Announcements (UPDATE 6/22/09)

If I have any new questions or announcements, I'll put them here and get rid of them when I don't want them any more.

I was checking some stuff on the blog here, and found out something pretty cool: today is "Way Out Junk"'s third anniversary! Woo-hoo!! When I started doing this, I figured I'd probably lose interest in it within a year (or that the people reading it would), but I'm still here. Again, apologies for the lax posting lately. Another 2 1/2 weeks or so and I'm done with school, and I'll do my best to try to make up for lost time.

Again, thank you all for coming here, thanks for the comments (good and bad), and thanks for making my life a little more interesting!

Tony

Big Hits from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - The New Christy Minstrels with Arthur Treacher

Hey Gang, I just wanted to get something new up here so you didn't think I forgot about you all!

Here's another collection of songs from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", this time by the pop/folk group The New Christy Minstrels. They're joined on a few songs by actor Arthur Treacher, who I know very little about except he had a chain of fish and chips restaurants in the United States and that he was somebody's second-banana on one of the talk shows (Merv Griffin?). I'm not quite sure what qualified him for the guest spot on this record. It certainly wasn't his singing ability!

Well, I've only got about another three weeks before I'm totally finished with school, and I'll get to graduate with my Masters degree in August. Once I get all that done I can go back to adding stuff here on a regular basis. Hooray!!

Here's the track list:

1. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
2. Posh! (with Arthur Treacher)
   
3. Hushabye Mountain
4. Medley: Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious
5. Chu-Chi Face (with Arthur Treacher)
   
6. Fun Fair
7. Me Old Bam-Boo
8. You Two (with Arthur Treacher)
   
9. Roses of Success
10. Lovely Lonely Man
11. Toot Sweets (with Arthur Treacher)
    
12. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Reprise)

Click here or here to download!

Children's Sing Along

Here's an album that, going by the cover, looks like another mishmash of songs from various sources. I mean, there's no photographs of the singers, just a plain picture. And the track list is actually printed on top of the title here, almost like an afterthought. But looks are deceiving here. Not only do all these songs sound like they are performed by the same children's chorus, but this is the same group with the same version of "Sidewalks of New York" that I enjoyed on this album that WAS from a mixture of sources. This is an entire album with these kids, and I really like it. I am reminded once again that "Jingle Bells" isn't really a Christmas song here, and there's some other really rousing songs as well, all done in that great spirited way as "Sidewalks" was. Take a listen to this one. I think you'll enjoy it!

By the way, I apologize once again for my absence. I have my thesis to do next week and I'm trying to prep for it!

Here's the track list:

1. Jingle Bells
2. Standing in Need
3. Banjo's Back in Town
4. Give Me That Old Time Religion
5. Sidewalks of New York
6. Bunker Hillbillies Theme Song
7. Oh Susanna
8. Buffalo Gals
9. Clementine
10. When the Saints Go Marching In

Click here or here to download!

Captain of the Starship - William Shatner Live!

Here's a special treat for you. This two record set features William Shatner speaking at Hofstra University sometime around 1978. For those of you who like to hear the Shat Man do dramatic soliloquies, you'll be happy to hear him perform pieces from "Cyrano de Bergerac", "War of the Worlds", and others. For those who want tidbits for the (at the time) upcoming movie, you've got that here too, even talking about why Leonard Nimoy was holding out for more money. (If I remember right, Shatner said the budget for the upcoming "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was around $8 million. It turns out that, according to the IMDB, it was really around $35 million.) And if you want some stories about how Star Trek changed his life, you've got that as well.

I think Shatner sounds sort of fun and bubbly when he's talking to the audience here. He seems to me like he's really enjoying the attention, before he became a full-on celebrity and (maybe) expected to be treated like a celebrity. Anyway, hope you enjoy this.

(And yes, the cover photo shows him menacing some off-camera alien with an upside down camera tripod!)

It all sort of meshes together, so the tracks are divided by side.

Here's the track list:

1. Earthbound/Go with Me/High Flight/The Flight of Man/Galileo
2. 6 Ways to the Moon/War of the Worlds
3. The Movie
4. SHORT TAKES: William Shatner - Audience/Starship's Facilities/Peter/Summer Spaceship/Three-way Alchemy - The Brain/Finale

Click here or here to download!

Trek Bloopers

Here's another Star Trek rarity brought to you courtesy of Blue Pear Records. (get it?) The story behind this is that these audio tapes were found in a garbage can by somebody who just wanted to use the tapes themselves. When they saw that "Star Trek" was written on the boxes, they decided to investigate further. People have seen the famous "Star Trek Blooper Reel", but it only covered the first two seasons. This is stuff from the third and final season. Is it funny? Well, it does suffer from lack of visuals. I really think of it more as a historical record of the time. Plus you get to hear the classic song "Hey Out There" a few times! How can you beat that?

Click here or here to download!

Oh yeah, if you haven't seen the Star Trek Blooper Reel, here it is!

Inside Star Trek

In honor of the new Star Trek movie, I'd thought I throw a few Trekkie type things up here. This album from 1976 is hosted by "Star Trek" creator (and Great Bird of the Galaxy) Gene Roddenberry. There's some live convention stuff with him, interviews with William Shatner about Captain Kirk, DeForest Kelley talks about the current state of medicine ("Too damned expensive.") and Roddenberry ask Mark Lenard as Sarek (Spock's dad) about Vulcan sex. (Guess Nimoy wasn't interested in participating.) Plus Isaac Asimov and his ginormous sideburns! Anyway, hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. Inside Star Trek
2. Star Trek Theme
3. William Shatner Meets Captain Kirk
4. The Origin of Spock
5. Sarek's Son Spock
6. The Questor Affair
7. The Enterprise Runs Aground
8. McCoy's Rx for Life
9. The Star Trek Philosophy
10. Asimov's World of Science Fiction
11. A Letter from a Network Censor
12. The Star Trek Dream (Ballad I/Ballad II)

Well, it was pointed out to me that this album is actually included as a bonus CD on the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" CD box set, so I'm taking my links down. If you'd like to get it yourself, you can get it from the link below!

A Tribute to Mother - Wally Fowler

This one's a bit of a change of pace for me. I was actually working on getting a few Star Trek related albums on here to tie in with the new movie coming out, when I remembered that I bought this album specifically to put on here for Mother's Day. I don't know Wally Fowler myself, but according to the cover he's "Mr. Gospel Music" and "The Man with a Million Friends", which means some of you may be familiar with him. This is just a nice collection of gospel-tinged old songs about Mom featuring Fowler, the Sego Brothers with Naomi, and the J.D. Sumner Stamps Quartet. Enjoy, and have a happy Mother's Day!

Here's the track list:

1. Mother, Mine
2. Sweetest Mother
3. Wrinkled and Old
4. My Child, Welcome Home
5. The Chair That Rocked Us All
6. Mama Sang a Song
7. Rocking Along in an Old Rocking Chair
8. Mother's Gone
9. The Hands That Rock the Cradle
10. Precious Mother
11. If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
12. Supper Time

Click here or here to download!