Oodles Of Doodles CCXXX

Here's a pretty rare doodle from the Mercury label. Look close and you should be able to pick out quite a few characters here from popular children's tales. There's Pinocchio, Davy Crockett, the Big Bad Wolf, Jack & his beanstalk, Robin Hood and a few others. None of those characters appear on this record, though. The record is Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe & Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Mercury SLP 114). There's no artist credited here, but the cover promises that each story is "dramatically enacted, accompanied by a 40 piece orchestra." Other than these doodles, the back of the record features little shots of all the other records in the series. The one I wish I had was the very last one listed, featuring Flight Of Friendship 7 & The Astronaut. You can grab pictures of some of the other records in the series, as well as some MP3 files here.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXIX

And now, eight, count' em, eight doodles from the back of Bob & Ray On A Platter (RCA Victor LPM-2131, 1960). This record was in rough shape, but when I flipped it over and saw all these great doodles, I knew I had to get it. You get a little bit of everything here: An organ, a singer, people on the street, weather-girl, sports-guy, a DJ, a sax player, psychoanalysis, bank robber, another sportscaster and some cowboys. I can't think of any other comedy stereotypes that may be omitted from this lineup. OK, maybe a few, but not many. I'm afraid I don't know as much about Bob & Ray as I should, and I'm not sure this record will even play, but I hope to try and give it a listen soon. I hope it's as good as the doodles it spawned.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXVIII

Since I've been posting doodles, I've stumbled across a couple of artists who show up time and again. Here is a doodle from one of those, the mysterious RR. I didn't even notice the initials until I had scanned the image in, and was tweaking it around for blogging. But there they are, big as day. I can't even remember how many doodles I've already posted by this fellow, but I'll try to link to a few of them (1, 2, 3, 4). Just for the record (ha-ha, get it, record?) this is from The Billy Graham Crusade Choir Sings For You (RCA Victor LSP-2499, 1962). Nice little church building there, with some rather interesting checkerboard accents.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXVII

Once again, I'm struggling to bring you a doodle that isn't on the RCA label. This one comes from the religious label, Word, which was (is?) based in Waco, Texas. What you're looking at is a sketch of the Opera House at the Seattle World's Fair from the back of Claiborne Brothers Quartette At The World's Fair (Word WST-8120-LP, 1962). You may not have known it, but that's where Seattle got their Space Needle from. See, you can learn something from a humble doodle. Also of note, look close and you'll see the initials CS in there at the lower right. No clue on who that might be, but we'll keep an eye out for those initials.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXVI

Continuing on with this onslaught of cool doodles, here's a poolside scene of Vegas in the early sixties. What could be cooler than a swimming pool in the desert? This inviting scene is from Tony Martin At The Desert Inn (RCA Victor LSP-2146, 1960). And if that wasn't enough for you, we go from poolside to a "Ringside Table" for the tag on the front.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXV

I figured you needed another good solid dose of doodle tonight, so here's a little lady I thought was quite nice. She hails from the reverse of Big Hits By Prado (RCA Victor LSP-2104, 1960). Prado is, of course, Perez Prado, who I'm sure you know all about. I had a tough time removing this doodle from the background, so if it looks a little rough around the edges, that's why. But I think I did a pretty good job. I've learned a lot about how to work with these doodles over the past couple of years. Some days I stop and realize how far I've come. Other days I worry about how far I have to go. This record also features a little tag on the front that says "New Arrangements", which I take to mean that these are all re-recordings of his big hits. (And just for the record, this is post #1400 here on the old blog.)

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXIV

Dig it! Here's a great doodle that neatly splits itself in half. I found this on the back side of Belmonte And His Orchestra-Rumba For Moderns (RCA Victor LSP-1663, 1958). Isn't that a great title to go with a great doodle? I'm almost afraid to listen to this one. How can the music compare to the expectations in my head of what rumba for moderns must sound like. Anyhow, the doodle is split on the back of the record much like you see it here. Across the middle are the tracklisting and the liner notes instead of my witty commentary.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXIII

I've been stuck on doodles from RCA for a while, so I hunted high and low tonight for one on a different label. I finally dug up this one on the rather obscure Mainstream imprint. This is from the flipside of John Barry-King Rat (Mainstream 56061, 1965), soundtrack to the movie of the same name. I don't know much about it, I just liked the doodle. There are some other doodles on the front, as well as some color images, and the signature Kingman. Appropriate name for an artist working on a picture called King Rat, don't ya think? Anyhow, hope you enjoy this one.

Pinky

Before I left the shop tonight, one of the guys on his way home called me and told me there were three flamingos in a pond near his house. I asked if they were really flamingos, or maybe roseate spoonbills, which I had seen there before. He wasn't sure, so when I left work, I had to drive by there. Sure enough, there were two spoonbills out on the far side of the pond. I grabbed the camera and started walking. It had rained all day, and was still drizzling, the ground was pretty soggy. About halfway around the pond, the two birds got spooked by something and took off. For whatever reason, they headed towards me, and that's when I got the shot above. I only wish it could have been a bright and sunny day, but in this case, I'm going to be happy with what I got.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXII

A third doodle today? Something must be up. Well, maybe, maybe not. I'm just in that mood, I guess. I'm posting these things during the commercials of CSI, which they are nice enough to show three times in a row on Spike. I can't get much of anything else done. But that's neither here nor there. What is here is the back of a double set of 45s called This Is Glenn Miller And His Orchestra (RCA Victor EPBT 3002). I think I've seen this on other 45 RPM sets, but I haven't looked too hard. I thought the text here was a little interesting, so I left that in for you. It talks about what a great format this is, how it's hi quality sound, and how it never wears out. What it doesn't tell you is that when I bought it, both records were missing. It contained a single from Elvis, and a single from Ray Charles. Neither one sounded anything like Glenn Miller.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXXI

What? A second doodle? In the same day? What's up with that? Well, I just felt like sharing, that's all. These beautiful ladies come from the flipside of a 7" EP, Frankie Carle And His Beautiful Dolls (RCA Victor EPA-4147, 1958). I'm pretty sure I have the LP counterpart to this EP, and I don't remember there being a doodle on the back of it. I'd have to find it to be sure, but surely I would have noticed a groovy doodle like this.

Oodles Of Doodles CCXX

Here's a lovely fluid doodle of two folks dancing a waltz. How do I know they are waltzing? Well, the LP this hails from is The Melachrino Orchestra Conducted By George Melachrino-Strauss Waltzes (RCA Victor LSP-1757, 1958). And that's all well and good, but the important thing here is the signature on the doodle. Myelle Thompson, or something like that. We've seen this artist several times before. Still no info on her, though. Someday, someone will stumble across this blog and will be able to tell us all about her, I hope. So stay tuned!

The Second Week Of April

This week features a great calendar picture for you. This extreme close-up is of a cara-cara, a raptor that lives in South Florida, but is rarely seen. I caught up with this guy at the Audubon Raptor Center near Maitland, Florida. He's an impressive fellow, but you needn't be afraid. They mostly stick to dead animals, much like vultures and buzzards.

Scratch An Itch

Sometimes, getting to that itchy spot isn't so easy. But this great blue heron didn't seem to be phased by the great lengths he had to go to in order to reach the right spot.

What's Up, Doc?

I don't know what it is down here. A couple of weeks ago, I showed you a piece of 'art' that looks like Stewie Griffin, and now I find one that looks like Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama. There's a theme here. I'd better not see a Lisa Simpson anytime soon.

AirFest 2007-Part Twenty

I posted about this SOCOM parachute team earlier, and mentioned that they jumped again later in the day. Well, here they are, and I gotta tell you that the light was much better for this afternoon jump. Just look at the way it highlights the smoke trails.

If you like seeing people jump out of planes, take a sec and go look at this wedding I shot last year...

AirFest 2007-Part Nineteen

More acrobatics, this time a biplane brought to you by your US Air Force Reserve. All very interesting, but like the rest of the crowd, all I could think about were those six Blue Angel jets that were parked on the flightline.

AirFest 2007-Part Eighteen

One of the most unique airplanes at AirFest was this F-104 Starfighter. I say unique in the truest sense of the word. This is supposedly the only one of it's kind that is still flying. And if there's one flying near you, you'll know it. This plane has a very unique high-pitched sound, and it is loud! I had wandered away from the flightline after being bored by the Geico plane, but when I heard this guy, I hurried back. But by then I had missed most of the show, so I have to throw in a shot of the plane on the ground. At least you can see what it looks like.

AirFest 2007-Part Seventeen

After watching jets and warbirds fly for a while, I can't say as I was too excited by seeing the aerobatic maneuvers of the Geico plane. Maybe if the gecko himself had been flying it, I'd have been more excited.

The City By The Bay

Since I'm heading back to the San Francisco Bay area in June, I thought I'd dig out the pictures I took on my last trip out there. These were some of the last pictures I ever took with my Kodak DC 4800, a 1 megapixel 3x zoom digital camera. I didn't know much about photography, but I had already figured out that if you took a lot of pictures, you'd get some good ones. So over 7 days in California, I took 6000 pictures. My strategy worked pretty well, since I got some great pictures of my stay. I hope to get many more during my upcoming trip, but looking back at what I got then, I can see that I've got my work cut out for me. I've also learned to manipulate my photographs a lot better after the fact, so many of the shots that I wasn't happy with four years ago, I can now tweak a bit to get something I really like. So let's see, what have I got here? The first picture above is the classic SF shot, from a place called Alamo Park. Those little Victorian houses are called the Painted Sisters, or something like that. You might remember this view from the opening sequence to Full House, or maybe you've just seen it on a thousand postcards. I love taking pictures that look like postcards. It means I'm doing something right to get a shot that someone would be willing to put a stamp on and mail back home.

The Golden Gate Bridge seemed to always be shrouded in fog. I was lucky enough to get back to it on my last day in SF (this was taken on the second day), and it was clear that time. Stay tuned for those shots.

The coastline around the Golden Gate Bridge is remarkably undeveloped. I think part of that is foresight by the city, the stewardship of the US government who long held this spot as a military base, and lots of blind luck. I certainly intend to spend more time here on the next trip. Ever turn of the trail yields an incredible new vista.

This was probably my favorite shot of the whole trip. I actually have a framed print of this hung on the wall of the condo. These are the cables that support the deck of the bridge. I stuck the camera out there and pointed it up. Nothing fancy, but it looks cool. The year I turned 13, my dad took me to California. He was a truck driver at the time, and we got out there in about four days, spent a few night in a hotel awaiting a return load, then headed back. We didn't get to stop many places, but I remember driving across the fabled Golden Gate Bridge. i was surprised that what I had always thought were single giant cables holding up the bridge were actually four distinct cables. Maybe that's why I took this shot almost 20 years after that first visit. By the way, today is Dad's birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!