Albums I Want To Be Buried With: The Best of Ollie Joe Prater, “Triple Trouble”

Maybe it was a month or so ago; I was on my way home on the New York State Thruway, and I chose to stop at a truck stop near Fonda.  The plan was simple – fill Cardachrome up with unleaded, get a couple of diet colas and some snacks at the convenience store, and…

Read More

First you take my Kodachrome… now you gonna take my Ektachrome??

Well, I guess I should have expected this to happen… I just wish it didn’t happen so soon. Kodak has announced that as of March 1, 2012, they will no longer manufacture their slide film Ektachrome.  Their last three slide film products – Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100G film, Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100VS film, and Kodak…

Read More

K-Chuck Radio: The Evolution of an Apache

No, this is not a dissertation on the lives of Native Americans.  It’s about a song – written in the early 1960’s – that eventually became a hip hop national anthem. Let me explain. In 1961, Swedish guitarist and instrumentalist Jorgen Ingmann recorded a song called “Apache,” which contains various stereotypical Native American motifs.  You…

Read More

Remembering “The Electric Company.” HEY YOU GUY-Y-Y-Y-YS!!!

At one point in time, it was the most popular weekday children’s TV show, right up there with Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  Like Sesame Street, it was a production of the Children’s Television Workshop, an entity that used television programming to teach children without the kids realizing they were being taught. Yep, it’s…

Read More

Results of the 2012 Parsons Corporate Trivia Challenge

First off, let me start by saying what an amazing and well-run event the Parsons Corporate Trivia Challenge was.  When I arrived at Jillian’s for the event, there was a staff of Parsons volunteers ready to answer all my questions as to where to sit, where to eat, and where to get the 50/50 raffle…

Read More

St. Agnes Cemetery announces 5th Annual Photography Contest

It’s time to take your camera, drive out to Menands, and capture the stunning beauty and reverence of one of the Capital District’s oldest burial grounds. And in doing so, you might also win a prize. For the fifth consecutive year, the people who operate St. Agnes Cemetery are asking you to bring your camera…

Read More

Toll Gate Ice Cream: Thank you, Robert Zautner.

I still remember, as clear as day, during the time when I spent a few childhood years in Slingerlands, when my grandfather would take me to the post office at the intersection of Kenwood Avenue and New Scotland Road. He would pick up the family mail and postcards, and if I had been a good…

Read More

K-Chuck Radio: I need to go up on the roof… wanna join me?

It’s a beautiful song.  It’s privacy and meditation in the pop music world.  And there are so many different interpretations of the Gerry Goffin/Carole King ballad, that everybody can pick a favorite. And on this edition of K-Chuck Radio, I want you to pick your favorite version of this song.  I’ve listed five below –…

Read More

The man’s name is Jaleel White.

Okay, around this time of year all the Dancing With the Stars fans go wild over who might claim the legendary mirrorball trophy.  Okay, it’s not that legendary a trophy – except when Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers won it. The reports by the media of this year’s cast noted that the “stars” of…

Read More

If I were to drop some channels from Time Warner Cable… I’d drop these.

As we continue on with the Time Warner Cable / WTEN ABC-10 impasse, I kept thinking about how many channels I currently receive from my Time Warner Cable account – and how many I actively watch, and how many channels just aren’t necessary any more. Now granted, I can’t get any à la carte cable…

Read More