Otokichi

https://www.deseretnews.com/top/3289/0/Going-to-the-moon-Heres-an-astronaut-playlist-courtesy-of-NASAs-early-missions.html Here's a music-filled article about "space music" sent from "ground control" to Gemini and Apollo astronauts. (And, sometimes, from space to "ground control.") Who is this "David Bowie" and "Space Oddity"? At least one astronaut onThe International Space Station played a solo guitar version of "Space Oddity," so it did get on the "Near Earth Orbit Hit Parade.";)

The year is 1969, and Apollo 10 is in orbit around the Moon. What do Astronauts do for music 240,000 miles from Earth? They put a Compact cassette tape in a Sony TC-50 and play Pop music instead of listening to "the sounds of silence" as they enter "the dark side of the Moon." "Techmoan" imported this ancient piece of audio tech from Japan and did his best to restore it to "playing condition." Did he succeed? What does this "run-of-the-mill" tape recorder have to do with the Sony Walkman? Play the video for answers to these burning questions. Also, the "Moan family puppets" talk about "setting foot" hither and yon.;)

"Techmoan" has Something Of Great Importance on his workbench. A recording of the July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing audio+ rescued from a library's "clearing out the rubbish" campaign, along with a Space Age (1969) Philips 22 GF 303 portable record player, aka "Philips UFO." Both items might be found on eBay, though the record player is an "expensive collector's item." If you do find the recording, "play it like it's 1969" this Saturday to commemorate "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." (Watch the "Capricorn One" video, instead, if you think "it was all done on a CIA movie set.";)

Submitted for your approval, three themes for TV and a movie, by three very different composers. Bernard Herrmann set the mood, Marius Constant's themes were turned into a Signature, and Jerry Golsmith "painted a widescreen" versiom for a movie. Without these musical themes/compositions, "Rodman Serling" would be remembered only as "a writer of screenplays in the 'Golden Age' of live TV."

It' amazing what a YouTube search for "Space Race" will lead to...down the rabbit hole, of course! Submitted for your approval is an artist/historian that will take you through U.S. history from The Seven Years War to Donald Trump. I can guess how Freddie Mercury would have viewed this song parody video. ("Weird Al"? Who's that?;)

In keeping with "The Space Race" showing up on TV, here's an early Rock tune that had dancers "going out of this world."

Submitted for your approval, the wildest ride on a passenger train ever. Starting with Rodman Serling, the "Hollywood Graveyard" shows you where "the creative people" behind and in front of the movie camera ended up. Warning: this is a very "black-and-white" subject.;)

Submitted for your amazement, a German "all-in-one" music center, complete with a 126-track tape that divides the audio world into 22 minute slices for 46 hours! It's 1965, the audio world is Monaural, so a radio (or tape player) with ONE primary speaker is fine. This bulky unit has the "usual suspects" of radio bands, from AM to FM and Shortwave. But the amazing part of this unit is the 4-inch-tall, vertical play, reel-to-reel tape plus stepping playback/record head which in "Techmoan's" case, was used to record radio broadcasts of the 1970's! But wait, there's more...

What does Turkey Day look like to folks from other countries? Here's a "cheeky Brit view" of our next Thursday national holiday and just-before-Black-Ink-Friday stuffing.;)

Public TV and "public tv-like" stations such as the Smithsonian channel have been playing videos celebrating the U.S. space race to the moon. Submitted for your approval, two versions of a song that celebrates "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

These days, the unusual in daily life is captured in cellphone videos promptly uploaded to YouTube and other websites as a matter of course. But in the 1950's, telephones were at home or on the wall, and motion picture cameras were huge things, and "Life war Serious." But, once in a while, when something absurd happened, and you were a flummoxed witness, up pops a camera crew and "you're on 'Candid Camera!" The UK Candid Camera boffins took the "stiff upper lip" off TV back then, in style. Presented for your approval, "50 years of Candid Camera in the UK," where mayhem rules.;) '

As a pointy-eared sage once said: "Patience you must have, young Padawan."

I was looking at a number of "they got this wrong!" videos about HBO's "Chernobyl" miniseries, when I came across Someone Who Was There! "Sergei from Kiev" has been on YouTube for a number of years, telling people in the former Soviet Union about "life in the United States," as well telling us about "life in the Soviet Union." His videos and recollections about life in the USSR are fascinating, from food to places to cars. Put on your fur hat and get in the wagon...

Your eyes are working fine, mate! "Techmoan" has dug up, er, resurrected another fine example of 1980's Japanese tech for the mixtape maniac in you. It's a "full-featured-one-stop-got-everything-mini-boombox" that allows you to "play one and tape 2." Does it work? Of course not! The FM and AM radio bands can pick up a limited spectrum of "radio gaga," and it looks Sooo cute. The drive belts and clutches are in serious need of replacement, but getting to the gloopy mess that used to play the likes of Toto is a puzzle for the Almighty Techmoan Tinkerer. But, The Moan Family Puppets are back! With their "e;lectric underpants" and "I hate this" banter, YouTube fame awaits...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6DgeTf1BE Here's a large collection of (somewhat) lesser known 1940's music associated with World War II. Submitted for the approval of those who participated in the June 6, 1944 landings at Normandy. Those who survived salute those who did not.

Step into the Wayback machine, we're going back to The Cold War years. It's 1958, Hawaii is still a territory, and it's time for grade school music class. Among the simple songs sung at the time was "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean," a stirring piece that would banish after-school-lunch "yawns and mini-naps." Long after I finished school, this song came up as an "unofficial national anthem" in a TV miniseries celebrating the 1896 Olympics. ("Yankee Doodle" wasn't "dignified enough"!?) Is this a version of "Britannia X"? Oh well, at least it isn't "To Anacreon In Heaven.";)

I was surfing YouTube, just looking, when I came across "The Sound of Silence" run through layers of Google Translate!" The result was...LOL! (It was like reading an instruction manual "mis-translated by a factory manager.") So, here is an older version that would send Judy Garland running for the hills.

Submitted for your approval, a closer look at 1999's "The Iron Giant," which wasn't like any of the animated features of the time. Based on the Ted Hughes book, "The Iron Man," it dared to be philosophical, profound, and Very Dark. Return to 1957, when Sputnik was both a marvel and a threat, when nuclear weapons were but a red button away. (For a "SkyNet-level" nightmare, look for "The Iron Giant's nightmare" on YouTube.)

The Premium cable TV channels had a "stuff I've seen, stuff I don't want to see, or stuff I'm not interested in" kind of day, so I "rented" the further adventures of "Wreck It Ralph." It was a tad different from the first movie, which is always a good thing. Vanellope and Ralph found the Internet amazing/puzzling/dangerous, but the lack of a "Hans Gruber-level" villain made this a long, strange trip for them. As for the music, there's nothing as "Kodachrome-bright" as Owl City, but this isn't that kind of movie. And now, it's time to "turn and burn" at the local video games arcade...

This was #2 of Turner Classic Movies "Foreign Film Sunday," which I found...very slow moving. So I looked at every other Smithsonian channel segment on The Cold War and The Space Race and a "Legendary Locations" special on the Travel channel, instead. I deleted this movie by mistake, so I will try to move past the 13 minute mark, though this French film's slow pace is about to drive me back to "Sling Blade."

"Techmoan" is at it again! In search of a radio with numerous switches and readouts, there are very expensive Classic Sony radios. But our favorite tinkerer finds a "for parts. not working" Shortwave radio that might benefit from some cleaning... (Sorry, no "Moan family" puppets today.)

I was looking around on YouTube, when this odd 77 minute movie appeared as a recommendation. Not for Action movie fans or those with short attention spans. Less of a plot than "Cat Soup" (2001), and as open ended as Life. Here's "Cat Soup," for those in search of a (somewhat) linear movie...

Yo heave ho! Submitted for your approval, Timeline's Tony Robinson takes a look at the UK's worst maritime jobs from the 9th to the 19th century. Yessir, this is bilge level history, far from the Captain's cabin that ordinary sailors (and others) performed to "put the 'Great' in Great Britain." What is this? You've been caught in a Lie!? Very well then, you're going to swab the crew's privy!

Here's an early Summer song from a singer-songwriter I'll bet no one has ever heard of. Step off the front porch, and the world unfurls before you, a seagoing sailor or pirate, checking the rigging and the course on an imaginary ship far from the sea. Long before the Internet, Smartphones, video cameras, or Instagram, all we had was our imagination to take us to faraway places, without the use of funny cigarettes or magic mushrooms...

This Sunday, Turner Classic Movies is running a Doris Day marathon instead of the usual "Silent/Foreign Film Sunday." I was looking around YouTube for a review for "Wildlife" (2018), a movie about a family in crisis, when I came across this French movie set "a long time ago, in a land far, far away." I recall hearing that this was a popular favorite back then, even if there are nightmarish "toothed frogs" lurking in the wilderness.;)