A Sense of Doubt blog post #3943 - Letter to Dad #13 - Reading Old SF

Dad 1985

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3943 - Letter to Dad #13 - Reading Old SF

Hey Big Guy, Because I am writing about books today, I wanted to get a picture of you with books, specifically Dune or Lord of the Rings. I can see the photos in my head, but I couldn't find them.

But this one of you waking from a nap in 1985 is pretty good, too.

Some updates before I get to today's topic.

Yesterday, I decided to change the routine with the dogs. For years now, I have fed the dogs breakfast when I first got up. When this was one dog, Satchel, that was a pretty easy thing to do and did not take that much time. But now with three dogs, medications, treats, and so on the whole operation can take 30 minutes or more. Often Ellory will stop eating, and I have to get on the floor, hold her dish, stroke her head and tell her she's a good girl, and coax her to finish her food. Also, Essel rarely wants to eat first thing or will wait to see if Ellory finishes as Essel and Satchel both want to eat what Ellory often leaves behind.

All of this means that I am going up to thirty minutes without a mug of juice, my pills, and my first sip of coffee. I also have anxiety during the whole process because I want to sit and do my morning routine while drinking coffee.

This morning I decided to delay breakfast. My morning routine last a little over an hour, timed by two thirty minute sits in front of my GO LITE sun lamp.

So, that's what I did. I hope to make it the new routine. Seemed to go well and Essel actually ate breakfast with the others, which she rarely does.

Since I wrote the above yesterday, second day of delayed breakfast went well, though they did not have to wait the full hour because I had to do something between 30-minute sessions of the light. Still, all dogs ate and it worked well. I am giving Ellory too much food in the morning, though, and she ate but didn't finish.

I gave you a lot of updates in the last post, Dad, which I feel like I just wrote because I was late with it.

I am busy with Christmas decorating, cooking, general house stuff, homework, work-work, etc.

So, I am keeping this somewhat short.

This was going to be orange tie post. But that's delayed again. Mainly, because I am uncertain what picture to do: me wearing it? Just the tie where it is currently draped over the to read book case that I am sharing below (though I pulled it out of the way for these photos.

The to read bookcase is very full and so pulling out other books not even in that book case that are unread or were read long ago and need to be re-read.

TO READ BOOK CASE

TOP SHELF

You can just see the orange tie at the top of the picture.

MIDDLE SHELF

BOTTOM SHELF

A SMALL STACK UPSTAIRS TO READ-READ (NOT AUDIO)

I am currently reading (not audio) a book I have started many times and never finished: TIME STORM by Gordon Dickson.

I read The Dragon and the George long ago, while in high school, and became a big fan of Gordon Dickson. But I never read more (except the sequel, The Dragon Prince, I think. Actually, I am not sure if I have read that one as I have no memory of it).

I decided that I would try to get through more books without using audio this year.

I had set a goal of reading 80 books this year (audio and not audio) and I am at 79 books read as of today with nearly a full month to go. So surely, I will exceed eighty books.

This one started hot for 100 pages or so and has bogged down. I still like it, but it's slower as I approach page 300 or 400. I am at around 270 now.

You always raved about the Dorsai books (officially the Childe Cycle) so the first two are next up as those are on audio and are short. I decided to queue up a series of short books to make sure I reached my goal and then I will read some of the longer books visible on the top shelf of the TO READ BOOK CASE such as Babel by R.F. Kuang, The Rose Field by Phillip Pullman, and The Tainted Cup by Robert Jason Bennett, which just won the Best Novel Hugo AND The World Fantasy Award.

Likely, I will read Babel by R.F. Kuang first as I have had it for a year and really want to read it.

I have to get in my annual listen to A Christmas Carol by Dickens and have a couple of other short books to consider, such as The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels and an abridged version of Story by Robert McKee.

Hold up!! Dickson wrote NINE Dragon books??? How did I not know this????

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_R._Dickson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childe_Cycle 

I wish you were still here to talk to about these books.

Love you, Dad. Talk to you next week.


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2512.04 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3807 days ago & DAD = 462 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3942 - Micro-Bursts - Writing Wednesday for 2512.03

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3942 - Micro-Bursts - Writing Wednesday for 2512.03

Since I started adhering to nearly weekly WRITING WEDNESDAY posts, I have been touting the idea that progress is progress no matter what, how, or when.

I have written on this before. If all you have is fifteen minutes, then write for fifteen minutes. All progress is good progress or if not "good" progress, it's some kind of progress or at least exercising the writing muscle.

I did not write at all last week because of Thanksgiving and family visiting.

So my goal was to get back to writing this week. And I didn't the first two days of the week, so I was resolved to start today.

I had a new idea for a short story the other day.

One thing I have been wanting to do is rewrite very old stories by little known writers, like one of my favorites: Edmund Cooper.

And by rewrite, I mean completely reimagine though possibly using the same structure and some of the other aspects of the story.

And so, I started the story, which borrows some aspects from an Edmund Cooper story called "Tomorrow's Gift" but is in no way a rewrite or a reimagining of that story. Or if we're calling it a reimagining, it's a RADICAL reimagining.

I love discussing process. I recently had a process discussion with someone. One common practice, and I would love to find someone who DOES NOT work this way, is writing in one's head. Thinking time, imagining, brainstorming, and actually just writing in one's head until such a time that the text can be written out seems so fundamental to what writers do that I can't imagine that there's someone who DOES NOT do that. 

Not to say that everything to be written is dreamed in the head ahead of time. That's not only impractical but loses that sense of discovery and serendipity. And yet, some things are surely dreamed up and then written down. In part, this is how I will end up working out of order. I have various ideas for different parts of a story, a chapter, a book, and so I want to first unload what's in my head because it will only stay there for so long. I have lost really good ideas because I didn't get them written down. I feel that sense of loss. Some might say that if the idea is REALLY good that I will have it again but that's not necessarily true with all ideas.

So, success today. Started the story. A micro-burst, 15-20 minutes of writing. I can check off the to do list that I achieved writing today.

Now, to do it again tomorrow.

Next week, I have scheduled to write about the ideas on the "back burner." We'll see if I actually get that written.

Thanks for tuning in.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2512.03 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3806 days ago & DAD = 461 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3941 - Fate of the Edmund Fitzgerald

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3941 - Fate of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Anyone who lived through the Seventies and probably more who cam after have been haunted by the story of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, immortalized in the song by Gordon Lightfoot.

FIFTY years ago.

Still a mystery.

Thanks for tuning in.

Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Official Audio)

There's a video and a big picture gallery at the link below.

What caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink 50 years ago is still a mystery

EDMUND FITZGERALD

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/11/02/edmund-fitzgerald-wreck-lake-superior-50-years/86498314007/

Keith Matheny

Detroit Free Press

Nov. 2, 2025

What caused the SS Edmund Fitzgerald freighter to sink amid a violent storm on Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, killing its 29 crew members, remains a point of debate and mystery a half-century later.

Theories range from the Edmund Fitzgerald striking a shoal and suffering bottom damage to flooding through the freighter's hatch covers, which filled the ship with water and sank it, to rogue waves, to structural flaws in the ship that the 1975 storm made deadly.

Fed investigations: Ship likely sank due to faulty, failing hatch covers

Two major federal investigations were conducted after the Fitzgerald's 1975 sinking: the U.S. Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation, which released its report in July 1977; and the National Transportation Safety Board, whose findings and recommendations were released in May 1978.

The Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation, in its conclusions, noted that the lack of survivors and witnesses, and the incomplete information on all that the Edmund Fitzgerald was facing on Lake Superior that day and evening, meant "the proximate cause of the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald cannot be determined."

But the board goes on to list a suspected cause: flooding through the ship's topside hatches.

"The most probable cause of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the loss of buoyancy and stability which resulted from massive flooding of the cargo hold," its report states. "The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the Spar Deck," the deck that covers a ship's cargo holds.

The report states that the Edmund Fitzgerald's flooding began early on Nov. 10 and worsened throughout the day and evening as the violent storm on Lake Superior gained strength. The taking on of water reduced the ship's freeboard, making it ride lower and lower in the raging water. The Coast Guard report notes that Edmund Fitzgerald Capt. Ernest McSorley reported being in some of the worst seas he had ever seen.

"It is probable that, at the time he reported this, Fitzgerald had lost so much freeboard from the flooding of the cargo hold that the effect of the sea was much greater than he would have ordinarily experienced," the report states.

The Coast Guard report noted that the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald happened so quickly, no deployment of lifeboats occurred, nor a mayday distress call sent over the ship's radio — despite the ship's crew having been on the radio with the nearby freighter Arthur M. Anderson just minutes before on the evening of Nov. 10.


The report further noted that the Fitzgerald's positioning on the Lake Superior bottom — its front section upright and looking as if it collided with the muddy bottom at speed; the middle section of the ship disintegrated and the rear section capsized and nearly perpendicular but less than 200 feet from the front section on the lake bottom — tend to indicate the ship didn't suffer a structural breaking apart on the lake surface, as the ship halves would have likely remained buoyant for at least a brief time and the raging, 50-knot winds would have taken the two ship halves farther from one another.

The marine board walked through how a loss of buoyancy due to severe topside flooding through the ship's faulty or failing hatches potentially unfolded on the fateful night of Nov. 10, 1975.

"Finally, as the storm reached its peak intensity, so much freeboard was lost that the bow pitched down and dove into a wall of water, and the vessel was unable to recover," the report states. "Within a matter of seconds, the cargo (26,000 tons of iron ore taconite pellets) rushed forward, the bow plowed into the bottom of the lake, and the midships structure disintegrated, allowing the submerged stern section, now emptied of cargo, to roll over and override the other structure, finally coming to rest upside-down atop the disintegrated middle portion of the ship."

The NTSB final report from its investigation reached a similar conclusion.

"(T)he probable cause of this accident was the sudden massive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers," its report stated.

George "Red" Burgner was a Great Lakes mariner for decades and served as a steward or cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald for 10 years. Burgner left the Fitzgerald earlier in 1975 to have surgery on chronic bone spurs in his feet — and turned down a company invite to return to the ship just days before its fateful voyage.

In a January 1978 deposition, Burgner stated that the Fitzgerald frequently left port without yet fully securing the approximately 68 clamps that went around the ship's hatch covers. It has contributed to some speculating that the ship's hatches may not have been perfectly secured when the fierce storm hammered the boat.

Could the Fitzgerald have bottomed out on a shoal?

The captain of a Great Lakes freighter that also endured the storm of Nov. 10, 1975, on Lake Superior, and was the nearest ship to the Edmund Fitzgerald at the time it sank, speculated that the Fitz may have sunk from damage to its hull from bottoming out on a shoal, a shallower area in the lake due to rocks and sandbars.

"(T)he Fitz was to the west of our course line. Maybe too close to Caribou Island," said Capt. Jesse "Bernie" Cooper of the bulk carrier Arthur M. Anderson, in a handwritten recounting of the Fitzgerald's sinking about 10 years after the event.

"(The time was) 15:20 — 3:20 p.m. The Fitzgerald called with the information that she had a fence rail down, two vents damaged, plus a starboard list. He (Fitzgerald Captain McSorley) also had his pumps going, so that means that the Fitz had to have water in one or two of her side tanks. Probably a stress fracture of the hull.

"At this time the Fitz was mortally wounded. How bad we wouldn't know until later. My own opinion is that she bottomed out on a shoal. This area had not been surveyed since the 1915 era."

Robert Thibaudeau spent 45 years as a mariner on the Great Lakes, the last 18 years as a captain of freighters. His last ship was the MV Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest bulk carrier freighter on the Great Lakes at more than 1,013 feet. He retired as a captain in 2021.

He, too, speculates that the Fitz grounded on a shoal, and suspects it's one known as Six Fathom Shoal, on the north end of Caribou Island in northeastern Lake Superior. Bedrock ridges there take lake levels to 36 feet or even shallower in places, a potential problem for a deep-drafting vessel like a Great Lakes bulk carrier. In the aftermath of the Fitzgerald sinking, the Canadian government in 1976 updated its bathymetric maps near Caribou Island from those created in the early 1900s, and mapped the shoal about a mile farther east from the island than had been previously mapped.

"If you look at where they went, the track line, there is a 36-foot (deep) shoal area they potentially could have got close to just off Caribou in that area," Thibaudeau said. "I believe they could have gotten close to that 36-foot (shoal) spot."

The captain added that even if the ship was in navigable water near the shoal, the heavy seas from the storm could have thrusted the ship's bottom into the bedrock.

Officials with the Lake Carriers Association, a Westlake, Ohio-based trade organization representing the Great Lakes freighter shipping industry, also concluded that the Edmund Fitzgerald bottomed out on a shoal in the immediate years after the sinking.

But some dispute the possibility.

Sean Kery, a senior principal engineer and naval architect for CACI, a Virginia-based government contractor that works with the U.S. Navy and other clients; and Ben Fisher, with Bremerton, Washington-based SAFE Boats International, a company that designs boats for military, law enforcement and first responders, in a 2012 presentation of a forensic examination of the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking, rejected the shoal damage theory.

"There is no sign of grounding damage to the exposed stern section, which would be the deepest in the water under normal conditions," Kerry and Fisher's research paper stated.

What caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink 50 years ago is still a mysteryHow a 1975 storm reached its peak fury on Lake Superior, dooming the Edmund FitzgeraldThese men dove to the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck decades ago. They share their storiesWhy disasters like the Edmund Fitzgerald are far less likely on the Great Lakes todayMeet the 29 crew members who died aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago'It was meant to be filler': Story of Gordon Lightfoot's 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'50 years on, families of Fitzgerald crew find solace in Detroit bell-ringing tribute

Ric Mixter agrees. The Wixom resident is a diver, documentary filmmaker, Great Lakes shipwreck historian and author of the 2022 book "Tattletale Sounds: The Edmund Fitzgerald investigations." He is among the few who have dived the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck, in a submersible in 1994.

"I've totally ruled out running aground," he said. "I've got lots of people who tell me that Six Fathom Shoal doesn't exist."

In addition to McSorley, three other crew members on the Fitzgerald that fateful night — First Mate John H. McCarthy, Second Mate James A. Pratt, and Third Mate Michael E. Armagost — had attained the designation of Master from the U.S. Coast Guard, meaning they had passed through a rigorous licensing and endorsement process showing their experience and proficiency to safely and efficiently operate a ship such as a Great Lakes bulk carrier.

"They had made that turn (by Michipicoten and Caribou islands) more than a hundred times," said Mixter. "John Simmons, the wheelsman, had been on the Fitzgerald since 1959. He was the longest-serving employee on board that ship.

"To insult those guys to say ... they cut that corner and ran aground, it's absolutely silly."

A faulty 'backbone' and rogue waves could have doomed the Fitz

In addition to serving as a cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald for a decade, Red Burgner was also the ship's winter "keeper" for seven years, an employee who stays on the ship at dock or drydock overwinter, helping coordinate maintenance and keeping the ship operational, and serving as a point of contact with contractors coming to the ship.

In his January 1978 deposition, Burgner stated that the Edmund Fitzgerald had recurring problems with a loose keel, the steel backbone of the ship along its bottom, from which the hull is constructed. Burgner said he observed the loose keel, with sections receiving only spots of "tack welds" instead of solid welds along the length of the keel to reattach it to the ship, as recently as overwinter 1973-74.

Burgner also testified that the ship would move and heave with large waves in a way that he didn't experience on other boats, and take longer to straighten out after such waves. The Fitzgerald also made "groaning" noises that Burgner said he'd never heard on any other boat he'd served on.

Burgner stated he was present for a conversation where maintenance men working on the lower decks of the boat told McSorley the problem had arisen again earlier in 1975, as the Edmund Fitzgerald was being prepared for the upcoming shipping season.

"They came in the mess room door, had coffee, sat down and started talking," Burgner stated. "And they said, 'Captain, the keel's loose on this son of a bitch again.' "Burgner said McSorley replied, "'I don't give a (expletive). All this son of a bitch has got to do is stay together one more year. After that, I don't give a shit what happens to it.'"

Burgner's account of keel problems on the Edmund Fitzgerald is corroborated by marine engineer and naval architect Joseph E. Fischer, then president of Bay Engineering Inc., who, in a recollection years after the Fitzgerald sank, recalled that a company he was with in 1969, R.A. Steam in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, "was asked to investigate the continuing failure of the longitudinal keelsons attachment to the bottom shell plate" of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

"Each year, a survey would show cracks in the weld of the center vertical keel to the bottom shell," Fischer said. "These cracks would be gouged out and rewelded only to show the same cracks in the following years."

Mixter thinks it's a key to the Fitzgerald's demise. With Burgner's testimony, "there is a clear indication (McSorley) knew there was an issue, but he still pushed through five gale-force winds in that season, one on Lake Huron and the rest on Superior," Mixter said. "So each time that keel was getting loose."

Cooper, the captain aboard the Anderson on the same Nov. 10, only miles away from the Fitzgerald, recalled seas of "25 to 35 feet" that evening on eastern Lake Superior.

"Sometime before 7 p.m. we took two of the largest seas of the trip," Cooper recounted in his handwritten retelling of that night. "The first one flooded our boat deck. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat ... the second large sea put green water on our bridge deck! This is about 35 feet above the waterline!

"Did these two large seas reach the Fitzgerald at 7:10 p.m.?"

The Fitzgerald had already reported a fence rail down, vents damaged and a starboard list, with two pumps activated — signs the ship was already taking on water. The ship was riding lower above the waterline. The large waves might have meant its death knell.

"It collapsed Hatches 1 and 5, and the ship couldn't recover," Mixter speculated. "It broke its back on the surface. It dove underneath the water, and the stern section ripped off and flipped upside-down."

That more or less coincides with the conclusions of the 2012 analysis by Kery and Fisher: a cascading disaster of two smashed vents, flooding ballast tanks, the Fitzgerald's forward house flooding, the forward two hatch covers blown in, allowing yet more water to rush in and weigh down the ship, and a hull girder failure.

Mixter believes what exactly caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink on the night of Nov. 10, 1975, leaving its crew of 29 dead, is possible to know. But it would take more dives and further research on the ship's remains on the Lake Superior bottom to understand. It's time to overcome reservations about it, he said.

"There are so many questions that could be solved with a quick sonar scan with the newest technology we have," Mixter said. "Many of the voices that were so vocally opposed to us (shipwreck divers) have faded since they have passed away.

"Fifty years later now, we are sitting at the point where there is better technology, and we could figure it out."

The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 years later

• What caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink? It's a mystery, even a half-century later • How that 1975 storm reached peak fury on Lake Superior • Why disasters on the Great Lakes are far less likely today • Meet the 29 crew members who died aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2512.02 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3805 days ago & DAD = 460 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3940 - The Masterpiece that is a Charlie Brown Christmas - It's not Just the Music but it is the MUSIC - Music Monday for the First Day of December 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3940 - The Masterpiece that is a Charlie Brown Christmas - It's not Just the Music but it is the MUSIC - Music Monday for the First Day of December 2025

I have loved this music all of my life.

I remember how thrilled I was when a girlfriend, in 1985, had a cassette of the music, and so I made a copy of it. I wore out that cassette.

I do have my own preferred mix with a different order of the Christmas songs and all of the You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown songs.

Today, mostly a reprint, though someone else's mix of the music.

It has begun!

Thanks for tuning in.


Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio




Link to the original post I am reprinting below:

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3227 - Why Charlie Brown Christmas is a Masterpiece - Vince Guaraldi Trio

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3227 - Why Charlie Brown Christmas is a Masterpiece - Vince Guaraldi Trio

Lately, I have been talking with a friend about the top ten albums to take to a desert island for listening the remainder of our lives. This album would be on that list, 100000%.

This music has been part of the soundtrack of my whole life.

I didn't have a recording of it until about 1985. Before then, I would just hear it in the annual viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas and in stores when it was played over the sound system.

"Linus and Lucy," the signature "dance" tune, was the exit music (recessional) at our wedding.

I adore this music and sometimes listen to it at times of year not near Christmas but mostly (and  A LOT) during the Christmas season.

I am so grateful for Vince Guaraldi Trio.

And to Sparky, Charles M Schultz, for some of the best comics in the history of comics.

So, that's why this post is also filed with the "gratitude" label.

This music means family to me; it means love; it means happiness.

After all, "Happiness is a warm puppy," as Schultz reminded us.

As I type these words, I have a warm puppy next to me, snoring.

Life is good.

Thanks for tuning in.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

https://www.openculture.com/2023/12/an-introduction-to-vince-guaraldi-the-jazz-composer-who-created-the-best-christmas-album-ever-a-charlie-brown-christmas.html

An Introduction to Vince Guaraldi, the Jazz Composer Who Created the Best Christmas Album Ever, A Charlie Brown Christmas

in Animation, Music | December 18th, 2023

Vince Guaraldi - The Man Behind the Music of Peanuts

Matt Draper

Dec 7, 2017

A look at the musical career of jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi and how he created the unforgettable music of the Peanuts and Charlie Brown television specials.

When A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired 58 years ago, few had any confidence that it would be a hit. Its story and animation, bare-bones even by the standards of mid-nineteen-sixties television, made a positive impression on neither CBS’ executives nor on many of the special’s own creators. They didn’t expect that this very simplicity would turn it into a perennial holiday favorite — nor, presumably, that its soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio would become one of the most beloved Christmas albums in existence. Now that we’re well into the season when the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas is heard every day in homes, cafés, and shopping malls all around the world, why not get an introduction to Guaraldi, the man and his music, from pop culture video essayist Matt Draper?

“Born in San Francisco in 1928, Guaraldi credited his two uncles with sparking his interest in jazz as a child, with the future musician already learning the piano by age seven,” says Draper. After serving in the Korean War and returning home to study music at San Francisco State University, Guaraldi began to “pursue his love of jazz in local clubs.”

He soon formed his trio, and recording their first albums in the mid-nineteen-fifties, he “expanded his use of Latin jazz and bossa nova.” In 1962 Guaraldi scored his first hit with “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” a single from an album inspired by Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus. It was a radio broadcast of that song, so the story goes, that caught the ear of Lee Mendelson, who would produce A Charlie Brown Christmas, as he crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in a taxicab.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio - Full Album Fireplace Yule Log / Official Video

Vince Guaraldi

Premiered Dec 1, 2023  #charliebrownchristmas #vinyl #christmas

Gather 'round the fireplace and celebrate the season with the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas album in its entirety!

With timeless selections “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy,”  A Charlie Brown Christmas continues to be America’s most popular holiday album, with a 5x platinum certification making it the joint best-selling Jazz album of all-time and an annual family tradition since 1965.  Press play on our special Yule Log video and let the album spin (and fireplace burn) all day long!

The beloved album is also available on vinyl and for streaming on all platforms. Details and links here: https://found.ee/cbxmas-2023

Shop the Craft Recordings store for all Vince Guaraldi vinyl and more: https://found.ee/CraftVinceGuaraldi

Subscribe to Vince Guaraldi on YouTube: https://found.ee/VinceGuaraldiYouTube

#christmas #vinyl #charliebrownchristmas

Mendelson initially commissioned Guaraldi to compose the music for A Boy Named Charlie Brown, a television documentary that ultimately never aired. But its recording sessions brought forth “Linus and Lucy,” which became Peanuts’ de facto theme song, and when Coca-Cola agreed to sponsor a Peanuts Christmas special in 1965 — a scant six months before Christmas itself — Guaraldi was called back to score it. “A Charlie Brown Christmas is a rather melancholic story centering on Charlie’s search for meaning and worth in the holiday season,” says Draper, “so it’s fitting that a large portion of Guaraldi’s score is tinged with sadness.” Yet “Guaraldi’s melancholy isn’t overwrought or forced; rather, it’s minor and subtle,” unlike the average film score that tries to “beat its listeners over the head with emotion.”

Why The Charlie Brown Christmas Album Is a Masterpiece

Charles Cornell

The soundtrack album, which you can hear (and see accompanied by a Yule fireplace) on the official Vince Guaraldi Youtube channel, offers musical variety from the “ton of swinging style” in its version of “O Tanenbaum” to the “waltz brimming with energy” of “Skating” to “Christmas Is Coming,” with its “hints of rock-and-roll.” In the video just above, composer-Youtuber Charles Cornell explains what makes it “without a doubt, the best Christmas album ever” (a title held along with that of the best-selling jazz album in history after Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue), not least its being less “in-your-face Christmas” than other similarly themed recordings. Yet he also acknowledges that Guaraldi’s most beautiful composition for a Peanuts special isn’t in A Charlie Brown Christmas, but It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, from 1966. When next fall fall rolls around, do make “Great Pumpkin Waltz” the first song you hear.

Related Content:

How Innovative Jazz Pianist Vince Guaraldi Became the Composer of Beloved Charlie Brown Music

Stream 22 Hours of Funky, Rocking & Swinging Christmas Albums: From James Brown and Johnny Cash to Christopher Lee & The Ventures

Enjoy Classic Songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Performed by Vince Guaraldi Trio Drummer Jerry Granelli

Why “White Christmas,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Let It Snow,” and Other Classic Christmas Songs Come from the 1940s

Charles Schulz Draws Charlie Brown in 45 Seconds and Exorcises His Demons

The Enduring Appeal of Schulz’s Peanuts — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #116

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2312.19 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3091 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - date - time

- Days ago: MOM = ## days ago & DAD = ## days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.