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I love reading comments on my blog. I really do. Heck, I just posted a huge pop culture quiz for folks to comment on. And then a daily barrage of comments from some apparent anime blog from Thailand have been hitting my inbox the last week. I have been moderating all comments, but after this barrage of insidious spam garbage I've pulled the plug. I may still post stuff here, but comments are done. I don't have time to be deleting or marking comments as spam all day. I have a real life and real job you know. If you really need me or wish to comment you can go to the trouble of hitting my profile. It has my contact info. But it is to an account that I rarely check, unlike where the comments were going. So sorry. Blame anime from Thailand.

Gigantic Pop Culture Quiz - Answer In Comments If You Like

1. On what television show might you hear "I thought we were using phrasing”?
2. What body of water is mentioned at the end of a half hour sitcom episode titled"Abyssinia Henry?"
3. 721 North Gilbert or 963 North Gilbert - what family lived at this address?
4. What is the "Running of the Bulls" in Cicely, Alaska?
5. Happy Days was a spin-off from what show? What shows were then spun-off from Happy Days?  Include all of them. Bonus if you then name the spin-offs of the spin-offs.
6. An easy one: what is Boomhauer's profession?
7. Annie, Britta, Jeff, Abed, Troy, Pierce, & Shirley attend what school?
8. What television movie was shot in Nashville starring Tom Selleck?
9. Who never wants to miss an episode of Sheriff Lobo?
10. Another easy one: Syd Straw, Michael Stipe, & Luscious Jackson were all guest stars on what show? What group did both Syd and Michael lend their pipes to?
11. What was Cooter's last name on The Dukes Of Hazzard?
12. What television network can trace its roots back to a local show named Bananas?
13. Billy Corgan, Leaving James, and Kurt Cobain - name one thing they have in common besides being musicians.
14. What Led Zeppelin song was also the title of a cable TV show?
15. What town is April Wine and Sloan from?
16. This hard rock singer quit music and became an exterminator before passing away in 2003.
17. Name 2 musicians that were influenced by Alice Bailey.
18. What song name drops John F. Kennedy and the Beatles?
19. What was NWOBHM band Saxon's original name?
20. Black Flag has had many lead singers over the year’s record songs. Name all of them including any pseudonyms.
21. What color hair and eyes does Jolene have?
22. An easy one: Name 5 Paisley Underground bands and 4 Austin "New Sincerity" artists.
23. What was the name of the band that David Lee Roth left to join Mammoth - later Van Halen?
24. What city in Texas "ain't feeling no pain?"
25. JVC Force hails from which NYC borough?
26. What do Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, King Kobra, Mother's Army, & Rated X have in common?
27. Who composed "My Gorilla Is My Butler?"
28. Crystal Gayle is to Loretta Lynn as La Costa is to _____ ______?
29. Before Billy Squier hit it big with "Don't Say No" he played in a Boston area avante garde band that almost cut an album for Elecktra before disbanding. What was the name of this band. Hint: it sure as heck isn't Piper.
30. What is Waylon Jennings's nickname(s)?
31. What jazz musician took his name from an Egyptian God? What is this musician's real name?
32. What are the birth names of Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, & Paul Stanley?
33. What radio station started the "Paul Is Dead" rumour?
34. What store in Memphis sold Elvis his suits in the Fifties?
35. Tom Peterson in Cheap Trick played what instrument(s)?
36. Groove Is In The Heart by Dee-Lite is based upon a jazz tune. Name the tune and it's originator.
37. An easy one: Y & T stands for ________________? What is the name of their metal mascot?
38. What's Chuck D's real name? What college was he a deejay at when he started Public Enemy?
39. Who gave up their seats on the flight that crashed and killed Buddy Holly and everyone else on the flight? Who did each man give their seat up for?
40. Pretty sure a band got their name from a poem called "After Anacreon." Who wrote the poem? What's the name of the band?
41. What was the first album Eddie Van Halen guested on?
42. Name every film that used "Shermer, Illinois" as its setting.
43. Carl, Richie, Cory, Mark, Claude, & Johnny all live where?
44. Dallas teenage vigilante group the Legion Of Doom inspired 2 Eighties films (1 was released to theaters and 1 was a television movie.) Name them.
45. What kind of car did W.W. drive in the film W.W. and The Dixie Dance Hall Kings? Bonus: what blues artist also appears in the film?
46. What was the calendar date that the Breakfast Club served detention?
47. What is the name of the first non-musician punk interviewed in the film Decline And Fall Of Western Civilization?
48. What is the name of the Italian cycling team in Breaking Away?
49. Amanda Wurlitzer loses an arcade game to this person and then has to go to a rock concert with them. Name the other character and the band they will see. Bonus: what is the arcade game they play?
50. The original Planet Of The Apes series is an endless loop. What is the name given to this loop? Bonus: What section of Los Angeles was used as the setting for Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes?
51. An easy one: The Bride Wore Black is homage to the style of which famous director? Bonus: Who directed The Bride Wore Black?
52. Another easy one: Name the song playing as Wooderson entered the Emporium in the film Dazed And Confused. Bonus: Who is on his t-shirt?
53. How much money was buried under a "Big W?"
54. What is the name of the movie that is being shot in Hooper?
55. There is a "Star Wars" Easter egg in "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind." What is it?
56. What crime did Randy Quaid's seaman character commit in The Last Detail?
57. Where was Dill from in the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird? What aunt did he stay with?
58. An easy one: W.C. Fields played a Dickens character in David Copperfield. Who was this character?
59. What is the final Halloween mask worn by the killer in the movie Terror Train?
60. Where does Audrey attend Christmas services in the Stillman film Metropolitan? Hint: we know it's a church, but which church?
61. Dropping 20's. Widow business. What movie are those references from?
62. Director Carol Reed followed up Oliver! with what film? Who was the star?
63. What kind of cookie did Proust consume that caused a flood of memories?
64. What kind of work did Harriet The Spy's father do? Bonus: where was Harriet’s family’s summer home located?
65. "There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of" what?
66. What are the names of Matt Groenig's sons that he featured in Life Is Hell?
67. Vivian Darkbloom is a character in a novel by which author? Hint: it's an anagram of the author's name.
68. An easy one: Jack Kerouac got the delirium tremens in the novel Big Sur. Who is the real poet who loaned Kerouac the cabin that is the main setting for that novel?
69. The website Deadmule got its name from which Truman Capote book?
70. What was the name of the radio quiz show that the Glass children participated on?
71. Spoiler: How did Madame Bovary die?
72. Comparison time: Huck is to Tom as Gene is to Phineas as ___________ is to Dean.
73. An easy one: Name all of the Brothers Karamazov.
74. Name the Three Investigators and what is the profession of their parents/guardians?
75. Kilgore Trout figures in several Vonnegut novels. What are they?
76. What is the name of Sherlock Holmes's older brother?
77. "It was dark and stormy night." What writer is this? What work? Hint: it's not Snoopy or L'Engle.
78. Rincewind, the Librarian, Death, and Lord Vetinari are all characters in what book series?
79. What does V.A.L.I.S. stand for? What book(s) is it featured in? Who was the author?
80. Who owned the Pequod?
81. What 2 sci-fi writers bet each other to write books that would start a new religion? What were the books?
82. What is the name of William Faulkner's home?
83. Who "gave his life for tourism?"
84. Who got the first perfect score on Pacman?
85. Name 4 pinball game manufacturers. No Atari however. They should stick to video games like Tempest.
86. Name 6 Micronauts characters - must be the toys and not ones specific only to the Marvel comic.
87. Name the alternate name for the Millenium Falcon used in the 1979 novel Han Solo At Stars' End.
88. Matt Groenig refers to this lady as the "funk queen of the universe."
89. What player is on the most valuable baseball card?
90. What was Patty Hearst's SLA name? What bank does she rob with the SLA?
91. What toy manufacturer made Maskitron? What TV show was the toy based upon?
92. What is the origin of the name Tonka?
93. Name all of Scott Pilgrim's girlfriends from the graphic novels.
94. Another Star Wars question(s): who actually wrote the Star Wars novelization that George Lucas put his name on? What was the name of the second Star Wars novel this author did credit for writing?
95. Name the first 5 winning networks of the television competition Battle Of The Network Stars. Who were the winning teams's captain(s)?
96. The AMC Gremlin and Pacer premiered in what year(s)?
97. Trace the franchise city history of: The LA Clippers, The Sacremento Kings, The Oakland A's, The Atlanta Braves, and the Carolina Hurricanes.
98. What was Lamar Alexander's first gubernatorial race slogan? What was Jake Butcher's?
99. An easy one: The V & A Museum is in London, England. What do the initials V & A stand for?
100. Name the musuem designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
101. What was the name of the band Basquait was in before hitting it big in the art world?
102. The art movement FLUXUS - name two members of it and name two famous descendants of them.
103. What art movement was Edward Hopper part of?

Now that you've made your way to the end, come back in a few days and I will post answers to the questions in new blog posts. 

Strut

Hall's puts little encouraging statements on the wrappers of the cough drops they make. One says, "Put a little strut in it." Which I find so funny and cool. It takes me back to my elementary and middle school days - there was an obsession, especially at Thurman-Francis in developing a cool, strutting walk for both boys and girls. Then there was "Strutter" by Kiss  

and a Bob Seger tune that went "I do respect her but...I love to watch her strut.' So I wrote a song about a girl named Connie (and it was not about Connie Jamison), called "I Love To Watch Connie Strut." I think my version went "I love to watch her strut. I love the way she shakes her butt."

So here's my question of the day: does society still place any prestige on strutting? Or it yet another thing that is frowned upon, either the act of strutting or the appreciation of strutting. I'd like to think that strutting is still cool and admired. We really don't want to make Jackie Fargo roll over in his grave now. 

I Lived Here Once

I lived here when I was a kid for a few months. Or was it just a few weeks? I don’t even think it was a year. There are no photographs to document those days. It was right after my family had moved back to Murfreesboro after a year or so spent in Mississippi. We first rented a trailer behind Hale’s Store on Manson Pike. The trailer was right beside the railroad tracks and we were only there a few days. It turned out the trailer was infested with lice and we moved almost immediately. I met a kid at the new trailer court but after I told him we had moved because of the lice he never talked to me again.

What would I have thought to hear Bailter Space’s shoegazing magnificence “Remain” if it had somehow come out in 1971? 

 My 4 year old ears were into Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Sly and the Family Stone back then, yet “Remain” would have been perfect soundtrack material to watch the kids in the trailer court sliding down the kudzu covered Old Nashville Highway side of Fortress Rosecrans. I was not allowed to join them since it would have meant crossing the highway so I’d sit under the patio awning and wish I was bigger and older. Then I would join with the other children in their sliding riot of chaos. I would do whatever I wanted to do, but the best I could do until then was to roll alone down into the ditch one trailer behind ours and dizzily scream at the sky that seemed to always be blue.

A friend of my Mother's lived in the trailer court too with her son and daughter. I had known them before we had lived in Mississippi for that year so it was nice to discover children I knew. I had hit Missy in the head with a hammer long before when she was messing with my toys, but she was still my friend. Her brother was a few years older so I preferred to play with her since she had some cool Barbie toy vehicles. I was mad for anything with wheels back then. Their mobile home was toward the middle of the park and it set among trees. 

The trailers were fairly new then, but they are old and gray now. I drive by them sometimes to see if they are still there, but really it’s the one that I lived in briefly that I am looking for; perhaps only to confirm my memories are real. There it was this morning as I cut through Murfreesboro. It’s gray where it used to be white and darker gray where it used to be blue. The patio awning is warped. The rest of the trailers are still there faded and so tiny to me now. I wonder who lives in these trailers now. Are they anything like the people that were there in the early 70’s? We were all so young then; young children and their young blue collar parents struggling & scuffling to make it during those lean years before high fructose syrup and carbs turned us into obese elephants.

I guess the official name of the trailer park was the Farrar Brothers Trailer Park. I believe there were 2 of these along Old Nashville Highway. The one we lived in was right up from the Stones River by the National Guard Armory.  It was an entire world to me then. We would walk up the street to Broadway Market and then back through the trailer park. My mother would stop and chat with people she knew there while I stood by anxiously ready to bolt away; a skittery colt of a boy. I was always kept within tight parameters known as “within my sight.” This made me an outcast among the kudzu climbing kids. It would be a role I would come to play my whole life, long after the tight parental parameters were lifted.

Flash ahead almost 20 years later and I’m at a party just off Manson Pike. My band, the Dislocated, were sort of invited I guess; at least the guys still in high school were so I showed up with my friend Toby to check it out. It was a backyard affair with a fire and beers on a chilly spring night. There really wasn’t much going on. The high school kids were just being drunk and goofy. I remember high school guitar wizard Mike’s girlfriend chasing me into the woods when I went to take a leak for some reason.  Then there were the notorious _____ brothers. The oldest was my age and I will never know why he disliked me, but he said some stuff that night about us all being lame under his breath. If I could soundtrack every moment of my life I would want Roky Erickson’s “Bloody Hammer” to play right then.

“What was that you said?” I asked. He looked away and laughed.  I get pushed aside by Mike who asks if I can do him a favor. 


A few minutes later I found myself driving his girlfriend and her friend home before I started a fight which probably would not have ended well as my Dislocated crew was outnumbered. Mike’s girlfriend was spending the night with her friend so I was told I didn’t need to go far. We took Manson Pike in to Murfreesboro, past Searcy Street where I had lived once, over Stones River, past what used to be Hale’s Market and yet 2 more trailers I briefly lived in (1 of them the lice filled one), over the railroad tracks, and then through Tucker Town to Old Nashville Highway. Take a left I was told. Holt’s Corner on one side and the Weeping Willow Lounge across the street. Somewhere in my memory I could hear my elders telling me “You better stay away from those beer joints.”  Up the road just a little way and they told me to turn into the Farrar Brothers Trailer Park. I thought to myself I lived here when I was a kid for a few months. Or was it just a few weeks? I don’t even think it was a year.

Update 2024: It's been 9 years since I wrote this and the trailer court is gone now. The trailer I lived in was torn down along with the other one beside it. Those 2 were replaced with one of those urgent care walk-in clinics. Most of the rest of the trailers are also gone, but I believe a few remain. Now I muse upon the stories that happened there and the lives that were led there. I hope the children I saw that ran across Old Nashville Highway to slide down the kudzu vines are still alive and happy.