One more thing:
Mars comes to New Jersey
KUOW is continuing the delightful tradition of broadcasting the famed Mercury Theater on the Air Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds tonight. It seems, no matter how many times I have heard it, just as successful (script link) in creating an atmosphere of credible tension and urban apocalypse. Listen.
Now I look down the harbor. All manner of boats, overloaded with fleeing population, pulling out from docks.
Streets are all jammed. Noise in crowds like New Year’s Eve in city. Wait a minute… The… the enemy is now in sight above the Palisades. Five — five great machines. First one is crossing the river. I can see it from here, wading… wading the Hudson like a man wading through a brook…
A bulletin is handed me…
Martian cylinders are falling all over the country. One outside of Buffalo, one in Chicago… St. Louis… seem to be timed and spaced…
Now the first machine reaches the shore. He stands watching, looking over the city. His steel, cowlish head is even with the skyscrapers. He waits for the others. They rise like a line of new towers on the city’s west side…
Now they’re lifting their metal hands. This is the end now. Smoke comes out… black smoke, drifting over the city. People in the streets see it now. They’re running towards the East River… thousands of them, dropping in like rats. Now the smoke’s spreading faster. It’s reached Times Square. People are trying to run away from it, but it’s no use. They’re falling like flies. Now the smoke’s crossing Sixth Avenue… Fifth Avenue… a… a hundred yards away… it’s fifty feet…
Gathering Blooms
Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, at Southwest Missouri State University.
An old fave, forgotten due to sloppy bookmarking. Rediscovered when searching for versions of that great old folktune “Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet,” penned by Marvin Blumgardner.
I suspect this of being a nom de guerre considering the song’s subject matter and central metaphor. The lyrics begin, “Death is an angel sent down from above, gathering blooms for the one that he loves*” and continue in that piously morbid vein for a tidy 2:54. The song has been recorded by several old hands (including the fantastic version by the Stanley Brothers that was my introduction to the tune).
Of course, “Blumgardner” could simply be a transcriptionist’s slip, considering that Marvin Baumgardner is also credited with the song, in more authoritative contexts.
*Actually, that’s how I recall the lyrics. In reality they run: “Death is an angel sent down from above; sent for the buds and the flowers we love.”
Cue Organ
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! [via BoingBoing, and so certain to be widespread, but too good not to share.]
Honking Duck
Honking Duck is a realaudio archive of several hundred 78s. I posted this to Monkeyfilter, in the hopes of keeping an apparent theme on the roll.
Der Raabe, II
B^2 follows up the unholy fascination with Max Raabe. Five tracks, kids, including “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Oops… I Did It Again,” all performed in Rabe’s inimitable eye-rolling nineteen twenties crooner style. It makes me feel… dirty, in a good way.
*snaps fingers*
Waiter! Schnapps, and a side of bunderflesich!
B^2's 80s Covers day
The All Eighties Cover Version Mix Tape, featuring Max Raabe & Palast Orchester, on whom B^2 has an open plea for more info.
(On the Raabe site, navigate to Max Raabe > film for a bit of uncanny eye-rolling croonery.)
Smile
NPR : ‘Smile’: Greatest Record Never Heard. Certain fellow-Wilsonians who may have missed this will certainly want to hear this. We’re finally gonna hear it!
Do you remember Rock and Roll Radio?
This was Googled up whilst searching for the Beatles/Ramones mashup “I Wanna Be Your Sedated Man.”
Old Time and Burning Slabs
RadioLovers.com, ” Old Time Radio Shows,” free, online. Dig in.
Via J-Walk Blog.
Which reminds me:
WFMU’s The Hound, linked before, also as a secondary item. Seriously, these shows (and the archival work on the site) are amazing.