Category: birthday

Where Is Lefty Brown?


One of the first persons I “met” in the blogosphere was Chris “Lefty” Brown. I think his musings about comic books were linked to Fred Hembeck’s site. I enjoyed those, but I also appreciated his rants about music, politics and other topics. In fact, I’ve been listening to some of those mixed CDs he made over the years this past week.

Lately, though, he has a new love: the Married Gamers blog and podcast, which he does with his wife Kelly. I appreciate that people evolve, but most talk about gaming just makes MEGO.

So, on your birthday, Lefty, this is MY wish: give your non-gaming fans a couple pieces a week. Your three questions on Friday, and your Top 10. Heck, your Top 10 can be heavily game-oriented, but I can take that in bite-sized portions. In fact, I did listen to about 45 minutes of your last gaming podcast, and I thought that that bit about the Playstation War in the Congo and RAID would have an interest to your broader audience. And I should also note that you, and especially Kelly, are REALLY good at it, much improved over your initial attempts in the medium.

When you’re giving us non-gaming stuff, you might talk about the last CD exchange that I don’t think you’ve mentioned in a couple months, when you announced the participants I have been waiting here with a worm in my mouth ever since for your reaction to my and others’ contributions.

So, Lefty, I’m really happy you’ve found your niche in the gaming world, but anything else you’ve got to share that would remind me of “Left Handed. Left Coast. Liberally Lefty” would warm my heart.

Have a great natal day! (And be glad I didn’t use that OTHER picture of you.)
ROG

ROG

She’ll Be Home for Birthday

I’ve missed my wife.

Carol has been attending the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA for the past two weeks. She is seeking an Advanced Certificate in Educational Administration. Carol has no interest in being a school principal, but would like to be able to help mold the curriculum for English as a Second Language. She left on Sunday, June 29 and returned home only yesterday. And it’s not as though she just took a couple of classes a day for two weeks. Prior to her arrival there, she had to read seven books and write three short papers based on the material in those books.

Her typical day started with breakfast at 7 a.m., classes that began at 8 a.m., and various activities that could run up to 9 p.m., including weekends and the Fourth of July. This coming school year, Carol will be doing an internship of 300 hours, and then next summer she will repeat the two-week marathon. The internship means that she will be working at only an 80% teaching capacity, which will put a bit of a crimp on our budget, but I’m very happy that she has decided to take on this educational process because 1) she has a great passion for it, and 2) I believe she will be very good at it.

So she’s made it back home, just in time for her birthday, taking her parents, Lydia and me out to dinner to celebrate. Happy Birthday, sweetie, and welcome home.

ROG

ROG

The Sexiest Vegetarian

First, I MUST recommend Steve Bissette’s recollection of FantaCo’s horror publication Gore Shriek. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2, with more parts promised. I’m particularly interested in the future installments since they took place after I left FantaCo in November of 1988. Even if you’re not into horror, it is an interesting tale about artists, editors and publishing.
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Also, Librarian 2008 responds to my tag.
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I did not known until recently that June is Black Music History Month. Once upon a time, there were no black people on MTV videos. Hard to believe now, but the company thought their audience would shy away if certain performers showed up. After SONY forced MTV’s hand and got Michael Jackson on the network, one of the ubiquitous performers was Prince Nelson Rogers.

It’s peculiar that Prince is lashing out at YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay, as I think those videos are keeping him in the mindset of folks. Even funnier is this story where a Mother protects YouTube clip by suing Prince.

Prince turns 50 today. At least his name is pronounceable now. Who knows how long these clips will be available?

From my two favorite Prince albums:

Purple Rain

and Sign O’ the Times

I also own Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Around the World in a Day. The Black Album, Batman, and a 2 CD greatest hits. I also have a 12-inch, 7-minute version of Let’s Go Crazy.

Here’s a song, like the Sinead O’Connor tune i posted on Wednesday, written by Prince:

Finally, a George Harrison tribute I remember watching at the time it first aired. His Purpleness really kicks about three minutes in:

ROG

Baby Sister Has a Birthday

And it’s significant, which means it’s divisible by 5. And I wonder how that came to be?

No matter.

Since she was younger than me, and my sister Leslie, I didn’t have as much one-on-one time with Marcia when we were growing up as I did with Leslie. Leslie and I sang with my father and did other things together. In fact, I sang once for her kindergarten class.

One thing I did do with her was to play The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was Napoleon Solo, the American (played by Robert Vaughn) and she was Russian Illya Kuryakin (the David McCallum character).

I also tried to be the peacemaker between my two sisters. Triangulation: no fun, that.

Leslie and I were already in college when my father got a job in Charlotte, NC in 1974, so my mother and Marcia ended moving down later that year. For some reason, the pronunciation of her name changed from MAR-sha in Binghamton to mar-SEE-ah in Charlotte.

When I was adrift in 1977, I ended up staying with my parents and my sister for four months. She felt was invading her turf and we had our rows, but by the end of my tenure there, we had really bonded in a way we hadn’t before.

There are other tales to tell, but I’ll leave it at that. I love you, baby sister.

ROG

ROG

Jello Shots


Tom Lehrer, who turns 80 today, is widely credited with inventing Jello shots; i.e., replacing half the water with distilled liquor.

Oh, yeah, he also did some nifty songs, from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (1953), which I have on a Dr. Demento album:

To the exquisite Vatican Rag:

To ‘Silent E’ from “the Electric Company:

My suggestion: go to Evanier’s page, type Tom Lehrer in the search mode. 15 of the 16 hits prior to today will be Tom Lehrer videos, and I’d be surprised if there weren’t one or two more to celebrate the occasion. Then go here and check out the lyrics.

Here’s an interview from 2007 from whence I stole the image above. To paraphrase the great Tom Lehrer, “When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 20 years.”

ROG

ROG
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