RIP Jim Nabors

Actor and singer Jim Nabors passed away, he was 87.

This time of year has always made me think of Jim Nabors.  Yes, my very early years were filled with memories of Gomer Pyle, either on Andy Griffith or his own show, a highlight of those shows for me and my family was those occasions when Jim Nabors would sing, and sometimes in the Christmas holiday season he would sing on various variety shows and specials as well.

One particular Christmas season I remember helping my big brother put up the outside Christmas lights and decorations after he had bought our Mom Jim Nabors’ Christmas album.  I can still remember his version of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” as we put up the lights.  It’s a good memory, and one I miss very much here in Florida where we barely get a chill in December. 

I have later memories of Jim Nabors, like his slapstick robot role with Ruth Buzzi on Sid and Marty Krofft’s “The Lost Saucer” and his coming out and finally marriage to his lover of many years.  Jim Nabors will be missed. 

RIP David Cassidy

After a frightening few days, actor/musician/songwriter David Cassidy has passed away at the age of 67. We have lost more than a couple folks in the last few days, but this one has hit me the hardest, perhaps because he was such a part of my childhood.

Mel Tillis was more of someone I heard about than heard from, most as a joke on "The Tonight Show;" Della Reese was a great talent, but other than "Touched by an Angel," I was for the most part unfamiliar with her; Charles Manson haunted the recesses of my formative years, was legend if nothing else, and if I'm being honest, Steve Railsback's portrayal of him in the TV movie Helter Skelter was far more frightening than the real thing I saw cavorting in his cell on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow;" and Malcolm Young of AC/DC was a great loss, but let's be honest, the band's golden age was decades ago, and that's coming from a fan. But David Cassidy, this one resounded with me.

David Cassidy was Friday night after "The Brady Bunch." And although I preferred the Bradys over "The Partridge Family," the latter was much cooler, much hipper, and more real to me. Perhaps I remember hearing somewhere that they were real, or based on real people (I know now it was the Cowsills), but the Family, their bus, and especially David Cassidy's Keith Partridge, were all way cooler than the Bradys. When David's little brother came along later, I liked him, but still remember thinking David was cooler.

One of my favorite underrated and lost TV series featured David Cassidy as an undercover cop in high school and was a backdoor pilot and spin-off from "Police Story." The premise of cop in high school worked better the first few episodes then fizzled out, but I still remember the oddly titled "David Cassidy: Man Undercover" fondly. It was the godfather of "21 Jump Street," and to this day I think it was better.

Later I discovered his music, both solo and with what passed for the Partridge Family on vinyl, the nerd in me loved his role of Mirror Master in the original 1990 "The Flash" TV series, and I still enjoy his daughter Katie on "Arrow" as both the Black Canary, and now the Black Siren.

David Cassidy was a star of TV, stage, and music, and will be missed.

Kansas: Miracles Out of Nowhere

Kansas: Miracles Out of Nowhere ~ I stumbled across this documentary the other night on one of the MTV channels, and it brought back some great memories.  The doc tells the story of the band Kansas from its beginnings to their commercial success through individual interviews with the original six members. 

I remember hearing Kansas on the FM AOR radio, mostly WMMR and WYSP in the mid-seventies, and thinking they were okay.  I wouldn't change the station if they were on, basically, but I didn't really appreciate their music or their artistry until I heard them played in a neighbor's basement that had a killer stereo system.  That brought Kansas to life for me. 

I also remember a trip to the Ocean City boardwalk and a busker who refused to play "Dust in the Wind" because it was 'the hardest song ever to play properly,' and he 'didn't want his fingers to bleed.'  He got booed by both those who requested it and wanted to hear it.  True or not, it gave me added awe for the tune. 

My favorite Kansas song was "People of the South Wind" from the album Monolith, a song and an album both considered failures, but its content pulled at me.  Native Americans shoved aside by the white man, and wearing space helmets on the cover of the album drew me just like the fantastical elements of the cover of Point of Know Return.  It's still one of my favorite songs from that time. 

The doc is compelling, and tells stories of their early days, composition of songs, dealing with Don Kirshner, fighting with Steven Tyler, and the internal struggles of the band.  This is one of the better rock docs I've seen, cool for Kansas fans old, new, or fans not at all.  Check it out.

Glen Campbell 1936-2017

I was sad to hear of Glen Campbell's passing earlier today, as I've always felt a weird kinship to the man. When I was but a wee one, the family would watch his television variety show, "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," and when I was learning to read and spell, his name was an example of 'the wrong way' to spell my name.

I grew up with Glen Campbell, his songs "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman" were AM radio staples just "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Southern Nights" were the same on FM when I discovered that bandwidth. His role as Texas Ranger Le Bouef in the original True Grit was one of the things that made the flick one of my favorite movies.

As I grew older, his participation with the Beach Boys and studio work as one of the Wrecking Crew were more than impressive. He was way more than a country guy my parents liked and a movie cowboy. Much later I was struck by the tragedy of his living with Alzheimer's in the documentary I'll Be Me.

Those not familiar with the man's work should seek out three of his final albums - Adios, Ghost on the Canvas, and Meet Glen Campbell, an album of covers with guest-stars, all proof positive he was vital and vibrant toward the end, even fighting that horrible disease. May he rest in peace.

RIP Chester Bennington

I had just come out of a movie with my phone off. It's amazing how much one can miss in a mere two hours. I'm not pardoning people who use their cellphones in movies, no way, I think those folks should be jailed, but I'm just saying that sometimes it is stunning how the world can change in two hours. In the two hours today, the news broke that Chester Bennington, lead vocalist of Linkin Park, had taken his own life. As I sat in the car, having just turned my phone on, I was devastated.

I had only just been listening to the band a day or so ago. Linkin Park is one of those acts who may fade from one's memory, but all it takes is a few seconds of any song, and one remembers and realizes what an amazing construct they are. I had heard just a clip of "In the End" the other day, and was soon listening to Hybrid Theory on my laptop on continuous for a bit. They were amazing.

I am old, waaay old, but the emergence of Linkin Park reenergized me in a way that is hard to describe. I've mentioned it here before, but in high school I was the kid who always carried a radio around with me, I was always on top of what was new and 'cool' in music. I had made a promise to myself way back when, that if I got old, I would never lose that. Ah, to be young and naïve.

Sometime in the 1990s however, I did get old, and my interest in new music waned. I figured, oh well, it came with the thinning hair and the crow's feet, just deal with it. Then came a music channel called MTVX. I immediately gravitated toward it, and in its heavy hard rock rotation I found new bands that I connected with - like Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Korn, System of a Down, Disturbed, and Linkin Park.

For someone like me who had always liked the hard rock aspects of some rap, Linkin Park's blending of metal with hip hop was a dream come true. I became a big fan. Chester Bennington's melodic howls and lead vocals contrasted with Mike Shinoda's crisp casual raps over a metal tapestry of sound. Yeah, I dug these guys. "Faint," "In the End," and "Bleed It Out" remain my all-time favorites.

Over the years Chester has also worked on side projects such as fronting Dead by Sunrise, and attempting to fill the late Scott Weiland's shoes in Stone Temple Pilots for a couple years, and left shortly before Weiland himself passed. Chester apparently died by his own hand, hanging himself, but details are still forthcoming. He was only 41.

Sonny and Cher on Television

There was a time back in the 1970s when variety shows were all the rage.  The closest thing we have these days are the contests like "America's Got Talent" or the late night talk shows, or the current godfather of them all "Saturday Night Live," but there was a time when they ruled prime time television.  There was Carol Burnett, Donny and Marie Osmond, the Captain and Tennille, Shields and Yarnell, Flip Wilson, even the Brady Bunch, there were dozens, and then there was Sonny and Cher. 

Cher, and her older mentor husband Sonny Bono came to prominence in the 1960s as the pop duo Sonny and Cher.  With their hits "The Beat Goes On" and "I Got You Babe" (each would later become their theme songs on TV), they were an odd coupling.  The hippies thought they were straights, and the straights thought they were hippies, giving them an almost universal appeal by default.  They began playing Las Vegas, where they developed the banter and chemistry that would make them TV stars. 

Their variety show ran for three seasons before their divorce ended it.  The next season featured two new shows, one for Sonny and one for Cher, followed in the next season by a new show featuring them both.  No longer married, but still friends and working partners, the jokes were a bit meaner and subtextual.  Audiences loved it in all its incarnations.  And while the pair were no longer making hits, Cher had several of her solo hits featured on the shows.

Recently a nostalgia network new to us in Florida, GetTV, has acquired the programs and have been running them.  I haven't seen any of them since they aired, and it was quite a surprise.  Less dated and more risqué than I imagined, I can only guess that puberty had not kicked in yet regarding Cher's scandalous outfits by Bob Mackie. 

The wardrobe, glam rock style aside, notwithstanding, wasn't the only thing that was edgy.  The humor is something that like Cher's dresses (or lack thereof, how did she get away with them?) was also a bit risqué.  I'm really not sure a lot of this would have gotten through censors today.  Not just dated jokes, but a lot racial humor and sexual innuendo, so in that way, these shows are an intriguing time capsule. 

Catch them if you can for a bit of nostalgia, a bit of social evolution, and a laugh or two.  And for those who did not live through the 1970s, don't laugh at us too hard. 

La La Land

La La Land ~ Already garnering awards and attention from critics since its soft release over the holidays, this is not only one of the best films of the year, quite possibly one of the best in quite a while. When I saw this recently with The Bride, we were literally smiling as we watched. When was the last time any of us saw a film that legitimately brought us joy? This is that movie. We laugh when they want us to laugh, and we cry when they want us to cry, and yet, we don't feel manipulated. The feeling is sincere.

First of all, this is not a traditional movie as we know it. La La Land is a throwback to the Hollywood musicals of old, yet taking place today, with now characters and now sensibilities. Emma Stone (who I usually do not like) and Ryan Gosling play an aspiring actress and musician couple in a love story with ups and downs, song and dance, and charmed me almost immediately. John Legend also impresses with an economy of screen time.

The film has a jazz vibe that will make fans and non-fans of the art form love jazz again or for the first time, and you will never hear "I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls the same way ever again. The music is so important and so wonderful here. Draped in vibrant color and unassuming three dimensions, should you choose to see it like that, this is a mesmerizing spectacle of sight and sound and emotion. Funny, sad, bittersweet, and uplifting, La La Land is the movie of the year. See it, just see it, highly recommended.

George Michael 1963-2016

Wow, 2016, you suck. George Michael, the singer-songwriter-producer born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, has passed away peacefully on Christmas Day.

Wham!, or Wham! UK as they were known when I discovered them, was one of my favorite groups, their blue-eyed soul blended with white boy rap was something I hadn't seen before and I dug it. I remember the duo, Michael combined with Andrew Ridgeley, and at the time, Pepsi and Shirlie, as their back-up singers and dancers, were one of my favorite acts. Long before the hit with "Bad Boys" and the megahit album Make It Big, I was a fan.

When George started to become the dominant solo act of the duo, and then went officially solo, I was still there. Songs like "Faith," "I Want Your Sex," and one of my personal favorite songs (and videos) of all time, "Freedom! '90" continued to hurl his star higher. Even sex scandals couldn't keep the man down. His "Last Christmas" is a favorite every holiday season, this one being no exception.

George Michael will be missed, a loss to many, and another victim of an unforgiving year. Love you, man.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #42

"2000 Miles" by The Pretenders

Back in the day, before A Very Special Christmas came out, followed by several sequel albums, there were virtually no holiday songs in the New Wave, maybe only a handful, including "Christmas Wrapping," "Do They Know It's Christmas," and this one.

Originally released for Christmas 1983 around the release of the Pretenders third album, the first with their new line-up after the deaths of band members Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott. As the years have gone by, it has become a new wave classic of the season.

Here's the music video that was made a few years after the song first came out.

Alan Thicke 1947-2016

While I was never a big fan of his most famous claim to fame, the TV series "Growing Pains," I'm going to miss Alan Thicke, who passed earlier today. The actor, writer, and TV host was known to me for other reasons. As a game show geek, I knew he had composed the themes to such shows as "Joker's Wild," "Celebrity Sweepstakes," and "Wheel of Fortune," among others. He was huge in his homeland of Canada, and was the father of Robin Thicke, but that's not what I remember him for either.

Two accomplishments made Thicke loom large on my radar, first as a writer on the hilarious and sadly forgotten "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" spin-off "Fernwood 2-Night," and then as the host of the late night American talk show, "Thicke of the Night." The latter exposed me to many bands, that today I still love (Midnight Oil springs to mind), and Thicke's insistence on giving viewers what they weren't getting from Johnny Carson made it all stand out. I was in the minority, but I loved it, and was sad to see it go.

I'm even sadder to see Alan Thicke himself go. I just recently saw him in a horrendous film parody called RoboDoc, in which he was the best thing. No matter what he was in, and he was in everything as he never stopped working, he was always great, and never lost his sense of humor. Alan Thicke will be missed.

Moana

Moana ~ The Bride is a theater rat, and it's one of the few things we don't share often. I find Broadway dreary and boring. Oh sure, there are quite a few songs, even a few shows that I dig - West Side Story and Jesus Christ Superstar come to mind, but that's really it. I slept through Starlight Express, Les Miz made me want to claw my eyes out, and Cats made me question my love of those fuzzy felines. I'm not a Broadway guy.

However, there's one show I really want to see, and yet The Bride refuses, touting her dislike of rap as the cause, and that's Hamilton. I love it and would pay top dollar to see it. Of the only five albums I purchased this year, two were the soundtrack to Hamilton and the Hamilton Mixtape. I'd hoped this would bridge the gap, but the only show I want to see is the only show she won't see.

Then came Moana.

We both share a love of Disney, so much so we do a semi-regular podcast about all things Disney called The Make Mine Magic Podcast (and keep an eye out there as we'll both be reviewing Moana on the 'cast sooner or later), so we were seeing their newest animated feature the first weekend it was out. Much to my delight, and her surprise, the film featured more than a few songs by Hamilton mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda. That said, the music is amazing, and we both loved it – the soundtrack another purchase for 2016.

The film itself has its origins in the animator/directors researching Polynesian mythology and history (both of which Moana is a gateway drug to), from which Maui the demigod emerges. Played flawlessly by The Rock, Maui is a very different kind of Disney hero. He considers himself almost literally the gods' gift to mankind as his theme song, "You're Welcome," deliciously illustrates. Originally conceived as a tale of Maui, it soon transformed into a more traditional journey for a more traditional Disney princess, Moana. Together, though at first in conflict, they save her people's way of life.

The story is not so different, but the animation improves as it always does from flick to flick, but let's be real – the music is the real star here. Several songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and even a couple sung by him. As a bonus for folks who buy the soundtrack, there are also demos of these tunes and even a couple outtakes of songs not used in the movie. I loved this film, I loved the soundtrack, and maybe now I might be able to talk The Bride into Hamilton. And Moana is highly recommended.

Leonard Cohen 1934-2016

Like many of my friends, and fellow fans and music lovers, I have no words.

Ghostbusters 1984

Back in the early 1980s I had the perfect job, I worked in a record store at the mall. I watched trends happen on a daily basis. I witnessed the Michael Jackson phenomenon firsthand, Madonna, Prince, Boy George, Duran Duran, the birth of Motley Crue, and the popification of Bruce Springsteen - I saw it all, including the summer of Ghostbusters.

From out of a sea of "Lucky Star" outfits and "Thriller" jackets they appeared, the Ghostbusters t-shirts, just as the trailers began. Not just the logo, there were some that said "who you gonna call" and "I ain't afraid of no ghost" to the rarer "I've been slimed" and "back off, man, I'm a scientist." We knew this was going to be a big movie even before Ray Parker Jr. saturated Hot Hits radio with its theme song.

I remember the Friday night that the movie opened, for all the wrong reasons. I broke up with a girlfriend and asked a friend to see the flick with me instead, who became my new girlfriend. Soap opera aside, that June night launched the blockbuster horror/scifi/comedy that definitely lived up to the hype, and a summer of quoting lines and re-seeing the film began.

Toy lines, a hit animated series, and the emblem were everywhere, and the thing was - it's a great film and deserved it all, watchable even today. Like I said in my review of the new movie, it's not the 1984 Ghostbusters, but very few movies are. I wouldn't say I'm a Ghosthead, but yeah, I love this film.

Three scientists, two serious and one not so serious, enter the paranormal investigation game and discover a way to capture ghosts. They learn that the increased paranormal activity is the result of an extra-dimensional entity trying to break through, and stop it, thereby saving New York. That's about it, and that last bit is very important, as the movie is very New York, almost a love letter to the city. A line from the climactic battle, "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown" says it all.

Despite it being written with John Belushi in mind, I think it's Bill Murray's funniest movie. Dan Aykroyd (who co-wrote with Ivan Reitman), Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and even Annie Potts and Rick Moranis are perfect supporting. Harold Ramis is wonderful with his deadpan dialogue and facial expressions, giving Kate McKinnon the perfect template for the new movie. Everyone is on mark and at their best.

When it comes right down to it, what can be said about the original Ghostbusters? It stands up after over three decades, it's one of the funniest films ever made and it's not even technically a comedy, and I watch it whenever I find it on television, and still laugh. And it's been on television a lot with the new version currently on DVD and Blu-Ray. This is probably one of the most iconic films of its generation, and thus the aggravation over the remake, but it stands as one of the best. If you haven't seen it, do so, and if you have, do it again.

Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton ~ I find it hard to believe that this film was so ignored by the Oscars. The #OscarsSoWhite controversy becomes crystal clear for anyone who has seen Straight Outta Compton as it should have garnered multiple nominations for Best Actor and Supporting Actor, as well as Best Film, Best Director, and that's not even mentioning the various music and sound categories. What the hell happened here?

Besides that incomprehensible omission, Straight Outta Compton is obviously the biography of N.W.A., and specifically Easy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Yeah, I know, there are more members of the group, including the one the film completely ignores, but let's face it, if you make a movie about the Beatles, you're really only focusing on John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Big guns only, ya know?

The film is amazing. I can't say enough about the performances by Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube's son, playing the young Ice Cube, and Paul Giamatti as evil promoter Jerry Heller. The music is fantastic, a time capsule of the 1990s and how N.W.A. changed hip hop and rap into something harder and more real, a sound of the street, and specifically Los Angeles in a time of violence.

Again however, omission seems to be a theme when it comes to Straight Outta Compton. With the real Ice Cube and Dr, Dre, as well as Easy-E's widow as producers on the flick, one might assume they want to sweep any dirty laundry under the rug. There are very few women in the movie, save Carra Patterson, who aren't just there for the party or the sex. And no mention is made of Dre's numerous domestic violence charges against women.

All that aside, this is a brilliant film, must-see for folks into N.W.A. and the music of the time, a true time capsule, and a terrific movie.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest - Grand Final

If you've been following my reviews of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, Semi-Final 1 and Semi-Final 2, and you're looking for my thoughts on The Grand Final, check out the article at Biff Bam Pop! right here. Enjoy!

RIP Prince

This is devastating. Everyone has those artists who they love, that whenever they come out with an album or any project, you simply, blindly, faithfully just buy without having heard it - because you know it's going to be great. This year, barely five months in, I have lost two of them. David Bowie, and now Prince. It's no longer a joke or a meme, 2016 has truly been a soul crusher for music.

I first discovered Prince waaay back in late 1981 or early 1982, the first time I heard the song "Controversy," on WYSP in Philadelphia, a mainstream rock station. That's one of the things I loved about Prince, he crossed genres. To look at him, an African-American male with R&B airplay in his past getting time on a station that regularly pumped out AC/DC and Yes made an impression on me. Prince was something special.

I further explored his work by buying that album, loving it, and Dirty Mind, the one before it, and the two lesser liked ones that preceded them. Just because I didn't dig them as much, doesn't mean there weren't gems in there, or that I didn't respect the genius there. Anyway, by the time everyone else caught up when 1999 came out, I was already a life long fan. It may be hard for kids today to appreciate, but I played those cassettes so much, I wore them out, and had to buy new ones.

With each album, each fashion, each incarnation, and transformation (something else that Prince had in common with Bowie) I followed. I loved the man, I loved his music, his videos, his movies, his smirk, his sense of humor, his defiance. The man was fierce, and a fiery performer.

I'm still numb. I don't know what else to say. I love you, man. And I miss you already.


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A slightly different version of this appears at Biff Bam Pop!. Please pop over there for more remembrances of Prince by the staff there.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #41

"Blue Highway" by Billy Idol

There was a time in the mid-1980s when Billy Idol, despite his look and punk origins with Generation X (yeah, remember when it was a band and not a demographic?), was considered pop music and played to death on the radio and MTV.

Yeah, I loved "Rebel Yell" the first ten times I heard it, but man, the next thousand were downright painful. This song, "Blue Highway," got some minor play on radio and in the clubs, and was a nice change of pace. It still had the strong vocals of Billy and the screeching cool guitar of Steve Stevens, the vibe of "Rebel Yell," all without the overplay souring. It's almost like a new song.



"Blue Highway" has since become, and deservedly so, a staple on 1st Wave Classic Alternative Satellite Radio. And for the record, the above is not the real video, as the song had no video. The clips are from Billy's later album, Cyberpunk, also highly recommended.

Remembering David Bowie

Last night's news of David Bowie's passing hit me hard. I was devastated. Many of you know I've been seriously ill for a month or so, but I've been making forward progress and trying to be positive - but this loss was a physical blow and crushed my spirits. I loved and love Bowie, he was a favorite, an idol, an inspiration, and the man marked my life.

My first exposure to Bowie, and also to the offensive gay epithet that starts with an F, was when I saw the "Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)" duet with Bing Crosby originally air. I remember seeing him on "Soul Train," and in drag and as a puppet on "Saturday Night Live." "DJ" from Lodger (which I had on 8-track) was probably the first proper music video I ever saw, another field in which Bowie was a pioneer.

I remember vividly the first times I heard many of his songs. "Golden Years," "Cat People," "Station to Station," "I'm Afraid of Americans," "Let's Dance," "Sound and Vision," and a dozen others all hold specific memories for my first listens. How many other artists or songs can one say that about?

I saw Bowie once, during his Glass Spider tour. Squeeze opened, and both Peter Frampton and Toni Basil were part of his entourage on stage, but Bowie shined like a supernova in that dying and falling apart JFK Stadium. He was mesmerizing and amazing, a burning, singing, dancing light enthralling the thousands there. I'll never forget it.

This weekend, the weekend of both his birthday and death, was filled with Bowie for me. I watched him on "Storytellers" telling tales and performing for a small audience songs from his then-new album Hours. I also finally got around to listening to Blackstar, a fabulous collection. In an iTunes age when one can just cherry pick the songs one likes, I preordered Blackstar in its entirety as I have Bowie's last few.

And today I am crushed, numb, and indescribably sad. Rest in peace, man, I love you, you changed my life.
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A slightly different version of this appears at Biff Bam Pop!. Please pop over there for more remembrances of David Bowie by the staff there.

Blunt Talk and Tunes

This past week featured the premiere of the new Starz series "Blunt Talk" starring Patrick Stewart and created by Jonathan Ames. I was looking forward to this one more for the creator than for the tenuous Star Trek connection. While it was fun to see Brent 'Data' Spiner show up in the first minute of the opening episode, I'm sure that the adventures of title character Walter Blunt, played by Stewart, may well turn off most Trek fans.

Stewart plays Blunt, a British war vet and newscaster who's come to America to do a news/opinion show, the kind that I hate so much. One drunken escapade with a transgender prostitute, and Blunt is in trouble, and continuing his downward spiral as he takes drugs and lies to his employers. This dark humor is what I tuned in for, not Star Trek.

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Ames. His novels, columns, and especially his HBO series "Bored to Death" are full of this type of sarcastic darkness, and I love it. Stewart plays well in this world, and is a comic delight to watch. One particular scene in an airport bathroom in the second episode had me in hysterics. Stewart has a real talent for physical comedy.

The real bonus for me watching the first few episodes was the song "Miss Cindy" by The High Decibels in the first one. Sort of a hip hop rockabilly, it grabbed me right away, so after Shazam-ing and SoundHound-ing it, I sample-listened to the two albums by the band on iTunes. I dug it, a lot, and bought both. Seriously, there's not a bad song in the bunch. When was the last time you bought an entire album where you liked every track, let alone two? Great stuff.

RIP Yvonne Craig

Actress Yvonne Craig, TV's Batgirl, has passed away at the age of 78 after a battle with breast cancer. This was not the kind of news I wanted to wake to a morning earlier this week, or any morning.

For many of us, boy and girl, Yvonne Craig's Batgirl was our first crush. It was never a matter of Ginger or Mary Ann, it was Batgirl or Julie Newmar's Catwoman. Hell, even today, those two women might very well be responsible for my predilection for redheads. Seeing her with Elvis in Kissin' Cousins, and later as the green-skinned slave girl from Orion on "Star Trek," cemented that crush for myself, and thousands of others.

As Batgirl on the 1960s "Batman" TV series, she was the original super-heroine role model - before Wonder Woman, before the Bionic Woman, or Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, and definitely before the Black Widow, Yvonne was kicking butt and taking names and even had her own theme song, debatably cooler than Batman's. And although there was a Bat-Girl in the comics in the 1950s, the character of Barbara Gordon as the new Batgirl was launched almost simultaneously with the TV version, many times taking her cues from Yvonne Craig's portrayal.

I met Ms. Craig once, for just a moment at a convention years ago. She still looked great, was sweet and tolerant of my gushing, and was funny and ironic. Unlike many stars folks meet at cons, she was a delight, and she will be missed.