foggy eyes and clear skies

So here I am, ready for the Easter bunny and all the other great religious symbolism that goes along with the holiday, but I can't see a damned thing thru my left eye when I squint, so don't squint already and the sun hurts my eyes like a big pizza pie, that's amore.

What to do about all of this? Go to an Easter meal, hang out with family, with my lovely, de-lovely wife Sylvia and enjoy the day 'best I can, not overeat, because I can't exercise like I should because of the surgery, something they only tell you after the fact, which is double troubling, triple crowning and single malt...which, if they have some, I'll have some.

Beautiful, almost Santana like weather, making me change my evil ways, Carlos. So ready or not, here we come, just a hopping hopping along.

post eye surgery

After the Haleys left on midday Friday, a particularly nice visit, we spent a somewhat quiet weekend. On Sunday, we met Rick's parents, and he, having had cataract surgery, was wildly recommending it as a great thing...which heartened me a lot.

I guess the big news is Herb & Louise's apparently nomadic lifestyle after Mattie asked them to leave after 5 weeks. Can't do it all with mirrors, Herb boy. Where and who are they? Heather recommends we not try to find out and I agree. Speaking of Heather, we had several nice conversations.

Joe & Susan came in Weds, and we had a very nice PM. On a rainy Thursday, the left to take the train to L.A., but I wanted to relax, pending my next day's activity.

We drove to the hospital, got there about 9 and I waited around in a launching room for about 2 hours with a very patient Sylvia - pun not intended - until I was wheeled into the operating room, having been given a ton of sedatives for my left eye. Apparently, I was a rotten as hell patient, moved around way too much, so the MD ordered me put out like a light. I woke up groggy and confused, but Sylvia was told the surgery went great. I wish I could agree, since my left eye is very hazy & fuzzy, hope it clears up soon.

Sat. PM, Brian came in and we spoke for awhile. I had to wear a really ugly patch over my eye for over 24 hours from Friday thru Sat., when the MD unveiled it. Then we went to Kaiser for a 3:30 unveiling of my eye, which didn't happen until about 5. Then the eye MD sent us home with drops and instructions to wit: don't touch the eye. Hard to do, but trying my best.

At night, after my drops, I have to reapply the mask after putting in drops...all of this reminds me of my father's habits...except the smoking part. Like father, like son. Except the technology is better, I hope.

Sat. night, went with Petkes and the gang (DK, EE & Royce Bell, Glen Banks & KC, Petkes, us - does everyone have just initials?) to Smooths where we partied & ate until a wildly exhausting 9:30. John Morris nuzzled up to Mary. It was fun. While some ordered big portions of great food (Banks had the prime rib), we contented ourselves with a sausage pizza, not wanting to break Ron's bank. That and two glasses of wine. Not sure about Smooths, a little too TV and sports for my taste, and that of those with us. Sylvia drove both ways, fuzzy eyes and all.

This afternoon, Barb's for Easter.

Big news day

The Haleys and we had a great night watching Ozzie & Harriett DVD w/ John Carradine (!!). Julie stopped by which sort of interrupted the flow, just like Alex's weird behavior has done the same in the past...pretending to have forgotten to bring things for a party we were holding for Don and having to go back to his house and wanting Don to return with him. In this case, Julie got some stuff to Alex that Don had already paid for and Julie gave it to Alex because he needed some extra, when all along, she did that so she could come by and hang out with them, even when it's a problem. I got sort of irritated with her, and maybe she could tell.

After she left, Louise got into a pretty heavy conversation about her neighbor Bill feeling comfortable about just walking into their house without warning, which is a big problem for her, but less for Don who tried to put some of the onus on her. Don is my friend, but he's full of shit in this regard.

Then Louise filled us in on the Gary G. story and how o'ded on heroin, which could be a big L.B. news story, even though it dates back to the 1970s and early 80s.

The four of us (minus Julie) hung out this a.m. and they went on their way at about 1. Robbie Russell called about baseball being rained out and about Arrow becoming Jack/fm, a really oddly big playlist of (as Mike Stark put it) overresearched songs.

The other R. Hernandez shoe never dropped.

At about 4, Jim Dawson stopped by and we drank wine until he left around 6, with the clear idea about how we'd revise "What Was....", scan it, correct it and sell it to Backbeat Publishing. We all agreed that comml music radio is in spectacularly bad shape and deserves the harm that causes...no real creative force there.

So let's get creative, Goddmanit to hell!!

But the absolutely killer news came from Heather in DK who informed us that Anders & she had made the decision: Rutgers in N.J. I guess we could have seen this one coming. Despite more work, I guess it's Ivy League and has the prestige, location and reputation that can only help. They'll be relocating in c.June. She told us, "I don't want people visiting us as a stopping point to go to New York." Got it, Heather. She also told us in so many words that we shouldn't plan on visiting when Anders parents are there as they might be disappointed that we didn't visit DK after they visited CA. Don't know how to handle this, and apparently, it was a problem, as Heather called us back to say she was wrong in that latter comment, tho I think it's closer to the truth than we'll ever know.

Anyway, them back in the states is the best news, and them not in Texas is the second best news.

Lalo dies

Just heard on the news (channel 7) that Lalo Guerrero passed away at age 88. Very nice and extremely talented man, whom I'm proud to say I interviewed on cable TV (July 2002) to plug his book. Similar to my experience to Hunter Hancock, I guess I just get them at the tail end of their time here on the planet. Vaya Con Dios, Lalo.

Happier news, dinner at Ashoka with the Haleys (all four of them), Julie (our ride) and us went great, very good food, better time. Yesterday, Don & I did the great record finding tour of L.B., problem is: everything we wanted was either too expensive or just wasn't out there. Last night, we went over to Dennis' garage, a bit more productive, but even his prices are higher. Don't get it, but I found 4 records, at least, Don got 7, but not much in the way of pickings. And to top it off, Petke brought in about a dozen 45s to the cable commission meeting, most of which were pretty ordinary, but a few really weird singles.

Today, went to the gym and waited around for St. Patty's to begin.

misery at Kaiser

Not only do I have to face up to cataract surgery at Kaiser on March 25, I also have to mess with their goddamn procedures. What should have been a short visit with the eye doctor for surgical prep turned into two (two!!!) grueling days at the main hospital. After examining the patient (me), I have the MD consult with half-blind guys in their dark glasses standing around (that'll soon be me), and am sent over to the main hosp for a prescripton and lab tests. At the pre-surgical place, I'm told I'll have to wait for two (2!!!!) fucking hours to be seen or I can come back tomorrow a.m., two bad choices since the Haleys are coming in.

I take the tomorrow choice, then learn that the two hour wait was really three, and it was because nurses called in sick on that day, so I miss the morning with our friends because the fucking nurses called in sick and made everyone wait. One day in the fucking parking garage became two; one day waiting and waiting became two, because nurses called in sick. And I get to pay for this shitty treatment and get surgery to boot. Puts me in a great mood for sure.

Spent noontime with the Haleys, dinner at Ashoka tonight. Hope for fun finally.

Elbee Awards Dinner

After doing my WPMD show, went home and rested so I could go out to the Elbee Awards dinner at LBCC. Sorta glad I did. Petke was there, so was D.K., Matt Kaplan and spouse, nice conversations, and Art Levine, who acted like a star, but was as neurotic as usual. I reminded him of his show with Gloria Allred, which he conveniently forgot about, probably becasue she ate him alive...I would've forgotten about it too.

Also spoke with Tal Finney, who had just gotten back from the Aleutians where he's invovled in some sort of corsortium or new energy sources. Didn't really get a chance to speak with him. I left before Levine did his hosting thing. It was really pretty ho-hum.

This morning, I spoke with Cindy Fry about the LBCC censorship situation, which will be a perfect story for moi, and it's a good one, tho I have to track it down further. Who began this censorship reign of terror, anyhow, or is there such a reign (I think there is).

Today, Brian stopped by in his '93 fire engine red Volvo, of which he's rightly proud, then came Borgers and Irv with the Chuck Niles CD, which I'll give to Dennis Clare tomorrow (I'm just a pass thru in this life) and which will be mentioned in Grobaty's column on Tues., fingers crossed. Then Grudt came by and Brian left, even though NASCAR was on.

Now to the Chinese place for dinner...skipped my workout today, will redo tomorrow...hazy and not nice out today. Very sleepy around town.

Bye Dorothy

I contacted Frank by sending him a letter, and he called a few days ago, "do what you have to do" was his response. Not sure what I'll do yet.

Saturday, thanks to Sylvia, we had dinner w/ Paul & Judy at Super Mex, then went over to see Chris, then to Judy's. That's where she showed us how to do ancestry searches...and for the next few days, I traced back my own relatives to the early 1700s!!! Don't know how or why it was so easy, it just was. Traced back to Martin V. Propes in 1799 and another branch of the family to Germany. Wow! When they get back from Fla, hope to do more.

Sunday, I found a tribute blog to KRTH in which they list a 40 minute slice of their bdcast day (2:45 to 3:20 p.m.) and reporting the records played to prove how hip their playlist is. I found linke to KRTH of the 70s and 80s...wonder what this is about? Are they about to alter their rather mind numbing 300 record (or less) playlist? Have to wait that one out to find out.

This is the week I've been threatened by mayoral candidate Randal Hernandez, lives on Sebren (3769), who also said "I didn't trust you because you didn't stay around for the press conference - like I've got to answer to him. At the press event on March 9, was none other than poli. consultant Jeff Adler, whom I'm led to believe is the best-connected man in L.B. and prexy of the KKJZ board, very cool toward s me. No loss. Now they're finding out why, with their man being pissed.

Along the way, I also pissed off Jackie Kell by asking for her age, and after I explained why I had called and asked....she called RH about it, which pissed him off more because he wanted to sneak in something about" more energy - 15 years out" and claim it wasn't about age. He denied what was the obivious intent of his statement, I guess he wanted the benefits of making the comparison, but not being called out on it, which I did...and he sure didn't like that.

The threat? "I'll be watching you"...which was incredibly stupid - a trait we don't look for in a mayor - because, at that point, I had no good will with him at all, so why not go with the original concept, about which Jay agrees totally.

Pissing war follows. Complete with cartoon. Jay's pretty pumped.

Same day I got threatened, I got a call from Mrs. Harbour, mother of the ex-fire chief, whom I saw today and gave me a box of LPs, not much there. She's 91, lives on Albury (3742). Went over there, picked up a box of uninteresting LPs, but maybe something the Haleys can use.
We'll see.

Not to mention censorship at LBCC, which I won't, because I just found out about it.

Haleys here next week, getting ready. We lost Dorothy in the storms (Feb. 19), the cats, don't know why, cleaning up in Dorothy's domain, simpler and less painful than we could believe. Truth to tell, we just didn't look too hard for Dorothy, by scratching and gnawing her way out, she proved that she didn't want to be here, though she came back each time, except for the last. It's a freeing exprience, big time. Not everybody needs a full time dog.

r&b comes to town (KLON #3)

Now I have my first show, and a few more under my belt. Next thing I know, I get a call from channel 4, not sure if it was from Furnell Chatman or from a producer. They'd like to do a story on my show...would I be interested? Sure, come on down. Chatman turned out to be a real nice guy, originally from New Orleans, who loved r&b...maybe it was he who discovered the show and pitched the station. He hung out long enough to ask me a few questions, I could tell he wanted to stick around, but he was told to go to another assignment.

That afternoon, a KNBC truck showed up and took some visuals of my collection and that was it: that night, a two or 3 minute piece on channel 4, probably the first press or TV coverage the new jazz KLON ever got. What I couldn't know was that Richard Berry was watching and told his friend Don Julian...and before the dust settled...there was more dust.

No more playlists, as the story develops. Next: leather coats & black Caddies. To be continued at "rnbmusic.blogspot.com"

chief's day

This morning, I attended the quarterly meeting with Chief Batts, the last one at L.B. Blvd. as the dept. is moving back to Bwy. HQ this weekend. Wide ranging, very interesting stuff: at the end, I brought up The Game concert this weekend, and wow, got an earful about the planning and the use of police this concert necessitates. It was dry when I arrived, clear when I left, avoided the fairly heavy rain.

Stay in the rest of the day is my plan.

r&b comes to town (KLON #2)

But there were signs that the intended audience was listening...amazingly enough. A few calls came in the first day, a couple from a name or two I'd recognize as listeners for years. In a situation like this, a DJ literally never knows who's listening, until he gets some feedback, either of the timely variety or months, years or decades later. And all of those responses have happened.

However, on that very first day (Sept, 6, 1981), the following happened. I played these records (from the top):
Hour #1
1. Rock N Roll by Red Prysock (my opening theme for the decade)
2. Georgia Slop by Big Al Downing (famed black rocker)
set #1
3. New Orleans by US Bonds (later a guest)
4. Rip Van Winkle by the Devotions (the first doo wop on the show)
5. There's A Moon Out Tonight by the Capris (two white acts in a row!)
set #2
6. Heart Darling Angel by the Orlons
7. Later Alligator by Bobby Charles
8. One Night by Smiley Lewis
set #3
9. You Can't Catch Me by Chuck Berry
10. Come To Me by Marv Johnson (later, a telephone interview - he seemed to be in hiding)
11. Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler (a #1 hit)
set #4
12. A Casual Look by the Six Teens
13. The Girl's A Devil by the Dukays (see #11)
14. Devil Or Angel by the Clovers (Buddy Bailey later a guest)
set #5
15. Angel In My Life by the Jewels (Johnny Torrance later a guest)
16. Buick 59 by the Medallions (Vernon Green later a guest)
17. Motorhead Baby by Chuck Higgins (Higgins later a guest)
set #6
18. Jail Bait by Andre Williams
Hour 2
19. A Fool In Love by Ike & Tina Turner (Ike later a guest)
20. My Tears by Andre Williams (see #18)
set #7
21. We Belong Together by Robert & Johnny
set #8
22. We're Gonna Rock We're Gonna Roll by Wild Bill Moore
23. Willie & the Hand Jive by Johnny Otis (later a guest)
24. Cherry Lips by the Robins
set #9
25. Thumbin' A Ride by the Coasters
26. Lover's Lane Boogie by Little Esther
set #10
27. Blue Mood by Julie Stevens
28. Double Crossin' Blues by the Robins
29. Count Every Star by the Rivieras
set #11
30. Misery by Little Esther
31. Count Every Star by the Ravens
set #12
32. Don't You Just Know It by Huey Piano Smith & the Clowns
33. You Made Me Cry by Huey Smith
set #13 - hour #3
34. Bad Boy by the Jive Bombers
35. It Will Stand by the Showmen
set #14/15
36. Let the Good Times Roll by Shirley & Lee
37. I Am Lonely by the Silhouettes
38. Get A Job by the Silhouettes
39. Tutti Frutti by Little Richard
40. Billy's Blues by Billy Stewart
41. You're Down With Me by Huey Smith
set #16
42. It's Written In the Stars by Luther Bond & the Emeralds
43. Old Man River by the Ravens
set #17
44. High Blood Pressure It by Huey Piano Smith & the Clowns
45. Death Of An Angel by Donald Woods & the Velaires (Woods later a guest)
set #18
46. Don't Be Angry by Nappy Brown
47. Imagination by the Quotations
48. There's No Other by the Crystals
set #19
49. Tossin' & Turnin' by Bobby Lewis
50. Cupid by Sam Cooke
set #20
51. The Honeydripper by Joe Liggins (later a guest)

So there. The die was cast. It was firmly an R&B, not rock & roll, some doo wop, some blues, show, tho it would migrate. I guess the idea was to dabble into different artists, different labels, different sounds...can't remember now, all these years after the fact.

Discovery #2: I must've talked a ton, because 60 records is more like it for 3 hours. The Savoy LP was just about worn out during this debut broadcast, accounting for records 22, 26, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 41, 42 and 43.

A few months later, my engineer, Rich got a call on the hot line from a fan of the show who happened to be on the campus. I went out to meet the guy, Rich went with me, just in case. It was Don Haley, a prof at El Camino College whom I think was taking a CSULB class at the time, a friend for life, who now lives in Placerville.

But this wasn't the only one.

oldies' modern era, a concise history - r&b comes to town (KLON #1)

For me, it began in 1981 when I wandered into the local Ruth Bach Library branch with nothing particular on my mind. Hell, back then, I didn't even know that Ruth Bach was the mother of Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach and had died almost mysteriously after she became the first female city coucil woman (to be redundant) in our town of Long Beach, CA...can that be true...in the relatively late year of 1955 or so?

Currently, our all-male bastion on the coast now has a female mayor and city council majority and is deep in debt and can't hire any more cops...but that's now and this was then.

Within Ruth Bach, I squinted, then scanned the holdings, quickly spotting a program guide to a radio station I'd never really listened to and barely heard of (and that's generous)...fm88.1, KLON. Like I cared. Inside of it, the newly hired general mgr. of KLON, Dave Creagh (he wasn't actually in it, just his words - he as a person was too large, though he was really just an average sized man with glasses and prematurely gray hair) had put in a little blurb about how the station intended to begin a full-time jazz operation. Jazz, I don't care about jazz. It's too creative. I've always loved the 2 & 1/2 minute conciseness of a good commercial r&b platter. Some jazz goes on for 10-12 minutes and noodles all over the place. Not to mention milkshake with a beat enterprises like the Wave (KTWV)..."Katch The WaVe?" for god's sake?

I have no rational or idea that can be verbalized as to what possessed me to think that these KLON-type folks would be interested in my idea of an r&b show, but I called Creagh, and asked for him, though I couldn't pronounce him. Creagh picked up, ignored how I butchered his surname, not to mention Dave, and this Creagh guy encouraged me to visit the station - that he used to enjoy a soul music show in Washington D.C. (he mentioned Chubby Checker - ecch!) and wanted something like that on KLON. I knew I had a shot. I think it was my idea to bring in records for a sort of an adult show & tell. After all, I was still 39.

Until I did my demo, that is. Ken Borgers set it up and ran the board in the station's production room and I guess I kept tapping the side of table woodpecker-like as I spoke. Did I hope it would mask my weak sort of irritating voice, an obvious defect which I recall mentioning, albiet hestitatingly to these radio pros, because when I opened my mouth, that sound came out, couldn't be helped. I think the hesitation bothered them more. Should've. Both of these radio guys chuckled knowingly, assuring me that we were well past the era of "golden throats." I pictured the great announcers of our age. Actually, not quite, since I'd never seen pictures, photos or even rough drawings. Nobody cares what an annoucer, much less a DJ, looks like. That's why it's called radio. That might be, but my only gold had been labeled fools by those who can spot the difference, and my only silver was the last name of a past landlord I had right after I got married. I was somewhere between zinc and copper - not the kind in uniform with a gun. And names? Would a name like Steve Propes do? And if it would, what would it do?

Despite my lingering doubts and shortcomings, Creagh told me he took the tape home and actually listened on a Sunday morning with the Sunday Times in front of him as if he were a KLON listener and despite my stupid tapping, I broke through into the ranks of the KLON staff...Bernie Peal on Saturdays and me on Sunday. Oh, oh, Bernie's a big deal, I knew that, or at least I thought I did, so I was careful to worry about no "stepping on his toes." Shouldn't have worried, he didn't give a damn.

And I was off. Sept. 1981 was my first show. Speaking of off, I was horrible, self-conscious, stuttering, trying to be cute, sounding stupid. That part wouldn't change essentially, but I was getting ears. But first, I had to get past the bomb threats.

That's right. Ken Borgers came in to field calls, and local legend Ski Demski began calling in bomb threats, because I had replaced his favorite polka show. Welcome to KLON, thought I, is this really a good idea? I brought in a treasured Savoy label LP and some assorted 45s...I'll post playlist #1 next. Stay tuned.

begone damned cold

In the past week, the following things happened: I had a cold, which slowed me down a lot.

On Friday, I got the word from Joe Fitzgerald that Steve Brigati, erstwhile friend and part time R&B promoter, had died under very suspicious circumstances. Since then, I've been preparing an extensive article about him, which I've pitched to Hilburn at the Times, who hasn't responded yet. My main source is Bobby Edwards, Brigati's most recent friend, who's sort of been investigating. I have recent photos of Steve, hope the Times is interested.

I didn't go into the station this past weekend. Will go in next Sat.

On Sat. nite, Sylvia went to Disney Hall to see a Persian musical act with Paulette Stark, she and she had a great time.

Two days ago, I returned to the Y for the first time in 2 weeks to resume working out and it wasn't as difficult as I feared. Back again today.

Found out that Herb & Louise are essentially homeless, depending on the kindness of Matt & JoEllen whom Louise has never really accepted. Pretty interesting how these things develop out.

Lost my whole Prach Ly file to imperfect word program...have to redo that to some extent.