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Crooner Culture

July 5th, 2008

Vintage Art - Tin Wall Signs/Advertisements

Ice Cold Coca-Cola
Ice Cold Coca-Cola Tin Sign
Buy at AllPosters.com

I’ve always wanted to collect tin wall signs for some reason. My mom’s got a couple she pulls out around Christmas, with Santa and Coca-Cola on them, but every time I see these kinds of wall art up, I always wonder if they’re real (authentic) or reproductions. We even have a restaurant where I live that essentially has “papered” the walls with retro-vintage stuff like this. I don’t know why, I just love the way the art looks and feels.

I’ve GOT to get my own space where I can start collecting these on the walls… Maybe a bathroom? LOL I don’t know… where would you guys put them?

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By Lara -- 0 comments

July 4th, 2008

Weekend Song and Drink - Pool Party Elegance 4th of July

First, Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans! :)

Before I get on with the Weekend Song and Drink post, I want to direct you all to a post I wrote on Memorial Day weekend, about a great artist, Poto Leifi and his project “Freedom’s On Me”, who is using retro-style artwork to pay tribute to fallen US soldiers. Simply awesome stuff, and we need to remember that it’s these soldiers who keep us independent and free.

Now, on to the celebration!

When I started this blog over a year ago, I wrote a post about a “hot, new Miami drink” called the Yellow Tomato Martini

I can see it now - my thinner, sexier, dangerous dame self - on a terra cotta patio overlooking a giant inground pool. I’m tanned and dewy, wearing a white slinky dress with my long, dark hair cascading over my shoulders. In my hand? The hottest new drink in Miami - The Yellow Tomato Martini.

I never added a song to that post, so here we go… I’m thinking something sort of spicy, something you can really get a sexy dance into…

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By Lara -- 1 comment

July 1st, 2008

Take Me Out To The Ballgame: 100 years and a “battle”!

ESPN is holding a “Battle of the Bands” competition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the song “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”, and OH MY! There’s a crooner in the mix, Mr. John Pizzarelli!


You can VOTE FOR JOHN by casting a vote using the poll in the right column on the ESPN website. The top three vote-getters will be announced on July 6, and the winner will be revealed on July 13.

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By Lara -- 0 comments

June 30th, 2008

Michael Buble on Aussie Talk Show “Rove”

Okay, this is really cool - I haven’t seen him being so silly like this on any talk show (day or night) before, and maybe it’s because I’m in the US and the FCC is a bunch of haughty high and mighties. I love how he talks about the nachos and underwear, but even more than that I love the challenge he gets from Jack Black.

Apparently Mike once killed a bunny (quite sure it was an accident, folks) and once received a teddy bear from a raging fan that he gave to one of his producer’s kids, and when she squeezed the bear, it said something pretty raucous!

Watch, laugh out loud, and don’t snarf your beverage on this:

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By Lara -- 0 comments

June 29th, 2008

Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, The Beatles… it’s Sunday Link Love!

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By Lara -- 0 comments

June 28th, 2008

Did You Know? Archive - Check these out!

Okay, so I realized that I’ve written a few “Did You Know? 5 Facts…” posts, and I thought I’d write an archive post for all the ones I’ve done so far. Are there any others you’d be particularly interested in? Should I do some “5 MORE Facts…” type posts?

Here’s what I’ve got so far…

Dean Martin
Bing Crosby
Ella Fitzgerald
Perry Como
Harry Connick, Jr.
Bobby Darin
Sandra Dee
Michael Bublé
Marilyn Monroe
Frankie Laine
Vic Damone
Nat King Cole
Mel Torme

and… hehe

Me.

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By Lara -- 0 comments

June 28th, 2008

The Velvet Fog - Mr. Mel Torme - April Showers

Did you know that Mel was nicknamed the “Velvet Fog”? In his younger years, I can see why… I’m personally not too keen on the stuff he did in the 70s and 80s, but that might be just because when I was growing up then, I thought of him as “old lady music”. LOL

Here’s a piece of rare footage of the fogginess himself singing “April Showers” circa 1950(ish): Read More

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By Lara -- 1 comment

June 27th, 2008

Which is better, you decide: Mel or Mike?

Okay readers, I want to know which version you guys like better… The Mel Torme version or Michael Buble’s version of “Comin’ Home Baby”

Watch the video clips below, and leave your vote in the comments section. I’ll let you know what my vote is later on… Read More

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By Lara -- 2 comments

June 27th, 2008

Weekend Song and Drink - Summer’s Here

It’s definitely summertime here in the northeast. FINALLY!
Lots of rain the past couple weeks, but when we get a nice, hot day, what’s better to guzzle down than some lemonade?

For this weekend’s song and drink, I’ve selected something different and cool.
Something languid and sexy, that kind of makes you just want to be on a porch swing, leaning back with a leg up, hanging the glass by it’s rim from your fingertips and listening to something slow and piano-laden on the stereo…

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By Lara -- 1 comment

June 26th, 2008

Did You Know? 5 Mel Torme Facts

  • Melvin Howard Tormé was born in 1925 in Chicago, Illinois to immigrant Russian Jewish parents whose real last name had been Torma.
  • He composed the music for the classic holiday song “The Christmas Song” (also known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” popularly sung by Nat King Cole and many other crooners). Noted by some as odd, because he was Jewish, that he wrote a Christmas song, Mel claimed to have written it in under 45 minutes and it was never one of his favorites.
  • As a teen, Mel Tormé sang, arranged, and played drums in a band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers.
  • He was married 4 times, and had 5 children and 2 stepchildren.
  • Mel lent his voice to Warner Brothers in The Night of the Living Duck (1988) and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988)
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By Lara -- 0 comments