I’m a loyal watcher of the old “Mission: Impossible” TV series. Right now, you can catch one episode a week on METV. Monday mornings at 3 a.m. I expect that whenever the next Tom Cruise “MI” movie comes out, it’ll run more often. That’s what usually happens.

What I love is how it’s a time capsule of making TV in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The same character actors show up season after season. Sid Haig played eight different people. Arthur Batanides played six. John Vernon, four. They’d play a priest in one episode, disappear for a year, and then reappear as a gangster. It was easier to have that kind of career before DVDs and streaming.

Continue reading

Paul Carrack has a new album out, which makes me very happy. The record is called “One on One” and at 70, Paul will be touring from January 2022 into April – but so far, not in the USA.  Back home in England, Paul is known and loved for his soulful sound. The BBC even made a 2012 documentary about him called “The Man with the Golden Voice.” That he’s not well-known in America is even stranger when you realize you’ve heard Paul Carrack’s voice on American radio for decades. You just never suspected all those songs from different bands had the same guy on lead vocal. Let’s start with Carrack’s hit with the band Ace. In 1975, “How Long” went to #3 in America.

I’ve written before about my side gig as a weekend Smooth Jazz DJ. We played “How Long” all the time. No way is it jazz, but you can’t deny it’s smooth. After Ace, Carrack joined Squeeze for what is probably his best-known vocal. “Tempted” was written by Squeeze’s core duo, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, but mostly sung by the band’s new keyboardist. This isn’t the version of the video that was on MTV, but it’s the one that’s on YouTube, so here we go…

Continue reading

I’m gonna say it – I like candy corn. I only need it once a year, but that vaguely honey-flavored, tri-color, triangular tidbit of sweet paste hits the spot in mid-October. Chew a few kernels along with peanuts and you’ve got a bootleg Payday bar.

In 2020, Brach’s tried to kill off we few remaining candy corn lovers with bags of Turkey Dinner Candy Corn. More a dare than an actual treat, Turkey Dinner Candy Corn was only available at Walgreens and contained the flavors roasted turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, ginger glazed carrots, and sweet potato pie. I tried to find “Thanksgiving in a Bag” but it was sold out long before November.

Guess what’s back for 2021 with a new flavor mix? Returning “favorites” are roast turkey, green beans, stuffing, and cranberry. Carrots and sweet potato pie have been replaced with coffee and apple pie, presumably so there are a couple flavors you’ll actually eat more than once. How did I snag a bag? You gotta shop for Thanksgiving candy in mid-August.

Continue reading

I’m working my way through all the episodes of “The Muppet Show” on Disney+ and I noticed that when a Muppet picks up a musical instrument, they almost always play left-handed. Kermit plucks banjo strings with his left flipper in “The Muppet Movie.” In The Electric Mayhem, Janice and Floyd hold their guitars like lefties, although Floyd’s sax grip looks like a rightie. (It’s tough to tell with drums and impossible with keyboards.) Scooter plays guitar to the left. Marvin Suggs plays the Muppahone with the mallet in his left hand. Even The County Trio – Muppets that look like, and are puppeted by, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson – all play like southpaws.

Continue reading

I’m looking forward to the end of July and the release of Los Lobos’ new album, “Native Sons.” The band has gone back and recorded covers of Los Angeles bands and musicians that influenced them at the start. So far, there have been previews of songs originally by Thee Midniters, The Beach Boys, and Barrett Strong, who co-wrote “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and Edwin Starr’s “War.” This is Barrett’s “Misery.”

“Native Sons” also includes covers of Buffalo Springfield, Jackson Brown, and The Blasters (which used to include now-Los Lobos member Steve Berlin). This isn’t the first covers album for Los Lobos. They released “Los Lobos Goes Disney” back in 2009 and I directed an unofficial music video for “Heigh-Ho” that actually had all the members of Los Lobos in it. You can go back and read the original post here.