On A Pale Horse

I could go on another rant about me being a band geek – the almighty sax player - but I think I’ve pretty much solidified myself as a huge dork so I’ll pull out another treasured memory.
In 1988 I was dating my very first love, we’ll call him E, that’s no were near his name but there’s story that tags along with that...ah memories.
That year my bf graduated from high school, started college and applied for and received his very first credit card. So we did what every normal red-blooded teenage nerd would do…went on a shopping spree at Toys r Us, of course! I can’t remember everything we got, it was a ton of geeky stuff, one of the strange things that brought us together was our absolute admoration of Gumby so I’m sure there was a couple of Gumby & Pokey toys in our basket. But the one thing I know he got FOR SURE! was a Pee Wee Herman talking doll, some plush thing that when you pulled the string it said “I know you are but what am I” & that dorky laugh. E had a friend, we’ll call him E2, (same nickname – told you long story) and those two would do that laugh nonstop. 1988 was also the year that Big Top Pee Wee hit the movie theatres. Even though that "Tequila" song was in the original, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, those two boys would do that dance…it was the laugh, the dance, the toys – it was some sort of torture. But they had friends over 21 that would buy for us…so once we got a little buzzed – it was funny as hell.

Danny Flores a.k.a. Chuck Rio was the composer of ‘Tequila’. In 1957 he was recording with rock-a-billy singer David Burgess; one of the songs they worked on was a riff that he played with his sax and occasionally shouted out “Tequila”. The next year it was put out on a B-Side under the group name Champs and Danny changed his name to Chuck Rio because technically was under contract with another label company. The song ended up be a Grammy winner as best Rhythm & Blues performance in 1959 and has pretty much been an anthem for drunken frat parties and Pee Wee Herman freaks around the world.

Mr. Flores passed away from undisclosed causes.

July 11, 1929 - September 19, 2006
RIP

Labels: 1929 births, 2006 September deaths, murder, undisclosed causes

There are a lot of Ford naysayers out in the world. They say such things as 'Ford stands for...'

• Fucked Over Rebuilt Dodge
• Friggin Over Rated Disaster
• Fifth On Race Day
• Fix Or Repair Daily
• Fucker Only Runs Downhill
• Fucking Old Rebuilt Datsun
• Backwards: Driver Returns On Foot
• or the truest observation: Fired or retired daily

But, me? I'm in love with my Ford. Haven't had a problem with it since the day I bought it (thank god, keeping my fingers crossed).
The car company may be looking on pretty crappy times these days but it's not the first time. Back in the late 40's Ford was going through a huge financial slump after WW2. The car company was churning out basically the same 1942 model for a few too many years. They contracted George Wallace Studios to come up with a new design for their 1949 model. Richard Caleal, a freelancer, designed a prototype quarter scale clay model in his kitchen. Henry Ford II approved the design and the rest was history. The 1949 Ford was a hit with consumers and pretty much saved the automaker.

His contribution to the auto industry has been imortilized in exhibits at the Henry Ford Museum and the Arab American National Museum.

The cause of Mr. Caleals death was not disclosed.

September 12, 1912 - September 16, 2006
RIP

Labels: 1912 births, 2006 September deaths, designer, Michigan, undisclosed causes

In the summer of 1982, because of a serious ‘dysfunctional family moment’, my mom decided to send me to summer camp rather then drop me off at G&G B’s house. At the time I thought it was the absolute worst thing a parent could have done to a child, how dare they dump me off in the middle of god-knows-where Michigan for 8 weeks while they get to have the entire house to themselves for the summer. After being there for two weeks I couldn’t understand how I was going to go back home. Summer camp was a blast. Over the course of the next 6 years I did so many things during those 8 weeks a year that would make my parents cringe that they spent that much money.

One of the more legal things I did was learn how to ride horses, English Style, thank you very much. The first horseback riding class of the day were for the advanced riders, I moved up to that class after my first summer & half and never looked back. I think I could spend the rest of my life on the back of a horse, cantering through the woods, jumping over downed trees, giving a loose rein over a cold brook. The stable was fairly new structure, clean and study. There were two things hanging from the wall: a diagram of a horse and a piece of fly paper. I always dreamed of having my own stable with a couple of horses with a small office off to the side done up in greens, blues and brown leather and a bunch of riding trophies on one wall and paintings of my horses on the other. Assuming that this dream came true that would mean I would have a boat load of money to spend on painting, which would mean that I would have asked Richard Stone Reeves if he would honor me with portrait of my precious animals.

Richard Stone Reeves was the premier horse painter. He’s career started in 1947 by painting a portrait of the Horse of the Year, Armed. This portrait appeared in Life magazine in 1948 and commissions and a career followed from there. (Couldn't find Armed but here's Kelso)

Mr Reeves passed away on October 7th in Greenport, NY

November 6, 1919 - October 7, 2005

Labels: 1919 births, 2005 October deaths, artist, undisclosed causes

When I was a kid fishing was fun. My grandpa or camp counsler would thread a worm on to a hook, I would drop it in the water, then sit around and get a tan. That's what I called fishing. However there would be the rare moment when something would actually nip at my worm and catch a bit of hook and viola I had caught a fish. I'd reel it back into the boat someone would take it off the hook and drop it back into the water. Later on in life I'd go fishing with my boyfriend as an excuse to sit out on the lake and screw. I think his parents knew which made the 'Did you have any luck?' question pretty darn funny. Now fishing is just a pain in the ass. Last time I went out on a boat in the middle of god-knows-where-lake with my boyfriend & his brother. I didn't tan, in fact I got baked to a crispy red and I had to hang my butt over the back of the boat to pee - right in front of my boyfriends brother, a guy I had only met a few times.
So when my husband now says to me he's going fishing I let him have his day - I actually encourage him just so I can be by myself sometimes. But he's always talking about that he needs this for this kind of fish and that for this kind of water, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Elwood Perry is the reason that my husband speaks this weird foreign language.

In 1984, George Pazik, publisher of Fishing Facts magazine, said Mr. Perry began the "whole modern era of freshwater fishing." In 2000, In-Fisherman magazine named Mr. Perry, a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, one of the nation's 25 most influential anglers. His bread & butter came from developing the Spoonplug, a different kind of lure but his style of fishing won him his respect.

July 10, 1915 - August 12, 2005

Labels: 1915 births, 2005 August deaths, sports, undisclosed causes

Football is the one sport that I can actually sit through and not be completely bored.
I loathe basketball, bored to no end with baseball, and even though I come from Hockeytown, I'm not much of a hockey fan. This is a manly sport. You've got big burly linesmen, little quarterbacks and migit kickers. The one thing I don't like about football, as with most things, it comes earlier and earlier every year. Pretty soon we're going to have football starting in June. There I go again...mumbling on about how fast time flies. I don't know much about Thomas Herrion, I know he was a football player and I know he was pretty damn young. It's pretty much common sense that you shouldn't stay out in really hot weather for too long of a period because you get heat stroke. They scold you if you leave your dog out too long...but if you're paying $50/ticket those players better damn well sweat their ass off in hot muggy weather for as long as they have to, so you can get your moneys worth. Just to be fair I shouldn't say that the heat was the cause of Mr. Herrions death, there's family history, there's diet, overall health (which the NFL monitors) it could be a number of things time will only tell.

December 15, 1981 d. August 21, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1981 births, 2005 August deaths, sports, undisclosed causes

The world is full of eccentrics. My Grandma was one of those people. She would hoard away bread, cans of beans, matchbooks, and money in all sorts of odd places when they were still alive and living in Detroit (near Cadiuex Cafe). My family hardly visited her, not because we were mean or disrespectful, but because she was nuts. I have a real obsession with eye boogers that I directly attribute to her...when I would spend nights over her house she would come after me first thing in the morning with a wash cloth and get every piece of crusty snot out of the corner of my eyes - nothing else mattered - I was less then human if I had pieces of green stuff out of there....and heaven forbid if I got more during the day - that's when the kleenex, with a touch of spit, would make an appearance like it did when we were shopping at Eastland, right in front of the Hudsons entrance (you know the one next to Olga's).
Abe was an eccentric too but on a much grander scale. In 2000, at the tender age of 80, he was sent to prison for hiring someone to kill his business partner. Even prison couldn't hold him down. He gave jailhouse interviews and held had long rambling phone interviews with Howard Stern (where's Gilbert).
So long Mr. Hirschfeld, I wonder how much publicity your going to get in heaven.

1919 - August 9, 2005

Labels: 1919 births, 2005 August deaths, criminal, personality, undisclosed causes

I was pretty smart back in the day. In high school I was always on the Principles List for holding a 3.5 or higher and because of that I got to skip geography class. It wasn't until my sixth year of Community College (drugs are bad) that I learned exactly where Saudi Arabia was actually located. I had a communications teacher that worked for the US government selling Abrams or Bradley tanks to the Saudis, so she was extremely versed in the Middle East. More often then not she would tell us stories of the country and the customs; the highlight was when she brought in brochures of the tank written in Arabic. I never quite understood why she chose to teach on Saturdays if she was jet setting all around the world selling highly armed tanks. She loved talking about the Middle East as if it was her second home. Her idea of the final class project was having groups of us act like travel agents and try to sell the rest of the class to travel to our particular country. After each of the speeches were done she, of course, stood up and told us what was right or wrong - because she had been there.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia passed away on August 1st. I've caught two different birth years 1921 and 1923 but general consensus is that he was born in 1923.

1921/23 - August 1, 2005

Labels: 1923 births, 2005 August deaths, political, undisclosed causes

When I was a my parents both worked back then so I spent A LOT of time with my Grandparents and in the days before Cable TV or Channel 20's ON there was a whole hell of a lot of TV programs that we could chose from which meant I was at the mercy of their old school tastes. There was a ton of variety shows to choose from back then: The Osmonds, my favorite, the Sonny & Cher show, One of the programs that they absolutely loved was the Lawrence Welk show...god did I hate that shit. It was too hard on the eyes - the pastels the bubbles the damn polka music with the Lawrence Welk dancers. I would rather spend my time playing Monopoly solo...but I could hear that music down the hall of their East Detroit bungalo.
Myron Floren was the main guy on the Welk show, I don't remember him though. Something about accordians makes my ears bleed. But

RIP
November 5, 1919 - July 23, 2005

Labels: 1919 births, 2005 July deaths, musician, television, undisclosed causes