Friday, June 19, 2015

Father's Day Notions

Father's Day is for being thankful, and yes I am!
Tolstoy is reported to have written, "Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man."

I hope I'm not at the "old" part yet, but it is surprising to look around at all of the things and other people that have come along since I came around!

Photos of my Mom and Dad, taken in my own adulthood, don't show the strength, the humor, and the faith on the inside.  Considering all the shortsighted, selfish, and antisocial elements in my emotional makeup, it's great for the world as well as for me that these wonderful folks were saddled with me. 



And now, two Fatherly things. One is from our friend Nick at Grammarly.  It's a Father's Day grammar quiz that's brief and fun.

The other is a tale ending in some good advice:  When we first discovered that Joyce was pregnant (in fall/winter of 1982), I asked my dad if he would give me some advice on how to be a good father.

He said, "The best way to be a good father is to be a good husband."

Thank you, Dad!
 

Thursday, June 18, 2015

More Out-of-This-World Music



As more proof of my obsessive, nut-gathering personality, here are two more bunches of songs about outer space, the space race, and all that.

 1 -    (When You) See Those Flying Saucers   The Buchanan Brothers         1947
2 -    Rocket    Joe Bennett & The Sparkletones    1957
3 -   Tiny Space Man      Bill Carlisle 1957
4 -    The Flying Saucer Goes West Buchanan and Goodman      1958
5 -    Outer Space Santa The Lennon Sisters       1958
6 -    Mope-itty Mope      Boss-Tones          1959
7 -    Asteroid Hop   Jimmie Haskell And His Orchestra   1959
8 -    Beep Beep      Louis Prima         1959
9 -    Beep, Beep      Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans   1959
10 -   UFOs      Soul, Inc     1967
11 -  Have You Seen the Saucers    Jefferson Airplane        1970
12 -  Supersonic Rocket Ship  The Kinks   1972
13 - UFOs      Undisputed Truth         1975
14 -  Waiting for the UFOs     Graham      Parker        1979
15 -  Flying Saucer Safari      Suburban Lawns 1981
16 -  The Alien Song (for those who listen)    Milla Jovovich     1994
17 -  Subterranean Homesick Alien Radiohead 1997
18 -  Fell in Love With an Alien       The Kelly    Family        1997
19 -  Space Robot Five     Brave Saint Saturn     2000
20 -  Outer Space Song   Pinky and Perky  2002
21 -  UFOs, Big Rigs and BBQ Mojo Nixon         2005
22 -  Devil Woman from Outer Space     Rezurex      2006
23 - Space Craze    Rick McGuire       2006
24 -  Pluto       Clare and The Reasons          2007
25 - The Planet Mars     The Corillions      2007
26 -  Robot Monster       Damon Alexander & the Ten Cent Rentals       2008
27 -  The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)         They Might Be Giants           2009

You can find out more info about the cover art by following the links in the original post.



1   Rockin' in the Rocket Room   The Larks      1954
2   Flying Saucer Rocket    Ferrell Duncan and His Rockers     1955
3   Flying Saucers (unissued)     The Thunderbirds     1957
4   The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor      The Big Bopper            1958
5   Hello World    Horace Heller            1959
6   Shooting for the Moon     Carl & Norman        1960
7   The Moon's Not Meant for Lovers (Anymore)       The Royal Teens      1960
8   I Go Into Orbit        Johnny Acey 1962
9   Rocket Ride    Johnny Greco           1963
10  Moon Race      The Citations            1963
11  The Invasion    Buchanan & Greenfield        1964
12  War Of The Worlds        The Atlantics  1964
13  Moon Child      The Ventures           1964
14  Solar Race      The Ventures           1964
15  Everyone's Gone To The Moon       Jonathan King           1965
16  Lunar Funk       The Fabulous Counts       1969
17  Saturn    Gene Page    1978
18  Destination Venus  The Rezillos   1978
19  Man on the Moon    MTV      1983
20  Fly Me To The Moon       The Legendary Space Cowboy      1984
21  I Took A Trip (on the Space Shuttle)     The Legendary Space Cowboy      1984
22  Creature from Outer Space Big Eyed Beans from Venus           1985
23  Spaceships Have Landed       Frances Cannon and the Extraterrestrials            1987
24  Rocket to Nowhere        Webb Wilder  1996
25  Little Green Man    Godless Wicked Creeps      1997
26  Dangerous Tools    Frances Baskerville    1999
27  Flying Saucer Astronaut Wife           2003
28  Spooks in Space    Aural Exciters            2003

The cover art is from Frank Stranges’ book Flying Saucerama.
See you later, fellas!



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© by Mark Alfred