Day 2415 - Tom Waits "Nighthawks At The Diner" - 12.31.17

I picked up a few Tom Waits records in Arizona and this one "Nighthawks At The Diner" was one of them.  I gave it a spin this morning.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2414 - Johnny Mandel's Great Jazz Score to "I Want To Live" - 12.30.17

I picked up this score over the holiday.  I really like it.  I did some reading about it and it is considered to be one of the first jazz scores and kicked off a trend in Hollywood of films using jazz scores.  I watched the film this morning and it is a pretty gripping drama.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2413 - Star Trek Pinball Machine - 12.29.17

This evening my wife, daughter and I went to our friends the Harris's holiday party.  They have a Star Trek pinball machine and I played quite a few games.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2412 - Patrick Hazell and The Mother Blues Band - 12.28.17

This is a record I picked up in Arizona.  It is a blues band from Illinois.  It was mixed in Schaumburg, Illinois which is just one town over from where I grew up.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2411 - "Son Of Dracula" Soundtrack - 12.27.17

We drove back from AZ today.  When I got home I took a picture of this album I picked up yesterday.  The actual record is not in great condition.  You can see the water damage and the record definitely needs a deep clean.  However I still decided to buy the record because of the cool packaging.  You can see how the flaps open up like a bat or a Dracula cape.  I actually saw this movie at the New Beverly last year.  It was a goofy movie.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2410 - Thief - 12.26.17

This morning we went to see Coco and we loved the movie.  Afterwards we went shopping at the Santan Village mall and I discovered a new used record store with records for only three bucks.  I was in there for several hours going through all the bins.  They really didn't know that they had some amazing records that are usually very pricey and they had them for just three dollars.  This soundtrack to Thief is one of those records.  I have almost bought this record several times in the past, but didn't want to pay 30-40 dollars.  I got it for three today.  In the end I bought 66 LP's and a handful of 45s.  When I was looking through my stack of records they played The Ewok celebration by Meco.  I had never heard that before and my daughter and I flipped out.  We asked what it was they had played and the guy held up the 45 and I said I wanted to buy it.  The owner who had been chatting with me said we could have it and 3 more 45s for free.  So while I continued to weed through the records I picked out my wife looked through the 45s for 3 more records.  In the end we picked up 4 free records and I bought 6 more.  50 cents a piece.  Then as we were leaving another clerk said I could take any Christmas records I wanted from a stack of Christmas records.  I picked out 4 that interested me.   Then this evening we went and saw The Greatest Showman.  What a great day. This soundtrack is something I saw today.

Day 2409 - Dad - 12.25.17

This is my father on Christmas morning reading the paper.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2408 - Christmas Eve Christmas Cookies - 12.24.17

These are the cookies we had out for Christmas eve.  My daughter put together these trays.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2407 - Basket of Dove Chocolates - 12.23.17

My mother loves chocolate and she really loves Dove chocolate.  She has the candies all over her house.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2406 - Coachella Travel Center - 12.22.17

Today we traveled to Gilbert.  We stopped in Coachella for gas and snacks.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2405 - Star Wars Pez - 12.21.17

Last night we did a gift exchange with my son and his girlfriend since we are leaving town and they have to stay in town for Christmas.  My son gave me this Pez gift.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2404 - 'Twas The Night Before Christmas" Soundtrack - 12.20.17

This is the soundtrack to a lesser known Rankin/Bass Christmas special.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2403 - Nativity - 12.19.17

This is our Nativity set up this year.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2402 - Joe Cocker "Joe Cocker!" - 12.18.17

This past weekend I actually was able to spin some records for about an hour before heading to a Chanukah party.  I was mostly playing classic rock and I played "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" from this record.  This whole album is great from start to finish.   This is something I saw today.

Day 2401 - Esquerita "Vintage Voola" - 12.17.17

I heard someone mention Esquerita on a podcast recently.  So when I was looking for a photo today and I saw this record on the shelf I decided it was worthy of a photo.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2400 - Hozier - 12.16.17

This is an album I bought on CD back when it came out.  Since then I had sort of wished that I had it on vinyl, but I never could pull the trigger on buying the album again on wax.  However when i saw this for 6.94 at Fry's a few weeks ago, I could not pass it up.  The price was too good.  The funny thing is that this came with the CD as well, so now I have two copies of the album on CD and this vinyl copy.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2399 - Tomita "Firebird" - 12.15.17

This is yet another record that I picked up over Thanksgiving.  I still have to slip this onto the record player.  This is a record I need to be in the right mood for and I haven't been in the right mood yet.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2398 - Kajagoogoo - 12.14.17

This is the first Kajagoogoo that has "Too Shy" on it.  It is the only song I really know by the band.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2397 - Nutcracker Poster - 12.12.17

This was the poster for Nutcracker this year and it features all my photos which I think was pretty cool.  Since this is also our last year doing the show, I asked to have a copy of the poster.  I need to get a frame for this.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2396 - Downtown LA Buildings - 12.12.17

This is a shot of some buildings in downtown LA this morning as I was driving to work.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2395 - Isaac Hayes Live At The Sahara Tahoe - 12.11.17

This album captures Isaac Hayes' live show at the height of his powers.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2394 - Billy Squier "Signs Of Life" - 12.10.17

This is the Billy Squier record that did him in.  It contains the single "Rock Me Tonight" which had one of the worst videos of Billy Squier prancing around a room.  I have heard it said that this video killed his career.  I don't know if that is true or not.  I remember that video, but I don't remember thinking it was bad at the time.  I think that music tastes just changed.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2393 - Cubs Hat - 12.09.17

This is my Cubs hat perched on top of several other hats.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2392 - The J. Geils Band "Sanctuary" - 12.08.17

Sanctuary is a recent addition to my J. Geils collection.  When I was  kid, I of course had Freeze Frame and Showtime.  Showtime was a live album that covered a bunch of their catalog and was a great album.  However it wasn't until many years later when collecting records that I discovered that they had some great records before the breakthrough mega hit that was Freeze Frame.  This is a record I almost bought before, but in the end the seller was asking too much money.  Over thanks giving I found it for three bucks, a price I could live with.  I picked this up with another J. Geils record. This is something I saw today.

Day 2391 - The B-52's "Whammy!" - 12.07.17

As much as I love The B-52's, there are gaps in my B-52's catalog.  "Whammy!" is no longer a whole in my collection.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2390 - Thompson Twins "Lay Your Hands On Me" - 12.06.17

Yet another recent purchase.  This is a great Thompson Twins track.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2389 - Bryan Adams "Cuts Like A Knife" - 12.05.17

I found this record in Arizona at Thanksgiving.  This is an album I had as a kid on cassette.  A couple months ago I woke up one morning with "Cuts Like A Knife" in my head and I was extremely disappointed when I went to the record shelf and discovered that I did not own this record on vinyl.  That wrong has now been corrected. This is something I saw today.

Day 2388 - Roses - 12.04.17

This is the latest bouquet of flowers in our dinning room.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2387 - Dew Drop Costume History - 12.03.17

This is the bodice for my daughter's Dew Drop costume this year.  Her name now joins her friends who previously wore the costume the last couple years.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2386 - Nutcracker - 12.02.17

I took this photo of this nutcracker for my Christmas music mix this year.  You can check it out here.  This is something I saw today.

Day 2385 - Virgil's Cream Soda - 12.01.17

I think this drink was my son's.  I am not sure.  Whatever the story is, it was on my coffee table this morning.  This is something I saw today.