Oh, Delays, Delays...

My restarting of this blog hit a bump in the road of sorts; I was knocked out of commission with bronchitis while Val recovered from pneumonia. I missed a week of work but was back as of last week, and I am feeling much better.
I have a few ideas for blog posts, and if my memory cooperates with me, I will write them up here in the next day or so. Thanks for all of your well wishes.

More of Dad's Musical Delights, Part One

I am sorting through two boxes of my late father Edward's music collection, something I had been doing and reporting here for a while when we were selling my mother Sheila's house, but I got a bit behind.
Today, I moved from downstairs to upstairs two boxes I barely looked through, and the fun continues. One box is just that, a basic cardboard box for a Black and Decker TRO-400 toaster oven, the other a fake leather bound case with a 6-8-inch G clef on the front.
Let's get into the cardboard box first; it has seven cases/holders of records with cardboard "pages," most collections of multi-part recordings. But not the first one, of course, which is a large, dark brown holder with "Brunswick" embossed on the front and the letter "A" and a loop for a finger to pull the book out of a shelf on the spine.
Inside are nine records from various artists: Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians (the only actual Brunswick recording here), the classic Alma Gluck, Jan Garber and His Orchestra, Bing Crosby and Xavier Cugat, Carl T. Sprague, Ray Noble and His Orchestra, Amelita Galli-Curci and Jussi Bjorling with orchestra.
Of the other collections, one is empty, and the others include: Andre Kostelanetz conducting the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra performing Ravel's "Bolero" (Columbia Masterworks MX 257), Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing Prokofieff's "Peter and the Wolf (Opus 67)" (Victor DM 566), and Herbert Marshall with Joan Lorring and cast performing "The Snow Goose" (Decca DM 386).
The two final collections are labeled one thing on the covers, but contain different music. One says it is "Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor," Sergei Rachmaninoff with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Victor DM 58), with a really cool photo of two hands reaching for a keyboard. The records inside is classical recordings by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Jose Iturbi, the Band of His Majesty's Coldstream Guards, and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Kindler.
The last book in the box is labeled "Album of Strauss Waltzes (Boston Pops Orchestra)" (Victor DM 445), conducted by Arthur Fielder, but inside the recordings, along with Fiedler and the Boston Pops, are Alexander Brailowsky pianist with orchestra, the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York conducted by Arturo Toscanini performing "Barber of Seville," violinist Fritz Kreisler with pianist Carl Lamson, and tenor Richard Crooks with orchestra.
I will save the large brown music G clef box for another post.

Umm, Miss Me?

Wow, it's been almost two months since I posted here, and I am very, very sorry to all of my readers for the absence.
So, has anything happened in the meantime? Well, I am back at my old job as Director of Communications for the Erie County Legislature (more than a month) and Val has been in the hospital and is back home.
I am thrilled to be back to work and in the position I formerly held with a group of great colleagues and legislators moving forward, but I will continue my approach of not discussing work here.
Val was having a multiple sclerosis attack which was made much worse by coming down with pneumonia, but after four days in the hospital, she came home Wednesday afternoon and is doing better bit by bit, day by day, but she still needs to watch her strength.
I have more things to catch up on, probably starting today, so let's hope we stay in touch a bit more; I'll do better at that now.

All Is Quiet on Christmas Day

Walker Evans and I just completed our Christmas neighborhood walk, including a stretch of the normally very busy Elmwood Avenue.
Only three business out of the more than 20 we passed by were open; the Sunoco station/mini mart at Elmwood and Hodge, and the Tokyo Shango Bistro and Peking Chinese restaurants, both on Elmwood Avenue between West Utica and Hodge.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everybody.

Who Do I Turn To?

It's been a difficult week or so, beyond the usual financial and other problems, with a disorienting call form my mother Sheila today a real tough one.
So, I normally turn to my loving wife, Val, and dog Walker Evans, for support, love and discussion. Sadly, both Val and Walker Evans are sick and sleeping/resting; Val has been voiceless for the better part of the last 48 hours.
As I write this, I realize that this is both an exercise in rhetoric and probably a self-pity session that should end now, but the laundry isn't going to engage me in discussion, so...

Um, Who?

Like most people, Val and I receive a lot of donation solicitations through the mail, as well as online. Due to our continued tenuous financial state, we cannot really make any at this time, worthy or not.
But at least we get an occasional laugh. Tuesday, we received two solicitations for donations in the mail from the same place, St. John's-Grace Church on Colonial Circle in Buffalo, seeking National Register of Historic Places inclusion.
Both are addressed to the same "couple," Valerie & Hosey Dunne. Seems like they are paying both too much and not enough attention to Val and I referring to our house as the Dunne-Hosey Estates.

My Reading List

My lovely wife Val often comments, sometimes strongly, on the books I read, calling them my "happy books."
I have always been a nonfiction book fan more than fiction, not because I dislike fiction (Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell and Henrik Ibsen are among my favorites), but because I am a major history fan. I am intrigued and fascinated with what people do to other people, what they create and why, in the macro and micro.
To give you examples, the book I just finished reading was "Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule," by Karel C. Berkhoff, and I am currently reading "Bloody Sunday: Massacre in Northern Ireland, the Eyewitness Accounts," by Don Mullan.
Before these two books, I read a work of fiction, "Celebration," by Harry Crews, which was OK but rather predictable.
It's not that I do not enjoy fiction, as the authors I listed above show, but for me, with so many factual, historical events having occurred that I know little or nothing about, and my need for not only detail but analysis, I seek out this route to reality first.

Yikes; I'm Still Here

I truly apologize to you fine readers for the lack of commentary over the last month or so; I had to look at the date of my last entry to realize how long it has been since I last wrote here.
Due to political campaigning (mostly successful) and a few other activities, I haven't been as good at updating this blog as I should, and starting today, I have several entries to write. I thank you all for sticking with me.

If You Haven't Got a Ha'Penny...

When Walker Evans and I visit the area around Women's and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, surrounded by Elmwood Avenue, Hodge Avenue, Delaware Avenue and Bryant Street, it is usually between 8-9 a.m.
This means that we get to see the daily Parking Maneuver Olympics and Exhibition, as vehicles try to find free on-street parking while the occupants attend to various business or relatives' treatment at the hospital. This is in addition to residents parking on one side of the street, as city laws allow.
What amazes me is to see vehicles such as Cadillac Escalades, Lexuses and other high-priced vehicles attempting to dart into rarely vacated parking spaces, and sometimes circling the neighborhood doing this. All of this happens while there is a large, multistory parking ramp with entrances on Hodge, Elmwood and West Utica Street, with the maximum daily charge of $3.75, as well as designated, permit-only lots for at least some doctors.
It has gotten so bad that several residents along these streets stand outside or at their windows to make sure no one parks across their driveway entrances.