Scattershooting 03-08-15

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

Minnie Miñoso

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

A message on the Bar Louie menu -

Once again our weather prima donnas are all excited because we have more -

Did anybody else see the premiere of CSI: Cyber? What a mess. Mediocre story/script, mostly bad acting, unbelievable computer stuff and a few other annoyances. This is not "must see TV', more like "must avoid TV".

This is what we have early this morning (3/5). Seems we got more snow than predicted. It is also a balmy 25° with 30 mph wind gust. That translates to a wind chill of 10°. All the schools are closed so there should be some snow men and snow angels later today.

Another new TV series premiere, this time American Crime on ABC. This one is pretty dark. It has gotten good reviews and seems to be an interesting story. It doesn't look like there are any clear cut good guys to root for. I'll watch another episode or two before deciding if it's worth the time investment.

These guys were on a rerun of Letterman tonight (3/5). Never heard of Grizfolk, but I like this song. Hymnals is not like any song we had in our hymnals -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqLFKWgW_d0

Google Search now tells you how to make a proper ‘Sidecar’

The good news is that sunset on Sunday will be at 7:30 PM. Bad new is that sunrise is not until almost 8 o'clock. Do you know where all your clocks, watches and other timepieces are hiding? Don't forget or you will be late all day Sunday.

Yesterday (3/6) was the first bike ride in several days, today(3/7) it was a walk. With all the snow/sleet/rain lately, the Boys Ranch lake is full again. It also means that little or no work has been done on the renovations. Don't know if the full lake hurts those efforts. The ducks and gulls like it though. Seems to be a little mating going on. Still a handful of snow here and there but all the streets are clear.

I would like to meet the genius who is in charge of scheduling work at the parks in Bedford. They waited until recently to start major work at Boys Ranch which means there will be construction all through spring and summer, peak usage times. The playground and beach volley ball courts are gone. Baseball and softball seasons are about to begin so there is a new trench in left field of one of the t-ball fields. No visible work done in weeks. The trench is deep enough to lose a t-ball outfielder in. Just last week they started renovations at the Meadow Park softball fields. The outfield fences by the parking lot are gone. Shouldn't this kind of stuff be started around October? Government, when you want it done wrong.

Somehow this song seemed appropriate for this ‪#‎SongSunday‬ time transition day. It's a number done by one of the most successful musical groups of all time. This particular song was released in 1970 and reached #7 on the US charts. It was written and sung by Robert Lamm, the keyboardist and a founding member of Chicago (AKA Chicago Transit Authority). Robert is still with the group. Here is the song that asks the question we are all asking today, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBuUUBrC9eQ

If you have the time (pun intended) you may want to listen to this longer version which is closer to the original album cut. Much less polished. I like it better. It's also fun to see how the guys looked in 1970.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCVhoyEKYt4

wjh

Scattershooting 03-01-15

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

Jack Bruce

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

As of 7:00 PM (2/22) we officially hit freezing and began the freezing rain/sleet. It will be below 32° until sometime Tuesday afternoon. Might have to put the chains on my bike tires.

Oops! Joey Logano, winner of the 2015 Daytona 500, was on Letterman. Dave said something about the NASCARs weighing a ton. Joey said "no they don't weigh that much, they are about 3,100 lb." Just a tad over a ton. In fact NASCARs weigh 3,400 lb. which is also over a ton. He wasn't sure about the banking angle at Daytona either. Apparently there is no weights and measures test required to be a driver.

Today (2/25) is the last day of the February TV Sweeps period. That means the cliffhangers, crossovers, extra special guest stars and other gimmicks are over until May. It also means the local TV station investigative reporters can go into hiding for awhile. You know, those hard hitting journalists who give us an overhyped, over-teased and overpromoted story about how a brand or two of toilet paper is shorting us by ½ square per roll. Get ready for more reruns and lotsa TV folks taking vacation time during the next two months.

The local channels all have extra reporters and weather folks out this morning (2/25) because it's supposed to snow. Right now they are all just wet and cold because it is raining, not snowing. The weather dude is breathlessly telling us that it will change over to snow soon, he promises. Outside reporters are just making up stuff when the anchors cut to them. Very funny.

I was able to survive and dig out from our blizzard this morning (2/25). Snow drifts up to ⅒ inch. It turned out to be a nice day this afternoon despite the gloom and doom by the weather idiots this morning. So nice that I went for a bike ride this afternoon. It was close to 60° in the sun around 4:00.

Sad day. RIP Leonard.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Regardless of the weather I'll have something good to watch.

Damn, got my swimsuit and flip flops on only to find that the hot tub is closed. Nobody grilling either.

I'm so glad that the Pachyderm family with their two young Pachyderms have fully moved in upstairs.

House of Cards picked a great day to roll out season three. There was absolutely nothing worth watching on cable tonight and it's snowing. I watched the first three episodes. Still damn good. Spoiler alert, Frank hasn't killed anybody yet but there are plenty of potential victims. He is not having a great tenure as president so far.

Last ‪#‎SongSunday‬ I mentioned that during the Grammy's "those we lost last year" segment I realized I had missed the deaths of two artists whose music I enjoy. We did Tim Houser of Manhattan Transfer last week. The other lost musician was Jack Bruce. If you are not familiar with the name, you surely know the group. It was the 60's supergroup Cream. Jack was the lead vocalist and bassist and probably the least known member. Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker were better known. Jack died in October 2014 but he left us with this hit that rose to #5 in 1968. He co-wrote, sang and played bass on the recording. Thanks Jack and RIP. Here is White Room -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkae0-TgrRU

Amazingly Cream had only two top ten singles although their albums did better. Here is the other top ten single again co-written and sung by Jack that also peaked at #5. From 1968 Sunshine of Your Love -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqQL0J_Vr0

wjh

Scattershooting 02-22-15

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

Lesley Gore

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

For the most part I enjoyed the SNL 40th anniversary show. Lotsa good clips and reenactments. A few flat spots but that's to be expected in a 3½ show. I do have one question, what in the hell do Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift have to do with SNL @ 40?

Only in Texas - This is a $12 million 45,000 sq. ft. facility with gun range, shopping, dining, gym, bar and more. VIP memberships available. Seems like an excellent idea to me to have a bar at a gun range. It was referred to as a guntry club in the news story I saw.

The Nation's Premiere Indoor Shooting Range

A sad entry for ‪#‎MusicMonday‬. Lesley Gore died today. She was a big singing star in the mid 60's. I saw her once live at one of those caravan of stars shows that came through Jacksonville in the 60's. Besides being sad, her death is scary because she was just a tad older than me. RIP Lesley. It's My Party was her first and biggest hit, but I like this one better. It reached #2 in 1964, here is You Don't Own Me - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDUjeR01wnU

Watched the Stevie Wonder tribute tonight. Pretty damn good show. Lotsa different artists singing Stevie's songs most of which were just fine. All that topped by Stevie singing his own songs for the last 20 minutes. He sure had a lot of great songs. I'm sure the show will show up online somewhere in it's entirety or in pieces on YouTube.

Heads up everybody. Today (2/18) is the last day to date your checks with a horse. Tomorrow starts the year of the goat.

Happy New Year!

Life is good. Temps in the 50's, sunny and no wind. Just got back from bike ride/shopping. Saw best buddy I haven't seen in a couple of weeks. Got home, opened a cold beer, turned on Pandora and got in the recliner. The 17 minute version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida came on. Brings back memories of when FM radio was just getting started and getting herbed up. Mellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVe-rZBcm4

A short north Bedford report (2/19). Work continues, I think, at Boys Ranch. It is very hard to catch actual work being done. The lake seems to be getting lower and the ducks seem to be getting friskier. Walked through the new Dollar Bazaar next to Kroger for the first and last time. Strange conglomeration of junk and two eight-liner type machines in the corner. Also peeked into the under construction China Wok in the same shopping center. Looks like a counter service place with room for just a very few tables. The Bark Park was busy including a Chocolate Lab humping a Black Lab. I did not find a "No Fornication" rule on the sign so I guess it was OK. Don't know if humans can fornicate there too.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Here is a picture from my first birthday. I'm a few inches taller now but have less hair. It has been a few years but I still have the coffee table and the couch in the picture.

Probably in honor of my birthday, the Texas Rangers pitchers and catchers reported for spring training today. I'm ready for some baseball.

GO RANGERS!

This post is purely for informational purposes. I'm sure no one I know would ever actually celebrate this event.

During the Grammy's last week they did the requisite "those we lost this year" segment. I knew about most of them but there were two I had missed. For this ‪#‎SongSunday‬ I'm featuring one of them, Tim Houser, who died last October at age 72. Don't know the name? He was a founding member of The Manhattan Transfer, a group that rarely made the charts but has made good music for years. Here is their top chart hit from 1981 that reached #4 on the adult contemporary list and #7 on the Top 100. This is The Boy from New York City -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2fN36wq-zc

wjh

Scattershooting 02-15-15

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

Dean Smith

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

Overall I thought the Grammy's were pretty good. A few awards I disagreed with but mostly OK. Really sad my altime favorite Taylor Swift didn't win anything. Hope you like Sam Smith because you are going to be hearing a lot of him.

More corruption of the language. Just saw the pending famine in South Sudan described as "the brink of a major food insecurity crisis".

It seems to me that Alabama defied certain civil rights laws a little over 50 years ago. Them folks is damn stubborn.

Alabama Judge Defies Gay Marriage Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/us/gay-marriage-set-to-begin-in-alabama-amid-protest.html?_r=0

Walked by the Bark Park today and finally remembered to take a picture of the rules sign. It seems to me that this is an awful long list of rules for the dogs to have to read and remember.

The Bedford Tuesday Report - great day to be out and about, sunny and temps in the 70's. I finally saw actual construction activity at Boys Ranch. They have six or seven pieces of heavy equipment but only two were in use. There were also four guys with shovels all in the standard construction worker pose, leaning on the handles. In other news, Jibaritos' Restaurant, Puerto Rican and International Cuisine is padlocked. Notice on door says they didn't pay rent. Too bad, the food was good. The big tent for Valentine's flowers and candy is in place in the Kroger parking lot. There were lotsa folks and dogs out today.

Looks like we're just going to get rid of all the old late night guys. Hopefully Comedy Central will find someone else to continue to make fun of our politicians and Fox News.

Jon Stewart says he’s leaving The Daily Show

So Brian Williams has been suspended without pay for six months by NBC. That means he will only earn about $5 million this year. How will he feed his family? He may also have to cut down on his helicopter rides.

Very interesting documentary on PBS about tuberculosis before antibiotics. It brings up the issue of individual rights vs the rights, protection and safety of society. Very much like the discussion going on now about vaccines. The documentary is part of the American Experience series and is available online. "The Forgotten Plague"

Friday was the 13th anniversary of Mom's passing. For ‪#‎TBT‬ it seemed appropriate to post a couple of pictures of her. The first one is from 1948, I'm the little one in the stroller. The second is from 1995 of Nana/Mom with her boys. She was always on cloud 9 when she was with the grandkids. RIP Mom, we all miss you.

 

Quick walk around Boys Ranch today. They are up to eight pieces of heavy equipment onsite plus some big pipes. Of course there was no activity. The lake is way down again too. Is it mating season yet, seems a little early but the ducks were very noisy. Just for Patrick, here's proof of work on the hockey rink. Several sideboards replaced. Still needs painting inside and out.

My good friends at ESPN obviously know me well. Got an email from them and for only $99.99 I can get access to all 49 matches of the Cricket World Cup. I wonder if nuclear weapons will be used in the India vs Pakistan match?

Tough Love, Nana style -

On Saturday (2/14) late night NBC rebroadcast the first Saturday Night Live from 1975. The 40th anniversary show is a big 3½ hour extravaganza on Sunday (2/15). I think much of the first episode held up. The host, the great George Carlin, didn't do any skits but did several monologue segments. The music was good too. It was fun to revisit those days, except for the fashions.

Let's make this ‪#‎SongSunday‬ a remembrance of the first Saturday Night Live. There has been lots of great music on SNL over the years and a few clunkers. The first show had two musical guests, the great Billy Preston and one hit wonder Janis Ian. Billy played his #1 hit from 1974 Nothing From Nothing. Here is just a part of that performance -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b3b_HcdKL0

And here is the full version of Billy's Nothing From Nothing -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZjb4PCHUZ8

Janis did her only real hit which reached #1 in 1975, At Seventeen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCp-ymJpRP4

Gotta continue ‪#‎SongSunday‬. While looking for the Billy Preston song from the first SNL I came across this video of 11 year old Billy in 1957. Oh, there is another fair singer and keyboard player in the clip too. The great Billy Preston with the even greater Nat King Cole on Blueberry Hill -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxSHBIXfFPE

wjh