Scott Sherley Of "Stardust Memories" Gets More Press

The host of "Stardust Memories" received a nice write up in a column from Rick Chatenever in The Maui News on January 10th, 2008. Scott Sherley was also the host of "Sentimental Journey" heard on KMVI and KPMW in addition to "What Were They Thinking?" heard daily on "The Time Machine".


MAKING THE SCENE: New year’s resolution
By RICK CHATENEVER, Maui Scene Editor

Ordinarily I don’t put much faith in signs. I didn’t think breaking a mirror last week was portentous, even if the week marked a birthday – the one that qualifies me for entry-level Social Security.

With that in mind, I tried to take it in stride when the woman at the recycling center called me “Pops.” Nope, no sign there.

But the beginning of a new year is a marker, an occasion for wistful memories and resolutions to try to get it right next time. And so, as I tediously dismantled the Christmas tree Sunday morning, Scott Sherley’s “Stardust Memories” on Mana’o Radio seemed rife with significance.

Normally Scott’s ’40s and’50s song list isn’t my favorite, although the “Memories” ring true. This was, after all, the music playing during my childhood, before my generation created rock ’n’ roll.

But Sunday, entangled in strings of lights while gingerly picking through fragile ornaments, I was a captive audience for this music of our parents, aka “the greatest generation.”

Maybe it’s a mark of my new, uh, maturity, but the big band blare and the cutesy lyrics didn’t sound so rinky-dink anymore. In fact, these geriatric hit parade relics started sounding almost visionary, like little glimpses of New Age awareness, well before their time.

“You’ve gotta accentuate the positive,” sang Bing Crosby. “Eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with Mr. In Between.”

Whoa, I thought. It was like having a personal Unity Church service, right in the living room.

“Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think,” came a few songs later. And then Rosemary Clooney, George’s aunt, singing, “When I’m tired and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings, instead of sheep?”

Or how about, “Got no mansion, got no yacht, still I’m happy with what I’ve got. I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.”

Wasn’t that what His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, was talking about when he visited Maui last year? Except it was the sun in the afternoon, baking his lessons about where to find happiness into the crowds filling War Memorial Stadium.

Maybe the older-but-wiser thing was beginning to kick in. It somewhat made up for other byproducts of aging. Some equipment is working way better than expected, but other parts seem to be heading south for vacation.

Like the memory. Is anybody else spending more time trying to remember just why you walked into this room in the first place? (Raise your hand if you know what I’m talking about.)

But now those simple lyrics that buoyed our parents in the years following World War II seemed to be talking to me, and maybe the crowds hanging on the Dalai Lama’s words, too.

Somewhere in time, those sentiments got lost. They got filed away under the heading of old-fashioned. Or corny.

I realized something to that effect a few weeks ago while compiling my list of last year’s Top 10 movies. There were great performances, inspired writing, brilliant directing, true – but what was missing was a sense of hope.

Take away the violence, the tragedy and the cynicism, and you’d have trouble making a list of 10 movies last year, much less 10 best. Throw in the media’s obsession with stars behaving badly – or the obsession with stars behaving at all, that makes all those millions they make seem a cheap price for their privacy. So much for role models.

This week, the writers’ strike is being blamed for the cancelation of the Golden Globes Awards that had been scheduled for Sunday. In recent years, the Globes festivities, with Jack Nicholson always in high-profile attendance, have felt like a fun kickoff to Oscar season. In a ballroom rather than an auditorium with plenty of alcohol for lubrication, it’s always a party, and a blast.

Not this year. The striking writers can take the blame, but it’s more like who cares? The writers are fighting, with the blessings of lots of stars, for a portion of Internet royalties. New technology keeps changing the equation of who gets what portion of the pie ? a convenient distraction from noticing what the pie tastes like anymore.

“The Best Things in Life Are Free” is another of those songs that shows up periodically on Scott Shirley’s show.

But being free doesn’t mean you don’t have to work hard on remembering what those best things are.

Sounds like a good thing to try to do in 2008.




Scott Sherley's "Stardust Memories" can be heard every Sunday from 10AM to 2PM in Hawaii on the FM dial and online at http://www.manaoradio.com except when Scott feels the need to hang out at Disneyland or DisneyWorld which means that either Kathy Collins or Michael McCartney spin those wonderful songs from The Hit Parade and Big Band Era. Scott can also be found at http://www.sherleyhawaii.com.