Showing posts with label Sanni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanni. Show all posts

We are humbled...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Thursday, February 26, 2009 19 Of Your Sparks

WOW! My traveling has caused me to miss some posts and HECK-A-DOODLE, we missed an incredible honor bestowed upon Nancy and I by the most excellent blogger SANNI of "Sanni-licious" and her annual BL-OSCARS

Nancy & I were honored with Best Performance For A Love Story for THIS POST


And then THE COUCH was awarded the Bl-Oscar for Achievement For Sound Mixing!


Simply incredible...Last year THE COUCH won for Best Variety Male...what can I say...from Nancy and I and from THE COUCH...THANK YOU SANNI!!!!!!!!

I want to share the acceptance speech left over on Sanni's site...

WOW! First off, sorry I was not here earlier, but my traveling has interrupted my blog viewing.

Nancy and I thank you and the Sanni-Cademy for this incredible honor.

Who knew finding the person you have looked for your entire life would bring such a wonderful honor!

Also, I truly appreciate your recognizing THE COUCH for Sound. Sharing music makes me so very happy (not as happy as Nancy does, but still...)

I will display the award with great pride!

Many other great bloggers were honored this year and it is worth your time to head over to SANNI of "Sanni-licious" and check out the winners and give them the props they deserve.


What I do not understand is why someone with the opportunity of a lifetime would continue to mock themselves and toss that opportunity out the window.

On American Idol, Nick Mitchell originally auditioned as his alter-ego Norman Gentle...for some reason the judges put him through. Now over the course of Hollywood Week, Nick/Norman actually showed signs that he had a decent voice and probably might have deserved to be there.


Last night, Nick came out as Norman and actually made last year's contestant Sanjaya sound like Frank Sinatra! America, if you put this guy through you are making a mockery of all the others who are actually trying to succeed in the business.


If you want to check out the new Taylor Hicks album The Distance, which will be dropping in a couple of weeks, head over HERE.

Now, I know that many of you are not fans, but he has put together a collection of really good music with some Country flavor, some Latin flavor, some soul and some rock.

There is one song "Nineteen" that I truly believe will become a Country/AOR cross-over radio hit and which pulls at the heartstrings.

Honestly, I do not agree with the song he has chosen for his first single, "What's Right Is Right", I think there are much better songs on the album and would have chosen "Maybe You Should" or "Keeping It Real".

There is also a duet with another Idol alum, Elliot Yamin that I believe will be a radio hit.

All the songs sound a little 'thin', but I chalk that up to the delivery system and believe on CD the music will be more solid.


Well this morning Nancy and I are off to Philadelphia, MS and her conference and three days and nights of fun.

I will be back on Monday with more Tuneage Tutelage - New Music Monday...

Have a fantastic Friday and a most excellent weekend!!!!

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Bit & Pieces...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Thursday, June 19, 2008 27 Of Your Sparks

The weather here in Memphis has been spectacular over the last few days. nearly non-existent humidity and temps in the mid to low 80's..now only if it will stay that way through the weekend.




My darlin' Nancy had a horrible thing happen yesterday. Her outdoor cat Sam came home the night before after a couple of days of being an explorer and she noticed his huge weight loss. Her youngest Peter came home and was also struck by the horrible appearance of his beloved cat.

Yesterday morning they took him to the Vet and found Sam had a Kidney disease. the Vet advised them to put him out of his misery and they did just that. They then brought Sam home and gave him a burial in their backyard. Nancy's oldest son Ernie is away at a Religious Retreat Camp where cell phones are not allowed, so he will not find out until Sunday. Sam was truly Peter's cat though. I feel so badly for him.




So, this past week Tiger Woods won his 14th Major title after having his left knee scoped. If you saw the tournament or any of the highlights, you probably saw him grimace in pain numerous times. Now, yesterday it was announced that Tiger had more pain than anyone could have imagined.

He was not milking it for the cameras to make excuses for wayward shots. It has not been revealed that Tiger has had a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee for the last 11 months.

Folks, this is an injury that has ended a number of sports careers. Now also add to that the knowledge that he also has two stress fractures at the top of the tibia, or shinbone, where it forms part of the knee joint. This injury probably occurred as he pushed himself to be able to play in the U.S. Open.

He will have season ending surgery and be out for at least 6 and maybe as long as 10 months.

Will this impact his drive to beat Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Majors? It very well could. His swing is the fastest on the tour. It has been clocked at over 110 mph, putting a tremendous amount of stress on his left (front) knee.

He might have to re-tool his swing essentially becoming a finesse pitcher instead o a fire-baller. This is also a huge hit for the PGA Tour where TV ratings are 27% higher when Tiger is in the running.

Will it impact his life? Sure, Tiger is a competitor. He has enough money to take care of the next 5 generations of Woods' and he is now a golf course designer, so his income will not go away, but this is the equivalent of the knee injury to Mickey Mantle, the fast ball to the face of Tony Conigliaro, the hit on Darryl Stingley of the N.E. Patriots, to name a few.



Congratulations to our most wonderful friend Sanni on the birth of Lily, her daughter. You can read all about it HERE. Sanni allowed us to follow her pregnancy for the full nine months and it is wonderful that Luis, her son, now has a beautiful sister.




"FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA"
The Cure
SHOW






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Monday Meme...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, March 31, 2008 22 Of Your Sparks

Well, it appears our delightful friend Turnbaby has tagged us with a meme she snagged from the most wonderful Sanni

Since Sunday was a fugly, rainy day and there was basketball and especially Memphis Tigers Basketball...and we were home alone after a long Saturday watching baseball and then rain and then dinner...we did some digitizing and also working on the new look for The Couch. We made a good start and we hope to unveil it soon.

It also looks like we will be getting Dreamweaver soon and we are looking forward to adding a number of features.

We also have our first customized COUCH BUTTON. We whipped this up for Travis...


Remember, if you send us a picture sitting down, with your feet showing - we will whip it up for you...and when the Couch changes, you will get the updated one...or you can wait...so many choices - what shall you do!?!
OK...back to the meme...here we go...

If I were a direction I’d be… South

If I were furniture I’d be… A Couch (well duh!)
If I were a liquid I’d be… Jack Daniel's Single Barrel
If I were a sin I’d be… Lust

If I were a gem/stone I’d be… Amethyst

If I were a metal I’d be… Platinum

If I were a tree I’d be… Maple

If I were a fruit I’d be… A sweet juicy plum
If I were a flower I’d be… Liatris

If I were weather I’d be… sunny with a slight breeze
If I were a music instrument I’d be… a guitar
If I were an element I’d be… water

If I were a color I’d be… Royal Blue

If I were an animal I’d be… a hawk

If I were a sound I’d be… waves gently breaking on the shore (had to use it Turn...)
If I were a lyric I’d be… "But what can a poor boy do, Except to sing for a Rock & Roll band"
If I were a song I’d be…"Walking In Memphis" Marc Cohen
If I were a music type I'd be... Southern Rock

If I were a perfume/cologne I'd be... Don't wear any...talc?

If I were a feeling I’d be… ectasy

If I were a book I’d be…"The Quest" - well it is ME...exactly....a work still in progress..
If I were food I’d be… Linguini with a spicy clam sauce
If I were a city I’d be… Manhattan, NY

If I were a taste I’d be… Sweet with a spicy kick

If I were a scent I’d be… Sea Air

If I were a word I’d be… tiered

If I were a verb I’d be… chuckle

If I were an object I’d be… turntable

If I were a piece of clothing I’d be… a well worn pair of boots
If I were a body part I’d be… hair

If I were an facial expression I’d be… grin

If I were a cartoon character I’d be… Yogi Bear -"I'm smarter than the average ranger"
If I were a movie I’d be… Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas bwahahahaha
If I were a geometrical figure I’d be… parallel lines

If I were one of the 4 seasons I’d be… summer

If I were a sentence I’d be… Keep your spark of insanity



Marshall Tucker..."Every Day I Have The Blues" ...Toy Caldwell shining on stage on both lead guitar and vocals. From the Where We All belong album and digitally converted. You will still hear some pops, we are still trying to master that fine line.

ENJOY...




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Monday with Music

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, November 05, 2007 14 Of Your Sparks



DON'T MISS OUT ON THE BIG CELEBRATION!!!



OK, we have the greatest Guests on EARTH!

We love all of the comments from our Matt! post on Friday.

The weekend was fantastic, and we will tell you all about it tomorrow with pictures...

no promises on the pictures, many were taken of the two of us by the two of us (You know, holding the camera out arms length and snapping!) LOL

But one of his friends took a couple of shots...but that is part of the story so...

Pretty tired tonight...


Get involved with the BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE this Wednesday.

As most of you already know, it is the brainchild of our good friend Mimi.

Use the link above to get your Peace Globe.

If you need help, Sanni has offered to do Peace Globe for free...

And you can always send us a email and we will help out.



First three off of the i-Tunes shuffle this evening...

1) "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio): From the Together album, released by MotownRecords in 1969. It was the second and final duets studio album combining DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES and THE TEMPTATIONS into an eight-person Motown act.

Together was released on the same day (September 23, 1969) as Puzzle People, a regular TEMPTATIONS album showcasing the group's then-current psychedelic soul sound.
* Diana Ross – vocals
* Mary Wilson – vocals
* Cindy Birdsong – vocals
* Dennis Edwards – vocals
* Eddie Kendricks – vocals
* Paul Williams – vocals
* Melvin Franklin – vocals
* Otis Williams – vocals
* Various Los Angeles area session musicians – instrumentation



2)

"Peaches en Regalia" (Frank Zappa): This is the first piece on Frank Zappa's 1969 recording, Hot Rats. Hot Rats was a solo recording produced by Zappa without the Mothers. As with much of Zappa's music, there is a slew of instrumentation in this piece from the regular guitar, bass and drums to saxophones, clarinets, an octave bass guitar, flute and auxiliary percussion played by Zappa himself.
* Frank Zappa – Guitar, percussion, octave bass
* Ian Underwood – organ, clarinet, flute, piano, saxophone
* Shuggie Otis – bass on "Peaches en Regalia"
* Ron Selico – drums on "Peaches en Regalia"
* Lowell George - guitar (uncredited)




3) "Whipping Post" (Greg Allman):From the debut Allman Brothers Band album. Later recreated in it's 22:00+ minute rendition on Live At The Fillmore East album. Duane and Dickie trade guitar licks throughout.
* Duane Allman: slide guitar and lead guitar
* Gregg Allman: vocals, organ
* Dickey Betts: lead guitar,
* Berry Oakley: bass guitar, backing vocals
* Butch Trucks: drums
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson: drums, congas

Well folks...Lifelogger is not allowing us to upload this evening. We will try in the morning. Zappa was already uploaded, so we got that one there.




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This Week's Answer

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Wednesday, February 07, 2007 4 Of Your Sparks





Our threesome who came close all missed Richie Ramone
who played drums between
Markey and Tommy

Come back tomorrow,
Our Thursday post will give you a closer look at
this groundbreaking band, their history, and the sadness that surrounded them...



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Wordless Wednesday

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Wednesday, January 03, 2007 29 Of Your Sparks

NAME THAT TUNE
WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Congrats to the following for knowing the following:
BAND: Vanilla Fudge
ALBUM: Vanilla Fudge
SONG: Ticket To Ride
MEMBERS:
Mark Stein
Tim Bogart
Carmine Appice
Vince Martell


A short history on THE VANILLA FUDGE:
Originally formed in 1965 after breaking away from another band Stein, Bogert and drummer Joey Brennan formed the Electric Pigeons. This was later changed to The pigeons.

Vince Martell joined shortly after.

An R&B cover band they spent time between NJ and Long island. They along with other east coast bands such as The vagrants (know who played lead guitar in this band?), The Illusion, The Good Rats, The Hassles (know who played organ in this band?), and a west coast bang The Sparrows (know who they became?) were in the background hidden behind the British Invasion and the west coast sound…but they worked the clubs hard up and down the eastern seaboard.

The Vagrants were one of the first bands to make elaborate productions out of other peoples music and The Pigeons took up with this idea of building inspired new arrangements to the covers they played.

Near the end of 1966, Joey Brennan left and carmine Appice joined the band lending his special qualities to their arrangements.

Early 1967 The Pigeons became the Vanilla Fudge.

At this time touring bands were constantly waging war on each other. The west coast bands vs. the east coasters and even within the east coast contingent, bands did not like each other.

One of the bands that warred with the Vanilla Fudge was Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention. Zappa even wrote a song lambasting the VF as “teen combo” of adolescent sexual deviants (Do you know the song?)

In 1969 a brand new band opened for the Vanilla Fudge when the Jeff Beck band backed out (YES, The VF were the headliners!)…this band toured with the Fudge for most of the fall…The band…Led Zeppelin.

This is an abbreviated history taken from the official web site for the band. To read the entire history and see how many bands the fudge played with over the years, you can find it HERE.

OH, the Guitar player from The Vagrants? Leslie West and many for that band became Mountain.
The organ player for the Hassles? Billy Joel.
The Sparrows? They became Steppenwolf.
The Song…I am not really sure of this one...Do YOU know?

On a personal note, I have original music by the Illusion (GREAT FREAKIN BAND!) and The Good Rats, who I also helped get gigs in Rochester, NY while in school there and one of my friends is mentioned in one of their songs.

The late 60’s – early 70’s on Long Island was a treasure chest of bands playing local clubs and many of the members went on to great things.

To hear more Vanilla Fudge, check them out at bestaudiocodes.com
Yes, it is WORDLESS WEDNESDAY and that means NAME THAT TUNE, but of course we don't always play by the rules here on THE COUCH...OK OK, hardly ever do we play by the rules...

Thank you to Turnbaby for pointing out that yesterday Ray Ray McElrathbey was named the 2007 FED EX ORANGE BOWL-FWAA COURAGE AWARD. The award is given to a player, coach or support person who shows courage on or off the field.

What did this young man do to win the award? Well we profiled him back in September HERE and you can also read about him and the award HERE. Good things do happen to good people.
And before we get to the music...and the no words! Something happended yesterday afternoon and the dark blue background on the site just disappeared. We asked a few people and they could not see it either.

An emergency email was dispatched to SANNI (The winner of the January 2, 2007 BESTEST BLOG OF THE DAY!) Hopefully she will come running with the calvery and some assistance... bear with us until then please. ALL IS BETTER THANKS AGAIN SANNI!
We only had two bad comments about the blue, but that does not mean that one day you will see it has darkened... always tinkering...
Well, something else...hehehehe a new link on the side is to BAG WINE RUMINATIONS. It is the brainchild (or would that be conceived monster!) of Matt-Man (not my Matt), who we have run across on blogs all the time. This weekend, laying in bed, we decided to visit and man what a blast!

He was away, but his friend Gouda Girl hosted a retrospective and reran three posts about a dinner party Matt-Man gave. Go search those posts out and this is a warning...do not drink any liquids while reading or cover your keyboard and monitor with plastic.
Now it is time for me to shut up and give you a chance to play the game.
REMEMBER GIVE US:
The Band, members at the time the song was recorded, album, album the song first appeared on.
Get them all correct and the first three get their name in LIGHTS!

Dug into the vault...later we will give you some info on this interesting band.



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Music On The Couch