Uncle Warren's Attic #50

THE BIG 5-OH ... Oh boy ... 50 trips up to the Attic ... who woulda thunk. I'm rushing this up online and then taking off for a Saturday night date with Red — talk amongst yourselves and I'll be back with the show notes at a later date ...

UPDATE — OK, here we go. First, an authentic no-prize to the first person to name the five sources of the audio in my "explosive" introduction to the show. Hint: Four are movies.

As the show moves along, highlights include ads from Schaffer Beer, Doublemint gum, Mr. Clean and the new 1958 Edsel. The musical numbers:
+ Teddy Boy Stomp - The Buggs
+ I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the YMCA - Lambert Murphy with Orpheus Quartet
+ Who Could Be More Wonderful Than You - Aileen Stanley and Billy Murray
+ Always Love You - w.p. bluhm
+ Good Vibrations - James Gadson
+ Stardust on the Moon - Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra
+ We Go Well Together - Cab Calloway and his Orchestra

Thanks for coming along for 50 episodes, and hang in for the next round of 50! Oh yeah, and about that other project I mention in this show: Check this out.

Click the pod icon or download here — or just press play on the player.

Coming Around Again

I decided to do a small celebration of UWA hitting the big 5-0. These are teeny-tiny works of art, doncha know, and producing 50 works of art is kind of something, more or less, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm planning a new theme song, an explosive kickoff, and musical selections from many of the folks who have made the first 49 shows so memorable. Watch, er, listen for Uncle Warren's Attic #50 sometime over the next few days!

UW Attic 49: A Bit of a Hoedown

After a false start by The King, we pull a bushel of corn down from the Attic, including a couple of Animal Stories by Uncle Larry and Lil' Tom, and a movie ad from the legendary National Lampoon Radio Hour. Our musical selections (links to be added at a later date, sorry - UPDATE: Added 7:15 a.m. March 25):

+ Peter Cottontail - Mervyn Shiner
+ Roving Gambler - U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd
+ Another Brew Bartender - Whitey Knight
+ Wang Wang Blues - Elliot Everett and his Orchestra
+ Easy - Harry James
+ When You Come Back - Raymond Dixon and Orpheus Quartet
+ Dirty Water - The WhizBang Shufflers

Click the podcast icon, play the player, or simply download by clicking here.

Uncle Warren's Attic 48: Myke Phoenix Rising

He's ba-ack ... with a sneak preview of the new book The Adventures of Myke Phoenix, along with a smattering of other shtuff: "In Malibu" by Johnny Proctor ... and off the 78's, "Learn to Do the Strut," written by Irving Berlin and performed by The Georgians ... "A Little Bit of Heaven" by Charles Harrison ... "My Eyes (Get Me in Trouble)" by the inimitable Muddy Waters ... and the "William Tell Overture" by the even more inimitable Spike Jones and his Orchestra.

Click the "pod" graphic, download here, or press play on the player up there on the right.

Hiatus almost over

By now there's some fidgeting in the front rows as people figure out it's been more than a month since my little medical episode and still no sign of UWA 48. I went through my list of possible excuses and couldn't find one that would sound convincing.

It's funny, on New Year's Eve I set a modest goal of churning out a podcast every other weekend. That didn't seem so hard at the time. Still doesn't. I just have to sit down and do 'em. Maybe by setting a schedule, I doomed myself by making it seem like work or something. Whatever the reason, according to that schedule, Show #52 is coming up this weekend.

I keep doing things like write little posts about doing the show instead of actually doing the show. I don't know why I — oh, I'm writing a little post about doing the show, aren't I?

Hold that thought.

Video: Jay of Jay and the Americans: 'Cara Mia'

I saw Jay & the Americans somewhere around 1970 and remember being blown away by the live performance of "Cara Mia." That's not an easy song to sing! You can tell Jay Black was still blowing away audiences 30 or so years later when this recording was made ...

Video: Pre-Idol Brooke White

Guilty Pleasures: Red and I like to relax with American Idol, and this has been a pretty good season so far. (Holy moley, how 'bout that smokin' "She's A Woman" by Chikezie!)

One of the folks we're rooting for is the lovely Brooke White, who (like most people) had a life before we met her on TV ... This is a song for an independent CD she did in 2005 called "Songs From the Attic" (Hey, I do like this girl), which seems to be out of print now. I saw one copy online for $79 — OK, I don't like her that much ...

She's not getting old — she's getting better

Well, what's keeping me

So here I was, looking forward to doing a new UWA this weekend - the goal is to show up every couple of weeks now - and working along doing my thing, which got me home late Thursday night.

It seems I have a touch of stomach flu or something, and I didn't notice how queasy it was making me until I lost consciousness and landed with a thud on the bathroom floor. After a few minutes, I heard shouting in the distance, and as I became more aware again, I realized it was Red yelling at the 911 operator that launching the ambulance was more important than telling the operator what my birthday is. She's very practical that way. She had heard the crash, pushed her way into the bathroom and found me lying completely unresponsive with my head bent over the side of the tub. The poor thing thought I'd had a stroke, which runs in my family.

I'll spare you the gruesome details, but the bottom line seems to be that I had gotten myself dehydrated, and several hours and a couple of saline bags later, I came home for a long wintry weekend of convalescing. The experience has sapped some of my ambition for podcast-producing, so I hope you'll forgive a slight delay. Tank you berry much.

UW Attic 47: The Charlie Francis Story

Who is Charlie Francis? He had some surprisingly tasty tunes on a series of budget albums in the early to mid-1960s, and a search for Charlie resulted in a surprise I should've seen coming.

In this edition, we hear Charlie Francis sing "A New Love," "Mountain of a Man," "Just Tell Me When," "Believe in Me" and "Little Girl." If you haven't heard the show yet and want to be surprised with me, don't click on this, the link I refer to during the story.

Also, the megahit "I Got a Crush on Obama," thoughts on creativity by Dave Slusher of the Evil Genius Chronicles, and classic Robot Theater from the legendary Illinoise! podcast by Just Pete and NASA Janet.

Last but not least, an unabashed plug for The Imaginary Bomb by B.W. Richardson, edited and published by moi over at Lulu.com.

Click on the podcast icon or this link to download, or just press play over there on the right.

The Prodigal Podcaster Prepares for Return

OK, it's hard to get tanned and rested when you wake up Sunday morning and it's 13 below zero, but the vocal chords are rested, the cats have received enough attention, and I'm preparing for a return to the airwaves — err, to the podwaves — as February arrives.

In addition to playing with the kitten, I have been ramping up a venture that involves the ubiquitous Brian Wilson Richardson, whose novel The Imaginary Bomb was the subject of my first podcasting venture the summer before last. The I-Bomb is finally available in print form, and as editor and publisher I heartily recommend you consider parting with a modest amount of money so you can hold this little effort in your own hands. The goal is to publish four different books this year, and this is the first.

Watch for a resumption of podding behavior before the Super Bowl kicks off, alas without my beloved green-and-gold.

A break in the action

Cross-posted to Ikthuscast

For a variety of reasons, I'm temporarily suspending my podcast activities, but I assure you the passion remains and I don't intend for this to be a lengthy break. I apologize to anyone who looks forward to these little bursts of creativity.

In the meantime, enjoy the upcoming NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field. Go, Pack, Go!