been on the air at that station and it does not appear on the station's schedule.

I enjoyed hearing songs "you never thought you would hear on the radio."  There is an internet version at http://www.lost45s.com.produced by Barry Scott.  In any event I was the best to Barry Scott and hope the show will appear on another radio station.  Years ago I had to get tapes of the show from aircheck enthusiasts in the Boston area.  In this era of internet radio, most stations are available on the web.

Brandon Theater in Forest Hills Closed

The Queens Chronicle reports that the Brandon Theater in Forest Hills, formerly known as the Continental Theater has closed. The first movie I saw there was A Hard Days Night in 1964. It is really a shame that local movie theaters in neighborhoods are all but gone.  When I grew up in Rego Park I could go to one of the following theaters:

• Elmwood
• Trylon
• Drake
• Midway
• Forest Hills
• Cinemart

Only the Midway and Cinemart remain.

When I moved to Flushing in the 1980s after I was married there were several theaters that closed:

• RKO Keiths
• Prospect
• Whitestone
• Bayside
• Quartet

In 1999 the College Point Multiplex was built within walking distance of my apartment.  I still miss those small nighborhood movie theaters.

Once

Every year Karen and I go to a Broadway show for our birthday.  This year Karen pick Once which as you can see above won 8 Tony awards.  It was unique as all of the actors played musical instruments on stage while usually musicians who are not actors stay in the pit in front of the stage.  Before the play began the actor/musicians jammed on stage.  The only drawback was that the story line was a little weak.  I would still recommend it.

I Won a Beatles Book

Dennis Mitchell's Breakfast with the Beatles has been discussed several times in Bruce's Journal.  It is not to be confused with Ken Dashow's program by the same name heard on Q104.3 in NYC.  Anyway, I have never been a contest nut although an acquaintance of mine who is a reader of this blog seems to thrive on trying to win contests where the prize is concert tickets.  Anyway Dennis Mitchell had a contest on his web site where the prize was the book seen above.  I have certainly read plenty of books about the Beatles as a group and about the four members.  This will be another one.  Each book provides a different view of the Fab Four.

Lost Dylan Lyrics From the Basement Tapes Will Become Killer Songs CD will come in the Fall

I may hold a distinction for being the only person to subscribe to the AARP Magazine and to Rolling Stone.  I was reading the latter as I encountered a story The Basement Tapes All-Stars.  In 1967 Dylan wrote many songs that were subsequently recorded by him and/or the Band.  He passed along 24 T-Bone Burnett who played on the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Burnett has enlisted the likes of Elvis Costello, Mumford and Sons' Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket's Jim James to write and record their own songs using lyrics Dylan penned.  There will be a CD fall titled Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes,

Happy Birthday Karen

Karen's bitrthday is April 22, a day after mine.  We were not born in the same year.  So every year we have a double celebration.  It must have been in the 1980s when I sent Bob Shannon a request to play What a Difference a Day Makes by Dinah Washington.  He was nice enough to play it.  I certainly hope he is doing well.

Ruben Hurricane Carter Dies at 76

There have been many fictional characters in Bob Dylan songs.  One of the few people in the title of a Dylan song is Ruben "Hurricane" Carter who died today of prostate cancer.  Dylan always stood up for his belief that Hurricane was falsely convicted of a crime that he didn't commit.

Braves 7 Mets 5

Last night was our second trip this season to see the Mets.  The bullpen didn't do too well as Jose Valverde allowed a three run homer to Justin Upton in the 9th inning.  The Braves brought in closer Craig Kimbrel who is usually "lights out".  The Mets rallyed for two runs as Kimbrel was removed for Jordan Walden who got the save.

There are two things that worry me about the Mets this early in the season:

1. Hitting - as of now Curtis Graderson, Travis d'Arnaud, and Reuben Tejada are batting below .200
2. The bullpen has been very inconsistant.  Can Jose Valverde be an effective closer?

Game recap

I am wonder who will be the "player to be named later" in the Ike Davis trade.  Will it be a shortstop or releiver?  We'll see.

Thoughts upon Being Traded in Professional Sports

It was just announced that the Mets traded Ike Davis to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a minor league player and a player to be named later.  Trading one person for another seems to be a phenomenon limited to professional sports.  Do exceutives from AT&T get traded to Verizon?  If a person wants to leave their current employer, they can apply for another job and hope they will be hired by another organization at a higher salary.

Just a random thought on a Friday night.

The Mets Beat The Diamondbacks 3 Games in a Row

The Mets looked good as they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3 games in a row on the road.  As of now their record is 8-7.  However, it is a long season where there will always be ups and downs.  You never know when injuries will occur as Juan Lagares will be out for at least 15 days.  Curtis Granderson is off to a slow start, so hopefully, he will not turn into another Jason Bay.  Home runs in Yankee Stadium could turn into long outs at Citifield.  Our next game is Saturday night against Atlanta.

My Car is a Record Breaker

Above is a photo of my car a 2000 Chevy Cavalier.  I have always been a Chevy man and have kept my cars a long time:

1972 Chevy Nova -bought new and kept until 1986, exactly 14 years
1985 Chevy Cavalier - bought as a used car in 1986 and kept until 2000
2000 Chevy Cavalier - bought new and now going on 15 years

I am taking a couple of days of from work for Passover, so today I brought in for a New York State inspection.  It passed inspection, but the mechanic suggested that I get replace the fan belts.

Now I have had this car longer than the other two.  Since I take public transportaton to work I usually only use the car on weekends.  In 14 years I have only 55,000 miles on the car.  Since I keep it garaged the body is in very good shape.

I am glad I didn't watch this game as the Mets Lost to the Angels 14-2

Today's Met game from Anaheim started at 3:30, but I got home at 4:15.  I decided the read the New York Times for a while and then watch the game.  At about 5:00 the Mets were losing big so I decided to listen to the rest of  Rich Appel's and Bob Radil's countdown on Rewound Radio.  I am really glad that I didn't wastch any of that game as the Mets lost 14-2.  Bartolo Colon gave up 4 home runs including 3 in a row to Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Raul Ibanez.  The Mets are paying Colon $10 Million this season and this is what we get from him.  Another red flag is that after 12 game Curtis Granderson is hitting .159.  Let's hope he will not turn into another Jason Bay.

Game Summary

I'll try to be optimistic and say that this is only one game and that there is a long way to go.

Thanks Again Rich Appel for the IRS Top 104

Rich Appel looks somewhat silly in picture as he listens to a small transistor radio from the early 1960s.  Every year he asks oldies enthusiast to submit a list of records that they feel should have charted in the Top 10, but did not.  Right now on Bob Radil's 60s 70s show Rich and Bob are counting down the top 104 from that list.  I am not a "chart guy" but I appreciate all the effort that Rich puts into this countdown. It is always nice to hear songs that are rarely heard on the radio.  Here are my entries this year:

River Deep Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner
Just Like A Woman - Bob Dylan
Hurricane - Bob Dylan
Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
Can You Please Crawl out your window - Bob Dylan
Catch the Wind - Donovan
There is a Mountain - Donovan
Matchbox - Beatles
8 Miles High - Byrds
So You Want to Be a Rock n Roll Star - Byrds
My Back Page -  Byrds
A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon and Garfunkel
At the Zoo - Simon and Garfunkel
Scarborough Fair (Canticle) - Simon and Garfunkel
Open the Door to You Heart - Darrell Banks
The Weight - The Band
Soul Finger - Bar Kays
Detroit City - Bobby Bare
Ain’t Nobody Home - BB King
Suite Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby Stills and Nash
Woodstock - Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Teach Your Children - Crobsy Stills, Nash and Young
Killer Joe - Rocky Fellers
Tell Me - Rolling Stones
Dandelion - Rolling Stones
Follow that Dream - Elvis Presley
If I can Dream - Elvis Presley
Kentucky Rain _ Elvis Presley
Girl Don’t Come - Sandie Shaw
Function at the Junction - Shorty Long

Random Thoughts of the Day

Today I received my 20 year service award at NJIT.  Please see my librarian blog for more information.

I usually work late on Wednesday night but since I got home before 6 Pm Lee insiisted that we listen to Cousin Bruce during dinner instead of a CD,

One of the problem with the iPhone is that the battery goes down very quickly.  I found an article on the Huffington Post that made some suggestions:

1. Lower the brightness
2. Deactivate some of the notifications which eat up battery power.  Most of the notifications from Team Stream are the same as those from ESPN.  I don't need both.
3. If I am in the subway, I should turn the phone to airplane mode

Milestones for Bruce's Journal

After 8 1/2 years I have now made 2500 journal postings covering topics from the ridiculous to the sublime.  My major topics have been the New York Mets, radio, family outings, oldies music, and mass transit.  Blogger reports that I am apporaching 250,000 page views.  Those statistics conflict with those reported by Google Analytics.  For example Google reported that within a day 39 people clicked on an entry I wrote about the biography of radio personality Bill O' Reilly yet Google did not report that.

Thanks for dropping by even if your visit is only for a few seconds.  Please check out my other blogs which only have one or two entries a month.

• Bruce The Librarian - discussing professional issues
• NY NJ Commuting - Adventures in commuting in the metropolitan area.  Older posts about commuting are in Bruce's Journal

Mets 6 Reds 3 with a Walk Off Grand Slam and Reversal of an Umpire's Call

It has been a family tradition to go to the first Saturday home game of the season.  We stopped by the Mets Hall of Fame and saw the exhibit for the late Ralph Kiner.

The game was pretty dull for 8 innings as the only highlight for the Mets was a 2 run homer by Curtis Granderson.  The same old story; good pitching and no hitting.  Going into the bottom of the 9th the Reds were leading 3-2.  Juan Lagares led off the inning by walking.  Anthony Recker tried a sacrifice bunt, but the catcher threw to second base as the umpire James Hoye called Lagares out.  Terry Collins ran out and took advantage of a new rule and called for a video review.  The out call was reverse leaving men on first and second with none out.  Ruben Tejada then walked to load the bases.  Ike Davis who lost the first base job to Lucas hit a pinch hit walk off grand slam to win the game for the Mets 6-3.

Game Recap

I Got a Final Jeopardy Question That Ken Jennings Missed

This week is the battle of 15 top notch Jeopardy players from the 2000s.  The Final Jeopardy answer was (my wording may not be exact) The city in which George Pillsbury was mayor.  The correct questions was What is Minneapolis?  Ken and his two opponents got the question wrong while yours truly got it right.  It really didn't matter since Ken had clinched victory before the final round.

I am certain that if I played a real game against Ken, he would beat me very badly.  Anyway the big tournament of the 15 winners of the 3 decade mini-tournaments will take place in May.

50th Anniversary of Jeopardy

Much has been written about the 50th anniversary of the Beatles, but not somuch about the 50th anniversary of Jeopardy.  The Alex Trebek version is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a Battle of the Decades tournament.  However the show originated on March 30, 1964 with Art Fleming as the host.  Since it was on during school hours, I could only watch it when I was off from school.  On the Radioinsight board Joseph Gallant gives a brief history of the show.  There is a Jeopardy archive web site which documents all of the shows.