A couple months ago jmaynard and I visited my sister and we went out to a Baker's Square for dessert. They didn't have the particular pie that she wanted, but said that they'd have it again in May. Well, since it's May.. and this is the one weekend we both had free, Jay and I went up and visited my sister again. She gave me a tape that I'll likely listen to on the way to RCFM. I expect Jay might not appreciate it.
Again we went to Baker's Square. This time they had the desired pie. Since Jay and I hadn't had lunch yet, we had lunch there first. All in all a good time, and rather filling. Afterwards we went to Border's looking for a music section. That Border's didn't have much of anything musical, but the DVDs were of interest. It would have been easy to spend far too much. I held back on only got one DVD, Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett. This is perhaps the best adaptation of Doyle's stories. Unlike the Rathbone movies, Watson is competent and not a buffoon. (Really, would Holmes have put up with a buffoon?)
Since we didn't find the hoped-for music section, we went on to a Barnes & Noble and tried again. This place had a decent music section and a nice setup to listen to bits of some tunes. The one tune I was looking for, If I Had A Million Dollars sung by Johnny Mercer wasn't in stock - and was only available as part of a $200+ set. I'm not after it that badly. More than a few minutes were spent looking around. And then the Spike Jones stuff was pointed out to me. Uh oh. I spent a chunk. I bought the 4-CD set Strictly For Music Lovers and the single CD (not a CD single) Spiked!. That should hold me for a while, though there is another Spike Jones collection that I'm still thinking about.
Then it was back to my sister's place where it seemed not too much was done beyond talking and much petting of animals. But it sure went on for quite a while and was time well spent. At least I think it was.
There is a curiosity. The odd "machinery" music common through Warner Bros. cartoons is Powerhouse. That... tune... is on the one CD of Spike Jones stuff. Usually when Spike got a hold of something, it became more manic and strange. Powerhouse, though, is already manic and strange compared to most music. The Spike Jones version seems odd. It's not calm, but seems rather gentle compared what I'm used to. Or at least compared to craziness I was expecting. It's really weird to hear the Spike Jones treatment of something sound more normal than the common or well-known version.