Advertising, Losing A Car, Bootlegging, Being Busy, Thanksgiving

During the past week, I've been preparing a bunch'o'stories for the Beachcomber. On Weds, I went into the offices for the first time in about a week and a half and met new staff members, salespersons each, Sue, who left as I was gabbing with Chuck about View On the Hill and other things/folks we knew or knew about.

He's a salesperson whom Liz and Jay have faith in, like he'll expand page count thru super salesmanship and they'll need even more of my prose. We'll see if it works out like they hope.

On the way back from checking out a traffic problem site on Atherton, I started having transy problems with the turbo, so next day, I took it to Russ. It got way more involved than he expected, he had to shave down a connection to remove a rusted gearshift cable, and I know he wasn't happy 'bout that.

Two days ago, I got in touch with Wayne Valot, a guy I met about 3 years ago. I had no idea he had done the Good Old Gold bootleg label in the 1970s until I asked Ruben Molina about it...he checked and gave me the name WV, whom I recalled. I spoke with him on Weds. night, then on Thursday, he stopped by, we had lunch at Denny's and he filled me in big-time about GOG and the American Pie label, which he began later. Very interesting stuff indeed.

Now, I'll have to wait until Tues. for the car, because of parts problems, which is another type of problem, as I have the Wilson lunch on Tues., Cable Commn on Weds. and Police Chief Mtg. on Friday, at 11:45 - 10 and 8:30, all a.m.s, respectively. Be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Chose not to do a WPMD show today, but to rest, the rest of the weekend. Quit my daily walk, gotta be a better way, like a standing bike, to get my exercise.

Great news, tho. Sylvia went to physical therapy Tues. and got exercises and a pool referral, that's already making her feel much, much better.

And Heather. We've worked it out that all 4 of the Buchs will be here during Tsgiving week, from Nov. 21 - 28, even tho she doesn't want to fly JetBlue. Damn the luck.

Later, gator. Oh, yeah. KO keeps calling. Makes me wonder.

KO not KOed yet

While cooking this a.m., KO calls back, mind-changed, "when can we do it?" He'd be a great guest, so I went for it...maybe Oct. 1.

All of this shit happened in one twelve hour period (Wednesday)

This morning, Dan Rosenberg called me, launched into the most boring and pointless series of comments about the way the city council and other operations are run. Then when I didn't take his bait - basically leveled with him that what he was droning on about had no news value, told me I was wasting HIS time! Remember, he called me. Then he said, I'll be writing for a competitor (the L.B. Times - oh, yeah! big time competitor) and he wouldn't be calling me again. My reaction, tho unspoken...promise?

The next call was from "KO," whom I've been trying to reach for several days, about coming on my show.

KO: Elliott tells me you have all his records.

Me: yes I do, and I have yours too, so if you come on my show, you'll have a CD of all of them.

KO: Look, I can't do that. I'm working on a big movie about my time with the Temptations when they were the Primes and my mgr. won't let me come on your show. So, could you make a CD and send it to me?

Me: Let me get this straight. Not only do you not want to come on the show, you want me to do this work. Listen. Come on the show, that way you get the songs.

It went like that for awhile. Later, Elliott told me, "forget K.O." Okay, it's a trend. No more Dan, no more Kell. Next?

In the afternoon, after my walk, (walk an hour every day, eat two hours....every day), I bought 15 interesting books from Gary for .10 apiece and 10 good 45s for a total of $13 cash.

After shopping, came home and a guy I'd never seen before named Rory was fiddling around in our driveway and garage...seems like Sylvia contacted him thru a Pennysaver ad and he literally blew up from Sunset Bch and had finished $50 worth of chores (rehooking our dead phone line and cleaning out our clogged down spouts - the ones that send sheets of water over our back door), so I guess it was worth it. So while I'm messing around at Gary's, Rory's taking care of Sylvia's needs. As Rory was on his way out, he mentioned how he worked on a fishing boat in Alaska and that's how his first marriage broke up...gone for months out of the year, and a bigger fish moved in...and brought his own hooks, apparently. Had never seen Rory befory in my lifey.

Other stuff's been happening, just forget what it's named.

40th anniversary

On Thursday night (Sept. 8), Mitchell K from Vancouver and (his relative?) Step stopped by to discuss Christmas music and Mitch gave me 3 Xmas CDs he'd compiled. He gives an Xmas luau every year and has a grant from CHUM radio in Toronto to do a Christmas special, so we listened to Christmas music, he went thru some records and we generally did Xmas in Sept. He'll be back, I think, to talk, tape and more for the special. Also went to see Tim Sewell in Burbank, James Austin at Rhino and Demento, so he's on the holiday fast-track. I really had wanted to see the football game while they were here, so after they left, was glad to see it was a low scoring event. It wasn't much of a game. Wonder how good the Sunday nite matchup will be: Indy vs. Baltimore

Also, on Thursday or Friday (8 or 9), I spoke with an angry Beachcomber reader over Chinese Elms, of all things, but that too calmed down during the ensuing week when she decided I was the problem, the guy who turned her in was.

What a weekend! On Sat., I interviewed Elliott Shavers, then just because things were boring, I jammed up a guy on a rockin Yahoo news group over EC's comments off-air from my show, but I think that sqabble is pretty well patched up.

On our Sunday a.m. 40 th anniversary morning, we found that our gardeners had dumped a load of trash in the recycling, so we had the extra-special romantic chore of transferring it into the regular trash bin, which made it overflow...meaning, we keep some trash/garbage for an extra week.

That evening, Sylvia drove and we went to Captain Jack's in Sunset Beach to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. I don't know that dropping that amount of dough on one dinner could be such fun. Best Alaskan King Crab in So. Cal, that's the review it gets. We had a great time and had a memorable anniversary. Got calls from Haleys, Heather, Shea and Barb - great to have family & friends that remember.

This has been an amazingly low-stress post-anniversary week, tho we did clash a little over Monday nite football,

On Tuesday, I also locked myself in the TV room, had to pop out the door hinges (didn't work), then climb out the window with my super old body. On Tuesday, Bobby Edwards showed up with some outright outrageous TJ whore photos of Steve B., about whom I'm preparing an article for B&R (hope they print it, it'll piss off the world).

Tomorrow, were scheduled to go to the aquarium with Bill & Corrine, but Sylvia has these med tests - oh well. Blame Kaiser.

spameras

Remember, this blog has the latest in the new spameras, there to catch your spamtivities...so get with it, it's in focus.

spam magnet

Every message I post appears to be getting at least 2 comments, at least one of which is spam. Let's see how many comments this post gets in the next few hours.

Remember, spam not, lest ye be spammed.

blogger spam

Have you noticed those new blogger spams that litter these blogs. Unless you want your carpet cleaned by some asshole in Dallas, don't even bother to read the comments. I'll point out the ones that need your attention.

And if you're that asshole in Dallas: get a real job or a real blog.

Today, I heard from a really nice guy named Ron who wanted to teach me how to collect 45s and what to look for. He also had a magazine he wanted to give me, so I went over to his house to take a look-see. He had a 50s Seeberg and white c&w, pop and r&r in the box, and he gave me a very generic jukebox mag. Nice guy, a crossing guard, but limited. I think I'll invite him over to buy all my pop 45s, and he'll be happy.

I'm taking my very daily walks and enjoying it a lot, though it's tiring and I sweat a ton. But I will keep it up.

Labor Day Weekend

This is about our fifth year avoiding the LB Blues (Pop Soul & Hard Rock) Festival, mainly caused by antipathy between yours truly and the concert producer.

Not much loss...today the Black Crowes. Those were the days.Instead, we make our trek to Paul & Judy's - tho Paul is in Nicaragua, and Chris just sold his Downey house to move to Palm Springs. Also, Shea left the Shore for a new boyfriend in Northtown and Heather moved into an apt. in NJ. Wow! What changes. What changes?

Our life is calm and normal in contrast, but one never knows, do one?

I see that the festival received very little, if any, press. One puny article in the PT on Sunday, but not much about the music.

Our day with Judy et al (Paul was in Nicaraguan beach) was fun, as Brian came with us, was amused by my many-turn approach to her house (he called it a saw blade, guess it was). Ribs, chicken & sausage, much good food. At first he called the get together a "woman's convention," before Chris & John got there. But he had a great time.

NASCAR that evening.

Next day, he removed the ski rack from my turbo and we cleaned up stuff, took a noon walk around City College and west.

Football this evening, and worked on book.

We also got some great news. Susan Peck was afraid her mother & family had lost everything in the New Orleans (Metarie) floods, and that mother in law was moving in. But they got a call that her brother went to his house & his mother's house, and everything's fine with her house...so no Mother-In-Law in Ashland. Joe feels great about that, Susan thinks we're barbaric, and who knows?