Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Rockin' the Heat

Began a sunny morning with breakfast and Laff-a-Lympics. Considering it got up to 100 here today, the contestants were lucky to start at the "North Pole." Daisy Mayhem's sled being pulled by her huge pig and the Teen Angels pulling Captain Caveman made at least some sense, but Yakky Doodle pulling Grape Ape seems like a recipe for disaster...until the big purple primate lends a hand. Quick Draw and the Doggie pair did their best with igloo-building, and despite the Rottens' cheating, it was good enough for first. The Yogis also dodged the Rottens and their messes long enough to win in the Pontoon race in "Tahiti." Shaggy and Scooby prove why they'd later enter a sand-castle building contest in What's New, Scooby Doo? with their winning entry. 

Spent most of the next few hours starting the rock collections inventory. These are anthologies of mostly rock music from the 50's through the 80's by various artists. I don't have as many of them as I do the regular rock albums from individual artists, but they tend to be 2 to 4 disc sets and take longer to type. I haven't had these for nearly as long, either. Most of them came from thrift shops, yard sales, or the local record stores. 

Watched Half a Sixpence as I worked. I go further into this long but charming vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews Blog.


Broke for lunch after the movie ended. Watched Super Password as I worked. Buzzr continues its "Christmas In July" theme with new-to-them episodes that aired around Christmas 1988. Pat Harrington of One Day at a Time and Ilene Graff of Mr. Belvedere helped people guess words and admired the nifty decorations that had jewel-colored glass balls against white frosted trees. 

Headed out around 6 PM. I wanted to get out and stretch my legs for a while. By that point, it was still pretty warm, but nothing close to what it had been during the heat of the day. Stopped briefly at Dollar General for a Gatorade and a roll of regular birthday wrapping paper, then went down the Black Horse Pike to Newton Lake Park. It was past quarter of 7 when I hurried past the Collingswood High School. Between the heat and the dinner hour, the only people I saw outside were a teen girl out for her own walk and what I suspect was a little league team getting some practice in on Collingswood High's fields now that it wasn't quite so hot. 

Went straight into dinner and Match Game Syndicated when I got home. Some of the episodes they showed today were among the craziest of the syndicated run. Charles arrived at the studio on roller skates in one episode. Brett and Fannie turned up wearing blonde wigs in another, and everyone but Charles and Brett changed seats. Poor Eva Gabor put up an umbrella indoors because the fan over her was leaking oil in the last episode of the night.

At this point, I also opened one of my two purchases from Amazon Prime Day. Yeah, I broke down and bought the same pink and white New Balances I had two years ago for work. They were $50, not bad for New Balance, and I can never find the ones I like in South Jersey. 

Finished the night after a much-needed shower with vintage children's records. The Care Bears' Adventures In Care-a-Lot is a basic story about the Bears helping a lonely child who has been forgotten on his birthday. In the negative column, this has the same problem as the previous Introducing the Care Bears with the Bears' (or their voice actors) not being even remotely decent singers. It does make up for it with some mildly catchy songs, including "Hall of Hearts," "Make a Wish," and "We All Count On Each Other." Nifty cover art too, depicting the bears in their cloud kingdom home and designed to resemble the Bears' greeting card art of the time. 

(There's also the fact that this holds sentimental value. My sisters and I owned a copy of this record and played it constantly through the mid-80's.)

We did have a Strawberry Shortcake album when I was a kid, but Strawberry Shortcake Sweet Songs wasn't it. I bought this to hear their covers of such sugar-related tunes as "Over the Rainbow," "Sugar Sugar," and "Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows." The thin story gets around the voice actors' lack of singing talent by having the songs performed by others.

Although the Tale Spinners for Children version of Treasure Island was condensed to fit an hour record, it otherwise came across very well. They even retained some of the darker elements, like Billy Bones' death and all the violence in the second half. The actors playing Long John Silver and Captain Smollett are especially good. I enjoyed this far more than the shorter version on that Peter Pan record I found a while back.

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