Jeff Daum

For something a little different: this morning we had a gorgeous sunrise along with the setting full moon over Las Vegas.  Here is a quick video of what we enjoyed from our home in the mountains southwest of Vegas.

Here is the link to the short video: https://youtu.be/FrKZPTNtSpQ  Note, best viewed in HD 1080p

Jerry Ochs

I am aware that we have agreed to refrain from topics that may tear our group asunder, but I do not think that expressing horror at the news that law enforcement agencies and shopkeepers are preparing for violence as a result of Tuesday's election is controversial; it is truly horrifying.  

Philip Spiess

REDS BASEBALL:
Sorting Out the Nomenclature
(or How Cincinnati Got Connected to Boston)

1866:  Cincinnati gets an official baseball team organized under the name “The Cincinnati Baseball Club.”  (Official club stationery still carried the name “Cincinnati Baseball Club Co.” as late as 1954.)
1867:  At some point in 1867 the Cincinnati baseball team was being called the “Cincinnati Red Stockings,” after the distinctive feature of the team’s uniforms, which were designed by team member George Ellard.  (The team name “Red Stockings” was still appearing in the team’s yearbook as late as 1953.)
1870:  The “Cincinnati Red Stockings” baseball team folds after the 1870 season, and its manager, Harry Wright, is hired to organize a new baseball team in Boston; he brings three teammates and the “Red Stockings” nickname along with him.  Therefore, in 1871 --
1871:  The “Boston Red Stockings” baseball team of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) is founded.    
1876:  When a new Cincinnati baseball club is formed as a charter member of the new National League, the “Cincinnati Red Stockings” name had been reserved for it, and so the Boston team came to be known as the “Boston Red Caps.”
1884:  The “Boston Reds” baseball team of the Union Association is founded. 
1888:  An African-American baseball team in Norfolk, Virginia, calls itself the “Red Sox.”
1890-Now:  The Cincinnati baseball franchise shortens its name in popular usage to the “Cincinnati Reds.”
1890:  The “Boston Red Stockings” baseball team of the Players’ League is founded; it joins the American Association in 1891; it is more often called the “Reds” than the “Red Stockings.”
1901:  The Boston baseball team (the current franchise) is founded as one of the American League’s eight founding franchises; it is called at that time the “Boston American League Baseball Company”; for seven seasons it wore dark blue stockings.
1908-Now:  The Boston American League team owner, John I. Taylor, chooses the name “Red Sox” for his team after the 1908 uniforms, which feature a large red stocking angling across the shirt-front; it is also to distinguish the team from the earlier Boston teams of similar names (see above).
1912:  The Boston baseball club (last seen as the “Boston Red Caps,” above, of the National League) officially adopts the nickname “Boston Braves”; the franchise later becomes the “Milwaukee Braves,” and then eventually the “Atlanta Braves.”
1953-1959:  Because of Cold War-era McCarthyism fomenting fear and worries about the Communist “Reds,” the Cincinnati Reds baseball team general manager Gabe Paul changes the team name in April to the “Cincinnati Redlegs” (it was changed back to the “Cincinnati Reds” in 1959).

Paul Simons

This time we kicked their ass. Eagles 23 Cowboys 9. Yeah, way “more than a rivalry”. 

Stephen Collett

Thanks Gail. September 1, 1967 was my wedding date, in Sandnes, Norway, in the office of the judge.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Gail, as usual, I loved your stories, this time about the Red Sox. 

About the 75th Birthday Reunion: Ssssshhhh. I have a confession. I will be quietly happy if it will be by zoom. I've always wanted to go to a reunion, but there was always something that stood in the way. Now I will be able to "attend"!   Try not to hate me.....

I can even go to see the streamed Hamlet!!!  Try not to hate me, again....

Jerry, I hypothesize that because we are not living in the States ourselves, it's possible that we are more sensitive to fears of  widespread rioting after the elections.... I positively gasped the other day when one newscaster rather casually said that it would probably happen, but "would stop short of revolution." Honestly!! My son came over yesterday to bring me some fertilizer for flowers I had just bought (plant nursery finally opened up after month+ -long lockdown), and he and I kind of railed at each other about American society. Not that he knows from personal experience about it, as I do, but at 41, he's old enough to remember several  previous presidential election cycles. We only have each other to talk to and analyze about these matters, so it gets pretty intense when we get together. Good luck, America!

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Gail, I suppose going to a Reds game has become a "first date" for many through out the years. My first date with Ed was also to a game in August 1980. I have no recollection of who the Reds played, but I do recall that in my attempt to wear something to reflect team spirit, I wore the only red top that I had in my closet, a red wool pullover sweater!! That turned out to be a poor choice of apparel for August in Cincinnati!!  Ed and a couple of his friends had shared season tickets for years at Riverfront, several seats back from home plate. We attended many games there, including the year that the Reds went wire to wire and swept Oakland to win the World Series.  The guys gave up the seats with the MLB strike in 1994.

Ed never got a chance to see the Redlegs play at Great American Ballpark, but I have enjoyed many games there, including the game when Rick treated us to diamond seats at our  2010 reunion. He also "assisted" my then 8 year old grandson, Griffin, with catching a game ball. Steve Kanter was gracious enough to capture him with his camera!!

Jerry Ochs

Judy,

If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water it will hop out, but if you put it in cool water and slowly heat it up, it will think everything is OK (so I've heard).  There are some other ex-pats on this forum and I'd like to know how they see the situation.

Philip Spiess

If you put a lobster into a pot of boiling water, it will turn red (see "Reds" above, Post #5228), and then you can shell it and eat it with melted butter!  Voila!  [Frogs are better fried as frogs' legs -- "Redlegs"? -- well, not if battered ("Batter up!").  Frogs don't listen to the news:  they're in the swamp, croaking.]

Ira Goldberg

Today, we need our cheerleaders and peacemakers! May the good team win and Casey not strike out. 

Steven Levinson

Bless you, Ira.

Paul Simons

“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.”

Henry L. Mencken

September 18 1926

Laura Reid (Pease)

Look what popped up in my emails....see anyone you know?

Hi Everyone, 

Attached are two preview audio files of edits from UNREQUITED...

1- The duets with guest vocalists: 

    Sherry Holley That'll Be The Day, Words Of Love/Listen To Me & Love Is Strange

    Cindy Lou Stockwell You're So Square 
2- The Sampler:

    Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, It's So Easy & It Doesn't Matter Anymore
 

Paul "CD" Simons lead & rhythm guitar
Sam Richman vocals, rhythm, bass, lead guitar & beats

Conceived decades ago, and started in early June of 2020, it’s now it's November 1, 2020 and the HollyWood/HollyRock project, now entitled, UNREQUITED…, is completed. The collection is comprised of my renditions of 26 songs on 23 tracks (3 mash-ups). The two players on the tracks are me on guitars, some lead, bass, drum programming and, Paul “CD” Simons, I call him Si, on most lead guitar. The recording was done by file sharing from the DAW in my studio in Cincinnati and Paul’s guitar rig on the Jersey Shore. The songs are my arrangements and I do all vocals with guest duets with Sherry Holley on 3 tracks; That’ll Be The Day, Words Of Love/Listen To Me and Love Is Strange, and, a duet with Cindy Lou Stockwell on You’re So Square. Sherry’s vocals were recorded at TCS Productions in Lubbock, TX, and Cindy Lou’s were recorded in my studio.

What started out as a simple archival collection has evolved into a very satisfying collection of recordings of Buddy Holly’s works. Its initial intention was as a legacy of my intense love for Holly’s music and talents. I was lucky to have seen him perform twice and interview him on the phone on September 23, 1958. He had just turned 22 September 7th and I turned 14 on September 14th. Buddy was out promoting The Crickets' It’s So Easy and Lonesome Tears and, that day, doing an on air at WNOP in Cincinnati. Holly was killed in the early morning of February 3, 1959, less than 5 months after our conversation. That event changed my life.

I can’t thank Paul, Sherry and Cindy Lou enough for their participation in this recording. Paul, Si or “CD” Simons was my band mate (The Torquays/THEM) in the 60s. He was the lead/rhythm guitarist and I was the rhythm/lead guitarist/Farfisa organist. We both sang. Paul wrote and sang lead on our first single on King Records. I’ve always loved his playing; he’s a very creative, connected musician. When I started recording in June of 2020, I planned on doing all the guitar parts myself. I asked Paul about doing a guest lead or two which became a few and, then, a few more. At the end, Paul plays most of the lead and I do some lead. Paul’s not on every track but his energy and electricity shine through. Our techniques improved as the project progressed and, in the end, it worked out as good as possible under the limitations of the process. I’m so pleased with Si’s taking much of the lead work off my back, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It allowed me to focus on the songs and vocals, and his guitar palette is way more evolved.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s feel, emotion, performance, and energy. I’m not trying to “out sing” or “out-play” Buddy Holly, just do the best I can under these circumstances. In essence, do him justice. The collection is a musical fabric; the fabric is the road on the journey back to that time, with added modern touches. To me this recording brings forward what was cool then with modern flavors that, perhaps, Holly would have explored and used had he had them at his disposal back in the 50s. Let’s call it Retro-Modern…bringing it up to date but not too carefully or too much but just enough to have made him smile. I’m talking about the musician who, in a very short career of 18 months, influenced the two biggest groups in the history of rock music, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I wonder what Buddy Holly would think knowing that. Holly had confidence, great ideas, humility, and drive. That’s what it took and takes.

Stan Hertzman

aka Sam Richman

 

 

Bruce Fette

Laura and Paul,

Yes we recognize an excellent Guitar player!

Now we are hopeful of also seeing a link to the music.

The Newest versions of many of our favorites.

Paul Simons

Thanks for your kind words Laura and Bruce. Stan did a terrific job envisioning the project and doing the arrangements, drum programming, bass, rhythm guitar, vocals. He also played lead on some tunes. I got to play lead on most of the total of 23 tunes. On one we traded leads and on one we had a guitar harmony going separated by only about 800 miles. To get it done a lot of .mp3's went back and forth - a lot. This is his project so it's up to him what gets posted where. I might put up a link to just a tune or two I like hearing that I think others might like.

Meanwhile this interface can be tricky and it can act differently on different devices so here's a photo from a Windows desktop that hopefully will be visible on other devices as well - and a link to the tunes themselves -

https://phsra8.wixsite.com/cd-electro

Laura Reid (Pease)

Paul, I tried to copy the music, but to no avail.....hope you can.  It's great and so much fun to bring back all those memories!

Sandy Steele (Bauman)

Stan emailed the music to me! Great job, Paul. I know Stan has been working on it for a long time. Did you know he actually had a conversation with Buddy Holly when Stan was just 12 years old?

Paul Simons

Thanks Sandy and Laura for your kind words. I have to credit Stan with doing the lion's share of this - many lions, a whole pride of them, I think that's the right term. I couldn't have had a more tough and soulful set of tunes to run some lines onto than what Stan came up with. It just happened that when I was about 14 or so Buddy Holly was on the radio and it moved me too, along with artists like Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, and instrumental artists like The Ventures, Lonnie Mack, Bill Doggett. I'm sure you all were well aware of these people too.

I didn't know Stan until a few years later and we did not play those tunes. I did know that he was into Buddy Holly but we were strictly what was Top-40 at the time - Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, and some instrumentals for the grown-ups at the more dressed-up affairs. But he had Buddy in mind and as it happened for the past couple of years I have been jamming with some crazy rockabilly dudes. (Gail Weintraub has seen a video of the practice room and she can tell you it's gross but the music is good or was good until Covid-19 put a stop to those jams. A vaccine will mean live music again.)

Buddy Holly is Rockabilly ++. He's got the whole basic fundamnetal of it plus more creativity and originality than most. Damn shame he died so young. The music survives and always will. So it's an enormous thrill to work with it, to add some of what came along in the intervening years. There have beem some great artists to steal from to kind of blend the new with the old, most notably Jimi Hendrix. If you want the thrill of a lifetime check out his "Blues" CD.

This is a link to a sampler of the tunes done with Stan:

https://phsra8.wixsite.com/cd-electro

I have to leave the distribution in Stan's hands. If he forwarded something to you Sandy I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you forwarded it to Laura. These days digital technology means that a copy and an original are exactly the same because what is copied is a mathematical representation, not the actual entity itself, so there is no degradation. Ones and zeros. There are one or two tunes that I really like, I guess I could email one or two to you, I think my email address is on my "Contact Information" page, but as far as the full CD goes that's totally Stan's call.

Bruce Fette

Seems like Paul Simons needs to be inducted into the [WHHS] Rock And Roll Hall of Fame!

Paul Simons

Bruce thanks but I don’t have anything like the credentials for that. It’s for people like Bonnie Raitt or Bruce Springsteen - people who have placed their faith into the music they love and made it their lives’ work. At best I’m what’s known as a weekend warrior. Still I feel lucky. It’s something that, like Merle Haggard says, I don’t have to quit “as long as my two hands are fit to use”.

Paul Simons

Just to be clear - the tunes Laura menmtioned, that go with the photos she put up, are here:

https://phsra8.wixsite.com/cd-electro

To those who remember and care about this area of endeavor, thanks for your interest.

Laura Reid (Pease)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU PAUL!!!  WE ALL NEED THAT BLAST FROM THE PAST!  SO MUCH TALENT YOU HAVE!!!

Paul Simons

Thanks for your kind words Laura. I’m amazed at how everyone in the Class of 64 has found what makes them happy, found ways to live up to that old motto “Sursum Ad Summum”. It turns out everyone gets the blues sometimes too, and I feel lucky to have a way to deal with it. Something worth having these days as the country lurches from crisis to crisis.

If something seems relevant I’ll put it up on that minimalist website and let you know. Again thanks.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Dear Class of 1964,

I wanted to personally thank you for your generous gift that made the filming and streaming of our recent production of Hamlet possible. I have seen the rough footage, and I believe everyone will be absolutely blown away by the quality of both the acting and the video recording. We cannot wait to share it with the world starting this Friday. Being able to do this production has made a tremendous difference in the lives of the students involved, especially our seniors who have missed out and continue to miss out on so much. Thank you for making this production possible, and for giving our students some sense of normalcy back in their lives. We are eternally grateful to you.

Sincerely, Mike Sherman, Fine Arts Department Co-Chairperson, Theatre Department, Walnut Hills High School                                                                                                          

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Thank you for the thank you.

Having been a senior, albeit actually a lifetime ago, I cannot imagine what COVID has done to their lives and equilibrium, collectively and personally.  

I cannot wait to see Hamlet!