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Rock Schlock and Barrel

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When I was young, we didn’t have a working radio. As a result I didn’t have any fave rock groups as I was growing up. By the time I was introduced to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Doors, I was well into my twenties.

Even then, I never really liked the whole rock ethos, that whole thing where gaunt hippies pranced onstage while wielding electric guitars. Moreover, I never liked electric guitars. So, in effect, there never was a time when I could say that so and so was the music of my youth. I never had much music of any kind in my youth.

Then, when I was in my thirties, I discovered classical music right around the same time the compact disk (CD) came into being. A few years later, I finally learned to drive at the age of forty and discovered the classical music stations KFAC-FM and KUSC-FM. KFAC switched to Pop Music in 1989; so all I ever listen to on the radio today is KUSC.

Come to think of it, I never listen to Pop Music either. I have never yet heard any Taylor Swift songs. What floats my boat is Mahler, Sibelius, Bruckner, Dvorak, and Wagner.

I guess that makes me rather atypical for my generation. My cohort is busy listening on PBS to Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. Fortunately, I’m okay with that.

What, No Tarzan Yell?!

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Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper and Carol Burnett as Her Daughter Eunice

Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper and Carol Burnett as Her Daughter Eunice

As you have heard me say on a number of occasions, I do not watch television—but I used to. That was back when the audience was less fragmented and less monopolized by navel-gazing “indies.” And, as the siege of furnace-level heat continues in Southern California, Martine and I decided to pay a visit to the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.

The last time we were there, about four or five years ago, it was call the Museum of Television and Radio. A lot has changed since then. For one thing, it is much easier to use the library. Instead of just calling for videotapes to be mounted by some operator in the basement, some 40% of the content is now digitized and can be accessed by an interface similar to YouTube.

While Martine sat at one console watching the old Lassie show, I was watching 1970s comedy in the form of the Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live. From the same console, it is also possible to call up old radio programs.

We enjoyed our visit so much that I signed Martine and I up as members, which gives us additional privileges.

If you perchance find yourself in Beverly Hills, the Paley Center is worth a visit—particularly if you enjoy old television and radio. An extra bonus: It’s located on the same 400-block of North Beverly Drive as Nate ’n Al’s, a Jewish deli that is as old as I am (Pleistocene Era) that has managed to maintain a high level of quality.