Johnny Cash's Birthday

The Man in Black would have been 74 years old today.  At dinner we listened to Johnny's Sun Records recordings.  Brian Matthew played Johnny's Orange Blossom Special on the show that I am listening now.  Sounds of the Sixties originates Saturday Mornings at 3 AM EDT, but the show is archived, so as readers of this blog should know by now I listen to it on Sunday nights.  It was very cold today so we saw the movie Madea's Family Reunion.  Back to the beancounters and bureaucrats tomorrow. ;(

Hofstra Basketball Today

Today we went to Hofstra to see their basketball team beat Drexel 70-68.

 

Hempstead, NY -- Senior forward Adrian Uter (Queens, NY) celebrated Senior Day with 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team held off a late Drexel rally to capture a 70-68 win in its regular season finale on Saturday at Hofstra Arena.

With the win, the Pride concludes the regular season at 22-5 and 14-4 in the CAA, the second-best regular season in its Division I history (behind only the 23-4 mark of the 2000-01 team). Hofstra also ended up with the third seed in the upcoming CAA Tournament, and will open play on Saturday, March 4 at 8:30 p.m. at Richmond Coliseum in the last quarterfinal of the day against the winner of the Friday opening round contest between sixth-seeded VCU and 11th-seeded William & Mary.

YAWN!!!

Boring staff meeting today.  Big Yawn.  Two hours of the boss's bean counting nonsense.  He is trying to figure out a new formula on how to subdivide an inadequete budget.   TGIF.

President's Day

NJIT does not give President's day as a holiday so as I do every year I am taking a vacation day.  All the trains run on a weekend schedule, so since I have the time, I may as well use it.  This morning we went to Uncle Bill's Diner for breakfast.  In the afternoon we saw the movie Firewall featuring Harrison Ford.  Back to work tomorrow.  I will have to face the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:  Lunacy, Hypocrisy, Mediocrity, and Prejudice.

Elvis, Johnny Cash (again) College Basketball

On Sunday mornings I usually go out with Lee to play basket ball with him.  Since it was so cold, we decided to stay indoors.  After breakfast, a listened to the Elvis and Friends show on the online version of WOGL-Philadelphia.  Over the years some people from the Philadelphia area sent me tapes of that show.  The host, Ron Cade, plays many Elvis rarities not usually heard on the radio.  At least Philadelphia still has an FM oldies station.  We later watched the DVD I bought yesterday of Johnny Cash’s appearance on Austin City Limits in 1987.  At 12 noon Lee wanted to hear the Elvis Only show that is heard on WMTR – Morristown which I can pick up on my radio.  It is amazing how many young kids are into Elvis.  When we went to Graceland a few years ago most of the people there were not born in 1977 when the King died.  In the afternoon we drove out to Hofstra to see the Womens basketball team beat Northeastern 64-57.

Johnny Cash Day

Since this blog entry is going to be about country music, I will listen to country music while I am writing it.  I cannot pinpoint how Lee became interested in Johnny Cash.  Before he was born, I only had one record that was issued in 1969 long before Lee was born.  Over the years we have collected several CDs of the Man in Black.  We really like the early stuff that was released on the Sun label.  My November 11th entry discussed Walk the Line, the movie.  Over the years I have only been to a few Broadway shows since they are so expensive.  Last year we saw the Elvis Presley show All Shook up which only ran a few months on Broadway. I had wanted to see Lennon The Musical, but it closed after only a few weeks. I read about the upcoming Ring of Fire show that features the music of Johnny Cash.  The previews began February 8th.  I wanted to get the tickets early since I was afraid the show would close.  If Broadway did not accept the King, would it accept the Man in Black?  The official opening of Ring of Fire is March 12th.  We enjoyed the show that was not a biography like the movie.  The performers sang the songs of Johnny Cash.

 

After the movie, we ate dinner at Friday’s in Times Square.  We could not resist walking into the Virgin Music store a block away.  I bought Lee a DVD of Johnny Cash’s appearance on Austin City Limits in the 1980s.  When I logged into AOL tonight there was an advertisement for the DVD Walk the Line which will be released February 28th.  I order thatalong with the original Pink Panther movie starring Peter Sellers.

More Bob Dylan news

Here I go again, it is after 9:30 PM and I am listening to Breakfast with the Beatles thinking about Bob Dylan.  Anyway in 2003, there was a CD released called Gotta Serve Somebody:  The Gospel songs of Bob Dylan.  I have in my CD many genre specific cover compilations of Dylan covers.  This is obviously one of them.  I just received a DVD documenting the making of this CD.  See the link below for more information.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C20VK0/102-6807567-2192928?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

 

 I have bought music and videos for years online, but I greatly miss running to music stores to buy new releases.  This DVD nicely complements Dylan, Rolling Thunder, and the Gospel years as described in my January 23rd entry.

 

Here is another bit of Dylan news from today’s New York Newsday.  Tony award winner Twyla Tharp plans on bringing her new musical “The Times They Are A-Changin’” which is set to the songs of Bob Dylan to Broadway her publicist announced yesterday.  Exact dates and the theater will be announced later.  This show is now playing in San Diego.  A review may be found at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060211-9999-1c11times.html

 

 Say Pagebyrner, how far is from Prescott to San Diego?

 

Heard at 4:05 PM today "Is there anything else for the good of the other?"

Getting Ready for baseball season

There is still snow on the ground but the pitchers and catchers should be reporting to spring training shortly.  I already bought a 6 pack of tickets for the Mets.  This includes the Saturday May 20th game against the Yankees.  When the Mets are home we usually go to the Saturday game.  I also bought tickets two two Yankee games.  This year we are going on a baseball tour in August (see http://www.jaybuckley.com) .  We will see games in Milwaukee, Chicago (Wrigley and Us Cellular) and St. Louis.  Pagebyrner, how far is it from Prescott to BankOne Ballbark?  Are they changing the name since Chase took over BankOne?

Blizzard Today

Now they are calling for up to 16 inches of snow in the NYC area.  It looks like we'll have to stay home all day.  I was looking through some old VHS tapes and found the Biography from A&E of Al Lewis who recently passed away.  Some years ago Karen taped Titanic.  We saw the movie in the theater, but never viewed the tape.  It picked the wrong day to snow.  For all we know NJIT may be closed tomorrow.  Just have to wait and see,

The Pink Panther

We had wanted to go to a college basketball on Long Island but the weather forecast was very threatening.  It hasn't snpwed yet, but I was afraid of having to drive home in a snowstorm.  They are prediciting 8-12 inches.  Instead we went to see the new Pink Panther movie starring Steve Martin.  I was never a movie buff, but I just loved the theme song as played by Henry Mancini.  Back in 1978-81 I was active in a group called Queens B'nai Brith Singles.  There was a real gossip in the group named Lenny.  He would make up stories about anybody and anything.  I made a tape of my reciting his gossip with the Pink Panther theme playing in the background. I spy Queens Bnai Brith Singles, I know things about you that you don't even know.  I know that Howard was so cheap that he asked Gary for gas just to go two miles.  I actually made a tape of Lenny's gossip with the theme in the background.  I actually had enough gossip for 10 playings of the theme.

Virgin Music Store

Today I had a meeting in the afternoon in the Union Square area of Manhattan.  Afterwards I stopped by the Virgin Music store.  Over the past 5 years or so I have bought most of my music from Amazon.com.  The two music stores in downtown Flushing closed.  I bought a CD of interviews with Bob Dylan and the latest from Donovan.  Remember I read his biography over the Christmas break.

New Bob Dylan CD is coming!!!!

www.capitalnews9.com


Bob Dylan rehearses in Poughkeepsie opera house
2/6/2006 8:23:52 AM
By: Associated Press

Bob Dylan spent four days in a Poughkeepsie opera hall last week rehearsing for an album he'll record this week in New York.

Dylan spent about four hours a day writing and rehearsing at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House.

Bardavon Executive Director Chris Silva got to watch the sessions. He called them, "experimental."

Silva said he's been trying for 12 years to get Dylan to play at the Bardavon. He said Dylan was enthusiastic about coming back for a concert.

Dylan is a former Woodstock resident.
www.capitalnews9.com

This weekend

Later today I will go to the funeral of Idy, a long time friend of the family who passed away of a stroke at age 90.  My mother stayed at her apartment in Florida from January 2nd until January 16th.  3 days after my mother left, she suffered a stroke and never recovered.  She is one of only a few people who came to my Bar Mitzvah in 1962 and to Lee’s in 2001.

 

Al Lewis passed away this weekend at the age of 95.  Some people don’t think he was that old.  I watched Al on the TV series Car 54 Where are You which was on NBC from 1961-63.  In the 1980s I taped every episode which appeared on Nick at Nite.

 

Yesterday, I did some shopping at Macy’s to take advantage of the no tax week in New York.  In the evening, Karen, Lee and I went to see the Queens College basketball team beat Concordia College 90-64.