Flora, Not Fauna

Here's another of the records I got at the Goodwill yesterday. Nothing special about it, really. But after someone posted a comment about one of the EP sleeves I posted, I took a closer look at the back of this one.

Here's the back of Poppa John Gordy And His Piano-Lisbon Antigua (RCA Victor EPA-719, 1956). See the little advertisement for another record at lower left? Here's a detail of just that part of the picture:

It's the cover for another Sauter-Finegan album that I don't have, Inside Sauter-Finegan. (Notice how they've wiped out the catalog number on this ad? I looked close at all the cover reproductions on the sleeve, and they are all marked out in the same way. Odd...) Notice that this cover and the one from the other EP have not only the same style, but the same representations for Misters Sauter and Finegan. But the important part here is the artist. I'd never heard of him, but his work is pretty well known in certain circles. Jim Flora is the guys name, and if you follow the link, you'll see quite a few examples of his work. It's a pretty interesting style. Of all the covers referenced on that site, I have just the one I found yesterday. I'll have to keep my eyes open. And if anyone has this Sauter-Finegan record, I'd love to hear it...

Seven Inches And Rising

It's amazing the ways I can find to waste my time and money. After telling myself all day that I wasn't going to stop at the Goodwill store after work today, the car turns left instead of right, and I went to the Goodwill store. And what do I find there but a huge stack of records. Not just your run-of-the-mill records, either, but 7" 45RPM vinyl EPs from the mid- to late-50s. Dozens and dozens of them. Complete sets of them, almost all in their original cardboard sleeves or in boxes. Oddly enough, every single one of them was on either RCA Victor or "X", a subsidiary of RCA at the time. So I'm thinking maybe this was the collection of an employee of the company, or someone who had some sort of link to RCA. Every single record or set was marked $0.99, which I knew I wasn't willing to pay. I flipped through all of them, pulling out 20 or 30 that I knew I wanted, but really thinking the whole stack would be worth getting, if just for some of the great covers. So I went in search of a manager and asked if there was room to deal. Sure enough, he offered $0.59 each. I countered with $50 for the whole stack, and he agreed. So between myself and the manager, we each grabbed a huge armful and carried the piles to the front of the store. I also bought a few regular 12" records, but nothing so exciting as there EPs. After hurrying home, I spent hours going through the stack, carefully putting the different sets together, and putting the few records without custom sleeves into the generic sleeves in the pile. Turned out that every record had a sleeve, and most of the sets were complete. Every box that I opened up was complete, and every record was in the correct place. The conditions are wonderful, too. I haven't played any of these yet, but you can bet the rest of my weekend will be spent hunched over the turntable, flipping small record on and off. I quickly through a few on the scanner just to share them with you. I didn't do a lot of touch-up on them, so take these scans as just samples of what's in the pile. Did I mention the count? There were 146 records here, which doesn't include the multiple records in some of the sets. Pretty good deal, eh? So what did I scan to share with you? Above and below are parts 2 and 3 of Geri Galian And His Carribean Rhythm Boys-Rhapsody In Rhythm ("X" EXA-8 & EXA-9). I put these up to illustrate what I meant by sets. There was probably a singe 12" record released of this same music, but they also spread it out over three single records, for people who liked their music at 45 RPM. Each sleeve was a little different, but they were all themed the same.


One of the sets that I really wanted to get was the one above, The Sons Of Sauter Finegan (RCA Victor EPC-1104, 1955), a three record set, all in a single sleeve. I've always heard great things about Sauter-Finegan, but their records seem to be rare as hen's teeth. And this wasn't the only record by them in the pile! Below is a great cover from blog-favorite, Xavier Cugat, drawn by the man himself. The title of this one is Dancetime With Cugat (RCA Victor EPB-3170), this time a two record set in a single sleeve.


I just can't believe some of these great covers. The music is almost incidental. Above is Noro Morales And His Orchestra-Mambos (RCA Victor EPA-553, 1954) and below is Bob Zurke And His Delta Rhythm Band-Tom Cat On The Keys (RCA Victor EJC-1013, 1955).


Above is a boxed set of three records that could prove to be mighty interesting. Just imagine what Your Horoscope In Music by Dewey Bergman With The Voice Of Eddie Gallaher (RCA Victor WP-325) is going to sound like. Most of the boxed sets included inserts, which I didn't even think came with most boxed sets. Quite a few of them even have the disposable paper slips that originally slid in between the records during shipping and were meant to be thrown away after the records were sold. (I showed you something similar a long time ago.) The only promotional record in the stack, and one of the few without a jacket is below. This single is Adios b/w Granada (RCA Victor J7OW-97172/3) by the one and only Esquivel, taken from his LP Other Worlds Other Sounds (LPM-1753). And yes, it does appear to be mono. Everything in the pile is mono. This may be the only record that is available in stereo elsewhere. I think everything else is too early.

So what else is in this pile? Plenty! At least one more from Esquivel, plenty by The Three Suns (including a much-desired Christmas single which is guaranteed to show up on the blog sometime), lots of Frankie Carle, Tony Martin, a whole series of Broadway shows, most of the year-by-year Honor Roll Of Hits series, and many, many more. I'm just so excited! Can you tell?

The Month Of May, Part Two

Finishing up the calendars for the month of May, here are the two CD-sized pages. Above is a shot of a railroad bridge in The Flats district of Cleveland, Ohio. I used to know the name of this bridge, but it escapes me now. There are quite a few historic old steel bridges in this area, dating back to the turn of the last century when the area was criss-crossed by industrial railways. Today, there are only a few working tracks in the area, but they've preserved many of these old bridges for the tourists to see. Below is a detail of a passionflower bloom. When I was little, these things grew wild out behind the house, and we'd eat the fruit from them. I don't remember it being very good, but it was great if Mom wouldn't let you have something out of the fridge since dinner was only a few hours away.

The Month Of May, Part One

Here are the two full-sized pictures for the month of May. The shot above of the flamingo is ancient. I must have shot this three or four years ago. I found the flamingo at Jungle Gardens here in Sarasota, and I must have shot him and his brothers for an hour. I sat as still as I could so they'd come closer. I love the dark background on this one. The light was just right for illuminating the bird and nothing else. The shot below is University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. That's the art museum on the far side of the lake. To the right is the campus of Case Western Reserve and to the left is Our Lady Of The Holy Oilcan. Well, you can't actually see either of those in the shot. What you can see in the foreground is a statue of Atlas. And really tiny in front of the museum is The Thinker by Rodin.

The First Week Of May

Three days into the month, and I'm just now posting the first calendar page. You folks are supposed to remind me of these things. Anyhow, here's a great picture of Elvis the red-tailed hawk. I shot Elvis at Earth Day last year at Oscar Scherer State Park. I shot Elvis again this year on the same day at the same park. Coincidence? You be the judge.

The Last Bit Of April

It's going to be a good week for calendars, and here's the first little piece. For the last two days in April, the calendar is this shot of the Anna Maria City Pier on Anna Maria Island. This is one of my favorite spots to go take pictures. It's what you might call "picture perfect".

Volume 11 For Hi-Fi Living

The wait is over, it's time for another installment of Hi-Fi Living! I know it's been a while, but I've been busy on other things. Nice weather means I am out and about taking pictures, so it's tougher to find time to record records. But I made some time today, and here is the result. Please download and enjoy Tony Osborne And His Orchestra-A Trip To Romance-Vol. 11 For Hi-Fi Living (RCA Custom RAL-1011, 1957). Only one more record to go and we'll have the whole set. (We heard from Tony Osborne earlier in the series, in case that name sounds familiar.)

No Two Ways About It

Well, I just discovered a problem. My PC has been recording in mono. I went to record a track from Henri Rene's Stereo Action record, Dynamic Dimensions, and the on-screen wave representation didn't look right. So I dug up one of those old stereo demonstration discs, tried to record it, and sure enough, it's recording in mono. I don't know how long it's been doing this. I traced the problem to a cable plugged into the sound card on the back of the PC, though. Replugging it seems to have fixed the problem, thankfully. But I don't know how long this has been a problem. I don't studiously look at the waves on screen, so I'm not sure I would have noticed a problem. If you've downloaded anything from me and thought it sounded funny, please let me know. The Hi-Fi Living series I've been sharing out since January is in mono anyway, so there's no problem there, but any of the other stuff I've been sharing could be a problem. I'm hoping this doesn't go all the back to Christmas, but you never know. So please, let me know if you have anything you downloaded from here that's not in stereo, and you think it should be. What a pain...

Sun-N-Fun 2007-Part 7

I took so many pictures at Sun-N-Fun, I don't even know where to start posting. Here's something that I thought was pretty cool. See the guy on the biplane above?

See the spindly little helicopter? You might recognize this as Otto, who you saw during the Airfest at Macdill.

Now, why do you suppose that helicopter is flying that close to the biplane?

Yep, the guy grabbed hold of the helicopter and made the transfer. It only took three tries. Actually, it took three tries each time I saw them do the trick, as if it were planned that way... Hmmm...

Virginia (9/50)

Here's another license plate for you, and again I spotted it at Sun-N-Fun. I've never seen a plate promoting private aviation before, but there are plates for everything else. Something I learned at the airshow is that a Pitts Special is a great plane for flying aerobatics. And what do you know, they look a lot like that little plane on the plate.

Took me a while to find a picture of these planes. This is from Sun-N-Fun 2006. Not sure why I couldn't find a picture from this year. Maybe I ignored them because I knew I got shots last year...

Previous plates: Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Maine, Hawaii, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin.

Sun-N-Fun 2007-Part 6

You'd have missed this if you weren't paying close attention, but I spotted it. This autograph was on a nose section of a B-29 that was displayed at the Sun-N-Fun party. For those of you who don't know, Paul Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb.

When In Berkeley

Where do I intend to spend some of my time in Berkeley this summer? Why in two of the greatest record stores on the planet! Above is Rasputin's, and below is Amoeba. I don't remember exactly, but I think these two stores actually abut each other. I won't even get a break travelling from one to the other. There's also another Amoeba near Haight-Ashbury which I'm sure I'll hit, but at least it's on the other side of the Bay Bridge, which should give me a little while to catch my breath.

California Bloomin'

As I get ready for a trip back to the San Francisco Bay area of California in June, I want to share out some of the pictures I took there four years ago during my visit. This time, I've got some of the amazing flowers I shot then. When I first started shooting a lot, flowers were one of my most frequent subjects. They are always colorful, and they offer great details when you get up close and personal with them. Most of the species I saw in California were entirely new to me, being a lifelong Floridian. So I shot lots and lots of flowers. The folks I was there with started to give me a hard time about it, but that didn't stop me. Here are four shots that I pulled together quickly this evening to show you some of the beautiful blossoms I caught last time in SF. I hope to get many more during my trip in June.

Ssssssssssssssssssssss!

Do you know what else they had out at Oscar Scherer yesterday? Snakes! Really big snakes. They had nothing to do with local wildlife, but they were pretty impressive.

Earth Day Is For The Birds

After going to Sun-N-Fun Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I needed a break on Sunday. But instead of staying in all day, I went out to the Earth Day celebration at Oscar Scherer State Park down in Nokomis, Florida. It's a nice little park that runs alongside a brackish creek, and is always good for a few pictures. I stumbled across their Earth Day celebration last year, so I wanted to go again this year. I wasn't disappointed! Same as last year, they had a number of groups that brought out animals for show and tell, including these four birds. Above you have the most active of the critters, a red-tailed hawk named Elvis. I know I took plenty of pictures of him last year, and I took plenty more this year. He's mighty photogenic, don't you think?

Next up is a great horned owl. I don't know why this guy appeared so sleepy. Maybe he didn't want to be up and about during the middle of the day. He was also a repeat from last year.

New at the celebration this year was a group that had a mountain lion and this bald eagle. I couldn't get any pictures of the mountain lion, as he was napping the whole time, but I did get some great shots like this one of the bald eagle. You can't appreciate how big these birds are until you're standing five feet away, and you realize he could tear off pieces of your body if he wanted to. I believe this guy's name was Thunder.

Another rerun from last year is Aurora, an American Kestrel, one of my favorite members of the raptor family. I can't get decent pictures of these guys in the wild, so I have to depend on shows like this to see them up-close. They never brought him out into the sunlight, so I wasn't able to capture the delicate blue color of the feathers on his head. But you can at least get a good idea of his small stature compared to the glove on which he's perched.

Sun-N-Fun 2007-Part 5

Dad just called and wanted to tell me about the only plane he saw from the airshow. He and Mom live up north of Lakeland, far enough from the airport that they don't get too many of the planes circling around, yet they lie under the flight path for many of the planes coming and going to the airport. He said he heard something big coming Saturday afternoon, and he had to run outside to see what it was that made all that noise. Turned out to be the B2, also known as the stealth bomber. I'm not sure how he heard it, since when I saw it and took these pictures just a few minutes earlier, it was pretty quiet. It's a very distinct plane, looking like nothing else in the sky. Well, maybe a little like the stealth fighter, but that's much, much smaller. These planes fly all of their missions from a single base in Missouri, relying on in-flight refueling to get them where they need to go, often flying missions lasting more than 24 hours. I believe this plane was called the Spirit Of Arizona, but I could be remembering that wrong...

Other Flying Things

You should have known that I couldn't go to the lake (as I mentioned in my previous post) and not shoot any birds. In between shooting the sea planes, I got a couple of feathered fellows as they patrolled the shoreline looking at these strange contraptions that occasionally joined them in the sky. Above is an osprey, of which there were quite a few circling. I couldn't see any nest, which I thought was odd for the concentration of them in the sky. Below is an anhinga, a female I believe, given the white coloring around the neck. Not as many of these, but there were still a few around.

Sun-N-Fun 2007-Part 4

I guess I really should start at the beginning. The first event I went to this year for Sun-N-Fun was the Splash-In, a gathering of sea planes on Lake Parker north of Lakeland. There were maybe two dozen planes out there, taking their turns flying in and out, or just sitting on shore giving people a chance to see these unique planes in their native environment. These planes came in all shapes and sizes, from closed to open cockpits, from full-size to ultralight, simple to complex. Some of them turned out to be just regular planes fitted with pontoons, but most of them were designed from the wingtips in for service in the water.

After leaving the Splash-In, I had lunch at Steak N Shake (big surprise!). And it turns out that the restaurant was right under the approach path of some of the bigger planes that were landing on the lake. For half an hour we were getting buzzed by all manner of craft, much to the confusion of pretty much everyone in the restaurant but me.