Only Police in the Building #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time to groove with the Music Moves Me bloggers.

Let's introduce the Music Moves me bloggers:  We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please! Otherwise, your post may be removed, or may  be labeled "No Music".)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and, last but not least, ME.

Sometimes we have themes (not mandatory!) and sometimes we can choose whatever music we want to feature - as long as you have at least music video posted, it's all good. 

Today, our theme is "You Pick the Music".

Now that the streaming show "Only Murders in the Building" is being shown on network TV, I have been finally able to watch it.  One episode I watched this past week (season 1) had the musician Sting, formerly of the band The Police.  In reading up on the show, Sting appears in several episodes of the first season playing himself.  He's a suspect in - what else?-a murder in the building.

So I decided to start this with the 1980 Police hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me".

I'm also going to discuss singer Selena Gomez, who stars in the show with Steve Martin and Martin Short, a little later.

In the meantime, how about some other songs related to Police?

Cheap Trick is one band I've had the honor of seeing live.  Here is a live performance of their song "Dream Police".

I had thought Eddie Money had been a New York City policeman before he quit for his musical career.  At the time of his death at age 70, the New York City Police Department clarified that, although Money had been a police trainee, he had never been appointed to the force as an officer.  His father, a brother, and grandfather were policemen, though.  Here's his duet with Ronnie Spector in "Take Me Home Tonight". (The song ends around four minutes into the video - the rest is interviews).

Singer Bobby Sherman became a reserve officer and medical training officer for several years with the Los Angeles, California police department.  Here is his hit from 1970, Easy Come Easy Go.

Country singer Jeff Carson left a country music career to become a police officer in Franklin, Tennessee. He returned to music in 2019, but his life was cut short at age 58 by a heart attack in 2022.  Here is one of his hits "The Car".

Finally, Selena Gomez is one of the co-stars in the Only Murders in the Building series and a talented actor, musician, and dancer.  She has also been struggling with an autoimmune disease, lupus, for some 10 years now.  Despite these struggles, Gomez has done a lot of collaboration with other singers.  I chose her 2019 hit "Lose You to Love Me".  Maybe not a real life police officer, but Gomez plays an artist and real life crime solver in the series.

And that's a TV inspired wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

RIP Bob Barker

Another icon of my childhood has died  

Bob Barker, hosts of game shows and other shows (including 20 years of being the Master of Ceremonies at the Miss America and Miss Universe pageanta) spanning over 50 years and an animal rights activist, died today at the age of 99. He didn't retire from game show hosting until he was 88 years old

We thought he was timeless.

Barker hosted the game show Truth or Consequences for 18 years and The Price is Right for 35 more years.  

But he was so much more.  When things went wrong, he was always in control.

He was trained as a Navy fighter pilot in World War II.  This article details more about his military career. 

One of many news tributes to Barker. 

Finally, I had to include this famous scene from the movie Happy Gilmore where Adam Sadler (playing Happy Gilmore) and Bob Barker play together in a charity golf tournament that doesn't end well for one of them.  How could I not? 

I will end this short tribute to Bob Barker with his famous ending to each episode of The Price is Right.

Rest in peace, Bob Barker.  You made the world a better place.

 

Farewell to Ed Asner

One by one, they leave our world.

Today, Ed Asner, an actor I enjoyed so much on the Mary Tyler Moore show popular in the 1970's, passed away.  He was 91.

In his lifetime he played over 600 roles, and if you don't know him from The Mary Tyler Moore show and Lou Grant, you probably know him from somewhere else.  Maybe from Elf?  Or UP?   Or, earlier in TV days, in episodes of Route 66, The Outer Limits, and many other shows. He was also well known for political activism.

I hate to do these tributes, because it means another piece of my childhood or young adult life is gone.  For those with some time, I offer this interview from 2019 (some 10 minutes long.)

Here's a clip that showcases another cast member, Ted Knight (playing a hapless news anchor, Ted Baxter) but Ed Asner (playing his boss, Lou Grant) is showcased here, too. 

 

Or, here's a 1970's job interview conducted by Ed (Lou Grant) where he hires Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore).  You can always skip that one (it's quite non PC for today's world) but it does have glimmers of 1970's reality in there.

Now, as far as the Mary Tyler Moore show, Betty White is the last regular cast member still alive.  She's 99 and I'm not about to jinx her health in any way.

RIP, Ed Asner.

Another Set of Tributes

In the last several days, we have lost two greats of the entertainment industry.

Olivia De Havilland, who died weeks after her 104th birthday, may be known best for her role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind (a movie now pulled temporarily from showing) but, if you start at about 1:00 into this video, you will find much to admire in this extraordinary actress. 

Then, there was Regis Philbin, from my native Bronx, who died on July 24 at age 88.

Regis Philbin was a television legend, someone who spent more time on the air as a "presenter" (yes, a British term, but I like it) than anyone else in history.

My late mother in law loved him, and I loved him too (along with millions of other people).

As a child, he grew up on the same Avenue (not in the exact same neighborhood) as my mother did before she got married.

Here is Regis playing (for charity) Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  He did his high school alma mater proud.

RIP to two greats.

Giraffes and Gene Gene (The Dancing Machine) #atozchallenge

As I write this the evening of April 7, April the Giraffe, beloved by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, still hasn't given birth to her calf.

Tomorrow, Animal Adventure Park, which is about 1/2 hour from here, is having an event at our local shopping mall (no April, obviously).  It's an Easter oriented event which was scheduled before the webcam broadcasting April and her mate Oliver went viral, and I'm wondering if I should even go.  I wonder how mobbed it will be.

For now, perhaps I'll just content myself with this giraffe purse I purchased today, made by a local woman.
Such a perfect memory, as I travel through time and space for "G" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  Besides our local Giraffe, here's another thing to Get you Going.

Do you remember the original Gong Show, a show of the 1970's?

If you don't, I have no idea how to explain it to you.  Its creator, Chuck Barris, died last month.  Chuck Barris, in his own way, was a genius creator of many game shows, featuring newlyweds, people dating, and...well, you get the picture.

The Gong Show was one of the very first reality shows.  It was supposedly a "talent" competition, but not too many of the contestants had talent.  Three celebrity judges would watch the contestant perform and, if the contestant was too terrible even for the standards of the show, the judge would strike a gong.

It was so bad, it was good.

So, where does Gene come in?

A man by the name of Gene Patton was a stagehand at NBC Studios at Burbank, California.  One day, Chuck Barris saw him dancing, if you could call his movements true dancing.  Gene wasn't a dancer, but Chuck Barris saw something in him.   He started bringing Gene, renamed "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" out during really horrible acts, or "just because".  The appearances were made to appear spontaneous, but they were actually scripted.

Gene would shuffle to the tune of a Count Basie song, "Jumpin' at the Woodside".

Everyone loved it.

Gene (or Gene Gene) died in 2015, a month short of his 83rd birthday.   But I'll always remember him for the funniest "dancing" act of my young adulthood.  But, one more thing:

Ironically, he lost both legs in 2001 due to diabetes.

Again, you just can't make this stuff up. Tomorrow, A to Z takes its Sunday break, while I blog about (if it returns) spring.

Everything's Political In Its Own Way

As we become increasingly polarized in the United States, even small acts like watching television have become political.

 The popular TV satirical show Saturday Night Live, on for over 40 years, now ratchets up its satires of the new Administration in our country.

Now, even the Super Bowl, which once was a championship football game eagerly awaited by fans, who partied and watched the game and commercials (and non-fans who partied and watched the commercials) has become political.

Here is a comprehensive list and links to some of these (and other) Super Bowl commercials.

If you don't have the time, here are a couple by themselves:

A commercial originally aired in 2014 by Coca-Cola was rerun, to much controversy.

Then, there was a commercial so controversial that the TV network showing the Super Bowl required an edited version.  The full version (above) is available on You Tube and runs a bit over five minutes.  Over 10 million views, and if you want to see the Internet in action, just read the reviews (or, perhaps, don't.)

February 12 used to be celebrated as the birthday of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. We haven't forgotten that Lincoln was President during a time when the United States was at war with itself.  Over 700,000 dead later, the states that seceded lost the war, and, today, we are a nation of 50 states.

Days after the war ended, Lincoln was assassinated by someone who sympathized with the rebels.

What we call the Civil War, others The War Between the States, and still others (still) the War of Northern Aggression is in our DNA.

The United States is at a crossroads.  More than ever, those who supported the man who is now our President and those who did not are at odds with each other.  So much so, that families and friendships have been torn apart.  People debate at work.  I find myself resenting those who voted a certain way, and I'm not the only one.  On both sides.


Our country has been in terrible situations before.  Perhaps, from history, we can learn some lessons before we tear ourselves apart.

I am therefore going to restart my Civil War Sunday feature, which ran from 2011 to 2015 (the 150th anniversary of that war) with two new Civil War Sundays.  The first one, next Sunday, will be on Frederick Douglass (because, apparently, some in our country think he is still alive.  Another Mandela Effect situation?)  I may continue this into March, with some selected reruns.

I can promise no less on Lincoln's birthday.

Local Saturday - Loving, Remembering and Escaping

Fake news has struck again.  Or at least, bent-into-a-pretzel news.  Both left and right, I find that I am thinking once again of abandoning Facebook.  But, instead, I thought about what I did know to be true.  I decided to become serious for a few minutes today.

Virginia Welcome Center, I-81

But first, a picture.  Such a simple word.  Too bad it is in such short supply in our world, as we seem to veer closer and closer to war.

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Our country remembered it by...oh, I am coming too close to becoming a political blog.  But someone on Twitter did not forget. 

What happens when the last of the Holocaust survivors die, I wonder?  

Today is the 31st anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

With two astronauts dying in the last month,  wonder if we in America will ever walk on the Moon, Mars, or anywhere else.  

So, I decided, with news overload to turn to other matters.  Perhaps it was a mistake.

Originally, I was going to blog today about the 81st birthday of actor Alan Alda, who, like me, is from the Bronx.  He is a good topic for a "Local Saturday", just one of many famous people from the Bronx.

M*A*S*H , a TV series Alda starred in, is considered one of the greatest shows of all time.

Here is a list of some of its best episodes.

But it is his after-M*A*S*H work he should be more noted for, and be continued to be noted for.


But then, yesterday, two actors died:  Mike Conners of Mannix fame, which was one of my spouse's favorite shows. 

And, Barbara Hale, perhaps most noted for playing the secretary of attorney Perry Mason, dead at 94. Along with Mary Tyler Moore and Noel Neill, Barbara Hale's Della Street character was a role model for me.

And then, this afternoon, I heard of the death, at age 77, of actor John Hurt.

So there is only one place where I can escape to.  My blog, which, in turn, leads me to a decision.

I am so close to becoming more political.  But I've resisted so far (well, mostly resisted - it gets harder and harder) because these times demand that we all speak out.  So, I may do just that, on one scheduled day of the week (perhaps Sunday).  I haven't made up my mind yet.

But, we also need a place to escape to.  And I believe, for many of my readers, my blog has become a few-minutes-of-the-day refuge.  We need that, too, just as much as we need those who speak out and put themselves on the line.

Which is why I've decided, for now, to keep trying to find the beauty in our world, and (mostly) stay away from politics.  I will try to concentrate on love, hoping that it will, in the end, trump hate.   I hope you will continue to join me, as my blog would not exist without you, my readers.

Thank you, every one.

Day 28 of #blogboost the Ultimate Blog Challenge.