meme Archives - Page 2 of 28 - Ramblin' with Roger

T is for Titans

Three actors were on NBC programs that started after their appearance in the movie.

Uncharacteristically, I was flipping through the TV channels recently. This is highly unusual, because generally, when I watch television, I go to a particular show, usually prerecorded. I came across this 2000 movie I saw in the theaters, Remember the Titans. Part of the IMBD synopsis:
“It’s 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia and successful high school football coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) has just been deprived of the head coaching job at the new integrated T.C. Williams High School to make way for equally successful black coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). Yoast debates pursuing opportunities elsewhere, but when most of his white players vow to sit out the season unless he coaches, he changes his mind and stays on as Boone’s assistant.”
The Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: “An inspirational crowd-pleaser with a healthy dose of social commentary, Remember the Titans may be predictable, but it’s also well-crafted and features terrific performances.”

Well, yes, predictable, including having the Big Game. I enjoyed it well enough, and it at least tried to tackle the issue of race.

Looking back at it, though, I noticed an interesting coincidence:

Donald Faison, who played football star Petey Jones, became Dr. Christopher Turk, best friend of quirky Dr. John Dorian on the TV comedy Scrubs (2001-2010), with seven years on NBC, and the final two on ABC. Turk and JD were probably the epitome of a word I’m not fond of, “bromance”.

Ethan Suplee, who played big-hearted lineman Louie Lastik, was the some-what simple-minded younger brother Randy Hickey to the title character on the comedy My Name Is Earl (2005-2009, NBC). Earl dragged Randy into his plans to fix the outcomes of some of their less-than-desirable activities after the elder brother discovered karma following a car accident.

Hayden Panettiere played Sheryl Yoast, daughter of Coach Yoast: “My daddy coached in Alexandria, he worked so hard my momma left him, but I stayed with coach, he needed me on that field.” She initially resents Coach Boone for supplanting her daddy, but:
Sheryl Yoast: Coach Boone, you did a good job up here. You ran a tough camp from what I can see.
Coach Boone: Well I’m very happy to have the approval of a 5-year-old.
Sheryl Yoast: I’m 9 and a half, thank you very much.
Coach Boone: Why don’t you get this little girl some pretty dolls or something, coach?
Coach Yoast: I’ve tried. She loves football.
After playing Ally McBeal’s daughter in that program’s last season (2002), Hayden played Claire “Save the cheerleader” Bennet on Heroes (NBC) from 2006 until its cancellation in 2010.

So all three actors were on NBC programs that started after their appearance in the movie but that are all now off the air.
***

When the upstart American Football League (AFL) was formed in 1960 to challenge the long-established National Football League, the franchise in the US’s largest city was called the New York Titans. Major League Baseball’s National League experienced an expansion in 1962, and the city got the New York Mets. When the Titans were sold to new owners in 1964, the team changed its name to the New York Jets, to nominally link it to the popular, though inept, baseball franchise. The AFL merged with the NFL in 1966, though it wasn’t finalized until 1970. the Jets, of course, were the first AFL team to beat an established NFL in what became known as the Super Bowl, in January 1969. (The Mets would win the World Series later that same year.)

Another of the charter members of the AFL was the Houston Oilers, which relocated to the “state of Tennessee in 1997, first playing temporarily in Memphis for one season before moving to Nashville. For two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing its name to Titans in 1999.” So the Titans’ name lives again.

When I was collecting comics in the 1970s through the mid-1990s, I was pretty much a Marvel fan (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four) rather than a DC fan (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman). I never read, never even sought out, the original Teen Titans, a book about the sidekicks of the established stars from back in the 1960s. But because of the creative team of writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez, I did collect the NEW Teen Titans, starting in 1980, even though Robin was the only character I knew, and it became one of the most popular titles of its time.

There was also a Teen Titans TV series in the first decade of the century. New episodes stopped in 2006, but they are rerun often; I watched a part of an episode just this week to get into the spirit of this post.

Here is an extensive team history of the Teen Titans.

Finally, there is Clash of the Titans, the cheesy 1981 film with Harry Hamlin, and the 2010 remake. But I’ve seen neither, so I thought I’d just do the photo comparison.

ABC Wednesday

Stitching a Meme Together

I was at work, getting ready for a plane trip to Dallas for a conference the next day, when the first plane struck. Lots of confusion about whether it was an accident.

Jaquandor stitched together a couple of Sunday Stealing memes (On speed dating, but he is happily married. I am happily married, so don’t get any ideas).

1. What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Bartholemew and the Oobleck. Like most of my favorite Geisel stories, it confronts the powerful.

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

The USS Enterprise.

3. What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?

About 40 hours. I pulled an all-nighter to study for my calculus exam in my freshman year in college. I was failing calculus but ended up with a C for the semester.

4. What’s your favorite Barry Manilow song?

“Could It Be Magic”, specifically the Chopin-inspired opening.

5. Who’s your favorite Muppet?

Kermit. I mean, he’s green, about which he has sung.

6. What’s the habit you’re proudest of breaking?

I want to say none. There are things I don’t do anymore, but proud? Not coming to me.

7. What’s your favorite website?

For work, the Census site. For pleasure, probably my old blog, because I haven’t finished updating my links here.

8. What’s your favorite school supply?

A compass. No, not THAT kind of compass. THIS kind of compass:

Also, protractors. Always thought they were fun.
You don’t know what a protractor, is, do you?

9. Who’s your favorite TV attorney?

I LOVED TV attorneys! Owen Marshall, the folks on The Bold Ones, the lawyers on the first 13 years of Law & Order. It’s probably Perry Mason, an obvious choice. But I’ll pick D.A. Forrest Bedford, played by Sam Waterston on the 1991-1993 series I’ll Fly Away.

10. What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles?

Going to Charlotte, NC in early April, arriving on Easter Sunday.

11. What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found at a garage sale or junk shop?

I’m not one to go to garage sales or junk shops. I’m not a “bargain” hunter. I’ve bought LPs I like for cheap, in the day, but nothing specific comes to mind.

12. Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I was at work, getting ready for a plane trip to Dallas for a conference the next day, when the first plane struck. Lots of confusion about whether it was an accident. Someone got a TV and I saw the first plane in the building, but that was not much to see. There wasn’t any reason to stay, so I went back to work. Then someone told me a SECOND plane hit.

So I watched it for a while, listened to the radio for a while. There were wild reports on the radion of a couple of dozen planes that had been hijacked. Went back to see the TV in time to see the first tower collapse, and then pretty much stayed there for a couple of hours.

Someone talked with my boss, who was already in Dallas. He seemed to be trying to reassure us that he didn’t think we in Albany were in danger. (One of the planes had been in Albany air space, and we were in a 12-story building.) It wasn’t that we were afraid; it was that we were depressed (and not getting any work done anyway). Eventually, we went home about noon.

I used to go ride my bike up through the Empire State Plaza roadway, take the elevator to the concourse level and ride home. It was technically illegal, but it beat taking State Street hill. Went past a policeman, who said “Hello,” but then, given the events, started worrying about the guy with a backpack, and called to me, but I feigned not hearing him and went on as usual. (A month later, after the Afghan war began, they started checking my backpack, so I went another way thereafter.)

Inexplicably, I stopped at a record store on Central Avenue, to pick up Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft CD (with two extra songs), which I had preordered, and which was released that day. I was watching the events on the TV there. Went home, watched ABC News for about eight more hours. Have a strong recollection of a film of a plane striking the second building, taken from below, i.e., the street level. Also, recall one of the smaller buildings collapsing around 5 p.m.

Some weeks later, our program was involved with a variety of programs trying to facilitate economic recovery, for which our state director won a prestigious award from SBA.

13. What’s your favorite tree?

The weeping willow. I think they are cool.

14. What’s the most interesting biography you’ve read?

Off the top, the last bio I read was probably the Autobiography of Malcolm X, with Alex Haley.

15. What do you order when you eat Chinese food?

When I was a kid, it was sweet and sour pork. Now, it was some broccoli and beef dish, or maybe General Tso’s.

16. What’s the best costume you’ve ever worn?

This one.

17. What’s your least favorite word?

I don’t know that I have one. I DO hate when a word is misused, such as “ironic” when they mean “coincidental.”

18. If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?

Mississippi. I like typing it, and it’d turn me into an old blues singer: Mississippi Roger Green; OK, maybe not.

19. Who’s your favorite bear?

Yogi. When I was five and a half, and in the hospital for two days with an explained and uncontrollable bloody nose, watching all of those Hanna-Barbera cartoons (Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi) made what could have been a scary experience exciting.

20. Describe something that’s happened to you for which you have no explanation.

I was 12, give or take a year. Walking down the street when one of the lenses of my glasses shattered, while I was wearing them. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt my eye. Don’t know if something fell from a tree. I don’t think it was a BB gun. It seemed to have been something that must have fallen from above me, but there was no sign of residue.

21. If you could travel anywhere in Africa, where would it be?

Victoria Falls. I love waterfalls.

22. What did you have for lunch yesterday?

Soup. It’s almost always soup or leftovers on Saturday.

23. Where do you go for advice?

Work advice: it’s my colleagues or the BUSLIB listserv. Personal advice: one of my friends or The Wife, or some friends at church.

24. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

Dictionary, mainly for spelling. I used to be a better speller before there was spellcheck.

25. Have you ever been snorkeling? Scuba diving?

Snorkeling, in Barbados in 1999, but I really didn’t take to it.

26. Have you ever been stung by a bee?

Yes, and at least once as a child by several all at once. Not fun at all.

27. What’s the sickest you’ve ever been?

The flu, sometime since I was married, before The Daughter. Out of work all week.

28. What’s your favorite form of exercise?

Since the Y closed, about the only type I get is bicycling.

29. What’s your favorite Cyndi Lauper song?

“Girls Just Want To Have Fun”. Someone made me a mixed tape with a parody: “Boys Just Want To Have Sex.”

30. What did you do for your 13th birthday?

I think it would have been just a family party. (The only big parties I had were when I was 10 and 16.) Strawberry ice cream, for certain.

31. Are you afraid of heights?

Not especially, though being on ladders doesn’t thrill me.

32. Have you ever taken dance lessons?

Once or twice. Not my strength.

33. What’s your favorite newspaper?

Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal. The op/ed page is awful, but it has a lot of good coverage of business stuff.

34. What’s your favorite Broadway / West End musical?

West Side Story.

35. What’s the most memorable class you’ve ever taken?

At SUNY New Paltz, American Government & Politics with Alan Chartock, back in 1971, when he was young and creative.

36. What’s your favorite knock-knock joke?

My daughter has been trying to tell this joke:
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana ?

But she muffs the punchline but laughs hysterically. No real answer.

37. What’s your least favorite commercial?

I really don’t watch commercials anymore. I catch the annoying used car commercial now and then, but it doesn’t really affect me.
However, all-time, it had to be Wisk detergent commercials. “Ring around the collar,” with the wife looking SO ashamed. Seriously, I haven’t purchased Wisk ever since, and that was on back in the early 1970s.

38. If you could go to Disney World with any celebrity alive today, who would it be?

Kristen Chenowith. She seems like fun.

39. Do you prefer baths or showers?

Baths, but I almost never take one.

40. What’s your favorite newspaper comic strip?

Pearls Before Swine. Also like, to my surprise, Luann.

41. What’s your favorite breakfast food?

Pancakes. My favorite cereal is a Cheerios/shredded wheat mix.

42. Who’s your favorite game show host?

I always liked Allen Ludden, Dick Clark, Bob Barker, and especially Bill Cullen. Probably the only working one is Meredith Viera.

43. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Flight. Or transportation.

44. Do you like guacamole?

It’s OK. I’m not a huge fan, but I don’t dislike it, either.

45. Have you ever been in a food fight?

Not really. I might have thrown a donut hole or two.

46. Name five songs to which you know all the lyrics.

“Help!” (Beatles); “Yesterday” (Beatles); “A Day in the Life” (Beatles); “Act Naturally” (Buck Owens/Beatles) “The Boxer” (Simon & Garfunkel)

47. What’s your favorite infomercial?

“Favorite” and “infomercial” shouldn’t be in the same sentence. I did, when they were novel, watch a couple for Time-Life music.

48. What’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line?

1965 World’s Fair in Queens, NYC for the brand-new (to the United States) creation: Belgian waffles!

49. What’s on the cover of your address book or day planner?

Nothing but the words “Address Book”.

50. Have you ever taken a picture in one of those little booths?

ALL the time when I was a kid, at the Woolworths.

Guilt or Innocence

You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks!

From Jaquandor.

The rules of the game:

RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks!
RULE 3- Copy and paste this into your notes or blog, delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.

The Questions:

1. Asked someone to marry you? Guilty
2. Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Guilty
3. Danced on a table in a bar? Guilty
4. Ever told a lie? Guilty
5. Had feelings for someone whose feelings you can’t have back? Guilty
6. Kissed a picture? Guilty
7. Slept in until 5 PM? Innocent
8. Fallen asleep at work/school? Guilty
9. Held a snake? Guilty
10. Been suspended from school? Innocent
11. Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent
12. Stolen from a store? Guilty
13. Been fired from a job? Innocent
14. Done something you regret? Guilty
15. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Guilty
16. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Guilty
17. Kissed in the rain? Guilty
18. Sat on a roof top? Guilty
19. Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Guilty
20. Sang in the shower? Guilty
21. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Guilty
22. Shaved your head? Innocent
23. Had a boxing membership? Innocent
24. Made a boyfriend/Girlfriend cry? Guilty
25. Been in a band? Guilty
26. Shot a gun? Guilty
27. Donated Blood? Guilty
28. Eaten alligator meat? Innocent
29. Eaten cheesecake? Guilty
30. Still love someone you shouldn’t? Innocent
31. Have/had a tattoo? Innocent
32. Liked someone, but will never tell who? Guilty
33. Been too honest? Guilty
34. Ruined a surprise? Guilty
35. Ate in a restaurant and got so bloated that you couldn’t walk afterward? Innocent
36. Erased someone in your friends list? Innocent
37. Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Guilty
38. Joined a pageant? Innocent
39. Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who really meant what they said? Guilty
40. Had communication with your ex? Guilty
41. Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Guilty
42. Got so angry that you cried? Guilty

***
The Beatles – Not Guilty

A D&D Cleric

A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.

SamuraiFrog and Jaquandor did this. But I’m not sure why I did this, because I never once played Dungeons & Dragons, though it was very popular among my circle of friends in college. And the reason was that I thought it was too…dorky. Given the fact that I was collecting comic books at the time, this is a bold, and probably unwise, assertion.

And the questions for What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be? were quite numerous, over 100 of them.

Yet I’m glad I did it. It reminded me of the fact that, particularly at certain points in my life, I either wanted to be a cleric, or found myself in the sometimes uncomfortable position of being a father-confessor figure. As long as I can remember, people have told me LOTS of stuff in confidence. I know (or have forgotten) more secrets about other people’s lives than you could imagine.

I Am A: Chaotic Good Human Cleric (6th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-11

Dexterity-11

Constitution-11

Intelligence-11

Wisdom-12

Charisma-12

Alignment:
Chaotic Good A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit. However, chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment because it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron’s vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity’s domains. These domains grant the cleric special powers and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric’s Wisdom score should be high since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good —– XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23)
Neutral Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
Chaotic Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (26)
Lawful Neutral — XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
True Neutral —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Chaotic Neutral – XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Lawful Evil —– XXXXXXX (7)
Neutral Evil —- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Chaotic Evil —- XXXXXXXXXX (10)

Law & Chaos:
Law —– XXXXXX (6)
Neutral – XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaos — XXXXXXXXX (9)

Good & Evil:
Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Neutral – XXXXXXXX (8)
Evil —- X (1)

Race:
Human —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Dwarf —- XXXXXX (6)
Elf —— XXXXXXXX (8)
Gnome —- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Halfling – XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Elf – XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Orc – XXXX (4)

Class:
Barbarian – (-4)
Bard —— (0)
Cleric —- XXXXXX (6)
Druid —– (-25)
Fighter — (0)
Monk —— (-23)
Paladin — (-19)
Ranger —- (-2)
Rogue —– (-2)
Sorcerer — XX (2)
Wizard —- XXXX (4)

***
Tales of Brave Ulysses – Cream, live c. 1968 (thanks to Paul Rapp)

by Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

And the colors of the sea blind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses:
How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips.

Music Meme

Pete Seeger, Justin Bieber, Bobby Goldsboro, John Sebastian, Joe Jackson, Seals & Crofts, Boz Scaggs, Bobby McFerrin, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Droge, Randy Newman and Blotto are all mentioned in this post, at least one of them for no good reason.

An odd series of circumstances has gotten me writing about music far more than usual. I’d picked this meme for Monday, then needed a Q for Tuesday. I realized that I wanted to do birthday things for Billy Joel, Bono/U2, and tomorrow’s topic. I once said that sometimes the blog pieces write themselves; well, occasionally, the blog ORDER does likewise.

Here’s a meme from SamuraiFrog, also done by Scott and Jaquandor.

1. What are you listening to right now?
The Beatles Mono Box. Specifically the Past Masters, the singles, B-sides, etc.

2. What song(s) make(s) you sad?
Goodness, LOTS of songs make me sad. There are whole categories: requiems (requia?) from Mozart to Faure; certain romantic songs – such as Stay With Me by Lorraine Ellison or Gone Away by Roberta Flack. Sometimes, songs that I love that I hadn’t heard lately make me cry, such as the Blue Moon solo on Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love.

3. What is the most annoying song in the world?
Honey by Bobby Goldsboro. Wait, it’s Dominick the Donkey.

4. Your all-time favorite band?
Beatles (all time)

5. Your newly discovered band is?
I don’t know that there is one. The new music I get tends to be the same artists I’ve been buying. For instance, Levon Helm from the Band. indeed, anyone I DO discover tends to be a solo artist, such as Corrinne Bailey Rae, whose album The Sea I recommend.

6. Best female voice?
Julie Andrews. Or maybe Judy Collins.

7. Best male voice?
Nat King Cole.

8. Music type you find yourself listening to most?
Fairly eclectic, but rock mostly.

9. What do you listen to, to hype you up?
Anything with an insistent baseline, such as The Spencer Davis Group’s Keep On Running.

10. What do you listen to when you want to calm down?
Classical music, probably Bach.

11. Last gig/concert you went to?
Springsteen, last year.

12. Band you find yourself listening to the most right now?
Well, RIGHT now, I tend to listen to people whose birthday is in this week in May: Bono (U2), Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, David Byrne (Talking Heads).

13. Most hated band?
I don’t think about bands I dislike. They tend to slip out of my mind.

14. Song that makes you think?
LOTS of songs make me think. Lenten songs, for one group.

15. Band that you think the world should love as much as you do?
I don’t care what other people like; they can do what they want.

16. Coolest music video?
Ever? “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. But I haven’t watched them in forever.

17. Music video with the most babe watch?
Robert Palmer’s? Have no idea.

18. What do you play/would you play in the bedroom to spice things up?
Mozart.

19. Can you play a musical instrument?
Kazoo.

20. Ever been in a mosh pit?
No.

21. Are you in a band?
No, but I’m in a choir. But in junior high, we tried to form a band called Ralphie’s Moonies. Had a hit song called “Pool Shark” that I still remember?

23. Ever dated a musician?
Yes. My wife played the clarinet in high school. Also, I went out with a singer for a time.

28. Do you wish yourself that you were a musician?
Some days. Or maybe I am.

29. Best chick band you know of?
The Dixie Chicks, I guess.

31. Last song that you heard on the radio/cd…etc…?
When Love Comes to Town by U2 and B.B. King

32. What do you think of Classical music?
I love it. Back in the brief period I was collecting cassettes, it was 90% classical. I don’t understand people who don’t like it, to be honest.

33. What do you think of Country music?
I like most of it. I used to listen to it as a kid. It seems, though, that more of the current commercial stuff is lite pop, and thus a bit boring.

34. What do you think of Death metal?
I don’t know what that is.

35. Last BIG band that you saw live?
Springsteen. Or does this mean Big Band, in which case it a Count Basie band. Or was it Duke Ellington’s?

36. Are you a groupie?
No.

37. Do you listen to music in foreign languages?
Sure.

38. What famous musician would you like to f***!?
Well, none, if only because the reality would never match the fantasy.

39. Worst concert moment?
Thu, 27 July 1989 Albany, NY, Palace Theatre
Joe Jackson, who I like, was performing on his BLAZE OF GLORY TOUR. After playing one, maybe two familiar songs, he played the entire first half of Blaze of Glory. Then after a couple more songs we knew, the entire second half. He felt they were complete suites with the songs segued together, but they were unfamiliar, and him playing six unknown songs in a row, especially a second time, ticked off people enough that they just got up and went to the concession stand, or, worse, just talked through the performance. They did not give the new music a chance, but I blame that largely on Jackson. At the end, more familiar tunes, but a better mix of the very same songs would have created a much better experience, for the audience, and I expect, for him.

40. Funny concert moment?
As recently mentioned, Bobby McFerrin leading an orchestra in SINGING the Lone Ranger portion of the William Tell Overture in 1999.

41. Sad concert moment?
Besides the WORST story: I saw Seals & Crofts Philharmonic (Avery Fisher) Hall, in NYC on November 12, 1971. The opening band, Boz Scaggs, was quite good, but the audience was impatient for the Baha’i duo. Being an opening act must not be a great gig sometimes.

42. Best local act you can think of?
Last local band I actually saw was probably Blotto. No that’s not true; I’ve seen local cover bands such as the Refrigerators. saw Hair of the Dog a few years back.

43. If you were a musical instrument what would you be?
A bass guitar. I feel the bass line.

44. Do you listen to the radio?
Generally wake up to a classical station.

45. Do you watch music TV?
I did from about 1982 to 1986.

46. Do you follow the music charts, like the top 40?
I did religiously until the early 1990s. Even had a subscription to Billboard, and it wasn’t cheap. But now I don’t even know most of it. When I read that Justin Bieber was the youngest solo male artist in 40 years to reach #1, I KNEW instantly that the previous artist HAD to be Donny Osmond doing Go away Little Girl, even younger than Michael Jackson when he sang Ben. I mean, I KNEW this, without looking it up. Scary.

47. Have you met any famous musicians?
Define famous. Talked a bit with Pete Seeger at an anti-apartheid demonstration. Spoke with John Sebastian very briefly. I’ve eaten at an Italian restaurant with Pete Droge and his band a couple times. I was introduced to Anita Baker. Knew the guys in Blotto.
Then there’s the Randy Newman story.

48. Are any of your friends/family/etc. musicians?
Why yes. My niece is in a singer in a band called Siren’s Crush that sings around San Diego, CA. My sister Leslie performed in Puerto Rico as a singer for six years. And my late father was well-known locally (Binghamton, NY) as a singer of folk songs.

49. Song that best describes your feelings right now?
“Daydream” by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

50. Song that describes your life?
“I’m Lucky” by Joan Armatrading.

51. Do you know the names of all the band members that you listen to?
No, but I listen to a LOT of different groups.

52. Does a musician’s physical attractiveness play a role in the music that you listen to?
Not consciously.

53. What famous musician do you want to marry?
Assuming I wasn’t married, Chaka Khan was the first name to come to mind.

53. Favourite movie soundtrack?
West Side Story. Or a Hard Day’s Night. Or Rain Man.

55. Any musician pet hates?
Vocalists who caterwaul.

56. What do your parents listen to?
My mom liked Nat Cole, and musicals such as Carousel, South Pacific, and West Side Story. My father was a fan of folk music (Harry Belafonte, Odetta, Pete Seeger), and gospel.

57. What are you listening to right NOW?
Good Night by the Beatles.

58. Do you wear band etc T-shirts?
I have a Beatles T-shirt someone gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago.

59. Do you cook to music?
I don’t cook as much as I should, but if I’m going to be a while, I’ll put on some music.

60. Do you sing in the toilet?
In the shower, yes. All the time. On the toilet, not usually.

My No Doubt story.