My Kind of Place!

Looks like The Flatted Fifth is my kind of place! I dig all kinds of music, especially jazz and big band music.

Where does everyone live? Anyone else here from Cicero? It's just outside Chicago on the westside. Al Capone lived here a long time ago, but ever since people have thought of Cicero as a gangster town. You won't hear anything about that from me.

Good to be here! I'll check in every few days.

Cermak

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Rodney King said this a few years back, but it is very true! We only have one life to live--so we should try to make the best of it.

Your free spirit,
Holly Golightly

Democratic Convention 2004

I watched most of the Democratic Convention this past week and I found it to be inspiring and exciting! I wished that we as Americans and also people in the world would stop being so critical and cynical.

I'm not losing my religion!

Holly Golightly

Our GuestBook

We have added a GuestBook to The Flatted Fifth. This is another place for you to enter your thoughts and feelings about whatever is on your mind and to read what others have written.

Please refrain from using ALL CAPS, that is, all capital letters, which sounds like you're shouting. This is a pet peeve of mine. I'll delete any GuestBook or Flatted Fifth entry in ALL CAPS.

To View our GuestBook, click here.

To Sign our GuestBook, click here.

You'll find buttons corresponding to these links under the "Push Our Buttons" heading in the Sidebar.

I use GuestBookWorld GuestBooks on all of my sites. They are very affordable and work beautifully. Click here to get one for your own site.

At Last

After trying for several days, today I finally have been able to blog. This looks like fun!

I live in Spain. I'm an older Master Mariner. My lifelong hobbies are music and aeroplanes.

I have been a Spanish champion of aeromodeling (radio control, exact scale). My preferences are for older planes. I have my championship plane in the Museo del Aire in Madrid.

Now I am listening to big band music--in the Glenn Miller mood.

I think this blog will be the basis for many nice and amicable conversations.

Excuse my English, please.

Sincerely,

José

We Need You!

If you would like to post one or more entries to The Flatted Fifth on a regular basis, at least once a month, then you are just the kind of active, resourceful member we're looking for. 

We want members who aren't afraid to speak their minds about this, that, and the other thing. Write about anything you want. Be creative!

How do you become a member? Easy! Click register. You'll soon receive an email outlining how to log in. That's all there is to it!

Blogging By Email

Suppose you're at school or work or somewhere away from your computer, perhaps staggering around the streets of Dublin around two or three in the morning when suddenly, out of the blue, a great idea for your blog pops into your head. You want to post it right away. Before you know it, you look across the street and see a sign that reads, "Finegan's Internet Cafe: Awake 24 hours."

You make your way, slowly, jay-walking across the street, dodging late-night Irish motorists driving worse than you're walking.

Finally, you enter Finegan's. There must be about 50 computers, each with a super-fast T1 connection. Most are taken. After paying a $15 per hour fee to the cashier, you walk over and sit by your designated computer, admiring the large black-and-white photos of James Joyce (left), Sean O'Casey, Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats, Brendan Behan, and Oscar Wilde on the wall across the room. Would they have liked writing on computers? Would they have blogged?

Finegan's is my kind of place. Too bad they only serve coffee and soft drinks. A couple of bottles of Guinness and a few shots of Irish whiskey would make this a perfect setting—or fantasy....

What Time Is It?

I live in Los Angeles, which is on Pacific Time or -07:00 GMT, seven hours earlier than London, nine hours earlier than Warsaw, 11 hours earlier than Moscow, three hours later than Honolulu, 15 hours earlier than Manilla, 17 hours earlier than Sydney, and so on.

Unless I'm horsing around until the wee small hours, and sometimes I do, I probably won't answer any Register messages between midnight and 8 a.m. Pacific Time.
 
Q. Wanna know what time it is anywhere in the world?
A. Ask our friend Ken Nordine.

We Can Do It!

I hope that those of you who stop by "The Flatted Fifth" will join our almost-fledgling group. Write about anything you wish: cats, dogs, girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, books, music, art, politics, Bill O'Reilly,  Lauren Sanchez (L.A.'s hottest newscaster), Hannity & Colmes, Larry King, Martha Stewart, Iraq, whatever! 
  

It's very easy to do. Scroll down the right-hand column and look for the "Push Our Buttons" heading.  Click on Register (or just click that link!). Enter and submit your info. Give me a day to set up your membership. I'll probably do it within an hour or so. But give me a day in case I'm out for a few hours.
 
Then, once you are registered, return to this page, click Log In, and compose and post your entry. The whole process is very easy. Painless. And it gives you something to do! Try it!

If you have any questions, let me know. Just click the Email button.

When Groovin' Was Groovin'....

When I attended Morton High in Cicero back in the 'Fifties, I had a 1952 two-tone blue Mercury sports coupe with a Continental wheel and dual exhaust. My friends and I loved to ride down the Eisenhower and then up the Outer Drive.
 
Sid McCoy and Yvonne Daniels hosted their great all-night jazz show on WCFL. Nothing like it before or since. Man, what music they played! And their voices! "Hey, Hey, Old Bean!" Sid would say as he began the show. Yvonne's low, sultry voice blended so beautifully with Sid's rich baritone.
 
Click here to listen to a song they might have played, say around three in the morning....

The Times They Are A Changin'

If you are new to blogs, and I am fairly new, let me introduce you to RSS readers.

Now, probably your first question is, "What does 'RSS' mean?" And then you wonder, "Is this some incomprehensible computer thig-a-ma-jig I really don't want to know about?" Well, maybe, but then again, maybe not.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication."

That's not so bad, is it. Blog readers are everywhere on the Internet, thanks to the rapid growth in the number of people blogging during the past couple of years. One blog reader I like is called "Bloglines":

http://www.bloglines.com

Bloglines is very easy to use. And free! Most are....

You can enter the RSS feed for any blog into any reader and see a summmary of its contents. What's so great is that you can use your blog reader with as many of your favorite blogs as you wish.

How would you read "The Flatted Fifth" in Bloglines or any other reader? It's easy! Just enter this line:

http://swingera.net/theflattedfifth/atom.xml

That's all! You'll see small graphics near the bottom of our right-hand column with for Atom and xml. Click on them to see this link or a similar one. You can use either. 

There are many humorous blogs online. One of my favorites contains all kinds of info about Washington insiders, filled with gossip, rumor, innuendo, and sometimes flat-out accusations. It's called "Wonkette":

http://www.wonkette.com/

Using your blog or RSS reader, you can scan Wonkette and many other blogs quickly while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee. Yes, you can read some major newspapers can this way, too.

Blowin' In The Wind

Every day when we watch the news from Iraq, we see how the quagmire thickens. When I hear the daily death toll, I think of Bob Dylan's anthem from 40 years ago, Blowin' In The Wind. You do remember the 'Sixties, don't you?

I wonder how many more American and coalition service men and women and innocent civilians will have to die....

Since we began receiving daily coverage from Iraq some 15 months ago, have you ever wondered about how modern Iraq looks? There appear to be new buildings everywhere. Downtown Baghdad looks a helluva lot better than downtown L.A., that's for sure.

Then I think back 25 years to when I was public relations manager for United States Gypsum (USG) in Chicago. USG made a fortune selling building supplies all over the Middle East from the 1960s onward. The company not only makes gypsum wallboard but many other building products (aluminum studs, floor coverings, acoustic ceiling squares, and so on). Whenever you see a modern high-rise in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq, there is a very good chance that USG products were used in its construction.

I wonder how many other American and European companies have been involved in the building of the Middle East? How much money have they made from it?

How have these companies been affected by the current war? One thing is for sure: You can bet they've been standing in line to rebuild Iraq.

The saddest images of this war are the ones of families at home learning that their loved ones have been killed or injured. And I find it just as sad to see innocent Iraqi civilians suffering a similar fate.

How much longer long will this war go on?

"The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind...."

Amazon Around the World

During the past few days, I've become an Associate of Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), Amazon.fr (France), and Amazon.de (Germany).

We have posted Amazon logos for each site near the bottom of the right-hand column on this page. Clicking on a logo will take you to the corresponding Amazon site; clicking on a text link will take you to our recommendations for each site.

I've been an Associate of Amazon.com (United States) for three years. Being an Amazon Associate makes it easy for visitors to my web sites, Tuxedo Junction, The Swing Era, Club Alibi, and St. Leonard Class of 1954, to buy the music they enjoy on my sites. Amazon offers a great variety of jazz and big band music, as well as other styles and many, many other products.

Today, visitors to Tuxedo Junction come from more than 50 nations. You can see their flags on my Portal Page. My hope is those who find it more convenient to shop with Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, or Amazon.de will now do so through Tuxedo Junction and my other sites.

Swingin' at the Junction

Swingin' at the Junction is my weblog for anyone who loves jazz and big band music, and especially for the visitors to my web sites, Tuxedo Junction and The Swing Era.

Louis Armstrong, The Airmen of Note, Count Basie, Les Brown, Benny Carter, Tommy Dorsey, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Ted Heath, Woody Herman, Billie Holiday, Harry James, Spike Jones, Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Syd Lawrence, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, George Shearing, Chick Webb, and many others are featured on these web pages.

Success!

Thanks to Blogger's complete re-design, it is much easier to use than it was a couple of months ago. And this afternoon, I figured out how to host it on my own web site, The Swing Era. Cool!

Welcome!

Isn't The Flatted Fifth a crazy name for a blog? It is. I hoped that no one else was using it, and no one was....

Flatted fifths are at the core of bebop. Just listen to recordings by Bird and Dizzy during the mid- and late-1940s (and beyond). But this blog isn't really a music blog, though I'll probably mention music from time to time. I plan to use The Flatted Fifth for random thoughts about an often chaotic world.

Do we need to abbreviate? TFF seems so bland. Let's not! It's really easy to copy and paste The Flatted Fifth. Don't you think it looks so much better spelled out? I sure do.

Finally, you'll notice that the date for this entry and the one that follows is Dec. 31, 2006. I set the date that way so these two entries remain at the top of my blog. That's all! Or, as Bugs says, "That's all, Folks!"