Like They Say, Everything Old Is New Again!

Long before MTV...Music videos on cable...



Several decades prior to the early 80's there briefly flourished music videos seen in bars, bowling alleys and establishments across the land...


It was called SCOPITONE...







On the Scopitone website they explain the system like this...


"What's A Scopitone?


It's a "Film Jukebox" invented in France in the early 1960's (from surplus World War II airplane parts!) and also the films (the precursors of todays music videos) which played on it."

Here is the inside "guts of the Scopitone machine...

You can see the film reels...Pretty ingenious for the day...

Check out this web site and you can see some of the original Scopitone video productions produced with the stars of that era...


http://scopitones.blogs.com/scopitonescom/watch_scopitones/

Vicki Carr, Bobby Rydell, Ray Anthony, Line Renaud, Francois Hardy, Billy Eckstine and Dick and Dee Dee...

Here's a link to one I just saw on You Tube featuring Joi Lansing (WHO?)...

Well, she has big boobs and dances a super corny routine in a web of ropes as she belts out "Web of Love"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbv8p1YfJbI&feature=player_embedded

One thing you will note in viewing these Scopitone features is their rich color...It must have been cool to see these in action...

Here's a link to a Scopitone with Lou Rawls...Remember they were produced just for Scopitone and were exclusive to that medium...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4707ORQBoGU&feature=player_embedded#at=14

Obviously the concept ultimately failed and all the clips are now relegated to musical history, though we should be glad they caught some of the artists performing in their prime so that future generations can see how great they were back then...

Even Betty and Veronica in the Archie comics were into Scopitone...

Just remember when you see your next video on the cable or your computer, Scopitone was there long, long ago entertaining folks as they sucked up their scotch and soda or bowled their final pins in a match...

What's old is new again...Oh, yea! 

P.S..  Want to see more?

Check these out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDM5JqnBjAY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJW17e-INaY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNj78igXr_Y&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V03f74P4_o&feature=related

Financial Doom and Gloom?

Not many of us were around when they had the bread riots in Germany in the late 30's...The money was stacked in wheelbarrows to pay grocery bills...



Can that happen again?


Yes, and no doubt it will be us in the hot seat this time...


We have been going down this road for a long, long time...


For over two hundred years the British used their pound as the world currency base...



After WWII the US stepped up to the world financial plate and the almighty US dollar was almighty...



Now due to slipshod financial management in Washington we are at the cliff...


We have been borrowing against the future...We are simply printing money...



Doing that just makes your money worth less and less...

Some foreign countries will not even accept US credit cards now...They DO NOT want to be paid in US greenbacks...

Our own national debt will be about $14 TRILLON this year...

What do we owe China?  Is it seven or seventeen billion? 

Nope, close to $894 billion..Japan is over $700 billion...At that point it is a mute point...


.


The financial community needs a new stable world wide base...Me thinks it will no doubt be China...


Europe is having their own fiscal meltdown right now...


But how will all this impact the regular Joe's like you and me?


Not good...

Some ponder that we will loose over twenty to forty percent of our net worth worldwide...

And considering we import almost everything except food stuffs and technical expertise, we are in for a major disaster...

Will there be riots here like in Germany back then?  Yes, I think they can happen...




When folks have no money to purchase food and have no gas to travel to a safe haven they will panic...


Many will take what they want...


Some fiscal wizards project that in order to be safe you should put much of your savings in gold and silver...



Silver is destined to grow at a much better percentage than gold in the near future...

Also, purchase farm land...Two benefits here...You could live off it and after WWII was over the folks who had the huge tracts of farmland retained much of their wealth...Those who had paper money had NOTHING!





Have a gun?  Plenty of food stuffs?


I know this sounds like a Mormon lifestyle roll call, but it really isn't...

Maybe when the dollar ceases to be the globe's standard not much will happen...I hope so...BUT once again me thinks it will lead to great instability here and in countries abroad...

For sure we are headed down an interesting road...

My wish is we had forward thinking candidates to run our country who see this and would discuss this matter at great length...Not sound bites...Positive plans and actions...

Oh well...Maybe I'll just wake up and this will all be a bad dream...

Maybe, but then why are all those vacant houses surrounding me all the time...



Why?

"The Goin's Great!"

Hit work a tad gloomy...

No real reason...It was a Friday and traffic was light, but for some reason I just slugged my way to my desk and plopped down...





It wasn't twenty minutes until a fellow co-worker came into our two man office and closed the door...

Now, what's up?

Within seconds he blurted out, "I just quit!"

Heavy thing for one to utter after working here for nearly twelve years...Heavy...

He has been dabbling in another growing business for several years...Taking tourists into clubs...Breaking through the lines and getting them situated at their table and lining up the agreed to bottle service...





The VIP biz has started to head big time...And he is now poised to take it there as the new Director of Sales for Red Carpet VIP...





Good for him...Leaving the ship but able to sail away in style...





I thought for that guy..."The Goin's Great!"

Then I started to think about that song I played over forty years ago on the radio back in the San Fernando Valley at KVFM on the 11th floor of the Panorama Towers...

Sammy Davis Jr. and "The Goin's Great"...Up beat and super cool and hip back then...




It was used as the theme for all the Pan Am radio and TV spots...

Looked it up on You Tube and found a playable cut...

Here is the address:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2fTLFQ93nU&feature=player_embedded#at=95

Listen up and enjoy!

Question: Is the goin' great?
Answer: Yes, the going's great

Question: Is the livin' fine?
Answer: Yes, the living's fine

I've got someone, it's such fun to cling to
If I could I would describe that face
Someone that I mean everything to
And I'm in Heaven as it were
Every time I'm in her embrace

So, question: Is the goin' great?
Here's my answer: Yes, the going's great

The milk and honey's flowing
And my love for her keeps growin'
Which makes the lovin' goin' great
Great!


Question: Is the goin' great?
Here's my answer: Yeah, the going's great

That milk and honey's flowing
And my love for her keeps growin'
Which makes the lovin' goin' great
Great!

And I hope YOUR weekend makes "The Goin's Great!"

Lucky little shit...

What is with the weather here in Sin City?


Come on...It is the 18th of May and rain is slamming up against the window right now...





Cold and windy...This sucks...





We should be in the ninety plus arena each and every day...


But there is a BIG bonus to this situation...


Everyone will have much lower power bills from NV Energy come the end of the month...




According to the weather folks here are the May numbers for weather freaks everywhere...




Average Temperatures in May in Las Vegas

• Average High Temperature in May in Las Vegas: 88 F (31.1 C)
• Average Low Temperature in May in Las Vegas: 60 F (15.5 C)
• Average Rainfall in May in Las Vegas: .28”
• Average Humidity in May in Las Vegas: 18%

Today is 64 with a low headed to 54...


The Strip properties sell those pool cabanas for big bucks now but they won't be moving any until (as the song title says) "The Heat Is On"...


It was so cold in Fresh and Easy last night that my nipples were rock hard...


Not from excitement, just cold air...


Oh great weather gods, stoke that fire and turn up the heat!

OUCH!

Saturday...

Would be a good day but I just took my first big dope pill and I'll have my second in four hours and then I'll be smack dab in the dentist's chair...





Ouch!  Last week, even with the gas, they stuck that needle in my gums and I shot my leg up to the ceiling...The pain! 





At that point I recall them saying, "oh, you'll be OK...Just relax"...

Who are they kidding...It hurt like hell and I was beyond gone on dope...

More work this week on the right side...So I am now missing a gap of three teeth of the top left side of my mouth...Two flimsy front teeth attached to the implants that are healing and now work on the bottom right side...

After today I am DONE for a while...DONE!

Keep losing weight and it is because I can't taste crap anymore...

Lots of refried beans and soup...Yummy!




Bring on the mashed potatoes...

Getting old sucks!  But it does beat the alternative (at least I think it does)...

Ciao all!

Sounds Like It Was Yesterday!

I told the story about getting a phone call from an old KMPC DJ pro from back in the day, Johnny Magnus...

John said he would forward on a cut of "Weather With A Beat", a regular segment on his nightly KMPC show in the 60's and 70's...

A man of his word, the MP3 arrived and I put some video behind it...

Want to take a look?

Here is the link to the You Tube presentation of Neil Hefti's tune, "Cute"...as performed by the Count Baise orchestra...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz3sRrbrWtI

Nice when all the pieces fall together, yes?

Oh, enjoying the hell of a a new best seller...

Dick Van Dyke has been selling his new auto bio like printed hot cakes...

Recommend you head to the bookstore (the old way that I followed) or download for your reading tablet...

Saw that new one by Barnes and Noble, the Nook?  Nifty, but no modem...Only works with wi-fi...

OK, off we go...

Chat at ya later!

Artie out from Sin City

p.s.  Here I am out and about in Sin City...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnY3KqVVC4