songbird's crazy world

Driving around Long Island post-Sandy . . . Gas crisis!  Stations are closed, with signs reading "no gas".  A station pumping gas will have a long line of cars waiting . . . This is temporary, it should resolve as normalcy returns. But remember when it was the norm? The gas crisis of the 1970's.  Buying gas on "odd"  or "even" days, depending on your license plate.  Waiting in line at the gas station. It's when a lot of Americans switched from gas guzzlers to foreign-made fuel efficient vehicles. There are some things about the 70's that I do not miss at all.

It was 1975, and I was 15 years old, and the biggest song on the radio was this incredibly romantic ballad called "Mandy" by an up and coming singer named Barry Manilow, and I was in love. And two years later, when I bought "Barry Manilow Live" (a double album!) . . .when Barry talked to the audience I felt like he was talking to me. All I wanted. . . What I really, really wanted . . . Was to go to a Barry Manilow concert. Alas, it was not to be. Last fall we heard that Barry was planning four concerts in Radio City Music Hall, and that the concerts would be in mid February. What a perfect Valentine to give to ourselves! Drew bought tickets for Sunday February 12 and we were both excited to go. And then in December Barry had hip surgery and wound up postponing a lot of his concerts. Our February 12 performance was moved to May 2. Our evening began in the Brooklyn USA Diner on West 43rd. We had enjoyed a meal here awhile back and fi...

"Part-radio and part-fashion accessory, the Toot-A-Loop was wearable technology. Worn around the wrist like a bracelet, or carried like a purse, the Toot-A-Loop was shaped like a tapered doughnut, twisting open to reveal the tuning dial on the inside. The AM-only radio also came with fun stickers so users could customise it." -- Flashback Fridays I had one in red. I'd wear it on my wrist. Sort of like a prehistoric iPod. It was my way of taking all my friends at WABC with me. I can still here the jingle -- "77, WABC". Simple and direct. Later the station began to refer to itself as "Musicradio". Radio was personality-driven then. Harry Harrison, the Morning Mayor. Ron Lundy, who thought NYC was the greatest city in the world. Dan Ingram, who every summer reminded you to "roll your bod." (Hey, Kemosabe.)And of course, Bruce Morrow -- Cousin Brucie. Even if you didn't grow up in the NYC area, you know cousin Bruci...

Remember this? The Kodak Instamatic camera. I got one when I was in 6th grade. That would have been 1972. Great camera for its time. The film came in a cartridge, all you had to do to load the camera was place the cartidge in the right compartment. the flash was delivered by a rotating cube, so you could take four flash pictures in a row without changing the bulb. the camera was sold as a kit, accompanied by film and flash cubes, all of which came in a bright yellow box with the Kodak label on it. It was one of the first point-and-shoot cameras, it had no features at all. I remember taking the camera on my 6th grade field trip -- a boat ride around the Great South Bay. The day was overcast, and I must have taken a dozen shots of gray ocean and gray sky. Of course, I took lots of other pictures, too -- friends, family, my dog. I really enjoyed playing with that camera.

 Let me take you back to the summer of 1978.  I had just graduated from high school and would soon start college.  I was incredibly innocent and naive, idealistic and earnest.  I was anxious for school to start, anxious for life to start.  Worked at  the beach that summer, 40 hours a week. And THE album that summer?

I first saw Harry Chapin perform live in 1975, when he did a concert IN MY HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM. Harry lived in Huntington, NY at the time and I lived in a nearby community, and the concert was to raise money for his charity -- world hunger. Saw him perform again in college. More than once. And I was sitting in Eisenhower Park on July 16, 1981, waiting for the Harry Chapin concert that never happened. Thank you, Harry, for all those wonderful moments.

OMG Airport 1975 was on TV last week. "The stewardess is flying the plane!" how absurd.  yet they made it work.  and made a real nail biter. and the cast list was amazing.  Charleton Heston, Efram Zimbalist Jr., George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson,  Helen Reddy, Linda Blair, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, :Larry Storch, Norman Fell, Karen Black, Jerry Stiller, Erik Estrada, Sharon Gless  -- some famous, some rising stars, a few on their way down ... and they created somethng that was so easily parodied -- with great success -- in Airplane .

youtube finds...reliving my youth I practically wore out the vinyl on "An Evening with John Denver". Look at that early-70's backdrop!

we really took our laundry seriously back then

thinking about my upcoming cruise.... remember this show?

I've got baseball on my mind for some strange reason....

Steve Martin at his best The guy sure looks like plant food to me: born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia: and with the banjo:

Remember this Dr. Pepper commercial? David Naughton in his pre- Makin' It days.

So I was eating a Fig Newton today...and the fig Newton jingle popped into my head. remember it? they guy dressed like a huge fig, singing "The big Fig Newton" and dancing while munching on a cookie? ("here's the tricky part" Found it on Myspace, of all places: the Big Fig Newton

Remeber A Chorus LIne? I must have played this album 1,000 times. I knew every word, every note. I was 15, too old to "play", but I'd head down to the basement, turn on the music and act out all the parts. It was one of my favorite musicals of all time.

this weekend I went to the movies and saw Denzel Washington and John Travolta in Pelham 123 . then on Sunday night I saw the original 1974 version, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Loved both movies, but they are very, very different. Modern tough-guy filmmakers like Quentin Tarentino acknowledge their debt to this pedal-to-the-metal thriller, directed by Joseph Sargent from John Godey's bestseller. Walter Matthau is a hoot as the savvy NY transit cop who's smarter than he looks, well-matched by Robert Shaw as the icy mercenary whose gang has hijacked a subway car for a one-million-dollar ransom. This film's been imitated so often because its makers were really at the top of their game. Owen Roizman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) handled the gritty location photography; scripter Peter Stone contributed terse, funny dialogue; scene-stealers like Martin Balsam, Jerry Stiller, Dick O'Neill and others made their roles indelible; and David ...

remember this guy? David Cassidy was my first real teen idol. I mean, I really liked Davy Jones when I watched "The Monkees", and I thought Bobby Sherman was cute. But David....that was true love. I got to see the object of my affection every week on "The Partridge Family". I bought the albums, the book covers, whatever my mom would let me buy. I memorized all the words to all the songs, I'd sing along tothe albums, then go outside and pretend my front porch was a stage... I cried because I never, ever went to a David Cassidy concert. it wasn't until many, many years later that I got to see David in person. David and his brother Sean, along with Petula Clark, were starring in a Broadway musical, "Blood Brothers". (what a remarkable talent David is, how sad that being a teen idol almost ruined everything for him.) what a night it was, finally seeing the man who won my heart so long ago.

anybody remember these guys? or this toy? did you have one of these? or this? and, of course, this iconic symbol was everywhere -- on t-shirts, rubber balls, pins, you name it:

Billy Joel's breakthrough album, released in 1977. I was 17 years old. I bought this album and must have played it a thousand times. The Stranger .. .Scenes From an Italian Restaurant .... Movin' Out .... classics. and that was the year I had a teacher who actually knew Billy Joel. Seems my teacher was a graduate of Hicksville High School, attended that school at the same time as Billy was enrolled there. Barely knew him, though --- he would cut school to hang out in Oyster Bay or Cold Spring Harbor. I was very impressed, of course. though this was before I met my now-ex husband. he and his older sister also "knew" Billy -- they used to hang out in some candy shop in Hicksville back in the day...and billy would hang out there sometimes, too. I suppose every Long Islander of a certain age has a Billy Joel story like this. anyhow, Billy Joel became one of my favorites back then, and I am still a fan to this day.