down with love

I had fun doing the Down With Love show this afternoon. Played lots of funny songs, many of which I'd never played on the air before, and also dropped in a bunch of Groucho Marx clips. I even got a request, but it was for a new song so I didn't go find it.

The show got a little hectic. The perennial equipment problems continued: CD3 only plays about one in four of the CDs you put in it, the rest of the time it jams. And CD2 started doing it too. at one point I only had 1 functioning CD player, with CDs stuck in the other two -- kind of makes it hard to cue up the next track! Plus the Groucho clips were all very short. The longest was about 30 seconds and the shortest was 8 seconds. Whenever I played a Groucho clip, I really needed all three CD players: one for the current song, one for the Groucho clip, one for the song after the Groucho clip. And Ross was setting up for a band which meant lots going on up there, equipment everywhere, not much room for my stuff, etc. It just made it a little more exciting.

I did get to play some of my favorite Groucho jokes, including one of my very favorites:

Groucho: Where is your husband?
Margaret Dumont: Why, he's dead.
G: I bet he's just using that as an excuse.
M: I was with him until the very end.
G: No wonder he passed away.
M: I held him in my arms, and kissed him.
G: Oh, so it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.
M: He left me his entire fortune.
G: Is that so? Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you? I love you!

I'm thinking about possibly doing a special show for Oscar night, haven't made up my mind yet. I think that's three weeks from now. Then the next theme show is Ella Fitzgerald's birthday in late April. Coincidentally, Georg just gave me a new Ella box set that looks fantastic! Called Twelve Nights in Hollywood, it's a series of small club performances she did in the early 60s. The liner notes say that everything on it is previously unreleased. These are the only live Ella recordings of several of the songs, and the only recordings at all of a couple of them. How exciting!