Celebrate October

As summer draws to a close and we slip into fall. Falls brings along pumpkins, ghosts, witches and leaf peeping (the act of driving to look at the fall foliage) Leaf peeping is especially popular in the New England states in the US.
Along with all this ArtFire has rolled out some serious new changes. Thanks to all those involved especially the programmers extraordinaire. ArtFire has a new front page, new sellers tools,
new features for buyers and other stuff too.

And to celebrate all this new stuff... there is the ArtFire Group Deal...$5.95 a month for a Pro account. It doesn't get any easier. The deal ends 10/01/10. For more info on the group deal http://www.artfire.com/groupdeal

And with fall comes the end of baseball and here in Cincinnati we are celebrating the Cincy Reds winning a their division...world series here we come.

So in honor of all things good or all these good things, here is a deal from me to you 50% off any one item with coupon code; october50 good through 10/01/10.

Enjoy looking around the new ArtFire and hope you enjoy shopping handmade.

Music Monday with a green tambourine...

Today let’s explore the wonderful world of bubblegum music and its connection to Cincinnati.

The Lemon Pipers were a 1960’s psychedelic pop band from Oxford Ohio. Oxford being the home of Miami University and about 40 minutes northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Lemon Pipers are chiefly known for their song Green Tambourine, which reached number one in the US in 1968. The band played a mix of blues and rock jams regularly in Oxford clubs and a Cincinnati underground rock venue, the Ludlow Garage in Clifton near University of Cincinnati. This song has been credited as being the first bubblegum #1 hit and marked a beginning of the bubblegum era.

There is a lot of information on bubblegum music and was the beginning for a lot of groups ranging from The Monkeys to the Jackson 5 to The Osmonds to The 1910 Fruit Gum Company and many others
Take a break and listen to The Lemon Pipers on this clip from “The Mike Douglas Show”. Watch for Ann Miller to do a go-go dance near the end. Classic!

music monday

Well the end of summer was made official here in Cincinnati with last night's WEBN Fireworks. This is the 37th year for this end of summer spectacular from barges on the Ohio River. You can view the fireworks from either the Ohio or Kentucky river bank or even on the river. Those on boats start to claim a good spot a week before the fireworks. A little background on WEBN-The Lunatic Fringe of American FM. This link to wiki tells the tale well. Album formatted rock & roll going back to the 1960's. ***sidebar-Pure Prairie League actually recorded their demo for the song "Amie" in the WEBN studio.***
Photo byLeigh Taylor at The Enquirer.

The end of summer fireworks blast has been choreographed with music played on the radio station since the very first show in 1977. If you wanted the music you dragged along a portable. Yesterday at the end of a three day festival on the river a half a million people forage to the river for this light show. With its outstanding and awesome pyrotechnics from rozzi fireworks the evening is tops.

The music track usually features everything from classic to hard rock and there is your music for this rainy Monday. You can catch the whole of the broadcast on this link WLW fireworks (this is the whole show)
Hope you have a good Labor Day.
While you grill out, enjoy those Negative-Calorie Cookies along with some 'tree frog beer'.

"ribbit" says the frog
regina aka red

Music Monday!

Just a short note: Doris Day for today. The girl next store!

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in Evanston which is near Xavier University as Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff (born April 3, 1922) known by her stage name Doris Day.

Her accomplishments encompass stage, screen, recording and television. Check Wiki for a complete history.

In Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), Day sang "Que, Sera, Sera" which won an Academy Awards for Best Original Song and became her signature song.

So for today...let's all sing... "Que, Sera, Sera"...What ever will be will be..."

Thanks for stopping by

regina

Music Monday: King of the Cowboys

While growing up my mom made sure we knew what famous people started in Cincinnati. I am not sure why she did this but as adult I can kind of understand. You grow up thinking that Cincinnati is just a city that no one really know where it is and nothing like New York or LA, but really this town has a lot of real history.

But today is Music Monday and we are going to take a look at Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. (Thanks Wiki) Being 50*mumble...mumble* years old, the Roy Rogers Show was on TV when I was real young. There was Roy Rogers, The King of the Cowboys, Dale Evans, his horse Trigger and his dog, Bullet, on Saturday morning TV along with Sky King and the Lone Ranger.
Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye, Nov. 11, 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio and the beginning of Roy’s career is what great stories are made of this is a quote from Wiki…“Leonard Slye moved to California at 18 to become a singer. After four years of little success, he formed Sons of the Pioneers, a western cowboy music group, in 1934. The group hit it big with songs like "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".
From his first film appearance in 1935, he worked steadily in western films, including a large supporting role as a singing cowboy while still billed as "Leonard Slye" in a Gene Autry movie. In 1938 when Autry temporarily walked out on his movie contract, Slye was immediately rechristened "Roy Rogers"[2] and assigned the lead in Under Western Stars. Rogers became a matinee idol and American legend. A competitor for Gene Autry as the nation's favorite singing cowboy was suddenly born.”
I am sure what we watched were reruns…but was I was real little. Mostly I remember the closing song to the show, “Happy Trails” which became the couple’s signature song.
No start to a car vacation was complete without a chorus of Happy Trails.
FYI: If like ‘cowboy music’ not to be confused with country music, here's is a link to Rider’s in the Sky singing Woody’s Roundup” from the movie Toy Story 2.

Enjoy and Happy Trails.

Come back and visit.

regina

Music Monday: Rosemary Clooney

Growing up my mom always made a point of telling us the famous people who started out or have ties to Cincinnati, Ohio. To me it seemed like every big star came from my hometown. My parents are from the WWII generation and big band was the sound. We heard the Andrew Sisters, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and the like long before we got to listen to anything we wanted. My mom made sure we knew about Rosemary Clooney, I think Rosemary was my mom's favorite. Rosemary is from Mayville, Ky, on the Ohio River. And yes her brother, Nick Clooney is George Clooney's father, making George Rosie's nephew. According to Rosemary Clooney own bio: The singer noted for her decades-long mastery of American popular song started life amid the poverty of small-town Maysville. Her childhood was a difficult one; Clooney and younger siblings Betty and Nick were shuttled among their alcoholic father, Andy, their mother, Frances—who traveled constantly for her work with a chain of dress shops—and relatives, who would take turns raising the children. When Clooney was 13 her mother moved to California to marry a sailor, taking Nick with her but leaving the girls behind. Her father tried to care for Rosemary and Betty, working steadily at a defense plant, but he left one night to celebrate the end of World War II—taking the household money with him—and never returned. As Clooney described in her autobiography, This for Remembrance, she and Betty were left to fend for themselves. They collected soda bottles and bought meals at school with the refund money. The phone had been disconnected, the utilities were about to be turned off, and the rent was overdue when Rosemary and Betty won an open singing audition at a Cincinnati radio station. The girls were so impressive, in fact, that they were hired for a regular late-night spot at $20 a week each. "The Clooney Sisters," as they became known, began their singing career in 1945 on WLW in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati connection WLW radio…1945, was a beginning of a long and illustrious career. Her first #1 recording "Come On-A My House" (psst.. this link will take you to a 1981 live recording of this song) was a silly song she really didn't want to do but Mitch Miller insisted so it is said. My sister and I grew up watching "White Christmas" every holiday season. We were not a "Wonderful Life" family. .Nope, musicals was first at our house. Her part in "White Christmas" was the first of many performances with Bing Crosby. But my favorite song from that movie is "Sisters", which my sister thinks we should learn and sing it someplace, probably in a car.

Side Bar: WLW TV and Radio WLWT was a pioneer in LIVE TV. Before there was Oprah, there was Ruth Lyons and her 50/50 Club, and The Paul Dixon Show. These shows we only got to watch when we were home sick from school. Ruth Lyon was certainly a very visible pioneer at WLW-TV and Radio.

Rosemary's music, Ruth Lyons's and her white gloves, Paul Dixon and his rubber chicken jokes in Cincinnati: priceless.

Music Monday

My two favorite things are art and music. For ‘Music Monday’ I thought I might explore the great music that comes from the Cincinnati area. A lot of different types of music found its start in Cincinnati. From soul to jazz to rock to classical there are many artists who have ties to Cincinnati area.

As we all head back to work after the 4th of July holiday, I think of all the fireworks and concerts I have watched on TV over the years. This year there was a special Cincinnati connection on the shows that were broadcasted. The conductors of all three orchestras featured on those shows have ties to the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

First: A Capital Fourth with National Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, conductor. Mr. Kunzel has been the conductor for A Capital Fourth since 1991. Mr. Kunzel was named Conductor of the Cincinnati Pops in 1977. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra performs at Riverbend Music Center in the summer months and historic Music Hall during the winter.

Second: The Boston Pops 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, conducted by Keith Lockhart. Keith Lockhart was an associate conductor herein Cincinnati before took over the Boston Pops. During his tenure here Cincinnati kindly referred to him as “Conductor Boy” because he looked so young and was studying under Maestro Erich Kunzel. Here we have another link to Cincinnati's rich musical history. But the best in Boston was the fireworks provide by the Famous Rozzi Family from Cincinnati. The Rozzi’s have been a fireworks icon in Cincinnati for four generations.

Third: Macy's 4th of July Fireworks featuring the legendary New York Pops under the direction of Steve Reineke provided the music. Mr. Reinke is also a current associate conductor for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under the Maestro Erich Kunzel.

This is just a short introduction to music in Cincinnati. I will try to fill ‘Music Monday’ with some of Cincinnati’s musical history.

Ode to a father...

Father’s Day 2009!
Street market Nogales, Mexico 9/2000

Dear Dad,
Well yet another year has come and gone. And I still have not been able to figured out how to give you a vacation somewhere, being summer and all. Well, travel just isn’t what it used to be.
The picture above is a glance at the market place in Nogales, Mexico in 2000.
Nogales was a day trip for Doug & I from Tucson. We saw houses hanging on the hillside and donkeys on the street. The market or shopping area was actually the bottom floor of a large building that took up a whole city block. The streets were blocked off on either side of the building. . It was an experience to say the least.

By the time I was old enough to remember car trip vacations, the travel entailed taking Rick or Carl back to base. These trips seemed like “Day” trips in my mind. I remember a couple a 3 day marathon trips to Paris Island, SC. Drive all night (I still have not figured out how you did that drive all night thing) drop Rick off and catch some sleep and be back for work on Monday. All I really remember was Paris Island was hot and sticky. The Spanish moss was fascinating. Wondering Spanish moss can grow without dirt! And sleeping in the back end of the station wagon while you drove. Rick & Jan’s wedding in Quantico I think was the one time we weren’t in a hurray to get him back to base. We just wanted to get there for the wedding and see the sword detail. And in the later years there were Kansas City trips in August, talk about hot!

Carl’s graduation from basic training I remember as being real cold for spring at the Great Lakes Navel Yard (Chicago I think). Carl returns usually involved only a trip to the Greater Cincinnati Airport in northern Kentucky. He always seemed to be stationed out on the west coast. That meant standing on the roof on the concourse, watch for him to walk to the plane and watching all the planes take off.

Well no one needs to go anywhere, now Rick & Jan have been coming here. He used to do that drive all night thing too! So did Marty, must be a Dad thing.

So instead of a vacation ticket, hope this helps you celebrate summer and Father’s Day.

Hug and kisses,
Gina