Googling Googie

Maybe it had something to do with the hour I spent at Vromans on Friday, while a gaggle of rowdy women impatiently waited for Suze Orman to arrive, flipping through Alan Hess's Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture, which features Covina's own Covina Bowl, but I've been on a retro kick all weekend.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon downloading songs from the 80s using the iTunes card Liza gave me for my birthday. As it turned out, there were only five songs I really wanted: "Voices Carry," "Total Eclipse of the Heart," "Somebody to Love," "Shoop," and "Wishing Well." After that I went back further and downloaded a few girl group songs from the 1960s.

Growing up I went through a phase that lasted a few months when all I listened to was KRTH. I'm not a big Beatles fan but soul music--Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations--did it for me. It all started when I saw The Commitments and grew from there. After a while, though, more contemporary music started seeping in again but I still listen to oldies every now and then. Lately, though, not so much.

So listening to the stuff I downloaded this weekend just brings back memories of lying in the dark trying to fall asleep while the radio played the Ronettes. I used to wish I lived through the 1950s and 1960s. Everything just seemed so peaceful back then. I can't say I still feel that way, but the music resonates still. Is there no better song than "Then He Kissed Me"? Everytime I hear it I think I'm in love. I can't think of a recent song that makes me feel the same way. Perhaps "Walking on Sunshine" comes closest, but that song was twenty years ago and feeds off the same blissed out vibe as "Then He Kissed Me." The Shins' "Turn On Me" sounds like "Then He Kissed Me" in the first couple of chords and it's also quite an effective song, albeit about falling out of love.

Anyway, I'm rambling. It was nice to listen to "clean and articulate" music. I ought to listen to oldies more to cleanse the palate.

The Downloads (Spector-centric, to be sure)
The Crystals - "Then He Kissed Me"
The Crystals - "He's a Rebel"
The Dixie Cups - "Iko Iko"
The Dixie Cups - "Chapel of Love"
Betty Everett - "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)"
Dee Dee Warwick - "You're No Good"
Mary Wells - "Bye Bye Baby"
The Shirelles - "Dedicated to the One I Love"

Stardust Memories

Growing up my family's favorite vacation haunt was Las Vegas. Or, rather, it was my Dad's favorite. I can recall one time when we went to Las Vegas three times in one month. I honed my driving skills during those long drives.

At first we stayed at the Sands Hotel, but eventually my Dad developed a fondness for the Stardust. He claimed he had great luck there, but I'm sure it didn't hurt that he was comped generously also with free rooms and meals. We got to know the Stardust very well.

Now, though, it's gone. I wasn't aware that it had been shut down--it has been a few years since I've been there--until I saw the footage of its demolition on the news last night.

All those trips to Las Vegas in my youth pretty much ruined the Vegas experience for me and I never really have the urge to go there. I'm not a gambler, thankfully, and even as a kid I never enjoyed Las Vegas. Still, the Stardust played a part in my youth and I'm saddened to see it go. It had become a familiar and somewhat comforting destination for us. Now there's nothing left and I can't make an argument for keeping any part of it. It had history--the Rat Pack, Siegfried & Roy, Casino--even if its buildings weren't architecturally interesting. They should have at least preserved its neon sign, which to me was as much a symbol of Las Vegas as the actual Vegas sign.

The last time I was in Las Vegas I was surprised to realize how little of it I recognized. New casinos had popped up with more attractions within them but they lack a certain lurid appeal that the Las Vegas I first visited in the late 1980s exuded. Soon after that first visit Vegas began changing.

With the Sands and now the Stardust gone my Dad may have to resort to paying for his rooms for now on.