#They got grandma back to US at the end of 1938

[winnix85]

On 28th Sep 1938, Lewis Nixon and his mother went to French Riviera to see his grandmother. Nazi Germany annexed Sudetenland on the next day.

The atmosphere was very tense at that time : “Hitler responded petulantly by moving up his deadline to September 28. In conference on the 23rd at 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain futilely urged acquiescence to the new Nazi demands. … “All over London,” Kennedy recalled, “people were being fitted for gas-masks.”

Lew’s next visit to Paris will be in six years later, and without a passport or visa.

[papermoonloveslucy]

TRYING TO CASH THE PRIZE CHECK

December 9, 1950

“Trying To Cash The Prize Check” (aka “The ‘Everybody Wins’ Prize Check”) is episode #109 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on December 9, 1950. 

Synopsis ~ Liz goes on the radio quiz show and wins a check for $500, but she only gets to keep it if she can cash it within 25 minutes, and the banks are all closed!

This was the 15th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968. 

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) does not appear in this episode. 

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (’Happy’ Hal Brubaker) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”.  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs. His trademark was playing clerks and other working stiffs, suddenly turning to Benny with a drawn out “Yeeeeeeeeees?” Nelson appeared in 11 episodes of “I Love Lucy”, including three as quiz master Freddy Fillmore, and two as Ralph Ramsey, plus appearance on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” - making him the only actor to play two different recurring roles on “I Love Lucy.” Nelson returned to the role of the frazzled Train Conductor for an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1963. This marked his final appearance on a Lucille Ball sitcom.

Nelson adds one more quizmaster to his list of credits with ‘Happy’ Hal Brubaker. He joins Smiley Stembottom and Freddy Fillmore. 

Bobby Jellison (Mr. Uh-Uh-Uh) will play the recurring character of Bobby the bellboy throughout the Hollywood episodes of “I Love Lucy”.  Viewers may also remember him as the milkman in “The Gossip” (S1;E24). He makes one more appearance as another luggage jockey in “Lucy Hunts Uranium,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour”.

Jerry Hausner (Loan Store Clerk) was best known as Ricky Ricardo’s agent in “I Love Lucy” and as the voice of Waldo in “Mr. Magoo” and several characters such as Hemlock Holmes, The Mole, Broodles and Itchy in “The Dick Tracy Show.”  On Broadway, Hausner had the role of Sammy Schmaltz in Queer People (1934). On radio, he was a regular on such shows as “Blondie”, “The Jim Backus Show”, “The Judy Canova Show”, “Too Many Cooks”, and “Young Love”. Hausner died of heart failure on April 1, 1993. He was 83 years old. 

Wally Maher (Mr. Trimble, the Grocer) was born on August 4, 1908 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was known for Mystery Street (1950), The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and Hollywood Hotel (1937). He was heard with Lucille Ball in the Lux Radio Theatre version of “The Dark Corner” (1947), taking the role originated on film by William Bendix. He died on December 27, 1951.

Sandra Gould (Woman in Audience) is probably best remembered as the second actor to play Gladys Kravitz on “Bewitched” (1966-71). On “I Love Lucy,” she played Nancy Johnson in “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18) and makes a brief appearance as an alarmed strap-hanger in “Lucy and the Loving Cup” (ILL S6;E12). In 1962 she appeared in the fourth episode of “The Lucy Show” as a bank secretary.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers this morning, they’re at breakfast, and from the way Liz is looking at George, she’s either madly in love or has some ulterior motive in mind.” 

Liz wants to buy a new dress to wear to the club dance on Saturday, which costs $89.50. George won’t allow it but Liz is determined to get it by hook or by crook. 

Later the doorbell rings and it is Iris Atterbury. A downbeat Liz tells Iris about the dress she wants. Iris is going to a radio broadcast and wants Liz to go along to cheer herself up - and possibly win enough money to buy the new dress. 

The show is called “Everybody Wins” hosted by ‘Happy’ Hal Brubaker (Frank Nelson), a local radio game show. It is sponsored by Grandma Grimes Cold Cream.  The first contestant is the woman with the reddest hair - Liz Cooper! Another woman in the audience (Sandra Gould) objects!

WOMAN: “Are you kiddin’ sister? At home, I’m a redhead. Next to you, I’m a brunette!”

Liz wins a $500 check just for stating her name. The catch is, Liz must cash the check in 25 minutes without telling anyone it is a stunt for a radio show.  She’s assigned a man (Bobby Jellison) to watch her to be sure. Liz confesses that her husband is a banker. Brubaker reminds her that the show went on the air at 3pm when the banks close.

Liz and Iris tear out of the studio toward the bank. They bang on the door to get the guard’s attention. Liz sees George but can’t tell him why she needs to get in. Their watchdog chaperone intervenes with a warning “Uh uh uh!” every time Liz starts to explain. Mr. Atterbury comes by and Iris asks him to cash the check, but Mr. Atterbury says to come back in the morning.  Liz pleads with him, but Mr. Atterbury cites state law. Liz stages a fake stick-up to get the cash. Mr. Atterbury points out that she hasn’t got a gun.  

With twelve minutes left, Liz and Iris start out to look for somewhere else to cash the check. 

End of Part One

Bob LeMond does a Jell-O commercial that gives a recipe for a quick dessert during the holidays.  

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers again, Liz and Iris have just left the bank to try to find another place to cash the $500 check from ‘Everybody Wins’ which Liz can keep if she can cash it in the next 15 minutes. George and Mr. Atterbury have prepared to return to their work.”

At the bank, Mr. Atterbury and George are alone. He turns on the radio. 

MR. ATTERBURY: “I wouldn’t want anyone to know that we go over the books with ‘Arthur Godfrey’”! 

Arthur Godfrey (1903-83) was a tremendously popular host and entertainer. His CBS morning radio show “Arthur Godfrey Time” aired five times a week. He also had an evening program titled “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” which soon transitioned to television. It was the lead-in to “I Love Lucy” in 1951 and promoted Godfrey did on-air promotion for “Lucy.”  Many years later Godfrey guest-starred as himself on “The Lucy Show.”  Although tremendously popular whenever he aired, Godfrey was noticeably absent from afternoons, so it is unlikely that George and Mr. Atterbury tune in to his program at 3pm. 

When the radio comes on, however, it is tuned to “Everybody Wins”, not Arthur Godfrey.  

HAPPY HAL BRUBAKER (over radio): “Thank you, Mrs. Malone for being such a good sport and jumping off the high ladder with an umbrella. You missed the mattress so you don’t get a prize. Thanks anyway, and we hope that little old leg of yours mends soon!” 

This verbal gag is brought vividly to life on television with the appearance of a heavily bandaged former winner Mrs. Peterson (Hazel Pierce) who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel!  

George and Mr. Atterbury tune in just in time to hear Hal Brubaker report that Liz Cooper has not yet returned from cashing her check!  They realize what all her secrecy was about and, after a brief disagreement, they fill their pockets with cash and race off to find her!  

Liz and Iris see a loan shop sign “Do You Need Money? Hmmm?” in neon. The clerk (Jerry Hausner) tells them he will deduct the interest and the carrying charges giving her $14.32 with $50 weekly re-payments for 36 weeks! To get $500 they need to borrow $13,000! 

They run out of the shop with only six minutes left. George and Mr. Atterbury spot them, but rather than explain and waste time, the girls duck into a taxi to go to Trimble’s Grocery, where Liz is sure Mr. Trimble will give her the cash. 

Elderly grocer Mr. Trimble (Wally Maher) is in a chatty mood, wanting to talk about a mushy eggplant he sold her. He agrees to cash the check but is slow counting out the money from the cash drawer, making Liz a nervous wreck. He finally finishes, only to misread the check and count out $5.00 instead of five hundred! 

Liz and Iris give up and go back to the radio station. Meanwhile, George and Mr. Atterbury give up chasing Liz and Iris and decide to go to the radio station.  Liz arrives with a minute and a half to go. Defeated, she tears up the check just as the boys come racing in with the $500 cash.  With 45 seconds to go they scramble to reassemble the check!  Liz finds the final piece just as time expires. 

Brubaker reveals that he tricked her. The “Uh Uh Uh” man had the money all the time and would have cashed the check had Liz just asked. George is outraged and punches Brubaker in his ‘Happy’ face!  As a consolation, George agrees to give Liz the money anyway - plus $89.50 for the new dress.

LIZ: “Oh, George!  You really are my favorite husband!” 

In the final live Jell-O commercial, Lucille Ball takes on the character of a famous lady novelist and Bob LeMond is her interviewer. Lucy adopts a nasal voice as Elizabeth Dopplefinger Hopenshmice. The voice is similar to the one she will do as Isabella Clump in “The Million Dollar Idea” (ILL S3;E13). Elizabeth says she first imagines a book cover and then writes a story around it.  Bob LeMond says he would like to see a bowl of Jell-O on the cover of a book, but Elizabeth prefers a more romantic cover and kisses him. LeMond still wants Jell-O on the cover.  

Bob LeMond reads the credits. There is a recorded message from Instant Sanka.  

END EPISODE

[rapturerecords]

Let us begin again ringing in the New Year here in Rapture. Here’s a little tribute based off Johnny Dombrowski’s marvelous illustration though with a slightly older Wurlitzer model instead. Those new Bubbler jukeboxes always seem to jam and play only a few seconds of a song.

As always, we’ll take this time to remember Patti Page, singer of “Doggie in the Window” who also passed away on New Year’s Day.

We’re celebrating another 10th anniversary of a sister game this year with Fallout 3 and a new set of sounds wafting in from Appalachia.

See if your favorite record, 8-track, cassette, or wax cylinder was featured this year:

BioShock

"Bei Mir Bist du Schön" - Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 1562

"Bei Mir Bist du Schön" - Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23605 (reissue)

"It's Bad for Me" - Rosemary Clooney and Benny Goodman - Columbia Records 40616

"Papa Loves Mambo" - Perry Como - RCA Victor Records 20-5857

"20th Century Blues" - Noël Coward - Columbia Records ML 5163

"The Party's Over Now" (1959) - Noël Coward - Columbia Records ML 5163

"Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" - Bing Crosby - Victor Records 22701

"Beyond the Sea" - Bobby Darin - ATCO Records 45-6158

"Night and Day" - Billie Holiday - Columbia Records 3044 (reissue)

“The Best Things in Life are Free” - Ink Spots - Decca Records 24327

"If I Didn't Care" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 2286

"Danny Boy" - Mario Lanza - The Magic of Mario Lanza - Heartland Music HL 1046/50

“Danny Boy” anniversary revisit 2015 “Danny Boy” anniversary revisit 2016 “Danny Boy” anniversary revisit 2017

“(How Much is That) Doggie in the Window” (1966) - Patti Page - Columbia Records CS 9326 (in-game version) 

"The Doggie in the Window" (1953) - Patti Page - Mercury Records 70070 (original version)

"You're the Top" (1934) - Cole Porter - Victor Records 24766 (original version)

"La Mer" - Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli - Djangology RCA RGP-1186 (reissue)

Cohen’s Quadtych: “Academy Award” vs. “The Ballroom Waltz”

"Academy Award" - Stanley Black - Music De Wolfe DW/LP 2977

“Too Young” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1449

"Just Walking in the Rain" - Johnnie Ray - Columbia Records 40729

"Waltz of the Flowers"

Looking for BioShock’s Django Reinhardt

BioShock 2

"Ten Cents a Dance" - Ruth Etting - Columbia Records 2146D

"Dawn of a New Day" - Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights - Brunswick Records 8313

"It's Only a Paper Moon" - Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23425

BioShock 10th Anniversary Revisit and Eclipse

"Someone's Rocking My Dream Boat" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 4045

"We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 3379

"I'm Making Believe" - Ink Spots with Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

"Bei Mir Bist du Schon" - Benny Goodman with Martha Tilton - The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert Columbia Records ML 4359

“Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Man“ - Henry Hall and his Orchestra with Val Rosing - Columbia Records FB 2816

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Kay Kyser - Columbia Records 36640

“You Always Hurt the One You Love” - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 18599

"Paper Doll" - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 18318

"Dream" - The Pied Pipers - Capitol Records 185

"Chasing Shadows" - Quintette du Hot Club de France - Royale Records 1798

"Nightmare" (1938) - Artie Shaw - Bluebird Records B-7875 (in-game version)

“Nightmare” (1937) - Art Shaw and his New Music - Vocalion Records 4306 (re-recording)

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" - Bessie Smith - Parlophone Records R2481

Father’s Day in Rapture 

"Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" - Annette Hanshaw - Velvet Tone Records 1940V

"My Heart Belongs to Daddy" - Mary Martin - Brunswick Records 8282

"Daddy's Little Girl" (1976) - Mills Brothers - Ranwood Records R-8152 (in-game version)

"Daddy's Little Girl" (1950) - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 24872 (original version)

BioShock Infinite

"Ain't She Sweet" - Ben Bernie - Brunswick Records 3444

"Button Up Your Overcoat" - Helen Kane - Victor Records 21863

"(What Do We Do on a) Dew-Dew-Dewey Day" - Charles Kaley - Columbia Records 1055D

"Indian Love Call" - Sigmund Krumgold - Okeh Records 40904

"Me and My Shadow" - Sam Lanin - Lincoln Records 2628

"Black Gal" - Ed Lewis with unidentified prisoners (recorded by Alan Lomax)

"I'm Wild About That Thing" - Bessie Smith - Columbia Records 14427D

"Makin' Whoopee!" - Rudy Vallée - Harmony Records 825-H

The Cylinders of BioShock Infinite 

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" - Ada Jones and Billy Murray - Edison Standard Record 10134

 "The Bonnie Blue Flag" - Polk Miller - Edison Blue Amberol Record 2175

"After You've Gone"

"The Easy Winners"

"Solace - A Mexican Serenade"

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” - Elizabeth’s version

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” - Selah Jubilee Singers - Decca Records 7872

“The Grand Old Rag” - Billy Murray - Victor Records 4634

Albert Fink's Magical Melodies Presents: "God Only Knows"

“Ah! La femme il n’y que ça“ - Mon. A. Fertinel - Improved Berliner Gramophone Record 1148

“God Only Knows” - The Beach Boys - Capitol Records 5706

"Fortunate Son" - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fantasy Records 634

Burial at Sea

Episode 1

The Complete Records Behind the Music

"Midnight, The Stars and You" - Al Bowlly - Victor Records 24700

"She's Got You" - Patsy Cline - Decca Records 31354

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" - Johnny Mathis - Columbia Records 40784

"The Lady is a Tramp" - Mel Tormé - London American Recordings HL N.8305

"Tonight for Sure!" - Ruth Wallis - Wallis Original Record Corp. 2001

"Stranger in Paradise"

Episode 2

The Complete Records Behind the Music

"Back in Baby's Arms" - Patsy Cline - Decca Records 31483

"Easy to Love" - Sammy Davis Jr. - Starring Sammy Davis Jr. Decca Records DL 8118

"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" - Glenn Miller - Bluebird Records B-11474

"La Vie en Rose" - Édith Piaf - Columbia Records 4004-F 

“La Vie en Rose” (English version) -  Édith Piaf - Columbia Records 38948

“La Vie en Rose” in 2007′s BioShock

"The Great Pretender" - The Platters - Mercury Records 70753

"You Belong to Me"

Fallout 2

"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" - Louis Armstrong - Decca Records 27720

Fallout 3 (Galaxy News Radio)

"Civilization" - Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye - Decca Records 23940

“Butcher Pete (Part 1)” - Roy Brown - De-Luxe Records 3301

“Crazy He Calls Me” - Billie Holiday - Decca Records 24796

"I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 3987

"Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" - Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

“Swing Doors” - composed by Allan Gray - Charles Brull - A Harmonic Private Recording CBL 37

“Jazzy Interlude” - composed by Billy Munn - Charles Brull - A Harmonic Private Recording CBL 37

"Anything Goes" (1934) - Cole Porter - Victor Records 24825 (original version)  

Fallout: New Vegas (Radio New Vegas, Mojave Music Radio, Black Mountain Radio)

"It's a Sin" - Eddy Arnold - RCA Victor Records 10-2241

"Jingle Jangle Jingle" - Kay Kyser - Columbia Records 36604

“It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” (1979) - Ink Spots (Bill Kenny) - CBS Special Products P 18042 (in-game version)

“It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” (1941) - Ink Spots - Decca Records (original version)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1950) - Peggy Lee with the Dave Barbour Quartet- Peggy Lee’s Greatest - Camay Records CA 3003 (in-game version)

“Why Don’t You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)” (1947) - Peggy Lee - Rendezvous with Peggy Lee - Capitol Records 10118 (re-recording)

 “Why Don’t You Do Right” (1942) - Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra - Columbia Records 36652 (re-recording)

"Big Iron" - Marty Robbins -  Columbia Records 4-41589

“Blue Moon” - Frank Sinatra - Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!  - Capitol Records W1491

“Orange Colored Sky” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1184

Fallout 4 (Diamond City Radio)

“Butcher Pete (Part 2)” - Roy Brown - De-Luxe Records 3301

“Orange Colored Sky” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1184

“Pistol-Packin’ Mama - Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23277

“The Wanderer” - Dion - Laurie Records 3115

“Sixty-Minute Man - The Dominoes - Federal Records 12022

“Atom Bomb Baby” - The Five Stars - Kernel Records A002

“It’s All Over But the Crying” - Ink Spots - Decca Records 24286

“Grandma Plays the Numbers” - Wynonie Harris - King Records 4276

“Personality” - Johnny Mercer - Capitol Records 230

"The End of the World” - Patti Page - Say Wonderful Things - Columbia Records CS 8849

Fallout 76 (Appalachia Radio)

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” - The Beach Boys - Capitol Records 5706

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Kay Kyser - Columbia Records 36640

"We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 3379

Guardians of the Galaxy

"I'm Not in Love" - 10cc - Mercury Records (Phonogram) 73678 (abridged)

"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" - Elvin Bishop - Capricorn Records CPS 0252 (abridged)

“Spirit in the Sky” - Norman Greenbaum - Reprise Records 0885

“Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes - Infinity Records INF 50.035

"Hooked on a Feeling" - Blue Swede - EMI Records 3627

"I Want You Back" - The Jackson 5 - Motown Records M 1157

"Go All the Way" - Raspberries - Capitol Records 3348

"Come and Get Your Love" - Redbone - Epic Records 5-11035

L.A. Noire (KTI Radio)

“Pistol-Packin’ Mama” - Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23277

“Stone Cold Dead in the Market” - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan - Decca Records 23546

"Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" - Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

"Manteca" - Dizzy Gillespie - RCA Victor Records 20-3023

"Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" - Louis Jordan - Decca Records 23741

"Red Silk Stockings and Green Perfume" - Sammy Kaye - RCA Victor Records 20-2251

“Black and Blue” - Frankie Laine - Mercury Records A-1026

"'Murder', He Says" - Dinah Shore - RCA Victor Records 20-1525

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) - Tex Williams - Capitol Records Americana Series 40001

“Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop” - Lionel Hampton - Decca Records 18754

Mafia II (Empire Central Radio, Delta Radio)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1950) - Peggy Lee with the Dave Barbour Quartet- Peggy Lee’s Greatest - Camay Records CA 3003 (re-recording)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1942) - Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra - Columbia Records 36652 (re-recording)

"A Guy is a Guy” - Doris Day - Columbia Records 39673

XCOM The Bureau Declassified (KNOV Radio)

“Runaway” - Del Shannon - Big Top Records 45-3067

“Who’s Sorry Now” - Connie Francis - MGM Records 975 (57-S-622)

"Smack Dab in the Middle" - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 29511

“Riders in the Sky” - Vaughn Monroe - RCA Victor 20-3411

"Man of Mystery" - The Shadows - Columbia Records 45-DB 4530

“I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive” - Hank Williams - MGM Records 11366

See the previous years’ lists here:

2014

2015

2016

2017

[blackkudos]

Bill Withers

William Harrison (Bill) Withers Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Early life

Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter and has said he had a hard time fitting in. Raised in nearby Beckley, he was thirteen years old when his father died. Withers enlisted with the United States Navy at the age of 18 and served for nine years, during which time he got over his stutter and became interested in singing and writing songs. Mr. Withers left the Navy in 1965. Using the $250 he received from selling his furniture to IBM co-worker Ron Sierra, he picked up and relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career. Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to resign from his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry.

Career

Sussex records

During early 1970, Withers' demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch pail.

The album was a success and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Benorce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap.

At the 14th annual Grammy Awards on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine." The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971.

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single, "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers' second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. His follow-up, "Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +'Justments. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B. B. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between Foreman and Ali. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert.

Columbia Records

After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first album release with the label, Making Music, Making Friends, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar. During the next three years he released an album each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977, containing the successful "Lovely Day"), "Bout Love" (1978) and "Get on Down"; the latter song also included on the Looking for Mr. Goodbar soundtrack.

In 1976, Withers performed "Ain't No Sunshine" on Saturday Night Live.

Due to problems with Columbia and being unable to get songs approved for his album, he concentrated on joint projects from 1977 to 1985, including "Just the Two of Us", with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., which was released during June 1980. It won a Grammy on February 24, 1982. Withers next did "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders, and "In the Name of Love" with Ralph MacDonald, the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal performance.

In 1982, Withers was a featured vocalist on the album, "Dreams in Stone" by French singer Michel Berger. This record included one composition co-written and sung by Withers, an upbeat disco song about New York City entitled "Apple Pie." The album was not released in North America, although it contains several songs about America.

In 1985 came Watching You Watching Me, which featured the Top 40-rated R&B single "Oh Yeah", and ended Withers' business association with Columbia Records. Withers stated in interviews that a lot of the songs approved for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles released, were the same songs which were rejected in 1982, hence contributing significantly to the eight-year hiatus between albums. Withers also stated it was frustrating seeing his record label release an album for Mr. T, an actor, when they were preventing him, an actual singer, from releasing his own. He toured with Jennifer Holliday in 1985 to promote what would be his final studio album.

His disdain for Columbia's A&R executives or "blaxperts", as he termed them, trying to exert control over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums, played a part in his making the decision to not record or re-sign to a record label after 1985, effectively ending his performing career, even though remixes of his previously recorded music were released after his 'retirement'. Finding musical success later in life than most, at 32, he has said he was socialized as a 'regular guy' who had a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry. He has also stated that he does not miss touring and performing live and does not regret leaving music behind. He seemingly no longer suffers from the speech impediment of stuttering that affected him during his recording career.

Post-Columbia career

In 1988, a new version of "Lovely Day" from the 1977 Menagerie album, entitled "Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix)" and remixed by Ben Liebrand, reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, leading to Withers' performance on the long-running Top of the Pops that year. The original release had reached #7 in the UK in early 1978, and the re-release climbed higher to #4.

In 1987, he received his ninth Grammy Award nomination and on March 2, 1988, his third Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song as songwriter for the re-recording of "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau on their debut album Life, Love and Pain, released in 1986 on Warner Bros. Records.

In 1996, a portion of his song "Grandma's Hands" was sampled in the song "No Diggity" by BLACKstreet, featuring Dr. Dre. The single went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 1.6 million copies and won a Grammy in 1999 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Withers contributed two songs to Jimmy Buffett's 2004 release License to Chill. Following the reissues of Still Bill on January 28, 2003, and Just As I Am on March 8, 2005, there was speculation of previously unreleased material being issued as a new album. In 2006, Sony gave back to Withers his previously unreleased tapes.

In 2007, "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

On January 26, 2014, at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disc set featuring Withers's eight studio albums, as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall, received the "Best Historical" Grammy Award (in a tie with The Rolling Stones' "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965.") The award was presented to Leo Sacks, who produced the collection, and the mastering engineers Mark Wilder, Joseph M. Palmaccio and Tom Ruff.

On April 18, 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder. Withers was stunned when he learned he had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. "I see it as an award of attrition," he says. "What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain't a genre that somebody didn't record them in. I'm not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don't think I've done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia."

On October 1, 2015, there was a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in his honor, featuring Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Dr. John, Michael McDonald and Anthony Hamilton recreating his 1973 concert album, Live at Carnegie Hall, along with other Withers material. Withers was in attendance and spoke briefly onstage.

On February 12, 2017, he made an appearance on MSNBC to talk about the refugee crisis, as well as political climate in America.

Personal life

Withers married actress Denise Nicholas in 1973, during her stint on the sitcom Room 222. The couple divorced the following year. In 1976, Withers married Marcia Withers née Johnson and they had two children, Todd and Kori. Marcia eventually assumed the direct management of his Beverly Hills-based publishing companies, in which his children also became involved as they became adults.

Wikipedia

[taule]

Storytime.

So as most of you may know... I was away for a week, traveling to Germany and Czechia. And before talking about the trip itself i thought I would open up the premises of going there (and to some of the places I visited) with my family.

It was a chance for us to travel as a family for the first time of course, but was born out of my grandmother’s wish to see again the places she knew as a child at the time of war. (So read below for some family history...)

My grandmother was born in the winter of 1938. But it was only a year before the war started. Her father, my great grandfather, that I never met, had some kind of an issue with his ocular nerves, and was deemed unfit to serve by the Russian army, but the Germans were less picky and he was then mobilized by them instead. He was injured during a battle in what is known as Vaivara Sinimäed (Blue Hills of Vaivara). From what I understood, he had been wounded in the chest, with shrapnel in his lungs. But as the Germans moved back he was taken with them (destination Germany), along with all the other wounded soldiers in the hospice.

My great grandmother was then left behind with with two young children - my grandma who was 5 at the time, and her younger brother who was only 3. Not knowing where her husband was, but knowing she could not stay as some of our relatives had already been deported* to Siberia.

So my great grandmother took her children and got on a boat headed to Kaliningrad Oblast to go and find her husband, making her way West and ending up at a refugee camp in what is now the Sudetenland region in Northern Czechia. They spent some time there, but were eventually able to locate my great grandfather through an ad in the local Estonian newspaper that was published in the camp. And after that they began their long and difficult journey home.

_________ * For anyone unfamiliar with what mass deportations to Siberia meant: people forcefully and without ANY warning dragged from their homes (and by that I mean literally in the middle of the night when people were barely allowed to get dressed before being loaded onto trucks), put on cattle wagons and sent across the continent. It is estimated that of the ca 6 million people deported, between 1 and 1.5 million died as a result. Many of them already on the way.

[eliseluskin]

Sunday, May 5, 2019

This post is about my visit to Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Click “keep reading” to view this post. I didn’t take any photos of the concentration camp memorial site because I didn’t feel like it was my place to do so.

Amy and I originally planned to go to Český Krumlov, but since it was a Sunday, the train schedule didn’t look right and realistically once we got there, we would have only had three hours to spend there before we needed to catch a train back. 

So we decided we would tour Mauthausen Memorial site. Amy had never been, and I’d never toured a memorial site before. It was only 12 miles from Linz. We decided we’d go and do an audio tour, because guided tours are only given in English in the summer months and it would have been a lot for Amy to have to translate everything for me.

Mauthausen Concentration Camp was one of the first massive concentration camps operated by the Nazis, and one of the last camps to be liberated by The Allies. The camp ran between August 8, 1938 until May 5, 1945. It was classified as a “Grade III”, meaning it was one of the toughest camps for people who were enemies of the Reich. Mauthausen was a camp that was mostly used for extermination through hard intensive labor. Though towards the end of the war, gas chambers were built and used on innocent men, women and children who were victims of the Nazi party for being “other” or being unwilling and rejecting Hitler’s policies (Jewish men and women, socialists, communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals). 

There was also a section of the camp specifically for Soviets, who were immediately put to death upon arrival at Mauthausen.

At first Mauthausen was only a camp for men, however the first women and children started to arrive in September 1944.

––

Amy and I arrived at the train station and were surprised to see there were shuttle buses that would bring us directly to the memorial site. Once we got there, we saw many police personnel, which I was surprised by. Then we got to the memorial site and there were thousands of people there, which I was also shocked by.. definitely not what I was expecting. I imagined visiting this place of horror would be a really quiet, gloomy and somber experience.

We went to the entrance of the memorial where we saw an extremely large Peace Protests happening. We’re talking speakers, political leaders, liberal groups holding signs, there was a projected screen of the people speaking and thousands of people lined up listening.

We went to the information desk, and saw that there would be an English guided tour at 1:00p (which we were surprised by), which we signed up for at the main desk. We asked for to do the audio guide of the buildings, but we were told that it would be kind of impossible, due to the event today. So we asked to watch the documentary about Mauthausen in English in one of the screening rooms. And decided we would take the tour at 1:00 and then do the audio tour after the event was over. Amy and I were the only ones in the room. While watching the documentary, we learned that Mauthausen was liberated on May 5, 1945. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t know Liberation Day was May 5th. And now it made total sense why there were peace protests and so many people in attendance. It was really serendipitous that Amy and I decided to visit on this day, I’m really glad that we ended up here on this day.

The documentary was really informative and interesting. It was broken up into 5 sections. I was really glad we got to watch it. Once it ended we walked outside to meet up with our tour.

While we were waiting to start we saw Omas Gegen Rechts (Grandmas Against the Right), who were there protesting. I had only learned about them as a group a couple of weeks before visiting Amy. Evan sent me this article about them in the Boston Globe. It was so exciting to see them, it felt like I spotted some celebrities! 😊 

We started our tour. Our guide was really kind and so informative, she spoke with such a sincerity. When she talked about Mauthausen she told us to think about everything in three different ways, how the Nazis viewed the camp, how the prisoners and people who were victims Mauthausen through about the camp, and how the people of Mauthausen thought about the camp. The tour was only an hour, it was good that Amy and I watched the documentary first, because we had more of a reference point about what our guide was talking about. 

Walking through the memorial site and seeing where people were put to work was chilling and extremely sobering. It was wild to see how close people of Mauthausen lived to the concentration camp and where people were put to work. It was definitely a balance of emotions because we visited on Liberation Day. I couldn’t help but think of my grandfather who fought in WWII when I was there. 

It started to rain when we were listening to our audio guide tour of the sleeping quarters. It got really cold, so we took ourselves into the museum for a half hour. By the time we started walking to the bus station it had stopped raining. We took the bus back to Linz and ended the day with pizza and pasta while watching Chambers.

[sarazanmai]

Thoughts on the “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” English dub. Episode twenty three.

I need some Jojo to wash the taste of SW discouragement from my mouth

oh Bloody Stream I’m gonna miss you when I wrap the BT episodes up

Kars just sounds so monotone in a way that doesn’t feel intentional, he’s never been a stoic character so this just feels wrong

a razor made of wind, not to be confused with Razor Wind from Pokemon

I’m sorry but I am at the point where I just want Wamuu to die already, I wanna get things rolling

THE HEADBAND!

its...opera time I guess

“and look, you see the bandana?” pretty sure he can’t see anything Joseph

and I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm...

KABLAMMO

“you took revenge for Caesar” yeah but he was supposed to defeat you guys anyway since that’s literally our plot

just a reminder that this whole offering blood to make death easier on the enemy thing is something none of the other Jojos would do because why the fuck would they?

I get it, its showing Joseph’s compassion as Wamuu did have a measure of respect towards him and Caesar (something no other Jojo villain would do) but its still kinda weird to me

“hm hm hm. you beat me Jojo. and as a warrior it would now appear that you stand taller than I do” well you are a severed head and he’s 6′6

and now Wamuu uses himself as ammunition for a crossbow

only in Jojo

“perhaps the reason I have lived these thousands of years was so that I could meet you at the end” golly I don’t know why people think this series is gay

“Wamuu. he was too pure in his warrior philosophy. and he became weak as a result” oh you

dat haaaaaaaiiiirrr

“this world and all in it belong to me” Primadonna girl, yeah. all I ever wanted was the world.

also I am so used to the eye catchers from SDC and DIU that I half expect these to give me Stand statistics

and that picture of Kars with his tongue out sums up why I like him, he’s so flamboyant it hurts

so this one cockney vampire chronie remembered this season is in Europe, the rest however

“as you can see they are already dead” okay Kenshiro

so all the casual reminders that Lisa Lisa is a woman always felt to me like a combination of two things: the first is they are depicting 1938 and this sort of attitude was more rampant, the second is this manga its based on was written in the 80s and as Araki himself said people back then were not used to someone like Lisa Lisa so yeah

likewise its been said, and I’ll say it again, Araki wanted to go further with Lisa Lisa but was held back from doing so. some fans have said that he wanted her to defeat Kars, I haven’t personally found a source to that, but regardless we do know for a fact that he wanted to do more and was not allowed to. in a way I’m amazed at what he was able to do with her, especially when modern shonen manga still put the protagonist’s mother on the back burner or kill her for plot purposes. so that’s why I don’t get angry at him for her being put out of commission to make room for Joseph fighting Kars, I see that as something he was forced to do

“my scarf will be more than sufficient” bow down

that “huh?” Kars does when Lisa Lisa evades his sneak attack is hilarious

remember that line from the DIU manga that didn’t make it into the anime where Josuke says his grandma got hit by a car twice in the same day and was fine?

why did they cut that line?

“Jojo. think you can. beat. me???? heh. heh. mmm.” I’ll be fair, watching this clip I can tell the awkward pacing to his sentence is a mouth flap thing and Kars closes his lips after saying “think you can” but its still funny

I’ll say this about Will Barret, as Kars his voice is too monotone for my liking but those moments where the character’s personality really shines like that one laughing scene or his chuckle in the part I just referenced still come together well. he does not have the worst voice in this dub. Stroheim does.

that fake accent just sucks

oh wow German science was able to make lights really bright

this one shot of Joseph pointing at Kars looks like the knife cat meme

“Lisa Lisa is almost dead, but not completely yet” she’s only mostly dead

there’s the leg guitar thing!

its so fucking funny

“you utter bastard” I know, he thinks that’s what passes for music these days

“Jojo doesn’t know. he doesn’t know the woman he’s trying to save is his mother” aaaaand there it is!

I mean I don’t know when Araki decided to make Lisa Lisa his mother, but I’m very happy he did since as I just said even modern shonen series don’t put the mother in a position of importance unless she’s dead and that serves as some sort of motivator to the hero

but my word vomit on this topic will come a little later, just a little

tune in next time where I have a lot of feelings about this family

[mccoys-killer-queen]

My Personal Creepy Nostalgia

Do you guys ever revisit old places from your past that are hella creepy but you never noticed it? And it just kinda bites you the wrong way? Like you’re looking at a decaying body of someone you once knew?

This is me pretty much being a great grandma telling stories about a place no one remembers.

Yes, there is a story ahead: read on if you’d like.

So I went to this Catholic school really close to my house as a child (only for elementary/primary school, it closed down when I was younger). And there was a PTC there (parent/ teacher council). Right next to the actual school was a separate building that used to be the school in the 1800′s, then it was the convent for the nuns a really long time ago, but in the early 2000′s it was no longer the convent and the middle part of it was the preschool. I went to preschool in this building in the middle level. The upper level was just abandoned bedrooms/storage, and the lower part was where the PTC meetings would happen (along with special ed lessons, and extra uniform storage in the back of the kitchen).

During these meetings on the lowest level, the Kids™ were forced into The Room Across the Hall™ so they didn’t Interfere™ with The Meeting™. So during these meetings that we spent in this room, it was kind of exploration time, but they wouldn’t let us leave this room and we would get in trouble if we left. In this room there was a big couch, an old TV/VCR on a small stand (but no tapes to play except maybe one really old crappy animated Christian movie). Sometimes the preschoolers came here to watch movies during school days. 

During these meetings, me and the other kids would try to do anything to entertain ourselves. At one point we asked ourselves, “Hey, where does that door go?” What I mean by this is that behind the couch, there was this big old-looking white door that none of us had ever really taken the time to notice. So one day during one of these meetings we decided to move the couch and see what was behind this door. It took all of us (maybe 5-8 kids ranging from age 3-9) to move the couch enough so we could get to the door (this was probably like 10-12 years ago so forgive me if it’s not clear). 

Throughout this whole thing, whenever a parent would come in, we’d stop and act like we’re doing Catholic Children™ things and not trying to break into a different part of the bulding whilst trapped in one room. We discovered that the door was actually really hard to open, and it took my older sister (who the oldest one there- maybe 8-10 at the time) to open the door and lo and behold, what’s there?

A brick wall, and nothing more.

As disappointed as we all were (and the small amount of trouble we got in), it was a legendary day, and if I ask some of my old friends (who were also kids in this group) they’ll remember this, too. That was the most memorable day out of all the days we spent in that room, because I hardly remember anything else so specifically.

So flashforward maybe 5-6 years, and this school closes when I’m in 4th grade, and no one goes in that convent for years. Flashforward 7 years after that, and now it’s the present day.

Ever since the school closed, it was a common occurence to walk from my house to the abandoned school grounds and just explore (which was something we actually did when the school was still functioning, but rarely). We’d look through some windows, go into the creepy yard out back, subtly vandalize the doors, get nostalgic because me, my sisters, and a lot of people I know once spent the majority of the beginning of our lives there.

For some reason, though, for years I couldn’t bring myself to look into the convent (mainly because the first time I looked into the school after four years of not being in there, it inexplicibly freaked me out so much to the point where I nearly fainted- which NEVER HAPPENS). I just felt like it would freak me out too much if I looked into the windows there (also maybe because I thought I would get in trouble for being on the grounds; the front of the convent is a lot more visible to the public than any other part of it)

Also, something happened in the summer of 2016; the main water pipe in the convent broke, and for days upon days no one noticed until water was leaking out the front door. It rotted out the main support beams, and now they’re planning to tear it down. Ever since I heard the news, I couldn’t help but wonder what the inside of the place would look like, all rotted out and decaying away. it wasn’t a pleasant thing to think about, and it kind of hurt to do so.

I heard the news a year and a half ago, and the building’s still here. Granted, the building’s over 120 years old and it’s gotta go, but I’d really like to see the inside of it one last time.

That bring us to today.

Today was like any other time we went on the grounds when we were bored. We spend about 20 minutes there at most, look through windows, wander, chat, check on the Door in the Hill™ (different story that I won’t say on this post). Only, this time, for some reason, I felt really drawn to the front door of the convent. My younger sister was saying things like “oh god, Rachel no, don’t do it, oh god” because the thought of looking in there freaked her out (understandable, she was really little when it closed and some deep memories are in there). My friend who was with me, however, didn’t mind at all (as she had never been inside the buildings).

I go right up onto the doorstep, and look inside, ready for whatever for some reason. I look inside, expecting to see an old hallway, staircase, The Room™ that had the ugly green walls where the meetings were,  The Room Across the Hall™ with the walls that looked like my living room where the kids had to go, and what do I see? All of that, exactly how I remembered it, nothing was changed, but everything simply looked... dead.

The floor of the entrance hall looks dusty and warped, almost giving you the vibe that you would die if you touched it. I could’ve sworn there was old paint on the floors or something, but they were barren and moldy. The room where the kids had to stay looked exaclty the same, but the drywall in all the walls is gone to the point where there’s only beams visible (oddly enough, there’s a Barbie tent in there, too).  I look in a different window, closer to The Room Across the Hall™, and there’s rubble everywhere, the walls are gone, but what’s still there?

The door to nowhere that we managed to open 11 years before

Everything’s still the same in the convent. No one’s touched it in 7 years, yet it looks like it’s been abandoned for 40. It’s like recognizing someone you knew, but they’re long dead. There’s still the staircase right in front of the door, next to the room we were forced to stay in, and I could tell you exactly where you’d be if you followed the weird bend at the top of the railing that I always loved tracing with my fingers in preschool. I could tell you where the small, dark, ominous hallway would lead you, and how there were two rooms at the end of it, a room with a big table and a whiteboard, and a normal kitchen with a small laundry room in it. I could tell you why there was a door at the end of that hallway and why we’d rarely go through it, despite the reason not being as creepy as you’d think.

There was normal life in that building for a long time, and now it’s exactly as normal life had left it, but dead and decaying.

And I could tell you a thousand things about that place, that place that looks like it’s been abandoned since 1971 but was only left to die in 2011, but no one ever asks.

And someone my age would see how it looks in there and think “wow, what a creepy ass place. I’d never set foot in there” but to me, that’s where I spent a good chunk of the beginning of my life, and now it’s less than nothing to anyone. I’ve never even heard people bring it up in a conversation besides me.

 People like me look through the windows and see a huge white door on the wall and completely overlook it, seeing the walls rotted away and the broken furniture. They’d walk away from that sight never knowing that that door was the source of a first adventure for 7 kids in 2007, not knowing how much it sucked to sit in there for 3 hours every other weekend, not knowing how fun it was to run around the upstairs like it were a labryinth and how it gave a few younglings an insight on what it felt like to break rules, and led them to enjoy it quite a bit.

No one knows all those stories, but I do. And I’m not even 17 yet and I can tell you all these strange and quaint things about an old rotting building that no one looks at anymore, and no one really remembers being in. It just makes me feel... ancient. Like I’m a great grandmother saying “You know that old building on Valley Street they’re going to tear down? The one that’s all rotted on the inside? That’s where I went to preschool!” And it sounds like everything I say happened in 1930-1938

Only it didn’t happen in 1930-1938, it happened in 2004-2008, and many people were there. People just forgot so easily, and never wondered about it again.

And now it’s all forgotten except in my mind.

[jeroldlockettus]

Why Learn Esperanto? (Special Feature)

An estimated 2 million people speak Esperanto worldwide. Around 1,000 are native speakers. (Photo: Philip Brewer / Flickr)

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Why Learn Esperanto? (Special Feature).” (You can subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.)

A language invented in the 19th century, and meant to be universal, it never really caught on. So why does a group of Esperantists from around the world gather once a year to celebrate their bond?

Below is a transcript of the episode, modified for your reading pleasure. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

*      *      *

In our previous episode, we looked at the idea of a universal language. One candidate was Esperanto, a language invented in the 19th century by a Jewish ophthalmologist named Ludovik Lazarus Zamenhof. Derived from various European roots, Esperanto was meant to be easy to learn and egalitarian. The  idea was not for Esperanto to supersede existing languages.

Esther SCHOR: It would stand next to national languages and be a helping language to make bonds among people who were not like one another.

A noble goal, surely. But, alas, not quite attainable. At least not on the scale Zamenhof desired. However: as our producer Stephanie Tam learned, and as she explains in today’s special episode, there is a small global community of Esperantists who convene once a year to revel in their bond.

Christopher JOHNSON: Today you’re going to meet people who are taking time off of work, who are spending money to go and participate in this weird Esperantujo, as they call it — this weird Esperanto-land that only exists temporarily whenever all these weirdos meet together.

*      *      *

On today’s episode: our producer Stephanie Tam takes a trip deep into Esperanto-land.

Stephanie TAM: Estimates for how many people speak Esperanto range, but the Ethnologue, a comprehensive language database, cites 2 million speakers spanning 100 countries. Just 1,000 of those are native speakers, who grow up in Esperanto-speaking families and usually also speak 1 or 2 other national languages. The most famous of these is probably the billionaire financier George Soros. But for the vast majority — well, they might be the only Esperanto speakers in the area. So … why on earth learn it? I traveled to the Esperanto-USA National Congress to find out. For the past several years, it’s been held at William Peace University, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Lee MILLER: This is my fourth year here in Raleigh. As I was driving in from the west, we got to the first highway sign that said, “Raleigh: 55 miles.” I said, “It’s like coming home. It’s just like coming home! We’re almost there! This is so exciting! We’re there!”

TAM: That’s Lee Miller, a 65-year-old Texan and former sign language interpreter and nurse. He learned Esperanto at 16; now, he teaches it in his retirement. He and another Esperantist picked me up from the airport and drove me to campus.

MILLER: And I really have that sense of excitement. I know the place. We know the staff at the university now, and they know us, “Oh, it’s the Esperanto people. We’re glad to have you back!” And we’re glad to be back.

Stephanie TAM: You know that something interesting and sweet is happening when you feel that you’re returning home to a place that you only visit once a year.

MILLER: I know. It’s not really home, but these are people who are important to me. I don’t know if you know the old musical “Brigadoon.” It was about a little village in the Irish countryside that only appeared one day a year and there is a love story connected with it. But sometimes I have the sense that our summer Esperanto gatherings are a little bit like that. We go away, for most of the year, and then during a week or two, we come back. We get together and we have face-to-face interactions. It is very sweet — sweet is a good word for it.

TAM: A lot of Esperantists describe their community as a kind of family — somewhat ironic, as the joke among Esperantists is that many spouses don’t share the language; so, their actual, everyday family might not know Esperanto at all. And yet …

MILLER: If I were in a group like this and I needed somebody to hold my wallet, with all my money in it, I would hand it to an Esperanto speaker in full confidence that whenever I came back, they would hand it back to me and my money would still be in it. I have that level of confidence and trust in the people I know.

TAM: The National Congress is a combination of socializing, workshops, and seminars — and a dose of admin meetings about running the USA association. This year, there were about 70 attendees, with guests flying in from Canada, the Netherlands, and elsewhere — and about 1,000 streaming from Facebook Live. For the past several years, the National Congress has been followed by an 8-day Esperanto summer course, where people can learn the language; this year, they had 58 students. Both events are held at William Peace — a fitting home for a language born with the goal of world unity. That internal idea of Esperanto, or what Esperantists call “la interna ideo” (pardon my accent), was originally rooted in Jewish universalism and remains a connecting thread. But humans being the fickle, creative creatures that they are, it’s been adapted throughout history for some very different ends …

SCHOR: The history of Esperanto involves socialists in the early 1920s, who wanted to use Esperanto to further the goals of socialism.

TAM: That’s Esther Schor, English professor and Esperanto scholar at Princeton University. We spoke a few weeks before the Congress.

SCHOR: It involves Bolshevism. The Soviets embraced Esperanto for a period of time in until they changed their minds and shot the Esperantists in 1938. There was a very short-lived Nazi Esperanto movement. Esperanto has been used for a number of other kinds of causes — for pacifism, for green consciousness, etc.

TAM: This year’s keynote speaker was Humphrey Tonkin, an English professor at the University of Hartford and former president of the Universal Esperanto Association. His speech highlighted what he considers the unjust dominance of English today. But he also recalled the original, founding principles of the language. He delivered the speech in Esperanto, and gave me an English translation afterward:

Humphrey TONKIN: Zamenhof emphasized that, first and foremost, we are human beings, and only secondarily members of particular nations or peoples or languages. If appealing to what is best in humanity rather than reinforcing what divides us is idealistic or utopian, I suppose we must plead guilty. But, if using what brings us together to talk about and celebrate what makes us all different, is a rational approach to our divided world then Esperanto seems to me to make a great deal of sense. I know what you, here in Raleigh at this gathering of Esperanto speakers, think: Esperanto works and you’re going to keep on using it and convincing others to do the same.

TAM: Despite that common, “internal idea” — whether you want to call it utopianism, universalism, etc — I discovered that people come to Esperanto for all sorts of reasons. Some are polyglots who just love learning languages; others are programmer types who appreciate its logic. And then there are those with a sense of adventure…

Orlando RAOLA: I’m originally from Cuba, where I also was part of the Esperanto movement. In real life, I work as a professor of chemistry in Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, California.

TAM: That’s Orlando Raola, who recently finished his six-year term as President of Esperanto-USA.

RAOLA: Having been born in an island, and being an islander by nature, I always had this great curiosity: what is beyond the sea? What is the world out there? I understood early that the only way to communicate with humans is through language, and I was interested in many different cultures.

TAM: That said, his fascination with the world beyond didn’t lead him straight to Esperanto …

RAOLA: I was always fascinated by the culture of Nordic countries, especially Sweden. I once wrote a letter to the Swedish Institute — it’s a Swedish institution that disseminates Swedish culture outside Sweden. I sent them a letter: “I want to learn this language, I want to get to know about this culture.” A few months later, I got a big package with everything you need to know to learn Swedish — dictionaries, cassettes, courses for learning language, reading material. It was a big box! I said, “This is a very difficult language. I’m going to spend how many years learn[ing] this? Then, I will be able to communicate with a very tiny sliver of mankind!” I am very interested in the culture, but I am [also interested] in the culture of Japan, Hungary, and of China! Do I have time to learn all of these languages? No, there won’t be time. When I tried to go through it — that day, that’s the day I became an Esperantist.

TAM: So for some people, learning Esperanto is a way to follow their cultural curiosity. For others, though, there are war stories:

Maria MURPHY: My name is Maria Murphy. I am retired, have two wonderful boys and four wonderful grandchildren. It takes a special person to be really devoted Esperanto follower. It happened to me. I’m the one!

TAM: She’s a petite grandma with a cheeky smile, astoundingly upbeat given her past.

MURPHY: I grew up in Warsaw. You could call me a Holocaust survivor. I’m from [a] Jewish family that everybody was killed. Apparently I was a quiet baby, and I was constantly eating at mommy’s breast, so I was not crying. People were suffocating babies if they start crying.  

TAM: After the war, she and her mother left Poland.

MURPHY: We decided to immigrate to Israel, and on the way we stopped in France and Italy. As a very young girl, I pick up those languages pretty quickly on the street. I felt that people should be able to talk to each other — no matter where you are. Here, eight,nine year old girl. I had this strong experience — every country, every day I spoke different language. There should be a better way.

TAM: For Murphy, that better way was Esperanto, which she stumbled upon as a teenager. She and her mother had returned to Poland, and she came across an ad for an Esperanto Club:

MURPHY: You see at that time, I didn’t have really [a] society. I didn’t have any place that I felt I belong to, because most of the Polish people are very strong Catholic. So when I found group of people meeting twice a week, having wonderful discussion, drinking good coffee, eating good cake, and there were young people — it was very natural to become a part of it.

TAM: Murphy would actually meet her husband through Esperanto. Which brings us to another reason that people join the community: the love stories. Joel and Ĵenja Amis, were a Cold War couple who also met through Esperanto. Ĵenja’s from Ukraine; Joel from Atlanta. They had both applied for the same job, an editor position for an Esperanto magazine based in the Netherlands but operated remotely. Ĵenja snagged the top position:

Ĵenja AMIS: I asked, “Who was this other candidate?” It was some guy from the U.S. I ask, “Can you send me his resume?” Well, I was looking at it. “I like this guy. He looks so intelligent. I’ll try to hire him to be my assistant.”

Joel AMIS: You didn’t have a photo, it was just on paper — just to be clear. We worked together for like a year and a half or so before we ever met in person.

TAM: Work aside, they insist there’s a more fundamental way Esperanto connected them …

Ĵ. AMIS: Esperanto, it’s not just the language. It’s almost like a value system.

J. AMIS: I would agree. When I look back at the person I was in my early teens, before I became an Esperantist, I don’t really recognize that person anymore. I grew up as a Christian, and I still am. But my approach is much different. At first, it was just a linguistic interest, like a game. I didn’t have anyone locally to speak to. The Esperanto community brought me into contact with people that I wouldn’t have had contact with otherwise. I had pen pals in Eastern Europe or wherever, these places that were so far away from me culturally. It almost sounds evangelical to talk about it like that, but for me, at least, it was the catalyst that changed the course of my life. Maybe, if I hadn’t learned Esperanto, I might just be in Georgia, in a small town, not having traveled or anything like that. When I grew up, I heard that that the Soviet Union wanted to drop bombs on us, and this is the enemy, and she heard …

Ĵ. AMIS: Similar story, the other way around.

J. AMIS: How do we get to being married from that point, growing up in such different places — a different mindset? For both of us, Esperanto was that catalyst. What we have in the Esperanto community is a microcosm for what could be, or what should be. This community that spans languages, political ideologies, religions, races, on a small scale, this is the world that Zamenhof dreamed of.

TAM: Talking with Esperantists, I felt like I was interacting with an epic metaphor: linguistic communication as human community. The notion that a universal language could create world peace seemed too romantic — what about civil wars, where both parties shared the language? But at the same time, it was clear there was something special going on: Miller, Amis, Murphy, and these other Esperantists had used this language to create a kind of small-scale utopia. Up next, we get into pragmatics. Could Esperanto, for instance, save the European Union a lot of money in education costs?

CHARTERS: He concluded that actually it would be cheaper to have Esperanto play that intermediary role.

TAM: We discover how travel in this small-scale utopia works …

Ĵ. AMIS: Basically, you just show up and they usually give you a key to their homes.

TAM: And we ask: could that sense of trust and community be retained if the microcosm were scaled up?

JOHNSON: If Esperanto were to become a universal language, things like this would die …

*      *      *

TAM: For all its idealism, Esperanto also has a deeply pragmatic side. It was designed to be easy to learn and, in a word, efficient. Which makes it a language that appeals not only to dreamers, activists, and ambassadors, but also … economists:

Duncan CHARTERS: There’s a professor at the University of Geneva who studied this, Francois Grin. Actually, the French government asked him to make a study of language cost in Europe.

TAM: That’s Duncan Charters, professor of languages and cultures at Principia College in Missouri, where he teaches Spanish.

CHARTERS: And he concluded that actually it would be cheaper to have Esperanto play that intermediary role.

TAM: How much cheaper? Back in 2005, Grin calculated that substituting the high cost of learning English with the low cost of Esperanto in non-English speaking countries could save the E.U. upwards of 25 billion euros annually.

CHARTERS: The French government wasn’t looking for that answer, but, actually, that was a very good point. The cost of learning of Esperanto is less just because it’s so much quicker.

TAM: … How much quicker? Well, obviously, ease of language learning depends on all kinds of factors: natural ability, age of acquisition, regular practice … But one study with a sample of Francophone children found that just 150 hours of Esperantic education resulted in the same level of proficiency as 1,000 hours of Italian, 1,500 hours of English, and 2,000 hours of German — making Esperanto an average of 10 times faster to learn than these natural languages. So what makes it so much faster and easier to learn?

Ruth KEVESS-COHEN: There are 16 basic rules of the language. For example, every noun ends in the letter “o.” Every adjective ends in the letter “a.” Every infinitive ends in the letter “i.” The future, present, and past have totally regular endings. There’s no need to learn any conjugations — they don’t exist in Esperanto.

TAM: That’s Ruth Kevess-Cohen, a geriatrics doctor in Maryland. In Esperanto, she goes by her middle name. In her spare time, she helped develop an Esperanto course for the online language site Duolingo … which she used to try and teach me Esperanto:

KEVESS-COHEN: This is lesson one of the Duolingo course, which starts out showing some pictures. Which of these is man?

TAM: I see a picture of a man with “viro.” I’m going to click that one.

DUOLINGO: La viro.

KEVESS-COHEN: By putting your finger here, you can see what it is. The word “la” means “the.” Just like in English, “the” is “la.” There’s no plural form.

TAM: There is no conjugation with that? “La” is always “the?”

KEVESS-COHEN: Right.

TAM: Okay, that is a commonality with English that makes it simpler than French.

KEVESS-COHEN: So to say, “I speak,”  we say, “mi parolas.” Mi parolas Esperanton. Kaj vi, ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?

TAM: Mi parolas —

KEVESS-COHEN: Parolas.

TAM: Parolas Esperanton. That’s an “on,” is that the ending for a noun?

KEVESS-COHEN: “O” is the ending for a noun, and we add the “n” because it’s a direct object.

TAM: So Zamenhof originally wrote up 16 rules for the language, a couple of which you just heard — nouns end in “o,” direct objects in “n” — and every word is phonetic. He also compiled 900 roots derived mostly from Romance languages, which Esperantists then built into a rich vocabulary:

SCHOR: Users have taken these roots, which are very flexible and made words for new occasions, for new moments, for new technologies.

TAM: Esther Schor, Princeton Esperanto scholar again —

SCHOR: For example, the word for a cellphone is “poŝtelefono.” It’s a pocket phone. The word for a smartphone is “lerta fono,” a smart phone, literally. But I know an Esperantist who refers to his smartphone as “kromcerbo,” which means a spare brain. There’s a lot of wit. There’s a lot of invention. There’s a lot of play involved in coining words.

TAM: Duncan Charters also argues that Esperanto — in addition to being efficient and inventive — can serve as a gateway language:

CHARTERS: The good thing about it is once someone gets into a language that has enabled them to communicate with people around the world, they then want to learn other languages — a natural consequence. Then it’s not so much of an effort and a struggle to get students interested. It becomes more natural — just as in Europe, people much more naturally learn other languages because they’ve had a practical experience with the ones that they’ve learned.

TAM: Okay, but … practical experience? How does that work, if Esperantists may not even be able to find other people nearby to speak the language?

SCHOR: There is a system called “Pasporta Servo,” which means passport service, and it’s a network of Esperantists who agreed to host visiting Esperantists, usually young people, for up to three nights free of charge. There’s an enormous degree of trust in this Esperanto world. The word on the street is you arrive and someone hands you their car keys and goes to work.

TAM: As it turns out, Esperantists were practicing couchsurfing before it became a thing. Pasporta Servo started in 1974 as a small print booklet listing 39 hosts; it’s since moved online, and the latest edition contains 974 hosts from 81 countries. Again and again, I’d hear these kinds of stories from Esperantists who had traveled all over the world:

MURPHY: I don’t know if you realize that almost in every country there is Esperanto club, and it has been happening [for] 130 years. If you like the world, then it’s your oyster.

RAOLA: I got to know what [it’s like] living inside a Japanese family for two months, talk to them, eat their food, and go with them to places.

CHARTERS: I’ve traveled quite a bit in Spanish-speaking countries using Esperanto contacts. I’ve always found that those are the ones that really get me into the culture more …

David DOUGHERTY: I went to Kazakhstan this past year. This guy, his friend Vyacheslav, and his friend drove me 300 kilometers in a whole day touring some ancient historical sites. That was pretty amazing …

RAOLA: I have been to so many places, met so many people, have so many friends with which I feel at home, always contacting Esperantists everywhere. Yes, whatever curiosity of the islander-beyond-the-sea has been satisfied.

TAM: Do you feel like the Esperantists are exceptionally helpful and have that bond with you because it’s a niche community that you select into, as opposed to English being more common?

JOHNSON: That definitely helps.

TAM: That’s Christopher Johnson, a 29-year-old software engineer from North Carolina.

JOHNSON: It almost takes a naïve idealism to believe in Esperanto, or at least in that idea that you can make the world a better place by speaking a language. If you’re dedicated enough to learn this language and spend your time on it, you have to have that similar idealism. We have to have things in common. The other nice thing is there’s no real Esperanto-land where you can go. I don’t think I would have ever met somebody from Cuba without Esperanto. But it just naturally happened because you start meeting people in this small community, and people come from all over the world to kinda visit these things.

TAM: Yeah. I am curious about how you think through the tension between what seems to be this transcendent international aspect of Esperanto that reaches out and is very open to people and attracting more people to Esperanto, and the potential that if it actually continued spreading, that you wouldn’t actually have that sweet community anymore.

RAOLA: Sure, sharp question… I do understand that if Esperanto begins to become much larger in society that some of the selling points of today will vanish.

JOHNSON: Yes, I would not give my car keys to everyone. If Esperanto were to become a universal language, the negatives would be that things like this would die — the Landaj Kongresoj… Why would people want to travel miles and miles to meet other Esperantists if you can easily find them everywhere?

TAM: I found it fascinating that even this most idealistic language could be as much a boundary as a bridge — and that its ability to bridge might even require boundaries to create social trust between Esperantists. But then again, if Esperanto has survived through self selection, decade after decade, into this paradoxically idealistic and pragmatic language … then maybe its universality could only result from a world in which people universally chose to become idealistic and pragmatic. And who knows, maybe in that world, we could trust strangers with our home and car keys.

SCHOR: The strength of Esperanto is not in numbers. The strength of Esperanto is in its continuity over 130 years, without being passed down from generation to generation, without having money, without having armies. There it is. It’s really remarkably beautiful.

TAM: For now, despite stirrings of excitement about the uptick of Esperanto, very few in the community really believe that the day Zamenhof dreamed of — “La Fina Venko,” or “The Final Victory” — will be coming anytime in the near future. But in the meantime, those who learn it today have created a quirky, Brigadoonish family of visionaries … and for all its unworldliness, Esperanto is considered the world’s most successful invented language. Still, in some ways, the story of Esperanto teaches us as much about what makes a language fail as succeed: the power of, well, power, politics, and economics …

Michael GORDIN: The cases where someone has actually tried to construct a fair and ostensibly neutral form, things like Esperanto are widely treated as ridiculous or implausible.

TAM: That’s Michael Gordin, a historian at Princeton University. He’s studied the brief use of Esperanto for scientific communication in the early 1900s.

GORDIN: Even those people who try to come up with something calmer and kinder don’t often get rewards commensurate with that.

TAM: But it also, perhaps, raises some questions about our world. What does it say about us, that we find a language that combines peace and pragmatism ridiculous or implausible? And … could it be that idealism just might be rational?

RAOLA: The world, humankind, does not act very rationally. I teach chemistry, as I said, and I tell my students, “If people were rational, don’t you think that we should have long before adopted [the] general international system of units everywhere?” But we don’t. We still measure things in gallons and yards and feet. In that sense, it might not be in its short term that Esperanto, a rational solution for international communication, becomes the language of choice. But the important thing, what I always consider to be the goal of the movement, is keep it alive, keep it functioning, keep it suitable for expression of everything the human has expressed. Because maybe — I don’t know when, but when and if mankind finds itself ready for it, we need to have it alive. We need to have it ready. You can’t say, “Now we’re going to create it.” No, no, no. “Here it is. Take it. It’s yours.”

That was Stephanie Tam reporting from the curiously pragmatic and idealistic world of modern-day Esperanto.

Freakonomics Radio is produced by WNYC Studios and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Stephanie Tam. Our staff also includes Alison Hockenberry, Merritt Jacob, Greg Rosalsky, Eliza Lambert, Emma Morgenstern, Harry Huggins, and Brian Gutierrez; the music you hear throughout the episode was composed by Luis Guerra. A very special thanks to our intern Kent McDonald, and all those at the Esperanto Congress who assisted our efforts, including Derek Roff, Lee Miller, and Chuck Mays. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, or via email at radio@freakonomics.com.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:

SOURCES

Yevgeniya (Ĵenja) Amis, Marketing Analyst at the National Film Board of Canada.

Joel Amis, student at Montreal Diocesan Theological College.

Duncan Charters, professor of languages and cultures at Principia College.

David Dougherty, customer service representative at Montgomery County, Maryland.

Michael Gordin, professor of history at Princeton University

Christopher Johnson, software engineer at Microsoft.

Ruth Kevess-Cohen, doctor at Cameron Medical Group.

Lee Miller, retired sign language interpreter and nurse.

Maria Murphy, retired family physician.

Orlando Raola, professor of chemistry at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Esther Schor, professor of english at Princeton University.

Humphrey Tonkin, professor of english at the University of Hartford.

RESOURCES

Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language by Esther Schor (Metropolitan Books, 2016).

Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World by Keith Brown and Sarah Ogilvie (Elsevier Language, 2008).

Dangerous Language — Esperanto under Hitler and Stalin by Ulrich Lins (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

The Economics of the Multilingual Workplace by François Grin, Claudio Sfreddo and François Vaillancourt (Routledge, 2010).

“L’enseignement des Langues É’trangères comme Politique Publique,” François Grin (2005).

Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language by Roberto Garvía (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

“Regularizing the Regular: The Phenomenon of Overregularization in Esperanto-speaking Children,” Renato Corsetti, Maria Antonietta Pinto and Maria Tolomeo (2004).

EXTRA

Esperantic Studies Foundation.

Esperanto-USA.

“Is Learning a Foreign Language Really Worth It?” Freakonomics Radio (2014).

North American Summer Esperanto Institute.

“Why Don’t We All Speak the Same Language? (Earth 2.0 Series),” Freakonomics Radio (2017).

“What Would Be the Best Universal Language? (Earth 2.0 Series),” Freakonomics Radio (2017).

The post Why Learn Esperanto? (Special Feature) appeared first on Freakonomics.

from Dental Care Tips http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-learn-esperanto-special-feature/

[rapturerecords]

This has been a rather quiet year. There’s been a couple of revisits with the release of the BioShock Collection, as well as Virtual Reality support for Fallout 4 and L.A. Noire. Not to mention that Cuphead delves into the genre as well.

As always, we’ll take this time to remember Patti Page, singer of “Doggie in the Window” who also passed away on New Year’s Day.

Whether it’s Happy Tenth Anniversary of BioShock or Happy Eclipse, I’ll still be here to kick off a tune.

See if your favorite record (or wax cylinder) was featured this year:

BioShock

"Bei Mir Bist du Schön" - Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 1562

"Bei Mir Bist du Schön" - Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23605 (reissue)

"It's Bad for Me" - Rosemary Clooney and Benny Goodman - Columbia Records 40616

"Papa Loves Mambo" - Perry Como - RCA Victor Records 20-5857

"20th Century Blues" - Noël Coward - Columbia Records ML 5163

"The Party's Over Now" (1959) - Noël Coward - Columbia Records ML 5163

"Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" - Bing Crosby - Victor Records 22701

"Beyond the Sea" - Bobby Darin - ATCO Records 45-6158

"Night and Day" - Billie Holiday - Columbia Records 3044 (reissue)

“The Best Things in Life are Free” - Ink Spots - Decca Records 24327

"If I Didn't Care" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 2286

"Danny Boy" - Mario Lanza - The Magic of Mario Lanza - Heartland Music HL 1046/50

“Danny Boy” anniversary revisit

“Danny Boy” anniversary revisit

“(How Much is That) Doggie in the Window” (1966) - Patti Page - Columbia Records CS 9326 (in-game version)

"The Doggie in the Window" (1953) - Patti Page - Mercury Records 70070 (original version)

"You're the Top" (1934) - Cole Porter - Victor Records 24766 (original version)

"La Mer" - Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli - Djangology RCA RGP-1186 (reissue)

Cohen’s Quadtych: “Academy Award” vs. “The Ballroom Waltz”

"Academy Award" - Stanley Black - Music De Wolfe DW/LP 2977

“Too Young” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1449

"Just Walking in the Rain" - Johnnie Ray - Columbia Records 40729

"Waltz of the Flowers"

Looking for BioShock’s Django Reinhardt

BioShock 2

"Ten Cents a Dance" - Ruth Etting - Columbia Records 2146D

"Dawn of a New Day" - Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights - Brunswick Records 8313

"It's Only a Paper Moon" - Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23425

BioShock 10th Anniversary Revisit and Eclipse

"Someone's Rocking My Dream Boat" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 4045

"We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 3379

"I'm Making Believe" - Ink Spots with Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

"Bei Mir Bist du Schon" - Benny Goodman with Martha Tilton - The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert Columbia Records ML 4359

“Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Man“ - Henry Hall and his Orchestra with Val Rosing - Columbia Records FB 2816

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Kay Kyser - Columbia Records 36640

“You Always Hurt the One You Love” - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 18599

"Paper Doll" - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 18318

"Dream" - The Pied Pipers - Capitol Records 185

"Chasing Shadows" - Quintette du Hot Club de France - Royale Records 1798

"Nightmare" (1938) - Artie Shaw - Bluebird Records B-7875 (in-game version)

“Nightmare” (1937) - Art Shaw and his New Music - Vocalion Records 4306 (re-recording)

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" - Bessie Smith - Parlophone Records R2481

Father’s Day in Rapture

"Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" - Annette Hanshaw - Velvet Tone Records 1940V

"My Heart Belongs to Daddy" - Mary Martin - Brunswick Records 8282

"Daddy's Little Girl" (1976) - Mills Brothers - Ranwood Records R-8152 (in-game version)

"Daddy's Little Girl" (1950) - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 24872 (original version)

BioShock Infinite

"Ain't She Sweet" - Ben Bernie - Brunswick Records 3444

"Button Up Your Overcoat" - Helen Kane - Victor Records 21863

"(What Do We Do on a) Dew-Dew-Dewey Day" - Charles Kaley - Columbia Records 1055D

"Indian Love Call" - Sigmund Krumgold - Okeh Records 40904

"Me and My Shadow" - Sam Lanin - Lincoln Records 2628

"Black Gal" - Ed Lewis with unidentified prisoners (recorded by Alan Lomax)

"I'm Wild About That Thing" - Bessie Smith - Columbia Records 14427D

"Makin' Whoopee!" - Rudy Vallée - Harmony Records 825-H

The Cylinders of BioShock Infinite

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" - Ada Jones and Billy Murray - Edison Standard Record 10134

"The Bonnie Blue Flag" - Polk Miller - Edison Blue Amberol Record 2175

"After You've Gone"

"The Easy Winners"

"Solace - A Mexican Serenade"

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” - Elizabeth’s version

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” - Selah Jubilee Singers - Decca Records 7872

“The Grand Old Rag” - Billy Murray - Victor Records 4634

Albert Fink's Magical Melodies Presents: "God Only Knows"

“Ah! La femme il n’y que ça“ - Mon. A. Fertinel - Improved Berliner Gramophone Record 1148

“God Only Knows” - The Beach Boys - Capitol Records 5706

"Fortunate Son" - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fantasy Records 634

Burial at Sea

Episode 1

The Complete Records Behind the Music

"Midnight, The Stars and You" - Al Bowlly - Victor Records 24700

"She's Got You" - Patsy Cline - Decca Records 31354

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" - Johnny Mathis - Columbia Records 40784

"The Lady is a Tramp" - Mel Tormé - London American Recordings HL N.8305

"Tonight for Sure!" - Ruth Wallis - Wallis Original Record Corp. 2001

"Stranger in Paradise"

Episode 2

The Complete Records Behind the Music

"Back in Baby's Arms" - Patsy Cline - Decca Records 31483

"Easy to Love" - Sammy Davis Jr. - Starring Sammy Davis Jr. Decca Records DL 8118

"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" - Glenn Miller - Bluebird Records B-11474

"La Vie en Rose" - Édith Piaf - Columbia Records 4004-F

“La Vie en Rose” (English version) - Édith Piaf - Columbia Records 38948

“La Vie en Rose” in 2007′s BioShock

"The Great Pretender" - The Platters - Mercury Records 70753

"You Belong to Me"

Fallout 2

"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" - Louis Armstrong - Decca Records 27720

Fallout 3 (Galaxy News Radio)

"Civilization" - Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye - Decca Records 23940

“Butcher Pete (Part 1)” - Roy Brown - De-Luxe Records 3301

“Crazy He Calls Me” - Billie Holiday - Decca Records 24796

"I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" - Ink Spots - Decca Records 3987

"Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" - Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

Fallout: New Vegas (Radio New Vegas, Mojave Music Radio, Black Mountain Radio)

"It's a Sin" - Eddy Arnold - RCA Victor Records 10-2241

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1950) - Peggy Lee with the Dave Barbour Quartet- Peggy Lee’s Greatest - Camay Records CA 3003 (in-game version)

“Why Don’t You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)” (1947) - Peggy Lee - Rendezvous with Peggy Lee - Capitol Records 10118 (re-recording)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1942) - Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra - Columbia Records 36652 (re-recording)

"Jingle Jangle Jingle" - Kay Kyser - Columbia Records 36604

"Big Iron" - Marty Robbins -  Columbia Records 4-41589

“Blue Moon” - Frank Sinatra - Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!  - Capitol Records W1491

“Orange Colored Sky” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1184

Fallout 4 (Diamond City Radio)

“Butcher Pete (Part 2)” - Roy Brown - De-Luxe Records 3301

“Orange Colored Sky” - Nat King Cole - Capitol Records 1184

“Pistol-Packin’ Mama - Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23277

“The Wanderer” - Dion - Laurie Records 3115

“Sixty-Minute Man - The Dominoes - Federal Records 12022

“Atom Bomb Baby” - The Five Stars - Kernel Records A002

“It’s All Over But the Crying” - Ink Spots - Decca Records 24286

“Grandma Plays the Numbers” - Wynonie Harris - King Records 4276

“Personality” - Johnny Mercer - Capitol Records 230

"The End of the World” - Patti Page - Say Wonderful Things - Columbia Records CS 8849

Guardians of the Galaxy

"I'm Not in Love" - 10cc - Mercury Records (Phonogram) 73678 (abridged)

"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" - Elvin Bishop - Capricorn Records CPS 0252 (abridged)

“Spirit in the Sky” - Norman Greenbaum - Reprise Records 0885

“Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes - Infinity Records INF 50.035

"Hooked on a Feeling" - Blue Swede - EMI Records 3627

"I Want You Back" - The Jackson 5 - Motown Records M 1157

"Go All the Way" - Raspberries - Capitol Records 3348

"Come and Get Your Love" - Redbone - Epic Records 5-11035

L.A. Noire (KTI Radio)

“Pistol-Packin’ Mama” - Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters - Decca Records 23277

“Stone Cold Dead in the Market” - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan - Decca Records 23546

"Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" - Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - Decca Records 23356

"Manteca" - Dizzy Gillespie - RCA Victor Records 20-3023

"Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" - Louis Jordan - Decca Records 23741

"Red Silk Stockings and Green Perfume" - Sammy Kaye - RCA Victor Records 20-2251

“Black and Blue” - Frankie Laine - Mercury Records A-1026

"'Murder', He Says" - Dinah Shore - RCA Victor Records 20-1525

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) - Tex Williams - Capitol Records Americana Series 40001

“Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop” - Lionel Hampton - Decca Records 18754

Mafia II (Empire Central Radio, Delta Radio)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1950) - Peggy Lee with the Dave Barbour Quartet- Peggy Lee’s Greatest - Camay Records CA 3003 (re-recording)

“Why Don’t You Do Right” (1942) - Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra - Columbia Records 36652 (re-recording)

"A Guy is a Guy” - Doris Day - Columbia Records 39673

XCOM The Bureau Declassified (KNOV Radio)

“Runaway” - Del Shannon - Big Top Records 45-3067

“Who’s Sorry Now” - Connie Francis - MGM Records 975 (57-S-622)

"Smack Dab in the Middle" - Mills Brothers - Decca Records 29511

“Riders in the Sky” - Vaughn Monroe - RCA Victor 20-3411

"Man of Mystery" - The Shadows - Columbia Records 45-DB 4530

“I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive” - Hank Williams - MGM Records 11366

See the previous years’ lists here:

2014

2015

2016