The second Monday in December…
Today’s music trivia is an American rock band that began
back in 1969 and released their first album back in 1973 and has had may a
lineup change in members. After a
breakup in 1979, they reformed again in 1987 and continue to play today. Their
eclectic blend of rock & roll, blues, R&B, boogie, country, folk,
gospel, soul, funk and jazz fusion influences have given them a broad breadth
of music. Being hugely influenced by
Frank Zappa, Lowell George, the founder of the band, was fired from “The
Mothers of Invention” because he wrote the song, “Willin’”, a song about drugs,
which was a no-no for Zappa. It was hard
to believe that Zappa never did drugs or alcohol, sort of like Ted Nugent,
completely sober individuals with some strange talent and some eclectic
lyrics. Lowell George, singer/song
writer/guitarist teamed up with keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 and formed this
group in question. Hit songs such as,
“Dixie Chicken”, “Spanish Moon”, “Don’t Bogart that Joint”, “Oh Atlanta”, and
“Willin’” received some quality air time on the radio. Can you name this eclectic American
band? This one may be a bit tougher than
some of the ones in the past.
Lisa K correctly answered the trivia question the other day
with, “Kansas”. She wins the prize for
the day! Nice job, Maynard. Keep playing
the game.
While surfing the net, I ran across that song, “We’re Never
Be Royals”, but it was sung by this huge sad clown called, “Puddles Pity
Party”. I was like, “WTF”? Then I listened to it. This guy is amazing! His name is actually Michael Geire, but his
stage persona is this sad clown called Puddles.
Anyway, I was really taken back by his talent as a singer and
performer. Take a minute to check it out
via Google or You Tube. I think you
might be pleasantly surprised!
For some odd reason, I have always liked to learn new things
whether it be trivial information or something worth knowing on an educational
level. Why do I watch shows such as
“Survivorman” and “Man vs Wild” is because I plan on being that guy that
survived the elements of nature out in the wild. I’ve been known to start a fire with damp
wood and very little chance of doing so.
Why? Because I watch, study and learn.
I’ve started fires in the wild with a magnifying glass, with a car
battery, with flint and a knife, etc. I
never could get a fire started with a couple of sticks even though I have tried
for hours to do so. That is a difficult
task to accomplish. That is why when I
go camping I always have me flint stick either with my survival knife or on a
lanyard around my neck. I really can’t
get enough learning. They say, if you’re
not growing, you are dying!
The biking into work is getting much easier it seemed
today. I tried working on my Whizzer
bicycle yesterday, the one with the small gas motor, but I couldn’t get it to
start. I think the fuel has gummed up
the system a bit since it has been sitting for a while so I took out the fuel
filter and also drained the fuel in the bowl of the carburetor. I will work on it a bit today after work to
see again if I can get it started. I did
notice that the rear tire is not centered properly in the fender as it should
be. This could be a problem since it is
a beach cruiser and has those big whitewall balloon tires, which make it kinda
tight in those fenders. I did notice
that the headlight was still working. I was afraid that it would be corroded
since it has sat for about a year. If
you are not going to use a battery-powered item, remove the batteries so it
won’t corrode. You can always pop the
batteries back in when you are ready to use it.
It will save that item from corroding needlessly. I have learned that lesson the hard way ruining
whatever item I spent good money on. Anyways,
I’ll be working on it and try to get it running again today.
My neighbor Mack is a boat captain as well as a boat
mechanic. He has a yellow 1975 Chevy Van
he uses for work to haul all of his tools and needed equipment to perform his
mechanical duties. These past few months
he has been working on it to get it painted.
He has designed a paint scheme of yellow and metallic green to customize
it to his desires and he has been working on it for quite some time. He has finally got the yellow paint down and
has the green metallic paint sprayed also.
He had to do a lot of masking to get this all accomplished and it is
looking good. His style is defiantly
centered in the 70s and he is almost complete with it all. I estimate he will be completely done with
this project around January, next month.
Not sure why I decided to mention this, but it is down on paper already,
so I guess it stays.
Snoopy had a relaxing time this past weekend lounging around
our beach pad basically doing nothing at all.
It rained most of Saturday, so we just stayed inside and watched some
TV. I wanted to do some writing as I
sometimes get in the mood, but I had left my laptop in my cube at work on
Friday and I was too lazy to look for and use pen and paper. Then I would have to transcribe it onto my
computer later and that just seemed like too much work at the time. Talk about being a lazy guy…
I tend to watch a lot of British television programs such as
Top Gear, Wheeler Dealers, Monty Python, Benny Hill, etc, and when I used to
travel to the UK frequently, I would unknowingly begin using phrases they use
and pronounce words the way they do and end up using their slang words. They often use the inflection on different
syllables in words. It used to bug a lot of my friends all of the time.
For example, instead of tell them I would call them up on
the phone, I would say I’ll give you a ring.
Garage would come our Gare-age… Instead of truck I would call it a
lorry. Restroom became the loo. Aluminum would be come Al-u-minium. Weekend
became week-end. Sorry = excuse me. A
fortnight = two weeks. Sod is a slang for f*cker, as in, you silly sod. They
even have different dialects just as we do here which can be confusing. I still
use some of their slang and pronounce some words as they do.
I also have a Texas twang with some words due to the 2 years
I spent living in Texas, or as they say Taxes.
It took me a full year to figure out that Shurf meant Sherriff. And I am
really sorry for the ‘yall that comes out every now and then. Even living here
in Southern California has influenced my speaking from the Spanish I learned
from my Mexican friends and the surfing influenced slang from decades of living
my life here. Dudes, I am totally stoked
to practice and use Spanish as much as possible! My sincere apologies for my totally
gnarly use of our language. Heh heh… J
Why do I have such difficulty with listening to podcasts or
watching online videos? Why do I lose
connection to a podcast or the video I am watching decides to stop every two
seconds? It really pisses me off. I have the top of the line iphone5S and
MacBook Air laptop and an internet connection and I have all these problems
with the simplest of tasks. If anyone
can help me, lease let me know. It is
really beginning to piss me off lately and I have dished out a lot of money to
have this capability. WTF am I doing
wrong? Anyone?
I have a good friend that is tired of being treated like a
doormat from her management. She is
required to travel for work constantly and she is tired of the travel. She has just had to move her office once
again to a very small cube that is not really appropriate for someone of her
pay grade. She is eligible to retire
this next April but she want to work another 5-6 years to buy a brand new car
and pay off some loan she has. She is
better off financially than I am, but I plan to retire next January anyways. I
told her to get her retirement paperwork in line so when she is ready to go she
will be pretty much ready. I said that
will tell your boss that you are serious about being unhappy there in the
workforce. At least her boss will know
she is an asset and might treat her differently.
Does anybody out there have any suggestions? I don’t know why I bother asking you guys
anything. You guys rarely provide me any input.
This is supposed to be a dialog, not a monologue… L
Okay, time to close out this lengthy blog post for today.
Snoopy says, Wag More, Bark Less…
Until next time… Be Good!
- cb
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