Digitalizing Memories

Started off a hot, sunny day with Blueberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Brunch With the Beatles. The album in the spotlight was Hey Jude: The Beatles' Again, a US-only Capitol records release that more-or-less collected all of the Beatles songs which had only been heard as singles on this side of the pond before then. Along with the title number, these included "Paperback Writer," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "I Should Have Known Better," "Revolution," "Rain," and "Lady Madonna."

Called Mom after I finished breakfast. Our chat was brief. She'd just finished a long session in the garden and was about to start another one. Keefe was only just tumbling out of bed. His girlfriend Vicki's birthday was yesterday, and they spent the day together, from enjoying a brunch to spending the evening at the Wildwood Boardwalk.

I also told Mom to pass my birthday greetings onto my nephew Skylar, my sister Anny's oldest son. He's turning 7 today! Mom suggested to just send him money; everyone else in the family had showered him with presents, and at his age, he's just starting to enjoy shopping for himself.

Swept the porch while Brunch With the Beatles was ending. I'd put it off for a while. The mosquitoes have been really bad this year. I just couldn't put it off any longer. There were cobwebs and large, round, peppery-smelling nuts (and the leftovers from my "neighbors" the squirrels and chipmunks eating those nuts) and sticks and dry leaves everywhere.

After I finished, I went for a long walk to Newton River Park. It was a lovely day for it. There were puffy white clouds in the sky, but at 12:30, they were hardly threatening. It was sunny and a little breezy. Lots of people were out and about, jogging, biking, or walking dogs.

I hiked up a long, steep stone stairway and up to Oaklawn Avenue in Oaklyn. Walked to East Clinton, then across the White Horse Pike to Dunkin' Donuts. I don't usually go in there. I don't like donuts (too sweet and sticky) or their prices. To celebrate my rare Sunday off, I decided to treat myself to a Frozen Hot Chocolate...i.e, a slushie with chocolate syrup. Not bad, but not worth 3 bucks, either.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at home. I was determined to get the DVD recorder and the VCR playing together. I finally removed the thick cable all together. Shining a flashlight on the VCR revealed that I had the audio hooks in the wrong spots. It's hard to read the writing on the VCR in that part of the living room, which is pressed against the back wall and has no windows. I arranged the audio and video cables in the right places...and this time, it worked. Everything recorded right, video and audio. And yes, I now feel very silly for not figuring that out earlier.

Under any circumstances, I was able to record my first home-made DVDs this evening. The first one I did was very special to me. In 1988, my father Bruce and his wife Kaye borrowed a camcorder from friends and taped my sister Rose's 8th birthday party, which they held with their friends when we visited their then-home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida over our spring break. Bruce, Kaye, and their friends also recorded our antics in their friends' pool over the next few days.

Rose and I visited Bruce and Kaye again in the summer of 1990. This time, we were off to Walt Disney World for most of the week. Dick Tracy was the big movie being advertised at the theme parks that summer. The movie-oriented park that was then known as Disney-MGM Studios had a show in one of the shops where they pulled random people from the audience to perform in a Dick Tracy-themed skit. Yes, I was one of those people. I played Tess Trueheart confronting Breathless Mahoney and two of her back-up singers after she found Mahoney's sheet music in Dick Tracy's office. I eventually "knock out" the girls (via cartoon-y "punching" sound effects). The girl who played Breathless actually sang part of a credible "Vogue" and was pretty funny when she had to collapse after I "hit" her, including singing part of "Vogue" again! (The director's ad-lib was the best line, though - "It's Madonna after a long concert." ;) )

I believe the third item was from about a year or so later, from my reference to the Cher song "Love and Understanding" and Rose's oh-so-cool short hair-do. We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale this time, joining two young teens named Amy and Kelly on a night when our parents and their little brother had all gone out to eat. We spent the night filming each other acting silly. I in particular was overly-excited about my rare chance to spend time with peers and was a bit shrill (to the point where Rose took me aside and complained). (We'd done it earlier in the week, but alas, that footage remained in Florida.) We mostly made jokes about how bright the light the girls attached to the camcorder to be able to film at night was, what we planned to do (and never did), and goofed off on their brother's playground equipment in the backyard.

The next disc was all cartoons. My Muppet Babies Video Storybooks and two videos of public domain Felix the Cat and Three Stooges animated shorts were so cheap, no one bothered pulling off the tabs despite them being commercial copies. They transferred easily to DVD.

I also transferred the Schoolhouse Rock video Linda Young sent me a while back. Though I will eventually get the 30th anniversary Schoolhouse Rock DVD set as well, Linda's tape has live-action introductions to each short and cartoon featuring Glenn Close and a passel of kids in extremely 80s clothes. You probably won't see those today outside of the original ABC videos.

Jodie and Dad called to invite me to my cousin CJ's birthday party on August 20th. I added to Dad that I needed him to pick up his old TV, which is currently sitting in the middle of my living room. I've already tripped over it once and nearly killed myself. Dad said he really didn't want it anymore, either. He and Uncle Ken apparently have at least three or four similar tube TVs sitting in their garage. He finally agreed to come over on Tuesday to help me get it downstairs and leave it for scavengers.

Oh, and we did have a rather nice little storm tonight. It started getting darker while I was working on the cartoon DVD. By the time we were on "Science Rock," there was a very noisy storm going on.