Remembering NHOP

NHOP is the acronym for one of the best (if not THE best) bass players who's lived. His long Danish name is  Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson.  He died in 2005 but he left recorded work that lives on.










This is an interview with Oscar Peterson:



And this is a short interview with Hank Jones:



Here are some videos from some of the 1960's sessions:



Here's Oscar Peterson playing with NHOP and the great Ray Brown.  As someone said on YouTube:

"I can imagine Oscar Peterson thinkin' : Ok, I have the 2 most badass wicked hardcore bass players here... Which one should I pick for the job ? BOTH !!!"



In this video NHOP is playing the very FAST Move with Joe Pass:



And to close:

TV from a Simpler Era

TV in the early days was very different from now. This is TV from a time when many of the people I know weren't even born. But if you're curious, here are a few samples that range from 1949 to 1961.

Most are familiar with Mayberry and The Andy Griffith Show from the reruns on TBS. Here's the first appearance of Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor. It was an episode of Make Room for Daddy, which was Danny Thomas' regular series at that time.



Before slick, negative campaign advertising this is the ad Eisenhower used on TV in 1952.



Here's a scene from Lloyd Bridges' TV show Seahunt. A pre-Star Trek Leonard Nimoy guest stars.



This is a scene from Rawhide, which features Clint Eastwood from 50 years ago. Note the Marlboro commercial at 7:54.



This is a clip from a local Los Angeles TV show in the fifties that features a very young Johnny Carson.



And from 1949, here's The Nat King Cole Trio.

Someone's spoof of facebook

I don't plan to get off facebook, but this video I found is someone's interesting satirical observation of it:

Mummy Maze

If you know anyone who enjoys mazes, here's my Halloween version. 

It's based on the Universal version of The Mummy starring Boris Karloff.  The goal is to enter and exit the inner chamber of the pyramid without Imhotep breaking your concentration.

Have fun!

My Movie Trivia Quiz

1.    Which film wasn't directed by Alfred Hitchcock?

     

       a. The Birds

       b. Rear Window

       c. Dressed to Kill

       d. Notorious
       e. Psycho

2.    What was the first feature-length "talkie."

       a. It Happened One Night
       b. The Phantom of the Opera
       c. Top Hat
       d. The Jazz Singer
       e. The Wizard of Oz

3.    Which film wasn't directed by Quentin Tarantino

       a. Pulp Fiction
       b. Reservoir Dogs
       c. Jackie Brown
       d. Kill Bill 2
       e. The Matrix

4.    In Citizen Kane, the title character was in what business?

       a. railroad
       b.newspaper
       c. steel
       d. oil
       e. wine

5.    In what state was the hotel in The Shining located?

       a. New York
       b. Colorado
       c. Idaho
       d. Maine
       e. Oregon

6.    Which pair of co-stars were in Singin' in the Rain?

       a. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire
       b. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
       c. Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor
       d. Malcom McDowell and Cyd Charisse
       e. Judy Garland and Ray Bolger

7.    In Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, where did the hijacked plane land?

       a. Alaska
       b. Brazil
       c. Turkey
       d. Shangri La
       e. The Lost City

8.    In Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Robert De Niro was a

       a. taxi driver
       b. hit man
       c. bullfighter
       d. boxer
       e. writer

9.    What novel was the inspiration for Apocalypse Now?

       a. For Whom the Bell Tolls
       b. Heart of Darkness
       c. The Magic Mountain
       d. Moby Dick
       e. The Quiet American

10.  What well-known director played a scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

        a. Francois Truffaut
        b. Wes Craven
        c. Brian De Palma
        d. Orson Welles
        e. Ridley Scott

Answers:

1.   c
2.   d
3.   e
4.   b
5.   b
6.   c
7.   d
8.   d
9.   b
10. a

Classic Horror Trivia Quiz

It's October and our thoughts turn to horror movies.  If you like the old horror movies, I hope you'll enjoy this trivia quiz I've created.

1.  Which of the following movies did not have an appearance by Count Dracula?

     a. Horror of Dracula
     b. The Return of Dracula
     c. House of Frankenstein
     d. Brides of Dracula
     e. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

2.  In The Son of Dracula, Lon Chaney played the title role.  What name did he use in the movie?

     a. Count Dracula
     b. Baron Meinster
     c. Dr. Seward
     d. Count Alucard
     e. Mr. Browning

3.  Of the following actors, who never played Dracula?

     a. Francis Lederer
     b. Basil Rathbone
     c. Jack Palance
     d. Frank Langella
     e. John Carradine

4.  In early Universal movies such as Dracula and the Mummy, what musical score was used for the opening credits?

      a. The Magic Flute Overture by Mozart
      b. Cemetery Gates by Pantera
      c. Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky
      d. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
      e. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer by Brecht and Weill

5.  The original Night of the Living Dead was filmed near what city?

     a. Newark
     b. Pittsburgh
     c. Los Angeles
     d. Detroit
     e. Toronto

6.  What do Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and TV's Gunsmoke have in common?

     a. James Arness had a small role in the Abbott and Costello movie
     b. Bud Abbott appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke
     c. Lou Costello appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke
     d. They both had the same writers
     e. The same actor played Sam the Bartender and the Frankenstein Monster

7.  Who played the werewolf in I Was a Teenage Werewolf?

     a. James Dean
     b. Sal Mineo
     c. Michael Landon
     d. Bobby Darin
     e. David Peel

8.  What was the first movie in which Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff performed together?

     a. The Mummy
     b. Isle of the Dead
     c.The Black Cat
     d. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman
     e. Son of Frankenstein

9.  In The Wolfman which actor played the werewolf who attacked Lon Chaney and caused him to become a werewolf?

     a. Ralph Bellamy
     b. Bela Lugosi
     c. Lionel Atwill
     d. David Manners
     e. Edward Van Sloan

10.   In The Tingler, what drug does Vincent Price's character take?

      a. cocaine
      b. morphine
      c. digitalis
      d. phenobarbitol
      e. lsd

11. In Dracula, Prince of Darkness, how is Dracula destroyed?

       a. a wooden stake
       b. a silver bullett
       c. water
       d. sunlight
       e. impaled by a cross

Answers:

  1.   d
  2.   d
  3.   b
  4.   c 
  5.   b
  6.   e
  7.   c
  8.   c
  9.   b
10.   e
11.   c

Kirkwood Part 3

Kirkwood began its life as a suburb of Atlanta and was incorporated in 1892. In the early 1920's it was annexed into the city of Atlanta.  An early tour book described it as an “area of beautiful suburban villas.”  Of course, that was written at a time when Kirkwood was considered suburban and not intown.

We moved from Kirkwood when I completed elementary school.  In those days there were no middle schools in Atlanta.  Completion of elementary school was at the end of 7th grade and high school started with the 8th grade. 

There were a combination of reasons we moved then.  My mother had a growing business teaching piano and she wanted a bigger house with a private entrance for her students.  The high school I would have attended was several miles from our house (Kirkwood Elementary was about four blocks from the house and was an easy walk).  And there was an unscrupulous real estate practice then called "blockbusting."  If people were considering moving from Kirkwood, this accelerated the process.  It instilled fears of rapidly declining real estate values and was unfair to both white and black families who lost money to the real estate companies.

Kirkwood did have some difficult years, but since the 1990's it's had a revitalization, as have many older Atlanta neighborhoods.  My old school is now home to many people who've purchased lofts there.  The school was built in 1910 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. 

 It's strange to see these interior photos of living spaces there and wonder which classroom this was (3rd grade, 4th grade...?).

And the public library I used is now a private residence, as well.  It was on the adjacent corner from the school and that made it easy to check out books there after school.  Here's a link to a website set up by the men who've remodeled the library and live there.  Also, on their site they have the video of  the HGTV show that featured their home.

http://www.kirkwoodlibrary.com/Library/Home.html

The library building is just across the street from a public park.  The park had a ball field where I played many softball games.

It's very nostalgic writing about this, but I have great memories.