Baden-Baden, Germany, Guidebook — Circa 1970

Baden-Baden, Germany, is beautiful. It was near that historic town where I spent four years of my childhood, and the memories are strong, especially when I look at pictures in this guidebook from the time I was there.

Welcome to Baden-Baden in "Der Schwarzwald", and these sample pages:

(click to enlarge)

The photo immediately above is of the Rastatt pool complex. It is where my swimming skills were fine-tuned by my swim coach mother. The pool complex was, and still is, I'm sure, a great place. (If the kid who stole my Fina swim ring reads this he/she should feel bad. At least he/she had the decency to replace my new one with his/her old one.)

The racetrack (Rennbahn) above is in Iffezheim and it's just a few minutes' walk from where I lived. Not only did I see a few horse races at the track, but there was a smashup derby held one night by members of the Canadian Armed Forces which was a lot of fun. (Cars smashed up, not horses.)

Postscript: An older lady who followed me — and I, her — on Twitter, blocked me when I had the temerity to say something along the lines of: "I loved living in Germany. Beautiful country." She was a real lefty... too far left. I'm left-of-centre, and we generally got along. Her father fought in World War Two — as did my father — and she often trumpeted the fact that he fought Nazis. I'm guessing she could not let it all go. I loved living in Germany. Beautiful country.

Athot for the Day: Rebranding

How long will it be before Shoppers Drug Mart rebrands as SDM? (KFC and KD, right? No, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Kraft Dinner.)

Nah, "Shoppers" comes off the tongue really nicely.

'Khan Noonien Singh' on Little Progress

"Oh, there has been technical advancement, but, how little man himself has changed."

As is being demonstrated at the moment....

Mr Spock on Transformation

"Change is the essential process of all existence."

This tends to get forgotten by too many people.

Nick Zedd on That Basic Mindset

"The root of conservatism — fear of change — is a form of cowardice which affects nearly everyone now."

Right on, brother. Too right.

Jerry Goldsmith Obituary — The Toronto Sun, 7/23/04

Late this afternoon I was reminded that the late great film composer Jerry Goldsmith died twenty-one years ago today. It seems like ten years ago.

The news of his passing had been given to me through a telephone call one sunny morning: "Hey, man. Goldsmith died."

This fan since high school was saddened by the news. He was an artist who I greatly admired, and consider him to be the greatest craftsman to have practiced the art of film scoring.

What impresses some of us most about the stellar scorer is his body of work. Take a step back and look at the variety of scoring. From horse operas to space operas, with small and intimate films in between: Wild Rovers to Star Trek - The Motion Picture, with A Patch of Blue, a Papillon, some Gremlins, and The Mummy. From television: signature themes for Dr. Kildare, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Barnaby Jones, and The Waltons.

My brother and I met Goldsmith at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall in November of 1990. He had three concert dates where he played a sampling of his movie and television material. While I chatted with some people in the lobby after the concert I overheard an older gentleman telling another regular concertgoer — they were dressed like season ticket-holders — his feelings: "I was very impressed . . . it must take an incredible mind . . . that's a lot of music."

"Mister Goldsmith, I finally get to meet you. I've been a fan for twelve years." I remember the slight smile on his face. Oh yes, another nutty fan. (I was one of many nutters in that lineup.)

I was uncharacteristically a little nervous. Big name, small name, I don't care. But. I'm thinking: "This is the guy who wrote Ave Satani !"

Genius!

Those CBS Cowards Bend the Knee

Late yesterday I learned that The Colbert Report will finish its run next May.

I've never seen the program — I've never been into watching 'late-night' shows — but I now know the story here, and it's pretty obvious that CBS's decision to cease production of a show that is #1 in its (very competitive) time slot is a political one.

Apparently, Stephen Colbert said the wrong thing a few nights ago.

Cowards.

There's No Such Thing As 'Nostalgic' Television

When checking email, like a lot of folk I get email bullets from various streaming services, the big one being (Amazon) Prime Video. I'm at the point now where I ignore this email content. There is no need for me to waste time watching some off-the-shelf series.

No thank you.

Lately I've been receiving promo emails from Tubi, a most excellent streaming service, with its variety of programing, including 'old' television series. (Of course, Prime too has lots of old TV.)

Still, I don't fancy sitting in front of the tube watching hours of video.

The latest Tubi mailing came in about an hour ago. No thank....

"Hel-lo...."

... Edna can wait.

Toronto Is an Overheated Swimming Pool

I just got back home from a quick 'swim'... running errands through boiling-hot humidity. Man, it's another scorcher here in Toronto. I'm afraid to check the temperature (and Humidex).

Okay, I just did: 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit), feels like 39 (102).

"I order you to stop!"

Oh, Environment Canada is calling for 24 (75) on Friday.

Good, I'll put myself into cryogenic suspension till then....

A Forever Question: Trash for Cash

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Would cats be all too willing to send us to a pawn shop?

Memories: Special Apollo & Soyuz Launches in 1975

This morning I saw an 'on this date' post noting it was fifty years ago today that a certain event took place: a forward-thinking upward motion of cold war détente. Too many years ago I was there in front of the Zenith colour television tube as the anticipation was building, and had been building for some time, for a special orbital rendezvous: the "Apollo-Soyuz Test Project" would fire into being with two rocket launches, one of each from the USA and the USSR.

Perhaps the single most exciting "blast off" for me on July 15, 1975, was that of Soyuz 19, the Soviet side of the project. The Soyuz launch vehicle and spacecraft were somewhat mysterious entities to those of us in the west — civilians in the west. Photographs had been released by the Soviets, some officially and others unofficially, so we knew what the machine looked like at launch — it looked super cool, that's what it looked — but there were no motion picture images and nothing substantial in the way of data and specifications.

(Like the Vostok and Voskhod rockets the Soyuz was an outgrowth of the brilliant R-7A Semyorka, itself an upgrade of the earlier R-7 Semyorka.)

This then space cadet looked forward to seeing the Saturn 1B rocket lift the Apollo space vehicle, but, again, the big draw for me, and many others, no doubt, was getting to witness the launch of the Soviet machine. As I sat all giddy, the Zenith danced its chromatic scales. There was an anticipatory tension, an almost drum roll, as we waited for the scheduled launch time. When the final countdown rolled, we scrutinized every piece of visual data — there was no audio of the launch. That great Soyuz Roar would not be heard by me for many more years.

The rocket lifted; it was beautiful.

The video clip above is very 'archival'. No doubt it's been dubbed-down a few times over the years. The original 2-inch 'Quad' tape it is not. That flicker/roll you see at the shot-cuts looks to be a 'time base correction' issue: it may be due to uncorrected duplication, one lacking a TBC (Time Base Corrector), or it may have been in the original live transmission, which is my guess as I've seen other sources displaying the same malady — it was a satellite feed, to boot.

Postscript: the mission's astronauts were Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Deke Slayton; the cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov.

An Admission: There Was A Fifth?

This morning, while reading up on Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of my all-time favourite composers, period, I learned of "The Five" — or "The Mighty Bunch", the literal translation of "Могучая кучка", the original Russian. This fan of a certain school ("Simon and his big Russian music") was more than familiar with four of the five: Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, and César Cui.

There was a fifth, a composer I was not familiar with, even by name, and he was the leader of this gifted group: Mily Balakirev

Then there's the "Belyayev circle"....

ReCD: Saturday People (Prozzäk)

Saturday People

by

Prozzäk

Sony

2000

***

There before me, in a nice pretty little row on the long work table, sat thirty to forty 1-inch videotapes, resting, waiting for this video tech to run them. My boss briefed me: a gentleman was requesting we compile music videos for a 'music video jukebox'. Fine, even if my professional brain knew that I might not be able to do the entire set on my shift; after all, there were other 'jobs' on the board. And music videos, one on each 1-inch master tape, hardly a pop-and-play format, would require constant attention due to the average running-time of 3 to 4 minutes each.

"Labour intensive", as we say.

Mike, the gentleman client, came by briefly to introduce himself. Nice guy, and very knowledgeable about videotape formats. We talked about the beauty of 2-inch "Quad", and, of course, 1-inch... our tape format for the night.

I warmed up the Ampex VTR and started the job of compiling exciting music videos. The process was straightforward, just requiring those waveform and audio-channel adjustments at the beginning of each tape run, as per the normal procedure, and the manual starting and stopping of the destination Betacam SP recorder.

A few songs in, as I slouched at my desk, with my back to the machine-rack monitors, a tune caught my ear. I reacted the way any fan of Tchaikovsky's music would:

"That's 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'!"

I spun in my chair to take note of what video it was that pulled me away from filling out my latest entry in the 'run sheet'.

A week or two later I bought the album Prozzäk: Saturday People, expressly for that song that made me sit up: "It's Not Me It's You!"

Trivia: If I still had the "Sam's" sales receipt, it would be dated September 10, 2001.

Athot for the Day: Great Balls of Whimsy!

A cat is merely a plush toy with attitude.

Picturing: Directing from Both Ends of the Mitchell II

Sunday Fun: No Church (I Said Sunday Fun)

RCAF Station Baden-Soellingen / CFB Baden-Soellingen, in then West Germany, had two cute little churches parked side by side near the end of a street: houses of two denominations, Catholic and Protestant; directly opposite was the base's hospital; and at the end of the street, watching, stood the fire hall with its fire engines and crash-tenders.

When I was five and six years old my dad would take me to the RC place on Sunday mornings. I remember sitting enraptured by the sermons, specifically by their extraordinary length, especially to this then child, and by what I perceived to be utter emptiness. (It's possible I knew that some things in those sermons made little sense but had yet to hurl the word "emptiness" to describe them.)

One day, a moment I remember well, I said to my dad something in such a way as to avoid any potential misinterpretation:

"Dad, I don't wanna go to church anymore."

His immediate reaction: Laughter. The kind aimed towards the heavens when one realizes that his six-year-old is figuring things out fast. And setting firm his own well-considered belief system.

I pray to no one.

Postscript: That former base is now an airport, Baden-Airpark.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Planets & Tales

For me, February 25th, 1989, involved having a pretty wonderful time at Roy Thomson Hall here in Toronto. With friends I went to see conductor Andrew Davis' return to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a special concert. A fine double feature:

Gustav Holst's "The Planets"

Raymond Luedeke's "Tales of the Netsilik — for orchestra and narrator"

I had heard "The Planets" many times before this night, but hearing it performed live made me appreciate the stellar work even more — the choral section was absolutely heavenly! (Even considering the then crappy acoustics at RTH.)

Canadian Broadcaster Peter Gzowski told tales as narrator: his familiar voice, at least to CBC Radio listeners, complemented the material, his relaxed style most fitting.

As we rose from our seats at the end of the evening's performances, Rob, one of my two concert-mates, offered something I found interesting: "I liked the second one more."

A Forever Question: Meow

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Must cats come with Terms & Conditions?

Happy Canada Day! 2025

Like many Canadians, I am so grateful to be living in this great country... especially so, given the fascist state forming just below us.