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[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, you know about the notes, the notes know about you, and now it is time to post until the knowing cows come home.  Go know.

[George]

I hate to pull the Wussburger over anyone's eyes, but I must pull it over mine and go to sleep.  Good night all!  And good luck, BK with the last chance for the song!  Hope it really works out!

[Panni]

I don't have enough CDs to call it a collection. Maybe 100 or 150. I really have no idea.
My DVD stash is pathetic. I won't even put a number on it.
I'm suddenly very tired. To bed. I'll catch up on yesterday's posts today. Or later if I can't sleep.

[George]

As for my CDs, I have over 1000 recordings that are just musicals!  I used to have all my recordings listed in an Excel spread sheet, but it's no more.  I'll have to recreate it.  I had almost 1,300 lines in the spreadsheet...of course, that included cross-references for such things as listing foreign language recordings in both the foreign language title and the English title and two listings for CDs with two titles on them, such as Maltby and Shire's Cyrano and The Grand Tour (not to be confused with Jerry Herman's The Grand Tour).

[JoseSPiano]

Good Evening!  Good Morning!

Well, my sugar rush is starting to turn into a post-sugar rush headache... ugh... Ah, well... Live and learn... And do it again anyway.  

As for the T-o-D:

DVDs - Maybe around 50.  Not really that many.  The collection is all over the place.  Classics, Disney, Music Concerts, etc.  Disney titles probably make up the bulk of my collection.

VHS cassettes - Around 100 - probably less.  Foreign films (mainly French titles) make up most of this collection.  Plus a bunch of tapes of shows I've played for.

CDs - Hmmm... I did do a count a few years ago, and I can't remember if I hit 2000 or 3000.  I know I'm past 1000.  Hmmm... Now that I'm visualizing my collection, I'm thinking it's 2000+.  Most of it is Classical Music - lots of boxed sets including all the major operas by Bellini, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner.  At least four sets of the Mozart Piano Sonatas; three sets of the Beethoven Symphonies and the Piano Concerti; and almost all of those classic Angel/EMI "Complete Songs of..." sets - at least the French composers - How I wish they would reissue the Roussel set!  The piano concerti of Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Saint-Saens; plus tons of chamber music.  My favorites would have to be Richard Goode's complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas on Nonesuch, and any of my Dawn Upshaw discs which are also primarily on Nonesuch.  *However, my favorite Upshaw disc is her debut CD which was a result of her Naumburg win - which I think is on MusicMasters.  It's a great recital disc and Margo Garrett's accompanying is a model of accompanying.  The Rachmaninov selections are wonderful.

As for show CDs, it's a good size, but I'm definitely not a "completist".

I still have one crate of LPs sitting in my parents' basement.  Mainly OCRs.

I used to have a bunch of cassettes - original and dubs - but somehow, over the past couple of years, I've lost track of where most of them are.  I may have thrown a bunch of them out accidentally in a move.  

Ah, well...

[JoseSPiano]

DR Jane - Yes, I received your e-mail.  

[Jrand74]

Actors who do not do as they are told.

The actor in THE NERD who replaced the actor who quit is doing a nice job, but he has NOT looked at his script in a week.  He is in love with his "business" and his ad libs which he thinks are stealing the show...while we struggle to cover for him.  He also doesn't give us cues so that a LOT of laughs are missing....  Tonight I finally said:  "Are you EVER going to say......." quoting him the line....  "Oh, I might," he replied, and then went on to say that he never said one line because he was waiting on the audience laughter to die down.....and that I jumped the cue.....  I just said...."oh....."  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....closing night tonight!  Great audience last night, wish they could have been given the WHOLE show!

[Ben]

I have many more CDs than I ever thought I would although I don't have anything approaching a thousand. It' a few hundred. That includes the vocals/pop genre which are mixed together (though still alphabetical and kept in a separate unit from the cast recordings). Most of the CDs are cast recordings & theatre-related with some soundtracks thrown in. I'm not a completist for the genre but I try to be a completist for certain shows and a couple of composers.

We have very few DVDs and very few videos. As I mentioned last week, we don't even have a stand-alone DVD player. It's part of the computer. We will probably get one at some point, but I don't think that will increase our supply of DVDs. We just don't have the room and CDs are more important to me than DVDs since I watch so few movies.

I used to have a very large cassette collection but as I replace the tapes with CDs, the tapes get donated to a second hand store (there are no stores in New York that I know of that buy tapes).

Francois, thanks for the Disney CD on Demand link. You have made a friend of mine very, very happy!

[Ben]

Here is another vacation picture.

There actually is a booth where you can drink all the milk you want for $1. It just isn't in the cow barn.

[Jrand74]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....money in the bank and chicks for free....isn't that a song or something?

Hmmmmmmmm......collections.

Okay:

CD's:  about 500 or so.  Mostly Original Casts and Soundtracks.  Several "nostalgia" singers like Gale Storm and Betty Hutton and the like.  And several compilation cd's!  I loves my music.  When I am doing a show, or my theatre group is producing a show, I spend a bit of time getting all of the recordings of it that I can find (usually on EBAY) - so I have multiple recordings of JOSEPH, SOUTH PACIFIC, OKLAHOMA!, MY FAIR LADY, etc.  And of course the collections that I make myself and have been sent to me by the DR's here at HHW.

My most treasured and rare:  THE COURT JESTER produced by Mr BK himself!  Didn't even know it existed!  And of course the Kritzer CD's....hope you are taking a CD player boombox to play some of those selections before during or AFTER the readings today, MR BK!

DVD's....like MBARNUM (and MR BK a week or so ago) I bought and am enjoying THE BEST OF YOU BET YOUR LIFE....oh my!  Otherwise, about 600 DVD's of all kinds.  I love the monster-sci fi genre of course!  But I have lots of musicals and epics!  I just recently got EL CID in a Chinese version.....great stereo sound, letterboxed, removable subtitles...it will do until we get an official release.  

Lots of VHS tapes as well....a few hundred, same genres...some of them the SAME movies!

A bit of BOLLYWOOD (including some made for me by MBARNUM) but a few that I really like, in the main PAKEEZAH!

Okay...someone else's turn!

[Jrand74]

Thanks for the link, Francois!  The MouseShoppe site is a great resource.  I think the Lucy MAME is also available at a good price at Collectors Choice CD!

[Jrand74]

That picture reminds me of a terrible joke, DR BEN.

[Ben]

Hmm, you might have to post it. I'm not sure which joke it is

[beckon]

TOD:

DVD: Well, I don't own a DVD player, so my DVD collection is zero, but I have a number of video tapes.  About 40-50.  Over half are Disney features and the rest are all musical theatre/cabaret programs I have recorded over the years.

CD/Cassette:  Originally I was a bit embarrased to admit how many recordings I have, but after reading the previous posts I see I am in good company.
I have easily 800-900 recordings.  It might be more, but I have never counted.  They are all musical theatre/cabaret related.  I realized a while back that if I collected other types of music also...I would dread to imagine how many CDs/cassettes I would have.  Thank goodness my strongest passion in music is musical theatre/cabaret.

[beckon]

DR George:

You are right.  Nina Hagen has a very...unique voice.  I thought it might work well for Weill.  For another person with a 'unique' voice doing Weill, you should check out Marianne Faithfull singing Kurt Weill.  I like it, but it is not for everyone's taste.

I hope you enjoy "Debbie Does Dallas."  I thought it was funny, but I think it holds the record for most dialogue on a cast recording.

[DERBRUCER]

MORNING LEVITY

A husband walks into Frederick's of Hollywood to purchase some sheer
lingerie for his wife. He is shown several possibilities that range from $250 to $500 in price, the more sheer, the higher the price. He opts for the most sheer item, pays the $500 and takes the lingerie home He presents it to his wife and asks her to go upstairs, put it on and model it for him.

Upstairs, the wife thinks, "I have an idea. It's so sheer that it might as well be nothing. I won't put it on, do the  modeling naked, return it tomorrow and keep the $500 refund for myself.

So she appears naked on the balcony and strikes a pose.

The husband says, "Good Lord! You'd think that for $500, they'd at least iron it!"

He never heard the shot. Funeral services are pending

This I received from a Republican-widow friend:



der Brucer

[DERBRUCER]

AND THE DAILY HEALTH/FOOD COMMENTARY

The Straight Dope reported:

Dear Cecil:

My wife loves sushi. Sushi is just raw fish. Raw fish is full of deadly contaminants. Is she doomed? Pull no punches. --Mike M., Chicago

Cecil replies:

Mike, I have to be honest with you. There is a big potential problem here. It involves something that's small, pink, and crawls.

HINT: You're not likely to chuck it under the chin and go, "Ooh, CUTE Baby Snookums."

You got it, pal. Worms.

Eating raw fish can result in anisakiasis, an infection caused by an infestation of Anisakis worm larvae.

Now, don't panic, it's not that bad. They're not BIG worms. Not like one of those tapeworms, which can be a foot or two in length and take up more room in your abdominal cavity than you do.

No, these are LITTLE worms. They grow up to a mere one inch in length.

This is not comforting you, I can tell. Sorry, I'm doing the best I can.

Well, not BIG WORMS - that's a relief!

Later it was observed:

EATING IT RAW: AN UPDATE

To the Teeming Millions:

Readers who recall Cecil's discussion of the hazards of eating raw fish will be fascinated by a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It seems a 24-year-old student with a pain in his right side underwent surgery for appendicitis. His appendix was found to be normal, but surgeons were startled to see a 10-inch pinkish-red worm crawl out of the guy's body.

Turned out to be a Eustrongylides, a parasite normally found in fish-eating birds. The victim, obviously not a regular reader of the Straight Dope, said he ate sushi and sashimi once a month.

My feeling is, if you must eat this stuff, make sure you first give it a good going-over with a rock.

But there is more to the story:

AN UPDATE UPDATE: OK TO USE SMALL ROCK

Dear Cecil:

Re the 10-inch post-sushi stomach worm, enclosed is a page from a recent Nutrition Action Healthletter. Turns out the Sushi Worm From Hell was "only" about 1-1/2 inches long. Some comfort. --Junu Kim, Chicago

It seems the editors of Nutrition Action, from which I got this horrifying item, multiplied instead of dividing when converting from the metric. I am surrounded by schmucks.

der "Happy to Share" Brucer

[JMK]

Well as the NW HHW contingent will attest (and as some of them outright mentioned) I have a lot of CDs and DVDs (and they didn't even see all of them since I don't think they ever went in the master bedroom).

Out in the living area are two CD cases, one with probably about 1,000 Brasilian CDs.  I love Brasilian music, love, love, love it.  Next to that case is another holding probably another 1,000 jazz and world music CDs, with a couple of shelves for soundtracks and easy listening, especially my wonderful Percy Faith recordings.  Because I was running out of room back in the bedroom, I also transferred some Broadway compilation stuff out to the living room, including all of BK's Lost in Bostons and Unsungs, etc.  Also on those shelves are some of the composer demos I have for shows like Foxy, Company, Prince of Grand St., blah blah blah.

Back in the master bedroom are three more cases (one a really cool rotating shelf--did you say rotating shelves?--ooh, a Monty Python reference, kind of).  The regular shelf holds probably (yes, again) another 1,000 classical recordings.  My favorite composers (right now, ask me again in 5 minutes and I'll have different choices) would include Brahms, R. Strauss and Stravinsky.

Next to that shelf is the rotating case featuring OCRs (probably close to 1,000, including many rare items , or so I'm told by my fauning acolytes LOL) and pop stuff (maybe 700 or so).

Next to this are my LPs.  Don't even get me started on LPs--I still have scads of them, on two huge beautiful wire and teak units that I got for free due to a huge shipping error (but that's another story).

Over in the corner is a smaller shelf with all my early music.  I am a huge fan of early music, especially Hildegard of Bingen, not to be confused with Hildegard of the 1950s.  I also have a lot of indigenous music of various cultures, including lots of early Jewish music.

Now DVDs--oy.  We have a whole media room downstairs stuffed to the gills with both DVDs and VHSs.  I would guess we have close to 1,000 DVDs, but who's counting (probably Betsy, who thinks I should rent and not always buy, and she's probably right, but don't tell her I said that).

In the master bedroom stuffed into a corner are two more DVD shelves with stuff we haven't gotten to yet (since I tend to buy lots on sales, we have a huge backlog).

[DERBRUCER]

TOD:

"How to I hear you, I can count the ways:"

CDs - 367 Show/Cabaret
          241 Classical
            67 Movie Soundtracks
            50 Pop
 Total:725 Titles

(There are at least 100 more not yet catalogued - PDQ Bach, Tom Lehrer, Dr. Demento, Yanni, Xmas stuff, etc.)

"How do I see thee, I can count the ways (with difficulty - multi disc box sets count as 1 Item, 2 Titles on a single disk count as 2 Items)":

DVDs 570 Titles

der Brucer (Woody and I are still fussing over cataloguing - every title as a line entry makes knowing what you have easiest, every box as a separate line entry makes finding the item easiest. CDs are grouped by category (Shows are in Title order, Cabaret and Pop are in Artist order, Classical in composer order)

[DERBRUCER]

Since George is a professional of the "cataloguing persuasion" perhaps we should all send him lists of all our media and have him prepare an integrated catalogue of all items for reference purposes.

George, unfortunately, is too old to be able to complete the task in his lifetime.

[Ben]

George, re: Bare, I, too, am unable to find any "show order" for the songs. I have the demo (which I got at Footlight for very cheap because it has no book, it's just in a CD case) and it says on the front, "songs not in Show Order". Do I need to see the show and get a Playbill (or just get a Playbill) to find out the show song order? I went through the Bare Web site and not a clue as to the song order. If you "sign up" at the Web site, you can still download the 11 songs on the CD sampler but it still doesn't tell you the order. Oh, well.

[Matt H.]

I stopped counting both CDs, tapes, and DVDs a long time ago. I know the DVDs number over a thousand. Cds are probably 500-700. Videotapes are probably close to 200, but their number has been dwindling as I've given away lots of stuff I had once I got it in better copies on DVD. Same with laserdiscs. USed to have 200 or so, but I gave many of them away to friends who had machines and no intention of replacing their lasers with DVDs.

[Matt H.]

Most of my Cds are show recordings of some type or other (and I include the various bk compilations in this). I do have a few personality discs (lots of Garland and Streisand, Durbin, Peter Allen, Village People, Crosby, etc.) and some soundtracks but really not very many of those at all.

The DVDs run the gamut from silents to classics to recent hits. There are lots of most every genre except war movies in which I have only a limited few titles. It is by far my least favorite genre.

[DERBRUCER]

News from the Wild, Wild, West:

Extract from an Associated Press story:

Waitress Arrested for Ordering Hit on PatronsFriday, September 17, 2004
 
WESTMINSTER, Calif.  — A waitress has been accused of ordering the killings of two customers who allegedly made rude remarks and tried to grab her as she served drinks at a Vietnamese nightclub, authorities said.

Ngan Thi Bich Vo, 20, was arrested Tuesday as she allegedly prepared to flee to Vietnam, police said. The woman's boyfriend, wanted for questioning about the Aug. 16 killings, may have left the country.

Vo was among three people named in a murder complaint stemming from the fatal shootings of Tri Thanh Phan, 38, and Kurt Martinsen, 29, at a Garden Grove nightclub. The men reportedly bought Vo a rose as a gesture of apology shortly before they were gunned down.

According to Garden Grove Police Lt. Mike Handfield, Vo called her boyfriend, who was at another nightclub, and told him she felt two customers had insulted her by tugging on her skirt and trying to flirt with her.

"She was highly upset, and that may have been the anger that caused this," Handfield said. "She called and facilitated the murders. There is evidence that suggested that she took part in a message to 'take care of business.'"

A gunman walked into the crowded restaurant, strode past four tables, opened fire and then fled into a getaway car. Two men allegedly in the getaway car were arrested

Now, I suspect Panni will turn this into a teleplay. "Taking Care of Business" as a title has been used; perhaps "When a Rose Is Not Enough" for LIFETIME.

der Brucer

[DERBRUCER]

There are lots of most every genre except war movies in which I have only a limited few titles. It is by far my least favorite genre.

I assume you exempt Sword and Sandal epics with half naked hunky men from the "war movie" category.

der Ancient Warmonger Brucer

[JMK]

Since BK mentioned books, I will usurp that as a supplementary TOD.  Just yesterday I got a great shipment of old Weekly Reader Book Club books that I had as a child, that I want to share with my boys.  Among these were two of my all-time childhood favorites:  The Pink Motel and Follow My Leader.  Any fans of these two in HHW land?  The cool thing is these were all mint with pretty much unblemished DJs and I got 18 of them for less than $20.00!!  eBay, of course.  Really strange in that The Pink Motel often goes with DJ for upwards of $30 or $40.

Now here's the interesting part for you bibliophiles:  also included were a bunch of other tomes, including a very interesting book from the early 30s called The Skipping Hillies by one Mabel Hall.  Inside it is inscribed by three of the Hill sisters, evidently the basis for the characters in the book.  I did a little Googling yesterday and only found one or two references, but they were most interesting:  the book is evidently about growing up in Carbondale, Illinois.  Now here's the punchline:  one of Betsy's oldest friends has lived in Carbondale for years and her husband is the state representative from that district!  So we are going to call them and see if we can get more information.

[Jay]

Here is another vacation picture.

There actually is a booth where you can drink all the milk you want for $1. It just isn't in the cow barn.

What Dear Reader Ben was saying when this photograph was taken:

"Sure they're nice.  But are they real?"

[bk]

I'm up and awaiting Mr. Handy Man.  I'm sitting at my kitchen table (where I like to have my laptop, although I must get a new table 'cause this one is too big for this kitchen) and living in a corner house in this neighborhood is very interesting.  There is a lot of dog-walking traffic and just plain walking traffic and it's all very very homey and sweet.  And, I'm now just a mere three doors up the street from our very own Mr. Terry Trotter.

[Jay]

You won't believe it, Dear Readers, as I can hardly believe it myself, but I actually cooked a hot breakfast for myself this morning, a very, very, very (that is three verys) rare occurrence in these here parts.  I made French toast (that's pain perdu to you, Dear Reader Francois de Paris) from leftover challah.

Can you plotz from the excitement?

[JMK]

DR Jay, Dear Spouse Betsy makes Challah French Toast on a weekly basis here.  I am very sad that I don't think I've ever had it, because if I have something rich (especially with syrup) for breakfast, I am a lethargic mess for most of the day.  Maybe I should have it for dinner!!