The Boy Has Arrived (As Have My #BOTB Results)

Rain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Out of Character in California

      El Niño has stormed in with great vigor here in Southern California. Cold, cloudy, and intermittently rainy, the predicted weather phenomena is dumping much needed precipitation on the drought-stricken desert land of SoCal and forecasters are promising more to come. Let's hope this rainfall takes care of some of the water problems and Governor Jerry Brown can shut up about it. Of course like any dutiful politician Governor Moonbeam will continue spouting off about something, be it a bullet train or whatever hokum he rattles about in the months to come.

       The problem with the rain is that now that I'm shaking off my sickness acquired during the holiday break, I'm trying to avoid getting all wet and cold so now I'm waiting for a break in the rain so I can restock our empty pantries after our vacation return. Now that we're home I guess we probably should start eating in again and stop going out for food. I think we need to eat sometimes, but probably don't need to be going to fast food joints or restaurants or wherever.

     

So what else is new?

      Well, we've got that Lost & Found: Valentine's Edition Blog Hop featuring your special stories and thoughts about the subject of love come and gone.  You can click on the preceding link in order to get more info and to sign up.  Or you can click on the badge in my sidebar.  We're getting good participation so far and I think we're going to get some excellent entries.  It happens on February 1st and if you do the Battle of the Bands on that day don't worry:  You can combine the two events with a song expressing the topic--so far a few of us will be doing just that.

     

         On January 15 I'll be joining in the Backstage Blogathon which will also coincide with a Battle of the Bands post. If you're a film buff you will definitely want to check this out. Click the badge in my sidebar for details.

Battle of the Bands!  Battle of the Bands!

        I've already mentioned it twice in this post so I might as well do it again.  After all today is the day when the winner of my most recent Battle is to be announced.   This Battle was a good one to start the new year--"What's New" was the song and the competing artists were Artie Shaw with Helen Forrest on vocals against the Nelson Riddle Orchestra featuring Linda Ronstadt on vocals. 

        The outcome of this Battle actually surprised me.  Since Linda Ronstadt was the more contemporary choice and most likely had the greater name recognition I figured her version to be the shoo-in.  Boy, was I off on that forecast!   

        As for my own vote I really wavered on my favorite as I love both of these versions.   It's hard to beat that big band sound of Artie Shaw to my ears and Helen Forrest does a splendid job with the vocals.  Though some voters found Ronstadt's version to be too slow, boring, and sad, I think she puts a sense of drama depicting a wistful conversational tone to what she is singing which to me is very appropriate for the melancholy sentiment of the song.  Nelson Riddle's orchestral arrangement is lush and dripping with sentimentality.  I really like what they do with the song.

         For me it was a tough choice, but in the end I'm going to go with the majority and choose the multifaceted arrangement of Artie Shaw's big band.  I hear the audience noise in the background of the recording and realize it was done live.  I wish I could go back in time to be there.  Great stuff!

Final Vote Tally

Artie Shaw with Helen Forrest              17 votes

Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle      11 votes

       How's the weather where you are?   Do you usually eat home-cooked meals or take-out?    Were you surprised about the outcome of this Battle?

        Next Battle of the Bands post will appear on January 15th!  Hey, that's next Friday!