Used Music-Track One

As if I haven't already gone overboard with the Christmas music sharing today, I want to start building a compilation album, too. I thought of a great theme when I heard someone else's compilation called Used Music. I wanted to pull together a collection of music from those Christmas compilation LPs you see in the thrift stores all the time. You know, the ones that used to be available in gas stations or grocery stores, or in this case, from your Amway dealer. Track one of my collection is Jingle Bells by The Sanborn Singers from Sounds Of Christmas (Columbia Special Products for Amway P 12474, 1974). The Sanborn Singers were an in-house group that performed at Amway conventions and what-not, so I think that this collection is pretty much the only place to get this track. They've got another song on there, too, that I might share with you later if you're good. Everything else on the LP is the regular-issue Columbia artists filler stuff, like Johnny Mathis, Percy Faith and Mitch Miller. But this track? WOW!

Make-Up Music

I feel a little bad about sharing two half-albums with you on my first day out of the gate, so here's a little bonus flexi-disc. I discovered this at a Goodwill store many months ago. When I carried it up to the register, the salesgirl had no idea what it was. I think she suspected it was a piece of garbage that should have been thrown away, not sold. So she let me have it for free. Best nothing I ever spent! This record contains one track, a medley of Adeste Fidelis, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Silent Night and Joy To The World. No idea where it originally came from, so if anyone has any info, please share. Here's The Mundell Lowe Ensemble-The Sounds Of Christmas (Ameridisc Red Flexidisc). I think I've shared out stuff featuring Mundell Lowe around here before, but never anything under his own name. I've seen him on the backs of many LPs.

Last Year (And The Year Before That)

Over the past two years, I've shared out over 120 albums with you, roughly sixty each year. Last year, I reposted almost everything from the first year, meaning that you had access to all of my shares, even if you missed the previous year. To do that this year would kill me, so I'm only going to repost some of my favorites from the past two years alongside the new stuff. However, most of those old shares are still available if you know where to look. Here is a pretty complete list of all the shares from last year, so if you follow all these links, you'll be able to download many of my shares and catch all the stuff that I'm going to have to leave out this year. I haven't checked all the shares to be sure they're available, but if something's gone, please leave me a note and I'll try to get it back up for you. This list should keep you busy for the next few months... :)

Thurlow Spurr And The Spurrlows-Christmas; Time For Song
Christmas Surprises From The Ralph Hunter Choir
Thurlow Spurr And The Spurrlows-Go Tell It On The Mountain
Domenico Savino-Music For Christmas Eve
Domenico Savino-Hi-Fi Christmas Party
Yogi Yorgesson-Yingle Bells
John Klein-Let's Ring The Bells All Around The Christmas Tree
John Klein-Noel Bells
Robert Way-New England Sleigh Ride
Ruth Welcome-Christmas In Zitherland
John Klein-The Bells Of Christmas
Herbie Koch-Christmas Bells Of Stone Mountain
Raymond LeFevre-Merry Christmas
Henri Rene-Home For Christmas
Paul Mauriat-The Christmas Album
David Rose-Merry Christmas To You
Lionel Barrymore-A Christmas Carol
Gary Mann-Blues For Baby Jesus
Loretta Young-The Littlest Angel/Gregory Peck-Lullaby Of Christmas
Sy Mann-Everybody's Christmas Favorites
Gisele MacKenzie-Joyeux Noel
Gisele MacKenzie-Christmas With Gisele
The McGuire Sisters-What Child Is This
The McGuire Sisters-Ave Maria
The McGuire Sisters-Greetings From The McGuire Sisters
'Twas The Night Before Christmas
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And Other Christmas Favorites
John Davidson-My Christmas Favorites
The Mexicali Brass-Winter Wonderland
Christmas With The Mexicali Brass
Tijuana Voices Sing Merry Christmas!
A King Family Christmas
Christmas With The King Family
Marilyn King-My Favorite Things
The Rainbow Sound Of Bianco-Joy To The World
A Visit From Saint Nicholas
Lorne Greene-Must Be Santa
The Ray Charles Singers-Christmas At Home
Felix Slatkin-Season's Greetings
Lynn Anderson-The Christmas Album
Merry Christmas From Buck Owens And Susan Raye
Mitch Miller-Christmas Songs And Carols
Merry Christmas With The KE-Notes
The Jimmy Joyce Singers With Orchestra by Billy May-A Christmas To Remember
The Pied Pipers Sing Favorite Christmas Carols
The Moishe Oysher Chanukah Party
Saint Patrick's Cathedral Choir Sings Christmas Carols
Saint Patrick's Cathedral Choir Sings Christmas Songs-Volume 2
Christmas With The Don Les Harmonicats
Nelson Riddle-Avon Wishes You A Happy Holiday And A Joyous New Year
Nelson Riddle-The Christmas Song
Hugo Winterhalter-Christmas Magic
Hugo Winterhalter-Sleigh Ride
Hugo Winterhalter-Blue Christmas b/w White Christmas
Muzak Christmas
Bob Coe-White Christmas/Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
Richard Keys Biggs-Christmas Bells
The Sisters Of Divine Providence-Christmas Mosaic
The Happy Crickets-Christmas With The Happy Crickets
Woody The Woodchuck-Christmas Sing Song
The Surfers-Christmas From Hawaii
Emilien Allard-Noels au Carillon de l'Oratoire Saint-Joseph
Skitch Henderson-Winter Holiday
The Ray Charles Singers-Winter Wonderland
The Ray Charles Singers-Here We Come A-Caroling
George Feyer-Echoes Of Christmas
Arthur Lynds Bigelow-Ring! Christmas Bells
Christmas In Cleveland
Eddie Dunstedter-The Bells Of Christmas
Eddie Dunstedter-The Bells Of Christmas Chime Again
The Three Suns-Uncle Mistletoe/Sleigh Ride
Leo Addeo-Organ And Chimes Play Christmas Carols
The John McCarthy Chorale-Merry Christmas Sing Along
The Town Pipers-Christmas Greetings
Big Tiny Little-Christmas With Big Tiny Little
George Wright-Merry Christmas
George Wright-Christmas Time
The Sandpipers-Frosty The Snowman
101 Strings-Christmas Moods
The Lighthouse Singers-Christmas Carols Volume II
Lew White-Christmas Time
Billy Crystal-The Christmas Song
Merry Christmas From The Command Family Of Recording Stars
Ashley Miller-Christmas Carols
Songs To Sing At Christmas Time
Merry Christmas From...
Dennis Day-Christmas Is For The Family
Holiday People-Holiday Disco
Max Fagen-Christmas Disco Party
Warner Bros Stars-We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Ephrem Zimbalist, Jr.-Adeste Fidelis
Mitch Miller-Be A Santa
Cyril Stapleton-Children's Christmas Album
Ethel Smith-Christmas Music
Godfrey Malcolm & Fredrico-Chimes Of Christmas
Menudo-Feliz Navidad
Jose Melis-Christmas With Melis
Charo-(Mamcita) Donde Esta Santa Claus
Bruce Woodman-Christmas Carols With A Latin Lilt
60 French Girls & The Christmas Bell Ringers-Joyeaux Noel
Yank Lawson & Bob Haggart-Hark The Herald Angels Swing
William Clauson-Canciones De Navidad
Natal No Brasil
The Snap-On Male Chorus-Carols Of Christmas
A Kimball Christmas
Christmas Classics 1963
Frank Chacksfield-Music For A Merry Christmas
The Three Suns-Christmas Party
The Three Suns-Your Christmas Favorites
The Three Suns-The Sounds Of Christmas
The Three Suns-Raggin' The Scales
Lester Lanin-Christmas Dance Party
A Christmas Sampler
Dick Leibert-Sing And Rejoice
Dick Leibert-The Sound Of Christmas
Dick Leibert-The Happy Hits Of Christmas
Dick Leibert-A Merry Wurlitzer Christmas
Buddy Cole-The Organ Plays At Christmas
Buddy Cole At The Pipe Organ-Pipes And Chimes For Christmas
Ray Conrad-The Cotton Pickin' Lift Tower
Six Family Mountain-Takin' A Ride With The Wind
Spencer Ross-Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Merriest Of Christmas Pops
Fred Waring-Twas The Night Before Christmas
Fred Waring-Nutcracker Suite
Pete Fountain-Candy Clarinet
David Wayne Narrates The Little Star Of Bethlehem
Eddie Layton-Organ Music For Christmas
Mike Douglas-My Kind Of Christmas
Sammy Kaye-Christmas Day With Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye-Christmas Serenade
Sammy Kaye-Year 'Round Favorites
The Moog Machine-Christmas Becomes Electric
Avon Campaign 21
Danny Robinson-Deck The Halls
Buddy & Bunny Burden-Christmas Favorites
A Family Christmas Album
Slim Boyd-Christmas Country Style
Santa Claus Conquers The Martians

Good Grief, what a list! Is that even all of them? Sorry I couldn't get them in some sort of order. I think they're close to the order I shared them out in, which doesn't do you any good when it comes to finding anything. But you'll figure it out, I have faith in you. :)

Sisters Three

Here's another rerun from late in the year last year that you may have missed. This is one of the few records that had eluded me for many years so I had to break down and buy it off of eBay for a small fortune. I take some small pride in the fact that nearly all of the records I share with you here on the blog are things that I find at thrift stores for one dollar or less. But not this one. You don't have to pay for it, though, you get to hear my copy. So here's The McGuire Sisters-Greeting From The McGuire Sisters (Coral CRL 57225, 1958) for your enjoyment. I've got a track from The McGuire Sisters on an Arthur Godfrey record coming up later this season, so stay tuned. Also, more Christmas McGuire Sisters can be found here and here.

Update: This one is out on CD now, although it's a little hard to tell. There's a collection on the Jasmine label that includes all the songs from this LP, plus all the songs from the Christmas With Arthur Godfrey LP. Not sure how the McGuire Sisters got stuck on there, but who am I to question how such things work. You can order this from Amazon via this link. Wait, maybe I'm mistaken. Try this disc instead.

Would You Like A Ford With That?

I had no idea what I was going to get when I bought this record. Well, I thought I did, but I didn't. I found the empty cover in a huge stack of records, and decided I needed to find the actual vinyl. Half an hour later I found it further down the pile inside the gatefold of another LP. (Usually I don't find the records missing from empty sleeves, but that's going to be another series of posts sometime soon...) The music is almost exactly what you think it is just by looking at the cover above, but you don't know the rest of the story. A little internet research told me that The Going Thing were actually a manufactured band, put together by Ford for use in marketing campaigns and promotional tours. I guess they took the idea from The Monkees. They recorded a few albums that were only released to Ford employees, then went their separate ways when advertising trends changed. Rumor has it that Karen and Richard Carpenter were members for a brief time, but their career took off before they had to wear too much velour. Anyhow, I think you'll enjoy the smooth, inoffensive sounds of Christmas 1968 With The Going Thing (Private Pressing for Ford XCSV-141473, 1968). Note: The first track on here (and longest) is a spoken introduction and holiday wishes from John Naughton, a bigwig at Ford at the time. The whole record is only 17 minutes long, and it's only recorded on one side.

Where I Left Off Last Year

Here's a record I first shared out last year right at the end of the season, so it's possible that many of you missed it. This is one of the records that I am always on the lookout for in the bins, because all I have is this mono copy, and it's pretty beat. I would love to get a stereo copy in nice shape, but I'm only willing to pay a buck for it (I'm cheap!). I think I originally paid a quarter for this one, and it sat in my collection for years before I ever played it. Boy, was I surprised! This is a really great album that should be on every one's playlist! So if you don't have it already, please go download Gisele MacKenzie-Christmas With Gisele (RCA Victor LPM-2006, Mono, 1959). You can also check out an earlier EP from Gisele that has many of these same tracks on it. It may not give you any more music, but it does give you another picture of Mademoiselle Gisele.

Update: Looks like someone finally wised up about this record. It's now available for download on iTunes. So I can't share it anymore, but you can download a nice MP3 version of it.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCVIII-Christmas 2007

It wouldn't be Christmas around here without some great Christmas doodles. These little bits of artwork adorned the back sides of records back in the days when record companies tried to save money by printing the back covers in B&W instead of full color like the front covers. I've been sharing these since the very beginning of the blog, and as you can see by the Roman numeral 308 above, I've shared out quite a few. I don't think I have enough Christmas ones to post one a day this season, but I've got quite a few I hope to share with you during the next month. Today's wintry scene comes from the flipside of Season's Greetings From Perry Como (RCA Victor LSP-2066, 1959). I don't think I've seen any reissues of these great old albums that include the original rear artwork. Many of them even omit the original artwork from the front! (That's another goal of mine this holiday season. I've scanned many original LPs from my collection, and I want to share that original art with you. If you have a reissue CD without the original art, you'll be amazed at what you're missing. But that's for another day...)

Hooray For The Salvation Army Band

I agonized over what I was going to share with you first this year. I finally decided on this little gem. I picked this up a couple of months ago at a huge Salvation Army store in North Tampa. I flipped past it, then went back to take a closer look. It didn't really look like a holiday record at first, but something made me look that second time, and thank goodness it did. This is one of the more interesting records I have to share this year. The Joy Strings were actually a band assembled by The Salvation Army in England. Most bands I've heard associated with The Salvation Army are brass bands that don't play very well, but this is nothing like that. These guys can rock with the best of them, at least the best of the mid-sixties. I'm only sharing out the first side, as it's the only side with Christmas songs, but it's still plenty of songs for you. This is the earliest recording of O Little Town Of Bethlehem done to the tune of House Of The Rising Sun that I've found. It's great! So welcome to this year's Christmas share-a-thon, and go get my first share, The Joy Strings-Well Seasoned (Epic BN 26321). Reading up about The Joy Strings tells me that they have other Christmas albums out there, but they may have only been released in the UK. Anyone got any those they'd like to share? ;)

And So It Begins

Well, Thanksgiving dinner (2, actually) is over. The turkey is gone, the diet Mountain Dew is all guzzled, and I'm sure my sugar is through the roof. That means it's time to open up the vault and start with the Christmas music. You get to listen to it and I get to share it. Over the next month I hope to bring you some of the best and some of the worst Christmas records that vinyl ever had to offer. Everything I share is stuff that I own and ripped myself from scratchy old vinyl. I've recorded it over the past 4 months, one record at a time, scanned the covers in, converted everything to MP3, tagged it all, uploaded it, and now I'm gonna post it. If I should inadvertently post something that's on CD, please let me know, I'll get it taken down immediately. If there is a problem with something I post, please let me know, I'll try to get it fixed. If you have a question, please ask it. I usually post all the info I have about an LP, but the comments are great places for other folks to share their knowledge. There are plenty of people out there who know more about this music than I do, and they sometimes stop by and share tidbits. Plus I just love to get comments about my shares. If you come across something that has been deleted, please leave a comment and I'll try to get it back up. Unless, of course, it's something that is on CD now, in which case I usually post a note and a link to somewhere that you can visit to buy the music. All of my stuff is shared out using RapidShare. I know some of you don't like it because you have to wait an hour between downloads. Please consider getting a month-long subscription for about $15. You'll be happy you did. Sometimes RapidShare goes down, so if it doesn't seem to be working, just give it a few hours and try again. Anything else I wanted to mention? Not that I can think of. I hope you enjoy the Christmas music and may it make your season a little bit brighter!

PS: If you use any of my stuff in your Christmas mixes, I'd love to hear it. Drop me a line and I can hook you up with an address if you'd like to send a hard copy. Or if you share it out on the web, please put a link in the comments! Thanks again!

Now, how about some music?

Turkey Lurkey

You think of odd things when you're visiting home for the holidays. I remembered a play that I was in back in second grade. I thought that I was the turkey, but reading the news coverage tells me that I wasn't. Maybe I sang in the chorus or something. I remember getting to wear feathers at some point. Anyway, here is the original article from the Lakeland Ledger dated 27 Nov, 1977. I'm on the left, Robert Williams is the turkey with the broken arm, and Jennifer Sparks is the love interest. Or something like that. Anyhow, that's me, thirty years ago...

Tradition

As I've done for the previous two years, I have a song that I share out for Thanksgiving. It's a rousing track that will surely get you going as you head to the turkey table. Here is Spencer Ross-Thanksgiving Day Parade (Columbia 4-41532 7" 45 RPM single, 1960). I hope you enjoy it! Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow Is The Day

Not long now, folks. Not long now.

Eleven Years And Counting

Some months back I found the ultrasound above in a pile of photos somewhere. I wanted to post it in November to mark the 10th anniversary of my diagnosis with type 1 diabetes. Then I noticed that the date on this was May of '97. This scan was taken several months after the diagnosis because I was having trouble keeping food down. I know that I was originally diagnosed in November, because there was some concern over whether I would be out of the hospital in time for Thanksgiving or not. Turns out that I was out in plenty of time, but it took years before I was able to enjoy a holiday centered around food again. But I guess the real point of the story is that I missed my tenth anniversary, and this is the eleventh year I've survived. Anyhow, I saved the scan above because I always thought it odd that they found a little, distorted Playboy bunny deep in my liver. Imagine that...

I hope everybody out there has a great Thanksgiving, and realize that we all have something to be thankful for.

Pigs On The Barby

Still plenty more pictures from the Australian Pink Floyd show to share, including this little surprise. If you're going to see them soon, I apologize for ruining all their surprises, but these pictures are just too cool to share. All during the show, we had been hoping they would play some music the LP Animals. Eventually they played Pigs (Three Different Ones) (I was hoping for Sheep myself, but you can't always get what you want), and sure enough, a few minutes into the song, here comes the pig! He was an ugly fellow, with glowing red eyes, big tusks and a rather nasty disposition. But more importantly, he looked cool. The audience went crazy when he first appeared, but it wasn't the last surprise of the evening.

Still More Aussie Floyd

One of the great things about the Australian Pink Floyd show was that they played music from all phases of Floyd, from the early psychedelia of Astronomy Domine & Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun to the Roger-less Division Bell. They also took visuals from all eras as well. Above is a bit of the imagery from Pulse, and below is a picture of Floyd founder Syd Barrett.


Another part of the fun of Aussie Floyd is their incorporation of Australian culture into the Floyd mythos. In the shot above, you can see their pink kangaroo making an appearance on the Wish You Were Here album cover. He shows up a lot throughout the concert. The shot below shows an image taken from the Floyd box set, Shine On. These guys did as good a job with the visuals as they did with the music.

More Aussie Floyd (Not Uncle)

As I mentioned, I saw The Australian Pink Floyd Saturday night in Atlanta. They played at the Fox Theatre, a great venue right in downtown Atlanta. This was the same theater that saw the premier of Gone With The Wind way back in 1939. We had visited the box office earlier in the day to find out if I could bring my camera in or not. Turns out that they permitted cameras, but only point-and-shoots and cell phones. So my big SLR was out. I borrowed a friend's camera, and spent about 30 minutes trying to learn how to operate it in the dark. I was still finding my way around it when we arrived. My first shot was the marquee out front, where I had to block traffic for ten minutes waiting for the coming attractions to loop back around to the faux Floyd.

Once inside, this was what we saw. I spent some more time trying to make adjustments to the camera, finally settling on a maximum aperture of f2.8 (depending on the focal length) and an exposure time of 1/30 to 1/60 of a second, depending on what lights were lit on stage. The ISO was set to 400, so if you look close you'll see quite a bit of grain in these shots, especially the ones I've cropped a lot. But they are still pretty good for shooting in the dark.

The concert began with a complete performance of Wish You Were Here. Not just the song, but the whole LP. They didn't hold anything back, throwing themselves into the performance right off. If you've ever seen the real Pink Floyd, you'll recognize many of the visuals. Even the stage state mirrors the real Floyd. The round rear-projection screen is vintage Floyd. The pyramids are a typical motif, as is the diver below in Mono Lake. Very impressive.

The Week Of Thanksgiving

Yep, that's right, Thanksgiving is here, and long-time readers of the blog know what that means. The rest of you will just have to stay tuned. In the meantime, this lovely shot is Bridal Veil Falls in Bedford Reservation in Ohio. Gotta love that fall color!

Aussie Floyd

Through the miracle of an unsecured wireless router, my laptop is suddenly online. That means I can show you a picture of the concert from last night, less than twelve hours after the fact. What you see above is the Australian Pink Floyd, in all their reflected Floyd glory. Much, much, much more to come when I get back to my own computer.

Greetings From Atlanta

Sorry about the dearth of posts this week. I've been sort of busy getting ready for the upcoming holiday season, and now I'm in Atlanta for the weekend. I'll be at the Australian Pink Floyd show at The Fox tomorrow night, so maybe I'll have some pictures of that for you next week. And for the record, this is my first post from a Mac. I am not impressed...

See you all next week. ;)

The Next Week Of November

November is really flying by, isn't it? I have so much to do before the Christmas season starts, I don't see how it's all going to get done. Time will tell, though. But at least you get a calendar page for this week. I love this shot of an osprey giving me the evil eye as I photograph his nest. I shot this out at Myakka River State Park. There's a long line of power poles alongside a road called, no lie, Power Line Road. Atop each pole is an osprey nest. As I walked along, an osprey or two would fly away from each nest, circle around a few times, then land again after I had gone. I managed to catch this fellow right before he took off.

Now It Can Be Told, Part Four

I just can't get enough of these awesome Cube pictures. I stood there for almost an hour taking these shots, slowly circling the artwork trying to find just the right angle. Turns out that the best angle is head-on to one of the open sides. The lights inside this thing are capable of producing 14.7 million colors, or at least something close to that. I think it's got something like 7000 watts of LEDs in there, all computer controlled, changing every 90 seconds, thus the title of the piece, Pulse.

Be sure to go visit this, and all the other artwork, along the Sarasota Bayfront as part of the fourth annual Sarasota Season Of Sculpture. I met the director of the shindig tonight, so if you see her there, tell her Ernie (with the camera in the dark) said Howdy.

As time permits, I hope to be able to shoot the other pieces in the exhibit. I'm afraid I'm a little prejudiced though, since I had a small part in building this one.

Now It Can Be Told, Part Three

I omitted one small detail about the cube I showed you the other day. It lights up. I shot these tonight handheld. I need to go back with a tripod, I bet I could get some really awesome shots. Not that these are bad. Some of the more abstract ones are really cool.

A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas Indeed

I don't normally talk about what I'm going to share out at Christmas, but I'm so excited that I can't keep this one under my hat. The record you see above popped up in a pile of vinyl at the Goodwill this afternoon. It may be mono, but it's still awesome. I'd never actually seen one in person before. If you don't know why I'm so excited, just wait until Christmas rolls around and check back. You'll understand then...

Now It Can Be Told, Part Two

What does it take to move a sculpture that towers almost 14 feet in the air (And weighs 7100 pounds) from the parking lot where it was assembled to the bayfront for display? A lot of work and a little bit of luck. A mobile crane had to lift the unit not once but twice to get it onto a waiting truck. Turns out that the truck couldn't wind it's way into the lot where the assembly took place, and the weight of the piece prohibited the crane from moving it too far in one pass. So the second move got it onto the trailer.

Even though our shop is in an industrial park, it's not designed for easy truck access. We scraped against trees on both sides on the way out and had to pick plenty of leaves out of the unit later on.

Getting the unit on the trailer was only the first step. Then it had to be driven nine miles down the road while looking for low-hanging wires and traffic lights, driving at a leisurely 20 miles per hour or less. We had a guy in the cab of the truck ready to jump out at any sign of trouble and lift any low-hanging wires that might prove a problem. But luckily the route was scouted out well enough that we didn't encounter any problems. The driver did make sure and try to drive in-between lights, just in case. There are a couple of lifting eyes that stick out the top of the unit that would have done some serious damage to any traffic lights that happened to get in the way. Those lifting eyes were supposed to make it easier to move the unit, but after all the assembly work was said and done, nobody trusted them to support the weight of the piece, so we wound up running straps around the whole thing whenever it got lifted.

About halfway through the trip, I realized that we would drive right by the artist's previous sculpture of a similar design. So we drove on ahead and scouted out a good spot to get both works in the same shot. Look close to the right side of the picture above and you can see a similar white cube, only this time with a red interior. That earlier version could fit inside this new one.

Now It Can Be Told, Part One

For the past month or so, we've been working on a special project in the shop. It's something a little different from the usual industrial sheet metal we usually do, so I figured I'd share a bit of it here at the old blog. Today was the day that it finally got installed on the bayfront in downtown Sarasota, Florida, so I figure it's OK to talk about it now. The giant white cube you see above is a sculpture named Pulse, designed by local artist Christine Desiree (Hi Christine!) and fabricated in our humble Bradenton shop. To give you a sense of scale, each side is 12 feet, the opening in the center is 9 feet, and the base it's sitting on is 18 inches high.

This sculpture was created for the annual show on the waterfront, which runs for about the next six months. They've been installing pieces for the past few days, and there are still quite a few to go. As you can see, this one got a great spot right on the water.

I was quite involved in the manufacture and assembly of this work of art, so I don't have pictures of the entire process, but I do have some I hope to share with you over the next few days. So if you're curious about how something like this comes together, stay tuned, and you'll lean more than you really want to know. Those of you who are anywhere close to Sarasota will want to drive out to the bayfront and see this show sometime soon. It looks to be a promising event. I'm a little prejudiced when it comes to which piece is my favorite, though.

The interior of the piece is filled with free-hanging mirrored plates that move about in the breeze. They also make a lot of noise when the wind gets going. It was rather loud as it got carried down the road on the back of a lowboy trailer.

More For November

This weeks picture is a great shot of Tampa Bay from one of the smaller bridges leading to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was mid-morning one day when I was driving North, and I just thought I should stop and get some shots. I was extremely happy with the pictures I got, with the dead-calm water and the great clouds making for a perfect symmetry.

November, Part Dos

Here are the other two calendar pics for the month of November. The shot above is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. I didn't actually go inside on the trip I took this picture, but I caught it on a later trip. It's pretty cool, but I don't know if it's worth a special trip to Cleveland. Something that might be worth the trip is the beach below at sunset, or, if you prefer, at moonset. It may be hard to see in the small version below, but if you look close, you'll see a tiny crescent moon following the sun to the horizon. I shot this a couple of years ago in Nokomis, Florida, while waiting for the annual Christmas nighttime boat parade. This shot was far better than any of the pictures I got of the boats.

November, Part Uno

Here's the first pair of calendars for the month of November. There seems to be an architectural theme going on here. The shot above, from the Florida set, is Castillo De San Marcos, the old fort at St. Augustine. This is the oldest remaining structure built by Europeans in America. (I have to be careful how I word that...) Not nearly so old, but probably just as striking is the church below. I forget the name of it, but this is in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, right off of the little square in front of Terminal Tower. I love how the skewed perspective makes the steeple reach for the sky, as if it's straining to somehow match the skyscrapers around it. And catching all the birds in flight is just icing on the photographic cake. I'll stop now...

The Onset Of November

Rumor has it that today is the first of November, so that means calendar pages! Here's the weekly page for the last half of this week, featuring some sort of fall-themed tin man or something. I shot this at Stan Hywet in Ohio a year or so ago during their Fall festival. They had lots of decorations like this, each of which sort of anthropomorphized some aspect of the house, this character being based on some of the vents atop the house. I'm not sure how successful the execution of the idea was, but it was a good idea.

Moldy Oldie

Something scary showed up in my email this morning. The two pictures you see here were taken sometime in the fall of '89, or maybe the spring of '90, not sure which. This was me and some of the guys on my floor in the Weaver dorms at UF before a big formal event. I think we were volunteering to help with security or something, which is how we rated tuxedos. I'm positive I wouldn't have provided my own tux just to go to some residence function. Even though these pictures are over 17 years old, I've seen all of these folks within the past year or so. Some friendships last forever. For those of you who don't know who I am, that's me in the dark glasses. You probably could have figured that out since I'm the only one who's in both pictures, but it's late and I'll cut you some slack.

Big thanks to Al for sending me the pix. He's on the left in the top picture. Al also sent me this other picture I shared sometime back.

Porter Wagoner, RIP

I used to listen to lots of country music when I was little, so I can remember plenty of Porter Wagoner on the radio. I can't say as I've listened to him any recently, but that doesn't mean I won't remember him in some small way. And to help you remember him, here's a version of Frosty The Snowman, as performed by Mr. Porter Wagoner. Enjoy!

"Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee."

The Last Few Days Of October

In honor of Halloween being this week, you get this creepy looking vulture as your calendar picture. I shot this guy out at Myakka River State Park. There are always lots of vultures hanging around out there for some reason. Not sure why.