"Missing" Archive

There is no archive for 8/19/2001-8/25/2001 because there were no posts to the Blog during that period.

Brass Tacks Now Has An Agent!

Told you we had some news about the Brass Tacks Big Band Orchestra. We are now available through George Bips Productions. The pages are at eventpro.homestead.com. Scroll down the page until you get to the smiling faces of the Brass Tacks, then click through to our home at the George Bips homepage. Some of the personnel in the picture may have changed, but most of them are still there. John Urspruch Jr. (at the upper left) was going through his wild hair phase then. I'm fifth from right on the top row holding the trombone and standing right next to our fantastic bass player, Mary Buck. I am also in the black and white picture at extreme upper right, again standing beside Mary.

Raise The Flag For Monmouth County!

Here's Richard Dawson and Gene Wood hoisting the official flag and seal of the county I was born in from a 1983 episode of Family Feud.

Attention Brian Setzer Fans

I know there are some BSO nuts out there who visit this page. You know I've seen BSO about four or five times or so. Well, I have enlisted your help. I need to know if anyone out there has the Merv Griffin's New Year's Eve show on which the BSO appeared. I think this was about 1996 or so, when the band had the Guitar Slinger album out. I remember the band playing "The Legend Of Johnny Cool" on the show and perhaps one other tune. However, I need the complete show, because the house band at the Resorts Casino (where the show was taped, and which Merv used to own) played the then-current version of the Wheel Of Fortune theme scored for big band. We can arrange a trade with materials from the Robair Collection (members.fortunecity.com/robair and follow the Collection link). Please let me know by e-mailing me. Thank you.

Brass Tacks News Coming!

Hi! Heavy house cleaning has kept me somewhat sidelined from website maintenance last few weeks or so, but I did want to say that the Brass Tacks did play on Saturday. And please watch this space for some exciting news about the big band!

Getting Down To Brass Tacks

Unabashed Plug: The mighty Brass Tacks Big Band Orchestra performs tonight at the Ocean County Library, on Washington Street in Toms River, NJ. Showtime is 7:00 p.m. We got rained out of this concert last year and we hope not to make it two years in a row. Please come out and support the continuing art of big band jazz.

When Josie Comes Home, So Good

Faster, Pussycats, Kill, Kill: Josie and the Pussycats is coming out on home video on Tuesday. Wasn't this movie just in theatres a few short months ago? Wow.

Analogy

TBS:Clint Eastwood::USA:Adam Sandler

It just needed to be said.

NJT Correction

Quick correction: the new NJT buses 8202-8204 are D4500's, not D4000's!

Virus Alert Update

Here's McAfee's page on the virus (see, I thought so!) that I talked about earlier this morning:

http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/viruses/sircam/default.asp?cid=2360

The virus attachment, if opened, will send copies of certain files in your C:\My Documents folder to everyone in your address book, including media files like .MPG and .MOV, graphics files like .JPG and .GIF, Adobe Acrobat documents and .ZIP archives.

Also, updates later today to the NJT pages. The first of the second order of D4000's are on the property, buses 8202-8204, serials 1P054310-54312. Also, Coach USA sent some of Rockland's D4000's to Suburban Transit.

Virus Alert

Watch out kids. I got two identical messages with a file attachment and the following text:

Hi! How are you?

I send you this file in order to have your advice

See you later. Thanks

One was from an address and subject matter which was in Spanish. I smell a virus. Kids, if you get something in your email and you don't know who it's from, don't open it. Just delete it! I got burned once by this already (the Love Letter, sent to me by a disk jockey I worked with eons ago).

Cartoon Pages Update

We have made updates to some of the Cartoon Filmographies, specifically those of Fleischer, Famous, and DePatie-Freleng. In quite a few cases we have corrected credits and have added some cartoons that previously had only directors listed.

Now for even better news: we will soon be hosting a listing of Walter Lantz cartoons, in the style of our other filmographies.

Good Sunday Morning

Good Sunday Morning. As you can see, not only does the counter work (thanks to "recalculate hyperlinks"), but we now have funky digits. They look very familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1960s and visited arcades, for the digits are from the original D. Gottlieb & Co. pinball score counter readouts. I didn't have a clean copy of the digits (I don't own a machine of that vintage, just a couple of more recent ones), so I cobbled them together from graphics of game backglasses on the Web.

The number on the counter now represents all versions of www.davemackey.com since the site's inception in 1995.

We have also fixed the problem with the Nova Bus serial numbers. Buses 1216-1226 were the culprit. The corrected serials are as follows:

1215: XR834161
1216-1226: XR834333-834343

Again thanks to Fred McGullam for catching the error.

Oh, unabashed plug time again. Tuesday I went to NYC with Robair to catch a taping of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and I have determined that every time I go to New York, I must always stop at The Manhattan Chili Company for a bowl of their Number One topped with cheese and jalapenos. The Manhattan Chili Company is on Broadway right next to the Ed Sullivan Theatre. In fact, it occupies the space previously held by Sullivan's Restaurant, a noble concept but ultimately a colossal failure. Stop in before or after the Big Show and tell em Dave sent you. (Just don't tell them which Dave. It'll sound more impressive.)

Other NY Impressions: 42nd Street really looks nice all fixed up with great looking facades and exciting new businesses. Eighth Avenue is still a sin wallow, however, and should be the next target of the city fathers. And how weird is it walking past the Winter Garden Theater and not seeing the familiar marquee for "Cats" after all these years?

Blogger Ate My Last Post

Blogger ate my last post. Something about the counter not working, I think. Also Fred McGullam found an error in the Nova Bus serials on the NJT pages. Will fix soon.

Dave's Booc Klub

Time now for Dave's Booc Klub.

Today in the Booc Klub, just arrived in a nice cardboard sheath is Niagara Falls All Over Again by Elizabeth McCracken. Five years ago Ms. McCracken put out her first novel, The Giant's House, which won her the Discover New Writers Award. She was also a National Book Award finalist.

The book (from what little I have read so far) is the memoir of a veteran Vaudeville performer, straight man of a two-man comedy act.

I must disclaim that I began seeking out Ms. McCracken's work because I have been friends with her brother for over a decade now, but she could be related to Rasputin and I'd still read her work because it's that good. I started "The Giant's House" one morning before work and almost didn't make it to my desk on time, I was that caught up in it. Run, don't walk, to the book store and pick this one up.

Counter Still Messed Up

The counter is still messed up. Maybe next year....