Oodles of Doodles VII

OK, this doodle is a little better than the typing one above, err, below. These stylized dancers hail from the back of Dance Party by The Commanders Featuring Eddie Grady (Decca DL 8117). I think each couple is representing a certain dance, but I can't possibly pretend to know what each one is. You'll have to figure them out for yourself. I'm going to have to give this a listen. Track one is March Of The Commanders, and the writer is Neil Hefti. That sounds a little promising.

According to the back of the LP, this was also available on a set of 45s, but mine is a 12".

Oodles of Doodles VI (Sorta)

This isn't our usual doodle, but it's a little something interesting from the back of an LP called Hear How To Touch Type. The artist is listed as "Prepared By A Leading Educator". Better than a following educator I suppose... The record was put out by Brother International Corporation, and is from the late sixties, if the hairdo on the typist is any indication. Maybe very early 70's. Maybe. The sleeve even had some pages in it that were supposed to help you type, or maybe you just had to copy them. I barely remember that typing class in junior high. There was also a small curtain hook in the jacket. I don't know why...

OK, so it's not the best doodle I've ever found, but I thought the letters on the fingers was pretty funny. And 'space bar'? You gotta laugh at that. OK, I'll post a better one later.

Red, White & Johnny

For some reason, John has decided to start wearing this hat around the shop. And while he was running the punch press this morning, I couldn't resist taking this picture of him standing in front of our flag in the shop (which we first hung up on the first anniversary of 9/11). I don't usually get good people shots, but I thought this one was pretty good.

Just for the record, this isn't the first time Johnny has been shot in the shop. He took one in the gut earlier this year while using the Strip-It and a punch broke. He'll have to tell you all about it himself.

April 2005-The Color Purple

The calendar page for April features an up-close and personal shot of a passionflower. We used to eat the fruit off these vines when I was a kid, but we called them maypops.

If you like the images you see me posting from these monthly calendar pages, you may be interested to know that there is talk of printing sets of them for 2006. They'll be new pictures, of course, but they'll undoubtedly be just as beautiful as the shots for this year. We printed up five sets for this year, and they are displayed on the walls of our various shops (as well as one set at my parents house). If you'd be interested in purchasing a set of prints, just leave me a comment below, and we'll see how much interest there is.

April 2005-Week One

This week's calendar page shows us some roseate spoonbills feeding in the bayou between Sanibel and Captiva Islands. These birds are pretty few and far between. These are the most I'd ever seen together. They were pretty skittish, and flew off pretty soon after I took this shot. The one bird that doesn't look like the others is an immature white ibis.

And The Rat Takes The Cheese

It was recently discovered that we had a rat problem at work. So it was decided that some traps were required to deal with the problem. But these are modern times, and modern rats, so we couldn't be bothered with old-fashioned cheese. So how about modern Cheez-Its? Sure enough, the Cheez-Its worked. Problem is, the rat just picked the cracker up off the trap and hauled it away, without ever setting off the trap. Perhaps this is why Jerry always triumphed over Tom...

Ernie On The Web II

My buddy Ben has been publishing a blog for quite a few years now. He used to just send out these long rambling emails that seemed to go on for days and days, but they were fairly funny. I guess he got tired of sending them out, so he started his blog, and now sends out long rambling emails to everyone telling them to go read the new entry in his blog. Luckily, I've only made it into his blog once, after a wild weekend in Atlanta with a bunch of old college buddies. You can read about that and see the pictures here. I believe he refers to me as Magilla Gorilla... Thanks, Ben. By the way, here's a picture for ya...

Prior to writing for his blog, Ben reviewed movies (and other pop-culture thingies) for some obscure website under a pseudonym. Entertainment Geekly was the place, and Ivan Sian was the name. There, now that he's out of the closet, you can go here, here and here to sample some of his work. (Ben, why are you still listed as an active contributor? That was three jobs ago...) Before that, he did the same thing, only much worse for these people, but they seem to have wiped his existance from their servers. If that's not enough for you, Ben also at one time had the only fansite for Gilmour Girls on the entire web written by a guy. I don't think it's in existance anymore, but if I can dig it up, I'll be sure to post a link here. (If that doesn't elicit a comment from Ben, nothing will.)

Oodles of Doodles V

The crazy conductor above is from an LP entitled Enchanted Strings (Spin-O-Rama S 103), and is split between David Rose And His Orchestra on one side, and The Stradivari Strings on the other. I guess they couldn't license enough tracks from the talented Mr. Rose, so they had to include a sides worth of garbage from the Spin-O-Rama house band. Well, I have to assume it's garbage, since the actual LP inside is by 101 Strings. (I hate when that happens.) To me, the fellow above looks like a cross between Beethoven and one of The Beatles. The front cover is a sort of Spirograph of lights, as was popular on a number of 'Hi-Fi' albums from the era.

Someone asked a question about these doodles, so I wanted to clear things up. They are actual details of the orginal artwork that appeared on the forgotten side of old LPs. Many websites are filled with the beautiful color images from the front of old records, but I've never found a site that showcased some of the odd little pictures from the flip sides. So here you go...

ET Phone Home

For the past few years, I've been installing a little program called Seti At Home on all my computers. This little piece of software downloads radio signals recorded from outer space at Arecibo, then searches through them for some sign of intelligent life in the universe. If someone on the other side of the galaxy were to point a radio telescope at us, they might be able to pick up faint traces of old reruns from Jack Benny and Lucille Ball. Unlikely, but possible. Anyhow, it's an interesting way to use up some of those spare processor cycles. If any of this sounds a wee bit familiar, you may be thinking of the movie Contact, with Jodie Foster, from the book by Carl Sagan.

You can click here to see my current stats. Well, my current stats on the new version of Seti@Home. There's an older version that I ran for years and years, and I think you can find those stats here. (I can't seem to find a way to link directly to my stats without using my email, so this link takes you to the group page. Close enough...) The photo above is three shots of the Moon through different filters. We've been up there looking for aliens, but as far as anyone outside of NASA knows, we didn't find anything.

Oodles of Doodles IV

The bit of western art above comes from The Roger Wagner Chorale-Folk Songs Of The Frontier (Capitol P8332). I don't think that western music was ever as popular as western movies, but it wasn't for lack of trying. This little piece of art sort of reminded me of the art they used to have on the tables at Wendy's. Those tables were covered in what looked like bits of ads from old 19th century newspapers. The above could have been a picture from an ad for the latest horse bridles or something. Maybe this would be the before picture, and the after picture would be a clam horse, prancing around wearing the latest technology from the 1890's. Or not...

Or Your Money Back

This sticker is from a copy of A John Klein-Sid Ramin Collaboration-The New Sound America Loves Best (LSP-2237, 1960). The sticker seems to be for this realease only, as the catalog number is printed right on it. I can imagine what would happen if a record company today were to make a money back offer on some of the garbage they try to pawn off as music.

'Shrooms

Here's another interesting shot from my parent's house this weekend. These little mushrooms are so delicate that they don't last very long once the sun comes out. But because it was so foggy, I got to them before the sun did.

The nice thing about this blog is that I can share some pictures that I wouldn't otherwise have much use for. This picture isn't nice enough to make a calendar out of, or print and frame for the wall, but I can share it on here, and hopefully someone will enjoy it.

Another Week, Another Flower

Here's this week's calendar page. There'll be another one coming up this week, since the month is changing. Well, technically another two, since there'll be a new weekly page, and a new monthly page. Aren't you excited?

Oodles of Doodles III

This island scene comes to us courtesy of Billy Vaughn And His Orchestra-Blue Hawaii (Dot DLP 25165) The State of Hawaii was truly a great boon for record collectors.

Ernie On The Web

If you're ever really bored, you can look yourself up on the world wide web. You never know what you'll find your name attached to. In this case, I know my name is attached to it, because I had a small hand in it. If you go and visit Rachel's Shrine to the Orb, you'll see a lot of scans that I made of my Orb collection for her. I think she thanks me on the front page as Ernie The Scanmaster. For those of you who don't know, the Orb is (or was at one point) the best ambient group on the planet. Opinions vary at the moment, unfortunately...

Georgia On My Mind

The reason I had to get up so early Saturday was in order to drive to Georgia for my Grandmother's funeral. My grandparents (on my mother's side) had been living in GA for quite a while, so I hadn't seen them in a long time. But I did get to spend an hour or so with them back before Christmas. I saw planty of folks at the funeral that I hadn't seen in years. There were also plenty of people who I would have sworn I'd never met, but they all seemed to know me.

I wasn't sure if it was kosher to take pictures at a funeral, but I saw one of my aunts doing it, so it seemed to be OK. Her thought on the subject was that it would be nice to be able to remember the event and the people, if not the sadness associated with the loss of Nanny Moore.

This is a shot of the photos of my grandmother that adorned the area near her casket. I have a vague memory of that big photo on the left hanging in their old house in Lakeland. Or maybe my mom had it up on the wall in our house at one point.

Here are Mom & Dad in a rare moment of levity at the funeral home. Mom had been up there for a few days, but dad, my brother and I had driven in that morning. We turned around and drove home after the burial, so it was a long 16 hour day for me, with most of that time spent in the car looking at the nasty weather outside. It rained for most of the trip, but thankfully it was dry during the services.

If anybody I spoke to at the funeral stumbles acosss this site, drop me a line through the comments link below, and I'll be happy to share more pictures with you. Mom also has all of them on her PC, so she may be able to get some of them to you also. She'll also stand a better chance of telling you who's who in them.

Going Home Again

Saturday morning, I had to get up early and drive to my parent's house. I always spend a few minutes while I'm there shooting some pictures around the place. Something is always blooming or growing or flying or something. It was very foggy while I was there, so all the pictures came out with somewhat muted colors, but no shadows. That's not the way I like to shoot, but a good photographer has to adapt to the conditions, I suppose. Here are three pictures that show a few of the things I spotted.

These yellow flowers were growing out in the field near the burn pile (and the old Malibu, which will be the subject of a future blog, I'm sure). They sort of resemble snap dragons, but they are obviously growing wild. I don't know if the picture clearly shows it, but those flower spikes are almost 5 feet high.

These little blue flowers were doing their best to carpet the whole field. (Later in the year, pink flowers will attempt the same feat.) This time of year they are in all the ditches and fields in the area up there, and they always make for a spectacular sight. Sitting in the field surrounded by these, I noticed an odd buzzing noise that I eventually figured out was the hundreds of bees collecting pollen from the millions of blossoms. I always remember lots of bees (and bee stings) when I was growing up, but I never did find a beehive. To this day I wonder where they all lived.

This little lady was on some flowering bush that I can't name. The flowers were very small, white, and not too attractive. But luckily I spotted the ladybug, so I had something interesting to shoot.

I was only there for an hour or so, but in addition to the pictures I shared, I also saw a pair of woodpeckers on a telephone pole, a pair of hawks flying overhead, and a wren's nest inside an old piece of furniture. I wasn't able to get decent pictures of any of them, but there's always tomorrow.