Kirby Scott's WingDing on WDCA Channel 20

WingDing was a Washington D.C. teen dance show that appeared on WDCA Channel 20 during the mid 1960's. After a long day at the local junior high, I'd tune into WingDing which was hosted by a Baltimore AM radio rock jock named Kirby Scott. I guess that WingDing was not that different from hundreds of local tv shows that were broadcasted locally during the 1950's and 1960's. All of them were small scale versions of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. I liked this show because it hosted a lot of local garage bands and sometimes had artists from major labels who would pass through the Washington D.C. area. One very memorable show featured Frank Zappa and the Mother's of Invention who appeared on the show very early in their career to promote the album "Freak Out." Local bands such as The Hangmen and The Fallen Angels were also featured. I guess YouTube is the place for unknown talent to strut their stuff these days, but I miss shows like WingDing which hosted a lot of great regional talent and a couple legendary acts when they were first getting started.

Korg DS 10 turns Nintendo DS into a great synth toy!

Way back in the 1970's my brother got interested in synthesizers. He had a couple Moogs and would spend hours working on Emerson, Lake and Palmer tunes or just making blips and bleeps on his keyboards. Synths looked like great fun to me but they were very expensive. The Korg MS 10 and MS 20 were two synthesizers introduced in the late '70's that could produce a variety of monophonic sounds. The Korg DS is a Nintendo game cartridge that combines two virtual Korg MS 10 synths with a small drum sequencer. The program allows you to create music, store it in patterns and even store the patterns into songs. The cartridge's street price is around $35 and it is the most economical way I know of to get into analogue synth sounds. I enjoy using Korg DS with another Nintendo DS game called Eletroplankton; a DS program that creates all types of ambient sounds. Add a small four track recorder, and you can make your own masterpiece in no time. Great fun! AQ Interactive produces Korg DS 10 and has a nice website that demos some of what this virtual synth can do; http://www.aqi.co.jp/product/ds10/en/index.html

Great Robert Crumb autobio and old time music

When I was a kid I used to lie down in front of the t.v. and draw by the hour. Even though I'll never be a great artist I still enjoy drawing on occasion and like to collect books with interesting drawings and illustrations. Robert Crumb has been one of my favorites since the early '70's. He has a gift at story telling that often includes interesting mixes of the profound and the profane. The "R. Crumb Handbook" is a great autobiography, intro to Crumb's work and an insightful tour of the popular American culture he grew up in. A fantastic bonus that is included with the book is Crumb's music CD. Crumb is an avid 78 collector and his appreciation of American music in the early part of the last century is evident on the CD. There are waltzes, jug band, old time country and a number of other types of music played by Robert Crumb with a variety of other musicians. If you ever wondered about the type of music your relatives might have listened to when radio was just getting started 80 years ago, this may be a good place to start.