Wednesday, August 03, 2022

It's still rock and roll to me

 Music has always been my thing. So is listening to the radio. e 21st century has changed things a bit. First came satellite radio. Then came internet radio.

I'm a fan of both. Who wants to be a Luddite to the point you're dialing in a fuzzy AM station?! 

My disorder is such that I have to be selective. Some days are painful enough that music is out of the question. 

But, it's my passion. So, I've found ways on good days. 

One is listening to Bing Crosby. That warm baritone is actually rather soothing. I have quite the Crosby collection, but he's also got a great internet station at http://bingcrosby.com -- You'll hear Arne Fogel there and on his weekly show The Bing Shift. Google it. 

Closer to home, Wayne Bledsoe is helping get Real Knoxville Music going. It's a fantastic platform for local and regional musicians. Yes, I've heard Jill Andrews and WestWend on there! Check out http://realKnoxvillemusic.com

Finally, Brad Goldman and some dedicated folks have re-created LA's The Mellow Sound, KNX-FM 93 online at http://themellowsound.net 

You can find mellow pop/rock songs from roughly 1973-83, and it's one of the best internet stations out there. Brad says they've even found original programming notes and have put the playlists to good use. You'll hear more than hits. 

All of these stations, plus thousands of others, are free. Chances are you can find a station for any mood. 

A wise person once said that without a song, the day would never end. Surf around and find something that fits your style. You'll be glad you did.

Monday, August 01, 2022

The man with Bogart's face

It's one of those old paperbacks that smells like it's aged right along with my bad eyesight. 

Smell is a form of time travel. The scent takes me back to young adulthood. I read a lot of books. 

My condition gives me fits with reading these days, so I like to listen to audiobooks. But this title caught my attention. "The Man with Bogart's Face." 

It's an homage to those glorious films of the '40s in which the good guy wins, the bad guy loses, and the girl always looks like Reese Witherspoon. 

How can you beat an homage to Bogart! These old adventure novels are easier for me to read. So I try one ever so often. 

Movies these days want to depress you. Well, I get enough of that in the news. So when I sit down to one, or a book tribute to one, I wanna have a good time and laugh. 

This one is fun, filled with wisecracks and explosive action. 

As he did on the silver screen, Bogie delivers. 

Here's looking at you, kid...

Friday, July 29, 2022

Lotteries I'd like to win

 So, the Mega Millions lottery stands at $1 billion. 

Let me start by saying I'd love to win. Course, I'd have to play in order to win. 

What would I do with a billion bucks? 

I'd build a modest home in Florida for my health. I'd pay off my family and close friends' bills. I'd buy a Ferrari and a majordomo named Higgins. And I'd help people. 

But let's think. What would be better than that kind of money? 

Oh, a few things.

I'd like to see peace in Ukraine. 

Heck, I'd like to see peace in the United States...

I'd like to be healthy again. 

I'd like to go to dinner with the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. 

I'd like to see my nieces grow up and be successful. 

I'd like to buy my mom a new house. Her condo is filled with poignant memories now that my stepdad is gone. 

I'd like to outlaw hatred and bigotry and poverty and lawlessness. 

I'd like to cure all those diseases we despise. 

As it is, I've got silver in the stars and gold in the sun. 

It's enough. 


Thursday, July 28, 2022

Music and memories (but no martinis)

It's almost 1 a m., and I'm listening to one of those Jackie Gleason records that reminds me I was born too late. 

Time on my hands, and you in my arms...

Those Gleason records sound really good on my 1960 Montgomery Ward hi-fi. Look one up on YouTube. They're relaxing.  

I don't know where all this nostalgia stuff comes from, but it's a sincere thing. This song reminds me of slow dancing with my prom date. Those were the days...

My buddy Bill brought by a couple of books. Both by John D. MacDonald. It was a nice surprise. Bill is a thoughtful chap. 

Got together with my friend and former Spanish teacher SeƱor Doug Bright on Tuesday night. We ended up at Downtown Grill. He told me about his recent family vacation and I talked about what I usually talk about -- girls and music. 

Wednesday night, Bill, Jim, Robert, and I went to Asia Kitchen. Those guys are the greatest. We laughed and talked and I tried not to get sesame chicken on my clothes. 

I'm going to try to write these ditties when I feel like I can. I miss writing, and it helps my health to talk a little bit through the written word.

It also helps me feel better when I can listen to music. I can just see Gleason, the Great One, conducting his orchestra. It's perfect for a late night benediction.

Time on my hands, and you in my arms...

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Seizing the day

 In the stillness of early morning, I remember.

Jill Andrews is singing "Boundless Love." I'm thinking of the Raymond Carver short stories I read yesterday. He knows how to make the words dance.

Got ideas for a couple of short stories myself. Maybe my head will ease so I can compose them. I've got a few things to say.

Wasn't feeling well last night (still am not), so I listened to the radio "Gunsmoke." Matt Dillon punishing the bad guys. If only life were that simple.

My happiest time was the spring of '94. I think about it often. I think about the people who crossed my life then, and I wish I could reach back. But I did the best I could. Time, and life, slips through that hourglass fast as it can.  

Heading back to Florida soon. Might be after the new year, but it's time to go for good. Health comes first. 

Act when you can, y'all. Make the phone call, go to the concert, buy the book, take the vacation. Time, alas, can't return. 

It's just after 5 a.m., and the sun still slumbers. Soon it will shine on another day. I'll do my best to make the best of it, and I hope you will too. 

Nobody said it was going to be easy. 

But I remember. And I grin.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Around the next bend...

It doesn't seem real.

Six years after the surgery changed my life, I wait for answers. I tell myself that it could always be worse. And I wait.

Life is funny. It chugs along like one of those old wooden roller coasters that have fallen out of favor. You go up, you go down. You can't wait to get off, then you miss the ride once it's gone.

I want my life back. It's difficult to sit idly by while the world passes like sands through the hour glass, to coin a phrase.

Six years.

I don't recognize the country anymore. It's having a nervous breakdown. We've been here before, but this feels different. Way too much anger. Way too much noise. Braggarts and bombast are in fashion. I despise both.

So, I listen to "Gunsmoke," laugh with Jack Benny, fight crime with Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. I get by.

All I know is to keep going forward. I'm not giving up. Never.

Maybe the answer lies around the next bend.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

More on Bill Warren's journey...

Hi, folks.

If you've ducked in here to read "the rest of the story" about Bill Warren (actually some personal notes and other stuff in the reporter's notepad I didn't have room to publish here), welcome!

If you're a regular reader (well, as regular as I've been, i.e. not much since I got sick), and you're from North Knox and certainly from Halls, you'll know some of this stuff.

Either way, pull up a chair. 

Bill (it's still difficult to call him by his first name) has been one of my favorite characters since he and I started trading trivia questions at Halls Middle School almost 30 years ago.

Bits and pieces:

Bill grew up in Bath, N.Y.

He attended, sign of things to come, another H school -- Haverling Central High School. 

Like all good boys, he started out playing baseball. He named his coach, David Jones, as a mentor. Then, too, his high school basketball coach, Ben Ridley.

Bill was a smaller guy. I remember tales about assists. He says high school stories age better with each passing year.

He played hoops as a freshman and sophomore, and was actually cut his junior year.

"But, I worked hard and made it as a senior," he said last Friday during the phone interview.

"In fact, I've used that and I think Ben Ridley used it, as an example of, and I know it's when I first knew about, what it means to be on a team. What happens when you keep working hard.

"I think he took me on as a project. We'd work Sunday nights, two-on-twos, and that's when I developed my love of the game. My senior year. That is invaluable."

After graduating in 1971, Bill attended Corning Junior College, began to think about what he wanted to do. He worked a job to get to the University of Tennessee in the fall of 1974. He graduated in the spring of 1976.

Teaching became part of the tale. 

His final quarter at UT (they hadn't yet converted to semesters), Bill student taught at...wait for it...Brickey School, then a K-8 school (and my elementary school alma mater) for my adopted daddy, John R. McCloud.

At Halls Middle, he taught math (and science for a time). Started working basketball camps with Jim Doane, and the rest is history.

And he knew stuff. Not just about academics and athletics.

But, uh, about, oh, say, old TV shows, music, the Beatles, "Chantilly Lace," "Hill Street Blues," "The White Shadow," "Welcome Back, Kotter," -- and letting a razor-thin nugget of a nerd pretend. Well, no, not pretend.

I was the play-by-play voice for Halls Middle School Demons hoops. (Self-confidence began to build for that little guy.)

My late cousin Josh Ellis was the camera operator. I did my best John Ward play-by-play. "Thank God and Greyhound," they're gone, on the outdated VHS videotape format, or even better, buried in a landfill.

Actually Warren thinks he *might* have some. If he does, I'll turn it into a bad sitcom fodder, which it sounded like then, believe you me.

The only thing I can remember is blanking on Cory Van De Griff's name -- it's not like we had rosters -- so, I said, "And, into the game ... a new face! Well, I'm sure Coach Warren is doing something strategic here. We'll find out who is he for you, folks."

Wanna hear the irony? Bill's been working play-by-play the last few years for Diamond Clear Media. Check here.

(And Cory, in a roundabout sort-of-a-way, is my cousin.)

Daughter Andrea Warren Goins is a pediatrician at Children's Hospital at Erlanger (Chattanooga). She and husband Jesse have two cute children.

Son Nate is back on Rocky Top. He'd gone away to earn a living at various colleges, but had worked for -- wait for it -- John Currie at Kansas State. He was at Louisiana Tech when Currie came calling after being hired as athletic director at UT.

So, Nate came marchin' home again, hurrah, hurrah! He and wife Megan just bought a house a few days ago.

There it is, folks. Bill Warren played a major role in my life, and I didn't even do hoops then, beyond Bird and Magic, reading about John Wooden, and listening to John Ward provide play-by-play for the Volunteers on my old AM radio.

Think of what he's done for his players and for other students.

And he teaches still.

Here's to ya, Bill.

No, no. For old time's sake, I've gotta say it. Thanks, Mister Warren. 

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