Discovery in Tallahassee
So, there I sit in my hotel room (scratch that - junior suite) in Tallahassee, Fl. Junior suite means "hotel room with a full kitchen". I am here doing training. Last night I was studying the instructor manual for a section of training that another trainer was to have completed but did not. I have the tv on for background noise. That being said, the reality is that it often distracts me and I, willingly, let it. I was not all that interested in what constituted an "undue hardship defense", to be honest. I surfed around and stopped on this channel that had this "old" lady talking to her hip, young and fashionably pop punkish grand daughter. I stopped because something about the "old" lady was familiar. The old lady was, obviously, not as old as the part she was playing. She had a terrible wig. Why is it that when they want a younger actress to portray an old lady, they put them in a bad wig? I am talking lifeless, shapeless, ugly wig. Her character was not a bag lady but a middle class, small town grandmother - with bad hair. Add to that the horrible make up job that did not leave her with "wrinkles" but rather areas on her face that looked like healed burns. Hell, when I did makeup for community theater I could create far better wrinkles with two makeup pencils in brown and white. This was B A D. I got interested in the show though.
The premise is that the grand daughter is wanting to leave town for a bigger, brighter future of more exciting things than little "Three Rivers" could ever offer her, she wanted to leave with a not so savory boyfriend "Richie" (aren't they always called Richie?" and she wanted grandma to give her money to do so. In fact, she promised Richie she would get the money. Instead, grandma forced her to listen to her life story before giving her the money. The life story was what we saw - interspersed with bad makeup. bad hair grandma. It hit me that bad hair, bad makeup grandma was Cheryl Ladd!! We see grandma as a young girl who had lost her mother and was attending college away from tiny old boring Three Rivers. She returns home at the end of the semester to stay with dad, the town doctor. She dresses fancy, drives a car around, wears a lot of lipstick, has a neighbor next door that pines away for her and she does not notice him, meets the new "Reverend" and kills time waiting to leave Three Rivers. However, she falls in love with the new Reverend, rejects a marriage proposal from "Will" - the pining neighbor, becomes involved in teaching Sunday School and decides Three Rivers is the place for her after all. The Reverend goes away to the war and she promises to wait for him and to marry him when he returns. In the meantime, dad dies leaving her penniless and the bank takes the house. Will takes her in and gives her a job at his insurance office. She waits for Ben to come home. A soldier shows up and tells her he was killed in action. She ends up falling in love with Will and marrying Will. She is happy as can be when a letter arrives from Ben. He was not killed - he was merely a prisoner of war. He is coming home to get her. She meets him and tells him she loves him but that she married Will and loves Will and is happy. He promises to "always" be there for her. Will and she have a son. Son gets a gal pregnant and they have a little girl. Son and girlfriend get killed in a car wreck and bad hair/makeup grandma begins to question her faith and raises the kid. Meanwhile, Will gets alzheimers and starts to forget her and, eventually, dies. I stayed with this story until the end ya'll... I must really have been wanting to avoid studying. At one point in the story, she questions why God keeps taking from her everyone that she loves? She wondered what she had done to deserve that and, I have to be honest, I wondered as well.
In the end, her grand daughter sees the error of her ways in wanting to leave Three Rivers with Richie and only gets as far as Chicago before Richie gets on her nerves and she heads back to Three Rivers. Ben shows back up and dances with bad hair grandma at a dinner honoring her for 50 years of service to the church. Why did they make this person look like a bag lady? Go figure. Of course, Ben has waited for her all these years. Some 50 years he waited for this lady and he gets bag lady grandma. He tells her that she is still as beautiful as she always was. Well ok, if you have cataracts and low vision Reverend...maybe.
So that ends and I guess I am not so interested in studying so I cruise the channels some more and all of a sudden hit a channel with a guy singing. I stopped. I was fascinated with this. The man was blonde but not particularly attractive. Maybe it was more the way he did Joe Cocker looking faces. He sounded like Ray Charles, Joe Cocker and John Hiatt rolled into one. The music was awesome and his song was amazing. It was something about "Drops of Praise" or something like that. It did not take me long to realize it was christian music but it was "different". I am not all that drawn to a lot of christian music but this just stopped me. It was sultry, rhythmic and reminiscent of some Al Green kind of thing. I even stuck around after the singing was over and the cheesy organ music played in the background and he did that whole "smiley face, i-am-
your-caring-friend-trust-in-jesus voice". Long enough to see who it was. His name is Phil Driscoll and this is him to the right--> I would buy this song. It was just that good. Can you imagine him squinching up his face like he is in pain? That is what reminded me of Joe Cocker. I googled him and found out he used to perform with Joe Cocker, among many others. Until he got saved and just in time, apparently, because several days later his house was raided and he was arrested for manufacture and distribution of cocaine. The article I read said he was acquitted. Anyway, my point is that sometimes boredom and an attempt to avoid doing something you should be doing sometimes leads to a cool discovery.
It's the weekend, baby!
Yep we are full fledged into the weekend. It is a rainy Saturday and Michael worked in the yard today. He has an obsession with making some grass grow on this rocky land we have. He ordered Zoysia plugs and was putting those in all day. Maya likes to come behind him and dig them up.
Last night I went to see two local bands
Big John Miller Band and the Jess Hoggard Band. Big John was at the Afterthought, Little Rock's first venue to go Non-smoking and I have to say that I loved it there last night. It was nice to leave somewhere and not smell like an ashtray!! I caught some of their show, which was great, and headed over to the Press Box (which is not a non-smoking establishment) to see Jesse Hoggard. It was rocking and I had a great time. I did smell like an ashtray when I left there though!
I piddled around in the house. I have been doing some scrapbooking today. I made a layout of my niece, Emily and started an 8x8 album of Michael's birthday party in April. I organized a bit and opened the new kit I got from
Scrap Muse . I love this site and the kits you get each month. It is my indulgence. The lady who runs this site also sends you some sort of chocolate fix every month with your kit. Now how cool is that?
We are going to The Sharper Image in a bit to look at dad's day gifts. We are taking my dad to breakfast and then going to see Michael's dad up in White County. Hope you have a great weekend. I have to admit that mine has been pretty enjoyable thus far.
Maniacal Clown Musician!!
I have a dear friend, JimJ or eljimmybob. He is a very interesting and fun person. He is a very talented artist. For my birthday last November, I asked him to paint me a picture of a maniacal clown playing the guitar. He did it! It took him awhile but he gave it to me recently and I LOVE IT. Now, by most folk's standards it would be considered weird. I think it is so cool and it will hang next to my "Day of the Dead" band shadowbox from Mexico.
Here is the maniacal clown. I am not sure what I will name him. I have been tossing about different names but none have stuck yet. I think he is so cool, what do you think?
Working at Home
I work at home a couple of days a pay period and really like it. I seem to get more done. I have access to my network, programs, etc. I can stay in my grungy clothes all day, put on no make up, drink coffee all day and get work done!!
I am home today working. I am "attending" a seminar via videostreaming. It is ok except that, sometimes, the sound cuts in and out and, usually, when it is something I really want to hear!! There is also this annoyance of the phone in the conference room ringing constantly and no one answering it or turning it down! Then there is the man who keeps getting phone calls on his cell who does not realize that all across the country - folks are hearing his side of the phone call. Maddening.
On the break, I grabbed my camera and headed out front to take a few pics of some of the flowers blooming in the garden. Now, I am no gardener and it thrills me when things actually live. So I relish in the fact that there are blooming things in my garden!! Wow! I snapped a couple of things in bloom
. The pink flower above is a Mandevilla and it is blooming like crazy. This one on the left is a Gardenia. They smell so yummy. We have an incredibly old Lavender bush that has been here since 1862 when the previous owner's grandmother brought it here from England. When they left they cut some from the roots and took it with them. I thought it died because the first year it was just a stick. Last year it had a small bloom. This year, so far, nothing. Talk about pressure - trying to preserve a "historic" bush in your yard!!
Maya was awfully nosy about what I was doing and not liking being in the house "prison". You can see her looking at me out the door. Poor Maya - held captive by a door, with bars no less!
Birthdays
I love birthdays. I know lots of folks just cringe when someone makes "to-do" about a birthday. I am not one of those cringers. Bring on the birthdays! I always have a huge party on my birthday! Last year we had it at the Press Box with the Jess Hoggard Band playing. The year before that we had it at Phil Good's with the Gil Franklin Band. There was at least 100 people there. I never want presents - I just want folks to come out and have a good time. I guess the reality is that I love to have a party and if I have to use my birthday as an excuse to do it - well so be it. I gave Michael a party at the Press Box for his birthday this year. He even got up and played a song or two with the Gil Franklin band. That would be him on the right playing bass.
Friday night, I had a birthday dinner for my sister in law, Mirian. She turned 31 - GASP - ancient in her opinion. (eye roll). We grilled hot dogs and had all the fixings, potato salad, mac & cheese, Italian Cream Cake and Ice Cream. I made a pitcher of Margaritas as an appetizer. HA. We all had a great time and all was well until the end when my mom fell and broke her arm, cracked her head open and busted her knee. That is a whole other story. Here is Mirian
with my niece, Emily. Now doesn't everyone look happy? Just 15 minutes later - all hell broke loose. We had ambulance & fire in the front yard and grandma was on her way to the hospital. Grandma is doing fine, by the way, she is very sore but making it.
The Blues Princess
Maya, the blues princess, that is what we call her. It all evolved when she started going to the station with me to do my blues show. She would sit there on a chair and snooze. Periodically, she would whine or bark while the mic was open. Hence, she became a blues dj, as well. Maya has also been to the Press Box several times for different shows, etc. She is quite the traveller. Here she is today with her scarf on that has Maya embroidered on it. A friend of mine I work with in Memphis is absolutely animal crazy - not a bad thing. She had her sister make it for Maya and wanted a pic of Maya wearing it. Voila' the Maya scarf. Maya has a small wardrobe. Is that sick or what?
Hoodoo...
So you might wonder why I picked the name Hoodoo Highway. I am a blues fan and a dj. I do a blues show on a local station here and have been at it for 13 years now. So I thought I would tie in my love of the blues with a journey - because life is a journey.
Hoodoo is African American folk magic, plain and simple. In blues songs it was a prominent feature. It filled a song with conjurin', mojo's and John da Conqueroo. Talk of black cat bones and goofer dust and laying tricks, it is all documented in the acoustic blues of the delta and it migrated into the Chicago Blues scene. Since it is magical and mystical - much like I think life is - it seemed appropriate to name this blog - Hoodoo Highway.
I have a lot of favorite blues artists but Howlin Wolf is tops on my list. I can listen to the towering, hulk of a man growl out the lyrics to songs and I am just mesmerized. From Smokestack Lightin to Spoonful, from I Been Abused to Built for Comfort. The Wolf just rocks on and on.
Then you can add in Willie Dixon, who probably wrote more blues songs than you can imagine. You have heard them over and over, performed by newer artists such as Johnny Rivers singing Seventh Son - well it was Willie Dixon's Seventh Son long before that. Dixon was a large man as well. I can just imagine being so lucky to be in Chicago in the 50s and being able to see these legends perform. That would be the ultimate time travel trip for me. I keep saying I am going to do an entire show of Willie Dixon tunes - there is certainly enough material for it.
Intro
Hoodoo Highway is a journey I take with this wonderful man. He is far more grounded and logical than I am and I am far more creative and emotional than he. It is a match made in heaven, most days!! Other folks involved in my highway ramblings are
some wacky, wonderful friends that range from the serene and caring to the wild and wooly. As you can see from the pic on the right, they are a fabulous looking group of people. Of course, this is not the entire circle of friends, I cannot leave out my sisters in life - the women that share my anger, my pain, my humor, my job, my conflicts and my controversies.... the "bitches". Now, it is not meant to be a term of hatred but of respect. Some people think of these women as being such but they are just independent, free thinking and strong willed, which makes for some dynamic ladies.
We cannot leave out family. I have a wonderful daughter - who is still a princess (we made her that way and now we pay), a mother who lives next door (and will give rise to many, many posts), a brother & family up the road a bit and a dad who still thinks I am his baby girl.
This is my daughter, mom and myself.
Last, but not least, is Maya "the blues princess". This little stinker is the boss of the house. She is half yorkie/half rat terrier and 100% rotten. We would not trade her for anything. Sure there are better pics out there but this one just exemplifies her stubborn spirit. So there you have it - some of the players in my journey on the Hoodoo Higway.
your-caring-friend-trust-in-jesus voice". Long enough to see who it was. His name is Phil Driscoll and this is him to the right--> I would buy this song. It was just that good. Can you imagine him squinching up his face like he is in pain? That is what reminded me of Joe Cocker. I googled him and found out he used to perform with Joe Cocker, among many others. Until he got saved and just in time, apparently, because several days later his house was raided and he was arrested for manufacture and distribution of cocaine. The article I read said he was acquitted. Anyway, my point is that sometimes boredom and an attempt to avoid doing something you should be doing sometimes leads to a cool discovery.
