Putzing around the Attic

Uncle Warren's Attic is a continual work in progress. I'm fiddling with some ideas on where to take the podcast next, and meanwhile I've decided to revert to the original purpose of this site, which was and is to supplement the podcast and talk about music and the other eclectic stuff that makes it onto the podcast.

Meanwhile, I've been posting my more philosophical or political thoughts over at a place I'm pretentiously calling WarrenBluhm.com. Check it out if you'd like a piece of my mind, or to share a piece of yours in the proverbial comment section.

UWA will be back soon!

Opening the book on a new year

Lyrics to a little ditty I wrote back in the day ...

Live Till You Die

Nobody said that it would be easy,
Everyone said it could not be done,
But nobody said it would not be worth it,
So go for it now — you've only just begun.

There's no shame in failing before the end comes.
While there's life, there is hope, there's a seed.
It's better to try, give it all that you have,
Than attempt to do nothing and succeed.

There's just too many people out there
Not caring if they live or die
There's just so much to find out there —
You can't laugh if you're afraid to cry.

So this is my plea: Live till you die.
There's no reason you should give up now.
Tomorrow's a blank page to write what you wish —
The rising sun will show you how.

Cross posted to WarrenBluhm.com

Uncle Warren's Attic 106: Ten Thousand Days

Here's the whole album and a soft sell. If you like a song or two, or the whole thing, you can buy it to download at www.wpbluhm.com. Merry Christmas! Click or right-click on the pod icon or right here to download/listen.

Merry Christmas

Uncle Warren's Attic 105: Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas and God bless us, every one! Listen/download this festive episode by clicking on the pod icon or right here.

Links to stuff that you'll find while listening ...
"Hooray for Santa Claus" from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
"The Lord's Bright Blessing" from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol
"Chiron Beta Prime" by Jonathan Coulton
"Stuck in the Smoke Hole of our Tipi" by Grandfather Old Hands
"Allons, gay, gay Bergeres" and "Joy to the World" by Robert Shaw Chorale
Scrooge by Jim Dale
"O Come All Ye Faithful" by Pomplamoose and Wade Johnston

Last but not least, I promised the video to "Stuck in the Smoke Hole of our Tipi" - see below.

Have a great Christmas - keep subscribing and see you in a few days!

Uncle Warren's Attic 104: Cat Man/All That's Left You

More from Refuse to be Afraid, two more songs from Ten Thousand Days, and a small handful of other aural delights await if you'll click on the "pod" icon or click here.

This week's chapter is "What this book is, and is not."

This book does not contain a system, merely an exhortation.
I believe that every human being is an individual, and it is dangerous to group individuals into a collective or make generalizations based on apparent similarities between individuals.
We are snowflakes, not assembly-line products. No two snowflakes are alike, they say, and assembly lines were invented in order to churn out items that are identical in every possible way. Keep in mind, though, that even two products that come off an assembly line are not exactly alike.
What works for me in overcoming fear may not work for you.

To buy a hard copy or download the book, click here.

And two songs from Ten Thousand Days this week, in part because "Cat Man" is a mere 61 seconds long. "All That's Left You (The Judy Garland Song)" also included. If you like that tune or think it's time to buy this whole groundbreaking album, click here.

Other goodies this Tuesday morning:
"Sufficiently Breathless" - Captain Beyond
"Just Always" - Glass Harp
"Penitentiary Blues" - Charlie Monroe
And vintage ads for Mountain Dew and K-TEL! Also, Sha Na Na exhorts listeners to not do drugs. All told, it's another lovely and entertaining podcast. Here's another chance to hear/download it: Click here.

UW Attic 103: I Picked You

Another tune from my homemade album Ten Thousand Days, another chapter from my book Refuse to be Afraid, and contributions from Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp, John Sebastian, Nancy Sinatra and Rocky Votolato.

Click on the Pod icon or this link here to download and/or hear the show!

The lineup:
Theme: Not to Return - Randy Bachman
I Picked You - w.p. bluhm
(Vintage Shaeffer Pens commercial)
Well, Well, Well - Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp
Well, Well, Well - John Sebastian
(Nancy Sinatra for Coca-Cola)
Refuse to be Afraid: "It Starts When You're Always Afraid"
White Daisy Passing - Rocky Votolato

UW Attic 102: A Little Thing We Used to Call Freedom

A little tune that could have been ripped from today's headlines is the second song in my album Ten Thousand Days. "There's just this little thing we used to call trust ... you can't treat everyone as if they're a crook ... It seems every day we're told to give a little bit more, and liberty's the biggest thing that they took ..."

Buy Ten Thousand Days or "A Little Thing We Used to Call Freedom" here ... and you can find the book Refuse to be Afraid here.

For the free podcast, click on the "Pod" icon or right here for Uncle Warren's Attic #102.

Featured in this show:
Theme - "Not to Return" - Randy Bachman
"A Little Thing We Used to Call Freedom" - w.p. bluhm
(Vintage McDonald's ad)
"Are My Ears On Straight" - Gayla Peevey
Mystery tune - "Sometimes (When I'm Alone)"
(Vintage Pepsi ad)
"The Cliff" and "The Symptoms" from Refuse to be Afraid
"Shenandoah" - Jennifer Avalon

UW Attic 101: Back Where I Belong

Introducing "Back Where I Belong" from my new music project Ten Thousand Days and beginning a reading of my book Refuse to be Afraid. This begins a 10-week (ish) series that will feature a song from the album and an excerpt of the book. You can collect all 10 podcasts to get the picture slowly but surely, or you can go to my bookstore or CD Baby or iTunes to buy and/or download the book and album in their entirety today.

Here's your handy guide to today's episode:
Intro/Not to Return - Randy Bachman
Back Where I Belong - w.p. bluhm
(Robert Palmer concert ad)
Buy For Me The Rain - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Cheese Curds, Booyah and Beer - Fred Alley
(Roy Orbison for Coca-Cola)
Refuse to be Afraid - Introduction - Warren Bluhm
The Banana Boat Song - The Tarriers

Click on the Pod icon or here to listen/download UW Attic 101 - Here are your links to the album and the book. Have fun!!!

Ten Thousand Days preview: You Can't Be Trusted

Hi folks! Happy Election Day. Here's a tune for the day from my upcoming album Ten Thousand Days, releasing Nov. 9. Also watch for Uncle Warren's Attic #101. Click on the pod icon or right here to listen!

A conversation about fear, friendship and fun - oh, and the book too

Wally Conger and I chat about Refuse to be Afraid and ... well, I'll let Wally explain here.

Oh, and during the conversation, I mention putting up a way to e-mail me. There!

'Mr. Worf, Fire!' and other great cliffhangers

A recent discussion of The Amazing Spider-Man #33 got me thinking about great cliffhangers.

Wally Conger reminded his readers that this month is the 45th anniversary of the great three-part webslinger story about a mysterious villain named the Master Planner and his gang trying to take over New York.

Issue #32 ended with the Master Planner being revealed as none other than Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus, who during the inevitable slugfest drops an enormous piece of machinery on the webbed one’s back, pinning him to the floor helpless.

Oh, did I mention the room under the Hudson River is about to collapse? He’ll probably drown when it does.

Oh, did I mention Aunt May is dying and the serum that could save her life is on the floor just out of Spider-Man’s reach, losing its potency minute by minute?

Wally wrote about how the opening pages of the next issue are probably the most inspirational moments in comic-book history, and they are. Spidey has no choice but to dig deep and find the strength to push the weight off his shoulders, save himself and rescue Aunt May, and he - just - keeps pushing - until - he - DOES IT!

I still get goosebumps.

But step back a month. One reason the opening pages of Issue #33 work so well is that creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did such a masterful job of building the suspense, and then cut the story off at the end of #32 just as we readers were the most involved.

They had spent nearly three years making us care about the characters, and most of two issues putting first Aunt May, then Spider-Man and of course the city of New York in jeopardy. I couldn’t wait to grab #33 off the newsstand and see how it ended — and the payoff was simply awesome.
I’m sure there are more, but I could only think of two other cliffhangers that made me sweat that much.

“Mr. Worf, fire!” The third-season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of that series’ finest moments. A new character arrives — ambitious Commander Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy) who wants Will Riker’s job, the Enterprise’s first officer having been offered a captainship of his own. But Riker’s not sure he wants to leave the side of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard just yet.

Then Picard is captured and assimilated by the Borg, the half-human, half-machine collective that cannot (as far as anyone knows) be stopped. With his half-mechanized captain staring at him through the view screen and demanding his surrender. Instead, having modified the Enterprise’s technology to create a powerful makeshift weapon, Riker orders the crew to fire on the Borg and his beloved captain.

The screen fades to the words “To Be Continued.” Are you kidding me! I can’t recall ever looking forward to a television season premiere as much as I did for “Best of Both Worlds, Part II.”

“Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy.”  At the end of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers, Samwise Gamgee discovers that his friend Frodo Baggins was not actually killed by the giant spider Shelob but is indeed a captive of the evil orcs.

The book, second in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was published in November 1954, and 11 months would pass before publication of the third installment, Return of the King.

I had the luxury, as a geeky teenager about 15 years later, of shrieking in panic at 2 a.m. and grabbing immediately for the third book. I can’t fathom what the wait until October 1955 was like for the original Tolkien fanatics.

What these legendary cliffhangers had in common was the care that the writers took to invest us in the characters. By the time they reached the edge of the cliff, we loved Spider-Man and Aunt May; we loved Riker and Picard; and we loved Frodo and Sam. We wanted them to overcome, and we cared about how they would do so.

And in these three examples, the payoff also is memorable. Many’s the cliffhanger that promises a terrific escape and conclusion but falls short. What makes these stories legendary is the delightfully excruciating buildup, the promise of something terrific and, in the final chapter, a climax even more terrific than we expected.

Deliver even more than you promise — always a good policy in any business, and especially so in good writing.