Random (Faux) Flashback for Friday 5/14/10

Random (Faux) Flashback for Friday --> My wedding day in 1990. This picture is from my super short marriage to fellow McDonald's co-worker Kristi G******. Or maybe it was just for prom that year at ELCO (a late blooming boy can go to as many proms as he'd like, can't he?). In retrospection, the dress does look a little bridal, doesn't it?

Random Thought for Thursday 5/13/10

After having just started a multi-state vacation (I flew to Florida out of the thunderstorms in Chicago this morning on what was practically a roller-coaster effect take-off -- if riding a roller coaster meant that you thought your death was imminent because the plane you were in was about to break up in the sky -- and will return to Chitown by driving through that state and Georgia and Kentucky and Ohio and Indiana), my thoughts turned to Rip Torn.

Why? Because, over the course of the next few days, "multi-state" is going to also refer to my state of being. Sometimes I'll be relaxed (by the pools daring skin cancer to have its way with me), sometimes I'll be tranquil (by those same pools not thinking about work or deadlines or obligations), sometimes I'll be performing (I am "that guy" who sings along in strident voce -- if that's the opposite of sotto voce while driving), and sometimes I'll be inebriated. So much so, I might add, that I will be sure to think of the cautionary tale that is Rip Torn.

As you may recall, Rip was arrested in his home town after "breaking into a bank that he thought was his house". He was rather drunk (as he's known to be around town in that "Look, there goes Elmore [his real name] all snookered again --what a friendly old coot and curmudgeon!" kind of way) and, in his defense, the "bank" was a two story house that bore a resemblance to his own, as you can see in the link below.

May I have just enough fun to return to my temporary vacation domiciles no matter what they may look like to me in no matter what state of mind in which I find myself. Ahhh ... vacation!

RIP TORN HOUSE COMPARED TO RIP TORN BANK HEIST SPOT:
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

LIST OF ALCOHOL LAWS BY US STATE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alcohol_laws_of_the_United_States_by_state

Random Wordplay for Wednesday 5/12/10

You got your own tongue?

Used in a sentence: "What's the matter -- you got your own tongue?"

When might that sentence be uttered? Sometimes, when one of my cats is caterwauling for no apparent reason, I'll look right at them and attempt a dialogue. With the direct attention, they'll often stop and look at me quizzically. Then, when it's clearly their turn to make a noise and they are silent, I'll look at them and say, "What's the matter -- you got your own tongue?". They don't seem to appreciate my humor and often just walk away confused. Of course, I often have that affect on anyone or anything with which I attempt discourse.

ORIGIN THEORIES OF CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE QUOTE:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20061102.html

KITTY TICKLED ON WEB (FAMOUS VIDEO):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8&feature=related

DON LAKE AS KITTY TICKLED ON BONNIE HUNT SHOW (NOT SO FAMOUS VIDEO):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFmSzANN8o4

A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT GOOGLE SEARCHING "KITTY TICKLED":
http://www.drsadie.com/ticklekitty

Random Tune Therapy for Tuesday 5/11/10

First, let me just say that my "grandmother" Joanne, who passed this past fall, would have almost certainly have said to me in our weekly phone calls that "she would stop watching the show if that little boy Aaron Kelly was voted off by America". She was so fond of lost souls, as that's how she found me [I miss you and those calls] ...

Second, let me just say that Casey James' version of Blue Skies from last week's episode (sorry I'm posting after the new top 4 show has already aired -- a situation created by the fact that I've spent a few long days at work as I prepare for a vacation later this week and the fact that I don't watch until Wednesday so I can do back to back performance/results shows) was just painful to watch. Instead, I offer up Ella Fitzgerald scatting her way through that classic as a therapeutic replacement for that memory.

ELLA SCAT BLUE SKIES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr6EldSFwOI

Random Memorial for Monday 5/10/10

Gone but not forgotten: Columbia House tape club.

As I sit here this evening typing away with my laptop on my homemade coffee table (six crates of cassette tapes representing my eclectic musical tastes covered by a glass top -- over 600 opportunities to connect with the soundtrack of my life through the years), I have to recognize how much I miss the chance to use different names to bilk the Columbia House company out of multiple sets of 12 cassettes for a penny all during my college years. I eventually moved to CDs (begrudgingly) and did the same thing, building collections of items from all kinds of artists that I probably could have bought in the bargain bin for 99cents -- but instead I was content paying up to $5 a pop for shipping and handling (because I could buy one and get four free, S&H not included -- so free was more like a relative concept). Then BMG came along and bought them out, giving me an all too brief extension of time for my addiction -- until that stopped and I was cut off cold turkey. Since I'm resisting the igeneration attitude toward music (I have yet to buy a song online), I guess I have to sit surrounded by my generation's version of the eight-track.

The company that provided me with my fix of getting dozens of dozens of low-priced musical collections through the mail (with an occasional CD/cassette tape that I never wanted in the first place but I got because I failed to respond by the imposed deadline), you are missed.

WHAT HAPPENED TO COLUMBIA HOUSE:
http://www.musicservicereviews.com/columbiahouse.php

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 5/9/10

What Chicago is talking about this week ...

... Betty White on Saturday Night Live. Nearly ninety and still on her game with skillful delivery, clever wit, comic timing and an ability to instantly connect with an audience, she was a hoot and a holler and a half on last night's show. Even the neighborhood bars treated it like event television! And it was fitting that the show ushered in the earliest hours of Mother's Day, as she could easily be honorary mother of us all. May she inspire us all to follow our passions and to creatively output long after others give up or retire.

WATCH THE SHOW ON HULU:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/147989/saturday-night-live-betty-white

READ ABOUT HER NEW SHOW ON TVLAND IN JUNE:
http://blogs.tvland.com/prime/betty-white-is-hot-in-cleveland-on-tvl/

ST. OLAF GLEE CLUB MASH-UP VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs9QfkLVX9c

Random Soapbox for Saturday 5/8/10

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

... Slyvester Jiles, do I really understand your incredible story? You shoot Dustin Prouse when he's hanging out at his brother's house, because that's how little skinny modern Al Capones resolve issues nowadays, and then, when you finally go to trial, the judge decides to reduce your sentence to eight years of probation because they can't find any credible witnesses. So ... you are put out into the world for three days, and the Prouses and Leggetts (the victim's almost fiance's family) scare you so much that you decide it's better to be back in jail -- where you feel it's safe (did HBO's OZ mismanage my expectations of life on the inside?). Next ... you break INTO jail, gashing yourself from the barbed wire and ending up sentenced to 15 years in prison for the new charges. It seems like you're hedging your bets that time heals all wounds, and although your barbed wire boo-boos have surely scarred over by now, I have a hunch that the Prouse/Leggett loss will still feel raw in 2025 and they'll probably communicate a certain degree of being pissed off your way in a scant 5475 days or so.

I just have to say two things -- I will be in Florida on vacation by the end of the week, and you best not represent the people with whom I'll be interacting AND if this is what has to pass for a modern day update of the Capulet/Montague feud ... the bard rolls round in his chancel grave site! [I know roll over is the more accepted phrasing, but it would screw up my attempt at iambic pentameter.] To truly make it Shakespearean, let's throw in a little cross-dressing, a mistaken identity or two and an Everglades sprite.

PROUSES PROTEST EXPECTED REDUCTION OF CHARGES:
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/brevard_news/082709_Accused_killer_could_be_freed

MAN GETS JAIL TIME FOR BREAKING INTO JAIL:
http://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/2010/03/fl-man-charged-with-probation-violation-after-breaking-into-jail.html

PERFECT YOUR OWN IAMBIC PENTAMETER SKILLS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter