This was originally posted at the White Animals message board. It should reach a wider audience here.
I had started back to college in 1988. Since I didn't have a car or live on campus, I used to hitch a ride into town with my father. This left lots of free time in the afternoon while I waited for the ride back out into the country where we lived. When I wasn't getting drunk at B&L Pizza, I spent my time in MTSU's library perusing old microfilm issues of the Tennessean just to see what music acts were listed in their Sunday Showcase section. Mainly I was looking for mentions of The White Animals.
I chose 1978 as my starting point because it seemed like a good place to start. The Sex Pistols had toured the year before. Punk was out of the bag. What follows is just a month by month list of acts that played Nashville or Murfreesboro that I thought either notable or just too big to be left out. There are the occasional personal references and some pop culture entries too. I hope you enjoy the history. Maybe you were even at some of the shows.
January 1978: Ted Nugent appears at Volunteer Jam IV
Herr Harry Phranks and Steins is in business at 1909 West End advertising dart throwing nights, ballgames on a 6x6 screen, and Luv's Disco on Saturday nights. The band Next of Kin performed on Fridays.
Saturday Night Fever was only in its third week of release. Star Wars was in its 29th.
The first Exit/In listing I find is for Barefoot Jerry.
The Bay City Rollers "The Way I Feel Tonight" is the #7 song for the week of January 8th, 1978.
Nazereth, Mahogany Rush, and Sammy Hagar play Nashville for 4 dollars.
Eddie Money and David Olney appear at the Exit/In.
There's a big ad for a Ramones show to be held at War Memorial for February 24th with the Runaways opening!! Tickets are $5.25 advance and $6.25 at the door. It's a Sound Seventy Production. I was 11 years old and oblivious living in Murfreesboro. I wouldn't find out about the Ramones until they appeared on the Sha Na Na show. I could be dejected about what I might have witnessed, except there was nothing to see. The concert was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. I wonder how many of the future members of Nashville's vibrant indie rock scene were preparing to attend that show.
Maybe nobody knew who the Ramones and Runaways were or maybe the ticket prices were just too high. Clapton was about to hit Nashville for $6.50.
February 1978: There's a blurb about Paul Cook and Steve Jones forming a new band.
March 1978: Atlanta Rhythm Section plays Vanderbilt. WRVU was not a new wave station in these days.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Breakdown" is featured in Showcase's song lyric section. Tom Petty is quoted in the accompanying interview, "Nobody likes disco, but for a few poofs in platform shoes".
Muddy Waters plays Exit/In as does Warren Zevon also.
Journey comes to town "loving', touchin', and squeezin" with Ronnie Montrose, and Van Halen opening at the War Memorial Auditorium.
David Bowie plays Municipal.
B.B. King performs at the Exit/In.
Vandy's Rites of Spring is just a "yawn" jazz festival.
April 1978: The Grateful Dead play for the first time ever in Nashville.
Exit/In notables: George Thorogood and Joe Ely both come through town.
May 1978: Cheech and Chong light up the Exit/In with some Labrador.
"Werewolves of London" broke into the top ten songs.
Tim Krekel makes an Exit/In appearance once all the smoke had cleared from Cheech and Chong's show.
June 1978: The first listing for a club named Springwater.
July 1978: A hot Nashville summer gets hotter when the "Boss" Bruce Springsteen shows up to play a little 3 hour gig.
Foreigner with Journey opening play Nash Vegas. Imm not a big Journey fan, but I've got to give them props for being on the road and playing shows.
August 1978: Kevin Gray's guitar lessons start paying off as he joins Rob Jackson at Herr Harry Phranks and Steins. I'm sure there might have shows before, but this was the first "listed" one I found. Kevin Gray would go on to form the White Animals.
Muddy Waters is at the Exit/In again.
September 1978: "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by Taste of Honey is the number one tune. Disco's death grip has really hit the country in earnest.
Pat McLaughlin plays Springwater.
George Thorogood roars back to town to play Vanderbilt's Sarrat Cinema.
October 1978: Little Feat does a show at Vanderbilt.
Boston touches down at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.
An October Showcase runs a picture of Lita Ford captioned "punk rocker".
There's an ad for a November 9th Black Sabbath show with Van Halen opening. Ozzy is wearing a home made "Blizzard of Oz" shirt.
Queen tickets are $8. I bet that was some show.
Tickets for Bob Dylan's first Nashville appearance go on sale and they sell out in minutes. Tickets were ten bucks for a December 2nd concert. He ends up doing a 3 hour show with many anecdotes, two encores, and said he'd be back, that he hadn't been put out to pasture yet.
Kiss clothing line debuts in November. I bought some shorts.
An article about Deborah Harry appears where she says she's flattered to be thought of as a sex object. She says Blondie are a restrained version of the Ramones. Note: this is before "Heart of Glass" made them superstars.
December 1978: Vanderbilt must have loved George Thorogood because he's back again at Sarrat Cinema.
Dylan plays the aforementioned show.
Captain Beefheart rocks Exit/In.
The Grateful Dead come back to town.
Carl Perkins appears at Exit/In.
Rob Jackson and Kevin Gray are still playing Phranks and Steins.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail appears on public television Channel 8.
Chic's "LeFreak" comes out. I'm in the 6th grade.
January 1979: Suddenly now listed at Herr Harry's Thursday thru Saturday - The White Animals!!
Brownsville Station smokes up Exit/In.
Marshall Chapman plays the Exit/In with her opening act: The Ramones.
March 1979: Elvis Costello with the Rubinoos play at War Memorial on the Armed Funk tour March 12th. Tickets are $7.50.
Dukes of Hazzard premieres on CBS. The advert in Showcase proclaims it's the "real Georgia".
Rush plays Municipal Auditorium with Molly Hatchet opening.
When Steve Forbert plays Exit/In, he's billed as "this year's Bob Dylan".
Cheap Trick keeps the great concerts at War Memorial chugging along.
April 1979: Herr Harry Phrank and Steins becomes plain Phrank and Steins.
"Heart of Glass" appears in the top ten. I am completely smitten by Debbie Harry and I vow to get her "One Way Or Another".
May 1979: The Village People with Gloria Gaynor appear at Municipal Auditorium.
Supertramp plays Municipal.
The plans for a Woodstock II are announced. Tickets would be $37.50 and only available in the US.
The Smokehouse is listed for the first time in Showcase. It would become Cantrell's.
Chic gets their freak on at the Opryland Gaslight Theatre.
Mitch Ryder plays Exit/In.
Rick Nelson has a garden party at the Tennessee Theater
The Jacksons shake their bodies down to the ground at Municipal.
Albert King brings the blues to Exit/In.
In what looks like the busiest May in Nashville concert history up to that time, AC/DC with Bon Scott play the Tennessee Theater on May 22nd.
Disco is at its peak. "In The Navy" tops the charts. Nashville has 7 discos listed in the Showcase guide. Murfreesboro had a disco. Even Smyrna gets one called Robs and Tobs. "Makin' It" hits the top ten. When will this madness end? I predict it will end in August of 1979, because I have a knack for these things.
Cowboy George and the Beer Drinking Rodeo are the house band at the Smokehouse.
June 1979: Hank Jr. plays Exit/In.
The Cars bring their new wave to Nashville.
July 1979: There's a Showcase article on the Boomtown Rats.
Bad Company sells out a show in Nashville.
The Kinks (who would later get the prestige of closing a show opened by the mighty White Animals) billed as the "original heavy metal band" do a show at War Memorial.
The Bay City Rollers bring their sonic assault to town.
Kiss does a show. I was in 7th grade and Kiss was still my favorite band. I didn't get to see them live until the first reunion with makeup tour a few years ago. They were incredible and I felt like a kid again.
Journey's hard tour work has paid off. They come to town and sell out. A few years later during the Frontiers era, a show at Murphy Center sold out so fast that another show was added which also sold out. I was a junior in high school during this period and I never saw so many souvenir concert jerseys at one time before or since.
The White Animals leave Phranks and Steins to become the house band at the Smokehouse. I wonder what happened to Cowboy George.
August 1979: Nashville gets launched into the punk rock era on August 2nd when a band named after an insane asylum plays Phranks and Steins. Yep, the immortal Cloverbottom are unleashed.
The birth of the skinny tie band signals the death throes of disco when "My Sharona" comes out of nowhere to go to #2 in the country. It's almost impossible to describe what this song would do to me when it hit the airwaves. The volume dial would go off the hook and I would enter into some dance like state that involved loud singing and bopping around. I can't begin to imagine what my poor mother was thinking when it would come on in the car. I never wore seat belts then and our car would be bouncing and shaking as I tried to dance inside it. That incredible guitar riff laid waste to almost everything I had heard before (except for Kiss).
Greg Kihn plays Exit/In.
September 1979: The White Animals open for Marshall Chapman on Vandy's lawn.
October 1979: The Fabulous T-Birds, Paul Butterfield, and Muddy Waters play a "free" show at Memorial Gym!!
BB King and Bobby Blue Bland play the Tennessee Theater.
Tim Curry comes to Underwood Auditorium.
Robert Palmer does too.
The Eagles play Murphy Center in Mufreesboro. There would be lots of Long Run t-shirts worn the day after the show.
Rock 106 presents the Police with Eddie and The Hot Rods opening on October 15th!!
"Ride The New Wave" at the Exit/In with the Hots and Cloverbottom on October 27th.
Albert Collins plays the Exit/In.
Skatetown USA premieres.
November 1979: The Jacksons come back to Nashville.
ZZ Top wearing cheap sunglasses passes through the 'ville.
KDF presents David Johansen at the Exit/In.
The Ramones come back to headline at the Exit/In. I may be wrong, but I believe the Ramones won't appear again in Nashville until 1989.
The Cramps bring their brand of bad music to the bad people of Nashville at the Exit/In. Was November cool or what?
December 1979: Cloverbottom plays at Flanigans. A picture of Cloverbottom is used and captioned "prom picture".
Roller Boogie comes out. Although disco never died, it was definitely well out of date by now and starting to really smell.
The number one record in the country at the end of 1979 was the danceable, but most assuredly new wave "Pop Musik" by M.
Also along the great continuum: I also did some more culling of data during my first year back in college. There's not as much info as before, but it might be of some interest to some.
1981: Showcase mentions Joe Loftis and the Pinks. Joe was the original drummer of The White Animals.
November 1981: Dylan is back to play Municipal. Tickets were $11 reserved and $9.50 general admission.
Jack Emerson, a Vanderbilt student, and co-owner of the Praxis label produces an EP titled Never In Nashville featuring Factual, No Art, USR, and Cloverbottom. It's to be given away at shows. The first proper Praxis release is OFB's "Pink Cadillac".
REM plays Cantrells. Jason and the Nashville Scorchers open the gig.
U2 plays Vanderbilt's Underwood Auditorium and REM opens for $5.
1982: REM plays the KO Jams nightclub in Murfreesboro. KO Jams was located at 1511 East Main Street.
And that's it. By my second semester back at MTSU, I had a car so I quit spending my afternoons in the library.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
CD Review: The Knitters - The Modern Sounds Of The Knitters
I first saw X in the documentary Decline And Fall Of Western Civilization. They were one of the best bands featured and even though their music posessed a ragged punk charm it was vastly different from the hardcore punk of bands like Black Flag, Germs, and Circle Jerks. It was as if time traveling musicians from the Fifties had been dropped into the Los Angeles punk rock scene and told to adapt. Rockabilly, blues, country, and punk collided for a potent blend of rock and roll. But the time travelers got homesick and in 1985 three of them joined forces with a couple of Blasters to form The Knitters. The punk spirit, which some could argue is but an echo of the original rock and roll one, was present on Poor Little Critter In The Road, but the music was a throwback to blues, folk, country, and rockabilly. It was just a side project, but it's now regarded as a country punk classic. It's even had its own tribute album and now twenty years later The Knitter are back.
It doesn't offer up the novelty of the first album for the simple fact is we know they can do more than punk. The Modern Sounds Of The Knitters has a little more studio shine than Poor Little Critter In The Road; think of it as a movie sequel filled with the things you loved about the original blockbuster with a few extra special effects. There are no car chases, but there's a good helping of new originals with some good and not so good cover songs. The Modern Sounds Of The Knitters isn't really all that modern and this is good.
The band is at their best when John Doe and Exene Cervenka's fractured harmonies meet. The 'tombstone shoes" of the X song "In This House That I Call Home" have worn well. There's a sequel within the sequel as the chicken stomping "Wreckin' Ball" gets an update. This time he's killing cattle and the results are hilarious for all non-bovines. Dave Alvin's "Dry River" is a yearning spiritual while "Long Chain On" finds Alvin layng down some tasty reverb picking. The only real misses are the cover of "Burning House Of Love" which doesn't come close to matching the intensity of the orignal and a misguided cover of "Born To Be Wild" that gets its motor running on terrible early before heading out the highway toward awful. Thankfully it's the last song on the album so it can easily be avoided. Let's hope we don't have to wait twenty years before The Knitters record a third album.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Web Musing
Just a few neat things about the internet:
I located a childhood friend by googling his name. He was really into World War history. We used to have these wars with the girls in 3rd grade that would rage on for months during recess. We would eventually negotiate very elaborate peace treaties to end the war always temporarily. I wish I had kept some of those treaties. I found my old pal because he had made some models of World War I planes and posted them on the web. He moved with his family to New Orleans after 5th grade and we'd lost touch soon after. Our paths were quite similar - he became a punk rocker too and last I heard he was pursuing a PHD at Auburn.
I was doing some research at Ancestry.com and came across a message from a woman wanting to learn about her husband's father. Her husband happened to be one of my cousins from my mother's side of the family. I emailed the lady and the next thing I know my mother is organizing a family reunion with them in Mississippi. My cousin's father died when he was very young and he hadn't seen relatives from his father's side of the family in ages.
I've shared emails with Suzanne Vega about Henry Rollins.
I've gotten email from a Blue Oyster Cult fanatic just because I mentioned BOC in the comments of a post at Blogcritics.
I get to waste my time and yours with this sort of stuff.
I located a childhood friend by googling his name. He was really into World War history. We used to have these wars with the girls in 3rd grade that would rage on for months during recess. We would eventually negotiate very elaborate peace treaties to end the war always temporarily. I wish I had kept some of those treaties. I found my old pal because he had made some models of World War I planes and posted them on the web. He moved with his family to New Orleans after 5th grade and we'd lost touch soon after. Our paths were quite similar - he became a punk rocker too and last I heard he was pursuing a PHD at Auburn.
I was doing some research at Ancestry.com and came across a message from a woman wanting to learn about her husband's father. Her husband happened to be one of my cousins from my mother's side of the family. I emailed the lady and the next thing I know my mother is organizing a family reunion with them in Mississippi. My cousin's father died when he was very young and he hadn't seen relatives from his father's side of the family in ages.
I've shared emails with Suzanne Vega about Henry Rollins.
I've gotten email from a Blue Oyster Cult fanatic just because I mentioned BOC in the comments of a post at Blogcritics.
I get to waste my time and yours with this sort of stuff.
Anti-Dentite
I thought about asking my dentist if I could blog this before he started up the drill to give me a filling in one of my molars, but then I distracted myself by recalling the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is exposed as being an "anti-dentite bastard" and I forgot about blogging. Really, there wasn't much to blog about. My dentist, an old high school friend, shot me full of gum numbing dope, left me alone to stare at his fish tank screensaver for ten minutes or so, came back and shot a stream of compressed air and water at the offending tooth, asked me if that hurt, and when I said no the drill went in and I closed my eyes for the next half hour or so. Soon it was over and the whole left side of my head felt funny and all I could eat for lunch was mashed potatoes. I don't long for the old days, but a trip to the dentist is almost pleasant these days. Spit cups and pain are just childhood nostalgia. Note, that this is just regarding fillings. I had some periodontal work done a couple of years ago that had its fair share of pain and blood.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Donovan - Try For The Sun
Try For The Sun - The Journey Of Donovan is the most expansive stateside collection of Donovan yet with 3 discs and a DVD. It's a deserved and lavish treatment for a critically underrated artist. The chronological collection gives you a good dose of Donovan's folk rock Hickory sides, all of the hits, an ample selection of of album gems, some live performances, and some of his children's recordings. The macrocosm of the Sixties musical explosion is contained within.
It begins simply with Donovan in his folkie persona highlighted by "Catch The Wind" which is currently being used to sell Volvos. Donovan was very good at folk music. During this phase of his career he stole a scene from Dylan in docu-pic Don't Look Back. I wish this period of Donovan's career had lasted longer. The folk playing segued right into a sometimes ornate psychedelic period in which Donovan hit the big time with hits like "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" all produced by Mickie Most. This material would define Donovan and inspire such things as smoking banana peels and the Allman Brother's "Mountain Jam". The boxset digs deep into this sometimes sublime and silly well. "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" retains a childlike romanticism, but the spoken word bits on "Atlantis" bring to mind Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge".
Donovan's musical journey continued to correspond to his peers. He went from simply produced to more complex production and then back to simple. He recorded children's songs. His material began to harken back to the folk era with echoes of the blues which can heard on some of the live performances included in Try For The Sun. A handful of Donovan's later material is also included. Liner notes were written by Anthony DeCurtis. Donovan chose which songs to compile and I think he did a good job. He's one hippie I like.
"Included are every one of Donovan's 17 U.S. chart singles (and 8 well-chosen B sides), plus more than a dozen signature album tracks, 12 previously unreleased studio recordings, 7 previously unreleased live concert numbers (from 1967 and 1971), 2 live concert numbers previously unissued in the U.S., and a track from his rare 1964 demo. The bonus DVD marks the long overdue premiere of the 1970 documentary, There Is An Ocean. Filmed during a voyage to Greece, the documentary presents a revealing portrait of Donovan in the company of friends and family, with plenty of never-before-seen live performance footage included."
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Screeching Weasel Weasel Mania
During the days when I put out my own fanzine, Anti-Society, I reviewed a demo tape by a band from Texas. No, it wasn't Screeching Weasel. They're from Chicago sillly. The band was named Coolfork and the reason I reviewed them was because a former bandmate of mine played bass for them. I came up with the term "twizzler rock" to describe their music which at that point was heavily influenced by the yet to hit it huge Green Day. The term sounded a little tougher than bubblegum punk. My terminology never caught on, but the genre sometimes referred to as geekcore sure did. My friend quit Coolfork before they later morphed into Bowling For Soup where they would have trememdous chart success.
Screeching Weasel is from that same pop punk universe. It all began after Ben Weasel saw the Ramones in 1986. It was the July 1976 England Ramones concerts revisited. Along with his friend Jughead they began a band to emulate their heroes. This simple three chord approach was almost the complete opposite of the testosterone heavy hardcore currently big in Chicago where Naked Raygun ruled. The first Screeching Weasel album came out on Underdog Records in 1987 with songs about their suburban lives. "7-11" was a catchy tune, but the record made hardly a ripple across America. It would still be awhile before Screeching Weasel would get the sort of popularity in the underground that Descendents and Adrenalin O.D. enjoyed.
They would break up in 1989, but Lawrence Livermore who ran Lookout Records liked the band and told them he'd sign them if they would reform. Lookout Records would become the home to many of the best pop punk bands of the 90s with Green Day being the most notable. 1991 saw the reunited Screeching Weasel, bolstered by the arrival of Danny Vapid, release My Brain Hurts on Lookout. Ben Weasel began to write a column for Maximum Rock-n-Roll. Screeching Weasel had arrived with if not a vengeance, at least a hell of a lot of momemtum. The Gilman Street geekcore crowd had their own version of The Ramones to inspire them.
They would release a bunch of classic albums on various labels, break up, get back together again, and then break up once more. Between breakups there would be The Riverdales releasing more great pop punk. Fat Wreck Chords has compiled 34 of Screeching Weasel's best songs from those classic records with Weasel Mania. The name is in homage to Ramones Mania. Some of my own personal faves are "Cindy's On Methadone" from My Brain Hurts. "She's Giving Me The Creeps" off of Kill The Musicians. "Jeannies Got A Problem With Her Uterus", from Wiggle, has a title that's clunky but the song is catchy and very reminiscent of The Dickies. Roller rink style organ lends a good touch to "Peter Brady" while the cicumspective "Every Night" shows a more serious side of the band; both originally on Anthem For A New Tomorrow. Screeching Weasel reunited for Bark Like A Dog released on Fat Wreck Chords and bark it did with several standouts included on Mania. I like the crunch of "Phasers On Kill" and "Cool Kids" the best. "Dummy Up" from Television City Dream rocks while the stutter step of "Static" off of the Emo album is the definite high point of the last few tunes on Weasel Mania.So look beyond the commercial juggernaut that pop punk became and find out where it came from with Weasel Mania. Twizzler rock didn't catch on as descriptive parlance. Screeching Weasel didn't become MTV stars. But I think both are probably the better for it.
College Football Predictions Week Six
The record so far is like the fish sandwich at Arnolds from the "Buddy Holly" video: its not too good. But I persevere in my quest to prove that I don't know nuthin' about picking no football games.
My record at picking winners this year: 27-23
Picking against the spread: 19-31
This weeks picks:
GEORGIA TECH by 4 1/2 over NC State
winner Georgia Tech
spread Georgia Tech
West Virginia by 3 1/2 over RUTGERS
winner West Viriginia
spread West Viriginia
MICHIGAN by 7 1/2 over Minnesota
winner Michigan
spread Minnesota
TEXAS by 14 1/2 over Oklahoma
winner Texas
spread Texas
NAVY by 1 1/2 over Air Force
winner Navy
spread Navy
TENNESSEE by 3 over Georgia
winner Georgia
spread Georgia
lsu by 15 1/2 over VANDERBILT
winner LSU
spread Vanderbilt
Memphis by 2 1/2 over CENTRAL FLORIDA
winner Memphis
spread Memphis
ARIZONA STATE by 10 over Oregon
winner Arizona State
spread Arizona State
USC by 37 over Arizona
winner USC
spread Arizona
As always the hometeam is in capital letters.
My record at picking winners this year: 27-23
Picking against the spread: 19-31
This weeks picks:
GEORGIA TECH by 4 1/2 over NC State
winner Georgia Tech
spread Georgia Tech
West Virginia by 3 1/2 over RUTGERS
winner West Viriginia
spread West Viriginia
MICHIGAN by 7 1/2 over Minnesota
winner Michigan
spread Minnesota
TEXAS by 14 1/2 over Oklahoma
winner Texas
spread Texas
NAVY by 1 1/2 over Air Force
winner Navy
spread Navy
TENNESSEE by 3 over Georgia
winner Georgia
spread Georgia
lsu by 15 1/2 over VANDERBILT
winner LSU
spread Vanderbilt
Memphis by 2 1/2 over CENTRAL FLORIDA
winner Memphis
spread Memphis
ARIZONA STATE by 10 over Oregon
winner Arizona State
spread Arizona State
USC by 37 over Arizona
winner USC
spread Arizona
As always the hometeam is in capital letters.
Railroad Earth
October is my favorite month. I love the cool nights, the crisp air, leaves turning color, baseball playoffs, and the build up to Halloween. The best Halloween blog has to be Old Haunts. If you've got old Halloween photos laying around be sure and send them there. Shrub and Kara are checking out all of the haunted attractions down the Dallas, Texas way and writing about it at Goblinhaus. I'm probably not going to contribute anything to them this year, but last year they published a bunch of essays I wrote about Halloween. Here's one of them:
. The Boy With One Red Shoe .
There is a pretty good reason why my parents wouldn't let me go to haunted houses. It was because they would scare me right out of my shoes. I come from a lower middle class background. Sometimes it was low enough that all I would have for supper would be butter and bread sandwiches. So I know my parents didn't have the money to keep buying me shoes if I lost them. If you lose a shoe at a carnival they won't reimburse you.
Carnivals were a fixture of my youth. The town where I grew up, Murfreesboro, TN, would see several come through town in a year. There were 3 shopping centers and one large freestanding department store called Clarks and they would all host a carnival at least once a year, sometimes more. My father would take me to every one.
I would ride the kiddie rides and play some of the games. My father loved playing the games, especially if he was winning. The nights were fun, but sometimes they would drag on for a little fellow. It was on one of those long evenings that I was able to convince my father to take me into the haunted house.
It was a typical low budget carnival haunted house. It had a faded facade filled with scary imagery - bats, cobwebs, vampires, werewolves, and witches with a blood red background. The house itself was actually an poorly air conditioned semi-trailer. We got in the long line and my father admonished me to hold his hand. I was extremely excited as the line moved slowly toward the metal steps that would lead us into the horrors within. I could hear buzzers going off and people screaming from inside.
We stepped to the entrance and gave a man in greasy coveralls our ticket. The line inched forward. I was the only small kid in the line. The grown ups towered above me, their legs were like tree trunks. We went through the door and suddenly everything was black. I held on to my father's hand. My heart was starting to pound and nothing had even happened yet.
I shuffled ahead and the buzzers starting going off, people screamed, and light burst out just a few feet in front of us. We moved some steps forward and a buzzer screamed, a light crackled on and I saw a monster lurching behind a piece of cheap chicken wire. My mind reeled with fright. Another buzzer sounded and another cage appeared out of the dark. I jumped. I began to get disoriented as the stale air made me sick. Another buzzer razzed and I tried to close my eyes as tightly as I could. A strobe light pierced through the gloom and I saw an old crone moving behind the wire. She would tear through it and eat me alive. I was bumped from behind and lost my father's hand. I couldn't take it anymore. I pushed through the people in front of me, leaping past cages filled with demons and ghouls.
It was a long journey through a tunnel filled with danger. I would make it even if I had left my father behind. I saw the exit and I blasted through it into the candy colored lights of the midway attractions. My father found me at the bottom of the exit's steps a few minutes later. I was gasping for breath still reeling from the fright. He was concerned and disappointed at the same time. He calmed me down, but he was quick to inform me that the house wasn't scary at all. We were about to leave when he noticed that I had lost one of my red tennis shoes.
He asked the carnie if they'd get my shoe for me and we were told to get it ourselves. I wasn't about to go back in there, so my father went in and fumbled in the dark for it. He came out of the exit without the shoe. There were just too many people inside trampling through. The carnival wouldn't close until after midnight so my father decided not to wait and try to retrieve the shoe. I would get another pair of shoes the next day, but I wouldn't get to go inside a haunted house again until I was 17. It's hard to plead your case with your parents when you've been scared right out of a shoe.
. The Boy With One Red Shoe .
There is a pretty good reason why my parents wouldn't let me go to haunted houses. It was because they would scare me right out of my shoes. I come from a lower middle class background. Sometimes it was low enough that all I would have for supper would be butter and bread sandwiches. So I know my parents didn't have the money to keep buying me shoes if I lost them. If you lose a shoe at a carnival they won't reimburse you.
Carnivals were a fixture of my youth. The town where I grew up, Murfreesboro, TN, would see several come through town in a year. There were 3 shopping centers and one large freestanding department store called Clarks and they would all host a carnival at least once a year, sometimes more. My father would take me to every one.
I would ride the kiddie rides and play some of the games. My father loved playing the games, especially if he was winning. The nights were fun, but sometimes they would drag on for a little fellow. It was on one of those long evenings that I was able to convince my father to take me into the haunted house.
It was a typical low budget carnival haunted house. It had a faded facade filled with scary imagery - bats, cobwebs, vampires, werewolves, and witches with a blood red background. The house itself was actually an poorly air conditioned semi-trailer. We got in the long line and my father admonished me to hold his hand. I was extremely excited as the line moved slowly toward the metal steps that would lead us into the horrors within. I could hear buzzers going off and people screaming from inside.
We stepped to the entrance and gave a man in greasy coveralls our ticket. The line inched forward. I was the only small kid in the line. The grown ups towered above me, their legs were like tree trunks. We went through the door and suddenly everything was black. I held on to my father's hand. My heart was starting to pound and nothing had even happened yet.
I shuffled ahead and the buzzers starting going off, people screamed, and light burst out just a few feet in front of us. We moved some steps forward and a buzzer screamed, a light crackled on and I saw a monster lurching behind a piece of cheap chicken wire. My mind reeled with fright. Another buzzer sounded and another cage appeared out of the dark. I jumped. I began to get disoriented as the stale air made me sick. Another buzzer razzed and I tried to close my eyes as tightly as I could. A strobe light pierced through the gloom and I saw an old crone moving behind the wire. She would tear through it and eat me alive. I was bumped from behind and lost my father's hand. I couldn't take it anymore. I pushed through the people in front of me, leaping past cages filled with demons and ghouls.
It was a long journey through a tunnel filled with danger. I would make it even if I had left my father behind. I saw the exit and I blasted through it into the candy colored lights of the midway attractions. My father found me at the bottom of the exit's steps a few minutes later. I was gasping for breath still reeling from the fright. He was concerned and disappointed at the same time. He calmed me down, but he was quick to inform me that the house wasn't scary at all. We were about to leave when he noticed that I had lost one of my red tennis shoes.
He asked the carnie if they'd get my shoe for me and we were told to get it ourselves. I wasn't about to go back in there, so my father went in and fumbled in the dark for it. He came out of the exit without the shoe. There were just too many people inside trampling through. The carnival wouldn't close until after midnight so my father decided not to wait and try to retrieve the shoe. I would get another pair of shoes the next day, but I wouldn't get to go inside a haunted house again until I was 17. It's hard to plead your case with your parents when you've been scared right out of a shoe.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Flotsam And Jetsam
Random bits of brain matter for you. I know it's only aired one time, but the ABC remake of Nighstalker stinks. I wouldn't mind having one of those new Mustangs though. The thing didn't even get a dent in it when the new Kolchak ran over the monster. Bad news: House will be off the air for a month and a half. Good news: it's because the baseball playoffs begin have begun. Go Yankees! Yep, I root for the Evil Empire. My father always rooted for them plus he actually worked for George Steinbrenner at the Bridge Company in Nashville during the early Seventies.
I bought a Texas Longhorns hat because of Dazed And Confused plus I have several good friends that live in Texas.
I'm doing my roadwork every morning once again. I don't want to be part of everybody being overweight in America.
I've become apolitical again, been listening to The Who..."meet the new boss same as the old boss" indeed.
Emmy earned her first Girl Scout badge on Monday. It was for fitness. Harper's soccer team will have to score more than 9 goals in a game if they want to win in the 3 and 4 year old division.
Computer background of the moment: the Zen Arcade cover.
Screeching Weasel's greatest hits CD is totally kicking.
Raisins are the best. But combine them with oatmeal and you've got a juggernaut.
If natural gas prices rise as high as they say they will it will be heat or eat at the Wally household this winter. Maybe I need to invest in some electric blankets.
True North Records sent me a slew of CD's and I will get to reviewing a few of them soon.
Time seems to move faster but my body moves slower.
I bought a Texas Longhorns hat because of Dazed And Confused plus I have several good friends that live in Texas.
I'm doing my roadwork every morning once again. I don't want to be part of everybody being overweight in America.
I've become apolitical again, been listening to The Who..."meet the new boss same as the old boss" indeed.
Emmy earned her first Girl Scout badge on Monday. It was for fitness. Harper's soccer team will have to score more than 9 goals in a game if they want to win in the 3 and 4 year old division.
Computer background of the moment: the Zen Arcade cover.
Screeching Weasel's greatest hits CD is totally kicking.
Raisins are the best. But combine them with oatmeal and you've got a juggernaut.
If natural gas prices rise as high as they say they will it will be heat or eat at the Wally household this winter. Maybe I need to invest in some electric blankets.
True North Records sent me a slew of CD's and I will get to reviewing a few of them soon.
Time seems to move faster but my body moves slower.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Slamina Blanc
Today's topic is inner groove cryptology with the White Animals. The White Animals were one of the biggest bands in Nashville until they called it quits in 1987. Along with Jason And The Scorchers they landed music videos on MTV and for awhile it looked as if the White Animals might land a major label record deal. They toured the college rock circuit and their mixture of Sixties flavored rock, Seventies punk, and splashes of dub reggae won praise from coast to coast. They were faintly damned for being a frat band, but it was just sour grapes on the Nashville Art Posse's part. The White Animals would play frat parties and they could play whole sets of cover songs if they wanted, but it was never their focus. It ended up creating a rock and roll multi-subcultural fan base. Frat boy accountants to be would stand shoulder to shoulder with future alternative rockers while punk rockers slamdanced in the background. Through it all the White Animals exhibited a casual cool coupled to a total love for playing music. A White Animals show was always an event and after the song "Ecstasy" dropped their shows became patchouli soaked events because of the line, "that patchouli that you wear."
Their original material was as good if not better than the cover material they did. Kevin Gray and Steve Boyd were Nashville's version of Lennon and McCartney, each with a different style that complemented the other. Gray's songs tended to rock more while Boyd tended to play the injured romantic crafting darker more complex material. They were rock and roll classicists doing their own Chubby Checker twist on things creating one of the most original sounds of the Eighties. They evolved over the course of an EP and several LP's released on their own Dreadbeat imprint which saw frequent spins on my record player. While listening to the tunes I would look at the cover art and read the liner notes.
I noticed that their song publishing was controlled by Slamina Blanc. That's funny. It's animal spelled backwards followed by blanc which means white. It was while figuring out which side of Nashville Babylon was the first side that I discovered that the White Animals liked to leave cryptic messages in the inner grooves of their records along with the side numbering that is usually present. I went through all of their thirty three and a third releases and found statements on most. Since the group, who reformed in 1999 to play periodic shows, will be performing at 12th and Porter on October 14th I thought I'd share these messages - the written equivalent to a hidden track on a compact disc.
The EP Nashville Babylon's messages are: that side "vulgar, animalistic, nigra, rock & roll, bop..." this side "I can still use my snout!" The this side message is a reference to the Zap Comix character "Wonder Wart Hog" who overcame his impotence by using his snout. The message on side one, that side, is just a description about what lay in the grooves using the standard putdown response of the rock and roll haters back in the Fifties.
Lost Weekend with the great "I Must Have Been Hypnotized" cover: side one "What am I...an onion?!?" side two "Mimi's favorite band" I never knew Mimi, but she had good taste. I don't know what the onion bit is about. Maybe it was an inside joke, or perhaps some pop culture reference that's too obscure for me. A one-sided 12 inch single was released of the dub version of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" titled "These Boots Are Made For Dubbin'" and it's message was a homage to a Stanley Kramer film. "It's a dread, dread, dread, dread world!"
Ecstasy was the biggest release by the White Animals. It sold so well it went into a second pressing. They lost the photos that were used on the back cover and in the liner notes so the second pressing had a new back cover and insert. The messages on the inner grooves were kept the same. side one "Virginia is for lovers" plus there was a drawing of a heart side two "pocket full 'o hope in the ninth" I assume the reference to Virginia was because of the many shows the White Animals performed in that great state. I'm a baseball fan so I really liked the message on side two. A 12 inch single of "Help Yourself" and "She's So Different" came out, but there were no secret messages. It was just the names of the songs inscribed in the inner grooves.
Their next full length album was supposed to be the one to launch them to stardom. They called in Busta Jones to produce the album and recorded it in Memphis. It was simply titled White Animals, but it is often called The Purple Album or Drums In Church because of the purple painting on the cover. It was a good record and the inner grooves reference directly to the album. Side one "Hossman you're the greatest" Side two "Bustamup" Hossman was a reference to Hoss Allen, the legendary WLAC deejay who helped spread R&B and black gospel throughout the eastern US. He's heard at the first of the song "Caught Up In The Dread" saying "so sit back and let the spirit commence." The second side inner groove is obviously a reference to the producer Busta Jones.
A live album was released soon after this one and it was simply titled Live. It was a rather spartan affair and while the performance was hot it was obviously just released to hold the fans until the next studio album. There were no inscriptions in the inner grooves.
The next inscriptions would be on the album In The Last Days. The A side "The old order changes..." The B side "...yielding place to new" In The Last Days was the band's last album, until they released a CD of new material recently, and the messages were all about the end of the band. Kevin Gray gave a lengthy interview in the Nashville music paper of the time, The Metro, about rock and roll being for the young and that it was time for him to step aside and go back to medical school. Which is just what he did. He now practices medicine in Texas. But luckily for us White Animals fans, the lure of playing rock and roll was too much for him and he got back together with his bandmates in 1999 for an incendiary pair of shows at the Exit/In. They've played a handful of shows every year since proving that you don't have to be young to rock. If The Rolling Stones can still do it, the White Animals should be able to also. So go out and see them next week at 12th and Porter. Nothing will be hidden in the inner grooves there.
The EP Nashville Babylon's messages are: that side "vulgar, animalistic, nigra, rock & roll, bop..." this side "I can still use my snout!" The this side message is a reference to the Zap Comix character "Wonder Wart Hog" who overcame his impotence by using his snout. The message on side one, that side, is just a description about what lay in the grooves using the standard putdown response of the rock and roll haters back in the Fifties.
Lost Weekend with the great "I Must Have Been Hypnotized" cover: side one "What am I...an onion?!?" side two "Mimi's favorite band" I never knew Mimi, but she had good taste. I don't know what the onion bit is about. Maybe it was an inside joke, or perhaps some pop culture reference that's too obscure for me. A one-sided 12 inch single was released of the dub version of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" titled "These Boots Are Made For Dubbin'" and it's message was a homage to a Stanley Kramer film. "It's a dread, dread, dread, dread world!"
Ecstasy was the biggest release by the White Animals. It sold so well it went into a second pressing. They lost the photos that were used on the back cover and in the liner notes so the second pressing had a new back cover and insert. The messages on the inner grooves were kept the same. side one "Virginia is for lovers" plus there was a drawing of a heart side two "pocket full 'o hope in the ninth" I assume the reference to Virginia was because of the many shows the White Animals performed in that great state. I'm a baseball fan so I really liked the message on side two. A 12 inch single of "Help Yourself" and "She's So Different" came out, but there were no secret messages. It was just the names of the songs inscribed in the inner grooves.
Their next full length album was supposed to be the one to launch them to stardom. They called in Busta Jones to produce the album and recorded it in Memphis. It was simply titled White Animals, but it is often called The Purple Album or Drums In Church because of the purple painting on the cover. It was a good record and the inner grooves reference directly to the album. Side one "Hossman you're the greatest" Side two "Bustamup" Hossman was a reference to Hoss Allen, the legendary WLAC deejay who helped spread R&B and black gospel throughout the eastern US. He's heard at the first of the song "Caught Up In The Dread" saying "so sit back and let the spirit commence." The second side inner groove is obviously a reference to the producer Busta Jones.
A live album was released soon after this one and it was simply titled Live. It was a rather spartan affair and while the performance was hot it was obviously just released to hold the fans until the next studio album. There were no inscriptions in the inner grooves.
The next inscriptions would be on the album In The Last Days. The A side "The old order changes..." The B side "...yielding place to new" In The Last Days was the band's last album, until they released a CD of new material recently, and the messages were all about the end of the band. Kevin Gray gave a lengthy interview in the Nashville music paper of the time, The Metro, about rock and roll being for the young and that it was time for him to step aside and go back to medical school. Which is just what he did. He now practices medicine in Texas. But luckily for us White Animals fans, the lure of playing rock and roll was too much for him and he got back together with his bandmates in 1999 for an incendiary pair of shows at the Exit/In. They've played a handful of shows every year since proving that you don't have to be young to rock. If The Rolling Stones can still do it, the White Animals should be able to also. So go out and see them next week at 12th and Porter. Nothing will be hidden in the inner grooves there.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Hello Larry
Has anybody ever saved your life? Literally saved your life? Somebody came close to saving mine once. I know that sounds weird since I'm obviously alive and all, but bear with me. He was the kid of my mother's best friend. He was the one that helped turn me on to the best that hip-hop had to offer back in the early 80's. His name: Larry Jones.
He was about 4-5 years younger than me. His mother worked with mine and they became best friends. So I got to spend lots of time with Larry on the weekends. Larry had a couple of older brothers. One was much older so we didn't have much to do with him. The other one was about 4 years older than me. My mother probably thought I'd become friends with him, but I couldn't stand the middle brother so I ended up hanging out with Larry. I never considered the kid my friend, but he liked Star Wars and Hot Wheels and when I was eleven those were important things. I also liked the fact that his parents could care less what we did.
I would spend the night on Saturday and get to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live. I could walk a few miles down the street to my girlfriend's house and spend the afternoon with her. It wasn't that I just used Larry. Far from it. We went down to Stewart's Creek many times just to wander the banks. We'd head out for a place where new homes were being built and have dirt clod wars with other kids from Larry's neighborhood. We'd spend lazy Sunday afternoons playing Star Wars or something else. I remember one day spent catapulting over the couch arm doing somersaults in the unused living room of Larry's home. I usually had fun hanging out with Larry.
But he often made things difficult. The age difference was one drawback. The other one was his completely wrecked homelife. His mother was a decent lady, but his father might as well have not been there. He was like a ghostly presence just hanging around rarely showing any emotion unless a ballgame was on the tube. This lack of control, while nice for me when I visited, was bad for Larry. He would get into insane screaming matches with his brothers that wouldn't end until he got belted one. I know this is not that unusual for a family, but these arguments happened constantly when he was around either of his brothers and the violence that always ensued couldn't have been too healthy.
I'd have to belt Larry too. He would decide to fight me and the fights always came from nowhere. We'd be having a good time and the next thing you know he'd be hitting me. Which was unwise since not only was I older, but I was much bigger. I'd let him hit me for awhile and ask him to stop since I hating fighting, but eventually his mosquito swats would piss me off enough to make me punch him in the head. It never took much more than one or two swings and he would stop. It wasn't until years later that I got to thinking that perhaps the reason he wanted to provoke me was some misguided attempt to find out if I actually liked him.
I sort of figured that Larry wasn't very popular with kids his own age from the way the neighborhood kids acted around him. But I found for sure when I was in 8th grade. I was invited to a big birthday blowout he was throwing at a local pizza parlor. I was having a great day just riding my bike around with some friends when my mother told me it was time to go to the party. I didn't want to go. I almost told my mother I wasn't going, but I decided it might be fun. I turned out to be the only kid who came to the party. He had invited everybody in his class at school. I felt awful for him. It was an embarrassing deal.
I started to see less of Larry. Not because his classmates hated him. It was because my family moved to the other side of the county. He came out a few times to see me at our new place. It was far out in the country so I told Larry that I had seen Bigfoot climbing the trees. He actually believed me. I knew then that I wouldn't be hanging out with him much more. I was in high school and he was still in grade school. He'd also taken to shoplifting and while I never told on him (until now) I wasn't a big fan of crime.
The shoplifting was probably just another manifestation of Larry's feelings of being unloved and unliked because his mother was always buying him stuff. He almost died then due to the onset of juvenile diabetes. I gave him a bunch of my comic books so he'd have something to read in the hospital. I was visiting him one cold winter weekend around this time when we decided to go see if the creek was frozen over. A thin film of ice covered the water under a bridge. There was a bunch of debris in the middle of the creek. A fallen log led to the debris. I decided to walk across the log. You can guess at what comes next.
I made it across the frozen solid log. Then I stepped onto the debris field. The thin ice gave way almost instantly plummeting me in freezing water up to my waist. This was disconcerting for a couple of reasons. One being that the water was very cold. Two was the fact that I couldn't swim. Yet I was oddly calm throughout the incident. Larry came across the log and helped me get out of the water. I could have just straddled the log and slid my way to safety, but I insisted on standing back up and walking back to the bank. Larry's house wasn't very far so I wasn't worried about frostbite. I got into a lukewarm bath and let me tell you...there was shrinkage. I don't recall Larry making a big deal about saving my life, since he didn't really. I was suitably grateful for the help he offered, but I pulled myself out of the water. I probably wouldn't have even attempted the stupid stunt if I had been down at the creek by myself.
But I wasn't down there by myself. I know the reason I didn't panic or become a "teenager drowns in frigid creek" byline was because I knew Larry would do whatever he could to help me if I couldn't help myself. My initial fear only lasting a few seconds. It was replaced by a little inner voice telling me how stupid I was followed by Larry yelling "Grab my hand." I had the log in a death grip by the time he said those words, but I know that he could have pulled me out if it had come down to it. That's about as close to saving a person's life as it gets I bet.
The reason I think about this is because Larry died a few years ago. I didn't even know he was dead until my mother told me months afterward. The diabetes combined with hard living caught up to him. He turned to more serious crime after he turned eighteen. He served time in prison and from what I could piece together he became nothing better than a two-bit thug. Just examined on the surface his life seems like it was a waste. Except he was there when I fell into a creek in the middle of a deep freeze ready and willing to offer me a helping hand. So here's to you Larry. I might have never considered you a friend when I was younger, but I'm proud to say you were my friend today.
He was about 4-5 years younger than me. His mother worked with mine and they became best friends. So I got to spend lots of time with Larry on the weekends. Larry had a couple of older brothers. One was much older so we didn't have much to do with him. The other one was about 4 years older than me. My mother probably thought I'd become friends with him, but I couldn't stand the middle brother so I ended up hanging out with Larry. I never considered the kid my friend, but he liked Star Wars and Hot Wheels and when I was eleven those were important things. I also liked the fact that his parents could care less what we did.
I would spend the night on Saturday and get to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live. I could walk a few miles down the street to my girlfriend's house and spend the afternoon with her. It wasn't that I just used Larry. Far from it. We went down to Stewart's Creek many times just to wander the banks. We'd head out for a place where new homes were being built and have dirt clod wars with other kids from Larry's neighborhood. We'd spend lazy Sunday afternoons playing Star Wars or something else. I remember one day spent catapulting over the couch arm doing somersaults in the unused living room of Larry's home. I usually had fun hanging out with Larry.
But he often made things difficult. The age difference was one drawback. The other one was his completely wrecked homelife. His mother was a decent lady, but his father might as well have not been there. He was like a ghostly presence just hanging around rarely showing any emotion unless a ballgame was on the tube. This lack of control, while nice for me when I visited, was bad for Larry. He would get into insane screaming matches with his brothers that wouldn't end until he got belted one. I know this is not that unusual for a family, but these arguments happened constantly when he was around either of his brothers and the violence that always ensued couldn't have been too healthy.
I'd have to belt Larry too. He would decide to fight me and the fights always came from nowhere. We'd be having a good time and the next thing you know he'd be hitting me. Which was unwise since not only was I older, but I was much bigger. I'd let him hit me for awhile and ask him to stop since I hating fighting, but eventually his mosquito swats would piss me off enough to make me punch him in the head. It never took much more than one or two swings and he would stop. It wasn't until years later that I got to thinking that perhaps the reason he wanted to provoke me was some misguided attempt to find out if I actually liked him.
I sort of figured that Larry wasn't very popular with kids his own age from the way the neighborhood kids acted around him. But I found for sure when I was in 8th grade. I was invited to a big birthday blowout he was throwing at a local pizza parlor. I was having a great day just riding my bike around with some friends when my mother told me it was time to go to the party. I didn't want to go. I almost told my mother I wasn't going, but I decided it might be fun. I turned out to be the only kid who came to the party. He had invited everybody in his class at school. I felt awful for him. It was an embarrassing deal.
I started to see less of Larry. Not because his classmates hated him. It was because my family moved to the other side of the county. He came out a few times to see me at our new place. It was far out in the country so I told Larry that I had seen Bigfoot climbing the trees. He actually believed me. I knew then that I wouldn't be hanging out with him much more. I was in high school and he was still in grade school. He'd also taken to shoplifting and while I never told on him (until now) I wasn't a big fan of crime.
The shoplifting was probably just another manifestation of Larry's feelings of being unloved and unliked because his mother was always buying him stuff. He almost died then due to the onset of juvenile diabetes. I gave him a bunch of my comic books so he'd have something to read in the hospital. I was visiting him one cold winter weekend around this time when we decided to go see if the creek was frozen over. A thin film of ice covered the water under a bridge. There was a bunch of debris in the middle of the creek. A fallen log led to the debris. I decided to walk across the log. You can guess at what comes next.
I made it across the frozen solid log. Then I stepped onto the debris field. The thin ice gave way almost instantly plummeting me in freezing water up to my waist. This was disconcerting for a couple of reasons. One being that the water was very cold. Two was the fact that I couldn't swim. Yet I was oddly calm throughout the incident. Larry came across the log and helped me get out of the water. I could have just straddled the log and slid my way to safety, but I insisted on standing back up and walking back to the bank. Larry's house wasn't very far so I wasn't worried about frostbite. I got into a lukewarm bath and let me tell you...there was shrinkage. I don't recall Larry making a big deal about saving my life, since he didn't really. I was suitably grateful for the help he offered, but I pulled myself out of the water. I probably wouldn't have even attempted the stupid stunt if I had been down at the creek by myself.
But I wasn't down there by myself. I know the reason I didn't panic or become a "teenager drowns in frigid creek" byline was because I knew Larry would do whatever he could to help me if I couldn't help myself. My initial fear only lasting a few seconds. It was replaced by a little inner voice telling me how stupid I was followed by Larry yelling "Grab my hand." I had the log in a death grip by the time he said those words, but I know that he could have pulled me out if it had come down to it. That's about as close to saving a person's life as it gets I bet.
The reason I think about this is because Larry died a few years ago. I didn't even know he was dead until my mother told me months afterward. The diabetes combined with hard living caught up to him. He turned to more serious crime after he turned eighteen. He served time in prison and from what I could piece together he became nothing better than a two-bit thug. Just examined on the surface his life seems like it was a waste. Except he was there when I fell into a creek in the middle of a deep freeze ready and willing to offer me a helping hand. So here's to you Larry. I might have never considered you a friend when I was younger, but I'm proud to say you were my friend today.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Vacation
Where have I been? Technically on vacation, except I've spent two days washing the siding on my house with one more to go. If only I had a pressure washer! One side of the house will have to wait until I get one, but luckily it's the side that gets most of the sunlight during the day so the mildew invasion there is minimal. I will be back next week with reviews of the Donovan boxset - Donovan being one of the few hippies I've ever liked, a review of the Screeching Weasel best of that hits stores next week, and a look back at Nashville's White Animals since they'll be playing 12th and Porter soon. Well, time to take Harper to her 2nd regular season soccer game and then it'll be back to the bleach and water mixture I'm using to clean the house and then it'll get even better - mowing the lawn before it gets dark. Where's Rex L. Camino and his landscape expertise when I need it?
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