Your Blog Host

Your Blog Host
Friends, Meet SIN CITY ARTIE!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Hats Off To All The GREAT Mom's...Past And Present (Let's Face It, We Wouldn't Be Here Without Ya)

I find this a very meaningful day...Mother' Day!


We've all had one in order to gain admittance to the planet.


Your dogs and cats had 'em, too.





Mother's are pretty important in the strata of life.


I am blessed because my Mom is still amongt us.  She lives in Atlanta and is thriving at the perky age of 89.


Artie Breyfogle


Her past was varied.  Her best decision was marrying my Dad.  Their love lasted in a 51 year marriage.  A good blending of two fine folks.


They meet when both were in show business and they traveled the globe together in the decades that would follow their 1947 marriage.


Mom and Dad were on Broadway back in the late 40's.  Then they had this bouncing young pup and then Dad had to scramble for a real job.



He landed in the airline business and hung in there with that gig for the remainder of his career.  Because of his employment with two international air carriers, he was able to haul us around the globe.  





We never had a dull day.


Mom made certain that both of us were busy.  I was about to have some brothers and sisters but Mom's plumbing didn't let those blessed events occur.  They just had me, the only child.


She has been a great Mom, always filling me with awe and wonderment about everything on earth...Culture.  Travel.  The social graces.  On and on.





I have been gifted with two good folks.  Each day I give thanks to both of them for bringing me into the world and helping me to cope with it day in and day out.


If you have been half as lucky with your parents, congrats!   


The following explanation of the roots of modern Mother's Day celebrations is from a web site called:  Mother's Day Central


Spiritual Origin of Mothers Day
Only recently dubbed “Mother's Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers. The personal, human touch to Mother’s Day is a relatively new phenomenon. The maternal objects of adoration ranged from mythological female deities to the Christian Church itself. Only in the past few centuries did celebrations of Motherhood develop a decidedly human focus. 


Modern Celebration

When the United States congress approved Mother’s Day in 1914, they designated it for the second Sunday in May, and required that the President proclaim the Holiday every year shortly prior to its commencement. A recent example of a presidential Mother’s Day proclamation can be seen here. While the president proclaims the event, some mothers who lost a child use it to protest against war.
Typically a family in the United States will devote Mother’s Day to activities in honor of Mom, whether playing games, going out to dinner, taking the weekend off or going on a walk in the park. Flowers are popular, dating back to the original celebration where Anna Jarvis handed out carnations to the church-goers. It is also common to give Mother cards and chocolate candies on her special day.
In the United States Mother's Day continues to be highly commercialized.

While some continue in Jarvis’ tradition of decrying the exploitation of the holiday, other’s appreciate the heavily marketed availability of gifts, vacation packages, brunch specials and other reminders of the day. While contemporary cultural awareness of the holiday is largely based in commercialism, it is the market force that adds to the overall importance of Mother’s Day. Where people once may not have heeded the holiday, they are made abundantly aware of the chance to pay special tribute to Mom. 



Mother and Family at 1003 Reunion



So hats off to all the wonderful Mothers...those still with us and those who have departed our mortal orb...

Kudos to all the Mom's who helped shape and mold all the kids in the universe.  It is your day.  Enjoy it!



Happy Mothers Day Ladies!

Friday, May 6, 2011

A Good Day

Ya never know...

This is a follow up to my previous blog...

Out of the blue the phone rang in my office yesterday...Picked it up and a voice boomed out at me...

"Hello, Art?  This is Johnny Magnus"...

The day before I had sent him a note hoping he would respond...

He did better than that...He called me...




His pipes sounded just as they did back four decades ago...The same clear resonance came across even on the phone and started my memory bank spewing forth all the countless hours I listened to Johnny Magnus evenings on KMPC back in the 60's and 70's...


GRAMMY
From left are MOYL host Johnny Magnus; KGIL Los Angeles on-air personality Jerry F. Sharell; Pat Boone, who is currently promoting his latest album "Near", and serves as a MOYL host; singer/violinist Calabria Foti; Marshall; and Global Radio Network/MOYL CEO Marc Angell. PHOTO: BRYAN SHOWALTER




He still lives in the Valley...Works for a syndicated music service, "The Music of Your Life" and is heard on stations across the US as well as the web...




Talk about nice...He took the time to reminisce about some of the "good old days' of LA radio in the past...

Though he stated more than once that ya gotta get movin' on and not stay back in that era...

One comparison he gave me was taking a DC-3 from Washington to New York...Today it would be a modern jet...





But I stammered, "the DC-3 is my favorite plane"...He retorted,"Mine, too"...

Smart radio people think exactly the same way...

Good to hear the past is still part of the present...

Yea, it was a very good day... 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Digging Old Memories

As I head back in my cranial time machine I recall all the good times listening to LA radio when I was a growing sprout...



Everyone (including me) tuned in the hot rockers in the day...KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB...







BUT



I went further to the left side of the dial to 710...KMPC, a 50,000 watt daytime flamethrower that hit 10k watts at night...From the tower site in North Hollywood KMPC send out some of the best local radio in the market...







They were known by their huge news department and over the top traffic reports...Those were and still are mega important for Angelenos as they traverse the criss-cross freeway system that blankets the Southland...







Their talent rooster retained some of the highest paid jocks in LA...Dick Whittinghill, Gary Owens, Roger Carroll, Geoff Edwards and on and on...







One "cool" cat who jocked at night was Johnny Magnus...He played jazz, light and mellow sounds each evening from seven until midnight...







I was in the station many times at night and would walk by his studio when he was on the air and he worked with a small Tensor light and keep the place looking like a nightclub as he and the engineer on the other side of the glass filled the five hours each evening on KMPC...



One of his bits was the "Weather With A Beat"...He did it several times per shift...Using Count Baise and "Cute" he did the weather report for the nation...



"Dallas, 58 and clear...San Francisco, 46 and foggy"...



Here's that tune:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j8Y5xJwLnM



I have put together scores of videos using the jingles for KMPC...



Find those at my Sincityartie You Tube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teLzVFa0SSU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL







Most were done in the mid 60's by Anita Kerr and they stand as some of the finest and classiest jingles to ever hit the airwaves...




I'll have more on KMPC soon...



Meantime, dig on those memories!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Chugging onward into this week with some ragging winds out there today...

Many folks I know have the allergy situation flaring up...

It is THAT time of the year...
Chugging onward into this week with some ragging winds out there today...

Many folks I know have the allergy situation flaring up...

It is THAT time of the year...


I am still waiting for the continual desert heat...

We have had two false runs at it so far...

Maybe in a week or so the "HOT" facuet will be turned up...

I like to sweat...I like sunny cloudless skies...I like desert living...

Oh, now to talk politics...

The presidential race is already starting up...Possible candidates forming "exploratory" committees, wherever the hell those are...

So because of this latest on slaught of political fever starting to head up the Washington temperature gague, read this...

'In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where a family member lay gravely ill. Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber.
'I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news,' he said as he surveyed the worried faces. 'The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant.  It's an experimental procedure, very risky, but it is the only hope. Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the BRAIN.'



 



Thursday, April 21, 2011

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

"My Roots"

Everyone has 'em...


Where did you grow up?  Who were your parents?  What kind of lifestyle did you live as a child?


I had a fascinating kick start to my on going life thanks to two great parents who were extroverted and very loving...


My Dad was from an area just outside of Detroit...He had three other brothers (he was the baby) and an old man who worked for Ford and blew the paycheck now and again on gambling and more...His Mom held them all together during those rough times and they all grew up good citizens of the US...


Dad went to war in Europe during the big one (WWII) and pounded on the typewriter to keep democracy alive and secure...I chatted with him several times about the war and each time he begged off telling me anything about his experiences...To this day I wonder why...Could he have been frustrated that he saw no action...I will never know...


He came back and took his vocal talent and started to sing professionally for St. Louis Municipal Opera and then on to the boards in the Big Apple...


Mom was born on a plantation in the heartland of Alabama and went to live with her namesake Uncle (Joe/Josephine) in Denver at age twelve...She traveled extensively (he had some serious bread) and took singing lessons...


Eventually she hit New York and got gigs in Broadway shows...She did matinĂ©e leads in the original production of "Carousel"...


Well, they meet and fell madly in love (a condition that lasted 51 more years) and then had a bouncing chubby boy in late '48...


Dad struggled to make it in the city by even doing lights in nightclubs, but alas they had to make a living and he moved on to many other jobs until finally landing in SF five years later...He joined the airline industry with Flying Tigers, a start up freight carrier with a base in the Bay Area...


Then several years later we moved to LA and he hooked up with KLM, the Dutch airline and started selling to travel agents in So Cal...




It was then we moved to Northridge in the SFV and I got my established roots by living on Garden Grove Avenue until I went off to college over ten years later...




This is round one of my parents "Roots" tale...Come back for more...


Oh, and tell your folks ya love them now and again...No need to wait until they are gone...Do it now and you'll feel so much better...I'm glad I did that...Real glad...


Ciao for now...