Swinging In the Spring

Started off the morning with breakfast and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. Travel agent Mr. Cat wants to review the "Grand Hotel," but twists his ankle on arrival. He assigns Lowly and his children to do it in his place. They not only love it, but give high marks to a friendly new female bell hop, despite the misgivings of her manager. "Couscous On the Nile" has to deal with Pepe and his Dirty Rats breaking out again. This time, he lures them with the promise of buried treasure in a pyramid. Mr. Cat wants the "Cat Family Ski Trip" to bring them all together, but he keeps falling off his skis and embarrassing himself. His attempts at showing off his skiing and skating may end with him on his rear, but they also remind his family how much they love him.

Thankfully, work went far better today than it did on Sunday. In fact, we were dead almost the entire morning. Most people are likely waiting for Memorial Day Weekend to hit the grocery store, and it was really too nice of a day for shopping. I pushed carts on a gorgeous, warm, breezy, sunny day in the lower 80's, and wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. There was barely anything else for me to do. No trouble whatsoever.

Took the long way home down Nicholson Road. That might have been a mistake. It was a lot busier on Nicholson than it had been at the Acme. I dodged cars until I pushed my bike over the hill and into Oaklyn. At least it's really looking like spring now. Bright pink, crimson, and coral roses bloom in gardens, and the leaves are getting bigger and greener every day.

Watched Let's Make a Deal while changing and doing a few chores. Monty let two women play each other in a pricing game, then two men. The winner played each other to get cash. A pregnant lady dressed as a doctor and her husband joined a woman in a red diner waitress uniform for the Big Deal of the Day. While the waitress likely wasn't fussing over a nice range and dishwasher and kitchen appliances, the doctor was delighted to get the Big Deal, a gorgeous grand piano, along with cash. 

Watched The Benny Goodman Story next. I go further into this biography of "The King of Swing" with Steve Allen and Donna Reed at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

The Benny Goodman Story

Switched to Vega$ after Benny Goodman ended. This time, it's Binzer (Bart Braverman) who is on the warpath after the blind girl he fell hard for is killed by a desperate savings and loan president (Leslie Nielson). Dan tries to insist that he find another way to deal with this, but he insists on killing the man, even though he's a "Doubtful Target" at best.

Worked on writing for a while after the show ended. Mother Nature explains that Lady Jacqueline put a spell on her son Michael when he threatened to tell her what she was doing and tried to stop her. Michael was turned into a harmless rabbit, and only changing the seasons and getting Jacqueline to retreat and let spring go on will break the spell.

Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. They skipped waaaayy ahead again, this time to the second episode of the first syndicated season in 1979. Ironically, Braverman was on this week as well, along with Bill Daily and Eva Gabor. He helps a contestant with "__ Cake" on the Head-to-Head, while Charles makes fun of Brett's inexpensive jewelry collection.

Took a shower, then finished the night listening to my recently acquired jazz records and soundtracks while working on the Benny Goodman review. Get Crazy was an accurately-titled comedy from 1983 set around a huge New Year's Eve rock concert. As weird as the movie is, some of the songs are genuinely good. I really like "I'm Not Going to Take It" by Laurie Eastside, "Little Sister" by Lou Reed, and Malcolm McDowell's decadent "Hot Shot."

The other two albums were more traditional jazz collections. Modern New Orleans Masters from 1988 weds 80's synthesizers to Dixieland and blues in numbers like "Come On Home" by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, "Gemini Rising" by The New Orleans Saxophone Ensemble, and a nice version of "A Foggy Day" by Germaine Bazzle and Friends. Among the hits in The Best of Basie, Vol. 2 are "Broadway," "Tickle Toes," "Lester Leaps In," "Time Out," and "9:20 Special."