Oodles of Doodles CXLI

I've been ignoring the fine folks over at Command for my doodles (with the exception of this Christmas doodle, which really isn't a doodle in the strictest sense of the word), but I've decided I need to right that wrong and start getting some of these excellent bits in here. So I'm starting with this great little sketch from an artist known only as Sandy from Pertinent Percussion Cha Cha's Starring Enoch Light And The Light Brigade (Command RS 814 SD, 1960). Those of you familiar with the Command Records label know about the eye-catching cover art they helped the label stand out on record shelves. They all had a certain style about them, looking more like modern art than album covers. The music on the inside was always well recorded, and technically perfect, if not a little dry. Enoch Light was the mastermind behind the label, and he wanted everything to be his way or no way. The record jackets were almost all large gatefolds, and the doodles all seem to be on the inside of those, along with many, many paragraphs of purple prose about the recorded contents. You'd have to read fast to take it all in before the record ended.

Wilma (Not Betty)

I had hoped to bring you some pictures of the damage from hurricane Wilma today, but there really wasn't too much damage around. The worst thing I could find was this sailboat that had been blown aground. Someone is going to have to spend a pretty penny to get her back in the water. As you can see, the sky was back to clear and blue less than twelve hours after Wilma made landfall less than 100 miles south of here. However, the wind was still blowing at better than 20 mph out on the beaches, so it felt like walking in a sandblaster at times. I tried to get a picture of all the sand blowing around, but they didn't come out very well. I did get plenty of sand in my new camera, though.

Blue On Brown

Here's another critter I stumbled across out on the flats. I don't know if it's a type of jellyfish, or a nudibrach, or what. But that blue color really made it stand out from the mud.

Keep Your Eyes Open

I was out trying to find something to do after the hurricane today, and I happened upon a large mud flat at low tide. So I put on my wetsuit booties and waded into the muck. One of the things I found was this little snail, climbing up the branch of a mangrove tree. There were hundreds of them, a couple on every branch, yet somehow I'd never seen them before. I've got to be more observant...

This Week In October

This is probably my least favorite of all my weekly calendar pictures. I like the idea of it, but the execution is poor. I should have found something else. This was a field in San Antonio, Florida, that had recently been cut for hay, then baled. I don't know why I don't like it. Not enough contrast, perhaps. It's just missing something...

The Bandit (Not Smokey)

Here's another critter I couaght while I was out and about today. This mama racoon was out prowling for garbage and handouts at South Lido Beach here in Sarasota. I followed her around for quite a while, which she didn't seem to mind. I suppose the racoons in that area are used to people. Someone stopped and warned me about rabies when they saw me following her around. That may be a problem, but I was keeping enough distance from her that I really wasn't worried about it.

Up Close And Personal

Some days I just love my camera. This tight shot of a great blue heron was taken with my 300mm lens, it's handheld and it's sharp. I'm still getting used to having a lens so long I can't get good shots without a tripod. I'm thinking of getting a monopod, but then it's just one more thing to lug around. By the way, the shot above isn't cropped or anything. That's full frame, right out of the camera. There is tons of detail in the original that you probably can't see here, like the color and texture in the feathers. Not bad for a dingy, pre-hurricane day.

Oodles of Doodles CXL

OK, I admit it, I've been slacking lately. This is my first post in three days, and my first doodle in over a week. So, sue me. I've been busy prepping for the upcoming Christmas season. Mark it on your calendars now, and come back often. It's going to be a huge blowout around here at Ernie (Not Bert). Trust me on this. In the meantime, here's another delightful dancing doodle from the guy that taught America how to dance. No, not Fred Astaire. I mean Arthur Murray. You saw a doodle from one of his earlier 10" LPs here, but this is from the 12" LP Arthur Murray's Music For Dancing-The Arthur Murray TV Dance Orchestra (RCA Victor LSP-1909, 1958). The rest of the back on this LP shows a number of dance steps, including, rather suprisingly, Rock 'N' Roll! But it's subtitled Swing, then it goes on to say something about The Triple Lindy. So I don't think Elvis and his pelvis had made too big of an impression on Mr. Murray yet.

Another Week In October

Another week, another picture from the calendar. This week is a close-up of some flowers in my mother's back yard. Hope ya like 'em.

Learn While You Sleep

Where was this LP when I was in college? I slept a lot, but I guess that was all wasted time. This is Learn While You Sleep (Knight Education PLP 06). Could these folks still be in business?

Wish You Were Here?

So, where did you go today?

Fly, Fly Away

I'm always trying to get pictures of birds in flight, but they rarely look decent. Either blurry, or too far away, or out of frame, or something. But I got this one today, and it's a little better than half decent. This is a great blue heron, and he was at the north end of Anna Maria Island here in Florida. I was suprised to find that they had great blue herons up in Ohio, and I even saw one while I was there. I couldn't get a decent picture of him, but I saw him. Ohio herons migrate south in the winter, but ours are year-round residents.

Another Green Heron

I showed you a green heron last night, but I came across another one today, and I got a better picture. If you look close at this one, you can see why they are called green. I don't know why they are called herons, though...

Pink And Pretty

If you were a bee, would this flower be attractive to you? Probably. It's odd that these flowers would just be coming out now, given that it's the middle of October. But this is Florida, and that's just the way things are around here. These blossoms are from a silk floss tree, which you have to admit is a weird name for a tree. But after the flower dies, and the seed pod matures, it opens up and releases a ball of silk-like threads that help to disperse the seeds. It looks more like cotton than silk to me, but they didn't ask me before they named this particular tree.

The Shorebirds Of Island Park

Here are a few birds I shot this evening while at Island park in Sarasota. I had wanted to go down to the beach to shoot the sunset, but at the last minute, I decided to go to this park just outside of downtown Sarasota. Sunset was a bust, so I was glad I stopped there and was able to shoot these birds. The guy with the crab above is some sort of sandpiper, I believe. The dark colored fellow below is a reddish egret, I think. He's a little big to be a little blue heron, and he's certainly not a great blue heron. He's lacking the reddish color on the neck, as well as the puffy feathers, but the dark tip on his bill seems to be the giveaway. Next down the page is a green heron in mid-hunt. These guys are really skittish, so I was lucky to get a good shot. Twice already I had scared him off when I got too close. And speaking of getting too close, the last shot is a great white egret in flight. I got too close to him, too, but I was able to squeeze off a couple of blurry shots of him flying around. Don't look at that one too close, since it's not the sharpest image I ever snapped.

More Stink

Did I mention the stink flower is blooming again on the porch? It's got an open flower and a large bud on it right now. If the bud hurries up, I might get some shots of two flowers at the same time. Below, you can really see the red fuzz that covers the petals.

Where Candy Grows On Trees

I took close to 6000 pictures during my 10 days in Ohio. It sounds like an awful lot, but I tend to take many different versions of the same shot. At the end of the day, I usually find it was either the very first or the very last shot I took that winds up being the keeper. I'm not sure how that works. But I have digressed from the subject of this post, which is yet another shot from Ohio, this time of a strange bush who's berries look just like candy. I don't know the type of bush, but if I did, I think I'd try to grow one. Those berries look really cool. Hopefully they aren't poisonous, otherwise there are going to be a lot of sick kids around!

My Friend Flickr

Sorry about the lack of a post today. I've been busy trying to set up some stuff over at Flickr, a photo and image sharing website. I may start using them to host some of my pictures for the blog here. If I can figure it out, you'll see a neat little thing below that should link you over to my Flickr page.

www.flickr.com

Nope, not gonna work. Gotta figure this thing out.

I think this is the link to my pictures...

Modern Cult Audio Library

Here's a set of five records that no home should be without. From The Audio Bible Society Of America, this is Modern Cult Audio Library. With these records, you can learn everything you need to know to be in a cult. No, wait, this is an anti-cult collection. You can learn the theology and history of six different cults, and how you can meet their arguments. The six cults in question are the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Unity, Unitarianism and Spiritism. Hmmmm, I'd better lay off the sarcastic comments, or I may get in trouble all the way around. I just hope Tom Cruise doesn't stumble across this post. By the way, each of these records is on 7" vinyl with a big hole, but they play at 16-2/3 rpm. I don't have a turntable that spins at that speed, so you're going to have to live without the audio from this collection. Sorry...

Wild In Ohio-Part 5 (Chip or Dale)

I think it was my second day in Ohio when I saw the first one. I was inside Stan Hywet when I saw something run across a brick wall outside. At first I thought maybe it was rat, but then I noticed the color. It was a chipmunk! We don't have chipmunks here in Florida, well, other than Chip and Dale up at Disney. So I started watching out for them. Turns out they are fast little buggers! I spotted them quite a few times, but didn't get any decent pictures. The above shot is from a walkway about 15 feet above a riverbank, so that guy probably had no idea I was up above him shooting downward. And even then he didn't stay still very long. The fellow below is a better story, though. He was running through a crevice in a large rock, and probably thought I couldn't see him. But I could, so I turned the flash on and shot. I didn't see what happened next, but I am told the little guy went ballistic after all that light came out of nowhere and lit up his formerly safe hiding place. By the time I got out from behind the camera, he was gone.

Your Records Are Worth Caring For

From the same inner sleeve as the previous post, here's some sage advice from Mercury Records about handling your valuable LPs.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXIX

I almost missed this delightful beach themed doodle. but at the last minute, I pulled out the inner sleeve of a record I've already shared with you, and there it was. This doodle and the next post are both from the inner sleeve of Eddie Layton At The Hammond Organ-Great Organ Hits (Mercury SR 60639). I've got to start doing a better job of looking inside these records.

The Mystery Revealed

Well, you've all waited patiently for the answer, or maybe you didn't care, but here's the name and location of our mystery building. This is the Peter B. Lewis Building at the Weatherhead School of Management on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Well, I think I got all of that right. The architect is Frank Gehry, who is known for similar curvy building with metal cladding. Photographs really don't capture the scale and shape of this building. All of its overhangs and curves make it look like something truly out of this world.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXVIII

One more doodle before bedtime. This minimalist doodle is from Movie Cocktails-Anton Karas, Zither-Eduard Mrazek, Piano-Vox Sinfonietta, Vienna-Hans Hagen, Conductor (Vox VX 25180, 1956). There is actually a more complex version of this doodle in color on the front of the LP, where a martini glass is turned on it's side and made to appear like a movie projector. Well, that description doesn't do it justice, but I'm too lazy to scan it in. The cover version of the doodle is signed by Herschel Levit, who appears to be a well-known American artist and illustrator.

The Next Week In October

The calendar photo of the week is a yellow-crowned night heron, casting his reflection upon the still water in which he hunts. Gee, that almost sounds poetic, doesn't it?

1927

Here is a unique view of the Rear Range Lighthouse on Gasparilla Island that I shot this weekend. You've seen this lighthouse here before, but not from quite this angle.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXVII

Here's a happy dancing Russian couple for you from Leonid Bolotine And Orchestra-Around The Samovar (Warner Bros. WS 1255, 1959). I'm not sure how this LP of Russian music slipped out from behind the Iron Curtain back in 1959, but at least it brought a nice doodle out with it.

An Exciting Evening At Home

I've spent many an exciting evening at home, but never with eleven lady friends. I even have a fancy stereo, and I'm sure if I looked hard enough in all these records, I could find a slab of red vinyl. Anyhow, this lucky fellow hails from the cover of An Exciting Evening At Home With The International Pop Orchestra (Cameo C 4001, 1962). The stereo equipment in the picture actually gets a credit on the back cover: Stereo Equipment Courtesy Almo Radio, Philadelphia. Even those eleven ladies didn't rate a credit. What's up with that?

Here There Be Dragons

By now you've probably seen the story about the giant python that died while trying to eat one of our Florida alligators. But did you know that in addition to the non-native snakes, we also have non-native giant lizards running around? Yep, it's true. I ran across this guy down on Gasparilla Island, near Boca Grande. He just sat there on the side of the road, keeping a good close eye on me while I shot from inside the car. I knew he'd run if I tried to get out and get closer. I probably shot for five minutes before he wandered off to an area where there was less paparazzi. I did get one neat shot below where he's in mid-blink. That's always a bad thing to get with people, but pretty cool with a two-foot long reptile. I believe this guy is an immature black iguana, native to Central America, not Central Florida.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXVI

I've got a great doodle for you today, along with a great LP cover and another of those RCA tags that are a favorite of mine. This sketch is by Lou Myers (a veteran of at least two other doodles around here) and is featured on the flip side of Xavier Cugat And His Orchestra-Chile Con Cugie (RCA Victor LSP-1987, 1959). (You saw Xaviar Cugat before around here, in a self-sketched doodle, no less!) The cover is a beautiful classic like so many of the RCA covers of the period. Take a close look and you'll see the chile pepper in mid-fall, a chicken in the crook of Cugie's arm, and a busty model with no shoes on. It doesn't get much better than this. And to top it all off, we get a tag that days "Mexican Fiesta". By the way, that price tag says that this LP originally cost $2.35, but it was crossed out and a hand-written price of $1.25 got air-brushed out by me. Not a bad find for the dollar I paid, either.

Take Care Of Your Records

Here's another installment in my series of scans about how to take care of your records, this time from Columbia Records. This is a scan of an inner sleeve that was actually found inside an RCA Victor LP from 1959, so that doesn't help me date it much. However, the flip side of the sleeve says something about celebrating their 10th anniversary, so that would put the date at around 1911. Hmmm, that can't be right. Perhaps they mean the 10th anniversary of the LP album? Ah, that looks better. Now the date comes out to around 1958. Anyhow, the helpful steps we can all learn from the info above are: Always handle the record by its edges, Always buckle the record jacket, Wipe the record lightly and Store record albums vertically. It also says to check the needle for wear at your Columbia Dealer. I'm going to carry my needle down to Specs and see if they can check it for me.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXV

Before the Lambada, there was the Flamenco. I don't know if it was ever forbidden, but it was at least as passionate. This doodle is from the back of an LP titled simply Flamencos, credited to Manolo Leiva With Guitar Solos And Accompaniment Of Pepe de Almeira (Seeco SCLP-9050, 1955). At least we get a nice doodle out of it. This doodle is signed down at the bottom right, but I can't make out what it says.

Melancholy Babes

I found this record (and a whole stack of other cool stuff) at the Goodwill store this afternoon. I grabbed it because I liked the swanky chicks with the sax man. Gotta love those late 50's fashions. This LP is Georgie Auld Plays For Melancholy Babies (ABC-Paramount ABCS 287, 1959). Hope you like it.

Oodles of Doodles CXXXIV

In honor of Oktoberfest, how about a beer-swilling doodle from Alfons Bauer And His Hofbrau Entertainers Featuring Die Hofbraumusikanten And Other Bavarian Stars-More German Beer Drinking Music (Capitol T 10297)? Some of the track titles on this one are "I'd Like To Be A Tankard", "A Tankard As Big As All Bavaria", "We Haven't Been Home For Three Days", "We'll Stick With Beer" and "Grouchy Wife". Sounds pretty authentic to me.

The Little Record With The Big (Or Small) Hole

I found this sleeve for a 7" record the other day, and thought it was sorta interesting. For years I thought all 7" 45 rpm records had a big hole in the center. Then I found some with a little hole, but they all played at 33 rpm. Then I found a few records from the UK that had a center you could pop out if you wanted a big hole, or leave the center in for a small hole. I never knew such a think had ever existed here in the US, but here's a bit of proof. The little doodles to the left and right of the center hole explain how to adapt the record to your turntables requirements. You never know what's out there until you find it. 'O.C. 45' they call it, Optional Center, from your friends at Capitol Records.

More Mundane

Here is a slightly more mundane shot of the mystery building I have been teasing you with all week. But if you look close at this shot, you can see some funny brickwork going on. (See how the corner sort of curves away up there, taking the window with it?) Keep those guesses coming in!

No, the architect isn't Frank Lloyd Wright, but as a hint, he was featured in an episode of The Simpsons. (Actually FLW was mentioned in a song sung by Apu once on The Simpsons. He claimed Marge's hair was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but this architect was featured in a much more recent episode.)

Apples (Not Oranges)

I'm a Florida boy. I don't know anything about apples. So it was pretty cool when I visited an apple grove in Ohio. Sorry, apple orchard. We have orange groves around here, or at least we used to before they built all these houses. Anyhow, it was neat to see that the apples grew in clusters, and not individually like oranges do. And unlike oranges, apples come in different colors, even when they are ripe. All ripe oranges are orange. Go figure!

It's Mind, Not Yours

I tried to post this last night, but Blogger was down. Here's a little bit of Jimmy Boyce At The Console-The Organ Blows It's Mind (Concert Recording CR-0111). This is the exact same stuff they played at the roller rinks before they discovered that people would rather just listen to regular music. And, man, is it bad!

Curvilinear

Here's another view of my mystery building. Pretty weird, eh? Any ideas? Anyone paying attention?