Conductor Georg / THU 7-8-21 / Coffee liqueur originally from Jamaica / One of the Big Four domestic carriers once

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging to discover theme, Easy-Medium after that

[Those "AM" squares are actually "AM/FM" squares]

THEME: Two-way RADIO (39A: It can be two-way ... with a hint to four squares in this puzzle) — an "AM/FM" rebus, where "AM" works in the Across and "FM" works in the Down:

Theme answers:

• ALAMODE / OFFMIKE (17A: Fashionable / 3D: Not amplified, in a way)
• TIAMARIA / SELFMADE (21A: Coffee liqueur originally from Jamaica / 10D: Rich, but not born that way)
• MAMMAMIA / HALFMAST (56A: 2001 Broadway hit with an exclamation mark in its name / 43D: Certain flag position)
• YOGAMAT / WOLFMAN (62A: Something to meditate on / 49D: Figure in a horror film)

Word of the Day: ODE Records (6D: Onetime record label with a poetic name) —

Ode Records (also known as Ode Sounds and Visuals) was an American record label, started by Lou Adler in 1967 after he sold Dunhill Records to ABC Records. It was distributed by CBS's Epic Records except between 1970 and 1976, when the label was distributed by A&M Records. The original incarnation was closed in 1978 and CBS took over most of catalog, often with Epic logos replacing Ode logos on reissues.

Adler reactivated the label several times, including another short run with A&M in 1989. It was disbanded when A&M was sold to PolyGram in late 1989.

Ode is now part of Sony Music Entertainment (the successor to CBS), excluding:

• Cheech & Chong catalogue is controlled by Warner Music Group. After Cheech & Chong switched to Warner Bros. Records in 1978, they took also its past catalog to their new home label. Depending on reissue, they can have "Warner Bros. Records Inc.", "Warner Records Inc." or "Ode Records" printed as copyright owner. It is believed that Lou Adler still owns copyrights for its Ode releases.
• Soundtrack to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the London Symphony Orchestra's version of Tommy are still owned by Lou Adler, with reissues distributed under license to third party oldies labels like Rhino, Castle Communications and more recently, The Orchard, another subsidiary of Sony Music. (wikipedia)

• • •

WELL, WELL, that was tedious (except for WELL, WELL, which was easily my favorite answer in the grid). It's a one-note puzzle, where it's hard to find the note (because of unpleasant / deliberately hard cluing around that first rebus square in the NW), but once you find it ... well, that's that, really. You gotta wait on a (very) weak revealer, and then, of course, hunt down those other rebus squares, but they're a lot easier to find now, even if they weren't symmetrical (I prefer asymmetrical rebuses—I just assume that the constructor could get better overall fill results if they didn't artificially restrict themselves to the symmetrical rebus-square formation). AM/FM, AM/FM, AM/FM, AM/FM, toggle toggle toggle toggle, pffft. If the revealer had had some sparkle, or the themers had been particularly original or colorful, maybe this thing would've been able to overcome its essentially monotonous core. But mostly what you get is a very old-fashioned and dull grid overall (both in terms of its lack of any contemporary references, as well as its reliance on STP SSS SERA TREY NNE ERRED OBIE IBET YEA TWA, all the olden short stuff you've known for years). The classical music thing also becomes an annoying hobby horse. I listen to classical music regularly, and none of the answers gave me any trouble, but ugh, stop, we get it, Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn, Bartók, SOLTI, ART SONG, NOTATE, on and on and on. I think it's good when you give your puzzle a bit of your own personality (if that's what's going on here), but there's a point at which that personality starts feeling like a rut. A record skipping, if that metaphor helps. (Admit it: all you rap-haters would lose your collective *minds* if there was as much rap in a puzzle as there is classical music in this one)

Really rough going to start, as 1A: Slip could've been a billion things, so that even after I got BEACON and OAK, I couldn't get a grip up there at all. I wanted OFF-MIKE but it didn't fit (first clue that some trickiness was afoot), but I had CENTS before COINS (20A: Some change), and, because of that, GIFT before BOON (4D: Windfall). No idea about ODE Records (see Word of the Day, above—it's not a particularly distinguished or memorable label, and *again* with the bygone music ... not as bygone as Classical, or RAG, but still a good half century ago in its heyday). After fuddling around a bit more, then realizing I must be dealing with some kind of rebus, I struck oil, but unlike those who strike oil (I assume), I immediately wanted to stop digging, as this rebus was not about to make me happy or rich. A non-blogging me probably would have quit right here:

... though that's probably not true; I would've wanted to *confirm* that the only thing I had to look forward to was a bunch of AM/FM squares (and tepid fill). So maybe I would've quit with the revealer, which told me in no uncertain terms that those squares were gonna go two ways (AM, FM) and only those two ways. Of course actual two-way radio has nothing to do with AM/FM channels, but that's not really important, since two-way is obviously being repurposed in punny, hyper-literal fashion. The problem is the predictable repetition, and the fact that digging up the AM/FM squares doesn't produce any delight (except, I guess, the delight of mere discovery). There's a lot of repetition, from the theme, to the classical music, to the two EN-words (ENFOLD, ENLACE) to the two comparative adjectives (OILIER, VAINER) ... it all felt very same same same.

Having HOT PANTS and OGLE in a puzzle is an ... interesting choice. I was talking to a young woman constructor recently who told me she had actually deleted OGLE from her wordlist, so tired was she of having this creepy, objectifying, often actually threatening act be such a staple of crossword grids. She said she was keeping LEER, but would never clue it as an OGLE synonym (LEER is Spanish for "to read" and I think LEER is also the name of a major truck accessory company ... I feel like I've stared at the word on the backs of pickups a number of times ... yes, truck bed covers, also called TONNEAU covers, why have I never seen *that* word in a grid!?). Anyway, OGLE is a word and LEER is a word, you can't deny that, and if you don't want to see them banished, that's fine, but since OGLE and LEER are both age-old repeaters, it's not like you would be losing much. Your grids might get better if you took the sexual objectification out of your grid. Fight the patriarchy *and* ditch the crosswordese! Two birds, one stone.

I don't think OUTACT is much of a thing (50D: Best in a film audition, say). Roles go to the people who are best suited for them, not necessarily to the person who can act the best. Auditions aren't rap battles or poetry-slams ... I don't think. I struggled to get AVENGER, as I think of Thor as a god, not a comic book character (of course I know he is also that). So, yes, in case you were confused, Thor is an AVENGER (47A: Thor, for one) because he is literally one of the founding members of Marvel Comics' "Avengers" (along with Hulk, Iron-Man, Ant Man and the Wasp). I also struggled to get ANN'S (just never heard of it) (23A: St. ___, neighborhood in north London). Otherwise, the puzzle didn't contain any stumpers, and didn't present much difficulty once I finally got the gimmick sorted and got the hell out of the NW corner. And now its STATUS is "done" and this blog post's STATUS is "done" I can get on with my day. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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