I didn’t think it could get much more surreal than hearing “Stairway to Heaven” on a pipe organ in a pizza parlor on Friday night. I was wrong.
I was changing channels tonight and something caught my eye on one of the local PBS stations: a rerun of “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show” from about 1961. The strange special effects in the first musical number were bizarre enough, with singers “floating” against a blue sky background (body parts kept disappearing). The “Peanuts” opening sequence as a little odd as well.
Midway through the show, though, came the piece de resistance: Ernie Ford and Tony Bennett and a full orchestra singing Hank Williams songs. This was about a strange as it gets. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” with a horn section was followed by “Jambalaya” with both the horn section and a collection of about 15 perky white singers in evening wear. All in brilliant, headache-inducing color on semi-demagnetized 2-inch videotape.
I sort of hoped it would all end in a commercial for Martha White Flour, but it didn’t…
Things I love today:
- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
- Breyer’s Natural Strawberry Ice Cream.
- Cheap cigarettes in San Bruno.
- This article on the launch of Microsloth Winblows 2000. Funny…
Things I hate today:
- This chest cold, which is showing signs of getting nastier and nastier (no doubt spurred on by cheap cigarettes in San Bruno).
- Hot, sticky weather in February.
- Waiting until the last minute to pay my car insurance and finding AAA closed for the holiday.
