Thursday, July 28, 2005

Calling Mr. Greenfeet!...

...Come in, please! I should look up some statistics on lawn mowing accidents from cutting the grass in bare feet, I suppose. But the lawn is mostly flat, mostly, and the mower does have a stop bar so if I let go of the handle it shuts off in, like, a millisecond or two at the outside. Besides, it feels good even thought there is plenty of weedy stuff to prick my tender soles. And they are tender, hardly ever get barefoot anymore outside the confines of four walls. So I should toughen the peds up a little, in case I ever have to escape in a fire or some other disaster and don't have time to hunt up footwear. Grass-hardened feet will be a real asset in that scenario, guaranteed.

I don't know what else to add today. I think about stuff all day long that I think might be amusing, to myself, at least, and then until I get planeted in front of the keys I've forgotten any nuggets of joy that might otherwise be reposited herein.

Back to the feet, in addition to callusing the soles for emergency use, barefootedness has got to be good for circulation, posture, what else? Just one's general well-being, I would think. Getting tactile with the earth and all. Same goes for tree climbing and skipping rocks in a creek. Well, technically I guess you skip rocks on a creek not in a creek.

Speaking of getting in touch with nature, PBS Fresh Air repored on a documentary called Grizzly Man this afternoon on the way home from work. Chronicles thirteen years of grizzly observation in Alaska by a fellow named Treadwell. Seems he had real issues with people- who doesn't at one point or another?!? -and preferred the company of bears. Not close company like an ursine Jane Goodall or anything but filming them and recording his feelings about them and so forth. Sad to say, he ultimately met his end at the paws of an apparently unfriendly- and hungry -grizzly. Ow-uch.

It was interesting to hear the director's commentary in one place because, unlike Treadwell who was so invested in the bears' personalities and his own familiarity with many individual creatures, this impartial observer saw only 'dispassionate, almost bored indifference in the bears' blank stare', to paraphase his eloquent obversations. Oh, and hunger too. Smart man, I think.

And speaking of 'fresh air', I treated the Hyundai's cloth seats with Febreze again today. I like cloth seats in a car but they're not so great when you climb in all sweated up after work and keep the windows closed to keep the dust out and then run AC continually because it's like a veritable pizza oven outside lately. If I'm not mistaken, Febreze is actually a suspension of teeny, weeny bug things that, once they're exposed to air, come to life and get busy eating the teeny, weeny particulate matter that retains that stale, closed-in, odoriferous scent way down deep in the seats. Cool.

Finally, in another case of misplaced product placement, I brought home a half gallon of Turkey Hill Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream this week and a bag of Frito-Lay Premium Mixed Nuts to add in with the ice cream. I do this because Ben & Jerry's long ago ceased production of their Dibert brand ice cream, Totally Nuts; white hazelnut ice cream that was loaded, nay, polluted with nuts! Peanuts, brazil nuts, walnuts, macadamias, you name it, if it is classified a nut, it was in there. Did I mention I love nuts? I do. (My wife will verify this fact, ba-dum-dum! In fact, she and her nearly as wacky sister did so quite readily and without prodding at dinner last night, remarking upon my entree of shrimp in a honey walnut sauce...) Cashews not so much, but everything else, yum.  Plus it featured big, big chunks of white chocolate. I might almost maybe give up meat if they would bring it back and I could live on it without blowing up like a white Fat Albert. But I digress...

As you no doubt know, most nuts are, if not cheap, not extravagantly priced. The notable exception being white macadamia nuts(do they come in other colors?!?)as they are apparently hydroponically grown in a super-secret space lab in hidden orbit behind the moon. Thus the supply is always dwindling between super-secret space flights and shuttle disasters to the point where only the super-rich can afford them. And then they have to keep it super-secret where they get them. Which is why you never saw Paris Hilton eating them on that show, what was it called? Road Trip with Clueless, Spoiled Rich Girls or whatever... All I know is they used Green Acres theme music and now Eddie Albert is dead, you do the math!

The point is Frito-Lay's Premium Mixed Nuts- it was a teeny bag, I'll grant, still it was around two bucks. Not a fortune but I could have four hot dogs for the same price at that fine establishment. Or two Big Grab bags of some variety of potato chip. Or... -Anyway, the point was, is, that it contained exactly two, two lousy macadamias. And one of the two was no bigger than your average green pea, no lie.

Am I a little non-plussed? I say 'Yes'. I think on my next foray into the Turkey Hill store I will make a point of learning the Frito-Lay company's consumer comment 800 number so that I might voice my displeasure to the appropriate degree and to someone with real authority to right this wrong posthaste. Or know the reason why. And, if I receive no satisfaction, henceforth I will refer to said company as 'Cheat-O Lay'. Unpleasant but factual, I think.

Holy "'We're burnin' daylight!', said John Wayne!" I gotta go finish cutting the grass!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

No news...

... is good news, they say. Unless it means the news is just too sucky to report. Suffice to say, it is a 'bitter' evening at the ranch, compounding recent revoltin' developments with offspring who shall remain nameless. Brother, can you spare a rod?!? I guess I gave my parents the same kind of heartaches, I know I did, it just seemed it was harmless from my side of the fence. Having crossed over that way crooked stile a long, long while ago, it seems not so innocuous these games teens play. What do you do when they're too big to beat and think they've gotten too smart to listen when you reason with them? Let 'em take their lumps where they find 'em and pray it doesn't do too much damage, I guess.

In the 'Escape from Reality' department:  I put on some Chris Isaak and played along where I could find a chord or two. I love that old-timey, big reverb guitar, it's not 'surf', it's not exactly 'rockabilly', not sure how you'd classify it. I should learn more about his band, the guitar parts- both rhythms and lead parts -are super-duper; spare, not too flashy but beautiful, haunting in places. 'Graduation Day' is a favorite and tonight I figured out most of 'Forever Blue'. Suh-weet! I don't know what I'll ever do with 'em as I don't think I could ever sing either well enough to present to an audience and I'm not likely to join a group who might swing that way anytime soon! Well, it's fun for me to amuse myself though the family usually gets sick of them by the time I get a song figured out well enough to hobble through it the whole way.

Speaking of songs, still waiting to hear from my former bandmates about that CD, meanwhile started a little cartoon of the group that'll serve as album art, as it were. Just a scribble thus far, didn't even use any photos yet for facial references, so it's got a way to go before it becomes viewable. Should be fun working it out so the drummer and myself can be cropped out and new band members added for future editions.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Monday weirdness

I caught just the end of a TV biopic on Martin and Lewis last night and I guess together with that infomercial running late night selling Dean's old variety show with all the TV star guests of the period- John Wayne, Michael Landon, et al -it called to mind this CD. I knew it was in the archives somewhere, I don't remember where or when I got it exactly,hmmmm... Man, it is some old-timey stuff lyrically and musically but, boy, could that guy sing. Beautiful, syrupy, indolent almost lazy seeming in his delivery, like he's not trying too hard and it just comes out that way. Like singing is just as natural as speaking, too cool.

It's weird, I guess, because I didn't grow up recognizing him as a singer but more as an actor from appearing with John Wayne in The Sons Of Katie Elder and Rio Bravo. I'm sure I'd heard Everybody Loves Somebody but that was about it.

I'd more or less forgotten about all those movies with Jerry Lewis. As much as I grew to love wacky, off-the-wall comics like Robin Williams, Gallagher and the like, I never really cared for Jerry Lewis' comedy stylings. The exception being Visit To A Small Planet. Or was it Vist To A Small Planet Revisited...? Either way, I'm sure that served as a blueprint for My Favorite Martian, one of my favorite shows as a kid. Which, in turn, certainly had something to do with Mork and Mindy later on.

My cousin Jeff Hixon reminds a lot me of Dean Martin as he's matured. Maybe it's the attitude more than anything else, always seems cool because he's a coupla years older. When he was 18 or 19 my grandmother used to call out, "Jesus!" when he came in the room. He had long hair and a beard and looked just like the lighted pictures she had hanging in her living room. Funny. It was like that David Koresh joke, wonder he didn't develop a messiah complex. He works as a photographer instead.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Family album

Okay, I did not have a link to the Family Foto Fest posted herein so I've corrected that oversight, see the 'Other Journals' box at left. I must have posted one within an entry at some point otherwise I'm babbling about family photos for no good reason and to no good effect.

Hey, here it is again! McCue Family Foto Fest 

Nothing like making sure....

Thursty Thursday

Aaaahhh, only one more workday to the week, suh-weeet! What was I gonna write here?!? Oh, yeah... I cut the grass Monday, I swear I did, two days later it's already looking hairy again!!! I can't believe it! I have to keep ahead of it or the neighbor guy runs over it with his tractor which, we agreed when he moved in, is supposed to be used only in the 'lower forty', the big back yard where it's not so critical that it look somewhat manicured. Aye-yi-yi... I have to check the forecast, see if there's a coupla degerees difference coming up anytime soon or wait until just before dark when the sun won't be beating down like a monster magnifying glass overhead! At least we haven't broken that 100 degree mark like some places in the country, low 90s is the worst we've had to deal with. The humdidity has broken a little too, they say it helps...

At any rate, all day I was thinking, 'Tonight I'm gonna crack open a beer or two or three and sit in the yard under the tree sweating on my plastic lounge chair and play guitar to myself and the setting sun.' That's what I was thinking all day, yup. Haven't learned any of those Beatle songs yet, maybe I'll drag a radio out and put on the oldies station and try playing along with whatever comes on. You can learn a little about every song and a lot about none in particular that way. Every so often one sticks in your head even.

First I have to run over to Barry's, the little country store over the hill, and gas up the car. I'm on 'E' for energy and got five bucks until tomorrow but I can float him a check for the gas and some broasted chicken for dinner to boot. It'll go well with the fine vinatge beer I've chosen. Aaaaahhhh....

Oh, yeah, I added a few new pics to the Family Foto album. I do have a link over here, right? I've got a handful more I culled from my daughter's collection, she has a storehouse of about fifteen of those little foto books in her room all to herself! Still have to scan most of them, it's a fun project and one of these days I'll even let my family members know it's up and running! Oy...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Un dia mas en paradiso

Slow day, slow week actually. Sunday mi esposa y hijo left for OC with a handful of nieces, a day earlier than planned so I had the afternoon free as mi hija was camping out in her Mum's absence with her tio y tia. Easier for them to bring her back and forth to her work as it conflicts with my work schedule.

So I tagged along for the afternoon with my erstwhile bandmate, bassist Jimmy Rave, to Camp Hill to check out the vocal recording on the big WS demo CD. Talk about bittersweet, I'd love to hang with 'em and play rock star, it really is a blast- and they twisted my arm mightily to keep me on board; very flattering and, I'm not being humble, far beyond what my skill level deserves! -but it's just too much time and energy to devote for my own selfish pleasure week after week. Wrapped up around 10 and scurried home to rest up for another exciting work week. The recording guy, Bill, says he should have a rough mix Wednesday and, with everybody's approval, a batch of CD's the following week. Yay! Jim's looking into a rehearsal space in York, right out the road from my work, in fact. If that works out I might be able to just show up once in a while and jam out with 'em every so often.

Monday night I cut the ankle deep grass, it's been raining off and on all last week and the weekend I just didn't get around to it. I wanted to put off a section by the side of the house again but since I neglected it last week I absolutely had to knock it down too. What a job! Hot, sticky, sweaty, ughhh. I seriously thought I'd have a stroke until I was done! I should trail the garden hose after when I do it, it's all push mowing after all, and just keep a shower running over meself all the while. Hmm, now that's a good idea....

Then I cleaned up and ran down to Mom's for din-din. No Wiggins cake, drats, she says she's forgotten how to cook and bake and really had to think about how she used to make salmon cakes. Stayed and yapped until 28 Days with Sandra Bullock came on, can't really recommend the flick but it does have Viggo Mortensen in it as a rehabbing baseball player. When I got home the sunstroke symptoms really kicked in and I thought my bean would split before I finally got to sleep.

What else is new? Got my CD copies of a Japanese band, Loudness, and VH's Diver Down today. The Japanese players are awe-inspiring, very tight, great sounding 80s metal sort of band- especially the guitarist, Akira Takasaki, a virtual Japanese Eddie VH, amazing! -and it's pretty interesting to hear the guy singing the lyrics in English which, at the time it was recorded at least, he didn't speak at all. "We gonna rawk yew!!!" Lock on, dudesss!

 

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Fest fotos

The photographic record of the pilgrimage to the SuperMegaShow featuring Adam West cand be found in the 'Classic Plastick Photo album', 2nd link at left under 'Other Journals'. Fun stuff. They are about halfway down the page, smack dab in the middle of my archive of old/new photos from the Classic Plastick Toy Company, hence the,uh,.. title.. of the album... there.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Metal shavings...er, cravings

The much vaunted, undaunted, publicly un-flaunted... (what else rhymes with vaunted...?) original lineup (if you don't count the two, or was it three? vocalists who didn't stay very long...) of Waysted Sylence got a start on it's recording career this past weekend. Bill, a fellow denizen of the storage facility home of WS and at least a dozen other local bands, drummer with Wake Up Call At The Graveyard (www.wakeupcallatthegraveyard.com) and part-time recording guy, showed up with mikes and cables, headphones and mixing board, not to mention a generous supply of pineapple slices and blueberries, ready to commit our epileptic flailings to tape. We got everything tuned up, got some cool individual sounds on the instruments and proceeded to butcher half a dozen songs we've only played a hundred, maybe two hundred times before. Seriously, there are moments of brilliance- well, at least one moment of brilliance -coupled with sheer bedlam and a healthy component of 'red light fever' thrown in to keep things interesting. That's what Bill called it when the knowledge that tape is rolling interferes with a simple thing such as musical expression. Hey, he called our stuff 'music'! Maybe he was just being kind. The way you can't help feeling sorry for a three-legged dog.

I'm not sure what'll become of it since vocals have yet to be added. And whether I'll be able to contribute anything more toward the 'finished' product is up in the air. My family is counting on that session being the last of Daddy's rock star pretending. Hmmm, you'd think they'd be glad to get my noisemaking out of the house!

Saturday, July 9, 2005

Holy Swooning Batfans!

Well, the NJ SuperMegaShow was a hit! It was just me and Bat-work-buddy Patoo to take in all the sights and sounds and smells all day long, 3 hours on the nose to get there via the turnpike, first sight on turning into the hotel parking lot: the Batmobile and Black Beauty parked in the handicapped zone. They were definitely replicas, there's no doubt, but still very, very cool to see despite the somewhat cheesy display. They stood up big cardboard standees of Batman and Robin next to the Batmobile along with costumes folded on the rear canopy deck draped down over the seats and big poster from that movie Rock Star showing the scenes with the car(which was on Friday night, great primer for seeing the car today!)Green Hornet's BB had Kato and Hornet hats and masks, gas gun and so forth on the seats. At one point the guy opened the trunk of BB and we raced back to see if the robot scanner was in there. It wasn't. Anyway, Pat took about a hundred pix of the two along with the rest of the days adventures and he's gonna try and get one-hour photos tomorrow, hopefully I can get some scanned and posted this week then.
    The vendor part of the show was pretty good, good sized room and about evenly divided between video- a LOT of obscure stuff on DVD I'm sure from who-knows-how-many-generations-removed-from-the-original-tape and a little pricey for that kinda source material if you ask me - and collectibles/comics dealers. One or two even had some cool vintage stuff; Munsters remcos, coupla Soakies, Kenner Aliens. Pat2 bought the Batman Ring Club Vari-Vue flicker display sign from the 60s gumball machines, cool. Dr. Mego was there as was Johnny's Resin Kits with his big Batman, Robin and Batgirl statues. Guest stars included Peter Mayhew(Chewbacca), Anthony Daniels(C3PO), Joanna Cameron from the 70s Isis Saturday TV show, the guy who wore the Predator suit in the movies, who was huge, bigger than Chewbacco guy I think. Coupla others I didn't know, Chucky boy, etc., some fantasy and comic artists and a handful of scantily clad women, Playmates and scream queens or something. Peter Scolari cancelled, probably had to keep a date with Tom Hanks.
    Adam West and Burt Ward were both very cool, taking time to chatter with most despite the long lines. We kinda waited it out for the lines to mellow out, first time thru the camera malfunctioned so I couldn't getPat w/ Burt. So we went back later when the line died down and tried again, waited for Burt to take a cell phone call from his daughter who was reporting that she had finished cleaning her room, then took turns posing with the Boy Wonder, neat-o!
   I got Adam's autograph on a shot of him holding the giant bomb over his head from the movie. Tremulously made my fanboy offering of my homemade Adam West doll, mint-in-box no less, and he seemed suitably impressed with it, asked where I got it and when I said I made it he asked if I would be interested in offering them thru his website. Cool! Of course, I had no business cards, mainly because I, uh, have no business cards so I'll try emailing thru his website this week and see if they wanna actually put some on there or if that was just friendly banter on his part.
    Pat2 got a pair of big prints of a shot from the '66 feature film where they're standing in the Batmobile on the Batphone with Admiral Fangschleister, got both to sign, one to him, one to his daughter. A not inexpensive proposition since both Bat-heroes were getting a nice fee to do the signing. Ouch! I was determined I wasn't gonna spring more than X dollars but I gave in to Bat-geek-swooning hero love and bought Adam's anyway.
    Other than that there were a handful of costume wearers; some Jedi, Imperial stormtroopers, not one but two TV Batmen and a Dark Knight Robin. We got pix with them too, watch for them to be added to one of the photo galleries soon.
   That was the whole day in a nutshell, lotta walking around looking at the same toys and comics in between waiting for Adam and Burt, lotta drooling over the Batmobile. Hey, these days a spiffy replica Batcar can be had for the price of a loaded Corvette! Oh, well, I can't afford a Corvette either so I guess that leaves me out...
   I think I'm definitely going to start saving for a Batsuit to wear to the next big show. Just need a pair of boots with big heels and some lifts inside the boots. And tall ears. And a boyish figure what looks good in tights and a cape again.


Thursday, July 7, 2005

Naturally, you didn't know...

If you can finish that quote, you are a true Bat-geek! I'm boning up on my Batmania- last week BeatleMania, now BatMania! It's a virtual sixties style fest of psycho/pop culture manifestations! What's next?!? Warhol soup cans? A homespun lunar landing hoax? Plastic clothing?!?

The Batmania is in preparation for a road trip to Secaucus NJ this Saturday to see the real Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward, in the flesh. Er, Bat-flesh. Holy hero worship! I made a trip with three buddies, shortly after the onset of my adult reinvestment in the Caped Crusader, out to Pittsburgh in '89 to greet Mr. West and have him autograph my copy of the March '66 LIFE magazine with his(goofy)picture on the cover. What a treat! Of course, he noticed that my Bat-T-shirt featured, not a vintage style Batman image, rather the plain jane, 'new' Bat-logo on black. Sad to say, I haven't a vintage style shirt to wear to this outing either... Horrors! Maybe I can borrow one before Saturday...

Anyway, it should be fun as a few toy/TV geek buddies will be making this trip along with too. We'll spend the day gawking at the offerings of all the vendors, rubbing shoulders with the other comic/culture nerds in attendance, tremulously approaching the men who used to wear the capes, "O Great Dynamic Duo... We are not worthy!..." Even slavering over the Batmobile, too cool!

And the quote? Batman to Mr. Freeze(George Sanders): "Naturally, you didn't know I was wearing my special super-thermal-B long underwear!"

Monday, July 4, 2005

MeatleBania

I'm not sure what happened to the planned recording of rehearsal for my erstwhile band yesterday. Methinks it was another carefully laid scheme of mice and men and oft gag aglee, as the saying goes, it gogged... or gleed. Check my spelling on the auld Scots there, I really know nothing about... well, I don't even know who it quotes. I only know it in passing from Steinbeck's title and a Batman episode, natch.

But it was a great day to do nothing anyway. So we packed up a little WalMart baggie of picnic goods and went to Springettsbury Park where they have free music shows through the summer. This week was BeatleMania Now, a very swell tribute to the Fab Four. I missed it last time through so I was determined to see what it was like this time. Not disappointing, for sure. The 'John' and 'George' bore some resemblance even to their role models but every one of them was obviously an accomplished musician and singer. There were a handful of songs I didn't recognize as I'm not what you'd call a dyed-in-the-wool Beatle fan but all the ones I did know were spot on, note for note. The PA was modern, of course- and LOUD, it's an open air amphitheatre sort of venue and we got there only an hour before the show so our seats were stage left and you couldn't see the stage at all so we had to take turns ambling up front, right by the PA speakers, to get a glimpse of the show - but all the instruments and amps were all vintage, very cool to see the lineup of vintage Rickenbackers and Gibsons.

I thought to myself there could be worse gigs for a working musician than wearing a wig and nehru jacket putting on a period piece like that. I would think the venues they play must usually be upscale and the audience well-behaved. And it would be fun, I mean, they have to be voice actors as well, doing that Liverpudlian english and making the pedestrian little jokes and banter between songs. Plus adding tidbits of Beatle history and song notes. I wonder if they started out as diehard Beatle fans or just got into it as a paying gig. I wanted to ask afterward I went to the little merchandise table and got a poster and had 'John' (Scot Arch)and 'George' (John Perry)autograph it to my daughter as she seemed the most into the spectacle. But they were moving things right along and I hated to be a pest so I let it go at a handshake and 'Great job, lads!'. I would think they'd have to be serious about the music to do it night after night and do such a great job.

http://www.beatlemanianow.com

There's the link for your perusal. I'm sure the 'Paul' we saw was not the guy on the website. They introduced him as 'Marmaduke Thorogood III'... go figure that one out. Maybe it's an inside Beatle sort of joke. Anyway, he did a swell job too, makes me wanna learn 'Yesterday' for sure. Made it look easy anyway.