jim henson

(This is a compiled repost of items culled from my soon-to-be-extinct subsidiary blog, 'Brief Window')

1. Normally I don't care for big lists, especially if they try to be 'definitive'.

I loved Tom Spurgeon's post yesterday at
The Comics Reporter:

'The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs'

- - Not just because it included a small link to a Pogo cover gallery I posted last year, and not just because I agreed with so many of the choices and smugly recognized so many things from my own collection.

(The collection that sits in storage while I do my current 'limbo shuffle'... sigh)

Even with inevitable omissions and the fun differences in opinion that such a list elicits, this is still a great list of great stuff.

It speaks to the warm & fuzzy joys of a lifetime spent reading funny books and the surprising breadth of territory that such a journey can cover.



















2. - The Record Cabinet
Cool Hunting reports on a new, mid-century styled record cabinet from Atocha Design.

(found via Monoscope)

"...the first offering from Jenn and Nick Atocha (the husband and wife team behind Atocha Design), is the happy result of two music fanatics needing a home for their newly combined vinyl collections. Unlike most LP storage systems, which store records sideways allowing you to only see the spine, the Record Cabinet allows you flip through your collection savoring the artwork in full frontal view. Jenn elaborates, 'The whole MP3, digital music world doesn't make sense to me. So many musicians are visual people and you really need the LP at a minimum to see their vision. So much is expressed in album cover art that becomes part of how you hear the music. Pick any Beatles record, or Bowie, or Bjork, or Beck, just to stick with the letter B, and imagine hearing it without the artwork. You can't!'"

"...Each piece is made to order and pricing is based on size, materials and design requirements. The option pictured has six LP drawers and four CD drawers and is priced at $12,500."

- - So, just the thing for storing all those cool Reader's Digest 'Easy Listening' records you found at the thrift store, yes - -?

3. Follow link to:'50 Inspiring Vintage Advertisements' at WellMedicated, the 'web design overdose' blog.

Just a quick note to mention a light sprinkling of new media that have been added to two previous posts;

Please revisit The Ruth Buzzi Shrine and 'In Praise of Michael J. Pollard' for a few more images and other stuff that wasn't there before.

(And don't miss the oh-so unexpected 'Michael J. Pollard For President').

Among producer Ethel Gabriel's many credits during her tenure at RCA Records was the creation of George Melachrino's
'Moods for Music' series of albums in the 1950's, which she followed up by masterminding the 'Living Strings' series of easy-listening LPs for RCA's 'budget' label, Camden.

The 'Living Strings' concept blossomed into several other instrumental series, including 'Living Guitars', which Gabriel put under the direction of prolific session guitarist Al Caiola, who was already working on a seemingly endless string of albums recorded under his own name at United Artists.

From the LP
'Teen Beat Discotheque'
(RCA-Camden Records, 1965),
listen to:

Living Guitars -
The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)


- Click here to see the LP liner notes in a new window.









See also:
- Al Caiola listed at Space Age Pop and atAll Music.Com

- As of this writing, the Living Guitars 1968 'San Franciscan Nights' LP is available for download via CUEBURN.

- Also as of this writing, 'Living Pizza', a Living Guitars, Living Brass, Living Strings, Voices, Organ, etc compilation is available for download via Licorice Pizza.

- Follow this link to hear the Living Guitars LP 'Flamingo' at Vinyl Lounge Hut.

- In a 2007 audio slideshow from the Pocono Record, record producer Ethel Gabriel reminisces about her long career with RCA Records.

- Click here for this entry and all the previous 'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.