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As Illya Kuryakin, the baby sister

I was the debonair Solo, while Marcia emulated the clever Kuryakin.

As I perused the pictures my baby sister Marcia sent me this spring via Facebook, I noted only one of just her and me. That’s not that surprising; I have not a lot of memories of things she and I did alone together. There were many things the THREE of us did together: Leslie, 16 months younger, and Marcia, five years my junior. Also, Leslie and I sang together, and Leslie and Marcia shared a room.

Still, there was one thing Marcia and I did together that was just ours, without Leslie or my parents: we played spies, based on the 1964-1968 NBC-TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; the acronym stood for the United Network Command for Law Enforcement. The two prime agents were Napoleon Solo, played on the series by Robert Vaughan, and Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum (who now plays Ducky on the TV series NCIS). It was one of those spy shows undoubtedly influenced by the success of the James Bond films, complete with an array of gadgets.

When we played, I was the debonair Solo, while Marcia emulated the clever Kuryakin, busy fighting evil in the form of a group called THRUSH. I don’t remember storylines, but I do recall vaulting off the side porch of our house to capture the imaginary bad guys, with “Illya” on the stairs right behind me.

Happy birthday, Marcia; thanks again for all those photos. (Can’t call her little sister; she’s taller than I am!)

Casinos and power stations

The Seneca Niagara Casino, though, did have one interesting aspect; the sign for the upcoming music performers there.

RIGHT across the street from the Sheraton Inn where I stayed in Niagara Falls, NY late last month is this massive Seneca Niagara Casino. I assumed it’s run by the tribe, but I don’t have enough intellectual curiosity to find out. I just don’t enjoy being in them.

My late father, by contrast, LOVED the casinos; I went with him at least once in California. I got stuck waiting for a co-worker to lose $150 at Turning Stone, between Syracuse and Utica, NY.

Back in 1998, there was no casino on the US side of Niagara Falls, so one had to go to the Ontario, Canada side to play. Since there was little else to do, I went along. I was winning on a particular slot machine and did not like the feeling AT ALL, so switched machines so I could lose and be done with it. Why wouldn’t I want to win? Because I have an addictive personality, and it could have become a problem.

It’s also that casinos quite literally give me a headache. They’re noisy, somewhat dark, with no clocks, no windows to give you the sense of the time of day. Some even allow cigarette smoking, which is not good for me.

Whereas, on our walk to the Canadian side of the Falls this year, I was excited to discover the Toronto Power Generating Station, which is now a National Historic Site of Canada. From the Wikipedia: “Completed in 1906 in the Beaux-Arts-style, the station was designed by architect E. J. Lennox… The plant ceased operations on February 15, 1974.” Coming across it, without even knowing it was there, was a real find. It reminds me of a scaled-back gilded-age mansion. For a power plant? How oddly interesting.

The Seneca Niagara Casino, though, did have one interesting aspect; the sign for the upcoming music performers there.

Temptations/Four Tops, May 11 – the type of performers I’d expect; there’s only one original Temptation, and how can the Tops be the Tops without Levi Stubbs?
Bobby Vinton, May 25 – always associated him with that not-so-great music from that period between 1959 and the 1963 March on Washington.
Go-Go’s, June 15 – I didn’t know they were still together, or together again. I saw them live over 30 years ago at JB Scott’s in Albany; check out the Coverville tribute to them
Jackson Browne, June 29 – Jackson Browne? Why do I find this oddly disappointing, somehow?

This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on July 13, 2010, by the administrator or reviewer File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under his file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license on that date.

The annoying DISCOVERy

Why, if someone else had my card, did she make only that one purchase?

As I have noted, I love using my DISCOVER card. It was the first bank credit card I ever owned, back in 1986. I had a few store cards, notably Sears, before that; in fact, Sears and DISCOVER were once linked financially, but I don’t believe that’s still the case.

DISCOVER is cool. They send me an e-mail saying: you want 5% cashback on this category of purchases for the next three months? Sure! They make it easy, whereas some credit card companies put you through hoops in order to get rewards. When I go to Amazon.com, usually for gifts, I often use the DISCOVER cashback feature, which can be posted automatically.

I went to Radio Shack to make a purchase on January 17 of just under $20, and of course, used my DISCOVER card. My notification to pay my bill came in late February, due on March 10, and it seemed high, but I didn’t actually look at it until the week it was due.

Included was a charge of $163.04 for Radio Shack on January 28. I didn’t remember going there a second time, so I called the store. I was told that among the purchases was a BluTooth; since I’ve NEVER owned a BluTooth, I KNEW instantly these weren’t my items.

Here’s the weird thing, though: BOTH Radio Shack purchases were allegedly made by a woman named… let’s call her Toodles. Now I DID make the January 17 purchase; I remember climbing over a snowbank to get to Westgate shopping center.

The other thing is that the purchaser had the card. Because I have been a customer so long, I have this 25th-anniversary card, as well as the regular one. I must have used the anniversary card there, then the regular card with my subsequent purchases. Bad form on my part.

So I call DISCOVER, explain this all a couple of times. The guy in the fraud unit is as puzzled as I that the $20 purchase that I acknowledge making is attributed to Toodles.

One of the things I was required to do was make a police report, so when I got home, I called the non-emergency number, and two policemen came over to my house. I gave them the information, and I could tell they were a bit suspicious of ME. Why, if, in fact, Toodles had had my card, did she make only that one purchase? I couldn’t answer that, of course. Guilt? Fear of getting caught? How the heck do I know?

I was without my DISCOVER card for less than a week, from March 6 to March 11, when the replacement cards arrived in the mail.

That previous card I had so long actually had memorized the sixteen digits. I’ll miss you, old DISCOVER card number. Yikes, I had to contact the cable company, because the autopay went on my old DISCOVER card…

13 years of wedded bliss out of 14 ain’t bad

It was HER making room in HER house for MY stuff; it wasn’t ours.

I was flicking through the TV channels a couple of weeks ago and discovered there’s some new reality show about newlyweds that’s going to be airing soon. Couldn’t tell you the name of it – and truth to tell, wouldn’t bother to look it up – but the clips were full of Sturm und Drang because doesn’t that sound entertaining?

The running joke The Wife and I have is that we’ve been happily married 13 years; we’ve been wed 14 . The skill of fading memory makes that first 12 months not feel THAT bad. We didn’t argue as such. Still, it had its stresses, and most of it involved space.

I had been living in an apartment before we got married. Meanwhile, she had purchased a two-family dwelling in the early 1990s, and she was living on the first floor. When we got hitched, the task was to move all of our stuff into that half of the house.

First, we got rid of my microwave and much of my furniture for space consideration. The microwave was large and older, so she was worried about radiation or the like; interestingly, we donated it to soon to be former church. We didn’t replace it with a smaller model because she didn’t think we’d need it, and there was no counter space anyway. (I’d only been using mine almost every day.) I had purchased a nifty chair only a couple of years earlier – real furniture I bought, rather than bachelor make-do – and I was sad to get rid of it, though I did give it to a friend who could use it.

The furniture of mine we did keep was squeezed in here and there. My wife and mother-in-law were watching one of those HGTV home renovation guys. I happened to be in the room at the time. He suggested building “up, up!” So we had one dressing on top of another. It looked goofy to me, and I wondered if the floor could bear the weight. Other things were boxed up, inaccessible.

One of the surprisingly sage things our then-minister said in premarital counseling was that we ought to get a place of our own. I tended to agree, even before the fact, but she didn’t understand. She was making room in her closet for my clothes, wasn’t she? That was the point; it was HER making room in HER house for MY stuff; it wasn’t ours.

This is why, in the fall of 1999, we started house hunting, and actually moved into our current dwelling in May 2000, shortly before our first anniversary. The new house has its own series of problems – it’s over 100 years old – but claustrophobia at least isn’t one of them.

More to the point, it’s OUR house, and that has made all the difference in the world. There are ancillary stories about popcorn, and Scotland I’ll tell, but only if you ask.

Happy 14th anniversary to my honey.

My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 25-1

Bought this when I got a bunch of Beatles albums early on, and it’s been a touchstone since.

Now we are hitting those albums that matter the most to me. It should be no surprise that the Beatles show up, more than once.

25. Bill Cosby: Why Is There Air? (1965)
Answer: “To blow up volleyball, basketballs.” It’s how I could ‘”see” Lombard Street in San Francisco a couple of decades before visiting it in person. I learned that “traffic tickets are like savings bonds; the longer you keep them, the greater they mature.”

24. Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East West (1966)
The band with Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. Features a Monkees song (‘Mary, Mary’) and the classic jazz tune ‘The Work Song’.

23. Sly & The Family Stone: Stand (1969)
If I can’t put the greatest hits on the list, this is the album: ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, ‘Sing a Simple Song,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘You Can Make It If You Try’, and the title track, plus some interesting non-singles tracks, too.

22. Neil Young: After The Gold Rush (1970)
‘When You Dance, I Can Really Love’ was my song to the college girlfriend. Has a bunch of other good stuff too.

21. Led Zeppelin: I (1969)
I’m sure I mentioned how the day I first heard this album is seared in my memory. It was literally mind-altering.

20. George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (1970)
If I were to guess, in the day, which ex-Beatles album I would most enjoy, I would have picked John, or maybe Paul. Yet it was George’s triple album I played the most. OK, not so much that third LP jam, but the first two for sure. ‘What Is Life’, ‘Wah Wah’, and a lot more. BTW, my high school prom theme was the title of the album.

19. The Sound of Music movie soundtrack (1965)
I love this from the beginning – the nuns singing together, to the melancholy ‘Edelweiss’.

18. Supremes: Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (1967)
A peculiarly-titled album in that most of their songs at that period were being written and produced by H-D-H. Besides the hits, the standout track is ‘Remove This Doubt’, later covered by Elvis Costello.

17. Lovin’ Spoonful: Daydream (1966)
Bought this when I got a bunch of Beatles albums early on, and it’s been a touchstone since. My 1998 visit to Savannah was ‘Jug Band Music’. The 1980 Democratic primary was ‘It’s Not Time Now’, with Jerry Brown singing, “I can’t seem to get a word in edgewise anyhow.” Lots more.

16. Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (1969)
From the glorious Merry Clayton vocals on ‘Gimme Shelter’ to the chorale on ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, it’s the most consistent Stones album. And the US and UK versions are the same, which was NOT always the case in the past.

15. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Deja Vu (1970)
Among other things, appreciated the near-democratic nature of the album: two songs each by the four, one by Stills-Young, and ‘Woodstock’ by Joni Mitchell.

14. Judy Collins: Wildflowers (1967)
Songs in Latin and French, plus the hit ‘Both Sides Now.’ But it is ‘Albatross’ that is the key song for me.

13. The Who: Tommy (1968)
I remember listening to this first rock opera when my father walked by, overheard, “We forsake you, gonna rape you,” and gave me that “What is that boy listening to?” look.

12. Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
In the midst of the insanity of Beatlemania touring, Lennon & McCartney came up with seven great songs for the movie, plus six others for the album; my favorite from the latter group is ‘I’ll Be Back.’

11. Elton John: Elton John (1970)
His second album with classics such as ‘Your Song,’ ‘Take Me to the Pilot’, and ‘Border Song’.

10. Cream: Disraeli Gears (1967)
Interesting: ALSO the second album. ‘Strange Brew’, ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses’, ‘We’re Going Wrong’. Not to mention the shared vocals by Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton on ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ which also features that ‘Blue Moon’ guitar riff.

9. The Band: The Band (1969)
ANOTHER second album. Slice of Americana from four Canadians, and one guy from Arkansas. ‘Rag Mama Rag’, ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ and much more.

8. Pete Seeger: Live at Carnegie Hall (1963)
Wrote about it HERE.

7. Woodstock movie soundtrack (1970)
It’s not just the litany of groups, some of which I’d never heard before, such as Santana. It’s even all the dialogue about the “brown acid,” the “kosher bacon,” and Max Yasgur getting a roar of applause just for saying, “I’m a farmer.” Saw the film twice in a row at the movie theater when it was first released, and I’m sure that had an effect on my appreciation of the triple LP.

6. Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965)
Ten common songs on the US and UK versions, and I like both collections.

5. Simon And Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
It was the duo in disintegration; ‘So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright’ was only tangentially about the architect. I wrote about “The Boxer’ and the title song on Art Garfunkel’s 70th birthday.

4. Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
The source of a lot of theological discussions in my circle of friends. You don’t have to agree with it to appreciate the songwriting and vocals.

3. Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (1966)
Speaking of religion, this album contains probably my favorite pop tune of all time, ‘God Only Knows.’ But it’s pretty much perfect from beginning to end. Paul McCartney gave copies to all his children as an example of great music.

2. West Side Story movie soundtrack (1961)
Seeing this movie was transformational. But it wasn’t just the story, it was the music. Quintet, the Tonight reprise, where the Jets and Sharks are preparing for the Rumble, Maria and Tony for their date, and Anita for her “private little mix” with Bernardo after the fight. Leonard Bernstein was right to get Stephen Sondheim to change one lyric of ‘Gee, Officer Krupke.’. Our family just saw the Albany High School production of the play, and my daughter is entranced by ‘America.’

1. The Beatles: Revolver (1966)
Still, this is my favorite album. From a kiddie song (‘Yellow Submarine’) to painful songs about loss (“Eleanor Rigby’, ‘For No One’), a most eclectic album, enriched by the three Lennon songs that had been purloined to make the US album Yesterday and Today. For my feelings about the last two songs on the album, read here.

That was fun; thanks to SamuraiFrog for the idea. But I won’t do the 1970s any time soon; too many to select from – the singer-songwriters from the early period, the mid-decade disco era, and the punk rock at the end, not to mention a LOT of Stevie Wonder. I think I’ll do, over time, the 1950s, 1990s, 1980s, and eventually the 1970s. Maybe by then, I’ll have enough 21st-century albums to try that period.