Oh that was exquisite! Thanks for introducing me to Ms. Janowitz. Can't believe that I didn't know about her until now. Such a beautiful, clear tone. Will definitely check out more of her songs.

Last night I was watching a special on Shakespeare, showing scenes from various plays.
Among the scenes shown was the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet. They performed the Prokofiev's ballet.
Hadn't seen that in a while - so beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a04IcHI1fFQ

Spoke to my next door neighbor and told him to let me know if they would like some chives and/or lemongrass - I've got lots of both.
He asked if I'd like some carrots and I said "sure". Went into his backyard and he pulled out some nice looking carrots. Then he asked if I wanted cauliflower and gave me a nice sized one.

Decided to make cauliflower soup. Sautéed onions, garlic, celery and the carrots. Then added the cauliflower with broth, parsley, tarragon, Basil, salt and pepper. Simmered that for 30 minutes. In another pan mixed butter with flour, then added milk and cream. Cooked that for a while then added it to the soup. After cooking for some more time turned off stove and stirred some sour cream in.
The soup was served with some nice, warm country bread I got at the store. It came out very well.
Put a good part of it in a container to bring to my neighbor and family.

Obviously I disapprove of all rubbish thus deposited. But the name Energy Drinks is ironic, don't you think? I think so anyway.

Reminds me of a student where I used to work - told everybody that he was going to our gym to work out. Yet he took the elevator (lift) instead of walking up two floors to get there. We razzed him.

Down here, a big problem is people in cars stopping for a red light, opening their windows, and throwing trash out, instead of keeping it until they get to where they are going and throwing it in the can. I used to blow my horn when they did this but am afraid to anymore - road rage is bad here.

Oh I'd love to have some chili and what you are making sounds so delicious.
However it's still not chili eating weather here. The temperature will get up to around 25 degrees C (77 F) today.  Ridiculous.

We're planning for New Year's dinner now. Looks like we'll have pork loin, cornbread (if I can get my cast iron skillet back from a friend who borrowed it). And the crazy tradition that we MUST have black eyed peas and cabbage.

Have a craving for a Rueben sandwich, having seen it being mentioned on a cooking show earlier today. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately - that cooking show said a Rueben has around 1000 calories) they are not easy to find here

And may you all have a wonderfully Merry Christmas as well!
 

With The Association, 2 songs really stand out for me.

One is  "Like Always".  Nice retro feel, amazing harmonies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI2pDpEZCzQ

The other is much more pensive - maybe listen later on, after Christmas.  "Requiem for the Masses." Note - I remember seeing this performance when it first aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour way back then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy9FtCnAF78

Oh, Along Comes Mary!
Remember hearing it as a 9 year old, wondering "what were they singing"? And had to assume that it was about drugs.
I liked the song anyway.

As I posted earlier, my favorite song of 1966 was GOK. In 1967 it was "Pretty Ballerina" by the Left Banke. Can't remember what my favorite was for 1968 - that was a WEIRD, HORRIBLE year.

Here's my favorite song of 1969. Being a fan of this song branded me as my school's official Oddball.
Still love it today - A Salty Dog by Procol Harum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOj3kJKy-_U

Have heard them on the Garage channel a few times - songs such as Do It Again and Hang on to Your Ego.

On the 60s channel it's primarily the hits but will hear other songs on occasion such as Friends, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Girl Don't Tell Me

If I Fell

I also don't like car movies.
I do like a "bike" movie, however - Breaking Away

Was unimpressed by The English Patient.
And as much as I love the music, I usually fall asleep about midway through Dr. Zhivago.

Did you ever see the Thelma Todd & Patsy Kelly shorts? They're very funny. Here is "Beauty & the Bus" Pt. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8A4O2aiqfw
Pt. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6DeZrOHVU

Was able to watch this. It was one of those funny screwball Hal Roach comedy shorts.
I wish short films (15-20 minutes) were made more often, and that they would play before the main feature.

The only thing tempering the funniness is that the film depicts "road rage." Down here we've had 2 high profile road rage incidents this year where the victims were local celebrities (former professional football players) who ended up shot to death. One of the trials ended last night.
Oh, for the good old days when arguments would end with one person giving the other a "knuckle sandwich" (punching a person in the jaw). Nowadays in this country the arguments end with gunfire.

And I Love Her

Smile was in the movie "Modern Times"

And a later Chaplin film, "Limelight" has a theme song that became quite popular

This is the "roll dance" from The Gold Rush. At the end you can hear the "Georgia" theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DLdMa98JdM

I checked some of the titles - can you say where Chaplin is eating his shoes & pretending shoelace is macaroni? It was popular during USSR, for some reason.

Did you ever see the Thelma Todd & Patsy Kelly shorts? They're very funny. Here is "Beauty & the Bus" Pt. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8A4O2aiqfw
Pt. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6DeZrOHVU

The movie that Chaplin eats his shoe and shoelaces is The Gold Rush. They were made of licorice, and since Chaplin, like our Brian, had to do many takes, Chaplin and the other guy became ill.
There are many versions of the movie, including one where Chaplin gives the narration (and the ending is different). The reason for so many versions is that for some reason Chaplin failed to renew the copyright so it's now in Public Domain.
The better versions have orchestral accompaniment which includes a song Chaplin composed for the leading lady - it's now known as "Georgia"

Haven't seen Thelma Todd or Patsy Kelly. Will watch out for them on our TCM network, which often shows silent films late at night.

Let me chime in while waiting the last few minutes that my casserole is in the oven.

Love silent movies. Was introduced to them while at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the early 80s, They had a year long series showing classics featuring Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Lillian Gish.

My favorite silents: Chaplin's The Immigrant, Easy Street, Shoulder Arms, The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights.
Keaton - The General, Sherlock Jr.
Lloyd- The Freshman, Safety Last.

Saw Battleship Potemkin as a kid. Only remember one scene - guys looking into a bowl of soup and seeing some extra protein that shouldn't have been there, ewww.
It came on TV recently and I taped it. Plan to watch it when I don't have an upset stomach. :-)

Cartoons - am still a fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Also the Chuck Jones cartoons such as The Rabbit of Seville, Rabbit Seasoning, One Froggy Evening, and Feed the Kitty (only cartoon that made me cry)

Biopics: Coal Miner's Daughter; Pride of the Yankees

Okay got to tend to the casserole, and watch some old episodes of The Great British Baking Show (so much better than those horrid Gordon Ramsay programs)

Mari, that was great foresight on your part to "rescue" the records.
It's incredible what is thrown out. At a nearby church, the former organist left a large amount of sheet music, choral music, hymnals etc. the church, not having room, was going to throw it all out! My sister found out about it and was able to retrieve some items.

I grew up on Louis Prima, and Sam Butera played down here for many years.
My favorites are Oh Marie and Jump/Jive.

Was feeling a little low this morning and listened to an album- Louis Prima: The Wildest. Put a smile on my face.

Today is the fourth anniversary of Dave Brubeck's death, which occurred one day before his 92nd birthday.
He was a class act, a True Gentleman, who "walked the talk."

I've been listening to his music this afternoon.
Here's one of my favorites - his The Duke. This is a solo version, I believe recorded in his home back in the 50s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKhAskMKRs

Geez Loueez RRA1, please lighten up ! This is just supposed to be a fun game, but you're acting like the fate of the world depends on which song gets eliminated.

You Can't do That

Loved him in all the episodes, particularly "Basil the Rat".
I have that downloaded and will watch it now.

This concerns movie remakes.
As I posted earlier, one of the TV networks showed numerous Hitchcock movies a few days ago. One of those was The Man Who Knew Too Much. What was screened was the original 1930s version which I hadn't seen before - I had seen the 1950s version ( which featured the song Que Sera Sera).

Very interesting difference in plot between the two movies. In the earlier movie, the woman lead played a vital role at the end, doing something that I certainly couldn't see Doris Day doing!
Am wondering if it indicates the different ways women were perceived in the 30s as opposed to the 50s.
This had been pointed out in an article about the Nancy Drew books which became popular back in the 30s. A lot of the books were changed in the 50s. For example, in one of the books the car Nancy is in gets a flat tire. She changes the tire. In the updated version the women wait for a man to do the work.

I'm not a radical but thought it interesting. I highly recommend the early version if you haven't seen it yet. And it features Peter Lorre who's wonderfully evil as usual.

You Can't Do That.
Don't care for the cowbell which gets annoying after a while.
Also not one of John's finest moments lyrics-wise.

NOLA, this is for you!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4QDaki3oSE

Great song. But those lyrics - "she's a working girl"...   

Chiffons (which song, ofc, I don't like, being non-fan of girl groups, find them lame).

Guess it's a generational thing. I grew up listening to lots of girl groups and still love to sing along with them.

HOWEVER...
Thinking about it, for some reason the girl groups in the 60s aren't as adventurous harmonically as, say, the BBs or the Four Seasons.
Not that we can't have wonderful harmonies - listen to the Andrews Sisters (Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, or Bei Mir Bist du Schon) or, better yet, the Boswell Sisters (Crazy People, Roll on Mississippi).

That's okay. I have so many other Agatha Christie stories to read, and my old brain isn't what it used to be, so I'll probably forget by the time I get to this story.