Happy Holidays! Season's Greetings! etc.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I did. Got a bunch of great gifts and had a swell Christmas dinner with the family.

Sorry about the lack of posts. I'm still unpacking boxes and working a lot of OT. Hopefully after we get settled into the new house, I'll be posting more on a regular basis.

Happy New Year!

Christmas With Garth

This is a compilation of all of the Christmas songs by Garth Brooks that have appeared on various Billboard music charts. The list of songs come from the book Christmas in the Charts 1920-2004. If you want to know about any holiday song or artist that has ever appeared on a Billboard chart, this is the book for you. Last year I made a Bing Crosby compilation. You can still download it here.

Track Listing

1. The Old Man's Back In Town
2. Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
3. White Christmas
4. Belleau Wood
5. Go Tell It On The Mountain
6. Sleigh Ride
7. Baby Jesus Is Born
8. It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year
9. (There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays
10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
11. Call Me Claus
12. 'Zat You, Santa Claus?

Click The link below to download --

--> Christmas With Garth Brooks <--

A Merry Geoffrey Christmas

I got an early Christmas present from my wife. It's a Crosley Radio CR6001A Archiver USB Turntable. I can now rip old records to my computer and share them at my blog. Hurray! Here's my first share --

This is an album from 1975 called A Merry Geoffrey Christmas (WLP-302, Wonderland Records). It features four stories starring Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey Giraffe & his family.

I cleaned it up a little, but you can still here some "pops and clicks". Hopefully I'll get better at this as time goes on. Since I don't have a record size scanner, I had to scan the album cover in four parts and then piece it together. Unfortunately some of the scans came out darker than others and you can see where they connect :(

From the back of the album --

MEET GEOFFREY GIRAFFE & FAMILY

Geoffrey is an amateur inventor who works in a toy shop; he is a loving father and husband. Baby Gee, cute and perky, is always around to cheer daddy on. Gigi, a good wife and mother, is always there when needed. And, oh boy! is she ever needed by her adventurous family.

Geoffrey and his family live in a charming old lighthouse with ceilings just the right height for giraffes.

Side 1
1. Geoffrey's Christmas Tree
2. Geoffrey and His Christmas Snow Machine

Side 2
1. Geoffrey's Christmas Dream
2. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (According to Geoffrey)

Script and Lyrics by: Sid Wayne
Music and Production by: Ralph Stein
With the Jeff Wayne Orchestra & Chorus

Featuring:
Tom Cipolla as Geoffrey
Laine Roberts as Gigi
Pat Lordier as Baby Gee
Jim Dukas as Snowkenstein and others
Sid (Thumbs) Wayne as Santa Claus and others
Associate Producer: Sy Ziv

GEOFFREY'S CHRISTMAS TREE, will let you share in the trials and tribulations of how "not" to get something for nothing.
There's thrills and chills (no pun intended) galore as GEOFFREY AND HIS SNOW MACHINE, crank out "Snowkenstein", the snow monster.
GEOFFREY'S CHRISTMAS DREAM, takes you on an exciting trip into outer space as Geoffrey the Astronaut blasts off to save Santa Claus and Christmas from being lost to the world forever.
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (According to Geoffrey), will charm and delight the listener with it's un-orthodox use of sound effects.

With the brilliant production and music of composer Ralph Stein to compliment the songs, and the professionalism of the first rate cast of characters, we honestly feel A MERRY GEOFFREY CHRISTMAS will be among your collector's items for your children's children to hear and enjoy.

Sid Wayne...who is one of America's top songwriters (having written everything from Elvis Presley to IT'S IMPOSSIBLE for Perry Como) adds a new dimension to his long list of credits with the writing of the script and lyrics for this long to be treasured and played throughout the year production of A MERRY GEOFFREY CHRISTMAS. A father of 2 girls and a boy himself, Sid knows how a parent's patience can be tried hearing the same innocuous stories and songs played over and over again. He feels Kids today, (of all ages) are too sophisticated to sit still for the "namby-pamby" records of years gone by..and we heartily agree.

Click the link below to download (link updated 7-7-12) --

--> A Merry Geoffrey Christmas <--

An Enterprising Christmas

Here's a Star Trek Christmas poem from the January 1982 issue of STARLOG --

(click on picture to enlarge)

Turkey Stuffing Mix Re-Up

I had a request to re-up my Turkey Stuffing Mix from 2007.

Track Listing

1. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving - George Winston
2. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dialog 1
3. Beware Of Geese? - Bill Cullen
4. Prayer For Thanksgiving (Valerius) - Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops
5. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dialog 2
6. It Should Really Be Called Goose Day - Bill Cullen
7. Thanksgiving At My House - Pat Godwin
8. Turkey Gobble 1
9. National Bird? Why Not The Goose? - Bill Cullen
10. Thanksgiving Canon - Girl Scouts
11. Thanksgiving Day - John McCutcheon
12. Thanksgiving Day - Bob Hope
13. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dialog 3
14. What's Really Traditional? You'd Be Surprised - Bill Cullen
15. Thanksgiving Day Parade - Spencer Ross
16. The Thanksgiving Song - Adam Sandler
17. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dialog 4
18. Turkey Dinner - Ruth Roberts
19. WKRP Turkey Drop 1
20. WKRP Turkey Drop 2
21. Turkey Gobble 2
22. Woman's Work and What a Job They Did - Bill Cullen
23. Turkey In The Straw - Erich Kunzel & The Cincinnati Pops Orch.
24. A Goose For My Girl - Benny Bell

Click the link below to download --

--> Turkey Stuffing Mix <--

Turkey Day Is Almost Here

Taking a little time out from moving to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

What would Thanksgiving be without the Macy's Parade --

I'm Moving On Up...

I'm not moving to the East side or to a deluxe apartment. I'm moving to a bigger house. Started about a week and a half ago and the big move will be the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's been a pain in the arse trying to pack up all of my junk collectibles. Once we're done moving, it will be wonderful. The house is much bigger and my wife is letting me have my own toy room. :) The attic is split into two rooms and they are mine, ALL MINE!!! Well, mostly mine. I'll have to use part of one room for storage.

I'm gonna try to post the TV Theme Song compilation and maybe something for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

Gotta get back to packing boxes. See ya in the funny papers!

Sesame Street 40th Anniversary

Tomorrow (Nov. 10) is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. Here's a pretty good article about it from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette --

Tomorrow will mark 40 years of "sunny days" and "everything's A-OKs" on PBS's venerable "Sesame Street," the children's show that introduced the world to Big Bird and unleashed the fuzzy red Elmo.

There's no mention of the occasion in tomorrow's season premiere, but it is recognized in a new coffee-table book, "Sesame Street: A Celebration -- 40 Years of Life on the Street" ($40, Black Dog & Leventhal), written by Louise Gikow.

"They completely raised the bar for children's television. They brought education into TV in a way that was not only palatable but extremely attractive for kids," said Gikow, who has done freelance projects for Sesame Workshop, the production company that makes the series. "I don't think 'Blues Clues' or 'Dora the Explorer' or a ton of PBS shows would have happened if it weren't for 'Sesame Street.' "

Creator Joan Ganz Cooney brought her experience producing documentaries about urban literacy initiatives to the project that would become "Sesame Street." She melded a comedic sensibility inspired by "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" with an educational curriculum. To make it palatable to parents, "Sesame Street" includes parodies of current pop culture, including a "Mad Men" spoof (about emotions) for the show's new season.

" 'Sesame Street' has always been written on two levels," said Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, executive vice president of education and research for Sesame Workshop. "The children don't understand these parodies, but the adult does."

The series also made a point of showing the diversity of the human characters in its inner-city setting.

"A lot of people didn't take that seriously as an appealing factor back in '69," said Sharon Ross, assistant chair of the TV department at Columbia College in Chicago. " 'Sesame Street' showed that diversity could be done on TV without alienating viewers and suggested to other children's programs that they really needed to go there."

The show has inspired a new DVD retrospective, "Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days" ($29.93), on sale tomorrow. It features many of the show's celebrity guests (Tony Bennett, Robert De Niro, Alicia Keys, Lena Horne, Mister Rogers) in more than six hours of iconic scenes from the show, including Ernie singing "Rubber Duckie," Elmo's first episode and the death of Mr. Hooper.

"That was the moment when 'Sesame Street' became an iconic show," Ross said. "That choice to fully address [Mr. Hooper's death] and not pretend he moved or infantalize it in any way, it was a bold choice."

Gikow agreed and said she discovered in her research how important the Sesame Workshop education department was in the way the show addressed death.

"Some of the things you would think to say turn out to be terrible to say. It might occur to me to say to a child, 'Sweetie, he was sick and doing very badly, and he passed away.' But if you say that, the next time the child gets a cold you might have a paranoid child on your hands who [thinks his sickness might lead to death]. It isn't something that would occur to you off the bat, and without that information you could traumatize a whole generation of children."

Not that the show is perfect. It's willing to admit its mistakes and make changes. A 2006 DVD release, "Sesame Street: Old School," was designed for adults and came with a disclaimer that it "may not meet the needs of today's pre-school child," perhaps due to scenes from early in the show of children playing in a junkyard. Truglio acknowledged safety is an issue.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you want to listen to some classic Sesame Street songs, check out my post from September 2008. It features a compilation of 36 tracks that you can download.


For the past week Google has had a different Sesame Street character featured in their logo. Here they are so far. Who will be the last one tomorrow?

The Micronauts Return!

Some big news today about the return of the Micronauts.

From Toy News International --

During Hasbro's 2009 Fall Investor Day Event held today at their headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, they announced the re-introduction of the classic toy line Micronauts originally created by Japan company Takara in 1974 under the name Microman and later launched in the United States in 1976 and backed by a Marvel Comics comic book series in 1979. As many know, Takara is the same company that originally invented the Transformers line and continues to work with Hasbro today. No specifics were given by Hasbro's Brian Chapman (VP if Hasbro's Global Designs) about what we can expect from the Micronauts brand other than that we can expect Hasbro to revise, reinvent and re-ignite the brand so it is exciting for fans old and new alike. There also was some indication that a television series and/or major motion picture could be in the works for this brand.

From SuperHeroHype --

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, "Lost," "Alias") is in talks to produce a movie about the Japanese interchangeable toys Micronauts, which Hasbro just acquired.

First released in Japan in 1974 (under the name Microman), the toys were imported to the U.S. by the Mego Corporation in 1976. The line consisted of 3.75-inch tall toys which used a universal, five millimeter inter-connective design. Mego cancelled the Micronauts line in 1980. In 2002, Palisades Toys bought the rights to reproduce Micronauts.

The Micronauts comic books were published by Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and Devil's Due Publishing. Their first comic appearance was in "Micronauts #1" (Marvel, Jan. 1979) with characterizations created by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden.

Abrams tells the newspaper that those who doubt whether a board game or science-fiction toy should be accorded star status will be proved wrong.

"Sometimes, when someone is not a celebrity and you are casting them in a role, everyone who is in a seat of authority voices questions about that actor's talent, sex appeal, looks, ability -- their everything," he says. "But then they get the role, and suddenly they are on the cover of every magazine, and nobody questions those things again. In retrospect, everyone says, 'Of course that person is a star.'"

The Micronauts are one of my all-time favorite toy lines. I still have them all, including all of the aliens with glow-in-the-dark brains, Force Commander, Hornetroid, Terraphant and lots more. Sadly, I never had Baron Karza. The Marvel Comics series was also one of my favorites. Since Hasbro now has both the Micronauts and Marvel licenses, it would be cool if they released figures of Commander Rann, Mari and Bug.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Well, here it is, the most wonderful time of the year! I can't believe I made it. A post every day in October. They may not have all been great posts, but there was one every day. Thank you to everybody who stopped by this year. I really appreciate it. I hope you found something entertaining or at least mildly amusing.

My only plan for tonight is to hand out candy to the kids trick or treating.

I'll probably take a week or two off from blogging (unless somebody famous dies). I might spend the time looking at all of the Halloween blogs I missed during the month. Hopefully when I come back I'll have the Favorite TV Theme Song compilation ready. Check out that post and leave a comment on your favorite themes.

And now I leave you with some photos from WTF Costumes --

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!