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So, after watching last night’s Supernatural episode on YouTube tonight (and checking out the link from Brian’s blog to the “Sex and Beer” vid — was that inspiring or what?! LOL) I get to dinkin’ around and searching for various vids.

Yes, eventually I came around to searching for the Swingin’ Mr. Miller. I did a search for GM stuff about three months ago and had maybe 10 or 20 videos show up, most of which had nothing to do with Glenn Miller the bandleader but may have had something to do with somebody named “Glenn” or somebody named “Miller” or somebody named Glenn Miller who obviously was not the same as what I was looking for. There were a couple of actual GM vids in there, song performances pulled from the two movies he and his band did. But otherwise, not much.

But tonight….holy Chesterfield cigarettes! Where’d all these vids come from?!?! Multiple pullings of song performances from the two movies, fanvid/slide shows of pics of Miller with a Miller song playing in the background, video recordings of the modern day GMO performing, a TV commerical for The Essential Glenn Miller CD collection, even a foreign video of Olympic skater Scott Hamilton skating to…In the Mood! And looking at the dates, a lot of these vids have been posted in the last two months!

Dang! Shoot, I put together a lil’ slide show vid over a year ago when I was first learning how to use Windows Movie Maker and I used Moonlight Serenade for the music. I oughta post the darn thing!

Actually, I’m starting work on a GM tribute site and….man I gotta git to work! So far, all I’ve done is multiple desktop wallpapers. Remember my beef a month or so ago about the OFFICIAL GM site and their Tommy Dorsey faux paux with a desktop wallpaper? Obviously I had issues with that as I made a couple of wallpapers and posted them here to my blog. Well I’ve made more. Here’s another one…

Nice huh? I even impressed myself with that one. Khee!

Anyhow, since we’re sharing YouTube vids, here’s one of the original Glenn Miller Orchestra performing. From the 1942 film “Orchestra Wives” look sharp for a young Cesar Romero at the piano and Jackie Gleason (yes, Sheriff Buford T. Justice!) on the Bass. No they weren’t part of the GMO at the time, they (along with George Montgomery as one of the trumpet players) were substituted into the band for the film.

“People Like You and Me” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWDQWNWY-EE

I got in the mail on Friday an offer from Verizon Wireless for a new fancy schmancy cell phone. One where I can snap pictures, txt message, send emails and shoot video with. I can’t recall off hand if the cell phones offered actually allow me to make phone calls.

Anyway, I promptly trashed the offer because the phone I currently have (that indeed does allow me to make phone calls) is only two years old. However, I’m beginning to learn that in this day in age a two year old cell phone is like driving a Model T apparently.

Standing in line at the grocery store last week, the lady in front of me was trying to figure out how to turn the ringer off on her phone. The cashier, who didn’t look a day over 15, gave some very simple instructions and the lady, who looked not a day over 40, had no problem changing the setting. She then added “this phone’s two years old anyway, I’m due for a new one.”

Damn. Doesn’t anybody hang on to anything for more than two years anymore? The only reason I even got a new cell phone two years ago was because the one I had before, the battery died. So I took it in to my friendly Verizon store figuring all I had to get was a new battery right? NO! My then two year old phone was obsolete! The tech guy actually chuckled at me. “Wow! They don’t make this one anymore!” I was waiting for him to fly around the store excitedly showing his co-workers, holding it up like he’d just found the Holy Grail. “Dudes! Lookit this oldie but goodie! I ain’t seen one of these in two years.”

“Woah, dude, lemme see that! Wow! A Motorola! What ancient archeological dig was this unearthed from?”

My purse. Dude, my Firebird they don’t make anymore. It’s 20 freakin’ years old. How can a two year old cell phone suddenly be the equivalent of 60 year old manual typewriter?!

Anyway, since they didn’t make the phone anymore, they obviously didn’t make replacement parts for it. (Yet I can still get replacement parts for my car! HMMMM). And a new cell phone was in my future.

Now, it’s been two years since that time and apparently somebody thinks I need a new phone! And of course, they offer these incredible deals where you pay about 70 bucks for the phone and then get a $70 rebate. Hey, if you’re gonna give me the phone for nothing….just give it to me! Sheesh!

Please make sure I can actually make phone calls with it though! 

The following letter to the editor appeared in my local town’s newspaper on November 28th, 2006. The event the writer is referring to is the annual Christmas Tree lighting that takes place the Friday after Thanksgiving in front of the State House. It’s a big to-do with the governor in attendance and lots of activities for the family and kids. The evening is capped off with a fireworks display.

(Capital City) put forth a beautiful display of fireworks the other night. I can’t understand why the bang that follows each display has to be so loud.

I am no hearing specialist, but I know that 130-plus decibels is not safe for the human ear, and it’s 10 times worse for pets.

It was extremely annoying for me, and I was inside my apartment. I would like to know who regulates the loudness of the displays.

-Ia B. Concerned

Well, Mr. Concerned, I’m not a fireworks expert nor am I all that well versed on explosives in general, but I’m not all that sure that one can regulate the “loudness” of an explosive. Explosives are loud on purpose. Because they’re explosive! DUUHH!!

The letters to the editor that run in the “Capital City Gazette” tend to run along this same kind of asinine theme. Which got me thinking: God forbid we ever have a war fought around these parts! Sincerely God forbid, because war is hell but more because I can just see the letters to the editor now….

“Can’t they take the fighting somewhere else? The booms of the artillery echo over the river and it’s sooooo annoying. Plus the lights of the explosions keeps me awake at night because I can see it through my windows, even with my shades drawn. Why isn’t the city council doing anything about this?”

Meanwhile, Main Street takes a direct hit and there’s a crater the size of four SUV’s making the road completely impassable. If the hole is still there after 24 hours, the letters will be pouring in.  ”How come the city hasn’t fixed this yet? Where’s the road repair crews? Why isn’t the city council doing anything about this?”

Of course, with the war, schools would be closed. “I can’t believe they closed the schools, my kids are driving me up the wall. Why do they have to use the buildings as shelters? Can’t they find someplace else to put these so-called displaced persons? I mean, I’m sorry they’re houses were blown up but whose fault is that? They didn’t have to build them where they built them, directly in the line of fire of artillery shells that somebody may or may not have ever guessed would be fired around here. My God, at least then they kids could be in the schools and not home driving me up the wall. Maybe then I could get back to work, assuming of course the city ever fixes that damn crater on Main Street…”

And of course, no foot soldier would be spared the venomous wrath of letter to the editor writers of Capital City. “They’re trampling my begonias! I fork over good money in taxes to help pay for this military and these John Wayne wannabes are traipsing through my backyard like they own it! What kind of war is this anyway?! Whose side are these soldiers supposed to be on?! Why isn’t the city council doing anything about this?!!”

And finally I figure Mr. Ia B. Concerned would have to chime in…

“We probably can’t do anything about the enemy artillery, other than ask if they could fire their guns more quietly, but is there anyway we can make ours quieter? Although I’m no hearing specialist, the effect on our ears has got to be detrimental. I think the city council should do something about this.”

BaddabingbaddaBOOM!