September 8, 2026

Miracle Of Sound ~ Valhalla Calling


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The heavy metal music by Miracle Of Sound, is actually produced by one man, Gavin Dunne who also works with other musicians on occasions. I know, you're probably saying to yourself, "Heavy Metal! Yech!" But there is a song from the Level Seven album in which he collaborated with Peyton Parrish that is an absolute knock-out!            
      
Valhalla Calling is VERY slow and ponderous and moves with the speed of a massive glacier on steroids. To me it has the feeling of what it might have been like to have been a seafaring viking that loved the life of a wandering, pillaging warrior at the height of the age of the Vikings which had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Northern and Eastern Europe.      

The feeling of absolute freedom and power he must have felt as the wind and rain blew his hair to and fro. It is like nothing I've ever heard before!   

 Valhalla Calling 


(Verse 1)

Ships on vigor of the waves are skimming

Barren summits to the verdant plains

Each horizon is a new beginning

Rise and reign

Far from the fjords and the ice cold currents

Ravens soar over new frontiers

Songs and sagas of a fate determined

Shields and spears

Vows of favor or the thrill of plunder

Pull together for the clan and kin

Clank of hammers and the crash of thunder

Pound within


(Chorus)

Oh-ho-oh

The echoes of eternity

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Oh-ho-oh

To pluck the strings of destiny

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Valhalla calling me


(Verse 2)

Sails a' swaying on the crimson rivers

Blood and glory in the fighting fields

Shields a' shattered into splintered timbers

Iron and steel

Fires are rising and the bells are ringing

Glory take us into Odin's halls

Golden glimmer and the sound of singing

Asgard's call


(Chorus)

Oh-ho-oh

The echoes of eternity

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Oh-ho-oh

To pluck the strings of destiny

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Valhalla calling me


(Bridge)

Wind and the waves will carry me

Wind and the waves will set me free

Wind and the waves will carry me

Wind and the waves will set me free


(Chorus)

Oh-ho-oh

The echoes of eternity

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Oh-ho-oh

To pluck the strings of destiny

Oh-ho-oh

Valhalla calling me

Valhalla calling me


Viewfinder links:

Gavin Dunne      
Miracle Of Sound       
Peyton Parrish      
     
YouTube::

Valhalla Calling (Official Version)     
Valhalla Calling (Original Video)     












         
         
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, September 9, 2026         
         













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Norman Ernest Brokenshire: "Sir Silken Speech"

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photographer unknown
 
 
Norman Ernest Brokenshire was born on June 10, 1898. His broadcasting career began in 1924 at WJZ, where he immediately attracted attention. The New York Herald Tribune asked, "Who is this new AON? He speaks with perfect enunciation and exceptional modulation." (I read somewhere that Sidney Poitier patterned his speach after him) That same year, he became the first announcer to cover a political convention when he worked the Democrats' meeting in New York. In the summer of 1927, Brokenshire had his own program, A Half Hour with Norman Brokenshire on WPG. By 1929, he was an announcer for CBS.  
 
He was known for his folksy greeting, "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, how do you do." By 1947, he was earning $50,000 annually. That's a TON of money in those days!  
 
Old-time radio programs for which Brokenshire was the announcer included The Chesterfield Hour, Chesterfield Cigarettes Presents "Music That Satisfies" (also known as Chesterfield Time), Eddie Cantor's Follies, Inner Sanctum Mystery, and Major Bowes Amateur Hour (links below).        
 
Brokenshire also spoke on Radio Moscow, the official international broadcasting station of the USSR, as a supporter of Communism. He appeared a total of 8 times on January 1st, 1961.                
 
He became an announcer for television in the 1950s and had his own ABC series, The Better Home Show, (1951–52) offering instruction in home crafts and renovation. He also hosted the syndicated series Handy Man in 1952.         
 
Norman Ernest Brokenshire died of a stroke on May 4, 1965.         
      
      
         
         
Viewfinder links:        
        
Norman Ernest Brokenshire         
        
        
         
        
Net links:        
        
         
        
        
         
        
        
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Styrous® - Wednesday, September 9, 2026       
      
       
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Norman Ernest Brokenshire articles/mentions

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date & photographer unknown 
      
      
      
      
      
      
mentions:      
       
      
       
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Peyton Parrish articles/mentions

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Peyton Parrish      
self-portrait      
      
      

      
mentions:      
   
Miracle Of Sound ~ Valhalla Calling            
      
      
      
      
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Gavin Dunne articles/mentions

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Gavin Dunne      
date & photographer unknown      
      
      

      
mentions:      
   
Miracle Of Sound ~ Valhalla Calling      
      
      
      
      
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Miracle of Sound articles/mentions

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Styrous® ~ Thursday, September 9, 2026         
         














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September 3, 2026

Pete Latzo aka Joe Palooka

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Last month was the birthday of Welterweight Pete Latzo, aka, "Young Clancy”, who was born on August 1, 1902, in Colerain, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, near the heart of the coal-mining county.        

He spent some of his early years mining, and working as a "breaker boy" whose primary job was to pick slate and other impurities from anthracite coal.               
          
          
        
 
Cartoonist Ham Fisher met Latzo outside a pool hall and, impressed by his personality and sportsmanship, was inspired to create his popular character Joe Palooka.    

In 1920, Fisher put together a sample package of Joe Palooka (then titled Joe the Dumbbell) but was unable to attract interest. By 1927, he was working as a traveling strip salesman for the McNaught Syndicate. However, Fisher also hawked his own unpublished, unsold strip.

In 1928, after he secured over 20 sales, including to New York's Daily Mirror, Fisher informed his managers at McNaught, who decided to give Joe Palooka a trial run. The comic strip soon became a national success.        

 
   Ham Fisher ~ Joe Palooka 
 
 
In the 1930s the strip appeared in more than 600 newspapers, had a readership around 50 million, and inspired several movies.      
 
The strip helped to solidify the word "palooka" as a boxer who lacks grace or ability, although the character Joe Palooka was the heavyweight champion. A dozen low-budget film adaptations of Joe Palooka appeared from the 1930s into the 1950s. Comic books featuring Joe Palooka began in 1933 and continued through the 1950s.     
 
 
 
Originally the term welterweight was used only in boxing, but other combat sports also use it for their own weight division system to classify the opponents. If used, welterweight is typically between lightweight and middleweight. The first known instance of the term is from 1831, meaning 'heavyweight horseman', later 'boxer or wrestler of a certain weight' by 1896. This sense comes from earlier welter, 'heavyweight horseman or boxer' from 1804, possibly from c. 15th century welt, meaning 'to beat severely'. A professional welterweight boxer's weight is greater than 140 pounds, and no more than 147 pounds (about 63.5–66.7 kg).     
 
Latzo defeated Larry Johnson in a close ten round points decision before 12,000 at Madison Square Garden on February 21, 1930. He was defeated by future world heavyweight champion Jim Braddock before a crowd of 4,000, on October 17, 1928, at New Jersey's Newark Armory in a ten-round points decision. 
 
Latzo fought Jimmy Slattery, former world light heavyweight champion, in a seven-round No Contest on May 27, 1930, at Boston Garden. The purses of both boxers were withheld and they were ordered to leave the ring by the referee when it appeared they were exerting too little effort to merit continuing. 
 
In one of his last bouts on June 5, 1934, Latzo lost to Pennsylvania's state middleweight champion Teddy Yarosz in a fourth-round technical knockout in Millvale.       
Latzo left Scranton to reside in Marven Gardens, a suburb of Atlantic City, in Margate City, New Jersey, near the end of his boxing career around 1928. He died at the age of sixty-six in Atlantic City Hospital after gall bladder surgery in July 1968, having suffered from gall bladder ailments since his boxing retirement. His gall bladder issues may well have been a result of his boxing history as he was frequently the victim of brutal body blows to the stomach and both sides of his abdomen. He had had major surgery of some form in 1937 when he first retired from boxing, and a boxing benefit was held for him in December of that year. His funeral was held at Scranton, Pennsylvania's Holy Rosary Church on July 11, and he was buried in the city's Cathedral Cemetery, where his wife Catherine was laid to rest two years later.
 
 
 
 
 
 
            
Viewfinder links:         
         
James J. Braddock        
Ham Fisher        
Pete Latzo        
        
        
        
        
       
        
        
        
        
        
        
         
         
        
        
        
        
        
        
         
Styrous® ~ Thursday, September 3, 2026
       
          
         
         
         
         
         
         
          
         
          
 
 
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The Orchard / Galleries on 25 ~ Art of the African Diaspora


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The first group exhibition at the Galleries on 25 (link below) had a remarkable number of attendees as well as favorable online reviews (links below).  
 
In conjunction with the Gray Loft Gallery, the Galleries on 25 is preparing for it's second round of amazing visual, sculptural and installation artists with the following announcement:    
 
 
You are cordially invited to the 
Opening Reception of THREE Exhibitions
at The Orchard / Galleries on 25
Saturday, February 28, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

The Orchard / Galleries on 25  and Gray Loft Gallery
are pleased to present three exhibitions:
  • The Orchard is honored to present a solo retrospective of the 50-year international career of Bella Feldman.  Bella Tabak Feldman (1930–2024) was an American sculptor and installation artist whose work merged steel, glass, and wood into psychologically charged, often surreal forms that probe themes of war, sexuality, vulnerability, and the anxieties of the industrial age. A pioneering woman in sculpture and a Professor Emerita at California College of the Arts in Oakland, she is widely recognized for innovating techniques that combine blown glass with fabricated metal, producing works that are at once physically imposing and emotionally fragile.
     
  • We present nationally recognized metal sculptor Joseph Slusky  with a selection of recent and past work. He is best known for his whimsical painted metal sculptures made from recycled scrap metal. Influences include metal toys, LA car culture, Constructivism and other twentieth century art movements. The sculptures explore realms of the subconscious and are fossilizations of the imagination. Joe taught drawing and three-dimensional design at the UC Berkeley Architecture Department for thirty-two years.        
  • Curated by Gray Loft Gallery, we are delighted to present a satellite exhibition of the Art of the African Diaspora at the Richmond Art Center which is the longest running event of its kind in the Bay Area. It began in 1989 as a salon for African American artists known as Colors of Black, organized by artist and professor Marie Johnson Calloway.  This exhibition features 19 artists selected from the Richmond Art Center AOTAD roster, all of whom live and work in the Bay Area.  

  • Featured Artists:
    Cynthia Brannvall, Stephen Bruce, Kim Champion, Cairo McCockran, Kelvin Curry, Anna W. Edwards, Jimi Evins, Eva Facey, Kin Folkz, Chuck Harlins, Raymond L. Haywood, Alexis Joseph,  Gathoni Kamau-Devers, Ashlie Kego, Eric Murphy, Arthur Norcome, Malcolm Ryder, Xan Walker, Darrin Westmore
 
Show dates:  February 28 through May 2, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 28, 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, May 2, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

The Orchard /Galleries on 25
489 - 25th Street, Oakland CA  94612
      
 
 
installation photos by Styrous®  
 
 



Arthur Norcome 
 
 
 
 
 
Jimi Evins  
 











 

 
 
 
 
      
 
 
 

     
     
     
      
mentions:       
 
         






        
Gray Loft Gallery        
                
                          
     
Net links:       
        
        
           
Gray Loft Gallery         
        
        
        
        
 
 
        
        
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, March 17, 2026         
        














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