Finally! Finally! At Last!! At Last!!

Tracks like "Kingpin" and "16 Golden Bits" are enough to qualify it as a classic, but "A Date With Danger" and the "Tonight Show" parody truly bring it over the top...

It's great to have this finally in high fidelity on compact disc instead of listening to my old vinyl recordings.

Highly recommended...

The Collection I Have Been Waiting For For Years

This is the Stan Freberg collection I have been waiting for as it does indeed collect not only the A-sides of virtually every Stan Freberg record as released but the B-sides as well!!!

Some of these have never been compiled on any album before. For instance, you probably have heard Freberg's version of "Ya Got Trouble" from "The Music Man", but have you heard his version of "Gary, Indiana"?

I say virtually because there is at least one single ("Comments For Our Time Parts 1 and 2") that still eludes compilations, but this is a minor complaint due to the excessive datedness of the track and the fact that it really isn't very funny anymore.

Buy this and Tip Of The Freberg (Includes Video) and be in Freberg heaven!!!

Jr’s Fun To Draw

Jerry Beck was gracious enough to post scans I made from a book called "Jr's Fun To Draw". Rather than re-type his entry, I will post a link to "Cartoon Brew" here:

Cartoon Brew

-Mark.

SNL Better Again

I posted this on Facebook, but it turned out well enough, I made it a blog entry.

I feel SNL is finally getting better again after being lousy for a number of years. SNL has always been kind of hit and miss with the better years being 1975-1980; 1982-1985; 1987-1992; 2004-present, and I've watched it since the beginning. I think they took more chances in the beginning especially with the musical guests where they could have a jazz artist or classical artist, where as now it's just the latest pop or rap act. The comedy writing and acting was more daring and sharp in the early days a lot of the time as well, and if a sketch didn't work, it didn't seem to go on for 20 minutes, except maybe Bill Murray as the lounge singer. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now when re-watching them recently on the full season DVDs.

I actually wish that the show wouldn't be live anymore. Since I live in California it's never live anyway. It could easily be "live on tape" or actually filmed so that there weren't any flubs and the sketches could be tighter since the writing and acting isn't as strong. Also, I think it's time Lorne Michaels be put out to pasture. SNL has gotten stale and stiff like he has. Watch the early shows and he seems to have an enthusiasm that is totally missing now. So what if he created the show...