Tristan wrote: "Ah, technology takes down another career."

Seems you don't like technology like Paul...

The nicest thing about Enterprise is that they do not run a personal credit check dating back to the early '80's in order to qualify you for a rental.
Heaven forbid you go to Budget or Avis with a debit card only. They won't accept debit cards, even though they can easily verify a balance more than sufficient to cover the rental transaction.

Oh, and those Enterprise counter folk were nice to me in Newark NJ (where no one feels like nice is even an option). Even though I wasn't Sam Rubin, I still got an upgrade (to an SUV I didn't really want, but that's all they had). Unfortunately, there were no festivals taking place in Newark for the rental staff to elucidate upon.

Happy Birthday Dizzy Gillespie 10-21-1917

Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong - Umbrella Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1uMjz3n3w

Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkvCDCOGzGc

Dizzy Gillespie on The Muppet Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIvCJC8oAIE

Dizzy Gillespie - "Salt Peanuts" - 1947
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOmA8LOw258

Vic Mizzy, who wrote 'Addams Family' theme, dies
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer Raquel Maria Dillon, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 20, 1:05 am ET

LOS ANGELES – Vic Mizzy, a songwriter who composed the catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms "The Addams Family" and "Green Acres," has died. He was 93.

Mizzy died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, his manager Jonathan Wolfson said. He said he didn't know the cause of death.

He wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como and Billie Holiday in the '40s and '50s. His hits included "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes," "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time," and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho."

But his most famous work was the theme to "The Addams Family," a tune accented by finger snaps and opening with the cleverly quirky lyrics: "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're altogether ooky: the Addams family."

Mizzy sang the song himself and overdubbed it three times to give the impression of multiple vocalists. He also directed the title sequence where he asked actors who played members of the Addams family to snap their fingers in a bored way.

The enduring tune is often heard during sports game to rally the home team.

"He was smart enough to demand to own the song, which was unheard of at the time. So any time you go to a Lakers game and they play that song, he made money," Wolfson said.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mizzy learned to play the piano as a child. In his teens, he teamed up with Irving Taylor and began writing songs and sketches for variety shows. They won a pair of radio contests and toured the East Coast vaudeville circuit. While served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, the pair wrote several hit songs, including "Three Little Sisters" and "Take It Easy."

Mizzy later composed and wrote songs for television and film, most recently a song for "Spiderman 2" which ended up on the DVD version of the movie.

He is survived by a brother, daughter and two grandchildren.

____

On the Net: http://www.vicmizzy.com/

latimes.com/business/la-fi-smallbiz-studios13-2009oct13,0,3516140.story
latimes.com
SMALL BUSINESS
Recording studios are being left out of the mix
Inexpensive software is shifting music-recording to the home. Industry experts estimate that up to half of the commercial studios in the L.A. area have closed or been sold to artists for private use.

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

October 13, 2009

Tom McCauley didn't plan on making house calls when he started in the music business.

As a recording engineer, McCauley made a good living working out of the many commercial studios that had grown up throughout the Los Angeles area to serve the music, film and television industries.

But with the advent of software that allows high-end recording from a personal computer, the 53-year-old Sherman Oaks resident has traded the quasi-industrial atmosphere of the commercial studio for his customers' garages or living rooms.

On a recent Monday afternoon McCauley opened a wooden gate to the backyard of a Valley Village house, walked past a pool and into a studio converted from a guest house. He sat in front of dual computer monitors, opened up Pro Tools recording software and tested microphones.

"The old days were big budgets, top-of-the-line equipment and 'How do you want your espresso and can I get it for you?' " he said. "I do miss that a bit. And at the time, even just 10 years ago, it didn't seem like that could ever end, ever go away."

Although nobody officially tracks the number of recording studios, the consensus among industry experts is that the big commercial facilities have taken a major hit. They estimate that as many as half of the L.A. area's commercial studios have closed or been sold to artists for private use.

A key reason is that recording software emulates what old studio consoles and tape recorders used to do -- at a fraction of the price. Among the most widely used programs are Avid Technology Inc.'s Pro Tools, Steinberg Media Technologies' Cubase and Apple Inc.'s GarageBand.

"You used to patch everything into a big console. Now you can plug everything into a computer," he said. "And editing music using tape wasn't easy. Now you just click and drag a mouse across the screen."

While sales of recorded music have dropped in recent years, putting even more pressure on recording studios to cut costs, the market for software and other computer-related music equipment has gone way up. The total computer music market went from just under $140 million in sales in 1999 to almost a half-billion dollars in 2008, according to NAMM, the trade group for music retailers and manufacturers.

"In some ways we've come full circle," said Maureen Droney, senior director of the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing. "We've gone back to being small and entrepreneurial. People still look to commercial studios when they have something to offer that they can't do at home. But, as it is, the recording studio business started with people starting small, funky studios, oftentimes in bedrooms and garages."

And with more artists recording themselves and leaving the commercial studios behind, engineers and other professionals are finding fewer places to work, Droney said.

Some have downsized and built their own home studios. Others, like McCauley, work the circuit of small facilities in bedrooms and garages. Some have left the industry altogether.

"It's sort of sad that a lot of artists feel they have to record their own records when there are people who love the technical side of recording who are being left out," Droney said.

At Clear Lake Audio in North Hollywood, business isn't what it used to be, and owner Brian Levi said part of the reason is the ease of digital recording. When artists do come into the studio, they don't stay as long, he said.

"Going from the analog age to the digital age, going from one song to another on tape used to take 30 minutes, but with Pro Tools software it takes about a minute," Levi said. "So we just lost 28, 29 minutes of time we could bill a client. So you add that up over a year and tell me how much it is."

Ellis Sorkin runs Studio Referral Service of Calabasas, connecting artists to studios that are his clients. In recent years, he said, his list has been getting shorter.

Many of the older, larger studios have been sold to big producers or artists, who use them exclusively for their own projects, he said.

Part of the reason that the free-standing studios are struggling, he said, is their owners incurred high costs building them and installing high-priced equipment. Home studios -- whether owned by artists themselves or by recording engineers working on the cheap -- don't have that kind of overhead.

"Any place that was built as a studio, there's a lot of money that's spent, a couple million dollars maybe," Sorkin said. "People are spending $20,000 to $100,000 on home studios. There's a big difference in cost."

Still, there are drawbacks to home recording that have kept many professional studios in business. One is quality.

"When I walk into a home studio to work, I never really know what I'm walking into," said McCauley, the recording engineer. "It's sort of a crapshoot. The consistency in terms of quality of equipment or tuning or acoustics that the old commercial studios offered just isn't there in home studios."

About one to three hours per project can be spent on just setting up microphones, testing recording software and testing speaker quality, he said.

McCauley has also found work as a consultant on how to set up home studios, and lately he has increased his time spent as a session musician.

Gabriel Dorsey, owner of Affordable Demos studio in Altadena, said his studio is struggling. He averaged five clients a week five years ago, but now he gets just two or three.

With the number of artists seeking studio time down, Dorsey said he's considering opening up his facility as a rehearsal space. He has also started taking on work that in the past he would have turned down. "People bring in stuff they've recorded at home -- I'll mix it for them, make it sound good," he said. "And I get a lot of people calling me asking me how to set up Pro Tools and how to set up Cubase -- I'll go do it."

nathan.olivarezgiles@latimes.com

Borrah Minevitch & His Harmonica Rascals ~ 1936

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AVVad2xmY4

Borrah Minevitch & His Harmonica Rascals are beyond incredible in this rare 1936 glimpse.

Happy Birthday Roger Moore 10-14-1927

Happy Birthday Lenny Bruce 10-13-1925

Just two weeks ago, my son's car has to be fixed but it took several days, so my son rent a car on line with Enterprise. He paid in advance for 3 days. He ask me to drive him to the Burbank Airport to pick up the car. He was so sure that he will get the car that he ask me no to wait so I was returned home when he call me telling me, 'mom, could you return and pick me up', so I did it. He told me that they did not have any record for any reservation at his name, and they told him, 'we can get you any car you want, but not at the price you said you make your reservation". So he canceled instead. It's hard to believe that something like that is happening, when I travel I rent a car and always look for the best promotion, but I will think twice doing it with enterprise.

Happy Birthday Art Blakey 10-11-1919

Happy Birthday Jacques Tati 10-09-1908

Jared: "The video has since received over 5.5 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: 'Good luck with that one, pal'."

LOL
.

Happy Birthday Johnny Ramone 10-08-1941

jozielee wrote "I keep hearing that traveling isn't the joy it used to be - airplane "

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for youtube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded : “Good luck with that one, pal”.

So he posted a retaliatory video on youtube. The video has since received over 5.5 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: “Good luck with that one, pal”.

Taylor Guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders.
Here's the video ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&NR=1

First off, I envy you being in Albuquerque during the balloon festival. That's one event I promised myself I'd see in this lifetime, but every year I hear about it after the fact. It's now on the calendar for next year's vacation. Glad you got the opportunity to see them. Hope it was all you hoped it would be. Too bad you had to fit work into the mix.

I keep hearing that traveling isn't the joy it used to be - airplane (seats too small, people who travel without bathing before boarding), train (accidents), now rental cars. Too bad. I love to rent a car and drive off into the unknown, but that's because I always thought of car rental as cheap, uncomplicated, carefree. Now you tell me customer service has flown out the window? Too bad. At least you experienced redemption when the staff recognized you. Hope this blog puts Enterprise, and other rental companies, on notice so the rest of us Joe-Shmoes get royal treatment next time we rent a car.

Happy Birthday Al Martino 10-07-1927

Sam,

I always rent from Enterprise and I have never had a bad experience. I have always found the Enterprise staff to be friendly and very helpful no matter what city was in. You may want to check to see if the operator was really an employee of Enterprise and not a working for a company under contract to take reservations for Enterprise, which could explain the attitude. I would call the head office of Enterprise to let them know how the operator was and how great the staff was in the Albuquerque office.

Sam:

Do you still have anything to do with the Entertainment Dept. at KTLA, or has Jessica taken that over?