This Woman Can Call Me Cousin Bruce

The attractive woman in this photo is Debbie Friedman who is my first cousin on my father's side of the family.  I saw her today for the first time in a few years as she did a mitzvah and visited my mother at the Bristal in Westbury.  One of the topics that came up in today's conversation was Facebook.  She said she sees my comments.  I told her about Bruce's Journal and said she should check it out.  I wish her bon voyage as in about a month she is flying to Israel to see her sister and then take a cruise to Greece.  Debbie, below is the Cousin Bruce theme song.

Tigers 7 Yankees 5

We got to Yankee Stadium about an hour before game time since we wanted to the Yankee Museum.  There was plenty of memorabilia from the many Subway Series from the 1920s until 2000.  I didn't have to worry about booing Delmon Young since the Detroit Tigers put him on the restricted list before the game.

Yankee starting pitcher Freddy Garcia pitched poorly as he allowed 6 runs and was taken out in the second inning.  There were two home runs by Nick Swisher and another by Curtis Granderson, but that was not enough as a 9th inning rally fell short as the Bronx Bombers lost 7-5

Game Recap

Random Thoughts of the Day

I am going to see the Yankees play the Detroit Tigers today. If Delmon Young plays, I will boo him loudly. It is a privilege to be a professional baseball player. He should be suspended and be forced to go for sensitivity training.  These athletes make millions of dollars and should never make racial, religious, or ethnically insensitive remarks.


New York Times article


There will be big changes in the New York radio dial.  I will give a condensed version since so much of this has been discussed.  ESPN radio will take over 98.7 FM and will simulcast on 1050 until September when a Spanish version of ESPN will be heard on 1050 AM.  98.7 Kiss and WBLS FM will "merge".  All the the "experts" on the various radio message boards predicted ESPN would buy 94.7 FM.  Anyway, it is said to see 98.7 Kiss go after a classic soul format for 30 years.  I believe that sports formats should stay on AM, but it is the trend in many major markets that sports talk stations are moving to FM.  I hope that WFAN will not move to 92.3 FM as predicted by many amateur radio executives who post on message boards.

Congratulations to Bob Dylan for Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

After 50 years as a singer songwriter Bob Dylan will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that is given by the United States.  He is in some good company receiving the award with such noteworthy people including Toni Morrison, John Glenn, Madeleine Albright and Justice John Paul Stevens.  A hearty mazel tov to you Bob.

New York Times Article

My Tribute to Pete Fornatale

I found out the very sad news today that radio legend and author Pete Fornatale died from a stroke.  For several days we knew he was ill, but was not aware of the seriousness of the illness.  There is biographical information about Pete at:

WFUV Blog

Wikipedia

Rather than rehash the biographical information I would like to devote this journal entry to my experiences with Pete.  I didn’t listen to him that much  during his early days, but in the 1980s he had weekend shows called Saturday Morning 60s and Mixed Bag. Both of those shows were a must listen.  Fortunately I have some tapes of these shows.  My favorite show had to be the Bob Dylan Birthday Bash every May.  One year he ranked the artists that covered Dylan songs.   On October 16, 1992 there was a concert in Madison Square  honoring Dylan for his 30 years in the music business.  Roger McGuinn, Neil Young, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton and Dylan himself sang My Back Pages.  Pete called them the “Mount Rushmore of Rock n’ Roll.”

Pete spent most of his career at WNEW-FM, but spent some time at 92.3 K-Rock when it was a classic rock station.  He started his career as a Fordham student at WFUV  and returned there several years ago to do his Mixed Bag Show Saturdays from 4 PM to 8 PM.  I tried very hard to listen to at least parts of the show every week.  Pete had to be the “King of the Theme Set”.  He could find enough songs with a theme to fill the four hours.  Right now I am listening to the archived version of Pete’s last show devoted to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  It is quite unfortunate that the Digital Millenum Copyright Act limit’s the number of archived show that WFUV could offer listeners.

Let me add a few personal notes:

About 3 years ago I received a phone call at work from Karen stating that Pete had phone the house asking for me.  He got my name and phone number from the list of donors to WFUV.  He confused me with Martin Slutsky who was the vocalist for a group called McKendree Spring.

In April 2010 Pete appeared at the Long Island Radio Day at CW Post.  Many of the “Meet and Greet Crowd” including Alan Berman, Mary Shaw, Patrick Guice, and Linda Cohen among others were there to hear Pete talk about Woodstock.  He was so friendly as he spoke to everyone before his talk.  Above is a photo he took with my family.  He succeeded in making Lee smile for the photo.

Rock n Roll Heaven will be gaining a distinguished voice.  New York radio will never be the same.  Thank you Pete for all your years on the radio dial and rest in peace.

Reyes goes 0 for 4 in Return to Citifield

I was not at the game last night, but the crowd reaction was mixed when Jose Reyes went to bat.  His batting average is .215 after 16 games.  He was 0 for 4 as the Mets beat the Miami Marlins 2-1.  There was bad news as Jason Bay and Mike Pelfrey went on the disabled list.  Pelfrey could be out for the rest of the season, but the Mets are seeking other medical opinions.  The team has been plagued by injuries over the past few seasons.  They are now 9-8.

Beatles Song of the Day - Drive My Car

I remember how a few seconds of this was heard on the Harry Harrison morning show just before the traffic report