Monday, November 27, 2017

It's Good the be The King!

How cool is this?

I was just voted Person of the Year by Time Magazine. I know ... Trump was the original pick but he turned them down. I don’t care. So what if I was the second choice? They called me today to ask if I would accept and I said “Sure ... I’ll be happy to. “

There are a few strings attached ... however.

-First, they said I would be responsible for payment of the first press run. How many could that be ... a hundred or so?

-Second, there is some prince in South Africa that needs my help (this apparently is required as part of the humanitarian component of the nomination). I’ll help him. How complicated can it be?

-Third, this particular issue will not make the commercial news stands. Special issues seldom do (a fact I didn’t know). The people I talked to promised that copies would be sent electronically to subscribers. They said that I should get a list of family and friends together for a special mailing that I might have to pay for as well ... but it's worth it.

I have to say that all the folks that I have dealt with are so thoughtful and willing to help. I had no idea of the many nationalities that work at Time. I'm pretty good with accents but I had a hard time understanding many of them over the phone. They apparently had a hard time understanding me as well. They repeatedly asked for my social security number, credit card info and my address.

Oh ... I was saving the next part as a surprise ... but what the heck ... here it goes.

They take suggestions for future issues of Person of the Year! So ... I gave them some of the names of my closest friends and family that they can contact. Just think ... YOU MIGHT BE THE NEXT PERSON OF THE YEAR!

Monday, November 20, 2017

You've Got A Friend In Me, Randy

Last night, Deb surprised me with a date night and it wasn't even my birthday.

The day before, my sinuses were angry and wouldn't let me out of bed. Fortunately. they gave me a break last night and cleared ... just long enough so that we could spend time at the Capitol Theater with RANDY NEWMAN.

What a night!

Randy Newman was by far the biggest influence on my music. There's no one quite like him. Mix ragtime, New Orleans dixieland, swing ... a few passing chords underneath ... a voice that defies definition ... a cynical look at life with sweet lyrics ... smart and clean ... that's Randy.

And he did not disappoint. He came out on stage ... just Newman and a grand piano ... looking like he just rolled out of bed and played like the genius he is. Hard to say which ones are my favorites because I really love them all for different reasons. Back to back he played my New Orleans favorites (as close to autobiographical for him as any) Dixie Flyer and Louisiana. As the story goes, he was born in "November '43" got on the "Dixie Flyer bound for New Orleans". His parents were Jewish but he was raised without any religion "tryin' to do what the gentiles do/ Christ they wanted to be Gentiles too/ Who wouldn't down there, wouldn't you?/ An American Christian".

Louisiana 1927 was the story of the great flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Mississippi and Louisiana. he wrote it in 1976 but it became identified with Hurricane Katrina after Aaron Neville covered it for a fundraiser. "River rose all day and it rose all night/ Some people got lost in the flood/ some people got away all right".

He played new stuff from his album Dark Matter ... fantastic: Putin (yep that Putin), Sonny Boy (about Sonny Boy Williamson, the blues singer and his early death as he looks at his pretender from heaven), Lost Without You (beautiful ballad).

Aw heck I could go on for days.

By the way ... The Capitol in Clearwater had been renovated a year or so ago. What a cool place to see a concert.  Still has the ambiance of the original theater.

Loved it.

Thank you ... DEBBIE MOMBERG! 

Ballad of the Big Prostate

Here’s a little country tune I wrote just yesterday to commemorate a dark day in my history. I don’t have a tune but realized you can use an...