Megustav Holst

Having had the opportunity to work with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, I've been exposed to some different music, and reintroduced to some. One of them would be Gustav Holst. We played the First Suite in E Flat. Very wonderful piece of music.

However my personal favorite would be his 7 Movement Suite, The Planets. Excluding Earth, and with Holst's brilliant insight that Pluto would never be a planet, it captures the various moods of the planets. For example, Mars: Bringer of War, or Neptune the Mystic. This suite is very open to interpretation. Various groups have done well. My favorite, the Philadelphia Orchestra's version, under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. They do it best, and put the most feeling in it. OK, I will admit there could be more in Jupiter.

Beautiful piece. Listen to it. I dare ya. You'd enjoy it, as well as his other works. (NOTE: The picture is Eugene Ormandy conducting Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity)

The Barker Days

Happened to catch Bob's brief return on The Price is Right today. I have to say, I like Drew, but when it comes to The Price is Right I always associate it with Bob Barker himself. That's who I grew up watching. I remember watching way back in the day, when Rod was still on camera. Then I moved on to him and Rich. I began watching (or caring) full time when Season 35 started. I actually cried when I heard that Bob Barker would be retiring. Then I started watching the earlier episodes. Back then I had no idea Barker had black hair, but I quickly fell in love with the show even more.

So I eventually settled into Drew, but Bob's who I grew up with and who is my favorite. 35 Years is a good accomplishment. Too bad the backstage crap that went on takes away my respect for him as a human being.

New Design

Hello all. This blog as a fresh new look. The picture is from the 1972 Pilot Episode of M*A*S*H. There's still some changes on the way, such as up to date GSN schedules, more frequency of posting, and other links. I plan to actually get this up and going. So keep checking in and enjoy.

Let's Go Shopping

If you tuned into GSN this morning, you saw $ale of the Century. What made it special, or different from seeing it on a normal day was the era of shows. First off, the theme song was a little different (and IMO more lively), Jay Stewart was announcing, there were 3 bargains, No instant cash, players picked the fame game numbers, the Pyramid clock was there.....and most different, players went shopping for prizes as opposed to guessing word puzzles where you could be potentially screwed over.

This morning they aired the first 8 episodes of the 1985-1986 syndicated version. Jim was still there hosting and reading questions, and Summer was there looking good as usual. The earlier episodes seemed more exciting than the other ones. With the shopping episodes, winning the game was not only important, but how much you scored determined what would happen. My favorite endgame was the Winner's Board. Maybe GSN will eventually show that. Very excited that these are now gonna air in the mornings (in place of the 1988-1989 shows). Nice to hear Jay Stewart again. Also looking to see some of the runs of big winners like John Goss or Alice Conkwright.

Holiday Marathon Review

Well, Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite days of the year. I woke up and caught the last few minutes of Family Feud with Richard Dawson. Jim Perry was a fast money player. Then, for the first time in several years, Ray Combs was on my television set. Now, I understand that here on the web Ray is considered one of the best. As I've said before, I disagree. After watching both episodes (fighting to stay awake) I was reminded as to why I no longer like Ray. He tried too hard to be funny, and was a lousy emcee. It has nothing to do with what he did. While he didn't try to be like Dawson, I've come to find that his style just doesn't fit my tastes anymore.

But I was reminded that Ray was not the worst. After that, it was 2 episodes of Louie Anderson Family Feud. The only interesting thing about the episodes were Brande Roderick. Other than that, Louie was just downright putrid. I fell asleep during the second show. He mumbled, and looked about as interested as dead leaves. That's all I caught. I didn't catch the Roker episode. I was helping get Thanksgiving dinner moving forward. I do miss Richard Dawson's version on the network though, I will admit that. It was nice to see again.

End of an Era

How about a non game show post for the first time in awhile. One of my favorite bands, The Church will soon be coming out with a new album. Unfortunately, Marty Willson Piper will not be present. This article announces that Marty has been replaced with Ian Haug of Powderfinger. As Steve Kilbey has said "If you can't dig it, I'm sorry. This is my f*#king band after all and has existed at times without Peter, and in the beginning without Marty, and for times in between when he went AWOL."

Marty was not available, and has been doing some of his own work.

I had the opportunity to meet Marty in February 2011 in Seattle when they performed their tour there. He seemed like a nice fellow. But time moves on and things change. I personally will miss Marty. He's contributed a lot to this band, and is a great musician. But the band will move on. I for one also welcome Ian Haug. Never heard of him or his work, but it will be interesting to see how he does with the band. It's a new addition that I find welcome. I have no disrespect to Marty and wish him well in the future. Kinda sucks that they'll probably never perform together again. Well, let's see how they do with this new album.

Returns and Acquisitions - What's Happening to GSN next

Well, GSN used to be very predictable, when a show would lose a spot for Harvey Feud. The next set of changes at GSN, well, are very unexpected, but are very...well, if you like older shows, you're in heaven, or something like that. These changes start December 2nd.

First, Blockbusters with Bill Cullen returns to the network after nearly 5 years of being nowhere on the network. The episode start is #312, so it looks like the last 60 episodes of the run. This replaces the 9:00am episode of Super Password. Convy and crew still have the 11:00am slot for now.

Second, it's not a show change, but a switch of episodes. The 1985-1986 episodes of $ale of the Century will air at 10:00am continuing from the Black Friday marathon. The 1988-1989 episodes disappear. So this means different music package, endgame, and Jay Stewart are around now.

Then, the most interesting change is at 4:00pm. Shop Til you Drop with Pat Finn (don't know which run, I'm assuming it's the 2000 PAX run, I mean GSN did air one of those shows a few years ago). The episodes will repeat the next weekday at 12:00pm. (so what airs Tuesday at 4:00pm will air Wednesday at 12:00pm). The shows get the full hour.

Well, this is very interesting. I do prefer Shop Til You Drop over Supermarket Sweep by far, so I can live with that. I'll watch (or record). I hope it lasts awhile.

Very glad to see Blockbusters with Bill Cullen return to the network. This is one of my favorite Game Shows. I would always watch it on weekend mornings. Also good to see a Bill Cullen show on the network. I will definetley be watching (or recording) this for sure. Hope it fares well in the ratings.

As for Syndicated $ale gaining a spot on the regular schedule. Yes I'm happy.

These changes start Monday Shop Til You Drop, that starts on December 3rd)
December 2nd (except for the Noon