Leaving for vacation

We head for Chateuagay and other parts unknown later today... I will try to post from the road - but who knows.
Meanwhile, I am into the G's in my alphabetical song listening project. This morning I heard "Get Right Some Day" from Martin Zellar, it contains one of my favorite country music lines of all time:
"My ex-girlfriends, they don't like me but they should.
'Cause I'm the reason, their new guy looks so good."

In other music news, I discovered the first A1 page I designed at the Marion Star - not great work but certainly servicable when you consider I had been here only a few weeks.

Notice the upper, left-hand corner of the page. That's the music player I bought six months later....kind of eerie.

More anagrams

Lucy Graser can be re-arranged to be:
Gray Ulcers , which I am imagining to be a one-woman broadway show starring Lucy using her stage name: Grace Surly


Or those two conjoined identical twin rascals from the TV show, "Buncombe County Bumpkins," Lucas Gerry (on the right) and Claus Gerry (on the left and slightly behind).

More on the movie cast

This looks like it is going to be a star-studded epic.
First, from Lena (who I saw in a crossword puzzle yesterday. The clue was Ken or Lena - the first answer to jump in my head was, "Burns" -it wasn't right. I had forgotten that Lena got married).
Anyway, here are her suggestions - she had choices so feel free to comment and pick one or the other

In the part of Lena either
Alicia Silverstone or Jennifer Aniston

If I knew what I was doing I would have resized these images, but I don't and can't or maybe just won't.

In the part of Jaime (Jaime, at least names that sound like Jaime but are spelled differently are starting to figure large in my life. I have to refer to a guy at work as Man Jamie to avoid confusion.)
Lena thinks Jaime (woman Jaime) should be played by either Jennifer Connelly or Courtney Cox


I know that Sandy Wall always thought Jaime would be played by Karen Allen



Here is what Melissa had to say about the cast of the movie

Tom, I am nominating Marilu Henner to play Tammy Jones in a cameo role
in the movie of your life.

David Hurand's role is key, and I think a
very hairy Robin Williams is best suited. The hair will cover up the
dissimilarities, but we needed a real actor to capture the essence of
Hurand.


Thanks Lena and Melissa.

Now we just have to get working on the script.

I see the sun coming up over the Franklin County Fair and an obviously hung-over Tom Graser, wearing black short pants, white button down shirt and bolo tie, walking through the fair grounds, where he obviously fell asleep behind the beer tent. He crosses the street and enters the office of the Malone Telegram where he sits down at his computer and starts writing. We see the letters coming up on the computer screen.
"Time is queer. Forty-five summers pass in the time it takes a looping fly ball to nestle in the pocket of a right fielder.
To the experienced batter it's an instant - the ball is caught the second it's hit.
To the rookie fielder it seems an eternity waiting for the ball to fall out of the lights."

That's an actual lead I wrote to a story my first year as a writer --- not sure if I would have gone that way today.

I think we could use text coming up on the computer as a device to jump back and forth through time. You know the old guy sits down and starts writing a story that takes us back in time and then the young guy sits down and starts writing and that springs us forward. How brilliantly cliche!

Music update

I thought I was up to the C's as I approached work yesterday - "Cassius Clay" as performed by The Gear Daddies was playing.
I was wrong. I was still in the B's. The name of the song is "Black Superman."
The song was written by Johnny Wakelin and originally performed by Johnny Wakelin & Kinshasa Band. I don't understand how an alt country combo from Austin, Minn. ended up recording it, but it was on their last gasp throw-away album "Can't Have Nothin' Nice."
Here are the lyrics:
This here's the story of Cassius Clay
Who changed his name to Muhammad Ali
He knows how to talk and he knows how to fight
And all the contenders were beat out of sight

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Mohammed, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

Now all you fight fans, you've got to agree
There ain't no flies on Muhammad Ali
He fills the arena wherever he goes
And everyone gets what they paid for

Muhammad, was known to have said
You watch me shuffle and I'll jab off your head
He moves like the black superman
And calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

He says I'm the greatest the worlds ever seen
The heavyweight champion who came back again
My face is so pretty you don't see a scar
Which proves I'm the king of the ring by far

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Mohammed, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Muhammad, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

I'm Ali catch me if you can

My anagrams

Don't worry, I am getting to adding to the movie cast.
Until then here are some anagrams from my name


Smart Ogre (good name for a band)



A Germ Rots (a specialty store in the Grove Arcade perhaps)



Gear Storm (Air name for when I become a TV weather man)



Mort Rages (the political satire comedian)



Rags Metro (my handle for when I go homeless)



Gorse Tram (English punk band)



Roast Germ (entree at a vegetarian restaurant)

What's on your hard-drive music player?

So, I bought this Rio Carbon music player a couple of weeks ago

I loaded 175 songs on it the first night.
I have been listening to them in shuffle mode since.
It dawned on me while walking home the other day:
"I could play these songs in alphabetical order!"
So, that's what I am doing.
First song was (What's so funny about) Peace Love and Understanding by Elvis Costello. I guess it is the parentheses. Next up was "218" by the Gear Daddies.
I have about 12 hours of OCD goodness coming my way.

Who will play Mike Benzie?

Peter Krause from "Six Feet Under?"

or the disembodied head of Chris Elliot

Here's one for all you Twilight Zone fans

Click on it for the O. Henry irony

Rock Stacking on Chateaugay Lake

First you have to visit the Avant Garden to appreciate what an amateur I am.
This was my first attempt and believe it or not, on the first night I built an arch.
Unfortunately, the next day, I came equipped to do arches from here to Lake Champlain and got nothing but frustration. I definitely will be trying again, but in the meantime here are a few examples of what I managed to get up:

Here is the arch:

Click on it to see it in all it's archy goodness.

Look at the stack in the background to appreciate this one. Also, the rock on the top of the stack in the foreground is know as "Potato Rock" you will be seeing more of him or her in later photos.

I am not going to tell you again to click on these pix for the most enlarging experience.

To give you some perspective - this is me in a kayak that my ass barely fits in, towing Lucy -- notice the wake she is creating -- and noticing the towering stack in the foreground.


Click on this one to figure out what's in focus. The answer is: NOTHING.

I like this one because there is a beer in the background (I am drinking Genny Cream while I post these).

Click on this one to figure out what kind of beer I was drinking. Answer: I CAN'T REMEMBER!

This stack demonstrates why they call this part of the lake the "Narrows."

Click on this one because it is a very nice photo.

My thumb, Potato Rock, and a deck chair on the dock

Oh, just click on it.

Here is Lucy about to be crushed by a falling stack of rocks.

Click on this one to dig the perspective.

Truth is Lucy knocked my stacks down about as fast as I could put them up.

It took me about 10.5 hours to get from Marion, Ohio to Chateaugay, New York. You might be wondering how fast I drove.



The answer is: not that fast, but click on the pix to see the details... oh, that's sunrise over Cleveland, and yes, I took more than one snap.


Click on this one and ask me why I don't wear sunglasses. Answer: I am a moron.

Finally, the photo that will get me killed.
Here is Mary in a kayak, mugging for the camera.

click on this one, 'cause I love her so much.

This is uncanny

Rita Larkin wants Caroline Dhavernas to play her in the movie. She is tied with Melissa Williams for the most realistic request.




Remember Melissa wanted to be played by Alfre Woodard



totally uncanny dudes.

More photos coming

I will be posting some photos tonight. It has been a busy week at work - my second short week in a row, with all the same work load.
Anyway, I can't complain --- but I do.
Here's something until tonight.

Getting Patriotic

I finally broke down and bought a flag for the house. My plan is to only fly it around appropriate dates. But I might get lazy.


The dying maple tree in the front yard is surrounded by a beautiful hostas garden.

At the Marion County Fair

I spent about 12 hours at the Marion County Fair over the holiday weekend talking with the folks who attend such functions. It was fun ... in its own special way.
I spent most of my time here:


These guys were my back-door-yard-neighbors

If you have wondered

what my rockstacking friend is up to, take a look at this:


click on the picture to see it as large as I can make it and then go on over to the Avant Garden to see the other stuff he has been up to.

More actors for my movies

Two requests poured in from Sue Jones-King, one of Mary's friends from high school.
Sue wants Eva La Rue to play her and Jimmy Buffett to play her husband Danny.


I'm not exactly sure that Eva would have anything to do with Jimmy, but it's only a movie.