Friday, December 27, 2013

Death of the Black-Haired Girl By Robert Stone


http://www.amazon.com/Death-Black-Haired-Girl-Robert-Stone/dp/0618386238/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388158827&sr=8-1&keywords=death+of+the+black+haired+girl

Click on the above link to read all about it(and a few pages for free)on the Amazon.com page.


Robert Stone's latest novel. He is my favorite living fiction writer. At least he is trying to write serious fiction and not just best sellers or books for children of all ages.

Robert Stone
The link below is to the New York Times review of the book.



Robert Stone (novelist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Robert Stone
Robert stone 2010.jpg
Robert Stone at the 2010 Texas Book Festival.
Born(1937-08-21) August 21, 1937 (age 76)
Brooklyn, New York, United States
OccupationAuthor, journalist
Literary movementNaturalism, Stream of consciousness
Notable work(s)Dog Soldiers
Notable award(s)National Book Award 1975
Robert Stone (born August 21, 1937) is an American novelist.
He won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1975 for his novel Dog Soldiers[1] and was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and once for the PEN/Faulkner Awards.[2][3][4][5] Dog Soldiers was adapted as a film, Who'll Stop the Rain in 1978 starring Nick Nolte, and Time magazine included it in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[6]
He has also received Guggenheim[7] and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, the five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
His best known work is characterized by action-tinged adventures, political concerns and dark humor. Many of his novels are set in unusual, exotic landscapes of raging social turbulence, such as the Vietnam War; a post-coup violent banana republic in Central America; Jim Crow-era New Orleans, and late 1990's Jerusalem.


Life[edit]

Robert Stone was born in Brooklyn, New York. Until the age of six he was raised by his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia; after she was institutionalized, he spent several years in a Catholic orphanage. In his short story "Absence of Mercy", which he has called autobiographical,[8] the protagonist Mackay is placed at age five in an orphanage described as having had "the social dynamic of a coral reef".
The battered protagonists and "harrowing creations" in Stone's fiction often transmit a "mix of gloom and bleak irony" that would seem to come from Stone's personal experience: he had a difficult upbringing (besides his mother's schizophrenia, his father abandoned Stone's mother soon after his birth)[9] and Stone has had his share of struggles with alcohol and drugs.[10] Stone dropped out of high school in 1954 and joined the Navy for four years. At sea, he went to many remote places, including Antarctica and Egypt. These nautical experiences were at times violent; he witnessed the French Army bombing Port Said.
In the early 1960s, he briefly attended New York University; worked as a copyboy at the New York Daily News; married and moved to New Orleans; and attended the Wallace Stegner workshop at Stanford University, where he began writing a novel. Although he met the influential Beat Generation writer Ken Kesey and other Merry Pranksters, he was not a passenger on the famous 1964 bus trip to New York, contrary to some media reports.[11] Living in New York at the time, he met the bus on its arrival and accompanied Kesey to an "after-bus party" whose attendees included a dyspeptic Jack Kerouac.[12]
At age 72, just after the publication of his second short-story collection Fun With Problems, Stone admitted (during a newspaper interview) that he suffered from severe emphysema: "It's my punishment for chain-smoking," he says. But with a wry laugh, he recalls his reaction to being told of the harm smoking could cause him in old age: "I'm not going to know I'm alive!".[10]
Stone has taught in the creative writing program at Yale University. For the 2010–2011 school year, he has been the Endowed Chair in the English Department at Texas State University-San Marcos.

Fiction[edit]

In 1967, Stone published his first novel, A Hall of Mirrors, which won both a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, and a William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel. Set in New Orleans in 1962 and based partly on actual events, the novel depicted a political scene dominated by right-wing racism, but its style was more reminiscent of Beat writers than of earlier social realists: alternating between naturalism and stream of consciousness. It was adapted as a film, WUSA (1970). The novel's success led to a Guggenheim Fellowship and began Stone's career as a professional writer.
In 1971 he traveled to Vietnam as a correspondent for an obscure British journal called "Ink".[13] His time there served as the inspiration for his second novel, Dog Soldiers (1974), which features a journalist smuggling heroin from Vietnam. It shared the 1975 U.S. National Book Award with The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams.[1][14]
Stone's third book, A Flag for Sunrise (1981), was published to unanimous critical praise and moderate commercial success. The story follows a wide cast of characters as their paths intersect in a fictionalized banana republic based on Nicaragua. The novel was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize.[4][2]
In contrast to the grand, somewhat satirical adventure epics Stone is commonly associated with, his next two novels were smaller-scale character studies: the misfortunate tale of a Hollywood movie actress in Children of Light, and an eccentric at the midst of a circumnavigation race in Outerbridge Reach (based loosely on the story of Donald Crowhurst), published in 1986 and 1992 respectively. The latter was a finalist for the National Book Award for 1992.[15]
Bear and His Daughter, published in 1997, is a short story collection that lost the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to American Pastoral by Phillip Roth.[3] He returned to describing social turbulence with Damascus Gate (1998), about a man with messianic delusions caught up in a terrorist plot in Jerusalem. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award for 1998.[16]

Nonfiction[edit]

Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (2007) is Stone's memoir discussing his experiences in the 1960s "counterculture". The autobiographical work begins with his days in the Navy and ends with his days as a correspondent in Vietnam. Besides Ken Kesey, this work features Stone's insights on Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac from his time spent traveling with them.[17]

Works[edit]



Monday, December 16, 2013

Capitoline Museums, Dying Gaul - il Galata Morente (manortiz)


This is on loan at present to the National Gallery Of Art in Washington D.C.
Several posts below this one is another about The Dying Gaul.

2d train.MOV Toy Trains at the US Botanic Garden in Washington D.C. 20...


Rachel made this and the one below 4 years ago.

3d train.MOV U.S. Botanic Gardens Washington DC The Caterpillar Train 2...


US Botanic Garden Wows Holiday Visitors 2013


Christmas Trains in Season's Greenings at United States Botanic Garden W...


These are the 2013 trains in action at the U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington D.C.

The Dying Gaul At The National Gallery Of Art Washington D.C.

This is The Dying Gaul now on view at the National Gallery Of Art in Washington D.C.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
We went to see this yesterday. So did many other people.

Tuba Skinny Most Recent

http://vimeo.com/81591425#at=64

Click on the link above. This is one of the very best videos of the band and includes some great camera work of them and also New Orleans.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Sample Some Big Joe Williams

http://www.allmusic.com/album/big-joe-williams-and-the-stars-of-mississippi-blues-mw0000696149
Click on the link above to hear a great many samples of Big Joe Williams in action.
 
 
 

Remembering The Cellar Door Nightclub In Washington(Georgetown) D.C.


Fine article in today's Washington Post by Dave McKenna about the old and long departed Cellar Door nightclub that was on M Street in Georgetown,D.C.
Be sure and read the comments at the end of the above article. They are good memories from other people. 
This was a place you could see and hear acts on the way up and on the way down.
 
In fact I told the guy at the next door Little Tavern who made the 15 cent hamburgers and poured the coffee that he should go there and here the musicians because they were on their way up. No he said they are on their way down.
 
Acts that I saw there included Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band when they were first starting out around 1972 or 1973. The Cellar Door had a no smoking policy even back then. Jimmy Buffett saw somebody in the audience smoking and announced there would be no smoking.
Someone in the audience yelled back that one of Jimmy's band was smoking right at that moment on stage. It was good for a laugh from everyone.
 
I saw an ad in the paper that blues man Joe Williams was going to be playing at the Cellar Door. I called over and asked if it was the blues man Big Joe Williams. The guy on the phone didn't know the difference between Joe Williams(the Count Basie jazz singer)and Big Joe Williams the famous Mississippi bluesman. So he just said Yes.
I went over and paid a small entrance fee and it turned out to be Joe Williams the jazz singer. I was hoping to see Big Joe the blues singer. This was in 1968 or 1969 and since I liked jazz also I decided to stick around. The amazing thing was the audience was only about 12 people. And they were all older black couples.
Joe Williams just told everyone to move down front and he proceded to give a great perfomance.
 

 
 
 
On my way home that night around midnight cutting through Rose Park to get to P Street some young kids started throwing empty coke bottles at me. I did not get hit but I got out of there fast.
 
Miles Davis played a full week at The Cellar Door in 1969 or so. I went with two or three other guys.
Davis would turn his back to the audience and play a note or two and walk of the stage and let his band do the rest.
One of the guys I was with said he was going to talk to Miles. I tried to tell him that it was not a good idea. He came back stunned. I did not ask him what Miles said to him but whatever it was left him shattered.
 
Dr. Hook played The Cellar Door and I went to see them. But my friend George Cummings was no longer with the band. He had left after he got sick with bronchitis and the manager of the band would not let him have some time off.
I stuck around and listened to the band anyway and went back in the dressing room between sets to visit with them. Billy Francis(the bass player)was a nice friendly guy and told me what happened to George. and why he wasn't there.
 
That is Billy Francis in the middle on the bottom row. He passed away a few years ago.
George Cummings is the fellow on the far right on the bottom row. He is still very much alive and growing veggies in his garden. And still playing music.
The guy with the patch over his eye is Ray Sawyer. He is still around with a head full of long white hair now. The guy on the far right top row is Dennis. He moved to England some years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Hook_%26_The_Medicine_Show
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Texas School Book Depository And The 6th Floor Museum About The JFK Assassination On 11-22-1963


http://www.jfk.org/go/about/history-of-the-texas-school-book-depository

In 1967 I wrote to the Department of the Interior telling them they should make a museum out of the Texas Book Depository. Below is the letter I received in reply. Click on the photo to enlarge and read the letter.
http://www.jfk.org/go/home
The link above is to the website for the 6th Floor Museum.




Friday, November 15, 2013

At Mimi's In New Orleans 11-14-2013 A Combination of Tuba Skinny And The Drunken Catfish Ramblers


This includes some of the Catfish Ramblers so that makes them Blueberry Magpies.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Eddie Hunter And His Blog Chicken Fat

Eddie Hunter wrote something about me on his blog today and provided a link to this blog. So I am returning the favor. Eddie's blog CHICKEN FAT is both funny and informative. Check it out
by going to:
http://ethunter1.blogspot.com/

Below is a picture of Eddie joing the Navy in 1962 right after the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Great picture Eddie.
Click on the picture to enlarge it as always.


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Monday, November 4, 2013

Tuba Skinny Ice Man


Saturday, November 2, 2013

Monday, October 28, 2013

Tuba Skinny- At The Mill- "All I Want" -MORE at DIGITALALEXA channel


EUGENE WALTER: 30 SECOND SPOT



I have much more on this blog about Eugene Walter. Click in the label box below
on the name eugene walter.

Click on the link below to see Eugene Walter's grave in the old Church Street Cemetery
in Mobile, Alabama.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12693188

Tuba Skinny -"Yearning" -Royal St. 4/15/13 - MORE at DIGITALALEXA cha...


On the Record: Eugene Walter


Friday, October 25, 2013

Day Of The Dead Painting By Teresa Oaxaca Now At the Arlington Virginia Central Library



Click on the above painting to enlarge it.


About the Piece-

"The Mexican doll is an original hand painted piece on linen. The inspiration comes from Day of the Dead Celebrations which I read about in a book called "The Empire Of Death" by Paul Koudounaris. The out of practice and in some case still existing ceremonies invoked a colorful and decorative spectacle in my mind which I sought to bring out here in this small and quiet still life.
The frame has an interesting story of its own. My mother found it abandoned on a neighbor's curb side 5 years ago. We took it in and promised to find it a good home some day, or to make a good home of it for a painting. At last I had the idea to paint this turquoise doll, the color being set off excellently by the leafed border and wear showing through the frame. The combination of the reds, blues, greens, pinks, and a striking yellow combine to evoke an exultant extravaganza of color harmony.

"…The most dramatic contemporary example is undoubtedly the Famidihana (Turning of the Bones) of the Malagasy people of Madagascar. This ritual involves removing the body of an ancestor from it's crypt, wrapping it in a new shroud, and dancing with the corpse to live music. There may even be a family meal at which the deceased is given a place at the table. The ritual serves to unite families by reestablishing their bonds with ancestors, and introducing younger members to family history.

Although Famidihana is not a Christian ritual, Christianity itself does not preclude a dialogue with the dead, and similar practices survive in some pockets of the modern Christian world. On November 2 in Pomuch, Mexico, family members return to the local cemetery to remove the bones of their relatives from their tombs and clean them… Elsewhere in Latin America, the Fiesta de las Natitas on November 8 in La Paz, Bolivia, brings thousands of people carrying human skulls to the city's Cemetery General…" (page 11, Empire of Death, 2011)
http://boingboing.net/2011/08/12/the-empire-of-death-a-cultural-history-of-ossuaries-and-charnel-houses.html
http://www.teresaoaxaca.blogspot.com/2013/10/mexican-doll-to-be-party-of-art-at.html



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500251789/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mitogo05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0500251789

Monday, October 21, 2013

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Tuba Skinny At The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2013 In New Orleans


Well I finally found a video of tuba skinny at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown in New Orleans in 2013.

Monday, October 14, 2013

USA: Protesters break through barriers, take them to White House



Barriers? We don't need no stinking barriers.

Vets marching past White House carrying baracades from the monuments



 
 

 
Barriers? We don't need no stinking barriers.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Tuba Skinny


Monday, September 23, 2013

Famous 1960's poster artist Bob Dara + Rare Bob Dylan Poster By Bob Dara Of Dylan On A Norton Motorcycle



 
This is an original late 60's-early 70's poster printed by the great Steve Sachs out of California. Steve was one of the pioneering artists/printers of the psychedelic black light era. Original artist for this was Bob Dara from NY, this was printed out of Steve's shop for West coast distribution. It is extremely rare.This is a large poster, measuring approximately 30''x41''.
Click on the picture of the poster to enlarge it.
 
I once owned an original of this poster. I bought it in a motorcyle store in Laurel, Maryland around 1968 or 1969. It hung over our mantel on P St.  I had it framed in a nice wormwood frame.
I think it was given to one of my wife's brothers for helping her move when we left D.C. in the winter of 1971.
I have often thought of it and am glad I finally found a picture of it and some information about the artist Bob Dara of New York.
Some originals sell on Ebay from time to time and also reproductions of the original poster sell on Ebay.

Size below is for the original poster not any of the reproductions.
This is a large poster, measuring approximately 30''x41''.

Image above is from the back of the poster.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Camp Hero Montauk State Park At Montauk At The Eastern End Of Long Island



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hero_State_Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Project

The video below is interesting also. Some young people go inside the radar tower and climb to the top where the radar antenna is located.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

tuba skinny Clifftop Festival 2013

New Tuba Skinny From Lugano

IF You Need Anything Just Whistle

We went to the Southampton Library Book Sale yesterday. They sell donated books twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
    I have been reading about James Jones last book titled WHISTLE which came out after his death in 1978. He died in 1977 here in Southampton at the hospital.
    When we went in the book sale I went straight to the fiction and looked under the J's. They had only one James Jones book for sale and it was WHISTLE. It was a first edition hardback from 1978.
It was in perfect condition with the book jacket. It was priced at 3 dollars. I bought it.
I had just been talking about the book on the way to the sale. I was thinking I would not find a copy and would just have to wait and check it out of the library at home. And lo and behold here it was waiting for me in Southampton. I was looking for it and it was looking for me.
  The title refers to a hospital for wounded veterans where the medics would tell the men "If you need anything just whistle."


Thursday, August 22, 2013

James Jones Part 1

James Jones Part 2

James Jones Part 3

Whistling Past The Graveyard

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=227


Gary Cooper is buried here in Southampton N.Y. He died and was buried in California.
His wife remarried and when she decided to move back to New York where she was from she had him dug up and took him back with her. She is buried here also next to him. Good photos on Find A Grave.com in the link above.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gotta Travel On.... Sung By Billy Grammer Written By Paul Clayton

When Grammer and his wife were living in Washington D.C., he was hired by Connie B. Gay as a singer in support of Gay's WARL radio program: Town and Country Time. When Gay was preparing to replace the session guitarist, Grammer demonstrated his own guitar prowess, and was re-contracted in a duel-role as both singer and lead guitarist.[2]
After being signed by Monument Records in Nashville, Tennessee, Grammer scored a big hit with the million-selling single: "Gotta Travel On",[1] written by Paul Clayton. The song peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart and No. 5 on the Hot Country Songschart in 1959. That same year, he became a regular cast member on the Grand Ole Opry.[3] Grammer named his band after his most notable hit as The Travel On Boys. "Gotta Travel On" was used as the opening song by Buddy Holly on his final tour in January and February 1959, which ended in tragedy.[4] He recorded the first chart version of Bobby Bare's "Detroit City", entitled "I Wanna Go Home". It hit the Billboard country chart in early 1963.
Grammer founded RG&G (Reid, Grammer & Gower) Company in 1965 with Clyde Reid and J.W. Gower.[5] RG&G made the Grammer guitar from 1965 until 1968, when a fire consumed the factory in downtown Nashville. The company was then sold to Ampeg, and a new factory was erected down the street from the old one. The company was renamed Grammer Guitar, Inc. (GGI). GGI produced the Grammer guitar until 1970. His guitar was installed into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville on March 1, 1969.[1]
On May 15, 1972, Grammer and the Travel On Boys played at the rally in Laurel, Maryland where Alabama governor George Wallace was shot. Grammer and his band played the"Under the Double Eagle" march as Wallace mounted the stage to speak. After he spoke, Wallace mingled with the crowd, and Arthur Bremer shot a concealed handgun at the presidential candidate. The outcome was Wallace's paralysis, leaving him using a wheelchair for the rest of his life.[6] "I've said all along, if they wanted to do something like this, they do it under these circumstances," Grammer said, weeping, after the incident.[6]


http://expectingrain.com/dok/who/c/claytonpaul.html



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Clayton_(folksinger)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Grammer

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Heart Beat (Full Movie) This Is About Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, And Carolyn Cassady



I saw this movie 33 years ago in 1980.  I think it is one of the best movies about The Beat Generation. It is based on a book of the same name by Neal Cassady's wife Carolyn Cassady.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Cassady

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Tuba Skinny Playing On Royal Street In Front Of 823 Royal My First Apartment in New Orleans




823 Royal was the first apartment that I had in New Orleans. Jack Newell and I rented that in January 1965. Jack was a merchant seaman at the time and was "on the beach". That is he was without a seagoing ship at the time.
I was waiting to go in the Peace Corps.
I went looking for work in the meantime and found an employment agency and a fellow working there by the name of Peter Dassinger Jr.
He sent me out on one sales job interview at a motel on Tulane Avenue. All the salesmen were in the bar drunk at 10 a.m.
Then Peter asked me if I would like to work in a Hollywood movie as an extra while I was waiting. I said yes. He also hired Jack Newell and we reported to an address on Bourbon Street to get our costumes to be extras in the movie THE CINCINNATI KID.

The place we had rented at 823 Royal Street was the slave quarters in the rear patio. The patio had a brick wall all around it separating it from the nearby residences.

Below is what I wrote about this a year or two ago.

In January of 1965 I worked as an extra on the film The Cincinnati Kid in New Orleans. My friend Jack Newell also worked as an extra. We got about a weeks work out of the job. MGM fed the crew and the extras 3 meals a day. Jack and I reported to a place on Royal Street to get our costume clothes from the 1930s era. Our first assignment was to drive the old cars 1930s vintage on and off the Algiers ferry. Then we did a scene that called for us to arrive early on a Sunday morning for the shooting of the jazz funeral parade which is used in the opening credits of the film. We are not at the graveyard but we are at the big parade that comes after the funeral. This took all morning and each time it got better as more and more booze was consumed. MGM paid all those extras with vouchers. They also provided a nice breakfast before we started that morning. We were both about 24 years old at the time.
We did another scene right outside Jackson Square. Since I was lined up next to Ann Margret I got to talk briefly with her and I asked her about Elvis Presley since she had just finished making Viva Las Vegas with him. I asked her what Elvis was like and she said he was a really nice person.
One morning we went in the Royal Orleans Hotel to get coffee for breakfast and Karl Malden came in and asked for something. He was tying his tie. I nodded at him and he nodded back. Since Tuesday Weld and Steve McQueen(who never showed his face except when filming)and other stars worked on this film it was somewhat of a surprise to me that the actor that created the biggest stir was Edgar G. Robinson. When he showed up to do the scene with the organ grinder and the monkey all the local Jackson Square people really wanted to see Edgar G. Robinson. He seemed to be the biggest star of all.
McQueen shot the scene at Preservation Hall where he looks in and sees Sweet Emma the Bell Gal singing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.






We had nothing to do but sit around in the back patio and watch him go in and out of his dressing room further back in the patio.
Tuesday Weld was very pretty. I remember her sitting in a chair outside Jackson Square and one of the MGM makeup women kept brushing her blond hair.

Below is the great scene in the movie where Ann Margret is cutting up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to make them fit.
Karl Malden tells her she even cheats playing solitaire.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Xavier Cugat - Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) - Caricatures - 1964



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Cugat

He was a cartoonist also. Read about it in the link above.

[HQ] Yo Te Amo Mucho - And That's That (Holiday In Mexico-1946)


Check out his chihuahua in this film clip. It speaks at the end of the clip.

Jayne Mansfield Automobile Wreck Site


Double click on the video to enlarge it and go to Youtube. Be sure and read the comments.
The actual crash site was one mile west of the Rigolets bridge. So this is about 4 miles further west in the video. Comments section discusses this error.

I used to drive this section of old Highway 90 on the way to New Orleans from Mobile and Biloxi.
Driving at night in almost total darkness and going over the Rigolets bridge was a spooky experience.
But it also meant you were getting close to New Orleans.
I remember small isolated fishing camps strung out along the highway whenever water would appear. It was like driving through a series of connected islands.
It was always a great relief to come into New Orleans via the old Chef Menteur highway. Streetlights would appear and then large billboards advertising Pat O'Briens and Brennan's Restaurant and other French Quarter attractions.

Death of Jayne Mansfield





Click on the above pictures to enlarge them.
Here is a fine website about Jayne Mansfield. Included in this are some good information on her final performance at Gus Stevens in Biloxi. Also links to some of the crash scene photos.
I read somewhere once that she was filling in for someone else who could not make it that weekend.
Many years later I saw the car she died in on exhibit in a carnival. Along with the car itself was a copy of the police report. These death cars used to be a popular attraction at fairs and carnivals,etc.
In Mobile at the Alabama State Fair I saw a limo that was billed as belonging to Hitler and Eva Braun. It always helped if there were bullet holes in the car like the Bonnie and Clyde car that was put on exhibit after they were gunned down in an ambush.
Many of us have fond memories of Gus Stevens Restaurant in Biloxi,Miss. Without a doubt the finest supper club on the Mississippi Gulf Coast when it was open.
I saw Brother Dave Gardner there. In fact he got his start there as a drummer and then a singer before he became a full time comedian.
We talked with him once out in the parking lot. He was a really friendly and funny guy.
Mose Allison got his start in some jazz clubs in Biloxi.
Dr. Hook and the Medicine show in an earlier formation was the house band there under the name The Chocolate Papers.
Here is a link to some information on The Chocolate Papers and George Cummings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cummings
Lavern Baker performed at Gus Stevens around that time in the late 1960s. The Chocolate Papers was the house band at Gus Stevens in Biloxi at that time.
Here is a link to Dr. Hook.com. In the picture at the top of the page you will see the Chocolate Papers. All the other pictures at the top of the page are of Dr. Hook.
http://www.doctorhook.com/
Here is the link about Jayne Mansfield. Some of the crash photos are quite graphic. Be warned.
http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/Mansfield/jayne_mansfield.htm

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Tuba Skinny at Studio Hop, July 19th 2013


La sensación de viajar: Tuba Skinny en Toulouse



Go to Youtube and skip to 4:13 or so to see Tuba Skinny playing on the street in Toulouse France.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

The Cross Sound Ferry And The New Yorker Hampton Jitney Cover By Bruce McCall

Click the pictures to enlarge them.

This ferry already exists.  It operates back and forth from New London Conn. to Orient Point Long Island. Not far from the Hamptons.

The Cross Sound Ferry boat the Cape Henlopen(see below) was an LST at D Day on June 6, 1944. See picture below of the plaque that is on the boat.
And read all about it here:
The Cape Henlopen Ferry was built as a World War II landing craft (LST 510) in Jeffersonville, Indiana and participated in the D-day invasion at Normandy. In 1966, it was converted to a passenger and auto ferry and served on the Lewes, Delaware - Cape May, New Jersey Route. It was purchased in 1983 by Cross Sound Ferry and underwent a total refurbishment before entering service. The ferry was repowered during the winter of 1995 with EMD 12-645 diesel engines, ensuring a long future of trouble free operation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwXEDrevT8

https://www.longislandferry.com/Common/Help.aspx?page=fleet




 
 

 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/cover-story-operation-neptune.html#slide_ss_0=1

Tuba Skinny - Slow Driving Moan - Rapperswil 30 juni 2013



More videos from Switzerland.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCkNbIs3LxY

Friday, July 12, 2013

Cross Sound Ferry - New London, CT to Orient Point, Long Island - New York



Ray and I rode this ferry back from New London to Orient Point one week ago today.
The Mary Ellen is the name of this ferry.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Tuba Skinny in Rapperswil 30 juni 2013 -Bama Mine


It took some looking but I found them after many tries. Here they are in Switzerland at a Blues
and Jazz Festival in Rapperswil Switzerland which is near Zurich.
This is for all Tuba Skinny fans but mainly for me and for Eddie Hunter who are tuba skinny
fanatics.
   Now I have to get busy and find them somewhere in France.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Ferry Ride On The Cross Sound Ferry Via A WW2 LST(Landing Ship Tank)


The Cape Henlopen Ferry was built as a World War II landing craft (LST 510) in Jeffersonville, Indiana and participated in the D-day invasion at Normandy. In 1966, it was converted to a passenger and auto ferry and served on the Lewes, Delaware - Cape May, New Jersey Route. It was purchased in 1983 by Cross Sound Ferry and underwent a total refurbishment before entering service. The ferry was repowered during the winter of 1995 with EMD 12-645 diesel engines, ensuring a long future of trouble free operation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwXEDrevT8

https://www.longislandferry.com/Common/Help.aspx?page=fleet

Ray and I took a ride on this ferry yesterday from Orient Point on Long Island to New London Conn. I noticed it has a plaque showing that it was at D Day at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
Below is a history of this large ship. It went on to become a ferry boat in Delaware and now is in service possibly the last WW2  transport still being used in the U.S.A.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_LST-510


We went to visit my brother in Plymouth, Mass. Coming back we rode a different ferry boat from New London to Orient Point.  It was much smaller.
I could tell the larger Cape Henlopen had room to have been used as a tank transport in WW2.

Coming back on the other ferry boat we went to the bar for a beer. We drank some Blue Moon beer which was very good. I passed the time looking at the other people in the bar area. One young woman had a large docile shaggy dog on a leash. It settled down on the floor by her chair.

The man seated two seats over from us was reading the comic strips in the newspaper. He was eating a pretzel on which he would put a dab of yellow mustard and continue reading the comics. He did that for over an hour. He looked to be a fat working man. He took a call on his cell phone and told some people to check out such and such and he would look into it when he got back.
He was like a man on vacation. And he was obviously relaxed and enjoying himself.

The bartender was a good wise cracking guy. He had seen it all in his time. No one could pull anything on him. He was very busy. He was the guy who confirmed to us the Cape Henlopen had indeed been in WW2.

Ray asked him how he was doing and the bartender replied, "I'm living on hope and dying in despair".  I had never heard that saying before but I looked it up and apparently it  has been around a long time.

   A man ordered some drinks and food for himself and his lady friend. He took the drinks over to a table and said he would wait over there for the food. He had not yet paid and the bartender called to him to say take your check so you wont forget to pay. The guy said "oh I will pay". The bartender said "I know you will".  He joked about it but let the guy know he was serious and no one was going to pull anything over on him.


Monday, July 1, 2013

The Third Man: Then and Now (Part 2 of 2)


The Third Man: Then and Now (Part 1 of 2)


The Third Man (1949) Trailer


The Third Man 1950




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man

This movie made a big impression on me in 1950 when I was ten years old.
It would have been the first time I ever heard a foreign language spoken.
The first time I ever saw European architecture(Vienna Austria).
First time I ever saw such great photography.
A very adult story which I did not understand but was very interested in because of the great music and great visuals.

Over the years I have seen it again and again and enjoy it more each time.
Do you know who the Third Man was?
Carol Reed(the Director)was a genius in the making of this movie.
Graham Greene wrote the screen play and then later the novella of the same name.
The zither music was unforgetable.

I am not sure but I think I must have seen this in the Temple Theater in Meridian Mississippi. Most likely in the summer of 1950.