A Nice Guy
I had the privilege of judging the peach dessert contest at the Farmers Market this morning, and I met Scott Fitzgerald. He's the new morning guy on WPTF.
He seems like a really nice guy -- with a sharp comic mind. I wish him well.
5:40 PM
Deciphering TV -- UPDATED!
I was just watching "Nightly Business Report" on PBS. The anchor at the end pointed at the camera as said, "And to all of you, the best of good-byes."
What?
UPDATE: That Internet is something else! Someone wrote to me saying that it's "...the best of good buys."
That makes sense! Clever!
(By the way, it's a pretty good show.)
7:26 PM
Inside the Beltline
I just took two suits to be dry-cleaned at Medlin-Davis at Cameron Village. I feel very Old Raleigh right about now.
2:39 PM
"Strategery"
Please, everyone. Stop using the word "strategery." It is not a real word. The word is "strategy."
This is a horrible development in language.
2:37 PM
Structural problems
The honey keeps oozing out of my peanut-butter-and-honey sandwich. What a mess.
It's a half-sandwich -- in the taco style, not the cut-diagonally half-sandwich.
I'm trying to use as many hyphens as possible in this one.
8:44 AM
Rediscovering "Empty Garden"
The music-and-movies hard drive went to Heaven this weekend, so I've been ripping all of the CDs into the new hard drive this week. (Hey, kids. Back up your stuff. Especially those iTunes downloads. I'm choking on a hefty bill for all that.)
Anyway, as I peruse the albums, I was freshly taken by "Empty Garden" by Elton John. It's from the "Jump Up" album in 1982. The song is a tribute to John Lennon, but Bernie Taupin's lyrics never veer into schlock.
I think it's Elton at his best. Perfect arrangement, vocals and production. Perfect cocaine-fueled creativity.
I submit the official video for your enjoyment. It has that sad, it'll-be-cheaper-if-we-just-shoot-it-on-video look to it.* That's fairly common for music videos of that early era. I think "Empty Garden" reached No. 13 or No. 15 on the charts before plummeting into your local adult contemporary radio station or grocery store speaker. Don't discount it, though. It is pop magic, through and through. Just listen for those wonderful, inspired harmony vocals at the very end and hear what I'm talking about.
*In contrast to the budget-conscious production of the "Empty Garden" video, Elton's 1978 video for the single "Ego" was the most expensive music video to date. Fun fact #19632!
6:50 PM
What's annoying me this morning
Silly nicknames in the "acknowledgments" section of album liner notes are annoying.
I'd like to thank Weenie, Flounder, Lollipop, Da Blaster, T-Bone, Phoebe, Pop-Flop, Q, Spritz, Nabz, A-Bomb, Slip-n-Slide and Z-Boy for everything.
Oh, come on. Do you really call each other that?
4:41 AM
Airline Party 2
We flew a full hall from La Guardia to Raleigh-Durham on Saturday.
It was the second Airline Party! For this Airline Party, we introduced a terminal setting in the living room. Soothing music (Brian Eno's "Music for Airports") and some ambient airport concourse sounds filled the living room.
We began boarding the flight at 6:45. People slowly trickled in, handing the gate agent their tickets, then walking around to the side of the house to board the aircraft. The passengers walked through the kitchen and took their seat in the hall.
I'm the captain, as usual. Trevor is the head flight attendant. Our pal, Sean, was an assistant flight attendant. They did a fine job getting everyone seated and satisfied.
We enjoyed an on-time 7:05 p.m. departure. I taxied our CRJ-200 to Runway 13 at LGA. The computer flight attendant didn't seal the door properly, causing me some confusion in the cockpit on the takeoff roll. I didn't see any problems continuing the flight, so I didn't return to LGA. We continued the flight, but the computer program that handles the cabin announcements crashed. That was too bad. It added some confusion for the flight attendants.
Once we climbed above 10,000 feet, we began our complimentary drink and snack service. Everyone loved the 100-calorie cookie packs. The coffee was horrible. passengers agreed.
We printed menus for full meals on the backs of the safety cards. Four of eight people ordered our frozen pizza entree. No one wanted our new Fresh Meal service. That's too bad, because they're good. Next time, we're either going to add pictures to the menus or offer only fresh meals.
The flight attendants should have done a better job with meal sales. They didn't collect any money from the passengers! The pizzas were $2 each! One passenger ordered our Oriental Yum-Yum dessert (another $1 our attendants failed to collect!) and said it was delicious. We lost $9 in revenue! Insolence!
Trevor and Sean did a fine job keeping up with meal preparation. It's a harrowing task. As we began our descent into Raleigh, the crew went through the cabin to collect trash.
The weather was fine for the entire flight. An hour and 20 minutes after leaving LGA, we arrived safety at RDU. I pulled us into the gate, shut down the engines, opened the doors and our passengers disembarked.
I'm taking suggestions for the next airline party.
Right?
8:28 AM
"A Touch of Crass"
That's what Jaye P. Morgan's handwritten sign said on an episode of "The Gong Show" I watched this weekend.
I think she was (is?) a comic genius on that show. Had I been a contestant on "The Gong Show," I would have been crushed if she wasn't a panelist on my episode. Jaye P. Morgan had (has?) the priceless, almost unheard-of ability to be crass and classy at once. After she gongs an act, her post-gong putdowns are often censored with silence and a big "Oops!" graphic on the screen. Who knows what she says? But when they come back on camera, everyone in the studio is gasping in shocked laughter. Sometimes, the contestants don't look happy about whatever she said. I think she would have been (would be?) fun to hang out with.
Watch this video to see what I'm talking about. Listen to her comment about 1:35 into it.
Before she was a panelist on "Gong," Jaye P. Morgan was an acclaimed singer back in the 1950s. While killing some dollars on iTunes today, I found a 2005 release called "Jaye P. Morgan Lately!" It's actually a 1983 project released in 2005.
Go to her Myspace page and listen to her '83 version of "Every Breath You Take." It is mesmerizing. I don't know how, exactly, but it is.
You don't know who I'm talking about, do you?
7:56 PM
Storm
Nice storm clouds over the house tonight. It's poahin' rain.
7:19 PM
Atlanta?
Denver?
2:14 PM