The 1950s Radio Music Library excerpts return! Go here if you're uninterested in what folows.

After I finished a radio interview today I thought: when was the first time I was on radio? Larry King show, probably. Used to listen to the show at night - as opposed to those people, I suppose, who listened at noon when he wasn’t on - and I’ll always remember the end of the show, when he pretended Duke Zeibert would come in bearing blintzes, or something. It was a Washington DC tradition, those Ziebert blintzes. Made me think of the glamorous cosmopolitan world of the nation’s capital. Years later - many years later - I was living in DC and saw where the restaurant was. Eh. Looked like it was on the second floor. Never went in.

I called the show a few times and got in twice, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. Once to talk about alternative fuels. Yes. I was an expert, having ghost-written a chapter of a book on alternative fuels for this guy who hired four college students, took us out to dinner, gave us a free night in the Sheraton-Ritz hotel for no reason I can imagine, and also $500. Whenever I see pictures of the old hotel I think of the room I had, how I sat on the ledge inside by the window and looked out on the city and thought “I’ve made it!” They tore the place down. That space in the sky where I sat no longer exists, something that’s always fascinated me to consider. Most places on earth change, but you can still walk where they walked in ancient Rome. That ration of enclosed and commodified sky no longer exists.

Also called to ask a question of Anthony Burgess, the greatest writer of the 20th century no one reads anymore. That’s sobering for anyone in the writing trade, but necessary: friend, if they can forget Burgess, they can, and will, forget anyone.

Cold day; worked at home again, because the dog needs to go out a lot. He can’t make it down the stairs, so I have to carry him and up and down the icy steps. Picked up daughter from school and went to Starbucks, where they were playing a Royksopp tune I heard on a plane in jet lag fog and loved; talked about it with the clerk, and I could tell that the clerk’s reaction to the conversational foray reassured daughter that this would not be one of those moments when DAD HAS TO TALK ABOUT STUFF. SERIOUSLY. You know, because the unseen army of judgmental peers might be watching and pointing with mockery. But those moments are rare, thank God, and I even got a pass at the grocery store when I bought pickles and a coffee cake and set them down saying “There’s a quality breakfast.” She ran into a friend at the store and they were both giddy because it’s a four day weekend, and then we left and ran to the car and she said she wanted to play a song she bought I thought I’d like.

You never think the best moments of your life will be times like that, but they are. Not the room in the sky or the chat with a hero. That.

Later that evening a YouTube search for old TV shows led to - well, this.

I was looking at the opening credits for inadvertant documentary. Well hello, yes:

I know where that is. I spent one day day in Miami, and I know. That was just up the road. See the bridge, the building on the left?

But that's not the real story. Scroll left. There's an abandoned motel on the lagoon, a piece of high-60s swank. Better photos here.

The opening sequence shows a disk jockey who doesn’t take payola and gets ventilated for his principles. He falls dead on the table but manages not to bump the needle.

Well, Larry was a pro.

On the work blog today I discussed the release of the old Batman TV show on DVD, and was looking around for a good version of the theme to embed. When I found one, something stuck out.

Batman #1 Hear it? I swear they say "Bat Dan" the second time.

Batman #3 Mistakenly slowed it down a lot. The results are horrifying.

And now the cues. Some may be repeats; it seems they stopped raiding the vaults after 300 episodes and went with the old basics. This is what I heard on "The Couple Next Door" this week, and since not everyone hears everything, or you're new, or you were away, or WHATEVER, anyway, etc. You can always cut down to the bottom for MORE on the Mysterious Organ Reference.

CND Cue #286 Off we go to the market! Or circus! Or somewhere.

I suspect the music will change in the next 50 episodes or so; I hope so.

As I've noted over the last year, the Couple Next Door aired with CBS promos; local stations could put in their old ads. The promos are some of the clunkiest things I've ever heard, and the announcer really struggles to sell this stuff. Here:

And now, a repeat from last week. Ready? I'd played this . . .

AndI said:

I wrote: "Please go ‘way and let me sleep. Those few notes were either well-known enough that the organist could toss them in with the assumption everyone would get it, or he was amusing himself with the reference." I was scanning some hotel stationery I'd bought but hadn't sorted, and lo, the Do Not Disturb sign from one of the hotels.

Issue settled, I believe.

Updates on the right - a new Friday feature! Patriotica ads. See you around.