jim henson

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Wow! - - It's 'The Complete Stereo Sound Center for your car, boat or home'!

Check the handy and oh-so-modern innovations that include separate cartridge/modules for AM and FM radio, and how timely was the naming of the 'Gidget'
4-track tape adapter?

I'd never heard of that one...

...but of course there's a special section for
4-track history and their accompanying gizmos at the lovingly detailed 8-track Heaven.

- Please also follow this link to a
previously posted 1966 Lear Jet Stereo 8 advertisement for some additonal background on the
mid-'60's mainstream introduction of the 8-track format to American consumers!

- - Much Kudos, even!

I'm very pleased and honored to announce that I awoke this morning to the discovery that 'I'm Learning To Share' has just received an Arte Y Pico Award.

I received an announcement from Preston of the
Me and the Blue Skies blog;

"I've awarded you the Arte Y Pico Award because yours is THE coolest blog ever."

Many thanks, Preston. You'll make me blush.

Crafting this blog has been a great pleasure from the beginning, and it's been hugely gratifying to know that the stuff I think is cool enough to share with others has been so well received.
Onward and upward!

And so onto the fine print, and a further opportunity to share...

Here are the rules for the Arte Y Pico Award:
1) You must choose up to 5 blogs that you consider to be deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and for their contribution to the blogging community.

2) Each award granted must include the name of the awarded blog's author and provide a link to his/her blog so it may be visited by all.

3) Each award winner must exhibit the award, and provide the name of the person who presented her/him with the award, along with a link to that person's blog.

4) Both the award winner and the one who has given the award must show a link to
the “Arte y Pico” blog so that everyone will know it's origin.

5) You must also show these rules.

- A note from the Arte y Pico blog, perhaps poorly translated from Spanish, regarding the meaning of 'Arte y Pico':

"...basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'the maximum.'
"It will never find its exact counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like "Wow. The Best Art. Over the top."

With that in mind comes the very difficult task of picking 5 worthy bloggers out of so very many regular favorites on a long and non-definitive list...

1. Fabulon.
Among the many delights of Thombeau's blog for me personally is that although a fair portion of his Grandly Glamourous and Divinely Decadent content is not strictly my cup of exquisitely-flavored tea, the beautiful presentation and joy that it conveys never fail to draw me in.


2. Bedazzled!
Videos, music, some similar sensibilities, and my introduction to the amazing world of Scopitones! Spike Priggen's essential site provided much inspiration for me to begin sharing what I love, and what's not to love about that?

3. Dark Roasted Blend.
Avi Abrams and crew have created a site full of 'weird and wonderful things' from the world over. The perfect place to visit if you've got just a minute on your coffee break for quick shots of intriguing sights and information - - but be prepared to still be chasing down more after your mug's gone cold and you're now running desperately late...

4. Martin Klasch.
Image! Color! Line! Design! Art! Inspiration! P-E Fronning's crisply visual blog sends sparks through my retinas and fires the imagination. An ongoing eclectic gallery of stuff that has COOL in common.

5. If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.
Speaking of cool, there's a whole lot of it here. Tom Sutpen and the other curators serve up a visual feast with results that delight in a similar fashion to that Martin Klasch blog, but using primarily photographs of notable personalities past and present. Truly stunning - - and how can you not love a blog that worships Joan Blondell?

This recording joins a long line of 'highway tragedy' songs, and stands up well alongside other pop songs of the early '60's that were also part of that fine tradition.

Vocal trio The Playmates broke up the same year it was released, which was almost five years after their novelty B-side 'Beep Beep'
(a much happier driving song) became their biggest charting hit.

Chic Hetti, Donny Conn and Morey Carr met while attending the University of Connecticut in the early 1950's, and began performing a comedy act as The Nitwits while still enrolled.

They began touring around the US and Canada in 1952, developing eventually into a musical group and changing their name to The Playmates.

They signed to Roulette Records in 1957, performing light-hearted rock & roll.
The surprise 1958 success of 'Beep Beep' ensured that novelty numbers and comedic patter would remain a part of their act.

The Playmates released several singles and four LPs on the Roulette label before moving onto other labels and eventually disbanding.

With their roots in the Eisenhower era, the overall sound and subject matter of their repertoire was likely a bit too corny and 'innocent' for the '60's British Invasion and beyond.

Listen to:
The Playmates -
The Guy Behind The Wheel
(ABC-Paramount Records 45, 1964)
(click for audio)




See also:
- As an extra bit of Playmates trivia, there's a 'soundtrack' video of the British-released version of 'Beep Beep' posted at YouTube.

The BBC's rules didn't allow brand names to be mentioned in songs they broadcast, so for European release The Playmates re-recorded the song, changing lyrics referring to Cadillacs and 'Little Nash Ramblers'.

Follow links to...
'Beep Beep' - The UK version

'Beep Beep' - original US version


(Ongoing THANKS to Joe Sixpack for yet another generous loan from the Slipcue 45 collection)